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Far Away From Home	By : mancer Category: S through Z > Star Trek (2009) > Star Trek (2009) Views: 2090 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Star Trek is owned by Gene Roddenberry/Paramount Studios/JJ Abrams. I own none but this writing and the non-canon characters within. Work published for shared fun, not profit.

Chapter List
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In the quiet of his room, disembodied whispers tickled his ears.

With all of the chaos around him, Vuron craved a quiet afternoon of meditation. Knew that if he attempted it again, he'd be invading J'Mara's request for privacy with her lady, either by inadvertently intruding on that conversation, or by drawing her into his "mind-dojo."

He delved into reports, absorbing as much data as he could as fast as he could. Trying to not allow anxiety take him. Not check growing winds outside or worry about whether she would be stuck in another house until the blizzard passed.

"This is dishonorable! How does Chancellor Ka'Tra stand for-"

Vuron's fingers spend through data faster. J'Mara's voice clear in his mind as if she stood next to him.

"It is done, and there is nothing we can do about it now," Bel'tath's voice sounded tired. "The attack was well timed."

Attack?

A mental door slammed between them.

Curiosity burned. Vuron's search turned from general data to local news. Who was attacked? Someone on Qo'Nos? Another planet?

Nothing. No reports. No rumors. A secret operation, then.

No.

Private data from Sranak's house filled in gaps. Mostly assumptions, without first hand accounts.

J'Mara! Answer me. What happened to the ambassador!

She had no tangible resistance to a pinpoint incursion from his mind. They gasped as one, stumbled as he tore the argument from her mind.

Bel'tath standing over her, shouting in confusion, for a healer, for her guard.

He passed through their conversation just as he skimmed while reading. Opening himself up to proper names, ignoring all else. Speeding through her mind.

Raced past the heated argument about her mating a Vulcan. Noting that Bel'tath had known exactly where Master Chijqa had dropped him, had intended him to find J'Mara's lands. Folded that information away to examine later.

"I had planned an alliance marriage for you," Bel'tath had sighed, once J'Mara had impressed upon her the permanence of the arrangement. "The man will be none-too-happy."

"You've tried it before," J'Mara replied, taking a long drag from the bloodwine. "You have yet to suggest a man who could stand up to me."

Bel'tath grinned and toasted with her own goblet.

"So. You are a Vulcan's mate. Does that make you his woman?"

The precise words she chose were a touch archaic. Derogatory. Intended to bring up images of servitude. Attempting to rile her underling, her ally, her most trusted warrior.

"I am my own person. You, of all people, know I don't take orders well."

"I still don't know why you haven't accepted a council seat. Chancellor Ka'Tra even insisted, before this latest recess, that the offer was still open."

"I have no wish to disrupt the balance," J'Mara had answered, attempting diplomacy. Bel'tath laughed and slammed down her drink, sloshing dark alcohol over her fingers.

"A few days with one of them, and you're already starting to talk like them. The Vulcans are not well loved. You will have to watch your back."

"I appreciate the warning." She set down her mug. The move precise and smooth. The liquid hardly rippling at the touch. A subtle show of her muscular control. Implied control elsewhere. Bel'tath snarled. "In fact, this is the main reason I had come."

The councilwoman's lip lifted farther. "You are suggesting that you would not have come to notify me if your marriage."

"I am saying no such thing. Perhaps, I would have waited out this storm at the Vulcan house, or my own in the city, but you would have been notified of the change in due time. No. I came to find out who kidnapped Ambassador Sranak."

"Kidnapped? That is a serious allegation."

"You don't deny it."

"The official report is that he, and his staff, are being given a tour of the major houses. Starting with Ka'Tra's estate, of course." Bel'tath held her unblinking gaze.

"Has he 'moved on' to another house yet?"

"No."

"Did he reach Ka'Tra's lands?"

"I doubt it."

"Do you know his current location?"

"No. And I wouldn't tell you now if I did."

"Because you feel my allegiance has shifted."

She nodded. "Obviously."

J'Mara snarled.

"What was the point of all of this? I know you. I know all of the plots you have formed in that twisted head of yours. You always come out on top. That security guard did not find his way to my lands 'by accident.' What was it, plan seven? Twenty?"

"Farther down the line," she replied, leaning back in her throne-line chair. Eyelids hooding over calculating eyes. "An opportunity not missed."

"What did you have to do with the kidnapping."

"Nothing."

"Targ shit!" Her fist pounded into the table.

"You are very much like your mate," Bel'tath smirked.

J'Mara growled. "You might not have done the deed, but you have your hand in it. What is the plan now, Bel'tath? Planning an attack on their colony? Little honor in that. Defenseless and no resources. No point to it."

"Their colony world failed, actually. You're behind the times. Must be your mate is as well. Interesting."

"Failed."

"Yes. Only a couple hundred on the planet at the time. Seems they had a little radiation storm."

"A radiation storm. What kind of radiation?"

"Solar flare." J'Mara didn't trust Bel'tath's grin. "It seems someone was testing a weapon on their little star, and there was a poor reaction. Only construction workers and gardeners. People that wouldn't be missed. Three thousand workers from other species, though. Starfleet volunteers in particular. Two of their starships taken out."

J'Mara sat down, shocked. "That must have been some solar flare."

"It was some weapon."

"They are not a worthy adversary now. Why does anyone choose to pick them off?"

"Why does any predator choose the weakest members of the herd? Or stake out the weak member to lure in a bigger prize."

"Vuron seems to think that the negotiations were going positively. Why would someone kidnap the Vulcans if this was true?"

"Why indeed."

They exchanged snarls.

"So, someone who doesn't want a lasting alliance."

"Our people are driven by war. Why would we be want a lasting alliance?"

"There are other ways to achieve peace. The Vulcans are a strong people, under all that puff and ceremony."

"...strong." Those cunning eyes narrowed again. "Alliances by marriage."

"You've chosen husbands for their ability to give you stronger children before," J'Mara turned back. "Imagine a new generation with greater strength than the last. Stamina in battle unheard of since Kahless himself. Strength of the mind equal to that of the body. The Scientist caste capable of doing more than stealing the technology of other races and modifying it for our use."

"Conquering by bloodline. You will take us back in time."

"Or I shall thrust us into a grand new future for the Empire!"

"An Empire of smooth-faced emotionless curs! A curse we know all too well. And how would you convince these dull bastards to wed our people, hm? Great ballads? Great battles? I doubt anything would move their stony hearts."

"If you keep the unbonded separate long enough-" J'Mara swallowed the rest. Pon farr. The secret so ingrained in her mate's people that they don't speak of it out loud. Not unless absolutely necessary.

Bel'tath's gleaming eyes. She's fishing. Looking for something she can use. Information for private gain, or to sell or trade with another.

"Come, come, Lady J'Mara. Perhaps I would want one of these strong, pale creatures in my bed. It would be an interesting... experiment. Separate long enough. How long? How does one determine if one of those curs is unbonded?"

J'Mara's jaw tightened. She'd said too much. Far too much. Opened up another weakness for a people falling apart.

"Information exchanged for information. Who has Sranak now? Are his kidnappers attempting to gain by ransom, or gain by removing him from discussions?"

"He is still on Qo'Nos," she replied, after considering. "If you want any more information, you will have to give some in return."

J'Mara searched what she knew, determining what she could safely share to gain the intel Vuron needed.

"They're telepaths. The whole lot of them."

"And?"

J'Mara sighed. "They can't telescope it. Not like a Betazoid. They need to be touching to make it work. But its powerful. Someone skilled in it can make their prey do what they want. Reveal security codes, unlock prison doors. ...Discover an opponent's intentions from a the slightest touch in battle."

A wide smile slowly pulled at Bel'tath's lips.

"Chancellor Ka'Tra does not have him, but he approved it. The staff have been moved off world. My sources suggest they've been split in two different groups."

J'Mara's heart raced. She stilled herself, waiting for more. None came.

"This is dishonorable! How does Chancellor Ka'Tra stand for-"

"It is done, and there is nothing we can do about it now. The attack was well timed."

Attack?

J'Mara's eyes widened at the feel of Vuron's mind in hers.

She closed off everything she possessed. Refused to even think.

J'Mara! Answer me. What happened to the ambassador!

Intense pain doubled her over.
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Far Away From Home