"She'll be fine," Riker said, reading Carmen's distant, worried stare. "Jora's tough, like you. Now give me those hands."
His own binds lay in a frayed pile on the ground. He started on Carmen's next, sawing through them with the Grolese claw. He cast her a quick, encouraging smile before concentration drew his lips taut.
"Dad?" she prompted.
"Hmm?" Their cover was already blown, but still she called him that. Riker made no mention of it, yet secretly hoped it would stick.
"What if they find mom first? What if it's too late? I still haven't heard from her, and-"
"We don't have time to think like that. It won't help anything, understand?"
The back of her head still flat against the stone floor, she nodded slowly. "I understand." He finished one cord and started on another. After a deep breath, she spoke again. "Can I ask you something?"
"Try me."
"Why aren't you scared?"
"What do you mean?"
Her eyes slid towards his. "I don't sense it from you. Fear. Aren't you worried about her?"
"You bet I'm worried about her." Snap went several threads. "But then I made my decision."
"About what? The plan?"
"No. See...it's something Picard told me once." She tilted her chin, angling her face towards him as she listened.
"He said fear is a reaction," Riker continued. "Of course you're gonna feel it; you can't help but feel it. But courage-that's a decision. And being a Starfleet officer, we're faced with decisions every day. It's up to us to make sure courage is one of them."
Carmen felt the tension around her wrists finally easing as Riker started on the last cord. Meanwhile, his words were easing her mind, cutting through the muddle of what-ifs.
"And another thing-" he added. "My future mother-in-law is up there. Whatever happens, I'll have to explain it to her personally. So if I can choose courage, then so can you."
A grin, finally. Then the last of her binds fell away, leaving red lines along her skin. Riker helped her sit up, steadying the young woman with a hand on her back. "I'm fine," she insisted.
"I know," he replied. "But still. Let me take care of the guard, okay?"
"Sure, have all the fun," she grumbled.
But before they could climb to their feet, Kotar's voice made them freeze in their tracks. "If you won't tell me, then we'll just ask your friends," he fumed from just outside the cave. They could hear Toleel's feet scraping the ground as Kotar dragged him inside, all while the boy made a series of bumbling protests. He must have been caught trying to sabotage the shuttle's progress, Carmen realized. His effort to buy them time had backfired. Now they had no time at all. She looked to Riker, the question burning behind her eyes. What now?
A grim but stoic determination settled over his features. She couldn't read his thoughts the way she could read her mother's, but somehow, somewhere, the words echoed back to her. Choose courage.
As the clatter of Kotar's boots drew closer, Riker crouched. His legs coiled beneath him, tensed and ready. He had no weapon, but if he timed it right, he had the element of surprise.
Just before Kotar could round the corner, Riker rushed forward like a linebacker in one of Earth's football games. Carmen felt a thud in her chest as he collided with the massive Romulan. Toleel was flung to the ground as well, landing in a heap of surprise nearby. Kotar roared in outrage, his fist swinging towards Riker's temple. But Riker was ready for him. He ducked the blow and then returned it with one of his own.
The guard who had followed them in stood frozen, gaping in confusion. Carmen saw the disruptor in his hand. And then she saw her chance. She lunged for the weapon, grabbing the barrel and tilting it upward as she lashed at his knee with her heel.
The sudden action, and the adrenaline that assisted it, made her head swim. Her grip loosened briefly, only for a moment. But it was just enough time for the guard to recover from his surprise. He gripped the disruptor with both hands and then kicked her in the stomach, sending her sailing. Her head snapped back against the hard floor as she landed. She heard the crack in her ear, the crack of her own skull hitting stone. Her arms and legs went limp. No. Stay awake. I have to stay awake.
She groaned with the effort of sliding her hands beneath her. Shakily, she pushed off the ground. It tremored beneath her with Kotar and Riker's ongoing battle. The two titans waged war on each other, a terrifying exchange of brute strength and tenacity. Never before had she seen such unbridled violence from her father, and for a moment, she found herself too awestruck to move.
Then something cold touched the back of her neck. Her stomach turned to ice. The guard stood over her, but it might as well have been Death breathing down her neck.
"No!" Toleel's legs appeared by her head. "Please, Kerru. Don't do this."
The guard snorted incredulously. "A couple of Federation lives are not worth Kotar's retribution. He will punish us if they get away with this!"
"He will punish us anyway," Toleel pointed out."Even if we help him win."
Carmen's heart pounded so loudly that she heard it in her ears. She couldn't see the guard's face, couldn't feel which way his mind was leaning. While she had been here before, beneath the looming presence of Death, she had never felt this kind of fear. To die in battle was supposed to be an honor. A relief even. But she had finally found her way home, finally found something worth living for. Please don't let this be it. Not now. Not yet. She closed her eyes, holding her breath as it trembled in her throat.
Then Carmen heard footsteps in the rain, the footsteps of retreat. The disruptor was gone, and so was the guard. He had left Kotar in the hands of his enemies. And like so many times before, Death had chosen to spare Carmen. Or did it?
"GO!" Riker's dire warning thundered through the cave. "Get her out of here, Toleel!"
Carmen's eyes flew open. Kotar had spotted them. He kicked the commander away and then fumbled for his disruptor.
Toleel grabbed her arm. "Come on!" he urged.
The disruptor pulled free. It pointed right at Carmen. But with a roar of effort, Riker threw himself into the back of Kotar's knees and sent the shot astray. A bolt of energy burrowed into the cave ceiling amidst a hail of rocks and dust.
"I said go!" the commander bellowed. "That's an order!"
Toleel wrapped his arms around her waist and hoisted Carmen to her feet. Her knees wobbled, barely able to sustain the weight. "This way," Toleel instructed, gritting his teeth together as he half-dragged, half-carried her towards safety.
"No!" she cried. "We can't just leave him!"
"We'll only get in the way!" He yanked her towards the mouth of the cave. She fought him at every step, but despite the terrible and desperate things she shouted at the boy, he continued to lug her away from the two raging men.
Something went skidding across the ground. It flew past their feet and out into the gray light. Kotar bellowed angrily, deprived of his weapon. He surged after it, Riker right on his heels. Toleel shoved Carmen against the wall just in time, and the battle spilled into the evening. Rain turned red as it pooled in the rocky ground at their feet.
"The disruptor…" Toleel breathed. Carmen saw it balancing precariously on a stone ledge. For a moment, she considered darting out and grabbing it. Then one of Riker's feet glanced off of its barrel as Kotar drove him towards the edge. It clattered down the embankment and into a ravine below.
The commander pushed back against Kotar, pebbles grinding beneath his boots. Then, twisting suddenly, he turned and threw the Romulan over his shoulder. Kotar landed dangerously close to the edge, his bones jarring upon impact.
Riker glowered over him, silent and seething. His chest heaved for breath. Blood from a laceration above his brow poured into his eyes. "It's over, Kotar," he rasped. "Surrender."
A sinister smile snaked its way across the Romulan's face. He sat up, wiping the sweat from his forehead and slinging an arm over his knees. His shoulders shook with laughter. Carmen shuddered at the sound. There was something malicious behind that laughter, something devious and unsettling.
"That wasn't a joke," Riker growled. He bent down, grabbing a fistful of Kotar's uniform and hauling him to his feet. Then he forced him back a step so that Kotar's heels hung over the ledge. Still the Romulan's smile persevered.
"Over, you say? Well, I have enjoyed this battle," he jeered. "Too often, men like us-we fight from the safety of command decks. Our weapons are nothing more than a button on a screen. Thank-you for being a worthy adversary. I only hope the rest of your kind puts up as much of a fight."
Then Carmen saw it. He must have slipped it from his boot when he sat up. A metal blade glinted in the dull gray light from between Kotar's fingers. "Dad!" she screamed.
At the same time, Kotar's knife thrust upward with lightning speed. It plunged into Riker's stomach, all the way down to the hilt.