Subject: A battle of the minds
From: [email-masked] (Wolff Dobson)
Date: 18 Jul 1994 06:53:04 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.shared-reality.startrek.klingon,alt.startrek.creative

/* It has come to my attention that a certain group of Klingons 
 * seem not yet to be shared in this reality.  Those klingons
 * of the Old Trek.
 
 * I propose a duel, a duel of the mind across many realities.
 * A battle across the timestreams.  

 * Let me kick it off here. . .add as you see fit.
 * And may the best sapient win. . .
 */

"Entering Wormhole," said Dax to herself.  After serving on board larger
ships and on the Ops deck on DS9, she was used to announcing such things
out loud in the semi-officious language of the Federation.

This was a typical routine mission:  through the Wormhole into the Gamma
Quadrant to set up some space buoys to direct unwary travellers away from
the entrance to the Wormhole.  She had six buoys in the cargo hold of
the /Nile/; large sturdy pyramidal things nearly three meters high made 
of transparent aluminum that gave off strong subspace signals on many
frequencies warning of the possible entrance to the wormhole in as many
languages as she and O'Brian had managed to jam into the small memories.

Keiko had been acting a bit self-important, as usual, so Dax had volunteered
to take care of distribution while O'Brian dealt with his wife's annoyance
that he was spending so much time with Dax on this project.  /I don't think
I'll ever even consider getting married/, she thought to herself, 
but the Trill inside sent out a wave of almost-thought that brought
back the warmth and comfort that her brief romance at Starfleet
Academy had brought her.  She smiled to herself.  The Trill was always
a source of surprise. 

"Warning---instability in Wormhole!" said the computer in its irritatingly
prim voice.  

Dax leapt out of her reverie and stared at the instrument readings in 
front of her.  Instability was an understatement.  A new passage of lightning-
covered 'hole branched off from DS9's usual pathway through the time-space
rift.  The /Nile/, already "coasting," was being diverted down this new path.
Even as she struggled with the maneuvering jets, she knew that she was
on a roller coaster ride to wherever she was going.  /And in time space
rifts/, she thought, /a better question might *whenever*./

---*----

Commander Kohlar stood on the command bridge of the Bird of Prey /Homicide/.  
He looked at his orders in disbelief as they hung on the screen.
He cleared the screen back to the Klingon High Council emblem.

"What are our orders, sire?" said Lieutenant Commander Ssa, a Klingon 
warrior of great cunning and skill, one who might yet succeed Kohlar
if Kohlar was exceptionally stupid.  He was second in command on
/Homicide/ and first officer.

"You would not believe the news," snarled Kohlar.

Ssa knew it had to be bad news.  Kohlar didn't ever snarl about good news.
As an afterthought, Ssa realized that Kohlar snarled about everything.  
Kohlar also never announced anything but bad news.

"Yes, Sire?  What news would I not believe?"  Ssa smiled slyly.  "I am always
looking for diverting ways to strech my imagination."

"That bastard Kirk was acquitted today of the entire Genesis matter!"
Kohlar stomped irritably about the raised command console.  The other
three officers on watch tried to not notice or cringe at the clangs of
Kohlar's steel boots.  "He was demoted to Captain for saving the Earth
by bringing back ancient sea creatures from the past!"

"That *is* difficult to believe," observed Ssa dryly.

"That is not enough punishment for Kirk!"  Kohlar shouted.  "This day
is ruined!" 

Lieutenant Lokk, weapons officer, rolled his eyes behind Kohlar's back.
Every day was ruined.  How in the name of the Emperor did he end up in 
/this/ backwater job?  Kohlar's third cousin had been backhandedly spit
on by one of the /Enterprise/ crew in some muddle-up with some tribbles
over decades ago, yet Kohlar took it as a personal quest.  Ssa met
Lokk's eyes and knew his thoughts, but Ssa also knew that Kohlar, for all
his ravings, was a master tactician and a brilliant fighter.  Kohlar
might be in line for a position at High Command in Strategy if it weren't
for the fact that he foamed at the mouth whenever given Federation prey.
It was deemed, Sss had heard from inside sources, that Kohlar be left on
border patrol where he was *supposed* to shoot at the Feds.

"We will hunt," he said.  "It will be the only way I can find *satisfaction*
today."

"But our orders?" said Lokk, very quietly.

"Our orders are of no consequence!  I will not return to Rura Pente for
guard duty!  I must hunt the Federation!"  The commander tossed his
fists in rage, then threw himself into his command chair.

Ssa sighed without moving his shoulders.  Kohlar was doing it again.  Flecks
of spit had appeared at the corners of the captain's mouth.  Ssa turned 
to his scanners and looked for something upon which to vent Kohlar's rage, 
shaking his head sadly.

---*----

Dax came out of the wormhole suddenly with an audible "pop" of static and
garbling as the /Nile/'s computer suddenly went dead.  Her Academy training
jumped in before she could fully form the thought, and the emergency lights
and manual controls were soon at her fingertips.  A quick diagnostic showed
that the main "brain" failsafes had blown at the shock of re-entry into 
normal space.  There weren't any spares, either.  She sighed.  Well, where
was she?

Scans showed her in. . .space.  With the computer down, she couldn't
ask its astroregcognizer to figure out what sector she was in.  She stared
at the pinpoints of light for a moment outside the viewports, but staring
at them wouldn't do her any good.

"No planets nearby," she said, muttering to herself.

"No signals on the subspace," she said a moment later.

"No sign of any ships, right?" she said as she checked the ship's
proximity.  "Whoops," she said.  There was something there.  It was
faint, but her passive sensor array was saying there might be someone
rigged for silent running.  Her visual scanning hadn't picked it up at
all, but when she squinted through the Plassteel 'port, she saw her ship.

It was a Klingon ship, its drives barely idling, hanging off her starboard
bow.  She didn't dare use sensors, so she just stared at it for a while,
taking in the unfamiliar contours.  She hadn't really trained much for
silhouette recognition, especially Klingons, but why bother, when the 
Klingons were on the farest side of the galaxy from DS9?  The last time
she had been this close to a Klingon ship was. . .

. . .and then the Trill spoke.  Images flared up from past lives, from
past adventures of past Daxes.  There were images of destruction, of
emergency space suits being thrown on and out the broken viewport out of which
the air was hissing was this same dim shape, its forward guns warming for
yet another merciless hit.

/A Bird of Prey/ she thought.  "What's a junkheap like that sitting out
here in. . ."

. . .and then the Trill spoke again.  The stars leapt back to her mind,
some other verision of Dax seeing the familiar landmarks of the Neutral
Zone, now long abolished.

/Junkheap or not/, she thought, /I'd better just sneak away to a safe
distance and hope they're not looking./  She'd call for help in a second, 
but who knew what was in there?  If it were Klingons, she'd be just fine.
If it were pirates, she would kick in the warp drives and then renavigate
the runabout, then report this whole bizzare incident to Ben.

She adjusted her thrusters and the quietly crossed her fingers for luck.

---*---

Lokk sighed.  Nothing on the scanners.  He looked at the grid again.  No,
nothing on them at all.  "Nothing on scanners, Commander, except the
asteroid off port bow." 

"Asteroid, heh?" grunted Kohlar from his sulk.  "Blow it out of space."

Ssa wanted to wipe his master's lips off.  The foam was really bothering him.
Kohlar was getting bitter in his old age.  What a harmless little asteroid
was doing right there, Ssa had no idea, but to waste energy on it. . .

"Warming up torpedoes, sire," said Lokk.

---*---

Dax touched the thruster a little bit more.  Just a few meters feet, and then
she'd hail.

There.  Perfect.  From this distance, they'd already had to have locked 
on to her to cause her any sort of trouble.  She tapped the com button
and found the Klingon frequency.  "This is Dax of the Federation Runabout
/Nile/ on mission from Deep Space Nine requesting assitance," she said
in her business-like tone.  Her hand hovered on the warp engage
button.  Just in case.

---*---

"Commander!" said Ct'aa, communications officer on the /Homicde/.  "Incoming
message!" 

"On screen," said Kohlar, sitting up.  "Wait," he said.  "From where?"

"From the asteroid!" said Ct'aa in confusion.

"Asteroid has changed position, sire!" said Ssa, his irritation melting away.
"It is not an asteroid at all!  Putting visual on screen now!"

Lokk sweated, but Kohlar was too caught up in the image of the strange little
craft.  It had warp capability, yes, but it was such an odd shape.  Even
as he watched, the screen split equally and a human---a human!---appeared,
one with long hair and strange markings on her face.  Kohlar narrowed his 
eyes at her.  At the word "Federation" his eyes became very wide and his
head ridge throbbed.  

"Vengeance!" the Captain cried, even as Dax said, "Deep Space Nine."  

Ssa noted the strange departure point, but watched Kohlar for his reaction.
"What sort of craft is this?" said Ssa, the question directed at the sheepish
Lokk.

"Some sort of Federation craft?" volunteered the nervous young officer.

"Who cares?  Blow it out of space!" shouted the Captain.

"Firing torpedo," said Lokk quickly, hitting the large red button that
said TORPEDO on it in official Klingon font.  Below it, some former occupant
of the weapons console had scratched, "PANIC BUTTON" with some sharp 
implement.

---*---

The klaxons went off in the /Nile/ as if the torpedo had already hit as the
automatic threat-sensors went mad.  "Son of a Ferengi!" she shouted and 
smacked the engage button.  

But it was too late.  There was a tremendous crunch as the torpedo impacted,
and Dax was slammed into her seatback, neck taking a painful lash to one
side.

---*---

"Federation craft engaged warp engines!" cried Ssa, the thrill of the 
hunt raising his voice.  "Torpedo impacted on warp bubble!  Craft 
slewed to location seven thousand kellicams distant!"  The scanner had
automatically slapped the blue Federation color on the sensor blip---anything
the Klingons fired on was colored that way; it made things simpler.

"Scan for damage," said Kohlar.

Ssa squinted at the display.  "Warp coil crushed, but ship clearly intact!"
The first officer looked closer.  "Sire, the craft has phaser banks and
some sort of metal cargo!  Only one life sign."

The Ct'aa, the comm officer, listened to the jumble of voices in his
ear, and then gritted his teeth.  He then said, "Sire!  We are
approaching the Neutral Zone border!  Further pursuit may put us in
danger of treaty violation!"  He was ducking even as he said it; Ct'aa
knew what was about to happen. 

Kohlar fired his disruptor in the general direction of the comm station,
the beam lashing into several other burn marks behind where Ct'aa had
stood.  "Treaty violations are for those who wish to put borders on
the Klingon Empire!"

Ct'aa peeked over the console. "I only warn my sire because I have picked up 
emissions from a possible Federation vessel across the border in this
sector!"

Kohlar fumed.  "Helm!  Pursue!  Full impulse!"  The helmsman, a
smaller Klingon named Dloh, plotted an intercept course. 

Kohlar twiddled a small pad on his chair arm and then cursed out loud.
Ct'aa was right.  There was a ship of some sort plowing along the 
border.  It hadn't seen Kohlar fire, but if this attack heated up, 
it might be a problem.

Of course, they were in the deepest part of empty space; the nearest base
for either side was light years away, and arguments about where /exactly/
the Neutral Zone began and ended were always subject to negotation.
A few shots were fired between the two patrols every now and then, and
Kohlar figured it might be worth the trouble.
Then Kohlar smiled, a twisted smile.  But bagging *two* Federation ships
in one day would be worth a commendation from High Command.

He thought back to the strange Federation ship at Lokk's misidentification.
It might also get him a better weapons officer.  One that knew which
were asteroids and which were Federation dogs. 

As the powerful ship roared in pursuit, he mused briefly on where the
/Nile/ might have come from, but then dismissed the thought.  Probably
a spy.

---*---

There was a thud and a crash, but even as her head cleared, Dax knew she
was in for it.  She raised the shields and then took off at full impulse.
The warp core was so much twisted metal, but the thrusters were at full
efficiency and her phaser banks were almost completely charged.
How fast could one of those things go?  And was it a match for her?

Her tactical display showed the Bird of Prey pursing at maximum impulse.
What could she do but turn and fight?  Unless there was help on the way.
But help from whom? 

Her neck hurt like hell as she made a course adjustment, now heading
directly away from the Klingon cruiser.

She looked in her rear viewer and decyphered the Klingon on the bow 
over the weapons port.  The /Homicide/, eh?  Was she to be its next
victim?

/* Who is the Federation ship?  Someone else decide.  But don't overmatch
 * /Homicide/.  It might only be a science vessel like /Reliant./  
 * And could the Romulans arrive?  The choice is yours.  This is just
 * beginning.
 */
--
Wolff Dobson || 32 Delos Way || Mail: 8U-590 || Silicon Graphics Inc. ||<<--
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