Intellectually, Elias Vaughn knew he had opened his eyes. However, he had no empirical evidence to back this knowledge up, as there was no qualitative difference between what he saw after he opened his eyes and the pitch blackness of unconsciousness.
Immediately, he assessed the situation. His head was pounding, and there was a coppery taste in his mouth that he knew was blood. Although he was aware of the presence of his body below his sternum, he couldn’t really feelthat part of him as such. There was also a very heavy weight that was keeping him in place—probably one of the metal frames of the building. That weight pinned both his arms, and attempts to wiggle free proved futile. He wasn’t moving.
He also couldn’t get at his combadge to call for help. If his combadge was even still on his uniform, which he couldn’t tell from the darkness.
Vaughn also had the vague queasiness that often accompanied awakening from a phaser set on stun. The weapon that fired on him and Ian Troi looked and sounded like a Romulan disruptor, which didn’t traditionally have a stun setting, but Vaughn himself knew how to reprogram its lower settings so that it could mimic a stun blast, so it stood to reason that their assailant might know how, also.
All in all,he thought, I’ve been in worse spots.That thought was a rather telling commentary on the kind of life he lived, Vaughn realized.
“Oooooh.”
The noise sounded like Troi’s voice. “Ian?” Vaughn’s voice was a barely legible croak; he cleared his throat, and repeated himself.
“E—Elias?” The voice sounded weak.
“I’m here, Ian. Where are you? Are you all right?”
“Wha—wha’ happen’?”
“Best guess is that our assailant rendered us unconscious, then left us in the building for when it collapsed.”
“M—makes sense.”
Vaughn frowned. “Why?”
“Well, feels like there’s a big piece o’ plasti-form ’n my chest.”
Oh, hell.Instinctively, Vaughn once again struggled against the beam that held him in place, but he had neither the strength nor the leverage to budge it. He was trapped. And given the numbness in my lower body, I doubt I’m in any shape to move even if I could get this thing off me. Dammit.
“Can you reach your combadge?”
“’S not there.” Troi’s voice was weakening. “Musta fallen off.”
Or more likely was removed.“Stay with me, Ian.” He couldn’t afford to let Troi go into shock. “Talk to me.”
“Why’d ’e do ’t?”
Vaughn blinked. At least he assumed he did. It was still pitch black, after all. “Why did who do what?”
“Th’ Romulan. Stunned us. Coulda jus’ killed us.”
“Assuming it was a Romulan, then—”
“Was.”
That confused Vaughn. “Was what?”
“Was Romulan. Or Vulcanoid, anyhow. Gotta readin’ after y’ shot ’im.”
A pity that Ian’s tricorder probably went the way of his combadge.“In any case, the lighter setting means less physical evidence on the bodies of being shot. All there’d be is nerve damage. If the saboteur shot to kill, either there’d be evidence of the disruptor blast on our bodies, or we’d just disintegrate, in which case our missing bodies would raise a red flag. Much easier to leave our bodies in the collapsing building, where cause of death would be blindingly obvious, and likely no one would investigate further. It’s just his bad luck that we both survived.”
“Jus’—one—of—”
“We’re both going to make it,” Vaughn said sternly. “The Carthagewill send someone to look for us.” He couldn’t imagine Vance Haden letting his second officer and a mission specialist stay missing for any length of time.
“Not—if—combadges—gone.”
Troi had a point. “They’re still going to look for us. And once they find that we’re not with our combadges, they’ll search. We’re virtually the only humans on this planet, it won’t be too hard to pick us up.”
“Mebbe.” Troi made some kind of noise. “Hell’va s’prise.”
“Surprise?” Vaughn asked after a moment, when no explanation was forthcoming. Besides, silence could be deadly.
“Tol’ D’anna I’d have—s’prise f’ her. Not—what I—had ’n mind.”
Normally, Elias Vaughn did not believe in giving people false hopes, but he was damned if he was going to sit here and listen to Troi bury himself. “You’re not going to die, Ian. They’ll be by soon to rescue us.” A pause, which Vaughn refused to let go on for any length. “What was the surprise going to be?”
“Dunno. Hadn’—decided yet. Was part’a th’ fun.” Troi’s breathing was getting more labored. “Th’s really hurts.”
Trying like hell to sound encouraging, Vaughn said, “We’ll be rescued soon, Ian.”
“Sorry I—c’dn’t see you one las’ time— imzadi.”
He knew that last word was a Betazoid term of endearment of some sort. Lwaxana was an especially powerful telepath, even by the high standards of her species, and Vaughn wondered if Troi thought his wife could hear him.
Futilely, Vaughn tried once again to move the beam, but his strength had diminished—probably because of blood loss, based on the increasing coppery taste in his mouth—and his leverage certainly hadn’t improved.
Dammit, Haden, find us already! I can’t just sit here and listen to him die!
But it seemed that was exactly what was going to happen.
“Elias?” Troi’s voice was barely a whisper.
“I’m here, Ian.”
“Thanks.”
Vaughn couldn’t imagine for what this man had to be grateful to him.“For what?”
“Didn’—wan’—die—’lone. Gladjer—here.”
“You’re not going to die, Ian. We’re going to make it out of here, they’ll patch us up on the Carthage,and we’re both going to go back to Betazed to visit Lwaxana and Deanna, and you’re going to give Deanna her surprise.”
Silence.
“Ian?”
Nothing.
“Dammit, Ian, talkto me!”
Elias Vaughn still remembered, with crystal clarity, the day a decade and a half ago when charged particles tore a hole in the shuttlecraft Hoplite.Vaughn had fully expected to die when the explosive decompression blew him toward the vacuum of space, and the only reason he hadn’t was because of the fast thinking of Ian Troi.
Now he sat helplessly, kept by a piece of metal from returning the favor.
Snarling, he tried once again to shift the beam, pushing his entire body upward in an attempt to free himself.
Blue and red spots danced before his eyes, shockingly visible in the total darkness, but still he struggled. Ian’s going to die unless I can get this thing off me.
Chapter 25
U.S.S. Carthage
The next thing Vaughn knew, he awoke in the Carthagesickbay.
“About time you woke up. You’ve been out for the better part of a day.”
He looked around, blinking his eyes repeatedly. The red and blue spots were still there, but started to fade after a few moments. The last thing he remembered was trying to shift the beam. Now Commander Li was sitting next to his biobed. Vaughn could hear sounds around him—no doubt the usual business of sickbay.
An attempt to speak was a complete failure, even after he cleared his throat.
However, Li answered his unspoken question. “Commander Troi didn’t make it. He was DOA. Somebody made off with his tricorder, and both your phasers, transponders, and combadges. Your legs were crushed—doc says it’s going to take months before they’re back to normal, but they can be healed.”