Chapter 26

Chapter 26

The vehicle’s engines strained as it fought to climb higher. Brett listened to the struggle, trying to guess where his captors’s destination. He couldn’t see anything from the back of the vehicle and if he made any move towards the cockpit, one of the three guards in the hold would cave in the back of his head with a disruptor butt.

The ride from the capital was into at least its third hour. During that time Brett noted they seemed to keep going higher, probably into a mountainous region. On a planet like Serpalal this made a lot of sense. With most of the population below ground, you found the highest point above ground to get a little privacy so you could torture your prisoners.

Across from him, Robyn’s face had the same contemplative look. She had probably come to the same conclusions already. He wanted to reach over to take her hand, to reassure her everything would be all right, but he didn’t. Everything wasn’t going to be all right, at least not for him. Slonix had failed to kill him once; he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

As for Robyn, a Starfleet captain was a valuable commodity. Slonix and his followers could keep Robyn as a hostage to protect themselves from any Federation reprisals. Or they could kill her and broadcast the execution as a major propaganda victory. In time they would probably do both.

Brett didn’t have nearly as much value. He wasn’t an official member of Starfleet anymore; the Federation wouldn’t waste its breath trying to negotiate for the life of a disgraced former officer. The Serparnian Liberation Army had already broadcast his death throughout the system so broadcasting his execution now would only make them look foolish.

The only reason Brett wasn’t lying on a slab in the crypt minus his head like Hurd was because Slonix had special plans for him. Those plans would surely involve a lengthy torturing process. Once Slonix grew bored with listening to Brett’s screams would he finally let Brett die. Not something to look forward to. He might as well force the guards to kill him right now to save himself some pain.

Looking across the vehicle’s hold again, he saw the only reason he didn’t do this. He didn’t want Robyn to watch him die, not if he could help it. That, he suspected, would be too much for her to bear. She needed to stay strong; she still had a chance for rescue if she held on long enough.

He closed his eyes, leaning back against the hard seat in the vehicle’s hold. The engines struggled again, then leveled off. From the high-pitched whine coming from beneath the vehicle, he knew they must have reached their destination. The final destination.

As he suspected, the vehicle came down hard onto a solid surface, throwing Brett against his restraint harness. The Serparnian guards in the hold maintained their balance, the disruptors still clutched in their hands. So much for any hope to escape, not that he and Robyn might have gotten far anyway.

One of the guards unfastened Brett’s harness, and then yanked him to his feet. He made no attempt to struggle, letting the guard drag him down the exit ramp. Robyn followed, also making no attempt to escape.

From his survival training at the Academy, he remembered the first rule when being taken captive was not to panic. The second rule was not to give the enemy any information, no matter how unimportant it seemed. Once you gave them something they would keep at you until you gave them more and more.

The third rule was to survey your surroundings to look for an opening to escape. From what Brett could tell, they didn’t have much hope of escape. The vehicle—a shuttlecraft of Cardassian design—had landed in a cave at the top of a mountain with steep cliffs of rust-colored rock all around. The shuttle’s co-pilot hurried to close a door at the entrance of the cave, sealing them in.

Orange lights came on in the makeshift hangar, revealing a shuttle of Ferenghi design. The Serparnians had probably bought these along with the pieces for their warship. Behind the shuttles lay another even larger door. This door opened to allow a group of Serparnians through.

At the head of a half-dozen palace guards was Chief Steward Streng. “Greetings, Captain Lichen, Mr. Boutwell. I trust your flight was comfortable enough?”

“You’re behind all this?” Brett said.

“You didn’t think a minor group of dissidents could achieve all this, did you?” Streng said, his tongue flickering out with amusement. “My family’s fortune has purchased all of this.”

“Why?” Robyn asked.

Streng grabbed Robyn’s neck, one clawed finger running along her windpipe. Brett tried to fling himself at the chief steward, but as expected one of the guards brought the butt of his disruptor down on Brett’s head. He crumpled to his knees, his head spinning from pain.

“You are the reason, Captain,” Streng said. “You and your Federation interfering with the Serparnian people. We will not become another of your puppet regimes like our neighbors. We are a proud people. We submit to no one.”

“The Federation doesn’t want to interfere. We want to help you,” Robyn said.

“Your help is not needed. Nor is it wanted except by weak fools like Serlinum. He would sacrifice eons of independence to maintain his hold on power as a Federation servant.”

“All members of the Federation are equal. No one has domination over anyone else,” Robyn said.

Streng dug his claw into Robyn’s throat just enough to draw a drop of blood. “Silence. We will have much time to discuss this later. You will be our guest for a very long time.”

“You’re the fool if you think this is going to work. Starfleet already has ships on the way,” Brett said. Technically this wasn’t violating the second rule of capture, as Streng already knew this.

“Of course they’ll come looking for Captain Lichen and what’s left of her ship. Amid the resulting chaos I will be the one to rally all Serparnians to my cause, to repel the invaders. I will become a hero to them, as great as any other in our glorious history.

“What about Slonix and his ship? You’re just going to let Starfleet destroy them?” Brett said.

“I am not afraid to die for the cause if it should come to that,” Slonix rumbled. He went over to stand beside Streng.

“What are you getting out of this, other than a chance to sacrifice yourself for the cause?”

“That should be obvious,” Streng said. “He gets you, Mr. Boutwell.”