A Snake In The Garden - Part IV

Posted on Thu May 21st, 2015 @ 10:51pm by Captain Li Hawke & Suresh & Commander Oralia Zeferino & Lieutenant Commander Michael Darwin
Edited on on Fri May 22nd, 2015 @ 1:07pm

Mission: Breaking New Ground
Location: Eden - Romulan Space

* * * Eden - Romulan Space * * *

Darwin grunted and was awake. Something had woken him; what? He sat up and heard noise in the next room. The harmonics of a transporter. He was out of his bed and out the door almost in the same move. He pounded on the door and shouted, "Oz!"

The noise had awakened Li too and as Darwin sprinted out of the room, she was right behind him, phaser in hand.

Hearing no answer other than the transporter, he stepped back, and, with a quick thanks to a deity for flimsy doors, kicked the door in. Now all he heard was the shower running.

“Oz!” Li entered, crouched down, phaser drawn and panned it over the room. But she knew already it was useless.

“No one, Darwin. What the hell?” She kicked the bed and when she did, a knife fell to the floor. Li turned on the lights and pointed. “Recognize that?”


"Oz's," he confirmed, coming back from the bathroom where he'd turned the shower off. "She likes that style." He looked around the empty room, as if she or Suresh might appear suddenly. "Both of them. I thought his goal with her was to just kill her. And the new Suresh? Why take him, too?"

“Lures, Darwin. He still wants you and I.” Li did a quick search of the room and found nothing more of use. “He won’t kill them until he’s got us, so there’s some small reassurance.”

"I'll assume that the bar isn't where he'd take them. We're going spelunking." He left the room, crossing back into theirs and began dressing and clipping weapons into their holsters.

Not long after, he and Li were carefully approaching a set of caves that ran along a ridge a few kilometers from town. "Up ahead," he noted quietly, "See the light along the roof of that cave?"

Li raised a set of binoculars to her eyes. “Yes. We get a little closer I can tell you who’s there.” She offered the glasses to Darwin.

Taking them and peering through them, Darwin said, "This is probably the worst case of walking into a lion's den I've ever seen. We have no way of knowing how many are in there or where they are. Oh well. No time like the present, Mon Capitan."

“Indeed. As long as I can find Oz, that’s what matters.” She nodded to Darwin, then began to move forward, in a circuitous route to take advantage of the natural cover. As they moved closer, she opened her thoughts, reaching out to discover who was waiting.

* * *

Suresh sat on a large rock, looking at the woman before him. She was bound hand and foot, her mouth covered, but the look in her eyes was murderous. He reached out to tug away the gag and smiled.

“Welcome to the thunderdome, Oz, to quote one of your species’ old movies. Quite a good one actually. Nine showed it to me. Have you seen it?”

Coughing, Oralia nearly missed his question. "Fuck you, Suresh." She spit at him, splattering his boot and pant leg with bloody phlegm.

“You wouldn’t enjoy it, I’d just lay there.” He smiled down at her. “Besides, I’m not the unfaithful type like you were, at least that’s what all the gossip said. Were you? Really? Because if so, perhaps taking Connor out of the equation did you a big favor.”

Despite being bound, despite having been burned and bruised by the bludgeon-like disruptor, despite knowing that she'd reopen the cuts on her throat and neck from Suresh's blade, Oz launched herself at Suresh, hitting him mid-thigh. She no longer cared whether he killed her; she just wanted to land a few blows before he did.

He staggered back, then grabbed her shoulders, slamming her to the ground. “That’s about enough from you, but that tells me I hit a nerve. Interesting.” He lifted her up easily, settling her back against the cave wall. “I’d prefer you not damage yourself before Li gets here.” He brushed a bit of dirt from her cheek, his touch surprisingly gentle. “That’s better.”

His thought process was beyond her understanding. Behind him, she saw the big Orion, Naral, grin at her. He was the one she didn't want to tangle with. "Remove these," she held out her wrists, indicating the bindings. "You have your watchdog."

“Why? So you can run your fingers through my hair?” He laughed uproariously at his own joke. "How stupid do you think I am Oz? You’re much faster than he is, believe me, and if I lose you, there goes my bargaining chip. You know as well as I do that Li will do just about anything I want to keep you safe.”

"Where is Suresh, the one we actually like?" She asked, changing tactics.

That got a low growl from Suresh and he slammed his fist against the rock on which he sat. He fought down the urge to break her neck then and there and Naral spoke sharply to him. Suresh nodded.

“He’s here.” He nodded to Naral, who disappeared around a bend deeper in the cave. “I must confess to being surprised by him, though. He’s too...nice. His first words, at least once he regained consciousness, was to ask about you since he knew what I had planned.”

"He is nicer. Li likes him; he's been growing on me. Maybe you should be more like him."

Those were the magic words, at least if Oz intended to infuriate him. He rose and stormed out of the cave, cursing madly. Inside, Oz could hear things hitting the outside of the cave, more cursing, and then finally quiet. Suresh reappeared inside.

“You must be mistaken.” His voice was eerily calm.

She grinned lopsidedly, knowing she'd gotten to him. "Oh, no, I'm not. Why do you think we brought him along? We trust him. Li trusts him, in a way she never trusted you. And never will trust you."

“She will get over that.” He stopped as footsteps heralded the arrival of Naral and the other Suresh. He still wore the clothes he’d had on the last time Oz saw him, clothes that the mad Suresh had replicated and also wore. Looking at the two, Naral had to admit he could tell no difference, aside from a gash on the cheek of the one he held fast.

The old Suresh looked to the new one. “She says that Li likes you. Is this true?”

Catching the new Suresh's eye, which wasn't hard since he was looking straight at her, she nodded slightly. "Of course Li likes him. He's sane."

“She trusts me too. And in fact,” the new Suresh stopped a moment to cough. “In fact, on the way here, I held her in my arms as we stood in the ship’s galley. She’s been in my head, Suresh. Willingly.” He understood the crazed man before him well enough to really rub salt in his wounds.

This time, the old Suresh’s growl echoed off the jagged walls of the cave and he struck his nemesis, re-opening the gash on his cheek. He stood nose to nose with the man and hissed in his face. “She is going to watch you die!”

"Is she going to watch me die as well? That's really going make her love you, Surrie," Oralia laughed, which made her start coughing.

“Maybe I’ll just give you to Naral. I don’t want him to get lonely.” Suresh’s smile was a nasty one as he turned on Oz. “Or maybe I’ll kill you both, then pretend to be my double and cry to her about how he killed you and then I finished him off. What do you think?”

Seeing how Naral grinned at her, she chose the second option. "Go ahead, kill us. She'll sense your crazy deception in a heartbeat."

“True. So...we wait.” He settled back down on his rock, watching Oz in silence.

To Be Continued…

***************

Captain Li Hawke
Commander Oralia Zeferino
Lt. Michael Darwin
Suresh