A Hundred Questions

[KVorlag 0]

It had taken days to arrive at the Dominion cloning facility – time enough to traverse the distance from Avalon, slip across the well-patrolled border under cloak, and avoid Jem-Hadar sentries – only to find it already obliterated. The planetoid that had housed the base had been all but pulverized less than twelve hours before their arrival. N’Kedre had used some choice Romulan words to curse his “overcautiousness” in avoiding the Dominion patrols, but K’Vorlag knew that secrecy remained their real protection. A degree of plausible deniability, as the Vulcans referred to it, would shield the Klingon and Romauln governments from responsibility if they were detected by their Dominion “allies.” It might also keep them alive. They had maintained subspace radio silence for the past six days, changing course to avoid ships in their path. The resulting delay had been regrettable, but unavoidable.

 

At first, the situation had left them with little evidence of who was responsible for the attack, which had been their objective. Undaunted, the IKS Kij’Pah (Black Talon) had remained under cloak, scanning the debris, prepared to withdraw from the system at the first sign of Jem’Hadar response. K’Vorlag had known it was a futile gesture, but they needed to glean something that might make sense of the destruction. How had the Dominion been caught so off-guard? Why had their border defenses and vaunted fleet not repelled the attackers? Why was there no evidence of a departure route?

 

It had been the Starfleet officer who had detected it.

 

“Whoa,” Commander John Blair had blurted, pulling his feet down from the scanning console. “What was that?” Although he’d complained about the inadequacy of Klingon sensors, the science officer had insisted on a thorough scan.

 

K’Vorlag had barely roused from his chair. “That is your job to tell me,” he’d chided.

 

“One of my peripheral protocols detected a morphogenic shift,” Blair explained.

 

Moments later, they had caught sight of one of the drifting boulders as it shifted, coalescing into a spaceborne organism. Beating winglike appendages, it had folded subspace around it, surging forward at low warp speeds.

 

K’Vorlag had seen the aquatic-looking creature before, once in library files, and once fleeing from Camelot Station. There was no doubt it was a shapeshifter, almost certainly one of the Hundred. He had ordered immediate pursuit. Still under cloak, the Kij’Pah followed at a sluggish Warp 4.8, choosing to see where their quarry would lead them. Under subspace silence, the ship had stayed this course for eleven days, heading toward a Dominion border opposite from the side they’d entered.

 

The wait had been excruciating.

 

Blair had extrapolated the flight path and found no known star system ahead. K’Vorlag had frowned, losing hope of locating some hidden enclave of the Hundred. Passive scans had confirmed that the organism was carrying dense metal objects inside it, but were unable to determine their nature.

 

Was it carrying an asteroid-busting weapon, he wondered, or spoils from the ruined cloning facility? As he staring at the rhythmic movement of the wings onscreen, he’d found himself asking other questions. Why had it hidden among the debris for a full day after the destruction? Why had it destroyed the Jem’Hadar ships rather than turn them to its cause? Had their Vorta refused to defect?

 

His resolve, never one for mindless vengeance, had turned to seizing answers to a hundred questions.

 

As they slipped out of Dominion space at last, the B’Rel-class scout had closed distance, clamped onto the creature with a tractor, and beamed it aboard. It had been a risk, but K'Vorlag had let it shift into humanoid form before invoking the quantum stasis field.

 

A prize stolen from the battered archives of the Obsidian Order, the quantum status generator had been acquired by his fellow Imperial Intelligence operatives during the occupation of Cardassia Prime. Although field tested only once, it had proven quite capable of locking a changeling into its current form. It was his zha gambit. Without it, they might all be dead.

 

While N’Kedre might have little respect for shapeshifter power, K’Vorlag had seen it firsthand. The Founder that had infiltrated the Order of the Bat’leth ceremony had taken 83 disruptor hits before dissociating. Although he had slain one himself aboard the Excalibur-A, he’d been lucky enough to catch the Founder in a vulnerable transition. He’d seen the images of shapeshifters changing into gases, into metals that could absorb or deflect energy weapons, or simply phasing to be somewhere else when a beam hit.

 

But this Hundred would have no such recourse.

 

Confronted by N’Kedre from behind the transporter room forcefield, the shapeshifter had admitted he was one of that group. As it had morphed into a bipedal shape, the Hundred had pulled away from several objects that had been previously concealed inside its spaceborne form. From the looks of them, they appeared to be ordinary objects – isometic memory tubes and laboratory sample cases.

 

It stood, looking somewhat pathetic at its lost abilities, facing both Klingon and Romulan ambassadors. He looked very unlike a powerful deity who commanded the worship of Vorta and Jem’Hadar alike. I wonder, K’Vorlag mused, if he knows what the Klingons did to their gods?

 

A menacing smile crept across his visage. It was time to get his answers.

Edited December 28, 2005 by KVorlag

[KVorlag 0]

This is a continuation of the mission described earlier in Black Talon Unsheathed.

Edited December 31, 2005 by KVorlag