Honorable... but Odd
Qo'noS Heavy Industries has been building the D-7 battlecruiser for the Klingon Imperial Defense Forces since the Standard year 2280, two years after GZK Enterprises of Zeta Cygni launched the first practical warp-driven exploration and combat vessel, the first starship Enterprise (NX-01). The lineage of the class goes back even farther: the D-1, the first Klingon hyperspace-capable warship (ca. SY 1965), while extremely primitive by modern standards, did recognizably resemble its modern-day descendents.
There have been changes since the D-7 was first introduced in 2280, of course. The original model had a crew of over 500, and could manage a maximum speed of only Warp 4.5. Photon torpedoes had not yet been invented (some would say "stolen") by the Klingon military-industrial complex, so the ship's main armaments were light (by modern standards) disruptors and conventionally accelerated nuclear missiles. The first truly modern D-7 was 2330's D-7C, which was capable of threatening a Constitution-class starship. 2382's D-7K (the first variant to get a class name, k't'Inga) was a dramatically improved version developed through a controversial technical exchange between the short-lived Klingon Republic (2380-2394) and the rearming Wedge Defense Force.
The newest model is the D-7M Improved k't'Inga-class battlecruiser. Though the D-7 has been outclassed by newer Klingon dreadnaught designs, such as the new qeylIS bat'leth (Sword of Kahless)-class battleship, it is still a popular and reliable heavy cruiser - much like its traditional nemesis, the Constitution class. In 2401, an extensive upgrade program was launched by the Klingon High Command. The D-7M was the result.
Featuring automated flight systems, fault-tolerant construction and the state of the art in computer, communications, data integration and sensor systems, the Improved k't'Inga class is the best D-7 yet, and when the first one came off the line, many Klingon commanders fell over themselves vying for a chance to command it.
Unfortunately for them, circumstances had already dictated the High Command's choice.
In early 2388, as the Wedge Defense Force was in the final phases of its build-up to the War of Corporate Occupation, the government of the Klingon Republic loaned a B'rel-class escort vessel (popularly known in the Standard-speaking galaxy as a Bird of Prey) to the WDF for patrol and escort duty. This ship was assigned to the command of WDF Commander Derek Bacon, who for many years had served as the Force's Morale Officer. It was intended that, after the GENOM threat had been neutralized, Bacon would resume those duties and the ship, the Dor'tach, and its ten Klingon crewmen would return to the Republic's fleet.
Instead, Bacon decided that he enjoyed starship command, and arrangements were made. Bacon retained command of the vessel, rechristened the WDF Tom Servo (MST-3000), for the next fifteen years. Over that time, the Klingon crewmembers were constantly exposed to the philosophy and culture that their commander espoused, and it rubbed off on them.
When Commander Bacon was promoted to captain and reassigned to headquarters duties in 2403, the Servo acquired a whole new crew, and the Klingons returned to the Empire (the two Klingon states having reconciled in 2394) to report for service in the Imperial Navy. They were heroes many times over, covered in fame and glory from their tenure aboard the Servo... but they were also changed men from their time with Commander Bacon, and the Klingon High Command began to fear that they had developed attitudes and ideas which the Defense Forces were not yet quite ready for.
Before long, the High Command's fears were realized, as the Servo's crew began to contaminate comrades in their new postings with their unorthodox notions. The High Command found itself in a bit of a corner: it couldn't punish these men, heroes of the Empire one and all, but it also couldn't risk the wholesale collapse of discipline that their too-fast dissemination of radical new concepts into the Defense Forces was threatening to cause. A survey was taken that showed, in all, approximately a hundred sixty officers and crewmen had been involved in incidents of some sort relating to the "new approach".
By a curious coincidence, this was more or less exactly the crew complement of the new, highly-automated D-7M. A gloriously simple solution thus presented itself to the High Command: Place the "new approach" Klingons together on the same ship, under the command of one of their own. Thus they would be isolated from the rest of the Navy, preserving its existing culture, and the High Command could evaluate the performance of a ship with a "new approach" crew and determine whether it was a thing that should, as some members contended, be cultivated in the long run.
This was further simplified by the serendipitous request by the International Police Organization for assistance in setting up its fledgling Space Force in 2404. IKV HoSghaj (Powerful), under the command of Captain Krontep vathKesek (former second officer and senior Klingon of the Tom Servo), had just finished deep-space trials and been certified operational. What better way to ensure the viability of the isolation experiment than by sending the experimental ship far away from the Empire?
Krontep and his crew are perfectly aware of all of the above, but they don't mind; in fact, they suspect the High Command has the right idea. If they hadn't gotten around to it, Krontep would have suggested it to them himself in another month or two.
HoSghaj is currently stationed in the Bajor system, helping to guard the Babylon Station construction site.
NAME/MODEL#: D-7M Improved k't'Inga class DESIGNER/MANUFACTURER: Qo'noS Heavy Industries COMBAT DESIGNATION: Battlecruiser CREW: 160 POWER SYSTEM: QHI Type 19 matter-antimatter annihilation reactor QHI Type 7M fusion reactor cluster and power converter PROPULSION SYSTEM: QHI Constant Thrust tandem impulse drive system SPEED RATING: 60 MGLT FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM: QHI Standard Mark III reaction control system MANEUVERABILITY RATING: 20 DPF NAVIGATION: Qo'noS Computing Systems Core Control System, Model IX FTL: QHI Type 19 Cochrane space distortion drive (warp drive) CEC 7677.302c motivator drive unit (hyperdrive) WARP SPEED RATING (CRUISE): Warp Factor 10 WARP SPEED RATING (MAX): Warp Factor 14 HYPERDRIVE FACTOR: 1 WEAPONS: Four QHI Type 7 standard point disruptor arrays Two QHI Type 14 photon torpedo launchers Two QHI Type 2 heavy burst disruptors SHIELDS/ARMOR: QHI Type 21 projective deflector shield array (rated at 2000 SDB) Laminated duranium/tritanium/baakonite composite armor hull (rated at 1700 RU)