When Roth contacted Dax, Dax didn’t ask why either. Dax immediately contacted Kang on a private receiver. Although he was a close friend (Kang had just made Dax godfather to his son), Kang was reticent to help; to put the chancellor of the High Council in direct contact with a Starfleet officer was a risk to his own reputation. But he did it because it was Dax who was asking.
Kang contacted Gorkon, and said he was fulfilling an obligation to a fellow warrior. He provided Gorkon with the personal receiver frequency of a Starfleet officer named Spock. Kang, when telling Dax of it later, said there was a long pause—then Gorkon thanked him. Gorkon was well-informed and intuitive enough to read between the lines: he knew Spock was the son of the Vulcan ambassador to the Federation Council, and that this was a subtle diplomatic outreach.
“My father knew that the imminent threat,” wrote Azetbur, Gorkon’s daughter, in the tome of heroes in the Klingon Hall of Warriors, “was not from without, but from within. He knew we had to take what we used for war and turn it to life!”
According to Klingon honor, however, any attempt to scale back the military would be a sign of weakness; Gorkon would be immediately challenged and probably killed. “But my father saw through the veil of lies of those around him who spoke only of the need to attack, to kill, to die, and he remembered the words of Kahless: destroying an Empire to win a war is no victory. And ending a battle to save an Empire is no defeat.”
ABOVE: Chancellor Gorkon.
Gorkon contacted Spock via subspace radio. When they spoke, Spock laid out the problems that Gorkon already knew he faced. Gorkon did not deny any of it; he remained silent. Spock recounted in his report to Sarek that he took Gorkon’s silence to mean assent, but also knew he would have to offer him something. He carefully continued and said: “There are many in the Federation to whom scaling back of our own military obligations would be agreeable.”
Gorkon was silent, then asked, “Are you one of those people?”
Spock replied, “I am.” Gorkon said he appreciated Spock’s thoughts, and ended the conversation.
Spock was unsure whether he had made any progress until Gorkon contacted him again the next day. Spock remembered him simply saying, “My people are not surrendering. If it is ever said that we are, then we will fight you to the last warrior.” Spock replied that he understood.
With that, the two began the negotiations that Spock would ultimately bring to the Federation Council. He would tell them that Gorkon was ready to come to Earth to begin formal peace negotiations to simultaneously dissolve the Neutral Zone and dismantle the space stations and starbases on both sides, returning to the ’67 borders before the Organian Peace Treaty.
The Federation Council ordered Starfleet to arrange a rendezvous with a Klingon ship to bring Gorkon back to Earth. But Starfleet knew that this was only the beginning. Once the negotiations were public, Starfleet was certain that there would be rogue Klingon elements who would do everything they could to undermine the peace process. But it would turn out that it wasn’t just Gorkon who would face opposition from within his own government—Starfleet and the Federation would as well.
THE CONSPIRACY
Ambassador Nanclus had been busy. His spy network on Earth had learned about the peace initiative, and he knew what his governments reaction would be before he heard it: peace between the Klingons and the Federation was unacceptable. It would create a shift in the balance of power in the quadrant that would leave the Romulans at a severe disadvantage. He devised a conspiracy, the full story of which was presented by one of his co-conspirators, Admiral Cartwright, during his trial for treason.
“Nanclus was given the order to undermine the treaty however he could,” Admiral Cartwright said, “and frankly, his honesty about his motivation to prevent a united Federation and Klingon Empire earned my trust.”
Having spent several years on Earth, Nanclus had gotten to know many officers in Starfleet. And he had a well-placed spy on Cartwright’s staff: Lieutenant Laura Mogel had started her life as a Romulan but had been surgically altered to pass as a Human. Nanclus used her first to gain information about Cartwright’s point of view, and then to communicate directly to him.
“When Nanclus first got in touch with me, I had no idea how the messages were getting to me; they would just appear on my personal viewscreen,” Cartwright said. “And as the plot moved forward, I decided I didn’t want to know who Nanclus’s go-between was.
“After serving several years as Starfleet commander-in-chief, I had stepped down,” Cartwright said in his testimony. “The science and exploratory missions did not interest me.” He was put in charge of the security of the Federation, specifically the border with the Klingon Empire.
“I saw what the Klingons were planning, the buildup in ships ... our way of life was in danger. Our leaders had forgotten what it was like without a Neutral Zone, but I hadn’t. I couldn’t let it come down.” So when Nanclus said he had a suggestion on how to keep the Neutral Zone, Cartwright listened.
Nanclus, before coming to Earth, had served in the Romulan spy service, running agents in the Klingon Empire. He used old contacts to bring General Chang into his conspiracy. “He knew Chang hated Gorkon but Chang needed Starfleet’s help to kill him. He knew that if a Klingon did it, it could start a civil war,” said Cartwright.
To carry out the assassination, Nanclus needed to know which ship would accompany Gorkon to Earth, and he needed personnel to carry out the assassination. “I gave him everything he needed; I had given orders to kill people before,” Cartwright said. “I believed the alternative was worse.”
ABOVE: The conspirator who sought to destroy the peace negotiations between the Klingons and the Federation were careful to cover their tracks. There is only one surviving document connected with the conspiracy: a gift request of Romulan Ambassador Nanclus to his government. Nanclus had the tacit, but not official, approval of his government, which wanted to be kept informed of his progress. We now know that this request for permission to buy a birthday present for Federation President Ra-ghoratreii was Nanclus’s way of telling his superior who on Earth and on Qo’noS had decided to join Nanclus’s conspiracy. (A teral’n is an ancient Romulan trident-like weapon.)
* * *
CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN NANCLUS AND ROMULUS
TRANSLATED FROM THE ROMULAN
* * *
5th of T’Lent
A request to the Honorable Director of Romulan Diplomatic Affairs
From his Honor Nanclus, Ambassador to the Federation Council
I am requesting special dispensation to acknowledge the birth of Federation President Ra-ghoratreii with a gift of a teral’n. The celebration of the President’s birthday is a custom observed on Earth, and I have been informed that many Federation Ambassadors present gifts from their government to the President.
At a state dinner recently, I had a conversation with Admiral Cartwright of Starfleet, who relayed to me that the President is an aficionado of alien weaponry, which led me to the thought that an ancient Romulan weapon would be appropriate. When I was stationed on Qo’noS, you may remember, I made a similar presentation to General Chang, in honor of his long interest in concerns of Romulan/Klingon affairs.
If you approve, I would ask that a teral’n be removed from the Romulan State Museum and shipped on the next diplomatic courier.
Nanclus
Ambassador to the Federation Council
* * *
THE ASSASSINATION
When William Smillie, the Starfleet commander-in-chief, informed his officers about the peace initiative, Cartwright pretended he was hearing about it for the first time. By that time, however, the conspiracy was well under way. He voiced his opposition to the peace initiative as he knew his feelings about the Klingons were too well known for him to feign support. Until that meeting, however, he did not know that the U.S.S. Enterprise was going to escort Gorkon to Earth; he considered it a bit of luck that Captain Kirk also voiced his opposition to the mi
ssion.
“I had gathered a small cadre of officers and crew whom I knew I could trust, and I arranged for their transfer to the Enterprise,” said Cartwright.
One day into the mission, Cartwright’s team carried out Gorkon’s assassination. False evidence planted by the collaborators led the Klingons to believe Captain Kirk and his chief medical officer, McCoy, were responsible.
“My hatred of Klingons went back a long way,” Kirk said. “I had a lot of enemies in the Empire. I could see why they thought it was me.”
Upon Gorkon’s death, his daughter Azetbur was appointed in his place. She said she wanted to continue her father’s work, but she also wanted revenge for his death. At this point, the entire peace process might have fallen apart—but for the work of Curzon Dax.
If Kirk was executed, Dax felt the door would be permanently closed to a lasting peace. So he had his friend Koloth arrange a meeting with the new chancellor. Azetbur had heard of Curzon Dax, whose name was becoming legendary among the Klingons. Dax, in a report to the Federation Council, said that when he initially met with Azetbur, the execution of Kirk was a foregone conclusion. “But I asked her the question,” Dax said, “would her father want Kirk executed?” When he left her, Dax did not know what the outcome would be, but Kirk’s and McCoy’s death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment on the penal asteroid of Rura Penthe. Azetbur also expressed her commitment to continue the peace conference.
“This was not the outcome we were looking for,” Cartwright testified. The assassination had not ended the peace process. “And with Kirk in prison, another attempt on the Klingon chancellor would show he hadn’t acted alone, which was the narrative we’d constructed. We had to come up with a new plan.”
The location for a new peace conference was to be on Khitomer, a neutral planet near the Romulan Neutral Zone. “We decided to assassinate the Federation president,” Cartwright said, “and make it look like a Klingon was taking revenge for the death of Gorkon.”
Spock, who had taken command of the Enterprise upon the arrest of Captain Kirk, knew that his longtime friends had nothing to do with the assassination of Gorkon and believed that there was some kind of conspiracy. In direct violation of orders, he crossed the Klingon frontier and rescued Kirk and McCoy from Rura Penthe. “Azetbur had said that any such act would be considered an act of war,” Kirk said. “Spock gambled that we’d be able to uncover the conspiracy before she noticed. I was lucky that I worked with a Vulcan who gambled.”
Enterprise arrived at Khitomer, and Kirk, Spock, and their crew (with the assistance of the crew of the U.S.S. Excelsior, under the command of Hikaru Sulu) were able to prevent the assassination of Ra-ghoratreii. General Chang was killed, Cartwright and Nanclus arrested. And with these acts, Azetbur and her fellow Klingons saw firsthand the evidence of not only the conspiracy, but the true honor of the members of Starfleet and the Federation.
ABOVE: Captain Kirk and the U.S.S. Enterprise’s Chief Medical Officer Leonard McCoy on trial for the assassination of Chancellor Gorkon.
THE KHITOMER ACCORDS
Though the Klingon Empire would not be folded into the Federation, the Khitomer Accords would afford them a unique status. First and foremost, the United Federation of Planets granted and guaranteed the humanitarian aid necessary to overcome the disaster caused by the destruction of Praxis. The Accords also ordered the immediate opening of the border between the Empire and the Federation and the dismantling of the bases between them.
Beyond the immediate crisis, the Accords gave the Klingons the benefits of completely open trade agreements between the Federation members, and established formal channels to resolve differences between the Klingons and any member. The Klingons were also given a non-voting seat on the Federation Council, which would allow them access and consultation on internal matters of the United Federation of Planets. The Accords allowed for the Klingons to maintain their own defense force, but also gave them the protection of Starfleet if they faced a common enemy. Also, both Starfleet and the Klingon fleet agreed to joint military education (although, as of this writing, no Klingon has ever taken the Federation up on its open offer to apply for admission to Starfleet Academy).
Like the formation of the Federation itself, the Khitomer Accords began a new age. The Klingons and the Federation took their first real steps to a genuine, lasting peace. (Though the crisis in the Klingon Empire put much of the Accords into effect immediately, the final document is—to this day—still being negotiated.)
The Romulans, whose ambassador was expelled from Earth following the conspiracy, returned to their isolationist policies, and withdrew behind the Neutral Zone.
ABOVE: The Federation President Ra-ghoratreii and Azetbur, the chancellor of the Klingon Empire, began building the longest lasting peace the two age-old enemies had ever known. The details of the diplomatic document were complex and took years to hammer out. It was clear from the beginning that paranoia still existed within the two governments; one of the articles concerned a guarantee that the parties would never join in a war against each other, and that all past grievances were to be officially forgotten. Article V is also of interest, as it made clear to no Federation citizens and Klingons, who still bore the scars of years of hostility, that they’d be turned over to their enemy if they ever acted on such feelings. Only a small portion of the signatures are reproduced here; they went on at some length, as every member world of the Federation sent a delegate to sign it.
2311:150 YEARS OF THE FEDERATION
For the two months leading up to October 11, 2311, the Sol system opened itself up to the Galaxy and welcomed aliens from across the Milky Way for the sesquicentennial anniversary of the founding of the United Federation of Planets. Sporting events, dramatic reenactments, technological demonstrations, scientific and cultural exchanges, award presentations, and an endless number of celebrations were capped off with the admission of the eighty first member, Betazed, It felt—at least for a moment—that the Galaxy was one.
248 years before, the Alpha Quadrant looked vastly different. Earth, a primitive planet, was on the verge of a permanent dark age, Vulcan had slipped into imperialism, and the major races of Andoria, Tellar, Klingon, and Romulus were free to take advantage of the weaker worlds they encountered. Because of a chance meeting between a Human and a Vulcan, the people of these worlds—and many others—were put on a road to civilization, democracy, and a continual hope for the future.
And on the spot where that first meeting took place, one of the participants returned. At 308 years old, Solkar is long-lived even for a Vulcan. He had not returned to Earth since he left his position as ambassador in the early twenty-second century.
In a short speech to a huge crowd of people who had gathered in Montana—and millions more watching via subspace—Solkar spoke of his Human counterpart:
“It is not generally known,” Solkar said, “but due to my species’ natural telepathic gifts, when Cochrane and I first shook hands, our minds briefly touched. It created a link between us ... a link that should have ended when he died. But it did not. I am still aware of it, aware of his mind lurking somewhere, off on a distant world. There are two logical explanations. The first is our link left in my mind a touch of the Human desire to accept the superstition of an afterlife. The second is, Zefram Cochrane is not dead. I find either explanation acceptable. The first serves as a reminder of the diversity of spirit that has allowed this Federation to flourish. The second would mean that my friend Zefram is here with me now, and knows what our meeting has wrought.”
ABOVE: The eulogy for James T. Kirk was given by his closest friend, Spock. Captain Kirk died a board the U.S.S. Enterprise-B after saving it from destruction inside a temporal nexus. It is an informally accepted fact that if there was one person who shaped the century he lived in, it was Kirk.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aleek Om, Loom. Changing Spots: Klingons in the 23rd Century. Aurelian University Press, 33092 (Aurelian Calendar).
Archer, Henry. “Design and Development Necessities of a Warp Five Engine.” PhD Dissertation, State University of New York at Albany, 2118.
Archer, Jonathan. “Who We Were and Who We Are.” Speech to Starfleet Academy Graduating Class, San Francisco, CA, 18 June 2199.
Dax, Curzon. Report on the Korvat Talks. Federation Diplomatic Archive, Memory Alpha.
DeLongpre, Allen Gregory. “The Brave New World of Andrew Paul Mitchell.” Orlando Post Dispatch, 23 June 2069, Section A:1.
Dowling-Goodman, Joshua and Steven, eds. Official History of Starfleet Academy. San Francisco: Starfleet Academy Press, 2290.
Erickson, Danica. A Beaming Parent: How My Father’s invention Changed Space Travel. New Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2170.
Gileus I. Unpublished Journal. Romulan Document Archive, Memory Alpha.
Gill, John. Small Steps and Giant Leaps: A History of Humankind in the Galaxy. San Francisco: Starfleet Academy Press, 2143.
-----. World War III: A History. San Francisco: Starfleet Academy Press, 2120.
Grayson, Amanda. Love and Logic. London: Fontana Books, 2297.
Griffin, Brian. First Captain: A Biography of Jonathan Archer. Quahog: Pewterschmidt Press, 2255.
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