On the viewscreen, the Harrier was close enough, now, for them to make out the shapes of saucer, nacelles, and secondary hull. Luga turned away, went over to one of the bridge consoles, and started to enter data on the interface.
"Positive indications," she murmured.
"Of course there are!" snapped Chrog. "The Bercera IV incident would not have resolved so quickly without her, so both the Federation and the Klingons would have been weakened by longer war. And without the cooperation forced on both parties by the Siohonin crisis, their future alliances would have been longer in coming, and more prone to distrust. And there is a significant chance that, without her, the Federation might have lost two of its core worlds! Her death, now, at this point in time -"
"Time agents would inevitably respond," said Luga. "We know there is at least one here already. Besides, we must consider the threat posed by the Organian. It is unlikely in the extreme that any Organian intervention would redound to our benefit."
"I know." Chrog turned angrily away from the screen. "The Organians. As with the people of this time - our best chance is to keep the Organians from becoming involved. If there is even a chance they might intervene.... No." He turned once more to glower at the screen. "But you must understand, I am tempted. So very tempted."
"I understand. But it is as you say - the risks are too high. At least for the present situation...."
Luga's tone was thoughtful. Chrog strode over to her console. "You have an idea," he said. "Let me hear it."
"If Captain Grau could be enticed into one of the temporal anomalies," said Luga, "I suspect that the Organian would not follow. We know far too little about the Organians, but it is clear that they are not active in temporal affairs. If Grau were to vanish inside an anomaly, the Organian might allow that it was, as it were, her own fault."
"Hmm," said Chrog. "I wonder.... What of the thing Grau carries, though? The timeloose being that will, ultimately, call itself Sebreac Tharr?"
"In this time zone, it might not have sufficient awareness of linear space-time to be effective."
"Possibly." Chrog pondered for a moment, then shook his head. "But we cannot be sure. The Organians evidently suspect otherwise, or they would not be concerned over it. No. No, I do not think we can take the risk."
"Well, then," said Luga, "what are we to do with her? She will be in transporter range of the planet in another fifteen minutes, and the Nhandesson remnants are the only site of any interest on this world's surface, so that is where she will beam down. How are we to prevent her from meddling?"
"She is in no position to initiate hostilities," said Chrog. "What can she do?"
"Inspect the Nhandesson site, study the artifacts, and make a full report back to Starfleet," said Luga. "Our desired timeline would be hopelessly compromised, at the very least. At the worst, Starfleet would gain access to the Suliban weapons -"
"That cannot happen. Not while Thyvesh maintains control of the temporal portal - there is no way he will cooperate with Starfleet. But we must ensure Grau does not become aware of Thyvesh. We must keep him strictly out of her way.... Where is Thyvesh, in any case?"
"Currently," said Luga, "on our own temporal science deck. I have given him full access to our facilities, so that he may pursue... whatever line of research has him so excited. While he remains there, we can certainly keep him out of Grau's sight. She has no right to demand access to our vessel, even under the terms of the Organian treaty."
Chrog nodded. "Satisfactory. At least, until Thyvesh demands something else, or goes off on some other tangent... I do not place much faith in that one. He is - erratic. Unpredictable." He snorted. "At least your Klingon tool can be relied on to do no more than we tell her."
---
Kirza snarled. "Klingon tool, am I? Easily distracted by shiny weapons too, no doubt." She glared at the intelligence officer, Kuruth. Dark, sleekly handsome, watchful and composed... sometimes, she wondered if the man had some Vulcan in him. A true Klingon, a full-blooded Klingon, would never be so calm -
He watched her calmly, now, as she paced up and down the Hov'etlh's special communications room.
"Klingon tool. Easily distracted." She spat. "They think me a fool, a dupe. They are the fools. That Luga, she has not even suspected -" Of course she had planted a monitoring device on her supposed ally. It was, after all, standard doctrine. The Na'kuhl had not even checked her ridiculous clothing for the passive sensor -
She took a deep breath. Ridiculous clothing, yes - and the Na'kuhl were not the only ones guilty of that. Very soon, there would be an officious Starfleet captain, wearing one of those stupid little dresses that made them look like cheap joygirls, beaming down to Priyanapari to dig and pry -
"Your thoughts," she snapped at Kuruth.
"We are as constrained as the Na'kuhl by the presence of the Organian," said Kuruth. "If this Captain Grau is as important to future events as they seem to suggest -"
"Is she a time agent? They suspect there is one present."
"That would be the captain of the USS Leacock, without a doubt," said Kuruth. "Grau is certainly native to this time frame - well, at the moment."
"What do you mean, at the moment?"
"She was translated into the current century by a time portal. Involuntarily, it seems. She is not, herself, a time agent - but her reports, her activity, will be closely monitored by those who are."
"The temporal artifacts will be identified. The Federation will make representations to the Empire - this world will become subject to joint jurisdiction, or it will be closed off, quarantined -" Kirza slammed her fist against the wall. "And with the thrice-damned Organian to protect Grau, there is nothing we can do to prevent this!"
"Perhaps we can attempt some misdirection of our own," said Kuruth. "We can replicate, for example, archaeological trivia - broken mechanisms, art objects, that sort of thing - and salt the Nhandesson site with those -"
"Easily spotted. Too easily. And Grau is Starfleet, she knows that Klingon warriors do not devote themselves to the study of such trivia - Wait." Kirza's eyes narrowed in thought. "The portal. The portal defied our analysis - it would not have opened, except that Thyvesh was curious about us. Easy enough to present that artifact as an incomprehensible enigma."
"True," said Kuruth, "but the other device, the Nhandesson weapon -"
"Is a weapon. Obviously. Well, we Klingons are easily distracted by shiny weapons, or so I am told. Send an engineering party to the Nhandesson weapon." Her eyes were aglow, now. "With transporter tags and pattern enhancers. We will take this obvious weapon. Beam it to our freight hold - and begin work on integrating it with our ship's systems."
Kuruth raised one eyebrow at that. Vulcan blood, Kirza thought, definitely Vulcan blood. "The Na'kuhl may object to that."
"Why should they? They are our allies. But, in case they do -" Kirza bared her teeth. "Instruct our troops to respond to any objections... with appropriate force."
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