“To the victor go the spoils,” the massive hulk of a man, large even for a Klingon, insisted as he leaned across the table, his face drawing so close that the ambassador could smell the gagh from lunch on his counterpart’s breath. “I don’t see the problem.”

“The problem, my friend, is that your people don’t keep a leash on their treasure,” Ambassador Drake replied firmly, unphased by the intimidating gesture. General Kloss was large, even by Klingon standards, but size did not intimidate him. Kloss was just one of Toral’s orderlies, and all this posturing was just part of the game. “And my people pay the price as a result.” He locked eyes with the Klingon. “That’s where we have an issue.”

“I do not appreciate your insinuation, Admiral Drake,” General Kloss replied, maintaining his forward posture across the table as he flashed a toothy grin. “We are allies. We would do nothing to harm our friendship.”

“You may say that, but it didn’t look that way as I stared down the gunports of your errand boys as they attempted to pick up yet another haul of illicit goods smuggled out of a warzone,” Ambassador Drake countered, referencing the skirmish he’d found himself caught within when they responded to USS Paramount‘s distress call along the Klingon border.

The general pulled away from the table, folding his arms across his chest as he leaned back in his chair. “Yet here you sit with all your limbs intact, so this sounds like much ado about nothing.” Along his side of the table, the other Klingons snickered. What was this little man so torn up about?

“I think we would all agree that the long peace between our peoples has been fruitful on both sides,” Ambassador Drake offered. No one could question the value of the decades of lasting peace between the Klingon Empire and the United Federation of Planets. “It is unwise to balance the benefits of that relationship on a knife’s edge. One slippery trigger finger, and all we’ve built together comes undone.”

“Now, now, dear admiral, don’t take this the wrong way, but you seem just a tad bit salty about seeing your life flash before your eyes,” General Kloss chortled. “Do you really think your people would unwind generations of peace with my great empire all because some bekk slipped on the trigger and blew your old ass out of the sky?”

“I’m too old and have seen too much to worry about something so petty,” Ambassador Drake wrote off that idea. “But what you’re playing at here, it’s a dangerous game.” His eyes locked on the general as his tone grew sharp. “Just like the dangerous game you’re playing as you feed your acquired wares through intermediaries to everyone from the Orion Syndicate to the Meronia Reapers to the New Maquis.”

It was a precise shot, one far too specific to shirk off as a lucky guess, and for the first time in their duel of words, the general actually looked uncomfortable. Meanwhile, around the table, his colleagues glanced nervously at each other. How did the ambassador know about that?

“Did you really not think we would find out?” Admiral Reyes asked, taking the silence as an opportunity to join in on the fun. It had been her people, after all, that’d connected the dots from the Cardassian Gul on Montana Station to the heads of several Great Houses. “You see, the mistake you made here is that a secret between two is only safe if at least one of them is dead, and there were many more than two involved in this little charade.”

A pin could have been heard in the silence that followed. 

“Don’t worry, dear general,” Admiral Reyes smirked darkly. “Your secret is safe with us. There’s no one left alive to tell it, nor anyone left to continue that foolhardy operation.” She slid a data chip across the table that contained the evidence that Chief Petty Officer Ayala Shafir and Dr. Lisa Hall had collected during their off-book operation with Frank Negrescu, T’Aer and Grok. “My associates were very thorough in cleaning up your mess. You can thank me later.”

The general just stared at the data chip.

“My friends,” Ambassador Drake said as he turned to address the entire table. “You must be able to see this is not good for the Empire. The illicit proliferation you have done nothing to prevent – and that some of you have supported even – the damage it will cause won’t stop with us. It may have been Archanis last winter, but come this summer, it could be Narendra, K’t’inga, or even Qo’noS.”

“And your bat’leths and d’k tahgs will do nothing against that creeping death,” Admiral Reyes reminded them. The Dominion-engineered bioweapon unleashed upon Archanis Station, which they could tie back to one such sale by a prominently-positioned Klingon dignitary, had killed over a thousand, and it would have eradicated the entire station if not for a bit of luck.

“These are not toys to be trifled with, and these criminal enterprises, the ones your comrades are feeding, they have no allegiances at the end of the day,” Ambassador Drake reminded them. “They may not be looking at you today because you are convenient for now, but in the end, they will be a problem for you too.”

“And let me be clear: you don’t need to wait for that day to find out if we’re right,” Admiral Reyes warned sharply. “Because rest assured that if they continue to be a problem for us, a copy of what’s on that data chip will be handed over to the Federation Council.” She hadn’t done that yet for she wanted to find a way through this that did not undermine the apparent good relations between their two powers. “And that happens, I assure you that this will be a problem for you sooner than you think.” In her words, she was threatening to unwind their decades-long alliance.

For a moment, there was nothing but silence as stares were exchanged.

At last, General Kloss stood up. “I think this has been enough for one day.” He didn’t know what else to say. He hadn’t dragged these representatives of the Federation out to K’t’inga to be cornered like this. Did they even know who he was? Or what he could do? Their three ships were nothing this deep in the heart of Klingon territory. He could crush them like a bug, but first, he needed to know how much they knew. He snatched the data chip from the table. “Until tomorrow.”

And then he turned and was gone, his colleagues filing out behind him.

“Well, that was certainly eventful,” Captain Ria Alleyne remarked once at last the Klingons were gone. She’d sat silent throughout the exchange, deferring to the far more seasoned and decorated negotiators in Ambassador Drake and Admiral Reyes. “Whatever happened to diplomatic subtlety?”

“Haven’t spent enough time in the company of Klingons, have you Ria?” Ambassador Drake smiled. “Especially this new guard.” Toral’s rise had caused a marked shift.

“Plus, when you’re as old as us, you realize you don’t have a lot of time left,” Admiral Reyes laughed as she looked over at the ambassador. “So why waste it beating around the bush?” She’d begun to feel her age, and Michael Drake was a whole generation older than her even.

The three of them picked up their things and then made their way back to the shuttle, escorted by a pair of young Klingon guards. They climbed inside, and then, with Captain Alleyne at the helm, the trio tore away from the spaceport, cutting through the thick, noxious clouds of the busy planet at the heart of the K’t’inga system as they headed back to their waiting ships overhead.

As they passed through the troposphere, the orange tint of the atmosphere began to fade. With its passing, an awe-inspiring sight came into view in the distance, that of the grand shipyards of K’t’inga, which surpassed even the facilities on Qo’noS itself.

“It’s a curious place to hold a diplomatic summit,” Captain Alleyne observed as she looked out at the expansive drydock facilities scattered before them, a setup that rivaled even Utopia Planitia in its peak form. “I wonder why they picked this place, a strategic location so deep within the heart of the Empire?” Typically, negotiations were held closer to the border.

“Because they wanted our talks set against this backdrop,” Ambassador Drake offered. “This is not Martok’s Empire anymore. Now it is the Empire of Toral. K’t’inga has always been viewed as the strong right hand of Qo’noS, the seat of warriors besides the government, and this signifies that shift in gravity.”

“It is a bit amusing to this aged engineer though,” Admiral Reyes noted as they drew closer. “To discerning eyes, it’s all just bloat and inefficiency.” Long past, she had served as the Deputy Director of the Shipbuilding Technologies Division at Starfleet R&D. She knew what a well-run shipyard looked like, and this was not it. “Hardly a shining gem of technical prowess and sophistication.”

“I mean, what more would you expect from the Empire?” Ambassador Drake chuckled. Such a brute force approach was emblematic of a society that idolized the warrior tradition over that of those that actually built their ships and weaponry. “Don’t forget though that the blunt force of even the least refined bludgeon can still plaster your brain goop across the bulkhead.”

Captain Alleyne didn’t like that thought. “Don’t you worry we’re provoking them?” If things turned bad, even the mighty Polaris and Diligent that’d accompanied the Kennedy would be nothing against the horde of warships parked throughout the K’t’inga system. And that wasn’t even to consider the many more that lay between them and the safety of the Federation border more than forty light years away.

“We are still allies, you know,” Ambassador Drake winked. “They can’t do anything overt.”

“This is just about putting them on notice,” Admiral Reyes added.

In a most dangerous way, Captain Alleyne thought to herself. Today’s proceedings had been a far cry from diplomacy she knew, but then again, everything about this affair was strange. How had Admiral Reyes even come across the information she’d brought to the table? Reyes hadn’t volunteered an answer to that, nor why it hadn’t been handed over to Command already, but who was she, a young captain, to question it? She trusted Ambassador Drake and Admiral Reyes, and that was good enough for now. It didn’t mean this whole thing didn’t make her more than a tad nervous though.