Chapter 4
K'Ter'r House of Morag sat at the head of his table in the dining hall. He was a war proven warrior that had seen more action in his short forty-five years than most his young inexperienced crew. A large male with slightly greying hair, beady small eyes that missed nothing, and a large body that ached more than felt good he sat back and scratched, belched and farted. He was happy. The scratch ceased the itch, the belch took the pressure from his guts, and the fart annoyed those in the dining hall.
He smiled hearing the muttered complaints about what the captain's diet must have been to cause such a noxious odor to come from his body. Three warriors stood up with their plates and left the area; which was fine by the Captain he did not like them any way. He was still smarting over the newest orders that had been sent to him by the High Council of Boreth. He was a seasoned warrior with a honorable service to the Empire and the Clerics and what had they done for him? Given him a ship of misfits and screw-ups and in need of repairs.
Every time he tried to push this bucket of bolts into warp five it would buck and shake much like his ex-wife when she wanted to make love. He should have killed her off long ago but could not find a good enough reason to do so. Besides she had whelped him two strong sons that had crawled up the ladder of success under GowRon. Now, to add insult to injury he was informed he would be having more new crewmembers and he needed to bring this poor excuse of a ship to dry dock for refitting for someone befitting the station they held.
When he had pressed and asked whom this new member was he was told he was being ordered to take the Supreme Cleric as his Councilor and Ambassador on the ship and she would be with them for a year? He had moaned inwardly, now he was being used as a babysitter for the Supreme Cleric's brat. To top it off she was given the honorary rank of Admiral on his ship. He of course had never met the wench, but there were abundant rumors floating around to denote her as trouble and possibly possessing the unearthly powers of a witch something that had been bandied about since her birth and appearance in the Temple of Kahless. The last thing he needed on this ship was to have rumors get out of control.
He ordered the ship to make way to the docking station on the perimeter of Boreth's nearest moon and waited his turn to put his ship in dry dock so it could be upgraded and retrofitted. He had been ordered to bring his second of command and to appear in the Hall of Echoes to stand before T'L'th. Something he did not really want to do but would because it was his duty and the duty he owed to the man and his house. His father had given his father a place on the council and then by succession had given his son the standing as a captain upon his return from battle with the JemHadar. He had many glorious and wonderful stories to tell but unfortunately the crew he was given with his commission did not care.
Disgruntled and feeling a bit put upon, he took his ship and his commission and went forth in space and was content to let these misfits continue to muck up the assignments so he could find reasons to punish them. After two years of this constant bickering and tom foolery with his crew K'Ter'r was ready to resign his commission and retire to the far side of the planet and spend the rest of his days drunk. Now, he was to be a glorified baby sitter for a spoil brat.
Allowing one more rather loud and very obnoxious sounding wet fart to escape he shook his pant leg laughed as one crewmember actually turned green and rushed from the room. Walking out the door he headed to his quarters at least there was some really nice bottled year of bloodwine hidden in his safe. He could easily get himself drunk on that bloodwine and sleep it off all the way back to Boreth.
Hidden Safe House Somewhere in the Alpha Quadrant
Margo had spent the past seventy-two hours of rigorous training on the Klingon way of warfare, from hand to hand combat to tactical manipulations, She was tired and sore and the holodeck simulator was getting one heck of a workout. She used all her pent up anger and energies to throw herself into learning this Klingon and the way she walked, talked and dealt out justice.
Finishing a grueling workout on an obstacle course which parameters had been sent to her by deep cover intelligence she was sore, hot, and tired and she did not look forward to the next forty-eight hours. At the end of which she would be required to undergo facial reconstruction to finally be made over in the image of the female Klingon she was to double. This final touch was what was the biggest insult to her.
To have to look like one was almost too much for her to bear. The one thing that held her back from going rogue and not accepting this assignment knew once on Boreth or around the terminals of the Borethian Empire she might finally learn what had happened to her great grandfather, her grandfather and her mother. This was the only point to this assignment that was a saving grace in one form.
The automated voice of the computer alerted her to an incoming message from her father. Margo stopped at the last obstacle and canceled the program's continuance. Walking out to the hallway she reached for her away case and pulled a towel from it wiping the mud and sweat from her face she continued down the hallway to her ready room and sat down. "Put him through now." She waited for the view screen to come to life and the face of her father appeared before her.
"Hello Kitten looks like you have been working out." He smiled and that was when she saw how much he had aged over the past few years. His hair was more white than grey, the lines that etched his eyes were deeper from him crinkling his eyes when he was thinking or working on something and the crevices around his nose and mouth had deepened threatening to turn into jowls. The only thing that saved him from that was he worked out regularly and did not have one ounce of body fat that was not necessary on his body.
The smile had gone from genuine to superficial and she knew he was under a great deal of stress especially with her fighting him all the way on this new assignment.
"Father, to what do I owe the pleasure of this contact? I thought I was to be deep cover are you using secured channels?" She leaned back and put her feet up on the console smudging mud from her workout on the smooth pristine surface of the console. She brushed her dirty hand through her hair and tilted her head waiting for what was so important that he would risk exposing her and her position.
"We just received Intel that GowRon was on Boreth with his nephew Kantae and that he was there to force an embarrassment on the Cleric. Apparently, M'lar has a sacred trust to hold and someone was able to remove that trust. However, we understand that someone from her entourage was able to retrieve it, replace it with a replica and the tables were turned on GowRon. I further understand that GowRon's house is minus one nephew." He smiled thinking of what must have transpired in that alter room.
"I see so she has made an enemy of GowRon?" She was beginning to like this female Klingon. "So she has a really high placed enemy that has to be watched now as well as what is already in play in the file I have?" she sat up, leaned forward and folded her hands in front of her smearing the mud over her arms and her console.
"So it would appear. I understand that you are scheduled for surgery tomorrow?" He watched her stiffen look down at her dirty body and then watched her shoulders heave as she let out a long held breath to relieve her tension. Slowly she raised her head and those eyes locked to her father's eyes and she just nodded.
"O900. Are you going to be there?" She actually wanted him there when she went in for the reconstruction of her features. She watched the emotions play over his face and then he sat back and closed his eyes.
"Do you really think that is wise for me to be present for this? I mean if that is what you want I can be there." He did not want to risk anyone knowing he had an interest in this operation he had his own agenda for getting his daughter into a high place of trust within the Borethian Empire. He watched a hint of disappointment wash over her face as he waited for her answer.
"Nope not necessary, guess that is all we have to discuss?" She had become abrupt and was hurt her father was going to abandon her to the mercy of whatever would befall her on this assignment. "If there is nothing else father, I am tired and I need to clean up." She watched him hesitate but she knew he knew and recognize that she was shutting down to him and was now disappointed in him for his refusal to be there. She did not give him any further comment.
Reaching forward she ended the transmission. Sat back and dashed the angry tears from her eyes. Taking a deep cleansing breath she let it out slowly and closed her eyes. "No, I can do this." Pushing from the console she left her ready room and marched back to the holodeck and barked out to resume her work out program. Throwing herself with all her pent up anger, hatred and disappointment she forced her body to go through the programs parameters pressing her self to exhaustion.
As she executed the last of the program she collapsed to the floor in an adrenalin high. She smiled, she had done it, and she had given it her personal best and had succeeded. Now she needed to meditate so that she could face what she had to the next day. Closing her eyes she felt the release of her anger and her disappointment as she slipped into a light dreamless sleep.
Out skirts of Quin Lat Boreth
Klingon Hoch
Janae walked to the bar and ordered his Volkain Wine. Sidestepping a body that had just been thrown to the floor. Ducking as a chair flew past his head he chuckled. "Same old same old, the boys are back in town." He leaned into the bar, "Karaka, set me up with my special bottle." He waited and looked around ducking one more time as a table sailed though the air. "Damnit, when does this settle down?" He took the bottle and looked around for a place out of the way of the fight to sit and drink.
Just as he was about to move forward the door filled with figures that caught the attention of everyone in the bar and a soft rumbled flowed around the room and it said the same name over and over. "M'lar." She walked into the room followed by that behemoth known as Tork, that Volkarian wolf bitch Bi'Anka and the other one what was his name, oh yeah, HmfiC. "Better make it five glasses and another of my special blend, the wet towel just arrived to throw a damper on the party."
Karaka laughed and nodded. "Upstairs is best for your meeting with the Cleric, might as well go on up and I will send her up and Lela with the glasses. Seems you are in some deep shet old friend." Janae grabbed the other bottle and sidestepped a body that was scrambling up from the floor only to fall on his knees in a bow before the High Cleric. M'lar looked around the room dispassionately seeing Janae she sighed.
Tork took up position on her right while HmfiC disappeared out the side door to set up a parameter with more of the temple guard. Bi'Anka kicked a grappler out of the way and growled as he made to grab a part of her anatomy that was not an option to touch. "If you want to keep that hand worm, then keep it to yourself." She spoke in his ear then kneed him hard in the groin and threw him aside.
Tork saw from his peripheral another figure moving into view and with little effort turned and lifted the poor unfortunate warrior by the scruff of his neck and flung him through the window. "Taking out the trash?" Bi'Anka quipped as she was beginning to enjoy this night after all. Tork smiled and winked then turned and planted his elbow into the throat of another that had the misfortune of getting close to his mistress.
M'lar turned her attention to the second story and nodded to Janae as he slid back in his chair and propped his feet up on the table. Feeling the room grow more with unrest she sighed softly closed her eyes and sent her thoughts out to those in the room. "Leave! Take your fight to the street now!" Those in the bar that were of Klingon descent heard the order and was powerless to resist her command as she exerted her mind control over them. Side stepping a broken table and chair she headed for the stairs.
"Nice trick, you gotta teach me that sometime." Janae quipped as he sat back and waited for the glasses to be brought up to their table. He appreciatively eyed the female Lela that arrived with a tray and several glasses. He reached for her bottom and patted it, then shifting he slipped a coin into her bodice and winked. "Keep it in memory of the last time." He watched her pat her bodice; wink at him and then turned to walk away. Peering at him over her right shoulder.
He had to admit watching her come up was nice, large breasts barely concealed by a halter top of silvery material, hip hugging slit skirt that followed her ankles all the way up to her hips where the well browned rounded part of her body could be appreciated, as she turned to leave he had to admit that going away she was just as pleasing to watch as she was on the approach. "If you can tear your gaze away from the local color I need to talk to you but not before you pour me a drink."
Janae frowned, "Wow this is serious you want to have some of this wolf piss to swig down." He poured her a generous portion of the teal blue wine and watched her throw it back with a slight cough, a wrinkle of her nose and squint of her eyes.
"Smooth." She said through a raspy voice as she waited for him to refill her glass." He was beginning to get concerned, she was drinking heavily stuff she normally would not have drank and she was looking sour and put out and he knew it was not his fault this time. "Refill it again and just sit there and listen." He refilled a double portion and sat back folding his arms over his chest only taking a chance to look around at where the other players were.
Surprisingly the only ones left in the bar were the dirt farmers that had come in for a quiet drink and small village talk of the day's events. For them it was a break from screaming kids and a nagging wife. He saw Bi'Anka standing quietly at the top of the stairs near her mistress while Tork held the bottom of the stairs, discouraging any who thought to climb the stairs with just a hard stare. As tall as he was and as wide, it was easy to see why he easily intimated the local color.
Bi'Anka was the surprise, she was slender and well muscled, her black hair barely combed, and the bridge of her forehead denoted she was Volkarian born and bred and that she had the same temperament of the wolf people was not in doubt when she used the back of her throat to growl low if she was annoyed. Janae made it a point to not annoy her he had felt her ire one time and then she said she had been easy on him.
"So, I need some information on a Klingon Captain by the name of K'Ter'R. He has the Havok and is suppose to be on his way back to Boreth. He is indebted to my father and is the son of Sub Cleric T'rmak." She took her time drinking the glass of wine taking smaller sips and studying the liquid inside.
"May I ask why you are so interested in this Captain?" Janae shifted his gaze over the room and saw shadowy movement by the interior door near the rear of the bar. He felt the hair on the back of his neck rise and tensed watching the shadows but listening to what M'lar was saying.
"it seems father was not happy with what happened and the fact I lost the chalice to begin with has caused him to think I need a more worldly education, so he is assigning me for a year to that ship and Captain so I can learn more about the universe I have isolated myself from its influence." Her sarcasm was not lost on him but his body was shouting ambush from the top of his head to the tip of his toes.
"M'lar when I tell you to duck, I want you to dive for Bi'Anka, and alert your guard we are about to be ambushed." M'lar tensed closed her eyes and sought out the danger. It was not Klingon, searching for those outside she found the only one still standing of her guard that had not been stunned was HmfiC and he was blocking her mental thoughts. Pushing her thoughts to Bi'Anka and Tork she spoke softly in their minds. "Prepare for an attack." She felt them both tense as the rear door was blown open and five figures shimmered from teleportation into view with weapons drawn.
The figures were shrouded in cloaks and face masks, they bore the shape of Cardassians but their weapons were of Senisian make. M'lar frowned. "To your right Bi'Anka, behind you Tork." She called to her guard then stood and looked to the five figures below.
Tork had rushed forward to engage them the moment they appeared only to feel his body stunned by another figure behind the five appearing in the room. What shocked the five was the blast that hit Tork should have shoved his body back against the wall. He slapped it off much as someone might slap away a small pest. Bi'Anka had slid into the shadows and shifted her eyes to a form of infravision seeing the heat signatures in the room that were not Klingon. "Cleric M'lar, surrender and no one else has to be hurt. Just come along with us quietly and no more bodies must be added to the count."
M'lar chuckled, "Do you really think I am going to just allow you to take me out of this bar because you think I am going to be afraid of a few phasers and what six of you?" She stepped more fully into view and she despite her size was a commanding and striking figure in her black tunic top and figure-hugging black pants with thigh high boots now lined with a sundry of weaponry.
"You want my surrender?" With one fluid movement she placed her hands on the railing of the second story bannister and flipped over the rail to land on her feet in the middle of the five male figures. This had startled the attackers and they staggered back from her as she pivoted on the balls of her feet. "Let us just see if you can take me, if you can take me down then I will obviously go with you but . . . " she laughed lightly, "If I best you then you will of course die." With a shift of her body she laid her leg straight up catching the chin of one male and sending him rocking backwards into the bar, where the tender lifted a bottle and clubbed him over the head.
The leader cursed in four languages and began to discharge his weapon at the cleric as she danced back and avoided each round fired at her direction. She knew what she was doing was giving HmfiC time to call in back up locate the shuttle that had transported the recon party that was there to abduct or kill her. She was also giving Tork a chance to recover from his being stunned earlier and letting Janae get into place so he could get off some rounds.
She knew that Bi'Anka had slid into place and was about to launch herself from the top of the stairs on two of the ones closet to her. All she needed to do was get them in place by twisting throwing a punch and kicking out at the attackers. Just as she had two in place she spun around to the shooter and caught him up the side of the head with a well-placed kick. That sent him flying back and out the door where she heard a pain filled 'oomph and knew HmfiC had taken control of the perimeter of the bar.
Turning she saw Bi'Anka balanced on the rail of the upstairs and launched herself down with a growl and a snarl as she brought her weight down on the two that she had chosen for her special attention. From the front door of the bar three more figures appeared and with weapons drawn they began to fire into the melee. Janae set up in position from above drove them back out the door with well-placed shots. He smiled as he watched the Cleric guard arrive and surround them.
Tork had methodically begun to wail on the remaining two attackers punching one, turning to punch another and then to take them and knock their heads together. Watching them stagger apart and then fall into each other to land with soft moans of pain. Tork glanced up to see HmfiC motion for him to follow him out the back door. Tork stepped over the two bodies and disappeared through the door following his commander.
M'lar sighed as she waited for Bi'Anka to finish with her two and M'lar effectively kicked the last one unconscious on the floor. "Will you quit playing with your prey and just knock them out Bi'Anka I still have business I need to discuss with the Bajoran!" She sighed softly walked to the tender and slapped the bar. "Another drink and make it quick, I have business and then I suppose I will need to go back to the temple to see how we shall handle these usurpers." She sighed dramatically and then winked at the bartender who started to laugh.
M'lar looked down at the floor and frowned, the one she kicked into unconsciousness was starting to come around. The tender handed her another bottle and she bent over and cold cocked the unfortunate kidnapper and watched the bottle break over his head drenching him in cheap wine. "Shame to waste good wine on scum." She without looking back at him reached for the towel he extended so she could wipe the blood and wine from her hands.
Turning to Janae and nodding to him she smiled. "Another night at the local pub shot in the ass! Why don't you meet me back at the temple so we can talk in peace and quiet." Janae shrugged then jumped down from the second level.
"How about tomorrow morning since you will obviously be busy torturing these fine fellows for the rest of the evening." M'lar chuckled and nodded then turned and walked out the front door to be surrounded by her guard and lead back to her hover craft . She watched as the guard rounded up the attackers and placed them in a floating detention cell. Closing her eyes she saw that her new assignment was going to be a new experience and maybe a welcome break from the tensions apparently building here on her own planet.