NEW MIS/TOS: Reversion (1/1) G (Kahless, Q)
Title: Reversion
Author: Dave Rogers
Email Address: daverogers@geocities.com
Series: MIS/TOS
Rating: PG
Codes: Kahless, Q
Part: 1/1
Date Posted:
Summary: The answer to The Big Question from "Trials and
Tribble-ations". After the events of "The Savage Curtain", a brief
conversation shapes the future of an empire.
Disclaimer: Klingons belong to Paramount, whatever I do with their
foreheads.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to Jenn for beta reading, and to Eric's
Excruciatingly Detailed Star Trek (TOS) Plot Summaries website for
background information.
Reversion
In a place that was not a place, but more the essence of a place, two
figures stood watching. Around them were mere suggestions of walls,
ceiling and floor, and before them the ghostly suggestion of a
banqueting table was laden to groaning point with food, much of it
trying to escape. Gagh has always been an acquired taste.
The table before them was both there and not there. If they chose it
not to be, they could see fates laid out before them - not people, or
people's lives, but the patterns that shaped people's lives. Both
could understand them; one because, long since dead, he was more god
than mortal, and the other because he found it amusing to understand.
The dead one spoke first, in a voice that, despite its severity, had
behind every word the echo of booming laughter. "You saw, when you
were not too busy polishing your silicates. They accepted me as the
embodiment of evil, the human and the Vulcan halfbreed, without
question. You stood me beside Khan, Green and Zora, and they thought I
belonged there." There was anger in the last few words, but a resigned
anger. "Half a century, and this is all you have achieved."
The second figure had a very different voice; pedantic, sarcastic,
precise and effeminate, suffused with perpetual disappointment that
no-one else seemed to be able to get the joke. "Can I help it if
they're not that intelligent?"
Kahless the Unforgettable turned to face his companion. "Your little
charade on Excalbia was supposed to be a test, was it not? How many
ways must I tell you that your little experiment has failed?"
"I'd rather you didn't tell me at all," replied Q. "I find failure so
depressing. I'm just not accustomed to it like you mortals."
"Ha!" The laugh, short as it was, seemed to reveal more of the true
nature of Kahless than any angry words. "The great, omnipotent Q
brought low by the Klingon empire? I like that thought." Kahless had
no corporeal arm to slap Q on the back, but the intensity of his
thoughts alone left the omnipotent being stumbling slightly.
"Brought low by the inability of the Klingon people to realise their
potential," replied Q. "I had such hopes of you! That's why I did this
to you, to try and make you more like these humans. Now they, they
have real potential. And yet all you seem to be able to do is fight
them."
"What did you expect? Every living Klingon, and the spirit of every
honourable warrior, waking up one morning to find ourselves like
this?" Even a disembodied Klingon spirit had a forehead, and Kahless
raised a hand to his in illustration of his words, feeling its human
smoothness with disgust. "And then, to be approached by these humans,
and find ourselves looking like them. Who else were we supposed to
blame?"
"We? I like that. All you've done is look down from on high and
criticise."
"It saddens me." Kahless seemed to ignore Q's sarcasm. "My people have
lost their way. I taught them that the will to fight follows on from
the joy within the Klingon heart. Now they fight to try to find that
joy. Before long, they will be fighting to hide the lack of it. The
Empire is ruled by," he spat the word out, "politicians, not warriors.
We are too like the humans."
"If only," muttered Q, turning his head away.
Kahless's anger flared again. "You and your precious humans! If you
like them so much, why not mate with one?"
"The right one hasn't been born yet," mused Q sadly. "Though there
will be a starship Captain..."
"Spare me the details."
Suddenly Q's resolve seemed to snap. "All right, all right, the whole
thing's a failure. So what do you want me to do about it?"
"We must return to the ways of the warrior," pronounced Kahless in a
tone of finality.
"Oh, yes, of course, you and your warrior macho." Q's voice was
taunting, mocking again. "I suppose you want those silly foreheads
back too?"
"It would be a start." Kahless almost smiled. "To return to the ways
of the warrior, we must return to a warrior's appearance."
"Oh, I might as well." Q snapped his fingers. "Happy now?"
Kahless reached up, felt his brow, and smiled. The smile became a deep
chuckle, which gradually gave way to a deep, booming belly-laugh.
"Happy indeed, old friend. I feel Klingon again!"
They looked down from Sto-Vo-Kor on the pattern of fates below them,
and studied the future that this new change had created. After a
while, Kahless spoke again, in a matter-of-fact voice.
"It is not enough."
"Typical. It's never enough, is it? What more do you want me to do -
bring you back to life so you can lead your people into a new golden
age?"
"Not yet." Kahless appeared to have ignored Q's irony again. "Maybe,
in a century or so."
Flicking his fingers behind his back, out of Kahless's sight, Q
quickly created the seed of an idea, and planted it in the mind of
a young Klingon monk several years in the future. "As if I could do
something like that," he grumbled. "What do you think I am,
omnipotent?"
And, at last, two old friends laughed together.
THE END
(
geocities.com/southbeach/1380) (
geocities.com/southbeach)