Star Trek: The voyages of the USS Apollo

Chapter Forty Three: The Emperor

The Cardassian Empire's name was not given arbitrarily. Like all other nations with the word "Empire" in their name, they were a feudal monarchy where the Emperor served as head of state and commander in chief of the military. But there was more to it than just that. The Emperor also had absolute power over everything in the Empire. If a criminal was sentenced to a month in prison for stealing food, the Emperor could declare them to instead serve twenty years in prison with the stroke of a pen. If a poor person who earned barely enough to feed his family suddenly won millions in the lottery, the Emperor could clap his hands and a loyal advisor would be given those millions. If a person looked at the Emperor with even the slightest piece of doubt during a speech, then the Emperor could just snap his fingers and that person would be executed by the nearest soldier in front of everyone there. Effectively the Emperor had absolute power and now practiced that power from the Cardassian Imperial Star Ship Supernova. While the crew of the U.S.S Apollo and the rest of those serving in the Gamma Quadrant Fleet had known that the Emperor was likely to be a cruel and heartless individual, they had no idea who it would be. Now they knew and to their shock, denial and horror it was Emperor Madred the First.

Sitting on the Great Cardassian Throne was Emperor Madred. Whose life had somehow been extended far beyond the five thousand years it had been since he arrived in the Gamma Quadrant. Coming out of the throne and penetrating deep into his rotting half-dead corpse of a body were dozens of tubes and wires that were pumping in proteins, nutrients, carbohydrates and of course blood. Everything the oldest Cardassian alive needed to see his empire last forever. His skin hung droop over his skeleton and his eyes were a bulging and fear inducing grey. Attached to his face, covering his mouth and nose, was a breathing apparatus with two long tubes connected from them to the throne itself and oxygen was being pumped into him to keep him alive. Also sticking out of his throat, with a green light on it for speaking, was a voice box that would allow him to speak. Effective since his old one had long since rotted away due to his highly advanced age. Finally, on the top of his head was a crown, though it was more of a helmet. The crown was a dome shaped hat with wires from the throne connecting to it and feeding chemicals and electricity into his brain to keep him alive. All of this allowed Emperor Madred to live for over five thousand years, making him an immortal. But it was a cursed immortality. He could no longer move and he could never leave the throne without dying a horrible death. The tubes and wires had been inside of him for so long that he had almost forgotten the feeling of not having them inside of him. Although he believed that this was the immortality he had sought for millennia, it was a cursed one that had eroded him into a rotting skeleton that was far past his natural limit. That was far past the very thing that made him mortal and it had made him a monstrosity of a man. It had made him the Cardassian Emperor.

While the boarding parties looked at the Emperor with shock and appalment, the Cardassian Bridge Crew looked at him jovially and felt privileged to meet the man that they had been brainwashed into worshipping from birth. One of the Acadians in the command centre, had just been able to stop himself from vomiting at the shock of this all before saying "That is the Emperor!? What in the name of the sky god Eris has happened to him!?" What happened next made the entire boarding party freeze in both fear and shock. It made them feel cold shivers up their spines that felt like the ghosts of their ancestors coming to warn them of an impending doom. The Emperor spoke.

Through the artificial voice box that was sticking out of his throat like a bone in an open wound, the Emperor said "If you wish to learn then just ask." But his voice was distorted and sounded like multiple voices. It sounded like at least ten men talking all at once. It also sounded slightly computerised and had a sounded very hoarse as he spoke. It's tone was also unforgettable. Low and rough, like sandpaper across a person's face. The Emperor was looking right at Ethan as he said again in his artificial voice, this time extremely angry "I remember you. Five thousand years ago for me, yet just three years ago for you, your ship was the very last Federation ship I witnessed before coming here to resurrect the True Way of the Cardassian people and now you are here, destroying my perfect empire!" Ethan would've pointed out the flaws of the Cardassian Empire. He would've explained how it was merely his twisted vision of society and a remnant of a dying way of life that the Cardassian people had willingly rejected and now saw as disgusting and repugnant. But instead he asked with a horrified look on his face "How in the name of Zeferam Cochrane are you still alive?" Madred then let out a horrifying laugh through his voice box and said "In the Human year twenty four o seven we discovered the Iconian Wormhole Device inside of an ancient temple on a barren and lifeless planet. Inside we also found the Throne. Which has sustained me for five thousand years by pumping the processed remains of loyal citizens of New Cardassia into me and will sustain my heir to the throne for another five thousand years following my death!"