Reunion

[Cptn Corizon 0]

As the Hundred Fleet approaches Camelot, a most curious reunion occurs in the Alpha Quadrant

 

The eight heavily armed Starfleet Security officers led Weyoun 9 through gates of the maximum security center of the New Zealand Penal facility. The wall surrounding the facility seemed rather arcane to Weyoun, considering highly advanced technological methods that had gone into constructing the prison for his god.

 

The guards watched him suspiciously, ready for him to try and loose his deity from her prison. Weyoun marched onward, unphased. Despite their thoughts, he would not attempt to free her. He felt sure that had she wished, she would have already done so.

 

At last they lead him to small set of stairs that led down a narrow hallway to the Founder cell. She remained almost unguarded save for the force field. The leading officer in the detachment that surrounded Weyoun tapped a button on a small device he kept around his neck and the force field lowered. “When you’re ready,” he noted to Weyoun. “Give a yell.”

 

Weyoun perked his brows curiously. After all this time, Humans remained one of the most perplexing mysteries in the Galaxy. “Thank you.”

 

Cautiously, Weyoun entered the room. For sometime now he’d been preparing himself to meet once more with his gods. And not just any Founder, but one he’d grown very close to in his previous lifetimes. And one he’d failed beyond forgiveness.

 

As he entered, he approached the solitary object in the room – a lone rock. The object shifted and transformed into the unique gelatinous figure of a Changeling before finally taking the shape of the Female Founder.

 

“Founder,” he said going to his knees with a deep bow.

 

“Arise Weyoun,” she said, as she’d done many times before.

 

“Forgive me Founder,” he said standing once more, but keeping his eyes directed below the Founder's. “I am afraid I bring the most horrible of news to you.”

 

“Your salvation,” she said almost kindly, “Is your own unwavering dedication to the Founders.”

 

Weyoun nodded, pleased that the Founder didn’t order him to kill himself on the spot. He blamed himself for the defeat of the Dominion by the Alpha Quadrant, and he felt a deep urge to redeem himself in the eyes of his gods.

 

“What news of the Dominion is so pressing that you have traveled so far,” she said, “No doubt to the objection of the Alpha Quadrant powers?”

 

“I bring most terrible news,” he stated once more, then continued. “The Hundred are threatening the stability of your creation.”

 

Her features remained unshaken. “What does Odo have to say of this?”

 

“Nothing,” Weyoun said darkly. “The Vorta have been without the Guidance of the Founders since Odo took them into ‘glorious seclusion.’”

 

The Female Shapeshifter recoiled. “Then you have come to me for guidance?”

 

“Yes.”

 

She nodded. The programming engrained deeply in the genetic code of the Vorta remained strong. Just as the Jam’Hadar were dependent upon the White for their existence, the Vorta depended on the guidance of their Gods. Without it, they were lost and hopeless.

 

“Tell me everything…”

[Cptn Corizon 0]

Part II

 

Weyoun recounted the events of the last few months, skipping no details. As he talked, the Founder's expression grew grim. In his long years, he'd never seen one of the Gods show fear – but the look was unmistakable. He'd seen it before on countless faces across hundreds of worlds. The Female Changeling was afraid.

 

"Founder," Weyoun said when he'd finished the tale. "You seem...disturbed."

 

She said nothing. "Surely the Hundred do not frighten one such as you."

 

"The Hundred," she finally said, "are little more than children acting out. They will in time learn the patience that we elders have learned, the patience Odo has gained."

 

"Then why do you seem so..."

 

She sighed. "There are a great many things that even the Vorta do not know about the Dominion."

 

Weyoun raised his brows. He'd never considered that the Founders might lie to the Vorta, what purpose could such deception serve -- unless it was for their own good.

 

"There are two stories about the founding of the Dominion, Weyoun."

 

Again, he could only blink. "There is the one programmed into your gentic code, and passed on to all Vorta..."

 

"And?"

 

"Then there is the truth..."

[Cptn Corizon 0]

Part III

 

Weyoun’s weak amethyst eyes flittered over the face of the Founder.

 

“I fear, Weyoun, a sleeping giant has awakened.”

 

“Surely,” Weyoun said, trying to be sure of himself. “There is no enemy that the wisdom of the Founder and the might of the Jem’Hadar can not overcome.”

 

The Founder’s placid eyes belied the fear building in her mind. “They are a foe beyond any of us.”

 

Weyoun froze in place. A foe beyond the will of the Founders? Was that possible? He finally crooked his neck, waiting for an explanation.

 

“Thousands of years ago,” the Founder finally said with some reservation. “The Changelings were a peaceful race. We welcomed solids with open arms to our first homeworld, and our society flourished.”

 

Nodding, Weyoun listened intently.

 

“In ancient days,” she said, a hint of fear in her voice. “There was a great empire whose reach extended across the quadrant. They ruled with their might, their will and the iron claws of war..”

 

Claws. Weyoun quirked his eyebrows.

 

“For hundreds of thousands of years their Empire stood unquestioned in the Gamma Quadrant,” she paused. “Until…”

 

“Until?”

[Cptn Corizon 0]

Part IV

 

“Until,” the female Founder said crossing the room to the small bench in the corner and sitting. “They met a foe more powerful than they had ever encountered before.”

 

“The Dominion,” Weyoun said almost eagerly.

 

“No,” the Founder chided him as she motioned for him to sit. “No, they encountered a race in the Delta Quadrant where much of the Empire lay. They were known only to us a race of cyborg. But I know now they were the earliest beginnings of the Borg Collective.”

 

Weyoun drew back. “The Borg?”

 

“Yes,” she said. “From the stories we were told, the Borg lead an offensive against them in the Delta Quadrant. Though they were technologically superior to the Borg, repelling it cost them greatly.”

 

With a look of intrigue and horror Weyoun nodded for her to continue the story. He dared not ask, but he couldn’t help wonder what this had to do with the founding of the Dominion.

 

“Shortly after they had repelled the Borg, they encountered us.”

 

Ahhh. Weyoun could not hide his expression.

 

“We welcomed them with open arms, but they feared us. It was not long before an attack fleet was sent to wipe out our homeworld. It had been done to likely hundreds of world before ours. But what they did not count on was the resilience of the Founders.”

 

“The Founders are wise in all things,” Weyoun repeated the phrase he’d spoken in prayers thousands of times.

 

“Many of us escaped the purge,” she said, a certain deep hurt in her voice. “But we were hunted.”

 

“By whom?”

 

“They had many servants of Evil,” she said disdainfully. “But none so feared as their great hunters. Prowlers of the Night. For several years, they hunted us like common game. While the main force of their empire was directed towards more…pressing matters.

 

“But in their complacency, we grew strong once more. Many of us escaped to a secret refuge and there we reformed the Great Link. It was then that we decided that the only way we could secure our safety was to instill harmony and order in the chaos around us, the chaos created by solids.”

 

“And so you founded Dominion,” Weyoun asked rhetorically.

 

“Indeed. We created the Jem’Hadar and the first Vorta to carry out our errand, to instill the peace that we so desired.”

 

Weyoun looked perplexed. “Forgive me Founder, but how does this differ from the story that has been engrained in my memories?”

 

She looked him over for a few moments. The story had not been told in generations. “That was over 11,000 years ago Weyoun.”

 

“Eleven…” he paused, wrapping his brain around that figure. “Still I do not see what has brought you so much concern, Founder.”

 

“The story is not over Weyoun,” she said, chiding him once more. “In a period of a few years, the strength of the Jem’Hadar easily brought the order we sought in the immediate area. But the lasting peace we desired could only be accomplished if the greatest threat to that peace were removed.”

 

“Forgive me Founder,” he said patiently. “But I must ask, does this threat have a name.”

 

She sighed once more. Solids, she thought to herself. “They are known by many names. The Dark Phage, the Claw, the Darkness. But to us, they were known as the Scorpiads.”

 

“The Scopriads,” he mouthed.

 

“The Scorpiad Empire is old,” she said returning to her story. “At least 600,000 years older than the Dominion. They were old, when we were new.”

 

Weyoun’s amethyst eyes grew wide.

 

“After we had pacified the area around us, we sought out the Scorpiads. Their empire was vast, and the furthest reaches were poorly fortified. The battle hardened Jem’Hadar were able to easily overrun their outer colonies.

 

“But the further we pressed, the more dug in they were. Though their technology was far superior to ours, the sheer numbers of the Jem’Hadar clones allowed us to gain many strategic victories in the early stages of the campaign.”

 

“The wisdom of the Founders no doubt helped.”

 

She continued, ignoring the remark for the moment. She wasn’t all that sure that wisdom had prevailed, or if it had been luck. “However, as we pressed further into the outer core of the Empire, our supply lines were stretched thin, our upper hand failed us. And in the process thousands of worlds were layed to ruin. As the Scorpiads retreated, they left nothing behind, bombing entire worlds into the stone ages to spite us.”

 

It was a clever strategy, Weyoun had to admit.

 

“Soon we were no longer able to press foreward any more. If we did, we risked losing everything we had gained.” She paused, recalling the exact chain of events. “Once we realized this, we sent the Vorta to negotiate a peace treaty…an armistice.

 

"After several months of negotiations, we agreed to a cessation of hostilities. A barrier was setup between our two rival powers, and we agreed that neither of us would colonize the worlds that between us, worlds souring in the wake of destruction.”

 

“Then it was a great victory for the Dominion,” Weyoun said, assimilating the information.

 

“A momentary one,” she acknowledged. “For sometime we feared that the Scorpiads would break treaty and attack us once more. We remained vigilant for many years. But...

 

“But after a thousand years or so., we grew complacent. Things that should have been remembered were forgotten. We turned our attention elsewhere.”

 

Weyoun nodded, though something still…perplexed him. “Why weren’t we given these memories, Founder?”

 

She glanced over at him. Such a question startled her; the Vorta rarely asked such prying questions of their gods. “You ask many questions Weyoun,” she said. “We found that at some point, we were unable to physically store any more memories inside of the successive Vorta clones minds.”

 

He nodded. “Forgive me for my…curiosity.”

 

She waved her had dismissively. “Every two-thousand years or so, we found that we had come to that point in your genetic manipulation. So every two-thousand years, we retired the Vorta clones and introduced a new generation of clones. With only the most basic of information instilled in each successive generation. However, one of the Vorta from each generation was always kept ready for activation should knowledge of an event during that era be required.”

 

The wisdom of the Founders never ceased to amaze Weyoun. “Truly you are wise,” he said with a smile. “Then perhaps the clone that carries the memories of the Scorpiads is still available?”

 

She nodded. “The clone is located in a secret base known only to the Founders themselves. If the Scorpiads have returned, you must seek the base out Weyoun and activate the clone before it is too late. She is our only chance of survival.”

 

“I will do as the Founders command, for they are wise in all things.”