Stardate 1875.4

The Enterprise is at the Prospero System to pick up Ambassador Dak’Rah.

They are taking Dak’Rah to Starbase 12. He was a Klingon general who defected to the Federation and has been actively negotiating peace between the sides.

Crew members who fought in the Klingon war have a hard time accepting Dak’Rah as an ambassador as his actions during the war were abhorrent.

Dak’Rah requests a tour before he is shown to his quarters.

On the bridge, Ortegas is skeptical of the ambassador’s motivations. She’s talking about his reputation as the “Butcher of J’Gal” when he and the captain’s entourage step onto the bridge.

In the bar, Spock is trying to synthesize a Klingon drink when the tour arrives. The coding isn’t quite right and the ambassador singes his hand on the cup. Pike insists they go to sickbay to see to it.

M’Benga and Chapel see the ambassador enter sickbay. M’Benga’s reaction is dramatic and Chapel reassures him she’ll handle the situation. He quickly retreats to his office where he rides out a panic attack. Pike notices him leave.

Moon of J’gal, A Few Years Ago

Chapel arrives on the war-ridden moon. She is greeted by Commander Martinez, the chief medical officer, who informs her she is now the head nurse.

He also alerts her to the fact they do not have an internal organ regenerator. He tells her Joseph is someone she can get help from too.

Before she can put her things away, an incoming transport of wounded is announced. Everyone scrambles.

A wounded soldier comes in with extreme internal injuries. M’Benga tells her to load his pattern into the transporter buffer to keep him in suspension until a ship with a surgery bay can pick him up.

On the Enterprise at 1875.8, M’Benga is repairing biobed 2 in the sickbay. Pike comes in and asks for his Deltan parsley. He tells M’Benga that Starfleet Command has made it a mandate for Klingon war veterans to interact with the ambassador to make him feel welcome.

Pike is hosting a dinner. Both M’Benga and Chapel agree to attend.

Chapel reassures M’Benga they can handle a dinner with Dak’Rah. This recalls for M’Benga a memory of the two of them operating on Ensign Inman on J’Gal. He goes into cardiac arrest and M’Benga directs Chapel to perform a direct heart stimulation to resuscitate him.

When she starts to panic, he reassures her with the same words, “We got this.”

Arriving at the captain’s quarters, M’Benga finds Ortegas about to bail on dinner and talks her into pretending to be okay with the war and Dak’Rah for one night.

Inside, Spock is talking with Chapel who is very distracted and stressed. Dak’Rah is regaling the other crew with stories of his diplomatic missions. Pike introduces M’Benga.

Chapel reveals Dak’Rah’s description of his peace endeavors irritates her. Spock offers to help. He engages the ambassador in a conversation of how Sun Tzu’s The Art of War compares to the texts Klingon children are raised on.

Chapel and M’Benga have a drink together and try to keep it together for the evening. M’Benga recalls talking to Ensign Inman in recovery. Inman remembers how General Dak’Rah’s men tortured him but wouldn’t let him die.

An Andorian soldier tracks down M’Benga. M’Benga tells him no but the soldier tells him they need help taking out Dak’Rah who is killing civilians, both human and Klingon. His orders are to kill on sight anyone who isn’t a Klingon soldier.

The Andorian references what M’Benga was known for before he was a doctor. He had the most hand-to-hand kills confirmed in Starfleet. He refuses the call again.

Accepting the refusal, the Andorian changes tactics and demands the Protocol 12 serum M’Benga created to enhance strength and inhibit pain while in battle.

M’Benga tells him he doesn’t have it and he wouldn’t make more if he could.

Back at the dinner, Dak’Rah returns to the topic of negotiating peace. He comments that J’Gal changed him and M’Benga and Chapel reveal they were there too. Ortegas asks Dak’Rah if the stories are true. He states that everyone was pushed to their limits.

Ortegas responds with the Klingon battle cry she learned while monitoring the coms during the war, “Remain Klingon.” She says the cry was heard all over the coms and then suddenly all the Klingons voice fell silent and no one was left alive.

Una warns Ortegas who stands and refuses to take her seat. The ambassador claims to want to make amends for his past and to connect with others who need healing. Ortegas leaves the room.

Chapel leaves to check on Ortegas.

Pike apologizes to Dak’Rah for the outburst. Dak’Rah understands and hopes Ortegas will find peace.

Pike sees M’Benga’s stress and recommends he also go with Chapel to check on Ortegas. As he passes Dak’Rah, the ambassador grabs his arm and requests a session of Mok’bara practice.

On J’Gal, Inman comes out to watch the distant battle with M’Benga, questioning the point of all the death and the war. M’Benga reminds him they fight so the people they love at home can have a chance to live in peace.

Chapel briefs M’Benga on a new strategy. The Special Ops team is going after the Klingon general. The rest of the forces will provide cover by mounting an offensive near Colony Athos. They’ll throw everyone at the Klingons. M’Benga sees Inman suited up for battle and tries to talk him out of going back out. Inman says this is his job. M'Benga reminds him to stay low and fight hard.

On the Enterprise, Spock tries to provide support to Chapel but she explains it’s not something he can help with. She tells him she needs some personal time on her own.

On J’Gal, as the offensive at Colony Athos begins, the Klingons hit the Federation’s power supplies, causing the transporters to go offline. In order to bring in the wounded, they have to purge the backlogs, including the soldier they’d suspended in the transporter buffer until they could help him.

Chapel hesitates so M’Benga does it for her.

Dak’Rah and M’Benga begin a Mok’bara session. Dak’Rah suggests they become allies to spread the message of unity. M’Benga wants him to answer questions about J’Gal before he will consider joining with him.

M’Benga asks if Dak’Rah really killed his own men. He admits he did because he was appalled by atrocities of the war.

M’Benga is impressed he prevailed against three Klingon generals. He asks who fought the hardest.

In flashback, there is a fight with a Klingon blade that kills a Klingon captain.

Dak’Rah names Commander Kiff. He insists he had to kill him after all the nameless victims who had died. M’Benga is skeptical and the Mok’bara starts again. M’Benga gets the upper hand but withholds the final strike.

He reminds Dak’Rah that wars change people. Dak’Rah thanks him for the session.

In the sonic shower, M’Benga has another panic attack as he relives the height of the Massacre at Colony Athos. Whole families of civilians, children, as well as the Andorian soldier who had tried to recruit him are dead.

He takes a blade off of Ensign Inman, who is dead with his throat slit.

Pike is reviewing M’Benga’s record when Una comes to him to recommend getting to Starbase 12 sooner in order to get Dak’Rah off the ship. Morale is low.

Pike agrees to take the detour.

On J’Gal, M’Benga suits up and prepares himself with vials of Protocol 12. Chapel sees him and realizes he’s going into the fight. He gives her a tracker that she can use to find him but he warns her not to bring him out until absolutely necessary.

He gives her a vial of Protocol 12. She wishes him luck.

In sickbay, M’Benga opens a kit. Dak’Rah enters to tell him they’ll be arriving at Starbase 12 early so they won’t have another session of Mok’bara to look forward too.

M’Benga asks Dak’Rah to leave. Dak’Rah tries again to connect with him as a survivor of J’Gal, but M’Benga is done humoring him. He begs Dak’Rah to leave him alone.

He confronts Dak’Rah with the fact he ordered anyone who wasn’t a Klingon soldier to be killed on sight. Dak’Rah admits that’s true but insists he’s been trying to make up for that.

M’Benga states that Kiff didn’t fight the hardest. It was Captain Ruh’lis. That captain held M’Benga back while Dak’Rah escaped. M’Benga was the Butcher of J’Gal, the killer of the Klingon leaders.

Dak’Rah can’t believe he’s never claimed the kills. M’Benga accuses him of using the blood on his hands to make himself a saint. Dak’Rah says he needed Starfleet to trust him.

M’Benga asks him why he couldn’t leave him alone. He opens the kit fully to show that it holds the knife with which he killed the Klingon warlords on J’Gal. Dak’Rah insists he can bring healing to M’Benga. The two men struggle. Chapel comes in. Dak’Rah falls to the ground with the blade in his gut.

Chapel states to Pike and La’an that she witnessed the whole thing and M’Benga killed Dak’Rah in self-defense.

Pike visits M’Benga in sickbay where he’s working on Biobed 2 again. He offers to listen if M’Benga wants to disclose that he’d started the fight with Dak’Rah and it got away from him. M’Benga states unequivocally that he did not start the fight.

Stardate 1877.5

M’Benga reports that Biobed 2 is working again but he believes it’ll break down again. As he walks away, a system alarm flashes.