Chapter 14: Qo'nos
"OUR MISSION is to return the Klingon to his homeworld. Another rescue attempt could jeopardize that mission—"
"Denied," Buffy said irritated at T'Pol. "As first officer I am your superior officer, Sub-Commander. You would due well to remember that."
A jolt from outside rocked the ship.
"The situation must be analyzed logically," T'Pol said, but this time it sounded like she was trying to convince herself as much as Buffy. "We have work to do. We must stabilize our flight condition before we can move out of the atmosphere."
"Again, denied," Buffy said. "Sub-Commander man your station or get off the bridge."
"Hull plating's been repolarized," Reed reported.
"Alright," Buffy said as she glanced toward the Engineering console and it's tie-in to Engineering. "Trip, what is your status?"
"The autosequencer's on-line, but annular confinement's still off by two microns," Tucker said.
"That should suffice," T'Pol said.
Buffy frowned as she turned on T'Pol. "In the ready room, now," she ordered and marched into Archer's ready room.
"Commander," T'Pol said as she followed Buffy. "If the Suliban have reestablished their defense, we'll have no other option."
"I am not leaving my sister or John behind," Buffy said. "I know you have seen mine and Dawn's files. That means you know what I am capable of. Do not cross me on this. If it were you trapped over there I would do the exact same thing. I don't leave people behind."
"Bridge to Commander Summers, we have four more coming up off starboard!" Reed called over the intercom.
"Commander, as your first officer till Captain Archer returns. It is my duty to point out that a rescue attempt is ill advised," T'Pol said. "We could lose this ship and our lives in the attempt."
"Noted," Buffy said. "And thank you, I appreciate your advice." She turned and she and T'Pol exited the ready room. "Can we dock, Ensign?"
Mayweather blinked. "These aren't ideal conditions—"
"Trip, I hate to do this to Dawn and John," Buffy said. "The only way were going to get them back is with the transporter."
"I'm on my way!" he declared.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
In less than two minutes Tucker was in the newly installed transporter chamber, summoning power from deep in the bowels of the ship's impulse drive system.
"I'll do it," he murmured. "I'll do it, I can do it—"
The chamber began to whine a god-awful noise. He focused and focused, adjusted and hoped.
A column of light appeared inside the chamber, between the two pie plates on floor and ceiling that would act as a receiver. Human readings ... he was sure those were human readings. There was only two humans on that big Suliban knot out there!
Two humanoid shapes appeared, forming between the lights. But the Suliban were humanoid. Tucker held his breath.
There was nothing more he could do with the controls. They would either do what they were designed to do, or there would be a disaster here.
Archer and Dawn's builds—their hair and hands—a crouched position. Running?
Long seconds finally pulled Dawn and Archer together out of a puzzle of lights and whines. They stumbled forward on sheer momentum, then skidded and stopped themselves, and looked around in shock at their new surroundings. They wavered, disoriented, then patted themselves to see if they were all there.
"Bridge!" Trip called. "We've got them!" He rushed to the pad platform. "Sorry, Captain! Commander! We had no other choice! Are either of you hurt? Are you both all here?"
"Well, I think so, most of me, anyway." Archer offered him a tremulous smile.
"I'm good, thank you, Trip," Dawn said.
"T'Pol wanted to leave you behind!" Tucker said. "But Buffy wouldn't leave."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
The Planet Qo'noS
THE GNARLED TOWERS of the Klingon High Council chamber rose above a smoggy yellow haze in the capital city. Inside the chambers, an ancient room of stone and wooden beams was hung with ceremonial banners and echoes of conquests stemming back through the pages of alien time. Guards stood everywhere, more for show than function, dressed in regalia and armed with archaic weapons. The Council members, seated at a serpentine table, pounded and shouted in their idea of debate.
In a noble queue, Archer, Buffy, Dawn, T'Pol, and Hoshi moved into the enormous chamber, led by Klaang, who was so calm now as to be arguably majestic.
Klaang was clearly working at both strength and dignity, despite what he had suffered physically. He stopped before the Chancellor. "Wo'migh Qagh! Q'apla!"
"He's disgraced the empire," Dawn translated. "He's ready to die."
Archer murmured, "That's all we get out of this?"
The Chancellor was on his feet now, glaring in open curiosity at the humans. The wide-shouldered leader walked down the great stone steps, and as he did this, he drew a jagged dagger from its sheath.
Klaang tensed but never flinched as the Chancellor stopped in front of him.
The Chancellor snatched Klaang's wrist and drew the blade across the palm, drawing blood.
Archer winced and put his hand out slightly to his side to keep Hoshi steady.
T'Pol, Buffy and Dawn remained unfazed. The latter two because of their years in Sunnydale.
"Poq!" the Chancellor called.
An aide approached with a vial, held it up, and caught several drops of Klaang's blood, while Klaang stood there, completely dumbfounded by all this.
The aide hurried to a large apparatus that remained undefined until he opened it and inserted the vial into a sensor padd. A large screen came to life suddenly, displaying a highly magnified cluster of lavender blood cells.
The Council members grumbled with sounds that might have been approval.
The image continued to enlarge, and became spirals of DNA. The spirals became larger and larger, until a distinctive pattern showed itself even to the untrained eye. The aide kept working the controls until individual molecules rose before the audience.
Hoshi drew a breath to speak, but Archer motioned her silent.
The molecular pattern began to rotate, revealing ... what were those? Maps!
Maps, and text! Alien script written on a molecular level!
"Phlox should see this," Archer murmured. "He'd have a kitten."
Text, schedules, coordinates ...
The entire chamber erupted in a rumble of approval. Then the Chancellor, purple-faced with excitement, stalked over to Archer.
He lifted the dagger to Archer's throat. Archer remained steady, but it took some doing.
"ChugDah hegh ... volcha vay."
Just like that, the Chancellor lowered the weapon and stalked away.
Archer let himself breathe again. "I'll take that as a thank you. ..."
"No it wasn't," Dawn replied. "And you don't want to know what he said, believe me."
The Klingon chamber began to shuffle with activity as the meeting broke up and the Council adored its DNA treasure. Now they could move on with whatever internal conflicts they had with their neighbors, the Suliban, or they could use the contraband information to get the Suliban to leave them alone. At least they knew now that their internal structure was being tampered with. They wouldn't turn against each other now. At least, not for a while.
Archer turned and motioned his crew toward the door. "Ladies? Allow me to escort you to a much better place. We've done all we can here. Anybody got a silver bullet?"
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Acher stood up as the door chime on his ready room jingled. "Come in."
T'Pol and Buffy came in, oddly side by side and not even spitting. What had gone on here while he was incommunicado?
"I've just gotten a response to the message I sent to Admiral Forrest," he told them. "He enjoyed telling the Vulcan High Command about the Suliban we ran into. It's not every day he gets to be the one dispensing information."
T'Pol looked quizzical, but she got the inference.
"I wanted you both to hear Starfleet's new orders before I inform the crew."
"Orders?" Buffy asked.
Archer nodded and looked at T'Pol. "Your people are sending a transport to pick you up."
T'Pol seemed hesitant, but buried it. "I was under the impression that Enterprise would be taking me back to Earth."
"It would be a little out of our way. Admiral Forrest sees no reason why we shouldn't keep going."
Buffy smiled. "Good."
Archer smiled and agreed, "I have a feeling Dr. Phlox won't mind staying around for a while. He's developing a fondness for the human endocrine system."
"I'll have Trip get double watches on the repair work!"
"I think the outer hull's going to need a little patching up," Archer said. "Let's hope that's the last time somebody takes a shot at us."
"Let's hope!" Buffy agreed. She spun on a heel and headed for the door. T'Pol started to follow her, but Archer stopped them.
"A moment please," he asked.
"Ever since I can remember," he began, "I've seen Vulcans as an obstacle, always keeping us from standing on our own two feet."
"I think I can speak for T'Pol when I say we both understand," Buffy said as T'Pol nodded in agreement.
"No, I don't think T'Pol does, though you might, Buffy. If we're going to pull this off, there are a few things we have to leave behind. Things like preconceptions ... holding grudges ..." He paused, and tilted his head to soften his meaning. "This mission would've failed without your help, T'Pol."
"I won't dispute that," T'Pol said.
"I was thinking a Vulcan science officer could come in handy ... but if I ask you to stay, it might look like we weren't ready to do this on our own."
T'Pol raised her chin in that way she had. "Perhaps you should add pride to your list."
"Perhaps I should."
T'Pol considered the honesty, then said, "It might be best if I were to contact my superiors and make the request myself. With your permission," she added decorously.
Archer smiled again. "Permission granted."
"I would also like to suggest," Buffy said. "That T'Pol be made second in command."
"I think that can be arranged," Archer agreed.
They stood together in companionable unity for a few moments as the ship streaked along at its new high-warp cruising speed.
"Will you both join me on the bridge?" he asked, and gestured toward the door. "We have some good news for the crew, don't we?"
"Captain," T'Pol said with a lilt, "I will be honored to assist."
"What she said," Buffy said with a smile.
The other crew members were at their stations as they came out of the ready room. They might have suspected something was going on, but they seemed to be assuming the worst. Reed was straight as a stick. Mayweather was leaning forward on his helm controls, almost sagging. Both Dawn and Hoshi's eyebrows were up in anticipation. Tucker's absence bothered Archer a little, but he knew the engineer was larking about below decks, doing what he liked to do.
Archer came to a place on the bridge where he could see them all, and they could all see him. T'Pol and Buffy politely moved a little off to one side and let him have the stage.
"I hope nobody's in a big hurry to get home," he began. "Starfleet seems to think we're ready to begin our mission. Mr. Reed, I understand there is an inhabited planet a few light-years from here?"
"Sensors show a nitrogen-sulfide atmosphere," Reed said, not exactly confirming or dismissing what Archer had just said.
"Probably not humanoids," Hoshi clarified.
"That's what we're here to find out," Archer reminded. "Travis, prepare to break orbit and lay in a course."
Mayweather looked up at him, beaming. "I'm reading an ion storm on that trajectory, sir ... should I go around it?"
Archer glanced at Buffy and smiled before returning his attention to Mayweather. "We can't be afraid of the wind, Ensign," he said. "Take us to warp four."