Chapter 21

Space between Earth and Boreth

In the deep recess of space, time really had no meaning. For Margo Jennings it was limitless and timeless. The whole of Boreth had been put on alert for the receipt of several refuges from Qo'noS and when M'lar had been sent away to help with the crisis. Margo had been left behind in a house filled with those she hated. Walking along the hallway she had found that the one person that she wanted to relate with was M'lar's mother who had held a familiar feel for her. She was Klingon through and through but she had an essence about her that was nurturing and giving not at all like a Klingon. If anything in some respects Ashira reminded Margo of her mother.

She had spent days talking with her and finding she was nearly more human than Klingon, it was almost as if Ashira had wanted to be with her to talk with her and get to know all about her. So, it was not much of a surprise when Ashira had come to her and asked her to take two diplomats that had come to Boreth on a tour of the temple and the surrounding areas. She was surprised to hear that it was Tosach and Bru'Ha Maj that had come to ask for another position for Starfleet Command to put another Ambassador on Boreth. Margo was upset until she heard they had also come to make official inquiries as to what had happened to the other Ambassadors that had been placed here.

In her mind it was finally long over due and about time that they were going to find out what had happened to her mother, her grandfather while here on Boreth. She had spent one week with Bru and Tosach. In her capacity as pretending to be M'lar while showing them around she got a better feel and a more soften attitude towards the Klingons. She had been wrong in thinking they were barbarous and should be blow up with all their volcanoes. She had kept mostly to a script that was written for her to practice at night while dealing with the diplomats and when things got sticky it always seemed Ashira would appear and help smooth things out for them, sending Margo on some contrived mission in the temple.

When word had gotten back to Boreth that M'lar had saved over a thousand Klingons from the lava gas and pits, Bru and Tosach were only mildly upset that they had been duped into believing she was the High Cleric. That was when T'L'th had finally come out of his war room to speak with the two diplomats and offered them and their families' safe sanctuary on Boreth away form the problems that were rising on Qo'noS. That was when they finally made headway into getting a new Ambassador placed on Boreth.

Ashira had already been working behind the scenes and knew exactly who it was they wanted to represent Star Fleet on Boreth. For Margo it had been a surprise, when of all people her father had shown up. She had been summoned to the temple room used by M'lar, she had assumed she was playing M'lar and had walked in to take her seat on the dais and looked down at the man that stood at the foot of the stairs. She held her emotions in check not sure what was going on. "Admiral Pressman what a surprise to see you here."

He bowed, "It is all right Margo, I know its you. I have been to Qo'noS and met the real M'lar. However my business is with my daughter and the Captain that is a part of Starfleet Command. Will you be so kind as to join me?" Margo stood and walked down the stairs to stand next to her father.

"Father? What is this about?" She felt the hair on her arm rise and they were transported to his flagship. She stood with arms folded glaring at him. "Well you going to tell me what is going on now?" She walked to the nearest chair and slumped into it wondering why he just risked everything to bring her on board his ship.

Flagship Quantico

"You have a new assignment. You are officially the new Ambassador to Boreth. Your presence was specifically requested." He knew she was about to explode and take his head off and found it odd that she sat silently fuming. "Well?"

"I am waiting for the other shoe to drop. For instance why not just leave me there and allow me to be the Ambassador as I am?" She tilted her head and stared into his eyes.

"Because you will need to be in human form to assume the duties, but there is an underlying assignment to this. We know that with this tragic eruption on Qo'noS that GowRon will be placing his own spies on Boreth with the influx of refugees. We need you to keep a close eye on what is going on, and because you have a good rapport with the House of T'L'th they requested the new Ambassador be you." He sat down across from his daughter. "When you leave here, we are sending you to a medical facility to have your original image restored. Then you will report to the Academy to the Ambassadors Training Unit. That will take you about a week with your intelligence it will be a walk through."

She studied her father and she was mad. Not just mad she had gone through all this for what purpose to be jerked around and then reassigned. "You know I should resign my commission and leave Star Fleet and walk away from this now. I am beginning to feel like I am being played a fool. You knew how I felt about Klingons and yet you forced this assignment on me. I have been here less than four months and now you want to jerk me out, send me to another school then send me back to play ambassador when you know damn good and well I am a deep cover operative."

Pressman had been prepared for this argument, he knew his daughter pretty well. "If you quit now you won't have the resources available to you to find out what you really want to know."

"Oh and what do I really want to know?" She snarled back at him her reasoning becoming more Klingon than she wanted to admit.

"Who killed your mother and your grandfather." Those words were like a bucket of cold water dashed over her over heated body and it deflated her immediately. She slumped down in her chair and sighed deeply. He was right she did want those answers and more. "Mar, do you really hate them that much? Is this assignment so horrible that you can't spend another minute in their company? Because if that is truly how you feel then I will immediately withdraw you form this assignment and give you a desk job somewhere safe in the outer reaches of the Seti Alpha Quadrant so that you won't be troubled with them."

"I'll take the assignment." She muttered softly looking down at the floor and her feet encased in those ridiculously tall high-heeled shoes that did nothing but make her look taller. She did not have to look up to see the pleased smile that had to be etching his face. If she did look up she would want to slap him.

Rising she turned took a deep cleansing breath and asked "How do I get to the medical facility?" She then looked up to see he had schooled his features and nodded his approval.

"Report to the shuttle bay, there is a shuttle waiting for you, it has been programed and will take you where you need to go." He walked over and placed both hands on her upper arms, kissing her forehead he spoke softly. "I am very proud of you my dearest one. I will see you in three months." He watched her leave his ready room and then he slumped.

Looking distant he knew what he knew and that Ashira was his supposed deceased wife and she was now married to T'L'th. A part of him wanted to go down there and stake his claim another part of him knew she was working a dangerous game she had played with him and now with T'L'th what he needed to know was who did she work for and why had she done this? He also knew now why Margo looked so much like M'lar, it was because they were half sisters. He just hoped that Margo would not be the one hurt in this mad game of her mother's.

Deep Space between Earth and Boreth

Two weeks later

Margo was drifting on a sea of memories, her childhood, her teenage years and finally her Academy Days. Her ship had been attacked, and she had to jettison her pod from the ship before it was blown up. She had not seen who was the attacker, it had come so fast and the little shuttle she had used stood little chance to survive the type of barrage that it was receiving. Now she was adrift in her pod waiting and wondering if she was going to be just like her mother and grandfather, the next Ambassador for Boreth to die. The difference for her was she would not die on Boreth.

There was a subtle feel to her conveyance, she had sent out her distress signal and shot her pod into space with her enclosed inside. She had to get under the radar of whomever it was attacking her shuttle and perhaps be noticed as debris. She felt the shift in the small pod and then she knew someone had attached a tractor beam to her pod and she was being brought on board another vessel. What kind she had no idea; her sensors in the tube had been damaged when she jettisoned it into space. There was a rocketing bump as she felt her pod brought in and obviously picked up by a conveyor and now they had it positioned on a stationary containment area.

She strained to hear the voices that sounded more human than anything else. She could attribute that to the translator pin she wore. The eject shield was pressed and she was exposed to a face peering over the pod and looking into her eyes. No one was more startled than she when she saw it was Janae. He smiled and winked. "Hey it is you. This time though you look more like you and less like her." He nodded to M'lar standing over his shoulder.

Aboard the Tori

M'lar smiled with relief. "Welcome back Captain, please someone get her out of that thing and help her get comfortable." M'lar stood back and the one person missing that Margo thought she should see at her mistress' side was Bi'Anka, Janae scooped Margo up and lifted her from the pod.

"Good thing we found you before the Merck found you. They were the ones that blew your shuttle up. They hate Starfleet. Come on I know you have to be feeling cramped and cranky so we will get you settled in with M'lar. The ship is full with some more refuges and this is our last load and then it is off we go into the wild dark spaces for a little adventure and some cash to put in our pockets." He slapped her ass as they walked down the hallway.

Margo spun around and sidekicks Janae hitting him in his side sending him sliding down the wall when he hit it with a resounding thump. "Don't touch or play. You were not invited." She continued to follow M'lar down the hallway and noticed the halls were strewn with families huddling against the walls. She did not bother to look back at Janae; she knew he was fine she had only tapped him. But she got her point across.

M'lar smiled but kept walking past those in the hallway. "Quarters are cramped but you should be comfortable in here with me." She stepped through the door to a nice room that also held two more families huddled around there were two bunks that were available across the room. "Unfortunately we are sharing our space." She smiled and nodded to the two families that were occupying the space with them.

Janae pushed himself up and muttered, "Touchy woman." He sighed and watched them disappear into his quarters and frowned. "I can't wait to get these people off my damn ship so we can get back to business." Mara had stepped out of her quarters and she was sharing with several Klingon females that were rescued. She walked up to her boss and whispered in his ear.

"Tell me about it, I will be on the bridge if you need me. I am not into sharing space, I am kind of a solitary type." She walked to the turbo lift and waited for the arrival. Janae was behind her.

"I think I will go with you. It is really too close for comfort for me too. I am thinking of taking a shuttle and heading back to Boreth. I need to get some information to T'L'th and then I think we have to go back to Xenolith and see what the Xenites have for us. I am sure M'lar was glad I got her that invisible body armor. It kept her alive this time. That has to be worth something. "

Mara was almost desperate enough to beg him to take her with him but unlike Janae she held her duty to the highest part of her honor status. "I would ask you to take me with you but I can't think of a good reason to duck out on my duty to this ship and its compliment unlike its captain." She had gritted her teeth when she spoke.

Janae clutched his chest in mock hurt. "Oh such venom coming from such a sweet and luscious mouth. Well my dear, if you want a paycheck, you should be happy to see me go." He leaned over and kissed her nose. "Otherwise we could be dry docked for a while." He smiled rakishly turned on his heel and felt something hit in him the middle of his back. She had taken off her shoe and throw it at him. "Now, now, temper, temper." He cautioned.

"Like I don't know with what you have placed away in various banking institutions all over this part of space that could not retire and live comfortably for the next thousand years? You got to be kidding me." She hobbled down the hallway to collect her shoe and called over her shoulder. "Turdblossom!" She heard him laugh and it made her mad. Turning she narrowed her eyes and ran full force down the hallway and tackled him. Knocking him to the ground she captured his neck between her legs and she smiled down at him.

Until she felt him knock her over on her side and it was his turn to pin her to the floor, she was just playing before but now he had made her mad. Holding her trapped on the floor he chuckled. "When will you learn? You can't get the better of me." She wiggled enough to free her hips then she surprised him and herself, when she lifted her hips off the floor, threw her legs around his neck and flipped him backwards. Getting up she was panting and she was feeling triumphant.

"Go, Janae, and we will finish this later. I have duties to attend and responsibilities on the bridge and I don't want to hurt you." Janae bowed with a mocking salute to him and turned walked to the shuttle bay. Then stopped the shuttle bay was full of refugees. He sighed and looked around for a way to get the shuttle out of the bay and then decided what the hell. "Okay I am going to Boreth, in this shuttle who wants to go with me?" He watched seven burly male Klingons and one female stand.

"May we go, we would be happier trying to help back on the cleric's planet." Janae nodded then motioned them to follow him to the shuttle. Entering the shuttle, Janae set course for Boreth. He was going to travel a lot faster in this shuttle than his ship traveling with a heavy burden. He plotted his course and set it on auto and leaned back in his seat. "Might as well rest up. We will be arriving in six hours."

Six Hours Later Borethian Space

Janae set the shuttle down on the pad outside the great temple. Shutting down the engines he smiled. "Okay follow me." He opened the back hatch and his passengers followed him down the ramp onto the tarmac, two hoover cars floated over the ground surface stopping to pick up the passengers from the shuttle. "H'liq good to see you old man. How are the family and how are things for you at home?" Janae slid into the seat next to the tall older honor guard.

H'liq laughed, "Nice try old friend, but the Cleric has requested you come with me, these others will be taken to the importation hall where we can record them and put them to use." Janae had expected he would need to see T'L'th but not this soon.

"I see am I in trouble?" He asked tongue in cheek. H'liq laughed.

"No, not quite this time, I would be on my best behavior he has been a bit testy lately. What with all the new arrivals coming in and he is worried about her ladyship. I suppose the Lady M'lar is still on your ship?"

"Oh yes, I left her in charge, I do have some news for T'L'th, so what is going on?"

"The cleric has ordered all Honor guard and warriors are to be issued those invisible body armors. It seems that is what saved M'lar's life when she was fired on." Janae smiled. He nodded the cleric would pay him well for that and maybe he would finance his next venture to Xenolith.

A small stealth ship near the Nadrian Moons of Klaplo.

Bi'Anka smelled the air and she smiled, "A brother I think is our next target." They had received word that Daedalus' wife had been strangled in her sleep and he was informed she died quietly. She wished she could have been there to be the one to end her life but she had to turn it over to her friend Qu'anto. Qu'anto was a guard that was like her, a shape shifting Volkarian wolf. Bi'Anka knew she could trust him completely. They used their locator and smiled, the geno match they were looking for was in a cantina on the planet moon below.

Fine tuning their parameters they zeroed in for a close up of the geno match. He was a younger version of Daedalus and just as bad. He was slowly torturing this poor maid that had the misfortune of waiting his table and had brought him the wrong drink. "I want him HmfiC, you can have his three friends, but I want him." She was growing angry watching how much fun he was having slowly peeling the skin off her hand.

Bi'Anka's green eyes began to shift to yellow and go elliptical. HmfiC knew she was changing. He fixed their coordinates then transported them down to the outside of the cantina. Bi'Anka had changed completely and she stepped forward and nudged his palm.

They heard the girl scream. HmfiC was he first to react; he rushed through the doors and paused in the center of the room. With his appearance in the middle of the room obviously was to the surprise and amusement of several large Klingon males. "Well what have we here? What do you want old man?" His eyes were fixed to Ordain. Daedalus' younger brother looked up to see the menacing stare of the old warrior blocking the door.

The biggest of the four Klingon males that had stood at the entrance of HmfiC stepped in front of him. "You want something old man?" HmfiC never spoke a word, his hand shot out and caught the male by his crotch squeezed and twisted, taking him to his knees. Another male charge HmfiC and he smiled releasing the male's genitals he turned and physically lifted the warrior over his head sending him flying into the bar and the bottles stacked against the tiled mirror wall. Two more piled onto HmfiC and that was when an ill wind blew through the door and one pissed off Volkarian she wolf bitch jumped over the three fighting Klingon males landing on Ordain. She leaned forward snapping at his face.

He jumped back releasing the poor waitress letting her stumble back from his hold and out of the area. Bi'Anka lunged, grabbed for his throat and attempted to tear it out. He blocked with his arm and she sunk her teeth into his arm and pulled. He screamed because her teeth had gone to his bone. She held on until she felt a crack up against her head. Yelping she fell back and began to transform back into her Klin form to the astonishment of Ordain.

Bi'Anka stood and smiled, her eyes flickered between green to yellow. She heard his startled gasp, "Volkarian!" He then began to beg as he skittered back on his haunches. "No, I did not do it! It was all Daedalus! It is him you want, I know where he is." Then he realized she had bit him and he paled. So many rumors had been spread about the mystical Volkarian wolf beasts and what might happen if you were bit by one.

She could sense his fear more than what he thought and she decided to play it to her advantage. "Do not worry Ordain. You won't have to worry about becoming a wolf; I plan to kill you before then. T'L'th ordered all of Daedalus family to be killed, so you won't have to worry about joining me on my hunts." She advanced on the hapless foolish man who had struggled with one good hand to draw a peace bound weapon.

"Die you stupid bitch! Die!" He struggled but it was too late she had launched herself over the table landing on his chest and pinning him to the floor with a squeeze of her thighs she twisted and heard his neck pop, watched his eyes bulge and then close. Bi'Anka stood and looked to HmfiC he now had finished the last warrior when he plunged his blade into his gut and twisted it. The room now lay in a shambles. Bi'Anka walked to the tender, laid a bag on the bar.

"This should cover the cost of the damage, I do not care what you do with these." She looked around at the room at the dead bodies. "Feed them to the vultures on this moon." She with HmfiC in tow walked out and transported back to their stealth ship. HmfiC coded in the transmission to T'L'th that they had taken care of Ordain. When T'L'th received the message he smiled, turned and put a mark on a board with a series of names written on it.

Bi'Anka drew up her list on her control panel. "We need to set course for Mazarin. She put in the coordinates set back and smiled. She rather enjoyed this part of her job, but a part of her did worry about M'lar.

Far moon from Qo'noS

Daedalus looked at the incoming message and a part of his heart felt ripped out. His beloved Shaq'in was dead and it had been while she was incarcerated on Rua Penthe. "This is your fault T'L'th and your loved ones are no longer off limits."