Chapter Text
Title: Dubious Duplicity
Author: Poodle
Rating: PG-13
Summary: While on route to Vardan Three, the shuttle Commander Riker and Commander Data are traveling on crash-lands on Nuviea. (A planet protected by the prime directive.) The two Starfleet officers find themselves in the middle of a bitter war between Nuviea and her sister planet Taron who is intent on occupying the lesser developed Nuviea. The Starfleet officers must stay alive while managing to not compromise the Prime Directive by contaminating the native inhabitants of Nuviea. This proves even more difficult when the officers are separated and end up on opposing sides of the conflict.
DUBIOUS DUPLICITY
By Poodle~
"Riker?" Jarob leaned near to the fire's glow, and it cut the lines of his bearded face into deep furrows. "You say you're from Barlona? How goes the resistance under Dimron?"
"It goes well." Firelight flickered across Commander Riker's worn face. He was tired; they all were, though none of the renegades huddled before the campfire would be willing to admit it. Jarob's men were allies of Dimron's forces. "The enemy won't be driven from Barlona anytime soon, but Dimron's not leaving them a moment's rest."
"If what you say is true, he's doing an exemplary job...for a dead man."
Riker froze. The silence of the night crept into his bones as he proceeded with measured calm. "His death rendered him a martyr. The enemy's forces haven't rested a night since, and they won't, until Dimron's followers have avenged his murder."
Jarob's jaw clinched, and he whispered to the man at his side.
"His son, Dimron-Tyme, is now in charge." Riker continued. Never one to back down from a bluff, he met Jarob's gaze without flinching.
The leader locked eyes with Riker, and the minutes stretched.
"He speaks the truth." A thin, high-pitched voice cut the night. "I heard the news when we passed through the city."
Riker sighed inwardly and turned to meet the gaze of a scrawny youth seated next to a burly man known as Duff. He didn't know the boy's name, they'd never spoken, but in that instant, the stranger held the commander's life in his young hands.
Riker's face became a mask.
"Are you certain of this, Tag?" Jarob grumbled. "I won't accept any *fissa* from you, boy."
"I'm always certain." The young man with the shaven head held his ground with surprising tenacity.
Laughter rumbled through the group, and the tension slowly drained from the moment.
"So you are." A smile broke the lines of Jarob's face.
The mountainous man called Duff struck the boy's shoulder with a resounding slap that almost sent him reeling. "You'll be a fine man someday."
"If I have any bones left." The boy cut the man with a hardened look.
Duff responded with a boisterous laugh.
"I apologize for the challenge." Jarob returned his attention to Riker. "But you must understand, the Taronii's sympathizers are everywhere. We can never be too cautious."
"Don't you think I know that?" Riker's expression deepened with anger as he pushed his bluff to its limit. "If I had been a sympathizer, your ruse would have been as transparent as water in a goblet. Do you honestly think I'd try to infiltrate without full knowledge of the activities in Barlona?"
"True." Jarob nodded gravely. "If you had been an infiltrator, you would have clarified Dimron's status the minute you opened your mouth, leaving no room for misinterpretation."
"To accuse me of treason against our people is an insult that demands restitution."
Jarob's eyes widened.
The men shifted with unease.
"You would fight me?" Jarob started to rise when his second in command, Isla, grabbed his arm and held him back.
The two locked eyes.
"We need men like Riker." Isla turned and sized up the large commander. "His outrage is understandable. Since this scum has invaded our world we've been at one another's throats for nothing. At this rate, the Taronii generals need only sit back and watch as we do their murdering for them by slaughtering ourselves."
Jarob nodded grudgingly and settled back before the fire. "If you'll accept my apology, you may travel with us to Lambar, Riker. You may fight at our side in defense of our prince, if you will."
"I would count it an honor." Riker's eyes hardened. "But I will never again be accused of holding allegiance with anyone other than our King."
"So be it. Our next disagreement will take place at the end of a sword, in ancient tradition, or not at all."
Jarob turned away.
The men resumed their personal conversations, and as the rumble of their voices filled the night, Riker was thankfully forgotten. He allowed himself a moment of inward calm as he covertly scanned the men's faces. All of them were in deep discussion, each man in his own private world.
All but one.
The youth Jarob called Tag, Riker's unwitting savior. The boy sat watching the commander with dark, unwavering eyes...
The boy knew.
~*~*~*~*
"Those who do not stand with us, stand against us." The Taronii soldier gripped his phaser and challenged, "Where do you stand, albino?"
Lieutenant Commander Data twitched his head and his eyes popped open. He accessed his internal chronometer; fifty-seven minutes were lost in downtime. Where was he? He sought the combadge on his chest and found it missing.
"Do you stand with the forces of Taron or die with the spineless Nuvieans of this world?" the man hissed into the android's face.
"I must return to the glade." A frown knitted Data's brow. "I left my command...my companion there. He was injured when our..." Data trailed at the soldier's look of suspicion. The Prime Directive protected the twin worlds of Taron and Nuviea as developing cultures. Apparently, the Taronii forces had invaded their sister world of Nuviea.
"Do you desire death?" The soldier sneered, and his cohorts gathered around him to glare at the android sitting speechless in their midst. "Do you follow the renegades of Nuviea?"
Finally, a question Data could truthfully answer. "I do not, sir."
"Your kind is no doubt shunned on this backward planet. But your deformities are meaningless to us; we honor strength and power. Follow us, and you'll achieve respect."
Deformities? The term puzzled Data until he realized these people were confused by his unique skin tone.
"With us?" The man spewed into Data's face, then thrust the phaser to his temple. "Or against us?"
Circumventing his honesty centers, the lie slipped from his lips with surprising ease, "I shall support the Taronii."
"You've chosen well." The soldier nodded curtly. "These Nuviean savages treat their own as refuse, even more so, deformed ones like you."
He turned and stalked away to join a larger group of men gathered around a portable heating unit in the center of the glade.
Data remained propped against the tree where the troops left him; two soldiers flanked his sides, each armed with phasers. Clearly they still considered him a prisoner and not an ally. Data studied them and calculated his odds. Their weapons had rendered him unconscious before bringing him here; it was likely they could do so again.
As the night grew deeper, he'd stand a better chance of slipping into the shadows and disappearing into the forest without disrupting the culture around him. He couldn't risk altering the perceptions of the inhabitants of these worlds, but it was imperative he return to Commander Riker to assess his physical condition. When he had excavated the commander from the wreckage of the shuttle, before the explosion, the Human was unconscious...
Suddenly, a rustling in the trees behind the android drew his attention.
"Can you hear me?"
The query reached Data's auditory sensors more as suggestion than sound. His eyes cut to the men guarding him as his lips responded without motion. "Yes."
"Do you want to get the hell out of this mess?"
He dipped his head in silent affirmation to his faceless benefactor.
"Slip me your hand."
~*~*~*~*
"I saw the princess Salome dance at the palace once. Like a bird, she floated on the wind; her ebony tresses wafted around her like a cape." Duff gazed into the flames with a look of rapture on his weathered face and breathed, "She was a vision."
"You lying bastard." Isla shattered the man's reminiscence. "You've never been anywhere near the palace, much less the royal family. Next, you'll be telling us you're godfather to Crown Prince Ma'kel."
Laughter rumbled through the group.
"I have been to the palace, two years before the war. The princess gave me this as a token of appreciation for my exuberance over her dancing." He held out his hand; it dwarfed a golden amulet he always wore next to his heart. "I shall fight to the death, if need be, till Prince Ma'kel is free from the clutches of the *fissa* Taronii forces occupying the palace."
Riker sat back in the darkness and listened to the exchange, hoping to gather as much information as possible concerning the world in which he unexpectedly found himself. The last thing he remembered was the shuttle hitting Nuviea's surface -- and then the darkness. When he opened his eyes, Duff was standing over him, and Commander Data was gone. Nothing remained of the shuttle but molten rubble.
The Nuviean renegades had thankfully not extensively drilled him about it. He claimed the shuttle was of Taronii design, and that he'd witnessed its crash before being attacked by soldiers.
"At least, your fanciful tales are amusing." One of the men ridiculed Duff, drawing everyone's attention. "It gets us through these long, boring nights."
"I met the princess and her twin, Ma'kel, two years ago." Duff scowled at the man. "I do not lie."
"The young Wilton, as well, no doubt."
"I never met the youngest son; he and his mother were in the South of Banson at the time."
"Our king is ailing." Jarob leaned near the fire and spoke for the first time. "This occupation has worn his health to the point of failing, and the recent abduction of his son has shattered what remains of his heart. We must free Ma'kel; I fear the young man will soon be king."
Silence hushed the group and their roughened faces sobered.
"And if we fail?" One man dared to ask.
"Sacrilege! Wilton's too young to successfully ascend to his father's crown. Ma'kel is the eldest; he must be freed or the hearts of our people will never mend, and we'll be devoured by the Taronii."
"There's always Salome. She's only an hour younger; she can be king." Someone shattered the tension with his humorous input. "Duff's dainty dancer."
The group burst into laughter.
"Dancing while the walls came down." The voice shot out of nowhere, dampening the mood.
Riker turned to the source, and found the boy who'd intervened on his behalf earlier in the evening.
"The royal family's a joke." The young man's face hardened with anger. "They danced and frolicked and dined while we died in droves. Even now, they hide in shame in the South of Banson while the Taronii occupy our world and slaughter our families."
"Be silent!" Jarob flew to his feet.
The boy obeyed, but his eyes held defiance.
"Since you're young, I'll forgive your slander." Jarob's expression cut the boy across the flames from where the leader stood. "If it happens again, I'll slit your throat."
The young man sat in bitter silence.
Jarob spit into the fire and sat. "Bring us water, Tag, and dunk your impetuous head in the stream while you're at it."
The youth slowly rose to his feet; his eyes never left their leader's face as he stooped, retrieved two canteens from the ground, then, instead of disappearing into the darkness toward the creek, moved to Riker and slammed one of them into his lap.
The commander looked up in surprise.
"You're low man on the Ma'tra." He locked Riker's gaze with a hardened stare. "We'll fetch the water together."
The group chuckled in amusement at the boy's brashness, and all eyes were suddenly on the commander, expecting him to entertain them by squashing the youth like a fly.
Riker allowed the moment to stretch.
The boy held his ground.
"Low man, it is." Riker slightly dipped his head, stood and towered above the boy.
The echo of the men's laughter filled the air as Riker followed the young man into the woods and down to the stream where they bent to fill the canteens.
Riker kneeled, dipped the container into the water, and looked up at the youth. "You're Tag, correct? I'm--"
"The name's Ty," he snapped.
Riker stalled in surprise. "Sorry. I misunderstood. I thought Jarob called you--"
"The name's Ty. Tag's short for tag-a-long." The boy's smooth face twisted in anger.
"I apologize, Ty. My name's William Riker; my friends call me Will." He stood and started to offer his hand, then reconsidered. He had no way of knowing if the gesture was proper on Nuviea.
Ty ignored the offer of friendship as he challenged the larger man with a cold look. "I pulled your butt out of the fire earlier; now my butt's on the slab. It's time to return the favor."
~*~*~*~*
"Are you men totally incompetent, or does it just look that way?"
The Taronii guard at Data's side gave a start when a young woman stormed from the shadows and confronted him.
"Which is it?" the woman challenged the soldier with brazen authority.
"Who the hell are you?" He snarled down at the stranger.
She thrust a plastic ID into his hand and stood waiting impatiently for a response.
The soldier stared at it, baffled. "I don't have a decoder here; how do you expect me to read this thing?"
She rolled her eyes, reached for a separate card and threw it at the man's chest. Before he had time to check it, she again demanded, "Are you and all these men totally incompetent?"
His eyes swiftly scanned the card, then flew to her face in suspicion. "This claims you're..."
"That's right, damn it; I am. When my father finds out about this, heads are going to roll."
Data watched with keen interest as the situation unfolded before him. The Taronii gathered to confront the woman who'd appeared in their midst, and the commander in charge snatched the ID from the guard's hand.
The woman waited with a look of impatience while the commander inserted the card into a device attached to his belt.
"Would you please get on with it?" she hissed.
The commander glared, glanced at the readout on the device's face, then slightly sobered. He gave the woman a suspicious look as he passed back her card. "What's the problem?"
"This is the problem." She stalked toward Data and kicked his leg. "What's wrong with you people? You're an embarrassment to Taron! Are you so stupid that you don't know a moron when you see one?"
Data's brow arched in surprise, and his eyes fell to the place where she'd kicked him.
"I don't suppose you bothered to tell them who you are?" she challenged the android.
"I did not," Data responded truthfully.
She pursed her lips then turned to face the Taronii commander. "This man is in the possession of my father. He was assigned as an escort to me. He wandered off and got lost." Her eyes narrowed as she glared into Data's face. "Or...ran away. He's not as stupid as he pretends to be or my father would not have permitted him to accompany me. Thank you for finding him." She paused for emphasis, then reached into her pocket for a separate card and thrust it into the man's hand. "This is the albino's genetic print. My father will be grateful for your assistance in this matter."
The soldier's eyes passed from the woman to the silent android, then back again. He looked at the card, started to press it into the decoder, then paused.
"I trust we're free to go."
He studied the ID, saw Danston's symbol, then met the woman's eyes. "Danston's daughter? I met him once. He is a formidable general, a credit to Taron." His gaze passed over her and lingered on the ebony locks braided down her back. "You have his hair."
A smile touched the corner of her lips but never reached her eyes. She held out her hand for the card.
The soldier bypassed the decoder and returned it to her. "Remember me to your father."
"Trust me; I shall." Suddenly her face brightened as she assumed an almost coy expression. "I don't suppose you gentlemen could spare a change of clothes. Andor only knows what this idiot did with his own. I can't possibly return home with him dressed like that." She glared at Data's uniform.
The commander was pleased to assist.
She took the clothing, turned to Data and kicked his leg. "Get up, you; we're behind schedule as it is."
Data blinked in surprise at her assault and rose.
He remained silent as she led him past the assembled men and into the forest, guided by the light of a portable hand-beam. When the soldiers were far in the distance and the denseness of the woods encompassed them, he turned and gave her a solemn nod.
"I thank you for your intervention," he told her quietly. "But I must leave you now and return to my companion."
"Leave!" Her eyes widened in surprise. "I just risked my skin to get you out of that mess. The least you can do is travel with me until I reach my destination."
"I regret to inform you that that is not possible. My friend is in need of my assistance."
"You've got a lot of nerve, albino, abandoning me like this."
"My name is Data," he corrected softly. "And you are?"
"Judith; but I'm called Jude," she snapped. "You must agree to travel with me. I can't risk the journey to Lambar without a male companion--" Her eyes appraised him scornfully. "--and you're the best I've come across lately."
"I am sorry to disappoint you." He turned to leave.
"Stop!"
The android paused and peered back at the young woman in the darkness.
"He's no longer in the glade; the Nuviean renegades took him."
"How do you know this?" Data frowned and returned to her side.
"What's it worth to you...Data?" Jude met his eyes with defiance.
"Worth?" His head cocked in bewilderment.
"You know. What are you willing to give me in exchange for the information? I don't do anything for free. I'll cut you a deal. Travel with me to the capital city, and I'll give you...Riker."
His eyes widened at her use of the commander's name. "How did you know--?"
"That's not important. What is important is that I know where he is, and that he's safe. If you travel with me to Lambar, I'll take you to him. It's a day's journey from here."
The android considered her proposition. His choices were limited. If she knew the commander's name, it was possible her information concerning his status was, likewise, accurate.
"Do we have a deal or not?" Her face hardened with impatience.
"If you are, in fact, Danston's daughter, why do you not request assistance from the soldiers? Are his forces not occupying Barlona?"
"That ghastly pigmentation has effected more than your appearance; you really are a moron. Those imbeciles wouldn't know Danston's daughter from a tavern maid. The general's not given to introducing his family to the troops. Do you honestly think I'd last two seconds alone with a bunch of ruffians like that? There's only one of you; you, I can handle. Them -- forget it."
Data shook his head in puzzlement. "You appear quite able to handle yourself regardless of the situation."
"Is it a deal or isn't it?" she snapped.
"You have left me little recourse; I must agree," he conceded, then went on to ask, "Are you Danston's daughter?"
A smile snaked across the woman's lips. She swept aside the cloak she wore, to reveal a multitude of ID cards and various paraphernalia sewn into its lining. She winked. "I'm whoever you want me to be, Bright-eyes."
~*~*~*~*
"You're going to bed down with me tonight."
"Excuse me?" Riker stalled in astonishment.
Ty's jaw tensed as he peered up at the man in the darkness. "It gets cold out here at night; we pair up after the fire's extinguished. I joined this group about two weeks ago; since then, Duff's been my undisputed 'partner.'" The boy's face darkened. "I want you to challenge that arrangement."
The night grew silent around them.
The commander considered his options. It would be disastrous to distinguish himself among the renegades. Discreet inquires of the men around him informed Riker that he needed to get to the capital city to reach the only available subspace transmitters in the area, if he hoped to contact a Starfleet vessel. The Enterprise would remain unaware of their failure to arrive on Vardan Three for at least a week, since it had already warped out of contact range to chart a star cluster in the Adari sector before the shuttle went down.
"He's big, but you're bigger," the boy cut the hush. "You can take him out."
"I have no intention of 'taking out' anyone." Riker's expression hardened, then he caught the look on Ty's face and stalled in surprise.
"The men get lonely out here," the boy clarified. "Duff's been getting a little too close for comfort lately. I want to end things -- before there's anything to end."
Riker pulled in his breath, then released it slowly. "You do have a problem."
"A problem you're going to solve, because you and I understand each other." Ty paused for emphasis.
"If we understand each other, you realize I can't do anything to jeopardize my status here."
"Since you've confronted Jarob, Duff won't fight you. He's mostly bluff. The challenge is all you'll need. Besides, I could use a little support around here, support you're going to give me."
Riker studied the boy's smooth face and considered the quandary. "I'll...see what I can do."
Ty's face didn't soften with relief; it became savage in the shadows as he moved near. "I'll tell you this once, Riker, if I have a problem with you--" He snatched a razor from his boot and brandished it inches from the man's throat. "--I'll cut it off while you sleep."
~*~