The Enemy Below.

Posted on Sat May 14th, 2022 @ 5:24am by [DECEASED] Gil Silnan Tolbarr

Mission: Ares Ascending
Location: Rondac Planetary Installation
Timeline: After Zora Pt 2
1081 words - 2.2 OF Standard Post Measure

His thigh throbbing and with the taste of blood in his mouth and throat, coming from the sharp pain in his face, Silnan dropped away from his assailant as the transporter beam released them. He quickly came to his senses and found his balance, ready to roll upwards into an attack - then he saw the firing emitters of the other rifles pointed at him, and traced the shape of the Cardassian rifles back to their owners. Four men were stood around him, each aiming right at his head; three Cardassians about his age, and a Klingon in civilian clothing. Two of the men looked to him, as if he were in charge, and he in turn looked to the fifth person, the man he'd fought with, as if needing an explanation.

"They're in the facility. He wandered too close however." His attacker spoke, wiping blood from his own brow, obviously Silnan had got in a decent shot.

Shouldering the rifle, the Klingon looked pitifully at Silnan; "kill him" he snarled, turning away.

"Wait!" came another voice, male again and older, human sounding. Everyone looked towards the darker end of the room; a small series of dimly blinking lights was visible on a large humanoid silhouette, a Breen, and next to it the owner of the new voice. Both stepped forward and towards the brighter part of the room, lit more by control consoles than any deliberate lighting. "Bring him, he may be useful...". The man was human, greying short hair and a stance of control and authority about him; he reminded SIlnan of Captain Kane and he wondered if this was perhaps a different Starfleet Captain, or an Admiral perhaps.

Closer now and in better light, Silnan could make out more detail on the Breen; he was in a darker refrigeration suit than he had seen most in from holo-recordings, and the rank decoration denoted he was very senior, though Silnan couldn't read Breen iconography. It spoke in a deep and robotic and series of noises.

"I'm not sure yet...." the human replied. "Better to have a thing and not need it, than need it and not have it" he added, with a strange cheerfulness. "Bring him, let's go...".

A couple of the Cardassian men slung their rifles on their backs and bent down to drag him up to his feet before dragging him out of the room and into a brightly lit corridor. Silnan squinted from the brightness but tried to turn his head to look into several open rooms as he was dragged past. It certainly seemed to be some kind of industrial facility; lots of large cargo doors open and revealing cavernous rooms. Many of the rooms were filled with vertical pods filled with some kind of liquid, each suspending one of hundreds of humanoids with breathing masks and tubes of some kind entering their torsos. It took him a moment to realise, but each of the rooms seemed to be dedicated to one particular species at a time.

The Breen officer made some kind of metallic gargle, though the men dragging him seemed to understand it as they all veered left into another huge cargo bay. Finding his feet every now and again, Silnan kept trying to stand but the speed he was being dragged never permitted him to gain a footing. As they passed through this room towards a smaller door, a loud throbbing noise caught his attention to the left and he looked over, to see that as they passed a rack of empty cylinders a large external door had become visible. It was open to show a large landing platform beyond, with small shuttles similar to the one which had taken him to the Athena landing and taking off. The landscape was thick was rocky undulations, and thick blue foliage under a brilliant purple sky; confirming at least that he was now on Rondac itself.

The comparatively pleasant view disappeared as his captors threw him across the threshold of the smaller door they had been heading to. He landed with a hard thud on his right knee and right elbow, causing him to roll off the joints with pain, and giving him an opportunity to watch the Cardassians leave before the door slid shut. "Clones..." he said to himself, realising for the first time that the men were totally identical.

Another metallic gargling caused him to wheel around, the senior Breen was now accompanied by two more, though this time without as many rank markings on their refrigeration suits. "What do you want...? his shaky voice asked. "W- what do you want from me...?". He wasn't a soldier, he was a scientist. His Cardassian military uniform representing only the organisation he had to belong to, and not his values nor any character traits necessary to be a combat officer.

Only incomprehensible metallic gargling followed his questions, as the two lower ranking Breen helped him to his feet and held an arm each firmly. The senior Breen now with some kind of long tool in his hand stepped closer, until it's helmet was nose to nose with the young shaking Cardassian. His stomach felt like it had fallen out beneath him as the Breen spoke loudly, the vibrations from it's voicebox could be felt in Silnan's face. He was so close that he could feel the deeply cold refrigeration gases from it's breath gently laying across skin. "Please..." he whimpered.

In response he received only a hard back handed strike from the Breen in front him, who took a single step back and extended the tool in his hand. The tip of it glowed a white blue, and it plunged against Silnan's chest. The pain was immense, and with each striking of the tool the edges of his vision blackened. Unable to drop to the floor in pain, as he was still being held up by the other two Breen, he steeled himself for each vicious wave of sharp pain as it barrelled through his nerves. "You-" he couldn't breathe properly as he spoke "have -" "-not" another strike and his head felt like it would explode. "- asked" "-me"... with another jabbing of the tool, his strength finally gave out and the blackening at the edge of his vision didn't recede this time. Vaguely aware of dropping to the floor, Silnan's final thoughts before he lost consciousness were of the powerful starship in orbit and how he desperately willed them to find him.