"Klingon Disease"

[Cptn Elias Moore 0]

"A package?! What package?" General Erdok shouted at the viewscreen.

 

"That is not for you to know." Replied the ivory-haired Klingon on the screen, a nameless representative of the Chancellor's war council. "You need know only that this is the bidding of Chancellor Min and it is your duty to abide."

 

"My men are restless!" Erdok protested. "You sent my wing to the Coalition border with orders to be prepared for war, and now you tell us that we must wait for a 'package!' When will this package arrive?"

 

"Soon. The packages are still being prepared for distribution to the fleet."

 

Erdok narrowed his eyes at the aged military advisor. That was the first indication he'd made that every wing would be receiving a 'package,' and Erdok was now considering possibilities.

 

The orders to the fleet to amass along the Coalition border had been as sudden as the announcement of a change of power on Qo'noS. The orders were assumed to be the product of a more aggressive foreign policy on the new Chancellor's part, but the strategy was questionable. A war against the allied powers of the Coalition would be a risky proposition, especially considering that the fleet mobilization was conducted right out in the open where the Coalition could observe and prepare for it. Did this new authority on homeworld have a wildcard to offer? Had a new form of weaponry, perhaps, been developed? The existence of a new weapon would serve to explain how this mysterious Min had managed to launch his coup successfully.

 

"In the meantime, General," the advisor continued. "I will trust in your much heralded ability to keep your men fit and eager for battle. The Coalition is the greatest menace to galactic stability that we have ever known, and our glorious campaign to put it in its place is a duty blessed by Kahless himself."

 

When the discussion was over and the advisor's face cleared from the screen, General Erdok sat back in his chair and allowed a toothy grin to spread across his face.

 

A student of Klingon history, Erdok was of an ambitious mind that longed for the old days when an Emperor sat atop the Klingon throne. The Empire had stagnated since those days, ruled by weak-willed Chancellors too satisfied with the Klingon borders as they were, even as the Romulan and Andorian Empires stretched their territories ever closer to Klingon space. The emergence of the Humans as not only an ambitious power but also a unifying force for their neighbors was the spark that blasted the furnace. Placing colonies in the border systems of Straton, Deneva and Belpherus, and even daring to stain the surface of sacred Khitomer, the Humans were a plague that spread across the stars with all of the ambition but none of the temperance of the Klingon Emperors.

 

Now, with a new weapon possessed by the Empire, the time for restoration had come. For over a century, the Klingon people had called out the dire need for renewed expansion. At last, the disease of contentedness would be purged from the Empire. And with it the disease of Humanity.