Disclaimer: I own nothing but the OC. Captain Sopek is a character from "Shadows of P'Jem" (Season 1, if you're interested).

Celia landed with a thud on a cold muddy floor. Her hands were tied to her ankles, she was already feeling her muscles protest from the odd angle. She had a knife in her boot, but they tied her wrists low enough that she could not reach the blade. The blindfold kept her from being able to see her surroundings or her captors. To her, they smelled like Andorians; those people always smelled like glass to her. She could not be sure though. One thing she did know was that if she couldn't find a way out, then these were going to be her last days alive. No one was going to come looking for a rebel, and even members of her cell probably wouldn't either. She was a lone human among aliens, a woman without a country, working for a pay check and not really a cause.

She rolled over so she was on her back and began struggling with her bindings. She was not ready to die, at least without one more fight.

…

Sopek glanced dispassionately over the report on the latest movements on Coridan. The civil war was still raging, the factions still fighting amongst themselves to throw off the stability of their current government. Highly illogical...

He noted that a freedom fighter cell had been made captive by the Andorians, and the government, tired of all the bloodshed, was asking for more of the rebels to be brought in peacefully, to be arrested, not killed as hostages. The Chancellor asked for him and his team to penetrate the Andorian base and save the rebel cell, then bring them to the capital to be tried.

He sighed and hit his comm button. "Subcommander Cha'vek and Sublieutenant V'Rea, come to my ready room."

Cha'Vek and V'Rea entered and stood at a stiff attention.

"Captain," V'Rea said dispassionately. "We have read the reports and gathered the information you require. It seems that the cell was taken here." She pointed to a small bunker on the edge of Coridan's largest forest.

Cha'Veck nodded. "Three Andorians guard the gate, and ten more roam the compound, but our scans show no guard on the prisoners."

V'Rea nodded in confirmation. "The scanner is jammed around the holding area. There could be one or a dozen rebels being held there. We are unsure. It seems illogical not to have guards on the prisoners, but the Andorians, in their arrogance, might believe the prisoners are sufficiently neutralized."

Cha'Vek stiffened. "What are your orders, Osu?"

"Cha'Vek, gather your team and have them meet me in the transporter room in ten minutes. V'Rea, stay for a moment."

They both nodded, and Cha'Vek departed. He waited until the door was closed before turning to her. "The Earth Ambassador has heard rumor that a human may have joined the rebel forces. He implores us to save her so she can face charges on her home planet. She is, apparently, a dissident who abandoned the military in order to join this cell. I have no logical explanation for her actions..."

V'Rea nodded. "They are irrational."

"Indeed. So if the human is among these captives, contact Earth and relay the message that their dissident has been found."

…

Celia closed her eyes, trying her hardest to find some rest, even though a rock was digging into her lower back and her wrists and fingers were probably bleeding from trying to get out of her bonds. She could not fight her exhaustion any more, and she closed her eyes, hoping wildly for a moment that they would kill her in her sleep, and it would at least be painless...

Then she berated herself. She was a soldier, and as such she would go out fighting. She shifted into a marginally more comfortable position. She could hear rain outside the shack where they were keeping her, but over the next hour, it dissipated to a slow, mournful drip.

There was nothing but the dripping water and the whispering wind for several minutes, and for a moment, she thought she might be able to go to sleep.

She was wrong.

The sound of the explosion ripped through the camp and made her at least try to sit up, but she flopped down helplessly into the mud. Another explosion followed, and the sound of phaser fire, even though her pounding heart almost drowned the latter out. The cold mud squelched as she struggled to remove her bonds, but nothing happened.

The shouting that had erupted along with the explosion came closer, and she heard footsteps. She stiffened, thinking this would be her end, until a cold knife grazed her skin, then sliced cleanly through her bond.

Her body twinged in gratitude as the awful pain eased, and she noted the hands removing her bonds were warm and calloused. Male hands. A soldier's hands.

She blinked as the harsh fluorescent light hit her eyes, and she squeezed her eyes shut, trying to regain her vision.

"Are you injured?" a warm, smooth voice asked her. She glared at her savior through bleary eyes, but before she could determine what species he was, another explosion crashed through the camp, not ten feet from the entrance to her cell.

The shock and sound of it knocked her back into the mud, and debris rained down on them from every direction, or so it seemed. Her savior was knocked out cold by a flying pipe, and she winced as he groaned into the mud, his body relaxing into the darkness.

But she could not escape the darkness either, and she relaxed into the muddy ground, letting unconsciousness consume her.

…

She could feel flames advancing on where they lay, and she pulled herself up into a sitting position when she came to, then looked to her left at her savior. She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow when she realized he was Vulcan.

His silver hair, though cut into a precise bob, was messy and caked in mud on one side. She pulled him up and laid him against her chest, pressing her fingers to his neck to feel for a pulse. It was there, slow, but strong, so she rolled over into a kneeling position and prepared to get moving.

She couldn't see where his weapon had fallen, and besides, there was no time to look. The explosion had made a gap in the back wall large enough for her to slip through, if she went through sideways. Celia cursed her luck as her tank caught on a loose shard of metal, and she tugged away from it impatiently, ripping a large hole across her chest. She ignored it and pulled her Vulcan savior through, listening intently for any sign that the Andorians had recovered from the explosion. If they had, they were both dead.

The surrounding fence was nothing more than sheet tin, and a hole was clearly visible from where she was standing. This one she would have to crawl through, but she hurried toward it as fast as she could with her extra burden. Men always seemed to be heavier than they looked, whether they be human, Andorian, Coridan or Vulcan, and this man was no exception. She crouched by the wall, glancing around for any sign of a guard, but no one rounded the corner. The silence was almost eerie.

She slid through the low hole, then dragged her savior through the opening, wincing as the metal snagged on his silver uniform. Oh well, she thought. Besides, it might actually be nice to see a chest like his. Judging by the way the uniform bulged in all the right places, maybe she could be praying that the metal completely pull off his uniform.

Celia shook her head of those thoughts and hauled the heavy Vulcan back into piggy-back mode, and she dragged him into the darkness of the trees.