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Kes tried to screen out the voices in her head.

The blinding, agonizing pain made that rather difficult.

Sunlight shone through a slit in the top of the door to the room. Room, hah! In truth it was a closet, and not a very big one. There was just enough space for Kes's small form and one of the Kazon-Ogla. All the light Kes ever got was that sun shining through the slit, and that for only a few hours a day.

She loved it, though. She knew from the voices she heard in her head that the slit was intended to torment her, to give her a glimpse of what she was missing. But even that brief glance at the sun was the most beautiful sight in the universe for someone who had never seen it in person before.

The voices in her head were coarse and rough and full of greed and avarice. The Kazon-Ogla under the leadership of First Maje Jabin were not particularly refined or pleasant to talk to, but that was as nothing compared to their thoughts.

There was Raltik, who wanted to rape Kes until she talked. Kes knew every aspect of her body that he desired, every part he wished to violate. He, at least, was the only one who felt that way, as the other Kazon found Kes's pale skin and smooth hair to be repulsive in the extreme. For Kes the feeling was mutual, especially after exposure to Raltik's thoughts.

There was Nauris, who hated Jabin and whose aspirations to replace him as first maje were stymied only by his inability to come up with a good plan to remove him.

There was Garthik, who brought her two buckets every day—one with a soppy gruel for nourishment, one for getting rid of waste. Garthik never said anything, but he looked forward to the day when Kes mixed the two buckets up, which he thought would be hilariously funny.

There was Kabor, her torturer, who had found ways of inducing pain in Kes that she had never imagined. Ever since he broke her arm in several places, her entire left side flared with pain every time she shifted her position. Her right hand was useless and throbbed constantly. And her vision had remained blurred for the last day or so.

Then, of course, there was Jabin himself, who was single-mindedly determined to find a way to the underground city of the Ocampa, to see if the legends of the paradise beneath the surface of this world were true.

Kes knew that they were, of course, because she had left that very paradise of her own free will. There had to be a universe beyond the enclosed spaces the Ocampa had lived in under the Caretaker's protection for so long. To most Ocampa, that protection was like a blanket that kept them warm and comfortable, but to Kes, that blanket was smothering. She had found a gap in the security field the Caretaker had placed for the Ocampans' protection and had come to the surface—only to find that someone wanted in as much as she wanted out.

For months they beat her, they questioned her, they hurt her. She had lived a life of peace and harmony for all two years of her life, and had never known pain beyond the occasional stubbing of her toe.

Now, pain was almost all she had.

That, and the thoughts of the Kazon.

Were they any other thoughts, she would have welcomed them openly, cheered to the heavens for them.

The legends are true!

Jabin wasn't the only one who wanted proof of old stories. Many Ocampa believed that they once had far greater gifts of the mind than the simple transmittal of thoughts. Ever since she had come to the surface, ever since Kes had tried harder and harder to retreat from the pain and the agony and the suffering that Kabor inflicted on her, she had found her ability to read thoughts improving.

The sun sank below the slit. Kes's leg had fallen asleep, so she shifted her position. Pins and needles shot through the limb, and then agony sliced through her left side. She let out a wail of anguish that she knew the Kazon wouldn't hear through the big metal door.

One other thing distracted her from the thoughts of the maje's people and the pain, but she didn't dare dwell on it—on him—too often, for fear of letting hope become too strong.

Neelix.

When she had come to the surface, it was in the hope of finding new people to experience. Neelix had been exactly what she had been hoping to find.

She had not been expecting the Kazon.

Unfortunately, Neelix had not been back for some time. He had tried to ingratiate himself with Jabin, but his efforts had failed, and Kes had not seen him.

Kes would have cried, but she had no tears left. She could not let herself think too much of Neelix because there was a very real chance he would never come back.

Copyright © 2007 by CBS Studios Inc.