"Nowhere to Hide"
written by Cyndi Fryar and Stephanie Gabai
Rhea Kennit and Marissa Torme

Her voice weak, Kennit managed "We should find someplace to hide.. the Captain will find us.." Leaning heavily against the wall of the corridor, Rhea slowly pulled herself back to her feet. She stood there for a moment, considering. "I don't think we're on a ship," she said at last. "Listen.. there's no engine noise. Just the air vents running.. If we can find a way out, maybe the ship will be able to pick up our life signs on the sensors once we're clear of the building.."

Marissa felt this was a good decision and that they stood a better chance away from their captivity and their captors. Marissa replied, "Good idea, let's try getting away from our captors."

Rhea nodded, though she remained leaning against the wall a moment longer to steady herself. Then, she said " Well.. we know that the guards are back that way." Pointing back the way they'd come. "There's a second hallway just up ahead it looks like. Maybe we'll get lucky and that one will lead to a way out of here."

Cautiously the two slipped through the corridor and reached the second hallway. After a moment of hesitation, they opted to go left and soon found themselves at a closed and locked door. There was writing on the door surface, however Rhea couldn't read it. She looked at Marissa. "Well..what do you think? A way outside or a room full of armed and aggressive guards?"

Marissa was nervous, but came up with an idea, "Do you think if I try to sense who is on the other side of this door, that they might sense me checking them out? I've gotten the impression that they are telepathically sensitive. Should we take the chance?"

The XO nodded, "I don't think we have a choice. If we stay here we're going to be caught again for certain, the only chance we have to is to find a way out.."

She felt one mind, the thoughts were in two forms, linguistic and visual. The linguistic was too difficult to understand without feeling like a good risk of exposing her presence. The visual was an ecological setting. Marissa wante to be sure there wasn't a second... guard... Yes, it seemed that this one presence was a guard of some sort to this place. She quietly revealed her conjecture, ".."I think we are almost outside; but, we have one guard, maybe two. I'm not sure." She tried a bit further, while looking to her XO for a decision.

Rhea still held the weapon she'd taken from the first guard they'd ran into. Lifting it up slightly, she nodded at the weapon and said "Think we can take 'em?"

Marissa closed her eyes and concentrated a bit further, if she could figure out which side the guard was on, they'd have an advantage. She caught the guard's peripheral vision, a doorframe to the left. Marissa replied, "He's on the right, facing out. He will probably notice the door, when we open it. I don't sense a second mind. If we wait any longer, someone else might wander by."

The XO nodded grimly, then got a firm grasp on the weapon she held. "Count of three.." she said. Looking at Marissa, Kennit counted down.. "Three. Two. One!"

Hitting the control on the door, the counselor opened the door allowing the XO to go through first with weapon ready. The guard turned, surprised to hear the door opening before his shift was over. He didn't get a chance to do more than jerk in surprise before Rhea stunned him. The guard collapsed in a heap, and Rhea motioned for Marissa to hurry. "We're outside.. I can see what look looks like a fence about twenty meters from the building perimeter wall. On the other side I only see trees... if we can reach the tree's we can use them for cover.."

Marissa followed her XO, the more experienced in hostile situations. Leading the way, they reached the fence unnoticed and followed it a short distance to get some distance between them and the building. Then came the hard part. Climbing over the fence!

Kennit slowly pulled herself up over the fense, then over the top to half fall back to the earth on the other side. The impact with the ground sent a sharp stab of pain through her injured side, for a minute Rhea could barely breath for it.. Finally, the two of them got moving again and headed into the woods and away from the compound where they'd been held.

They travelled about (twenty?) minutes safely; but, then they realized that they were now in a race, because they heard a shrill alarm in the distance. Pausing to get her bearings, or try to at least, Kennit said "What I wouldn't give for a tricorder, or a shuttle.."

Rhea was breathing hard, tired even from the mild exhertion of their trip through the trees. "Any ideas? We need to get out of sight.. find someplace where they can't find us.."

Marissa asked, "Should we go for the high ground? Maybe USS Victory will detect us easier that way."

The XO sighed, her head dropping for a moment as she leaned forward a little to catch her breath. "Good point.. " she answered. "Looks like there are some hills to the east.. we can head that direction.."

Marissa let Rhea lean on her, to reduce Rhea's strain a little, as they headed to the east. Climbing up a hill with someone leaning on you wasn't easy; but, it couldn't be harder then the person that seriously needed that support. Twenty five minutes later, they were near the top of the hill and they found a clearing with some rocks that they could sit down on. Marissa looked to the sun and guessed, "I think we have about two hours until the sun goes down. I hope our people find us soon."

Grateful for Marissa's help, Rhea sat on the rock and tried not to give in to the nearly overpowering urge to just let herself slide down until she could stretch out flat on the ground. She looked up at the sky and then nodded with agreement. "No argument there. Its already fairly chill out here.. we're going to get cold if they don't find us fast.. Assuming of course our 'friends' back there don't find us first.."