Hey! I'm back! I hope you didn't give me up for missing forever. University demands have been surprisingly urgent these past two weeks, so… didn't write much. But now I have another chapter, here it is!

Again, and always, thank you ever so much for the reviews :)

Chapter X. The ships' affair conclusion

Five days, following Merrrshika's biological calendar, passed by before the Mirrresh arrived, alarmed, at maximal warp, on red alert, shield to maximum and ready to fire.

Those five days were not wasted away. All alerts but the most trivial ones had been repaired on both Pshi and Shrrri, Merrrshika was beginning a good friendship with Pshi, the three dominant females of the herd had been identified, the count of survivals, deaths and disappearances had been made among Mirrresh crew and vessels, and two orphans vessels were spotted, a young male and female. Left to themselves, they always revolved near the outer rim of the herd, completely silent, without trying to make contact with other ships.

Merrrshika had "disguised" Voyager in the perfect mother: along with B'Elanna, Harry and a whole army of engineering's crewmen, she had programmed and scattered on the outer hull a ton of small devices set to emit ultra-violet that would match the pattern of a mothership after the birth. The team had also programmed other devices to produce reassuring hyper-bass-frequencies in all the emission range and randomized harmonics dosage until both orphans recognized in Voyager the vocal signature of their mother. Besides those two mothers, the herd had lost nine other females, unaccounted for and probably captured, ten newborns, found dead of phaser burns or photon torpedoes, and eight male warships, also found dead. Only one male was unaccounted for and probably captured.

The attackers had not had a remarkable success, but the Mirrresh were still very angry when they stumbled out of warp speed and arrived within fire range of Voyager. They were stopped immediately by Pshi and Shrrri who interposed between the flotilla and the alpha quadrant's vessel. Janeway hailed the commanding ship, easily recognizable to the grey polished metal covering the excrescence protecting the bridge, but there was no answer. Merrrshika, however, in Pshi's pilot seat, received a paranoiac and extremely displeased diatribe when she called the same vessel via Pshi's radio channel. Head tucked in the pilot helmet, hands and legs ready to order an evasive manoeuvre, she listened without batting an eyelid at the admiral – no less – calling her a crazy fool to come back within Mirrresh territory after being pardoned. He also told her that she was dragging Voyager's crew into death with her, that she was again betraying her whole planet, that she had provoked irreparable damage in killing and capturing the ships.

She capitalized on a moment when the admiral was taking back his breath to offer some precisions:

"Voyagerr and I arrived herre afterr the vesshels werre dead, gone orr wounded. Actually, we helped to heal the two males left and we offerred prrotection to the whole herrd."

"And I'm shupposed to believe that! What do you take me forr!", the commanding officer of the flotilla barked.

"Ashk Pshi and Shrrri," Merrrshika answered calmly. "Oh, by the way, Voyager's medical officherr found Warri bulletsh in mosht of the Mirrresh bodies we found lying everrywhere in the vesshels. Therre werre many bulletsh in nerrves or passhages walls too. The chanches arre there arre shtill shome left."

A third person, via the commanding vessel's pilot helmet, requested to take part in the discussion. Merrrshika linked him to Pshi's channels, and to her surprise she recognized Sherrrim, with whom she had had many run-ins, both as a criminal hacker and as a legal informatics consultant. Sherrrim just so happened to be both a good pilot and hacker. Merrrshika had found him considerably harder to fool than the average military officers she usually dealt with in her quality of occasional consultant – she did her job well, but she rarely felt compelled to write down the most tiny and interesting details in her reports.

"You took a grreat rrishk to meet Mirrresh jusht afterr you prromised to go in the alpha quadrrant," Sherrrim began. "Merrrshika, why did you come herre, firrsht of all?"

"I'm shtill heading forr the alpha quadrrant, don't worry. I wanted to buy a ship, a shmall shuttle. I missh orrganic piloting."

The hair on the admiral's face suddenly stood, giving him a ruffled hair. He narrowed his eyes dangerously and his ears slanted sideways. Even for the humans, it was a body language that bespoke of fury, and it needed no intercultural explanation. But Sherrrim had had many run-ins with Merrrshika, so he asked, his tone that of appraising interest:

"How would you pay?"

Merrrshika uncovered her impressive teeth in a predatory smile.

"I designed a bio-mechanical interrfache during the lasht two yearrs. I can give you a prrototype. It'sh an interrfache that allows an orrganic vesshel to rrecheive and shend data to a mechanical vesshel without using the usual communication and converrsion patterrns. In fact, it'sh like a Voyager conshol able to connect with an orrganic vesshel."

The admiral had shut his mouth and his hair was standing down. Sherrrim gave Merrrshika an appreciative stare and made a roguish wink, while the admiral turned around to discuss with his councillors. In the end, the Mirrresh commanding officer requested a meeting on board Pshi, deemed the most neutral ground they could find in the vicinity, to whom he could also ask for a report of the past weeks.

Merrrshika held back her sigh of relief. It was clear now that she would get what she had asked for. And it was all thanks to Sherrrim, again, which was interesting. If she had been told that she would be saved by one of her old adversaries twice, she would have thought it highly unlikely. But then she made a wry smile; it was probable that if Sherrrim had been told that he would find a hacker worthy of his benevolence twice, he would have found it highly unlikely also.

So, two hours later, a meeting was held in the meeting room of Pshi. The admiral Arrrish, the captain Janeway, Chakotay, Merrrshika and the Doctor were present, along with Arrrish's engineers and councillors. Merrrshika had carried with her a strange violet console, with buttons and plugs of non-standard and unorthodox shapes and sizes. She presented it to the Mirrresh engineers – among which Sherrrim, which forced her to be absolutely truthful and to give them more useful details than she might have in other circumstances – and explained to them the basic functions of the consol, and surrendered it officially before the witnesses. Then, the admiral Arrrish officially sold her the two orphan shuttles and thanked her to have led Voyager to the nebula and have offered assistance.

And then, Voyager took back the road to the alpha quadrant, at impulse speed at the moment, followed by two fearful but quiet shuttles.

ooooo

Kathryn was not displeased to definitively leave Mirrresh space behind, and Merrrshika had assured her there was no region of space ahead of them where they were likely to meet more than a few scattered exploration vessels or merchant ships.

The captain was in her private quarters, sipping on a black coffee while filling her journal, when her door rang. She invited the other in and was surprised to see Merrrshika standing in the doorway, timid and hesitant.

"Do come in," Janeway invited again.

Merrrhika timidly made a few steps forward, then said with the look of a child that must apologize to his parents:

"Captain, I'm shorry to come to yourr perrshonnal quarrterrs, but I wanted to shee you in a prrivate place."

"That's ok, Merrshika."

The Mirrresh took a breath, then said :

"I wanted to apologize."

Kathryn looked at her struggling to state her mind.

"What for?", she prompted her again.

"Because… I know you arre the captain, and I took a lot of command and gave many orrderrs durring the five lasht days. Shorry, forr you it musht be like… height or nine days. I wanted to tell you that I didn't want to contesht yourr authorrity or ability to lead a misshion."

Kathryn smiled kindly.

"It's alright, Merrshika. I appreciate that you explain it to me, but we didn't have much choices besides listening to you. So, do you want a coffee or a tea?"

Merrrshika smiled impishly again as she refused.

"No thanksh, eitherr would be toxhic to me! You know what I found on Pshi?"

"What?", Janeway asked, taking another sip of coffee.

"A whole database about Mirrresh food. I will be able to eat shomething elshe than ishterr tarrtarr shteak. And I alrready added shomething equivalent to yourr coffee in the rreplicatorr database."

She stepped forward and requested a "brrremi, hot" to the replicator. She took the eclipse cup in her ultra-violet-furred hand, then lifted her cup in Kathryn's direction, who answered in kind. They "took the tea" together that day, enjoying a small talk that neither truly gave in very often.