Kell entered the recreation room late. It allowed him to find a place in the back of the room, away from the others in his squad -- or, rather, the survivors of his squad. He could not face their sympathy or their concern for him, which they gave freely because they could not see what he had hidden from them.

They gave it because they did not know his true face and the shame it carried.

He could not face them, not Parrish, not the others who had been on the planet, and not Chief Sam Fuller, whose own honor and courage were the match of those of any human or Klingon Kell had ever known.

Kell found his place in the back, noting that Fuller and the rest of his squadmates were right in front of the podium and the photographs of Ensign Sobel and Ensign Benitez.

For the third time in less than one month Kell stood at a memorial service. The first one had been for Ensigns Rayburn and Matthews. The captain and crew had honored them. Kell alone had known that Matthews was betleH 'etlh, or The Blade of the Bat'leth. An Infiltrator, like Kell himself, Matthews hid his true face to overcome his enemy not in open and honorable battle, but through murder and deceit.

And yet Matthews had died more honorably than Kell himself now lived.

Matthews, whose Klingon name Kell had never learned, had died believing the lies the Klingon High Command had told about the Earthers -- about their cowardice, their treachery, their imperialistic desires to overrun the galaxy.

Matthews had died fighting what he had believed to be a great wrong and a great threat to the Klingon Empire.

When the Klingon surgeons first gave Kell his human face and he began this mission to live among the humans and help the Empire defeat them, Kell had held many of the same illusions, had believed many of the same lies told to him by Klingon command.

But for Kell, those illusions and lies had been burned away on the surface of the second planet of a system the Federation knew only as 1324. There, Kell and twenty other Starfleet officers had fought Orions for the lives of a small group of anti-Federation settlers who in any sane universe Starfleet would have treated like enemies. Yet, the Enterprise crew had held to their principles and had defeated the Orions. Those principles had cost thirteen of the security people their lives. Those lives had been lost in honorable battle and Kell had mourned the passing of the brave warriors with the rest of the crew in two memorial services.

Now he was at another memorial service for another two officers. Ensign Sobel had died fighting the cowardly Orions who sought to destroy an entire planet of ancient Klingons who should not have existed at all but somehow did.

Luiz Benitez also fought for Gorath and his people, but he did not die in battle. He was murdered, and Kell was responsible. He died so that Kell could protect his own terrible secret, his own cowardly deception, the deception of other Infiltrators like himself and the truth about the mine on the third planet of System 7348.

That truth was perhaps the greatest shame that the Klingon people had ever known: the Klingon High Command were the masters of the Orions and their mine. Kell had spoken to a High Commander himself. That Klingon knew about the beings of Klingon blood that lived on that world. And the High Commander wanted to destroy the world anyway -- all to get a few more precious crystals to fight a war with the Federation. A dishonorable war, one that should never be fought.

And yet those primitive Klingons lived because of the efforts of Captain Kirk, Ensign Benitez, and the others -- humans who cared more for the lives of the Klingons on that world than the Klingon leaders did.

That Klingon High Command had brought shame to the entire Empire.

And yet the greatest shame belonged to Kell, who had made himself party to that deception.

Kahless the Unforgettable had said, "A terrible secret cannot be kept." And that great Klingon father had once fought his own brother for twelve days because his brother had lied and brought shame to his family.

Kell had murdered his human brother to keep perhaps the most terrible secret in Klingon history. The brother was not of his kind, but Benitez was of his blood. Perhaps no Klingon in the Empire would believe that was possible for a human, for an Earther, but it was a truth and Kell would not deny it.

Kell and Benitez had been brothers in battle, in death and in life.

And Kell had murdered him.

He could not bear to think of his brother Karel, who served honorably on a Klingon ship, or their father, who had died honorably in battle against the Federation.

When Kell shamed himself, he had brought shame to his family. His only solace was that he would likely die before he sired a son or daughter -- for his shame would carry through three generations.

Captain Kirk approached the podium, and Kell had a moment to consider the human he had been sent on this mission to kill.

That was before the captain had saved Kell's own life and the lives of over one hundred thousand Klingons.

Kirk took the podium and looked solemnly at the gathered crowd. "Thank you all for coming, and greetings to those of you who are listening to this memorial service through the ship's com system," he said.

As the captain spoke about the lives of Benitez and Sobel and about the principles they lived and died to keep, Kell realized that he would never kill the captain. In fact, he would die to protect this human.

Kell knew he could not regain his honor, or erase his shame, but he would not add to it.