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Post by norcaler on Sept 30, 2015 6:16:01 GMT
* Norc's Note: As opposed to The Returned, the chapters of this story take place whenever indicated *
- Qo'noS: Eighteen Days After The End Of the Iconian War -
The Klingon bird-of-prey HoS'ro' slipped into orbit of the homeworld of the Empire; a planet still reeling from the after effects of repeated attacks by the Iconian Heralds. Debris from ships on both sides of the conflict still presented navigational hazards, making the approach of the old B'Rel-class ship treacherous even towards his home port. While the final battle of the Iconian War occured at the Federation capital of Earth, over two weeks later Qo'noS was still recovering from far more frequent incursions by the enemy. As native of the Klingon homeworld, Lieutenant Commander K'Uhlayr, first officer, found the sight of such devastation above and upon the planet of her birth jarring and unsettling.
"Assuming orbit above the northern pole, Captain," reported helm officer Lynnush. Their destination on the surface: yoDjuH'a' chal'taD, the "Fortress of the Frozen Sky." As approved by Governor Ka'rel of the Archanis Sector and uncle of K'Vok, commander of the HoS'ro', the crew was to investigate the mysterious dealings of the House of Karag. A house that called yoDjuH'a' chal'taD home and a house for many months thought to be rendered ineffective when the bulk of their forces were lost in the Delta Quadrant. At that was the belief until news from the Federation and Romulan Republic convinced the bird-of-prey's captain otherwise.
"Any response to our hails?" asked the first officer.
"We're picking up a reply from yoDjuH'a' chal'taD, Commander," said R'og, the diminuitive Gorn weapons officer of the HoS'ro'. "Permission to beam down has been granted and an invitation to stay's been extended to all members of the crew."
"How lovely," said Melea, the ship's HaqwI', or medical officer. The Orion was reclining against the port free standing console on the bridge and while her uniform was within Klingon Defense Force and House of Ka'rel regulation, it was still too...informal for K'Ulayr's tastes. Two or three turns ago, she would have understood her captain's perverse desires to excuse such revealing attire on a Klingon warship, but after the maturing and seasoning the wars against the Undine and Iconians had happened to K'Vok, she had for the last month started to wonder if she really knew her captain at all. "I've always wanted to see a Klingon castle."
"Do not be so eager, HaqwI'; as I recall, Lady Tira always complained about how drafty the place is," K'Vok stated as he rose up from the captain's chair. He, like many of the senior officers of the HoS'ro', were clad in ceremonial armor, with longer coats, sashes, and in the first officer's case a detested skirt. Klingon tradition held that any visit to the homeworld was to be done in the most formal attire possible. And as little as a turn ago, K'Vok would have gleefully thumbed his nose at such a custom.
"Captain, I would feel better if I was allowed bring a full security contingent," said QasdevwI' Thaalt, a gigantic Gorn in charge of security matters aboard ship and the "brother" of R'og, at least in the sense that their eggs were laid the same time by their mother.
"They're hosting us, Thaalt," said K'Ulayr. "It would be dishonorable for them to harm us."
"And Lord Karag had a noted dislike of Gorn," K'Vok added. "Your presence will likely incense his people as it is."
"If you need me to offend them any further, sir, just give the word," the giant Gorn said with a toothy grin.
"To the transporter room. R'og, the ship is yours." The captain, K'Ulayr, Thaalt, and Melea were joined by the husband-and-wife team of Moruk and Karune, respectively the ship's chief engineer in science officer. The away team exited the bridge and proceeded through the corridor that linked the bridge module with the rest of the ship. "Something about this does not feel right. If House Karag continued to maintain yoDjuH'a' chal'taD, why did they not inform my uncle that they're still here?"
"And if this Rhetok is pretending to be the face of the House of Karag, why allow us to visit in the first place?" asked K'Ulayr. The bridge of the HoS'ro' was on Deck 5 of six decks of the ship, along with main engineering, the mess hall, the medical bay, the main exercise room, and the transporter bay. Little space was wasted aboard a B'Rel-class bird-of-prey when there was little space to waste.
"This could be a trap, sir," said Thaalt.
"Or a rather large misunderstanding," countered Karune.
"I just hope we're entitled to a feast," Moruk commented. "No offense to Lord Ka'rel, Captain, but it's been a while since I had a plate of proper pipius claw."
"All those feasts and celebrations after the war and you couldn't even find one claw, Husband?"
"I had responsibilities to the ship, my wife. Couldn't very well go on a romp throughout the Empire for a decent meal when the phase inducers needed me." They entered the rather cramped transporter room. The crewman on station, a Klingon woman, nodded to the arrivals.
"Coordinates for yoDjuH'a' chal'taD received, Captain," she announced.
"If anything nefarious was going on here, surely someone on Qo'noS would know," said Melea as the away team took their positions on the small transporter pad. "This is the homeworld of the Empire. This would be the first place anybody would look for Rhetok."
"Except no one was looking for Rhetok until we arrived here, HaqwI'," said K'Vok before looking to the transporter operator. "Jol yIchu'."
A red, angry haze washed over the away team with a harsh buzz. K'Ulayr and the others vanished from the transporter pad of the HoS'ro' and into the transitory state between where one was being beamed from and to where one was being beamed to. Around her, the mountains of the northern regions of the Klingon homeworld materialized at High Sun; an elaborate and ancient-looking stone fortress built into the side of one appeared just ahead, flying the banners of the House of Karag. Instantly she was hit with a severe chill caused by the surrounding banks of snow and the winds. Clearly, the Fortress of the Frozen Sky lived up to its name.
"I'm clearly underdressed for this, Captain," commented Melea. The away team was standing upon a platform just outside of the castle's high walls; the guide lines and lettering on it led K'Uhlayr to believe it was a landing pad large enough for even a bird-of-prey like the HoS'ro', though she wouldn't be inclined to try with the crosswinds and the tightly packed peaks.
"This is like something out of a legend," Moruk said with astonishment. "To build something like this up here so long ago. The engineering hurtles, the logistics of moving materials up here..."
"And now he's started," Karune lamented. "Next thing you know, he'll be wanting to take the fortress apart brick-by-brick."
"It dates back to the First Empire," K'Vok explained. "One of Kahless' trusted nobles was given fiefdom over the northern settlements and it has passed from house to house in the ages since. It is said that no army has ever conquered yoDjuH'a' chal'taD."
"I can see how, sir," Thaalt commented while looking over the side of the platform. "There's only one road up to the fortress and a thin one. Armies would have to march single-file with no way to bring even primitive siege equipment..."
There was a loud rumble as the gate and giant doors directly across from their platform rumbled open. Soldiers clad in the gray and black armor of the House of Karag and wearing heavy furred cloaks began marching out towards them. They formed a shoulder-to-shoulder line before them, all armed with bat'leths held up against their right arms and holstered heavy disruptor pistols like the ones favored by the crew of the HoS'ro'. The center of the formation parted slightly to allow two men to pass; one an older male with white hair and beard in the robes of a civilian. The other, much younger and shorter in Honor Guard gear had become quite familiar to the officers of the HoS'ro' over the past several days: Rethok of the House of Krann.
Thaalt let out a growl from deep within his throat and K'Ulayr hushed the Gorn; chances were that Rethok did not know that the HoS'ro' was now part of this multi-faction investigation into his activities and she guessed that he would keep up any innocent appearances that he wished to portray. However, there was that nagging concern that they had just beamed down into a trap.
"Welcome to yoDjuH'a' chal'taD, my lord," the aged man stated with a slight bow of his head. "I am Y'Tar; gin'tak to the House of Karag. And this is Captain Rethok of the Honor Guard and weapons master of our House."
K'Uhlayr exchanged a glance with her captain; according to the information she had been given on the House of Karag, Y'Tar wasn't its chief advisor, but Kubor, who served former head of house General Kavor for many decades. And Rethok obviously wasn't listed as Karag's top military advisor. "I am K'Vok, son of K'Dak and emissary of Ka'rel, lord of the House of Ka'rel and governor of the Archanis Sector. These are my ship's most senior crewmembers: first officer K'Uhlayr, science officer Karune, chief engineer Moruk, QasdevwI' Thaalt and HaqwI' Melea."
"You bring a Gorn here?" asked Rhetok in the same cultured and subdued voice from the recording taken by the Romulans. "To the fortress whose last two lords participated in the subjugation of the Gorn species? Is that intended as an insult, Commander?"
"I am an emissary of the House of Ka'rel," K'Vok said coldly. "Who I bring with me is my choice, Captain. Feel free to interpret that however you wish, but I am here on official business from Lord Ka'rel."
"And what business is it of the governor's to know the business of the House of Karag?"
"Perhaps we should continue these discussions within the lord's hall," suggested B'Tar in a diplomatic tone. "I assure you, my lord, that your questions will be answered."
"Very well," the captain said gruffly. This was certainly a new experience for K'Uhlayr, dealing with the relations between Klingon houses. Born of an indiscretion between a general and his female subordinate, K'Uhlayr had no house. The father whose name she was never told denied his parentage of her lest a scandal erupt between him and the house of his actual mate. It was difficult enough to become an officer in the Klingon Defense Force and she initially considered her assignment to the HoS'ro' as yet another form of discrimination against her; yet another unwanted bastard aboard a ship of the undesirable. Under K'Vok's leadership, however, that seemed to have changed.
The house soldiers formed up around the away team and their hosts before they crossed through the gates into the courtyard of the fortress. Within those high walls, K'Uhlayr could see even more soldiers exercising with various bladed weapons, practicing their disruptor marksmanship with training dummies, and a gaggle of smiths forging even more bat'leths and mek'leths. Activity and forces both odd for a house that supposedly lost its lord many months ago.
"This isn't right," K'Vok commented quietly to her.
"I agree, sir," she replied. "I thought Karag's forces were wiped out in the Delta Quadrant."
"Not that..." He stopped speaking as they approached a stone staircase leading up to the lord's hall. Standing atop it was a Klingon woman just shy of middle age from K'Uhlayr's estimation, clad in a purple dress who's top was cut low to reveal some of her chest and the sides of her skirt hiked high enough to reveal just how tall her boots were and leaving everything else to perverse imaginations.
"Forgive me for not greeting you outside the gates, my lord," she said while looking at K'Vok. "I am Lady Kulnara..."
"Daughter of Krann," the captain countered. "Just as Rhetok is Krann's nephew and Y'Tar was his gin'tak."
"I am also widow to Lord Kavor, Commander, a marriage to secure an alliance between our houses. I, like my cousin Rhetok and like Y'Tar are here as advisors to the House of Karag."
"We are seeing many advisors, my lady," K'Uhlyar said sharply, "but no lord!"
"And you were cast out from the House of Karag under Karag's order," K'Vok added. "Paid off to go away and never bother him again."
"Watch your tongue, Commander," Rhetok commanded tersely. The soldiers under his command tensed, drawing their bat'leths into defensive positions. "You may be an emissary of Ka'rel, but you are a guest of this house."
"We are guests of a house who has no lord, as far as I can see, Captain. A house that I thought was allied with mine. Rest assured that Governor Ka'rel will be told of everything I see here."
"Is that another threat, my lord? I may be small in stature, but I do not hide behind the honor of other warriors. And better warriors, I might add. Tell me, how fares the I.K.S. veS'SuS, Commander?"
"Do not think that I would not cut down a petaQ who's also a member of the Honor Guard!" the captain said tersely.
"Enough of this," Kulnara said sharply. "Show Lord K'Vok and his party into the main hall."
"Yes, my lady," said Y'Tar before leading the away team up the last of the steps towards the central building of the fortress. Two guards were posted at the entrance, but the doors into the lord's hall were too massive for them to open on their own. They both nodded to others and the portal to the chamber within parted slowly and loudly.
Inside was a typical lord's hall of a noble house of the Empire. Banners, statues, and portraits lined the long walk from the entrance to the throne at the other end. Behind the throne of the House of Karag was a self-illuminated representation of the house's sigil, but upon that throne sat yet another man K'Uhlayr and the rest of the crew save the captain knew from only images. A moderately tall man with a pronounced scar across the left side of his face.
"Is that...?" Karune asked in surprise.
"It cannot be..." added Thaalt.
"That's..." Karune half-gasped.
"Lord Karag..." the captain said of the Klingon seated upon the lord's throne. "Impossible..."
"Commander K'Vok, son of K'Dak," General Karag said, "nephew of Governor Ka'rel. I imagine you have some questions of me. Allow me to answer them...in private."
The host that the away team did not expect to see flashed a grin, a grin that made K'Uhlayr wonder if they were going to survive this day...
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Post by norcaler on Oct 4, 2015 6:04:27 GMT
The expedition to yoDjuH'a' chal'taD hadn't gone as K'Vok could have predicted, starting with seeing a supposed foe of the House of Karag now controlling key positions and culminating with the very last thing he could have predicted. Karag himself, whom K'Vok adamantly believed was dead, was apparently very much alive. He tried to scrutinize him, try to see if there was some sign that this person was in fact some form of impostor. The ceremonial armor was the proper color of the House, the general's cassock was there with the proper medals and honors; the stern countenance that sometimes slipped into the sarcastic and humorous. If this Karag was somehow an elaborate fraud, then K'Vok couldn't spot it.
And when Karag said he wanted to speak with K'Vok alone, clearly he meant the commander would be alone. He had been separated from his officers before being led into a private study just off of the lord's hall. Much like the rest of yoDjuH'a' chal'taD, it was extremely antiquated, with floor to ceiling bookshelves, a wooden desk the general sat behind, a large fire place currently ablaze and in front of it the skinned hide of a saber bear, possibly as old as the rest of the keep. Karag had brought with him Rhetok, Kulnara, and Y'Tar; the very people who caused K'Vok to question everything he was seeing.
"I know what you are thinking," said Karag with a slight smirk. "How could it be possible that I am still alive? Have I been replaced by a clone or a qa'meH quv? Or maybe I've been infested by one of those neural parasites created by the Iconians?"
"Have you?" K'Vok asked bluntly.
"No, I have not. Perhaps it is best that we start at the beginning, young lord." K'Vok hated being called that; in all liklihood, he would never succeed Ka'rel as head of their house. "You are aware, of course, that I led a joint task force of my house and a fleet of Republic warbirds. Our orders were to hunt for Vaadwaur holdouts loyal to Gaul deep within the Delta Quadrant. But, we were betrayed. By the Romulans."
"Why would the Republic attack you?"
"I didn't say the Republic, did I?" Karag asked slyly. "Though they officially were members of the Republic, they were in fact Imperialists loyal to Sela."
"Who?" K'Vok questioned.
"Defectors, Commander," Rhetok replied. "They left the Empire during Sela's absence, but were all too eager to return once she was freed from Iconian custody."
"And why would they go to these lengths to try to kill you, General?"
"Because they were doing the bidding of their ally: J'mpok," Karag replied. K'Vok knew that it was no secret that Karag loathed the chancellor of the Klingon Empire, an opinion that the commander disagreed with whole-heartedly. His skepticism was only growing.
"So you faked your death?" K'Vok asked.
The general smirked again. "I prefer to think of it more as a skillful cheating of death. I was evacuated to one of our other ships just before the Tong Vey exploded. Since we did not know who to trust, we could not risk trying to return to this side of the galaxy through the Jenolan Gateway. We were able to locate a disabled Borg transwarp gate and used it to come back here."
"Why would the Romulan Empire agree to try to kill you on behalf of the chancellor? If he wanted you dead, would he not have confronted you directly?"
"You're forgetting who we're dealing with, Commander," said Rhetok. "This is the same man who killed Chancellor Martok behind closed doors so no one could know just how he did it. He has courted favor with the Duras, known allies of the Romulan Empire and the Tal Shiar. He even allowed General Tomalar's fleet to be stationed at Deep Space 9 several turns ago knowing full well how the warriors under his command would react to such dishonor."
"I still remember that night vividly," Karag added before getting up and heading to a window, his hands placed behind his back. "Four thousand warriors took their own lives rather than serve alongside what we thought were Imperialists. K'reb and I forced to live with that dishonor. Those were dark days indeed, my young friend."
"But Tomalar and her forces were exposed as Tal Shiar," K'Vok pointed out. "You helped Starfleet to destroy her fleet and capture her. You regained your honor..."
"But K'reb did not! Before the battle at Deep Space 9, he confronted J'mpok, was banished from the Empire and where he is now, no one can say. If he has died, he may well have died without honor, and for that I hold J'mpok directly responsible."
The commander let out a deep laugh. "So...you believe that J'mpok is behind all of this because he imposed discommendation on your friend long ago?"
"There is more going on here than you realize, my lord," said Kulnara in a rather friendly tone that K'Vok might have misconstrued in a different setting. "Lords K'reb and Karag were assigned to Deep Space 9 precisely because they were enemies of J'mpok. And in the turns since, Lord Karag was assigned to New Romulus, the Solanae Sphere, and ultimately the Delta Quadrant. All on the orders of the chancellor and all in the hopes he'd meet a foul end. When that didn't happen as fast as he liked, the chancellor decided to...expedite things."
"J'mpok is without honor," Karag practically spat. "He bows to the Duras and their Romulan masters. And rather than face challenges from honorable men, he either exiles them or arranges to have them murdered. It is long past time that he be removed from power and replaced by someone more honorable, someone stronger."
"A challenge against J'mpok's rule is inevitable," added Rhetok. "The only thing that has kept him in power has been the blessing of Emperor Kahless. Now that he is dead, factions will begin to position themselves to unseat J'mpok. Drex of the House of Martok out of some foolish sense of being entitled, Kagran under an even worse sense of thinking he can remake the Empire with his new found philosophy of mercy and kindness to our enemies. Ja'rod if he is ambitious enough and backed by Sela's forces. Maybe even an uprising by the Gorn. We will be facing a civil war on multiple fronts, Commander; one that if not ended swiftly and won by a strong leader could leave the Klingon Empire weak and open to conquest. We need someone to assume leadership of the Council, one who will not be a pawn of Rator and be backed by Earth and New Romulus. Lord Karag is that leader."
"What you are telling me...is treason," K'Vok commented. Not that he was in much of a position to hold Karag accountable to his accusation while surrounded by his army and whatever else he had been gathering over the last several months. "J'mpok is the leader of the Empire, by rite and tradition. Unless you can furnish me proof beyond your beliefs..."
"We can," Lady Kulnara interrupted, "but we will need something from you in return."
"And what would that be?"
"Support," Karag added before returning to his chair. "I had been reluctant to enlist Ka'rel's aid in this; considering his position as governor of Archanis, he would be a prime target for elimination by J'mpok if he ever suspected that your uncle was allied against him. But your presence here represents a great opportunity. Speak to Ka'rel directly, get him to listen to you, get him to agree to join our cause. With our combined forces, we can topple J'mpok, remove the influence of the Romulan Empire, and restore honor and strength to our people."
"And if I say no?" K'Vok asked. "What then? What of my crew and my ship? Will you eliminate us to keep your conspiracy hidden, Karag?"
"Your officers are being treated to a feast in the main hall, my lord," said Y'Tar. Not for the first time, K'Vok noticed that many of his questions were being answered by Karag's advisers than by the general himself. "You are our guests. It would be dishonorable to treat you as prisoners or worse when you are within our walls."
K'Vok chose his next words carefully, feeling that a wrong choice would result in the deaths of his crew, anyway. "I would consider passing along your request for support to Governor Ka'rel, but I would need to see your evidence of J'mpok's guilt first before advising him to side with you."
"Rhetok will furnish the evidence we have gathered, Lord K'Vok," Karag replied. "The orders J'mpok sent to me, flight recorder files of the attack upon my fleet, and transmissions from the Romulan task force to the leaders of the Imperialists that implicate both them and the chancellor in the attack. Would that satisfy your curiosity?"
"Almost, my lord," he replied. "My uncle would wish to know why the House of Karag has aligned with the House of Krann; taken several of its former members as senior advisers."
The general laughed lightly. "When you are in my position, young one, not sure who to trust, you find yourself realizing that you're forced to make alliances of necessity. Fortunately, the one thing the House of Krann and the House of Karag can agree on is that J'mpok's time as chancellor is far past over."
"And what of Lady Tira? Does she know that your weapons master hired a slaver to run cargo for you? A slaver you expelled from your own house, General?"
"Is this true, Captain?" Karag said over his shoulder towards Rhetok.
The diminutive Honor Guard member didn't reply at first, instead looking nervously to Kulnara and Y'Tar. "It was...an unfortunate necessity, my lord. Rest assured I will deal with him swiftly."
K'Vok knew that to be a lie, though it was one he decided to keep to himself. Karag turned back and said, "As you can see, this alliance is not perfect, but it can get closer with your house's support. So what say you, Lord K'Vok?"
He waited a moment, making it look like he was thinking it over. But there was really only one response he could give regardless about how Karag and his new allies would take it. "No."
"No?" repeated Rhetok.
"I am not your messenger," K'Vok stated tersely, not taking his eyes off of the general. "You disappear for months without a word, keep one of your closest allies in the dark, ally with Klingons of questionable character, and ask me to bear a message on your behalf asking him for help? If you wish my uncle's aid, my lord, then make the request in person. You owe him that much and more."
"I can tell when someone's mind is made up," Karag concluded, "and I hoped that you could see reason, K'Vok. In spite of my fitness report of you several turns ago, or perhaps because of it, you have become a cunning warrior. A battle-tested veteran of the campaigns against the Vaadwaur and the Heralds. You alone would have made a valuable ally."
"Reconsider your position, Commander," said Rhetok. "With the war against the Iconians over and without another outside threat, inevitably the next conflict that the Empire will face will come from within. J'mpok is too weak to survive; the only one who can unite our people with the support of the Federation and Romulan Republic is Lord Karag."
"Then why not challenge him directly?" K'Vok countered. "Openly, on the floor of the High Council. That is our way last I heard."
"And do you think J'mpok would allow it?" asked Karag. "A man who killed Martok in private with no way to verify if the killing was honorable? Forgive me if I do not trust that he would honor our ways."
"So now what?"
Karag grinned. "Are you worried that perhaps I'd become so incensed at your refusal that I might kill you and your officers?"
"More like out of a sense of paranoia on your part, my lord," said K'Vok. "You are after all seeking to overthrow the leader of the Klingon Empire; my commander-in-chief."
"History, young K'Vok, is replete with examples of leaders removed from power for legitimate reasons," the general said. "Would you consider them all traitors?"
"That's for history to judge, my lord."
"Then may you live long enough to see that history be judged, Lord K'Vok," Karag said as he rose from his seat. "Your officers are waiting for you in the lord's hall. We prepared a feast for you; it is so rare that yoDjuH'a' chal'taD gets to entertain guests."
"You'll forgive me if I wonder if the food wasn't in fact poisoned, my lord," K'Vok replied.
"Guards!" Rhetok shouted and five of Karag's soldiers entered.
"If you are attempting to get me to change my mind, Karag, then you can forget it," K'Vok said while glaring at him. "The House of Ka'rel will not support you in this."
"So you say," Karag said with a smirk. "But I imagine that when the time comes, your uncle will have to choose a side. I hope for his sake it is the right one. Escort him back to the main hall, Guard; let him revel in the feast we've provided for him."
"Yes my lord; this way," the head guard said, but as the soldiers gestured for K'Vok to follow him out, he tried to stare into the eyes of the general. The eye contact was fleeting, but that was because Karag looked away, but it was long enough to tell K'Vok something important. That man did not have the fire of a warrior in his gaze. K'Vok could not rationally explain it, but he now he suspected there was something wrong with Lord Karag...
***
Rhetok of the House of Krann watched K'Vok be escorted out of the lord's study, frowning the whole time. While he prided himself as being a calm strategist, someone who might have made thought admiral had his uncle Krann not forced him to join the Honor Guard, situations such as this one caused his temper erupt like the Kris'tak volcano. So tightly were his fists clenched that his finger nails almost broke through their gloves.
"So, how would you rate my performance?" asked Karag.
"You should not have been forced to make any performance," Rhetok said before glaring at Kulnara and Y'Tar. "K'Vok should not have been allowed to beam down, but now we're forced to entertain him and his officers and hope Ka'rel does not inquire about this further."
"We had little choice, Cousin," said Kulnara. "If we turned him away, that could have meant Ka'rel would look into this himself. Better to have to deal with a worthless nephew and his crew rather than the governor of the Archanis Sector."
"And better to have a nephew who barely knew Karag confront us rather than one of his closest friends," said Karag. "I am good, but even I could tell that K'Vok didn't trust us fully. He could betray us."
"Then we can't let them leave, at the least," said Rhetok.
"I do not wish to speak out of turn," said Y'Tar, "but holding him would be dangerous. If word of that out, it will turn Ka'rel against us fully. J'mpok and Ka'rel's forces could attack well before we're ready to move against the chancellor. The meeting is still several days away; if it fails, we will have no allies against the chancellor."
"Then we shouldn't hold him for long, then. Interrogate K'Vok and his crew now to find out how much they know and who else knows. And then kill them all while they're here within our walls."
"And break our oath as their hosts, Cousin?" Kulnara countered. "If word of that got out, then no one in the Empire would support us."
"If you don't mind my pointing this out, he was going to start telling half the quadrant about me the moment you brought him in here," said Karag. Rhetok hated the very sight of him for many reasons but the worst thing he disliked about that man was that occasionally he had a point. "You're trying to organize a civil war to put me on the chancellor's throne; that's hardly something you can do in secret."
"We could have controlled that secret, but now that time has passed," said Rhetok. "Sooner or later we would have to cross this point, where Karag's existence would become known. Ka'rel will do nothing to stop us; as much as he owes his position as governor of the Archais Sector to J'mpok, he will wait and see whether or not to support the chancellor or our challenge."
"Another one of your calculated predictions, Cousin," asked Kulnara teasingly.
"The same calculations that told you to completely ignore K'Vok and his family?" added Karag.
"I am growing tired of your...advice," Rhetok said tersely. "Y'Tar, escort him to his room; do not allow him to interact with our guests. The chariot will arrive tomorrow to take us to the command ship."
"Of course, my lord," the gin'tak replied.
"I think I know the way, Y'Tar," Karag commented before being led out of the study. He stopped and turned towards Rhetok before asking, "Oh, did we ever pick a name for the command ship?"
"The GhIqtal," answered Rhetok.
"Fitting! Well, until the 'morrow, then." Y'Tar and Karag both exited while Rhetok took a seat in the general's desk chair and slammed his fist loudly onto the table.
"That man will be the death of us," he commented.
"That man is the only way for this plan to work, Cousin," Kulnara said in a reassuring tone.
"That man will only work if we use him sparingly!" Rhetok snapped at her. "He is to be a symbol, a tool; someone to give public speeches, not entertain and drink. Imagine if it was not K'Vok or even Ka'rel who was here, but Karag's wife instead. You took a risk in allowing K'Vok to beam down here. Now we have to adjust our plan based on what he does next."
"You are always too beholden to your plans, Cousin, never being flexible, never anticipating change just like you were in your youth. Always thinking that Rhetok, the next thought admiral of the Empire, is always smarter than your opponents."
"I am smarter than my opponents, Cousin. I can predict every move, every reaction down to the finest of details. It is your actions that I cannot fathom. Bringing K'Vok here and exposing him to Karag could have exposed us..."
"But it didn't," Kulnara said as she leaned forward against the opposite end of Karag's desk. "You worry too much..."
"And if he had agreed to support us?" he countered sharply. "Then those houses who will be meeting with us in two weeks time will wonder why we've brought Ka'rel into this, a man who sent forces to stop Merzan and Koloth the Lesser. By courting one house, we might have alienated five houses."
"And none of those five control an entire sector," she countered. "It was a worthwhile risk, but though we failed, K'Vok will go back to his house and report that Karag is alive and seeking allies."
"And if he tells them about Korun? He knows more than he lets on. It is a mistake to let him leave here alive."
"Eventually, Cousin, Karag's grand crusade against J'mpok will become public knowledge. Better K'Vok leaves yoDjuH'a' chal'taD thinking he was a guest rather than a target for assassination. He'll return to his uncle and in spite of what he just said tell Ka'rel exactly what we just told K'Vok. And Kar'el will believe just enough of it to at least marginalize him in the battles to come. He was with Karag at Deep Space 9, was there during the dishonor of Tomalar, and no doubt heard of K'reb and Karag's desire to see J'mpok dead. He may not actively support us, but I imagine he will not actively oppose us. And if he won't, then I'm sure something can be arranged to neutralize Ka'rel..."
"Like you've tried to assassinate Tira?" Rhetok asked tersely. "Three times and all failures? I warned you not to underestimate her..."
"Yes, yes, she's a member of the Honor Guard; the self-proclaimed 'badass in boots,'" Kulnara scoffed. "If you had not provided me with sub par banner lords and soldiers seeking to eliminate her to solidify a claim to this house, then she'd be dead already. If she is not dead and soon, I cannot marry Karag and solidify our alliance officially." She then traced a finger across Rhetok's crest. "And we wouldn't want that, would we, Cousin?"
He growled and scowled. "I don't like taking wild risks; if it became public that Karag's allies killed his own wife, then everything we've worked for will unravel."
"But she must die, or else that fool we're planning on placing on the throne could very well betray us. Or be turned towards throwing his lot in with that...Orion."
There was one person in the galaxy that Kulnara hated more than the man that murdered her father and that was the killer's wife. Kulnara married Kavor to cement an alliance between their two houses; Kavor's sons from his first mate had been killed in battle and since Kulnara did not bear Kavor's children, she would have been in a position to inherit the house upon his death. Instead, Kavor adopted Karag into his family and designated him his heir. At the time Kulnara believed it would be a simple matter to remarry Karag after Kavor passed, but instead the general married Tira, an alien, and upon Kavor's death, Karag became house lord and she the lady. And the next thing Kulnara knew, she was given enough funds to buy a dwelling in the First City to never bother the new House of Karag ever again.
"And she will die ultimately," Rhetok commented. "I know someone who can handle this; not the most savory of sorts, but he does specialize in...discrete eliminations."
"Good," she remarked as she headed out of the study. "Once she's dead, I can marry that...man and make sure the House of Karag's under control completely."
"Enjoy your evening, Cousin," he said as he watched her leave. Rhetok then pulled out a communicator concealed in one of his gauntlets. It seemed that the only variable he had trouble accounting for was his own cousin, whom he had been raised with since they were children. And while his first impulse was to interrogate and eliminate K'Vok, another solution formed. Perhaps Kulnara allowing K'Vok to visit yoDjuH'a' chal'taD was advantageous. Rhetok doubted a young fool like him could have pieced everything together on his own; he must have had allies and no doubt when allowed to leave Qo'noS with with skin still attached he would seek them out; far more advantageous to his plan than the elimination of one woman. He keyed a particular frequency on his communicator and waited a moment.
"Yes...?" a deep, baritone voice replied.
"I have need of your services, Zalvek," Rhetok stated. "There is a bird-of-prey about to leave orbit of Qo'noS tomorrow and I want you to monitor it..."
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Post by norcaler on Oct 10, 2015 4:39:44 GMT
Nimbus III - Four Weeks After the End of the Iconian War
Seated at a table at an open air cafe in Paradise City was someone who didn't look as though he'd fit the bill as someone capable of performing covert surveillance. He was large, clad in heavy metallic armor and a mask over the lower half of his face, and his species had a reputation for being blunt and not being particularly subtle. That's how the Nausicaan bounty hunter Zalvek preferred it. Only once in his career had he failed to complete a job; retrieving some small pink...thing off of a mercenary ship and he didn't dwell on that. Fortunately, his current job was quite simple and yet quite frustrating.
His quarry was within the drinking establishment of the settlement and in the time Zalvek had been eavesdropping on him via a disguised transmitter, he had done little other than drink something noisy concoction and threaten to blow the head off of a woman who tried to strike up a conversation with him. Zalvek had the nagging concern that his target suspected he was being pursued; his ship had been behaving as if they were trying to throw off anyone trying to tail them. For weeks the ship had been avoiding its usual ports of call based on the intelligence Zalvek had been provided. And considering part of the job involved Zalvek reporting who his quarry talked to with a list of names he was supposed to report back on immediately, the bounty hunter's patience was starting to dwindle.
Zalvek then heard heavy footfalls characteristic of his target and looked to see him exit the bar and turn towards the north end of the settlement where the marketplace was. Considering the crowd there at this hour, it'd be difficult for Zalvek to maintain constant site of the Klingon, whose red uniform thankfully wouldn't make this impossible. He dropped a few slips of latinum on the table and discreetly trailed him. Having been to Nimbus on business on multiple occasions, Zalvek knew every street, building, and alley in Paradise City; slipping out of sight would be impossible.
Or so he thought. His quarry's pace had quickened and was weaving in and out of crowds like a man who both knew he was being followed and how to attempt to elude him. But Zalvek was by far a better tracker. He saw the Klingon slip into an alleyway just off of the market and the bounty hunter knew he had him cornered. Confidently, Zalvak placed a hand on his taglore sword's handle and quickly jogged in, hoping to catch his quarry from behind.
Instead, he found it empty. There wasn't even one of the dozens of refugees that populated Paradise City to be found. He took two steps forward, thinking perhaps his prey somehow scurried up the city wall or found some thing to hide behind when he heard something lightly fall to the ground behind him. When he turned, he saw first the barrel of a Klingon Defense Force heavy disruptor and then its wielder, Commander K'Vok.
"Who are you and why have you been following my ship?" asked K'Vok.
"You'll fogrive me if I don't provide an answer," he replied, then slashed with his bladed gauntlet and sliced the disruptor in two. "If this is an ambush, Commander, then you'll need more soldiers."
"I don't need more." Zalvek quickly drew his sword and slashed towards the Klingon's head, but he ducked and avoided the swipe. K'Vok rolled to the ground out of reach of Zalvek and drew a black shaft from the back of his belt, almost like the handlebar ripped off of a hovercycle. He pressed a stud on the grip and suddenly black blades snapped out, forming what looked like a rudimentary and very flimsy looking bat'leth. "A child's toy! Is that supposed to impress me?"
K'Vok did not answer and lunged towards him while slinging his blade. Zalvek swiped at it to defend himself and was surprised his blade was stopped rather than easily snapping it into pieces like the disruptor. The Klingon twisted the bat'leth and caused Zalvek's sword to drop down. K'Vok then snapped his weapon back up and struck the Naausican in the chin with the blunt grip side to stagger him back. Zalvek held up his gauntlets to block the next blow from K'Vok, then shoved him back long enough to dive for his sword.
"I take it back, that is an impressive blade, Commander," Zalvek commented. "You on the other hand, aren't that impressive."
K'Vok charged him and Zalvek matched the move, their blades clashing and each slash and thrust being parried. After several such exchanges, the Klingon struck the Nausicaan's mask and knocked it free, revealing Zalvek's hideously damaged mouth and jaw. The bounty hunter swiped at K'Vok's leg, cutting through the KDF armored pants and drawing blood. The commander fell over with one leg now useless, but his credit he put up something more of a struggle, swiping at Zalvek's chest with the bat'leth barely causing a scratch.
"This is a duranium alloy plate," the bounty hunter said in a mocking tone. "You'd need that disruptor of yours to make even the slightest dent, if you still had it. Now I was indeed supposed to follow you, but since you're now getting in my way, I suppose I can call killing you an act of self-defense. Not that you were much of a challenge..."
"You talk too much," K'Vok said before tapping a tip of his bat'leth against Zalvek's shinguard, made of the same material. Suddenly an electrical charge coursed through the Nausicaan, causing his whole body to seize up and spasm. His legs gave out from under him and he collapsed to the ground. "As for this, it is something developed by House Pegh. Builds up an electrokinetic charge every time it strikes a conductive surface. Like duranium alloy..."
Zalvek, as soon as he got enough feeling in one arm, reached for a device on his belt as the Klingon slowly got up and limped towards him. He never had to use his emergency transporter beacon before, so he had to concede he underestimated his quarry. The bounty hunter pressed the activation stud waited for his ship's transporter beam, but nothing happened. He did it again and again, jamming the button down frantically to no avail.
"You said I needed more soldiers if this was an ambush. Well, while you were spying on me at the bar, my crew boarded and seized your ship." K'Vok lowered his bat'leth to where two blades surrounded his neck. Even if Zalvek had full control of his body back, he was in no position to offer much resistance. "Now, answer my questions. Who are you and who sent you after my ship?"
"If you have my ship, then you need not ask questions," Zalvek replied, managing a smile as best his mutilated face would allow. "I assure you I am quite thorough about logging my jobs in the computer."
"Rigged to thwart tampering, no doubt," the Klingon said as one of the blades pressed against his neck. "Who are you working for?"
Now the Nausicaan frowned, something his jaw did permit him to do. "Fine. As you have probably surmised, I was hired by Rhetok. He is a man who finds himself in need of my services from time to time."
"A member of the Honor Guard who is now weapons master of the House of Karag needs a pathetic creature like you to do his bidding? Why?"
"I think you will find, Commander, that even Klingons in important positions need associates to handle delicate matters," Zalvek said. "Matters that...honorable men like you and him wouldn't dare dirty yourselves with."
"I am losing my patience," K'Vok said angrily, digging his blade against the bounty hunter's throat even more. "Why were you hired to follow the HoS'ro'?"
"He didn't tell me. I tend not to ask such questions in the unlikely event I am confronted by a situation like this. I was just to follow you and report to Rhetok whom you came into contact with."
"Did he specify anyone in particular?"
Zalvek chuckled. "He did mention one name, but you wish me to divulge it, you will have to agree to spare me."
"You are in no position to negotiate!" K'Vok barked.
"And you are in no position to risk the information you seek either being deleted because your crew can't get around my safeguards or with it dying with me!" Zalvek countered. "Now, I am willing to..."
A beeping sound from the badge on the Klingon's sleeve distracted him. K'Vok slapped it with his right hand and said, "What?"
"This is K'Ulayr, Captain," a woman replied. "Karune and Moruk have broken the encryption on the Nausicaan's ship. They're transferring the records over to the HoS'ro' now."
"Very good. Stand by to beam me up and have Melea meet me in the transporter room. K'Vok out."
"So does that mean you'll let me go?" Zalvek asked.
"No," K'Vok stated. "As I have stated, you talk too much..."
The last thing the Nausicaan bounty hunter saw was the Klingon's bat'leth descending towards his face...
***
"This would go faster if we did this in sickbay," Melea complained as she tended to K'Vok's leg wound. On the bridge of the HoS'ro'. While her patient sat in his captain's chair. "And if you took off your pants. ...Sir."
"Have you processed the data from the bounty hunter's ship?" the captain asked tersely.
"It's coming up now, sir," said Karune, who was huddled with her husband at the engineering station at the starboard aft side of the bridge. Thankfully, K'Vok didn't make Melea's task more difficult by getting up.
"How did you manage to break the encryption without the whole computer core deleting itself?" asked R'og.
"Oh, it would have done more than that if we failed, young one," said Moruk. "The core was wired to an explosive. If we couldn't bypass that pirate's security measures, the whole ship would have blown up, but it wasn't anything Karune and I couldn't handle."
"Impressive," said K'Ulayr.
"If you want impressive, you should see our son," the science officer remarked. "Broke through the security lock on our bloodwine cabinet while we were hunting at Kang's Summit."
"You didn't punish him too severely, I hope," commented Melea as she continued to close the wound in K'Vok's leg. The wound had been deep, cutting through the armored pants, through the skin, and into the muscle. It would have been a simple job in sickbay and with some sedation, but the captain was far more stubborn than he was several turns ago. Even the pants comment hadn't been noticed by the formerly...amorous K'Vok.
"He spent three days suffering from how much he drank; he learned his lesson," the engineer commented. "I believe I have something, Captain. A recording of a transmission to the bounty hunter's ship from Qo'noS the day we were at Karag's fortress."
"Play it," said K'Vok, who then turned his chair towards Moruk's station while Melea struggled to keep on task with her patient moving.
"Yes...?" the late bounty hunter's voice asked.
"I have need of your services, Zalvek," Rhetok stated. "There is a bird-of-prey about to leave orbit of Qo'noS tomorrow. Here's what I need you to do: trail the I.K.S. HoS'ro',[/i] report on any ship or person they make contact with."
"Anyone in particular I should watch out for?"
"Just one. Tira Vero."
"And if I find her?" asked the bounty hunter.
"Report her location to me," Rhetok answered. "Immediately."
"And if she or that ship I'm supposed to be following try to stop me?"
"Deal with it. Harshly. Standard compensation, though I won't penalize you if somehow Commander K'Vok or Lady Tira some how get killed by self defense. In fact, if you can do so without it being traced back to me, I might double your usual bonus reward."
"Understood. Send me what you have on the targets and I will get started immediately..." A harsh squawk indicated the recording had ended.
"Not to complain, Captain, but Mr. Zalvek certainly keeps rather convenient records," Moruk commented.
"Probably to use in case Rhetok betrayed him," K'Ulayr remarked.
"He's plotting to assassinate Lady Tira," R'og said. "Isn't that enough to go to the High Council? Or at least Lord Ka'rel now that we're not being followed?"
"We know that he wants her dead; we don't know why or what Rhetok's grand plan is," K'Vok remarked. "And the council will not intercede in conflicts between houses unless there's proof it'll threaten the Empire. And Lord Ka'rel will need more if he is to assist Lady Tira."
"You think Karag's behind this, Captain?" asked Melea as she finished sealing the sword wound. "There, done. If you want your pants repaired, ask a Cardassian."
"Karag would never threaten his par'mach'kai," said the captain. "If is behind this, then he is definitely not what he appears to be. If he is not, then we need to find out just far this conspiracy has spread. And I can only think of one place where we can take this information. Lynush, set a course for Qo'noS."
"Yes, Captain," the helmswoman replied.
"Back to the homeworld, sir?" asked the first officer. "I don't believe they'll let us back into yoDjuH'a' chal'taD if we ask."
"I don't intend to ask, Commander," K'Vok said with a smirk. "That would require going in through the front door. Sometimes, one must sneak in through the back door to get what one seeks..."
* Norc's Note: Zalvek was a toon I had on the old mercenary RP ship, but I deleted him to make room for K'Vok. So, in essence, K'Vok killed Zalvek twice! *
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Post by norcaler on Oct 14, 2015 6:13:35 GMT
Qo'noS - Twenty-Eight Days After the End of the Iconian War
The infiltration of yoDjuH'a' chal'taD had gone smoothly, albeit time consuming in K'Vok's opinion. The HoS'ro' had arrived in orbit of the homeworld and made several routine supply transports to the surface to avoid arousing suspicion. Then, during a pass over the northern reaches at night, the commander, Karune, Moruk, Thaalt, and Melea had beamed to a an area below the fortress. According to yoDjuH'a' chal'taD's plans, in ancient times one of the castle's lords had a door built in the exterior wall near the dungeon above a sheer cliff; prisoners had in those days been shoved out it to plunge to their deaths as a form of execution. No doubt the soil beneath the transport site held the fossilized bones of those cast from the fortress above centuries ago.
Clearly those who had designed and built yoDjuH'a' chal'taD did not anticipate advances in climbing technology when the portal had been installed. K'Vok's away team ascended up the side of the mountain using fusing pitons. It had taken time, but it was preferable to risking a direct beam-in within the walls of the castle. Thaalt of all people was the most uneasy about the ascent, having asked for another alternative repeatedly prior to transporting down. The execution door had a small platform in front of it, only large enough to accommodate one person. K'Vok had been highest of the away team members, so he was first to reach there. Fortunately the locking mechanism for the door was as old as the impromptu entrance to the castle and a decent shove broke through it and allowed entry. He helped each of his away team up; none of them complained, for they did so back on the ship...
"There has to be another way," Thaalt complained on the bridge. "If any of them goes out that door and looks down, they'll shoot us down easily."
"As much as I like a good workout like the next person," said Melea, "even that climb's more than I could bear."
"Well of course it is, Princess," Lynush said slyly from the helm. "We all know your strength's in your lower body."
"Once you get inside the castle, what then?" asked K'Ulayr.
"Scans indicate a dedicated ODN line that obviously was added to the fortress," said Karune from her science station. "It starts from a transmitter at the top of the main keep, then branches to only two rooms; the main security office and a sealed chamber just beyond the lord's hall."
"I know where that room is," K'Vok had said. "It's beyond Karag's study; a sealed door flanked by two guards the last time we were there. Do we have readings on how many troops are down there currently?"
"Fewer than last we were there, Captain. It stands to reason that Karag, his advisers, and his personal guards are somewhere else."
"And if we're wrong about Karag, sir?" asked K'Ulayr. "If you get caught, he'll put you and the entire away team to death for trespassing on his property..."
And yet the away team did and pressed forward through the castle's torchlit catacombs; what once had been an ancient detention area was now used for storage and housing generators to power what few modern amenities the fortress had. K'Vok knew somehow from a place he could not quite explain that this action was the right one; the man claiming to Karag was not behaving as the man K'Vok's uncle called a close friend. He would not quietly gather forces to challenge the chancellor nor would he approve of cowardly assassination attempts against his own beloved wife. As much as he hated Karag, K'Vok could not shake the belief that the man he despised was somehow not the same one who hosted him in these very halls...
"To say nothing of the rest of us, Captain," R'og had said back on the HoS'ro'. "If Karag has any ships in orbit, he could easily blast us out of the sky before we have a chance to beam you back up."
"Then you will have to be quick, Lieutenant..."
The captain hoped the crew would be if called upon. The away team made their way from the depths of yoDjuH'a' chal'taD to the main floor of the lord's hall. K'Vok recognized the hallway that led from Karag's study to the sealed off chamber hooked into the fortress' computer network. He cautiously glanced around the intersection of the corridor to see the heavy and modern doors to that room guarded by two house soldiers. He silently nodded to Melea, who rolled her eyes at first before sauntering towards the two male obstacles.
"What are you doing here?" asked one of them. "The castle's on lock-down until further notice."
"Oh, I'm sorry," the Orion replied. "I was just taking a stroll from my guest room and got a little lost."
"Return to your room, now," the other guard said forcefully. "Or else. Lord Karag's orders."
"Or else? I thought Lord Karag liked Orions."
"Not sli'vat like you," the first joked.
"Okay...that's not going to work. Thaalt?"
The massive Gorn charged from another side corridor closer to the entrance to the sealed room. K'Vok peered out to see his security officer's large hands envelop the heads of the guards and slam them against each other. Both Klingons went slack and crumpled on the floor and Thaalt flashed what passed for a smirk among his species.
"We could have done that first," he commented.
"And here I stopped taking the pheromone suppressants for nothing," Melea commented quietly.
"Moruk, Karune; see if you can get us inside," K'Vok ordered. "Thaalt, find a place to hide them."
"Of course, lifting and breaking big things is my specialty," the Gorn said before gathering up both of the guards and slinging them over his shoulders.
"Looks as though they're slightly more careful around here than Zalvek was," Moruk remarked as he scanned an electronic door lock with his tricorder. There was an audible click and Karune turned a handle to open the door. "But not by much."
K'Vok waived his team through with Thaalt being the last through before the captain entered and shut the door behind him. Inside they found what appeared to be a war room, which in of itself wasn't a strange thing to find in the fortress of a Klingon house. A large table with physical maps unfolded on it, computer terminals and communications devices, large windows that faced out towards the mountain ranges where the fortress was located.
"It can't be this easy," Melea remarked quietly. "Just walk in and find everything we're looking for?"
"Yeah, but where do we start?" Karune asked. "There's no way we can read all these charts and notes before the guards are missed."
"Then scan them into your tricorders and we'll look at them later," K'Vok ordered with a slight, annoyed growl. "Moruk, see if you can access their computers."
"If they had any brains then the security for that would be far tighter than the door lock," Moruk commented before taking a seat at one of the terminals. "As I feared, the encryption's more complex than a Ferengi's. Par'mach'kai, would you assist me?"
"Let's just hope this isn't as bad as the Vaadwaur command ship," Karune grumbled before joining him at the terminal, leaving Melea to sort through the physical documentation. Thaalt stood watch at the door, his hands resting on one of the two assault rifles he had strapped to his legs.
"Anything useful, HawqI?" K'Vok asked of the Orion.
"How should I know?" she replied in quiet exasperation. "All this military stuff goes right over my head."
"Troop deployments, patrol patterns for the home sectors, warship production. If Karag intends to take on the chancellor, then he's serious about preparing for it. It looks as though he's not only replaced all the ships he lost in the Delta Quadrant, but he's made his fleet as big as it was when he took Krann's ships. Any success with the computers?"
"None, and the explanation's longer than one of Moruk's old stories," Karune said. "If I didn't know better, I'd say we were trying to break into a Tal Shiar computer."
"Captain, look at this," Melea said as she held up a sheet. K'Vok looked and saw it was a schematic for a Klingon starbase, Phase 4, even more advanced than tengchaH Kladh. "Think this is what the Republic heard about?"
"It is labeled tengchaH Krann," he commented, "but how did they get the resources to build that and an entire fleet without anyone in the Empire noticing?"
"And that quickly," Moruk commented. "Starbases and fleets don't appear over night."
"They must have been planning this from even before Karag vanished in the Delta Quadrant. Turns even."
"That implies they have backers with deep pockets," Melea said. "Or they're in debt up to their ridges."
"We're in," Karune said, "but there is a catch."
"But of course there is," K'Vok said as he walked up to them.
"The computer network's designed to only allow information to be physically transferred out of the castle," the chief engineer explained. "And to do that we'd need a properly formatted and encoded optical chip, which I don't seem to be seeing around here."
"We don't have the time for it. Run a search for anything in the computers about the location of tengchaH Krann."
"Yes sir," said Karune. A two-dimensional map appeared on the computer screen, displaying the T'Ong Nebula and a convienently placed flashing dot. "That appears to be it."
"Yes, but I'm not seeing specific coordinates..." Moruk added as he perused the graphic. "Ah, here we are. It's not down to the kellicam, but we can get close enough to find it."
"It still doesn't make sense to build a starbase in the middle of a nebula. The sensor interference would make it getting construction ships and supply vessels to the precise site almost impossible. Unless..."
"Unless there's a void in the nebula," K'Vok concluded. "Perhaps even a star system obscured by the rest of the cloud."
"Then it wouldn't be on any of the charts we have, Captain," said the science officer. "Moruk, see if there's anything specific about those coordinates in the records."
"Right," Moruk said before executing the search. With a grin, he added, "So there is. And you are right, Captain; according to this, there's a solitary star at those coordinates. Perfect place to construct a secret base where..." The computer then started to beep and the engineer's reaction suggested that he wasn't expecting it. "This could prove problematic; it's requesting I re-verify my security clearance and isn't giving me much time to do so."
"Can you bypass it?" asked K'Vok.
"Not without more time," answered Karune. "Best we can do is delay whatever alarm this will trigger, so I recommend we get as much as we can and then get out of here."
"Run a search on their records about Karag!"
"Right," Moruk said. "Hmmmm. Here's an itinerary. Apparently he's been meeting with representatives of various minor houses over the past several weeks. T'Vek, Rolgan, Urtheg, Goltok..."
"All houses who've aligned with the likes of Merzan and Koloth the Lesser in the past," K'Vok noted. And all to back those two in attempts to seize control of the Empire; attempts that the House of Karag had a hand in thwarting. That made about as much sense as Karag taking in the former members of the House of Krann. "What about him specifically."
"Nothing unusual, sir, but...hold on, Melea, my dear. You might find this of interest."
"What?" asked the HaqwI.
"First reference to Karag in this database is a visit to Adigeon Prime for unspecified medical procedures. Let me see if I can..." The screen then went blank and a wailing alarm started to sound throughout yoDjuH'a' chal'taD. "...and that is rather bad."
"We need to get out of here, now," K'Vok said before slapping the combadge on his sleeve. "Away team to HoS'ro': beam us up."
And yet there was no response, either over the communications channel or from being transported. "HoS'ro', we require emergency transport!"
"Captain, our communicators are being jammed," said Karune while checking her tricorder. "And there's a transporter inhibitor in operation around the fortress."
"And I can hear soldiers moving in on our position, sir," added Thaalt, whose head was leaning against the door.
"Now what?" Melea asked...
***
"Commander," R'og reported to K'Ulayr back on the bridge of the HoS'ro'. "Some kind of interference has cut off communications with the away team and the transporter room reports there's a field of interference around yoDjuH'a' chal'taD."
"They must have been discovered," the first officer concluded. "Is there any way we can knock out whatever's blocking the transporter?"
"I suppose we could just blast it, but without precise coordinates we'd probably end up destroying the whole castle and the captain and his team along with it."
"And get fired upon by every ship in the system," said Lynush. "Maybe we should have told someone in advance that we think Karag's planning to start a civil war before we tried breaking into his home."
"Lynush, can you get us down there?" K'Ulayr asked.
"Down there...? Yeah, maybe, but the crosswinds will be tricky. One gust and we'll hit a mountain."
"You're not thinking..." added R'og.
"It's the only way to get them out of there," said the first officer. "Lynush, take us down to the surface, maximum power to the navigational deflector. R'og, engage cloaking device."
"Beginning hard reentry, Commander," said the helmswoman. "Everyone might want to hold onto something."
"Cloaking device engaged," added the weapons officer. "I hope you know what you're doing."
"So do I..." K'Ulayr said uneasily.
***
"We need a way out of here and fast!" Karune warned with a harsh whisper. Even K'Vok could now hear a commotion outside of the war room. They had mere seconds to depart before every House of Karag soldier at yoDjuH'a' chal'taD started pouring through that door.
"The windows," he said before he rushed up to one and found it rather easy to open, likely a holdover from the ancient times when heating and air conditioning were natural phenomena and not something one could install in a basement. He glanced down and saw a row of stones jutting out just slightly, perhaps decorative, but enough to barely allow movement from the war room to one of the nearby walls and hopefully was not an escape route the soldiers would think to cover. "I think this might work. Move to the ramparts while they're swarming this room and hopefully find a place to call for beam out."
"Those stones are so small that they won't support the feet of grown Klingons, sir," warned Moruk as he also looked out the window. "Thaalt's going to be a problem..."
"Then I'll stay and give you time to escape," said the large Gorn.
"No, you're coming with us," K'Vok said sternly. "That is an order, QaS'DevwI'."
"Sir, they're right outside. If you don't go now and if I don't slow them down for you, none of us are leaving here alive with the information we came here for. I am a sworn soldier of the House of Ka'rel; it is my duty to give my life to save my lord's family." Thaalt lowered his head, then drew his twin rifles. "Tell my brother...that I died like a Klingon..."
The commander held up his hand to try to stop his security officer, but the Gorn ignored him, opened the door, and slammed it behind him. There was a loud, reptilian roar followed by disruptor fire, more reptilian growls and hisses, and the sounds of bladed weapons striking first metal, then flesh. K'Vok charged for the door, his disruptor drawn, but a hand grabbed his shoulder and he turned to see Karune holding him back, saying, "We need to escape, sir; report what we know to Lord Ka'rel and Lady Tira."
The captain sneered over the prospect of leaving yet another warrior behind to accomplish an overall objective, something that he had been forced to do all too often against the Vaadwaur and Heralds. K'Vok holstered his weapon and motioned for his crew to exit through the windows first. The sounds of battle from the hallway outside still raged and for a moment K'Vok thought he heard Thaalt laughing as if to insult his assailants. Another burst of disruptor seemed to silence the Gorn and K'Vok lept out of the window and onto the small path, shutting the antiquated glass barrier behind him while gently walking one foot in front of the other to the nearby guard wall just as the soldiers blasted their way into the war room.
"Ugh, what a horrid smell," one of the soldiers said while K'Vok inched along carefully. The rest of the away team was already on the nearby top of the wall frantically waving for their captain to join them. "Who knew Gorn reeked so much after taking a disruptor to the face?"
"Would you be quiet?" another voice asked. "That giant Ha'DIbaH couldn't have been smart enough to break in here by itself. Find any other intruders and kill them!"
"jIyaj!"
Slowly though with a simmering anger, K'Vok traversed the rest of the exterior wall and joined what was left of his crew on the ramparts, for the moment deserted of guards. He looked to them and said, "He died well. We need to get out of range of the jamming."
"Only way out is through the front gate," said Karune.
"And then down a thin mountain path where snipers could pick us off one by one," Moruk added. "Assuming there isn't a hundred soldiers in the gate house."
"That poor lovable giant," Melea said in shock, taking deep breaths. "If only he'd..." There was a deep booming sound that vibrated the entire castle. "That doesn't sound good..."
The burst was soon followed by a gust of sudden wind that cut through the clear night sky and the telltale sound of a bird of prey's thrusters. K'Vok turned in the direction of the sound and saw a portal appear in thin air; R'og was standing within it waving one hand towards the away team. The captain found himself smiling over the realization that just in front of him and under cloak was his ship here to evacuate them.
And that was when disruptor fire started to erupt throughout the compound, blindly shooting towards whatever the soldiers thought was making the noise. The away team needed little more encouragement to jump onto the HoS'ro's boarding ramp. Almost as if they had practiced this, Moruk slammed the control to seal the hatch while Karune jabbed an intercom control, saying, "We're aboard, bridge!"
"Acknowledged! Lynush, full impulse power!"
Everyone in the airlock was knocked to their knees as the cloaked bird-of-prey rocketed towards space. The weapons officer steadied himself first and got to his feet. R'og asked of his captain, "Wait...where's Thaalt?"
K'Vok gave him essentially the response R'og's brother asked to be delivered. He reared his back and head with arms out and let out a blood-curdling roar, to warn the dead that a true warrior was about to join them...
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Post by norcaler on Oct 19, 2015 3:49:36 GMT
Adigeon Prime - Thirty-Two Days After the End of the Iconian War
The lobby of one of the many hospitals of Adigeon Prime was crowded almost past its recommended capacity. The planet was known throughout the quadrant for being outside of the legal jurisdictions of most of the major powers and with a legal system that ensures greater privacy for citizens and visitors. Therefore, Adigeon Prime had become a hotbed of activity considered illegal in places like the Federation and the Klingon Empire, particularly in the medical sciences. Genetic engineering, cloning, cybernetic augmentation, the acquiring of unlicensed or outlawed medicines and treatments; things that had been banned for one reason or another by the major powers of the quadrant but flourished here unimpeded.
"As you can see, Mr. Keras, our facility is state of the art; the best Adigeon Prime has to offer," one of the female inhabitants of the planet said to a pair of Romulans, one male and one female, both clad in researchers garb. "The biomodification wing, in particular, is the most advanced in the quadrant. We specialize in genetic re-sequencing, augmentation, complete surgical reconstruction."
"Yes, yes; we would not have come to you if we didn't think there was a chance you could help us," the male Romulan said confidently and brusquely, his eyes obscured by black lenses. "It is the surgical reconstruction that we are most interested in. Too many of our soldiers suffered tragic, life altering injuries during the war. If your techniques can restore them, then my organization would be most willing to enter into a partnership with your facility."
"Even though the Republic frowns on our methods like the Federation and the Klingon Empire?"
The female Romulan smirked. "They're our allies, not our masters."
"I see," the Adigeon scientist remarked. "Perhaps if those like you in the Republic choose to embrace our services, it could change the perception of our planet throughout the quadrant."
"It's criminal that such life saving and improving services are forbidden to so many," the male commented as they approached an office. "What your people offer could drastically improve the quality of life of billions; the only thing holding the Federation and Klingons from accepting your gifts are outmoded and senseless fears."
"On that we can agree. Administrator Annlass is within. He is most eager to meet someone with such a progressive opinion on our work."
"Thank you," said "Keras," aka Commander Decius tr'Merek...
***
The expedition to Adigeon had its origins several days ago. The Ra'kholh had been assigned to the Breen border in light of the abduction of the crew of another Republic warbird. Decius sat in his commander's chair as his officers resumed their discussions about what was to happen next. Unfortunately, he didn't have any better idea of what was to come than his subordinates did.
"It's an act of war," said Lieutenant Aeheth, weapons officer. "Kidnapping the crew of a Republic ship? Enslaving them? Shipping them back to the Empire? We shouldn't just be sitting out there; we should be going in to get them back."
"I agree," Subcommander Ritrar added. "The Breen are no better than the Elachi."
"Unfortunately, the Breen take the Republic about as seriously as the Elachi," Lieutenant Oenas, intelligence officer, remarked. "They not only recognize the Imperialists as a legitimate government, but as the legitimate government of all Romulans. The Empire and the Breen once worked together through the Pact and intelligence believes that it's likely they might do so again to counter the alliance."
"An alliance that keeps getting bigger and bigger," Decius remarked. "Whatever the reason, they sound desperate. They probably will claim the Saratan violated their territory and if we want the crew back, it'll cost us enough to make..."
"Sorry to interrupt, Commander," said Tallel, the operations officers. "We're picking up a tight-beam transmission on a Klingon frequency, coded for you and listed as private."
"Oh? I don't recall making friends with any attractive Klingons during our last stop at Deep Space 9." He entered his ready room with a smirk on his face and sat down at his desk, though the smile vanished once he saw who was calling him. "K'Vok?"
"I am in need of your assistance, Commander..."
***
The captain of the HoS'ro' had explained everything to Decius in detail, from encountering someone purporting to be General Karag, spinning a tale of how the missing Republic warbirds were actually Imperialist acting on behalf of their ally, Chancellor J'mpok. Of being courted to join in an uprising against J'mpok and of obtaining evidence that Karag and his allies were massing for just that and of narrowly escaping Karag's fortress with their lives. Now with the HoS'ro' being hunted by the Klingon Defense Force, K'Vok had convinced Decius to investigate Adigeon Prime where Karag had received an undisclosed medical procedure from this very hospital. Obviously inquiring in an official capacity was out of the question, so Oenas had come up with a plan to obtain the information they were seeking.
Unfortunately, part of the plan involved be subjected to Administrator Annlass' incessant attempts to secure some sort of business arrangement between the hospital and the Romulan group that Decius and Aeheth claimed to represent. Fortunately, the cover story and documentation that Oenas had provided had so far not arroused the suspicions of the Adigeons.
"...and I'm certain that once the contracts are signed, we'll be able to..." Annlass stated before hearing a chirp form his desk computer. He picked up an earpiece and started speaking to whoever was signaling, "Yes...? Now? I'm in the middle of...Fine, wait there, I'll sort this out myself." The Adigeon stood up and said apologetically, "Forgive me, just a minor problem that requires my attention. Please feel free to remain here, Mr. Keras."
"Take what time you need, Administrator; we are in no hurry," Decius said with a smirk. He watched Annlass leave and waited five seconds before nodding to Aeheth, who moved to cover the door while he sat behind the adminstrator's desk and tapped the side of his special lenses. "Dusk Diver 1 to Dusk Diver 6, we're a go. How long do we have?"
"Dusk Diver 3's still moving to the extraction point," Oenas reported from the Ra'kholh, referring to Solena who was responsible for causing a distraction that only Annlass could solve in person, leaving his precious computer terminal alone. An overlay appeared in Decius' glasses, indicating that a link between the computer and the warbird had been established. "Connection confirmed, Dusk Diver 1. Estimate we should be through their encryption momentarily."
And remind me why you're doing that here instead of down here?" asked Ritrar, who wasn't fond of the commander taking point on this operation, even though the worst that could happen was being arrested for trespassing.
"As I said before, my analysis of Annlass' psychological profile indicated that he's more secure around males in a position of authority, but ones that are friendly and approachable, not ones that are intimidating..."
"You? Intimidating, e'lev?" asked Hurol, the chief engineer. "Everyone knows that deep down you're as cuddly as an epohh."
"...yes, since you keep telling everyone that," Oenas said through his fangs. "Encryption breached, Dusk Diver 1. I have full access to patient records. Nothing under the listing of 'Karag,' but that's not surprising."
"Try any Klingon from now to back when the task force went missing," suggested Decius, watching as his glasses continued to serve as a relay between the administrator's computer and the ship, though he tried to glance past the text and displays to Aeheth. "Anything?"
"Clear, sir," she replied. Her presence was the compromise for letting the commander lead one of the away teams.
"We might have something, Dusk Diver 1," the intelligence officer commented. "A Klingon male named Kaseng, admitted to the hospital a week and a half after the task force vanished. Facial reconstruction and throat surgery, genetic re-sequencing; records indicate Kaseng was wounded in combat. The re-sequencing was supposed to correct radiation damage to his DNA; seems he was serving in engineering. I'll have to check it against what we have on the Klingons to see..., wait, the administrator's command code was just used to shut down the fire alarm. He's faster than I thought he'd be."
"Is there anything else that might help us?" Decius asked.
"I'm running a scan of the hospital's visual recorders from the day Kaseng was admitted, but all I'm seeing is someone wearing a face mask being escorted by Klingons I don't recognize. Same with him being released. Now...this is interesting."
"Could you hurry it along?" asked Aeheth. "He could be back in any veraku."
"It seems someone else recently accessed the hospital records of Kaseng. It wasn't detected, but I'm almost certain that they used Republic programs to get in, the same kind I'm using right now."
"Sir!"
Decius quickly tapped his eyewear to close the transmission and returned to his seat as Aeheth did. Annlass returned non-chalantly and after apologizing when right back into his sales pitch that the commander and his weapons officer suffered through with faint smiles...
***
"Find out anything else?" Decius asked as he returned to the Ra'kholh's bridge, not bothering to change out of his disguise. After suffering through and ultimately declining Annlass' pitch, he was eager to hear if this expedition had yielded any more fruit.
"Nothing about this Kaseng, sir," Oenas replied. "There's at least five hundred different notable individuals by that name in Republic records and who knows how many more in all in the Empire. What we do know is that none of them in the Defense Force was wounded during the time period in question."
"So clearly it was an alias," the commander said in irritation as he sat down in his chair. "If it was Karag who was there, why go under an assumed name?"
"Or why go there at all?" Ritrar commented. "Why go to an alien hospital instead of a Klingon one?"
"Klingon hospitals don't exactly offer that level of service, Subcommander," Doctor Levaau pointed out. "And Klingons generally don't go to such lengths to restore their physical condition. Some honor taboo or something just as ridiculous."
"The information K'Vok's crew recovered from Qo'noS says Karag was on Adigeon Prime," said Oenas. "The evidence we've recovered said there was a Klingon there undergoing extensive medical procedures."
"...Used to either restore. Or transform."
"That didn't sound ominous, Doctor," Decius said wryly.
"It is possible, sir," she said. "With the proper surgical suite, they could make any Klingon look however they desired. And with genetic re-sequencing, you could pull every DNA trace imaginable off of a person and it could read as someone different."
"So the Karag K'Vok met could be an impostor," Ritrar noted. "Right on down to the genetic level."
"Just one little problem with that line of thought, Subcommander," said Hurol. "We don't have anything linking 'Karag' to Kaseng save timing."
"It's better than what we had before," Solena noted.
"And I believe it's enough to share with an interested party," concluded Decius. "Pilot, set course for space station Deep Space 9. Warp 5."
"Yes, Commander," said Tirina. "Course laid in."
"And who would this interested party be, Commander?" Ritrar asked.
"Someone rather close to the situation, Subcommander," he replied. "Oenas, did you discover anything else about whoever accessed the records before we did?"
"I believe so, Commander," said the Reman. "The program used to access the hospital records is similar to the one we used, however it's missing algorithms the Republic introduced several months ago to better access Iconian computer systems."
"So it's an older code?" the first officer questioned.
"Yes, but it is still effective here. I accessed a portion of the hospital's security records on the date this intrusion was made, but finding where they made the breach from has been..." Oenas voice trailed off and Decius turned in his chair to see him examining his station more closely. "...I believe I have something. Putting it up on the main screen now."
Decius whipped around and stared at the recording made in one of the hospital's many corridors. Many medical personnel were running away from the camera's field of view, suggesting some sort of emergency. After another wave passed by, several individuals in dark coats approached a door to the side.
"According to the plans, that room houses a network node," the intelligence officer explained just as one of them turned, a middle-aged individual displaying clearly Romulan ears. "I'm not sure what the emergency is. Maybe they figured out how to trigger the fire system like we..."
"Freeze it!" Ritrar said sharply. "Move it back and focus on the one in the middle!"
The view centered on the man that caught Decius' eye, but he couldn't recognize him. However, Hurol clearly did when he half-gasped, "No..."
"I'll try running his face through Republic records, Commander," said Oenas, clearly not recognizing the recognition expressed by his romantic partner. "Maybe they..."
"No need," said the first officer, which caused Decius to turn and glare at her.
"You know this man, Subcommander?"
"I do sir. He is S'Taev tr'Dharvanek, former commander of this vessel..."
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Post by norcaler on Oct 21, 2015 6:48:14 GMT
R.R.W. Ra'kholh - Thirty-Four Days After the End of the Iconian War
Oenas entered the main crew lounge, finding exactly who he was looking for exactly where he predicted she would be. Ritrar was seated alone at the center window booth, with the ones to either side being empty. It was widely known among the crew that the first officer's mood had been in a foul state ever since the investigation began and had reached new lows after the revelation from two days ago. Wisely, the junior officers and crew members decided to give her as wide a berth as possible, though the intelligence officer was willing to tempt fate and approach her.
"I thought I'd find you here, Subcommander," he stated slyly once he was in earshot, finding Ritrar with a cup of steaming glakh in one hand and a tablet device in the other, focused on both and nothing else until Oenas spoke. Even the minor intrusion was enough to cause her to snap her head around and glare at the lieutenant.
"I would prefer if I was left alone," she said before turning back to whatever she was reading.
"Difficult to be alone in a public setting, Subcommander. May I?" Ritrar neither said no nor gave any outward indication to him depart immediately lest she reduce him two steps in rank on the spot, so he risked sitting in the booth's opposite bench. "I hear the commander returned from Deep Space 9 after talking to the wife of General Karag. And so far she hasn't started tearing apart the Empire to find out more about what we found."
"It was still too much of a risk. Tira Vero's Orion and she's a trained Klingon warrior. The tempers of both makes her dangerous."
"She strikes me as smart enough to keep her...passionate impulses in check," he mused wryly. "Any luck tracking down Commander S'Taev's contacts, Subcommander?"
Ritrar glared at the Reman again. "No. The commander did not make friends easily and what few he did ended up betraying him."
"I'm not exactly sure I'd call what happened with Dr. Xereth and Miss Sindari betrayals, Subcommander. More like...associations that turned out badly."
"And just how well did you know about the commander's...associations, Lieutenant?" asked Ritrar.
"Enough to categorize them as I just did," he explained calmly. "Decius was my supervisor at Fleet Intelligence when they tasked us with preparing a brief on S'Taev's activities when this all blew up a couple years ago. I understand Commander Rylov was the one who used our report when he investigated S'Taev and his associates. If not for this whole Breen thing, Rylov would be very interested in what S'Taev's been up to lately, seeing how the Republic declared him dead."
The first officer scowled. "Rylov's just another officer living in the shadow of greater officers looking to make a name for himself in the Republic Fleet. If he had anything on the commander, he would have acted upon it a long time ago."
"And is it just me or do you keep calling S'Taev 'the commander' when our commander's Decius currently?"
"What of it?" she asked.
"Look, I get it," Oenas prefaced. "It's no secret that you served under S'Taev for several years, back when you were a junior weapons officer and back when this ship used to be called the I.R.W. Ra'kholh. Ever since we were sent into the Delta Quadrant to find him and the task force, you've been on edge and now that we know that he's alive and out there somewhere, your mood's been getting worse."
Ritrar countered him bluntly with, "And do you believe that the com...S'Taev may have gone back to the Empire, Lieutenant?"
He chuckled. "You're talking to the man who served with our commander for a time and was his first choice as intelligence officer here. Plus I'm also dating our chief engineer. I'm well familiar with the concepts of loyalty and camaraderie. But all of us have been with the Republic in one way or another for years, Decius the longest out of us all. So's Rylov, and he did so after that old T'Liss determined that Dewa III could be a New Romulus. So yeah, I think it's possible that S'Taev might have gone back across the border, back to what he was used to. Hurol tells me that the happiest moment he had when Decius took over was relaxing the uniform policy around here."
"After everything he did to stop the Empire from attacking New Romulus?!" she asked sharply. "After everything he gave up to become a part of the Republic? He betrayed them! He was on the Tal Shiar's most wanted list..."
"The Tal Shiar's, Subcommander," said Oenas calmly, "and when he defected, the Empire was under control of that usurper, Lord Regent Solius, and not Empress Sela. He had no loyalty to him and as we found out recently, neither did the Star Navy."
"And how does that make him a vang'radam to the Republic?! The commander served with distinction multiple times, including at the Solanae Sphere. He exposed the traitors that were in our midst! Why do you believe that he'd turn his back against us and throw his lot in with Sela?"
"I honestly don't have any proof of that, Subcommander, save for the fact that the Republic declared him dead almost a year ago and suddenly he resurfaces on Adigeon Prime looking into the same stories about Karag that we are and all without consulting the Republic. S'Taev's behavior isn't exactly befitting a man who's reputation is spotless. And may I point out yet again that I've been referring to him by his name and you by his rank plus the declarative article, like he is still in command of this ship?"
Ritrar took a deep breath through her nose angrily, then looked away, absently musing, "That report on S'Taev that you and the commander prepared for Commander Rylov. What was your recommendation?"
"That he be arrested for consorting with enemies of the Republic," stated Oenas casually. "That his judgment was lax and that his cohorts like Karis Xerith and Sindari...whatever her last name is these days be tried as co-conspirators. But, S'Taev did a lot for the Republic, brought a lot of experienced officers over from the Imperial Star Navy, and Karis and Sindari did much for the Republic, too. Command probably was willing to overlook their transgressions or they just didn't want to believe the intel analysis of a refugee kid who grew up on cargo ships and a Reman. Either way, Karis and Sindari were allowed to go free and ultimately S'Taev transferred from here to command of one of the task forces we sent to the Delta Quadrant never to be heard from again until we saw that security recording on Adigeon Prime."
"You seem to be bringing up old arguments, Lieutenant," Ritrar noted, "but you are not offering a way to find S'Taev and the missing fleet."
"As you said, he didn't make many friends after his defection. The people closest to him in the Republic Fleet were, like you, subordinates. Pupils, even; before his actions were called into question, many of the junior officer corps in the fleet had taken to calling him 'Ernraenen Mhiessan.' 'The Mhiessan Schoolmaster.' And a lot of the officers he was closest to were assigned either to the S'anra or the missing task force. This will make trying to find where he is rather difficult."
The subcommander rose from her seat without finishing her drink, asking, "And do you know what the S'anra is named for?"
"Not off hand," he admitted.
"S'anra was his wife," Ritrar stated coldly. "You claim to know everything there is to know about Commander S'Taev. I suggest you re-evaluate that belief, Lieutenant..."
"Of course," the intelligence officer said absently as she stormed out of the crew lounge. Oh, he was certainly tempted to call Ritrar out; ask whatever else she might have known about S'Taev she knew under threat of relieving her of duty. But Oenas knew that even if she was wiling to divulge everything, she probably was unable to disclose where her former commander was, just as none of General Karag's allies seemed to know what was he was presently up to. He jotted down a few notes on a PADD and forwarded them with a recommendation to Decius as to what to do next: keep listening and see what else might be revealed...
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Post by norcaler on Oct 23, 2015 6:02:31 GMT
U.S.S. San Francisco - Thirty-Six Days After the End of the Iconian War
"Is it just me or do we spend way too much time in here?" asked Elijah Turner of his companions in the Gotham Club. He was sitting and enjoying drinks at a table with First Officer Gorman, Chief Engineer T'Pren, and Counselor zh'Jalleen. Since the end of the war and since Starfleet pulled the San Francisco off the investigation of the late Korun, the ship had been assigned to routine patrols of the Breen, Tzenkethi, and Cardassian borders with little of note occurring save for what happened with the warbird Saratan along the first of the aforementioned boundaries. The speculation about where the San Francisco would be assigned next was reaching a crescendo with everyone, the tactical officer included, hoping that they'd talk part of the rumored new missions of exploration. But as the weeks stretched on, that talk had yet to materialize into actual orders to seek out new life and new civilizations.
"Would you rather we'd spend all our free time on the holodeck?" Gorman quipped.
"The term holodeck is actually a misnomer," said T'Pren, who as a Vulcan always seemed to correct terms that weren't exactly correct. "The suffix 'deck' implies it takes up an entire level of the ship; holosuite is a more accurate term."
"My point still stands...at least I think it still does."
"We could always pile into Quark's during the next layover," Turner remarked. Deep Space 9 and its galactically famous aforementioned bar was a frequent stop on the San Francisco's patrol route. "Maybe see what the captain's up to while he's hanging around there."
"I'm not sure spying on him's a good idea," said Gorman. "He's probably going over there just to spend time away from the ship and not have to worry about us."
"Which is a good thing," zh'Jalleen added. "I mean, it's good that he's forming friendships off of the ship. I know he's friendlier than most other commanding officers I've had, but captains generally don't allow themselves to have personal ties to their crews. At least...not in war time."
"A sensible behavior," commented the engineer. "A starship captain during a time of crisis might be forced to order those under their command to their deaths. A personal connection to them beyond the professional would hinder a captain's ability to make these decisions."
"Except we're not at war, T'Pren," noted Turner. Of course he knew war all too well; he was a MACO during the campaign at the Solanae Sphere. A botched raid against a Voth platform and a rescue from the San Francisco convinced him to transfer over to starship duty.
"It'd be nice to know if we're going to do something more than patrol now that we're not at war," Gorman noted. "Hell, I'd settle for a stop at Risa over doing this patrolling."
"Except this hasn't been the usual marathon thanks to the Breen." The tactical officer shook his head in dismay. "I don't know; a couple years ago we might have leaned on them hard, threatened action to get the Saratan crew back. Now, though; who knows what's going to happen?"
"They may have been counting on that, Eli. Figured we were weakened so much by the war that we wouldn't be willing or able to do anything about it."
"That's a comfort," said the counselor. "With the Iconians gone, they could be smelling blood, if they can smell anything through those masks of theirs."
"We do not know much about the Breen environmental suits," said T'Pren. "However, it would be logical for them to contain some form of olfactory sensor to detect the smell of their enemies."
"Breen sniffing out their prey?" Turner asked wryly. "I always thought those masks looked like they're hiding a wolf's snout."
"The Breen being a caniod species is a common theory, Commander," T'Pren noted. "However, there are countless other theories as to what their true appearance is, none of them verified."
"For all we know, under those big suits could be little blob creatures," said Gorman.
"That would not be logical, Commander. Surely an amorphic species would not design environmental suits to be humanoid in appearance, let alone in a far larger scale..."
"I think she was joking, T'Pren," said Turner.
"Maybe it's all part of the plan," said zh'Jalleen. "Make us speculate about who they look like while they could be running around without their suits on and we'd never recognize them."
"Trying to make me feel more paranoid, Counselor?" asked the security chief. "As if worrying about the Undine back in the day wasn't bad enough..."
The ship's intercom trilled loudly as it always did and the captain's voice announced, "Red alert, all hands to battle stations. Senior officers to the bridge."
"So much for that..."
The quartet exited the Gotham Club and headed for the nearest turbolift. They arrived on the bridge to find everyone else either at their posts or standing and looking to the captain, who was standing in front of his chair. To the new arrivals, McBride said, "We've picked up a distress signal from the New Yukon colony on the Klingon border. Lysia, what do ya got on it?"
"It was first settled by the Federation after the Organian Treaty, Captain," Rixx replied from ops. "And the Klingons also set up a colony there, but the Organians vanished before they could decleare either side a winner. It was heavily mined to the point where neither side really paid much attention to it until modern times. Last year, the Federation took over developing our portion of the planet under Operation Pheonix Flame; Starfleet sent the U.S.S. California there along with various civilian contractors. By all accounts, it didn't end well."
"Wait, the California?" asked Gorman. "What class is she?"
"Ambassador, Commander."
"And top of all that, Starfleet launched a command battlecruiser named the Presidio," the captain quipped. "At this rate, they'll be naming new starships Lombard or Geary or 24 Willie Mays Plaza. Anythin' in the files that says why Phoenix Flame failed, Lieutenant?"
"Seems the civilians didn't get along with the Starfleet crew, sir," the Bolian replied. "I can't find specifics, but it sounds like the contractors were advocating tactics to deal with a local Orion Syndicate presence that caused a bit of head-butting with our people. Eventually, the operation fell apart; it was dead for good after the Heralds invaded and Starfleet redistributed resources to fight them."
"And now the war's over, no one bothered to send anyone back to New Yukon," said Turner. "If no one bothered to root out the Orion presence, then it could still be a haven for pirates and smugglers."
"Something we're all too familiar with after recent events," McBride concluded before taking his seat. "Miss Pak, ahead warp 9.
"Aye, Captain..."
***
"Take us out of warp and put us in orbit of the planet," said the captain and the San Francisco gracefully eased herself over the colony world several hours later. McBride whipped around in his chair and looked at Turner, asking, "Any word from the surface?"
"Local channels are chaotic, Captain," he replied. "Receiving multiple calls for help on both Federation and Klingon frequencies. Short range and subspace. The KDF sounds like they're sending an attack cruiser to investigate on their end, but they're still several hours away."
"Any other vessels on sensors?" asked Gorman, looking over her shoulder at N'iss.
"Negative," said the Caitian science officer. "At least nothing that could have attacked the planet. A couple Tuffli variants, but they're reading as unarmed."
"What about readings from the surface, Lysia?" McBride asked.
"Sensors are picking up what appears to be some sort of ground battle, sir," the Bolian answered. "Reading damage and smoldering fires from a warehouse complex between the borders of the Federation and Klingon settlements. Life signs around the site but none within."
"A warehouse complex?" Gorman asked as she looked to the captain. "Could this be another site that Rhetok was using to smuggle supplies?"
"And you're thinkin' those renegade Romulans might have stopped by, Commander?" McBride replied. "Sure sounds that way. Take an away team down to the surface; see if y'all can figure out what the hell's goin' on."
"Aye sir. Turner, N'iss, Rixx; you're with me. Excursion uniforms and heavy ordinance. I also want Dr. Bett down there." Gorman headed towards the forward turbolift and Turner followed out of reflex as did the science officer and ops manager.
"We'll maintain scans in case whoever did this is either still here or wantin' to come back once we start pokin' our noses in," said the captain as he stood and fixed his gaze at his first officer. "First sign of trouble, I'm orderin' all of y'all beamed up. Clear?"
"Yes sir," she replied. The majority of the away team filed into the turbolift and without another word headed down towards one of the San Francisco's transporter rooms...
***
Within minutes of properly dressing and arming themselves, the away team led by Angela Gorman materialized on the surface of New Yukon. It was rather arid and desert like and the location they beamed down to seemed to be isolated; other than the flaming and mostly destroyed storarge facilities before them, there wasn't a single sign of civilization that the first officer could see. There were people milling about around a perimeter fence, but they seemed intent on watching the destruction continue rather than try to put out the fires. Even the arrival of five strangers via transporter beam didn't seem to distract the audience from the destruction before them.
"Reminds me a little of the command posts the Voth aerial bombed," commented Turner. All away team members were clad in the so-called Excursion uniforms; a predominantly tan jumpsuit with additional pockets and more sturdy boots for rougher surface assignments. The security chief had a MACO battle rifle slung over his back, the first officer one of many of the old phaser compression rifles from the San Francisco's security section that was sometimes derisively dubbed "The Vactican Armory" due to the vintage of many of the weapons stored there and the rest phaser pistols.
"Ah excuse me, but who are you?" asked a balding, middle-aged human male who approached from the crowd of onlookers.
"I'm Commander Angela Gorman of the starship San Francisco," she replied. "We received your distress signal; was there any damage or casualties in New Yukon?"
"No," he replied. "The attackers only hit here, but we sent one anyway because we didn't know if they'd stop with just this place at the time. We've been trying to get emergency crews from both sides into the complex, but no one knows what they were keeping in there so no one knows if its save to enter."
"Who was out here?" asked Turner.
"Don't know and didn't ask. We know not to, since that always seems to draw trouble, be it from them or you Starfleet types."
"You don't seem to like us, do you?" asked Gorman.
"I'm not as old as I look, but I know enough of history of this colony that Starfleet only helps when they think we're of strategic value and when we are, you take over and send down an entire army whether we need it or not. And when we're not, then you're no where to be found...unless there's an attack."
"So who hit this place?" Turner asked tersely.
"Romulans and Klingons, a lot more of the first than the second," he replied. "Several small craft de-cloaked over the site, fired on anything that looked like guard posts and defenses, then they landed and had soldiers take out the rest of them; we only knew there was Klingons among them because of their fancy capes and armor. Orbital tracking satellites only picked up one of their ships when it decloaked to recover their troops."
"Thank you," said Gorman. "Can you let us into the site to take a closer look?"
"Help yourself. You'll forgive us if we're not inclined to get anywhere inside the fences until we get an all-clear from you."
"We'll keep you advised of what we find here." She turned to the away team and added, "Let's get in there and have a look around."
They all approached a simple cyclone fence that was the only barrier between the complex and the surrounding desert. Turner remarked of the carnage, "Usually I'd say if this was Romulans, then they have to be Tal Shiar, but then again they got Klingons, possibly Honor Guard, thrown in."
"But who were they?" the first officer asked. "And how do we get in?"
"Allow me, Commander," said Rixx before drawing her phaser, making a few adjustments before firing a beam that cut a circular hole in the fence. "Done and done."
"I could've done that, Lysia," Turner quipped.
She countered with a smug grin, "Then why didn't you, sir?"
"Let's get on with this," Gorman said as she passed through the makeshift portal. Whatever was once at this location was gone completely; few if any structures remained intact. The smell of death lingered in the air though she did not see any bodies. It was a stench she was all too familiar with and one she had hoped with the end of the war she'd not be encountering as often.
"Commander, over here," said Dr. Bett as she ran towards the body of a shirtless Orion male laying face down in the dirt. She knelt beside him and ran her tricorder over his remains. "Cause of death appears to be a disruptor blast to the chest, however I'm picking up plasma burns around the wound."
"Plasma-disruptor hybrid," remarked Turner. "Whenever the Romulan Republic recovers surplus Imperial weapons, they still have to charge them from their plasma-based energy sources. They've been known to leave signs of both energy signatures, even though they're not as potent as pure disruptors or plasma guns."
"Potent enough to kill him," Gorman remarked.
"So wait, the Republic did this?" asked Rixx. "Attacked a site on a jointly held Federation-Klingon colony world and slaughtered everyone in sight?"
"And with Klingons riding along with them, if the witnesses are to be believed," noted Turner. "And I know for a fact Klingon weapons don't leave a plasma signature."
"This doesn't sound like either of them, Lysia, but clearly the locals think they were both here," Gorman remarked with a frown, looking around the complex to further evaluate the site. "Is there any structure here we can still get into?"
"One. A building at the northern end. Looks like it was a guard barracks. Might still be connected to the computer network or the security grid."
"That's our next stop." The away team started to walk towards a shack in the distance, Gorman lingering at the trailing end of the group with Turner, to whom she asked quietly, "Thoughts?"
"Other than this is a damn mess and could get messier once we figure out who did this, none," he replied. "Didn't the Ra'kholh's crew tell you and the captain that they were worried about Republic soldiers switching back over to the Empire?"
"Commander Decius did; his first officer seemed to want to not believe it."
"And here we are with at least one dead body killed by a Republic plasma disruptor and witnesses putting Klingon boots on the ground. That's going to invite a lot of questions; from both us and the Klingons."
"Doesn't look this site was Klingon; not enough flags or pointy tops to the buildings," she remarked. "I doubt Starfleet Command or the Klingon High Council's going to bend over backwards to hunt down someone who destroyed an Orion Syndicate operation."
"You're probably right, Commander," Turner admitted as he stopped. Gorman too stopped and looked towards him. "And yet...I don't know, something about this is nagging at me strange."
Gorman smiled. "Speak your mind, Eli."
"Captain recruited Commander K'Vok to look into Rhetok, but we haven't heard from him in weeks. He also convinced Decius to supply us intel about what the Republic knows about this, but he's also been out of touch for weeks."
"Starfleet ordered us off the investigation," she countered, though while looking towards the sandy dirt. "Said there was no credible threat to Federation interests."
"And yet here we are on New Yukon," said Turner. "Look, the chances of this being linked to Korun and Rhetok are so astronmical you might as well have tried to predict the end of the war if you got lucky, but I find it kind of strange that we just happen to end up at a similar raid like what happened at Oriad."
"You're saying we're dealing with karma in our favor?"
"Maybe. I'm not Hindu, Buddist, Jainist, Sikh, or Taoist, so I can't speak from personal experience."
"Well, my mother's Indian," she remarked before turning to look at him. "In case you couldn't notice."
"Just a little, Commander, based on your accent," he replied with a smirk whilst leaving out the fact that the first officer's skin tone was also a clue to her ancestry. Gorman's Indian accent was also faint; about as faint as Captain McBride's Texan when alcohol or social situations weren't involved. "I also noticed you've been growing your hair out, but..."
"Commander!" Bett called out from the entrance to the hut. "Four more Orion bodies in there; all shot dead by a disruptor, but only two of them are showing the plasma burns."
"Two?" Gorman asked as she and Turner strode over to her location. "And the others? Who did it?"
"No nanite signature, so it's not Tal Shiar. No faint antiproton trace, either, so it's not Romulan at all. Looks Klingon and very precise. Head shots, at the rear. Someone picked them off before they knew what was going on."
"Snipers," Turner grumbled. "Not very honorable if you ask me..."
"I'm accessing their security systems now, Commander," said N'iss from a computer terminal inside the shack. "I think I have footage from when the attack happened..."
And then it played out on the screen; Romulan soldiers in gray uniforms joined with soldiers in the armor of the Klingon Honor Guard. One with a pulsewave rifle in one hand and a bat'leth in the other seemed to be leading the attack; their faces obscured by their helmets. The assault force stormed past the camera, leaving a field of dead Orion bodies in their wake.
"Make a copy of this recording, We'," Gorman concluded. "And see what else you can pull out of the computer."
"You got it."
"Republic troops working alongside Klingon Honor Guard attacking a planet half-owned by the Federation?" asked Turner as the two of them ventured out towards where Rixx was near one of the storage structures that had collapsed in on itself due to an apparent fire. "If these are the same people who were after Korun, Starfleet can't just sit back and keep ignoring this."
"But how we find these people?" she asked. Then, once in earshot of the Bolian operations manager, she added, "Find anything, Lysia?"
"Looks like the buildings and whatever was inside them were destroyed with spatial charges," she answered.
"Awfully precise and careful if this was just a raid," noted Turner. "Suggests they wanted whatever was here destroyed and afraid that just blasting it from orbit or with their weapons would cause a bad reaction."
"That implies something hazardous," commented Gorman.
"I think I might know what," said Rixx while consulting her tricorder. "Picking up a faint chemical trace...trying to identify...oh no..."
"Oh no what?" the security chief asked as both he and the first officer looked over the Bolian's shoulder. "My God..."
"GET EVERYONE OUT, NOW!" yelled Gorman...
***
"Theragen?" asked Nathan McBride, pacing slightly in front of the command chairs back on the bridge with his hands behind his back, getting a report from the away team. "The Klingon nerve gas. Anyone affected by it?"
"No sir," his first officer answered. "The reading was minute; the spatial charges the attackers used neutralized the agent. If any of the containers had ruptured during the attack, people in both colonies could have been killed, maybe hundreds. I ordered everyone back from the site as a precaution."
"Good thinkin', Commander."
"That being said, Captain, I recommend full decontamination protocols for the away team," added Bett. "We should also monitor the planet's atmosphere to make sure no traces of active Theragen escaped and is spreading to other parts of the planet."
"Agreed, Doctor," he concluded. "Conduct decontamination procedures on site and we'll monitor things from up here in case this thing got out into the open."
"Sir," Gorman prefaced, her Indian accent becoming more pronounced, "we have evidence of weapons of mass destruction being stored on a Federation colony world. Surely Starfleet can't ignore that."
"I doubt they can't, but I also figure that our report's going to be kicked 'round awhile at headquarters before we get greenlighted to do somethin' about it. We'll beam you up as soon as the doctor clears y'all. McBride out."
"Theragen nerve gas?" zh'Jalleen asked in astonishment. "I thought the Klingons were forbidden from using it."
"As per the terms of the treaty that ended the Four Years War back in the 23rd they were, but the funny thing about weapons of mass destruction is that no treaty can un-invent them. And someone clearly made more of it and whoever these Romulans and Klingons were who attacked New Yukon clearly knew it was here."
"Captain, I've downloaded the records from the orbital satellite network," said T'Pren from the aft engineering station. "The logs only detected a single Romulan vessel that de-cloaked long enough to retrieve their teams from the surface, as Commander Gorman said. An Ar'Kif-class warbird carrier."
"Random thought, Commander," McBride prefaced, "was any of the ships that went missin' in the Delta Quadrant one of those?"
"Only the flagship. The R.R.W. S'anra."
"Which was probably declared obsolete the moment she left our side of the galaxy, knowin' Republic shipyards."
"I guess the Romulans don't have an eye for the classics like we do, sir," said zh'Jalleen wryly.
"Other than a fresh coat of paint, on the outside we've been lookin' the same for the last several decades," McBride countered with a smirk. The San Francisco had two major refits during her forty-years of service, putting her on par with the new Andromeda-class exploration cruisers, though the captain felt confident in speaking for everyone on his ship that theirs was superior, particularly in the looks category. "Of course, they could decide to start puttin' pointy things on us like a damn dread..."
"Captain," warned Ensign Sun Pak from the helm station, "sensors are picking up a Klingon attack cruiser entering the system. Vor'Kang-class."
"It is top of the line for that type of ship, sir," added T'Pren.
"Still, I prefer the classics," he remarked.
"Of course..."
"They're hailing us, sir," said Pak.
"On screen." The oddly thin in all the wrong places Klingon warship was replaced on the screen by a male Klingon warrior. "I'm Captain Nathan McBride of the Federation starship San Francisco."
"Kurelt, captain of the Klingon cruiser SID'etlh." We are responding to the distress signal sent out by our colonists on Chu'tlhIl Chorgh."
"Well the good news is, Captain Kurelt, that whoever attacked New Yukon avoided both your settlement and ours. Only fatalities were at an Orion installation located between both our colonies."
"Most fortunate, Captain McBride," his counterpart said. "Have you identified the culprits in this attack?"
And that question put him in a difficult spot, for if what Gorman told him was somehow wrong and what their guess was to ship that dropped them off here was just as wrong, stating that perhaps wrong facts were correct would be worse than being right about what little they knew. "Not specifically, Captain. We have evidence that Romulans and Klingons attacked the installation, but we have no evidence whom they might be allied with."
"I see, Captain McBride. I will send down my own soldiers to investigate. I would appreciate you sending whatever evidence your crew has gathered prior to our arrival here."
"I'll transmit it shortly," he said before turning to his chair and in a gesture he practiced numerous times in holodeck training scenarios back at Starfleet Academy, McBride spun on one heel to face the view screen again. "Oh, there was one more thing, Captain. My away team picked up trace readings of Theragen nerve gas in the complex that was attacked. I don't suppose y'all know anythin' about it?"
The Klingon's eyes narrowed. "Captain McBride, I am insulted that you would imply that the Empire would know anything about such dishonorable weapons after they were purged over a century ago. No warrior would deploy such a vile concoction against their foes!"
"Wasn't implyin' anythin'. Just wonderin' if you knew."
"I don't."
"Then y'all got nothin' to worry about; as soon as my away team's back aboard, we'll be out of your hair. McBride out." He turned to Turner's relief at tactical and throat-slashed to tell her to cut the transmission completely. McBride then looked to zh'Jalleen and asked, "Thoughts on this?"
"I don't know how much the Klingon Empire as a whole knows about the Theragen," she prefaced, "but if someone's trafficking it through Federation space, then it very much becomes our concern."
"Right," the captain said before sitting in his chair. "Once the away team's back and we can verify that the gas won't affect anyone on the planet, we'll break orbit and figure our our next move. In the mean time, someone get me Starfleet Command. They're just gonna love hearin' about all this..."
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Post by norcaler on Oct 29, 2015 5:58:32 GMT
Drozana Station - Forty-Five Days After the End of the Iconian War
The reputation of Drozana Station had preceded itself long before Nathan McBride visited there years ago and it still had yet to change. A decrepit installation seemingly teetering on the brink of crumbling due to its age, it made Deep Space 9 look like Earth Spacedock by comparison, but the visit to this questionable locale had become necessary. The San Francisco's investigations into the attack on New Yukon ultimately revealed that the warehouse complex where the Theragen canisters were stored was owned by an Orion named Paarad the Fat who occasionally visited Drozana. Lacking information on where else Paarad might visit, McBride and his crew had decided to sit and wait. After a few days, their patience had paid off.
Considering the amount of Starfleet traffic to and from Drozana, the San Francisco lingering in orbit of the station was barely noticed, however in order to monitor the situation there, away teams had beamed over in shifts and it just so happened that things started to unfold when McBride led one over personally late on the station and his ship's night. He and his chief of security had a corner booth near the dabo wheel, providing decent though distant views of the only two ways in to the main lounge and the bar in the distance.
"I think that's our guy," Turner had commented quietly. "On my seven..."
"Right," McBride answered, spotting an obese Orion with a pair of scantily clad Orion females. "Paarad lives up to his reputation."
The obese Orion started cheerfully speaking at the Ferengi tending bar, Belan, and based on the captain's reading of the Ferengi's lips, it seemed he was a regular and perhaps was known to spend aggressively. The Orion slapped Belan on the shoulder, who then pointed towards a booth near where McBride and Turner were seated. As the Orion and his entourage headed in that direction, the Ferengi rubbed where he was struck while wincing in pain.
The captain figured he'd give Belan and his party a moment or two to look over the menu before tapping his communicator and quietly saying into it, "Away team to San Francisco. We're on."
"Acknowledged, away team," said N'iss. "We have Paarad's ship on sensors. It's docked at lower level of the station, near where the old main lounge was."
"Old lounge?" Turner asked, the background music, the dabo, and the patrons ensuring their voices wouldn't drift over to the Orions' table. "If this is supposed to be an improvement, I'd hate to see what that looks like."
"Security teams are standing by, sir. Good luck."
"Haven't done somethin' like this since I was a lieutenant," McBride commented as he led his security chief over to Paarad, who was engrossed in some sort of lively and cheerful discussion with his associates, who sat to either side of him, and that quickly ended the moment the two Starfleet officers were spotted. "Howdy."
"Do you mind?" the Orion asked in a deep, booming voice. "This is a private booth."
"I can see that." McBride sat down on the bench across from them while Turner stayed close to the Orions. While the energy weapon dampening field rendered them useless, the security chief had a new phaser pistol at his hip while the captain had an older model in a cross-draw holster that was circa 2379, same year McBride was born. That he passed up on a newer weapon was a combination of nostalgia and that he had an eye for the classics. "Paarad the Fat, I presume. I'd ask you how got that particular name, but I don't want to start offendin' just yet."
"You're already offended me, Starfleet. I am trying to unwind and having uniforms around me doesn't make me feel at ease."
"Unwind?" asked Turner. "Bad day at the office?"
"Well, when you lose a storage facility and what, twenty-six people?" McBride asked, glancing to Turner for a moment before looking back to Paarad.
That caused the Orion to scowl. "...I don't know what you're talking about."
"The New Yukon colony. You owned the property that got attacked a few days ago, your men slaughtered, and your entire inventory destroyed...including several canisters of Theragen nerve gas."
"Theragen?" Paarad asked with a chuckle. "What kind of fool do you take me for? Trafficking in a Klingon weapon of mass destruction that even they don't want anymore?"
"Except we found traces of the agent in the wreckage of the New Yukon site," Turner explained with a smirk. "The site that's in your name."
"Who are you people?" the Orion asked angrily of the man sitting across from him.
"Captain McBride and Commander Turner of the U.S.S. San Francisco," he replied with a grin. "Same ship that cleaned up the mess left on New Yukon and we've got more than a few pieces with Theragen traces on them."
"You know what the penalty is if you're convicted of shipping weapons of mass destruction through Federation space?" the security chief added. The two female Orions started to frown, but they didn't look in his direction, instead looking to each other first. "It's definitely less painful than what whoever killed all your men might do if they come lookin' to finish you off completely."
Paarad was now smiling. "Let me guess: since we're having this conversation here rather than having you try to seize my ship in deep space, you want something. Assuming..."
"Quiet," the woman on the right said.
"Are any of these accusations true?" the other asked.
"Finally we hear from the boss," McBride remarked, fully aware of the Orion Syndicate's worst kept secret about who was really in charge. "Whichever one of you is the boss."
"I think you'll understand..."
"...if we decide to keep that knowledge to ourselves," said the female on the right. "And we have not received an answer our question. Was Paarad trafficking in Theragen gas?"
"He was, and a group of Romulans and Klingons destroyed your storehouse on New Yukon to make sure it didn't get to whoever was buyin' it." McBride took a small tricorder out of his pocket, also from around the year 2379 that could easily be mistaken for a tiny PADD; why it fell out of use, he did not know. He aimed the screen towards the Orions and replayed the security footage of the attack on New Yukon. "Now he can tell all of us who hired him to get it for him or security teams from my ship can seize yours and find out the same thing albeit in a more rough fashion. One tap on my combadge and that'll be how this goes down..."
"No need, Captain," said the left Orion. She produced a knife from a garter band around her left leg and pressed it against Paarad's right thigh close to where McBride guessed his femoral artery was. Knives obviously weren't affected by the energy dampening field. "You were just about to tell him who hired you behind our backs to ship Theragen gas, weren't you?"
"He'll kill me if I tell anyone!" Paarad protested.
"Like we won't?" asked the right woman who drew her own knife and held it up to his throat.
"Or whoever blew up your operation on New Yukon?" added Turner.
"If we could find y'all, they could too," warned McBride. "Four against one; best you start talkin'."
"Perhaps if Paarad fears his business partner..." left lady prefaced.
"...Then we should have this discussion in private," her counterpart finished. "Our ship is docked several levels below. Turbolift's near the transporter pad."
"After y'all," McBride said, gesturing in that direction. The women ushered Paarad out of the booth first and the Starfleet captain followed with Turner in tow, both noting that neither of the females had taken their knives off of the male, though they were being held more discreetly and away from vital blood vessels. Once inside the elevator, though, the blades went back towards their vulnerable targets.
"I want immunity first," Paarad said nervously as the 'lift descended further into Drozana Station. "Sanctuary and protection in the Federation before I tell you anything."
"And why should I give you that? Seems your boss ladies are persuasive enough."
The Orion male somehow managed a smirk. "Because regardless if I tell you anything, my mistresses will kill me. Even if they don't, my contact will do the same. It's in my best interest to work a deal with Starfleet because of your...humanitarian beliefs. And they won't murder me here; it be bad for Belan's business."
The woman on the left rolled her eyes and sheathed her knife. "He's right..."
"...Unfortunately," the other said while doing the same.
"That mean we all got a deal?" McBride asked. "Paarad goes with me in exchange for what he knows about the Theragen?"
"As much as we'd like to punish him for his stupidity and insolence," prefaced Right Orion.
"...He's ultimately worthless and replaceable," said the other one. "While killing him is tempting, it doesn't send a good message to the rest of our organization..."
"...And our organization would rather let you have him in order to foster good will with the Federation, Captain. Believe us when we say that we would never knowingly traffic in such a vile weapon."
"And if your guy didn't get caught trying to move it through Federation space?" Turner asked wryly.
"A name, Paarad," McBride said. "I believe that's the transaction we just negotiated."
"And you'll have it once I'm safely aboard..." The turbolift suddenly lurched to a halt and the doors opened into a darkened bay. "...This isn't the right level. Where are we?"
"This looks like..." said Left Orion.
"...the maintenance level," finished the other.
"Controls are frozen," Turner said as he jabbed said controls while drawing his phaser. "I heard stories this station was haunted..."
"Away team to San Francisco," McBride said in frustration before tapping his communicator. "San Francisco, respond."
"I don't like this, sir."
"There is an override on the far side of the level," said Right Orion Not going to waste time asking how the Orion matriarchs knew that useful fact, McBride drew his vintage phaser and followed the group out.
"Seems a tad inconvenient to me," the captain remarked. And then he heard a number of personal weapons charge up and reflexively he raised his phaser. Out of the shadows emerged a group of Romulans and Klingons, the former dressed in the gray uniforms like the group that attacked New Yukon and the latter clad head-to-toe in the same Honor Guard armor from the same raid.
"Captain!" Turner barked as he lunged ahead, putting himself between their would-be assailants and the now clearly trapped group.
"Stand down," an authoritative voice stated and they all lowered their plasma-disruptor weapons and regular disruptors. A white-haired Romulan emerged from the shadows and after giving a moment to appraise them added, "Well, this is rather unexpected, but perhaps I shouldn't be surprised given Starfleet."
"Who are you?" McBride asked.
"My name, Captain, is S'Taev. Commander of the Republic warbird S'anra."
"And commander of the Republic task force that went missing in the Delta Quadrant," said Turner.
"And a task force that isn't exactly missin' anymore, is it, Commander?" McBride asked sharply.
"Just what is going on here?" asked Paarad. "We had a deal, Captain..."
"And yet I suspect that Commander S'Taev here's about to throw a wrench in the works, seein' how as far as anyone else is concerned, he's dead."
"And clearly I am rather alive, Captain," the Romulan commander stated.
"So let's start with the obvious: how y'all not dead?"
S'Taev kept his hands at his back as he explained, "Yes, I was in command of the Republic task force that was declared lost in the Delta Quadrant. We along with the forces of the House of Karag had been sent to hunt down the last of the Vaadwaur allied with Gaul, but we were betrayed. By the House of Karag's forces."
"And how does that...?" asked Left Orion.
"...Involve us?"
"I am getting closer to that, my ladies. Every Klingon ship in the task force opened fire upon us and Karag's flagship, the Tong Vey. The Honor Guard soldiers you see here are what is left of Karag's personal guard, beamed over with the crew of his ship before it was destroyed. My chief engineer used our singularity core to produce a warp shadow which fooled the Klingon sensors and allowed a few of my ships to escape the ambush."
"And just how did you get back to this side of the galaxy, Commander?" asked McBride.
"The survivors of the massacre discovered a Borg transwarp gate that we repaired and utilized to return here undetected," said S'Taev. "And now we are here and as to how this involves the Orions, we're fully aware that Paarad agreed to acquire Theragen gas for a Klingon named Rhetok. The same Klingon who tried to arrange our deaths on the other side of the galaxy."
"Rhetok? Same Klingon your ships have been tryin' to get after for the last few months?"
"Yes, Captain."
"Then if you've got enough information to link Rhetok to the Theragen and if Paarad can corroborate it," Turner prefaced, "the Federation, the Klingons, and the Republic can all go after him."
"I am afraid that is not what I'm after," the aged Romulan commented. "You see, I knew already that Paarad was working for Rhetok. What I want is the location of his..."
The Orion male's roar cut S'Taev off. He shoved both of his female companions aside and dove for the turbolift just as multiple transporter beams materialized additional Orion troops onto the maintenance level, mainly on the above catwalks. The new arrivals began firing on S'Taev's mixed forces and McBride and Turner sought cover behind the same cargo container.
"The Orions must have cut through S'Taev's interference!" Turner yelled. "Only way they could have beamed reinforcements here!"
"And they're probably loyal to him instead of the Twins!" the captain added loudly over the sound of the battle. He peaked his head around the container to see S'Taev try to fight off the Orion combatants with an old Imperial Romulan disruptor pistol. "And they probably unlocked the turbolift to the docking bay for Paarad! I'm going after him! You raise the ship and get security forces over here to get a handle on this!"
"Captain!"
"That's an order, Commander!" Before Turner could protest further, McBride charged towards the elevator and jabbed the approriate button to take him but a few levels higher. Fortunately, it complied just as it did for Paarad. The lift came to a stop and he emerged into a dimmed hallway; directly across was a larger room with bar-like area, but no furniture at all. Apparently when the Ferengi moved the main lounge to near the top of the station, they cleaned out anything useful.
He charged in and saw Paarad heading towards another exit. McBride raised his phaser and fired a shot that intentionally went over the Orion's head. Paarad turned and fired a small disruptor pistol that he must have had hidden somewhere on his clothing; a powerful bolt striking a bulkhead and leaving a blast hole far larger than one would have thought for such compact weapon. The Orion then took cover behind what appeared to be a host's booth while McBride fired a couple more shots before ducking around the bar.
"...the hell kind of hand cannon is this bastard packin'?" the captain muttered to himself.
"You Starfleet types are so predictable!" Paarad stated. "You just can't stop talking! More than enough time for my crew to come get me!"
"Then why are you talkin' yourself...?" McBride tried to counter just as the Orion fired another shot that impacted the bar close to where he was and the small explosion that resulted sent him scurrying behind the structure that was behind both bars. "Right...probably should shut up now..."
"In case you haven't guessed by now, your amnesty offer's been rejected," his opponent said gleefully before sending off another shot towards where the captain used to be. McBride then looked up and saw the central structure of the bar, presumably where food and drinks were stored and/or replicated, ascended fairly close to the ceiling. And in his experience, few people looked up in a fire fight. "Lord Karag's promised me full control of the Syndicate! No more being a slave to Melani D'ian and the rest of those creatures!"
"Keep talkin', big guy," he muttered as he holstered his phaser. While Paarad's claim about Karag was intriguing, he needed to focus on the matter at hand. He knew that he only had a few seconds before the Orion would wonder why McBride hadn't fired back, from where he last took a shot to anywhere else in the abandoned bar. Not being the tallest human in Starfleet, he had to run up and reach for a spot to grab onto to pull himself up to the top of the central bar structure. But as he started to climb, he felt the weight shift suddenly at his waist and looked down to see his phaser clatter to the floor. Perhaps that was why cross-draw holsters had fallen out of favor, albeit too late.
"Come on out, Captain!" Paarad bellowed as he took more potshots. "You're just another fe'draxla'. Thinking you're so much better that everyone else, but here you are cowering like a little Ferengi!"
McBride spotted the Orion from above and took several steps back before sprinting and lunging at him feet first. His boots managed to connect with Paarad's chin and hit him hard enough for him to drop his compact disruptor. But that was all that the captain had managed to do to stun him. The Orion grinned and drew a knife of his own, stabbing downward towards him. McBride rolled out of the way and kicked him in the face again. And again. And yet neither seemed to bother him.
"The name 'Paarad the Fat's' a bit of a misnomer, Captain," he explained as he flexed one of his arms. "This is all muscle."
"All muscle, no brains," McBride said before kicking Paarad in the genitals, which caused him to double over in pain. "Oh wait, I think I found your brains."
The captain clasped his hands together, interlocking his fingers, and then swung them up against the Orion's chin that caused him to fall over and collapse on the floor. McBride found and grabbed Paarad's disruptor and once he pointed it directly at his head, said, "Now, you were sayin' something about reneging on that sweet offer I gave you?"
"You won't kill me, Captain," the Orion said, the pitch of his voice a tad higher what with McBride probably sending his testicles at least up past his kidneys. "You're Starfleet, and that disruptor don't exactly have a stun setting."
"Neither does mine," said S'Taev as he walked up to them, his weapon trained on Paarad. "The location of the second cache. Now."
"Where the hell were you when I needed you?" McBride asked tersely, not taking his purloined disruptor off of what he was going to argue was his prisoner.
"You were blocking my shot, Captain. Before that, our friend was practically destroying this entire level with that heavy cannon you're now wielding. But I digress..." S'Taev then shot Paarad in the leg, obviously not enough to disintegrate him but enough to cause the Orion to howl in pain. "Where's the second cache?"
McBride then turned his disruptor towards S'Taev, saying, "He's my prisoner and what the hell makes y'all think you can just roll up in here and torture him?"
"You're like too many Starfleet officers of my recent acquaintance, Captain. You keep clinging to your ideals even when it's ultimately to your detriment, to your failures and foolishness. What this calls for is the expedience of a Klingon and strangely enough, we're rather copacetic."
"I know your record, S'Taev," the captain protested. "You defied the orders of Solius to side with the Republic, to help Starfleet. Why are you doin' this?"
"Because my allies and I don't want the Federation involved, Captain," the Romulan replied coldly. "This is a Klingon matter, and they prefer to handle it interna..."
Out of the corner of McBride eye, he saw Paarad start to wind up and throw his knife. Reflexively, the Romulan pulled the trigger and the disruptor beam struck him at the center of his chest, killing him. Enraged, the human glared at S'Taev, saying, "You didn't have to do that!"
"He was about to kill you, Captain," the commander explained before holstering his weapon. "And he was more than likely prepared to die rather than give up Rhetok's secrets. No matter; my crew should have full access to his ship's computers by now."
"Your crew?"
"Boarded his ship not long after our first meeting in the maintenance levels. Maybe if we were faster, we could have spared a bit of bloodshed, but these things tend to happen. I believe it was past time my forces and I left..."
"Wait!" McBride shouted, lowering the disruptor. "Paarad mentioned Lord Karag. He's not dead is he?"
"The man Paarad served is not Karag, Captain," S'Taev said with a smirk as he tapped a wrist band beneath his uniform's sleeve. "I know that, but I can't exactly prove that just yet..."
"Commander!" But the Romulan vanished in a green transporter beam. He then tapped his combadge in frustration, saying, "McBride to San Francisco. Scan for an Ar'Kif-class warbird and lock a tractor beam on it, now!"
"This is Gorman, Captain," the first officer replied. "The only warbird in orbit of the station like that just cloaked. Are you all right?"
"I've been better," McBride said as he dropped Paarad's disruptor and promptly found his dropped phaser. "What's Commander Turner's status?"
"They've taken the Orions into custody, however the Romulan and Klingon attackers all beamed out at the same time that warbird disappeared. What's going on over there, sir?"
"Wish I could tell ya, Commander..."
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Post by norcaler on Nov 7, 2015 6:44:51 GMT
Enbar VIII - Fifty-Two Days After the End of the Iconian War
Nathan McBride found himself tempted to again let his first officer handle an away mission to a hot planet, having his fill of warm climates growing up in Texas. However, Enbar VIII was a jungle planet where the humidity was so high none of the sweat he was perspiring was evaporating at all. He had received a tip about a secret storehouse belonging to the late Paarad the Fat, one that even his employers did not know about, making it a possible location of the second cache S'Taev spoke of and would be his next target. Although it was a long shot, it was the only lead they had, so the San Francisco and the Ra'kholh had journeyed to the distant and unclaimed star system together.
McBride had brought Turner, N'iss, Bett, and Rixx with him while his counterpart Decius, who also looked uncomfortable in his Republic uniform, had brought the Reman Oenas, Aeheth, Solena. Additional security and tactical troops from both starships were also accompanying them. Sensors couldn't make out much from orbit, so there was no telling what might be down near the only artificial structure on the entire planet. Perhaps some of Paarad's men were still here and hadn't received word about his passing or perhaps S'Taev was here and in an even less cooperative mood.
The facility, if it was Paarad's, wasn't much to look at, at least above ground. Ahead of them was what appeared to be a prefabricated building; a single story and not wide enough to store much of anything. McBride's suspicion that there was more to what they were seeing was confirmed by a tricorder scan, with N'iss saying first, "Reading a larger facility below ground. Not far, but given the content of the soil, the only way it be picked up is if we were right on top of it."
"Life readings?" Decius asked, though the question was directed towards his science officer.
"Nothing, sir," Solena replied. "Could be that it's empty, could be some form of interference."
"If Paarad was hiding things he didn't want found, he'd probably use a scattering field to make doubly sure no one could find out what's inside," Turner remarked.
"At least it's not on fire like the last one," Rixx said cheerfully.
"Yet," said Aeheth grimly.
"Let's see if we can get inside," McBride said as he motioned for the two crews to advance towards the bunker. He lingered back alongside Decius and asked quietly, "If S'Taev's in there, how y'all want to play this?"
"Technically, he's absent without leave from the Republic militia," the commander explained softly. "I would be well within my rights to arrest him and any of his followers."
"But are you...?"
"...That would depend on him, but one of the reasons I insisted on coming down here instead of Ritrar or Hurol was because I didn't want their past association with him to complicate matters." When they caught up to the others, the hatch to the bunker was already open while Oenas was still examining the only control panel next to it. "Faster than usual, Lieutenant."
"Yes, fortunately for us we had Paarad's biometrics scanned into our tricorders to fool the locking mechanism," answered the intelligence officer. "It beats bringing him along, or at least an eyeball or severed hand."
"I still don't like we're going on intelligence gathered in Quark's for this," said Solena. "How do we know this Timgen can be trusted?"
"The fact that he was happy that S'Taev offed Paarad?" asked Bett. "Leading us astray is a pretty bad thank-you, Centurion."
"Still, it all seems rather...convenient," Decius noted.
"His story checks out, at least," Oenas said. "His father informed on the Orion Syndicate and Paarad was the one who punished him. He'd have little reason to deceive us."
"Yeah, and if Paarad killed his father, why'd he make cargo deliveries here?" Turner questioned.
"To get close to him and wait for the right moment before S'Taev got to him first...?"
"All right, all right; we'll move in and move in quietly," McBride interjected. "Weapons on stun if you got 'em. Check your fire; we might have theragen down there, we might have something else that don't react well to gettin' shot."
"With all due respect, Captain, who appointed you leader of a mission to find a rogue Republic commander?" asked Aeheth.
"He did," said Decius, "the moment he entered orbit ahead of us and I lost the bet. Move in."
The combined group entered the bunker and found only a set of stairs leading further underground. Descending with their various phaser and plasma weapons drawn, reaching an empty room at the bottom with powered overhead lights that occassionally flickered. With hand gestures universally understood between both factions thanks to working together in the trenches for so many years, the dual away teams split off down separate corridors towards various other rooms in the complex and as each group discovered on their own, they were filled with various, non-threatening items. Luxury items, paintings and statues (many of the sort McBride wouldn't want in his ready room when an admiral was visiting), expensive looking vehicles; valuable but nothing that warranted Federation, Klingon, and Republic interest. If Paarad kept his "second cache" here, then someone ran off with it long before the crews of the San Francisco and Ra'kholh arrived here.
At least that was the impression before everyone moved in on the final chamber that all paths from the entrance seemed to converge on. It was as large as the biggest cargo bay on the Galaxy-class starship McBride commanded and had no fewer than eight metallic tanks within them, each with powered control panels at their base as they each towered over them.
"Think we just hit the jackpot," McBride remarked as he holstered his phaser. "Readin's?"
"Scanning now, sir," N'iss said while checking her tricorder. "They're pressurized storage units contents of which...I'm having a little trouble with..."
"Allow me," said the Caitian's Romulan counterpart. "I've tied into the lieutenant's tricorder, but...I'm not reading any theragen."
"None?" asked Turner.
"Confirmed," added the San Francisco's science officer. "Reading mostly fuel agents and cleaning supplies. Not pleasant to smell, certainly, but none of it lethal like theragen."
"Maybe we were all wrong," Oenas added. "Perhaps this second cache S'Taev wanted to know about wasn't theragen."
"Maybe y'all are right, Lieutenant," McBride commented as he rubbed his beard with two fingers while in thought. "There might have been somethin' else on New Yukon they were after instead of the theragen. They disposed of it just to keep the civilians safe."
"That would not be out of character for S'Taev, but what else could they have been looking for? Your reports indicated everything else was destroyed, their computers and cargo manifests almost completely wiped."
"Maybe it was something worse than theragen," Turner commented. "Something he worried that if we found out about the entire quadrant would start interfering with whatever crusade he's running on behalf of the House of Karag."
"We ain't goin' to figure it out just by standin' around," McBride said. "Let's split up and turn this place inside out..."
***
After about two hours of searching every room of the underground complex again and again, both crews convened in what appeared to be an office, though given the vulgar Orion decor, it made McBride wonder how Paarad managed to get any work done. Oenas and Rixx were going through the only computer system in the place while McBride paced in front of Paarad's desk and Decius rubbed his chin in thought. Neither captain had been able to make much sense of what they found at Enbar VIII. While it appeared somebody, more than likely the Klingons S'Taev was with, had forced the lock to the bunker, the entire interior had not been disturbed. No signs of a battle, no signs that even the benign cannisters that were in one of the storage rooms had been tampered with.
"This is gettin' a tad aggravatin'," the captain grumbled. "Paarad's treasure trove and yet nothin'? S'Taev had a week's head start on us and you'd think he'd leave some callin' card."
"Perhaps your man was right," said Decius. "It wasn't theragen he and his allies were after. The 'second cache' that S'Taev spoke of could be anything."
"And if we can't figure out what it is and soon, my crew's liable to get pulled off this case again. Starfleet's sending out warnings about Tholians in the Alpha Quadrant and we've got reports of Terran Empire incursions in the Badlands..."
"And the Republic has sightings of Terran activity at Vauthil Station once again. I imagine if we can't get any leads here, we'll be sent there as part of the defense effort."
"Just when we thought with the Iconian War being over things would be settlin' down, right?" McBride asked wryly. He then lowered his voice and questioned, "What's your take on S'Taev?"
"How do you mean?" asked the Romulan.
"I mean does any of what he's been doin' track with what you know of him? He was the last captain of the Ra'kholh, for cryin' out loud."
"First and most recent, actually, and he had already left the ship by the time I took command of the Ra'kholh, so all I know of him is from the ship's logs...and the report I compiled for Commander Ry'lov..."
"Report?"
"Two years ago, I was attached to the Republic's intelligence service," Decius explained. "The time of the allied expedition to the Solanae Sphere."
"Yeah, I was there," McBride said. "Did a bit of teeth cuttin' as captain of the SF back then. How's that relate to S'Taev?"
"He and the Ra'kholh were there, assisting the 146th Fleet. During that period he became...close to two individuals R.I. flagged as being potential threats: Karis Xereth and Sindari Lareth. Both Romulan, one a Tal Shiar sleeper agent and the other perhaps something worse."
"Close as in...?"
"As in S'Taev lost his wife, children, and grandchildren during the Hobus Event, Captain, and spent the decades since alone," the Romulan explained which didn't require a lot of follow-up explanation. "Myself and my assistant when we made our report to Ry'lov, Oenas over there, both concluded that his judgment had been compromised by these...individuals and that S'Taev should have been relieved of duty. Clearly our recommendation fell on deaf ears..."
"And now his judgment after nearly gettin' killed in an ambush in the Delta Quadrant's caused him to fall in with a bunch of Klingons from Karag's flagship," McBride stated out loud. "You thinkin' he might have lost it again?"
"That presumes he had this 'it' you're talking about to begin with. As to his motives now, I have my theo..."
"I think we might have something!" Oenas called out, which caused both ship captains to walk over to Paarad's desk. "Whoever came up with the encryption for this terminal could give the Tal Shiar a few lessons, but Lieutenant Rixx and I appear to have access..."
"Let's see what you've got," McBride said as they approached the desk.
"It would seem the last user who accessed this terminal was Paarad himself, several days before he was killed on Drozana Station. He was making inquiries about the incident at New Yukon, who survived, who died, who knew what was being stored there."
"Was he paranoid someone in his own organization betrayed him?" asked Decius.
"His bosses didn't seem too happy to find out what he was up to," McBride commented.
"This apparently was completely off the books," Rixx explained. "The only records about it that do exist are stored here and the only person who had full access to this facility was Paarad himself."
"Did he find out how S'Taev found out?"
"I don't believe so, Captain," his intelligence officer answered. "His own men appear to have checked out, at least the ones who survived. He soon started sending messages to someone in the Klingon Empire. Angry ones claiming he'd been double crossed, that the location of the New Yukon cache had been leaked by one of his business associates."
"Maybe S'Taev's Klingon friends have someone on the inside on the other side of the border," McBride concluded. "That'd explain how they found the New Yukon site."
"And yet not enough to know where this supposed 'second cache' is?" Decius commented. "If they have an informant, then their information has gaps in the most inconvenient places."
"That just it, Commander; there isn't a second cache, at least of theragen," Rixx replied. "Those containers in that big room? They were pulled from Paarad's other installations for fear someone would think they might contain theragen."
"So why was S'Taev lookin' for it?" asked McBride. "He was willin' to shoot Paarad in every arm and leg to find out where it is."
"I believe it's possible, Captain, that the existence of a second cache was what you humans call a 'red herring,'" Oenas replied. "An intentionally planted leak in order to figure out who was supplying S'Taev with the information and perhaps bait him into a trap."
"Did anyone get back to Paarad after he started complain' about how things went down?" McBride asked.
"Yes sir," said Rixx. "He was told to head to Drozana Station and wait for direct contact."
"And that was the trap," Decius concluded.
"Which we threw a monkey wrench in when we showed up," his human counterpart added. "If we hadn't, S'Taev could have been up to his eyebrows in House of Karag troops. Lysia, when we get back to the ship, go back over our sensor logs; see if there were any Klingon vessels there that might have been one of theirs."
"Aye sir," she replied.
"I believe that they, Rhetok in particular, was planning on a lot of this to happen, Captain," said Oenas. "Paarad's records indicate he only acquired the theragen gas six days before the attack on New Yukon. The gas itself must have been an attempt on his part to draw out S'Taev and his allies."
"This all reminds me of somethin' I heard about when I was younger," McBride said. "A...Batman Gambit, I think it was called."
"I'm afraid I don't play chess," Decius said dryly.
"It's a literary device. A character in a story devises a plan that depends on knowing exactly how their opponent is going to act in order for it to succeed. That's what I think Rhetok's doin', countin' on S'Taev and the rest of us to find out about theragen and drop everythin' we're doin' to try to go after it. S'Taev did and because he did we're runnin' around tryin' to find this fictitious second cache. Just like Rhetok wants us to do."
"And that begs the question: what's the goal Rhetok is trying to get us to achieve for him?"
"Don't know," he admitted, "but I know he wants us to go chasin' after reports of theragen rather than find out whatever it is he's really doin'; waste our time instead of tryin' to find out what he's really doin'. Reminds me of somethin' else I heard of in my youth, called a Xanatos Gambit."
"That sounds rather ominous," the Romulan captain said with a slight smirk. "And what human literary device is this?"
"It's where the antagonist of the story devises a plan where the antagonist benefits whether the protagonist fails or succeeds. The bad guys win regardless if the good guys win or lose."
"I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't read Earth literature, sir," Rixx said nervously, "especially if your ancestors wrote stories where the good guys win and somehow the bad guys win, too."
"This form of human storytelling sounds almost Romulan, Captain," Decius pointed out. "Even Cardassian."
"I'd be interested in reading more about these Batman and Xanatos Gambits when I get the chance," Oenas noted. "But it would appear that we've exhausted the useful intelligence from Paarad's computer. His story ended at Drozana, but what Rhetok plans for S'Taev and the rest of us remains to be seen."
"He wants S'Taev and his allies dead, Oenas; that much is certain and like it or not we're now allied with him. The question is where he's setting up the next trap..."
"...and if can we stop them in time before it happens," said McBride. "Commander, seems to me that our crews are two of three in the quadrant who can see enough of what's going on to try to stop whatever it is Rhetok's plannin'."
"And K'Vok's the third," Decius concluded.
"Any idea where he might be?"
"An agent of Lady Tira's now looking for him. Hopefully she can find him and he can share what else he's learned." The Romulan commander placed his hands at his back and stared off in the distance. "If K'Vok can't, everything we've done to this point might as well be for nothing..."
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Post by norcaler on Nov 10, 2015 4:24:12 GMT
I.K.S. GhIqtal - Fifty-Five Days After the End of the Iconian War
Rhetok tried not to look too smug about his current position; he learned long ago that even the face could betray many secrets. He stood on the flag bridge of the command battle cruiser that now led the forces of the House of Karag; a personal design of his own, blending elements from the Klinzhai, An'quat, and Ty'Gokor-classes, the latter of which whose rear structure he was now standing upon. Looking almost identical to the flag bridge of a Bortasqu'-class battle cruiser, it allowed a general a place to command his fleets from. Or in this case, to entertain guests. A conference table had been set up behind the general's throne on the platform that overlooked the rest of the flag bridge, where Karag was presently entertaining the prospective allies that the house had been courting to join forces with them.
Yes, it had indeed been going well for Rhetok. Every contingency anticipated and every potential threat to his plan dealt with. The Federation and Republic's investigations into his activities had reached dead ends. K'Vok a fugitive, S'Taev being led around by the nose like a targ, and Tira unable to leave Deep Space 9 for fear someone within her ranks would try to kill her and take the house she'd already lost. It was so simple; creating a narrative for the players in this drama to follow and lead them towards outcomes he had determined in advance. Outcomes that would always benefit him. Rhetok had always been smarter than his opponents; the cocky human McBride with the "tricked-out" Galaxy-class starship, Decius with his inherited Ra'kholh from far a more decorated and experienced commander in S'Taev, and K'Vok living off of his uncle Ka'rel's reputation were mere chess pieces for Rhetok to play with. Chess pieces that could only move in preordained directions based on their roles on the board.
The conference table on the flag bridge was covered with copious ammounts of Klingon food and drink. Along with Karag, seated at the table were T'Vek, Rolgan, Urtheg, Goltok; heads of various minor houses who did not tolerate the current regime. Potential allies but at the same time potential wild cards, the latter Rhetok did not tolerate. Y'Tar and Kulnara hovered by the conference table as their guests drank and dined, reaching another interval that Rhetok had already planned for as he paced beside the table.
"You have my gratitude for joining me despite the remoteness of this location," Karag said. The GhIqtal and the flagships of the four minor house lords had rendezvoused in a remote corner of Klingon space, far from the prying eyes of those loyal to J'mpok. "But it is preferable to meeting, say, in the basement of a bar across the street from the Great Hall."
Their guests laughed, clearly understanding the reference. Urtheg, a portly lord of a minor house whose strength was in ground troops rather than warships, laughed the hardest and added, "The only one who didn't know what Merzan was planning was the fool Starfleet sent to stop him!"
"And yet his successor was far more effective, Lord Urtheg," said T'Vek coldly. Rhetok knew that this particular lord was not to be trifled with. Formerly a leading operative of Imperial Intelligence, the Honor Guard captain would rate T'Vek's intelligence and cunning closest to his own out of their guests, though in some cases that was not saying much. "She still commands that fleet, from what I understand. I suppose Merzan's responsible for creating that which ultimately doomed him."
"So, my lords," Karag prefaced, "you have had many weeks to consider my proposal and now the time has come for you me to give me your answer. Will you join us?"
"I think I speak for all of us by saying we all have our...qualms, my lord," said Rolgan. His house, minor as it was, had connections and Rolgan himself knew was close friends with at least one member of each of their houses. "I'm concerned about Federation and Republic interference. Do you expect them to sit by and let us unseat J'mpok? They could "
"Of course we do. J'mpok after all broke the Khitomer Accords and declared war on the Federation; surely Starfleet would be in favor of a...valued ally like myself becoming chancellor..."
"As for the Republic," Rhetok interjected, "they will do what the Empire tells them to; regardless of whoever's in power. If not for us, their government would not exist."
"And the Iconian War and the current aggressions from the alternate universe would make both of them adverse in getting involved with an internal Klingon conflict," Karag added with a smirk. "Be assured, Rolgan, than when we make our move, there be no outside interference from the Federation or the Republic. They just simply can't afford another war, one that's also not there's to fight."
"I care little for courting favor with the Federation or the Republic," Urtheg said bluntly. "All I care about is your plan for Jarkonis?! Merzan and Koloth promised me that we'd conquer it and use it against the Federation, that I would have a fief on the planet's surface. J'mpok says that Jarkonis is on the verge of being ours thanks to Federation rejecting their membership. Why should we support a civil war now when he's delivering us exactly what we want?!"
"How is he getting us Jarkonis?" asked Rhetok smugly. "Through trade? Perhaps supplying them with material support? Troops and ships to defend them? Perhaps even deceiving them into thinking they're in danger being attacked? This is how Bajor was annexed almost a century ago. We are Klingons, not Cardassians."
"Is that not what we are doing with the Republic?" T'Vek countered, the one the honor guard captain was concerned about the most. "Trade, material support, troops and ships, defending them from attack? Conquering without firing a shot may not be glorious, but it is effecient."
"Is that what we've become, eh?" Karag said with a smirk. "Warriors who no longer have the stomach for battle? To appease to get what we want? To show our foes mercy?"
"The Federation could always find some way to outmaneuver us diplomatically," said Kulnara, "and remember that a Jarkonian 'deity' radicalized his followers to oppose the Empire. And his daughter is a Starfleet captain, one who has thwarted our attempts to seize Jarkonis in the past."
"Including Lord Krann's," Karag said, which drew a glare from Rhetok's cousin. "Rest assured, Lord Urtheg, that the Jarkonis situation will be resolved once J'mpok and the council are eliminated. The right way..."
"Many have coveted control of Jarkonis, Lord Karag," T'Vek said coldly. "None have succeeded and while Lord Urtheg's desire to avenge both of his house's defeats is understandable, I'm more concerned with the Empire as a whole. A civil war now could cripple the Empire. We would be the ones seeking aide from the Republic, not the other way around."
"J'mpok's days as leader of the High Council grows fewer," added the Honor Guard captain. "Someone will inevitably rise to challenge him. There may even be a push to place Kagran as chancellor or even as the successor to Emperor Kahless if this new philosophy of his takes root."
"If that fool who nearly destroyed the entire allied fleet becomes leader of the Empire, it will be a dark day indeed," said Goltok. "Worse than if Ja'rod was named chancellor."
"All the more reason to seize power now rather than wait for someone else to take over and weaken the Empire further."
"And how do you propose to do that, Captain?" stated T'Vek with a stern glare. "You speak of removing J'mpok from power, of preserving the Empire and ensuring our supremacy by seizing Jarkonis, but you have not given us much in the way of details."
"You can understand why we wouldn't until you commit to us fully," Karag said evenly. "The support of all four of your houses will go a long way with providing us the strength to unseat the chancellor and his council. To replace them with all of us here. To ensure that in the era to come it will be we Klingons who are the dominant power in the quadrant, not the Federation."
"And not J'mpok's backers from the House of Duras," added Rhetok, "and certainly not their Tal Shiar sponsors."
"I agree that the time to replace J'mpok with a new chancellor is nearing," T'Vek prefaced, "and I am convinced the one to replace him is not you, General."
"Show more respect to your host, my lord."
"You are asking me to back someone who's been a staunch ally of the Federation in the past, but now would throw that allegiance away to seize Jarkonis to appease those whose support he seeks. Someone who has alliances with the House of Terath and the House of Ka'rel and yet seeks our help and not theirs. Someone who has in fact taken up arms against Merzan and Koloth, who was backed by many of us at this table. Someone who personally killed another who sought control of Jarkonis and whose kin now serves you."
Karag said nothing; just blankly stared at T'Vek as if he didn't know what to say to that. The minor lord seized on that, standing and towering with smiliar height and stature as the young K'Vok. Speaking not to Karag but Rhetok, he added, "A lord of a house that is practically non-existent, an Honor Guard captain who's physical prowess would not intimidate a Ferengi, and the discarded lady of a house who can only reclaim her past stature by whoring herself out to her father's killer like a Risian sli'vat..."
Rhetok had enough. He roared loudly in rage, drew his ceremonial mek'leth, and lunged at T'Vek. Clearly surprised by the smaller Klingon's sudden outburst, he instinctively braced himself rather than reach for a holstered weapon. Rhetok feinted to his left and slashed at T'Vek an overhand swipe of his blade, which his opponenent blocked with his right gauntlet. As Rhetok had anticipated, T'Vek was the most dangerous of the lot...but Rhetok was far more of a warrior than T'Vek could ever have guessed.
T'Vek shoved Rhetok's blade aside, then used his free hand to draw a d'k tahg. But of course he did; a bat'leth outside of the compact type employed by House Pegh was too bulky to conceal and as Rhetok knew long before letting T'Vek aboard his flagship, T'Vek was better at the longer blade than a shorter one. While not based on the sword first forged by Kahless the Unforgettable and thus not as revered, Rhetok preferred the mek'leth. The bat'leth was a weapon of the large; a blade of brute strength. The d'k tahg a swift dagger; a weapon of close quarters. The mek'leth was a sword of the cunning, the intelligent; the very weapon used to defeat those who favored the length of the bat'leth and the single-strike lethality of the d'k tahg. It was, naturally, a weapon favored by Rhetok. A sword used by a warrior who was used to being underestimated.
T'Vek's attempted stabbing motion was ducked under by Rhetok, who then slashed his blade against the lord's upper thigh, cutting deep into his flesh. T'Vek's wounded leg buckled in pain and he dropped to his knees. Rhetok's blade carved through T'Vek's throat and caused a brief spray of blood that showered over him before the minor lord collapsed to the deck, clutching at his severed arteries and veins in a panic before he quickly bled to death.
"You..." said Urtheg. "You killed him when he was your guest."
"Have you no sense of honor, Rhetok?!" roared Goltok.
"KILL THEM ALL!" Rhetok roared and his guards did so, drawing their disruptors and disintegrating Urtheg, Goltok, and Rolgan before they could even flinch. As he cleaned the blood off of his mek'leth with his cape, he looked to see Y'Tar and Kulnara looking on with horrified expressions while Karag continued to sit in his chair wearing the same insidious smug grin.
"Have you lost all sense?" asked the gin'tak. "We needed those men's help!"
"I needed their houses, not them, Y'Tar," he countered gruffly. "Send word to their flagships that they've agreed to serve us and order their forces to the rendezvous. Immediately. We're initiating Phase One now."
"Yes, Captain," one of his soldiers replied. He felt his sword hand tremble within his glove as the rage slowly started to subside. It was impulsive, certainly; killing T'Vek. Rhetok had always suspected he'd be the problematic one and that if he refused to join forces with them, the others would likely follow. But the insult had set him off and the death of T'Vek necessitated the death of all of them. And now they had to move while their new forces were unaware of the current situation. Rhetok knew he'd find a way to deal with it. He always could.
"Perhaps we should continue our discussions in the ready room?" Karag suggested.
"There is nothing left to discuss General," Rhetok said sternly, "and we have so much now to do..."
To be concluded in "The Redeemed..."
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