Part Five: Day of Odious

“Torres to Janeway!”

Janeway jumped up from her seat on the bridge at the unexpected voice.

“B’Elanna?” she asked uncertainly.

“Chakotay and I are back on the ship, Captain but Tom is still on the planet, I’m worried he might try to do something… brash.”

Stupid. He’s going to do something stupid.

“Report to my ready room,” she ordered.

“We’ll be right there.”

* * * *

“Ah, the second operative,” Odious said smugly as Tom was pushed roughly into the cockpit.

Tom ignored him and looked to Alex, “You okay?” he asked her.

Alex nodded, “You?”

Tom nodded and Odious began to lose patience, “Yes very good. We’re all fine. Now let’s get down to business.”

Odious gave an oily smile, “You know your ship really showed up at the wrong time. And you and your crew have been wreaking havoc on my plans since your arrival.”

Tom smiled, “Thanks, we’ve been trying our very best.”

“I do not appreciate insolence, human,” Odious growled. “If you want to get through this with your life I’d be more respectful.”

Tom laughed, “I already know that you won’t let us live. We’re far too dangerous to you.”

Odious smiled, “Yes but you might e useful to me yet. And though killing you’d be quite enjoyable I have other plans for you.”

Tom looked around, there were only three guards and the unarmed Odious.

“Ah,” Odious said. “I know what you are thinking but I assure you that my men are as well trained as yourselves,”

“Can you be sure?” Tom asked. “You have no idea how well we’ve been trained.”

Odious smiled wryly, “On the contrary I’ve been monitoring your progress since your arrival to Dasavion. I know quite well what you’re capable of.”

“If you’ve been watching us all along why did you allow us to sabatouge your plans.”

Odious’ smile disappeared. “I’d hoped you would kill Siward for me, I hadn’t counted on your cunning or your sense of mercy.”

“Did you count on Voyager obtaining the coordinates to where we’re headed?” Tom asked casually. “328094, is it?”

Odious’ eyes flashed angrily. “How did you obtain the coordinates?”

Tom smiled charmingly, “Didn’t then tails you had tagging me call in to report they lost me?”

Odious’ fists clenched, “You rescued your crewmen.”

Tom’s smile grew, “This ship is no match for Voyager, you’ll never accomplish what you’re attempting.”

“Your ship Voyager has a policy that doesn’t allow them to get involved in others’ affairs.”

“Yes… well,” Tom started softly. “You solved that problem for me when you abducted me and Alex, my Captain can and will do whatever it takes to stop you and get us back.”

* * * *

“What happened?” Janeway asked as B’Elanna and Chakotay entered her ready room.

B’Elanna shook her head, “We aren’t sure but Tom didn’t return with us he said…”

“He said there might be a conflict of interest,” Chakotay finished for her.

“Did he elaborate?” Janeway asked.

“All I have is a set of coordinates, I think that if we go there we’ll find Tom…”

“And Alex,” Janeway added. “She was down there too. So you don’t think they’ll still be on Dasavion?”

“No, Tom knew I would have the coordinates and he copied them down on his tricorder.”

Janeway nodded, “Chakotay, take the helm and set a course for these coordinates, get us there as fast as you can.”

Chakotay nodded and quickly left the ready room, B’Elanna followed to assist him.

* * * *

Odious turned to his console, “I don’t see your ship on sensors.”

“You don’t have very good range,” Alex said, speaking up for the first time. “Voyager is much faster than this ship. It won’t take them long to catch up.”

“Then we’ll just need to hurry this up, won’t we?” Odious asked as he rerouted all available power to the engines in a near futile attempt to increase their speed.

“What do you want with us?” Alex asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. “What part do we play in you plan?”

The evil smirk was back as Odious turned to the young woman. “After Deval has been destroyed I will turn you over to the Dasavions and tell them you were responsible.”

“I thought this was going to be a message, showing the Dasavions what the Mavaino really thought of them, what good will it do to blame the attack on two tourists?”

Odious smiled, “This is only the first of many attacks, if the Dasavions believe you responsible and execute you accordingly they won’t expect another attack. I’ll be able to catch them off guard twice.”

To counted to ten to keep from launching himself at the older man, “And if they don’t believe we’re guilty?”

“You never asked permission to return to Dasavion, the both of you were there on a stealth mission… more than a little suspicious don’t you think? Knocking out two Dasavion officials and leaving them bound and unconscious in a hotel room doesn’t help your case much either. I shall have no trouble proving you guilt. Now, did the two of you want to get a front row seat to the destruction of Deval?”

“Yep,” Tom replied flippantly. “You must be a mind reader. That’s exactly why I came here, to sit back and watch you kill millions of innocent people.”

Tom once again caused Odious’ steal gray eyes to flare up angrily, “I’m tiring of your antics,” he whispered coldly.

Tom’s eyes contrastly glinted mischievously, “Well, you’re welcome to leave…”

Odious took one step forward and backhanded Tom across the face, to his disappointment however, the young prisoner never flinched but remained looking forward, his impossibly blue eyes boaring into his very soul.

“Lock them in the cargo area then,” Odious said. “I’ll enjoy the show without their company.”

The three guards roughly pushed the two operatives from the cockpit sending them to the floor of the cargo bay.

Tom was the first to recover and stand, he held out his hand to Alex and pulled her up.

“What’s the plan?” Alex asked.

“That Voyager comes to our rescue, what we need is a backup plan… a fail safe in case Voyager doesn’t make it in time…”

Alex nodded, “I’m sure that this ship had a self destruct, if we could hack into the computer…”

Tom sighed, knowing that there weren’t any computer consoles in the area they were locked in, “Well, we won’t be hacking into the computer, we might as well see what’s in those crates.”

* * * *

Harry couldn’t believe what the Captain was telling them. B’Elanna was back -safe aboard Voyager- for which he was grateful but he couldn’t stop worrying because now his other best friend along with Ensign Monroe were missing. Apparently the Captain had sent the two down to Dasavion to find Chakotay and B’Elanna without telling anyone. Something he was still angry about. Sometimes he thought the Captain expected the impossible from Tom. He couldn’t figure it out, he knew Tom was much smarter than he let on and extremely resourceful but he’d gone through the same training as everyone else on board. They were all Starfleet officers and some resistance fighters with knowledge that the Academy doesn’t teach. But he knew he was missing something because with all the times Janeway had asked Tom to pull of the impossible, he’d yet to disappoint her.

“Captain,” Harry said, pulling himself from his reverie. “I’ve picked up a ship on sensors, they’re on a parallel course.”

“Hail them,” Janeway ordered.

“No response.”

* * * *
 
 

It’s just a bunch of junk!” Alex cried quietly as they opened the crates.

“They probably just filled the crates with these old parts so no one would get suspicious of a cargo ship with no cargo,” Tom reasoned. “So, what do you think we can make from these pieces?”

Alex looked at him incredulously, “Make from it?”

Tom nodded and pulled half of what used to be a computer console from the box, “Yea, do you think there’s enough in here to make a bomb?”

Alex’s eyes lit up, “A bomb? That just might work! These are mostly parts that have been taken from ships, if we could find some pieces of a weapons system or better yet the self destruct system we just might be able to do it.”

“That’s the spirit,” Tom smiled as he began to pull useful scraps of metal from the crate.

* * * *

“Odious, we’ve picked up the ship Voyager on sensors, they’re hailing.”

“Ignore them, how long until we are in position?”

“Two minutes.”

“Very well, try to keep ahead of the ship Voyager.”

* * * *

Tom smiled and looked at the makeshift bomb, “I think we mad a new time record for creating a bomb from a pile of junk.”

Alex returned his smile, “We’re probably the only one’s out of a small group of people who *could* make a bomb from a pile of junk.”

Tom nodded his agreement and set the timer for two minutes.

“Is that long enough for Voyager to reach us?” Alex asked.

“It’s short enough to ensure that Odious won’t succeed in destroying Deval, that’s what’s important.”

Alex nodded solemnly, “Right… our lives for a million Dasavions’. I can live with that… or die with it.”

Tom smiled slightly, “Don’t count Janeway out yet she might make it in time…”

Both Alex and Tom felt the ship stop, “I guess we’ve reached 328094,” Tom whispered. “No matter, Odious won’t have time to set up his weapon.”

Alex nodded, “Tom... if we don’t come out of this I just want you to know that you’re a great friend and the best agent I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.”

Tom smiled, “The same goes for you, Alex…”

“It’s too bad it had to end this way though…” she said regretfully. “Before you got the courage to tell B’Elanna that you love her…”

* * * *

Voyager hovered above the much smaller ship. The alien space craft had stopped fleeing but still wouldn’t answer hails.

“Can you locate human life signs?” Janeway asked Harry.

“No, ma’am… not through their shields.”

* * * *

“Prepare the weapon and lower the shields,” Odious ordered.

“But the alien ship…”

“Won’t fire on us as long as two of their crew are on board. We can’t fire the weapon with the shields up, we have to lower them.”

“Won’t they just use their relocater device to bring their crew back to their ship?”

“I’ve initiated a dampening field… they won’t be going anywhere.”

* * * *

“Captain! Their shields are down!” Harry called.

“Life signs?” Janeway asked immeadiatly.

“Tom and Alex are aboard and something else… my god! It’s a bomb! Computer estimates it will explode in 60 seconds!”

Janeway stifled the curse on the tip of her tongue, “Transport them aboard and get us out of here!”

“I can’t!” Harry cried desperately. “There’s a dampening field,”

B’Elanna ran to her station, “I’ll see if I can break through…”

“40 seconds…”

“Hold on…” B’Elanna muttered.

“35 seconds… 30 seconds…”

“Almost…”

“25 seconds…”

“B’Elanna…” Janeway whispered.

“Almost…” she repeated.

“20 seconds…”

“We have to go now,” Chakotay said.

Janeway clenched her hands into fists, “Get us out of here, Chakotay, warp seven…”

The ship rocked from the explosion as they sped away and everyone waited silently for Janeway to ask the question they weren’t sure they wanted to know the answer to.

“Do we have them?” Janeway asked quietly.

B’Elanna looked up practically beaming, “We’ve got them.”

The bridge crew let out a collective sigh of relief and Janeway pressed her eyes shut in silent thanks.

“Chakotay, resume course for the Alpha Quadrant. I think I’ve had enough shore leave.”

Chakotay nodded seriously, “There’s only so much relaxation a person can take…”

TBC