Author's note

Sorry about the lack of updates. (Hangs head in shame) The muse has disappeared, but this fic WILL be finished, have no doubt about that. Thanks to all of those who reviewed, this chapters especially for you.

Chapter 16

Sovek's hands flew to his belt, reaching desperately for his phase pistol, which was holstered there.

"Need I remind you that I have a weapon pointed at this human, Sovek" Telak stated, in a menacing tone. As if to emphasise his point he grasped Adams tighter, almost crushing the human's windpipe, suffocating him.

"Throw your weapon away." The Romulan ordered.

Sovek looked over to Adam's, and saw the officer attempting to suppress his salty tears. Training in the academy apparently 'prepared' its officers for situations like these. However actually experiencing one like this, actually having a gun pointed directly at your head, your life hanging in the balance. Well, training goes straight out of the window. Sovek would have liked to say he hadn't seen it before, hadn't seen grown men, even twice his size, crumble under gunpoint, but he had. And this wasn't going to be the last time he saw it, not when men like Telak still existed anyway.

"Shoot him", the muffled, garbled voice croaked. Sovek locked eyes with Adams, the owner of the voice. It seemed this human wasn't as feeble as Sovek had just perceived. "Shoot him, Sovek". Adams repeated, slightly louder this time, finding strength buried deep inside. Telak reacted to the humans outburst, and a cringing crack echoing through the room. Adams crooked arm fell to his side, several brakes clearly evident. Adams bit down hard on his bottom lip, preventing himself from crying out, and drawing coppery blood, which only worsened the gagging sensation in the confines of his throat.

"Throw your weapon away Sovek, or a few broken bones will be the least of your problems." Telak repeated slowly. No remorse evident at all.

Sovek considered his options, and had no choice but to comply. He dropped the weapon to the floor, a dull thud occurring upon impact, and then he kicked the phaser to the other side of the sparse room. Telak aimed his own weapon upon the Starfleet issue phaser, and fired. The Starfleet phaser erupted in flames and sparks, it was completely useless now.

"Let him go Telak, if you want someone to point a gun at use me." Sovek stated, trying to spare the Ensign any more injury.

The corners of Telak's mouth upturned slightly, "I see you haven't changed in that respect, always trying to save lesser life form's." he stated.

"As opposed to you, who just kills anything that moves." Sovek snapped back

"Each to their own", Telak smirked sickeningly back.

"If you want someone to threaten, threaten me. Your little vendetta is with me Telak, not the humans." Sovek stated, his voice steady.

The Romulan 'Vulcan' almost snarled, and with a swift movement, he knocked the young ensign to the ground, unconscious.

"Such a weak species, it is surprising they've survived this long." he muttered looking down upon the young Enterprise officer, a disgusted look on his face. His gaze returned to Sovek, his weapon trained on the Vulcan.

"Your daughter on the other hand was very… surprising, I enjoyed interrogating her."

At the mention of T'Pol, Sovek's features hardened, if looks could kill Telak would have been dead ten times over.

"What did you do to her?" Sovek snapped, his limited emotional control disappearing. He took a step towards the Romulan; in response Telak's finger clenched the weapon's trigger slightly harder.

"I see that Vulcan temper's rearing its ugly head" Telak mocked. "And there's no one but yourself to blame for her predicament."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Telak's features hardened, "You know exactly what I mean you eneh hwau' kllhwnia na imirrhlhhse. You murdered them all, T'pol is merely paying the price for what you did." Telak swore.

Sovek's shoulders dropped, "Your government murdered your family Telak, not me."

Telak brought his weapon down upon Sovek's head. The force behind it immense. The Vulcan staggered, as the metal encountered his scull, but he didn't fall down. "You may have not pulled the trigger Vulcan, but they are dead because of you."

Sovek's jaw clenched. He knew what Telak had said was tainted by his anger, but it was in essence true. If Sovek had never encountered Telak's father, it would have been likely that Telak's family would have still been alive. Perhaps Telak would not have turned into the killer that stood before him, Sovek reflected. However, if he had never encountered Telak's father then he wouldn't have been in this situation in the first place. Telak's father had given him the information about the Empire's plans all those years ago. Given Sovek the data that had convinced him to give up his job, his normal life and most importantly his family, in order to prevent the Empire's domination plans.

"My father was a great man, before you tainted him. He turned his back on his planet because of you." Telak shot back.

"Yet, you still turned him in to your government."

"I did what was necessary for the Empire, just like my dealings with your daughter."

Sovek glared, "Your grudge against me is beyond childish. You couldn't kill me, so you're getting revenge through my daughter."

Telak's eyes smouldered, "You are just lucky she is alive, I should have killed her." Telak paused, "…But she did serve a few rather enjoyable purposes" he smirked, trying to bait the Vulcan, and it worked.

Sovek's control shattered and he lunged forward, his primal, Vulcan instinct taking over. Telak reacted without hesitation and fired his weapon, hitting Sovek directly in his shoulder. The Vulcan fell awkwardly towards the ground, grasping his arm.

Reacting immediately Sovek's gaze sought his attacker's whereabouts, Telak quickly came into view, and Sovek was on his feet in seconds. His military training kicking in. He threw a well-aimed fist at Telak's face, knocking the Romulan off balance, the weapon within his grasp falling towards the ground. Sovek was 'rewarded' with a kick to his stomach; he resisted the pain, and fought back. The two exchanged blows for the next few minutes, each equally matched, Telak having the slight upper hand with his younger age. Neither seemed to gain an advantage on the other, and so the fight continued. The gun had been knocked to the ground, and each had tried to reach for it, only to be stopped by the other.

Telak ducked as another blow was directed towards him, the Romulan rolled out of the way, his fingertips grasping his gun, and he moved towards Ensign Adams. He grabbed the human roughly, pulling him up, and using him as a shield. Sovek stopped in his tracks. Telak held the weapon trained on the Vulcan, greenish blood spilling from a split lip. Telak appeared to be fighting an inner battle over whether to pull the trigger. Sovek observed this with silent curiosity.

"Are you going to kill me then, Telak? Or can't you pull the trigger?" Sovek began, choosing to take a risk on what his instincts were telling him.

Telak's hand holding the weapon faltered, and Sovek's eyes widened in realisation. "You can't can you. You've been ordered to keep me alive."

Telak's face scrunched up into a frown, Sovek continued, "But then that begs the question why? What purpose can I serve? What do you want me for?"

"Enough" Telak shouted. "Orders change Sovek; I won't hesitate to kill you the second after you've served your purpose."

"So I do have a purpose then"

Telak clenched his jaw at his slip up. He managed to suppress the overwhelming urge to pull the weapons trigger. It would be so easy to kill him. Kill the man who had killed his family. He didn't care what Sovek could say, this Vulcan was the reason for their deaths.

"You will find out soon enough Sovek, but as for now I must depart." Telak finished. He held the weapon, once again toward the unconscious Ensign, and then roughly dragged him towards the door.

Sovek advanced slightly. "Why are you taking the human?" Sovek demanded.

"Collateral," Telak simply stated back, "Do not follow me Sovek, or this human dies".

"How do I know you won't kill him anyway?"

Telak smiled, "You don't, and I may be under orders not to kill you Sovek, but what about these humans?"

Sovek clenched his jaw, he worked out his chances. He could take down Telak, but the probability that Adams would get shot was too high. If he did anything Adams would likely die, and if he did not Telak would get away, and the young Ensign's future would be uncertain. That was the downside of being the stereotypical 'good guy' he, unlike the Romulan was concerned about other people's lives, and that was Sovek's main weakness. That was the main reason why he had been captured before; his concern for others had been exploited.

"You have my word that I will remain here". Sovek stated, almost painfully.

Telak didn't acknowledge, instead he roughly dragged the Ensign out of the room they were in. The Romulan turned and fired his weapon at the door controls, where they were engulfed in sparks. Telak knew that the broken door controls would only keep Sovek busy for several minutes, but that was the reason he a hostage. He began to quickly progress down the corridor.

Meanwhile inside Sovek had immediately moved to the door controls, he had removed the outer casing and was fiddling with several wires, some were charred, but mostly salvageable. As expected, the door slid open with a hiss after a few minutes of tampering. Sovek waged an internal battle, as he stared at the corridor outside, which was almost mocking him. He knew that if there was any chance to save the young Ensign he would have to remain here, but he knew he would regret letting a monster like Telak go free.

Sovek resolved that he would deal with the consequences of letting the Romulan go later. He looked around the room, and spotted his communicator, that unlike his phaser was operational. He picked it up, and flipped it open. "Mr Reed, please respond." The Vulcan awaited a response, after several seconds he tried again. "Mr Reed, Please respond" Once again, he received no answer. He tried to signal Enterprise, but he knew it was in vain. They had kept their distance to avoid detection, and that meant they were out of communications range. Sovek clenched his jaw in frustration, it seemed nothing was going to his advantage today.

He paced around the small room, his options were limited. He needed to find the other half of the away team, ensure they were in no danger, but most importantly find T'Pol. It was logical to assume that the away team had come into some trouble, and that was the reason they weren't responding. Telak no doubt had something to do with their current situation.

What purpose does the Empire need me alive for? The lone thought echoed through Sovek's consciousness. He frowned; it was a logical question to ask. What purpose was he being kept alive for? His mind reasoned. Whatever the reason though he would have to dwell on it later, he needed complete focus if he was going to get everyone off this base alive. A small rumbling shook the room; Sovek's superior senses became alert.

The Vulcan stopped in mid-stride, and moved towards the door. Running into the corridor, he turned down the opposite hallway from the one the Romulan had travelled down previously. He moved quickly, reaching a computer console, which glowed dimly. This, unlike the majority of the bases systems was operational. He scanned the screen, and his suspicions were confirmed, the rumbling he had heard only moments before had been a shuttle pod taking off. Shuttle pod two from Enterprise to be exact. Sovek felt a very un-Vulcan surge of anger course through his veins; Telak had just flown off with their only way off this base. The away team were trapped, with no way to contact Enterprise.

Telak reclined in the Starfleet issue chair, located aboard shuttle pod two. He briefly looked over his shoulder towards the back of the craft. Ensign Adams had regained consciousness several minutes ago, and was cradling his broken arm. A purple colouring surrounding the break, and several small pools of blood were seeping from it. Telak had to suppress every instinct in his being not to kill the snivelling little life form. Like Sovek, who apparently was needed alive, Telak had also been ordered not to kill any of the humans; it seemed it didn't fit with his superiors plans… yet.

He reached into his pocket, and pulled out a small handheld contraption. Connecting it into the shuttles systems a small beeping left the small device, indicating it was active. Leaning over the console nearest to him Telak began pressing several commands, his fingers flying over the buttons. Finishing he sat back, appearing to be waiting for something.

Aboard Enterprise, the bridge crew were in a similar position, waiting for any news. Any word from the away team. The silence, which had befallen the bridge staff, was almost deafening. Each was attempting to focus on work, but unsurprisingly their attention was elsewhere. Hoshi didn't even have work to offer a slight distraction. Enterprise had not encountered a new species in ages, ergo no new languages. She had also recently updated all the communication systems so they did not need adjusting or altering now. Therefore, she was just left to sit, earpiece on, listening to static, and awaiting a signal. Her mind was drifting, but was quickly pulled back to reality as different tones pitched through the static. She frowned, her fingers moving across the computer keyboard, attempting to clear up the signal. After several minutes she was no closer to finding out what the noise she was hearing was. Many other people would have dismissed the sound as background noise, but Hoshi was not one of them. The pattern of the signal was too regular, too organised for just background interference. She searched her mind for some other way to clear up the signal, and pressed another sequences of keys. She listened again to her earpiece, her eyes widened in shock as she listened….

To be continued... (Yes, i know i'm evil!)

I will hope to get the next chapter up within a few days, at most a week, (hopefully!). There's only a few chapters left before the end of this fic, but there will be a sequel! I haven't started writing it yet, but hopefully the muse will return with a vengeance. The sequel will explore a lot of the issue's that haven't been addressed in this fic, or completely answered. The backstory of Sovek and Telak will also be explored more. I referenced this aspect slightly in this chapter, and hopefully it wasn't that confusing for now. Oh, and please review, I may even update faster. There's nothing more inspiring than a positive review!