Chapter Four
Outrage
When Trip and Seamus returned over an hour later to the loaned cabin, they entered to find Hoshi and Tia speaking with one of the native women. Hoshi, seated with her back to the door, tries to huddle into the seat without appearing to do so. The two men 'ignore' them, going to the table and just happen to stand with their backs to the women, continuing their conversation in quiet tones so they will not interrupt the 'interview' progressing behind them.
Tia thanked the woman for speaking to them, escorting her to the door and letting her out. When she is gone Hoshi made a discrete dash for the blanket tossed on a chair, wrapping it about herself and Tia turned off the UT she is holding. She gave a discrete nod from the door and the two men turned around as if nothing abnormal had happened.
"Thank you." Hoshi said gratefully.
"Don't mention it."
"Oh, don't worry. I'm never going to talk about this trip to anyone."
"I don't blame you one bit." Tucker agreed.
"What learn did you? These people us help can?"
"You wouldn't believe it." Trip exclaimed, letting his enthusiasm for the marvels he had seen carry him. "We've got to go back; it will take a bit to dig up everything we need, but he seems to have it. This is a Black Market planet. These guys have technology from every advanced planet I've ever heard of, and a good deal more I haven't.
"They must do quite a trade. This planet is the best kept secret in the galaxy; at least it is from Earth. They must service every race in the quadrant. He's got enough spare parts from ships of all kinds that if I had a couple of weeks I could probably tool together a ship just from the spares."
"What do they want in return?" Hoshi asked, concerned about their already short supplies. Neither man answered her at first, a telling glance between them all she needed. "No farging way!"
Trip barely restrained a smile. "Actually, Seamus here haggled you up so high they decided the price was just too steep."
"Thanks." She said with a relieved smile. O'Cathain glanced at the young golden woman.
"Tia, however, goes with the first shipment."
"SUUR?" The golden woman cried.
He raised his hand placatingly. "Just kidding."
"You funny are not!"
"All right, let's get serious." Trip ordered, annoyed at his subordinate's thoughtless comment. O'Cathain had 'forgotten' Tia's past, and how sensitive she was about slavery. "They can outfit us, but it'll take a bit of time to get all the pieces together. At that, I have no doubt they can."
"What do we do about this planet?" Hoshi asked.
"You mean about Rodd and Beri's little techno-empire? Aside from the fact that Earth knew nothing about it, I'm not entirely sure what we can do."
"No, Commander, I'm not talking about their Black Market." She answered as bitingly as she dared. "In fact, I don't give a damn about that. I'm talking about what we should do for these women."
x
Trip closed his eyes, wishing he could make the entire planet, the entire situation, vanish as easily. He knew what Hoshi was leading up to. He remembered her outrage over the treatment of the women on Capella IV, but there was nothing that could be done for either.
He kept his eyes closed as long as he could, savoring every second the three granted, seeking peace in silence. His moment of peace was shattered by Hoshi's sharp tones.
"Will you stop looking at her?" She demanded irately. "Do you think I don't see?"
When Trip saw what he had missed in the brief moment of indulgence; Sato standing between Seamus and Tia, furiously confronting her superior officer, his patience deserted him.
"All right. Let's end this right now!" He ordered sharply, commanding the attention of the three of them, frustration flooding his tone. "You," he addressed Hoshi, "get yourself under control. You," to Seamus, "eyes front. That's an order."
"Aye, sir." He complied; relieved to have 'escaped' a more severe consequence of what had actually been a brief, ill timed glance.
"And you -," he turned to Tia; but the sight of her helped him to get his annoyance back under control. It did no good to yell at any of them. But he could not leave his beloved out of this, no matter how badly he wanted to. He sighed resignedly. "Put the blanket on."
"Daai." She submitted obediently, seeing he was trying his best to defuse an increasingly tense situation.
Besides, he was her Alirki, as she had willingly made him so long ago. In the Auran, it translated to 'Lord', and though she was no longer a 'slave', and certainly not his, she had willingly and lovingly elevated him to the position of Alirki in her mind, and had given him a level of 'command' that they had never and would never explain to anyone.
It was a strictly Auran concept; he did not wish it but knew she had chosen to put herself under his 'command' in all things out of love. The thought still made him vastly uncomfortable, but now he used it with a measure of relief, knowing she would obey and not argue with him. Right now, he needed someone not to argue with him.
As she crossed the room to get the gray blanket from where it had been put on a chair, Trip shook his head, knowing his problems were far from over.
x
It was time to get things back to order. He turned to Hoshi. "What did you learn?"
She took a deep breath, trying to get her own emotions back under control; and to report concisely while she had her Commander's support. "Tia went out to 'lure' one of the women in from the street. Etan was very hospitable, and knew a lot about this world's situation; naturally. Believe it or not, Commander, these people know they are from Earth."
Even as he heard the surprising pronouncement, he could not deny he had suspected it all along. Still, there was a big difference between suspicion and having that belief confirmed. Now that it was, it answered a lot of questions.
"They have been here for so long they know nothing else but this place." Hoshi continued. "But they do know that their ancestors came from Earth, and were brought here long ago by a spacefaring civilization. Seeded, as it were.
"That's why they take 'off-worlders' so much in stride as they do. Aliens coming here to trade and profit are nothing unusual. In fact, they have a thriving trade market."
"What do they trade?" Seamus asked.
"Guess."
x
Trip stared at the blue blanketed woman before him and actually felt the blood drain from his face.
He could barely believe it. Even with the evidence all about him, he did not want to believe it. But he could not deny his shipmate's forceful words.
"Commander, these women are slaves; nothing else. They're allowed no clothes, no possessions, absolutely nothing. They cannot read or write. They own nothing, but do almost all of the work here. They have one right; and one only. The right to do what any man tells them to do. That is, until the day a race called the 'Orions' comes and takes certain of them away, in exchange for whatever the men need."
Tia nodded. "Even did the Silurians this not. Cared they only for gold. Left alone we in our culture were provided that submit we did. Here, these women have things nyasi."
"We were attacked the other times because you two looked soft." Hoshi continued. "You treated us as equals, didn't keep us 'properly'. Here a man's status is determined, among other things, by the number and quality of his women. If he is strong enough to keep them; he does. If he isn't, someone can take them away." She glanced at Tia. "Tia recognized something of that when she saw the mixed group coming." She hated to admit it, but the Auran woman's call had been the correct one.
"You notice there are no vehicles. People walk everywhere. The towns are widely scattered, not so disease or calamity can affect only a few, but for control. It's so that, if a woman does try to leave, she has to do so on foot. And where is there to go, except off on her own or to another town and become the property of anyone who wants to take her?"
"On Aura we weapons hide could." Tia concluded. "Women here have clothes can nyasi, so things hide she can nyasi."
x
Both men were shaken. They, especially Trip, had been focusing so hard on obtaining the materials they needed to repair the shuttle, and convincing themselves that what they saw about them could be taken at face value as the norm for this culture, that they had not seen the truth. But Hoshi and Tia saw it very well indeed.
It was now apparent why this system did not appear on the 'official' charts. Either the Vulcans disapproved of the planet's practice to the extent of leaving it off their charts … Who was he kidding? More likely someone was not willing to disseminate the information beyond a certain point. Trip felt this was the more likely explanation, but did not really want to speculate on just whose motive had led to the 'cover-up'.
"This is even worse than the way the Capellans treat their women."
"Meaning?" Trip asked; surprised out of his brief reverie by Hoshi's conclusion.
"Well, the Capellans are rabid chauvinists, but at least some of their women are in respected positions, even though those 'receptance' women are not. But I hear that they are not used as commodities.
"Things on Capella were bad enough, but this is intolerable. We should do something!"
Trip was not sure he had heard the normally levelheaded woman correctly. "Do something?" He asked, trying to hide his incredulity. She nodded emphatically. "And just what do you propose we do?"
Hoshi was about to answer, but stopped herself, realizing she did not have any answer to give.
There was nothing that Enterprise could do to influence this culture, and little Starfleet could do either, no matter how angry it made her. "Nothing, Commander." She admitted bitterly. "We'll let these women remain slaves."
x
But as the men digested this most unpalatable conclusion, Hoshi said thoughtfully; "But you know, listening to her, I couldn't help thinking of how similar the situation down here is to that aboard the Enterprise."
"Huh?" That statement had caught Trip completely unprepared.
"Well, I was thinking about something Jennifer Farber said to me a while ago. It's not as blatant, but on Enterprise there isn't any woman of rank except T'Pol, and she'll be the first to tell you she's not a woman, but a Vulcan." She waited for an answer, and was even more annoyed when Tucker did not seem to have one.
"Well, come on. Haven't you noticed it yourselves? We have. Believe me, we have! And it was pointed out to me very forcefully a few weeks ago, after Dina was raped, that despite the fact we make up over thirty five percent of the crew, and regardless of position or duty, there is no woman, including myself, ranked higher than Ensign – and I'm on the bridge!"
"You bucking for promotion?" Trip asked with a smile that was meant to defuse her growing annoyance. Unfortunately, it had the opposite effect.
"No, Commander, I am not 'bucking for promotion'. I'm just pointing out that the attitude on Enterprise is not that far removed from this planet. They're just more blatant about it down here. Here these women have no rights, no possessions, no education, no clothes; but the mindset is not that different."
Trip frowned at her, annoyed. "You know, I'm not sure I like being compared with this culture. The command structure is up to Starfleet, not -."
"To the ship's Second Officer?" Hoshi finished. "I'm not saying there should be changes – or maybe I'm not. Maybe it's time someone gave it some thought! I'm just pointing out that-."
x
Whatever she was pointing out was interrupted by a piercing shriek from outside. Startled, they hurried to the front windows on either side of the door, Seamus and Tia at the left, Hoshi at the right, all looking past the curtains. Trip was blocked from view by Hoshi's body and his cautious reservation not to crowd her too closely. Another, more strident scream split the air. "Damn it!" Hoshi exclaimed.
"What?" Trip asked, as more screams sliced into the building.
"They're beating that woman!"
"Three men have her surrounded, across the street, three buildings to the left." O'Cathain reported.
"They're beating the hell out of her!" Hoshi cried; her voice almost drowned out by the screams.
"People helping her are nyasi." Tia agreed from her position beside Seamus. "They care nyasi."
x
Hoshi started for the door, but Trip grabbed her arm.
"Where are you going?"
"To help her. And to break some heads!"
"You'll do no such thing." He was almost drowned out by shrieks of agony.
"Commander, they're beating her!"
"Commander, please reconsider." Seamus urged. "We can stop this!"
"And what difference are you two going to make?" Hoshi started to answer, but he gripped her even more tightly. "Think. What difference? We cannot change this culture, we shouldn't even be here. And if we did interfere; we'd only make things worse. Where will her help be after we're gone?"
The woman continued screaming outside as Trip restrained Hoshi. Unable to bear it any longer, the Linguist pulled away. "I can't let this go on!" She backed away, trying to cover her ears as the screams continued. Trip felt the same way she did, but felt just as powerless to help. "We have to stop this. That's what the Captain would do!"
"The Cap'n's the Cap'n, and I'm not so sure he'd -."
"He'd what? Stop a woman from being beaten? Maybe you don't know him like you think."
"Maybe not, but I do know that we're not going to make a bit of difference in this culture." Unwanted, T'Pol's many admonitions about 'objectifying cultures' returned to him. He couldn't believe how different his position was from, say, when he'd been on Rigel X, but he had to admit that in this case she was correct. "In a few hours we're going to be able to repair the 'pod, and we're going to be gone. Whatever we do in the meantime to stir things up will only make things worse for these people."
"For her it can't get much worse!"
Hoshi glanced at Seamus, seeking his support. He, along with Tia, was still watching out the other window. His right hand was clenching and opening spasmodically, right where his phase pistol would have been. Another ragged scream split the air. "What's happening?" She demanded.
"Two are holding her up. The third -." He was cut off by a shriek of pain. "Commander – please."
"I can't stand this any longer!" Hoshi cried, lunging for the table, grabbing Trip's phase pistol.
"Stand down, Hoshi." Tucker commanded, blocking her path to the door.
"NO!" She cried, actually astonishing herself more than him. "I can't let this go on!"
"Put down the pistol, Ensign."
"Or what? You'll put me in irons? Bust me?" Tucker stepped closer to her, clearly straining to keep a tight control on his anger.
"I'm going to say this one last time, Ensign. Stand down and put that pistol away."
"Or what? You'll strip me of my rank?" Enraged, she threw the pistol down and it bounced loudly on the floor, making the others flinch apprehensively, but she was beyond noticing or caring. She grabbed the blanket that surrounded her, flinging it from her naked body. "I've already been stripped of everything else!"
"Except your dignity." Tucker answered, feeling his anger building, fueled by frustration. "Only you can do that." He so desperately wanted to join her in breaking some heads, but he knew they could accomplish no good at all.
Then there was silence outside. O'Cathain looked out the window again. "She's down." He reported grimly. "She's not moving."
x
Hoshi turned away, unable to bear the guilt or face her friends. "This is our fault. I could have saved her!"
"Maybe today; but not tomorrow." He turned away as well from his naked friend, toward the window, frustrated by his own inability to affect things on this planet. He could have saved one woman, true. He'd wanted to. He'd dearly wanted to. It might have even inspired an epiphany; but that was unlikely. What it would have inspired was a backlash that was sure to last long after they were gone.
"Damn it. This is wrong. This is perverted!" Hoshi cried, turning back to them. "And you stood there and did nothing. I was right; you're no better than they are!"
Tucker stopped cold, almost to the window, turning a moment later to look at her.
"Meaning?" The one word was deadly, his tone laden with warning, but she was beyond hearing. She stood up to him, so angry she did not even notice she was still naked.
"Meaning you don't mind this at all. I've seen it in your eyes. This is even worse than what happened this month. Dina raped! Everyone on Enterprise humiliated by loads of nude pictures circulating the ship! Don't think I don't know that people were recording them even as Malcolm and T'Pol were trying to delete them. There must be thousands up there! Did you have your monitor set to record too?"
She was so angry, so focused, that she did not see the outrage in his eyes.
"This is worse than the Capellans, and until I met them I didn't think I could grow to hate any race. They use their women for entertainment, for 'receptance'; for who knows what? But then they – Saal - raped Dina! And to them it was nothing. She was nothing. Just another woman – to be used as men see fit!
"And now here we are, on a planet full of naked, helpless and submissive women reduced to nothing but slaves. You even have your own people naked and powerless. This is even more effective than having no woman aboard above Ensign. This planet really teaches you how to keep women in their places!
"You must be loving this! Maybe you'd prefer me in irons. Naked, bound, gagged and laid spread wide open at your feet!"
x
The moment the words were out of her mouth she saw past Trip that Seamus had closed his eyes, a pained look on his face. Tia stared at her in astonished disbelief, and when she focused back on Trip he was standing perfectly still, his fists clenched at his sides, on his red face an expression of very carefully contained fury. In that moment the rage deserted her and she realized just how far she'd gone.
"I'm sorry, sir. That was uncalled for." She said softly, regretting her furious outburst.
He didn't answer. For a very long moment he was unable to speak. Finally, when he did answer, his voice was utterly flat; every syllable clearly and carefully enunciated as he put all his effort into controlling his tone.
"Ensign, you are on Report. We will continue this discussion aboard Enterprise."
"Sir…"
He turned away sharply to Seamus. "Lt. O'Cathain, they should be ready with those parts by now. Let's go."
"Sir?" Hoshi tried again, but he turned to her, feeling the control of his anger starting to slip.
"I will deal with you later, Ensign."
"Commander." O'Cathain interrupted. "If I may have a moment?" He indicated the door to the bedroom where she had gotten the blanket. Tucker kept his tone as level as his anger permitted. He needed a few minutes as well. He could not face the upcoming mission with anger boiling his blood.
"Five minutes, Lieutenant." He wanted – needed – the time as well, to cool his fury, or he would never have agreed.
x
Seamus picked up Hoshi's discarded blanket and then took her arm, ushering her into the side room and closing the door. He leaned against it, regarding her with disbelief, and handed her the blanket. She was about to put it on, but reconsidered. He had seen her often enough like this for about a year. She threw the blanket dejectedly at the bed. He shook his head in wonder.
"Hosh, you really screwed it this time." She looked down, unable to think of an answer. "These five minutes are more for Tia. I hope she can bring him down. Now I know you're wildly stressed out, but you've got to get hold of yourself. Otherwise you will wind up in irons."
"I know." She looked up hopefully. "Do you think you can …?"
"I'll try." He managed a half smile. "Maybe when I get him alone I can come up with something."
x
Tia Anlor stepped closer to Trip. In her bare feet, she stood as tall as his eyes, but she turned her own golden orbs up to him. "Hoshi right is." She said softly.
Trip glared at her. "Don't you start!" He gritted, trying to keep his anger under control.
"I start thing nyasi. Only I you remind do. This Aura nyasi, this Earth nyasi, but your planet's people these are. Help them you should."
"Tia, you don't understand."
She stepped closer until they were almost touching, and her quiet tone changed to titanium. "Trinasli nyasi? From the day of my birth I a slave was and I understand not? I a slave was – but a slave of the Silurians! We 'overseers' had; Aurans who for gain capitulated. But we were slaves of aliens! These humans slaves of humans are; your own race selling and hurting itself. You human are. You something should do, yet thing you did nyasi!"
"What could I do?"
"You her did look at nyasi! If you her for do nyasura – nothing – at least look at what you to happen allowed. You me say to that Starfleet my planet help can nyasi, that to defeat the Silurians you can nyasi. Enterprise can defeat them nyasi; and one ship alone do you have. This accept I do, though it I like nyasi!
"But now say you that you these people help can nyasi. Say I you that to learn to help you must. Say 'Starfleet cannot do so' nyasi. Say what help you give can!"
Despite his best efforts, he could no longer control his fury. "Don't you think I wanted to?" He demanded hotly. "Don't you think I wanted to tear out there and save her? I wanted to – but what good will it do? What will it change? Show me where I can affect this world and save all these women and I'll do it, but don't come to me and say I don't care!"
x
For several seconds she continued to stare into his eyes, but then her own softened. She could no longer stand so close to him, so confrontationally close, and backed away a step, breaking their contact. "I you care know do." She said softly. "You more than many on your ship I see care do." But then again she met his eyes. "But what will you Hoshi with do? Right she was."
"She wasn't –."
"Right she was." Tia maintained adamantly. "Men this world on command their women – and beat them when they wish, when angry they are or punish wish to. Men on Enterprise do beat the women not – yet command they them do, and can punish as well."
"Now wait just a minute!" Trip exclaimed, insulted that she would think he would do such a thing as they had witnessed here.
"Understand I 'on report' not, but 'punish' you Hoshi going to are?"
"That's different. That's not 'punishment', that's discipline."
"'Spoke her mind' she did?"
"Yes. But she exceeded her limits."
"Her limits? Or yours?" He stared at her, as shocked as he was outraged. "She your 'discipline' will like not?"
"Very likely not, but I can't change that."
Tia stepped very close, but even as close as she was he could barely hear her softened voice. "The week before escaping Aura, 'disciplined' I you know was. Forty two men raped me. I did that like not."
x
Charles Tucker stared into the expressive eyes of the young golden woman, while inside compassion and fury warred violently, along with duty and a desire to just let it go. But he could not 'let it go'. He had to put Hoshi on Report, and Regulations were very specific on dealing with such Gross Insubordination as she was guilty of. His hands were essentially tied, now that she had done what she had and he had determined to place her on Report, to face the consequences of her action.
But was Tia right? In disciplining Hoshi, was he going to follow Regulations and thereby subject her, symbolically, to the same thing Tia had suffered?
No. This was Military Law, not personal. It was all spelled out in the Code of Military Conduct. There had to be a chain of command in Starfleet, with all that that chain represented, and Hoshi had to be reminded of the Regulations they operated under. This was not personal. This was professional.
"I'm sorry; what's going to happen she brought upon herself. I can't change it."
"Can not? Or will not?"
"All right. Will not."
Shutting her out, he stepped around Tia, not looking at her as he strode across the room to rap sharply at the bedroom door.
xx
"Let's go, Lieutenant." Tucker's voice forced its way through the door.
Seamus O'Cathain had been holding Hoshi in his arms, trying to ease her anxiety and distress, but he released her at the sharp summons. "Hang in there." He said to her before turning and opening the door, leaving her alone.
Hoshi sat down on the bed. She was surprised to find herself shaking, more from the coming down of her own rage and the flood of adrenaline than from a mounting apprehension, though a large part of her reaction was still that apprehension. She looked up as the door opened again and Tia entered. Hoshi had automatically raised her hand to cover her breasts, but lowered it again resignedly. "He's pretty mad." She said. It was hardly a guess.
"He me hears nyasi."
"Seamus is right. I really screwed up."
"Daai."