IKS Klothos
Kor's Quarters
Kor was not pleased with the extent of the damage to his ship to say the least but he was proud most of his crew had survived the test and they would come out stronger. Engineering had managed to restore main power to the bulk of the ship several decks had ruptured EPS conduits in a dozen places, meaning they had to rely on auxiliary power until the conduits, relays and nodes were repaired. Fortunately Kor's crew was competent and repairs were underway.
However it was the engines that annoyed and concerned him.
With the warp and impulse engines down they were vulnerable to possible attack, especially close to Federation space. Warp drive was out because one of the ship's nacelles was damaged and leaking plasma and the same could be said for the impulse engines with plasma leaking from the driver coils. The crew would have to replace the coils after the leaking plasma has been vented and cleaned. Kor was not happy about this since it would mean the ship would likely have to be towed back to the nearest Klingon Starbase for repairs. He put aside the damage and report and looked at the scans of the alien ship they had 'brought' back from the wormhole.
The scans showed that the alien ship's hull was made of a crystalline substance layered with tritanium and several other common hull materials with ablative properties, similar to the hull of Tholian ships. The ship possessed advanced fusion reactors, more advanced and could supply more power than Federation and Klingon technology could produce with an advanced reactor producing more power than a standard warp core. Their impulse engines used helium fusion unlike the hydrogen fusion process used by other spacefaring races but again similar to the Tholians. The engines seemed to use a trilateral coil layout which gives the ship the ability to rapidly change warp velocity, though losing the ability to quickly change course.
The scans revealed that the engines produced an advanced form of warp drive, perhaps even transwarp drive. If the Klingons had this they could expand their Empire faster and would be able to tip the balance of power in their favor against the Federation and the Romulans. The ship also appeared to be highly automated as life signs were much lower than one would expect for a ship that size, which came about by nanoscale weaving of high temperature superconductors into the computers' crystalline structure.
And that was not covering the weapons.
The main weapons were disruptor style, similar to Klingon and Romulan style weaponry but seemingly more advanced with pulse plasma styled weapons similar to that of a Romulan plasma torpedo but more powerful. They seemed to have a high energy beam weapon capable of destroying the environment of an entire planet.
That is why the Klingons must have this ship.
Detailed scans would give the Klingons the knowledge needed to produce their own versions but a live sample would allow them to gain deeper insight to build newer, more powerful ships. The Klingon Empire would thrive in the face of adversity from not just one universe but perhaps thousands if they could perfect this wormhole technology.
The sound of the door hailer shook him from his thoughts. "Enter."
The doors opened to reveal Kali. "General, our distress call has been answered by the High Command. They will be sending a full fleet to rescue us and tow the ship back to Qo'Nos."
"Good, good." Kor grinned. "We will be able to take ship before they are repaired."
"There is another matter, General."
Kor frowned. "Which is?"
"Long range scans are already detecting a squadron of ships approaching at high velocity warp." Kali answered.
"Klingon?"
"No sir. They appear to be Tholian." Kali could see the frown on her husband's face deepening. "At seven Tholian ships."
"Tholians?" Kor put down his report.
A highly advanced sentient — apparently crystalline species, non-humanoid in appearance and extremely territorial in disposition. They hail from a hot planet by human standards, probably not Class-M. The Tholians were an extremely xenophobic, non-humanoid civilization native to the planet Tholia in the Alpha Quadrant. The Tholian interstellar state was the Tholian Assembly, which neighbored the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets.
They rarely left their territory and frequently annexed surrounding space to further isolate themselves from the rest of the galaxy. Their borders were not fixed and they adjusted every eight solar cycles to account for the movement of surrounding star cycles and astronomical objects in their space.
This was not good.
If the Tholians were becoming involved they could try and capture the very ship Kor risked his and crew's lives to get with their infernal web.
That could not happen.
"Status on weapons." Kor immediately demanded.
"Our shields have been restored but our weapons are non-functional. We have yet to repair the power grid for our disruptors." Kali answered.
Kor stood up. "Without our engines or weapons we cannot secure the ship or fight the Tholians. I must have options!"
Kali composed herself. "There is a chance we can have the weapons restored by the time the Tholians arrive. I believe we can lure them into believing our ship is completely non-functional."
Kor looked at her. "Explain."
"We shut off all systems except for minimum life support. When the Tholians arrive they will believe our ship is incapable of fighting." Kali began.
"And when they circle to take the ship we activate our weapons and attack when they are least expecting." Kor finished once he understood and grinned. "Yes, that could work. But we would need our engines. How long until the Tholians arrive?"
"Four hours."
"And what is the best estimate for repairing the weapons and engines?" Kor asked.
"Four hours." Kali answered. "If we split the crew to repair and engines and weapons. We would have at least partial impulse power."
"Do it." Kor ordered with a fist gesture. "I want every able Klingon on this ship working in engines or weapons."
"Including you?" Kali asked with a small grin.
"My dear, I am insulted." Kor laughed. "I will be in the engine room, supervising repairs."
"Bridge to General Kor!"
Kor immediately answered. "What is it?"
"The ship has launched several unidentified objects at us!"
"Raise shields!" Kor shouted, moving from behind his desk.
From the hull of the strange ship came four objects that shot straight at the Klothos.
Kor stepped onto the bridge to see the objects approaching. "Identify!"
"They appear to be probes. They are still damaged, perhaps more damaged than we are." Kaz answered.
The probes came into contact with the shields that should have repelled them. Only instead, the objects struggled for a mere second before passing through the shields.
"What happened to our shields?" Kor barked.
Kali was at her station. "The probes emitted some kind of field around them. It matches modulation frequency of the shields."
"They are attaching to the hull." Kaz immediately said.
"Prepare to repel borders!" Kor shouted.
Xxx
The strange device reached the hull of the Klingon ship and dissolved itself into some form of liquid that burned through the hull. Enough power remained to automatically seal the section as it was exposed to vacuum. The liquid substance came together, forming a green blocky humanoid like machine. Three more emerged from the hull breach, assuming similar humanoid forms as they began marching through the ship.
Xxx
Bridge
"The machines are matching towards the bridge." Kali reported.
"Order our security to protect it." Kor ordered. "What are those things?"
"Some form of machines, crystalline that can yet break themselves down and reform into anything they want. They emitted immense heat when they burned through the hull." Kali answered. "Exact material unknown, power system unknown. But if they burn through the doors-"
"We'll be exposed to the vacuum of space." Kor finished. "Open the closest door along their path and then seal it when they get through. The closer they are the less of us losing all our oxygen."
It was a risky move but one that could save the ship.
Xxx
The machines were about to burn through another door when it opened for them. Their scanners indicated that it had been opened for them and had exposed this section to space. Of course they did not care, only finding the bridge, engineering and the computer core. They marched forward, not looking back as the doors closed.
Xxx
"They are through." Kali reported.
"Good. Order security to destroy them!" Kor grinned.
Xxx
The machines stopped, detecting movement, followed by loud guttural roars. The Klingon security appeared at the end of the hallway, firing their disruptors. However a shield appeared around each machines, blocking the disruptor bolts as the machines raised their arms and fired back.
Xxx
"Security has engaged the intruders…" Kali frowned, seeing the sensor readings. "The machines are projecting shields around themselves."
"Order security to use full disruptors." Kor replied, frowning as the machines continued their march.
Projecting a shield around their bodies?
That was a level of advancement not even Starfleet had reached yet.
Xxx
The battle was heating up now as more Klingons arrived and fired on the machines, their shields taking the full brunt of the disruptor barrage. The machines fired back, their own disruptors burning through Klingon bodies. The weaponry the machines wielded was much similar to Klingon and Romulan disruptors but more advanced as they attacked the molecular structure of their targets and caused a rapid molecular breakdown. Those unfortunate enough to be hit screamed in agony as they died but it only galvanized the remaining Klingons to fight even harder.
The machines began to split up with two heading for the engineering while one headed for the computer core and the last one headed for the bridge.
Xxx
"Prepare yourself!" Kor shouted, grabbing his personal bat'leth. "Today is indeed a good day to die!"
The bridge crew armed themselves as the machine burned its way through the door. As soon as it was through the bridge crew opened fire while Kali made an adjustment to her own disruptor. The machine raised its arm and fired back, killing three Klingons before Kali threw her disruptor at the machine's feet. The machine glanced down as the disruptor exploded, burning through its body and leaving it vulnerable to fire from the remaining Klingons.
The machine fell back and stopped moving.
Kor lowered his disruptor before looking at Kali. "What did you do?"
"I set my disruptor to overload. I believe it was the only our weapons would break through the shield." Kali answered.
"Yes…It was." Kor nodded. "Contact security and tell them to implement the same measures against the intruders."
"General, our sensors are detecting power emissions from the ship. They appear to have restored their engines and weapons." Kaz called out.
Kor spun around, looking at the viewscreen and watched as the ship slowly began moving. "Weapons?"
"Operational but our crew is still in battle with the intruders." Kaz answered.
"Then I will take care of it myself." Kor said, moving instantly to the weapon station. "I need all available power to the weapons."
"General, Tholian ships emerging from warp!"
Xxx
Seven Tholian ships came upon the Klingon and alien ships. They completely ignored the Klingons and chose to focus on the unknown ship as it began moving. Its movements were slow and somewhat clumsy but as it began moving the Tholians immediately began firing on its. Unfortunately for them its shields activated, blocking the plasma torpedoes that slammed into its shield and fired back with barrage of their own plasma based weaponry.
Scans later revealed them to be plasma based anti-proton weaponry that were more advanced than even the plasma weaponry used by the Romulans. The Tholians were smaller and more maneuverable which allowed most of them to survive but one Tholian ship was hit. The shields lasted a mere second before failing and the ship was destroyed instantly. The remaining six Tholian ships surrounded the alien ship and projected energy strings in the form of their energy web which was used for capturing enemy ships.
Xxx
IKS Klothos
Bridge
"Tholian pah-tags!" Kor swore, watching the battle.
How dare the Tholians try to steal the Klingon Empire's bounty?!
"I need engines and weapons!" Kor barked to his bridge crew.
"Security is still dealing with one of the machines in engineering." Kali reported. "We cannot repair the ship and fight intruders at the same time."
"I'll take care of that machine myself!" Kor picked up his bat'leth. "Get our weapons locked onto the Tholians."
Kali turned to her station as Kor left, working to target the Tholian ships.
Only she didn't need to.
Xxx
From the alien ship came a bright yellow beam that hit the Tholian energy strings and much to the shock of Tholians and the Klingons the beams destabilized the entire web and sent a surge of energy through the strings and into the very ships that created them, destroying them instantly.
Xxx
IKS Klothos
Bridge
Kali was almost stunned to see the Tholian web fail against this ship. Her scanners showed they had used a disruptor beam that was different and more advanced than anything she had seen before. The beam had an effect on the energy strings similar to what normal disruptors had against the organic matter.
Alarms rang as the ship turned to them once it was done with the Tholians.
"Perhaps today is a good day to die." She muttered to herself as she target the Klothos' disruptors on the alien ship, ready to go down fighting a like a real Klingon.
Only it wasn't necessary.
Over a dozen Klingon ships emerged from warp and surrounded the alien ship.
"Qapla!" Kali shouted in relief and victory, aiming and firing.
Xxx
IKS Klothos
Engineering
Kor emerged into the engine room to see it had become a warzone with Klingon officers trying and failing to destroy the last machine. Just as it came within striking distance of the warp core the machine stopped as it heard Kor's voice behind it.
"Face me, machine!" Kor shouted as he charged straight into battle.
The machine spun around and raised its arm, blocking against Kor's bat'leth. The machine's superior strength run as it pushed Kor back but the Klingon Dahar Master was far from finished. He attacked again, swinging his bat'leth at the machine which would block with its arms. The machine swiped at his head but Kor ducked, moving under its arms and delivered a slash to its armor, leaving a cut but did not seem to affect it much.
In fact the machine seemed able to automatically repair itself in battle as the cut instantly healed a few seconds later.
Not that Kor cared very much at the moment.
"Glorious battle!" The Klingon shouted with a gleeful smile.
Xxx
The Klingon ships surrounded the alien ship and fired. Photon torpedoes and disruptors blasted against the ship's advanced shields. The ship's shields held and it fired back, its advanced disruptor weapons burning away at Klingon shields much faster than the Klingon weapons were burning away theirs. The yellow beams, later labelled subatomic disruptors stripped away the shields and burned through hull of the ships it touched.
However the Klingon ships had maneuverability on their side and used it to their advantage, moving in and out of weapon's range while firing at what appeared to be their vulnerable sections which turned out of the trailing edge of their engines. The alien ship also moved in a clumsy manner but made up for it by being heavily armed. Still, the ship's shields were being battered by Klingon weaponry, even as it fought back.
Xxx
IKS Klothos
Engineering
Kor grunted as the machine threw him into a wall and he slid down. The machine fought not just like a machine but a creature that treated the Klingon as an annoyance. Looking up, Kor watched as its arm morphed into a blaster as it prepared to finish him off. However it failed to noticed a wounded but still alive Klingon raise his disruptor pistol for one last time and fired.
The blast hit the machine in the back, seemingly causing a great amount of damage as it staggered forward in what looked like a confused and wounded daze. Kor picked up his bat-leth and threw it, the blade of his weapon embedding itself in the machine's 'face'.
It fell over and lied perfectly still.
Kor looked over to the warrior who saved him who managed to let out one last word. "…Qa…pla."
Picking himself up, Kor walked over to the dead warrior and opened his eyes and let out a roar so loud it would warn the dead.
Beware, a Klingon warrior was about to arrive.
His sacrifice and that of the other warriors who fell this day would never be forgotten for they had died honorably in service to the Empire.
They had earned their place in Sto-Vo-Kor.
Xxx
The Klingon ships finally broke through the shields of the alien ship, disabling its engines and quickly started beaming Klingons aboard. The aliens on the ship were large and intimidating.
And strong.
They fought with ferocity that rivaled that of the Klingons and when they died their bodies burst into flames.
Perhaps their way of honoring the dead, leave nothing for the enemy to take.
Whatever the case may be, the aliens fought and died like true warriors and they would be remembered as true warriors by the Klingon warriors who faced them in battle.
There was no shame in falling in battle against a worthy foe.
The crew numbers were much smaller than what was expected for a ship that size but made up for it in sheer brutality, ferocity and warrior's spirit.
It was only after the last crewmember died and the Klingons comb through the database did they discovered the name of their worthy foes:
The Jaridians.
Xxx
Three Weeks Later
Beta Quadrant
Qo'Nos
IKS Klothos
Captain's Quarters
"This is the personal log of General Kor. Three weeks ago our attempt to open a way into a new universe much like the Federation was met with different success but a success all the same. A ship from the other side was brought after having entered another wormhole in their universe and our test brought it here. The Klothos sustained heavy damage in the attempt and we suffered heavy causalities during and after the attempt." Kor spoke into the recorder. "The ship was equally damaged as us and deployed probes to board our ship. These probes were made to alter their appearance to become highly advanced and highly dangerous machines, the likes of which that have never been encountered before. They were armed with a form of advanced molecular disruptors, a personal shield and even a personal cloaking device. Our scientists will be spending decades studying these machines to better improve our own weaponry and advance our technology beyond that of even the Federation. It is possible we can reverse engineer these machines to even infiltrate the Federation but for now the peace treaty will remain in effect as we Klingons honor our word, even to our enemies.
As for the ship itself it belongs to race known as the Jaridians. A race of warriors at war with a race known as the Taelons in their universe. These Jaridians fight and act like Klingons to the point I am tempted to open another wormhole into their universe to forge an alliance with them. For now their ship, a Sokhara class battle cruiser will be put to good use here. The ship utilizes several advanced fusion reactors, cold fusion reactors more advanced than our own with a reactor that creates and destroys quantum singularities for power, a quantum annihilation reactor .
The ship's weapons are disruptor based, with pulse weapons appearing to be similar to Romulan plasma torpedoes but more advanced and are anti-proton based and beams weapons appearing to be a form subatomic disruptors that were able to destabilize a Tholian web. Studies have shown these subatomic disruptors would be able to completely devastate the atmosphere of a planet. We have taken to calling them Quantum Disruptors. The technology is primarily crystalline in nature, utilizing a form of photonic computerized systems to operate the ship which we are still studying.
The true prize is their engines." Kor grinned. "It seems these Jaridians have perfected transwarp drive, meaning we Klingons can adapt these new engines to our ships and thus we can expand our Empire greatly. We could travel across the galaxy much like the Federation can. Again, the Council was tempted to forego the Organian treaty but it is likely those foolish Organians would disable our ships again like they did at their planet. It was heavily damaged in battle with us and the Tholians but salvageable enough for us to study and learn a great deal from.
The Federation has an entirely new galaxy to explore while the Klingons can set about its own program to explore and expand."
It was truly the beginning of a glorious age.
The Klingon Empire and the Federation competing for who would expand across the galaxy.
Two rival super powers expanding throughout the universe and beyond.
With Kor on the Klingon side and Kirk on the other.
Kor grinned at the idea of competing against Kirk to see what lied out there. "We have ensured the ship is secured deeply in our space where none of enemies will reach it. As we study its inner workings and create our version of its weapons, engines and power systems we can begin our own program for exploration. We will take part in what Kirk and the Federation have started, we will sail across the stars for new systems to welcome or conquer into our Empire, to grow and expand as they have and to push past the limits of the frontier."
After all, that was what Kirk and the Enterprise did.
They traveled beyond the far edges of Federation space and pushed beyond the limits.
That was what Kor wanted for the Empire.
To prevent infighting from the lack of a real enemy by giving it…healthy competition.
"And it just so happens, our actions which led to the destruction of five Tholian ships has the Tholian Assembly up in arms, threatening war." Kor's grin widened. "They know we have the ship and they know we can use it to grow stronger. Very well, if they wish to fight us than so be it and with our alliance with Romulans over we might be dealing with them soon enough."
Then from the ashes if they had to deal with the Federation next, so be it.