Temper {Star Trek Enterprise Fan Fiction}

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"This is fortunate?"

"It is if you've been designated for laboratory experiments," Polloria said, "His name meant prosperous," she shook her head, a mass of coppery red waves, "He was far from that at the end. A doctor, becoming a lab rat. Not a good doctor, to be sure, but still. For me, it was, well, I was sentenced to potassium injections."

"Yes, I'm remembering that now," Lili said, "You, well, it was a plot to kill the High Priestess, yes?"

"Yes, and she was eventually killed. I regret that now. But potassium injections – it's a horrid punishment. I lived that way for about a decade or so. Existed, really. Lived implies I was, perhaps, happy or at least in control of my faculties. It changes you," Polloria said, "All that was important before was power. Now, survival. And it would be good to have freedom, of course. But right now, survival. Anywhere but here."

"Polloria, you've seen what's going on at night. Why is it all staticky?"

"Ah, they set it up. Good," she said, and went back to stacking.

"Set up what?"

"It's a cover. There are prying eyes. The Empress; she's now living in dreams. It must be the ultimate in despotism, to control not only your subjects' waking lives but also their sleeping ones. Perfect totalitarianism. Now, while I expected and hoped I would have control, I hadn't thought or even really wanted to peek into nighttime dalliances. Maybe I wasn't thinking big enough. I don't know. That hardly matters now."

"Why would she want to look in?" Lili asked, but she had an idea of the answer already.

"Oh, well, if your subjects can speak to one another while unconscious, they can plot against you. Root out the conspirators and send them to the booth!"

"Are there listening posts here, all around us?"

"No. At least, I suspect there aren't, for too many things have happened, and have been said, without consequence. But I wouldn't put it past her for the future. But for now, I expect she feels it's either dull or counterproductive."

"Hmm. A big setup like that would entail a huge bureaucracy," Lili suggested, "I don't think anyone here is interested in records and recordkeeping."

"Except the third one, Arashi," Polloria said, "If he gets control after her death, I am sure he will take every means necessary to assure that he is looking in on every single aspect of everyone's lives. He'll be searching for oddities, rebellions, conspiracies, anomalies and anything else that tickles his fancy. Of all of them, I hate her the most, and I wish her dead," Polloria said the last few words very quietly, and Lili had to strain to really hear her, "But it's Arashi who truly scares me. Anyone with a brain in their head should, if they take her out, take him out as well."

=/\=

"Ha, that's it," DR said to himself as he clicked on a PADD.

"What's what?" Joss asked. They were sitting in quarters together, and Joss was absently looking over film of his batting stance from the game against the Hunters.

"I figured out how to get through to the surface."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I'll make it look like a love letter to Betsy," DR said, "Once they see it's just a teenage crush note, they'll leave us alone."

"You sure about that?"

"I'm not sure about anything. And Betsy might just delete it without reading it. But I know that a note I sent wasn't intercepted."