SIXTEEN: THE SALVATION
Tazla Star had decided not to close her eyes.
She was going to look right into death’s ugly face and ask: ‘What took you so long?’
Her only true regret was for the symbiont. Star had a long legacy of experiences and accomplishments and deserved better than to die in a senseless explosion on a planet somewhere at the end of the universe. The symbiont had probably deserved better than Tazla, she had mused darkly.
The timer had reached zero and the earth trembled.
But nowhere near as much as would have been expected from the violent reaction that usually ensued when matter and antimatter were allowed to get into contact with each other.
Everybody was still there, the bomb had not gone off.
But something else had happened.
The Trill looked around to find the stunned faces of Dale McBride, Teldro and Chief Deryx. Further away she spotted Nora Laas, Solly Brin and Ashley Wenera. The twelve Marines still outside on the terrace looked equally mystified.
And then she saw it.
The night sky had become bright as day.
There had been an explosion but not in the temple.
Star stood and walked towards the terrace to see a massive mushroom cloud rise over the city, reminiscent of those terrifying images of nuclear explosions she had only ever seen in pictures.
Then she felt the shockwave which she had to fight against in order not to be flattened by its intensity.
And then came the heat.
It hit her like a brick wall and for a moment she thought it would burn her face and hair but it never quite reached deadly temperatures.
The explosion itself appeared to have been limited to the very center of the city. The Sanctuary to be more precise which was now completely engulfed by a bright crimson column of fire, reaching hundreds of meters into the sky.
Nora Laas stepped up next to her, tricorder in hand. “Antimatter radiation readings are off the scale.”
After that nobody spoke for a couple of minutes as every single set of eyes was fixed on what had once been the center of Titaitan power and influence. It was too early to tell what remained but judging by the massive cloud forming overhead, it had to be little to nothing.
Most of the surrounding area had been flattened or was on fire.
There was an eerie quiet hanging over the city. A million people stunned into silence, unable to believe what they were seeing.
Ashley Wenera had interrupted her impromptu surgery of Solly Brin and wiped the tears out of her eyes. “We … we have to do something.”
But nobody quite knew what exactly.
Then Star finally spoke. “How large was that bomb?” she said to nobody in particular. “Any guesses?”
Major Wasco replied. “Not big for an antimatter weapon,” he said and stepped further out of the terrace to get a better look. “I’d estimate the fireball radius was less than five hundred meters.”
“That couldn’t have been all the antimatter,” said Nora. “We’d all be dead by now if it was.”
The Trill turned away from the gruesome scene to find Chief Deryx who still held part of the bomb in his hands. For the first time she noticed that it was the actual payload. If he hadn’t removed it when he did, they would have followed the same fate as the many people who had been unlucky enough to be in the Sanctuary at the time of the blast.
“Chief, how much do you have there?”
It took the stunned Denobulan a few seconds before he inspected the antimatter container. “This is about point one kilograms. Maybe a bit less,” he said after referring to his tricorder.
Wasco nodded as he looked back at the mushroom cloud which was dissipating only very slowly. “I believe that is about the same as the payload of the bomb that just took out the Sanctuary.”
“Wait,” said McBride. “Deite had access to about point five kilograms. Are we saying that there might be three more bombs out there?”
“Or one really big one,” said the Denobulan. “Big enough to destroy the rest of the city.”
“I don’t understand,” said Wenera, struggling to focus on what her colleagues around her were discussing just moments after being forced to witness the detonation of a weapon of mass destruction practically next door. “If there are more bombs, or just one more bomb, what was the point of all this,” she said pointing out the bomb that didn’t detonate inside the temple as well as the one that did. “Why go through these pointless motions?” she added, now barely able to keep the anger and frustration out of her voice.
“We are dealing with terrorists, Doctor,” said Nora Laas. “Their primary objective is to spread terror. No better way to do that then kill your enemy slowly instead of quickly.” She looked to Commander Star. “Either her plan is to detonate a few more bombs or wait until rescuers arrive to kill everyone in one final blast.”
Tazla Star’s gaze fixated on Teldro who didn’t quite look as stunned as the others. Glad to be alive, yes; but not stunned. “So what is it?”
A dark look crossed the man’s features but he didn’t speak.
The Trill reached out for his collar and pulled him to his feet. “You know, I’m getting quite bored with this routine of yours,” she said. “You know her plans and you did all along. You will tell me everything!”
“You should have gotten out when I told you to. Maybe you still can.”
“We’re not going anywhere,” she said, tightening her grip on his neck. “And neither are you.”
“Then we all die.”
It was not the response she had been looking for. “I’m done playing these games with you. Start talking!”
“You don’t scare me anymore.”
She moved her face less than an inch from his. “You think you were scared before?” she asked in a quiet whisper, it made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Then she smiled. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“You asked me earlier if I was ready to put down my life,” he said after hesitating for just a couple of seconds. “I understand now that my sacrifice is a small price for what we will achieve today. I’m ready to die.”
“You want to be a martyr, is that it?” she said and roughly dragged him across the floor. “Scumbags like you don’t get to be worshipped. You will end up as a footnote in history.”
Teldro’s eyes widened when he noticed that she was dragging him towards the water filled cleansing basin. “Wait, that’s blessed –“
Star grabbed the back of his head and pushed it deep into the basin, Teldro’s words were cut off by a desperate gurgling noise.
He trashed around like a wild animal as his head was submerged but Star held him in a firm grip, her right hand unrelentingly keeping him in place.
Then she pulled him up again, he was coughing out water, still trying to free himself without success.
“How many more bombs are there?”
“You … you … can’t hurt me,” he cried. “The Brothers will protect –”
Star dunked his head back into the basin before he had a chance to finish the sentence.
Ashley Wenera was still in a state of quasi shock and had barely perceived what Star had been up to. But now that her moral bearings had time to catch up, she quickly judged the commander’s actions to be despicable. She had to stop her.
With Solly Brin stabilized, she jumped onto her feet and quickly tried to approach the Trill only to find that she was being held back by a firm hand around her upper arm.
She looked back to see that it belong to Nora Laas.
And she wasn’t going to let go.
The expression on the Bajoran’s face was nearly unreadable but it was also determined. Perhaps because she realized that what Tazla Star was doing was wrong and that somebody had to do it.
Wenera found that this was true for everybody else around her as well. Nobody was averting their glances from the torture that was taking place in front of their eyes and nobody was going to interfere. Because in the end they were all glad that it weren’t their hands that had to be sullied by such an act.
“How many bombs!”
Star pulled Teldro’s soaked head clear again, this time he coughed so hard it sounded as if his lungs would explode. “You … cannot … hurt … me.”
“Are you sure?” she said and practically rammed him back into the water with such force she drenched herself in the process. His hand collided with the bottom of the basin and blood was quickly mixing with water.
He was still alive, still trying to fight a losing battle.
She pulled him out again. “This is your last chance,” she said, sounding surprisingly calm now. “How many more bombs are there?”
Teldro coughed so much he couldn’t speak but his eyes remained defiant. He was not going to give up any information.
He went back into the basin with a splash.
“Doctor,” Star called even while she held Teldro firmly in her grasp and submerged underwater. “Bring your medkit.”
Nora Laas let go of Wenera and she quickly collected her gear before joining the Trill first officer, watching in horror as she continued to torture the Tiaitan man.
“Commander, you have to stop,” she said. “You’re killing him.”
She locked eyes with the doctor. “I know.”
That left her speechless.
Teldro’s began to fight with even more desperation now, ignoring any and all harm he might do to himself, he fought like a man possessed. It was a battle he was going to lose.
His body convulsed uncontrollably.
“Commander!” Wenera cried with renewed urgency when it was clear that she had no intentions to stop.
Even Dale McBride who had remained perfectly still throughout the entire session began to take a step towards the Trill now. The display was leaving a distinctly nasty taste in his mouth. He clearly wouldn’t stand for it much longer.
“Get ready, Doctor.”
“What?” she said, not understanding at all. “Ready for what?”
Then Teldro’s body simply stopped moving. There were a few more spasms before it became completely still. A few more air bubbles popped the water surface until it smoothed out perfectly.
Star pulled him out and carelessly threw his body to the floor where it remained entirely motionless.
In an instinct she had acquired over years of performing her craft, Wenera had her medical tools out in a flash, ready to try and save a man’s life.
But she was held back again, this time by Star.
The doctor shot her an angry glare. “Let me go, damnit.”
“Not just yet.”
Wenera couldn’t believe it. A man who desperately needed her attention was lying on the floor just a few short feet away, probably already dead and she was being stopped to try and saving him by a Starfleet officer.
Then the Trill let go of Wenera. “Now, Doctor. Bring him back.”
She shot the commander another withering look but that was all the time she could allow herself to waste before she dropped to her knees in order to attempt to revive Teldro.
She immediately applied a hypo containing a stimulant to his neck but when that failed to show effect right away, she began to apply cardiopulmonary resuscitation by climbing on top of him and pushing down hard on his chest with both her hands.
Moments later Teldro began to cough again, emptying his lungs of the water he had swallowed.
Wenera sighed heavily and then sat down on the floor next to her patient. “That was too close,” she mumbled and then focused on Star again with angry eyes. “What the hell do you think you’re doing, Commander?”
“Trying to save what is left of this city,” she deadpanned and then reached out for Teldro again, easily dragging him back onto his wobbly feet. “Tell me, how does it feel to die? Was it everything you hoped for?”
He looked at her through half-open eyes.
“Because we can do this all night long,” she said and pulled him back towards the basin.
Just seeing the water again was enough to reenergize him and he immediately tried to fight back. “No, please no.”
“How many bombs?” she said as she began to push his head back towards the basin.
“Wait … please, wait!”
“How many!”
He was just inches from the surface.
“One,” he screamed. “There is one more bomb. One more bomb!”
Star let him go and he immediately collapsed back onto the floor where he began to curl up into a fetal position and mumbling incoherently.
Dale McBride stepped closer to Star, keeping his facial expression carefully neutral which in fact was much more difficult then it appeared. “You know that this information is not reliable. He could have told you anything in hopes that you’d stop.”
Tazla Star kept her eyes on the rambling man on the ground. “I believe he told us the truth. There is one more bomb.”
But there was something to what Teldro was saying that caught Wenera’s attention. It sounded very familiar and then she realized why. She had heard this kind of thing before. It was as if it had been permanently etched into her memory. It were the exact same words the government soldiers had uttered before they had died.
Teldro wasn’t just mumbling. He was praying to his gods. To the Brothers. And while doing so he kept looking up at the massive statute of Tia.
“What are you doing?” she asked with bewilderment.
But Teldro didn’t pay her any mind.
Nora Laas did. “What is it, Doctor?”
Wenera looked at the Bajoran and then back at the cowering Tiaitan on the ground. “I don’t understand why a follower of the New Light would pray to Tia. They’re all Ait and fighting against the vigorous religious system propagated by the Tia elite. This doesn’t make any sense.”
“Maybe it does,” said the Bajoran when Teldro began to laugh.
It was just a subdued giggle at first but quickly turned into a hearty belly laugh, so intense it drove tears into his eyes.
It was a noise that annoyed Solly Brin so much, he picked himself up, grabbed his phaser and approached the bemused Tiaitan threateningly. “What the frak do you have to laugh about, little man?”
Teldro looked up at the imposing Orion but not with fear. On the contrary, there was a sense of mad determination in his small shifty eyes now. “You think you have stopped us. You think you have averted disaster,” he said, in-between his hysterical laughter. “You have stopped nothing. Prophecy will be fulfilled and the Ait scum will pay the ultimate price for trying to defy the Brothers.”
“What are you saying?” said Wenera angrily. “
You are an Ait.”
But he simply continued to laugh as if it was all a huge, cosmic joke.
“I believe what he’s saying, Doctor, is that he isn’t an Ait at all,” said Dale McBride. “And he is no follower of the New Light. The bastard has been playing us all along.”
Tazla Star looked down at Teldro, suddenly realizing the truth. “Son of a bitch.”
Wow - you've left us dangling with those extremely tense segments. Though I'm pretty sure Deryx managed to disarm the bomb, you brought it literally down to the wire.
