Cat's Eye
By Morticia
Part Nine
Chakotay's first instinct was to punch the alien masquerading as Greg in the jaw. Only the knowledge that he couldn't strike the Grrchek without hurting Greg's body kept him seemingly passive.
His mind was racing though.
The Grrchek was finally showing its hand and for the sake of the ship it was imperative that Chakotay used this opportunity to find out what its true motives were. They had already ascertained that the Grrchek was an alien entity with a non-corporeal form. Yet, somehow it seemed to thrive on the thoughts and emotions of its hosts.
Kathryn had said that the Grrchek was virtually a prisoner of the Savernan. She said it was terrified of being splintered further with the addition of more hosts. Yet, its actions so far were contrary to that idea. Its desire to experience the sexual pleasure of the hosts, and in particular its attempt to manipulate Chakotay into increasing that sensation of pleasure by consenting to 'perform' with Tom, suggested that the Grrchek was far less a victim than Kathryn thought.
Chakotay allowed Greg to drag him into the bedroom until they were next to the still rumpled bed. Then he twisted in Greg's arms, until their chests were pressed together, and then nuzzled his mouth into the taller man's neck. He licked and nipped hungrily at Greg's jaw line, savoring the familiar salt taste of Greg's perspiration.
Greg threw his head back, closing his eyes and uttering a deep, guttural groan as Chakotay nibbled at the sensitive flesh of his neck.
"So," Chakotay whispered, his voice deliberately light and teasing, "you don't mind this being a farewell fuck?"
He ground his hips suggestively against Greg's prominent erection, hoping that the younger man wouldn't notice the fact that Chakotay's cock had softened significantly with his realisation that he was really being seduced by the Grrchek.
Of course he'd known that the symbiotic link between the hosts at the time of his Ponn Farr with Tuvok had affected all the hosts with a form of blood fever that could only be quenched with his own touch. Chakotay knew the crazy infatuation of the hosts wasn't real. What he hadn't before realised was that the emotions the hosts were feeling were actually being orchestrated by the symbionts rather than simply transmitted by them.
Greg Ayala groaned, deep in his throat, and rubbed himself desperately against Chakotay's body.
"We're friends, Chak. I just want you to be happy," he gasped, as Chakotay bit lightly at his jaw.
"Good," Chakotay purred, grasping Greg's shirt and savagely ripping it open. "I want to be happy."
Greg took a hissing breath at the relative chill of the room on his exposed chest. Chakotay dipped his head, to avoid the tell-tale alien gleam flaring in Greg's eyes, and licked suggestively at Greg's tits.
Greg groaned with pleasure, arching his back to thrust his chest into Chakotay's face. He gasped as Chakotay bit down on one nipple, teasing the tender nub between his teeth until it hardened with anticipation.
"Oh God, I want you," Greg purred, fumbling hungrily at Chakotay's waistband.
Chakotay, knowing his own barely aroused cock would alert the alien inside Greg to his deception, stopped Greg's assault by grabbing the younger man around the hips, picking him up and throwing him backwards onto the bed.
Greg was too heavy to land gracefully. The breath whooshed out of him and he flailed in momentary confusion on the mattress. Chakotay took the opportunity of his disorientation to help ease Greg's trousers down to mid thigh. Greg's erection bobbed hungrily up to greet him, its swollen glans glistening almost as brightly as Greg's cat-like eyes.
Chakotay scrambled onto the bed, still fully dressed, and straddled Greg's hips, pinning him to the bed with his muscular thighs. He reached out, caught Greg's wrists and pushed them down to his sides. Then, when he was satisfied that the younger man was trapped and helpless, he bowed his head to Greg's cock and licked delicately at its head.
Greg whimpered with need and tried to force his hips upwards from the mattress. It took all of Chakotay's strength and greater body weight to keep him trapped beneath him.
Chakotay's tongue pressed insistently into Greg's slit, tasting and savoring the younger man's excitement.
"Oh shit, Chak. You're driving me crazy," Greg moaned, his whole body shuddering in reaction to Chakotay's assault.
"Am I?" Chakotay asked, before moving his assault below Greg's cock. He swirled his tongue lightly over Greg's scrotum, feeling the testicles hardening under his touch. Then he burrowed under the heavy sac and nuzzled at the taut skin beneath.
Greg was writhing under him, trying to open his legs wider to allow Chakotay's exploration but frustrated by the unyielding strength of Chakotay's inner thighs. Greg sobbed with frustration.
"Fuck me," he begged. "Please, Captain. Don't tease me like this. It hurts too bad. I need you. Please. I'm begging you. Fuck me." His pleas ended in a wail of such agony that Chakotay understood two things. Firstly, that Greg's pain was genuine and, secondly, that in the most significant way, this wasn't truly Greg Ayala. Greg had more pride than this, more self-control than to literally beg anyone to make love to him.
Raising his head, Chakotay looked thoughtfully at Greg's flushed face. There was nothing human now in Greg's eyes. The pupils had dilated to a solid black that not only drowned his irises but his whole eye sockets. He would have seemed blind except for the occassional flash of golden fire that surged deep within their depths.
Chakotay released Greg's arms and sat back on his haunches.
"Let's up the ante," he murmured.
"What?" Greg gasped.
"I'm in the mood for something different," Chakotay announced thoughtfully.
Greg squirmed between his thighs, thrusting his cock up towards Chakotay's own groin in a beseeching gesture.
"Anything, just don't stop NOW," Greg begged.
"I know," Chakotay announced, snapping his fingers. "Let's play a game."
"A game? What kind of fucking game?"
"I tie you up and ravish you," Chakotay replied with a leering grin.
Greg's eyes darkened still further and he thrust his hands up towards the headboard.
"Oh god, Captain, I like your idea of games," he gasped.
Chakotay smirked, tore the remnants of Greg's shirt off his back and ripped it to form restraints. He fastened Greg's wrists firmly to either side of the head board, then moved down the bed, pulled Greg's pants off completely and then tied Greg's ankles to either side of the footboard.
He stepped back to admire the sight of Greg's body tied spread-eagled on the bed. Greg was licking his lips hungrily, his eyes flashing with the passionate alien fire.
Chakotay slowly peeled his own clothes off, relieved that his own cock had finally responded to the appeal of Greg's helpless body. He stroked his own cock lightly, watching Greg squirm hungrily, each touch of Chakotay's hand on his own cock eliciting a whimper of excitement from the younger man.
"Please," Greg whispered.
Chakotay climbed back on the bed, this time kneeling between Greg's open legs and leaning down to lick teasingly at Greg's panting mouth.
Greg's lips opened to invite him inside and Chakotay allowed his tongue to dip lightly against Greg's, then drew back to sit back on his haunches, removing all bodily contact from the younger man.
"Sorry, babe. I can't do this after all," he said sadly.
"Can't do? Fuck. You can't stop now, you bastard," Greg wailed.
Chakotay shrugged apologetically.
"I'm really sorry, Greg. It's not you. Not you personally. It's knowing the other hosts are watching us. I just can't do it."
"I told you," Greg gasped. "The symbiont is dormant at the moment. This is just you and me."
"So, your symbiont is dormant?"
"Yes," Greg assured him fervently, obviously unaware of the way the lie could literally be seen in his eyes.
"And so none of the other hosts will be able to sense this either?" Chakotay asked.
"No, I swear," Greg promised.
Chakotay pretended to consider and then gave a low laugh.
"Of course, you're right. I'd soon know if you lied to me because Tom would probably send me a poem about it."
Greg's eyes flared with alarm, his pupils slitting dangerously, and Chakotay saw the body beneath him stiffen with tension.
Chakotay held his breath and prayed as he waited to see whether the Grrchek had fallen into his trap. Greg forced a weak smile, the blazing fire of his eyes dimmed and the tenseness in his limbs softened.
"It's just us," he promised.
/I did it. I've broken the link between him and the other hosts/ Chakotay told himself, triumph coursing quietly through his veins.
He knew Greg's own symbiont was present and presumably had to be still directly linked to the Grrchek, but the sideways link to the other hosts had been temporarily severed.
He'd left the Grrchek no choice. If the other hosts experienced his sex with Greg, then the Grrchek's claim to lie dormant would be proven to be a lie. Yet in breaking the link, the Grrchek had hopefully betrayed itself anyway.
Chakotay had deliberately stoked Greg's excitement enough that the other hosts should have lost their connection at a point when they were as desperate for completion as Greg obviously was.
If the hosts now just calmly went about ship's business Chakotay would have achieved nothing, but if they went crazy with the breaking of the link at this point then it would prove they hadn't been dormant as 'Greg' had claimed.
~~~
Tom was lying on Kathryn's bed, his body crushed by Chakotay's bulk, his lips tingling with the pressure of the older man's firm, passionate kisses, his cock weeping deliriously as it was stroked by Chakotay's hot tongue.
Every sense in his body was attuned to his lover. His eyes gloried in the perfection of Chakotay's face, his nostrils flared with the sweet musky scent of Chakotay's body.
Then he jolted awake as the link terminated and his dream lover simply disappeared.
"Chakotay!" he howled, his fingers groping helplessly at the now empty space above him.
"Come back. Oh god, come back. Please…" his wail faded to a whimper of deprivation.
~~~
"P'Tak!" B'Elanna howled, back-handing Carey so that he sprawled against the induction relays.
"B'Elanna?" he asked, as he rubbed tentatively at his jaw.
"Where is he?" she screamed. "What have you done with Chakotay?"
~~~
Chakotay's hot tongue delved between Greg's lips and each groaning shudder of the body beneath him was making his own cock stiffen hungrily. It didn't seem to appreciate the fact that he was only waiting for his comm. badge to signal. Although Chakotay's mind knew exactly what it wanted out of this encounter, his body was starting to vote for a completely different outcome.
Maybe he'd been wrong, he told himself hopefully, as Greg shifted beneath him, grinding his cock against Chakotay's so that their pre-cum mingled. Chakotay moaned as his balls tightened in eager response.
It took him a moment to register the bright chirp of his comm. badge and when he leant over the edge of the bed to retrieve it from the floor and slapped it to accept the message, his action was as much frustration as relief.
"Commander Chakotay?"
"Yes, Tuvok?" Chakotay asked.
"There is a security problem, Commander. May I enquire whether there is a similar situation in your quarters?"
"Similar to what?" Chakotay asked, rubbing his thumb sadly over Greg's left nipple.
"From what I can ascertain, the hosts appear to be experiencing some 'interference' with their link to Mr. Ayala."
"Really?" Chakotay asked softly. "I'll see what I can do, Chakotay out."
For the second time Chakotay rocked back on his haunches and despite his proud erection, there was no expression on his face other than cold anger.
"Did you hear that, Greg? The other Grrchek symbionts have woken up, it seems. I wonder why your symbiont is still 'dormant'."
He saw the alien light flare in Greg's eyes once more and Chakotay smiled dangerously.
"I think it's time we cut the crap. The symbiont is never dormant, is it?"
Greg's face twisted with indecision.
"Don't lie to me," Chakotay growled dangerously.
"Okay," Greg blurted suddenly. "You're right, but I wasn't lying. Not really. I just wanted you to feel comfortable. It's really me, Captain. The symbiont's irrelevant. It's me who wants you and I know you want me. So let's just fuck now, huh?"
"I want to talk to the symbiont, Greg."
"What?"
"I want to talk directly to the Grrchek."
"You can't," Greg gasped. "The symbionts are just fragments, echoes of the Grrchek. It's not really here. It can't talk to you."
"I SAID cut the crap," Chakotay snarled, backhanding Greg across the face.
Greg licked delicately at his split lip, his eyes elongating into furious slits.
"Bastard," he hissed.
"I don't want to hurt you, Greg. I'm sorry, truly I am, but I need to talk to the Grrchek and since I know the symbiont inside you is linked directly to it, and that it can feel all your emotions and experience the pain or pleasure of your body, my only way to convince it is to touch you," Chakotay explained sadly.
"It knows you won't *really* hurt me," Greg replied, a sly unnatural smile creeping over his lips. "Besides, even if you kill me, it will just absorb the pain and carry on."
"I just want the truth," Chakotay said mildly, reaching down to pinch lightly at Greg's scrotum. A shiver of reaction coursed visibly through Greg's body.
"You see, Greg, I have no intention of killing you, or even hitting you again. I'm just going to torture you with pleasure."
"WHAT?"
"You're helpless in my bed, Greg. I can spend the next three months keeping you in a state of constant sexual frustration. What do you think, Greg? How do you think it will enjoy *that*? "
Greg's alien eyes flared with fear and he struggled uselessly against his restraints. Then, again it seemed that the symbiont spoke inside him because he calmed abruptly and the same sly expression flickered over his features.
"You're bluffing. Even if you were capable of doing that to me, what about yourself? It's obvious you're turned on, obvious you want to fuck me as much as I want to be fucked. Denying me is just denying yourself, and now Tuvok's blown the cobwebs off your cock I don't think it can take another abstention from fun and games."
Chakotay shrugged.
"What makes you think I'd deny myself? I could just tie one of those restraints around your cock and balls so tight that they'll rot and fall off. Then I can fuck you to my heart's content."
Greg's eyes flared with terror, then slowly faded back to a human appearance. Chakotay had to bite back a grin of relief as the real Greg looked at him for the first time in days.
"It's gone?"
"It's thinking," Greg whispered. "It believes you're serious. It doesn't know you, I guess."
Chakotay grimaced.
"It's okay, Captain. I know what you're trying to do."
"Can it hear us?"
"I don't think so. When it's in my head, I can't ever escape the knowledge that it's there although it doesn't always take control. Most of the time we blend together so it's hard to tell which one of us is actually doing the thinking."
"You know I'd never really have done it?"
Greg laughed.
"I'm possessed, Captain. Not stupid. Of course I know."
Chakotay blinked back tears of relief.
Greg's face twisted.
"It's coming back," he warned. The words were barely out of his mouth before the familiar black light blazed from his eyes once more.
"It wants *you*," Greg announced.
"Why?" Chakotay demanded. "Why me?"
"It's dying," Greg replied. "It thinks you can save it."
"What?"
Greg shrugged.
"Oh, nothing as dramatic as the Caretaker," he said bitterly. "It's not going to conveniently expire before our ship's repaired. It could live for millennia yet if it could escape the Savernan."
"I don't understand."
"The Savernan are killing it, Chakotay. You're its chance to escape them."
"How are they killing it?"
"They're eating it up from inside. They're greedy, ravenous, they drain its energy, steal its essence. If they don't leave the wall soon it'll be too tired to be able to expel them and then they'll just keep devouring it until it's dead."
"So why doesn't it just expel them now?"
"It would be alone," Greg explained. "It was alright before the Savernan landed. It'd been alone so long that it had forgotten how it felt to not be alone. Now it can't bear returning to that loneliness. It says *you* of all people should understand that feeling, Chakotay."
Chakotay shivered.
"It's not native to this planetary system. It was drawn through the wormhole just like we were and it didn't have the energy to escape immediately. It needed to rest, gather its strength. That's when it made a mistake. It sensed the lithium on the third planet, decided to use it to restore itself. It was greedy, gorged itself. It'd been travelling for so long that it just wanted to rest and feed and sleep."
"It sleeps?" Chakotay queried hesitantly.
Greg shrugged.
"Dream is perhaps a better word. It's not really talking to me, it's showing me pictures. It's difficult to describe its nature in terms we understand, Chakotay. It doesn't have a body that requires sleep, but it has a consciousness that needs rest."
"So what happened?"
"While it rested there was an earthquake and it fell through a fissure into the place where we found it. It was first trapped there about four thousand years ago."
"It's made of energy though. Why couldn't it simply rise back out again?"
Greg's face went blank as he apparently asked the question.
"The whole planet's crust is filled with lithium and the place it fell into is a form of magnetic cradle where dozens of lode lines interconnect. It creates an energy matrix. A trap. Any attempt it makes to escape causes it to splinter along the lode lines. It dissipates into the lithium and eventually the splintered parts travel back into the 'wall'."
"It expected to be rescued. It knew its own people would search for it so it sent fragments of itself up to the surface to try to contact them but no one ever came and eventually it gave up even hoping for rescue.
"It went a little insane I think. By the time the Savernan arrived, it was barely sentient. It hardly noticed their presence, considered them no more than insignificant little bipedal biological creatures that infested the surface of its world like a virus. It had lost even the capacity to be interested in their potential as a possible novelty in the endless monotony of its existence."
"So what happened?" Chakotay asked.
"There was an earth tremor that caused another fissure to open in the planet's crust. One of the Savernan literally fell down the crack, became trapped within its matrix and that's how the 'wall' began.
"Try to imagine how it felt, after millennia of loneliness, to experience another consciousness. Even one so small and insignificant. The Savernan's panic fired through its synapses, waking it up, reminding it of how it felt to be alive. Yet it found it strange and intriguing to experience the thoughts and needs of a creature trapped within a biological body.
"It discovered that it could enter inside the Savernan's body, send just a tiny portion of its awareness into his brain and see through his eyes. It was a taste of freedom and it was seduced by the possibility of escaping its prison even in such a limited form.
"It agreed to help him in return for sharing his thoughts and feelings. It was easy to provide the energy to repair their vessel but the whole concept of a Starship eluded the Grrchek. It needed *knowledge* to be able to do the repair. So more of the Savernan joined with the Grrchek. It was like a drug, heady and addictive. They were all so different from each other, different thought patterns, so many different experiences. Sight, sound, touch, taste, they were all things that the Grrchek had never dreamed possible.
"There were emotions, love, hate, fear, that burned it with their brightness. It says thoughts are energy, Chakotay. They fed it and it was starving so it feasted on them."
"So, what went wrong?"
"They wouldn't leave it. They stayed, a few dozen at first, then hundreds, now more than a thousand. They suck its lifeforce like leeches. It's splintered into so many pieces that it can hardly think coherently anymore. If any more join the wall, the Grrchek will cease to exist. It will die."
"Why doesn't it simply drive them out of the wall then, while it still can?"
Greg's blank expression twisted into an expression of horror. It seemed to Chakotay as though he was fighting an internal battle. When he finally looked Chakotay in the eye, there was enough evidence of Greg's obvious sorrow at the message he was delivering to make the Grrchek's words from his mouth sound doubly terrifying.
"It will, Chakotay. When you join it, it says there will be no need for the rest of us. There will be just you and the Grrchek."
"The Grrchek and I?" Chakotay asked in horror. He'd been too engrossed in the Grrchek's tale, too sympathetic to its tragic story, to expect the Grrchek to pose a personal danger to him.
"And Tom of course," Greg added, sadly.
Chakotay stiffened warily. "Tom?"
"It says just you and Tom together, forever. You'll never age and you'll never die. You'll be happy, Tom will be happy and the Grrchek will be happy."
"Why?"
"Because it likes the way you make it feel. You're enough, Chakotay. You're all the company it needs. It says that if it has you, it can finally banish the Savernan from the wall."
"Why doesn't it just banish them anyway?"
"Because it'd be lonely. It says I don't have to explain that to *you*. It says you understand it. You know what it's like to be so lonely that you'd rather suffer pain than be alone again."
"It's wrong," Chakotay snapped.
"It was there, Chakotay. It *felt* you when you were with the Tuvok. It *knows* you understand."
"And if I agree to stay with it, what happens to the crew?"
"We all go home. It repairs the ship and everyone goes home. Really goes home. It can improve the ship past our comprehension, Chakotay. It can send Voyager home."
"How do I know it's telling the truth?"
"There can't be lies in the wall, Chakotay. When you join with it, you'll know whether it's done what it promised."
"No Tom."
"What?"
"Tell it that if I stay, I stay alone. Tom Paris goes home. You all go home."
"But you want Tom Paris and it needs you to be happy."
"No," Chakotay corrected. "For all its abilities it doesn't understand people at all, does it?"
"Explain."
"I *love* Tom Paris. I want *him* to be happy. What I want for myself has nothing to do with it. So, whatever happens to me, Tom goes home."
"This is unacceptable. It needs your passion, your emotions, not your body. Without a companion you can't give it what it needs."
"Tell it to take it or leave it," Chakotay snarled.
"The problem is Tom, isn't it?" Greg said thoughtfully. "I'll stay with you in the wall instead."
"NO," Chakotay roared.
"It says you may choose any companion you prefer, then. You have three months to choose your partner and then you must decide who will stay with you in the wall."
"And if I refuse to join it?"
"Then none of us leave. We all stay on the planet and it will take Tom into the wall itself."
"Why Tom?"
"Because it believes that would be an appropriate reaction to your rejection" Greg replied. "It's learned a lot of emotions, Chakotay. It is more than capable of acting purely out of spite."
"You said accepting any more symbionts would kill it," Chakotay argued.
Greg shrugged.
"They will. Then, without the Grrchek's energy, the wall will become no more than a tomb. It does not think you will choose that fate for Tom Paris. It now understands that you were bluffing when you threatened me earlier. It has read the truth in my own mind. So, it wishes me to assure you that it is definitely *not* bluffing.
"Either you, and one other person, agree to join the Grrchek or none of us go home and Tom Paris dies."