Chapter Text
poiled Princess
“He’s making his move.” Shelana declared as the viewscreen focused on a Ferengi Marauder moving away from the station at full impulse. “You want us to intercept?”
“No.” Nelia shook her head, “If he’s smart, he’s got his engines souped up. He thinks we’re after him, we’ll never catch him. Lock on to his warp trail and cloak. We’ll let him take us to his base.”
“Good idea.” Ashley interjected, further cautioning, “We might want to call in our backup—just in case.”
“Good point. There might be one helluva reception committee waiting for us. Wouldn't hurt to have some friends of our own just in case.” Nelia agreed, “Twes? Can you raise our friends and tell them we’re on the move.”
“Sure thing.” The Betazoid telepath responded, “Got ‘em. Feeding them our coordinates and vectors now. They’ve acknowledged and are on their way.”
“Terrific.” The roguish Orion exclaimed as she leaned back in her chair. “I’ve got a feeling it’s going to take us some time to get to where we’re going so we might as well relax. Once we arrive, we’re going to be busy enough.”
Mok's Asteroid Base
“Shit.” Ashley groaned as the Ferengi’s fortified base appeared, its Nausicaan garrison, led by a Talon battleship, hovering close to the asteroid. “That’s a big ship.”
“Good thing we brought some friends of our own.” Shelana muttered to her friend as Twesata announced.
“Belladonna and D’ressa hailing us.”
“Main viewer…split screen.” Nelia requested as the fortified asteroid was replaced on the viewscreen by two images. On the right appeared the bridge of a Lafayette-class recon destroyer, an attractive young woman with strawberry-blonde hair and wearing a Terran Empire uniform of gold halter top and short skirt, while on the left the image of a bridge from a D’Deridex class battlecruiser appeared, its captain a dignified Romulan male wearing a Republic uniform.
“Hello, dahlings.” The captain of the Belladonna introduced herself, speaking in a rich Hungarian accent, her lips turned up in an amused grin. “Captain Zsuzsanna Rosza, commanding USS Belladonna. It's good to see you again, Nelia.” Her smile now predatory, the alternate universe Terran Empire captain inquired, “So…who are we killing today?”
“It is good to see you again, Commander Terre…” The commanding officer of the D’ressa, Commander Kaval declared, his smile one of friendly recognition. “It has been some time since our last meeting. How have you and your friends fared in the interval?”
“Not bad, Commander.” Nelia grinned back, giving both Zsa-Zsa and the Romulan Commander a coy wink. “And it's been good seeing you again too, Zsa-Zsa. How's Eliza? And that hunk of a tactical officer of yours? What's his name again?"
"Joachim. He's in auxiliary control right now. I'll tell him you said Hi." Zsa-Zsa responded with a flirtatious wink of her own. Turning about in her chair, the Hungarian captain called out, "Eliza? Nelia's here...come over and say Hi."
"Hey Nelia, did you get that package I sent you?" Commander Eliza Flores, the olive-skinned executive officer of the Belladonna purred.
"I did.' Nelia grinned back, "Next time we're on the station, we should all give it a try--what do you say?"
"Sounds good to me." Eliza responded, "Catch you later."
Turning her attention back to the two captains on her screen, Nelia got down to the task at hand. “ Now…to business. Zsa-Zsa...Kaval...any ideas?
"This is going to be a tough nut to crack." The Terran starship captain mused, "It's not so much the battleship--there's only one of it. It's those fucking Syphon frigates and the battle-stations surrounding that goddamned asteroid—not to mention it’s got disruptor and photon torpedo turrets.”
"Zsa-Zsa's right." Kaval agreed, "We need to draw that Talon away from its support and take out the station defenses.
“Then it is a good thing you have me.” A rough voice announced as a Klingon K’tinga-class battlecruiser decloaked, the human-augment captain’s image also appearing on the screen. “Korath of House Koloth. Commanding IKS Klothos. I was sent by Dahar master Ramir to provide assistance. Do not worry…” The Klingon laughed, “Our truce with the Federation still holds.”
“Glad to hear that, Korath, dragam.” Captain Rosza interjected with a laugh, “We wouldn’t want a repeat of Kassae, now would we?”
“Just as much as you wouldn’t want a recurrence of Archanis, Zsa-Zsa, my talhuhk.” The Klingon laughed back, “As always, a pleasure to see you again, Captain. I trust you have been doing well since our last meeting?”
“You know me, Korath…” Zsuzsanna teased, “Some feasting…a little fighting…and a lot of baszni.”
Laughing a rich belly laugh, the Klingon captain joked back, “I see you haven’t changed since our last encounter on Risa. Who were you with then? As I recall it was Eliza and a Trill male…”
“And your par’machi was…she was an Orion woman, wasn’t she?” The Hungarian captain bantered back.
“Indeed.” Korath replied, “I am still with her and she wanted me to thank you for inviting us to your party. As always, it was deliciously decadent.” The human-augment Klingon lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper, “Not like the celebrations my ridged kin hold…they take themselves far too seriously…”
“Not to mention all that headbutting and bloodwine chugging. That gets rather tiresome.” Zsa-Zsa interjected with an eyeroll.
“Sounds like those two have a history.” Rana whispered to Twesata as she and her lover watched the two ship captains banter back and forth with each other.
“You could say that.” Twesata smirked, “From what I’ve heard through the grapevine, Zsa-Zsa and Korath have tangled with each other in more ways than one.”
Clearing her throat, Nelia quipped, “Sorry to interrupt this family reunion, but we do have a situation to deal with.”
“Quite right.” Kaval, who had remained silent as his fellow captains joked with each other, echoed. “Might I suggest we meet on your ship to plan out our strategy.”
“Good idea.” Nelia agreed with a smile, “I’ll tell Belen to get the lounge ready. Shall we meet in say…fifteen minutes.”
“Sounds good, dahling.” Zsa-Zsa replied, “I’ll see you then.”
“I look forward to our meeting in person.” Kaval declared, his lips turning up in a slight grin.
“I will be there as well.” Korath announced. “Fifteen standard minutes.”
Spoiled Princess—Lounge
“What’s the story on the Klingons?” Ashley asked as she and the others awaited the arrival of their guests.
“What do you mean?” Nelia answered back.
“Granted I haven’t run into too many Klingons…” The former Alliance marine replied, “but the ones I have met on Drozana station were all the same. You know…long hair…ridges…”
“Loud.” Rana interjected with a snicker.
Chuckling, the green Orion team leader responded, “Klingons are like pretty much any other species in that there’s a lot of racial diversity, but unlike humans, Andorians, Betazoids, or Orions, you see more differences in physical appearance with them than just skin color.”
“Right.” Twesata interjected, “The ones with the head ridges and long hair, but otherwise basically human-like in appearance are probably the most common group you’ll run into. They’re also generally pretty easy to get along with once you understand where they’re coming from.”
Nodding her head, Shelana agreed. “Yeah. Just remember that honor is very important to them, and that as far as they are concerned, the ultimate glory is to either win or die in glorious battle. The bigger the fight and harder the odds…the more glorious the battle. They’re very passionate and quick tempered—kinda like us Andorians…but they’ve also got a great sense of humor and…if you’re a friend…they will literally claw through hell to fight and die for you.”
“Then there are those that some humans call ‘Kling-Orcs’.” Twesata remarked, continuing her explanation from where she was interrupted. “I’m not sure where that expression came from…” she muttered as an aside before returning to the subject, “but that branch is probably closest to the original phenotype. You don’t see them as often as the first type. They tend to keep to themselves and are probably the most xenophobic and belligerent of the Klingon variants—although all Klingons are combative to one extent or another. After the Klingon-Federation War of the early-mid 23rd century, the ‘Kling-Orcs’ have tended to withdraw to themselves. Until recently, they haven’t really been seen anywhere outside of core Klingon space.”
“What about Korath?” Ashley inquired, “He looks human.”
“That’s because he is…partly.” Twesata explained. “In the 22nd century, the Klingons were experimenting with Human Augment Virus that they had managed to acquire and were using it in an attempt to created enhanced warriors.”
“Bad idea.” Rana shook her head, “That sort of stuff always backfires. Believe me…I’m speaking from personal experience here.”
“Yeah.” Ashley nodded her head, “Saren’s Krogan cloning facility.”
“Right.” Twesata agreed with a nod of her head, “In this case, the virus got out into the wild and combined with Levodian flu to create a fast spreading lethal bug that infected the Qu’Vat colony and then began spreading to other worlds. The Klingons were on the verge of sterilizing the infected planets—and wiping out their entire population in the process—when Dr. Phlox from the Enterprise, working with a Klingon scientist, Antaak, eventually found a cure. The cure resulted in altering Klingon DNA where human appearance and genetic traits were passed on. This resulted in millions…if not billions…of Klingons essentially looking like humans with many human characteristics.”
“So…what happened?” Ashley asked.
“A cure was found for the augment virus sometime in the mid-23rd century and most Klingon-augments took it. However, a sizeable minority, for various reasons, did not. This resulted in some houses such as Koloth, Kor, and Kang splitting into two branches.” Twesata elaborated, “Korath belongs to the augment branch of the House of Koloth.”
“Fascinating.” Rana exclaimed, “I’d love to delve further into this.” Seeing the questioning looks her teammates were giving her, the asari geneticist quickly explained herself. “From what Twes told us, the results the first time were nearly catastrophic. And like I said, after my experience working for Saren, I have no intention of making that mistake ever again. I’m just curious about the research from an academic angle.”
“Good.” Ashley nodded her head, satisfied at the asari scientist’s answer. “Keep it that way.”
“Data from the Klingon side is hard to come by.” Twesata replied, “They’re very close mouthed about that particular aspect of their culture and history. There is some information from the Federation side—but again, not a whole lot. Augment research is pretty much forbidden everywhere for obvious reasons.”
“Yeah…” Nelia agreed as the ship’s comm beeped. “Oops…we’re going to have to postpone the rest of this discussion until later. Our guests are beaming in.” Just as she finished her words, three pillars of light—one orange, one blue, and one green—appeared in the middle of the lounge revealing the three captains.
“Hello, dahlings.” Captain Rosza called out in greeting as she wasted no time in heading for the bar, “I do hope you have a bottle of champagne—preferably Kristal—chilled.”
“We do indeed.” Belen replied as he gestured towards the bar, “Please, Captains…have seat and I’ll fetch your drinks for you.”
“Thank you.” Korath responded as he took the stool next to the strawberry-blonde haired Hungarian starship captain. “Your best bloodwine!”
“Greetings.” Kaval exclaimed, bowing slightly, “It is a pleasure to meet in person, Ms. Terre.”
“Nelia’s good enough.” The lovely Orion woman smirked flirtatiously. “What would you like, Commander?”
“Kaval. Just Kaval since we’re being informal.” The Romulan commander replied with a slight grin as he sat down at the bar, “And I’d like a Romulan ale if you have one, thank you.”
Pouring the blue liquor into a narrow crystal wine glass similar to a champagne flute, the Ferengi bartender joked lightly, “Do we have Romulan ale? What sort of host would I be if we didn’t have not just Romulan ale, but the best I could find and afford?”
“So…dahlings…” Zsa-Zsa bantered, her playful voice carrying a serious undertone as she sipped her champagne, “Any ideas on how we’re going to break through those Nausicaans?”
“This will not be a game of klin-zha.” Korath growled as he drank his bloodwine. “Trying to push through those fortifications in a head on attack—while glorious—would be futile. We need to take a page from the Earther game, chess.”
“Use diversionary tactics to pull some of the ships off and defeat them in detail” Zsuzsanna mused, nodding her head in thought. “Although, dragam…” she smirked as she turned her gaze to the human-augment Klingon, “Chess is probably not the correct comparison. I’d say that Tongo is the better analogy here.”
“Just what I was about to say!” Belen interjected, “Move and counter…boldness and misdirection…the art of the bluff…the key is knowing when to use which strategy to gain a full consortium and win.”
“Right.” Zsa-Zsa agreed as she sipped her champagne, “The Belladonna will be the bait…”
Nodding his head in understanding, Kaval interrupted, “That should draw the frigates off into a trap…” Calling up a local map, he pointed to a nearby nebula. “That Class 2 nebula. Their sensors will be scrambled…”
“So will ours.” Korath noted with some concern.
“True.” Kaval conceded, “But we will have the advantage of attacking from cloak. It gives us a further plus in that it will scramble their energy siphons.”
“Good point.” Zsuzsanna agreed, “Once we take out the frigates, that’ll just leave that Talon.”
“I don’t think the captain of that ship’s going to be too keen about moving too far away from the battlestations.” Shelana commented, “Hell…not even the four of us together can take that thing down along with those stations plus the asteroid’s defense turrets supporting it.”
“Shels has a point.” Ashley added, supporting her friend’s argument. “He’s going to stick close to those defenses.”
“Nausicaans might be loud obnoxious redbats, but they’re not stupid.” Shelana further cautioned, “We need to find a way to draw that ship away.”
Zsa-Zsa replied with a wicked grin on her face. “Let me worry about that, dahling. Before I draw those frigates away, I’m going to launch a special torpedo designed to temporarily knock out sensors and another torpedo that should temporarily interfere with their transporter buffers. That will give you the window that you’ll need to…”
Her lips also turning up in a sly grin, Nelia interrupted, “Beam down into the base and wreck it from inside.”
“Hmmm…Nelia, dahling, you’re as delicious in mind as you are in body.” The Hungarian starship captain purred, licking her lips lasciviously.
“Strip tongo when we're back on the station?” Nelia flirted back, giving the former Empire captain a coy wink.
"You're on." Zsa-Zsa teased back, "Winner gets the prize."
“It’s going to call for split second timing.” Twesata, returning to the subject at hand, mused as she pondered the strategy, “But it should work.”
“Not like we have much in the range of alternatives.” Ashley declared. “I say go for it.” She then quoted from Tennyson’s Charge of the Light Brigade, “Flashed all their sabers bare, Flashed as they turned in air, Sabring the gunners there, Charging an army while all the world wondered....”
Clapping his hands, Korath exclaimed loudly, “Well spoken! Very well spoken! Are you sure you’re not part Klingon, human? You have the heart of a warrior.” Sighing, the Klingon captain remarked, “I envy you…you will win much glory in this battle—live or die.”
“Preferably live.” Nelia quipped.
“There will be plenty of glory for all of us.” Kaval wryly noted, “Those six frigates are not going down without a fight.”
“Even better.” Korath replied with a smirk, “Let’s make this battle one worthy of song.”
“That base will be heavily defended.” Kaval pointed out, “It might not be a bad idea for your team to have backup, Nelia?”
“I agree.” Zsuzsanna declared, “How about one security officer from each of our ships?”
“Hmmm…” Nelia pondered the suggestion before replying, “Since Belen is going to have to remain on the ship, that’s going to make us short an engineer.”
“Not a problem.” The Hungarian captain acknowledged, “I’ll send S’vol, he’s a good combat engineer.”
“More muscle would be a good idea, Nelia.” Ashley advised, “Our scans can’t get through their jamming, so we really don’t know what we’re going to face.”
“Except we do know that Mok has a telepath.” Twesata further cautioned, “Another strong telepath or a Ferengi might not be a bad idea.”
“S’vol scored highly on his last psi test.” Zsuzsanna replied, “He won’t let you down.”
“That’ll work.” Nelia agreed as she finished her drink and got up from her stool, “If we’re finished planning, then I would suggest that we all get ready…we’ve got work to do. Shall we commence our little plan in…ohhh…two hours.” As the other captains nodded in agreement, the lovely green Orion teased, “And after the fight, you’re all invited here for one helluva victory party.”