CHAPTER 5: REVELATIONS
One month later
T'Pol sat at her terminal reviewing the transmission she had received from the Vulcan High Command. Soval routinely sent her snippets of reports of activity in sectors where the Enterprise had traveled. What caught her interest was the encounter of a Vulcan ship with an old Klingon scouter.
"...given our knowledge of Klingon culture, we logically deduced that the distress signal was merely a ploy for our vessel to enter within firing range. Although the scans indicated that the engine of the vessel was malfunctioning, we again deduced that this was part of the facade the Klingons were projecting. We ignored the distress call, left the sector and had no further encounter with the vessel. The next day scans revealed debris in the area where we had encountered the Klingon vessel. The next point of interest..."
"Captain, may I speak with you in private?" said T'Pol as she made her own logical deductions.
Archer looked up from the Captain's chair with concern, but merely stood up and waved his hand to indicate that T'Pol should precede him.
Reed and Sato exchanged glances across the bridge, but when Sato shook her head, the Lieutenant resumed his diagnostics.
Soon, the Captain was striding out of his ready room, barking at Mayweather, "Travis, set a course for the coordinates T'Pol is sending you. Best speed."
"Captain?" Reed's voice carried his quiet inquiry.
Archer wiped his hand across his face and regained his composure. "We're investigating an accident site. That's all you need to know at the moment."
-----
Space is a vacuum. Without the pull of gravity, an object remains caught in its inertia, preserved by the cold and silent in its repose. The Enterprise came upon the debris field, but a major section of the scouter was intact.
"Malcolm, get a recovery team for both shuttles ready."
Reed noted the strained tone in his Captain's voice. He merely said, "Aye, sir," but his heart was filled with dread as he rose to see to his duty. Sato looked at him pointedly and made as if to rise, but he gave a curt shake of his head. If the crew found what he anticipated, he didn't want her on the salvage team. He was relieved when she settled back in her chair.
Reed wanted to be wrong. For once he wanted his paranoia to be nothing but false prophecy. The shuttlepods approached the wreckage, but soon Reed cut the visual transmission to Enterprise. It had not been fast enough. He heard the gasp as the bridge officers recognized the body of a Klingon child.
"Sir, I'd like to p-proceed with only audio at this point." Reed recognized the body that was clearly in their view. It had been one of the older boys that Mayweather had hosted. "Suit up. We'll recover the bodies as we encounter them."
"Sir, how many do you suppose..." The voice fell off, unable to complete the thought.
"Twenty children, two adults. I want every single one retrieved, understood?"
It took twenty-four hours before Reed made his final report on the recovery. "We found Bukah and fifteen of the children, Captain. We believe that Gurtag and the rest were lost closer to the engines. Reed out."
~~~~~
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed stood over the corpses that lined the cargo bay. At his feet was the smallest body, his boy, Dart. He remembered the touch of his little hand on his forehead and how the small hand had become an accustomed weight inside his own during their two days together. He thought of the small hands molding the wax carefully to form the miniature soccer ball. Reed had not even told his boy Thank You. He remained standing guard over the boy desperately wishing he could have done something to save him.
He heard her soft steps, a familiar tread that was so light she could come upon you in surprise. But during the past month he had become very sensitive to it. Without turning around he said, "You don't want to see this."
"You're right, I don't." He felt her hand clasping his as she said, "But I do want to share this with someone who'll understand. Parents were never meant to outlive their children."
Malcolm drew Hoshi into his arms and finally surrendered. In synchrony, the tears rolled down their faces.
-----
"...I don't give a damn about what Vulcans THINK they know about Klingons! There's diversity in every species and they IGNORED A DISTRESS CALL!"
Archer entered the cargo bay with T'Pol and disrupted the two officers as they remained by the bodies. The Captain and First Officer were clearly at odds and ignored the presence of Reed and Sato in the heat of their discussion.
"Captain, the logical--"
"Scans would have shown how old the vessel was! And didn't you send a report to the Vulcan High Command about the Seekers? I can't believe Vulcan Intelligence hasn't stumbled across them before now."
T'Pol actually bowed her head for a moment. Yes, she had sent a detailed report to the Vulcan High Command with only one omission: the destiny of the Klingons when they left Enterprise. She had not been privy to the information, although she knew the space station where they intended to rendezvous and pick up the new vessel. How much of this disaster rested on her shoulders?
"Captain, I expect the presence of the Seekers is known only to a few Vulcans."
Archer shook his head, realizing he was venting his frustration on his First Officer. "I know. I know, T'Pol, it's just that... They were a promise for the future. The children were all so bright--and ALIVE! Just seeing them with our officers made me realize that we could create a world together. They were to be peacemakers, T'Pol. The universe never has enough of those."
"Captain, I am well aware of the future that is lost with the death of the children," T'Pol's voice held a conviction that further dampened Archer's temper.
Archer drew in a long breath and slowly exhaled. "Look, what do we need to do to observe Klingon death rituals?"
"The Klingons will not want the bodies, Captain."
"What?" Archer's voice was incredulous. Reed and Sato now looked at the two with interest and silently moved closer.
"The corpses are of no interest to Klingons. They are simply empty shells."
Sato felt the need to interrupt at this point. Her voice rang out in the cargo bay. "But these were Seekers, Captain, and while I understand about being empty shells, the bodies should be properly disposed. Those of us who took care of these children need that."
"Funerals are for the living, Captain. It may only have been two days, but we invested too much in the care of these children to ignore that." Reed and Sato moved together to stand by their superior officers.
Archer looked at rows of bodies lying neatly covered. Reed had been meticulous in seeing to identification while Sato had informed Mayweather, Cutler and Moriarty of the children they had supervised.
But asking them to make arrangements for the funeral was too much. He looked at the tear-stained faces of his two officers, one a seasoned veteran accustomed to seeing death and the other one of the novices on the ship. The two officers wiped at their tears without shame as they confronted their Captain.
"You raise a good point, but I think you have some mourning to do. I'll take care of the arrangements. Your jobs are finished for today. We'll do this first thing in the morning. Dismissed."
~~~~~
Hoshi walked beside Malcolm with an arm across his back even as he had his arm around her waist. Neither one cared about appearances nor fraternization rules at the moment. It would be apparent to anyone that the officers shared their grief at the fate of the Seekers.
Malcolm had thought to walk Hoshi to her quarters, but once in the turbo lift, she said, "Let me stay with you, Malcolm. You don't want to be alone any more than I do."
Her words brought the first pleasant feeling he had had in the last twenty-four hours. How was it that the Ensign had come to know him so well? She could translate nuances that had often been cryptic to others. Anyone else would have assumed the stoic Armory Officer would want to be alone. Malcolm exhaled and said, "Thank you."
They sat in silence on his bed while he held that soccer ball in his hand. As Malcolm rolled the ball lightly with a finger, he confessed, "You know, I never expect to get married, have a son. I thought I'd resigned myself to the fact that I'll be a perpetual bachelor. But then when I was taking care of Dart, I began to..."
The silence stretched on, so Hoshi gently prodded, "Go on, Malcolm. What did you wish for? That you could have a son like him?"
Malcolm could only nod. Then he swallowed and continued. "I thought that I would keep a distant eye on my boy--Damn! I was even calling him MY boy. Do you think somehow I jinxed him? That because I began to care about Dart that he's now--"
"Oh, Malcolm, don't do this to yourself. You need to admit that you loved him, but don't feel guilty about it." Hoshi held him tightly and patted his back gently.
"Hoshi, it's always been hard for me to admit that I, that I love someone. It doesn't hurt as much when they're gone if you keep it hidden," admitted Malcolm. "And then it makes it easier to forget."
"But you don't want to forget Dart, Malcolm. You'll keep him alive by remembering. I'm not going to look at Klingons and see an enemy now. I'm going to think of my little girls and pray that someday the peacemakers will make a difference."
"It's easier for me to try to bury my feelings, Hoshi." Malcolm was silent for a moment. "But I'm finding they're too strong in this case to ignore."
"Don't hide it, Malcolm, or you'll regret it. Let that be the lesson you learn from this. Don't hide it when you love someone," whispered Hoshi. "Promise me you won't hide your love."
"I'm not good at keeping promises, either, Hoshi," said Malcolm with a final regret.
Hoshi pulled back from Malcolm and he felt his heart sinking. He was trying to be honest, to reveal something of his nature to her--and it had the obvious effect.
But instead of moving out of his arms as he expected, Hoshi lifted a hand to his face.
"Then only make the promises you can keep. I promise that I won't let you forget Dart or the other children. Can you promise the same to me, Malcolm?"
"I promise, Hoshi," said Malcolm and felt as if he was taking the first step in a new direction of his life.
When Hoshi kissed him, he was certain of it.
~~~~~
Epilogue
The planet's environment was harsh. It barely sustained life, but the remnants of the Seeker colony were evident. A lot of the equipment could still be useful. He did not dwell on Bukah's fate, but instead let himself be driven by the promise he had made her. They had drawn straws because the small shuttlepod could only hold one adult and five children. It was the way of Komerex Zha that the lots had fallen to the ones most identical. Despite embracing Seeker philosophy, Gurtag still believed in the Game.
As soon as they arrived at the planet, he told the remaining children that they would be alone. The children dutifully mimicked Gurtag as he turned his head to the sky and howled. Sixteen times the sound reverberated in the canyon. The Klingons in the afterlife had much to fear that day for they were receiving warriors for peace.
As the echoes died out, Gurtag looked at the three boys, all identical, and the two girls, twins. "We have much work to do."
He had a promise to keep.
*****
Hope you heeded the warning. This was the actual intention when I wrote Power Couplings, but had to separate the stories because of their different nature. I decided to use English rather than Klingon spelling simply because I'm lazy. I did do some background on the Klingon culture to come up with certain terms. Duras was just a handy and familiar name.
Thanks for reading. No reviews are necessary.
One month later
T'Pol sat at her terminal reviewing the transmission she had received from the Vulcan High Command. Soval routinely sent her snippets of reports of activity in sectors where the Enterprise had traveled. What caught her interest was the encounter of a Vulcan ship with an old Klingon scouter.
"...given our knowledge of Klingon culture, we logically deduced that the distress signal was merely a ploy for our vessel to enter within firing range. Although the scans indicated that the engine of the vessel was malfunctioning, we again deduced that this was part of the facade the Klingons were projecting. We ignored the distress call, left the sector and had no further encounter with the vessel. The next day scans revealed debris in the area where we had encountered the Klingon vessel. The next point of interest..."
"Captain, may I speak with you in private?" said T'Pol as she made her own logical deductions.
Archer looked up from the Captain's chair with concern, but merely stood up and waved his hand to indicate that T'Pol should precede him.
Reed and Sato exchanged glances across the bridge, but when Sato shook her head, the Lieutenant resumed his diagnostics.
Soon, the Captain was striding out of his ready room, barking at Mayweather, "Travis, set a course for the coordinates T'Pol is sending you. Best speed."
"Captain?" Reed's voice carried his quiet inquiry.
Archer wiped his hand across his face and regained his composure. "We're investigating an accident site. That's all you need to know at the moment."
-----
Space is a vacuum. Without the pull of gravity, an object remains caught in its inertia, preserved by the cold and silent in its repose. The Enterprise came upon the debris field, but a major section of the scouter was intact.
"Malcolm, get a recovery team for both shuttles ready."
Reed noted the strained tone in his Captain's voice. He merely said, "Aye, sir," but his heart was filled with dread as he rose to see to his duty. Sato looked at him pointedly and made as if to rise, but he gave a curt shake of his head. If the crew found what he anticipated, he didn't want her on the salvage team. He was relieved when she settled back in her chair.
Reed wanted to be wrong. For once he wanted his paranoia to be nothing but false prophecy. The shuttlepods approached the wreckage, but soon Reed cut the visual transmission to Enterprise. It had not been fast enough. He heard the gasp as the bridge officers recognized the body of a Klingon child.
"Sir, I'd like to p-proceed with only audio at this point." Reed recognized the body that was clearly in their view. It had been one of the older boys that Mayweather had hosted. "Suit up. We'll recover the bodies as we encounter them."
"Sir, how many do you suppose..." The voice fell off, unable to complete the thought.
"Twenty children, two adults. I want every single one retrieved, understood?"
It took twenty-four hours before Reed made his final report on the recovery. "We found Bukah and fifteen of the children, Captain. We believe that Gurtag and the rest were lost closer to the engines. Reed out."
~~~~~
Lieutenant Malcolm Reed stood over the corpses that lined the cargo bay. At his feet was the smallest body, his boy, Dart. He remembered the touch of his little hand on his forehead and how the small hand had become an accustomed weight inside his own during their two days together. He thought of the small hands molding the wax carefully to form the miniature soccer ball. Reed had not even told his boy Thank You. He remained standing guard over the boy desperately wishing he could have done something to save him.
He heard her soft steps, a familiar tread that was so light she could come upon you in surprise. But during the past month he had become very sensitive to it. Without turning around he said, "You don't want to see this."
"You're right, I don't." He felt her hand clasping his as she said, "But I do want to share this with someone who'll understand. Parents were never meant to outlive their children."
Malcolm drew Hoshi into his arms and finally surrendered. In synchrony, the tears rolled down their faces.
-----
"...I don't give a damn about what Vulcans THINK they know about Klingons! There's diversity in every species and they IGNORED A DISTRESS CALL!"
Archer entered the cargo bay with T'Pol and disrupted the two officers as they remained by the bodies. The Captain and First Officer were clearly at odds and ignored the presence of Reed and Sato in the heat of their discussion.
"Captain, the logical--"
"Scans would have shown how old the vessel was! And didn't you send a report to the Vulcan High Command about the Seekers? I can't believe Vulcan Intelligence hasn't stumbled across them before now."
T'Pol actually bowed her head for a moment. Yes, she had sent a detailed report to the Vulcan High Command with only one omission: the destiny of the Klingons when they left Enterprise. She had not been privy to the information, although she knew the space station where they intended to rendezvous and pick up the new vessel. How much of this disaster rested on her shoulders?
"Captain, I expect the presence of the Seekers is known only to a few Vulcans."
Archer shook his head, realizing he was venting his frustration on his First Officer. "I know. I know, T'Pol, it's just that... They were a promise for the future. The children were all so bright--and ALIVE! Just seeing them with our officers made me realize that we could create a world together. They were to be peacemakers, T'Pol. The universe never has enough of those."
"Captain, I am well aware of the future that is lost with the death of the children," T'Pol's voice held a conviction that further dampened Archer's temper.
Archer drew in a long breath and slowly exhaled. "Look, what do we need to do to observe Klingon death rituals?"
"The Klingons will not want the bodies, Captain."
"What?" Archer's voice was incredulous. Reed and Sato now looked at the two with interest and silently moved closer.
"The corpses are of no interest to Klingons. They are simply empty shells."
Sato felt the need to interrupt at this point. Her voice rang out in the cargo bay. "But these were Seekers, Captain, and while I understand about being empty shells, the bodies should be properly disposed. Those of us who took care of these children need that."
"Funerals are for the living, Captain. It may only have been two days, but we invested too much in the care of these children to ignore that." Reed and Sato moved together to stand by their superior officers.
Archer looked at rows of bodies lying neatly covered. Reed had been meticulous in seeing to identification while Sato had informed Mayweather, Cutler and Moriarty of the children they had supervised.
But asking them to make arrangements for the funeral was too much. He looked at the tear-stained faces of his two officers, one a seasoned veteran accustomed to seeing death and the other one of the novices on the ship. The two officers wiped at their tears without shame as they confronted their Captain.
"You raise a good point, but I think you have some mourning to do. I'll take care of the arrangements. Your jobs are finished for today. We'll do this first thing in the morning. Dismissed."
~~~~~
Hoshi walked beside Malcolm with an arm across his back even as he had his arm around her waist. Neither one cared about appearances nor fraternization rules at the moment. It would be apparent to anyone that the officers shared their grief at the fate of the Seekers.
Malcolm had thought to walk Hoshi to her quarters, but once in the turbo lift, she said, "Let me stay with you, Malcolm. You don't want to be alone any more than I do."
Her words brought the first pleasant feeling he had had in the last twenty-four hours. How was it that the Ensign had come to know him so well? She could translate nuances that had often been cryptic to others. Anyone else would have assumed the stoic Armory Officer would want to be alone. Malcolm exhaled and said, "Thank you."
They sat in silence on his bed while he held that soccer ball in his hand. As Malcolm rolled the ball lightly with a finger, he confessed, "You know, I never expect to get married, have a son. I thought I'd resigned myself to the fact that I'll be a perpetual bachelor. But then when I was taking care of Dart, I began to..."
The silence stretched on, so Hoshi gently prodded, "Go on, Malcolm. What did you wish for? That you could have a son like him?"
Malcolm could only nod. Then he swallowed and continued. "I thought that I would keep a distant eye on my boy--Damn! I was even calling him MY boy. Do you think somehow I jinxed him? That because I began to care about Dart that he's now--"
"Oh, Malcolm, don't do this to yourself. You need to admit that you loved him, but don't feel guilty about it." Hoshi held him tightly and patted his back gently.
"Hoshi, it's always been hard for me to admit that I, that I love someone. It doesn't hurt as much when they're gone if you keep it hidden," admitted Malcolm. "And then it makes it easier to forget."
"But you don't want to forget Dart, Malcolm. You'll keep him alive by remembering. I'm not going to look at Klingons and see an enemy now. I'm going to think of my little girls and pray that someday the peacemakers will make a difference."
"It's easier for me to try to bury my feelings, Hoshi." Malcolm was silent for a moment. "But I'm finding they're too strong in this case to ignore."
"Don't hide it, Malcolm, or you'll regret it. Let that be the lesson you learn from this. Don't hide it when you love someone," whispered Hoshi. "Promise me you won't hide your love."
"I'm not good at keeping promises, either, Hoshi," said Malcolm with a final regret.
Hoshi pulled back from Malcolm and he felt his heart sinking. He was trying to be honest, to reveal something of his nature to her--and it had the obvious effect.
But instead of moving out of his arms as he expected, Hoshi lifted a hand to his face.
"Then only make the promises you can keep. I promise that I won't let you forget Dart or the other children. Can you promise the same to me, Malcolm?"
"I promise, Hoshi," said Malcolm and felt as if he was taking the first step in a new direction of his life.
When Hoshi kissed him, he was certain of it.
~~~~~
Epilogue
The planet's environment was harsh. It barely sustained life, but the remnants of the Seeker colony were evident. A lot of the equipment could still be useful. He did not dwell on Bukah's fate, but instead let himself be driven by the promise he had made her. They had drawn straws because the small shuttlepod could only hold one adult and five children. It was the way of Komerex Zha that the lots had fallen to the ones most identical. Despite embracing Seeker philosophy, Gurtag still believed in the Game.
As soon as they arrived at the planet, he told the remaining children that they would be alone. The children dutifully mimicked Gurtag as he turned his head to the sky and howled. Sixteen times the sound reverberated in the canyon. The Klingons in the afterlife had much to fear that day for they were receiving warriors for peace.
As the echoes died out, Gurtag looked at the three boys, all identical, and the two girls, twins. "We have much work to do."
He had a promise to keep.
*****
Hope you heeded the warning. This was the actual intention when I wrote Power Couplings, but had to separate the stories because of their different nature. I decided to use English rather than Klingon spelling simply because I'm lazy. I did do some background on the Klingon culture to come up with certain terms. Duras was just a handy and familiar name.
Thanks for reading. No reviews are necessary.