"Eye of the Prophet" (DS9:MC- Bashir & Odo) 3/?

[rg...@msn.com]

A DS9 STORY - "Eye of the Prophet"
by Me
Copyright April 4th 1997

This story is rated W for weird, S for slash and AR for age restricted
material. *---++++============<>{#*#}<>============++++---*

<*>...Chapter Three...<*>

---==={*}===---

"Scream and die." Julian was tempted to scream anyway as
looked at the weapon in the clansman's hand. Instead he seethed
helplessly as more clansmen appeared from the bush, between them they had
stretcher. It had been a trap all along, he hoped Odo realised it before
it sprang on him. The stretcher was laid at his side, then one of the
clansmen produced a gag and gagged Julian before they gathered around him
to lift him and lift him, intending to transfer him to the stretcher in a
quick move. Pain lanced through Julian's back, sweeping over him, the
involuntary scream of pain he gave was muffled by the gag as they froze.
Being suspended only increased the agony he suffered and he passed into
blissful unconsciousness. "Careful you fools," the leader of the
band hissed. Julian was carefully set on the stretcher, then one of
the clansman produced a blindfold and tied it around Julian's head in a
cross fashion well and truly blinding Julian's sight. The stretcher was
raised and carried off with all due care while the leader of the band
moved around the site clearing away all evidence of their presence and
followed behind clearing away their trail.

---==={*}===---

The bands leader stopped once to tie a strip of red cloth to a
low lying branch, then moved on clearing away all other evidence of their
passing.

---==={*}===---

The man who identified himself as Ali Venda lead the unsuspecting Odo
through the wilderness by a circuitous route and found the red tie,
smirking as he retrieved it and moved on. Odo swung through the tree's in
the form of one the native equivalents to monkeys and watched the little
man move through the dense foliage. And then he lost the man as he
slipped under through thick cluster of foliage that covered a vast
expense of the wilderness. Odo was impressed. He'd considered the
area to be virtually impenetrable on foot, he'd underestimated the
natives. Obviously there were trails to be found, from the ground that
were hidden from above by the foliage that the native were short enough
to duck under without trouble, where a Terran of average height would
have been reduced to crawling or moving through it in a continuous
crouch. When it became obvious he couldn't follow the Chieftains
course from above, as the man didn't even rustle the bushes, Odo swung
back to the point where he'd seen the chieftain duck and enter the cover
of the low lying trees. He did a double take when he saw the network of
trails hidden from above. It was a veritable maze, with thick stubby
trunks supporting a canopy of leaves so thick the deeper one went, the
darker it got, until there was no light to be seen at all. Odo
stopped, and listened. He couldn't even hear the man now. With a muttered
grouch he began retracing his path, and became hopelessly lost in next to
no time. When he finally found his way out from under the low lying
canopy he swore as he looked up to see thick clouds that hadn't been
there earlier. Julian would be drenched if he didn't get back to their
camp and fast.

---==={*}===---

The team waited under the cover a pit covered with a natural
looking canopy that had been prepapared for animal trapping but now
served to keep them hidden from sight. The leader looked up raising his
weapon as the canopy was raised and their chieftain peered over the edge.
"I've lead him a merry chase and lost him in the Achite grove. Bring
her up.." The team brought Julian up out of the pit and the leader
tugged on the blindfold to look at his face. "What did you do to her?
"She screamed and passed out when we transferred her to the
stretcher, Ali." The Chieftain backhanded him. "I warned you that
she was injured and needed careful handling," he growled. "We were
careful." "Not careful enough." "She's the ugliest woman I've ever
seen." "What did you expect, the witch is Terran, like that
halfbred whelp of Babar's." "Speaking of which, if you are tired
of her, Ali.." "We shall see. You there, move out, as for you,
activate the field and erase our trail, if that damned daemon lord gets
out and finds a trail, we won't live to brag of the day we outsmarted
it."

---==={*}===---

Ali Babar, was in many peoples opinion the most beautiful person
on Les'Inderia. Tall and etherial with a fragile appearance that belied a
strength many made the mistake of thinking Ali lacked. Ali's unique looks
were courtesy of a Les'Inderian father, Chief of the Babar clan, and a
Terran woman who had raised Ali on Earth resulting in what by
Les'Inderian standards was Ali's towering height. The Chieftain
looked up at Ali, wishing, not for the first time the damned creature
wasn't so neck achingly tall. "The time has come for you to produce
a son." "Don't tell me you've been raiding again. How many times do I
have to tell you, raiding for women is a waste of time, none of the women
you bring me is suitable.." "This one is different." "I've
heard that one before." "We captured a witch woman for you at great
risk, you will bed her and produce a son, or .." Ali yawned, rolling
eyes at the chieftain. "We'll kill the woman and cover you in her
blood and unleash her daemon." "There are no such things as daemons
or witches." "She had a daemon that served her, one that changes
shape and can become anything from a Shorquout to a Hezlat." "And
you've been eating the Rathma berries again, haven't you."
"Scoff, but I tell nothing but the truth. That is why you will operate on
the Witch woman and severe her vocal chords, I will not have her bring
her daemon down on us." "I'll do no such thing." "She has
been taken to your surgery. You will examine her, establish wether or not
she is capable of child bearing and operate on her now, before she
regains consciousness. And do not think to conspire with her, and disobey
my order, I will have another Healer examine her if I so much as suspect
you've lied to me about her childbearing or vocal abilities. And if I
find you have lied, I will cast you to the guardsmen who'll just loooove
having a creature like you for a lovepet." Ali tried not shudder and
produced another yawn as if unimpressed by the threat. Some days it was
harder than others to pretend nothing the sadistic little pipsqueak did
was bothersome. This was one of those days.

---==={*}===---

Ali glowered at the guardsmen outside the surgery who leered. Ali
didn't need to guess who'd been asking the chief about taking him for a
lovepet. Ali sent the lascivious Les'Inderian on his way with a few
judicious threats involving castration and a scalpel drawn from a
pocket. Locking the door behind him, Ali wandered through his
surgical suite, washing hands and changing into surgical scrubs thinking
about the Clanschiefs recent activities. It had been years since the
chieftain had brought her a woman he thought would tempt the etherial Ali
to produce children. Threats, beatings and deprivation of food, water and
privacy had all been used in the past to try and convince Ali to fall in
with the chiefs plans to no avail. Not even threatening to kill the women
if Ali didn't bed her and sire a child worked. Ali refused to touch
any of them woman even when the threats to kill the women captured in
raids for his benefit had been carried out, often on the spot if he
refused them, was he tempted to change his mind. They were better off
dead anyway, those that failed to produce children after being bedded
were given to the guardsmen as lovepets and treated with less courtesy
than gaurdbeasts, those that caught the chiefs eye usually died at his
hand in all manner of horrific and torturous ways. Ali moved into the
first surgery to find a covered corpse lying on the table. He drew back
the sheet and shuddered when he saw the damage that had been inflicted on
the woman it covered. Ali covered the corpse and activated the sensitive
scanning equipment around the table which would scan every inch of the
woman's body and gather an immense amount of data. The little
sadist might have sent the woman's corpse here to make a point, but Ali
never turned down a chance to examine a Les'Inderian, dead or alive, each
body that passed through his surgery added some new and interesting fact
to the pile of medical data Ali collected about the species. Passing
through into the second surgery Ali's musings came to an abrupt halt as
she saw the alleged witch woman lying prone of the surgical bed.
"Sacre Bleu." Ali yelped. A terran, and a terran Male by the looks
of it. Ali peeked under the furred robe that covered him and confirmed
that it was definitely a male. Then he laughed, hysterical. How many
times could the man make the same mistake. He'd be positively livid with
fury when he found out his witch woman was more like a warlock. Ali
stopped laughing abruptly, thinking of the ravaged body in the connecting
room. The next time he saw this man, it could be as a corpse in a like
manner. Ali shuddered. Natives were one thing. It didn't much matter,
either way the women were doomed from the moment they took their first
breath of life, there was no escaping their fate on this hell hole. But,
this was different, this was a man, and a stranger to this world and by
the looks of it, one incapable of escape. Just to function normally in
the high gravity of Les'Inderia required strength and stamina only the
strongest and fittest Terran's possessed and the man before her was
anything but fit. Ali looked at the tray of surgical instruments laid
out no doubt by one of his unseen orderly on the chiefs orders. He
snatched up the local equivalent of a scalpel and activated it. Too far
gone for escape, too weak to defend himself, the man was as a good as
dead already, better to give him a quick painless death than the one that
would be in store for him when the chief learned of his gender. As Ali
brought the scalpel down to touch the skin of his throat, his eyes
fluttered and opened, and for a moment he looked into a pair of pain
filled brown eyes, filmed with unshed tears. Ali looked away pulling the
scalpel away to deactivate it and reached instead for another instrument
to press it to his temple. The pain etched on his face vanished and he
gave Ali a look of pure gratitude before slipping under. Ali
sighed. 'He would have to pick just that moment to wake up wouldn't
he' Ali thought as he put the instrument aside and set the rooms sensor
system into scan mode before picking up the scalpel again to begin
cutting away the robe that covered his body.

---==={*}===---

Odo circled around and around the cave site in ever widening
circles looking for the trail of those who had carried off Julian, there
was no trail to be seen. Then as he prepared to widen his circle further,
a real bird swooped toward the ground near him and there was a sudden
flash of light, a momentary flickering shimmer that filled the sky as far
as the eye could see, then an explosion of feathers, gore and blood. Odo
almost lost his shape in shock as he realised how close he had come to
flying right into what looked like quite a lethal force field and dropped
like a stone, morphing at the last second to come to a landing.
Looking around he felt sick, the vegetation was shrivelled and blackened
around a line of ash several inches wide. Around the blackened line lay
the remains of countless animals that had, like the bird, discovered the
force fields existence the hard way. Some of the remains were still
smouldering. With a shudder Odo began walking, following the line of
ash and charred remains that marked the edge of the barrier.

---==={*}===---

Ali stepped out of the surgical suite to be confronted by the
sight of the chieftain lying in wait. "I do hope you're going to give
me the answer I want to hear to explain away spending three days in
there." "You win." "Oh." "Stop playing dumb." "She's
Terrenean, she can't escape, and you no longer have any excuses. I expect
to hear you have fathered a child before the next.." "I can give you a
damned reason why that's not going to happen. That woman is atrocious
shape, at this point in time, she wouldn't live long enough to bear a
child even if I did impregnate her." "Then she is of no use to us."
"Patience brings its own rewards, and a little patience in this instance
might bring about the fruition of your plans. She is of child bearing
age. There is no reason why, after adequate TLC and time to improve her
overall health levels why she can't have a child." "You have 3
months," the chief said generously. "I need more time." "Time
is something you are fast running out of. I must present an heir or proof
of my ability to provide one to the meeting of the clans at years end.
Fail me and it is not only the witch women who will have outlived her
usefulness to me." "So be it, but mark my words, Ali Venda, touch
that woman and I will castrate you, she is mine, and if you want your
precious heir, you'll heed my words. Only due care will get you what you
want." "You forget your place here." "And you forget, I can take you
down in a minute, a clans chief who can provide no heirs - especially
when he's not first born of the line can't hold his seat for long. You're
dream of amalgamating our clans will come true, if you're patient, in the
manner you wish to achieve that goal, but if you fail to heed my words,
they will be amalgamated under my father's hand, not yours, and it will
be your life that will be forfeit." "I'll send you to pits of damnation
at my hands first, hellspawn." "And I'll die, laughing in your face
knowing that I'll be having the last laugh."

---==={*}===---

Odo found himself back where he started, and cursed under his
breath. The barrier extended from the centre out to cover a hundred meter
radius. There were no gaps in the field to be found. Any doubts he had
about the safety of taking to the air were quashed when a hurled stone
every few meters resulted in a flash and a momentary flickering shimmer
that appeared to fill the sky. He was too tired and egaushted to
search for a gap any longer and wearily took the form of a bird to take
to the skies again, going only a few meters to join a flock of birds
wheeling around before heading for the relative shelter of a tree trunk,
there to let himself go reverting to his natural form.

---==={*}===---

Julian awoke with a strangled scream of pain as fire raced along
every nerve in his body from the neck down. "You're awake, good."
Julian recognised the voice as that of the deceitful clans chief and
tried to speak and almost cried in frustration when all that came out
were strangled croaks. His voice refused to work. "I had your voice
stolen, Witch woman, you can't call your demon down on my clan."
Julian felt his flesh creep as the man clambered onto the bed and
straddled his chest to lean over him. allah, I can *feel that.*'
he thought. Then a shudder of revulsion and fear ran through him as he
realised the man was getting a kick out of this. "I'm sure you're
wondering why I brought you here." He gave a slight nod and wished he
hadn't as the act sent new waves of pain through his body. "It's very
simple, you are going to bear a child to the whelp of Ali Babar."
Julian started wondering if this was a bad dream. "He tells me that
I must treat you with due care, if you're to bear offspring, and you will
be treated with the utmost of respect by my men, kept in luxury and
you're every whim bar for freedom shall be met, if you submit willingly.
Or you can choose to be as stubborn as all your kind and die, not that
you really have a choice, I know that you can't move, I watched your
daemon serve you for days, you can't stop us from doing as we will."
And to prove it he confirmed Julian's suspicions, opening his pants to
reveal a now rock hard erection. Julian closed his eyes and began
praying. If this man went through with his intentions, he'd discovered he
didn't have the woman he thought he did and Julian doubted he'd survive
the discovery. A bone cracking slap across the face almost sent
Julian back to the sweet oblivion of unconsciousness. Then he felt the
chieftains hand tangle in his hair as the man slid up his chest and
yanked on his hair. "Look at me witch. I know you can feel pain,
and I will make you suffer the most unimaginable agonies if you defy me."
Julian opened eyes wet with tears of pain. The chieftain pulled a pillow
up and under Julian's head. Julian bit his lip in response to the pain
that sent lancing through him and began praying again. "Submit,
willingly and you will have all that I promised, on that you have my
word, you also have my word that if you prove stubborn.." The chieftain
started stroking himself and launched into a detailed and graphic
description of the hundred and one way's he'd rape Julian before staking
him out in the desert over a fire ants nest, covered in sweet syrup to be
eaten alive by the horde of ants. Every time Julian's eyes closed, he
was brutally slapped till he opened them again, and at one stage Julian
felt his jaw crack and lost a tooth. Finally the chiefs rant drew to a
close as he drew close to the verge of self induced orgasm. Do you
understand me. Julian gave a slight nod. "What is it to be? Will
you submit?" Julian hoped he wouldn't be expected to submit to this
Ali Babar straight away, the pain in his body had as the time passed
become pins and needles as he'd tried discretely flexing muscles and
discovered he could, and he was sure given sufficient time he could do
what the Chieftain didn't expect, get up and make a break for it. He
doubted he'd have that time if the Chieftain didn't get the answer he
wanted. So he nodded. His stomach roiled as the Chieftain slid forward
grabbing a handful of hair to pull his head back and then pulled his jaw
down. "Prove it, now, witch woman, submit to me," the chieftain
growled then raised himself. He was about to thrust his engorged member
in Julian's mouth when Julian heard the door open, a fact the chieftain
was oblivious to in his quest for domination. Julian had to fight the
urge to bite, and choke as he forced to take that hot throbbing member in
his mouth, then the chief started thrusting himself against him, driving
himself in deeper, with fast, urgent strokes as he neared his orgasm.
Julian almost cried in relief as he saw the Etherial Ali appear in his
line of sight, looking thunderous, reaching for the chieftain, grasping
the back of his collar and then lifted him off and away from Julian.
The chieftain squawked. Ali's hand came down on the surgical tray and up
with a scalpel activating it with the touch of his thumb. "I warned
you what would happen if you touched my woman." The chieftain
screamed as the scalpel came down. Julian closed his eyes and slipped
into blessed oblivion.

---==={*}===---

Odo flew to the cave to begin scouting around, looking for sign
that would tell him which way Julian's captors had gone.

---==={*}===---

"Oh, no you don't..Answer my question, did he look under the
sheet." Julian fought the encroaching darkness. Shaking his head.
"Then..There's still hope for you yet." Ali muttered as he reached for
his instruments. "And god help us both if what I have in mind
fails," he said as he brought the instrument to Julian's temple. Images
flickered before Julian's minds eye as consciousness once more slipped
away from him. His eyes widened then rolled back. Ali frowned, and ran a
quick scan. "Hmmm.."

---==={*}===---

He sat half pinned, caressing the phaser in his hand, watching as
fire and smoke roiled behind a force-field that was all that separated
him from a fiery end. Over his head, leads dangled, electricity crackled
sometimes arching. When the spark jumped arching, the force-field
flickered and smoke escaped in little puffs and it came near to collapse.
He hadn't been alone, when half the ceiling had collapsed, he'd shoved
another out of the path of the collapsing panels, only to be caught under
them himself. So close to home and safety, just a few minutes more and
they would be at the wormhole. They would be able to transport off to the
safety of the station beyond the celestial gate. He didn't have the
time. He knew that, he'd hoped, prayed his companion in the corridor had
gotten out, would find others, returning to free him, but, that wasn't to
be. The explosion in the corridor had turned the only clear path left
into a fiery inferno. Did they even know where he was, that he was still
alive. He'd never abandon them, they wouldn't abandon him. They would try
to reach him, they would get him out. But time was running out. He
wasn't afraid to die, he'd faced that fear and left it behind. Death in
the line of duty was a risk he knew well, and if that was to be his fate,
then a quick death, preferably instantaneous was his preferred option,
that's why he'd fought his entrapment, to reach the phaser, dropped
during the fall. And now as he watched the force field flicker, saw the
smoke roiling behind, then through it, he raised the phaser, pressing it
to his skull then fell from his now limp hand, oblivious to the fiery
inferno as it swept through the corridor leaving charred and smouldering
wreckage in it's path. Sweeping over his body, and where once was a man
only a pile of smouldering ash remained.

---==={*}===---

Julian started screaming as the images grew more and more vivid,
as he watched, helpless to stop it the rise of a civilisation more
brutal, more sadistic than any that had come before, as it spread beyond
the world that spawned it and worlds too numerous to count fell under
it's dominion. *That which was, and will be, but for chance.* The
atrocious visions ended. "Why are you doing this?" He screamed. *All
lives that enter our domain, all that will be in relation to that life's
existence is ours to know. Few are granted the opportunity to see what
impact their existence will have on the lives of those who come after.*
"Are you saying all that will happen..because of me?* *That which was,
and will be - is yours to decide.* "I don't understand." *Watch.*
The images began again, this time, he found himself watching as Winn
woke wide eyed and trembling and threw back her bed covers, to climb out
of bed, pulling on a robe to hurry to a library full of books both new
and old, ancient and recent. A box sat in the centre of the library with
a glowing stone. She glanced at it but passed it by moving through the
room to reach for a book so weathered by age he wondered why it didn't
turn to ash as she carried it to a table, there to sit and open the book
to rapidly flick through the yellowed and fragile pages. Her hunt ended
as her finger ran down a page rimmed by an intricate border. He moved
closer to lean over her shoulder and saw the border contained minute but
exact illustrations, there in a corner lay the wormhole, and below, DS9.
Winn muttered under her breath, reading the prophecy laid out before
her and her fingers tapped the illustrated border and drew Julian's eyes
to another illustration of the wormhole, only this time, it wasn't an
electric blue maelstrom of energy, the second illustration was of a
writhing mass of flames, spewing out minute that closer examination
proved to be the remains of a ship. Then he noticed the corner of a slip
of paper poking out as did Winn she extracted it and looked on a full
page graphic illustration of pure and utter devastation.

---==={*}===---

Julian jumped and span looking around as the library vanished and
he found himself in the chapel on DS9. Winn was standing in the shadows
watching as Odo moved through the room. His passage terminated abruptly
as Winn stepped out of the shadows. "I was not aware you were here,
Eminence." He prepared to leave. "There is no need to leave, I
wished to speak with you. The prophets have given me a disturbing
vision." "One that involves me." "You were not there,
but..I believe that if you were, the vision I had would *not* come to
pass." "And you want to make sure it doesn't." Winn
produced a scroll of paper and handed to Odo. "I am not the only one
the prophets have touched to relay their warning." Odo opened the
scroll and looked upon the scene of utter devastation it held. He let the
page roll up on itself. "What do I have to do?" "I don't
know how or why but..there are several books of prophecy that warn of
this event, I found one that bluntly stated the one who raises the dead
had the power to prevent it." "Who.." "Dr Bashir. He brought
Bariel back from the dead." "Oh.." "But..another book of prophecy
said he would meet a fiery end, in the ship of blades." "I don't.."
"Terrans have names for weapons that have historical significance. There
is a ship here, now, its name is Excalibur. Excalibur is the name given
to the blade given to their great king Arthur Pendragon, and my sources
tell me he is planning to leave DS9 on board that ship." Odo
nodded. "They're heading for a world where the Dominion unleashed a
plaque. He's taking a team of medical people there to help those who've
already contracted it." "This world..where is it?" "The gamma
quadrant." "The time is now, Constable, the prophecy's all say that
when the ship of blades passes through the gates of the celestial temple
it will be destroyed by those who seek dominion over all. You must either
convince him to stay here.. "That's not possible, it's taken him
years to arrange this mercy mission, he won't back out now." "Then
you must go with him, your people are the Jem Hadar's masters. If you are
there, you may be able to prevent them from destroying the ship, and keep
the prophecy from coming to pass."

Julian whirled and spun as he found himself in a corridor
littered with debris. Obviously Winn's expectations of Odo's ability to
stop the Jem Hadar had been in vain .The corridor was being rocked by
explosions as Odo held a woman he recognised, the fellow doctor he'd
saved from being crushed under the falling debris that had pinned him.
She was panting drawing in great droughts of air, pointing back down the
corridor as she breathlessly babbled. "He's down there..The ceiling
collapsed..he shoved me out of the way, but it fell on him..and I
couldn't free him..It's too heavy." "Was he alive?" "Yes..He
told me to leave him, to get help." "Tell me exactly where you left
him, then keep going, you'll find more people to help if you follow the
corridor." "Keep..going, turn left down the third intersection,
follow it through to the T junction, turn right..."

Julian watched as Odo raced through the corridors, recognised
them as being the corridors he himself had been traversing when the ship
came under attack. Then as the changeling was but one turn away from
entering the corridor where he lay pinned, an explosion ripped through
it, and the blazing inferno he had so recently seen himself die in began.
Odo was thrown back and slammed into a wall, sliding down it dazed. Time
passed in the blink of an eye, a crowd of people in uniform arrived,
clustered around the dazed changeling, rousing him as they drew him up
and dragged him away. He tried to tell them where the doctor was, they
already knew, and informed him there was no way to reach him, they'd
already learned that. Odo shook them off and charged down another
corridor, with one of the group on his heels, the rest scattered in all
directions. He watched as Odo was blocked from all directions,
loosing his trailing companion as he'd tried slipping past debris
blocking corridors in the form of a rat, a lizard and once even a bird.
But every path he took lead to a dead end, either one that was always
there, or one created by a wall of impassable debris, flames or gas so
lethal that to even try to pass through those area's was certain death.
Then the changeling retraced his steps, to return to the sight of the
explosion where he'd been thrown off his feet. The flames had passed
through leaving smouldering wreckage in their path. Odo entered the
devastated section, there to watch helplessly through the flames as he,
Julian, had fought for and recovered the phaser, checked it's setting and
watched the force-field flicker. Odo's scream to hold on, went unheard
over the roaring inferno that separated the two men. Julian began to
raised the phaser, ready to use it as the smoke poured through the
force-field. Odo looked around frantically searching for a way to
circle around and reach him, then it happened, the ceiling collapsed
right in front of him, a ventilation shaft half fell creating a tunnel
*over* the fiery inferno that blocked him. Odo wasted no time, he
released his natural form and erupted upwards to enter the shaft.

snipped...

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