The Brave and the Bold Book Two - Keith R. A. DeCandido [51]
Now, finally, Quark looked concerned. In fact, he seemed to be quivering. “Look, I want this deal to go through as much as you—I just had a big land deal get yanked out from under me and honestly, I could use the latinum. Trust me, you’ll have your marble.”
“I’d better. Because do you know what will happen if I don’t?”
“I don’t get my commission,” Quark said matter-of-factly.
This time J’lang smiled. “Besides that. Are you familiar with Lieutenant Koth of the Tcha’voth?”
“Sure.” The Tcha’voth was the Klingon Defense Force ship assigned to the Bajoran sector. “He spends an hour a day in the holosuite killing things after he gets off-shift, and then drinks two mugs of that chech’tluth stuff before heading back to the ship.”
J’lang’s smile spread into a grin. That certainly sounded like Koth; you didn’t need chronometers on ships he served on, you just had to follow his routine, and you’d know what the time of day was. “He’s also my cousin—a member of my House, and quite happy to rip off your head and spit down your neck if I ask him to do so. Do I make myself perfectly clear, Quark?”
“Oh, quite clear, yes,” Quark said, nodding quickly and swallowing nervously. “Well, if you’ll excuse me…” The Ferengi cut off the connection.
Of course, the truth was that J’lang and Koth hadn’t spoken in years. They were only distant cousins, and the sculptor seriously doubted that he could prevail upon the lieutenant to kill a Ferengi on his behalf. But, he thought happily, Quark doesn’t need to know that.
J’lang turned off his screen and turned to look outside the window of the small, cluttered office. It was part of a prefabricated structure built on this, the smallest continent on Narendra III, meant to be here only as long as it took J’lang’s apprentices to construct the Dominion War Memorial and the workers to put together the other buildings that would accompany it—a restaurant, a museum, and some other things that were of no concern to J’lang.
The idea had been to honor those who died in battle defending the empire. But what Chancellor Martok had specifically requested was that it honor not just the Klingon dead, but all those who died in service of the fight against the oppressors from the Gamma Quadrant. So J’lang was instructed to build something that would honor not only the Klingon Defense Force, but Starfleet and even the Romulan military.
J’lang had taken the idea one step further. The memorial would consist of representations of ship captains from each of the three forces—but each would be constructed in a stone from the capital planet of each government.
The human element was proving to be most problematic. He still hadn’t figured out what pose to put the Starfleet captain in. For the Klingon, he’d chosen a classic pose of standing upright and hoisting a bat’leth over his head. The Romulan would stand in a slight crouch and aim her disruptor forward (and if that made the Romulan stand a bit shorter than the Klingon or the human, J’lang had no real problem with that, and he doubted the chancellor would either). But what to do with the human? Perhaps just standing there with his arms on his hips. Standing around looking foolish is what humans do best, after all….
Out the window, J’lang could see several Klingons—some civilians, some volunteers from the Defense Force who wanted to aid in the construction of this dedication to their fallen comrades—laying the triceron explosives that would be used to carve out the space for the statues. J’lang had chosen the top of the largest hill on the continent for the memorial’s site. Since the statues would be west-facing, the sun would rise every morning behind the statues, illuminating the figures majestically from behind.
J’lang smiled. It will be glorious. After this,