Chapter 4

Boreth

T'L'th set before his console he was in a dark place and a dark mood. He stood slowly from his desk, walked to the windows that over looked the gardens below and sighed deeply. Running his hand over his furrowed brow he folded his massive arms across his chest and looked distantly to the northern section and the city of the ancients. "I know you think she has been taken because of something you have done my son. Before you take the blame of this perhaps it is time to make your journey and cleanse your soul of its restlessness and embrace your soul to what you always were. It is time to make peace with yourself." Kahless walked further into the room and stood next to his adopted son. "I think you are overly troubled and perhaps if you approached this with a clear mind you would rest easier." He clapped a strong set of fingers to T'L'th's shoulder.

T'L'th covered his hand with a strong clasp and nodded. "Do not tell Aisha what I plan she will try to stop me and I am sure any state business that needs to be addressed can be handled by you?" He shifted his chin and looked sideways to his adopted father and leader. "I fear you are right there are things I need to confess to the stars and the night and perhaps meet once again with the ancient ones and discuss life." He turned nodded to his father and walked to the wall that hid his clothing he used when he traveled amongst the populace incognito. Pressing his palm to the panel; he watched it slide into the side to reveal travelers clothing and weapons. Pulling out the tattered clothing that would denote him as a vagabond on a pilgrimage, he smiled. He felt that it would do him good and might clear his mind. His thoughts were totally fixated on the whereabouts of his daughter and the lack of contact he had with those he had entrusted her safety. He had lost contact with them all and it wore heavy on his mind.

The fact that Bi'Anka had not found a way to escape or contact him in over seventy two hours gave him reason to worry. She had never been held captive for that period of time, he knew that if she had not contacted him she was either captive and unable to escape or dead. That would be a reason for him to contact the ancient ones. HmfiC had gone off grid with Captain K'Ter'r. Perhaps with the collective efforts and the ties that the ancients had with the Volkain they could locate one of them or he could get Bi'Anka's father to help him track her.

He had heard Kahless leave his chambers earlier so he divested his body of the robes of his holy office the robes of the Supreme Cleric to the Borethian Council. He began to dress when he heard Kahless stop his Aisha from entering his chambers. "Daughter could you come with me and help me with something? I seem to be growing a bit addled with my age, I am having trouble with some translations in my quarters." T'L'th smiled that was one way to get her attention and keep her occupied helping him with translations on his console.

"Of course Father, just allow me a moment to see if T'L'th has heard anything of M'lar?" T'L'th upon hearing this began to hurry his dressing so he could slip out of his quarters through the secret panel in his closet area. Grabbing his blade of honor his bat'leth and a disrupter, he threw his cloak over his shoulder and rushed through to his closet and opened the rear panel slipping out into the secret passage way. He prayed she had not found this route out of his chambers since it was something he had installed when she was living on Earth. He made it through the panel and it slid shut just as he heard her entering their chambers calling his name. "T'L'th?"

Walking with a sense of purpose he continued his way through the intricate set of tunnels and out into the cool evening air, inhaling in the crispness of the night. Smiling he felt free for once and began to walk with a sense of purpose from the compound and down the narrow pathway behind the Ambassadors' quarters. T'L'th did not realize he was being observed with his passage and was now being followed by a very curious Margo, who was wondering why he was sneaking out into the night dressed like a vagabond . Entering into the wooded area he carefully picked his way through the woods until he found himself on the edge of the dessert land that led to the mountains. He knew he had another twenty miles to trek to the first watering hole. He was now dedicated to do his voyage to the land of the ancients and the Volkain and began to slowly clear his mind. His thoughts were slowly ebbing away from the guilt and the worry he had accepted and he began to chant softly to himself as he stepped towards his destination. Margo held back shadowing his movements and now regretting she had not grabbed her rations bag when she left her home.

Abarrath lab beneath the surface of the planet

M'lar sat in Indian fashion on the sterile hard bed, resting her elbows on her knees she formed her finger and thumb into a zero. Clearing her mind, she began to stretch her thoughts out searching for those that had taken her thoughts and those of her fellow Klin and smiled. They were as it was on Boreth, because they had assumed the persona of those personalities she had access to their minds and could read them, she tried to manipulate them to come to her. Pushing forward she pressed a command for those that shared her thoughts and the easily controlled thoughts of other captive Klin she forced her will with a command. "Come to me now and bow before me your High Cleric! I command you to come and find me and bow to me!"

Level A, C, E labs

The Abarrath that had taken the personalities of the Klingons that were brought to the various labs on those levels stopped what they were doing much to the surprise of their observers. Those infected were part of a control group and were being observed for aberrant behavior. They turned in unison and began to walk to the doors and follow the call to their Cleric. The observers found this interesting and wanted to see what was happening and how and why it was they were reacting. Eliminating the interference of another Psyche interfering with the newly forming personalities they began to eliminate the known telepaths that had domain over some of the populace. Bringing up those known operatives they were able to observe on their monitors that they were not affecting their test subjects. So as each was eliminated they continued to watch how it was not just one level of newly formed personalities but three levels of them and they were all imbued with the personalities of a Klingon.

COPU (Core Observe Physician Units) began to scan the other Klingons. They found Bi'Anka lying supine on her bunk staring blankly at the ceiling, K'Ter'r seemed to be sleeping, and then there was M'lar who appeared to be meditating. They zeroed in on M'lar, registering her breathing, which had slowed to low levels of taking breaths; her mind wave activity was highly active and nearly off their charts for function. They turned and nodded to each other. "We will observe further to see if she is exerting control over these others." The Head COPU, who was dressed in a white uniform with a gold ornate button. The button's design appeared like a shooting star. It was affixed to a epaulet on his shoulders. From the epaulet there was a long block of coloring running vertically down the arm to stripe the arm with a deep blue coloring. Those that lived on Abarrath knew this ornamentation denoted the wearer as a healer or physician. Twi of other three COPU's wore all white with silver ornate buttons showing there was a way of signifying rank and class. The last one had no striping or button ornamentation which signified this female was a novice to her classification and must still be learning her trade.

They focused their attention on the room where M'lar was being detained. They watched the door slid open and all those she had summoned from the various levels had entered her room. One by one they fell to their knees and lowered their heads and began a chant, the very same chant that M'lar had put in their minds to say over and over and the one common word in that chant was "Kahless." The observers began to record the proceedings finding that more and more of those that had been affected by the personalities and thoughts of the Klingons were now crowding into her room. They observed that all of the infected with Klingon traits were now bowed and chanting before her. COPU Leader turned to another control panel and began to transmit the occurrence to a room in a tower above ground.

Surface of the Planet Abarrath's Capitol City

The elders sat at a U-shape table and observed what COPU1 Leader was transmitting and they like the observers were very interested in what was happening in the lab where the female Klingon cleric now rested in what appeared to be a meditative state. They council members unlike those that walked the hallways of their institutions were dressed in black robes with coverings over their heads. "Interesting what do you suppose she is doing to make them bow down to her in such a manner?" This was said by one of the older men with wizen deep blue eyes, the others were watching and holding an opinion as to what they truly thought when the youngest of the elders smiled.

He was a handsome man with bright blue eyes, pale skin and white hair that draped over his shoulders from under his robe. His face was strong features with a square jaw line and high cheekbones. His aquiline nose could easily lend those from earth to believe he was an alien version of Marc Anthony. Those from earth might have even thought he was a progeny from a relationship between the Roman populace and their race. He had leaned forward and placed his folded arms on the table and smiled from under his hood all could see the smirk that was perpetually placed on his features. Speaking mostly from his observations of what was happening he commented, "She is commanding them to be Klingon and to worship her deity, this could be an interesting concept. To see how they react to accepting another as a deity to worship other than the technology we have. I vote we allow it to continue to see how far it goes." He leaned back to observed the attractive female Klingon sitting primly in her meditative state, eyes closed and posed in her form of prayer.

One of the older members who obviously had female attributes outlined in her robe leaned forward placing her long fingers on the top of the table. Those that knew her, was aware that when not in her robes she was considered; at least to her race, known as an uncommon and ageless beauty. They also knew she could be ruthless and cold, as a member of council she had inherited the emotions of her predecessor. She now frowned and as usual spoke her thoughts, "I think we could be seeing insurrection, they have no idea of how to pray or worship, they have never been exposed to any other concept except what we have believed and preached and that is death is the end of all life and that after death there is nothing, what do you suppose these creatures expect after death?" She had folded her hands together in front of her and laid her steely black gaze on each and every one of those seven that sat at the table. They knew she would not vote to continue and suspected it was due to feeling threatened by allowing others to have what she coveted and that was true emotions not an imprint of someone long dead.

"Masala, is that not what we are trying to find out with this experiment? Was that not the purpose of allowing this transference of personalities and traits into the populace to allow them a free will and to seek out what they wanted from their otherwise mundane and dying life? Did we not vote to allow this in order to preserve our line and the race?"" This one was called Parsek he was the next eldest on the council of elders. He in turned set his steel gray gaze upon the lone female.

"That is the exactly what I voted against Parsek. I feel these creatures will pollute the populace with their vile and unhealthy traits and just throw us into another diversionary class like the Xenoliths did, and the Minorities until there will be nothing left of us at all." She sat back crossing her arms over her chest in a defensive pose. She was beginning to think this whole thing was a grave mistake.

A soft chuckle came from the male elder with black eyes sitting across from Masala. "What do you find so amusing Cranith?" Parsek sat sideways to study the man next to him that was of the same dish maker as Masala. They could tell which dish they had been made by the color of their eyes. They all wore the same robes covering them from head to toe and the one thing that designated them as technological creation were the color of their eyes. Parsek watched him take a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Masala is afraid that the whole will become different and yet that is what we need in order to save our kind. We need to experience these same emotions she denies she has yet there it is in the set of her shoulders and the frown on that face. She would not like for those around her to share in what she is feeling because she is afraid of allowing herself to become just another of our race and that is common. She knows she sets her self apart because she had what they did not and now we with our advance tech are now allowing the 'commoners' to feel and express their own emotions." He smiled looking at the female setting across from him. "Deny it Masala! I want you to deny that you are afraid of the change you have no control over and becoming nothing more than a commoner."

Ratite shook his head he sat at the head of the table and had been elected as the head elder for this quarter. "We all are afraid of loosing control over our populace but we all know that to not allow this experiment we will eventually grow ourselves into extinction. We just cannot allow chaos to rule once the whole is infected with these traits and a cross section of those veracious species that show the highest degree of emotions shall be selected and we shall collect more to take their thoughts and emotions and infect different regions. Surely Masala you realize if we do not do this we will have nothing to govern?"

She lowered her chin and sighed and then nodded. "I know it is a difficult decision. I also know that we do not need to faction off any more than we already have, currently this is what we ware seeing from the Klingons, what of the Romulans, the Humans, or the Bajoran?" She turned to Meldrum who sat next to her.

"I find that the Bajoran and the Earthmen are very much alike in their emotions and a need to make peace, we need more Humans and Bajoran and perhaps one of their holy people to see how they pray from those sections. The Romulans are so chaotic it is a wonder they have not already driven themselves into extinction." Meldrum turned his green eyes on the others. "We are breeding in dishes and not experiencing the touch of one another we wear clothing that allow no one to see us as an individual but a Basic Unit or a Class Unit. I think a balance with the Earthlings, the Bajoran people, with a hint of the Romulans and Cardassians we might be able to actually cultivate and refine their strongest traits and finally have a happy medium to choose from."

Masala thought a moment. "And our current guests what do we do about them once we have selected and collected all we need?" She waited to hear the response to this.

"We let them go back to their lives. If we are successful and can easily transmit their traits and infect the populace with those traits that should take about a year and then we can let them go back to their lives with our blessings." Parsek was the voice of reason on this subject. He noted that the majority nodded their heads and showed they agreed however there were two Masala and Ladner that was not about to agree.

Ladner sat forward and put his red gaze on those present, "Would this not just open the door to allow others to come and find us while we are in transition and try to conquer or over take our world and leave us vulnerable? My vote would be to erase them or send them through the worm hole and let the Borg have them."

"I agree with Ladner, it could just result in an all out war with others that we did not bargain for when we began this mission." She looked at her one ally.

The others began to mumble and Parsek smiled, "Then you think if we sent them to the Borg that would not crate a big problem for us regardless of whether or not we set them free? I think you are looking for bigger problems you have some highly respected and placed individuals that have command of warring nations that could come and destroy our planet is that a better opportunity other than negotiating with them for volunteers that would be able to bring us more personalities that are diverse and acceptable an open trade with them?"

The voice of reason once again made it self-known and it caused another series of arguments and discussions between the council of elders which ended in a vote to allow the "guests" to leave once they were done. Which resulted in Masala and Ladner forming a secret alliance to under mine those efforts to release the guests when the time was up for the experiment. Their attention was arrested back to movement in M'lar's room.

They all watched carefully noting M'lar had opened her eyes, smiled, unfolded her body and stood before those bowed before her. "Rise and rejoice in the name of Kahless the Unforgettable my brethren, embrace your newly found life and religion and I as your cleric. Take me from this place and allow me to walk among those of you that embrace Kahless as your God. Those around her and stood and formed a protective barrier around her, allowing her to walk a gauntlet between them. "I wish to be taken to my friend Bi'Anka. Please lead the way."

The COPU1 pressed the com button, "My lords and lady should we allow this?" He seemed to be in a panic to see them obey her so readily going against the protocols they had bred into them.

Ratite spoke softly, "Allow it, they cannot leave the planet without our knowledge so let us see how far this will go. I find it very interesting she can command them as a leader for her religion to get what she wants which is very intriguing. We need more information on this this Kahless. So for now we shall see where this all leads let it continue." The COPU1 Smiled he rather liked this idea and turned his attention back to what was happening and noted she had complete command, respect and control over the assembly that protected her with their own bodies to allow her passage into the hallway.

The group unfettered by boundaries took M'lar to a door on another level opening the door they waited for their cleric to enter the room and then they crowded around her. M'lar walked into the room and smiled seeing Bi'Anka in a trance. She was communing she knew with the elders of the Volkarian peoples. M'lar walked to the side of the bunk and stood for a moment, she knew to try and break the trance abruptly would cause Bi'Anka to go into what she called a battle raged mode. Shifting to the head of the bunk, M'lar gently placed her fingertip to Bi'Anka's head and closed her eyes, pushing her thoughts forward she spoke softly, "Bi'Anka awaken and prepare to leave these surroundings."

Bi'Anka had been in the trance for over five hours, she was deep into her past and attempting to locate a place that she could punch a hole in to find one of the elders of their tribe. She had navigated many barriers and was beginning to feel frustrated when she had heard Far in her mind.

"My dear Ms. Bi'Anka, it is I Far and Captain K'Ter'r we are in the room next door and I have located the Lady M'lar. She is well and I think she is attempting to manipulate those she can control to get us released and perhaps we can find a way out of here."

"Can you get a message out to the mountains and my people to the elders there?"

"I am sorry but I am limited, they did take me out of Captain K'Ter'r's body and it was very painful and I fear I need some time to heal myself they injured me somewhat."

Bi'Anka's anger knew no boundaries hearing this. "Have they hurt M'lar?"

The voice that responded was tired and a little fearful. "No, not as of the last time I was able to see her and make contact. I cannot say their intentions were honorable. I do know they are treating Janae like he was one of their own or at least the one he calls buddy is treating him like a relative. I sense your anger and it is unreasonable to give into such anger at this time my dear. I would suggest you wait when the time is more presentable to use your talents and seek a way out of here. I suggest though at this time you awaken from your deep trance the Lady M'lar is trying to contact you."

Bi'Anka broke her contact with Far, with a flicker of her lashes she opened her eyes and peered up at the smiling face of her charge. "Good you are awake, now come along we have business to attend." M'lar stepped back around to those she had summoned and waited for Bi'Anka to sit up and stretch.

"We must release K'Ter'r and Far. Far says he has been injured and needs to rest to heal. I am sure that with K'Ter'r detained as he is, would not make it easy for him to do that so shall we go release them too?"

M'lar turned to one of those dressed in traditional Klingon warrior clothing, "You! What is your name?" He looked at her blankly and then down to his feet. "Come, come, speak do you not have a name? Perhaps you have a warrior's name? Surely dressed as a warrior of the House of T'L'th you should have an honorable name."

"My Lady, my cleric, forgive me but I am known only as BASU0098, I know of no honorable warriors name. Please would you give me one!" That caused the others to bow and beg her for names. M'lar smiled and nodded.

"I shall baptize you to the way of the warrior and you shall be given your name upon your traversing the river of blood and pain to gain such a name. Come we have a lot to do to prepare for now you noble warrior that honors the house of my father and the father of my father I shall call you Ka'Tar." He smiled widely hearing the name and bowed low grabbing her hand and pressing his lips to her hand in a kiss of respect.

The assembly then stepped aside to allow her access to the hallway and the cell next to Bi'Anka's walking to the door she looked at Ka'Tar and nodded, "Open it and be prepared to salute the one on the other side he shall be your captain from this point forward."

Surface Level of Abarrath Buddy's Quarters

Janae sat in the serviceable chair at the table leaning back on two legs he looked at Buddy who had made an amazing transformation in the past five days since their arrival on this planet. His manner of clothing was very much like Janae's comfortably rumpled with a half-day's growth of beard growing on his face. He like Janae sat across from him balancing on two legs of the serviceable chair. "Do you have anything with a kick to drink around here?" He looked over at the sterile confines of the quarters and was not impressed. "You know you need to do something to this place to make it more livable. It is kind of like a prison in here."

Buddy looked around at the area and nodded. "You know you are right. I need to bring in items that would make it more comfortable for any lady I would like to entertain and of course for myself too. This is really depressing is it not?" He was looking at it through Jane's eyes and he like Janae found the room depressing. "Tell me Captain, what is it like to entertain a woman? What would one need to do to get her like in the mood?" He smiled shyly and with a boyish charm and Janae was convinced once he got the lay of the land he would not need any pointers on how to entertain any woman.

"Well you kind of got to talk sweet to them, get them comfortable to be around you and then nuzzle their neck, get them drunk and see how much they want to be with you." He chuckled and his thoughts went to female Klingons. "Except for female Klingons they like to fight before they have sex." Janae wiggled his shoulders uncomfortably.

"Why?" Buddy was curious to know everything there was about copulating with a female as no one on his planet had done such a thing in over five hundred years.

"That is how they are, they like it rough and tumble." He smiled and thought back to Marstoq's sister who had gone all gooey on him once he had bested her in combat. He sighed now that was a night to remember and then he noted that Buddy was watching him curiously. "Just know I found out the hard way they do not like subtle love play. They like it rough and tumble, so for you my dear boy I would suggest soft and easy and stay away from Klingon females."

"But I like Bi'Anka."

"Oh holy shit no! You do not want to be with that beast she will rip you apart look at one of your own and go with that to begin with and build up to a Bi'Anka. I can assure you that one would not tumble any male she is dedicated her to kind and her mistress so move along buddy nothing to see."

"If you insist." He sighed disappointed

"I do now on to what is going to happen once you get all of the emotions you can handle what will happen to us?"

"I don't know, they have not made a ruling."

Janae did not like the sounds of that so he began immediately to formulate a plan that was going to get them off this planet and away from these people.