Ansolon Season 02 / Episode 05
by Alan Tripp

2412

Starbase Ansolon

A cloud of dust churned from the hooves of charging horses filled the air, partially obscuring the two opponents. 

A resounding crashing sound revealed to be the Black Knight of Ansolon’s lance hitting dead center of his opponents chest, lifting him out of the saddle and sending the other knight crashing into the dirt floor of lists. 

Ka’nej Hauk lifted the remains of his lance to the roar of a crowd roaring with approval. 

He would advance to the next stage of the tournament. 

 Even as he turned to see who his next opponent would be only to see his personal assistant racing into the stadium, heading his way. 

The Klingon warrior knight removed his helmet, handing it to his squire before swinging his leg over the saddle and dropping to the ground. 

He patted the flanks of his horse – a real horse, not holographic. 

He’d named the creature “Stormy Knight” … or “Storm” for short. 

“Admiral! … Admiral!” 

Hauk turned to face his personal assistant.

“Commander, you know I’m not to be interrupted during competition.” 

The Romulan Starfleet officer fought a moment to catch her breath, knowing this would be his response and so unphased.  

“I know you’d want to know, Admiral.” Sharyna huffed a couple more times, hands to her knees. 

It was a long way from the fleet administration offices to Starbase Ansolon’s promenade.

“The Crazy Horse has missed her last three check-ins” she continued. “And failed to show for her rendezvous with the Highlander.”

This caught his attention. 

Removing his gaultlets, he motioned to his squire to take Storm’s reigns even as he turned to his herald. 

“Have my name removed from the list,” he ordered already turning to leave the arena. 

“You’re forfeiting … NOW??? My Lord … It’s the semifinals!” 

“Do it,” Hauk ordered. 

As the herald ran across the field, Hauk was handing over pieces of equipment. 

A collective gasp echoed across the stadium as realization struck as the crowd watched black cloth being draped over Hauk’s shield and the Black Knight striding out of the stadium. 

– 

Caledon Station — U.S.S. Mythos

“Admiral, I protest this wreckless move!” 

The Fleet Admiral sighed wishing the turbolift would move faster. 

“For the fifth time, Jenkins … This is NOT wreckless,” Ka’nej Hauk said. 

“One of our starships is missing.  This ship is best suited to lead the search … So it’s NOT wreckless,” he continued. 

If they were down at the renaissance faire on the Ansolon’s promenade, the Klingon would likely have foregone Starfleet protocol and simply had the engineer who commanded Caledon Station tossed in the stocks. 

Heck, he might have even sprang for the veggies for the crowd to throw at him as THIS was getting exasperating. 

As he took a deep breath to calm and center himself, the lift finally reached its destination. 

Hauk stepped off the lift but turned to block the engineer from following. 

“Look, Jenkins. The ship is scheduled for her commissioning ceremony next week and I plan to have her back in plenty of time for it,” he said. “No scratches … I promise.” 

“Admiral, that’s not it.  This ship still has to go through trials between now and then,” Jenkins retorted. “She’s just not ready.” 

“Son, I was an engineer when you were still in diapers and have built many ships along the way,” Hauk returned.

“Trust me when I say she’s ready,” the Klingon continued. “And whatever ‘trials’ are still needed, we will perform along the way.” 

The admiral turned to his assistant who’d been waiting for them. 

“Sherryna, please escort Mr. Jenkins OFF my ship, please.” 

“With pleasure, Admiral,” she answered, stepping forward to take his position and stepping onto the lift in a manner that blocked all egress for the frustrated and still sputtering shipyard engineer. 

Only when the lift doors closed, did Hauk release the pinned up breath he’d been holding. 

Sure, it was a risk taking this ship out, but this was one of the few larger ships built  specifically for navigating in the harshness of the Malstrom Expanse. 

It’s what made her the perfect flagship for the Admiral. 

The Excalibur name had already been claimed, so they’d settled on Mythos for this new girl. 

And she was his. He would head up Ansolon Command from HERE. 

This ship was going to serve as a ship of the line. 

It was one of the conditions Starfleet Command agreed to when they cornered Hauk into returning to a flag position. 

But that’s a story for another time. 

“Commander Astylap,” Hauk said, stepping down into the command well. “Make sure remaining crew are aboard within the next ten minutes or they’re being left behind.” 

Ratal Astylaph’s antennae both raised above her head, one twitching slightly. 

“On it, Admiral.” 

Ka’nej Hauk settled down into the ship’s centerseat for the first time, shifting around until he settled on the most comfortable position. 

His fingers drummed the command chair. 

The U.S.S. Mythos was an experimental redesign of the Ross-class exploration cruiser and so one of the Galaxy line. … Well, originally if the Galaxy and Sovereign had a baby it would be the Ross.

But in this case, she held various upgrades common in the Andromeda-class and other tech from the Lexington-variant of the Odyssey line. 

Above all, however … Just as the original U.S.S. Ross had been perfected for operations within the Shackleton Expanse, the Mythos was geared to slice through whatever the Malstrom might throw at it. 

And THAT was exactly what the Klingon feared would be needed. 

“Don’t worry, Shallana,” he muttered under his breath. “We’re coming for you.” 

Respectfully, 

FAdm. Ka’nej Hauk 
Commander, Ansolon Command

—- OUT OF STORY —-

This marks the REAL start of season two of Star Trek Ansolon …. aka. “The Straits.”

It will be interesting to see where this all leads.

The post The Straits: “One Goes Missing” appeared first on The Malstrom Expanse.

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!

The post The Straits: “Black Knight Returns”  appeared first on The Malstrom Expanse.