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Kor laughed. “I’m saving it for later.” He fell more than sat into the seat opposite Dax. “So—if you were seeking out the Klothos,it stands to reason that you were seeking out its captain.”
Holding up his beer in tribute, Dax said, “Your powers of observation remain keen as ever, Kor. A colleague and I have been spending the last several weeks doing some—research into the head of the High Council.”
Kor frowned. “Why do you wish to investigate Kravokh? He is a good man, from all accounts, and he has made us strong once again.”
“Perhaps, but he’s also obsessed with Ch’gran. And I’ve learned why. He—”
“He is the descendant of one of the original colonists, of course.”
Dax stared at Kor for several seconds. “My colleague and I—neither of whom are without resources—took weeks to dig that up. The least you could’ve done, old friend, was let me gloat over our work.”
Kor’s laughter echoed off the ceiling. “Ah, Dax, I’ve missed you so. It’s not as if you were ignorant of my knowledge, or you would not have sought me out in this lovely establishment.” He gestured, taking in the entire dark, high-ceilinged bar. “You know that I served with Kravokh’s father, and I suppose now you wish me to provide you with insight into the chancellor’s mind.”
Dax gri
“Nonsense! No one says that!” He spoke with mock outrage that only lasted about half a second before he, too, gri
“Kravokh.”
“No, Kravokh’s father. Yes, J’Doq and I served together years ago. I remember once, after we defeated Tholian raiders, we came to a bar—rather like this one, actually—and spoke of glories past. He went on at some length about the great deeds his family had committed—it was quite tiresome, to be honest.”
Dax pointedly made no comment.
“Then I remember him saying, ‘And of course, there was Ch’gran.’” Kor smiled. “This was something of a surprise, since I had no idea that his House descended from those heroes. I said as much.” Kor frowned. “The next part was peculiar, for J’Doq said, ‘Bah! Klartak may have been my ancestor, but he was no hero. I know the truth.The whole family knows the truth, and if it ever got out it would destroy the Empire.’”
Now Dax leaned forward. This is even more than I’d hoped for.“So what was the truth?”
Kor seemed distracted. “Hm?”
“The truth about Ch’gran, what was it?”
“How should I know?” Kor shrugged, took a dry sip of his drink, realized it was empty, then tossed the wooden mug aside. “Right after J’Doq said that, he passed out. We never spoke of it again.”
Incredulous, Dax asked, “You didn’t question him further?”
“Listen carefully, Dax. I said, wenever spoke of it again. Icertainly did, but the toDSaHwouldn’t say a word after he sobered up— andhe never got drunk in my presence again.” Kor snorted. “He became very dull after that. But enough of this!” He got up, grabbing Dax by the arm as he did so. “Dax and Kor are together again! We must celebrate!”
“Who am I to argue with the hero of Klach D’Kel Bracht?”
Slamming Dax on the back, which caused the Trill to stumble forward toward the bar, Kor laughed and said, “Have I told you the story of how I massacred the Romulans on that day, my old friend?”
“Not for several years, no,” Dax said dryly.
“Then you must hear it again, for I tell it much better now. There I was…”
The beeping seemed to echo in the Trill’s skull.
He tried to remember where he was. Then he tried to remember his name. After several seconds, that came to him: he was Curzon Dax, a Federation ambassador.
And he had the mother of all hangovers.
Then he recalled the first thing: he was on his private transport, a small Trill craft that had an exquisitely comfortable bed—which made the feeling of metal against his cheek rather confusing. He opened his eyes to discover that he had fallen asleep about a meter from that bed on the cold, hard deck.
Ah, well. At least I had the presence of mind to make it back to the ship.“Computer, turn off that damned beeping!”
“Please repeat request.”
Dax sighed. Although he had intended to enunciate those words, looking back, it came out more like, “Kapooer, tnoffat dameepng!” So instead, he gathered every ounce of strength he had and sat up.
This was a mistake. The interior of the ship proceeded to leap about, jump up and down, and generally act quite silly. Dax closed his eyes—which served to give him a burst of color inside his eyelids—then opened them again. The ship had, blessedly, calmed down.
Finally, he focused on the fact that the beeping was the comm system. He managed to crawl over to the workstation and activate the viewer.
Too late, he realized he should have disabled the video feed, but by then the face of Elias Vaughn was already on the screen. “Rough night?”
“Vaughn, the last thing I need right now is a high-handed lecture from you about the perils of drinking.”
“Good, because you’re not getting one—unless, of course, talking to Kor proved a waste of time.”
With the mention of that name, the rest of the night came back to Dax. The drinking. The stories of everything ranging from Klach D’Kel Bracht to the Albino to T’nag to the Korma Pass to the Delta Triangle and back to Organia again. The drinking. The flirting with those two rather comely Rigelian women. The drinking. And, oh yes, the drinking.
Vaughn was still droning. “Believe me, Ambassador, I’m fully aware that the best tool to use in interrogating a Klingon is often a case of bloodwine.”
Dax smiled. Vaughn wasn’t as stupid as he looked. But then, with that beard, he couldn’t be.“Well, you can rest assured it was successful—sort of.” Thinking about where he and one of the Rigelian women wound up, perhaps “sort of” was overstating the case, but Vaughn didn’t want—or deserve—to hear about that. “Kor didserve with J’Doq. And J’Doq—and Kravokh—did have an ancestor on Ch’gran. Andthere’s some kind of secret that relates to his ancestor—fellow named Klartak.”
At that, Vaughn’s eyes narrowed.
“What is it?” Dax prompted.
“It can wait until you’re of a better mind to appreciate it.”
“Don’t coddle me, Commander, this isn’t my first hangover. What. Is. It?”
“I was able to dig up some of the sealed records from the Ch’gran wreck they found in the Betreka Nebula about fifty years back. Klartak was the second-in-command under Ch’gran.”
“Interesting,” Dax said, though it wasn’t really. “Still, that doesn’t explain Kravokh’s obsession.”
“I’m afraid it does. You see, Klartak wasn’t just Ch’gran’s first officer—he’s also the one who led the mutiny.”
Chapter 35
I.K.S. Sompek
K’mpec was livid.
It was not enough that the distress call to the Morska system was a fake. All the Sompekfound when Morska came on long-range sensors was a buoy of some sort that exploded within seconds of the Sompek’s commencement of that very sensor probe. No sign of the Konmator its Cardassian attackers. One of Captain Kang’s officers did report, however, that the buoy could well have been a communications relay that faked the signal, though it was impossible to be sure. Kang had the debris beamed on board just in case.