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Adjusting his tricorder to scan solely for Klingon life signs, Rozhenko was surprised to find two indications. “Lieutenant! I am picking up two Klingons, directly below us!”
“You two, stay here,” Tobias said to the rest of the team as he ran toward the exit. “You’re with me, Chief.”
They went into the hallway and searched for some kind of access to anything that might be below them. Setting his tricorder to examine the signs on the doors and translate them, Rozhenko found that one of them said SUB-BASEMENT right over a rectangular seam in the wall that could easily have been a hatch. “Sir, over here.”
Despite their years of training, the two engineers found themselves unable to determine which of the assorted buttons, levers, and switches on the door next to the sign actually would open the hatch—if hatch it truly was, as it had no handhold of any sort.
“This is ridiculous.” Tobias sighed, ru
Instead of responding, Rozhenko decided to test a theory. He placed his hand against the hatch.
It started to roll inward and then down, revealing a small vertical tubular shaft, just wide enough to accommodate one person, with a ladder on the back part.
Tobias regarded Rozhenko. “Chief, remind me, why did I bother spending four years at the Academy?”
Rozhenko smiled for the first time since beaming down to this charnel house. “That, Lieutenant, is one of many questions I ask myself every day. As soon as I have an answer, I promise to let you know.”
Shaking his head, Tobias climbed into the shaft and started down the ladder. Rozhenko followed the officer a moment later.
The ladder emptied into a relatively small room whose nature Rozhenko found himself unable to properly determine, as most of the floor was covered with parts of the ceiling—the latter had broken and fallen in many pieces, large and small, to the floor.
Panic welling in his gut, Rozhenko did a quick structural scan of the room, which verified what his eyes were telling him.
Before he could voice his concerns, Tobias said, “This room’s go
“Twelve, according to the tricorder, sir.”
Tobias smirked. “That’swhy I went to the Academy, Chief—I’m not so dependent on gadgets. Trust me, this room’ll hold for three more minutes. Still, I’d rather not risk it. Let’s find our life signs and—”
He was interrupted by the sound of something moving. Rozhenko followed the noise to a small pile of rubble.
Then he noticed the tiny hand sticking out.
It must be a child!Rozhenko thought as he and Tobias ran over and started throwing pieces of debris off the hand, which soon revealed an arm, and then an entire body.
It was indeed a child, who clutched one of those Klingon swords for dear life. He was only a little bigger than Nikolai…
Tobias practically beat his chest, he hit his combadge so hard. “Tobias to Intrepid.”He then removed the combadge and placed it on the boy. “Medical emergency. Lock onto my signal, and beam directly to sickbay!”
“No…” That was the boy, who had somehow found the strength to speak. “Must…protect…Kahlest…”
Then the transporter beam took him to the Intrepid.
“Kahlest is probably the other life sign,” Rozhenko said.
“Let’s find her, then. We’ve only got ten minutes…”
Chapter 34
B’alda’ar Base
“There I was, on a planet full of grishnarcats. The only two of any consequence were a fierce one named Baroner and a Vulcan trader.”
Several of the Klingons listening to Captain Kor tell his tale in the midst of the dark, crowded bar made their disdain for Vulcans quite clear. From his seat at a table halfway across the bar, Dax smiled as his old friend silenced their grumbles. “Do not underestimate Vulcans! They can be a fierce and powerful force when provoked. They lull you into a false sense of security by being so insipidly bland,” the captain said with a grin, “but they have their moments.”
Kor, a mug of chech’tluthin one hand, started pacing in front of the bar. It, as well as the stools, railing, tables, and mugs, were all made of the same solid wood that derived from a tree native to this world. The wood had a complex grain and was as solid as many metals. The wood scent, combined with the alcohol, gave the bar a natural feel that most modern bars could not achieve—especially, Dax noted with a smile, in the Federation, where “antiseptic” was all too often the order of the day.
“I soon learned that Baroner and his Vulcan ally were none other than Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Commander Spock of the Enterprise.The honor of killing Kirk would have been great, but it was war, and prisoners had their uses. So I put them in a prison—but the other Organians freed them. I killed two hundred of them for this effrontery, yet they seemed utterly unconcerned. I was prepared to kill more, when Kirk and Spock themselves burst into my office.”
Laughing as he poured his chech’tluthtoward his face—some of it, Dax noted, even actually making it into his mouth—Kor then went on. “Truly they were worthy foes.” He cocked his head. “More or less. Humans tend to be sentimental, even in war, and Kirk was no different. But when it came time to fight, he fought—or tried to. That was when the Organians stepped in and forced us to cease hostilities.”
The Klingons present had less love for the Organians than they did the Vulcans, but the captain shushed them. “Believe me, no one hates the Organians more than I. They claim to have evolved beyond us, yet they have no joy, no passion, no lusts!” To accentuate this last point, Kor grabbed an attractive Caitian female—who was about a quarter of old razorbeast’s age, Dax knew—and gave her a friendly snarl. The woman purred back, and everyone around them laughed. “Besides, if not for what the Organians did that day, I doubt we would have been in a position to gain the Federation’s assistance when Praxis was lost to us.”
Several grumbled at that—nobody liked being reminded of Praxis—but then Kor laughed. “Of course, that was not my last chance to face Kirk in battle! No, we fought again later, at the legendary Delta Triangle!” He gulped down the rest of his drink. “But that is a tale for another day.”
Some were disappointed at this postponement, others were relieved, others simply went back to whatever they were doing before the aged captain enthralled them with his words. Most were Klingons, and therefore had no trouble finding someone to wrestle or head-butt or drink copious amounts with. I think that’s what I like best about these people—theyknow how to have a party.
The storyteller himself, though, went straight for the small wooden table where Dax sat, nursing a beer. Dax had no idea how or why a bar located on a base deep in the heart of the Klingon Empire served Earth beer, but he hadn’t had any in years, and he found he missed it.
“Now there is a face I didn’t expect to see here,” the old Klingon said.
“I, on the other hand, fully expected to find your face here as soon as I learned that the Klothoswas in orbit here at B’Alda’ar. Speaking of your face, you’ve got chech’tluthin your beard.”