The Adventure Continues…. Part 4
Brian was back in the holodeck, once again fighting Klingons. When sleep eluded him, he had made his way here to relax and work out his feelings for S'ena. The "One" was with him as he killed simulated Klingon after another. Serving soup. Splitting wood. Churning butter.
He wondered, after seeing the Klingons in action, if his program was good enough. Could he really beat a live Klingon? Or was he fooling himself with smoke and mirrors into believing he was invincible.
Brian heard the holodeck doors open, then close. Out of position, he hadn't seen who had come in. A dangerous circumstance for whoever had, as the program was designed to assign attackers to who ever didn't belong in it.
"Computer, freeze program."
Brian only just blocked the incoming Bat'leth with his sword. The program was still active!
"Computer, end program."
Once again, the computer generated Klingons kept coming.
Someone has taken over control of the program and locked out my voice commands, he thought. Presumably, they would have disabled the safety overrides as well. That alone would be enough to kill me, Brian concluded, unless someone came along and turned off the program from the outside. Why let me know by opening the doors? Spreading sheets, followed by making bed.
That's it! They weren't sure that the program would kill him. Someone could still save him. They had entered the program to make sure he died. But why hadn't the program attacked them as well? Beating rug.
Brian chanced a quick look around. No, all he saw were Klingons, no other fights. Either the mysterious killer had changed the program more than Brian thought possible without restarting it, or....The killer was Klingon! Of course! The program only attacked people who didn't belong in it. It would accept a live Klingon in place of a holographic one any day. One of these guys was a ringer! Gathering eggs.
Brian had no reservations about killing holograms. The computer could always make more. But real people? Not unless it was unavoidable. The Chivalric Codes of Avalon, and Starfleet regulations, forbade killing unless it was absolutely necessary. Brian had to figure out which Klingon was real, while fighting for his life. Then he had to disable them without killing them, or getting himself killed!
Yeah, right, maybe while he was at it, he could bake a cake too. Kneading bread. Well, it was a plan, he decided. Let's try it. Pitching hay. First, identify the imposter.
At any one time, Brian was surrounded by three to five adversaries. The computer would send them at him one or two at a time, depending on complex algorithms Brian himself had written. Splitting wood. They took in account the position of Brian, his weapon, the Klingons and their weapons, some Klingon cultural preferences about attacking single opponents, Brian's fighting ability and random chance variables.
If three Klingons attacked him at once, he thought, one would be the imposter. Brian also thought he would die. He was pretty sure that he couldn't take out three Klingons at once. Well, he prayed, let's not have that happen. Sowing grain.
If two Klingons attacked at once, they would attack together. The computer just naturally coordinated their attack. Brian hadn't worked that out of the program yet. For some reason the computer didn't send two independent attacks at him at once. If they didn't attack fluidly, complementing each other, that meant that one of them probably was real, the ringer not knowing what the hologram would do. Storing dishes.
The most likely way the imposter would attack was singlely, Brian decided. It fit the Klingon code of honor more. That was if this attacker had any honor. The attacks generated by the computer came with regularity. Not always the same, but Brian had set a minimum time limit between attacks. If an attacker started too early, he would give himself away, and if he started too late, the computer would send in another on cue. The killer must start near the end of the time limit before the computer initiated an attack, Brian thought. Sweeping floor, followed by churning butter.
But which one was he? Serving soup. So far the Klingon adversaries had been coming forward like normal. The "One" gave him some relief from exhaustion, but he couldn't keep it up forever. The tension Brian felt from knowing one of the attackers was real was going to tire him out alone.
Was it that one over there? Making bed. Brian hadn't been attacked from that quarter for the last three passes. If the killer wanted to study him, he might show up as the only Klingon not to attack him right away. Brian meet eyes with the Klingon. No, he wasn't the attacker, just random chance that he hadn't attacked yet.
What about that one? He looked too eager. Drawing water. No, it didn't feel right.
Of course! Brian finally grasp the answer, feel! Brian stopped trying to guess which attacker was the real Klingon. Reaching inward, Brian let his heart decide.
A Klingon Warrioress, two behind the one on the right. Brian had never written that much detail into his program. Breath, sweat, nervousness, anger, the visual clues were obvious to Brian now, where a few seconds before he would have been fooled.
Brian then did something he hadn't done since he first wrote his exercise program, he attacked! He had always figured, why attack when the computer always sent in the next opponent right away? This time, Brian had a reason, to finish off the real Klingon before the holo-Klingons finished him. The computer obliged him by sending him attackers from that direction. The real Klingon first looked surprised, then eager, then she too pressed through the Klingons in front of her to confront Brian.
The two warriors met with a clash of weapons, Bat'leth versus medieval sword. Klingon versus human. Reaping wheat, blocked! Drawing water, blocked! This warrioress was good! Almost too good for Brian to take. She seemed to know what Brian was going to do. Of course! The warrioress had watched, and seen, most of Brian's attack moves. Brian needed something that he hadn't used for a while, yet wouldn't outright kill his opponent, or get himself killed in the process. Sweeping floor, blocked!
The Klingon's superior strength was beginning to tell. Not only was she blocking Brian's attacks, but she was counter attacking as well. Brian's "One" kept him from falling to the effects of his exertions right away, but his opponent was fresh. Brian realized that if the stalemate continued, sooner or later, his flesh would give out. If someone didn't intercede, then time was on his killer's side!
Brian let his conscious mind reach back to his early days of training. During that time, his teacher had introduced him to many different forms of combat, from many different worlds, including the Klingon way. Most of Brian's combat moves were a combination of European and Oriental sword fighting techniques, with some hand to hand instruction from the schools of Starfleet Academy and life.
The Klingon's Bat'leth techniques largely resembled the terran quarterstaff and two-handed sword methods, plus a few original moves due to it's smaller size. Its advantage was that it could hook an opponent's weapon, maybe even breaking it between two of its prongs. The Bat'leth's disadvantage, and Brian's advantage, was that it couldn't thrust as well as Brian's sword.
Brian decided on a plan of action. When the time was right, he threw his sword up for a striking blow. The warrioress sent her Bat'leth up to block the downward stroke. Brian abandoned his sword attack, and ducked down below his opponent's upraised arms to throw himself at the Klingon's chest. They both rolled to the floor. Brian lay where he fell, facing away from the killer. The warrioress, seeing her chance, jumped up off of the floor and rushed Brian's still form, anticipating an easy kill.
Brian waited. The timing must be right or I'm dead, he thought. Tightening the grip on his sword, Brian could hear the rushing footsteps of his doom. In the slowness of the "One", they sounded like his own heartbeat. Boom, Boom, Boom.
Suddenly, Brian spun where he lay, stretching his arm and sword out in front of him straight toward the oncoming Klingon. In slow motion, the tip of Brian's sword met the armored chest... and penetrated. The forward momentum of the onrushing warrioress carried her down the length of the blade, as if her chest were its sheath, piercing her heart and settling home.
The fact that she was probably dead didn't phase the Klingon warrioress. With her Bat'leth raised high for Brian's deathblow, she ignored the sword and continued her final stroke, perhaps not even knowing she was doomed. Brian let go of the sword and grabbed the first thing that came into his hand... another Bat'leth from a fallen hologram! He quickly raised it in a blocking maneuver that almost didn't make it.
On his knees, holding the holo'Bat'leth above him, Brian looked up into the face of his attacker. The Klingon warrioress grinned at him and pressed down. Brian could feel her hot breath and see the fire in the warrioress' eyes. As Brian's arms began to fail under the relentless power of the Klingon, he asked, "Your name, Warrior, so that I may find you in hell."
"I will tell you, weak earther, so that you may fear me even in the afterlife. K'iHqas sutai LoDni'." The Klingon growled. "Never again will you dishonor General K'batlh."
Suddenly, the warrioress' strength left her, her body finally failing her at last. She fell to the side with a surprised look in her eyes, to have victory suddenly torn from her grasp by betraying flesh. Brian fell beside her, the "One" gone, and his energy used up. The holographic Warriors just stood there and looked on, as if watching the death of their hero.
K'iHqas, looked at the sword hilt sticking out from her heart and gasped, "What...?" and the fire went out of her eyes. The holographic Klingons then did something Brian hadn't programmed into them, they began to howl, lamenting the loss of a true warrior.
The computer's voice, out of place among the slain, came as a surprise. "Program terminated." Everything except Brian, and K'iHqas' lifeless body, disappeared.
"Computer, emergency transport to sick bay!" Brian said as he grabbed K'iHqas.
Brian finally had his answer. While he could kill a Klingon, he felt he may never match them in warrior spirit.
Back in her lab at last, Lt. Commander S'ena had one more task to accomplish before she could begin to rebuild. Floating in it's stasis field was the original tribble she had gotten from DS9.
"I know that you are dangerous. I certainly don't like what your children did to my plant friends, and the Klingons would kill you on sight." She told the unknowing creature. "But it's not your fault. The Klingons want to make you extinct again, and I can't imagine a galaxy without your kind in it any more. As long as you remain in this stasis field, they can never pick you up on sensors. I'll keep you until a day comes when I can find a home for you, where you, and all of your proper children, can live naturally."
With that, S'ena took the stasis container and hid it in a storage facility in the lab. Safe, dark, hidden, secure, until...
Later, on the promenade, S'ena saw Brian walking ahead of her. She caught up to him and said, "I thought you were going to be using your exercise program this afternoon."
"No, a Klingon I met and I are going to wait until we can get together and write a new program. She'll teach me some new tricks, and I'll see if I can teach her a few of mine in return."
"Oh, her huh." S'ena said disappointedly, "I guess you don't have time for old friends?"
"MiLady, I will always have time for you."
The Adventure continues....