By Rada Dengar and Dabin Reece
100122.2300
After Risking Everything
-=Former base camp on Sibalt=-
100122.2300
After Risking Everything
-=Former base camp on Sibalt=-
Jelca Rued was no longer amused. She had left Reece behind and transported to the campsite in the hopes of persuading the Serendipity crew that all was well and there was no reason to search the woods.
When she arrived, she found the camp empty. She was too late.
They had already long since gone, heading off in each direction if the footprints were any indication. She activated her comm to try and raise her comrades, but for some reason it was not working.
*Curses, * she thought, *they probably found the tunnels. * And if someone had found the tunnels, there was a good chance they would find Dabin Reece as well.
Jelca activated her transporter, intending to place herself about one hundred meters away from her compound. When she materialized, she saw the one called Steele in the distance, at the entrance to the compound.
They were indeed inside, which explained why her communications device was not working. She had most likely been cut off from access. Infuriatingly, if she was going to get in contact with the others she would have to do it the old fashioned way: on foot.
Complicating matters, as soon as she took off into the woods the temperature suddenly began to rise, meaning they now had control of the weather net as well. So much for her plan to freeze Reece’s friends to death while she reveled in his agony. In her frustration Jelca let loose with a series of Sveji curses through gritted teeth, punctuated by kicking the snow in front of her, sending a spray through the nearby trees.
There was no doubt either that if Zanh’s people had found the communications equipment, they would have been able to use the public address system to call in their other search parties. This location would be swarming with Sera crew soon enough.
Still refusing to be discouraged Jelca circled the perimeter, where she knew the secret entrances were located. Without wasting a moment of time she gathered up what men she could, six in total was all she had left here, and they all immediately began the trek back to the entrance where she had seen the one called Steele. If they were going to try to get Reece out, that is where it would be.
As they approached the entrance, Jelca motioned for her men to crouch down low so as not be seen. Steele was squinting in their direction, and Jelca worried they may have been spotted. She was not looking directly at them however, rather she was glancing into a nearby tree and it piqued Jelca’s curiosity. She followed the line of Steele’s gaze and saw the one called Jariel in the tree, motioning with his hands.
Landry then turned, looking straight at Jelca and her men.
Suddenly her eyes flew wide open and then in a rare moment of a truly impressive physical reaction she’d jumped down into the tunnels within the blink of an eye.
“They know we’re here.” Jelca hissed, knowing that with the Serendipity crew’s greater numbers that letting their position be given away was not a mistake they could afford. Jelca instantly decided that it was a mistake she would not repeat.
She quickly drew her weapon and fired up into the nearby tree. The branch Jariel was perched on snapped, and the Vedek began to fall, grasping for branches on the way down. He hit the ground with a thud on his back, and then just lay there motionless. It was clear he would not be moving any time soon.
One of the guards started to move in his direction to intent on making sure the job was finished, but Jelca stopped him with impatience much stronger than mercy.
“Forget him,” she barked. “We need to find Reece.”
She swiftly turned and ran and the rest of her group followed her to the entrance, only to find it had been sealed from the inside by the time they arrived. With irritation Jelca slammed her hand against the door, not actually expecting it to do anything.
“Should we blast it open Leader?” One guard asked, more eager to please than actually eager to cause any destruction.
Jelca just scowled and chose not to answer. After all her preparation and so many years of waiting nothing was going to plan, but she refused to let Reece get off now; not now that she was so close to her revenge.
She’d already decided that she’d blow up this entire planet if need be to get to him but she wasn’t sure that blasting open this single sealed door would gain them a thing. The choice had to be made. If Reece was on the surface, they would lose precious time getting inside only to find he was not there. If Reece was below in the tunnels and they stayed on the surface, they would never find him.
With the efficiency and thirst of a wild predator, Jelca scanned the surrounding area. Then finally a small smile settled on her face with a piece of good fortune as she saw a large number of tracks heading off into the woods.
She leaned down closely to inspect them, while her men waited looking on.
“Converse.” She concluded with an instructing wave of her hand. “They went this way.”
Then what small victorious smile had been allowed on to her face disappeared as in the distance she saw motion, in the form of the rest of the Serendipity crew closing in on their position. They were almost out of time.
“Hurry!” she ordered, following the tracks, which were already beginning to melt from the warmth.
In spite of her small size Jelca moved quickly, fuelled by pure determination. Her guards never slipped back but always stayed just behind her, smart enough to know that when she wanted to lead she really wanted to lead.
The Serendipity crew was getting closer, so much closer that they would likely spot them soon, but while at first it panicked her soon Jelca saw this for the good fortune it was. Either this group didn’t know where Reece was or they were heading straight towards him. If they didn’t know where he was then they should have been almost certainly heading in a direction away from his tracks. If they did know however then their paths towards him were like two separate lines starting out far apart but heading towards the same point where they’d meet; they only came together when they came close to reaching that point.
Her suspicions were proven correct when she heard his voice carried along the still air. He was close, very close, and though Dabin sounded nothing like Ladron to anyone else’s ears to Jelca it was like being there on her planet so long ago watching him tearing their civilization and her family’s fortunes apart. She heard in every tone, every assertion and every protestation the lies of Ladron Reece and all the pain they’d brought with them that still continued to this day.
She disregarded the tracks and instead chose to follow his voice. Tracks could fade but she considered herself incapable of ever forgetting that mocking sound in her ears. Quickly it became clear that the decision had been correct as there beyond the immediate row of trees she could see him once again.
She crouched, just raising her eyes high enough to survey the area. Reece and his female were well guarded. Those officers that were here had been established in an effective and very difficult to penetrate perimeter. Jelca noted that while cautious they didn’t look especially alert. This was very good; it meant that the people who’d sealed themselves below the ground hadn’t had a chance to contact them.
Jelca had to admit that they’d chosen their location well. Though at present these trees had Jelca and her team shielded from their view the actual area where Reece was being kept was a clearing and there’d be no way to get to him without exposing their position and encountering at least one officer stationed on the outside and so giving them a chance to notify someone else. Adding to that that the gaps between the trees were extremely restrictive and so would force them to attack in a single line if they were all to go together and Jelca could have started getting worried.
She noted that they did have the singular advantage that the Serendipity crew only had the two weapons between them that they’d taken from her guards whereas she and all her remaining guards had one of their own. However while that was greatly advantageous if she wished to slaughter them in large quantities she only wanted one of them and she wanted to make sure she was the one who got him. Leveling the place with weapon’s fire meant her odds of being the one to actually do it were unacceptable by far.
“What should we do, Leader?” One of the guards questioned anxiously, noting the increasing volume of the footfalls which said the rest of the crew would be here soon.
Jelca simply smiled slightly as well as very unsettlingly as she had an idea. She turned her eyes to the guards, silently thinking that their sacrifice will be in pain.
“The six of you are to attack from that point,“ she said firmly, indicating an opening in the trees on the far side of the clearing.
The guards were cautious about this particular suggestion but dare not question it.
“What will you do, Leader?” One man nervously asked, knowing it was probably a bad sign that they’d all be going together but she would not be coming with them.
“I shall go after Reece,” she answered, without really answering them but with a determined look in her eye that said she wouldn’t be going further.
She was their Minister however, and so reluctantly they began to move off, staying low and traveling around the trees.
Jelca eagerly watched through the small opening and it wasn’t long before she’d spotted her men entering through the gap in the trees to which she’d ordered them. Just as quickly it seemed the Serendipity officer’s had spotted them as well.
Her guards started to fire, charging in; TC Blane and Salvek started firing back. It was a bad choice of where to enter from and their being forced into coming in single file meant that two of the guards were down already.
Dengar and Ryn began to fall back, protecting Reece and Grace by keeping them behind them, not realizing that Jelca was there in wait. The sound of weapons fire pierced the once still air and Jelca knew that the rest of the Serendipity crew would be here soon, so there was no better time than now.
Suddenly she was around the trees, charging in like a madwoman as her guards continued to be mowed down.
Reece and the other officers turned just in time to see and duck from the beam of her weapon.
Dabin rolled across the ground and popped back up to his feet, making a dash for the tree line. Jelca snapped her weapon up at Lara, then Rada, whom she cared nothing about, then over to Reece who was making a getaway. She fired, hitting Dabin squarely in the hip. The Trill yelped in pain and fell into the snow, which immediately began to turn crimson.
Jelca regained her footing, and ran down Reece immediately. The commotion caught the attention of Blane and Salvek, who left two of the guards pinned down where they were behind the trees. They each tried to get to Reece, but were too late. Jelca kneeled to the ground, pulling Reece’s body up to cover her own, with her arm around his throat and her weapon to his temple.
“DON’T!” she ordered. Blane and Salvek froze in their tracks. Blane wrapped his arm around February, who was somewhere in between horror and fury as she watched this wretched woman holding her wounded husband. “Drop them!”
TC and Salvek both let their weapons fall to the ground. Jelca’s last two guards emerged from the trees and scooped them up. They took up position on either side of Jelca, while Rada and Ryn circled behind her, exchanged glances with the first and second officer’s to see what they might have planned next.
“What the hell is going on here?” Zanh Liis’s voice called out from the tree line. The guards shifted their weapons towards the Captain.
“I wouldn’a do that if I were yew,” Keiran’s voice called from another direction, as the teams converged. “We’ve got ya outnumbered. Ya can’t shoot all of us.”
“Maybe not but I can’t shoot enough of you, starting with him.” Jelca hissed, as she jabbed the weapon into Reece’s wounded side. Dabin groaned in pain.
The crew had Jelca surrounded now, but she and her men held all the weapons.
“What did she do to him?” Zanh whispered to Dalton McKay.
“Anti-coagulant in the weapon. Dominion technology. He needs t’ be in a medical bay last week.”
“Where the hell would she have gotten something like that?” Zanh snapped back.
“Does it matter?”
As they spoke, Zanh heard a rumbling in the distance. She looked back over her shoulder, and saw the trees swaying at the horizon. Her mind drifted back to what Salvek had said, as the rumbling grew louder. They had found a command center, a weather net.
Everyone was looking in the same direction now, as a single name escaped the Captain’s lips…. “Samson… EVERYONE GET DOWN!”
Zanh’s crew all dropped to the ground, while Jelca’s men stood dumbfounded. With the roar of a freight train, a mighty gust of wind blew through the clearing, snapping branches and uprooting whole trees from the forest as it passed. Jelca held onto Reece for dear life, but her goons did not drop fast enough, and were blown off their feet by the wind, and landed with a horrific crunch of bone back onto the ground.
Micah had leveled the playing field.
When Jelca got back up to her knees, she found herself alone, but she still had her weapon, and Reece. The weapon of one of her men lay at the feet of one of the Starfleet officers. He bent down slowly, picked it up, and leveled it on Jelca.
Reece’s eyes were fluttering now as unconsciousness threatened to take him over. The normally energetic and exuberant Trill was barely moving, as the loss of blood approached critical levels.
“If you shoot, he dies with me,” Jelca warned the man with the weapon. “We all die.”
Everyone stood frozen; waiting to see what Rada Dengar would do next.
Rada simply remained still as well, his eyes flicking quickly from the weapon to Jelca as if through being dragged by both sides of a raging internal debate. Then finally the debate was over as he exhaled a slow weighted sigh, suddenly feeling true fatigue about so many winless choices. He was so sick of winless choices and their toll pulled heavily down upon him. Every time he thought they were safe they were just sucked back in. Frankly he found it difficult to care just what happened to him if life were to continue like this.
Being that as it may he could see one and only one way out of this.
He slowly began to move his weapon away from Jelca, instead directing it towards Reece. O’Sullivan and Blakeslee both crept towards Rada, unsure if they should offer their help or just outright tackle him. The truth was, no one had any idea what should be done with Dengar right now.
The crowd stood on in silence watching some in shock and others in utter disbelief, while those few who truly understood considered if Rada had finally broken down.
“Put the weapon down or I shoot.” Rada softly insisted.
Jelca suddenly found herself laughing a caustic laugh of incredulousness and bitter amusement. “This is what you threaten me with? I’ve been wanting him dead ever since I first learnt of his existence!”
“Exactly.” Rada continued softly again, as he spoke the logic that had run through his mind. “Yet you haven’t killed him. You could have killed him in his sleep. You could have had his massacred by your guards. You didn’t do any of it.”
“So what, you think I couldn’t do it?” She scoffed in disbelief. “Even now he sits here dying by my own hand.”
A threateningly insincere smile briefly seemed to flash on his face.
“I don’t deny you can shoot him,” he acknowledged quietly, knowing every ear and every eye was locked upon him. “I simply deny you can do it first.”
He began to step towards Jelca and the slightest shake in her hand was enough to tell him she objected, so he stopped just that bit closer than where he’d begun.
“That’s been the point of all of this, hasn’t it? I don’t know the exact details of why you hate him so but I know you’ve waited because you had to be the one to kill him. That’s why you couldn’t leave him on the surface to freeze to death with the rest of us. Hate is funny like that. Yet now as your finger pulls tighter on that trigger I may squeeze mine first and be the one to have your revenge. I don’t believe you can take the risk.”
The expression on Jelca’s face actually seemed to be one of near terror laced in heavy denial as she protested against his words.
“You won’t shoot him,” she quickly assured herself.
Rada’s countenance briefly flashed with a dark amusement that threatened to break through the fragile glass that seemed all that was holding his sanity together. It was a far colder version of the look one gave to a child whose simple life left them feeling like they understood all the greatest demons in the world.
“Look into my eyes,” he asked her, in an absent but deadly serious tone. “Don’t you see it?”
Jelca did indeed look into his eyes but she found there nothing she expected, and nothing of the darkness he thought she’d find there either. She did fear of that one certain type few would ever have the misfortune to have known.
“I see a man near his limit!” Jelca spat, as all others who were free to do so truly took in Rada’s eyes. They all could see it too.
“My limit?” Rada questioned in hollow monotone with a shake of his head. “No, I have done far worse than to kill just one good man.”
With those words all around who knew enough to understand suddenly felt like all their fears about Rada were confirmed; his resequencing had finally come undone. Some were stunned into silence; some like Keiran and Liis were wise enough to know there was nothing they could say. Others let out gasps or whispers in disbelief that it should happen now.
“What have you done?” Jelca asked incredulous though shaken by the dark sincerity she found in Rada’s voice.
“I don’t know,” he answered truthfully, and with something close to, but less than, appreciation for that fact. “I merely know that many died by my own hand. Nothing else could have taken that missing part of me.”
Rada stepped forward again, just a single step.
“Get back!” Jelca screamed though she dare not move her weapon from the ever-weakening Reece.
“You cannot win here. Either we continue to stand still and he dies so neither of us gets to fire that final blow or you fire and risk me getting to him first. The best you can do now is to get out of here alive so you can plan for your revenge again tomorrow.”
Jelca’s eyes seemed to scan from officer to officer, taking in just how little chance she actually had of escaping. If she just let Reece bleed to death then she would have been the one to kill him but it wasn’t enough, what she’d done so far just didn’t feel like enough.
“There is no way I’m getting out of here,” she both argued and to herself admitted, the glimmer of tears entering her eyes as she truly thought how close she was to her death. The worst part was that she could just be a prisoner if she was to surrender, but revenge was far too powerful to allow that to happen. “Not while some part of Ladron Reece still lives on in this galaxy!”
“You cannot erase history by the burning of a book,” Rada calmly argued. “I don’t know exactly what Ladron Reece did to your people but now he lives on only in memory. It is only through your actions that he is given any life again.”
“He lives in him!” she screamed, as she indicated Reece whose consciousness looked almost like it had already slipped away.
“Ladron is dead, over a century dead.” Rada insisted. “Dabin is simply another man you’re killing without reason.”
“No,” Jelca objected, not willing to accept it could possible be so as panic gripped her tone. “He is but another manifestation of Ladron Reece!”
“And who is Ladron Reece?”
“He is a monster,” she answered shakily as she felt her heart rate pounding. “He posed as a god and assaulted my world!”
Rada quickly exhaled, his eyes locked on Jelca’s, before he spoke for all to hear.
“Will everyone who has ever known Dabin to pose as a god please step forward?”
Looks were exchanged but nobody moved.
“He stole our money!” Jelca continued almost desperate to believe.
“Will everyone whose money Dabin has ever stolen please step forward?”
Again the people were still.
“He lied to take our daughters as his wives!”
“Will everyone who…”
“Enough!” Jelca objected but Rada still didn’t stop.
“Now will everyone who considered Dabin Reece to be a good man please step forward?”
Though reluctantly in some cases and in an uneven wave slowly all the officers present took a single step forward towards Jelca.
“Stop!” Jelca screamed, her hand shaking her weapon as she held it against Reece.
“You can only shoot him once.” Rada reminded her before continuing on defiantly. “Will everyone who would like to call Dabin a friend please step forward?”
People moved in again this time faster.
“Stop it!”
“Look at these people, Jelca,” Rada insisted. “They are all here risking their lives. Would they have done that for a man like Ladron Reece?”
“They would if he had tricked them. They don’t know him like I do!” Jelca desperately insisted though she was losing faith in her own arguments.
“Look at her eyes,” Rada coldly insisted with quiet exasperation as he indicated February whose cheeks were drenched by streams of tears, as she could do nothing to stop Dabin’s deterioration before her. “Are you trying to tell me that she doesn’t know him either?”
“I…I mean he…I mean…” Jelca spluttered out, even as the horror of what she might have done overcame her.
“It’s over,” Rada said. He took another step towards her and this time she didn’t fight him, simply letting her hand go limp as Rada took the weapon by the barrel, her eyes still unable to leave those of poor February.
Then quickly Rada stepped away taking the weapons in hand, and with the remaining guards still unconscious from Samson’s saving act, Doctors McKay and Hartcort immediately rushed in hoping he’d be able to treat Reece before it was too late.
O’Sullivan and Blakeslee moved to take the guards into custody, while TC Blane stepped in with February and took the weapons out of Rada’s hands then turned one of them on Jelca. They each of them knew that whatever happened now, it really was over.
“You are under arrest,” Blane said solemnly, taking little satisfaction from the fact.
“Did you see Vedek Jariel?” Salvek asked Hartcort, who was busy trying to bandage Reece’s wound. Salvek had noted that the Vedek had never made his way to the rest of the group.
“We found him on the way here. Three broken ribs and a concussion. He’ll be up and about in a few a days. He insisted he’d be fine and pointed us in this direction to follow Jelca,” Lance said.
Mellice Cem, who had been standing off to the side up until this point, stepped forward. “She murdered the Starfleet personnel in charge of this facility. I can show you where they are.”
Salvek lowered his head, and then shifted his gaze from Cem to Hartcort. The Doctor nodded, indicating that Mellice was trustworthy. “Please show Lieutenant Tubman their location,” Salvek ordered Mellice.
Zanh had joined the group now. Inside she was struggling with the image of Reece’s lifeless body before her but outside she kept her cool, for everyone else’s sake.
“We need to contact the Alchemy and get him into a medical bay, now!” Hartcort informed the Captain forcefully.
“Did you see anything in the Command center we can use to contact the ship?” Zanh asked of Salvek. All their communications equipment had been taken for the “games” and Zanh had little doubt by now, Jelca had had it destroyed.
“I don’t believe so. The system PA system was not subspace based. It could take hours of searching to find something else,” Salvek answered.
“He’s got minutes, if he’s lucky. Not hours.” McKay said, and he pressed his hands over Reece’s wound to try and slow the blood flow. “And I need Lair Kellyn up there too.”
“Why?” Salvek snapped immediately.
“Hypothermia. She took a fall through the ice.” McKay said. He saw the panic crossing the Vulcan’s face. “Halliday pulled her out, she’ll be ok, don’t you worry.”
“Here,” Jelca reached into a pocket on her clothing and withdrew a Starfleet issue communicator. She laid it in her palm and held it out towards Zanh Liis. The Captain approached her, while TC Blane kept his weapon ready lest Jelca try anything she shouldn’t. “A trophy.” She said simply, explaining why she had chosen to keep this one badge.
Zanh was not sure whether to be appreciative or furious, but she did know the time to debate it was not now. She slapped the badge into Hartcort’s palm and stepped clear. “Find Lair,” was all she said.
“Hartcort to Alchemy. Computer three to beam directly to the medical bay.”
There was a chirp and a moment later, Reece, Hartcort and McKay were gone.
Zanh spun away, needing to avert her gaze from the spot in the melting snow where Reece had been. She found herself looking directly into the eyes of Vol Tryst. The Counselor then turned away and inclined his head, inviting Zanh to follow his gaze.
There she saw Rada Dengar, alone, sitting on the log of a fallen tree. His arms rested on his knees, and his head hung low.
She looked back at Tryst, who still had said nothing.
“I know,” Zanh whispered, as she silently contemplated just where Rada went from here.
*****************************************
Lt. Commander Rada Dengar
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
&
Commander Dabin Reece
Chief Science Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Lt. Commander Rada Dengar
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
&
Commander Dabin Reece
Chief Science Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012