Survivors - Past and Present
by
Nicol Leoraine
and Anon
aka VirtualQueens
Chapter 8
For a moment the passage way was utterly silent. Then the blue spark of a phaser cut through
the air with a faint hiss. One body hit the floor.
"Is he dead?" B'Elanna asked as she lowered the stolen phaser in her hand. Aiden stared at her with a mixed lookof surprise and shock, but quickly shook his head.
"I don't think so."
B´Elanna cursed and aimed again, but Harry touched her arm, giving her a warning shake
of head.
"Torres - you can't," he mumbled.
"What?"
"You can´t kill him when he´s already unconscious. It's a violation of the 's unconscious he's not a threat, and you're only allowed to kill in self defense," Harry hissed nervously, watching as Aiden
neared the still breathing body of Orsen. "Believe me, I would be happy to do it myself," it was a half lie, because as much as Harry disliked the man, he couldn't imagine killing someone in cold blood. "-but I won´t, not when he´s unconscious and incapable of defending
himself."
The half-Klingon growled and walked up to the man. Aiden was currently going through his
clothes - running his hands up and downthe man´s vest. B´Elanna frowned as she watched, her phaser slowly rising until it was pointing at Aiden's head.
"What are you doing?"
"Looking for something," Aiden replied distractedly, his movements becoming more frantic with every passing moment. When Orsen's eyes fluttered open B'Elanna cursed and hit the man with the but of the phaser, knocking him unconscious again. Aiden hardly seemed to notice, as his fingers closed around the thing he was searching for. With a large smile he pulled out a little blue crystal from a secret pocket in Orsen's vest. After examining the thing for a brief instant Aiden stashed it away in one of his own pockets, hiding it from his companions curious gazes.
"What was that?" B'Elanna asked, and Aiden jumped, noticing her close proximity.
"Uh - nothing." He lied, immediately knowing it was the wrong answer as the woman lunged at him, pinning him to the cave wall. He let out a strangled cry and looked at Harry, who seemed just as surprised at the half-Klingons abrupt action.
"What did you put in your pocket?" hissed B'Elanna in a highly dangerous tone.
"Key - to the City." Aiden gasped out, sliding to the floor when B'Elanna released the grip upon his throat.
"City? What do you know about it?"
"No time." Aiden coughed out, struggling to his feet. "We must find Conan."
"B'Elanna I don't mean to interrupt, but...someone's coming." Harry hissed, instantly bringing the other two people to his side. Aiden motioned them forward and the trio of people jogged their way though the tunnels. The passage ways they were in now were rougher and unfinished, as if someone had never gotten around to smoothing the walls and floor.
The passage way had been fairly steep, and by the time it had started to level out the voices behind them had faded into nothingness. But still Aiden led them on, only stopping when B'Elanna had physically hauled him to a stand still, glaring at him as she wheezed in exhaustion.
"Where are we going?" Harry asked, rubbing his ankle. It was throbbing painfully, but he hadn't complained. Though his limping gate wasn't going unnoticed by either of his companions.
"The other set of caves." came the curt answer.
"Why?" B'Elanna asked, trying to make sense of the situation.
"Conan is there. We need his help. And if your friends survived the storms, they will be with him."
"Who's this Conan?"
"My-" Aiden hesitated for a moment then continued "My friend. He is the healer for the others. A good man."
"Yeah, shoots at anyone that moves?" B'Elanna mumbled to herself, but Aiden heard and shook his head.
"No, not like that. Not like Orsen. He is a wise man, he would never hurt anyone."
Aiden's fierce protection of the other man surprised B'Elanna.
"Conan will help us." Aiden said firmly. "He has to, otherwise..."
"Otherwise what?" Harry asked suspiciously, but Aiden didn't reply. He had risen to his feet, eyes once again wide. To Harry's surprise, B'Elanna did the same, as both she and Aiden pressed their palms to the nearest wall. He was just about to ask what they were doing, when he felt it.
The first tremor wasn't large, and though it startled Harry badly, it ended quickly. But they had hardly drawn their next breath when a larger tremor shook them off their feet, leaving three dusty forms sprawled on the shaking ground, fervently hoping the labyrinth of tunnels was as sturdy as it appeared to be.
When the shaking stopped a minutes later the trio cautiously sat up, coughing and dusting their clothing off.
"Does this happen often?" Harry inquired as Aiden helped him to his feet. His face was dirty from the dust and his neatly combed hair was now standing in spikes all over his head. B'Elanna might have laughed had she not know they all looked the same.
"No." Aiden said in response to Harry's question. "I remember it happening only once, after some of the stars fell from the sky. A meteor shower is what Conan called it. But the tremors and storms were not this bad." Aiden said, a troubled look upon his face.
"We need to move, our time is running out."
"What do you mean, running out!"
But Aiden ignored them, jogging forward with purposeful strides. With a grunt Harry and B'Elanna followed their guide.
When Aiden reached a sharp turn in the tunnel, he paused, squinting. B'Elanna stopped a few feet behind him, pointing her phaser into the murky darkness beyond. The shadows there were moving, light appearing briefly as they heard the hard breathing of a man. Aiden cocked his head, Harry leaned heavily against the wall and B'Elanna flicked the phaser's safety control off. The shadow grew larger.
As the form of a man took shape B'Elanna aimed, and Aiden realized the half klingons intentions. With a cry of NO, he knocked it out of her grasp, and the blue bolt of energy went wildly off to the side, charring a pile of brown stones. B'Elanna growled at the young man, fist already raised to strike him, when the man spoke.
"Aiden? What's going on?" He asked, walking slowly towards the group.
"Conan?" Aiden asked, looking up. And then, much to the surprise of his companions, his face broke out into a large smile and he lunged at the older man, sweeping him up in a tight hug. "Father!"
"Where the hell is Conan?" Chakotay muttered, looking at his reflection in the mirror. It wasn't glass, but more of that silver metal, polished to an impossibly high shine. It was very reflective, giving the commander a far clearer image of his haggard face than he would have wished for. The former Marquis was in the 'bathroom', or at least what seemed to be the alien equivalent ofa bathroom, washing his face while a groggy Pairs answered the call of nature. The 'bathroom' was almost as big as Chakotay's cabin on Voyager, and lit by some sort of luminosit moss that glowed brightly, even though no light shown though the tightly shut wooden door. Like the other rooms Chakotay had seen most of the fixtures were carved out of the stone, or made from the silver metal. There were no water pipes or taps but a gentle flow of water fell into a series of stone basins, next to which the reflective metal had been fixed to the wall. In the middle of the room was a circular tub several yards in width and length and at least three feet deep.
"Think that's their version of a bathtub? Or an economy sized swimming pool?" Tom asked, dipping his hands in the water next to Chakotays. The pilot kept his fingers submerged for a moment, then splashed the cool water onto the flushed skin of his neck and face.
As Chakotay watched Tom he inwardly cursed the storms. If their medical equipment was working, Tom wouldn't look like death warmed over.
He was shirtless, in a futile attempt to remain cool, and the exposed skin was pale, except for his fever flushed cheeks and the collection of scars on his chest, abdomen and back. His eyes had a glassy quality about them and what was left of his uniform was soaked in sweat. And, as some sort of cruel cosmic joke, the tightness in his chest had returned, reminding Tom of one truly miserable winter at Auckland when he'd caught pneumonia. It had taken the warden a week to notice that he was 'slightly' ill. He'd started a fight in the mess hall, and finally been sent, coughing and wheezing, to the prisons medical facilities. It had scared him then, the inability to breath without pain, but it scared him much more now, because there was no get out of hell free card, no quick pass to a med bay with semi competent doctors and powerful hyposprays.
Splashing another palm full of water over his face Tom glanced at Chakotay. "Uhm, I don't want to whine or anything," Tom started, pausing for a quick breath every third or fourth word "but...do you have some sort of plan?"
Chakotay looked at the pilot, who was swaying slightly and looking increasingly pale. Tom gripped the stone water basin for support, but otherwise didn't move.
"I...no. Not really. Conan said we're trapped in the caves, until the storm ends. That could be in an hour, or a week. I need to talk to Conan, see if there's a chance that Torres and Kim are still alive. And if so, where they might be hiding from this storm."
"What if they're already here?"
Chakotay looked sharply at the pale faced pilot. He hadn't thought the fever was that high...
"Tom...look around."
"Not here, here."Tom replied in an exasperated tone. "I mean, that they might be in anther room just down the hall and we wouldn't know it. All we have to go on is the word of some English speaking medicine man."
"He saved your life Tom." Chakotay replied, letting some of his frustration leak into his voice as he helped the pilot out of the bathroom. Paris just snorted.
"Yeah and I really appreciate it, trust me. But it would be helpful if he'd let us out of these rooms so we can try to findHarry and B'Elanna, or at least contact Voyager."
"I agree with you Tom." Chakotay said, grabbing the pilots shoulder as he swayed dangerously. "But you're not exactly in any condition to travel and even though I doubt Lander would shoot us if we wandered off, I'm not honestly sure about the others. So we'll wait here for Conan."
Tom glared half heartedly at the commander, but didn't protest as Chakotay helped him back to the pile of furs. Lander wandered away from the fountainlong enough to silently helped Chakotay maneuver Pairs into a comfortable position. Then the guard returned to his own pile of furs by the door and began to, as far as Chakotay could tell, count sheep in an attempt to fall asleep.
"So - you think - they're from Earth?" Tom asked, gasping from the exsirtion of moving.
"Looks like it." Chakotay replied, sniffing at the contents of the cup Conan had left for Tom. With a grimace he handed it to Tom.
"Doesn't smell very good, but it helped you last time so you should probably drink it."
"I - said - I don't - want it!" Tom protested, coughing violently. "You've already drugged me twice - not again!"It took him a while to stop coughing thoughand Chakotay used his exhaustion afterwards to put the cup to his lips. Tom gulped the liquid, thinking it was water, but water never smelled like three day old socks.
"Don't glare at me Lieutenant." Chakotay said in a stern tone. "You're no good to meor the rest of the teamin this condition."
"Aye, Commander." Tom snarled, hopeing that someday soon he'd have a chance to repay the Marquis Captain for his 'gentle care'. Tom just hoped it would be on a very primitive planet, with plenty of old fashioned needles. And leeches. Ya...needles and leeches and stuff.
Tom stopped his wandering mind, blaming it on the cursed tea. He must have been smiling thoughbecause the commander was throwing him suspicious looks. Oh well, the tea was working fast and already Tom could feel his defenses falling. He wasexhausted and the tea made it so easy to just let his facade fall away. He could feel Chakotay watching him, watch his walls crumble, and inwardly groaned. He lay still, pretending to sleep in hopes of avoiding the conversation he knew as coming.
"That's a nice collection of scars you have there." Chakotay said slowly, and Tom swallowed. "Pretty unusual to have that many..."
Tom remained silent, his eyes closed. Maybethe commander would just stop, thinking he was asleep.
"And here, this one -" Tom felt a cool finger on his stomach and jerked, spoiling the sleeping charade. "Looks pretty recent," the commander continued. "The Doc did a pretty bad job with it didn't he? Maybe we should have B'Elanna check out his programming when we get back."
Of course Chakotay was well aware that the EMH had never seen the injury.
"What do you want Chakotay?" Tom hissed, pulling his knees up to his chest, blocking Chakotay's view.
"I want to know why you didn't report what must have been a very violent, and recent, case of assault. And I want to know who did it, and if it was someone from my crew."
"I thought there was no Chakotay's or Janeway's crew. Didn't you two decide to mash us all together in one big happy family?" Tom said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
Chakotay paused for a moment before answering, apparently not minding Tom's artful change of subject. "I'm not going to lie and say that I was pleased when I saw you on Voyager. And I'm not so naive as to think that we'll become good friends either. But we have a long journey ahead of us. I don't think killing the pilot will make it any faster, or easier."
Tom would have snorted, but he was entering that fuzzy state between sleep and wakefulness and didn't have the energy. Instead he just exhaled slowly.
"Well then Chakotay, you're the first. Now, if you don't mind - I'm a bit tired." With that Tom pulled one of the light, tightly woven blankets over his bare chest and closed his eyes.
He was silent for several minutes, long enough to make Chakotay think that he may have actually fallen asleep.
And then, out of the blue, he spoke.
"I didn't crash the shuttle. Not this time."
"What?"
"It wasn't pilot error." Tom said wearily, his eyes still closed. "Everything was fine until we entered the upper atmosphere, and those freakish storms started. Then when we hit the lower atmosphere," one shoulder moved in a slight shrug "everything shut down. I'll bet a months worth ofreplicator rations that whatever is causing these storms knocked us down to."
Chakotay agreed with the pilot, but the other mans wording worried him. Tom's mask was cracking and Chakotay didn't like what he saw beneath it.
"And I think," Tom murmured, almost asleep again, "that whatever it is, it's getting worse." Chakotay was confused for a moment until he felt the vibrations in the wall behind him. When the ground started to shake a moment later, the word had already formed in his mind. Earthquake.