"Divert auxiliary power to the weapons array and prepare…" Mackenzie was given no chance to finish.

"I'm detecting a spatial anomaly forming off the port bow, Captain," Kehlan called suddenly, interrupting him "Bearing zero nineteen, mark four."

"What is it?" the captain asked tersely, never taking his eyes from the viewscreen where Hegh'Ta was racing towards certain death. He could not look away, needing to bear witness to their final moments.

"I believe it is a cloaked vessel." Kehlan scowled at her console as she responded, willing it to give her the answers she needed. "Captain, I…" she looked up, a puzzled expression on her face, "I don't think it's Jem'Hadar! The signature is…"

Mackenzie and his crew could only watch with shock as the fabric of space itself seemed to shimmer and a huge Klingon attack-cruiser decloaked in front of him and blasted Hegh'Ta's target out of the sky, capturing the damaged bird-of-prey in a tractor beam as it did so.

"…is Klingon!" Kehlan belatedly finished her sentence amidst wild cheers from the bridge officers.

Moments later, two battlecruisers and fifteen birds-of-prey decloaked in formation behind the attack-cruiser and engaged the enemy. The Klingon fleet opened fire and within minutes the battle was over, the remaining Jem'Hadar ships completely destroyed.

On the bridge of the Endeavour there was utter silence as captain and crew stared at the screen, not quite able to believe the scene of utter devastation. Everything had happened so fast and it was hard to process just what had happened. The situation had been hopeless and none of them had expected to live past the next few minutes. Then out of nowhere, the Klingons had turned up like avenging angels and saved the day.

Down on the planet, the remains of the weapons and ketracel facilities continued to burn fiercely, while in space there was so much debris from the destroyed Jem'Hadar ships that it would be years before a starship could approach that planet with its shields down. And in the midst of it all, the Klingon fleet hung majestically.

The marines had been retrieved and were back onboard ship with very few losses – only two deaths and three serious but treatable injuries – and that had brought more surprises in the form of a significant number of rescued prisoners. Apparently, the Dominion had been using forced labour to produce their ketracel white.

"Message coming through from the Klingon attack cruiser," Lieutenant Baker announced somewhat shakily, looking up from her console.

"On screen," the captain ordered, then as the view of the planet was replaced with the bridge of the attack-cruiser, "I am Captain James Mackenzie of the Federation starship Endeavour. Identify yourself."

"This is General Kurn zantai Kazrel in command of the Seventh Imperial Fleet" the officer seated in the captain's chair responded. "We were sent by Imperial Command to look for you."

"I'm surprised you found us," Captain Mackenzie said, "We are a long way from allied space."

"We bumped into a Cardassian cruiser crewed by some of your officers," the Klingon officer told him. "We debriefed them and they told us what you were planning."

"They made it back safely then," the Terran captain said, pleased, "That's good news."

Kurn nodded, "Yes, they did well. Now, I would like to invite you and the captain of the Hegh'Ta to come on board my ship for an informal meeting."

The invitation, coming as it did from a Klingon general, was not really a request but an order and Captain Mackenzie treated it as such. Ten minutes later, both he and Krang had materialised on the transporter pad of the attack cruiser. They were met by a pair of armed guards who escorted them to the fleet commander's office and then took up station outside the door as the two officers went inside.

General Kurn zantai Kazrel was not a particularly tall man but what he lacked in height he more than made up for in speed, agility and sheer resilience in battle. A formidable and highly respected warrior, his troops followed him with unquestioning loyalty. Krang knew of him by reputation but until now, their paths had never crossed.

The general handed the two captains a glass of warnog and gestured to them to take a seat. "I have been ordered to ensure that both of you return to Qo'noS," Kurn informed them dryly. "In fact, I believe the Starfleet admiral's exact words were 'drag them back by the scruff of the neck if you have to.' I hope that will not be necessary."

"That sounds like Admiral Portway," Captain Mackenzie said ruefully. "Krang my friend, it looks as if the fun's over for us."

"The Hegh'Ta is badly damaged," Krang answered. "We'd have had to go back anyway; we're going to need some extended time in space dock to make the ship battle worthy again." He took a mouthful of his warnog. "As it is, it'll be a long slow journey. We'll be lucky if we can make warp two."

"Well, you'll be getting a fleet escort," Kurn said laughing. "But you needn't think I'm towing you back. I'll have some of my engineers come over and give you a hand making repairs. In the meantime, however, have another drink. I want to hear everything that's happened."

The two captains read through the report for Starfleet Command they had just finished writing, explaining their actions over the last few weeks. While they had done a lot of damage to the enemy, they had acted in defiance of a direct order to return to Qo'noS and had intentionally stayed out of communications range in order to prevent Starfleet from contacting them. Both men knew that they would face a board of enquiry on their return and very likely, a full court martial.

"Oh well, that's the final report written for now," Captain Mackenzie said, fighting back a yawn as he pressed his thumb to the padd, adding his biometric signature before deactivating it. He leaned back in his chair and stretched out, his feet resting on the polished wood of his desk. Another few days and we'll be back in Klingon space."

"It's still a long journey back to Qo'noS," Krang reminded him. "I'll be glad to get Hegh'Ta into space dock. We took some serious damage in that last fight."

"I know," Captain Mackenzie responded, "I'll tell you Krang, I really didn't think we were going to survive that one. If the fleet hadn't shown up when it did…" He left his sentence unfinished.

"It was a good day to die", Krang said, his voice suddenly fierce, "But a better one for our enemies to die."

Leaning forward to put the padd back on the table, Mackenzie laughed as a sudden thought struck him, "You know, it's just as well this is a report for the Admiralty and not a novel."

The Klingon frowned. That comment meant absolutely nothing to him. "I don't understand. What do you mean?"

"Well, imagine how disappointed you would be," Mackenzie explained, "I mean… you buy a book and read it and there's this great big battle scene… and the chapter ends with a huge climactic build up; the Klingon ship about to go out in a blaze of glory and the Federation captain giving his death or glory speech only to turn the page and the cavalry shows up and the whole thing is over just like that… You'd probably lynch the writer for doing that."

Krang considered that. "You mean the Admiralty won't lynch us when they read it?"

"Very likely," the Terran conceded. "Not that I am sorry the fleet turned up like that. I am glad to be alive."

Krang nodded but said nothing and if he smiled, it did not reach his eyes. Mackenzie might be glad to be alive, but he could not honestly say the same.

"Argyle to Captain Mackenzie." The intercom activated and the chief engineer's voice hailed the captain.

"Go ahead, Chief."

"We're almost set up down here," Argyle said. "The show will start in half an hour if I can just get this interface working properly. Thanks for the tapes, Captain, they look great."

"No problem," the captain said, "We'll be there. Captain Mackenzie out."

Krang raised his eyebrows in a silent question.

"We've got some copies of an old Klingon show," Captain Mackenzie explained. "It's set on a battle cruiser during the Federation/Klingon war. We're setting up a screen in the rec room if you're interested."

"Battle-Cruiser Vengeance?" Krang asked, bemused. "You've got to be joking. How in Kahless' name did you get hold of that?"

"They belong to Kargan," Captain Mackenzie informed him. "He very generously lent us them. I take it you've seen it then?

"Hasn't everyone?" Krang asked, letting out a hearty laugh as he remembered. "I was just a boy when it first showed." He had watched it faithfully every week and the ship's captain, Koth, had been his idol for years, until he realised it was just an actor playing a part.

Captain Mackenzie frowned. "Battle-Cruiser Vengeance first aired around a hundred and fifty years ago. There's no way you're old enough to remember it."

"I am fifty-four Terragnan years old," Krang told him, "However, I was born in 2221."

The Terran captain's frown deepened, as he remembered his failed attempt to investigate the Klingon's past. "So… are you saying you travelled in time?"

Krang was silent for a moment, then said, "James, I'm going to tell you the truth, but it is classified and I must ask you to keep it confidential. You will never find any records because officially none of it happened."

Captain Mackenzie walked across to the replicator and ordered two mugs of raktajino, one of which he handed to his friend. "Go on," he invited, sitting down again and gesturing to the Klingon to do the same.

"I grew up in the twenty-third century," Krang began, "My father died when I was ten and my older brother ended up with the unenviable job of raising me. I didn't make it easy for him. When I was fifteen, my brother and I had a massive fight... I won't go into details, but the result was I left home and joined Imperial Intelligence, more in rebellion than anything else… I was expected to follow the family tradition and join the defence force… Anyway, it turned out, to everyone's surprise that I had an aptitude for the work and I eventually became a Captain of Security." Reaching over, he picked up the mug of raktajino and took a mouthful. "The High Council came up with a plan to destroy the Federation by travelling back in time and preventing it from ever forming. We went back to your twentieth century and I was stationed on Earth for almost two years. I had sole responsibility for Terran security during that time."

"You're right about one thing," Captain Mackenzie said not quite sure if he believed what he was hearing. "That's definitely not in the history books."

"No, it's not," Krang agreed. "As I was saying, we had been on Earth for around eighteen months when everything changed. Partly because of Chrissie and partly because of new orders from the High Council that I considered dishonourable, I decided to change sides and betray the Empire." He paused again, taking another mouthful of raktajino.

The Terran captain had realised quite some time ago that his Klingon friend considered himself dishonoured. He had never understood that as Krang was one of the most honourable people he knew. Now however he was beginning to comprehend why Krang felt that way. He knew that this was hard for Krang to talk about and he appreciated the Klingon's trust in him. What he was hearing explained a lot of small things, little anomalies that had been subconsciously niggling him about his friend and he understood now, why Krang's personnel record was so sketchy. Anything involving time travel was very heavily classified.

"I assume the Empire found out about your… betrayal?" Mackenzie did not like using that word; he could not reconcile the idea of his friend committing treason… but there was no other word for it.

Krang nodded, "Yes, I'd have been executed if I'd been caught on Qo'noS, so I chose to defect to the Federation. We spent six months on board Kirk's Enterprise because they didn't know what else to do with us. My brother still had the prototype time dilator so eventually, after my daughter was born, we travelled forward in time one hundred years to late 2368."

He shrugged. "There was no way Chrissie and I could be together when our respective peoples were such deadly enemies and we had reason to believe things might be different in this era. I was debriefed and interrogated by Starfleet Intelligence and eventually offered a place on Picard's Enterprise. The rest you know."

"So, Starfleet covered up the whole mess," Captain Mackenzie commented thoughtfully, "and all the records were sealed and classified."

"Which means I can't prove any of it," Krang said, his tone suddenly switching from serious to teasing, "The question is, am I just a good storyteller or did it really happen?"

Momentarily silent, Captain Mackenzie looked into the Klingon's eyes. Then with complete certainty, he answered Krang's question. "It happened."

For a long time, the two men stared at each other, then Krang clasped the Terragnan on the shoulder, breaking the sombre mood as he said, "Now, what about these re-runs of Battle-Cruiser Vengeance you promised me?"

"Good idea," Captain Mackenzie said, "Let's go and see if it's ready."

"Don't you just love all the Orion slave girls?" Krang said, chuckling at the memory. "They were just so…"

Captain Mackenzie grinned, "I always liked the bit at the end… the way it always finished with the same line."

Bursting into laughter, both men chorused, in dramatic voices, "I am Captain Koth, Koth of the Vengeance, and this ship is my prize!" Still laughing, they made their way to the rec room, their previous conversation put aside but not forgotten.