Federation, rightly or wrongly, has a reputation for honoring their agreements. It must be both new hardware and new software in the sensors. Not in the cloak.”
“But Romulan military must already have their hands on this tech. He’d have backups of blueprints and schematics and software. He’d have engineers and scientists, builders working on the thing. Unless he killed them all and destroyed every single copy. But it’d be insane to have just this one version of it.”
Vain raised an eyebrow. “Who would suspect the little bastard of being insane?”
“Who indeed?” Seren chuckled. “Computer, was anything special done to the sensors?”
“Clarify.”
“Was anything added to the sensors before we left Romulus?”
“Many additions and modifications have been performed on the ship in the months prior to departing from Romulus, captain.”
“We are just going to have to look, Seren.”
She shook her head. “Maybe some kind of device on the hull?”
“I have no idea.”
“I’ll go check.”
They donned their breathers, deciding to repressurize once Seren returned. Vain removed the panels to the sensors. What was she looking for? She was no engineer but something should stand out. Her years on a warbird had given a passing familiarity with most of the engineering. Nothing special leaped out at her.
“Mistress Syll!” Seren called through the open hatch. “I think I’ve found something. Come on out and take a look.”
“I am coming!” she yelled back. She got up, dusted off her hands and walked to the hatch, then hit the close button. She was sealed in. And whoever had Seren was sealed out.
A plan is not a prediction -- Romulan Proverb
When Seren and Syll reached Hellsbitch, they sold items they felt could not be traced back to them. The little bastard had much wealth but apparently not in gold pressed latinum. What they could get was enough to get them started. They bought the mine, providing them with what they hoped sounded like a good cover story and a defensible position. If they were fortunate, then also a source of income.
Seren watched the ancient machinery clanking away. It reminded her of home. Whether that was a good thing or not, she hadn’t yet decided. She brushed a few mine spiders off the machinery. They were harmless for the most part. And they kept down the number of critters that would given half a chance chew on their equipment. Syll hated the spiders. But as Seren’s parents had told her, leave the spiders alone and they’ll leave you alone. She wondered if her mom and dad would have been proud of her. Probably not. She silently repeated the old Romulan saying. Don’t drink from an empty cup. She sighed. There was no ore here. People were right. The mine was played out. Syll had used that old saying to get Seren to shift their efforts to this shaft. However, it had turned out no better. She was about to walk away when something caught her eye. A gleam in one of the hoppers. She made her way there and picked up a rock.
She shrieked and ran to their home.
“Syll!” she screamed running inside.
The Romulan appeared both her handguns drawn.
“No no no,” Seren said. “Put those away! Look what I have here.”
Syll tried to focus on what Seren was showing her. “Good girl. You have found us a rock.”
She was tired and she shivered a little. This place, so different from Romulus, seemed to get so cold sometimes.
“No, really look. See that!” She pointed to the vein. “That is raw latinum.”
Syll scowled. “Impossible. The mine is finished. Everyone says so. Except for the man who sold it to us. I should find him and kill him for his lies.”
“Oh we can do much better than that. We’re going to make him regret that he sold it to us.”
Syll rubbed her temples. Dark spots kept springing up in front of her eyes.
“Are you alright, love?” Seren asked.
“I’m just a little... Never mind. This place... I get a little confused sometimes.”
“Come lie down and let me look you over.”
“I am fine!” she snapped at her, shivering. “Do not touch me!”
Seren jerked back. “As you wish, Mistress Syll.”
The Romulan screamed, slapping the rock from Seren’s grip. Syll smashed her hands against the wall then the counter.
“What? What’s wrong?” Seren said shrinking away. “I didn’t mean...”
The Romulan shrieked standing over Seren, her fists raised.
The Human covered up but the blows never came. Instead, Syll headed for the door running outside.
Seren shook her head, wondering what had just happened. She started to pick up the rock then gasped. Syll’s breather lay right next to hers. She’d run into The DrearGyre without life support.
“Syll!” Seren struggled to put on her own breather, as she ran after the Romulan. A slight fog obscured the terrain. Along with the dust whipping about, she could hardly see. Syll could have gone in any direction. The planetoid sucked the heat from her. She’d left her cloak behind. The Romulan was dressed even more lightly.
“Syll!” she screamed again. She tried not to panic. Stay in a grid, stay high, look around. Calm, stay calm. “Syll! Please, where are you? Syll!
Then she spotted her. Somehow, the Romulan was still stumbling along. The thin and poisonous atmosphere, the freezing temperatures hadn’t stopped her. Yet. Seren sprinted towards her willing her body to go faster when she saw Syll collapse.
“Dammit, Syll,” she sobbed. She pulled Syll’s breather onto the limp body. “Come on!”
Syll’s eyes rolled up into her head, her mouth foamed. Kari half dragged half carried the Romulan back to their home. Once inside, life support repressurized the area. The Human took deep breaths and exhaled air into the Romulan’s lungs. Finally, Syll coughed and breathed on her own. The Romulan struggled into consciousness only to curl into a ball and weep. Seren rocked her in a tight embrace telling her it was going to be alright that everything was going to be fine. The Romulan wept repeating over and over how she was sorry, so sorry. At one point, she found some lucidity.
“Seren, please,” she said, her voice hoarse.
“Shh, it’s going to be okay. Just rest, dear, just rest.”
“It will never be okay. What have I done to you? What have I done to you? Seren, you must promise me something. You owe me nothing but please. Please.”
“What is it, Syll? Anything for you. Anything.”
“You must never call me Mistress again. Never. Never call me Mistress Syll ever again. I will adopt a new name. As you have. A new name. Vain. You must call me Vain from now on. One day, I shall tell you why that name. But it is so cold and it is so dark right now.”
“Vain, you are lovely and wonderful. I shall never call you Mistress Syll ever again. I promise.”
Control, mastery of one self, is the path to perfection -- Romulan proverb
Vain looked down at the group from the ship’s windows. No light escaped the ship’s interior that would reveal her position. The group outside had set up a few lamps, primitive enough not to attract the fog. With what looked like far too many guns, the bounty hunters covered Seren. Many bounty hunters. A Romulan male stood in front alone.
She turned on the outside speakers. The gods of The DrearGyre were with them this time. She could hear the bounty hunters and she could talk. She settled her mind. The game had begun.
“Greetings,” she said. “It is always good to welcome our neighbors.”
“Shut up, traitor!” the Romulan snarled.
Not Tal Shiar after all, Vain noted. Anger was real. An untrained mind. Seren’s deception had enraged him. He was all ego, inflated and full of pride.
“I am humbled that you would come visit my friend and me.”
“We don’t care about your perverted bitch, traitor.” The Romulan smacked Seren in the mouth. She slumped. The bounty hunters had already disarmed her, piling her weapons up beside them.
He was pr
obably part of the Beloved Nephew’s network. And a zealot. The Beloved Nephew had reached out for support amongst the fringe elements of moral purity. It had taken hold apparently. Seren was faking the seriousness of her injury. She could be counted on.
“I am sure you have been misinformed, my fellow Romulan. Any fantasies concerning us both are those of a deviant mind. Certainly, you would not be entertaining the idea that she and I would be sharing a bed, performing unnatural acts of any kind? These thoughts about us would not enter the mind of someone like you.”
His eyes seemed to bulge. “You have conditioned her, we know this. We have called our ship. If you cooperate we will let her stay conditioned and you can both leave unharmed. And we will have what we want. Or we will destroy you both along with the ship.”
Vain frowned. What did he know of conditioning? That was a clumsy lie about his ship. And an empty threat about her craft. That was the prize. He had an obvious pressure point in Seren but he was manipulating it strangely. He should have threatened to kill her. Offered a trade, a negotiation. Did he have some other kind of a plan? The Tal Shiar caveat sprung to mind: Do not mistake incompetence for subtlety nor subtlety for incompetence.
“She thinks she loves you, doesn’t she?” the Romulan said.
He was relaxing. He thought he had the upper hand. He thought he had a better pressure point than the threat of Seren’s death. He thought he knew something of Syll.
“Perhaps you should ask her.”
“I don’t love her,” Seren said tossing her head.
Vain scowled at the overacting. Did this Human learn nothing?
“Your fantasies about us seem misplaced,” Vain said. “Perhaps you should turn your thoughts away from such depraved imaginings.”
The Romulan zealot took out a device. “Shall we see? You can keep your pet if you must. And we will take the ship.”
“No. If you harm her, I will be the one to destroy this ship.”
The bounty hunters took a step back looking at each other. They knew what that meant.
“There is no need for that, Commander Syll. We get the ship and you can live out your lives together unmolested by anyone.”
“Are we not loose ends?” She dressed and armed herself.
“Loose ends will take care of themselves, I promise.” He smiled. He was comfortable. “Here, let me show you what it can do.”
The Romulan attached it to the forehead of Seren. The Human froze, then screamed. She held her head. Then suddenly she snatched up a rock and threw it at the ship. She screamed incoherently, struggling in the grip of the mercenaries, her mouth frothing. Finally, Vain understood what she was saying. She was going to kill Vain.
“No!” Vain screamed. “What have you done?”
She ran to the hatch, slammed her hand against the button to open it and ran out. “No, Seren, please. Don’t you recognize me?”
The Romulan spat. “Perversion!”
Two bountry hunters hung onto the struggling Human. The Romulan sank to her knees in front of her.
“Please, Seren.”
The Human spat and kicked at her glancing her boot off Vain’s head. The Romulan fell back. Her gun was in her hand. It fired. The bullet slammed the woman backwards and she crumpled in a heap amongst the men.
The bounty hunters cheered and laughed as Vain sobbed. One put his gun against her head beneath the turban then disarmed her. Three more searched her for weapons tossing them into a heap. They took their time running their hands over her body. She endured their violation.
“Do not kill her,” ordered the Romulan male. “It is my privilege. Your death will bring great honor to me, traitor. And yes, alive you would make a greater prize but I am not going to take that chance.”
Vain backed away from him.
“You are, after all, still Tal Shiar,” the Romulan marveled. “You keep your pet chained and shoot it down when it turns on you.”
Vain sobbed falling back towards the craft. The Romulan turned to follow her. The mercenaries gathered to watch.
“You will fly this craft to your ship?”
“The glory should go to the one who found it. No need to involve others. Especially when they’re hopelessly thrashing around still looking all over this forsaken nebula. They know nothing. The prize plus the assassin who murdered our Beloved Nephew are mine.”
Vain shook her head almost sadly. “You may meet the sheriff soon. The both of you can discuss the similarly poor quality of your plans.”
“The sheriff? What ever happened to him?”
“You can ask him yourself.”
Seren’s multibarrel shrieked as the barrels spun each spitting out an explosive slug. The male Romulan ducked throwing himself aside as one of the hunters took the bullet meant for him. Vain leaped to follow. Then fell backwards as a trace of bullets chased her behind a landing strut. She needed a weapon.
Seren sent a line of slugs at the man firing at Vain. The boulder he hid behind splintered and the bullets shredded him. Spent brass from her ammunition rang out as they bounced along the rock floor. Flame gushed from the barrels and smoke enshrouded her. The bounty hunters yelled as they fired. All it did was make them easy targets for her. The Human shot with an almost serene accuracy as she moved towards Vain’s position. Then one of the bounty hunters cut the lights.
Vain watched Seren freeze and crouch down. She silenced the spinning barrels. The area became dead quiet. Seren scanned the area, suddenly unsure. The Human was blind. Vain crept towards her carefully. If Seren thought she was a bounty hunter, she’d just start shooting. No one fired any more. They were smart enough to know it would just give away their position. Vain moved steadily, silently.
She held her breath, creeping up behind the Human. Seren slowly rotated. Vain froze staring right into the multibarrels. The muzzles paused a moment. Then moved on. She waited until Seren’s weapon no longer pointed at her then crept forwards again. Ready to duck, she touched her on the back.
“Are you alright?” Seren whispered, not even flinching.
“Yes. You are going to have to tell me sometime how you do that.”
“Right pocket.” Vain retrieved the weapon. “I can’t see a thing.”
“Fire where I do.”
They shifted their positions. Even with Vain’s eyes, the bounty hunters were hard to find. The mercenaries bobbed behind rocks unclear on what to do.
“Do not fire,” she whispered to Seren. She picked up a rock and threw it between two hunters. They turned and fired killing each other. It set off a chain reaction of random firing. With Vain pointing the way, they picked off more of the bounty hunters.
The mercenaries weren’t well trained but they were well armed. They possessed immense firepower. Vain guessed, however, they had become too reliant on weapons technology that simply didn’t work here. Night vision, laser guides, motion detectors, none of it functioned leaving them feeling vulnerable. But it didn’t mean they couldn’t get lucky. She gasped as a bullet grazed her arm. Seren’s multibarrel tore the man apart. Vain led Seren behind a pile of rocks.
The remaining hunters hunkered down behind some boulders. Having pinpointed where they hid, they concentrated their fire on Seren and Vain.
“We’re trapped here,” Seren said, ducking as stone shards flew around them. The mercenaries’ ordinance chipped away at their cover.
“I have this.” Vain produced a weapon and let Seren feel it.
“A disruptor? I’m pretty sure that’s not a good idea.”
“We shall see.” She turned it onto a low setting feeling it hum to life. “Can you see the cave entrance? Tell me if any fog appears.”
It only took a few moments. A thin mist started to creep in, hardly noticeable against the cave entrance. Then it started to thicken, moving almost snake like. And it was slithering towards them.
“It’s here,” Seren said.
“Fire now.”
Seren moved the multibarrel around one side of the rock and fired
at the bounty hunters. Vain set the disruptor to continuous fire, moved to the other side and tossed the disruptor to land close to the group of attackers. The fog turned and darted towards the energy signature. The hunters finally spotted the glow from the fog. Some ran out from their cover. Vain directed Seren in killing them. The others just screamed as the fog engulfed the disruptor and them.
“You know,” observed Seren. “That stuff just might stick around.”
The fog crackled with lightning, rumbling when the air molecules smashed together.
“No, it is withdrawing now. It has consumed the disruptor’s energy. It is almost all gone.”
The few bounty hunters remaining saw that as well and broke for the cave entrance. It outlined them against the dim light seeping in. They discovered what a mistake that was. Seren emptied her magazine into them.
“Last one,” she whispered, slamming home her remaining ammunition.
“We do not need it,” Vain said in a normal voice.
“Where’s that damned Romulan?”
Vain walked over to one of the lights and turned it on. “Over here.”
They found the Romulan crouched behind a strut.
“No don’t shoot me, don’t shoot me,” he blubbered.
“Coward!” Vain spat. “You shame us in front of a Human!”
“I know you don’t I?” Seren murmured. She stepped forward and pushed him with the multibarrel. It burned him. Shrieking, he scrambled to his feet, his hands held high. He left his gun for Vain to pick up. Seren shoved him out into the open.
“Seren...” Vain said.
“You were there while I was being tortured by the Beloved Nephew, weren’t you.” It wasn’t a question. Seren’s face was white marble.
He blubbered something but no one was listening.
“You laughed...” She burned him again with the barrels. “You thought what was being done to me was funny.”
“Seren...”
“Laughing now?” Her lips hardly moved.
Vain caught her arm. “Seren. No.”
Seren didn’t look at Vain. “He hurt me. That’s okay. I might’ve let that go. Might’ve. But he tried to kill you. That’s not okay. There can be no forgiveness.”
She smiled. The smile was darkness. Faint wisps of smoke wafted from each of the multibarrel’s muzzles. He couldn’t take his eyes off them as he collapsed to his knees. Words tumbled from his mouth but they were unheard.
“Seren,” Vain whispered. “Please. You are Human. This is not you to just gun him down.”
“He tried to kill you. I cannot let him go.”
Her finger moved to the trigger.
“Seren please. I know you can still find in your self your compassion. It is the Human thing to do. You would spare your enemy’s life because it is who you are. To find Mercy.”
Seren felt her finger move along the trigger. The metal was warm, smooth. A light click to release the safety. The barrels began to spin emitting a faint whine. They spun faster, then faster, the sound turning into a scream, then a screech. At this rate of fire, the weapon would empty the magazine in seconds. And the target would become nothing more than a vague stain. Her finger balanced on the trigger. Just a little more pressure. Just a little more.
Vain cradled Seren’s face and moved the Human’s gaze