Editing Maraht's Story (section)

== Maraht and the Klingons ==
(IKS DoQ'boS - Galley - ACSO Lt. Maraht - 1035)

"I have programming chips and a small replicator I have brought with me for
purposes of making my own food. I am more than capable of hooking it up to a
power emitter in your galley. Allow me to do so." Maraht, knowing he had to
be firm and could show no fear, rumbled closer to the outraged Klingon that
was taking his turn as cook in the galley.

The Klingon's lip curled, and Maraht detected many sharp teeth and even a few
fangs sticking out of the Klingon's mouth. "Who let you in here?!" he
roared, and Maraht, turning up the volume on his Vox, roared right back,
"Your commanding officer told me to come down here! If you have any
arguments, take it up with him!"

The Klingon bent down toward Maraht and hissed, "I will see to it that your
body parts are flung into the nearest star after I drill out core samples
from your hide if I find that you are lying."

Giving a flip of the tip of his main phalange even though most of it was
wrapped around the replicator unit, Maraht snapped back, "That will be
difficult for you to do if I have already melted your carcass down to sludge
and eaten you. Go and complain to your captain if you have any objections.
In the meantime, get out of my way!"

The Klingons eyes narrowed and he growled. Then he turned and stalked out of
the galley kitchen.

Maraht nearly dropped the replicator unit in relief, but didn't. He wasn't
too sure if any other Klingon stalks would come in wanting to pound him into
powder, but he had learned well how to deal with Klingons. Firm decisiveness
and an aggressive stance seemed to go a long way with this variety of
stalks.

Maraht worked carefully within the galley and he soon had some granite
materializing. He repeatedly brought the small chunks into the eating area
of the mess hall and dumped them into the large dish he had set up in a
corner. Right now, there was no one in the mess area at the moment. The
Klingon Bird of Prey was a small ship and he was sure that someone would
stride in soon.

~Sure enough, speak of the magma.~ A Klingon female strode in and gaped at
the Horta. Maraht ignored her and she, suddenly aware that her mouth was
open, busied herself with getting some bloodwine in a tankard from a nearby
keg on a shelf. Maraht noted that she kept staring at him as much as
possible even as she did so.

After piling up enough granite chunks in his low edged eating dish, Maraht
climbed on the top of the pile and ate his meal, with much satisfactory
hissing as the rock melted under the onslaught of his digestive acid. He
carefully and neatly used his hair-like fringe to sweep up any uneaten bits
and pieces and wiped up any leftover acid in his dish.

The expression on the Klingon woman's face was worth its weight in a
mountain of gold pressed latinum and pergium. It was an odd combination of
surprise, consternation and outright fear. She was sitting at the galley
table as far away from him as was possible.

Maraht knew he walked a fine tightrope with his presence on this ship. He
knew the strange aggressive stalks had to be fearful enough to leave him
alone but not fearful enough to view him as a threat to their immediate
existence. So he decided he should see if he could get her to talk to him.
He knew she would spread it around the crew that he was not a danger to the
ship if he could convince her. After all, a small ship made for a small
crew. ~Let's see what will happen.~

Maraht rumbled out of his eating dish and pushed it into the corner out of
the way. He moved to the middle of the room and faced the speaker grill
toward the Klingon. "Greetings, I am Lt. Maraht. Your captain has agreed to
give me a ride across the quadrant, now that the Federation Civil War has
ended. I am normally assigned to the USS Hades, but I have been granted
leave. You would be?"

The Klingon woman's eyes widened and she hastily raised her tankard to her
lips and drank. Putting it down on the table in front of her, she said, "I
am 2nd Engineer Ba'raD."  She stared openly at Maraht now. "Just what in the
name of Kahless are you?"

"I am a Horta. My species are a silicon based life form, proud members of
the Federation and the greatest natural miners the universe has ever seen.
As far as I know, I am the only Horta in Starfleet."  Maraht was justifiably
proud of his race and felt no need to pretend otherwise.

"A rock that talks," muttered the Klingon. ~It's probably filthy and carries
diseases crawling around like that.~  "Did I just see you....eat a bunch of
stones?"

Maraht replied, "My corrosive digestive acid that I exude dissolves the
stones for immediate ingestion, yes."

Ba'raD's eyes widened in horror as she absorbed the implications of that.
"Don't worry, I am civilized. I won't eat your ship or anyone that behaves
themselves," Maraht said, hoping to prevent a panic among the crew. "I am a
decorated Lieutenant, having been in several battles, some of them hand to
hand....er.....rock to hand. I would not be allowed on any starship of the
Federation if I was thought to be untrustworthy or have bad manners. I know
better than any pebble to not drool."

Ba'raD's mouth dropped open, and grabbing her tankard she downed the rest in
a single large swig. Having fortified herself with some liquid courage, she
said, "You don't even have eyes. How in the name of Kahless can you see?"

Before Maraht could answer, the door opened into the mess hall. The
commanding officer of the DoQ'boS, Commander Duk'char stepped in. Glancing
around the room and taking note, his eyes found Maraht. "You are ready? You
have eaten?" he asked.

"Yes, sir. I am ready to be shown around your fine ship. I have been looking
forward to it," replied Maraht. "I will talk to you later, Engineer Ba'raD."
He rumbled his way out, following the tall stalky Klingon.

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(Posted by Sheila Mayer)
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(IKS DoQ'boS - Corridor - ACSO Lt. Maraht - 1045)

Commander Duk'char gestured toward the Engineering room. "That is our Engine
Room, but we do not let visitors in it for security purposes."

"I understand completely. We do the same on our ship with visitors," said
Maraht.

"Come!" Duk'char pointed down the corridor. "We go to the bridge."

"Yes, sir," said Maraht respectfully. As they went to the small lift, Maraht
could not stop his curiosity. "Have you seen many battles in this ship? How
long have you been assigned to the DoQ'boS?"

Stepping into the turbolift and squeezing over for Maraht, the Commander
stared at the Horta with surprise and suspicion. "Curiosity could get you
killed, Starfleet officer. Be careful what you ask."

Maraht answered, "I am merely surprised at the design efficiency of this
vessel. What it might lack in spaciousness, it more than makes up for in
speed and agility. It could easily run rings around many ships I have seen.
You must be very proud."

Duk'char raised both eyebrows and studying the Horta, he nodded. "Yes, I am
proud of this ship. We have been through many battles together. I could tell
you great stories of our times here."

The turbolift doors opened, allowing them onto the dark cramped bridge. From
the viewscreen it looked as if they were already at warp speed. "I have read
about the history and development of the mek'leth and the bat'leth. I
thought it was fascinating. Klingon weaponry has a much more colorful
history than the development of phaser weapons."

Astonished, Duk'char's eyes widened and he nodded. The bridge crew on duty
turned and stared at their captain with his unlikely companion. "Get back to
your work!" Duk'char snapped to his crew. "Status?" he asked a shorter
heavily muscled Klingon as he sat down in the center seat. Maraht assumed
that this must be Commander Duk'char's first officer or the Klingon
equivalent.

"Everything is going well. The minor repairs have been finished, but we are
still low on food stores," was the answer.

"Maybe we can pick up some meat soon. I am tired of dead gahg myself. I
would like to have fresher food." Maraht thought he detected agreement from
the other bridge officers, though they said little.

The ship shook and bucked abruptly. "What was that? Did someone fire on us?"
snapped out Duk'char.

"No Commander. Our engines are overheating," spoke up another of the
Klingons peering into a screen. Turning to the Commander he said,
"Engineering reports that one of the magnetic bottles is in danger of
failing."

"What!" shouted the commander.  "We cannot have survived such a glorious
battle with our allies of the 52nd Fleet to die from malfunction now. Shut
down the engines."

The first officer spoke up. "The damage might have been minute and
undetectable until we went to warp speed."

Maraht felt it was time that he spoke up. "Sir, I may be able to help with
repairs."

Commander Duk'char and his first officer looked at Maraht with no small
amount of distrust. "How could you possibly help repair a warp engine? You
are a talking rock!" sneered the burly Klingon first officer. He turned to
Duk'char and said, "This is little more than a trained animal."

Commander Duk'char held up his hand to forestall the Klingon from
continuing. "I doubt this Starfleet officer wishes to die. If we don't trust
it to help us, then we will die and it will not be in battle. If we do trust
it, then we might live to eat some fresh meat and see home again. I would
like to live to tell the tales of our recent victories."

Duk'char turned back to Maraht. "Go to Engineering and repair the
malfunction. I am sure we have limited time. Martoq will accompany you."

"Yes sir," said Maraht.

(Reply any)

(Posted by Sheila Mayer)
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(IKS DoQ'boS - Engine Room - ACSO Lt. Maraht - 1050)

It wasn't long before Maraht and First Officer Martoq were moving through
the doors to Engineering. The light was dim and red warning lights were
flicking on and off. A countdown was in progress. There appeared to be only
three engineers at work. Two were struggling to stabilize the magnetic
bottles manually. Another had his head inside a conduit.

"Is there a tool kit around?" asked Maraht. ~That would help.~ Martoq barked
an order and somebody brought them a tool kit and handed it uncertainly to
Martoq. ~Great Lava!~ Maraht's main phalange snaked out and plucked it from
the Klingon's hand.

"Shut that blinking light down and turn down the volume on your noisemakers.
We already know there's a problem."  Martoq glared at the engineering staff
and snarled another order. It became much quieter.

Maraht asked Martoq, "Can your warp core be ejected in case of an imminent
breach?"

Maroq scowled. "Yes, but then we would have to be rescued. There is little
honor in being dragged home by tractor beam."

"All right then," said Maraht. "Let's see what we can do." The Horta rumbled
his way through the cramped engine room, Martoq following. He started
pulling off consoles covers as he went, looking diligently for the problem.
In doing so, he detected a few variances and some shorts in the electrical
systems. "Alright, here is one end of the problem," said Maraht. "You have a
cascade failure starting in your injector coils. See here," and Maraht
rumbled over to one open console, to illustrate with his main phalange, "You
have a very small short here that is causing an imbalance in your
antimatter/matter mix. The uneven mix is causing more thermal dispersal than
it should, putting more stress on your articulation frame. Now I am no
engineer, but even as a science officer, I can tell that the stress is
causing your second magnetic bottle to flux."

An engineer, scanner in hand, ran over to Martoq and began talking to him in
low tones. The First Officer listened and then his eyes widened. In
astonishment he said, "My engineers say that you are telling the truth."

Impatiently Maraht flicked his phalange tip at him and said, "Of course I
am."  He began pulling tools out of the kit. "I can create a stable bypass
around the short and that should begin to help with the problem." He stopped
and pointed a spanner with his phalange toward an engineer he recognized.
"2nd Engineer Ba'raD, I want your assistance. I want you to use your scanner
to check for any fluctuating variances in this system. It will help to have
another person watching and giving me feedback to coordinate my efforts. I
want those magenetic bottles to be closely monitored."

The Klingon engineering staff looked irritated and were fuming. Maraht
turned up the volume on his Vox and roared at them. "Now! I want this all
done now! Get moving or we could all be marooned here! Do you want to be
stranded in space with me for weeks or months? Or go home with your tails
tucked between your legs? *Get going!*"

Martoq shoved the engineer still standing next to him and they all jumped
into action. Maraht worked quickly, with Ba'raD feeding him the variance
fluctuations. It wasn't long before they had the bypass in place.

"Magnetic bottle stabilizing, Commander Martoq," reported an engineer. Maroq
looked for himself at the screen the engineer indicated and nodded. "Yes, we
can go to warp again?" His bushy eyebrows quivered with distaste at the
Horta.

"Given that there are no more problems, you should have your warp drive
functioning again," said Maraht. "I suggest you have your crew run some
diagnostics of your systems, though, just to be sure. There could still be
some minuscule damage from the battle that has not been detected that could
affect the stability."

The Klingon engineers look ready to murder Maraht again. "I mean no
disrespect, and I am sure you are good engineers or you would not have
survived. This same thing could happen on my own vessel, the Hades. Entropy
exists. Materials wear out and parts break down. It happens," snapped
Maraht. "Deal with it."

"Get back to your duties," Martoq ordered them and turning to Maraht he said
simply, "Come." He stalked out of the engine room, Maraht close behind.

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(Posted by Sheila Mayer)
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(IKS DoQ'boS - Bridge - ACSO Lt. Maraht - 1120)

Commander Duk'char stared at the Horta with no small amount of astonishment.
"Martoq tells me that you were successful in fixing the problem with our
warp drive. How could a one such as you be able to fix an engine problem?"

Maraht, containing his amusement merely said, "I have had good teachers, and
good Captains. It doesn't hurt a bit that I am a Horta. We are a talented
race."

The expression on the Martoq's face conveyed disbelief. Duk'char's bushy
eyebrows trembled with amazement. "Well you certainly have your uses," said
the Commander grudgingly.

"You are curious?" asked Maraht. "I have many things I can tell you. Why not
come to the galley with me and over a tankard of bloodwine you can hear it
all," offered Maraht.

The Klingon commander nodded and stood. He said, "I would like to hear your
story. And I want to know how you became a Starfleet Officer. We shall
celebrate with a toast to our victory."

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(Posted by Sheila Mayer)