"The Klingon Assignment"

[Cptn Elias Moore 0]

Admiral Leonard watched the computer screen in his office as it replayed the sensor log transmitted by Enterprise. He'd watched the log many times now, from many different angles. The shuttle pod carrying Archer departed Aldrin and docked with the lead Bird of Prey. All five ships, Enterprise watching under the veil of her prototype Suliban cloaking device, remained still for several minutes, presumably as Archer negotiated with the Klingon commander. Suddenly and unexpectedly, two of the Birds turned to Enterprise and opened fire, while the third opened fire on Aldrin. Prepared for any nasty turns of events, Enterprise established a subspace uplink with the Denevan outpost and transmitted everything her sensors had recorded from the point that the Klingon ships arrived.

 

The tactical analysts had been poring over the sensor readings for days. There was still no definitive answer to the question of how the cloaked Enterprise had been detected. She had slipped past the Klingon border, maintaining a comfortable distance from any nearby Klingon vessels to avoid her engine signatures being picked up, and arrived at the rendezvous location days before the meeting was to take place. She waited, on reduced power, for the Klingons to arrive. There could be no doubt that Commander T'Pol had exercised the utmost caution in keeping the ship under cover. The most likely conclusion was that Starfleet's latest intelligence indicating that the Klingons could not pierce a Suliban cloak was either erroneous or out of date.

 

The other question perplexing the analysts was that of the attacks themselves. The Birds employed particle weapons set to disabling frequencies rather than their usual disruptor volley. Their attacks appeared to be concentrated on Aldrin's and Enterprise's engine and weapon systems. A nonlethal assault was hardly consistent with the Klingon reputation for taking no prisoners. There was speculation that the Klingons planned to hold Archer and the two ships' crews for political leverage against Earth. Again, this wasn't consistent with accepted Klingon policy, but the last communique from the Klingons had suggested a 'political upheaval' on their homeworld. Maybe their policies had changed. There was certainly enough evidence of this, with repeated attempts by the diplomatic offices to contact the Klingon homeworld being ignored... and Klingon fleet activity at the border beginning to pick up.

 

A few seconds after the attack was launched, the sensor feed abruptly ended with the lead Bird firing on Enterprise's subspace transmitter. Admiral Leonard tapped his keyboard, rewinding the log to just moments before this final shot. The screen was dominated by the image of the Klingon warship swooping in for its assault. Leonard adjusted the view angle and zoomed in on the port "wing" of the Klingon ship. Painted on the hull along the aft edge of the wing was a string of Klingon symbols. Though Earth's understanding of the Klingon alphabet was at best minimal, they could safely guess that this was the Bird's name.

 

Leonard sifted through the files sitting on his desk and located the datasheet that contained the latest finding--this one from the archivists. The archivists had been immediately tasked with looking through the Enterprise records to determine if any of the three Birds had been encountered by Starfleet before. The possiblity was excluded when nothing was found. It came as quite a surprise when, three days later, the archivists suddenly produced this datasheet. It showed a similar image as the one now displayed on Leonard's computer screen--the wing of a Klingon Bird of Prey with its name prominently displayed. Leonard compared the two sets of symbols and found little cause for doubt--the names displayed were identical.

 

Leonard looked at the header on the datasheet--"NX-05 Challenger Archives: Khitomer mission." Khitomer--the only encounter between Starfleet and the Klingons that did not involve Enterprise. The archivists had stumbled on it almost by accident. When last encountered, this ship was under the command of a Klingon named M'ehl. A misunderstanding on Khitomer resulted in a battle between Challenger and M'ehl's ship. M'ehl had intended to take Commodore Moose back to Kronos to be executed; were those his intentions toward the Aldrin and Enterprise crews? Challenger had managed to resolve the misunderstanding peacefully; M'ehl had proven relatively cooperative.

 

With another tap of the keyboard, Leonard accessed his comm. "Lieutenant Davis..."

 

"Davis here. What is it, sir?"

 

"Lieutenant, notify Columbia that they are to turn back around and continue their original mission to Cait." Leonard looked over the Khitomer data once more. "While you're at it, try to get me in touch with Governor Rex at the Meteora colony. And get a message out to the Nequencia system; I need to speak with Captain Moore as soon as possible."

 

"... change of plans, sir?" Davis asked.

 

"Aye." Leonard nodded at the Bird displayed on his screen. "Change of plans. We'll be giving Challenger the Klingon assignment..."