Title: After the Rescue

Part: NEW 44/73

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.

"My brothers and sisters on the path, I speak to you today on the subject of obedience and how we are to be truly obedient to the mind of god in all its manifestations.

"Firstly, obedience requires knowledge. How can we obey if we do not know what is required of us? Most of the time this is very simple - we are asked or told to do something and we do it; sometimes with our whole heart and mind and sometimes not, depending on the task.

"Usually, we need not weigh the right or wrong of our task. For example, sweeping the kitchen because someone has asked us to is very simple. The reasons for doing it are also simple - you do it because you either wish to please the asker or you fear the consequences of defying the asker.

"But let us look at a more complex scenario. No one tells you to sweep the floor but you see that it needs to be swept. Do you sweep it or leave it? If you sweep it or don't sweep it, what are you responding to? What are you obeying?

"Each of us lives and grows with our own idea or vision of perfection. With the grace of god, we each develop the inner discipline to follow our vision in all ways.

"Sweeping the floor because your vision of perfection prompts you to be tidy is simple. Not sweeping the floor because your vision of perfection prompts you to put another task ahead of it is also simple. We make these kinds of decisions and choices hundreds of times a day, so often and so much, we hardly notice them.

"But let us contemplate an even more complex, but no less worthy, scenario than housekeeping. Let us consider for a moment, decisions that require us to be obedient to the mind of god, perhaps even in opposition to beings in this plane of existence.

"How, you must wonder, can we know what is in the mind of god? We cannot know because we demand to know - the more you quest for it, the more elusive the goal. No, the way to know the mind of god is to surrender to the mind of god. This is more and less simple than you might think. Surrender to the mind of god requires that we stop looking in order to see, stop listening in order to hear, stop doing in order to be. If you are quiet, truly quiet, and look around you, the mind of god is in everything if you are willing to allow yourself to see it.

"Look back over your life. How have you arrived here? What steps did you take that now seem logical if not divinely inspired? From the vantage of the enlightened present, the past might seem an orderly progression - painful, pleasant or neutral - it has brought you here and you can clearly see path behind you.

"When you are surrendered to the mind of god and quiet enough to see, hear and be in the moment, you will know what the next action or series of actions for you should be as clearly as you can know the kitchen floor needs sweeping. Your path will be revealed to you if you are quiet enough to see it, the mind of god will reveal it to you. You will then be faced which a profound choice: obey or not obey.

"The Terrans have a fable about a man who would not obey the mind of god and was swallowed by a large fish until he agreed to obey. I do not believe the mind of god, as I understand it, is inclined to chase you with large fish that will hold you hostage until you agree to obey. I feel in my heart that the mind of god is vast enough to grant you free will to obey or not obey.

"And this is the very thing that makes us evolved spiritual beings - our ability to choose.

"I do not know what will happen if you do not obey the mind of god once you have ascertained the will of that mind. I suspect nothing will happen, you will not be punished or rewarded. Perhaps this is what your soul requires of you in this life and that is also in the mind of god. This is the passive aspect of the mind of god, eternal and inert and the basic foundation of our reality. An excellent and holy condition but not what we are talking about today.

"Therefore, should you wish to align your soul with the eternal and active mind of god then your choice is clear: obey and obey with all your heart and soul even if your mind and body have other ideas. Any action in this plane that aligns with the action of the mind of god, brings your soul closer to the mind of god. And that is the goal of all evolved spiritual beings - to be fully aligned with the mind of god, be it in this life or the next one."

Maja looked down and saw Hobie watching him in rapt attention and elder brotherly affection.

"And that is why if, thr ough the grace of god, we are allowed to know our path, we must find the obedience within ourselves to be surrendered enough to follow that path even if that path leads us away from the only being we have ever truly loved or cared about.

"May you dwell in the light and the mercy of the mind of god forever and ever. Amen."

At that moment the platform collapsed and Master Ghet was flung head first into the ecstatic crowd below.

* * *

"...dissolved into complete chaos," Captain Lee was telling Admiral Jessup's annoyed face on half of the Havel's viewscreen. Master Ghet's sermon and the ensuing riot occupied the other half. "After the stand collapsed there were several explosions in the marketplace. We lost Master Ghet in the riot that followed. My first priority was to get Ambassador Sarek to safety since there was nothing else I could do. The Klingons left abruptly as well. Shortly after we returned to the ship, several small fast private ships took off in different directions. We took off after one and the Klingons another, it turns out neither ship had Master Ghet aboard. The Hzabedian government tried to hold and search all ships in orbit but that caused such an uproar the order was cancelled. Not even the Klingons want to make this into an intergalactic incident. I got the feeling the Hierophant was, well, embarrassed about it."

Jessup nodded: "How is Ambassador Sarek?"

"He's well, sir. He asked not to be disturbed if possible so he can read the book the Hierophant gave him."

"The Hierophant Kroldt gave Sarek of Vulcan a book?"

"Yes, sir. On the platform, when Master Ghet began to speak, the Hierophant leaned over and said to the Ambassador, 'I assume you read Klingonese,' and handed him a book of Master Ghet's sermons to the Klingon Garrison on Zatichket."

* * *

"I don't think I care for your floor sweeping metaphor, Maja." Hobie was finishing a light supper with his brother, Neria-Tza, Qwuushi, Dolo-fra, and Oza-Tol on the merchant freighter borrowed from a friend of a friend of friend and therefore untraceable. This comment was an attempt to distract Maja from the distressing news he'd just heard about Master Khat, Hraja and Amanda.

"I wasn't preaching to you, Nolo," Maja snapped. He was still deeply shaken from being thrown into the adoring, soon to be violent, mob and the Commune news was injury onto insult. "Weren't any of you worried that crowd would tear me apart?"

"Nonsense, Maja-anas," Neria-Tza put in smoothly. "We were all around you. Worst case scenario, you might have lost a few fingers and some hair, that's all."

"We didn't have much time to be elegant, Maja," Oza-Tol told him. "Your Hierophant and Vulcan moved incredibly fast to get you handed over. We had to scuffle to get you back at all."

Maja smiled at the old man; at least Oza-Tol had the sense to be honest with him.

"Here, what's this fish story you told?" Dolo looked up from his plate for the first time that evening.

Maja told him the story James MacQuarrie had told him so many years ago on Magidrian.

"I think I disapprove of your mixing such pedestrian metaphors as floor sweeping and being swallowed by a fish with your higher concepts of surrender and stillness." Hobie was a sharp judge of a sermon, it was something he'd learned listening to Father Polmira in the monastery on Magidrian.

"Well," Maja finally gave in and defended himself. "I didn't know who would be listening. I gave a simplified sermon so everyone could feel included. I'm sorry you were offended. Perhaps you could simply enjoy feeling superior because you were offended. That's really the best I can do for you, Hobie."

Hobie rolled his eyes and gave up trying to have a serious conversation with his irritated brother.

"I liked your sermon, Maja-anas," Qwuushi put in. "I even understood it."

"I'm so glad, Qwuushi," Maja smiled at him. "What part did you like best?"

"The part about the fish. I think that Terran shoulda been flattered that god would even notice him enough to send a fish after him."

Hobie broke in before Maja exploded at the Djahgesenian pilot: "He had to go set some charges and didn't hear the end!"

Maja slumped into his chair. "Fine. Now tell me again what happened in the Commune after my arrest."

* * *

"He has his heart set on this, hasn't he?" the Hierophant Kroldt of Gozedria asked his brother Hierophant, Kvreda of Dkalji.

"Yes." Kvreda could never decide if he truly disapproved of Kroldt's relationship with Master Ghet or was simply jealous of it. Whichever, he was trying not to be too exulted over its termination. He was also trying to find a way to keep the Supreme Religious Leader from exiling Master Ghet and the Gozshedrefreingin Commune from the most holy Klingon Church. "Smashing sermon on Hzabeda," he commented affably to Kroldt. "Sublime and completely comprehensible. Good metaphors, just complex enough to keep the lay mind working. Perfect for the rabble he was addressing. I'm sure they all greatly benefited from his instruction. We shall miss that sort of thing from Master Ghet."

"Yes. I understand the Supreme Religious Leader enjoyed it very much. Has he opted to forgive, Kvreda?" the Hierophant Ksovian of Mvria asked. He, like his six brother Hierophants had been summoned to Klingon for this and none of them were happy about it. Master Ghet and his ex-commune were important to the Empire and the religious leadership would have preferred a policy of forgiveness toward them. Exile was so permanent. "Really excellent sermon by Master Ghet on Hzabeda, Brother," he murmured sympathetically to Kroldt. He admired Master Ghet and respected the Hierophant Kroldt so he was not enjoying either of their difficulties.

"No. As much as he enjoyed ('and even understood') Master Ghet's sermon, the Supreme Religious Leader still feels very strongly that exile is the only right action in this matter." Kvreda nodded majestically to Hierophants Kbxidi of Nvqi, Ksavlini of Jvoku, Khigito of Ezridia, and Kuvrinis of Bokdozia.

They nodded majestically back. None of them felt the ceremony of exile the Supreme Religious Leader had in mind was a good idea. All seven Hierophants would have preferred to quietly let the entire Master Ghet incident die down and eventually coax the Gozshedrefreingin Commune back into the fold when tempers were calmer. They could live without Master Ghet but the artisans of the Gozshedrefreingin Commune were a significant loss to the Church. The ceremony of exile would make their loss official and therefore permanent.

But exile was what the Yhets and Tzaj were demanding and the Supreme Religious Leader could not or would not go against his patrons, the Tzaj, at this time.

And the Yhets were up to no good. The Hierophants knew that they had kidnapped Master Khat and his son, Hraja, from the Commune moments after Master Ghet was arrested but they did not know why. The Hierophants could understand the Commune bolting to safety after losing two Masters so suddenly. They had tried to impress this on the Supreme Religious Leader but it fell on deaf ears. Master Ghet was understandably beyond redemption. The vid of his dance with Sarek on Imk was circulating in the Empire. Obviously he was as wanton as he was wayward.

All this and that the Emperor lay dying without an acceptable heir was on the Hierophantical minds as they swept majestically into the cathedral to hear Master GozineGhet and the entire Gozshedrefreingin Commune spiritually exiled from the most holy Klingon Church and declared enemies of the Klingon Empire with a price on their heads and signed death warrants for all.

The next day MajaKhat's father, the Emperor Kvortine, the last of a long series of compromises to come to the Imperial throne, died. Admiral KzaxreaYhet was declared regent for the dead Emperor's sickly three month old son, Kva.

Kva's concubine mother was buried alive with her sister concubines in accordance with the Imperial burial custom. The Empress Kvortininia was allowed to keep her life, although shut up in a convent for the rest of it.

* * *

"I have always had a high opinion of Master Ghet," KmordriYhet said to Hraja, seated across from him in Hraja's new lavish quarters. "He was unsurpassed as an artist and priest." He looked at Hraja's glass. "You're not drinking. Don't you care for Logerian wine?"

"Yes, thank you. It's quite good." Hraja took a microscopic sip and held onto the glass. He was trying to understand the situation before him.

Master Khat, Amanda and he had been hustled out of the Commune and onto a ship. They were not molested in any way, in fact, they had been treated with extreme care. They were transported to another ship, where they were met by General KmordriYhet.

KmordriYhet had greeted Master Khat as Prince Khat and had not called him anything else since their arrival. The general completely ignored Amanda. His eye had lingered on Hraja but the youth had discounted it at the time; blond Klingons were unusual. Hraja wore a veil in the Commune so as not to distract visiting Klingon clerics as well as warriors.

Hraja wore a veil in the Commune for the same reasons Tien and Polmira wore veils: he was beautiful. MajaKhat had inherited his mother's unusual blonde hair and dark eyes and his father's massive Klingon build. Hraja had inherited his father's coloring and shoulders and the rest was Maja's lithe but powerful physique. Hraja wore his blond curls long over his pointed ears and over his wide and subtly ridged forehead. He had Maja's large luminous brown eyes and high cheekbones. His face was rounder than Maja's, his nose broader and his lips fuller, more like his half Klingon father. He had the clear pale complexion of a Rom but it was lightly tinged with the honey color of Klingons. His skin was like silk over steel and, like his sculpture master, his right shoulder was noticeably larger than his left. Hraja also possessed a quiet and gentle demeanor and a low melodious voice that soothed his listeners when he chose to use it. He had also inherited Maja's intuitive abilities and these, in addition to the quiet powers of observation he'd developed on his own, were telling him that KmordriYhet was interested in more than the quadroon Mage's enjoyment of the wine; much more.

Like his mentor, Admiral KzaxreaYhet, KmordriYhet was a serious person. He had the benefit of being well born, well connected, well educated and intelligent. He had married early and produced enough sons to be able to ignore his wife entirely now. He had never had the time or patience for concubines or romantic intrigue of any sort. The subtleties of wooing a concubine out of a Commune or a lesser noble clan were lost on him. It all seemed like a waste of time and he was a busy man. He was also used to taking what he wanted.

He was therefore at a loss as to how to proceed with Hraja Gozshedrefreingin baMajaKhat. Kmordri's own reaction to the youth had deeply shocked him. He felt as if he'd suddenly discovered the sun after living underground all his life. He had therefore avoided the youth for several days until he simply could not stand another minute of his lack and had had him removed to the luxurious guest quarters the young man now occupied. And then, gazing into Hraja's innocent face, his nerve had failed him and he'd simply offered his guest a glass of wine.

They sat in silence. Hraja had been raised only to speak when spoken to by Klingon warriors and then only to say as little as possible. He hoped the Klingon before him would get bored with his lack of conversation and send him back to Amanda and Master Khat.

Kmordri was actually enjoying the silence. He very rarely found himself in a comfortable silence with anyone. If there was silence around him it was usually an enraged silence. He drank some wine and considered the beauty quietly watching him over his almost untouched glass.

"Do you know why you are here?" Kmordri asked after allowing the silence to continue a little longer.

Hraja shook his head; he'd been wondering why himself.

"You are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen."

Hraja modestly lowered his eyes. 'What would my Master do here?' He'd grown up watching Master Ghet twist Klingons around his little finger and now wished he'd paid more attention.

"You are too kind, sir." Hraja murmured mildly, thinking frantically that he could not really strategize until the Klingon made the next move.

The Klingon's next move was to rise and walk around the table to stand next to Hraja. He stroked the soft blond floss off Hraja's shoulder and ran his fingertips over the silky flesh of his neck. He tilted Hraja's chin up so he could look into the youth's large dark eyes.

"Tell me about your life in the Commune."

"It was very quiet."

"Did you have many lovers?"

"No. None."

"None?" the Klingon said, thinking: 'None? Is he joking?'

"None."

"I see." Kmordri removed his hand and walked back to his own chair, sat and poured himself more wine. This was a quandary for the warrior. He was unskilled as a seducer and even more so as a seducer of virgins. "So you've never ..."

Hraja looked at him inquisitively.

"...never had sex..."

Hraja shook his head.

"...with a man."

"Nor anything else."

"Why not?"

"I've had a very busy life, sir," Hraja murmured. "And sex has always seemed to me to be something that I needn't rush into." He calmly sipped his wine.

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen."

"Ah." Kmordri said, realizing he had sons older than Hraja. "I felt the same at your age. It was considered genteel to wait until one is fully formed as an adult before rushing into intimacy. How did you avoid lust in the Commune?"

"We are very busy in the Commune, sir."

"What about the Klingons?"

"We seldom had visitors."

Kmordri had heard that the Haats were very careful about whom they allowed near the Communes under their patronage. He had also heard that the members of the Gozshedrefreingin Commune were extremely ugly but he now knew that that was a fiction put abroad to discourage lascivious visitors.

"Are you afraid of me, Hraja?"

"A little."

"Why?"

"Because I do not know you."

"Is that all?"

"Did you order us brought out of the Commune?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"For reasons that do not concern you, Hraja. For the moment let us concentrate on the reasons you are here right now."

Hraja looked across at the Klingon and was dismayed to see all hesitation and uncertainty gone from his demeanor. He found himself faced with a man who always got what he wanted, one way or the other.

"I see by the tattooes on your hands that you have mastered hand to hand combat in the Hvosic and Brezini styles," Kmordri continued. "A worthy accomplishment. I myself have mastered them as well. I am sure I could defeat you in both as I am taller and heavier than you, but it would necessitate hurting you badly and I do not wish to hurt you, at least no more than can be avoided."

Kmordri, with some satisfaction, watched Hraja's eyes widen with comprehension.

"It is also possible that you might damage me and I wish to avoid that at all costs. If you do not submit to me, I will have no alternative but to call in four guards to hold you down. And when I have finished, I will let them have you, as is the usual custom in these matters.

"I would prefer not to call in my guard as I will enjoy you more if we are alone and you are docile. And, I assure you, you will enjoy it more, much more, if I do not call in my guard." Kmordri sat back to let the facts of the situation sink in.

Hraja was not stupid and knew the Klingon was not bluffing. He was, however, inexperienced in handling lustful Klingons and knew he could not convince this one to let him go. He swallowed the contents of his wineglass and held it out to his captor to be refilled.

"Are you enjoying the wine more?"

"Oh, yes."

"Then bring it. You can finish it later."

* * *

end of part 44

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

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