3
Chapter Two: The Lure of Adventure
Jorry Kettsen had returned to show the two Klingons old video recordings of life on Earth. They had been asking him questions about Earth, and so he decided to show them rather than tell them what the planet and its people were like.
"You two are some ways from home," he noted as they watched him prepare the show, "What's your business down this way?"
"We cannot discuss Empire business with you, Human," Kabrech told him imperiously.
K'Eihdan gave his brother a push.
"Keep quiet, 'Brech! I am the elder brother!"
"You folks sure do like to push each other around, don't you?" Kettsen asked them.
"We're brothers," K'Eihdan explained, "I, as the elder brother, need to teach this one that he will not achieve dominance through youthful arrogance alone."
"No," Kettsen agreed, looking at Kabrech intently, "but arrogance, young or old, certainly helps...if you want to be dominant, that is. How old are you, boy?"
"I am a man of seventeen years," Kabrech replied, drawing himself up proudly.
"Well, man-of-seventeeen-years," Kettsen chided him, "I agree with your brother. You need to learn to respect your elders; and, I would add, you need to respect them no matter what species they are from. You need to understand the difference between leadership and just plain bullying. A real leader doesn't need to keep putting people down, because he's got enough confidence in himself to listen to points of view that are different from his own. Those that don't have the confidence have to keep proving how great they are by bullying others, usually those who are weaker. You know what I mean, K'Eihdan?"
The old man's irony was not lost on K'Eihdan. It was not just Kabrech that the oldster was lecturing.
"Oh, yes, Jorry Kettsen, I know what you mean," K'Eihdan replied in a jovial fashion, "You think I'm being too hard on my little brother. But you need to understand that in our culture, weakness is not tolerated. You must know what we are like, having lived among us for two years?"
"Yes, I do," Kettsen retorted, "and I take your point, K'Eihdan; but even within your warrior culture, I noticed that there were men who ruled wisely and men who ruled with their fists alone. I still maintain that, even in the Klingon Empire, good leadership goes hand-in-hand with less violence and more wisdom. Your commanding officer, K'Var is an example of a good leader, as long as he listens to his wise mentor, Wohl."
K'Eihdan stared at Kettsen in surprise.
"You know K'Var and Wohl?" he asked.
"Yes," Kettsen replied serenely, "I consulted them before I came in here to give you two what-for. I knew enough to ask permission to go in and chastise you, because I didn't want K'Var to think that I was usurping his authority...and as for Wohl, he served on the very same cargo vessel that I did many years ago. He's about the same age as I am...maybe even a few younger than me."
"You served aboard the Kah-Dok," K'Eihdan exclaimed, "Wohl served on it, and so did I when I came into my adolescence. I, too, was a janitor...and Wohl was a cook. It was a part of my many duties to aid him in the kitchen."
"I had the same kind of duties," Kettsen agreed, "but I have the film transferred onto the holo-screen, if you want to look at it."
The two Klingon males tried to hide their eagerness, but gave up suppressing their interest after viewing panoramic visuals of the deserts, plains, forests, mountains, and oceans of Earth. K'Eihdan had to admit that it was impressive. Qo'nos, his original home-world, boasted many mountain ranges on it, but the oceans were not nearly as immense as the ones on Earth; and as well, the forests which used to cover the world had been largely harvested. There had been replacement trees grown, but these were still rather young and spindly as opposed to the old growth trees whose enormous sizes once rivaled some of the mountains near which they grew.
"Are these old trees still growing on Earth?" K'Eihdan asked Jorry as a picture came up on the holographic screen-stage of a tree that looked as though it could have been five hundred years old.
"Well...no, not the really old ones, not any more," Kettsen admitted, "they were unfortunately logged for commercial purposes back in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries."
"Arrrrgghh!" K'Eihdan threw back his head and growled.
It was the same thing on just about every inhabited world they had visited. Wherever they went, it seemed that every species made the same mistake: the natural bounty of the land was always over-harvested, creating at best spindly woods where mighty forests once dominated and at worst lifeless plains of dust.
"There has been a major rejuvenation project underway for at least the last two centuries, though," Kettsen informed them, "there are some new "old growth" trees now, and we hope to ensure that more of them survive into the future."
"Yes," K'Eihdan answered him sadly, "We have the same 'rejuvenation projects' happening on our worlds; but it's never the same as the original state, is it?"
Kettsen nodded, smiling wryly. He kept quiet while the Klingon men took in the breath-taking scenery of Earth. When the presentation had finished, K'Eihdan grinned at the old man.
"I think you've tempted me enough, Jorry Kettsen. I'd like to take a break from 'Empire business,'" he whispered conspiratorially, "and explore your world, when we get there. I want to see these oceans and forests and deserts myself."
Kabrech growled at K'Eihdan in warning. The older brother knew that the younger one would very much favor exploration over 'Empire business', but they both knew that disobedience would bring K'Var's wrath upon them. No, it would not do to irritate their commanding officer. K'Eihdan would need to find a way to lure K'Var and Wohl away from the hum-drum world of interplanetary diplomacy and into a wild adventure on Earth.
