K`Hare totlh
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Another keg of Bloodwine is waiting.
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Rear Admiral Durkis walked through the corridors of the VIP section on his way to K'Hare's temporary quarters. He carried a small box under one arm and the bottle of bloodwine Asiv brought him in the other. He'd asked K'Hare to meet him in private before they met with Valren a little later. Security paid him little mind as he came up to K'Hare's room. Wade chimed the door and entered a second later.
Durkis: K'Hare I hope you don't mind a visit and a drink?
K'Hare: Well, I must say you understand the currency I prefer to deal in.
Wade placed the box down and a nearby table and handed the bottle of bloodwine to K'Hare.
Durkis: I'm sure you recall my need to follow certain human customs.
K'Hare held up the bottle and examined the label. It was a rare bottle.
K'Hare: I suppose it would have been too much to hope for a bottle of the same brew.
Durkis: Yes…ah I know you enjoyed that…unfortunately my source didn't come threw for me…this is a poor replacement. I wish I could do better.
K'Hare saw the look on Wade's face and realized he had taken it too serious.
K'Hare: Wade, no, I was kidding. The fact that you found even one bottle was more than surprising. It is something beyond rare... but I am hoping to change that.
The Klingon went to the corner of the room and picked up a small keg and returned with it to the table. He opened it with his Daqtagh after setting it down and then stirred the Bloodwine inside.
Wade accepted the offered tankard of it and then looked apologetic when he coughed.
Wade: It is a little rough.
K'Hare: *nodding* Yes, I am still trying to master the technique and this batch was made from berries that dropped off too soon. The plant were stressed and so the berries weren't ripe.
Wade: You made this? Then I retract what I said. It is rough but its certainly good enough to drink. How did you figure out how to make it?
K'Hare: I learned from my father... I believe it was him that made the bottle you brought last year.
Wade was shocked but he suddenly understood the Klingon's odd reaction from the previous year. It explained why he'd been both upset and overjoyed at receiving the bottle. He decided to change the subject to something just as personal but hopefully, not so painful. He walked over to the small box he brought with him, opened it and looked at the contents.
Wade: I forgot my bottle of vodka, let me run to my room and ...
K'Hare walked over to the collection of kegs and pulled out a small box.
K'Hare: No need. I told you earlier that I had this.
The Klingon presented an old bottle of vodka to the human who looked at it with surprise. It was old and rare and better then the one he had found.
After a pause Wade opened it and cracked a smile. Last year, Wade shared the drink with K'Hare and Droj, two that he consider friends.
Durkis: Arelwynn is a decent man I'm sure but it will be a little while before I share this tradition with him.
Wade took a swig and handed the bottle to K'Hare and waited for him to do the same.
Durkis: By the way, congratulations are in order. Task Force CO, I can't think of a better being for the job.
K'Hare: Word travels fast in this fleet. There is an old Engineer's joke about running a ship at rumor speed.
Durkis: Yeah, I've heard it.
Wade paused for a moment and then looked at K'Hare more seriously.
Durkis: K'Hare there is something I wanted to discuss with you. You already know that the Saturn and I have been transferred to Task Force 9 and when the competition is over we are to head to the portal so we can go to the gamma quadrant.
Khare: A worthy challenge and I am sure you will face it well. *he took another drink*
Wade looked out of the window of K'Hare's quarters. From there he could see a Klingon bird of prey parked next to a midway class federation ship. It was a fitting image.
Durkis: Experience has taught me, as I'm sure it has you, that you never know what to expect when you go out there. I don't know fate has in store for me, but whatever it may be I figure I must hit it head on. I'm not afraid to die in the gamma quadrant. If that’s my fate so be it.
He then turned to K'Hare.
Durkis: But I can't let whatever my fate may be, be tied to this competition. This competition is more important then me. It is an important part of the connection between the federation and Klingon Empire. Outside of myself, I don't think there is anyone who knows that more then you. I need to make sure this competition can go on even if I can't. And if I can't do it for whatever the reason. Well... I would like someone who feels the same way about it as I to go on in my place. Someone that I have come to view like a brother.
Wade gave K'Hare a moment to consider that. For once the Klingon was speechless.
Durkis: K'Hare, I haven't had the honor of fighting with you in battle, but if the time came and you needed someone to fight by your side I would be there. I would like you to consider me a brother and for me to be able to do the same.
Wade returned to the box he brought with him and pulled out a small tray decorated with flowers. There was cup in the center which had a lid over it that Wade removed. He had researched many Klingon customs and the tea ceremony he was proposing he knew not to take lightly. The poison in the tea was not fake. He would never insult K'Hare that way.
K'Hare was surprised and knew that he would not have initiated this but it was appropriate. They had not fought in battle to kill a common enemy per se, but together they had fought ignorance and bigotry. His goal had always been to force the humans to learn what it means to be Klingon and while their tactics and motivations were different, they had fought side by side. He laughed to himself. He was not the best ambassador, he knew that, but he was fair.
They sat at the table and Wade made the tea.
Durkis: I had my doctor research this. This tea is the closest he could find to the traditional variety that affects Klingons and Humans in simular ways.
For a short while they drank and began exchanging stories, the stories that told of times when they had almost died and only fate had made the outcome different.
Finally, Wade ended the ceremony with another. He could feel his stomach and some muscles cramp a little from the effects of the poison but he concentrated to fight back the pain.
Durkis: May I see your Daqtagh?
K'Hare handled it over without question but was confused... this was not part of the ceremony.
Durkis: This is a very old human custom that I don't know if anyone follows any more but I once read about. If two warriors were not of the same family but viewed each other as if they were, the would become blood brothers.
Wade took K'Hare’s Daqtagh with his left hand and cut a slash across his right palm. The combination of the poison and the sharpness of the cut was quite painful for Wade. He bit his lip as he slowly made the cut and then handed the dagger to K'Hare.
K'Hare recognized the ritual. He'd only remembered it because when he'd first read about it, it seemed very Klingon. It was from a warrior people, the people of the human side of his XO. He cut his own hand and then grabbed Wade's in the human fashion so the cuts touched.
The human blood and klingon blood squeezed out and dripped down off of their hands and onto the floor below.
Durkis: K'Hare, My blood into yours, and yours into mine. I give you my trust and love until the end of time. Your strength will be my strength, and your pain will be mine too. Any enemy will have to slay me before I let him approach you, since your life and mine are now one."
K'Hare was unsure of the traditional words so he said a Klingon one instead.
K'Hare: Heghlu'DI' mobbe'lu'chugh QaQqu' Hegh wanI'.
Durkis: K'Hare, as my blood brother, I name you as the inheritor of the Bat’leth Competition. In my absence it shall be yours.
OFF:
Tea Ceremony
This is a ceremony to test one's bravery. In this ritual, two friends share poisoned tea served on a tray decorated with simple flowers. This ceremony gives the friends a chance to share each other's mortality and to remind them that death is an experience best shared - like the tea.
Heghlu'DI' mobbe'lu'chugh QaQqu' Hegh wanI' - Death is an experience best shared.
One of the purposes of the Klingon Tea Ceremony, in which two friends share poisoned tea as a test of bravery, is to remind one of this truism. The ceremony, which is usually observed in periods of relative calm, between wars, probably came about as a way to reinforce and celebrate certain beliefs about warfare so central to Klingon culture. The ceremony symbolically acknowledges the dignity of death in battle, and it also pays tribute to warriors who battle alongside one another. (The Next Generation: Up the Long Ladder) [The Klingon Way, page 73]
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traditions (Read 501 times)
