Star Trek: Fortitude
Season Five, Episode One - “All Hands, Part Two”
By Jack D. Elmlinger
PROLOGUE
Last time on Star Trek: Fortitude…
While exploring the Beta Quadrant, Captain Ewan Llewellyn and the Fortitude crew locate a shuttlepod belonging to the End. thought to be extinct for almost three years, there is one member of the End left. The pilot, who is beamed to Sickbay, appears to be the last of his savage, warlike race. Ordering an investigation, Captain Llewellyn hopes that they are only witnessing an echo of the past and not a new beginning for his most feared enemy.
Unfortunately, those hopes are dashed as the End pilot wakes up and escapes from Sickbay. Infiltrating Transporter Room Two, he extracts the pattern buffer from his shuttlepod and begins to materialize an army of hibernating End soldiers. Stored for three years and ready to start establishing a new order, almost two hundred soldiers of the End swarm the decks of Fortitude and take control of key areas. Emergency force fields keep them away from the top four decks, including the Bridge but they are a relentless foe.
Just under half of the Starfleet crew are lost in the battle. With no other alternatives and with Fortitude dropping out of warp back home alongside Starbase 499, Captain Llewellyn accepts defeat and orders an emergency evacuation. All surviving Starfleet officers and crew are transported to the starbase while Llewellyn and Commander Valerie Archer activate the auto-destruct system. Upon escaping themselves, they watch with heavy hearts as the End-filled Fortitude is blown to pieces.
However, End soldiers managed to beam across the void to Starbase 499 amidst the chaos. The battle isn’t over with almost one hundred End still alive and scattered throughout the superstructure. To make matters even worse at the apocalyptic moment, Rear Admiral Edward Blackmore, who had been comatome in the Starbase 499 medical facility for almost a year, is discovered to be missing…
… and now the conclusion.
ACT ONE
The debris from Fortitude hadn’t even settled yet, and people were already turning away from it. Reports were starting to fly over the communications system from the bowels of the starbase with reports of terror at the hands of the End intruders. Station Master Erica Martinez, the center of attention in the Station Master’s Office, was doing her level best just to keep her head above the waves of requests and calls.
By the way of assistance, the senior staff of the doomed Fortitude went straight into action, manning those stations that were going unmanned and began issuing orders. Commander Valerie Archer started directing security teams with her tactical knowledge augmented by the capable professionalism of Lieutenant Commander Gabriel Brodie. Ensign Jason Armstrong began securing emergency force fields, remembering how the End had carried out preemptive strikes on the emitters and Lieutenant Arden Vuro gave his friend, Lieutenant Commander Sollik, a hand in searching for all of the remote End biosigns.
It was all hands on deck.
All, that was, except for one.
Captain Ewan Llewellyn was in a complete daze. His first command had been blown out of the stars at his order, and over one hundred enemy casualties as a result. Half of his crew, his brave crew, had been lost, thanks to those bastards. It was all far too much for his system. With his head thumping and his heart pounding, he simply stared out at where his Intrepid-class starship had once been and where there was now only wreckage.
He tuned out the voices that surrounded him.
“Okay,” Sollik growled,” I've got ten End biosigns near Club 499!”
“Sending a security team,” Valerie nodded as Brodie worked the station security console.
“Emergency force fields are responding,” Jason observed with a triumphant grin.
“Good. That should keep them contained,” Erica Martinez thanks the young Kentuckian with a pat on his back. “My primary concern is the civilian population. I want to begin evacuation procedures right away, but with so many of the End scattered about all decks, I’m not sure where to send them.”
“What about the Steamrunner?,” suggested Valerie.
“What about her?”
“Put all of the civilians aboard and get them to a safe distance!”
“Excellent idea,” the Latina woman grudgingly acknowledged. “Doctor Pulaski?”
“I’ll see to it,” Katherine Pulaski agreed.
“Six more End biosigns near the drydocks,” Sollik suddenly blurted out. “They’ll need to be neutralized before anybody can get to either the Steamrunner or the Katherine Johnson for escape or anything else!”
“There are only three security officers in the area,” Brodie noted with disdain. “However, there is a science team, seven-strong, aboard the Katherine Johnson.”
“Get them armed and fighting!”
“They’re only scientists…”
“It doesn’t matter, damn it!,” Erica snapped at her dark-skinned lover. “They have access to weapons and they’re Starfleet officers! We need to protect the civilians at all costs… That goes for everybody! Our primary concern is getting the civilian population of Starbase 499 to the Steamrunner and getting them away from this warzone! Nothing else comes first. Understood?!”
Everybody did and everybody acted accordingly.
* * * *
Kate Pulaski was on her way out of the Station Master’s Office when one of the incoming comms reports caught her attention. Slowly, she paused, frowning as strained to hear the distorted words over the chaos. Frustrated at the lack of clarity, she marched over to the comms panel and answered the call.
“This is Doctor Pulaski,” she said loudly. “Please repeat?”
“Doctor, this is Nurse Denton, calling from the medical level,” a panic-filled voice began to say once again. “I know you’re probably got bigger problems up there, but Rear Admiral Blackmore has gone missing and we can’t find him!”
That did it.
Captain Llewellyn broke out of his emotional stupor and turned towards Pulaski. “What did they just say?”
“I… I don’t get it…,” Pulaski whispered. “Edward was comatose with no signs of recovery. I get reports on his condition every week, even when we’re not here! Uh, Nurse Denton, has the medical level been breached by the End?”
“No, not yet,” replied Denton,” although I guess some security guys would be nice!”
“I’m going down there,” Llewellyn snapped immediately.
“Now wait for just a second, Captain,” Pulaski protested, her hand on his shoulder. “We’ve got a crisis situation going on and civilians that need evacuation. As much as this pains me to say it, Edward Blackmore is just one man.”
“And so am I, Doctor,” the Welshman retorted. “Besides, it seems that the last thing that’s needed around here is a starship captain… seeing as I don’t have a ship anymore. I will find Boxer, and if I run into any End, I’ll shoot them for you. Focus on those civilians. That’s an order… and don’t try to stop me!”
Watching the argument between Llewellyn and Pulaski from a distance, all Valerie Archer could do was silently observe as Ewan tore his phaser from his hip holster and ran out of the Station Master’s Office.
She didn’t even get to say goodbye.
Forcing herself back to work, she hoped that he would be all right.
* * * *
Starbase 499 was engulfed in terror.
As Ewan worked his way through the labyrinth of corridors, his phaser sweeping around every corner, he continually encountered expressions of panic, fear, and desperation. They were found on the faces of Starfleet personnel and civilians alive. The mere mention of the End was like firing a photon torpedo at a warp core. The very first time that he had laid eyes upon Starbase 499, he had seen the extent of the End’s crippling damage. Four years… and it was happening all over again, only worse this time. This time, Starbase 499 was being consumed from the inside-out.
Those near windows had seen the destruction of Fortitude.
They feared that the same would happen to their home.
Llewellyn couldn’t blame them.
Coming around a corner, he came face-to-face with the enemy. Two End soldiers were leering over an assortment of body parts. There was a tiny fraction of consolation when the remains of a Starfleet uniform was spotted but it was only a tiny fraction. It did little to calm down his rage. He had missed the chance to fight the irredeemable bastards that had overrun his ship. This was his first encounter with this modern, rematerialized breed. They had used their bare hands on the poor man sprawled across the deck.
Breathing deeply, the Welshman felt his blood pressure rise and his heart rate increase. Anger drove his very soul and fuelled his reactions. How dare they…?
Without hesitation, the Captain took aim and fired.
The End vaporized one after the other. It was intentional. His phaser was set to maximum.
If they weren’t showing any mercy, why the hell should he?
ACT TWO
“I’m getting a call from the Katherine Johnson science team.”
“Put it on speakers.”
Gabriel Brodie knew what would be coming. Despite having one extra man than the End that they were fighting, the science team wasn’t trained for combat on the level of the vicious, insidious enemy race. Inwardly, the black tactical officer winced at Erica Martinez’s request to broadcast the incoming message. It wouldn’t be a nice thing for the Station Master’s Office to hear.
“This is… Crewman… Daunt…”
“Go ahead, Crewman,” Erica acknowledged, not a dent in her steely exterior.
“The End are… dead, ma’am. The… the path is… clear…”
“Good man, Daunt.”
“Request… emergency… transport to the medical… level…”
“How many members of your team are left to hold the drydocks?”
“Just me… ma’am… and I’m… in a bad way…”
“Then your request is denied. If you can still shoot, I need you there.”
A smattering of gasps rolled around the Station Master’s Office. All of them were directed at the Latina woman standing in the center of the room. Even Brodie, well-known for being a battle-hardened brute in such situations, felt his mouth involuntarily open in shock. It was almost as if he and Erica had gone through some kind of role reversal since they had begun their relationship earlier in the year.
He had softened slightly, understanding more about the wider ramifications of the Galaxy after having served with the Fortitude crew… and Erica, with her starbase being threatened, was becoming emotionally detached from the situation. She was doing everything in her power to fight and defeat the End.
It had all fallen on her shoulders.
The weight of Starbase 499 was hers to bear alone.
“Valerie,” she snapped, turning towards the Commander quickly,” get down to where we’re holding the civilian evacuees and lead them to the starboard drydock. Take all of the security officers that you encounter with you. Do anything, sacrifice anything… Just get those people to safety and get yourself back here!”
“I’m on my way,” she nodded, heading out with her sidearm in hand.
Brodie instantly reopened the channel to Crewman Daunt. “Hang in there, Crewman,” he urged. “Help is on the way.”
There was no answer.
“Crewman Daunt? Crewman? Respond!”
Silence filled the air. The scientist had succumbed to his injuries.
Erica Martinez watched, cold as ice, as a furious Gabriel Brodie punched the bulkhead.
* * * *
She found them in short order.
Faces filled with dread, panic, ignorance, anxiety, and fright… Faces of children, men, women, and faces of aliens from various corners of the Galaxy who made up the civilian population of Starbase 499… hundreds of them. Trying to appear calm and collected, yet riddled with the very same emotions as those that she was about to guide to safety, Valerie Archer addressed the assembled masses.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” she yelled out,” please cooperate with the security officers alongside you and follow their directions! We’re heading to the starboard drydock where you will be placed aboard the Steamrunner and taken to safety!”
“What’s going on?,” a voice screamed from the crowd.
“Are we going to die?,” another voice called out.
“Please, everybody just stay calm!,” Archer replied before the voices could swell up to drown her out entirely. “I’m not going to lie to you. Starbase 499 is under siege and we are doing our best to defeat the enemy… but that is why you cannot stay here! Your place is not on the field of battle! Come on, move out!”
Legs started to move, albeit slowly and with caution.
The pace quickened after a while.
Soon, the starboard drydock access corridors were all that remained. At the direction of the Starfleet officers, innocents rushed forward. They crammed aboard the Steamrunner, finding yet more Starfleet officers aboard. Erica had obviously sent them down as they were directing people to quarters and cargo bays. It would be a squeeze but hopefully, it was a temporary one. If only Santrag II was on better terms with their Federation guardians right now, Valerie found herself wondering… in between all of the thoughts and worries that she was experiencing about Ewan.
It took some doing but soon Steamrunner was full and ready for launch.
“Sollik to Commander Archer!”
“Go ahead, Sollik?”
“We’re showing three End biosigns closing on your position!”
Archer exchanged a fearful glance with the two security officers standing alongside her in the starboard drydock access corridor. Her eyes shifted, looking towards the innocent faces collected aboard the Steamrunner… and then she looked back into the darkened crimson corridors of Starbase 499. There was only one option, of course.”
“Ensigns,” she ordered the security officers,” secure the Steamrunner and launch!”
“What about you, Commander?,” one of them asked her with genuine concern.
“I’ll hold them off and make sure that they don’t screw with the drydock controls. Go on! Go!”
They did as they were told.
On her way back towards the End, with her phaser raised and stuck out ahead of her, Valerie Archer passed by the corpse of the heroic Crewman Daunt and hoped that she wouldn’t be joining him anytime soon.
* * * *
Captain Llewellyn watched as his tricorder readings fluctuated.
Unregistered biosigns were nearby… but they weren’t the End.
Maybe it was Rear Admiral Blackmore, Ewan heard his mind whisper excitedly. Then again, maybe it was somebody’s cat. There was no way of telling at this range. The chances of it being the AWOL Boxer were slim. After all, Starbase 499 was a big place. Still, he pressed on with renewed vigor.
The latest report from the Station Master’s Office said that almost half of the End soldiers had been subdued, leaving around fifty of the monsters to be dealt with by the resilient and brave Starfleet security teams who, despite their heavy losses, were not giving up. They reminded him of his own security teams… Well, what was left of them, of course.
His tricorder pinged again, dragging him away from his dark pit of regret. The biosigns were getting stronger, just around this corner…
When Ewan entered the viewing chamber, the breathtaking sight of Santrag II and the space beyond it wasn’t what caught his attention. Instead, he gasped as he saw a beautiful woman being used as a Human shield… used by a desperate, snarling End soldier.
“Oh, shit,” he breathed, instantly dazed and traumatized by the scene. “Valerie!”
ACT THREE
The disgusting creature was digging the stolen phaser into her temple. Cracked flakes of yellow skin stuck in her soft brown hair, some of which fluttered in the breeze from the End soldier’s flared nostrils and hissing gritted teeth. There was no clean shot and no way of striking him without harming the defenseless Valerie Archer in the process… and it drove Ewan Llewellyn insane.
All he could do was try to steady his right arm as it pointed his phaser at the End. on his left, the mechanical gears of his artificial limb formed a tight fist.
It was a standoff.
“Drop your weapon, Human!,” the End spat at him with venom.
“Let her go and I’ll consider it,” Llewellyn retorted, attempting to remain calm and he was only just succeeding.
“You must think I'm a fool… Must think all of us are fools… but we are not!”
Ewan had to admit that the End had a point. Until now, he had only ever thought of them in terms of mindless soldiers hell-bent on galactic conquest and rule through fear. Yet here, holding his beloved Valerie hostage, was somebody who was capable of negotiation, self-preservation, and not simply blindly throwing himself into combat, but trying to gain a tactical edge by wrapping his armored arm around Valerie’s neck.
A quick visual scan of the viewing chamber showed two other End corpses. Perhaps it had been a surprise attack, catching his First Officer off-guards. Perhaps the others had sacrificed themselves to gain the valuable hostage. Were they even capable of such thinking? Was this race, grown in vats long since destroyed, developing a stratagem?
“Damn it, Ewan,” Valerie gargled, the End’s arm digging into her throat,” shoot!”
He couldn’t. His phaser was set to maximum.
Any move to change the setting could give the End the second that he needed to fire.
The standoff didn’t budge.
Through the gigantic viewports beside them, the Steamrunner crawled away from the starboard drydock of Starbase 499. It had made it with the civilian passengers saved before any of the wretched End soldiers could claim any more of their innocent lives. Ewan and the End holding Valerie glanced at the same moment. Returning to their previous staring contest, he saw the fury in his adversary’s eyes.
“Bad luck,” he managed to observe dryly.
“We shall claim them later,” the soldier arrogantly predicted. “We are the chosen army, the ones who have waited for our chance to strike back at the enemy who destroyed the Central Core and who wrongly believed to have wiped us all out. It is our destiny to prevail and our objective is to kill every last one of your species!”
“It sounds like you’ve got lots to be getting on with… Yet, you can’t move until I lower my phaser, and I won’t do that until you let your hostage do. So why don’t you do us both a favor and hand her over to me?!”
The tension increased as the glow from Steamrunner’s nacelles filled the viewing chamber. Ewan felt as though he could hear ticking as though a countdown to inevitability had started without him. His hand continued to shake slightly. Sweat beaded underneath his dark fringe and rolled down his forehead. Valerie… he had never seen her look more scared for her life, not once. All he wanted to do was hold her, to protect her from the End, and there was nothing that he could use to do so.
Something caught his eye.
It was moving behind the End soldier and Valerie… a shape…
Not wanting to give anything away, he kept his gaze locked upon the End.
Whatever the shape was, it was approaching silently… deliberately…
It was going to strike…
Suddenly, the unsuspecting End soldier felt hands on either side of his decaying face. They were strong, powerful hands that wrenched his head aside. The subsequent breaking of his neck echoed for a distasteful moment. The phaser was dropped, allowing Valerie to stagger forward and Ewan to catch her.
Together, they embraced before turning to identify their savior.
He looked like a mess, but it didn’t matter. The medical robe sported a few drops of blood, some of it crimson, some of it were various other colors but none of it, thankfully, was coming from his own body. There was a small cut above his eyebrow but nothing serious. A cortical monitor was still attached to the base of his skull where his salt-and-pepper beard dissipated into his neck. Panting from exertion that was well beyond recommended for a man of his age, and still grinning with success, he noted Ewan’s and Valerie’s intimacy with a grunt.
“Boy, I’ve missed a lot, haven’t I?”
The Welshman didn’t know how to reply. He just laughed.
Rear Admiral Edward Blackmore was back.
* * * *
The Station Master’s Office remained a hub of chaos.
Despite the turn of the tide against the End, despite the incoming calls of success stories from all over Starbase 499, Erica Martinez had no intention of letting her current tunnel-vision relax any time soon. There were still intruders aboard in dwindling numbers but they were all the same. The Latina woman wanted every last one of them hunted down and removed from her station and she wasn’t standing down until she had gotten what she wanted.
“Tell this security team to head for Club 499,” she ordered Gabriel Brodie, and join the others to locate these End biosigns!”
“You’ve got it,” Brodie answered quietly, subdued ever since the tragically emotional passing of Crewman Daunt that he had observed earlier. For some reason, doing Erica’s bidding today was exhausting his fighting spirit. The dark-skinned tactical officer was having a hard time deciding whether it was his relationship with Erica or simply the fact that he had changed, but he just wanted to leave.
“Station Master Martinez,” the intercom chirped,” this is Doctor Pulaski.”
“Go ahead, Kate!”
“System Traffic reports that the civilians are away. I’ve taken some of the wounded to the medical level. I belong there for the remainder of this crisis unless you have any objections to that?”
“No, you’re in the right place. Stay there and do some good.”
“Has there been any news on Rear Admiral Blackmore?”
She was about to answer in the negative when the doors opened. Her reaction was unexpected. She had been considering the variables of Boxer’s disappearance and one of the biggest possibilities was that he had risen from his coma… but still, after a year, seeing him walk into the Station Master’s Office was overwhelming.
“There is good news,” Boxer barked into the communications system, answering Pulaski. “He is up, about, and ever-so-confused as to what the hell is going on!”
“Boxer?”
“In the flesh, so to speak. Listen, Kate, I’ll call you back.”
“What the … I mean, how did… when…” Erica stammered, tears welling up in her eyes.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Blackmore shook his head, letting Llewellyn and Archer pass by him as they headed for duty stations alongside their senior officers. “I woke up to the sounds of emergencies across the medical level. It’s all a little hazy. I just bolted out of fright, I reckon… Next thing I know, I see End in the corridors!”
“They overran Fortitude…”
“Uh-huh. Ewan brought me up to speed. We’ve got a fight on our hands.”
“A fight… Boxer, you’re standing there in a robe!”
“It didn’t stop me before,” the Rear Admiral growled,” and it won’t stop me now. I’m going to secure my starbase and protect my people, Erica. Then, and only then, will I think about getting dressed.”
There was nothing else that the Latina could object to.
She was no longer the ranking officer. The responsibility was no longer hers.
With the weight lifted from her shoulders, she apologetically turned to Gabriel Brodie. “I… I’m sorry, Gabe…”
He just beckoned her over to his side. “Come one,” he whispered compassionately,” we’ve got some End to find…”
EPILOGUE
At zero-four hundred hours on Stardate 52939.1, a desperate End soldier attacked a group of security officers on Deck Forty-seven of the Federation deep-space outpost Starbase 499. After taking down one Human and one Vulcan, two phaser beams vaporized his body. He was the very last of his kind. After three years of waiting inside of a transporter buffer, he and his comrades in arms fought for a bloody, apocalyptic two days before being defeated.
At zero-four hundred hours and six minutes, the Steamrunner returned safe and sound to the starboard drydock. All of the people aboard her were alive and well. In total, eighteen innocent civilians were lost in what would become known as the Battle of Four-Nine-Nine. This was a remarkable number considering the amount of Starfleet personnel who gave their lives in the struggle against the End army. One hundred and seventy-five men, women, and members of several transgendered species died, all of them to be decorated with posthumous awards.
At zero-four hundred hours and ten minutes, Rear Admiral Edward “Boxer” Blackmore returned to his quarters, pleased to find that his Starfleet uniform still fit him after a year of lying on his backside. He would later join Station Master Erica Martinez in Club 499 for an address to the survivors of the Battle of Four-Nine-Nine. From there, he made arrangements for the remaining crew of the USS Fortitude, NCC-76240 to have a bed for the night. He only ate and rested himself when everybody had been settled.
Everybody, that was, except for one man.
At zero-four hundred hours and fifteen minutes, Captain Ewan Llewellyn said goodnight to his beloved Commander Valerie Archer and went for a walk. Along the way, he surveyed the carnage that littered the decks of Starbase 499. It was the same carnage that had littered the decks of his Intrepid-class starship the day before… The starship that he had ordered to be destroyed. Unable to sleep, he found a window and tried to search for any remains of his vessel out in the depths of the Beta Quadrant.
There would be proceedings. Questions would be asked.
The End were gone and that particular fight was over.
The fight that remained was the fight for the career of Ewan Llewellyn.
The End.