Chapter 13

Alternate Conclusions

By H.W.

Chapter 13

"This is damn impressive," B'Elanna said as they were walking through the Hall of the Great.

Torres chuckled. "It's supposed to be impressive. You are supposed to tremor in fear and awe as you walk along this testimony of what true Klingons were."

"Hey there is a woman here," Annika noted as she looked at one of the statues.

"Really, what gave that fact away? The feral look in her eyes?" Torres asked amused.

"Among other things," Annika merely said as she let her eyes drift to the very prominent chest of the woman.

"Seven likes her and her history, why don't you have her fill you in at a time when we are not about to meet the Chancellor," Torres suggested.

"I will sent you a file on her; it is very interesting reading," Seven assured.

They walked on and a few moments later, Torres frowned when she saw who was meeting them. "Red? What are you doing here?"

"Intendant Torres. I'm not about to get killed the first time I deliver bad news if that is what you mean," The redhead assured amused. "It's just that Master Worf figured that now that he had two Body Servants he might as well use us for some other tasks as well. We have now been put in charge of, amongst other things, receiving guests. This way Master Worf no longer has to suffer fools that were only sent to be his aid so that he can kill them if they mess up, as he put it."

Then the red-haired Human woman turned to Seven and sank to her knees. She took Seven's hands and placed kisses on the knuckles. "Thank you, Intendant Phoenix. Thank you so much."

Seven looked at Torres with a bewildered look in her eyes.

"My guess is that she is thanking you for her new life," Torres explained. "Because of you she went from being a sex slave to being Body Servant of the most powerful person in the Coalition. She went from sexy decoration to being someone that people bow to when she walks past. Remember the power you had as my slave? Well, she is now the Body Servant to the one person that is more powerful than me. I guess you could say, she got it made, and she has you to thank for it."

Seven looked down at the woman who was looking back up at her with clear adoration and tears in her eyes. She wanted to tell the woman that she had done no such thing, but knew that this wasn't true. Simply because she existed, this woman kneeling in front of her was no longer a slave, was no longer property to be used and abused at will. And right there Seven realized that she too had needed this. She was making plans for billions of people, but here was the clear proof of how her actions had changed the live of someone in ways that nobody would have thought possible a mere year ago.

She smiled and helped the woman to her feet. "I am glad that my actions could better your life. What is your name?"

"Red, Intendant."

"That is your real name?" Seven asked, making it clear that she had been asking for a full name.

"Intendant, that is the name I have gone by for almost eleven years now. When Master Worf told my wife and me that we could go by our old names again if we wanted, we told him that for us 'Red' and 'Blonde' are our names; it is what we also call ourselves in private. Red is my name, Intendant."

"Interesting," Seven said. "Then please, Red, show us to Chancellor Worf."

"Yes Intendant."

~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~

"Hey," Donatra said with a smile as Kastra walked into her office. She quickly got up and walked over to the Betazoid. She smiled again before leaning in and treating the woman to a gentle kiss.

"Hi," Kastra said, closing her arms around the Romulan and pulling her in for a more serious kiss.

"So, to what do I owe this surprise visit?" Donatra asked after they broke apart. It was something they had agreed on almost the first day that they had agreed that they were in a real relationship. Because their offices were literally only a door apart there would be no little visits for no real reason. Otherwise they would soon be moving back and forth all the time for 'little visits' and getting no work done at all.

"I just came to tell you that I'll be leaving for Betazed tomorrow morning. I'll be gone for eight days."

"I know, you already told me yesterday that you had to go back home," Donatra reminded, wondering why Kastra was telling her this again.

"Right," Kastra agreed a little nervous. "Did I also tell you why?"

Donatra thought about it for a moment. "I don't think you did."

"Well, I'm heading back home because one of the most important Betazed holidays is coming up; Family Weekend. It's the one time of the year where everyone tries to get back home to spent time with the family. It's a weekend so that couples can spent one day with the family of one of them and the second day with the family of the other, if distance allows of course."

"Sounds like it should be great time for you; I know how much you love your family," Donatra said with a smile, remembering some of the stories Kastra had told her, and how the love for her family had been clear in her voice.

"I know I will have a great time; I always do," Kastra assured. "But the reason standing here, basically stalling for time, is," Kastra took a deep breath before saying in a rush, "Iwouldreallyliketoaskyouifyouwouldliketocomealong."

"Me coming along? To meet your family?" Donatra asked, just to clarify.

"No, to meet my family on the Family Weekend," Kastra corrected. "That's why I'm so nervous about this. Donatra, I know how you feel about me, and I... I really like that feeling. But I don't know if you feel ready to do this."

"Why? What's the difference between meeting your family and meeting your family on that weekend?" Donatra wondered.

Kastra hesitated. "Well, it's, you know... the name kinda says it already; 'Family Weekend.' It's a weekend when the family gets together. So, if someone takes someone home to meet the family on that weekend it's... It's a very serious thing Donatra."

"Just how serious exactly?"

"The kind of serious where a mother measures up the new person as a potential life partner for her child, and not as a passing interest," Kastra finally admitted.

"I, see," Donatra said slowly. "You mean the kind of thing where they won't at all be surprised that you gave this to me?" With the word 'this' Donatra lifted her hand to indicate the ring she wore every moment of the day ever since Kastra had slipped it on her finger.

"Right," Kastra agreed. Then feeling the insecurity coming from Donatra she was quick to ad, "It's only a question, you know? I won't be disappointed if you rather not,"

"Yes," Donatra interrupted before placing a soft kiss on those sweet lips. "Remember; lips, not mind. Kastra, I'll admit, this scares me. As much as I am capable of charming the ladies into bed, I never, ever, visited someone's family... with the exception of having to go to Intendant Shinze to be told to never set foot on Romulus again. The idea of visiting a family, especially when that family is a family of Betazoids that can read my every thought, it scares me shitless, honestly. But as a famous person once said; 'it's alright to be scared. Fear keeps you alive. Just as long as you bravely face whatever scares you and show it that you will never give in to its fear.' Yes, I'll go with you to visit your family. Just as long as you pretend that you believe me when I say I'm fine, right after puking."

"Oh, what a charming picture," Kastra laughed.

Donatra chuckled as well and moved a little away. Once she was sure she had her casual air fully in place, with just the right lean against the desk, she looked confidently into Kastra's eyes. "Well, since we are asking questions about being together anyway, let me ask you this. Would you like to move in with me?"

Hearing her own words, Donatra's eyes got a little wider and she was quick to add, "Office. I mean, would you like to move in here, this office. We could have a second desk moved in here. You know, sacrifice the sitting area in front of the view-screen and the view-screen itself. If we do that, there is more than enough room for both desks. And if either of us needs to use the view-screen, we can go to the place that used to be your office."

"Hmm, it sounds like you did some thinking about that," Kastra said as she leaned against the desk as well. "Why?"

Before Donatra could answer, her mind did. Making Kastra smile. "You miss me?"

"Lips, not brain?" Donatra reminded.

"Nope, not on this one," Kastra happily disagreed. "You clearly said that you didn't mind me reading your mind. Just that if you say something while thinking something else, then, and only then, I should go for the words you said. So, you miss me?"

"Oh, alright. Yeah, I do. There, happy? I admitted it."

Kastra lowered her eyes before looking back up through her lashes in an incredibly cute way. "I'm very happy, thank you very much. But why? I mean, I'm only a door away. I know we set up that 'don't visit' rule, but come on, an innocent rule like that only stands for as long as we don't find excuses to bend the rule."

"I think that's just it," Donatra admitted. "You only being a door away, I mean. If you were on a totally different part of the ship, or even on a different ship al together, I think it would be easier. But now, I think of you and know that you are only a couple of meters away from me."

Donatra pointed at the wall to her left. "Right behind there. I think it's the famous 'so close, yet so far away' problem. Do you have any idea how often I catch myself staring at that wall?"

"I feel you, you know that. Right?" Kastra asked. "My abilities, given to me by my Betazoid nature, are limited in range, but they don't stop at walls or doors. Even though I'm on the other side of that wall I feel you just like I feel you now."

"But I'm not Betazoid," Donatra reminded. "And to be totally blunt, I want you here in this room. I want you here so that I can look up from my work and can see you sitting at your desk. You may be able to feel me, but I have to rely on different senses, and I want to see you, hear you, smell you."

"Smell me?" Kastra repeated before asking jokingly, "What, are you saying I stink?"

"Absolutely," Donatra happily agreed. "Why do you think I keep suggesting you take a bath with me?"

"Oh, and here I thought you just wanted to see me naked."

Donatra grinned. "Well, that too. The way you keep teasing me with those sexy nightclothes. 'Oh, sorry, I wasn't expecting visitors anymore, do you mind?' Of course I'm dying to see you naked."

Kastra winked before asking, "And just why is it that you just happen to come visiting at such late hours?"

"To see you in those sexy nightclothes of course," Donatra grinned. "Oh, and just to explain the smelling part, go on, open your mind; feel me."

Kastra did so and smiled when Donatra came closer and nuzzled her neck. Then Donatra took a deep breath through her nose, filling her lungs with the unique smell that was Kastra.

"Oh my," Kastra said when the full onslaught of sexual desire hit her. Her legs clamped shut on their own accord and blood started to flood to her nether regions. "By Imza, just smelling me does that to you? How are you able to even work with me around?"

"Come on," Donatra said with a laugh. "We both know that I'm an oversexed womanizer that is pretty much obsessed with getting laid. Do you really think that I could have made it to Commander in the Romulan army, or function in the job I have now, if I wasn't able to put myself above my sexual desires? So, how about you getting an office in here, or I over there? It doesn't really matter to me which one; if it doesn't work out we can always switch it back."

"I think I would like sharing an office with you," Kastra said happily. "We can have Engineering move stuff around when we are gone. We could have them set up our desk so that we are facing each other if you like."

"Good idea," Donatra agreed with a smile. "But I think the first thing I have to do is contact Seven and see if I can have some time off; especially since you will have time off as well, and I heard Maras talk about going to Orion next week."

"I don't think it will be a problem," Kastra said confidently. "At the moment all the focus is about getting the shipyard and shipbuilding process on Mars set up anyway. Perfect timing for us to go on a trip."

"Well, let me ask Seven so that we know for sure," Donatra said while touching her communicator and opening a channel.

~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~

"Enjoy your trip," Seven said as before closing the channel.

"Those two are moving fast," Torres noted, knowing just how important the fact of Donatra accompanying Kastra on the trip was.

"It is probably because Kastra is a Betazoid," Seven guessed. "They do not have to spend a lot of time to see just what they feel for each other. All they need is for Donatra to trust Kastra on her word, and there they do have the advantage that Donatra is a Romulan and Romulans are well known for doing things with passion. They do normally not enter relationships in a 'kinda' way. Either they know up front that they are just having some fun together, or they try their best to make it work. As you know, the divorce rate lies only at three percent with Romulans marriages. Romulans tend to stick with their partners. I foresee a very strong and loving relationship between them. They are very much in love."

Seeing how Worf sneered when hearing the word 'love,' Seven decided that it was time to change the subject back to what they had been discussing before the interruption. "Having Red and Blonde move into the Chancellor's Wife's quarters sounds as a rather prominent gesture."

Worf waved it off. "It's not like I'm going to marry again and would have need for those quarters. Besides, the Chancellor's Wife's quarters were an ongoing joke anyway. This is a good way to get rid of the whole concept."

"Why do you call it a joke, Chancellor?" Seven asked confused.

"I told you that you could call me Worf," Worf reminded.

"I remember, Chancellor," Seven said with a little smile.

"Don't try to figure it out," Torres said. "Remember, she prefers to call me Mistress most of the time. I guess it's something along the lines of her thinking 'because I don't have to say it, I want to say it'."

"As always, you are very correct, Mistress," Seven agreed. "I assure you, Chancellor, I use your title with nothing but respect." Then she repeated 'a joke' to remind him about what they were talking about.

Worf shrugged before continuing. "It's a joke because for as long as those quarters have existed, every since the end of the Sol slavery, those quarters have never been used. With the exception of the three weeks between when the Sol Empire was driven from Qo'noS and the first Chancellor was agreed upon by the High Council. In those three weeks the Bajoran slave that had been the Palace's senior caretaker took care of running the Palace while everyone else was trying to figure out who was in charge. He made some guesses as to what the new people in power might want, once they figured out just who was in power. The Chancellor's Wife's quarters is something he came up with because the Sol Empire administrator separate quarters for his wife as well."

"Why where the quarters never used?" Seven asked confused.

"You know us Klingons and our sex drive," Worf reminded, "Do you really think that a Chancellor would allow his wife to live in those quarters and thereby telling the whole Coalition that the Chancellor and his wife don't get along and probably also don't have sex? Even the two Chancellors that had been estranged from their wives had those wives live somewhere else in the Palace than in the Chancellor's Wife's quarters. As a matter of fact, somewhere as far away from where they lived as possible so that they didn't have to see their wife that often. So I decided to turn those Chancellor's Wife's quarters next door into the Body Servant's quarters. It gives Red and Blonde a very nice ten room set of quarters, and I have them only a call away. It also gives them clearly the very privileged position that they, as my Body Servants, deserve."

"What happened to the Bajoran that was the Palace's senior caretaker under the Sol Empire?" Seven asked. "Seeing that he still managed the Palace while there was nobody in charge, I assure that he was not seen as a collaborator to the enemy and dealt with at the same time as the Sol representatives."

"Oh, far from it," Worf assured. "While under the oppression of the Sol Empire he was known for aiding slaves where he could. Over the years he had to work for the Sol Empire he helped to save the life of almost a hundred slaves. If the Sol scum ordered a slave killed for whatever reason, Lionas would take care of it. But in reality he would hide the slave and smuggle the slave to safety later on. He simply showed the Sol scum old execution videos as proof that the slave was killed. They never caught on. Anyway, Lionas continued on as steward of the Palace until he retired nine years later. In that time he trained Klingons in how to do the Palace jobs that the Sol Empire always had done by others because they didn't trust Klingons to do it."

"Interesting," Seven honestly admitted. Then she asked, "Chancellor, if I may ask, you said that you made some other changes besides making Red and Blonde your Body Servants?"

"Why do you ask?" Worf countered, not answering the question.

"Because I know that you had a lot of slaves, and therefore have a lot of servants now. I am merely curious as to how servants are affected by the ongoing changes."

Finding the explanation good enough, Worf said, "Seeing how interesting things had turned out when I asked Red and Blonde what they wanted, I figured that I might try it with the others as well. I had all of them write on a PADD what they wanted to do if it was their choice."

He stroked his beard thoughtfully. "It was quite interesting. A lot of them wanted to do something else then they had been doing, while others wanted to do the thing the first group was doing. So now I have had Red and Blonde set up a schedule where the servants train each other what they know. When they know the job they will be switched around. They are happy because they can do a job they actually want doing, and I will end up with servants that can do more than just one thing. So if I need something done and there aren't enough servants for it, the ones that did the job before can help out. I made it very clear to them that this could happen."

"Chancellor, as you know, the Physical Services Industry is very important to me," Seven started carefully, wanting to get information and not offend. "I want it to be seen as a job to be proud of. If you do not mind me asking, if you offered all servants to learn a different job if they want, how did this turn out for your Physical Servants?"

"Most of them wanted to do something else," Worf said, only to then explain, "But I was expecting that. As Torres knows, I had over three hundred sex slaves, of which I bought only one shortly after my wife was killed. The rest were given to me. After all, what gift do you give to the man that is the most powerful person in the Coalition and can buy anything he wants?"

"Considering the fact that he is a Klingon, a sex slave seems like a good idea," Seven said in understanding.

"Right. But there were clear differences. Some gave me very talented sex slaves who were clearly trained for the job, while others gave me sex slaves who clearly had never been trained."

"Since it was clear that they weren't trained, I assume that you tested them to find this out?" Seven asked.

"Sure, if they weren't clearly too young to be old enough to be school trained, or begging and pleading me 'please no'," Worf said with a shrug, still making it very clear that he had lived by a clear set of rules. As Torres had once said, Masters liked it if their slaves screamed, be it in pleasure or in pain. It was clear that Worf belonged to the first group. "Considering that most of them never wanted to be a sex slave, they jumped at the chance to be trained in something else."

"Most of them," Seven prompted.

"Yes. Nineteen of them wanted to stay on as Physical Servants." He grinned. "Want to hear the really interesting part? If you had asked me to pick nineteen women out of those three-hundred that I would have liked to stay, I would have picked those exact same nineteen women."

"I think that no matter how good someone is at pretending that she wants sex, you still noticed the difference between the pretenders and the ones that truly wanted to have sex," Seven guessed.

"Here is another interesting fact for you," Worf said. "Of those nineteen women, seventeen are Risa-trained. So I would strongly suggest that you make sure that the Risan training stays at the level it is now."

"I am planning to do just that," Seven assured before asking, "The two who are not Risa-trained, are they people that were forced into the sex industry and happen to like it?"

"They like being with me, and also the fact that for the rest of the time they are well taken care of," Worf corrected. "I'm not sure how much they would have liked to have a different employer."

What he didn't ad since he felt it was too private, and also had nothing to do with what was being discussed, was the fact that with the number of sex servants drastically cut down things had changed; for the better Worf felt. It seemed that the two women who weren't Risa-trained really did like to be with Worf, and conveniently they were good friends who liked to make love with each other regularly in their quarters.

So now whenever Red and Blonde had made love in front of Worf they would leave and tell the other two women that their presence was needed. They would then come and Worf would have some very good sex with both women.

Of course, since the women also made love to each other regularly, Worf knew that they would also perform that in front of him if he wanted. So he really didn't need Red and Blonde for that anymore, technically. But he had found that seeing Red and Blonde making love always excited him, while the other two women would get boring if they didn't concentrate on him. Apparently there was truth to the saying that that what you cannot have is wanted all the more.

Because of the agreement he had with red and Blonde, and because of his own rules that he lived by, he could not have them, so seeing them excited him. But the other two women he could have, so seeing them make love was not interesting because then he wanted to be part of the fun instead of just watching it.

It worked out for all of them, so Worf, who was a very satisfied man these days, was more than happy to have the little arrangement continue as it was.

The rest of the women, the Risa-trained ones, would be called upon on those occasions where Worf decided that he wanted something else. Worf would then decide on what he was in the mood for and call the woman in question to his quarters. He loved the fact that he had so many choices. Not just in character, but also in species.

Worf shook his head a little, deciding that a change of subject was definitely in order. "Now, tell me about this plan of yours to mine for dilithium by using transporters."

~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~

"Alright," Worf said slowly. "I'll allow it, but that is a very sensitive area. I want the Phoenix Alliance Mining Department to be a department that is monitored by a Klingon operative from now on."

"Monitored in what way?" Seven asked.

"As a part of the government where one of the Klingon spies works."

Seven dipped her head in agreement. "Considering that my Mistress once told me that the 'spies' that work in the government of the other Factions are very productive workers, just that they report to more than one person, I would actually welcome such a worker. As you know, we need all the qualified personnel that we can get. If the 'spy' is qualified enough I would be more than happy to have this person be the Head of the Mining Department. As such this person would report directly to my Minister of Environment and Terraforming, and whoever the spies normally report to on the Klingon side of course."

"That'll do," Worf agreed.

"Seven and I will talk to Martok later on and let him know what the requirements for such a person are," Torres added.

"Alright," Worf said before changing the subject. "Now, about those changes you are going to bring to starships. I find especially the fact that you want to bring transwarp speeds to the Coalition in four years very interesting. I have one question though. How do you want to make sure that it's not misused? You said that the speed of the Voyager class was slightly curbed so that the Phoenix class would be the fastest ship in the long run. This to make sure that there is always at least one class of ship that is faster than any ship any criminal can have. But how are you planning to cover this when you bring transwarp? If someone buys or steals a mere Alpha class ship, but with transwarp capability, they will be able to be used for robbing and plundering and then getting out of there before law enforcement can show up."

"This is actually very easy," Seven assured. "Not all transwarp engines are alike. Just like the normal engines of a ship there are different kinds which very in shape, size and power. For instance, the very fast engine of a Voyager class cannot be fitted into a Defiant class ship because the warp core is taller than the Defiant class ship is high. And as you know, Warp cores have to be mounted upright or else they cannot work. Or at least not in a gravity field which is created so that people can actually walk in the ship. The same is true for transwarp engines. They come in different sizes and the bigger and more powerful a transwarp engine is, the faster the ship will be."

"I don't know, but I take your word for it," Worf disagreed. "Not everyone knows how every damn thing on a spaceship works. I'm more interested in that it works, and not in the how."

"Of course," Seven agreed.

She sometimes forgot that not everyone had a convenient photographic memory capable of remembering how things work, and on top of that actually find it interesting enough to not want to forget it. She guessed that it also had a lot to do with the fact that Torres was her partner. The Intendant was as technologically inclined as had Voyager counterpart, and therefore usually even understood what Seven was saying.

"In any case," Seven continued. "To make sure that the law enforcement ships will continue to be the fastest ships in the Coalition the largest and fastest transwarp engine will only be fitted to the Phoenix class and to the top law enforcement ships of the other Factions, like the Klingon Negh'Var class, the Cardassian Keldon class, or the Romulan D'deridex class. This will ensure that the top Coalition ships will always be the fastest ships because of the room needed since these fast engines will never be able to fit into a smaller ship than these classes. They would already not fit into the ships of the Trill or Betazoids."

"All the more reason for them to buy Phoenix class ships," Torres added with a grin before asking, "My Pet, I never asked, but what speeds are we actually talking about here?"

"Mistress, since I did not yet look into making exact plans since we did not yet reach that point, I can only give you an educated guess," Seven warned before doing just that. "The Delta class is a very small ship and will therefore only be able to handle the smallest transwarp engine possible, which will propel the ship to about Warp 11. Which will mean that it will be able to bridge an 8,000 light-year distance in 90 days instead of the 12 years that this would take at warp 7, its presently fastest speed."

"Impressive," Worf said. "And that's with the smallest engine only?"

"That is correct," Seven assured. "The Alpha class would be able to handle and engine that is capable of propelling it to warp 12 instead of the normal warp 8. Which would mean 60 days instead of 8 years for that distance of 8,000 light-years. The Defiant class will be able to handle a transwarp engine that can push the ship to warp 13, which would mean 44 days instead of five years to cross that 8,000 light-year distance. Both the Voyager and the Enterprise class would be able to house an engine capable of handling warp 14, which translates to 30 days for that same distance. And finally the Galaxy and Phoenix class, and the biggest ships of the other factions, will be able to house an engine that can handle warp 15. Only 23 days for that same distance. Of course, the engines in the Galaxy class would be curbed a bit, or a smaller engine would be used so that it can travel at warp 14.8 at most. Leaving the enforcer ships as the fastest once again.

"Impressive," Worf said once again after a moment of silence.

"The transwarp capability of the Borg is one of the reasons why they managed to dominate such a vast part of space in the other universe," Seven explained. "Normally the expansion of a territory is done from the border of that territory by pushing out and taking over territory that is unclaimed or conquering that territory from an enemy. The Borg however use the transwarp technology to penetrate deeply into new territory. There they suddenly drop out of transwarp and assimilate a species that sensors showed to be interesting. From that new territory they start to expand in the old way until the different territories connect to each other and finally to the main territory of the Borg. The Borg even have the technology to travel at warp 20, but simply because of size and power use of engines it is impractical to build ships that can travel at that speed. Instead they have a system of transwarp hubs in place that create transwarp corridors that can than be used by ships to travel at warp 20 even if the ship itself has no transwarp capability."

"How the hell is that possible," Torres blurred.

Seven's lips twitched in amusement. "It is possible because with transwarp it is the creating the original corridor that uses most of the power, but once the corridor is created keeping it active uses less energy than a normal warp engine does while traveling at warp 4 or higher. However, the traveling is not the only part to a journey. There also needs to be a start and an ending to a journey. And it is that starting and creating the transwarp tunnel that requires the transwarp engines. Unless of course they use an already existing transwarp hub. Then the corridor is already created and the transwarp engine is not needed."

"This is proven by the fact that a ship with no transwarp capabilities can still enter a transwarp corridor that is created by a Borg ship directly after that ship has started to travel down the corridor," B'Elanna added, speaking up for the first time since she and Annika had been introduced to the Chancellor. "There is about a half minute delay before the corridor starts to collapse at the back where it is no longer supported because the ship that created it already traveled through it. As long as the ship without transwarp capabilities stays in that half minute wake of the other ship it can happily tag along for the ride."

"Indeed," Seven could only agree. "And basically a transwarp hub exists out of a main structure where the technology and power generation capabilities are located to create the transwarp corridors, and then structures at the end of the corridor that prevent the corridor from starting to collapse at that side. This keeps the transwarp corridor open on an ongoing basis and the Borg ships can then use their vast transwarp hub system to travel basically all through the galaxy."

"Oh Kahless, Seven," B'Elanna suddenly said.

"Yes?" Seven asked, surprised to see a expression of something close to shock on the Klingon's face.

"Um," B'Elanna said hesitantly while looking at Worf.

"I can assure you, if there is one person in the entire Coalition where we cannot afford to have secrets from, it is the Chancellor," Seven said, correctly guessing that B'Elanna wasn't sure if she should say what she was thinking in front of Worf.

"Alright, if you say so," B'Elanna conceded. "I just had an idea. Why don't we do that as well? Why don't we create a transwarp hub that services the entire Coalition? As you just basically said yourself, once the corridors are created the upkeep is not that expensive."

"Power wise," Seven corrected. "However, keeping the entire main structure maintained, as well as the exit structures does require quite some upkeep."

"Alright, so it would cost credits to maintain it," B'Elanna relented. "But still, we could make it the second biggest source of income for the Alliance. Just think about the credits we could get for offering that service. 'You want to go from Qo'noS to Bajor you said? Sure, that trip will take 30 minutes. You can enter the transwarp corridor as soon as you have transferred the 4,000 credits that this trip costs for a ship the size of yours.' And I'm pretty damn sure that people would be more than happy to pay that amount to get there in only 30 minutes, if for nothing more than because of that they just saved 4 whole weeks of travel, one way, that their ship would have taken because most ships in the Coalition would take that long or even a lot longer to get there. After all, not everyone owns a ship as fast as the Negh'Var."

"That's true enough," Torres said amused.

"Or what about those people who don't own a ship at all?" B'Elanna continued. "For a normal worker on Qo'noS, visiting, say, Orion for a vacation was always out of the question. Simply because they first would have to wait until a scheduled ship would leave to Orion, maybe even taking a detour to make another stop along the way. For those people it could be over a month just getting to Orion, let along spend time there and then another month to get back. They simply would not have so much time off to get away from their job for that long, even if they could afford it."

"For people like that it is quite normal for such journeys to be taken between jobs," Torres explained. "They lose their job or quit and then figure that since they have some credits saved, now is the perfect time to take that trip they always wanted to take."

"Yeah, but if we had and controlled a transwarp hub we could start to offer trips that last days at most," B'Elanna persisted. "We could say to them, 'A round trip to Orion, leaving on the fifth and coming back on the fifteenth? That will be 4,000 credits, and 30 hours of travel on both trips.' And you know the best part? Just like with the shipyards we wouldn't have to pay a single credit for the actual construction of the transwarp hub, only for the upkeep afterwards. We could get the Coalition Funds to pay for the construction."

"The Coalition Funds aren't a bag full of credits that everyone can take some out to pay their too-expensive-to-pay-themselves projects from," Worf growled.

"I know," B'Elanna assured. "Chancellor, the reason why I'm sure that it would be seen as a project that warrants Coalition Fund payment is because it would enhance the security of the Coalition even more than the ships that are going to be built at our shipyards."

"How so?" Worf merely asked.

B'Elanna looked at Seven for a moment and received a small nod, telling her that Seven wanted her to continue arguing the point.

"Well, those ships are great, no doubt about it. But the thing is that after they are build they are going to be dispersed all over the Coalition. What if a threat appears at the border that is capable of handling some of these ships though? Let's say a Borg cube arrived at the Coalition border and a Phoenix class ship is sent in to intercept and is destroyed. The next ship will be able to arrive in two hours, and the next in two days. The Borg cube would be able to destroy them one at a time as they came in for an attack."

She shook her head to empathize her next words. "No, you would need to build up a fleet. But how long would all those ships take to reach the point where the fleet is built? By that time the Borg ship would be deep in Coalition territory and probably have destroyed or assimilated a big part of the planets. And then to make it worse, with all those ships countering the attack of the Borg, what if it just so happens that the Dominion opens an attack at the other side of the Coalition? Even if you fought off the Borg, it would take those ships months to get from one side of the Coalition all the way to the other side."

"Which is why ships with transwarp capability will be build, and already built ships will be upgraded," Torres reminded.

"Yeah, but how long will it take?" B'Elanna persisted. "How far down the road will we be before all those Phoenix class and Defiant class ships are all upgraded? But more than that, from what I understood the whole point of also having the Voyager and Enterprise class armed the way they are is so that they too can be enlisted to fight an enemy in time of war. But would those private owners ever have bothered to upgrade those ships to transwarp? Will planets even bother to upgrade their Defiant class ships, or will they say that for the localized work they are doing the normal warp speeds are good enough?"

She spread her hands a little in an universal 'I don't know' gesture. "I have no idea what we are going to ask for transwarp, but if it were up to me, I would ask a fortune. If a ship with normal warp costs ten credits, then that same ship with transwarp will cost twenty credits at least. Time is credits. And for something that brings the duration of a trip from one month to one day you can ask a fortune, and people that can will pay it. But what if they can't? I can see it happening that a lot of people will buy a ship because they can just pay for it but to be able to do so they need to leave out the more expensive extras, and definitely an extra that doubles the price of the ship. They will tell themselves that, well, the normal warp speeds are already fast enough and that they can live without transwarp on their ship."

"B'Elanna is correct," Seven agreed. "The transwarp option should at the very least double the price of the ship."

"Yeah, but like I said, will those private owners bother to take that upgrade, will they have the credits for it?" B'Elanna asked. "There is so much you don't have control over. But as soon as the transwarp hub is finished, suddenly all of the Coalition has transwarp abilities. Yes, those ships that counter that attack would still have to travel with normal warp to the location of the transwarp corridor, but still, they could meet up and form a fleet within days, and then travel all the way to the other side of the Coalition to stop the other attack and be there in a little over two weeks."

"But this would mean that the transwarp hub would become a first target of attack," Annika spoke up. "And on top of that, you would be competing with yourself. If you offer transwarp travel to everyone in the Coalition, why would people bother to buy ships that have their own transwarp engines?"

"That last is a very good point," Seven said before B'Elanna could answer. "But let me address the first part. Security is not really the problem, if we were to build the transwarp hub completely to Borg design. The Borg long ago realized that the hubs would be prime targets in any attack since loosing them would be a tremendous tactical blow against the Borg. To make sure that this could not happen the exit structures at the end of the tunnels are protected by a force field that is powered by the transwarp corridor itself. As long as the corridor is active any attack on the force field will result in that attack's power being rerouted to the transwarp corridor, which then becomes stronger because it is receiving more power, which results in the protective force fields becoming stronger because it is now getting more power from the transwarp corridor."

She made a circling gesture with her index finger. "It is a loop of sorts. The more you attack a transwarp corridor or any of the supporting structures, including the main hub, the stronger the defenses become. There is of course a theoretical limit to this circle, but never in the existence of the Borg has this limit been reached, even though the hubs have been attacked countless times. The only theoretical way I know of destroying an active hub is by destroying a high number of the interspatial manifolds."

"The what?" Torres asked. "What are those things?"

"Interspatial manifolds," Seven repeated. "These are structures that are positioned at the interconnecting junctions in the corridors which allow you to travel from one corridor to another without leaving the transwarp corridor system, allowing you to take a still relative direct route to your destination even if there is no direct corridor from where you are and where you want to be. Still, this is only a theoretical possibility because in order to do so you have to destroy the force fields that are protecting the manifolds and as I just said, those force fields will only get stronger the more you attack them."

"So basically they are indestructible," Torres surmised.

Seven hesitated. "Indestructible is not a word I like to use. It is my understanding that everything is destructible, it only depends on how much force is used or if someone has the knowledge to destruct the supposedly indestructible. A transwarp hub is also destructible if you know what you are doing and on top of that are capable of doing it. Take the interspatial manifolds. It is extremely hard to destroy one. But even if someone somehow manages to do this, multiple manifolds would have to be destroyed at exactly the same time. Otherwise that single corridor would automatically shut down while the rest of the transwarp hub stays active. Therefore an observer could easily assume that a transwarp hub is indestructible and can only be damaged."

"Damage is destruction as well," Torres said, knowing her lover enough by now to know that she preferred to use words as they were intended to be used and did not simply copy how other people use them. "It's only that the word damage is usually used to indicate something that can be repaired, while destroyed is usually used to indicate something that people think can't be repaired. So, theoretically speaking, how could someone destroy a transwarp hub?"

"Only a precisely timed destruction of enough manifolds leads to an actual collapse of the transwarp corridor that is powerful enough to start destroying other manifolds as more and more corridors collapse," Seven explained. "It is only once this cascading collapse is triggered that a shockwave is created that would travel through the entire transwarp hub and destroy the entire structure. As I said, highly impossible. Even the Borg themselves cannot destroy an active transwarp hub unless it is in their control and they shut it down first. Only then would they be able to destroy the structure of the transwarp hub."

"But it's still possible that some unknown species would have the technology to shut it down or simply weapons that are so powerful that they can destroy the structures despite the force fields," Torres noted.

"It is," Seven agreed. "There is always a possibility that someone would have the technology or weapons. Even if such technology does not exist in the entire Universe at this time, there is still a chance that it will be discovered in the future and someone will travel back through time and use that technology to destroy the transwarp hub."

"Alright, no need to start with stupid arguments," Torres growled playfully, knowing that Seven was teasing her.

"Yes Mistress," Seven said with a smile. "But seriously. You do have a point. There is always a chance of something happening that we cannot foresee right now. Therefore I will not feel comfortable stating that something is indestructible, at least not if I have to give somebody serious information instead of it being a playful boast."

Torres grinned but didn't reply, knowing that her Pet was referring to a statement made in the bathtub not long ago about Borg drones being indestructible and therefore not having to worry about drowning.

"But speaking generally," Seven continued, "I do feel comfortable to say that the transwarp hub system is so secure, once activated, that anyone capable of destroying it would also be capable of destroying the Coalition as a whole regardless, despite the new technologies that we will be introducing."

Looking at B'Elanna, Seven added, "Which leaves Annika's point that we would be creating our own competition."

"Well, we could have Maras look into estimates and numbers to get a more detailed idea," B'Elanna suggested. "But my guess is that it won't be that much. I mean, sure, there will be people that are debating on whether they should pay the extra credits for a transwarp capable ship. For those the fact that there is a transwarp hub system will be the deciding factor in not getting a transwarp capable ship. More so since in the transwarp hub they can travel at warp 20 while their ship would only be able to travel at warp 11 to warp 14, depending on which ship they were thinking of buying."

"Seven was just talking about warp 15," Torres reminded.

"Yeah, but I'm talking about ships that everybody that has the money can buy," B'Elanna reminded. "And the fastest they can buy his warp 14. So yes, having a transwarp hub where people can travel at warp 20 is very tempting. But no matter how many corridors there are in this transwarp hub system, the fact still is that you first have to travel to one of those corridors to use them. Depending on how far away you are from the nearest corridor it might still take you weeks of traveling at normal warp. Add to this that the transwarp engines will not be sold cheap..."

She let that sink in for a few seconds before continuing. "Even if there is a transwarp hub, most of those rich people will still buy the transwarp ships simply because they want to use the transwarp of their own ships to fly to the transwarp corridor and then use that one for the big part of their journey. Or if the distance is relatively short at transwarp speeds they might not even want to bother with using the hub system but simply fly directly from A to B with their own transwarp capable ship."

"I would," Worf agreed. "If I were to get a ship for my travels, I would go with transwarp and not bother with those corridors. Simply tell the captain to go 'there' and have it done right now, directly, with no detour."

B'Elanna nodded her head in agreement. "That is what people that can afford it will think. But those that simply can't afford the transwarp capable ships will probably still be able to afford paying for the use of the hub and use that instead. I think that we would loose out on those doubters I just mentioned and on the people who live close to the hub access points. I mean, why would someone who travels back and forth between Qo'noS and Bajor all the time bother to buy a transwarp capable ship when a hub corridor has that route anyway? But on the other hand, someone who bought themselves a moon somewhere will know that a transwarp corridor will not be found close to where their moon is. So they will buy that transwarp capable ship so that they can fly to the corridor and then wherever they want. People like that will still want the transwarp capable ships simply because it will make it possible for them to really go to their moon for a weekend, or even at the end of the working day."

"How many corridors are there per hub?" Worf asked.

"As many as we would like," Seven said. "The last I know the Borg had six transwarp hubs in the other universe, each with thousands of corridors. Even though theoretically all corridors could be sustained by one single hub, the hub still has to be relatively in the middle with the corridors extending outwards. At some point, as it is with the Borg territory, the part of space controlled is too big for a single hub and it becomes more efficient to have several hubs placed more to the sides of the territory and then have those hubs linked with each other. Having said that, for a territory the size of the Coalition I believe that one hub would be more than enough. Even with a corridor ending at every home planet we would only have several hundred corridors."

Worf nodded his head thoughtfully before indicating B'Elanna with a nod. "She is right. From a military standpoint I can see the benefit, especially if you keep the potential growth of the Coalition in mind. Make no mistake about it, even if the ships are not designed for it, once you start selling ships that can travel at transwarp speeds, they will be used to explore. First by rich people to find new planets or moons at the border areas that they can claim for themselves. Something they can then do because with the transwarp speeds they can travel from that border to other places in the Coalition in days. Then by companies that want to find new places to mine resources. Then... well, you get the idea."

"That could turn out messy," Torres noted. "If someone finds a planet outside the border, which Faction would that part of space belong to? Or would those places be allowed to make their own laws and do whatever they want? Can you see it? A Ferengi claiming a planet. The first thing he would do is legalize slavery there again, and the second thing is to introduce the old Ferengi laws like women being the property of the men."

"True," Worf agreed. "But first things first. Seven what do you think about B'Elanna's suggestion of building a transwarp hub? Is your Faction interested in that, and just as importantly, can you actually build it?"

"Building it is not that complex... relatively speaking of course. It takes time to create the hardware needed to establish corridors, but there is nothing that says that we cannot build the hub one corridor at a time with for instance every week a corridor to a new destination being activated. Of course, we do first need a ship with transwarp capabilities so that this ship does not need weeks or months to travel to a destination so that it can construct the exit point there. I believe that an Enterprise class ship would be very suited for that considering its large cargo capability."

She thought about the second part of the question for a moment before continuing. "As for whether we would want to operate such a hub... I find the idea very interesting, but I want to get the input of my Minister of Commerce as to how this would impact the same of transwarp capable starships. If Maras agrees that the revenue from operating the hub would outweigh the loss in sales then we could indeed look into the building of a transwarp hub system. However, this also depends on whether the Coalition Funds would indeed pay for the construction. If not then we would first have to wait until we earned enough credits to be able to build the transwarp hub system."

"Ask the other Intendants if they have any objections. If they do, work it out," Worf said. "You might be able to get their Corporation quite quickly by ensuring that the first corridors that will be created with the ending at the faction's Capitol planets. Once you have their support, which they must have given freely I might add, then the Coalition funds will flood the bill as long as some assurances are met."

"Which are?" Seven asked.

"Such a structure has the potential for misusage. I want people there that not only report to you."

"Another Klingon spy?" Seven asked slightly amused.

Worf smirked at the question. "No, more than that. I don't want the other factions to get nervous because it seems that the Klingon and Phoenix Alliance are getting along a little too well, and all that the Phoenix Alliance does is only checked by us Klingons. Seeing the scale of such a project, I think that you should be able to find five key positions that can be filled by a spy of each Faction. Hand the most important one to the, let's see... Cardassians, that should prevent nervousness amongst them."

"I will, when and if the time comes," Seven assured.

"Good," Worf continued. "Second, prices you ask for people being allowed to use the hub should be reasonable; not too cheap but also not too expensive. The four thousand credits for getting from Qo'noS to Bajor that B'Elanna just said actually sounds like a good line for a person or a family. But a cargo ship that carries thousands of tons of goods can of course pay a lot more, up to half a million credits per ship even. After all, they will distribute the costs over their goods, which ends up raising the price of one shipped whatever by less than a credit."

"A good point," Torres agreed. "Hell depending on where the ship is going, a cargo ship already has to pay that just to be allowed into orbit around a planet."

"Make it something that is survivable," Worf said, "but not so cheap that every damn ship in the Coalition uses the hub for every little trip they could also have done at normal warp. You know, let companies scratch their ears on whether they want to use the service, but still be cheap enough to not bankrupt someone for making a trip to a place they have been wanting to visit for years. Let them still have some credits left so that they can spent it at the place they are visiting. And lastly, I want any ship that is registered as a military ship, regardless of which Faction it belongs to, to be allowed to use the hub for free."

"That would mean that especially the Klingon patrols would use it to move around from a place they finished patrolling to the next place they want to patrol. We would loose quite some income then," Seven noted. "Chancellor, by the way, talking about ships of military classes has reminded me, have you given the question I asked you at the beginning of this meeting some more thought by now? You did say that you had to think about whether or not our Defiant class starships would be registered as a military ship class."

"Are you trying to negotiate one point with the other here?" Worf growled.

"Of course not, Chancellor," Seven assured. "I know only too well that you could turn your suggestion of military ships not having to pay into an order simply by saying that it is indeed an order. Therefore it would be foolish of me to try and negotiate on that point."

Worf laughed. "Don't go overboard with your saying 'yes' by saying 'no.' Alright, since I can understand why you want those ships classified as military ships, fine the Defiant class is from now on considered a military ship class. And also from now on, if you do build that transwarp hub, all ships that are classed military will be allowed to use it for free. And that, my friend, is an order."

Seven nodded her head before looking him straight in the eyes. "Thank you, Worf."

After a moment of silence Worf also gave a short nod, but his nod was in recognition of the clearly growing friendship between them. Then he spoke up again, changing the subject back to what they discussed moments before. "Now, about handling the potential expansion of the Coalition. We could take the first step ourselves; have Coalition ships being the ones that do the exploring. That would take care of the territory thing. We do the exploring and when we find uninhabited planets or moons we claim them for the Coalition. And once they are Coalition property we see if we can use them. If not we sell them to the highest bidder."

"If we were to put those credits from those sales into the Coalition Funds it would bring us some nice credits to fill the holes that were created by some very expensive projects like the shipyards and the hub," Torres noted in approval. "On top of that we can create a law stating something like even if someone else from the Coalition finds a planet or moon first, the Coalition has the first right to it and only if the Coalition decides that we don't want the claimed property can the original claimer call it their own."

Worf nodded, liking this edition to his idea. "The only problem I see with that is just which Faction this new territory should belong to. It would be easy to say that if a planet is discovered at the border of the Klingon Faction it belongs to us Klingons, and if it's found at the border of the Trill Faction it belongs to them, to name just another Factions. But as simple as that sounds, I don't like it. We now have a good power balance in the Coalition, but if Factions could expand their territory like this a race would start to claim more and more territory at the unexplored side of the Faction."

"Why didn't that ever happened before now?" Annika asked.

"Until now this wasn't really an option simply because the Coalition is surrounded by a ring of relatively empty space," Worf explained. "It is the whole reason why the Coalition stopped expanding there. The distance to more usable territory is simply too big for normal warp travel. Mind you, ships went there for some exploring, but even at warp seven it takes more than five months to cross this empty space."

"But with transwarp ships being available that would change," Torres agreed. "Especially since the Faction leaders would then own ships that are capable of warp 15. After all, though a warship, a Negh'Var class ship could be used for exploring as well. It would actually be very suited because it would also be able to deal with any potential problems like Pirates that prey on species that live there and that we haven't discovered."

"There is another problem to expansion from the border by the Factions," Seven noted. "As you know, there is one Faction which cannot do this because its territory is surrounded by Klingon space."

"True," Worf agreed. "If we did allow the unchecked expansion from the border then the Phoenix Alliance, which already is the smallest Faction, would only get smaller and smaller compared to the others."

"Why don't you make it a united territory instead?" B'Elanna suggested. "Comparable to the Federation, just with Coalition laws instead of Federation laws. Here in the Coalition there are certain Coalition laws that everyone must abide by. Then you have the Faction laws. And lastly, the biggest part of laws which are local laws. Let's take the age of consent for instance. There are different ages per planet, but no matter the planet, the minimum age of consent must at least be sixteen standard years since that is the Coalition set age of consent. In the entire Betazoid sector the age of consent is eighteen standard years because that's what the Betazoids set it at. This is allowed because it is more than the Coalition minimum age of sixteen. So, I would suggest, just leave the Factions as they are and treat the new territory as general Coalition space."

Worf thought about that for a moment before shaking his head no. "Not precise enough. For instance, which Faction would a new planet have to pay taxes to?"

"You could set up commissions that handle that. From then on all new planets would pay taxes to some tax commission which would then divide it over the Coalition Factions," B'Elanna suggested.

"Not a chance," Worf said right away. "This would create departments that act separate from a Faction Government and would over time form a sort of homeless Government that deals with all things outside old Coalition space because they would have to interact with each other to be able to function. If enough territory is discovered and claimed, this homeless Faction, so to speak, would then eventually become bigger then any of the other factions, Klingons included. And on top of that, because their territory would surround the territory of all the other factions, they would be perfectly positioned to start an attack and conquer those factions."

"That's doomsday thinking," B'Elanna countered. When she saw Worf sneer, she quickly added, "With all due respect, Chancellor."

"Those words, 'that's doomsday thinking', is also what a lot of people said when the Sol Empire started to form and people started to get worried and suggested that the growth should be stopped. Look at what that brought us. Doomsday thinking it may be, but it is also very possible."

"As true as that may be," Seven spoke up, "It still does not mean that B'Elanna's suggestion is totally unusable. We could indeed make the outside territory general territory that has certain all over rules for it. But instead of having committees or forming a 'homeless Faction' any new planets would come under the control of one of the Factions. For instance, the first planet claimed would fall under the rule of the Klingons and be considered Klingon territory, the second planet would then go to the Cardassians, and so on until all Factions, including mine, has received the control over a planet."

Then she frowned and corrected herself. "Or better said, literally planets could become confusing. This could better be solar systems. Every new solar system discovered is awarded to one of the Factions, including all the planets and moons in it. The overall rules would then be to make such a checkered part of space possible, like starships being allowed to travel through the different territories without having to ask for permission for entering a different Faction's space all the time."

"That might work," Torres agreed. "It would also settle the laws thing. As soon as a solar system is awarded to us Klingons it would mean that our laws are in fact there. In fact, this system might help us deal with a little problem. We still have those planets where the escaped slaves settled on. Most people are leaving and are becoming workers of the Phoenix Alliance, but some still don't trust what's happening now in the Coalition. We could hand the solar systems those planets are in to the Phoenix Alliance. They take care of their people, and see what they can do with the systems in total. Somehow I don't think that any of the other factions would like to bother with those planets."

Worf merely nodded his agreement.

"Um, but what if you run into a new species?" Annika wondered. "This ring of empty space around the Coalition basically stopped the Coalition from expanding, but what if this same happened from the other side? The Chancellor just said that a Negh'Var class ship would be able to deal with Pirates that operate there. What if there is a lot more there than just Pirates? There might very well be another Coalition there that never expanded until here because this empty space was stopping them as well. What are you going to do it that happens?"

"If it's just one species that owns a single solar system this won't be much of a problem," Torres said. "This system we just talked about would basically still be in effect, just that the system is not awarded to a Coalition Faction, but is owned by this one species and we go on exploring around them. First contact would then automatically be handed by the Faction who's ship ran into them, so to speak. But yeah, what would we do if we run into a powerful species that has the means to fight a war against the Coalition, or there is some other Coalition, or Alliance or Federation, or whatever united group?"

"We deal with them," Worf merely said. "As long as it doesn't end in a war the worst that can happen is that we and the other side would set up a border between us. But it might also be that it's a big group, but no where as big as us and we might end up with them joining our Coalition as a new Faction that keeps the laws they then have in intact, as long as they don't strife with Coalition laws. There are way too many possibilities to predict a clear way of how to handle a potential meeting like that. We will deal with that if it ever happens to begin with. As long as we keep in mind that we are expending and have to accept it if that expansion hits a wall created by someone else then we should be able to negotiate a satisfying outcome."

"Or be seen as threat and we would be in a war before we know it," Torres said.

"Then so be it," Worf growled. "At least it will not be our side that starts it, but it will be our side that finishes it."

~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~

After their meeting with Worf, Torres and Seven had said goodbye to B'Elanna and Annika who were heading back to the ship because both of them still had work to do. Their sightseeing of the planet would come the next day, they had assured the Intendants.

Seven and Torres on the other hand decided that the day was still young and decided to take a walk through the city to do some sight seeing in parts of the city that Seven had not seen during her last visit to Qo'noS.

But as they were strolling down a street that they had been on before during their last visit to Qo'noS, Toby at Seven's side, and the four armed guards forming a square around them, they noticed the pet shop they had visited the last time they were on Qo'noS.

They looked at each other for a moment before Torres suggested, "Want to show him Toby? I think he would get a kick out of it."

"I believe we should," Seven agreed. "It was his information about targs and especially the information about mountain targs that gave us an insight as to how to handle Toby."

~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~

H'ctib, daughter of Qor'E, was a very satisfied woman these days. She didn't have the passion for animals that her father had, but she also didn't hate them. She could tolerate working with them, and so she did.

The only exception to this was her prized pit targ. She really loved him and was pretty sure that she would also keep them around once this fighting days were over, if he was still alive at the end of that last fight of course.

But she was satisfied with the store. It turned over a very comfortable profit that make for good living. It was known all over the First City for the high quality of breeds and good condition of the animals. And the best part was, eventually it would be all hers. Her father was still in good health and could probably keep running the store for several decades yet, but he was looking for new challenges. Something that had something to do with animals of course, the old fool loved animals.

She had almost sold him on the idea of setting up a breeding farm. Just a few months more of gentle suggesting and helpful offers of help should do it. Then both of them would be happy. He would be happy with his new endeavor, and she would be happy with being the full owner of the store.

Oh, she wished her father all the success in the world in his new business; it wasn't like she hated the old fool. She just wanted him out of the store so that she could finally do things the way she wanted to.

As she was once again daydreaming about her life after becoming full owner, something in the back of her mind told her that something was going on. She shook her head a little to chase away the happy thoughts and focus on the here and now.

It was then that she noticed how quiet the store had become. Oh, there were the occasional moments of quiet in the early morning or late evening when the stream of potential customers slowed down. But even then the animals made noise. But now there was a total silence, and for the first time in her life she knew what people meant when they were talking about a 'deafening silence'.

She looked up from the task that she was supposed to be doing and her eyes found the terrified face of the young girl that worked the counter. She was about to ask what the problem was, but then saw that the girl was looking past her.

H'ctib turned to look and saw a group of people standing just inside the entrance and looking around, less than five meters away from her. H'ctib recognized the Klingon Intendant and the blonde slave that apparently managed to fuck herself into position of being some token Intendant as well. She ignored the four guards that were with them.

She was just about to speak up when she noticed movement to one side of the blonde. A huge targ, the biggest she had ever seen in fact, stepped around the blonde and took position in front of her. H'ctib tried to swallow with a suddenly dry throat when her mind finally managed to remind her of the fact that she knew those markings. Her knees buckled when she realized that she was faced with a mountain targ... and unrestrained one at that.

Suddenly the animal curled up its upper lip and showed off its impressive teeth. A low growl was produced by the animal that H'ctib more felt in her chest than heard. The sound was answered from around the store by soft whimpers of total submission by animals that realized that death was amongst them.

H'ctib realized that one of the whimpers was coming from the cage where her prized pit targ was located. She looked at the animal, only to see it cowering against the wall with a stream of just released urine clearly showing its fear.

Before H'ctib could form a coherent thought, the huge animal in front of her suddenly snapped its jaws at her and she jumped up onto the counter in pure reflex. She was shaking all over her body when she saw the blonde pat the animal's head before scratching it behind one ear.

"Good boy," Seven rewarded her pet. She still remembered how the woman had treated her during their last visit. And while Seven hadn't thought the fact of her being ignored that bad back then, she guiltily admitted to herself that she liked the sight of the woman almost pissing her pants.

"We're here to see Qor'E," Torres said, not bothering to hide her amused grin. "Where is he?"

H'ctib didn't dare to speak, she merely pointed at a door.

It was the young counter employee that added, "He is in the back yard inspecting the evening cages. Through that door, can't miss it. Do you want me to show you, Intendants?"

Torres waved her off. "If we can't miss it, then why bother? We'll find it."

As they walked on and Toby came up to the counter that H'ctib was still hunched upon, he suddenly jumped up and put is front paws on the counter, bringing himself nose to nose with the terrified woman. He merely sniffed, but it was enough for H'ctib to forget that she was hunched on a counter and jump backwards.

Torres merely laughed as the pompous woman fell down behind the counter. Seven first took a moment to look over the counter and see if the woman was still moving and then she too walked on, knowing her pet enough to know that he had only been playing. If he had truly wanted to hurt the woman, H'ctib would already have been dead.

Once they were in the corridor behind the door and Torres knew that the people in the store could no longer hear her, she addressed the guards. "Have Martok check out that girl behind the counter. Find out why she is working here instead of being in school. If she is family, so be it. But if she is only working here because her family can't afford the higher schooling that they themselves would have to pay, let Martok offer her a scholarship. Any schooling she wants, if she joins the army for ten years to work in her chosen profession."

"Yes Intendant," One of the guards said.

That was another thing she loved about having guards that were operatives of Martok's department. She could tell them small things like that and it would reach Martok without Torres needing to remember it, or contact him on the spot.

All in all, Torres had to admit that she was very pleased with her guards, and even had to admit that she would sorely miss them if they were gone. Though her close guard contingent still existed out of ten guards, and sometimes they did have one or two of the others with them, these four were normally the ones that were with them most of the time.

Torres was sure one of the biggest reasons for that was that of the ten close guards, she actually liked these four the best. And if she liked them that meant that she was more inclined to listen to their suggestions.

But all ten guards were people Torres could live with. And very conveniently, besides all the guards being damn good at guarding, they all had little extra tasks that made them extra suited for specific situations. And these four also had the skills best suited for daily use. So all in all they were the best choice to guard her in normal situations.

Their extra tasks were simple, but very needed. Though there was no longer a guard commander, they still needed a spokes person and the male guard that had just spoken had become that spokes person. The other man, huge even for Klingon standards, was the one that always stepped up to push a hole when the crowds were too thick somewhere.

One of the women was always the one that quickly went to check out rooms or quarters that Torres and Seven were staying in during visits to locations. She never was in the rooms for long, but she had found more than one thing that needed to be removed before Torres could enter. Not that it probably would have hurt the Intendant, but it could and that was enough. The woman somehow had a sixth sense about where to look for potential threats.

The last woman was the one that always stayed in rooms when the other guards stayed outside. At least in location that weren’t considered secure and where Seven wasn't taking up that roll. If Torres would have had to use the toilet at that moment, that guard would go with her and guard the door.

Luckily Torres wasn't that often in locations that weren’t considered secure. Mostly only when they were on impromptu trips like now. But if Torres was sticking to a schedule, all places that didn't still have people in it were considered secure locations because then some of the 300 Klingon Commandoes that were the secondary guard detail had already checked and secured the location.

Torres sometimes wondered if the woman that accompanied them into rooms thought that her little extra job was a bonus or a drawback. Because sometimes the woman had to if not see, at least hear, Torres take care of bodily functions... something Torres had to get used to as well. But on the other hand, even now Torres and Seven still were physically very attracted to each other to the point where arousal was sometimes created by the simplest things. And, well, there had been a few occasions where they most definitely didn't want to wait until they were back on the ship.

The guard had gotten an eye full on more than one occasion. Torres remembered the time Seven had pushed her against the wall and fucked her, with Torres, the person all feared, had been begging and pleading like only a person would that was at a lover's complete mercy. It was only when both Torres, and Seven after that, had reached their peak that they had remembered that they had not been alone in the room.

Though the guard's ayes had been firmly on the window, looking out, it was a total guess just how long they had been there. Plus that didn't cover what the woman must have heard. The guard never reacted at all to anything she might have seen, even though Torres was pretty sure that the woman also had a preference for the female body. Torres never asked, and really didn't care. As long as she did her job of guarding while on duty, she could go and take care of her own sexual arousal for all of her off-duty time for all that Torres cared.

As long as she never told anyone about what she had seen, and Torres knew for sure that the woman was smart enough to not spread rumors that could only have come from one source, then Torres, and also Seven, were quite capable of ignoring her when their need for each other became so much that it couldn’t wait. At least now that the past had proven that they could.

"Why are you so interested in the teenager?" Seven asked.

Torres grinned. "Because she was terrified of seeing us, but not of Toby here."

Seven merely frowned.

"In other words," Torres clarified, "She is smart enough to fear a woman that can have her killed on the spot, and is known for having done that to several people in the past that bugged her. But she doesn't fear a predatory animal that is running loose because she realized right away that if he wasn't attacking the easy prey animals in the store, then either he wasn't hungry, or he is trained. I like to see someone that is smart enough to know the difference between danger and apparent danger in the army. Not many people know the difference."

"I see," Seven said as the door to the courtyard was opened by one of the guards.

Sometimes she forgot that Torres shared a task with her that was part of being an Intendant. Seven was recruiting people by the millions, and almost three hundred she had recruited personally. It was one of her many tasks to find potential that she could use. Sometimes it was so easy to forget that Torres was also on the lookout for talent. Just that Torres had the luxury of recognizing talent when she happened to see it, whereas Seven needed people so badly that she had to actively search for talent.

They saw an older man standing at one of the cages and Seven recognized him as Qor'E. He looked up at the same time and there was a moment of surprise on his face before a huge grin spread over it. Now that, was a much more welcome recognition.

"Mistress, what will we do if we ever recognize talent in the same person and both of us want that person?" Seven wondered as she watched Qor'E getting closer.

Torres shrugged. "I would say we see what we both might want that person for and the one that needs the person the most gets them. Take the girl. I see potential, and therefore I want her to have a chance. But other than that..."

She shrugged to indicate how little she really cared. "So if you need her for something you can have her, as long as you are willing to offer her something that matches what I would offer her. I offer her a future if she wants to work for it. You would need to offer the same. Otherwise I might take her and just lend her to you for as long as you need her."

"I like that compromise," Seven agreed. "And I do not have a use for the girl; the situation merely made me wonder."

"Then I'll leave it in Martok's hands. Maybe she would make a good operative for him. Or she just takes the schooling and then spends her time being an officer in my fleet. I don't really care."

By now Qor'E had reached them and was patiently waiting for the Intendants to stop talking to each other.

" Qor'E," Torres greeted him with a grin. "We thought that you would like to meet my Pet's pet."

~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~

The time spent with Qor'E was fun and entertaining. The man was charming in a rough Klingon kind of way and he loved Toby. And even the wild animal had been charmed by his enthusiasm; even allowing him to pet him with only the minimum amount of growling in return.

But the visit was also educative. Qor'E had been able to inform Seven of some small detail about mountain targs that she hadn't read in books. One of the biggest ones being that the diet that she was feeding Toby was not quite right. Yes, mountain targs loved meat and would preferably not eat anything else. But a captive targ, or in Toby's case a targ that choose to live with adopted nest mates, also needed other things. Vitamins, minerals, oils, enzymes, and proteins; things that the targ would get in the wild indirectly by eating animals that lived from eating plants. But meat from replicators didn't have those components.

Qor'E spent a moment on putting a list together on things that Seven and Torres really had to keep an eye on, including several diseases that mountain targs could get even without contact with other targs or animals. And the more Qor'E mentioned potential things that could happen, the more Seven started to worry.

When she had gotten Toby, he had been checked by Qo'noS best vet, but now that he was living with them there was no vet on the ship since they would always be able to reach some planet in the Coalition within days, no matter where they were in the coalition. And each planet would have a vet on it. A vet on the Trill Homeworld would be able to take care of Toby just as easy as a vet on Qo'noS, right? Well, apparently not and Seven was starting to worry that they had been inexcusably short sighted.

A look at Torres told her that the Intendant had clearly come to the same conclusion that Seven had; just because that person on Trill was a vet, that still did not mean that they knew how to treat an animal species that didn't live on the planet. But before Seven could bring the matter up for discussion, Torres took care of it in her usual 'to the point' manner.

"Qor'E, why don't you come with us?" Torres suggested. Seeing his surprised look, she was quick to add, "I'm asking, not ordering. I know that it's a lot to ask for you to leave your home and business, but we could really use your help. More so since Toby seems to like you and would allow for checkups; not something I am so certain about with just anyone."

"Intendant, you honor me. But I couldn’t. There is so much I want to do yet."

"With the shop?" Torres asked, encouraged by the fact that Qor'E was talking about things to do and not about leaving friends and family.

"Oh, no, that's not the problem," Qor'E assured. "My daughter has been... encouraging... me to butt out and leave the business to her. She doesn't have my passion for it, but she does have enough business sense that I'm sure that the store will thrive. No, but me leaving the business is part of it. I may be old, but hope to still have a few decades of life in me. I want to use that time to set up a second business. I was thinking of setting up a targ breeding farm, and I can't do that on a ship."

Torres spread her arms with a broad grin. "Says who? You seem to forget that I'm living on the Negh'Var; the biggest ship that exists in the Coalition. Now granted, there won't be room for a puppy farm that squeezes out hundreds of targs every month. But I think I could free up an area that is the size of..."

Torres let her eyes drift over the courtyard, taking in it size. She nodded her head. "Yeah, let's say ten times the size of this courtyard. Not huge, but enough to keep fifty targs or so. Enough if you want to focus on top level breeding where a single pup can sell for thousands of credits."

She could see that Qor'E was thinking about her suggestion instead of immediately dismissing it, so she decided to lure him with something he would not be able to refuse. At least not if he was serious about wanting to breed targs. "Of course, if you want the real price, you can't but come along."

"Intendant?" Qor'E asked confused.

Torres looked at Seven for a moment and saw that the blonde was more than happy to let her go ahead with whatever Torres was planning.

To Seven the health of Toby was important, and she was eager to get the help of the person that was able to tell her a few things that hadn't even been mentioned in files. Though granted, most of the files were about how fierce a predator the mountain targ was, and what to do if faced with one. Or how they fitted into the eco system. But since hardly anyone ever had a mountain targ as pet, tips on how to take care of them were hard to find.

"The real price," Torres repeated. "There has never been anyone that managed to crossbreed mountain targs with other breeds of targs. Mainly because a mountain targ will rip any other breed of targ apart long before a bitch can even lift her behind to present herself."

She patted Toby on the head, making him look up at her. "But Toby here. Well now, our boy is just a young, only barely lost its stripes. So that means that it's almost two years before he reaches the age where sex would interest him, right?"

"It is," Qor'E agreed.

"Yeah," Torres said. "But, you see, Toby hare is trained by Seven. Trained to the point where he doesn't kill unless allowed to. It's one of the reasons why we don't need to leash him; one of the reason why we could take him into your store and he didn't kill anything... or anyone. Just think. Toby in two years, when he starts to realize that there is a difference between boy and girl targs. Him in a room with a bitch in heat from a different breed and not allowed to kill the animal. Well, after an hour or so he might just realize that if he isn't allowed to kill her, he might just as well do something else with her."

"I see," Qor'E said, his eyes now firmly on Toby.

"What do you think?" Torres continued. "Maybe a toddler targ with the intelligence of a mountain targ? Or maybe one of the other breeds that is normally kept by adults? Or how about guard targs that are capable of following handler's commands as well as not eat poisoned food that was thrown over the fence?"

"You have a very persuasive argument there, Intendant," Qor'E permitted.

"That is actually a time I have been worried about," Seven admitted. "I know that a lot of animal species become unpredictable and even hard to impossible to handle when they reach the sexual age. Will this also be the case with Toby? Do we have to neuter him so that we can keep him for the rest of his life?"

"And waste this opportunity?" Qor'E said almost in outrage. "No, no, you have nothing to worry about there. The mountain targ's intelligence is your friend there. They are smart enough to realize that finding a chance for sex doesn't mean that they can't be with their adopted nest mates after that."

He hesitated before amending, "Well, talking about a male of course. A female would protect her young against all, including nest mates. No, the worst that might happen is that he gets wind of a bitch in heat and goes after the scent and ignores your commands to come back. But even then he will probably not forget the rest of the commands. You said that you trained him not to kill? Well I think that he would not start killing people just because he ran after an interesting scent. So I would suggest implanting him with a tracking device in case he does run off."

"We already did that," Seven assured. "A tracking device that is strong enough to be picked up from orbit so that we can have him beamed to quarters and do not have to go look for him."

"Good, good," Qor'E approved. "Well then, that's also the double side's edge of the blade. If you don't let him mount another breed you really don't have much to worry about since I don't think that you will come across the scent of a mountain targ in heat any time soon, unless you are out in the mountains here on Qo'noS. But if you do let him mount another breed than he will realize from then on that a scent of that breed in heat also means fun, if you know what I mean. So if we were to let him breed with a toddler targ as Intendant Torres just said, well, from then on he would recognize the scent of a bitch in heat from that breed and probably go wild."

Seeing Seven's eyebrows raise a little, Qor'E clarified. "I mean that he will want that fun again. Forgive me my bluntness Intendant, but it is rumored that you and Intendant Torres are quite fond of each other. Now that you know how much fun that can be would you stop having that fun merely because someone told you 'bad girl'? That is the thing you have to take into account. Intendant Torres is right. If you are willing to breed this wonderful specimen here, than I cannot but take the offer of the Intendant. I cannot let this pass; I would curse myself for the rest of my life. But you, you would have to deal with a targ that then knows the scent of a toddler targ in heat, just to keep that example going. You would have to deal with him wanting to mate when he smells that."

Seven thought about that for a moment. Then she decided, "I believe that it is an acceptable side effect. Especially seeing the fact that we are not that often on Qo'noS and therefore we hardly ever meet anyone else that has a targ. I believe the chance of Toby accidentally coming across a targ in heat of a breed that he recognizes the scent of are small. A maybe once in a lifetime occurrence. I believe I like the idea of Toby having descendants; his wonderful personality should be passed on so that it can be shared with other people."

Qor'E nodded in understanding. He had his doubts about the wonderful personality, but he was well used to how pet owners thought about their pets. Besides, he had to admit that Toby seemed very well behaved at the moment. "Of course, creating a new breed is more than just having him mount a bitch once."

Torres chuckled. "Somehow I don't think he will mind doing the service more than once. When the time comes."

"Um, well, of course not," Qor'E agreed. "But what I meant more is that there will be a lot of targs that are basically not right, that don't have what we need. Toby will have to father quite some nests to establish a strong breed. But what most people don't realize is that breeding basically means taking away all the pups that don't have what you want and then crossbreed the pups that do have what you want. That would eventually be hundreds of pups that need discarding. Seeing how much you seem to care for Toby, I don't think that you will approve of the normal way; killing the pups."

Both women bristled at the idea. Then Torres chuckled again. "Will wonders never seize? I can have hundreds of people killed and it doesn't bother me. But the idea of killing hundreds of pups does."

Seven smiled. "I told you that you like big cuddly animals."

"Don't start that crap again," Torres growled. "I had enough of that when we found Toby."

"Yes Mistress," Seven agreed with a tolerant smile before turning back to Qor'E. "How about releasing the pups into the wild? Would that be possible?"

"Well, I think they would manage to survive, once we trained them in how to capture prey," Qor'E said slowly. But they won't be used to there being predators that are bigger than them. I'm afraid that they would become food for wild animals within a day after release."

"Unless they are the biggest predator," Seven countered. "I do not know if you already heard it on the news, but I have chosen the planet called Mars as the Capital Planet for the Phoenix Alliance."

"I heard," Qor'E assured. "And I heard them talk about how it's a politically well chosen place. Personally I don't understand why nobody ever bought the planet."

"Too underdeveloped for a place of recreation, and too close to enforcer ships for comfort for shady people," Torres guessed. "It is only a hop away from Sol, a place where Klingon warships came and went every day."

The point is however," Seven said," that we are developing the planet. We will introduce flora and fauna. Because of plans that we have for the planet we will not introduce predatory animals that would actively hunt Humanoids, nor will we introduce poisonous animals. But every fauna needs a final predator. I am inclined to let this be targs, especially if this is a breed of targ that cannot be found anywhere else in the universe. Eventually the different targs that were not quite up to what you needed will interbreed and form a new general species that is close to the species you bred, but not as sophisticated."

Qor'E nodded slowly. "Well, you certainly know how to make an old man an offer. Let me talk it over with my family, and especially see if my wife is interesting in coming along. She was also liking the idea of us moving out of the capital City to start the farm, so she might like this as well. If she agrees then I'll come along. I can use the time until Toby is ready to sire to create some lines I would like his blood to mingle with to see what kind of results we'll get. If you don't mind him mounting more than one breed that is."

"I do not mind," Seven assured. "Even if he links 'fun' with the smell of several targ breeds, I still think that the chance of him coming across one of them in heat on our journeys is slim to none. Besides, we were talking about him maybe not listening to the 'here' command then, but we do not know if he would truly not listen. Especially if he normally receives all the 'fun' here in the ship by being bred to the targs here."

"Hehehe," Torres chuckled. "I see a very happy boy at our side in the future. Makes him fit in with his nest mates even more, don't you think?"

That last was said while looking at Seven, who realized that Torres was referring to a conversation they had when they decided to take Toby into the family. "You mean the fact that then all of us will be killers, who like to have sex?"

"Something like that," Torres agreed. "Alright, Qor'E, you think about our proposal. If you can let us know by the day after tomorrow around this time, you can come along with us. But if you need to think more, or take care of something, feel free to do so. We'll send a ship to pick you up then."

Qor'E nodded before a thought occurred to him. "Um, how would I actually get targs to set up a breeding program? Do I take some with me? That would take a few weeks because buying just the right animals takes time."

"Ah, but that's the best part of your new workspace," Torres said brightly. "If you are in the Intendant's ship then things are brought to you. And believe me, nobody will ever dare to sent substandard things to me; be they dead or alive. That I can promise you, if you take the job you will never ever have to worry about getting stuff, or about what the price is. You just tell us what you want and you'll get it. And if you think you need to go and look at something to see with your own eyes what you'll get, then transport from, and back to, my ship will be taken care of. All you need to do is take care of Toby, and concentrate on how to create a Targ breed that everyone in the coalition wants to have."

~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~

Eventually they had continued their sightseeing of the First City. They were walking down another street, this time in a part of the city Seven hadn't been at yet, when Seven noticed a sign on the wall of a big building they were passing. She lifted her eyebrow slightly in surprise before asking, "Mistress?"

"Yes?" Torres asked before seeing what Seven was looking at. "What's so special about an orphanage?"

"That there is one?" Seven asked amused before continuing before Torres could react. "I am surprised to see one. In the Federation Universe there are no Orphanages on Qo'noS because children are always taken care of by family, no matter how far related. Or otherwise they are taken into the families of friends of the deceased parents. From the history files I read I understood that family ties were just as strong here."

"Which is why a cousin of mine tried to kill me?" Torres asked amused.

"There are always exceptions," Seven said just as amused.

Torres looked up at the building again. "Well, you just gave your own answer really. There are always people that have no friends or no family anymore. It's still a result of way back when we ourselves were slaves of the Sol Empire. Before that time, we didn't have any orphans, just like you said and also for the reason you said. Then the Sol Empire came and parents got killed, or masters didn't want to bother with their slave having a child to take care of. So those children were dumped in Orphanages."

She shrugged. "Of course, those places didn't come anywhere close to a real Orphanage and were more just places to hold children until they were old enough to start serving as slaves. And if a parent got killed, more often than not family was not allowed to take care of the child because, again, some masters didn't want their slave to be preoccupied with taking care of a child. Then the Sol Empire fell and we became free, but the orphanages still existed and became 'an option'. Before there was always a place found to put the kids, friends, family... now the Orphanage has become another of those places."

She continued her explanation with partially agreeing to something Seven had said. "Yes, all in all children normally find a place with family or friends of the former parents. Still, to just shout a number since I don't know the real number, I would say that there are about a 100,000 orphans on Qo'noS, and 100 Orphanages, located in the 100 biggest cities on Qo'noS. This is simply the Capitol City one's... if the 'First City Orphanage' name is anything to go by,'" Torres added with a grin. Then she asked, "Want to go have a look?"

"I believe it would be interesting," Seven said and then followed as Torres started up the flight of stairs that led to the entrance.

~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~

Toby started to growl and slowly closed in on the clearly petrified animal while baring his teeth. Toby had no trouble smelling the fear of the animal the moment it had seen Toby.

"Toby, be nice."

Toby looked back at his light-haired nest mate and let out a pitiful soft howl.

"I am sorry for not allowing you your fun. How about an extra hour on the holodeck later?"

Toby heard the sound his nest mates normally made to indicate that place with the fake animals in it. He always had fun there. Yes, they weren't real, but they still could be chased, still could be killed. The blood still tasted nice. And best of all, he could have fun and rip the animals apart without his nest mates objecting. He looked back at the petrified animal and gave a last dismissive sniff. He liked the tradeoff; besides it was much more fun if the animals ran away first.

"I apologize; Toby likes it when people fear him," Seven explained.

"Well, I, um," The middle aged woman said, not really knowing how to reply while she tried to regain some dignity.

"We would like to have a look around," Torres said to give the woman something to focus on.

"Of course, Intendant. Please follow me. I apologize for any untidiness you might see. I was not informed that you would be visiting today. If I had known we would have prepared."

"Until five minutes ago I myself also didn't know that we would be visiting, so don't worry about it. I can ignore a little bit of untidiness if it's not too bad," Torres said, having understood only too well that 'I apologize for any untidiness you might see', translated to, 'I'm scared shitless that you will find problems that I wasn't able to hide because I didn't know you were coming'. "Why don't you show us around and tell us some crap that sounds interesting?"

The woman did just that.

~~~~~~~{}~~~~~~~

Chapter 14