A New Alliance

For several moments, there was complete silence in the shuttle bay. Kehlan’s actions and the Elder’s response to them  had taken everyone by surprise.

 

Even as the two Predators forced back their outrage in deference to the wishes of their Elder, Endeavour's security officers were reacting to the perceived threat to their own captain, raising their weapons and starting to move forwards.

 

Reacting quickly, Speares whirled to face them. "Weapons down!" he ordered urgently. "Stand easy"

Thinking better of their instinctive reactions, the guards lowered their weapons.  After what had happened to O'Henry, they were all painfully aware of the consequences of turning a weapon on the Yautja. His story had spread through the ship like a brush fire, but then again, so had the alien warriors' prowess on the ground during the away mission. The Predators were becoming allies of a sort but not one member of the security section was fool enough to believe that this meant they were not dangerous.

 

Speares relaxed slightly as the security team obeyed his order. It was with some relief that he noted that, their attention focused on the Klingon female, the Predators did not seem to have noticed the reactions of his guards, or at least, if they had noticed they did not seem bothered.  For himself, he had no idea what Kehlan was playing at although doubtless he would find out eventually.  He’d long since stopped being surprised by anything his captain did.

 

The Predator captain bit back a growl as he attempted to make sense of the situation.  Sister?  It did not make sense.  What had happened down on the planet?  Why was this female marked with the symbol of his clan? What had she done to earn it and who had marked her?

 

Kihr'yende considered these questions as he watched his father with the half Klingon female. Suddenly understanding dawned! He realised that if he were to check the clan records, he would find that the date of his father's Chiva corresponded with the length of time the small Klingon ship had traversed in order to retrieve the missing Captain.

 

The story of his father’s first Hunt was one that Kihr’yende had heard many times and he had seen the skull of the Kainde Amedha queen mounted in his trophy room.  It was a story that had entered into clan legend. For an inexperienced, unblooded youngster on his Blooding Hunt to not only survive an encounter with a queen, but to bring back the skull, with nothing more than bladed weapons and only an Ooman female at his side was nothing short of incredible.  If this captain was the same Ooman that his father had spoken of, then she deserved entrance into the clan – and if the Elder had chosen to make her part of his family, then it was not his place to argue.

 

Slowly, Kihr'yende approached the female and lowered his head, almost half stooping down to her comparatively diminutive stature in order to examine her. Careful not to be too rough and cause inadvertent harm, he placed a large hand on her uninjured shoulder and shook it in the traditional greeting of his people. “Greetings, Little Sister”.

 

Still standing on Night Dagger's disembarkation ramp, tense and ready to intervene at any moment should it be necessary, N’Sal had also figured it out. She was acutely cognisant of the intensity of her friend’s grief, just less than one short hour ago; Kehlan's not unreasonable assumption that after eight centuries her Yautja companion would be long dead. The half Romulan mercenary glanced at Krang, seeing similar realisation in his dark eyes. “Obviously” she said, carefully keeping her tone soft, “the Yautja have much longer life spans than we realised”

 

Krang nodded his shaggy head in mute agreement. He was aware of several races far longer lived than humans or Klingons, the most famous being of course, the El Aurians.  It was not improbable that a reptilian species should have a long life span. Even on Earth, the Giant Reptiles were the longest lived of the Terran species.

 

*************

 

It had been the thought of a long, relaxing shower and a good night's sleep in a proper bed - not that her bed was comfortable by Terran standards but it should have been a huge improvement on sleeping half way up a tree – that had kept Kehlan going through the harshness of the jungle environment.  Now, in the safety of her quarters, she found that it felt odd to sleep alone. She'd become accustomed to the young hunter's presence; those unblinking amber eyes watching over her, his heavy, muscular arm resting protectively across her body, ensuring she did not fall from the high up branch he had considered a safe sleeping place.    The smooth flat bunk seemed incredibly precarious without him and she'd spent most of the night tossing and turning, eventually dozing off into a fitful sleep some time before ship's dawn.

 

 She did not sleep for long and it was still well before the scheduled start of her shift when she woke again.  After tossing and turning for another hour, she finally decided that a short doze counted as medically ordered rest and got up. After a long, hot shower that went a long way towards making her feel better, she dressed for duty and grabbed a strong raktajino before heading out.

 

Entering her ready room, Kehlan flung her uniform jacket over the back of her chair as, finding herself in need of more caffeine, she headed for the replicator. Her aim was slightly off and she cursed as it slid over the leather upholstery and landed in a crumpled heap under the desk.  For a rebellious moment, she was strongly tempted to leave it where it lay but old habits died hard and with a sigh, she detoured to pick it up. The errant jacket dealt with to her satisfaction, she resumed her journey to the replicator.

 

Ordering another raktajino she rubbed her eyes fiercely and settled down to start on the stack of reports.  Kehlan frowned. She had a lot to catch up on.  She'd demanded a report the previous evening after having her wounds treated, but to her shock not only had Speares refused, insisting that she needed to rest and recover from her injuries, but her CMO, a stately Vulcan woman named T'lia, had backed him up, even going so far as to threaten to relieve her of duty if she did not comply.  She growled at the thought, making a mental note that was only half joking to kill them both, preferably slowly and painfully.  She smiled slightly.  Even if the Federation allowed that sort of thing she would not carry out her threat. They were both far too good at their jobs as well as being long standing personal friends.

 

The ship’s doctors had done a good job of treating her wounds.  There was barely a mark on her to show where the teeth of the Kainde Amedha queen had torn into flesh and muscle.  T’lia had wanted to remove the scar on her face, Kehlan remembered, but she had refused, placing a hand protectively over the mark to prevent the doctor from touching it. She did not completely comprehend the meaning of the mark but she knew it was important to the Yautja. In the end, the Vulcan Healer had settled for simply closing and disinfecting the wound, allowing it to scar as nature and the Yautja people intended.

 

Smothering a yawn, Kehlan took another mouthful of the scalding hot, coffee-like beverage and activated the nearest padd. It was time she found out what she'd missed while she'd been away.  There was no need for her to spend long on her review, she found. The story was succinct and damning.  Fury mounting, she opened a channel.  "All command officers to the briefing room, NOW!"

 

The order was hardly a surprise to her officers and within minutes, all her heads of department were assembled around the conference table. An uncomfortable silence filled the briefing room as the half Klingon captain considered the report her command staff had given her. “This mission has been a disaster from beginning to end” Kehlan growled.  She glanced again at the padd in her hand.  “And this Jonathan Price” she asked grimly, “Where is he now?”

 

“He is in the brig” Speares answered, his tone equally dark.  “We arrested him after we learned of his criminal record. So far though, there is no evidence to connect him to the sabotage”

 

The Klingon woman frowned.  “It is too big a coincidence.  I do not trust this”

 

Rhiana nodded, “I agree completely.  However, he maintains his innocence and while I am constrained by Federation methods he is unlikely to change his story.”

 

Kehlan gave a frustrated sigh.  “You know I cannot authorise Tal Shiar methods. Evidence obtained via torture is inadmissible in a Federation court of law.”

 

“So in the meantime he invokes his Khest'n Terran right to silence” Qeytok snarled, slamming his fist down on the table with enough force to make coffee cups jump up. “And we run around in circles like a Targ with two legs shorter than the others!”

 

“Have Krang and N’Sal assist CSIS in the investigation” Kehlan decided.  “I am aware that FedKIN have no official jurisdiction here but we would be stupid to ignore their expertise”

 

“Special Agent Zhiva is competent” Rhiana agreed.  “But we can use all the help we can get”