Archer sourly reflected that whatever else the terrorists could be accused of, proscratination was not one of them. The executions were happening around the same time every day, as if the terrorists were punching the clock. As if on cue, the images of the Vulcan ships, the Andorian ship and what was left of Sterth Vega III flickered on the main screen, then went dark. Everyone on the bridge held their breath. They knew too well what would come next.
Once again, Archer wondered if perhaps they should leave the bridge and let the executions happen without having to witness them. It was not helping anything and it was just making the bridge crew depressed, tense and anxious. Once again he came back to the same inescapable fact, that Enterprise needed to be manned and some skeleton bridge crew was necessary, which at the very least meant the Captain. As Commander Kyres had said, they needed to be with their crews. He had been very clear that, apart from the few who regrettably had to remain on the bridge, everyone else was free to step off and not have to witness the killings. T'Pol included. He was still waiting for the first one to take him up on the offer.
The screen came back to life with an image they had become uncomfortably familiar with. The camera was pointed to the doors leading into the shooting range.
xx
The door opened and a couple was shoved in, surrounded by a group of Andorian guards. Archer stared in tense expectation. Were they going to kill the couple? Then he noticed the small child with them, no more than five years old, and his heart twisted in his chest. They were going to kill a family? He glanced over at T'Pol who was staring at the screen without any expression. Actually her lack of expression was borderline terrifying in itself.
Not a sound could be heard on the bridge. Two Andorians walked to the couple and one of them grabbed the child by the arm, his mother making a vain attempt to hold on to him before one of the terrorists pushed her back roughly with a rifle at her throat. Her husband was visibly talking to her, though they could not hear was he was saying.
The terrorist walked the child to the steel pole at the end of the room, made him turn to face the rocket propeller and clipped his arms in the restraints. He kneeled and briefly talked to the boy, whose eyes were wide as saucers.
Archer didn't remember getting up but he was already standing in front the screen, not believing what he was saying. Were they going to kill the kid? They were not, were they? They couldn't be. He turned to look at the bridge crew, seeing the truth in their reflected horror. He saw Trip looking fixedly at T'Pol, as if he were projecting his thoughts to her, then turn back to look at the unfolding scene.
On the screen, the same slow reveal they had already seen three times showed the rocket propeller coming into view with the small child looking even smaller in front of the steel pole. That would be when Rel stepped in front of the cameras to give variants of his first speech. But Rel didn't come into view. Instead, fragments of voices were heard, though nothing seemed to be happening.
Hoshi leaned into her headphones trying to use her acute hearing to get a sense of what was said. "The parents are trying to get the leader of the terrorists to choose one of them instead" T'Pol's voice cut through Hoshi's intent focus and she turned towards her, somewhat abashedly. She should have known that T'Pol with her Vulcan hearing could hear more of the conversation, especially when it was in her native language. T'Pol's face remained impassive. She could have been discussing the lifecycle of fruit flies. T'Pol's equanimity prevented Hoshi from being overwhelmed by what was happening, and she realized that there was some use to controlling one's emotions.
Suddenly some kind of commotion could be heard off-screen and everyone tensed. There was the sound of a door opening, rapid footsteps. Was it a fight? Were the parents fighting with the terrorists? Archer knew he would have, if it were his child. It wouldn't matter if he was going to die as a result.
Silence fell. The camera didn't waver from the lone small child lashed to the pole. Hoshi's heart broke. The poor kid probably had no idea what was going on. He must be terrified and now they were making him wait. This was pure torture, cruel beyond measure.
xx
"The Empress wants to talk to you!" Oryl rushed into the shooting range, talking to Rel without saluting him first. Rel looked at Oryl. The parents were trying to plead for their kid's life, offering themselves in exchange. But the kid was the one he wanted. That would be certain to drive the Vulcans berserk.
In the meantime, he couldn't ignore a call from the Empress. No Andorian of old ever would have. "I'll be back" he told the Followers in the shooting range. They would keep an eye on the cur and his parents but the pleasure of talking directly with the Empress would be his, and his alone. He chased everyone off the operations room, made sure nobody else was in there with him, that he would be the only one she saw.
When her image appeared on the screen, surrounded by her closest aides, he fell to one knee throwing a fist forward, in the manner of the ancient Andorian salute. "Rel Thoor-Ukh, I see you. Please rise." The Empress had talked to him. She knew him. By name. Rel's heart felt like he was flying over the ices of Andoria.
Once the short communication ended, the Empress turned to Okassehr Ch'Erhitrit , her most trusted advisor. "He's a madman!" Okassehr said in a whisper. She inclined her head gravely "and that makes him even more dangerous" she softly replied. "Let us know if he did as we asked."
xx
Rel walked back into the shooting range. He didn't like the Empress interfering with his plans but he was willing, this one time, to do as she asked. This one time only. He stared at the child's parents. It wouldn't be the same but it would still have a lot of shock value. Rel motioned to one of his men. The terrorist slowly walked back to where the child was and released the restraints. He then guided the child back, his hand on the child's shoulder quickly shaken off by the boy.
Archer felt the collective sigh of relief from his crew. A part of him was wondering whether they had simply been trying to scare the child or the parents. He was hoping that this was the one time the Leader was going to not execute anyone. Commander Kyres had contacted him while they were all waiting in front of a still image, to let Enterprise and the Federation know the reason for the interruption in the execution was the intervention of the Empress herself, trying to avert an atrocity.
As the child neared the area where the terrorists and his parents were, Rel motioned with his chin and two Andorians grabbed the mother's arms. She struggled out of their grip, talking to Rel. Her husband took a step towards her, and she stopped him with a hand on his chest. After a few seconds, she turned back to stare darkly at Rel, then looked at her husband and walked past Rel to her child.
She knelt in front to him, crossing her wrists in the family embrace. Imitating her gesture, he touched his fingertips to her and they stayed there, silently hugging, until a guard came to roughly hoist her to her feet. She freed herself from his grip, looked down at her child then at her husband, and walked to the pole, where she turned and stared at the rocket propeller. The guard next to her made a motion for the restraints then seemed to think better of it and walked back to where the child was, grabbing him by the arm to make him stand-up. His father took a step towards them and was met with a barrage of weapons raised at him.
Rel walked to the child and turned him so that he was facing his mother.
A flame shot out of the rocket propeller and she was pulverized.
The boy limply fell to his knees, arms hanging loose at his sides as if the weight of the universe had just descended onto him. The leader roughly brought him up and pushed him towards his father, who was staggering. The terrorists escorted them out and the execution room stood empty once again.
xx
The silence on the bridge was deafening. Archer saw Hoshi had both hands covering her mouth and the shocked horror she was feeling. Travis had gone two shades of pale. Archer didn't want to turn around and look at T'Pol. He glanced over at Reed, frozen in a perfectly rigid Englishman stance. Next to him, Trip was once again looking fixedly at T'Pol. Archer found a measure of comfort in that, perhaps he was sending her subliminal messages.
He himself was not sure about his voice. "Hoshi" he was half-surprised that his voice sounded normal, he had expected to squeak a couple of octaves higher than usual. Archer cleared his throat "Get me a patch to Starfleet. ASAP. I'll take it in my ready room."
He didn't know what Starfleet was doing, but they'd better find a way to put a stop to this. Archer stepped down from his command chair, realized belatedly that put him straight in front of T'Pol. "I am sorry" he said. Uncharacteristically, she didn't reply that he had nothing to be sorry for, and once again Archer found the utter lack of emotion on her face absolutely terrifying. He glanced at Trip, who was still staring fixedly at T'Pol. Hopefully, whatever they had going on was keeping the storm at bay.
As he took the remaining steps to his ready room, he called behind him "Oh, and Hoshi, make sure to send the tapes to Starfleet also."
The emptiness of the room was a welcome respite. He sat at his desk, breathing hard, waiting to calm down, hopefully in time for the call with Starfleet, or he swore whichever Admiral called him was in for an earful.
