Death Waits For No One

Commander Kim R’Jor knelt down, she rested her hand on her abdomen. It was in searing pain. “Captain.” She yelled out.

Burke came running. “Commander? What is it?”

“I don’t know sir.” She said. “I was standing there, and suddenly I felt this immense pain.”

Burke looked around the cell they were in. He couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary, it was a simple Dominion holding cell. The force-field was a bit on the shocking side, you could easily get yourself singed. But other than that, it was a holding cell.

“Vorta!” Burke yelled to a camera. “I want to talk!”

A door opened and the Vorta in charge entered the holding area. “Yes captain? What can I do for your?”

Burke held his restraint, he wanted to punch the Vorta though the force-field but knew that would be impossible. “She needs medical attention.” Burke said. “You’ll help her.”

The Vorta shrugged. “If I don’t, what will you do? You’re in a holding cell, there’s no where for you to go.”

Burke rested his hands on his hips. “You’re right. There is nowhere for me to go. You’ll have a dead officer on your hands in a matter of hours if you don’t try something, anything. Hell, let my doctor help her! She knows Trill medicine.”

The Vorta looked at Kim and then back to Burke. “I’ll help you on one condition. You provide the security codes to Sector Alpha Four Nine, and I’ll personally make sure she gets the finest care this ship can offer. Your doctor Taylor can assist in the procedure, or she can take over...whatever you prefer.”

Burke didn’t trust the man, but he had no choice. He was in a brig after all. “Deal.” John said.

The Vorta lowered the force-field for a second. “Transport the females to the medical bay.” Kim and Doctor Taylor disappeared in a transporter beam. The Vorta raised the force-field again.

“Alright.” The Vorta said turning his attention back to Captain Burke. “Now, your end of the bargain.”

Burke sighed...he wasn’t sure he made the right choice. But his wife had to be looked after, that much was certain. “Alright, the security codes.” He said. “Do you have a PADD?”

The Vorta smiled.

* * *

Down in the med bay, Doctor Taylor got to work examining Kim. “What on earth?” She asked.

Kim sat up on the bio bed and looked around. They were alone. There weren’t any security cameras in the section either. Lucky them. “I lied.” She said. “We need to find a way to take over the ship.”

Taylor nodded. “Right. Do you know how many Jem’Hadar soldiers are on board a ship this size? I don’t. But I can guarantee it’s more than the three we’ve seen, not to mention their Vorta.”

“Oh come on doc, you’ve got to have some kind of something in here you can use as a weapon.” Kim said. She stood up and began rummaging around the medical bay. There had to be something there that they could use to free the others.

* * *

Julie Thompson paced around another cell. Commander Mark Justan tried to calm her down.

“Listen.” He said. “We’ll be okay. I just wonder how Steven is holding up, wherever he is. We haven’t heard from him in weeks.”

Julie shrugged. “He’s being held by the Dominion just like we are. Do the math.”

Justan frowned. He hated it when the ensign had a point. Hated it with a passion, but she was right after all. What was he going to do about that? Nothing probably. He wondered where the rest of his crew was being held. Mark figured the higher ranking officers were probably being interrogated by the Vorta or one of the Jem’Hadar, he couldn’t tell for sure which.

“We need to find a way to the runabout.” Julie said. “We might be able to escape. Get our people out of their cells, make a run for it.” She paced around the holding cell. “But how would we get past all of the Jem’Hadar? It feels impossible.”

Mark chuckled. “If it feels impossible ensign, maybe that’s because it is.” He sighed. “If only we had a way of contacting the runabout, we might be able to trigger a site to site transporter. But, well, I’m sure the Dominion has taken care of that possibility. Probably a waste of breath.”

Julie shook her head. “There has to be a way to use their own technology against them.”

As she spoke, the force-field dropped. Julie and Mark exchanged looks. What on earth was going on now? Mark stepped outside of the brig cell and looked around. There was no one to be found.

“Come on.” Mark said. “Let’s get out of here.”

Julie didn’t have to be told twice, she exited the cell and followed her superior officer to hopefully safety.

* * *

In Internment Camp 447, Steven Dougless looked around the empty cell. All of the other prisoners had been taken away for questioning. He was the only remaining one not being asked questions. Steven found it odd he wasn’t being questioned. If he had to guess, he would guess the rest of them were all dead by now. Even John Tommas was probably dead. He hoped that wouldn’t be the case, but you could never tell, not with the Dominion running the show.

He wondered what the Vorta meant by Necheyev was no longer useful. Was she dead? If she was, they had a lot to pay for. No one just kills a Starfleet admiral and gets away with it. He would make sure of that.

The cell door opened. Tommas was forced back inside the cell before it closed again. He was bruised up and down.

“John! What did they do to you?” Steven asked horrified of what possible answer was about to come out of John’s mouth.

John struggled to smile. “Don’t worry chief, they didn’t get anything out of me.” He sat down on a bench and began coughing up blood.

Steven ripped a part of his sleeve and handed it to John, who put it up against his mouth to catch whatever blood it could. “Thanks.” John said. “Knew you were always good for something.” He tried to smile again, but winced at the pain. Whatever torture they had done to him, they had been pretty thorough.

“What did they want?” Dougless asked.

John shook his head. “They didn’t say.” He said. “Just threw me around the room like a rag doll. I don’t even know what they want with us. Did we just pass through their neighborhood at the wrong time? I don’t know.”

Dougless punched a wall. He was mad as hell. “Alright, we gotta find a way out of here.” He said. “This internment camp needs to go to hell.”

John nodded. “Agreed. How we going to do that?”

Dougless shrugged. “Destroy the runabout in orbit, that should do the trick.” He sat down on a cot. It wasn’t comfortable at all. But it served its purpose.

John smiled. “How do you plan on gaining access to the runabout? These weren’t barracks like on other bases out in space. It was built on ground and pushed into space. So whatever Garak did on 371 won’t work here.”

Dougless frowned. “I know.” He said. “We’ll just have to rush the Jem’Hadar and gain access to the runabout by force.” Then he smiled. “Just like hitting a tackling dummy.”

John laughed. “Like you ever played football.”

Steven smiled back. “No, but you did.”

* * *

Captain John Burke sat in a room with a table. The Jem’Hadar standing over him was not pleased to be dealing with Starfleet. He wanted to be fighting Romulans or Klingons. But he had no choice in the matter. Whatever the Vorta said mattered most.

“So, are we just going to stare at each other?” Burke asked.

The Jem’Hadar shook his head. “We wait for the Alpha. He will know what to do with you.”

Burke nodded, the Alpha Jem’Hadar, the one in charge over his unit. It made sense the Alpha would be there to take care of business. He was probably talking to the third or fourth. The second was probably with the Alpha. “Okay, we wait.”

They didn’t have to wait very long, soon enough the first walked through the door. He took one look at Burke and scoffed. “Humans, you’re so weak. Pathetic.” He slammed his fist down on the table and looked to his subordinate. “You’re excused.”

“Yes first.” The Jem’Hadar said as he left the room.

Burke leaned forward. “Listen Harvey, you can’t keep us here like this. Yeah we’re at war, but we’ve done nothing wrong. We aren’t war criminals. In fact I’d say you’re the war criminal.”

The first threw the table over and got in Burke’s face. “Our gods warned us about you. They said you would say such things and not to trust you.” He paused. Pulling out a knife, he plundged it into Baurke’s gut. Burke fell over in his chair and onto the floor gasping in pain.

“Maybe that will teach you to speak to me like that again.”Second! Take this human to the medical bay. If he dies, you do.”

“Understood.” The second Jem’Hadar entered the room and dragged Burke out of it towards the medical bay. Burke was dripping blood everywhere, all over the hall as he was being dragged. It was not a pretty sight.

Commander Justan walked into the interrogation room. He saw the blood the captain left behind. “You demanded to see me?”

The Jem’Hadar gestured to the chair. “Sit down.” He said.

Mark did as he was ordered. The chair wasn’t comfortable in the slightest, metal in construction no padding of any kind. He smirked at the thought...these Jem’Hadar really knew how to ruin a man’s day.

“What do you want?”

The Jem’Hadar towered over Justan. “I want the information your captain would not give me.” He said. “Sector coordinates and command codes to your supply bases. It’s not a difficult question. It’s rather simple. You just have to give them to me.”

Mark scoffed at the thought. “Look I’m just an engineer. I don’t have the ability to even give you that information if you wanted it. I can talk to you about warp drive, warp cores, how much dilithium you can shove up your ass...but nothing else. What else do you want? Maybe we can come to a compromise.”

The Jem’Hadar waived his hand in the air. “You too are useless to me.” Taking out his knife, he prepared to slam it into Mark’s gut like he did the captain.

“Wait, wait!” Mark said. “I think I remember hearing something about sector locations in a meeting. I can give you that much.”

The Jem’Hadar First put his knife away. “Go on. As you humans say, I’m listening.”

* * *

Down in medical bay, Kim R’Jor and Kelly Taylor were still going through whatever they could find. When the doors opened and the captain was being drug in, they froze.

“One of you is a doctor.” The Jem’Hadar said. “See to his wounds.”

Kim and Kelly picked John up and placed him on the main surgical bed.

“I’ll be out here, don’t try anything.” The Jem’Hadar said as he left the room.

“What the hell?” Kim asked.

Taylor shook her head. “You got me kid. Come on, I’ll need some help.” She ripped a big whole in the captain’s uniform so they could perform the necessary surgery to save his life.

* * *

Two hours later, Burke was back on his feet. A little bruised, but the dermal regenerator was doing its job.

Kelly picked up the laser scalpel. “We have our way out. A weapon of sorts.” She walked over to the door where the Jem’Hadar was standing. “Guard is still out there. Good.” She pressed the button on the door, it opened.

Before the guard could react, Kelly scalped his eyes and throat. The Jem’Hadar fell to the deck dead.

“We’ll be up to arms in thee things if we don’t move. Let’s go.” Kelly said.

Burke nodded. “Good work doctor.” They exited the medical bay.

Walking carefully down the corridors, Burke and co rescued Mark first, then Julie, the Fresno’s helm officer. Once they were all together they headed towards the runabout.

“This is too easy.” Julie muttered. They would have caught us by now.”

Burke shrugged. “Maybe they’re letting us get away. I don’t have a problem with that.” He paused. “This way.” They turned a corner and ran right smack dab into the shuttle bay. “Bingo.”

Running to the runabout, they boarded her and took off. “Everybody buckle in, this is going to be one hell of a ride.”

Julie laughed. “No buckles on star ships cap, you know that.”

Burke rolled his eyes. “A figure of speech ensign. Get us out of here.”

As they approached the space doors, Burke fired the main phasers making quick work of them. The runabout escaped without a scratch and headed towards federation space at maximum warp. They were home free.

Burke couldn’t help but wonder about Dougless, was he surviving? He didn’t know.

* * *

Steven Dougless looked around the cell. The door opened a second later. No one came in. He wondered where Tommas had turned up.

“If you want to live, you can go.” A voice said over the speaker. “We have what we want from you. You have access to your runabout. No … strings attached.” The comm channel closed.

Dougless hesitated. He inched his way towards the door. If this was a trick, he would be dead in no time. Dougless decided to take the chance. He ran out of the room towards the shuttle bay.

Sure enough there was his runabout. Right where it should be. Stepping inside, he saw Admiral Necheyev. “Admiral?!” He was astonished. “I thought you were dead.”

Necheyev shook her head. “No, but I’m afraid your friend is. He saved my life in exchange for is own.” She paused. “Come on, no time to grieve right now. We have to get out of here.”

Dougless nodded. “Aye.” He sat down at the controls and the runabout took off. They left the internment camp as quick as possible and booked it towards Federation space.

Six hours later, they rendezvoused with the U.Sl.S. Fresno.

Commander Steven Dougless to Fresno, please come in Fresno. It was a sight to behold, he thought the ship had been destroyed with all hands but the senior staff. Hence why they had fled to runabouts.

A garbled comm channel opened. “This is Captain Burke, welcome home commander. You’re free to dock in bay two.”

“Aye sir, it’s great to hear your voice again. I have Admiral Necheyev with me.”

“Good, what about Tommas?”

Dougless froze. He shook his head. “He didn’t make it sir.”

“Understood. Meet me in my quarters. Burke out.”

* * *

After a few rounds of blood screenings in the shuttle bay, Dougless and Necheyev walked towards Burke’s quarters.

“Come in.” Burke said as they chimed the door.

Dougless and Necheyev stepped through the doorway and into the captain’s quarters.

“Good to see you both.” Burke said. “Please have a seat. I’ll get you some water.” He went and got a pitcher of water and three glasses. Pouring the water, he handed them each a glass. “I imagine we have some stories to catch up on.”

They talked for what seemed like hours. Each explaining their experiences with the Jem’Hadar. After they compared stories, Dougless had one final question.

“Sir, the Fresno...how? She was destroyed.” Dougless asked.

Burke shook his head. “Backup ship. They just put her into service, she’s the same ship more or less. Some things are changed, the carpet for example.” He chuckled. “I hate it, but it’ll do.”

Dougless nodded. “I see. Well it’s home, that much is true.”

“Indeed.” Burke said.

Necheyev cleared her throat. “Captain, the Jem’Hadar didn’t let us go because we fought our way out or asked nicely. They just let us go.”

Burke nodded. “Yes, us too...makes me think we have an infiltrator within our ranks. I can’t prove it though. Blood screenings are our only way to tell who’s a changling and who isn’t.”

Necheyev nodded. “Yes, makes it more difficult for sure.”

“But we can talk over that when we get back to Starfleet Security on Earth. We’re headed there now.”

* * *

As the Fresno left the star system and headed towards Earth, the crew was happy to be back where they belonged. Burke was happy he got his crew back, even if they were short several crew members. But his senior staff were intact.

Now he just had to face the music with Starfleet Command. Burke hoped it would go by fast and he could get back in the fight.

A fight he planned to win.

The End