Laila, Spock's Granny (Book 1: Vulcan Gladiatoress and Klingon Slave)

Betrayed 1

Picture = Kretorg

Somewhere on Qo'nos

Editorial note: The following paragraph is information, Laila did not know at the time, but was gathered much later and is provided for the reader's better understanding of events to come.

"I hear you opened a betting office, Odron?"

"So it is, father."

"What by all Klingons, is the big difference between a restaurant and a betting office? By our forefathers in Sto'vo'kor, I cannot see that a clerk in a betting office is any more suited to a Klingon, than a waiter or cook in a restaurant."

"With that, you are correct my father. The big difference however is, that I will get rich with it."

"Give me a note, when it happened, because I might overlook it, my son."

On Boreth

Without Gahris and with my own deteriorating performance, business was not running well for Nerek. He had to heavily cut on cost. Many amenities the school provided, had gotten eliminated. I decided, that despite my lack of hope and motivation thereof, I will put in more effort. I realized it would not serve me long term, to be a low ranking gladiator. Like Surak, I might end up in a cage in some run down outback gladiator school. It would have neither been in the interest nor gotten the approval of Gahris' soul. One of the first tasks I assigned myself to in my effort to boost my career again was to workout harder, get back to the physical strength I had. That was not a difficult task, I had enough experience with working out and I did not need a partner for it. All I needed was to make a training plan and overcome my weaker self. Another, a special task I assigned myself to was to look at the recordings of Gahris' fight in the Grand Arena on Qo'nos. Doing so, again, what struck me, was that the Gahris' sabers did not cut into the Kretorg in the first case. Something was wrong. I went over to the weapons workshop and asked the craftsman for Gahris' sabers in order to inspect them. I remembered, that the Grand Arena had sent the sabers and Gahris bag to our school. They had not gotten unpacked yet. The craftsman handed the parcel to me saying: "This is what the Grand Arena sent us."

I opened the parcel and inspected the two sabers and all the while, they had been exactly the same type of sabers, they had not been Gahris' sabers. These two sabers were like new, while Gahris' sabers had shown all signs of heavy usage. I remembered them, the leather around the hilt had been worn and greasy and the blade had received a number of blemishes. "These are not Gahris' sabers", was my quick assessment!

Astonished, the craftsman scrutinized them and nodded: "No, these are not the sabers I had made for Gahris! They are exact copies." After a short pause, he added: "See the intricate patterns on the pommel and the blade, the wrapping style of the leather ribbon around the hilt! That is my design."

He inspected the pommel, then continued: "See, when a weapon's smith creates a weapon, then you take pride in it. As such, you mark your creation with your stamp. I put my stamp into the pommel, but it is not there. So it is clear, that I did not make these sabers and thus these are not Gahris' sabers." He continued to look for another stamp on the weapons, but could not find a stamp or any other mark, which would reveal the smith who made them.

The craftsman went about testing the sabers. He looked at the blade under the microscope, cut various materials, like paper and hair, then maltreated the blade with a hammer and provided his resume: "These are excellent sabers. I'd say even better than the ones I had made. I would have to do a gas chromatography of the steel, to finally judge its quality, but the physical attributes, like hardness and flexibility are at least alike. Shame on me, they are actually better. So the question is, why by your ancestors in Sto'vo'kor, did this master weapons smith who created these excellent and wonderful weapons not leave his mark on them? Why did he make exact copies of my sabers and not follow his own design style?"

"What does that mean?"

"I don't know. Whoever made them, was/is an excellent weapons smith. I cannot come up with any disadvantage compared to the one's I have made."

"Well, they did not cut the Klingon at all, where indeed, they should have cut him severely. Something must be wrong with them!"

"Fine, try them on the bamboo bar", the craftsman ordered me!

The bamboo bar was a cluster of bundled bamboo rods to test swords. With an average power blow, I already sliced right through the bamboo bar. I did not even use full force. Indeed, these sabers were excellent, probably even better than Gahris' original ones. The one thing that still puzzled me, was that neither Nerek nor Gahris had ever mentioned these new sabers. And where had the old ones remained?

When probed, Nerek knew nothing about new sabers. He did definitely not buy them. A quick guess on their possible cost by our weapons crafter revealed, that Nerek would not have spent the money to obtain these weapons. Nerek was as shocked about these sabers as I had been. I again scrutinized the sabers and I tried them on several occasions in our training area, even once in the arena, but I could not find a flaw with them.

The sabers apparently were great weapons, nothing wrong with them. The way they had come to Gahris was however questionable. With no further clues though, I eventually returned them to the craftsman, who put them in storage.

In the First City on Qo'nos

Editorial note: The following paragraph is information, Laila did not know at the time, but was gathered much later and is provided for the reader's better understanding of events to come.

"Odron, you bring me the latest revenue report from our venture?"

"Yes, Godfather, you will see all the details here in my report. The summary is, that business is running very well. We are making decent profit with the betting office and we wash about 6 times as much money as with a restaurant."

"I'm very pleased to hear that. You are dismissed Odron!"

"Godfather, I have a new business proposal, if you like to hear about it?"

"Most certainly, tell me boy!"

"I suggest, to buy a gladiator."

"Buying a gladiator? Well, I have no real intentions, to open a school. Or what is your proposal?"

"Well, my idea is, to promote a fight between a low ranking gladiator, which we buy and one of the first three."

"Well, Odron, I don't see, where that should get us? We buy a low ranking gladiator, send him in the arena, with No. 1, 2 or 3, bet on the Klingon gladiator and the low ranking gladiator will get killed. We can just omit buying the gladiator at all."

"Right! My plan, Godfather, is slightly different. We buy a low ranking gladiator with lots of potential. We get him trained so that he is at least on par with the three leading Klingons. Then, when he is ready, we promote the fight, but we bet on the low ranking gladiator, because the quotas will be extraordinary. If for example, we take No. 86 of the list fighting No. 2 of the list, the quota will be around 1:250. So if we only bet 10 thousand darseks, we will get 2 and a half Million back."

"I like the quota, still I don't see beyond the point, where our gladiator is getting killed. The first three Klingons are on top of the list for a reason. A low ranking gladiator stands about no chance of winning against them."

"About no chance, is the important in regards. We have to make sure, matters appear as he has about no chance, while in fact he is the favorite. Please look at my proposal it will explain many things in more detail."

"Fine, I will read it and come back to you, still I have my doubts. Thanks Odron."

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