Prisoner

[Samantha_Kent 0]

Brian shouldn't have been so surprised. Valera was a resourceful woman who always, always got what she wanted. Upon being transported, he had found himself facing a Klingon and a Nausicaan, both pointing nasty-looking disruptors at him. Fully expecting to be disarmed and hauled away, he raised his arms, only to feel the familiar prickly sensation of yet another transporter sequence. A small optimistic part of him cheered, thinking that the Arcadia had done some fast work in tracking the transporter signal and his next stop would be the familiar surroundings of a Starfleet ship. That hope was quickly dashed when he reached his second destination and he realized that Valera was still with him. Their final destination seemed to be a natural cave. Brian glanced around for a transporter system and saw nothing, not even a receiving pad. That last trip had been one-way.

 

Valera held herself still until the transport had finished taking effect and then turned to angle herself on Brian, pointing the disruptor she had picked up at the stopover point in the journey. Her expression was murderous and cold; where before their had been her usual cocktail of seduction, calculation, and confidence, combined perhaps with a slight bit of pleasure at seeing him, now the mix held a liberal shot of fury. He had returned to her, she had expected him to act in good faith as he always had before, and he had betrayed her. "Welcome home, Brian," she said acidly, gesturing him onwards with the muzzle of the pistol, deeper into the caverns that were her operation's main contraband storage.

 

Brian raised his eyebrows at the icy look. He had seen it before on her but never targeted on him. "I didn't betray you, Val. I wasn't the loon who shot you."

 

Valera smiled, a slow, angry smile that did not reach her eyes. "Brian, I only let them within a kilometer of me because of you. You know who I am, how I operate; if you had meant for a fair trade you would have prepared them. If you had meant to do real business, we would have never reached this point." She shoved him gently with the point of the gun. "Move."

 

He sighed and made his way down the mined tunnel that descended at an angle almost too steep to walk down. "If you had meant to do real business you would have never demanded me as collateral."

 

Valera followed him a few paces behind, her dark eyes focused on the back of his head. "I had my reasons," she said. To tell the truth, it had been a moment of very uncharacteristic impulsivity which had prompted her to make the offer at all; the reasons for which she had originally wanted Brian to remain had not been sound business practice at all and she knew that he knew it. No matter; things was back under her control. Her mind was rewriting the situation even as they moved down the steep slope.

 

"Care to share?" His devil-may-care attitude was something he had locked away along with his jacket, but considering the situation and who he was dealing with, Brian felt it best to act in a manner familiar to his captor.

 

Valera smirked as she heard the old tone creep back into his voice; she had been beginning to wonder whether the Starfleet people had gotten to him altogether. Apparently not, though it was too late for it to matter. "Maybe I have a use for you?" she said, a teasing, almost playful tone creeping into her own voice, though it still held the tight edge to it, reminding him who was in control.

 

Brian frowned at her verbal dodges as he continued to walk in front of her. The tunnel was long, nearly a kilometer he guessed. He had heard of warrens like these when he was working for Valera but he'd had no idea that she had built one. "You always had a use for me, Val. Usually it didn't involve gunplay though."

 

"And it wouldn't have if you had proceeded in good faith as I expected you to," Valera responded. "And perhaps then I might have found a purpose for you that would have been...more enjoyable for all concerned."

 

They finally exited into a huge, well-lit cavern. Shipping crates, boxes, and barrels were spread across the room in orderly rows. The markings on the containers indicated their origins as a potpourri of Alpha and Beta Quadrant species. Off to their right was a small prefab building and a fusion generator that powered the lights and environmental systems. "So this would be your retirement stash?" Brian whistled lightly as he looked around.

 

Valera cast her eyes once around the room, checking for anything out of the ordinary. This room was the center of her organization, but only a select few ever came here or even knew the location, a closely guarded secret protected by sensor-jams and the use of multiple transporter systems all quickly disassembled again after use; getting in was nearly impossible. Getting out was harder. "A segment of it -- I never keep all my eggs in one basket," she said, checking the charge on her disruptor quickly. "But this is where I keep the most valuable of my goods, yes." She cast him a significant look and a slight smirk, raising her eyebrows and gesturing for him to sit down. "You might as well make yourself comfortable."

 

Brian looked at where she gestured. "No comfortable chair? Not even a pillow? I am disappointed, Val. I expected something a little more posh."

 

"No need to decorate for company. You won't be here long," Valera returned, shrugging slightly and moving closer to him, reaching out a hand to push him firmly with the tips of her fingers back onto a crate behind him.

 

He wasn't sure how far he would get, but he saw the opening and had to try. Brian let himself fall back too easily with her push, and as he fell he reached out and grabbed Valera's wrist, using his backward momentum to pull her off-balance and onto him as he landed on the crate. The disruptor was pinned between them as he held her around the waist. If she pulled the trigger it would most likely kill them both. Looking into her green eyes that were now only inches from his, he smirked. "You should have brought backup."

 

Valera let out a low grunt as he took advantage of her momentary lapse in attention to exploit her momentum, pulling her over onto him and trapping her gun arm between their bodies. She stared into his eyes, seeing their smirking expression -- again he was trying to put one over on her, and again she was coming dangerously close to letting him. Whatever soft spot she had ever held for him was rapidly disappearing as he continued to take advantage of her remaining goodwill. She met his gaze with supremely confident one of her own; with her free hand she reached up to run her fingers along the edge of his chin, and with such close proximity to him her natural pheromones began leaking out to seal her words -- "You know I can handle myself, Brian. Now...let me go."

 

Brian felt his grip loosen at the chemically amplified suggestion only to realize what was going on and try to fight it. He gritted his teeth and whispered Samantha's name as he forced himself to focus on her instead of the subversively arousing feelings that Valera was creating. "Tell me why you took me. I can't be worth that much to the Syndicate, its been over five years."

 

It wasn't as much of an effect as she would have expected to have but it was enough; twisting abruptly she pulled free of his hand and brought the gun around to jab into his stomach. "Ah, but the Syndicate's price does not take into account your new employers. I know what things are worth, and you are worth quite a bit. You always were." Actually, she could not be *quite* as certain as she sounded; she had not yet had a chance to make the deal and there were always uncertainties involved.

 

He let out a short burst of air as she jammed the disruptor in his abdomen but forced himself not to react more than that. Glaring at her a moment while he regained his breath, he wondered if it was even possible to charm or wrangle his way out of this one. "To them or to you Val? As far as they're concerned I might have been just one of a hundred halfway decent pilots. Maybe you put more value on me because we had something special once."

 

Valera smiled tightly. This man knew her far too well. Even had he not presented a profit opportunity, that would have been reason enough to get him out as quickly as possible. "Perhaps." She had hoped, when she saw that he had deposited himself back on her doorstep after all these years, that perhaps he had meant to pick up where they had left off. Clearly that was not going to happen; his friend with the gun had shown her quite clearly that things were different than she had expected and so plans had to be adjusted. And they had been. This was a business transaction, bought and paid for, and she had to remember that. She stepped back from him, keeping the gun trained on him. "But then, that was a long time ago, wasn't it?"

 

"Some feelings don't fade over time." Brian felt like his heart was tearing in half as he spoke. He felt like he was betraying himself, but more importantly and painfully he was betraying Samantha. How he wished they could've spent more time together...that fleeting moment just off the bridge seemed nearly like heaven, a sharp contrast to his current position in the dank underworld of a planet. The forced grin on his face came easier than he would've liked as his gaze strayed from Valera's face to take in the rest of her body. This was necessary, if he was ever going to see Samantha again...this was necessary.

 

Valera paused to chew over that for a few minutes. There was a certain, odd sort of integrity to the life she lead in that one could always be certain of one thing : that no one else was really doing anything out of altruism -- but with Brian it had never been certain, and it certainly wasn't now. If that really *was* why he had come back to her, he had a very odd way of showing it. At any rate, he required much more careful handling than the last time they had been together, but it didn't prevent her from adding a new level of calculation to the equations constantly running in her head. "I'm flattered," she said after the short silence, her smile widening and quirking slightly at the corner with amusement. She took a few steps back towards him again, but kept the gun trained on him. "Unfortunately...I have already paid my dues for you to your friends...the information you required...I must balance that investment eventually. But..." her voice trailed off and she raised her eyebrows at him suggestively. "It will be several days before the deals can go through and I take you back to the surface. Plenty of time to...catch up..."