"That's the trap?!" Chris parroted furiously. "Couldn't you have warned us before it went off?"
Veerna viewed Chris with what could only be described as a pitying expression. "How was I supposed to know that it was trap before it actually happened?" she asked.
"Then why did you make it seem like you knew ..." Don trailed off. He would never understand the bizarre workings of Veerna's mind.
"Are you nuts?" Chris demanded.
Veerna flashed her a savage grin. "According to my psychologist, I am," she told her before going to the steel door. She dragged her switchblade against the metal, not even scratching it. "Huh. I guess Rulon was serious about catching us."
"Guess so," Don said, trying to conceal his uneasiness over the whole situation. "What happens now?"
"We sit here and wait for him to show up," Veerna said with a shrug. "There's nothing else we can do. That steel's not breaking unless you've got ten bombs to tape put on it, and we'd blow up in the process anyway."
"So that's it?" Chris said, her tone ringing in disbelief. "We just sit here and wait to be dragged off to slavery?"
"I didn't say that," Veerna said. "I just said we'd wait for him to show up."
Both of them stared at Veerna, who smiled innocently and patted the gun at her hip. "There's a difference, you know," she added.
"Not one I was aware of," Don grumbled. He just wanted to go back to his peaceful office, analyzing criminal minds. Was that so much to ask?
"Hey," Chris interrupted them, going beside the door. "I've got an idea." There was a computer on both sides of the door, and she started tapping into it. Watching over her shoulder, Don came to the conclusion that what she was doing wasn't entirely legal. However, if it could help them escape, he was all for it, legal or not. He kept watching over the captain's shoulder as she typed in the computer almost faster than the eye could see.
Without warning, the door slammed back up into the ceiling. Veerna turned to Chris with an appraising look on her face. "Well, well," she said. "You are full of surprises, Chrissy. I guess we'd better get going, hm? Before Rulon comes back."
"I'm all for that," Don agreed. Chris nodded, and the three of them hurried out of the infirmary and into the halls. Veerna dragged them around, leading them through the dizzying maze as if she'd been through it for her whole life. It was discombobulating and Don found himself quickly losing his way. He hoped desperately that she knew where was she going and that they weren't just going around in circles.
However, it seemed that Veerna clearly knew where she was going. They reached the landing bay without incident and Veerna hurried them into the ship. All was as they had left it, and Melody threw her arms around her sister. "Chris!" she cried. "You're alright! Thank God! Thank God!"
Chris returned the embrace enthusiastically, smiling. "I'm so glad you're alright," she whispered. "I thought I'd lost you."
Melody buried her head in her older sister's shoulder, sniffing. "I thought so too," she murmured.
Veerna, however, had little time or interest in sisterly sentiments. "Captain Chase, if you'd please report to the cockpit, we can get the heck out of here."
Chris pulled out of her sister's embrace and gave Veerna a mock salute. "Yes, ma'am," she said, rolling her eyes. Then she stopped. "Wait, what about Commander Sareen?"
Everyone stiffened. "You ... don't know?" Don said in a quiet voice.
Chris spun around to face him. "Don't know—what?" she asked suspiciously. Her arms were crossed and her stance demonstrated immediately that she was displeased with Don.
"Sareen's a slimy, backstabbing git," Veerna said flatly. "She shot Xander Weni and almost shot his sister too. She sold out to Rulon. So we need to go."
Chris's face showed her disbelief battling with horror. Don had never been so grateful to Veerna for her lack of tact as he was at that point. "Come on, Chrissy," she coaxed.
"We do need to go," Suzan said, shifting impatiently. "Xan has less than twenty four hours left!"
That decided Chris. She followed Veerna into the cockpit, and the two of them sealed it off from the rest of the ship. Once they were apart, Don slumped down beside Xander's bed. The security officer was unconscious, and Suzan had his hand clutched in hers. "He's got to be okay," she whispered. "He's just got to be."
Don laid a hand on her shoulder and gave her a comforting squeeze. "He will be," he promised. "Chris will get us out of here and to a hospital ship before you know it. Don't you trust me, Suzan?"
She nodded, brushing tears from her cheeks. "It's Veerna I don't trust," she sniffled.
"Trust her," Don said firmly. "In this instance, I think, we can give her that much. You saw her disdain for Sareen when she shot Xander. I think she's more honorable than we give her credit for. You know the old saying—there's honor among thieves."
"What about murderers and kidnappers?" Suzan asked. "She's all three of those things."
Don shrugged a little. "I dunno. I just think we can trust her, is all."
Melody, sitting on one of the window seats behind him, kicked her feet. "I think you have other ulterior motives," she said teasingly. It seemed that the return of her sister had bolstered up her spirits.
"Ulterior motives?" Don hoped he wasn't blushing as badly as he knew he was. "Not this conversation again, Melody. You know what I said to that before."
"What conversation?" Suzan asked curiously.
"Doctor Collego is in love with Veerna," Melody said, sitting on her hands and holding herself up with her arms.
Don frowned. "I am not, Doctor Chase," he said.
Suzan looked at him in an appraising manner. "Mm, you do show the symptoms of love," she commented. "Not that I feel such emotions. They're beneath me. But you kind of specialize in emotions, don't you? I guess it makes sense that you would feel them so strongly."
"For the last time, I'm not in love," Don insisted.
From the disbelieving look the girls were giving him, he could tell that his words were doubted. Gathering what little dignity remained to him, Don stood up. "I'm going into the storage room to check what supplies we have," he said stiffly.
He could hear the girls' laughter even as the door slid shut behind him.
. . . . . . . . . .
Chris sat down in the pilot's chair, tapping on buttons and flipping switches. The ship rumbled to life and the captain motioned to the co-pilot's seat. "You may as well sit down," she said. "I need a co-pilot, and Suzan's too busy with her brother."
Veerna sat down beside her, glancing curiously at her. "This'll be the first time I've flown a ship with a Federation pilot," she commented. Surreptitiously, she flipped a different switch.
Without looking, Chris flipped it back. "Don't touch my stuff," she said. She cast a glance at Veerna, noticing the Voldinian's rather withdrawn expression. "You okay?"
The ship lifted off the ground. Veerna stared out the cockpit, not looking at Chris. "Sure."
Chris turned the ship to face the closed doors and pressed a button. The lasers fired at the doors out to space, blasting them into oblivion. Several slavers who had made their into the landing bay, and the instant Chris blew up the doors, the lack of oxygen ended them.
Chris shot out the doors with the ship, banking hard to the right. Return fire from the slavers' ship narrowly missed them. Without even looking, Chris shoved the nose down and took them beneath the larger slave ship. Once there, she activated the hyper-drive and they blasted away from it. It was only when Rulon's ship was left lightyears behind them that Chris brought up the conversation again. "From what I've heard of you, you never stop talking," she said, amused.
"I'm sorry to disappoint." Veerna didn't look over at Chris.
Chris activated autopilot now that they were away from Rulon's ship. After once more looking at the famous space pirate, she kicked her legs up on the controls and fixed Veerna with a firm look. "Quit avoiding the subject, Vold. There's something up."
"Why should you care, Chrissy?" Veerna demanded, turning with a frown. "You just want to toss me into prison."
"Actually, from the way things turned out back there—" Chris jerked her thumb back in the general direction of Rulon's ship—"I'm more likely to want to chuck Sareen into prison than you. You saved me and she shot an innocent. Not exactly the way I expected things to turn out."
"Yeah," Veerna said, and this time, Chris detected glumness in the space pirate's voice. "Not the way anything was supposed to turn out."
"You're unhappy with it?" Chris asked.
"Not with the way things turned out with me," Veerna said, crossing her arms. "Sareen."
"Why should that bother you?" Chris cocked her head curiously. "I mean, Sareen is basically your sworn enemy."
Veerna looked away. "That's how people see it," she replied softly. "I am Sareen's enemy. But nobody considers that maybe, Sareen isn't mine." With that, she leaned forward. "Got a destination in mind?"
Chris shrugged. "A Federation hospital planet."
"Nuh-uh." Veerna shook her head. "Bad idea. First of all, me. That'll be a problem. Secondly, Yulia. They'll want to take her in for 'experiments'. Thirdly, Sareen. She's bound to have sent out information by this time about your 'betrayal', and Rulon probably helped her. You are all probably as wanted as I am, because of Sareen. She can't have word getting out about her attempted murders of the Wenis and me."
"So?" Chris said. She raised both eyebrows. "You have a better idea? Xander's got to get to a hospital, and soon. And with Suzan and her wires, I don't want my eyebrows to get burned off if we don't make it in time."
"Oh, I've got a destination in mind," Veerna said. "Don't you worry. Just leave that to me."
Strangely enough, Chris decided to trust her. She leaned back. "Alrighty then. Stick in the coordinates and let's be off."
9E