Episode One - Crazy Old Man
Chapter 6
Planetside
Tuvok led the way to Transporter Room One where Ensign Geissler met them. She was armed and equipped with a tricorder, and Tuvok was at least reassured that he wouldn't have to tell her exactly what to do at all times.
"Anything you want to share with us, Mister Neelix?" Riker asked.
"I don't think so." He patted his coat and then looked at Tuvok, apparently having noticed everyone else's weapons. "Don't you think I should be armed, as well?"
"Are you expecting resistance to an introduction?" Tuvok asked.
"No." Neelix frowned. "No, of course, not."
Tuvok nodded and set the transporter on delay for long enough for him to reach the pad. He suspected Mister Neelix had achieved much of his possessions by dissembling, as he was doing now.
The planet that appeared on the other side of transport was a white desert with dark mountains in the distance under a washed-out sky. The heat was homey, but the rest of it was an assault on his senses. A settlement constructed of ramshackle miscellany broke up the natural landscape with strange shapes and architecturally unsound structures.
"Why would anyone want to live in a place like this…?" Riker asked.
Tuvok restrained himself from offering any correlations to Vulcan, while Mister Neelix pointed to the distant white hills. "The rich cormaline deposits are very much in demand."
"Do the Ocampa use it for barter?" Riker asked.
"No." Mister Neelix sighed and tugged on the hem of his shirt. ""The Kazon-Ogla." He started walking toward the settlement, and the locals began to stir.
"The… Kazon-Ogla?" Tuvok could see from this distance the beings that occupied the settlement were a ruddy people with ridges on their foreheads. What Tuvok might have called hair seemed to be more calcareous growths, forming irregular shapes and nettings on their heads. Their tattered and worn dress offered little protection from the sun, but there seemed to be very few natural resources in this system.
"Yes," Mister Neelix said, softly explaining, "The Kazon sects control this part of space. Some have food, some have ore, some have water. They all trade and they all kill each other for it."
"I see. However, you said the Ocampa had our people?"
"They do." Mister Neelix didn't offer any other explanation, as the residents of the settlement had noticed him. A group of them rushed forward.
Tuvok saw Worf tense and Riker raise his phaser. Miss Geissler looked to Worf for guidance, but Tuvok held his hand up before Worf could offer any.
"Lieutenant?" Worf asked.
"The Kazon-Ogla are not focused on us," Tuvok pointed out, and raised one hand to demonstrate his peaceful intention. It was a near-universal gesture in his experience. Besides, even if they were focuse on the away team, they were severely outnumbered.
The Kazon-Ogla seized Mister Neelix and carried him away despite Mister Neelix's protestations that he wanted to see their maje. No matter how he called the Kazon-Ogla friends, they didn't seem to share his opinion.
The Kaxon-Ogla approached them, eyeing them and making several aggressive motions that Tuvok did not mirror. To his surprise, neither did Mister Worf. Only when two approached more closely, Worf bared his teeth warningly.
"We mean no harm," Tuvok said to the Kazon-Ogla nearest him, and raised his hand and phaser while concurrently giving Worf the signal to remain on alert. Worf understood, of course. Curiously, however, he seemed willing to defer to Tuvok in this instance. Riker also kept his phaser leveled at the Kazon-Ogla—Tuvok wasn't sure if that was because he was following his own orders or Starfleet protocol.
"Harm, of course not!" One Kazon stepped forward. He was much better dressed by the simple fact that there was more fabric involved. "You mean to rob, like this blubbering ostagot."
"On the contrary. We have come to… trade."
"I—I enjoy a joke as much as the next man…" Neelix was saying from several meters away, holding his hands up as it seemed that dissembling was just about the only thing he was capable of doing. More Kazon-Ogla had appeared with weapons all aimed at Neelix. "Jabin? My old friend, water! Water, Jabin, I have water to replace all that I borrowed. Mister Tuvok, show them. Their ship has technology that makes water out of thin air!"
Riker almost visibly cringed, but Tuvok proffered the canister he'd brought with him. At least Mister Neelix still seemed to think that water would get them out of this situation, though he had certainly given them… incomplete information.
"Yes, yes, Neelix, that you borrowed from me…" The Kazon that Neelix called Jabin unscrewed the canister's lid and dumped some of the contents into his mouth. Most of it seemed to fall on his face and shoulders. He looked at Tuvok, then, followed by Worf and Riker as he smacked his lips. "You aren't from around here."
"Correct," Tuvok said. "My name is Tuvok. My companions." Tuvok raised a hand to gesture over all of them, but didn't offer their names. It seemed as irrelevant to Jabin as it did to Tuvok.
"Tuvok. Interesting name." Jabin showed him the canister. "You have more?"
"We do."
Jabin eyed him, then the canister. "I'll admit, I'm a bit wary to trust what Neelix says about your being able to create water from nothing. After all, why would you associate with someone like him if you were so powerful?"
"But they can!" Neelix said, and one of the Kazon-Ogla hissed at him to be quiet.
"Your… logic is impeccable," Tuvok offered, while Neelix whimpered.
"Then again, you have the ability to appear out of thin air yourselves." Jabin eyed Tuvok and his team's weapons. "Obviously technologically advanced. I would be interested in acquiring this technology."
They stared at each other for a moment, and Tuvok wasn't sure the maje wasn't about to change his tone. "The technology is based in the principles of matter-energy conversion, integrated with our ship's systems. It would be… extremely difficult to separate it in a way that would be useful to you," he said.
"Hm." Jabin nodded as if in understanding.
"Mister Neelix led us here suggesting we might find a people called the Ocampa. Do you know anything about them?" Tuvok asked.
Jabin chuckled. "What could you possibly want with such weak and worthless creatures? They live only nine years and make poor servants." Jabin nodded over his shoulder toward a slight blond alien with a battered face and bruises on her arms, otherwise quite different from any of the Kazon-Ogla in terms of physical features. "We caught this one when she wandered to the surface."
"The Ocampa are a subterranean people?" Tuvok said, and frowned. "Curious." He chose to ignore, for the moment, everything else.
"Curious." Jabin chuckled when he mimicked his words, but Tuvok heard no insult. "What do you seek them for? As I've said, they make for poor bartering implements and very little pleasure."
Tuvok noticed Riker looked like he might have started phasering everyone within range if he thought he could get away with it alive. "We have been led to believe that they have abducted four of our people."
"Oh. The creature in space." Jabin folded his arms and nodded. "Yes."
"You know about the entity?"
Jabin smiled. "Now that… that will cost you something."
"As Mister Neelix said, we have water."
"Mister Tuvok?" Neelix spoke up, but was persuaded to be silent again when one of the Kazon-Ogla jabbed his neck with her weapon.
Tuvok restrained a sigh. "How much water would you require to repay Mister Neelix's debt?"
Jabin barked in a laugh, once, and looked at his companions as if absolutely surprised and delighted. "You want to pay the debt of this lying scoundrel? You really aren't from around here." Jabin waved off the idea, and said, "No, it's much easier to just kill him."
Tuvok frowned. "That may be." Tuvok considered the various reasons for pacifism that occurred to him at the moment, and tried to guess which would appeal most to Jabin. "Mister Neelix is Talaxian?"
"Yes," Jabin said, and spat. "A wormy people of liars and cheaters. I don't recommend them as trading partners or party guests." With that, he threw an apparently meaningful glance at Neelix.
"I propose to… purchase his life from you by paying his debt," Tuvok said, though that was something he didn't think he'd ever say in his life. "Though we have ample supplies for the near future, our crew is insufficient for a long journey ahead of us. Employing Mister Neelix would make the passage easier."
Tuvok saw Riker arch an eyebrow, and almost smile. Probably reflecting on how easy it was in most circumstances to not lie.
Jabin laughed again. "He does look strong, but I warn you: he eats like a rockhog and complains the whole time because of his sensitive tastes. But, if you insist. Twelve ocman."
"And the entity on the station?" Tuvok pressed.
"Ah. Yes. He gives them food and power also gives them sole access to the only water on this world, over three kilometers below the surface. Occasionally, some of them find their way to the surface." He twitched a finger in the direction of the girl with ridged ears and a slight frame. "This one could tell you more."
Tuvok sighed again, and eyed the girl as she approached with more boldness than he'd anticipated. "And this… 'worthless creature'?" Tuvok asked. "Perhaps you would consider including her in our bargain."
The youthful alien looked at him with wide, nearly-terrified eyes.
Jabin shook his head. "I will note you for a foolish slaver indeed." Jabin chuckled. "For fifteen ocman you can have them both."
"The price… seems steep." Tuvok had no idea what an ocman is, but he was reasonable sure that no measure of water, even in a desert, would measure in value equaling a sapient life except as academic. "You have noted her poor aptitude for service as well as her short life-span. The only use she has is information."
Jabin eyed him uncertainly.
Tuvok reached for his tricorder and input the formula for water volume and nodded to Jabin. "Please bring a container for one ocman for comparison with our own units of measurement, and our business will be concluded, provided you will accept thirteen for both of them."
Tuvok heard Worf snarl behind him, and Maje Jabin, after a time, nodded. "A fair enough price." Or, perhaps, he was more interested in the tricorder. He gestured impatiently to one of the other Kazon-Ogla, and stepped closer to study it. "An interesting piece of technology. What does it do?"
"It is a scanning device." Tuvok looked at the tricorder. Knowing the Kazon controlled at least a portion of this quadrant, he imagined it was at least an equal to the technology he would use. He demonstrated a basic use on the large barrel that the Kazon had brought.
Jabin didn't seem incredibly interested.
Tuvok saw Miss Geissler's phaser returned to her, and they were soon requesting transport back up to the Defiant. The amount of water seemed to completely mystify Jabin. It was, Tuvok had to admit, a large amount of water. Two large containers had to be replicated.
"I must say, it was a pleasure doing business with you," Jabin said with an almost deferential nod.
"I hope further meetings will be as beneficial." Tuvok tapped his combadge and requested six to beam to the Defiant. Transporter Room Two crystalized into view, and Tuvok holstered his phaser.
Riker was laughing. "I'll be damned."
"You just got scammed," Neelix hissed, and went to the side of the Ocampa girl, grasping her about the waist. Tuvok didn't know why he wasn't surprised when Neelix kissed her cheek and called her his dearest.
"Mister Neelix," Tuvok said. "Do you mean to imply you are not worth twelve ocman of water?"
Neelix sputtered, and stiffened in apparent humiliation.
Tuvok looked to Neelix again. "I believe I would have been within the bounds of most morality systems had I elected to simply leave you there." But, of course, most morality systems were repugnant. He didn't add that. "Fortunately, my own allows for neither slavery nor murder—either of which seemed to have been a viable option for Mister Jabin."
"Deftly handled, Mister Tuvok," Riker said, sounding satisfied. "He makes a damn fine first officer, wouldn't you say, Mister Worf?"
Worf shook his head impatiently, but grumbled his agreement. "Their society seems to be based largely in trade… based on the many weapons they had at their disposal, they enforce this trade with strength."
"Don't be fooled," Mister Neelix said. "They're animals. Look at this…" With that he clicked his tongue and turned to the girl standing next to him, inspecting her wounds like a mothering warbler.
"Mister Neelix," Tuvok said, and the Talaxian snapped nearly to attention. "Among apparently many other things, you have neglected to mention your dearest."
"Many other things," Worf agreed, interrupting any introductions Mister Neelix might have planned on making. "I would like to order you confined to the brig."
Tuvok tried to imagine for what, exactly, Mister Worf could reasonably imprison him, while Neelix gaped in apparent surprise.
"What did I do?" he yelped.
"If you told us what you planned, we might have, you know…" Riker hesitated, then looked at Tuvok. "Actually, that turned out pretty well, all things considered. We lost a lot of water, but you got two… slaves. How's that feel, Tuvok?" Riker's grin was hopelessly irreverent.
Tuvok suspected very little would be considered sacred on a ship like this… When he glanced at the young alien, he realized there was no reason it should be obvious to her that he had no intention of maintaining his hastily-purchased reputation as a slaver. "In case it was not obvious to the two of you, I have no intention of enforcing my claim upon you. The trade of sapient beings is truly offensive."
"Ah…" Neelix seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. "A, uh… a truly advanced culture."
"However, I must concur with Maje Jabin's assessment: without having met another member of his race, at least this Talaxian seems to have lied and cheated."
"Excuse me." When the girl spoke, her voice alone seemed to somehow command respect in a resonant and ethereal tone. "Please, don't blame Neelix."
"I am open to alternatives." Tuvok watched her smile, even though he hadn't intended it as a joke. He stepped a bit closer to her, prompting Mister Neelix to pull her closer to himself. Tuvok waited long enough to communicate his nonaggression, clasping his hands behind his back as he nodded toward her. "You appear to be injured."
"It's nothing." She touched two fingers lightly to the bruise by her eye followed by the cut on her lip. "Just the cost of curiosity. I'm told it's my worst failing."
"Oh, no, my dear. It's one of your best qualities…" Neelix frowned and reached for the mark on her head, but seemed to deliberately not touch her. "He didn't… he didn't hurt you, did he?" Neelix asked, squinting at another cut on her temple.
Kes shook her head, and Neelix breathed a sigh of relief, wrapping an arm around her again.
Tuvok never ceased to be surprised by the near-universal need for euphemisms. "We will treat you." Tuvok held a hand toward the door leading out into the hallway.
Neelix turned to Tuvok before taking a step to follow his guidance. "She can tell you where to go. But since we're free, we'll be leaving this system together."
Tuvok had no immediate objections to that, though he didn't get to say. "Neelix, this man rescued me," Kes said with a soft pat on Neelix's shoulder.
"I rescued you," Neelix objected.
To Tuvok's view, rather illogically. He wasn't sure what Neelix's plan had been, but Tuvok's plan had not gone as he thought it would. "Mister Neelix, you have at the very least deceived us."
"Once Kes provides us with the location of her people, our business will be concluded as agreed. That is, of course, assuming you agree to help us, Miss?"
Kes smiled, nodding almost enthusiastically. "I'd be happy to help you."
#
Julian stood at the railing overlooking the underground city. The city was terraced, with steps beneath them and structures that had been dug into the rock beneath. Some of the cavern walls stretched so far into the distance that he couldn't see it, and an enormous river meandered and fell through the city between supportive stalagmites that touched the bright ceiling.
More importantly, he thought he saw a few caverns in the distance, some of which may have led to the surface.
Marius stepped up next to him, his voice a low whisper. "If you are finished enjoying the view, may I suggest we meander that direction?" He nodded toward the nearest wall of the expansive cave surrounding them.
Julian nodded and looked at their other two companions. A young woman in some part Klingon named B'Elanna Torres, and a young man, Human, Ensign Harry Kim. The way he was sitting, Julian assumed he was Starfleet. He also looked terrified and in pain, though he was trying very hard to make it so neither of those things were obvious. If B'Elanna was anything but angry, he couldn't tell.
He was just happy Marius seemed to harbor no hard feelings. Julian had expected the Reman to leap from his bed and attack him when he woke, but… no. He congratulated him.
Julian didn't trust Marius in the same way he doubted Marius trusted him. Especially now.
Everyone stood up and went in the direction Marius suggested. Ensign Kim followed close behind Julian, followed by B'Elanna and Marius at the end. Julian didn't trust Marius—not with everything. But he did trust his ability to deal with threats, even if Julian didn't agree with the way he did that. But since they'd established that his mistress T'Rul wasn't on the planet, their goals pretty nicely aligned.
And at least Julian was needed in the medical sense.
None of Julian's training had prepared him for a working alliance with a Reman, though.
He stopped at a booth on the walkway toward the wall to look at—jewelry, it turned out. They were beautiful, but he wanted to give Marius and himself time to figure if they were being watched. If they were actually prisoners, however gently held.
Even though they hadn't worked together but these last twenty minutes—generously—and Marius probably hated him, he seemed to understand. Even in the too-large black tunic he'd been given, he was impressively intimidating: thin and tall, but obviously powerful even if he didn't have a frightening appearance certainly in comparison with the pixie Ocampa. Marius even nodded at Julian ever so briefly before encircling their group like a protective grey lion.
Either that, or his plan was to devour them. But Julian didn't see how that could possibly help him.
"This isn't a vacation, doc," B'Elanna hissed behind him.
"I like to get a souvenir whenever I'm captured." Julian smiled, first at the Ocampa selling the jewelry, and then at B'Elanna. She sneered as Julian lifted a silvery necklace with an assortment of blue gemstones set inside. "It's quite beautiful," he told the Ocampa, and then held it up to imagine what Jadzia would look like wearing it.
He'd seen Jadzia wear earrings and bracelets, but for some reason couldn't recall her ever having worn a necklace before. He was sure he had, he just couldn't imagine when.
"I think she's right, Doc," Ensign Kim said, rubbing his arms and shivering lightly.
Julian set down the necklace and nodded. He knew he was rapidly weakening, and he bet the same was true for Ensign Kim. B'Elanna seemed to be trying to hide how much pain she was in. Marius remained impassive, but Julian had to imagine that was just as cultural a response as B'Elanna's. The very little Julian knew of Remans told him that his physiology couldn't have been that much different from Vulcans and Romulans—meaning their pain tolerance was only slightly less developed than a Klingon's.
"Look." Julian turned away from the shopkeeper and stepped a bit nearer to B'Elanna. He could have touched Ensign Kim without reaching. "I know we've got to find a way out of here, and I'm sure we're all working on that. I'm also sure the Defiant is doing everything they can to find us."
"You think so?" B'Elanna didn't seem to be convinced.
"You don't?"
"I have no idea what's going on up there. I don't even know if up there is the same one we left." B'Elanna folded her arms over her chest and walked to the edge of the walkway. "Either way, getting out of here is going to take a little bit more than just a stroll down the major boulevards."
Julian nodded, almost smiling except for the extreme condescension. "I know that. But Gessat told us his people used to live on the surface before the Warming began. How do you think they got down here?"
Ensign Kim shook his head and said, "The doctor said their 'ancient journals' said a deep chasm."
Julian scanned the furthest subterranean walls. "A deep chasm sounds pretty big to me."
"We can get out the same way they got in," Ensign Kim nodded, and started looking at the walls, too. He squinted, and Julian wondered if maybe he was developing some photosensitivity.
"And I'm thinking we don't have much time left," B'Elanna said. "You heard Gessat: the others didn't recover. They don't know how to treat these things."
"Then I say we continue our stroll," Julian offered, and looked to Marius.
Marius gave him a subdued nod. Maybe because there wasn't much else to do, under the circumstances.
The four of them walked together, in relative silence, each searching the city for any signs of the chasm history referred to. Julian had realized that none of them were particularly suited for this type of work, as he was a doctor, Ensign Kim was… young, B'Elanna was apparently an engineer of some kind, and Marius… was something else.
Julian didn't want to put a word on it, but he'd decided that Marius was some kind of soldier. Definitely accustomed to killing things. He was willing to bet he was good at it.
There were a few more levels beneath them, rooms cut into rock, and overlooking the same river cutting the city. Julian had the presence of mind to not comment on the beauty. B'Elanna and Marius didn't seem like the types to appreciate it—while Julian couldn't see the point in not appreciating it. Especially if it was one of the last things he'd see.
"What makes you think any of them are still alive?" B'Elanna asked, and then winced a little, looking at her hand.
Julian looked at B'Elanna's hand, too. It didn't look any different. Neither did his own wounds, but he had to admit his hurt more now, too. But, no matter how bad it got, Julian had already decided that lying down and waiting to die wasn't an option.
He doubted Marius would let them do that, anyway. "Nothing. But I'd like to think they are."
With hardly any warning, Marius ushered them into a dark tunnel where he stood waiting on the corner. Before Julian had quite put together what was happening, Marius seized the next Ocampa to turn the corner to follow them.
The Ocampa whimpered past Marius's grey hand slapped over her mouth as he whispered," Why are you following us?"
Julian recognized her as of the Ocampa from the hospital, and put his hand on Marius's shoulder. "I don't think she means to hurt us."
"I thought we weren't your prisoners," Marius said, peeling his hand from her mouth one spidered finger at a time.
The nurse—Julian remembered her name was Tonna—glanced around as if being watched might be something they should worry about all the same. She finally looked at Julian and said, "Please, I was only coming to give you something. I don't know if it'll help."
"Come on. She's harmless," Julian offered to Marius, trying not to sound as irritated as he felt.
Marius chuckled, and withdrew both his hands from her. "Of that, I am certain."
Julian took the package Tonna offered. An assortment of wrinkled leaves were inside.
"It's a medicine," she went on, edging away from Marius as she did. "There are people who have broken from tradition and left the city. Their colony grows fruits and vegetables. They discovered quite by accident that the moss that grows on certain fruit trees has healing properties. I'm sorry for what has happened to you."
"Thank you," Julian said, though his hopes for the situation hadn't exactly been improved by the idea of Ocampa homeopathy.
"This isn't going to help. The only way were going to survive," B'Elanna said, glaring briefly at Julian, "is if we can get to the surface and find our own people."
Tonna shook her head. "The elders would say that's against the Caretaker's wishes."
"Yeah, and what do you say?" B'Elanna snapped.
Julian tucked the herb into his tunic, but watched for a response.
With a sigh, a look to the side in what seemed to be exasperation, Tonna said, "The Caretaker's been behaving strangely for the past several months. Abducting people, increasing the power supply."
"The energy beams." Ensign Kim glanced in the direction of the thrumming energy.
"He's tripled the energy he sends us. They say we have enough stored now to run the city for five years." Then, she lowered her voice to a whisper. "And when we ask why, we're told to trust the Caretaker's decisions. One person I knew did get to the surface. We never saw her again."
"How?" B'Elanna asked.
"The ancient tunnels that brought us here still exist," Tonna said, but, once she glanced at Julian's face, she shook her head. "No, it would still require digging through meters of rock—it might even take weeks to break through. You have to rest. Conserve your strength.
"For what?" B'Elanna almost laughed.
"Please," Julian held his hand out for Tonna's, surprised when Tonna let him take it. "It's our only chance."