<0700 hours.>
K'Tag rolled over and climbed out of his bed. He walked over to N'Garen's room, and noticed her sleeping very quietly and calmly. He continued on his daily routine and dressed. He walked the very quiet halls of the nearly abandoned station. 0800 was much too early for most officers, and nearly all civilians where still snug in their beds. As K'Tag steped onto the command deck, he notices an erie emptiness. Only a skeleton crew was monitoring the empty space around them.
"Computer, What is the current time?"
<0745.>
I'm actually early! K'Tag thought to himself. He could not recall a single instance when he was early to his duty station. K'Tag walked into the conference room and right up to the replicator.
"D'Tang, hot." The replicater produced a very strong smelling drink in the classic metallic Starfleet edition mug. K'Tag heard laughter and he turned around to notice Captain Mallory, Commander Loran, and Colonel Tarik enter into the conference room.
"Good morning, K'Tag," Captain Mallory smiled as she spoke. "We are not used to seeing you early." K'Tag looked blankly as the captain continued. "I needed to talk with everyone anyway. This afternoon I need all of you to report back to your posts. We will be receiving a very large load of transport ships, and with all of this recent activity I want everyone to be there. Let's plan on being safe and not sorry!" Everyone nodded in agreement and all four walked onto the command deck and took their stations.
K'Tag walked quickly towards his quarters. He had planned on having all afternoon to walk N'Garen through her first Klingon Ceremony, but now with the captain's request he had only an hour before he had to report back for his afternoon post. As he rang his quarters, a beautiful young half-Klingon stepped out, wearing a ceremonial robe over her Starfleet attire.
"I look like a farmer!" N'Garen stated very clearly and firmly.
"Don't disgrace our heritage--" K'Tag was cut off.
"It is your heritage, not mine. I'm human. I have always been human and I will always be human. I'm not a killer, I'm not a fighter. I joined the Federation because I wanted to be human. I never saw myself living with a Klingon, nor did I ever want to pretend to be Klingon."
"Pung ghap HoS!" K'Tag responded with a very stern and angered voice.
"Keep your Klingon nonsense to yourself!"
"You are Klingon. It is a part of you. I promised your bloodline I would introduce you to your culture. Half of you is human and I will allow you to be human, but you are also half Klingon, and I will force you to delve into your heritage just enough for you to understand who you are, and what an honor it is to be here."
"What if I refuse to be Klingon? I don't want to give you the chance to take away what my father gave me..."
"Than I will put you on the next transport home, and without a sponsor and a family you will be excluded from Red Squad, and you will fail your on-site training..."
N'Garen than began to realize she had no choice but to listen to her adoptive father. He had ultimate control of her entire life. Without saying anything she began to walk towards the turbolift.
"I have taken on more than I can handle; will you please give me a chance?" K'Tag asked as he looked down at his daughter.
She knew she had no choice but to accept his offer. "Yes, I suppose I will give you a chance." She tried to make it seem as if she cared, but K'Tag could tell it wasn't sincere.
As the two stepped off the turbolift, Zac bounced around a corner.
"Are you going to do a Klingon ceremony?" Zac asked in amazement, and before he got an answer he continued to ask questions. "What type of ceremony is it? Can I watch? Can I do it?"
"Sorry young Zac, this is a family ceremony," K'Tag replied. Why can't N'Garen be as interested as Zac in Klingon heritage? K'Tag thought to himself.
"Okay I understand." Zac walked slowly and sadly away. K'Tag felt truly bad; he really wanted Zac to be there, but felt he and N'Garen needed quality time together.
The two entered into the holodeck. N'Garen took in all the surroundings around her. K'Tag pulled out a small three-bladed knife, a d'k tahg. "This is a ceremonial blade. I cut my hand and share my blood with you." K'Tag ran the blade across the palm of his hand, causing him to bleed. N'Garen bit her tongue and offered her hand which K'Tag cut, and shook, making their blood combine. "We are now part of the same house. You will hold onto this blade and remember the bond we have before you use harsh words against me again."
[Captain Mallory to Lieutenant K'Tag.]
[K'Tag here.]
[You were supposed to report to your duty station five minutes ago.]
[Sorry Captain, I lost track of time, I'm on my way!]
N'Garen concealed the blade under her belt and stood alone, as K'Tag rushed off to his duty station.
Captain Mallory was correct. There were lots of ships coming and going all afternoon. Most of the ships were carrying civilians, and a couple carried Marines.
Colonel Tarik was expecting a few Marines, and as the heavily armed ships came in to view, K'Tag would give warning and a security detail would meet the new Marines at the docking area to search the ship before anyone was allowed to enter the station. No one was quite sure why the captain had tightened up the security on the station, but she had.
"Captain, we have a small Federation shuttle -- seems to be heavily armed -- entering into scanning range," K'Tag warned his captain of another heavily armed ship, the fourth or fifth time in a couple of hours.
[Starbase 901 to Federation shuttlecraft, please identify yourself.]
[Starbase 901, this is the shuttlecraft Sukhoi, I have new transfers for active duty aboard your station.]
"More Marines?" Colonel Tarik asked. He was pretty sure he had all the Marines he was expecting for today.
"No, they are new Starfleet officers," Captain Mallory explained.
[Sukhoi, you have permission to dock, on docking port thirty-two,] Captain Mallory replied to the quickly approaching vessel.
"Ensign Kalvin, please report to docking port thirty-two and inspect the ship before letting any crew or contents onto the station. Secondary customs detention protocol."
[Yes, sir,] the voice of a young ensign replied.
"Okay, all of you are released, and your family is invited tonight to a welcoming party at the Easy Inn," Captain Mallory said. She smiled and looked around at all of her crew.
Colonel Tarik approached K'Tag. It was a very interesting sight to any spectators, to see a Romulan and a Klingon standing next to each other in conversation.
"K'Tag, have you noticed anything about our new crew members?" Tarik leaned over to K'Tag and spoke in a very soft voice.
"No, should I be concerned?" K'Tag answered much in the same way he was questioned.
"Go talk with them, and you tell me." Tarik's answer intrigued K'Tag, so he positioned himself next to the two new officers.
"Hello, my name is K'Tag, and that is my daughter N'Garen."
"Hi, I'm commander Benbow and this is Lt. Young. You must be the Klingon that everyone speaks of."
"I suppose that is me."
"Your daughter is lovely, is she part human?"
"N'Garen is half human, how about yourselves?"
"We're both full humans."
"Aw, well have a great evening, Qa'pla." K'Tag turned and walked over to the table with an assortment of drinks located in the corner. He filled his mug with Klingon blood wine. Tarik made his way across the room, and again stood next to the Klingon.
"So...?" Tarik inquired.
"So, they seem like normal humans," K'Tag answered.
The party and celebration continued, and once almost everyone had cleared out, K'Tag noticed Commander Benbow chatting with Zac. K'Tag approached the young boy and the commander.
"Come Zac, it is past your bedtime. I will walk you to your quarters." The two walked toward the turbolift.
[Captain Mallory to Lt. K'Tag, get down to docking port thirty. Tarik is under attack!]
[Captain, I have Zac with me. I'm going to bring him up to you first.]
[Okay, just hurry!]
K'Tag brought Zac to his mother on the Command deck, and made his way toward Tarik's postion. As he rounded the corner onto docking port twenty-nine he bumped into Ensign Simmons.
"Sir, I'm going to only say this once. Don't involve yourself in this situation. Just turn around and act like you never came down here." The ensign had pulled a phaser and had the phaser pointed at K'Tag.
"What are you doing, Simmons?" Where is N'Garen? K'Tag thought to himself. He couldn't lose his family again. He needed to know where she was. K'Tag heard a phaser and Ensign Simmons fell to the ground. He looked up to see Tarik. Tarik ran over to K'Tag and took cover.
"I was right. Commander Benbow and Lt. Young did have something not right about them. It seems they are working for Jonas. I figured they had to have had a guy on the inside, and it was Richard Simmons. We trusted him to inspect the ship, but he was on their side the entire time. Where is Zac?"
[Mallory to K'Tag. Commander Benbow just beamed in and stole Zac from me! He left at least three injured, including myself, and two dead up here!]
[Where did they beam to?]
[The Sukhoi.]
"Computer, how many lifesigns are aboard the Sukhoi?" Tarik asked.
<Four lifesigns: one Tanzaran, two humans, and cadet N'Garen.>
"Damn it!" K'Tag cried out.
[Kitty to Tarik and K'Tag. Follow them and get Zac back!]
"Come on, lets go!" Tarik cried out, as he was already running toward the platform where the Hawke personnel transports were located.
Kitty's head was swimming as she tried to stand from the bio bed. Dr. Cherrin immediately made her lay back down. She had a good sized laceration on her head and a couple of bruises. "What happened?" she asked woozily.
"You've had a pretty bad concussion," Cherrin said. "You'll be off your feet for a couple of days but I think you'll be okay."
"Concussion? But-- but how?"
"I see you have a little memory loss. According to eyewitnesses you tried to attack Commander Benbow with your bare hands. Not a good strategy to use against someone armed with a phaser."
"That doesn't make sense!" she said, more than a little alarmed. "I was trying to shapeshift into a le'matya."
"Hmmm," Dr. Cherrin said as he checked his tricorder readings. "If you're a shapeshifter, you shouldn't have sustained a head injury except under two conditions. One is if you're caught completely by surprise, which is hard to do with a telepath in hand-to-hand combat. I'm sure you know what the other one is. These readings confirm it."
Kitty was overcome with shock. I guess I'd better have a long talk with Troy now, she thought, momentarily distracted from the loss of one of her two children by the prospect of having a third. Of course, this brought Zac to her mind and she tried to hide the tears that spang to her eyes and the emotions that encompassed her. She had just gotten her children back, she screamed inside, and now Zac was gone again... Why? She asked herself... why....
Dr. Cherrin saw her distress and placed a hand on her shoulder. "It's all right, Captain. I'm sure things will work out. You just rest now.... "
"I can't...."
"Just rest your eyes for a moment and see what happens."
She nodded. Her eyes felt heavy anyway. Almost as heavy as her heart. She closed her eyes and before she knew it she was asleep.
Tarik and K'Tag blasted out of the station, following the ion trail left by the Sukhoi. "They're moving rather quickly for a standard shuttlecraft," K'Tag noticed as he studied the computer's plot of the Sukhoi's flight path. "I'd say about Warp 8."
"At that rate their warp coil's going to fail in another six hours or so," Tarik said. "Computer, check Starfleet and Federation ship's registries for the shuttlecraft Sukhoi."
<Shuttlecraft Sukhoi is currently attached to the Nova-class science vessel USS Mendeleev. The Mendeleev is currently on assignment to the Veldorian Nebula.>
"That's over 8500 light-years from here!" K'Tag exclaimed.
"It's a forged registry. A favorite tactic of pirates. It also gives us some indication of where they may be hiding out. Computer, display plot of all recent pirate contacts and unexplained ship disappearances in this sector over the past 60 days."
The display screen showed eighteen plots, all in a roughly spherical pattern. Tarik tapped a couple of keys on the console. The star system at the center enlarged.
"The Hygar system--that's in Nausicaan space!" K'Tag exclaimed.
They followed the trace for the next 12 hours, but did not locate the shuttlecraft that had taken Zac. They did find another shuttlecraft issuing a distress call.
[Mayday, mayday, mayday! This is Lieutenant Ming Wang aboard the shuttlecraft T'pai, attached to the USS Ronin. We have been attacked by Nausicaan pirates!]
"The shuttle is adrift. Two lifesigns aboard, one human, one Tanzaran," K'Tag said as he looked over the sensor readouts.
"Lieutenant, this is Colonel Tarik and Lieutenant K'Tag, operating out of Starbase 901. We have received your call. Are you in need of medical assistance?"
[Ciara's knocked out -- looks like a heavy concussion. I've stabilized her but we're losing life support rapidly!]
"I'm beaming them out now!" K'Tag said. A moment later, two somewhat battered Starfleet officers stood in the transport's troop bay. K'Tag went to the rear and checked both of them with a medical tricorder. "The human is in good condition. The Tanzaran will require medical assistance."
"Hunting party's over," Tarik said. "We're going to need to talk with the Captain before we enter Nausicaan space."
"She's going to be fine," Cherrin assured the other three. "She's had a skull fracture, but a week or so off her feet will put her back to rights." Ming sighed with relief.
"Your report on the Nausicaan pirates was very useful to us," K'Tag said. "This confirms their activity in the area. Now we need to assemble a raiding party and free Zac and N'Garen."
"I wish to be a part of this raiding party," Ming insisted.
"Lieutenant, you are a science officer -- from what I gathered, a highly-valued science officer. Risking your life thus would be a disservice to the Federation!" Cherrin exclaimed.
"Lieutenant Wang, if I may have a word with you," Tarik said. The two men stepped away into the corridor.
"I know what you're about to say, Colonel. That I'm acting impulsively and that I shouldn't go. That I might jeopardize the mission and the lives of the hostages."
"Actually, I wasn't about to say that at all," Tarik said.
"Sir?"
"I've read your record. I read your record the first time you contacted me regarding translation of Romulan technical papers. You're an outstanding scientist and your hand-to-hand combat skills are superior. And your handling of the boarding of the duplicate Ronin was top-notch for a junior officer in a non-combat billet. What I want to know is this: how much does Ms. Tierro mean to you?"
Ming had never been asked that question in such a direct manner. "She means everything to me. She brought me a sense of sanity when my world was coming apart. I... I love her!"
Tarik thought for a moment. They needed a corpsman, and Deveraux was unavailable at the moment. And Lieutenant Wang appeared to be the real deal. "It takes a brave man to admit that. And I trust that Captain Evans knew what he was doing when he allowed you two to take a shuttlecraft on an extended mission into hostile territory together. Not every pairing works out such that an officer can maintain his sense of professionalism and his feelings for his partner at once. You're going to be a fantastic senior officer one of these days. And you're going to be a strong part of this team."
The two entered Sickbay again. "Okay, we've got three now. There is one more person I'd like to get, and he's actually on the station right now."
Lieutenant Commander Johnny Chee had been sent to the station by Commodore Wallace to transfer some settlers whose ship had managed to lose its warp coil in the middle of nowhere to a place of comparative safety. The job was only supposed to take four days, but the overburdened maintenance crews aboard the station had taken nearly two weeks to repair the burnt out warp core and tractor array his shuttle had incurred towing the much larger colony ship. Most of that time Johnny had spent in the Gunslinger Saloon. It's not Arizona, but then again Arizona hasn't really looked like this for centuries, he thought as he reveled in the atmosphere of the Ancient West.
A man sitting two stools down from him was getting completely sauced on tequilla shots, and starting to get belligerent. "Ah, Starfleet! Good ole Starfleet! Buncha wimps, I say!" he slurred. The man was over 6 feet tall and looked rough, with long dirty blond hair and arms covered with tattoos. Some of the tattoos Johnny recognized as Maquis tattoos from the Dominion War.
He got up off the stool and began to yell. "Come on! I'll take any Starfleet officer in here! Hell, I'll take 'em all!"
Johnny was not in uniform, and didn't think for a minute that a group of equally-inebriated ensigns from Engineering would listen to him. Two of them tried to take the oaf, but were hurled back on their feet.
"Come on! You can do better than that!" the drunk yelled. Someone threw a bottle at his head, and then the fight started...the drunk grabbed a chair and started beating a hapless Science ensign over the shoulders and back with it. Repeatedly.
This guy's not drunk, he's psycho! Johnny thought as he judged it was time to get involved. He got off his stool, walked up behind the drunk, and twisted the drunk's arm around behind his back. The drunk started forward as if to break the grip, but Johnny knew that trick too. He pulled the drunk toward him and decked him across the chin. The drunk dropped to his knees but started to climb up to rush at Johnny again. Why does this crap always happen to me? he thought as he drop-kicked the drunk.
Just then three Starfleet Security Officers arrived with stun batons. Johnny looked down at the drunk and laughed. "Just remember what Starfleet did to you, tough guy! HOO-RAH!" Though he was no longer a Marine, old habits died hard! The rest of the Starfleet officers in the bar (as well as the staff and most of the civilian patrons) treated him to a round of applause.
"Balmer again. We should have known!" one of the Security Officers said as they placed restraints on Balmer and led him away. Another officer examined Johnny's ID. "Very good, Lieutenant Commander Chee. You could have arrested him, you know. Your jurisdiction applies to all Starfleet facilities, not just the Hornet."
"I'm still new at Security. Just transferred there from the Marines a few weeks ago," Johnny explained a little sheepishly.
"Oh -- you're the guy they're looking for! Come with us, please..."
Terrific. What have I done now???
"So, the four of us are going to raid a Nausicaan pirate outpost in one Hawke transport? Four against more than a hundred?" Johnny asked incredulously.
"A Klingon, a Romulan, a kung-fu master, and one of the toughest humans I've ever been acquainted with, Johnny," Tarik said with a vampire-like grin.
"Who's our pilot?" he asked.
"Lieutenant Commander Jarrod Tadanni, just recently returned from a long-range exploratory mission," K'Tag explained. The hulking, dark-skinned man nodded in acknowledgement.
"One of my people was hurt by them," Jarrod said. "We look out for one another."
"Tadanni? That's a Tanzaran name," Johnny said. "I'm married to a Tanzaran. The Nausicaans don't have a chance! Sign me up!" Since their introduction into the Federation over a hundred years before, the Tanzarans had gained a reputation as one of the nastiest fighting races in existence. Their telepathic and shapeshifting abilities made them valuable operatives during the Dominion War. Not that Jarrod's presence would have influenced Johnny's decision one way or another: given the circumstances, Johnny would have gone in alone if necessary. Not only did the kidnapping of a child offend him on the deepest possible level, the mastermind of the plot had been his prisoner! Jarrod sensed Johnny's thoughts, and winked in understanding.
"Wang and Tadanni will need to be fitted for tactical armor," K'Tag said. "I'll see to that."
"I'll have the transport prepped for departure at 0600. Full 782 for everyone. Mr. Wang, are you qualified with the Type IIIB phaser rifle?" Tarik asked.
"No, sir."
"There's no time. You'll be issued a hand phaser instead. You're the squad corpsman. You'll also get a field medkit and medical tricorder. Try not to get yourself killed, because we'll need you to patch us up afterward," Tarik said.
"I shall endeavor to avoid that outcome, Colonel."
A Klingon Warrior fighting for the honor of his house and to keep a pledge. A Romulan who had repeatedly survived shortsided odds, and had masterminded many of the battles against the Mullurans. A human martial arts expert fighting for love and vengeance. A descendant of one of the meanest, dirtiest-fighting Indian tribes of the Ancient West, who had spent his honeymoon on Qo'noS and once raised an army to defeat a planetary invasion with only 19th century weaponry. And a Tanzaran, fighting to avenge an insult done to another of his close-knit people.
The Nausicaans would have done well to start having their nightmares now...