Author Notes: Thank you so much for the feedback - it really motivates me to write! Anyway, here's the next chapter!
Chapter 4: A Turn of the Tide
Malcolm's shoulder jarred as he was roughly shaken awake by Katrina, who hissed in his ear, "Pensari!"
Malcolm bolted upright to regard with wide eyes, the open doors of the compound. Not one slave dared to make a sound as the disgusting creature glided inwards with another man in a hooded cloak. They were flanked by five burley foremen, "Perhaps a slave in this compound is satisfactory to your needs sir?"
"Shit," Katrina muttered in shock, "It's a buyer! No one wants to buy mine slaves!"
"Apparently this guy does." Malcolm whispered back.
The hooded man leisurely strode around the compound, completely at ease with the situation. Not one slave dared move in the presence of the Pensari; one alone could instil more fear than twenty foremen. Malcolm felt Soreq press himself closer to him in fear as the stranger moved towards them. After only working two shifts down the mines, the boy had become more paranoid and jumpy than Malcolm had ever been on Enterprise. The man stopped in front of them, causing Katrina's breath to catch in her throat, "You, boy, come to me."
Too scared to do anything but obey, Soreq slowly got to his feet and padded cautiously towards the man. Malcolm tilted his head in an effort to see the buyer's face, but to no avail. A whispered question-answer session then took place between the two. Finally, the man straightened up and addressed the Pensari, "Molxac, how much for these three slaves; the humans and this boy?"
"All three sir? How much are you willing to pay?" Molxac dodged the question, obviously hoping the buyer would offer more than their worth.
"That is not what I asked you. I do not appreciate games. Answer the question."
Molxac's smarmy smile became slightly fixed, "500 rohl apiece."
"The humans are half starved." He turned towards Malcolm and Katrina, "What skills to you have in space?"
Malcolm bowed his head and spoke, "I can fix things sir, mainly munitions based."
Katrina seemed to be in temporary shock, so Malcolm elbowed her in the ribs. Raising her voice no more above a whisper, Katrina answered, "I was taught to pilot sir, any manner of craft."
The hood bobbed as its occupant nodded, "I will pay 300 for them; their race is weak, but their skills just make up for their existence. 400 for the Vulcan, he is only a child."
The Pensari nodded, "Done." He turned to the foremen, "Prepare them for processing."
"That will not be necessary. All I require is that you remove their chips; I have my own. I am a busy man Molxac, and you bore me with the speed you conduct business."
"As you wish, sir." The two men walked out of the compound, and the foremen came to collect the three.
"Bloody hell." Malcolm muttered.
"No kidding."
After a short shuttle ride with their new owner and a crony of Molxac, Malcolm, Katrina and Soreq soon caught a glimpse of their new home. The ship was huge. It was constructed entirely out of an iridescent blackish material, presumably Oribium. Its shape was like that of a narrow arrowhead, and underneath the ship were two curved pad-like pieces of metal at either end; they seemed to have no other purpose but that of a decorative design. Their shuttle docked smoothly, and the mysterious man exited. Not needing to be commanded, the three companions followed.
They left the docking bay, and remained silent until the shuttle had left the ship. What happened next almost made Katrina faint with fear; Soreq ran up to their new master and hugged him. To their surprise, the man laughed, and as he did so, his hood fell down, revealing a Suliban, "You're father would not approve of your emotions, Soreq. He will be here shortly, I, meanwhile, must return to the bridge. Our drive failed yesterday, so we must proceed to Krolel Drift on impulse alone."
The door slid open, revealing a Vulcan man, standing tall, "Father!" The twelve year old looked fit to explode with joy. The man allowed himself a small smile.
"Return to your post Commander."
"Yes sir." The Suliban swiftly left.
"It is well to see you Soreq, I feared I had lost you." He looked towards the humans, "The Commander sent word ahead about them. You are certain they are trustworthy?"
"They have saved my life Father, and are skilful."
Katrina shifted slightly, "I do not mean to speak out of turn, my lord, but may I ask what you will do with us?" Malcolm, if he had not been so worried and confused, would probably have snorted with laughter upon hearing Katrina's suddenly refined and meek voice.
"Ah, you have been in house service before I see. And you?"
"No sir." Right now, Malcolm didn't feel like holding any in depth conversations with the Vulcan.
Soreq's father smiled placidly, "In answer to your question, my dear, I am going to free you. You are welcome to leave when we reach the Drift, or remain and become a paid member of my crew; it would be a welcome change to have humans on board the Hephaestus, this ship."
"Free..?" Katrina seemed to be having trouble processing what was happening.
"I will let you get adjusted. To begin with, you must all be checked over by our physician and clean yourselves up. The mining business is disgraceful. My name is Vorik, by the way, and tonight we shall discuss your future over dinner. Your names are?"
"Malcolm and Katrina, Captain." Malcolm supplied.
Ecklaqa, a Ri'kyan doctor, gave her race's version of a smile. Thankfully, she spoke English, having learnt it from Vorik. Since the removal of their slave chips and the lack of universal translators upon arriving aboard the Hephaestus, communication had been somewhat limited. "You welts are healing well, Malcolm, you are lucky they did not get infected. I will inject you with a unit of nanobots to quicken the process. I'm afraid there will still be scarring due to the amount of time they remained untreated."
"Nanobots?" Malcolm asked nervously, "I think I'll leave it thanks."
Katrina sighed in frustration, "Either let her inject them now, or I'll slip them into your food. Trust me, they're disgusting to swallow; cling onto your throat in clumps for hours. Don't worry; it's one of the few decent things the Covenant has invented."
"Fine!" Immediately, the sound of a hypospray discharging into his neck could be heard.
Soreq bounded in, "Ecklaqa, can they leave now? Father says dinner's almost ready."
The Ri'kya nodded, producing two bottles out of a cabinet, and handed them to each human, "These are vitamins. They are designed to be swallowed, not to be dust collectors. One every morning. I'll be doing spot checks."
They nodded, and walked off down the ship's corridors. Katrina constantly fiddled with her top, made of grey cotton like material, which was the uniform of all on board, "These clothes are weird."
"You're just not used to it. My feet already kill being back in boots." Malcolm ran a hand through his now clean, shorter hair. Katrina had cut it for him, but refused to cut it any shorter than the top of his ears, saying any shorter and he would look like an army officer. As such, his dark hair stood up in all directions in a messy style. It was strange not having the weight of his previously long hair on his head.
"Here we are." Soreq gestured through a door.
The dinner went well, mostly eating in a comfortable silence. Finally, Vorik spoke, "Have you decided upon your future?"
"Yes Cap'n." Katrina smiled, "Despite the fact that we were proved wrong by your son, we are very grateful for the rescue. As we have nowhere else to go, we'd really like to stay."
"I had hoped you would. Unlike most Vulcans, I find the presence of humans refreshing. You will be assigned quarters next to each other, and you will begin your official service on my ship when we have completed our business at the Drift. Until then, I insist you rest and make yourselves at home."
"Thank you Cap'n." Katrina grinned. "If you would excuse me, I should like to get some sleep."
The two humans bid goodnight, and followed a scaly crewman to their new quarters. Malcolm smiled, "Your manners disturb me."
"I can be polite when I want to be, I just normally don't. Are you alright with this?"
"Alright? I'm fine. You were right, you know."
"About what?"
"Things did change"
"One Andorian and one human life sign due east, Commander." Lieutenant Gary Richmond, the security officer of the Enterprise, informed Trip as they skulked through the back alleys of Yekara, a colonist settlement for multiple races that had turned hostile in the last fifty years. They were looking for Captain Archer, who had responded to a distress call sent out by Commander Shran, whom he had owed a favour to. Needless to say, the two of them were both now prisoners.
Trip nodded curtly, and the two set off at a brisk pace. It was Richmond's first away mission on the Enterprise, although he had served aboard the Columbia prior to his placement. Trip was tolerant of him, but found the way in which he praised every decision Archer made incessantly annoying. In the last month, after Archer had declared Malcolm missing, presumed dead, Trip had found himself drifting away from the crew. Nowadays, he tended to spend most of his time with T'pol, Hoshi and Travis when he wasn't in Engineering; his friendship with Jonathan was under incredible strain.
They found the breakout itself was relatively simple, with only having to take out two Yekaran guards; the only problem was the blaring alarm that they had inadvertently triggered. "We have to get out of this sector!" Trip yelled over the siren, "The metal in the buildings interferes with the transporter."
Richmond led the way to the designated pick-up point; a small market. Both of the captives had been injured, Shran more then Archer, so their progress was quite slow. Finally they reached the place where they could contact Enterprise. Shots rained down on them, making it impossible for Trip and Shran, who were on one side of the market square, to reach Archer and Richmond, who were in transporter range and already being beamed out. "This is a pathetic rescue, pink skin."
"I'll bear that in mind for the next time when I won't bother," Trip snapped back, attempting to lay down some sort of cover fire so that Shran could attempt to get across to where the other to had been a few seconds before.
There was a small break in the onslaught, prompting Trip to literally shove Shran over to the point. It was only when he did this that he saw a Yekaran aim at the Andorian. Without allowing his mind to process any decision, Trip lunged, pushing Shran out of the way. The last thing he acknowledged before darkness encompassed him was a shout for a medic.
"Enter." Trip called from his cabin. It had been three days since the rescue, and Phlox had finally released him from sickbay. The Engineer was surprised to see Commander Shran come through his door.
"My ship will arrive within the hour. I did not thank you for saving my life."
Trip shrugged, "The Cap'n would've killed me if I hadn't."
"Nevertheless, you pink skins are going out of your way to make me in your debt. I have decided to repay this debt now. What I am to tell you may or may not help, but I consider this a full repayment of our favour. Archer does not know."
Trip quirked an eyebrow, "I'm listening."
"While I was in the captivity of the Yekarans with Archer, we had much time to talk. He told me what happened to Lieutenant Reed," Trip stiffened.
"Get out. I don't want any sympathy or crap."
"I would never dream of giving sympathy to anyone," Shran said indignantly. "I have come to understand that you are the only one on this ship who still refuses to accept the fact that he is dead; ridiculous if you ask me. However, I thought you might find it interesting that the alien that your crewman described was a Pensari." Shran turned to leave.
"What? T'pol said they didn't exist." Trip couldn't believe what was transpiring.
"T'pol is a Vulcan, and as such very narrow minded. The Pensari are an elusive race owing to the fact they will only deal with Orions. They are only sighted in the Borderlands; nowhere else. If Reed was indeed taken by a Pensari, he will be somewhere in the Borderlands. That is all I know on the matter." Shran made to walk out the door, and then turned, "I hope you find Reed, he was one of the more tolerable pink skins on this ship."
Trip sat in shock. In his heart, he knew there was no chance in hell Archer would ever authorise Enterprise to go into the Borderlands. He smiled sadly, memories of the past year flitting through his mind.
Life must go on.
To Be Continued…
Author Notes: Okay, Trip won't feature now for the next few chapters, because I need to establish the world for Malcolm. After that, he shall return, don't worry! Anyway, please let me know what you think!