All it took was the message from Colonel Grat informing them that the hearing was postponed for Hoshi to pinpoint the origins of his transmission. Once she had pinpointed the origins, it was easy for T'Pol to locate the prison itself. "There they are," T'Pol said as she hi-lighted the prison on the tactical screen. T'Pol had called Trip up from Engineering and Ensign Lewis from the bridge to the situation room so that they could plan how to rescue their people.
"They're counting on their ability to hide the place more than an active security system. I don't see any patrol ships either," Trip muttered as he examined the sensor readings. He tapped one line on the screen in front of him. "If it wasn't for that we'd've never found 'em. If I can just," he reached for the controls for the sensors and began fiddling; doing his best to bypass the Tandar jamming that was in effect, hiding the prison from most advanced spacecraft. With T'Pol helping it didn't take long and soon the three officers were examining clear sensor readings of the structure and population of the prison.
"Suliban!" Lewis hissed. "We have got to get them out of there!"
'This is undoubtedly what Mr. Daniels wished for the Captain to find. As we have no way to determine whether or not he has accomplished the goal of locating the specific information needed. We must contact him,' T'Pol sent. Trip nodded and located three Human life signs. "They're all being held in the same cell. We can transport a communicator in so we can talk to the Captain. The Tandar's jamming fields won't interfere with a transport but I really don't want to risk them changing the frequencies if we're transporting a person." 'That will satisfy Lewis, mostly because it's the truth. That jamming frequency is way too close for my comfort.'
'You are simply too frightened of the transporter process. If it was not for the fact that the Captain may need to stay in the prison for a longer amount of time I would recommend simply transporting them and their shuttle back to the Enterprise.' T'Pol sent with a glance. She was also analyzing the prison structure itself. "A small amount of explosives placed here and here would collapse the wall between the prison and the shipyard where the Captain's shuttle is located."
'I am not scared of the transporter!' Trip shot back at her. 'I'm just far too aware of everything that can go wrong during transport. There still aren't enough safeties built into the systems yet. Transporting when no one is likely to be shooting at us or when it's a last resort to save someone's life are acceptable risks. When we are in a situation that is already risky I'd simply prefer not to add in the additional risk.' T'Pol simply arched her eyebrow. "The area next to that wall looks like some kind of exercise room to me; either that or where they assemble the prisoners for daily counts or something."
"If they could close or block these doors it would prevent reinforcements from reaching the guards," Lewis muttered. "SubCommander, do you think that the Tandar would be incapacitated by flash bangs?"
"What are flash bangs?" T'Pol asked, unfamiliar with the term.
"Small charges that produce loud noise and bright light," he explained. "They're thrown at a group to daze and confuse them. For Humans they are a nonfatal weapon, although they can cause some damage to sensitive sensory organs. I wouldn't want to use them against Vulcan's for instance because your sensory organs are far more likely to be damaged beyond repair."
"I believe that their use would be appropriate here," T'Pol said with approval. The fact that Lewis had asked if they would be effective while explaining that he would not wish to cause permanent damage was very much in his favor. She would need to make a note in his records. That sort of thinking needed to be rewarded if Starfleet were to become the sort of institution that Admiral Forrest and Soval believed that it could become.
After that it was all too easy to arrange for the mass escape of the Tandar's prisoners. Archer worked out an agreement with the Suliban prisoners, pointing out the futures their children were likely to have if they stayed. Mayweather proved to them how serious the Humans were about the situation by taking a beating to protect one of the Suliban caught talking with Reed. And Reed, well Malcolm passed out flash bangs like they were a new kind of candy to the adult Suliban. He also taught a few of their Engineers how to make their own before working with a few people who knew how to deal with explosives. Less than eight hours after Trip transported a communicator into their cell and three hours after they began to conspire with the Suliban prisoners, Archer and Reed led the escape.
It was so simple to organize the escape that Malcolm could only come to the conclusion that the Tandar had never dealt with any serious escape attempt before. The Tandar's military was adequate, although capturing unarmed civilians didn't count as a very good measuring stick, but they made lousy jailers. It was far easier to imprison a bunch of unarmed and defeated civilians than it was a determined enemy who had not yet conceded defeat and had an ace up their sleeve. 'And Enterprise is a very large ace,' Malcolm thought to himself as he watched Archer throw the first flash bang.
Archer had waited until all of the prisoners here herded into the exercise room before throwing the first flash bang. Suliban parents grabbed up their children while other Suliban adults launched even more flash bangs to confuse the guards. Reed ran to the outer wall while Mayweather watched Archer's back. Two Suliban ran for the doors leading into the room and another ran for the wall not far from Malcolm. Four small explosions were lost in the noise and confusion but the collapse of the wall was not. The prisoners escaped before the majority of the guards and officials knew what had happened.
"How could you do this?!" Grat screamed at Archer. He didn't dare make a move at the Human as both of the Captain's men were poised to launch weapons at him if he made a move. Grat didn't want to have an up close and personal encounter with whatever weapons the Humans had managed to create. It was bad enough being in the same space as one going off. "They'll all die out there! They'll be hunted down like animals out there!"
"It's better to die free than live as a slave," Archer said simply. "They want their children to live free," with that the three Enterprise officers ran out the breech in the wall to their shuttle.
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"Jesus, a concentration camp," Trip breathed out in horror.
"I do not understand. A place where one goes to improve one's concentration does not fit the parameters of the Tandar prison," T'Pol said in complete confusion. She looked around the conference table at the other officers who were showing various signs of illness.
"No honey, not mental concentration, concentration as in moving a widely scattered population and concentrating them into a small piece of land, usually against their will," Trip said flatly. "The next step after that is usually genocide."
T'Pol's face went totally blank; a look that Trip knew, both from experience with Vulcans in general and from what he was feeling through their bond, meant that T'Pol was controlling her emotions as hard as she could. Horror, shock and nausea were pouring off of her in waves, which only increased his stomach's reaction. It wasn't until T'Pol was struck with the next wave of the feedback loop between her and Trip that she realized what was happening. She threw up a mental shield and apologized. "I beg forgiveness my mate. The actions of the Tandar are most disturbing. The Captain was very wise to help the Suliban to escape. No species should be placed in such a situation based on the actions of a small group of individuals. It is not logical."
Archer nodded. "I know but it is what happens when a group of people let hatred overwhelm them and become everything that they live for. To our sorrow, we've seen it happen enough on Earth. That was how I figured out what was really happening there."
"They're free now and they've got weapons that are nonfatal that they can use against anyone who tries to capture them again. They were very grateful for that. Most of the Suliban had no interest in actually harming anyone, not even the Tandar," Malcolm pointed out. "What we need to do is concentrate on keeping our eyes and ears open for any information about who is behind the Cabal and anyone else they might throw at us."
"You are absolutely right Lieutenant," Dr. Phlox chimed in grimly. "You can't find a cure if you don't know the cause and whomever is behind this could very well infect this entire sector of space."
Archer nodded. "The good news is that I've heard from Daniels. He didn't actually say anything but I saw him and he threw me a salute, so I think we've managed to get the timeline back on track."
"Did he smile?" Trip wanted to know.
"No, but considering what the man's been dealing with for years I'd be surprised if he remembered how," Archer said grimly. Daniels hadn't looked good. He had looked tired and exhausted but somewhat pleased. All Archer knew for sure was that he really didn't want the man's job; being captain of the Enterprise was hard enough for him. "All right everyone, let's get back to work."