Chapter 6: VI

Lwaxana stood with her hands on her hips and stared down the odd woman who, by all appearances and senses, was Betazoid yet dressed as a Klingon. Curiosity begged to be satisfied about just who she was and how she had come to be on this ship but first she wanted to know why she herself had been beamed aboard without her son or her valet, Mr. Holm. One good thing about her contact on the ship being another Betazoid was that she didn't have to confine her questions to a more primitive form of communication like verbally speaking. Lwaxana took full advantage of that and asked for, no demanded, answers for each of her questions.

K'nera closed her eyes as she tried to block the psionic overload that the refugees seem to be determined to be the cause of. For days she had been fighting the residual thought patterns of the crew which had already taxed her reserves. Now K'nera was faced with dozens of telepaths who were intentionally flooding her neural synaptic pathways with their attempts to learn any and all that she knew of what their situation was as well as that of their friends and families. She had never been trained to handle so many intentional violations into her own mind.

Not prepared for the strain, she opened her eyes back up and shouted, "Enough!"

K'nera's outburst caused the other Betazoids surrounding her to be taken aback and all paused in their questioning briefly as she tried to rein in her breathing and temper. In a way, she wished that she had brought another from the crew with her; if nothing else but to intimidate them with their presence but the rest of the crew had been needed elsewhere during their flight away from the Dominion ships. Even the other engineers from the transporter rooms had been quickly reassigned to help in the repairs about the ship just as soon as the refugees had been beamed aboard. So, it would seem that she had been nominated to deal with the Betazoids on her own for the moment.

"I will do my best to answer any questions that I can one at a time. But I will not do so using telepathy. Nor can I do so before I have had the opportunity to discuss your questions with the captain."

Lwaxana exchanged glances and thoughts with her fellow refugees before taking the lead in the asking of questions. "Why are we on this ship of all places? We were preparing for a banquet then all of the sudden Dominion ships were attacking the system then we found ourselves here."

"I believe that you have already answered your own question as to why you are here then," K'nera said as calmly as she could. She still felt the woman standing before her trying to prick her mind; even if the others in the room had fallen back a bit. "As I've said, I will not have any other answers until I've reported in."

"Then what are you waiting for? By all means jus-"

"Lwaxana!" The ambassador heard her name being called from across the room by a young Klingon who actually seemed to be glad to see her. The thing was, Lwaxana could not place him or figure out just why he seemed familiar with her.

"Excuse me?" Lwaxana asked incredulously as she turned to face the brash young Klingon who was doing something that she had never seen the sole Klingon Warrior whom she was most familiar with ever doing. This Klingon was smiling; quite broadly at that. "Can I help you?"

"You don't recognize me?" Alexander asked as he came to a stop in front of the woman who had always seemed so vibrant and eccentric to him. He saw a confused look cross Lwaxana's face as she tried to place the young man in front of her. The moment that she recognized him though her face lit up and despite her worry for her son and Mr. Holm, she allowed a wide smile to break out on her face.

"It can't be! Can this really be my Little Warrior?!"

K'nera was taken aback by the fact that Alexander already seemed to know the elder woman, but she had been even more surprised by the nickname that she'd given her friend. Carefully trying to not laugh, she saw the signs of Alexander's embarrassment as he began to blush furiously as Lwaxana reached forward to pull him into a tight hug. Alexander, for his part was just glad that none of the other Klingons on board were around to hear the Betazoid's term of endearment for him.

"My, have you grown! The last time I saw you on the Enterprise you were no bigger than a Berillian cat," Lwaxana pulled back from Alexander to get a full look at the young man to judge just how much he truly had grown in the years that they had been separated. She then ran a finger down Alexander's jaw before tapping his chin. "Is that the beginnings of a beard?"

Alexander grinned more broadly under the woman's scrutiny. He had been quite excited when the final symbol of Jak'tahla had begun to show itself. Finally, he wouldn't be so easily identifiable as the youngest of the crew. Not to mention the coming beard would come in handy to hide the gorch that had the nasty habit of popping up on his face lately. Much like a teenager from Earth would have to deal with pimples. Thankfully, though, he didn't seem to have nearly the same kind of problem as Kornan (the only crew member that was really close to his own age among the other Klingons) still had.

"Yes, ma'am-"

"What a shame to hide such a beautiful face behind all of that. Ah well!" Lwaxana breathed out a sigh as she shook her head. "I supposed that it was bound to happen eventually. You growing up, enlisting and-" As if only now realizing that Alexander was on a warship, Lwaxana's eyes grew wide and then she asked quite loudly, "Wait a minute! What are you doing here on a… a... a Klingon ship of all places? I thought that you wanted more out of life than to just fight like any other Klingon brute!"

Alexander chuckled at Lwaxana's description of typical Klingon life. A couple of years ago, he would have admitted to seeing his own race in much the same light as she did. After joining the Klingon Defense Forces, however, Alexander has learned that there is more than just the fighting to Klingons as he had believed when he was younger. That misguided belief had only been reinforced by his father's insistence that he should become a warrior. While Alexander would acknowledge that Klingons have always been war-like, they are also very intelligent. They weren't as wild or out-of-control as his mother had told him when he was small, either. Even those that Alexander had come to be wary of since joining the Forces showed that Klingons were more cunning than wild.

Klingons believed in living life to the fullest. As a result, they faced death with that same exuberance. Also, there are different Klingons; not just the warriors that the race was known for, but they were actually quite varied. There were artisans, engineers, philosophers, chefs, politicians and even a few doctors (though only a few since most Klingons refused to accept their services).

Still, Alexander could certainly see why the ambassador would find him being here both perplexing and possibly worrisome. He was a long way from the mud baths in Lwaxana Troi's program of the Parallax Colony. No, now he was on a warship in the middle of the biggest intergalactic battle of all time. A fight for the safety of the whole Alpha Quadrant itself from the Dominion.

"A lot of things have happened in recent years, Lwaxana." Alexander took her arm in his and began to steer her and the other Betazoids toward the table in the center of the VIP quarters. "With the Dominion, I couldn't exactly stay back on Earth in relative safety with the whole quadrant in the middle of a war. Could I?"

"Ah, yes, that Klingon drive for bloodshed is overpowering, isn't it."

"Not as much as the drive to protect my friends and family. And I get that from both my Klingon and Human blood." Alexander pulled a chair out for Lwaxana and then motioned for her as well as the other Betazoids to sit down. "Now, I know that you are all worried for your own friends and family but at the moment the rest of the crew are concerned with getting all of you to safety. We've all been ordered to rendezvous at Starbase 1182. Once there you should be able to meet back up with those who were able to escape from the Dominion as well. We'll get together a list of those of you who are here and then exchange the list with the other ships."

"I'll go see if I can get the passenger manifests from the other ships," K'nera spoke up as she began to head to the door. It was clear that Alexander could handle the refugees much better than she could.

Alexander nodded in acknowledgment as K'nera turned to the door. "That's a good idea. It will make it easier once we reach the Starbase if each individual already knows which ship their friends and family are on."

K'nera stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her and shook her head. How had he been able to get everyone to just calm down and not bombard him with questions as they had done to her? Alexander had merely walked in and with only a minimal amount of conversation had the large group all sitting at the tables and making arrangements to reunite with those whom they loved once at the Starbase. And he had even done so with a smile on his face to boot.

DS9

Jadzia monitored her station in OPS as she glanced over at Worf. He had not left his post since early in the morning when the reports of the attack on the Tenth Fleet had begun to trail in. As of yet, no word on the Ya'Vang had made it to the station and she was sure that Worf was worried for Alexander. Jadzia knew that he was keeping tabs on every single report from the battle and by judging his still tense stance (well more tense than usual) she knew that no word on the Ya'Vang had yet to come in. It had been hours now since the first report of the Dominion attack on the Cyndriel System and the not knowing was just about to kill Worf.

Briefly, Jadzia considered trying to contact Martok to see if he'd heard any news on the warship, but she discounted that since she had no doubt that if Martok had word he would certainly pass it on as soon as he could. Instead, Jadzia remained at her station despite the fact that both her and Worf's shift had been over an hour ago. The others in OPS seemed to understand the reason for their lack of departure and simply worked around them until the message that they had been waiting for finally came in. The Ya'Vang had been badly damaged and there were a few injuries, but no casualties were reported.

Worf could be seen taking a deep sigh of relief before he pulled away from the station and began to make his way to the lift. Jadzia quickly followed behind her husband and slipped into the lift before it began to move itself to the lower level. She waited until the two were completely alone before confirming that Alexander's ship survived the attack by the Dominion.

"The Ya'Vang has been badly damaged but it would appear that its crew has made it safely through the battle," Worf confirmed with a stiff nod.

Jadzia allowed herself to release a sigh of relief at the news but did not ask any further questions since the lift came to rest on the promenade. Instead, she continued to walk beside Worf until they reached their quarters where the large Klingon collapsed in one of the chairs in the room. Seeing the flood of emotions that Worf was trying to conceal, Jadzia felt the overwhelming urge to ask her husband just what else was bothering him. Alexander was fine and would likely make contact with them just as soon as he reached the Starbase.

"It…just does not seem right that Alexander is out there. He does not belong on a Klingon Warship."

Jadzia's face scrunched up in confusion. "I thought that all you have ever wanted from Alexander was for him to be a warrior in the Empire. It's likely the whole reason that he joined in the first place; trying to please you. What do you mean he doesn't belong there?"

"He does not hear the cry of the warrior spurring him on to battle. Without that cry in his heart, he is like a small child wearing a pair of shoes that are too big for him. Eventually he will stumble and get himself hurt; possibly killed." What Worf didn't say was that he felt responsible for giving that same pair of too large boots to Alexander and told him to put them on.

"Worf, I don't get it. Your son is trying to live up to being the Klingon that you've always wanted him to be. I would think that you'd be proud of him. From what I saw of him on his birthday he has really started to fit in with his shipmates and is happy. Sure, he may not have the same killing instinct that most other Klingons have but there are a lot of officers in Starfleet that don't, and it works out just fine for them-"

"You do not understand. Before I sent him back to Earth to live with my parents, Alexander himself told me that his life would be dedicated to peace. He would not become a warrior."

"Kids grow up, Worf. They change their minds. I can remember when Tobin's son-"

"No. It was not like that all. Alexander, the child, is not the one who told me of his future," Worf interrupted leaving Jadzia even more confused. "I have… not spoken of this to anyone."

"Spoken of what?" Jadzia sat across from Worf and waited for him to clear up just what he was saying.

"Shortly before Alexander was to undergo the First Rite of Ascension, he declared that he had no plans to become a warrior. In an effort to try to change his mind, I took him to the Klingon outpost on Maranga Four where a Kot'baval celebration was being held. We spent the day there and just before it was time to leave, three Klingon warriors attacked us. It was then that a fourth man appeared out nowhere and helped me to fight off the assailants."

"Okay, so you were attacked and got some help. I still don't see what this has to do with Alexander."

"The man claimed to be K'mtar; gin'tak for our family. But he wasn't. After days of working alongside him and trying to work together to convince Alexander to choose to become a warrior, I returned to my quarters to find him with a disruptor in his hand standing over a sleeping Alexander."

Jadzia's eyes went wide as she realized that the Klingon had planned to murder an unarmed, sleeping, child. "He was willing to kill Alexander just because he didn't want to become a warrior?"

"Obviously, I was ready to kill K'mtar myself right then and there. It was then that he revealed to me who he really was." Worf paused as he remembered the shock of that day. The shock of the knowledge that his son could be filled with so much regret that he would have rather ended his existence as a child than to return to his own timeline.

"Well, who was he?"

"He was… Alexander. He had traveled back forty years from the future in an attempt to change history. He did so to try to convince his younger self that he needed to be trained in the ways of a Klingon Warrior. When it became apparent that Alexander was not willing to do so, the elder version of himself decided that he'd rather die than to have history turn out the way it had in his timeline. He explained to me that, in his time, I had been assassinated on the floor of the High Council due to his attempts to bring peace to the Empire. Wishing to prevent this future, he had traveled back in time in an attempt to ensure that he would not grow up to be a diplomat, but rather a warrior who could fight at my side."

"Worf, all of that's just a little hard to believe. How do you know that he was really Alexander?"

"He was able to tell me, in detail, what happened when his mother died. We were the only two in the room and I had never told another exactly what had happened that day. He knew. He was Alexander, Jadzia," Worf insisted. "It was then that I knew that his path was not one of a warrior. He has a destiny that is driven by peace. I knew that he did not need me to pressure him to become a Klingon Warrior any longer, but I also knew that if he remained with me, I would not be able to help myself. That is when I sent him back to my parents on Earth. I knew that they would be able to foster the desire for peace in a way that I never could have."

Jadzia tried to let everything that Worf was telling her sink in. Alexander had traveled forty years into the past to try to alter his own future as well as prevent his father's death. He told his father all of this and Worf, instead of trying to prevent his son from growing up the way he had in the other timeline, had done the only thing he could think of to ensure that he fulfilled the destiny that he'd been told would be his son's. He'd sacrificed all of those years with his son because he thought that he would prevent him from growing up to be the man that he knew he would be otherwise.

"Worf, have you ever thought of telling any of this to Alexander? I know that he's always felt abandoned by being sent away… Perhaps if you told him your reasons for sending him to Earth."

"No. The boy must not be told of his future. It would only make him self-conscious of his actions now."

"Worf, it's very likely that the time-line has been altered already. Telling him what happened in another doesn't necessarily affect this one. It could help him to see why you've done what you have."

Jadzia placed a hand over his and smiled to show him that she understood his reasons in the past. She had been wondering about Worf's choices in regard to Alexander ever since she first learned that he had a son; especially after Worf had shown the desire to have another child with her after babysitting Yoshi. It was clear that Worf wanted to experience all of those things that he'd missed out with Alexander but until now Jadzia couldn't understand why he would constantly hold himself back from his son that he already had. Now it was clear that Worf, in his own strange way of thinking, thought that he had done what was best for his son.

"We cannot be certain of that, Jadzia."

"Worf, nothing is guaranteed. But there is one thing I can say based both on that story that you've told me and from watching Alexander for myself. He loves you; both in this timeline and in the other. In this timeline he wants your approval so much that he's joined the Klingon Defense Forces and in the other timeline he loved you so much that he risked going back into the past to try to save you. Even if it meant that he wouldn't live the life that he had wanted. I think that he deserves to know your reasons for doing what you've done. Especially if we plan to try to have a child of our own."

Worf looked up at his wife sharply at the last part. She had been adamant that she wasn't ready to try to have a family just yet when he had suggested it. Now it appeared that learning of his reasons behind some of his choices in regard to Alexander's upbringing has changed her mind.

"Do you mean that? You want a child?"

"Worf, nothing would make me happier than to have your baby," Jadzia got up from her seat and moved over to sit in Worf's lap as she spoke. "But first, you have to promise me that you'll talk about all of this with Alexander the next time he comes to the station. No running off to volunteer for a mission with Martok just to avoid talking to him this time."

"Jadzia-"

"I'm serious, Worf. We can't even think about having a child of our own until you work this out with Alexander."

Worf felt a growl in his throat in response to the ultimatum. He had vowed that he would never speak of any of this to another, yet he had done so with very little prodding from his wife and now she has declared that he would tell Alexander as well. Perhaps she was right. Alexander was nearly a full-grown man. Maybe it was time to tell him the story of K'mtar.