The Flickering Light

[Cptn Swain 0]

“The candle flame gutters. Its little pool of light trembles. Darkness gathers. The demons begin to stir.” ~ Carl Sagan

 

 

Taenix frowned. Her long, jet black hair swayed gently as she tipped her head to one side, her pale, nearly translucent amethyst eyes held no emotion. Only the creases around her thin, colorless lips betrayed her displeasure. “Maliv,” she said coolly to the thin, sharp-featured Vorta that stood motionless before her. “This is unacceptable.”

 

The male Vorta remained motionless.

 

“You were entrusted with settling this dispute peaceably, and in a fashion that benefited the Dominion.”

 

“With all due respect,” Maliv said, “those are not entirely compatible directives.”

 

Taenix narrowed her gaze. “Elaborate.”

 

“The people of Tarwani would not accept our proposals. They want freedom.”

 

“So do all chained beasts,” Taenix said coldly. “That doesn’t mean that you simply unshackle them. I don’t think I have to explain to you the importance of Tarwani to our overall strategic position.”

 

“No,” he said shortly. “You do not.”

 

“Then how could you simply let this happen?”

 

“I did not see any alternative, short of culling them.”

 

Looking away for a moment, Taenix straightened in her chair. “The Founders will be most displeased with your results. Surely you did not exhaust all peaceful options.”

 

Shaking his head, Maliv frowned. “Again, I did everything possible, but the Tarwani remained steadfast in their desire for independence. If the Founders are displeased, then I am prepared to prostrate myself before them, but I do not see how I could have resolved the situation in a way that did not end in bloodshed.”

 

For a long moment Taenix considered her response carefully. For months now, she had been continuing the fiction that she had been in contact with the Founders, with Odo, and had been receiving her directives from them. Only a few in her most inner circle knew the truth, that Odo had ordered her and the rest of the Vorta to turn the device over to the Hundred so that Odo could commune with them and bring them into his Glorious Isolation as well. They also did not know what the Female Founder had communicated to Weyoun on his last trip to the Alpha Quadrant -- that the Founders had abandoned the Dominion.

 

In the time since she had become aware of that reality, she had questioned her own faith in the Founders, in herself and in the Dominion. She had struggled to comply with the directive from Odo. Ultimately she had decided, for now, to defy the order. Such defiance had taken a toll on her, physically and mentally. Her impulse had been to activate the small implant that would cause her death, but something deep inside of her resisted. Something told her not to, that her defiance was not from a lack of faith, or disloyalty to those who had given her life, but instead a sign of her devotion to the Gods, to their creation.

 

So, finally, she had resolved to carrying out what she believed to be the true will of the Founders. Even if they did not know it now, or did not recognize it -- the Dominion was their legacy. It had to endure. Without the Dominion, the chaos that had once engulfed the Gamma Quadrant would reign again. She could not, would not allow that to happen.

 

“Then if it is blood that will be required to yoke the Tarawani, then blood it will be.”

 

Maliv shifted, visibly uncomfortable with the suggestion. “But, with all due respect, I thought the Founders wished us to resolve these issues peacefully.”

 

It was true. Taenix had told the council that the Founders wished them to rule more, peacefully, more sensitively. When the uprisings began it gave her room to work. She knew all too well that she no longer commanded the forces once at the fingertips of the Vorta. The war in the Alpha Quadrant had weakened the Dominion, but it had been the nearly three year war with the Scorpiad’s that had wrecked havoc. In matters of months the Dominion’s cloning facilities, ship-yards and weapons production facilities had been decimated. It would take years to rebuild the infrastructure , and she could ill-afford a full scale rebellion among the worlds of the Dominion.

 

So far none of the major worlds within the Dominion had pushed for full independence, until now it had only been smaller, less important worlds that the Dominion could easily allow to leave after a bit of threatre on their part. Now though, the Tarwani, a key world for the Dominion’s military efforts due to the large resources and central location, had begun pushing for peace. The council feared that if they were allowed to declare independence that others, like the commercially important Karema, would soon follow.

 

“When at all possible,” she added quickly. “However, the importance of Tarawani to our interests makes that not entirely possible, as you say.”

 

“They do not believe in our threats,” Maliv said. “They believe us incapable of putting down a rebellion. Further they believe that if they were to force our hand, militarily, that the Federation would intervene on their behalf, just as they have others.”

 

“And what do you believe?”

 

“I do not know what I believe,” Maliv said quietly. “If the Founders will us to keep the Tarawani in the Dominion by force, then that is their will and I will carry out those orders. But I do wonder if we are truely capable of that.”

 

Taenix steeled herself. It was true that their forces were spread thin. The weakness of the Dominion relative to its former status was no secret, and as they had lightened patrols where possible, and pulled back from less strategic positions, others had moved to fill that vacuum.

 

“You will have the forces you require. Return to the Tarawani, make it clear that independence is not an option. We will agree to allowing them a greater amount of autonomy and self-governance; we will allow them to engage in independent trade negotiations and to develop their own defensive networks, however our strategic military presence will remain, and we will continue to maintain ownership of 70% of their natural resources. Tell them refusal to accept this offer will force us to secure those rights by force. I will dispatch the 3rd and 6th tactical commands to your disposal. Do not fail the Founders again, Maliv.”

 

Maliv straightened and bowed his head respectfully. “As the Founders will it -- it will be.”