House of Cards

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"All of the true things I am about to tell you are shameless lies."
-Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

The crew never invited her to their card games, but it was a small ship and the air ducts carried sound through almost all of the public areas so Shanin knew that this was rare. Of course, Tarlen would win even less if she were at the table, and she also knew that the weekly games were good for morale. So she took night shift on the bridge, alone, and listened.

Shanin took her time on the way back to her tiny compartment. After all, it was Julani, and she could wait. She uncorked a bottle of German wine that Katya had given to her, poured herself a little, and took a big sip. After all, it was Julani.

Once she had finally meandered over to her comconsole, her cousin's face appeared. Julani, who got the cushy position on the Betandi Council which should have gone to Shanin.

In other words, Julani was arrogant, larcenous, loudmouthed, vicious, and unable to control herself. The perfect politician. Which was exactly why Shanin was so astonished by the first words out of her cousin's mouth.

"Is it the concept of correctness that you don't grasp, or is it the cataclysmically rare occurrence of that word appearing as an adjective modifying you?"

"Now that's better," Shanin said. "For a moment, I thought you were going soft on me."

"So..." She desperately wished she'd had more to drink. "What exactly was I right about, and is it too late to do anything about it?"

Julani gave her cousin a thin-lipped smile. "The High Council has agreed to consider an alliance with the roundears."

"As of the fourteenth of M'riin, the Council has officially adopted a strategy - mine - for luring the human government into alliance. You will be required to assist; we voted on that just yesterday."

"I'd tell you that's too bad, but you'll be time-shifted for this mission. It shouldn't interfere with your precious schedule at all."

"Any idea how long? I have an errand to run eighteen Terran years ago and I might be able to do that at the same time."

"This should take you back about sixty Athmari years and you'll be there until almost the present. It should be no problem."

Shanin reached for her wineglass but it was just out of reach. "So...what will I be doing to facilitate our newly-legislated eternal love for the humans?"

Shanin got up, grabbed the wineglass, and chugged what was left before responding. "I'll need Seleyn, then."

"So I get Seleyn and the n'Sira. A good enough deal." Shanin's finger stabbed toward the disconnect button in a race against Julani's mouth. There was sure to be more bad news, and she didn't want to hear it. "G'night, Juli."

"Telein is dead," Tien intoned. "That is certain. What we do not know - but will, I assure you - is which one of you killed her."

S'aryn and her sister, Sira, said nothing. They simply glared at each other across the table.

"Come, now," Tien continued, her voice silky. "Surely you don't want your Clan weakened any further?"

Tien didn't care. "Well, then, if neither of you will confess..." She unsheathed her ceremonial dagger. "This House is divided. There is no leader of this Clan to witness, so the duty falls to the entire people. I am qualified for this:

"I am a hunter. I have seen the moons rise and I have seen them set. I have taken life. I have seen life within me.

She glanced at the twins - Telein's only surviving relatives. "Do either of you dispute this?"

"I declare that this House is fallen. Let there no longer be anyone who calls herself n'Telein. There is only n'S'aryn and n'Sira."

"My Lord, we're receiving a distress signal. Audio only," the helmsman of the I.S.S. Excalibur reported.

"This is the S.S. Chalice requesting assistance. We have lost primary systems and are trapped in the gravitational pull of the third planet of the Aulas system. Life support is failing. We have no functioning escape craft. Repeat, this is the S.S. Chalice..."

Excalibur arrived well in time to save the faltering, oddly-shaped Chalice. Shelby ordered a tractor beam, and soon the ship was out of immediate danger. Outside of the planet's gravitational pull, Chalice rotated from its tilted original alignment and turned to face Excalibur.

"Raise shields and target Chalice," Shelby ordered. "Open a channel. Chalice, this is Captain Shelby of the I.S.S. Excalibur. Explain yourself."

"This is the INV Chalice, and we do not care to explain the obvious to outlanders."

There was a tiny surge of flame where Excalibur's phasers hit, quickly extinguished by the vacuum of space. Then Chalice shook, and the entire ship just simply broke apart.

"This is way out of proportion," Shelby's security chief said, adding a belated, "My Lord."

"She's dead in the water now, Captain. All major systems seem to be destroyed, and we seem to have killed all hands."

Tavik raised his eyebrows. "Indeed? Of what race were the attackers? The energy signatures from their weapons are quite unusual."

"They identified themselves as INV Chalice. Are you familiar with that abbreviation?"

"Indeed!" Tavik seemed as close to shock as a Vulcan would ever come in public. "That is an Athmari designation."

"I've never heard of the Athmari. They must be rather weak; we got them with one shot."

Tavik shook his head. "They are rumored to have very powerful shielding, as well as cloaking devices which are virtually flawless in their design."

This one was far larger. A comm transmission boomed through, even though neither Captain had given orders to patch the transmission through. "This is Captain Alinn n'Sira of the INV Farreach. You have committed an act of war and will be destroyed."

"They had a run-in with some sort of reclusive species - the Athmari - and got blown to pieces. Seems the aliens were posing as a ship from the Empire with the same name. The Grissom was there, too, and barely got away."

"H'uuunh." This was exactly why Moonstone didn't like being paired with Ensign Taylor. His conversation skills.

"We've practically declared war against them already. If you ask me, it's pretty stupid to pick a fight with the Athmari when we've already got the H'Llarshen breathing down our necks."

A booming Klingon voice interrupted her. "Are you implying that the Empire is too weak to defeat both enemies at once?"

Moonstone turned, her mouth still open wide, to face a very displeased Paxton. "Wha? --Aaaah, no sir. Never that, sir."

"Wh-why, that we should concentrate on one enemy at a time. That way, we need not fear either taking advantage of a momentary distraction."

"As the Empire does not suffer from momentary distractions, we will have them both thinking that we are at a disadvantage, will we not? They'll think us weak and become too confident in themselves."

Moonstone said nothing. She merely sat there with lower lip quivering, thinking of how badly her little piece of propaganda had backfired and how news of her encounter with Paxton was sure to circulate through the ship, taking her only hope of aiding Shanin away with it.

Moonstone bent over the exposed panel again and concentrated very hard on not accidentally fusing anything together.

Shanin, recently returned from her time-mission, sat idly in her quarters. Everything had gone reasonably well, she thought, with the exception of the n'Sira's interference. Upon arriving home and restowing all of her clothing and equipment, she'd picked up a deck of cards out of boredom. It was the Clan Betandi deck, not the all-Clans deck, and so the Primaries and Masters of each suit were leaders of the six strongest Betandi Houses, not the six strongest Clans.

The cards lay face down in one of the one-person battle patterns. Shanin turned over the cards in the Admiral positions and snickered.

The Ally positions on each side were evenly matched. Tough game. She rearranged some of the left side's Fleet cards and began turning them over. Still no clear advantage, she thought.

This is one of those games where neither side can win. They can only keep pounding at each other until both are destroyed.

The n'Sira would never give up. The old rivalry runs too deep. In real life, this could destroy the entire Clan.

Blackfire would never admit it, but the stranger's smile actually made her nervous. Some sort of powerful magic radiated from him, something the elf had never seen or felt before.

Kymil Betandi was inutterably pleased to be wreaking havoc on a Starfleet vessel.

"How nice to finally meet you, Captain. We've heard a little about you, back home, and it's rare that any Athmari gets to speak with a foreigner with such strong magical abilities."

"Please. My mate is Lady Alinn n'Sira. That doesn't give me any official rank. I would not mind it if you called me Kymil."

"Very well then, Kymil." Official rank doesn't always mean official power...what is he hiding? Blackfire could not pierce the man's mental shielding. Starfleet would do well to capture one such as this, learn the secret of such power.

"My Lord Blackfire, I am quite pleased to inform you that my people are prepared to look the other way in response to this unfortunate misunderstanding. We are quite aware that your ship acted in self-defense; it was entirely unnecessary of you to claim that Chalice fired first."

"Of course. Whatever propaganda is required to keep the proles from whining, hm?" Kymil's smile grew even wider. "I can sympathize, having been so close to the pressures of leadership myself. At any rate, we would like to express our sincere wishes for a better relationship with your Empire, and as such we are offering you quite an opportunity."

Kymil's Cheshirized expression grew a bit more forced and his speech much more forced and quick. "As-such-may-I-please-introduce-to-you-yournewcrewman,Cast-No-Shadow."

He waited until Blackfire had turned away to gasp for breath. Causing trouble and paperwork for aliens was not such a bad pastime, even if one was forced into it, but he would much rather be away from Cast-No-Shadow and off on the tour which Ambassador Kostolitz had promised. He especially looked forward to using his minor metalshaping talent upon the equipment in Engineering.

Cast-No-Shadow stepped into the ready room and stared at Blackfire with huge, dark eyes. The tips of his pointed ears quivered. "You are elf?" he asked.

"You will address me as Captain or My Lord, Yeoman. If I decide to keep you on this ship."

Cast-No-Shadow's gaze played over her eyes and hands. "They spoke the truth." He grinned from ear to ear and Blackfire did not feel threatened at all. Raising his five-fingered hands, Cast-No-Shadow exclaimed, "N'jai sanat, my bloodkin! I am here to serve your will!"

Cast-No-Shadow was inutterably thrilled by the strength, power, and beauty of his new Lord. She had done exactly what was proper. Of course, he had little idea of what was proper for a Lord of Elves, only of what would be done among his mother-race, but he was sure she had comported herself perfectly.

Expelling Shadow and Kymil from her ready room, she had ordered Kymil to be placed in the brig until everything was sorted out. Kymil had put up a false struggle; he was capable of far more defiance than that. Cast-No-Shadow would have to warn his Lord about that one. Clearly it was his purpose to stay on the ship and work mayhem upon it.

And such a wonderful ship! Technologically primitive, but filled with dreamberry wine and beautiful elvan women...many of whom were short, but that could be overlooked.

Cast-No-Shadow sat in Ten-Forward, arm around one of the aforementioned short-but-beautiful elves and a mug of dreamberry wine, supplied by Pintwise, in his other hand. "It's entirely possible to have an elf/Athmari hybrid without Recognition. All that is needed is a few tissue samples - which are easily obtainable - and an Athmari biolab, which is..."

"Which is not," Moonstone sighed. She truly hoped that she wasn't going to have to work with this freak once he was officially on the duty roster.

"Which is not," Cast-No-Shadow repeated, a little too deliberately. "Unless you happen to know - or be related to - members of two very prominent Athmari Houses? Say, the House of S'aryn and the House of Kora? It was a bit difficult, as the House of S'aryn is feuding with the House of Sira - ugly mess, that - but it will all be straightened out soon."

Moonstone suddenly sat up much straighter. House of S'aryn? This...thing...is related to Shanin?

"And of course some time-travel equipment was necessary as I was a rush job. But my grandmother and great-grandfather were very happy to time-loop and train me in weapons." Cast-No-Shadow looked at Moonstone blearily. "Half of my genetic material came from an elf named Moonstone. Do you know her?"

Stuttering uncontrollably for the second time that day, Moonstone replied, "I- I think you ought to tell the Captain about all this. She'll help you."

"What is difficult is to make the devious route the most direct and turn misfortune to advantage."
-Sun Tzu

"And if our colleagues in the green and grey are so concerned for the future of our race, why are they unable to produce the individuals responsible for this mayhem?"

Julani sat, tight-lipped, and refused to show any response to Tien Kessel's words.

She was utterly astonished to see Shanin walk through the door. "I don't know about the n'Sira," her cousin drawled, "But I myself have nothing to be ashamed of." Shanin noticed that Alinn's seat in the Council Chambers was occupied by her third-oldest daughter, M'reeya. How intriguing.

Ignoring the dagger-sharp stares of half the Clans, Shanin's dark eyes scanned the room. Every House had a representative, which was almost unprecedented. Even Katha Ta'bur, who always abstained even when present for a vote, was there. Her tiny Clan had only the one representative, and Shanin could honestly say that it was the only time since leaving the homeworlds that she had seen all eight of the Clans' banners displayed together. The fall of cool blue, decorated by an off-white chalice, seemed harsh to the eyes despite its soft colors.

Cereda, sitting on the dais in the center of the room, narrowed her eyes. "This certainly goes a long way toward the dismissal of the charges against my House, but I am afraid that it is not enough. There will have to be a vote."

"What exactly is it that I have to prove? I'm afraid that Julani has not kept me informed as to what is happening here."

Cereda stared at her granddaughter in complete disbelief. "You deny trying to force us into an alliance with the humans?"

Why can't they just make up their minds? Moonstone thought. Drilaris screeched in anger as it relayed the story of what was happening on the Bridge. It was an off-duty shift for her, fortunately, so she could devote all of her attention to her new bond-spirit's messages.

Drilaris suddenly made a mind-noise like the sound humans called 'raspberries.' /Come with me./

Before Moonstone could stop it, she felt herself being pulled out of her body. After a brief period of disorientation, she was 'standing' on the Bridge, just behind the Tactical station.

"I apologize for the...interruption, Captain. Unfortunately, there were some obstacles to be faced among my own people before I could pursue justice for my slain allies." Drilaris seemed to glow red around Moonstone's spirit; she could only assume that the Athmari was lying badly about something. "I have no doubt that the last loose ends will be tied up soon, and that leaves me free to deal with you.

"Now, then...do you surrender, or are you still under the delusion that your Empire is superior to ours?"

She had her ship's records to prove that she had only followed orders. Possibly Julani had set herself up for this. But, more possibly, someone else was trying to exploit her cousin's strategy. Strengthen our position now, ask permission later...at any rate, she was definitely rubbing off on Juli. Of course, there was the n'Sira's current state in the Council to consider. M'reeya would never officially serve on the Council unless her older sisters both got themselves killed somehow. Her presence was certainly an attempt at damage control. If she were sacrificed, there would be no loss to her House...

Fool's mate. It was the situation Shanin had played with the cards just the other night, but with a twist. The House of Sira had clearly set itself up to take the fall gracefully - blame M'reeya and move on, strong as ever but with a renewed need for caution. The House of S'aryn could not afford to lose Julani or Shanin, no matter what the more radical political parties said about either.

It didn't matter. This was more complex than a game of cards and Shanin could see a way out.

The helmsman obeyed; Starsword sent, ***We have only another two minutes at best, Captain.***

At that moment, Moonstone felt herself being pulled back toward her body. Returning to her quarters, she vaulted into it and was left with the feeling that she'd been punched in the stomach by an extremely large Klingon. Dazed, she heard a voice over the comm system ordering her to report to Engineering.

She was certainly needed. It seemed as if every system on the ship were failing. "Why aren't we retreating?" Moonstone demanded.

"Because we're giving almost as good as we're getting, Lieutenant! Now go grab a toolkit and make yourself useful!"

She obeyed, but knew that the majority of her usefulness depended on what she already had. Her metalshaping talent and her wits were already as prepared as they could be, and Drilaris--

There was always something around the corner, from the moment that she had met it. Moonstone let her bond-spirit go and began patching a broken relay.

The answer, too, was faint...but growing stronger. The cloak around Thirdmoon, one of Kado Betandi's warships, dissolved into mist. Bright red beams stabbed outward from the ship and raked across Farreach's hull. Outnumbered, Alinn had no choice but to retreat.

Breathless, Kado opened a channel to Ghidorah. Her bond-spirit, Hinori, held her tightly and glistened like sweat. "Are you holding up over there? I can send a few techs, if you like."

Blackfire, openly furious at this display of pity, sneered. "We're doing just fine, thank you."

Kado raised both hands, palms up, in a decidedly humanlike gesture. "N'jai sanat. I was sent to serve you." She cut the comms and Thirdmoon disappeared back into the darkness of space.

"I'm afraid that this is a difficult situation for me. You see, I was acting under orders to counteract other covert plots within our House - ones which did not have the sanction of a higher power, as mine did - and given complete authority over my methods. Therefore, I chose a rather extreme path in an attempt to neutralize the extreme actions of my adversaries." Shanin continued to smile at Tien. "You see, House n'Sira, in an attempt to gain the power over our Clan which has never been rightfully theirs, attempted to start a war with the humans and their allies. They put themselves in a position to take as many worlds as possible before the war was legitimized and the hunting opened up to other Houses. To do this, they sacrificed the honor of the Ta'bur. They duped a human into firing upon a ship which they claimed was filled with the last members of this Clan. They have, I believe, destroyed the reputation of the Ta'bur flagship, Chalice, among the human-controlled species by associating it with their maneuverings. As such, I had no choice but to act decisively in order to redeem our fellow Clan's name and to repair our relationship with our neighbors."

"Isn't it enough that it was in the name of preserving honor and correcting the excesses of another House?"

Within hours, everything was put right in the Council. Alinn's power play might have been admirable under other circumstances, but as an act of rebellion against the head of Clan Betandi's ruling House, it was unpardonable. The Council session became even more memorable as Katha Ta'bur cast her first non-neutral vote ever and the majority of the Houses of Clan Kessel sided with the House of S'aryn.

Shanin, having quickly returned from the Athmari fleet, was so exceptionally pleased that she even considered staying on Ghidorah for awhile. Just as a temporary measure; she had no doubt that Lukaya would never be allowed to set foot on the ship, being a prominent theoretical mathematician, employed by the Imperial Navy, and therefore full of classified information. And, as S'aryn herself put it, "It is impossible to truly live without at least one mate."

"Well, now. I suppose I have to convince the Federation Council to overlook all of this," she mused. "It would be much easier if I had the support of a Captain who'd seen part of this whole debacle...?"

For a long while, Blackfire could not speak. Finally she had enough control over herself to hiss, "Do you realize how that would look?"

"But you could, of course, certify as to the complete and glorious incompetence of a certain grandson of mine? And, in return, supply me with a certain 'guest' of yours for whom you surely have no need?" A little bit of justice for Kymil, administered with a pulser, perhaps?

"Your grandson?" Blackfire's face was blank. A good actress, this one, when she didn't let her passions overwhelm her.

"I'm sure you know by now. Cast-No-Shadow. We lied to him about his mother-line to bind him more securely to your crew - his real mother is a Wolfrider named Arrowsflight, not Moonstone as he may have told you - but his alleged father-line is real enough and I assure you that should anything happen, he would be well-avenged no matter how glorious his incompetence." She smiled hungrily. Blackfire felt an ice-cold breeze blow through the room. "Let's make sure that isn't necessary."

Captain Blackfire was very pleased by the newest batch of recruits. Trembling respectfully, they had all scurried away from her at the earliest opportunity to do so - all except one.

"Yeoman Tora Melain, sir," the Betazoid said in cool, controlled tones. There was the barest hint of fear visible to Blackfire's elvan perceptions, but Melain, in her beautifully-fitting new uniform, looked like the next poster girl for Starfleet Security. She did not let fear control her, or become visible. Good. So long as she did not challenge Starsword's authority, she would be welcome.

Blackfire welcomed the girl, dismissed her, and watched as Melain casually strolled out of the shuttlebay. Admittedly, she wasn't an elf, but this one would be very useful.

Julani glared at the human. She'd had no choice but to accept Section 31's offer of help, but that offer was growing more and more costly.

"It was a trying situation. We understand." Setting up the n'Sira to make such a bold move had not been simple. But, as Julani well knew, the High Council would have entered an overt alliance with the humans had she not intervened. Their survival was becoming less and less certain. Her Clan desperately needed the supplies Julani had bought through this agreement - to start a war that would mask transfers of Athmari technology to Starfleet researchers - and Julani desperately needed to see if the human would be able to deliver on the rest of his end of the deal.

The human nodded. "I will give you the location of the Grail if I am satisfied with them," he said.

"Well, now, I don't see how a historical artifact could be worth so much to you. Why would you be arming potential enemies unless you got stronger weapons out of it?"

"So your boy Caden is Adam and King Arthur all in one. Nice. A metal cup isn't going to keep your people from starving or getting blown out of the sky by Starfleet."

"You're forgetting something: we can move our Empire. You can't move yours. If supplies are scarce or competition gets too tough, we move on. There are more important things than a chunk of physical space that our ships just happen to occupy."

The expression in her eyes would have been heartbreaking to anyone who had actually cared. "We have to know who we are..."

Tora smiled as CMO Windweaver dismissed her. She'd passed the identification tests with flying colors - which meant that her bioreading implant must be working well enough to fool even an elvan healer. Wonderful.

The next order of business was to find the elf who was collaborating with the n'S'aryn. She - or he, Tora corrected herself sharply - would certainly be able to tell that Tora was Athmari, probably be able to tell that she was n'Sira...but she couldn't reveal that without admitting to the Captain that she was a collaborator, could she?