CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Apollo coalesced into existence in the small transporter alcove of the freighter. Captain Belanger was there, smiling, waiting for him. "Welcome aboard, Admiral," she said cheerfully.
"Greetings, Captain. Find out anything of importance from our prisoners?"
Belanger lost her smile. "Very little, sir. However, we did find something I thought you might like to see." Then she saw Admiral Racer's face. "Uh, sir, are you all right?"
Apollo seemed to snap out of a fugue. "Huh? Of course I'm all right, Captain. Why do you ask?"
"For a moment, you seemed... out of it."
"I assure you, I'm fine. Now, what was it you wanted to show me?"
She shrugged and led the admiral back towards the cargo bays, where he noticed two security guards from her ship standing to either side of the door. One of them, upon seeing them approach, keyed the door to open. As they stepped inside, Apollo gasped.
The cargo bay was stuffed from bulkhead to bulkhead with people of all shapes and sizes, in various stages of injury from being beaten and prodded into the ship by their captors. Apollo instinctively went to his chest to call his ship for medical aid, but stopped himself when he noticed the Scarlett's medical staff already weaving their way among the masses. Belanger noticed his action. "My people are holding their own, but it would be nice if they had some help."
Apollo nodded his thanks and completed his motion. "Racer to Highlander," he said.
"Highlander here, sir," Circe said.
"Have Dr. Kellara and medical personnel beam over to my coordinates. Tell her we have wounded people here; she can coordinate with Scarlett's CMO when she gets here."
"Understood. Highlander out."
Belanger looked at Apollo. "Sounds like for the short time you've had them, they've turned into a competent crew."
Apollo smirked. "You learned all that from just a short message." He waited until she knew he was just teasing her. "Yes, they're turning out just fine. I really haven't put them through their paces."
"I'm sure if things go well, they'll get over you." Apollo looked at her questioningly. "I mean, they'll get used to you. Get over the little quirks that every starship commander has."
"Ah, aha," Apollo said slowly.
One of her security people chose that moment to approach them. "Admiral," he said, nodding, acknowledging his presence. Apollo returned the nod. "Captain," he continued, "just received word. Our prisoners are starting to get a bit belligerent."
Apollo grunted. "Time to get some answers." He left the cargo bay for the freighter's brig, with Belanger hot on his heels.
As they entered the brig, he heard two of the captives arguing, and it took a moment to realize they were arguing with each other. He looked once at Belanger before taking a breath. "All right, knock it off!!!" His booming voice echoed through the brig. Instantly the commotion stopped as the two in the cell were startled into silence. Even Belanger practically jumped at the unexpected volume of his voice. "Now what the hell is going on here?!"
One of them spoke, a being with thick black hair and long, ribbed ears. "This is purely an internal matter and none of your concern."
The other one, a gray-skinned person with a hooded neck – the Cardassian - glared at his cellmate. "It certainly wouldn't be his concern if the Dominion were run by Cardassians instead of being micromanaged by you, you vole!"
"I said knock it off!!" Apollo repeated. "What I want to know is what the hell is going on, and why you have humanoids stacked in the cargo bay like so much meat!" Apollo already knew the answer, but he wanted to hear it from them.
The Cardassian instead turned to Belanger. "I see we warrant an admiral's attention. What's the matter, you don't have enough authority for this?" It was clear he was trying to provoke dissension, but Belanger merely smirked.
The act wasn't lost on Apollo, though. "That's it." He approached the doorway and nodded to the guard, who deactivated the forcefield. He came toward the Cardassian with the obvious intent on doing bodily harm. To everyone's surprise, though, he switched tactics in mid-stride. With a speed almost too fast for them to comprehend, Apollo whipped to his left, grabbed the Vorta, and with one hand, slammed him up against the wall of the cell, feet dangling in the air, so hard that even the officers outside the cell felt the vibration. Apollo turned his fierce blue glare on the cowering alien. "I want answers and I want answers now, or so help me, I'll shove my foot so far up your ass you'll be able to read my shoe size!"
The Vorta gulped. Both the Cardassian and Belanger believed he would actually carry out his threat. "They're needed for slave labor for the mines," the Vorta sputtered. "The Jem'Hadar need their ketrecel white or we won't be able to control them!"
Apollo grinned evilly; the Vorta didn't like it. "Thank you. And now, you're going to tell us where this mine is. Or your friends will be able to go through space following a trail of your frozen desiccated body parts to find us." He finally turned toward Belanger. "And I have a plan on how we can rescue the people in the mines."
~ * ~
The Cardassian seated at his post in the communication center of the mine obviously looked so bored, he wished he could be somewhere else. In fact, he wished he could stow aboard the freighter hailing them now, with a fresh load of slaves for the mines. He seemed marginally concerned that the freighter was late in its arrival. He hailed it. "Approaching freighter," he said in a tired voice, "you're about half an hour late for your arrival. State your reasons."
"We're sorry that we wasted so much of your valuable time waiting for us," came an obviously sarcastic reply, "there IS a war going on here. We were held up by a Federation starship. Our escort just barely bought us time to escape with our skins intact."
He chuckled. "Well, they're lucky they didn't meet up with me. I would have had them running with their tails between their legs." He gave them the authorization code to dock, and approached the transporter pad to accept the freighter captain, who would give him a manifest of how many and what types of slaves they carried, as well as the overall condition they were in.
He wasn't quite expecting to see Federation force materialize on the pad, led by a man with glowing blue eyes and a grin he did not like at all.
"Tails between our legs, eh?" said their leader. The last thing he saw was a bright yellow beam shot from one of their phasers, before lapsing into unconsciousness.
"Good shot, Commander," Apollo said.
"Thank you, sir," Pa'arvalis replied.
Apollo headed toward the guard's post and called up a schematic for the mine. He whistled. "Good thing we did bring the freighter with us. It's going to take that and the Highlander combined to carry all these people out of here, and that's if we pack both ships bulkhead to bulkhead."
"We'll do it, sir," Circe said, smiling in encouragement.
"Damn right we will. Let's split up." It took but a moment to download a copy of the schematic into their tricorders. "I'll lead a team into the west wing. Circe, take a team to the south. Now people, let's make some noise." He smiled as they split off and headed their own ways.
~ * ~
Brekkan awoke to, of all things, the sounds of explosions and phaser fire. "What the hell...?"
One of the guards looked in the direction of the commotion. He started to head towards the trouble, but no sooner did he round the corner then a yellow beam of energy caught him square in the chest, driving him into the opposite wall where he collapsed.
A human in a uniform different than what she'd seen around the complex came running up to the cell. "Everybody remain calm," he said, "we're from Starfleet, we're here to rescue you." The officer got some light cheers from the remark. "How far down does your cellblock go?"
"All the way down the corridor," Brekkan explained. "But what about the other wing?"
"That's being taken care of, ma'am. Don't you worry." He smiled, and for the first time, relief flooded through her body.
~ * ~
LaBrel's office shook as an explosion could be heard. One of his glinns barged into the office. "Sir, we're under attack by a Federation strike force!"
The gul looked grim. "Perhaps it's time we left this place and regrouped. Go warn the rest of the men." The glinn nodded and as he hurried out, LaBrel rushed to gather every record he had in the office.
~ * ~
Brekkan helped the Starfleet personnel round up her compatriots and send them toward where a vessel awaited. She was hurried through by a blue-skinned female, who she absently remembered was an Andorian. The woman smiled and told her not to worry, that they'd get her and the rest of them out of there. She returned the smile and headed towards where the freighter was docked.
Apollo had positioned himself at the airlock where the freighter was docked. He was receiving refugees from either side of him as he herded them through the airlock to freedom. "That's it. Let's move it. You're almost home free. You're quite welcome. Let's keep moving."
He took a woman's arm to help her through the airlock, but for some reason, his hand wouldn't let go of her. He allowed himself to swing around to look at her...
...and all time for him stopped as he saw who it was.
~ * ~
She was almost free. The officer at the airlock took her by the arm to help her through, but he didn't let go. She turned to face him... and found herself looking into a pair of intensely glowing blue eyes.
Something inside her mind opened like a floodgate. Memories once enshrouded in fog snapped into abrupt clarity. Suddenly she remembered everything: who she was, what she was doing there, and where she was before. Once the memories flooded into being, the emotions weren't too far behind.
"Apollo?"
"Holy... Samantha??" Apollo suddenly realized what the strange sensations he had been feeling were. Samantha looked overcome with joy. Apollo looked as though he had seen a ghost.
"Omigod, it's you," they both said in unison. A nervous chuckle, and they were locked into an embrace, holding each other tight. Circumstances prevented them from staying that way, though.
"Hendricks to Admiral Racer."
Brekkan... Sam... almost expected Apollo to pull out a communicator and flip it open, but instead, he reached up and tapped the insignia on his chest. It chirped. "Racer here."
"Sir, we spotted a Cardassian leaving the Administrative area. I think he's headed for the shuttle bay. We'd pursue, but we're being pinned down."
Apollo looked at Sam, who shivered. "That would be Gul LaBrel," she said. "He ran this place."
He looked into her eyes, and though no words were said, he learned all he needed to know... it was a trait she had, of course, forgotten he could do with her. "Don't worry about him, Hendricks. You just get yourself unpinned. I'll see that our party-pooper doesn't leave too early."
"Understood, sir."
He turned once more to Sam. "You get yourself to safety. I'm going after this gul." He took off in the direction of the shuttle bay. She decided she couldn't be any safer than with him, so she wasn't far behind him. Besides, she owed this Cardassian for his treatment of her and her friends.