The Edge of Midnight

Storm clouds gather over the planet of Acamar as Starfleet races to prevent the establishment of a Klingon foothold in their back yard.

“Flew from Beta Rigel VI TOAC
Didn't get to bed last night,
All the way my bat'leth was on my knee,
Man, I've had a dreadful flight
 
I'm back in the KSSR,
You don't know how lucky you are, boys:
Back in the KSSR!” ­– Romanticistic Rock band “The Quin-tles”, 2262 The Klingons strike back in the trade war; meanwhile, the passage of power in the Federation sets the stage for a confrontation over the embattled planet of Acamar.

“An embargo if necessary, but not necessarily an embargo.” –Peter Broadhurst 

Outmatched by the Klingon fleet, the Federation flexes its economic muscles across the quadrant.

“A scrimmage in a Border Station --
  A canter down some dark defile --
Two thousand pounds of education
  Drops to a ten-rupee jezail --
The Crammer's boast, the Squadron's pride,
Shot like a rabbit in a ride!”
   -    Rudyard Kipling, Arithmetic on the Frontier As the 2260s begin, both the Federation and the Klingon Empire prepare for the next stage of the Cold War.

“It’s only fair the nobility gets hung from lampposts. If we don’t do it, Sturka will.” – Savan joke.

As the might of Klingon central power is turned on the rebels, the Federation prepares for the long, twilight struggle ahead.

“Klingons don’t do revolutions. At least, I thought they didn’t.” – Matthew Decker. As Starfleet reels from the disaster at Caleb IV, Klingon social strife boils over into open revolt.

“Caleb IV was an avoidable tactical disaster, but an unavoidable operational one. Thank god it happened when it did.” –  Angella Fukuhara Starfleet suffers a grim backhand blow in the Undivae-Caleb system, as the Imperial Klingon Navy demonstrates its power.

“All along the watchtower, princes kept the view
While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too.
Outside in the distance, a wildcat did growl
Two riders were approaching, the wind began to howl.” – Robert Dylan, Old Earth Poet and Musician, circa 1967 CE
 
“I’m starting to realize that ‘we come in peace’ only means something if they’re clear on the fact we can also kick their ass.”  - Matthew Decker, apocryphal. As the Klingon Navy rounds up the Suliban population, Starfleet scrambles to deliver a decisive response.

“The impact of escalated Orion piracy...can be understood as nothing less than a complete and irrevocable upheaval. If a disaster is to be averted, Starfleet must acknowledge and comprehend the scale of the Strategic Earthquake in the Disputed Area as soon as possible.” - The Holland Report.

Klingon Command faces a crisis which seemed to have no solution. “I think it is safe to say that these are not aftershocks,” Admiral Nogura would note in a memo to Commander, Starfleet, only a few weeks after Holland’s fateful description. “We’ve got a whole new problem on our hands.”

“I’ll be honest, Ken, I deserved that.” - President Barreuco, to Kenneth Wescott, after losing the Vote of No Confidence, April 4th, 2258

"You have asked us to come together behind a united cause: behind a common belief. I think I know what that common belief is: that you have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, Madam President, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!” - Ambassador Byss Th'rhahlat

“Until we have enough ships to match the D7 whenever it appears,we will never regain anything close to the security we once had inthe Klingon Border Area .”

— Admiral Agatha Drake, C-in-C 2nd Fleet, 2258

“This isn’t over. Armistice or not, the Klingons are coming for us.”

"Conquest is Easy. Control is Not." - James T. Kirk. 

EDGE OF MIDNIGHT is written by Seamus Devenish, and read by Stephen Van Doren.

We all live in the shadow of the Klingon Cold War.

EDGE OF MIDNIGHT is written by Seamus Devenish, and read by Stephen Van Doren.