Kre, Da'nal, Charg

Posted on 29 Feb 2012 @ 10:01pm by Commodore Da`nal of the House of Varal

1,812 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: M8-A: Kzinti War - Recon from Hell
Location: Quest Quarters / Da'nals ready room
Timeline: 1600

When the D'ama was secured and Kre had checked up on Zaria and her children, he got hold of Charg and told him to meet him in his quarters. "Come," he said, as the chime announced his XO's arrival.

It was strange to be back n a Federation starship but familiar at the same time. He had already paid a visit on their wounded and ensured all were taken care of. Several of the crew had done the same, paying a visit to their friends. The Achilles crew had been very helpful and had opened their quarters to most of the Dama's crew. It could make things interesting but as long as the Dama's warriors "behaved" there shouldn't be any issues. The doors opened to the guest quarters assigned to his Captain.

"Charg, come in... we need to talk, before we go to Da'nal," Kre said, pouring Charg a cup of bloodwine, he saved and brought over from the D'ama. "Sit," he said, indicating the chair. After handing him the drink, he sat down himself and took a deep gulp from the warm liquid.

He took the drink and remembered the rare vintages of wine and spirits he had had. Most had been destroyed but he had managed to recover a bottle of scotch given him by his friend Jason on the Aldeberan; before the unpleasantness of his so called trial. At least his family chest and weapons had survived; those items were all that remained of his House.

Kre was obviously agitated, even if he tried to remain calm. "My greatest concern is to get X'aedell and Bel and Kronyx back, IF he made it...." he said taking another gulp. "We have to convince Da'nal to help us."

"I agree. However the Achilles and Captain Da`nal no doubt have their own orders. Should those order be contrary to our wishes Captain Da`nal will be in a very difficult position. His mate and wife are kin and I am his friend, but those conditions would be secondary to doing his duty as Captain and as a warrior. I know my friend and he would not violate his orders without cause. If we are to sway him, we must first know what his orders are before we can know how to approach the issue."

"I am not going to play careful around him. We still have the IKV Koloth, which I can call in. As far as I know, it was only about 5 hours away from us, so that remains an option. But the risk is very high with that," Kre said. The IKV Koloth was only a small Bird of Prey, but so far it was undamaged.

Charg knew that a logical approach would most likely fail and further irritate his Captain, but having served in Starfleet he also knew their protocols and procedures. "Sir, a lone Federation ship this far inside enemy territory is likely operating under radio silence...."

Kre stared at his executive Officer long and hard, while he was thinking. "I want options, Commander, not everything we can't do!" he said frustrated. Even if he understood what Charg was going to do.

Charg remained in his seat; "What would you do in his place? Your duty; or dishonor yourself and crew by violating your orders in a time of war?" He knew the reply; it was the same he would give. "We do him a disservice by planning without him being present. You should go to him and make our request."

"That is why I called you here, I want to talk to him, but I wanted to talk to you first," Kre said in measured tones, as if he expected Charg to read his mind. "I served in Starfleet, I know the protocols....." he grumbled. "I need options to take to him," he sort of admitted.


Charg knew what he wanted, but at present there was no way to give him the answers he sought. "Captain...My Lord; our options are limited to the point they ar virtually nonexistent due to the lack of information. At present we are guests. As such all we can do is take our request to our host. If we had more information we could go there with options in hand but given the situation the quickest way to discover what we need to know is to go to Da`nal and ask him directly. We should make our request, and then based on his reply we can counter. Our options will present themselves as we meet with Captain Da`nal and more information is revealed. We can speculate...but that would be a waste of time."


[Ready Room]


Da`nal had just dismissed his new Orion counselor when Lance came around the corner to let him know that Captain Kretorg had left his quarters and was on his way to the bridge. "Good...go into my private stores and get two more bottles of bloodwine."

Lance only smirked and nodded as he headed to the lift only to step aside as the lift opened and the two Klingons stepped into the corridor outside the bridge. "Greetings Captain...Commander. Just take the corridor here and through that door. Captain Da`nal is expecting you both."

Kre nodded and grunted and strode in the direction he was shown. As he entered, Kre gave Da'nal a Klingon salute, taking in his counterpart. "Thank you for having us as guests," Kre said, with a slight respectful bow, his eyes never leaving Da'nal's.

Da`nal stood and came around from behind his desk. Gripping the Captain's forearm in greeting; "You and your crew are more than honored guests...we are brothers. Come, we much to discuss."

He had wanted to talk with Charg about his victory in the Batleth tournament, but that would have to wait. Leading the pair to the observation lounge where several padds laid waiting, not to mention several Klingon dishes. Klingons didn't have what most would call 'finger foods', but Lance had planned ahead. Taking a seat he motioned for them to do the same.

"We can't remain here much longer. Has you crew all been accounted for?"

Kre glanced to his XO to confirm. "HIja'," he replied nodding. "The ones not in Sto Vo Kor are on this ship. The D'ama has already been dispatched to it's position in the debris," Kre said, confirming that they were ready to go as well. He could do nothing about the loss of his ship now, so there was no reason to continue to grumble about it.

"Excellent, I have a warp probe standing by, to be launched to whatever destination you wish, in order to call for the ships recovery."


"That won't be necessary, we have already launched a probe," Kre explained. "Thank you for the offer, however, there might be something else we could use such a probe for," Kre said, standing up and pacing, walking around the spread of food. "This food looks delicious, but Captain, at this point I can hardly enjoy such a spread," he said, his expression, solemn. "During the attack, before the Achilles showed up, the Kzinti captured two of my crew," Kre said slowly, pausing to let the words sink in, although he was not sure that the other Captain had a full understanding what that meant.

"They are my CMO, doctor Bel Ha'tar and ..... X'aedell, your mate's niece....." Kre said slowly, studying Da'nal to see his reaction.

Da`nal's head darted to Charg, his mate’s niece has Charghwl's wife and his anger rose quickly at that. "Why are the Kzinti raiding for prisoners...and why just the two?"

Charg leaned in after a glance to Kretorg. "We managed to recover a woman from a previous encounter with the Kzinti. It seems they are experimenting on humanoid females to understand their sentients."

Charg clamped down tighter on him control as he continued. "These experiments included dissection...among other things."

Da'nal knew that Kzinti females were sub-sentient and considered chattel but to do this. His knuckles when white with rage. How Charg could remain calm was beyond him. "I would like to speak with this survivor you recovered."

"You can speak to the survivor all you want; Da'nal, but we have not much time. That ship was damaged, so it left a trail, but that might disintegrate. And I don't know why the two," Kre answered. "They might have just be at the wrong place at the wrong time, we were salvaging from the debris field," he said half thoughtfully, half irate. "Bel is my tactical chief's mate, and he went after her," he added frustrated. "Da'nal, we have to get our crew, we can use a probe to call a BoP attached to our ship, in, but that would take at least 10 hours to get it to us and then it still has to find that damn ship. If you help us, it will go much faster. Will you?"


His gut reaction was to say yes. He was bound by honor...by family to assist. However he was bound by honor to duty and the safety of his ship and crew. He had violated his orders in attacking the ship yard over Mercer, and again in rescuing the Dama. In his mind those could be justified given the situation, but this was different.

He had always managed to find a way to avoid having to trade on dishonor for another...but this time he could see any way to avoid it. Either he violated his orders and endangered his crew for what would no doubt be seen as personal reasons or he left kin to die in the hands of the enemy.

"You must understand Captain I have my orders..."


Kre whirled around and cocked his head around. "You have your orders?" he asked with a quircked brow. "Oh.... so... it is not within Starfleet's mandate anymore to respond to call for help?" he asked with exaggerated surprise. "I didn't know that," Kre stated sarcastically. "It will take your ship deeper into Kzinti territory, of course, the Intel gained couldn't be worth it either...yeah, I couldn't expect you or Starfleet to take on that kind of dangerous mission. It is too much for you," Kre said.

"Let me have the probe, we can have the Koloth fetched," Kre said tightly. "Come Charg, THIS was a monumental waste of time," Kre spat the words out. He turned to Da'nal slowly. "Go have your talk with Lieutenant Soran.... I hope you can live with yourself after you spoke to her!" he said. he turned to walk out, livid and determined to get his crew back no matter what.


Da`nal wasn't about to be barked at on his own ship, especially not by a man whose life he had just saved. "SIT DOWN CAPTAIN!!"


TBC

 

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