@)-,-‘--
'Sit down kid.' Lupaza
ordered Kira, who had been pacing their cell for the last hour. 'You're
just wasting energy.'
'They can't do this to
us!' Kira punched at the wall, doing nothing more than damaging her
knuckles. 'They didn't give us any explanation why they locked us up. They
can't do that!' She kicked the wall, venting her rage on the solid steel
wall.
'They're Cardassians. So yes
they can.' Furel looked up from the position he had curled into for a
sleep.
Kira looked across the aisle to
Furel's cell. 'You're taking a nap? While we just sit here and wait for
prophets know what, and they probably interrogate Burka?'
'I haven't slept properly for
a long time. It would be nice to have some uninterrupted sleep. Just a couple
of hours.' He curled back up, using his tattered coat as a pillow.
'And it would do you some good to rest after being knocked out for so
long.'
'I don't want to rest, I want
to get out of here.' Kira looked like she was going to kick the force
field this time, but Lupaza held up her hand to stop.
'Bide your time, Nerys. When
the opportunity comes, we'll be taking it.' Lupaza patted the ground next
to her. 'Come and sit down for a bit.'
Slowly Kira sat down next to
Lupaza, leaning back against the wall. 'I can't believe you can be so calm
about this. We have no idea what could happen to us. And you're all just
waiting it out. Hope they are lenient? Say 'sorry, it was all a big
mistake'?'
'I'm angry as all hell, but
kicking walls and pacing the cell will not get me out of here, nor will it send
a message to the Cardassians. The truth is we could be in here for a while. We
need to conserve our energy, and our sanity. But we will get out, just wait for
that.' Lupaza looked at her with certainty. 'And when we do, the eight
of us in here will be planning some retribution.'
Kira smiled slowly, realising the
sense to Lupaza's plan. 'I get to take out the pig who touched me up
though.'
'If we get him, he's all
yours.' Lupaza smiled, putting an understanding hand over Kira's.
Kira leaned her head back against
the cool wall, closing her eyes for a moment. Soft grunting from the cell
beside her made her eyes open. 'Where did they put Shakaar? He's in the
next cell?' She indicated to the wall that joined to where she thought
Shakaar was being held.
Lupaza nodded.
Kira listened again quietly.
'What's he up to? Is he
alright?'
'Edon?' Lupaza called
out. 'How are you holding up?'
There was more grunting.
'Yeah. Fine.' He seemed strained as he responded.
Kira looked concerned, but Lupaza's
eyes lit up. 'Furel?' she called out across the aisle. When he lifted
his head, she indicated towards Shakaar's cell then crudely gestured.
'Yeah, him and Jura. Just
relieving some stress.'
Lupaza sniggered while Kira stared
blankly at her. A second voice groaned and slowly it began to dawn on Kira what
was happening. 'Shakaar and Jura? They're having sex?' Kira hissed,
having trouble believing that her cell leader was openly having sex in a
Cardassian prison.
'We each deal with stress in
our own way. Have to admit that an orgasm is the best way to help you
relax.'
Kira looked at her in disbelief.
'But Jura's married. He's got a wife.'
'Rules change in here, Nerys.
Whatever happens here stays here. If Burka comes back looking bloodied up, we
don't tell others what they did to him. If things get too much, and someone
takes their life, we don't say how it happened. If Jura wants to explain this
to his wife, it's up to him, but you leave him to do that and you don't tell
anyone else.'
Kira nodded, looking suddenly
scared. 'You think we could be here a while?'
'I'd say by now Tamar has got
back to camp, and they're mounting a rescue party for us.' Kira nodded
slowly, trying to push back the terrifying thoughts. 'This is your first
time locked up, isn't it?'
'Yeah.' Kira quietly
nodded. 'What could happen to us? If the rescue party doesn't get us out
in time?'
'Try not to think about it. It
just makes things seem worse.' Lupaza clapped her on the thigh, giving
Kira a reassuring squeeze.
'I've heard stories though,
Lu. I'm... a little afraid of what could happen.'
'Remember that you are
Bajoran. Be brave, and strong. We'll look after each other as best we can.
We're in this together, okay?'
Kira nodded, knowing that
Cardassians with weapons were no match for unarmed Bajorans. Kira rested her
head against Lupaza's shoulder, trying to blink away the tears.
Lupaza's hand, still on her, gently
rubbed up her thigh. 'You need something to take your mind off where you
are, I think.' She whispered, moving the hand up higher. Kira looked
startled, although she didn't move away. 'What happens here stays here.
It's between you and me.' Lupaza reminded her.
Kira nodded, bitting at her bottom
lip as Lupaza slowly undid the clasp on her trousers. Her hand worked slowly
into her underpants, parting pubic hair and soft lips on its exploration.
Prophets Nerys, she chided herself,
you're letting someone else do this to you.
Kira let out the breath she hadn't
realised she was holding when Lupaza found her clit. Suddenly nothing mattered,
the Cardassians, the prison walls holding her in, her vehement heterosexuality,
nor the close friendship that was growing with one of the men in the resistance
cell. Lupaza was making her feel so good the rest ceased to be a concern.
She put her hand on Lupaza's knee,
gripping hold of her skirt as intense pleasures grew, wanting immediate
release, but also wanting the feeling to last.
In the cell beside her she heard
Jura's muffled release, Shakaar coming moments later and a little louder, both
men gasping from the exertion.
'The boys are always a little
less discrete.' Lupaza commented, pressing harder against Kira's clit and
moving a little faster.
Kira closed her eyes, resigned to
letting someone else take her over and pleasure her in a way she only did in
private. Lupaza's fingers worked rhythmically, moving up and down along her
clit and making her gasp at the intensity.
Kira's release was momentous, the
sharp pleasure that had been concentrating in on her clit suddenly flaring out,
consuming every muscle in her body, making them quiver, and for a while that's
all that seemed to matter.
'You've got a screamer there,
Lu.' A voice shattered through to that peaceful place Kira had been.
'Shut up Edon. She's no worse
than you were.'
Kira flushed bright red at the loud
and indiscrete discussion. Hurriedly she did her trousers up, feeling ashamed
she was so loud and that everyone else had heard her.
'Relax, kid. He's just
taunting. You weren't that loud.' Lupaza smiled, making her feel
reassured. 'Why don't you rest against me? I bet you're tired after all
that pacing you were doing before.'
'A little bit, Lupaza.'
Kira settled in against her, letting her strong fingers stroke her long hair as
she rested. 'Thank-you.' She whispered, finally relaxing after a long
time.
@)-,-‘—
The heavy metal doors rang loudly
as they opened, startling Kira awake.
Two Cardassian guards dragged in a
weary Burka between them, several inmates craning around to see what condition
he was in.
'Very useful, Bajoran scum.
Gul Dukat may even reward you for your information.'
They threw him in his cell,
laughing at him, and kicked him once more for good measure.
Kira looked sharply to Lupaza,
worry written on her face.
'Don't worry, it's a
Cardassian trick, to make us distrustful of Burka, and get us to speak
up,' she whispered.
'Betik! Minak! You have to
come see this. It's that shape-shifter. They've got him doing some performance
for us. You'd never believe what he can do.' A Cardassian voice called
from the distance.
The two guards quickly left, the
door swinging closed behind them.
Burka groaned, painfully shuffling.
'Are the spoon heads gone?' He croaked.
Being in the closest cell to the
door, Lupaza stood as close as she dared to the force field, looking out.
'Yeah, off being entertained.'
They heard another groan and sounds
of Burka trying to stand. 'Someone's going to get in trouble for
this.' They all looked toward his cell, seeing him standing in the middle
of the aisle. 'They forgot to lock away their dangerous prisoner.' He
limped towards the computer console, dropping the force fields around the other
cells. Cautiously they stepped out of their cell, Shakaar hurrying to Burka's
side as he struggled with his injuries.
'Furel, see how many more
cells are in this place,' Shakaar quickly ordered, 'Try and get the
prisoners out so the Cardassians have no one for their retribution. Lupaza,
Jura, look around for a way out and make sure those guards aren't coming
back.'
Kira raced to the console, already
knowing what her task would be.
'Can you crack into their
system, Nerys?'
'Cardassians have yet to builda system they can keep me out of,' she confidently told him, hands flying
over the console.
'We'll need schematics of the
building, a way of bringing down all the force fields without alerting the
guards, and if you've got time, destroy the records of us being here. I don't
want them remembering who was here.'
She studied the readout. 'The
power grid for the prisoners runs on a separate system, I guess that if main
power fails we're still locked up.' Biting her lip in concentration she
deciphered their security system. 'Got it!'
The buzzing of force fields let
them know she was successful.
'There are ten more rooms like
this one, they run off a main holding area just outside this door.'
'Boje! Verran! Find the others
and get those prisoners into the main area.' Shakaar ordered. 'Can we
get them out through this door?' He pointed to a map Kira had brought up.
Kira traced the route back. 'No,
that will lead us straight past the room where all the guards are.'
'I saw a door,' Burka
pointed on the map, 'seemed to lead outside. The guards kept going in and
out through it.'
'That takes them out to an
external bathroom block, and the guards living quarters,' Kira pointed
out. 'I can't see any physical barriers, except for another force
field.' At Kira's commands, the force field started moving slowly, growing
further out. Suddenly there was a break, Shakaar seeing that Kira had moved the
force field so that two trees disrupted it. 'There's your escape
route.' She confidently told them.
They nodded in agreement.
'I'll get the prisoners moving. Be out with the last person Nerys. We'll
wait til then.'
Kira nodded, turning her attention
back to destroying their system. Quickly she worked her way past decryption
codes, traps, and security lockouts. The older prison system was no match for
her, having cut her teeth on a system much stronger.
'Nerys, the last group is just
leaving.' Lupaza stuck her head in the doorway. 'Have you done it
yet?'
'All records are gone. Just
leaving a surprise.' She looked up, seeing prisoners hurrying out the
door. 'How long is it taking to get people to the perimeter?'
'About a minute. Why?'
'Give me half a minute, I'll
set this going, and then we run.' She grinned at Lupaza. 'This place
runs on Benmasaud fuel. I'm blowing it up. Once I set this to go we have
forty-five seconds before the first explosion.'
Lupaza looked down the hallway,
hearing noises coming towards them. 'I think they might know we're not
where they left us. Sounds like the guards are coming.'
'I want to give those
prisoners a chance. We can run but they might not be able to.'
'That's noble, but we can't
risk it.' Lupaza urged.
'Okay, get moving.' Kira
took a deep breath, hitting the button on the console. 'Run!' Kira
shouted, bolting after Lupaza, together they wound their way through corridors
to get to the door Kira knew existed from the map.
Getting out into the cool night's
air Kira could see a few straggling prisoners ahead in the distance. 'Run.
This place is going to blow!' she warned, making it over the rise and
diving for cover as the first fireball billowed into the air.
Lupaza fell down beside her,
grabbing hold of Kira's arm as they dragged each other further toward safety
and the rest of their cell members.
'Return to your homes if you
have them. Get away from here as quickly as you can. The Cardassians will be
out looking for us soon,' Furel was telling the others they had rescued.
Shakaar stood waiting for them,
watching the fireballs leaping into the air and setting off a chain reaction.
'Lupaza! Nerys! Thank the
prophets you're safe.' He looked horrified at the scene unfolding, fearing
they had been in there.
'Good work, kid.' Lupaza
panted, clapping her on the shoulder.
'You? Did that? With what? We
didn't have any explosives.' Shakaar looked at them, amazed.
'Benmasaud fuel.' Kira
stood, trying to catch her breath. 'I set the fuel line to short out.
Whole place went up. Did we get everyone out?'
'I think so.' Glad to
know they were safe from immediate search parties, he clapped them on the
shoulder. 'We have to keep moving. Once the Cardassian army realise what
happened here, they're going to start looking for us. They'll flood the area
with soldiers.'
Kira nodded, moving on with the
smaller group, including members of other Resistance cells and a few who were
too injured to walk by themselves.
'Told you we'd get out, didn't
I?' Lupaza sidled up next to her.
'You did.' Quietly they
trudged on together, the reality of everything that had suddenly happened
beginning to sink in. 'You won't tell anyone, will you?'
'Tell them what?'
'You know. What happened in
there? You and me...?'
'I will tell people that it
was you who cracked into the Cardassian's computer system, you found the
schematics that got us out, and it was your idea to set off the fuel line that
blew up the prison. Nothing else important happened in there.'
Silently they walked on together,
the orange haze in the distance behind them.
@)-,-‘--