“WHAT IN THE NINE FIRES OF GRETHOR IS GOING ON, ADMIRAL?!?!”
The people in the spacedock’s command and control center melted out of the way of the fuming Klingon.
Especially since not many would dare speak to Fleet Admiral Jorel Quinn that way, but then the Commander-and-Chief of Starfleet had been expecting this confrontation.
“What can I do for you Fleet Admiral?” he asked.
Hauk’ bulled his way through the room like a tornado surrounded by dark clouds spitting hail and lightning.
Of course, his voice rang like a thunderclap as he spoke.
“What’s the meaning of this?”
Hauk tossed the padd onto the console at which the Trill flag officer had been working.
Jorel didn’t even give it a glance. As stated before, he’d been expecting THIS confrontation.
“You STRIPPED my ship of its name before it could even be christened,” the Klingon fumed.
“WHY?”
“You of all people here KNOW what that name means to me,” he added.
Jorel shot a quick glance at Capt. Akira Sulu and with a gesture had him activate the privacy bubble around the area immediately surrounding the master holographic display where the three officers now stood.
The bubble muted any sound or sights within the bubble by those outside until it was again deactivated.
“There are a few things you need to know, and I had to wait until everything could be verified and RE-verified,” he said finally.
“What in Grethor are you talking about?” Hauk asked.
“What …… THINGS?”
He dragged out the last word for effect.
“What I’m about to tell you is classified. … At least for the moment,” the CINC began.
“An Odyssey-variant of a class we’ve never built … or considered for that matter … was found adrift and dark.”
“She was floating outside an anomaly the Valkyrie happened to have been sent out investigate … a location I’m not quite ready to speak of just yet.”
“What I can tell you is that this is a ship … with a registry … you might find very interesting.”
Jorel tapped the console in front of him to alter the holographic display before them.
Hauk’ took an involuntary step back before regaining his composure and stepping forward again, to better inspect the ship visual currently displayed.
It was indeed a variant of the Odyssey line (as this reality would call it), but definitely not one from this reality.
But Hauk’ knew it well as it was one he’d known well in the alternate universe he’d originally called home.
And it wasn’t just the class of starship he knew well, but the ship itself as well.
Written across the saucer, was … “U.S.S. Excalibur” … “NCC-71446-A.”
After the U.S.S. Excalibur, NCC-71446, had been destroyed in the Second Battle of Centerpoint, it had not taken long before another ship with that name had been christened.
Unlike the Odyssey-class, this ship featured a round saucer and nacelle pylons that swept forward.
In the display, the ship was dark and lifeless … floating dead in space.
She might not have been the one that had served as his flagship once upon a time, but she was one of which he still had definite ties with.
The ship, however, had been reported missing and lost — believed captured by the Horvauk (an offshoot of a race called Undine in this reality).
Swallowing hard and without turning away from the display, he asked the question.
“What of the crew?” he asked, his voice cracking slightly.
Jorel smiled.
“I’m pleased to report that your god daughter is alive and well as are most of her crew.”
“Alive?” Hauk’ turned.
“And despite the anomaly draining power about every system on that ship, Capt. Bahni’qin managed to somehow keep her people alive.”
“It took over three weeks before Excalibur was located and another week and a half before they could figure out how to extract them from all the gravity wells that held them …”
The CINC paused a moment before continuing.
“You understand we had to verify that ship’s origins and the crew’s identities and origins as well before we could even think of sharing any of this with you.”
Hauk’ nodded. It was far from his … as the humans would say … ‘first rodeo.’
Jorel switched the view of the ship to one more current.
The image now shown ship nestled in drydock with hull more crisp and solid … definite life within her spaceframe.
“And considering that we plan to add this ship to the fleet … still under the command of your god daughter,” Jorel said with a smug grin, “I’m sure you can see why you’ll simply have to come up with another name for your flagship.”
“We did have to replace the saucer section by the stardrive section was relatively intact so a welcome addition that comes at a time when we really need new ships.”
For too many years now, Hauk’ had felt his god daughter lost to him — daughter of a good friend and one whom he’d pledged himself to protect and help guide through life and along the warrior’s path.
And not even because the whole of his reality had collapsed as they’d been missing since even before that.
Now … he was without words.
“I need to see her,” Hauk’ said.
Jorel nodded.
“Excalibur is being assigned to the Malstrom expanse,” he answered.
“You should find ship and crew already there once you’ve returned.”
The Klingon gestured towards the privacy curtain. “Why all this?”
“For all your gruffness, you Klingon’s tend to be an … emotional species at times,” he answered.
And quickly, the CINC grinned.
“That and I wasn’t sure just how angry you were likely to get before I could explain the situation.”
Jorel winked. “Wanted to spare you the dignity of a public ass kicking.”
Hauk’ could respect the answer, but … “My ass kicked? … You dream, Admiral. You dream.”
Jorel laughed before putting a hand on the other’s shoulder.
“Congratulations on your daughter.”
“Thank you, Admiral. You’ve no idea …” Hauk’ fought back tears. “…the hope this gives me.”
“It’s more than just having her back.”
He paused. “It’s a piece of … home … returned to me.”
Hauk’ had long sense made his peace with his home galaxy being lost and gone, and this reality home.
But just as he’d hoped to find other survivors and refuges of his verse possibly hidden within the Malstrom Expanse, it was a slim hope with the Klingon being a realist.
In his heart, he’d committed those there just as his daughter before him to the afterlife.
And now she’d returned as if on the wings of what some humans might call a Valkyrie.
Hauk’ paused again, looking to the display and the Excalibur.
“Beowulf,” he said after a moment.
“Since my new ship has to change its name … U.S.S. Beowulf.”
“It’s a name that’s been on my short list for quite some time now.”
Beowulf … an Old English epic poem in the tradition of Germanic heroic legend consisting of 3,182 alliterative lines. It’s considered one of the most important and most often translated works of Old English literature.
It’s a story surrounding the deeds of Beowulf — a hero and prince of the Geats.
A young warrior who comes to the aid of Hrothgar, king of the Danes, whose great hall, Heorot, is plagued by the monster Grendel.
Beowulf kills Grendel with his bare hands, then kills Grendel’s mother with a giant’s sword that he found in her lair.
Later in his life, he becomes king of the Geats, and finds his realm terrorized by a dragon, some of whose treasure had been stolen from his hoard in a burial mound.
He attacks the dragon with the help of his thegns or servants, but they do not succeed.
Beowulf decides to follow the dragon to its lair at Earnanæs, but only his young Swedish relative Wiglaf, whose name means “remnant of valour”, dares to join him.
Beowulf finally slays the beast, but is mortally wounded in the struggle. He is cremated and a burial mound by the sea is erected in his honour.
In a nutshell, Beowulf’s tale is one worthy of song and opera.
And you have not read the true story until you’ve read it in its original Klingon.
It’s understandable why this work by an anonymous author captured the heart and imagination of the Klingon.
And then there was Excelsior-class variant released not long after the Excelsior itself.
The NCC-2701 was an Excelsior-class that updated technologies originally found in the then outdated Repulse class.
She was built to explore the farther reaches of space, existing for longer periods out past the known frontiers while operating alone.
Her discoveries and deeds were many, yet she and her crew were often eclipse by the large shadows of the Enterprise and Kirk … Excelsior and Sulu.
Hauk’ always felt she deserved more recognition and time in the spotlight.
Plus, he happened to know there was no Beowulf currently in active service within the fleet as the Akira-class version had been decommissioned following damage sustained during the last Voth incursion.
The Commander-in-Chief of Starfleet retrieved the padd Hauk had so unceremoniously thrown down in front of him earlier and made notes on it before giving his authorized blessing.
“U.S.S. Beowulf… NCC-2701-A, it will be then.”
The Fleet Admiral handed the Klingon back the padd.
“Congratulations, Fleet Admiral on both the return of your daughter AND your new starship.”
