“Just your company until we can reach Hanger Bay 4. Then we'll part company. You'll stay here, and I'll take one of your shuttles and leave.”
“You won't get away with this. Even if you destroy the ship, we can still use the escape pods. Some of us will survive. Most of us most likely, including the Prime Minister.”
“Don’t you think I thought of that? I fixed it so the doors to the escape pods won’t open from this side. There is nothing you can do to stop this ship from crashing into the asteroid belt around Kalara 3.”
“I think you underestimate us,” Deanna said, she needed to keep him talking.
“Shut up, Councilor, and stop trying your psychobabble on me. When Tro Bin Ten first created us, he gave us telepathic abilities far greater than yours. It was one of the things that gave us an advantage over our enemies. I'm of the third generation, and as telepaths go, you don't even rate anywhere near that of a first generation warrior.” He pulled the knife away from her side and flipped it around so people in the hallway would not see it.
Geordi LaForge had two problems one was that the dilithium crystal and any replacements he had on hand were smashed and the other was a bomb, a bomb with enough explosives to take out all of engineering. “Why don’t you just transport it out of the ship?” one engineer asked.
“You see that,” he said pointing at a small device attached to the bomb.
“Yeah.”
“The moment a transporter tries to lock on to it, it goes off. If we try and reach in and grab it, the motion detector will sense that, and again it goes bang,” Geordi said.
“And if we leave it alone?” someone asked.
Geordi thought that was by far the stupidest question. “It has a timer on it, and according to the clock we have about two hours before it goes off.”
“Oh.”
“Can you move it?” Worf asked.
“I’d have to keep power going to it. Then if I could reach in and grab it, which I can’t, and if I didn’t bump, shake, or jar it too much while moving it. Then, yeah, I think I could move it,” Geordi replied.
“Ok, then I say we cut the whole cabinet out. Put it on a skid take it down to Hanger Bay 4 and give it back to the guy who gave it to us,” Worf said.
“How do you know that he’ll be going down to Hanger Bay 4?” Geordi asked looking over at Worf.
“Because it is the only operational hanger bay, and it has a shuttle standing by ready to go,” Worf replied with a wicked looking smile on his face. “That is where he is going if he plans to get off this ship before it crashes. So, I say we give him his bomb back and let him leave.”
Geordi knew he could stop the ship before they reached the asteroids, but not while this bomb was on board the ship. The moment they tried to stop the bomb would go off. He smiled; Worf’s plan might actually work. “Somebody get me a plasma cutter and a small portable generator. We’re going to have to keep power to the circuits if this is going to work.”
“You know, by now I'm sure they know that you plan to use Hanger Bay 4 to make your escape,” Deanna said to keep the man talking to her. She knew that if they reach the hanger, she was dead even if he did not kill her.
“So what? You don't know anything about Tro Bin Ten's warriors. We are tough to kill. You could chop our arms off, and we could still keep fighting. A bullet through the heart wouldn't even slow us down. We don't need either of our two hearts to keep on fighting, and if we survive, it all grows back. The fourth generation that Tro Bin Ten made was even better at taking punishment and surviving than all the previous generations combined. You almost have to cut them into little pieces to kill one of them.”
“So why do you want the Prime Minister dead. What did he do to you?”
“Why do any of us want to kill him? Revenge. We want to pay them all back for what they did to us. With Shala Te Ar dead, we win. What little government that we have on our world will collapse and we will be free to take back what they took from us.”
“What do you think will happen then? What makes you any different from Shala Te Ar or any of the others? The only thing that will happen is more innocent people will die.”
“There are no innocent people! They are all guilty for what they did to us. We will have our revenge.” Talking to Deanna, he didn't see the door was blocked open until it was too late. The man that flew through the door tackled him knocking him to the floor.
Davack quickly regained his feet. He grabbed Deanna's hand and ran down the hallway with her a little way before turning back. The other man got up slowly. “That was pretty good,” he said. “I never felt you coming. Deanna, is this a telepathic boyfriend of yours? At least tell me your name before I kill you.”
“I'm Davack, and you'll find that I am harder to kill than you think. Tell me your name so at least I know who it is that is trying to kill me.”
“I’m Tala Ion Ten, third generation Tro Bin Ten warrior not that it means anything to you.”
“You're right; it means nothing to me,” Davack said as he slowly strolled back toward Tala Ion Ten. “You have placed the lives of my friends in danger; I cannot let this go on. You would kill a thousand people just to kill one man; a man that you could have killed a dozen times over before now. No true Tro Bin Ten warrior would do such a thing.”
“I have my reasons for killing him this way.” Tala Ion Ten swung his knife at Davack. Davack danced out of the way easily as Tala Ion Ten pressed his attack. A quick flurry of jabs by Davack made Tala Ion Ten stop and think. “You’re better than what I would give you credit for,” he said waiting for an opening in Davack’s defenses. Tala Ion Ten suddenly lunged at Davack with his knife. He was both rewarded and disappointed. He cut Davack, slashing through his shirt, cutting a long gash in his side and across his stomach. Davack reached down and grabbed Tala Ion Ten’s hand and twisted it until he heard bones break as he wrenched the knife free from Tala Ion Ten’s hand.
Tala Ion Ten jumped back expecting to see Davack fall to the floor dead; killed by the poison on his knife blade. Davack just stood there looking at him. Tala Ion Ten looked down at the cut across Davack’s stomach. It should have been gushing blood, but it wasn’t. Only then did he realize he was fighting one of his own kind. He knew the poison on his knife would still kill, but it would take time - time he did not have. He did the only thing he could do; he turned and ran.
Davack knew the poison that coated the knife blade. He could feel it working in his system. He smiled; Tala Ion Ten underestimated more than he knew. There was plenty of time to deal with this problem.
Worf waited alone in Hanger Bay 4. If he had to wait much longer, he would have to Pilot the shuttle out himself, set the autopilot, and beam back on board the Enterprise. Tala Ion Ten was more than a little surprised to find only one person waiting for him. “Only one of you? I expected more.”
“We have other problems to deal with. I was all they could spare,” Worf replied casually.
“I somehow find that hard to believe.” Tala Ion Ten was confused by this Klingon. His mind was empty of thought. Even when he swung on him the Klingon dance quickly out of the way stinging him with a jab as he backed away his mind still blank. The fight became more of a dance as Worf sidestepped Tala Ion Ten's punches, landing a few good ones of his own as he backed away. At last Tala Ion Ten caught Worf with a good right hand that sent Worf sprawling across the floor a good ten feet away, but he bounced right back up. Tala Ion Ten looked at his watch; he did not have much time left. When his remaining bomb went off the hanger would be sealed. He dove at Worf backing him up against the hanger wall. They traded a dozen punches before Worf went down and stayed down. Tala Ion Ten ran for the shuttle. There were only a few minutes left.
Worf sat up as the shuttle cleared the hanger and tapped his com-badge. “Lieutenant LaForge, the shuttle has cleared the ship, you can stop us now.”
“Thanks, Worf,” Geordi replied from engineering. He reached down and touched a few buttons on the computer display. The impulse engines went dead. Another button activated the thrusters and caused the Enterprise to swing around one hundred and eighty degrees. The impulse engines came back on long enough to bring the Enterprise to a slow stop.
Tala Ion Ten was surprised when the Enterprise swung around and came to a stop. He didn’t have time to be surprised when the bomb went off scattering him and the shuttle to the four corners of space.
Davack was standing on the bridge when the turbolift doors opened, and Shala Te Ar stepped into the room. “Dav Ack Ten, I'm told that I have you to thank for saving all our lives,” he said.
“I played a very small roll in this drama,” Davack replied.
“I think he underestimates the part he played, Prime Minister. We might all well be dead if it were not for Captain Davack,” Jean-Luc said. “I’ve been trying to get him to go to sickbay so my doctor could tend the cut he received by the Tro Bin Ten warrior called Tala Ion Ten.”
Shala Te Ar walked over to stand in front of Davack, looking down he saw the long cut across Davack's stomach. “You should do as the captain suggests,” he said.
Davack could feel the poison starting to cause his body to shut down. He knew that life would go on no matter what happened, but he wanted to test Shala Te Ar. Slowly his knees gave out, and Davack started to fall. Shala Te Ar caught him. “The knife must have had poison on the blade,” he said as Shala Te Ar laid him on the floor.
“Doctor Crusher to the bridge,” Jean-Luc said as he knelt beside Davack too.
“A chamber on my ship,” he said weakly looking at Shala Te Ar. Davack closed his eyes and let himself relax.
“We have to get him to his ship,” Shala Te Ar said.
“Doctor Crusher will be here in a few minutes,” Jean-Luc said. “He’s still breathing.”
“You don't understand. This is a fourth generation Tro Bin Ten warrior. If we get him to his regeneration chamber, he will be fine.”
Doctor Crusher came running through the turbolift doors. Even as she knelt beside Davack, he stopped breathing. Beverly looked up at Captain Picard and shook her head. “There are no life-signs,” she said. “He's dead.”
“No, he is not dead,” Shala Te Ar said. “Pick him up; we will take him to his ship and put him in his regeneration chamber. He will be fine, you will see.”
“Doctor?”
“Captain, this man is dead. He has no life-signs.”
“I begged to differ with you, Doctor. This is a fourth generation warrior. It is said that you could cut one in half, put both halves in separate regeneration chambers, and in a couple of months they would regenerate. Once where you would have one warrior now there would be two.” Shala Te Ar pulled Davack's limp body into a sitting position. If these humans would not help him, Shala Te Ar would drag Dav Ack Ten to his regeneration chambers himself.
Jean-Luc slipped one of Davack’s arms over his shoulder. “We don’t seem to have anything to lose by doing what the Prime Minister has suggested, Doctor,” he said.
Jean-Luc came to see the Prime Minister off. Davack's ship was ready to leave. Most of the damage to the Enterprise had been repaired. Only the loss of the dilithium crystals prevented him from using the warp drive engines. It was looking like it would be a long trip home until Starfleet could ship some dilithium crystals out to them. “Well, Prime Minister, I wish you well,” he said.
“The future of my world has never looked so bright,” Shala Te Ar replied with a smile gently cradling the plant he held in his arms.
“Are you sure you don't want us to take you all the way back to your home world. We can you know.”
“No, Captain, it is better this way. Our world will be getting the help we need, and the Federation will be getting what they need. We all get to go home happy. I’m only sad that so many brave men had to die for us to reach this point.
A young man stepped out of the ship carrying a large box on his shoulder. He dropped it at Jean-Luc’s feet. “Payment, Captain,” he said.
“For what?” Jean-Luc asked.
“For the repairs to my ship,” Davack replied. He walked past Jean-Luc and scooped the woman waiting for him up into his arms.
“I still can’t get over how young he looks,” Jean-Luc said.
“One of the advantages of being one of Tro Bin Ten’s warriors, or at least a fourth generation one,” Shala Te Ar said. “Oh yes, one other thing, here.” Shala Te Ar handed Jean-Luc the plant that he was holding, it was just starting to bloom little gold and blue flowers. “Dav Ack Ten wanted you to have this.”
Jean-Luc smiled. “I’m not really a plant person,” he said.
“That's alright; give it to some who is,” Shala Te Ar said. “This was one of the last things Tro Bin Ten was working on before he died. It thrives in a radioactive environment breaking down the radioactivity into harmless components. Dav Ack Ten saved the plants from the mob that killed his wife. He picked up where Tro Bin Ten left off in his research. Thanks to them, we will reclaim the surface of our worlds in the not so distant future.” Jean-Luc reached out and took the plant.
Deanna kissed Davack one last time before she let him go. There were no words needed. His thoughts and feelings rang clear in her mind as hers did in his. Davack turned to face Worf who waited nearby. “Remember what I have taught you. You don’t always have to win to win,” he said.
Worf smiled a toothy smile. “I will remember.” He reached out and grabbed hold of Davack’s outstretched hand and shook it.
“I left you an exercise program to help you practice,” Davack said as he turned to go.
“Thank you,” Worf replied. Here was a true warrior Worf was proud to count as one of his few friends.
Jean-Luc watched the ship pull out of the hanger, pivot around smartly, and fly off into the great black void of space. He looked over at the box sitting on the floor of the hanger. Jean-Luc wondered what Davack considered the two power converters and a few relays they had given him were worth. He set the plant down next to the box and snapped open the clasps and removed the lid. On top of the first layer of foam packing, sat four large white crystals with just a hint of purple in them. These were some of the most beautiful dilithium crystals he had ever seen. Yes, this was an account paid in full with change due to the customer.
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