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Black Diamond Ch 44

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Chapter Forty-four


"I will not abandon my post aboard the Enterprise."

"Commander, please, Salen needs..."  Razor stopped when he saw the ice in the Vulcan's eyes.  "You don't believe me, do you?"

"I do not."

"I promise you that Salen is alive and he needs your help."

Razor sighed when he realized that Spock wasn't buying his story.  This wasn't a complication that he had prepared for, in his plan Spock was going to come along willingly.  Far from being a willing participant Spock was silently making it clear that he was going to be a difficult prisoner to take.  Razor glanced down at Kirk who was still unconscious from the stun.  He still had his phaser trained on Kirk's heart, but there was no sense in trying to bluff Spock into believing that he'd actually kill the Captain.  

"Commander Spock, what can I do to convince you that I'm telling you the truth?"

"You may start by releasing the Captain."

"Fair enough."  Razor holstered both of his phasers.  "Now what?"

"I will not leave this ship without proof."

"I can bring a video of Salen up on the screen, but he's in a coma so he can't talk to you."

"Video is easily faked."

"Salen is not only too sick to be moved to the Enterprise, but if we are not off this bridge in five minutes your friends are going to start waking up..."

"Allow me to touch your mind."

"A mind meld?  Isn't that what started all of this?"

"If you are unwilling..."

"No,"  Razor interrupted  "I'll do it.  Take a look, I have nothing to hide."

Spock took a step closer and reached out causing Razor to winch in anticipation.

"Mind melds are not painful."  Spock assured.

"Yeah, right...let's just get this over with."

"It will take mere moments."

"Good, because every breath Salen takes could be his last...we don't have much time."

Razor weld his eyes shut as Spock touched his face with his surprisingly cold fingertips.  Razor gasped sharply as Spock's memories and thoughts suddenly clashed against his own.  He was curious to see what Spock's past had to offer, but it quickly became clear that Spock was the one in control of what they were going to think about.  Rather than go straight to Razor's recent memories of Salen Spock tore deeper into Razor's past.  

Falling into the past Razor stared down in horror at the lifeless young man at his feet that held a devastating phaser wound to the abdomen.  He could hear the hysterical sobbing of a woman, but he didn't even glance in her direction.  Horrified he dropped the phaser in his hand and knelt down next to the body, shaking his shoulder uselessly.

"M...Mike?  Mike, no...no..."

Infuriated by the violation of his privacy Razor tried to mentally tear himself away from Spock.  The Vulcan effortlessly kept control and jumped forward in time to the next strongest memory in Razor's mind.  In a crowded underground mine of one of the Federation's least desirable prison planets a glint of steel caught Razor's eye.  Reacting without first thinking it through Razor attacked the man who was aiming to kill one of the guards.

The chaos that ensued was violent and even with Spock's help Razor still wasn't sure how he had managed to wrestle the homemade knife away.  What he did vividly recall was sinking the blade into the man's chest in a mixture of battle rage and self defense.  The other prisoners had cheered and encouraged the fight until they had caught sight of blood, and then they had scattered like rats when the lights go on.

The prisoner he had just stabbed through the heart fell back to the dirt floor with a strangled cry.  Death took him before the dust had settled.  Razor looked back at the guard who had tried to stop the fight once it had started.  He'd been knocked unconscious and was bleeding heavily from a gash in the side of his head.  Locked in shock it didn't even occur to Razor to drop the knife until he heard the angry yelling of the Warden.

"Donavan!  You murdering wretch!"

"No, no this isn't what it looks like..."  Razor tried to explain as he dropped the makeshift weapon.  "Tegaus was going to kill Guard Reily, I saved hi..."

Razor was cut off as the Warden came up and back handed him hard enough to knock him to the blood stained floor.  Two other guards that had arrived with the Warden grabbed Razor by the upper arms and hauled him to his feet.  Razor was still trying to explain his innocents when they dragged him into the main work chamber and up onto one of the raised metal platforms.  The scent of entertaining punishment had brought the scattered prison jackals back out of the shadows and once again they were crying for blood.  

There wasn't supposed to be any physical punishment allowed in the prison colony, but Razor had seen others beaten half to death for even small offenses against the guards.  Terrified Razor cried out for mercy and attempted to scramble off the platform.  Nearly all of the guards were on hand now since it was one of their own who had been injured.  It didn't take them long to tie Razor's wrists together and hang them over a large metal hook on the end of a chain that was usually used to haul supplies up or down into the mine.

Razor tried to get a grip on the chain as tightened it, but it slipped from his bloodstained hands as they lifted him off his feet.  With his barefeet brushing against the platform Razor struggled to breath as his entire weight was being supported by his bound wrists.  He tried to kick, but it only made his situation more uncomfortable.  

The Warden gently drew the thin metal rod in his hands against Razor's back to get his attention before pulling back and slashing the weapon between his shoulder blades with a whip like cracking sound.  The rod ripped open Razor's shirt and sliced open his flesh with an explosion of pain.  Arching back Razor screamed at the top of his lungs.  The rod whistled through the air and bit into his flesh once more.  Seven strikes later Razor's skin was dripping in sweat and blood.  Shaking violently he fought to free his wrists as the Warden beat him once more before handing the rod to the next guard.  

Choking on his own voice Razor wasn't even sure what he was saying as he cried out incoherently for them to stop.  With the gaurds taking turns Razor quickly lost count of how many hits they had landed before he started to become numb to the abuse.  As he started to lose consciousness Razor wondered if this was how his short life was going to end.  A splash of cold water across his tattered back brought him back from the edge of darkness.  

Razor didn't even try to catch himself when they released the tension on the chain and dropped him to the floor.  Quickly picked up they dragged him away and it wasn't long before he found himself being thrown to the floor again.  He forced himself to his hands and knees and turned to look at the Warden as he slammed a set of heavy metal bars shut.  Razor looked around the small cell with confusion.  His already laboring heart suddenly pounded harder as he realized what was happening.

"H...how long?"  Razor whimpered.

"I don't know, how much longer is your sentence?  Twenty-nine more years?"

"What?!"  Razor forced himself to his feet and gripped the bars to keep himself up.  "You...you can't leave me in solitary confinement for thirty years!"

"No, probably not.  You'll probably be insane within two, and dead in five."  The Warden smiled coldly.  "The Federation doesn't believe in the death penalty, but no one ever seems to complain when a trouble maker kills himself while in 'time out'."

"Warden, please, I was trying to save Guard Reily...I swear!"

The Warden snarled at Razor in disgust and turn to walk away.  Razor cried out for him to come back until his voice failed him.  Sinking to the floor he leaned his head against the bars and  sighed.  His torn up back throbbed angrily, but he didn't care.  Looking out of the bars he stared at the rough hewn wall across the hall.  This cell, and the others like them, were constructed at the ends of dead end tunnels away from the colony for punishment.  

Being alone seemed like a nice vacation at first, but he had seen what became on the men who were locked away in these tunnels for more than a few weeks.  They came back like they had lost part of their soul.  Some of the other inmates told stories that the planet had a mysterious life form that sought out anyone who was alone and fed off their minds.  When the lights went out on Razor's first night in solitary he suddenly wondered if they were just stories.

"Please!  Someone...anyone!  Don't leave me here!"

Razor's voice echoed off the darkened halls and disappeared into the night.  It was so quiet here that the only sound was his own heart  Closing his eyes didn't change his view, it was the same darkness.  Delusional with pain and exhausted from the day Razor sought out the small cot and laid down on his stomach.  Razor woke to a brain scrambling fever and then spent nearly a week drifting in and out of consciousness.  Once or twice a day one of the guards would come by and force water and broth down his throat, but they never spoke to him.  

It took a month for his back to heal, but as his body mended itself his mind was falling apart.  For the next two months he desperately tried to talk to the guards that would come every so often to give him food and water.  When no one would even say a word to him his desperation turned to a deep depression.  He spent most of his days pacing his cell and working his body to the point of exhaustion just so that he could sleep at night.  However lately he'd even lost interest in that.  Sitting on the cot listlessly staring at the bars that held him captive Razor didn't even react when an older man stepped in front of them.  

"Hello there, Samuel."  

Razor knit his brow together, but it had been so long since anyone had talked to him that he assumed that this man was just another hallucination.  Beckett clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he studied the young prisoner.  He had a tablet in his hands which he tapped on and read with mild curiosity.  

"How old are you, Sam?"  

"I don't know."  Razor answered to humor the hallucination.  "I don't remember."

"Guess."

"I don't know, twenty-five, maybe."

"You're barely nineteen."

"What?"  Razor asked in disbelief.

"Five months in solitary can do that to you, makes time slow way down."  Beckett said sympathetically. "You've had a fairly rough start in life considering you've been in prison nearly two years already."

"I, uh...I was tried as an adult."

"In your brother's murder?"  Beckett asked calmly.

"No!"  Razor roared as he jumped to his feet and slammed into the bars.  "No!  I didn't murder Mike!  It was an accident!"

"Tell me what happened."

"We were there to rob the place, no one was supposed to be home..."  Razor trailed off.

"But someone was home.  The daughter.  How old was she?"

"Sixteen."

"She testified in your defense during the trial.  Why did she do that?"

"Mi...Mike...he...he was going to rape her."  Razor admitted.  "I didn't want him to, we fought, I ended up with the phaser...it went off."

"Her testimony is probably what got you thirty years instead of life."

"I'm going to end up with a life sentence anyway."  Razor sighed.  "I'm not going to make it...I mean...I'm talking to a hallucination."

"I'm no hallucination, Son."

"Then what are you?"

"I'm your last chance."

Looking around nervously Razor slowly reached through the bars to touch Beckett's chest.  Beckett held his ground and peacefully allowed Razor to make contact.  When he felt that his visitor was real Razor chuckled in relief as his eyes brightened with tears.  

"Are you the new Warden?  Are you going to let me out of solitary?"

"No, and yes, respectively."

"I don't understand."

"Guard Reily has been in a coma for a while, he's better now.  He told his father what happened, his father told me."

"I was trying to help him."

"I know.  Just like you were trying to help that girl."  Beckett nodded.  "You've got good intentions, Kid, you just don't know what to do with them.  I'd like to teach you."

"How?"

"First a shower, maybe a shave.  Then you're coming with me back to Earth, to Starfleet, where you're going to enroll in the Academy."

"The Academy?  Are you insane?  They'd never let me in, I'm a criminal."

"You're also a victim."  Beckett countered.  "I have the power to clean your record as if none of this ever happened."

"What do you want in return?"

"Complete the Academy training, be at least in the top ten percent of your class, and then we'll talk again."

"What if I don't make it at the Academy?"

"Then I'll put you right back where I found you.  Deal?"

"Deal."  Razor said instantly.  "I just have one question...why me?"

"When you release a dog from a cage they tend to be a hell of a lot more loyal than your average pampered pup."

"I won't let you down, Sir."  Razor said sincerely.  "Get me out of here and my loyalty will be yours forever."

"I'm going to hold you to that."

Once again Razor tried to pull away from Spock, only this time he mentally asked nicely that Spock not drag him through his past anymore.  Spock still insisted on touching on his years in the Academy and learned that Razor meant every word that he had said in that cell and managed to graduate in the top five percent of his class.  It was at that time that his mysterious benefactor returned and asked him to join with the Black Diamond Dogs.  

Realizing that there was nothing he could do Razor relaxed and continued to peacefully allow the Vulcan to get to know him.  Spock pieced through the last few months with Salen quickly, lingering on the times when Salen had lost his mind to violence in Razor's presents.  Eventually they came to the point where they had stolen a smuggler's ship and had started to plan attacking the Enterprise.  

Razor stepped up to where Salen was laying one of the stolen ship's biobeds.  Salen was laboring for each breath as he jerked in his unnatural sleep.  Worried about his partner Razor reached out and ran his hand through Salen's ivory hair.  

"Hang on, Salen, help's on the way."

When Spock released his hold on Razor's mind it took him a moment to refocus.  Razor felt like it had been hours since the mind meld had started, but he could tell by the way that Kirk was still locked in his stunned sleep that it couldn't have been more than a few minutes.  Spock looked at Razor and nodded.

"Take me to Salen."

"You can save him?"  Razor asked.

"I do not know yet, he appears very close to death."

"He is."

"I am pleased that you chose the guise of an attack and kidnapping.  It will make things easier for the Captain to believe that I am a casualty and not a traitor if I do not return."

"Wait...what?  We have every intention of returning you to the Enterprise, Commander."

"I know.  However, it may become necessary for you to kill me once I have touched Salen's mind."

"I don't understand."

"I can try to remove the stain that has been left on Salen's mind by the melds with these criminally insane men, however there will be no one to remove the memories from my mind."

"Commander, I can't ask you to trade your life for Salen's."

"No you cannot, but you do not have to.  I will do it gladly."
Ch 45: [link]

I never had any intention of letting you guys know Razor's past or how he got the scars that Salen saw on his back all those chapters ago. But I thought it would be fun!
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yamihoole's avatar
I find it interesting that Spock decided to go so far into Razor's mind. I thought he was just going to find out if what Razor said about Salen was true, but I guess maybe he also wanted to see what kind of person Razor was?

Oh crap....I dont wanna see Spock go insane! But i'm sure how ever Spock ends up, this isnt gonna be a 'clean' meld that he can just get past right away...