Okay, I don't own them, and I've forgotten to mention that obvious fact, so I do so now. I'm sorry it's taken so long. I've had a lot of personal problems lately. Please tell me what you think of this so far.
Chapter 4
Moset turned his full attention to the boy. He noted that the kid was healthy, looked very well cared for and had the pale features, the blond hair and bright blue eyes that made him a valuable slave. That is, if he survived what the Cardassian government might have in store for him. The doctor turned and picked up a tricorder like device. Turning it on he turned to the boy, "What is your name?"
The lad didn't answer him. "You would be wise to cooperate with me. I will get the answers I want, the easy way, or the hard way."
The doctor turned away and called out a name. A young Cardassian woman walked out of the same room the doctor had just come from.
"Corat, it would seem we have a new guinea pig. We will need to prepare. He is human and I have a few experiments I would like to run. Now boy, what is your name?"
"Thomas," he said, anger flashing in his eyes.
"You have fire, I see. Well, that won't last. Come this way." He grabbed Tom by the arm and dragged him over to the far counter. "Corat, I need that serum. Prepare ten ccs and put it in the syringe. Our little friend is going to be the first to try it." He pulled Tom's arm flat against the counter and waited for his assistant to bring the item he requested. With all his strength, Tom strained to get away from the doctor.
Moset turned Tom's wrist, tweaking it around to the point where Tom was sure he would hear the bones snap. He cried out in pain, and the doctor relaxed his grip when Corat arrived. "Hold him down so I can inject him." She leaned forward and braced Tom's arm to the counter applying enough force that he couldn't fight her off.
"Let me go," Tom spoke through gritted teeth.
"Ah, but were not done yet," the doctor said as he shoved the needle into Tom's skin. At first the shock of the needle just caused a minor pain in his arm. When the contents of that syringe made a connection with his blood stream, he felt like his world was on fire. He couldn't stand from the pain that shot down his arm. He started to fall to the floor and Corat caught him. As soon as he could stand, Moset dragged him over to the table and somehow stripped him down to his underclothes.
They threw him onto the table and strapped him down. "I need that finger monitor on his hand. If the serum does what it's supposed to, his heart rate will go critical in just a few minutes and I'll have to give him a stimulant to get it back up."
"What exactly is it we gave him?" she asked as she started attaching the monitors while the doctor tied the straps down.
"It's a blood enhancer. It should change his blood to modify the nervous tissue in his body. It takes months for the full effect to be seen and has side effects, but the results have been amazing in my other laboratory animals. This is the first time I have been able to test it on a humanoid."
"Could it kill him?"
"Possibly."
"You don't seem to worried about that fact."
"I'm not. If it happens, it happens. In the mean time, the side effects will keep him from trying anything stupid, like attempting to escape. Now I need the scalpel. I want to get a few skin samples to use as a base line."
Slowly, while the two of them talked, Tom started to regain control of his arm as the pain began to dissipate. He started shaking as the adrenaline wore down and the drug coursed through his body. The doctor came over with a skin graph marker and scalpel in hand. "We need four skin patches now and we will need five more in a week when the serum has been in his blood stream for a while. Well, boy I don't think I need to tell you that this will hurt. You can cry out if you would like, I won't mind at all."
Tom flinched back as the doctor took the dermal marker and drew small squares on his arms and legs. Moments later the doctor applied the scalpel to the marks and started to remove the top layer of skin from the patch. The wounds were shallow but they had started to hurt, and Tom flinched backward and moved as far away as the restraints would let him go. As the pain increased Tom vowed not to make a sound.
"You know, a little noise would be appreciated. After all, I'm sure this has got to be painful." A moment later, Tom closed his eyes.
Corat yelled, "Doctor, his pulse is dropping. Respiration is slowing."
"Quick, get the oxygen mask and set it to 60%. That will keep his saturation normal. The drug is working faster than I expected it to."
"His heart rate is returning to normal."
"Good. We might as well clean up. He should be out for a few hours and I'm sure the Commander will want him returned to her."
****
Tom paused. He got up and went over to the replicator for some water. He took a sip, turned and looked back a B'Elanna. "After the doctor was done with me he sent me back to Katat, who had followed orders very well. I was forced to change into clothing fit for any good slave, and then sent back to the Cardassian woman, Commander Tokal of the Obsidian Order."
****
Katat walked down the corridor with the boy, wondering how far his Commander would go. They needed the boy alive, but she wanted a new toy. They came to the Commander's door. "Enter."
The boy started ahead. The lad's hands were free and he was now dressed in a white sleeveless shirt, white pants and sported white leather wrist guards and a white leather collar with a loop for a leash.
The Cardassian woman came out of a back room. "Ah, my new toy has arrived I see. Thank you, Katat. I'll take it from here. Please see that food is brought in." As Katat left, the woman started to circle around Tom in a predatory way. It was hard for him to stand, the pain from the doctor's experiments was almost overwhelming. The only thing that kept him standing was his will. As he swayed on his feet the woman said, "Go lay over there on the couch and sleep before you pass out. We'll begin your training tomorrow." She escorted him over to the couch and as he sat down, she linked a chain through his collar and locked it. "Just in case, we wouldn't want you to get lost, now would we?"
Tom laid back into the cushions. Even as tired as he was, he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep. The doctor's experiments were still too fresh in his mind. Patches of skin had been removed and the good doctor had injected him with something that made almost every nerve in his body burn.
Hours later, Tom awoke to the sounds of the door beeping. He shook his head to try and clear his mind. He was amazed that he was able to sleep at all. And now, he couldn't quite wake up. It must be the drug in his system. What did they give him?
"Well, I see you're awake. It's time to begin your training. Come with me. We'll go down to the lab. There are a few things I wish to show you."
She escorted him out of the room and down the corridor to a different lab than the one he had been in. This one was filled with pads, a projector of some sort and a mainframe computer. "I have a little reading for you to do. Over the course of the last few years Cardassia has been in negotiations with the Federation over the DMZ. We have decided that we are going to take more decisive action in these negotiations. What you are not aware of is that in the last few days, it was discovered that your father has been involved in a spying mission against Cardassia. As such, I was ordered to take you into custody to be used against your father, and to find out any secrets he might have passed on to you.
"You have until we reach Cardassia to learn everything in these pads. Katat will keep an eye on you and bring you back to my quarters in a few hours." She reached over and picked up two PADD"s. "You can start with these. And I'll see you soon." She walked out of the room, passing Katat on his way in. "Take care of my pet."
Katat walked across the room and sat down. "Take a seat boy, you might wish to be comfortable, there is a lot to be learned."
In the next few hours, Tom heard more about the Cardassian government and why they were right in the Bajoran conflict than he ever wished to. He learned about the covert Starfleet missions his father had been involved in for the last few years. They told him about the DMZ and the Bajoran resistance and that by Cardassian law they had declared his father a traitor and as such they could punish Tom in his father's stead.
After the lesson in Cardassian supremacy and self righteousness, Katat escorted the boy to Moset's office, where the doctor was sitting behind his desk. "I've been told to bring him here to you, and that she wants him returned when you' re finished running your latest tests. I'll be back in two hours to get him. And don't exhaust him too much. I think she wants a little fight left in him."
Moset stood up and came around the desk. He grabbed Tom by the arm and dragged him out to the examining table. "Sit down and don't move. Corat, come in here please." The nurse walked in from the other room. "I need a full scan on the subject. Start with muscle tone and nervous tissue. Check the endocrine and respiratory systems and cross-reference your results with the scans from yesterday."
Moset turned and walked over to the far counter, where a little white rat like creature was sitting in a cage. "You see this creature, boy? He has the same serum running through his veins that you do. Foolish thing has no reasonable fear left in him. It's an interesting side effect; one I hadn't counted on. Emotion is not something I thought a chemical could control, but this creature no longer experiences them." Moset reached into the cage to grab the rat, and just as his fingers touched the animal it turned and bit his hand startling the Doctor. Tom shoved the nurse out of the way and grabbed at the nearest thing he could use for a weapon, a syringe. He had no idea what was in it, but he hoped it would be something the doctor didn't want in his system.
Tom backed up against the wall, dragging the nurse with him. "Stay back. I will use this." He held it up for the Doctor to see, then leaned in toward Corat, pushing the needle into her skin.
"Go ahead, it makes no difference. It still won't get you out of here." He nodded at Corat, and in the next moment the nurse shoved Paris back, not caring that she ripped the needle against her skin. Tom fell to the ground and Corat grabbed the needle out of his hand. Moset calmly walked over and took the needle. "That was most foolish, child." He back to the cage and shoved the needle through the bars into the rat and depressed the plunger. In moments that rat fell to the bottom of the cage dead. Tom stared at the carcass, and although he felt horror and regret, no emotion showed on his face. "Call Katat and tell him to come get the brat."
****
As Katat escorted him back to the Commander's quarters, Tom realized that he would probably never get to see his family again. The Cardassians had made him a pawn in this game of intrigue and they had no intention of letting him go alive. Dead was a possibility. He would have to find away to escape, or they would use him to capture his father and then there would be no chance at escape. They wouldn't need him anymore, and he would then be as good as dead. Katat watched him enter the Commander's room, but after the incident with the rat, he really didn't think he had to watch the kid. He let the boy into the room and then left.
Tom entered the room and looked around. As far as he could tell, the Commander was nowhere to be found. To his surprise, the Cardassian left him in the room alone. Looking around, Tom tried to find anything he could use as a weapon. Almost anything would work. Ricki, his sister's best friend, and a Starfleet ensign, had been teaching him basic self-defense and munitions. Almost anything could be turned into a weapon in the right hands. He went over to the Cardassian's desk and started sifting through the drawers, hoping to find a letter opener or nail file. He was shocked to find a Cardassian phaser. Since he didn't know anything about the weapon, he could only hope the battery was still charged and the setting was correct.
Just then he heard voices in the corridor. "What do you mean you left him unattended? Are you stupid? He might be a child, but he is still the child of our most dangerous opponents. Never leave him unattended again!"
Tom didn't hear the response. He turned to the door and raised the phaser. His hands were shaking and he started to sweat. He could still hear her voice. "Leave me, I will deal with the child myself."
As the door began to open Tom trained the phaser on the figure walking in. She looked over at him to see the weapon trained on her. "Ah, I see you are as real an opponent as I thought. You will make a very good pet, once I get you trained. Now lower the weapon."
"Don't come any closer. I will shoot you."
"Oh, I have no doubt about that. But will you hit me? You'd better hope you kill me." She said as she started walking toward him. He raised the pistol higher and fired.
Nothing happened. He fired again and nothing. She was coming at him. Right now the pistol was useless, so he charged her and tried to hit her with the weapon. He managed a glancing blow before she knocked him to the ground, throwing her full body weight on top of him. He started struggling with her, trying to throw her off him. They rolled toward the desk and he managed to slam her head into the leg, but only angered her. She pulled back her fist and hit him on the chin, hard and he blacked out.
