Spoiler for KRAD's excellent 2004 TNG novel A Time for War, A Time for Peace below. Do not read ahead if you do not want to be spoiled on the plot. So as readers of A Time for War, a Time for Peace know, Emperor Kahless replaced himself with a hologram and waited on the Federation planet Cygnet IV in order to teach the Klingon Empire a lesson based on the story of The Promise. My question is: is Cygnet IV meant to be in the same system as Cygnet XIV, the Cygnian homeworld first mentioned in "Tomorrow is Yesterday"? I ask in part because Cygnet XIV and the Cygnians are nowhere mentioned in the novel. In addition while I suppose it's perfectly plausible that a Klingon quietly traveled to Federation space in the era of the Federation-Klingon alliance, I find it a bit incredible that the Cygnian government never noticed the Emperor in their system. Anyone have any insight into this matter?
Full Circle revealed that his trip there was actually part of the whole thing with the qawHaq'hoch as part of his efforts at protecting Miral; since they're an all-female organization of warriors and their headquarters turned out to be on Cygnet IV, I honestly figured the connection was meant to be explicit and the qawHaq'hoch were there with the knowing (if quiet) approval of the government of Cygnet XIV, yeah. (Edit: This post got me to start rereading Full Circle because I felt like I was mixing something up; still in the middle of it, but still editted it to correct some mis-rememberings.)
^ Indeed. While it's never made explicit so far as I'm aware, it's always seemed to me that Cygnet IV is a good choice for the qawHaq'hoch headquarters. Part of the problem with keeping a low profile for the qawHaq'hoch would be the fact that as a quasi-political, quasi-military organization with no males, they're very unusual in Klingon terms. Klingon females control the domestic sphere of their Houses, and defer to the males in matters of politics or war, so they'd be quite conspicuous. However, Cygnet is probably the one place in the general proximity of the Empire where such might not even occur to anyone, due to Cygnet's still very entrenched perspective that it is natural for females to be running the political sphere. The Cygneti might not blink, rather than start wondering "now this is odd". Plus, the Cygneti government might well privately consider such an organization to be inherently more sensible than what I imagine to them is a rather bizarre and counter-intuitive system of male political prominence. Presumably, either the qawHaq'hoch are seeking camouflage or they're seeking, as Idran said, quiet local support and backing.
Actually, I could see Kahless rather appreciating it. He's always been portrayed as a reluctant emperor who easily becomes tired of the system and takes the opportunity to enjoy any diversions (Full Circle gave us the real reason why he was on Cygnet IV, but I'm sure no-one's claiming that he didn't enjoy sitting and painting flowers, if only for his own perverse bemusement ). Arriving at a Cygneti spaceport and having them be less "Honoured Emperor! Command us on the path to honour!" and more "you take a seat over there, deary, we'll be with you in a minute" might be right up his alley. I could easily see him putting his boots up and just enjoying it for a while.
Ah yes, I forgot the part about the qawHaq'hoch's base being on Cygnet IV. It didn't seem very much like a Federation planet to me in Full Circle. Wait, shouldn't the second-to-last "h" be capitalized per the rules of Klingon transcription?