Chapter 2

Margo slept and as she slept she dreamed of the days she was young and had formed her angry impressions of the Klingons. It all started with the whisperings of her mother with her father and their talking about Margo's great grandfather. She heard her mother plead with her grandfather to not pursue the information he apparently had received while doing duties as an Ambassador on Le'ite a moon that laid within sixteen parsecs of the planet of Boreth.

"Dad, you promised to leave it alone. Now you expect me to just allow you to follow up on this . . ." Margo slipped next to the doorframe from the dining hall where her mother now stood her body ramrod straight and glaring at her father. Both adults were totally unaware that the small child of tender years of no more than five stood wide eyed watching the 'discussion' between parent and child. "This is utterly ridiculous and insane, you have no idea what you are walking into let alone if the information is legitimate."

Margo slid down into the shadows and folded her tiny body close to the door pressing her face to the wall she listened to the debate of whether or not he would go to Boreth and seek out this mysterious informant that had information on Ferrell Langstrum's death. "Dad you can't be serious! We have lost two of our own to the Klingons and why would you do this? Why would you put yourself at risk?"

Closing her eyes she listened to the soft reasoning tones of her Grandfather and knew he had advanced on his daughter and brought her stiff body close to his for a fatherly hug. "Because I miss this from my own father. It is something I need to know what exactly happened to him and if I can recover his body and bring him home where he belongs then I have to do this. Surely, as my daughter you understand this."

Margo could see her mother's body beginning to relax, imagined seeing her mother's arms uncross, her cheek going to her father's chest, her eyes closing and the tears sliding down her cheek. Margo sniffed she hated it when her mommy cried it was sad. "Just promise me you will be careful." That was the last time that Margo saw her grandfather. She was told later that he had been murdered in one of the back ally streets of Boreth. His body had been eviscerated and what was left was not identifiable except by DNA results.

Then the final straw that had sealed her hatred of the Klingons was when her mother disappeared while on an ambassadorial trip near the Klingon home planet of Qo'noS and later was reported having been imprisoned and eventually died while in captivity. This was enough that it closed her heart down to anything Klingon. So, she had lost her great grandfather, her grandfather and then her mother to the brutally that was Klingon and their ways. Margo hated them and she hated the fact she was extremely intelligent.

She had obtained three degrees before her eighteenth birthday and then she had tested for Starfleet academy. She had obtained one of the highest scores for a human and was immediately accepted into the officer's training program. That was when she was finally introduced to her father.

Her mother had told her that as a Jennings-Langstrum she was to hold her head proudly. "You come from a very long line of commendated Admirals!" Margo knew she had come from a long line of Starfleet Admirals. However, her mother had harped at her that they did not expect Margo's choice to be Starfleet.

It was expected or hoped that she would choose the Ambassadorial Corp. Her mother had harped on her abilities. "What with your intelligence and calm reasoning under fire you could be anything Go-go. My God you could be in law. I have never seen anyone that could talk herself out of an impossible situation like you did with that unruly crowd at the station."

Her mother was talking about the time she was sixteen and there had been a group of blackguard that came to the monorail station and had started to heckle and push people around. One unfortunate young man had taken an interest in young Margo standing with her arms full of packages and had purposely bumped her causing her packages to drop and roll to the center of the rail.

Margo had promised her mother that she would wait for her at the South Street entrance. Her mother as usual was late. Now with the heckling and the young bucks wanting to cause trouble Margo was about to go ballistic until a would be hero came into the mix. Hiram Landry had been in her biology class and did not like how she was being harassed.

"Why don't you leave her alone you poor excuse for a man? You want to pick on little girls but not a man?" Hiram was six foot four and went a good two hundred pounds and had played quarter back for his second level education school. The boy did not like the odds of someone that could tower over him and he watched Hiram pick up Margo's package. "You okay Margie?" He smiled and she wanted to melt into those deep blue eyes.

Nodding she spoke softly, "Thank you Hiram. It was nothing really I am sure he did not mean it." She looked pointedly at the boy who now had three of his buddy come to his side and glare at Hiram. Margo read the signs just by their body language, they were a pack and Hiram was about to get jumped.

Seeing the train rolling into the station she waited for the doors to open shoved her packages into Hiram's arms and shifted her body weight, throwing him back into the open door just as it was about to close allowing the train to pull away from the station. Watching him look helplessly at her he glanced to the side and saw five Cadets from the academy get off the train and stop to look at one very pretty girl facing off against five boys.

"Now, gentleman. Usually I am pretty even tempered and I can be nice and friendly. However, this situation does not call for diplomacy. It calls for action. I am not afraid to take action. I cold easily with four moves subdue all of you and embarrass you in front of these big strong men over here. I don't think your ego could stand to have one small girl take you down so you have a choice, leave now or face total embarrassment and possible incarceration. I leave the choice up to you."

Of course the testosterone enhanced males could not believe or want to believe one tiny girl could take them so one stepped forward, with one simple move she had swept him to the ground and held him by his throat, her eyes were locked to the other four. "This is just an example of what I can do, shall we proceed?" Again, two of them decided to try her and they found themselves down and for the count with two moves. Her eyes fell on the last two and she smiled. "That is three moves do I continue?" Her gaze never wavered. The two looked at the three on the ground.

"I wasted a move so I might have to take two moves to take you down but if I do, I can assure you that you will not easily rise up and walk away with all your limbs in tack. If anything I plan to make an example of you and break your legs." She had said it so softly and with such conviction the two left standing glanced down at the three she had put on the ground. "So?" She watched them glanced at their friends on the ground then to each other and turn and run off.

The Cadets started to laugh and applaud and watched the other three crawl off then rise and run after their friends. Again there was another round of cheers, whistles, and applause. Margo turned and did a stage curtsy with a smile. One young man, a Bajoran male stepped forward and patted her shoulder, to lock his fingers over her shoulder bone. His first mistake was touching her. His second mistake had been to allow his hand to linger on her shoulder.

She had grabbed his hand and bent his thumb back with enough pressure to take him to his knees. "I appreciate the recognition of a fellow well-mannered member of Starfleet. I did not invite you to touch me." She released his hand and to the young man's embarrassment felt his face flush with his embarrassment.

"Sorry." His group backed away and moved on to their intended appointment. Which was one of the local pubs. That was when the legend of South Street was born and the more than drank the wilder the stories became about the tiny woman who took on twenty thugs and talked them into running away. When the word finally got back to her mother she smiled knowing that her daughter had finally saw the wisdom of using her talent to talk instead of fight.

The memory of her mother brought a sad smile to her lips. Her mother had been so beautiful, smart and loving. She cherished those times she had spent with her mother. She was not an only child, she had a sister and a brother but in her world they had been born before her and were not in the house where she grew up. They had families of their own and she was just a reminder that their mother was still filled with passion and was obviously fertile.

With no mother to guide her through her formative years she had to learn on her own by trial and error and then there was the boys that were beginning to take note of her and wanted to conquer the ice queen. The ardor of the males cooled as they discovered whom her father was once she was actually enrolled in the academy. She became the Admiral's off limits daughter and the ice queen. Margo did not care what she was called they were petty comments and did not affect her personally.

That gave her time to study and then surpass the other cadets in a relatively short period of time and when the final test was given in the Borg Attack simulator, which had replaced the defunct Kobiashi Maru simulation. She like Kirk had cheated to win. She knew that was the only logical way to advance was by cheating, the thing was she had to make sure it did not look like she had cheated.

Needless to say she passed and surprised her instructors with her manipulations of the scenario to have it be a win-win situation for all involved. Try as they might they could not figure out how she managed to change the scenario to bring about the win she had accomplished. Her father had watched her with pride brimming from the core of his career and had laughed when the techs tried to find where she back doored the program and turned it around. She also discovered that her instructors were a lot like the Klingons she detested all bark and no manners.

After she had been able to select the method of service to Starfleet she was intrigued and challenged by the Intelligence Corp. She could have been a Jag officer if she had wanted it, she could have gotten her law degree in an year and passed the bar, but it was a snooze. She could have selected a star ship and been the resident Ambassador but again that was not exciting enough. What she wanted was the behind the scene intrigue and espionage.

Back corridors of Deep Space Nine

The wiry thin figure dressed in black hugged the walls pressed into the shadows. With the years of plying his trade he inched along the wall until his fingers found the right deviation and with a subtle amount of pressure he pressed and felt the wall give. Sliding into the opening he controlled his breathing. Looking over the room he saw the area most likely to keep something not wanting to be found. Smiling he started forward and then heard the voices outside the door.

In that split moment of decision-making he dove for the safe and then in the wink of an eye had found what was needed and replaced it with the duplicate. Turning as the door opened he slipped his prize into his bag, activated his transport pin and felt the disrupter fire whiz past him as he fizzled from view.

The bridge crew stood expectantly waited for the form to materialize. Each one held a hand close to a disrupter just in case it was not whom they had expected to be on their bridge. The figure appeared was a compact nicely built male of perhaps five feet ten inches tall. His piercing blue eyes shifted around his surroundings and his easy smile spread across his handsome chiseled features. With a flick of his head he flipped his bangs back out of his eyes. "Hi honey! I am home!"

Janae watched his crew break into smiles and go back to their duties.

"Sheesh you could show me a little love?" he cracked moving to take up his position at the helm of his ship. Slumping into his command chair he sighed deeply reached into his bag of holding and pulled out the object he had just risked war and his life for. "This children is what will keep us fat and happy for the next six months." He smiled looking at the shapely form of Mara bent over the sensor board. "We are not out of the soup just yet Captain. We have a Klingon bird of Prey decloaking off the starboard bow moving into bay twelve."

"Then let us not allow them a chance to scan us and lets head to Boreth, I will need my shuttle prepared and we will go in stealth so I can return to M'lar what she has been harping on for the past sixteen hours." He turned to Modak his chief security officer and handed him the object that looked like a golden gem encrusted dust collector. "Put that in the shuttle in the co-pilot's seat and be very careful the tubes inside are priceless and cannot be replaced."

Jamugu walked to his Captain's chair, he was an odd looking male for his species, covered in fur looking a lot like a oversize walking man-wolf. He was a true Senisian bred male an original to Boreth from eons back. His deep-set black eyes peered at the object and with gentle over large clawed hands he reached to touch the sacred chalice. "You know where I come from on Boreth, this was something that was just rumored to be not believed to actually exist. Now to see it." His voice had held a reverence for something first discovered and proven to be true."

"Jam back off boy, you know its true. You did not believe in M'lar and she existed just like this thing. She had the sacred trust and someone from inside gave her up for a few gold bars and promises of some hallow glory. Now what we need to do is find out who set her up and continue to allow her to do her duty to the temple and the Klingon Empire."

He watched the overly large male Senisian drop his clawed talon tips from the container and smiled, it was an eerie smile with those wolfish teeth displayed making it look like he was baring his teeth to attack. "You are right. He stepped back to navigation and took up his chair. His gaze set to the viewport watching the star field around the ship.

Mara was a shapely well-built and muscled bodied Elasian female. Her tears were rumored to be an aphrodisiac to any that let the tears touch their skin. She could make them fall in love with her. That was why no one on Janae's ship the Tori was allowed to go near her during her emotional cycles and if they did they had to wear gloves and avoid her tears. To say Mara was beautiful was an understatement. To say she was deadly in battle and to under estimate he was a death sentence.

"Boss, we have scans from the space station. Odo is requesting permission to board the ship." She turned with a hint of tension on her face and the tightening of her body said she was preparing for flight or a fight.

Janae looked at Mara and smiled, it was one of those kinds of smiles that spread across his face and lit up his eyes with a hint of mischief and an indication he had a brilliant idea. "Modak, put this on the console in front of Jamugu. Jamugu put the little dinosaur you stole from that human last week on top of it along with that stupid stuffed tribble. Mara do invite the good Chief of security onto the ship." Janae watched his orders being taken out as the transporter fizzled another androgynous looking figure with predominately male features onto the bridge.

"Janae, why is it that whenever you are on station I always getting a complaint?" Odo stepped forward and faced Janae. The Bajoran male smiled, his eyes twinkling.

"Odo, she did not complain while I was in her bed." He smirked and Odo showed no emotion. He looked around the bridge and began to pace over the compact and neatly kept area watching each of the crewmembers.

"That was not what she complained of and you know it." Odo paused next to Jamugu laying his hand on his console. His allowed his eyes to shift over the others on the ship then they came to rest on the stuffed tribble and the dinosaur resting on the pretty container. He reached for the tribble and rested it in his hand and looked at Janae. "She wants her bracelet back. You give me the bracelet and I won't let this go any further than a strong warning." Odo placed the tribble back on the pretty container and placed his hands on his hips and waited.

Janae sighed deeply, "I think she stuffed it in my pants to give me an excuse to come back, so I took it as her giving me a thank you gift." He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a sparkling chain with a teardrop diamond dangling from a small ring. Standing Janae smiled then stepped to Odo and handed the trinket over. With a soft sigh he shook his head. "She was memorable but alas I shall not revisit her again."

"It probably is the best that you steer clear of her, she brings me as much trouble as you seem to do when you are on station. Why not by-pass us next time and go straight to Bajor, the last time I checked they had eradicated the writs for your detainment and you are free and clear to visit your Uncle Nemor. He misses you Janae and you owe him a visit at least."

Janae affected a chastised look and walked back to his chair and slumped in it. "I would visit him more often. I just don't get along with that new mate he chose she and I are not fit to be in the same room. She tries to mother me and frankly a female that is around the same age as me does not fit the profile for mother of the year."

Odo pocketed the trinket and looked at Mara, "It is good to see you again Marajade LaRue, I said it before and I say it again, the next time you exit this ship, please register with the docking master your emotional cycle. We don't need a riot on this station." He looked at Modak and the Jamugu. "I have no problem with either of you two. If you continue to hang out with this guy I will suspect that will not be the case." He nodded, touched his transport pin and fizzled from sight.

Janae smacked his hands together and pushed himself from the helm. "See plain sight! Distract and confuse then in plain sight. Okay group lets head to Boreth, we have a very profitable meeting to make and a reputation to save." Janae felt the usual brief disorientation that warp speed made when they went from light speed to warp. He walked to the turbo lift waited for the pneumatic doors to open and allow him entry. "I will be in my quarters when we get to Boreth's air space let me know."

Chamber of Decades

Temple of Kahless, Boreth

She was an enigma and something rarely seen in the Klingon culture, most Klingons by the age of majority had reached the height of six feet or better and tipped the scales at a healthy weight of two hundred fifty pounds of solid muscle. She was to the casual observer no more than perhaps five foot two inches and maybe hit the weight of one hundred ten pounds or less but she like other Klingons was solid muscle. Her eyes were jade green and her hair a deep rich color of brown with red-gold highlights that caught the light and made her appear she carried a halo of fire around her head.

Today she wore her ornamental robes of her office, the High Cleric of Council of Priests for Boreth. She paced the floor looking to an open receptacle and noted it was empty. Chewing her bottom lip she sighed again and stepped towards the opening and stared at it hoping it was not empty but held the Chalice that held the only DNA of Kahless left on the planet. Her breast heaved with her withheld anger and her eyes narrowed and she did not turn to face whomever had decided to enter her alter room. She knew who was there.

"Bi'Anka?" She turned to fix that green cold gaze on the female warrior that towered over her petite form. The Senisian wolf warrior had been genetically altered to appear more Klingon than Senisian. The only part of her appearance that allowed anyone to know she was not full-blooded Imperial Klingon was her eyes. They were elliptically shaped like a cat and she spoke not a word just looked at her mistress. The silence annoyed the cleric.

"Speak and say it. I can hear your thoughts even though you speak not a word Bi'Anka and it is annoying so say it and let it out." M'lar pushed past the female warrior that had been selected to be her bodyguard from her eighth year and together the two had grown up to be more like sisters than guard to cleric.

"I will only ask mistress to be allowed to gut the one that did this offense and upset you. I have heard the Bajoran is on his way and that the gutro GowRon is also on his way with that whelp he hopes to marry off to you." Her words had been soft, her look feral and her manner one of contained anger.

"Well he is not going to marry me off to anyone Bi'Anka, he is going to be in for a shock when he tries to embarrass me in front of my own father. I just want to know whom within our ranks has betrayed this house and the Temple of Kahless with such an affront?"

Bi'Anka's tall slender body moved with pent up anger and energy she wanted to kill something and she did not care who or what it was that met the sharp end of her blade. Her long black hair held light streaks of white and her armor was typical of most the cleric's guard only made from a finer material that matched M'lar's own armor. "I promise you mistress once the traitor is discovered his blood will anoint my blade."

M'lar watched the doors to her alter room slide open and the echo of the action reacted off the vaulted ceilings. A very tall and heavily armed warrior entered his gaze traveled over the room to land on Bi'Anka and then to his mistress. He wore the armor of the House of T'L'th and his demeanor was one of business and nothing more than devotion to the house that had selected him from birth to protect and guard the cleric's of Boreth.

"Tork?" M'lar stepped forward the soft flow of her robes dragging the floor to dance around her ankles. The plunging neckline would have distracted any other male but this male was used to the sight of his mistress. She stood poised at the top of the dais and folded her arms under her breasts and waited for his report. He bowed to her and went to one knee.

"My Lady M'lar, your father has summoned you to his Chair, you are requested along with Bi'Anka to present yourself now." He kept his head bowed and awaited M'lar to dismiss him.

M'lar sighed deeply and then hearing a familiar sound behind her turned and smiled at the chalice that had been taken was now appearing in the receptacle that had been vexing her earlier. She glanced to Bi'Anka and smiled. "Tell my father, I wish to change and will join him shortly." She watched Tork rise turn smartly to the door and go out of sight.

"He took his time getting that back." Bi'Anka stepped forward and closed the receptacle. For the first time in thirty-six hours M'lar smiled. "Yes but he did it now did he not?" She turned and walked down the steps and headed to her chambers to change, for this show down she wanted to look her most regal and intimidating.