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The Scent of Chaos
Shanin gazed up from the rifle in her hands. "Well, are you going to take them or not? Highest quality Athmari plasma rifle, you're not going to find anything like this on the open market."
T'korQ glowered. "How much?"
"Would you prefer to pay in dilithium or antimatter? I'll accept either, but I want two cases of that Romulan ale with it."
"These are not your best, elf."
Shanin shrugged. "As may be. I'm not an elf, you're not a real warrior, these aren't--"
The Klingon captain growled. "Overgrown, presumptuous elf!" he cried as he threw himself at her.
T'korQ's D'k tahg ricocheted off of Shanin's shielding. "You dishonorable targ!"
"I would offer to deal in photon torpedoes, but yours are too large for Athmari torpedo tubes."
"I will make them fit, Ferengi!" T'korQ bellowed. His opponent drew her long, thin Athmari Houseblood dagger. The gleaming of the starmetal, even in the dim light of T'korQ's cabin, was enough to stun him for a moment. She decided it was barely worth the effort needed to cleanse his blood from the name of S'aryn which was cut into the blade of the dagger, but he was dead from the moment he slandered her race.
Shanin allowed herself to be backed into a corner. "I'm willing to negotiate?" she whispered. T'korQ lunged, finally coming close enough for her to grab his long, shaggy hair. Shanin pulled, bringing him closer still, then brought the blade of her dagger down across his arm. "Too much? The Romulans paid, you know."
"The Romulans are too cowardly to take what they want as warriors do!" There was something unconvincing about the set of his face. Shanin wished she'd hired a telepath for her ship.
Shanin brought the dagger around and stabbed through a weak point in his armor. She waited just long enough to see the light fade from his eyes, then pulled a cloth out of one boot and wrapped the dagger in it. Walking over to T'korQ's desk, she picked up a bottle of Romulan ale with the other hand. She sniffed the cork. Good vintage. But it smelled like Romulans. And there was something else...
Of course it smelled like Romulans! T'korQ had to get it from somewhere. But the scent was fresh...and there hadn't been a report of a border skirmish in months. Ferried over from somewhere else? No, T'korQ had been a lackluster warrior; he wanted the weapons to win some battles with Starfleet, make a better name for himself.
Could there be an alliance? Shanin's ears pricked up at the thought. She wondered if Moonstone knew...her people certainly wouldn't.
She gathered up as many bottles as ale as she could hold in her arms, then touched the remote transporter control on her sleeve. Back on Diamond Shard, she waved her helmsman away, went to her quarters, and set the bottles down.
"Autosend message, Lukaya Vi. 'Kaya, I've been to the Klingon border and I got this from T'korQ. Tell me what this smells like to you and if you think I wasn't right about warning the Council not to stay up in their damned ivory tower. I'll be somewhere near Two Moons Station for the next month or so, might be able to pick up some more clues there." She paused, about to end the message, then said, "No sign of the Grail yet. End message." She set one bottle down on a small transporter pad and it disappeared in a silver shimmer.
Shanin grabbed the neck of another bottle, pulled the cork out with her teeth, and decided to look for clues at the bottom of the bottle.