Klingon Officer's Academy

Kronos

Eyos didn't understand many things about Klingons. For one thing, why they insisted on combining every single activity that involved alcohol with fighting.

One of the younger students of the academy shoved a bottle of Warnog into her chest and smiled, "Will you have a drink with me Eyos, daughter of Mor?!"

Vaton, son of Wakal, had hounded Eyos since the day she had arrived at the academy, claiming that he was "bewitched" by her "stunning" appearance.

"I'll have the drink, but that's all I'll be having," Eyos replied as she barely managed to keep the warm beer down.

For a people who did almost nothing but drink and fight, Eyos was absolutely shocked that the Klingons – her people – had never learned how to make a proper beer. Romulan Ale tasted much better. As did a human beverage her "uncle" had shown her called Moosehead.

"Oh why must you be so cruel to me, Bewitching Eyos?! I offer you only the heart of a Warrior, pure and full of love, and the glory of being the mistress of my house!" Vaton shouted.

Eyos rolled her eyes. Vaton spoke as though he knew the ways of a woman, but she knew – from bitterly learned experience – that he had no clue.

She'd seen the eyes and felt the touch of men who had such experience, for so many long years under the cruel reign of Pragg. Such men had no use for words or poetry. They simply took what they wanted.

"Just drink your Warnog and shut up, Vaton," Eyos responded, clenching her fist as she downed the foul-tasting beer.

Vaton stood up to his full height – still a foot shorter than Eyos at 6'10 – and tried to look intimidating.

"You dare speak to me that way, Woman? I am the son of a noble house! My father Wakal sits on the High Council! He even advised Volkol himself! Mind your tongue, petaQ!"

Volkol. That name hit her heart like a knife. The man who had killed Father. That day still haunted her nightmares, even ten years later. Father had followed the laws of their people, challenging Volkol to honourable combat to buy time for her escape from Pragg's estate.

And Volkol, coward that he was, drew his disruptor and shot Father in the stomach.

"Don't… say that name," Eyos warned.

"Oh? Did I make you upset, Woman? Why don't you make yourself useful and clean-"

Eyos didn't let Vaton finish. She seized him by his throat, smashed the bottle of Warnog against his head, and threw his weak body to the ground.

She quickly dropped a knee into his chest and began raining punches into his face, her fist resembling the piston of an engine as she struck blow after blow across his face. Blood, teeth, and tissue spewed across the floor as Eyos became determined to kill this want of a man named Vaton.

Eyos raised her fist for the kill, only to be pulled back by the commander of the facility.

"Your point has been made, Cadet Eyos! Now stand down!"

Kurn of Kronos might have been old, almost as old as Father, but he still held great strength in his arms.

He pulled Eyos back and pushed her away as he looked down upon Vaton, "Well, well. Isn't this a sight? Vaton, son of Wakal, bested by an orphan girl!"

Vaton, slowly, picked himself up, "Lord Kurn! I demand that you allow me to kill this todSaH for daring to disrespect my family's honour!"

Kurn backhanded Vaton back to the ground, "I am not a Lord, boy! I am the Commander of this Academy. You do not make demands of me! And I care little about you or your worthless house! The only reason I did not allow Eyos to kill you is because it would be unsporting to shed blood on graduation day!"

Vaton again rose, only to be met by a swift boot to his stomach from Kurn, "You think yourself a Warrior of the Empire, boy?! A Warrior does not challenge a fellow officer in the halls of the Academy! Leave my sight and do not return until tomorrow, or I will allow Eyos to finish the job!"

Vaton, much slower than before, stood back up, saluted, and left the hall immediately.

"Should have just let me kill him," Eyos muttered.

Kurn again grabbed her hand and shoved her out the opposite door, "Walk with me, Cadet Eyos. I would speak with you in private."

Kurn led Eyos down the Academy's halls for a few minutes before stopping at a series of paintings, depicting honoured and respected leaders of both the infantry and the fleet.

He pointed at one and asked, "Do you know who that is?"

She read the plaque before looking up.

Mor, Son of Klotz. Brigadier of the 10th Kronos Shock Legion "The Tenth Targs."

Slayer of Romulans. Slayer of Kinshya. Federation Marine. Klingon Warrior. Hero of the Empire.

And she paused at the final inscription, clenching her fists in both sorrow and anger.

Devoted Father.

"I asked you a question, Cadet!" Kurn barked harshly.

Eyos looked into Mor's eyes. The picture almost made her laugh. Since any official records of his service to the Empire had been destroyed as part of his discommendation, the only picture available came from the Federation.

Wearing the uniform of an FMC Colonel, Mor raised a bottle in one hand, a weapon in the other, and roared a warning to GretHoR that thousands of Kinshya Sword Abbotts were on their way to the black halls.

"That is my father, Sir," Eyos said quietly.

"I don't I think I heard you, Cadet!" Kurn shouted.

"That is my father, Sir!" Eyos shouted in turn.

Kurn laughed, "You have a Warrior's rage in your heart, Eyos, daughter of Mor. Not unlike your father, when I think about it. But rage is not enough on its own."

He pointed at the picture, "The Cunning Warrior does not allow rage to cloud her judgement. She uses it to hone her senses. To sharpen her focus. To plan, for the best possible moment. The moment where she defeats her enemies, so thoroughly and so completely that her enemies are not only dead, but their children's children question if it was right to fight her in the first place!"

"Was that what Father was, Sir? A cunning warrior?"

Kurn laughed yet again, "Your father was a miserable old drunk who never quite knew when to shut his mouth. But there was one thing he did right in his miserable, drunken life."

"The Marian Reform," answered Eyos.

"That is what Humans call it. But your father was wise enough to make sure you were educated away from your people, not unlike my brother Worf. Before Mor, idiot boys like Vaton would fight and squabble over dead titles and empty houses. And for what? More dead titles and empty houses."

Kurn turned to face the picture, "If our race is to survive, we must change with the times. We must be the Cunning Warriors your father meant us to be. A miserable old drunk that he was, Mor built a great house. If he knew when to stop drinking, he might have been Chancellor, even now."

Kurn then placed a hand on Eyos' shoulder, "He accomplished all this with but a single victory. I will expect you to do better."

"You have my word, and my father's word, Sir," Eyos said with a fist over her heart.

"A Klingon's word is only as good as her deeds. Prove it. Now begone and celebrate. Rejoice in what it means to be a Klingon Warrior. Dismissed!"

Eyos nodded and walked back to the celebration hall. Despite Kurn's order, Vaton was still in the hall and tending to his broken heart.

Eyos boldly walked up to him, seized him by his throat again, and head butted the weak Vaton into the ground. She then reached for his mug, poured his drink onto his shattered face, and dipped the mug into the barrel of Bloodwine.

Raising her mug high, she shouted, "If any man or woman here wishes to claim my heart, you'll have to best me drink for drink! Qa'pla!"

Kurn could only smile under his breath, "Just like her father."

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