Elnor felt like he'd blinked twice and two days had passed. It was Friday already and he'd given no more thought to the big weekend dinner since Nathan had offered to help him order the lobsters for delivery. He'd looked at a few photos of the crustaceans on the computer and noted that the only cooking expertise seemed to be knowing how to boil water. Beyond that, he'd stayed focused on classes.

As usual, his last class of the day was unarmed combat. He really, truly felt sorry for the poor instructor, but he'd yet to find a way to honestly lose to him. His first clue that something would be different today came from the surprised expressions on the faces of the students who entered the classroom ahead of him. As he walked into the room himself, he noticed their usual instructor was absent. Instead, a large, formidable-looking Klingon male stood in front of the room. As the last student entered and the room grew quiet, the Klingon announced, "I am Captain Worf of the U.S.S Enterprise. I'll be your guest instructor for the day."

The Klingon's gaze swept from one side of the room to the other as he spoke, but he seemed to linger for a moment longer on Elnor. Elnor realized with a shock that this was Worf, the Worf who had served for so many years as Captain Picard's head of security. The first fully Klingon cadet in the history of Starfleet. Today wasn't going to be the usual beat-your-instructor-and-leave-class day. Today he might actually learn something. Elnor felt his heart rate pick up in anticipation and allowed a small smile to play across his face.

Worf continued as if he didn't know who Elnor was, but he would have recognized the young Romulan as an experienced warrior even had Deanna and Will not contacted him. He noticed Elnor's smile and was pleased that the youngster was looking forward to this. "Today, you will be learning the basics of the traditional Klingon martial arts known as Mok'bara. Have any of you ever practiced this before?" Several students raised their hands. After asking a few more questions, Worf realized that their skill levels were so disparate as to make matching them off in pairs meaningless. Trying another tactic to assess how to proceed with this class, Worf asked "Does anyone here have any level of advanced proficiency in any type of martial arts? Only Elnor raised his hand. "What type of training do you have?"

Elnor proceeded with caution. "Sir, the Qowat Milat do not call the skills they teach by any particular name. However, I've been told that what they teach most closely resembles Ch'Vashrek. I don't know if that's true or not."

"So your own training was with the Qowat Milat?"

"Yes, sir." Elnor was seriously wondering if Deanna and Will Riker had talked with Worf after talking with him. It made sense to him that they would have.

"Did you complete your training with the Qowat Milat?" questioned Worf.

"Yes, sir, I did." Okay, now he was certain they must have spoken to Worf. That was fine. He'd spoken only the truth and had nothing to hide.

"I have heard of the Ch'Vashrek and seen a practitioner of it in action once or twice." Worf observed, "but I have never fought a Qowat Milat."

Of course not, thought Elnor to himself. You're still alive. He was smart enough to keep those thoughts to himself though.

Not knowing Elnor's thoughts, Worf continued, "Perhaps today's class should be a demonstration of how two masters," he gave a nod of acknowledgment to Elnor, "of very different styles of hand-to-hand combat interact when they fight each other. Would you be amenable to such a demonstration?" he asked Elnor.

"Of course, sir," Elnor replied, "only you may have the advantage of me. I've never heard of Mok'bara. Could we start by you teaching me some of the warm-up exercises in it so that I might get a feel for it?"

"Excellent suggestion," agreed Worf. He was impressed with this youngster's caution. "In fact, the entire class can join in the warm-up exercises and then practice them for the coming week."

Worf patiently began the class as he had been teaching it for over twenty years. He noticed Elnor wasn't the only student in the class following his flowing motions with precision and concentration. Some of them clearly were not cut out to be fighters, but just as surely some of them would be the finest that Starfleet had ever turned out. After ten minutes of warm-ups, Worf called a halt to the practice moves. The rest of the class spread out in a semi-circle around the room, taking seats on the benches that lined three of the walls. The fourth wall was left bare as it might be used by the participants in the coming match.

Worf and Elnor faced each other in the center of the room. Worf began by stating, "It is customary in many martial arts traditions to bow to your opponent before engaging in battle." Worf bowed to Elnor, who perfectly copied the bow back to Worf before stating, "It is a customary tradition of the Qowat Milat to give an opponent one last chance to back out of a fight by formally stating 'Please, friend, choose to live.'"

To his surprise, Worf threw his head back and laughed, a deep, rumbling, belly laugh of true amusement. "And a worthy tradition it is," agreed Worf. "I gather a Qowat Milat does not often lose?"

"Never, to my knowledge," stated Elnor with complete seriousness.

"Then just remember, young warrior, today is not a fight to the death. Today is a day to practice our skills and perhaps learn from one another."

Elnor bowed his head in agreement and the fight began. Elnor knew the legendary Worf was far too good an opponent to not be taken seriously. His first tactic was to avoid the mistake of being the first to attack. He carefully stayed out of Worf's reach as the two began the slow, circling dance of seasoned fighters taking each other's measure. Elnor knew that the sweeping, graceful movements Worf had demonstrated with his Mok'bara warm ups must also carry incredible power when aimed against an opponent. Trying to assess what his own strengths might be, he decided his speed and more unusual moves might prove to be his best advantages. Under no circumstances did he want to get in a position where Worf could use his greater mass against him. To that end, he kept his arms tucked in close to his body, his fists raised in front of him, and continued to stay out of Worf's reach as he waited for the older warrior to make the first move.

As they continued a counter-clockwise circle for the fourth circuit, Elnor realized he'd allowed Worf to gradually maneuver him closer each circuit to the wall. One more time around and he'd be unable to stay out of Worf's reach. Knowing he finally needed to do something, Elnor took one long stride, springing up onto the wall and pushing off of it in a higher trajectory, tucking himself into a tight ball to somersault over Worf well above the Klingon's reach. He landed facing Worf, who had easily been able to predict exactly where Elnor would land and was ready.

Elnor's feet had barely touched the floor before Worf had dropped to the ground and swept outwards with his legs. Worf's tactic almost worked. Elnor barely had time to jump to avoid having his feet swept out from under him and ending up on the floor. Before he could press any advantage, Worf was back on his feet. The time for circling was done. He closed with the Klingon, pressing him with a flurry of punches practically too fast for the eye to follow. Somehow Worf managed to block every punch with his own broad forearms and then followed up with an elbow strike to Elnor's throat. Elnor jumped back in time to avoid it, aware of how close he'd just come to experiencing some serious pain.

Before Worf could attack again, Elnor planted one foot solidly on the ground and swung his other leg backwards in a roundhouse kick aimed at Worf's chest. To his great surprise, Worf not only managed to lean backwards fast enough to avoid the blow, but also grabbed Elnor's leg above the ankle and twisted. Elnor pushed hard off the floor with his other foot, tucking his arms in tight to his body, and twisted his whole body to match the twist of his leg. His motions seemed to defy gravity, but this was a move he'd practiced often with the Qowat Milat. At the end of the twist he pulled his body into a ball. Worf, having expected the leg twist to be the end of the sparring with Elnor, was surprised when the youngster jumped, twisted, tucked and rolled. Elnor was back on his feet and ready to continue.

Worf carefully controlled his urge to begin an all out attack against Elnor. This was a practice session after all, meant as a demonstration to the class. Instead, he centered himself, his stance wide and center of gravity balanced. Worf returned to his basics, his flowing, fluid motions of arms and hands moving with his upper body first to one side, then the other.

Elnor settled into a similar pace opposite him. They were circling again, Elnor careful this time not to let Worf press him close to the wall. He didn't think the trick he'd used before would work again. Belatedly, he realized they hadn't decided on what criteria would end this demonstration. When one of them could no longer continue? This could go on all night. Worf didn't seem to be tiring at all. As for the Qowat Milat, sometimes their training sessions did last all night.

Worf sped up his motions, incorporating more movements including the Mok'bara version of a round kick. Elnor stopped copying Worf's movements, his instincts telling him that an attack was imminent now. He wasn't wrong. Worf sprang upward from a deep crouch, his leap carrying him straight towards Elnor. Elnor leaped to the right to avoid Worf's headlong rush, intending to let the Klingon's momentum carry him past the point of an attack. It didn't work. As Worf flew past him, the Klingon swung in a left turn with a powerful, double-fisted blow, slamming into Elnor's left shoulder blade. Knocked forward and off balance, Elnor could feel something crunch in his shoulder blade that definitely shouldn't crunch. His left arm would be useless to him for the rest of this match. Elnor grimaced, more about his mistake than his pain. He'd known he should never have let Worf land a blow. The power the Klingon could put behind his blows, using his superior mass, would be Elnor's undoing.

Regaining his balance faster than Worf could have anticipated, Elnor turned to face him. Worf grinned. Elnor knew this was the part when Worf would repeatedly attack him on his injured side. Determined not to let that happen, determined to give this fight all he had, Elnor backed quickly away from Worf, putting as much distance between them as he could. He could sense everyone wondering why he was retreating. He wasn't retreating. He suddenly raced towards Worf as quickly as he could, launching himself into the air on his 4th stride. He landed with both feet squarely on Worf's chest. Both went down on the ground, Worf flat on his back, Elnor landing on his injured side. He rolled and got to his feet, trying to ignore his crunchy shoulder which was getting increasingly painful. He positioned himself behind the Klingon, who was getting to his feet rather slowly this time. If he'd had use of both his arms, he might have tried rushing Worf from behind and getting a lock around him, pinning the Klingon's arms to his sides. He knew that was useless. Any attempt to try a move like that would only earn him a backwards head butt to his face, or get himself flipped over Worf's shoulder, probably landing on his same injured shoulder blade again.

He didn't brace himself, but rather tried to center himself with more of the flowing movements as Worf turned to face him. Okay, maybe his movements weren't so flowing now, especially on his left side. To his surprise, Worf bowed to him and said, "Well done, Elnor. I think we can now conclude this demonstration."

So Worf did know who he was! Elnor smiled at him and bowed in return, grateful for the reprieve. "Thank you, sir," he said, "I have learned a lot today."

Worf turned to the rest of the class and said, "I hope you all learned something today. Please practice the Mok'bara warm-up exercises until next class period. Depending upon the refit time for the Enterprise, I may or may not still be your guest instructor. Regardless, I will make sure your regular instructor knows."

As the rest of the class filed out, Worf motioned for Elnor to stay. Unable to contain his curiosity, Elnor asked, "Did Deanna and Will Riker mention me to you?"

"They did," Worf admitted, "but even if they hadn't, I was still due to bring the Enterprise in for refits, and I would still have been the guest instructor today. I would still have recognized you as a warrior and picked you out of the class. I'm not sure anything has happened that wouldn't have if they hadn't contacted me."

"About the only thing that's different," continued Worf, "is that I know of your association with our mutual friend, Admiral Picard."

Elnor nodded, before suddenly asking, "You don't happen to know what Picard's favorite dinner might be, do you?"

Worf broke into laughter again, "Deanna told me about that. Will tried to get me to tell you that fresh Klingon gagh is Picard's favorite food, but I really wouldn't recommend it." At Elnor's questioning look, Worf continued, "Oh, he'd eat it. He would even make a show of enjoying it. But I seriously doubt it's something he would include on his list of favorite foods."

As the two left the room, Elnor made sure to sling his small carry pack over his right shoulder. Worf said, "You did well today, young warrior," and, without thinking, started to clap Elnor on his left shoulder. Elnor dipped his body to avoid having that shoulder touched again.

Worf grimaced, "Sorry about that. It's hard to have a good demonstration, or even practice session, without some sort of injury though. Are you okay?"

"Actually, sir, I think I'm going to head to the infirmary right now and get this checked out. There's no sense in suffering if the doctors can fix it. So if you'll excuse me, please?"

Worf grunted. "I happen to be headed that way myself." He looked sideways at Elnor. "I think you may have cracked one of my ribs. It's not easy to crack a Klingon rib."

Elnor's eyes were wide in horror. "Oh no! I mean, yes, I was trying to hurt you, but. . . "

"Think nothing of it," Worf reassured him.

After walking a few strides together in a companionable silence, Elnor asked, "How do you think a tan qalanq would match up against a bat'leth?"

Worf grinned. "I hope I'm here long enough for us to find out. Also, I have some holodeck programs I think you might enjoy. I would be pleased if you would join me in one."

"Absolutely!" Elnor felt like he'd just been given candy!

"Now can you tell me what you think was the most important lesson you learned from today's demonstration?" Worf asked.

"Quite a few things," Elnor began to answer, "but the most important was probably about mass. . ."

The two were deep in discussion as they turned the corner towards the infirmary.