Lt. T'Rokk Carter stepped back onto Deep Space Nine, this time feeling much better about his situation. He had been informed that his first set of orders had been sent to him. He made his way quickly to his quarters, set his things down, and opened them. The orders were sealed and encrypted. His interest was piqued, as these were very high security measures. He gave the oral recognition to break the seal, then ran the encryption algorithm required. The orders were directly from Starfleet Intelligence, and highly classified.
Tensions were mounting between the Klingons and the Cardassians. The Federation wanted to keep their peace with the Klingons, but not officially be involved in the war effort, until absolutely necessary. Their solution was to secretly help the Maquis, a group of Anti-Cardassian militants. They decided to send supplies and training. They also decided Carter was the man to deliver both.
Carter was chosen for three reasons. First, he was Klingon. If he was seen with the Maquis, the Cardassians would just think they had Klingon help. Second, he was a combat specialist. He was orphaned very young, and had to survive for years in a very harsh environment. He barely survived animal attacks, but grew to eventually become a master hunter. These skills translated very quickly to hand-to-hand combat. While aboard the Enterprise, Worf started teaching him martial arts.
He started with Mok'bara, and quickly progressed to bladed weapons. He was a very quick student, rapidly absorbing Worf's years of experience. Worf never said it out loud, but stopped thinking of T'Rokk as a student, years ago. He had grown to think of him as an equal. Carter's combat skills were on par with the best in the Empire, and the elite of Starfleet.
The third reason he was chosen was his past with one of the Maquis leaders, Ro Laren. Before she joined the Maquis, she was a Starfleet officer, stationed aboard the Enterprise. He had known her, but not very well. He was young, and she was pretty standoffish. They were in Worf's Mok'bara class together. She respected his hand-to-hand combat abilities, so they would occasionally make small talk in class. But outside of class, he was just another annoying teenager to her. And she sure didn't need another Wesley Crusher following her around like a lost puppy. Outside of the dojo, she kept a professional distance. But Starfleet Intelligence decided this was better than nothing, so they made it one of the reasons for choosing Carter for this mission. He was to spend 4 days preparing, then he would be given a supply freighter and some coordinates.
Four days later, he was notified that his freighter was inbound. He met them at the airlock, and relieved the crew. They had a crew of 6, but he was going to fly it solo. It wasn't a very long flight, and he was more than capable. Most importantly, though, was that this was a need-to-know mission. Starfleet Intelligence didn't want any extra people finding out, so the freighter was on the epitome of a 'skeleton crew'. Carter set a course for the Badlands, where the rendezvous point was. He met with a very small Maquis ship. The Maquis boarded the freighter and piloted it the rest of the way. A few hours later, they arrived at the Maquis base.
As Carter disembarked the freighter, he was met by Ro. "Nice to see you again" she said, with a playful smirk. Five years ago, she could barely stand him, but now she almost seemed flirty. "Come on. I'll show you where you're staying." T'Rokk followed her, and she talked while she walked him to his room. Mostly about her decision to join the Maquis, and how much the people needed her. She left him to himself, so he could unpack and get comfortable. It was already getting late, and the next few weeks were going to be tough. Carter decided it was best to get some sleep.
He awoke the next morning to the sounds of children's laughter. This surprised him, as he was told this was a military installation. He got dressed and came outside to see children running around, playing. They were mostly Bajoran, with a few other species mixed in. They were playing a Bajoran game called springball, which is similar to handball. Carter watched for a few minutes, then decided to find Ro.
He found her sitting at a communal dining table with some of the elders. They invited Carter to join, and offered him some of the fresh moba fruit at the table. They explained how they had managed to irrigate and grow crops on this once-barren landscape, all the while being careful not to reveal its location. Carter listened with genuine interest. He had tried his hand at growing crops when he was younger, and had only been moderately successful. He had found it to be a humbling experience.
Ro found it amusing that someone she had only considered to be a typical Klingon warrior could be so fascinated by stories of farming techniques. She found his interest cute. Or was it that she found him cute? Either way, she stopped herself from thinking of it. As the leader of this cell, she had a job to do. And that job was to train her soldiers for war. She excused herself from the table, and pulled T'Rokk away. Time to get to work.
Ro had her people gather in the town square for the combat lessons. For her soldiers, it was mandatory. For the civilians, it was highly encouraged. The group was divided into smaller groups, with each being led by one of Ro's lieutenants. This way, individual questions could be addressed without interrupting the larger group. Carter assessed the lieutenants and was pleasantly surprised. Most were former military. All had seen combat.
Among them was a very attractive Human-Klingon mixed woman named B'Elanna Torres. She caught Carter's eye for a few reasons. The first was obvious: she was Klingon. The second was her beauty. The third was that she was one of the few former Starfleet members present.
She made no attempt to hide her disdain for Starfleet, but she was a quick study when it came to hand-to-hand combat. Carter liked her, right away. He made a point of using her to show "good form", so he had an excuse to keep touching her, adjusting her elbow here, or her hip there. By the end of the day, she had finally started to warm up to him.
They had spent 12 hours running drills, and teaching everyone at least the basics. Everyone was sweating. Everyone was sore. But Carter felt a lot better about their chances of survival. He knew there were many more long days ahead, so he didn't hang around for social hour.
