Chapter 15

"Her skin is so fair, so fine and soft, not at all course like the sun-roughened flesh of an Istabulian woman. Don't you agree, Captain Kirk?" Tobra's voice was lilting. Those opaque eyes studied her intent as he traced the contour of her cheek. "The weapon access code for the Enterprise."

"You know I can't give it to you no matter what you do to her. You know I can't risk the lives of my entire crew and every lawful citizen of Istabul Major for one person," Jim bit out.

A yelp was swallowed back when Tobra's hand connected with her cheek hard enough her head recoiled against the concrete wall his men were pinning her to. She damn well knew how hard this was on the others, damn well knew every instinct was screaming at them to make her pain stop. That was what any crew member would be feeling. They were a family that lived together, fought together, and sometimes died together. Anything she could do to hide her pain from them was a good thing.

"That the best you got?" she demanded before snorting derisively.

"President Tobra," Spock cut in. "The Federation is aware we docked here to make repairs. If they do not hear from us in a reasonable amount of time, they will know foul play was involved. You will be brought to justice. Do not add to your list of crimes by assaulting a Federation officer."

"Silence, Vulcan." His command was underlined by the resounding crack of his palm striking her cheek again, but he was quick to remove a handkerchief from an inner coat pocket. It was used to wipe the blood from her split lip off his fingers. Tobra then tugged on his suit jacket to remove any wrinkles.

Her tongue darted out to take away the blood threatening to drip off her lip onto her chin. There was something cold and calculating about Tobra that was almost frightening. It wouldn't take much for him to make the leap from terrorist to tyrannical emperor with all the rights, privileges, and sadism required to mass-torture his people.

"I don't think you understand the size of the Federation," Jim said. "Even if your plan succeeds and I give you the weapon access codes, one starship against a fleet of Starfleet and Federation vessels won't save you. Your people voted for Federation membership. They won't allow one tyrant to enslave an entire planet."

"The Federation will not dictate the rule of law here. By the time I'm done with them, the people of this planet will remember the might of the Istabul Empire. When I conquer Istabul Minor in their name, they will repent of going astray. The Federation may come, but they will find a planet eager to defend themselves against your federal republic."

"Your plan will not succeed. The people of Istabul Major were wearied of living under empirical rule else they would not have voted for Federation membership. They will not embrace a return to your traditional government no matter what you do. You will be seen as a madman who craves power and massacres his own people to obtain it."

No amount of biting the inside of her cheek could hold back a grunt when Tobra's fist connected with her stomach. By the time he finished, she was left sagging in the arms of his guards. The more Jim and Spock argued with him, the harder his blows were becoming. Duct tape, aisle three. Scotty would eventually find them. All she had to do was hold on long enough for him to come storming into the building on a white horse. Then they could go find Bones.

"Very well. I truly believe you won't willingly surrender the access codes. You are emotionally and morally stronger than I gave you credit for."

"Let us go. Surrender yourself into our custody, and you'll receive a fair trial by a jury of your peers. What are you doing?"

One eye was starting to swell shut, but she still had one good eye left to see what Jim was referring to. Corga produced a slim knife that was settled in Tobra's hand. Florescent lights made the blade gleam wickedly with a promise of pain and perhaps even degradation if she ended up screaming. He was an insane terrorist. Of course he would get off on slicing and dicing her like she was an onion to his Slap Chop Three Thousand. She told herself it was okay to scream, reminded herself screaming didn't equate with weakness. As if she would give him the satisfaction.

"I only need one captive with the knowledge of the access codes, not eight. The Istabul Empire lasted for three thousand two hundred and thirty-three years until your Federation arrived. You destroyed generations of tradition, brought shame to the house of the emperors, and destroyed the pride of the To family."

"Don't do it, Tobra," breathed Jim, his jaw locked tight.

Nothing prepared her for the pain. Tobra made a small incision on her cheek. Then the blade was sliding inside and separating the top layer of skin from the underlying soft tissue as though he were filleting a fish. On its own, the pain was tolerable. She was just mentally congratulating herself for holding back her whimper when a jolt of electricity pulsed through the knife blade. She convulsed, shuddered, and fought against the men holding her, but she didn't scream.

"Tobra!" The captain surged to his feet and lunged at Tobra and the guards only to be brought up short by Spock's arm locking around his waist, she assumed to keep the captain from putting himself in needless danger.

"Watch her squirm, Kirk," Tobra said in a raspy voice. His lips were slightly parted, his chest rising and falling rapidly in quick little pants. The dilation of his irises and flush of his cheeks told her he was nearing some kind of sexual experience just seeing her blood and pain. "Look at how her muscles convulse into spasms, how she quivers."

The pain didn't stop no matter how much she willed it to. Electric pulses entered under her skin against raw nerves. There was no fighting the muscle spasms he seemed to be getting off on. All she could do was grit her teeth, clench her hands into fists, and continue to ask herself what her father would do in this situation.

Pale overhead lights suddenly flashed red an instant before a loud siren blared from the spears in the ceiling. Someone on the other side of an intercom said, "Your Imperial Highness, there are intruders in the building, levels one, three, sub-floor A, B, and C. Starfleet personnel and Mechanics."

Ritha could tell the man was not happy even before he ripped the razor edge of the knife through her skin to extract it. Of course he wasn't happy. What man was when they were on the verge of physical release only to be interrupted. She yelped a little when the guards released her arms and allowed to her fall to the floor. There were just enough brain cells left to tell her to stay put so as not to regain Tobra's attention.

"You were ordered to turn the scrambling device on," the man said evenly.

Corga was quick to respond, "It was activated, Your Imperial Highness. There is no possible way they tracked us to this location."

"Mechanics," spat Tobra. "Kill everyone but the captain. I want him alive. Destroy the computer consoles on the way to the transporter bay."

Trying to get the shuddering of her body to stop and some semblance muscle control to return wasn't easy. Blood pooled from her cheek onto the grit-covered floor, but she was able to peer out at the rest of the room to see Cogra advancing on the captain. Obviously he needed to be signed up for the Stupid Awards, because there was no way Spock was letting the man get to Kirk without a fight.

Oh how right she was. Spock was on his feet and in front of Captain Kirk in a heartbeat with a subtle look on his face Ritha had already dubbed the "eat shit and die" expression. The guard apparently hadn't learned how to properly use a phaser yet, because when he pulled the trigger, Spock was able to withstand the jolt, at which point, the Half-Vulcan actually leaped off his feet and brought his fist down like a hammer toward Corga's head. She had absolutely no sympathy when the guard went flying backward from the force of the blow.

Chaos erupted when a sudden explosion rocked the building, sending bits of concrete raining down from overhead. Guards moved at the same time she shoved to her feet to get in on the action. A tight knot of bodies now stood between them and the president, who was dodging through the door with what she guessed was not a single second of remorse for abandoning his guards to do battle on his behalf.

"Coward!" she shouted after him.

"Ritha, plant your belly on that floor," Paul ordered. Their chief security officer slugged a guard in the jaw, ducked beneath a returned swing, and used his broad shoulders as a battering ram to slam his opponent up against the wall.

She'd just spent an hour being beaten on by a lily-livered tyrant wannabe. There wasn't a single chance she was missing out on this opportunity to get a little even. Of course, she also wasn't stupid enough to take one of the guards face to face in her condition, so rather than charging the nearest one, she waited until Spock had Corga on the ground wailing on him to rush past. A sound kick to the back of a guard's knee that was advancing on Jim threw him off-balance enough she was able to use his momentum against him. Grabbing his shoulders, she dragged him down as she went onto one knee. His back cracked against her thigh.

The phaser the guard had been carrying went sliding across the floor. She ducked into a roll, snatched it up as she went past, and came up on her knee to blast another guard, at which point she positioned herself in front of the captain. Jim didn't seem at all impressed by her feat of dexterity or her willingness to place herself in front of him. In fact, he grabbed her by the shoulders and gave her a push behind him. Great, they were forming a shield train. Spock would bleed for Jim, and Jim would bleed for her. Hopefully Paul didn't feel left out.

Four Starfleet personnel fighting against a dozen presidential guards could only hope to hold off the inevitable long enough for help to arrive. Paul and Spock were admirable. They were fighting side by side, providing a broad shield to protect Jim and her from the worst of it, but they were being pressed into a corner by the overwhelming numbers. She was in tandem with Jim, firing over his shoulder and around their protectors to pick off as many guards as she could.

Disaster, an inevitable with any Enterprise mission, struck when Paul took a phaser shot to the shoulder and went down, more susceptible to the stun setting than Spock. There was no way Spock would be able to hold all of them off. Action in the room froze when a section of wall suddenly caved inward behind the guards, allowing people in Starfleet uniforms and Istabulians to race inside and engage in combat. It took a few seconds to sink in that Bones, his phaser drawn, was one of those running inside.

"Goddamnit, do I have to do everything around here?" Bones snapped.

"Watch your fire!" Jim shouted.

Corga had to be getting desperate with the shift in numbers. Desperate men did desperate things as the saying went. The man lunged at Spock with the knife Tobra had used against her, a knife still coated in her blood. He never reached his target. A soft ping could barely be heard over the rest of the chaos in the room, but Corga dropped to the floor, allowing her to catch sight of Bones standing in the center of the room with his phaser still aimed in Corga's general direction.

"No one hurts the green-blooded hobgoblin but me during staff physicals."

"Once again, I must remind you that I am not a hobgoblin. I refuse to be classified in any scientific genus that also includes sprites, dwarves, and Tinkerbell."

And they were back to arguing. Ritha ducked out from behind Jim to get in another shot, but with the numbers now overwhelmingly in their favor, the skirmish was coming to a rapid end. When some of those fighting on the side of good were androids… Well, there was just no contest. They may as well have broken out the margarita mix and pulled up chairs to have a ring-side seat at Ass-Whoop-A-Palooza 2259.

Ritha was shaking a little as the adrenaline ebbed out of her, shaking enough she leaned up against the wall to keep her balance. She wasn't expecting Bones to push past Spock and Jim and certainly wasn't expecting it when his arm went around her waist to lower her to the floor where he whipped out his tricorder to start taking scans. All she knew was that his presence was somehow more comforting than it should have been. His soft fingers on her face prompted her to look up into his eyes.

"Don't worry about a thing, Sweetheart," he began, his accent a little heavier than normal. "I'll have you fixed up in no time. There won't even be a scar left by the time I'm through with you."

"Paul?" she asked.

"Already gave him the necessary injections to counteract the phaser's stun. The idiots didn't even know how to advance the setting."

Her split lip shouted a chorus of '.Want' when she smiled to reassure him. "It's not as bad as it looks."

"I'm the doctor. You let me be the judge of that. I'm sorry we couldn't get here sooner than we did, but everyone had to be armed and a plan formed."

"You came up with a plan? It's a wonder the building didn't collapse on our head." He got another smile from her when he gave her an injection with his hypospray.

"Yeah, well, Scotty said his good juju shorts would counteract any bad juju coming up with a plan created."

"Bones, stay here with Ritha. I'm leaving a couple of security officers with you, but we have to go after Tobra. If he gets away, there's no telling how long it will take to track him down again," Jim said.

One of the Istabulians responded, "Going after him is useless at this point. Tobra had this facility outfitted with a transporter beam. He will have made use of it by now."

"Then the destination coordinates should be logged in the machine's computer. We must simply retrieve the data," Spock said.

"Unlikely. Tobra is an intelligent man. He will have instructed a guard to remain behind and destroy the computer, but you are welcome to search the facility and find it if you're unwilling to take our word for it."

"Okay, who are you again?" Jim asked.

Bones didn't take his attention away from her when he said, "Jim, this is Voren, his sister, Arta, and the rest of their siblings. They are Mechanics who abducted me to convince me they're not the bad guys, but I can explain everything in more detail after you've found that rat bastard."

"Wait, you came on a raid with androids?" she inquired with a look of shock.

"The Enterprise was fresh out of white horses."

"I believe our priority should be discovering the whereabouts of President Tobra before he is able to enact a plan to destroy the Enterprise crew. Now that he is aware we will not surrender the weapon access codes and know he has committed several crimes, he is likely to attempt a critical attack," Spock said.

"Right," Jim agreed. "Cupcake, you all right?"

"Well enough," the chief security officer said.

"Take your security officers and do a sweep of the building. Find our missing crew members. The rest of us will make sure there aren't any functioning computer consoles left in this building."

Ritha was getting ready to push herself to her feet as the others filed out when Bones' hand stayed her. Could she help but be a little shocked to see the open concern on his face? His visage, as he searched her face with his eyes, was almost frightening in how expressive it was, how deep the concern went. Warning signals screaming that she was getting too close to him, too fond for her comfort level, went off in her head, but she held herself perfectly still.

"Are you all right? He didn't…"

She interrupted him before he could speak it aloud, because she knew what he was going to ask. "No, he didn't. I'm just bruised and a little cut up. The androids didn't hurt you, did they?"

"They prefer the term 'Mechanics,' and no, they were actually quite cordial."

"Did you just defend a piece of technology? Leonard McCoy, who thinks transporter beams are a necessary evil and claims to have hoodoo spells blanketing the ship to keep us all from being sucked through a crack in the hull, defended a piece of technology?"

"Shut up," he said flatly.

Then nothing else mattered, because his arms were going around her to gather her against his chest, and she was fighting against the need for distance between them to maintain her sense of self-preservation and the desire to sink into his warmth and comfort. They were supposed to be having a fling, not taking intense comfort from one another. Flings were safe. Flings kept her from falling for the wrong guy who would end up using and hurting her. Ritha lost the battle when she wound her arms around his shoulders to lock her fingers behind his neck.

***

A breathy curse slipped from him when Jim busted his shin against one of the chairs in Tobra's office while fumbling around in the dark. The thumping and shifting of furniture accompanying the abuse to his shin was so loud in the absolute silence he swore someone should have heard it, so he froze in place. No sounds of running feet heralded the arrival of guards. He sighed in relief.

"The point of keeping the office dark, Jim, is to avoid detection. Do try to be as careful as you possibly can," Spock whispered.

"Yeah, I get the point," he hissed.

Three hours of collecting evidence from the warehouse they'd been held in had been a wasted effort in terms of locating Tobra, and Jim so badly wanted to get his hands on that man. Death was too easy. He wanted Tobra squirming in the deepest, darkest, most violent prison in Federation territory for the rest of his natural life. But death would work just fine if the man insisted on resisting arrest. It wasn't often a person completely snowballed him the way Tobra had, but he'd wanted to believe the man a forward-thinking leader ready to bring his people into the modern world. Oh how wrong he'd been. Jim hated being wrong.

Dim light from the monitor flared inside the office when Spock was able to maneuver around the desk and boot up the computer terminal located there to begin searching for clues. The Mechanics had been right in their assumption that Tobra had ordered the transporter beam terminal destroyed after he'd evacuated. No information could be gathered from its hard drive, which left them at square one. Istabul Major was a big planet with a population of just under five billion people, so there were plenty of places for a tyrant to hide.

While his first officer quietly went through the data on the computer, Jim pulled data pads from the shelves behind the desk to look through. Some of them required a special pass code, so he went through a series of commands he'd learned in preparation for hacking the Kobayashi Maru to bypass the security protocol. Federation Evidence A through Z? The data pads contained information incriminating Tobra in all kinds of embezzling procedures funneling tax dollars into an account on Istabul Minor.

Jim had only looked through two pads when the lights in the room activated without warning, prompting him to drop the pad and yank out his phaser. There wasn't a chance in Hell they were lucky enough for Tobra to walk through those doors, not when security officers had been stationed outside the building for hours waiting to see if he showed up. Heavy wood doors were thrown open to admit Jong Je Jin.

"Captain James T. Kirk!" the man exclaimed, a hand flying to his throat as though startled. "I was certainly not expecting to find you here. I thought perhaps one of the cleaning women had triggered the alarm. Is there something I can help you with?"

His phaser remained out of its holster. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe you could start by telling me where the Hell your boss is. Then we can move to reading you your rights and slapping you in restraints to be carted off to the brig."

"Jim, there is no need to threaten Jong Je Jin. When he understands the magnitude of the charges he is facing, he will be ecstatic to aide us in the search for Tobra."

"Charges? What charges do you speak of? I've done nothing against Federation law."

"Come off it, Jong. You're the president's assistant. We all know you have to be involved in his extracurricular activities, so just fess up."

Jong's eyes were wide, his hand fluttering over his heart when he said, "I have no idea what you're talking about. Has the president done something to warrant this invasion of his privacy?"

"It is possible, however unlikely, that he is unaware of Tobra's true nature."

"Right, and I'm the Tooth Fairy," Jim snorted. "Your precious president is a lying, scheming douche bag. He kidnapped members of my crew, tortured one of my engineers, and is attempting to gain access to the Enterprise to use its weapons against the planet. Why? Because he wants to reinstate empirical rule and destroy any trace of the Federation."

"Such cannot be true. President Tien To Tobra has always been a man of his word to me. I've been to his home and spent time with his family. My daughter plays cordially with his daughter." Jong's face was mottled by the time he got done speaking.

"I'm not falling for the act again. You two fooled me once when Tobra convincingly reacted like he had no idea he'd sent us off to face androids. There's an old Earth saying. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I won't be a fool twice."

"There is a manner in which we can be certain of Jong Je Jin's guilt or innocence," Spock interrupted. "Sir, if you will allow me to perform the Vulcan mind meld, we will find the proof we need to trust you. No pain is involved with the link."

"You sure you want to do this, Spock? You might be digging through the mind of a terrorist flamingo Hell-bent on committing mass murder."

"I am certain."

Jong looked back and forth between the two of them for several tense seconds before he nodded. "Very well. You have my permission as I have nothing to hide from either of you. If President Tien To Tobra is, as you claim, engaging in illegal activities, I am honor-bound to disclose all information I may posses."

Heebie jeebies raced up Jim's spine when Spock found the contact points on Jong's face to initiate the meld. He remembered all too well those moments that had felt like an eternity when Spock Prime had initiated a meld with him. There was no other way for two people to be so connected, their minds interwoven so thoroughly they became one identity. He didn't care to experience that kind of vulnerability ever again and didn't care to endure the weight of Vulcan emotions again either.

While Spock was otherwise engaged, he moved to the wall of windows and peeked out one of the curtains. The city was dark. Starfleet security officers were so well camouflaged he couldn't find them. Thankfully, they'd found the other four security officers alive and well at the warehouse, so the death toll wasn't rising. But how quickly it would if Tobra managed to launch an attack on the Enterprise.

"Captain, Jong Je Jin speaks to the truth. He had no knowledge of Tobra's designs and no involvement in the planning or execution of any illegal activities," Spock finally announced. "Thank you, Sir."

His turned to face the pair again. "Did you know your father is missing?"

"Yes. He has been missing for several months. Do you suspect President Tien To Tobra is involved with my father's disappearance?"

"We have evidence of it. Spock found security video from the university parking garage in which Calit Cy Corga abducted your father. His apartment didn't look like it had been abandoned for months, though."

"I have been visiting to feed his fish and water his plants when I can. Tell me how I can help find him and bring the president to justice."

"Tell us where to find Tobra," Jim said.

"Think carefully, because it is entirely plausible he will attempt an attack on the Enterprise. We cannot allow more lives to be lost to his scheming."

Minutes passed as Jong seemed to give it careful consideration, but finally, he said, "Tam To Tien's residence in the southern hemisphere. I was accidentally privy to a communication between father and son in which President Tien To Tobra spoke of returning to his father's residence if things went badly. At the time, I assumed he was talking about his presidency."

"Thank you. I'm going to have my security officers escort you and your family to the Enterprise where you'll be safe until this is over. If we fail to apprehend him, he might become aware you helped us."

"Please find my father."

"We will endeavor to reunite you if your father is still alive," Spock promised.