The Hour of the Wolf
Chapter Thirty-Six

Authors note:-

Quick point regarding Klingon Birds of Prey. The B'Rel class is seven decks, while the K'Vort is more like twenty. One is a scout come fast assault ship that specialises in ambush and raids. The other is one step below a cruiser. Needless to say no matter how cool four vipers wouldn't be a match for the larger K'Vort. I got them mixed up in an earlier chapter. Sorry about the confusion,

Also the motivation of Martok was a little off. I hope to fix, or at least clarify it here.

Martok walked around the Viper again. The large engines were impressive obviously this fighter, as they called it, was designed for speed. On the other hand you couldn't dismiss it's firepower. Four had destroyed two Birds of Prey.

The B'rel class might not be the largest or the most powerful ships in the Klingon fleet, but they were some of the best. They were more manoeuvrable, faster than just about anything else in the sector. Capable of appearing behind enemy lines, raiding and destroying key targets then vanishing. The problem was that the design was old, so was a lot of it's systems.

That was why Martok had transferred to ship development. His goal was to produce a new model for the B'rel class. Taking the advances made during the development of the Vor'cha and applying them fleet wide. Bringing the Klingon fleet up to date.

But now that had changed. The idea of one man combat shuttle pods was revolutionary. While lightly armed on their own they could quickly outnumber larger foes. Overwhelming defences with speed and ferocity. Already Martok could imagine the effect more than a dozen of these, launched from strategically placed cloaked transports, would have.

'I don't see a Warp Drive.' He said eventually. At first Martok had suspected they had the field generators in the short wings, like a Bird of Prey, but he could see that wasn't true.

'We don't use Warp.' The dark skinned warrior, Boomer, told him. 'But you're right, usually a Viper squadron needs a carrier ship for long range transport.'

'Usually?' he growled back.

'There's a Probe variant.' The one called Starbuck explained. 'Two seater, it's a little bigger than these. They go ahead of the Fleet, scout the area in case there's a trap, or something our sensors missed. They send that all clear and the Battlestar follows.'

'Battlestar?' Martok asked.

'Our capitol ship. The Vipers here are just part of our diplomatic envoy. The Battlestars still at our new homeworld.'

A dedicated transport, that made some sense, but Martok was more confused by something else. 'No Warp drive, how do you travel the distance between stars without Warp?' he asked, remembering that there were no nacelles on the ship they were on either.

'We use a different system.' Boomer told him. 'What did that Federation Tech call it?'

Starbuck shrugged, but an Engineer was walking past. They answered; 'Leah said it was a Colonial Mass Displacement Drive, but that's the Federation for you. Why use one word when a dozen will do. Lords know those guys get paid to make things overly complicated.'

Martok joined in the good natured chuckle. He'd heard Klingon scientists making the same complaint. 'Colonel Martok, this is Tech Renna. Chief mechanic on board.'

She was large, for a human and was more muscular than most. While most humans had the appearance of being soft even pampered these Colonials were more Klingon. 'Good to meet you.' She nodded, wiping her hands on a rag. 'You command that attack ship out there?'

'The Vor'Cha.' He told her proudly.

She looked at his shuttle. 'You use those fusion reactor cores don't you? You didn't have any problems with your power systems? Just before the battle ours got fracked by some energy field. I can't pin it down. The Viper's were fine, so whatever it was just seemed to effect us here.'

Martok frowned, 'Nothing. You think it was some sort of weapon?' he couldn't think of any weapon that could cause that, but that didn't mean Duras weren't experimenting. Over the years many Houses had developed so called ultimate weapons, including an Ionic cannon during the late 23rd century and the Bird of Prey Chang had personally developed that could fire while cloaked. All of them had been flawed, unreliable and often dangerous to use.

'If it was it didn't work. We had some problems, but nothing serious. Main engines weren't effected.'

Martok snared. 'If the Duras have a new weapon we must be prepared.'

'We will be.' Gowron announced loudly as he marched into the hanger. 'House Gowron and House Adama are now sworn brothers. Together we will defeat Duras and bring a new age to the Klingon Empire!'

A dark haired warrior, the one called Apollo, was just behind the Chancellor. 'If you want humans to help you fight we will be more than willing to, but I don't think your fellow Klingon's will approve.'

Gowron spun on him and Martok could see his eyes were wild. After a tense moment he grinned. 'Yes. They would not understand that you are warriors and a Klingon fights his own battles.'

'But we can't just stand by.' Apollo added. 'In a war like this civilians are always caught in the middle.'

Starbuck nodded. 'Our ships are faster, long range and short. The Astradon should be ready to re-launch soon. It's had a complete refit, defence shields and transporters.'

'Good idea. She's not as pretty as the Rising Star but she's about the same size.' The mechanic pointed out.

'We can assign a Viper squad for defence.' Apollo agreed. 'If the Astradon's Captain agrees and you accept the offer Chancellor.'

Martok could see Gowron was unhappy with this idea, but he would be a fool not to accept. Even if it was only civilian aid it would free up other ships for the fight ahead. 'Qapla.' The Chancellor saluted and headed for the shuttle. 'We have much to do Colonel Martok, we must return to the Vor'Cha and begin gathering my forces. We will be in touch.'

The Dominion Cylon War had entered a new phase, stalemate. It would only last for a short time and the Founder knew it. Aside for a few violent skirmishes since the destruction of her home and the near murder of the Great Link the enemy had chosen to consolidate their position.

She stood on the command of the capitol cruiser, the view screen eyepiece flickered to show the ship outside. A Jem'Hadar fighter, the one she was waiting for, dropped out of Warp and joined the immense fleet she had gathered.

Long range scans showed vast strip mining operations, reducing once mineral rich systems to nothing more than empty husks. The Dominion had not been idle, growing armies of newly enhanced Jem'Hadar and building fleets of warships. It was only a matter of time before they could build no more. They needed to tip the balance in their favour and soon.

Unfortunately that was looking harder the longer this stalemate continued. A small indicator flashed in her view piece telling her that someone had teleported off the Fighter and onto her Cruiser.

The destruction of the Great Link had done more than endangered her whole species. It had shown the Founders to be vulnerable. The perception was that they were weak. The Dominion had thrived on their strength, on the strength of the Jem'Hadar. This war meant that was no longer the case and some of the more rebellious members saw it as an opportunity.

The doors opened and she removed the eyepiece. In limped her favourite Jem'Hadar, Roe'met'felcon. First amongst Firsts and one of only a handful of Jem'Hadar in history to be considered on par with a Vorta. While is body was broken his mind was far too valuable to lose and his loyalty unquestioned.

Behind him was a young male Nhurant, escorted by a pair of new Jem'Hadar. The Nhurant species was relatively new in the Dominion and unremarkable. They were known to be inquisitive and were distinctive due to their four eyes and odd nasal structure.

The Changeling had, for a brief time, taken their form. She found them petty and mostly ignorant, like most solids.

'Founder.' Roe'met'felcon saluted as best he could.

'This is the leader of the Rebellion?' She asked. 'How could such a pathetic creature hope to stand against us?'

He looked at her with open defiance. 'The Dominion will fall, even if I don't live to see it!'

Roe'met'felcon stood at attention, awaiting instruction. 'He is all that remains of a council of rebels. The others were executed, this one survived. You instructed me to bring one to answer for their crimes.' he announced seriously.

She knew this of course, but he was informing the prisoner. 'Tell me, child, why rebel against the Dominion?' the Changeling asked. 'Have we not brought order to your people?'

'You enslave us, kill us if we speak out! We will have our freedom!' he objected.

'To be annihilated by the Cylon menace?' She countered. The Nhurant were not the only species to try and exploit what they saw as a weakness and it confused her. Could they not see that these petty squabbles could jeopardise their survival?

'They won't care, not about us!' The Nhurant rejected her before struggling to his feet. Only to be beaten down by his escort.

The female Changeling looked down at the foolish solid. 'You are correct, they will not care. Instead they will destroy you and take your resources.' She said calmly.

'We'll still be free of you!' he said defiantly.

She sighed, the Female Changeling had seen this before. 'Fanatic. Reason is useless.' She turned to Roe'met'felcon. 'Kill him.'

With his one good hand the Jem'Hadar drew a disrupter pistol and fired. 'You two, take that away.' She ordered. As they dragged the body away she looked at him again. Roe'met'felcon was a wreck, even more of him had been injured on this mission. Not extremely, but noticeably. 'You will not survive much longer.' she told him.

'I live only to serve.' he repeated formulaically. It was a pity she could not clone him. While it was possible every attempt to clone Jem'Hadar had been met with problems. The dependancy on the White was a volatile process, previous clones had been flawed, mutated in disfiguring ways.

'You will serve a while longer.' She told him. 'There are rumours of more rebellions. The fools would tear the Dominion apart if they could. Ensuring the Cylon's victory.'

'That will not happen, Founder.' Roe'met'felcon insisted. 'The Dominion will never fall. That I swear.'

She felt proud, vindicated. 'With warriors like you how can I doubt that. But I have a more important mission in mind. Take a team of Jem'Hadar, the latest batch, train them as you have before. Take them and find the latest rebellion and again bring me the Rebel Leader. Perhaps they will be more reasonable. Do you understand?'

'Yes Founder. Victory is life.'

'I doubt you do, we must stop these rebellions.' She announced. 'To do that we must make converts, not martyrs.'

'Your wisdom, as always, guides us all.'

'Go. Go and bring me good news on your return.'

Another salute and he left. The Female Changeling replaced her eyepiece and began scanning her fleet again. It wasn't enough. They needed a miracle.

Wesley almost ran into the Observation lounge, he was excited. He'd been waiting for word from the Academy. The Captain had requested special dispensation from the Board, so that he could complete his studies on the Enterprise.

The Captain had recently received a priority transmission from Starfleet, with any luck it was about him. At the far end of the Captain Riker was talking quietly with Commander Shelby. She looked worried about something and the Captain was not his usual carefree self. This wasn't about Wesley's Academy prospects. Something bad had happened.

The rest of the bridge crew joined them, one at a time. Data being the last as the replacement shift was phased in. Wesley carefully watched the Counsellor. If you wanted to know what Captain Riker was thinking you watched her. While he could hide what he was thinking she always knew.

The same had worked with Captain Picard, only not as well. From the way she held back Wesley knew for sure it was not good news.

After a few moments Captain Riker stepped up to the table and everyone looked to him. 'Right, this isn't an official briefing so I'm dropping rank here. I've just received some news and I want to get the facts to you before any rumours muddy things up. Yesterday was Chancellor Gowron's inauguration. Picard was there along with Commander Adama and few representatives including Ambassador K'Ehleyr. Duras's sisters gatecrashed the ceremony with Duras's son.'

'Duras had no son.' Worf growled.

The Captain nodded. 'They claimed he was kept secret to protect him. They tried to make a claim for the Chancellorship but Picard denied it. As a result the sisters attacked. Worf, there was a fight. K'Ehleyr's alright, but she was hurt.'

Wesley could see the tall Klingon struggling with his temper. 'Worf, before you do anything there's more.' The Captain warned. 'Since then a number of Houses have declared their support for Duras, others for Gowron.'

'Civil war.' Geordi said darkly. 'It's actually happening.'

'The Federation Council has already declared it an internal Klingon matter and forbidden Starfleet to get involved.'

'I officially request a leave of absence.' Worf announced, already heading for the door.

'Worf! Worf wait!' The Captain called out. 'Adama has already promised to escort Klingon Civilians out of conflict areas.'

'Captain.' Shelby said warningly.

Riker ignored her. 'I can re-assign you, temporally, as a liaison. Between the Colonies and those they're trying to save.'

'They're not going to send a Battlestar are they?' Wesley asked

The Captain winced 'I sure as hell hope not Wes.'

'No.'

'No what Worf?' Wesley's Mother asked

'No, I will not be reassigned.' He took off his badge and put it on the table. 'Grant me the leave or I will resign my commission.'

End Chapter Thirty-Six