To Tell The Truth Series 04 Sunfire

by Melanie

  'Don't bet on it,' Tom thought to himself as Alpha Two yanked him up out of his chair.

  -------

  Sunfire heard Alpha Two's prediction and hardened her resolve to say nothing. Alpha Two was correct, she did know more than their lengthy investigations and interrogations had revealed, yet she was not going to betray Tom.

  While the Vulcan was not underestimating her love for the man who was his prisoner, he was underestimating her loyalty to Tom. He had told her precisely why she never was to reveal what she knew then had asked her to keep his secret until the appropriate time and she had given him her word that she would. At the time she had made the promise, she had only a vague idea of exactly how difficult it would be to resist The Protectors. Now she knew and hoped he was strong enough to withstand them too.

  -------

  "Yes, Commander, I know I've worked through dinner," Kathryn said without looking up from the piles of padds littering her Ready Room's desk. "It's just so hard condensing over five years into one concise report." Sighing, she slumped back into her chair, eyes closed. "I wish they'd not insisted I give them a report the instant we get home."

  "Captain."

  Her eyes popped open at the sound of her Chief Medical Officer's voice. "Oh, Doctor, sorry. It thought you were-"

  "Captain, I need to speak with you."

  She sat up straighter. "What's happened?"

  "We are getting home."

  "Yes."

  "Well, what about my family?"

  "What about them?"

  Rolling his eyes in frustration, he hurried towards the desk. "We still don't have a solid defense for our case."

  "Doctor-"

  "I know things have been busy here, but -"

  "Doctor, I promised you I'd talk to my friend in the JAG office and get her on your case. And everyone here will testify on your behalf if it becomes necessary. We will all do everything we can to help you. Right now, I'm writing my report for Command. I'll make sure that in it you and everything you've done will receive every bit of credit they deserve. If they don't appreciate your value after reading it, we'll continue the fight, I promise you. Okay?"

  Only slightly soothed, he nodded.

  "How are the physicals going?"

  "Slowly. Command has demanded we be very thorough so we don't bring anything back to contaminate the Alpha Quadrant. What that might be, I don't know. The biofilters screen nearly everything out and our tricorder sweeps of each individual would pick up anything missed."

  "I can understand their concern. We've run into some strange things in this quadrant. We managed to survive-" She lowered her eyes as she thought of all the crewmembers she had lost to the various malevolent forces in this quadrant. "Most of us. We'd hate to take some virus or something back with us only to have it kill others back home." She gestured to the room. "Even Voyager is getting a check up."

  "Yes, on my way up here, I ran into one of the roving bands of technicians they sent over here. They even gave me and my emitter a once over."

  "I'm not surprised. They certainly are leaving no stone unturned."

  Tiredly, she rubbed the back of her neck and he shifted around behind her to massage it.

  "Captain?"

  "Hmm?"

  "Is there any word on when Mr. Paris will be coming back? I could use him with these physicals."

  "I don't know. I haven't talked to him since earlier today and all Pardan or Raven will say is he's talking with their commanding officer and he'll be back when he's back."

  "You are tensing up again. That vagueness worries you."

  "It doesn't you?"

  "Well, yes."

  She shifted away and looked up at him through narrowed eyes. "You miss him when he's not in Sickbay, despite your complaints about him and his attitude."

  The EMH assumed feigned indifference. "He is an extra pair of hands."

  Kathryn nodded, trying to restrain her smile. "I'm sure he'll be back soon, Doctor."

  -------

  "Progress report," Alpha Two commanded.

  Handing a padd across the desk of The Diogenes' current ranking officer, Raven shook his head. "Not much yet, sir. What we do have is in there."

  The male seated behind the desk quickly scanned the contents of the report. "There is very little here that we did not already know from their logs."

  "No, sir."

  He set the padd aside and regarded the human at attention before him. "I expected more from you, Raven."

  "And you will receive more. I have established contact with Lieutenant Torres. It won't be long before she is ready to tell me anything I want. The others are beginning to respond as well."

  "Good."

  "Have you had any luck with him?"

  "Not yet, but it is early. The last time we tried to break him it took days."

  "Perhaps I could-"

  "He is my concern. Voyager and the team we sent over are yours. How has the Team responded to the fact we have him in custody?"

  "They seem to be taking it in stride. They have their orders and are following them as they should."

  "If it became necessary, would they kill him?"

  "He is in custody. Why would it be necessary?"

  "Merely a question."

  "If it became necessary, they would, of course. It is their duty."

  "Will they really follow your orders on this?" He appraised the human across the desk from him. "They have not bonded with you as they did with -"

  Raven's jaw clenched. "They are my team now. They will follow my orders. If I tell them to kill him, they will."

  "Ah, but will they?"

  "They are AlphaOmegans. I have seen no indication of any discontent. They are loyal to me now."

  Not commenting, the Vulcan merely watched him.

  -------

  'Keep calm. Think of something else.'

  For hours, Tom repeated his mantra over and over to himself as he lay on his back in the Box. Once Alpha Two had tossed his limp form inside the barely large enough space and thrown the lid closed, there had been nothing but darkness and silence. Being in there terrified him. He hated being confined, not being able to use the senses so many years of training had heightened for him. The only sense left for him, was the sense of touch. He could feel the sides of the Box pressed against him everywhere. With all the

  funerals Tom had attended over the years, he never had wondered, as others around him sometimes morbidly would, what it would feel like to be in the deceased's shoes. He knew first hand what it was like to be in a coffin. Except with him in this coffin, he knew that eventually he would be released.

  'Only to move to the next part of the torture,' he reminded himself.

  'Think of something else.'

  But the only thing he could think of was the time Voyager traveled through the nebula and all but Seven and the Doctor were forced to take to stasis chambers to survive the trip. Tom's friends had kept to themselves their curiosity as to the reason for Tom's fear of the stasis chamber and his subsequent escapes from it. All except Harry, who still ribbed him about his claustrophobia from time to time, and never would know the time spent in this Box was the source of his very rational fear.

  'Harry,' Tom mentally sighed sadly.

  The grinning face of his "little brother" came to Tom's mind and his once saying he wished he were like Tom.

  'Still want to be like me, Harry?' he mentally asked the illusion of Harry.

  The Harry in his mind could not meet Tom's eyes.

  'I thought not.'

  Abruptly the lid of the box was wrenched open and he was dragged out for the second part of this torture to begin.

  ------

  No one questioned Zji leaving the former Rachar Royal Palace with a market basket over her arm early the next morning. E'Arte often ordered her to go out before he awoke in order to fetch for his breakfast certain essential delicacies the farmers brought to the market. He could as easily have demanded them brought to his residence by the
farmers themselves yet he did not. He took pleasure in the idea of Zji having to get out of bed to obey his commands only a couple short hours after he had permitted her to go there. He felt depriving her of sleep was a reminder to her of his power over her. Not that she ever seemed to require such reminders. Zji appeared resigned to her fate.

  But appearances were deceiving. As she entered the market place, a young boy bumped into her, seemingly by accident. When they parted, he had secreted in his ragged clothes the datacrystal she had passed him. Both moved on as though nothing had happened.

  -------

  "But that'll throw the rest out of alignment," Harry argued.

  Beside him at Ops, Dumar stubbornly glared at his counterpart. "You're still not seeing it, Ensign Kim. Watch again."

  "I don't need to watch it again. I've seen the simulation nine times now. I could see it ninety times more and it still would not work. Like I said, the Borg modifications eliminated the need for that processor and reinstalling it would mean stripping all of the modifications in that section. We're talking days worth of work. Unnecessary work, if you'd just agree to modify your component. Engineering probably can-"

  "It cannot be-" He broke off at the small hand Souris, appearing out of nowhere, placed on his forearm.

  Both men had been so engrossed in their argument they had not heard her approach. For Harry that was disconcerting enough -- like anyone he did not like people sneaking up on him -- but after being so aware of her yesterday, not having immediately sensed her entrance surprised him. Now his hormones were making up for that oversight and all thoughts other than her vanished.

  A gentle smile and a look from her was all it took for the Cardassian to calm down.

  "We will investigate your option, Ensign Kim," Dumar gruffly agreed.

  Souris nodded and moved down the Bridge to where Pardan and Chakotay tersely were discussing the timetable Pardan had created for the repairs and why they were behind already. Interrupting the pair, she spoke so softly to Voyager's First Officer that Harry could not hear her, but Chakotay checked the chronometer then nodded and she left the Bridge.

  -------

  The doors to The Diogenes' main shuttle bay opened and Alpha Two strode inside. He stopped half way between the doors and Sunfire and stared at her.

  "I have Tom Paris," he told her. "He is in a Re-Education Room. Sooner or later, he will break."

  "Then why are you here talking to me, instead of there with him?"

  "Because I thought perhaps you might wish to save him further damage."

  "Meaning?"

  "Meaning, you tell me what I want to know or I move on to step two."

  "Which is?"

  "A not-so-nice surprise from Alpha Three."

  He let that statement sink in. Long ago, Sunfire had had a few run-ins with the Klingon female who was known as Alpha Three so she knew any "surprise" from her could not mean anything pleasant.

  "I'll give you until 1900 to decide whether you help him or I give him the surprise."

  Turning on his heel, he exited.

  If she could have, she would have thrown something at him. Preferably an asteroid.

  -------

  Harry's face lit up when he saw who was in the turbolift. Souris offered him a shy smile of her own.

  "Please state destination," the computer requested.

  "Oh," he blinked, "um, Deck Eleven." He frantically cast his mind around for a topic of conversation. "I have to thank you for calming Dumar down this morning. He's quite... forceful, isn't he?"

  She nodded. Given the near thirty centimeter height difference between the two of them, her trying to meet his eyes would have put quite a crick in her neck. Not that she even seemed to try to look at him. Her eyes remained focused on the floor of the lift.

  "I haven't met any other Cardassians. Well, that's not true. We had one on board masquerading as a Bajoran until she revealed herself. But are they all like Dumar? So... stubborn?"

  Smiling, she shrugged.

  'Well, this isn't getting you far,' Harry thought. "So, um, your ship's called The Diogenes? I think I've heard that name before. It's Terran, isn't it?"

  Another nod.

  "What's it signify?"

  "Diogenes was a man who was *said* to have been on a quest for 'an honest man,'" she explained in a voice that did rather pleasant things to him.

  "And-" He cleared his throat. "And did he find one?"

  She shrugged. "Whether the story is true or not is open to debate, but those who named the ship find the name and what it symbolizes to be appropriate."

  Unfortunately the doors opened at the Engineering Deck at that very moment and he had to go or find an excuse to stay. As much as he wanted to, he had things in Engineering that had to be done right away. As it was, he hesitated in the doorway to the lift.

  "Would you have dinner with me?" he blurted out. They were not the words he actually wanted to say, but the little part of him that was not under the influence of his hormones thought asking her then and there to marry him seemed a trifle premature.

  Big green eyes stared at him for a long moment then she nodded once.

  "1800? I'm afraid it'll have to be in the Mess Hall because Tom fleeced me out of the last of my replicator rations two days ago at pool, but maybe tonight's meal will be edible."

  Her assenting caused him to grin happily.

  "Great. I'll, I'll see you then." He stepped out of the doorway and into the corridor, nearly flattening a crewman who was walking there.

  As the doors closed, Souris found her smile fading.

  -------

  "Hi, B'Elanna. Raven."

  The Chief Engineer broke eye contact with Raven at Harry's chipper greeting. "You're in a good mood," she observed, walking over to the station where he had planted himself. "Any particular reason?"

  "Oh," he grinned, "let's see." He began ticking off points on his fingers. "Within a few days, Voyager finally will be home. I'll finally get to see my folks again. Eat real, non-replicated, leola root-free, Alpha Quadrant food. *And* I have a dinner date with the most beautiful woman on the ship."

  B'Elanna was amazed. "Seven finally agreed to have dinner with you? I'm stunned."

  "Seven? No, not Seven. Souris."

  "Souris?" She held out her hand, palm down, at a height of about a meter off of the deck. "Souris? The one with the big green eyes and long hair?"

  He gently raised her hand up so it was about 160 centimeters off of the deck. "That's the one."

  Laughing, B'Elanna shook her head. "No offence, Harry, but talk about going from one extreme to the other."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Seven and Souris. They're polar opposites."

  "So? I told you a long time ago, there's nothing between Seven and I. Were just friends."

  -------

  "How does it taste? Is it as bad as everyone complains Mr. Neelix's cooking is?"

  The Doctor's lips scowled at his dinner companion's inattention. About to ask what had her so distracted, he followed the path of her eyes across the Mess Hall to a table on the other side of the room. Then he saw for himself the reason for her distraction. At a table sat Ensign Kim and Souris, the Ensign talking in very animated fashion to a softly smiling Souris.

  "How does that make you feel, Seven?"

  Big blue eyes snapped to him. "I... I find seeing them together... uncomfortable. I feel... Angry at their being together."

  "I thought that would be the case."

  "What do you mean?"

  "Seeing Mr. Kim so obviously in the early stages of an involvement with someone else after he had been so interested in becoming involved with you. It is only natural you would feel a bit put out."

  "Mr. Kim and I never were involved, Doctor."

  "But he had expressed an interest."

  "He did exhibit some indications of that, yes." She quirked an eyebrow. "Are you suggesting I am jealous?"

  "Possibly."

  She was silent as she stare
d at him for a moment then rose and swept out of the room. Hurriedly, he followed after her.

  -------

  "She is upset."

  Harry's gaze reluctantly left Souris to see Seven and the Doctor quickly leaving Neelix's domain.

  "Upset?"

  "She was watching us and frowning."

  Harry frowned himself and looked at his plate. "That's Seven of Nine. I... I had it in my head a while ago that there might be a future for her and I together."

  "And there was not?"

  "No. I finally realized everyone was right. Seven needs time to discover herself before she becomes involved with anyone. She's still very much a child in some ways. It wasn't right for me to be pursuing a relationship with her, not when she had no real idea of what that was or what it would entail."

  "Yet you feel guilty about her seeing you here with me."

  He shrugged.

  Souris laid a hand over his on the table and he looked up at her. "If you wish to be with her, go."

  Harry stared at her for a long moment then reached out with his free hand and tucked a wisp of hair behind one of her ears. "I am right where I want to be."

  She shyly smiled and ducked her head.

  -------

  "Have you decided?" Alpha Two asked as he entered the shuttle bay.

  "Yes."

  "And?"

  "And the answer's still 'I have nothing to tell you.'"

  "And I do not believe you. Perhaps the surprise will convince him to talk." He began walking towards the door. "If not, there always is the option of the mindmeld again."

  "Which you won't do."

  He paused in the doorway and looked inquiringly at her. "Because you have changed your mind?"

  "Because you won't risk it. You didn't succeed the last time and you hate failure, don't you?"

  Alpha Two left without a word.

  'And what Awoke him scrambled his brains enough that even *you* are too scared to enter his mind if you don't have to, you sadist,' she finished to herself.

  -------

  Tom's head rose as he heard the Re-Education Room door opened to admit Alpha Two.

  "Good. You are awake."

  'How could I be otherwise?' Tom asked himself. The night had been anything but conducive to sleep. Alpha Two was pulling out all the stops for him just as Tom would have expected. Once he had been removed from the Box and returned to the Re-Education Room, it had begun. If it were not the lights unexpectedly brightening or dimming or going out entirely, it was noise bombarding him then deafening silence. Of course Tom knew all these tricks, had used them in interrogations himself and been on the receiving end of them too. And he knew what would come when Alpha Two discovered Tom had yet to break -- the pain.