Ansolon Season 2 / Episode 01
By Alan Tripp
— 2412 —
The Black Knight of Ansolon leaned back in his seat outside the old tavern.
He’d once gone by Black Knight of Kronos, but that title now belonged to another he’d met who had been here longer than he.
A tankard of ale was held loosely in one hand, half drained, as the Klingon warrior turned Starfleet let himself become lost in the sensual flavors.
The sounds of lutes and flutes and other such musical instruments wove a magical spell of a sort around a mingling crowd sporting a wide range of garments that ranged from the armor of knights, the softer padding of squires, the fancery of royalty, fairies, vikings, druids, sorcerers and even Klingons in traditional warrior garb and the latest fashions that were all the rage back in the Romulan Republic.
Ka’nej Hauk wore custom armor he normally wore whenever he planned to joust at the tilt yard center of the faire.
And as for the faire, it was at the heart of the promenade along one edge of the massive arboretum of Starbase Ansolon (aka. “Hell’s Keep”).
Many consider the promenade a city that ringed that arboretum / faire and was itself divided into various districts defined by its shape.
This tavern was part of the faire proper and one the Vice-Admiral would often frequent back when he served as SF Harbour Command’s Commander-in-Chief in what seemed a lifetime ago.
But that was what now felt ages past with Harbour having evolved into Ansolon Command, and Ka’nej Hauk found he himself loved command of just the Excelsior II-class U.S.S. Timber Wolf.
Toss in, it was definitely a shattered reality and several years away at any rate.
But that had been short lived, lasting through the first few galactic conflicts faced after first being brought here, but ultimately in the Iconian War, he’d been forced to once again take the mantel of Chief.
After many conflicts and war, the U.S.S. Timber Wolf had been severely damaged in one of the final battles of the Iconian War to the point it had been decommissioned.
So with Ka’nej Hauk between commands, the Admiralty finally cornered him and pushed hard for him to accept promotion, stating with new discoveries made in the Malstrom Expanse, he was the Klingon best equipped to lead efforts in those sectors.
As he had a personal stake in it.
So this time, he’d accepted the increase in rank and the title of Commander-in-Chief of “Ansolon Command,” under the Alliance Central Command umbrella.
His one caveat … That he be allowed to maintain command of a ship and control his overall command from there.
Thus, he’d accepted the promotion to Fleet Admiral BUT would command from the soon to be launched Shangri-La III-class U.S.S. Timber Wolf, NCC-73446 — being outfitted with specialized command hardware designed to cutthrough the murk of the Expanse.
It would serve as his personal command ship while the actual flagship Ansolon Command would be the Odyssey-class U.S.S. Britannia.
The latter was as close of a name as he could come to his father’s former flagship, the Excalibur.
Like he and many among the crew of the Britannia, they were survivors of a doomed reality that by some quirk of fate had been cast into this reality and spared … like Hell’s Keep … from the shattering of a timeline / reality they’d once called home.
Cast back in time a bit even, not that it mattered as events had taken a left turn in this reality at some point where their own had gone right. … Yeap, right off the cliff into oblivion.
The Klingon had thought long and hard about taking the Britannia, however, it would not be able to navigate the Malstrom as easily as the smaller Timber Wolf.
And he himself was a wolf in Klingon armor.
Hauk sipped from his tankard, his armor creaking a bit.
As he understood it … somehow and for some unknown reason, it seemed that quantum duplicates of the fleet he’d commanded … ships and people both … had been created when they’d closed that rift in space-time and fell through the void between back in what was in this reality 2408.
And with them came the Borg, returning that scourge to this galaxy after one Picard and the Enterprise D had eradicated what remained of them.
“Our bad,” he muttered under his breath, taking another swig of ale.
The cool ale always tasted better after one had the chance to work out those frustrations by unhorsing several opponents in the lists as the crowd gathered to watch the tournament cheered.
Of course, it was NOT technically his fleet’s fault … talking about the Borg … as truth is the whole mess stemmed from Romulans back in 2294 firing subspace weapons (since banned) in the vicinity of an active transwarp aperture.
The result led to an event that tunneled through space-time, snatching up ships and crews from all across the timeline and even space itself and depositing them here and now … well, a few years ago back in 2408 at any rate.
Those that survived what has since been called the “Temporal Crossing” and survived the fight with the Borg went on to become assimilated into the new timeline … just in time for the coming wars.
Taking another swig, Ka’nej Hauk grunted to himself at the memories of those past few years.
So many wars and conflicts, he’d actually lost count of them all … wars with the Klingons, Borg, Undine (for him, they’d always be the Horvauk), Terrans, Borg, Iconians, Borg, Terrans …
You catch the drift.
But in this moment and in this place, Ka’nej felt as if he were not just home again, but able to kick up his spurred boots and relax … after a good day, of breaking lances and making other less able knights kiss the earth in crumbling heaps.
Of course, few were injured from such these days thanks to devices built directly into their armored suits to help protect them from unleashing true death and harm upon one another.
Something that in his opinion … and that of his “brother” in the Klingon Empire … took some of the fun out of the endevour, but not to a point that it ruined it.
And these thoughts reminded him. … He still needed to sign up for the next round of Arena of Sompek tournaments that should be returning soon.
But yes, the ren faire was a crowd favorite at Hell’s Keep, but also one for the Klingon himself.
The Vice-Admiral took another swig relishing in his his mug kept the ale icy cold.
So REFRESHING!
Hell’s Keep … Most definitely a Federation built Starbase recognizable as such no matter the reality as it was a style that seemed universal.
And this particular starbase was the main hub for both Starfleet and Khitomer Alliance Operations within the Malstrom Expanse.
Located in orbit of the colony world of Ansolon-Prime in the multi-starred system known as the Argon Cluster, both starbase and cluster were in a safe pocket within and surrounded by the Malstrom Expanse.
Hauk knew the Malstrom Expanse was in reality all that was left of Hell’s Gate … a region of space from the Ansolon galaxy that had been exactly the same in composition.
The layout of such was different, of course … like some cosmic entity had made a re-throw of the dice in the universe’s game of life.
And although few knew the truth of the matter, Hauk knew enough to know that although its mysteries were yet to be unlocked … somehow, someway elements he’d known from his old reality had been tossed into the Expanse.
Like SB Ansolon, yet not yet found … or rediscovered as the case may be.
VADM Ka’nej Hauk finished off his tankard, thought about ordering another but realized time was escaping him.
He had to get down to the surface of the planet as he was scheduled to meet with one of the Dragon Lords to continue his training.
Down there in the skies above there be dragons, and this Klingon warrior turned Starfleet captain was learning to ride one of them.
Respectfully,
VADM Ka’nej Hauk
CO, U.S.S. Britannia
ANSCOMCINC
Aka. “Black Knight of Ansolon” & future “Dragon Rider”
— OUT OF STORY —
Thus we skip forward in the timeline to where we estimate Star Trek Online actually is with their current storyline, putting us in sync with them.
And as for Hell’s Keep, it feels good to see the home of my characters reborn and available to them once again!