CHAPTER IV
ENTER PRAXIS

It was a three-day long trip to Praxis, so Kirk assigned Decker to give Ksia a tour. He thought this would help Ksia learn a lot about human culture. He hopped that one day, Ksia could give this information to the Klingon Empire so that they could finally understand each other and obtain peace. But that was a farfetched dream. Once that would never happen. Well, not in Kirk's time, he thought.

"This is the worst assignment I've been ever given", thought Decker. "I expected Kirk to give me all the cool assignments. To lead the away teams. To solve peace crises. To rescue a damsel in distress. That's what Kirk did at my age, right? But no. I get to do the dirty work while Kirk takes a shower in the new sonic showers." He took Ksia first to the Rec Room. That's where you'd often see different examples of human behavior. That way, Decker could get this assignment done faster.

"This is the Rec Room", said Decker to Ksia. "This is where people usually play games, hang out, and talk. This is where we often go during our free time."

"Is there a bar here?" asked Ksia while watching Ilia play Cardassian Chess with Sulu, an extremely popular holo-game played by millions of different races. It was just like Terran Chess, except that you used holo pieces that looked exactly like you.

"Actually, there is", said Decker. "It's called Eight-Forward. You can get thousands of different drinks and foods. There's even a nice widow to look out. I think they might even have bloodwine. Would you like to share a bottle with me?"

"No thanks", said Ksia. "I'm watching the game." He was awed by how gracefully Ilia took out Sulu's queen. "I've never played the game myself. Not a Klingon game. We fight for fun. Either with fists, Bat'leths, Gin'taks, and other weapons. But I like how she plays. Very graceful. She's beautiful, too. Do you know her?"

"She's my girlfriend", said Decker. He sighed when he said that. A couple of years ago, Decker and Ilia met. It was love at first sight for them. Ilia promised not to disobey her oath, but she couldn't help being with Decker. Her family was very mad that she interacted with a "sexually immature species", but she didn't care. They were together for a year, until Decker's parents came in. Decker kept their romance a secret from his parents, since they chose somebody that would marry Decker from birth. Decker didn't want that, but his parents forced him to. So, when Decker's parents found out, they forced Decker to dump Ilia and made him propose to a woman named Jane Smith, who was actually a fat pig. So he was forced to live with her for a year, but she died of a rare lung cancer, so his parents were searching the galaxy for the perfect girl. They would kill him if they found out he was back with Ilia, plus Ilia would probably not forgive him for what happened a year ago.

When Ilia beat Sulu at the chess game, she saw Decker and decided to talk with him (Ensign Rand decided to take Ilia's place at the game).

"I'm sorry, Ilia", said Decker before Ilia could make a comment.

"I don't accept your apology", said Ilia. "You knew what your parents were doing was wrong, but you still did their bidding. You're just as at fault as they were."

"But they forced me to", said Decker.

"They didn't threaten to kill you, did they?" asked Ilia.

"No", said Decker.

"Then you could've said no", said Ilia. "You're 30 years old now. You can make your own choices now. If they won't accept your answer, they aren't worthy parents. And I'm not a worthy mate for you". Then Ilia stormed away crying.

"Ilia, wait!" yelled Decker. He tried to chase after her, but then the ship rocked from what was probably a phaser blast."
"Crew of the Enterprise", said Kirk over the comm. "Get to battlestations now". Then Decker, Ilia, and all the crew of the Enterprise went to their battlestations. When they went to the bridge, they saw that three Klingon Warbirds were attacking.

"Captain", said Uhura, "I tried to hail them but they're blocking our signal."

"Then we have no choice but to fire back", said Kirk. "Fire a wave of phaser fire and a couple of photon torpedoes at one of the ships to get their attention." Then Chekov worked at his station.

"Phasers and photons ready", said Chekov.

"Fire!" said Kirk, and all his blasts hit one of the ships. They were still firing, though.

"Their shields are at 49%, but they are still firing", said Chekov.

"Fire at will", said Kirk. Chekov started firing a sweep of Phasers at the three ships, but they all cloaked before much damage could be done. "Chekov, be ready for anything".

"Aye captain", said Chekov. There was a minute of silence. The three warbirds then de-cloaked right behind the Enterprise and fired. Before Kirk could make an order, they ship was extremely damaged.

"Shields are gone", said Sulu.

"Impulse and warp are down", said Ilia.

"Captain", said Scotty over the comm. "We are about to have a warp breach! If we don't act quickly, we're going to be gone."

"There's nothing we can do", said Kirk. Right before the warbirds could fire, five warbirds came in and attacked the other warbirds. There was a big exchange of fire between the eight warbirds. Before the enemy could cloak, they were all gone.

"Captain", said Uhura. "One of the friendly warbirds is hailing us."

"Onscreen", said Kirk. There was a gruff Klingon warrior on the screen with messy hair and a scarred face, and all were intimidated by his stare except for Ksia.

"Captain", said the Klingon. "I'm Kaumass. Ksia reported me that you are in need of assistance."

"That is correct", said Ksia.

"Then we shall talk about it on the surface", said Kaumass. "One of the other warbirds will tow your ship in to our shipyards. Kaumass out."

"That was nice", said Kirk. He and the rest of the crew then got ready to meet all the Klingons. Kirk was very anxious for his first "cultural exchange" Klingons.