CHAPTER 9

"He says he will tell you about the ship," Kleth informed Hoshi.

Kleth had come to her cabin after his brief encounter with the 'fleeters. She had hoped her first officer would be able to pry the information out of them, but that wasn't going to be the case, she saw now. She knew he could beat it out of them. For some reason, however, Kleth didn't seem willing to do that.

She suspected he had an ulterior motive. His remark a few days earlier about her being attracted to one of her own probably had something to do with it. Not only was he a philosopher, it appeared he was a matchmaker as well, in his own rough way. He had to be the least Klingon-like Klingon she had ever met.

She didn't bother to get angry with him. What was the use? It was like trying to turn back a force of nature. She thanked whatever deity there might be that, most of the time, his force was moving in the same direction as she was.

Yet she couldn't deny the thrill of excitement that coursed through her when Kleth told her Reed wanted to talk to her. She hadn't been able to stop thinking about Reed as she had waited for Kleth to bring his report. Three times she had been in Reed's presence; the last two times she had touched him. With a slight flush, she realized she wanted him to touch her as well.

Feeling like she had betrayed Matthew's memory, she uttered a curse and gave Kleth her full attention. "Have you learned anything about his ship?"

"It is a prototype, designed for covert operations with no markings. Malin says it is not the standard Starfleet warp engine. It is possibly capable of more than warp 5."

"More than warp 5?" Hoshi asked, a touch of wonder in her voice. With her background, she realized what that could mean to the shipping industry. Quicker runs meant more runs as well as a greater profit by charging higher rates for faster service.

Was it worth the risk to offer it to Shidak and let the pirates get their hands on the technology as well? A newer, faster engine would be a powerful incentive for Shidak to allow her to join him.

Kleth's voice brought her back to her current reality. "Malin doesn't know what is wrong with it."

Hoshi sighed. "I'll have to talk to Reed. Bring him to me after dinner. And wipe that smile off your face, Kleth."

Kleth walked to the door but turned to face her before leaving. The smile wasn't gone. "Don't hurt him too badly, little one."

Reed squatted down next to where Tucker was sitting on the floor of the cell. "You OK?"

Tucker's face was scrunched up in pain as he glared at Reed. "What the hell is your problem?" he gritted out.

The normally cheerful engineer was mad. He had every right to be, Reed supposed, feeling a small pang of remorse. Tucker hadn't deserved being slapped down by the Klingon. His own caustic comments, while heartfelt, had been uncalled for as well, but had served his purpose.

"Let me look," he said, pulling Tucker's hand away from his jaw. A livid bruise was taking shape.

"Leave me alone!" Tucker said as he jerked away from Reed's touch. "I can't believe you're going to tell them about the engine."

"I'm not, but they don't know that."

"Then what the hell was all that about?"

"I'm trying to keep you alive, Mr. Tucker."

Tucker laughed bitterly. "Well, you sure picked a strange way to go about it."

Reed stood up and paced across the cell. "Hopefully, Kleth thinks I don't care if you die. He won't try to use you as a hostage to get me to cooperate."

"What if he does?" Tucker asked, eyeing Reed suspiciously.

"Then I'll just have to think of something else, won't I?"

Their argument was interrupted by the cell door opening. Two Klingons entered, one armed with a disruptor, the other holding two plates of food. "Eat!" ordered the one with the plates.

Reed carefully took the plates from him and backed away when the armed Klingon growled.

Staring at the plate Reed handed him after the Klingons left, Tucker said, "I don't think I can eat this stuff."

"From what little I know about Klingon food, just be glad it's not moving," Reed said.

Hoshi had to put in a token appearance in the crew's mess. As captain, she needed to do such things. She couldn't stay cooped up away from them all the time. Donning her armor again before leaving her cabin, she felt as if she was putting on a Klingon personna at the same time.

The blood wine was flowing freely when she entered. The crew members who had been in the docking bay when the scout ship was brought on board were regaling their comrades with the tale of their captain's humiliation of the 'fleeter.

Cheers and mugs were raised in her honor as she sauntered over to an open barrel. Grabbing a mug from the nearby table, she dipped it in. She turned so that her crew could watch as she raised the mug to her lips and downed the entire thing in one try. When she threw the mug against the bulkhead when she finished, the crew cheered again.

None dared to approach her, however. She was too different from them. Some respected her, some feared her, some were doing what they believed was a sacred duty in honor of her dead husband. All of them, she was certain, were in awe of her first officer, who was standing at her shoulder. She shrugged mentally. Whatever worked and got her to her goal.

Putting a feral smile on her face, she took a seat at one of the long tables. Another mug of blood wine was placed in front of her by Malin, the engineer she had praised earlier. She exchanged a glance with Kleth, who had taken a seat beside her, as Malin moved away.

As the conversation in the mess hall resumed around them, Kleth leaned toward her to whisper, "You have conquered Malin, little one."

She muttered a Klingon epithet, adding, "Just what I need -- another targ pup," causing Kleth to snort into his blood wine.

"That other one you will see tonight is no pup," he said softly.

Before Hoshi could respond, some of the crew started a song, and soon she was joining in the chorus with the rest of the Klingons.

She managed to eat some coarse bread and stew that another crew member brought her after the song was finished. Halfway through the meal she realized she was enjoying herself. For the first time she had the feeling that this really was her crew. Now she understood Matthew's insistence that the Falcon had a place in H-S Shipping's fleet.

They weren't bad people, these Klingons. Kleth, she knew, would die for her under the right circumstances. Because of her husband, Kleth owed her that much.