Chapter 18
Chapter 17
Stardate 57233
Picard was rather uncomfortable.
It had been a long time since the last time he was captured and tied up. This time was not nearly as bad as the last time, to be sure. When the Cardassians captured him, Gul Madred had used torture in an attempt to obtain information from Picard. Picard remembered how he had hung by his wrists like a fish on a hook for hour upon hours, as he was tortured through pain induction, sensory deprivation, sleep deprivation and starvation. That had been quite the unpleasant experience.
Now, though, he was not being tortured. Oh, he was tied to a chair to be certain, and sitting for hours on end in the same position and being unable to move was uncomfortable, to be sure. But it hardly qualified as torture. And the chair itself was comfortable enough.
Sitting next to him in another chair was Majestrix Lilandra. She seemed unharmed, except for some minor bruises. But she was tied like him to a chair, unable to move. And she was clearly livid. If looks could kill, the ones she was giving Gladiator would have destroyed the entire moon they were sitting on. It was clear that Lilandra was taking Gladiator’s betrayal very personally. Not that he blamed her for that.
He looked around at their surroundings. They were outdoors in a rocky, barren-seeming area located on the edge of a lush jungle. There were mountains to the west, rolling jungles to the east, and they sat in a rocky valley between the two. The air was clear and warm, with very little in the way of clouds in the sky.
As Picard looked around, he noticed that there were weapon burns on the rocks and ground about them, and there were deep trenches and scars in the ground from explosions, as if very large battles had been fought here. There was no site of any towns or cities nearby that an army might have fought over. If fact, with the exception of the signs of battle, there didn’t seem to be any sign that the area had ever been inhabited at all.
Gladiator had lit a fire to keep Picard and Lilandra warm. He had also fed them and allowed them time for personal biological need. He clearly wanted to keep both Picard and Lilandra alive and unharmed, at least for the moment. But he didn’t allow them any more freedom than was absolutely necessary for their survival. Picard knew this because he had been searching in vain for any chance of escape, and sign of a mistake that he could take advantage of. There were none. Gladiator was too strong, too fast, and too aware of what was going on around him. He had proven that escape was nearly impossible, especially when he had taken out the security team so easily.
Picard had doubted Kitty when she told Picard of Gladiator’s strength. But after witnessing the massacre of his security team with such ease, he no longer doubted her. He had no idea what Riker and Pryde might be planning, but he sincerely hoped that they didn’t try another rescue stunt like that one again.
Gladiator was only a few feet away, but he had not been very talkative over the past several hours. Picard still had no idea what was going on, or why, and all of his attempts to talk to Gladiator had ended in futility. When he tried, Gladiator would simply ignore him with smug grin on his face.
He turned to Lilandra. “Are you all right, your Majesty?”
She turned her head to face Picard. “Quite all right, Captain.”
“Do you know what’s going on here?”
“What is going on here?” she responded with venom, “is that my most trusted bodyguard, and a man who I considered a friend and confidant has turned traitor. Again.”
“Again?” Picard asked, puzzled.
“Yes, again. This is not the first time that Gladiator has turned his coat,” she explained. “He’s been a traitor before, a long time ago.”
“If you don’t mind my asking, Your Majesty, why would you ever trust a man who had been a traitor?”
She smiled wanly. “Because a long time ago, I was assured by one of the Galaxy’s preeminent telepaths, who just so happened to be my consort, that Gladiator would never betray the Shi’ar. It seems that four centuries is enough time to change anyone into a traitor.”
Gladiator stood up and faced Lilandra. “I am no traitor, Lilandra.”
She laughed right in his face. “Not a traitor? You have kidnapped your sovereign and the leader of a diplomatic delegation from a foreign star nation. In what way is that not treason, traitor. You were a traitor four centuries ago, and you are a traitor now. And when all is said and done, your legacy will be that of a traitor... if you have a legacy at all...urk!!!”
Gladiator had grabbed Lilandra by the throat, choking her.
“I am not a traitor, Lilandra. I never have been. If you want to know who the traitor to our people is, I suggest that you look to yourself. My oath is to the Shi’ar people and to the throne, not to you personally. I am upholding that oath.” And with that he let her go.
She gasped for air, and Picard saw the need to distract Gladiator from Lilandra.
“What do you mean, Gladiator,” he asked, drawing Gladiator’s attention to himself and off of Lilandra. “Explain it to me.”
Gladiator seemed to consider for a moment. “Fair enough. You’ve been caught up in this. You might as well know what it is you will be dying for. Simply put, Captain, Lilandra has turned her back on her people, and in so doing has committed treason and gross negligence of her responsibilities as the leader of the Shi’ar people.”
“Lies,” said Lilandra with contempt. “You are nothing but a liar and a traitor...” Gladiator began to take another step towards her. Lilandra saw him coming but didn’t back down.
“Gladiator, I still don’t understand,” Picard said, desperately trying to protect Lilandra from her own stubbornness.
“Then I shall explain it to you, Captain,” Gladiator answered haughtily. “You are quite aware that we had a war with the Kree and the Skrull. Lilandra had magnanimously offered her hand to them in peace, but they repaid her kindness with betrayal and attacked us. The war was a bitter and bloody one, and when the dust settled, we had won, but at the cost of millions of lives on both sides of the battlefield. We suborned the Kree and the Skrull into the Shi’ar Empire, making sure that neither would ever have the power to betray us again.”
“And then Lilandra closed our borders and tightened security, while at the same time increasing our military power tenfold. For her, security from outside threat became the paramount concern. And we who had been through the war, who had witnessed the betrayal of the Kree and the Skrull, followed her lead. In short, we became isolationists.”
“Since then, no nation, no power has ever gotten close enough to us to become a threat. Our neighbors from the Dominion tried, but for all their abilities, the Jemhadar were never a match for us, and the Shapeshifters couldn’t fool us. They tried, of course, but we had a lot of practice in tracking shapeshifters from our experiences with the Skrull. The Shapeshifters couldn’t penetrate our ranks; we were too well prepared for them. Others tried as well, but whenever they became too aggressive, we sent out a sufficiently powerful force to make our displeasure known. And so, we remained secure.”
“But then things changed,” Gladiator explained. “There were no more threats, but the policies of isolationism remained in place. Do you know what happens to a political body when it remains isolationist for too long, Captain? It begins to die.”
“Our economy reached capacity a long time ago. We are at maximum employment, maximum output, but there is no room for economic growth. And now, on the outer worlds, our people are suffering. There are no jobs for them, not enough food is being produced to support them, and there is nowhere for our economy to expand in order to assist them. People are starving to death, Captain. In the largest, most advanced society in the entire galaxy, we have millions of people starving to death because the economy can’t support them. Unless new markets are opened up to us and the economy expanded, we will collapse under our own weight.”
“There was a time, Captain, when our technology was thirty or forty generations ahead of yours. Now it is no more than five or six generations ahead. We have had no significant technological achievements in over a century. All of our technological advancements of the past century are merely cases of building on what existed in the past. There is no real technological growth because there is no economic incentive for growth. Without those economic incentives, we grow stagnant.”
“And all of it is because of her policies,” he said, pointing an accusing finger at Lilandra. “For years her closest advisors, myself included, have warned her of the need for alliances outside the Empire, and that without such alliances, we would begin to break under our own weight. But she ignored us and continued this foolish isolationist policy, despite the lack of a threat, and now we have come to the point where that policy is causing untold suffering.”
“If we do not create an alliance with some outside power soon, we will die. We will cease developing new technologies altogether. We will cease having new ideas. We will cease growing. That which does not grow, dies. Our Empire will die if it does not grow through interstellar cooperation.”
“But she will not allow that growth to happen,” he accused again. “And since she is the one who sits on the throne, the decision is hers to make... for as long as she sits on the throne,” he concluded menacingly.
“So, you’re planning to kill the Majestrix in order to make a policy change?” Picard asked, dumbfounded.
“Essentially, yes, Captain,” Gladiator answered. “You see, I have known Lilandra for centuries. She will not change her mind, no matter what she says. Her mind is made up. Outside influences are a danger to us, and nothing can change her mind about that, not even the plight of her own people. And so, she must be eliminated so that another can make the decision that she refuses to make.”
“And where do I fit in?” asked Picard.
“Ah! Excellent question. You are the hero of this story, Captain,” Gladiator answered. “You are the brave man who will throw himself in harm’s way in a vain and futile effort to protect the Majestrix from the evil traitor --- me. You see, Captain, I have no problem with casting myself as the evildoer of this play, if it means that the Empire will survive. I gladly offer up my life and my reputation as a hero --- a very hard earned and well-deserved reputation, I might add --- if it means the survival of the Empire and its citizens.”
“Why me?”
“I could answer glibly ‘why not’, Captain. But the truth is I chose you for a reason. First, I find you to be a man of honor, and frankly, you have a reputation for heroics as well. Second, I have researched your Federation quite thoroughly, and have concluded that it is a good match for our Empire. Together, our nations can accomplish impossible feats and grow to new heights. No other nation that I have encountered and researched showed the potential of your Federation. I’ll admit to surprise on that account. Four centuries ago, I wouldn’t have thought that you Humans had it in you. But you have succeeded in surprising me. I’m impressed. And I am a very hard man to impress.”
“Thank you. I’m glad we meet with your approval,” Picard said somewhat snidely.
“You should be. My approval doesn’t come easily.”
“So, all of this, the entire coup was planned for the purpose of ending you Empire’s isolationist tendencies?”
“Yes. And when you are discovered with your body laying over Lilandra’s in an apparent attempt to protect her from me, you will become an instant celebrity among the Shi’ar. Not that you will be alive to enjoy it, but that is regrettable. Your heroic death will be the catalyst that brings our nations together. And guess what? With your dying act, you get to accomplish your mission as well. You get to win on so many fronts, Captain. You should be grateful.”
“I would prefer to live.”
“I understand, Captain. And I am sorry that you won’t be able to. But I promise to make it interesting. I won’t simply kill you. I do intend to give you a chance to fight back. Not much of one, to be sure, but I will untie you...”
“How sporting of you,” Picard responded sarcastically. “So, to meet your own personal political agenda, you intend to kill Lilandra and me. Just like you killed the crew of the Starjammer and the crew of that pirate ship? Just like you killed your own teammates? Is there anyone whose life you aren’t willing to sacrifice?”
Gladiator seemed to hesitate for a moment. “Those deaths were... unfortunate. But they were necessary.”
“Necessary? None of this was necessary,” Picard responded. “For your own political agenda, you murdered you friends, your colleagues, countless innocent crewmen, my own people, and God alone knows how many others that we have no idea about.”
Gladiator sighed like an overly patient adult explaining a lesson to a child, “I have already explained to you, this isn’t about my own personal agenda...”
“The hell it’s not. You made the decision to act. You, not someone else. Not Lilandra’s other advisors. You alone have made these decisions and taken these actions.”
“I did it for the people...
“Did you ever ask those people what they wanted?” Picard countered, now angered beyond reason. “Or did you simply decide on your own what you think needed to be done? I’ll bet you that just about every one of those suffering people that you described to me would be against the very actions you have taken on their behalf. You, in your own egotistical little mind decided on the right course of action, and so it must be right. Well, I have a bit of news for you. We were just about to work the whole thing out without your interference. Lilandra had agreed to a limited economic cooperation agreement. We didn’t need you to do this. We are quite capable of handling it ourselves. Who are you to get involved in matters that have nothing to do with you, to make decisions that affect the lives of so many others? Who gave you the authority? Who gave you the right?”
Gladiator paused as if unsure for a moment. Then he smiled. “You almost had me, Captain. If I didn’t know Lilandra so well, I might have believed that you had indeed worked out some sort of agreement. But I do know her, and I know that she wouldn’t do that. But your ability to tell a story does you credit.”
Picard looked at Gladiator in raw contempt. “Well apparently you don’t know her quite as well as you believed, because she did agree to a deal. None of this was necessary, you egotistical maniac. None of it.”
Gladiator shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t think so, Captain. But you do yourself credit. You are as stubborn as the Shadowcat in your own way. She has proven less of a challenge than I thought she would be, but you are proving quite entertaining all on your own.”
Light dawned on Picard. “The assassination attempt. That was your doing. And Kitty was right. She was the target, not me.”
“Quite correct, Captain. Well done” Gladiator responded with the air of a kindergarten teacher showing a toddler his approval. “When she arrived, I thought that she would be the single greatest obstacle to my plan. But she has proven less of a challenge than I expected...”
That was when the Finger of God slammed Gladiator right between the shoulder blades with impossible power, sending him sprawling uncontrollably to the ground.