Star Trek: Before Destruction - Chapter 11
*** ELEVEN ****
The new Emperor stood facing the vast expanse of space stretching forth from his window, to perhaps infinity. He allowed himself the luxury of a few moments alone to relax before he faced the Klingon Fleet commanders and revealed his plans for them to carry out. Though his authority was absolute in his empire, there would undoubtedly be questions toward his mental health if he proceeded on his intended course without sharing some details of his grand design with them.
His gaze shifted from the ominous void, to the mighty Klingon armada coming into view. The smile of the wolf crossed his face as he saw the awesome might of the Klingon Empire bending to his every wish. He mused in reflection of the ease with which he acquired his throne and the power thereof. The Old Emperor, now imprisoned within the bowels of the Federation ship, was still a vital link in the chain of events that this New Emperor had set in motion. The real Tromok was an ace in the hole, to be used if Garth's charade was detected. But Garth had no great fear of this.
Garth had devoted many hours to the mastery of Klingonese. The subtle grunts and guttural intonations, the syntax and colloquialisms, even the gesticulations accompanying some of the ancient words. And of course, the Emperor's voice was merely a physical alteration. But Garth was no fool. Little to nothing was known of the Emperor of Klinzhai within the confines of the Federation. Garth tried to distance himself from anyone close to the Emperor who would be able to detect the discrepancies in the Emperor's own mannerisms and personality. He would not have to encounter any members of the High Council. Tromok had seen to that by leaving them all behind on their Mother World. However, there were Military Men close at hand who would know him well. Admiral Sorr was not the least of them.
The explosive of Garth's own ingenious creation, was still on- board the ship that he had entered the Neutral Zone in. He conceived of the formula for the destructive substance while imprisoned on the distant, now nonexistent, planet Elba II. Once he had developed the formula, the actual creation of the fulminant crystals was hardly a burdensome matter. Elba II, for all it's intended purposes, was just a scientific research station with bars. All the components of the explosive were in-store, easily appropriated and utilized, giving him the power to reshape the universe. Yes, there was a time of setback. He had failed, but only in his inability to enlighten the Starship captain 'Kirk', to his superior lordship. He and Kirk were of a kind. As Garth would bow to no other's rule, Kirk would not submit to his. It was much later that Garth realized how Captain Kirk had unwittingly saved his life when he prevented Garth from transporting up to the Enterprise with the weapon in hand. It was later that Garth had realized the explosive could not be beamed at all. But that was behind him.
Garth of Izar had proven victorious and escaped his place of exile. He recalled the perfect execution of his scheme to steal the cargo ship while it was transferring equipment, via jump-ship, down to the surface of Elba II. 'The fool Cory', Garth thought. The drug that was used to 'cure' Garth of his 'alleged' insanity was obviously not tested for duration. It had returned him to his former 'weakling' self, for a time. But the 'Garth' that was strong, was too much a part of him to be suppressed for long, though it had seemed to change him somewhat. He could think clearer now. Once he had permanently disposed of Cory he was able to assume, again, the guise of the Governor of the colony. Then it was simplicity itself, to take the orbiting ship and charge to the Neutral Zone. The captain of the cargo ship 'Fringe Ranger' had not been much of a challenge. Though he did manage to send out a distress signal before Garth was able to capture it, it availed him nothing. Proud Garth satisfied himself with these thoughts, and turned his attention to the future.
A chime sounded in the Emperor's chamber, indicating that someone requested entry. Garth turned from the observation window and furrowed his brow.
"Enter!" he commanded, quite accustomed to giving orders.
The door slid upward, disappearing into the top of the frame. Commander Kang stood at the entrance, flanked on both sides by the Emperor's guard. He entered the large room, followed by the black clad warriors.
"I ordered no disturbances!" the Emperor boomed, taking note that the man before him was of Commander grade, but not recognizing him. "State the reason for your intrusion," ordered the Emperor.
The expression on Kang's face changed from wooden, to one of puzzlement. It was always mandatory for a Flag Officer to report to the highest superior possible, after a military defeat. Emperor Tromok had always taken great pleasure, whenever available, in dealing personally, with 'inferior Klingons', as he called them.
"My lord, I await your decision," Kang voiced levelly, though at the ready to plea for the life of his wife and that of his crew.
Taken aback, momentarily at a loss as to exactly what decision the officer might require, Garth finally recognized the voice, and placed it with the name of Kang. Though they had spoken to one another before, it had not been a visual communication. Pretending to contemplate his 'decision', Garth tried to remember the details of the intercepted transmission the former Emperor had with the Commander. It came to him that Tromok had already decided in favor of Kang, so what was this, he wondered. Reward? Promotion? Garth suddenly wished he knew more about the Klingonese customs, and specifically the Emperor's habit's. Finally he spoke, not wanting his hesitation to cause suspicion. "Leave us," he commanded his guards.
Kang heard the door slide home, still facing his Emperor and wondering. Something was different about him. He seemed, to Kang, not to have recognized him.
"What would you have me say?" the Emperor, playing it safe, interrupted Kang's thoughts with the question.
The swarthy Commander eyed his Emperor for a moment. He had never known the ruler of the Klingon Realm to be slow in executing judgement, and least of all to have the accused determine the punishment. Was this a test of sorts, or was Emperor Tromok merely baiting him for his own pleasure? The answer to these, he did not know. But if it was a game to humiliate him, Kang decided he would not play. He looked straight ahead, standing at full attention. "Say what you will, my lord."
The Emperor turned toward the Commander. To Kang's surprise a partial smile adorned the Emperor's face. "This day I have acquired more power than anyone before me has imagined attaining. I hold the might to claim the galaxy, and you have played a prominent role in bringing this into being." He placed a hand to his chin. "In reward for such a feat, you have the gratitude of the Klingon People and myself. I give you command of the ship and crew of your choice and send you home on furlough, to give the Council personal word of my victory."
Kang remained dispassionate at the Emperor's speech. He did not want to give expression to the feeling he had about the man before him. "My lord is most generous," is all he allowed himself to say.
"I can afford generosity, Commander, what ship shall it be?" he asked, wanting to be rid of Kang before any more surprises occurred.
"I will keep my own ship if you please, and my crew is the finest in all the realm, my lord." His pride in his comrades shone through his stoic exterior. But the foremost thought in his mind was the sensation that he had never met this man before. Could the enemy invader have done something to the Emperor? Is this man the Emperor? It did not seem to Kang that this was the one that he knew.
"Then I give you your leave, and after the Command Assembly, your leave to go home." With a curt nod of his head, he dismissed the Commander.
Kang bowed to the image of his Emperor but before turning to go, he needed to know for certain. Not for himself, but for the sake of the Empire. This might be his only chance to be sure, of the one who occupies the throne of Klinzhai. "Shall I also inform Chamberlain Jekrrez of your plans, my lord?"
Garth looked deep into the eyes of the Commander, trying to read anything that might help him with the answer. 'This one is sharp. He suspects my deception,' thought he to himself, 'But how? And to what degree?' Garth had to respond to the obviously loaded question. "You will tell ALL COUNCIL MEMBERS! IS THAT CLEAR?" He let himself vent his anger and frustration. After all, he was questioning the Emperor of the Realm.
Kang bowed again, "Yes, lord Tromok.", he said, but carefully and deliberately not, 'My lord'. The Commander left the room. He could not hear the scream of rage that burst forth from the Emperor, as the thick door closed behind him. But he did know, with a surety now, that the man who ruled the Empire was not Mocdar Jek Tromok.
Behind the thick doors, Garth reached a state of composure. He consoled himself with the knowledge that regardless of Kang's suspicion, Garth would soon be rid of him and free to fulfill his glorious destiny.
He moved to his desk and sat behind it, resting in the solid comfortable chair. Pressing a button on the desk, he sealed the door from intruders and allowed his physically altered body to revert back to it's original form. The strain of maintaining the shape of another was not easy to bear. Garth had told his incarcerator, Cory, that he had learned cellular metamorphosis from the Antosians. Not quite the truth, he mused.
When the people of Antos IV found his broken and burned body, they did their best to patch him together. It was not good enough. His condition rapidly worsened. With his death imminent, and his ship unable to locate him, it was decided by the Doctor whose care he was in to share a coveted secret of their race.
The Antosians had an organ within them which allowed them to control their own cellular arrangement and influence complex molecules within a few centimeters of their epidermis. The tiny organ called a 'Dunia', located behind the heart, was directly connected to the spinal column, and from there, the brain. Before the Antosians learned that they could control the operation of this organ, it naturally caused their body to be able to regenerate damaged tissue, much like certain lizards being able to regenerate their tails. This gave them increased longevity and with time, complete control over their entire physical structure, without altering mental patterns within the brain in the least.
The attending Doctor concluded that if they were to save Captain Garth, he would need the organ, too. The organ had been cloned for him, grown in a hyper-progression chamber and placed within the dying Captain. Without conscious will on Garth's part, the organ began it's intended task of cellular reconstruction immediately. Within three days, he was physically whole again. In time Garth learned to manipulate the organ's operation, first, to alter his facial features, later, the rest of his body. Lastly he learned to exude and control the aggressive endoplasmic variance agents that could alter exterior molecules such as his clothing.
His body was again healthy, but the Antosians could do nothing about his growing madness. The pain he had endured as he lay dying drove sanity from his grasp. After he had mastered metamorphosis, he turned violently on the Antosians. They would not follow his plans of conquest and galactic war, so he sought to destroy them. His plan was thwarted by his own crew and he was dispatched to the last colony for the incurably insane. Like Napoleon, Garth was exiled to his Elba, and returned from thence, to make war and to conquer.
Garth, pulled his chair forward to more easily use the Emperor's computer console. He entered several commands into the terminal, but to no avail. The password protected files he requested remained beyond his reach. His second recourse was to merely find out exactly what files were not password protected and glean the information he needed from them. He scanned several pages of file listings in the memory banks until he located what he desired.
The common library, with it's wealth of information, held vast amounts of data on every conceivable subject. It was a difficult task, to keep from straying from his purpose. Suddenly he found what he was looking for in the history section. He commanded the machine to search for the most current references to the title of Chamberlain. After only a nano-second, his screen was filled with the names and accomplishments of the Klingonese High Council members. He quickly scanned the names of the current members but found no Jekrrez among them. He then paged through the list of former council members until he found what he sought after.
It read:
Record Number 7-18:8.55-14-4-4-5
Jekrrez, Holzah
678193 - 678341
Found guilty of treason and executed by command of his Imperial Highness, Emperor Mocdar Jek Tromok [678241.1]
Anger swept Garth's soul, as he realized that Kang now possessed knowledge which could jeopardize his newly acquired throne. He smashed his fist onto the computer controls, crushing the terminal, making it useless. He watched the smoke rise from the console and sat back in his chair. 'At least', he reflected, 'there are ways to deal with insurrection, before the fact.' He soothed his temper with that in mind and plotted to rid himself of this thorn.
* * *
At the heart of the Imperial Throneship Thunder, protected by energy barriers and thick blast-proof walls, was the war council chamber. Although seating one-hundred and one, it was nearly filled. The senior officers of each Klingon Warship in the immediate vicinity, were in attendance before the Emperor's mighty seat of power. They were joined by three Romulans of command grade who had been late in arriving. The Emperor's elite Ramjep Avwi were guarding all exits and four of them stood behind the Emperor's chair, facing the congregation.
The briefing of previous events, conducted by Admiral Sorr, had just been completed. Now all in attendance awaited Emperor Tromok's arrival to the chamber. Murmurs of the great power, now in their control, resounded throughout the spacious room. They were silenced as Admiral Sorr seated himself in front with the other Admirals, Captains and Commanders. The Midnight Guard moved from their parade-rest stance, to attention, as Emperor Mocdar Jek Tromok entered the room with a recorded orchestra flourish proceeding him.
The fleet commanders rose from their seats and saluted in unison, while their monarch established himself in his lone chair. Facing them, he motioned his approval for the company to reseat themselves. Silence again, had reign over the room as his Imperial Highness looked over the many faces that sat before him.
The Emperor placed both hands on the armrests of his chair, gripping them tightly. "Who among you can deliver me a galaxy?" he asked calmly in his deep bass voice. The company looked to each other in surprise at the question. When no answer was forthcoming, he continued. "What is it that stands between us and our rightful place among the stars?" he posed. "What powers vex our mighty Empire at every turn?"
Admiral Sorr stood confidently before his master, "Organia, my lord," he answered.
"Incorrect, Admiral," Garth stated flatly, to the astonishment of all present. "Organia is merely an excuse we have been deluding ourselves with, for far too long. A treaty that has made the Empire slumber in the same bed as that of our enemy." He stood and let the assembly see the fire in his eyes. "Fear and ignorance, are what obstructs our path to glory! Together they are more devastating than a thousand Organia's, more deadly than a million Federations." He folded his arms across his chest. "And they are infinitely more powerful than this new 'Super Weapon', that you have, no doubt, placed some hope in."
He looked narrowly upon the company. "You," he pointed to the assembly of men, "have permitted a fold of sheep to dictate the boundaries of my Empire and pretended it was because of the power they wielded. Power beyond ours, that bound us to this section of space. When, infact, it was fear of the extents of their power, and ignorance of how to use that power against them, that halted you from delivering me the galaxy," he boomed.
The Emperor placed his fists on his hips. He could see the large group was impressed by his words, yet were confused that the speech, though characteristically bold, lacked the solution to the 'Organian-forged' chains that shackled them. He would soon give them the key, but first he would rid himself of the Commander who had been given cause to suspect the Emperor.
"Admiral Sorr has informed you of the weapon that is now mine to use in reshaping the galaxy, a weapon of such destructive power that no other force has ever been conceived since the beginning of creation. Yet I tell you this... we have never needed the weapon to take Klingon rule across the Neutral Zone!" He continued to keep them in expectation of an answer to the Peace Treaty dilemma, relishing the power he held over them.
"And what, I am sure you are wondering, can be done while the watchdogs of peace threaten to intervene at any moment of conflict between the Federation and our majestic Empire? It is a good question, one that has been avoided and side-stepped too many times before!" The Emperor paused, changing the tone of his voice from 'forceful' to 'mild'. "My subjects... my comrades, the solution can be found in the very treaty that binds us. It can be clearly seen, not in what is written on the parchment, but what remains unwritten." Garth almost began to smile at that, enjoying, loving every moment of their prolonged desire to see what they had been blind to.
"Commander Kang!" Garth abruptly changed the direction of his speech, to the unexpressed consternation of the men before him.
"Here," he said, rising from his seat, "lord Tromok." 'Or the image of Tromok', he spoke to himself. Kang too was inspired by the speech of the man who wore his Emperor's face. He caught himself wishing that this man was his lord, leading them to victory. But no, this was not him and the prime enemy was not the Federation now. That made Kang a traitor to the Realm, for he would have to stand against his Emperor, if not now, soon.
"I presume that you are versed in the specifics of the treaty to which I refer?" he asked, knowing all men of command grade had it committed to memory, by Imperial Proclamation.
"I am, as all present are, Emperor Tromok." Kang did not know the game being played this time either, only that he was being maneuvered into something.
How many conditions are in effect on the document as written?" he asked the Commander as a teacher would test a student.
"Six conditions exist," Kang stated. He wondered if he would have another opportunity to face the imposter alone. He was certain that he would not be able to use his ship against the Thunder. He was not only outgunned, but his crew would surely mutiny.
"Recite the essence of each condition for us all Commander Kang," he commanded.
Kang grit his teeth, feeling as if he would next have to recite their alphabet. "First condition: the treaty imposed, forces the Federation and Klingon Empire to cease hostilities or both parties will be rendered militarily harmless. Second: a Neutral Zone will separate both parties where no aggression will be tolerated within zone boundaries. Third: any future aggression between the two parties will be summarily stopped by the Organians. Fourth: no party will deny peaceful access to planetary bases within said zone. Fifth: Organia is to be left alone, until a time of their choosing, then they will reveal their intentions for both parties. Sixth: planets may be peacefully developed within the zone. Exclusive rights to any zone planet belong to the party who most efficiently develops the planet," he concluded, thankful to be finished.
"Very adequate, 'Captain' Kang, of the Imperial Battle Cruiser, Fury. I now release you from my presence so that you may formally appraise my council of the events that have transpired," Garth said, looking into Kang's eyes from across the distance. "Your promotion is now on record and your ship has been notified of your new rank."
Kang stood silently for a moment, realizing he was not going to be present to hear the rest of the imposter's plan for the Empire. Then he bowed low to the Emperor, "Thank you, lord Tromok," he said, bowing low enough to be partially hidden from the Emperor. Quickly he opened a channel to his ship's log recorder on his communicator and placed it under the seat in front of him. As he completed his slightly extended bow, the Emperor displayed in his hand, the rank insignia pin of the captaincy.
"I almost forgot, Captain Kang, approach me now and receive your honors."
Kang slowly advanced between the rows of chairs, to the aisle. His peers and superiors gave him questioning looks. It was a rare thing indeed for the Emperor to personally promote anyone in the admiralty, and never a Commander. He stepped up to the platform where the Emperor and his guard stood awaiting him. Ever so slowly he moved his hand towards his disrupter, then halted the motion. He reasoned that the Ramjep Avwi would have him dead on the floor before he completed his draw. He stopped in front of the Emperor and faced him at attention.
The Emperor took a step towards Kang and now was inches from his face. He reached out and placed the symbol of Kang's new rank on him. He then leaned over to the Captain, almost nose to nose and whispered, "Give my personal regards to Chamberlain Jekrrez," he said poisonously. Then placed a firm hand on Kang's shoulder, turning him around for the assembly. "I present you, 'Captain' Kang! Salute!" he ordered. The company rose and saluted as required. The firm hand indicated that it was time for Kang to be gone.
Kang, stepped down from the platform and headed up the aisle to the exit. His thoughts were of murder.
"Commander S'takal of the Romulan Fleet... stand!" Garth commanded as the heavy door closed behind the new Captain. S'takal rose and saluted the Klingon Emperor in Romulan fashion. "You have all the data on the new weapon, including projected power curves. You may now transmit this information to your superiors. Your ships will flank our cruisers when we approach the Neutral Zone." The Romulan acknowledged his command and he and his company also exited the room.
"Now, it is time," he addressed his troops, "that I shared with you the keys to the galaxy!"
