Book 1 – Chapter 10
Ambassador Spock and Admiral El'Tarc insisted on mind-melding with emotionally and mentally broken Selvah, while Kari got medical attention for her injuries. Because Amy was already at her side, scanning Kari's eye for signs of permanent damage, Kari tried to blow the Vulcan males off, "I'm fine. I swam out of the whirlpool. I got this! If it makes you feel better," she gave them a boy scout salute, "I promise not to cause her any unnecessary pain, where 'unnecessary' is defined by one or both of you."
"Neither your abilities nor your honor is in question," Spock stated, "You are blind and in a delicate condition. We believe it is in your best interests to place you in the care of your doctors. Shall we ask your Lord Von's opinion on this?"
She felt sure, "He would agree with me."
She had a receiver and microphone in her long ear prosthetics. She heard her beloved Lord Von, "Not this time. Let them handle the Vulcaness. Tend to your injuries and 'condition.' Report to me afterwards. You are much loved; now do as I say."
Before she could move on her own, Jack had her by the arm. Gently, he coaxed her to the far side of the holo-deck, where his family, and Pitar were waiting. Not that she could see, but Lorian had tears of joy in his eyes. He tried to hug her but forgot that his was only a holographic presence, "My first grandchild. I hope to have many more. Yes? Please?" he requested and encouraged.
"I'm sure they will work on it," T'Pol nudged her son out of the way. Again, not that Kari could see, but T'Pol bowed politely to the challenge's victor, "Your conduct during this event is praiseworthy. You do your Ancient House proud. My son and I will leave you and Jack to discuss your growing family; and by the way, welcome to ours." She saluted the young mother-to-be, "Peace and long life."
Kari returned the salute, and uttered the proper response in Vulcan, "Dif-tor heh smusma. (Live long and prosper.)"
Pitar came to the foreground with a smile for the Klingon Lady, "It truly is a shame that my father gave up on our meeting too easily. However, I doubt I could love you better than Jack does. You will invite me to your real wedding, yes?"
She turned her head towards the sound of the voice, "Do you want to be on my guest list or Jack's?"
He flirted with her, "Your list would be delightful." Then he looked to his friend, who did not take the flirting seriously, "You are a lucky man. If you ever clone her, keep me in mind."
"Get outta here before I kick your ass," Jack grinned.
"Thanks for remembering that I'm here," Monty chided. "Mazel tov on the pregnancy and breaking your subject. Go take care of yourself."
*** BREAK ***
Upon arriving on Titan's bridge, the crew cheered their commanding officer. With her eyes still bandaged, she nodded in the direction of each voice she heard. As if she had perfect vision, she marched across the bridge and through the ship to sickbay. Once she heard both doctors enter the infirmary, she ordered the door locked.
Kari sounded scared, "I heard a discussion about Jack's lack of fever, but I didn't catch it all. What about it?" She set her palms and left cheek on his chest, "Are you all right, loDnal?"
Jack held her and conveyed Lorian's explanation, "Dad said the true purpose of the Vulcan fever is procreation. In the year my mother was pregnant with me, my father should have had a Pon Farr episode, but didn't. He hypothesized that he sensed me. The procreation job was done, so he didn't have to get fired up."
Amy admitted, "I hadn't heard of that before, but every hybrid is categorized as a mutation, so Lorian's explanation is possible."
She seemed to understand that, so she moved along. "Show me my medical readings." The lady doctor held the tricorder up to Kari's face, and like she had in the arena, blindfolded-Kari could see as clearly as Amy could. "This is conception. The fertilized egg has not yet attached to the uterus. There's still time."
"Time for what?" Amy inquired.
Kari thought it obvious, "Emergency contraception."
Jack stammered, "What? You want an abortion!?"
She lowered her voice, hoping her calm would bring out his, "Abortion is removing an embryo that is already attached to the uterus. The 'morning after' treatment prevents attachment. It's not…"
Jack took that tone with her again, "Oh yes, it is! Cell division is life, which happens at conception!" His volume dropped and the tremor in his voice was heartbreaking, "For months, we have been talking about children." His eyes watered, "Why do you suddenly not want to have my baby, Baby?"
With both her hands, she clasped his, and held them to her chest. As the salt in her tears burned her eyeballs, she pleaded for him to understand, "I do want children with you, just not now. I want to be married first, and spend time with you, just you. I want us to roller skate atop the Great Wall of China. I want to play hide-and-seek with you in the tunnels underneath the Roman Colosseum. I want you to teach me how to swim at the waterfalls on Risa. I want you to make love to me on every flat surface of our apartment." Her left fingers released his hand. She caressed his face, and whimpered when she felt his tears. "bangwI'," she whispered, "These are not things we can do with a child in tow."
He was positive, "Yes, we can! It just requires a little more planning."
"Exactly!" she sobbed, "Everything we do, anything we think about doing, has to be planned – has to revolve around the needs of the child. The baby will come first, while my needs wait. Perhaps two or three years into our marriage, I will be ready to share you, your time and attention, with children, but not now!" She pressed her forehead to his, "Right now, I want you all to myself. I know it's greedy and selfish, but I'm young. Greedy and selfish is what 'young' does best. Please-please-please, try to understand."
His heart felt heavier because, "I do understand," he moved his head from side to side, rocking her sweet cranium in unison with his, "I was your age once. I wanted to see every world, all their wonders, and be tied down to nothing that I didn't purposefully choose. I get it." It hurt to admit, "Hadn't felt our age difference until now."
He felt her fear well up. She almost couldn't get the question out, "Are you having second thoughts about me?"
"God no!" he lifted his head and kissed her lips and forehead, "I just don't know how to give you what you want without…" with his free hand, he touched her tummy. He begged her, "Please don't terminate."
"I don't want to. I do want children, just not now – not now," she collapsed into him, "I'm so sorry. I didn't think this would happen my first time. As pushy as I've been about coupling, I should have been more careful. I'm so sorry. Please forgive me."
"Hush," he held her tight, and moved his hand to stroke her hair, forgetting that she had shaved her head in the arena. He chuckled, "Bald, pointed ears, white eyes, little pupil – you look like Nosferatu."
She laughed and sniffled, "I love you."
He kissed the corner of her mouth, "qamuSHa'. We can talk about what to do while I peek at your eye." After laying the patient on the bio-bed, he asked Amy's help getting the sticky, blood soaked bandages off. When Amy did not acknowledge him, he looked around the room for her. She was on the far side of the bay, slipping cigar shaped tubes into something resembling a silver breadbox. "Dr. Tucker to Dr. Grey, I could use your help."
She huffed at him, "I know; that's why I'm hurrying with this thing!"
He didn't know what she was doing, "Why would I need a breadbox in sickbay?"
Kari tapped Jack's hip, getting him to step aside so she could see what Amy was doing. Kari wrinkled her nose, "That is not for bread. It is a bio/archeology kit. The tubes are used to collect soil, water, vegetation, and any other sample that might be interesting. The box is a portable cryo-unit, to freeze the samples – preserve microscopic life, if any is present – for later examination."
"Right, microscopic life!" Amy was excited, "Titan's transporter is so precise, it can strip a subject of its clothing. If it is as exact as I think it is, it could separate mother…" she gestured at Kari as a full person, and then patted Kari's lower abdomen, "…and her fertilized egg. Egg goes in the tube. Tube goes into the cryo-unit. Perfectly preserved embryo that can be re-implanted later, like two or three years into a couple's marriage."
Jack was speechless. Blind-Kari was not, "Is it safe?"
Amy was positive, "Absolutely, and highly effective! In vitro fertilization tech is so advanced these days, that the chances of a re-implant attaching is 98%."
Jack lifted Amy up in a bear hug. After setting her down, he planted a long hard kiss on her forehead, "You are the greatest!"
*** BREAK ***
After speaking with Lord Von, she returned to sickbay to ask Amy if she was healthy enough to get rip-roaring drunk. Upon entering the infirmary, she spotted Jack in the far-left corner. His back was to the left wall. Upon a table in front of him was the bio/archeology kit. He was singing to the box.
Ah, we are the daughters of Triton
Great father who loves us and named us well
Aquata, Andrina, Arista, Atina, Adella, Allana
And then there is the youngest in her musical debut
Our seventh little sister, we're presenting her to you
To sing a song Sebastian wrote
Her voice is like a bell
She's our sister, Ari-
Jack gasped, "But the giant clam shell is empty. Where is Princess Ariel?"
Kari scooted to the right, where Amy was quietly watching the show. She asked the doctor, "Is he telling the Little Mermaid story?"
Amy was under the spell of the narrator, "He started with the Fox and the Hound. I stood in as Tinkerbell for Peter Pan. I'm waiting for him to do Mulan, and sing 'I'll Make a Man Out of You.'"
She was stunned, "He's singing all the songs?"
Amy nodded and snickered, "Who'd have thought hunky tough guy from the Gucci Guilty ads was into Disney cartoons. He's going to make a great dad!"
"Hey look, Mommy is back!" Joyfully, he turned the box around for Kari. Upon the panel were two pencil drawings. The one on the left looked like Jack, but the male image had rounded ears, and Kari's iris-less stare. The one on the left looked like Kari, but she had irises and pointed ears. The caption under each depiction, respectively, was ƺ'Cevan and ƺ'Lisa.
She left Amy's side to Jack's awaiting embrace. After hugging and kissing her lover 'hello,' she asked, "What is this?"
He presented the images, "It's too early to tell if we're having a boy or a girl, so I sketched one of each. This is our son, Cevan, and our little girl, Lisa." He brought her attention to the symbol in the spelling of their names, "I looked through Titan's library and discovered this is the hieroglyph for the kos'karii of legend. I'm hoping maybe we could incorporate it into Von's family crest. What do you think?"
She frowned, "Tradition does not permit alterations to the Ancient crest, but…" she smiled, "It doesn't mean we cannot be creative with the spelling of our children's names."
He gave her a series of pecks on her lips, "That's my girl!"
She chuckled and then kissed the forehead of each child. "Mommy is very tired and should go to bed. May I take Daddy with me for the night?"
"Yes, you may," Jack answered for the baby and picked up the box, "Daddy will put you to bed first."
Amy hurried over and relieved him of the box, "I'll tuck baby in."
Kari smiled, "Thank you, Aunt Amy," and pulled her mate along.
Aboard a Klingon vessel, ship's personnel and passengers walked one pace behind the Commanding Officer or got out of the C.O.'s path. There were two exceptions to the rule. Visiting Admirals walked beside the C.O. because a) a C.O. should never be undermined on his/her vessel, and b) an Admiral shouldn't take a backseat to a Junior Officer. The only person allowed to walk in front of a Klingon C.O. was the Chancellor himself, for obvious reasons.
This night, Kari held Jack's hand and pulled him forward to walk beside her to their quarters. A couple of passing crewmembers disapproved, thinking the Vulcan male disrespectful. To them, she grunted, "Qap (I insisted)." And like that – SNAP – Jack was forgiven.
Once in their room, she griped at herself, "Damn, I forgot to ask Amy if I could get drunk."
Jack had diagnosed her long ago and had told her many times before, "You are an alcoholic. You should stop drinking all together."
Like always, she disregarded the assessment, "I'm not a mean or abusive drunk, and with today's medical technology, I can grow a new liver in less than an hour. Now, Doctor Tucker, are a few drinks going to kill me?"
He shook his head, "No, but take it easy, Sweetheart. You have two to three years to wean yourself off. We don't want your drinking problem causing birth defects in Cevan or Lisa."
She conceded, "HIja', bang pong. Computer: peach moscato." The computer knew her and provided her a flagon. She did not take it, "A normal sized glass, and some ice water please."
As she drank the water, he wondered, "How did it go with Lord Von?"
Between gulps, she replied, "He's thoroughly impressed with Amy's ingenuity and skills. You, however," she shook her head, "Not so much. He is horrified by my appearance! The scar up my face, the ripped inner eyelid, the redness and swelling – he swears you intentionally left me deformed to deter other males from looking at me."
Jack rolled his eyes, "You are not deformed! The eyelid is tender and irritated because it's exposed to ambient air and dust. If you don't put on the blindfold I gave you, it'll get infected and you'll go blind in that eye."
She shrugged, "I don't need my eyes to see."
"Yeah, I noticed," he said, "How did you do that?"
She promised, "When you and Amy come to work for Von, he and I will fully disclose everything."
"Me?" he stammered, "Work for Von?"
She nodded, "Yes, when I leave SI, Von plans on offering Amy a job. He is not anxious about hiring you – which is not indicative of your medical skills."
"No explanation needed," he said. "I know his reasons are personal."
She dropped that part of the conversation, "He will, however, offer you a position because until you came along, he couldn't get reliable baseline readings on me. Because of you, he has learned more about my abilities and mutations in the last year than he had in the six years' prior."
He was not aware, "Saltas shared his notes with Von?"
"Lord Von," she corrected her husband. "I have a bad habit of simply saying Von, because he did not bring me up to use his title. To anyone else, he is 'Lord Von' and anything more familiar or informal is disrespectful."
He nodded, "Understood, and you were saying about Saltas' notes?"
She continued, "When H'tav and I started communicating regularly, I noticed a…" she paused to think of a way to describe it, "…it was like an ocean undercurrent, except it was coherent."
Jack inferred, "Von – excuse me – Lord Von sent you coded messages?"
She cheered, "Exactly! He asked how I was doing, what the Vulcans were doing to me, and what they had learned about me. I hacked the database, extracted the records, encoded my findings, and sent it to Von using the undercurrent."
"Why the cloak and dagger?" Jack wondered, "You have every right to see your medical records and share them with whomever you want."
She explained, "Every Klingon warrior learns to read and communicate in code. You don't become good at it if you don't practice. During these practice sessions, Von said he wanted to conduct tests on me and asked if I could covertly convince Saltas to execute the experiments. I planted the ideas in Saltas' mind, and I was surprised that he found some of them inhumane."
She wrinkled her brow, "I did not realize until then that Non-Klingons were squeamish about bodily fluids and breaking bones. But anyway, like I said, my baseline was off, because I was on an emotional rollercoaster. After we started dating, I reached an equilibrium and…"
Jack interrupted, "A second look at test results revealed a pattern."
"Precisely!" she exclaimed, "And when we arrive on Qo'noS, you will have full access to everything Von and I have discovered about me."
"What about Starfleet Intelligence?" he asked, "The way you're going, you will be the Director within the next couple of years."
She sipped her booze, "I never wanted to work for Starfleet. Directing it and furthering the Federation's agenda – (head shake) – no thank you! Once my business is done on Betazed, I'm going back to Qo'noS with Titan."
He was shocked, "When did you decide this?"
She answered, "The plan all along was to go home one day. I put the idea aside because you wanted to direct Starfleet Medical. As that is no longer your ambition, I can hoist anchor and pursue my goal."
"Which is?"
"The same as every other Klingon," she stated, "To serve the Empire – to bring it Glory!"
He wondered of her loyalty, "What about the Federation?"
She stated with a great deal of resentment and disdain, "Your Federation threatened me. Such does not inspire loyalty. I submitted to my enemy's will to survive and along the way, it foolishly taught me how to be a weapon of mass destruction."
This was starting to bother him, "And you no longer have need for us."
"I never had need for the Federation," her tone and facial expression were harsh. When he turned his sights away from her, she softened her voice, "You are wondering if I no longer have need or use for you. Jack…Jack look at me…" he didn't want her to see his tears. "My love," he felt the weight of her heart, "Such is the second time today that you lost faith in me."
"Screw you," he chided softly but continued with increasing loudness, "Every time we hit a speed bump, you ask if I'm still interested, if I've changed my mind, if I'm ready to pack my shit and leave. You give me grief about my faith in you, but where is yours in me?"
"That's what I was about to say," she whispered, "bangwI', twice today, you lost faith in me, because deep down, you know I have not been completely honest with you. If you are ready to hear my confessions, I am ready to make them."
He wanted to know everything – almost everything, "I know you are in love with him, but I'll lose it if you tell me how special you are to each other. Otherwise…" he got comfortable on their bed, and hugged her Cerberus doll, "…Shoot!"
She started with her patriarch's research of her intended mate. Von learned why Jack had taken a break from Starfleet. He considered Jack's regret and guilt about sending crewmates to their deaths weak, because, "You feel their loss is a waste, instead of celebrating their sacrifice as heroic. Your thinking is too human and your influence upon me has…" she lowered her head and said sadly, "…made me less than what I had been. When he said, he did not approve of you, I cried. He told me to dismiss you and I refused. He said if I defied him, he would never speak to me again. This is when I lost my breath and why Von had to loosen my clothing."
He was stunned, "He disowned you?"
She sighed, "He wasn't ready to go that far; not yet anyway."
He groaned, "Why didn't you tell me?"
She saw no point in it, "What would you have done? Yell, scream, show up on his doorstep so he can take your head off with a bat'leth?"
He snapped, "I'd have married you by the end of the day! If he was disowning you anyway, we may as well have gone all-out and freaking earned it! Why didn't you tell me?"
She whispered, "H'tav and Rico said they would speak with Von when they got home. They did not tell me what was said. They just told me to wait. When Ezra died, H'tav contacted me to be Von's proxy. Today was the first time I'd heard Von's voice in over a month."
He could feel she was overjoyed at no longer being shunned, "Did he say why he changed his mind?"
"While growing close to you, he felt I was forgetting him and myself," she said. "While watching the fight, he realized I was still 'us' – combat lessons, showmanship, bravado." She was so happy to have made him proud, "I conducted myself with honor."
Regarding her pregnancy, "Like you, Von feels life begins at conception and the morning-after treatment is abortion. He is relieved to hear of Amy's solution. For the child's sake, he has partially relented about us. We have not his permission to marry, but he will allow us to carry on as we have been. He said he will adopt our children."
Jack repeated to ensure he heard correctly, "He plans to take our kids from us?"
"No," she answered, "They are our children, but they will have his name, and be members of his House. They will otherwise be illegitimate, and fall into the peasant class."
"My children carrying another man's name; it's humiliating!" Jack grumbled. "Would he do this to anyone with interest in you, or am I special?"
"I had five suitors," she replied. "Between leaving Vulcan and arriving on Terra, I spent 45 days on the home world. Von conducts business at his estate, and I met some of his associates." A handful of them had sons around Kari's age, and each father asked Von if their boys could meet his 'daughter.'
Von invited the fathers and sons to lunch on the terrace. Instead of setting up a meal, he set up a mini arena. After handing each young warrior a sword, Von introduced his leather-armor-clad daughter to the guests and said, "If you can get her to yield, I'll let you call on her."
Jack wondered, "Any of them come close to winning?"
She tapped her forehead with her right index and middle fingers, indicating she had used telepathy on them, "Not by a mile."
Jack remarked, "Why did you go to Terra at all? Last summer, you were home with Lord Von. You could have just stayed and been safe from the Federation's reach."
She climbed onto the bed, and into his arms. She held on tight, hoping the feel of her would keep him from losing his shit. "Von and the High Council said Mick offered a unique opportunity that we would be fool to pass up – access to the Federation and Starfleet's secret vaults."
He was a little fearful of saying the word, "Espionage?"
She snuggled him and stated truly, "bang pong, your Federation is not King Arthur's noble court. It has spies in every major government. In violation of the Treaty of Algeron, it is developing cloaking technology. And let us not forget why SIA recruited me. Lucky for your people, agreements with my Empire have not been violated."
Of the Federation spies in her Empire, execution orders had already been signed. However, Kari convinced Von to talk to the High Council about using the agents to feed false information to the human government. Due to these efforts, the Federation was off in its assessment of Klingon weapons tech.
"The Federation is so focused on enemies-from-without that its enemies-within are carrying out elaborate schemes without detection," she said, "There is an on-going plan to destabilize the Betazoid government with a bio-weapon that would not exist without you."
He was shocked, "I'm sorry, what did you say!?"
She reminded him, "Twenty-six years ago, you were the Chief Medical Officer on the Bellerophon. You cured a colony of a psychotropic influence."
He remembered, "Meteorite debris. That was a force of nature; I didn't create it."
She confirmed, "But you mapped the molecular structure of the infection. Someone got their hands on your diagram, tweaked it, and launched a modified version onto Betazed six years later."
The epidemic resulted in respiratory, circulatory, and neurological abnormalities in 60% of the population, up front. Four to eight months later, the remaining 40% of the population suffered a delayed reaction. Overall the casualty rate was not high, about three percent.
"I think the low body count is why it did not raise suspicion," she said. "What caught my attention was the infection rate, 100%. No one was immune. Nature is not this efficient."
Of children born to flu survivors, fifty percent had birth defects – learning disabilities, autism, empathic abilities only, no telepathy at all, and so on. Within the Rixx family, the flu pandemic had left 88% of the clan sterile. The bio-weapon's purpose has been to eradicate the pure royal line.
She then asked, "How well versed are you in Betazed's political structure?"
He admitted, "Probably not as aware as I should be."
In Traxin Rixx's day, great mountain ranges and waterways separated large chunks of land. Each chunk was declared a fiefdom. Traxin gave each of her loyal maiden-warriors a fiefdom to rule. "The 12 women with their families, plus Traxin and her children, form the 13 Great Houses of Betazed. These families are still in power. Laws and policies are passed by vote – majority rules. The House of Rixx has always voted last, so it can break ties. The last few centuries, the need for tie-breakers hasn't come up often, so the royal family vote is somewhat obsolete.
"In a state of emergency, the Royal-Rixx is expected to assume absolute power – which is why my mother had to come here from Vulcan. The belief is that the offspring of Betazed's wisest, strongest, and most revered ruler will lead the people out of whatever calamity it is facing. So, even though they are unneeded in everyday governance, there is a significant amount of power in being a 'Royal Rixx.'
"Now, imagine the chaos if an emergency arose and there was no Rixx to lead the people. Add to that Betazed's role on the Intergalactic Trade Commission. The alpha quadrant's supply lines to 'Rim Worlds' and Star-bases along the borders would shut down, the Federation's economy would collapse, and the Federation itself would crumble in three to five years. That is assuming the Federation's adversaries do not invade during the implosion."
He wondered aloud, "So all that stuff you've been looking at on the bridge, you're trying to find terrorist chatter – clues for how to stop it." She tensed for a moment and he addressed the sensation he got from her, "You are not trying to stop it?"
"A Federation-free galaxy," she said with a smile, "I want to see it. I want to live in it!"
He was not pleased, "Honey, the Federation's enemies are Empire enemies. Once they are done with us, you are likely to be the next target."
She stated confidently, "If the situation was reversed and this was going on inside my Empire, your Federation would say, 'Klingon citizens are attacking other Klingons on Klingon worlds. It is clearly an internal matter; therefore, the Prime Directive applies.' Your people would walk away, observe terrorist activities from afar, decipher attack patterns, and use the knowledge it gains from our slow demise to protect itself."
Jack muttered to himself, "Prime Directive sucks when you're on the wrong side of it." He said aloud, "So you're sitting back, observing, and looking for patterns to form defensive strategies for the Empire. With your accesses and Lord Von's tech, you probably have something set up at SIA to transmit data to Qo'noS, so you can do the watching and planning from anywhere, right?"
She nodded and noticed, "You were uncomfortable with my espionage, yet you are surprisingly calm about my setup. It is inconsistent."
He said of it, "Your initial confessions are always a shock, but your motives have never been 'destructive for destruction's sake,' so I'm not going to fear it. The point I was getting at is, if you can do your spying from anywhere, why are we still here? Power up the warp drive. Let's pick up your hover boards, my cello, our pets and head for the Empire!"
She had five words for him, "Selvah, Ezra's murder, and Rexx."
"Argh," Jack grunted, "Have you discovered anything about any of it so far?"
"The Betazed destabilization plan is independent of Ezra's murder," she said. "I am sure of this because whoever is behind the Betazed-flu-scheme is clever and patient. The plan was so subtle, it took two decades for someone to notice it. After spotting it, it took me another three months to gather enough information to see its impact on the Rixx clan. By my estimate, it will be another decade for the pure-bloodline to be completely wiped out. And as I had said before, the Federation collapses three to five years after Betazed falls. Elapsed time from Bellerophon's discovery of the illness, to full-fruition of the plan is 40 years.
"But when we look at the Ezra event, it is a punch in the face!" she continued, "It is impatient. It has garnered a great deal of attention. Someone murdered him to make a statement!"
Jack did not have all the details so he had to ask, "You are sure it was murder?"
Her knowledge was absolute, "Footage from multiple angles shows a sliver of light scorching the hood of the shuttles right before the explosions! If it had happened thusly on one vessel, a malfunction would be a consideration, but for it to happen on both shuttles?"
Jack agreed, "Projectile weapon. From the trajectory where did the phaser blast originate?"
She responded, "A defense satellite was reprogrammed. Its operating system, programming language and syntax are nothing Monty's analysts, the Klingon Defense Force, or Von have seen before. I cannot read it either, but somehow it feels familiar."
He wondered, "What's with the grin?"
She admitted, "You were just thinking, 'Oh wow, the living god doesn't know something? Ain't that a blip!'" She chuckled, "Sometimes – very, very infrequently – your scorn is cute."
Okay, it was killing him. He had to know, "Do you love him more than you love me?"
Her answer was fluid and unrehearsed, "Not more or less. It's just different. Every girl falls in love with her father-figure, and every boy feels the same way about his mother."
He challenged, "But my mother passed away. Your beloved Lord Von is very much alive and…" his dream was shattered, "…we can't get married."
She held him tighter, "In all the important ways, we are married. For this reason, I took your surname months ago, and I think it time you adopt a Klingon name."
He wondered, "What's wrong with the one I have?"
"'Jack Tucker' is very human," she stated fact, "Among us warriors, human things do not inspire respect."
He stated, "I would rather change the warrior perception than my name."
She smothered him with kisses, "That is a very Klingon attitude!"
*** BREAK ***
0530 hours. When morning arrived, Monty headed to Heracles's observation deck for a meeting. Upon arrival, he found totlh sitting at the head of the table. Tucker was seated to her right, swatting at her hands to stop her from playing with her blindfold.
She griped, "It itches!"
He quipped, "You can break a bone and disconnect the pain but you can't stop a tickle from registering!? Suck it up, Buttercup!"
Monty chuckled, amused that his 'take-no-shit SI agent' would let Tucker talk to her like this, "I was going to ask how your eye is, but I guess I know. How is your baby?"
"Well cared for," Jack answered, "And we ask that you not mention the pregnancy to anyone, especially to Alyssa."
It was their business so Monty did not challenge the request. However, he did not understand it, "May I ask why you don't want her to know?"
totlh responded, "Because her health is deteriorating rapidly. She will have a hard-enough time with my father when she gets back to him. It will be impossible for her to hide me if she is constantly thinking about her grandchild."
"Gotcha," Monty nodded, "While we wait for the others, want to tell me how many Warbirds you got out there, totlh?"
Suddenly, the word registered with Jack. Telepathically, he uttered to his bride, "totlh is Klingon for commodore!" In Starfleet, 'commodore' was a rank between O-6 (captain) and O-7 (admiral of the lower half); the highest rank being O-11, fleet admiral. In the Klingon fleet, 'totlh' was the third rank down from the top. He continued thinking to his wife, "That is so hot!"
She addressed Monty, "I have more than one Bird, but less than 50."
Monty: "Why are they here?"
totlh: "You did not call in more ships to sweep Betazed's ocean for shuttle debris or body parts, so I did. If you will give me the debris you have picked up already, or at least 3-D images of the pieces, I can help you investigate my uncle's murder."
Monty hesitated, "You are too close to this, totlh."
She did not challenge the assessment, "I know. I prefer not to be here, getting under your feet, but what choice do you give me? You asked my advice and did not take it. You told me to let El'Tarc and Spock question Selvah and they have come up with nothing so far. Every minute that goes by, the colder your leads get and the closer Kari of Qo'noS is exposed as Trajan Rexx Sator'Roc. Things get more complicated and unstable from there."
Monty swore, "I give you my word, I will get to the bottom of this."
She was confident, "Chairman, your ability and devotion to this has never been in question. The concern has been in how quickly you will get it done."
Monty informed her, "totlh, troop movements are not complicated for you because Lord Von's fleet is not KDF. He does not have to worry about leaving planets and borders undefended. These logistical issues take a few hours to resolve."
She reiterated, "Once more, it is not your ability I question; it is your timeliness. Will you resolve this before this matter explodes in Rexx's face?"
Monty crossed his heart, "Yes. You have my solemn word that I will unravel the mystery of Ezra's murder, Selvah's involvement, and your birth identity."
She took a moment to read him. He had ships on the way to scan the ocean for remains. Ken Berkley and Lucy Bennett were on their way from Umgodi to interrogate Selvah. Ileybra, who was a member of Jack's medical advisory team, was also on her way. With Spock and El'Tarc available to him, the Chairman intended to have a telepath in Selvah's head 24/7 until the lunatic had no secrets left.
totlh submitted to the Chairman's request to leave this in his hands, "I will say good bye to my mother and be on my way."
"Why are you leaving?" Alyssa had entered the room and caught the tail end of her daughter's statement. Then she saw her child, "Dear Gods, what happened to your eyes?" She hurried over, lifted totlh's chin and caressed her forehead, "The scar is horrifying! Did you tell your loving Qel not to fix it?" Qel, pronounced Khel, meant 'doctor.'
Spock had come in behind Alyssa. He observed totlh's injury from afar and remarked, "Among Klingons, such a wound is exceptionally alluring."
"If you are male!" Alyssa argued. She bade Jack, "Please erase this mark."
Jack was obligated not to, "I cannot perform a procedure without the patient's consent."
totlh stood up and hugged her mother for the first time in seven years. She said in a professional and dignified manner, "BotlhDaq, Lord Von and the members of his Ancient House express sincerest condolences for your loss. We shall now depart to allow you and your family privacy to grieve. Dr. Tucker, please escort me out."
"No," Alyssa held on tight, "Lord Von's business with me may be done but yours is not. You will stay with me until I am ready for you to return me to Vulcan." She shifted her grasp, placing her hands on her daughter's shoulders, and pushed her down into the seat, "Now sit and tell me what happened to your eye."
Mother was thrilled to hear that her child had won the kal-if-fee but it saddened her that the challenge was just a rouse to break Selvah's mind. She was also told why Selvah needed to be broken, which disturbed her greatly. "You intend to leave Betazed before discovering the truth?"
"I trust the Chairman to find the answers and to safeguard my identity," totlh replied.
Alyssa was angry and began speaking in Bao-tan, "These humans don't give a damn about your well-being. They just don't want you to use your abilities against them. When your usefulness expires, so does your life – you know this!"
"Terran-Common please," the Chairman requested.
Spock informed Monty, "Theirs is a private conversation."
Monty asked, "Do you understand what they are saying?"
Spock shook his head, "I only know it is Bao-tan, the ancient dialect upon which modern Betazeen is based. The Federation has never been able to translate it."
Monty wondered to Jack, "Did your wife teach this language to you?"
Before Jack could answer, Alyssa interjected, still speaking the ancient tongue, "Why does Lamont call you his wife? I thought the kal-if-fee was not real." She tapped her daughter's arm, "Are you or are you not wed?"
"She has been my common-law wife since December 1st, when she adopted my surname," Jack answered in the Queen Regent's ancient tongue. "But officially, no, Lord Von has not yet approved of me."
This disappointed the Queen Regent, but she did hear hope. She repeated, "'…has not yet approved…' You will not give up?"
Jack swore, "Never!" He crossed his heart and gave her his scout's honor.
"Captain Tucker," Monty snapped, "Translate."
Jack gave him the innocent part, "The Queen Regent wants to know what's holding up her daughter's marriage to me. It's not an answer Starfleet needs, which is the reason we are not sharing with you."
Returning to the Common language, totlh stated, "My business here is done, Your Grace, and I have property to return to Lord Von."
While holding totlh's hand, Alyssa bade in Bao-tan, "My time in this life is short. Please stay by my side until I return to Vulcan."
Jack did not verbally interrupt, but he gave Kari his opinion, "I'd give anything to have a few extra days with my mother."
totlh replied in Bao-tan, "If time with me is all you want, leave with me. We will travel to Vulcan on impulse power only – it will take days to get there – but I am not staying in the Betazed system. It is like swimming in raw sewage."
Before either lady said more, Lwaxana Troi arrived and apologized for not having come sooner. "I am sorry I am late." Then she looked at her young cousin, "My goodness, your scar and the bandages, what happened?"
"Catfight," she replied, "I won, and you are not late. The rest of us were early. I shall now take my leave of you all." She started getting up from her seat, only to be pulled back by her mother.
"Please," Alyssa pleaded. "Stay by me."
"totlh, please stay until meeting's end," the Chairman requested for Alyssa's sake.
"totlh!?" Alyssa was stunned and proud, "Such a rank at such a young age!"
Lwaxana confessed, "I don't understand."
Alyssa informed her, "The rank is Klingon for…"
"Nothing of relevance to matters at hand, Dear Lady," totlh was modest. Then she addressed the Queen, "I will stay for this meeting, and no longer."
It was good enough for Alyssa, who smiled at her child, "Very well. Lamont, please continue with the meeting agenda."
Monty addressed Spock. "What have you for us, Ambassador?"
Spock back briefed the Klingon and her crewman. He had been asked to interview members of the royal family to determine who should succeed Queen Regent Alyssa. "The purebloods are not only petty, most of them suffer mental retardation due to several centuries of inbreeding. They are also out of touch with the common people. Thus, I believe the best person is not among the purebloods. My recommendation is Lady Lwaxana Troi."
All eyes, except for Kari's, turned to the lady sitting on the far side of Spock. Lwaxana had been reading Spock from the day he arrived on Betazed. She knew days before that this was coming, and she knew exactly why she would answer, "No. Among the 13 Great Houses, I already carry one vote. If I accept what you are offering, I will have two. This is too much power for one person."
Spock remarked, "This is the attitude that makes you right for the job, and please do not utter your next objection. It is an invalid concern."
Monty wondered, "What's her objection?"
Spock clarified, "In case of emergency, she believes she needs the support of a pureblood Rixx; Lady Kos'Kari, in particular, because she is the true heir."
totlh leaned forward, placing her elbows on the table. She folded her hands in front of her, "Lwaxana, the assassination of one royal family member is an emergency. Prince Regent Ezra, his wife, and their two children were murdered. I count four emergencies and you had it handled before Queen Regent Alyssa or I arrived. All you needed was them," she pointed at Monty, and returned to her previous sitting position, "Due to Betazed's proximity to Sector 001, Starfleet will come running when you call. You do not need me, My Lady."
Lwaxana felt a bit of hesitation from Alyssa's true heir. Even though Kari swiftly dismissed it, Lwaxana was curious. "You have a reservation. What is it?"
The totlh promised her, "It is irrelevant."
"To you, it is not, but to me it is," the cousin implored, "What is it?"
With her elbow still on the armrest, she rubbed her thumb index and middle fingers. This display was rare for her, as it was something she did when she was seeking words that would not offend. Eventually, she decided there was no nice way to say it. "You are afraid of the Troi and Rixx voting power falling into your daughter's hands."
Lwaxana adored her daughter and did not wish to say uncomplimentary things about her offspring. All she could manage was, "If you were to meet her, you would understand."
"Excellent idea!" Alyssa cheered. "totlh, why don't you meet with the little girl and provide me your opinion?"
totlh provided it now, "I recommend declaring Lwaxana your heir, and reminding her that she, too, can appoint a successor instead of just letting power fall onto her eldest daughter. Problem solved." She turned her head towards Spock, "Have you anything more to share, Ambassador?"
He folded his hands over his midsection, "No."
totlh moved along, "Lwaxana, clockwise, you are next. What have you to share?"
As the diplomats wanted face time with a Betazoid official, Lwaxana met with each of them. While in their company, she read minds to discover ulterior motives. "Most of the diplomats have come to curry favor with Trade Commission members," Lwaxana reported. "Only a handful are here for the appropriate reasons. With Alyssa's permission, I would like to send the charlatans home."
Alyssa permitted it, "I will dismiss them myself."
Jack asked Lwaxana, "What did you get from the diplomats' aides and crews that brought them here?"
Monty asked, "Why is that important?"
"It might not be," he answered, "But we won't know with certainty until we turn the stone over." His attention returned to the Queen Regent's cousin, "You were saying, Dear Lady?"
Most of the aides were loyal to their masters. Many disapproved of using a funeral to further political ambitions, but they said nothing, because they did not believe it their place. Lwaxana confessed, "I did not read the crew. Was I supposed to?"
Jack replied, "If it was not requested, no; I'm just wondering if anyone's thoughts jumped out at you."
"Many had sharp thoughts," Lwaxana had noted, "Are you looking for something in particular?"
Monty interjected, "Satellite positions, dislike for Betazed or its people."
"Too obvious," Jack said. "She would not have to be prompted if she felt things along those lines." He softened his voice to address Lwaxana, "Did anyone seem disinterested in being noticed?"
Lwaxana exposed totlh, "I have not met them directly, but the three Klingon warship captains who entered orbit late last night, under cloak, do not want to be detected."
That got Monty's attention, "You have four birds out there?"
totlh answered, "Two of the Warbirds carry the Empire's official delegation for Ezra's funeral. The officiant chooses to be the last to see the fallen prince because, with no one waiting in line behind him, he gets to spend more time sharing final thoughts with the dead and expressing condolences to the royal family."
"Smart man," Monty remarked, "Any idea who the official is?"
She took offense, "He is not a 'man,' he is a 'warrior'! I know exactly who he is, and when he is ready, he will reveal himself to you. Until then, let us move on."
Alyssa was profoundly wounded, "You are in such a terrible hurry to leave my side, Daughter. Are you angry with me?"
totlh ignored her mother, "Chairman, what is next on the agenda? Selvah, is it?"
Spock tapped his com-device, "Spock to El'Tarc."
"Yes, Ambassador?" the retired Admiral was heard.
"Titan Commander – Excuse me, totlh – would like to know what information you have gathered so far."
"I shall make my report in person. Is she with you?"
"Indeed, Heracles' observation deck."
"I am on my way."
While they waited, Spock got up to get a cold beverage from the food dispenser. He asked the other attendees if he could get them anything while he was up. Jack took this moment to quietly confront his bride, "Why are you being rude to your mother?"
Her mind growled, "She wants to keep me here."
Jack thought it normal, "She is your mom. She misses you, Baby."
"That is not what I mean," totlh's brain was increasingly irked, "She wants me to stay and rule Betazed – dig this world out from under Federation control, and bring it into Klingon or Verrothian alignment."
"That's the second time you have said 'Verrothian.' Who are these people?"
"It does not matter," she said. "They are not expansionists and Betazed is too far from their territory to protect. If mother wants to ally with the Empire, she can use her position as Queen Regent instead using mine as Von's heir."
Jack theorized, "Your support in her realignment efforts would go a long way with the Empire, yes?"
She shook her head, "I have no pull with the High Council."
"But Lord Von does and he would listen to you, right?"
"Indeed, but I am not sticking my neck out for her people. They like serving the fascist regime called 'Federation,'" she said. "If she wants Von's support, she has his proverbial phone number. She also knows Chancellor K'mpec's Emissary is in orbit. She can broach the subject with him right now if she so chooses."
Before Jack could telepathically discuss this matter further, El'Tarc entered the room and took a seat next to Monty. He started his report with a question, "Who is Adanya?"