Captain's Table 02_ Dujonian's Hoard - Michael Jan Friedman [37]
No one was more astonished than Gul Ecor. “Hel’s Gate?” he echoed. “But how can that be?”
It was a good question one to which we all wanted to know the answer. Hel’s Gate, after all, was a celestial anomaly of great turbulence, which was rumored to emit deadly radiation in powerful waves. No one in his right mind would have made such a place his destination.
And yet, Red Abby had done just that. Or so it appeared.
“To tell you the truth,” Sturgis replied, “I don’t know what the captain had in mind. She never told me that much. But it was the Gate we were heading for, as plain as the nose on my face.”
The gul leaned into the man’s face. “You’re certain of this?”
Sturgis nodded. “Certain.”
“No other possibility?”
“None,” the navigator confirmed.
Ecor studied him a second longer. Then he gestured to one of his men. “Put him in a cell. And equip it for torture.”
Sturgis’s eyes opened wide. “What are you saying?” he piped, stricken with fear. “I told you what you wanted to know!”
The gul watched as two of his men grabbed the navigator by his arms. “Quite possibly,” he told Sturgis, “you have been honest with me. If that’s so, I’ll know it.”
“But by then” the navigator protested.
“By then,” Ecor interrupted, “it won’t do you any good, I grant you. But it will benefit me immensely.”
“No!” Sturgis shrieked, struggling against his captors to no avail. “No, dammit, no!”
But his cries fell on deaf ears. The gul pretended not to notice as his men dragged the human away. I exchanged glances with Worf, but we were hardly in a position to help the poor wretch.
“I told you the truth!” Sturgis wailed. “The truth!”
And then he was gone, though the echoes of his screams still remained. Finally, even those were gone.
The irony of Sturgis’s plight had not been lost on me. The fellow had betrayed his captain and his crewmates to escape the torture chamber yet he was to be tortured nonetheless.
A grisly prospect, I reflected. I did not envy him.
Ecor turned to Red Abby then. And to me.
“For the moment,” he said, “you’ve been spared. After all, I can torture you only once and our discussions will prove more fruitful after I’ve spent some time with your friend.”
The gul’s mouth twisted with anticipation. It was the first clear-cut sign of his sadism.
“You see, my friends, getting answers is largely a result of knowing which questions to ask. And before long, I expect, I will have a great many questions for you.”
I didn’t doubt it for a second. Ecor didn’t appear to be the sort who gave up easily.
As I watched, he left the cargo bay, his guards trailing in his wake. Then they were gone and we were left alone to contemplate our fate.
Madigoor
“SO YOUR COVER was blown,” Flenarrh observed.
Picard nodded. “Thoroughly. I was revealed as a Starfleet captain in the midst of those who had reason to hate and fear Starfleet. It was not a positive development, as you can imagine.”
“But … were you truly headed for Hel’s Gate?” Dravvin asked. He sounded more than a little skeptical.
“Yes,” said Bo’tex. “Was that really what Red Abby had in mind? Or was it simply what she had told Sturgis?”
“A good question,” Picard responded. “In fact, I found myself mulling the same one, as I sat there in the Cardassians’ cargo bay. Why on Earth would anyone purposely chart a course for something like Hel’s Gate? It seemed foolish, to say the least perhaps even suicidal.”
Robinson eyed him. “And yet?”
Picard shrugged. “I decided to put the question to the only person who would know for certain Red Abby herself.”
“Wasn’t she wary of you?” asked Hompaq.
“Naturally,” Picard said. “However, I pointed out that we were in the same boat, so to speak. Whatever we had been in the past, we were at that moment fellow prisoners.”
“And she accepted the argument?” asked Dravvin.
“Apparently,” Picard answered.
The Tale
“IS IT TRUE?” I asked.
Red Abby looked at me. “About Hel’s Gate,