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Star Trek XIV – Tomorrow is Now

Prologue

Patience had never been one of his race's most notable traits and Kor's already limited supply had long run out. Captain Decius had promised to deliver results by the end of the week but, after nearly a year of tests, the Romulan engineers had failed to come up with a cloaking device that would work on one of the Klingon warbirds.

'Sir, this is useless,' Engineer Kali, a fierce female officer, said during the long journey to the secret testing facility they were using, 'it will blow up, just like it happened to the IKS Bortas a month ago.'

Kor refused to even acknowledge the comment for the only appropriate response would be to throw an angry punch at his subordinate and, while he would probably take pleasure in provoking her pain, it would be as unproductive as their alliance with the Romulans had so far proven to be.

Kali was right though, Kor mused remembering their most spectacular failure up to date. He'd been frankly horrified when they had seen the old D5-class warbird explode the instant the Romulan engineers activated the device that was supposed to conceal the ship from every type of detection.

His superior officer had been livid when he'd heard about the incident and, on behalf of the Chancellor, the Dahar Master Zahrn had given him an ultimatum: failure to bring results quickly would result in the immediate termination of any agreement with the Romulan Star Empire.

Kor hated this pressure almost as much as he hated having to rely on the Romulan expertise. Several times in the past months he'd considered stealing the cloaking device but, it pained him to admit, the technology involved was far too advanced for the Klingon engineers, even the most brilliant ones like Kali herself. Kor was well aware that if Decius failed to deliver, the Romulan-Klingon alliance would not be the only thing which would be terminated, his own life would be too.

At last, the IKS Klothos docked in the Romulan space station orbiting an unnamed planetoid in the middle of the Neutral Zone. Followed by Kali and a few of her colleagues, Kor hurried to disembark, eager to see if Decius had indeed made any progress.

Following the dark corridor that led to the station's operational centre, they found several metallic components scattered along the way. Kor couldn't remember seeing them there the last time he'd visited the place and made a mental note to ask about them to Captain Decius.

He found the Romulan busy talking to two of his own engineers, Kor only knew one of them, a mean, very tall fellow with the same unhealthy colouring, pointy ears, scanted eyebrows and the tattoo his kind sported with the same pride Kor wore his own sash. His name was Akran, if memory served him right. It was him who warned Captain Decius of the arrival of the Klingons.

'Commander Kor!' Decius exclaimed, 'my apologies,' he quickly added, 'it is Captain now, isn't it?'

'It is,' Kor confirmed.

'Congratulations on your promotion,' Decius offered politely.

'Thank you,' Kor brought himself to say, 'what's the status? You said you had something to report.'

'Straight to business then, huh?' Decius said with his usual nasty smile, 'very well. If you please…'

Kor's gaze followed the direction Decius was pointing at and, exchanging a quick glance with Kali, they started walking towards what looked like the nucleus of a reactor of sorts. In the middle of it, the Klingon Captain saw a small box, not much bigger than his own hand.

'What is it?' Kor asked Decius who was walking with him.

'It's finished,' Decius replied.

'But that's…'

'It's the finished product,' Decius repeated, 'in reality, we completed testing two weeks ago but Commander Akran said he could make it smaller so that it would be easier to carry and install.'

'It will also make it more difficult to reverse-engineer it,' Kali pointed out.

'Exactly,' Akran replied.

'We don't want the Federation to get this technology, do we?' Decius sneered.

'Of course not,' Kor said throwing a warning glare at Kali who proceeded to shut her mouth.

'Anyway,' Decius said, 'we're confident it'll work. After our little…accident…'

'I would not call it little,' Kor countered, 'the IKS Bortas was an old ship but she had served with honour. Seeing her destroyed like that was…'

'Yes,' Decius dared to interrupt him, 'it is precisely to avoid having a repeat of such an unpleasant incident that Akran and his team have worked day and night trying to figure out what went wrong.'

'And?' Kali asked directly to Akran himself, 'did you find out?'

'I did,' he replied.

'What was it?' she challenged him.

'The ship's mass was miscalculated,' Akran replied, ignoring Kali and speaking to Kor, 'the vessel's geometries made it difficult for our equation to calculate the mass with the required accuracy. We have now solved this issue by pre-inputting the structural parameters from every ship in your fleet.'

'How did you get that information?' Kor asked suddenly feeling uneasy.

'We've been studying your ships for years,' Captain Decius admitted.

'Keep your friends close,' Kor commented, 'and your enemies…'

'Now, now,' Decius said, 'we're no longer enemies, are we?'

'No, we aren't,' Kor conceded, 'our enemy is the Federation.'

'Yes,' Decius confirmed, 'but not for long.'

'Not for long,' Kor repeated, 'but first we must ensure this device of yours works.'

'It does,' Akran promised, 'and to prove it, we will install it in your own ship.'

'WHAT?' Kali exploded, 'YOU SHAN'T GO ANYWHERE NEAR THE KLOTHOS!'

'KALI!' Kor shouted back then, making a supreme effort to remain calm, he glared at Akran and demanded, 'explain yourself.'

'He already has,' Captain Decius interceded, 'we will install the device on your ship. I guarantee you that it will work; I am so confident that I am prepared to deal with any consequences if it fails.'

'So am I,' Akran added.

Seeing this and against his best judgement, Kor forced himself to nod and, before Kali would simply kill every Romulan in sight, he placed his hand on top of her shoulder and, looking at Decius he said:

'Alright, if anything happens to my ship, you'll have to answer to her.'

He could feel his officer tensing in preparation for the upcoming battle. Knowing her as well as he did, Kor knew that Kali was almost wishing the test would fail, if only she could kill them painfully.

'Everything will be fine,' Akran assured them.

With that and not giving Kor the time to reconsider, the Romulan engineer signalled his colleagues to bring the device. With mounting worry, Kor and Kali followed Akran and his team into the engineering section of the IKS Klothos while the rest of the Klingons wisely evacuated the ship.

'It's ready,' Akran announced after nearly an hour of tinkering.

'Okay,' Decius said, he then grabbed his communicator and speaking to someone in the station, he said, 'start the recording, we're going to activate the device in ten seconds from now.'

'What…' Kor started.

'I told you,' Decius stopped him, 'I am so confident this will work I am prepared to stay here.'

Kor found himself swallowing hard while he watched Akran pressing a button on a remote control he had in his hand. Kali's eyes widened for a fraction of a second then, the Klingon warrior in her forced her to remain calm, even in the face of an imminent, potentially horrible death. Kor was proud of her.

'…seven, six, five, four, three, two, one,' Akran counted down.

Then, nothing happened.

Confused, Kor looked around himself looking for signs that anything had changed. There were none.

'Take a look,' Decius invited him, offering him a portable viewer.

Kali and Kor stared at it and what they saw left them both breathless: the small display showed the station's security camera, the one pointed at exactly the spot where the IKS Klothos was supposed to be docked. But, instead of seeing his ship, Kor could see nothing but deep space.

The Klothos was gone. Invisible.

'Deactivate,' Decius ordered Akran who proceeded to press the button once again.

Kor saw his ship slowly waving back into sight and then, he felt his lips curving into a smile.

'Well, well,' he finally manged to say.

'Impressed?' Captain Decius said.

'Very,' Kor admitted, 'how soon can we have it installed in our fleet?' he then asked.

'Less than a month,' Decius promised.

'In that case,' Kor said, 'we have a month to prepare our meeting with the Federation.'

'Remember our deal,' Decius reminded him, 'the Enterprise must be there.'

'It will be,' Kor promised, 'the Dahar Master Zahrn himself guarantees it.'

'Good,' Decius replied, 'now, let's go and celebrate.'

To be continued…