Author's Note: You know, again I appreciate all the reviews and the fact anyone is reading this at all.
In this chapter, anything happening on the bridge is happening at the same time on the Taso ship and visa versa. That will make sense later when you read this.
Summary: When Enterprise starts to mount a rescue, will someone on board the Taso ship be able to help?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter Five:
The Dark Room
**Medical Facility**
Trip had been brought to a bright, white room in which he was strapped down to what felt like a piece of wood. He was on his stomach and his arms crossed under it. He was strapped so tightly down and the position they put him in, made it almost, if not, impossible to struggle without it hurting. His face was turned to the left, cutting off his hearing in that ear. It was also leaving him with a horrible cramp there as well. But none of that stopped him from taking advantage of all the adrenaline in his system.
But as he looked around at what he could see, it seemed very familiar. He remembered it from one of his flashbacks. Then Xion's face became visible when he looked up; the same look used when someone, anyone, used to try to intimidate their prey. "Comfortable?"
"Very," he replied through his clenched teeth; his eyes clouded with anger and rage.
There was one other Taso in the room; he was just out of Trip's visual range but he could almost sense his presence. After a few gestures from Xion that Trip didn't understand, the other Taso said something in a strange language that Trip wasn't familiar with at all. The voice was cold and deep. He had an evil, devilish tone that sent chills up his spine.
Then he heard footsteps heading toward him. A second after they stopped, a smacking noise, quickly followed by a scream, filled the room. Trip took quick breaths and gritted his teeth, preparing himself for the next blow.
**The Dark Room, At The Same Time**
T'Pol felt extremely uncomfortable, yet her position was completely normal for her. She even felt that way when she stood.
A Taso stood in front of her, blocking the door. He seemed to be observing her ever move; it was very unnerving for her. She considered attacking, her strength was at least twice his and the adrenaline in her system would make her that much more able to win. But her rational side was taking over just a little. She knew she had no idea where Trip was, how to get to him, or even if she could get out the door.
A small communication device said something to the guard in a language T'Pol had never heard before. Very shortly afterward she screamed in pain. A shrilling pain went all the way down her back. The guard only smiled and said something into the communicator. The pain came and went, time after time, and when she felt as though she was on the verge of consciousness, it finally stopped. She laid down and tried to control her breathing.
**Terion's Ready Room**
Terion's ready room glowed with the incessant rotation of the beautiful colors of the ship. His door chime rang and the doors opened. "Ah, Doctor, do come in. So, what do we have on our… guests?"
Uion hesitated before walking in and let the door shut. He wanted… no needed to tell Terion his concern. "Captain, I'm concerned about the side-effect we accidentally triggered during the bonding process. The imbalance in their brain chemistry will become life threatening before much longer if it is not fixed."
"So, we've lost people before."
"But they'll die before we get any relevant information from them. All this would have been pointless."
"Fine. Then fix it. I don't care how." Terion's order held pure ignorance to the matter.
"I can't, sir."
"And why not?"
"I don't know how. It's unlike anything I know how to medically treat."
Terion thought for a moment, before he inquired, "They'll have to know. Ask one of them." The harsh tone and the need to help them sent Uion practically running out the room.
**Medical Facility**
Xion had left moments before and Trip silently prayed he wouldn't come back. He was boiling now, from both anger of what Xion did and the fever he had.
Uion walked through the sliding doors and walked over to Trip. His stride was one of ease and chorizema, something only someone in charge could truly produce. "How are you feeling?" Uion's whisper was both so sincere and worried it genuinely shocked him. "You look awful," Uion commented about both Trip's rapid breath and freshly marked back. "Please, how do you counter act the chemical imbalance. I must know I want to help."
Uion's plead was almost heart breaking. Trip had immediately took a liking to him the first time they meet. He had always trusted his first instinct and this was no different. "I… don't… know how…. But T'Pol… might."
Uion smiled; not an evil, sinister smile like Xion, but a kind, warm one, one that showed his compassion. He grabbed a hypospray and injected him. Then he looked around to check and see if anyone was looking before loosening his restraints and allowing him to move his arms into a more comfortable spot. "That should help," then he disappeared through the door and into the colorfully light hall.
**The Dark Room**
The door opened, letting the bright lights in. T'Pol sheltered her eyes as a form entered. The figure crouched down next to her sprawled out body. She looked up and saw his eyes; they were full of compassion, sympathy, and sorrow. "Sub-Commander T'Pol, I must speak with you. I need to know how to reverse the chemical imbalance. How do you reverse it?"
He spoke in an even, normal voice and she knew it was a voice she could trust. When her vision cleared of the cloudiness from the anger and pain, she looked closer and saw that it was Uion. She starred at him a while longer before she had actually digested what he had just said. "We don't discuss it with outsiders."
"Yea, well this 'outsider' is the only person who can and will help you. We both know that if you don't tell me, then both you and Commander Tucker will die." Uion's urgency did not escape his words.
She starred intently at him and he starred just as intently back. "Fine," and she preceded to explain only things she thought relevant about it.
About fifteen minutes later, once she had finished, Uion knew all that he didn't want to know about their situation. "I have to find a way to get the two of you out of here. It's the only way."
"How?"
"I'm not sure yet but I'll find it, I promise." He shot up and walked out the door, not even blinking at the colorfully bright lights emanating from the hall.
T'Pol continued to stay sitting, trying to calm and relax herself. She let her mind wonder; the feeling of laying down on a board filled her essence. She felt like she was strapped down and uncomfortable. She knew it was Trip she was feeling, knowing it was the bond allowing her to. She could even feel Trip's pain and… fear?
But his fear wasn't of someone or something but for her. That she might be hurt. Or they might hurt her like they did to him. She could also sense very little, if not any, fear for himself. When she dug farther into his mind, she felt something, buried in his sub-conscious. It was a feeling, one she had no name for or words to describe it. But she could reciprocate it; if she wherever to admit it, she felt the same thing, it was also deep in her own sub-consciousness.
**Bridge**
The bridge had gone deathly silent after Archer's accusation. "Sir, how can you be so sure?" Travis asked, his uncertainty showing through his words.
"Let's just say I have a knack for seeing a liar. And he is one," Archer said in a steady, neutral voice, his eyes never leaving the screen.
"Then if they were lying about that then they must have them on their ship. And that would be good reason to have been the ones who took them the first time." Hoshi stated, as mostly all the pieces fell together.
"They do have for more advanced technology. Clocking and transporter, for example. They could have easily been cloaked and beamed them up to their ship and back down to the planet without us ever knowing."
"But why? What could those two know that would be of any use to them?" Archer asked no one in particular.
"They were probably just the ones they scanned first or in that place. And then they took the same people because they had to finish something they started with them when they thought necessary," Malcolm answered.
"'So what are we going to do about it?" Travis piped in. Everyone stayed quiet for no one knew the answer.
**Medical Facility**
The doors opened and who walked in was Uion helping T'Pol, who looked haggard; her fever, like Trip's, had not gone down. Her hands were tied behind her back and he held her arm tightly. His free hand he had a small hand-sized phaser. He seemed to look carefully around before he barked, "Everybody out!" The few nurses and one guard gave puzzled but obedient looks. They all walked passed Uion and out the door into the colorful hallway.
Uion walked up to, the now unguarded, Trip. He seemed more comfortable but now where near relaxed, most likely from the restraints being loosened. He had tensed slightly at his arrival and how he was treating T'Pol, but once he told everyone to leave he didn't seem as tense. "I spoke to T'Pol, here, and she explained quite a bit to me. I can't help you with this… Ponn Farr, but I can help you off the ship. There you two can help yourselves."
"Why?" Trip questioned.
"I feel obligated to help. I stood back and watched last time, not even voicing my opinion. But now… now I can and will help." After a pause he said, "Come on." Trip's restraints were undone and he was able to sit up. He brought a hand to her arm, "Are you ok?"
She shook her head to tell him she was. "Alright, then lets get a move on. Remember you're my prisoners. Cooperate and they wont try to intervene. We'll be in the transporter room in no time." T'Pol's hands were still loosely tied, so Uion helped Trip up and tied his hands similar to T'Pol's. He held the phaser-like weapon at them; finishing off the act.
They walked out of the room and into the hall filled with five bewildered nurses and one outraged guard, "Where are you taking him? I was not informed of him being taken anywhere," the guard had demanded.
"Well, if you had a rank you just might had been thought of as important enough to be informed. But obviously you don't, so we didn't. Step aside. Now!" Reluctantly, the guard moved away, angrily starring at him. "You five, get back to work."
He seemed harsher and much more confidant and in control. The change was noticed by both Trip and T'Pol but not the other six; they didn't seem to think anything of it.
They continued on, the halls stung their eyes as the vivid colors incessantly to change and shift from place to place. The doors seemed to blend into the walls and one would have to wonder how they didn't run into a wall. Trip tried to make a mental note of anything they passed or anything familiar; which was extremely hard considering the color was never the same or that doors and panels appear non-existent to the untrained eye.
**At The Same Time, Bridge**
Hoshi was sitting in her station, using her great ears to try and find out where Trip and T'Pol were. She had significantly narrowed the searched to three decks in one of the stern sections. Now she was trying to get that down to one deck.
Meanwhile, Malcolm and Travis were devising a plan that would temporally cut off their power. "Xion said something about their shields operating on a tacyon based frequency."
"So if we direct a tayon beam toward their shields-"
"It would disable them. Then we could fire a torpedo at their power generator. Xion told me it takes them fifteen minutes to get it back up."
"Then we'll have time to look for them but we won't have enough time to take a shuttle, much less dock. We'll have to use the transporter," Travis finished off their plan.
**Taso Ship**
He stopped them after about two and a half kilometers of hallways and fives decks down. A door slide open, reviling not a transporter room, like they were first in, but an empty one. It was a large, vacant room in which there was no light. Except in the dead center of the room where Trip and T'Pol were pushed into. They could no longer see anything out of the circle of light.
A laugh, Trip recognized as the evil laugh of Xion, echoed in the spartan room. "Humans are so easily influenced. They follow instincts and feelings so blindly; all it takes is a kind personality and they instantly trust you."
Trip's urge to rip Xion apart returned as he came vaguely into view. Trip grinned his teeth and made a savage face. At the same time he pushed hard on the ropes, almost making it lose enough to take off. He then lunged at Xion, only to bounced back when he hit the edge of the light. He landed hard on his back and whimpered in pain for his back still hurt like hell from being whipped.
Xion and his partner, still to far in the shadows to see, laughed at his actions. "There is a protective forcefield around the lighted area. Don't bother to try and escape, it won't work," Xion's companion stepped forward, reviling himself to be Terion. Trip struggled harder when he saw his identity.
T'Pol had been working on her own ropes ever since it was put on, back in the holding cell she was in. She was almost out of them, although a little late, she would be ready for their change of escape.
Trip, on the other hand, was having less luck. He had managed to use his hands to force himself into a sitting position. And then, from there, he was able to stand up. The trouble was, his ropes were tied much tighter than hers and he had had less time to try and untie them. Luckily, in this state, he almost had the strength of a normal Vulcan and he kept trying to break it.
