—- USS Luna, Medical Bay —-

Klar sat up confused, the last thing he’d remembered was being in his quarters and now he was under a sheet on a medical bed, stripped of all clothing with a pain radiating from his neck. He looked around to see Lieutenant Sesi Oari sitting beside him reading from a PADD. Noticing the movement she put it down and signaled the nurse who came over. 

“What happened? Last thing I recall we were in my quarters and…” Klar began to ask, his memory was muddled but he recalled that much.

”Just relax, that wasn’t me it was the Changeling, he… it, whatever slashed your throat and left you for dead,” the Lieutenant said pushing him back down toward the medical bed. Klar resisted and even in his weakened condition was stronger than the security officer and Nurse Rachel Smith who was trying to run scans and keep him from moving.

”Doctor,” she called, “Klar is awake.”

A young dark haired human came over and nodded, “Ah you’re awake, good. Can you just remain laying down, you’re not healed yet.”

”Where is Doctor Ta‘Vok?” Klar demanded the ship’s former Chief Medical Officer.

The man‘s lips went tight and he looked upset, “He, umm, died from an attack like yours. Which is why you should relax. Lay back, let us do our jobs.”

”Where is Captain Cruz,” Klar asked standing, quite naked. Neither medical professional made a big deal of it but Lieutenant Oari blushed.

”I sent her on a recuperative vacation, she was injured in a similar attack. Now sir, please lay back,” Doctor Elordi said firmly.

“Sit back and I’ll tell you about the Klingons and the war with the Romulans,” Oari said.

”The what?” Klar asked.

Oari went white now changing from a deep red, it was explained that telling Klar about the current situation was not a good idea, particularly with the captain off the ship and a hundred Romulan scientists on it studying space phenomena. 

“You should stay here,” Doctor Elordi said shooting Lieutenant Oari a look.

Instead of listening Klar left the medical bay and with the three trying to talk him back. A trio of blue suited scientists and Romulans passed by and the sight of an angry naked Klingon was not what they were expecting. They stared at him and moved out of the way as he stomped towards his quarters with the trio from Medical Bay in tow. 

“We can’t have a naked angry Klingon running through a ship full of Romulans,” Doctor Elordi said, feeling rather helpless, “Nurse get a sedative.”

Klar disappeared into the turbo lift, and the three had to wait for another one. By the time they reached his deck he was in the room that had been assigned to him as the ship’s First Officer. 

“Alert the acting Captain,” Elordi said, as he called the bridge on his comm badge, “Klar’s out of sickbay.”

—- USS Luna, Bridge —-

“It’s been four days, Klar hasn’t left his quarters,” Lieutenant Jara said. The Chief Security officer was in charge of keeping track of the Romulans and had feared that an angry Klar could pose trouble, but if all he was going to do was rest, well then the Captain would handle him when he got back.

“Good,” said Chief Diplomatic Officer Diya Acharya with a sign, “We don’t want to ruin this study with the Romulans. It’s good to build relations and given everything the idea that a Starfleet vessel as a KDF First Officer on it right now would be difficult to explain.”

”Do you think he understands that he’s been demoted and removed as XO,” asked Acting – Captain  Gabriella Miller the Chief Science Officer who was overseeing the study on the Starfleet side of things. 

“We’re getting some strange readings off the port side,” Jara said, glancing down at her tactical station.

”Strange how?” Miller asked, moving to the rear of the bridge where the tactical conn was.

”Strange, flickering not quite,” Jara began and trailed off as three Klingon ships decloaked.

Klar entered the bridge, he glanced at the officers and said, “Hail the Klingon ships.”

”I don’t take orders from you,” Jara said.

”Klar while you were out, Captain Cruz reassigned you to an advisory role I’m currently the Acting Captain, so how did three Klingon ships get this far out into the territory of the Romulan Free State?” Miller asked.

”Captain Cruz did not inform me, and I called them. As the First Officer of this ship I’m taking command as of now hail the ships Lieutenant,” Klar said.

”Klar she couldn’t inform you, you were in a coma,” Miller said.

Klar seemingly anticipating the resistance grabbed Miller by the neck and they her over the tactical conn and onto the floor, “Do you wish a fight to the death blue suit?” 

Seeing Lieutenant Commander Miller thrown like a rag doll enraged Jara who jumped at the Klingon and the former First Officer. He stuck anticipating the attack, doubling her over and then delivering a follow-up blow to render her unconscious. He tapped the console as the rest of the crew remained frozen, unsure of what to do.

”This is Klar to KDF forces, beam me onboard,” he said. To the others on the bridge he said, “Be thankful that we do not go deck by deck exterminating the Romulans.”

Taking over the tactical conn Acharya said, “Klingons are powering up weapons, raising shield.”

Miller staggered to the Captain’s Chair, “Move us between them and the Romulan ship.”

”They’re firing,” Acharya said and the bridge watched as the Romulan scout ship, a scientific vessel was hit by a torpedo from each ship and then exploded. There was quiet on the bridge as the Klingon ships sat there for a moment then vanished, re-engaging their cloaking devices.

”How many Romulans just died?” asked Miller.

Unfamiliar with the tactical conn it took a moment for the Chief Diplomatic Officer to figure that out, “We have on hundred and twenty on the Luna, there were another hundred on the ship.“

”Set a course for the nearest Romulan military outpost. Maximum warp,” Miller told the conn. 

“I trusted Klar, he seemed so…” Acharya began.

”Human?” Miller asked, Klar had been an important part of the crew and had made friends and won the crew over. They had been a ship with a Romulan advisor, a KDF military official, clearly a ship of peace and of the future and now that was lost. They had been betrayed for trusting in that future.

”Even humans can betray you,” Miller said using the controls of the captain’s chair to call for a medical team for Jara, “Shakespeare knew that. I have to inform Captain Cruz, we’ll need to pick her up soon.”