A Spotless Mind: Into The Fire

[FG]

They were on the run.

Jeral had some idea of where they were going, but was certain that the
injured Vulcan was slowing them down, but they had no choice but to
press on and attempt to get to the village he had scanned. He hadn't
counted on the landing parties searching for them, though. They
probably had found the wrecked shuttle - he could have sworn he heard
some explosions earlier from the direction of the downed vessel, which
T'Uriel confirmed - and were looking for them.

For him, he chastised himself as he trailed behind T'Uriel. He was the
one with the mental condition; he had the formula for some form of
synthetic neurotransmitter replacement that blocked telepathy and
empathy in Betazoids. Why Intelligence operatives would kill for it,
however, he couldn't figure out. Considering the ramifications of
shooting down a civilian shuttle in Earth orbit... it was someone who
was desperate.

Or this was a secret they wanted erased.

"Lieutenant," T'Uriel called to him, breaking the silence they had
fallen into, thankfully breaking Jeral's thoughts.

He looked up, then past her and he looked around in wonder.

The ground dropped away a couple of meters in front of them, revealing
an unnatural drop. He looked around, seeing what looked to be the work
of machines of long ago, seeing the quarry and mine. Equipment,
abandoned long ago and left to a broken down state, dating back
hundreds of years, laid strewn before his eyes. The path below was
probably for heavy machinery to drive in and out, but parts of it had
collapsed over the years. There were remnants of buildings, what were
temporary structures, some in better shape than others and some old,
rusted equipment sitting around.

"This will work for now," Jeral said. "Come on, let's get him to the
shed over there."

The shed was a broken shell of its former self, Jeral saw as they
approached the smaller building. The tin roof had rusted over the
years and had more holes than roof, but it was a covering for now.
Some of the wall had been broken down and that was the wall that Jeral
had wandered through. He glanced around the shed, finding nothing they
could use around the small building, but there wasn't anything.

"What is this place?" T'Uriel asked.

"A mine and quarry," Jeral said. "Left over from just a little before
Earth's Third World War. I bet even the overhead scans couldn't see
this place; it's pretty grown over and concealed. You'd need to be
looking for this place in order to see it."

"It is fascinating that this facility still exists," T'Uriel
commented.

Jeral looked around with a grim look on his face. "Nature works in
weird ways, Doctor, even on planets we know almost everything about."
He grabbed up the tricorder and ran it over the elder Vulcan's head.
"He's not doing well, Doc. He's bleeding internally."

"Logic dictates we need to surrender."

Jeral shook his head. "They shot us down. They were trying to kill
us... I have a feeling peaceful surrender will not be on the table if
those search parties come to us." He held up the tricorder and scanned
for lifeforms again. "Well, that's odd... we got one following us.
He's going to be reaching the edge of the quarry in a moment." He
pulled out the old assault phaser and checked the energy cartridge in
the bottom of the device, seeing a full charge. "I'll see if I can
stun him and get some more supplies for our little mission."

"Lieutenant, what about your condition?" T'Uriel asked.

"I think the meld went successfully... I can balance and control my
emotions a lot better now. I can do this." He closed his eyes and
reached out, then put his hand over the Vulcan's. "I know you're
scared, T'Uriel..." he said in quiet reassurance, "but I can do this.
We need the supplies. He may even have a medkit we could use to help
him." He nodded towards the unconscious man, then closed his eyes and
reached out again. "I can feel him... he's close to the quarry. Stay
here, this will not take long."

She didn't say anything, remembering he could see past the repression
of her own emotions, and looked at him for a moment. Finally, slowly,
she nodded in agreement.

Jeral was out the hole in the wall before anything else was said,
running over to one of the broken down pieces of machinery, a large
scooping thing with a long conveyor belt. It was a massive piece and
easier to hide in than any other...

Otherwise known as a good place to ambush from.

There was a hole near the bottom of the machine, formed by rust, that
gave him a clear view of the approach to the shed. He hoped the metal
of the big machine would scramble tricorders as he scrambled into the
hole, then waited for the approach of the subject of his ambush. He
reached out again, feeling the man's emotional state and trying to
gauge the distance in between and how far he was.

The man wasn't even trying to hide, which was odd to Jeral. There was
a lot of open terrain in the quarry area and why he was not hiding
when they knew who was going to be there... why he wasn't, Jeral
couldn't figure out.

Unless he wanted to be captured.

Jeral hadn't considered that. He looked at the man; he looked like a
Marine who had been through Hell and back and carried himself as such.
Somehow, it was some move that Jeral had not expected. It could have
been a trap... but it may not have been.

He couldn't take the chance.

He rolled out of his hiding spot, aimed, and with one squeeze of the
trigger and an orange beam later, the new arrival was down on the
ground.

<To you, Tank>


Lieutenant jg Jeral Krezek
On sabbatical and stunning Marine Colonels