7 Carraya
Captain Sisko stood at the door to his office, watching the activity in Ops. There was a heightened sense of tension these days, ever since the Klingons had started their war on Cardassia. The conflicts in the Gamma Quadrant had been bad enough, but there had been the psychological barrier of the wormhole to lessen their emotional impact. The Klingon-Cardassian war was in this sector and so was a lot more difficult to push to the back of one's mind. Sisko had taken for granted the sense of security that the Khitomer accords had provided. Now that they had been dissolved, the Galaxy seemed a far more threatening place.
The latest intelligence reports indicated that the Klingons, probably encouraged by their successes against Cardassia, were now taking the war to the Romulans. Dozens of minor skirmishes had broken out all along the Klingon-Romulan border. Twenty-five years of cold war tension were finding release.
Sisko passed his baseball from hand to hand, then decided to read the rest of those intelligence reports that Worf had brought to him. Sisko was still unsure about Worf. Worf had only been on the station a short time, and seemed to keep himself to himself a lot. Still, the Chief had known him for years on the Enterprise and seemed to have a lot of regard for him, even if they didn't seem particularly close. If the Chief trusted him then Sisko was prepared to ignore any doubts about his new Strategic Operations Officer.
Just as Sisko was about to turn toward his office he noticed that Major Kira had moved over to the communications console and was reading the screen intently.
"Captain," she called to him. Sisko walked over to her.
"It's a distress call," she explained. "From the Anduin. Remember? The station runabout that's on loan to Starfleet Intelligence?" Sisko remembered – a Lieutenant Yaana had been in the process of following a drug smuggling operation and had needed the ship to complete the mission. He'd had no hesitation in releasing it.
"What's their problem?"
"They were travelling through a system near the Romulan-Klingon border when they got caught up in the conflict. They've crashed – the ship's disabled."
"Where?"
Kira checked the screen again. "The Carraya system. They're on Carraya IV."
"That could put any rescue attempt right in the middle of the Romulan-Klingon conflict." Sisko thought for a moment. "Ask Lieutenant-Commander Worf to join us in my office." Time to test the man's abilities.
Sisko found that he was severely disappointed in those abilities. He had explained the problem to Worf and asked his advice. How should they proceed since the system was along the border between the two Empires? Worf had enquired which system it was, to which Major Kira had replied that it was the Carraya system. The Starfleet personnel were marooned on Carraya IV. Up until then Worf had been giving the problem serious thought. At the mention of the name of the planet, he lost that equanimity and began demanding to be allowed to go to the system on his own.
"You'll have to give me a reason," Sisko held on to his temper.
Worf saw that he had overstepped the mark, and replied less heatedly. "I can't."
"You can't?" Sisko was astounded at the man's insubordination. "If you can't reveal your reasons for wanting to go to Carraya on your own then I can't accede to them."
"Captain Picard would have trusted my judgement," Worf bristled, "and accepted that there are demands that honour makes on me as a Klingon." Worf's anger was contained, but was visible nonetheless.
"I'm not Captain Picard and I'm not going to give you the same degree of latitude that you had on the Enterprise," Sisko's anger was not contained. Your personal feelings are not the issue here." He turned to Kira. "Major, will you lead the mission to rescue our people?"
Kira nodded. "I have a personal connection to this, too. I met the four of them while I was in the Rigel System last year. Not only that but Lieutenant Anthas informed me that she has the Orb of Transcendence on her ship." The mention of that name triggered another emotional response in Worf. He groaned. It sounded like a note of despair. "Commander Worf," Kira turned to the Klingon. "I'll need you with me."
"'Lieutenant Anthas?'" Worf seemed too preoccupied to respond. "And is she with a human called Cochrane and a Vulcan named T'Pris?"
"Yes, and a Lieutenant Yaana from Starfleet Intelligence." Kira was bemused by Worf's change in demeanour. "Why?"
"I know them too. I think the Romulans and the Klingons will be the least of your problems."
The Anduin had crashed on Carraya IV on stardate 49056. Cochrane had taken leave of his grandmother on Muddrox a few days earlier, and he and his friends had set course for Deep Space Nine, with the intention of returning their runabout to Captain Sisko and the Orb of Transcendence to Major Kira. The course from Muddrox to Bajor had taken them close to the Romulan-Klingon border, any other route would have added kiloparsecs to their journey. The risk was a calculated one, but unfortunately the Klingons chose that time to start attacks along the border. As they were passing through the Carraya System, they had run into a confrontation between three K'Vort-class ships and a D'derridex warbird. The warbird had imploded and the shockwave had hurled the small runabout into the atmosphere of the nearby planet below too violently. As the runabout hit the atmosphere its port nacelle had ruptured and it had fallen into the forest below; Anthas managing her third controlled crash-landing in under a year.
The Anduin had not been badly damaged, although it was impossible for it to lift off with the ruptured nacelle. The replicators still worked well, as had the location beacon they had unloaded and set up nearby. Once that had been deployed and contact made with DS9, there was nothing for them to do except wait to be picked up.
They had spent the three days since the crash clearing an area to sit in, exploring the surrounding areas, and tuning the frequency of the insect repellor to work on the indigenous insects. The four were spending the first truly comfortable evening on the planet sitting around a small fire and discussing their wedding plans.
"But Andorian custom is OK with one guy and three women getting married?" Jonah asked.
"Not really, but then we don't really have the concept of male and female in the same way anyway," Anthas replied. She didn't wait for any further question, Jonah's quizzically raised eyebrow communicated his preference for elucidation well enough.
"Our sexes are differentiated in two separate ways," she explained. "We have the same differentiation as other humanoids, the primary and secondary sexual characteristics that we all know and love," she let loose a smirk at that point. "But then we have these, too," she ran her right hand along her right antenna. "You've seen plenty of Andorians, right?" She looked around at the other three. They nodded. "Some of them have those tapered tiny antennae poking from their foreheads, and others have thicker, fluted ones, like mine", she clasped her antenna again, "extending from the top of their skulls. Well, we have an additional set of sexes defined by what type of antenna we have."
"But," Jonah interjected. "your antennae aren't sex organs."
"Oh, aren't they?" Anthas replied, loosing another smirk. "I'll have to give you a lesson in Andorian physiology some time."
"Now, An, don't encourage him," Yaana admonished. She stood up, and began heading towards the runabout. "Just going to replenish the replicators," she explained.
Jonah moved the conversation back round to the original subject.
"So how does this affect the weddings?"
"Well, they're between four people, one of each sex. The two sexes that non-Andorians would perceive of as male are divided into those with pointed antennae, called eadtu, and those with thicker fluted antennae, known as eikaas. Females are similarly divided into kadurali and shoika. A stable family unit is supposed to need one of each, each one fulfilling a specific role within the relationship, otherwise there'll be disharmony within the marriage and any offspring won't have the proper role models they'll need."
"So are all four needed for reproduction?" Jonah asked.
Anthas nodded.
"Isn't that a bit … complicated?" he suggested.
Anthas paused, thinking of the best way to phrase it. "Let's just say that on Andoria, no-one gets pregnant by accident."
"And us?" T'Pris asked. Up until now she had been very quiet, watching the banter between her two friends and deep in thought. "How do we fit in with this arrangement of four sexes?"
"Well, for the duration of the wedding you'll have to assume a sex. In Andorian law that's OK, because you don't have antennae, so therefore you're classified as asexual. I'm shoika, obviously. You'll have to divide the rest up between you."
"So what are these 'roles' we're supposed to have?" Jonah asked.
Anthas paused, trying to find words to explain, when there was a noise from the forest beyond the clearing; the sound of a branch breaking. They looked towards the edge of the clearing and three shapes appeared. T'Pris stood, preparing to run to the Anduin to get a phaser, but was stopped by a voice behind her.
"Don't move!" the voice ordered.
At the door of the Anduin Yaana paused, then ducked back inside, her heart beating rapidly. Someone was out there.
The three shapes had been a distraction while the rest of the intruders had crept behind them. They now stepped into the light. They were Klingons, two of them elderly males, one a young female. They all had firearms pointed at Jonah, T'Pris and Anthas. It was the female who spoke.
"Bind them!" she ordered.
Hands grabbed Jonah's wrists and pulled his hands behind his back. He felt metal bands draw close around them.
"We are Federation citizens," T'Pris remonstrated. "You cannot do this to us. The Khitomer Accords state that …"
The female stepped close to T'Pris and gazed levelly at her. T'Pris was petite for a Vulcan, the Klingon woman looked down on her.
"Don't tell us about Khitomer," she hissed. "Besides we are a long way from Qo'noS here," she replied. One of the Klingon males cuffed T'Pris as the Klingon woman spoke.
"I am Ba'el," the Klingon woman introduced herself. "If you follow our instructions you will not be harmed. If, however, you attempt to escape …" she left the threat unspoken. She waved her firearm at them. Jonah was momentarily surprised to see that it was a Romulan disruptor. The surprise was quickly replaced by fear as he realised how ruthless these Klingons must be if they had taken weapons from Romulans.
"Move," one of the Klingons behind Jonah ordered commanded, jabbing him in the back.
Jonah moved.
The Defiant was nearing the Carraya system. It was cloaked, although that would only conceal them from Klingon ships, since the cloaking device was Romulan. So far, however, they had encountered neither Klingons nor Romulans. Kira was still anticipating the mission to be a routine pick-up of marooned personnel. Worf was not so confident.
"What sort of problems do you think we'll run into?" Kira asked, noting Worf's continued preoccupation and assuming he was concerned about running into the Romulan-Klingon conflict.
"It's difficult to predict," Worf replied. "On my last mission with them I was accompanying a Vulcan ambassador who had just returned from Romulus." Kira was confused for a moment, then realised that Worf wasn't concerned about the Romulans or Klingons, but about the people they were to pick up. "One of them seduced the ambassador and one of the others assaulted him. The Romulan envoys left in disgust. In three days Cochrane and his accomplices set back Romulan/Federation diplomacy by decades." Worf managed to make the events sound like a re-run of the Tomed Incident.
"They're that undisciplined?" to Kira this didn't seem like the people she knew.
Worf paused to consider the question. "No, it's not that. It's just …" he tried again. "In our myths we have beings called the Sd'lich. The Sd'lich attract misfortune. They don't cause the chaos, but wherever they appear chaos surrounds them. The only thing feared more than the Sd'lich is Fek'lhr. Cochrane, Anthas and T'Pris remind me of the Sd'lich."
Kira was intrigued by these myths. Being a strong believer in her own people's legends, she felt a connection to this newly discovered aspect of Worf. Perhaps if she understood the stories of his people, she would come to understand the man better. "What happened to these creatures?" she asked.
"There is a story that Molor found all four of these creatures, each one more dangerous than the last, and he joined them together to make K'Ram, the ultimate force of chaos. But Kahless and Morath tore the Sd'lich K'Ram back into its separate pieces, moments before the Universe was destroyed and cast them to the four corners of Creation."
An alarm interrupted Kira's next question. She looked at the viewscreen. A D'deridex-class warbird was decloaking in front of them. It wavered into solidity.
"I think, perhaps, some of that bad luck may have come our way," she observed.
Jonah, T'Pris and Anthas trudged along in complete silence through the rainforest, each occupied with their own thoughts. The three prisoners were completely at their captors' mercy. And they were aware that the mercy of Klingons is not their most noted quality, particularly towards prisoners. For a Klingon, being held prisoner is highly dishonourable. A Klingon would rather die. They therefore tended to treat prisoners with the same dishonour with which they would expect to be treated themselves. The Khitomer accords had made little impression on this attitude. This made the position of the three captives very insecure.
T'Pris remained stoical, her t'san s'at training keeping her feelings of fear in check. Anthas coped by focusing on her anger at the injustice at being denied her liberty. Jonah tried to take his mind off his feeling of complete vulnerability by observing as much as he could of the people around him. It gave him some feeling of control, to gradually know them better, and to try and work out what made them function.
There were six Klingons, four male and two female, all of them with the exception of Ba'el were elderly. One of the males called L'Kor appeared to be their leader. Or rather, the other Klingons looked to him for instructions. However, the man seemed to become increasingly distracted and withdrawn, and as he withdrew more, the young female Klingon, Ba'el, took charge more often. She had decided to lead the group to a nearby settlement, Jonah gathered there was something there that she wanted the Starfleet people to see. The other Klingons objected and sought L'Kor's support, but he deferred to Ba'el. So they were being force marched towards the destination Ba'el had chosen.
The real enigma in the party was the Romulan, Tokath. He appeared injured, and must have been another captive. Jonah guessed he was part of a group of Romulans that had been ambushed by marooned Klingons, which was probably also where their weapons came from. However, the Klingons treated the Romulan with respect, and helped him walk when he became too weak. Tokath and Ba'el were frequently engrossed in quiet, earnest conversations, which Jonah could never quite hear. There even appeared to be affection between the young Klingon and the elderly Romulan.
The marching took most of the day. Their route took them through a canyon that reeked of sulphur, and then along the banks of a river, until they came to a clearing. Across the river stood a buttress of rock, on top of which was a large fortress-like settlement. In the distance, over-looking the settlement, was a mountain, covered in the same verdant rainforest through which they had trudged.
The Klingons let their three captives rest then. The Klingons had become more alert as they had neared the building, and now that they were so close they almost seemed ill at ease. As Jonah, T'Pris and Anthas sank exhausted to the ground, the Klingons set Tokath gently onto a cloak one of them had set down. Then with only one Klingon remaining to guard them, the others disappeared into the surrounding undergrowth. Jonah stretched out on the ground, trying to get his breath back, then saw Anthas raise her head suddenly. He sat up and whispered to her: "What's the matter, An?"
She shook her head. "A trace of blood, burnt flesh, from the settlement." She shivered, memories of Andoria flooding back.
The Klingons returned and the three were forced to their feet again. Ba'el stepped up close to them.
"We have something to show you," she said the words with an intensity that Jonah had not seen before. "You might hate us for taking you prisoner, but you must see this. The Federation must know."
Ba'el turned abruptly. Another push and the group was on the move again. The Klingons found a ford in the river and crossed, wading chest deep. Each one of the large sturdy males holding a captive secure against the current, the fourth supporting the elderly Romulan. On the other side they again pushed their way through the trees of the rainforest, which grew right up to the edge of the settlement.
The wall of the building was close to four metres tall, where it was intact. In places the wall had partially collapsed, bricks were strewn about widely, as if the wall had been hit with weapon fire, rather than simply falling down due to decay. After walking four several hundred metres around the settlement they came to a break in the wall. The bricks had collapsed into a steep pile of rubble two metres high. They were forced to climb over the rubble of the wall and entered the compound beyond. For Anthas the scent of blood was overpowering.
As they reached the top of the rubble and took their first look down into the compound beyond, disruptor fire filled the air around them. Jonah, T'Pris and Anthas threw themselves to the ground, just as the elder of the two Klingon women vapourised as a disruptor beam hit her. The other Klingons dispersed along the wall of the settlement, returning fire at whoever was in the compound below. Jonah hadn't taken a good look at the people below, he had just seen three figures. He tasted brick dust, and smelled the ionised air, as the firing continued. He lifted his head from the rubble and turned to look at T'Pris, who was watching the activity in the courtyard below – unperturbed as usual.
The disruptor fire died away, to be replaced by shouts in both Klingon and Romulan. Tokath, who lay next to the three captives, crawled forward to look down into the courtyard. Jonah did the same. Below he could see the Klingons approaching the three figures, which had raised their hands in a gesture of surrender that both Romulans and Klingons recognised from their contact with the Federation. Now that Jonah could take longer to look at them, he could see they were Romulan. Two females and one male. He took another look.
"Is that …?"
T'Pris nodded. "Katrin and Rohan." She did not let any surprise show on her face. They had met the two Romulans a year earlier on the Enterprise-D. The Romulans had been on their way to Vulcan, ostensibly for a meeting about Reunification between Romulus and Vulcan. "It is a small galaxy," was her only comment.
"But what would the Tal Shiar be doing here?" Jonah asked.
T'Pris shook her head and returned to watching the figures below.
The Klingons directed the three Romulans to climb up to the breach in the wall. Ba'el led the group.
"Stand up," she ordered Jonah, T'Pris and Anthas. The three did as they were told. "Come down. You must see this."
The three began to climb down into the courtyard, when Anthas suddenly looked up. T'Pris and the Romulans did the same. Then the Klingons heard it. A roar of engines.
"Leave. Now!" Ba'el ordered. Dutifully the others, dulled now by their constant subjection to the whims of their captors, automatically did as they were told. As the Klingons and their six captives entered the rainforest, three Romulan scout ships reached the settlement. Dust blew high into the air as the ships landed in the courtyard.
Kira sat impatiently on the Romulan Warbird, exactly where she wasn't sure, although it appeared to be a meeting room. The commander of the Warbird, had commanded the Defiant to lower its shields and for its captain to allow herself to be beamed aboard the Romulan ship. The Romulan Commander had been arrogant and overbearing, and had dismissed Kira's protestations at their interference out-of-hand, but since the D'deridex Class ship vastly outgunned the Defiant, Kira had conceded and the Romulans had beamed her immediately aboard the Warbird. Their initial haste seemed to have dissipated, however, since she had been kept waiting for close to an hour.
Finally the door opened and the commander appeared, escorted by two security guards.
"I am Commander Lossov," the Romulan looked down at Kira. "I apologise for the delay."
Kira was caught off-guard by this approach. The man's demeanour had changed completely since their earlier exchange.
"I've waited long enough, Commander. Why are you keeping me here?"
"I have been conferring with the Romulan Senate," Lossov answered, almost conciliatory by Romulan standards. "We detected your missing people's distress beacon several hours ago and have just been attempting to fix on a location. We will escort you to the surface to rescue them."
Kira viewed the Romulan suspiciously. They were being far too helpful.
"We can find them ourselves. Just let us get on with our mission."
"I can't permit that. The Carraya system is now within Romulan space. However, I will guarantee your safety, and if you wish to, I will allow you to be escorted by one of your crewmen." He paused for a moment. Then continued as if with an afterthought. "In return I would ask for your help with an investigation that I must undertake on the surface. A Federation viewpoint on the matter would be appreciated."
Kira was too perplexed by the Romulan's deferential manner to bother correcting him on his assumption that she was a member of Starfleet. She acquiesced to his conditions grudgingly, and contacted the Defiant, asking them to beam Worf aboard.
"Ensign Carson," Kira continued, "you're in command of the Defiant until Commander Worf and I return. If you lose contact with us, you are to return to Deep Space 9 immediately. I'll contact you again in an hour."
The Romulans beamed Worf and Kira directly from the meeting room to the cockpit of of one of their scout ships, where Lossov was waiting. The cockpit was very compact, there were only three seats, the central one of which Lossov occupied. He was obviously going to pilot them himself.
*Please be seated," Lossov asked them. Kira heard the vaguest hint of a snarl from Worf. He obviously trusted the Romulan no more than Kira did. They took their seats, looking out of the three small windows at the Bird of Prey's hangar deck.
The hangar doors opened and the scout ship smoothly lifted off and headed into open space. Through her side window Kira saw another scout ship accompanying them, a third ship appeared to their left. The Romulans did not want to leave their Commander unprotected, for all their show of co-operation.
A few minutes later the scout ship was landing in the clearing next to the Anduin. The runabout stood abandoned at the edge of the clearing, the only signs of life the bright blue glow from the top of the locator beacon and the embers of a small fire.
Kira, Worf and Lossov disembarked from the scout ship, the other two ships circled overhead. Worf walked around the clearing, looking for clues as to where the occupants of the runabout had gone. Kira entered the runabout. Sounds emanated from the runabout. It sounded as if she were throwing objects around inside the ship. She emerged minutes later looking crestfallen
"Are you all right, Major?" Lossov enquired.
Kira nodded abstractedly and stalked back to the scout ship. Worf guessed that the Major had been looking for the Orb and had failed to find it.
"Major," he informed her. "Cochrane and the others weren't alone. It appears there were other people here." He pointed to marks in the earth surrounding the ashes of the fire. "They may have been kidnapped."
Kira looked to where Worf was pointing. There were prints from large boots in the earth, far larger in size than those belonging to the three women who were missing.
"Do you know who these footprints belong to?" Kira demanded of Lossov. The Romulans smiled knowingly.
"I think so. Come with me."
They returned to the scout ship. Lossov unhesitatingly flew them across the rainforest, it seemed as though he had been anticipating the request. The other two scout ships accompanied them.
In a few minutes they reached a fortress-like settlement on a buttress of rock. A river snaked around it. The building looked ruined, its walls had collapsed in places and some of the buildings within the walls also seemed to be in disrepair. Kira looked down through her side window. For a moment she thought she saw figures moving away from the walls and into the rainforest, but when she looked again the figures had vanished.
The scout ships landed in the compound, raising dust into the air, that flowed over the surrounding walls like a wave. Lossov waited a few moments for the dust to settle, then opened the ship's door.
Worf was the first to step out. He looked around with a haunted expression on his face. To Kira it was obvious he had been there before. He scanned the buildings, searching for something, or someone.
"Worf?" Kira asked, suddenly concerned for the Klingon. She adjusted the bag on her shoulder, finding reassurance in the feel of the weight of the Orb within it.
"What do you see Commander Worf?" Lossov asked. Again Kira got the impression that the Romulan knew more than he was letting on. He almost seemed to be taunting Worf, or leading Worf towards a conclusion Lossov had already made.
Worf was silent for a few minutes, then walked over to a dark patch on the courtyard floor. He took out a tricorder and scanned it. He then scanned the surroundings. The Romulan occupants of the other two scout ships had also disembarked, and formed a group a few metres away from where he stood. Worf walked towards them, then through the group, ignoring them and heading towards the nearest of the stone buildings. The door to the building he had chosen was wooden, and his attention was caught by marks gouged in the wood.
"Well, Commander Worf?" Lossov's brayed the question.
Worf glowered at him.
"You know already don't you?" Worf demanded of the Romulan.
Lossov shrugged. "This was a Romulan prisoner of war camp. Full of Klingon prisoners." The Romulan commander took a great deal of pleasure from imparting that last piece of information. "Someone has committed an act of mass murder here. As far as we know there were no survivors." Kira looked around her with horror.
"How many …?" she asked.
"Commander Worf knows. Don't you, Commander?" Again Kira sensed something going on between the two men.
Worf ignored the man, and walked back to the scout ship. Kira looked at Lossov questioningly.
"There were sixty-six Klingons living here at the last count," Lossov explained. "All but one of them adults. We don't know what happened to the other children. As far as we know Commander Worf visited them about three years ago."
Kira looked around the empty courtyard, noticing for the first time the number of dark patches on the ground, the burn marks on the wall.
"And what happened to them?" she asked.
"We've examined the area, and came to the conclusion that I believe your companion has just arrived at. The disruptor discharge, the marks on the door that were made by a bat'leth, the Klingons' well-known revulsion at the thought of a Klingon being taken prisoner. It all points to these Klingons having been slaughtered by other Klingons."
Yaana had easily tracked the group through the rainforest. The Klingons believed that they were the only people on the planet, and had not bothered to conceal their progress. Before leaving the Anduin Yaana had replicated camouflage fatigues and changed into them. In her small kit bag she had placed a medikit, some rations and the Orb of Transendence. With the camouflage and her naturally green skin she was practically invisible as she moved through the trees. She had a tricorder with her, but it kept losing their bio-signs, probably due to the high density of lifeforms in the rainforest around her. She couldn't track them using their combadges, the first thing her friends' captors had done was remove and discard them. They had been thrown down onto the ground next to the campfire.
What also helped Yaana track the others was an intuitive, almost subliminal, sense of which direction the others were in. Yaana had not any latent psionic talents as far as she knew; this ability must be a leftover from the period in which they had been linked though the Orb of Transcendence.
Yaana froze. A reptile slithered along a branch overhead. She waited, watching its slow, undulating progress. Again her thoughts were with Jonah, T'Pris and Anthas. The chances of rescuing them seemed remote, but then she was accustomed to dangerous situations; her time spent in Starfleet Intelligence had exposed her to them many times. She had never before felt this fear that she wouldn't succeed. It wasn't that she felt less confident of success, it was more that the prospect of failure had not bothered her before. She guessed the difference now was that she had something to lose. Many times when she had been with Roberts, she had even felt that if she was caught and killed, it would be a relief. But then, the only person she was close to, she hated, too. Now there were people she cared about, and survival mattered to her. It made her vulnerable. She wasn't sure she liked it. Yaana looked up. The reptile was gone. Silently she continued in the direction the others had been taken.
The captives were becoming exhausted. The Klingons had been force marching them uphill for hours and showed no sign themselves of tiring, despite their age. The captives were being marched in single file, the three Romulans at the front, followed by Anthas and Jonah, with T'Pris at the rear. Being separated intensified the feeling of isolation and intimidation, they were unable to see if the others were all right, or offer reassurance. Jonah particularly was having a difficult time. All of them still hand their hands bound, which made balancing difficult as they picked their way through the undergrowth of the rainforest. The climate too was very humid. After the fifth time he had tripped over a tree root and fallen heavily, only to be picked up by the Klingon whom the others referred to as G'Bal, set on his feet again and prodded violently from behind, Jonah couldn't take any more.
He collapsed to his knees, the heat and the humidity finally getting to him. The Klingon next to him started to lift Jonah to his feet but was butted out of the way by Anthas hitting him with her shoulder.
"Leave him, leave him, you damn pahtk," she yelled. T'Pris stepped forward from behind to stand alongside her. G'Bal rounded on Anthas, his arm swung back to prepare to strike her, but Ba'el stepped in front of him.
"G'Bal, no. She is right, the prisoners must rest," the young woman looked up to the gaps in the tree cover above. "It's getting dark, we will find a place to camp and wait until morning." Ba'el turned to Anthas, and stepped close to her. "But hit one of us again and you will die," she warned her.
Kira and Worf stood on the wall of the settlement, looking out at the rainforest. The Romulans had disappeared inside one of the buildings, Lossov had explained that they were going to turn off the dampening field that surrounded the prison camp, and which might be the reason why they had been able to contact any of the stranded personnel through their combadges. There was also a detection perimeter field, which would locate any movement within 30km. Kira tried her combadge again. There was still no response.
"Is it true?" Kira finally asked Worf. "Could these people have been massacred by other Klingons?" she had checked the findings of the tricorder, and had come to the same conclusion, but she still found it difficult to believe that the Klingons were capable of slaughter on such a scale simply for honour.
Worf continued to look out at the rainforest. He nodded.
"The Klingon-Romulan conflict was in this system. For Klingons to be in a prison camp would be a matter of great shame to any other Klingons. They could have killed the people who lived here." Worf turned to look at Kira. "But the prisoners here would have welcomed such a death. It would have meant they would die as warriors. There would be a place for them in Sto-Vo-Kor."
Kira tried her combadge again. Lossov must have turned off the dampening field because this time there was an answer.
"Lieutenant Yaana here," the voice whispered.
"Lieutenant Yaana, this is Major Kira Nerys. Are the others with you?" Kira replied.
"No. They were taken hostage by a group of Klingons. I've been tracking them."
"Where are you?"
"I'm in the foothills of the mountain closest to the settlement. About 10km away. Is that where you are? I saw three ships land there."
"We'll home in on your signal," Kira replied. She looked down at the courtyard. Lossov and his team had emerged and were heading towards them. "We'll try and make your position by sunset." She looked up at Carraya. Sunset was only a few hours away.
"OK Major," Yaana replied. Then added: "Major, it's really good to hear your voice."
"Yours too, Lieutenant," Kira replied. "Kira out."
As it neared sunset Ba'el and her followers stopped and made camp. As a concession to their comfort, the prisoners' bindings were refastened in front of them to enable them to eat. Tokath had weakened considerably. The Klingons had made a stretcher for him and had been carrying him for the last few kilometres. The stretcher bearers had gradually been left behind by the others. As the prisoners finished their meal the stragglers arrived and the wounded Romulan was set down. As they joined the other Klingons, L'Kor protested to Ba'el.
"Why do we continue to move on? If we move him Tokath will only become more ill," he said.
Ba'el was disparaging. "Are you a Klingon? Or have your years as a prisoner made you weak? We climb this mountain because we are followed. Did you not see the ships? The Romulans will be on our trail. If we have the advantage of the high ground we may beat them, and be revenged." Ba'el looked at the Romulan. "Tokath understands the sacrifice we must make."
Tokath beckoned the young woman to him and whispered to her. Ba'el stood up and rounded on the Romulan prisoners.
"You are found out. This one," she pointed at Jonah, "knows you as Tal Shiar. What are the Tal Shiar doing here?"
The three Romulans stared resolutely straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge the question. The third Romulan, the one Jonah had not seen before, was young, with blonde hair. She seemed particularly self-assured. Jonah didn't think that Ba'el would be able to get them to talk.
"Tell me," Ba'el screamed at them. She withdrew one of the Romulan disruptors. "I'll use this on one of you unless you tell me." The three ignored her. Ba'el lean over to Rohan and struck him with the disruptor. A trickle of green blood appeared on his lip, but he still resolutely stared straight ahead.
Up to that point L'Kor had been sitting next to Tokath. Now he walked over to Ba'el and whispered to her. Ba'el returned with him to the Romulan, who now lay very still on his stretcher. Ba'el bent over the body, and rested her head in her hands.
Suddenly she stood up, and with a look of fury strode across to the group of Romulans sitting on the ground. she withdrew her disruptor and whiteout a moment's hesitation fired it at Katrin. The Romulan woman barely had chance to lift her cuffed hands up in an automatic defensive gesture, before she was vapourised in a flash of green light.
The other prisoners were stunned by the callous display of their captors' power over them. Ba'el pointed the disruptor at Rohan.
"Now talk!" she commanded.
A look of fear crossed Rohan's face.
"Wait! Wait! I'll tell you." he pleaded.
The Romulan woman next to him scowled. "Rohan," she warned.
Rohan turned on her. "Why Sela? Why should I die for the Tal Shiar? The people we had allegiance to all died in the Omarion Nebula. You were a high-ranking officer. Now look at us. The new regime have got us working as basic field agents. Grubbing around faking evidence." Rohan looked up at Ba'el.
"That's why we're here," Rohan continued. "Faking evidence. The Romulan who led the attack on your settlement – he's called Commander Slobad. He was the commander of a fleet that was decimated by Klingons in the early part of the conflict. He decided he'd carry out a vendetta against Klingons in this sector. He called it ethnic cleansing. By the time the Senate caught up with him he'd attacked the prison camp on Carraya."
Rohan looked over at Jonah, T'Pris and Anthas. "Normally that wouldn't matter, but things are changing in the Galaxy. We're losing in our war with the Klingon Empire, our treaty with the Cardassians isn't dependable, and the Dominion threaten to invade the Alpha Quadrant any time soon. The Tal Shiar see the Federation as the only likely ally. But they're difficult to understand. They have their "morality". They'd call an act like this a "war crime". The Tal Shiar don't want an incident like this to prevent any future possible allegiance. When we heard that a Federation starship had crashed here, the heads of the Tal Shiar decided to make the massacre appear as if it was carried out by Klingons, so that when these three," Rohan nodded at the three prisoners opposite him, "were rescued, it would be Klingons that would get the bad reputation, not the Romulan Empire." Rohan turned his attention fully to the three sitting opposite him. "Once again you three have made life difficult for me."
Jonah shrugged. "Glad we could be of help."
The scout ships had landed several kilometres from Yaana's position. Worf, Lossov and the four Romulan occupants of the other two ships had then followed Kira as she homed in on Yaana's combadge. Kira approached the position cautiously. In Yaana's last message she had stated that she was within sight of the Klingons' camp, and that Jonah and the others were unharmed. Kira didn't want to do anything to jeopardise their lives. Kira looked around, puzzled. According to her tricorder, Yaana should be right here. Then she appeared, as if spontaneously created by the forest around them.
"Major Kira", Yaana greeted her. "I'm glad to see you."
"The others? Where are they?" Kira replied.
"In a clearing, about three hundred metres ahead."
"And …" Kira hardly dared ask.
"The Orb?" Yaana guessed what she meant. She swung the kit bag from her shoulder and held it out to the Bajoran.
Kira took it, opened the bag and reached inside. She drew out the Orb, still wrapped in the soiled cloth, and uncovered it.
It was the Orb. She stared at it, tears welling up in her eyes. A second Orb had now been returned to her people. Hurriedly she replaced the Orb in the bag, looking at the young Orionese woman before her and unable to find the words to express her gratitude. Behind her Worf and Lossov joined them.
"This is Lieutenant Yaana," Kira introduced the young woman. "She says the Klingons and their prisoners are three hundred metres in that direction."
Yaana nodded. "They're closely guarded. If we attack then Jonah and the others won't stand a chance."
Worf approached them. "Major. Let me go in and negotiate. I may be able to persuade them to release the prisoners."
Kira nodded. "Very well, Commander. Be careful."
As Worf entered the clearing he was immediately surrounded by Klingons. G'Bal approached him.
"So Worf, you return to us. Have you come to fight alongside us, or betray us to our enemy?"
"Neither," Worf replied. "I have come to demand the release of your prisoners"
Ba'el joined them, staring angrily at Worf. "As always your loyalties are with Starfleet, not those of your own kind."
"I would not want to ally myself with cowards who take unarmed people hostage. These three are not your enemies. Where is Tokath? Is he here? If so I wish to speak with him. He would not allow an act so dishonourable."
"My father is dead," Ba'el replied. "Murdered by his enemies."
"I saw the settlement. I saw the evidence of the Klingon attack."
"That evidence was faked. Follow me." Ba'el led Worf to the fire, around which the prisoners were sat. One was missing.
"The Romulan - the male, where is he?" she demanded of those still remaining. There was no answer.
Rohan stumbled through the rainforest, finding it difficult to push his way through the trees due to his hands being cuffed before him. He slipped and awkwardly struggled to his feet. He was sure this was the direction the Starfleet Klingon had come from.
Finally he left the trees and entered a space in the forest, from the centre of which projected a large outcrop of rock. If his compatriots were anywhere they would be here. He raised his cuffed hands and yelled.
"Ta krenn, ta krenn."
The Romulans did look. There was a burst of green light, and Rohan was cut down where he stood.
Kira and Yaana had been watching the events from their vantage point in the rocks. Kira turned to Lossov in horror.
"But that was one of your own men!" she accused him.
Lossov seemed untroubled. "They have been on guard for close to an hour. They are feeling the strain. On a hair trigger." He shrugged. "These things happen."
Kira was not convinced by Lossov's argument. Withdrawing a few metres from the Romulan commander she spoke into her combadge.
Worf finished his conversation with Kira and turned to Ba'el. "I know what happened to your escaped prisoner. He has just reached the Romulans' camp. As soon as he got there they killed him." Worf wasn't sure how this would affect the negotiations. So far he had got nowhere, although he was now aware of the truth behind the massacre. The information came from Jonah. Sela had refused to speak to him. Now, however, she spoke.
"Of course they killed him. Our mission was to cover up Slobad's ethnic cleansing. But now the truth's out. Their next option is to cover up the attempt to carry out a cover-up, which means killing all of us. Even if these Klingons let us go, those Romulans out there won't."
"Worf," Ba'el spoke up. "We never planned for anyone to get hurt, except the Romulans. We just wanted the truth to get out about the massacre."
"The truth about the massacre?" Worf turned to L'Kor. "L'Kor, had you not thought, by letting the Galaxy know about the Romulans attacking the prison camp here, you'd be revealing that Klingon prisoners were taken at Khitomer? What is more important? Revenge, or your honour and the honour of your comrades? You should be proud that your people were killed in battle, rather than dying of old age in their beds."
L'Kor looked abashed. Ba'el stepped in.
"No, those Romulan pahtks killed my family, destroyed my home. They should pay."
L'Kor turned to her. "No Ba'el, I have listened to you for too long. You are the daughter of my friend, and I am very proud of you, but you do not understand our ways. You are only half Klingon. Words and the beliefs of others are for Romulans. What do we care who knows the truth or what lies are known? A Klingon cares only whether he dies in battle, or in his sleep."
"Then let the prisoners go," Worf argued. You don't need them now. You have brought your enemy to you. It is time to seek your revenge face-to-face."
"The Romulan too?" L'Kor asked.
Sela laughed derisively. "You might as well kill me here. I can't go back to the Romulans. They wouldn't want to take the risk of my knowledge being used against them."
Worf thought for a moment.
"You can escape into the rainforest. You could survive there. Particularly with Ba'el to help you. She knows this planet."
"No," Ba'el objected. "If the others are to do battle then I shall fight alongside them."
L'Kor confronted her, his hands resting on her shoulder.
"No, this is our fight not yours. Go with the Sela woman. Live for another day. You are young, the rest of us are old and have not long to live. This may be our last chance to die in battle."
Ba'el nodded. L'Kor pulled her to him and hugged her. Then he turned to the other Klingons. "Chegh-chew jaj-vam jaj-kak," he roared, raising the disruptor high into the air.
Kira had been contacted by Worf, and now knew the position they were all in. She decided to confront Lossov about his plans for them once the prisoners were freed.
"Worf tells me that you plan to prevent us leaving Carraya. He says that you will kill us here."
"Now why would I do that, Major?" Lossov responded.
"You don't want information about Slobad's war crimes to get back to the Federation, and you certainly don't want the federation to know that the Tal Shiar tried to cover it up," Kira explained.
Lossov's eyes narrowed. "Worf has been informative. Go on," he prompted.
"But then you'll have to cover up our deaths, and so on. Eventually the truth will come out, and it will be far worse than if you had just admitted to Slobad's crimes in the first place."
"You don't think the Federation would have held Romulus to blame for the Slobad's crimes?"
"You don't know them like I do, Kira explained. "The Federation has adopted a lot of the traits of humans and they have a strange combination of idealism and cynicism. They have had so many massacres in their own history that they almost expect them to happen occasionally. Their reaction is more likely to be admiration that you have admitted it. They certainly won't hold the Romulan Empire responsible for the actions of a single group of people."
Lossov paused to think. "What you say is true, but my orders are to make sure that the Klingons are to blame for the massacre. Can you assure me that no news of the cover-up will get back to the Federation?"
Yaana was standing next to the "Commander," she interrupted the argument. "Those Klingons took my three friends hostage, in order to force the truth about the massacre. If it was a choice between a war criminal getting away with mass murder, or those fvai profiting from endangering my friends, then I would rather the truth didn't get out. Nothing could justify what they've done."
Lossov looked intently at Yaana for a moment, then decided she was telling the truth.
"Then it's just a matter of finding a way of silencing the Klingons," he considered.
Kira looked into the forest.
"Somehow I don't think that will be a problem," she mused.
Even though they were old and weakened by their years in captivity, there was something awesome about the sight of the five elderly Klingons preparing for battle. They were working themselves into a berserker rage. L'Kor and G'Bal roared at each other, shaking their disruptors over their heads. One of the other two males had a bat'leth and he was working through a series of movements with it, the motion slowed with age, but still powerful. The fourth male and the female were in the rainforest, reconnoitring the enemy camp. As soon as they returned the others began to move out. L'Kor turned to the others.
"Are you sure you will not join us. It will be glorious."
"It's suicide," Sela objected. "You'll be cut to ribbons."
"Ah but it is a good day to die," L'Kor grinned. He looked to Ba'el. "Qapla, Ba'el," he called to her. "I go to avenge your father."
"Qapla, L'Kor, may you die well," she responded.
The Klingons disappeared into the rainforest.
Worf turned to Sela and Ba'el. "Sela," he said. "Take care of Ba'el. I may be back again at some point. If she has come to harm I will kill you."
"Oh Worf," Sela smiled condescendingly. "You were always so melodramatic." She turned to Ba'el. "Come on, then. Let's get out of here." Ba'el took one last look at Worf then fell into step behind Sela. Then the two half-Romulan women disappeared into the forest, in the opposite direction to where the sound of disruptor fire echoed between the mountains.
Yaana and Kira had seen most of the short-lived battle without moving from their vantage point. Two elderly Klingons had appeared, yelling and waving bat'leths above their heads. One had been vapourised immediately. The other had dodged the disruptor fire and made it to the first outcrop of rock. There he had hacked at one of the Romulans, out of sight of the observers, except for a spray of green blood, before he too had been cut down by a shot from above.
The attack had been a diversion. Not much of a tactic, but it had bought the other three Klingons a few more seconds. They had emerged from the other side of the rock outcrop laying down covering bursts of disruptor fire. One burst had hit near to where Kira and Yaana hid, spraying hot rock over them. Yaana pulled Kira down next to her, and the two women crouched close to each other, hearing the pulse of disruptor fire and the yells of the Klingons. The yells stopped and Yaana and Kira looked over the lip of the rock. The rock face below was scorched in several places and had melted and solidified in others. The Romulans emerged from their concealed positions. One was badly burnt. Another, the one who had been attacked below, failed to emerge at all. Lossov also was missing.
Kira approached the three remaining Romulans. Her concern was that although she had persuaded Lossov to allow them to return to the Defiant, there was no reason to believe that the agreement would hold with Lossov's second-in-command.
"Major Kira," one of the Romulans spoke to her with formality. "I am sub-Commander Millos. Commander Lossov's last instructions to me were that you were to be accompanied back to your ship as soon as the Klingons were eliminated. I just need confirmation that there are no more in the forest and we can be on our way."
Kira nodded. She felt relief that the mission would be over with no more conflict. She looked down the edge of the trees where Worf was emerging followed by Jonah, Anthas and T'Pris.
"Worf," she called down to him. "We need to know - are there any more Klingons remaining?"
Worf looked around, at the dark burns in the ground before him, then back into the forest, where Ba'el was beginning her life of scavenging in the rainforest. With only Sela for companionship, and with no hope of that life changing. "No, none," he called back, then to himself, "QI'tomerDaq Heghpu' Hoch. No-one survived Khitomer."