by Dayton Ward
Their idea lasted long enough for Reyes and T’Prynn to make it most of the way across the casino, less than a dozen paces from the exit leading toward the corridor that would take them to the docking hatch, when it was foiled by at least one attentive member of the ship’s security contingent. That was when they heard the first shouts of warning and alarm, and people began to look and move around in response to the added security guards rushing toward the casino as well as the neighboring bar and restaurants. It was at that point that someone, perhaps feeling lucky and thinking of the rewards to be had from Ganz after capturing or killing the would-be escapees, opened fire. Then all hell broke loose on the gaming deck.
“Lieutenant Jackson,” T’Prynn said, “we are making our way to the docking port.”
In his head, Reyes heard the security chief reply, “Copy that, Lieutenant. We’re here.”
Reyes knew that Starfleet security teams could not board the Orion vessel uninvited, and he had to wonder just how far Jackson and even Admiral Nogura might push things if he and T’Prynn got close enough to the docking hatch that the decision to render assistance became a very real issue.
I guess we’re about to find out.
“Watch out,” T’Prynn said from Reyes’s right, and he turned in time to see the Vulcan raising her arm to aim her phaser at two hulking Orion security guards attempting to make their way through the crowd toward her and Reyes. She waited until the guards stepped into the open before putting them both down with a pair of well-aimed shots from her phaser. Though he knew there was little chance of making it off the ship without being forced to kill at least some of the Orions who would be standing between them and the exit, Reyes had pressed for nonlethal force during their escape attempt if at all possible. Perhaps the gesture, small though it was, might at least reduce the amount of interstellar wailing and gnashing of teeth his escape would generate once Ganz reported the incident to his superiors. The Orion had to know Reyes was not operating alone. Accusations of Starfleet collusion during his time as a “guest” aboard the Omari-Ekon would provide no small amount of ammunition for whatever passed for an Orion diplomat airing grievances to the Federation Council.
None of which I’ll get to enjoy if we don’t get the hell out of here.
“You know where you’re going, right?” he asked as he followed T’Prynn out of the casino and into the main passageway leading to the docking port that connected the Omari-Ekon to the station.
She nodded. “Affirmative.” Reyes nearly ran into her as she stopped and once more took aim with her phaser. Another security guard had emerged from the concealment of a support stanchion and was coming at them, but T’Prynn dispatched him with her phaser. A disruptor bolt flashed past Reyes’s right ear and he turned in that direction, instinct guiding his arm up and letting him take aim at the approaching Orion. He felt his finger on the weapon’s firing stud before the movement even registered in his mind, by which time a harsh flash of energy caught the guard in his muscled green torso. Reyes cursed the weapon in his hand, seeing the flesh on the Orion’s chest marred as he was struck and knocked backward, his mouth contorting in agony.
“Tell me you have another phaser on you?” he asked, reaching up to wipe sweat from his forehead.
“Negative,” T’Prynn replied. “We must keep moving. It is likely that more security personnel are converging on our position.”
“We’re blind here,” Jackson said. “They’ve activated shields that block our scans. You’re on your own getting to the exit.”
Using various groups of evacuating patrons for cover while at the same time praying that none of the security guards would see fit to start firing into the crowd, Reyes and T’Prynn ran from the casino. Ahead of them lay the entrance to the gangway that would take them to the docking port and—Reyes hoped—freedom.
He flinched as a disruptor blast chewed into the wall ahead of T’Prynn, and they both ducked while turning to face the new threat. Reyes saw a group of six Orions emerging from the casino, and his eyes widened in recognition as he saw who was at the front of the group: Ganz, carrying a disruptor pistol in his hand. One of his subordinates was talking into what had to be a communications device, no doubt calling for reinforcements, but Ganz’s eyes were locked on Reyes, and the burly Orion raised his weapon.
Without thinking, Reyes brought up his own weapon and fired. The shot was wide, passing just to the right of Ganz’s head but close enough that all six Orions ducked for cover. Reyes grunted in renewed irritation at his latest miss even as T’Prynn pushed him through the hatch. Stepping over the doorway’s threshold, she slammed her fist against the control panel set into the bulkhead to the hatch’s left side. She dropped to one knee as the door began to close, firing through the narrowing gap to keep the guards at bay until the entryway sealed itself. Then, before Reyes could offer any sort of protest, she fired her weapon at the panel, sending a blue streak of energy into it and destroying it.
“There are still people on board!” Reyes exclaimed.
T’Prynn moved past him. “This will offer us only momentary protection, and even Ganz is not so stupid as to fire on innocent civilians. We must hurry.” As the pair set off down the gangway, Reyes could hear the sounds of fists pummeling the hatch from the other side, followed by the unmistakable reports of weapons fire. How long would it take them to force the locking mechanism, or simply burn a hole through the door itself?
The gangway led them to an intersection with two options. To the left, the passageway quickly terminated at a reinforced hatch that, if Reyes could trust his memory, led to a maintenance area and an airlock providing access to the docking port’s exterior. The entrance to the station was to the right, and as he and T’Prynn ran in that direction, they saw that the portal beyond which lay their liberation from the Omari-Ekon was blocked by a quartet of Orions, each already wielding a disruptor pistol. One of the guards, standing behind a small workstation, reached for something and the corridor filled with the sounds of an alarm Klaxon.
“Aw, shit!” was all Reyes had time to utter before the first guard fired. His shot missed and T’Prynn’s aim was better, catching him in the chest. With no other choice available to him, Reyes lunged to his left, kneeling near the bulkhead as he opened fire with his own weapon. He tried to ignore the other Orions shooting at him as he popped off shot after shot down the narrow corridor, and tried not to think of just how many years had passed since his last foray into close-quarters battle.
Something hot punched him in the right thigh and Reyes dropped his disruptor as he sagged against the bulkhead. He smelled the stench of singed clothing and flesh and looked down to see the small scorched area on the side of his leg. Though it looked to have been only a glancing blow, the disruptor bolt had still burned through the material of the coveralls he had appropriated as well as his own skin and muscle tissue. His eyes watered from the pain of his injury even as more phaser fire filled the corridor, but the cacophony died and he looked up to see T’Prynn running to him.
“It does not appear to be serious,” she said, raising her voice to be heard over the alarm as she inspected his wound. Reyes managed to retrieve his fallen disruptor as she helped him to his feet, before looking up to see all four Orions lying on the deck, victims of T’Prynn’s formidable marksmanship. “We have to go. Now.”
Even with the siren blaring in the corridor, Reyes still heard the sounds of heavy, running footsteps echoing over deck plates and growing louder. Gritting his teeth against the pain in his thigh, he favored his injured leg and allowed T’Prynn to assist him down the passageway as he looked back the way they had come, waiting for Ganz and his minions to appear.
Come on, you big green son of a …
He felt cool air on his sweat-dampened skin at the same instant his feet all but tripped over the raised threshold of what he knew was the docking port’s pressure hatch. T’Prynn guided him through the entryway, and Reyes looked down to see the familiar gleam of polished duranium deck pl
ating. How long had it been since he had last set foot on the station? How long had he stared at it from one of the Omari-Ekon’s viewing ports?
“Watch out!” he warned, feeling his heart race at the sight of Ganz and at least a dozen followers—only some of whom were Orion—turning the corner in the passageway leading back to the merchant vessel. He felt T’Prynn starting to turn in that direction even as she kept carrying him farther into the station’s service corridor, and her motion allowed him to raise the disruptor in his left hand.
“Reyes!” Ganz bellowed, his face a mask of unrestrained fury. The Orion, rather than stopping at the threshold separating his ship from the station, seemed to have no intention of giving up the chase. Less than ten meters away and still pressing ahead toward the hatchway, he raised the disruptor pistol in his massive green hand and aimed it at Reyes’s face.
Then, everything dissolved into chaos.
Phaser fire pierced the air all around him as Reyes felt himself pulled downward. Streaks of blue-white light flashed over his head, interspersed with the deep howls emitted by disruptor pistols coming from the other direction. T’Prynn lowered him to the deck before scrambling to return fire, though her efforts seemed not to be needed, as Reyes caught sight of at least half a dozen men and women in Starfleet uniforms. He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up into the face of a male Andorian officer he at first did not recognize. Then he realized that this must be Commander ch’Nayla, T’Prynn’s replacement as the station’s intelligence officer.
“Mister Reyes,” he said, adjusting his hold on Reyes so that he might help him move out of the line of fire, “come with me.”
Feeling a fresh twinge of pain in his thigh, Reyes allowed himself to be maneuvered backward by the Andorian even as T’Prynn and other station personnel retreated to positions of nominal cover at the first corridor intersection leading into the station. The Orions appeared to outnumber the Starfleet security detachment and were using their advantage to press their attack, moving forward while laying down a vicious string of covering fire. For his part, Ganz had taken momentary refuge behind the entrance to the docking gangway, leaning out every few seconds to take a shot with his own disruptor.
“Is he out of his mind?” Reyes asked of no one in particular as he shifted his weight off his injured thigh and leaned against the bulkhead for support.
Ch’Nayla, leaning into the corridor to return fire, replied, “It certainly seems that way.”
A shadow fell across the deck plating near Reyes and he turned to see Tim Pennington standing behind him, wielding the portable audiovisual recorder he had seen the man use on several occasions.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Reyes asked.
Appearing slightly out of breath, Pennington offered a knowing grin. “Right place at the wrong time. Story of my life, mate.”
“Mister Pennington,” T’Prynn said from Reyes’s right. “I should have known you would somehow find your way here.”
“Nice to see you, too, Lieutenant,” Pennington replied, before jerking himself back as a disruptor blast tore into the bulkhead behind him.
Another bolt of weapons fire screamed past, much too close, and Reyes recoiled as it struck ch’Nayla where he knelt next to the bulkhead while trying to return fire. Hit in the chest, he was knocked backward and off his feet, collapsing on the deck. One of his teammates rushed to pull him back to cover even as more disruptor bolts filled the narrow passageway.
“Damn it!” Reyes shouted above the din. “It wasn’t supposed to be like this!” Looking to where the security guard—Reyes did not recognize the young ensign—knelt over ch’Nayla, he asked, “Is he all right?”
The ensign shook his head, ducking as more weapons fire sailed overhead. “No, sir. He’s dead.”
From where he stood next to Reyes, trying to lean forward with his recorder in order to capture the firefight, Pennington said, “What the … is that Ganz?”
Angling for a better view, Reyes leaned around the corner to see the muscled Orion advancing from the relative safety of the docking port, his disruptor held up and firing at any target that presented itself. He seemed not to care about the hailstorm of phaser fire hunting him and his men, some of whom were falling victim to the hasty defense being staged by the Starfleet security force.
T’Prynn turned her head toward the journalist, gesturing with her free hand for him to stay behind her. “Mister Pennington, you are in the way. Please—”
“Look out!” the reporter shouted, reaching forward and grabbing the Vulcan’s extended arm and pulling her toward him just as a disruptor bolt slammed into the wall next to her head. Penning-ton’s movements sent her past him and back around the corner, making him pivot to his left as his momentum carried her after him, and Reyes heard another report as energy once more howled in the corridor. He heard the impact of the shot against soft flesh at the same instant Pennington cried out, the force of the shot sending him tumbling forward into T’Prynn. Something metal or plastic clattered on the deck, and Reyes looked down to see Pennington’s recorder where it had fallen from the journalist’s grip.
Then he cringed again when new weapons fire blasted away a chunk of the bulkhead to his right. He looked up to see Ganz firing at him from the other end of the short passageway. Some of his men lay unmoving on the deck behind him, and still others were running for the docking port and supposed safety aboard the Omari-Ekon, but Ganz was standing his ground. The expression on his face made Reyes wonder if the Orion had taken actual leave of his senses.
Then their eyes met, and any lingering skepticism vanished as Ganz released an enraged snarl and stepped into the corridor, moving forward with menacing purpose. “I’ve been waiting a long time to do this, Reyes,” he said, bringing up his weapon to take aim.
“Me, too,” Reyes replied, pulling his own disruptor into view and firing the instant he could sight down its length and see nothing but the Orion’s face. The energy bolt, discharged at the weapon’s highest setting from a distance of less than twenty meters, took Ganz’s head and most of his torso on its way into the wall behind him. Soft, bloody shrapnel painted the bulkhead around the point of impact, and what little remained of his body lingered upright for an additional few seconds. It then fell backward, dropping to the floor with a sickening, heavy thud.
Seconds later, Lieutenant Jackson and two of his security officers rushed forward, covering the other fallen Orions and verifying that no threats remained. Jackson was speaking into a communicator, and Reyes heard something about reinforcements, sealing off access to the Omari-Ekon, and requesting an emergency medical team for the injured personnel. Hearing that, Reyes turned to where T’Prynn was huddling over Pennington, who lay unconscious on the deck with a ghastly wound covering most of his right arm and shoulder.
“T’Prynn,” he said, “is he all right?”
The Vulcan shook her head, and Reyes thought he heard the note of concern in her voice. “I do not know.”
Sagging until his back rested against the bulkhead, Reyes allowed himself to slide to a sitting position on the deck. He bit back the pain from his own injury, at the same time allowing the first wave of relief to wash over him. After his long exile with the Klingons and the Orions, he was free, at least in a relative sense. There was no way to know what might next be in store for him, but at the moment he did not care.
A moment later, he looked up to see Lieutenant Jackson walking toward him, pulling his attention from his fallen crewmates long enough to offer a small, grim smile as he nodded in greeting.
“Welcome aboard, Mister Reyes.”
27
Amid the hive of perpetual activity that was Starbase 47’s operations center, Admiral Nogura watched the image of the Omari-Ekon as displayed on one of the room’s oversized viewscreens. The Orion vessel had just disconnected from its docking port along the station’s secondary hull and was now maneuvering away, rotating on its axis as it took up a course for open space.
“Good riddance,” Nogura said. Turning away from the viewer, he looked to where the station’s executive officer, Commander Jon Cooper, stood at a nearby workstation. “Commander, keep an eye on that ship until it’s out of sensor range. I don’t really care where they’re going, just so long as they go.”
Smiling at the comment, Cooper nodded. “Aye, aye, sir. Do you think that’s the last we’ll be seeing of them?”
“I highly doubt it,” Nogura replied. “They found a way to ingratiate themselves to me once before. Something tells me they’re not above trying it again.” It would have to be something spectacular, he decided, for him to consider allowing the Orion ship to regain the favored status it once had enjoyed. With T’Prynn having seen to the deletion from the Omari-Ekon’s navigational logs of any useful information pertaining to the possible location of the Mirdonyae artifacts, Nogura could conceive of no reason he might entertain the idea of allowing the Orion ship to return.
But, he reminded himself, you said that once before.
“There’s always the chance they’ll come looking for me,” said a voice from behind him, and Nogura looked over his shoulder to where Diego Reyes stood, flanked by two members of the station’s security detail. “But something tells me they’ll probably just cut their losses and call it a day.”
Nogura nodded as he turned to face Reyes. “Were I in their position, I’d likely do the same thing. Neera has an easy scapegoat in Ganz, and you did her a favor when you tied off that particular loose end.”
“Happy to be of service,” Reyes replied, his expression flat and unreadable.
Nogura gestured for Reyes and his security escort to accompany him as he began walking toward his office. “Given that the Federation now has every reason and justification to make life absolute hell for every Orion vessel in the quadrant, I’m thinking Neera and her bosses are more than happy to lay everything at Ganz’s feet.” In addition to Ganz being killed, several of his subordinates had been stunned and taken into custody by members of Lieutenant Jackson’s security detail. They had languished in the brig for more than a day while Nogura decided what to do with them. It had been his first impulse to have them all tried under Federation law for Commander ch’Nayla’s death as well as those of two security officers, along with the injuries to Reyes, Tim Pennington, and other members of the detail.
