Eurydice in the Pit, Chapter Three

"'He will triumph who knows when to fight and when not to fight.'"

-Cmdr. William T. Riker, "The Last Outpost"
Quoting Sun-Tzu "The Art of War"

---

The body lay motionless in the dark alleyway as Alex struggled to stay on his feet; his head still spinning and his legs still unsteady. Fumes from the nearby fire stung his eyes and turned his stomach. If he hadn't done so already, he would be curled in a corner vomiting. "Jason?"

With a moan, the black and red clad figure rolled over and opened his eyes, tearing up immediately. A great, hacking cough ripped from his throat as he started breathing again, followed by vomiting as the ash in the air reached the stomach. Stumbling over to him, Alex helped Jason to his feet. "What are you doing here?"

It seemed to take Jason a moment to focus on Alex's words, a moment where his teary eyes seemed glazed with confusion. Slowly, they cleared and his head turned to look at Alex. "What am I doing here?" A hand reached up and grabbed Alex by the throat, driving him against the wall. "What am I doing here? I don't know, Alex! What the hell am I doing here? What the hell have you done!"

Gasping for breath, Alex grabbed Jason's arm with both hands, desperately trying to pry the other man off of him. Jason seemed to shrug it off, eyes blazing. Black spots began to circle his vision, and Alex drove a knee into Jason's stomach. The hand let go as Jason stumbled back, clutching his midsection. His vision clearing, Alex coughed, hand rubbing at his throat. Jason looked up, anger on his face as Alex held his hands up. "I don't know, Jason. I don't know what's going on." He frowned as he tried to search hazy memories. "Selene. Selene fell into the Guardian..."

"Alex." The anger on Jason's face melted away, sadness taking its place. "Selene didn't fall into the Guardian. She's dead, Alex. I saw it myself."

I'll see you soon. I love you... "No."

"Alex. I'm sorry..." Jason stepped forward and put a hand on Alex's shaking shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

"You're lying to me."

"What?"

The punch took Jason completely by surprise, knocking him back into the wall and sending him tumbling to the ground. Alex stood over him, chest heaving and fists clenched. "YOU'RE LYING TO ME!"

Through a red-tinted haze, Alex watched Jason reach into his uniform and pull an object out of one of the inside pockets. It dangled from his fingers on a length of chain, glinting golden-red in the light as it spun slowly around. Alex fell to his knees, his vision clearing as he reached out for Selene's locket. His finger rubbed a small key and a hologram of a much-younger Selene appeared in the air in front of it.

In it, she was dressed in civilian clothes, obviously on leave. She was smiling as she waved her hand around the Rose Garden where their wedding eventually took place. Alex remembered that day. She had just graduated from the Academy and they had gone to British Columbia for a vacation before shipping out. He had proposed the day they had arrived and they had both stayed up all night making plans. The next morning, Selene had seen the University Rose Garden and fallen in love with it then and there.

Alex, will you put that camera down and get over here?

Tears fell down his face as he watched the smiling holo of himself enter the picture, grabbing her around the waist and lifting her into the air, spinning her around as she squealed. Laughing, he put her down and embraced her as they both smiled at the camera. As quickly as it had appeared, the hologram vanished, leaving Alex on his knees, staring at the locket. He had given it to her as a wedding present, and she hadn't taken it off since, not once in seven years. If Jason had it... "She's gone."

"I'm sorry, Alex."

"But I saw..." What had he seen, exactly? How could Selene have been there? Painful as it was, he remembered lying there as she had died, incapable of moving, dying himself.

Wait a second. Dying? "How am I here?"

Jason shrugged as Alex took the locket. "I don't know. When we found you, your body had been crushed and you were in a coma. I was told that you wouldn't live through the night." He frowned, "Not that that was really an issue for anyone."

"What?"

Jason looked up, confused. "You don't know?"

Alex shook his head. "I remember you finding me on the Albion. I could hear you. The next thing I knew, I was at the Guardian of Forever. Everything else is blank."

Jason opened his mouth to speak, when a howl filled the alley, sending shivers running up Alex's spine. Both men turned to look in the direction it had come from, rising to their feet and looking back to each other. "Maybe we should keep this conversation for another time."

Alex nodded, and then began searching himself for weapons. That was when he noticed that his uniform was the red and black of command, not the yellow and black of engineering. "Red?"

"Yeah, you stole the uniform to get off the Crichton. We'll talk about that later." Jason pulled a phaser out of his uniform's belt, fitting the device over his hand. "At least one of us came prepared."

"Whatever." Alex pressed himself up against the wall, watching as Jason did the same. Both stared at the entrance to the alleyway, Jason's hand outstretched, phaser emitter glowing and ready to fire. There was a soft chirp in the back of his mind as his communicator activated, and Jason's voice filled his head. Any idea what that was?

Not a clue. Give me a second. Alex's nanites switched to tricorder mode, scanning the region around the alley. Four life forms coming our way. Canine. Almost, anyway.

Anything else?

Doesn't look like it. One humanoid life form a few blocks away, but it's not moving.

With a low growl, the four animals entered the alley, eyes glowing darkly as they searched the small space. They were large and thickly muscled, the tallest would reach Alex's shoulders when it was on all fours, and he was just over six feet tall. They sniffed at the air, and then began to growl more loudly, advancing slowly into the alley. Alex's muscles tensed as they came closer, ready to fight or run, whichever he ended up having to do. He watched Jason narrow his eyes as he pointed his open palm at the animals, carefully aiming his phaser between the eyes of the lead one. Neither of them knew where or when they were, or what these animals were, but they both recognized predators when they saw them.

Alex frowned, watching the beasts come closer. Something was wrong with this image. The ruins of a city could conceivably become a home for wildlife, but these animals seemed to be the only ones around aside from the life form a few blocks away. What did they hunt? Where did they get their food?

Hard answer: They've killed everything else.

Easy answer: They have keepers.

The thought ran through Alex's mind as the first animal fixed its gaze on him and snarled, showing a row of scimitar-like teeth. It made to jump him, it's hind legs gathering strength for the leap, when a ball of scarlet energy struck it in the face, sending it's corpse skidding into the three other creatures. Jason turned, the phaser still glowing. "Run!"

Alex spun out of the crevice in the wall and took off, hearing Jason fire a couple of more bursts before joining him. The howling of the three surviving beasts sounded behind them as the creatures shook off the corpse and started bounding down the alley, followed by a surprising sound.

Phaser fire.

The wall behind Alex exploded as staggered pulses struck it; blue plasma bolts ripping it apart. Taking a quick glance over his shoulder, Alex watched as a group of five aliens decloaked and continued firing at him and Jason. Tall and elegant, they looked almost like Vulcans, if you painted a Vulcan pure white and turned them into berserker warriors.

Reaching the far end of the alley, Alex and Jason glanced at each other, and then ran off in opposite directions. Jason followed the cracked and rubble-strewn remains of a road running down a steep hill, and Alex grabbed a fire escape ladder and began to climb up the side of a building.

Below him, the hunters split into two groups and followed.

---

Three blocks away, the semi-conscious woman dragged herself along the street, using the piled rubble to pull herself to her feet. As soon as she put weight on her broken left leg she screamed and fell to the ground, collapsing among the wreckage. The Jem'Hadar had not left her alone out of carelessness; they knew that she could not go far with her wounds. Angrily, she struck at the ground beneath her.

---

Weapons fire littered the street as Jason ran down the hill, lungs burning from breathing the polluted air. It seemed as though all he had done ever since the Crichton's sensors had picked up the first supernova was run, and he was quickly getting tired. That had been, what? Two days ago? Three, maybe? Had he slept since then? Eaten? Probably not.

A blue plasma bolt struck the ground beside him, sending him jumping to the side to avoid the shrapnel the explosion spent spinning everywhere. Turning around, he fired his phaser back at his pursuers, watching as he struck one of the two in the chest. The humanoid seemed to simply shrug off the blow and continued running after him. Jason cursed and picked up speed.

Wait a minute. Two? Where's the...

He had just enough time to wonder where the third hunter was before it decloaked right in front of him, clotheslining him in the chest and knocking him to the ground. His head struck the hard ground with a crunch and stars exploded in his eyes. When his vision cleared, he saw the three hunters and three surviving hounds surrounding him, the hounds slavering at their masters' heels.

I really hate this place...

---

Alex kicked in the glass window and swung off the ladder into the building, rolling as he hit the floor. He winced as the tiny shards of glass cut him in a dozen places, but got up and bolted out of the room, desperate to get away from the two aliens hunting him. Again, he searched the uniform he wore for anything that could help him and came away with a tiny disc held in the belt. A Personal Transport Unit, small, concealable, and only good for two transports. Cursing, he shoved it back into the belt.

Now why couldn't I have found that two minutes ago?

He heard the hunters enter the building, their heavy boots crushing the glass into powder as they stepped through the window. From their slow footfalls, Alex could tell that they were in no hurry to catch him, knowing that he likely had nowhere to go. Instead of staying outside and leaving his escape options open, he had trapped himself in a cage of his own making.

The floor creaked and gave way beneath his weight as he ran, collapsing after centuries of abandonment, and Alex found himself falling to the floor below. He struck hard and gasped as the air was forced from his lungs, rolling over and scrambling back to his feet to continue running.

A cracked duracrete wall loomed in front of him, the grey skies of this place showing through from the other side. Spinning around, he made to run in the other direction, back into the building, but was cut off when his pursuers leapt through the hole he had left in the ceiling, their bodies folding into predatory crouches as they landed before him. His heart pounding, Alex pressed himself back against the wall, hands desperately searching for something that could be used as a weapon. Between panting breaths, he found the strength to ask a question. "Who are you?"

The two aliens turned their heads and glanced at each other, silently communicating. Silence reigned in the decrepit hallway for long seconds, and then they turned back to Alex. Slowly, one stepped forward and grabbed him by the uniform collar, hoisting him into the air, appraising him with cold, undisguised malice.

A strange fact about Humans. For all their claims of civilization, of having a more evolved sensibility, when threatened, a Human can be just as dangerous as any cornered animal. Alex felt the adrenaline already pumping through him peak, and swung his right fist at the alien's temple. The punch connected with an audible crunch, and Alex screamed as he felt fingers break.

The alien flinched, then growled low in its throat. The sound seemed out of place from a creature with such graceful features, and through his pain, Alex felt this world he had found himself in grow even more alien.

The growl faded away, and Alex swore that the alien smiled as it threw him through the wall.

---

Jason winced as the black restraints cut into his wrists, drawing blood and scraping raw tissue. He could feel the bruising on his chest begin to form where the hunter had struck him, his ribs aching with every breath. He watched as the lead hunter examined the phaser they had removed from his hand, slipping it over his own appendage and pointing the dull emitter crystal at him.

"What is this weapon? How does it operate?"

The voice was deep and melodic, startling him with its softness. Jason frowned and cursed himself for allowing the phaser to fall into unknown hands. He should have been more careful. He'd violated the temporal prime directive by using the phaser in the first place. Now, they knew it was a weapon. Damn it. "Jason Madden. Commander. Serial Number One-One-Four-Nine-One-Alpha-Tw-"

The punch from the hunter to his right caught him in the jaw, knocking him to the ground. Something cracked, and he spat a bloody molar out into the dirt. Looking back up at his assailant, he brought himself to his feet. "Jason Madden. Commander. Serial Nu-" This time he was struck in the chest, and he gasped with pain as he flew back and hit the ground. His ribs were on fire, and his vision swam. He rolled onto his side and curled up, trying to inhale the burning air. One of the hounds walked up to him and snarled in his face, it's rancid breath washing over him.

The leader stepped forward, pulling the phaser off his hand as he did, and grabbed Jason by the collar, lifting him into the air. Jason's feet dangled, trying to find purchase on the ground a foot below. "I asked you a question, Human. What is this weapon? I will not ask it again."

"Personal security. Short-term. Only good for six or seven shots before the power cell dies." His voice was a croak, each word flaring the pain in his chest. The hunter stared at him for a second, then dropped him.

"You lie, but perhaps your compatriot will be more forthcoming." The hunter raised his wrist and spoke into a device. "Fourth. Report." Jason looked up and stared. Fourth...? The appellation sounded strangely familiar.

Two hunters decloaked half a block away, and marched straight towards the leader. Both drew themselves to their full height and stood in front of him. "First." Jason frowned. The ranks these creatures gave each other were frighteningly Jem'Hadar, but they looked nothing like the Jem'Hadar he knew from his reality. Coincidence?

"Where is the other human?"

"Dead."

Jason felt like he'd been kicked. Dead? Had Alex survived the destruction of the Albion, the Crichton, and the Universe itself just to die here?

Did that mean that now he was alone?

The lead hunter, First, was not happy. He backhanded the reporting hunter (Fourth?) and pulled a curved dagger from his belt. Fourth stood to find a knife at his throat. First's voice was a whisper, and Jason had to strain to hear it. "Dead how?"

"He fell. The wall of the building he was in collapsed, and he fell from the sixteenth level."

"Then where is his body?"

Fourth snarled up at his leader. "We did not search for it. He could not have survived."

Jason watched as First slit Fourth's throat, letting the body slump to the ground. First turned to the other returning hunter. "You are now Fourth. Find the Human's body, or share your predecessor's fate. Victory is life."

"Victory is life." The new Fourth bowed and turned, heading back the way he had come. These were Jem'Hadar, Jason was sure of it. That last display had proved it to him, but the question remained. Why did they look so different?

First picked him up off the ground and held him up, appraising him with cold blue eyes. "Your companion is dead."

Jason grinned through bloody teeth. "I don't know about that. He's got a nasty habit of coming back."

---

Alex had fallen three stories when his fingers had finally found the Transporter, pressing the energize button and enveloping him in the transport beam. With no specifically inputted coordinates, the device had simply scanned for the nearest clear surface and sent him there, which in this case, had been two feet above the roof of the building he had been thrown out of.

Brushing himself off, he lifted himself to his feet, wincing at the pain from his broken fingers. With any luck, he'd be able to find a medkit to take care of that. Who would have thought that thing would've had such a thick skull? They probably thought he was dead, which meant they wouldn't be hunting him any more. Still, should keep on the move. Just in case.

Jason? I'm okay. What's your status? Alex stopped when he realized that the communication channel between him and Jason wasn't opening. A quick diagnostic showed that his nanites were working perfectly, so the problem wasn't on his end. Alex frowned and switched to tricorder mode, scanning the area.

There he was. Three blocks away, and surrounded. Damn. So why wasn't he answering? Could his nanites have been damaged? Maybe. Which meant that they couldn't communicate from a distance. Damn again.

Alex leaned his arms on the edge of the roof and bowed his head, taking a minute to collect himself. This was just too much. He could barely remember anything that happened after Selene... Don't go there. Not right now... and now all of this? Rescue Jason from aliens he knew nothing about, in a world he knew nothing about? How am I supposed to do that when I don't even know where I am? The bitter thought ran through his mind as he lifted his head and stared out at the ruined city.

Wait a minute.

Alex squinted, his eyes running over ruins that stretched for miles in every direction. A couple of kilometres away, a pyramid-like structure burned, which was what must be causing the smoke and the heat, but it was the rest that held his interest. This city looked familiar. Take away the blast craters, the giant crevice running through the city, rebuild the buildings, that bridge, paint... it... gold...

Gold...

"Oh my God."

He was in San Francisco.

He was home.

---

First watched with a degree of amusement as their new Human prisoner stumbled over the wreckage in the middle of the street, falling forward and unable to catch himself with his bound hands. The Human's face was a mass of bruises, one eye swollen shut and the other bloodshot. Third lifted the Human back to his feet and pushed him forward more roughly than was necessary. The Human caught himself before falling again, and glared over his shoulder at Third. First found himself almost admiring the Human's courage. Most of the Humans left on this planet were broken, useless things. This one, though, like the one they had hunted earlier, had spirit.

First stopped as Fourth appeared before him, emerging from his shroud into the street. First frowned and arched an eyebrow at Fourth's empty hands. "Where is the Human?"

"I was unable to locate the corpse. I offer my life in payment."

First watched Fourth's corpse slide to the ground and turned back to the Human. A savage backhand sent the prisoner flying, blood spraying between pulped lips. "Where is he?"

The Human made a strange gargling sound, and it took First a moment to realize that he was laughing. "Told ya. I told ya he wasn't dead. Kinda startin' to wonder what it would take."

First lifted the Human into the air and threw him into a wall, smiling as the laughter stopped, replaced with pain-filled gasps. "Where is he?"

"I don't know!" First grasped the Human's chest, listening to him scream. "I don't know! I swear to God I don't know where he is!" Disgusted, First dropped him and stormed away, leaving Second and Third to lift the sobbing Human off the ground. They were close to where they had left their original prisoner now. They would take these two back to the encampment and then hunt down this last one.

The march was silent, broken only by the pained gasps of their prisoner. In the road ahead, First could see the female lying in the street. She had managed to move several meters, but no more than that before losing consciousness. Glancing over his shoulder at Third, he indicated her body. Third let go of the other Human and picked up the female.

The male gasped just before a shard of duracrete struck First in the head.

---

Alex broke into a full run as the lead Hunter stumbled, clutching at the spot where the duracrete he had thrown had struck. He watched as the two hunters left standing turned to face him, dropping Jason and their other prisoner. As he ran, he opened a link between his nanites and the mini-computer in Jason's phaser and entered a code.

The phaser overloaded in the leader's hands, the explosion of the power cell sending the charred corpse flying. Debris flew everywhere, and the two surviving hunters blinked in the light of the explosion, blinded for a split second. Alex could see the hounds spinning around and bounding for them. Desperate, he made to tackle Jason, the transporter clutched in his hand, coordinates set for it's final transport.

Jason sidestepped.

Alex found himself holding the other prisoner, his fingers hitting the energize key of their own accord. As he watched the world fade away into the transporter beam, he saw the hounds leap for both him and Jason. The one flew through him and the woman he held, but the other found its mark, knocking Jason to the ground. "Take her!" Jason screamed as he hit the street.

Then the street, the hunters and Jason were all gone, replaced by darkness. Alex coughed in the stale air. "Computer! Activate systems. Authorization Emergency Seven-Two-Two-Alpha." I hope this works. Fresh air was pumped in as lights activated one by one, revealing the transporter room of one of the Starfleet Command bunkers beneath San Francisco. According to history, this bunker had only been used once, by Jean-Luc Picard during the Breen attack on Earth during the Dominion war centuries ago.

The woman moaned as the lights came on and Alex shifted her weight, noticing her shattered leg. "Easy. Easy, I've got you." Alex knelt and laid her down on the floor of the transporter, then stood and grabbed a medkit from the wall. "Everything's going to be okay. Everything-"

The bone-knitter he had pulled from the kit fell from suddenly nerveless fingers, and Alex felt himself stagger backwards. Even through the mass of bruises, he could recognize her. He knew that face better than he knew his own. Oh my God...

Selene lay unconscious on the floor in front of him, and Alex could only stare.

Author's notes:
The Bunker: It has actually been used in Star Trek, though not on-screen. The story of Picard and the Breen attack is referenced in the Tales of the Dominion War short story "Eleven Hours Out" by Dave Galanter.