Date: Tue, 16 May 1995 22:53:53 EDT Reply-To: Mike Coelho Sender: Highlander TV show stories From: Mike Coelho Subject: Princes of the Universe, part 5 Part 21: Corellias Government Building 12 Horgan sat in front of the terminal in his office, and read the report over and over. All dead, just like Doran ordered. Not even the children had been spared. The Enterprise was less than three hours away, and Doran had done nothing to impede their progress. These defectors posed no threat to him, and he had them eradicated. It didn't make sense. As far as Horgan saw it, Doran was insane, which made him all the more dangerous. He had to be stopped. Horgan took his disruptor from it's holster and set it to kill. There would be no more orders. No more deaths, save one. He punched up the bio-tracking program and had Doran pinpointed in a matter of seconds. At first, he thought there was an error. He checked again and found the results the same. Doran was in the library, which was directly beneath this room. It was going to be easier than he thought. Horgan got out of his chair, and left the room. He reached the library, and keyed in his access code. All the doors to sensitive areas had been code-fixed, and Doran considered the library a sensitive area. "Come on in, Horgan. I was expecting you." Doran had an extremely large and dangerous looking sword in his hand. Horgan looked him straight in the eye. "I can't let you continue this. It has to end." He leveled the disruptor, and aimed it at Kerr Doran's chest. Doran merely smiled. "Go ahead, make my day." He said with a chuckle. Horgan fired, the blast hitting it's mark perfectly. In a blinding flash of blue light, Doran disintegrated, the sword dropping to the floor. 'Done,' Horgan thought. 'Finally.' "Don't be so sure, my foolish friend." The voice seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. Horgan looked around the room frantically. Doran was dead, he saw him die! He must have been imagining this. Suddenly, in a flash of blue light much brighter than the last, Doran reappeared, in the same spot he'd been in, with a smile on his face. He bent down and retrieved his sword. "You didn't honestly think you could get rid of me that easily, did you?" Doran shook out his long blond hair. "What the hell are you?!" Horgan screamed, as he fired again, the shot going wild and hitting the wall. Doran walked casually to where Horgan was standing, and raised his sword. "I am immortal. Nothing you can do can hurt me." He thrust the sword through Horgan's chest. Horgan looked down at the huge piece of metal that was sticking out of his chest, and his mouth dropped. Then the color seemed to fade from the world. He could hear birds singing in the distance, the same birds that used to wake him in the morning when he was a boy. Everything turned black. . . Doran pushed Horgan's body off of his sword with his boot, and left it on the library floor. He went out the door whistling a happy song to himself. Part 22: Holodeck A light mist rose over the hills surrounding the glen. In the distance, the loch glistened. "Really, Conner, if you were hungry, we could have gone to ten-forward." Duncan stared at his clansman, who was standing over an open flame grill, cooking some meat. "Come on, Duncan, you can't tell me you don't love it here, back in the glen. Pass me that spatula." "Here." Duncan handed it to him. "I love it here, but it brings back some memories. Painful ones." "For me too, Duncan, but I've learned to accept that. I lived here with Heather for years. I buried her just over that hill. But still, I love it here. I keep coming back. I can't stay away for long." He flipped the steak over. "Besides, it's just a program." "I know. You're right, it's beautiful here. Almost as wonderful as I remember it. I just can't get over the memory of Mary. I can't forget the look on her face when I came home. Home from a battle that I lost." "Duncan, one of the hardest parts of being immortal is remembering. It's also one of the best." Duncan seemed to consider this, then nodded his head. "You'd think after eight hundred years. . . " "What? The memories would fade? Or maybe even go away?" "Yea." "No such luck. Or should I say no such misfortune. You know I took my first head only six miles from here?" "Really? You never told me that." "It was three months after Heather died. I was planning to leave the highlands, and seek destiny elsewhere, but I couldn't bare to do it. I ended up at an inn near Glenfinnan. But that is a story for another time, cousin. Shortly thereafter, I found you." "Now that I remember. I was so confused then. My own father wouldn't even see me. I could see the fear in his eyes. I can still see it." "It's hard. I remember when Kate called me a witch, she said I was in league with lucifer. But we overcome. We endure. We have to." "Conner, do you believe in God? After all this time, I still don't know what to believe. Darius believed that God was real, yet he couldn't explain why we exist. I sometimes wonder if my father was right when he said I was a changling." "I don't know, cousin. I was brought up believing in God, and I never questioned that belief, until the day I was driven from the village. What kind of god would let me return from the brink of death, only to let me lose everything I had? Then Ramirez found me. He believed in God, and he was older than Christ. What does that mean? I don't know." He took the steaks from the grill, and placed them on the plates. "Here, eat something. You look positively puny." Duncan smiled at the old joke. "I'm going to kill Amanda for that. She started that whole puny thing years ago." Conner laughed, as he sat on the grass next to Duncan. "You had better like this, I got this recipe from a master chef six-hundred years ago." Duncan tried the steak. "It's good. What's in this sauce?" "If I told you, I'd have to kill you." Conner smiled. "Right. You'd kill me. Sure." "All right, haggis, defend yourself!" Conner picked up his tachi. "What, now? I'm eating!" "What are you, scared?" Duncan threw the plate to the side and jumped up. He pulled out his own sword and held it ready. "OK, let's go." They started sparring, Conner taking the advantage quickly. "You're getting slow cousin," he said to Duncan. Duncan smiled. "I was just letting you warm up, cousin." He started his assault in full force, but much to his chagrin, Conner kept up with him. Conner laughed and said, "Don't lose you're temper, haggis." Duncan said, "I never lose my temper." He feigned an attack to Conner's neck, and his cousin did exactly what Duncan hoped he'd do. As Conner ducked, Duncan quickly pulled back his sword, stepped back, and held the blade to Conner's throat. "Give up?" Conner chuckled, as he often did in situations like this. "Never." He grabbed Duncan's leg and sent him flying. He put down his sword and picked up his plate. "Really, you shouldn't have thrown your plate like that, the steak's really good." Duncan got up and walked to where Conner was sitting. "That's OK, I'll just have some of yours." He knocked Conner's plate to the ground. This started a new sparring match. Part 23: Richie walking down the corridor, toward the observation deck, when he saw the mysterious ensign walk through the door. Any doubt he may have had about this being a Watcher were cast aside when he saw the look on his face. "Hello." Richie extended his hand. "Richie Ryan." Ensign Gunn looked at Richie's hand with sheer amazement. "I, ah, I know." He shook Richie's hand. "Michael Gunn." "Are you my Watcher now?" "Mr. Ryan, please, lets take this to a private place." "Fine with me. After you." Richie didn't take his eyes off of him. Michael led Richie to his quarters. "Please, make yourself at home." Richie sat down in a large, comfortable chair. "Thanks. Aren't you going to sit?" "Sure. I'm just a little nervous. I'm sure you can imagine." "No, actually, I can't. What are you doing here?" "I'm an Enterprise crew member." Richie nodded to the clearly visible tattoo on Michael's wrist. "You're a Watcher. Are you watching one of us?" "No. Well, yes, actually, I'm watching all of you. But that's not why I'm here. I didn't even know you were going to be here when I took this assignment. I just got lucky." Michael smiled, trying to ease the tension. Richie's gaze didn't falter. "So why are you leaving the planet? I thought you guys stayed close to your Immortals." "We do. I was taking some time off. I want to further my Starfleet career. Being a Watcher can get boring." Richie could tell he was lying. "Come off it, Gunn. I know your kind too well to fall for that crap. Remember, I've known about the Watchers for four hundred years. You guys don't get bored." "Well, believe it or not, Mr. Ryan, you Immortals aren't all your cracked up to be. All I got to look forward to was another beheading. After you've seen about a dozen, it gets old." Michael looked at the floor uneasily. "Why have you come here?" "I came because I saw your tattoo, and I wanted to know why you were here. We planned this trip at the last minute, there's no way you guys could have known about it." "The Watchers didn't find out you were going to be on board until a couple of hours before the ship left. If you check the crew log, you'll see I was assigned here a week ago." "But your watching us now, right?" "Well, yes. I was contacted soon after we left." "You were told to watch us. Are you going to follow us to Risa?" "Certainly not. My job is here, on the ship." "What do you do on this ship? You're an ensign, are you assigned to the bridge?" "Why would I tell you that? Whay do you want to know?" "Because you know so much about us, I figured I'd level the playing field." "Richie; may I call you Richie?" "Sure." "Good. Call me Michael. Richie, I don't know much about any of you. My job in the organization doesn't put me in contact with many Immortals. I'm more of an information courier." Michael regretted the statement, even before he finished it. "Information courier? Where do you bring the information? Have that many Immortals left the planet?" Richie remembered Duncan's questions. "Or am I missing something here?" Michael swallowed hard. "Richie, we have information stockpiles on various outposts. We use them only for archive purposes-" "Listen, I want a straight yes or no answer. Are there Immortals from other planets?" Richie leaned forward in his seat. Michael saw it was useless to lie to him. "Richie, I can't tell you." "I guess I have no choice, then." Richie got out of his seat. Michael stood up, alarmed. "What are you going to do?" he said in a frightened voice. "Relax, I'm not going to hurt you. I just want you to come with me." "Where?" "To Duncan and Conner." "What makes you think I'll tell them anything I haven't told you?" "It's not what you're going to tell them, it's what they're going to tell you." Part 24: Bridge "Commander Riker, we're within sensor range of Corellias Five," said ensign Takar. "Call up a visual, ensign." "Aye, sir." On the screen appeared Corellias Five, an M-class planet with a subtle purple hue to it's atmosphere. It's continents were bright green and orange, providing for a stunning visual effect. "It's beautiful," said Counselor Troi. "Yes. Ensign, scan the planet's offensive and defensive systems. Let's see how much of a threat this Kerr Doran can be." Takar initiated the scan, and within seconds, it was complete. "I'm reading seventeen planetary defensive arrays, consisting of thirty disruptor banks, and five photon torpedo launchers each." "Can you get a fix on a power source?" "No sir, not at this range." "Mr. Data, exactly how long until we reach the planet?" "One hour, eighteen minutes, sir." "Ensign, can you detect any vessels in orbit? Any stellar defensive arrays?" "Yes, sir. It appears there are twenty-five ships in a fixed orbit around the planet. The ships appear to be mid-range light attack cruisers. I don't read any other defenses." "These new sensors are amazing. In the Enterprise 'D' we would never have been able to get this much this far away," said Counselor Troi. "They've made a lot of enhancements. We could never have maintained this speed for this long on the old ship. Captain Picard emerged from the turbolift. "Report, number one." Riker filled Picard in on their status, and the defensive capabilities of Corellias Five. "Well, it appears Mr. Doran is planning to put up a fight. Let's hope we can change his mind. "Have there been any communications from the Lasco or the Xavier?" "They reported in about an hour ago. They're on yellow alert, and standing by." "Excellent. "I'll be in my ready room." ================================================== Mike Coelho 'There can be only one' cmike@ibm.net -+==========|---------------------- -------------------------------------------------- =========================================================================