Star Trek: Fortitude
Episode Twelve: “Safety”
By Jack D. Elmlinger
PROLOGUE
“Hole Nineteen: completed in three shots. Par. Game over.”
Quite impressed with her own skill, and having improved steadily since taking up gold, almost two years ago, Valerie Archer handed her putter back to the holographic caddy and removed her sun visor.
Holographic recreation of not, the simulation of Risa’s elite course was simply stunning to behold. The computer’s voice giving the score and speaking from nowhere, was the only giveaway to being thousands of lightyears away from the real thing. With a sigh, the commander reminded herself to deactivate the automatic scorekeeping next time.
“Computer, end program.”
Watching the rolling greens of the golf course be replaced by the stark, cold grey walls of Holodeck One gave her a twinge of sadness upon leaving. As the large doors sealed behind her, she came across the next two users booked for some holodeck time.
“All set, gentlemen?”
“You bet,” Jason Armstrong grinned, playfully putting his arm around the shoulder of his boyfriend, Jim Morgan. “How was your game, Commander?”
“Like a little slice of shore leave. Let me guess. You’re going to entertain a running gun battle with some 20th century terrorists in some large public place before defusing a tactical nuclear device with seconds to spare?”
Ensign Armstrong’s action B-movie holodeck programs were renowned throughout the crew of the USS Fortitude by now. This was the first time that he had managed to get holodeck time reserved with Ensign Morgan aboard, and he had stayed up most of the night, tweaking the latest scenario to write a decent part for his partner.
“Something like that,” he replied with a wink.
“There’s a twist, though,” Jim revealed, excited at the prospect of blowing stuff up, holographic or not. “I get to be the terrorist leader, and as Jason is the hero, we’ll let you know who wins later on this evening. Deal?”
“Deal. Well, I’ll let you boys get down to it.”
ACT ONE
Captain’s Log, Stardate 49204.7;
It’s been six hours since I ordered the ship to fly into an oncoming ion storm in order to avoid the more dangerous neutronic wavefront passing nearby. Sensors indicate that the storm is one of the largest on record, and it’s going to take some time before we’ve managed to get clear on the other side.
Therefore, my crew is enjoying some much-deserved time to themselves. With little to do, I find myself relaxing for the first time in what feels like a lifetime.
Stretching and yawning in the captain’s chair, Ewan Llewellyn’s sterling determination to look professional on the Bridge at all times went out the nearest airlock. There was little reason for him to be present at the moment.
A few PADDs containing status reports were handed to him sporadically and he would nod and glance at them before handing them back with a few words of encouragement, but that wasn’t his reason for being here. With most of the Senior Staff doing their own thing elsewhere on the fifteen decks of Fortitude, he was free to indulge himself in the view.
The ion storm was quite something. A purple mass of swirling energy, punctuated by arcs of vicious lightning that seemed to extend forever. During the rare old thunderstorm back home in Swansea, he would press his nose up against the glass, watching the rain and hail for hours. It kept him in check with nature, reminding him of his own limitations and now for the first time ever, allowed him to reflect on his role as a Starfleet Captain.
Keeping calm in the storm, holding the ship steady. It was his duty, and so he watched… and yawned.
“Bored yet, sir?,” Arden Vuro asked from the helm, turning towards him with a grin.
“Not on your life, Lieutenant.”
“I was just wondering when you were thinking of leaving so I could stretch myself out and play captain for a while.”
“Sorry, my friend, but this seat’s taken.”
Suddenly, the storm became something a little more dangerous than simply a magnificent view. An alarm went off on Vuro’s console and returning his attention to the job at hand, he had to react fast. The danger was approaching rapidly and without even making a report, he took the initiative.
“Hang on!,” he cried out.
The Intrepid-class starship banked hard, looping through an entire rotation of 360 degrees to avoid a massive electromagnetic disruption in the stormfront. Inertial dampeners couldn’t keep up with the erratic evasive maneuver and Ewan gripped the arms of his command chair tightly as he felt his stomach loop with the ship.
Upon settling, he rose to his feet and joined Vuro at the helm, placing a hand on the Bolian’s shoulder. “Just showing off?,” he asked him.
“No, Captain. Sensors indicate that there was a huge disruption in the storm’s pattern, giving out incredible amounts of energy. It could have crushed us.”
“In that case, nice flying. Any damage?”
“Checking. It looks like something struck the shields. There’s some kind of feedback surge working its way through the emitters. I’m trying to isolate it. Hold on… Damn, no effect!”
“Bridge to Engineering!,” Llewellyn shouted, tapping his combadge. “Sollik, we’re reading a massive energy pulse moving through the ODN relays up here. Is there anything you can do to stop it?”
“Negative, sir!,” the Suliban replied with slight panic in his tone. “I’d recommend you stand away from any consoles!”
As if it was on cue, the operations console behind Ewan and Arden exploded, showering the crewman on duty with sparks and broken glass. Dazed, he rolled to one side as the flickering lights gave up and died. The mission operations console situated on the central railing behind the command chairs also destroyed itself in a similar fashion.
A few moments of silence passed by with Ewan’s wide eyes looking around the walls and ceiling of the Bridge. “Don’t you pull a suicide on me,” he muttered.
“Sollik to Bridge. That should be the worst of it now. I’ll tidy up the mess that we’ve got down here and get repair teams sent out as soon as possible. The energy feedback has burned itself out, but half of the terminals all over the ship have been lost.”
“Get me a full damage report within the hour,” Llewellyn ordered. “Bridge out.”
* * * *
On Holodeck One, Jason and Jim were blissfully unaware of the drama that was unfolding outside in the real world. Jim’s terrorist organization was preparing to deploy a deadly nerve gas in a downtown Los Angeles shopping mall, while Jason who was portraying a United States government anti-terrorist agent circa 2008, had picked up a fresh lead on his boyfriend’s… no, in this scenario, his adversary’s whereabouts.
There was no indication whatsoever that the holodeck had locked itself down due to the strange energy surge. Since nobody had started shooting any bullets yet, there was no warning that the safety protocols had been disengaged.
That would change.
* * * *
“Okay, what are we looking at here?”
Seat around the Briefing Room table, Llewellyn was joined by a dirty and concerned Sollik, a relieved Doctor Lynn Boswell, and as always, the trusty Valerie Archer. Together they were going through the list of damaged systems and trying to find the cause of the powerful and nearly fatal feedback surge.
The sensor data that Vuro had noticed upon avoiding the leviathan energy distortion in the storm’s wake had been lost when the sensor network overloaded and the mission operations console exploded. Piecing together the most probable explanation, Ewan had ordered Fortitude to full impulse in order to clear the ion storm quickly. It was a risky gamble opposed by Sollik but what else was new? Now, the task of assessing the state of the ship was their focus.
“Shields are holding at thirty-eight percent,” reported the Suliban as he wiped grease from his mottled green skin. “I’ll do what I can to transfer some more power once I’ve repaired the ODN relays. Meanwhile, sensors won’t be back online for, at least, two hours. Maybe more, so we’re currently flying on old readings.”
“I’ve treated twelve crew members for minor injuries, Captain,” Lynn added next. “A few of them were standing pretty close to computer terminals and I had to operate to remove glass from Crewman Miller’s face. Crewman Lewis is being kept overnight in Sickbay to recover from an energy burn to his neck. It could have been much worse.”
“Is that it?,” Ewan asked, his eyebrows raising. “Shields weakened, sensors offline, and a few crewmen treated in less than an hour? I suppose we should count ourselves lucky.”
“Actually, sir,” Archer interrupted him,” this is one other system. I checked and after the evasive maneuvers, Ensigns Armstrong and Morgan failed to report to their stations. As senior officers, they’re supposed to. They were partaking in a holodeck simulation at the time and when I went down there to take a look, the doors refused to open. The computer locked me out of the holodeck controls.”
“Oh, great, the holodecks have gone wrong,” Sollik hissed. “How original…”
ACT TWO
Los Angeles, United States of America, Earth
June 2008
16:35 on a peaceful Saturday afternoon.
Jim was crouched down in the back of a large Chevrolet Express van, listening intently to a small radio earpiece while two of his terrorist counterparts loaded AK-47 assault rifles. It was an odd sensation, working for the ‘bad guys’ but Fortitude’s tactical officer didn’t mind it that much. Given the scenario, to get to that fun competitive edge that he and Jason wanted, somebody had to be, and it wasn’t like he was actually going to try and murder innocent civilians. Just holographic recreations. The morality was murky but he balanced it with the knowledge that everything that he did in the real world outside of Holodeck One was for the cause of good.
The van was parked in a space belonging to the Sunrise Hills shopping mall. Jason had created the location based on an ancient form of Earth entertainment. Inspiration that had struck him from something called a television show, whatever that was. He didn’t share his boyfriend’s passion for the time period.
While reading about the Eugenics Wars at school, the young Ensign Morgan had decided that it was a barbaric and corrupt time. Although now, taking part in this little game, he felt his adrenaline rise, simulation or not. It was helping him to better understand his partner after all.
His earpiece crackled.
Two other men who were working for him had entered the shopping mall posing as regular members of the public. They carried a canister of deadly nerve gas with them and they were heading for the ventilation room to disperse it throughout the facility and infect as many shoppers as possible.
Jim hadn’t read his roleplaying profile properly, the previous evening and he had a limited idea of what exactly he was undertaking for this terrorist attack. Something to do with a Jihad, whatever that was. Despite his Indian heritage, he only spoke Federation Standard and he was useless when it came to other languages.
Thank goodness for Universal Translators.
They were due to have the work finished by seventeen hundred hours. It was almost closing time for the Sunrise Hills mall, and it would strike most people as they used the large congregational areas to conclude their day’s shopping and meet with other family members upon leaving to return to their homes.
Hearing the click of an ammunition clip behind him, Morgan ignored it. If he had known that the safety protocols of Holodeck One were inactive, and therefore those holographic bullets were now deadly, he might have paid a little more attention. As it was, he simply loaded his own Walther P999S 9mm handgun in the fashion that Jason had shown him and wondered if he would be shooting his boyfriend today.
* * * *
“What options do we have?”
In Engineering, back in the twenty-fourth century, Llewellyn and Sollik were hunched over a diagnostic console trying to find a way of shutting down the holodeck and retrieve Ensigns Armstrong and Morgan from their simulation gone awry. Given the nature of the game that they were playing, and given that the chief engineer had determined that the safety protocols were offline, time was running perilously short.
“All of the control relays are fused,” he observed. “The energy surge melted everything, and since it was running at the time, it’s been melted into the ‘active’ position. There’s no simple shutdown command anymore.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning that the only way to end the program is to either let the current simulation conclude on its own or I would have to overload the entire emitter grid.”
“If we let the simulation conclude on its own, Sollik, our operations and tactical officers could wind up dead!,” the captain exclaimed. “What exactly happens when you overload the grid?”
“That’s our problem, sir? By doing that, the overload would kill anybody inside the holodeck within seconds. They would be vaporized.”
Ewan felt a rush of blood to his head.
The only two options available to him involved the young couple winding up dead. Brilliant…
Letting his mind go automatic, he raced to find a third option. That had always been the way that he had been taught to think. His father had been one for making his own path. If you didn’t like A or B, son, then pick C.
If only he could have been here now, Ewan wished. He would know what to do. He would make C and show them the way … the way inside Holodeck One… Get inside Holodeck One… That was it!
“Jefferies Tubes,” he blurted out.
“Sir?”
“We’ll go in through the emergency Jefferies Tubes used to access the holodecks and retrieve Jason and Jim! We’ll split up and take two teams inside. Search and rescue. Get them out before you can overload the grid!”
“With the safety protocols offline, it would be suicide! Aren’t they fighting some kind of a war there? What if one of us winds up shot?”
“You’re handy with a phaser, Commander,” Llewellyn reminded him. “At least, that’s what your Starfleet record says. You’re on Team Two with Valerie. I’ll take Doctor Boswell, just in case one of them is already wounded. Find Ensign Morgan and stop him from carrying out his terrorist attack. Ensign Armstrong should be easier to find. Just follow the gunfire. Damnit, this is the only way! You think that I want to put my people in harm’s way? We’ve got to save them!”
“As chief engineer,” the Suliban grumbled as they departed from Engineering,” it’s my duty to tell you that holodecks are more trouble than they’re worth.”
“Noted. Now, I never thought that I would be saying this, but let’s get weapons.”
ACT THREE
Los Angeles, United States of America, Earth.
June 2008
16:58 on a chaotic Saturday afternoon.
Ducking back behind a decorative flower pot, Jason Armstrong reloaded his USP handgun and prepared to return fire. In his capacity as an anti-terrorism agent working for the United States government, he had managed to track three members of Jim’s terrorist cell to the Sunrise Hills shopping mall downtown.
Thinking quickly, he had smashed a fire alarm to perpetuate an evacuation of the innocent civilians who were caught up in last-minutes purchases and the ritual of reuniting with family members for the drive home. It had tripped his hand, of course, and the three terrorists opened fire immediately. Two of his SWAT team colleagues had gone down in a hail of bullets in the first volley.
Luckily, Jason had found some cover. It was simply playing along with the scenario that he had written. Thankfully, it had also saved him from the holographic gunfire. Without the holographic safety protocols, it would have killed him.
In between the shouting, the shooting, and the screaming, a new noise filled the simulation.
Was that? No, no way! He hadn’t programmed that!”
Brushing aside his dirty blonde hair to get a clear line of sight, Jason peered over towards the three terrorists to see an amber beam of phased energy strike and dissolve one of them. The remaining two men turned to fire at the source of the beam, but they were quickly cut down. Who the hell had phasers here?!
“Ensign Armstrong?!,” called out a familiar voice. “Please put down your weapons and step out where we can see you!”
Getting to his feet and dropping his USP, Armstrong saw Commander Valerie Archer and Doctor Lynn Boswell appear from behind a series of stores. They were wearing their Starfleet uniforms, armed with Type-2 hand phasers and they were definitely not here to play along with the game.
“Commander?!,” he exclaimed, taken aback by their sudden appearance. “What’s going on?”
“It would take too long to explain,” Archer replied, ignoring the strange looks from the SWAT team standing alongside the young operations officer. “The holodeck is malfunctioning and the program is fused. To make matters worse, the safety protocols are offline. Don’t worry. It’s nothing that you’ve done. Sollik is preparing to overload the grid but we have to get you and Jim out of here first. Where is he?”
“You mean, I could have been--”
“Killed? Yes Once we’re out of here, remind me to recommend a nice beginner’s course in golf. Ensign, Jim - where is he?”
“Oh my God!,” Jason gasped after a second when the shock had reverberated throughout his system. “Jim’s the terrorist leader. He could be shot and killed!”
“Any ideas where to find him?,” Lynn asked him, holstering her phaser and repeating the request for information. It was tough to break through the mindset of the program, to introduce so many new factors to the poor man, and to reveal the reality that his supposedly-innocent holodeck simulation could kill his boyfriend.
“Uh, probably in the parking lot out front. His men are using a large van to get around. We were supposed to have a car chase later…”
“Tricorder,” Valerie ordered, turning towards the doctor.
“Got it. Yep, he’s still alive inside the simulation, due west,” Lynn nodded, reading from her tricorder’s display.
“Archer to Llewellyn,” the commander said next, tapping her combadge. “We’ve secured Ensign Armstrong but Ensign Morgan is still out there. He appears to be in the parking lot of the Sunrise Hills mall. Can you get there?”
“We’re nearby,” the captain replied, a second later,” trying to get a layout of the simulation. Can you join us there?”
“On our way. Archer out.”
“Damnit, if anything happens to him…,” Jason mumbled.
“You’re the anti-terrorism agent,” Boswell noted with some iront. “It looks like you’re going to get to capture him for real.”
* * * *
Llewellyn saw him first.
He and Sollik had been too busy staring at their tricorders, tracking Jim Morgan’s biosigns throughout the expansive program. The annoying reality was that he was probably meters away from them at all times, but the nature of holographic simulations meant that it did little good. With the complex of energy barriers, replicated matter and computer-generated characters, it was like searching through a dense forest at night time.
The captain was thanking any God of deity that would listen that he wasn’t a fan of the holodeck, despite the advice of many counselors and friends.
“There,” he said, pointing. “That vehicle over there, the white one. Do you see it?”
Blinking through the bright orange sunlight that bathed the parking lot, Sollik focused his piercing yellow eyes on where Ewan was pointing. “Yes,” he finally replied,” I’m reading Ensign Morgan inside, along with two other simulated characters. They’re most likely ‘terrorists’ from what we’ve been told about this program. Sir… I have a stun grenade.”
“You’re asking a pacifist if he wants to blow his own officer out of the vehicle? Forget it, Sollik. We’ll do this my way. If that fails, well, by all means, go crazy.”
“Go… crazy?”
“A Human expression, Sollik. Sorry. It means you can indulge yourself.”
“I shall hold you to that, Captain,” muttered the Suliban.
Together, they slowly approached the Chevrolet Express with phasers holstered and hands outstretched in a signal of peaceful surrender. One wrong move, one holographic bullet, and all of them stopped being a game.
* * * *
“What the--”
His simulated colleagues started chattering wildly as Jim leaned forward, frowning out of the front window of the van. Right there, outside of the van were Captain Llewellyn and Lieutenant Commander Sollik.
They were inside Holodeck One? Inside the program?
No way! Not in a Vulcan’s lifespan! Why would they be here?
The tactical officer mentally jumped to the wrong conclusion as he physically jumped from the rear of the van and dashed around the side to face the new arrivals. He took out his Walther P99S and aimed it directly at the Captain’s forehead, a grin across his face.
Sollik immediately reacted by drawing his phaser, knowing the hidden danger. At the moment, Jim couldn’t even comprehend what was going on.
“No, wait! No, Ensign, stop!,” Llewellyn shouted with his hands still raised. “It’s really me, Jim. It’s me, Captain Llewellyn! Please… lower your weapon!”
“I should have known that Jason would do something like this!,” the young man chuckled, his dark hair blowing in the artificial breeze. “He hates to lose. He told me that there were a few surprises in this program! I have to say that he’s done a nice job on you, Captain. A very nice job! Oh, Sollik… I mean, holographic Sollik, put that phaser away!”
“If you shoot me, you’ll kill me!,” Ewan barked, panic settling into his voice. “I’m real, not a trick put in by Jason! We had an energy surge. It fused the holodeck controls. Listen to me! The safety protocols are offline! If you shoot me, you’ll kill me!”
“He’s telling the truth,” Sollik hissed, his green finger tensing on the trigger. “I have to overload the grid to end the program, but we have to get you out first. Although if you make things difficult, I certainly won’t miss you.”
That statement made Jim pause for a moment. It was true that he and Sollik hardly got along, and while Jason knew about the undercurrent of mistrust, would he have spent so much time on making the fake chief engineer that good?
This would only serve as a momentary distraction. At best, there would be enough time for a sneak attack on the terrorists. He cautiously gazed around the parking lot, expecting an LAPD SWAT team to appear out for nowhere, for the Captain and Sollik to dissolve away, and for Jason to gloat over his victory.
Nothing.
There was nothing whatsoever.
What if they were telling the truth?
“Breakfast.”
“I’m sorry?”
“At breakfast on your first day aboard Fortitude,” the captain said,” we spoke about relationships and I told you that you could always be bold. Be bold now, Jim. put the weapon down and trust us, please!”
The Walther P99S in his grip wavered. Cautiously, it started to fall out of his hand.
Wasting no time, and frustrated that it had taken this long, Sollik stunned him with a blast to the chest.
“Why do you do that?!,” Ewan yelled, wheeling towards his subordinate.
Before he had a chance to give him an answer, the Suliban screamed as a holographic bullet lodged itself in his right arm with blood spurting through the air and spilling onto the tarmac. The two terrorists inside the van opened fire, shattered the windscreen in an attempt to kill the strange men who had just incapacitated their leader.
Diving for Sollik without even thinking about his own safety, Llewellyn pushed him to the ground and placed a spare hand protectively over the unconscious head of Jim Morgan as the AK-47 weapons fire drowned out the whimpers of the injured engineer. The noise paused, and he knew what was coming. They would be climbing out of the van now, walking around the side to finish the job. Grabbing his phaser with his blood-soaked hand, blood-soaked from seizing Sollik’s arm, he prepared to defend his officers.
Suddenly, two powerful gunshots rang out through the air.
The holographic terrorists fell.
“Jim!”
Jason Armstrong ran forward, lowering his USP handgun and joining the three men sprawled out on the tarmac of the Sunrise Hills shopping mall parking lot. His face was a pure example of guilty terror.
“He’s fine,” Ewan told him. Stunned, but fine. Sollik’s been shot!”
Almost as if on cue, Doctor Boswell and Commander Archer ran from the entrance to the shopping mall and headed for the small group. Upon reaching Sollik, Lynn opened up her medkit and started to scan the bullet wound in his arm. Valerie looked at Ewan and sighed. He looked at Jason, cradling his boyfriend’s head in his arms.
EPILOGUE
Captain’s Log, supplemental;
After some outstanding piloting skills performed on the part of Lieutenant Arden Vuro, we’ve cleared the ion storm. Unfortunately, the energy surge caused major systems damage, not to mention the successful overload of Holodeck One which is beyond repair. To that end, we’ve reversed course and we’re heading back to Starbase 499 for a maintenance overhaul.
In the meantime, I’ve allowed Ensign Armstrong and Morgan some time off-duty to recover from their experience in the terrorist simulation. Their relationship serves as a constant reminder that being young and reckless isn’t certainly dull, but it has almost reminded me that the social activities of the crew will sometimes require regulation to save us from future crises.
One final note -- Chief Engineer Sollik is recovering from his wounds in Sickbay. He had assured me that he isn’t holding a grudge against Ensigns Armstrong and Morgan for writing the program that nearly ended his life. Whether that assurance remains true is to be seen. For now, I’m pleased to report that we’ve emerged from this most recent of dramatic turns otherwise unscathed. The ship can be repaired, and relationships can be mended over time. In my book… this is a definite success.
The End.