5

Somewhere on Chalderon IV, 1605 hours, August 16 2151

After a lengthy interrogation session, Trip and Reed were half dragged and half led into a series of corridors below the main counsel chamber by three hefty guards. Their armed escorts eventually stopped in front of a wrought-iron door which was situated in a small alcove and recessed into the earthen wall. One of the guards handed off his prisoner and entered some sort of command into a keypad which then unlocked and opened the door. Trip craned his neck trying to see the sequence of symbols, but his guard caught on quickly and knocked the Chief Engineer to the ground.

"Don't even bother" he sneered "there's no one left to rescue you. Your 'friend' is working for my boss now, and your boss is dead. You two had better get used to your new quarters and used to doing as Defense Chief Rostin commands, unless you'd like more of these."

He roughly jabbed at Reed's split lip and Trip's blackened eye. "On the other foot, if you cooperate things will be easier for you."

One of the quieter guards took over and nodded to his noisy companion before unceremoniously shoving the two captives into their dank cell. "Get in there!" He shook his head. "These two are more trouble than they're worth. I like their friend, though." After pulling the door shut and entering the locking sequence, he smirked in an especially creepy way. "I wouldn't mind getting her alone for a few hours."

The three of them left the cell for their normal posts, trading crude comments along the way.

Once the last of the suggestive laughter had trailed off into silence, Reed looked around for Trip. Since his eyes hadn't yet adjusted to the dimness of their cell, he had some trouble locating the other man. "'Other foot'? Something must be wrong with the UT."

Trip gingerly picked himself up from the dirt floor and walked over to lean against the nearby wall. "Small glitch, probly. Hoshi'll have it fixed in no time once we're back on Enterprise. Owch! What... well, I'll be damned."

Reed came over to see what he was talking about. "What is it? Did you find something?"

Smiling and shaking his head in disbelief, Trip nodded and picked something up from the floor. "I found somethin' alright. I stubbed my toe on the away team med kit. Jean must've left it down here for us to find. I guess she does have a plan after all."

"Now all we have to do is clean ourselves up and wait for her to contact us... " Reed took the med kit from Trip and opened it, taking out supplies and bandages with the intent of patching up both himself and the engineer. When he'd removed a few things, Reed noticed that there were several objects in the kit which were definitely not medical supplies; the communicators, the scanners, and even two of the phase pistols.

"Commander!" Reed held up what he'd found. "Something tells me these aren't part of a standard kit."

Trip picked up one of the communicators and opened it. When a communicator was turned on it would usually chirp, but the only noise coming from this one was a quiet crackling of static. "D'you think we should try to contact Enterprise, let them know we're alright?"

"I don't know." Reed shook his head doubtfully "We don't know how advanced their sensors are, they might detect the transmission. We don't even know if we're still in range for Enterprise to detect the signal. Are all the communicators in there?"

Trip rummaged through the pile and took a quick count, shaking his head afterwards. "No, there's one missing… and one of the pistols. D'you think the captain has them?"

Reed shrugged, the darkness of the cell helping him to hide a grimace of pain. "If he does, he's probably contacted Enterprise already and briefed T'Pol. If not… we have to assume that our friends are using it to monitor our transmissions." He paused for a moment, waiting for some response from the other man, but Trip said nothing. Reed could hear him breathing in the darkness, and he thought he saw the commander nod in agreement, but he couldn't be sure. He sighed carefully, feeling through the equipment and grabbing hold of a small head lamp which he supposed was meant to provide illumination for a medic working in dark environs.

Well, he thought this will make patching each other up a good deal easier.

Reed turned on the lamp and carefully put it over his head. "We might as well put this kit to good use."

Trip nodded, sifting through the kit and handing Reed a scanner. "Might as well."

After turning on the scanner and running it over Trip to assess his injuries, Reed couldn't suppress a shudder. The guards had been very aggressive in their questioning, and since neither Starfleet officer had cooperated in the slightest, the interrogation had devolved into a savage beating. When it appeared that the guards were going to spend most of their time focusing on Reed, Trip had tried to divert their attention to himself, in order to grant the lieutenant a brief respite, but shortly thereafter the 'interrogation' had ended.

The commander had been struck several times, by boots, fists and gun butts. In addition to his black eye, he had suffered a badly bruised jaw, some internal bleeding, and a particularly nasty whack to his shoulder which limited the rang of motion of his right arm.

"Here's an anesthetic… " Reed loaded a hypo with medicine and injected Trip with it. "Any better?"

Trip nodded, trying to move his arm without grimacing. "Anything like an icepack in there?"

Reed looked around, the beam from the lamp on his forehead bouncing around the room as he shifted position. "I don't… here, this should do you." He started to hand a small packet over to Trip, then stopped to read some instructions on the item's side. Following the directions, he activated the chemicals in the pack by rupturing a small capsule inside it and then shaking the whole assemblage. Once it started to turn cold against his fingers, he put it in Trip's hand.

The engineer smiled as he laid the coldpack on his sore shoulder, reaching out his other hand expectantly for the medical scanner. "Okay, Malcolm. Your turn."

Reed reluctantly handed over the device and the headlamp, so that the commander would be able to see properly while he was playing medic, and Trip handed over his coldpack, since he wouldn't be able to hold it in place and tend to the lieutenant at the same time.

Of the two, Reed was much worse off. He had a split lip, some nasty bruising to his ribs and back where he had been repeatedly punched and kicked, a cut somewhere on his head which had caused blood to ooze down over his forehead, and a goose egg on the back of his head from when a guard had struck him with… something. He couldn't quite remember what.

"Ohh, my head." Trip helped him sit down against one of the earthen walls and he leaned back, trying to steady his breathing.

"Easy, Malcolm." Trip patted his shoulder and guided one of the man's hands up to hold the coldpack against his head. The cool touch seemed to help, at least a little.

Reed nodded, shifting uncomfortably when an uneven part of the wall pressed into a sore spot. "Did you see what that guard hit me with?"

Trip winced, giving the other man a sympathetic look. "Which time?"

Reed gave a breathy chuckle. He knew that Trip's question was valid, and really, knowing what he'd been hit with wouldn't help him in any way, but he still wanted to know. "My head… I didn't see what it was."

"Oh," Trip nodded, running the scanner over him. "I think it was the butt of his rifle." He frowned to himself, unwillingly replaying in his mind the savage beating which Reed had been the recipient of. The lieutenant had ended up on the floor, being kicked and beaten for some time before Trip got the guards to focus on him instead. It had been horrible to watch, and Trip had found himself hoping that the guards would beat him to unconsciousness so he wouldn't have to watch them brutalize Reed any more.

"If any of those animals lays a finger on Jean…" he trailed off, sharing a look with Reed, who nodded grimly.

"Agreed. They're nearly warp capable, after all, so I doubt T'Pol would make too much of a fuss if one of these gentlemen had a sudden… accident." One corner of his mouth quirked up.

Trip chuckled to himself. "Not that there's a helluva lot we can do in here." He put another dose of anesthetic in the hypo and pressed it against Reed's neck. "That help?"

Reed nodded with his eyes closed. "Now, if we could just get word to Enterprise to get a lock on our biosigns with the transporter…"

"I don't see how to do that, and if we can't get a clear comm. signal, I don't wanna chance usin' that thing. 'Sides, we don't know how deep we are, or if they could even get a lock. Here…" he found another coldpack in the kit and activated it. He put the pack in Reed's hand and reached for a disinfectant swab. "Hold that for me, will ya? I'm gonna clean up this dried blood…"

The Englishman started to argue, but Trip silenced him with a look. "Unless you've got a mirror on you, lieutenant, this is how we've gotta to do it." Reed sighed, sitting still while Trip wiped at his forehead and trying not to hiss in pain when some of the disinfectant found its way into his cut. The cut seemed to be somewhere near the swollen goose egg, and Reed surmised that when the guard's rifle had hit him, the weapon must have broken the skin.

Lovely, he couldn't help thinking. I won't be much use if we have to fight our way out of here.

He couldn't remember if he'd walked an appreciable distance, or even stood up unassisted since the interrogation had ended. The guards hadn't really given him a chance to walk on his own afterwards, roughly hauling him and Trip to their cell and then throwing them inside, and aside from picking himself up, he hadn't moved much after that. He knew that it would be a good idea to see how steady he was on his feet; if a fight couldn't be avoided, the last thing he wanted was to be a liability to the rest of the team. Reed took a slow, steadying breath, and felt his sore ribs scream in protest. He would rest for a while before trying to determine how mobile he was.

"There," Trip sat back on his heels, apparently satisfied with the job he had done of cleaning Reed up. He patted the other man's shoulder. "All better."

"Thanks, mum." Reed smirked in the darkness.

Laughing good-naturedly, Trip packed up the kit and then sat back against the wall, making sure that he faced the door in case any of the guards came back. "Lets try to get some rest. We don't know what her plan is, or when the next part of it will go into action."

Reed handed back one of the coldpacks, keeping the other for himself. "I wonder how Captain Archer fits into her plan…"

Trip slung the coldpack over his right shoulder and shrugged the other one, letting his eyes close. "I'm guessin' we're gonna find out."

The first thing that Archer noticed was that his wrists were sore. The next thing was that his back hurt, and his head felt like it was about to explode. He pressed a hand to his forehead and started to sit up, groaning quietly, but his body was reluctant to cooperate, and he started to lose his balance. A strange pair of hands suddenly took hold of his shoulders, and he was gently guided to lie down once more as a calm voice spoke to him.

"Do not attempt to move, Captain Archer. You must lie still."

Archer pulled his eyes open at the voice. It was familiar, but he couldn't place it. He saw a tall older man with salt and pepper hair standing over him. "Who are you?"

The man smiled kindly. Despite his disorientation, Archer found the man's demeanor to be very comforting. "Forgive me, captain. I believe we were never formally introduced. My name is Lorrister."

Archer nodded, feeling his head throb. "You tried to stop Rostin from going too hard on Jean, back in that… large chamber."

Lorrister frowned. "The council hall, yes. Seeing a place where our ancestral statesmen set down our laws being used as a– a holding area…" He shook his head. "I am afraid that you have come to us in a troubled time."

Archer's eyes closed and he muttered to himself. "Yeah, we seem to have a knack for doing that."

Lorrister gave him a puzzled look, then shook his head, deciding not to ask Archer to explain what he had just said. Instead, he continued with his own explanation. "You were shot. Jean informed me that you would have certain symptoms upon waking, and asked me to apprise you of her plan since she would not be able to meet with you unobtrusively."

Archer let out a low chuckle and rubbed at the back of his neck. "I was hoping that she didn't just shoot me for the hell of it."

Lorrister folded his hands into the wide sleeves of his robe, seeming pensive. "She mentioned several times how much she regretted shooting you, but she also expressed a good deal of relief at having used the proper setting. I believe she was quite distressed at the prospect of harming you at all, and very concerned that she might have killed you by mistake, as she does not consider herself proficient with this weapon." Archer's eyes followed his hand, and he saw that Lorrister had drawn a phase pistol out from his robes, where it had been concealed. He tensed as the older man came closer, watching him carefully and feeling supremely vulnerable, but he relaxed when Lorrister put the weapon down next to his hand.

He tilted his head at Archer curiously, his eyes traveling quickly over the alien man. "Has the dizziness subsided?"

The captain nodded, grimacing a bit, and accepted Lorrister's help in sitting up. He left the pistol lying by his knee as his legs dangled off of the side of what could only be described as a cushioned ledge jutting out of one of the walls of the cavern. "Where are my people?"

Lorrister had turned away to get something, but he looked back over one shoulder to smile briefly. "Yes, she said that you would ask after them. The men have been questioned and are being held in a cell not too far from here. Jean is currently being supervised by Rostin. She referred to it as 'walking a tight-rope'. Perhaps later, when our situation has improved, you might explain that peculiar phrase to me?" He came back, carrying a small container of liquid which he politely offered to the captain. "Jean said that this beverage tastes like something called 'lemonade'. She found it to be quite refreshing."

Archer accepted the container, fervently wishing that he had a scanner so he could determine whether the liquid was safe to drink. He glanced up at Lorrister, who towered over him, and gave a nod. "Thank you." The man didn't seem to have any desire to harm him, and since he was the closest thing which the away team had to an ally on this planet, he didn't want to offend Lorrister's generosity. So, he drank.

The liquid did taste quite like lemonade, but it was still decidedly alien. He smiled up at Lorrister, fiddling slightly with the container in his hands. "Saying that someone is 'walking a tight-rope' means that they are attempting a difficult, sometimes dangerous task which requires a good deal of finesse, and if they make a mistake, the consequences can be very serious."

Lorrister served himself a glass of the same liquid and drank a bit. "Interesting. How did this phrase develop?"

Archer shook his head, trying to suppress a grin at the other man's curiosity. "I'll tell you later. Right now, I'd like to know where we are and what the situation is."

"Of course, and thank you for that explanation. We are in a disused section of the complex, adjacent to the cells. After you were shot, Jean informed my people that there were certain rituals which needed to be preformed to properly send you on your way to the afterlife. That enabled your 'corpse' to be brought here. She also entrusted me with your weapon and some of the other equipment which was seized from your people." He felt around in a bag which dangled from his belt, "I believe this is a communications device," and handed Archer one of the communicators.

"Our sensors should not be able to detect a transmission to your ship."

Archer looked up sharply, starting to become alarmed again, and he stood up. "Just how much did she tell you?"

Lorrister gave a slight smile which would not have looked out of place on Reed's face. "I had already surmised that you were alien visitors, based on her lack of knowledge of Chalderi culture, history, and technology, and your superior technology, coupled with the fact that there are no habitable planets within range of sub-warp vessels, means that you are quite far from home indeed. She merely filled in the blanks…" his smirk widened, "and she informed me that your presence here was meant to go undetected."

Archer shook his head, and Lorrister held up his hands, all traces of levity gone from his expression. "Please do not be angry with her, captain. She simply was, and still is, trying to find a way for you and your people to safely return to your vessel, and she recognized that this task would be nearly impossible without some assistance."

The captain took another few sips of his 'lemonade', mulling things over. "So, what is this plan?"

Lorrister drew a folded piece of paper out of his robes, and Archer idly wondered how many things he kept hidden in there. He half expected the man to take out a rabbit at some point… Archer shook his head, forcing himself to focus on what Lorrister was saying as he indicated different parts of the paper.

"She managed to place your team's medical case in the cell where your men are most likely to be held, this one here, along with your other equipment. We are a few levels above where the cells are. This is a map of the complex so you can determine the safest route to their cell in advance, and the guards will be changing shift in approximately five hours. There is a fifteen minute gap between the two shifts, so that will be the best time to free your men."

Archer nodded. The plan seemed well thought out, but he was worried that they might have trouble finding Jean once he had sprung Reed and Trip from their cell, and there was also the problem of getting out of the complex and leaving the city before they could get back to the pod. First things first, though. He would ask about the exit strategy after Lorrister finished explaining the plan. "How will I get the cell open?"

"I have the locking codes for both cells." Lorrister glanced up at him from the map. "You will need to memorize them."

"Understood. Now," Archer downed the rest of his 'lemonade', "I've got to let my crew know what's going on. Are you sure that your people can't detect a transmission?"

Lorrister shook his head. "I don't know what frequency your device operates on, so I can't be sure, but I know that our sensors focus almost exclusively on land-based communications. Any messages relayed to or from satellites tend to be ignored, especially if they are coming from a bureaucratic building such as this."

Archer rubbed a hand at his neck. The spot where Jean had shot him was pretty sore, but he had a sinking feeling that he had had better luck than his officers in terms of avoiding serious injuries. Well, Jon, back to work.

He picked up his communicator and flipped it open. The device chirped, prompting him to smile. "Archer to Enterprise."

Sub-commander T'Pol's voice floated through the comm. line. "Enterprise. Captain, we attempted to contact you after completing our scans for Ensign Olenick's biosign but have been unable to reach the team since then. Have you encountered difficulties in locating her?"

Archer glanced at Lorrister, who was looking a bit… shifty. "Standby, T'Pol."

Lorrister seemed uncomfortable. "The device made a sound some time ago, and the sound repeated at regular intervals for two arhns. Jean was quite insistent that I should not use any of the devices, so each time that the communication device made a sound, I left it alone."

Archer nodded, thinking that it had been prudent of Jean to tell him that, but he realized with a twinge of guilt that the bridge crew on Enterprise must have been very worried about the away team in the meantime. "No, no… we found her alright, but we're in a situation down here." He sighed, sitting down again. Lorrister refilled his cup with the drink and handed it to the captain, who smiled his thanks before turning his attention back to T'Pol.

"It's going to take some time to explain everything that's happened during the past few hours."