Chapter 2

The soft rumbling of the shuttle woke Anne from her deep sleep. Cramped in the back of the shuttle and stuffed into the small bed that was built into the wall, she tossed and turned for a few minutes before she actually gave in to her consciousness. She looked to the front of the vehicle to see Xion operating it. 'Great,' she thought. 'He's probably going to chew me out for not piloting the shuttle. Dick.' She shook her head in an attempt to get rid of the throbbing headache that plagued her, to no avail. She pulled herself out of the box that she slept in and walked over to the doctor.
"Doctor, where are we going?" Anne gripped the co-pilots chair, hand still crusted with her own blood. Her fatigue and nausea was planted firmly on her face as she asked her question.

"We are currently inside the Amleth System."
"The Amleth System?" Anne groaned and rolled her eyes. "We're inside Cardassian space? This is fantastic! What happened? Why are we heading here? We should have gone in the complete opposite direction." Xion sighed and turned around to face her completely. He looked her over with a slight snarl, his contempt for her plastered all over his face.
"The shuttle was affected by the warp chain reaction, as the computer said it might, and we were thrown off course. Don't you remember? You were flying this ship when we made our very daring, very human, escape." He gave her a most foul expression with an upturned lip and then turned back around to continue the course. "Besides, don't worry. The shuttle is cloaked. We are undetectable."
"Xion, I can't remember flying this ship here. I remember that we left...and we had barely escaped...but then I remember nothing else. Was I knocked unconscious?" Xion let out an even more agitated sigh than prior and bit his lower lip in an attempt to show some restraint with her. "Yes, the initial reaction from the warp core explosion threw you to the floor and you were rendered unconscious. How can you not remember being thrashed about by a violent explosion?" Anne stared at him blankly, confused and slightly light headed.
"I don't know. Is that when you took over?"
"Yes. I had were incapacitated, fool." He smirked after barking at her, feeling as if his belligerent verbal attack would add insult to injury. She just sat down in the co-pilots chair and didn't respond, looking straight ahead at the space in front of them. She rested her head against the seat and dragged her fingers through her hair in complete and utter exhaustion. She felt as if her entire body had been through one of the doctor's vigorous physical exams. 'God, why does he mock me? Can he not see that I am already under a tremendous amount of stress?' She pulled her hands up and applied pressure to her throbbing temples in a further attempt to rid herself of the agonizing pain in her head. Xion looked over to see her actions and raised his eyebrow in curiosity.
"Commander, are you alright?" He asked her pretentiously.

"I am fine. Just concentrate on piloting us out of this putrid system. I'd prefer to be out of Cardassian space if possible." She paused for a bit and then reluctantly spoke.

"How is the captain? Is he stabilizing?"
"He is fine. I stabilized him in the middle of the night. He was lucky not to have met the anti-coagulant rifle of a Jem'Hadar. His wounds were superficial and he should be conscious soon. Earliest by tomorrow."
Anne was confused, as she saw the Captain clearly bleeding from almost every orifice he had the night before. She tapped her finger on the control panel in pensive thought and looked Xion over. He was cleaned up more than last night, his face was free of blood and scratches and he had removed his torn outer jacket. His hair was still a mess and there was no hope for the rest of his attire. Anne found herself smiling at the prospect of examining the doctor. "Wouldn't he find it ironic, the patient becoming the doctor?' At this, she smiled even wider. Enough that Xion took notice and looked at her. He licked his dry, cracked bottom lip and then continued to stare at her.
"What are you smiling at, Commander?"
"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all." Anne was forced to hold her aching head again as another shot of pain exploded inside of her mind. It was incredibly intense to the point that she thought she might actually succumb to tears. At this point, Xion put the shuttle on auto-pilot and stood up. He walked behind her chair and pushed her hands out of the way.
"What are you-"
"Quiet, and be still. I am not going to hurt you." He placed each hand on either side of her temples and applied firm pressure, massaging them intently. He pulled her head completely back to the head of the seat and began working harder. Anne felt herself relaxing with the sensation of his touch and let out a sigh of relief. The slight pain from his fingers was outweighed by the feeling of relief they provided. Anne slumped in her chair, completely relaxing as Xion attended to her headache.
"You know these headaches you get are very unusual. Most humans don't suffer from headaches anymore, do they? You would not suffer either if you came to see me more often, Commander." Anne didn't bother with a response as she knew it would end up being snide and he might stop trying to alleviate her pain. Instead she just smiled briefly and closed her eyes. 'I'm not going to feed into his crap. He probably gets off on it.' She felt Xion's massaging becoming more intense as he started using his thumbs to massage under her ears. A tingling sensation shot up the base of her neck and her heart pounded a bit faster. 'Stupid hormones. Like I need this.' She felt his hands becoming rougher and more focused.
" I think we should rectify that," he said, biting his lower lip. "It would do you some good. You tend to overdo it when working. That is not very efficient for a first officer on a Romulan vessel."
"We are no longer on a Romulan vessel, doctor. Not to stray from your initial point; I do understand what you meant." Xion was now staring down on her luridly. He brushed her hair aside with one hand, revealing the soft flesh of her neck.
"Well then consider it upon our transfer to a new vessel. It would make a good impression to be punctual about such matters." He moved the collar of her shirt to the side and began massaging her shoulders with a fierce passion. Anne could feel the surging wave of sensation building up inside of her body. 'Okay, this needs to stop before I can't stop myself.' She slowly reached up and placed her hands on his to suggest it should come to a halt. Xion snapped himself out of the trance and pulled himself away. He cleared his throat and sat back down in the pilot's seat.
"Are you feeling any better?" He asked, trying to quell the desire that arose within him.
"Much better. Thank you, doctor."
"It was necessary. We cannot have you being ailed by anything in the middle of a crisis. We all need to be at our best. We cannot suffer any distractions." He said coldly, glaring at her. She just smiled and looked at the control panels. "Are we nearing the end of this system yet? I've had enough. And I'm sure Captain Turon would appreciate not having to wake up inside of a war zone." Anne tapped a few buttons and brought up the statistics for remaining fuel and looked it over. Everything seemed to be in working order. She brought up the reports for shield efficiency and the power percentage of the cloak. Everything was checking out. It appeared all they needed to do was get out of the Amleth system undetected and they would be fine. Anne reran several diagnostic tests on the ships trying to double and triple check the systems; making sure everything was exceptional. A thought suddenly dawned on her and she turned to face Xion who was now tending to the Captain's wounds.

"Doctor, how did the Jem'Hadar find us? We were cloaked. I doesn't stand to reason that they could see us. Romulan cloaking technology has been drastically reevaluated and practically reinvented to insure that no Jem'Hadar vessel could detect us, right?" Without looking up he nodded in agreement. He began running health and vitality tests on the Captain as he lay in a near coma. He was barely paying attention to her rambling.
"Then how did they find us, doctor? If we were completely prepared, then only one conclusion can be drawn... we had a traitor on the Rivah, doctor. A real traitor; not the traitor you claim me to be."
He looked up at her suddenly, snapping the tricorder in his hand in half out of agitation. The look on his face suggested that he hadn't thought of it much. As he bent over to pick up the pieces of his medical device he stared up at her with an almost solemn look on his face. He crawled back up to his seat and threw the broken tricorder on the counter next to the Captain's biobed and started searching for a new one. "Anne, that is quite possible. And since you were either spending most of your time with me or the Captain, that rules you out as a possible suspect...Having a traitor on board could very well mean there were surgically altered spies present. The prospect of an actual Romulan on the Rivah betraying their own is rather distasteful. I would like to say it is impossible, but then there is the matter of Selor..." He trailed off and failed to finish his thoughts on the subject. Anne looked at him surprisingly.'Did He just address me by my first name?' She raised her eyebrows in shock, smirked, and then turned around to finish her duties.

"Doctor did you just call me by my-Oh hold on here, what's this? I'm picking up a distress call? In the middle of Cardassian space? How odd..." Anne tapped in to the distress call and played it out. " Help!...-der attack! Repeat...Under attack! We are in need of- Severe casualties on board! Jem'Hadar- " The message ended with violent and horrific screams, phaser shots were fired. When the message stopped, Anne's eyes darted back and forth in a frenzy. "Were those civilians? The message didn't say, but-" Xion turned to face her and held his hand up abruptly to signal her to stop talking. He stopped examining the Captain and looked at her profoundly. The look on his face told Anne he was going to say something she wasn't going to like. His lips quivered slightly and his brow furrowed.
"There is nothing we can do. There is no point in even trying, Commander. We are three-no, two and one incapacitated- We can not stand up to a full on assault against the Jem'Hadar. They are on their own." He turned his attention back on the Captain.
Anne was not surprised by his reaction, she knew overall that Xion was a cold hearted Romulan prick. He cared only for the advancement of the Romulan people and had nothing but contempt for her. 'This is so like him. Why should he care? They aren't his people.' She angrily tapped the side of the control panel with her fingers, gritting her teeth along with the rythym. Her eyes squinted in agitation and her lips puckered to match. She rubbed her forehead viciously as her headache seemed to be returning.
She started typing in commands, trying to find the coordinates of the distress signal. "Computer, what is the origin of this distress signal? Clarify promptly. We need to know in order to avoid possible detection." Xion snapped his head around and angrily scowled at her. He stood up and walked over and leaned directly over her and addressed the computer. "Computer, belay that. Not necessary." He walked away from her, bumping into her roughly as he did so. She gave him a nasty glare and stood up and walked over to him and looked down on him directly. "What the hell are you doing doctor? I need those coordinates if we are going to avoid an attack!" Aggravated, he shot straight up and towered over her. "I know what you're trying to do, human, and it isn't going to happen. Remember our position; we can not assist in any manner! Is that clear?" Xion was trying her patience to its' full extent by acting this brashly. "Doctor, it is our responsibility to assist Federation allies in times of war. Or have you forgotten the Romulans' treaty with them? Or is it even worse, and that you don't care? Personal preferences do not matter, doctor. It is our obligation to assist!" Xion became very angry and started heaving deep breaths to try and calm himself. His fists tightened into clenched balls, his entire body shaking.
"There was no clarification in that distress call. How are we to know for certain this is not a Jem'Hadar trap? Are you as foolish as you are stupid, human? We can not falter in such critically sensitive times! Now kindly sit down and shut the hell up!" An insidious snarl appeared on Xion's face as he slowly released his clenched fists and tried to calm himself once more. Breathing rapidly in pure hatred of the woman who stood before him. Anne could very well figure out that he hated her with every fiber of his being and it affected her naught. Blood dripped down from Xion's hands from his fingernails cutting deeply into his own palms. He sighed and used a spare tricorder to heal his wounds. He sat down and held his head in frustration.

"Doctor, are you a coward?" Anne smirked as she forced the inquiry in his direction. Her smirk turned into a full on smile as she burned her gaze deep into Xion's person. "because, from where I'm standing, you look like a blathering sobbing little baby girl." She burst out laughing at him to the point that her eyes started watering. "Come on Xion, don't be such a sissy!"
Xion was beyond controllable and lunged at her, pinning her to the side wall adjacent to the beds. He grabbed her hair and slammed her face into the wall, then gripped the side of her head and pressed his body firmly up against hers so she couldn't move. He grabbed both of her hands with his free hand and held them tightly behind her back, further paralyzing her. Breathing faster than before he pressed his face up against hers, which now had blood running down the side. He slowly caressed the side of her face with his mouth and fervently bit her ear. She struggled to get free but even with her modified body, she could still not best a Romulan man. Xion whispered into her ear as he still pushed up against her eagerly.

"Listen to me you little human bitch. I am sick and tired of listening to your crap. You think this alliance with the Federation will last? Don't make me laugh. This war necessitated our cooperation with that putrid bile infested organization known as The Federation," he blurted as he pushed his leg in between hers, pulling them apart. "Don't forget what your place is here, wench. You may be Commander in rank, but you are still a human. And human slime isn't worth anything around here. Don't be surprised if you find yourself facedown in a gutter on some unknown alien planet. The Romulan Star Empire can only tolerate so much nonsense from one ill begotten human whore." With that he violently slammed her head into the wall again and released her. Panting heavily he watched as she slid unconsciously to the floor, blood pouring from her ears.

Anne stirred in her sleep before waking slightly. She was strapped into a biobed next to the Captain, who was still rendered incapacitated. She tried to move her arms but she was strapped in tightly. It appeared Xion knew exactly how strong she was and had aimed to keep her put. 'My head is pounding,' she thought to herself. Her throat felt unusually painful and her ears were throbbing uncontrollably. She started coughing faintly and caught the attention of Xion, who then turned around to look at her. He smiled and started conduction scans on her body. He mockingly waved to her and continued hsi work.

"Xion...Xion let me out of here."
"I told you to address me by my title, Commander."
"Xion, stop it. I'm serious. Let me out. You made your point and we let innocent people die because of your selfish nonsense. Now let me out."

"No. You'll be staying there Commander. And as far as those innocent people are concerned, it doesn't matter. They're dead, and we're not. So why worry?"

Anne was disgusted with his answer. She felt compelled to hit him, but was in no position to. 'he had better hope I never get out of this biobed or I'll show him why we should care.' She tossed her head about wildly, looking at Xion directly. "Xion, let me out. I can't stand it in here. I'm claustrophobic."

"I know." He said, smiling wickedly. He started entering data into his data pads and sat down continuing his work on both patients. The computer beeped and alerted everyone that they were now leaving the Amleth System. Anne looked dazed and confused. "How can we be leaving? We still had another 5 hours before we were even close...How long have I been sleeping?"

"About seven hours."
"What! Seven hours? How could I-There is no way I would be out that long from a few knocks to the head. Did you drug me?" Xion held back the urge to laugh at her. He smirked enthusiastically and nodded accordingly. He then shrugged playfully and said "I had to make sure you wouldn't awake and try to attack me again. I'll have to file a formal report against you for sexual misconduct and aggravated assault. You've been very unprofessional these past few hours." He looked down at the Captain who was still practically comatose and shook his head in mock pity. "Poor Captain Turon will be beside himself when he learns that you threatened to destroy vital enemy tactic readings unless I agreed to have sex with you." Clicking his tongue, he laughed at her.
"What? What are you talking about? You attacked me! You were the one practicing sexual misconduct, asshole! I never did any of that shit." She stared at him lividly, absolutely destroyed. She had no idea what else he could be getting at. 'What else does he want? Is he trying to blackmail me even more?' He gave a hypospray to the Captain and regulated his vitals. He walked over to the replicator and asked for cold water. He sat down, drank his water, and ran his hand through his hair. The stress that weighed heavily upon him was extremely transparent. He was making himself obvious; he was tired. Anne blinked at him in utter disbelief.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Well, are you going to tell me what you want this time? Or is it another stupid mystery like last time? You seem so fond of those."

"No, I don't need to tell you anything needless. Rest assured, you will be helping me. Because if you don't, things will go very badly for you, very fast. I am just reassuring that fact. I don't want you getting any ideas about freeing yourself from our bargain. So every time I see an opportunity, I take it. I am documenting everything; times of day, dates, things you have 'said.'" He laughed softly.

She forced herself to relax and try and make the best out of the situation. She closed her eyes momentarily to try and ease her mind, but it didn't work. 'This fucking moron, I swear I will end him if he doesn't stop acting like such a little ignorant fool.' She smirked at her own thoughts and laughed a bit. Xion heard her and immediately responded. "I'm glad you find all of this so funny because you're the one on the ass end of the joke, my dear." He smiled as he roughly grabbed her face and clutched it. Anne let out a soft yelp of discomfort. Xion just smiled again and leaned in forward, so close she could smell his breath. He swept his tongue clear across her entire face from her chin all the way up to her forehead. He force his lips upon hers and bit down hard drawing blood. Anne angrily yelled and thrashed her head about trying to get him off of her. He pressed even harder and tore himself away from her lips, watching as the blood seeped down onto the neckline of her shirt.

"Owww! What the hell is the matter with you?" She screamed at him heatedly. Her disgust was rising and he could see it. He opened the dome covering the biobed and placed his hands firmly on each of her wrists and found himself biting her bloodied neck. He began lapping it up like a ravenous animal. Anne's eyes flickered back and forth trying to make sense of what he was doing. She started yelling at him again. "Xion get off of me, you sick freak!"An incoming transmission is what finally stopped him. He reluctantly pulled away and washed the blood off of his lips, the transmission still beeping wildly. He walked over to answer it.

"This is Senator Vrun, and I demand to know why the Rivah has not met its' rendezvouz point. It was scheduled to meet our vessel over 12 hours ago. I have been trying to put a channel through and have met nothing but silence! I could only contact this sole shuttle. Explain." Xion cleared his throat and spoke."Senator, I regret to inform you that the war bird Rivah was destroyed in an unexpected attack by the Jem'Hadar fleet. We were completely unprepared for-"

"Jem'Hadar attack? What? Fool, wasn't your vessel cloaked? What moronic fool leaves a Romulan vessel uncloaked?"

"Sir, we three are the only ones who escaped. We have just as little knowledge of the incident as you, I fear. There-"

"What? Only three survived out of a crew of over 3,000? How many Jem'Hadar ships were there?"
"I apologize sir, but I will give you a full report upon arrival. I must tend to my patients. Both the Captain and the Commander of the Rivah were wounded badly. I need to assure they survive."

"Very well, crewmen. I will expect a fully detailed report on everything that transpired."

Xion ended the transmission and went back to the biobed and unexpectedly let Anne out. He stood back as she lunged straight up and gave him a nasty look. She leaned forward and slapped him as hard as she could across his face. He was taken aback and lost his balance momentarily. He just looked at her blankly and laughed. He went back to his data pad, entering mundane information as usual. Anne gripped the side wall and hung her head in extreme exhaustion and a bit of repulsion. She lifted her head merely to glance over at Xion who was vividly staring at her. She turned away and walked into the next room to avoid further contact.