Episode Forty-Three - "The Fire"

Star Trek: Fortitude

Season Four, Episode Four - “The Fire”

By Jack D. Elmlinger

PROLOGUE

“So… is there anything new on your heading?”

Gabriel Brodie flashed a perfectly-aligned grin at the monitor. He was in full womanizing mode, calling on his extensive experience with the opposite sex. Knowing that Erica Martinez would call as her duties wrapped up to a close, lightyears behind the speeding Fortitude aboard Starbase 499, the athletic black man pretended to be caught off-guard. From his waist up, he was completely naked. The towel around his shoulders was unrequired, thanks to the sonic shower but it added a playful, boyish edge to his otherwise imposing broad shoulders.

“Remind me why you’re not out here with us again?”

“Somebody sensible has to stay behind and hold down the fort,” the Station Master replied over the subspace communications link. “Not that I wouldn’t love to be exploring with you. That is… one day, maybe… for a laugh.”

“I look forward to it,” Gabe smoothed into his seat, fixing his dark eyes on the beautiful Latina woman’s image. “I think that it goes without saying that I’d love you to be out here with us. Between the Captain’s softly-softly approaches and Lieutenant Vuro at the helm, I could use the release.”

“I thought that you and Arden were amicable, at least…?”

“We are… but it’s like treading on eggshells. I guess we’ll never be true friends.”

Erica chuckled, covering her parted lips with the back of her hand. Brodie frowned, wondering what was so funny and what she had chosen to laugh at the comment about a long-standing personal dispute. Letting the laughter die away, he let his expression ask the silent question.

“I’m sorry… but there was a time that I thought that you would never serve under Ewan Llewellyn. There was a time that you never thought you would want to go exploring. There was a time that I wanted to be at Ewan’s side. Gabe, you have to realize that things change.”

Ironically, the starfield outside the window pitched as Erica ended her sentence.

She had a point. Things had changed.

“Erica,” Gabe concluded,” you’re damn right… so I have to call you back.”

“Oh?”

“It looks like we’ve altered course.”

ACT ONE

Captain’s Log, Stardate 51847.2;

Despite the lateness of the hour, I have decided to stop by a nearby B-Class red giant for a spot of scientific research. An activity that we haven’t indulged in for quite some time and it should also give me the chance to grant some further downtime.

The graceful lines of the Intrepid-class starship shone with the deep orange hue of the gigantic star that it approached. Angling the pointed arrowhead nose of the saucer section towards the equator, Lieutenant Arden Vuro headed towards the point of greatest interest on the burning surface. Guided by Ensign Jason Armstrong’s sensors and suggestions, he pulled Fortitude short of the harmful radiation belts that surrounded the red giant. His blue hands moved across the helm as he set the auto-pilot and turned towards the operations console behind him.

“Good spot, Jason?,” the Bolian asked him.

“Wonderful view from here, sir,” answered the Kentuckian.

Choosing to stand for a moment, Captain Ewan Llewellyn let his hands find one another behind his back. He locked eyes with the Class-B star displayed on the viewscreen before him.

Red giants were dying things, short on hydrogen and desperately fusing helium to stay alive and keep from collapsing. Ewan felt the corners of his mouth rise. He always viewed stars as the guardians of the universe. They stood far longer than anybody could hope to see, giving life to those worlds lucky enough to orbit them.

It was a Human trait… giving characteristics to lifeless objects. Here was nothing more than a large ball of burning gas, chemicals held together by a gravity well. Yet, staring into it, he felt a presence that he respected.

“Okay, so everybody knows their jobs, right?,” he finally asked aloud to the Bridge crew, gaining an approving nod from Lieutenant Commander Sollik. The Suliban chief engineer began to divert power to the sensor arrays as Llewellyn turned to Armstrong. “Keep me posted on any developments, Ensign.”

“Aye, Captain,” came the enthusiastic reply,” will do!”

Pausing for a brief moment before his planned walk to his Ready Room, the Welshman returned to his command chair and leaned over towards his First Officer. Mirroring the move and dipping her head close to his, Commander Valerie Archer gave a brief flicker of a smile, pleased to see Llewellyn relaxing for once. This red giant was such a simple thing and yet, it was such a healthy thing… for a starship and crew that was so used to danger and excitement. A few days of mapping wouldn’t hurt anybody.

“I guess we should name this thing,” Ewan whispered under his breath.

“What did you have in mind?,” Valerie responded with curiosity.

“I don’t know. I was thinking about holding a little competition, see if -- “

Suddenly, there was an interruption from Tactical. Lieutenant Commander Gabriel Brodie, his brow deeply furrowed with concern, barked Ewan’s rank without apology. Turning towards him, the Captain saw the expression on his face and felt butterflies starting their assault on his stomach. It was a rare thing to see a panicked Gabriel Brodie.

“What is it?”

“There’s a fire on Deck Thirteen. Junior Officers’ Quarters!”

“You’re kidding me,” Ewan gasped, dashing from his chair, and walked over to lean over the tactical console, matching Brodie’s frown. “How did that happen? Oh, never mind! Extinguish the damned thing, Mister Brodie!”

“Activating suppression force field… Damn…”

“Well?”

“The force field isn’t responding, sir. I’m going to have to get down there and tackle it manually. With your permission, Captain?”

There was only one answer that Llewellyn could give him as a responsible Starfleet officer. “Go, for goodness sake!”

* * * *

Upon his arrival, Gabriel Brodie received curious looks of apprehension.

The two crew members sharing the quarters in question were standing outside in the corridors, their arms were around each other in support. Smoke was seeping from underneath the door which was sealed.

If the doors were working, why wasn’t the fire suppression force field? It hardly mattered at that moment because standing directly square to the crew cabin, the black tactical officer lifted the heavy fire extinguisher that he had replicated and aimed it ahead of him.

He reminded himself that before entering any situation, he should get a situation report.

“Crewman,” he asked one of the cabin residents,” what happened in there?”

“We don’t know, sir,” the shaken Bajoran answered truthfully. “I was studying and Alice was eating. Then it just, sort of… happened. The bulkhead fell away and the relays behind it burst into flames. We didn’t stick around to run any scans.”

“It’s okay,” Gabe reassured the Bajoran. “You did the right thing.”

“Why didn’t the fire suppression force fields kick in, sir?”

“One thing at a time, Crewman. Listen, if I’m not back in one minute, call in a medical emergency and get Doctor Pulaski down here. Understood?”

The Bajoran nodded quickly. “May the Prophets watch over you, sir!”

Gritting his teeth, Brodie hoped that he wouldn’t need it. With a command override, he opened the door and braced himself against the wall of heat and smoke that washed over his senses. It took a few hard blinks to shake and then suddenly, he was walking into the fire with the determination to annihilate it.

* * * *

“Internal sensors read that the fire is still raging, Captain.”

Llewellyn felt a sour expression emerge on his face as he heard the words leave Sollik’s lips. Mister Brodie had entered those quarters, fifty seconds ago. Rather than wait for the crew members to realize that something wasn’t right, he had ordered Katherine Pulaski to be waiting outside the cabin with a medical kit. She would be arriving any moment now and upon finding Gabriel Brodie still inside, tackling the blaze, she would be anything but pleased.

Beside her Captain, Valerie Archer grew impatient. “Bridge to Lieutenant Commander Brodie,” she called out. “Status report?”

There was deathly silence. No reply was forthcoming.

“Are communications down too?,” Ewan asked. “What’s going on down there?”

At the back of the Bridge, working feverishly across two LCARS displays, the blonde fringe of Jason Armstrong was brushed aside to reveal panic-stricken eyes. This was insane… but no, it was confirmed.

By three separate sensor arrays.

Twice…

Crap… and with communications down, there was no way to warn him… to stop him…

With no other choice, the Ensign left his station and bolted for the turbolift.

“Jason,” Valerie quizzed him immediately,” where are you going?”

He gave her no answer.

As the turbolift door slid shut behind him, nobody had been close enough to physically stop him. Vuro turned from the helm and shot a worried look towards Captain Llewellyn, who himself was hardly a picture of understanding.

“That certainly got my attention,” admitted the Bolian.

“Mine too, Lieutenant,” Llewellyn agreed with him. “You’re with me! Valerie, the Bridge is yours!”

ACT TWO

By the time that Jason Armstrong arrived at the scene of the fire, Doctor Katherine Pulaski was waving her tricorder over a panting and coughing Gabriel Brodie. His face and uniform were covered in dark stains. Combat with the fire had taken a toll on his senses, his muscles, and his spirit. Glaring at the pair of his superior officers, he got an answer before he even had a chance to ask the question.

“Just under two minutes,” Pulaski said, shaking her head. “You’re lucky to be here.”

“You can tell the Captain that the fire is out, Ensign,” Brodie told the new arrival.

“Damn it!,” cried out the Kentuckian, his fists balled up in anger.

“Whoa… hold on there. It sounds like you wanted me to fail…”

“You don’t understand!,” Jason continued to protest.

“Ensign,” Pulaski chipped in,” are you all right?”

Before he could give her an answer, Jason heard his name echo along the corridor behind him, and he turned around to see the Captain and Vuro racing towards the aftermath of the situation. For abandoning his post without either an explanation or permission, the operations officer should have been bracing himself for a stern reprimand but he knew that Ewan Llewellyn wasn’t that kind of a commanding officer. The expression on his face wasn’t full of rage or giving away hints of a forthcoming punishment. Instead, it was an expression of concern.

“What’s going on?,” the Welshman asked him with a lower vocal tone.

“Yeah, Jason,” Vuro added to the conversation,” you took off pretty quick back there.”

Jason opened his mouth to give them an answer when the intercom interrupted it. It was almost as if some higher power didn’t want him to say anything today. With a frustrated roll of his eyes, he allowed the voice of Valerie Archer to continue.

“Bridge to Captain Llewellyn,” she said. “There’s another fire! Cargo Bay Two this time!”

“You’re kidding me. When did this happen?”

“Just as Mister Brodie defeated the first one. Fire suppression force fields are offline again!”

“We’ll get down there and put it out ourselves,” Ewan vowed.

“No, Captain!,” Jason blurted out. “Stop, please!”

Everybody turned on the young Ensign. The pressure was almost tangible.

“Out with it,” Ewan snapped at him,” before my ship is burned to a cinder!”

“Sir, well… you’re not going to believe this but that fire… it’s alive!”

* * * *

Captain’s Log, supplemental;

The remarkable claim of my operations officer has been confirmed. The fire in Crew Quarters, along with the fire that is now burning in Cargo Bay Two is definitely alive. A submolecular lifeform signature resides within the chemical reaction. Sensors also confirm that the fire that was previously extinguished by Gabriel Brodie is now the very same fire burning in the Cargo Bay.

I am now faced with a difficult decision. After all, these fires are destroying my ship.

“Sollik, what’s the status?”

The Suliban chief engineer slid into his seat in the Briefing Room. his green scales were smeared with a shadow of smoke, a lingering fingerprint of the fire that he had been fighting to contain in Cargo Bay Two.

Sharing a knowing look with Gabriel Brodie, he addressed the Captain’s question with his usual dedication to duty. “Cargo Bay Two is now a completely self-contained environment,” he hissed. “The atmospheric controls are pumping twice the oxygen and at Ensign Armstrong’s request, mild concentrations of hydrogen into the fire. Emergency force fields had locked down the surrounding area. There’s negligible risk of the fire spreading any further than it already has, as long as we can keep feeding it.”

“I’m sorry,” Doctor Pulaski interrupted from the opposite side of the table,” but hydrogen?”

“This is where you come in, Ensign,” Llewellyn said, nodding at Armstrong.

“Thank you, Captain,” the Kentuckian nodded briefly before turning to address the assembled senior staff with a superiority of voice beyond his years. “The beginning of my research on the red giant flagged an interesting anomaly. At a depth of one hundred meters underneath the surface of the star, I picked up trace amounts of submolecular organic material. Life, sentient or otherwise. When the fire broke out on Deck Thirteen, I switched to internal sensors and found the same material.”

Standing from his chair, Jason walked over and activated the wall monitor. “My readings indicate that they are sentient… and hungry.”

The monitor switched to various sensor data information on the fires, running alongside a live feed from the burning corner of Cargo Bay Two. Another image, the red giant sitting outside the briefing room window, appeared with enhanced resolution burrowing far beyond what any crew member could see.

“As we all know, a star becomes a red giant when it runs out of hydrogen. It switches to fusing helium, which is absolutely fine in itself, but when you’re home to lifeforms that feed off of hydrogen? That’s when things take a turn for the worse.”

“So you’re saying that we’ve been visited by a submolecular lifeform that is searching for a new source of hydrogen?,” Valerie Archer asked for confirmation, getting a nod in response. “Okay, I can buy that… but why the fires?”

“Without extreme heat,” Jason replied,” they die.”

“In other words, they’re transforming Fortitude into a habitable environment,” Brodie observed in his own unique way. “I’m assuming that they’re responsible for the fire suppression force fields not working? They managed to leap a few decks after I beat them once. It sounds a little like an invasion to me.”

“You believe them to be hostile?,” Pulaski quizzed him instantly.

“Doctor, I fought that first fire. Yes, I most certainly do.”

“Typical…,” Vuro whispered under his breath. The Bolian couldn’t help himself, professionalism of a Briefing Room meeting be damned. Here was a new lifeform that found its way aboard the Intrepid-class starship, struggling to survive. He knew what all good Starfleet officers would do. They were out here to meet new life, whatever unusual circumstances prevailed. But, no, Gabriel Brodie was gunning to kill these visitors from the start. Arden wanted to say more but he hit his tongue.

“All right, look,” Llewellyn cut in with authority,” Sollik, as long as your barricade against the flames holds, we have some time to think. I don’t want to send the lifeforms back to the red giant if hydrogen is their food source. That would be the same as a death sentence. I’m sorry, Mister Brodie, but I can’t agree with you. If it were an invasion, they would be all over, burning up half of the ship, but they’re not. Ensign Armstrong had confirmed that we’re dealing with stray entities here and not the whole lot of them.”

“Is there any way that we can help them?,” Valerie ventured to ask.

“That’s what I want you and Jason to think about,” the Captain told her. “Doctor Pulaski, I want you to monitor the fires. Keep them happy, but keep them from spreading beyond Cargo Bay Two. Dismissed.”

ACT THREE

Two hours had passed by since the meeting in the Briefing Room. Hunched over the operations console, Valerie Archer and Jason were furiously trying to cram every single fact from the sensor array into their heads. They now ached as a result but the coffee beside them helped. Periodically, Sollik would walk the width of the Bridge from his Engineering console, floating an idea or two past them and they would either nod encouragingly or dismiss him entirely. Dealing with a complete and utterly unknown… creature... was part of the excitement of being a Starfleet explorer but it was also part of a frustrating trial and error process.

Gabriel Brodie watched them work from his tactical console. He was keeping one eye squarely on his LCARS display which showed the same live feed from Cargo Bay Two that Jason had used to champion the fire’s case. It still burned brightly, sustained by the nourishing chemical mixture being piped into the room. The glow from the image reflected in Gabe’s dark pupil.

For goodness’ sake, this thing was a danger to Fortitude! There are one hundred and forty people aboard a ship carrying fire! Not only that but it was a smart fire, capable of circumventing systems and traveling throughout the ship. This was deeply wrong. If only he was the Captain…

“Yes,” a voice cried out,” we’ve got it!”

Brodie turned to his left, joining all of the other officers on the Bridge in staring at the operations console. There, a beaming Jason Armstrong was accepting a literal pat on the back from the First Officer. Even Sollik was nodding in agreement.

“It sounds promising,” Ewan noted, standing up from his chair. “What do you think?”

“Sollik and I have just finished designing a super-heated containment module,” Armstrong explained quickly,” that will keep it from detonating the high levels of combustible elements within it… including hydrogen. The lifeforms will consume most of it anyways, but it was just that tricky balance that -- “

“Give us the upside of it, Ensign,” Llewellyn pressed at him,” before my ship gets any hotter!”

“We can transport the lifeforms to another star… one with plenty of hydrogen.”

Archer walked away from Operations and moved down towards the helm. When she arrived, she dipped her head close to Vuro’s blue scalp and started typing into the navigational sensor array. The Bolian lieutenant caught on and did the same thing on a separate screen, and soon enough, a pleasing result appeared before them.

“There is an uninhabited star system, one-point-eight lightyears from here with suitable readings,” Valerie reported, turning to smile at her Captain. “It looks like we’ve found them a new home after all!”

“Sollik,” Llewellyn asked,” how long until the containment module is ready?”

“Thirty minutes, tops, sir.”

“We’ll test it on the residents of Cargo Bay Two before we bring up the others from the red giant. Hopefully, they won’t mind the relocation, especially since it will be saving their lives. Jason, work with Mister Brodie on the transporter reconfigurations. The confinement beams will need some tweaking.” Llewellyn shifted his gaze towards Tactical with a knowing eyebrow cocked up. “Any objections?”

Brodie shook his head.

Orders were, after all, orders.

* * * *

“Five minutes, sir.”

“Huh?”

Armstrong stopped walking, halfway between the transporter pad and the control console, fixing the dark-skinned tactical officer with a knowing look. Gabriel Brodie had been leaning against the bulkhead with his muscled arms folded, staring into middle-distance, for almost the entire time that they had been working together in Transporter Room One on the confinement beam modifications. At every stage of the work, he had tried to involve his superior officer, and at every stage, Gabe had made his objections clear.

“Five minutes until the transfer,” Jason repeated, indicating with his tricorder towards the large silver canister resting on the transporter pad. “We’ll be ready to beam up the rest of the lifeforms and get underway.”

“Oh… five minutes… sure…”

A sucker for hard-luck cases, the Ensign pushed a little further. “If I may, sir, what’s the big problem?”

“You’re out of line,” Brodie growled, just wanting this insane operation to be over.

“My apologies, sir, but you didn’t answer my question.”

Brodie let out a long, deep sigh. There was no escaping from this young man’s persistence, and as much as he wanted to retort back at him with yet another reprimand, he stopped himself before he could even think. After all, there was a history between their positions. He was the replacement, stepping in for somebody so dear to the operations officer… and despite his attitude, there was respect for that inside the older man.

Deciding that there was nothing better to do,” Gabe answered him. “These little bastards start fires to survive and we’re beaming them aboard? Forgive me if I don’t jump up and down with enthusiasm, Ensign. I would rather keep my distance from such volatile lifeforms.”

“Is it a matter of trust,” Jason continued,” or is it something else?”

“It’s a matter of my gut… and my mother teaching me never to play with fire.”

“Engineering to Transporter Room One,” the intercom spoke with the voice of the chief engineer. “The test was a success. Cargo Bay Two is now free from the lifeforms and their fires. Are you ready to begin beaming the others from the red giant?”

“Stand by, Sollik,” answered Brodie. “Okay… it’s all yours, Ensign.”

Jason dashed over to the control console, making his final preparations and pushing aside the doubts raised by Gabriel Brodie. Right now, his job was to carefully scoop up these precious little lifeforms and deliver them to a new home. He had the responsibility of an entire race on his shoulders. He neither relished or wanted it for long, but at the same time, a twinge of excitement ran through his body. Standing alongside him, Gabe also felt something, a pang of trepidation.

“I’ve got a lock.”

“Lord have mercy on us all.”

“Energizing.”

The containment module on the transporter pad glowed briefly as the familiar whine of the ship’s transporter beam gently placed the lifeforms inside their superheated hydrogen home. The once-dull transparent aluminium viewport on the side of the shining silver canister burst forth with a brilliant orange light. It wasn’t like the fire from the crew cabin and it wasn’t as fierce as the fire from Cargo Bay Two.

It was almost peaceful.

It bathed both officers in a warm light as the transfer completed.

Jason tapped his combadge and signaled Sollik and the Captain simultaneously. “We’ve got them!”

It was only then, with his job complete, that he noticed Gabriel Brodie.

The tactical officer was walking forward towards the canister. His eyes were transfixed on the viewport as if drawn to the warm glow by some invisible hold. Try as he might, he couldn’t explain his desire to get closer but he got closer. When he was within a few steps, he kneeled down and let his desire indulge itself in a long gaze of serenity, soaking up the sight of the lifeforms’ habitat.

“Sir?,” Jason asked with a frown. “Are you all right?”

“I had no idea.”

“No idea of what, sir?,” the young Ensign asked, smiling. “No idea that it would be so peaceful? Or so beautiful? Or so innocent, perhaps?”

Brodie turned his head back towards his colleague. “Let’s not push things, but… well… yeah, I guess so. Maybe… I was wrong.”

EPILOGUE

“Awww… you did some growing today!”

“Don’t get all psychological on me, Erica,” Gabe growled, running a hand down over his tired face before looking towards the monitor where, once again, a subspace link had been established with the Station Master’s Office on Starbase 499. “Anyways, we transferred them to their new star in the uninhabited system, an hour ago. It’s just the end of another day to me, nothing more… but an eventful day nevertheless.”

“Well, thanks for sharing,” Erica Martinez grinned from lightyears away.

“It’s my pleasure…”

The door chimes to his quarters rang behind him.

“It sounds like you’ve got some company,” the woman on the monitor observed. “I’ll let you answer it. Shall we say the same time, tomorrow evening?”

“We shall. Goodnight, and sleep tight.”

Killing the subspace transmission, Brodie rose to his feet and walked over to the door. Opening it, he was surprised to see the face that greeted him.

“Lieutenant Vuro, what can I do for you?”

“Nothing much,” retorted the Bolian who was standing motionless in the corridor. “Look, I know that this really isn’t my place, but well… Jason told me what happened in the transporter room earlier. It takes something to admit that you were wrong, and while our issues might never see that same something emerge from either of us… Well, anyways, some of the senior staff are having a celebratory barbecue in Holodeck One, and I wondered if you wanted to … you know, come along… Have a drink or two?”

Brodie couldn’t believe his ears. Was this actually happening? Was Arden being nice to him?

“Uh… sure, okay,” he said, stammering out his reply.

Together, he and the helmsman walked away down the corridor.

Gabe just had one final question.

“When you say barbecue…?”

The End.