Star Trek: Fortitude
Season Three, Episode Four - “Connection Lost”
By Jack D. Elmlinger
PROLOGUE
“It will be a test of their range.”
The Tah’Heen spy bowed slightly, not fully understanding exactly what the test would entail. All he knew was that he would be the one to implement his paymaster’s devious scheme, regardless of content, and that he apparently had unlimited funds from which to bankroll it. The Tah’Heen didn’t ask questions. He didn’t want to. All he wanted was the money.
He barely had the chance to spend his last paycheck. Infecting the uniforms bound for Starbase 499 and the starship Fortitude had afforded him a tidy sum, but the paymaster wasn’t sitting around to let him grow fat from his riches.
He needed an agile, skilled infiltrator and right now, the Tah’Heen fit that description. It wasn’t lost on him that he was assisting in the downfall of a people who were devoid of greed and run on ideas and politics rather than wealth. All of this for a dirty great lump of cold hard currency.
That was the weakness of these… Federations. They could stretch out as far as the eye could see, deep into all of the corners of the Galaxy, but there was one certainty, one absolute across all cultures and species. That absolute was money. Trade… Well, it was fine for starters but it only reached so far.
The Tah’Heen grinned while anticipating his next challenge.
“Their starship will be crossing the boundary of the Korleenaq system,” the towering anonymous hologram before him said in a booming voice. “When they do, you will be initiating a sensory suppression field. I want to see how this starship copes when they’re cut off from their base of operations and forced to stagger in the dark.”
“As you command, sir,” nodded the Tah’Heen.
“You will monitor only. Do not engage. I am not ready to assess their weapons.”
“Of course. I will keep my distance.”
“See that you do.”
ACT ONE
“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Sollik revealed.
“Oh, yes?”
Lieutenant Arden Vuro cocked his blue-skinned head in curiosity as he looked at his friend from across the Mess Hall table. It was the first meal that they had shared, so far, discussing the recent revelation concerning Sollik’s hidden genetic abilities. Being the chief engineer’s best friend, he knew that it was difficult to openly discuss such things for the Suliban, but he knew that the more that it was discussed, the easier it would be and the less of an issue that it would become. Having these chats with him had helped both men accept what it meant and what the genetic abilities would spell for the future career of the Lieutenant Commander… and now they could talk about other things with all of their bases well and truly covered.
“Gabriel Brodie, our new tactical officer,” Sollik continued. “What’s he like?”
“Well, you’ve seen him about,” Vuro answered shortly. “You tell me.”
“I’m not a Bridge officer. I haven’t seen him in action. I was just wondering what you thought about him. That’s all.”
The Bolian helmsman made a face. It was suddenly clear that Sollik had touched a nerve with his question, but it was a nerve that had been previously unexposed. Now that there was clearly fodder for a continued discussion, the Suliban pressed on, half out of concern for his friend and half out of sheer curiosity.
“What? Has he been reckless? Don’t you like him?”
“He’s a perfectly fine officer,” Vuro sighed,” if a little brash and unruly, sometimes…”
“... but?”
Arden paused for a long moment. He thought that he could bury this and that it would be a problem. Sollik’s direct question had thrown him. He hadn’t been expected to be pressed on the subject of Lieutenant Commander Gabriel Brodie yet or to reveal the history that stood between them.
Of course, Brodie himself wouldn’t talk about it. He didn’t even know that Vuro was Fortitude’s helmsman until he had come aboard and served his first shift on the Bridge. It had gone too far. Sollik knew something was wrong and Arden knew that he couldn’t dismiss it or hide anything any longer. Not after this meal, so he leaned back in his chair and put his fork down.
“When I was at the Academy,” he began his story,” I was a member of the Martial Arts Society, along with Gabriel Brodie. He was a year ahead of me but we were pretty much on equal standings in the Society. It infuriated him that a Bolian could be so good. He thought that we were all supposed to be jolly, round people who were terrified of a fight and good only for menial tasks aboard starships.”
“You’re saying that he’s a racist?”
“Probably not now, but back at the Academy… I don’t know. I mean, it’s not uncommon for young men and women of any culture to have extreme views, and his best friend in the Society was a Vulcan. I think that it was more to do with the fact that I was better at martial arts than he was.”
“That’s it?,” Sollik exclaimed with a wide-eyed expression as he ran his slender fingers across his bald, green skull. “He was mean to you on Friday nights at the Academy?”
“Well, that and he cheated during our final contest. He broke my ankle in an illegal move that the judges happened to miss.”
Sollik nodded his head. Of all people, he suddenly understood. His own personal grudge against the dearly departed James Morgan had seethed away in the back of his mind for years after Jim’s Academy actions had caused serious injury to the Sulivan engineer. He could relate and so he simply nodded his head.
“I see…”
Arden was grateful, though he was left feeling a little guilty.
“All senior staff,” the Captain’s voice interrupted their conversation,” report to the Bridge.”
* * * *
Captain’s Log, Stardate 50974.2;
We have entered the previously-unexplored Korleenaq system and discovered an unsettling piece of news. Somehow, all of our subspace communications links with Starbase 499 and the Santrag system are being suppressed. My ship and crew are completely alone, with no way of calling out for assistance from home. While I have faith in our ability to survive out here, Starfleet regulations suggest that we turn tail and run for it… but I want to know what or who has cut us off like this.
When Arden Vuro walked out of the turbolift and onto the Bridge, he almost ran past the tactical console and the stoic frame and expression of Gabriel Brodie. If he hadn’t brought it up until now, he had either forgotten or he simply didn’t want a showdown. Neither did he and that was fine.
Pushing his personal mindset aside, the Bolian took his station at the helm and put on her professional face. Two steps behind him, Sollik headed for the starboard engineering console and transferred Main Engineering’s interfaces to his fingertips.
As soon as both men were in place, Captain Ewan Llewellyn began issuing orders from his command chair. “Helm, bring us to a full ship,” demanded his Welsh accent.
“Aye, sir,” Vuro acknowledged. “Helm is answering at a full stop, Captain.”
“Good. I don’t want to go deeper into this system until we know what’s going on here, but I also don’t want it to look like we’re running for cover. Sollik, I want a full diagnostic analysis of our communications system. Find out why we can’t talk to 499.”
“It should take the better part of two hours, Captain,” Sollik informed him.
“Then you had better get to it,” Ewan nodded.
As Sollik left the Bridge to better facilitate his new assignment, a worried look spread across the smooth features of Ensign Jason Armstrong. Calling out from his Ops console, he caught the attention of Captain Llewellyn and Commander Valerie Archer. Both of them joined him to see what had him so concerned.
“We’ve just lost long-range sensors,” Jason revealed to them.
“What the hell?,” Valerie asked nobody in particular with a frown.
“Are you sure that you detected no natural phenomenon in the entire Korleenaq system before this latest failure, Ensign?,” Ewan asked him. “I don’t want to get paranoid when it could simply be an electrical storm or something.”
“No, sir, nothing natural. It’s a pretty empty system that’s not even inhabited. Wait…”
All eyes were on Jason at the Operations console.
“Damn it. Captain, we’ve just lost short-range sensors, too. We’re blind, sir.”
“Navigational console isn’t responding, Captain,” Vuro called out to him.
Ewan returned to his command chair and slumped helplessly into it, letting his face fall into his cupped hands. This wasn’t how he had envisioned returning to his peaceful mission of exploration, this morning.
“Oh, for the love of…”
ACT TWO
“All right, let’s discuss our options.”
While Sollik was furiously waking up every single crew member with any kind of practical engineering experience and putting them to work as he tried desperately to counter the loss of the communications and sensor arrays, the rest of the Senior Staff was gathered together in the Briefing Room at the behest of Captain Llewellyn. Ewan knew that his crew worked best as a whole, each of them acting as they were merely a part of a larger machine. Putting their heads together, they might find a fresh angle that hadn’t been previously considered. Given the nature of the crisis, how he wished that his chief engineer was present.
“We know that it’s nothing natural,” Valerie voiced, starting the brainstorm. “I think that we should be looking for whoever has done this to us.”
“Do you think it’s some kind of dampening field?,” Ewan asked her for confirmation.
“Absolutely. Somebody’s toying with Fortitude here.”
“Whoever that somebody is, Captain,” they’re powerful,” Jason Armstrong spoke up with trepidation ruling his expression. “To create a successful dampening field around an entire star system would require either considerable energy reserves or a type of technology that we’ve never encountered before.”
“What about directed dampening fields?,” Vuro ventured a guess. “Surely it could be a single field aimed at us alone? Without sensors, speculation could mean--”
“We don’t need speculation,” Gabriel Brodie cut in, interrupting the Bolian mid-sentence and causing him to snarl in dislike of the black tactical officer. “We need action and we need it now. Captain, we can use computer records to extrapolate our exact current position in relation to the Korleenaq system. If our helmsman is capable, he can plot a safe, methodical search pattern so we can get searching!”
Ignoring the jibe at Arden, Archer had a larger concern. “Searching for what, Mister Brodie?,” the First Officer asked him slowly. “Without sensors, there’s a limit to what we can do. What happens when we fly into a planet?”
“With all due respect, ma’am, this starship has windows, doesn’t it?”
“You want to fly Fortitude by peering out of a window?,” Vuro exclaimed, thinking that the idea was a ridiculous one and rightly so since modern starships weren’t simple, straightforward craft. Sensors were the mainstay of every single operation when it came to moving through space with essential navigation. Still, that was known so he decided to try and score another type of point against Gabe. “Say we encounter an alien vessel and they try to make contact? Without communications, what do you suggest that we do? Wave to them, perhaps?”
“It sounds like somebody’s scared,” was Brodie’s retort.
“How dare you --!”
“All right, that’s enough, gentlemen!,” Llewellyn snapped at them, raising his voice to a tone that hadn’t been heard since the Borg incident. “I can’t have my officers fighting each other while we’re fighting an unseen enemy! Whatever bad blood there is between you, stow it!”
Both men mumbled their apologies to the Captain..
“Now,” he continued,” I’m forced to agree with Mister Brodie. We won’t accomplish anything by simply standing still. Nobody ever has… well, except the accomplishment of standing still in itself… Anyways, we do things carefully, but we do them all the same. Arden, start plotting a search pattern. I want nothing faster than impulse power. That should give us some reaction time if we run into anything big.”
“Captain, at least, wait until Sollik has reported back with his…,” the Bolian helmsman attempted to interject, hoping that Gabriel Brodie wouldn’t win this round. The fact that he wasn’t able to finish his sentence dashed that hope immediately.
“I’m sorry, Arden, but I’ve made my decision.”
Well, that was that. Resigned to his defeat, Vuro bowed his head.
Gabe flashed a brief victory grin as Ewan concluded the meeting.
“Okay. Dismissed.”
* * * *
Two hours later, Arden Vuro was seated at the helm, undertaking an action that he never imagined that he would ever let himself undertake. Inputting course corrections, his hands expertly danced across the LCARS display before him, though the viewscreen was blank. The navigational sensors were blank. He might as well have closed his eyes and touch-typed his work, for today, he was flying an Intrepid-class starship entirely blind. The nerves of the entire crew, all one hundred and forty of them, were directed squarely at his station. And the blame if it all went wrong? Well, at least, he would share that with the architect of this insane plan, Gabriel Brodie.
The Bridge was quiet.
The Captain was down in Main Engineering with Valerie Archer and Sollik, working on some way of cutting through whatever interference that was clouding their sensor and communications systems. Without sensors, they couldn’t even detect what the interference was and so it was definitely a tricky situation. Jason Armstrong was the only other senior officer on the Bridge, along with a handful of junior crew members who were all far too preoccupied with watching Vuro’s careful actions.
The turbolift doors swished open to reveal Doctor Katherine Pulaski. She headed for the helm with her reason for the rare Bridge visit hardly needing any pretense.
“Checking up on me, Doctor?,” Vuro smiled weakly.
“Of course,” she replied honestly. “The lack of a ship’s counselor means that I’m the closest thing that you’ve got to support during these heightened moments of stress.”
“Ah, flying blind is unsettling but I don’t think I’d say that --”
“I didn’t mean your job,” Pulaski revealed, leaning over the helm while she observed the Bolian’s actions. Leaving the hint in the air, she decided to change the subject rather abruptly to exactly what she had just discussed with him. “How exactly does this rather mad plan of Commander Brodie’s work, anyways?”
“We’ve got stellar cartographers at windows on all decks,” Vuro sighed, lamenting over the very words that he was speaking. “They’re constantly updating my status display with data regarding what’s out there. The most interesting thing so far has been a passing comet, and when I say passing, I mean that in the same way that Earth happens to pass Venus every once in a while.”
“Then everything’s going well,” Pulaski pointed out.
“Yes, everything’s going well,” he repeated.
“And yet it’s not, is it? The Captain told me about your little duel with Mister Brodie in the Briefing Room. I wondered if you wanted to talk about it.”
Arden shot the doctor a wide-eyed expression of slight disbelief. “If I make one wrong move here…”
“I understand, and I don’t expect you to suddenly open the emotional floodgates,” the reassuring comprehension and knowing tone of Kate Pulaski kicked in. “I just wanted you to know that anything you want to talk about… doctor-patient confidentiality isn’t restricted to physical ailments, Lieutenant.”
“Thank you, Doctor. I’ll -- “
All of a sudden, Vuro spotted a flashing alert on his left side. Pulaski moved aside as the helmsman swung his chair across the width of his station, his eyes narrowing as he focused on the incoming report. A crewman on Deck Four had spotted something out of a window and he was streaming the data to the Bridge.
It wasn’t good news.
This was what he had been afraid of.
“Red Alert!,” he yelled. “Captain to the Bridge! “We’re not alone out here!”
ACT THREE
Captain’s Log, supplemental;
According to visual scanning, an unknown alien vessel is sharing the Korleenaq system with us in our hour of desperation. After taking some holographic images and feeding them into the main computer, we’ve drawn a blank on who they might be. Unfortunately, due to our compromising position, we’ve lost them. I keep expecting the bulkheads to come crashing down around our ears at any moment…
“Not a single match?”
Valerie Archer shook her head as she delivered the report to Ewan Llewellyn in his darkened Ready Room. The crimson lighting of the Red Alert status was deeply foreboding. Every member of the Fortitude crew was expecting to be colliding with an unknown alien at any time. The sensor array was still crippled and the communications system was still producing nothing but subspace static. The processed holographic images of the spotted alien craft that failed to produce a match had once again failed after a more extensive computer search, leaving her with no new news to give her Captain.
“I’m starting to think that we’ll never find out what’s doing this, Ewan,” she admitted, dropping the rank titles as she always did when they were speaking frankly. “Although you didn’t ask for it, my advice would be to turn around and head for him. We can send the Katherine Johnson out here from Starbase 499 later. Let a science vessel worry about this mystery.”
“Firstly, your advice is always welcome, Valerie,” Ewan said, smiling from behind his desk as he set his PADD down and lifted his coffee cup. “Secondly, the Katherine Johnson is an Oberth-class starship. If this is a malicious attempt to cripple us, I wouldn’t feel right about leaving and sending a smaller ship back here to answer our unanswered questions. We’ll stay a bit longer, but you’re right, I’m starting to think that we should call it even and make a break for home.”
“That ship, though,” Valerie pointed out, acting as the counter to his slow descent into defeat,” could have something to do with this. Having said that, they could easily be a cargo vessel or a passenger liner. We just don’t know.”
“It shows how reliant we’ve become on technology, doesn’t it? If it wasn’t for the possible danger or lives being potentially in the balance, this would make a fascinating case study for a sociological professor. Anyways, that’s not what’s important here. I don’t know, Valerie. Seriously, I don’t. One day, I would just love to chart something, a planet or a star system. Make a dull routine run-of-the-mill entry into my log saying that we encountered a new type of star or made First Contact with a really friendly alien species. I just want a day that’s normal.”
“With all due respect, Ewan, if you wanted normal, then you’re in the wrong job.”
“Good point…”
* * * *
Vuro was wholeheartedly relieved when Captain Llewellyn stepped out onto the Bridge and asked for a status report. For almost four hours, the helmsman had not only been the ranking officer in charge but also the one responsible for flying Fortitude in circles around an uncharted region of space. Just the Captain’s presence immediately steadied his nerves. Gabriel Brodie’s plan wasn’t just reckless, he thought. It was stupid too!
Ewan took a seat in his command chair, joined by Valerie beside him as they made a few calculations on their respective consoles. Soon the turbolift opened and unleashed Gabe who quickly took over the tactical console when he spotted the grey shoulders and red collar of the Captain’s presence. Sollik followed behind him, tired of his constant system-fiddling in Main Engineering. The Suliban literally fell into his chair at the engineering console.
“All right, everybody,” Llewellyn began after obviously having collected the senior staff together from his Ready Room before coming onto the Bridge,” after giving our situation some further thought, I’ve decided that staying here and trying to discover whatever is crippling our systems is a futile effort. With the sensors or a communications station, we can’t detect or talk to anybody or gain any relevant information. So… we’re heading home.”
Arden gave an audible sigh of relief, along with Jason Armstrong over at Ops who, for obvious reasons, had his own small distrust of the newcomer Gabriel Brodie.
Sollik nodded in simple agreement, respecting the authority of the Captain’s four rank pips over his own personal beliefs and decisions. The only person who had anything to say on the subject was the architect of the idea to stay and fly blind.
“Captain, permission to speak?”
“Granted, Mister Brodie,” Ewan turned towards him and nodded,” although I think I know what you’re going to say. You want us to stay longer.”
“Absolutely,” Brodie emphasized with his dark eyes open wide. “Sir, we’ve only been doing impulse circles for a couple of hours! Of course, we’re not going to find anything this quickly! Give it some more time!”
“But we’ve already found something,” Vuro blurted out from his position at the helm,” and we were unable to do anything about it! An unknown alien ship. Was it friend or foe? We can’t decide and we can’t act! I’m sorry to interrupt, Captain,” the Bolian carefully added with a glance to Llewellyn who cocked his head in allowance,” but Lieutenant Commander Brodie speaks of wanting action. I can understand that want and I respect it but let’s be honest. Without the sensors or the comms system, we simply can’t survive out here. Even if the answer to this mystery landed right in our laps by beaming right onto the Bridge, what could we do?
“Call for help? No.
“Scan it for data? No.
“Apologies but you’re wrong, Brodie. You’re wrong. Bravery sometimes involves admitting your shortcomings.”
There was a moment of silence.
Everybody stared at Arden. Such an outburst was incredibly uncommon. It had never happened before. Not from him. Jason wore an expression of near-admiration but slight fear over what might happen next. Archer and Llewellyn just started at the blue-skinned man, still seated firmly in his chair, as did Sollik.
Then a slight chuckle broke the tension.
It was Gabe.
“You know, Vuro,” he revealed,” all you had to do was say something.”
In that instance, the arrogance was gone. All that Vuro could see now, standing there at the tactical console in the Starfleet uniform and yellow collar, was a fellow officer. The annoyance, the hatred, it was gone. There was nothing to replace it, of course. No instantaneous respect or friendship but a fraction of humility.
Gabriel Brodie had just admitted that he was wrong and he had just agreed with him. Yet, in itself was annoying to the helmsman and slowly the previous emotions crept back into place. The expression on his face said it all, showing the complete and utter bafflement at what had just happened.
Humans were definitely complex creatures.
“Okay, well,” Ewan finally spoke, standing up now,” well, with that complete, Helm, using the existing sensor data in the computer, I want you to reverse course, take us to Warp Five and the Santrag system.”
“Aye, Captain,” Vuro complied with his order.
“Engage at your discretion.”
He did.
Nothing happened.
“I hoped that your discretion would be a little more immediate,” Valerie said with a smile.
“I don’t understand,” whispered Arden.
Once again, he tried to activate the warp engines.
Nothing happened.
“Arden, any time today would be nice,” Ewan pressed him, frowning.
“Captain, warp engines are offline!”
Before the sentence was even finished, Sollik leaped into action, hammering away at his own LCARS display before Llewellyn could even order an analysis. As the data came through, with Main Engineering becoming a torrent of organized chaos as crew members frantically tried to respond to their superior officer’s requests, the green scales on the Suliban’s face contorted into disgust and horror.
It wasn’t good news.
“Captain, I … The warp core is operating properly, but we’re unable to create a stable warp field. I can’t locate the problem. Without sensors…”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that Fortitude can’t go to warp,” Sollik spelled it out for him. “We’re stuck here.”
Swallowing him, Ewan turned back towards the helm. “How long would it take us to get home on full impulse power?,” he asked, dreading the answer.
“Approximately one hundred and fifty years, sir.”
EPILOGUE
“You have done well,” hissed the hologram.
Grinning with the expectant greed that ruled his actions, the Tah’Heen just kept thinking about the next paycheck that he would be receiving from such praise. The anonymous paymaster’s image flickered before him, promising to make that paycheck substantially larger than before. The latest assignment had been tricky. Risky too, but not impossible as he had proven by succeeding perfectly.
“Thank you,” the Tah’Heen said with a bow.
“You may deactivate the local sensory suppression field now,” the booming voice continued to order. “The beacon that you planted on their hull will continue to render their communications and sensor grids useless while also canceling out their warp field. Are you certain that it is secured properly?”
“As you directed,” confirmed the spy.
“And are you certain that your ship was not seen by any of their crew?”
“Without sensors, how could they have?”
The hologram leaned over slightly, just enough to make the tidy hair that adorned the top of his silhouetted scalp fluctuate as it touched the edge of the holoprojector’s circular field. Despite being only a trick of the light, it was a frightening feeling to have such a shape loom over him, dramatically, and the Tah’Heen felt both of his stomachs tie themselves in a knot as he backed down slightly.
“Never assume anything,” growled the paymaster. “Assumption is the first step towards defeat. These tests have been specifically designed to make any assumption irrelevant. When we finally strike, we won’t have to assume anything.”
“Yes, of course,” stammered the Tah’Heen.
“Do not fail me, spy.”
The End.