Art by Terry Pallot
Catira and Katirus are actually the same being, with the ability to shift between a male and female form. Catira is the female identity and Katirus is the male. They survive by absorbing the life energy of unsuspecting prey, whom they seduce with their powerful pheromones. They also lure victims to feed their “ancestor”, a cloud-like, space-dwelling lifeform that feeds off of the energy from a starship and its crew.
The Orsorians sent out a false distress signal, claiming that their engines were damaged, attracting the attention of the starship Voyager. Catira responded to the Voyager’s hail, assuming that a man would be in command. All of the men on the bridge were stunned, both by Catira’s beauty and by the fact that she was practically nude. Both Catira and Katirus wear no actual clothing, and simply have a glittering, translucent veil that barely covers their private parts. Once she discovered that Captain Janeway is a woman, she said that she had to defer to her “brother”. She slipped off-screen, and moments later Katirus appeared. Janeway was just as impressed by Katirus’ appearance, although Commander Chakotay was suspicious as well as a bit jealous of him. Janeway agreed to send Chief Engineer B’Elanna Torres to repair their engines, and invited the Orsorians to Voyager. Katirus accepted the invitation, but said that Catira would be unable to attend, although she would be with him “in spirit”.
At the reception about Voyager, all of the women were strongly drawn to and charmed by Katirus, except for former Borg, Seven of Nine. She seemed immune to his charms. Katirus continued his seduction of Janeway, and asked her to give him a private tour of Voyager. At some point during this tour, he managed to ambush Seven of Nine and put her into a coma with an energy discharge, without Janeway’s knowledge. When Chakotay tried to alert Janeway to this Seven’s assualt, she did not respond. Chakotay and an armed security team burst into Janeway’s quarters to find her and Katirus making out in her bedroom. Chakotay instructed Katirus to leave Voyager, since there was now an emergency that required the Captain’s attention. Once Katirus left, Chakotay observed that the Captain seemed very disoriented and lightheaded, and she wasn’t acting like herself.
Katirus returned to his ship, and went down to the engine room where B’Elanna was working. In order to prevent her from discovering that there was no real damage to the engines, he pulled her into a passionate kiss, infecting her with his pheromones, and leaving his confused and open to suggestion as well. He tricked her into returning to Voyager without her tricorder and its data.
This also left B’Elanna with a headache, so she went to sickbay for treatment. When the doctor examined her, he found the same energy residue in her that he found in Seven of Nine. The doctor alerts Janeway to this, suggesting that B’Elanna and Seven may have been attacked by the same person. However, B’Elanna reports that she was not attacked and was not “bothered” by anyone on the Orsorian ship. Janeway decides to beam over to give this news to Katirus in person. Chakotay tries to stop her, but is unable to.
Chakotay tries to contact Janeway, but she isn’t answering her commbadge, and the Orsorian ship is not answering hails. Certain that the captain is in danger, Chakotay sends security chief Tuvok over to the Orsorian ship to investigate. Once he arrives, he is ambushed by Catira, who uses her super-pheromones to seduce him as well. She has her robot guards take him to her quarters, where she continues to seduce him. Tuvok’s Vulcan discipline helps him to resist, but Catira overwhelms him, and literally rips his clothes off. As she forces herself on him, she begins to drain his energy through their intimate contact. Once Catira is done with Tuvok, Katirus re-emerges and goes back to his own quarters to seduce and drain Janeway. Then Katirus summons the Ancestor, to come and feed off the Voyager and its crew! Voyager manages to to delay the energy drain by firing phasers into the cloud, but are unable to escape, especially while Janeway and Tuvok are still prisoner. However, Ensign Kim detects an ID signal being sent from the Orsorian ship to the Ancestor, that he can duplicate. Once the Doctor reports that Seven of Nine has regained consciousness, Chakotay devises a plan to defeat the Orsorians, using the two crewmembers who are immune to their pheromones: Seven of Nine, and the holographic Doctor!
Seven and the Doctor beam over to the Orsorian ship to rescue Tuvok and the Captain. Katirus’ biochemical attack is no longer able to affect Seven, since her body has now adapted to it. Then the Doctor injects Catira with antigens from Seven of Nine’s body, which attack their pheromones. The injection has a shocking effect, and the bodies of Katirus and Catira merge and distort into a disgusting, twisted lump of flesh.
With the away team back on board, Kim activates the ID signal, confusing the Ancestor into releasing Voyager. Voyager takes off as fast as they can, and the Ancestor begins loosing energy. It goes after the nearest available energy source: the Orsorian ship. However, the Orsorian ship does not have enough energy on its own to sustain the Ancestor, and the Ancestor collapses in on itself, taking the Orsorians with it.
In his analysis, the Doctor suspects that the “ancestor” probably spawned an entire race of Orsorians, but considers it highly unlikely that any of them are still alive. He believes that Catira/Katirus killed off all the others in order to secure their position in the food chain with the Ancestor.
Catira/Katirus is seen in Star Trek Voyager #14 and 15.
© and ® Paramount Pictures. Used without permission.
Glyph is a cabin mate of sorts with Halo Jones and Toy Molto aboard the star ship E.S.S. Clara Pandy, by which I mean Glyph simply seems to have just barely come to their attention, as there’s a rather forgettable air and appearance. When Halo and Toy do finally address their “guest”, Toy (and later Halo) refers to “it” rather than he or she in a clumsy way to bypass Glyph’s gender ambiguity, which is illuminated when Glyph reveals “I remember I started off as a girl. That much I’m certain of…or maybe I started out as a boy. Never mind–it doesn’t really matter.” Glyph proceeds to recount that her/his original gender caused unhappiness and underwent a “total body remould” and within months regretted the change. Glyph admits to having 47 body remoulds over the span of five years, and because of all the physical and psychological changes could no longer remember his/her birth gender. In the process all trace of personality had been erased and she/he began to turn into a non-entity, losing jobs, a home, and interaction with society. Glyph learned how to use the newly acquired anonymity to survive by walking unquestioned into people’s home for food and eventually stowing aboard the Clara Pandy for a change of pace.
Contributed by Ronald Byrd
Stefano Raffaele’s Fragile is set in a post apocalyptic world in which 95% of the world’s population have been turned into zombies due to a mutated virus. The remaining humans have formed various safe havens. Alan Olden is a young man who lives in one of these walled communes, but everything changes when he dies from a work accident and flees the town after the zombie process begins. While on the run from living humans and the vigilante zombie Disinfestors he finds and falls in love with the undead Lynn, whose existence will soon end as decomposition ramps up.