Qo'Nos And Praxis: Part Two
The Klingon Empire showed that while wounded, it still had fight left in it. At the stroke of a pen, ten years worth of future military construction plans were consigned to the ashtray, and hulls under construction converted into vast steerage-haulers, designed to cram the maximum number of Klingons into the fastest possible hulls. While never meant to grow to such outrageous sizes, the K'Tinga class ships that became auxiliaries were expanded with two massive housing bays. These bays were cramped, fetid, and uncomfortable even by the standards of Klingon aesthetics and starship crews. They could however, cruise at warp 8 to colony worlds before offloading thousands of Klingons in one go. More was needed however-much more. Already, the food situation on Qo'nos was spiraling out of control. Crops contaminated by unsafe levels of toxic compounds and radiation had to be disposed of and millions of Targs and Lingta had been put down as a mercy-and to use their food to feed Klingons instead. In the first instance of major federation aid after Khitomer, the Klingons requested the use of the Federation's merchant marine-for transporting hundreds of millions of Quonos' population away, and to move food back.
The exercise was not without significant hardship. Klingon cryostasis technology at the time did not allow for the efficient and clean freezing of large numbers of people. While it did promise to cut down on the number of trips needed and the amount of life support consumed, Klingon cryogenics frequently caused lingering recovery problems-the loss of a hand or foot was not unusual, and more than one in five lose the tips of their ears, nose, fingers or other extremities. More often than not, these were due not to deficiencies in the actual technology, but to problems with untrained technicians and medical staff, or the crude storage and handling of frozen persons. One Federation observer remarked with horror that "In the hold of the Klingon transport, thousands of frozen bodies were stacked on top of each other like so much lumber or other common materials, filling the place up to the ceiling so there was barely any room for them to shift-and so the ones on the bottom were nearly crushed from the weight of those on top. If the refrigeration had failed, all in the hold would have died in the most horrific way." Despite these horrors, actual death rates among the cryostasis travelers were very low-partly attributed to tough klingon physiology, and partly to the fact that obvious and lethal damage could be repaired if caught before the subject was thawed out. One Klingon woman was broken in half at the waist and repaired, another lost both legs, but doctors coolly reattached them, noting that there was 'no real hurry, and all the pieces are still here.' Working at the indredibly low temperatures needed for cryogenic surgery posed many problems, but did offer an unlimited amount of time to repair any damage caused in transit. The expert care received also minimized the chance of an accidental case of 'freezer burn' or other minor damage.
While horrifying to observers, the 'cordwood' strategy for handling of refugees solved the problems of transportation. Individuals were frozen, transported directly to a deep freeze cargo bay, and then shipped to their destinations, to be thawed out in specially built facilities. But the size of the stasis and revival stations soon became the primary determinant of turn-around time. With tens of millions of klingons in a single superfreighter, revival of all of them could take weeks, resulting in the ship idling at it's origin and destination for long periods. Housing the refugees also required a massive effort-distributing them across several planets still left hundreds of millions needing housing per world. Entire books could be written about the urban development and agricultural projects that were embarked on-millions of hectares were cleared for farming, microlite fertilizers were deployed, and experiments with replicated apartment blocks begun, though the six primary designs ultimately chosen for construction were built with conventional methods. Massive complexes for storing and defrosting new arrivals were erected-and equally massive stations for departure were built on Qo'nos itself.
On the Klingon capital world, the situation had noticeably degenerated. Massive food imports were unable to support the required level of food intake, and all involved remember the years of 94 and 95 as 'The Starving Time'. Sufficient rations for children were allocated, but all other strata of society were given a allocation of food scarcely sufficient to sustain life. Even as construction crews hastened to erect massive bio-domes around critical ecosystems and the First City, their rations fell to approximately 1500 Calories per day-a sure recpie for starvation when the basal metabolic needs of an adult male klingon are around 2500 Calories. Female klingons received 1200 calories during this same period. Elderly klingons in their twilight years who could no longer provide useful work were allocated rations as well, but these were smaller still unless one volunteered for suicidal emergency work. Many a Klingon grandmother or grandfather simply gave their ration to their children until they expired from starvation-it seems everyone who was on Qo'nos during the Starving Time has at least one story of a noble elder who sacrificed all for their family, remaining alive as long as possible to obtain a ration that was handed over dutifully to the strong and noble son or daughter who would see the family through this trial. Most officals of the Klingon empire cast doubt on these stories, but even official estimates pin the death toll from starvation at around 10 million. By 2295 however, the situation was beginning to improve despite the soil of Qo'nos remaining barren. Food imports increased from month to month, and those preforming critical work saw their rations rise steadily to a reasonable 3000 Calories. By the end of the year, enough people had been frozen or moved off Qo'nos that the ration for the remainder could take the bite of starvation off. New ship construction had not slacked off either, and more transports brought more food. Still, the complete evacuation of Qo'nos was not finished until 2300, when the planet's population had been brought down to a mere hundred million essential workers for the next phase of environmental mitigation.
Several cities had been entirely domed over with Transparent Aluminum to provide a safe haven for those who remained behind-though new skyscraper sized life support and air conditioning structures had to be built as well. Notable biomes were also given small biospheres to preserve their natural beauty and the complex micro-biomes that had thrived there-the largest of these domes barely poked above the water of the Great Spine Reef, but covered an area underwater twenty kilometers long and ten wide. All told, these reserves could hold only a fraction of the original biodiversity of the planet, and millions of species undoubtedly went to extinction, but millions more were saved in hundreds of domes. Cities chosen for preservation were either politically important, such as the various seats of the Great Houses, or culturally important, and had unique or ancient treasures that could not be easily moved. Still, in many cases, it was more practical to house those who were assigned now to work in the reconstruction to live underground, like burrowing animals in various cavernous housing blocks. The division on Qo'nos between underground dwelling workers and the Great Houses is cause for great tension-the Houses support has been key, but their rewards have also been outsized and the 'Warriors for Qo'nos' see their own work as more noble than any battle that has ever been fought before-nobler indeed, than any other battle that could be fought.
Industrial production on Qo'nos had been in decline for decades as the available resources on the planet began to play out-but the destruction of Praxis signaled the final call for the planet's productivity. Once their last set of ships under construction was completed, the Klingons broke up their shipyards around the planet and redistributed them throughout the empire. The locations of these new yards are unknown, state secrets, but they are believed to have been relocated to be nearer to colonies that make available large amounts of resources needed for ship construction. Much of the rest of Qo'nos' industry was abandoned and left to rust-but the construction of replacement infrastructure and works on worlds to which the population have been evacuated, indicates that the Klingon Empire is still tremendously capable. Select machinery was removed from many factories, and it is believed that the new settlements have seen a massive upswing in civilian goods, light industry, and services, all designed to improve the quality of life and distract from the immense trauma caused by the loss of the homeworld, at least for a generation. However, with the first wave of economic disruption now subsiding, it has become clear that this was a much-needed rationalization of resources. The Klingon economy is growing despite the massive demands of the projects on Qo'nos itself, as new communities set up homes and businesses, opening up in some cases, entire new continents worth of resources. With access, however limited, to Federation markets, the Klingons have been able to cover some of their own shortfalls and concentrate on their economic strengths.
The renaissance has not been limited to industrial production and cultural goods either. Funds for terraforming research have flooded the laboratories of the Klingon Empire, and new and improved methods and technologies have begun to appear. These items not only are intended to allow for the rehabilitation of Qo'nos, but also make possible the colonization of more inhospitable worlds, or the improvement of the situation on others. Atmospheric scrubbers, soil chelation, oceanic trace mineral scrounging, all have important roles to play in the clean-up on Qo'nos, but they also have equally important roles to play in the settlement of new planets. Perhaps more important, animal and plant cloning, microbe fossil replication cultures, and other full-biosphere replications techniques are in the pipeline, as Klingon biosciences are awash with resources for new projects. If nature were allowed to take it's course, then it might be a billion years before the oxygen situation on Qo'nos resolves itself, and five hundred million more years for sentient life to again evolve. The Klingons have set a goal to revert much of the planet's surface to parkland and 'wilderness' by the end of the century, restoring charismatic megafauna to their ancient dominance of much of the planet. This goal is driven equally by guilt and by the demands of the Great Houses-who would much rather see Qo'nos as an aristocratic game preserve than an industrial heartland. The military and the commoners have a different vision-wishing to see the planet restored to it's former glory and importance, and not turned into a party-planet for the elite and highborn.
The biological wealth of the world has been for the most part safely sequestered in menageries, herbariums, cyogenic storage, and other safehouses. While extinction has claimed many coastal and island endemic species found only on small islands that were washed clean by tidal waves, the destruction of other biomes was slow enough that millions of Klingons were able to round up survivors from many more species and get them off the planet. The largest single repository is located, appropriately enough, on Khitomer itself, with the continent-sized Praxis memorial Wildlife Refuge offering a home for many majestic and dangerous animals, as well as research facilities where populations of less charismatic but no less important animals and microbes lower down the food chain are studied and preserved.
After nearly 20 years, the atmosphere of the planet has finally begun to stabilize, in part due to particulate filtration, and partly due to vast atmospheric processor plants. These facilities and their smaller seawater filtering countterparts, are now the main industrial process left of Qo'nos, sucking in vast quantities of polluted air, water, and dust that has become airborne since the death of most of the planet's plant species. Active Subspace elements, heavy metals, and other toxic or dangerous materials are removed from the air, as is carbon dioxide, and oxygen is replenished. While painfully slow, the facilities have managed to slow the decline in atmospheric conditions, and may hasten the turn-around point at which the planet begins to recover. Oceanic elements, in contrast, remain in decline, and may indicate that sea-floor sediments and volcanism are causing more damage than anticipated or that the systems are less effective at cleaning a global ocean, especially when located in relatively restricted or inshore waters. Topsoil and subsoil contamination are also a serious concern, made worse by the still-continuing rain of fine particulates from Praxis that has only recently been seriously addressed.
Overall, the impression one gets from the workers on the ground and the scientists studying the problem is grim-but determined. It will be a testament to the strength and scientific ingenuity of the Klingons to achieve the restoration of their homeworld, and they know it. Rations may be dull and boring, lacking the flavor of nearly raw Targ or fresh Gagh (though most Klingons, weather they admit it or not, hate the taste of Gagh) and the conditions are uniformly horrible even by Klingon standards, with 14 hour shifts and little opportunity for fresh air, sunlight or time off. But this is a battle against cruel nature itself, and the Klingons know how to win battles. They will win this one with ingenuity, blood-minded determination, and the resources of an empire. And in the estimation of this writer-they have the forces of Nature giving ground.
As for the remains of Praxis itself...rumor has it that several new deposits of rare resources were unearthed by the explosion One would hope that the new industrial works there will not be built as carelessly as the old.
