Chapter 6
Stress Relief
Stardate 2330.059
Run. Run as fast as you can!
That's what his mother had told him to do, so he ran as fast as his four-year-old legs could carry him. They both made their way past burning buildings, some already reduced to rubble. He had tripped earlier and was bloodied and hurt, but could not stop. The bad people had come a short while ago. They had hurt many of his friends. They had come for his mother and father suddenly at dawn. His father had held them off as he and his mother slipped out the back. That was the last he had seen of his father. He clutched a small knife, a gift from his father, and, he feared, all he had left of him. His mother had managed to grab her sword as they left the house; precious little to defend them with against the beam weapons the bad men had with them.
His mother sought to lose the men by taking a turn down an alley and immediately realized she had made a mistake. It was a dead end and the only path out was the way they had just come. She turned but heard the men shouting and knew that escape was now impossible. She took her son's head in her hands and kissed his forehead.
"Jon. Mommy will always love you but I have to go now. I need you to hide now, and no matter what happens, do not come out until the men are gone. Do you understand?"
Jon was too frightened to do anything but nod.
"There's a spot over there. Go now!"
Jon did as he was told and hid behind the remains of a wall that had fallen into the alley. He saw his mother run toward the street. She planned to draw the men away from him he knew, and would have if she had gotten there. As it was, just as she reached the entrance to the alley, one of the bad men got there at the same time. His mother, who knew she had no chance of escape was prepared for this and quickly cut him down. The next man caught up with her before she could recover her stroke, and killed her with his own sword. Jon saw all of this but stayed hidden, fiercely gripping his knife. Tears of rage streamed down his already dirty face. His mother's last act as she lay dying was to look at him and mouth the words, "I love you."
Seeing this, Jon could not help himself. He rushed screaming from his hiding place toward the leader of the bad men. The man's subordinates were too startled to fire their weapons in time and the leader just managed to turn and execute a quick down stroke of his sword, opening a cut on Jon's face just near his right eye. He stumbled, but did manage to slash the leader's leg with his knife. Enraged, the leader kicked Jon in the face, knocking him down. As he lifted his sword to finish off the boy, his Lieutenant ran into the alley and immediately berated the man.
"Stop!"
The three men turned to look at their commanding officer. They were none too happy to be interrupted.
"This boy attacked me!" He raised his sword again.
"He is a boy! He cannot be more than four years old!" She looked at the woman lying nearby.
"And didn't I tell you idiots I wanted her alive! Are you always this dense? Do you not understand a simple order when it's given to you? That woman worked at Starfleet. She was needed for questioning!"
By this time the officer was right up in the sergeant's face. Despite his larger size, she did not hold back, ordering him to lower his weapon. Suddenly, he hauled back and struck her. Taken by surprise, she fell to the ground dazed and bleeding.
"I'm done taking orders from you! I don't know who you slept with to become an officer, but I'm going to fix that problem right now!"
He raised his sword to dispatch her. The other two soldiers appeared to be of the same mind as their leader and did not raise any objection to his actions.
As he lay on the ground still groggy, Jon saw the silhouette of a man at the opening of the alley. He had a katana slung over his back and was pointing his rifle at the leader. The leader stopped, startled.
"I never thought I would ever say this, but, why don't you pick on someone your own size?"
The other soldier, seeing that the human's attention was on his leader, moved his weapon up slowly. The man addressed the soldier calmly and conversationally, without moving his eyes or weapon off the leader.
"You sure you want to do that fehill'curak?"
The human's use of the Romulan insult referring to the more unsavory part of the backside of the humanoid anatomy was enough to stop the man from moving his weapon any further.
It was not clear whether the leader was being brave or stupid when he addressed his two men.
"Shoot him you idiots! He can't get both of you!"
Still not taking his eyes or weapon off the leader, the human immediately answered.
"That may well be true, but I will certainly get you won't I? All of you, weapons down now!"
His order was too much for one of the soldiers, who started to bring his weapon to bear. Calmly, almost slowly, not in a rush at all, the man aimed his weapon at the soldier and fired, putting a neat two-centimeter hole between his eyes. The body fell lifelessly to the ground.
The man pointed his weapon at the other soldier.
"Do you have something you wish to add to this discussion?"
The soldier quickly threw his weapon to the ground. The man slagged it, careful not to hit the power supply.
The leader was momentarily startled but was not ready to give up yet.
"You are brave when you have a phaser and all I have is a sword. Would you be as courageous if we matched weapons?"
The human threw his phaser behind him as if the challenge was of no consequence.
"If that's what you want. I've had a bad day and need to work off a bit of tension anyway."
The lieutenant had woken up enough to realize what was going on and couldn't believe what she was seeing. She reached for her own sidearm only to realize that the sergeant had taken it and thrown it to the other side of the alley. She could only watch as the human seemed intent on giving away his advantage and committing suicide. Both of her subordinates unsheathed their swords.
"Now hold on. You said it would just be you and me!"
"Did I now? You must have misunderstood my meaning." His smile was anything but sincere.
"Well I really do need the exercise; let's get this over with!"
Contrary to what an outside observer might have thought, the man was not particularly worried about taking on two opponents. He had been practicing with a katana since he was two, and had taken on multiple adversaries in the dojo as a regular part of his training. Call it confidence bordering on the suicidal or just plain hubris, the man was much more concerned about these two clowns getting away. They had killed one woman, struck another, and threatened the life of a child. In the man's book, these were unforgivable sins. One did not hurt women and children, no matter the offence. His sense of decorum had been offended, and he felt a responsibility to mete out a lesson.
There was a way to face off with two adversaries, but it did not include having to also prevent them from escaping the alley he had them boxed into. He moved toward the flank of the subordinate on his left that was opposite the leader on his right, but the leader was having none of it and pivoted such that both Romulans were still facing him simultaneously. That was a problem because it meant a strike at one of them would automatically leave his flank exposed. The Romulan leader acknowledged this with a smile. The human nodded and smiled in shared respect. So the Romulan leader at least knew what he was doing. That left only one other option, less risky than a frontal attack, but still potentially deadly, and it had to be done quickly before the Romulans decided to attack him. He brought his sword back and down to his right, so it pointed toward the ground behind him, and prayed his opponents had not taken the time to study Kenjitsu or at least seen The Seven Samurai. He feinted left, and then moved quickly forward, bringing his sword up from right to left as if preparing for a downward stroke. Before he raised it fully, at the last second, he darted in and gave the Romulan a nasty cut under his left eye. He hesitated in shock and surprise and that was all the opening the human needed. He stepped slightly more to his left and continued the stroke wide of the Romulan and came back with a horizontal slash. The Romulan did not have time to change his initial look of surprise as his head flew off of his shoulders.
The human turned his attention to the other Romulan. Obviously chastened, the sergeant moved slowly to his left, closer the entrance to the alley. The human stepped to his right to counter the move and smiled. The Romulan nodded back. A fight to the death then.
The human had the luxury of time now, so contented himself with feeling the sergeant out, looking for weaknesses he could exploit. He'd had the advantage of surprise before, but the Romulan leader was not going to be fooled again. Strike and parry, maneuver and attack, each alternatively tested the other's defenses.
The leader then got the idea to threaten the boy and moved toward him. Seeing this, the human realized that playtime was over, and had to do something to neutralize the threat to the child. He put himself between the sergeant and the boy. The leader was forced back into the fight. The human was angry now, his cavalier attitude gone. A fair fight to the death was one thing, but threatening a child was definitely "dirty pool." His new intensity was tiring the Romulan, who became reckless as his desperation rose. By contrast, the human was calmer and more methodical. He slowly advanced on the sergeant whose previous confidence was evaporating quickly. To his surprise, he felt his back hit the wall of the alley and he knew he was out of options. The human addressed him again in that calm voice.
"You know, I might have let you live if you weren't such a dha'rudh.
The insult was too much for the Romulan. He roared and struck at the human who parried and buried his katana in the sergeant's neck, pinning him to the wall. He moved in close to the man's face.
"I figure you've got about a minute to live. In that time, I want you to reflect on your behavior and how if you had acted differently, you might have had the opportunity to see another sunrise."
The human pulled his katana out of the sergeant, wiped it on his tunic, and sheathed it. The Romulans eyes went wide in shock as he grabbed his throat and slowly slid down the wall gurgling.
The man went over to the dazed boy, transforming back to the jovial person he was before, and extended his hand.
"Looks like you're having a pretty bad day as well there little one. What's your name?"
The boy, still dazed, looked up at his savior in wonder, but let the man help him up.
"Jon."
"Pleased to meet you Jon, my name is Hiro. What's say you help me make sure this pretty lady is ok before we go?"
Hiro moved toward the woman. She appeared to be a few years younger than him, and was easily the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life. Her hair was long and jet-black, but it was her eyes that really caught his attention. They were a light purple color, with bright orange flecks in them. She also was wearing an elaborate and expensive looking hairpiece, which he was dying to ask about. I mean, who goes into a firefight with an expensive museum piece in their hair? Must be a Romulan thing. If the guy who hit her had not taken the time to try to grab at it, Hiro might have been too late to save her.
The woman had managed to prop herself up and tried to move away as he approached. She grabbed her hairpiece and swung it at Hiro. He had expected some sort of reaction from her and was prepared, but she still managed to catch his cheek as he bent down to tend to her; not a serious wound but it did draw blood.
"Whoa, now none of that miss!" Hiro blocked her arm as she tried to strike him again.
"Get away from me," she said weakly.
"I just want to help Lieutenant. You took quite a hit there. Here, let me have a look at you. Jon, I don't think I can make this pretty lady better without your help. Think you can manage that?"
At the boy's nod Hiro took a hypo spray out of his utility belt and handed it to him. He was very close to going into shock and needed something to do to keep his mind occupied.
OK, hold this for me and when I tell you, spray it where I point."
Hiro gently took the woman's chin with his right hand and turned her head so he could see her injury, while continuing to immobilize the hand with the improvised weapon; just in case.
Damn her face hurt. It hadn't helped that she had banged her head on the ground when she fell. By this time, although she was still too weak to resist his ministrations, she had gained enough of her faculties to suspect he meant her no harm. Not that she could do anything about his attention even if she wanted to given his recent performance! Had he really bested her sergeant in a sword fight?! Not only him, but also her other Uhlan as well? She would not have believed it if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes. The sergeant was the reigning sword-fighting champion in this sector of the Empire, and his cohort was almost as good. Both of them were constantly bragging to anyone who would listen about how skilled they were, and this human had dispatched them as if they were children picking up their first toy sword. Who was this man! And why was he helping her? He had cleaned and applied bandages to her wounds, and sprayed something on them. The pain subsided immediately.
"There you go miss; good as new. I would recommend you have your doctors take a look and see if you've got a concussion, but I'm pretty sure you'll be fine. Normally, I would take you prisoner at this point, but I've got a ways to go to get back with my people, and I imagine you wouldn't go quietly if I attempted to," he smiled at her.
"Now let's see if we can get you on your feet. There you go. I saw some of your units about a kilometer east of here. I'll be going west myself, good luck!"
And with that, he took the boy's hand and walked quickly away.
No one is ever going to believe me when I report this she thought as she slowly started walking in the opposite direction.
