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Worf led them out through the open—and now usable—rear hatch. Behind him were Falce and McKenna, then B’Oraq, with G’joth bringing up the rear.

PAIN!

The moment they were all out of the shuttle, she felt intense pain in her skull that made her earlier headache seem meaningless.

As she fell unconscious for the second time in as many days, she decided that staying in the shuttle might not have been such a bad idea….

Chapter Thirteen

COMMANDER TERETH GAZED OVER THE BRIDGE of the Gorkon and was content.

She had requested this posting the instant she knew that it was available. Tereth had gone far in her career because she had always had a good instinct for picking winners. It had been a necessary survival skill. The House of Kular was not an especially powerful one when Tereth was a girl, and she was the only child left. Her parents had hoped she would mate well and bring the House glory that way, but she had been mated twice to men who subsequently died before they had a chance to forge a path of honor that would bring Kular to greater glory.

But neither of those mates had made her crest ache. They were adequate par’machkai, but nothing spectacular.

So, though her doddering father was the ostensible House head, she took over running the House herself—behind the scenes, of course, since women were not permitted to be House heads without special dispensation from the High Council, which Kular was hardly in a position to get.

When Gowron—an outsider and political agitator—campaigned to be considered a worthy successor to the aging Chancellor K’mpec, Tereth had insisted that Kular back him, even though Duras—a councillor from a most influential House—seemed the favorite. Her parents had argued, but she insisted. Besides, their debts were huge, their prospects growing dimmer with each turn. They had very little to lose.

Sure enough, Gowron eventually became chancellor, Duras died in disgrace, and the House of Kular reaped the benefits. Gowron forgave many of Kular’s debts, paved the way for others to be easily repaid, and also sponsored Tereth’s application to become an officer in the Defense Force.

Since then, she had flourished. She had served with Captain Akhra when he took the Cardassian world of Hranish. Given the opportunity to serve directly under General Talak, she chose instead a less prestigious post with Captain Huss as part of the general’s armada. Once again her instincts proved prophetic: Huss was soon inducted into the Order of the Bat’leth, then went on to win several major campaigns against the Dominion.

Her crest ached again when she encountered Klag on Qo’noS when the latter was recovering from Marcan V. She kept an eye on him, and he soon was given one of the mighty Qang-class ships. He, too, was destined to join the Order, and within a month of his shakedown cruise, he had an opening for a first officer and no viable candidates on-ship.

As with so many others Tereth had chosen as patrons, Klag seemed odd on the face of it. He had served on the Pagh for an absurdly long time without promotion or attrition, and even though he was rewarded for his actions on Marcan V, he was also given no say in his own command crew. His exploits to date were satisfactory, but he had won no great victories, defeating only simple foes—Kreel, Kinshaya pirates, jeghpu’wI’ rebels. Still, Tereth’s instincts had not failed her yet.

The Gorkon pilot, a newly assigned youth named Vralk, recently promoted to lieutenant and still with a sad excuse for a beard dirtying his face, said, “We are at the last known position of the captain’s shuttle, Commander.”

“Full stop.” Tereth strode to her position on the captain’s right. To Toq, who stood at the operations console behind the captain’s chair, she said, “Report.”

“I am picking up the shuttle’s warp signature, Commander,” Toq said. “Its heading is 156 mark 7—right on course for Qo’noS. They were traveling somewhere between warp five and warp seven-point-five.”

Tereth nodded and turned to Vralk. “Set course