“Where are we going?” Reyes asked, unable to keep his eyes from watching the knife as light from the overhead fixtures reflected off the blade’s polished surface.
Stepping forward, the Tellarite reached toward him with one beefy arm. “We don’t want to spoil the surprise.” At the same time, his other hand was moving to a knife on his own belt. Reyes figured that meant the goons were trying not to attract too much attention, even down here and well away from the ship’s more populated areas. No doubt their plan was to hustle him away to a more private chamber and carry out whatever plan they had in mind.
Well, screw that.
In the close quarters, Reyes decided he had the advantage over the burly Tellarite, who now blocked Nakaal as he moved closer. Without pausing to consider what might happen next, he lashed out with one leg, his foot connecting with the Tellarite’s right knee. The thug grunted in pain and staggered, trying to keep his balance. Behind him, Nakaal was already moving, but Reyes kept his focus on the Tellarite. Closing the distance, Reyes struck with his right fist, catching the guard along his left temple. He heard the knife fall from the Tellarite’s hand and clatter to the deck, and instinct guided his foot as he kicked the weapon out of reach. He shoved the goon backward, blocking Nakaal’s advance and clogging the narrow passageway so neither guard could maneuver. This gave him the opportunity he needed to reach for the Tellarite’s holstered disruptor.
In response, the Tellarite twisted his considerable bulk in a bid to block him, and Reyes responded by punching him a second time, this blow landing on the guard’s sizable nose. The reaction to the attack was immediate: the Tellarite howled, reaching for his face with both hands and providing Reyes the opening he needed to land another strike, this time driving his fist into the thug’s groin. The Tellarite responded by sagging forward, offering his defenseless chin to Reyes, who promptly grabbed the guard’s head while driving his knee into his face. He felt the cartilage of the Tellarite’s nose breaking, and the goon fell back, unconscious before his limp body dropped in a heap to the deck.
“Damn you, Reyes!”
Hearing the words at the same instant light glinted off something metal and shiny in his peripheral vision, Reyes pulled back his head just as Nakaal’s arm slashed forward, the knife in his hand slicing the air between them. Reyes jerked to one side, struggling for maneuvering room in the cramped hallway and almost tripping over the Tellarite’s body. Nakaal kept coming, stepping over his companion and waving his knife before him as he advanced. Backpedaling, Reyes tried to avoid getting forced into the corner he knew was behind him as the passageway made a turn to his left. He watched the Orion’s hand as it waved the blade before him, trying to determine from the movements if Nakaal was really all that skilled with the weapon. Reyes decided he was good enough.
Nakaal, perhaps sensing his opponent’s hesitation, seemed to decide he had the advantage and was looking to press it. His knife held before him, he stepped forward, and Reyes noted the look of satisfaction that seemed to brighten the Orion’s face.
Then, his expression went blank and his eyes widened before his entire body went slack and he sank forward, dropping to the deck in a disjointed heap.
Standing behind Nakaal, her arm extended to where she had applied a nerve pinch at the junction of the Orion’s neck and shoulder, was T’Prynn, dressed from neck to feet in a black, nondescript, and very form-fitting jumpsuit, over which she wore a black belt with several small pouches. Unlike Nakaal’s, her expression was all but unreadable as she beheld Reyes.
“Son of a bitch,” Reyes hissed, blowing out his breath in a relieved sigh.
T’Prynn’s right eyebrow arched. “It is agreeable to see you again, as well, Mister Reyes.”
Sparing a glance to the fallen Nakaal, Reyes checked the corridor in both directions, searching for more of Ganz’s men. “Not that I’m ungrateful, Lieutenant, but what the hell are you doing here?”
As she turned and set about searching the fallen guards, T’Prynn replied, “Ganz has ordered your assassination. These two were sent to carry out that directive.” Moving the unconscious Nakaal’s right arm, she retrieved the disruptor from its holster on the Orion’s hip.
“He ordered the hit on me for tonight?” Reyes asked, holding out his hand as the Vulcan passed the purloined weapon to him. “That sounds a bit too coincidental.” He tried to backtrack his movements during the evening, searching for whatever it was he had said or done to arouse Ganz’s suspicion about his activities and push the Orion toward ordering his men to take action.
“Not at all,” T’Prynn said as she moved to the fallen Tellarite still lying like a lump in the corridor. “As I told you, I’ve been monitoring Ganz’s communications. When I learned he had put the assassination order into motion, I moved up my own timetable so that you could make another attempt to access the ship’s navigational logs tonight, rather than two days from now.”
His eyes narrowing as he parsed her comments and realization hit him, Reyes glared at his former intelligence officer. “Wait, so you knewthey were coming after me tonight, and didn’t tell me? What the hell is thatabout?”
“I did not wish to alarm you,” T’Prynn replied. Her search of the Tellarite completed, she now held his disruptor pistol in her right hand. “At least, not while you needed to focus on your task. Once that was accomplished, it was my intention to update you on the current situation and guide you to a safe haven. What I failed to anticipate was that any of Ganz’s men would find you so quickly. I therefore employed an impromptu deviation to my strategy for your extraction.”
Reyes shook his head, giving up on translating any of that. “And your big backup plan was to come and get me? Basically, you’re just making this up as you go along, right?”
“That is essentially correct,” the Vulcan said.
Noting the weapons they each carried, Reyes asked, “You didn’t bring any weapons?”
T’Prynn nodded. “I have a type-1 phaser in my belt, but I think it prudent to limit the use of Starfleet-issue weapons until no other options remain available.” She held up her disruptor. “These should prove sufficient for our needs.”
The observation was enough to make Reyes check the power gauge on the disruptor she had given him. It offered no stun option, and even the lowest setting would still be sufficient to inflict serious injury on his intended target. He resigned himself to what that might mean should he and T’Prynn encounter further resistance while attempting to escape the ship.
Them or you, ace.
“Okay,” he said, “what’s your plan?”
Moving to step over the Tellarite, T’Prynn replied, “We will proceed to my designated extraction point and request an emergency transport to the station. Lieutenant Jackson is standing by, awaiting our signal.” She then said, “Lieutenant Jackson, do you read?”
Reyes was startled by the sound of the security chief’s voice inside his head as Jackson answered, “ Right here, Lieutenant, and it’s good to be hearing your voice again, Commodore.”
“Didn’t anybody get the memo about my court-martial?” Reyes asked, scowling, though it was good to know that T’Prynn also carried a subcutaneous transceiver within her own body. It would make communication that much easier should they become separated during the escape attempt. “And what about Ganz? You can bet he’s looking for us.”
T’Prynn shook her head. “The ship’s internal sensors are offline. I was able to effect that while you were logged into its computer network. They won’t be able to track us except for handheld scanners, and such devices are already blocked by the ship’s internal security measures. I simply executed an instruction which will prevent the protocol from being terminated.”