"It's pretty old tech," Lakeisha said as she inspected the lock panel with her one good eye. "I could probably short the wiring and get it to open if I had something to pry the panel open with."
"Well," Danielle replied, trying to smile, "I guess it's a good thing I lifted this off one of the guards when they were walking me back earlier." She pulled a small knife out of the waist of her pants. "I slammed the guard into the wall hard enough that he didn't notice me pulling it off his belt. He didn't appreciate getting thumped like that. So, I traded a broken cheekbone for it, but if you can use it to get us out of here it was worth it."
Lakeisha took the small blade and looked at it. "I think it'll work," she said. She worked on the panel for a few minutes and managed to get it off. Inside was a tangle of wires connected to the panel Lakeisha had just removed. She began to carefully examine each one and was following them with her fingers from the panel into the wall as far as she could reach. Danielle's plan seemed to be working. Lakeisha had a look of concentration on her face.
“If you can get the door open,” Danielle planned aloud, “we can try and make it to the ship. Maybe even cause a little chaos on the way out.” She began going over what she could recall about the ship's layout from her trips to and from the torture chamber and their initial trek to the cell from the hanger deck. She remembered seeing a few guard patrols, so they would have to figure out a way to sneak past them once out of the cell.
Lakeisha had pulled several wires loose from the inside of the panel and used her teeth to strip off the insulation from the ends. Now she was tapping the wires to places on the interior circuit board of the panel. Occasionally, she would make a few sparks. Once the door vibrated but never opened. "I think I've figured out which circuit does what now, she said enthusiastically. "Let's try this." Sparks showered from the panel, and the door slid open.
"Now we have a chance," Danielle said trying to smile, but it came across more as a wince. "Let's see if we can make it to the engine room. If we don't shut down their power, we'll be right back in here again, or worse."
They crouched as low as their battered bodies would allow and began to make their way toward the aft end of the ship. She hated that in order to get the engines shut down, they had to go in the opposite direction of the hanger bay where their ship was being kept. If they didn't shut down the engines and weapons they wouldn't get far, so getting to the engine room was a must. As they went, the rhythmic hum of the engines was getting stronger. They managed to sneak past two security patrols, and finally made it to what appeared to be the engine room.
The engines were older, much like the rest of the ship. Once inside the engine room, they spotted one engineer leaning over the railing taking radiation readings of the engine core. Lakeisha slipped up behind him easily. The engine room was so noisy that he couldn't hear her as she approached him. She brought him down with a quick strike to the back of the head and did a quick search to see if he had any weapons on him, which he didn't. Then they walked over to a nearby control panel.
"So, do you think you can shut the engine down?" Danielle asked. She watched as Lakeisha examined the panel. Then Lakeisha started pressing buttons, but nothing was happening. She could tell that Lakeisha was starting to get frustrated.
"I just don't get it," Lakeisha muttered. "The controls are non-responsive, but they don't appear to be locked out. If I didn't know better, I'd think that this control panel was in display only mode, and someone was controlling the engine system from somewhere else on the ship."
"That's because the engines are, in fact, being controlled remotely," an all too familiar voice answered her. They both turned around to find No'tok standing there, his soldiers behind him. "As soon as your cell door opened, an alarm went off on the bridge. I really am disappointed. I had truly hoped that you would have chosen to reconsider my offer. If only you would have told me what I wanted to know, we could have avoided all the unpleasantness," he said as he showed an evil grin. "Of course, that would have spoiled my fun. Take them."
Four of his soldiers moved towards Danielle and Lakeisha and restrained them. Both Danielle and Lakeisha tried to struggle, but in their present physical condition, they were no match for the soldiers. No'tok walked up to Danielle and leaned in close to her. "Since you obviously have no intention of telling me what I want, even after our persuasive methods, I see no point in keeping you on my ship any longer."
"So, you're going to let us go now, right?" Lakeisha asked sarcastically.
No'tok started laughing. "Oh no, I'm not letting you go. I'm going to have you transferred to a transport ship headed to V'drell Prime. Our Science Division would love to have two Terrans to study. They'll probably keep one of you alive, and dissect the other one. I wonder which one of you they will keep, and which one they will gut?" It was less of a query and more of a taunt. "I don't suppose it really matters, does it? I'm sure they will be excited to see you. Unless..."
"Unless what?" Danielle asked. "We're not going to give you any information." She tried to stand as tall and defiant as she could. The pain in her ribs was almost taking her breath away.
"Well, no matter," No'tok replied. "Your usefulness to me has ended, but at least the labs can still get some use out of you."
During the verbal exchange, the soldiers that were holding Danielle had allowed their grips to loosen slightly. She realized that fact and took advantage of it. She lunged directly into No'tok, who was still in front of her. She managed a headbutt directly into his face, bloodying his nose in the process. The soldiers quickly regained control of her, and one of them punched her in the stomach for her efforts.
No'tok stood back up, holding his bleeding nose. Glaring at Danielle, he pulled his sidearm and leveled it at her face. "On second thought, the Science Division will just have to make do with one of you!" He started to pull the trigger, watching the defiance in her eyes, but then stopped. "You really don't care if I kill you, do you?" It wasn't so much of a question, as a statement of fact. He thought for a moment, then smiled with a sadistic grin. "Well, what about her?" He quickly turned and shot Lakeisha in the abdomen. She collapsed like a rag doll to the floor.
"Keisha!" Danielle screamed as she watched her friend fall. She turned to look back at No'tok, hate filling her eyes. "I promise you," she said through her gritted teeth. "I will kill you for that."
"I seriously doubt that," No'tok responded sharply. "I've changed my mind. I'm not going to send you to The Science Division on V'drell Prime after all." He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, calming himself down. After he was calmer, he spoke again. "Normally, I pride myself on my ability to maintain composure, but you have been a pain in my neck since we captured you. Now it's time to make the pain go away." He aimed his sidearm at her chest and fired. "Goodbye.”
She felt the blast of the weapon as it hit her. She didn't feel any pain, just a feeling of getting cold and dizzy. As she fell to the floor, the last thing she saw was No'tok standing over her laughing. The evil sound seemed to echo inside her head. Her last thoughts were of how she would never be able to tell the Queen what had happened. I've failed my oath. I've failed my Queen, and now I will die a failure. Creator, if you are listening, please give me one more chance to serve my Queen and I will do everything within my abilities to stop these monsters. Then everything simply faded to black.
CHAPTER 5
Pain. It was that sensation that caused Danielle to regain consciousness. Her chest was throbbing so bad that even breathing hurt. As she opened her eyes, she didn't recognize where she was. This room was too clean looking to be a cell, and it wasn't the engine room where she and Lakeisha had been shot. Lakeisha! Where is she? Is she okay? Her mind raced with a steady stream of questions. She tried to move, but the pain was too much. “Ughhhhh,” she groaned.
A man leaned over her. “Welcome back. You’ve been out for a while now. I was beginning to think that that you might not wake back up.”
“Lakeisha?” Danielle asked wea
kly.
“Your friend is recovering,” the man replied. “Her injuries seem to have been less damaging than yours.”
Danielle allowed herself a few minutes to think. She seemed to be in some sort of medical facility, probably still on the ship. Unless they transferred me to the transport ship, and I'm headed off to be dissected. The thought would have made her shiver, except moving hurt too much. This man, another V’drellian, must be some kind of doctor or nurse tasked with treating her. If she were to guess his age, she would have said he was around thirty years old. With shoulder length dark blue hair that was parted in the middle and hung straight on each side framing he angular face. His skin was a richer shade of purple than the other V'drellians, and his blue eyes didn't have the same sense of hatred that No'tok and the others seem to have. As she watched him take her vitals, her mind was trying to process it all. Why are they treating me? No'tok just tried to kill me. It doesn't make sense. She stopped thinking about it, because she didn't have any answers, and her head was hurting too much. For the time being, she would just let things play out and see what happened.
She felt cold and looked down at her chest, then realized the only thing covering it was what looked like a large gauze pad that had been stuck to her skin in the center of her chest from a few inches below her neck to just above her belly button. She could see faint traces of red that had seeped through to the surfaces of the wound dressing. Even though the gauze did cover most of her chest and left nothing revealed, she still felt very exposed. She tried the pull the sheet up over her, but when she tried to move to reach it, the pain became too intense and she gave up.
The man noticed her efforts. "Sorry about your leaving you immodest," he apologized. He gently pulled the sheet up over her shoulders. "You were unconscious, and it was easier to take care of the postoperative wound without the sheet in the way."
HIs voice sounded familiar to her, yet she knew that they had never met before. She puzzled over it for a few moments, then it came to her. "Your voice," Danielle remembered. "It was you that kept that guard from raping me."
"I intervened as much as I could in your interrogation," the man replied. "You can imagine how much interrogators like to take suggestions on what they should not do. That was before I became responsible for you and your friend. After your injury from Commander No'tok, we had to perform surgery on you to repair the wound you sustained. It offered us a chance for a bit of anatomical exploration of the organs of a new species, but everyone was given orders to make sure that your life was saved in the process. It seems that your organs are remarkably similar to ours, so our medicines and treatment should help with your recovery." He turned to face what reminded her of an old IV infusion pump, holding a bag of some kind of purple liquid. He looked at the readout on it and seemed satisfied with what it was doing.
"What are you pumping into me?" Danielle was frightened at the idea of alien chemicals being injected into her, but she was in no place to do anything about it for now. This new situation seemed to have a new set of things to be fearful of.
"This," he said pointing to the purple bag, "is a cellular accelerator. It causes damaged tissue to heal at a much more rapid rate. I can't imagine that your postoperative would is comfortable, and this will help it heal much faster."
“Thanks,” Danielle responded gruffly. "So, does everyone in the Dominion speak Terran, or just the doctors and torturers?"
"No," he smiled, "and neither are you. During your surgery, I injected you with translation nanobots. They attach themselves to the cerebral cortex and perform as needed translation of both speech and hearing directly in the brain. I'm speaking V'drellian, but you are hearing Terran. I thought it would help your recovery if you could understand what was going on around you. I injected your friend as well."
"Recovery? I guess your commander thought I was worth sending to your Science Division after all.” Although she wasn't sure if that would be good or bad for her, at least for the moment she was out of danger. A small island of relief in a sea of bad situations.
"Not exactly," he answered. "A member of the V'drellz Stragizi insisted that he spare you. No'tok didn't have a choice."
At the mention of the V'drellz Stragizi, Danielle started getting a cold chill. According to the Rylans, who called them Black Capes, they were the very elite spies and assassins of the Dominion. That name became popular due to the fact that the only two instances where anyone had ever spotted one, they were wearing a black cape. Their actual name translated means 'the Death Hand of V'drell'. They were the boogeymen of the universe, and if they were involved in this attack, it could mean that whatever was happening might go farther and deeper than anyone currently realized.
"Why would a Black Cape want me to survive?" Danielle asked, uncertain if she actually wanted an answer. Her mind just descended into a new depth of worry.
"'Black Cape', huh?" the man gave a low chuckle. "Now there is a term I haven't heard in a long while. You Terrans have been spending too much time listening to the horror stories of the Rylans. As far as your survival goes, he seems interested in you. Probably because you are the first Terrans we have ever encountered. Also, I believe he finds your determination to be," he paused as if searching for the right word to use, "challenging. As such, he wants to study you more."
"That's just great," she said dejectedly. "I go from being a punching bag to a lab rat, and now a psych experiment."
"Well, I wouldn't worry about all of that now," the man said trying to calm her. "You just need to focus on getting better. As long as you are here, my job is to do everything I can to speed your recovery. No one will be coming to torture you while you are under my care. I'll check in on your later." The man started walking towards the door.
"Thanks, uh, what is your name?" Danielle asked. Another tactic she learned from interrogation resistance training was to use your captor's name if possible. If she called him by name, maybe it would humanize her more to him and make him more sympathetic to her. That could mean the difference between life and death.
"You may call me K'oron," he replied. "Now get some rest. I'll be back later."
***
Upon exiting Danielle's room, K'oron found himself face to face with No'tok, who appeared to be less than happy. K'oron could tell from the moment he stepped aboard No'tok's ship that the commander had been very nervous at his arrival. Any time that he and No'tok were in the same room, No'tok always seemed guarded. As a member of the V'drellz Stragizi he was used to people being edgy in his presence, but there was something different about this. No'tok almost seemed like he was hiding something, and K'oron was in the business of discovering secrets.
"This is a waste of time," No'tok complained. "My men couldn't get anything out of her. You should have just let her die, and we could have thrown her body out an airlock. She isn't going to tell you anything."
K'oron looked through the small window in the door he had just come through at the woman in the bed. This woman was different than anyone he had encountered before. She had a strength of spirit that he had rarely seen. Even though she was wounded and had almost killed, she still had a sense of defiance that lingered just below the surface despite her fears. He noticed that No'tok was still standing there, so he turned back to face the short V'drellian man. "I don't expect that she will," he replied to the commanding officer of the ship.
"Then what is the purpose of this?" demanded No'tok. "So why are you playing nursemaid to them? The message from the Emperor said that you would be collecting information from any prisoners we captured."
K'oron gave him a cold stare. It was obvious that No'tok was not one for thinking when he thought violence would work. "You had an ineffective and elementary approach," he chastised No'tok. "Didn't you realize that, as an enemy soldier, you were questioning someone who has had a great amount of training to withstand your brutal methods of physical interrogation. When you hurt someone, you anger them. Angry prisoners don't desire to talk, and if you hurt them enoug
h they will lie in an attempt to make the hurting stop. We train our soldiers to resist the same types of tactics." He continued, "I prefer a softer touch. I find that prisoners share more information when you stop beating them, stop asking questions, and simply listen to what they say on their own."
No'tok's jaw locked. This man had practically called him an idiot on his own ship. He took a breath, and let it out slowly. "If you need me, I will be on the bridge," he said as he turned and walked away. You think you're so smart, don't you K'oron? We'll see how smart you really are.
***
After his shift on the bridge ended, No’tok returned to his quarters. He went to his desk, sat down, and pressed a button. “Open a secure transmission to Legate Th’arn.” It was time to report the outcome of the attack against the Terrans.
In a few moments, the image of a V'drellian man appeared. Legate Th'arn was one of the highest-ranking officials in the V'drellian government. He was part of the Emperor's inner circle, and as such, wielded immense power. Many in the Dominion assumed that Th'arn would become the next emperor when Emperor Glars'n died, whether from age or a usurper's scheme. No'tok believed this too and was glad that he and Th'arn had a long-standing friendship. "Ah, No'tok, good to hear from you old friend."
"This line is secure, Legate," No'tok informed the other man. "We may speak freely."
“Good. I trust your mission was a success?” asked Th’arn.
No’tok nodded his head. “Indeed, Legate. We went to the coordinates you provided, and soon the Terrans came across the border, just as you said they would. Their defeat was easy. For so many fighter craft, they didn't seem very prepared for a fight. Their larger ship was destroyed in a single shot.”
“Well done, No'tok. However, I understand that you have an imperial representative on board,” Th’arn scowled. “What was his reason for boarding your ship?”
Hart Of Honor: A Danielle Hart Novel Page 4
