11

Stalkers

"So," Una began cunningly as they walked side by side.

Chris replied by giving her a faint, charming dimpled smile. "I don't think this was such a good idea," he replied slyly.

She turned to him innocently.

"You're wreaking havoc with other people's culture," he pointed out lightly. "All these poor souls, they think we're going to marry each other after this 'walk of love path'."

Una snorted. "Like everyone who walks here," she reasoned. "They said this was the most beautiful place on the planet. Are you telling me that, because I am an officer in Starfleet, without any intention of marrying, I do not have the privilege to discover this beauty for myself?"

"You could have gone hiking-," Chris suggested, "-hoverboarding or speed-rafting on the 'Lake of Anxiety'."

"Yeah, that last part sounds exciting. I wonder who actually named that place," she mused ironically.

"All in all, I think this place qualifies for great shore leave, don't you?" Chris asked with a smile.

"Yeah, although I am not sure the anthropologists, geologists and meteorologists are going to see it as vacation. I walked in on a mixed group of scientists the other day and they were discussing the weirdest things."

"I don't mind working in a beautiful landscape such as this. I might take a few reports with me to the beach," he admitted.

"You are a workaholic, you have no say in the matter," Una replied cheekily. "As a former study of material strength and mechanical/electric combinations of power, I think it'll have to be compulsory for me to go parasailing," she said cunningly. "You might want to try it out too?"

Chris shook his head. "No thanks, I have no intention of tangling with the lines of that thing, keep my feet on the board, and enjoy it at the same time."

"Where is your sense of adventure?" she asked.

"I might get back onboard; we have a lot of shuttle modifications that needs to be tested. I can use my skills as a test pilot," he suggested.

Una looked smug for a moment as she stopped and turned around to fully face him. "I have one final offer," she said mischievously. "You see that high mountain over there?" she pointed toward distant peaks whose edges nudged the sky and ran all the way down to the waterline. "Why don't we brush up on our skills of rock-climbing?"

He laughed fondly. "I am starting to get old, Una," he cautioned.

She cocked an eyebrow much like Spock usually did. "Nonsense. You have a few strands of grey hair – I bet you dyed it that way," she replied as she gently nudged his ribs. "I have seen you in the gym, finetuning those lovely abs of yours."

"I can't believe I am hearing this from my XO," he replied, his eyes sparkling with amusement. "Your abs are quite nice too."

Una pretended to be shocked. "Christopher Pike," she chided and shook her head. "I can't believe I am hearing this from my captain."

He began to walk again and she followed suit.

"So, challenge accepted?" she asked curiously.

Chris never had time to answer that. He felt rather than saw someone tackling him to the ground and gasped as a sharp stinging pain soared through his arm, telling him that something had sliced through the sleeve of his uniform. He steeled himself and rolled away from his attacker, surprised to see – not one, but four – Klingons before him.

"Isn't it a little cowardice of you to fight four to two?" he asked seriously and was rewarded with a kick to the ribs.

"Human," one of the Klingons hissed. "Stop talking and fight instead, so that I can be rewarded with a glorious victory."

Una started backing away as her two attackers started circling her. She slowly reached into her thigh pocket for her communicator. The Bat'leth struck the device with such a precision that it was sliced in two through the fabric and ripped the skin open. She bit her lower lip in order not to cry out in pain as she fell backwards with a thud and rolled on the ground in an effort to get away.

"Why don't you seek out someone your own size," Chris called out coldly. "I have no intention of fighting you."

Katoth snarled.

"Chris, look out!" Una shouted desperately.

Stealthy as a shadow Vasq slammed Pike into the ground, his knees resting comfortably on the other man's chest. The Klingon then closed his large hands around the captain's throat.

Una reached for her spare knife, hidden away in her pantleg, renewed energy flowing through her body at seeing the Klingon trying to kill her friend and captain. She stabbed the alien, a well-coordinated attack that pierced the heart. The Klingon Vasq gurgled, his eyes widening in surprise as he realized what she'd done; then he smiled – a sort of commendation to his opponent for stealing the victory.

Karash was fueled by rage as he saw life leaving his crewmate. He pressed the Bat'leth over Una's chest from behind her, letting the cutting edges of the sharp and merciless weapon come to rest only inches from her throat. "Your head to my master," he wheezed into her ear.

"Never," Una seethed and wiggled free.

OOOOOO

"And, so you see," Ta'Rex Da Od said proudly as he activated a security feed on a small portable screen, "We have almost every corner of the public sites on display."

Enterprise's head of security smirked slyly at the largely built, muscled Circusian before her. She didn't have the heart to tell him that their system was similar to earth techniques in the late 21th century. She had been given a tour and a run-down of the safety systems used by the planetary guard patrols to ensure the safety of tourists. She figured it was without doubt an attempt to show off. Now, Ta'Rex Da Od was a nice but tough guy and she found herself wondering what kind of fighting skills he possessed. Trina was just about to ask about martial art when Ta'Rex Da Od stiffened with a look of terror on his face.

"By the son of thunder," he mumbled as he stared at the screen before him.

Trina Mann frowned at the level of anxiety in his voice. She leaned in to get a better view of the picture and froze. She shook herself out of the daze and grabbed hold of his shoulder. "Is this feed live?" she demanded.

Ta'Rex Da Od swallowed. "It's a five-minute delay," he answered.

"Five-minute?" Mann echoed in disbelief. "What do you do? Reroute signal ten laps around the planet?" She desperately watched her captain and the XO as they were about to get executed by a group of Klingons. "No, no, no," she whispered in denial and then reached deep into her pocket to retrieve her communicator, hoping she wasn't too late. "Lieutenant Mann to Enterprise, emergency protocol. Beam Captain Pike and Number One onboard!"

"This is Louvier," came a scratchy voice over a channel filled with interference. "Transporters can't get a lock, searching for parameters-,"

"You're out of time!" Mann shouted as she watched Pike tumble over the edge of a cliff and disappear from sight.

"Stand by," Louvier called.

"Beam?" The Circusian asked confused. "Transporters?"

Mann cursed under her breath. She found herself wishing, not for the first time, that Commander Nhan was still onboard the Enterprise.

OOOOOO

Teelar walked up to the still form of a man on the rocky beach. She stared up the rockface and the steep edge of a cliff from where he had fallen. She noticed that the yellow uniform tunic had been torn in various places and colored in a shade of deep red. Horrible weapons had cut deep into flesh and tendons, even bones. Waves lapped at his ashen face, washing away a trickle of blood from a wound in his hairline. One of his hands lay outstretched toward the water, touching the turquoise liquid. She gasped as she suddenly recognized him and remembered that dimpled, faint smile at the zoo. She recalled his gentle touch on the muzzle of the Hav'rat and the way the animal had responded to him; with affection.

She hesitated for a fraction of a second and then reached out to touch him, her hand shaking. She could feel his agony, his pain; it terrified her. Teelar gasped as she connected with the clammy skin of his left shoulder and cried out.

OOOOOO

"Brave human, but not tough enough," Katoth said with a toothy grin.

Una felt her temper rise where she sat propped up against a tree, next to the steep edge of the cliff Chris had just fallen off. She was breathing hard, panting even, but it wasn't so much due to pain or agony as it was to rage and despair. Her hair was a mess and a trickle of blood made its way across her beautiful bruised cheek, from a wound in her hairline. Her lower lip was swollen, her collar unkempt and her starkly bright yellow uniform tunic ripped in its seams, to expose her smooth skin across her left shoulder.

She kicked out with her leg and hit the Klingon's left lower calf. The blow had him stagger for a moment and he laughed with surprise. It only served to fuel her rage and she kicked out again, this time ensnarling him with her legs, slamming him to the ground. "You will pay for this," she whispered coldly into his ear.

He wheezed as he broke free and tossed her back against the tree. "You are a soldier," he remarked with amusement. "That is uncommon in Starfleet. I will spare your life so that you can return to your ship and tell them your leader is dead. Long live the Empire."

Una grimaced and pumped her fist into the ground in anger. A tear managed to escape her eye as she tried to move. Sharp pain stabbed at her lower back and she fought to remain calm as she realized she could no longer feel her legs. The tough woman began to crawl towards the edge of the cliff, on elbows and knees. "Chris!" she shouted and then added dejectedly. "Chris, please, you'd better be alive or I'll come down and kill you myself."

"What-," a voice began carefully. "What are they?"

"Klingons," Una spat with disdain as she turned toward the man who'd crouched down next to her.

"It's all right," he said kindly. "I am a doctor."

Una bit her lip as she scanned the immediate area with her eyes, looking for her communicator. "I need you to help me find a little box," she said seriously.

"You are injured and probably confused, maybe even concussed-," he began carefully as he took in her disheveled appearance.

She grabbed his shirt with her bloodstained hand. "It is a matter of life and death," she wheezed. "It's a homing beacon of a kind…I need it to get back to my ship."

The doctor cast a nervous glance at the woman's hand whose fingers had locked on to his training shirt, and then back to her face. She looked deadly serious. He hesitated and then slowly nodded at her.

Una let go of him and watched as he stood and began to have a look around. She exhaled and felt a twinge deep inside her ribcage. She couldn't allow herself to worry about that now. Instead, she reached out to pad the ground with her hands, using her senses to try and find the communicator in the grass.

The medically trained man suddenly jerked back and then knelt to pick something up.

Una chuckled with relief as she saw the familiar black box with the perforated golden lid in the man's hand. "Give it to me," she commanded.

He made his way over to her. "You need to go to the hospital," the doctor said sincerely. "There is nothing I can do for your friend but-,"

"Una to Enterprise. Emergency medical beam out," she croaked into the small gadget.

Doctor Ov'Da Bob Da stared, mesmerized as the woman before him seemed to shimmer and then began to fade out of existence. Without thinking, he grabbed hold of her and felt a tingling sensation spread throughout his body; in the next they were swept away from the face of the planet.

"I am having trouble compensating," Louvier said seriously as he increased power to the transporter. "I am reading two patterns in the buffer. Looks like our XO has something of a cling on with her."

Boyce looked troubled as he looked from the two shapes that begin to materialize to Louvier and then back again. "Is it the captain?"

"Don't think so," the engineer replied tight-lipped.

"The minute you have completed the beam, get a hold of his communicator and get him onboard too. I don't like this. I take full responsibility for his wrath if it comes to that," Boyce said.

Doctor Ov'Da Bob Da shook his head in wonder as he glanced around the technically advanced room and saw the people standing next to whatever platform he and the woman was laying/sitting on. He saw guards, armed and ready, he saw what he guessed was medically trained personal and technicians scurry around the room.

"Take this man to the brig," Louvier ordered.

"He only wants to help," Una managed through clenched teeth as Phil and two medics gently helped her off the platform. "He's a doctor. You need to…get Chris back onboard. The Klingons…"

Boyce stiffened at that. "The Klingons?" he asked.

"I…" Una began dejectedly as she leveled her usually sparkling eyes with his.

Phil swallowed. He instinctively knew something bad had happened for Una to behave this way. She looked stricken, her face a mixture of agony, rage and despair yet her voice sounded hollow and subdued.

"I think Chris is dead," she managed.

Phil responded by slamming his fist into the platform. "No," he replied resolutely.

"I have him," Louvier said seriously as he shifted the levers of the transporter to maximum and engaged the transport.

The tension in the room was palpable as Pike and another form materialized onto the platform.

Boyce was at his captain's side the minute the transporter beam disengaged. He studied the man before him; his clothes were torn and bloodied but he had no injuries. "I don't understand," he began perplexed. "How is this possible?"

Doctor Ov'Da Bob Da made his way over and saw that the younger woman, who knelt next to the captain, had wounds that seemed to fade for every second. There was an eerie match to her injuries and the missing injuries that should have been present on the man next to her. "It's true," he stated in amazement.

"What is?" Boyce demanded quizzically.

"She's an emphatic being," he said.

Boyce startled at that and then nodded at his orderlies. "I want all of them in sickbay, ASAP," he commanded.

OOOOOO

11/24