To: Bithreya
From: H’ajah
Subj: Coming Home
TRANSLATION PROGRAM: ACTIVE
Tormented Mother,
Let your anguished heart be at peace. I have found Eshan, and I am bringing him home to you.
The tale of my brother’s rescue is long and twisting, and a comprehensive account will have to wait until I arrive. What follows is an abbreviated and undramatized account, so that you will know why your child was so long severed from you, and why he must be returned in the state he is in.
My brave companions, Olivia and James, set out from Deep Space 13 aboard a refurbished vessel, trundling slowly across the border into Klingon space. We returned to the t’Ong Nebula, thinking to count the dead lingering in the wreck of the Consuming Flame. When we arrived, however, we found the vessel missing and the minefield rebuilt. Someone had cleaned the site, making it appear as though the battle had never happened.
As the warp trails we detected on our first excursion were long dissipated, we resolved to proceed on to Qo’noS and see if the Wakawa had ever reached its destination. Of the shuttle, we could find no sign or trace, but we did find that some survivors of the Flame did eventually reach the homeworld. The diplomats Tsezak and Avung, whose safe delivery to Qo’noS was the Ogun’s solemn charge, had indeed arrived some weeks earlier and conducted preliminary meetings with representatives from several other houses. They were already gone by this time, returned to the D’ewos fleet by alternative means, so we made that our next destination.
The security on D’ewos’ flagship was suspicious of us, but by cunning and guile we managed to gain admission to the vessel’s administration wing and confronted the villains directly. Though many thought my aggression unprovoked at first, my comrades and I challenged the diplomats’ story of piracy and narrow escape to show it for the thin fabrication it was. His eyes opened at last, D’ewos arrested the traitors and had them subjected to vigorous interrogation to reveal their motives. The one called Tsezak–I know not his true name–eventually confessed to being a Sorzal agent, surgically altered to pass as a member of the D’ewos diplomatic corps so that he could manipulate and derail efforts to negotiate favorable alliances. More pertinent to my search, however, was this: he claimed that his surgery took place at secret Romulan facility in the t’Ong Nebula, and that other captives from the Flame including Ogun had been detained there.
I wanted to make haste to this Romulan fortress, but my wise counselors warned me against a foolhardy charge. It is fortunate that we waited, for I shortly thereafter learned that Cargh himself was lobbying D’ewos to mount an attack. Ultimately, D’ewos was unmoved by Cargh’s righteous pleas and refused to commit forces to the rescue effort. Cargh declared D’ewos a coward, unworthy of the loyalty a vassal owes his liege, and recalled his ships from their deployments throughout the empire.
The strike force Cargh was able to muster on short notice was meager, built mostly of ships that had been undergoing repairs and crewed by warriors in no better condition. Nevertheless, my champions and I pledged our lives to the fight and rode forth alongside Cargh’s squadron.
The battle was quick and decisive. I will not belabor this tale with a detailed recounting. Though our side sustained heavy damage and significant losses, the Romulan defenders were routed. Two warbirds limped away from the fight under cloak while Cargh’s invaders, my friends and I among them, beamed over to the station. There we found many Romulans already dead, and several in the process of dying, for the cowards had opted to commit suicide by poison rather than answer for their crimes. A self destruct sequence was in progress already, so we hastened to the detention center and freed the captives there. Among the many, many prisoners were both Ogun and Eshan; the latter, my brave little brother, had attempted to rescue Ogun and the others by infiltrating the facility. We gathered them all and escaped.
I suffer to write these words, as I know you will suffer to read them. Dear, sweet Eshan is grievously wounded, mother. The doctors say his body may be healed, but I fear his mind will not be so resilient. Those butchers subjected him to the most terrible and vicious of tortures, played games with his mind and preyed on his fears and insecurities. He was barely lucid when I found him, and in the days since he has scarcely improved. I know not what evil designs the Romulans pursued in treating him this way, and fear they may have taken that secret with them to Gre’thor.
Thus did our victory turn to ashes in our mouths. If you have any feeling to spare after you have read of your son’s fate, pity your liege Cargh, whose heir is in an even more wretched state. Poor Ogun is a shell of his former self, mutilated and mad with fear and pain. Perhaps if he had merely lost his son in battle, Cargh could have carried on as a warrior must. But this is too much for any man, no matter how strong, to bear. He has resolved to quit this war and return home to New Quin’lat, and I will return with him. By the time you receive this letter, we should be well underway.
Make ready to receive us, and if you can, forge your bravest face for when you are reunited with Eshan. He needs us all to be strong for him. We will be with you soon.
//SIGNED//
tuq cargh qaStaHvIS ghIm h’ajah, shal puqbe’
H’ajah, daughter of Shal, of House Cargh in exile
Engineer Errant
