TREKCORE > DS9 > EPISODES > THE SWORD OF KAHLESS > Synopsis

Episode Synopsis by Tracy Hemenover

Kor is back on DS9, zestfully telling a story to a crowd in Quark's as Worf listens. "You know what I like about Klingon stories, Commander?" Quark comments. "Nothing. Lots of people die, and nobody makes any profit." After Kor finishes, Dax introduces him to Worf, who is reluctant at first. He's an outcast, and Kor is a Dahar Master. But Kor is pleased to meet him. "Any enemy of Gowron and the High Council is a friend of mine." He tells Worf that he is on a quest for the sword of Kahless, and knows where it rests. It's decided that Worf will come along with Kor and Dax, and together they'll present it to the emperor.

Kor has a piece of cloth which he says is the shroud that once wrapped the sword; Dax takes it to analyze it. Later, after a night of drinking with Worf, Kor stumbles into his quarters and is attacked by a Lethean named Soto, who reads his mind.

Dax comes there in the morning and tells him that she's found DNA and metallic traces on the cloth that indicate it's very likely to be the authentic shroud. She and Worf brief Sisko: the cloth was found in some ruins on a planet in the Gamma Quadrant by a Vulcan geological survey team. Kor was the Klingon ambassador to Vulcan, and got them to give it to him. The markings on the cloth are from the Hur'q, the race of aliens who conquered the Klingon homeworld over 1000 years ago and took the sword. "It is said its return will bring back a new era of glory for the Klingon Empire," Worf says. "With the Sword, the Emperor will be able to unite my people once again." "And if two Starfleet officers were involved in recovering the Sword, that might go a long way toward patching things up between the Klingons and us," Sisko says, and approves their use of a runabout.

They get ready to depart; Kor is late. He feels the need to make a typical Klingon-type speech before they depart, but they finally get underway. Eventually they make it to the Hur'q homeworld planet. There's a system of interconnected structures and tunnels under the surface. The sword is probably in the central museum, which has a forcefield around it that the Vulcans couldn't get through. They beam down, find the forcefield, and are able to deactivate it. Then they go inside -- but the place is empty, with no sign of the sword.

Kor is devastated. But Worf finds another forcefield hidden by a holographic projection of a wall. Dax does some technological trick to fool the sensor into thinking they're Hur'q, and they pass through. There, in the middle of a room, is the sword. After some awestruck speeches, they take it and head out, but are stopped by Klingon soldiers led by Toral of the House of Duras, along with Soto. Toral happened to have heard Kor telling of his quest in a bar one night. Now he plans to take the sword and use it to conquer the empire. There's a fight, in which Worf is wounded, but he, Dax, and Kor make it out of the museum with the sword, leaving Toral and the others trapped behind the forcefield. But they can't beam back to the runabout; their signal is jammed. They may be able to override it from the surface, though.

As they're walking through the caves, Kor and Worf begin sniping at each other, blaming each other for this turn of events. Worf shouldn't have spared Toral's life during the Klingon civil war, and Kor shouldn't have talked about the quest in that bar. Dax takes Kor to task, but Kor is unrepentant. "He dishonors the Sword with his presence. I don't trust him. I should have let him stay on that space station where he belongs."

The three of them later kill an animal for lunch. Worf is incensed when Kor casually uses the sword as an eating dagger. And the argument is on again. Kor reveals that he's actually entertaining thoughts of keeping the sword himself and becoming leader of the empire. Dax breaks the tension by saying they should get moving, and they do. Later, when they stop to rest, Kor goes off to hunt again while Dax tends Worf's wound. Worf tells her about when he had a vision as a child in which Kahless told him he would do something no Klingon had ever done before. He had thought it meant joining Starfleet, but now he believes he was meant to have the sword and use it to lead his people. Dax tells Worf, "Then we have a bit of a problem. There's only one Sword, and you both want it." Unknown to either of them, Kor has come back and is listening.

They press on, and come to an abyss, where they inch along the wall. Kor slips; Worf grabs him by the handle of the sword. He tells Kor there's a ledge right below him; neither Kor nor Dax can see it. Kor doesn't want to let go of the sword. Finally Dax and Worf use it to pull Kor up. Kor accuses Worf of deliberately trying to get him to step onto a ledge that was too narrow. The fight threatens to get physical, but Dax then takes the sword herself to carry. Kor stalks off.

"He was right about one thing," Dax tells Worf. "You wanted him to fall. That ledge would have never supported him, and you knew it." "I did not force him off that cliff," Worf sneers. "He is old and clumsy. If he had fallen, it would have been his own fault."

After another long march, the trio stops to rest again. Kor and Worf, of course, have a dispute over who will keep watch, each suspecting the other of planning to steal the sword. Dax lays down with phaser in hand. "I have had enough of both of you. I don't care if you sleep or not, but I'm going to. So be quiet."

She wakes up to find Kor and Worf on the verge of yet another fight. Dax has had it, and is about to stun them both when they are attacked by Toral and his friends. There is a big battle; the enemy is defeated, but then Kor and Worf are at each other's throats. Dax stuns Worf. "I knew in the end, you'd choose me," Kor smiles. "We're blood brothers." "Be quiet," orders Dax, and stuns him too. She picks up the sword and threatens a wounded Toral with it.

Back on the runabout, Dax puts the sword on a pedestal on the transporter pad. "Do we have the right?" Kor asks. "This Sword belongs to all Klingons." "But are we ready for it?" Worf argues. "The Sword turned you and me against each other. Imagine how it would divide the Empire...The Sword was not meant for us. It was never our destiny to find it." "You're wrong," says Kor. "It was our destiny to find it. It just wasn't our destiny to keep it." With that, they beam the sword out into space, to drift, and to be found someday when it's meant to be.