Chapter 24

Boreth Temple of Kahless

M'lar paced to the inner sanctum of her temple, she paused, and frowned. Something was wrong, Bi'Anka was hurt and she needed her. M'lar spun around and darted down the long hallway to her father's privatorium. "Father! Mother!" She skidded to a halt teetering on her high heels. Looking around she felt she was alone, no that was not her feelings, it was Bi'Anka's feelings. Turning she closed her eyes and stretched out her power and frowned. She could no longer feel her friend.

"M'lar?" Her mother Ashira walked from the inner area of the privatorium looking at the pale features of her daughter. She frowned, tilted her head watching her try to access an inner power. "M'lar?" She stepped to her side, gently placing her hand on her daughter's arm. The reaction was immediate. M'lar with lightening fast speed grabbed her mother's wrist, and started to flip her over her shoulder, only to feel her mother break the hold she had placed on her wrist and twisted away. "Well not that I have your attention, what is going on dear one?"

M'lar blushed deeply seeing she nearly flipped her mother. "Bi'Anka, where are she and HmfiC?" She blinked, smiled and closed her eyes. Reaching out she searched for HmfiC and saw in the deepest recesses of her mind the figure of a somewhat changed HmfiC, "What the . . . " She muttered then smiled, he was with Bi'Anka and her people. "Oh my, he will not be expecting that." She turned kissed her mother's cheek and walked off to her temple.

Air Space of Xenolith

Janae slipped down the long hallway of the Techno Laboratory. His stealth suit concealing him and allowing him to blend into the walls and surroundings, shifting with each change he made while working his way to the test lab. He ducked down into an air shaft, worked his way along a clean tube, getting covered in all kinds of dirt and dust, and smiled. He knew no one would be stupid enough to think he would not go down the dirt trap to get to the main vault that held the top of the line developments. He hoped there was something equally as impressive to take this time like the armor he had taken the last time.

T'L'th had been very pleased it worked well enough to save M'lar's life. Working his way around a bend in the shaft, he sighed as he found the ladder that would bring him up to the ventilator shaft right outside the vault. Shifting his weight, he pressed against the shaft's covering and felt it give slightly. Then all hell broke loose. "Crap." He muttered softly, pressed his transporter pin and waited for the familiar feeling of being transported, when it did not come he sighed. "Well Plan B." He muttered softly.

Backing into the shaft, pressing against the side panel he estimated was on the other side of the vault, he smiled, pressed harder felt the wall give with the pressure of his body and he fell backwards into the vault, setting off more alarms. Looking around he saw three covered items lying on a table. Grabbing all three he pressed back against the wall closed his eyes and felt the wall absorb his body into the interior. "They never freaking learn." He muttered and with the pressure of his suit displacing the molecules of the wall, Janae tumbled out of the confines of the vault building of Xenolith. The moment his body hit the outside of the dampening field, he felt the pressure of his transporter encompassing his body and he was gone by the time the first Xenites arrived to see who had breached their security.

Arriving back on the Tori, he dropped his haul on the floor, turned to look with a rakish grin to Mara and nodded. She turned and together with Modak they began to run their fingers over their console and the Tori cloaked, and was gone at warp five, the pressure on their hull and bodies was feeling the press of a g-force as they headed out of the air space of the Xenolith's planet. Janae held tightly to the captain's chair until they were thirty parsecs away. Dropping down to warp 2, the area around them stabilized, Mara sat back with a sigh. "I hope this was worth it, you won't be able to go back there for a while Janae, you might as well face it, they got wise to your last trip and increased their tech security around their toys."

Modak chuckled. "You know boy, you are gonna get your ass blown off one of these times and that will leave us hanging high and dry!" He turned and looked at his console, "So far no tracking or pursuit." Modak leaned back locked his fingers behind his head and closed his eyes. Mara, propped her feet up on the console and smiled, this was going to be a good payday after all.

Everyone was very relaxed and happy until a voice spoke from the front of the viewport. Everyone sat forward to see a slender but lovely woman dressed in a skintight silver one-piece suit, her long blond hair pulled into a high ponytail on top of her head. Her eyes were pure blue. She smiled. "Janae, so nice to finally meet you." Janae saw she was a Xenite sitting upright he smiled.

"Hello and you are?" He was attempting to put on his best charming smile and persona. He stood from the captain's chair walked behind it. Resting his hands on the back of his chair, he studied her and found her to be very attractive.

"Who I am is irrelevant as to why I am here. You have for the past three years taken some of our tech and sold it. We knew you would be back, and we waited, and imagine my delight in seeing you actually did come back to steal some more tech from us." She walked around the console, letting her fingertips dance over the front of the console while she looked down and the up at Janae. "We want to hire you Janae, and in exchange we will give you some of our prototypes that we have developed for your use."

Janae was not sure if he wanted to kiss her or run. She was too self-assured to be a woman he would find an interest. She certainly was beautiful. "Okay, you want to hire me, to do what?" He stepped back around to sit in his chair. Folding his arms over his chest, he nonchalantly crossed his knee over his other knee and studied the female in front of him. The Xenite female walked around to the front of the console, leaned against it folding her arms and crossing her ankles. Tilting her head she smiled and for some reason, Janae found that very unsettling.

"We need a fast ship and a person that can get past most security systems to go to a moon base about one hundred twenty light years from here. On that moon base is one of our pieces of tech we want back. It should be fairly easy for you to get in and get out with what we want and need. As I said in exchange we will provide you intelligence to get past their security, you will go in and bring out our latest project. Do we have a deal?"

Janae looked back at his crew and smiled. "Lady, gentlemen? Do we have a deal?" He looked to Mara who had been studying the woman with some intensity she nodded slowly. Turning to Modak he asked, "Well? Partner?" He nodded, and then he turned to Felix who looked dumbfounded.

"You mean I get a vote?" He sounded unsure and watched Janae laugh.

"No but it sounded good. All right mystery lady, we have a deal, now what do we need to do and where do we go from here?" She smiled, walked to the navigation console, pulled out a slender long disk, slid it into the navigation panel and watched as the ship began to process the new information and set course for the moon base.

Ambassador's Quarters Temple of Kahless

Margo stretched lazily in her bed, looked at the clock and sighed. It was 0300 and she had only slept 3 hours since she lay down. Punching her pillow, she tried to find a new comfortable spot. Moaning she rolled over, turned on her light, slid to an upright position, setting her feet on the floor when she felt the hair on the back of her neck rise. Reaching under her pillow she carefully pulled out her phaser holding it close to her body. Using her instincts, she tumbled forward turning to fire at the figure that had breached her bedroom. Hearing a grunt, she rolled to a standing position, hit the wall lights and the room sprang into full light. Lying in the doorway was a huge figure with a mask over his head. Walking to her night table, she picked up her communicator pin.

"This is Captain I mean Ambassador . . . "

"Margo? What is going on? Why are your lights on and someone said they heard disrupter fire in your chambers."

"I have an intruder, I just shot him could you please send someone over to pick him up?"

Ashira had been up late working and from the rear of her window she had seen her the lights in her unit. Hearing she was nearly attacked, she frowned and pressed the alert button for the temple guard, speaking clearly over the internal communications system, "Guards to the Federation Ambassador's Quarters Now!" She had tried to remain calm, turning she grabbed her jacket, pulled it on and headed to the Ambassador's quarters. "Torvok, Lareth with me now!" She called as she entered the private exit for her and T'L'th's house, grabbing a disrupter on her way out.

Margo sat on the edge of the bed watching the unconscious man lying on the floor. He moaned softly, rolled onto his back, reached for his mask and pulled it off his head. "If you make one false move, I swear, I will. . . " She twisted her disrupter to kill. "Blast a hole in you so big you will be able to see daylight for the next part of your life's journey." She aimed the disrupter at the young faced Klingon male.

The room was suddenly swarmed by a bevvy of Klingon Temple guard as they entered jerked up the Molorites and escorted him none to gently from the room. Ashira smiled, "Good, now we can see you are fine. I am posting you some of the temple guard outside of your home. Unfortunately, you have become a target of the other zealots that oppose our order. I should have foreseen this happening and had guards posted before now. I am so sorry my dear. Would you like to come back to the temple for tonight?"

Margo smiled, of all the people she had met here, this woman had become important to her, she had reminded her so much of her mother in so many ways. "No I should be fine. I was not able to sleep so I had just tried to lay down when I heard something and saw him in the doorway. Thank you my lady Ashira. I appreciate you so much." She leaned over to hug the female Klingon and felt her tighten her hold on her.

"As long as I live, as long as I hold power over this temple, you will never have to worry about another attack, I promise you that." Margo closed her eyes and for a moment she was ten again, and her mother was holding her. From the open doorway another figure appeared, she stood watching her mother with her sister. On quiet footfalls she turned and walked out of the Ambassador's quarters.

Walking to a hoover craft, she set the controls and plotted her course to the Volkarian mountain hold. Sitting back in the craft, she sighed she needed to see Bi'Anka, and find out what her father had sent her and HmfiC to do while she was rescuing those trapped in the Qo'noS disaster. She had seen what had happened to HmfiC while in the waters. She smiled wondering how he would react once he saw he had lost some of his grey and wrinkles. He must have inhaled some of the water while he was being healed. She wondered how that would go over with the ancients.

She knew HmfiC would never seek the waters for his youth, unfortunately, he had found it and now there would be a great debate. She could hear the arguments now amongst the ancient ones. She sighed softly. It had been far too long since she had been to the great hall. Now she suppose she had to give her word of honor that HmfiC should be spared and allowed to continue on in her father's service. She would she suppose have to make a boon for them and bring them an offering.

Placing a small diskette into the deck player she sat back to listen to the opera she had last heard before the Qo'noS disaster. Closing her eyes she allowed the music to fill the hoover craft and her mind to relax, this next argument was going to be a long one and she wanted to be on her toes and sharp of mind. Janquin was always in her corner had been from the first time they had met. She had found him to be rather show offish and would smile at his antics. The other one that had stood out in her mind was his brother Toloroth. He was a bully at times and she did not like bullies, but he never tried to challenge her on her decisions. He was just jealous of Janquin. Toloroth was the younger of the two but both were over a thousand years old and were around when Kahless had been in charge.

The other four were old poops in her mind, they were harpies that wanted to gnash their teeth, cry out foul over anything she felt it was because they were getting too old to be in charge, they were at least three thousand years old and had been here since the time of the beginning and the birth of the first Volkarian wolf. She had grown weary of their nattering's when she had been forced to sit in on a dispute between Nolorid and Falomor. They were like old biddies fussing over the most innocuous things.

Her reverie was interrupted she her conveyance suddenly ground to a halt and was stopped in its forward movement. Frowning she opened the view screen to see a rather large Klingon Bird of Prey hovering off the ground and in front of her conveyance. She frowned and watched as K'Ter'r beamed down in front of her hoover craft. With a look of terminal gas on his face, he walked to the rear of the craft, waited for her to open the door. Placing the craft on hoover, she opened the door and glared at K'Ter'r waiting for him to enter.

"I believe sir, she does not look to happy with our arrival. I think you should not say what you were planning on saying." Far was expressing his thoughts when he heard the captain growl.

"Pipe down pip squeak, this is between me and this little lady and I should take her across my lap and spank her for taking off without any guard." He had muttered and M'lar had heard him and she folded her arms over her chest and looked at him with a degree of irritation.

"I did not take a guard because where I am going only a select few are permitted, since you have chosen to join me, you might as well sit down, send your craft back to space and we will finish what I had started." She turned and waited for him to send his ship back to the docking port.

"I believe sir, you should listen to her, she is very upset and if I read what she is about to do, it is official business even if she did not take guards with her."

K'Ter'r growled low again, "Look if I wanted to be nagged, I would have gotten a mother or married a mate, I don't need to be nagged by you Far, now shut up and let me find out what is gong on." He sat heavily in the chair hit his com badge, "Take her back to docking port, I have her attention."

M'lar silently fumed at his high handed way of 'getting her attention'. You know a simple call would have made this so much easier. It would have saved you a trip in your newly refurbished ship to find me. Where I am going you are lucky that I am the one taking you otherwise we would never see you again."

"And where are we going?" He sounded half bored with her minor threat she had just issued. He watched her turn and speak into the control panels.

"Continue to the Volkarian Mountains advise on arrival." She turned and noted for a change he did not have that sarcastic or bored look on his face and he was even contemplating what he had heard about the Volkain wolf people and their sacred birthplace. "Yes you heard correctly, and now I must go and argue for HmfiC, he was injured and Bi'Anka had taken him with her to the healing waters, which I am sure you only thought they were legendary. I can assure you they do exist. The problem is, I detected he did something he should not and that was while being healed he inhaled some of the water. Now he is suffering from the affects of inhaling that water and that is strictly forbidden. If I am lucky, I can negotiate with the three I know that will be in my corner against the two fuss budgets"

"Might I offer my negotiation abilities for the cleric if she should need one. I am after all trained in such protocols and from this messy memory you have of these people, they would appear to be mere wolf people." Far had sifted through his memories of the Volkain wolf people and knew that Bi'Anka was Volkarian. Although she was violent and reacted to the whole of any dangerous situation with violence, she was a smart female with a good thinking head on her shoulders.

"The runt wants to help you negotiate if you need him. Personally, I would put him to sleep, he sounds like the two you just described." K'Ter'r was not sure whether or not he should go with her but she had no other guard and she was vulnerable on the road. "So what is going to happen to HmfiC if they don't agree to your terms? Will we end up at war with them?"

M'lar laughed, "Goodness no. We will never see him again, he may be kept here until he dies, but they have never refused me any request. They are responsible for seeing I had only the best guard in the house to be my personal guard. Bi'Anka and I have been together since our twelfth year. I saw her take her test at the age of six. She was magnificent and she never followed their rules but made her own. She and HmfiC were injured seriously on their last mission so Bi'Anka brought them here to be healed. Unfortunately, HmfiC in his years must have reacted to the healing and inhaled the water, now he has discovered the waters have other properties and that information has been guarded for over ten thousand years."

She sighed softly looked to the view screen and shook her head. "Very few outsiders have been allowed to partake of the healing waters, it usually is reserved for the Volkarian wolf people who guard the holy place of those of the beginning." M'lar had closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I wish I had taken her body instead of yours, I am sure her mind is not nearly as chaotic as yours captain although you do present interesting aspects in your life, she would be a better source on this culture and how it operates."

K'Ter'r wished he had gotten another body instead of his too. "That was not polite captain if I did not have a strong sense of self I would have easily gotten my feelings hurt just then. Now, she needs to explain this culture to me and who they are so I might be able to assist her when she needs to negotiate."

K'Ter'r moaned. "Why don't you just let her tell you if she wants or needs your help, and leave it alone if she does not? She may not be able to tell you about those she calls the ancient ones. It may be one of those cleric type things that is not to be known outside the circle of those that embrace Kahless."

M'lar had heard K'Ter'r's side of the argument and could only imagine how that conversation was beginning to annoy him because the tone of his voice had grown increasingly disgruntled with each sentence he spoke. "Look, I am speaking of the holy ones, the great ancient ones that were here when the first Volkarian was born, they are steeped in tradition and they will not tolerate hearing from an outsider and sorry Far you are an outsider to them. You must understand this culture allowed Kahless to call this his home, we have always had a treaty with them and they have always placed a changeling Volkarian in our family's charge binding the two houses together."

K'Ter'r snorted, "See told you to butt out now shut up and let her explain what is going to happen."

"Well you do not need to be so rude about it, I only offered because I am very much a protocol symbiotic entity. It is a part of my genetic make up." He had sounded petulant and offended.

"Do not get your feelings hurt, this is something between the clerics and these old timers. Now my suggestion is to just sit back and if at anytime she wishes to seek your council you can pip up your little thoughts and tell me what to say."

"Oh really Captain? I would not think of letting you translate for me, you would surely mix up the vernacular and then it would be a disaster. Thank you I will just observe from this point forward." He had grown very quiet while he waited for M'lar to continue to explain about this ritual and the impending meeting.

"You see this culture was protected by these ancient ones and to the original Volkarian they thought of the old ones as their gods. Since then they discovered they are just wise and all knowing. They can remember back to the formation of this planet and those that came afterwards. "Janquin fought beside Kahless against Molar and brought about a change for his people when he was the first to make his presence known. The problem is not going to be that big for me to handle, and do tell Far I appreciate his offer and may some day take him up on his generous an much appreciated offer some day but not this day and not with the ancients. This will be between those sitting on their council and myself. They will complain, I will grovel, they will make a demand for a tribute or boon, I will give it to them and we will take HmfiC back to temple. It will be that simple."

"So its not that trying a situation?" K'Ter'r was glad to hear this. He almost heard Far purr when he responded.

"Tell the cleric she is generous with her compliments and I thank her for her kind words."

K'Ter'r grunted, "The runt says thanks and if he does not get out of my mind for now, I am thinking of making myself some serpent worms for a snack and some Romulan ale for later." All K'Ter'r had heard after that was a subtle but soft moan.