tlhamaH - The Klingon-romanization orthography neatly obscures the fact that this guy is named after Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Koloth-class bird-of-prey - One of the variants of the classic B'rel class found in Star Trek Online, as an available redress of the generic starting bird-of-prey KDF ship. In UF, a somewhat newer model than the B'rel, which was the Klingon forces' original knockoff of the WDF's Predator-class corvette, but of roughly similar capabilities to "modern-day" Preds. Named for the renowned 24th-century Klingon captain.

Hwacha' - Medieval Korean MLRS. The Klingons do like a missile delivery system.

klin zha kinta - "The Game with Live Pieces", a contact-sport version of klin zha, the popular Klingon board game.

kuveleta - Roughly, "servitor's love-child" (see kuve below). A mortal insult, vaguely akin to "whoreson" but with a greater overtone of social transgression.

kuve - A complicated Klingon concept sometimes oversimplified "slave" in translation, in the modern era this refers to members of the Klingon Empire's "client races": peoples who have been conquered by the Empire and are held in subordinate positions, but are considered capable and trustworthy enough to hold jobs with considerable responsibility within the Empire - though they are never considered full citizens, or in the more reactionary circles, even fully sapient beings. A concept the Klingon Union has done away with in law, as part of its alignment with the Inner Galaxy.

lontai- a little-used surname prefix in modern times, and virtually never used by people to identify themselves; roughly translated it means "wayward property of".

their own little space empire - B'Elanna is evidently not aware that the Gorn Hegemony has been conquered by Klayvor's Empire and reduced to the status of kuve, which is why a number of Gorn refugees and survivors of the Gorn Navy, such as the Science Gorn, now serve in Krojaar's KDF.

It is often the second lieutenant's duty to entertain guests - Writing dialog for The Science Gorn was an absolute joy.

AIRLOCK MAINT CYCLE OVERRIDE? (Y/N) - This solution to an unwanted guest has since been published in KDF technical journals as a "field expedient disposal method."

Was any shipwright really that sloppy? - Sadly, yes! The rather variable quality of Klingon ship layouts and sizes, even within the same class, is pulled straight out of Star Trek canon. This is also the same reason that the Redclaw commandos trained on a simulated ship rather than one of their own Koloth-class ships - they had to be certain the layout was exactly correct.

that old Earth movie - Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).

suddenly the emitters sprang into life - For fellow STO fans, it appears The Science Gorn equipped kit modules for Sonic Pulse, Electro-Gravitic Field, and Exothermic Induction Field. Not a bad set for a mostly offensive controller build.

Red was seeping into B'Elanna's vision - This sequence, up and through Jurdak getting what he deserved, was the first (basically) full scene I wrote for EPU, which is a pretty neat thing to write.

"For the Union!" - Vokaan may be a jerk, but he's a loyal jerk. As for his competency in his fight with Krek, he may not have been B'Elanna's equal in the ring, but almost a month of constantly challenging her has lead to his skills improving quite a bit.

Kai, klingon - The use of klingon as a non-proper noun is an indication of esteem for the fighting spirit of the person addressed, be they capital-K Klingon or otherwise. It's a shorter way of saying, "You have the klin in you."

Pujbe'etlh - "Blade of Glory", if I am doing the Klingonese right. More fluent speakers are welcome to correct me on this. :)

Kamarag-class battlecruiser - An alternative to the k't'Inga class, these ships were named for a famed Klingon warrior-diplomat, and are known for their ability to absorb punishment. It is not a coincidence that the former Ambassador to Babylon chose one of them for his flag. (Though this particular ship was given a few enhancements to make it a suitable flag vessel. A "fleet retrofit", if you will.)

This gives me the slightly unnerving impression that, somewhere in the Klingon spacecraft construction industry, there exists a local equivalent to the esteemed Mr. B. S. Johnson. It explains so much!

--
Unable to save the day: File is read-only.

So, this is entirely unrelated, but it continues to amaze me how much accuracy the makers of the fallout games have tried (and largely succeeded) in making their games. Klamath is the first town encountered in Fallout 2, and while the map is not exact (post-nuclear war, older game, pick your feature), it's pretty damn close to the approximate location.

>Koloth-class bird-of-prey - One of the variants of the classic
>B'rel class found in Star Trek Online, as an available
>redress of the generic starting bird-of-prey KDF ship. In UF, a
>somewhat newer model than the B'rel, which was the Klingon
>forces' original knockoff of the WDF's Predator-class corvette,
>but of roughly similar capabilities to "modern-day" Preds.
>Named for the renowned 24th-century Klingon captain.

There are a lot of moments in this piece that are really interesting to me relating to this bit here. I'm only so much of a Star Trek fan, having been largely on the Star Wars side of that nerd war for much of my life, and so seeing so much more of the inner workings of the Klingon military is...enlightening.

>It is often the second lieutenant's duty to
>entertain guests - Writing dialog for The Science Gorn was an
>absolute joy.

And a joy to read. This guy is shaping up to be pretty awesome.

>AIRLOCK MAINT CYCLE OVERRIDE? (Y/N) - This solution to an
>unwanted guest has since been published in KDF technical journals as a
>"field expedient disposal method."

It appears be a duelist thing to be on the cutting edge of inventive solutions to dangerous situations. Good to see B'Elanna continuing in that tradition. See also the tradition of chewing way above one's weight class.

Greatly looking forward to seeing how the Retaliator is earned.

-Droken