Heroes
At the swish of a door, Gaila hurriedly tried to stow the evidence of comm-tampering under the table.
"Hey, do you need any food or..." Bill's eyes widened. "What are you doing with-"
Davara quickly grabbed him and pulled him into the room, pressing him against the wall and closing off any chance to raise an alarm by covering his mouth with hers. Bill twisted for a moment in surprised protest, but it was a pretty brief struggle. Davara had his leg pinned between her thighs and after she ground her hips a little, he didn't seem to be trying too hard to get away.
By the time she let him up for air, Gaila and Maras had flanked him on either side. He looked from one to the other, a dazed grin beginning to slip as worry crept onto his face.
"Bill," Gaila whispered, leaning against his shoulder. "We need some help."
"Please." He closed his eyes and blew out a deliberate breath. "I can't."
Maras tangled his other arm with hers and nibbled his earlobe. "Oh, but you can."
"No. Really." He tried to move but quickly found that three Orion women made a pretty convincing barricade. "I can't...please...the Chief would have have my balls for earrings."
Davara slid a hand down to his hip. "I could do much better things to them."
Bill bit his lip, making a noise suspiciously close to a whimper.
"It's okay," Gaila explained, slipping a hand into his pocket. "We're going to rescue Cmdr. Giotto."
"So if you help, you'll be a hero," Maras added, probing the opposite pocket.
Davara slid her hand into his back pocket and smiled seductively. "Everyone loves a hero."
.
.
"Do you think you're some kind of hero?" Zhal roared, heaving Giotto at the wall.
He hit it hard and barely got his good arm up to block before the Klingon was on him again. Zhal had taken his measure as a fighter by now and wasn't leaving many openings. The fact that Sam's vision was still blurred and one shoulder wasn't working, didn't help matters. He ducked and turned, but a wave of vertigo skewed his balance before he could throw a kick.
Zhal countered immediately, forcing him backward against a bench and pinning him down with a forearm across the throat. "I should kill you."
"Go ahead," Giotto whispered evenly. He'd worn red far too long to be bothered by death threats and since losing Maria the prospect of death had mattered even less. If Zhal followed through, he'd fight with whatever he had left, but they couldn't get information from a dead man, so either way, he'd win.
"Stop it!" Talas shouted.
Zhal glared at her, but let up a little, sneering. "A man who curses like a Klingon should fight better."
"'It's easier to defend with two hands than one'," Giotto retorted. If throwing a quote from Kahless in a Klingon's face didn't earn a knock out, nothing would.
"No," Talas warned.
Zhal hit him anyway, but altered the blow to impact just below the ribcage.
Frak. Giotto collapsed against the bench and rolled to the side. Provoking a Klingon probably hadn't been an optimal strategy. However Sam knew his strengths - he could hold up to a beating more easily than he could hold out against Talas' approach to interrogation.
Besides, when she'd finally unbound him from the platform, he'd had to make an attempt. Considering that he wasn't exactly in peak condition, he hadn't done that badly - there was dark blood at the corner of Zhal's mouth, further proof that his Orion appearance was purely cosmetic.
Talas pulled Zhal away. "I could've handled him," she hissed under her breath and jerked her head to the side, a signal for her partner to leave.
The fake Orion cast a final glare before moving away, leaving Talas to smooth the scrap of filigree that passed for a dress and mutter something about working with amateurs.
Giotto suppressed a smile. He'd been on both sides of interrogations before and had initially distracted himself from her more obvious qualities by analyzing her technique. Talas wasn't an expert, but she certainly wasn't an amateur.
"It's alright, Rumplestiltskin, I understand," she murmured, gliding toward him in cloud of pheromones. "You're a fighter..."
Sam coughed, fighting an urge to laugh. Zhal had apparently decided it wasn't worth the time to check a name that sounded too odd to be an alias.
"...you had to try." Her fingers ran tentatively along his shoulder. "But I know that you wouldn't have hurt me."
Don't bet on it. You were just the best obstacle I had to throw at Zhal. He didn't say it. Chances were slim that anyone knew where he was and slimmer still that they'd come for him even if they did know. If he was going to get out of this, he was going to need to get her to drop her guard again.
Giotto closed his eyes against the dizzy feeling that came with trying to sit up. Any time after he could see straight again would be fine.
.
.
Gaila slipped Bill's comm back in his pocket. "There, see? Granger doesn't even have to know." She patted his cheek. "Provided you don't tell her anything."
"You are evil and insane." His raised his eyebrows, a corner of his mouth twisting upward. "I probably shouldn't find that quite so hot."
"Trust me, you should." It was nice to be appreciated for a change. She grinned slyly. "Now, I just need the code to get into the garage, a tricorder and three or four phasers - unless you have any sonic grenades?"
"Gaila, I can't -"
"Fine." She waved a hand, pacing back toward comm. "No grenades; I'll just have to be more careful using phasers on overload."
"That's not what I meant. I can't let you - mmphf! ...Mmm..."
"Go alone, right?" Davara asked once she let him breath again. "That's so brave of you!"
Bill puffed a laugh, shaking his head. "Well, if the Chief catches me, I'm going to die anyway..."
Almost on cue, the door swished open again and Jedali stopped short of trying another diversion when Ama walked in, followed closely by Granger.
"Commander, I've looked through suspect lists and helped you make a picture of that big man at the club," Ama was saying. She hardly missed a beat upon seeing Bill pressed to wall by Davara and Maras. "And my daughters are entertaining your agents. Now, could you please tell us what you've heard about Samuel?"
Bill immediately extracted himself, blushing furiously. "Ma'am, I just came in to ask if they wanted anything."
"Really?" His CO arched a skeptical eyebrow, obviously not buying the idea that what they'd wanted was him.
"It's not -" he began, but the jury-rigged comm chose that moment to broadcast a burst of static.
"What," the Commander demanded, turning with a dangerous look in her eye, "was that?"
Chastity. This was not in the plan. "Ma'am, -"
The woman looked around her before she could finish, eyes lighting on the rewired comm. "You tried to hack my comm system. Do you have any idea how serious this is? I ought to bust you down to..." she paused, mouth forming a thin line, "There is nothing lower than Cadet, which leaves-"
"Don't you yell at my daughter!" Ama cut in firmly, glaring at the Commander. "You're the one who's been keeping us in the dark."
Granger opened her mouth, ready to snap back, when the comm chirped again. She paused, then nodded almost to herself. "Giotto always did ...dislike... withholding information from people it touched directly."
Ama's brows drew downward. "Have you heard anything about him?"
"I'm sorry," Granger replied solemnly. "The situation isn't promising. I can't tell you more than that."
"You can; you just won't!" Jedali stomped her foot. "You know where he is, but some dumbass Ambassador won't let you get him!"
The Commander's eyebrows shot up. "How...?" Her eyes slid back to Gaila. "You didn't just try to hack my comm - you actually did."
"Yes, ma'am." She lifted her chin proudly. If you were going to get busted for something, it should at least be for succeeding at it.
Granger studied her suspiciously. "What else have you done?"
Gaila took a deep breath. Jim said it was 'easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask permission' and he seemed to have a lot of experience when it came to begging for forgiveness, so she hoped he was right. "Well, I made a couple comms..."
.
.
"You've fought so hard, " Talas crooned, drawing closer. "Even for people who've abandoned you..."
People I ordered to leave. Giotto grimaced, breathing through a spasm of pain as fading adrenaline brought abused muscles back to his attention.
"You must feel so alone..." A wave of pheromones washed over him as she wrapped her arms around him ...which did take his mind off the pain...
Focus, Sam. He exhaled slowly and smiled to himself noting the irony - Gaila had unwittingly given him an excellent refresher course on resisting pheromones.
Talas stroked his hair, clasping his head against her chest. "Let me help."
Damn. She wasn't nearly as well endowed as Navesh, but Sam did not find this development at all helpful. Smothered by pheromones and Orion cleavage might not be the worst way to go, but on the off chance that there was an afterlife, it wasn't a demise that he wanted to have to explain to Maria.
He pushed away and tried to stand, but his legs didn't seem to be cooperating. Not good. Giotto knew only too well that the human body would only take so much abuse before it told the brain to shove off and went on strike for better working conditions. However, if something below the waist was going to stop responding right now, it shouldn't be his legs.
"What's the matter?" Talas settled onto his lap, wrapping her arms around his neck.
Sam mentally recited every Klingon curse word he knew. This was not going make getting up, at least in the sense of getting off the bench, any easier. She was in the wrong position to try to pull her off with his good arm, so he used it to reach under her knees and shift her off.
Talas laughed, holding onto his neck so that without his other arm to use as a brake, he had to lean into her. "That's more like it." Soft lips moved below his ear as a hand drifted down to his thigh. "...tell me want you want..."
"I want..." he cleared his throat, catching her hand before it moved any farther. "Water." Preferably with a lot of ice, but anything that would make her let go and take her pheromones elsewhere for a bit would do.
He could feel her smile. "See? You can talk to me." Talas rose, fingers trailing along his chest. "I'll be back with some water, Rumplestiltskin, and then we can talk some more."
Rumplestiltskin. Sam concentrated levering himself off the bench. He was not going to die with that name.
.
.
"YOU DID WHAT?"
Gaila tried not to wince. Apparently being able to yell really loud was a requirement for command. "I didn't identify myself. I just left a message for Rafhit saying my friends and I were having a party in the cabin down the road from his and he and whoever was there with him were welcome to come join us."
"So you put him on notice that someone knew the cabin wasn't empty." Granger's mouth formed a thin line. "Cadet, I don't know if Giotto is still alive, but if you've spooked them, he won't be for much longer."
"They'll never hear about it, Commander." Gaila frowned. As if she was that stupid. "Rafhit's a Councilman, so he'll get a lot of invitations like that and he's not going to comm the cabin to tell them."
Granger raised an eyebrows. "Why not?"
"Because I had a friend call the Councilman's office pretending to be a reporter who wanted a comment on the rumor that he was connected to the bombing at the club. You know how the Orion news is - big stories are big profit and reporters have no problem skirting the law to get them." Gaila smirked. "Rafhit may be a filthy snarga, but he's not stupid. He'll assume the call was meant to flush him out and that he's being watched and his comms are bugged. Plus a lot of reporters sideline as informants for the Syndicate. He'll want to claim ignorance of anything that happens there."
"Like a raid that looks like a Syndicate hit..." Granger mouth had twisted into a grudging smile, but she gave Gaila a hard look. "You weren't planning to do that on your own, were you?"
Ama's eyes widened. "Gaila..."
She looked down. It was a simple plan. Hack the security system. Scan for human life signs. Take out everything in the house that wasn't near Giotto. Stun anyone who was. It hadn't seemed like such a bad idea, at least when her mother and Cmdr. Granger weren't staring at her like that.
"Um," Bill stepped forward uneasily, "not entirely on her own."
"Are you insane?" Granger rounded on him. "Keeping her away from those people is the reason Giotto was taken and the reason he is probably holding out against the sort of interrogation that you're clearly not ready to withstand." Her eyes narrowed. "You are off field duty."
"They're not enemy agents," Bill protested. "I admit, I might have...slipped a little, but Gaila had a really good plan."
"Which is why you should have brought it to me instead of acting on your own," Granger snapped. "We have protocol for a reason and you will learn to follow it before I let you out of this office again." She turned to Gaila. "It is a good plan and that is the only reason that I'm not going to throw the book at you."
"Thank you, ma'am." Gaila drew to attention and bit her cheeks to contain a hopeful smile. "Does that mean we're going to go get him?"
"No. I am going to go get him." She fixed Gaila with a stern look. "You are going to stay here and not disobey any more orders. Am I clear?"
"Crystal, ma'am." Gaila told herself it for the best. Granger was obviously in a mood to do serious damage to someone. She probably wouldn't even need grenades.
AN: Many thanks as always to my great beta Artemiis Boz.
I hope no one is disappointed that Gaila is not going to go kick Klingon butt in person. She may be a genius with tech and devious plans, she's only had about a year of Academy training. This raid should be handled by pros, especially since Giotto figures he's on his own and is bound to do something that will complicate the rescue.
Don't worry, Gaila will still have role to play.
Please r&r
