However, he was not a farmer or a fisherman or a scientist. Indeed, he despised farmers and fishermen, and the only reason he tolerated scientists at all was that he happened to call one his wife. Still, there were days, such as today, when she and those like her made Komoraq give more than a passing thought to destroying the entire planet and them along with it.
Releasing a grunt of frustrated resignation, he turned and proceeded down the narrow trail that members of his crew had cut through the lush tropical undergrowth. Following the path as it descended from the plateau along the side of the hill, Komoraq made his way to the ravine, which was all but concealed from the air by the canopy of towering trees covering the island’s northern quadrant. It took several bends and turns in the trail before the Klingon captain found himself standing at the entrance to the structure that had no business here, in what poets—including his wife—would call unblemished paradise.
Seemingly carved from a single piece of what appeared to be obsidian glass but which Komoraq knew was a still-unidentified substance, the edifice was thousands of years old, if the sensor readings recorded by his wife and her cadre of science specialists were accurate. Rising only a handful of meters from the soil, the visible portion was but a fraction of what lay embedded in the ground beneath Komoraq’s feet. The entrance, as impressive as it was in its elegant simplicity, belied the wondrous contents to be found within. Scans had determined this to be the center of the planet’s collection of mysterious alien technology, much like what had been discovered on other worlds throughout the Gonmog Sector. According to the collected sensor data, nothing hidden beneath the surface at this location had been disturbed for millennia. It all lay untouched, waiting for its creators or anyone else fortunate to find it.
Now, all I need is for my wife and her gaggle of sniveling bookworms to figure out how to make any of it work.
After crossing the threshold and entering the structure’s foyer, Komoraq proceeded down a narrow corridor, which also appeared to have been cut with uncanny precision from whatever material had been used to build the place. Just as with the external façade, the passage showed no visible seams or any means of fastening together sections or components. Others might even view the corridor itself as a work of art, but Komoraq was not one to waste time on such useless observations.
“Someone, anyone, please tell me that you’ve discovered something of worth,” he called out, his voice echoing off the smooth, opaque walls as the passage opened into a larger chamber.
Present in the room were six Klingons, five males and one female. Komoraq knew the males only in passing, recognizing their faces from the crew’s personnel database. They were scientists rather than warriors, so he had never considered it necessary to bother learning their names. They were occupied with various tasks, huddled around a collection of portable computer workstations on field desks and equipment containers transported down from the M’ahtagh.Ignoring them and whatever they might be doing, he directed his attention to the lone female in the room. “Alleviate my doubts, my mate, and convince me that you’ve found the source for powerful new weapons that will make us rulers of the empire.”
From where she stood hunched over what he recognized as the control panel of a portable dynamic energy-mode conversion unit—the type normally used by engineering and repair crews when a situation required directing power on a level generated only by a vessel’s warp engines—his wife, Lorka, turned from her work toward him. As she straightened and rose to her full height, Komoraq noted that her dark hair, which she wore in a short, utilitarian style, and her face and uniform were lightened by a thin coat of fine dust. The scowl darkening her features told him that she was in no mood for any of the playful banter he was unable to resist employing whenever she was immersed in her work.
He smiled, baring his teeth. Her reactions never failed to excite him.
Shaking her head, Lorka directed an expression of disgust toward the dust covering her as though noticing it for the first time. Rivulets of sweat had drawn lines in the filmy grime, and Komoraq tensed as his nostrils caught her scent. He had always thought her at her most beautiful whenever she was ensconced in her element, her thoughts not at all on him and instead focused on the tasks before her.
“Maintain your bearing, my captain,” she said, obviously recognizing his expression. “We’ve no time for such distractions.” She pointed to what Komoraq recognized as a darkened control console, one of the room’s few notable features. “As for progress, there’s been precious little of that. This cursed machinery defies our every effort to understand it, much less activate it.”
It was the same report he had been hearing, with little variation, since they’d come to the planet more than two months ago, well before the arrival of the meddlesome Earther colonists. Since they had discovered the ancient chamber and its promise of unheralded secrets and potential, some type of energy generation source had been in operation, supplying minimal power to the equipment stored within the underground cache. Lorka and her teams had only just begun to study the amazing find when, without warning, all power routing ceased to function. All attempts to restore operations, or even to understand what had caused them to cease, had failed.
There were theories that this was related to the incredible disappearance of an entire star system deep within the Gonmog Sector, which might well be the center of power for the ancient race that supposedly had once ruled this region of space. It was a hypothesis supported by intelligence reports from spies within Starfleet, as well as the Federation’s own public media outlets, if one series of astonishing news reports was to be believed. Members of the mysterious civilization had already been encountered on other worlds, usually with alarming results and putting to rest any notions that they had ceased to exist long ago. Was their influence so far-reaching that they could command the destruction of entire planets and solar systems on a whim and channel energy to planets scattered across light-years of space? If they possessed even a fraction of that power, Komoraq knew that made them an enemy far more formidable than anything yet encountered by the Klingon Empire.
He frowned as he studied the panel, which had only a minimal array of features. No display screens or controls adorned the console, which instead was dominated by a collection of crystals of varying sizes, shapes, and colors. None of the crystals was illuminated or pulsed with anything indicating a power source, and no patterns or methods to the crystals’ arrangement presented themselves. “It’s a mechanism, is it not?” he asked, waving one hand toward the device. “We know that much from previous encounters with this technology.”
“Of course,” Lorka replied, making no effort to hide her disdain at having to discuss these concepts with someone who did not possess any appreciable degree of scientific or engineering knowledge. “But on those occasions, the crews who studied the finds also had at their disposal whatever energy source generated power to the equipment. Since the power source behind this technology stopped functioning, we no longer have that luxury.”
Grunting in irritation, Komoraq shook his head. “Surely, there must be a means of accessing its innards and providing our own power.”
“How fortunate that we have you here to provide such unrivaled insight,” Lorka replied, sneering so that he saw her rows of uneven, sharp teeth, “for certainly we would not have thought to consider that notion ourselves.” Before Komoraq could respond to the verbal jab, she cut him off, gesturing to indicate the chamber around them. “We’ve been unable to find anything resembling a power junction or an access conduit or even a door, as though this entire structure were one monstrous mountain of crystal or glass or whatever this substance is.”