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ACT TWO
FADE IN:
15 INT. DS9 - INFIRMARY
The door opens, and Etana strolls in from the Promenade. Relaxed, happy, no problems. She’s carrying a small satchel over her shoulder.
Looking in through the partition to the surgical suite, she sees Tarses examining a civilian patient – nothing serious, maybe a rash or something – and Richter in support. Etana smiles at the sight of her girlfriend.
Etana moves on past towards the pharmacy area. With a quick check to make sure the others are busy, she opens up her satchel and pulls out a metal canister.
She goes to the shelf where we’ve seen Ro take canisters from before, and removes the first one. She replaces it with the one from her bag. Then she pulls another device from her bag, and points it at the label on the original canister. She activates the device...
INSERT – THE CANISTER
...and the device’s beam rewrites the canister’s label.
BACK TO SCENE
She then puts the device back in her bag.
RICHTER
Oh, hey babe. You just get in?
With the changed canister still in her hand, Etana turns to see that Richter has wandered up.
ETANA
Yeah, just a second ago. Thought
I’d get a start on checking the
pharmacy stores. Don’t want to
get yelled at again.
She nonchalantly places the changed canister somewhere else on the shelves, and nods at a job well done.
16 EXT. SPACE
A small, fast Starfleet ship zooms through space at highest possible warp. A runabout would do, but I’d rather it was something like Picard’s supershuttle from “Insurrection.”
17 INT. SHUTTLE - COCKPIT
Vaughn is at the helm, driving the shuttle forwards as fast as it will go, safety limits be damned. Bashir nervously hovers behind him, and further back, at the rear of the cabin, is Ro. Vibrating, twitching, ready to snap.
BASHIR
How did they know?
VAUGHN
I don’t know, Doctor.
BASHIR
Do you think she’s been there
all along?
VAUGHN
I don’t know, Doctor.
Bashir steps away, realising Vaughn isn’t in the mood right now. They’re all on edge. This is a desperate rush, and no-one has time for niceties. He goes to Ro instead.
RO
How much longer?
BASHIR
It’s a few days’ trip from Earth
to Bajor at best. Just be glad
Vaughn was able to commandeer
this shuttle on short notice.
Bashir notices Ro’s agitated state. They’re all feeling it, but Ro seems to have it worse.
BASHIR
Are you feeling alright?
RO
Not really, no.
BASHIR
Can I do anything to help?
RO
(sharp)
I don’t need your help.
Bashir looks stung at her tone. Embarrassed at herself, Ro turns and heads into the rear cabin. Bashir watches her go. He suspects there’s more going on than she’s saying.
18 INT. SHUTTLE – REAR CABIN
Ro stomps through the rear cabin, towards the bunks along the walls. She gingerly lowers herself down onto one of the bunks, wary of her back. She reaches into her boot.
She brings out the hypospray that always sits inside. Jams it against her neck and presses the button. Nothing. Empty. She takes out the cartridge, shakes it hard, stuffs it back in and tries again. Nothing. Again. Again. Again. Nothing.
RO
Come on!
She hurls the hypospray across the room with a frustrated scream. As it SMASHes against the far wall...
SMASH CUT TO:
19 INT. CAVES
Greyed out images, memory flashes. Vaughn and Ro are being attacked by black-clad figures, masked and anonymous. This is the fight that landed them in the jail cell. Ro doesn’t know it’s part of the plan, and she’s fighting like mad.
As she kicks one attacker’s legs out from under him, she tries to simultaneously reach for her backpack. Distracted for the tiniest moment, another attacker punches her hard.
Dazed, she can’t stop the attacker grabbing her backpack, throwing it aside, and VAPORIZING it with a phaser. Ro’s eyes flare as she realizes – her painkillers were in there.
CUT TO:
20 INT. SHUTTLE – REAR CABIN
Ro RIPS a panel open on the cabin’s replicator and shoves her hands into the internal circuitry. Thrumming with nervous vibration, hands shaking as they break and remake connections. She’s panting with desperation...
RO
Come on, dammit...
She works some more...
COMPUTER
Unable to comply.
Ro keeps working. The computer’s voice is choppy, garbled.
COMPUTER
Unable to comply. Unnn...
aaay... bullll... tooo...
Ro screams again in frustration. She yanks her hands out from the circuits and PUNCHES the replicator’s panel in fury. The screen shatters, but she PUNCHES again. PUNCH. And PUNCH. And PUNCH again, screaming more with every one.
The door opens and Bashir rushes in, alerted by the noise. Ro is PUNCHing and PUNCHing. He grabs her, pulls her away from the wall. She struggles against him, but he holds her.
BASHIR
Laren! Laren! What’s wrong?
What are you doing?
RO
(shriek)
Get off me!
But Bashir holds her tight. After a moment, she calms. Her head sags. Once he’s sure she’s okay, he lets her go.
BASHIR
What was that all about?
RO
I’m okay. I’m okay. Just...
letting off a little steam.
BASHIR
We’re all worried, Laren. What
I suggest is that you take that
frustration and channel it into
figuring out what to do next.
RO
Yeah. I guess.
(sudden thought)
Don’t tell Vaughn.
BASHIR
I think he’s too busy driving
the shuttle into the red zone
to notice anything else.
21 INT. SHUTTLE - COCKPIT
Close on Vaughn, as he pushes the shuttle onwards. His mind is working over all the possibilities, good and bad...
22 INT. DS9 – KIRA’S OFFICE
KIRA and VANNIS sit across the desk from each other, in the midst of another meeting.
VANNIS
The situation in the Dominion
continues to deteriorate. Not
a day passes without at least
one report of Jem’Hadar vessels
fighting each other over some
trivial slight or disagreement.
KIRA
Can’t the Vorta control them?
VANNIS
The Vorta are as confused as the
Jem’Hadar. They try to follow
the wishes of the Founder, but...
Vannis fades off, ashamed of what she was about to say.
KIRA
It’s alright. Go on.
VANNIS
I cannot criticise a Founder.
But Odo, because of his unique
upbringing... his desire is to
find consensus wherever possible.
By trying to please everyone...
KIRA
...He ends up pleasing no-one.
VANNIS
And what of the Ascendants?
KIRA
We got a new dispatch from our
source this morning. They said
things seem to have gone quiet.
It only makes me more worried.
VANNIS
You suspect they are preparing
for a major offensive.
KIRA
I don’t know what else to think.
Aren’t you taking a risk too,
talking to me like this?
VANNIS
The Ambassador authorized this
meeting himself. I believe after
our last “confrontation,” he is
attempting to soften his stance.
KIRA
Well, that’s one good thing, at
least. Thank you for coming,
Vannis. Keep in touch.
Vannis nods, gets up from the chair and leaves. Alone again, Kira sighs and tries to settle back to work.
All the doors suddenly THUNK with the closing of locks. The BLUE LIGHTS in the corners burst into life, bathing the room in an eerie glow. Kira looks up in alarm – she didn’t do this. The air is suddenly pierced with a sharp, painful SQUEAL. Kira is forced to cover her ears and wince from the brain-hurting intensity of it. A transporter signal forms in the lounge area – the new type seen in 10x01 “Emancipation.”
The transporter deposits Vaughn, standing grim and hard. The whining sound dies out, but the blue lights remain. Astonished, Kira rushes over towards him.
KIRA
Commander!
VAUGHN
I don’t have time to explain,
Captain. Section 31 is moving
against us, here and now.
KIRA
(re blue lights)
But I thought these things were
supposed to block transporters.
Vaughn brings up his arm, and he’s wearing a metallic wrist strap – like Major Cenn wore in 10x08 “Property Values.”
VAUGHN
Ro’s transport inhibitors. Easy
enough to retune them to pass
through. And nobody not wearing
one can follow. Now listen.
L’Haan is here, on the station.
She’s kidnapped Quark, Dax...
(grits teeth)
...and Prynn. She’s probably
got a scattering field like this
one, so they’ll be tough to find.
KIRA
Do you have any clues at all?
VAUGHN
She threatened them with deadly
radiation. She might have been
lying about that, but we can’t
risk it, and it might be a clue.
KIRA
I’ll have Tarses break out the
hyronalin.
VAUGHN
This is my daughter, Captain.
I’m trusting you to save her.
KIRA
I will, I promise. What about
L’Haan? And Cole?
VAUGHN
You leave them to me.
Vaughn presses the controls on his wrist strap. The SQUEAL returns, the transporter forms, and Vaughn disappears.
Kira is instantly in action. She goes to her desk, flips up the secret panel and presses the control. The blue lights die and the doors unlock. She heads out onto Ops...
23 INT. DS9 – INDUSTRIAL ROOM
Dark, almost featureless, but definitely somewhere on Deep Space Nine. Quark, Dax and Prynn all stand side by side in their force field cocoons. They’re all scared and sweaty, wavering on their feet, fighting to stay awake.
QUARK
I’m exhausted... I’m hungry...
I feel like I’ve been standing
here for days.
PRYNN
That’s because you have been.
QUARK
I need to sleep...
DAX
Stay awake, Quark. If you fall
asleep, we all die.
QUARK
You don’t know that.
DAX
Try it and I’ll kill you myself.
PRYNN
Guys... it’ll be okay. My dad’s
gonna get us out of this. You
know he is. Who was that woman
anyway? And where did she go?
None of them know, but they all fear the worst.
25 INT. DS9 – CORRIDOR
Some similarly deserted area of the station. Ro stalks carefully along the corridor, phaser out. She’s still shaking, on edge, but channelling it like Bashir said.
She reaches a corner, creeps up to it. Pokes her head round quickly to check. Nobody there. She steps out to turn the corner, but as she does...
REVERSE ANGLE
...we see L’Haan standing behind her, tall and black and expressionless. Ro senses her presence, spins to her...
...but L’Haan effortlessly lifts a leg and KICKS the phaser out of her hand. It smashes to the wall, destroyed. L’Haan looks at Ro, smugly superior.
L’HAAN
It is agreeable to see you
again, Lieutenant.
RO
I could’a done without it.
L’HAAN
But I must thank you. You made
my mission so much easier. You
took me straight to him -
PUNCH in the face. Ro is in no mood to talk – she just launches straight into it. L’Haan goes with the momentum, spins with it and SLAMS Ro right back. And they go to it – a flurry of HITS and dodges and KICKS and evades. L’Haan’s moves are smooth, fluid, economical. Ro is loose and sloppy. Ro is a street-fighter. L’Haan is an assassin.
Finally L’Haan SWEEPS Ro’s legs out from under her, like in the caves. Ro goes down with a clumsy THUD, a yell of pain as her back jars. L’Haan moves in for the kill.
Just as L’Haan reaches her, Ro TWISTS and slaps something around the Vulcan’s wrist – another transporter band. The transporter pattern begins to form over L’Haan. Ro grins victoriously at the confused Vulcan through bloodied teeth.
RO
All part of the plan.
And then L’Haan disappears, beamed away. Ro collapses back to the ground with a tearful scream-moan of agony.
26 INT. DS9 – DARK ROOM
Another unidentified space somewhere in the depths of the station, dark and anonymous. The transporter beam forms...
...and deposits L’Haan into the room. She looks up in mild perplexity... and sees Vaughn holding a phaser. He FIRES.
27 INT. DS9 – INFIRMARY
The door opens, and Ro staggers into the doorway, bloody and beaten. People out on the Promenade are staring, wondering what’s going on. Tarses is nearby, and sees her.
TARSES
Ro! What the -
Ro stumbles on past him, heading straight for the pharmacy. She’s breathing hard, in blistering pain, no thought in her head but getting to her painkillers. Tarses tries to reach for her and help her – she pushes him out of the way. She gets to the pharmacy, goes straight to the top shelf, opens the canister...
TARSES
Ro, stop! You can’t just –
She yanks out a drug cartridge, slips it into the hypo she already has in her hand. Tarses tries to grab the hypo off her – she PUNCHES him out of the way. Tarses goes down with an OOF of shock.
Etana rushes in from the other room at the commotion, just in time to see Ro jam the hypo at her neck, and inject. And inject again. And again. And keeps going.
ETANA
Laren, stop, that’s too much –
RO
Shut up! I need it!
Ro props herself up against the wall as she feels the drug flowing into her system. Peace and bliss in numbness.
RO
There – that’s better.
Her breath catches. She starts shaking. Tries to walk. Her knees buckle beneath her. Hits the floor with a sickening THUD, uncontrollably shaking. She spasms, legs drumming on the floor, foaming at the mouth, eyes rolled up to white.
Tarses rushes to Ro, tries to hold her down. Etana runs to the pharmacy, checks the canister Ro used. It’s the one she swapped earlier. She stares at it, stunned. Looks back at Ro, in the midst of a seizure on the Infirmary floor.
TARSES
Nurse! Help me! Nurse!
But Etana stares at Ro. Prophets, what has she done?
BLACK OUT:
END OF ACT TWO
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