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“Yes, sir.”

“Out.”

He closed the connection, then once again leaned back. The Enterprise, he thought happily. It will be good to see Riker again. Over a decade earlier, Klag had served with Riker on the Pagh, as second officer to the human’s first officer as part of an exchange program. They had formed a bond during the human’s brief tour, and Klag considered Riker a true comrade-in-arms. Perhaps at last we will get to die together.

Klag read over the records that had been sent. The Malkus Artifacts were impressive devices. They had been found within Federation and Bajoran borders, as well as in the Demilitarized Zone between the Federation and Cardassia.

The assignment of the Enterprise made a certain amount of sense. They were still the cream of Starfleet’s crop, and Riker’s previous post to the Enterprise was under DeSoto on the Hood. Plus, of course, both ambassadors and Admiral McCoy had served on previous ships called Enterprise.

Klag did not know DeSoto, but he had met Kira Nerys at her command on Deep Space 9—and both of them were heroes of the Dominion War. Klag particularly remembered the Hood’ s heroic efforts at Chin’toka. Both of them had been alone when they disappeared, the captain never returning to the Hood from a vacation on Earth, the colonel never returning to her station from a meeting on Bajor.

And then there was B’Oraq, his revolutionary physician. The woman who had convinced him to restore his two-limbed status, and also allowed him to try to regain his father’s lost honor.

Klag, son of M’Raq, vowed that he would do whatever it took to find them.

When the Gorkon’ s beams deposited him, Captain Klag, and Commander Tereth in the transporter room of the U.S.S. Enterprise, NCC-1701-E, it was only the second time that Toq had ever set foot on a Starfleet vessel. And ironically, the last one was also called Enterprise.

Toq was born on Carraya on a secret prison planet run by a Romulan and populated by the survivors of the Khitomer massacre and assorted Romulan guards. The two species managed to live in peace for two decades, some even having children—Toq was one such. It was not until the arrival of Worf, son of Mogh—then a Starfleet lieutenant—that Toq and the other children even knew what being a Klingon truly meant.

The prison planet was, as far as Toq knew, still there. He, Worf, and the others had sworn to keep Carraya’s secret, which Toq was happy to do. He was eager to forget the place ever existed. He had been content on Carraya, but he had thrived once he came to live in the Empire. The House of Lorgh had taken him in—Lorgh himself had even made R’uustai with Toq, bonding the young man to the House. With the onset of the Dominion War, Toq had joined the Defense Force, and his position as a member of Lorgh’s House enabled him to study to be an officer.

He had risen quickly in a short time, culminating in becoming second officer on the Gorkon after he slew Lieutenant Kegren when the latter’s incompetence endangered the ship.

Until now, though, even with the war, he hadn’t set foot on a Federation starship since that day Worf brought him on board the previous Enterprise.

That occasion had been Toq’s first encounter with humans, and he hadn’t been impressed. Humans seemed—unfinished, somehow. As if the designers of their bodies couldn’t be bothered to give them any actual distinguishing features. Round tiny ears, smooth foreheads, uninteresting hair, skinny bodies—and they all looked the same.

Now three of them sat around a table, and the only way Toq could tell them apart was that one of them had no hair. That had to be the famed Jean-Luc Picard. The other two were the captain’s old friend Riker and the android Data, but Toq wasn’t sure which was which. Supposedly the android was the paler one, but they were all so pale it was not really possible to distinguish.

Picard stood. “Captain Klag, it’s good to see you again—I’m sorry it isn’t under more pleasant circumstances.