Survival
Posted on Mon Aug 5th, 2019 @ 4:29pm by Lieutenant Commander Jacob "Jack" Devine
Mission:
Preludes
Location: Cardassian Space; Cantra's Moon
Timeline: 2384
Tags: Executioner
Jacob still struggled to believe that the smallest man in the compound was now number one. If anything, he’d learned to take that old adage “don’t judge a book by it’s cover” more to heart. Could anything be more cliche? Jacob didn’t think so. What he did know, however, was that he wanted to learn everything he could from Henry.
They were allowed to get to know one another. The Cardassians encouraged the exchange. Henry had apparently turned down their offer to continue in cage fights for better food and overall treatment. The idea appealed to Jacob especially since he saw himself fighting Bretar and his Orion companion and others like them of the same brute force. He was a good student. Henry, however, seemed to know he was simply biding time.
“You’re playing into their hands, Jacob,” Henry warned one night as the pair were finally left alone on the heels of a particularly rigorous session.
Jacob pressed the towel to his face. He’d been treated for his injuries, given better food, secluded away from the everyday life in the prison yard. The latter part concerned him but he kept telling himself that if he kept the Cardassians properly entertained that maybe life would get better for those in the yard. That the weak would no longer be tormented. That maybe they could all survive a little longer.
Deluded?
Yes. God yes! But it soothed the ache in his heart and gave him a sense of purpose he so desperately needed.
“I can do this, Henry,” Jacob finally answered. “Don’t worry, it’ll be alright.”
***
Of course it wouldn’t be alright.
“Are you ready for your first fight, One?” Gul Tamok inquired, one corner of his lip curved upward in a sardonic half smile.
“One? I don’t know if I’d be so quick to move Henry to Two,” Jacob replied as he followed the Gul out into the corridor. He’d gained a bit more weight back and though previous injuries were still a minor complaint, they had been healed by the Cardassian medic. He was in better condition than he had been for the last three months.
“Henry held up his part of our bargain and I held up mine,” the Gul replied evenly.
Henry? No number? Jacob stalled in the corridor, halfway to the cage room. “What do you mean?”
The Gul stopped and turned to look at Jacob. “The Legate and I had a nice debate on which one of you would realize what we were up to first.” He paused for effect. “It was never going to be you.”
Tamok continued down the corridor and the guard behind Jacob gave him a shove to get Jacob moving. Confused by the information he stumbled but regained his footing to follow the Gul in a daze.
The door opened and Jacob stepped through to stare at the cage. He didn’t have much choice after that as he was roughly pushed into the cage and locked inside.
“I have money on you one,” Gul Tamok said, the words spoken with contempt. “Let’s get started.”
Jacob’s brow furrowed. Across from him stood Analora Dumel, known as eighty-one to the Cardassians. She looked up at him with wide eyes but more out of surprise than fear. She was calm, her frail body almost at attention. “What is this?” Jacob turned to look at the Gul. “Is this some sort of joke?”
“I never joke, one.” The Gul met Jacob’s hostile gaze with that same unwavering matter-of-fact tone. “What made you think these fights were intended to be fair? Did you forget your own initiation into the cage?”
“I’m not doing this,” Jacob said flatly, his hands at his sides.
“Jacob, it’s okay,” Analora took a step toward him.
“Entirely your call. I am certain two and three are up to the task if you are not.” Gul Tamok motioned toward the small woman. “Do not make us wait long.”
He stood there with his entire world blown away. Jacob didn’t even feel Analora’s hands on his arms. This couldn’t be right. Who would watch as a trained fighter beat down a frail woman? How was that even considered sport? Entertainment? His eyes turned toward the Cardassians lining the other side of the cage. That’s when it hit him. /He/ was the entertainment.
“I won’t be your executioner,” Jacob spat.
The Gul motioned to the guard who turned and left the room.
“It’s time. Please.” Analora reached up and cupped Jacob's face between her hands. “Better you than them. Jacob, please...”
Jacob met Gul Tamok’s eyes. The man had a sadistic streak and Jacob had played right into it. Hadn’t Henry warned him? If he refused to participate, two and three would rip Analora apart. Still holding Tamok’s gaze, Jacob pulled Analora into his body and slipped his arm around her neck with the gentleness of a lover and with one skilled twist ended her life then laid her down calmly on the cage floor.
He couldn’t feel anything and yet it seemed everything all at once. Jacob's mind gridlocked, caught between a state of panic and utter futility mixed with an unhealthy dose of pride and shame. “It’s done,” Jacob muttered, eyes glaring into Tamok’s. He had hoped that the quick kill would make the Gul angry - God help him - give him something back.
The Gul stood. “You know it was never our intention to kill eighty-one. We simply intended she remember her place.” With that the Gul turned and left the room, the Legate on his heels.
Jacob watched them leave.
***
She haunted his dreams, Analora Dumel, ringing her hands and asking him why. Jacob barely slept. When he found himself in the cage the next day, he determined he wasn’t going to be their pawn, not again. Not ever. It helped that this time he wasn’t being begged for a merciful end.
Seventy-three, whose name Jacob didn’t know, was no doubt scared speechless. Jacob refused to lay a hand on the man and true to his word, Gul Tamok had Jacob pulled from the cage. He wasn’t, however, returned to his cell. Instead he was held by two guards and forced to watch as two and three beat the weak man to a pulp in spite of his screams of fear and pain, eventually taking it too far. Neither Tamok nor his Legate spoke a word and they ignored Jacob’s insistence that seventy-three couldn’t take anymore.
Gul Tamok rose from his chair and looked at Jacob for a long moment. “We will try again tomorrow.”
“You said you never intended to kill them,” Jacob accused, barely managing to keep at bay the quaver of outrage.
“Yes. /I/ never intended to kill them. I could not, obviously, speak for two and three.” Tamok turned and headed for the door calling over his shoulder to his Legate, “See that two and three are well fed. They earned it.”
“Thank you, supreme one,” two wrapped his fingers around the bars and smirked at Jacob, his face spattered with seventy-three’s blood.
The Orion clapped two on the back. “Don’t worry, one. We’ve got your back.”
Jacob didn’t answer. There was nothing he could say that would ever shame the pair. They had no moral compass at all. Really, he was just emotionally drained. Still in shock. His guards led him from the room.
That night it was seventy-three who walked through Jacob’s dreams.
***
Days dragged by. The cold of finality settled over his soul. Jacob quit feeling. Trapped, he saw no escape other than suicide but he knew that would only take him out of he equation. It wouldn’t stop the suffering. Two and three would go on maiming and murdering in the cage while the Cardassians watched.
The only way to truly end it was to kill the Cardassians. Kill Tamok. That, however, was not nearly as doable as killing two and three.
LtCmdr Jacob "Hijack" Devine
Squadron Leader
