"Hold still," Kang says, taking a disruptor from one of the slain warriors.

Emony watches with alarm as he adjusts the setting on the weapon. "What are you doing?"

"Cauterizing your wound. Otherwise it will become infected. Qo'noS has many strains of aggressive bacteria."

"Yeah, they warned us about that. On my world, we have a thing called sanitation. Your people should try it."

Ignoring her, Kang draws an intricately crafted d'k tagh and presents it to her. "Bite down on the hilt."

Emony regards the Klingon warily. Then she takes the dagger and puts the hilt in her mouth, still glaring at him. She raises her dirt-encrusted tank top to reveal a bloody gash above her hip.

Kang seizes her shoulder. He positions the disruptor centimeters from the wound and fires a short burst. Emony's scream is stifled as she clenches her teeth against the hilt of the dagger, and she struggles against Kang's iron grip as he fires a series of precise bursts to seal the wound.

Then he releases Emony, and she takes the dagger from her mouth and groans in agony.

"Shit," she spits through clenched teeth. "Is that what Klingons consider first aid?"

"Battlefield medicine," Kang tells her, sheathing his dagger. "If you were Klingon, I would have given you a measure of bloodwine first, to numb the pain."

"Well, do you have any?" she asks, clutching her side.

"Bloodwine?"

"Yeah."

Kang blinks. "I am carrying a flask."

"So give me some."

He stares at her for a moment, then pulls out a flask sculpted from black metal. "Bloodwine is a potent brew even for Klingon warriors –"

"Yeah, yeah," Emony interrupts, taking the flask. She opens it and takes a shot. "Hair of the dog."

With an expression of vague disdain, Kang takes the flask. "I am not familiar with that expression."

Emony wipes her mouth. "Human expression. My friend Leonard used to say it. It means you can't be hung over if you're drunk again." She climbs to her feet, shunning his attempts to help her. "So what's the plan, Kang? Are you really going to get me off this planet?"

"Yes." He begins to walk across the bridge to the dense urban area on the far side of the ravine. "On the orders of the High Chancellor. I am part of her diplomatic corps."

She follows him, wincing as she walks. "I didn't know there was a high chancellor."

"She is newly proclaimed," Kang says, not looking back. "She has fulfilled the call of T'Kuvma, to unite the Klingon Empire."

Emony looks back at the corpses behind them. "It doesn't seem very united."

"The other houses resist the truce with the Federation. But they will fall in line."

"Hang on," she says as she catches up to him. "Last I heard, a Klingon fleet was en route to obliterate Earth. Now you're telling me the war is over?"

"Not over. Changed. Into a new stage where open conflict would result in ruin for both sides." They reach the end of the bridge. At the far side, the road widens into a thoroughfare between craggy buildings. There is a small crowd of Klingons ahead of them, some haggling, others muscling their way through the throng. A Kolar beast is braying loudly in the center of the crowd. The hulking reptilian creature is strapped to a ramshackle anti-grav sledge carrying an assortment of blades. A merchant hawks the weapons to passers-by.

Emony edges behind Kang, out of sight to the crowd. "That's a lot of Klingons."

"Yes. But they will not harm you." Kang walks toward the crowd.

"How do you know?" she asks, following close behind him.

"Because I will protect you."

They enter the thoroughfare, passing Klingons young and old. Some are clad in warriors' armour, others in furs or rags. They stare at Emony as she passes by, and she averts her eyes.

"No offence," she whispers to Kang, "but you are just one guy, and you said there were enemy patrols around. Patrols. Plural."

"I will protect you," he repeats, "or else we will die warriors' deaths, and you can find me in Sto-vo-kor."

"Okay. Well, I'd really prefer it if that doesn't happen. So how far is it to your ship?"

"We will rendezvous with my companions on the outskirts of this district." Kang violently shoves a pair of adolescent Klingons out of his way as they reach a heavy iron fence. "The maglev will take us there."

Emony watches as Klingons pass one by one through a set of jagged turnstiles to the platform beyond. "We're taking transit to get there? That's your plan?"

"It is the fastest way. And in a crowded, confined space, our enemies lose their numerical advantage." Kang approaches a desk next to the turnstiles. A tall Klingon stands behind the desk, brandishing a disruptor rifle and staring at Emony.

Kang slams a handful of darseks on the desk. The Klingon eyes him disdainfully, then looks back at Emony. She edges backwards, readying herself to run.

Shoving the coins forward, Kang bares his teeth at the Klingon behind the desk. The Klingon growls, and they glare at each other for what seems to Emony like several minutes. Then, with an impatient expression, the Klingon takes the darseks and unlocks the turnstile.

Kang grabs Emony by the arm and hurries between the turnstile's blades. They emerge onto a long platform with a few dozen Klingons of various ages. There are several metal signposts around the platform with computer screens showing Klingon lettering. Beyond the platform is a long trench lined at the bottom by iron mesh.

"It's funny," Emony says to Kang, her voice tinged with anxiety. "My first host, Lela, was in charge of procurement for the planetary transit system on Trill. And it turns out that pretty much wherever you go, no matter what planet you're on, public transit is more or less the same." She casts a wary glance at a group of young warriors who are gesturing toward her and chortling loudly as they pass around a wineskin.

"Come over here, alien," one of them calls to her. He grins maliciously. "Let me welcome you to Qo'noS."

"Hold your tongue," Kang says to him in a low voice, "or I will cut it from your mouth."

The young warrior looks back at his companions and laughs. Then he staggers towards Kang, drawing his d'k tagh.

With a single fluid movement, Kang seizes the younger Klingon's wrist, causing him to drop the dagger, and takes his head and slams it against a signpost. There is a spray of blood and the warrior crumples. His companions cease chortling and back away.

With a heavy gust of air, a bulky maglev train pulls up to the platform. There are five cars, all built from heavy, scarred metal painted black and dark red, emblazoned with the emblem of the Klingon Empire. Kang guides Emony into the second car from the front, through an open doorway with no doors. The interior of the car is crowded, obstructing Emony's view in almost every direction. She is wedged between Kang and a Klingon woman wearing rough furs with two young children at her side. Past the children, Emony sees a heavily built Klingon bump into a tall, wiry warrior with pale grey skin and a shaved head. They glare at each other, and the tall warrior grabs the other Klingon as he reaches for his weapon. He throws him through the doorway, and the Klingon hits a passing building with a sickening crunch.

Emony flinches. "I thought rush hour in the Trill capital city was rough."

"Pay them no attention," Kang says over the roar of the air gusting past the doorways.

Emony glances back to see the pale Klingon staring at her. He narrows his eyes and grins. "What lady is that, which doth enrich the hand of yonder knight?"

"Uh…" Emony stammers, nudging Kang urgently.

"Ay, let her rot, and perish, and be damned to-night," the pale Klingon says, drawing a mek'leth in each hand, "for she shall not live."

Kang sees the pale warrior and grips Emony urgently. "We must go. Now."

Emony slips between a pair of Klingons standing next to her, and Kang follows close behind, bat'leth drawn.

"But swords I smile at," the warrior says, pushing aside other passengers as he follows them, "weapons laugh to scorn."

"What the hell is he talking about?" Emony shouts to Kang as she weaves between irate Klingons.

"His name is Chang," Kang calls to her as he elbows his way through the crowd. "We fought together against the Federation at Archanis. He is a follower of the warrior-poet Naq'jej, who traveled back in time to conquer primitive Earth. But instead, he became their greatest playwright."

Emony reaches the doorway at the end of the car, which is open to a gap between the two trains perhaps a meter across, with a heavy chain between the cars. "What?" she asks incredulously. "Did the humans not realize he was an alien?"

"Now is not the time to discuss this," Kang says.

Emony glances at the gap, then looks back to see Chang pushing though the crowd close behind them, murderous intent in his eyes. Then she leaps to the next car, landing on her toes between the wall and an elderly Klingon standing near the open doorway, gripping a crossbar. Kang steps across behind her, bumping the elderly Klingon who falls backward into a young warrior. The warrior stumbles forward and knocks an open mug of bloodwine held by a much larger Klingon. The big Klingon looks down at the bloodwine spilled on his furs, then seizes the other warrior and headbutts him in the face.

A brawl breaks out among the passengers, impeding Chang's path as Kang guides Emony through the train car. "Did your human friend Leonard not read you verses of the Earth poet Shakespeare?"

"We didn't have the kind of relationship where we talked much about literature," Emony replies, jumping across another gap to the next car. "Or at all."

The train stops and the majority of passengers disembark. Kang's eyes scan the car, and he freezes and grips his bat'leth. Emony turns to look past Kang, and sees Chang standing at the far end of the car, holding his two mek'leths in front of him and grinning.

"Hark, villains!" He approaches them, spinning his mek'leths as the remaining passengers draw their d'k taghs to form a ring of blades around Chang, Kang, and Emony. "I will grind your bones to dust. And with your blood and it I'll make a paste. And of the paste a coffin I will rear…"

Kang takes a swing at Chang with his bat'leth. Chang parries the blow with his swords, driving Kang's weapon to the side and kneeing him in the gut. Kang gasps, then rams into Chang with his shoulder, knocking him backwards so that his head grazes one of the passenger's daggers.

Chang touches his cheek and wipes away a drop of blood. "Prick us, do we not bleed?" He advances on Kang, raining blows with his swords which Kang struggles to parry. "Wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

"Stand down, Chang, in the name of the high chancellor," Kang says over the clang of metal on metal.

Chang grins as he clashes his swords against Kang's. "Not today, Kang. Your chancellor is wrong to relent in this war. T'Kuvma himself said that the Federation is an existential threat. We must destroy them, no matter the cost."

Kang lunges with his bat'leth, driving Chang back toward the open doorway. Chang catches Kang's weapon between his mek'leths. Grinning, he pulls backwards, tearing the bat'leth from Kang's hands and sending it clattering to the floor of the train car, near Emony's feet. Kang charges at Chang to push him through the doorway, but Chang strikes him hard in the face with the hilt of his mek'leth, splattering pink blood on nearby passengers. Then Chang spins his mek'leth in his other hand and plunges it into Kang's back, impaling him, and drives it into the metal floor below.

"Kang!" Emony shrieks.

"By the pricking of my thumbs," Chang says, baring his teeth at Emony and brandishing his remaining sword, "something wicked this way comes."

"Shit shit shit," Emony swears as the passengers turn their knives on her and advance alongside Chang. Frantically, she turns to face the open doorway behind her. Her eyes land on the crossbar that runs along the top of the doorway.

Chang slashes his sword as Emony bolts for the doorway. She leaps and grabs the crossbar and swings feetfirst into the gusting air outside the car. Twisting her body, she lets the wind blow her back and upward, causing her to land hard on the roof of the car. Still gripping the crossbar with one hand, she presses her body to the roof to avoid the full force of the rushing air. With her other hand, she grabs a thick cable running along the roof of the car.

Two gloved hands grip the edge of the roof from below. Emony clambers forward against the wind, gripping the cable tightly as Chang hoists himself onto the roof. Jagged industrial structures seem to fly past them on both sides of the train.

"Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks!" Chang calls above the rushing wind. Drawing his mek'leth, he crawls forward in pursuit of Emony. "Rage! Blow!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Struggling against the wind, Emony reaches her hand ahead of her and grips the front of the car. She pulls herself forward and grips the front edge with both hands as the train suddenly comes to a stop. Using her momentum, she vaults herself through the back door of the train car ahead of her, landing hard on her hands and knees inside the car.

Groaning in pain, Emony looks up to see the mother and two children she had seen earlier. They point their daggers at her and grin malevolently.

"You have got to be kidding me," she mutters. She stands and whirls around, only to see that Chang is already in the car behind her, mek'leth drawn.

"These violent delights have violent ends," Chang grins.

Then a hand grips Chang's shoulder and spins him around. Kang is standing behind him, d'k tagh held high, his armour stained pink with blood around the blade that still impales him. He plunges the dagger into Chang's eye. Howling in pain, Chang crumples to the ground.

Emony gazes at Kang in shock as he lurches to one side, steadying himself against the frame of the doorway. "Come," he says through clenched teeth. "This is our stop."

Then he stumbles through the doorway to the empty platform beyond. Emony rushes to his side as he falls to his knees.

"How are you still alive?" she asks incredulously.

"We Klingons are not as fragile as you," Kang says in a low voice. He grips the blade protruding from his abdomen. "Help me."

She goes behind Kang and grips the hilt of the mek'leth. Kang roars as they pull the sword out of his body. Emony removes a leather sash draped over Kang's shoulder, folds it, and wraps it around his midsection to absorb the flow of blood.

"Do not waste your time with me," Kang says, gesturing weakly to an elevated landing pad in the sparse, rusted industrial zone beyond the train stop. "My companions will be there. Go. I will only slow you down."

Emony pulls the makeshift bandage tight, looping the ends into each other in a crude knot. "Nope. You are coming with me." She takes his arm across his shoulder and helps him stand, stumbling under the Klingon's weight. "Wow, you are heavy."

Kang groans as the pair stumble across the crumbling concrete. "You are… an obstinate creature…" he manages.

"Thanks. You look like you could use some bloodwine. Got any more?"

Kang nods and weakly grasps for the flask on his hip. Emony takes it from him and helps him take a drink. Then she takes a swig and closes the flask. "So tell me about these companions of yours."

"Deadly warriors," he grunts, "and… the greatest of companions…"

He is drowned out by the sudden roar of an engine. There is a shimmering and a small Klingon patrol craft decloaks on the pad. It has a compact cylindrical frame with two upswept wings. The wings lower into a horizontal configuration as the aircraft lifts into the air and flies in their direction. Emony shields her eyes as dust is swept up from all around her. A hatch opens on the underside of the ship's cabin and a female Klingon descends on a cable.

"Kang!" she shouts, extending her hand. Kang reaches up, and they grip each other's forearms tightly.

"We must hurry," the Klingon says to Emony. The cable begins to retract, and Emony grips its end and is pulled with the two Klingons into the craft.

Inside is a tight cockpit with four seats. Another Klingon sits at the helm, piloting the ship into the air away from the industrial yard. Both of the new Klingons have skin the colour of copper, with similar forehead ridges. The female's face is adorned with thick white eye shadow.

"Sorry we're late," Emony says. "The commute was murder."

"I am grateful that you brought him back alive." The female Klingon regards her warmly. "We will take you to the capitol and help you return to your people. My name is Mara."

"Emony Dax," she replies. "Will he be alright?"

"Yes. There is a triage unit in the armory. He will be fine with some medical treatment." Mara gazes into Kang's eyes. "And a healthy dose of par'mach," she adds, grinning at him with bared teeth.

Kang chuckles weakly but lustily as Mara helps him to his feet and guides him through a door at the rear of the cabin. Mara says to Emony, "Can you help pilot the ship?"

"Well, I mean, no, but if you're having any trouble with your phase coil inverters, I can definitely help you with that, because my previous host Tobin…" She trails off when she realizes Mara is ignoring her, and watches with mild horror as Mara and Kang, leering and biting at each other playfully, enter the small armory room and shut the door behind them.

"Okay," she says. "Guess I'll help pilot the ship."

Emony takes a seat at the front of the cockpit. She glances first at the unfamiliar controls and then at the male Klingon seated next to her.

"I am Koloth," he says, not looking at her.

"Hi. I'm Emony." When Koloth does not reply, she adds, "So you're, um… a friend of Kang's?"

"Kang is my blood brother, and the par'machai of my sister." He maintains his concentration on piloting the ship through the dense clouds.

"Uh-huh." Emony tries to ignore the shouting and thumping from the armory. "Bet that's a bit awkward sometimes."

Koloth says nothing.

Okay, Emony mouths as she focuses her attention on the console in front of her. She is startled when a red light begins to flash, accompanied by a harsh klaxon.

"What is that?" she asks.

"It means we are too late," Koloth says, his face betraying no emotion. "He is here."

"Who?"

He looks at her for the first time, raising his eyebrows and grinning ominously. "Kor."

To be continued...