The Dyak

Part 3 

"Do you remember me7" The crewman in the red jumpsuit asked in a low voice. They were in a cave, he, Sheeka, and another man from the Endeavor. 
"No," Sheeka said calmly. "Where's the captain?" 
"I went to you first came on board and tried to talk to you, but you weren't interested in someone like me. I wasn't good enough for you." The hatred he felt was strong and terrifying. 

"I..." Sheeka shook his head. "Placate him," he thought, "Keep him composed." 
"I'm Turner, Paul Turner, and I want you to remember that name," the man in the crimson jumpsuit said as he pushed back the Dyak's pink hair. "It feels like cotton." His hand went down to the genitals. He clutched them through the material. 
Sheeka jerked away. "Don't!" 
"Oh, I will, there and other pieces. So will Randy here." 
"My name is James, Dr. Lincoln James, not Randy. Don't use that nickname again." His voice was frigid, threatening. Peter just laughed, and turned back to the Dyak. 

"This isn't amusing. I would like to return to the ship," he told him firmly. He was scared, down right frightened. He was just a doctor, not a fighter, and he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were going to hurt him, hurt him quite badly, and the thought of the coming pain made the pupils dilate, his breathing grow shallow. 
"No." Turner removed his shirt, his shoes and pants. He looked grotesque standing there in his black shorts, his socks. His erection was visible beneath the dark cloth of his under clothing. "Do you know what I'm going to do?" He rubbed his own penis through the material. His eyes gleamed wickedly. 
"Why?" Sheeka asked, going cold inside. Back in him old life, before the trouble began, he had taken care of males, both his own kind and from other races, who had been raped and abused. The scar within the soul never really left them. Turner gave him one word, the name of the Hardian nobleman, and the fear within the Dyak increased tenfold. "I'll pay more. Let me go and..." 
Turner shook his head. "Undress." 
"No." Sheeka stepped backward and hit the wall of the cave. He gasped in shock. "Please..." 
"Please what?" He jerked him toward him. "Please what?" he snarled. "Where's your icy face down here in this cave?" From the floor to the cavern, Peter picked up a small cat of nine tails and flicked the palm of his hand with it. "I'm afraid it's going to be more my enjoyment than yours. Are you going to undress for me?" 
"No." His purple chin rose defiantly. The whip struck his cheek and he cried out in agony as blood beaded up on him flesh. Sheeka held his abused face. 
"I said undress," Turner said in glee. He brought the whip down on his shoulder. Again Sheeka cried out. The whip came down twice more. He fell to the ground, trying desperately not to weep. Turner lifted his arm once more.

An hour later, they stepped back from him bleeding, unconscious body. As Turned picked up his shorts, James used a hypo on him. "Hey, you fucker. What was that for?" Paul demanded. 

"Death," James said even as Turner dropped, semi paralyzed to the cave floor. His garbled noises seemed to interest James. "Why should I split the credits with you"

****

Church fought down anger. "Where is he?" he growled. 
Over his communicator, Baden tried to reply, "Captain, we..." 
"Find him, Baden! Whatever it takes; whatever you have to do, find him." He smashed his fist against the cancel button. 
"Take it easy, Pete," Doc said in a low voice from behind he captain's chair. 
"I suggest you leave the Bridge, doctor," Church said coldly. Eyes turned briefly toward them and then immediately left them 
"Pete..." 
"Consider it an order, Dr. Johnson," and Church then added cruelly, "Like the one you issued that sent him down..."

Johnson did not flinch beneath the icy stare of his captain's hazel eyes. Guilt and remorse struck Pete. "I'm...sorry...Doc." 
Johnson nodded once and then asked, "Who is he?" 
"A member of my crew...a friend, a dear friend, my lover." Church turned toward the screen. "Shane, do you have anything yet? 
"Two crew members, workman Turner from security division, and an intern, Dr. James, have not reported back to the ship, and they are not carrying their communicators." 
"Locate them," Church ordered in a cold voice. The back of his neck tingled. 
Shane programmed the computer to search for all three patterns on the planet's surface. One hour later, "Bingo, Captain! All three located." Then he added, and one of them is dead." 

Peter rose swiftly. "Bring them up!" Both he and Johnson hurried to the turbos. Even as they entered, they heard both Shane repeating his order, and Carson informing security that they would be needed in the Transporter room, immediately. he then reported to Mr. Baden that Sheeka had been located. 
Security men were already in the transporter room when Church and Johnson arrived. "Be prepared to arrest James and Turner," Church told them. They removed their phasers from the holders on their belts. The three people down below beamed up. Turner and Sheeka were unconscious but James stood tall and cocky as he sneered at them. He cursed the security men but went with them quietly. Dr. Johnson ran his scanner over the dead Turner and announced the death. When he moved his medical instrument to Sheeka, Peter asked, "How is he?" 

Doc told the man at the transporter control, "Have Sick Bay bring a body bag and a stretcher." He did not wait for the order to be carried out but bent back over the Dyak and injected him. 
"How is he?" Church demanded once more as he too bent down beside the bleeding yeoman. 
"Comatose, bleeding internally; he was raped, and, as you can see, covered with welts, cuts, bruises." 
"Will he live?" Peter soothed back Sheeka's hair, hair that was matted and congealed with the blue blood of the Dyak.
Johnson hesitated. "He'll...live." 

Church's head rose swiftly. "What do you mean?' He stood up and moved aside as the stretcher came. 
"He'll heal physically, but emotional healing is not so easily diagnosed. He was brutally violated. Pete, to be blunt, I don't know." 

**** 

[Captain's personal entry-log: My First Officer wanted to interrogate James, but I had to refuse. I was afraid Baden would learn too much. He does not understand, and I cannot explain why I had to refuse him a job he has always handled. I fear both he and Johnson think I am having a nervous breakdown, but I am bound by laws of protection and cannot speak with either of my friends. Captain's log, out.] 

In the privacy of his room, under full protection on the communication band, Peter reported the incident to Vice-admiral Nash. The Fleet officer became incensed. "Do you know how many strings I had to pull, how many rules I had to break, to put him on your ship?" 
"I am aware of all of that, Vice-admiral. I have no excuses, no explanations."
Nash rubbed his eyes. "We have a leak somewhere; that is the only logical solution to this whole mess, otherwise that Hardian piece of Bangla cow poop would not have known where he was. It is not all your fault. Keep me informed on his condition." 

"I will," Church promised solemnly. 
"He is a very valuable person, the biggest we've ever had under our Witness Protection Plan. His testimony can convict Rex-Nex of treason, of selling out the Confederation to the Urbuns. We need him."
"I know. My chief medical officer..." 
"Is the best; I am aware of that. Of course, you will bring him here immediately, and Captain Church, offer immunity to James if he agrees to testify against the nobleman. I'll send my authorization for that now. I also want to put the father away ." 
"Yes, sir." Immunity for that...that...sub-human that had hurt Sheeka? How unfair it was, how... 
"Vice-Admiral Nash out." The old man's face vanished and a blank computer screen stared at Pete's angry continence. Church gave Shane orders to head to Star Base one at warp six, and then went to Sick Bay to see how Sheeka was doing. 
"Doc?" Johnson looked up from his terminal as the captain entered. 
"We've taken care of him physically. There were no bones broken but we had to do surgery. He came to once When he did he fought us; it was clear he was terrified of us. He calmed down only when he realized where he was." 
"May I see him?" 
"Sure." As Church walked away, Johnson asked, "Who is he?" 
"A friend," The captain replied without turning around. And then added truthfully once more, "And a lover."He left the doctor and moved quickly to the bed.
The Dyak male on the bed moved in the throes of a nightmare. His whimpers lanced Pete's heart. He hurried forward and touched his face. He woke instantly and cried out as he tried to escape church. Only the restrains on his body held him on the bed. "It's just me," Peter said.. "You're safe, Sheeka," he murmured as he placed a gentle hand on his face. "You're back on the Endeavor, and we're heading toward Star Base one." But Sheeka fell back into oblivion. "Leae, how very beautiful you are to me." 

Johnson entered, touched Pete's shoulder. "Let him sleep." 
"Yes. Keep me informed." 
"Of course." Johnson watched his friend leave. 
Sheeka had been vaguely aware of Pete's touch, his words. His mind worked feverishly. He knew he was the main strength behind his mental and emotional recovery. Medicine could only do so much. He had taken care of enough battered and assaulted people to know that. "I have to become better, but I'm so tired of hiding, of running. And it will never end." 
Still, when his eyes opened the next day, he did his very best to appear normal. "When can I get up?" 
"I had to operate on you. It will be awhile." 
"Rectal?" he asked numbly. 
"Yes." His shrewd eyes probed him sad ones. 
"Are you using Haversand injections?" 
"Yes, and Cobosaul. You're a doctor, aren't you?" 
"I am hungry. I would like to eat." He did not flinch from his gaze but the doctor did not like the look of defeat in his eyes. 
"I'll have someone bring food." 
Shortly before they reached the Star Base, Sheeka was well enough to get up and walk around. He was strong enough in him mind by then to ask Church about Turner and James. 
"Turner is dead, but we have James." 

Something in his tone made icicles cling to the Dyak's spine. "He's in the brig?" he asked. "He isn't, is he? Why?" Peter explained about the immunity deal Nash had made with the intern. Bitterness tasted rancid in his mouth. "He's walking around the ship free and clear, and I'm having nightmares. It isn't fair, Pete!" 
"No," he agreed, "It isn't. The other crew members have ostracized him. He's become an outcast." And Peter thought ruefully, "And no one understands why he has free run of the ship and I can't justify my actions to anyone." 
"I see." His tone was dead of emotion. "I'd like to be alone now, please." 
Peter placed a hand softly against his shoulder, and then left. Sheeka went to the closest rec room, his first trip out of Sick Bar alone since he had been injured. To his horror, James was there. He looked up as the Dyak entered. When Sheeka froze, his face three shades paler, James smirked in wicked satisfaction.
"Miss me?" he asked in glee as he pulled out the chair next to him. "Sit down. Let's talk about good times." 
The ensign at the next table stood up abruptly. "Leave him alone, you filthy s.o.b.." 
"No," was all James said. His eyes roamed up and down over Sheeka's body. The Dyak's whole being felt numb, deadened. A buzzing filled his head but when James' hand moved out toward him, he cried out and fled from the room. The other man's mocking laughter followed him. He froze when he made contact with Peter in the doorway. 

"Sheeka!" Church cried out as he caught the now unconscious man.
He refused to leave Sick Bay after that until Church confined James to his room, an action that infuriated James. "Don't push me too far. This is still my ship, and if I have to, I'll confine you to the brig instead, for safety's sake. Do you understand?"
The intern spoke crude words in a clear, concise voice. Church's very stance told James to back down, and the doctor did. The captain left. Another crass word covered what James thought of Sheeka, muttered in deep ire when he was once again alone. "I'm stuck in here because of him!" He slammed his fist into the wall. 
When the Endeavor reached the star base, both Sheeka and James was transported down. Baden went to Church. "Will you tell me now who Yeoman Sheeka is?" 
"A friend and a lover I'll miss." 
"We picked him up from Star Base one, and we are dropping him off here. Why would Vice-Admiral Nash be so interested in him?" 
"Ask him," Church told his friend. 
The Chre priest whispered, "Vice-admiral Nash's job in a non existent one; I checked. He too is hiding something. I do not like mysteries." 
"No more questions, Baden; understand?" 
"No, but I must obey if it is a command." 
"Then consider it an order," Church said drearily.