A Flash of the Good Old Days

Posted on 28 Mar 2013 @ 10:19am by Ensign Alket Dahe'el & Commander Andreus Kohl

2,001 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 3, Main Hallway
Timeline: MD 04 - 1645 hours

[ON]

Alket was exiting the turbolift on deck three, heading for the counselors office. He was deep in thought, reading his PADD for directions. He passed several officers in the hallway, including what looked like a security officer. Nodding to him in acknowledgement, Alket went along his way.

Jeremy scowled at the schedule of events regarding the planetary survey. It wasn't as bad as he had been led to believe - for all he knew this was his first planetary survey. Only five actual away teams and the rest were shuttle missions.

He'd grown used to Sidi's presence at his side to help "steer" him as he walked, but he made the mistakes of taking Sidi with him to Lieutenant Barnes on the Venture. Sidi was part of the Galileo crew even though there's was still a lot of excitement about having him around, it had tapered off to a more manageable level. On the Venture, however, that excitement returned and was magnified by the vast number of peoples on the ship. As a consequence Sidi had become over stimulated and so hiss behavior regressed as a consequence.

Maybe if he had kept Sidi with him things may have been different. Or if he weren't going to see Meridian and so his mind already centered on the reason he's needed counseling it could have been avoided, or minimized. But both circumstances were present coupled by the failure of the command staff to realize the burgeoning problem and left it to boil over.

There were ways he could have been prepared before coming face to face with a...

Cardassian

He froze in stride as the scaly gray face turned to him, oily black eyes boring into him...hate evident in the glint from the weak light of the tunnel. The constant heat of the place caused sweat to pour down his brow and back, coalesce under his arms and groin.

The heat was everywhere, thick and oppressive, bearing down on him. He felt the thirst he always had from lack of adequate amounts of water and the constant heat. The thin scraps of clothes he wore -and had worn for years on end, when he was allowed the privilege of covering his body - showed the stains of his long confinement; the beatings and blood and puss and shit and piss. The roadmap of his years of torture was writ there for any to read.

A Cardassian in front of him. One of the masters, one of the ones ready to beat him, humiliate him, use him for experimentation. The walls of the Galileo melted away, so did the uniform and sidearm, gone in the space of heartbeats as the escape fantasy evaporated under the flint hard gaze of the Cardassian master. His body twisted, one shoulder slumping as the nearly useless arm was crammed to his chest, the improperly set and healed bone of the radius poking in a sharp angle against the thin paper of his skin. The hand cradled against a chest still bleeding and oozing from his last beating, the fingers twisted and mangled, not even useful as claws. He shifted his weight onto the leg that was less destroyed, the other scraping along the ground. The foot may never flex again, the ankle joint destroyed and the knee a misshapen mound under flesh too scarred to properly bend anymore. Evidence of beatings, torture, experimentation paled to the signs that the tunnel voles had finally lost their fear of him and gnawed at him when he was thrown unconscious into his cell.

His eyes, wild and afraid in a face shrunken, bony and dull, darted around the tunnel. A Cardassian master in front of him but no guards around him. "No," he begged, his heart rate tripling. Was he trying to escape and hope to get a message to rescuers? Why weren't there any guards around him? How did he get out of the cell by himself?

Now he was captured and..."Please, no," he whimpered, his eyes somehow finding the moisture for tears. His bladder let go as well; a thick, dark, pungent paste oozing down one leg. How did he get here? He didn't remember. He knew about pain and only pain, the constant pain of a body denied death. Pain and despair were all that he could think about, all that he knew. Now it looked as if, caught up in an after escape fantasy, he somehow managed to free himself from the cell and tried to run. Only to be caught by this Cardassian master..

It was equally possible he'd been let free and sent to wonder, to be caught and then to bear the guilt of the next beating. Mercifully, that would be the one that killed him.

All Alket saw was a security officer emptying his bladder, and talking at him, but not to him. Alket approached the officer."Are you allright?" He asked, putting one hand on his shoulder. "Can you hear me?"

The Cardassian touched him. He shouldn't have done it, he knew he shouldn't have done it because it was forbidden - but he shuddered and twisted his body, knocking aside the scaled hand touching him. Backing up, his trailing foot caught and sent him sprawling against the hard, rock wall of the tunnel. He didn't notice the minor scraping of flesh, the sensation lost under the constant pain from open sores, festering wounds, still broken bones. "I'm not....I didn't..." he stammered as he used the wall as leverage to scrape across it, moving away from the Cardassian.

There were the others, he saw them now, coming out of the darker parts of the tunnel, staring at him - watching. Waiting...he'd been set up, he knew that now. Set loose in the tunnel to see what he'd do. They were going to take him. They would beat him again - or worse. "No," he cried, still trying to get away from the one near him. There was no way to escape, he knew that, all he had was the sweet promise of death. A death that was still denied him after all this time.

Alket wasn't sure what to do."Sir?"He said again."Are you alright? Do I need to call sickbay?"

He saw them closing in, coming for him...coming to take him away and administer another 'interrogation'. There was only one choice he could take. Show them that he wasn't completely broken and make a run for it. Maybe upset them enough that they lose control. He thought of Ahndyl and Thomas and how he'd be leaving them to the mercies of the Cardassians without him but...

He tried to run but his trailing foot dragged him down. He tried not to cry out too much as his battered, broken body hit the hard, stone ground. They didn't give chase, but merely watched with their reptilian eyes, laughing. He crawled away from the one that was advancing on him, crawled until he could push himself up and hobble as fast as he could.

There was one in front of him, one trying to block his path. Jeremy didn't even stop to think about it anymore - he'd get free of the Cardassians one way or another. Giving what strength he could, he bowled into the Cardassian, knocking it down. Jeremy jumped atop it, slamming his one good hand into it's face again and again, his throat torn raw from the inarticulate screams, the damned hated Cardassian's cold blood splattering on him.

Alket saw the man, limping away from him, and attacking something that wasn't there. Alket tapped his combadge."This is Ensign Dahe'el calling sickbay. I have a...situation on deck three. I ran into a security officer, He saw me, and he lost it, I believe. He's talking to himself, among other things, and attacking people that aren't really there."

From the communications node in the passageway, the disembodied voice of Andreus Kohl said, "Ensign Dahe'el, do not approach the security officer. I will contact the security office and have him brought to Sickbay." Judging from Stone's reactions, it was unlikely that Kohl's words were well received.

The Cardassian under him wasn't moving any longer and...he shook his head, his hands covered in cooling blood. He heard the call put out, demanding his capture, demanding he be brought to The Room. "No," he growled as he forced himself to his feet. They glared at him. They stared at him, waiting for the order from the superiors. The one that would send them after him. It'll end with them dragging him down, fists and feet pummeling and kicking until that wasn't satisfying enough and blades and instruments were brought out.

He rushed at them, confused that they split apart, letting him through. But he saw it...a way out, freedom. "No, no..." he cried. It was their new game. Let him get close enough to feel the fresh, free air before they drag him back. They'd done this before. He shook his head as he stepped forward, his bad foot dragging along behind him. "No," he spat out. "Not again. Not...again..."

He stopped, refusing to allow this. Refusing to allow them to destroy his one last great hope. Their 'chance of freedom' was as false as everything else they promised and whispered to get what the beatings and torture couldn't get them. He wasn't going to give them anything, wasn't going to allow them to take anything from him.

Right on cue, two silhouettes stepped into the light of 'freedom', blocking it out.

All six feet and four inches of Anthony Davis were certainly massive enough to literally block some of the light in the corridor as well. Whether he looked like a Cardassian to Stone or a dark skinned Human to everyone else, Security Officer Davis said simply, "Lieutenant? Can I help you?"

Jeremy stayed his ground, mainly because he couldn't back up, not with his leg as twisted as it was. Automatically his eyes dropped to the floor - don't look at them, don't challenge them he'd learned long ago. It spoke in Cardassian, knowing Jeremy didn't understand the language, his universal translator removed by their 'doctors' shortly after their capture. He shook his head, his resolve breaking. He still had to consider Ahndyl and Thomas and what they'd go through if he weren't there to deflect attention.

But he was tired. So tired - of trying to keep strong, of trying to block out the pain, of trying to convince the Cardassians day after day that he knew nothing that would help them. It was a struggle most days to breathe and not smell his own flesh rotting. It was a constant struggle and he was tired. So tired. It was time for it to be over. Time to finish it.

He lunged forward.

Davis watched his Chief, knowing immediately that something was wrong. The way he carried himself, the way he moved, the twisted manner he held his limbs. Then the blank look of fear and pain and - Stone didn't see him. He saw something but not him. He prepared himself, then, for anything and - with a heavy heart - when Stone lunged for him, he brought up the phaser and fired.

Jeremy stilled at the impact, having just several seconds to cognitate on what happened before things went black and he fell - hard - to the floor.

Davis motioned for Smoak to go check on him while he hit his commbadge. "Security to Medical, we've got one patient for you. Aside from anything else wrong, he's been stunned."


[OFF]

To Be Continued...

LTjg Jeremy Stone
Chief Security/Tactical Officer/K9
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Medical Officer
USS Galileo

Ensign Alket Dahe'el
Assistant Chief Operations Officer
USS Galileo

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