AN: Salutations and bienvenue! New Year, new love story from the mind of the cadaverous Casanova, moi.
This one deals with my favorite Klingon, Brigadear General J'Vasa! And, no, this is not an AU where she gets Zevil to defect…although I might do that later.
For now, it's time for our warrior to meet someone new…well, practically new.
Oh Captain, My Captain
'Stupid Valixian P'takh.' Thought Dr. Dalla Sina, chief medical officer of the I.K.S. T'trevax, her thoughts bitter as she morosely sipped at her Samarian sunset in the drinking hall of First city. 'He has the General wrapped around his finger and he doesn't even appreciate it.'
Dalla was Orion, of average height, and had emerald green skin. She was dressed in a modified version of the Bortisque uniform, in that hers covered the top half of her torso, but left her midriff and lower back exposed, and had three-pointed Orion shoulder guards. Her pants were tight and were tucked into high heeled boots, the heels sharpened to deadly points. The outfit was mainly black with and silver blue accents, signifying she was a science officer.
The two people she was referring to were, of course, Fleet Admiral Xavius Vexius Zevil of the Federation and General J'Vasa, daughter of K'gor, loyal warrior of the Klingon Empire, and the secret crush of her chief medical officer.
Dalla had been attracted to her commanding officer since before she took her post after killing the traitorous captain Jurlek, which wasn't surprising since a Ferengi would give up profit just to gaze at the beauty that was the Klingon general.
After J'Vasa killed Jurlek, it made J'Vasa even more attractive to the doctor (what could she say, she was Orion), but it was after revealing the full scope of House Torg's betrayal, where Torg had furthered his dishonor by killing Alexander, son of Worf, that her infatuation became something more than just a physical one.
I.K.S. Krarg'ow sickbay, several months ago
"Doctor!" Shouted First officer K'Gan as he and Thraak half carried, half dragged, the captain into her sickbay, "The captain has been seriously injured!"
"Then get her on the biobed, you stupid Ha'DIbaH!" Dalla shouted at the two officers as she shot up from her desk and got her medical tools.
"I order you to release me!" Shouted J'Vasa angrily as K'Gan and Thraak put her on one of the biobeds, shooting up into a sitting position and glaring at Dalla as she brought her tricorder up to scan her, "I am fine!"
"I'll be the judge of that, now lay down," Dalla said calmly as she used her free hand to force her head to lay back down on the bed, worried at how easy it was to do so. She turned back to K'Gan. "What in Grethor happened to her?"
"She, Worf, and Alexander were attacked by the traitorous baktag, Torg, and the rest of his dishonored house when the High Council discommendated them." K'Gan told her as she looked down at her tricorder and looked at the captain's injuries.
"She has several lacerations along her arms and her torso, burns on her abdomen, and her left leg is fractured," Dalla listed off before she put down her tricorder in favor of a dermal regenerator, "Thraak, do something useful with those claws of yours and prep me ten CCs of terakine for the pain and three CCs of kelotane!"
"Yess Doctor," the Gorn hissed as he went to the medical replicator and prepped the hypospray.
"I do not have time for this! The longer I am here and not on the bridge, that miserable taHqeq is getting farther and farther away!" J'Vasa roared as she tried again to get up, only to freeze when Dalla jabbed an already prepared hypospray into her neck.
"Good, now maybe you'll sit still and let me heal you," Dalla stated as she pushed a paralyzed J'Vasa back into a laying down position, then got back to work as she got the regenerator and resumed what she was doing.
"What…did…you…do to…me?!" J'Vasa stiffly growled as her eyes darted and spun in their sockets.
"Just a mild paralytic I keep in case of rowdy patients." She looked down at her captain as she continued to work. "Serving on a Klingon ship, I use it more than you would think. Don't worry, it won't stop your hearts, react badly with other medicines, or do any permanent damage…at least nothing I can't reverse, provided my patient behaves."
J'Vasa growled at the Orion doctor, but said nothing else as Dalla kept working, only hissing when Thraak injected her with the ordered meds. "K'Gan," she finally said, speaking slowly because of the paralytic, "Contact the… Shipyard and see…if they know where that… P'takh's ship went."
"At once captain!" K'Gan said, slamming a fist to his chest and bowing to his captain before leaving to follow her orders.
"In cassse they are unable to give him an anssswer, ssshall I ssstart sssearching for an ion trail?" Thraak asked J'Vasa in his hissing voice.
"Do it," she ordered and the Gorn officer mimicked his fellow officer's salute and left the two women alone in the sickbay. The room was silent except for the hum of the dermal regenerator as Dalla went over each cut and that was becoming more and more awkward as time went by.
"I'm sorry to hear about Alexander," Dalla said when the awkwardness of the silence finally got to her, as she gave her captain the antidote. She figured that her captain was going to be a good patient now that she had delegated her workload. "He seemed to be a good man. The Empire has one less good warrior today."
"It was a… good death," J'Vasa said slowly moving her fingers into a fist as the paralytic slowly wore off, "but not a just one. He had much to offer the Empire…but not just as a warrior."
"That's an odd statement from a Klingon. These burns are going to need dermaline gel." Dalla observed as she got up and moved to get the jar of said medicine on a nearby table. When she turned back to her captain, she was surprised to see tears in the Klingons eyes. "Captain are you in pain?"
"Yes, but it is not a physical pain that you can heal, Doctor." J'Vasa rasped, her voice rough, "There is always glory to be had in battle, but when we turn on one another and cast our honor to the winds, we are no better than the wild beasts the galaxy sees us as.
"Alexander understood that and should have lived to be sure that the rest of the Empire knew that wisdom." J'Vasa said as she closed her eyes, but when she opened them, there was nothing but raw hate in her gaze. "I will not rest until I've hunted down and killed that wretched and honourless taHqeq, like the beast he is."
Vow of murderous vengeance aside (but again, Orion, so J'Vasa was even prettier now), the fact that she felt so deeply gave depth to the picture of the Klingon that Dalla saw in her mind, making it a work of art that she now kept in her heart.
'Did I just rhyme?' She thought to herself before glaring down at her drink. 'Clearly, I've had too much.' She then looked down the bar to the bartender cleaning a glass with rag. "Barkeep! Can I get a cup of extra strong raktajino, please?"
"If you're drowning your sorrows, you'll need something stronger than raktajino," a soft, melodic voice said beside her, and a short Orion woman took the stool beside Dalla. "Firewine or bloodwine are usually the drinks of choice."
"Not that it's any of your business," Dalla said with a glare to the petite woman, "but I'm actually trying to sober up...not that it really matters," she grumbled morosely, as she folded her arms on the bar then rested her head on them. "All the alcohol in the entire quadrant won't be enough to drown my sorrows...or change how she feels."
"Ah, woman trouble," the newcomer said with a knowing nod. "I'm not unused to those myself. Arsala T'erahn, Chief Science officer on the Redfang."
Arsalla extended her hand, giving Dalla a bright grin.
Dalla turned her head and eyed the hand with a glare for a moment before she eventually sat and took the hand in a firm handshake. "Dr. Dalla Sina, former Chief Medical Officer on board the T'trevex, now on the Borkath, my captain just got promoted."
Arsala gestured to the barkeep for two of the aforementioned Raktajino and turned to Dalla.
"So, Dalla Sina of the Borkath, why do I feel like said captain is the cause of your trouble?"
She took the raktajino that promptly appeared in front of her, taking a large gulp of it while she waited for Dalla's response.
Dalla's first reaction was to tell the woman to piss off and that it was none of her business, but she knew if she didn't talk to someone about this, she'd explode.
"She's in love with a stupid p'takh that doesn't love her back," Dalla finally said as she took a gulp of her raktajino. "Which is crazy, because she'd make a blind celibate Vulcan monk go into pon'farr if she crossed his path."
"Ah, that old problem," Arsala mused, staying silent for a moment while she sipped her beverage. "Perhaps the problem is that she isn't aware she has other options? Have you ever confronted her over your feelings?"
"You clearly have never met my captain," Dalla dejectedly said as she looked into her half full mug, "When she's set her mind to something, she's like a targ with a piece of meat, she won't let it go. The stupid Vaixian Starfleet bastard beat her in one fight and suddenly she's found her par'mach kai."
Arsala almost choked on her drink, recovering from her surprise quickly.
"She's after a Starfleet officer?!" she asked, hiding the real reason for her surprise. "Clearly, your captain loves making life complicated."
"You have no idea," Dalla groaned. "She's bossy, opinionated, cocky, stubborn, and can be a pain in my emerald ass when it comes to treating her injuries.
"But," she continued to say, a smile growing on her face, "She can be kind, adventurous, fearless, and she cares for her crew and the Empire like no one else."
Her smile quickly turned into a frown. "Which makes the purple prick's rejection even more irritating! She showers that lizard with affection, and he seems repelled by it! I mean it would make since if he was gay-" Dalla suddenly sat up straight, a hopeful look on her face.
Arsala thought again, choosing her words carefully. It wouldn't do to give away her true identity…
"A Valixian...the only one of those in Starfleet is Xavius Zevil, and to our knowledge he's not gay. Sorry sweetheart." She finished off her raktajino, then added, "and I've never known a Klingon who wasn't a pain in the ass when being treated."
"I guess it really doesn't matter," Dalla murmured dejectedly, her shoulders slumping in defeat. "She'd probably delude herself into thinking she could turn him straight if she heard that."
Dalla was suddenly filled with anger at the thought of J'Vasa fawning over the Admiral, her pheromones causing a small fight to break out behind them, and Arsala rubbed her forehead as she began to get a headache. "You know if I had known all I had to do was beat her in a fight," she said with a frown on her face, "I would have attacked her months ago."
"So why not do it?" Arsala met Dalla's glare as the medical officer looked up. "Seriously. Challenge her. Beat her. The problem is that she's never seen your worth. Show it to her."
Arsala smiled at Dalla, showing her sincerity.
"That... might work," she said after thinking it over. "I know where all her weak points are and I know I'm faster than her with all the times I've had to inject her with medicine and paralytics to treat and heal her..." she trailed off then as her idea came into full fruition in her mind.
She then shot off her stool, downing the rest of her drink. "Nice meeting you, Arsala, I gotta go! Bye!" She said in a rush as she ran out into First City.
"Have fun, don't get killed!" Arsala called back, even though Dalla was well out of earshot. "Nice girl," she said to herself, before looking back to the other occupants of the hall. "Now, let's find someone who's good and drunk. Time for a little chat..."
With that, she slid off her stool and ventured back into the crowd, thankful for the brief distraction from her mission.
The challenge floor was full of the sounds of blade hitting blade, the growls of the combatants, and the cheers of the crowd as they watched the two warriors fighting. The warriors in question were Captain K'gor, son of Korak, and Major General J'Vasa, daughter of K'gor.
"Are you getting soft in your dotage?" J'Vasa taunted as she and her First Officer circled one another, both with bat'leths at the ready. She had met with her father while killing time as the final engineering checks were performed on the Borkath, and they decided on the favorite passtime of any Klingon: trying to kill each other.
"I might be old, brat, but at least I have both of my eyes!" The older Klingon roared as he charged his daughter, a feral smile on his face. He was a foot taller than his daughter, was well built for a man of his years, had grey hair, and, indeed, both of his eyes. He was head of their house and was a member of the High Council, despite being from a lesser house.
"I do not require both my eyes to defeat you, old man!" J'vasa said as she locked blades with him, a matching smile on her face. Like practically every Klingon in the Empire, J'Vasa loved a good fight, but it was even better when she's fighting with her father. It reminded her of her childhood when he first taught her how to wield a bat'leth.
"Do not overestimate yourself because you wield the Emperors gift, daughter!" K'gor growled as he pushed against his daughter's blade, proud to feel she was matching him in force. The gift that K'gor was talking about was the Shard of Kahless.
It was given to her by Emperor Kahless himself, for her part in ridding the Empire of the Fek'Ihri. It was similar in appearance if not in power, but its wielder was close to becoming as big a legend as the original sword.
"It is not the sword that gives me confidence, father, but my ability to wield it!" J'Vasa said as she kicked him away, hooking her blade with his, disarming him in a solid motion, and then followed up with a roundhouse kick to his face, sending K'gor to the floor.
As soon as he hits the floor, J'Vasa kneels beside him, her blade pressed to his neck, drawing a dribble of blood from his neck. "Yield." She growls.
"Ha! I yield!" K'gor says with a smile on his face. J'Vasa takes her blade away and offers her father her hand, which he takes and they both rise to their feet to the cheers from the crowd, most being from the Borkath. "There is no greater day then the day you lose a battle to your own child!" K'gor joyfully says to the crowd as he claps his daughters on the shoulder.
"Then you have had many great days, father," J'Vasa told him, earning a mirthful laugh from her crew. J'Vasa then turns to her crew, her usual vicious smile on her face. "Who wishes to test my blade next?"
"I'll take that challenge!" said a voice from the crowd. The warriors parted to show a very determined looking Dalla, armed with Orion cutlasses in each of her hands.
To say that J'Vasa was confused by this challenge would be like saying that a Klingon valued honor. Dalla would take liberties with the Hippocratic Oath, mostly in relation to her use of paralytics on her patients, but she had never showed an interest in Klingon blood sports.
"Are you sure you wish to fight me, doctor?" J'Vasa asked, her voice strong but with a hint of confusion coming through it.
"What's wrong daughter?" asked K'gor in a teasing way, "afraid to fight a little Orion slave girl?" Most of the crowd laughed at this comment, except for those that served on the Borkath, who knew better than to call their Chief Medical Officer that. They might be barbarians to the galaxy at large, but they weren't stupid.
"You," Dalla shouted and pointed one of her swords at K'gor, "shut your mouth before I stitch it shut!" She then turned back to J'Vasa, "What's it going to be, captain? Are you going to fight me or are you just a bIHnuch Qa'Hom?"
The entire crowd around them was silent now. You had to have rather large reproductive organs to accuse J'Vasa of being a cowardly animal and insult her father in the same sitting. "I accept your challenge, doctor," J'Vasa told Dalla, her anger seething just beneath her skin as she adopted a fighting stance and her father joined the crowd. "At least when I beat you, you can put yourself back together…if I leave any of the bones in your hand unbroken that is."
"Oh, I'm not worried." Dalla said as she properly entered the ring, also getting into a fighting stance, "I'm not going to be the one in need of a doctor after this."
"So confident," J'Vasa said with a sneer as the two women began to circle each other, "can I assume you are going to rely on your pheromones to win this fight?"
"Scared of a little headache?" Dalla asked in mocking sweetness, a determined scowl still on her face, "Don't worry, captain, unlike a purple lizard that you're mooning over, I don't plan to cheat."
With a shout of outrage, J'Vasa charged the Orion with rapid slashes, all of which Dalla dodged and parried using both her cutlasses. "How dare you slander the name of my love!" she roared at the Orion doctor as she continued her attack, "He is a warrior of great skill and honor!"
"Oh yeah, he's really skilled- in avoiding your advances!" Dalla said, as she spun out of the way of a diagonal slash from the Shard of Kahless and landing a slash of her own on J'Vasa's exposed arm, earning her the honor of first blood. She followed up with a kick to J'vasa's back, making her fall forward with her momentum. "If he really loved you, hell if he was a real man, he would go to you himself and not run and hide like a coward!"
"He is…a man of propriety and does not wish to upset the balance of our positions during war time!" J'Vasa said as she rolled forward, tuned and charged again, but this time she ran past Dalla and slashed at her exposed lower back, carving a shallow gash across her back.
But even as she said those words, J'Vasa knew they sounded hollow. She had actually been questioning if her 'beloved enemy' actually loved her, would he not find a way to show her that he reciprocated those feelings?
"Ngh! 'Propriety'?" Dalla asked through gritted teeth, trying hard to ignore the pain in her back and the feeling of her blood dribbling down her back and onto the floor, as she and J'vasa circled each other again, "Isn't that the Klingon word for 'spineless'?"
Once again, J'Vasa attacked the Orion in outrage, and that is how the violent dance went on for a solid hour; Dalla would enrage the Klingon General, dodge and leave a glancing blow, and J'Vasa would counterattack with a strong blow.
"Give…up, doctor," J'Vasa huffed, breathing heavily and bleeding from several places on her person. All were shallow cuts, but the accumulation of them was extensive, and combined with the extra exertion J'Vasa's rage had induced in her other attacks, left her even more fatigued then she normally would be.
"Not…a…chansh." Dalla slurred as she faced down her captain, with only one eye. Dalla was arguably worse off then her captain, this being made evident from her slurred speech. From her own internal diagnosis, Dalla surmised that she had several cracked ribs, severe blood loss from a few deep gashes on her body, and her left arm was currently dislocated.
"I…am not," Dalla started say, interrupting herself with a grunt of pain as she shoved her arm back in it's socket, "giving up until I've knocked some sense into the thick and stupid ridged head of yours."
"Even…" J'Vasa started to say, but had to stop and give her head a quick shake so she stopped seeing three Dalla's, "Even…if I believed you, why do you care if I waste my time pinning for a man that does not love me?"
"Why do I care?!" Dalla screamed in blood boiling rage as she threw her swords away and ran at J'Vasa, tackling her to the ground and started punching repeatedly in the face. "I care, you stupid Klingon P'takh, because you deserve someone to love you like you deserve! Because you are a great and honorable warrior! Because you deserve to be worshipped like the goddess you are!"
With each exclamation came a punch, until Dalla grabbed the sides of the Klingons head, forcing J'Vasa to look at her with her one good eye. J'Vasa looked into Dalla's eyes, and saw that they were not full of anger, but full of sadness and defeat as silent tears ran tracks down her face, mingling with green and violet blood, "Because I love you, you gorgeous moron!"
And then Dalla promptly passed out on top of J'Vasa.
Dalla slowly woke up and saw that instead of a hospital in First City, she was in her new sick bay aboard the Borkath. She slowly sat up, only to find a hand on her shoulder. "Ressst, doctor," Said Thraak, who had a medical tricorder out and was using it to scan Dalla as he pushed her back into a laying position, "You are sstill recovering from your battle with the Captain. A most exccciting match indeed."
"How did I get here and how long was I out?" Dalla asked hoarsely, her throat dry. "And why am I here and not in a First City facility?"
"An hour at the mossst, Doctor," Thraak informed her as he put the tricorder down. "The General brought you here. She thought it would be better if you were treated and woke up here, in more familiar sssurroundingsss, than in unfamiliar onesss."
"I'm surprised the captain even wants me on her ship after our fight," Dalla said morosely, not even wanting to imagine the state J'Vasa was in, physically or emotionally.
"This is my ship and I will bring whoever I wish on it, doctor." J'Vasa said as she stood up from her seat at Dalla's desk, surprising Dalla who had remarkably not seen her sitting there when she tried to rise earlier. "How is she, Thraak?"
"I'm-" Dalla started to say but shut her mouth as J'Vasa cut her eye to the Orion woman.
"I was not asking you," She said, her tone worryingly emotionless, then turned her gaze back to the Gorn Science Officer, "Well?"
"Ssshe will be fine, General, but ssshe will be sssore for a few daysss and ssshould ressst." He informed his captain.
"Then you may return to your shore leave, Commander," J'Vasa told him, and then stared down at Dalla, her gaze revealing nothing, "while the doctor and I have a little chat."
Dalla audibly gulped as Thraak made a hasty retreat out of the sick bay. 'Scaly faced coward,' she thought bitterly as she looked into her captain's eye, trying desperately to discern her feelings with little success. "Captain, about what I-"
"You have already said your piece," J'Vasa cut Dalla off, her solitary eye narrowing. "Now it is my turn." She then placed both her hands on either side of Dalla's head and leaned in, speaking a eerily calm and low voice. "I should have you thrown into the wilderness of Boreth for the stunt you just pulled, doctor. You ridiculed me, insulted my father, made me sound and look like a fool, attacked me in a dishonorable fashion that is more suited for a bar-room brawl instead of the challenging floor, but that is not even the worst of it.
"The worst of your crimes, one which I might never forgive you for," J'Vasa practically growled, as she moved her hands to take hold of Dalla's face, causing her to flinch and making her even more afraid of what was about to happen to her, "is that you passed out before I can do this."
And then J'Vasa was kissing her, the Klingons hold on her face shifting to gently cup her face. It took Dalla a few seconds to realize what was happening to her before she slowly closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around the other woman's neck, deepening the kiss. If this was all leading to J'Vasa breaking her neck for her transgressions, Dalla was okay with that.
But several minutes passed and her neck was still intact. Reluctantly, J'Vasa broke the kiss, both women needing to breath and clear the air. "You were right: I have been a fool to go after Zevil," J'Vasa finally said as she leaned her rigged forehead to Dalla's smooth one, her voice a soft whisper on Dalla's lips, "He is a good and honorable man, but he is not my true par'mach kai."
"I love you, J'Vasa," Dalla finally said, hating herself just a little for what she was about to say, "but if you love me solely because I beat you in a fight, then-"
"That is not my only reason, my darling." J'Vasa said quickly, and Dalla would be lying if she didn't preen a little at the affectionate nickname, "I might be a fool, Dalla, but I am not blind. All this time that you have been sleeping, I have gone over all of our interactions, and I have seen the way that you look at me and how I truly see you."
J'Vasa smiled at her and caressed her check lovingly with the padd of her thumb. "You have seen me at my worst and still love me, you have given me counsel and care when I most needed it, you are willing to fight for me and tell me I am wrong when no one else is brave enough to. That is a true par'mach kai."
Dalla was crying again, but these were tears of joy. The woman she loved actually loved her back, it was more than she could have ever hoped for. "If that's true," Dalla said sultrily as she moved her right leg to wrap around J'Vasa's waist, "then why are we still here and not in your quarters with our cloths on the floor?"
"An excellent question, my pirate queen." J'Vasa purred as she wrapped her arms around the Orion's waist and lifted her up effortlessly but didn't move any farther and looked at her love in concern, "But Thraak said you should rest."
"Thraak isn't this ship's Chief Medical Officer, I am." Dalla said a little forcefully but still sultrily, giving her soon to be Klingon lover a little squeeze with her legs. "But I guess you're right," she continued to say taking on a thoughtful expression that soon turned coy, "I guess I'm just going to have to lay down…and let you do all the work."
Needing no more assurance than that, J'Vasa made a beeline for her quarters, causing her mate to give an excited squeal as she ran out of sick bay.
It would soon be heard by all in the Empire that Major General J'Vasa, daughter of K'gor, and Dr. Dalla Sina, had taken their mating oaths and were to hold a formal wedding in a months' time. This news reached the ears of a particular Orion woman in First City's drinking hall, causing her to smile.
"Be good to her, J'vasa," Arsala said to herself, raising a flagon of Firewine to the couple, despite them not being present. "This war is hell on relationships. I know that for a fact. But Dalla...Dalla is a good sort, and she'll be your guiding star on the days ahead."
With that, the woman who wasn't - and had proof that she never had been - Admiral Kassai stood, finished her firewine and left the drinking hall, disappearing into the throng of the First City.
AN: This was so fun to write, and it was made even more so with the help of my dear friend MaliceUnchained, who was kind enough to lend the diminutive spy Admiral and helped with the proof reading! As always please leave a review, but till next time, I bid you adieu!
