The Good That Men Do - Andy Mangels [73]
Archer shrugged. “I don’t intend to stay here long enough to find out, Malcolm.”
“Then let’s just hope we don’t discover exactly how long an ‘alik’ lasts,” Reed said.
Wearying of the battlefield banter, Shran raised his weapon with one hand and held it pointed directly toward the door. With his other hand, he reached into his sash and withdrew the gleaming Ushaan-Tor blade he reserved for occasions such as this.
“If I am to be enslaved, then the slavers will purchase my servitude with large volumes of their own blood.”
“They won’t want you,” Archer said, scowling at the blade. Gesturing with his com device toward Shran’s truncated left antenna, he added, “After all, you’re still damaged goods.”
Shran’s angry response was interrupted by the roar of an explosion. The blast broke the door into several neat pieces and swiftly began to fill the room with thick, black smoke. Fortunately, the initial blast had caused no one any apparent injuries, which confirmed Shran’s belief that the Orions were more intent on capturing than on killing- at least for now.
Through the choking haze of smoke, Shran saw a pair of armed Orions dash in via the suddenly open doorway. Before Shran could fire, the pinkskin soldiers mowed them down, apparently stunning them rather than killing them outright. Though Shran was sorely tempted to finish the slavers off with his Ushaan blade, he concentrated instead on remaining vigilant for the next wave of intruders.
The hum and shimmering light of Enterprise’s transporter cheated him of even that small satisfaction. After a brief moment of disorientation, he was standing on the narrow, circular transporter stage along with the other five members of the landing party, all of whom had been begrimed at least to some degree by their close call.
Shran’s eyes swept the transporter stage while everyone else stepped off into the small corridor alcove that housed it. He approached Archer, who had walked to a com panel in the corridor to instruct his bridge crew about the ship’s new course and heading. The tension in the deck plates beneath Shran’s boots changed immediately, signaling that Enterprise was already on its way toward Adigeon Prime.
And Jhamel.
“You should have brought along the Orion,” Shran said to Archer as he walked beside him toward the turbolift, with Reed following along behind. “In case he lied to us.”
“I don’t abduct people, Shran. I’ll leave that sort of thing to the Orions.”
“Your softness will be your undoing one day, pinkskin.”
Archer nodded. “That’s entirely possible, Shran.”
“I don’t think the Orion was lying to us,” Reed said.
Shran stopped and turned to face Reed, his antenna undulating forward in curiosity. “Why do you say that, Lieutenant?”
“Because I think you really frightened him. I’m quite certain I heard him say, ‘Keep that blue lunatic away from me’ right before he broke and told Captain Archer about Adigeon Prime. I believe on Earth the interview technique is known as ‘good cop, bad cop.”’
Or perhaps it’s ‘good captain, bad captain,’ Shran thought.
The trio resumed walking, then entered the turbolift, which immediately began making its swift ascent toward the bridge. Shran beamed triumphantly at Archer. “It seems that my preferred interrogation method has been vindicated after all.”
Archer scowled, shaking his head ruefully. “No, Shran. It hasn’t. You would have killed him.”
“It would have been no less than he deserved, Captain. But I know I wouldn’t have killed him,” Shran answered with certainty. “You see, I may lack Jhamel’s kindly instincts, but I always know my limitations.”
“I saw blood in your eye, Shran. How can you be so sure you would have stopped short of killing him?”
“Because you were with me.” Shran smiled. “And I know that you would never have permitted it.”
Twenty
Tuesday, February 18, 2155
Somewhere In Romulan Space
TRIP AWAKENED TO A SENSE of mounting panic.
For starters, he seemed to be blind. He struggled to get into