by Marleena
food this time along with four water bottles which hung on straps
around their shoulders and that was all. As the burning
relentless sun beat down upon them, they walked across hard-
packed hot sand peppered with an occasionally desert plant
that resembled a cactus but with extraordinarily long spines.
The first couple of hours, before the sun rose higher in the sky
and it got hotter, they had covered a great deal of distance.
Running, then walking and then running again to put as much
distance as was possible between themselves and Htar. They
stopped every once and a while for a water break, being careful
to save enough water to last the entire day.
During the time that followed, their pace slowed and they now had
reached an area where the terrain was more varied than the flat
monotonous area they had first beamed down to. All around them
now were large rocks and in the distance they could make out
higher ground and what appeared to be canyons and mesas.
All along their arduous trek, Tom marveled at the half-Klingon.
She apparently thrived in these type of dry, hot conditions.
B'Elanna effortlessly trotted along through the heat at an
untiring pace He only wished he could say the same. Every hour
that past, he became more and more tired and more and more
sunburned. The nearer they got to the high ground and mid-
afternoon the hotter it became. To the pilot, it felt like
someone had rung the oxygen out of the air, leaving behind just a
occasional dry, dead breeze.
blacked out and plummeted head first into the sand.
B'Elanna looked back in alarm and saw that her husband had
collapsed. She went back to him, knelt down beside him and
rolled him over onto his back. Running ahead of him during the
last several kilometers, she hadn't noticed how much he was
suffering from the heat. Sweat streamed down his red sunburned
face and his clothing was drenched with perspiration as well.
She unhooked one of the water bottles from the sling around her
neck and held it up to her husband's parched, cracked lips.
"Drink Tom, drink," she pleaded.
Somehow through the haze he heard her call his name and he opened
his parched lips to feel the wet water-like substance flow into
his dry mouth.
"I'm sorry, B'Elanna," he murmured after she removed the bottle.
B'Elanna tried to position herself between the red sun and her
Tom to try and create as much shade as was possible. She used
her hands to gently brush his sweat wet hair away from his
forehead.
"Ssssh, you have nothing to be sorry about. Rest for a while and
then we'll get going again," she said soothingly. She hated to
insist on moving again so soon, but with Htar coming she had no
choice if they were to live and see the boys again.
"I'm sor-ry," he repeated thickly, his dry lips and swollen
tongue making it very difficult to speak clearly.
"I think I've got a plan Tom, we just have to walk a few more
kilometers to where the high country begins, then you can rest.
I promise."
"Plan?" he asked. His head ached and his ears rang, but he
fought to stay conscious.
"Nothing for you to worry about, it's a simple plan. All you
have to do is to keep moving a little while longer. Do you think
you can do that?"
"For you...anything," he promised. With her help, he stood up
again.
This time though, B'Elanna didn't run ahead of him but held him
around the waist to support him while they walked together.
Looking back every once in a while in the distance, B'Elanna
could see a small cloud of dust getting closer all the time--Htar
was coming. Coming for them.
The last few kilometers seemed to take forever to cross until
finally they both reached the base of the rise of red earth.
"We have to climb now Tom," she ordered. "You can do it, I'll
help you." Looking up at his beet-red face which had now started
to develop blisters, she saw that he had stopped perspiring. She
knew that this wasn't a good sign. It meant that heat stroke was
eminent. She had to quickly get him to some shade and give him
what water remained if he were to survive until sunset. And she
was determined that he would survive if she had anything to say
about it. She vowed that they both would make it back to Voyager.
Not saying anything, Tom nodded his head and the two of them made
their slow ascent up the steep slope before them. They were
about half-way up when she spotted Htar about a kilometer away.
"Voyagers!!!" Htar's yelled at them from a distance, his loud
voice could be heard clearly even from that far away. "Face your
fate! The hunt will end here!"
Tom crawl upward toward the top.
Looking back she could see Htar lowering his weapon. The weapon
chosen for today was a sophisticated beam-type weapon similar in
appearance to their phaser rifles. Commander Lodar explained to
them that morning, that the weapon had a great range and that a
shot from it could paralyze a limb or if the beam's target was
the torso, death was almost always the result.
Htar's first shot hit an area several meters below where they
stood on the rise in earth and sprayed dirt and small stones
where it struck.
"Come on Tom," she encouraged her husband. "We have to move
quickly and move now.
Trying his best, using tired muscles but with a profound desire
to see his little Flyboys again, he followed her example and
climbed up with her further up the steep slope. Finally just
before they reached the top, Htar made his presence known again.
"Voyagers, the hunt has ended," he sanctimoniously proclaimed and
lowered his powerful weapon, took aim and this time found his
target.
"Argggh!!!" Tom screamed as a burning sensation enveloped his
right leg.
B'Elanna acting quickly grabbed her husband by his arm and
pulling him with her scrambled to the top of the rise. Blessing
her Klingon strength, she reached over the edge and pulled her
husband up over the edge and out of sight from the line of fire.
Looking down at his leg, B'Elanna saw the aftereffects of the
blast. Tom's red sunburned leg lay lifeless beside his body
except for a trembling that would start up and fade away
periodically. Every time the trembling would start she could see
him clench his teeth trying desperately to endure the pain.
towards an outcrop of rocks that provided some shade and
protection from the relentless sun. Htar was still about a half
a kilometer away and he would still have to transverse the same
slope that they had climbed before he could reach them. She
opened a bottle of the water and poured some into Tom's parched
mouth. There had to be something that she could do she pondered,
/>
taking into account that the only weapons she could use were the
rocks that where presence in abundance all around them, a plan
formed in her mind.
"Tom, I'm going to get rid of Htar," she told the pilot. She
wasn't sure in his condition if he even heard her. He seemed to
drift in and out of consciousness, but she didn't want him to
wake and find her not beside him.
"Tom," she tried again. "Lie still, I've got a plan. I'll be
back."
Minutes passed liked seconds, questions streamed through her
brain. Would she have enough time? Would this stop Htar? Would
Tom survive? Would she? Would they ever see Kyle and Lucas
again? The questions only spurred her into action. She worked
fast and by the time Htar was half-way up the slope, she was
ready for him.
B'Elanna pulled herself up to her full diminutive height and
taunted the Hirogen. "Htar, you're getting slow. I'm over
here!" she yelled.
The Hirogen's head jerked up at the sound of her voice and
renewed his efforts toward her direction to reach her.
"You'll never make it Htar, we are too fast for you!" she
continued as she repositioned herself behind the large pile of
stones and rocks she had accumulated.
"Voyagers, you barely have enough time to speak to your gods,
soon you'll be relics to adorn the walls of my cabin!" Htar
boasted as he continued to get closer and closer to the top.
Seeing that the hunter was in the proper position, B'Elanna
called upon all her Klingon strength and pushed the pile of rocks
with her body, sending the rocks and stones tumbling down the
slope and towards their unsuspecting victim.
She heard Htar's roar of surprise and peeking over the edge could
see that the rocks had taken care of the hunter. He had landed
at the bottom of the slope and B'Elanna's rocks, as well as other
rocks that had been dislodged along the way, almost buried him
and the accursed weapon had been broken in several pieces and lay
in various locations all around the hunter. Hunt number three
had ended and none too soon.
Chapter 16
Soon they were transported back to the ship. B'Elanna took what
was left of the water and let Tom drink his full until he lapsed
into unconsciousness once again.
After what seemed like hours, Brizat entered the cell, and found
the man with his head resting on the woman's lap while her back
rested up against one of the walls.
It took all of B'Elanna's strength not to insult the Doctor when
she saw him and tell him and his whole race to go to hell, but
she stopped herself. She remembered that he was the only one who
had offered them any type of kindness or relief from pain.
Earlier in the day, Tom had told her what he had done for her
frostbite and hypothermia she had suffered yesterday. How the
Hirogen had gone back to their shuttle and retrieved their
medical supplies as well as the picture of Lucas and Kyle.
Pictures she now held with one hand while the other hand rested
upon Tom's chest so she could feel him breathe. Both comforted
her.
But surprisingly, it didn't require any strength at all for her
to ask the alien doctor a favor. For herself she never would
have done so, but this was for her loDalwI, her husband.
"Doctor, please help him," she begged her dark eyes looked
pleadingly at Brizat.
"I'll do what I can, female. He's severely dehydrated, I can
replenish his fluids easily," he stated as he injected the pilot
with a large ancient looking hypospray. He reached into his case
and retrieved another similar hypospray and reached across the
man and injected B'Elanna with a dose as well.
"There that should help both of you. But I can't determine
what's wrong with his skin, it looks like it is burnt?" Brizat
asked in disbelief as he touched his patients red blistered face.
He had never before seen this type of dermal discoloration on his
Hirogen patients.
"It *is* burnt--it's a sunburn," she explained. "A very severe
sunburn. I've seen him get them before, but never so bad that he
got blisters."
"I've never seen such a condition. Sunburn? We Hirogen are
apparently immune to this--it appears you are too."
"With my skin type I tend to just get darker. His skin is very
fair, he burns easily," she explained. "If we had known of the
conditions before we were beamed down, there were ointments and
lotions we could have applied. That is, if we had been allowed,"
she snapped.
The Doctor went to take out one of his regenerators, thought
twice, and retrieved one of the Starfleet dermal regenerators and
started to use it on the pilot.
Minutes passed, the silence was deafening. "Your mate here, was
very worried about you last night," the Doctor told her, breaking
the quietness.
Startled, but not only by his sudden words but the emotion behind
them, B'Elanna looked up at the doctor. "And I'm worried about
him today," she said simply in a soft voice. "He's been through
so much in his life. We finally . . ." she stopped suddenly
realizing who she was speaking to.
"He told me last night that you two were here for some type of
trip--he called it a 'honeymouse'."
"A honeymoon," B'Elanna corrected him. A small sad smile lit her
face and tears filled her eyes while she continued to stroke
Tom's hair. The Doctor continued to heal the sunburn, already
having to resort to a second regenerator. "This trip was suppose
to be our honeymoon, we couldn't take one before because of our
children.
"He told me. He showed me the picture," he said rather softly
for such a large man. He passed her some salve, and motioned for
her to apply it to Tom's parched lips.
"Do you have children, Doctor?"
"Yes, four children--two males and two females."
"Then maybe you can relate to how Tom feels, how much he loves
his sons?"
B'Elanna took the salve and lovingly spread it over the husband's
dry lips.
"You see, he's been very lonely most of his life. He never
thought that he could be loved. Actually, he loved me for a long
time before he told me, but it took some time for me to realize
how much I loved him. We are just starting our lives together
and now it seems like it's going to end, I don't know how he can
possibly be physically ready to participate in the hunt
tomorrow," she said the tears finally fell. She cursed herself
at being so weak in front of the Hirogen and brusquely wiped them
away with the back of her hand.
"I think I know how you feel, Voyager," said the Doctor. "I too
love my children and my mate, but I haven't seen them in over
four years. And now I don't know if I ever will again."
"I'm sorry," B'Elanna mumbled, surprised by the Doctor's
admission.
"And I can relate to how your mate felt before, for I am lonely
now. I miss my family and my home. It's been a long time, too
long," Brizat pushed thoughts of home aside and returned to the
present. "But for now we have to work to get your mate healed so
he can provide a challenging hunt for tomorrow."
"Do you have any idea as to what tomorrow's hunt will entail?"
she asked thinking that she could prepare them better if they had
some idea in advance of what the conditions might be.
"No, I don't, they don't tell me, but Commander Lodar will be the
hunter tomorrow and he didn't get to where he is today without
having captured and killed a lot of prey. His walls are lined
with a great many relics. He is envied by many on my planet," he
said with the sound of disgust in his voice that shocked the
half-Klingon.
"You don't seem to share their envy?" she asked noticing the look
of revulsion on his face.
"I don't, and the more I'm out here the more I hate it, it
doesn't make any sense to me anymore--now I just want to go home.
When I was young I saw it as a great challenge, but now I just
look upon it with disgust. I can see how much a waste of time
and energy it is, just to decorate your walls and brag to your
friends."
B'Elanna stared at Brizat who had turned his face to the far
wall, not believing what he had just admitted the alien female,
and what he had just revealed. The cell was silent for quite
some time save for the breathing of the three individuals
present. Finally, Brizat abruptly turned around, strode back
over to the two, and knelt down in front of the half-Klingon.
