by Various
“Of course. Put us on-screen, slave.” The latter was said to Tuvok.
Neelix gave Chakotay a quizzical glance. “Slave?”
“Most Vulcans are slaves to Cardassians or Klingons.”
“Oh.” Neelix nodded.
The viewer activated. Chakotay saw Gul Daro’s eyes light up at what he saw. Now sounding less bored, he said, “That Vulcan—he’s yours?”
Seska gave him a sweet smile. “Everything on this ship is mine, Glinn—at least until I’m given adequate compensation.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“Excuse me?”
Chakotay didn’t like the sound of this.
“Where does someone who drives a dungheap of a boat like yours have the cash to buy a Vulcan? I can’t even afford a Vulcan.”
Again, Chakotay let out the curse. The last thing they needed was a mid-ranking Cardassian with slave envy.
Rolling her eyes, Seska spoke as if she’d been asked this question a thousand times before. “I won him in a tongo game last year on Terok Nor.”
Daro still looked suspicious. “From who?”
Shrugging, Seska said, “Some gul. I never got his name—I think he captained a freighter. Anyhow, he was the worst tongo player I’ve ever met—never seen anyone confront with so little in his hand. He ran out of money pretty quick, but he kept playing. The guy next to me got his private yacht, the woman next to him got an exemption on her tariffs in the Bajoran sector, and I got his prize slave.”
Daro looked off to the side, then nodded. “All right, scans show you’re only carrying textiles. We’re only reading two life signs.”
At that, Chakotay breathed a sigh of relief. Kate kept insisting the life-sign masker Annika had cobbled together wouldn’t work; Annika had taken that as a challenge. For once, he was grateful his chief engineer was wrong.
Now Daro smiled. “I don’t suppose I could talk you into letting me take that Vulcan off your hands.”
Seska smiled right back. “You just said you couldn’t afford him. Besides,” and her face grew serious now, “I need him to help run the ship. Trust me, this is not a one-person craft. It’s barely a two-person one.”
“That’s certainly true,” Daro said with a laugh. “All right, Falrak, be on your way. I just hope your textiles will make for nicer clothes than Klingons usually wear.”
In a conspiratorial tone, Seska said, “Don’t I wish. No, it’s the usual eyesores. But they pay well for them, so who am I to judge?”
“We’re Cardassians—which means we have aesthetics. That’s who we are to judge. Don’t ever forget that, Falrak.”
“I don’t. But I don’t turn down money, either.”
Daro nodded. “Wise of you. Safe journeys, Falrak’s Pride.”
“And to you, Bok’nor.”
Neelix started to make for the flight deck as soon as Daro’s face faded from the screen, but Chakotay held him back.
“Bok’nor is going to warp,” Tuvok said. A few seconds passed, during which Neelix fidgeted. Finally: “Bok’nor is now out of sensor range.”
Looking down at Neelix, Chakotay said, “Now we can go.”
They went back onto the flight deck. “Good work, Seska,” Chakotay said as they entered.
Getting up from her chair and approaching Chakotay, Seska said, “Of course it was good work. I’m a Cardassian officer—a professional. Good work is what I do.”
Then she punched Chakotay in the stomach so suddenly that he had no time to prepare. His muscles contracted and he couldn’t breathe, the wind having been knocked out of him by the strike. He doubled over, trying desperately to get his breath back, clutching his belly and coughing raggedly, his cheeks burning and his stomach hurting. As he was about to try to straighten up, Seska’s fist hit his jaw. He fell back against the bulkhead, the salty taste of his own blood filling his mouth along with at least one tooth that she had loosened.
“This rebellion would be nothing without me, you hear, Chakotay? Nothing! And it’s about time the chain of command around here reflected that!” She then whirled around and pulled a disruptor on Tuvok. “Don’t even think about it, Vulcan! I’ve had it with all of you. We only got those parts for O’Brien’s ship because of me, we only knew about Ardana because of me, and we didn’t just get boarded by a Cardassian scout ship because of me! So from now on—”
Seska did not get the opportunity to explain what she thought would happen from now on due to the jumping kick from the foot of Harry Kim colliding with her chest. The pair of them landed on the deck in a tangle. Seska tried to get to her feet, but Harry slammed his palm heel into her face. Her nose now bloodied, Seska snarled and punched Harry in the chin, which sent him reeling.
As she scrambled to her feet, Tuvok calmly moved behind her and grabbed her shoulder. Before Tuvok could apply the nerve-pinch, however, Seska elbowed him in the face.
That distracted her long enough for Harry to kick her hard in her left shin. Chakotay heard the snap of bone; so did Neelix, based on the wince and expression of disgust he made upon hearing the sound.
Seska screamed as she fell again to the deck.
Harry, however, wasn’t finished. He kicked her in the face again, this time with the heel of his leather boot, then moved behind her, slid his arms under her shoulders, lifted her up, and then levered his arms upward, causing two more sickening snaps.
Now, Seska’s screams filled the flight deck. Tuvok, green blood pooling under his nose, reached around Harry and again applied his hand to her shoulder.
The screams stopped a moment later.
Throughout the entire scuffle, Harry’s face never changed expression. Indeed, his hair wasn’t even mussed. Now, though, he scowled at Tuvok. “I wasn’t finished with her yet.”
“Yes, you were,” Chakotay said before Tuvok could reply. “Good job, both of you. Put her in her chair, Harry. Tuvok, find me a hypo with a stimulant.”
Tuvok nodded and moved to the first-aid kit that was under one of the consoles.
“Captain,” Neelix said slowly, “is this how you usually discipline your crew?”
Angrily whirling on Neelix, Chakotay said, “This is how I deal with mutiny, Mister Neelix. We’re hanging on by a thread here. Any second, I’m half expecting an Alliance ship to waltz in and blow us to pieces. The only way to keep alive is to keep discipline, which isn’t going to happen with my subordinates punching me and pulling disruptors on my crew. If you have a problem, you can walk the rest of the way to Ardana.”
Holding up his hands, Neelix said, “No, no, that’s all right! I was simply inquiring about the differences in dealing with insubordination on your side of the galaxy. That’s all. My apologies, Captain, I am simply anxious about Kes. After all we’ve been through—”
Turning his back on Neelix, Chakotay said, “Save it.”
Tuvok was applying the hypo to Seska’s ridged neck. A second later she awoke to find herself facing the barrel of Chakotay’s disruptor.
“You don’t listen very well, do you, Seska? I told you that you were barely tolerated here, and then only because you have uses. You just proved that usefulness a few minutes ago—and then threw it away when you attacked me. By rights, I should beam you into space, and if we didn’t need you to get onto Ardana, I would. Once we’ve rescued Kes”—if we rescue Kes, he thought bitterly—“I may still exercise that option. Understand me?”
Seska just stared at him for several seconds. Then, finally, she nodded.
“She requires medical attention,” Tuvok said.
Harry was still staring disapprovingly at the Vulcan. “‘Requires’ is stating it too strongly, I think.”
“Take care of her, Tuvok,” Chakotay said as he took his seat. He set Geronimo back on course for Ardana.
As Tuvok did so, Harry walked over to Chakotay. “I could’ve taken care of her permanently.”
“We still need her,” Chakotay said with a shake of his head. “We won’t get on Ardana without her. After th
at—” He hesitated, then realized he had no choice. Seska would never follow his orders again, if she ever truly did in the first place. If that speech I just gave Neelix is supposed to mean anything, I have to follow through. “After that, Harry, she’s all yours.”
Rarely did Harry Kim smile, which was just as well, as his face wasn’t really suited for it. When he did smile, it looked more like a Klingon baring his teeth in combat than an expression of happiness.
He smiled now. “In that case, I can’t wait for this mission to be over.”
Taking his seat to Chakotay’s left, Harry continued smiling. Chakotay decided not to look at him until he was finished.
It was the better part of a day before they arrived at Ardana. As the orange planet came into view on the screen, Chakotay summoned Seska to the flight deck, but it was Tuvok who replied, saying, “We’re on our way.”
Moments after that, Seska hobbled into the cockpit, Tuvok supporting her and leading her to her seat on Chakotay’s right. Her left leg and both arms were covered in plaster casts. They had slightly more sophisticated medical equipment back in the Badlands, but it was at a premium, and they couldn’t afford to take it on ships that went in the field and could be destroyed. So Seska was stuck with old-fashioned—and cheap to obtain—remedies for the nonce.
At no point during her journey across the flight deck did Seska look at any of them—not even Tuvok, who was supporting her.
“You ready to do your part?” Chakotay asked her.
“For now—because I don’t want that halfbreed tralk to get her hands on Kes. But after that…” She finally turned to look at Chakotay. “We’re done. I’ll save Cardassia my own way.”
“Fine by me.” Chakotay didn’t bother returning her glance. He was focused on the final approach to Ardana. Once he was sure they were on course, and that they would be able to come in on a standard orbit that would put them over Stratos, he stole a glance at Harry and simply nodded, wordlessly acknowledging Chakotay’s earlier order.
When Harry turned back to the console, he frowned. “Picking up a debris cloud in orbit of Ardana.”
Tuvok stood over Harry and looked at the sensor data. “Indeed. Based on the composition and size of the debris field, I would hypothesize that it is the remains of a large, spacefaring vessel, one that was destroyed by a high-energy weapon within the last twenty-four hours.”
“That’s odd,” Seska said.
Now Chakotay looked at her. “What’s odd?”
“The composition isn’t just that of any old ship—the alloys I’m reading are consistent with a Galor-class ship. The mass is a little off, but that can be accounted for by the vaporizing.”
“She is correct,” Tuvok said. The Vulcan was now bent over the console.
After a second, Harry just got up and got out of the way.
Tuvok continued: “The Galor class was the first Cardassian ship to use kellinite for its exterior hulls. All previous ship designs primarily used rodinium or duranium, and the only other ships that use kellinite are too small to account for so large a debris field.”
Neelix chose that moment to pipe up. “What if it’s more than one ship?”
“Unlikely,” Tuvok said without sparing the alien a glance. “The trajectory of the debris radiates from a single, very focused source.”
Harry said, “If something happened here that caused a Galor to be blown up, I’d say it’s good for us.”
“Let’s hope so,” Chakotay said as he opened a channel to engineering. “Kate, Annika, is our ‘leak’ ready?”
“It will be in a minute, Chief,” Annika said cheerfully. “Kate’s just gotta make one last adjustment, and we’re good to go.”
“Good.” Chakotay rose. “Come on, let’s let Seska be Falrak again.”
Neelix and Harry followed Chakotay off the flight deck. Chakotay switched on the viewer and observed as Tuvok opened a channel. “Monor Base,” he said, “this is the trading vessel Falrak’s Pride, requesting clearance to land.”
A Klingon face appeared on the screen. “Falrak’s Pride, this is a secure installation. What is your purpose?”
Seska gave the Klingon a sheepish smile. “Repairs—both personal and structural. We were on our way to Khitomer when we got a coolant leak. When I tried to fix it, half the engine room fell on me.” She held up her plaster-cast arms. “I’m in no shape to finish the repair, and we don’t have anything like a medical bay here. I can’t risk going back to warp until this leak’s under control, and I have to be at Khitomer by tomorrow night. My slave is useless when it comes to this kind of thing—computers are no problem, but getting a Vulcan to fix something is like getting a Ferengi to give you a fair deal.”
The Klingon laughed at that, though which ethnic slur in particular amused him was unclear. “All right, come in to Bay 5. We’ll see what we can do for you.”
Letting out a long sigh of relief, Seska said, “Thank you, Monor Base. In exchange, I might be able to see fit to giving you first shot at our cargo—I have the finest textiles from Cuellar III.”
That got the Klingon’s eyes to widen. “Oh really? Well, we’ll have to talk when you arrive, Captain.” He peered down at his console. “That’s odd—I’m not reading a leak in your coolant systems.”
To her credit, Seska spoke without hesitation. “I took the entire system offline. It wouldn’t register on a scan. Trust me, when your engineers get here, they’ll know what’s happening.”
Neelix looked at Chakotay. “I thought the idea was that they were to detect the false leak that Ms. Janeway concocted.”
Angrily, Chakotay said, “It was.” He started striding purposefully down the corridor toward the engine room. He and Kate were going to have words about this….
Before he could turn the corner to the engine room, however, Kate herself came running toward him, her hair disheveled and the right shoulder of her coverall burned and ripped, exposing equally burned flesh underneath. Her right arm hung limply at her side, and she held a disruptor in her left.
“What the hell happened?” Chakotay asked.
“It’s Annika,” Kate said breathlessly. “She’s working with them!”
“What?” Chakotay couldn’t believe it.
Kate continued. “I was all set to get the fake leak going, when suddenly she whipped out a disruptor. I managed to duck it, but she kept firing, saying that she was relieved that she could finally be extracted.”
“‘Extracted’?” Neelix said quizzically.
Nodding, Kate said, “Her tone of voice was completely different. She said she’s been collecting data on us for months.”
Shaking his head, Chakotay said, “Dammit.” He unholstered his own disruptor as they came to the door to the engine room. It was just yesterday that he was pondering what Annika’s motivation was for joining the rebellion. Now I know.
“I managed to seal the room off,” Kate said, “but she’ll be able to get through that pretty quickly.”
Chakotay thought for a moment. “Let’s not give her the chance. Kate, can you get the door open?”
“Of course.”
“Good—you do that. Neelix, hang back—you’re unarmed. Harry and I will take care of this.”
“I don’t suppose,” Neelix said, “this is an ideal time to point out that I am quite capable with an energy weapon and—”
Whirling again on the alien, Chakotay said, “Hang back—Harry and I will take care of this.”
Neelix opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again, then finally said, “As you say, Captain.”
“Good.” He moved to the left-hand side of the door, and nodded to Harry, who took up position on the right-hand side, his own disruptor charged and ready.
To Kate, he said, “Do it.”
Kate had removed one of the panels on the bulkhead behind where Harry was standing, and now pulled three wires out in succession. The door slid open.
Chakotay and Harry both leapt into the now-open doorway with disruptors pointed
in front of them—but there was no sign of Annika, nor of anyone else.
Slowly, they moved in, walking cautiously. Despite his booted feet, Chakotay—remembering long-ago lessons learned from Kolopak before the Alliance came—made no sound as he entered. Harry was not so cautious, his leather outfit making squeaking noises, his footfalls echoing in the room. But then, subtlety has never been Harry’s strong suit.
While there was still no sign of Annika, there were plenty of signs of the firefight Kate had described. In fact, Kate hadn’t come close to doing it justice. Conduits, consoles, manifolds—all were scarred black with disruptor fire. Chakotay noted with relief that the warp core was, at least, untouched, but he wondered how much control they were going to have over the ship when they went out again.
He also wondered what was happening on the flight deck. Geronimo was moving now, but only with thrusters. So far, the artificial gravity was keeping her steady as she entered the stratosphere. Unfortunately, the screen that would have told him such useful information as position and hull temperature—the latter a big concern when entering atmosphere—was so much shattered plasteel, thanks to either Kate’s or Annika’s disruptor fire. Still, they weren’t being fired on, so he assumed that Seska was working her magic on that Klingon.
Of course, with Annika being a traitor, they may be letting us onto the base on purpose. He didn’t see a scientific base as a likely spot for an extraction, but Annika may have wanted to deliver Neelix to the same place that had Kes, thus providing both strange aliens at once.
Chakotay pointed to his left. Harry nodded and moved toward the starboard side of the engine room. Chakotay worked his way along the portside wall. He saw that the shield output indicated the heat from atmospheric entry, but nothing else untoward, which came as a relief.
Turning a corner, he saw Annika hunched over the environmental controls. “Don’t move,” he said.
She didn’t, to her credit. He inched closer to her, never lowering his disruptor.
Then, suddenly, Chakotay realized why she wasn’t moving. She wasn’t breathing, either.
Harry came up from the other side at the same time that Chakotay reached the body, which had a giant scorch mark in the chest. Now that he was close enough, Chakotay was able to distinguish the burnt-flesh smell from the burnt-console-and-conduit smell that was much more prevalent.