Star Trek: Fortitude
Season Five, Episode Three - “Fresh Approach”
By Jack D. Elmlinger
PROLOGUE
They had certainly earned it.
Captain Ewan Llewellyn couldn’t fight the lopsided grin that broke out across his tanned face as he watched his Bridge officers find their new duty station. Together, right before his command chair, Ensign Jason Armstrong and Lieutenant Arden Vuro were deep in excited conversation about the new, experimental features at their disposal. The Bolian helmsman danced an expert waltz over his LCARS display, calling up all kinds of information about the speed and flight capabilities of the Norway-class USS Fortitude, NCC-76240-A. He was trying to show the young Kentuckian beside him but Ensign Armstrong was deep into his operations console. Advanced high-resolution sensors, long-range subspace amplifier… There was so much to test and so much to enjoy!
Ewan spun his chair to the left where, behind an imposing C-shaped alcove, Lieutenant Commander Gabriel West was marvelling at the punch that such a small starship could pack. There were phaser banks on all available surfaces, eleven in total. The forward and aft torpedo launchers came preloaded with both photon and quantum warheads. Even the shields were enhanced with multiphasic emitters and the structural integrity was beyond reason at a percentage well about what the black tactical officer was used to aboard the Intrepid-class starship that they had all just come from. Well, he reasoned that the Norway-class starships were originally developed alongside the Defiant-class escorts. It made sense that some of their teeth had been left in the jaws.
Commander Valerie Archer stepped onto the Bridge and gave Ewan the nod. She had been down in Sickbay, making sure that Doctor Katherine Pulaski was getting settled in. All of this modern technology must have been overwhelming for a technophobe, the Captain had predicted, and so his First Officer had been dispatched accordingly. The nod ensured that everything was settled… for now. He still foresaw a grumble or two, but there was nothing that he couldn’t handle himself next time.
“Engineering, this is the Bridge. Sollik, how’s it going down there?”
“Just fine, Captain,” the Suliban chief engineer replied to his query. While Main Engineering might be somewhat cramped compared to the multi-level engineering suite from their old vessel, Ewan knew that he would be distracted by the various new and exciting trinkets at his disposal. “We’re ready to get underway at your discretion.”
Llewellyn wheeled his chair around towards the viewscreen, an index finger raised in anticipation.
Everybody took a deep, excited gulp of air. With the order, the index finger was pointed forward to the stars. “Helm, Warp One. Engage!”
ACT ONE
Captain’s Log, Stardate 53171.9;
The first assignment of my new command is to undertake a series of tests on the various upgrades bestowed upon this retrofitted Norway-class starship. The weapons, shields, and engines will be pushed to maximum in the coming days with all of the collected data being sent back to Earth for analysis. After such a traumatic start to our year, and after so much had been lost, the seventy-four officers aboard the Fortitude-A couldn’t be happier. It’s time for a fresh approach. God knows that we’ve paid enough for it.
Arden Vuro cracked his knuckles and sighed with content as he leaned back and allowed his athletic body to be carried away by the comfort of the shuttlecraft’s seat. Surely, this was the reason why he had signed up for Starfleet Academy. Oh, fine, he had wanted to break a few records while he was there. He had been a little hotheaded, he could admit to that, and the status of his relationship with Gabriel Brodie was a testament to his ambition… but, given all of that, the main reason why he wanted to be out here?
“Flying sexy ships about,” he exhaled aloud. “It doesn’t get any better…”
He was supposedly testing the capabilities of Fortitude's new Type-11 shuttle, the Bromley. Upon seeing it for the first time, earlier this very morning, the Bolian had almost collapsed with excitement. The Captain had been there to catch him, of course, enjoying the reactions of his crew like a father doting upon his children. With a casual wave of his hand, he had dispatched Arden in the Bromley with the vague orders to “find out what she’s got” and “find out her limits”. Well, he had certainly been doing that. Already the helmsman had navigated a binary system, run rings around a gas giant’s rings, and sustained Warp Four-point-Five for almost an hour, despite the shuttle’s maximum speed being Warp Four. It appeared as though the Fortitude-A wasn’t the only thing laden with prototype retrofits, and now… now he was heading home.
“Computer, what’s the estimated time of return to Fortitude?”
“Two hours, and eleven minutes.”
Arden decided to sustain Warp Two. He was enjoying the ride far too much to hurry back, vowing instead to compensate later by staying an extra hour on the Bridge or something. Closing his eyes and, once again, letting a happy sigh pass his lips, his mind ran to peaceful thoughts and a few prayers.
“Llewellyn to Shuttlecraft Bromley,” interrupted the communications system.
“Wha…?,” a sleepy Vuro replied at first. “Oh, I mean, yes, Captain? Go ahead!”
“I hope you’re enjoying yourself out there?”
Damn it! Those new enhanced sensors of Jason’s must have shown the meandering, slow route of the Bromley! Feeling his cheeks turn an even deeper shade of blue, Arden lunged forward to the controls and started to make himself look busy… not realizing that nobody could see him.
“Just running a few final tests, sir,” he blurted out.
“Well, make it quick. We’re moving on to a nearby asteroid field. Mister Brodie is eager to find out how efficiently we can decimate it. You’d better punch up that shuttle’s warp core, Lieutenant, as we’re leaving in one hour!”
“Understood, Captain. Computer, increase speed to Warp Four!”
With the comms system now silent, Arden slouched back into his chair with a disgruntled frown.
Leave it to Gabe to ruin his fun.
* * * *
Meanwhile, back aboard Starbase 499, in orbit of Santrag II…
“How’s your morning been, Boxer?”
Erica Martinez watched as her old friend and colleague entered the Station Master’s Office with a downtrodden expression on his bearded face. They had worked together for so long that she could almost predict the Rear Admiral’s mood before the turbolift doors slid open. Therefore, the question was completely redundant. Edward Blackmore simply trudged past the striking Latina woman and took the nearest available seat. It was at the internal sensor grid station, not that he was bothered.
“It’s Veth,” the old man growled, referring to the former Santragan leader who was, at this moment, in exile aboard Starbase 499. As a long-term pal, seeing his current emotional state just served to depress him. “I’ve just had breakfast with him. Huh… I guess it turned into lunch too. Santrag II… damn, I didn’t know.”
“It’s a seriously messed-up situation, I’ll grant you that.”
“I just feel like if I had been around this last year, things would be different.”
“Okay, you can stop that shit right now,” Erica chastised him, stepping beyond the normal rank boundaries without so much as an afterthought. “It wasn’t your fault that you were in that coma. So you can’t blame yourself for what might or might not have happened if you were awake. Besides, I happen to think that Ewan made all of his decisions based on what he thought that you would do. He respects the hell out of you, Boxer. We all do.”
Blackmore managed a weak smile.
She had a point, his ego told him.
Nevertheless, seeing Veth Ka’Gerran talk and act like a frightened puppy had struck at his very heart this morning. No matter how much they conversed about the state of the Santragan People’s Freedom Democracy and no matter how much they were to reminisce about the days gone by when Veth was the Prime Minister and communications flowed freely between the surface and the Starbase, nothing was to change. There would be no welcoming call to return for the exiled Santragan. There had been no congratulatory message for Edward Blackmore on his recovery. Hell, did anybody down there even know that he was back? Who was to know? Members of the Federation… yeah, right…
Something caught his attention, tearing him away from his thoughts. Internal sensors were detecting an anomaly.
“Erica,” the Rear Admiral scowled,” we’ve got a visitor!”
“What do you mean?”
“One intermittent biosign, Deck Fifteen… no, Sixteen… Whoever it is, they’re using the Jefferies Tubes and crawl spaces, and they can really move, too.” While reading from the display screen, Edward caught the panic on Erica’s face and quickly ran a trace. “Don’t worry. I was thinking the same thing, and the biosign is not End. Unfortunately, I haven’t got anything else to tell you. I can’t see who or what the devil they are!”
The Station Master moved to the door, turning back towards her superior officer. “Do you want to flush out a gremlin?”
ACT TWO
“The Bromley works perfectly. Engines are beyond what we expected with a top speed of Warp Four-point Five, although that’s pushing them. She’s fast, nippy, and packs as much firepower as a Klingon Bird-of-Prey. In short, the Bromley compensates for more than any of our previous shuttles did.”
Captain Llewellyn nodded, genuinely impressed as Vuro concluded his report. Many of the other senior officers shared similar nods. The senior staff was gathered together, for the first time, around the gentle curvature of Fortitude’s Observation Lounge table. It overlooked the aft section of the ship. Rather than off to one side as before, the new venue for such meetings was directly behind the back wall of the Bridge. It was perhaps the only thing about the new Norway-class starship that was larger than her predecessor.
The only person who wasn’t letting Arden’s report slide by was Gabriel Brodie.
“Maybe I should test the Bromley’s weapon systems myself,” he suggested. “I mean, no offense or anything, Lieutenant, but when it comes to shooting things, there’s nobody better to run the shakedown.”
“I can assure you that I tested them fully,” the Bolian helmsman objected to the tactical officer’s suggestion,” and I didn’t need to hunt down an asteroid field to do so!”
“That might be okay for you,” Gabe winked with semi-serious arrogance,” but I’ve got something a little bigger in my torpedo tubes, if you know what I mean.”
“Gentlemen,” Llewellyn interrupted them with a raised palm,” you can play one-upsmanship games on your own time. We’ve got a starship to test out. I’m considering the Bromley a closed book from this point. She’s nice but she’s not as important as her home. We’ll proceed to the asteroid field and give our phasers and torpedoes a proper shakedown, but we’re not staying put forever. There are still the engines and the shields to go.”
Cutting through the childish face-pulling contest underway between Arden and Gabe, and just pleased that such events no longer had the added danger of real hatred and possible brawling after the meeting, Lieutenant Commander Sollik stood from his place at the table and headed for the large monitor embedded into the bulkhead behind Ewan’s chair. With a few commands, he pulled up the specifications for Fortitude’s warp core and shield grid which everybody turned to observe.
“I’m currently getting eighty-one percent efficiency from the warp drive,” the Suliban lamented to the senior staff. “I blame the upgrades myself. They look and sound wonderful… on paper, but in reality, seven of them have been installed without the proper testing.”
“Can you fix them,” Valerie Archer asked him,” and get them working as they’re meant to?”
“I can try,” he admitted. “Beyond that, I can’t promise any results.
“What’s our maximum speed?”
“Warp Eight at a stretch. It’ll be some time before Warp Nine is within reach.”
“It’ll have to do for now,” Ewan accepted, his Welsh accent pitched for calming effect after seeing disappointment cast around the Observation Lounge. “Do I need to remind everybody that we’re dealing with a prototype retrofit here? There are bound to be a few kinks to be worked out of the design. All of you know your duties. I suggest we get back to them because the sooner that we’re done with exploring our new ship, then the sooner we can use it to explore the rest of the Beta Quadrant. I don’t want to be looking in the mirror for the rest of our mission. I want to be looking out there, and so do all of you, right?”
Nodding heads answered his question with murmured agreements.
“Great. Then let’s be about it, please. Dismissed.”
* * * *
Captain’s Log, supplemental;
While en route to Mister Brodie’s asteroid field, Ensign Armstrong has detected something rather worrying with the advanced sensor array. A rogue comet is heading for a Class-M planet that sustains a pre-warp civilization of millions. If the comet impacts with the planet, there will be an extinction-level event.
I’ve ordered a course change. If there is anything that we can do to save the population unaware of their imminent destruction, we have to try. Still, there is a twinge of apprehension that I cannot ignore. This situation has turned from a simple system test into a real mission with real dangers…
“Jason, activate the holographic viewscreen, intrusive mode.”
The Captain had been looking forward to testing this latest upgrade to his new Bridge. It was a feature that many had only dreamed of until now. At the touch of a button, Ensign Armstrong created a three-dimensional holographic projection of the viewscreen’s current image. Floating between the central command chair and the two forward stations, a miniature version of the icy blue comet appeared. Slowly, as the computer worked to process the task, a much larger projection of the M-Class planet formed.
Ewan gasped at the amount of high-definition detail, soaking in all the tiny clouds and snow-capped mountain ranges that he could see. Valerie joined him as he walked around the interactive image. It was nearly as tall as he was, leaving little room to maneuver across the Bridge. But then, the Welshman told himself that it was just a trick of the light. He could walk through it.
“Whoa…,” Jason Armstrong breathed from the operations console.
“We’ll have to enjoy it later,” Llewellyn snapped, bringing himself back to the developing situation with a shake of his head. “Remove the planet. Let’s enlarge the comet and bring up a multispectral analysis.
The Kentuckian complied, making the world dissolve into thin air and expanding the comet hologram to maximum. Across the frigid surface of the rogue celestial object, small words lifted from a LCARS readout pointed to features of interest. Ewan did another lap of the projection, reading the ones that caught his attention.
Gabriel Brodie moved down from Tactical to join him. Finding what he wanted, the dark-skinned tactical officer pointed to one of the labels.
“Here,” he said quickly. “This deposit of silithium is highly unstable."
“A photon torpedo,” Valerie agreed,” or maybe two?”
“I was thinking of quantum torpedoes,” Brodie grinned,” and four of them!”
Arden tilted his head to his left side, sharing a pair of raised eyebrows with Jason. It always had to be huge, and overdone. With a snarky tone, the helmsman echoed Gabe’s own words from the Observation Lounge, keeping the jibe down to a low whisper so as not to disturb the rest of the Bridge.
“He did say that he hadn something bigger in his torpedo tubes…”
Jason stifled a chuckle as new and urgent orders came in from Llewellyn. “Get us within weapons range.”
“Closing…”
“Mister Brodie, load forward torpedo launchers and target that silithium!”
“Ready, Captain,” Gabe nodded a second later.
“Fire!”
Nothing happened.
The viewscreen, which had returned to its normal display, just showed the comet soaring towards the innocent Class-M planet. No quantum torpedoes blasted towards it. No weapons of any kind were fired. Silent inquiries were directed to Tactical as Ewan, Valerie, Arden and Jason all turned their heads and frowned at Gabriel Brodie. He hardly noticed them as there was a problem with his console.
“I said, fire!,” Llewellyn repeated immediately.
“And I did, Captain, but… damn it, weapons are malfunctioning! The upgraded launchers overloaded as soon as I hit the button! All weapons are offline!”
So the practical test had failed?
Perfect timing.
ACT THREE
Only seven officers could fit into Engineering at any given time. Such was the nature of the downsized crew aboard the downsized Fortitude, it ensured that nobody could do anything without somebody else noticing. Actions were observed and undertaken almost collectively, with Lieutenant Commander Sollik keeping a regulatory eye over the duty stations that surrounded the swirling blue column of matter and antimatter. Objectives were worked towards together. The team was getting to know one another, if they didn’t already, extremely well.
Today, the collective responsibility was shattered.
“I’ve got it!,” Sollik hissed with victory.
“Got what, sir?,” the closest ensign, a young Australian male, asked him.
“The answer to our problems, Sean. If you need me, I’ll be on the Bridge.”
The Suliban chief engineer darted for the door, leaving his six colleagues to frown at one another in the glow of the warp core. Nobody had seen what he had been working on, not this time. Would they need to know? Would they need to prepare for something… and what was this answer? Engineering would be involved. There was no question of that. So would they have to access certain systems to make this answer ready?
One of the more plucky members of the team stopped Sollik short of the door. “Sir, what’s going on?”
“No time to talk,” came the reply. “There’s a world to save!”
* * * *
“Go ahead, Sollik,” the Captain urged. “I’m listening.”
“The problem that I had,” the Chief Engineer began to explain, standing before the imposing command chair on the Bridge, pitching his idea like a Ferengi pitching a highly-questionable business deal,” was thinking in terms of our old ship. Before, we had a powerful Intrepid-class starship at our disposal. She had strength. Shifting the trajectory of this comet would have been no problem for her… but now we’ve got a small Norway-class ship. That strength isn’t there anymore.”
“So what’s your plan?,” Ewan asked him, cutting through the history lesson.
“Instead of strength, we now have maneuverability on our side. Fortitude is now a nippy little insect, not a powerhouse capable of charging in. That ability comes from the extra RCA thrusters lining the outer hull. If we diverted all power to the starboard RCS thrusters, we would generate enough thrust to tear that comet away.”
“How?,” frowned Valerie Archer. “Tractor beams are tied into the weapons systems, and as such, are offline!”
“We’ve got multiphasic shield which, the last time that I checked, were still working.”
“You mean…?,” Llewellyn trailed off. “Shit, that’s risky!”
Sollik agreed, but he concluded his pitch on a personal note. “Captain, if this was our first year serving together, I wouldn’t be recommending this course of action. I thought you to be far too reckless to be a starship captain and I was far too concerned with regulations. If you’ve taught me one thing, sir, it’s that sometimes taking risks is worth it. There are millions of innocent lives on that Class-M planet who don’t know about their impending doom and couldn’t even stop it if they did. We are here, now, and we have a chance to change their fate. It is the official recommendation of your chief engineer that we don’t let a few numbers in the rulebook stop us now!”
Despite the circumstances, Ewan broke out into a wide grin.
“Sold,” he replied instantly. “Helm, move us into position, full impulse! Mister Brodie, prepare to extend the shields around the comet! Jason, take your fancy sensors offline. I want all power directed to structural integrity and the starboard RCS thrusters!”
With a fluid grace, the crew began to prepare.
Sollik took a moment to return the Captain’s grin before he headed over to the engineering console on the starboard bulkhead and began entering the necessary commands. Looming over everybody’s work was the image of the comet on the holographic viewscreen. All that it wanted to was continue to barrel straight towards the planet. All that it wanted to do was cause an extinction-level event. All that it wanted to do was to be left alone. It wasn’t going to make the crew’s job easy and it wasn’t going to be gentle on Fortitude. It wasn’t going to let them move it without causing some serious damage.
“Helm ready, Captain,” Vuro called out first.
“Power diverted, sir,” Jason Armstrong confirmed next.
“Shields are holding,” Brodie reported a second later. “I have the comet!”
“Ready whenever you are,” Valerie whispered.
“All right…,” Ewan accepted, sharing a do-or-die glance with the rest of the Bridge. “Do it!”
* * * *
Back aboard Starbase 499 in the Santrag system, heads were being scratched.
Erica Martinez could have sworn that she had the mysterious biosign within scanning range, but now, checking her tricorder… nothing! Not a single biometric fluctuation, not one damn molecule to indicate the location of this gremlin, whatever or whoever it was. Damn, it was frustrating! The Station Master had only recently battled with some fiercely unwanted visitors aboard her starbase. She didn’t want another long struggle, this time to find one stupid gremlin, being dragged out.
“Blackmore to Martinez,” buzzed her combadge.
“Martinez here,” she replied after tapping her combadge. “Go ahead, Boxer.”
“Internal sensors have lost the biosign. I don’t know… Maybe it was just a sensor glitch after all. I mean, the readings were intermittent, at best. There are plenty of people crowding the decks. If there was something, it should get spotted.”
“That’s just the point,” Erica countered, crouching under a relay as she worked her way through the system access tunnels that crisscrossed every level of 499. “I don’t want anything surprising jumping out at us. What if a child spots it and it turns out to be hostile? I want to keep looking for a while longer.”
“You’ll throw your back out in those crawl spaces if you stay down there another hour.”
“Then you’ll take over while I kick it in a biobed. I hear there’s one free now.”
“Cheap shot, Erica,” the Rear Admiral chuckled.
Erica wasn’t listening. She had found something.
Collapsing her tricorder, she reached out and picked it up.
“Boxer,” she whispered into her combadge,” it wasn’t a sensor glitch.”
“How do you know?”
“Because sensor glitches don’t eat Starfleet rations,” the Latina woman noted, turning over the empty silver foil in her hand. “We’ve got a gremlin! There’s no doubt about it!”
EPILOGUE
Lieutenant Vuro was the first to awaken.
Around him, the Bridge of Fortitude was dark. What little light remained from the few intact LCARS displays flickered ominously across the faces of his colleagues. Taking a deep mouthful of oxygen, the Bolian helmsman was pleased to discover that life-support was still functional. He was about to move over to the Captain, slumped as he was in his chair when he saw movement. The others were regaining consciousness, stirred by his awakening and brought back to the reality of the moment.
Systems were shot to pieces. There was smoke pouring from a broken conduit with clouds of the substance billowing across the deck plating. Seeing Ewan Llewellyn lift his groggy head with a painful moan, Arden decided to stem the flow of the smoke before checking him for injury. On the way, he encountered Sollik, who was himself slowly finding his feet once more.
“Lieutenant,” the Suliban hissed,” are we…?”
“We’re intact, my friend. Be thankful for that, right now.”
“Did we… succeed?”
It was the Captain asking this time. He was helping Valerie Archer up from her place, sprawled across the floor, blinking through a splitting headache to cast his eyes over her and make sure that she was uninjured. Thankfully, she was and so was the Welshman with his arm around her. Together, they turned towards the viewscreen, an action echoed by Jason Armstrong and Gabriel Brodie. There seemed to be no lasting damage, at least, to the senior staff. Arden returned to his station, one of the intact ones, to bring the main viewer back online and to answer everybody’s singular question.
There it was… the comet.
With a graceful arcing tail, it was backing away from the M-Class planet.
Blue lips parted with glee as Arden thought it was the most beautiful sight that he had ever seen.
“It looks like you were right, Sollik,” he observed. The risk was worth it!”
The End.