Darkened Stars - Chapter 6

Darkened Stars - Chapter 6

Stardate 27611.3 - August 12, 2350 - 02:59:16

The feeling of something pointy digging into Rain's stomach dragged the Asari back to consciousness, and she let out a groan as she forced open her eyes in spite of the general feeling of lethargy that seemed to encompass her to see a recognizable armored backside and legs that were hard at work running towards some unseen destination.

“You recover.” Jel'ang exclaimed as she came to a halt and set the still somewhat unsteady feeling Rain onto her feet. “Good, I was worried. Now come. We are almost to the port.”

Rain took a brief moment to steady herself, reaching for her bag only to realize in sudden shock that it seemed to be missing, she instantly reached for her pants, and then let out an audible sigh of relief upon finding the small currency purse still secured within.

“The bag was too unwieldy for me to carry both you and it.” Jel'ang offered apologetically upon seeing the Asari's search. “But the protective device within served its purpose in allowing us to continue the fight. So leaving it behind was a choice that was no choice.”

Rain gave a silent nod as the pair of them continued moving, getting the distinct sense that the suggestion of a protective device being in her bag was more for the Asari's acknowledgement of the story than it was any kind of personal belief on Jel'ang's part.

The Klingon woman hadn't been exaggerating when she had said they were close to the port, as it took the pair of them less than two minutes to make it to the gate of the heavily fortified location.

“Present your credentials.” The Cardassian officer that looked like he was in charge ordered as a number of others kept their rifles trained on the pair as if at any moment they might transform into something horrible and attempt to kill them.

“Bek Jel'ang of house Palkar.” Jel'ang announced as she pulled an identification chit off her belt and presented it to the man who inserted it into a device before giving a nod and handing it back to her.

“This is my shuVak Rain.” She continued when the Cardassian turned an expectant look to the Asari, who immediately did her best to keep quiet and let the important people talk. “Her identification was lost due to a close call with a photon mortar. 

For a moment it looked like the Cardassian officer wanted to object, but something must have made him think better of it, because instead he pulled a chit out of a small pouch on his belt and inserted it into the port on the device. Quickly typing something out on the interface he shoved it towards Rain with a look that suggested bad things would happen if she didn't follow his every direction.

“Thumb.” He ordered, and Rain immediately complied, pressing her digit to the indicated portion of the device until he pulled it back and continued typing out more.

“Go.” He finished as he pulled the chit out and shoved it into Rain's hand, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the gate moments after she took it in a clear sign he wanted them gone.

“Good.” Jel'ang said as she grabbed Rain's empty hand and pulled her along.

“Order take me if I'm going to risk my ass telling a general's daughter she can't bring her new servant with.” Rain heard the Cardassian mutter half under his breath as they passed, that new bit of information enough to leave the Asari blinking owlishly in confusion at the Klingon woman she had thought she knew.

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Given what Rain knew about Cardassians in the Prime universe, she really shouldn't have been surprised that there would be a dedicated waiting room at the military port for the servants of various officers. 

But here she was sitting in one, alongside three older Cardassian men, a young Cardassian woman who has enough cleavage on display that Rain immediately suspected she was somebody's mistress, and a white haired slightly overweight looking Klingon man who the Asari would bet was a retired badass given almost all Klingons that reached that age tended to be one.

“I see you serve house Palkar.” The Klingon man put forward as he took a seat on the hard bench next to where Rain had situated herself.

“I… Suppose so.” Rain offered almost uncertainly as she fiddled with the emblem now secured to her shirt.

She certainly hadn't gone into this with the idea of shaking up with the Alliance. But that had more been out of fear of the Cardassians then it had been any concern about the Klingons. And if she was already associated with the Klingons, that meant she was safe from the Cardassians. 

“Then you will be joining me on the transport to our stronghold in New Tokyo.” The Klingon man said, giving her a severe nod as if that were settled fact, which Rain supposed since she was sitting there it may have been. “Kahless truly smiles on you, for at least the Terrans there have a small semblance of honor.”

“Better than the one's in the wasteland the Cardassians will be attempting to hold at the very least.” He muttered with a disdainful humph. “I suspect it would have been better for all if we had destroyed that Australia entirely.”

Rain considered that for a moment, her mind conjuring a myriad of horrible images about what evil Australia might be like before deciding that she was okay with going to New Tokyo where she would likely just have to deal with evil ninja.

She froze at that thought, the sudden realization that she was seriously considering the possibility of evil ninja, enough to make her whimper slightly and wonder just what had become of her life.

“I do wonder though.” The older Klingon mused as he looked Rain over in an intrigued manner. “Just what are you?”

“A servant of house Palkar.” Rain replied, getting the sense the man would ask more questions then she could comfortably answer if she called herself and Asari.

“Ha!” He laughed, clapping her on the shoulder hard enough that she had to brace herself to keep from falling off the bench. “That is a good answer.”

“A safe answer.” He continued in a sly tone as he gave her a grin. “But I will not pry further. For you are no danger to the house of those I serve.”

Rain felt oddly put out at being told that, because she could be a danger, a really big danger, she just didn't want to be.

“Heh.” He chuckled lightly, and Rain got the feeling that once more he had somehow seen straight through her. “That you take offense is good, it means you have pride in the house of Pelkar. But for you to be here means you serve the disgraced third daughter. And it is doubtful she will ever be more than she is.”

That was suggestive on several levels, though Rain supposed it explained why someone with Jel'ang's apparent lineage had been relegated to guarding the gates of New Chicago's sex district.

“But I forget myself.” The Klingon man professed with a humble tilt of this head “I am Kogen, son Sob'uk.”

“Rain, daughter of Liara.” Rain returned, throwing out the name of the first Asari that popped into her head, only to then have to hold back a case of semi hysterical giggles, as the absurd notion popped into her head that that would probably make her Commander Shepard's daughter.

The sudden realization hit her that she should probably put together at least some sort of general family history if she was going to be around Klingons long term. Because someone was almost surely to ask or insinuate something about it eventually, and she doubted 'I don't want to talk about it” would end nearly as well with them as it had with Leck.

You know what, she thought to herself, fuck it. If anyone asked, her mom was going to be an archaeologist and her dad a badass space commander. And if the real Liara or Shepard somehow showed up, well, that was once more something that could be future Rain's problem.

She spent the next several hours listening to Kogen regale her with various stories of his time in service to house K'mpec, a distraction the Asari was honestly more then a little thankful for, given even inside the well armored building she could still hear the occasional rumble of explosions going off outside.

Eventually a surely looking Klingon showed up and directed the pair of them to one of the facilities landing pad's, an open location protected by a crackling green energy field under which a Chinook sized armored assault transport sat ready to ferry them to their destination.

“The shield is barely holding.” Kogen muttered with a shake of his head.

An assault skimmer of some kind flew overhead, a light detaching from it to slam into the protective field generating a brief but recognizable blue and black singularity that left Rain gaping a bit like the fish Asari so resembled.

“Graviton weapons.” Kogen growled as they were rushed towards the transport by one of the few remaining Klingons out in the open. “The Terrans hoarded their secrets like misers, even blowing up their own factories to keep them out of our hands. Or so we had thought, instead the honorless curs were waiting for the tide of politics to turn so they could strike without fear of immediate overwhelming reprisal.”

Nearly stumbling on her way up the ramp of the vessel as she squashed down a sudden horrible thought before it could finish forming, Rain was surprised to see the interior nearly empty, and even more surprised when the Klingons outside followed the pair.

“It looks like it is not our day to be left behind.” Kogen offered with a good humored laugh as he made his way over to one of the crash seats that lined the outer walls of the vessel's singular compartment. 

“Only because enough real warriors didn’t make it.” One of the other Klingons muttered.

Kogen gave the speaker an amused look at that as Rain held back her own urge to point out to the much younger Klinon that any Klingon who reached such a venerable age was either born lucky or the best of the best.

A light shudder suddenly ran through the transport and Rain suddenly found herself wishing for a window. Because that had probably been the vessel taking off, and she kind of wanted to see an aerial view of the city she had spent the past two years living in.

Which was the exact moment, as if to mock her for the mere thought of it, a beam of orange light punched through the rear of their small ship leaving the Asari a clear view through the now six inch wide hole to the outside, where she could get the occasional glimpse of an aircraft of some kind trailing their vehicle.

“I suppose it may still be a good day to die.” Kogen offered with an almost happy grin on his face as he followed her gaze out the hole.

That was not reassuring to Rain on several levels, and a familiar panic began to set in.

“Doesn’t this transport have weapons!? Or shields!?” She yelled over the wind now comeing through the holes.

“The disruptors are fixed in a forward arc!” Kogen yelled back as Rain's eyes ridge began to twitch. “And the shields are weakest in the rear!”

Right, she thought to herself as she slapped a hand to her crest in exasperation, Klingons. 

But that meant the transport’s only option was to… The Asari's train of thought ground to a halt as she looked out the hole to see the enemy craft following them and another option occurred to her.

She had the occasional line of sight after all, and experimenting had shown that was really all she needed, which meant the only problem would be– 

Kogen surged off this seat with a snarl, grabbing a rifle from one of the other Klingons hands and stomping over to the hatch. Slamming his free hand onto a control panel next to it, he braced himself against a nearby rail as the mechanism opened their cabin to the sky.

“If I die! I die on my feet fighting like a true Klingon!” He yelled out as he began firing the rifle at the enemy craft.

That seemed to spur the other handful of Klingons into action, and they sprang to their feet to join in the act of attempting to shoot down the enemy vessel chasing them.

For a brief moment Rain had hope their disruptor fire might be enough to take the responsibility off of her, but the sight of the infrequent bolt of green energy splashing ineffectively against a flaring blue barrier divested the Asari of that notion.

So with a single hand keeping a death grip on the crash seat's metal frame, she shakily got to her own feet and began to focus, calling up the blue biotic energy that was her species most potent offense before pointing a finger gun at the vessel that was chasing them.

“Bang.” She whispered as she released the Warp.

The biotic effect flashed out nearly too fast for her eyes to see, and for a moment she was afraid she might have missed.

Then the Terran fighter exploded, a brief but instantly recognizable biotic blue tinting the fireball before vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

“Qapla!” Kogen cheered, holding up his weapon and shaking it towards the sky in perceived victory, an act the others quickly joined in on as Rain’s stomach chose that moment to remind her that it was nearing breakfast time.

With a sigh she collapsed back into the seat as Kogen closed the hatch and made his way back over to her with a grin of triumph on his face.

“There is nothing quite so sweet as victory against a foe who thinks they have already won.”

“I don't know.” Rain muttered as one of the Klingons began to place some sort of self sealing patches over the transport's two newest holes. “Some batterbread would be pretty good right now.”