To Tell The Truth Series 05 Turning Point
Page 16
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"Lay him down here."
The four Rachar did as instructed by the elderly female. The injured male they had dug out of the rubble did not make a sound as they transferred him from the makeshift stretcher to the blanket covered, long table that usually served as the house's kitchen table.
"Are you sure this is wise, Sme?" Kni whispered to the old female. "Bringing him here to your house. What if he is a P'Chi in disguise?"
Wringing out the cloth she had plunged into the bowl of warm water, Sme shrugged. "If he dies, we will never know one way or the other. At least with him here I can be on the scene if he needs further medical atten-" She broke off and stared along with the others at the water that was becoming increasingly red with each rinsing of the cloth she was using to bathe the patient. "You," she said, pointing to Mksa where he stood, gaping with the other two Verta. "Behind you is a stack of clean cloths and another bowl of water. Bring them here."
Mksa did as ordered and handed them over. The dirty cloth was set aside and the bowl of red water was handed to Kni for tossing out of the door and the bowl to be rinsed out.
Another swipe at the liquid dribbling from the patient's head wound and the white cloth in Sme's hand came away red again.
Returning from dumping out the dirty water and leaving the bowl in the wash basin, Kni frowned at the cloth along with everyone else. "What is he? He's not Rachar or Gherop. What species has red bodily fluids?"
"I don't know," the physician sighed, shaking her head as her eyes ran over the patient. "But he is injured and needs our help. Remove his clothing. I need to check the rest of him for injuries."
Finding the device they could not recognize strapped to his wrist and the knife they could stuffed in its sheath in his boot was not as startling as what they found when they removed the last of his clothing. They all stared, stunned, at the body before them. None of them had ever seen a Rachar, or Gherop for that matter, with the "extra bits" as one of the younger Rachar among them muttered to his nearest neighbor.
Even the old female who had seen all manner of things in her long life could not help but keep sneaking glances at the oddity as she washed her patient and assessed his injuries. "He -- providing he is male -- appears to have internal injuries and a bad head wound. The latter's probably from that rock that was lying next to his head. I'm sure it had on it some of this... blood for lack of a better descriptor."
"When will he awake so we can question him?"
"I don't know. Could be any time now. Could be never. You remember what it was like after the Kla Kwi cave-in."
Kni nodded. Some of the few who had survived Kla Kwi had had head injuries too. Two of them still had not woken up and that was over three seasons ago. But their families still lived in hope that one day they would return to them. "So we wait."
"Yes. I'm going to treat his injuries as best I can, but I can tell you right now, his internal layout is as strange as his exterior. Things aren't where they should be. I cannot risk opening him up to fix the damage, only to kill him in the process."
"Understood. I'll leave two of my people here to help you with him. If he awakes, you know how to contact me."
With a nod and a last look at the "extra bits" that they knew no one would believe them if they described them to anyone, all but two of the Verta left for the long walk home. None of them wanted to run the risk of being caught out and about when the dawn came in only a short while. It would be impossible to explain why they were breaking curfew and why they were so dirty.
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"This is the T'Do T'Nar," the audio transmission declared.
Seated behind D'Ere's commandeered desk, E'Arte was glad it was audio only. He was sweating profusely at the thought of T'Do's impending arrival. "Welcome to Rachar, T'Do T'Nar. This is E'Arte."
The voice did not reciprocate E'Arte's friendliness. "T'Do will arrive in one interval. We shall land and begin preparations for his arrival. T'Do T'Nar out."
Grinding his teeth, E'Arte swept out of the room. "I'Nu?!"
"The transport's ready," the clerk responded, jogging to keep up with his superior's angry pace. "Our fleet has been contacted and is in pursuit of Voyager. The Palace is being readied. Your things have been moved out of the Royal suite and into the quarters you specified. The treasures have been crated and hidden. All the Gherop and P'Chi have been given their instructions regarding the story they are to tell about Voyager if asked."
"And the records of this?"
They entered the transport and it shot off into the sky for the short flight to the Palace practically before their posteriors had hit the seats.
"Sanitized and replaced with the same story as given to the P'Chi and the people."
"Good," he approved. "I don't know why T'Do's coming here, but I don't want him finding out about this... set back."
"Understood."
The transport landed with a gentle thump and they stepped out into the flurry of activity that had consumed the Palace and much of the Capital the moment the sensors had detected the fleet on its way.
"The T'Do T'Nar is landing," a minor clerk told I'Nu then rushed off about his duties.
"Let's go greet them then," E'Arte said with false cheer.
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Zji closely watched the antics of E'Arte and the other Gherop from a discrete distance behind her master. One of E'Arte's orders, passed along through I'Nu, had been for her to make herself presentable and to help the other slaves scour the Royal suite of all traces of him. She had ground her teeth as she had helped lug box after box of his things to his new and much smaller apartments in another wing. It was bad enough when he had been sleeping in rooms originally occupied by more deserving souls than he, but the idea of the monster's master possibly staying there, it made her blood boil. When they retook control of their world, the first thing they should do is burn that bed, royal treasure or not. No Rachar -- royal or otherwise -- ever would want to sleep in it.
Despite her anger, she kept her face neutral and her ears open. T'Do's reputation had preceded him. True, he was pampered, but he was not the least bit soft and cared nothing for anything other than what he desired. All of Rachar knew he wanted to pick Rachar clean of all it had and the Verta were hindering that. If he was here to remove that stumbling block, they needed to know before he acted.
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"This will have to be cleaned," T'Do's head servant was saying to his assistant who was making notes as they inspected the Suite. "Those windows will have to be opened and of course bring some of that spice he's become fond of burning." She gave a delicate sniff. "A lot of it." She turned to E'Arte with an accusing look. "What have you been keeping in here? Farm animals?"
E'Arte bit back his indignation. "It has been unoccupied for some time," he lied. "We were not expecting T'Do to come for a visit."
"This is hardly a tour of the Empire. He is coming to deal with your problems here personally." She looked around the rooms disparagingly. "Though I must say, I still do not think he will wish to remain planetside for long. The T'Do R'Tu may not be as comfortable as his Palace on the Homeworld, but it still is much better than this." She turned back to her assistant. "Once this is cleaned to standards, bring in the usual touches of home."
With one last glare at her surroundings, she swept out of the room and down the hall, firing orders and condemnations all the way.
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Once the Senior Staff or their seconds in two cases were assembled in the Conference Room, Janeway started the meeting. "Seven, you said you had figured out why Sunfire's systems keep having problems?"
"Yes," the head of Astrometrics nodded. "The refined yatelite waiting in the containers to be grown into crystals is the problem. In the ore's raw state it is harmless, but with this grade of the ore, once refined it causes reactions in any pre-existing yatelite crystals."
"And she has yatelite crystals already in her matrix."
"Yes. The reaction between the crystals and
the refined material is manifesting in the systems failures. She is repaired now, but if the ore remains on board her for much longer she will experience failures again."
"What if we brought the refined ore to Voyager? Will that be far enough away from her?"
"Yes. We should bring all of the ore, refined or not, plus the refining equipment to Voyager. Once the all of the ore is refined, only then should the crystals start to be grown. There should be no problems if all of the ore is set to crystallize at the same time."
"So we have to get this right the first time or start looking for more ore or pre-grown crystals."
"Precisely."
"Do it then."
Inclining her head, Seven left the Conference Room.
The Captain turned to B'Elanna's second-in-command seated next to Baytart. Her face betrayed none of the emotions she was feeling at seeing her temporary Chief Engineer and new head of the Conn Division sitting there instead of the two she wished to see there.
"Mr. Carey?"
"Projected time for completion of repairs is twenty-one hours, barring unforeseen problems," he responded. "As for concerns that this nebula effecting the shields, we've looked into it and there should be no problems for the time being. The shields are at eighty-three percent now and should be back to full strength in two hours. However, the longer we stay in here, the greater the chance they will be effected."
"Hopefully we won't have to stay here any longer than it takes to complete repairs. Then we'll be able to defend ourselves against any more Gherop attacks. Tuvok, any success in devising a defense against these torpedoes of theirs?"
"I believe Commander Chakotay and I have formulated a plan which will be successful if we are confronted by them again and they use their weapons at full strength. However, I do not think it likely they will risk damaging Voyager. It is doubtful they have changed their minds about wishing to possess Voyager. It might be just the opposite. They may have become more determined than ever to have her."
"Another good reason for staying hidden here as long as we can. Neelix, how's the crew after their incarceration?"
"Understandably, all are relieved to be back home, Captain," the cook/morale officer reported. "Some have admitted to having had nightmares last night. Most have shrugged off their imprisonment and are back to normal." His eyes fell to the table. "What they aren't shrugging off is Tom's death."
The Captain blinked rapidly and fought the emotions down. "Yes, well, that is to be expected," she said in her best Captain's voice. "How is Naomi doing?"
"Her mother and I haven't told her yet. She was one of the ones who had nightmares last night. We thought it best we help her get over that first before we tell her about him."
She nodded. "Doctor, any improvement in B'Elanna?"
The EMH shook his head. "It's been almost a day and she's still asleep. I cannot rouse her nor can I find an explanation for her to be unconscious."
"Is it because...." She could not finish the question without breaking down and thankfully the hologram picked up on this and understood what she was asking.
"Because he's dead? I don't know. The research on Shared Pain is incomplete."
Frowning, Chakotay looked from one to the other. "Is that what's been going on with B'Elanna? I've heard of that, but I thought it was rare and an unproven phenomena. But you think these weird aches and pains she's been feeling is because of some link between the two of them?"
"There is evidence to suggest it is possible, yes. I believe it is a residual effect from the incident with Raven and Mr. Paris' re-bonding with Lieutenant Torres."
"So she's unconscious because he's dead?"
"It is possible his death was such a shock to her systems that her brain more or less decided to shut down until it's ready to process it all. She's in perfect health except for the fact she's asleep and can't be woken through conventional means. It is my hope that she'll remain so until she's ready to wake up."
"You can't force her to wake up?"
"It's always better to let the patient try to wake naturally. If this persists, then I'll consider waking her artificially."
The meeting went on in even more sober tones until Janeway came to the last item on the agenda. Scheduling Tom Paris' memorial service. Unable to say it, she handed her First Officer the padd and turned away towards the windows.
Behind her his calm baritone introduced the subject and Tuvok, Baytart, and Carey chimed in with suggestions of waiting until the repairs to the ship were completed, holding the service in Sandrines,' and suggesting it be "a good old-fashioned Irish wake, not a service" respectively. Neelix quietly said he would prepare the food -- all of Tom's favorites -- for it and the Doctor and Chakotay began questioning Carey about what was involved with a wake. Harry said nothing nor did Janeway. Both were too wrapped up in
their grief to say anything.
With no other business to discuss, Chakotay dismissed the others and they filed solemnly out of the room. The moment the doors closed, he knelt in front of Kathryn's chair and laid his hands over hers, not speaking.
"How am I going to tell B'Elanna and Harry?" she whispered.
"Tell them what?"
She swallowed hard. "How am I going to tell them I'm the reason he's dead?"
"The cave-in's the reason he's dead, not you, Kathryn."
"But I caused it," she said, hot tears beginning to run down her face. "I caused the cave-in that... killed him."
"Shh," he soothed. "It was an old tunnel in ill repair and-"
"No! You don't understand. I. Caused. It."
He frowned. "I don't under-"
"I was tired and he knew it so he was telling me a story to keep me awake and moving. I was squeezing through this small opening when I started laughing at his story and it started the cave-in. He told me not to touch the walls, that they were unstable."
"Kathryn, you were trying to squeeze through a small opening. By definition that means not touching the walls is impossible."
"But it was my laughing that caused the cave-in," she repeated.
There was nothing he could say to this. If she were laughing and brushing up against the walls, it might have had some effect on the delicate balance that was keeping the roof aloft. It was a case of simple physics. He knew it and so did she. With nothing he could say, all he could do was take her in his arms and hold her while she cried.
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"Where...?"
Tom looked about him. He knew this place. It was the place he had visited all those months ago when he had had his ill-advised encounter with Chakotay's akoonah. Before him was the meadow with its huge dead tree and there, in the far distance across the meadow, he could see the leafy green woods that he had been too exhausted to visit after the horror in the dark forest.
The forest.
Warily, he turned around and his knees nearly gave out. He was standing on the verge between the meadow and the dense forest. Three short steps and he would be inside it. Tom stumbled backwards, away from the forest as it seemed to reach out its branches towards him. He had to get as far away from it as possible or he would be pulled back into it.
The meadow grasses appeared to have different ideas. They entangled his feet, holding him in place for the quickly approaching branches. Vainly, he struggled against them. Their hold would not break. He was trapped.
'How does it feel to know there is no escape?' Camet hissed in his ear from behind him.
The Greek chorus that was Tom's other victims joined in with an echo of the question.
'How does it feel to be trapped like we were? To know there will be no one coming to your rescue to save you? They've all left you to die, you know.'
"No," Tom insisted. "Sunfire's in orbit of the planet. She'll beam the Captain and me out to safety."
'But she wasn't answering your hails, was she? Why would that be then? Because she's been destroyed perhaps? How else could you explain her not answering you?'
"No, she was cloaked. She'd have
to be seen in order to be destroyed."
'Remember that cloak *someone* said they were going to fix properly when there was time? How long was it going to last? A few hours? A day? How long has your body been trapped in that cave-in? That long? Longer? Face facts, she's long gone and you've been left there to die.'
Suddenly, his terrorizers retreated as a little boy appeared out of nowhere between Tom and the grasping branches. The child just stared at him and Tom had the strange feeling he should know who he was yet he could not place him. Their eyes held for a long time. Tom's mind hazily registered the branches pausing and the grasses halting their tightening around his legs.
Defying the law of gravity, the boy floated up to eye level with the man and touched his cheek. A feeling such as Tom never had experienced filled him. He could not name the feeling. 'Curiosity' was inadequate, as were 'confusion' and 'worry' and 'awe.'
"Who are you?" Tom whispered, as the grasses released him and branches retreated.
The child did not answer. A small hand continued to explore the man's features.
"Do you know why the forest is back? It had disappeared the last time I was-"
The fingers of one hand inserted itself into Tom's open mouth to investigate Tom's teeth and tongue.
Tom gently tugged the hand away. "Can you speak?"
A frown of consternation crossed the pudgy face as its eyes glared at the hand holding his away from what he wanted to explore.
"Hey, you listening?"
The boy frowned at Tom now.
"How did you get here? I thought only animals were here. What are you doing...?" Tom shook his head to clear it of the fuzziness that was overtaking it. "What's happening? What's...?"
The little boy, the forest, the meadow, all of it was eclipsed by a bright flash of light. Tom tried to squeeze his eyes shut against the brightness only it was not enough to banish it. Slowly, he opened his lids a sliver, determined that if he could not block the light out, he would have to get used to it.
What he did not think he could get used to was the terrible ache he felt all over. Even with everything the Universe had thrown at him, he was hard pressed to remember the last time he had felt like this.