TITLE: The Games
AUTHOR: Erin Chase
SUMMARY: Archer, Trip, T'Pol and Mayweather are forced to compete in brutal combat.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own any characters from Enterprise or anything.
NOTES: I know it's a cliche but I wanted to put the Enterprise crew in that situation, so I did. It should be finished in three chapters.
FEEDBACK: Always a pleasure
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The shuttle glided down onto the rough surface of the planet. Another perfect landing for Travis Mayweather. The away team was complied of him, T'Pol, Trip and the Captain. The humanoids on the planet seemed nice enough when Enterprise had made contact with them.
Archer stepped out into a rush of warm air. It was a pleasant feeling that reminded him of the days he used to go to the beach with his father as a child. It was always the perfect temperature on those days.
"Didn't they say they'd meet us here?" Travis said, on observing the lack of welcoming party they had been promised.
"Maybe they're just late." Archer said, staying optimistic. Sure enough a slim figure emerged on the horizon moments later.
"I apologise for my lateness." The woman said, though she did sound very sincere. It sounded like something was on her mind.
"That's alright." Archer said happily and proceeded to the introductions. "I'm Jonathon Archer. This is my chief engineer Charles Tucker, sub-commander T'Pol and Ensign Travis Mayweather."
Everyone said something like 'hello', 'how do you do' and 'nice to meet you'. They all knew the drill. The woman didn't seem to be paying much attention however. Archer couldn't help but notice, but decided to try and stay cheerful. "And you are?"
"I'm supposed to take you to the halls now." She muttered. If Jon knew anything about body language, this woman was going through some kind of inner struggle with herself, trying to make a decision. Far be it for him to pry - after all, they'd only just met.
The woman began walking. She had yet to even make eye contact with any of the group, a fact everyone had observed. Nevertheless they all followed. Archer caught up with the woman who was walking rather briskly. "Might I ask your name?"
The woman looked up at him for the first time. Apart from some light marking which shrouded her face, she was not unlike humans. She looked away quickly, as if the decision she was grappling with in her mind was worsened by this action. Finally she answered. "Katin."
Running low on things to say, Archer blurted out "Nice planet you've got here...." Which caused Trip and Mayweather to glance at each other and smirk silently.
"Do you have any weapons with you?" Katin said, ignoring Jon's last comment.
Archer answered, thankful for some conversation. "Yes, it's protocol to carry weapons with
us. In case we need to defend ourselves."
"I'm not sure you'll be allowed to keep them when we reach the halls." She said, her eyes on the ground.
"I guess that's alright." Archer said. "As long as we get them back."
The 'halls' were now in sight. They consisted of three fairly plain buildings with flags of assorted colours draping from balconies. The sight was quite pretty in all it's simplicity. People were scattered around the grounds.
When the group were around fifty feet from the entrance Katin stopped them. She looked like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. Archer couldn't help feeling uneasy. Katin searched Archer face, looking for something that she couldn't see. Finally she looked at the others, then spoke again. "This is as far as I will take you. I was told to take you to the main chamber. It's in the centre building, just go in the main door and you will be met."
Jon was surprised by the regretful tone of Katin's voice. "Well, thank-you. It was nice meeting you." He said. The woman took one final look at them all and strode away.
"Well she was real friendly." Trip said, sarcasm lacing his voice.
"There's something I don't like about all this." Archer muttered.
After hesitating for a while, the group decided on going into the main chamber as Katin directed them. Maybe they'd find out why she was acting strangely.
As they drew closer to their destination, numerous people appeared to be staring at them. Jon put it down to them being out-of-towners as Trip would put it. A lot of hushed whispering was going on but no-one approached them.
They walked up the stone steps into the centre building. A large plump man was standing in brown robes. Nolin. They had spoken with him before. He turned to see the four enter and a smiled stretched across his features. "Ah! Welcome, welcome, I have been waiting for you to arrive." He said. Archer was happier at this more embracing greeting.
"I'm sorry to ask," Nolin began. "But do you have any weapons on your persons?" He asked abruptly.
T'Pol answered for the Captain. "Yes we have weapons."
"It is the rules of the halls to not carry weapons. Would you leave them here with the guard?" He asked politely. Archer thought it best to abide by the culture's rules. After all, they didn't want to get arrested now did they?
"Certainly." He said and the four of them put their phase pistols on a table by the guard.
The large man looked pleased. "Come now, into the main chamber." He gestured for the others to follow.
The three humans of the party were looking forward to a feast which they had been invited to on their first contact. Aside from the fact that they were starving, it was always nice to have your presence celebrated. But nothing pleasant awaited them on the other side of the doors. Instead of a grand feast, the away team were met with around eight people pointing guns straight at them.
The chaos erupted straight away. A gun was fired - some kind of electrical pulse weapon - at Travis. He went down instantly. The others attempted to make a retreat. They were defenceless and grossly out-numbered. But there weren't many places to go.
T'Pol kicked an attacker in the chest causing him to drop his weapon. She acted quickly and picked it up. She shot four of the guards before being shot herself then fell backward and slid down a wall.
Archer and Trip were holding their own. The guard Jon was fighting was twice his size. He got smacked round the face hard and tumbled. Using the momentum of his fall he rolled over to a weapon. He hadn't noticed before but the weapon he held was different to the others. Getting up, he pointed it straight at the other.
There was a sudden shout from across the room. "Drop you weapon!" Archer turned towards the noise but kept the gun on his assailant. What he saw was not a good thing. Nolin had Trip at gun-point, with a phase pistol. Trip was unarmed.
"These weapons have a stun and kill setting am I correct?" He said. His voice as no longer cheerful but threatening. Archer had little time to wonder how this man got hold of information about their weapons. "I took the liberty of downloading your ships database before you arrived. Including how to operate your weapons. This one is set to kill, so why don't you put down that gun?"
"Why don't you put down yours?" Archer baited. "And while you're at it, tell me what the hell you think you're doing attacking me and my people out of the blue?"
Nolin laughed. "You have fighting spirit. That will be of value to you where you're going."
Archer saw that T'Pol and Travis were down and Trip wasn't in a good position, not even for a sudden attack. He grudgingly dropped the weapon. The alien bent down to pick it up. Jon saw Nolin fire at Trip, then turned only to see his own attacker fire the gun. Then blackness.
~~~~~~~~
"Captain?"
*What was that? Did someone say something?*
"Captain, are you alright?"
*That sounds like someone I know.......*
"Sir?"
"Travis?" Jon muttered.
"Welcome back Sir." The young ensign smiled back with relief.
"Trip, where's Trip?" Archer asked, suddenly remembering what happened - hearing Nolin say that the phase pistol was set to kill, and seeing Trip get shot.
"He's alive." T'Pol's voice came. "The phase pistol was set to stun, not kill."
"He was bluffing." Jon sighed, momentarily comforted. But wait....why didn't Trip tell him that? Surely he would've made some joke about it? For the first time since he had awoken, Jon noticed where he was. He was on the floor of a dark, grimy cell, around the same size as his quarters on Enterprise.
Adjacent to their cell were even more cells, identical ones. They seemed to stretch on forever. Some of them were occupied with distant figures. Inside his cell he only counted three. "Where's Trip?" He asked, not looking forward to hearing the answer.
"They took him." Travis said hatefully.
"What? Who?" Jon asked. He didn't stop to notice that he was in a small amount of pain. Whatever that gun was, it hurt even more than a phase pistol blast.
"Nolin and more guards. We're not sure why, they didn't tell us anything."
Jon automatically checked for his communicator. "Taken." T'Pol told him.
"How long was I out?"
"Around half an hour. They shoved us in here, forced Commander Tucker to go with them and left."
"They didn't say anything, where they were taking him, why they attacked us?"
Travis shook his head.
"Someone's coming." T'Pol announced.
Archer and Travis looked down the dingy corridor to see three figures come round the corner, carrying a fourth between them. As they drew closer, the Archer made the slumping body out to be Trip. The Enterprise uniform was unmistakable.
Jon got his feet with some effort. Two guards and Nolin opened the cell door and threw Trip in. He let out a painful grunt as he hit the floor.
"Nolin, what the hell is going on?" Archer said through gritted teeth as he approached the bars.
"Your chief engineer did very well." Nolin replied smugly. "Especially for a first time. The crowd were most pleased. I can't wait to see how you three do." He sounded excited, the looked between them. "Let's try the Vulcan next. With Retnar. Yes, that will be interesting." He grinned. "Fetch her in three Turns."
Archer's head spun. What was going on? What did Trip do well at? Enduring torture? He'd mentioned a crowd.....and what or who was Retnar? Before he could ask any of these questions, they were gone. Jon turned his attention to Trip.
He looked completely thrashed. A riot of purple and blue covered almost the whole of the left side of his face. There were so many splashes of blood on him, it was impossible to identify where any of the wounds were.
"Trip, what happened, what did they do to you?"
Trip swallowed and spoke quietly. "They took me to this arena." He started. His eyes were still closed, like he was still half asleep. "There were hundreds of people there, all shouting. Then this big goddam ugly alien came out - " Jon might've felt slightly better after hearing Trip's sense of humour show through - if he hadn't stopped talking to spit out some blood. Trip didn't let them dwell on it though.
"Let's just say I got the crap kicked outta me. Thought I was done for, then this bell sounded and they dragged me back here."
"From what I can tell," T'Pol began. "Commander Tucker has several broken ribs, possible internal bleeding and severe head trauma."
"Is that all?" Trip murmured.
Two guards appeared round the corner with Nolin and started to open the cell. Obviously three 'Turns' wasn't very long. "Come on." One of the guards grunted, and seized T'Pol's arm. She thought the better of attacking them. The two guards were even larger than the ones they faced before. She looked to the Captain one last time and was taken away. Nolin stayed where he was.
"Why are you doing this?"
"I'm terribly sorry for lying to you." Nolin said, though he didn't sound very sorry. "I run a business you see, the Games. It's ancient tradition - "
"Beating the crap out of people in front of an audience?!"
"Well, I wouldn't put it in such terms, but more or less, yes, that's right. Business has been slow lately. Most of our warriors were killed during the fights. We had to bring in more people."
"You're trying to justify this to me?!" Archer spat. "You've imprisoned us, you goddam nearly killed my crewman, now you're going to force us all to fight and you're trying to tell me that you *had* to bring in new lambs to the slaughter because your *business* was going under?"
Nolin suddenly turned very bitter. "You're right. I don't have to justify this to you. And you shouldn't worry too much, you won't be complaining for very long." He then leaned in closer and whispered threateningly. "You'll get your turn."
~~~*Part Two coming soon!*~~~
