Prisoner
Posted on Mon Aug 5th, 2019 @ 4:28pm by Lieutenant Commander Jacob "Jack" Devine
Mission:
Preludes
Location: Cardassian Space; Cantra's Moon
Timeline: 2384
Tags: Prisoner
It had been nearly ten years since the Dominion War and while the Federation was for the most part back on her feet, there were still outlying parties that challenged her existence. Fighters had been for the most part disbanded since the end of the War but not entirely. You had to be good, the cream of the crop, to keep an active duty position. Jacob had never found that to be a problem, especially since he had no family and didn’t care where he served. At the moment he was attached to black ops.
There had been some intel passed regarding a POW camp kept by the Cardassians. The location had been difficult to determine and of course the Cardassians themselves denied such a thing existed. But there it was on Jacob’s HUD as he descended in stealth mode on the far side of Cantra’s moon.
He was supposed to be in and out. Get a quick fix. Report back. It would have happened too if his mission hadn’t been compromised from the start. Of course, Jacob didn’t know that as the Cardassians boxed him in and smugly marched his ass over the rugged terrain and into the base itself which was carved out of the side of a mountain.
He looked up one last time at the sky and murmured a single word over his internal comm. The action saw him violently shoved to the deck but it also saw that his craft had imploded. Better they didn’t find it salvageable with Federation technology being what it was. Jacob knew getting caught was a one way trip. Even if he escaped there’d be no way off the moon unless he stole a ride.
***
The daily routine was a grind. Jacob had never experienced hunger up close and personal like this before. Oh, they fed the prisoners, just not enough to do anything more than live till the next time food was offered. Water? Sure. Just the required amount for humans to survive. Dehydration was impossible to miss. Half his diet was dust. The hardest part to adjust to was the hierarchy in prison. You expected it from the Cardassians. You didn’t expect it from your own. Was that the whole point behind survival of the fittest? If so, Darwin would be proud.
Was he guilty? Hell yes! He wanted to survive as much as the next guy or gal. That didn’t mean he took from the weak or those with the heart to still share willingly. Oh no, Jacob took from the bad guys, the ones who intended to survive no matter what the cost or whom they had to hurt. He started fancying himself something of a Robin Hood. It passed the time. It also paid in attention but not the kind anyone in their right mind would want.
“Word has it that you are planning a break out.” Gul Tamok sneered.
Jacob had been forced to his knees by the Cardassian guards behind him, his wrists lashed together with the end rope loosely thrown up over the post in the center of the Gul’s office. He knew better than to answer and yet he couldn’t stop himself. “Why else would I be stealing rations?”
The Gul smirked. “If I didn’t find you so amusing, thirty-nine, I’d kill you where you hang.”
“You’re wel--” Jacob’s reply was cut off in a gasp of air as his body was yanked up from the floor like he was a ragdoll weighing nothing. The rope was tied off so that he was standing a bit on his toes to keep his upper body from being painfully stretched too far, inhibiting any deep breathing.
“I cannot have dissent among your people. Maybe it is time we talked again.” The Gul approached so that he was standing face to face with Jacob.
Talk? Torture more like. Jacob held the Gul’s eyes a bit too long. Maybe he should have had the sense to drop them, to show some semblance of submission. The Gul smiled back broadly, a look that clearly said ‘challenge accepted.’
His audacious behavior left him hanging for almost an hour. When they cut him loose Jacob fell on the floor and stayed there. Well, that is until he was yanked up again. This was the beginning of the third round. Each time the Cardassians got remarkably closer to breaking him when for whatever reason whether it be boredom or other pressing matters, they quit.
This time. Well this time was different. Jacob expected to be isolated, to be slowly picked apart. Instead he was dragged down a corridor and through a set of doors into a large room that held a massive cage in the center. Gul Tamok was waiting for him.
Inside the cage were the two biggest members of the prison population. One was a rather large human that still managed to be well muscled in spite of the meager fare and the other was an Orion.
“I decided that since you enjoy picking fights that I would simply let you get it out of your system. If you desire to be the prison yard boss now is your moment, thirty-nine. Walk away from this and I will name you one.” The Gul spoke matter-of-fact but there was a sadistic look in his eyes. “Lose and I will make you a pet among your own kind.”
“I’ll name him Rover and pet him and feed him and take good care of him. Can I keep him?” The words ended on a laugh as the large human smacked his fist into his opposing palm.
The Orion beside him chuckled. “Not if I claim him first.”
“I have money on you with the Legate, thirty-nine. Do not let me down.” The Gul nodded to the guard and the cage was opened and Jacob was pushed inside.
***
Jacob couldn’t hold his own. After two rounds he was bruised, bleeding, and had a number of small fractures. The problem was that he didn’t stay down. He’d fend off one punch and be slammed by another and get up almost as fast as he went down. He got a few well placed strikes in but nothing like what was dished out on him.
The Cardassian guards and their leadership enjoyed the display. You’d think they were watching a dog fight. Maybe to them that’s what this was - three animals in a cage going at it. Jacob could hear their passing commentary and it was obvious there was indeed money involved. He kept his fists up to protect his face and watched his opponents for flaws in their delivery.
“I think we need to up the consequences.” The Gul’s voice was always matter-of-fact in delivery, quiet and yet somehow always heard above whatever was going on. “Give thirty-nine a bit more motivation.
Jacob saw the door behind him swing wide in a blur through one good eye. Henry Barton was pushed inside. Henry was the smallest man among the prisoners, barely over five feet in height. Jacob’s opponents outright laughed. Jacob might not look like much next to them but Henry was the size of a child. It was easy to see what the Gul had in mind. The two overgrown men would go after them both and Jacob would find himself defending ‘the runt’. In that moment he realized Tamok had gotten more inside his head than he knew.
“Henry, stay behind me,” Jacob told the petite man. Why pretend?
“Easiest meals we’ve ever won,” the Orion laughed and laid a hand on his overgrown companion. “Let’s end this Bretar. I’m getting hungry.”
If Jacob wasn’t offering up his best defense before that moment, he was now. That didn’t mean he didn’t take a lot of hits but the worst ones had Henry’s name on them. His mind insisted he continue even after his body gave out. Bretar got in another kidney punch and Jacob was sure the thing had exploded. Down on the floor he tried to get up again and that’s when it all changed.
Henry stepped over Jacob, crouched down and patted him on the arm. “This time, you stay down and let me handle this.” Henry’s curly hair had fallen into his eyes and his glasses were cracked but there was a confidence about the little guy that Jacob couldn’t understand. Had he snapped? Correction. Had they both snapped?
Laying on his side on the cold floor in a puddle of pain, Jacob watched the most remarkable thing his eyes had ever seen. People always said size didn’t matter but you didn’t really believe it until you saw it in action. Henry. Small, skinny, Henry with barely any muscle to be seen....
Maybe he was hallucinating? One too many punches to the head? Jacob laughed like a crazy person as he watched the dance. Henry never let either of the two much larger men lay a hand on him. He seemed to have an innate sense of how the body functioned whether it was his own or his opponent’s. He was agile, quick, and seemingly tireless and yet bold. In the end, a few well placed strikes in the right place had the two goons down and out. Jacob was holding his sides as Henry turned calmly to face the Cardassians on the other side of their cage.
“I believe, gentlemen, that is match. If you would kindly allow myself and my partner the promised respite and meal I would appreciate it.”
Gul Tamok laughed delightedly like a young child handed a much sought after toy. “You and I, number one, shall get to know each other better.” He looked to the guard on his right. “See that thirty-nine is well taken care of. He may be none too bright but I like his spirit.”
The gate opened and a set of hands grabbed Jacob up from the floor. Exquisite pain shot through him and the last word he remembered hearing was Henry’s admonishing, “Gentle...”
LtCmdr Jacob "Hijack" Devine
Squadron Leader
