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Cptn Corizon

Twilight's Veil: The Quickening Comes for a Nation

The leader of the Vorta Council, Taenix, sat looking at a stack of reports. She felt her stomach twist with anxiety, a feeling she found most unusual and most undesired. Another three systems were in a state of ‘rebellion’ with five more asking for similar autonomy as to what the citizens of Granar Minor had negotiated with the help of the Federation.

 

She frowned deeply and felt an inner urge to throw the reports against the wall, but resisted.

 

“You seem tense,” she heard the voice of Weyoun over her shoulder. “Something I can help you with?”

 

“Unless you have a solution to my problems, which I doubt,” she said, “then no.”

 

Weyoun circled around to face her, tipping his head to one side in customary Vorta fashion. “Ah,” he said. “Reports from around the Dominion, yes?”

 

She nodded and waved to the datapads, literally dozens of them, spread out on the table before her. “For ten thousand years, the Dominion has ruled over these species with minimal troubles. Sure there was the occasional uprising, rebellion, but this? Dozens of species asking, no demanding they be granted autonomy or outright independence. It’s madness.”

 

Weyoun tilted his head to the otherside, considering the most delicate way to address a subject he’d long avoided. “Yes,” he said, “but in the past we have not shown any reservations about using the Jem’Hadar to quell such rebellions.”

 

“Yes,” she admitted. “But you and I have been over this. If we use the Jem’Hadar to put the rebellions down, we face the risk of them calling our bluff, or worse the Scorpiad taking advantage of the situation. They don’t know how weak we really are right now, how venerable our forces are…”

 

“That is a possibility,” he said, “but I can’t help but recall a conversation I once had with someone some years ago about the merits of… how did Dukat put it … winning the hearts of the people, to make them see our superiority.”

 

“You have to be joking,” she said with a side-long glance. “These people have spent their entire lives hating the Dominion, fearing our oppression.”

 

“Oh,” Weyoun said. “I thought it was a fools-errand then, and it is now.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“It’s time we start thinking about more than just maintaining the Dominion Taenix.”

 

“What?”

 

“The Founders created the Dominion to maintain order and peace among the people of this Quadrant. They were all, as we once were, savage, primitive people.”

 

“And just where are you going with this, Weyoun?”

 

He sighed and looked away. “I think it’s time we start thinking about a new Dominion, about the future of the dream the Founders had – an organization that brings peace and order to the Gamma Quadrant.”

 

“You’re starting to sound like Semil,” she said without emotion. “Should I worry about your motives, Weyoun. Keevan would have me believe you’re not to be trusted.”

 

Shaking his head, Weyoun looked directly into her eyes. “Semil,” he said, “does not want what I want. He wants a new Dominion, yes; but the Dominion he wants is led by the Hundred. “

 

“I see,” she said. “And what of your new Dominion?”

 

“I have mediated much on my last meeting with the female Founder. She said that the Vorta would have to forge our own path now, that the Founders’ could not help us.”

 

“As you’ve said,” Taenix noted, still unsure of where Weyoun was going.

 

“It is my thought that we form a new Dominion,” he said. “Not one formed by conquest or domination, but one where we welcome the subjects of the old Dominion to join us freely.”

 

“And why would they do that?”

 

“Because despite our weakness, we can still offer them a level of protection that they cannot have on their own, not to mention technological resources…”

 

“And you think that we would still be doing the duty the Founders gave us?”

 

“The Founders created us to govern in their proxy, to be their liaisons – the keepers of the peace. We can still do that, Taenix.”

 

Taenix leaned back into her chair and took a very long, deep breath. “The others,” she asked, “do you think they would ever willingly go along with this?”

 

“I do not know,” he said honestly, “but you must be prepared to act, sooner than you would like.”

 

“What?”

 

Weyoun pursed his lips. “I have spoken to Semil. He contacted me a few days ago.”

 

“I see,” she said warily. “And just what did Semil want with you, Weyoun?”

 

Sensing her caution and distrust, he waived a hand. “It was merely a courtesy call. Semil and I have had our differences, but he also knows that I am not as reactionary as Keevan and also that I am in your confidence.”

 

“Confidence,” she said, “that I hope has not been misplaced.”

 

“I assure you Taenix, if I harbored ambitions such as Keevan, I would have moved against you long ago.

 

“No, Semil did not try to convince me to join him or his cause. He wished me to remind you of his message.”

 

She frowned more deeply. “Yes,” she said. “I have not forgotten since our last conversation.”

 

“And we still yet face the same paradox do we not?”

 

“Yes,” she said. “If we refuse to give him what he wants, we risk him following through with this threat and with that we risk losing the entire Council, not to mention the Jem’Hadar.”

 

“And if you give him what he wants?”

 

“I risk being seen as weak, not to mention my one bargaining chip with the Hundred.”

 

“Perhaps, but if we do give it to him, perhaps Odo can talk some sense into the Hundred.”

 

“I am not sure that is a risk I am willing to take.”

 

“Is the alternative preferable then?”

 

She sighed and looked towards him again. Her inner doubts swirling as she struggled to keep her composure. “I do not know, but what I do know is that the fate of the Dominion rests upon my decisions and I do not know if I can make those choices.”

 

Weyoun placed a hand upon her shoulder. “The Founders chose you for this role; and though I doubt even in their wisdom that they could have foreseen it, they obviously had faith that you would do what was right.”

 

“I do not know what to do Weyoun,” she said, her voice faltering. “To have this burden… to the stakes…”

 

“I have been in your position Taenix,” he said distantly at first. “To have such a burden given to you by the Founders is both a blessing and a terrible weight.

 

We have been imbued by the Founders to have faith in them, to believe in their divinity; but yet if they are divine then how can we fail? Yet you and I have both felt the sting of failure, and yet we know them to be divine beings. It is our faith that tells us to continue and even in failure to continue on with the course set forth by us by the Founders, for they are wise in all things. And without our faith in the Founders, we are no better than savages.”

 

“You are truly a credit to us all Weyoun,” she said warmly. “You have been through so much, yet your faith remains unshaken.”

 

“I would not say that,” he said, “but through all of the trials, I have found that it is the faith in the Founder’s wisdom that has sustained me.”

 

“I see,” she said. “What then would you council me do to, Weyoun?”

 

“If you do not wish to risk giving Semil the device,” he said. “Then perhaps it is time we tell the Council. Perhaps not the entire truth, not just yet or at one time, but at least something …”

 

Tipping her head she considered it. “I have long resisted telling them,” she said. “I fear it would shock them.”

 

“You cannot keep the truth from them forever…”

 

“I know, I know…”

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