Klur's head snapped round. He glared at the science officer. "Report!"
"One - no, two - large vessels," the officer answered. "Details - Sir, there is much interference, I am attempting to resolve it -"
Klur gave an exasperated sigh. "No need," he said. "We know what they must be, the details are unnecessary. Damn that Jikkur to the deepest pits of Gre'thor!" He turned to Tayaira. "What is the status on the gateway?"
"Still in hot standby, sir," Tayaira replied.
"Then we can wait no longer for our allies' signals," said Klur. "We must go, and go now. Activate."
"Yes, sir." Tayaira's hand swept across her console. "Activating... confirmation codes received. Gateway will be live in three minutes."
"Let us hope we have three minutes," Klur muttered.
"I have identifications, sir," the science officer said. "Two ships - one Starfleet, one of our own. Both inbound at high impulse speeds."
"How soon?" Klur demanded.
"In weapons range in no more than five minutes, sir."
"Get us in close to the gateway," Klur ordered. "Two minutes. Close, but it should suffice."
The dull gonging sound of the QIb laH'e''s engines grew louder as the ship surged forwards. Klur paced impatiently up and down the bridge, snarling under his breath. Tayaira watched the console displays, eyes fixed on the energy readings.
"I have signals!" shouted the comms officer. "From both vessels!"
Klur stopped pacing, looked up, laughed. "Let us hear them both!" he ordered. "On screen."
Two faces appeared on the main viewer; one blue, one green, both coldly angry.
"IKS QIb laH'e'," the green one said, "I am Lieutenant General Shalo, personal emissary of Chancellor J'mpok, and I order you now to surrender and submit to questioning."
Tayaira looked up from her console. "Shalo?"
"Captain Klur," said the blue face, "this is Vice Admiral Shohl of the USS King Estmere. You are wanted for war crimes. Surrender now or be destroyed."
"Shalo?" Tayaira repeated, blankly.
Klur laughed uproariously. "Perhaps you two should fight it out between yourselves!" he said. "Let combat decide whether I face living death in a Federation penal colony, or dishonour, discommendation and Rura Penthe from our noble Chancellor! Regrettably, I must decline both your kind invitations. My vessel and I have a pressing engagement elsewhere. Screen off!"
"Shalo," Tayaira whispered.
Klur whirled round to face her. "What is wrong with you?" he demanded.
Tayaira swallowed. "Nothing, sir," she said. "Only - the KDF commander - she is of the House of Sinoom -"
"Have your family reunions on your own time! What is our status?"
"Gateway power building up smoothly. On schedule - ship is on course for intersection."
"Hostiles launching fighters, sir," the tac officer called out.
"Both of them?" Klur demanded.
"The KDF ship is a Kar'fi like ourselves. The Starfleet vessel reads as a modified Tholian Recluse. KDF have deployed standard S'kuls, Starfleet... Romulan Scorpions with a high emissions profile."
"Should we launch our own fighters, sir?" Tayaira asked.
"No," said Klur. "We would not win a fight, here and now... and this is not our day to die."
"Starfleet ship is firing, sir!" the tac officer reported.
"They cannot possibly be in effective range," Klur growled.
"No, sir. I think they may be hoping for a lucky hit on the gateway. High energy disruptor fire and plasma torpedoes."
Klur laughed. "There is too much debris in this system for that stratagem to be effective. Let them burn up as much space dust as they please, they will not touch us."
"Six kilometers to gateway," said Tayaira. "Power levels still building to threshold."
The gateway filled the main viewscreen, now. The Kar'fi carrier was huge, but it was dwarfed by the hollow hexagonal frame of the transwarp gate. To one side, green light flickered in a misty auroral display: the Starfleet ship's disruptors, diffusing to uselessness in the micrometeorite dust that flooded through Massidia Alpha.
"Power levels increasing," said Tayaira. "Three kilometers to gateway. Sir, those ships are closing rapidly -"
"Not rapidly enough." Klur's face was exultant.
"Gateway is ready. Intersecting transwarp field in... twenty seconds." Each one passed like a century before Tayaira's agonized eyes.
"In field. Synchronizing drive relays."
"Go!"
The ship lurched as the transwarp field took hold. Tayaira's stomach flipped in that vertiginous instant when the entire ship passed through the no-place that was the subspace warp, translocating almost instantly across parsecs of space.
On the viewer, the stars changed.
The QIb laH'e' now hung in a black and starry void, empty space, the nearest star some twenty light years distant. After the chaos of Massidia Alpha, it was almost a relief, Tayaira found, to see clear space on her console displays.
Clear, except for a dozen massive hexagonal bodies floating nearby. The other transwarp gates.
"Yes," Klur hissed. "Nearly there. Nearly home.... Send activation codes to all the transwarp gates. Even if those fools manage to break security on that gateway and follow us here - and that will take them many hours, if they can do it at all - they will not know which of the others we have used. Set course for the homeward gateway!"
The carrier swung around, aiming at the mouth of another gateway. Tayaira checked her readouts, and frowned. "Something is amiss," she said.
Klur was at her side in two swift strides. "Tell me."
"Power levels on the gateways are - higher than they should be, if the network has been on cold standby." Tayaira indicated the numbers on her display.
Klur grimaced. "It might mean nothing - except that the Ferengi broke his word, that he let other customers make illicit transits, instead of holding everything in shutdown while we completed our tasks. In which case... I will hang his ears in my trophy room in due course. No need for concern."
"Nonetheless, sir," said Tayaira, "I would recommend engaging the backup capacitance system, in case we need to beat a swift retreat."
Klur nodded. "A worthwhile precaution. Send the command codes to the gateways."
As she tapped in the commands, Tayaira asked, "Sir, since you have refused the order of the Chancellor's representative... what is our status now?"
"Unchanged," said Klur. "The Chancellor's representative - if that Orion truly was his representative - is not the Chancellor. And the Chancellor himself will not be displeased when we make our report to him. It is simply a matter of arranging sufficient backing when we present that report." He laughed. "Despite our hurried exit, I feel sure our backers will be ready and waiting when we return to Klingon space."
"Yes, sir." Tayaira wished, fervently, that she could share the captain's confidence. "That return will not be long delayed now, sir. Power levels already building to threshold in the outbound gateway."
"Good," said Klur, "good. Prepare for maximum warp speed once we emerge from the gateway. It is only a short way, after that, back to Imperial territory... but I would not want anything to slow us down, not at that last stage."
The gateway expanded in the viewer as the QIb laH'e' closed on it. Tayaira could see the glow from its field generators, steadily brightening.
"Power levels at threshold. Intersecting transwarp field in thirty seconds."
Klur settled himself in his command chair. "It will be good to be home," he said. Tayaira made no reply, simply watched the gateway as it drifted ever closer.
"In field," she reported. "Synchronizing drive relays."
"Engage."
Again, that moment of disorientation as the ship jumped across the light years; again, a new starscape on the viewer when Tayaira's eyes settled -
And something else. "Sensor contact!"
"What is it?" Klur demanded.
"Attempting to get a reading now -" Tayaira frowned. "Sir, there is a hail coming in on standard frequency."
"Perhaps our backers have come to welcome us," said Klur. "On screen."
The viewer flickered, and a face appeared: a deathly pale face, sharp-featured to the point of gauntness, with the dead black plastic and flashing red light of a Borg implant covering one eye. The thin lips moved in a manic smile.
"Captain Klur? Veronika Grau, call me Ronnie, everyone does... no, hang on a minute, you get to call me Vice Admiral Grau. Oh, yeah. Surrender, and all that."
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