CHAPTER 6

Kleth grabbed Reed by the front of his jacket and lifted him off his feet. He was dangling a good half-meter off the floor as the Klingon's companion approached slowly, taking in his predicament.

"You again," she said, and he could hear amusement in her lilting voice. There was no trace of the vocal scratchiness he would have expected from someone who spoke Klingon as she probably had to do on a daily basis.

For the moment he was at their whim, and he didn't say anything.

The woman -- Hoshi -- made a show of walking around him as he was held in the air, looking him up and down as if she were contemplating buying a cut of meat at a butcher's shop. She even had the cheek to reach out and squeeze his thigh, tsking under her breath as she did so.

"Ah, Kleth! I'm afraid we'll have to throw him back. He's a little on the scrawny side," she said loudly to her companion, who laughed heartily at her wit and tossed him back into the booth.

Reed landed sideways on the seat with a "whoomp" that expelled the air from his lungs. As he sprang upright in the seat, he found a disruptor aimed at him not more than five centimeters from his nose. Raising his gaze from the gun to its owner, he saw brown eyes peering back at him suspiciously. He realized that, if he wasn't so embarrassed by being caught like this, he could drown in those eyes.

Even more surprising, she used her other hand to shove him farther into the booth, then slid in next to him, lowering her gun as she did so. Any move he would have made was forestalled, however, by the huge Klingon, disruptor in hand, sitting down across from him in the booth.

"Can't you say anything?" she asked Reed mockingly.

"What would you have me say?" he asked cautiously in return.

She smiled as she stared unblinkingly at him. "Tell me why you are here. Don't lie."

Reed continued to look her in the eye, but when he didn't say anything, she prodded him in the ribs with her gun. "Well?"

"If I don't say anything, I won't lie," he said.

He watched in fascination as her lips curled into a snarl and her eyes narrowed. The transformation from Human to Klingon took only a moment, and he was startled by the change in her.

"Tell me why I've seen you twice in a week!" she demanded, and a low growl from the massive Klingon underscored her request.

"I'm with Starfleet," he said.

"I know that from the last time we met," she said, grasping his jacket and giving him a shake. "Tell me something I don't know."

"I'm going to stop you."

He could read her puzzlement by the furrowing of her brow. She let go of him, exchanged a glance with her Klingon companion and seemed to find something in his stoic expression. Returning her gaze to him, he saw a new, playful sparkle in her eyes.

"You would be better off tracking other pirates, 'fleeter," she said. "We're not the ones you need to catch."

"I beg to differ. I've seen one of your attempted acts of piracy," he retorted.

The hardness came back to her features, and he was sorry he had goaded her.

"I'll tell you again," she hissed. "We are not the ones you need to catch. There is another, more important pirate in this quadrant."

"And who is that?"

The playfulness came back into her eyes. "If I told you that," she said as she slid out of the booth, "I'd be doing your job, now wouldn't I?"

With a barked command at her companion, she got up and strode away, an incredibly diminutive figure that should have looked ridiculous in the Klingon battle garb but who instead radiated strength and disdain with every step.

"It would be best to do as she says," the Klingon said as he rose to his towering height and glowered down at Reed. "If you bother her further, I will have to kill you."

Reed was in a foul mood when he returned to the scout ship on the outskirts of the city. His disposition wasn't improved when he found Tucker fast asleep in his pilot's chair, feet propped on the console. He gave the chair a shove that sent Tucker spinning and his feet sliding to the floor with a thump.

"What?" the engineer mumbled sleepily.

"Get out of my chair," Reed said. "We're leaving."

Tucker clumsily got up, his brain still groggy, and tried to wipe the sleep from his eyes. "What'd ya find out?"

"Not much."

"Well, something's got ya all fired up. Mind telling me what's goin' on?"

Reed activated the navigation panel as Tucker took three short steps to the bunk and sat down.

"That woman at the freighter attack -- Hoshi Sato -- she was here," Reed said. "She's probably left by now, and we're going to pick up her trail with the tracker I put on her."

"You were close enough to put something like that on her?" Tucker asked in amazement. "What's she like? I've never heard of a Human livin' and workin' among Klingons before. She's got to be different."

"She's different, all right." Reed frowned as studied the readouts on the console. "For one thing, I expected her and her crew to run. She's gone back to her ship, but they're still in orbit."

Tucker looked thoughtful. "Maybe they can't leave."

"What makes you say that?"

"Maybe they need something here. Ya said so yourself -- this is a popular place for pirates to do business."

It was Reed's turn to look thoughtful. "Maybe we're not leaving yet after all."

Kleth had seen her angry before, but it was nothing compared to her temper when they returned to the Falcon. No one was safe from her ire as she stalked about, berating the crew for not being further along with the maintenance the ship needed.

"Garef!" she yelled at the helmsman. "Your mother should have drowned you when you were born. An idiot could have fixed that navigational relay by now!"

Kleth prudently stayed out of her way as he followed behind her. What the crew saw was the loyal first officer, ready to implement any of their captain's orders, but he had another motive. The crew respected her, but there was always the possibility that one of them might turn against her, and so he played his role of bodyguard as unobtrusively as possible, hiding it beneath the exterior of a Klingon officer performing his duty.

He was secretly pleased by the spirit she was displaying at the moment but concerned by its source. He had seen her face when she had looked at the Starfleet man in the restaurant. She had been without a mate for a number of months now, and it was natural she would be attracted to one of her own. Whether that one was a worthy successor to Ma'Hew remained to be seen.

His attentive eyes caught her sharp gesture to follow him off the bridge. She did not speak on the way to her cabin, but he could see her frustration in the set of her shoulders and the stiffness of her walk. Once in her quarters, she whirled to face him.

"Damn it, Kleth! How could Starfleet be here?"

She slammed her fist against the bulkhead, and Kleth resisted the urge to laugh when he saw her wince. Sometimes her rage hurt herself more than it did the object of her rage. Yes, she had a Klingon heart indeed.

"Calm yourself, little one," he said softly, but succeeded only in fanning her anger. Before she could speak, he added, "Remember Ma'Hew."

Hoshi immediately froze and stared at him. "Don't do that, Kleth," she said in a dangerously quiet voice.

She drew a shuddering breath and began to pace. He remained by the door, only his eyes moving as he watched her stalk to and fro. He knew she would speak her mind once her rage cooled.

"This is getting so complicated," she said at last, dropping down into a chair. "We need to leave, but we can't until we get that part. It's going to be two days yet. Who knows what will happen in that time?"

"What could he possibly do to stop us?" he said, going right to the heart of the problem. "There is no sign of a Starfleet vessel in the area, and he is but one man."

"I know, Kleth, but he bothers me. There's something about him..."

Kleth watched her face carefully as he spoke, knowing his words would upset her further. "You are attracted to him, little one."

Hoshi's head shot up and her glare drilled into him like daggers. "How dare you!"

"I dare, because it is true," Kleth responded, refusing to give ground. "You are a strong woman. You need a strong mate."

"Get out!" she screamed, picking a mug up off the table and throwing it at him.

Discretion is the better part of valor, she had once told him. He decided she was wise and followed that advice, leaving her cabin as her curses echoed into the corridor.

One of the engineers, Malin, was approaching with a data padd. Seeing Kleth's abrupt departure from their captain's cabin and hearing the screamed invective, he halted uncertainly as the door slid shut.

"Do not disturb her now, Malin," Kleth ordered.

"She is in one of her rages?" he asked.

"Very much so."

Malin nodded and stated simply, "One of the markings of a good captain."

Kleth, falling into step beside Malin as he turned to leave, could only grunt in agreement.