Preludes to Transitions

[Cptn Corizon 0]

A moment comes, but rarely in history; when we step out from the old to the new; when an age ends, and the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.

 

Weyoun glanced towards Taenix; his pale eyes looking her over, taking in the details of the Vorta who would control the destiny of his beloved Dominion. In many ways they were alike. They both had been saddled with the weight and expectations of commanding the fate of the Dominion and they both had been tested with crises of faith in that duty.

 

He exhaled. No matter how many lifetimes he’d might yet still live, he would never fully recover from his failure to win a victory in the Alpha Quadrant.

 

“Thank you for coming, Weyoun.”

 

“Of course, Taenix,” he said, nodding his head. “I am ever at your disposal.”

 

She nodded and motioned for him to walk with her. He obliged and the two began walking along the long concourse that connected the living quarters portion of the space-borne Dominion Command Center to the operations dome.

 

“You have served the Founders well for many years Weyoun,” she said. “A commendable trait, of course one you cannot help.”

Cocking his head he looked towards her sidelong, unsure of her intent. “I have only ever wished to please the Gods.”

 

“Yes,” she said. “As have I… as have all Vorta from our very beginning.”

 

Weyoun paused. “What do you mean?”

 

Waving her hand, she motioned for him to continue following her. “It is ingrained in our very programming to be loyal to the Founders, to hold them with reverence, is it not?”

 

“Yes,” he replied, catching up to her. “But what of it?”

 

“Even those defective Vorta who have betrayed us and joined the Hundred are still, I suppose serving their gods.”

Weyoun didn’t respond. Not verbally anyway; his thoughts, however wandered to a prior clone of himself, one that had tried to defect during the Dominion war. Like the Vorta she spoke of, he’d also looked to a member of the Hundred for guidance.

 

Taenix stopped and looked to Weyoun. “Your thoughts trouble you?”

 

The Vorta were excellent liars, another imbuement from the Gods. “It’s nothing.”

 

Deciding not to press the point, Taenix resumed walking. “Semil has delivered an ultimatum.”

 

Weyoun groaned. “Has he?”

 

“He has demanded access to the device.”

 

Weyoun cocked his head again. “Curious.”

 

“I assume he has spies among us,” she said, “though apparently they do not know of Odo’s intentions.”

 

“Interesting. What was his ultimatum?”

 

“Either we give the Hundred access or he will reveal to the Dominion and the rest of the Vorta Council our ‘deceptions.’”

 

“Normally,” Weyoun said. “I would laugh at that…”

 

“But?”

 

“You know as well as I do that our hold upon the worlds of the Dominion is tenuous. And the council’s faith…”

 

Cocking her own head she looked towards the diminutive Weyoun. “You need not spare my feelings. I know that the Council members are divided.”

 

“They face a crisis of faith,” he said. “The Founders have ever been our guides, and though many still have faith …”

 

“I know,” she said.

 

They looked towards each other with long expressions.

 

“If they find that I have deceived them…”

 

“They will challenge your authority.”

 

“Keevan said the same thing. Infact he considered you be a chief instigator…”

Weyoun frowned. “You were the chosen of the Founders to lead us, I do not question their wisdom; funny though that he would accuse me of betraying that covenant.”

 

“He thinks you’re an opportunist,” she said. “I know better though. I know that your only wish is to serve the Founders.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“I believe Keevan has other ambitions.”

 

Weyoun lifted a brow. “Keevan is many things, but an usurper?”

 

“Perhaps, perhaps not.”

 

“There seems to be three factions forming on the Council,” he added, wishing to change the subject.

 

“Yes,” she agreed.

 

There were in fact three factions formed among the eighteen Vorta who made up the ruling body of the Dominion. Taenix remained firmly in control of the largest faction, which had so far advocated using a iron first in a velvet glove with the uprisings; the second, and slightly smaller faction, ostensibly lead by the Vorta Faelic, had taken a harder line approach – advocating a tougher approach. Faelic and his like also despised the Hundred, it had been these Vorta who’d been in Keevan’s inner circle when he’d ordered the brutal crack downs on worlds suspected of working with the Hundred (which had proven to be folly, as the terrorist attacks had actually been the prelude to a return of the Scorpiad). The third faction, on the other hand, had taken a more radical approach. Led by the enigmatic Aelon, she and her companions (whom Keevan suspected to be taking orders from Weyoun) had been the ones to suggest negotiating with the rebels (a suggestion Faelic and his supporters had vehemently protested, but one that Taenix had ultimately backed.)

 

“They are fractured, and if Semil gets to them first, you could lose your support to Faelic.”

 

“You think he would challenge me openly?”

 

“Perhaps. I would like to think not, but one can never be sure.”

 

In the back of her mind, Taenix wondered if Faelic was taking direction from Keevan, but she decided not to voice that opinion just yet.

 

“Then what are you suggesting? You cannot possibly expect me to give the Hundred the device. Not yet anyway. The situation is far too vol…”

 

“That is a decision you and you alone can make,” he said. “What I can tell you to do, is beat Semil to the point.”

She tipped her head. “I see. Tell the Council myself that for the last two years I have been deceiving them; that the Founders have abandoned us; that I hid this from them to keep the Dominion from crisis in the middle of a war; that I was reduced to asking a Starfleet Captain to search for the one device that could save us, and that when he did, Odo and the Founders refused to help us and instead ordered me to give it to the Hundred; that I sent you to the Alpha Quadrant to speak to the female Founder and that she too confirmed that we are on our own, abandoned and sundered from our gods. Yes that sounds like a wonderful idea.”

 

“They will find out eventually.”

 

Taenix frowned. She knew he was right. “I still do not think we can risk it. We have new systems rebelling everyday; our hold is tenuous at best. And if we continue to capitulate … “

 

“You are considering a change in policy.”

 

She sighed. “I don’t know what to do any more. What I do know is that the great questions of the day will not be settled by speeches or majority opinion, but with blood.”

 

“The Jem’Hadar remain loyal.”

 

“Do they?”

 

“You question their obedience?”

 

“If they find that the Vorta no longer have the words of the gods upon their lips, how long do you think it will be before they turn upon us Weyoun?”

 

“They need the white though …”

 

“And we need them to maintain order.”

 

“A paradox.”