Kahless - Michael Jan Friedman [24]
“I am as much in the dark about this as you are,” Picard informed him. Casting a glance in the cleric’s direction, he added: “Our guest asked that you be present before he told us what his visit was about.”
There was just the slightest hint of resentment in the captain’s voice, but Worf noticed it. After one had served with a commanding officer for more than seven years, one came to know his reactions rather thoroughly. However, the Klingon doubted that their visitor had picked up on it.
Koroth fixed Worf with his gaze. “I’ve come on behalf of Kahless,” he declared. “The modern-day Kahless.”
“The clone,” Picard confirmed.
The cleric nodded, though it was clearly not the description he would have preferred. “Yes. You see, he is in need of help-and he hopes you two will be the source of it.”
The captain shifted in his seat. “Why us?” he asked.
“Because he knows he can trust you,” Koroth told him.
He was still looking at Worf. “After all, you were the ones who helped him come to an understanding with Gowron.
If not for you, the Empire might have split into bloody factions over their conflict.”
True, thought Worf. Though it was Gowron, as leader of the High Council, who still wielded the real power.
“What exactly does Kahless wish us to do?” Picard inquired.
The cleric shrugged. “Unfortunately, he did not provide me with this information. Nor did I press him for it, as he seemed reluctant to speak of the matter. My mission was simply to alert you to Kahless’s need … and to give you the coordinates of a Klingon colony in the Nin’taga system, where Kahless wishes to meet you at a designated time.”
The captain eyed his security chief. Worf knew that look as well. It meant Picard had come up with some answers of his own, which he would no doubt wish to test.
“I don’t suppose this has anything to do with the scroll?” the captain ventured.
Koroth scowled. “I would be surprised if it did not.
The scroll has been a source of great discomfort to him.
In fact, to all of us. I wish Olahg had never found the cursed thing.”
“Has it been authenticated?” Picard asked.
The cleric shook his head. “Nor do I believe it will be. I have publicly demanded that it be subjected to dating technologies, to prove its fraudulence. However, it may be too late to bury the controversy the scroll has created.”
Koroth sighed audibly. “One thing is certain-Kahless needs your assistance now, before things get any worse.”
Worf didn’t doubt it. Kahless would not have called on them for any small problem. Whatever trouble the scroll had birthed, it was something big. He hated to think how big.
But in the end, it didn’t matter why Kahless had requested their help-only that he had. Surely, Picard would see that.
“Will you honor the emperor’s request?” asked the cleric.
The captain drummed his fingers on the desk in front of him as he looked from Koroth to the lieutenant and back again, mulling the situation over. After a while, he stopped.
“All right,” he told the cleric. “If there’s a problem in the Empire, I suppose I must investigate it, at least. Give me the time and coordinates of the rendezvous and I’ll be there.”
Koroth turned to Worf. “And you, Lieutenant?”
Worf indulged himself in a typically Klingon remark: “Can I let my captain risk his life alone?”
The cleric smiled a thin-lipped smile. “No,” he said softly. “Not if you are the sort of a warrior the emperor believes you to be.”
The lieutenant grunted. As Picard’s duty was clear, so was his-to respond to Kahless’s summons as quickly as possible, and to gauge the danger to both the Empire and the Federation.
But despite his brave remark, he didn’t feel inspired by the undertaking. Not when all he believed about Kahless seemed to have been built on a foundation of lies.
Commander William Riker was sitting in the center seat on the bridge, staring at the Byndarite merchant ship hanging off their port bow. He didn’t like the idea that something was going on and he didn’t know what or why.
First, the Byndarites had hailed the