Path: newserv.ksu.ksu.edu!moe.ksu.ksu.edu!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!ames!enews.sgi.com!fido.asd.sgi.com!wolff.asd.sgi.com!wolff From: wolff@wolff.asd.sgi.com (Wolff Dobson) Newsgroups: alt.shared-reality.startrek.klingon,alt.startrek.creative Subject: A battle of the minds Date: 18 Jul 1994 06:53:04 GMT Organization: Klingon Anti-Defamation League Lines: 306 Sender: wolff@wolff.asd.sgi.com Message-ID: <30d8sg$3pq@fido.asd.sgi.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: wolff.asd.sgi.com Summary: A battle of the minds Keywords: explosions, doom, destruction /* 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. ||<<-- (415)-390-5399 || VM:1-800-488-1414 DOBSON || wolff@asd.sgi.com || @@ ||<<<< Geek Code:GCS d@ p(-)@ c++ !l u+++ e* m+ s+/ n+ h+(++) f+ g++ w+ t+(++) r y?