A Most Agreeable Arrangement

Chapter 10 - Deja Vu

TW: Depictions of Violence, Torture by Beating

I awoke with Worf leaning over me.

"Lieutenant Fae," he whispered, shaking my arm.

I looked up at him in the dimly lit cell. He had tied my jacket around his head to press on the wound, and some of the color seemed to be returning to his face.

I sat up and groaned, holding my head as it began aching where I had been struck by Bram.

"Lieutenant Fae, I have a plan," Worf said.

"Really?" I rubbed the spot on my head; that was definitely going to be sore for a while. "I'd love to hear it."

"When they open the door to retrieve you, I will overtake them and we will escape."

"Worf, no," I sighed. "That one guy is like twice your size, and we're way outnumbered. The only thing you'll do is get yourself killed."

"If I die, then my death will be honorable," Worf looked off into the distance.

"No, it won't," I said, irritated and in pain. "It'll be meaningless, because even if we did manage to take out these guys, our shuttle has been destroyed. We'd have to take out everyone on this ship. That might sound easy to you, but keep in mind that they are armed, we are not, you have a head wound, and I have a concussion."

Worf seemed to mull that over for a moment, scowling as he looked to the side.

"...You make a very valid point," he said, though he clearly didn't like it.

"I know," I sighed. "Trust me, I don't like it any more than you do. But believe it or not, I have a plan."

He was silent, waiting for an explanation.

"They want me to decipher a stone tablet for them," I whispered as quietly as possible, scooting closer to him. I didn't want the aliens to overhear, because they would certainly kill me if they realized my true plan.

"The Enterprise probably thinks we're dead right now, but they won't leave it at that. They'll figure out that our shuttlecraft was fired upon and investigate our deaths. Eventually, they'll track it back to this ship."

"Okay," Worf nodded. "What do we do until then?"

"I'm going to decipher this stone tablet, and--"

"You are going to do as they say?!" Worf leaned away from me with wide eyes.

"Just listen!" I hissed, grabbing his arm and pulling him closer again. "I'm going to decipher the tablet, but I'm going to pretend it's taking me a long time to do it. Oh yeah, and I'm not gonna tell them what it actually says; I'm going to lie."

"Lieutenant Fae," he said quietly, looking bothered. "If they find out you are lying, they will kill you."

"Yeah, well," I shrugged. "I can't tell them what the tablet actually says; then they'd find some sort of priceless artifact and sell it on the black market, and it would be lost forever. Or worse, they'll find an ancient powerful weapon and use it to take over the universe."

He was quiet for a moment, looking thoughtful, before looking at me again. "Lieutenant Fae. Has anyone ever told you that you have a very active imagination?"

"Yup."

Boss Alien (I've decided to just call him "Boss") had another large alien (not Bram this time) bring me into the same room I had been in before, but this time the walls were lined with access panels.