That night, after the embers died down to a dull red glow and it was time for sleep, Deleth found that he could not rest. They'd built their little camp in a sandy area that seemed to have been left by a long-ago change in the river's course, and bedded down next to their dying fire. Efet, exhausted from their training, fell asleep almost as soon as she lay her head down. Deleth could hear her breathing fall into a steady rhythm, just another sound to add to the symphony of the jungle at night. Aside from the faint crackling and hissing of the embers, the jungle was alive with animals hunting, calling to mates, or climbing from one place to another. In the distance, Deleth could hear the roar of the river. Tomorrow, they would resume their journey to the great rock wall.
Deleth had made himself a comfortable little depression in the sand, and for a minute he fell asleep, only to startle awake, overcome by feelings of dread and fright. For some reason, he thought Efet wasn't there anymore, and he had to crawl over next to her to assure himself she was still there. As his eyes adjusted to the low light, he could make out the curves of her face and body, and when he placed his head next to her, he could hear her breathing once again over the jungle's cacophony. He sighed, feeling his body relax. A year ago, Deleth would have stepped over a dying Cardassian and thought nothing of it. If anyone had told he'd be waking in the middle of the night just to check that a Cardassian woman was still near him and safe, he'd have laughed, or maybe even gotten angry. I'm still a little shaken up by her brush with death earlier today, he realized. Once, he'd had so much more in his life - family, a career, his duty - but now, after so long spent alone here, the focus of his existence had, in just a few days, narrowed down to keeping Efet alive. He'd almost accepted that he would go mad and die alone in this prison, and now, with something to live for, Deleth suspected this was a whole new kind of madness.
He went to crawl away but the thought of being far from her was unbearable. Instead, he rolled onto his side and moved close enough that his back was touching her shoulders. Deleth hoped that by keeping physical contact, he'd calm down enough to sleep - with their clothing between them, he'd not even pick up empathic impressions from her, as he had when she touched his hands. All Romulans had some form of empathic ability, but few had anything close to the touch-telepathy of their Vulcan cousins. Deleth had never bothered developing his very far, but when he'd grabbed her hand (and before, in their first meeting, when she'd tried to pry his hands away from her) he'd gotten impressions from her - no thoughts, of course, but some feelings. First the sharp terror of their first meetings, and then the intense gratefulness when he'd saved her and pulled her back from the brink. He thought Cardassians were psi-null, or at least he hoped so, since the thought of her sensing his emotions was humiliating. Deleth had only touched and caressed one woman, Narshara, from back in his academy days, and after a few stolen moments of paradise she had torn herself from him, rejected him, almost crushed him beneath her boot. He'd been so relieved to graduate and receive a different posting than her (something he'd begged his uncle to help him with, as Deleth couldn't bear being trapped with Narshara in a starship for months on end). Look where that got me, Deleth thought morosely. Trapped here in this prison.
Efet stretched her legs, rolled over, and ended up pressing the front of her body up against his back, no doubting soaking up his body heat. In a moment her breathing was as steady as ever, but Deleth had a new and unexpected problem in the form of her breasts pressing up against his back. He'd never touched Narshara's breasts, but Efet's breasts felt very soft and tempting where she had them pressed up against him. Deleth cursed to himself as he felt his body respond. It was mere physical stimulation, he told himself, nothing more. Deleth slammed his eyes shut and willed himself to not to respond to evolution's ancient call. She's not even Romulan, he told himself. He didn't know if Efet was beautiful by Cardassian standards, but he told himself it didn't matter that her facial features seemed harmonious and her hair so glossy and black, and her breasts so soft. She wasn't Romulan and she wasn't appealing in any way. Her breasts are probably grey and have little scales on them, he thought in a misguided attempt to repulse himself, as all that accomplished was make him imagine her breasts and what it would be like to touch them.
He'd just summoned the willpower to roll away from her when Efet tucked her face into his neck, seeking even more warmth. As soon as skin touched skin, Deleth was hit with emotional impressions from her: contentment and comfort, and then she seemed to pick up something from him, as desire flooded them both in some sort of feedback loop. In response, Efet murmured softly and her lips brushed against the back of her neck, which was enough to snap him out of his daze temporarily. He rolled over, putting a few inches between them, and his face burned from embarrassment. He was straining at his trousers and an animal part of his brain wanted to go right back to her, wake her up, and take her right here, next to the dying fire in this sandy pit. A more rational part of his brain thought she'd be horrified by his intentions. At least Narshara had been Romulan, Efet was Cardassian and he wasn't even part of her species. He was probably quite ugly by her standards, and Deleth didn't think he could take another rejection.
He crawled a few feet away and lay on his back, staring up at the canopy, until sleep overtook him quite suddenly. His dreams were snippets of his old life, worn and dogged around the edges; he dreamed of walking the halls of his old academy, then he was on his starship. He tried to enter his quarters only to find himself lost in the dense jungle foliage, and he could hear Efet's voice but he couldn't see her...
Deleth startled awake again, but this time it was morning and Efet was standing over the fire. He rubbed at his face, a little taken aback. The last few days, Deleth had always been the first one awake, and usually he was preparing food for both of them by the time Efet yawned and lifted her head.
Efet was using her crude knife to scrape the rind off a melon he'd shown her was safe to eat. She was completely absorbed in her task, her tongue peeking out from between her lips in concentration, and she had taken off her jacket, so he could see her breasts moving just a little under her blouse - Deleth turned his head from her, horrified with himself. He could've pretended last night was just a product of his sad and lonely mind, if only he wasn't thinking the exact same thoughts this morning!
"Jolan tru," Efet greeted him, cracking a smile. "I was beginning to worry about you. You've never slept in like this before. You're not sick are you?"
Deleth desperately didn't want to answer that question. "Thank you for preparing food for us." He latched onto the only neutral topic he could think of as he sat up and combed his hands through his tangled hair. Efet placed slices of melon onto two large leaves that would serve as plates and sat beside him, offering him one, which he accepted.
"Today, while we walk, I was thinking we'd start our lesson on interrogatives. The Cardassian language is exceptionally rich in interrogatives, as we are a curious - some say prying - people. It's so important you have a good grasp on which interrogatives to use in which circumstances. It's really quite complex!" She bit into a slice of her melon, and she moaned in pleasure as her blue eyes rolled back in her head. "It's like the flavor explodes in your mouth!"
Deleth was grateful that grammatical rules were the least sexual subject he could think of. He mumbled, "Yes, absolutely," then crammed a bite of melon into his own mouth, pointedly not looking at her face.
Efet gave him a searching look. She'd had the oddest dreams last night, and Deleth was acting so withdrawn and strange. Granted, he was always withdrawn and strange, so she should've been used to it by now. But today it seemed like he was trying harder than ever to avoid talking to her or even meeting her eyes. She half-wondered if he'd also had odd dreams and was a little shaken up by them. It would explain a lot. She had attributed her dream to yesterday's brush with death - Efet had dreamed she was dangling over the river by her fingernails, until a great embracing light had lifted her up and held her close. She'd woken up feeling safe and loved.
After breakfast, they set off for the wall, with Efet keeping up a lively speech about interrogatives and their use as relative pronouns, while Deleth grunted in response and sometimes repeated after her. Efet felt she was not struggling to keep up as much as she had been. She'd been in the jungle for about two weeks, and she was developing a bit more stamina and balance, clambering over tree roots as they walked more easily. Callouses had developed on her feet, which was much preferable to blisters anyway. She had cut herself another walking stick and was working on vaulting over obstacles and feeling like an adventurer from old stories. After a few hours, Deleth seemed to relax and was looking her in the face again.
As they approached midday, the walk became steeper and hillier, which Deleth had told her about. There was a definite slope out of the river basin and up towards the rock walls. The foliage was no longer as dense, and the muddy ground became more like regular dirt. There were different animals as well; some kind of large crawling iridescent beetle with six legs, and winged creatures who spun nests made of some kind of fiber that hung from the tree branches. They were growing thirstier in the heat, and all they could do was eat watery melons to slake their thirst. Deleth told her he'd never found any water source other than the river.
"Have you found the mouth of the river?" Efet asked him.
Deleth shook his head. "I followed it upstream once, but it becomes rough going as you near the far wall. Very rocky, treacherous landscape. I turned back as I feared I'd be buried by a landslide. I presume the river springs from some underground source."
"Do you think there's a cave system?"
"Maybe, but no way to know if the cave system leads anywhere, or just to dead ends. I'm sure the Klingons thought of that, and sealed off any caves, if there are any."
"And you said the open side of the valley leads to a waterfall?"
"Yes," Deleth assured her. "A giant waterfall, that disappears into a cloud of white water vapor. You can see a lot of jungle land far into the distance. There's no way to climb out, even with equipment, since the fall is so deep. It seems to drop down into the bowels of this planet."
As they broke out of the jungle and stood before the wall, Efet felt as though the hairs on her head were all standing on end. The rock wall, which had loomed in the distance, completely took up what seemed like her entire field of vision. It was so immense, and when she walked up to it, she saw it was almost totally sheer, with very few pits where one might find a foothold. She pressed her fist to the wall, and bowed her head. Right until now, Efet had held out hope that once they were here, she'd think of some way over this wall. That somehow she'd construct a subspace communicator from a few melons and twigs, and they'd get a signal out and - what? She glanced over at Deleth, who was also staring up at the wall. Surely he wasn't dreaming of contacting the Cardassian Union. She wasn't sure what her people would do with him, but probably nothing good. But what good would it do her to contact the Romulans, even if she could by some miracle get a sigal out? Would they return her to her people, or leave her here, or take her captive? She might take herself from one prison to another.
She put her back to the wall and sank to the ground. "We're trapped, aren't we."
"Yes," said Deleth.
Hot tears sprang to her eyes. "This isn't the end. It can't be the end! We're getting off this rock!"
Deleth regarded her sadly, and Efet fought back the tears. They had to be strong for each other. Unfortunately, the only way out seemed to be going through the Klingons - which was impossible. Deleth could fight, but she knew for a fact there were at least three guards, and probably more than that. And they had weapons. Despite his training, Efet knew she would be useless in such a fight. It was suicide to attack the Klingons, but that was their only practical chance of getting out of this prison. Either they withered away out here, took the fight to the Klingons, or waited for the Klingons to inevitably come to them. She had never been faced with such horrible choices.
As she stood to follow Deleth back into the jungle to return to their only water source, Efet spotted something off in the distance. She shaded her eyes with her hands and asked him, "What are those?" She pointed to the rock cairns that could be seen a little ways to the north of them, jutting out from the grassy landscape.
"Those are piles of rocks," Deleth said in a tone that told her he didn't want to discuss it.
"Those are some kind of deliberate rock structures," Efet told him. "Look at them, they're out in the open, in the grass. Someone constructed those, Deleth. Maybe another alien?" She started to walk towards them, but Deleth snapped at her to come back.
"Leave those alone!"
Efet stopped in her tracks and looked at Deleth. Something occurred to her, a horrible thought that she didn't want to believe. "You built those, didn't you? You know exactly what they are."
"Leave it alone," Deleth said.
She looked back at the rock cairns. There were three of them, built up into mounds, each about two meters long and a meter wide. "Deleth, these are... graves, aren't they? Did you bury someone out here?"