CRISIS OF FAITH
by Christine Francis
CHAPTER ONE
"Target lock!"
Ki-Boch Sogh cried triumphantly.
DaQtIq HoD leaned
forward, eyes on the view screen. "Fire at will." he
growled.
Showing all his
teeth, Ki-Boch fired several volleys at the Cardassian
Freighter.
"Incoming!" MayTa
ra'wI' lagh shouted. "At three, and four. Two fighters."
"Jamming." ghurpak
lagh announced, scrambling the enemy's sensor and
communication signals. The komerex
shuddered slightly.
"We are hit." mara
lagh said. "Shields depleted by two percent."
T'Laera ra'wI'
moved beside Ki-Boch. "Can you get a lock?"
"No." he
answered, disgusted. Rapidly, he re-keyed the targeting
computer and tried again.
T'Laera looked
up at the view screen, then back at DaQtIq. He nodded, as
if responding to some unspoken communication.
"A distraction." he said.
"Keep firing at
the freighter." T'Laera ordered.
Ki-Boch fired phasers
at a relentless pace, adding a photon torpedo now
and then for variety.
"Spank those bad
boys, Ki-Boch." T'Laera grinned.
Ki-Boch accepted
the implied compliment with a return grin, doubling his
efforts.
"The fighters are
breaking off their attack." MayTa called. "va! Qu'vatlh!"
"What is it?"
DaQtIq asked.
"Someone, or something,
was beamed into one of the fighters as it passed
the freighter."
"Risky maneuver."
ghurpak observed.
"They must have
something they consider worth the risk." DaQtIq mused.
"Or, it could be another distraction.
Ki-Boch, how close are you to
destroying the freighter?"
"Two more torpedoes
to disable, and another pair to finish the job." he
answered while firing.
"Quickly, then.
I don't want these little insects to crawl too far away."
"Aye."
"They are not headed
for Cardassian space." mara observed. "Current
vector places them along the outer edge
of the neutral zone."
"What's there?"
DaQtIq asked.
"Nothing, really.
Maybe a rendezvous? There is one "M" class planet."
mara suddenly looked up. "Sir, it's
Jenko's Planet."
Ki-Boch looked
up. "The relay point!"
T'Laera glanced
at DaQtIq, but again said nothing.
Just then, the
freighter erupted spectacularly, proving DaQtIq's theory
that it was transporting weaponry.
The brilliant view, however, could not
be enjoyed. "Set a course for Jenko's."
he barked. "Shields down,
activate cloak."
The crew obeyed
his orders without hesitation. Knowing they would do no
less, DaQtIq stood and prepared to leave
the bridge.
"Take command,
wa'DIch." he ordered T'Laera. "I have not slept in two
days. Wake me one hour from our destination."
"Yes, sir."
she answered, taking his seat.
He paused to look
at her. "Do not get too comfortable." he warned.
Slowly and deliberately,
she leaned back and stretched out her long legs.
Once comfortable, she grinned up at him.
He returned her
smile, with a slightly cooler version of his own. Just
under his breath, he growled.
"Any time."
she said quietly enough so the crew did not hear. "You pick
the time and place. Hell; you can
even choose the weapons."
"Do not tempt me."
he warned, then shook his finger at her. "One day,
you will go too far."
"I think your warning
comes too late." She spared one more moment to jerk
his chain, then sat up. With a brief
salute, she said "Go rest, lord. At
your best, we could have this thing wrapped
up and be hunting devil cats by
dinner time."
He raised one eyebrow
(remembering a hunt from the past), then nodded
formally, glanced once more around the bridge,
and left.
"ETA?" T'Laera
got her mind back on business.
"Five hours, twenty
seven minutes." MayTa answered. Satisfied everything
at his work station was functioning properly,
he approached her. "Cousin?"
he addressed her, letting her know he wanted
to speak in an unofficial capacity.
"What is it, cousin?"
she permitted him.
"I wish to ask
you a rather...personal question."
"If something itches
or burns, see the doctor. It's what he's there for."
"No," MayTa
laughed, enduring her teasing. "It's about the captain."
"Oh?" she
raised one eyebrow.
"If you don't mind
my asking, what is your relationship with him?"
T'Laera's smile
disappeared. "He is captain, and I am his first officer."
"Nothing more?"
"We have served
together for some time, now. I suppose you could say we
are friends; but only on a professional
level."
He nodded thoughtfully.
"On a professional level."
"Yes."
He studied his
cousin's face, looking for signs of duplicity. As far as
he could tell, there were none. But,
then again, who could tell with women?
"Why does this
concern you?" she asked.
"I was simply curious.
Your...rapport has become a favorite topic of
discussion, among the crew."
T'Laera sprang
to her feet. "Who?" she demanded.
MayTa realized
that perhaps this had been a bad idea.
"I will not countenance
gossip!" she barked. "It erodes at the command
structure, and undermines authority.
Do I make myself clear?"
MayTa's face darkened,
but he kept his voice even. "You are mistaken.
The...simpatico you and the captain share
is a source of confidence and
cohesion for the crew. With each new
story, the crew renews it's dedication
and pride."
T'Laera leaned
in close. "The crew will have to find some other source of
dedication and pride. The rumors will
stop."
He studied her
again. "I will respect your wishes, although I disagree
with you."
Showing many teeth,
she smiled coldly. "Well, then; that is what being a
subordinate is all about, right?"
"Aye." he
answered emotionlessly. With nothing further to say, he
resumed his post. Why did she have
to be that way? Why, when a personal
discussion was not going her way, did she
have to pull rank? When he'd
first come aboard, he had been glad to see
there was a relative to associate
with. Now, he was not so enthusiastic.
T'Laera glanced
around at those who had overheard. Sometimes, MayTa got
more familiar with her than their professional
positions should allow. If
they were alone, perhaps she could reason
with him and admonish him more
temperately; but in front of these others,
she must show no weakness.
Weakness, in the KDF, was lethal.
Hopefully, she could convey this to him,
without letting him find out the hard way.
His prior experience with the
Federation prepared him very little, for
what he was facing here.
Ki-Boch busied
himself with some comprehensive diagnostics programs.
Didn't that fool, MayTa, know there were
just some thing you didn't talk
about? Next thing you know, he will
be calling the captain "Old Shorty", to
his face. Personally, he had no problem
keeping things the way they were.
The captain and first officer had their...whatever
they had, but they didn't
flaunt it. That left the rest of them
to speculate and make up stories that
were far more interesting than the truth
could ever be; yet they had no
trouble taking the pair seriously during
duty, because they knew their
speculation was just that.
The journey was
uneventful. DaQtIq, recently awakened, sat thrumming his
fingers on the arm of his chair. "Where
are they?" he muttered under his
breath. They should have seen something
by now, to betray the Cardassian
presence.
"Remember, lord,"
T'Laera turned toward him. "The Cardassians have had
decades of practice, disguising their presence
in this sector."
"How can we possibly
know if they are really here, or if we are wasting
our time?"
"The planet itself,
will tell us. There is bound to be some small
disturbance in the eco-system we can detect."
He nodded.
"Lucky for us, we have an expert on Jenko's eco-system."
She nodded back,
receiving the compliment. Turning to mara, she said "We
need to scan the water sources. If
we find one that appears abandoned or
lacking in recent activity, we'll know something
not natural has disturbed
the wildlife there."
"Aye." mara
answered, and began surveying Jenko's few watering holes and
ponds on long range sensors. The planet's
rotation would give them exposure
to all of them, and their subsequent orbit
would allow her to confirm
anything she found. Luckily,
the rainy season was still a month away. All
the creek beds were bone dry.
"May," T'Laera
turned, "if they are in caves, we will not be able to
detect their heat source, but the rock around
the entrances should still be
heated from the passing of their exhaust."
"Understood."
MayTa answered, and began taking the median temperature of
sun-warmed soil and rocks. Anything
above that, he would catalog and take a
closer look at.
"Shouldn't we use
the T'Laera Device?" Ki-Boch asked.
As always, T'Laera
rolled her eyes and put her hands on her face at the
mention of her invention. It was a
good device, using altered radar
frequencies to make them appear like something
other than a Klingon ship,
but she preferred to call it a Variable
Phase Emitter.
"They are expecting
us." DaQtIq answered for her, suppressing a smile.
"Why disappoint them? Besides; the
best way to take an enemy by surprise,
is to start out by behaving exactly as they
expect."
Ki-Boch nodded,
accepting this as established truth. "Then we should go
in with weapons armed."
"Of course."
DaQtIq agreed. "Once we establish there are no ships in
orbit or within firing range, de-cloak and
power up all weapons."
"Rapidly deteriorating
trace emissions detected." May said, reading his
indicators. "They did pass
this way."
"That eliminates
the possibility of a switch-back." ghurpak said.
"Monitoring all communications bands."
He looked up. "Sir, they could be
piggy-backing signals on our own transmissions
from the listening post. We
could stay out here and experiment with
filters until we sift something out,
or we can examine the source for tampering."
"Piggy-backing?"
DaQtIq repeated the Terran term.
ghurpak colored
slightly. "I read it in a Federation Tech manual." he
admitted.
"petaQmey!"
Ki-Boch gave his opinion of the Federation, and their Tech
manuals.
DaQtIq ignored
the outburst. "Your reasoning is sound, ghurpak. You will
lead an away team to examine the listening
post for tampering."
ghurpak sat considerably
straighter, sparing a moment to sneer at Ki-Boch.
"Yes, lord!" he barked proudly.
DaQtIq leaned close
to T'Laera. "Piggy-backing?" he asked quietly.
T'Laera hid a smile.
"Using our signal to boost theirs. It can be done,
and we normally would not notice since the
signal comes from an expected
source."
"Ah." he
nodded. "A typical example of human duplicity. It would be
just like the Cardassians, to adopt such
a ruse."
"Lord, we use it,
too."
"We do?"
"All the time.
Particularly when cloaked."
He thought about
it, then shook his head. "At least think of something
more respectable to call it. No Klingon
worth his blood would do anything
on the back of a pig."
"Yes, lord." she
strove to be serious. "I shall give it some thought."
"About to assume
orbit." MayTa announced.
DaQtIq nodded.
"ghurpak, go prepare your team. mara, go with him."
"Yes, lord."
mara stood, gathered her tricorder, and followed him out.
**********************************************************
CHAPTER TWO
ghurpak carefully
replaced the access panel.
"Shouldn't we disable
it?" mara asked.
"Not just yet."
he answered. "We may want to use it, to lure their
compatriots into a trap."
She nodded, but
doubted they would have the chance to do this. If they
were going to move against the Cardassians,
they had to determine the size
of the force. Then they had the battle
itself to contend with, and
subsequent interrogations (if they managed
to capture any of the enemy
alive), and endless reports to file.
By the time they got around to it, all
of Cardassia would know to avoid this area
of space.
"Take the security
men into the clearing. I am going to report in. Tell
the others to prepare for beam-out."
ghurpak ordered, turning his gaze back
to the access panel. There was something
familiar...
mara nodded and
did as ordered, though it irritated her to be ordered
around by her peer. All right, for
now. A time of challenge would come;
and when it did, young Mr. ghurpak had better
be ready.
......
"The away team
is contacting us." MayTa announced.
"On my private
frequency." DaQtIq lifted an earpiece and inserted it.
His face immobile, he received ghurpak's
report. A smile dawned on his
scarred face. They would bait the
trap and wait.
Later, in the conference
room, T'Laera raged. "This is madness!" she
insisted. "I do not understand.
You have nothing to prove; to them, or to us!"
"I have something
to prove to myself!" DaQtIq insisted.
"What is left to
prove? You succeeded against them. You defeated them in
battle. Dozens of Cardassians paid
with their lives, for what they did to
you." She stopped pacing, facing him
fully. "I suffered more at their
hands. If I can let it go, so can
you."
"That was years
ago!" he scoffed.
"Does the haunting
image of a loved one lost, fade with time?" she demanded.
He tried to return
her stare, but could not. "No." he answered, quietly.
She, too, broke
her stare. "I am sorry. You know I trust you with my
life. In this case, however, I do
not believe you are being rational. You
can go down there and die gloriously-"
"And what is wrong
with dying gloriously?!"
"Or," she glared
at him, "You can stay here and win." Her face
softened, as she sat down. "You weary
me with your stubbornness."
He smiled quietly.
"You have only to yield to my decision, QIb ("shadow",
the nickname given to her as a child),"
he said, "and I will shut up."
One more time.
She must try one more time. Squaring her shoulders, she
lifted her chin. "As I said, you know
I trust you. I have sworn as much."
"Then-"
"You must trust
me, my lord." she cut him off. "You know from where
my motives stem. You know where my loyalties lie. Let me go
and see how
things are. Once we are more certain
what the Cardassians are doing here,
then we can decide what is to be
done."
He could not refuse
her, and she knew it. Still, DaQtIq was not quite
ready to give in. He gave her his
best lop-sided smile. "And you accuse
me of being stubborn?"
"And what if it's
a trap?" she blurted, standing. "You, captain of this
ship, are gallivanting around chasing ghosts,
as she comes under attack! Is
that responsible?"
"I am not the one
with ghosts on Jenko's planet." he growled quietly. He
returned her glare, as he stood; his injured
leg still vaguely paining him.
"However, you present a reasonable argument."
T'Laera knew it
was time to hold her tongue. She nodded curtly and waited
for him to go on.
Moving to the sideboard,
he poured himself a drink. "I..." he began, not
facing her. "will stay aboard until
more information is gathered. You will
inform me of each and every phase of this
operation." He turned to face
her. "I do not need your protection,
wa'DIch." he said. "Never forget that."
"I know it well,
my lord." she answered steadily. "But we never fought
better, than when we covered each other's
backs."
He smiled.
Then, he chuckled quietly. "Well said. Your sense of style
and use of metaphor is improving.
Some day, you may even be a poet of my
caliber."
"One can only dream."
she joked, accepting a drink.
......
Crawling along
a dry creek bed, the away team made it's way around the
side of the mountain.
"I do not see why
we could not simply beam in, like before!" mara whispered.
"The signal is
traceable." Ki-Boch answered. "They would know we were here."
"But could they
not detect the signal from where we did beam?" K'chang
lagh, a security guard, asked.
"They have no satellites."
mara explained, finally in her area of
expertise. "The best they can have,
without risking detection, are
directional sensors; and they can not be
looking everywhere."
"No doubt they
are monitoring the relay point." Ki-Boch finished. "But
their sensors would not be looking this
low, to avoid constantly alerting
their attention to vermin and snakes."
"You mean their
relatives?" MayTa joked, rewarded with dark laughter.
"You must all want
your tongues cut out." T'Laera warned, with the
desired effect. As the sun set, they
continued in silence.
It was fully dark,
by the time they reached the top. In a cluster of
trees, they silently ate rations and waited;
checking for ribbon snakes
under every rock. An hour after moonrise,
their wait was rewarded. Three
Cardassians swathed in tactical fatigues
accessed the listening post.
Waiting till the
enemy were inside, T'Laera motioned the Klingons across
the clearing. They crouched as they
silently ran. Once there, she posted
them at either side of the doorway, which
she knew was the only serviceable
entrance and exit; since they'd blasted
the other door shut, last time they
were here. Again, they waited.
Ki-Boch was just
about lulled into a pleasant drowse, when Cardassian
voices were heard. Instantly alert,
he glanced around and steadied himself.
When the first
one exited, MayTa grabbed him and yanked him to the side;
covering his mouth. mara snatched
the second, and ghurpak reached in and
grabbed the third.
"Hold them."
T'Laera whispered, then nodded at Ki-Boch. The quickly
entered the building, and swept it for personnel
and monitoring devices.
Ki-Boch carefully mounted the rickety steps
to the observatory, sparing no
time to get nostalgic. T'Laera swept
her tricorder in front of her, her
phaser at the ready.
"Clean."
Ki-Boch called down as he descended the stairs.
T'Laera nodded.
"Here, too." Poking her head out the door, she quietly
called "Bring them in."
After lighting
a glow lamp and finding some chairs, they secured the
Cardassians. Standing to one side,
T'Laera used the station's own equipment
to contact the komerex. When DaQtIq's
image filled the screen, he had an
unimpeded view of their handiwork.
"Have they told
you anything?" he asked.
"We haven't had
the chance to ask." she answered. "I thought it best to
let you sit in on this phase of the operation."
She knew using his own
words against him would cost her later,
but she could not resist. A
carefully won victory, to her, was just
as much an accomplishment in terms
of effort spent, as a loud and passionate
one. It still felt good to win.
DaQtIq ignored
the dig, and nodded. "I appreciate your consideration.
You may proceed."
She smiled briefly,
then turned to face the others. "Let us first, see
the faces of our enemies. mara?"
mara began unwrapping
the masks from their faces. First one, then two
haughtily snarling Cardassians were revealed;
but when she came to the last,
the skin was too dark and smooth.
mara gasped.
Back on his ship,
DaQtIq rose to his feet. "A human?" he marveled.
"What treachery is this?"
T'Laera was leaning
against the console, struggling to believe her eyes.
"It's a trick." she squeaked.
Her eyes wide, she strove to control
herself. "It can not be. You
can not convince me."
"wa'DIch?"
DaQtIq became concerned. Few things shook his first officer
this badly.
T'Laera turned
to face the screen. "This... petaQ, pretends to be a
human. We will, soon enough, find
he has Cardassian blood." her hand went
to her knife, as she turned. "Your
fatal mistake was in choosing the wrong
face."
The man stared
at her with dark eyes. A proud chin below a squashed nose,
lifted defiantly. "You are wrong."
he said. "Who would choose this face?
I was born this ugly, Shadow Woman."
Before things had
the chance to go really sour, DaQtIq had the whole
confusing mess beamed aboard.
*************************************************