Star Trek: Fortitude
Season Three, Episode Ten - “Rules and Regulations”
By Jack D. Elmlinger
PROLOGUE
Something wasn’t right.
Ewan Llewellyn was stuck. It was that horrible moment, the first thing in the morning, when the mind became aware and alert, yet the body had yet to follow suit. Eyes snapping open, the Welshman saw the ceiling of his quarters bathed in the dull warm hue of the lowered lighting scheme.
Something wasn’t right. Something has woken him early as if he couldn’t hear the familiar annoyance of the computer telling him the time. That made it before 0600. Damn, what had awakened him?
Mentally cursing his limbs, Ewan tried to lift his head. It ached like it was trying to complain about the unforeseen activity, trying to protest and get his mind to shut back down again and return to the realm of peaceful sleep. He wasn’t having any of it. Instead, he focused on his right arm. Slowly and gradually, it started to move. It found the top of the sheet, pulling it away from his bare chest.
The rest of the Captain’s body followed suit. Soon he was on his feet.
Only then did he see what had awoken him.
She was standing in the living area of Ewan’s quarters, in between the coffee table and the soda. Intermittently, her outline would fluctuate. There was static in her silhouette, sparks of degrading signal strength identifying her as some kind of projection. As he grew closer, rubbing his eyes in belief at the idea of a hologram in his living room, he watched the person turn to face him. His jaw instantly dropped in shock.
This was no dream. If anything, it was a nightmare.
Ewan recognized the face of the hologram.
It was a face that had once belonged to his former Vulcan Chief Medical Officer. It was a face that he now comprehended differently as it was now assigned to the idea of corruption, espionage, and complete distrust. It belonged to a Romulan woman.
“Good morning, Captain,” Naketha’s hologram grinned at him. “Surprised to see me?”
ACT ONE
Captain’s Log, Stardate 51362.8;
Using some kind of experimental holographic communications technology, the Romulan spy known as Naketha appeared in my quarters, last night, with a proposal that I find to be both enticing and disturbing. Claiming to know valuable information about the Tah’Heen operative that we’ve been trying to uncover, she suggests a trade, the terms of which I could see myself accepting if, of course, she’s telling the truth…
“She wants what?”
“Me,” Ewan answered calmly. “She wants me.”
A stunned silence fell across the Briefing Room that was far too morbid for 0800 hours. Several members of the senior staff had been woken up before their duty shifts began. Jason Armstrong was, in particular, rubbing his tired eyes as he contemplated the rather unexpected twist in the ongoing plot of their lives. Valerie Archer simply failed to find any words to express her feelings and that was Ewan was suddenly in extreme personal danger with a target on his back. The other senior officers knew that too, realizing that their interest in a Romulan Tal Shiar agent in their Captain was hardly flattering.
Lieutenant Arden Vuro was the first person to break the tension, coming to a conclusion that he had been pondering over ever since the Tah’Heen hunt had begun. “Well,” I guess this clears her.”
“What do you mean?,” Sollik asked his friend, frowning.
“Somebody’s pulling the strings of this Tah’Heen,” the Bolian explained to him,” as we all know that they make perfect spies and agents. So somebody must be pulling the strings. I hardly think that Naketha would take such drastic action if it were her.”
“I never suspected Naketha,” Ewan admitted, nodding along with his helmsman anyways in appreciation of the logical approach, rather than getting caught up in the personal problem of the peril bestowed upon him. “The Romulan Star Empire doesn’t concern itself with third parties anyway. There is somebody behind all of them … but I can’t see how we can uncover them ourselves. If Naketha does have information…”
“You’re going to go through with it, aren’t you?,” interjected Valerie.
Llewellyn tilted his head compassionately towards his First Officer with a fixed determination, a no-nonsense stare that answered her question without the need for words. All eyes were on him with everybody getting the message just as much as Valerie did. At the other end of the Briefing Room table, Doctor Pulaski sighed, shaking her head at the impossible insanity of the situation, Jason felt himself grow slightly emotional. The Fortitude crew were beyond simple friendship at this stage. Each and every hardship had drawn them together into a family, and now the head of that family was facing dire stakes… and he was prepared to do so for the good of the others.
“Captain, you can’t hand yourself over to the Tal Shiar,” Gabriel Brodie blurted out, gesticulating wildly. “Now I know that I’m the new guy here, and I’ve never met this Naketha deep-cover agent before… but I know that there’s a personal history there, and in my experience, that always leads to complications. You won’t be coming back from this one, sir and for what? Some intelligence on the Tah’Heen?”
“What am I supposed to do, Mister Brodie?,” Ewan asked him, defending his decision. “We have no leads! Of all people, you should understand that after working all of those long hours in the Starbase 499 library! There’s nothing to go one!”
“Our search may not be succeeding,” Valerie pointed out, making a deliberate effort to keep herself calm and dispassionate despite the overwhelming swarm of butterflies in her stomach,” but at least, it had a leader. What happens when that leader sacrifices himself before the final fight? How will Fortitude be able to continue?”
“You’ll manage,” Llewellyn answered, telling it to himself more than anybody else. “I know that this is a messed-up situation, but it’s the only situation that we’ve got. I have no intention of throwing myself into the fire, just for laughs. I’ll adhere to Naketha’s rules, but at the first sign of trouble, you’re to beam me out of there and we’ll hit the road. The Romulans aren’t going to risk shooting a Starfleet Captain dead, and if there’s one thing that we know about Naketha, it’s that she likes to keep the balance of terror intact. I think… I think the risk is worth it, everyone.”
While they didn’t like it, the senior staff went along with it.
There was one thing that overrode all of their apprehension and that was trust.
They trusted the Captain and this was his call.
“Arden, there should be an uninhabited Class-M moon approximately five lightyears away on a bearing of zero-six-three, mark two-four-seven,” Ewan concluded. “Set a course and engage at Warp Five. That’s a wrap, everybody. Dismissed.”
* * * *
It was a small planetoid, insignificant and barely Class-M.
Nobody had given it a name beyond the usual interstellar classification of seemingly-random letters and numbers. It hung over a gas giant which spun itself slowly around a dying G-type system. Thanks to the twilight years of the system, the gas giant nursing it offered little sustainable help. Temperatures on the Class-M moon had dropped to readings hovering over zero. With harsh blizzards, ice caps without end, gigantic weather-worn caverns filled with snow… it was desolate.
It was also the perfect place for a secret rendezvous.
Cutting through space with the blunted spearhead of her saucer section, Fortitude lowered her warp nacelles as she dropped to impulse speeds and assumed a standard orbit over the ball of rock and ice.
On the Bridge, the mood was equally frosty.
“Naketha promised that this meeting is to be entirely amicable,” Llewellyn said, repeating facts from his conversation with the Romulan’s hologram in his quarters. “Although I don’t believe that for a second, blasting in with a security team isn’t an option. Scan for a large cave near the northern pole, Ensign.”
Jason Armstrong did as he was told and he soon found the cave. “Sensors show an empty cavern almost one mile in height and two miles in width,” he reported, impressed by the scale of the chosen space. “It’s as she said, Captain. I’m not reading any shields, dampening fields… nothing sinister. All I’m detecting is a small bio-reading. It’s Romulan.”
“My host awaits, “Ewan mused, ignoring the worry hanging over Valerie’s head.
“I’ll be keeping a lock on your combadge at all times,” Brodie spoke up from Tactical with a reassuring expression. “Tap once for regular communications with the ship, but tap it twice and you’ll initiate an emergency evacuation transport.”
“The engines will be running hot,” Vuro added, not out of the simmering hostile competition that he had with Gabriel Brodie but out of genuine concern for his Captain’s life. “We’re ready to get out of here as soon as you want, whenever you want.”
“Thank you,” the Welshman said, standing at the center of the Bridge.
He had one last look around, one last glance at his crew.
The glance towards Valerie lasted the longest.
“Time to dance with the devil…”
ACT TWO
His paymaster was anxious. It was a new experience to watch.
“Somehow, the Romulan intelligence service known as the Tal Shiar had become aware of our plans for the Santrag system and the Federation,” he was shouting through the holographic communications array, towering over the subservient Tah’Heen spy in his usual flickering, distorted silhouetted appearance. “An operative called Naketha had learned of my identity and plans to reveal this to Captain Llewellyn and his crew. She is currently undertaking a meeting with the Captain. The Romulans cannot be trusted and our plans cannot be altered. I have a new assignment for you.”
The Tah’Heen bowed his head respectfully, his frown belying his confusion. “How do you know of this?,” he asked carefully.
“I have my sources, spy,” the hologram growled in anger. “The important aspect is that we have tested and planned for an invasion of the Santrag system which incorporates the factor of Ewan Llewellyn in command of Fortitude. We must not allow the Romulans to change that by either harming him or telling him the truth.”
“What are my orders,” the Tah’Heen hissed,” and my payment?”
“Triple your usual fee to intervene in Naketha’s meeting with Captain Llewellyn.”
“Intervene?”
“There is a great risk. You may be exposed, but that is acceptable at this stage of our timetable. We have only a small number of assignments remaining before we undertake the final strike against the Federation.”
The spy knew this already, comprehending how it didn’t matter whether or not he was spotted by the Starfleet crew. Besides, according to his upcoming schedule, his vessel wouldn’t be particularly useful to him. Yes, he could manage a quick foray into space alongside Fortitude, couldn’t he? Piloting, tactical… it could all be tested and all be stretched to the limit. The Tah’Heen grinned a wicked, delicious grin. What was the point of having skills if one didn’t test them from time to time?
“Captain Llewellyn will survive his meeting,” he assured his paymaster. “Naketha will not succeed… whatever her goals may be.”
“I will contact you once I have confirmation of her failure.”
A spy versus a spy… how interesting…
* * * *
The sudden change in temperature hit him like a shuttlecraft in the face.
Stepping out of the transporter beam as the final few molecules slotted into place and rematerialized his athletic figure, Captain Llewellyn surveyed the impressive scale of his surroundings. Jason’s report hadn’t done the cavern any justice. Above the Welshman’s head, darkness consumed the immense walls of rock and ice that were looming over him from over a mile away. The only thing more breathtaking than the natural awe of the meeting’s backdrop was the cold. It was a hard, biting cold that was only made tolerable by the lack of surface wind. Ewan gazed upward once more, thankful not to see the sky, blessing his host for not choosing to meet on the surface.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?”
Ewan turned around, recognizing the voice.
There she stood, emerging from behind a stalagmite as tall as the Eiffel Tower. She was clad entirely in black, a suspiciously wicked-looking variant of the standard Romulan dress code. Black leather gloves matched the knee-high boots… were those heels made of steel spikes? He didn't want to dwell on it. She was more important than her clothes, the reason for this meeting was more vital to the Federation.
“Naketha,” the Captain acknowledged, squaring off against her.
“Ewan,” the Tal Shiar deep-cover operative replied. “How do you like my haunt? I’ve often come here in the past two years. I did my survival training on the surface of this moon, long, long ago. It allows me to reflect, this cavern. I find solace in the endless shadows with nobody here to judge me. Do you see it, Captain?”
“Let’s get down to business,” urged Llewellyn.
“Oh, very well,” Naketha sighed, her Romulan appearance still odd to perceive for the man who thought of her as a Vulcan physician for six months. “I’m glad that you settled on my terms, Ewan. You’ll find Romulus especially impressive this time of year.”
“Not until you give me the data, I won’t.”
“How will this work, then? How do you suggest that we proceed?”
“Fortitude is in orbit. You give me the information regarding the Tah’Heen that you agreed to supply and I’ll transmit it to them. Afterward, they’re under the strictest orders to return to Starbase 499 and leave me in your capable hands. If you don’t supply that information and my crew doesn’t hear from me in then minutes, I’ve got my tactical officer on standby with a photon torpedo airstrike. So I suggest we hurry this along.”
Naketha laughed.
“Oh, Ewan,” she finally responded, her icy demeanor matching their surroundings,” you don’t seriously believe that I’ll fall for that trick? I know your crew, served with them, and I know you too. You’ll never have given that order and they’ll never follow it. No, we are quite safe here. No photon torpedoes will fall down and I’ll get what I want. After all, I always have. I managed to stop you from following me into Romulan space. I managed to arm the Santragan rebels last year, despite your best efforts... And now I’ll be taking you back to my people, victorious. You are far too trusting.”
“Given the circumstances,” Llewellyn growled, hearing a hint of Rear Admiral Blackmore in his voice and wondering if he hadn’t picked up a bad habit or two,” it wasn’t trust that brought me here but rather desperation. We need that intelligence, Naketha.”
“You need me, Ewan,” the Romulan spat back in reply. “You have no idea who is behind the Tah’Heen or who is plotting against you. You’re going to be so surprised when it happens. So shocked… betrayed… I’m almost envious of it, the mastery of their little scheme, whether it fails or not. The best part will be watching the expression on your face when you realize who it is.”
“If that’s how you want to play this, then fine. Here I am, as agreed, ready to be taken into your custody, unharmed. The information or I tap this combadge and that ceiling falls in, a second later.”
“I don’t think you’ll be tapping anything, Ewan.”
All of it happened too quickly. Footsteps approached from the gloom behind Ewan. there were heavy, loud echoes bouncing around the cavern as two burly Romulan Centurions lunged forth and seized the Captain in their muscular arms. Struggling against them, he attempted to tap his combadge in resistance to the surprise attack, missing his opportunity by a fraction of a second.
With a glee approaching madness, Naketha closed the gap in triumph. “A few biosigns suppressed,” she revealed, nodding to her Centurions. “How simple it was to ensnare you, Captain. I’ll take this if you don’t mind.”
Helpless, Ewan watched as his combadge was ripped from his chest. “Kudos, Naketha,” he retorted defiantly. “You’ve set quite the trap.”
Magnetic restraints were produced and clamped firmly around the Welshman’s wrists with the horrible sound of permanence. One of the Centurions kept a hold of his arm, leaving the other Centurion free to join Naketha as they hunched over a small device. Unbeknownst to Llewellyn, they were guiding a cloaking shuttlecraft in for a landing. It would ferry him into the heart of the Romulan Star Empire.
Ewan sighed, feeling his heart sink.
His ballsy attitude had landed him into one hell of a mess. He just hoped that Valerie would use the same bravery to clean it up.
ACT THREE
“This is taking too long,” Gabriel Brodie lamented.
The Bridge was suffering from an atmosphere so rife with tension that the crew found it challenging to focus on anything but the act of waiting. Fingers drummed against consoles, eyes moved around bulkheads, and Valerie Archer threatened to wear a hole in the deck from her repeated pacing. She was the only person who had been told, in private, of course, about the Captain’s plan. It was the only time that she approved of Ewan breaking his policy of honesty with the senior staff as it was so incomprehensible was the idea of killing their own commanding officer. She knew that Brodie wouldn’t have a problem with executing the order to obliterate the cavern. He was an officer molded with an understanding of the stakes of such matters. The Romulan Star Empire could not simply be allowed to capture a Starfleet Captain for interrogation. Llewellyn knew this as well as knowing that this rendezvous was most likely a trap. Yet he still walked into it, his head held high for the good of his crew. He was trying to save his friends and to uncover a threat.
If it was at all possible, it made Valerie love him even more.
She kicked herself for not saying anything before. If he didn't return from this mission…
“Commander,” Lieutenant Vuro exclaimed from the helm,” I’m picking up a ship!”
“Romulan?,” she asked instantly.
“I’m not sure. Whoever they are, they’ve been hiding over the magnetic pole of the gas giant to mask their presence. I’m only getting intermittent readings on their position. Hold on. I’ll try and get a visual.”
When the image on the viewscreen finally changed, everybody felt their jaws drop.
It wasn’t a Romulan ship at all.
It was the Tah’Heen.
* * * *
“Our transportation awaits us,” Naketha hissed with delight.
The burly Centurion tugged at the Captain’s arm, pulling him uncooperatively through the dirt and ice on the cavern floor. Peering up from his captive position, Llewellyn could see a small path winding up one of the immense walls. It was a long and treacherous climb to the surface where Naketha obviously had a ship that she had called in on that device of hers. Maybe somewhere on that climb, the Welshman hoped, he could find a way of turning the tables on these Romulans.
Of course, none of it would do him any good without his combadge.
There it was, on the Tal Shiar agent’s belt.
If he could only…
Suddenly, Naketha froze. Holding up her gloved hand, she brought the small group to a stern halt as she tilted her lean head towards… something. Everybody looked, searching to see whatever had caught her attention. The Centurion accompanying her was quickly dispatched with a sharp flick of a finger, his disruptor unholstered from his belt and pointed out into the shadows of the stalagmites and stalactites.
What happened next shocked both Human and Romulan alike.
Ewan’s magnetic restraints deactivated.
Never someone to waste an opportunity, the Captain spun on his heel and landed a punch on the Centurion beside him. Vowing to ponder who had released him later, he continued his assault on his captor, clasping his hands together into a rudimentary club and forcing them down into the Romulan’s soldier’s stomach. Another strike to the back of the neck, exposed due to the doubled-over effect of the last attack, finished the fight. It was only then, in victory, that it dawned on him. Ewan Llewellyn, the pacifist, had beaten a Romulan.
The remaining Centurion turned, waving his disruptor towards the Captain, and threatened to fire on him. Before he could, an energy beam lashed forth from the darkness and claimed his life.
Naketha couldn’t believe it. Her plan lay in tatters. Her two bodyguards had fallen and her hands were annoyingly empty of any kind of weapon. Deciding that the unseen danger was more threatening than Ewan, she threw herself forward, lunging for the Centurion’s corpse and his discarded sidearm. Grabbing it, she fired wildly into the shadows, hoping to strike at whatever was destroying her chance to capture Ewan. After the third shot, she regretted her choice of target.
Llewellyn leaped into her with a yell, awkwardly attempting some kind of rugby tackle.
They fell to the ground together.
Naketha’s disruptor bounced from her clutches.
Quickly scrambling to his feet, the Welshman stood over the Romulan woman. He reached down, grabbing the black collar of her tunic, heaving her into a standing position so he could glare into her repugnant eyes. The sounds of an escape could be heard behind them, the angel of mercy responsible for freeing him from his restraints getting away but he didn’t seem to care. There was something more important to discover, something that he had come all of this way for… and that he was determined to get.
“The Tah’Heen,” he snapped at Naketha. “Who are they? Who is ordering them?”
“I’ll never tell you,” Naketha protested. “You know I won’t.”
“You’re putting me in an awful position,” Ewan sighed. “You see, I would hate to hit a lady.”
There was a pause and then the Captain did just that. The strike knocked her unconscious.
Picking up his combadge from her fallen form, Llewellyn stepped back. “Lucky for me, you’re no lady. Llewellyn to Fortitude, come in!”
“Archer here, Captain,” replied a welcome voice. “Are you all right?”
“Never better,” Ewan reported. “You were right. It was a trap all along. While I believe that Naketha knows about the information that we need, she won’t be taking any time soon. I’m going to leave her here. We don’t need any increased attention from Romulas, especially with our own battles to fight.”
“We may not need Naketha’s information anyways,” Valerie answered. “The Tah’Heen was here, Ewan, right here in the system. We just lost the ship but before it jumped to warp, Jason was able to take some scans of their ship. We have their shield harmonics.”
Ewan was speechless. So much overflowed in his mind, so much new information.
The cold bit into him once more, his adrenaline wearing thin. With a hand on his aching forehead, he surveyed the Romulans around him. One was shot dead, another one was beaten into submission by his own hands, and then there was Naketha. He doubted it would be the last time that he saw her… but he sincerely hoped so.
“Valerie,” he whispered into the combadge,” just get me out of here!”
EPILOGUE
Sorting through the mess of fallout from recent events, Fortitude's Captain and First Officer shared coffee late into the night. So late that it soon became early morning. The rest of the ship slept peacefully with the night shifts given nothing taxing to accomplish. Fifteen decks of slumber, dreaming of a hopeful resolution, thanks to the little morale boost delivered by a certain operations officer and a certain shield harmonic. While Valerie Archer, ever the optimist, was treating the entire incident as a victory, Ewan Llewellyn was more cautious. His feelings were mixed, his reaction conveyed with a frown and a steady tone, despite the synthetic caffeine in his veins.
“It had to have been the Tah’Heen,” Valerie pointed out to him. “I’d love to take credit for freeing you from your magnetic restraints and shooting that Centurion but we were too busy with falling over ourselves. The Tah’Heen saved your life.”
“Well, it adds another question to ask them when that day comes,” Ewan observed with a grimace. “It’s certainly a chance from trying to kiss us… but why?”
“Beats me…”
“Thanks to Jason, we’ve got their shield harmonics. They won’t stay hidden for long.”
Valerie stood up, picking up her Captain’s empty coffee cup on her way to the replicator and filling it back to the brim. Despite the hour, she had one more issue to address on her agenda. Handing the coffee cup back to him, she returned to her seat and fixed him with a quizzical stare.
“Ewan,” she began carefully,” why didn’t you capture Naketha?”
“I told you,” he replied without missing a beat. “I don’t want to endanger relations between the Romulans and the Federation right now. We’ve got our own battles to fight, not to mention that tricky Dominion business in the Alpha Quadrant.”
“Cut the bullshit.”
“Excuse me?,” the Welshman gasped, taken aback by her response.
“Come on, Ewan. I know you better than that. Yes, you’ve always been careful to stay diplomatic, but the last time that you left Naketha to go for the sake of interstellar relations, you confided in me that you thought that you had made a mistake. The rules and regulations state that you should have taken her prisoner and arrested her for her crimes. And yet, you didn’t. So I’ll ask you again, why?”
The Captain sighed deeply. Damn, she was good.
Slowly, for just a second, he opened up he wouldn’t have done so for anybody else.
“Had I gotten Naketha aboard Fortitude, away from that moon and into my custody… I feared what I might have done to her, Valerie. I really did. With all of the history between us, all of the rage inside of me… I could see it. What’s happened to me out here? What happened to the pacifist? Have I reached the stage where I could…?”
“Stop,” Valerie interjected,” that’s enough. The fact alone that you recognized this in yourself is positive proof that you’re no monster, Ewan. I understand.”
A single tear concluded the evening.
“I hope you’re right…”
The End.