The Battle of Betazed - Charlotte Douglas [78]
Chaxaza, still holding Barin, also moved away as Deanna followed Lwaxana down another passage and into a small alcove. Her mother drew back a drape over the opening, and Deanna stepped inside.
“Not very spacious, but it’s been home for the past four months.” Lwaxana settled on a pillow-strewn ledge carved out of the rock wall. Deanna sat beside her.
First tell me, Lwaxana began. Did you bring him?
There was no misunderstanding what her mother meant. It was your idea, wasn’t it, Mother? Using Tevren? Deanna found it impossible to suppress her disappointment.
The involuntary feeling seemed to provoke anger in her mother. Don’t you dare presume to judge me. Not until you’ve spent four months living under the Jem’Hadar, waiting and waiting for Starfleet to do something while children die all around you, and then realizing the salvation you put your hope in just isn’t coming. We’re desperate, Little One. And I won’t tolerate your condemnation of that!
The irony of hearing her own speech to Lanolan echoed by her mother didn’t escape Deanna.
“Mother,” she said aloud, “Tevren is dead.”
Lwaxana flinched as if Deanna had struck her. “That can’t be. Tell me that isn’t true, Deanna.”
With exacting detail, Deanna related how the away team had released Tevren from prison, how Beverly had removed his inhibitor, the horrific deaths of the Jem’Hadar patrols Tevren had wiped out, and his eventual demise. “And before he died, Mother, he emptied his mind into mine.”
Deanna felt herself shaking at the memory, and Lwaxana wrapped her arms around her daughter. Deanna drew back, her jaw set, her eyes blazing. “Let me tell you how Tevren killed people. He drew all a person’s bioelectrical energy to the pain receptors in the brain and literally fried the synapses there. The resulting deaths were slow and excruciatingly painful, with prolonged and indescribable suffering. I wouldn’t wish such an end on anyone, Mother, anyone, not even Jem’Hadar. To say Tevren’s method is sadistic and cruel doesn’t begin to explain it.”
Lwaxana listened without expression. “If you’re going to try to convince me that I should care how the Jem’Hadar die—”
“My God, Mother, can you hear yourself?” Deanna cried. “Your entire life has been devoted to peace, to working against barbarism and needless bloodshed. You’re turning into the very thing you hate!”
She could see her mother shaking, feel the raw emotions raging inside, and for the first time in her life, Deanna looked at her mother with fear.
“We have our backs to the wall, Deanna,” she said. “What else can we do? How many ships came with the Enterprise? How many Starfleet officers can beam down to Betazed? Can they arm every Betazoid? Can they do enough against fifty thousand Jem’Hadar? Are you really going to withhold from us what Tevren gave you?”
“No,” Deanna said. “If you tell me this is what you want me to do, then I’ll do it. But before you answer, I need you to tell me something, truthfully.”
Lwaxana met her daughter’s gaze, waiting.
“Have you truly thought about what going down this road will mean for us, as a people? Do you really want to live in the kind of world the use of Tevren’s powers may create?”
Lwaxana said nothing, and the silence stretched on, mother and daughter simply staring into each other’s eyes.
Then Deanna’s combadge beeped. “Picard to Troi.”
“Troi here.”
“Counselor, have you revealed Tevren’s knowledge to the resistance yet?”
“No, sir,” she answered, still looking at her mother. “But I may have to very soon.”
“Belay that. You and Commander Vaughn must return to the Enterprise immediately. Commander Riker has already beamed up with his charges. I’ll explain when you get here. Picard out.”
Lwaxana simply stared straight ahead. Deanna stroked her cheek gently. “I’ll return as quickly as I can.”
“No,” Lwaxana said firmly, and for the first time since Deanna had arrived on Betazed, her voice had all the energy and authority of the elder daughter of the Fifth House, Holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, and the one true Heir