by Melanie
"The sooner the better. My crew's lives may be depending on it."
"In the meantime, you should rest," Sme admonished.
"I'll be fine now," Tom assured her, but lay down anyway. As far as he could tell, the damage to his body somehow had overwhelmed his Implant's ability to channel his pain into constructive uses and permit him to continue functioning. Now that the majority of the damage to his body was repaired, he hoped he would be back to operating at peak efficiency. 'But a short nap certainly wouldn't do any harm,' he thought as he closed his eyes and fell asleep.
-------
"Gherop ships," Sunfire warned and Neelix and the three males he had been showing around the Bridge looked towards the main viewer.
"Your cloak is working this time?" Neelix whispered, as though nervous the ships so far away could somehow hear him.
"Yes. We won't be seen."
"They are traveling in a rather odd fashion," Tuvok judged.
Harry nodded. "They're not hurrying at all and they're spread out, not traveling in a line."
"Almost like they're looking for something," the EMH mused. "Or someone."
The Security Chief raised a brow. "Sunfire, can you send a message to Voyager and not have the Gherop detect it?"
"All ready on it."
"Voyager should be safe in that nebula."
"Unless the Gherop see what an effective hiding place it is as we did and decide to investigate it," Harry added morbidly.
"Think good thoughts," Neelix urged, patting Harry's back.
Harry did not bother to acknowledge the advice. All of his "good thoughts" were focused on getting to Tom in time to save him.
-------
"Not again," B'Elanna groaned as she opened her eyes and saw where she was yet again. "Many more times in here and I'll be able to beat Tom' record for greatest number of stays in Sickbay as a patient."
"Not quite, but close," Sam grinned, checking her patient's vitals. "How do you feel?"
"Tired. What happened this time?"
"What's the last thing you remember?"
Her fuzzy brain thought for a minute. "Waking here. Talking to you and the Doctor."
"And before that?"
"Being on Sunfire. I'd just finished repairing her and she was being really snarky to me," she said, using some of the Twentieth Century slang she had picked up from Tom. "Then I felt this horrible pain in my chest and head and aching all over then I appeared here. And the Doctor was here then I don't remember until I woke up and saw you two."
"That's okay. Now you just rest for a while longer. Are you comfortable? Do you want another blanket?"
"I don't want another blanket. I want some answers."
"You need to rest first."
"I'm tired of this! Every time I ask what's wrong with me I get a run around. Where's the Doctor? He'll answer my questions or I'll rearrange his-"
"He and some others went off on Sunfire for a while. He should be back in a couple of days."
"Why? Where have they gone?"
"Back to Rachar."
"We left?"
"While you were unconscious. Now, how about you rest and I'll call the Commander and have him come down, hmm?"
"But-"
"Rest and I'll call him."
"Where's Tom? Did he go with them?"
This one was a hard one for Sam. So far she had not lied to B'Elanna. She knew if she did, the other woman never would forgive her when she finally found out the truth -- whether the outcome of the rescue mission was good or bad. "Tom's not here either, but I'm sure if he were, he'd be telling you the same thing I'm telling you. Now rest." She ducked into the office before any more hard questions could be fired at her.
When she exited the office a few minutes later to find her patient asleep once more, she sighed and called the Commander again to tell him not to hurry.
-------
When Zji and the other Rachar slaves on hand to serve the feast being held in the former Royal Dining Hall finally saw the male about whom they had heard so many terrifying rumors, they were less than impressed. On the short and rotund side for a Gherop, T'Do was overly dressed in finery and affected behaviors that would have been comical were it not for the one thing that proved all the stories of him were true -- the look in his eyes. They were malevolent points of grey and sent shivers down the backs of
anyone upon whom they rested.
After the complicated greetings were over, E'Arte switched to simpler and more to the point language. "Welcome to Rachar, T'Do," E'Arte said, pretending he was unfazed by the emperor's presence. "It is an honor to have you visit."
"This hardly is a social visit," T'Do pronounced, seating himself at the head of the table without a glance at the once more beautiful room. "I am here to deal with these people."
Taking his seat many chairs removed from the head of the table where he usually would have sat, E'Arte made no comment and none was expected by either T'Do or any of his entourage, currently settling
themselves in the chairs around him.
"Update me on this Verta situation," T'Do commanded once his food tasters had pronounced the meal safe for his consumption. "Your last four communiqués all claimed you had a plan to finish them off, yet you have not."
"Actually, T'Do, my plan was about to come to fruition when your fleet was detected on approach and they bolted."
"'They'? The Verta? I was told they did not have ships."
"Not, the Verta, Voyager and Sunfire. Surely your fleet detected at least one ship, if not both, in orbit when they came within sensor range of Rachar."
At a glance from T'Do, the captain of the T'Do T'Nar nodded. "Yes, we saw one," he said to E'Arte, "and thought there was another but it vanished. We assumed it was a sensor echo of some sort. My people are still trying to track it down."
"Well, you can tell them to stop. It was no echo, but a ship with technology able to trick sensors into thinking it is not there." He turned back to T'Do. "Some time ago, I received reports of Voyager and her unique technology. This was before Sunfire came to join her. I knew instantly Voyager and her technology would be quite the asset to our people and set about luring her here to Rachar."
"You should have just taken her," T'Do admonished.
"The reports of her needed to be verified first. And her crew would not surrender easily. They would destroy themselves and the ship rather than surrender her. So, I had her driven towards Rachar through a series of guided attacks then when she arrived, tricked her crew into thinking they were safe and letting us on to their ship." He sighed. "We were about to find out everything there was to know about her systems when they saw your fleet coming and were spooked. I have alerted our ships and they are out looking for
her, but I doubt they'll be able to take her without incurring much damage."
The tone of voice he used was short of insubordination and he knew he was daring fate by using it. Still, if placing blame for this failure could be placed, not at his own feet, but at those of T'Do's own fleet, he might escape from this unscathed. Provided everyone on Rachar kept their mouths closed about what really had happened here.
"I want these ships found." A pointed look was sent in E'Arte's direction. "I want to see these reports of her abilities and all other information you may have on her."
E'Arte gestured to I'Nu, standing a few paces behind his superior's chair. The clerk moved forward and handed a data crystal to T'Do then returned to his place.
Clearly unhappy at being deprived of giving E'Arte censure for not being prepared, the Gherop emperor shoved the crystal at his aide. "Tomorrow, I shall wish a full briefing on the Verta situation-"
Another gesture from E'Arte, I'Nu handed over another crystal, and T'Do looked less than pleased yet again.
"Tomorrow I shall show you how to handle rebels."
The look in T'Do's eyes as he said the last word made even E'Arte feel sorry for the Verta.
-------
"Captain, we're receiving an
encoded message," Harry's substitute at Ops announced over the Comm. "It's somehow decrypting all by itself." She paused. "It's from Sunfire. Audio only. One way."
Janeway automatically drew away from Chakotay's hands were they rested on her shoulders and hurried out of the Ready Room.
Sighing, he followed her. They had been discussing ship's business when Wildman had contacted him about B'Elanna being awake and asking difficult questions. Naturally, upon hearing this, the Captain's guilt rose to the surface and she had been determined to go down to Sickbay, confess all to B'Elanna, and accept the consequences. Only Wildman calling back to tell him B'Elanna was asleep again had stopped the guilt ridden woman from leaving. It had given him time to use all of his powers of persuasion to convince her to wait until Sunfire returned with Tom or at least his body before she threw herself on B'Elanna's mercy -- and he knew there would be extremely little of it in the devastated half-Klingon. When the rescuers returned, then she would know how much of the load of guilt she was carrying actually was rightfully hers and they could go from there.
As he entered the Bridge a few steps behind her, he still was not completely certain she was going to abide by their agreement.
The Captain listened to Sunfire's warning about the Gherop ships with a grimace. "We'll have to hope they overlook us or we get our repairs completed in time. I'll be in Engineering checking on their progress, Commander. You have the Bridge."
Now a woman with a mission, there was no trace of the emotionally fragile creature he had comforted and reasoned with in the Ready Room.
-------
Tom awoke with a start at the gentle shaking of his shoulder.
"My superiors have accepted your deal," Kni said from beside him.
"Good." He sat up and rubbed his face with both hands. "I'll need to get dressed then we'll get started."
He watched Tom get out of bed and begin dressing. "There is a condition."
"What?"
"We want into the caverns. We know they keep weapons and various types of equipment there. We want you to lead us into them. You stay with us while we're getting what we need then once we're out then you go after your people."
"I know you're just trying to be cautious. You don't want to run the risk of this turning out to be a double cross and ending up being led into a trap. I understand that, but my people may be in serious trouble here. I've already wasted too much time."
"That is the deal my superiors have agreed to."
Repacking his bag, Tom sighed. "You know I have no other choice but to say yes."
"Then let's get started."
It was just turning dusk when Tom and Kni, finished with their planning, left Sme's home and hiked to the tunnel entrance.
Tom was unhappy with the lack of intelligence coming out of the prison. He understood security was tight with the Gherop Emperor coming so the Verta spies could not sneak out information very freely, but hated going in anywhere practically blind as he was in this instance. Unfortunately, he had no choice. As long as there was a chance the others still were inside, facing who knew what sort of tortures -- and Kni had filled him in on some of the Gherop's more novel interrogation methods -- he could not sit idly by. He would have felt better if he could have contacted the ships or Janeway to co-ordinate rescue plans. The Verta said they could not contact Voyager or Sunfire and he still was not one hundred percent certain Janeway even had beamed up. The kids who had seen her "vanish" easily could been mistaken and merely lost sight of her in the darkness. For all he knew she was hiding somewhere out here, and the Verta had yet to find her.
Placing all his reservations behind him, Tom went along with their agreement. He listened to their grandiose plans for the newly discovered tunnel then simplified them to a manageable size and improved upon the logistics so they were not unnecessarily exposing themselves to danger. He did not want to find the crew by ending up being tossed into the cell next to them.
When they arrived, Kni gave a signal and more than three dozen armed Rachar led by Mksa hurried out of their hiding places a ways off in the woods. Earlier, Kni had sent word to Mksa of Tom's agreement to the condition and to gather tools and as many loyal Verta as he could to join in raid. Tom did not know if there were any others hiding out of sight as insurance if he betrayed them -- his sixth sense told him there were -- but he did not really care. The sooner the Verta got what they wanted, the sooner he would be free of this condition and he could go after the crew.
The Rachar were fast workers and deceptively strong. As he worked along side them, clearing the blockage in the tunnel and shoring up the obvious weak spots, Tom absently mused they might be almost as strong as B'Elanna. He quickly shoved that thought aside. Thinking of her possibly still a prisoner inside these mountains was not something he liked to contemplate, especially not after the horror stories Kni had told him on their way there of the Gherop.
By Tom's estimation, it took almost three hours before they made it to the grate covering the opening to the cavern they said they wanted. Signaling the others to stop a few meters short of the opening, Tom removed his bag from his shoulder and handed it to Kni, withdrawing his phaser pistol as he did. He checked the setting then crept towards the opening.
Still wearing his night vision contacts, he could see easily through the dim illumination of the cavern cum storage room. Towers of crates were everywhere. He could not read the markings, but that was not important. It was the Verta's problem if what they were hoping to find was not there. His problem was dealing with the two Gherop he could hear talking somewhere across the room.
Carefully removing the grate, he slipped out and replaced it before skulking through the shadows to a better vantage point. Since no alarms had gone off the last time he had discharged his weapon inside this facility, he felt it safe to do so again. After verifying his tricorder's information that the only occupants of the cavern were he and the two aliens unloading crates from the back of the small land vehicle, he felled them with two quick phaser blasts. When no klaxons blared, he shot out of his hiding place to check to see the maximum stun setting had not accidentally killed them. Dragging the unconscious Gherop into a far corner, he bound and gagged them then returned to the grate to help Kni and Mksa out to collect the items they wanted.
And they wanted practically everything they saw and he could not really blame them. He guessed the Verta were like most rebel forces he had encountered -- determined yet ill equipped to achieve their objective. This storeroom was to them like the proverbial candy shop was to a child. Almost everything here was of immeasurable value to them. Still, he tried to be the voice of reason and reminded them of the logistical nightmare that would ensue if they tried to take all of this with them. Naturally this warning fanned Mksa's distrust of him and only Kni's calm insistence Tom was right and they had to get moving pacified him for the moment.
In the end, they took only three-quarters of what they would have liked to have had. At Tom's suggestion that the fewer clues they left for the Gherop of what they had done the better, they opened the crates, took what they wanted from the contents then closed them up once more as best they could. The contents were taken to the tunnel opening and Rachar after Rachar were loaded down with as much as he or she could carry to the surface then come back for more. They had not told Tom where they were going with what they took or how they planned to get it there and for all their sakes he had not asked. All he wanted was for them to hurry up and get their stuff and get out so he could get to the crew's cells and see if they still were there.
Picking up his bag from the cavern floor near the opening, he gestured to Kni and Mksa that it was time to go, the Gherop would be waking soon. With a last look around to ensure they had left no traces of their visit, they took the last loads into the tunnel.
Not joining Kni in the tunnel, Tom nodded to him. "This is where we part company," he told him, handing his load to another Rachar who appeared behind Kni.
"I'll wait in the woods for you," the Ve
rta cell leader reminded him, "but only until just before daybreak. If you can free your people, bring them there and I'll guide you all to a safe place. Good luck to you."
"And you." Tom replaced the grate, jogged to the smaller of the two doors to the hall, then slipped out once his tricorder said all was clear.
-------
In the tunnel, Mksa and Kni exchanged looks.
"All in place," the former told the latter.
Kni nodded then they continued up the tunnel with their booty.
-------
All of Tom's efforts turned to be for nothing. When he finally made it down to the level where the crew was supposed to have been being held, he found only empty cells and very nearly trouble. He had snuck out of there only seconds before a group of Gherop stomped through on patrol, grumbling about their increased workload, being forced to return to the behaviors dictated by T'Do's court, and why they had to guard empty cells. Continuing down the stairs towards the maximum security level where they had
incarcerated Janeway, he found no tricorder readings corresponding to the crew and only a few for Gherop. Deciding they had to have been moved elsewhere or beamed out by Sunfire after all, he made his way to the fifth level entrance to the tunnel.
-------
In one of the quarters on the second level, two female Rachar and a male watched on a monitor the pseudo-Rachar's "tour" of the Stronghold then disappearance through a grate when he was alone in the hallway. Using the computer access their positions as trusted friends of the Gherop provided, plus the advanced computer skills of one of them, they had circumvented the Gherop's own security system and had hidden Tom's wanderings from them. One false move on his part and they would have revealed all, but he had not done anything suspect so they permitted him to escape.
Once the monitor showed only the hallway and the occasional Rachar or Gherop passing down it, the hacker extricated herself from the Gherop systems and turned to her companions.
The male nodded to the second female who picked up her cleaning supplies -- her pretence for having been in his quarters -- and left on her errand. The other two remained behind for a few minutes more then messed their hair and clothing and went to the hall where they made a show of a long, affectionate, and very reluctant farewell. Any Rachar or Gherop paid the pair no mind. These two had established this cover long ago and now to see them like this was commonplace, though most could not see what she apparently
