Chapter 7

***Blin slowed the shuttle incrementally as he maneuvered through the trail.

"Why are we slowing down?" Tamil asked from her position on the floor.

"I don't think they'll find us in here.  Unless they know the woods like I do."

"They don't," Shyla said sounding a little disappointed as she dismantled her weapon.  "Security cadets train in the woods several times before graduating, but rarely return."

"Now what?" Blin asked as he stopped the shuttle.

"We see if we can find my friends.  I don't think we will, but I've got to try anyway."

"How?" Tamil asked still in the same position.

"You can get up now."  Shyla stowed the weapon and pulled three smaller weapons from the compartment.  "We can use the shuttle's sensors to scan for them," she said handing a weapon to Blin and Tamil.

"What do I do with this?" Tamil whined.

Shyla sighed as Blin knelt in front of Tamil.  He gave Shyla a look that said, "Give me a minute, please."  To Tamil, he said, using his pet name for her, "Bina, I know you're scared."  He held her shoulders and looked into her eyes.  "But, we need you to be strong.  I need you to be strong.  You probably won't need to use this.  Shyla and I will take the front as much as possible.  Just in case, push this button.  I'll set the strength for you now so you won't have to worry about it."

When he let go of her, she didn't slump and spoke in a calm voice. "What if we don't find your friends?" 

"My suspicions about their being captured will be confirmed, and we'll continue on to the mountain region," Shyla said from the engineers seat.

"Don't you care about them?  Especially that one named Harry?"

Shyla spun around.  "Of course I do.  But, they can take care of themselves for now. Besides-"

Blin finished setting his and Tamil's weapons and stood between the two sisters.   Looking at each in turn, he said calmly, "We don't have time for this."

Tamil lowered her eyes, and Shyla turned back to the scanners.

"There are two bio signs headed our way, both Plon."

"The guards?" Blin asked.

"Possibly.  If they were able to exit the shuttle before it exploded."  Shyla quickly grabbed her weapon, set it and opened the shuttle doors.

"Exploded?" Tamil sounded shaky again.

"Probably hit a tree," Blin explained helping her to her feet.

"Stop right there!"  Shyla thundered aiming her weapon at the two Plons.

Silando and Kilando stopped and raised their arms as Silando said, "We're here to help."

"Disarm."

They slowly removed their weapons from their waists and stooped to put them on the ground, keeping one arm in the air all the while.

Keeping her weapon trained on them, Shyla walked forward.  "These aren't standard issue security weapons," she said examining Silando's then Kilando's.

"They were three years ago," Silando said.

"What's going on?" Shyla asked backing up slowly.

"I am Silando, and this is Kilando.  For twenty-eight years, we were cadet training instructors at the security academy.  Six months ago, we were terminated and ordered to turn in our badges and current weapons.  Because these are older and rarely used anymore, we were allowed to keep them provided we endorsed a statement that we would not use them against any standing member of the security force of Plona."

"So, you're not here to arrest us?" Tamil asked.

"Like I said, we're here to help," Silando said.

"Why were you terminated?" Shyla and Blin asked.

"We didn't know exactly why at the time.  We were told that there was an overabundance of instructors and a shortage of new cadets.  However, we believed there was something else going on.  Something the government obviously didn't want us to know about due to our records of upholding governmental morality.  We have since learned what that something was and would like to help stop it."

"Especially given the result of this morning's demonstration outside the security building," Kilando interjected.

"What happened?"  Shyla lowered her weapon slightly.

"The last known protestors were eliminated," Silando explained.

"Did they get a chance to tell everything they know?" Shyla asked.

"Thanks to the efforts of several protestors, one man was able to inform the citizens of the hole and its location before he was fired upon by at least three guards.  They took his body and those of the others to the judging building and hung them upside down as examples," Silando explained.

"How did the protestors get their information?" Blin asked as he held a shaking Tamil.

"They have their ways," Silando said thinking of a certain skillful cadet he and Kilando had trained.  He would never forget her brutal death by the guards.  If he could have gotten to her in time, he would have disregarded his signature on that statement.  "Whatever we're going to do, we'd better do it quickly."

***To say that downtown Plon was in a state of chaos would be putting it mildly.  The streets were littered with sobbing people.  The medical teams that responded, the ones who didn't rush home to prepare for what they believed would be great devastation in a little over twenty-four hours, were overwhelmed.  When the last protestors were brutally murdered, mass hysteria erupted.  The security guards tried to keep the crowds under control, but everything fell apart when several recently promoted cadets panicked and started firing their weapons at random.  Men, women, children and aliens alike became victims.  Six members of Voyager's crew were among the wounded.  The last time the death count was updated, it was up to forty in a three square -meter area.  Two more medical teams freaked and ran just before dark.  The two medical teams left seemed oblivious to anything or anyone not wounded and in need of their attention.

***"Do you know anything about two aliens who were trying to get into the woods?" Shyla asked.  "One had ridges on her forehead, and the other, a male with-"

"We witnessed their capture," Silando said.

"How long ago?"

"Approximately forty-five minutes."

"Are they still alive?" Tamil asked.

"They won't kill them," Shyla said.  "Yet."

"No," Silando agreed.  "They'll want them for information and leverage."

There was a moment of silence before Silando said, "As I said, whatever we are going to do, we must do so now.  The suns have almost finished setting."

"We need to get to the mountain region quickly," Blin said.  "But, these woods are thick.  Even with my mining experience and your instruction experience, it would be difficult to navigate the trails in the dark."

"If your shuttle has flares, we can use them to travel to a better campsite.  Their light would only be sufficient for thirty minutes, however."

"Well, that's closer than here," Blin offered.

"Where would I find the flares?" Shyla asked.

"They would be in a compartment near the back of the shuttle," Kilando said.  Shyla gestured for him to help her locate them.

*** A metal door slid open squeakily, and two Plon security guards walked in.  The one on the right pointed his weapon at the prisoners while the other walked in a little further, set a tray on the floor and walked out.  The one with the weapon backed out of the cell, and the door slid squeakily shut in front of him.

Harry and B'Elanna looked at each other, at the tray and back at each other.

"I guess that's the evening meal," B'Elanna said.

"You really think that's food?"

"Well, it doesn't look like medical supplies."

"It doesn't look like food either.  It looks more like-"
"Harry, if you finish that sentence, you'll be in more need of medical attention than me."

Harry looked away.  "I'm sorry I got us into this."

"It wasn't your fault.  You couldn't have known the government would be so quick in figuring out that we were helping Shyla."

"I meant getting us involved in this whole earthquake thing," he said softly.

"Oh."  B"Elanna grimaced and scooted closer to him.  "Yeah, that part is definitely your fault."

Harry looked up surprised at her quick agreement.

She smiled reassuringly.  "You know that anyone else in your position would have done the same thing.  And, you know that we'll get out of this somehow."

"Yeah."  He looked away again.

"Janeway's wrath will be another story, however."

Harry banged his head against the wall.  "I'll probably spend the rest of the trip home scrubbing plasma manifolds with a toothbrush."