Krang looked up as the Terragnan woman entered, his features harsh and unsmiling. She was obviously scared, he noted, but she was trying hard not to show it. He respected that. "I am Security Captain Krang" he growled, "head of security here. What do you want?"
"I… I need your help." Nervously, she explained how her children had gone missing earlier that day when the church had been raided by Klingon soldiers. "Please," she finished. "Help me find them."
Krang got to his feet, he was a big man and next to the human woman, his height made him seem tall and forbidding. "Tell me" he said thoughtfully, "Where were you when the children disappeared? Why were you not with them?"
Chrissie hesitated. She'd known that she would be asked this question and with the help of Kirk and Sarah, had prepared her answer in advance, keeping it as close to the truth as possible. Even so, she needed to be very careful. "My friend is the housekeeper at the church," she told him, "and I help look after the gardens. We left the children playing and went inside to get the key to the tool shed and surprised a group of men. We challenged them, asked them what they were doing in there, because there wasn't supposed to be anyone in there. I think they were resistance – they probably thought a church would be a good place to meet. When they heard the Klingons approaching, they grabbed us and ran. I just wanted to get back to my children, and I tried to get away from them, but the one who had hold of me wouldn't let me go until it was all over."
Krang considered her story. He thought it unlikely that if she could identify the members of the resistance, that they would have let her go to the Klingons for help. Even so, he had to ask.
She shook her head, confirming his thoughts. "Not by name," she told him. "I could describe them, but it wouldn't be much use to you."
"Why is that?"
"Well…" She thought for a moment. "One of them was white, about five feet, nine inches with short, sandy-blond hair and brown eyes and he had no distinguishing marks. He was wearing jeans and a white shirt. Your problem is, not only does that probably describe about half the men in London, there's no chance they will risk meeting at the church again, especially after the state your men left it in."
It was a fair point, he acknowledged. "Very well. So, tell me… how did you avoid the soldiers? And where did they take you?"
"I'm not sure how we got out," she confessed. "It all happened so fast. I remember one of them had hold of me. He put his hand over my mouth to stop me screaming and pretty much dragged me along with them. I was panicking because they were separating me from the children and I didn't really know what was happening – just that he pulled me into someone's garden and into a shed. By the time it was over and they decided it was safe to let me go, I was pretty much hysterical."
He nodded. Her story was plausible even if his instincts told him she was leaving a lot out. For the moment, he decided, he would accept it. "So then you came here?"
"Yes," she said, "At least, not straight away. I went back to the church first in case the children were still there. But they weren't, so I went home to check there. It's not very far from the church and I thought they might have tried to go home." She shook her head in distress. "But I couldn't find them anywhere and no-one would admit to seeing them. So I came here." She looked up, meeting his eyes. "Please… help me find them."
"I will need your identification and contact details," the security captain told her. "If you can give me a picture of your children, I will order my men to search." She was trembling, he noticed, and he could see the fear in her eyes, fear for her children rather than for herself. His expression softened slightly. "We are not monsters. Klingons don't hurt children; they will be found safe and unharmed."
After the woman left to continue her own search, the Klingon took some time to look at the picture she had given him. Technology was so backwards here, he reflected, they didn't even have holographs. Well, he would do what he could. He had not yet received a full report on the raid and activating his computer, he sent an urgent message to the squad leader, asking for details.
The message sent, he considered what to do next. He should run a background check on the woman while he was waiting, but right now he was not in the mood to do it. It would be a waste of time anyway; she was just a mother worried about her children and she would hardly have walked into Klingon headquarters if she had anything of importance to hide. With a sudden fit of rebellion, he shut down the security programme and got up to get himself a drink. He'd run the check later.
After a short time, the report Krang had requested arrived on his desk and reading it, he realised that a search for the missing children would not be necessary. The squad leader in charge of the raid had found two children wandering around the damaged building. They had been scared and confused, and not knowing what else to do, he had brought them into headquarters.
They would need to be questioned of course. They had been found in the middle of a raid and might have seen or heard something that could be useful to the investigation. This interrogation was one he preferred to do himself however, as with such young children, it would require delicate handling. As he had promised their mother though, they would not be harmed. It was true that Klingons did not hurt children.
Speaking with the children, he learned that their mother's story was true, at least as far as the children were aware. They confirmed that they did have an aunt who worked there and that they played regularly in the church garden. Unfortunately they had not seen the men inside the building but had been involved in their game until the Klingon soldiers had arrived and started destroying everything.
There was nothing more to be gained from holding the children, Krang decided. It was time to return them to their mother. Checking her contact details, he activated the comm. unit and tied it in to the primitive telephone system that was the main method of communication on this planet. He could hear the phone ringing at the other end but after several minutes there was still no answer. Over the course of the afternoon he tried several more times, but with no luck. Either there was an error in the details she had given him or she was not at home. Something needed to be done, however. Deciding that if the mother was unavailable, then the Terran authorities would have to deal with the problem, he put a call through to his aide.
Making use of a vacant office, Lieutenant Kay'vin was busy going through the operational records of the London department. Not liking what he'd found, he had, with Krang's authorisation, begun to dig deeper. Many of Karg's files were encrypted above his clearance level, but the security captain had provided him with access codes, at the same time warning him that he should keep the information to himself and not let anyone else realise what he was doing.
He'd proved to have an aptitude for this type of work and Krang had more than once suggested that he transfer permanently to Imperial Intelligence, but he had respectfully refused. He was a Defence Force officer, a fairly low-ranking one admittedly, but his ambition was to one day captain his own ship – not one of the big, clumsy battlecruisers, a bird-of-prey would do him just fine. Besides, he had his own secrets and an agenda that needed to remain hidden for the time being although he was uncomfortably aware that time was running short and that he would have to act soon. A transfer to Imperial Intelligence would put him under a spotlight that could endanger the mission he had been entrusted with.
He would admit however, that he liked working for Krang. The job was both interesting and challenging, more so than his regular shipboard duties. The role of aide to an Imperial Intelligence officer might not be quite what he had trained for, but the security captain was a good boss and surprisingly easy to work with. On the whole he was glad he had accepted the position when it had been offered. The fact that it would make his task easier when the time came was just an added bonus.
Concentrating on his task, Kay'vin didn't hear the comm. system chiming and it was only when his boss appeared in the doorway, that he realised he had missed a call.
Krang's voice was unusually sharp when he spoke, indicative of the deteriorating mood that had not been helped by Kay'vin's tardiness in answering the call. "Lieutenant, you will contact Terran Child Services immediately and have them send someone to collect the two children that are in our custody."
"Yes, my Lord. I will do it now." There was no other answer Kay'vin could give. The lieutenant knew that Krang's mood was not truly directed at him, but even so, it added to his nervousness. The atmosphere in this place was not far short of explosive and it seemed to Kay'vin that battle lines were being drawn as various officers decided whether to support Karg's power play or remain loyal to Krang.
The security captain gave a sharp nod of acknowledgement. "And next time, Lieutenant, answer your comm. I do not expect to have to come looking for you in future."
The younger officer bowed his head in wordless apology. "It will not happen again, my lord." He would make sure it didn't. Busy or not, he realised with some consternation, with the developing situation, it was not good to lose himself in his work so deeply that he was not fully aware of his surroundings – nor was it good to keep his boss waiting. Resolving to be more careful in future, Kay'vin activated his comm. system, putting through the requested call to Child Services.
"We have two children in our custody," Kay'vin told the social worker who answered his call. "A boy aged six and a girl aged four. We require you to send someone to collect them immediately."
"I'm sorry, that won't be possible," the woman replied. "We have no space at the moment. We can't help."
Kay'vin growled. "Not good enough. You will comply with our instructions or…"
"Well, whose fault is it, we're full?" the woman snapped back, not giving him a chance to finish. "We are overworked and overwhelmed. Maybe if your people would stop killing their parents, we might have the space to help. And you aren't exactly providing us with the funding to set up and staff more facilities."
She had a point, Kay'vin acknowledged reluctantly, even if most Terrans would have been too intimidated to voice it quite so forcefully – although if it had been Karg or even Krang making the call, he wondered if she would be quite so vocal in her complaints. Now that would be a battle worth witnessing. This was not his first encounter with Terran social services and he knew this woman. More to the point, she knew him – and as Terrans went, she was terrifying. What was that term he'd heard used? Battle-axe? Yes, it suited her very well. She was an older woman, largish, with grey curly hair pinned up in an untidy bun and she took no prisoners, so to speak. Even at the other end of a communications channel, her voice alone was enough to make his cranial ridges itch. That disapproving tone sounded far too much like his mother's on the all too frequent occasions he had stood in front of her awaiting punishment after being caught in yet another childhood escapade.
"The children are Terran," Kay'vin growled, in one last ditch attempt to regain control of the conversation. "They are too young to be in our prison cells. You are going to have to sort something out."
"Sort it out yourself," she retorted. "Full means full. You Klingons keep telling us you don't hurt children. So put your money where your mouth is and prove it… And Lieutenant, you'd better look after them, because I will be expecting regular updates on their welfare and believe me, if they come to any harm while in your care, then I will personally make sure you regret it. Now if you don't mind, I am busy."
Kay'vin growled as she terminated the call, leaving him listening to the dial tone. Oh great, now what was he supposed to do? He'd need to tell the boss, but Krang was already in a bad mood. Deciding to take the easy way out, he recorded a carefully worded message, stating that Child Services were regretfully unable to assist and that they were happy that the children would be safe in Klingon custody until the family was traced or a space became available in foster care. With the message sent, he breathed a sigh of relief and returned his attention to the files he had been studying.
Much later that evening, about to go off duty for the day, Krang found his thoughts returning to the two children. His expression was thoughtful as he remembered the boy's bravado as he tried to protect his younger sister. They were very young and he did not like the idea of them being left overnight in the prison cells. But what else was he supposed to do with them?
Impulsively he left his office and headed back down to the prison cells beneath the building. He gave a sharp order and the duty guard unlocked the door to the second cell. Moments later, two dirty, frightened children were released into his custody.