The Sato Series, Episode 3: a new Frontier

Cassidy glowered at the Chancellor, but excused herself. “Laren, if you want to talk some more, you know where to find me.”
“Was it something I said?” P’Arth asked as Cassidy left abruptly.
Laren accepted the chalice of wine and sipped it. “Your history with Kieran makes everyone a bit leery of you,” she said candidly.
“What about you?” P’Arth asked, squatting down in the floor to meet Laren’s eye.
“I’m the former security chief. Nothing much intimidates me,” she said in a warning tone. “You spend years in captivity, you lose your capacity for fear.”
P’Arth let out a booming laugh. “Spoken like a true warrior,” she complimented the Bajoran. “You understand what it is to walk the River of Blood,” she added, drinking her own bloodwine.
“River of blood?” Laren asked, not understanding.
“I could show you,” P’Arth offered. “On your holodeck.” She looked around her. “The party seems to be breaking up, anyway.”
“All right,” Laren agreed. She needed a distraction. “Will it take much programming?”
“None. Your L-Cars database has the ceremony in its memory, so the holodeck can reproduce the setting. Have you ever felt the sting of a Klingon pain stick?”
Laren was intrigued. “No. But I’ve always been curious.”
“Then I will teach you. We will find out if you have the heart of a warrior,” P’Arth decided.
“Well, mine only has four chambers, not eight, but I’ll do my best,” Laren joked.
P’Arth grinned. “It is the mark of great warriors when they can smile in the face of pain. When they welcome it.”
_____________
Kate Pulaski threw back the last of her Wild Turkey, laid down her cards, and grinned at Amanda Brand. “Gin,” she said triumphantly, reaching for the pile of credit chits.
Amanda shook her head, smiling ruefully. “How the hell can you drink all night and still win at cards?” she asked her old friend.
“I’ve got a hollow wooden leg,” Kate deadpanned, gathering up the deck of cards. “And I need to stretch it, so don’t bother calling a transport,” she added before Amanda could tap her communicator pin.
“Are you sure? Kate,” she scolded, “it’s nearly two a.m.”
“I like walking. I can’t afford to get lazy, at my age. Now that I’m not working, I’m getting soft. Haven’t you noticed I’ve put on weight?”
Amanda laughed at her crotchety determination. “I can’t tell, if you have. Come on, I’ll walk you home,” she insisted, pushing away from the table.
“Like hell,” Kate protested. “You have to work tomorrow. You’re going to have sandbags under your eyes, as it is,” she lectured. “I’ll see you Thursday,” she added, heading for the door.
“Thursday?” Amanda asked absently, not remembering the occasion.
“Dinner, at my house. Kieran and her wives and Kathryn and Seven and Kit and her crew,” she reminded the Admiral, rolling her eyes. “And they say I’m senile. Honestly, Amanda, if you didn’t have some adjutant nagging after you, you’d forget to wipe your ass,” she accused, chuckling. “You’re bringing dessert, in case you forgot that, too,” the old doctor needled her. “Well,” she said as she turned to go, “thanks for lining my pockets. Let’s play again soon,” she cackled.
“Good night, Kate. See you Thursday,” Amanda waved her out the door, laughing at her friend’s self-satisfied gloating.
The air was crisp and the New Year was fast approaching, and Kate Pulaski wondered for the thousandth time if she had retired too early. By anyone’s standards, she was certainly old enough to be idle, but the lethargy wore on her, and she was afraid of becoming feeble. An active life had kept her going this long.
Space travel might be just the thing. Kieran would activate her to serve on the Sato, if Kate asked, in a cold minute. And Starfleet wouldn’t care one way or the other, since her pay was the same on active duty or on a pension. She could work shorter hours than when she ran the Academy med center, and no one would fault her for that. Amanda had encouraged her to talk it over with Kieran, assuring Kate that if she wanted to go back to active duty, she’d have Amanda’s backing and certainly, Kieran’s. And she would get to see Kieran, Robin and Kathryn, not to mention Kit and Emily. She decided to contact Kieran first thing the next morning, set the wheels in motion. Retirement was akin to obsolescence, and Kate Pulaski had plenty of drunken nights and rowdy card games left in her.
Admit it, Kate, she sneered inwardly. You want to be with Joely.
As if the thought of her lover summoned her from the vastness of space, Joely Winfield came striding down the sidewalk, smiling. “I’ve been sending you replies to your comm message all night,” she laughed. “You said it was important.”
Kate held out her hands for her lover, nodding. “It is. I’m going to ask Kieran to reactivate me on the Sato,” she informed the taller woman. “That is, if you still want me to live with you,” she amended, not intending to be presumptuous.
Joely never saw the shadow that moved behind Kate. She never noticed the cloaked figure behind the oak tree. Only when the blade appeared did Joely react, and it was nearly too late. The Kut’Luch penetrated her side, shattering ribs and tearing through to her left kidney. Kate screamed as Joely dropped to the sidewalk, blood pulsing out of her torso. Somehow Kate had the presence of mind to request an emergency transport to the Sato’s sickbay. It was the longest three seconds of her life.
“Joely,” she gasped, kneeling beside her broken body as they both materialized, “stay with me.” She stepped out of the way as the medics moved the fallen woman to a biobed and E appeared, snapping into action.
He went into surgical protocol and asked Kate if she wanted to assist. Kate didn’t know how to explain that she had a conflict, and she stood there, dumb, shaking her head. E didn’t waste any time.
“Kate,” Joely croaked out the word. She was ghostly white, and her forehead was spattered with blood and beads of sweat, the pain evident on her face.
Kate moved beside her biobed, gripping her hand. “I’m here. Oh, Jesus, Joely, I love you,” she stammered, overcome by the sight of her lover’s blood spilling all over the sickbay floor.
“I’m putting you under, Doctor,” E advised her, pressing a hypospray to Joely’s throat.
Kate kissed her full on the mouth before Joely lost consciousness, whispering in her ear “Don’t leave me, Jay. I need you.”
___________
Kieran Wildman was accustomed to being awakened in the middle of the night, since captaincy was tantamount to sleep deprivation. She grumbled her apologies to her wives, stumbling out of bed and into the living room where her workstation was beeping at her. She noted silently that it was no wonder Kathryn had been testy most of the years they were on Voyager. The woman never got eight hours of uninterrupted sleep.
Amanda Brand’s solemn face shimmered into focus on the workstation holovid, and Kieran was startled. “Amanda, what’s wrong?” she asked, alarmed at the washed out appearance of the Admiral’s complexion.
“Kieran,” she began, setting her jaw, “Kate Pulaski was damn near murdered half an hour ago,” she managed, though her anger and indignation made her lips white as the blood drained away. “She was on her way home from my house when—” Amanda faltered, pressing her fingertips into her eye sockets. “Joely Winfield saved her life. Joely’s in sickbay. Kieran, she took a puncture wound from a Kut’Luch that was very, very bad.”
Kieran’s heart nearly failed. “Kut’Luch? Like—a ritual Klingon assassination attack?” she demanded, instantly thinking of the Chancellor.
Amanda nodded. “But I know what you’re thinking, and the authorities have already checked it out. P’Arth was on board her ship at the time. In fact, their transporter logs show she only visited your ship this evening. It wasn’t one of them. Though that was the first assumption I made, as did Starfleet Security. Which means someone may have wanted us to think it was the Klingons.”
“A frame up?” Kieran clarified, trying to let the news sink in. “Amanda, is there anything I can do?” she asked, biting her lip. Kate Pulaski. Who would want to hurt her?
“I’m meeting Kate in your sickbay. You could come along.”
The Admiral looked so bewildered, Kieran agreed immediately. “Amanda, you look so lost,” she said sympathetically, ignoring the way her own heart clutched in her chest. Kate Pulaski. “Of course I’m going. Joely is my CMO, and Kate is one of my dearest friends. I’ll meet you in the transporter room.”
“Thank you. I—know you have the upcoming negotiations to think about, and you have better things to do than baby-sit me,” Brand admonished herself.
“Was there any—motive for the crime? Robbery, maybe?” Kieran asked, truly flummoxed.
Amanda sighed. “She and I had been playing cards and she thumped me as usual. But surely nobody would kill her for a couple hundred credits. Would they?” she asked absently. The Admiral shook her head. “It doesn’t make a bit of sense, Kieran. I mean, who would be carrying around a bladed weapon in San Francisco at two in the morning?”
Kieran scowled. She knew P’Arth was behind this, she just didn’t know how.
“Kate doesn’t have any enemies,” Amanda continued, troubled by the thought. “I mean, she is tough as duranium, and meaner than a targ in heat, but—would a student have a vendetta?” she wondered.
“Make sure Starfleet Security checks her academic course records. Find out if anyone she ever flunked is here right now,” Kieran suggested.
___________

Kate Pulaski sat woodenly beside Joely Winfield, waiting for her to regain consciousness. How many times had she been the physician working on someone whose loved ones were anxiously waiting for her to perform a miracle? How many times had she been obligated to report with as much equanimity as she could muster, that someone had taken leave of this world? Kate held her face in her hands. The very worst moment of her life, before now, was telling Kieran Thompson that her fiancée, Naomi Wildman, was terminally ill.

Kate didn’t hear Kieran and Amanda come in. Kieran knelt before the former CMO of Starfleet Academy, resting her hands on Kate’s knees. “Are you okay, Kate?” she asked softly. You could have knocked Kieran Wildman over with a feather when Kate Pulaski burst into tears and threw her arms around the Sato’s Captain. Kieran rubbed her back gently. “It’s okay, honey,” she said quietly. “Doctor E says she’s going to make it,” Kieran assured her.
Kate exhaled raggedly, worn out. “There was so much blood,” she replied, and Kieran wondered if Kate was in shock.
“Kate,” Amanda said gently, “your arm is a mess,” she observed. Kate’s forearm was abraded and blood encrusted. “Are you all right?”
Kate nodded, wiping impatiently at her face. “Joely knocked me down on the sidewalk. If she hadn’t I’d have been dead,” she related.
“Computer,” Kieran barked, standing back up, “activate EMH.” E materialized in an instant, puzzled at being recalled.
He moved toward the biobed, assuming something was wrong with Joely.
“No, Doctor,” Kieran asserted tersely. “You forgot Kate,” she stressed.
He blanched. “She didn’t say she was hurt,” he defended himself. “But that’s a nasty gash,” he allowed. “Let me get an antibacterial hypospray and we’ll get that cleaned up,” he said to Kate. “Why didn’t you tell me you needed treatment?” he asked, dismayed.
“I—didn’t know,” she admitted apologetically. “I had other things on my mind,” she added.
“Yes, so I saw,” he retorted, trying to tease the doctor. “I don’t believe Doctor Winfield needed mouth to mouth, however, Doctor Pulaski,” he chided her.
Joely was awake and caught the last comment. “That was a kiss, you photonic idiot,” she said groggily, reaching for Kate. “Are you all right?” she asked gently, trying to sit up.
Kate leapt up. “Yes, but don’t move, Joely. For God’s sake, you lost a kidney,” she scolded her lover.
“Ah, well that explains why I’m in agony,” she smarted. “I thought maybe some Jem Hadar worked me over,” she quipped.
Joely grimaced, but let out a bark of laughter as she spotted Kieran and Amanda, who were standing there with their chins on the floor, still stunned at the fact that Joely and Kate had been kissing. “Honey,” she said to Kate, “you’d better say something before those two sprain their jaws,” she teased the Captain and the Admiral.
Kate smiled through her lingering tears. “Snap out of it, you two,” she ordered them. “Kieran, as long as you’re here, I want to join your crew. I was planning to contact you in the morning, but since I’ve got your attention,” she chuckled.
Kieran stood there, mouth opening and closing, no sound coming out. Finally, she stammered, “you do?”
Kate nodded resolutely. “Yes, and speaking strictly as a doctor, you need me, from the looks of things. I am not about to send Joely off with only him,” she jerked her thumb in the direction of E, “to look after her health.” She crossed her arms, fixing Kieran with a glare. “Well?”
Kieran nodded mutely. “I uh—I’ll put the order through in the morning. I’ll have the quarter master assign you to quarters,” she managed to say.
“Not necessary. I’m living with Joely,” Kate announced.
Amanda closed her mouth. “You told me you were considering reactivating,” she said petulantly, “but you didn’t tell me the whole story, apparently,” she accused.
“Get over it,” Kate shot back. “You’re just pissed because no one will play cards with you anymore.” She studied the two women, then smiled. “Go ahead,” she taunted them. “Lay into me.”
Kieran swallowed her surprise, and a slow smile swept across her face. “I think it’s awesome,” she pronounced. “Better than awesome,” she enthused. She crept up beside Joely, gazing down at her. “Thank you for saving my surrogate mother’s life,” she said sincerely, leaning down to kiss Joely’s forehead.
Joely smiled. “You’re welcome. But that doesn’t give you the right to sexually harass me, Captain,” she needled her CO.
Kieran stuck her tongue out. “You’ve been making out with my pseudo-mother, don’t start giving me a bunch of shit,” she threatened. “I could write you up for elder abuse, if you’re really going to live with Kate.”
Joely howled with laughter, then doubled in pain. “Damn, KT, don’t make me laugh,” she begged.
Kate scowled at her. “Elder abuse?” she said snottily. “I think I’ve been slandered.”
Amanda hugged her old friend. “The best defense for an accusation of slander is the truth,” she teased. “Jesus, Kate, couldn’t you find anyone within two generations of your own age to date?”
“Three’s a charm,” Kate said with a smirk. “Besides, it’ll take someone that young to keep pace with me,” she boasted.
Kieran laughed happily. “I don’t doubt that a bit. I’ve seen you in a bathing suit,” she flirted.
Amanda folded her arms in a fit of pique. “Am I the only heterosexual left in this quadrant?” she demanded. “Did you put something in the water, Kieran?”
Kieran grinned. “Have a glass and find out,” she teased, waggling her eyebrows. “Then tell me if I look better to you, suddenly.” She nudged Amanda. “My first wife is straight, too, you know, so it can’t be all my fault half the women on my ship are gay,” she contended playfully.
Amanda ignored Kieran’s half-hearted flirtation. “Yes, I’m imagine a marriage to you was sufficient to send poor B'Elanna screaming back to men,” she replied. “Kate, are you sure you’re both okay?” she asked, still worried.
“I can only speak for myself. And I will tell you, if fear is any measure of longevity, I lost five years off my life expectancy tonight,” Kate admitted, touching Joely’s hand. It was as close to sentimental she ever got short of a crisis.
“I feel reasonably good, considering,” Joely answered. “After all, Kate just granted my Christmas wish—albeit, too late for the holiday, but better late than never,” she teased her lover.
Kate scowled playfully. “Watch it, Doctor, or I’ll stay retired and keep taking Amanda’s money,” she threatened.
Amanda laughed. “Joely, you’d better not let her change her mind. I’d like to retire myself, someday, and she keeps ransacking my retirement savings,” she deadpanned.
Kate’s smile softened, and she got a bit misty-eyed. “I’m not changing my mind, Jay,” she promised. “Not this time.”
E looked up as the sickbay doors whooshed open, and Laren came in with the Chancellor. They were both intoxicated, and both bleeding, but they were singing a bawdy Klingon drinking song and laughing as they staggered in. Kieran picked up on some of the language of the song, noting the words “brave”, “deeds”, and “honor”.
“Commander,” E sounded disgusted. “You can replicate your own anti-intoxicant.”
Laren playfully smacked his face repeatedly. “Oh, Doctor,” she admonished him, palm glancing off his cheek. “We have wounds. We are warriors. Heal us, physician.”
“Yes,” P’Arth agreed, hiking her tunic to reveal bloody burns on her sides. “The River of Blood flows with our own,” she noted.
A collective gasp went around the room at the sight of the singed flesh. E shook his head. “Klingons,” he muttered. “You could have put the pain sticks on a lower setting, you know,” he complained, gathering his instruments. “Ro, let me see your wounds,” he demanded.
Laren untucked her shirt to reveal equally gruesome holes in her sides where the pain sticks had burned flesh.
E slapped a hypospray together. “It’s a good thing you’re drunk,” he noted, scowling.
Kieran regarded her first officer in disbelief. “Laren, those pain sticks aren’t supposed to burn like that—they shock the crap out of you, and hurt like hell, but they don’t usually sear the flesh.”
P’Arth hopped up on a biobed nonchalantly. “We walked the river four times,” she explained. “Your first officer is a noble warrior. She could be a general in the Klingon army,” she added. “I asked her to be my personal body guard. She declined the offer, though. Foolish woman.”
“Your loss,” Laren quipped at the Chancellor.
“Indeed. My life is forfeit, either way,” she noted, laughing.
Kieran felt a chill skate up her spine. “What do you mean, your life is forfeit?” she demanded.
P’Arth laughed. “I am a woman. I am the Chancellor. Do you not think one of the men on the high council will have me assassinated at the first opportunity? The women on Qo’noS have tasted equality, because of me. And the men do not like it one bit. I knew the second I took the seat on the high council I would die for it. But the Empire needed this. The women of the Empire needed me. Change always comes at the price of lives. Mine is but one in the long line that will follow me,” she explained.
“But—you’ve held the office six months,” Amanda Brand put in. “Wouldn’t they have had you killed already?”
“Ah, what makes you think they haven’t tried?” she smirked. “Detara and Keh’grang have foiled three attempts to date, and I have no doubt that my trip here will only allow my enemies time to make more effective plots.” She leaned to one side so the doctor could treat her bleeding wound. “If I live another six months after my return to Qo’noS, it will be out of pure luck.” She allowed the doctor to treat the opposite side. “It matters not. Today is a good day to die.”
“Then why didn’t you send someone else on this mission?” Kate asked softly.
“It is an honor to die in the service of the Empire,” P’Arth replied, as though Kate were daft to ask. “If I am successful in these negotiations, I will die an honorable death. My enemies may prevail, but the people will sing songs of my life.”
“You’ll be a martyr,” Kieran noted. “And there is absolute power in that sort of legacy.”
P’Arth grinned at her ex-lover. “You understand my people well, Lukara. If only I had a woman like you at my side, nothing could stand in my way,” she added, sighing. “That’s what Mor’dehK knew when he married me. The writing is on the wall,” she concluded. “I have broken down the barriers for women. And once I am dead, the women of the Empire will band together. My death will be their rallying cry. I will live on long after I have taken the boat to Sto’Vo’Kor.” She regarded the women in the room, who stared at her in bewilderment. “A warrior understands his destiny. This is mine.”
____________
Ro Laren, Kathryn Janeway, and Kieran Wildman stewed silently in the comfortable surroundings of Kieran’s dining room, each woman pondering the attempt on Kate Pulaski’s life. Kieran had called them in for an early breakfast, before the long day ahead of them. She had personally not slept, even after making sure Kate and Joely were fine. She had been too busy ruminating on Naomi’s recent nightmares, and praying to God for once they weren’t prophetic.
Naomi had seen Lenara injured and losing the baby in the nightmares, and while she couldn’t give much more detail than that, the Ktarian was good and shaken up. Kieran and Robin had paced the floor with her after the nightmare, while Lenara, exhausted from the taxing pregnancy, slept on, oblivious to the rampant worry of her wives.
Ro Laren suddenly sat bolt upright, no longer slumping in her seat. “Kieran,” she said, an excited tone in her voice, “didn’t you tell me that when P’Arth hurt you that last time at the Academy—right before she quit school—Kate Pulaski hid you in her house so P’Arth couldn’t find you?”
Kieran’s eyes widened. “Yes.” Damn, and I’ve been so wiped out that never even occurred to me.
Kathryn nodded, understanding. “And you and P’Arth were blood-bonded,” she added.
Laren waved her hands. “That explains the motive. Kate interfered with your blood-bonded relationship, with P’Arth’s territorial rights,” she concluded.
Kieran bit her lip. “But Christ, Laren, that’s been so long ago—decades. Surely P’Arth wouldn’t carry a grudge from childhood until now,” she reasoned.
Laren crossed her arms. “You were married to B'Elanna. You know a Klingon never forgets an insult to their honor—well,” she added a little levity, “unless it’s from a child who falls in love with her idol,” she smiled at Kieran.
Kathryn leaned forward. “It had to be her. We all know it. We all feel it. We just can’t prove it.”
Kieran hated to believe it, because if P’Arth were hell-bent on revenge and restoration of her honor, that made everyone in Kieran’s circle of friends and family a target. “Laren, I want you to work with Stephanie Moss and with Enterprise’s security team, get the Sagan’s people involved as well. The more scrutiny on the situation, the better. We have to figure this out, because until we do, I’ll never sleep,” she decided. “Assign a security detail to Kate.”
Laren started. “She’ll never allow it, Kieran.”
Kieran’s eyebrows narrowed. “She will not disobey a direct order, and I’m making it one,” she snapped. She ruffled her fingers through her hair. “I’m sorry, Laren, I didn’t mean to growl at you. I’m just—uneasy. I don’t want anything to happen to Kate. Or to anyone else under my command.”
Laren nodded. “I understand, Captain,” she instantly reverted to protocol. “And I understand how worried you are. I promise, security is on this. I already told Ben Mason if his people fuck this up I will personally shove my foot up his ass,” she added.
“Good. I want him to be worried. And on guard. I have Kit sticking so close to Lenara, Kit’s practically gotten Trill vallette by osmosis,” she said without smiling. “Lenara is about to kill me for it, but I can’t let up. Not as long as P’Arth is anywhere near the ship.”
Kathryn studied Kieran’s face, knowing the captain’s gut was churning, not only because that was Kieran’s usual way of dealing with things, but because she could hear the woman’s stomach roiling. “Kato,” she said gently, trying to calm her friend, “everyone is on alert. No one trusts P’Arth, and no one will drop their guard for a second. Now you really have to eat something, and stop pushing the food around on your plate, or your stomach will growl so loud, it will drown out the talks,” she scolded her.