A Spotless Mind: The Run

[FG]

Jeral roused himself to a coughing start.

They had been banged up pretty badly; he could barely remember guiding
the shuttle to an emergency landing. He shook his head, quickly
clearing the fog from his brain as he looked back to the two
passengers. "You all right?" he called out.

He could hear a voice respond, "I have some minor injuries, but
nothing severe. Serik, however, will require medical attention. Are
you all right?"

Jeral noted the tilted floor as he got up. "There's a medkit right by
your seat, I remember seeing one there," he said, gripping his head as
he rose to his feet. "I just got a headache, that's all."

"Lieutenant, I should scan you-"

"I don't know if you noticed, Doctor, but we just got shot down,"
Jeral interrupted. "My condition be damned for right now, for our
first priority should be to get the Hell out of here before they find
us and kill us."

T'Uriel slowly nodded. "How do you propose we get out?"

Jeral looked over to the side hatch, then pulled the emergency lever.
The cover blew directly off and flipped twice in the air, landing a
few meters beyond the shuttle. "That way," he said, jerking his head
over. He reached over to the place where the shuttle pilot had
indicated where they kept his hand phaser. He pulled out what looked
to be an assault phaser - older than T'Uriel, he noted grimly - and
turned. "We've got to move him. Can we?"

T'Uriel was just finishing a scan of the elder Vulcan. "He appears to
be all right to move," she said.

"Well, let's do it."

Jeral grabbed his arms and started to pull, while T'Uriel started to
pick him up by his legs to get the body out. It only took a minute,
but they had vacated the shuttle and started to carry the elder Vulcan
out of the area. "Look," he said as they reached the treeline, seeing
another shuttle start to land right beside the crash site. "They're
looking for us already. Give me the tricorder." He got the device,
resetting the scanning device to scatter biosigns. "That should help
us hide if we stick together."

"Why do you think they were shooting at us?" T'Uriel asked.

Jeral shrugged. "Beats me," he said. "I'm not exactly a high-priority
target. Is he?"

T'Uriel shook her head. "Serik is a priest at the temple at Mount
Selaya. It is unarmed; they could have assaulted him there."

"Which leaves you," Jeral deduced. "Did you transmit anything before
we left?"

"The scans of the compound you gave us," she replied. "We transmitted
it to Starfleet Medical to get some help identifying it."

Jeral sighed. "I knew I should have asked more questions about the
substance," he muttered. "My brother gave it to me and the replicator
codes to create more... I'm betting that's what did it. Hope he didn't
steal it or something..." He snuck a peek over the trees to the people
coming out of the shuttle. "Those look like gray collars to you?"

"Indeed," T'Uriel replied.

"Starfleet Intelligence. Dammit..." Jeral muttered to himself. He
jerked his head and said, "Come on. We gotta get going. I think I saw
a village about fifteen kilometers due east from where we are when we
crashed. If we hike, we can make it there within two days and get some
shelter."

He started to walk, but T'Uriel stopped him. "I hear some phaser fire,
not far off."

Jeral blinked. Vulcan hearing, he reminded himself. "Where?"

"Above us," she said.

"All the more reason to move," he said as he took her by the arm and
started to move. "Do you have Serik?"

"Yes."

"Thank you, Vulcan strength..." he muttered again. "Be as quiet as
possible. I would rather not attract their attention. This phaser is
about as old as Serik; probably hasn't been fired in years."

T'Uriel nodded and followed Jeral through the lush forests, trying to
cut their way through the brush...



<And I am on the move... try to keep up!>

Lieutenant jg Jeral Krezek
On sabbatical from Starfleet