Sins Of The Past Part 2

Posted on Thu Jun 29th, 2017 @ 3:31pm by Captain Tim Williams & Ensign Jonathan Forrest
Edited on on Thu Jun 29th, 2017 @ 3:40pm

Episode: Out of Sequence
Location: Deep Space 13
Timeline: Three weeks before Jonathan's arrival

He stepped into a turbolift and as the doors started to close someone, a civilian, looking vaguely familiar to him stepped inside. The cab hadn't begun to move when he heard a voice he'd never expected to hear again. "Well now little Johnny fancy meeting you here. How are you and your brother been getting along?"

Four years ago would have caused Jonathan to react with anger when someone talked about Angela like that. Now, it barely caused him to raise a brow.

"You're going to come with me," Xavier Cross said.

"News flash for you genius, "Jonathan replied with a hint of venom, "this is a Federation Station, and you're on camera right now. You shoot me or whatever, you think you're going to do and you won't get ten meters before you're a dead man."

"I'm not going to force you to do anything. You're going with me willingly because if you don't your precious little AJ and sister are dead. I have people in place to make sure of that. Now, I know you aren't going to believe me so I sent some pics to your PAaD. And that thing you two did, near the end, where you were kind of upside down. I'll have to have my girlfriend try it the next time. Now, are you going to cooperate and come along nicely or not." While they had been talking Xavier had activated the turbolift, directing it with the control panel on the wall.

Jonathan could tell Xavier wasn't bluffing.

"Look, I know I kind of started this whole thing by overreacting in the pool. I apologize for that. But, we were just kids back then. Don't you think you're carrying this a bit far? Kidnapping is lot more serious than assault. Why are you doing this."

"It doesn't matter why," Xavier said, indignant at the thought of having to explain himself to a loser like Jonathan. "All that matters is that I have the leverage, and you won't have anybody coming to your rescue this time. I will not ask again." He punctuated each word of the last sentence with enough venom of his own to make his point clear as the turbolift doors opened.

"Where exactly are we going?" Jonathan asked. He was moving, just not very fast.

"That's none of your business," Xavier responded, shoving him in the back. "Don't stall, don't try to think up a way to escape, just do as your told. You fleeters are good at that, aren't you? This way," he shoved him to the right, down another corridor. He knew that Forrest probably knew the layout of the station better than he did, and would likely figure out that he was taking him to one of the loading bays used by cargo ships, but the later he figured that out, the less time he would have to figure out an escape plan. And even though it would take a little longer, taking him on a circuitous route would throw him off for a while.

"The last people that tried to do this to me they're dead now. Angela killed all of them. She's not the same girl you tried to rape. You really don't want to do this."

"Oh I really think I do," Xavier answered, giving him another shove in the back for good measure. "Thanks to the two of you, I've spent the last few years rotting in a Federation penal colony. Years of my life wasted all because of you and your brother. I don't care about whoever tried to do anything to you before. I'm going to get even with you, and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it."

"They failed, so will you, and if you hadn't tried to rape her and drown me, you wouldn't have gone to a penal colony." his hand slowly moved towards his comm badge. And before I go another step, you're going to show me proof you have AJ and Angela."

"Well she shouldn't have tried to stop me from seeing that you got what you were due," Xavier retorted. Walking behind Jonathan, he was oblivious to his hand moving towards the combadge on his chest. "And the pictures I sent to your PADD are all the proof you need. You seem to be forgetting that I am the one in control here, Cadet." He punctuated the last word with the business end of a Klingon disruptor in the small of Jonathan's back. He had hidden it in his clothing until now, intending to keep it hidden until they got to the loading bay.

Jonathan stumbled forward, a little more than was necessary given how hard the jab been, but the grimace he let out was real enough  He used the stumble to cover his reaching up and activating his com badge. Security would be alerted if they were paying attention. While that was unlikely, at least what was said from now on, would be recorded.

"Well, at least you're using the proper pronoun now Xavier. So, is the real reason you're so upset is because you became somebody's bitch?"

Xavier scoffed at that. "Nobody could make me their bitch in that place. They're all as soft as the sissies who run the place. I was practically the king of that crappy place. But what's the point in being King if you can't go where you want, do what you want? Even if I had waited until they let me out of there, having that mark on my file put a stop to me continuing with my life the way it was before. That is why I broke out, Jonny boy. So that I could come here, put this little matter between me and you to rest, and then get on with the rest of my life."

He wasn't about to tell Xavier that things between him and Angela had changed, because of what she had been forced to do, their relationship wasn't the same, they weren't as close as they had been and he doubted if they ever would be again. But that was between him and her. "Except that you're not going to be able to just get on with your life. You know who my mothers are, right? Starfleet is going to figure out what you did and you'll be hunted the rest of your life. Just give it up now before you go too far."

"Life in the Federation is too boring anyway," Xavier responded dismissively. "The Orion Syndicate would take me in, hell I bet I could even convince the Romulans that I could be of use to them. Both options would put me out of reach of your damn parents. And that's all assuming that nobody believes that your untimely demise was a result of a tragic accident."

Just keep him talking, Jonathan thought to himself, but for the first time, in a very long time, he was feeling scared. "what kind of accident?" he asked swallowing hard.

"That would spoil the surprise now, wouldn't it Johnny Boy?" Xavier was clearly enjoying having the upper hand. "Left here," he said, jabbing him in the back again.

Jonathan grimaced with pain. He wanted to retaliate but didn't dare.

After leading Jonathan winding through the corridors, they finally stepped through the hatchway into the loading bay. There were a few crates lying about, but otherwise, the bay looked relatively empty. The transparent viewports in the hatch for the airlock very clearly showed that there was no ship docked there; just empty space. "I trust you find this as fitting a location for your final goodbyes as I do, Johnny," Xavier said, mockingly. "In truth, it's probably better than you deserve, but my options are limited here on the station."

The color drained from Jonathan's face as he realized just what Xavier had in mind, or at least what he thought he had in mind. During the forced march to the shuttle bay, he had been able to put his fear aside, for the most part, concentrating on trying to escape. But, now he knew he might have very little time left and fear rose up inside him.

That fear was dangerous, it hadn't quite reached the panic level, but it was close. He forced himself to breathe normally, to think rationally, it was the only way his marginal chances of survival would work.

"So," he said,"you're just going to what, leave me here and open the door and let me get sucked out into space. You really think people are going to buy the whole accident theory? I'm a very careful guy and would have no reason to come down where, when there aren't any shuttlecraft. Not a very smart move on your part."

"Don't be so ridiculous. You'll have been conducting an inventory of the cargo containers down here when the airlock hatch suffers a malfunction." Xavier picked up a PADD that had been set atop one of the containers and slapped it into Jonathan's chest. True enough, it had a half-completed inventory on it. "Due to the tragic malfunction of the airlock, you will get blown out into the vacuum of space, with no one to blame but a sloppy maintenance engineer."

"Wow, you really are a clever one," Jonathan said stalling for time, his eyes roaming the area to see anything he could use as a weapon. "There's only two small problems with your little scenario. Would you like to know what they are?"

"You mean would I like you to make up some non-existent problems so you can stall for time? I'm not a fool Johnny boy. Now get over by the airlock."

"You don't know much about security aboard a space station do you, Xavier, " Jonathan said, not moving yet. "First, dumb ass you might want to smile for the cameras. Even an accident is going to cause them to review the tapes and when they do, they'll see this entire scenario play out. Plus, ever since I stumbled in the corridor, I hit my com badge. Everything you've said has been recorded. Surrender now, before things escalate and you might avoid the death penalty."

"What?!" Xavier spun Jonathan round and slammed him against the bulkhead, his disruptor right in his face. He grabbed the combadge from Jonathan's uniform and threw it to the floor, stamping on it until he was reasonably sure it wasn't working anymore, not that it would do much good now. He had been given an isolinear chip by the contact who set this whole thing up that he'd been promised would loop the camera feed along his route to hide his progress, but he hadn't known about the combadge. "You sneaky bastard! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just shoot you in the face right now!"

Jonathan's breath was knocked out of him when he hit the wall and it took almost a full minute before he could recover. enough to be able to reply. "Because if you do you'll be looking over your shoulder your whole life. Starfleet will be the least of your worries. You met my mother, you think she's going to follow the rules if you kill her only son? You think she'll be satisfied with letting Starfleet come after you? Don't be stupid."

Xavier cried out in frustration, pressing the muzzle of the disruptor hard into Jonathan's shoulder, twisting it slightly as his finger itched to pull the trigger. He knew that what Jonathan said was true, that there was no chance of him making it seem like an accident and getting away cleanly, but the very fact that his logic was correct just infuriated him further; that infuriation begging him to do it, to pull the trigger and be done with him.

Jonathan grimaced with pain, his fear mounting. He was just hoping to keep the other man talking. "Please don't do this," he said looking around for anything he could use as a weapon.

Then to his relief, he heard the doors to the shuttle bay open and heard a commanding voice say, "Put your weapon down and stand away from Ensign Forrest."

Xavier seemed to ignore the security officer for a few moments, staring with hatred into Jonathan's eyes. Finally, through gritted teeth, he said, "I. Will not. Go back." His shoulder tensed up as he prepared to pull the trigger, but before he could go through with it, a beam of energy linked the phaser of one of the security officers to Xavier's back, splitting the silence with its familiar whine, and he crumpled to the floor, all tension releasing from his body as he fell, stunned, to the deck.

Jonathan's body sagged to the floor as well, though he, unlike Xavier maintained his consciousness. "Thank God you guys showed up," he said, "how did you find me?"

"Your friend had looped the camera feed," the lead security officer explained, while his colleagues put Xavier in handcuffs and dragged him into an upright position before beaming away to one of the station's cell blocks. "But he obviously didn't count on you using your combadge to alert anyone to your situation. Once we had located you we were able to remove the looping programming and watch the feed to plan our approach. When he revealed his plan, we disabled the airlock controls remotely and had my team standing by to apprehend him whilst his attention was on the control panel."

"Well thank all that's Holy, I really thought I wasn't going to make my first assignment or even my graduation. I'll do what it takes as far as testifying against him, I just want him dealt with fairly."

"I'll need you to come with me to the security office to make a statement," the officer said, turning and indicating for Jonathan to follow him.