Chapter twenty nine

The man that still held her tight against his chest tightened his grip

even more so as he rose his eyes up from his huddled position in the cargo-hold

to look into the face of the gigantic Sindareen that stood in the

oval doorway. In reality, Jeb guessed that the man was maybe six feet

five or six but against their smallness and the fact that he clearly

had to stoop to manoeuvre around the ship's insides, he seemed gigantic.

Jeb felt the trembling woman in his arms stiffen when she'd lifted her

own eyes and realized that he'd been addressing her. Her unconsciously

whimpered, "No, please!" tore from her throat on a sob before she

buried her face against his chest, pulling her limbs closer to her body

in a valiant effort to somehow make herself disappear.

But her effort was in vain when she heard the thud of his boot as he

stepped into the hold, reached down and dragged her to her feet by her

hair, it emitting a screech of protest and pain at the brutal handling as her

hands instinctively reached up to prise his fingers loose. It was a

futile effort as his hands were like hard, ice-cold vices.

Jeb made to stand; to help her, stop them, to say something - anything to

halt whatever they had planned for his charge, but when that same boot

landed upon his ankle, snapping it in one swift purposeful stomp the

sickening noise echoing in the shocked silence, he could do nothing more

than slither back to the floor crying out in agony as he felt the bone

snap, his face draining of colour as he swallowed down his churning

stomach as the pain surged throughout his body.

Deanna screamed as she witnessed the barbaric treatment of a friend who

had become someone to hold on to, someone whose mental strength had

saved her own sanity in this desolate and cruel time. "No! No! Leave him

alone!" she cried. "I'll come quietly!" Spinning in his arms to face

the enemy, her eyes beseeched his and pleaded for mercy.

The Sindareen let out a roar of laughter that made her blood run cold.

But she didn't have time to reflect on her precarious position as he

spun her around and begun to drag her out of the hold. And then suddenly

he stopped and addressed one of the guards that stood watch by the door.

He pointed to Jeb and snapped, "Get rid of him."

Unable to stop herself, Deanna let out another ear-piercing scream,

"NO!" she sobbed making one more try at freeing herself from his grip,

her pathetic attempt only producing another heinous bout of laughter

from her captor.

She watched in horror as the guard stepped inside and reached down to

drag her quivering and terrified friend off the floor, but the boom of

anger from the man holding her made her jump out of her skin, "Not him,

fool, the piece of scum behind!"

All eyes turned to the poor soul that lay half covered and bent over in a

foetal position behind Jeb. The young man was dead. Deanna shivered with

horror as she realized that she had sat within inches of a corpse. So

wrapped up in her own grief that she hadn't noticed the dying man take his

last, painful breath and her heart broke as she pictured him dying alone

without a hand to hold his as he passed away.

They all watched with morbid fascination as the guard reached down,

dragged the man up onto his shoulder as though he weighed nothing at

all and passed them by, taking him out of the hold.

But horror turned to disgust when he dropped the man to the floor,

reach down to release the latch on a hatch and pull it open, letting

a whoosh of freezing air pour into the ship, making Deanna gasp with shock at

its frigidness, and then he simply and without ceremony or feeling

dropped the man through it, and then just as calmly, close the hatch

and bolt it down once more.

For a long moment Deanna could only stare at the metallic hatch and

imagine the poor soul free-falling through the skies, but she

deliberately closed her mind and her eyes to the vision that would

ultimately follow his arrival to solid ground. But as hard as she tried,

Deanna couldn't stop herself, her face paling with the waking nightmare.

With morbid curiosity the grinning Sindareen watched her face with

Interest until at last, satisfied that his action had received as much

revulsion from her as it could have he laughed and moved on towards the

ships control room, still dragging her along by her hair.

Pushing her free of his hold as they reached the centre of the control

room Deanna momentarily stumbled with the suddenness of her release.

Glancing around the room, taking in the three men who's backs faced her

as they busily manned their own panels, she questioningly turned to face the

big man, her eyes wide with fear.

Grinning sadistically he studied her for a brief moment and then

pointed to the control panel behind her. Puzzled, Deanna turned and

glanced at the unfamiliar set-up and then back at him, confusion etching

her wary, tired, tear-stained face.

He laughed loudly for a moment and then just as suddenly severed the

Action, and then with his overly deep voice, punctuated with venom, he

snarled, "Beg for your life, Betazoid bitch."

Tbc...