Disclaimer: I do not own Star trek.
Chapter thirty-six:
JT rested his head back against the wall of the cell he was in. His body hurt all over and his stomach felt like it was doing flips, if his stomach wasn't empty he would have thrown up by now, instead he just kept gagging on bile. It had only been two days and JT felt like curling up in the corner and never facing the world again.
When Kodos had mentioned torture he hadn't pictured this.
He had expected to be beaten until he fell unconscious or have his head held underwater until he couldn't breathe only to be pulled out just in time, gasping for breath before he was forced under once more... But this… This was different to anything he could have ever expected and it felt ten times worse and he couldn't escape it.
Across the cell from him Eleanor and Connor were curled up on the floor, so far Kodos had left them alone. They couldn't tell him where the others were hiding, they were just too young to be able to do it. To them one cave in one part of the mountain was no different to another one on the other side of the mountains.
Also it wasn't them who came up with the plans or the strategies, it was JT. So Kodos wasn't going to waste his time on them when he could focus on JT alone. But JT couldn't help but wonder why Kodos hadn't just had them killed. They were of no use to him, so why keep them locked up in the cell alongside him?
He was glad they were alive, it meant he hadn't failed them completely yet… He just feared why Kodos had kept them alive. What sick and twisted game was he playing? What sadistic plan did he have in store? Were the screams of a thirteen year old boy, who had been forced to grow up too fast and seen and survived things no one should have to, not enough?
Fear was what Kodos wanted, but JT simply didn't fear the right things. Kodos wanted JT to fear him and his men, but after JT first torture session, he felt nothing but hate and pity. Hatred at the fact they could do this to him and do all the things that had done to the others, all those who were dead and pity for the same reason… How twisted must your mind be, for you to be able to do such things?
What was Kodos threatening his men with that made them do the things they were doing? Maybe they were all mad, they had to be. No sane person could do this, lest JT hoped so. His step father had taken pleasure it beating him, but he was an alcoholic. Frank would never have done half the things he did drunk, sober.
JT opened his eyes and looked across at Eleanor and Connor, the two of them were both asleep and somehow managed to look peaceful, even in their current situation. They were so young, they didn't deserve this… JT thought back to what he had told Kodos, he'd make him pay for what he had done, but in his heart he knew he would never be capable of murdering Kodos.
He had shot Kodos before, but that had been different… He knew he couldn't just murder someone, no matter how much damage they had done. That was how he was different to Kodos, he'd always offer mercy, no matter what the crime or how much he hated them.
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"So in the end it was decided that supply drops would be every four months instead of anywhere between eight and twelve months. The fungus hadn't reached the crops yet, but Starfleet wanted to be safe. Kodos was advised to contact Starfleet is anything happened and they would respond straight away. But Kodos never did."
"The door," Kevin explains. "Isn't really a door. It's just been made to look like a door… A door you'd never be able to escape through even if it was real."
Jim smiles. "Exactly what I thought, least I'm not imagining things."
"So where is the real door?" Kevin asks.
"I'm guessing from the air circulation in this room, the floor." Jim answers. "But that might just be from the window. If the door is airtight…"
"So how do we find it?" Kevin questions.
"Tap the walls and floor, listen for anything that sounds hollow," Jim replies. "Look for patterns in the walls and ground, which could form a doorway."
"What if the doors in the ceiling?" Kevin points out.
Jim looks up. "Then we'll probably never get out of here, Kev."
Kevin nodes. "So why has Kodos just left us here? I mean why not just kill us?"
"Why kill us?" Jim answers. "He can just leave us here to die a slow and painful death, as far as he's concerned we can't escape… Kodos has never been one to get his hands dirty, even on Tarsus, he got other people to do his dirty work."
"But the women who took us said Kodos wanted to kill us himself," Kevin mutters. "Why would he then trap us here?"
"Because he is killing us, Kev." Jim sighs. "Just not with his own hands. If we don't get out of here soon, we'll die of dehydration… Licking condensation off the walks will only keep us going for so long and it isn't healthy."
"So we really have to find that door," Kevin mutters. "What if he has men guarding us?"
"We'll deal with that once we've found the door and got it open, Kev." Jim answers as he runs his hands along a wall, being careful of his broken wrist, tapping the wall as he pressed his ear to it to hear for hollow echoes.
Kevin joins Jim as he searches for the door and their way to escape, but rather than checking the walls like Jim, he began checking the floor, where Jim said the door was most likely to be if the air circulation of the room was anything to go on.
"The women who took us, who is she, JT?" Kev suddenly asks.
Jim turns and glances at Kevin. "She was an ensign from security, her name's Tina… Brown."
"Tina who?" Kevin's questions, having not heard the last name Jim had muttered.
"Tina Brown." Jim answers. "She's Nurse Brown's daughter… How did I not realise that before now?"
Kevin's eyes widen. "She's his daughter! Why would she do this? She has just as much of a reason to hate Kodos as we do! His men killed her father!"
"Does she?" Jim asks. "Kodos blamed his death on us. As far as the colony knew, we killed him."
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Archer stood watching as the supplies they were about to deliver to Tarsus IV were loaded aboard. Sighing Archer turned away, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong, ever since T'Pol had informed him of the supposed prank call about Kodos massacring half Tarsus IV's citizens.
The feeling just wouldn't leave him be, it kept him awake at night and he often found his thoughts returning to that planet and what could possibly have happened there. Archer had never been one for gut feelings, but this really was rubbing him up the wrong way. The chances were nothing had happened on Tarsus and Kodos had been telling the truth about the man's mental health.
Archer turned away and began making his way towards the bridge only to change his mind and order the turbo lift he was in to go to medical. There was someone he needed to speak to, Dr Phlox.
He just had to make sure of something if Dr Phlox didn't get him off track, he had a habit of doing that. Whether it be about the supposed sexual tension between him and T'Pol or helping him catch escaped bats at two in the morning, Dr Phlox had a way of getting anyone off the subject they wanted to talk about.
"Dr Phlox." Archer greeted as he entered the medical bay, which was for once completely empty. There was normally always an engineer or two in the medical bay, they seemed to have a habit of getting injured and who could blame them, engineering did expose you to the most danger aboard the ship.
"Captain." Phlox answered, glancing round from whatever he was working on.
"I need your opinion on a certain matter," Archer sighed, as he walked across the medical bay and sat down beside Phlox. "It's about Tarsus IV."
Phlox looked at Archer expectantly. "Go on."
"What if it's true?" Archer asked. "What if Governor Kodos really has massacred half the colony?... What do we do, Phlox? How do we help? Nothing like this has ever happened in resent federation history."
"There isn't much we can do," Phlox answered. "Those who have been massacred are long dead and those that were reported to have survived are most likely dead by now too… Nine human children shouldn't be able to survive that long, living in the conditions they must be in."
Archer nodded. "What of Hoshi Sato? I've tried to contact her time and time again, but there is no response. For the last month and a half I haven't even been able to connect to her comm, there's no signal."
Phlox watched Archer careful. "Sato is clever. If anyone could survive this supposed massacre, it would be her."
"I hope your right." Archer replied.
"Captain," The voice of T'Pol called over the intercom. "The supplies have been loaded, the ship is ready to depart on you command."
Archer nodded to Phlox and got to his feet. "Prepare medical, just in case."
"Yes, captain." Phlox answered and watched as Archer left the medical bay, his shoulders tense and his back as straights as ramrod.
In truth Phlox had already prepared the medical bay, he hated to admit it but he believed that the man who had phoned Starfleet had been telling the truth. But like he had told Archer it was too late to help the dead and those who had survived were most likely dead by now, after all how could nine children survive this long on their own?
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Hey, I hope you enjoyed that chapter and sorry it's taken be slightly longer than usual to update. Until next time,
Blessed be,
TreeOfLife1997.