Overcoming fear

[ElaineDelgado 0]

We have nothing to fear but fear itself.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

Elaine lay curled in a ball on the floor of the cell in which the team was being held. Not that spreading out was really an option, as the cell was only so big. She was feeling a little better now, even after having a substantial about of blood removed from her body. Her hand went up to where the Romulan had extracted it from her, only to be reminded of the strange collar that had been fitted around her neck.

 

Cringing, she sat up and looked around at the other team members. Had she failed them, she wondered? As the one chosen for evaluation, should she have tried to form an emotional bond with the doctor that could have lead to leniency? That, she felt, was quite laughable. Somehow, she knew she would not be chided for not forming a bond with someone who was happily sticking her with a needle to remove blood in large amounts.

 

But who would chide her? They were being transported to wherever they would be executed. Rubbing her head, she thought about the Romulan justification: because they were on a Rihan world? Was not t'Rogora a t’Rogoran planet? Odd, she almost looked for logic in the Captain’s statement. Gritting her teeth, she looked at the ceiling. Many things had happened so quickly. And now, even more quickly than she had expected, they were to die.

 

She decided she must apologize to Brian for her behavior on the planet before they were captured. And to Zack for her behavior towards him planet-side. And… well, she did not think she had anything to apologize to Mr. Baund about, other than for letting Crispin interrogate him so when they had first found him. And Crispin. What had happened to him, to the Excalibur? Had they met the same doom as the away team? Would Starfleet ever know what had happened here?

 

A peaceful feeling settled over Elaine. This was not the first time she had been in a life or death situation with two of the men in this cell. The other time... times?... had not been so very, very dreadful, right? Sure, they would take an execution like men. She set her jaw and decided to take it the same way. No tears, no pitiful faces... no fear.