Copyright 1999, Lyta. All rights reserved. No part of this story may be
re-posted in part or in full without written permission from me.
Disclaimer: Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict is copyright 1998, Tribune
Entertainment Co. Its characters are used without permission, no infringement is intended.
Rating: PG
Title: Sandoval's Choice
Author: Lyta
Lyta_1028@yahoo.com
Summary: Sandoval risks toppling himself from his precarious position with
Zo'or to save another's life.
"Sandoval's Choice"
Ronald Sandoval stared at the still form of Lili Marquette as
she floated all but lifeless in the same blue tank where William Boone had met his end
several months earlier. He pressed his hand to the glass and nearly staggered as his CVI
brought forth the unwelcome and vivid memory of Boone's untimely end. Sandoval had never
cared much for the former police chief, but Marquette was a different story.
For some time Sandoval had suspected that Marquette and Kincaid were
affiliated with the Resistance. Had the motivational imperative on his CVI been still
intact he would have had no qualms about voicing his suspicions to Zo'or. However, his MI
was not functional and Sandoval found himself moved by a combination of emotions. Anger at
the Taelons for the horrific price they planned to exact from humanity for the gifts they
had brought, grief over Dee-Dee and Siobhan's deaths, and fear that humanity as a whole
would disappear from existence before the Taelons were done with Earth. Sandoval knew full
well that the Taelons have rendered over species extinct.
No, exposing Lili and Kincaid would have led to a weakening of the
Resistance, something he now sought to avoid.
His mouth curved into a grim smile remembering his "threats"
to Jonathan Doors and the incident at the alternate university. Doors and his people had
jumped on those just as Sandoval knew they would.
His smile died as he considered Zo'or's perfectly executed plan to have
the Resistance take the fall for the assassination attempt on Thompson. Sandoval had tried
to arrange for the plan to fail, but his actions were insufficient to avert disaster.
Even he could do nothing when Lili's cover was at last blown and she
was arrested for her attempted sabotage of the mothership. Interrogating his assistant,
now former assistant had not been an easy thing to do, but Sandoval was getting used to
doing things that sickened him.
Now he was going to rectify the situation. In the hours since the
interrogation, the threads of a plan that had entered his mind while he hurled question
after question at Lili wove themselves into a tightly knit tapestry. He carefully removed
his global and patted the remaining bulge carefully. Sandoval accessed the hidden file
with Zo'or's palmprint to activate the mechanism that removed Lili from the tank.
He had to take care as he laid her on the floor not to get any of
the blue regenerative fluid on himself. It took a few minutes for the majority of the
solution to drain off Lili, but it was a necessary delay. Sandoval wrapped Lili in a
blanket and slung her over his shoulder. It would do neither of them any good to leave a
trail of blue droplets from the lab to the shuttle bay.
He set her down in the shuttle and pulled off his jacket. It had
splotches of the fluid on it, but thankfully the rest of his clothing was free of the
incriminating liquid. Sandoval laid the jacket on the pilot's chair after he programmed a
course. He checked the cargo area, pleased that Lili's clothing and the other items he had
procured for her had been undisturbed. Sandoval reached into his pocket and pulled out a
small disk which he laid on top of the jacket before he knelt beside the unconscious Lili.
Taking a deep breathe, and hoping he was doing the right thing,
Sandoval pulled a small glass vial and a fresh syringe out of a small case in his pocket.
He prepared the syringe and injected the solution into Lili's right arm. He left both of
those items in the shuttle as well.
"Don't worry Captain," Sandoval said brushing a damp lock of
Lili's hair out of her face. "Its not like we'll never see each other again."
Sandoval straightened and exited the shuttle. It would be another two minutes before the
shuttle would begin to follow the course he had programmed, and Sandoval intended to be
elsewhere at the time. He pulled a spare jacket he had hidden behind some crates and
slipped it on.
"Hold it right there." A man's voice said from behind along
with the distinctive sound of a weapon prepared to fire. Sandoval whirled around
instinctively and moved much faster than his opponent. Even as Lili's shuttle began to
leave the docking bay, Sandoval's assailant crumpled to the deck, lifeless.
He walked over to the dead body and turned the corpse on his back,
Sandoval instantly recognized the man as Marshall Taylor. The implant smirked, his
luck could not be better. Taylor's brother had served in the S.I. War and he had made no
secret of his admiration for Captain Marquette. Also Taylor was reputed to be very good
with computers, which would explain how he freed Marquette from the blue tank.
Sandoval called Zo'or on his global. "Zo'or, Captain Marquette was
escaped in a shuttle."
"How is this possible?" The arrogant Synod leader demanded,
clearly angered by this turn of events.
"She had inside help." Sandoval said bluntly.
"Unfortunately I was forced to kill her accomplice."
"I want you to look into this matter personally, Agent Sandoval.
It would appear there are more traitors on this ship than I had imagined."
"Of course, Zo'or." Sandoval closed his global with a snap as
he waited for the Volunteers who were sure to arrive soon. He had to restrain himself from
smirking: the situation was playing right into his hand.
Now the only wild card was Lili. He had carefully saved a sample of the
untainted accelerate developed by Dr. Belman, on the hunch it might be useful. If the
research he had seen was correct, Lili would have need of what the accelerate offered.
Sandoval was distracted from his thoughts by the arrival of the
Volunteers. He straightened and went into "implant mode" almost without
thinking.
Ronald Sandoval had a lot of work to do.