Decisions in Morning's Light

[HoD Bch 0]

The first rays of morning sunshine struck Bch’s face and startled her into waking. She blinked a few times and looked out on the early morning vista before her as the fog of sleep quickly cleared. She was lying belly-down on the rock floor of the entrance of the cave with her cheek to the ground facing out.

 

It was a beautiful morning: Crisp and clear with the smell of spring and promise of new life. Bch smiled an easy and genuine smile and felt her decision settled contently in the core of her soul. Without getting up, she rolled onto her side, clasped her hands over her head and stretched full length to enjoy the never-old pleasure of her entire spine cracking.

 

She knew it would be some time before she could fully relax, however. If she knew nothing else, she knew the tenacity of Klingons, and with that came the chance that their acceptance of her decision would cause conflict. How long would it be before the Qob was far enough away that she could be sure it would not return in some heroic attempt to retrieve her? She wasn’t sure, but it certainly wasn’t this morning. In fact, she didn’t doubt that they were merely out of sight for the moment.

 

The final answer for Klingons lay in truth. This she knew. The question was how long it would take them to agree on that truth. The truth here being that she was indeed sane (Bch chuckled a little at that), and that if she no longer wished to serve the Qob, she should not serve the Qob.

 

They would fear the loss of her experience. But the irony was that Kwalus was FAR more experienced in command than Bch had been when she first took the Qob. Bch had been young, strong, arrogant, and stubborn, but without a shred of experience in command of a ship. Kwalus was less young, and just as strong, arrogant, and stubborn, AND experienced. They would figure that out. If not, Kwalus would help them figure that out…

 

In the meantime, Bch sat up, rubbed the rock prints on her cheek, and turned her thoughts to more immediate concerns. Breakfast.

 

She quickly stirred up last night’s fire and set a pot to brew the morning’s raktajino. Yes, she had a replicator, but in the beauty of this morning, she felt impatient to get down to basics. In fact, perhaps this afternoon she would choose the location to plant some of the basics she had brought with her, including raktajino beans.

 

With the pot churning away nicely, Bch took her razor sharp blade and slipped soundlessly into the dewy morning…