USS POLARIS (HORIZON): dealing with freighter and Klingon mystery

On board the Polaris, all had returned to a more quiet albeit still slightly tense atmosphere following the Klingon defeat. All aboard the small warship, the whole crew was busy with the situation in all it's complexities.

"Damage control and medical teams are ready to transport aboard the Champlain, Sir," ops officer S'tron announced. "Preliminary estimates is eight people lightly wounded by the Klingon boarding action and minor damage to the forward cargo container, the one leaking invidium. However, most systems are offline or on low operational level due to the contamination."

"We are ready to tractor the freighter away into deeper space," Jeonghun then confirmed after confering with his technicians. "The invidium will return to a solid inert state once we are far enough from the irradiation of the anomaly ans surrounding space has lowered to it's normal temperature. We should be ready to safely help them in sixteen minutes once in proper position."

"Coordinates of safe area plotted and laid in,"Sheeneea added from helm. "ETA eight minutes at full impulse."

Redding sat back in his chair "Proceed with the operation Sheeneea."

"Commander, the Horizon is transmitting data regarding a... tachyon security grid," Nathaniel Gray said then. "According to this, we could modify all our remaining probes to establish a short range alarm system around both ships that would warn us of any cloaked ship approaching within firing distance. Sir, if we stay on yellow alert, we will have just about enough time to respond to such an intrusion once detected."

"Data confirmed," Valencia Irksos stated as she looked at it from her science readouts. " With our probes left, the largest tachyon net we can erect would be just about a hundred thousand kilometers out of maximum weapons range. If a cloaked ship comes through at full impulse, we will have barely over a second before being into long range engagement zone."

Redding smirked. "I doubt that will be necessary but it can't hurt, we'll set it up when we reach the safe area." In truth he found it over cautious, as the odds of reinforcement were slight in his point of view.

That's when the ship's comm chirped to get Redding's attention, followed by the voice of security chief Carmilla Julian.

"Transporter room to bridge; security report ready for you, Sir. We have secured the Champlain. We managed to reactivate a firing console to manually assist you against the enemy ships but the circuits now are fried. Six boarders found and captured under heavy stun, four in confinement, two in sickbay suffering light wounds. Two of our officers also wounded and in sickbay as well receiving treatment. Our two other security teams are on the freighter to ensure readiness against any such boarding action."

There was a pause before the security woman spoke again, this time with a perceptibly less firm tone.

"Sir, you were right; those... attackers are not... what we expected."

"As soon as we secure the safe zone I'll join you on the freighter chief, maintain station and prepare for some help, we'll beam over who ever we can spare." he stood up and moved to the doors.

"You have the bridge Gray, I should go find out what's going on in sickbay."

And with that, he left the bridge.When he arrived at the small infirmary labelled sickbay even on this diminutive starship, Redding was in for a shock.

The Deltan woman acting as his chief medical officer looked up to him as he entered but stayed on the other side of the two biobeds occupied out of the three available, so as to let him take in fully the sight of her two patients. On each was stretched the unconscious form of a tall, well-built humanoid wearing balck boots and pants with a tunic of silvery mesh crossed by a large red bandolier ornemented with a pointed triangular tri-colored insigna. The face of each had rough features and a tan skin sharply delineated by a short, pointed beard and crowned by coarse, close-cropped hair over a smooth, high forehead over bushy eyebrows.

"You will not beleive this, Commander," Doctor Osaro-Lyth said then, " but these are our Klingon prisonners. And beleive me, I checked their physiological structure, all of their biometrics and down to their DNA; these are Klingons."

She pointed the biomonitor showing blinking lights and moving luminous lines over each inert body.

"Their DNA is the most fascinating part; what it shows is no less than a full percent of compatibility with Human DNA. Normally, there is but less than zero point one percent genetic similarity between those two species; hence why Klingon-Human hybrids are possible only with the help of genetic manipulation, as with any cross-breeding of species coming from different planetary environements. Even then, some are essentially impossible to manage, like for example with Andorians who's DNA is less than zero point zero zero zero one percent compatible even with other cobalt-based species like Bolians. But the thing here that is most fascinating here is that, despite the genetic markers which are strangely yet not exactly similar to what we may find on Humans, these two are not hybrids. Look at the organ redundancy, the cobalt-iron blood composition, heartbeat, respiratory cycle, body temperature... they are still fully Klingons... yet, not quite..."

She looked at him with a frown on her incredible beautiful face.

"If I didn't know better, I would say that we are seeing here members of an evolutionary step of the klingon species; prior or following the Klingons we are familiar with, I could not say at this time. But even such minute changes should take at least hundreds of thousands of years... unless, artificially induced."

"Or perhaps we're looking at something very old, are you familiar with the Klingon augment virus doctor?" Redding looked over the Klingon closely."In my father's time, Klingons looked much like this, in the early 23rd century."

Osaro-Lyth's eyes widened as she nodded, looking back at her monitor readouts with a new expression on her beautiful face.

"Now that would explain everything quite nicely! The attempt by the Klingon Empire in those days to make a genetic retrovirus from the DNA of 20th century augments did exactly what we are seeing here; Klingons with softened features, heightened agressivity and, unfortunately for them, Human caution and fear with loss of standard Klingon muscle and bone mass instead of the superhuman capabilities they were trying to impart to their kind."

She shook her head sadly.

"This is why the Federation is so adamant about severely controlling genetic engineering since the historical tragedy of the so-called supermen of late 20th century Earth; you can never foretell the consequences of such fast and extreme alteration when only ambition and power are the motivation. If I recall my xenohistory correctly, the Klingon Empire were risking extinction when that retrovirus backfired into a killing epidemic... and they were only saved when it was rendered inert to prevent mass executions of these "lesser " Klingons."

Redding turned back to the doctor.

"Is it possible we have stumbled upon a rogue group that never cured the virus?" he said thoughtfully.

She nodded just as thoughtfully.

"Coelacanths of the Beta Quadrant..."

His questioning stare prompted her to explain.

"Back on your homeworld, fishermen of the early twentieth century brought back from the depths of the ocean a species of fish, the coelacanth, that had been beleived extinct for well over three hundred million years. Such anachronistic findings are not all that rare; evolution does not demand extinction. Less successful lifeforms may still continue to live even when displaced by better adapted ones, albeit in small, isolated habitats where that competition is lighter or absent... or where the new conditions are not present to hamper their continuation... or when the evolving members are the ones moving to another unoccupied ecological niche. Space being so huge, your idea appears quite sound, Commander."

Her sparkling eyes returned to their two unconscious captives.

"Guess they have the answer to that question."

"The question that concerns me most is their current affiliation with the Klingon Empire." Redding looked at the one closest to him long and hard.

"Their existence would be considered an embarrassing insult if discovered to the Klingons as we know them, but here we have encountered them with new ships and state-of-the-art weapon systems, and that just doesn't add up." h

He considered his options. Clearly, he should wait for the captain to arrive for a proper channel interrogation... But Redding decided he wanted first crack at them.

"Can one of them be revived safely? I need to know if we can expect any company."

While a reasonable excuse, it was still just an excuse.

"Well, they were just stunned by phasers and they are as sturdy as the Klingons we do know. I was keeping them under sedation until you decided what to do with them. I can revive them if you wish and the safety forcefield will keep them on the biobed."

"Let me get in some extra security, if they're at all connected to the eugenics project we shouldn't take too many chances."

In truth, Redding always wanted to match one of these eugenics Superman. In his prime, he had defeated the Vulcan wrestling champion, which in turn endeared him to the Klingons. Once, he even defeated a Gorn hand to hand.. Although you couldn't really say he did it fairly.

But a eugenics warrior? That's something else entirely different.

His call brought in his chief of security Carmillia Julian and two of her men. The men posted themselves outside at the doorway while the muscular woman came in to join Redding in the small and now crowded infirmary. They all had phasers II, so that they would not be cramped in the close quarters of the ship as they would have been with cumbersome rifles. And like all security officers under Captain Kheren's command, they were sporting also a combat knife in one boot which they had high level proficiency training in. Any one of them could match a Klingon one on one in any form of personal combat. And Julian herself, with heavyworlder genes inherited from her mother, could lift a full grown man with just one hand.

Those two prisoners, even if they somehow managed to free themselves from the energy restraints of their bed, would not go beyond the door.

Doctor Osaro-Lyth was now standing besides one of them with a hypospray, ready for Redding to order his reanimation. As he nodded, she injected him between two brief flashes of the forcefield. Seconds later, the strangely human-looking Klingon'eyes fluttered open. When he saw them, he visibly tried to move away; the forcefield only allowed him a slight tremor in his dark beard, pursed lips and beady eyes. Realizing his condition, He stopped struggling and turned his frightened and angry face towards the only male in the room. Although he seemed a bit confused by their appearance, he hid it behind a rough, coarse tone.

"Do your worst, Earther; I've been trained against your vaunted torture techniques and warned about your death camps. You will not break me."

"Earther?" Carmillia Julian repeated, visibly puzzled by the word and the rest.

But then she kept silent; Redding was in charge here.

Redding leaned over the man and spoke in a harsh and guttural manner.

"Ra'wl' Redding, Maglin tuq yajmoHmo'. Sovlu'chugh toH qul SoH Duj 'ej Hoch chaq nuch yu' jIH." Roughly translated; 'I am Commander Redding, Steward of the house of Maglin. I demand to know why you fired on my ship, and in the way of a coward.'

It always baffled Redding how these new universal translators worked. How did it know he wanted to speak in Klingon? and more still that everyone else in the room would also hear Klingon? It had been explained to him once but his primitive mind just couldn't follow it.

He had hoped that the shock of being addressed in this manner and a challenge to his honor might get him talking.

The prisoner at least had enough sense not to try to spit in the man's face as was clearly written on his dark bearded face his wish to do; the forcelfield would have sent it right back into his own. But he did spit every word he said in response, which he did in Federation Standard; this was always done on purpose by Klingons as a demeaning gesture, as it stated "you are not worthy of the power of Klingonee, the language of warrriors" and in a simpler way, "I am superior because I can understand you but you can't understand me". The last point was of course rendered moot with Redding's perfect fluency; hence why the Klingon felt angered by his linguistic display; it forced him to consider the Human more or less as an equal, something that twisted his mouth with an expression as sour as his tone of voice.

"PetaQ! Your lies are as childish as this new uniform of yours! A Human, stewart of a Thlin'ghan House? Even our Romulans allies do not deserve such lofty honor! One of our despicable enemies? Bah! You think me for the fool you are, Earther!"

Redding switched off the bed's forcefield and grabbed the Klingon throwing him bodily to the floor.

"Commander!" shouted Doctor Osaro-Lyth, shocked by the unexpected violence.

Redding ignored her and she was still too shocked to do or say anything more as he loomed over the fallen prisoner.

"You attack and board an unarmed freighter and then attack my ship without challenge or reason... and you call ME a fool!" h

His anger seemed genuine enough. He pointed up and away.

"TWO of your ships are now dust and their HoD jach neH ghe,'' their captains scream in hell now, knowing that they too were fools."

He crouched menacingly over the burly yet smaller Klingon.

"We allowed the last of them to crawl back to your base within the gate."

The Klingons'eyes went suddenly wide precisely as he said the last word. But Redding was not finished.

Romulans? Redding thought. That might explain a few things.But that line about new uniforms was intriguing, and combined with the anomaly...

"Your so called 'allies' supplied you with inferior out of date cloaking devices. When our HoD arrives, we shall use the flight path of that vessel to find your base... and deal with it."

That's when Sheelya finally regained all of her wits about her. She interposed herself between the standing man and the prone Klingon and helped him return to the bed, to which he complied under the intimidating muzzle of Carmillia's phaser and the threatening presence of the big man. As she reactivated the restraining field, this time he did not show any sign of struggle; obviously feeling more secure behind it's energy barrier. The Deltan Doctor offered a stern look and tone of voice to the Polaris commanding officer, putting all her overiding authority as CMO behind every word.

"Commander Redding, this is my sickbay and this individual is still under my care. I will not tolerate such behavior again!"

Redding looked as if he might strike at her, but backed off with a respectful nod.

"Of course Doctor, I apologize for my outburst. It is.. difficult.. to put up with such dishonor."

He turned to Julian with a look of dismay.

"How do the Romulans keep tricking these Klingon fools into using their 'advanced technology'?"

"Probably the same way they trick them with second hand and obsolete Klingon starship designs," the powerful woman mused, not at all ruffled by her commanding officer's forceful display.

Now the prisoner was silent and looking with as much fear as hate at Redding. Something the large Human had said was visibly troubling him but he certainly didn't want to talk anymore.

"Enough of this." Redding said wearily. "The Doctor will see to your.. comfort, until our Captain gets here at least." he added with a threatening smile.

With a jerk of his head, he signaled the rest of them to follow him and left the room in a huff. Once outside and a little ways away, he took a breath and leaned up against the wall.

"Well, that was fun, think he bought it?"

"Have him transfered to the brig and I can give him your... sales pitch again, Sir," Carmillia answered, rolling her massive shoulders with a frightening smile. "Our good Doctor certainly did... But judging by his surprisingly soft features, soft for a Klingon I mean, he was much more worried, frightened even, than angry; which is also odd for a Klingon... if he really is Klingon. Did you notice, Sir, how indifferent he was to your reference about dishonor ? And also how alarmed he became when you spoke of his base?"