Disclaimer: See Chapter 1. Thank you so much to Fameanon and jackiemack916 for reviewing!
A watery, dim light crept across the floor of the cave, and Sopek sighed as the morning officially arrived. He slowly uncovered their heads and was hit with a wave of cold air, but it was best to get moving as soon as possible. He had no idea where his team was, if they were injured or captured, and the sooner he returned to camp and investigated their whereabouts, the sooner he could return Celia to his ship and begin the investigation into her court martial.
The woman in question groaned as she lifted herself up off his body, and he found he missed the warmth. However, the...incident last night came to mind (rather uncomfortably) as the cold air drifted down his body. She slipped off of him and walked a little ways away to yawn and stretch, using a soldier's mentality of get-up-and-go. He took the opportunity to move to the back of the cave with his now dry but cold clothes, where he found a handy nook in the wall, and several stones.
He slipped out of his soiled undergarment and buried it beneath the stones, then dressed himself, ignoring the way his pants outlined his body more explicitly.
Celia was scattering the ashes of the fire when he returned (she had already folded the blankets and put them in the pack, and seeing as her knife was no longer on the floor, he concluded she had put that away as well), and he flushed as her eyes drifted downward over his body with an approving glance. Pink splotches spread over her cheeks as her eyes found his pants, and he could have sworn he saw her eyes darken before she glanced away.
"Water?" she asked, picking up the pack and holding it up to him. He shook his head.
"No, I am adequate." He strolled to the mouth of the cave, gazing out into the fog. "We are north of the camp, are we not?"
Celia stepped up beside him and examined their surroundings with him. "I tried to walk due north, and I didn't walk more than a kilometer away from the treeline. Then we went westward and crossed the river. If we go south again, then cross at the other ford, and pray it's not flooded, then go east and south, we should hit the treeline, right?"
"Correct," he replied. "Do you have the pack?"
She retrieved it and slung it onto her back. "Ready when you are, captain."
He nodded and set off into the fog, her light footsteps on his heels. Landmarks were shrouded in mist, so their pace was slower than before. He carefully led her around most of the pitfalls and roots on the ground, and after an hour of trudging through underbrush (the previous night's trek was half that), they reached the river.
Foaming, it roared below them, but Celia slipped down the bank and tossed a stone in.
"Too deep," she growled, backing away from the edge. "This river loops eastward further south, and circles around the capital before going west again. There's another ford south of here."
"Then we make for it. Vulcans are not accomplished mariners."
She smirked. "I thought you looked a tad uncomfortable yesterday. If it's any consolation, I don't like fording rivers any more than you do."
They continued south along the riverbank, and the fog slowly thinned as the sun arched higher in the sky.
"So," she said after several minutes of silence. "Do you think your crewmates got away?"
He looked at her in surprise. He had said nothing of going back to the camp to retrieve his comrades, but she seemed to know what they were doing.
"You're a captain, you want to look out for your crew. I understand that. How many people were on your assault team?"
Sopek blinked. "There were three others. Two males and a female."
"I'll keep my eyes peeled, then."
He winced. "That does not sound very pleasant."
She glanced back at him with a smirk that made his gut lurch. "It's an expression, Blue Eyes."
He blinked again, staring at her with a steady gaze until she blushed and looked away. He sighed and continued down the rocky slope.
…
"I've got a bad feeling about this," she whispered.
They were fifty meters from the camp, and Sopek said he could not hear any voices or movement inside the walls. Some portions of the wall were little more than rumble, but the dust had settled with the rain, and all that could be heard was a mournful dripping sound. The fog had cleared in this area, but it still lingered behind them in the jungle.
"It is very possible that my crewmates have escaped, or returned to the ship. I need to find a communicator. I lost it in the firefight."
"Ok," she replied, and she steeled herself as they passed underneath the gate. The camp was in ruins: barrels were toppled over, hunks of the wall obscured their path, everything was dusty.
She could smell the stench of burning metal and decaying flesh, and the odor hung over the compound, an inescapable smell of death. Overhead, she noted carrion birds flying in tight circles.
She paused and touched Sopek's arm, indicating he should stop. Her eyes burned with the onset of tears, and she took a deep breath before she spoke.
"Look, I think this isn't going to be pretty. I just want you to know...I'm sorry. I never wanted anyone to die on my behalf."
"Your compassion is noted, Celia," he said softly. "And as for my comrades, they died doing their duty." He continued searching through the rubble, and it wasn't until she touched his arm that he looked up.
"Sopek, turn around and look back at the gates."
He obeyed, turning slowly, and his heart pounded in horror. Three of his crew, V'Rea, Merak, and Zymel, were hung, as if from gibbets, from the top of the gate. V'Rea was naked, and his male comrades were stripped at the waist. What skin was bare was covered in whip marks, and white-hot anger roiled in his gut at the sight.
Celia jarred him from his fury, placing her delicate hand on his shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Sopek," she whispered, tears tumbling down her cheeks. He frowned in amazement; she had never met his crewmates, yet she mourned for them like they were old friends. He gently placed his hand over hers and closed his eyes.
"We should...release them."
Celia ran to one of the bunkers and returned with blankets, and she pulled a Vulcan communicator out of her pocket and handed it to him. "Found this in the bunker," she murmured. With tears obscuring her vision, she approached the Vulcan female and wrapped her body in one of the blankets. When Sopek looked at her in confusion, she muttered something about preserving their dignity.
"What are your people's burial customs, Sopek? I think we can take them to the transport site if you want."
She composed herself, even if V'Rea's limp form made her want to vomit in horror. She covered the body with the coverlet and reverently laid the corpse on the ground.
She looked down as she made to help Sopek move the men. There were drag marks in the dirt. "Sopek, I don't think Andorians did this." She pointed at the boot marks on either side of the drag marks. "That's a Coridan bootprint, and there..."
She pointed to another footprint. "That's human. This was a set-up, Sopek. They wanted us to think Andorians were responsible, but this could be a trap. We need to hurry."
"We will take the bodies to Vulcan," he said, his voice subdued, his anger not abating even though the enemy had changed. He took out Merak's communicator and hailed the N'Var.
"Three to beam directly to sickbay," he said, knowing his tone of voice would convey what had happened. "Inform Dr. Kival that he should prepare for three autopsies."
"And what of you, Osu? And the human?"
"I will contact you again soon. I need to know who did this."
"Understood."
The communicator went off, and he placed it on Merak's body, then backed a good distance away. Once the bodies were gone, he turned to Celia. He froze when he felt a weapon pressed into the back of his head, and he looked at his new comrade, hoping she wouldn't fight and be killed too. There was a time for that, and at this moment, it was time to cooperate.
"Drop the communicator, Vulcan," a masculine voice growled in his ear, and he obeyed.
"Well, look what the logical imp found. We thought we'd lost you during our search, but like a good little Vulcan, you came back to get your friends. And you brought us some entertainment." The man chuckled. "Would you like to watch while we have some fun? Your friends weren't nearly as entertaining. Didn't even squeal when we whipped them. But this one...she'll squeal."
"You will not harm her," he said stiffly, controlling his emotions. "And you will not harm me."
"Look, I'm unarmed," Celia interjected. "Ready for all the fun you want to have. Hell, I'm already half naked. He didn't do anything, he's not involved with anything, and he won't tell anyone. Take his gun, send him on his way."
She stepped forward, keeping an eye out for the others, knowing full well this soldier wasn't alone. "Look, Sopek, I told you...I'm not going with you to your ship."
She dove at the man with the gun to Sopek's neck. She swiftly cut his wrist with her boot knife so he'd drop his gun. He swung and connected a blow to her face with his other hand. She used the inertia to roll him on top of her, and she heard the phase pistol fire and wincing at the blood and spit of the attacker that splattered onto her face. She grabbed his pistol and rolled out from under him, praying Sopek was on the move too.
Sopek moved when she did, attacking the man to the left. He ducked, avoiding the phaser fire by an inch, then launched himself at the man. He managed to deliver a hard blow to his face, then disable him with nueropressure. He picked up the man's phaser and twisted around, quickly shooting down the other assailants. The camp fell silent, but he knew there might be others, waiting in the wings to fight.
He grabbed Celia's hand and ran out the gate, and he ran with all haste towards the transport sight, which was several blocks away. She was panting beside him, but kept pace, and he glanced back to make sure they weren't being pursued.
Only two men were running after them, and they aimed their guns to shoot. He pushed Celia against the wall and shot one down, then grabbed her arm and kept going. Only a block from the transport coordinates.
Celia gasped, and he spared her a brief glance, but he could not tell what was wrong. She kept going, increasing her pace even, and he hurtled ahead with her.
Phaser fire whizzed past his head, and he knew he couldn't shoot blindly behind him, in case a civilian was in the way. Half a block.
Celia was slowing her pace, but he tugged her along. dragging her behind a dumpster. He peered through the gloom and saw their remaining pursuer dive behind a broken wall.
He glanced over at her once he fired off a few more shots, and he noted she was sweaty, clammy and pale. It struck him as wrong, as did her panting. She may have been thin, but she wasn't out of shape.
"Celia?" He began his inquiry into her well-being, but his attention was stolen away when the metal of the dumpster sparked with a shot from the Coridan's phaser fire.
He poked his head above the dumpster and quickly memorized the flimsy barricade the enemy had thrown themselves behind, and he turned to his comrade.
"If I fire at the bricks above their heads," she said, and he nodded quickly, comprehending her plan and moving himself to a better position.
"One...two...three."
They both stood and fired on their targets, and the flimsy, crumbling wall crumbled onto their pursuers just as Sopek stunned the two of them. A tad redundant, he mused, but effective.
He was about to move out of position and see if the Coridans were alive, but Celia collapsed onto the ground, bringing his attention sharply back to the human. Her eyes were glazed with pain, and he quickly dropped the Coridan phaser and pulled her into his arms.
"Celia," he breathed, pushing her hair out of her face. He could feel the burnt fabric of her tank top and the angry welts beneath it.
"I got injured," she said with some effort, wincing as he drew her closer. "Otherwise...we make a pretty good team, don't we?"
"Indeed, we do," he replied gently, and his breath hitched in her throat when she did not reply. "Celia, stay with me. Ka'i, ashaya, pen-nil-bek..." I am here, just a moment...the words spilled from his mouth, and he reached out and cupped her cheek as she started blinking rapidly, as if fighting to stay awake.
"Sopek to Ni'Var, two to beam directly to sickbay."
"Understood, captain."
"Celia...stay with me..."
He kept his gaze locked on her clouded green eyes as he felt the sensation of dissolving into thin air, and he saw her smile at him as her eyes slid shut.