Title: After the Rescue

Part: NEW 24/73

Author: Karmen Ghia, karmen_ghia@yahoo.com

Series: TOS

Romance Code: S/Mc and then some.

Rating: NC-17

Appendices: http://members.tripod.com/karmen_ghia/atrappendices.html

See part one for disclaimers, etc.

The blast from the Tien freed the Shilo but the impact crippled her.

"MY SHIP," Norris wailed. "Abandon ship. Albany, you're in command of the evac. GO. NOW. Mr. Mibri, give me a shipwide." She punched a button on her command chair. "Now hear this, abandon ship." She broke off, knowing her disciplined crew would get off the ship all right. "Hail the Tien for me, Mr. Mibri, and get off this bridge. You, too, Albany, Lau, all of you, GIT."

"Captain Norris, what are you going to do?" Albany yelled over the noise of red alert and impacts from the Tziviians, while jettisoning the recorder buoy.

"I'm going to ram this ship down that fucking monster's throat," she yelled. "GET TO THE SHUTTLECRAFT RIGHT NOW."

"Captain..."

"NOW!" Norris bellowed and sat at the helm.

Albany hesitated for one more second and then gestured the bridge crew into the turbolift.

"Talljet, can you hear me?" Norris addressed the flickering viewscreen when Hobie's bridge appeared on it.

"I can, Norris, get off your ship." Hobie turned to Neria-Tza, "Get us into a protective formation to take in their lifeboats." He watched with alarm as the Shilo shuttle bay doors opened. He was momentarily distracted by fighting off a Tziviian ship.

"NORRIS, GET OFF YOUR SHIP."

"Talljet, we need to blow that Tziviian mothership out of the way and that's what I'm going to do."

"How's zat, Terran?"

"I'm going to ram this ship down her throat."

"You're mad, Norris, we'll beam you aboard."

"Forget it. You can't lower your shields." Norris looked him right in the eye. "Save my crew, Talljet, that's all I ask."

Hobie noted the Maja taking in one shuttle and his own ship taking the other. The three ships restored their shields and moved into a line. But what could they do? They'd reduced the Tziviian warships from twenty to five but they were still in a hellish fight, shields weakened, weapons nearly depleted. Even if they fought off the five remaining ships, they were still outgunned by the huge mothership which hadn't annihilated them yet, being busy dragging the transport into her gaping maw.

Like it or not, Norris had the right idea.

"Set your course and we'll beam you aboard, Norris," Hobie said reasonably.

"I can't lower my shield for it and once I'm in their tractor beam you won't be able to," Norris said equally reasonably. She fired at a ship coming up under the Tien.

"Thanks," Hobie said as he watched Neria-Tza blast it but not even cripple it. He glanced over his shoulder to see Commander Albany come onto the bridge with Oza-Tol.

"He demanded," Oza-Tol snarled. "I can take him away."

"No," Hobie was watching Albany looking at Norris. "Leave him." He turned to the human: "Your Captain is the bravest Terran I ever see or hear of."

Norris turned her attention to firing into the bay of the mothership.

Hobie thought this was a great idea. It would distract the mothership and hopefully that vessel would release the transport to deal with them. He ordered his ships to do the same while keeping the five remaining Tziviian warships off them all as best they could.

* * *

Maja and Sarek were jerked in their seat when the mothership released the tractor beam to redirect her power to her weapons. They watched as a shuttle got beyond the doors and was successfully away.

"Hey, ho, here we go," Maja sang for luck and lifted off.

Clearing the bay doors, they found themselves and their tiny craft on the edge of a pitched battle.

* * *

Hobie and Albany stood on the bridge of the Tien and watched the mothership fire at them. The fiery blast rocked the ships but the shields held. They returned fire, mainly to distract her and give Norris cover. They saw Norris move toward the huge ship unnoticed.

"Return her fire," Hobie bellowed to his crews, "Keep her busy and pull back. Let's see if we can draw her a little closer to the Shilo." He ignored Albany's wince.

Norris piloted her crippled ship up to the underside of the behemoth unnoticed.

"Godspeed, good lady," Hobie breathed in prayer.

"Captain, I'm scanning the shuttlecraft leaving the transport," Neria-Tza informed him. "I've picked up two Federation identifier signals in the third one on the left."

Hobie was suddenly in a difficult position: the shuttlecraft were behind and beneath the mothership and moving away from the fight with alacrity. The Tien, the Maja and the Yaja were moving in the opposite direction from the shuttlecraft. They were heavily engaged fighting the Tziviian mothership and the five, now four, remaining Tziviian warships. None of them could break off, nip round, lower their shields to either beam Maja and Sarek aboard or bring their shuttle on board without being picked off or leaving their flank exposed. Also, Hobie did not want to attract the Tziviian's attention to the defenseless shuttlecraft or the Shilo. The only thing to do was to hold the line and pick up Maja and Sarek after the mothership was destroyed. God willing it was destroyed.

"Continue firing at will, increase reverse speed," Hobie said calmly. Watching the Shilo progress and shuttlecraft recede at the same time, he truly felt that he wanted as much space between the mothership and the shuttlecraft as possible when the mothership blew.

After what seemed like forever, he saw Norris and the Shilo disappear into the bay.

"Cease firing! All power to shields. Brace for impact," Hobie howled and pulled Albany into his lap and held him there as the mothership exploded into boiling fire and the viewscreen went white. The three ships were buffeted back like leaves in a hurricane. The lights went out and the impact seemed go on forever.

When they knew anything else, they saw the transport or the half that was left of it, listing in the void and the three surviving Tziviian ships, now joined by ten reinforcements dropping out of warp and all bearing down on them, weapons blazing.

* * *

Maja and the other shuttlecraft had wisely headed off away from the battle and headed off away from the battle at full speed. He kept one eye on the craft before him and the other on the battle behind him, trying to figure out what was going on back there. Not wishing to be psychically traumatized by the chaos of the attack, he still had his shields up, especially with all the Tziviians around, so he simply did not feel Hobie nearby anymore than Hobie, also shielding and for the same reasons, had felt him.

"Sarek, take a good look at the battle. Does it not seem as if the pirates are fighting each other and attacking the transport at the same time or what?"

"The image is too small to determine, Maja."

"Maximum magnification," Maja commanded the viewer in Standard. Exactly nothing happened.

"Maximum magnification," he tried in Klingon, then Romulan, then Rovirian, then Patois, then Vulcan, then Pzortian, then Gaelic, then Jroturian then the mothership blew up and they were momentarily distracted by being seriously impacted by the blast.

Maja kept them on course more by going with the blast than trying to fight it. The craft was blown in a wide arc away from and ahead of the other two craft but still with them. He stayed in sight of them and hoped they knew where they were going. This was necessary as he now realized nothing in the craft would respond to any language he and Sarek had between them nor could he read the markings to operate them. He could only pilot it manually off the memories he scanned from the guard and follow the other ships in hopes they knew where they were going. He looked at the two craft ahead of him, noting that whatever had been behind him was gone.

They could just barely make out the huge prison transport, ripped in half and on its side and the faint flashes of weapons, they thought, in the distance.

The communications console crackled at them and Maja reached over and pushed buttons until it stopped. He turned to see Sarek looking at him quizzically.

"Let them think it's malfunctioning. We don't have the language to talk to them and they might leave us if they know we're prisoners," Maja said wearily. The past few days were catching up to him. He wished he had his cloak. He'd eat a little, draw a little and then curl up for a nice nap.

He accepted the water tab Sarek offered him and sucked on it as he considered their situation: they lived, they were somewhere in the Tziviian Autonomous Zone in a tiny craft with no weapons and puny shields which they could not even operate. But they lived and when they got to the hopefully habitable planet in front of them, they would deal with the fact that they had no money, no barter, no food, no language but Patois, and were in a xenophobic space especially hostile to the Federation and the Klingon Empire and, by extension, their citizens.

Maja clasped his elbows and fought down a moment of despair.

'Well,' he thought, unclasping his elbows, 'we live.'

Maja folded his hands in this lap and contemplated the stars before him. He and Sarek were in a lot of trouble but the stars were as beautiful as ever. He gave the Vulcan a sidelong glance and found Sarek not contemplating the stars, but him.

"What now, Maja?"

"Well, unless you have a better idea, Plan A is that we follow these ships wherever they're going and hope it's an inhabited and spacefaring planet. Then we see about finding a ship heading out of this zone and get on it. Plan B, if it's not spacefaring, is that we find a place to hide between my signals to my brothers and hope they find us before the Tziviians."

"What about the pirates?"

"What about them?"

"Will they attack us?"

"I don't know. I reckon they will either see us and come kill us, or not see us at all, or see how small we are and not bother to come kill us." Maja paused a moment to think. "However, were I a pirate and I saw three little ships like these all the way out here by themselves, I'd be awfully curious as to where they came from. But," he yawned, "I am not a pirate."

They fell silent and watched the stars for a while. Maja adjusted their course to stay with the other two ships.

"Maja," Sarek said softly, "why am I now able to understand the Patois?"

Maja made eye contact and decided only the truth would do. He sighed, knowing Sarek would not enjoy what he was about to hear: "There's a hole in your shields that's a channel for the universal language," he said slowly. "We call it the Patois but it's also called the language of the spheres because it's so beautiful and everyone can understand it but only if they're willing to believe they understand it."

"How did a hole get in my shields?" Sarek asked.

"I'm sorry but I unintentionally made it in the healing. I was afraid you would die and in my fear I formed a link to keep you alive on my life energy. The link to me has opened you to the energy streams of the universal language. That's why you can understand it." He looked at the Vulcan, staring into space. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"Can you break it?"

"Not on my own, no. I'd need one of my brothers or a telepathic healer or priest."

"Unless she's dead, your link has superseded my bond with Lady Amanda because I can no longer feel her in it," Sarek said after a moment.

Maja, finding no comment for this, remained silent.

"What is the universal language, Maja?" Sarek asked when he'd determined the half Mage had nothing further to say.

"I'm not supposed to tell but since you have it, you might as well know." Maja collected his thoughts: "I don't know if I believe this but this is what I've been told. The Patois is older than god's wet nurse. It's not really a language with grammar and writing but pure energy in the form of a senseless collection of words from all the languages in the universe. We can understand each other because the energy of the word symbols is in all our consciousnesses, except we don't know it unless we give up not knowing. I knew the Patois on Magidrian before I knew I couldn't know it because it doesn't exist in a tangible form. That's how most people learn it, as children before the I/you split occurs. For us, that split never really takes root, we feel we're all one and everything is god. Telepaths like us can understand the Patois better because we are closer to our psychic energy than other species. But you and I are way far down the telepathic evolutionary scale compared to other species...."

"Stop," Sarek said firmly. "What is this nonsense? What do you mean 'give up not knowing'? How can you know what you know you can't know? You are not making any sense, Maja."

"Well," Maja blew out a patient breath, 'Vulcans,' he thought. "I don't exactly understand it but didn't you say yourself when you heard Patois you could understand it and learn it as if you were remembering the words, not hearing them for the first time?"

"Yes," Sarek said patiently.

"How can you remember something you've never heard before unless it's stored somewhere in your consciousness or your consciousness has access to it?"

"As in the inforcyberwells that house the Artificial Intelligence units?" Sarek asked blandly. "Nonsense," he snapped. "We live in a rational physical universe. Do not ask me to believe in archetypes, oversouls, angels, astral planing, or Santa Claus either."

"Or god?"

"Specify, Maja, you throw that word around as if it were nothing."

"Or everything," Maja said to the Vulcan. "Okay, Sarek, we do live in a rational physical universe where phenomena follow the predictable laws of physics and mechanics. However, if you take one step back from that and ask from whence spring these predictable laws, you have entered the realm of faith and that's where the Patois emanates from. We understand the Patois because our souls are speaking through our minds within the mind of god as god always intended."

"Maja, you have obviously thrown away a perfectly good Vulcan education over the last 18.87 years. The laws of physics are based on the behavior of physical matter and cannot be denied."

"I don't deny that, Sarek, not at all. But don't you ever wonder why we exist? Why any of this exists?"

"No. Do you?"

"Yes. Daily, hourly, moment by moment," Maja laughed, smiling at the stern face before him.

"And do you know why?" Sarek was suddenly very interested.

"No. Not a clue. But," Maja continued, "because I don't know, because I can't know, because I am just a tiny part of the intricate, infinite whole, I have faith that the energy flow of the unknowable mind of god will bring me, and all of us, to our highest manifestation whether we like it or not. Whether we believe in it," he fixed Sarek with a pointed look, "or not."

Sarek gazed mildly into Maja's big brown eyes and suddenly found them very beautiful: "So, what you tell me is that one need do nothing to be in the flow of the unknowable mind of god?"

"Yes, of course, it's rather tarsome but some monastics live and die in just that. I find it boring. Much more enjoyable for me to manifest the divine energy in creating."

"So, as long as you're enjoying yourself you're in the flow of the unknowable mind of god?" Sarek said a little too seriously.

"Yes and no," Maja said thoughtfully, ignoring the Vulcan teasing. "Sometimes creating is a hellish chore but it's still creating, still worthwhile. Believing in your vision, inspiration and skill is still an act of faith that comes more through us than from us as far as I'm concerned."

They fell silent.

"But I digress. Please forgive me. You asked me where the Patois comes from; I don't know for certain. No one knows, we just make the sounds and understand each other." He looked at Sarek. "As we do now," he finished quietly and smiled at the Vulcan.

Whatever Sarek might have said was interrupted by Maja guiding the craft into the atmosphere of and crash landing on the planet they would soon learn was called Imk.

* * *

"... and the doors closed before we could get inside," Kalzat stared at the workshop floor and vaguely wished Jira Krinat would hit him or at least speak or something. Anything but this silence as the MageCheq listened to the tale.

Jir looked around the peaceful workshop. One would never suspect such internal peace and order based on the scarred exterior of the cathedral. Khalatz and his men had tried to hack their way into the building for two days until General KizjietHaat had returned and called him off. Khalatz was under house arrest for not supporting Yustala, the Klingon sanctioned leadership, and the more serious crime of vandalizing religious property.

It was Jir's opinion that the most serious of Khalatz's transgressions was demanding Tien and Polmira be handed over to the Garrison. That made the dancer's hot blood run cold with rage. He had discussed it with the Hierophant, who had agreed with him and assured him that the Haats would keep Khalatz far away from the Gozshedrefreingin Commune, forever. Jir had thanked the old man for that. However, the real issue was that it was not forbidden for warriors to take a concubine slave they fancied to their bed. It was expected in this culture. The Gozshedrefreingin Commune had been lucky thus far; the Hierophant's protection had been enough until now.

'And now,' Jir thought, 'oh lord, what now?'

Jir turned his thoughts back to the more pressing problem of restoring order to Milryia and thereby to Rovirin. General Kizjiet's troops were in the streets fighting rioters, looters, revolutionaries and panicked mobs block by block. Jir had every faith in Kizjiet, however, he had no idea how much of Milryia would be left when the General was finished 'restoring order.'

The short reign of the idiotic Imstk was literally a dead issue, as was Imstk himself. Jir had transported directly into Imstk's office upon arrival. Not realizing that Maja Talljet had boarded the prison transport with Sarek, Imstk had thought Jir had come to bestow Hobie's blessing on his actions. He was very wrong. After scanning the Rovirin for further interesting information and finding none, Jir had simply tied him to a chair, gagged him, slashed three mid sized veins and watched the fool bleed to death at just the right speed to make it a terrible death. Knowing that Sarek would not have come here alone, he signaled his ship and had them beam up whatever Federation identifier signals they could find in the area. Mig signaled a few moments later that Sovort and Smirek were aboard, rather starved and beat up but no permanent damage.

'Fool,' Jir thought sadly, 'you were not worthy for Morel and Yustala to even tread upon.' He had had much respect for both those men and now, like many fine beings he'd known, they were dead. 'Hochofedra,' he shrugged, flipped his hair off his shoulders and headed for the door.

"King Imstk does not wish to be disturbed for at least three hours," Jir blandly told the sentries at the door and of course they believed Hobie the Pirate's brother. "We have just concluded crucial negotiations concerning the future of this entire planet and he feels the need to meditate upon them," Jir added dramatically, sweeping down the long hallway and out of the building.

One look outside convinced the MageCheq to beam back to his ship rather than try to cross the street to the Cathedral. Jir couldn't tell which was worse, the rioters and looters or the Klingons restoring order. Except for the uniforms it was hard to tell them apart.

'I'll leave this to the Klingons; they seem to be enjoying it,' Jir thought. 'Aaaand when they've worn out the rebellion, I'll bring down our people to clean up the mess and maintain order. More gently, however, than the Klingons.' The Talljets still had mining and other interests here and didn't want the planet devastated any more than it was already. He mentally reviewed the Talljet Inc. order restoring squads of 'professionals' ready and waiting in the five Company starships currently in orbit.

Ling and he had come at once in an armada of twenty Talljet Inc. starships. Jir and five ships had split off and made for Rovirin to support or, if necessary, evacuate the Gozshedrefreingin Commune in these times of civil disorder. Ling and the other fifteen ships had gone to reinforce Hobie trying to rescue Maja and Sarek. This was good because including Jir's five ships, General Kizjiet's flagship and four attendant battlecruisers and the Hierophant's well armed flotilla, it was a very crowded orbit around Rovirin at the moment.

Jir beamed to his ship and contacted the Commune to let them know he was beaming in directly. He was later enraged to learn that Khalatz had had men beamed in to try to breach the Commune's defenses. Fortunately, this cathedral, like all Klingon cathedrals, was built so each area could be secured. The warriors that beamed in were trapped, ambushed and dispatched back to the universal energy field. Khalatz quickly gave it up as a bad idea and returned to pounding on the fortified doors and windows. That Klingon had not reckoned on Kalzat's brilliant defense tactics. The one that most delighted Jir was the red hot metal the Communists had rained on the Klingons from the roof of the cathedral. Jir thought it was so dramatic, so effective.

Jir looked at the brilliant Kalzat hanging his head in shame before him. The Klingon was devastated because he had not been able to rescue Master Ghet. His plans had defended the entire Commune and Jir reminded him of that and praised him for it.

"If only Master Ghet were here and could also praise me for that, too." Kalzat muttered, unmollified.

"Well," Jir said gently, remembering how much Kalzat loved Master Ghet, "let us pray that he will be with us very soon." 'What a mess,' he thought bitterly but he managed a small smile and patted the Klingon's shoulder. "Please, Kalzat, be so kind as to show me to Master Khat. We must plan how to proceed once General Kizjiet has restored order."

* * *

end of part 24

This story also lives at http://members.tripod.com/karmen_ghia/

Appendices: http://members.tripod.com/karmen_ghia/atrappendices.html