16

The Vulcanorion Connection

Chapter Eight: Tenuous Alliances

When Kelsad returned, he held in his custody Mariel Woods and T'Nak. Th'Orran, however, was not pleased.

"I also want Sirtek's wife," he snarled at Kelsad, "and Fer'at's as well. These two will do, but I need more leverage for our cause."

"Th'Orran," Kelsad replied cautiously, "I very nearly was captured myself, while we were transferring the prisoners. The only reason that we got away was because I left the children behind and immediately escaped with the two women. They offered themselves willingly in exchange for the children, but I think it was intended to be a trap for us. Had I stayed behind to make a demand for the wives of Sirtek and Fer'at, I would have been under their custody right now, and you would not have even the wives of Soval and Forrest."

Th'Orran stared at Kelsad for a moment before grabbing him by the throat.

"I do not tolerate partial success!" he yelled, "I want the wife of every male that we have under our custody!"

"Th'Orran," Zallyn, the big Vulcandorion who had freed the leader, said to him quietly, "We must not be too reckless. Sirtek would rather let his son and all the others die than give us his wife. She is no doubt being heavily guarded; she is unobtainable for us, and we need to let go of that demand. You are being irrational in what you ask."

"Unobtainable, Zallyn? Then I must have her! As for me being irrational, I would hate to think that you were being influenced by your Vulcan rather than your Andorian heritage...remember what happened to Valk."

"I have not forgotten him," Zallyn snarled ominously, "And I have not forgiven you for killing him, either."

"In that, my friend, you are as culpable as I," Th'Orran told him, "For you are the one who freed me...and if you betray our cause as he did with his weak-kneed rationality, then you will be joining him."

Th'Orran walked about, surveying all the hostages as he went. Soval could see that he gloried in creating anxiety for the people he had captured; all of them were wondering whether they would be the next to be singled out and possibly killed or tortured. Th'Orran finally stopped in front of the Andorian Ambassador, Ka'Jar Ch'Zhek.

"Ka'Jar Ch'Zhek," he uttered the diplomat's name slowly and deliberately, "I believe there is one with a name very similar to yours—and he is Chief of Security for the Andorian Special Forces...Ka'Shel Th'Zhek...is he not your Than Male-Mate?"

"Yes," Ka'Jar answered with barely suppressed anger in his voice, "But you will not be taking him hostage, Th'Orran. He will have arrived on Mars by now, and his orders will be to kill you when he finds you. You will not be bullying him as you bullied the young Vulcan."

"Or...maybe I will kill him, did you ever consider that, Lesser One? I would very much like to get back at both of you for your own acts of governmental oppression...such as throwing me and the poor youths under my care into prison for petty crimes. You hypocrite, Ka'Jar—you dare to accuse me of bullying, you with your so-called 'Campaign to Protect Families'—Upper-Class Families, that is. You should be ashamed of yourself, after everything you have done as a high-powered politician to criminalize the poor on Andoria. Now that you have been taken out of your protected diplomatic world, however, you are quite vulnerable to me. Do you think that your dear Ka'Shel will be so eager to kill me while I hold your life in my hands?"

"Ka'Shel will not let that stop him," Ka'Jar defended his mate, "His first duty is to Andoria, and you have made yourself the enemy of Andoria by capturing its representative."

Th'Orran chuckled, kneeling down and pressing a phaser pistol against Ka'Jar's temple. He then slowly transferred it to Minister Samuel's head. Soval saw Forrest attempting unsuccessfully to break out of his shackles so that he could aid the Minister. His attempts were futile, but because he was Human, Soval realized that he needed to try.

"And what about your dear wife, Minister?" Th'Orran asked Samuels, oblivious to Forrest and the rest of the hostages, "I would so very much like to meet her...as you make plans to meet with Sirtek-the-Destroyer to implement your nefarious plans against Orion infants. Is this the famous Human compassion that I have heard so much about?"

Samuels stared at Th'Orran in silent terror, but said nothing.

"It is enough, Th'Orran!" Zallyn cried in exasperation as he approached the Andorian, "We do not want to kill these ones...they are high-level hostages. Stop these games immediately!"

Th'Orran turned to face Zallyn, sneering at him in disgust. The two men at last left the warehouse, arguing as they went. Samuels and Ka'Jar sighed in relief, looking at each other and shaking their heads in disbelief.

After the Leaders had closed the doors to the warehouse, Kelsad brought T'Nak over to the group of hostages. He deposited her beside Soval, shackling her feet as soon as she was down. He then brought Mariel over to Forrest and laid her down gently before also shackling her feet.

"You're awfully sweet for a hostage-taker, Honey," Mariel told Kelsad, as Forrest shot her a warning glance.

"It is all right, Admiral," Kelsad told him, "I am not like Th'Orran. You may not believe it, but I do not enjoy mistreating people."

"Well, Kelsad," Forrest said to him, "You may not enjoy it, but the fact remains that you are mistreating us. There's nothing worse that you can do to us than to threaten our families as you have been doing."

"I am truly sorry," Kelsad whispered, "This was not what I wanted...not at all. I only wanted to make a strong statement for the future of my own child."

"You won't secure your own child's future by threatening the futures of ours," Forrest told him, his voice soft but the anger in his tone evident.

"What can I do?" Kelsad asked in despair, "I cannot go back now. I have done what I have done, whether it was right or wrong. I fear that this will end badly, and that I will never see my child grow up."

"It's not too late, Kelsey," Mariel said to him, "There's still time to choose differently."

Kelsad shook his head sadly, and rose to leave them.

"You're a coward, Kelsad," Mark called after him, but Kelsad did not turn around to defend himself.

"Why are you calling him 'Kelsey' and 'Honey', Mum?" Mark asked irritably, "He's a criminal who aids and abets torturers and murderers! Don't get all 'sweety-pie' and mothery over him—it won't get us out of this mess."

"Hi, Mark—I love you too," Mariel replied, looking into her son's eyes fondly, "I call him 'Honey' and 'Kelsey' because it helps me to deal with this whole thing better if I see him as a lost kid rather than as an aider and abettor of torturers and murderers. I know you guys are mad at me for coming here, but T'Nak and I just couldn't sit around while our families were in danger. We had to do something."

"What about Maxine and Sethir?" Forrest asked urgently, "Did the authorities pick them up?"

"We had to leave them in the capable hands of Tomm the Android," Mariel told them, "Tomm was our bodyguard, since the Marsies had re-programmed him for the wrong job by mistake."

"What?" cried Forrest, "Not the same Tomm-1000 that dropped the dessert all over us?"

"I told you, he was re-programmed," Mariel answered, "He's much better now. I knew it would be hard to convince Maxine to let me go, so I distracted her with Tomm. After Kelsad put us in his ground-car, I heard Tomm's alarm go off. That alarm will have brought the Security teams over to the kids in no time. I set Tomm up to beep me when the Security Team had arrived to pick up the kids, and that beep went off just as Kelsad drove in here. It's okay, guys—the kids are safe now."

"That's a relief," Forrest said, "But now Maxine is really going to stress—she's out, but we're all in here. That's going to be torture for her, and it's why I wanted you and T'Nak to keep the hell away from this situation. Who's going to comfort Maxine now...the Tomm-1000 unit?"

"No," T'Nak called over to the Forrests, "Fer'at's wife, T'Lan, is going to take charge of the children. She is an excellent psychiatrist, and she will know how to deal with Maxine. Childhood trauma is her specialty."

"Childhood trauma..." Forrest murmured, "I'm sorry, Mariel. I've failed to protect this family, and I'm angry at myself, not you. I never should have brought the kids along—I underestimated the dangers involved."

"Oh, stop it, Max," Mariel chided her husband, "Who could have predicted that these idiots were going to kidnap a bunch of kids and parents on a tour? I don't want to hear one more word of self-blame out of your mouth."

As Soval listened to Mariel's reassuring words to her husband, he could not help but look into his own wife's eyes. He feared that he would see anger and accusation in them—that she would blame him for this foolish mess into which they had all fallen. Instead, however, she was peering into his eyes with what appeared to be concern for his welfare. He turned to look at Sorral, who had fallen fast asleep, and who had missed the entry of his mother and Mariel into the kidnappers' lair. Up until now, Sorral had conducted himself calmly and with great restraint. He feared that would change, though, now that his mother was here. Soval had felt his son's anxiety and despair whenever the topic of T'Nak and Mariel entering into the hostage situation had arisen. He had hoped that this eventuality would not come to pass, for he knew that Sorral was very close to and extremely protective of, his mother.

As he thought about his son, the young man stirred. It was as if he knew that his parents were worrying about him. He sat up slowly, and when he saw his mother, his expression turned to one of horror.

"Mum!" He cried, "No! Don't tell me they've taken you, too?"

"Sorral," T'Nak soothed him, "Quiet! We don't want to attract their attention. I'm fine, and the two kids are free. You and Mark are the ones we want out next, and I'm going to make sure that happens—even if I have to seduce that ogre, Th'Orran, to get it done."

"Mum—No! No, please! Don't let that wicked moron near you. I know you never listen to Dad's logic, but just this once, Mum, listen to him! Dad—you tell her."

"T'Nak," Soval began cautiously, "You know that seducing Th'Orran is fraught with peril, and most probably will only succeed in getting us all killed. I ask you...no, rather I demand that you behave sensibly. Your arrival here is a boon to the kidnappers, and it has only served to heighten their arrogance."

"And that arrogance will be their downfall, Soval," T'Nak whispered to him, "Why do you think Th'Orran wants the consorts of all the males here? He wants to demonstrate his power over you by making conquests of your mates. You know that I possess the necessary passion to win him over. I can distract him, perhaps even cause fights amongst himself and his men..."

"It will not work, T'Nak!" Soval whispered back fiercely, "I forbid you even to make an attempt. You were not here to see what they did to the young man, Talcon, who is over there recovering from his ordeal. He was bruised and bloody when they finished with him, and Th'Orran was relentlessly cruel to him. He will do the same to you, because I was a soldier at the disputed colony Paan Mokar a century ago. His grandfather was killed by Vulcans, and he has a singular hatred for us because of it...he has already killed the Vulcan leader, Valk, and he will not hesitate to do the same to any one of us. You saw his little demonstration of power earlier with Ambassador Ka'Jar and Minister Samuels. "

"Listen to me, Logic-Master of the Universe," she told him, "I understand these people. They come from a background of poverty and desperation. Back on Vulcan, I was a Shir'Kaya, too...and I was not one of those who improved my standing in our society. After I entered the Military and was posted to Andoria, I felt more at home living on that frozen moon than I ever did on Vulcan. I was serving on Andoria when I met you, and before I tied myself to you I had many opportunities to learn from these Andorians. They are, like me, people of passion. They speak the language of emotion. If I gain their trust, I might be able to turn emotion to our advantage for a change!"

"They will trust no one, especially not a Vulcan," Soval argued, "I implore you, T'Nak, do not endanger us all with reckless behavior! We will not survive it."

"This is not the time for cowardice, old man!" T'Nak hissed at him, "It is the time for bold action!"

"'Bold action', as you call it, is not informed by stupidity!" Soval exclaimed, louder than he had intended.

Kelsad looked in their direction, and before long he walked over to the Vulcan couple to determine whether or not they were becoming troublesome.

"Both of you need to watch your mouths," he said to them softly, "I have told you. Th'Orran bugs this place, and he has very sensitive ears."

"You seem to care about us, Dear One," T'Nak purred seductively to Kelsad, "You should let me thank you for that."

"T'Nak!" Soval cried in frustration. The situation was becoming more dangerous by the minute.

"It will not work, T'Nak," Kelsad told her bluntly, and, to Soval's immense relief, he walked away.

"That one could be our ally," T'Nak murmured to her husband; but after having had the last word on the matter, she then thankfully grew quiet. Soval could feel his son Sorral's anxiety soaring, and so he decided to put his energy into sending him meditations of peace and tranquility.

There was for a period of time silence, as each of the hostages contemplated their conditions. There was little that they could do but wait, and Soval knew that they were all feeling powerless. It was this feeling of powerlessness that had driven T'Nak and Mariel to offer themselves in the place of their children, and which was fueling T'Nak's reckless plans of seducing Th'Orran. He felt fear for his wife's and his son's safety bubbling to the surface, and he quickly suppressed the feeling through meditative techniques. He must not allow fear to lead the way...and yet, some fear was healthy, for it warned one away from rash behavior.

"Ambassador," Fer'at was calling to him, jostling him out of his thoughts, "are you well?"

"Am I well?" he reiterated, "My family members are being held hostage, Fer'at, just as your son has been. I am as well as I can be under the circumstances."

"I have noticed that you have been retreating into your meditative state frequently," Fer'at told him, "and so I needed to determine whether you were still here with us."

"Of course I am here with you!" Soval exploded, "I am meditating, not going into a trance. You should know the difference, Fer'at; and perhaps you should be meditating yourself, instead of interrupting mine."

"I have tried to meditate, but I find myself concerned over the fact that Th'Orran wishes my own wife to offer herself up to him. Sethir is free now, and so it does not make sense that I am anxious...and yet, I am. I have noticed that we all are displaying signs of extreme stress and tension. We are afraid not of what will happen to ourselves, but what will happen to those we care deeply about. We wish to sacrifice ourselves for their safety, but we are not doing so in a rational fashion. I believe it is because we are feeling powerless in this situation."

"My gratitude, Fer'at, for your astute observations of our psychological health," Soval replied wearily, "But my own advice to you is to notice less and meditate more."

"Dr. Fer'at is right, Dad," Sorral interjected, "That's why Mum has this crazy plan about seducing Th'Orran..."

Suddenly, the doors crashed open and Th'Orran strode menacingly towards Soval and his family.

"So...the wife of Soval is not satisfied with her husband...she wishes to know a real warrior!" He crowed lasciviously.

"Don't you touch my mother, you son of a sehlat!" Sorral growled, with more venomous anger than Soval had ever heard him speak.

"Sorry, dear Vulcan-who-wishes-he-were-Human," Th'Orran taunted the boy, "But T'Nak has made it very clear that she wishes to seduce me, in spite of her husband's protests to the contrary. Perhaps the Great Soval fears that his wife will prefer the passionate virility of Andorian males to the sterile logic that the Vulcan male offers her. How dull Vulcan males must be for their wives! I just heard the fear in Dr. Fer'at's voice when he spoke of the possibility of his dear wife, T'Lan, visiting us. Fear in a Vulcan is a beautiful thing, is it not? Unfortunately, Zallyn has convinced me that neither T'Lan nor Sirtek's wife will be joining us, and therefore they will not get to experience the incredible Passion of Andoria. That particular honor has been reserved for you, T'Nak, because you are worthy of my affection."

"I'm ready, Dear Andorian," T'Nak said to him calmly, "You may take me at your leisure...but I may require something from you in return."

Th'Orran pulled her to her feet roughly. "You are not in a position to bargain," he told her, unshackling her feet. He then pushed her out the doors of the warehouse.

"Mum!" Sorral screamed, "Dad! We've got to do something! We can't leave her with that...animal!"

"Sorral," he replied, "The best way to help your mother is to remain calm. She is doing this because she thinks it will end in your being freed, and possibly Mark as well. We do not need two rash and reckless people endangering our lives! Now, concentrate, my son! I will lead you in a technique which will lessen your anxiety."

"I don't want to have my anxiety lessened, Dad, I want us to get Mum out of this mess!"

"Sorral!" Mark Forrest called over to him, "Come on, man, we're in this together. Your Mum is smarter than you and your Dad are giving her credit for. She might be able to convince him to at least let you go."

"I'm not going anywhere without all of you!" Sorral cried out in frustration, "This is an insane situation—even if I were to be freed, I still would not be free as long as you guys were in here suffering through this. My body would be free, but my mind would not."

"That's why you need to let your Dad teach you about the mental disciplines, Sorral," Mark retorted, "There are going to be plenty of tough situations like this one in our line of work. You need to learn how to keep your emotions in check so that you don't lose your cool and blow it for everyone involved..."

"Keeping our emotions in check does nothing to solve this, Mark Forrest!" Talcon cried. He was now in a sitting position and slightly recovered from his loss of blood, with the help of Olivine and the makeshift bandages.

"Why do you revere Vulcans so greatly?" Talcon continued, directing his question towards the startled Mark, "Sorral may be the Vulcan-who-would-be-Human, but you are the Human-who-would-be-Vulcan. We are not what you think, Round-Ear! My father has always been relentless in his insistence that I capture and suppress each and every emotion that passes through me, and I have attempted to do so all my life. But where has it gotten me? I still failed to repress my fear before Th'Orran; and if we do obtain our freedom, I will no longer be a welcome member of my family. If Th'Orran sent the recording of my 'groveling' as he called it, then I am disgraced. I will cease to be a Vulcan. So what has all my training been for? It has not helped me to deal well with this situation...perhaps if I had been able to access my emotions, we would not be in this situation to begin with. Perhaps my forbidden feelings would have spurred me to fight harder to prevent this travesty of justice, instead of losing my footing on the bus and being slammed against the window like a fool. I allowed them on board the bus, and they took our power away from us. How did the Path of Logic help us? It did not, because the rest of the Universe does not arrange itself for us in perfect, logical little patterns. We have become so programmed that we believe that Life should obey our dictates. I have, through this ordeal, come to the conclusion that Th'Orran is correct in one of his assertions to me: we Vulcans are very arrogant and prideful. We try to repress it, but many of us believe ourselves to be superior to other life forms. I now know that I have been raised to believe in a joke. We are nothing but a joke...and a poor, laugh-less joke at that."

Soval listened to the young Vulcan's despair, and he could not fault him for it, after what he had been through. It would be a long climb to recovery for Talcon, and he doubted that his father Sirtek would offer much support. If they did manage to extricate themselves from the grasp of these criminals, he committed himself to finding a way to help Talcon regain his lost dignity.

"Talcon," Mark was arguing with him, "Remember what Ambassador Soval said to you earlier. Don't waste your energy on self-recrimination! I know Vulcans aren't perfect, just like Humans aren't; but I respect your people anyways, because they work so hard to maintain their equilibrium, their balance. I've been very mentally and emotionally unbalanced since my adolescence, and it's been Vulcan meditation techniques that have helped me to regain control over my life. Come on, you guys, at least try! It can't hurt...we're in this situation anyways, whether we wanted to be or not. Ambassador Soval, could you lead us in a meditation—one that would help Humans and Andorians as well as Vulcans? We really need some of your strength right now."

Soval closed his eyes, and instructed the others to do so as well. With his words, he brought them all to a place in their minds that was in tune with the Heart-beat of the Universe. It was from that place that they were led to view their situation from a larger perspective. A calmness descended upon those in the warehouse, as they each came into contact with their peace within.

When they all re-opened their eyes after the guided meditation, it seemed to Soval that even the guards had been affected by the experience, in spite of the fact that they had not actively participated in it. Soval knew that the mental powers of a group were more effective than those of a lone individual. Mark Forrest had done well by coaxing the young people to enter into the time of quiet reflection. He believed it had helped all of them to at least accept the situation as it was, without engaging in futile imaginings of what might have been had they behaved differently.

They remained quiet for the next few hours, and Soval realized that they had lost track of time since they had first been captured. He surmised that they had been here for at least a few days, but it could have been longer for all he knew. How long would they have to remain here before some attempt was made to free them? Soval knew that it was a delicate situation, and that the safety of the young people and the two "high-level" hostages, Ka'Jar and Samuels, needed to be taken into consideration. He supposed that he himself qualified as a "high-level" hostage, as did Forrest because of his rank. In the end, however, they could not keep playing games with these criminals. The kidnappers needed to be either killed or arrested, whichever happened first; and that might mean having to sacrifice themselves for the needs of the many. He was not particularly worried for himself, for he knew that he had led a long and fruitful life. The young people, however, still had their lives ahead of them, and he hoped fervently that they would be spared any pain or harm. He thought of T'Nak under the authority of that barbarian, Th'Orran, and he felt a rage curdling within himself. With one mighty effort, he smothered that feeling before it had a chance to grab hold of his being. He needed to keep himself absolutely calm in this situation in order to keep Sorral as relaxed as was possible under the circumstances. He did wonder, however, what was taking place between his wife and the angry Andorian.

As if in answer, the doors to the warehouse were flung open once again. T'Nak entered, accompanied by the Vulcandorion, Zallyn. To Soval's shock, T'Nak was armed with a phaser pistol.

"There has been another change of leadership!" she announced proudly, "Th'Orran has been incapacitated. Zallyn is now in charge. Aren't you, my Dear One?"

"Yes," he concurred, "And, as a reward for her having 'incapacitated' Th'Orran, I have agreed to make T'Nak our ally in the cause."

"What?" Soval exclaimed in dismay, "You do not mean to tell us that you have joined with these...thugs, my wife?"

"Oh, yes, my husband, I have," T'Nak replied with a mischievous glint in her eyes, "As it turned out, Th'Orran was not quite as...virile...as he thought he was. I gave him the Vulcan nerve pinch which you taught me many years ago on Andoria, when we first met. Th'Orran has been re-shackled and taken out of the mission once more. I have convinced Zallyn to take charge; and, I made a deal with him."

"What sort of deal?" Soval asked suspiciously.

"Zallyn knows now that we are very close to being stormed by the authorities. I convinced him that I could be their spokesperson, as I understand that the statements that you and Max made did not go far enough. I have made a very, very, strong statement in support of the goals of these people...I believe in what they are standing for, if not the way they did it. Besides, these poor fools are severely disorganized, and they are in desperate need of having some females to help them organize."

"Mum!" Sorral cried, "If they storm this building, they'll arrest you if they see you with that gun in your hands!"

"Sorral," T'Nak said soothingly to him, "I have asked the authorities to hold off until we have set you and Mark free as a gesture of goodwill. I have convinced my dear Zallyn to do this favor for me; although in convincing him, I may have inadvertently given you a part-Andorian sibling."

Sorral was silent, and his face wore a look of frozen horror.

"T'Nak," Soval replied to her quietly, "I think we would have preferred Th'Orran to this."

"Th'Orran's only interest was in getting back at politicians and Vulcans, Soval...especially you," Zallyn explained, "and now he has done that by taking up with your wife. T'Nak may have ensured that his role in this has finished; but do not think for a moment that because we have recruited T'Nak and Jovan to our cause that we have gone soft..."

"What do you mean, you have recruited Jovan?" Fer'at queried, his voice tense.

Zallyn gestured towards the doors, and Jovan entered, holding a phaser pistol.

"I am sorry, my Honored Father," she told him, "But I've made a decision to join my mate, Kelsad. His cause is mine also, although I was never told about his original plans to kidnap my own family members and their colleagues. Had I known, I never would have agreed to it...but now that he has gone and done it, I feel I have no choice but to support the father of my child."

"Jovan!" Kelsad exclaimed, "I did not tell you what I was planning to do because I wanted to keep you and the developing infant safe. Please, Zallyn...my mate is pregnant, and she should not be here."

"Jovan will accompany the young people out, and will then be arrested by the authorities for joining us," Zallyn explained, "It is unlikely that she will be hurt in the transfer process, as she does not intend to fight them. But the arrest of the daughter of a respected Vulcan psychiatrist will help to draw attention to our cause...as will the arrest of the wife of the Vulcan Ambassador to Earth. Did you not ask us, Soval, why we had no Orion females amongst us? Th'Orran thought that they would be too distracting for us, but we have now corrected that particular oversight. Both women have agreed to speak for us in no uncertain terms, as our cause is also theirs, as mothers of Hybrid children. I do not know if T'Nak ever told you this, Soval, but she too is of Orion heritage. Her family kept this a secret from you when the marriage was being arranged...I know this, because I was her lover before you married her. She, like Jovan, is willing to sacrifice her freedom for our people."

"No!" Sorral called out, "Mum—don't do this! Please...if what Zallyn says is true, that means that I'm an Orion Hybrid too. I've got some say in this, don't I? And I don't want you giving up your freedom to talk for these guys! Your cause is for kids like me, Jovan, and her baby. We don't want you to promote kidnappings in our name—not when protests can be done peacefully, by staging demonstrations and calling on people to outlaw this 'Destroyer Gene' thing! I mean—come on, Mum, you value your freedom too much to throw away your life on some meaningless sacrifice for a bunch of bozos who can't organize themselves long enough to agree on a leader!"

"I agree with Sorral," Kelsad concurred, "Jovan, I forbid you to take part in this. You may accompany Sorral and Mark, but do not take a gun with you. Although it is too late for me, there is still time for you to avoid being arrested. You must remain a free woman for our child!"

Jovan walked over to Kelsad and ran her palm over his face tenderly.

"It's a little late for you to change your position, my Cherished One," she murmured, "and I have given my word that I would make a statement on behalf of your cause."

"Jovan!" Fer'at cried, "You would join people who kidnapped your younger brother and held him captive...not to mention your own father?"

"As I've told you, Father, that part of it was not my choice," Jovan responded, "And of course I did not want my family harmed. That is why I am here now; but Kelsad is also my family. He is my mate, and the father of my child. I am truly sorry if you view this as a betrayal of you...I will always be grateful to you for the love and care that you and T'Lan have both given me."

"You have been brainwashed by that sehlat," Fer'at growled, "and if we are freed from this trap I will get you some help, Jovan..."

"I do not require further 'reintegration' into Vulcan society, Father," she told him sadly, "but I want you to know that my gratitude to you is forever."

"Jovan," Forrest called to her, "If your job is to accompany Sorral and Mark to safety, then I suggest you save your gratitude for later and get going. We want to get as many young people out as possible."

"Let Talcon go instead of me, Dad," Mark offered, "He's injured."

"Mark, we don't have time for this!" Forrest told him firmly, "Now get them out of here, Jovan! If Zallyn will let you take Talcon and Olivine, that would be even better. If not, then I want you guys out of here...right now."

"I will stay," Talcon said, "Until the situation has been resolved. I must not leave before Minister Samuels and Ambassadors Soval and Ka'Jar have been rescued. But I ask you to take Olivine, Jovan."

Olivine was about to open her mouth to protest, when suddenly an unpleasantly familiar voice shouted out, "No one's going anywhere!"

Th'Orran entered the building, followed by two of his men. He was holding in his hands an old-fashioned bullet-gun.

"A good thing I hid this ancient weapon away as a last resort. Did you really think that you were going to get away with this, Zallyn?" he yelled angrily, as he fired at the Vulcandorian, bringing him down in one shot, "I don't like traitors! And the next one to go, unfortunately, is T'Nak's son Sorral..."

Th'Orran pointed his pistol at Sorral, but as he took his shot, T'Nak threw herself in front of her son, firing the phaser pistol at Th'Orran. The bullet lodged itself in T'Nak's stomach, and she fell, just as Th'Orran did. The pistol, however, had only been set at 'stun', and it had not been enough to completely subdue Th'Orran. He jumped up, reaching over to retrieve his gun once more.

Sorral was screaming in pain and terror at the sight of his injured mother down on the floor in front of him.

"Sorral!" Soval cried, attempting to move his shackled body closer to him and T'Nak. The next events happened very quickly, almost as if in a dream.

Kelsad shouted into his wrist-band, "Now!" and shot Th'Orran with his phaser before he could reach the gun. Jovan neatly dispatched one of Th'Orran's loyalists as he charged at her, and a large Andorian wearing the uniform of a Security Officer burst into the room and shot the other "loyalist", who was engaged in plunging a knife into Sorral's arm. At that point, all hell broke loose. A troop of Security officers, Human, Vulcan, and Andorian, suddenly descended upon the warehouse, and a storm of phaser shots broke out between the remaining kidnappers and the officers. After several of the Hostage-Takers had been killed, the Human security team immediately arrested the surviving gang members as they dropped their weapons in surrender.

Once the arrests had been made, the Vulcan security team members began unshackling the hostages. When they came to Soval, he gestured immediately to his son Sorral and his unconscious wife T'Nak.

"Tend to them first," he ordered the officers, "They require emergency medical care."

Fer'at, who had just been unshackled, came over and began treating T'Nak with the Security Team's First Aid material, while Mariel Woods and Admiral Forrest rushed over in order to help stop Sorral's bleeding. Sorral was trying to reach out to his mother.

"It's okay, Sorral," Mariel soothed him, "Your Mum's still alive, and she's going to go to the hospital. So are you, as soon as the authorities can get a lock on your signal. That oaf, Th'Orran, was jamming the signals so that the Security officers couldn't beam any of the hostages out."

Soval held Sorral's hand, calming him gently until the boy, his mother, and Fer'at had all been beamed out to the safety of the Martia City Hospital.