Abandoned thoroughfare
Four kilometers outside Nuvia City, Risa
Hoshi wasn't really comfortable with plasma weapons. Or any weapons, actually.
So she couldn't quite bring herself to take the thing until T'Pol gave her the eyebrow about it. And even then she didn't like it.
"What now?" She frowned, following the captain over to the rest of the crew. Trip left behind at the truck, having lingered a little longer to find just the right gun.
They were approaching the bad guys over there, on their knees with their hands behind their backs, before T'Pol answered her.
"Now we will kill one of the men, as an example to the others." T'Pol explained.
Which stopped Hoshi in her tracks right there. But T'Pol kept on explaining as if she were still following along.
"Then we will gauge how intimidated the rest of the group…"
"Wha…?!" Hoshi finally said.
So T'Pol at least stopped and turned to eye her curiously. Even as the men on their knees, under the gun already by Malcolm and Loya, looked about as surprised as she was.
"Kill one of them?" Hoshi finally managed.
"Of course."
"Wha…?!" Hoshi said, again.
Loya offered her support.
"So you can see how mean they are." She explained, where she stood with some kind of huge…cannon looking thing pointed vaguely in the direction of the six men on their knees in the dirt.
All six of the Risians were there, in a little bunch, on their knees in the dirt. Their shirts removed and stripped, in order to bind their hands behind their backs.
And their pants removed…well, just because Loya thought that was funny or something.
Hoshi jerked her astonishment from T'Pol to Loya then. And Loya could see she wasn't following along. So she explained further.
"If they're really scared after that, you can leave them." She said. "But if they're still mean about it, you got to kill all of them."
T'Pol nodded, affirming that.
"Yes, precisely." She said.
And Hoshi could see that Loya was pleased with the affirmation. Which was nice and all…but there was still the thing about killing somebody.
"Uh…excuse me…" One of the men on their knees said, offering his input.
"Captain…but…you said we don't kill people unless we have to." Hoshi argued.
"We have to." T'Pol pointed out.
"Um…" The man offered again. The leader from before, in fact. "Actually…you don't really…"
Trip finally joined them, having found just the right gun. A plain old phase pistol, apparently. Which Hoshi allowed herself to do a little double take over, since she figured he would be like Loya and find the biggest, nastiest thing in the truck that he could.
But, whatever. At least he'd inject some reason into all this…
"There are six of them, captain." Trip said. "No reason we can't shoot two, just to be sure. Shoot them really nasty…like maybe burn their legs off, like we did those two guys on Rigel. If they've still running their mouths after that…"
"Trip!" Hoshi exclaimed, completely flabbergasted.
Trip shrugged broadly. "Or just one! Sheesh! What difference does it make?"
"That's really not necessary…" The guy in the dirt offered.
"Shaddap!" Trip snapped, tossing a glance that way before returning to the argument over here, thank you.
"Actually…" T'Pol said, considering that. "That would be more effective. Most logical, in fact. Minimizing loss of life by making only one execution as effective as possible."
She turned to Malcolm.
"What would you suggest, British?" She asked. "We require a very slow, yet inevitable, manner of execution. Maximizing empathetic response in the remaining prisoners."
"Gut shot." Malcolm said, immediately. "Just tune down a plasma weapon and shoot one of them in the stomach. It would take hours to die and they be rather vocal about it."
T'Pol nodded.
"Then we will avail ourselves of that." She nodded. "Which prisoner would you suggest I execute?"
"Now, hold on, captain." Travis said, somewhere behind her. "You don't have to kill anybody."
And, oh God, Hoshi was so relieved. She almost whimpered from it. At least Travis would back her up here…
"He's right!" The man on his knees said. And all of his men immediately offered their desperate, murmuring support to that. "You don't have to kill anybody!"
Malcolm tossed a shot of plasma into the dirt near that guy. So that the small explosion of dirt showered all the men. And shut them up for a couple of seconds.
"What do you mean?" Malcolm asked, apparently curious at this novel idea Travis had come up with.
"You don't have to kill anyone." He said again. "Just maim them. Maybe all of them. Burn their legs off, like Trip said."
T'Pol tossed up her eyebrow.
That was a curious idea.
"What are you talking about?!" Hoshi exclaimed, horrified.
"Wait!" The guy on his knees exclaimed, right along with her. "You don't have to shoot anybody!"
Trip frowned. "Can we start with this guy, captain? He's kinda gettin' on my nerves."
"We've got money!" The guy said.
Because Trip had his phase pistol pointing at him already. Ready to start with him.
But that at least made everyone pause.
"Money?" T'Pol asked, curious on that point.
The guy nodded frantically. "Lots of money. You can have it. All of it."
"You mean the trade certificates you stashed in the shack nearby?" She asked.
Which…made the men on their knees in the dirt suddenly pause. And confirmed that they had, in fact, stashed the trade certificates in the shack nearby.
"Yes." T'Pol said. "We have already availed ourselves of that. Have you anything else to offer?"
The guy worked his mouth a bit…but he obviously couldn't come up with anything.
"Look, let's just kill all of them." Trip huffed. "This is taking too long."
T'Pol frowned. "I'm tempted to agree."
"You don't have to kill us!" The guy offered, immediately. Despite having nothing else to offer…
"They look pretty intimidated to me." Hoshi said, firmly.
And all the men in the dirt nodded, vigorously. Yes, very intimidated.
T'Pol considered that.
And everyone waited while she did so.
"Very well." She said. "We will combine both approaches. All of you men there…on your feet."
The men scrabbled as best they could to get to their feet. Which took a second, since their hands were tied.
Hands tied behind their back, in nothing but their underwear. They didn't even have boots on.
In fact, Loya was wearing one of the men's boots. Because they were better than hers, she'd said.
"Turn around." T'Pol said.
The men…did not like that idea. So they hesitated.
"Malcolm." T'Pol said, disapprovingly.
"Last one turned about gets shot in the face." Malcolm said, stiffly.
The men turned around, if hesitantly even still.
"Malcolm and Loya." T'Pol said. "You will cover the tree line to be certain none of the men seek the cover of the woods until they reach at least one hundred meters. Travis and Hoshi, you are well overdue for weapons training under field conditions. You will have until the men reach one hundred meters. Whichever of you kills or disables the most men will be absolved of kitchen duties for one month."
T'Pol drew her data unit from her pocket. And began counting down.
"You will begin in ten seconds." She said.
Then…
"Five…
Four…
Three…"
The men began running at 'one', which was technically cheating. But it hardly mattered.
Travis and Hoshi just aimed for the sky right over their heads. And they tossed a few bolts into the woods to either side of the band of stumbling, half-naked men just to add to the excitement. Trip and Malcolm tossed a few shots out there too, just so there'd be a bit more deadly energy flying around.
Most of them hit the woods just shy of a hundred meters. But, again, hardly mattered.
Trip chuckled.
"Wow, Hoshi." He grinned. "Good job."
Hoshi huffed a bit.
"Well, it wasn't hard." She said. "You guys were a little too convincing. I wasn't sure a couple of times you weren't going to just kill everyone."
Loya frowned.
"Should have." She said. "They are going to be trouble later, probably."
"Not for some time." T'Pol said, tucking her phase pistol into her waistband at her back. "If we resolve matters here quickly enough, we can be on our way before having to deal with them again. And if we are fortunate, we will not have to confront them again at all."
They watched the tree line down there for a moment longer, just to be sure.
But the men were gone, running off into the woods in all directions. Hands tied behind their back, in their underwear, with no boots. So they'd be occupied for a while.
"Into the truck." T'Pol ordered. "We're leaving now."
"What about the certificates?" Travis asked.
"They are safe where they are for now." T'Pol said. "We will leave them secured here until we determine how best to make use of them."
Everyone was already turned about to begin climbing in the truck. But that surprised Travis a little.
"What do you mean 'make use of them'?" He asked. "We're not going to trade them?"
"That is what I intend to determine. For now we will investigate the Iron Pit, to find and interrogate the Risian who recruited Malcolm."
Now everyone was curious.
"Wait," Trip said. "We're not just going back to the ship and getting out of here?"
"Or bring the ship to get the certificates?" Loya added.
"Shouldn't we contact our client?" Malcolm frowned.
T'Pol stopped to glare at everyone for a second. To remind them who was the captain around here.
"We have several hours still until we meet with the client." She said. "That gives us time to discover who hired these men to procure the certificates. It is certain they did not plan and orchestrate that job on their own. Then we can assess what opposition we face in that regard, in order to determine whether we will oppose them in order to keep the certificates or turn them over to avoid an overwhelming confrontation. Or whether some equitable arrangement can be struck."
Everyone frowned at that. Because that suddenly sounded dangerous again.
And besides…
"Wait a minute, captain." Malcolm said. "How does going to the Iron Pit and finding the Risian do that? We should have interrogated one of those men, if that's what you meant to do."
"The men will report to their employer as soon as they return to the city." T'Pol said. "Which we can expect to occur within the hour. Their employer will then contact us. While we wait for that, we will search for my Vulcan Guard jacket. According to Malcolm's vague recollections, I was still in possession of it at the Iron Pit.
"Once we have settled accounts with whoever is responsible for the theft of the certificates, we will contact our client, exchange the t'rarthra extract for our agreed upon payment and leave the planet.
"Additionally, we may be able to broker a bonus of some sort. Our otherwise ill advised sampling of the t'rarthra extract in the cargo bay seems to have revealed something our client will be most interested in learning."
"What's that?" Trip asked, frowning.
"T'rarthra is attributed anagathic properties." She said. "Extending one's lifespan, inhibiting the effects of aging. While that has never been confirmed and is highly unlikely, the fact remains that it does not typically cause memory loss or effect behavior to any degree at all, much less the effects Malcolm seems to have suffered.
"This suggest the t'rarthra extract was poisoned in some manner. It suggests, in fact, certain nerve toxins I recall from the war. Someone is attempting a strategic action against our client, who was to use the t'rarthra extract to bless the wine for an upcoming ceremony involving the criminal organization he oversees."
"Yeah," Loya said. "That's how I got the idea. But I didn't mean to poison anybody, though."
"As I'm sure our client does not intend to poison the lieutenants in his organization." T'Pol said. "And we have discovered this where he likely would not have, considering the subtle effects of the toxin."
"Didn't seem very subtle to me." Malcolm said, uncomfortably.
"On the contrary." T'Pol said. "It can be expected that the wine would be sampled, once blessed with the t'rarthra extract, by some underling. His change in behavior would either not immediately be noticed or would be attributed to the consumption of wine. And taken in large enough doses, enough to cause the death I suspect is the intent here, it would already be too late once the poison wine had been consumed by everyone present at the ceremony.
"In fact, it is rather an effective strategy. Whoever strikes against our client would not only kill a large number of high ranking officers in his organization, but would likely cause them to engage in highly dishonorable behavior before they died, thus dishonoring the organization as a whole. That would render the remaining forces all the weaker…"
"Okay, fine." Hoshi interrupted. "But shouldn't we be focusing on all that? Finding out who's behind stealing the certificates and contacting our client? Why are we wasting time going to the Iron Pit?"
The rest of the crew murmured a little, agreeing with that. Not seeing the wisdom and the necessity here.
"According to Malcolm's recollections," T'Pol reminded them, patiently. "I was still in possession of my Vulcan Guard jacket at the Iron Pit…"
"So what?" Hoshi said. "It's just a jacket."
T'Pol's eyebrow leapt to challenge that ludicrous statement.
"Hardly…" T'Pol began.
"Yeah…darlin'…" Trip said, "We should probably just get out of here."
"Right." Travis agreed. "We can take a vacation somewhere else."
"This one doesn't seem to be going very well so far." Malcolm nodded.
"I don't care." Loya shrugged. "I just want Malcolm. I can do that on the ship."
T'Pol waited until everyone had the opportunity to note their objections.
Folding her hands comfortably at her back while she listened patiently. Allowing them to have their say.
And when they were done and awaited her response, she offered it.
"I understand your objections." She said, calmly. "But I am not leaving this planet without my jacket."
Everyone's mouth dropped right open, to reiterate their arguments…
"Period." T'Pol said, firmly.