Haj awoke with a hangover that would kill a Gorn, and a taste in his mouth like a Targ had shat in it, hitting the intercom Haj barked "XO to my quarters immediately and bring your humorous navigation officer with you."

Moments later the door groaned open as the tall, solidly built XO and the slightly shorter but stocky navigation officer entered Haj's quarters, both with barely concealed smirks on their faces.

"You called captain??" Enquired Kr'gahN, noting that the captain appeared to be cemented into his bed from the waist down. "Don't think that I don't know that this was your doing" growled the captain.

"If you remember, sir, your mate gave me strict instructions to curtail any carousing on your part when we got to the house of Pallara, and you were to be reminded of this fact as graphically as possible, because as you know your mate is an imposing woman of great skill, and quite frankly, I'm more scared of her than I am of you. Now if you promise to be on your best behavior I will have our chief engineer beam you out of your bed."

At this Hegh wam'R the navigation/tactics officer snickered slightly, and Haj shot him a glance that would have melted Duranium.

"And just what are you laughing at Sergeant?" Enquired Haj in a surprisingly even tone.

"Nothing Captain." Said Hegh snapping to attention , a small smile still playing about the edges of his mouth.

"Transporter ready captain" came the tinny voice of the Chief engineer.

"Beam me directly to the bridge" ordered Haj.

"But Captain....." said Kr'gahN as he was cut off in mid- warning.

"But me no buts XO, get to the bridge and open a channel to Krud and B'leth, I will speak to them when I get to the bridge."

"Alright you're the captain, I suppose you know what you're doing"

"You're damn right I know what I'm doing, that's why they call me Captain Badass!" With that, Kr'gahN and Hegh left Haj's quarters and proceeded to the bridge. When they got there Kr'gahN moved to the communications console and opened a channel to the planet below.

"I.K.V. Dragons Blade to the house of Pallara, we request permission to land, also our esteemed captain wishes to speak with Krud.

"This is Krud, Transmitting image now."

The main viewer lit up with the image of Krud of the house of Pallara, small of stature for a Klingon, but undoubtedly a fearsome warrior judging by the decorations on his uniform. "nuqneH Kr`gahN, and where is your captain?"

"He should be arriving shortly."

At that exact moment the transporter activated, and Haj materialized on the bridge of the 'Blade, behind his command chair. Haj saluted the image of Krud and then leaned on his command chair, "Greetings from the house of Ruatha and from the Dragon's Blade, I am 2^nd lieutenant Haj'chonnaQ otherwise known as Haj, and it is a great honor to be invited to your home." Haj said smiling and then looking down, with an almost perceptible yelp Haj noticed something that no-one else could see, he wasn't wearing any pants. The transporter must have taken him out of the ferrocrete cocoon and left his pants there as they would have bonded to the hardened resin concrete,

'I must cut this short and get some pants, this could be bad...' thought Haj. "We will be sending down our shuttlecraft shortly with myself, Kr'gahN, Hegh wam'R, and Qel qu'chonG aboard. The rest of the crew will stay in orbit aboard the 'Blade."

"The meeting has yet to start, but you are quite welcome to join usat the meeting place for a few cups of Bloodwine before the meeting starts. We are still waiting on some warriors to arrive, most notably is Koord, he isn't here yet and we cannot get under way with out him."

"Understood Krud, we will proceed to the surface immediately. QAPLA'Krud!"

"QAPLA' Haj!" saluted Krud.

"Viewer off!, Transport me back to my quarters immediately." Barked Haj. As the transporter trace faded from the bridge, Kr'gahN fell about in helpless gales of laughter with the rest of the crew looking at him strangely.

"Don't worry" said Kr'gahN, "it's just something funny that I thought of, but if each of you could, when speaking to the captain, find so me way to mention the word pants, I would be most grateful."
 

Lieutenant Commander Kr'gahN Vestai-maw'checH
XO of the I.K.V. Dragon's Fury
Quadrant Commander Firestorm Quadrant,
Sundragon Fleet.
(High Priest of the Kult of the Shaved Kitten)