—Chapter 10—
The three battlecruisers sent by the Vulcan Navy, along with the Enterprise still tucked securely beneath the Li'att's belly and held there by that ship's tractor beam, were still cruising at Warp 7.4, having just passed Ferenginar without stopping, and entered a desolate region of space, all in pursuit of the Tek'Marr. That the Tek'Marr had spent a week orbiting Ferenginar while establishing diplomatic relations was good news for the search and rescue party, as it meant that one week's worth of time which could be shaved off their estimated schedule to rendezvous with the Tek'Marr.
It was such thoughts that occupied T'Pol, when she briefly touched her mate's mind, barely a second's worth, but enough for T'Pol to sense her mate at the Tek'Marr's gunports, the lovely Ensign by his side, a tension in his mind that spoke of ongoing combat. Frustratingly, she had not sensed the location of the Tek'Marr, for she'd foolishly spent what brief time she had in trying to establish a deeper contact with her mate's mind, rather than searching for the ship's location in his mind, and he had been too amped-up by the skirmish they were engaged in to even notice her touch.
T'Pol was in Archer's Ready Room when she received this impression, and she flipped a switch which initiated contact with the Comm officer.
"Yes, sir," said Ensign Sato.
"Contact Captain Tumok on the Li'att, and pipe the call through to me here, please," said T'Pol.
"Yes, sir," said Hoshi.
Moments later, Tumok's voice got T'Pol's attention, when the Vulcan said, "Yes, T'Pol. What can I do for you?"
"Have we made any progress in establishing a location for the Tek'Marr?" said T'Pol, for days earlier Tumok had told Captain Archer that three Vulcan civilians whose Bonded mates served aboard the Tek'Marr, had boarded the Li'att themselves and joined the mission, in an effort to find their mates aboard the Tek'Marr.
"Possibly," said Tumok. "One of our couples gave us a possible location, but I wish it had been corroborated by at least one other source."
You and I both, thought T'Pol.
"In any case," said Tumok, "I do no want to waste time on chasing shadows, but as this is the only lead we have gotten so far, so I will take what I can get. We are setting course for it."
"What course is that?" said T'Pol.
"I will send you the Tek'Marr's last known coordinates, T'Pol," said Tumok, "though they are of course out of date even now, just minutes later, but it gives us a starting place, and perhaps luck will favor us, and the Tek'Marr. At least we know the ship still lives.""
"Yes. Thank you, Captain," said T'Pol. "Please keep me advised as you come across new information."
The Tek'Marr was still on course for Fallback One, when Science spoke from her station on the Bridge.
"You may find this interesting, Captain," said T'Lisse, and sent the feed from her station to the Bridge's main video monitor.
That monitor displayed a rapid succession of images, some of alien places, and ships, but Science came to a stop at a document covered with alien script, presumably Breen.
"One of the items I captured using our tractor beam, was a computer core, with a fair amount of data on it, which the computer is still deciphering, but this was one of the first items decrypted, and I corroborated this information with information I pulled from other files just for that purpose. It explains why the Breen attacked us in the first place rather than negotiating, and it explains why they're so determined to kill us now."
"Go on," said Telek.
"It appears that we have blundered into something of a civil war, and the remnants of a great battle meant to settle that crisis," said Science. "Now, I must apologize, Captain, we are still shaky on proper names, as small hieroglyphs appended to each name seem to modify Breen pronunciation, and perhaps even the name itself."
Telek nodded, and indicated that Science should continue, for pronunciation was irrelevant at this particular time.
"Yes," said Science. "As I was saying, it seems that a Breen of the royal bloodline, named Cyrus the Younger wished to take the throne from his elder brother, Artaxerxes II, and raised an impressive number of troops from among the Breen to support his cause, though he was still outnumbered by loyalist troops fighting on behalf of his brother. In order to balance the scales, Cyrus heavily recruited mercenary forces from far-and-wide outside the Breen Empire, no doubt promising them sufficient plunder to balance out the risks, and more wealth atop that, should he win the throne."
Telek cringed, as he'd made the logical deduction from these facts, and said, "Let me guess. Cyrus lost."
"Precisely," said T'Lisse. "A pitched battle was recently fought, in which Cyrus was defeated and killed. Artaxerxes wisely transmitted an offer of clemency to the losing faction of the Breen, on condition that they destroy the hired mercenary forces completely, as warning to other species to stay out of Breen affairs. On hearing this, the mercenaries naturally scattered to the winds."
"So these Breen will never stop," said Telek. "They think us mercenaries, and they hunt us to obtain Artaxerxes' clemency."
"Precisely," said T'Lisse.
"You always bring me good news, T'Lisse," said Telek.
"Sorry, Captain," said T'Lisse. "Occupational hazard."
"As soon as you have grasped the Breen language well enough to communicate with them," said Telek, "I want it loaded into the translator, and patched into the Comm system."
"Do you really believe that you can effectively bargain with them, Captain?" said T'Lisse. "Given their current predicament, I mean."
Telek intended to reply, but the wall mounted Comm unit buzzed. T'Lisse stepped to the wall, and said, "Yes?"
"I need to see you in Medical, T'Lisse," said Doctor Usek.
"I am presently occupied with the Captain," said T'Lisse.
"Bring him along," said Usek. "He might find this interesting."
T'Lisse looked at Telek, and the captain nodded his agreement.
"We are on our way," said T'Lisse.
Five minutes later, Telek and T'Lisse walked into the Medical Bay, to find Doctor Usek waiting for them.
"This way, please," said Usek, leading the two visitors to one of the back rooms which functioned as a morgue.
Four bodies, of seemingly four separate species were laid out on stainless steel tables, for the captain's inspection. Along a table which lined the wall, were laid out four identical uniforms, and both Telek and T'Lisse noted the unusual helmets, which were basically humanoid in shape, save that a broad snout projected from the front of the helmet, and rather than a see through face shield, or individual lenses for each eye, these helmets had a broad strip of opaque green glass which presumably served the same function.
Telek raised brow at Usek.
"These four bodies were captured by Science with the tractor beam, and brought aboard our ship, during our recent engagement with the Breen," said Usek. "Presumably, they are the Breen."
"We can not be certain of that, Doctor," said Telek.
"True," said Usek, "but the fact that they are wearing identical uniforms argues otherwise. If you note, only one of these species has a snout, yet all of the helmets have a snout. Only one of these species has evolved to have a wide horizontal eye, yet the helmet accommodates this species perfectly, while not hampering in the least the ocular functionality of the other three species. I believe what we are facing here is a confederacy of various species, all politically joined for a common purpose. It is a fairly common arrangement in the universe."
"The material we have yet to decipher may shed light on this eventually, Captain," said T'Lisse, "but the Doctor may well be correct. Given what we know so far, I speculate that the Breen may have something of an empire carved out in this sector of space."
"Understood," said Telek. "Anything else, Doctor?"
"No, Captain," said Usek, "but I will pass any new information I come across directly on to Science."
Telek nodded, and left the morgue, while Usek and T'Lisse continued their discussion, as naturally, Science was fascinated by the doctor's findings, and wished to discuss them in depth.
The lead ship among the six Breen ships still pursuing the Tek'Marr was named the Qui'zha and commanded by Vallis, a member of the lower caste of nobility which often gravitated to military service as a means to improve their lot, and possibly catapult themselves above their limited stations. Vallis had indeed hoped for this when he had sworn allegiance to Cyrus, only to watch his dreams go down in flames, after a series of campaigns conducted over the course of the past three years culminated in Cyrus's flagship being swarmed by the converging fire of a dozen loyalist ships, and sent spiraling down in flames to the lifeless planet over which that final encounter had been contested.
Vallis paced the Bridge of the Qui'zha, a Bridge dimly lit solely by the backlit instrument panels and computer monitors, for he was frustrated by the course which events had taken in pursuit of this cursed red ship. This whole thing would have been concluded long ago, had it not been for the slight speed advantage this ship possessed over it's Breen counterparts. Still, they'd spent too much time pursuing this one foe to fail. There might not be another quarry to pursue by now, for the mercenary filth dispersed quickly upon Cyrus's death, and what had not been destroyed, would be long gone from Breen space. This one ship, could give them all life, but they had to destroy it quickly, lest it slip away.
Issika, the Qui'zha's Comm officer received a hail, and gestured to Vallis by tapping her headset. Vallis understood her meaning and nodded, and Issika sent the transmission to the Bridge monitor.
"Vallis," said Utullu, his transmission still spotty, but improved since they'd turned away from the quasar and moved quite a distance from it, "I've received transmission from five others of our kind. I've told them we have game afoot, and they wish to join the hunt. We could use their help to put these slippery bastards into a box."
"Do it," said Vallis. "Bring them in to the hunt from the most effective vector."