"What did you say?"
The inmate turned to Hoshi to confirm the rumor that had spread like wildfire in the line snaking down to the food tables "There will be an inspection tomorrow."
Hoshi's heart sank. Inspections were long draw-out affairs where everyone had to stand at attention in the courtyard while something was inspected, usually nothing more than the ability of the section directors to figure out how many rows it took to line up all their guests. As far as she knew, if one of the inmates collapsed during the inspection and she was not pregnant, she was taken away and never seen again. There had been three inspections in the three months she had been at the camp, and this one was too early by a week.
She walked back up to their cell in silence and related the troubling news. T'Pol was unconcerned when she heard the inspection was to take place the day after "I will be fine" she just told Hoshi.
Hoshi eyed her dubitatively. T'Pol was able to stand for a while and walk the length of the cell, but she was not quite back on her feet and the inspections were brutally long. They would have to be creative. She didn't say anything, but she didn't see how they were going to pull it off.
xx
Hoshi heard the comings and goings outside her cell, the guards banging the doors, calling for the women to get up and get out, ready to make sure everyone was out. Only when the inspection was finished would the women be allowed back in. Two sharp rasps rang against the door to their cell making Hoshi jump in spite of herself. She looked over at T'Pol who was sitting on her cot, unperturbed. Well, she, Hoshi, was perturbed for both of them, thank you. T'Pol was able to walk the cell unaided a few times, slowly, but they yet had to navigate stairs or uneven ground. There was no choice. If they didn't move soon, the guard would open the door to their cell and start pressing them to run. And that, she could not afford to let happen.
The way downstairs was a slow one, T'Pol hanging on to the banister for dear life, the slowness of their progress hidden in the general chaos as lines of women kept moving up and down the staircase. The agitation was worse than usual and Hoshi saw several of the women pass her and T'Pol down the stairs repeatedly, as if they kept forgetting something and had to retrace their steps.
Hoshi's stomach tightened as she saw the heavy doors leading to the outside. They had been slower than usual, which meant that the spaces closest to the building would be taken. They might have to walk yards just to get their place in line. She had hoped to be able to stick as close to the barracks as possible, entertaining the delusion that if anything happened she could just push T'Pol hard into the building and nobody would be the wiser for it. Hoshi grabbed T'Pol's arm in a gesture that looked friendly and hid the iron grip she maintained on the Commander, serving as both her guide and a crutch. To Hoshi's immense relief, there were a couple of free spots right next to the door. She wondered why nobody had claimed them yet, looking hesitantly at the women around her as she took her place. One of them nodded their approval and Hoshi started breathing just a little bit easier. A space that close to the barracks was worth gold. She imagined leaning T'Pol against the wall when this was over and both being able to pretend she was relaxing, not that the wall was the only thing holding her up.
"I will be fine" T'Pol said again, looking straight at the Ensign. Hoshi nodded. She knew Vulcans had a great deal of control over their physiology. So long as the inspection didn't last too long, they might actually get away with it. But there were limits to anything.
The inspection lasted an eternity. Finally, the inmates were allowed to go back inside and Hoshi was able to turn and look at T'Pol. Her heart almost stopped when she did. The Vulcan was flushed an unhealthy shade of green and her eyes were unfocused. Hoshi knew with a sinking certainty that T'Pol was going to fall and there was no way she could hide it from the guards.
Loud screams coming from her back made her turn around. She saw three females starting a fight, another one jump in the melee, and guards running at the combatants from all corners. Physical fights were exceedingly rare in the camp, actually this was the first instance she had seen. The prohibition against close contact or communication aimed at preventing the kind of intimacy that could lead to fighting. The perpetrators would probably spend the night in isolation.
Hoshi turned back to T'Pol, trying to think how she was going to hide her fall. She almost had a heart attack. There was no Vulcan standing there, nor was there any sign of one passed out in the dirt. Hoshi started looking wildly all around, trying to figure out where the Commander was. An Arumid woman grabbed her arm "Shhh, she's in the building." Hoshi looked at her uncomprehendingly. "Go" the woman hissed, pushing her forward. Hoshi stepped into the cool of the building and was met by the sight of T'Pol sitting on the ground and obviously in the process of regaining consciousness, in the middle of a group of women waiting like annunciating angels, a couple of them holding grain cakes and water. Hoshi looked over the women and suddenly realized she had seen them before. These were the same women who had gone up and down the staircase, providing cover and distraction she now realized while the two of them were painstakingly making their way downstairs. They were also the women who had surrounded her and T'Pol during roll call and had kept two spaces free for them. And suddenly Hoshi understood that the fight had been staged to distract the guards and allow the others to spirit T'Pol away before she fell and could be noticed by the guards.
She looked at the women. "Thank you" she said. There was not much else that could be said. One of the more mature women in the group came to her "We know what she did" the woman told Hoshi "This is our way of expressing our thanks. She took care of us and we take care of her." She nodded at the others and the females all got up, ready to go back to their cell. The guards would come back soon and prevent any further communication. Hoshi was still shellshocked. Something else suddenly came to her mind "The extra cakes?" she asked. The other woman spoke without turning fully "Nobody went hungry" she said "if all of us give a tiny sliver, the one who gives you her grain cake receives much more than she gave."
Hoshi looked at the retreating figures, then at her CO. T'Pol was no longer flushed an unhealthy shade of green. Hoshi could take it from there, but she had to act fast. They needed to get going on the staircase right away in order to have any hope of getting to their cell before the guards came back. Grabbing T'Pol by the waist, she passed her arm over her neck and proceeded to help her up the steps.
Xx
It had only been a month since the Verklaevs, and in the remote background, Starfleet, had started negotiating, or trying to, with the Nints, a blink of an eye in diplomatic terms and an eternity in hostage terms.
While the camp puttered along its own monstrous routine and the Nint representatives conferred with the Verklaevs and the other races before the Overarching Council, and nodded, protested, assented, denied, and vehemently decried the accusations that were being levelled at them without reaching any agreement or making any progress, for an agreement could not be reached and negotiations could not be successful since it would mean revealing the secret of the Nint camps and what they had been up to, the Special Nint Governmental Committee was engaging in a plan of action that would forever suppress all traces of their attempt at creating a genetic army.
The Committee had been unable to reach consensus on the question of the alien females, caught between those factions who argued that ransoming the aliens was the preferred option and that little care should be paid to what they could report, for the word of two aliens would always be outweighed by the word of true Dalgorts, and those factions that countered that a complete obliteration of everything to do with the camps was necessary, including the aliens. The fact that releasing the aliens would be of an immensurable benefit, wealth-wise, to all those sitting on the governmental committee, little did it matter if that also helped the other Dalgort worlds, rendered the decision even more contentious. Each faction decried the other as a traitor, either to the Nint value system or to the Nint governing structure, read Committee members' interests.
In the midst of raucous name-calling about what to do with the aliens, the question of what to do with the camps took precedence as the investigation team sent by the Overarching Council was starting to focus on to the Barest'ig range. The need for quick action was imperative and a plan was put in place. A day two weeks in the future was selected and directives went out that on that day all the camps must be destroyed. What was to happen to their occupants was so confidential that it could not and would not be committed to recording of any kind. But the Committee felt certain that the Arumids would be silenced long enough for their plight to disappear from political memory. And some on the Committee who still remembered about the aliens thought that if they happened to disappear in the process, well, nobody would be the worse for it.
Slowly, methodically, the events of the future were being put in place. This time the clouds massing on the horizon were of a different kind altogether.