“This is more than I anticipated, Doctor!” Evoch growled. “Surely this is not just your family?”
Standing at the passage to his shuttle, Evoch hurriedly tried to make sense of the chaos. Before him stood Doctor Taiek, his wife, his three sons and their wives, his two daughters and their mates, all the grandchildren, and great grandchildren. Twenty six souls including the Doctor. This was house T’Ell.
“Evoch, I assure you, this is them, all of them that wanted to go and were not off world,” Taiek replied while holding one of the younger children. “Is there going to be a problem?”
Evoch thought for a moment. The traffic to and from Rator IIi had increased noticeably in the last few hours which meant something major was happening to Imperial holdings somewhere. Given the lack of propaganda braggadocio it would be safe to assume whatever it was resulted in a major loss for the Romulan Star Empire.
“We’ll make it work,” Evoch said. “Alright, everyone get onboard. We need to go now.”
With that the group milled in, nervously, but in a very orderly and disciplined manner. There were tears, looks backward, suspicious glances at the green thing directing them, but Doctor Taiek was very much the patriarch of this brood. They trusted him, and where Evoch was met with derision, the Doctor was respected.
There was, however, one young girl, a young adult, that gave the doctor a pause.
“Wait,” Taiek said, gently grabbing her arm. “Whose child are you?”
“I am Anok’s mate, Dhellarr,” she said nervously. “He is deployed sir, I… I do not know his whereabouts. Please… I will not take up much room.”
The Doctor softened his grip then looked to Evoch, who was in command of this ship. Evoch seemed, though, somewhat distracted by some unseen situation.
“Go ahead,” Evoch said, eyeing the girl with apprehension. The girl looked at Evoch after a curtsey. It was a strange look that most would attribute to xenophobia which had already been on full display.
Once all were loaded and the doors were closed, Evoch pulled the craft into flight, hitting IFF transponders immediately to mask the craft’s true identity. This allowed them to join in the busy flight patterns that covered Rator III’s early morning skies. The plan was to follow this hastily assembling fleet then once in orbit, engage the Nei’Rrh’s singularity drive along with the fleet, but to the rendezvous point established by Commander Nathes and not wherever this fleet were going.
Most of the refugees made themselves comfortable in the cargo hold area. This ship had no cabins, and only had the special chamber Evoch used to rest and regenerate. He did need a bed as he never slept so his modifications to the ship including removing the original lavish creature comforts that Dhusuia, his former mistress, thought necessary. The only thing left was the lavatory for the benefit of passengers that needed such, and disintegration and torture chamber that Dhusuia used to threaten and torture her adversaries and even Evoch on occassion. He kept it to remind himself of the cruelty, and it also functioned as a garbage disposal.
Gone also was the pretentious captain’s chair which Evoch felt was pretty useless on a shuttle. This shuttle was his and it was lightened, cut down, and to the point, which meant less strain on inertial field generators, thrusters, and impulse engines, as well as better handling characteristics.
While in motion to reach orbit, Evoch couldn’t help but turn around and look at the young woman, who in turn he would catch looking at him. There was something wrong here, but he was not letting on what to anyone. Taiek noticed this and made his way to the co-pilot’s chair which Evoch kept purposefully empty as a buffer between these strangers and himself. The Doctorsat in the chair with an exhausted huff and looked at Evoch with eyes well trained in observation. Evoch noticed this immediately but kept silent.
Once the ship made its way into orbit with the rest of the reserve fleet and ships began popping out of view for their singularity powered journey, Evoch followed suit. With a hum that increased in volume followed by a loud pop, space before them folded and off they went.
There was no sense of relief on Evoch’s face though. He turned to the Doctor finally, one hairless eyebrow ridge raised and the other eye squinted. He gave another side glance to Dhellarr, then back to the Doctor, still remaining silent.
“You suspect something, don’t you, boy?” Taiek asked.
“I don’t suspect, I know,” Evoch said.
“Mind telling me what you know?”
“You’ll find out,” Evoch replied quietly and cryptically. “Doctor, please scan all those onboard with your medical tricorder, one at a time, and… be very careful. Start with this group here to the aft of the bridge behind me.”
“I wish you would tell me what is going through your mind, but I’m going to assume it has something to do with that girl?”
Evoch said nothing, and yet this was enough to confirm that was indeed Evoch’s concern.
“Shall I start with her?” Doctor Taiek asked.
“No,” Evoch said. “Act naturally. She knows…and she knows I know.”
“Know what, Evoch?” Doctor Taiek inquired, becoming somewhat frustrated with the secrecy. He huffed as Evoch maintained his silence and said, “You Tal Shiar types and your bloody intrigued. Fine. I’ll start from left to right.”
Doctor Taiek stood up, and took his medical scanner from his bag nearby. He then walked over to the first patient uttering something about their pilot being concerned with the spread of Denuevian lice, something merely to rib his kin for their dislike of Evoch, who was the pilot and commander as well as in this case their savior.
The Doctor could notice the young woman shooting both he and Evoch a mean look, with a grin, she stood up from her seated position which prompted a sharp ‘wait your turn, Dhellarr’ from the Doctor.
“No, I believe I’ll go now!” she shouted, pulling two kaleh made of bone from out of her chest, under blouse. The knives were coated in a greenish slime, confirming what Evoch already knew, and more importantly was ready for.
Evoch was already standing, holding a disrupter on this new assassin, this new Khaiell Rhadai.
“Don’t be fool!” he shouted as this fellow member of his race grabbed the Doctor and held a blade to his throat.
“I’m a fool?,” she said. “I am fool for wanting to experience this for myself? This sublime experience… of killing?” she smiled as she struggled to hold the old doctor. “Oh, Oh, no, I see, Evoch. You and Ansha just wanted it all for yourselves. You only shared what you wanted to share, but… but I see now you holding back the best parts… the most sublime parts! Isn’t that right, cousin?”
“Dhellar,” Evoch pleaded, “Please, put the weapons down and share with me now and you will see the whole story. Please, just… put your knives away. I don’t want to have to kill you, but I will not let you harm anyone.”
“Ha!” she exclaimed. “Lies! They said you would lie when I told them you’d know me. You’d know your own kind. Lies… told by the only one of us that is able to lie.” she looks around at the terrified crowd. “Tell me, dear cousin, what kind of lies have you told these poor people? That they would find safety with a traitor? Huh?”
“Dhellar, Please,” Evoch pleaded again. “Dhellar, I tell you true.”
“Just shoot us both!” Taiek exclaimed, knowing the disrupter would destroy both target and hostage.
“Best option since I know he was never allowed to touch one of those,” Dhellar said into the Doctor’s ear. She turned her attention back to Evoch. “So this is a bluff. You won’t use that against me. No, and you know I know you won’t. Remember, I know what you know. Well, what you didn’t hide from us. I know you never could use a disrupter. I know as Dhusuia’s lapdog you were conditioned to never ever pick one up. I know that right now, every cell in you must be screaming in imaginary pain from that conditioning. That same conditioning that taught you to lie.”
Evoch began trembling. He lowered the disruptor in a seemingly defeated way.
“I knew it,” Dhellar said. “You can’t lie to m-OOOF”
Suddenly the Doctor jammed an elbow into Dhellar’s torso which expelled all the air from the Wind People’s air bellows. The doctor then smashed his medical scanner into Dhellar’s face, damaging her fake eyeball focusing lenses which gave him distance from the would be assassin. Evoch tossed the pistol to Taiek and then, braving being repeatedly stabbed by the bone blades, grabbed Dhellar.
His eyes widened and his mouth dropped.
“DOCTOR!” he screamed, “OPEN THE DISINTEGRATION CHAMBER!” He wrestled the substantially smaller, weaker Wind People over to the cylindrical chamber as The Doctor quickly found the large button with his hand. The door opened, and with Dhellar screaming “YOU CAN’T DO THIS, EVOCH!” Evoch picked her up and threw her into the chamber.
Taiek then hit the button again trapping her inside, where she continued to scream and cry. Evoch looked at her, shaking his head.
“I’m sorry, Dhellar,” he said sadly. “I will take your sublime experiences back to the Island of the Sweet Wood. You cannot harm these people. I cannot let you, cousin. I cannot… I must send you to the ultimate sublime experience, without saving your offspring.”
With that, Evoch hit the red button to the side of the open button and Dhellar dissolved into nothing in the most horrific manner possible.
Evoch stared at the chamber. It looked as though he was going to cry. He then stumbled past the Doctor, to his pilot’s chair and sat with a definitive slump. His mouth quivered as he stared at nothing. As the Doctor and his wife who had risen from one of the only seats in the cabin approached, the other Rihannsu stood up and came forward.
“You did what you had to do, Khaiell Rhadai,” one of Taiek’s sons said. “She had a bomb planted in her, didn’t she?”
“Y-y-yes,” Evoch said. “She didn’t block that experience when I touched her.” He closed his eyes. “She didn’t know, but I recognized it… what it was.” He looked up at the son. “She didn’t even know.” He hung his head and let out a mournful, low-volume, moan, which prompted Taiek’s now tearful wife to kneel to his side and hold him in an embrace, despite the green fluid oozing from his wounds. Taiek placed his hand on Evoch’s shoulder.
One by one, they all touched and in some way, each of the refugees, now expressing gratitude to the former wraith in the night. He was no longer the mythical taker of lives… a yyhk, but now, to each and all of the Rihannsu who witnessed this, and even though they did not understand the intricacies of the Wind People, or that Evoch was now the first Wind People to ever take the life of one of his own kind, made it clear that he will always be one of their own.
Evoch was now a member of House T’Ell.
“Well, son,” the Doctor said, “Why don’t rest in your chamber. We will make sure the ship reaches the rendezvous with Commander Nathes.” Taiek looked up at the rest of his clan and with a commanding voice said, “Won’t we.” They all nodded, with some helping him stand, which was not trouble due to the wounds, but more so the state of shock he was in.
The Doctor’s wife looked at Taiek then to Evoch being undressed and helped into his resting chamber, then back to Taiek.
“That poor child,” she said. “Hard to believe what you told me he was.”
“Yes,” the Doctor said. “But I thank the elements he is going through what he is going through right now.”
“What?”, she said disturbed by that statement. “How can you say a mean thing like that, Taiek?”
“That means he knows the value of life. Most of our kind knows nothing but war and death. He, though, knows what we are truly fighting for… what we really need. We need more Rihannsu like him.”
“Father, he isn’t Rihannsu,” one of the sons said.
“I know,” Taiek answered sharply.
The little ship continued its journey through space, onward to another day.