Star Trek: The voyages of the USS Apollo

Chapter Forty Four: The Fall of the Supernova

The Vulcans were a proud and intelligent people indeed. After all, they had a lot to be proud about. There was the great stability and peace that had reigned supreme ever since the Time of Awakening. There was also the tremendous strives in technology that had taken place ever since then and the philosophy of logic that every Vulcan followed to this day. But what Vulcans were also famous for was their ability to mind meld. The ability to read the minds of others by pressing their fingers against their face and uttering the words "My mind to your mind. Your thoughts to my thoughts". Throughout the Federation's history many Vulcans had used this ability for the greater good of the galaxy. Spock had used the mind meld many times and saved the crew of the Enterprise many times as a result. Rear Admiral Tuvok had once used the mind meld to save Seven of Nine from a horrible death that would've been caused by a Borg vinculum and now T'Vrell was going to use it to find the deactivation codes for the shields around the C.I.S.S Supernova's star.

As T'Vrell walked in front of Madred, her nose was attacked by a horrible smell that she instantly and logically presumed came from Madred himself. When she was a child, she once smelt some fruit before eating it and realised that part of it had turned mouldy. Madred smelled the same. T'Vrell was physically repulsed and disgusted by what Madred had done to himself. But knew that she had to do what she was about to do. T'Vrell then placed her fingers across Madred's head and wondered how his skin had not fallen apart despite being so rotten and droopily hanging over his skeleton. Madred knew that this could not happen and out of desperation he tried to build a mental barrier around his mind. He imagined a brick wall being built around his memories, in the hopes that T'Vrell would not find the memories she was looking for. But then T'Vrell uttered the iconic words "My mind to your mind. Your thoughts to my thoughts." and Madred knew he was done for.

T'Vrell saw Madred's entire five thousand year life as she melded with him. She saw his early childhood and the dreams at the time in which he wanted to join the military. She saw his years of training in the military and saw the service he did in the name of the Cardassian Union. She also saw Madred forming the True Way so that he could gain power for himself and saw the various atrocities he committed during his time as leader of the True Way. The bombing at a monastery on Qo'noS that killed twenty eight people. The bombardment of a Federation colony in the Hasparga system that killed half of the one million peaceful colonists living there. The assassination of Prime Minister Brenna Odell of Mariposa during the unveiling of a monument dedicated to the arrival of the Bringloidi on Mariposa forty years prior. But these were nothing compared to Madred's greater atrocities, such as the genocide of tens of millions of Veskanans on the Great Ark and the bombardment of planets that refused to surrender advanced weapons technology. There was also the day that Madred was placed on the throne, a fateful four thousand, nine hundred and fifty years prior, in which he surrendered what little mortality he had left in exchange for immortality. A cursed immortality at that. But T'Vrell also saw what she was hoping for: the deactivation codes for the shield around the star that powered the Supernova.

T'Vrell then finished the mind meld and quickly took a few steps away from Madred's corpse of a body. T'Vrell then looked over at Ethan and said "Rear Admiral. I now have the code for the shield. Shall we input the code?" Ethan had a bright smile on his face as he said "Of course. After all, the universe is not going to save-" Ethan suddenly stopped as the lights suddenly turned black around him and a computerised voice said "Black alert. Black alert. Black alert. Black alert. Black alert." over and over again. Ethan wasn't sure what this meant and knew that something very strange was going on. He looked over at one of the senior Cardassian Imperial officers and asked "What is black alert supposed to be?" The officer looked to be in a state of shock as he stuttered "The....the...the Emperor...." Needing answers, Ethan asked "Well go on then. Say it." The Cardassian officer finally said "The Emperor....has...died." Ethan was sure that he had misheard the officer. T'Vrell was too. But then both of them looked over at Madred and saw his body had fallen loose over the throne. He was not breathing and was completely unresponsive. The tubes had stopped pumping in the nutrients that he needed to survive and the throne was also blaring black alert. But then there was the most gruesome part of it all. Blood was pouring out of his nose, mouth, ears and eyes and forming a small puddle on the floor below him. It was then that the boarding party and the entire crew realised that the officer was right and understood what black alert meant: Emperor Madred, the longest living ruler of a nation in recorded history, was no more.