6: Deep In The Water

It was strange, waking up to look at the star sky, stars and stars and behind them even more, more and more until infinity, with only a thin glass wall between them, and knowing to be hiding in an highly dangerous territory. The danger they were still in wasn't reflected in the beauty ascending all around her.

She pulled the shawl closer around her and drifted back to a few moments more of this peace. L'Rell behind her hummed and shifted her arms around her waist a bit.

She must have instantly awoken from her movement, going from sleeping to fully alert without anything in between as she did. Katrina remembered her face in her sleep, still watchful but nevertheless strangely vulnerable. It had been reassuring to watch her, to know that she was still fully able to protect her even when she rested. And it had made her, well, for a lack of better words, human.

,,What a beautiful sight to awake to, isn't it?", Katrina said.

,,Beautiful as a knife."

,,What do you mean?"

,,Its beautiful in its danger. I never understood why you Federates look up to the sky and start to dream. I see only light years for light years of vacuum. Emptiness except for a few flames of hellish nuclear fusion, the few habitable worlds so far away that we literally have to bend reality itself to move from one to the other. Light years of space you will die instantly without a thin wall of metal and artificial compounds. Light years without anything you could survive with. Its death."

Did she saw space like this since she had been stranded and almost starved for half an year in it? Or had she always thought this way, had been aware of the silliness of crossing this ocean of vastness with only a thin hull of metal and horribly powerful physical reactions around you?

,,I think we always just thought of the things between this emptiness."

,,I think that seperates us. You are dreamers."

,,But didn't you dream of uniting your Houses?"

,,I don't know if this is comparable."

She shifted. She could still feel the imprint of her hands and lips and teeth on her, smell their mixed scent. A shudder ran trough her at the memories of the previous night, and feeling L'Rells naked body pressed against her back suddenly let tension upsurge again. She signed and pressed herself closer against L'Rell, moved slightly to feel the form of the others body graze against hers.

She heard L'Rell sign too, her embrace became tighter and her hands shifted higher up her body. Her hot breath ghosted over her neck, then her lips followed and her tongue danced over her skin. As she gasped, L'Rell took her breasts in her hands and started to play with them.

Katrina squirmed in her embrace and rubbed her body against her, finally grasped for her and touched her leg, stroking and kneading all of her she was able to reach.

At some point, she turned in her embrace and kissed her, their hands roaming over the others body, hips moving.

They knew what touches the other would like and the basics of how they would respond this time, so that it was lesser risky, but possibly more intimate this time. Touching and being touched, giving and taking, cherishing and being cherished.

She could feel L'Rells fear of leaving her home for maybe forever in the way she pressed her body against Katrinas, in the way she clung to her back, burring her fingers in her flesh.

And she realized that there was a desperation in her touches, too, how she buried her face in L'Rells neck and worked to leave a mark on her, the fast, harsh movements of her hand, and how everything beside the sensation of her skin and touch and her shuddering body seemed to move far away, as if it would just exist in another reality.

It felt so natural.

After they were finished, they cleaned themselves as good as it was possible, silently ate breakfast and then went to their consoles.

,,What standard time is it for your people? Is there any time where it might me easier to cross the border? A night shift or something similar? In what kind of shifts do your ships operate?"

,,You still don't understand, Admiral. You still see us too much like your Federation."

She raised an eyebrow.

,,We are not an united people. A standard shift system, or standard time does not exist for us. Every house has their own standards, fitting for their territories mayor planet, or most important stronghold. There are three shifts, four shifts or two shifts systems. And time synchronized with their respective home."

,,So you mean there isn't any particularly advantageous time?"

,,I can search our database when night shift is for most houses. But even then it will be more luck than anything else."

They crossed the border at what was early morning on their board time.

,,Detecting a few fast movers on patrol at 58 ° to 83, but they are moving away from us and we are nearly out of their sensor rage. A frigate is on a curse to us, though.", Katrina breathed out slowly and pushed the fear and panicked tangledness of her thoughts away like she had learned to do so many years ago before space battles. Her breath wouldn't stop racing nevertheless, the knowledge that this could very well be her last fight lurking at the edge of her consciousness the whole time. Yep, she definitely was out of practice.

,,Do they hail?"

,,No."

,,Good. That gives us time."

,,Shall I take the sensors and navigation, you control weapons, deflectors and communication?"

,,Yes. Who commands?"

That was a though question. But L'Rell had more practice with space battles lately, and she knew more about her peoples fighting style. As much as Katrina hated the thought of being her subordinate, it was the best decision.

,,Good.", L'Rell said. And then: ,,I hail them now."

Quietness that lasted several painfully heavy heart beats and thoughts of how they could finally be killed by the border patrol.

,,Third Commander Sothor of House Kol, Light Frigate Keruqok here.", the voice sounded slightly sleepy and bored, like the commanding Lieutenant of the night shift. Good. Her sentence meaning was translated by Katrinas Rihannsu space suit headpiece. She pushed the control panel on her arm again, yes, air supply still worked. It was silly, maybe, but it seemed at least a little bit less letal to pick a fight with a much bigger ship if she at least wouldn't imidiately die at a hull breach.

,,Battle Deck Commander Lursa of the House D'Gor from the J'nat. We were separated from our mother ship in a battle.", L'Rell explained.

Now everything depended on if they would manage to get over the border before the other ship would be able to see them on their near-range sensors. They could maybe pass as a ordinary fast mover, but closer up the signature of their hull and their warp drive would definitely look to antiquaited to fit to any ship but the Sarcophagus ship, and there was no explaination how one of their fast movers would end up so far away from its mother ship other than carrying the two searched criminals they were. Not even to mention her own human life sings. Even if Sothor didn't came to that conclusion, they would be suspicious.

,,They're coming closer.", Katrina said after L'Rell had closed the channel, ,,But we could be still fast enough."

A second later, Sothor hailed them again.

,,I didn't knew that the J'nat was in this sector, and I didn't heard that they were missing a fast mover."

,,They must believe we are dead. Pretty chaotic situation, space debris everywhere. Vulcans, that filthy pack. You know how they are, aren't you?"

,,Oh yes.", Sothors abasement barely disguised her fear, ,,You can sent us your status, so that we can repair your ship faster."

Only an astronomical unit, then they would have it. The Keruqok came closer and closer.

,,They damaged most of our comm systems too.", L'Rell excused the missing pictures.

,,A few thousand kilometers, and we are in their visual sensor rage.", Katrina warned.

A muscle in L'Rells jaw twitched. Katrina could totally understand her fear, they would only be fast enough if they would go on warp. But no ship that didn't belonged to the enemy would do that here, and the frigate outran them.

,,Then just report us your status trough the audio channel."

They came even closer, Katrina could already make out most of the Keruqoks shape and where its engines and weapon systems were. Only a little distance… Only a bit further… She wished she could pray to an god so that they could maybe let the other ship be just slow enough for them to not end up in their near distance sensor rage. And then the moment in which they could have possibly escaped was over.

,,We're within their sensor rage."

,,Go!"

To late.

,,The human captative and L'Rell, the traitor! See you in Grethor, you honorless scum!"

,,Get as close to them as possible!", L'Rell shouted.

Katrinas pulled velocity up to maximum. The stars fell away, and the hostile ship blew up from an tiny point of light to a wall of dark metal in hardly more than a second. Only in the last moment she ripped the controls down, steered up hard. She was pushed harshly into her seat.

A green flash, and a phaser missed them only barely.

L'Rell responed with a salve of flashing green plasma on her own. A flash of light, and they were absorbed by the Keruqoks shields.

Katrina flew a sharp curve around the other ship to make them harder to hit. Some components glowed up. With an sudden change of direction, she managed to escape the second salve, but came far to close to the hull for her liking. Shit, she wasn't a pilot, she hadn't done this herself since far to long.

,,In what distance to the ship are their shields?"

,,I don't know!"

,,Oh Fuck!", shit, hopefully she wouldn't avert a phaser salve just to shatter on the shields. She could only guess the distance to the ships hull from where L'Rells shots had been absorbed, but guessing distances per eye absolutely wasn't that reliable.

Dark metal rushed away under them, it looked too large to be a thing made by actual mortal people.

,,Watch out! Turn left!", L'Rell shouted. Not even a second later another shot missed them only for a few meters. ,,Their weapons can reach us far to easy at this point! There, it might be harder."

Katrina looked behind them and saw the weapon machination. Yes, even with her limited technical understanding it looked like the ankle of it made it hard for it the be calibrated to their position. But she was sure that there were ways to turn it more fitting for a close-distance fight. They couldn't outmaneuver them forever.

Just as if to agree to that thought, another salve flashed up at her right, and she couldn't react fast enough. A harsh thrust that made the seat belts cut into her shoulders, as their shields could only hardly hold the attack.

Katrina let the ship fly spirals to make them harder to hit. Stars and spaceship hull blurred into an black-metallic grey channel that seemed to devour them. L'Rell shot randomly on everything in her reach. Most was absorbed in a short flashing up of the shields. She continued, growling.

Another dodge, another shot far to close to them. Finally, the shields seemed to become weaker; a larger plain of it light up as their shots shattered on it.

,,Only a bit more. On the exactly same place."

,,Hard to do if you fly like this."

,,I try to escape their shots!"

And then, something hit them. In the absolutely worst ankle possible. Right in the middle, like a textbook example of how to shot a fast mover. The shield collapsed immediately, almost to fast to even realize it. In one moment, they were sitting in their cockpit and piloting and controlling their weapons. In the next, there was no hull anymore between them and the stars. Only their seats and then space.

,,Ooooh shit! Shit. Oh shit!", Katrina heard her own voice scream, panicked and utterly confused. A barking shout, L'Rell was just as shocked as she was.

Her own breathing, to loud and flat over the communication.

At least L'Rell had managed to continue shooting, and their momentum carried them further.

Finally, Katrina recovered from the shock and was able to think again. They had to make their way to Federation border. Fastly. But as soon as they brought more distance between them and the frigate, they would been in perfect firing rage, loosing their only advantage. And without the hull, how could they been protected in any way?

,,How can we lure them onto Federation space without being shot?", L'Rell seemed to have the same thought. And then, Katrina had an idea. An not exactly promising idea, but better than nothing.

,,Where is the area next to our destination that is hard to reach with their weapons?"

,,There!", L'Rell pointed to the peak of the outer wing.

,,You fire, I steer."

Another shot, Katrina managed to doge it, she flow to low and managed to turn upwards in the last moment, a second later one of L'Rells shots burst on the shields just a few meters below where she almost had headed. And then, she was over the wing. As she had planed the ship moved to be better able to hit them. They rushed towards a poorer protected part of the ship, and it followed again. But it were only tiny steps towards federation space. And how much longer would they be able to keep up this game?

Dodging, spiraling out of the way and flying curves, fleeing and being followed. Time fractured to moments between shots, to distance they would still have to made. It took to long. Far to long.

And then, something huge crept into their visual field, white metal shining in the light of the stars and the glowing of the shields.

She heard L'Rell mumble something flat and scared.

The wall of shining metal moved fully over them, so huge that it blocked out the stars almost fully. A fortress.

,,Starfleet.", Katrina said.

The frigate turned off. Just a moment later, Katrina opened a channel to the Starfleet vessel , and a they were beamed on bord.

Phasers pointed at her face. She felt L'Rell tense beside her, ducking in her fighting stance, her breath flat from suppressed fear. She could totally understand her. Even she was afraid, and this were her own people – or at least should be.

They looked strange, their noses to smooth, their foreheads to low and flat. Alien, almost.

She took of her helmet, and they relaxed a bit.

But before she could explain anything, security members sprang forward and grabbed L'Rell. She managed to throw one of them across the room, but two other were in her place in an instance and one pointed a phaser at her. She stopped to fight back. They pulled her towards the door.

Katrina heard herself scream: ,,Treat her well. Don't hurt her. Heaven, please don't hurt her!" as if this would be necessary, as if her people were the ones hurting others, as if Starfleet would be the true enemy.

Then, L'Rell was out of her sight, and Katrina felt strangely lonely, missing. She could almost physically feel her absence after all these days of being right beside her in their fast mover.

Somebody said something.

"Excuse me?", how could she be beside her just like in the last weeks, and then in one moment not anymore?

"You know this Klingon the best. Would you accept to write her psychological evaluation."

It sounded so surreal.

"Find… find somebody else to do that. I'm", she heard herself gulp, "emotionally compromised."

L'Rell didn't even turn her head as the brigs doors opened. The blue of the force field turned her greyish brown skin to blue, made her look cold and preserved, like something in a museum.

"I'm sorry."

As she heard Katrinas voice, she did turn. Her eyes catched her face, then she looked down immediately to hide the shimmer of pain inside them. Saying "I'm sorry" was not nearly enough, but what else could she do? Despite everything she knew L'Rell had done, she felt that she didn't deserved this. It hurt.

"But I knew you had some goal in Federation space, and I can't trust you not to harm my people as a whole in turn. I'm sorry. But for the good of my people, I had to."

L'Rell looked up slowly.

"I would have lost all my respect for you if you hadn't.", her voice sounded so vulnerable and yet so tender, "I already expected something like this, and I thought hard about what to do in this case. You had no other choice. No honorable, at least."

Katrina wanted to repeat that she was sorry, but it would have been patetic. And so she laid her hand on the force field, felt it rustle and vibrate underneath her fingers, instead of the last kiss, or at least last touch, she wished to give her. She hoped L'Rell understood. Would she ever have a chance to touch her again?

"I don't take back what I said. I am relieved to know you. You made me realize that your people can have honor indeed."

Katrina breathed in deeply, somehow managed to keep the pain from escaping into her voice: "Thank you. I found compassion, understanding… friendship in you, and if this is possible, it is possible to find a solution for this conflict." L'Rell tilted her head as if she wanted to say "You naïve federation people". But then she smiled. Tender. Proudly. And Katrina continued: "You made me realize that it is possible to end this war."

A/N: No happy end for this story. But then, with this setup and in this timeframe it would have simply not been possible.

I like to imagine that everything got more or less its canounical curse… somehow after that. So they would be able to meet again on more friendly terms when the war is over.

Also, I am not even really sure what ship this is at the end. The Discovery, or just an random Federation ship? I have no idea