Unworthy Hands
Posted on Mon Jul 27th, 2026 @ 4:45pm by Lieutenant JG Liora Sen
Edited on on Mon Jul 27th, 2026 @ 4:47pm
1,174 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Mission 1: Through the Janus Gate
Location: Secure Communications Room, Intelligence Suite, USS Resolute
Timeline: MD002 - 1546 hours
The reply from the Klingon Embassy had arrived faster than Liora expected.
That was rarely comforting.
She sat alone in one of the Intelligence suite’s secure communications rooms, the lighting lowered around the central terminal while encrypted data scrolled across the auxiliary displays. Her lunch with Commander Vren’desh had given her a direction. The hours since had been spent deciding how little she needed to reveal in order to follow it.
The full Intelligence packet remained sealed.
The Pakled vessel’s name, known aliases, last confirmed position near the Archanis Drift and projected course were all withheld. So were the broader sensor readings gathered by the Resolute. None of that was necessary to ask whether the Klingons recognised what she had found, and giving it away would only invite another player into an already uncertain situation.
Instead, Liora had submitted a narrow enquiry through the KDF intelligence liaison attached to the Klingon Embassy in San Francisco.
A fragment of Klingon text.
A tightly cropped image of the inscription cut into the device’s casing.
A request for authentication.
Nothing more.
The communications display shifted, replacing the Klingon emblem with the image of a broad-shouldered officer in a dark KDF uniform. Colonel T’Korr, son of Belak, had the heavy ridges and weathered face of someone who regarded pleasantries as an inefficient foreign custom.
“Lieutenant Sen.”
“Colonel.” Liora inclined her head. “Thank you for responding.”
“You submitted an official enquiry concerning a Klingon military inscription.”
“I submitted an inscription for authentication.”
T’Korr regarded her for a moment, perhaps deciding whether the distinction amused or irritated him.
“Show it to me.”
Liora transferred the cropped scan. It revealed little beyond the Klingon characters and a small section of the dark Dominion casing beneath them. No surrounding machinery. No Pakled hull. Nothing that might establish the device’s current location.
T’Korr went still.
The change was slight, but it was there.
Liora let the silence stand.
“Where did you obtain this image?” he asked.
“From an active Starfleet investigation.”
“That was not my question.”
“It is the answer I’m authorised to give.”
His gaze remained fixed on her for several seconds before shifting back to the inscription.
“The translation?”
“Spoils taken by an unworthy hand.”
“Close enough.”
“Commander Vren’desh believed the wording referred to something claimed in battle, then removed from Klingon custody by someone without honour.”
T’Korr’s jaw tightened.
Another answer without words.
Liora rested her hands lightly on the console. “Do you recognise the inscription?”
“It was carved aboard the IKS Qul’vaj during the Dominion War.”
“A Vor’cha-class attack cruiser.”
“You have read the registry.”
“I do this professionally.”
Something almost approving passed across his expression before it hardened again.
“The Qul’vaj recovered an item from a crippled Dominion vessel,” he said. “It was claimed under the right of conquest and transferred for study.”
“And later disappeared.”
T’Korr did not answer.
Liora had not expected him to. The silence was useful enough.
“The device is no longer in Klingon custody,” she continued. “That much appears established. What I need to know is whether its loss was ever formally investigated, and whether the Empire considers recovery an active priority.”
“You have not told me what you found.”
“I’ve told you what I needed authenticated.”
“You believe the device has resurfaced.”
Liora held his gaze. “I believe an object carrying that inscription is currently relevant to a Starfleet operation.”
“Where?”
“That information is operationally restricted.”
“On whose authority?”
“Captain Venn’s, unless she decides otherwise.”
T’Korr leaned closer to his terminal. “The object was bought with Klingon blood.”
“That doesn’t grant the Empire access to an ongoing Starfleet operation.”
“It remains Klingon property.”
“That may be true,” Liora said evenly. “It may also be unstable, in the possession of people who don’t understand it, and surrounded by Starfleet personnel trying to prevent the situation from becoming worse. Those concerns take priority over ownership.”
The colonel’s eyes narrowed.
“The current holders are Pakled.”
It was not a question.
Liora’s expression did not change, though she wondered which part of the enquiry had given him enough to make the leap. Perhaps Vren’desh had been right about how particular Klingon grammar could be. Perhaps T’Korr knew far more about the device’s journey than he was willing to admit.
“I did not confirm that.”
“You did not deny it.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“To an Intelligence officer, perhaps.”
“To any officer interested in accuracy.”
T’Korr looked again at the inscription. When he spoke, some of the confrontation had left his voice, replaced by something colder.
“If it is the device recovered by the Qul’vaj, it will not remain hidden once awakened.”
Liora caught the phrasing immediately.
“Awakened how?”
“You have asked for authentication. I have provided it.”
“And you’ve just implied the device produces an identifiable signature.”
“I implied nothing.”
“Of course.”
She allowed the silence to sharpen between them.
“Will the Empire dispatch a recovery vessel?”
“That is an internal Klingon matter.”
“If a Klingon vessel enters an active Starfleet operation without coordination, there is a serious risk of escalation.”
“The dishonour belongs to us, Lieutenant.”
His eyes met hers across the channel.
“So does its correction.”
The transmission ended.
Liora remained still for a moment, watching the Klingon emblem return to the display.
She had not given T’Korr the Pakled vessel’s name. She had not given him coordinates, course projections or the Resolute’s operational plans.
She was no longer certain any of that mattered.
If the Klingons possessed the original Dominion sensor profile, or had spent years searching for the device through their own channels, confirmation that it had resurfaced might be enough. If T’Korr had been telling the truth about its activation signature, then the Pakleds could announce themselves the moment they tried to use it.
Liora opened a new report.
KDF identification confirmed. Inscription linked to an artefact recovered during the Dominion War by the IKS Qul’vaj, Vor’cha class. Subsequent removal from Klingon custody acknowledged indirectly.
She added a second paragraph.
No current positional, navigational or operational information was disclosed. KDF liaison nevertheless demonstrated prior knowledge of the artefact and indicated it may produce an identifiable signature if activated. Klingon recovery interest assessed as active and potentially unilateral.
The report was routed to Captain Venn and Commander Vren’desh with the full transcript attached.
Before sending it, Liora added one final recommendation.
Treat unannounced Klingon intervention as a credible operational risk.
The report vanished into the command channel.
Liora looked once more at the frozen inscription cut into the device’s Dominion casing.
She had been careful not to show the Klingons the trail.
The uncomfortable possibility was that they had never truly lost it.
Lieutenant JG Liora Sen
Strategic Operations/Assistant Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Resolute
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