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"Payment" - Part One
Rating: R (Violence, Strong Language, Adult Situations, Brutality) Note: Vulcan terms used in this story were taken from the online Vulcan Language Dictionary, the Vulcan Language Institute, or I made them up myself.
Part One: She ignored the bitch gleefully ranting on the screen in front of her. Sato was announcing to the planet below that she had killed Archer with her own hands and taken command of the Defiant. T’Pol resolutely tuned out the whore’s proclamation of herself as Empress and concentrated on finding a weak point in the shackles that held her in the interrogation chair. She knew it was illogical and futile. Ironically, she had helped upgrade the chair herself, two years ago at Captain Forrest’s request. There was no possible way to escape without tools. Her breathing was getting out of control again. She slowed it down. Fear was her worst enemy. Worse then Sato. If she let fear take her, she was already dead. First she must cast out fear. Again and always. T’Pol closed her eyes and remembered Surak’s warning. The soothing words seemed very far away. As far away as the warm sands of home. She was going to die here. Slowly. She had failed her people and she would be only the first of them to pay for her failure. She could sense the two Human guards behind her, standing on either side of the door. Their lascivious eyes raked across her back. She knew they had high hopes that their new Empress might decide to include gang rape as part of her punishment. It would be totally in keeping with Sato’s character to help seal the loyalty of her chosen security contingent by letting them have a Vulcan to play with for a few hours. Again she concentrated on her breathing. The old lessons were there, buried deep in her memory. In addition to the healing trance, there was the shal rom-staya. The death trance. But could she bring up the necessary discipline to achieve it in time? The door behind her opened. T’Pol heard her guard’s feet shuffle as they snapped to attention, telling her that a command officer had entered. But she didn’t need the sound to know it. He had come. She closed her eyes and wished for the first time in her life that Vulcans still worshiped gods. If only to give her someone to curse. Tucker walked around the chair and leaned against the desk, looking down at her. His burned face stared at her with a detached expression, as if he was thinking of something else. Neither of them spoke. The bond at the back of T’Pol’s mind stirred. His emotions were suppressed, but still powerful. He stared at her with the concentration of a hunting predator. It took all of her courage to face his eyes. “I told ya that you’d regret what ya did to me.” His voice was quiet. Almost a whisper. His expression didn’t change. “I do not regret it,” she told him sincerely. “I did it for my people.” The blow came from nowhere. The back of his fist caught her in the temple and knocked her sideways in the chair, sending her reeling into the borderland of unconsciousness. When she blinked her way back into clarity, she saw him standing once more where he had been. His expression had not changed. "You swore.” Her voice trembled with anger. “You swore that you would never speak of it. You promised me by all you held sacred that you would never use it against me. But you lied. How many times did you try to use it to force me to help you? How many times did you remind me of what you did for me, to persuade me to act on your behalf?” Tucker’s drawl was thick and slow, a sure sign of strong emotion. “So that’s why ya told me what ya did. Ya wanted to rub ma nose in it. Ya wanted to strut and brag on how smart ya were, and how stupid I was.” “Yes!” she snarled triumphantly. He straightened up. “An’ you were right too.” A trace of bitterness slipped into his tone. “If I’d had sense enough to report to Archer what you’d done, ya woulda been dead and I woulda been second in command by now. What did ya do to me, bitch? What kind of control do ya have on me?” She looked down. “I don’t know what you mean.” Tucker deliberately grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked hard, jerking her head backward until she faced the ceiling. He drew his dagger and placed the point carefully under her chin, pressing until a point of blood broke through and trickled down her neck. “I’m done hearin’ yer lies.” Tucker leaned over until his face was mere centimeters from hers. His breath reeked of flesh and whiskey. From the bond came a cold fury that touched something primal and terrifying deep inside her. Her mate was dangerously angry with her. “How come ya were able to use me so easy? How come I didn’t report ya? Even after ya told me what ya did? I went into the booth for you!” He stopped to breathe hard. “But for some reason I couldn’t force myself to turn ya in. Why not, slut? What kind of control do ya have on me? What did ya do to me? Hypnosis? Drugs? Some kind of Vulcan telepathy? TALK!.” She stared at him, wide-eyed. This was a side of Tucker that she had never seen. She knew, theoretically, that any human was capable of killing. Particularly any human male. But Tucker had never released his full anger in her presence. Paradoxically, it both repelled and attracted her in a strangely primitive way. “We.” She paused to wet her lips. “We are bonded.” Tucker put on a puzzled expression and backed away. He released her hair and pulled back the knife. “We’re what?” he demanded. She swallowed. “In the Pon Farr. When we mated. The bond formed. It is a telepathic link that joins Vulcan mates for life.” He stared at her. She waited but he made no reply. After a moment she continued. “I did not expect this to happen.” Her voice started to shake. “I have never heard of it happening with someone who was not Vulcan before. If I had know that it was possible, I.” She stopped. “You woulda done it anyway,” Tucker said gruffly. “You were dyin’.” She closed her eyes in shame and nodded. “So that’s how you control me.” She looked at him again and made a reluctant decision. “I am going to die soon, and I have no reason to lie to you now. We are closely linked, and when I die you might die too. It is important that you prepare yourself.” “Figures.” His face twisted in disgust. “Just figures. Why am I not surprised? I wish I’d shot your green ass when I first laid eyes on you.” She flinched. “So that’s how you kept me under your thumb. You had your hook in me all this time, and I never knew it.” “No! Please believe me.” For some reason it was suddenly important to her that he understand. “I do not control you. Bonded mates cannot control each other. You chose not to report me because I still mattered to you. I could sense it.” He barked out a laugh that was hoarse with pain. “Yeah. Dumb as a damn post, for sure.” Tucker shook his head and looked tired and sad. “No woman ever looks at me unless she wants something. You were no different. I just wanted so bad...” He snorted. “Fool,” he muttered and glared at her again. “At least I’ll be free to think and act on my own once you’re dead.” She closed her eyes and shook her head. “If I could have controlled you through the bond, why would I have needed to lure you into your quarters for a mind meld?” she pointed out. She shook her head violently. “There is no time for this. Just listen. I was angry with you, this is true. And I have used you. But you did save my life, when you owed me nothing. I cannot honorably allow you to die without giving you fair warning. You must prepare for the breaking of the bond or your mind will be destroyed.” “How?” he snarled. “You cannot enter into the proper stage of meditation without the assistance of a Kohlinar Master,” she told him. “Therefore your only option will be to use drugs. You must have Phlox sedate you into a deep coma just before my execution, and keep you there until I am completely brain dead. It is the only way. Even then, you will probably require full life support for several hours after you are revived.” “Right...” Tucker nodded. “Phlox. Your co-conspirator. That’s going to be a problem you see. He’s in the booth at the moment. Her Majesty has ordered him kept there permanently. As in, until he dies. So it isn’t likely that he will be administering any drugs to anyone in the forseeable future.” “Then you must find someone else to do it,” she told him urgently. “It is your only chance!” Tucker looked at her with ice in his eyes. “Or maybe you just want to make one last jab at me. Maybe you are hoping I will go along with this idea, and with any luck I won’t come out of the coma. Maybe you already have a deal made with someone in Medical. I don’t think so. I will take my chances.” He straightened away from the desk and put his dagger back in its sheath. T’Pol tightened her grip on the chair arms and raised her voice. “No! I am not lying. I give you my word.” “Like you gave it to Archer?” Tucker sneered. “Your word isn’t worth the spit behind it. You used me, lied to me, backstabbed me, and threw me to the wolves. Now you want me to believe that you suddenly give a rat’s ass whether I live or die? Not likely. Have a nice life. What’s left of it.” He walked past her field of view and she heard the door activate. TBC |
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