by L.V. Lloyd
~~~
Hendriks was a large blond man just on the right side of forty, whom Ferris had admired for his expert efficiency before he had heard what Lin had to say about him. He was standing in the middle of his cabin, one shoulder leaning negligently against the wall, his arms crossed. He smiled grimly at the Lieutenant.
“How did you get in here?” asked Ferris, annoyance uppermost, fear just starting to flick around the edges of his consciousness.
“As First Officer, I have access everywhere, except the Captain’s quarters of course.” He examined his fingernails. “What’s this I hear about you complaining to the Captain about our little games?”
Ferris braced himself and held his ground. “It’s not a goddamn game, Hendriks. It’s got to stop, Sanchez too. It’s barbaric, not to mention criminal. If the Captain won’t act, I know Colonel Young will.”
“How about you just mind your own business?”
Quick as lightning, he stepped forward and punched Ferris hard in the stomach with both fists, one after the other, watching him as he doubled over gasping for breath.
“You can take that as a friendly warning to stay out of our affairs. Don’t even think about contacting Colonel Young. Remember, Sanchez gets to oversee the entire ship’s communications, so we’ll be watching you. If either of us even gets a hint you are still pursuing this you’ll get another visit, when you’re asleep in bed this time. We’ll take turns. Nod if you understand.”
Ferris nodded.
Hendriks bent down to whisper in his ear, “And that prettyboy you’ve been chasing? We’re going to get him too, only he might not look so pretty after we’re through with him.”
Ferris had been telling himself to just lie down and take it, to plan a counter attack later, when he was in a stronger position, but that last threat pushed his self control over the edge. He headbutted Hendriks in the face and followed it up with a punch over the heart. The larger man keeled over, blood gushing from his nose and Ferris started to climb to his feet. But then Sanchez stepped through the doorway and kicked him hard in the kidneys and he was down on the floor again.
“You can’t win you know,” Sanchez said conversationally. “You’re just making things worse for yourself.”
He caught hold of Ferris by the left arm and twisted it as he spoke, twisted it with both hands until the bone snapped. The Lieutenant bit back a scream and swore violently instead. Sanchez let him go and bent down to haul Hendriks to his feet, “Come on, let’s go. I think he’s learnt his lesson, he’ll be pissing blood for a week. And he knows what will happen next time, if he tries anything else.”
Ferris lay on the floor for a few moments, getting control over the pain, his heart was still racing. At least he hadn’t been raped, that was good, right?
He debated whether to try and fix his arm himself, a task of which he was more than capable, as was every man on board. It was part of basic training. When you were out in the field you couldn’t depend on a medic being available for every injury, but then he decided that would draw even more unwanted attention.
After all, the injury had happened on board, not in the field, why wouldn’t he have taken it to sick bay? Even more importantly, he had to warn Peters and Lin immediately. He had just received painful evidence of Hendriks and Sanchez propensity to act quickly. He dragged himself up so that he was sitting on the bed and spoke into his wrist com.
“Peters? Ferris here. Can you get a warning to Lin and the rest of the men involved? I’ve just had an unpleasant visit from Hendriks and Sanchez, and they made some rather comprehensive threats.”
“Are you all right, sir? I’ll be right there.” Peters’ concern was flattering.
“There’s no need, I’m fine.”
“I’ll be right there, don’t move.” Peters repeated firmly. In less than five minutes he was there, flashing his ID outside the door to let Ferris know it was him. His eyes flew to the Lieutenant’s face and then zeroed in on his broken arm.
“Fine?” he remarked dryly. “What else did they do to you?” His eyes were scanning him, noticing with relief that his uniform appeared to be intact, but that he was moving slowly and painfully as he stood up.
“Stomach and kidneys,” Ferris replied briefly. “Rape was threatened but not executed. Thank god.” He looked anxiously at the other man, who had taken his arm gently in his hands, assessing the damage. “Daniel, they threatened you too, and Hendriks can access any room on the ship! You and Lin need to be really, really careful. Don’t go anywhere alone, especially your cabins.”
“I’ve already told him, but I’ll tell him again,” Peters assured him. “You need to go to sick bay straight away and get this looked at, make sure Medic Torres makes a record of all your injuries.”
“Yes sir!” replied Ferris looking at him quizzically.
Peters coloured up. “Sorry, Lieutenant, I’m right though. We’ll need evidence to back our case.”
Ferris was still worried. “I’m not sure now if I can send the report through to Colonel Young. Hendriks pointed out that all communications go through Sanchez and he will be watching everything I send.”
“I’m a bit of a com link wizard. Let me have a go and see what I can do.” Peters seemed to be forgetting he was talking to his superior officer. As if he suddenly realised it, he added quickly,” If that’s okay with you, sir.”
“All right. Just be careful, this fight has the potential to get extremely ugly before it’s over. But we’ve agreed we are going to fight, haven’t we? Not give in to threats?”
Peters held his gaze, his blue eyes serious. “Yes, I’d rather kill them and face the consequences, than give in!”
He looked away. “We better get you to sick bay, sir, that arm needs attention. Can you walk?”
“I think so, if I take it slowly.”
“I’ll come with you, you can lean on me if you need to.”
Eventually they reached the sick bay and Ferris gave Medical Officer Torres a full account of what had happened. He found himself studying Torres with critical eyes as he spoke, trying to assess whether or not he was part of this conspiracy of denial. Although Torres professed shock and amazement, Ferris thought he must have had his suspicions. Had none of the men come to him for help? Or was the whole command structure rotten? Still, he didn’t want to alienate anyone unnecessarily. He needed all the help he could get to expose this abuse.
He spoke confidently to Torres as if he knew he could rely on his support. “I have reported this to Colonel Young on Capella. I expect he’ll send a team to investigate as soon as possible, he won’t let this last for a day longer than he must. As far as I am aware, only two men are actually committing this exploitation, and one condoning it. Admittedly they are the three highest ranking officers, but by the same token they are only three men. If the rest of us stick together we should be able to keep them in check until Colonel Young arrives.”
Torres nodded slowly, but as if he wasn’t quite so certain. He set the break and covered the arm in plasfoam to keep it immobile while it healed, and gave Ferris some tablets to help his kidneys recover. The stomach ache he could do little about, except give him some anaesthetic spray for the bruising.
Peters, who had been waiting patiently outside, walked back with Ferris to his cabin. “I don’t think you should stay here, sir, not by yourself.”
The Lieutenant had been thinking much the same, although his concern was for the other two men.
“How would you and Lin feel about bunking down in my cabin for the night? We could take turns to keep an armed watch, with stunners. I may be over-reacting, but I’d rather lose a bit of sleep than get another broken arm!” He looked uncomfortable, “Does Lin know I’m an om?”
Peters shrugged. “I don’t know, sir. I’ll tell him if you like.” He gave a wry smile, “Do you realise how ironic this is? You’re the only officer who is an om, and you’re the only one we can trus
t!”
Ferris winced and glanced at Peters apologetically. “You can tell Lin that I made an oath to myself that I’ll never get involved with another crew member again, if that helps to reassure him.” And you, he thought silently.
“Isn’t that a bit drastic, sir?” Peters looked a bit taken aback.
“I don’t think so. It’s the only ethical thing I can do, this whole affair has brought that home to me, strikingly!”
Peters left him at the door to his cabin, “I’ll go and talk to Lin and then I’ll have a look at sending that report. Perhaps you should go and sit in the common room, sir.” He added tactfully.
The three men met again that evening in the Lieutenant’s cabin, Lin looking sideways at Ferris’ broken arm. He appeared a bit uncomfortable but determined, and he and Peters had both brought their stunners.
“Good news, sir,” Peters reported. “I’ve sent the report off to Colonel Young and he is sending a team to investigate. They should be here in a day, or two at the most.”
“Excellent! I did wonder whether we should tell everyone what’s going on, but then I thought we should leave that to Young and his team. You’ve warned all the other men mentioned in the report?” he asked the other two and they nodded. “I’ll take the last watch if you don’t mind. Wake me up at 04.00.” He lay down, still in his uniform, on his bed, leaving the two crew men to talk softly between themselves.
An ear splitting screech brought him to his feet, instantly awake. His cabin door was wide open and Hendriks was already inside, swivelling his head to see what had triggered the brief alarm. Seeing no obvious threat, he turned back towards Ferris and squirted a tranquilizer spray directly into his face.
Hendriks smiled unpleasantly, “Don’t worry, you’ll still know what’s happening to you, you just won’t be able to fight back this time.”
The Lieutenant slumped back onto the bed, the spray already taking effect despite his attempts to draw his weapon. Where were Peters and Lin? What had happened to them?
Before Hendriks could touch the man on the bed, Peters shot him with his stunner and he collapsed onto the floor. Peters came out from his hiding spot under the desk and looked apologetically at Ferris. “I’m sorry I wasn’t quick enough, sir. Are you all right?”
Ferris managed to nod. “Lin?” he croaked.
“In the cabin opposite, keeping watch,” answered Peters, with some satisfaction. “He’s the one who made that god awful noise. We thought we’d be safer if we weren’t all in here together, just in case they used gas or something similar.”
“Good thinking,” Ferris applauded. “What are you planning to do with Hendriks?”
“I thought I’d ask a couple of the crew over there with Lin to carry him back to his quarters. We should have that last little incident on record,” he gestured with the camcorder in his left hand. “But he doesn’t know that. Let him wake up in the morning and worry about what happened. If that meets with your approval, sir?”
“Fine by me.” he yawned. “Do you think it’s safe for me to go back to sleep? I’m struggling to stay awake here, that tranquillizer spray is knocking me out.” Ferris was wondering why they had even bothered to include him in the plan, the other men evidently had things well in hand. Oh well, he supposed someone had to be the bait.
“We’ll keep watch for the rest of the night, just in case.” Peters stepped over Hendriks, and called Khan and Jaffrey across from the small group of men gathered in the passage, to take him away.
Lin was smiling grimly. “Are you sure we can’t just toss him out an airlock?” he asked, looking down at the unconscious figure, only half joking.