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Rescue
IKS Ki'tang, Year of Kahless 1020, Day 112, 11:10 hours
Record of Battle, IKS Ki'tang, Captain Morath recording:
Year of Kahless 1020, Day 112, 15:30 hours
We are responding to a distress signal from an Orion transport near the Federation border. The distress signal indicated the transport was under attack by Nausicaan pirates, working for our enemies, the Gorn. Patrols in this sector are scarce and we are the only Klingon vessel in the vicinity. Thus, our response is with neither the speed nor the force I would desire, but I cannot question the bravery or skill of the warriors of the Ki'tang, nor the glorious history of our vessel. We will bring honor to the Empire and rescue our allies…or we will avenge their deaths upon these Nausicaan jackals! Qapla'!
Captain Morath leaned forward in the center seat of the bird-of-prey Ki'tang, watching the two ships on the forward viewscreen grow larger: the Orion victim flanked by the menacing shape of a Nausicaan destroyer. Atmosphere and bodies could be seen venting from the wounded Orion vessel's flank. "Report!" he ordered.
"The Orion ship's beacon reads as the OSS Melani's Jewel, a Buccaneer-class corvette modified into a personnel transport. She's the source of the distress call," said Lieutenant Doran. "According to her manifest, she was ferrying nearly two hundred civilians to Ter'jas Mor, most of them women and children." The science officer gritted her teeth. "Now I'm only reading about 50 life-signs aboard, and most of them are Nausicaans!"
A low rumble of disgust ran through the bridge at an opponent who would stoop to gutting women and children. "Cowards," Morath muttered himself.
"They have given us a great opportunity for glory, Captain," said Commander Jurlek, his first officer. "That's a Scourge-class destroyer. It outguns us two to one, but we can take them by surprise today. Tactical, prepare a torpedo! Target their warp core!"
"Belay that!" said Morath, raising a hand. The gunner, T'Lak stopped immediately. Morath glared at Jurlek. "The destroyer is too close to the transport. If we breach the core both ships will be destroyed! Any survivors will be lost."
The gray-haired Klingon glared back at Morath. "If we hesitate, they will get away and all will be lost!"
"There are still almost a dozen Orion lifeforms on the transport," said Doran. "I for one will not join these cowards in murdering women and children. Let's send them alone on their way to Gre'thor!"
"I concur," said Morath.
"You're making a mistake," said Jurlek.
"That is for me to decide!" Morath said. His hand flew to the hilt of his d'k tagh. "Do not question my decisions, Uncle, unless you mean to challenge me!"
Jurlek stepped back, but his glare did not soften. "Far be it from me to challenge the judgment of a great warrior like yourself," he said.
Morath accepted it for now. He could not afford to let more innocents die at these pirate's hands while he quarreled with his in-laws. "T'Lak, target the destroyer's shield generators and prepare to drop cloak!"
The tactical officer nodded and pulled down the gunner's periscope. "Weapons locked," she reported.
"Execute!" Morath ordered.
The lithe B'rel-class sprang into action. The ruddy bridge lights wavered as Ki'tang decloaked. A second later a photon torpedo streaked toward the Nausicaan ship, followed closely by the green streaks of disruptor cannon fire. Explosions tore into the larger ship, perforating its elongated upper hull, but the battle was only beginning. Within seconds of the Ki'tang's opening shots, the destroyer returned fire. Angry green beams of disruptor energy glanced off the raider's shields, but not without damage.
The ship bucked from a hit and sparks flew from an overhead line. "Shields down to 73%!" warned the engineering officer, Lieutenant Ch'gren, at the rear of the bridge. "Starboard warp manifold damaged. Engineering is compensating!"
Minor damage, Morath thought, but it will get worse the longer we're toe-to-toe with this thing. "Break off the attack!" he ordered Lieutenant Kodrak at the helm. "Ch'gren, engage cloak as soon as we're clear!" Then he turned to tactical. "Aft torpedo! Target their engines!"
"Direct hit!" Doran reported a second later. "They're impulse engines are offline, and their shields are down. They're maneuvering on thrusters only."
"We're now cloaked," Ch'gren reported.
"That ought to have evened the fight some," said Morath. "Now it's a test of our speed and stealth against their guns and armor."
"A worthy battle," Kodrak remarked, cracking his knuckles in anticipation.
Suddenly an alert sounded at the science station. Doran cursed. "Sir, the Nausicaan cowards are retreating. They've beamed back their boarding parties and gone to warp!"
"The damage to our warp manifold will prevent us from pursuing them for at least half an hour," Ch'gren said, his disappointment evident and echoed by all.
Jurlek was not satisfied with this. He slammed his fist into a console. "I told you this would happen, Captain! We could have destroyed them with one shot, but you—!"
"Enough!" said Morath, shooting out of his chair and clutching his d'k tagh. That silenced the old fool, though in truth Morath could hardly justify killing him under the circumstances, his House was small and weak, and needed the support of an old noble like Jurlek of the House of Torg to exist, especially now that Martok was no more. Even if politics had been different, he did not relish his odds in combat against a cunning and experienced adversary like Jurlek. Instead he turned to the bridge. "Doran, ready a boarding party to search the Orion ship for survivors," he ordered, then strode from the bridge. "Have them meet me in Transporter Room 1 in five minutes!"
Author's Note: Here come the Klingons! I admit to watching DS9 "Soldiers of the Empire," "Once More Unto the Breach," and "Sons and Daughters" a lot for inspiration for these and the other chapters set aboard the classic B'rel-class. Klingons are a lot of fun for me to write and watch!
The IKS Ki'tang is a bird-of-prey given passing mention at the beginning of DS9: "When it Rains...". It was the only allied ship to survive the Second Battle of Chin'toka in the Dominion War, due to the fact that an adjustment of the Ki'tang's tritium intermix just prior to the battle made it accidentally immune to the Breen energy-dampening weapon. The Ki'tang was never mentioned again in canon, but my head-canon here is that the Ki'tang survived the war and was later commanded by Morath, the chief engineer who made the original modification, whom Martok rewarded for his actions incidental as they were. By 2394, of course, Martok is dead and the politics of the Klingon Empire have shifted, leaving Morath in need of allies and in-laws to keep his command.
Jurlek and Doran are both characters from the game, appearing in the tutorial missions as the captain and first officer of the tutorial bird-of-prey respectively. Doran, daughter of W'mar is also a character who briefly appears in DS9: "Sons and Daughters" where she was one of the young reinforcements to join the crew of the IKS Rotarran. I decided to make them the same character. In the Star Trek Online game the House of Torg is a political adversary of the House of Martok and there's never a hint of a relationship between them and Jurlek. I decided to put one in place.
Gre'thor is the Klingon version of Hell. The d'k tahg is the dagger most commonly seen being used with Klingons, with a large straight primary blade and two smaller secondary blades sticking out on either side.
While most Klingon ships don't have periscopes for their gunners, some do, as seen in Star Trek: Generations. While it is kind of silly, I admit to having an irrational fondness for the periscope, thus, it makes an appearance on the bridge of the Ki'tang.