"Your communication device please, Captain."
Imprisoned behind a pulsating electrical containment field, Janeway drowsily reached into the pocket secreted within her cream dress and pulled out her combadge. The containment field fizzed for just a second as the High Councilor moved in close, before he turned the field off and claimed the badge.
A sharp pain had fixed itself behind her eyes, and Janeway blinked a couple of times to try and clear the sensation. Zeron was standing over her again. Suddenly, he clutched her throat, forcing her to look up into his partially shielded eyes. The hold on her neck tightened and she felt her windpipe constrict. Her head throbbed mercilessly from the impact of his earlier disrupter shot, and in her disoriented state, Zeron's shielded face and the walls of the Conference Room appeared as if they were moving in waves.
"What do you intend to accomplish with all this?" Janeway asked, as she looked at him. There was sadness in her voice and concern, both for Voyager and for the Anawin people.
"Your eyes are like mirrors to your mind, Captain. They reflect the longings of your heart. It's such an empowering experience to know the conscience of your enemy. To know they cherish life, even with all its unmet hopes and promises." Zeron fixed his gaze on her, but she didn't flinch or move until he loosened the hold on her neck to pull his purple hood down a little lower over his face.
"Zeron, you speak as if you're an educated man. Fairly intelligent," Janeway said, as she rubbed away the red imprints on her neck. "And your peers must have held you in high esteem to elect you to a position of such authority. So tell me, please, why do you feel the need to do this?" She hoped her question might encourage him to at least take a few minutes to think about what he was doing. Certainly nothing else she'd tried had indicated his conscience had been even slightly tweaked.
"Captain, if I told you it's just because I can, would that disgust you?"
Janeway shook her head - in fact, she had expected nothing else. When Zeron gave the order to ignite the west end of the Anawin City, he'd murdered all the people taking cover there - potentially thousands of Anawins - the people he'd been commissioned to protect. Yet he showed no hint of remorse or regret, and her expression mimicked disgust.
"You're a worthy adversary, Captain, almost equal to my own genius. I admire the way you keep your subordinates in check without making them fear you, although personally, I find that fear works very well." Zeron did a quick circuit of the room with his eyes. "And it really doesn't worry me that you think I'm cruel."
Gently, Zeron lifted the purple hood up over his head and uncovered his face, before he carefully placed the flowing material down around his shoulders.
Janeway stared at him, speechless.
"But, as you can see, Captain, there are reasons for everything."
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Fanfiction"You really care about her, don't you?" Tom said, but the commander didn't answer. So Tom clarified his statement. "The Captain, I mean." "I have the utmost respect and admiration for Captain Janeway." Chakotay's response had been a long time comin...
