KNOW YOUR ENEMY

[ Private Communique ] To: NCC-1701, USS Enterprise - Attn: Captain James T. Kirk, Commanding Officer From: Gallaron System, Planet B (Gloria)- Vice Admiral Winona Kirk, SolFleet (ret)

Hi Jim. I know you've been a busy man with your five-year-mission and all, but it's good to finally hear from my squirmy little boy after all these months. I've been following you on the news, we're all very proud of you here on Gloria. You know I hate to do this, but I have to point out the irony: you've been elevated to the rank of All-Time Bigshot by kicking Romulan ass... that's exactly how your father got his oh-so-brief command, and it's exactly how your grandfather wound up on the Montezuma the year I was born. Hell, if it wasn't for the Romulans we'd all be plowing fields in Iowa right now. Call it a family curse... or a blessing... or whatever.

Your message, of course, was a request for information on a Klingon warrior named Kang Ha'lok. I know him very well, but I have to admit I don't actually know much about him. He was freelancing wit his older brothers at the time, basically death squads for hire. Judging by your letter I see he's signed on with the Imperial Army since then. The IKA is basically a mercenary corps on the payroll of the high council, the hired guns who do the dirty work the nobles can't be bothered with. My impression is that Kang is thoughtful, methodical, patient, sometimes even charming. More importantly, he is a ruthless cold-blooded and highly efficient killer, exactly the kind of person you do not want as an enemy.

I met him when he was about six, which for Klingons is late adolescence. It's possible that the years have tempered him a bit, but I wouldn't count on it. He doesn't like complications, so he'll probably ignore you unless you get in his way. Also, don't bother name-dropping, thinking maybe he owes me one. Kang isn't stupid enough to fall for that, and I don't like you nearly enough to vouch for you.

Good luck out there.

- Mom
- Stardate 2261.28

- 1140 hours -

It was about the response that Captain Kirk expected from his invincible mother, more than a day after sending the message by way of the civilian comms relay at Epsilon Hydrae. He wasn't sure if she was joking about the last part - he had never been able to tell when she was joking - but he took her broader meaning to heart all the same.

The time delay had given him enough time to look up the historical record as to how and where she would have met someone like Kang in the first place, and so he'd spent the last two days looking up not only the service history of then-Lieutenant Commander Winona Kirk, but also the battle record of the three starships she served on before joining the colonial fleet at Epsilon Hydrae. That Kang had personal dealings with George Kirk pretty much narrowed it down, and a search of the logs of the USS Kelvin found Kang's name cross-referenced with the heading "The Xyrillian Genocide."

This, Kirk reflected, was already a bad sign. But once Kirk got into the Kelvin's log entries, that's when things got weird. Between what turned out to be gaping holes in the log - the reports mentioned data corruption due to an unexplained main computer failure - Kirk saw mention of the USS Kelvin coming to the aid of a Xyrillian refugee ship that was apparently seeking sanctuary in Federation space. Kang had arrived with squadron of gunships, the two sides exchanged fire... Then somehow, two days later, reports of mysterious injuries among the crew involving sudden organ failure, followed by some kind of massive system failure in the main computer... And then four days later, a log entry by Lieutenant George Kirk that mentioned Commander Kang having safely departed from the Kelvin and returned to his own vessel, bound for home. The Xyrillians were never mentioned again, and Federation historians record that the Klingon Empire hunted their entire species to extinction just a few months later. Kirk concluded that either Kang had murdered all the refugees, or Kelvin had arranged for their (temporary) escape. In any case, the situation was probably a lot more complicated than the logs let on, but it told Kirk one important thing about his Klingon adversary: he was old, and he was hard, even for a Klingon.

"Jim?" McCoy asked from behind the Captain's chair, once he was sure Kirk had finished reading the printout of his mother's message, "You called me up here?"

"Yeah. Onise."

McCoy read between the lines. "He was exposed to a phaser stun on the planet surface. Some kind of friendly fire incident, I guess. Didn't help that his overshield wasn't active at the time... Anyway, the phase pulse must have activated the nanomachines somehow. They've started transforming him into one of the caveman males that hang out with the reavers all the time."

Kirk winced. It seemed like a comedy of errors from a group of irresponsible rookies, combined with an epic case of unexpected consequences, "How did he get infected with the nanomachines?"

"We were all infected, probably. But none of them were activated before we beamed aboard the ship, and without a power source they shut down and decomposed on their own."

"Hm..." Kirk looked at the tablet in his hand again, re-read the message a second time.

"Good news?" McCoy skimmed the message over his shoulder.

"Bad news," Kirk handed him the tablet, scowling, "My sources on Gloria strongly advise against antagonizing this Kang character."

"Sound advice from our Colonial informant," Spock added from the science council, "In light of our opponent's tactical capabilities."

Kirk nodded to that, turning his chair to face him, "Have you finished your analysis?"

"I have," Spock turned to one of the transparent heads up displays near the science console and called up the relevant data for Kirk to see. A diagram of the D7 class - based on the ship's silhouette in their sensor readings - appeared on the screen, "We have identified at least six torpedo launchers with as many as twenty four torpedoes per launcher. The torpedoes themselves are derived from the Narada's missile technology, combining a large carrier unit docked to several small short-range weapons with full-sized warheads. There is also a conspicuous increase in armor plating on the primary hull, plus the presence of what appears to be a transporter-based mechanism for rapid replenishment of the ablative armor. I have also determined that those two outboard structures on the secondary hull, which intelligence identifies as 'warp engine nacelles' are, in fact, a pair of extremely high-output phaser emitters powered by self-contained dilithium conversion units."

Kirk took a long slow breath and rested his hands on his knees. Doctor McCoy's jaw literally dropped, along with his arms limply by his sides, "Those are phasers?! They have ships smaller than that!"

"They probably double as deflector units too," Kirk said, thinking out loud, "So their warp drive units can be a lot smaller. Probably heavily armored, close to the reactor block..." then he winced as he realized, "Damn, no wonder they broke off! Our phaser strike must have damaged their weapon pod!"

Spock nodded, having reached the same conclusion on his own, "I would estimate that Kor'ah's offensive weapons can produce not less than three times the output of our main phaser banks."

"And our deflectors wouldn't last long if he fired at maximum," Kirk added, "As it stands, he thought he was shooting at a bird of prey so he didn't bother with a maximum charge."

McCoy sighed, "We lucked out."

"So it would seem," Spock nodded, "Something else, Jim. I have been analyzing data on the life form readings from the Klingon ship. There seems to be a staggering number of distinct life units on board, and most are operating on a highly reduced level of functioning. Roughly two hundred are active at any given time, the rest are being kept in a state very close to death."

"Sleepers," Kirk realized, remembering where he had seen that condition before, "Most of the crew is cryogenically frozen."

Spock nodded grimly, "If their hibernation units are half as efficient as those of 20th century Earth, Kang could have as many as two thousand warriors in stasis."

"And if they engage us, they take down our shields, next thing you know we're up to our elbows in Klingons."

"It would be worth keeping in mind," Spock went on, "The Klingon High Council is dominated by a handful of aristocratic families who wield sufficient economic resources to ensure the loyalty of commanders and troops through the promise of monetary rewards. Assault troops are known to keep a tally of battlefield kills as well as trophies of their victims to validate their accomplishments."

"Okay, this leaves us with two major problems," Kirk said, again thinking out loud, "Firstly, we have a Klingon asshole with some enormous guns on a search and destroy mission who doesn't really like us."

"Fortunately," Spock added, "he is at worst indifferent to us and unlikely to attack unless his mission requires it."

"That's the one thing we have going for us right now... but the other problem is, somewhere in this system, maybe even in orbit with us, is a cloaked Romulan bird of prey. I would guess they've been monitoring us in orbit and even on the surface ever since we got here."

Spock nodded sagely, "Intelligence dispatches contain no indications of a man-portable cloaking device."

"That only means we haven't seen them using it yet..." Kirk thought silently for another few moments, "Spock, do you suppose the portable version operates on the same principle as the larger one?"

Spock pondered the question for just a moment, "Possibly. Starfleet overshields are similar enough to our ship-borne counterparts."

"Down on the planet, you had a partial reading on whatever it was Miri fired at. Assuming she was firing at a cloaked Romulan observer..."

Spock nodded, following the thought to its conclusion, and threw all of his concentration into the library computer console, "We should be able to extrapolate their parameters from the telemetry feed from the tricorder. I should say, a more detailed analysis is in order."

"Agreed. In the mean time let's go to yellow alert, just in case that analysis turns up more bad news."

.

- 1143 hours -

Miri was just about getting used to the insanity of the turbolift system. It took her a few days to wrap her brain around the idea of an elevator that moved at nearly the speed of sound - and without any feeling of movement at all - but like most things on the Enterprise she simply accepted them as the usual technological magic of the New Earth. Then she spent a few days shuffling logistics reports for the maintenance division and kept seeing references to something called "inertial stabilizers" and gathered from her midshipman handbook that the aforementioned device was the magical technology she had been confused about, the one thing that made all the difference to a perfectly functional machine.

There were a lot of those little gizmos in the logistics reports, and as a midshipman-in-training she was increasingly required to actually know the names and functions of these gizmos to be able to answer basic questions and queries, such as the question Ensign Ayala was now asking her for the third time in as many hours, "What's the word on that transtator array?"

Miri answered without even looking at her palmcomp, "The CRM114 you ordered... still in queue, but Lieutenant Hobus should have it up before the end of the shift."

Ayala stared despairingly at her otherwise useless communications monitor console in an otherwise bustling room full of identical consoles and extremely busy communications officers. "What's the holdup?"

"The planetology team placed an order for some specialized equipment that Hobus didn't have in inventory. It's taken a while to get it done."

"What kind of equipment?" Ayala asked.

Miri shrugged, "I don't know, that's just what Hobus said."

"Typical... go back to Hobus and tell him that ship-board orders take priority. And tell him to remember that the Enterprise is a starship, not a retail buy-n-fly."

"Should I use those exact words?"

"Those exact words. You know, this is the fourth time I've had to play second banana to that da-"

"Yellow Alert, Yellow Alert. All sections to standby battlestations." A single-tone horn blasted from the intercom panel over Miri's head, and a sudden change of lighting transformed the ship's atmosphere from one of a peaceful exploration to a self-contained battleship in a transitory state between dormant and deadly. It was the third time in three days an alert had been called, and like everyone else in the room Miri couldn't help but wonder who else in the universe had arrived to try and pick a fight with the Enterprise. More and more these days, Doppelgänger was becoming the scene of an intergalactic starship tournament.

Miri knew, from a lifetime of memories that weren't technically hers, that the number one cause of death for all astronauts was panic. So she quieted her first nervous impulses and asked, calmly, "What do I do now?" knowing as she did that the second greatest cause of death for astronauts was failing to ask questions when they needed to know something important.

Ayala answered tersely, "You're a midshipman in training. That means you do whatever your superior officer tells you."

"And that would be you?"

"That would be me. Now go down to the machining section, wring Hobus' neck and get me those goddamn transtators!"

.

- 1207 hours -

"I have something, Captain," Spock plotted its position on the overhead screen above the science station even as the more detailed data streamed through his scope, "radiative anomaly in the ultraviolet range, bearing one oh two mark forty one. Co-orbital position at approximately five hundred kilometers."

Kirk raised a brow, "That close? Are you sure you're reading it right?"

"UV anomaly has the same interference pattern we observed on the planet. Intensity is negligible, sensors barely read it at all."

Kirk felt a red alert blaring on the back of his neck. If the Klingons hadn't spotted the Romulans yet, there was no telling how long that cloaked ship - if that's what it really was - had been shadowing the Enterprise. It could have been there for hours, days, or even weeks by now. Or it could have just arrived in the last few minutes... but in either case, there were very few reasons to move so close to the Enterprise while under cloak. Except to attack, or possibly... "Spock, reconfigure internal sensors to scan for UV anomalies."

Spock raised a brow, "Inside the Enterprise? That may take several minutes."

"I know. Put a rush on it." Kirk moved away from the science console and stabbed the intercom on his command chair, "Lieutenant Rand, listen carefully. We may have intruders aboard the ship. I want security teams mobilized and heavily armed in staging areas. Keep this quiet, I don't want the intruders to know we're onto them."

"Scanning of engineering section shows negative reaction, Captain," Spock said, scrolling through reports from individual sensors-tens of thousands in all-probing the large spacious frames of the secondary hull. This would take far longer than a search of the saucer module, both because of the more cluttered environment packed with machinery, and because of the need to be more thorough in high-security areas. "Frames one through five are clear. Now scanning frames six through ten."

Kirk was most worried about frames seven and eight, where the warp core complex was situated with its sensitive equipment and power conversion systems. If the Romulans had come with an intention of sabotage, there were a thousand ways they could destroy the Enterprise without firing a shot.

"Frames six through ten are clear," Spock reported, and even he sounded relieved.

Kirk stabbed the intercom again, "Rand, use emergency overrides to block all passage between primary and secondary hulls. Seal all hatches and emergency bulkheads."

"Aye, Sir."

"Are you so sure there is an intruder, Captain?" Spock asked as the sensors began to sweep the saucer module with their new settings.

"Call it a hunch," Kirk said, "Besides, if I had an advantage like that, one my sworn enemies didn't know about, that's exactly the move I would make."

Spock nodded in agreement, and yet for the moment the sensors showed the saucer module, also, totally clear of anomalies. "Nothing on scanners, Captain."

Kirk breathed a sigh of relief, "Sulu, raise deflectors to a minimal defensive level, just in case they do try to board us."

Spock looked up from his console with a worried expression, the gears of logic furiously grinding away in his highly-ordered mind. "I would like to begin a second scan, Captain."

Kirk looked at him curiously, "Something you missed?"

"My earlier scan was based on the assumption that UV radiation was not completely deflected by the Romulan cloaking device. However, this seems an illogical proposition, considering such devices are obviously designed to be used in direct sunlight, deep within solar systems and strategically vital worlds. Therefore, the UV anomaly may be an artifact of electromagnetic phase-shift, possibly capturing the user's own thermal emissions and pumping them to a higher frequency, skipping the visual range into the high UV band..."

"Then you're adjusting sensors to compensate for this?"

"No, Sir." Spock turned away from his console for a moment, "Mister DeCasta, go to manual on environmental controls, increase internal temperature to thirty five celsius and increase humidity levels by forty percent."

Ensign DeCasta, the ship's life support technician, nodded, "Tropical rainforest, Aye Sir."

Kirk nodded in understanding, "Turn up the heat and they're easier to see."

"Exactly, Captain."

"Let's just hope to hell that scan turns back just as negative in the hotbox or we're going to have a very sweaty firefight on our hands."