Star Trek: Fortitude
Season Three, Episode Nine - “The Computer”
By Jack D. Elmlinger
PROLOGUE
“Unbelievable! The nerve of some people!”
The Rose Garden, Starfleet Headquarters, San Francisco, Earth… At that precise moment, Captain Ewan Llewellyn didn’t care where he was standing. The frustration within him was monumental and the irritation was overbearing. He didn’t want to vent it all towards Valerie Archer. She was the only one waiting outside for him.
“I take it that the meeting went well?,” she noted, her words dripping with sarcasm.
“Apparently, we’re not of fundamental importance,” Llewellyn ranted, the gray shoulders of his uniform shaking as he paced back and forth, not quite knowing what to do with himself in his current state. “The pressing matters with the Dominion has Starfleet wound up so tight that our Tah’Heen business is not a primary resource concern!”
“And that’s what had you wound up as tight as them?”
“No, it’s the carpet that they’ve got in there. Yes, of course, it is!”
Valerie was about to interject and use some choice words to stop her commanding officer from hitting warp speed without a starship when she became aware of two figures approaching them. Thanks to the sunlight, their shadows arrived before they did, giving the Fortitude’s First Officer time enough to warn Ewan. together, they turned to see a middle-aged married Human civilian couple.
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” the man apologized,” but are you Captain Llewellyn?”
“Yes, I’m Ewan Llewellyn of the Federation starship Fortitude,” Ewan nodded, extending his hand in greeting. “This is my First Officer, Commander Valerie Archer.”
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet both of you,” the woman in the couple smiled sweetly, also shaking hands once her husband had finished. “I didn’t think it would be you, I mean, given the distance between here and the Santrag system.”
“It’s a rare trip,” Valerie acknowledged. “And you might be?”
“I’m Barbara Armstrong and this is my husband Dietrich. We’re Jason’s parents.”
ACT ONE
Captain’s Log, Stardate 51274.9;
After seemingly undertaking the trip back to Earth for nothing, Commander Archer and I are returning to the Santrag system to continue working on the Tah’Heen problem alone, with none of the assistance from Starfleet that I had hoped for. While this complicates matters somewhat, it will also slow our exploration down, giving Fortitude and her crew some time at Starbase 499 to relax.
Returning with us are Dietrich and Barbara Armstrong, the parents of my operations, who I am pleased to note, are just as charming and personable as their son.
“We’ll be arriving in the Santrag system is just over an hour,” Ewan reported to his civilian passengers, stepping into the aft compartment of the Snohomish with an open, if not exhausted, grin. “I trust that the long journey hasn’t been too uncomfortable for you?”
Both of the Armstrongs stood in acknowledgement. As non-Starfleet personnel, they weren’t entirely sure how to approach the Captain. Opting for a polite, quiet tone of voice, Dietrich pulled aside a chair at the central table and headed to the replicator to order up three fresh beverages. Handing them around, all of them resumed sitting so they could have their first proper conversation with their son’s commanding officer.
“It’s been fine,” Barbara said, starting the conversation, her long blonde hair obviously being the source of Jason’s genes in that department. “We rarely leave home, Captain Llewellyn. This is quite the adventure for us!”
“Please call me Ewan,” the Welshman said, smiling. “Rarely being…?”
“We took a holiday to Risa once,” Dietrich said, picking up his side of the conversation. He was a tall, striking man who was accustomed to physical labor. He had short brown hair receding from his sharp facial features. “We also visited Jason during his Lunar One training. The farming business doesn’t usually allow for much time off.”
“You operate a farm?,” Ewan asked him, his eyebrows arching.
“It’s been in the family for almost six generations,” Dietrich nodded.
“We’re a modern couple who run a modern farm,” Barbara instantly stepped in with a note of concern in her voice. “So many people often misrepresent the agricultural trades these days, assuming the farmers and those like us are stuck in the past… but we’re doing an essential job. That coffee that you’re enjoying… where do you think that the computer got the biochemical molecular breakdown of a coffee bean?”
“I’ve never given it much thought,” Ewan honestly replied with a chuckle. “So you never had a problem with Jason applying to Starfleet Academy?”
“I encouraged it,” Dietrich recalled, his thick Kentucky drawl almost syllable for syllable, a deeper version of Jason’s own accent, right down to the tiny personal inflections in the sentence structures. “I’m never one for stereotypes, Ewan. we get so much stick for being ‘old-fashioned’ in the 24th century. When our boy expressed interest in the stars, I went down into town and purchased every book and isolinear rod that I could find dealing with astronomy.”
“Well, I, for one, am glad that you did,” the Captain told them. “Jason is a fine young man and a fine officer. He has literally saved my life on several occasions. I’m only sorry that events haven’t been kinder to him recently.”
Barbara turned towards her husband, her worried brow on prominent display. “I’m sorry, Captain,” she whispered,” but what do you mean?”
“Last year,” Ewan continued before having a chance to stop and think. “Jim Morgan?”
“Your tactical officer,” Dietrich nodded, sharing his wife’s worry. “What about him?”
“Jason didn’t tell you?”
Both of them shook their heads in negative responses. Ewan gasped, realizing what he had done and knowing full well that there was no turning back, nor was there no erasing the path that they had already started down. Slowly, embarrassed beyond comprehension, he had to tell the truth.
“Oh, my… I apologize. I thought you knew. He’s dead.”
* * * *
Emerging from the USS Snohomish with an uplifting sense of being truly home, Ewan Llewellyn stepped aboard Starbase 499 and warmly shook hands with Rear Admiral Edward Blackmore who had been waiting for them. Following him in short order, Valerie Archer embarked in the same way before Jason’s parents made their presence known. Introductions were made with the Rear Admiral being the perfect gentleman as he always was, genuine manners on display rather than the often-false ones that he wore as a diplomat and a representative of the United Federation of Planets.
Handing her bags to the duty officer on deck, she guided the Armstrongs away from the airlock, taking them to some accommodations before reuniting them with their son. Ewan’s bombshell aboard the runabout regarding Jim Morgan’s demise had left them shaken.
As soon as they had left, Blackmore’s smile disappeared. “Nice couple,” he growled, other matter preoccupying his thoughts.
“I just waded in with as much grace as a Nausicaan,” Ewan said with a sigh as they walked towards the Station Master’s Office. “Why the long face, Boxer? You’re not happy to have your poker buddy back?”
“Far from it,” Blackmore corrected him,” but I got your message. Starfleet won’t help us with the Tah’Heen case that we’re building? What absolute bullshit, Ewan! I mean that, honestly! I hope you gave them a piece of your mind because I certainly want to! Okay, fine, the Dominion threat, etcetera… but giving us nothing?!”
“I tried but they made up some crap to get me out of there quickly.”
“I suppose that's what we’re going to get with being this far out.”
“Didn’t you warn me of this at the very beginning, though?,” Llewellyn reminded his superior officer as they walked, rubbing his tired face while he talked. “I mean, this was the first time that an officer from the Santrag system or Starbase 499 had been back to Earth in, what? Well, longer than I can remember. You told me on the day that I arrived that you hadn’t spoken with Starfleet Command in years!”
“We’re a self-sufficient limb of the Federation, for sure,” Blackmore agreed with him,” but I mean that we’re not a sedition movement! We answer to Starfleet Command. We take down the rules that they pass down, and accept the starships that they send out to help us!”
Ewan got the reference and ignored it.
“Now, here we are,” the Rear Admiral continued as they entered a turbolift together and headed up through the superstructure of the starbase,” faced with an enemy putting us through the works, Ewan. They cut off your ship for nearly two months, infected our new uniforms with a virus, and crippled our technology. Who knows what will happen next? We have enough evidence to point the finger at the Tah’Heen and when we ask for intelligence and a few extra resources? No! Not right now! Come back later!”
“Well then,” the Captain stated clearly, wanting to move on from his less-than-stellar trip back to San Francisco,” I guess it’s up to us.”
“Uh-huh. Well, we’re not doing so peachy on our own,” Blackmore revealed to him. “The Tah’Heen government were unavailable for comment themselves, something about the unfair image of Tah’Heen nationals all being seen as duplicitous agents…”
“Stereotypes,” Ewan mused, repeating the current buzzword in his life.
“Yeah,” Blackmore reminded him,” except this one, in our case, is true.”
ACT TWO
He found them in Fortitude’s Mess Hall at the end of his duty shift. His parents… How long had it been? They looked well… and worried…
“Mom, Dad,” Ensign Jason Armstrong exclaimed as he caught their attention and gathered them both up into a warm embrace. “How awesome it is to see you! I can’t believe that you came all the way out here! This is incredible!”
For several seconds, Barbara and Dietrich just enjoyed the hug. Here was their son who was alive and well. As parents, that was all that mattered in the first few moments of their visit, their latest update. Then came the analysis. Barbara squeezed him just a little bit tighter, feeling to make sure that his body wasn’t wasting away and to see that he was keeping in shape while making sure to eat enough. Upon finding only toned muscle underneath his gray shoulders and gold Operations undergarment, she sighed a mother’s relief.
Dietrich finished his hug with a hearty slap on the back, watching to see if it knocked his son off-balance which it didn’t. “You’re looking well, son,” he noted with pride.
“How have you been?,” Barbara asked him. “We haven’t heard from you in over six months, Jason. I know that you’re a long way from home but…”
“Your Captain,” his father said, instantly, wanting to lay all of his cards on the table,” told us what happened last year. Why didn’t you call us?”
Jason took a step back, feeling a wave of emotion coalescing inside of him. It felt like eating bad food with a knot growing tighter in his stomach as tingling sensations of sorrow crept higher and higher, threatening to expose themselves as tears if they ever went past his neck. Fighting to keep them and himself in check, the young Ensign realized that it wasn’t ever going to stay silent. One day, he knew that he would be telling his parents about what happened to Jim… and it seemed that day was today. With his guidance, all of them moved over to a table near the panoramic window, their conversation to be dramatically framed by the radiant Class-M orb of Santrag II and the imposing industrial marvel of Starbase 499.
“I didn’t want you to worry,” he began to say slowly. “I knew if you got a letter or even a subspace call, you would think that I was cracking under the pressure or struggling emotionally and you would drop your work and come out here. The farm is a full-time job and I didn’t want anything to be ruined by you having to check up on your son. Speaking of which…”
“The farm is in safe hands,” Barbara fussed with a dismissive wave. “We were on a weekend break to San Francisco anyways and heard that your Captain was visiting. We wondered if we might bump into him. We’ve made arrangements… Oh, Jason, I’m so sorry about Jim. Really… I know how much that he meant to you.”
“How do you cope?,” his father asked him.
Jason took a deep and calming breath. The presence of his parents was supportive. He loved them, nor would he have wished for a better influence on his formative years or for better friends as he was growing up in a somewhat lonely corner of Kentucky. The emotion of remembering Jim died away, only to be quickly replaced by guilt. Why hadn’t he called them? Why hadn’t he told them about Jim’s death?
“It was tough,” he finally said, diplomatically, not wanting to go into details that would make his parents feel sad for him. “Very tough, but I… I needed to continue… to stay aboard Fortitude and to keep doing my job. I had help. Commander Archer, our First Officer… I guess you met her aboard the runabout, right? She was right there from the beginning to the end. I served at tactical for a couple of weeks afterwards as a sign of request of honoring him. I did my grieving. By the time that things calmed down enough inside of me, other events had happened. We had to protect a Senator from a pirate attack, and then the Borg came through…”
“Okay, son, okay,” Barbara said, stammering. “It’s bad enough to worry about your personal life. I don’t want to have to worry about your career too!”
“We know you’re doing good work,” Dietrich nodded. It’s been a while and we’re your parents. Being concerned is a big part of our life.”
“I understand,” Jason sympathized with them,” and I’m sorry.”
* * * *
Gabriel Brodie could be found aboard Starbase 499.
The simmering feud that was still withstanding between him and Lieutenant Arden Vuro made working on the Bridge of Fortitude distracting at best. Every time that the Bolian helmsman walked past Tactical or every time that they had to interact for duty’s sake, it slowed things down and the black man had things to be doing. While the Captain had been visiting Earth, he had been driven to the point of obsession over the schematics of the Tah’Heen vessel that they had encountered. Knowing that a confrontation would be coming their way, one day, and hoping for that day to be soon, he had devoted himself to learning all that he could learn so that the confrontation would be short and victorious.
To that end, when Ewan Llewellyn sought him out, Brodie could be found aboard Starbase 499. Hunched over a collection of PADDs in a corner of the Starbase Database library and research facility, he wasn’t expecting his commanding officer to come looking for him. It almost made him jump.
“At ease, Lieutenant Commander,” Ewan said, calming him down.
“I’m sorry, Captain,” Gabe apologized to him. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
“Station Master Martinez tells me that you’ve been working on the Tah’Henn vessel and have been trying to find a tactical edge,” the Welshman asked of his subordinate, taking the empty seat beside him. “As you've probably heard with no doubt that my trip to Earth came up dry. So I was wondering how you’ve been doing?”
“Limited is the word I’d choose.”
“It’s that bad, huh?”
“Given the biological nature of the Tah’Heen who leave no trace of their existence behind, I gathered information would be scarce… but, Captain, this ship… I’m surprised that we were even able to identify it as Tah’Heen in origin. As I explored further, it turns out that the only way that we were able to make that identification was the fact that the engines were configured in a particular way. Honestly, if it wasn;t for these records here, we would be in the dark… and that scares me. It really does.”
Ewan picked up the PADD that Brodie had indicated, giving it a scan. Apparently, a Ferengi trader had filed a report after some goods were stolen in transit during a supply run in 2368 in the Denorios Belt. When the goods were recovered, there was no trace of Tah’Heen DNA, save for the same corrosive agent that Erica had found on the new uniform containers. A biological corrosive agent that made the Tah’Heen perfect for thievery and espionage. The fuzzy image that the Ferengi trader had taken matched the fuzzy image that Fortitude had taken while flying blind.
It was all a little lucky, all based on chance and fluke.
No wonder Gabriel Brodie was scared.
ACT THREE
“There we go. It’s as good as new.”
Deactivating the dermal regenerator and admiring the now-smooth skin on the back of Ensign Armstrong’s hand, Doctor Katherine Pulaski had one final tricorder scan to run, just to double-check that no infection had occurred. The young operations officer was grateful for the quick fix, not even bothering to sit down on one of the empty biobeds in Sickbay. He wasn’t planning on stopping.
“How did this happen again?,” Pulaski asked him.
“Jefferies Tube Seven-Gamma,” Jason said, rolling his eyes. “Small spaces have it in for me.”
“So it would seem,” the Chief Medical Officer noted with a friendly smile as she worked. “I noticed that your parents are visiting us and that they came back from Earth with the Captain. You shouldn’t rush your work, Ensign. If you do, all of the time that you save will be spent here with me, healing scratches, instead of with your mother and father.”
“Lesson learned,” Jason said, nodding as he returned the smile. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. How are they? Your parents?”
“Fine… well, maybe not…”
“Oh? Why the doubt, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“I haven’t spoken to them in a long time, Doctor. They didn’t know about Jim, and now I’m feeling guilty. They’re probably thinking that I didn’t want to talk to them, which makes them feel redundant, I guess. We’re just a whole mess of emotions”
Pulaski completed her scan, closing her tricorder. “Why didn’t you tell them?”
“I didn’t want to worry them,” he answered sheepishly.
“No, no… not the answer that you gave them, Ensign,” the doctor denied, wagging her finger dismissively at him. “I’m asking this time. Why didn’t you tell them?”
Jason felt his head bow down, his blonde fringe falling across his forehead as he truly considered the question’s honest response. His mind went back to a collection of images from his childhood, watching them displayed like they were pages from an old photograph album. There was his first day of school and his first sporting victory, hitting the ball right out of the park. There was the first time that he had left the house for a sleepover down the road and there was the last time that he had left the house to enter Starfleet Academy. In every imager, ever-present and ever-supportive, was his parents. A tear rolled down his cheek, hitting his lips and tasting salty.
Pulaski saw it and wondered if she had pushed him too far.
“When I was ten,” Jason finally told her,” I entered into a spelling competition at my local school. I beat everybody by a mile, winning the trophy. It was the first in what would prove to be many trophies that I won for academic achievement. My mom called me her little computer, joking that I had unbeatable knowledge. When I played sports, my teams always managed to win. I graduated at the top of my class at the Academy. My exam results were always top flight, and my folks would always call me their little computer, saying how unbeatable I was, and saying how proud they were of me.”
Compassionately, Pulaski felt herself wrap an arm around Jason’s shoulders.
“Last year,” he continued, the floodgates well and truly opened now,” when Jim died, I felt vulnerable, broken… beaten. For the first time in my life, things didn’t go my way and I suddenly realized just how Human I was. I had lost… lost so much…”
“It happens to all of us,” Pulaski said in a soothing voice. “It’s part of growing up.”
“I know… but for some reason, I didn’t want my parents to know,” Jason revealed to her, finally admitting the truth that he had tried to hide from Dietrich and Barbara in the Mess Hall, admitting it to himself and to Doctor Pulaski. “Why is that, Doctor?”
She knew why.
“Because you wanted to protect them.”
* * * *
The visit was never going to last forever. Thanks to his conversation with Doctor Pulaski, Jason Armstrong found himself wishing that it would. Nevertheless, he found himself standing in Transporter Room One, before the loving gaze of his parents who were about to beam over to a waiting runabout. It was the first step for them in what would prove to be a lengthy and complicated journey home. Without a Starfleet Captain to tag along with them, the civilian routes from this extreme corner of Federation space all the way back to Earth were intertwined with a handful of different systems and outports. Neither Dietrich or Barbara Armstrong minded. They had relished the few days that they had spent with their son, despite the somber tone of the events that they had been caught up on.
“Now you be careful out there,” Barbara said, acting true to her motherly role as she brushed Jason’s hair away from his face. “We hear all sorts on the news about the Dominion and about what’s going on these days.”
“Please, Mom,” Jason squirmed, grinning all the same,” that’s the Alpha Quadrant!”
“Still, I know that there’s something hanging over all of you,” she pointed out, accurately tuned in to the mood of Fortitude and Starbase 499. “I don’t have to have a security clearance to work that one out! Promise me, Jason. Promise that you’ll keep us updated, whatever happens?”
Dietrich stepped forward, going for a handshake. Jason moved to hug his father before correcting himself but the older man had already spread his arms to return the incoming embrace. Ignoring the awkward little chase and just laughing at the moment, the two Armstrong men ended up wrapped up in each other’s arms. Separating, they kept a tight grip as they said goodbye.
“Your mother’s right, son,” noted the older Armstrong. “The unknown… it’s funny how we’re terrified of it, yet we seek it out nevertheless.”
“Contradiction is part of being Human, Dad.”
In that instance, hearing Jason speak those wise words, pride swamped Barbara’s senses. “My, how you’ve grown,” she observed with a smile.
How right she was.
Jason Armstrong made the promise asked of him, promising to tell his parents everything that happened, whether it was good news or bad. The guilt would still be there, the guilt over keeping quiet over the last year, but maybe he could change that. Silently, as he made that promise to himself, he energized the transporter and watched his folks disappear
He had grown up. It was just a shame that, in order to do so, he had to suffer.
EPILOGUE
“Jason’s parents just left,” the Captain sighed.
Taking his seat at the poker table in Rear Admiral Blackmore’s office aboard Starbase 499, Ewan stacked his chips neatly as he always did and settled himself down for an evening of the usual friendly competitive gaming. To his right, Erica Martinez and Boxer were sorting themselves out, taking twice as long as usual, thanks to the multitude of factors whizzing about their minds… or rather one factor. To his left, Katherine Pulaski handed him the deck of cards and therefore the duty of dealer.
“Were they okay?,”
“They seemed so,” Ewan told her,” and Jason was rather upbeat.”
“The good doctor worked some of her magic on the young ensign,” Blackmore revealed to him with a raised eyebrow, forcing a grin through his salt-and-pepper beard. “I’d watch it, Ewan. She could use that same black magic to take all of those chips of yours.”
“I only use it for medicinal purposes,” Pulaski swore, with her hands raised up in mock surrender.
It only took two hands of Texas Hold’Em. Both of which were ruthlessly bluffed to victory by Rear Admiral Blackmore, for the conversation began to turn severely back around to the subject that had everyone worried.
The Tah’Heen.
Was he or she planning to strike again?
That was a popular preoccupation, as was the question of when. Relaxing over a game of poker seemed to be somewhat ill-disciplined, especially with the cycle of events that had occurred so far. A virus, cutting Fortitude off from home… then what? What was coming next?
The game was cut short that evening.
All four players returned to their respective quarters early and went to bed.
Tomorrow was another day… another unknown day…
The End.