Council Leader Vorik walked to the cells. He was angry that he was being called to the cells and wasn't told why.

Entering the double doors, he walked through the hallway housing all the prisoners. Many of them yelled and called out names and obscenities. Most of them watched silently in fear.

Reaching the back, where the guards waited for him, he stepped in. "Why am I called here?" he demanded.

One of the guards came forward. He first gave the gesture of respect. "It is I who called you. The Medic has sent the fragile girl back to her cell. Her mouth is bleeding, and she needs medical attention; not to be housed here."

"Show me," Council Leader Vorik demanded.

The guard escorted Council Leader Vorik to the girl's cell. Walking into the cell, he looked down at her crouched figure. Blood streamed down her face, coming out of her mouth. Vorik walked to her. Instinctively, she backed away, smashing herself into the corner of the cell with nowhere else to go.

Vorik bent down and studied her as she continued to try to get closer to the wall. "Which Medic sent her back here?" he asked the guard.

"Medic Kaul, sir," the guard stated carefully. He knew that Vorik was friends with that particular Medic.

"Is there a medical scanner in this facility?" Vorik asked, his eyes not wavering from the frightened girl.

"Yes, sir," the guard stated. "I will bring it to you." The guard disappeared down the long corridor. Moments later, he came back with a medical scanner.

Council Leader Vorik only understood the basics of the scanner. He set it to check her throat for injury. Scanning her throat, the device beeped, then the little screen lit up. Vorik looked at the screen. His eyes flashed with anger. "She should not have been made to speak. Her vocal cords need repair. Attempting to speak tore them open."

Vorik looked between the girl crouched on the floor and the guard. Sighing, "Follow me and carry her gently."

The guard carefully picked her up and followed Vorik out of the prison facility and into a nearby clinic.

"Medic!" Council Leader Vorik called.

A medic walked up to Vorik. Before he could say anything. Vorik spoke. "Fix her vocal cords. They were recently fixed, but she was made to speak, and it tore them open," Vorik explained. It was more of an order with information attached.

The medic nodded and immediately pulled up the device to repair her vocal cords. It only took about ten minutes to fix them. After the medic had gently cleaned her up, he brought her a clean gown. Vorik took her to the back and changed her clothing himself, trying not to look at the damage to her body.

Vorik looked at the guard. "Go back to your post. I will deal with this child."

"Yes, sir," the guard stated, then headed out of the clinic and back to his post.

After he was gone, Vorik picked her up and left with her. No one saw him leave. They were all busy working on something else. He took her to his shuttle. Merrick was waiting there with Rask.

"Take us to the ship and tell no one you saw her," he stated evenly.

Merrick and Rask looked at each other, unsure why their leader would be secretly bringing a fragile-looking girl to the mother ship. Baffled, yet afraid to ask, they walked into the shuttle, then flew their leader to the mothership.

Vorik looked at his two friends during the flight, trying to decide what to say to them. Sighing, he suddenly spoke. "I need someone who is trusted to care for this girl until her injuries are healed. Travis tortured her. I fear something is wrong with Kaul. After an operation on her vocal cords, he forced her to speak, damaging them again, and sent her back to the prison cells without repairing them, not caring that she was still injured. That is not like him."

Merrick sighed. "I noticed he has been acting differently. I thought it was stress at not finding a cure for the zombies or a vaccine for the humans. I thought it might even be guilt over experimenting on the prisoners. Perhaps he needs to be scanned. Perhaps there is an infection that causes changes in behavior."

Vorik looked at Merrick, one eyebrow raised. "I don't know what is wrong with him. He's changed. All I know is that his current behavior is not how he has been since I have known him. I don't want to think that he has done this to her without a reason. I want to know why."

Rask looked at his leader. "Is there anyone she would be comfortable with?"

Vorik sighed. "Renn. He would be good with her, but I don't want Kaul to know where she is until I find out what is going on with him. Before this, I would trust him more than any other medic. How he is now, I do not trust him at all."

Merrick and Rask looked at Vorik in shock. This told them that something was really wrong.

"Perhaps you can call Renn to the ship, and he can take care of her there. Kaul lives on the surface now, so he no longer needs to go back and forth. There are other medics that work on the ship that Renn can train under," Rask suggested.

Merrick's face suddenly paled. "Kaul has been doing experiments on prisoners. He's been using Hope's blood to find a cure. He's been using Jada's blood, as well. Perhaps he is infected with the toxin or something in the girls' blood that makes them immune. We don't know what it does to our bodies. It could work differently on us than it does on the humans."

Vorik looked at him, realizing that what he said was a real possibility. "I think he needs to be scanned for anything in his blood. Anything that is not normally there; something doesn't belong."

Vorik picked up his comm link and set it to call Renn. "Medic Trainee Renn?"

"Yes, sir," Renn answered. They all could hear the stress in his voice.

"I am ordering you to the mothership. I will send my pilots to retrieve you. Pack a bag. You will be there for a while," Vorik ordered.

"Yes, Sir," Renn responded, and the comm link went silent.

"When you are retrieving Renn, do not tell him why. Only tell him that you were ordered to retrieve him. While you're doing that, I will set up a cabin for him so that he can care for Mia," Vorik stated. Then added. "I would have never guessed that the spy for Tosh would be this useful."

Rask looked at Mia. "Hello, Mia. I am Rask." He told her. "That one is Merrick," he said, pointing to the pilot beside him. "We have human mates. Perhaps they will check on you if you will allow it."

Mia didn't say anything; she just looked at them cautiously.

Vorik looked at his two friends. "She has been through a lot. Too much for one so young."

After they arrived on the mothership, Vorik got out of the shuttle, taking Mia with him.

Vorik watched his pilot and co-pilot disappear back out of the hangar bay and toward Earth. He quickly walked to the med clinic and had Mia scanned once again, and had a medic bag prepared so that Renn would have what he needed at his disposal.

While she was being scanned, Vorik set up a cabin close to the clinic for emergency purposes. Taking her inside the cabin, he set her carefully on the bed.

He bent down to her level. "For your protection, only I or Renn will be able to open the door. I want to make sure that you are safe. After you are able to speak and walk freely without harming yourself, I will add you to that so that if you need to leave this room, you are able. I don't want you to feel trapped," he explained.

Mia only watched him closely. The fear remained; it had only been dulled. She wasn't trying to back away anymore, at least not with Vorik.

Vorik waited inside the cabin with her until his comm link buzzed. "We have arrived, sir," Merrick's voice stated.

"Escort Renn to cabin TM437. He will be able to open the door. No one else," he stated.

It took nearly ten minutes for the cabin door to slide open. Renn walked in behind Merrick and Rask. Looking up and seeing Mia, he gasped.

"You are being redirected to this ship to care for Mia. It is important that no one knows she's here. There is a medical bag in case you need to use it for her care," Vorik started. "Those in this cabin are the only ones who can know she is here until I know it is safe for her otherwise. If you are called to the surface, you will tell them that you are under strict orders by me to stay where you are. If they need you on the surface, they need to call me. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," Renn stated. He looked over at Mia, then back at Council Leader Vorik. "I believe her vocal cords are injured again, sir. I do not know how to fix them."

Vorik turned to Mia and smiled. "They have been fixed. Mia does not need to speak until she feels it is safe for her. It may take some time, so don't force her to speak."

Relief washed through Renn. He had been worried about Mia since Medic Kaul had ordered her back to the prison. "Thank you, sir."

Vorik nodded. "If you need anything, merely call me and tell me I am needed at your post. I don't want you to verbalize where you are or what the cabin number is. I don't want the information overheard. You will stay inside this room until she feels safe enough to be here by herself. I need to ensure that no one knows she's here. Not yet, anyway."

Renn smiled. "Yes, sir." He was happy that his leader was protecting her.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.