Chapter 11
"Cap'n, get up, you'll never believe what I heard today." Trip whispered.
Archer rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Trip, this is the first time today I've been able to lie down, please, go back to bed." Archer put his arm over his eyes.
"Cap'n, I'm telling ya, you'll want to know what I got to say!"
"In the morning." He grumbled.
"It can't wait until morning!"
Archer mumbled as he sat up in the cot. "Fine, what is it?"
"Well," Trip said, "I was kinda eavesdropping on these two guards, and I heard one of 'em say that two prisoners were missing from the deceased cabin-"
"The what?"
"The deceased cabin, where they keep all the bodies after decimation or somethin'. Anyway, they mentioned somethin' about Karthanians-
"Who?"
"I think they were the guys that tried to help us at the attack. Anyway, these Kathanians took two injured prisoners from there!"
Trip waited for the captain's smile in understanding, but his face remained in a deep frown.
"Cap'n, that means that T'Pol could still be alive!"
Archer sighed, but his expression didn't change. "Trip, how many people were in that decimation?"
Trip shrugged. "Twenty, twenty-five."
"So, what are the chances, if your information is correct, that T'Pol was one of the those survivors?"
Trip bit his lip. "I know the odds aren't so great, but it still means that there's a chance. And that's a lot more than what we got here."
Trip had a point. But there wasn't necessarily anything they could do at the moment, and no way to get any verification that T'Pol was one of the survivors.unless they had help from the inside. But who here would help them?
"Perhaps I may be of assistance."
Archer and Trip turned around to see a most unexpected visitor.
* * *
"Do you have any communicators? Any at all?"
Ja'an was rummaging through different little gadgets on the large table before him. It was around 02100 hours and Ja'an yawned as he picked up different gadgets, examined them for a moment, and tossed them back into the pile. Something caught Ja'an's eye and then he grabbed two devices and held them up excitedly.
"Walki talkies!" He exclaimed.
T'Pol stared at the gadgets in Ja'an's hands, unimpressed.
"And just what is a 'walkie talkie?' "
Ja'an stood from his chair and tapped the devices several times. "It's a communicator! See, if someone is carrying this one, they can talk into it to another person who has this one."
T'Pol cocked an eyebrow. "A primitive means of communication, but it may be useful."
Ja'an's expression saddened. "Uh, well, they don't exactly work."
T'Pol dropped her head a little bit. "If they do not work, then why did you even bother showing them to me?"
"You come from a ship with many wonders greater than this. I thought you'd be able to fix them."
"I'm a scientist, Ja'an, not an engineer. Besides, I need to find something to contact my ship with."
Ja'an's eyes widened. "Oh, that's not possible. We don't have anything as sophisticated as that."
"I don't understand; if your enemies were able to come to Earth two hundred years ago, you should've had warp drive. Which means all of you should be considerably more advanced in technology than the Humans are."
"I know, I know. But when the Nazis found these new ways to torture us, everything, every console, and every computer chip that was more advanced than the Humans was taken away and destroyed. They changed an entire civilization to be like the Earth Nazis."
"I find that a bit presumptuous."
"Heh, presumptuous and about a thousand other words my people had for it."
"Why did you not fight back?"
"You think we didn't try?" Ja'an tossed his hands up, "we had people from all across the planet come and try to fight them off. But, before we knew it, our government was completely demolished and replaced with anarchy. No one was able to control anything. Our leaders fled to other planets, the SS took over the law enforcement. It was chaos. And it still is. It's all about overpowering the weak and eventually 'filtering' them out. They say a chain can't survive with a weak link. We are considered the weak link. And they want us dead."
Neither of them said anything for a while. But, finally, T'Pol gave in and snatched the communicators from Ja'an's hand. She sat down, and began to, as Commander Tucker would say, "tinker" with them.
* * *
"Who are you?" Archer said to the guard.
"My name doesn't matter. All that does matter is that I'm willing to help you."
"Well," Trip said, "we have to call ya somethin'."
The man wavered a bit. "You may call me, Lieutenant."
"That's it," Archer said, "just Lieutenant?"
"Just Lieutenant."
"Fair enough, *Lieutenant*," Trip said, and he stood, "now why the hell would you want to help us?"
"Doesn't matter. Now, please, come with me, the both of you."
"Now wait a minute," Archer also stood, "I want to know just what is going on. And I'm not going anywhere until you tell me."
Lieutenant sighed. "Alright, I'm a spy from a nearby village of the Karthanians. I'm here to tell you that your companion, Sub-Commander T'Pol, is alive and recovering."
"What did you say?" Archer said in shock.
Lieutenant sighed again, like his answer that he gave the first time should have been understood.
"The information that you, Mr. Tucker, had heard from the guards is true. T'Pol will be fine. But she is becoming too anxious to rescue you, so I was ordered to risk blowing my cover and get you out of here. This isn't your war."
"What's going on?" Loupa asked groggily as he appeared from behind Trip. "What does he want?" Loupa then said angrily.
"Easy there, kid. He says he's undercover for the Karthanians. Says he can help us."
"No." Lieutenant said. "I can't help the boy."
"Why not?" Archer said.
"My orders were strict that I shall only remove the Humans. The boy is too much of a risk."
Loupa gasped. "Well, I oughta-"
"Settle down, Loupa." Trip said and he put an arm out in front of the boy.
"What are you guys doing?" Barik came from the shadow of his bunk, rubbing his eyes.
Lieutenant groaned. "Listen to me, if we keep this up, the whole barrack will want to come with us."
"If you're going to get us out of here, you're going to take our unit. That's me, Trip, Loupa and Barik."
"But, sir, it's not possi-"
"Don't give me that crap, Lieutenant. It's all of us or none of us. That's the deal."
"There wasn't supposed to be a deal in the first place!" Lieutenant whispered harshly.
The man turned around and swore to himself in a language Archer wasn't familiar with. Lieutenant heaved a sigh and then turned back around.
"Alright," He pointed his finger at Archer, "but just your unit." "Deal."
* * *
The device in T'Pol's hand sparked, fizzled, but became useless once again. The Vulcan bristled slightly and then calmly put the communicator down. T'Pol closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing.
"Frustration is a Human emotion," She said softly, "frustration is a Human emotion."
"T'Pol!" The Vulcan whirled around and saw Ja'an, with a flashlight in his hand, squinting at her.
"T'Pol, you've been twiddling with those for two hours, don't you think you should give it a rest?"
"I must find a way to contact my ship as soon as possible before they send a rescue team."
Ja'an shook his head and lit other lanterns in the room. "I'm telling you, there isn't anything sophisticated enough! It's useless to try."
"Striving to reach a goal is not useless."
"It is when you know that the goal is impossible!" Ja'an pulled a chair up to the table and snatched a trinket to fiddle with.
"It is not impossible, Ja'an. You know of my rescue plan. You promised to help."
Ja'an groaned. "I know, I know. But it's so risky!"
"Life itself is a risk. I will not abandon my companions, Ja'an."
The surgeon muttered to himself and flung his device onto the table. "Yeah, yeah. When are we going to get started?"
"Tomorrow. Before dawn."
"Right," Ja'an shook his head, "I can't believe I'm doing this."
* * *
"Shhh! You have to be quiet!" Lieutenant said as he locked the barrack doors.
Trip recoiled. "Sorry, didn't mean to close the door so loudly."
Loupa scoffed. "And this guy said *I* was going to be a problem."
Trip chuckled and playfully hit Loupa's shoulder.
"Gentlemen?" Lieutenant said gallingly.
Trip and Loupa straightened. "This way; and for heaven's sake, be quiet!"
Lieutenant turned the flashlight off and inched his way to the end of the barrack wall and peeked around the corner. He turned back around nearly bumping into Archer. Lieutenant put his index finger to his lips.
"There are two guards at door to the watchtower," Lieutenant whispered, "Now, listen carefully, I unlocked the front gate before. I'm going to distract the guards at the watchtower door while you go through the gate. Go through one at a time. Here, take these."
Lieutenant handed each of them a pistol, from a bag he'd been carrying, except for Loupa. Lieutenant gave him a rather large hunting knife.
"Sweet!" The boy said as he eyeballed the blade.
Archer and Trip stared at the weapons in their hands and glanced up at Lieutenant.
The man took out his own pistol and demonstrated how to load it. "As for firing, it's pretty much just like a phase pistol. But be careful, it'll spring back on ya."
Barik shoved his pistol in-between his belt and put his hand up. "Hold on a sec. Those guards are practically right next to that gate, how do you expect them not to see us?"
Lieutenant pulled a flask from his vest pocket and shook it gently. "It's ale," the man smirked, "but my own special recipe. It'll knock them out in two minutes flat."
Trip grinned. "It's a classic, but it's sure to work."
"But," Lieutenant said, "there's still a guard in the watchtower. So stay in the shadows and please, be quiet." Lieutenant emphasized the last two words.
Lieutenant put the flask back in his pocket and walked defiantly out into the square. The two guards by the watchtower were instantly alert and demanded the man's business there.
Lieutenant scoffed. "Ah, Commander Lee said the night guards were getting too soft. Fallin' asleep. Needed an extra person to keep watch. Can't say I like it too much. I'd rather be sleeping in my own bunk than watching out for imaginary escapees."
The guards eased their shoulders a bit and kept a looser grip on their weapons.
"Ja. You can say that again. No fool would be stupid enough to run away in this part of night, especially without any weapons. Everybody knows the most dangerous creatures hunt in the dead of night."
"Yeah," the other guard said, "the only weapon any prisoner could have is a shovel or a potato peeler."
Lieutenant chortled. "Hey, at least I brought a little drink to make this job a bit easier." Lieutenant pulled the flask from his vest pocket and held it up.
"You gotta be kidding me! What kind?"
"Just some classic ale. It'll warm you up too."
The guard laughed softly, snatched the flask, unscrewed the cap, and took a swig. After some time to taste it, he nodded in encouragement to his fellow guard. The man grabbed the flask and drank some with zeal.
The first guard shook his head. "Wow, some powerful stuff, isn't it? Sure it's just ale?"
"You betcha."
The guard swayed a bit. He tried to speak, but his words were garbled. His companion tried to steady him, only to fall to the ground in a drunken state.
Lieutenant quickly put the flask back in his pocket and dragged the guards to a dark corner. Once that was done, he walked a little out into the square so the guard from the watchtower would see him as he pretended to patrol the grounds.
Trip shook his head. "I dunno about this. There's too much variability."
"Give it a chance, Trip. This may be our only ticket out of here."
"That's what worries me."
Archer could see Lieutenant searching with his eyes to make sure no one was coming. Then he looked straight at Archer and ever-so-slightly nodded his head.
"Okay," Archer said, "I'll go first and then Loupa will go. Don't come until Lieutenant gives the signal. And follow my exact route."
"Right." Loupa said.
Archer backed up into a shadow cast on a wall of a building. Archer could just make out the indistinct form of a guard up in the watchtower. He dawdled idly.
The gate was still about fifteen meters away. Archer decided to crouch down and continued staying low. The gate didn't seem to be getting any closer, but Archer was just moving very slowly. He decided to pick up the pace.
That's better. Archer thought as the gate loomed in closer.
Archer suddenly heard a booming voice from the watchtower, and he froze in mid-stride. Archer took a chance and looked up at the watchtower. The guard was guffawing loudly and swaying back and forth grumbling loudly about someone who drank all his whiskey. He was as drunk as a cow that ate too many apples. And that was fine. It'd make it harder for the guard to detect anyone on the ground.
After what seemed like ages, Archer made it to the gate and gave it a tentative push. It moved open with ease. Archer emptied a lungful of air and hurriedly walked through, then motioned to Lieutenant that he was clear.
Lieutenant gave Loupa the signal that all was clear and he made it to the gate quickly. The same thing went on, undetected, until Lieutenant casually walked over to the gate, closed it, locked it, and spit on it just to say what he really thought of the place.
To Be Continued.
"Cap'n, get up, you'll never believe what I heard today." Trip whispered.
Archer rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Trip, this is the first time today I've been able to lie down, please, go back to bed." Archer put his arm over his eyes.
"Cap'n, I'm telling ya, you'll want to know what I got to say!"
"In the morning." He grumbled.
"It can't wait until morning!"
Archer mumbled as he sat up in the cot. "Fine, what is it?"
"Well," Trip said, "I was kinda eavesdropping on these two guards, and I heard one of 'em say that two prisoners were missing from the deceased cabin-"
"The what?"
"The deceased cabin, where they keep all the bodies after decimation or somethin'. Anyway, they mentioned somethin' about Karthanians-
"Who?"
"I think they were the guys that tried to help us at the attack. Anyway, these Kathanians took two injured prisoners from there!"
Trip waited for the captain's smile in understanding, but his face remained in a deep frown.
"Cap'n, that means that T'Pol could still be alive!"
Archer sighed, but his expression didn't change. "Trip, how many people were in that decimation?"
Trip shrugged. "Twenty, twenty-five."
"So, what are the chances, if your information is correct, that T'Pol was one of the those survivors?"
Trip bit his lip. "I know the odds aren't so great, but it still means that there's a chance. And that's a lot more than what we got here."
Trip had a point. But there wasn't necessarily anything they could do at the moment, and no way to get any verification that T'Pol was one of the survivors.unless they had help from the inside. But who here would help them?
"Perhaps I may be of assistance."
Archer and Trip turned around to see a most unexpected visitor.
* * *
"Do you have any communicators? Any at all?"
Ja'an was rummaging through different little gadgets on the large table before him. It was around 02100 hours and Ja'an yawned as he picked up different gadgets, examined them for a moment, and tossed them back into the pile. Something caught Ja'an's eye and then he grabbed two devices and held them up excitedly.
"Walki talkies!" He exclaimed.
T'Pol stared at the gadgets in Ja'an's hands, unimpressed.
"And just what is a 'walkie talkie?' "
Ja'an stood from his chair and tapped the devices several times. "It's a communicator! See, if someone is carrying this one, they can talk into it to another person who has this one."
T'Pol cocked an eyebrow. "A primitive means of communication, but it may be useful."
Ja'an's expression saddened. "Uh, well, they don't exactly work."
T'Pol dropped her head a little bit. "If they do not work, then why did you even bother showing them to me?"
"You come from a ship with many wonders greater than this. I thought you'd be able to fix them."
"I'm a scientist, Ja'an, not an engineer. Besides, I need to find something to contact my ship with."
Ja'an's eyes widened. "Oh, that's not possible. We don't have anything as sophisticated as that."
"I don't understand; if your enemies were able to come to Earth two hundred years ago, you should've had warp drive. Which means all of you should be considerably more advanced in technology than the Humans are."
"I know, I know. But when the Nazis found these new ways to torture us, everything, every console, and every computer chip that was more advanced than the Humans was taken away and destroyed. They changed an entire civilization to be like the Earth Nazis."
"I find that a bit presumptuous."
"Heh, presumptuous and about a thousand other words my people had for it."
"Why did you not fight back?"
"You think we didn't try?" Ja'an tossed his hands up, "we had people from all across the planet come and try to fight them off. But, before we knew it, our government was completely demolished and replaced with anarchy. No one was able to control anything. Our leaders fled to other planets, the SS took over the law enforcement. It was chaos. And it still is. It's all about overpowering the weak and eventually 'filtering' them out. They say a chain can't survive with a weak link. We are considered the weak link. And they want us dead."
Neither of them said anything for a while. But, finally, T'Pol gave in and snatched the communicators from Ja'an's hand. She sat down, and began to, as Commander Tucker would say, "tinker" with them.
* * *
"Who are you?" Archer said to the guard.
"My name doesn't matter. All that does matter is that I'm willing to help you."
"Well," Trip said, "we have to call ya somethin'."
The man wavered a bit. "You may call me, Lieutenant."
"That's it," Archer said, "just Lieutenant?"
"Just Lieutenant."
"Fair enough, *Lieutenant*," Trip said, and he stood, "now why the hell would you want to help us?"
"Doesn't matter. Now, please, come with me, the both of you."
"Now wait a minute," Archer also stood, "I want to know just what is going on. And I'm not going anywhere until you tell me."
Lieutenant sighed. "Alright, I'm a spy from a nearby village of the Karthanians. I'm here to tell you that your companion, Sub-Commander T'Pol, is alive and recovering."
"What did you say?" Archer said in shock.
Lieutenant sighed again, like his answer that he gave the first time should have been understood.
"The information that you, Mr. Tucker, had heard from the guards is true. T'Pol will be fine. But she is becoming too anxious to rescue you, so I was ordered to risk blowing my cover and get you out of here. This isn't your war."
"What's going on?" Loupa asked groggily as he appeared from behind Trip. "What does he want?" Loupa then said angrily.
"Easy there, kid. He says he's undercover for the Karthanians. Says he can help us."
"No." Lieutenant said. "I can't help the boy."
"Why not?" Archer said.
"My orders were strict that I shall only remove the Humans. The boy is too much of a risk."
Loupa gasped. "Well, I oughta-"
"Settle down, Loupa." Trip said and he put an arm out in front of the boy.
"What are you guys doing?" Barik came from the shadow of his bunk, rubbing his eyes.
Lieutenant groaned. "Listen to me, if we keep this up, the whole barrack will want to come with us."
"If you're going to get us out of here, you're going to take our unit. That's me, Trip, Loupa and Barik."
"But, sir, it's not possi-"
"Don't give me that crap, Lieutenant. It's all of us or none of us. That's the deal."
"There wasn't supposed to be a deal in the first place!" Lieutenant whispered harshly.
The man turned around and swore to himself in a language Archer wasn't familiar with. Lieutenant heaved a sigh and then turned back around.
"Alright," He pointed his finger at Archer, "but just your unit." "Deal."
* * *
The device in T'Pol's hand sparked, fizzled, but became useless once again. The Vulcan bristled slightly and then calmly put the communicator down. T'Pol closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing.
"Frustration is a Human emotion," She said softly, "frustration is a Human emotion."
"T'Pol!" The Vulcan whirled around and saw Ja'an, with a flashlight in his hand, squinting at her.
"T'Pol, you've been twiddling with those for two hours, don't you think you should give it a rest?"
"I must find a way to contact my ship as soon as possible before they send a rescue team."
Ja'an shook his head and lit other lanterns in the room. "I'm telling you, there isn't anything sophisticated enough! It's useless to try."
"Striving to reach a goal is not useless."
"It is when you know that the goal is impossible!" Ja'an pulled a chair up to the table and snatched a trinket to fiddle with.
"It is not impossible, Ja'an. You know of my rescue plan. You promised to help."
Ja'an groaned. "I know, I know. But it's so risky!"
"Life itself is a risk. I will not abandon my companions, Ja'an."
The surgeon muttered to himself and flung his device onto the table. "Yeah, yeah. When are we going to get started?"
"Tomorrow. Before dawn."
"Right," Ja'an shook his head, "I can't believe I'm doing this."
* * *
"Shhh! You have to be quiet!" Lieutenant said as he locked the barrack doors.
Trip recoiled. "Sorry, didn't mean to close the door so loudly."
Loupa scoffed. "And this guy said *I* was going to be a problem."
Trip chuckled and playfully hit Loupa's shoulder.
"Gentlemen?" Lieutenant said gallingly.
Trip and Loupa straightened. "This way; and for heaven's sake, be quiet!"
Lieutenant turned the flashlight off and inched his way to the end of the barrack wall and peeked around the corner. He turned back around nearly bumping into Archer. Lieutenant put his index finger to his lips.
"There are two guards at door to the watchtower," Lieutenant whispered, "Now, listen carefully, I unlocked the front gate before. I'm going to distract the guards at the watchtower door while you go through the gate. Go through one at a time. Here, take these."
Lieutenant handed each of them a pistol, from a bag he'd been carrying, except for Loupa. Lieutenant gave him a rather large hunting knife.
"Sweet!" The boy said as he eyeballed the blade.
Archer and Trip stared at the weapons in their hands and glanced up at Lieutenant.
The man took out his own pistol and demonstrated how to load it. "As for firing, it's pretty much just like a phase pistol. But be careful, it'll spring back on ya."
Barik shoved his pistol in-between his belt and put his hand up. "Hold on a sec. Those guards are practically right next to that gate, how do you expect them not to see us?"
Lieutenant pulled a flask from his vest pocket and shook it gently. "It's ale," the man smirked, "but my own special recipe. It'll knock them out in two minutes flat."
Trip grinned. "It's a classic, but it's sure to work."
"But," Lieutenant said, "there's still a guard in the watchtower. So stay in the shadows and please, be quiet." Lieutenant emphasized the last two words.
Lieutenant put the flask back in his pocket and walked defiantly out into the square. The two guards by the watchtower were instantly alert and demanded the man's business there.
Lieutenant scoffed. "Ah, Commander Lee said the night guards were getting too soft. Fallin' asleep. Needed an extra person to keep watch. Can't say I like it too much. I'd rather be sleeping in my own bunk than watching out for imaginary escapees."
The guards eased their shoulders a bit and kept a looser grip on their weapons.
"Ja. You can say that again. No fool would be stupid enough to run away in this part of night, especially without any weapons. Everybody knows the most dangerous creatures hunt in the dead of night."
"Yeah," the other guard said, "the only weapon any prisoner could have is a shovel or a potato peeler."
Lieutenant chortled. "Hey, at least I brought a little drink to make this job a bit easier." Lieutenant pulled the flask from his vest pocket and held it up.
"You gotta be kidding me! What kind?"
"Just some classic ale. It'll warm you up too."
The guard laughed softly, snatched the flask, unscrewed the cap, and took a swig. After some time to taste it, he nodded in encouragement to his fellow guard. The man grabbed the flask and drank some with zeal.
The first guard shook his head. "Wow, some powerful stuff, isn't it? Sure it's just ale?"
"You betcha."
The guard swayed a bit. He tried to speak, but his words were garbled. His companion tried to steady him, only to fall to the ground in a drunken state.
Lieutenant quickly put the flask back in his pocket and dragged the guards to a dark corner. Once that was done, he walked a little out into the square so the guard from the watchtower would see him as he pretended to patrol the grounds.
Trip shook his head. "I dunno about this. There's too much variability."
"Give it a chance, Trip. This may be our only ticket out of here."
"That's what worries me."
Archer could see Lieutenant searching with his eyes to make sure no one was coming. Then he looked straight at Archer and ever-so-slightly nodded his head.
"Okay," Archer said, "I'll go first and then Loupa will go. Don't come until Lieutenant gives the signal. And follow my exact route."
"Right." Loupa said.
Archer backed up into a shadow cast on a wall of a building. Archer could just make out the indistinct form of a guard up in the watchtower. He dawdled idly.
The gate was still about fifteen meters away. Archer decided to crouch down and continued staying low. The gate didn't seem to be getting any closer, but Archer was just moving very slowly. He decided to pick up the pace.
That's better. Archer thought as the gate loomed in closer.
Archer suddenly heard a booming voice from the watchtower, and he froze in mid-stride. Archer took a chance and looked up at the watchtower. The guard was guffawing loudly and swaying back and forth grumbling loudly about someone who drank all his whiskey. He was as drunk as a cow that ate too many apples. And that was fine. It'd make it harder for the guard to detect anyone on the ground.
After what seemed like ages, Archer made it to the gate and gave it a tentative push. It moved open with ease. Archer emptied a lungful of air and hurriedly walked through, then motioned to Lieutenant that he was clear.
Lieutenant gave Loupa the signal that all was clear and he made it to the gate quickly. The same thing went on, undetected, until Lieutenant casually walked over to the gate, closed it, locked it, and spit on it just to say what he really thought of the place.
To Be Continued.