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From: "Jay  P Hailey" 
Reply-To: trekcreative{at}yahoogroups.com


Title: Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile
Author: Jay P Hailey (JayPHailey{at}yahoo.com) Series: MISC - TNG OCs
COdes: None
Part: 136/335(?)
Rating:[PG]
Archive: Fine with me, just tell me where. Disclaimer: Paramount owns all
things Star Trek.  I claim Original Characters and Situations for me.
Webpage HTTP://www.phoenixinn.iwarp.com/jayphailey

The Klingon Way Out
by
Jay P. Hailey
And
Dennnis Washburn

"Would you say that the Klingons have given up massacres of innocent
civilians?" The news woman asked General Kalak. We were guests on some
sort of television presentation. The point, I was told, was to discuss the
political ramifications of this, that and the other thing.

"Hey!" I yelled. "That's an incredibly biased question!
You're not going to solve any of your problems unless you're willing to
give up some of your preconceived notions!" I was a little hot under
the collar.

"No. We haven't." Kalak grinned.

"I'm simply asking the questions that my audience wants asked. Captain
Hailey." The reporter shot back at me. "Since when did Starfleet
become an apologist service for the Klingons?"

"I'm not an apologist, I'm a member of a peaceful exploration service!
I stand here as living proof that Humans and Klingons can live and work
together in peace!"

"Mostly." General Kalak inserted.

"And what are your feelings on this, General?" The woman asked. I
knew that if Kalak gave any sort of real answer, he'd be quoted out of
context to make it seem like he was a bloodthirsty barbarian.

"It is quite obvious to me that you don't actually want peace."
Kalak said. "Quite a Klingon attitude really. I wonder if your cousins
in New Rokon are aware of how much of an influence they've had on you. They
might be proud."

The news woman leaned back in her chair, stunned. "I see no reason to
be insulting!" She sputtered.

"I can see no reason not to be." Kalak said in his deep cultured voice.

The television presentation went down hill from there.

-*-

The Council of New Rokon was even worse. The Humans there were nearly
desperate to prove that they were good Klingons. To them it would be a
miracle if the Fleet rolled into orbit. They even offered to beam up and
meet the Klingon landing forces in one-on-one combat aboard the troops
ships so that the Klingons couldn't claim they had an unfair advantage
because of the spores.

General Kalak tried to explain that, while he admired the sentiment, too
many of his country men would see them only as fit targets for fusion
bombs. They asked Kalak if he would at least provide technical support so
that they could make a fight of it and get into the great sagas. General
Kalak was considering it when I called the meeting to a halt. That almost
got me stuck with a Bat'leth or two. As it was I had to beam us out before
General Kalak got really going in his battle. Win or lose, he would die
when a spore entered his blood stream through the cut.

After explaining this to the High Councilor of New Rokon, he offered to
have a chamber air conditioned to remove the spores so that he and Kalak
could continue their fight. Kalak said that he would definitely return for
that event, but first he had to complete his mission for the Imperial High
Council.

-*-

"True Warriors." Kalak chuckled, dabbing at his black eye.

"Nice of them to offer to get rid of the spores." I said, though a fat lip.

"That is the Way of the Warrior. Ancient Klingon palaces used to have
court yards arranged so that competing family patriarchs could hold duels.
The opponents would be feasted and celebrated the night before at a wild
feast. The fight would not happen until the traveling leader was fully
recovered from the travel and the party. Those were the days."

"No body does that any more?" I asked. I thought that such scenes
were still happening somewhere in the Empire.

"Such duels became very unfashionable after someone invented the
automatic rifle and the hand grenade." Kalak said. "It was too
easy for a disgruntled warrior or family member to wipe out the opposing
clan's side. If they are willing enough to hold a feast, then they are
willing enough to settle this issue for the benefit of both sides."

"I've got it!" I yelled. "I know how we can pull this out."

-*-

The Heinlein flew away from Rokon. The deal I had put forth was unpopular
but accepted by both the New Chicagoans and the New Rokonians. The Klingons
even liked it, some.

The automatic distress beacon from the old colony ship had been turned off.
We were carrying the records of the colony for transmission back to the
Federation

The communications system chimed. There was a powerful signal from Qo'noS.
I answered it to find myself looking again at Chancellor Gowron.

"Sir!" I sat at attention.

"Report, Captain." Gowron said.

"Both factions of Rokon have agreed to the deal, Sir." I said.

"You sound like a Ferengi. Tell me again what the official position
you imagine goes like."

"You rescued the poor, weak Humans from certain death. In return they
have settled Rokon with the intent of Qo'noS-forming it. Once they have
destroyed the dangerous pollen and replaced the ecologically sensitive
plants with good substitutes they will turn the planet over to you lock,
stock and barrel."

"And what do I do with the Humans who live there now?"

"Once they have repaid your kindness you will let them return to the
Federation. Of course, by then, some of the Humans will have recognized the
natural superiority of the Klingon way, and will beg to stay in your
service." I said.

"I hope for both our sakes that this works, Captain." Gowron
said. "I also hope that you will not make a habit of meddling in
Klingon affairs."

"Yes, Sir!" I said, fervently.

-*-

There was some backlash about the public announcement of the human colony
inside Klingon space. The portrayal of the Humans as poor weak lost souls
who needed the help of the powerful Gowron was a fairly popular one among
moderate Klingons. It blunted the backlash enough so that the feared
anti-human uprising did not occur then.

The Discovery kept moving, under even tighter secrecy.

-*-

(Stardate 49017)

The Discovery cruised through the Klingon Empire. We were being escorted
under secret conditions to the far side of the Klingon Empire. From there
we would venture out into unknown space. The most boring part of the
mission promised to be the passage through Klingon territory. Many Klingons
felt that the Empire was being too soft on Humans and the Federation as it
was. If it was widely known that a Federation starship was being given
passage through the Empire, then a storm of protest might erupt. In the
Klingon Empire, a "Storm of Protest" is a much more literal and
deadly proposition than it is in the Federation.

By herself, the Discovery would have been subject to attacks by Klingons
with anti-human prejudices. The High Council would have been put in the
position of responding to the attacks either by rescuing or avenging the
Discovery or letting the matter drop and risking the lucrative alliance
with the Federation. The High Chancellor Gowron decided to send some of his
own personal ships to protect us. However, this would just enhance his
already shaky reputation as "Soft on Humans". Therefore, the
Discovery crept along quietly under protective escort but also without
stopping at any planets or interacting with anyone for six months.

There was a lot of time for study, reading, socializing and other pass
times. The science and exploration part of the mission would begin once we
left Klingon space.

The Discovery was carrying a colonization mission to the far reaches of
unknown space. Ordinarily, this would have been suicide, but our colonists
were El-Aurians. They were natives of a race advanced beyond the
Federation. The Borg had destroyed their home world and the Federation was
helping them set up their colony in unknown space in a reverse application
of the Prime Directive. The El-Aurians were too advanced for us. Their
technology might have pushed the Federation further ahead than our ethics
could deal with.

I was in my office frustrating myself. I knew that El-Aurians lived a long
time. Many of them arrived in the Federation as refugees eighty years ago.
I was trying to track them between their arrival on the Enterprise-B, and
the establishment of the colony project about ten years ago. I was not very
successful. One of them, Tolian Soren had destroyed a star and threatened
to destroy an inhabited solar system. In the act of stopping him, the
Enterprise-D had been lost.

Aaron and Elizabeth Sheffield were painfully difficult to trace. I was
disturbed by what I did find. They had been stockholders and research
scientists for several weapons and engine manufacturers. Did they use some
of their advanced knowledge to gain economic power?

For over a hundred years, Federation starships moved at one light per day
at cruising speed. Then, new engines were developed. They used bio-mimetic
gel packs to regulate plasma flow. The results were incredible. New
techniques allowed us warp drives that were three times faster than earlier
starships.

The Discovery was built with the new engines. The Galaxy and the
Enterprise-D, her earlier sister ships were three times slower in the long
haul.

The Federation was beginning a new era of expansion and exploration only
comparable to the opening of the New World on Earth or the Great Awakening
of the last century. Were we really ready for it? Was it us, or
hand-me-down technology from an earlier race?

The Discovery usually struck me as a mixed blessing. She was a ticket to
places no one else had ever seen. She was also a flagship of the
Federation. The decisions I made while I was her captain could affect whole
sectors. The Federation would have to form itself around the consequences
of my decisions. It was not a comfortable feeling. Only a raving loon could
feel confident in such a position. This was the first time I questioned the
underlying assumptions behind the Discovery. Were we meant to be going
where we went? Were we intended to meddling in the places where I was to
take the Discovery? Intended by whom? If I discovered proof that the
Discovery's engines were really artifacts of an advanced culture, would I
give them up? I doubted that the proof was there to find. Starfleet
Intelligence was tied up in the whole mess now. The decision had been made
and all the data one way or the other had probably been buried.

The intercom chimed.


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