4
Somewhere on Chalderon IV, 1435 hours, August 16 2151
After a seemingly endless forced march through a maze of corridors, sloping passages and sudden turns, the three men were brought to a halt and forced to the ground. They were left alone momentarily by their armed shepherds, grateful for the opportunity to rest after several hectic and confusing hours.
"I can't believe how easily they got us," Trip muttered quietly, wary of attracting unwanted attention from their mysterious captors.
Reed huffed, straining against the ropes bound around his wrists. "After they grabbed Jean, we should have been more vigilant, not less. I didn't even see them skulking about in that alleyway until it was too late..."
The captain edged closer to his officers, trying to free his own hands without success. "We were focused on finding her, there's nothing wrong with that. Besides, there were seven of them against the three of us. Not exactly what I'd call even odds, even if we'd seen them coming-" he cut himself off when a set of heavy footsteps came clomping towards them.
Blindfolds were removed from their eyes and they blinked in the sudden light. As the starbursts cleared and their eyes started to adjust, they saw that they were in a large cavern-like room. Because it was windowless and lighted by torches mounted on the clay walls, the room seemed to be underground. Coarse ropes bound their hands behind their backs and armed guards stood nearby, making sure that they were quiet and stayed put. Towards the center of the room on a dais stood a group deep in conference. It was difficult to tell how large the group was because they seemed to move in the flickering torchlight.
After looking carefully at the group for a few moments, Reed saw a familiar face. "Captain," he said, indicating the huddled figures "I think Ensign Olenick is over there with them."
Archer spotted her and breathed a sigh of relief. A few hours earlier the ensign was abducted. She managed to alert the rest of the away team as she was being dragged off, and they spent almost two hours looking for her before they themselves were captured.
"Malcolm, can you tell whether she's alright?"
Reed craned his neck and squinted against the shifting light. "She's not tied up, sir, and she seems unharmed. It looks like she's standing and talking to them."
As he spoke, one of the guards moved towards them. Seeing this, Reed fell silent and watched to see what the guard was doing. He moved behind the prisoners and began adjusting their bonds. He loosened the ropes binding their hands together then moved away and stood farther off than before. The guard passed in front of the three Starfleet officers, briefly blocking their view of the group on the dais, but once the he had moved out of their way, they could see that he had taken up a position at Ensign Olenick's side and was coming towards them with her. It was unclear whether he was there to protect her from the kneeling officers or if he was preventing her from attempting an escape. In either case, it wasn't long before she was standing in front of Captain Archer. The guard took up a position a few steps away and stood in what must be the local version of a 'parade-rest' stance, with one hand loosely gripping the cross-piece of his belt while his other hand balled into a fist and rested at the small of his back.
The ensign flashed an apologetic look at Archer and tried for a joking tone. "Long time, no see, sir."
Archer shook his head slightly, glancing at the guard. It seemed that he hadn't heard her whispering, so the captain hissed "Situation report?"
"I've managed to establish a rapport with one of them. He may be able to help us." After a nervous pause she shot a wary look at the guard, making sure to keep her voice low. "They found my scanner and my comm. I'm supposed to frisk you, sirs, and turn over any devices or weapons you might have."
She hesitated, waiting for the captain to nod his permission. As soon as he did, she started going through his pockets, quickly finding his scanner, comm. and phase pistol.
Trip gave a short, humorless huff of laughter when she moved on to relieve him of his equipment. "An' give up our only advantage?"
She put the things which she had found in the captain's and Trip's pockets into a small sack which the guard had left on the floor by her feet. "My guess is, you'll be searched again by one of their men…"
Reed looked at her appraisingly and finished the thought. "They want to see if you can be trusted."
Trip closed his eyes, catching on. "An' if they find somethin' after you're done, we lose our inside man."
She leaned in closer to Reed on the pretense of taking his scanner. "Looks like."
Trip sighed heavily. "In that case, I've got a microspanner in my front pocket… the left one."
Jean smiled at him shakily and then fished out the spanner. "Thanks, sir."
After putting Reed's comm., scanner and phase pistol into her sack, she turned and headed back to the dais, her heavily muscled escort not far behind.
"I hope they don't lose my spanner," Trip muttered. "I'd just gotten that one set up perfectly."
Archer smiled tightly, watching as the small group of aliens sifted through their equipment. He and Reed both had similar reactions when one of the more militaristic-looking men held up one of their phase pistols and experimentally sighted along the barrel. Archer involuntarily flinched when the weapon was leveled at him. "I think we have bigger problems right now than your spanner, Trip."
Over on the dais, they could see that the ensign was talking animatedly. She tried to get the militaristic-looking man to lower the weapon, but one of the heavyset guards stopped her.
"Looks like she's puttin' in a good word for us," Trip said, smiling and moving his hands.
Reed flexed his wrists experimentally and shook his head, looking doubtful. "Yes, but how did she manage that? It doesn't make sense to capture someone and then follow their advice."
The group on the dais dispersed and several people started walking towards the hostages. Archer took this in and muttered to his officers, "we're about to find out."
An officious looking man with a tall staff and greenish robes stopped walking and stood in front of the three men. He was older than anyone else in the group and he had a dusting of silver in his hair and short beard. Although he was obviously a person of importance, he seemed more kindly than pompous, like someone they could reason with. He looked them over carefully as though he was deciding how to treat them before speaking.
"I am Princep Lorristor. Jaeen has told me that until a short time ago you were her superiors. Now it seems that the roles are reversed, and she will decide what happens to you. I hope, for your sakes, that you have not mistreated her."
One of the men standing beside the speaker cleared his throat. This man was considerably younger than the Princep and of medium build, but somehow his body was all angles. Even his voice was hard and sharp, so much so that when he spoke the comparatively soft words of the Princep seemed to be pierced by them and diminish in size. The Princep looked sideways at the younger man as he stepped forward, clearly wanting him to remain quiet, but the younger man ignored the look and spoke up.
"Actually Princep Lorrister, as Defense Chief I will decide their fate. We have no record of these men and I advise that we treat them as spies and hold them for questioning. We don't know who Jaeen really is either, or whether she intends to help us or to harm us. Weapons were found on her 'oppressors,' along with other instruments which she hasn't identified. For all we know, she could interfere on behalf of these men to stop us from acquiring new technology. I think that we should test her loyalty to us."
The Princep sighed and nodded reluctantly after giving Jean and the rest of the away team an apologetic look. He then faced the sharp man and said sadly, as though it was only a formality, "Very well, Rostin. So be it."
During this entire exchange Archer had been glancing at Jean every so often to gauge her reactions to what was being said. Judging by the look on her face, she'd anticipated something like this, and Archer knew that she was playacting as other crewmembers had been forced to do in dangerous situations. He knew that now she needed to do some quick thinking and hoped that she'd be able to gain the sharp man's trust. Jean was thinking the same thing and trying to prepare for whatever test was chosen.
The Princep cleared his throat half-heartedly and changed his grip on the staff before speaking. "Which one of you is the leader?"
Reed and Trip looked to Archer for some cue but neither said a word. To Archer, being the captain meant that he was responsible for the safety of his crew, so he wouldn't let anyone under his command take the fall for him. Archer accepted that the privileges of command came with certain burdens and he nodded to his men before addressing the Princep. "I'm the captain."
Lorrister nodded and looked to Jean who confirmed that Archer was telling the truth. He opened his mouth to speak but Rostin cut him off, gesturing to the confiscated phase pistols. "You said that these are weapons?"
She reluctantly confirmed this with another nod.
"Can they be used to kill someone?"
She looked dubious but answered, "yes, they can."
Rostin allowed a cheerfully menacing smile to creep across his features. "Excellent. If these men were your captors and if you are loyal to us, then you should have no problem killing their leader with this weapon."
Jean blinked and swallowed nervously as the still smiling Rostin walked over and handed her one of the phase pistols. She closed her hand around the instrument dazedly and watched Rostin stand back, looking very pleased with himself. "Now we will see where your loyalties truly lie."
It looked as though the Princep was about to protest, but one of Rostin's men made a great show of removing his knife from it's sheath, so he remained silent.
Jean nearly panicked. She couldn't kill Captain Archer, it wasn't even an option, but if her cover was blown then she couldn't help any of her crewmates. She nodded and addressed Rostin. "Alright, if this is what I have to do to secure your trust. Bring him over here." She spoke to two guards and gestured to Archer.
The guards seized Archer by both arms, unceremoniously dragged him across the floor and forced him to his knees before her. Their eyes met briefly and in that instant Archer knew that she had a plan. Reed and Trip were too far away to see this subtle look, so they were alarmed when they saw her adjust the phase pistol and then point it at the captain.
However, Rostin had also seen her fiddling with the weapon. "Hold on, what are you doing?"
Jean looked up at him with her best 'who, me?' innocent expression. "Oh, I was just checking that the power cell was calibrated properly. It has to be set a certain way for the device to work."
Not really understanding her answer but satisfied by it, Rostin waved his hand impatiently. "Very well, but get on with it."
The captain couldn't help recalling the first time Reed had shown him the new sidearms. His Tactical Officer's words came echoing back to him, clear as day.
"They're called phase-pistols. They have two settings: stun and kill. It would be best not to confuse them."
Archer followed the phase pistol with his eyes as Jean circled around to stand directly behind him. She aimed it at the back of his head and murmured quietly so that only he could hear her, "it's set to stun." She swallowed nervously, opting to leave the "I hope" unspoken. If she got this wrong, Archer would never know the difference, but she certainly would. Praying that she had put the weapon on the right setting, she squeezed the trigger and a bright stream of orange light flew from the pistol to hit Archer just above his neck, causing him to fall over in a lifeless heap.
Reed looked at her in horrified disbelief while Trip couldn't take his eyes off of Archer's body. They had noticed her adjust the phase pistol but they had no way of knowing whether she'd killed or merely stunned the captain. After she was assigned to the away team Reed had resumed teaching her how to use the weapons; loading the power cell and setting them to either 'stun' or 'kill'. However, she still was having quite a bit of trouble remembering the difference between the two settings and she might have mistakenly adjusted the weapon to the lethal setting since they spent so little time on it and since the current situation was so nerve-wracking.
There was no question in Reed's mind as to her loyalty; he knew that she'd never intentionally hurt any member of the crew, but actually seeing her shoot the captain had been shocking.
Jean walked past Archer's fallen body and approached Trip and Reed with a smile on her face which was almost a sneer. She was pleased that her idea had worked but tried to pass off her relief as defiance so Rostin wouldn't suspect anything. It seemed that the next step in her plan was obvious, so she stopped inches from the officers and started putting it into action.
She leaned forward, looked Reed squarely in the eye and said in a cold tone "I'm not taking orders from you anymore."
Again she saw different varieties of shock come over the officers' faces, but then she subtly indicated with her eyes that Reed should look at her left hand, in which she still held the phase pistol. He followed her gaze and saw that she'd turned her hand to let him see what the weapon was set to when she fired it.
The shocked look on Reed's face gave way to relief and he smiled to himself as Jean turned away. Trip looked at him questioningly and Reed whispered "it was on stun." Trip breathed a sigh of relief, but both men knew they had to help carry out the deception by appearing to be shocked by the ensign's 'betrayal'.
After showing them what she needed to she headed over to Rostin and gave the weapon back. She then quirked an eyebrow, while saying as coolly as she could "are you satisfied about my loyalty now, or should I kill the others too?"
She hoped that if all three men were 'dead', she might be able to get them back into the main city more easily. According to the information Subcommander T'pol had gathered, this culture buried their dead outside of the city limits, and if the 'corpses' were set to be transported out of the city, the human men would only have to play possum until they could make a break for it. Of course, there was the problem of making sure that they would come to so she could apprise them of her plan well before they were buried alive, as well as figuring out a way for her to leave the complex unharmed.
Rostin smiled grimly and shook his head. "That would hardly be practical. They have information I want and interrogating dead men is pointless. If you like, I could ask my men to be especially hard on them. As the Princep said, now you have an opportunity for revenge if these men were cruel to you. That was what you meant, wasn't it, Lorristor?"
He turned to the Princep knowing that the older man had no choice but to agree, surrounded as he was by Rostin's armed followers. The princep nodded slowly and spoke softly, not meeting the other man's eyes. "Yes, Rostin, it was." This caused the cold smirk on Rostin's face to grow into a grin before he turned back to address Jean again.
"So, what should happen to these two?"
Risking a glance towards Reed and Trip, she saw that they were looking at her expectantly. They knew that she had to answer carefully since she was walking a tightrope between alerting their captors to her deception and allowing both officers to be severely beaten. She replied with her heart pounding loud and fast in her ears, but knowing that Rostin was still testing her she tried to appear calm.
"As far as questioning goes do what you need to, but they always treated me fairly. Their leader was cruel to me, but they never were."
Jean was beginning to wonder how long she could keep up this deceptive tango. Fortunately Princep Lorristor had heard enough and he stepped in to save her from any further underhanded questioning. "About your interrogation, Rostin, shouldn't you start that soon? I'm sure that Jaeen will be more than willing to answer any questions you still have after you've pumped these men for information."
"I suppose so. Guards, question these men thoroughly and show them to our guest accommodations."