The second day wasn't so bad, at first. Mal was starting to trust us more. He started the day off by showing us what he'd found around the cube. The canteen, a weird laser gun, and a bar of rations with more BSG stamps on it. He split the rations with all of us, even though he'd been there longest and was probably near starving.
He also gave the laser gun to me. I stashed it in my jacket, where you couldn't see it, in case we ran into trouble. I figured Doc had his screwdriver, Anakin his lightsaber, and Mal his low-tech pistol, so it seemed fair I have a weapon. We'd find something to suit Delenn soon enough.
The first hour of travelling had me bushed, but I didn't let it get to me. I hummed a little, missing my guitar as I did. I taught myself how to play as a kid, not because I wanted to look cool… well, okay, because I wanted to look cool, but also because it got me through hard times. It gave me something else to focus on. I didn't have a guitar, but I still had a decent voice. No one appreciates it, though.
"Listy," Mal said as we stopped in a room, "I see you as the kind of guy who avoids gettin' pistol-whipped in the face. So why don't you stop that?"
"Why," I quipped, "you jealous?"
Mal went red in the face as he snorted. "I wouldn't say that."
The room was light blue, the next one over hot pink. Delenn was insisting that Doc teach her how to recognize trap rooms. You had to multiply three numbers together and see if they made a prime number, or something. I still wasn't much good, and didn't bother watching him explain. I wasn't leaving my team, so there was no need for me to learn.
I hummed a bit louder, swaying as I waited, trying to remember the tune of a song I made. It was a love song, for a girl I met on Red Dwarf. Kristine Kochanski. I'll never forget that girl. She was long gone, but I still had the song in my head.
The Jedi nudged me and quipped, "Remember what I said about being annoying and getting killed?"
Um, ouch. Thanks for reminding me of my decapitation, you smeghead. I was about to say that out loud when Mal shot him a glare. "Ani, that's too far."
"You threatened to pistol-whip him."
"I can threaten whoever I want. Including you."
"Good luck. I'm a Jedi."
"Yeah, well I'm a Malcolm Reynolds."
I couldn't help laughing, even as Doc told us to quit it. I decided to stop humming, but I was still sort of… not cheery, but would-be-cheery. We were getting along better than I did with folks on Red Dwarf. Well, that wasn't too hard, once you considered Rimmer.
"Okay," Delenn said, "so this next room is… not trapped. Right?"
Doc beamed at her. "Brilliant, Delenn."
I applauded. Mal and Anakin joined in, and she laughed, giving us a small bow. I definitely felt cheery when we went into the next room.
But a few rooms later—a green room, no less—that cheer ended.
"Wait," Anakin said, stopping us in the middle, "I sense something."
"Fantastic," The Doctor said, "new recruits, maybe they'll know something we—"
"No," the Jedi said forcefully, "this is bad. I… sense a lot of…" he shook his head, storming forward. "We need to go, now."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because we don't want them to find us."
We followed for the next door, but didn't get a chance to leave. A door at our side snapped open, a human hand moving over it. A human hand, but not a human.
See, the idea's sort of ingenious, if you think about it. If you can't open a door yourself, get the hand from someone that can. But it's also creepy, to see a blood drained, cold, stumpy hand held by someone else who's alive. Creepier when the same someone points a laser gun at you.
"Don't move!"
We didn't. We had our hands in the air. They didn't know we had weapons, so I thought I'd play dumb and not take out my gun just yet. Luckily, the others had the same idea.
Eight aliens climbed into the room. They had these weird, black and silver uniforms, and dark skin with big ridges on their heads. From what I could tell, only one had a gun. They still had us outnumbered, though, and the rest still carried knives. Knives with rust on them. Rust that was on their uniforms, too. Well, it looked like rust at the time.
The Doctor walked up in front of us slowly, hands still in the air. "Alright," he said, "calm down. No need for the hostility, here. We're all on the same side."
An alien stepped forward, the one holding the gun. "I wouldn't say that. Klingons were at war with the humans, when we were brought here. Only humans can move through this place. I wonder why," he added coldly.
"We're not warriors," The Doctor said, "we're not here for a fight. We're just as lost in this place as you are."
The klingon nodded, snorted. "To use a human phrase, cut the crap. Let's get to business."
"We can help you escape," The Doctor said, "we can get out of this together."
"I've had this conversation many times, with many people. No one has lived in this place as long as we have. No one has found a way out. We might not escape this prison you humans have brought us to, but we will survive."
The Doctor frowned. "What do you mean? How long have you been here?"
"Weeks, months, years, it does not matter. What matters is that we are here. And we would like to do business."
Mal took a half-step forward. "What business would we be talkin' of?"
The klingon frowned. "We are not proud, of our methods, but we cannot perish in a human prison designed for our torture and death. It is a manner of honor." He paused. "We will let you pass through, but first, you must give us one of your own."
The Doctor glanced at us uneasily. "Our own what? Supplies? Food, water?"
"One of your members, one of your group."
It started to make sense to me. Their uniforms were covered in brown, dried blood. They all had knives, knives that looked well used. I put two and two together. I can do that on a good day.
"You've been eating people." It sent a shiver up my spine to say it. "You've been eating the other people you find."
"As I said," the klingon pressed, "it is a manner of honor."
Delenn's hands fell to her sides, and she stormed right up beside The Doctor, her arms shaking with rage. "You have not done this out of honor for your people. You have disgraced them tenfold, for using this as your scapegoat. You think you are tall, when you have committed such low acts to survive. You have no honor."
The klingon leader didn't respond right away. He stepped forward, glowering down at her, yet she didn't even flinch, back straight and head high. She had balls, that girl. I bet she scared him more than he scared her.
The klingon lowered his gun, just a bit, so that it aimed at her middle. "We could have just killed each of you," he snarled in her face, "while you were unaware, unarmed. Instead, we grant you passage, with one exception. That shows honor."
She glared. "Perhaps you will follow through with your word, but even then…"
Anakin spoke up now. "What happens if we don't make this deal with you?"
The klingon cocked his head, raising a ridged eyebrow. "That would be unfortunate."
This was bad, so bad. I couldn't let this happen to us. I was in the back, hiding behind everyone, in a way, as all of this happened. Suddenly, I didn't want to be hiding. Suddenly, I saw a way that I could help everyone, give them a way out of this mess. I honestly liked these guys, so when the chance came up, I had to take it. Even though it was crazy, even though it meant I would die—and holy smeg, I did not want to die—I had to do something.
"I'll stay."
Delenn turned to me, shocked. "No, Dave—"
"I'll stay, you lot go on." I took a step forward, but Mal stopped me with a hand. I just glared at him. "Let me go."
"Dave," Doc said, "you don't have to do this."
"Someone's got to," I said, "and if someone's got to, it has to be whoever's dragging the group down. Let's face it, that's me. I can't read for traps, I'm not a Jedi or Malcolm Reynold. I'm not even brave, like Delenn is."
"Listy," Mal said, "these bastards are going to eat you alive, and you're offerin' yourself up. Are you sure you know what brave is?"
It wasn't really bravery, in my mind. It was me giving up. I'd figured I was going to die for a while now, and I was surprised it hadn't happened sooner. I'd always gotten by on luck, even on Red Dwarf. I was lucky to find The Doctor, to find these guys. Now my luck had run out. Might as well make the most of my death.
That was when Anakin did something crazy. He went up to me, and gave me the most awkward hug in human history. I dunno what the klingons must've thought of it, but I know what I thought; he wasn't doing it because he liked me.
"We have your back," he whispered, "whether you like it or not. Wait until we fire first, then get behind me."
Oh, that git. Now he had me scared enough to piss myself. It's weird, but I hadn't been scared until he'd told me that. Well, I'd known I was going to die, and if I'd thought more about how they were going to gut me and tear my limbs off and eat me, I might've been real scared. But I hadn't, I'd just thought about saving them. Now I was thinking about the fire fight that was going to start, as I walked right up to the klingon leader.
Delenn marched back past me, then stood behind Anakin, as if she'd heard him. The klingon looked grimly at me as I stood before him, then took out his own knife in his free hand, the blade stained brown. "Your sacrifice will not be forgotten."
I reached for my gun. "Oh, smeg off."
Mal started firing behind me, and he got the leader in the head. The klingon's blood got on my face as he fell. I tore my laser out and fired, but the other klingons were already moving. Maybe they'd seen Mal move, I dunno. One other klingon turned out to have a gun, but when he fired, Anakin deflected his shots.
We were outnumbered. We had nowhere to run. It was smegging chaos.
A klingon ran at me, and I barely shot him before he got me. I backed away, trying to get behind Anakin, still shooting, but most of my shots missed or glanced shoulders. I started counting the klingon that were left, then lost count as I ducked away from another shot, Delenn pulling me into the group.
It wasn't going that badly, at first, but so had my morning in the cube. Anakin kept the klingons and their laser shots from getting too close, and we all stood behind his shield of a sword. The Doctor directed us towards a door, getting us to step back as we faced forward. I kept firing, and at least kept a klingon from trying to get behind us. Mal had better aim than me, and killed even the ones that were bouncing off the walls with speed. We were doing well, almost.
And then it happened.
Somehow, a klingon got behind us, and attacked the one closest to him; The Doctor. He was completely defenseless, struggling to keep a knife out of his face before the klingon punched him, knocking him down. Delenn came up and kicked the klingon back before he could finish the job. I noticed from the corner of my eye, started to aim, then froze up, worrying I might shoot Delenn.
I should have fired. It would've been better than doing what I did, standing there like a dope and watching it happen. I let it happen. I…
I'm sorry. I had to stop for a minute. That moment, it was just seconds, but it was the worst moment of my life. Well, one of many worst moments.
He gut her. She screamed. She fell down. She writhed. She kicked him back, holding the knife in her side. She kept screaming, scooting back, away from that monster. Anakin screamed too, running for her, leaving us without cover.
The Doctor crawled over to Delenn, and then I turned away. I couldn't looking behind me anymore. I shot the other klingons with Mal, instead. I could still hear Delenn, I knew that klingon was still there, but... Anakin was handling it, so I needed to handle the others. That's a dumb excuse, really, but it's all I got. I kept searching for more after we'd shot the last of them, hoping for more, hoping I wouldn't have to look back and deal with what I'd just seen.
"Anakin, don't!"
I looked. The Doctor was holding Delenn up as she sat there, her back against his chest as he inspected her wound. She was staring at the Jedi, who had his lightsaber at the klingon's throat, the klingon's hands in the air for surrender. Anakin didn't look calm or stoic, not this time around. He was furious. And he was… crying.
"I surrender," the klingon said, terrified.
"Don't do it, Anakin," Doc said, his lower lip starting to puff up.
"He tried to kill her," Anakin seethed, teeth grit through his snarl.
"Don't do it, Ani," she pleaded, cringing through pain, "don't do it."
Anakin looked from her to the klingon, confused, angry, vengeful. He was really testing the line between prick and bastard right now, and he knew it. I don't know how, but sometime you can see these things in people's eyes. You didn't need to be a Jedi to sense it. What he wanted to do upset him as much as it upset Delenn.
Someone had to say something. "Ani," I said gently, letting my gun drop from my hands, "think about this. Is this the Jedi way?"
His eyes said no, and it hurt. He hung his head, tears dripping to his chin, and then turned the lightsaber off. He really started crying then, just collapsed right there to his knees.
The klingon stared for a minute, then suddenly lunged, grabbing for Anakin's lightsaber, making him yell. I swear, I just blinked, and the next thing I know the klingon's dead, Mal standing over his body with a smoking gun. Anakin got out from underneath the body in a hurry, then just sat there, staring, crying, gasping, looking like a kid again. I guess he was a kid, for all I knew.
Mal offered him a hand. "Stand up, soldier."
Ani hesitated, then took the hand. "I'm not a soldier," he said as he got up, "I'm a Jedi."
Mal was the stoic one this time. "I can see that."
Delenn cried out in pain, The Doctor calling over her, "I need help!"
We all crowded around her. The knife couldn't stay, we knew that, but pulling it out didn't sound so good either. I wanted to run around the room like a headless chicken, I wanted to just panic. Instead, I sat there and panicked.
"We can't leave it in," Mal said, "but if we take it out, she'll bleed to death."
Delenn was breaking a sweat now, wincing as she breathed. "It, it's too… too deep… you can't—"
"Yes we can," Doc snapped, "you'll be fine. Anakin, there's only one way to stop the bleeding."
Anakin was still trying to sober up, I could tell. He didn't seem quite all there when he grunted, "Whuh?"
"Your lightsaber," Doc explained. "It burns everything it touches. It can burn the wound shut."
Delenn whimpered, just at the idea. I grabbed her arm, and let her grab mine. Damn, did she have a grip.
"He's right," Mal said, "it's her only chance. We'll just have to pra—" he stopped. "Let's hope the knife didn't hit any organs."
"Anakin," The Doctor said, voice rising, "I need you with us. Can you do it?"
"Yeah… yeah, sure I can…"
"Alright," Doc said, "Mal, you pull the knife. I'll hold her down. Dave… keep holding her arm."
I nodded to him, then looked at her. I wanted to say something, like that it'd be over quick and that the boys knew what they were doing. But my throat was dry, and nothing quite came out.
"Delenn," Doc said, "are you ready?"
She looked near tears, not anywhere close to ready. But she nodded all the same, and braced herself. I held her arm, and she held mine tight.
And she hit me with another scream.
