Chapter 12

Outer reaches of the Capital City of

Qo'noS

K'Ter'r was tired, and unsettled. He had never reacted in a situation like he had just now with the cleric. A part of him wondered if he had been duped by the Cleric and she had messed with his mind. She certainly seemed to be amused by something and he knew that it was nothing he had done intentionally to amuse her. Walking down the hallway he entered the door belonging to the captain's quarters. Flopping down on the bed he closed his eyes. He was tired, he was tired enough to fall immediately asleep.

He felt his body relax and then his mind began to go into the REM part of sleep. He was falling into a dream and in this dream he felt he was really there and awake. The day had started out as most days for him. He needed to go see Q'dar and check on his new battle armor. He did not like the replicated crap the empire would issue most the warriors when they came in for boot camp and training. He had come from the old school for warriors when going to space meant something and they made only the best for their warriors.

He had been through four battles and the spine area of his uniform was damaged from a shot he had taken from a Cardassian rifle. If it had not been for the durable wear of the spinal protector he would be crippled and ready to lie on his knife. Q'dar was the best when it came to the latest in battle wear. Walking up to her shop door, he noticed the lava pits were more active this day than they had been in the past. Opening the door he looked around at the display of weaponry and battle armor and he was impressed with what he saw. "K'Ter'r good you are here lets get you measured to make sure you have not lost height from the last time you were here. I see you put on a couple more pounds."

K'Ter'r looked at the woman in front of him, she was almost as tall as he and had whelped two more young ones since last he saw her and showed she had her baby weight still on her frame. Otherwise she was still a striking female Klingon with her fiery red hair, piercing blue eyes and wide smile. She held wide her arms and drug him into a tight friendly hug. "I should have bonded with you instead of Partoq. I think you would have made a better bed mate than he." She laughed at her own joke over the poor performance of her mate.

K'Ter'r laughed and shook his head. "I too should have just picked you up and drug you off to Boreth, your business there would have been better than what you get here. The class of warrior we are producing these days are a sorrier lot. I don't know what this world is coming to when all they care about is getting past their tour of duty and running off to do whatever makes them happy. Warriors are not suppose to be happy unless they are killing or conquering." He mumbled and waited as she measured him from the back and around his chest.

It was while she was measuring him that he felt the floor heave under his feet and Q'dar started to topple into him. Catching her he heard the nearest volcano erupt with a loud near sonic boom to belch a ton of ash over the country side and out the window watch it fall like a blanket over the land. "Damnit, it will take me a month of moons to clean up that mess." She sighed and shook her head. "The council is going to have to do something about this. It is getting worse." She watched as following the ash came the inevitable soot that covered the ash with its hot embers spewing everywhere.

That is when in the sky K'Ter'r saw something else and it caught his attention as another resounding explosion rent the air and he watched a fireball erupt overhead and burning shrapnel fell to the ground. "What the . . ." He narrowed his gaze and watched the craft that had exploded crash in burning embers to the ground. "Contact the patrol and let them know I am going out there and check for survivors of that crash, they should meet me."

Q'dar watched him head out the door as she went to her vid panel and began to notify the authorities. K'Ter'r left her to the domicile as he trudged towards the last location of falling debris he had witnessed. Picking his way over rocky effacement he made his way in knee-deep soot and ash towards the largest burning raiment of the wreckage. K'Ter'r looked at the wreckage and was unable to identify the type of craft. He walked towards the craft when he felt the ground underneath him heave again.

Once again the volcano belched out rock, burning embers and ash that flew over head to come crashing back down to the ground to pelt him. Ducking he felt his body began to tumble forward and land hard hitting his head on a huge buried rock. Smacking his head he saw a flash of light then a veil of darkness began to descend over his eyes as they filled with blood and unconsciousness. Fighting to stay awake he glanced up to see a body lying in the open end of the shuttlecraft.

From the body something moved. It appeared to be in the form of a larger than most serpent worm and it slowly inched forward with its thousands of legs pulling its slime covered body over the mounds of rocks and above the ash bed, which K'Ter'r found odd. Finally this thing that somewhat confused and frightened K'Ter'r who was afraid of nothing felt it crawl over his body under his hair and then he felt an odd tingling sensation as it seemed to burrow into the back of his neck along his spinal cord.

In his dream he saw the creature wrap its many tentacle like legs around his spinal cord and work into his brain. It was a pleasantly odd sensation and it made the blood stop flowing into his eyes. Then like a good sedative to relax him he was able to sleep. He was aware that the patrol had finally arrived and pulled him from the soot and ash. Lifting his body to carry him to a hoover craft and throw him into the back. "Is he alive?" One voice asked as they shucked him into the floor of the craft.

"Yeah, just knocked out it looks like. He had blood on him but there is no open wound so not sure if it is the blood from that creature we found in its craft." That must have been the team leader.

"We will need to contact space patrol to come and collect the craft and the creature. " K'Ter'r felt the movement of the craft as they must have headed back to town. He was not alone in his thoughts or his body. He sat up with a moan and looked around at where he was placed.

Q'dar had agreed to have him brought there and she must have cleaned him up. He shook his head and the hair from his face. "Hey big guy. Lay back down you had a rough morning. You must have killed an invading creature, the whole area is buzzing with the information that you put up a fierce battle." She sat on the edge of the bed and smiled into his confused gaze.

"I don't remember Q'dar. I thought I fell and then . . . " His mind was blank, "I recall hearing the voices of the crew that arrived after me but that is it." He watched her smile begin to fade then she looked to the window and the black and white soot and ash that lay on the ground knee deep.

"What prefect Dalmar said it looked like you engaged this creature and it was huge and that you must have killed it before you fell and hit your head." She watched K'Ter'r look distantly out the window. He shook his head.

"I just don't remember."

K'Ter'r shifted his dream back to the now and sat up with a grunt. Hearing his gut rumble he rolled from the bed, brushed his hair back from his eyes. Rising he walked to the door and headed to the ships mess. Walking into the room he got various stares from some of his old crew and the cleric's new crew as they watched him go to the replicator and order serpent worms. Lifting the bowl of hissing squirming worms he sat it on the table and watched the bowl writhe with the squirming worms. His stomach began to roll and burn when he watched the bowl of worms.

A part of him wanted the quick snack and another part of him curled his lips and wrinkled his nose. "You are with me aren't' you?" He muttered and pushed the bowl away from him stood and went back to the replicator and order pipius claw. "Make it spicy." He growled. The steaming plate with its exotic smelling spice filled his senses and he smiled.

Sitting down he felt his stomach settle and a relaxed happier feeling over came him and then in the back of his mind a voice. "Yes." Echoed in his thoughts.

"Are you always there?" K'Ter'r lifted one of the steaming claws and broke it open and sucked the sweet meat that held a bite and pleasured his senses.

Again there was that voice "Yes." Then a pause and finally more came forth, "You see how much more pleasurable that can be to your crude senses if you eat what I can tolerate too? I mean the serpent worms are very distressing to my metabolic balance and you really never liked them, they were just convenient to you."

"So are you the one that has been giving me gas?" He belched and caught the attention of the other diners that shot him a rude look of disdain. It was the fact he appeared to be talking to himself and the smell of his belches were only slightly better than the green cloud of death he emitted when he erupted with a satisfying fart.

"Yes, because it gave me gas too and as I am a part of you we are together as one." This gave K'Ter'r pause.

Frowning he asked softly, "Are you always watching?" He was not sure if he liked that idea. He did have moments where he sought relief from pent up sexual tension.

"Yes, and if you keep it up you will go blind." Faritili felt the Klingon barbarian tense so he went to clarify his statement. "I mean if you keep rubbing that hard or abusing it in such a manner. . . " He had hesitated as he felt anger growing along with embarrassment from the host. Tisking him he sighed in his mind and said softly. "You are a barbarian. I do not care if you pleasure yourself or you seek relief of your sexual tensions by touching yourself. If that is how you choose to reproduce, I choose to shut my own defenses down and rest or as you call it sleep. However if you are going to constantly keep rubbing your eyes using your fists you are going to damage your optical nerves and go blind. What then? I can only heal so much or repair damage as it occurs but not to the finer sensory area of your crudely designed body."

K'Ter'r relaxed as he realized that the being in his body had not witnessed his masturbatory relief. "Good, keep it that way and we might get along just fine. Are you going to become more chatty now that I know you are there?" There was the sound of exasperation in his tone.

"Well the cleric thought I should allow you to decide if you wish to continue to host me. I had to take your body, my other host was dying and I was vulnerable and needed to have a symbiotic relationship to continue my own life."

"Can we communicate without me speaking out loud." He glared at those that were watching him talk to himself. They bent over their food and shook their heads and continued with their own conversations with fell beq.

"Not now we cannot your mind is too chaotic for me to sift through what your thoughts are and what you really need from me. For now we will need to speak with you speaking your more formulated thoughts out loud. I know they will think you have gone crazy talking to yourself but you can explain that you enjoy intelligent conversation since your crew annoys you so much."

"So the cleric knows of your existence and what? Did she offer to have you removed and then left the decision to me so I could make up my own chaotic mind?" His tone was overflowing with sarcasm.

"Basically yes. I find her intelligent and easy to talk to and she must care about you as a person or she could easily have over taken your functions and I could not permit that since it would have interfered with my control over those same functions."

"So are you saying I can not even breathe, do elimination from my body without you?"

"Yes and no, I merely enhance your abilities. I can make you stronger and I can filter out poisons or toxins to your system and I can mend those harden bones of yours and your brain. When you hit your head that day you did suffer a lot of bleeding inside that thick head of yours and you were about to die as well. So I took over for you until they could find you and by that time I had you healed and back to as normal as your kind can be."

He wondered if there was a soft chortle in that tone and decided he was imaging that part. "So are you a part of my life from now on?"

"Only if you desire it according to the cleric she was offering up a different host and personally if I were to chose a host it would have been her, she has been altered to be so far superior to her contemporaries that it would be amazing what I could do for her to enhance those abilities. My race is so far above this race that it is almost embarrassing and I don't mean to brag but so far she is one of the few of your race I like."

K'Ter'r rolled his eyes and sighed deeply. "Great I have a smart assed worm in my body that wants to tell me how inferior I am. Thanks for nothing. Do you have a name?" Again there were those curious and confused stares being shot his way from his beq that now was slowly filling up the mess for dinner.

"It is too long for you to say so I will shorten it for your limited intelligence, I am called Faritili but you can call me Far, it is a simple one syllable word and easy to remember."

"So I guess I owe it to you to allow you to continue to live in my body. How long do you live and when you die do I die?"

"I have searched your memories and I am very much like the species you know as a Trill. We share a host, the host has a separate life and I survive through him or her. My last host was a Lorgarian from a solar system so far from these reaches you would have to go find the Borg to be in that system. Which would be a step past where the Borg rule. That host was female and of course as she was dying from crashing into your planet, I had to seek a new host. So, I can repair you but if you are hurt too badly and I am unable to fix what was done then you die and I continue to live."

There was a pause because this being was collecting its thoughts to translate it in a manner that the Klingon male warrior could understand. "However, if I die, you will feel nothing but a momentary weakness and I will not longer be there to repair any damage or cure you from any form of toxic over load."

"All right for now I think I can handle you. So we make a deal, when I want to bump nasty or whatever you sleep. Deal?" He looked around with an open glare at his crew. Who dropped their heads and went back to what they were doing when the Captain held his conversation.

"Oh I heartily agree, I have no interest in seeing you mate. It is not one of my protocols that is required and a part of my natural make up. I do not procreate so I do not care about the process. I know that it is a part of your needs and desires so I will not interfere, participate, or observe. I have no interest."

K'Ter'r grunted and taking that as an approval, Far fell silent. K'Ter'r continued to tear into the pipius claws and suck the meat form them. The door to the mess opened and K'Ter'r became aware that some members of the beq had stood and bowed while his beq had stopped talking and was watching the door.

"Ahh the cleric has decided to join your crew and dine in this establishment." The voice sounded excited and pleased when K'Ter'r looked at the figure standing resplendent in very striking warriors uniform in the doorway. The eyes of the males were pinned to the medallion that lay nestled between those honey colored mounds now pressed together by her alter she wore under the uniform jacket.

The jacket was cut to a deep V and plunged to her naval. Under the jacket he could see lightweight body armor that held those attributes pressed closed together so that the medallion now lay on top of the mounds. What he perceived was a black fixture of a firebird rising with a betleh held in its claws. What he knew was the emblem of her house.

Her skirt was of the same material as the jacket and it was done in muted shades of copper and gold that blended together to accent the tint of her auburn colored hair that was now falling down her back to swing with each movement she took to caress her hips. When she walked her well-muscled legs peaked through the many numbered slits of the skirt and he could see her knives displayed under the slits of the skirt. Wearing thigh high boots of the same make as her skirt she smiled noting that her crew had stood to bow.

Waving her hand they took their seats and went back to dining. Following her was a striking female of imperial blend but not quiet a true imperial Klin but more feral than most and just as M'lar had caught the attention of the beq so had Bi'Anka, many had never seen a changeling Volkarian and many whispers were uttered about if she was a true follower or was she just a ghost to the past that many wondered about. One glance aimed at the hapless observer and there was no doubt she held Volkarian wolf blood in her body.

It was obvious that her eyes were shaped and colored the same as the wolf people of Boreth. She rarely smiled and she was a contender for any that thought to best her, she would show them what the true Volkain could do when in battle. "Yes, I know what you mean, she does look fierce and she is a very different from your kind. Do you know she has the capacity with her muscle mass to take on five of your size and kind and it would be nothing for her to defeat them."

K'Ter'r watched her approach his table and muttered, "Yes, I know only too well about the Volkain wolf packs of Boreth, their hides carry a high price and the more color they have to their hides the more valuable their fur." K'Ter'r stood at the approach of the cleric. Bowing slightly to her as her own beq had.

"Really your kind hunt them a shame, I am sure they are not successful in obtaining such 'hides' as you describe their skins. I am sure that many loose their life for such pursuits. Again another barbaric custom I find extremely upsetting and abhorrent."

M'lar smiled, "Hello Far nice to see you and the Captain again. Please Captain as long as you are the Captain of this ship I do not require the formalities that come with my office. So sit and enjoy your pipius claw. Bi'Anka why not order us some of the same and then join me and the Captain." M'lar turned and in uttered confidence of her attire and her stature she dropped gracefully into the chair across from the Captain.

"Really Captain such thoughts about this holy figures breasts is not becoming for you as a Captain of this ship." Far was chastising him.

"Well if she did not want them stared at she would not wear that uniform. So pipe down will you and allow me to eat in peace."

Far fell silent but not before he got a soft chuckle from M'lar. "Is he berating you for looking at my breasts?" She tilted her head and waited for one or the other to respond.

In between swallows K'Ter'r muttered. "Yeah, he thinks it is unbecoming because you display them and I want to look at them."

"Well assure him that this design is a part of the uniform's need to distract an opponent and to gain an advantage to either subdue or gut them." M'lar sat back as M'lar set the steaming plate of succulent claws in front of her and then dropped into a chair next to her and hunkered over her meal to guardedly begin to eat. It was instinctual for her to guard her food and had anyone sat next to her they would have been greeted with a growl and a snap of those sharpened teeth. M'lar loved to tell those that tried her personal honor guard to take care she did bite and it was not pleasant.

"So what have you decided Captain, do you keep your new partner? Or shall I arrange for a new host?"

She broke a claw and delicately pulled the claw from the meat and K'Ter'r watched as that tongue snaked out to capture the meat and draw it between those lips.

"Lustful thoughts for your holy image? Really Captain get a grip you did not think you would be able to tolerate her or want her on your ship and your thoughts are very disturbing right now."

K'Ter'r broke a claw, sucked the meat out, leaned back and rubbed his hands on his pant legs. "I will keep him as long as he quits trying to monitor all my thoughts and finding fault with them every chance he can."

"All right I get it. I will withdraw from those thoughts they are very disturbing and having an odd affect on me as well. Please tell the cleric I look forward to another nice chat soon."

"The squirt likes you, he wants you to know he finds you extremely exciting and if you were what he was he would grab you and mate with you and have a litter of ten of his kind with you." K'Ter'r took great pleasure in saying that and the response was immediate.

"How dare you reference one of her kind mating with one of my kind, you should be . . ."

"Chuckling softly M'lar spoke quickly, "Far relax, you forget I can read his thoughts and that is not what you said but he is have a bit of sport at your expense. I look forward to an exchange of ideas soon as well, you may withdraw from his thoughts now I need his expertise on something and no interference from you."

K'Ter'r's hitchhiker gracefully withdrew from his thoughts and put himself into a meditative trance while M'lar and the Captain continued on with their conversation.