Chapter Four – To Boldly Go
Arriving at the humble village that was comprised of hastily constructed huts the away team set to work. Spock was helping McCoy with the medical supplies while Kirk helped Fallon unload the crates for her specimens. Unbeknown to them, high above the village the unsuspecting team were being observed. Around fifty people from the surrounding vicinity were moving to an area in the centre of the village to receive medical attention and watch what they were doing. The silhouettes of armed, uniformed men moved through the foliage. McCoy continued to hand out medicine while addressing the grateful Qazvin people through an interpreter.
"Tell them these antibiotics will protect them." Another Officer was using his expertise in helping the villagers while another Officer handed out small toys to the children.
"Here, let me see if I can fix this little problem." McCoy had spoken to one of the locals, when he was told that a further shipment of supplies from a neighbouring village had come in he had volunteered to go and help out. He hadn't missed the look of trepidation on Doctor Wright's face when she heard he was leaving the village for several hours. It struck him that he felt the need to protect her, knowing that Kirk and Spock were to remain did little to alleviate his concerns.
"Keep yourself safe Bones." Kirk slapped him on the back.
"I could say the same to you Jim." McCoy replied. "Well, let's get this show on the road shall we?" The young Qazvin looked at him quizzically but McCoy just gestured in the direction of the path they were taking.
Soldiers stalked the village from different angles.
A mortar shell was being dropped into a tube and fired. The mortar round hit with concussive force within fifty yards of the hapless Qazvin's and the Star Fleet Officers. A second mortar exploded and two Qazvin's and one of the security Officers were killed. The panicked villagers screamed as bullets fired from the surrounding forest ripped into them as they attempted to flee. Soldiers charged forward, huts were set afire. Fallon, who had immediately taken cover, was desperately searching for Spock and Kirk. She caught sight of the Captain but couldn't see Spock anywhere.
"CAPTAIN!" She shouted over the gunfire but Kirk was already trying to take cover on the other side of the village, Spock appeared from behind one of the huts and ran to Kirk.
She attempted to shield an older woman who was being unmercifully beaten. The soldier tossed her aside and thrust a bayonet through the woman. Smoke drifted across the ravaged village, bodies were strewn everywhere. Every several seconds the sound of a sporadic rifle fire could be heard. Kirk, Spock and Fallon were dragged to the edge of the burning village. They were held at gun point while Major Ghut silently inspected the terrified Officers. Only Kirk had the nerve to speak out.
"We're no threat! We come in peace, we only brought necessities for these people to live. We're no threat, we're not political." Oblivious, Ghut inspected the Star Fleet insignia on Kirk's uniform, and then inspected an identical one on Spock's. Ghut thinly smiled then gestured to a trooper who brought a whaling infant forward, Ghut took the child in the crook of his arm and paced along the Officers. Fallon was still desperately searching the surrounding foliage for any sign of an escape, her mind was racing. She wondered whether McCoy had travelled far enough away from the village not to have been caught up.
"Please, don't do this! Let him go! You sick son of a bitch, what are you trying to prove?!" Kirk shouted at the Major, Kirk was instantly hit by a rifle butt to the back of his neck, sending him crashing to the ground.
"No! Don't hit him again! Please!" Fallon went to help the Captain up but Ghut was already stepping over Kirk as he continued to almost gently hold the anguished boy who was cradled against his shoulder. Fallon stepped forward.
"Don't do this." She pleaded. The soldiers had their rifles trained on the centre of every Officers face, including Fallon's. Ghut stepped to the berm of a rice paddy. Gently patting the child, he glared into the eyes of the terrified Officers. Satisfied he had their undivided attention, he calmly tossed the child into the brown, stagnant waters of the rice paddy. Everyone froze except Fallon, who lunged forward into the brackish waters. The soldiers prepared to fire on her but were called off by Ghut, who coldly stared at Fallon, who was now cradling the hysterical child in her trembling arms. At her wits end, Fallon broke down and sunk to her knees in the mud.
McCoy was following a Qazvin native who was walking in front of him through the jungle. The moon was now hanging low in the cloudless night. Lost deep in thought, he continued on away from the village ignorant of the atrocities being carried out in his absence.
Day Seven
A beautiful sunrise exposed the grandeur of the dense jungle landscape. The terrain was thriving with soldiers. Kirk, Spock and another Officer who had been caught were pinned against embedded poles with their arms tied painfully above their heads. Their faces covered in bruises, Kirk watched as two soldiers exited Ghut's hut dragging Fallon behind them. She was being led by a hemp rope tied like a collar around her neck. She was thrown into a cage beside the Major's hut. Spock and the other Officer stared in numb disbelief, Kirk yelled out a stream of defiant curses. A moment later, the Major stepped into view. Framed in his doorway, he glared at the Star Fleet Officers, while buttoning up his shirt.
McCoy and the other men were off-loading several sacks of supplies. He noticed that two men were approaching him, McCoy sighed in exasperation. He needed a break, he walked further down the shoreline of the river and came across what looked to be a Restaurant in a fairly active vicinity of the village. Frank Edwards was sat at a table nearby nursing a bottle of Coke.
"Even though they crossed the border illegally…" He was talking to two other men as McCoy sat down at the table beside them. "But you knew all that, right?" Frank drank a Pepsi through a straw and stared across at McCoy. McCoy made eye contact with Edwards and glanced at the two men.
"A humanitarian mission isn't trespassing." One of the other men nervously interjected. "And they never came back. They've just disappeared."
"That happens when you go where you don't belong." Edwards finished his drink.
"But it shouldn't happen, not just to people from the Federation, but any organisation volunteering their time." Frank looked at McCoy again who had been listening to the conversation, his nerves on edge as he pieced the picture together. His fingers hovered over his comm badge but he remembered the interference preventing them from working and cursed under his breath.
"Order something. Ribs, fries, it's the only human food in the country, our safe harbour. Go ahead, order, it's nice to eat something that's not looking back at you for a change." Frank addressed McCoy directly, McCoy was staring out the window, his mind racing.
"I've requested help from the Federation, from international aid groups, and they all say I need more proof there was an actual abduction." The man was watching the two men, neither really showing much of what they were thinking.
"That's because they weren't abducted, they weren't kidnapped, they were taken prisoner, because they were someplace they shouldn't have been." Edwards continued.
"Can we finish this conversation at your office?"
"This is my office." Frank laughed. "It goes where I go, sittin' across a desk won't make this feel anymore official."
"These people need to go home and I feel responsible. I believe they're all alive, and I'm not leaving without them." The other man was clearly Federation, Section 31 maybe from what McCoy was hearing, although he hadn't recognised this fact until now. Frank faced McCoy head on.
"I told him to expect no 'official' help from the locals or the Federation back home 'cause no matter how ya spin it, they, meaning you and all groups making illegal border crossings can't be supported for any reasons, people shouldn't be looking through other people's 'garbage and not expect to get bit by things living in there...Anyone want anything? Dessert maybe?" The man shook his head no. "No, fine, more for me." He motioned for the waiter to bring him over his specialty. "Anyway, the Star Fleet group has made contact with the Bhu'raq'shma rebels." The man was getting more irritated by the second.
"Officially we're not involved here, officially I'd like to kick this matter upstairs, but there is no "upstairs," "upstairs" has more important issues to deal with, so in my lap this gift is dropped. A guide from the Qazvin 'Freedom Fighters' will do a "meet and greet," they know people are being held. Now to why you're here. The overland route is too hot so its river travel again." He paused to take a drink. "You'll be taking five 'free-lancers' along, five's the max because the Federation budget can't handle more than five men for 24 hours."
"What men?" McCoy asked, unable to hold his tongue any longer.
"I've arranged for five local mercs who have 'in country' experience at handling clandestine ops to lead the parade - so the sooner you ship off the sooner we can end this." Frank sipped his drink and eyed McCoy. "It'll end when they're back at home. You shouldn't give ultimatums; its bad manners, you're over there, we're over here. 'There' doesn't give ultimatums to 'here.' The trouble is these cherries come over here and believe the whole world works like their 'neighbourhood.' We've got 'differences' here. We work here to keep everything 'balanced.'"
"This conversation isn't necessary." The other man interjected. Frank continued.
"It is, I live it every day, you don't, so here's the rules of the "jungle" Star Fleet. They don't bother us, we don't bother them. You know what people get by sticking their noses into other people's lives? They either get extremely fucked up or they get definitively dead." McCoy rose from his chair and abruptly left, having heard enough of what had happened to his friends. Frank also rose and with brewing agitation, dropped the empty bottle into the trash can which resounded loudly in the metal receptacle as he also left. Frank approached McCoy outside the restaurant.
"I told Gharak the first time to take a pass, he didn't, now you're in it."
"I'm in nothin'." McCoy bit back.
"Sure you are." Frank answered back. McCoy began to move away, formulating a plan in his head but Frank grabbed his arm to stop him, McCoy twisted his own arm out of Frank's and grabbed the man's wrist. "Nice grip - Try a little harder maybe you can break it, uptight son of a bitch, aren't ya? You can drop the 1000 yard stare, I've seen it before. If ya wanna keep pretendin' you're one of the "civilized," fine, you don't put "knuckles on the ground," just sail with the mercs up-river, so they can bring what's left of your flock back home." He smiled then, looking at McCoy's thunderous face. "I've just about hit the wall dealing with low level crap, it's beneath me, so don't be the one to push me over the edge, and I'm getting overly sensitive by the hour. You got two seconds to think about it."
"If I go, it's 'cause I wanna go." Frank smiled.
McCoy and the others had taken one of the longboats from the local fishermen at the wharf, as it went down the watercourse it created a wide wake on the brownish river. Situated in the rear portion of the boat were the five mercenaries. Daz, a Puntamanian, was tanned and easy-going but loved to battle. Lansquiq, Human was a former MACO Commando, big and intimidating. Boyo, the youngest of the lot was six feet tall, lanky, mysterious and strong enough to carry half his body weight in ammo, a crack sniper. The eyes behind his glasses were a mixture of animal cunning and technical intelligence. Re'sak, was tough as nails, three tours in the Xindi war. En'Jaq was of unknown decent and currently holding court with the other professionals. They laughed amongst themselves. McCoy was staring straight ahead, trying not to think about his friends and the situation they had found themselves in.
"How much longer do you think it is?"
"Few more hours." McCoy answered.
"How long's Fallon been with Star Fleet?" One of them asked, overhearing McCoy speak about her earlier in the day.
"She's not an Officer, she contracts. About eight years, why?"
"She has a good life back home? "
"Yes, I'd call it good. She has a fine job." McCoy didn't want to talk about it any further and gave the man a look that denoted this. One of the mercenaries approached.
"A pain in the ass. You goin' full out? The quicker in, the quicker we're back, know what I'm sayin'?" McCoy just nodded. He moved to the bow of the boat and surveyed the river ahead. "How ya doin'? My name's Boyo, It's a name they stuck me with a few years back. Ever see a weapon like this?"
"No."
"There's not many around, maybe a few deployed out there in the Special Ops community. You ever in the Army?" McCoy shook his head.
"No, I'm just a country Doctor." The boat turned round the bend and revealed the river bank. McCoy maneuvererd the boat close to the river bank, a Qazvin guide appeared from the dense growth. McCoy watched as the mercenaries begin to disembark.
"We wanna get there by dark, don't need to be humpin' through this shit at night. How many soldiers they got in this place?" Asked Lansquiq.
"Hundred, maybe not so many. More soldiers, new soldiers come tomorrow." The Qazvin guide responded.
"More? He say a hundred now?" McCoy asked.
"Yeah."
"We go now, we good 5 - 6 hours." The guide continued.
"Let's get this all straight, we didn't come here to engage nobody, so if we can extract your people, we will, but no fire fights. Either it's in and out clean, or nothing." Lansquiq turned mid-sentence to see McCoy jumping off the boat and wading to shore.
"Hey, what're ya doin'? We forget somethin'?"
"Why ya here? Somethin' wrong?" McCoy walked over to the men. "You're supposed to be waiting with the boat, right?"
"Your job's watchin' the boat, you're the boat man. I mean, what're you doin'? This ain't a fuckin' nature hike." Re'sak sneered.
"I won't slow you down." McCoy replied.
"Enough talk, let's fuckin' move." McCoy remained silent as the group moved off. The rain had stopped as the group moved along the edge of a swamp. Several wild animals glared at them as they passed. The group passed a large hut that lay rotting in the jungle. Above them animals leaped from branch to branch, angered by the intruders. Deep in the forest, the mercenaries and McCoy crossed along the river, McCoy studied the caves as he passed as if making a mental blueprint. The group glistened under rivers of sweat as they trudged through the incredible humidity. They passed around a huge rusted structure and eventually emerged from the tree line and to see several rice paddies below. As they crossed the dike of a rice paddy, everyone was on high alert as they spread out scanning the area in every direction for possible snipers. Looking through his scope Boyo sees a vision that makes his blood run cold.
"Shit..." It was two Qazvin men and a woman hanging from a tree. Two by the neck, one by the feet. Scanning the area he sees two heads impaled on a bamboo pole.
"I've seen some shit, but I never seen nothin' like this." As they cautiously approached the impaled heads, the rain increased.
"This is beyond anything I ever thought, it's horrible. What happened?" McCoy whispered.
"Army come, kill everything. Leave all this to say "No come back." The Qazvin guide looked at the ground, unable to take the sight in before him.
"I think they're all dead." Re'sak muttered.
"We have to try and get them." McCoy shouted.
"We don't have to do shit." En'Jaq interjected. In the distance the sound of an approaching truck could be heard. They ducked for cover, McCoy and the others scrambled to see over as the truck came into view. The truck stopped and four soldiers got out leading five Qazvin's, they shoved them to the edge of the mined rice paddy. The mercenaries watched in dismay as the Qazvin's were shoved into the murky water. It took all of McCoy's resolve not to run over and intervene. Only the knowledge that his friends were being held captive and he and these other men were their only chance of survival kept him rooted in his spot. The group continued on their way until they reached the camp.
Fallon lay curled in the bamboo cage, the ambient light from the hut revealed her facial contours bruised and bloodied. Kirk and Spock lay motionless nearby. The other Officer had been beaten so badly he had stopped breathing, Fallon knew he was dead by the way his limbs lay lifeless. McCoy moved through the compound, slipping silently past several guards who had sought shelter from the rain beneath the hut's overhang. McCoy moved past the bodies of Kirk and Spock tied to poles. He could see the gentle rise and fall of their chests, relieving the horrid notion that he was too late. He desperately looked around for Fallon, on seeing her he quickly made his way over. McCoy tried not to startle Fallon when he slid his hand between the bamboo bars and covered her mouth. He pulled her so close she couldn't see who'd grabbed her, but felt McCoy's warm breath beside her ear.
"It's alright, Fallon, it's alright." He whispered. He gently released her as she found herself staring bewildered into McCoy's eyes. "I'll get you out, I promise." Opening the cage, he cut the abrasive rope that bound her hands and she slumped against his chest in relief and gratitude. McCoy could hear a vehicle up ahead. Turning to Fallon he grabbed her face in his hands. "You have to stay in there."
"No. Don't go. Please don't leave me!" Fallon pleaded. "Please!" Confused she tried to get up but McCoy pushed her back down.
"I won't leave, I promise." McCoy moved away and slid under Ghut's hut, a second later Daz slid under. Peering out from beneath the porch, they saw soldier boots tramping through the mud. McCoy motioned for Daz to be silent, Ghut's vehicle pulled up next to his hut, he strode to the cage holding Fallon. Ripping open the door he snatched her hair, and slammed her head up against the bamboo bars, all the while cursing. McCoy felt powerless, though he was only feet away, because of the close proximity of the other soldiers he could only watch as Ghut yanked Fallon from the cage and heaved her into the wretched mud. She suddenly bolted upright and flailed at him, in her weakened state, she was viciously heaved to the ground. Ghut placed a boot on her throat, McCoy could barely contain himself. He started to move but Daz put a hand on his shoulder stopping him. McCoy looked at Daz, knowing that the man was right. Right then and there McCoy had never wanted to kill a man as much as he wanted to kill Ghut. Ghut grabbed Fallon by the rope around her neck and yanked her upright, the splattering rain created rivets of mud that trailed down her proud features. Her expression was one of a calm resolve.
"You can kill the outside, only that." She spat out. Ghut tightened the rope and yelled for two soldiers standing nearby to come forward.
"Yours, take her!" The two soldiers rushed forward and dragged Fallon away. McCoy had had enough.
"Cover me." McCoy snarled. One of the soldiers had shoved Fallon onto his cot. With a growing sense of menace he pulled off his soaked shirt. The other soldier tightened the rope around Fallon's neck. She was still fighting back when her eyes travelled from the soldier in front of her to something standing behind him. He turned to see McCoy, now face to face with the soldier he didn't have a second to respond before the bridge of his nose was broken and shoved up into his brain. McCoy pulled Fallon to her feet then dragged her body out. McCoy, Daz and Fallon slipped behind the huts.
"Where are the rest?" Fallon could just about whisper.
McCoy, Daz and Fallon went behind another hut, McCoy grabbed Fallon by the shoulders.
"The perimeter's probably mined, beyond the sticks, but you two have got to try to get through it, no choice. I'll get Kirk and Spock."
"And you?" Fallon asked, incredulous.
"Don't worry, I'll be alright." He gave her a small smile.
"Leonard no!" She'd never used his first name, she didn't have his permission, and they weren't friends. Yet somehow the situation required it. She searched his face, he was looking at her so intently she began to cry.
"Go!" He roughly shoved her into Daz who took her arms and directed her away from McCoy. He watched her leave with Daz and then ran across the village. He positioned himself behind an incredibly destructive machine gun that was bolted on the rear of Ghut's army Jeep. He began to rip to shreds anything that moved by the massive bullets as they attempted to retaliate.
Daz was leading the way when he suddenly stepped on a mine, Fallon was knocked off her feet and could only watch in horror. As if in slow motion she stood up, her ears ringing and looking around the jungle began to run back to the village. She immediately saw McCoy untying Kirk and Spock and ran over to him.
"He's dead! He stepped on a mine!" She almost screamed.
McCoy looked into her eyes, searching for a glimpse of hope. Spock and Kirk could barely stand, he began to think there was no escape from this hell hole.
"I'm sorry." Fallon whispered to McCoy, as if seeing his thoughts.
"No." McCoy gently brushed aside the rain that was cascading into her eyes, and then sighing, prepared to rise. Fallon grabbed his hand.
"What are you doing?"
"Maybe it'll buy some time. It's alright." Fallon noticed the remaining soldiers close in and Ghut approach, murder in his eyes. She desperately looked between them and McCoy, trying to think of anything else other than what she knew McCoy was about to do. She wordlessly pleaded with him, he put his hand over hers and squeezed ever so slightly. With a wry grin he glanced at her one last time before he began to move away.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter! I know I've left it on a cliffhanger but don't worry, the next chapter is on its way. Please let me know if you're enjoying it so far, I really appreciate the Follows and Favourites! I always welcome reviews and constructive criticism.
