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LIBERTIA

CHAPTER 12

Two hours. Maybe three. Even four.

Kathryn had no idea how long she'd been alone.

Alone except for the sleeping child on the bed.

The sleeping hologram.

Not Mina. As long as she kept believing that, love could not be used as a weapon against her.

Love.

Chakotay's tracker, which had been successfully implanted in her upper left arm, had better be working. If it wasn't, and he wasn't coming for her, she truly was in hot water.

Trapped.

There was no way out of this room, except for the door, and even if there was, attempting an escape without so much as a tricorder for assistance would be a waste of time. It wasn't even obvious if she was in space or on a planet. The metal architecture of this place was common to ships, starbases, and buildings. Only a fool would dive into a sea of sharks trying to fly from the devil. Better to stay and fight.

At least for the moment.

Then, suddenly, the sleeping child stirred awake. Kathryn, who was sitting at the foot of the bed, turned towards her, ready to scrutinize her every look and word. For a while, though, there were no words. The child just sat up and groggily rubbed her eyes. Then, with a squint, she looked around.

"Aunt Kathy?"

Kathryn hesitated with her reply. While she refused to believe this was her niece, if in the event it was, she didn't want to cause the child any unnecessary distress. Neither did she want to distress a childlike hologram. It would only make an unpleasant situation all the worse.

"That's right," she said, not unkindly.

"Where are we?"

"I don't know."

The child frowned. "Why don't you know? Are we lost?"

"Kind of."

"But not in the delta quadrant?"

"No," Kathryn answered. "We're not in the delta quadrant."

There was a long silence, then the child spoke again.

"I feel funny."

Kathryn questioned. "In what way?"

"My head hurts. And my eyes are wonky."

Kathryn swallowed. This sure sounded like Mina, so much so that...But no, she was not yet ready to believe it. Even if this child "felt" like Mina, and she did, having that intangible presence that holograms lack, appearances and feelings were not reliable. This...symptoms of post transportation trauma...could all be part of the deception. And yet...better to play safe than be sorry. It could do no harm to play along. It might even help.

"Tell me," she asked, "what is the last thing you remember?"

The child thought hard, racking her brains. "I was...in a place...with Mommy and Daddy...a museum. I was looking at a picture...a big one of a whale...and then...and then now."

That was some comfort, then. If this was Mina, she had not been made to suffer. And if this was Mina, Kathryn was determined it would stay that way.

Then, suddenly, the door opened and the masked woman returned. She was now dressed in black and had a man beside her who, from the vacancy in his eyes, was clearly a non-humanoid.

"I hope you are well rested," the woman said. "But not too comfortable as it's time now to get down to business."

Kathryn got to her feet. "We have no business to get down to! I still don't believe this whole charade and, even if I did, I won't by force be made to do anything!"

"Brave words, Admiral, but talk is cheap. Gonzalo, seize the child."

"She is not a child," Kathryn insisted, "she's a hologram."

"Really? You still think that? But how sure are you, Admiral? Ninety percent, a hundred? Because if you're anything less than a hundred, even a fraction of a percent, will you let her be tortured? Because Gonzalo here can to things to a child that you wouldn't want to imagine let alone witness. And we'll make you witness it, Admiral. We'll let you see her suffering and hear her screams."

Kathryn swallowed. While there was every chance that the woman was just playing cruel mind games, there was also every chance that she was serious. And if she was, and this really was Mina, how could she let them hurt her? She couldn't. Not a single hair on her precious head. No, she'd rather kill her niece herself first.

The woman smirked. "I see you have doubts. So would I in your shoes. So, what's it to be, Admiral? Will you subject this child to unimaginable horror or will you do what we want?"

For a long time Kathryn said nothing, delaying the inevitable, but then relented. "Alright, you win. I'll do what you want."

The woman smiled. "I knew you'd see reason eventually." She turned to the hologram. "Gonzalo, you may leave."

With cold eyes fixed ahead, he left the room.

"You will not regret this decision," the woman went on. "Well, you may regret it but not your reasons for it, because I assure you this is your niece."

Kathryn stepped forward, still defiant. "Just tell me what you want."

"What you already know...to thwart the negotiations. To do that, we will send you back to your ship, keeping your niece as security."

Keeping her as security. Another sign that this truly was Mina.

An innocent child caught up in a war that did not concern her.

Nor the first and not the last.

God damn war.

"I see you have no objection," the woman went on. "Good. We will arrange a return relay for you as soon as possible. In the mean time, you can stay here with your niece."

With that, the woman left. As she did, Mina spoke.

"Why is she so nasty, Aunt Kathy?"

"Because she's a bully," Kathryn replied, turning to the child. "Bullies are always nasty to get their own way."

"What way does she want?"

"For me to do something I don't want to do."

"What, Aunt Kathy?"

"Nothing that you need to worry about."

"But I do worry, Aunt Kathy. I know I'm only little, but I still worry. I don't like it here."

At this, tears filled Kathryn's eyes, but she blinked them away.

"Neither do I, darling. But we won't be here long, I promise."

Chakotay would surely find her soon, hopefully before the return relay, and in finding her would find Mina too. Find them and beam them to safety.

"But can't we leave now?" Mina implored.

"I'm afraid not, honey. But if you are here longer than me, because I might be sent back to my ship any moment, don't be afraid. We'll beam you out soon."

But the words alone struck fear into the child's heart and her eyes flooded with tears.

"Oh no, Aunt Kathy! I will be afraid, I will!"

Kathryn tenderly put her hand on the child's shoulder, certain now that this was indeed her niece. For is she wasn't, if she really was a hologram, it was unlikely they would have her say this. They'd wouldn't have any words said that could make her change her mind about co-operating.

"I know, sweetheart. And it's ok to be afraid sometimes. But I won't let anything happen to you. Not now and not ever. Understand?"

Mina nodded tearfully.

"Good," Kathryn replied. "Now, give me a hug."

Mina did what she was told and then snuggled up to her aunt. For a long time they cuddled and, in the warmth and safety of her aunt's embrace, Mina, still groggy, began to doze. As she did, Kathryn looked around the room, again surveying every detail, and in doing so her eyes fell on Mina's teddy. In all that had happened, she hadn't really paid it much attention, but as she looked at it now, she saw that it was very familiar. The cuddly toy was of white fur, with pink ears, and was clad in a blue coat with silver buttons. Aside from the coat, it looked exactly like the teddy her father had given her when she was five years old. A teddy she still had to this day. A teddy that had a scorch mark on its leg from being kept too close to a fire. In fact, this teddy looked so much like her own that Kathryn picked it up, turned it over, and inspected the legs. Sure enough, the left was scorched.

Her teddy.

Kathryn's heart skipped a beat. There had been a reason why her father had given her the toy and told her to keep it safe, and the reason wasn't to amuse her. For the teddy was not just a toy. It had a mini safe inside. Her father, unknown to her, had kept a secret document in it. The safe was lightweight and so sophisticated that it could not be detected by any kind of technology. Her mother had been livid when she'd found out about the document, angry that their daughter's life had been put at risk, but her father had been adamant that there was no danger, that the safe could never be detected. And he was right. No harm had come to her, even though she'd carried the teddy around for weeks.

Needing some answers, Kathryn woke Mina. "This teddy," she asked, "where did you get it?"

"From you, of course," Mina replied, sitting up.

"From me?"

"Last week when I was at Grandma's."

"But that's..."

Impossible, she was going to say, as she was onboard The Deltana, but if there was one thing she had learnt in her life, it was that nothing is impossible. Just because she had no recollection of giving Mina the teddy, that didn't mean she hadn't. Perhaps she just hadn't given it to her yet.

Time travel.

A past, present, and future headache.

"Are you sure of that, honey? That I gave it to you?"

"Of course I am. That's why I had it at the museum. You told me to take it. Don't you remember?"

"No," Kathryn replied honestly. "But sometimes we don't remember doing things because we haven't done them yet."

"Tempy mecannies?"

At that, Kathryn had to smile. "That's right."

But if a future, or out-of-time, her had given Mina the teddy, there had to be a reason for it. And that reason had to be inside the safe. But how could she open the teddy, in the special way that only she knew how, without spying eyes seeing? But then, if their captors were still watching and listening, then they'd know already that the teddy was suspicious. And if her future self had meant for them to have the teddy now, and to open it now, then it had to be safe for them to do so. Maybe their captors weren't watching after all. Maybe they were just monitoring their cell for incoming or outgoing activity. Maybe they weren't even monitoring them.

Quickly, Kathryn opened the teddy, turning its legs the way her father had shown her, and then she reached into the safe. Out came a red pen followed by a paper. A folded and crumpled paper. Carefully, Kathryn opened the paper and, to her surprise, found it was a map. A map drawn by hand. A map of a building showing a passage through a tunnel. Kathryn's hopes soared. An escape map, perhaps?

Lifting it up to the light, which was dim and orange, she studied it closely. There was writing at the top, in a language she didn't understand, but underneath were a few English squiggles in another hand.

Her hand.

They read: surface up left, sea up right.

And then there was a serious of symbols.

Surface and Sea.

That had to mean they were on a planet and underground. A subterranean building. Perhaps even a world? No, from the drawings on the paper, this building was in the middle of a small island. But what island and where? The Federation? The former DMZ? The Cardassian Empire? It looked like a disused prison and that could be anywhere. But while it was a comfort to have some idea of where they were, Kathryn's rising hopes sobered now. Clearly getting out of here alive wasn't going to be as easy as Chakotay beaming them out. If they were deeply underground, he would not be able to, and if they were deep enough, he would not even be able to detect them. They were going to have to get themselves out. Escape by means of this map. Then, when they were closer to the surface, Chakotay would be able to detect them and beam them to safety.

But just how were they going to get out of this room? Even if the map gave good directions...and there were so many arrows in the corridors that were confusing...how were they going to escape a room that had only one door and no windows?

The map.

The answer had to be there.

And it was.

For while some of the arrows were in blue, others were in red.

Red like the pen.

Which meant that those arrows had to be the trail. Quickly, Kathryn found their starting point. It was a square box. A box that clearly represented a cell.

This cell?

Underneath the box, in red ink, were the letters PTO

Please turn over.

Kathryn turned the paper over and saw, in the bottom left corner, a bigger box in the same red ink that had a red x in the middle.

A secret floor door? In this cell?

Kathryn looked at the floor, locating the x spot with her sharp eyes, and saw that there was indeed a square groove running under the bed. Quickly, she moved the bed, which was light as it had wheels, and found what looked like a handle. She turned it, hoping the door would lift, but it didn't budge.

Damn.

Either it was jammed or...

Or the handle had to be turned a certain way.

Studying the paper again, Kathryn noticed a squiggle in the upper left corner resembling a curved handle, and below it were the letters L1 R1 X5.

Left one, right once, five times?

Worth a try and, to Kathryn's delight, it worked. But the door did not rise upwards. Instead, it opened downwards, leading into what looked like a long laddered shaft. It was lit, dimly, and was silent.

Definitely a way out.

But should they risk it? Their captors would no doubt be able to detect them. Unless...

Unless there were some kind of cloaking devices inside the teddy. They only needed to be small, the size of a bead. Kathryn searched inside the teddy again, hoping to find two, but there was nothing. Not giving up that easy, she then looked outside the teddy. Perhaps they were disguised as something...

Something like...

Like the coat buttons.

Small, shiny, pinned.

Kathryn quickly took off two and studied them. Definitely not buttons. They were too heavy, too ball-like, and had a pinpoint at their base that was no doubt the activation spot. Using the pen's fine tip, she pressed the spot and, sure enough, the spot turned red. Quickly, she pinned the cloaking device to her turtleneck shirt and then activated the second one for Mina. Then she pinned it to the child's dungarees speaking as she did.

"It looks like we're going to have to find out own way out of here," she said, "which means I need you to be brave and good. What ever I say you must do immediately, understand?"

The child nodded. "I do, Aunt Kathy."

Kathryn then put the map and pen back inside the teddy, clipped the teddy by means of the coat to the belt at her waist, and then climbed onto the ladder, urging Mina to follow her. Mina did so right away and, when they were both on it, Kathryn pulled the bed back over the door, to help conceal their escape, and then raised up the door. It was heavy, unbearably so, but by sheer determination she managed to close the hatch. With a little luck, the woman would think they had been beamed out. It would be the logical conclusion if their lifesigns could not be detected anywhere. The woman would not know they had means to cloak themselves. Then, as the hatch shut with a clang, Kathryn and Mina made their way down the ladder, never knowing they had been only seconds away from discovery.

END OF CHAPTER TWELVE