Chapter Four
The Precious Blood
"Captain, a ship has just dropped out of warp, bearing 201 Mark 137." T'Pol reported the ship to be behind them about 21 degrees further to port, and midway between straight up and behind them. "Configuration is similar to the derelict, but there is no record in the Vulcan database. Distance five hundred thousand kilometers."
"Bring us about, Travis." At his command, the Enterprise turned to port and angled upward in a move designed to look casual but having the advantage of bringing the ship's strongest weaponry, particularly the newly installed phase cannons, to point in the newcomer's direction. Lt. Reed, well in mind that the last ship they had encountered had been shot to pieces, had his finger on the control that would polarize the hull plating. "Open a channel, Hoshi." At her nod, he addressed the approaching ship.
"This is Captain Jonathan Archer, commanding the Starship Enterprise, out from Earth. Our mission is peaceful." He waited a few moments and then glanced at Hoshi, who indicated that the signal had been received by the approaching ship. "Send again, and have Trip and Tia Anlor report to the Bridge." Meantime, it gave Archer a few moments to examine the ship.
It was large, and though it superficially resembled the derelict it was almost three times the size of Enterprise, and he did not need Reed to tell him that it was armed to the teeth. If this was the ship that had made such a wreck of the ship they'd encountered...
"I'm getting a signal," Hoshi reported.
"On screen."
Archer was almost sorry he'd given the order when the scene shifted to the interior, what he judged to be the bridge. There were several dark uniformed figures visible, but the individual in the center chair was decked out with so much silver ornamentation on his black uniform that he left no doubt as to who was in charge.
x
The species was Snake. Granted that he had never seen it before, but the green scaly skin and nictating eyes said 'snake' more loudly than anything he had heard. It was not like the Suliban, but more reptilian. The ... creature spoke, but its words were little more than hissing sibilants.
Hoshi worked rapidly at her board, and then nodded to Archer. "I'm Captain Archer." He said, trying to draw out a response. The reply was still more hissing, but this was only underscore to was passably good English. For them to get a working translation this quickly, this had to be the race whose data had already been downloaded from the ship now left astern.
"Captain Archer." The voice hissed, and damned if the tongue that protruded rapidly from the lipless mouth was not forked! "Our sensors show you have an Auran aboard. You will turn him over to us immediately."
It was a cosmic misfortune that at that moment the turbo-lift door opened behind him, and he glanced back to see Tia Anlor and Trip Tucker enter the bridge. The instant Tia saw the image on the screen she recoiled back against Trip with an expression of abject terror.
"You will transfer the slave to our ship now!"
"NO!" she cried, almost a scream. She whirled, grasping Trip. "Please, Shar-les; don't let them take me!" Archer had seen enough.
"What is your claim on her?"
"Our business." The leader hissed. "You will surrender the slave or be destroyed." The image switched back to the view of the formidable ship before them. Archer turned back to their guest, who was staring at the screen, wide eyed, chest heaving in utter panic.
A cutting gesture to Hoshi and her nod confirmed the muted channel.
x
"Reed - Tactical."
"If you're planning on fighting, have your will signed. They outgun us better than twelve to one."
"Understood." He turned to their guest. "Miss Anlor, we don't have a lot of time here. Talk to me." She turned pleading eyes up to Tucker.
"It's all right. We're not going to let anyone hurt you." Archer wished he felt as confident as Trip was trying to sound.
Trying to pull herself together, she faced the Captain. "They conquered my world, but some of us would not capitulate. I and my friends fought them. We were punished, but some of us managed to escape on that ship you found me on."
"What do they want?"
"My body."
x
Suddenly Archer understood. "Gold. They want you for your gold."
She nodded. "They harvest us. Gold is virtually unknown on their world, but on ours it is an essential feature of life. Gold to us is like your iron, but the Silurian have virtually none, and they prize it greatly. They took all that was on my world; then stayed to harvest us." Archer remembered how, for millennia on Earth, gold was highly prized indeed; a source of wealth, a foundation for economies, and a cause for bloodshed.
And apparently here it was literally so.
x
A chime on Hoshi's board sounded. He didn't need her to tell him that they were being hailed. Preparing himself, he nodded to her, and turned to face the viewscreen a moment before the Silurian reappeared. "You say that she is a slave."
"She is," he hissed.
"However, she interests us as well. We would like to buy her."
"Captain." T'Pol spoke up, objection heavy in her voice.
"Later." He knew that this ploy was ill advised, that if the Vulcans or Starfleet heard about it, there would be hell to pay. But he had seen the change of expression on the alien's face; and if he read it right… "How much gold can you get from her?"
"We can harvest .4 grams per day from her."
"I offer 150 kilograms, straight sale."
He had never before rocked a snake back on its heels, but if the reaction that spread through that bridge was any indication he had come pretty close. It took a few seconds for the Silurian captain to find his voice. "Done."
"Stand down your weapons, and we'll send the gold over." He looked a moment later at Reed, whose nod indicated that the weapons of the other ship had been powered down.
Another cutting signal to Hoshi and he looked to his Chief Engineer. "How fast can the matter resequencer produce 150 kilos of gold?"
Tucker's eyes were hard with determination. "P.D.F.!"
x
He kept the communications open all during the exchange, which was accomplished by transporter, both for a chance to establish First Contact protocols and to watch for signs of betrayal. However, the Silurian did not seem to be interested in either one.
He believed he'd read them right. He'd offered, and provided, a staggering fortune which he was rather sure would be well divided, and profit motives usually don't include the potential damage to their own ship that would result in any betrayal.
They took their gold and went on their way.
x
Archer, not yet giving himself the chance for a sigh of relief, turned toward the turbolift. Tia Anlor was staring at him apprehensively. She backed away. "Relax. We 'bought' you, but we don't 'own' you."
"I do not understand." Her tone was filled with suspicion and outright fear. To her view, she had just traded one master for another.
"You're free." She looked over her shoulder at Tucker, her eyes pleading for understanding. "Humans do not own anyone," Archer told her. She turned to Trip, her eyes pleading for an explanation.
"Shar-les! How? It would take 375,000 days to repay you!" She was appalled, terrified, betrayed!
"There's no 'repayment'." He watched her face, the disbelief and apprehension not diminished at all. "We did it to save your life, to free you, not to 'own' you. We've no interest in your gold, just in your welfare."
She stared at him, wanting to believe, filled with disbelief.
"You do not want my body?"
Trip opened his mouth, and nothing came out.
x
"You said you don't want to be a slave," Archer said, saving his friend from both having to lie and tell the truth. "That's why you ran." She kept looking from one of them to the other/ "What do you want to do?"
She looked around the bridge at the various faces that surrounded her, searching for betrayal, for greed, for lies … even for lust – everything she was well used to, and finding none.
"Free? A – I am free?"
"Yes. You're free," Trip told her.
She looked up into his eyes, not knowing what to say, what to look for, what to find.
"I swear."
"You can go anywhere you want. We do not own you. You are your own woman. What do you want to do?" Archer asked again. She stared at him, feeling lost.
"I do not know what I can do!" She was overwhelmed, unable to think. Too much had happened too quickly. She looked around the bridge at the men and women assembled there, but found no answers at all. "I can not go home. My friends are dead." She looked back up at Tucker. "Where can I go?"
"Well, for now, why not stay with us? This ship could sure use a first rate Biologist." Trip looked at Archer, to whom this was the first he was hearing of it. But the Captain trusted his friend's judgment enough that, by the time Tia had turned, he had already made his decision.
"Sure. Trip, why don't you make the arrangements for Miss Anlor's stay?"
She stared at him, unable to speak, unable to imagine what she could say!
x
"Gladly, Captain." Taking Tia's arm, he ushered the stunned Auran to the lift door, but at the last moment she stopped, turned back. Her eyes were still wide in inexpressible shock, looking about the bridge, barely able to take it all in and think of any words to say. She had escaped from a life of slavery; her ship was attacked; her friends and those she loved all horribly killed; she was stranded among aliens she'd never conceived of; chased and confronted by the demons of hell; bought outright before she could even think of a word to say, then told she was free; then given a place with these outlandish, unimaginable people! She had absolutely no idea what to say, what to do, what to…
But these people had been kind to her; had saved her; had healed her; had freed her. Unable to think of what to say, she reverted to common courtesy for inspiration. She pressed her hands to her chest, midway between breasts and shoulders, fingers pointing upward.
"Thank you, Captain."
"You're welcome."
x
When they were gone, Jonathan Archer sat down in his command chair, feeling five years older and wondering how he was going to report to Admiral Forrest the results of two First Contacts and his having 'bought' a new ship's Biologist.
"Captain." He did not even look at his Science Officer.
"I know you have about a thousand objections," he said with a sigh. He put his head back, closed his eyes on the universe. "Later."