TEN
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The lift opened and Trip stepped out, looking at Archer with such a damning expression that the Captain nearly jerked in surprise.
Then Bahla Nevro stepped out behind him and Archer stood. "Miss Bahla, I don't think this is the place for you right now," he managed, shooting a curious look at his chief engineer.
"Sir, we've hit a problem," Trip warned.
Archer looked at him, noticing the hardened look on his face, and decided he really had to know what the hell had possessed the Commander to bring her to the Bridge with him. He walked over and down the steps to the tactical desk, swinging round and pinning Trip with a dark look, his arms folding over his chest.
"What now?" he asked, fully expecting it to be a male-female problem of the human-Bajoran kind, brought on by a certain Starfleet officer being trapped in cramped conditions with such a stunning alien female. A part of him suddenly wanted to smack the apparent ability to charm just about any female alien he wanted right out of his chief engineer. With a nod toward controlling both jealousy and conduct unbecoming a Starfleet Captain, he straightened his back and waited for the inevitable.
But it was Nevro who stepped forward slightly. "Captain - it's my fault. I should have explained to you before all this started," she said quietly. "But I didn't really have a chance to speak to you."
Archer forced his face to appear more accommodating. "What do you need to explain?"
"The Cardassians have a warrant for myself and my brother. Is that what they said?"
"They did," Archer said suspiciously. "And?"
"And they are real. We are both wanted by Cardassia."
"What for?" Archer snapped.
Nevro looked at her feet, but the way Trip's eyes went to the long flat desk instead of his commanding officer's eyes told Archer all he feared could be correct.
"The warrant says 'murder'," she allowed in a whisper.
Archer stiffened. He looked at the slim, wiry woman in front of him, the one whose eyes had spoken to him the moment he had found her and her delightful children in his cargo bay. He tried to imagine her hurting anyone and found himself at a loss.
"Explain," he demanded.
He could see his engineer's gaze centre back on him but blotted out everything save the lady raising her head to look at him.
"My husband and I were… We were on holiday in Dakhur Province, on Bajor. A beautiful place," she said sadly. "We'd only been married two years. Pell was barely one, back at home with my parents, and it was our first holiday since she'd been born."
Trip risked a step back to give her more room, sensing the undisturbed pain of a woman and not really wanting to be too close when it was poked with a stick.
"We were walking from the shops in a village back to the lodge where we were staying - it couldn't have been more than half an hour's stroll. These men - tall, grey - we'd never seen them before. They came past in a vehicle, calling to us. We thought they wanted directions, so we went to help them."
Archer let his arms drop from the tight clench across him. He took a step toward her slowly.
"They didn't want help. They stopped the cruiser and started offering my husband money. For me. There was a scuffle, a fight… My husband was injured but - but he killed one of them." She paused, swallowing. "And then… then the other shot my husband. He lived long enough to see the inside of the hospital in Dakhur. He died cursing the Cardassians and hoping the Prophets would forgive him for what he had done. But… I know he would do it all again if he had to."
Archer looked at the ceiling, then noticed Trip had stolen another pace backwards. He frowned at him, then reached out and put a hand to Bahla's elbow.
"Look, you don't have to tell--"
"I do. You have to know what happened next," she said clearly, looking at him. He felt the anger in her arm and nodded. She cleared her throat but kept her voice down. "I was arrested. The surviving Cardassian swore that I had killed the fallen man. I was tried in a Cardassian court. They only have one judgement, Captain: guilty. The mere fact that it had been on Bajor, my home, and I was nearly raped by visiting soldiers on shore leave wasn't mentioned. I was convicted, and I was told to expect my execution in a single week."
She waited, but there was no reaction from the Captain.
"So I waited. I was not allowed to write to my child, I was not allowed to ask for help or to say goodbye to anyone. I was supposed to just die quietly." She smiled slightly. "If there's one thing a Bajoran does not do, Captain, it is let anyone separate them from their family. And my husband's brother, Gree, understood his responsibility to his brother's family. He broke into my holding area disguised against the Cardassian guard and we escaped."
"So why is Gree wanted for murder too?" Trip blurted.
She turned and looked at him, her head tilting slightly.
"Because we spent a month looking for the officer who had killed my husband and Gree's brother. And then we went to his barracks and waited for him to enter the drinking establishment. And then Gree held him down while I stabbed him through the heart with the hunting dagger that had been my husband's favourite."
Archer swallowed. Trip paled and looked at his Captain quickly. Nevro simply looked at the floor.
"I don't expect you to understand or condone what I did." She let a small, sad sigh escape her. "But you have to know - I knew my husband from childhood. We were those children who were inseparable in the playground, and then at school, and then university. By the time we were twenty-five there was no-one alive who could have torn us apart. It was the will of the Prophets: we were supposed to be together. We married, we worked side by side, we squabbled and pretended we didn't enjoy it. We had the closest friendship, Captain," she said firmly, looking him in the eye. "He was my best friend, the one person I could trust with my secrets, the one person I could look in the eye and know that he understood my very soul. Have you any idea what that feels like?" she whispered.
Archer held her gaze, immobile. She turned on Trip suddenly, assessed his guilty face and realised that perhaps he understood just a little more than he cared to acknowledge in front of his commanding officer.
She put her hand up to his arm, and Trip dared to look at her. Then he whisked his eyes away quickly, as if they had never encountered hers. Archer watched them, lost. But Nevro turned back to look at the taller Captain.
"So yes, I am wanted for murder. And so is Gree. After we killed him, we fled back to Bajor, collected his daughter, Metarh, and were leaving. Another family decided to come with us, not knowing the real reason why we left."
"So… this pilgrimage?" Archer asked carefully.
"We were heading for the Denorios belt," she allowed. "It is supposed to be where the Prophets' connection is strongest. We want to ask for judgement."
"From your gods?" Trip gasped. "Why?"
"Because they have guided us so far," she shrugged. "They are all we have left."
"All you have left?" Trip spluttered. "After they let those aliens kill your husband and--"
"Commander," she interrupted. "I can see how you would not understand. You don't have faith, therefore you can never understand."
"I used to believe, like you did," he shot back with anger. "And then I was failed."
"Trip," Archer snapped.
"It's a crock, Bahla, all of it," Trip growled. "You pray and pray and then what does God do? He lets people kill your family, that's what he does--"
"Trip!" Archer barked.
But the engineer was not done. "I just don't see how you can believe in these Prophets of yours when they didn't look out for your family and then left you to--"
"Commander! If you want to leave the Bridge, just carry on," Archer seethed.
Trip's mouth hung open, as if the next words couldn't decide whether to come out or not. But then his tongue went over his bottom lip and his eyes slid to the decking between his boots.
"Aye, sir," he managed. He looked up at the Bajoran. "I apologise," he added slowly.
But instead of anger, he saw only sadness in her eyes. "I apologise," she replied quietly. "You have lost someone, lost family, and you still need someone to blame. It's only natural," she allowed.
Archer felt his gaze fall on the woman again, drawn to the wisdom in her voice, the calm look of sadness.
"We're still not handing you over to those Cardassians," he said firmly.
Trip looked up swiftly and the bob of fairer hair caught Archer's attention.
"Now hold on a minute, Cap'n," he said quickly, his hands up in surrender. "We're not handing them over if these people have a real warrant?"
Nevro let her head hang, floating a step backwards. Archer drew himself up, eyeing his engineer and friend with a decidedly warning glint in his brown eyes.
"No, we're not," he confirmed.
"Look, I don't like 'em any more than you do, but are we really supposed to be annoying alien peace officers who have the right paperwork?" Trip asked reasonably. The absolute calm in his voice made Archer's hackles rise further.
"You were only too willing to shove both searching peace officers out the airlock earlier on, Commander," he reminded him crisply.
"That's before I knew they had warrants for escaped prisoners," Trip countered.
Archer bit back his caustic reply. He looked at Nevro for a long moment. "Would you excuse us, please?" he asked quietly.
She looked up and met his eyes, nodding quickly. She turned and decided to aim for the turbolift, until she realised Hoshi was waving a hand at her. She changed course and ended up by her console. Hoshi patted the seat next to her and Nevro sat warily.
Archer pulled his gaze from the elegant woman and shoved it full-force back on the younger man. Trip had his hand on the tactical desk, leaning on it and looking like he was ready to unleash a little stress.
"Explain yourself, Commander. Make it good," he hissed.
Trip looked at him and drew in a slight breath first. "All I'm saying is - well, do we really just let them go? After what they did?" he asked carefully. His gaze darted from one of his Captain's eyes to the other as his voice lowered to prevent the entire Bridge hearing them. "I mean, come on, they killed a man. Between them. Planned it, did it, saw it through with purpose. What does that make them?"
"She's not some raving psychotic killer," Archer snapped.
"I can see that. All I'm saying is, should they be allowed to get away with it?"
Archer stared at him openly for a moment. Then he took a deep breath, straightening his shoulders. "They think they're off to receive judgement from the ultimate higher power in their religion. Doesn't that show they're offering to atone?"
"To who? Some non-existent gods hanging round some Denorios belt?" Trip snapped. "So I could just go sauntering off into Xindi space, plan the murder of whichever bastard that set off that weapon, frying millions of people including my sister, go back to Earth and tell people, hey, it's ok, I'm just going to ask God if he wants to strike me down with lightning for what I did?"
Archer's hand came up and grabbed the younger man's upper arm in a painfully tight grip. He dragged him closer, his eyes seething anger at him.
"One of the luxuries of being Captain is that you don't judge anyone's religion," he hissed. "Whether or not these gods of theirs exist is not our concern. The fact that she believes they do, and is actively seeking their punishment, should point to a certain amount of guilt over what she did."
Trip pulled his arm free with a slight tug, watching him.
"Tell me this, Trip," Archer added, much more controlled, "what if that Xindi responsible had been arrested and brought to Earth just two weeks after the attack? What if he'd been stood right in front of you at the queue for the shuttle. What would you have done? Ignored him? Walked away?"
Trip stared back at the Captain with a look Archer had seen only a few times before. It had chilled his soul then, just as it did now.
"No, didn't think so," Archer allowed quietly. "But then, if you had, you wouldn't have been the human I know."
The engineer looked away, rolling his eyes to the ceiling.
It was silent a long moment until Archer cleared his throat. "So no, we're not taking them back to the Cardassians. Even if they have a warrant. Because that's not justice."
Trip avoided his gaze, shaking his head slightly.
"We will keep them here on board while their ship is repaired and we outrun the Cardassians, Commander. Those are my express orders."
"Yes sir," Trip nodded, but it was entirely too professional for Archer's liking. The Captain let himself sigh on the inside. He opened his mouth but a new voice entered the fray.
"Captain?" Hoshi's voice floated over the Bridge. The two men looked up and turned to see her worrying over something on her screen.
"What is it, Ensign?"
"You might want to see some of the information I found in the Vulcan database on the Cardassian judicial system - such as it is."
Archer gave Trip one more warning glance before striding past him and over to Hoshi's station. He put a hand on the railing and peered down to the details on the screen. His eyes skimmed down and his face began to drain of colour. He straightened slowly, looking at Nevro.
"If I wasn't sure before, I certainly am now," he breathed. "We're keeping you out of their hands."
Nevro nodded, but she seemed a little wary. Archer looked over at Trip. He had both hands on the tactical console, his head dangling on his neck in a way that suggested to his Captain that he was not at all swayed by direct orders.
"Commander Tucker," he called, prepared for a face-off.
But Trip didn't look up from the desk. "We should just take them back to Bajor - let their own people sort it out," he sighed. "But we can't even do that, can we?" he added with a large dollop of resignation.
Archer nodded his thanks at Hoshi before walking back over. "Thoughts?" he dared.
Trip tilted his head to glance at him from the corner of his eye and Archer appreciated the effort to look at him.
"If they believe we actually have them on board, Cap'n? They'll work out we're takin' them home. Then it won't matter what fancy angles or engine colours we make, they'll just head off to Bajor. And if they have real warrants, the Bajoran government or whatever will have to hand them over."
"What if… we're far from here, on the way to the Denorios belt, and we set them free in their sailship? I didn't see them, you didn't see them, they were never here."
"If those are your orders," Trip allowed. He hissed out a long sigh. "I'd better go check on the repairs then, see about speeding them up."
"Commander," Archer said quickly, and he stopped to look back at him. "Just… look at this as if I had to keep you from being arrested by Xindi authorities. We may have fooled the Cardassians for long enough to get clear of them. The plan's working. For now."
"And if it doesn't?" he asked wearily.
Archer considered for a moment. "We still have two of his men to bargain with."
"And you think I have a vicious streak," Trip snorted, turning and walking off.
Bahla looked at Archer, getting to her feet and crossing toward him. "I have brought so much trouble down on you all," she acknowledged. "Please forgive me."
"It seems to me," he said slowly, "that a while ago you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. And it also seems to me that we were in the right place at the right time to help you. If we hadn't come by, who would have rescued you?"
She smiled slightly, stopping in front of him. "The Prophets."
"And they wouldn't have made it necessary for us to change course around a gas giant and just happen to be in range of your distress beacon?" he smiled.
Bahla shook her head, smiling widely. She looked up at him. "You have a way with words, Captain."
"Jonathan," he admitted quietly.
She folded her arms slowly. "Then you must call me Nevro."
"Then… As long as we're making good time away from the Cardassians, now would be a good chance to go be with your children," he nodded.
"Thank you." She turned to go. "Oh, I don't wish to appear rude, but… would you have food to spare?"
"Spare?" he prompted, then shook himself, remembering the size of their craft. "Yes - of course. I'll have T'Pol take you down to the Me--." He stopped abruptly as the casual swing of his head took in the empty chair at the science station. "I mean, ah… I'll have someone take you down to the Mess Hall."
She turned to see where he had looked, and then back to him. "Oh. Your injured crewmember. I feel so bad about all this, Jonathan."
"Don't. She'll be fine," he asserted. "Assuming this goes to plan… would you and your family enjoy dinner at the Captain's table?" he asked quietly.
Her smile came out again and she regarded him with warm eyes. "I would like that, Jonathan. We would like that," she added.
"Well then. Let's just hope we outrun these Cardassians."
"Yes. Let's."
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