The Complication

Heart of Glory

Author's Note: Thank you for your continued support on this journey!

Plugging right along, this instalment focuses on the episode Heart of Glory.

Heart of Glory is one of my favourite TNG episodes. It's an early S1 gem that often gets overlooked IMHO. It was really the first Worf-centred episode of the series and one in which we start to see the struggle of Worf's duality – an outsider both to Klingons and in Starfleet.

In anticipation of this, I dropped that snippet of a conversation between Beverly and Jean-Luc about prejudice earlier during the Ariana La Forge arc.

While not as directly 1980s PSA preachy, Heart of Glory did force our characters to confront some of their own internalised biases.

You will notice some deviation from the canon material here. For me, the Klingon Civil War and later DS9 arcs were both wonderful and an amazing, untapped opportunity. I really want to expand on that here and expand on the internal conflict leading to the events of stories like Reunion, In the Mind's Eye, Redemption, and The Drumhead.

So I'm taking some liberties with characters like Korris, Duras, K'mpec, and others the build on that.

Thank you again for all of your support, likes, kudos, comments, and fanart!

-X-

In the days that followed their departure from Relva VII, the team continued to work their scheduled shifts and go about their business.

Commander Riker's weekly poker night took place. The team had all turned out for Guinan's sushi night. And Geordi conducted a training for everyone on the new upgrades to the science terminals on the Bridge.

Life went on.

But it was overshadowed by the knowledge that there was a Romulan threat looming out there.

Deanna had likened it to the same feelings that the crew of ships often felt following a takeover or invasion.

Starfleet was their home. And knowing that Romulans were now embedded in that organisation left them all with a sense that their home was no longer safe.

What was worse was the fact that the crew felt as if they were walking around carrying a secret, pretending everything was alright.

Lying was antithetical to everything Data stood for.

He felt like an imposter every time he started the morning briefing with the team of departmental heads.

Yet not all the secrets caused such feelings of guilt. There was one in particular that Data had found quite exciting.

Data and Tasha's plans to elope in secret were on hold. But they had found solace in planning their secret wedding together.

They had both opted to skip happy hour with the team in favour of returning to Tasha's quarters after their shift.

"I have confirmed the travel restrictions on Føroyar," Data said.

Because it was such a pristine wilderness area, the planet was keen to preserve her best natural resource.

"We will be permitted to take a shuttle directly to Skýr Point," Data said. "I do apologise, I know you were looking forward to a long hike."

Tasha up and grinned.

She set her new tablet down and crawled over to Data.

"Which means we would have additional time to stay in the area. Or we could stay longer at one of the other places, the resort at Stjörnuljós for example," Data suggested.