"Walls of fire on one side rivers of lava on the other." "We snaked our way through the hot, smoldering canyon our skin so parched and blistered it was, it was as thick as armor." "Kang and Koloth and I had set out with 40 legions and now only we three remained to take on T'nag's army." "Chanting a battle cry..." "You know what I like about Klingon stories, Commander?" "...his eyes bulging..." "Nothing." "Lots of people die and nobody makes any profit." "...his bat'leth in the other" "I saw him kill two dozen men." "Do you believe a word of this?" "Snaking along rivers of lava, past walls of fire... not very likely." "Three against an army?" "Even more unlikely." "Yeah, but who cares?" "He tells it well." "Kang took the high ground and keeping the three suns to his back he forced the enemy to fight him against the blinding light." "When Kang told the story, you took the high ground." "Who gets the credit is of no importance." "What matters is this:" "In the end, the mountainside was covered with dead, so that not one square meter of ground could be seen." "We found T'nag's body... by the river, its waters red with blood." "Which of us had slain him... no one could say for certain, so... we cut out his heart and all three of us... feasted on it together." "Big heart." "You need more bloodwine." "Oh, thanks, but I've had enough for a year." "What I need is tea." "Mr. Worf, I didn't see you come in." "I was just about to leave." "Join us." "I'll introduce you to Kor." "No!" "It might make the Dahar Master uncomfortable." "I am considered an outcast by most Klingons." "Kor isn't like most Klingons." "Kor." "Hmm?" "I have someone I'd like you to meet." "Oh?" "I'd like you to meet our Strategic Operations Officer, Commander Worf." "Oh, Worf, the traitor." "The pariah." "The lowest of the low." "It's a pleasure to meet you." "Any enemy of Gowron and the High Council is a friend of mine." "This is a great honor." "Oh, no doubt." "Worf is a great admirer of yours." "Ah." "Yes, please." "Oh." "I have heard stories about you since I was a child." "Your confrontation with Kirk on Organia your attack on Romulus your defense of the Korma Pass..." "Everything I have done pales in comparison to what I am about to achieve." "I am on a quest-- a quest for the most revered icon in Klingon history." "Kor..." "An icon that predates the Klingon Empire." "An icon more sacred than the Torch of G'boj..." "Kor... more revered than Sabak's armor, and more coveted than the Emperor's crown." "The Sword of Kahless." "Ah...." "You told me not to tell anybody." "He guessed." "I know where the Sword rests." "Think of the glory, the honor of finding the bat'leth of the first warrior king." "Lost for a millennium." "Its return would change Klingon history." "If you know where it is we must bring it back to the Emperor." ""We"?" "It would be an honor to accompany you if you will have me." "We could use another strong arm." "And a stout heart." "Besides, it will annoy Gowron." "To return the Sword to our people." "I would give my life for that chance." "Children will sing our names for a thousand years." "They'll erect statues of us in the hall of heroes." "Before you decide on a pose for that statue we need to find the Sword." "What makes you so sure you know where it is?" "This." "Now, you see?" "See what?" "The imprint on the cloth." "Yes, yes... this held the Sword of Kahless." "Don't be so sure." "You could carpet this station with all the "authentic" Shrouds of the Sword that people have tried to peddle." "No one tried to peddle this." "It was given to me." "By whom?" "I'll tell you everything later." "Now I need you to confirm its authenticity." "I'll look it over in the lab first thing in the morning." "Why not right now?" "Right now, my head is swimming in bloodwine and I'm going to bed and so should you." "Oh, absolutely." "As soon as I finish what's left in my cup." "Maj ram, blood brother." "Maj ram." "Imagine the look on Gowron's face when we present the Sword to the Emperor." "Kor..." "Open your mind." "Oh, what?" "Hmm?" "Couldn't find the bed?" "Damn that Ferengi and his replicated bloodwine." "Worf looked a little bleary-eyed in Ops this morning." "How late did you keep him up?" "Until that toad-faced Ferengi threw us out of his bar." "And then where did you go?" "Worf's quarters, l-l think." "Oh, that's right." "He had a bottle of Yridian brandy he was saving for a special occasion." "Like meeting you." "Well, he was honored to join our quest." "That is, if there's going to be a quest." "What did you find?" "I found both Klingon and Hur'q DNA on the cloth and traces of metallic compounds that could only have been left by a Klingon bat'leth." "A bat'leth... 1400 years old." "The time of Kahless!" "Ah!" "I never doubted it." "Oh, when do we leave?" "After I talk to Captain Sisko and after you answer a few questions." "Now where did you get this?" "The Gamma Quadrant?" "A Vulcan geological survey team was mining bakrinium on an uncharted planet when they accidentally unearthed some ancient ruins." "They brought back several artifacts to study including the cloth." "Kor was the Klingon ambassador to Vulcan." "When he saw the cloth, Kor recognized the markings and got them to give it to him as a gift." "They didn't realize it, but the markings were Hur'q." "Hur'q... that's the Klingon word for outsiders, isn't it?" "Yes." "The Hur'q invaded our homeworld over 1,000 years ago." "Whatever they could not pillage, they destroyed." "They took the Sword and my people have been searching for it ever since." "It is said its return will bring back a new era of glory for the Klingon Empire." "With the Sword, the Emperor will be able to unite my people once again." "And if two Starfleet officers were involved in recovering the Sword that might go a long way toward patching things up between the Klingons and us." "That is my hope as well, Captain." "What about you, old man?" "You want to go along for the adventure." "Hard to pass up a good quest." "I suppose you'll want a runabout." "The, uh, Rio Grande is available." "Try to bring it back in one piece." "We'll do our best." "Benjamin, thanks." "Mr. Worf, lay in a course for the wormhole." "Course laid in." "Ahead half..." "Wait." "Let this moment be remembered." "For on this day, we three" "Kor, Dahar Master of the Klingons" "Jadzia Dax, a joined Trill of seven lives, and Worf, son of Mogh and thorn in Gowron's side... together stepped forth into the eye of destiny." "Now?" "Now." "Ahead half thrusters." "Glorious." "Hey." "Forgive me, Commander." "It's a little crowded in here." "I would have used the aft quarters for my exercise but the Dahar Master is resting." "I know, I heard him snoring through the bulkhead." "Commander." "I wish to thank you for introducing me to Kor." "It is an honor to be here." "And I'm glad he invited you even if it does make things a little crowded." "Oh, I slept like an Alvanian cave sloth." "Oh, but I had the most magnificent dream." "I dreamt the three of us were in the Hall of Heroes presenting the bat'leth to the Emperor." "We stood near the statues of Kang and Koloth and as the crowd sang out our names... the most astonishing thing happened." "Their statues came to life." "Kang and Koloth were flesh and blood again and we held the Sword high!" "Kang, Koloth and Kor... together again." "We have assumed a standard orbit." "I'm reading a series of interconnected structures and tunnels several kilometers beneath the surface." "And that is all that remains of the Hur'q the great plunderers of the galaxy." "And now it is time for us to reclaim what is ours." "Assuming we can find where to look." "It's a big planet." "The Vulcan survey team was meticulous." "They mapped the entire area during their mining operation." "Now, the Sword should be in the chamber that once was the Central Museum along with all the other great treasures looted by the Hur'q." "It's the structure furthest north." "There is a force field around that chamber." "The Vulcans told me they couldn't get through it." "We'll be the first inside." "Why didn't you mention this force field before?" "Oh, it's not important." "I'll know you'll get past it." "We should be just outside the force field." "The main chamber must be back there." "Let's get to work." "First we need to modulate the field destabilizers to create an interference pattern." "It's not working." "Try reversing the polarity." "That helped." "Now, if we can just increase the amplitude of the interference field." "Well done, my friends." "The air." "Foul, isn't it?" "This place has been undisturbed for hundreds of years." "Come!" "It's been ransacked." "The Vulcans may not have gotten in here but someone did." "Whoever did this has taken everything." "I'm sorry, Kor." "Don't be sorry for me." "Be sorry for the Empire." "If we could find out who did this we might be able to track them down." "For all we know the Sword is halfway across the galaxy by now." "Sounds like a worthy quest." "For you and Worf, perhaps, but not for me." "My last chance for glory dies here." "Commander, take a look at this." "The dust... it does not reach the wall." "Something must be repelling it." "I'm getting a faint electrostatic charge along this section." "Another force field?" "Masked by a holographic projection." "Are you saying there may be another chamber behind it?" "If there is, I don't know how we can get into it." "This shield has completely different harmonics than the one in the entrance." "This... this is a sensor focused on the area directly in front of the force field." "It must be keyed to read life signs." "Why?" "So only the Hur'q can enter?" "If you're right, we're going to need a Hur'q tour guide to get us through." "We may be able to fool the sensor into thinking that we are Hur'q." "We can reconfigure the tricorder to emit Hur'q life signs." "Exactly." "I still have the DNA readings we got from the cloth." "I feel like a Hur'q already." "I cannot believe it." "For a thousand years our people have dreamed of this moment." "The age, the composition, the design-- everything's right." "How can you doubt it?" "Look at it!" "It's more beautiful than I imagined." "You should be the first to hold it." "How does it feel?" "Good." "Very, very good." "To think, Kahless himself once held this bat'leth." "With this he slew Molor conquered the Fek'lhri and forged the First Empire." "And now, I hold it in my hands." "We should go." "The field destabilizers won't hold for long." "Stop where you are!" "Well, Kor, seems you were right." "You did find the Sword." "Who are you?" "Ask your friend." "This is Toral from the House of Duras." "It is good to see you, too, Worf." "Seems you were too drunk to remember me or the tavern on Torna IV?" "You held us all spellbound with a tale of a Hur'q cloth and how it was going to lead you to the Sword." "I was so intrigued that I sent my friend here to see what else you knew." "What do you want?" "What we all want." "The Sword." "The Sword is for the Emperor." "Who will be so grateful he'll give Kor his statue and perhaps even forgive your dishonor?" "I'm afraid I have different plans for the Sword." "You think that if you give the Emperor the Sword he will restore your family's seat on the High Council." "I'm not giving the Emperor anything." "With the Sword in my hand, I'll be leading the Empire." "I can see from your face, Worf that you regret having spared my life." "Now give it to me." "No." "Then I'm afraid we'll have to take it." "If he wants it... give it to him." "Let's go!" "We need to stop the bleeding." "We better get you up to the ship." "Dax to Rio Grande." "That is a Klingon jamming signal." "Can we override it?" "Maybe from the surface." "Kor, go make sure no one's following us." "Did you see the look on the face of that Klingon that I killed?" "It was as if he understood the honor bestowed upon him." "The first man in a thousand years to be killed by the Sword of Kahless." "I'm sure he was very proud." "We should keep moving." "Toral will find a way past the force field." "Why did Toral say that you had spared his life?" "When it was discovered that the House of Duras had conspired to destroy my father's honor" "Gowron offered me Toral's life." "Under the Right of Vengeance." "I declined." "Why?" "He was a boy." "He had done nothing." "That's beside the point." "It was a matter of honor." "It was Worf's right to decline." "It was a mistake." "Perhaps what they say about you is true." "You've been around humans too long." "Kor!" "If he hadn't spared Toral's life we'd be on the way to Kronos." "And if you had not been drunk and told a tavern full of people what you were planning" "Toral would not have followed us here in the first place." "I told them nothing of consequence." "How could I know that Toral was going send a Lethean to steal my thoughts?" "You should have been more discreet." "And you should have been more of a Klingon." "Kor, what was that all about?" "Hmm?" "Worf admires you." "You have no idea how much it meant for him to be invited on this journey." "Tell me, Dax, how well do you know him?" "Well enough." "Why?" "I'm beginning to think" "I was too lenient in my judgment of him." "Any Klingon who denies himself the Right of Vengeance is no Klingon at all." "He dishonors the Sword with his presence." "I don't trust him." "I should have let him stay on that space station where he belongs." "Worf." "HoH!" "What is it?" "Lunch." "Delicious, isn't it?" "A hunt builds the appetite." "It's disgusting." "Ah, but it'll make a good part of the story-- how we slew the beast?" "Remember?" "It attacked us from the dark, five meters long." "Oh, ten at least." "Eyes ablaze, fangs like daggers." "Breathing great plumes of fire." "Oh, it seems the son of Mogh is not amused." "A true warrior has no need to exaggerate his feats." "You'd better hope that I exaggerate or else when they start singing songs about this quest and come to your verse, it will be "and Worf came along."" "This is the Sword of Kahless." "It is not something to shovel food into your mouth." "It must be treated with honor." "Hmm, hmm, hmm, look at him." "He's like the Hur'q." "He thinks it's a museum piece." "Why, Kahless himself used it to skin the serpent of Xol to harvest his father's field to carve a statue of his own beloved." "It's a sword!" "But Worf doesn't know what to do with it except bow before it and then hand it over to his precious Emperor." "And when we do, you will get your precious statue and after they have sung songs about you and you have passed out from too much drink the Emperor will use the Sword to unite our people." "If Gowron allows him." "The Emperor is merely his puppet." "The Emperor is no one's puppet." "He condemned Gowron's invasion of Cardassia." "And the invasion went ahead despite his objection." "That is why the Emperor needs the Sword." "It will allow him to unify the Houses against Gowron." "The Emperor is a pretender, a clone of the original Kahless cooked up in a vat by ambitious clerics." "And if you hadn't supported him, he'd be right back in that vat where he came from." "I supported him because we need him." "He can unite us." "The Sword will unite us if it's held by a true Klingon not a politician like Gowron or some toothless figurehead like the Emperor." "The Sword must rest in the hands of someone who has been hardened by battle pure of heart who understands loyalty and honor." "A warrior like Kang and Koloth." "Someone like you?" "The Empire could do far worse." "We should get moving." "Are you saying it is your intention to lead the Empire?" "Ah..." "I'm saying it's my intention to lead us to the surface." "We have to change your bandage." "No." "We must keep moving." "You're hemorrhaging." "We have to stop the bleeding." "That cave-rat was all bones." "I need another one." "Find a nice fat one." "We all could use something to eat." "He never answered my question about his plans for the Sword." "I noticed." "He is a hero to many." "If he brings it back with him to Kronos and decides to seize power, many will follow him." "But you wouldn't?" "He is not all I thought he was." "Maybe not." "Sorry." "But I've known him a long time and his heart's in the right place." "He drinks too much." "He exaggerates his feats." "He blames others for his own mistakes but he could be right about one thing." "The Emperor may be too weak to stand against Gowron even with the Sword." "I thought you believed in the Emperor." "I do not know what I believe anymore." "All I know is when Kor asked me to help him find the Sword, I knew we would succeed." "I knew we would find it." "I can't say I felt the same way." "I had no doubt." "I felt as if my life was finally coming into focus." "What do you mean?" "For as long as I can remember, I have always been an outsider." "I was raised by humans but I was too Klingon to be one of them." "I did not belong." "I begged my foster parents to allow me to visit the Klingon Homeworld." "They arranged for me to stay with my cousin's family." "When I first set eyes on the Great Domes of Kronos" "I felt that I had finally come home." "But my own cousins wanted nothing to do with me." "You were too human to be one of them." "I ran away into the mountains." "I was without food or water for three days." "But there, in the caves of No'Mat" "Kahless appeared to me in a vision and told me" "I would do something no other Klingon had ever done." "After I returned to Earth" "I pondered the meaning of his words and wondered what lay ahead for me." "When I was old enough, I joined Starfleet." "Something no Klingon had ever done." "For a time" "I thought that I had fulfilled my destiny but now I see Kahless had something else in mind for me." "Something... something greater." "That is why I had to endure so much pain." "Why I was forced to choose between the Federation and my own people." "I was being tested." "Prepared for some..." "some greater purpose." "Like finding the Sword." "More than that." "When I held the Sword in my hand" "I felt the spirit of Kahless himself had guided me to it." "Don't you see?" "He wants me to have it." "He wants me to lead his people!" "You sound like Kor." "Kor is an old man." "His greatest days are behind him and mine are still ahead." "Then we have a bit of a problem." "There's only one Sword, and you both want it." "How much further?" "The way these caves wind around, this could take forever." "Or longer." "We can't get across." "We'll go back and find another way up." "Wait." "There." "Kor, there's a ledge right below you." "I don't see it." "It is less than one meter down." "Let go and you'll land on it." "Dax, can you see it?" "I can't see anything." "I can't hold you." "You'll have to let go!" "There is no ledge!" "It is there!" "Then you let go." "No." "We cannot risk losing the Sword." "Let go!" "I'll take the Sword to my grave before I give it to you." "Just hold on." "We'll pull you up." "You call that a ledge?" "It would have been sufficient." "For a Degebian mountain goat not a Klingon warrior." "You were going to let me fall." "You wanted me to die." "So you can keep the Sword for yourself." "And you were willing to take the Sword to your death and rob our people of their future." "Give it to me!" "That's enough, both of you!" "I will not give him the Sword." "Then give it to me." "I'll carry it." "Kor, put away your dagger." "Are you siding with him?" "Put away your dagger, so he can give me the bat'leth." "You see?" "I was right." "He's not to be trusted." "His mind has been poisoned with bloodwine and age." "He was right about one thing." "You wanted him to fall." "That ledge would have never supported him and you knew it." "I did not force him off that cliff." "He is old and clumsy." "If he'd have fallen it would have been his own fault." "I'm exhausted." "Commander... we can rest in here for a few hours." "I'm so tired" "I think I might be able to sleep." "I will take the first watch." "How generous of you." "And we'll just curl up like trusting children under your vigilant gaze." "Sleep or do not sleep." "It makes no difference to me." "You're wounded." "I should take the first watch." "You get some rest." "You close your eyes." "I am not tired." "Hmm..." "I understand." "It's hard to sleep in the presence of something so magnificent." "Someone might try to steal it." "You reveal your own intentions." "Enough." "I have the Sword, and it's not going anywhere." "What was that?" "I heard nothing." "A voice." "I hear it again." "It's the spirit of Kahless." "He's talking to you, Worf." "He's telling you to bide your time." "Let them sleep and then slit their throats and claim your destiny." "I have had enough of your drunken ramblings, old man." "And I have had enough of both of you." "I don't care if you sleep or not." "But I'm going to." "So be quiet." "Go ahead and sleep, Dax." "I'll keep an eye on him." "I have had enough!" "What!" "His eyes." "He has been staring at me for three hours." "And what have you seen reflected in my eyes?" "Your own guilt gnawing at you." "All right." "If you're not going to sleep, then let's walk." "I'm not going anywhere with this traitorous p'tak." "This ends here." "Agreed." "I am not going to stand here..." "You stay out of this." "This is between us." "We'll settle it in our own way." "We've got to get out of here!" "MaH Hlv dah!" "He's going to get himself killed." "No, no, he has the Sword." "Hlv dah!" "It's mine!" "Kor!" "Commander!" "Worf!" "Stop!" "Dax, I knew in the end you'd choose me." "We're blood brothers." "Be quiet!" "Now, about that jamming device you're using to block our communications." "Are you sure of this, Worf?" "Yes." "Yes, it is the only way." "Do we have the right?" "This Sword belongs to all Klingons." "But are we ready for it?" "This Sword turned you and me against each other." "Imagine how it would divide the Empire." "Just let me hold it one last time..." "The Sword is not meant for us." "It was never our destiny to find it." "You're wrong." "It was our destiny to find it." "It just wasn't our destiny... to keep it." "It is done." "Good." "It's for the best." "I hope you're right." "It could be lost for another thousand years." "When it is destined to be found... it will be."