MAIN DISCLAIMER: See Prologue

SPECIAL AUTHOR'S NOTES: Since we get to know a little more about the Intendant from here on out, I found myself in the position where I also wanted to call her something else besides 'the Intendant'. However, I also wanted to make it easy to see difference between the Intendant and Voyager's B'Elanna Torres. Because of this I decided to make use of the fact that the name B'Elanna Torres consists of two usable parts. So from here on, I will use the name 'Torres' for the Intendant, and the name 'B'Elanna' for Voyager's B'Elanna Torres.

Alternate Choices
By H.W.

Chapter 3

The following day Intendant Torres woke to the sight of her new slave standing against one of the walls looking off into nothing. She took a moment to take the blonde in, "I don't like what I see."

Blue eyes went to the Intendant immediately and Seven came closer until she was standing beside the bed, "Mistress?"

Torres moved back a little until she was sitting against the headboard, "You are still naked, yet you're not here in the bed. You're just standing around. I don't like it at all."

Seven didn't know what to do. Was the Intendant telling her to get into the bed, or was she telling her to get dressed? Her unease must have shown because Torres continued to explain.

"I want you to do what ever I tell you to do, but I don't what to have to tell you every move you should make. I want you to act on your own, to a certain degree. As soon as I tell you to do something, you do it. For instance, I want to tell you go get something for me, but I don't want to have to tell you to get up, walk to a certain place, get what I want, and come back. You did it the right way last night. I told you what I wanted and you did it. But I didn't have to tell you how to move your tongue or when to use your fingers. I want to give you an order and it is up to you how you fulfill it. You understand?"

"I believe I do. But I fail to see how this affects my current state of dress."

"Why are you naked?"

"Because I do not know if you need my services again."

"I went to sleep last night, that was a good sign that I wouldn't need your 'services' again for at least a couple of hours. It's ok to get dressed then. If I had needed your 'services' again this morning, I would simply have told you to strip. Got it?"

"I believe I do."

"Don't believe, know."

"Yes, Mistress. Should I dress my self now?"

"Yes."

While Seven went to the adjacent bathing room to retrieve her bio-suit, Torres got up herself and looked around for her uniform. Not seeing it, she realized where she left it and shouted after her slave; "Get my uniform while you're in there."

Torres was standing beside the bedroom replicator when Seven came back, "Come over here." The Intendant waited until the now fully dressed blonde was standing beside her before she continued, "I don't believe in having a slave dress me, it takes longer than when I do it my self, and my clothes fit better if I my self put them in the right place. However, from now on it is your task to make sure that every morning there is a clean uniform waiting for me. You take my old uniform, take these decorations off, put it in the replicator and choose clothes cycle one, on this replicator," While Torres was explaining this, she was also showing it by replicating her uniform, "I saw replicators on that ship of yours so don't tell me you don't know how to use them."

"Yes, Mistress."

"I worked very hard for those decorations, the Chancellor didn't make me Intendant on the mere fact that I'm adopted family. I earned that title. These are the original decorations, if you forget to take even one of them off and I have to replicate it, you will de severely punished."

"Yes, Mistress, I will not forget."

Torres started getting dressed and realized that the blonde was wearing the same clothes as the day before, "I will also put some patterns in the replicator for clothes for you. I expect you to change whenever I do. You will always do what I do. If I bath, you bath, if I eat, you eat. If I change clothes, you change clothes. I also expect you to always be in the same room as me, unless I tell you otherwise. So from now on I'm not going to tell you anymore that you should follow me. If I move from one room to another, you will follow."

"Yes Mistress," Seven realized that she had already stopped seeing B'Elanna in the woman in front of her; she had become Intendant Torres. For a moment Seven wondered if she shouldn't be resisting the woman more. But she decided that this would not be the right move. The best course of action was to wait until she got the chance to help the Voyager crew in some way. She would not help the crew by testing the Intendant's patience, "Mistress?"

Torres tugged her uniform straight before looking over to the blonde, "Yes?"

"This suit is called a bio-suit. There is technology incorporated in it that interacts with my implants. Wearing these suits allows me to go seventy-two hours without regenerating. If I were to wear normal clothes I would have to regenerate more often, but more importantly, my implants would need twice as much maintenance."

They left the bedroom and headed to a small room attached to it. Seven noticed that the Intendant's quarters were basically divided into two parts. The main section that she had seen the day before when entering the quarters, and a more private part that, as far as she had seen till now, consisted out of a bathing room, a sleeping room, and the room they were in now. It was a combination of a cooking area and a resting area. For a moment it looked as if the Intendant was going to sit on one of the couches, but then she changed her mind and sat down at the table at the side of the cooking area.

"Who made the clothes you are wearing now?"

"The Doctor designed this and two other suits."

"The Doctor? That bald hologram?" Torres asked surprised. "Get me program thirty-nine from the replicator and get yourself the same. You will always eat the same as I. And when we are alone you are allowed to sit when you are not doing something I ordered you to do. But if I have a guest, or if someone enters and it seems that they are staying longer than just a moment, I expect you to get up quietly and go stand out of direct sight against a wall," Torres waited until Seven was sitting at the table before continuing, "I will give the hologram some clothing patterns for the clothes I would like you to wear; he can incorporate the needed technology into them."

They ate in silence until the Intendant was finished eating. She looked over to Seven's plate and saw still half of the food on the plate, "Stop eating. Whenever I am done, you are done. I don't care if you still have something left or not."

"Yes, Mistress."

Seven put her fork down just a little too quick for the Intendant liking, "Once I'm done you clean everything up. Don't wait for me to leave the table or something. When I get up to go somewhere, I expect you to be ready to go too. And that goes for everything."

"Yes, Mistress," Seven got up and put the plates and utensils back in the replicator. Once done she went back to the table and sat down, but not before looking at Torres to see if it was alright to do so.

The Intendant nodded her head slightly to indicate that Seven had acted correctly. "Stop saying 'yes Mistress' all the time," Torres continued the conversation from a moment before, "If you keep that up I will be tired of hearing it by tomorrow. Just keep it for when I ask you something. If I tell you something, lets just assume that you got it. However, if you don't understand something; tell me. It would be a shame if I had to punish you simply because you misunderstood something."

Torres got up and moved to one of the couches. She noticed that the blonde didn't move with her and was about to say something about it when she realized that a little earlier she had told the slave that she could be seated, she had not told her that she had to be as close as possible. The Intendant thought for a moment about adding that little part to the rule but then decided against doing so, 'The fewer rules I make for her, the fewer rules I have to keep track of.' She closed her eyes for a moment, mentally going over the task that lay ahead.

She had to meet the Klingon Chancellor in two days, but for the rest there were only unimportant things, things that could easily be postponed until after her visit with the Chancellor. So if she wanted, she had two free days on her hand. Time to play with her new toy, and the ship that toy had arrived on. She opened her eyes and found the slave looking at her, "What?"

Having been caught staring, Seven quickly looked away, "Forgive me, Mistress. I am not used to having noting to do. While I was on Voyager, I was either working or regenerating."

"Get used to it." Torres knew the golden rule, keep slaves uneducated, and they are less likely to cause trouble. That was why slaves were normally only trained in one thing. Of that one thing they would know everything there is to know about it, but have them do something else and they would be hopelessly lost. Put a farmer slave on a field and he would get the highest yield out of it, but put that same slave in a house to clean and he wouldn't even be able to clean the windows. The only exceptions to this were the engineering slaves. Since they had to work on so many different things, they were trained in a broader spectrum; everything having to do with engineering.

So it only stood to reason that one should have a body slave learn nothing except what pleased her master. But the thing was that this blonde slave had not grown up as a slave. She already knew a lot. She was already smart. There was no changing this and it could be a mistake to disregard it. It would be a lot better to use it, "On second thought, I will give you something to read later on. It is the history of this universe. The history of the Klingons from the moment we started to walk upright, and also the history how three hundred years ago the Sol Empire started to form, and how we eventually defeated them.

I want you to study all of this in great detail. When I ask you a question about history, I expect to hear the right answer. If you are wrong, you will be punished. Why did you eat so little? Didn't you like the food?" The last two questions had come out without Torres really realizing it. Why would she care if a slave liked her food? The blonde should be happy to get food in the first place.

"Klingon food is normally too... strong for me," Seven started since that was the reason why she ate so slow, but not why she ate so little, "But I normally do not eat much because regenerating takes care of a lot of my bodily functions, including imbuing my body with energy."

The Intendant seemed to understand this and slightly nodded her head, "Alright, I can accept you not eating much for that reason. But you will eat what I eat, and you also will eat when I eat. Now, get over here and sit down."

Seven went to the second couch, the one across from the Intendant and sat down on the place the Intendant had pointed to.

Torres looked Seven in the eyes for a long moment and finally asked, "Why are you so submissive?"

"Mistress?"

"Yesterday you overpowered me, no small feat by any means, and you even threatened to kill me," Torres explained, "And then suddenly last night you turn around as if someone threw a switch and now your all 'yes Mistress.' Why? I expected more of a challenge from you. Don't tell me that I have broken you, I did nothing that would even come close to breaking someone like you."

Seven thought for a moment about how to answer that. There were several answers she could give, all of them true. Finally she decided on an answer, keeping in mind that the Intendant had thought she would be a challenge, "No, you have not broken me. However, you have my fellow crewmembers under your control, you are the only one that can save our B'Elanna Torres, and you have the means to have Voyager repaired. You are more likely to help on these matters if you are pleased. Annoying you, at this point would be... unwise."

"Hmm, I see your point," Torres agreed. "So you will double-cross me when you get the chance?"

"My priority lays with Voyager and her crew," Seven started slowly, she knew she was treading a fine line between telling the Intendant too much, and not telling her enough. If she told the Intendant too much, then it would be too easy for the Intendant to counteract what ever plan Seven would come up with in the future, but is she didn't tell the Intendant enough, then the Klingon would think that Seven was already planning something and be suspicious of every thing the blonde would do. "In this universe, at this point in time, you are actually the best hope for them. The Klingons are the most powerful race here. You as Klingon Intendant are one of the most powerful Klingons here. There is no reason to double-cross you. I would always get less than I have now."

"At some point I have to decide what I'm going to do with the rest of your crew. I won't be able to hold them over your head as leverage forever. What is there to keep me from just simply killing them all?" The Intendant had smiled while asking that, but it certainly hadn't been a nice smile.

"Their safety is the one thing you have over me. If they were dead, there would be nothing to stop me from killing you."

Torres laughed when she heard the slave's answer. She liked the blonde's honesty. Oh, she knew that the slave was choosing her words very precisely, and that there were things she was keeping for herself. But still, maybe having a smart slave wasn't that bad after all, "You really think that you would be able to kill me? There are some very nice cells I could put you in. You would never get close to me."

"I would escape, and I would reach you."

Though she didn't show it, Torres was impressed with the confidence she had heard in the blonde's statement. "Well," She said still amused, "Let's hope we never have to find out. It would be a shame to lose you. I was very impressed with your services last night. Which reminds me, what changed last night? In the duration of one minute, you went from being a huge disappointment to giving me the best lay I ever had, doing things to me that even I didn't know I could do or would like."

"You just said yourself that you have not broken me. I think that the day will come where I tell you what happened last night. But for now, I will not tell you."

Suddenly Torres was up from the couch and had a hand at Seven's throat, "You will answer me right now!"

For a few minutes nothing happened, Torres was depriving Seven of air to breathe, while Seven just kept sitting there, looking up at the Intendant. Finally the Klingon applied some more force, and then let go with a growl, "I should kill you right now! I can't believe I put up with this shit!" Torres started pacing back and forth in the room, thinking about how to handle the situation.

Seven was about to say something, but realized that she should not be sitting on a couch with her master pacing around. She got up and moved to block the Intendant's way. Before Torres could say or do anything, Seven sank to a kneeling position on the floor and lowered her eyes, "Mistress, I could have told you a lie. I did not. Please, Mistress, if you allow me not to answer on some questions. I will swear to you that I will never deceive you, and at some point, when I am ready, I will remind you of your question and answer it."

Torres grabbed some of Seven's hair and forced the blonde's head up until she was looking at the Intendant, "I can't believe that a slave is giving me terms," Then she pushed Seven's head away and went back to sit on the couch. Once seated, she pointed to the floor in front of her, "Get over here," The Intendant waited until Seven was kneeling in front of her before leaning back, "And I also can't believe that I'm actually inclined to listen. But if I really want to suggest my plans to the Coalition Counsel this might be a good training."

"Mistress?"

"Never mind, maybe at some point when 'I'm' ready I will tell 'you' what I'm talking about," Torres let the slave's words go through her mind again, and realized something, "You said that you wouldn't deceive me. But that means that if you say things in just the right way that you can still lie to me."

"Yes Mistress, but this is only because certain questions could be asked in such a way that my saying that I will not answer, would be an answer in and of itself. I want to prevent this from happening."

"Very well, slave. I accept your deal. But, pull anything like you just did in front of my men, and I have to kill you just to retain my authority."

"I know this, Mistress. And I will not."

Torres was about to tell the slave to go sit on the couch again when she decided that she kinda liked having the slave sit in front of her like that. She opened her legs and motioned the slave closer until she was kneeling between the Intendant's legs. Seeing the look in the slave's eyes she had to laugh, "Don't worry slave, you don't have to service me right now. But you are my pet, and I'm in the mood to pet you. Let your hair down."

Seven did as she was told and freed her hair. As soon as she had, Torres grabbed the slave's chin and forced her head up with a surprisingly soft touch.

"This looks better on you; from now on you leave your hair like this." The Intendant let go of Seven's chin and started to move her fingers through the blonde hair, "Mmm, nice. Klingons don't have soft hair like this. You are one very fine slave."

Seven didn't really know what she should do. What the Intendant was doing to her felt nice; she liked the feeling of fingers running through her hair. But it also seemed strange to be kneeling in front of someone and be looking at the cloth-covered place she visited so thoroughly the night before. Finally she decided to just close her eyes and enjoy. Only a minute later her head was leaning against the Intendant's thigh, eyes closed, while enjoying the feeling of the Intendant's fingers caressing her scalp. But then her thoughts started to roam and she remembered something very important, "Mistress?"

"Yes?"

"Forgive me for bringing this up, but the state of affairs considering Voyager's B'Elanna Torres health deteriorates with every passing day. Have you considered helping her?"

Torres' fingers stopped for a moment but almost immediately continued, "Actually it's good that you've reminded me of that. I was about to explain the reward and punishment system I have thought up for you. But first answer me this, why are you so concerned about her? Are you both lovers?"

"The relationship between us is, complicated. But no, we are not lovers. I told you last night that I have never been with anyone."

Torres took hold of Seven's chin one again and lifted it, "But you want her to be your lover?"

"I want her to be my friend," Seven corrected, "B'Elanna Torres is the chief Engineer onboard Voyager. She had been maintaining Voyager for four years when I came onboard. Even though she did an excellent job of maintaining Voyager, I had several suggestions on how to enhance the ship. The captain ordered some of those suggestions implemented and the Lieutenant felt threatened by me because of it. I assume she feared that the captain would soon make me Chief of Engineering.

I on the other hand did not understand why the Lieutenant was being so difficult, it was highly inefficient. Soon a hostility started to form between us that has lasted for several years. But the last half year this slowly changed to a mutual respect for another, and the last couple of weeks we were moving in the direction of being friends. I think we already are friends in some way, just that neither of us has actually said the word."

"Very interesting," Torres said, and Seven could hear that the Intendant actually meant it, "But that still doesn't answer my question. You want her to be your lover?"

"I think that B'Elanna and I could become very close friends, but not partners. There is something I want from a partner that I know B'Elanna would never do. No, I do not want her to be my lover."

"What do you.." Torres stopped talking when Seven raised her head and looked the Intendant in the eyes.

"Please, Mistress. Do not ask me what it is that I want. Not yet," Seven lowered her eyes again, but straightened up a little, fully expecting the Intendant to explode again.

But instead of exploding, the Intendant softly put Seven's head back against her thigh and started to run her fingers through the blonde hair again, "You are making it very hard for me not to beat some sense into you, slave. But I have a feeling that you have a very high tolerance for physical pain." Torres moved her hand until she was caressing Seven's cheek, "Besides, I like your flawless skin in tact. So here is what I will do. I'm a firm believer of that if you punish slaves, you should also reward them from time to time. And here is my reward and punishment system for you. Look at me."

The Intendant waited until those azure colored eyes found hers, "The crew that you were a part of consisted out of 139 people. From now on, each of their lives represents one points. So that means that you have 139 points to work with. You will start with zero point. Every time you do something that I think should be rewarded you get an amount of points I deem a fair reward. That could be one point, but that could also twenty points. As soon as you have more than 139 points, the others live. They are still my slaves, but I won't order them killed and will see at that point what I will do with them. But what ever it is, it won't be work that still gets them killed. So 140 points or more buys the lives of your friends. Understand?"

"Yes Mistress," Seven confirmed, not breaking the eye contact.

"Good. That is the reward part, now comes the punishment part. Whenever you do something that I think you should be punished for, you lose points. This also can very from one point till twenty at one time. And from now on, whenever you don't tell me something, like you have already done twice now, you will loose one point for it; having zero points is the bottom line. If you lose even one more point after you have nothing left, you pay with the life of your friends. They will all be killed at that point. I won't tell you all the time how many points you have, make, or lose; I keep track of that in my head. But I do promise you that I will be fair and keep an honest score. Understand?"

Yes, Mistress."

Torres let her hand drop to Seven's shoulder and patted it softly, "I want a drink. From now on, if I don't specify what I want, then I want you to get me drink pattern one. And again, if I drink something, you drink too. You will have the same as me. Get my drink, but keep listening."

The Intendant waited until the slave had reached the replicator before she continued, "This reward and punishment system starts from now on. But there is one thing we have to deal with first. I'll gladly admit that you gave me the best lay of my life last night," Torres took the drink Seven handed her and was glad to see that the slave went to sit between her legs again, not as close as she had been, but still close enough that the Intendant had to open her legs to give the slave some room, "I hope that you keep being so good by the way... which reminds me, why is it that someone who has never been with anyone, is so good in giving pleasure?"

Seven took a sip from the drink, expecting it to be some strong Klingon beverage, and was surprised to find that it was the beverage that was known on Voyager as prune-juice, "At some point during my stay on Voyager, I did some research into the mating rituals of several people on the ship. I noticed that each species had different rituals, and this also made me curious as to whether there were also differences in actual copulation techniques between species. So I researched everything I could find on the subject, including what pleasured the different species. Since B'Elanna Torres was one of the people I studied, I also researched all I could find in the database about Klingons."

"Ah, remind me to thank my counterpart in making you curious enough to research this. Anyway, as I was saying, because of last night, I will reward you by having the best Klingon doctors look at my counterpart. And as long as it doesn't harm me, I will allow them to clone from me whatever is needed to heal her. However, she will still be one of those 139 people."

"Thank you, Mistress."

"Mmhmm, don't thank me too quickly. Remember, you are at zero points right now. So that means that as soon as you doe something wrong now; or even don't answer one of my questions all the slaves will be killed. Doesn't sound really fair now, does it?"

"No, it does not."

"Well, that is one of the differences between being a master and being a slave. As master I CAN do what ever I want. As slave you HAVE to do what ever I want. But, you are in luck, if you only have zero points than the game is over too quick. So I give you the opportunity to earn twenty points right now by promising something."

"Mistress?" Seven took another sip from her drink, making sure that she kept the same level as Torres did. She suspected that one of, if not THE, reason why the Intendant told her to drink and eat when she did, was because the Intendant didn't like eating alone. For Seven, the best way to be sure that she was eating when the Intendant was and not already finished when the Intendant was only half way was by keeping the same pace as Torres.

"All over coalition space, the penalty for slaves trying to escape is death. Only if they actually succeed in escaping and are captured again is it up to the master to decide their punishment and might it be possible for the slaves to continue living. Now, I know that you can't escape, but that doesn't mean that you can't try.

"Now that I have taken a body slave, it would be a shame to lose you anytime soon. So, you can start with zero points and hope that you make some points soon, or you can earn 20 points right now by promising me on what ever is important to you that you will never try to escape. But think before you say yes. Since this is a starting amount of points, there is a special condition. If you say yes, and you still try to escape at some point, then all the slaves will immediately be killed, including you."

Seven took a moment to think that through. She was sure that she would make those 140 points, but she also knew that first she would do some things that would cost her points. Having a twenty point buffer was certainly not something she could refuse. But having that threat loom over her was also not very tempting. Even if she didn't try to escape, at some point some of her actions could be seen as such. Finally she chose her words very precise, "Very well, I will promise that I will never try to escape."

Torres lifted the head of her slave once more. By now she knew that the blonde could be very exact in the words she spoke, "And if someone takes you along against your will, against this promise, you will try to get back to me for as long as it takes you to get back."

Seven sifted through the words once again, thinking of how she should answer that one. Finally she decided that in this case less was more, "Yes, I promise."

"Hmm, I got the feeling that you are planning something. But very well, you just earned yourself twenty points."