SEASON 2: EPISODE 01

NO REST FOR THE WICKED: Part Four

  Karak wandered silently through the cool and empty hall of the monastery.  He made his way to the communications room and found it unoccupied.  He sat down and put the call through to Vulcan.

  The screen changed to show a female Vulcan.

  “Hello, Karak.  I trust you are well.”

  Karak nodded his head slightly.  “I am.  I hope you are also well, T’Vel.”

  “I am in good health.  You do not appear to be on the Swiftfire.”

  “No, I am not.  The Swiftfire has returned to Earth for repairs.  I am on leave.”

  “For how long?”

  “It is scheduled for three weeks.  We are through six days of that.”

  That raised an eyebrow.  No doubt his wife was wondering why he did not contact her earlier.  She however did not ask why he had not.

  “Will you be visiting, Vulcan?”

  “I have made no plans to.  I believe it would be more prudent to remain closer to my posting.”

  “That is understandable.”

  That told Karak everything he needed, his wife was not impressed with his decision.  He had not seen her for some time, the last time had been two years before he was assigned to the Swiftfire-A.

  “I am spending my time at the Gobi desert monastery.  Seeking to better understand myself.”

  “If you do not know who you are at your age, I doubt you ever will,” joked his wife.

  “A very astute observation.  I do admit that being around other Vulcans does put me at ease, there are few on the Swiftfire.”

  “We always feel more secure around those we understand and can relate to.  I do have some leave; I could be on Earth in a few days.”

  “Is that wise?”

  “If you are referring to the risk of Dominion attack, it is minimal.  Shipping between Vulcan and Earth is mostly secure.”

  “It is not totally secure.  A Jem’Hadar attack ship could still attack your transport.”

  “Nothing is totally safe.  The transport could suffer some sort of mechanical malfunction, which results in the destruction of the ship.”  T’Vel raised an eyebrow.  “That is if you want to see me?”

  “I of course would be pleased by your company.  I am just concerned for your safety.”  This was not really a lie, as a Vulcan Karak was relucent to ever lie.  It was more of an omission or stressing a factor that was not really the most important reason for him not wanting T’Vel to visit him.

  He never enjoyed having to deceive his wife but at times it was important that she not know exactly what he was doing.  Though in truth she probably knew every secret he ever had.  With such a close relationship as marriage it was hard to hide everything and they had experienced mind melds between each other before.  However, she never alluded to knowing his secrets and he was sure that they were as safe within her as they were in him.

  “Very well.  I will verge on the side of caution.  I at least know that within the next two years you will have to spend some time with me.”

  T’Vel was correct.  No matter what he would have to be with her when his next Pon Farr occurred.  To not be with her would harm him and to be with someone else would harm her.

  “Hopefully before that I will get the chance to be with you without the biological necessity,” he said.

  Her expression did not change but he could feel that she was pleased with his last statement.

  “I have been considering it.  I believe it would be a good opportunity for us to continue our family.”

  This caught Karak by surprise.  T’Vel had undergone Pon Farr as recently as three years previous and had not put forward the notion she wished to have another child.  Obviously something had changed since that time.  They already had two children, both females who were well past the age that they needed their parents to look after them.  It was possible that T’Vel missed the connection that came from having a young life that depended on you to care for and guide it.

  “I have no objections to such an event,” he said truthfully.

  “I am glad to hear it.  Your daughters have been asking after you.  I believe it would be good for you to contact them while you are on leave.  That is if you are not too busy searching for yourself.”

  “I will endeavour to contact them at the next convenient opportunity.”

  “I will tell them to expect it then.  I am disappointed that we will not be physically together but I will look forward to our next scheduled communication.”

  “As will I, T’Vel.”

  Out of everything he had said to his wife this was the most truthful.  It pained him that he could not spend some of his leave with his wife or his children but he had chosen a path that required him to give much of himself to maintain and walk the path.  He was not one to ignore his responsibilities and duties.  However, at times it was easier and safer for him to undertake them alone, isolated from those he loved and cared for.  He just hoped that from the connection he shared with his wife that she understood that. 

  At was just over a week since he had arrived back on Earth and Jonathan was standing nervously at the front of a small lecture theatre in the Starfleet Academy Canberra Campus.  He fidgeted with his pips and pulled at the bottom of his top.

  He heard a little cry of annoyance and looked over to his mother who was setting something up at the audio/visual control desk at the front of the room.  “If you tug at your top one more time I’m going to throttle you!  Jean Luc Picard started that and it has to be one of the most annoying things I’ve ever seen Captains do.”

  Jonathan let out a nervous laugh.  It was not like his top did not fit properly it was just a force of habit.

  Claire checked the time.  “They’ll be coming in soon.  Just sit over there until I call you up.”

  Jonathan nodded and moved off and sat in the front row of the theatre.  Soon Cadets started to come into the theatre.  They eyed Jonathan suspiciously as they came in and took their seats, none of them sat near Jonathan as they were unsure of what to think of a Starfleet Captain being at their lecture.

  One young Bolian female came up to Jonathan.  “Excuse me, sir.”

  Jonathan looked up at her.  “Yes, cadet?”

  “Are you lost, sir?  This is second year tactical studies.”

  “I’m in the right place, Cadet.  Thank you for your…interest.”

  The Cadet smiled and returned to her seat.

  Claire soon started the lecture.  “Welcome, Cadets.  Today we’re going to have a different type of lecture.  We have a special guest in today, up the front,” said Claire, pointing out Jonathan.  “I’ll let him introduce himself.”  She motioned for Jonathan to come up to the front.

  Jonathan stood up and made his way nervously to the front of the stage.  He thanked his mother and took her place and looked out at the group of young men and women in the room.  “Good morning, I’m Captain Jonathan Masters of the USS Swiftfire-A.”

  Immediately a hand went up in the crowd.  Jonathan pointed to the person.

  “Any relation to Professor Masters?”

  Jonathan nodded.  It was strange to hear his mother been identified as “Professor”, while he knew his mothers title, he was more use to her been referred to as Admiral Masters, like his father.  But his mother had retired from service and had only come back to teach, not to serve in the fleet so the rank had not returned with her.

  “Yes, I’m her son.  Anyway, I’m not too sure what I’m meant to do here.  So I’ll let you ask any questions and we’ll see where that leads us, if that is okay with you, Professor?”

  Claire nodded.

  “Okay, any questions?”

  There was a short pause and Jonathan started to worry that no one what going to ask a question, but finally someone did.

  “You said you were the Captain of the Swiftfire, I’m not familiar with the vessel so if you could give us some more information…”

  “Of course.  The USS Swiftfire, NCC 76125-A is an Akira class starship launched in 2373.  The original ship was an Excelsior class vessel that was destroyed a year previous.  I served on the first vessel as First Officer and I was also the only person who served on the vessel at the time of its destruction to have survived.”

  “Only you survived?” interrupted a Cadet.

  “Yes, I had been seriously injured just before and had been transferred to DS9 while the ship went back on patrol.  That was when it was destroyed.”

  “Wow, you were pretty lucky, sir,” stated one of the female cadets.

  Jonathan nodded solemnly.  “Yes, I was.”  The room feel into silence as Jonathan stared at the ground as he remembered his old crew.  When he looked up he saw a young Andorian with his hand up.  Jonathan gestured to the young man.

  “Have you seen much action in the current war, or are you stationed away from the front lines.”

  “My crew and I have seen a fair bit of the action.  The reason I’m at Earth now is because of the amount of action we’ve seen.  The Swiftfire is at dock receiving repairs and a new warp core.”

  “Battle damage?” continued the Andorian

  “Yes.”

  “Can we get some details?”

  “The specifics of the mission are currently classified but I can give you some rough details.  We engaged a Jem’Hadar group and during the battle we got into a situation.  To resolve it I ejected one of my ship’s warp cores and used a tractor beam to hurl it at a large enemy vessel.  The result was the destruction of that vessel, heavy damage to my ship but the objectives of the mission were met.”

  “You used your warp core as a missile?  That’s a pretty cool move.”

  “Thank you, cadet. It is an unconventional tactic and fairly dangerous, but when your on the bridge of a starship and are in command you have to push the envelop of what you know, what you can do and how you do it.  You have to be prepared to risk it all to complete a mission.  You have to be able to look your crew in the eyes as you send them into a mission that could mean that they could be killed.  You have to realise that there is often more at risk then just you and your crew, you have to think about the bigger picture and if that means you have to sacrifice your crew and yourself for the sake of the mission then you do it.

  “That is what being a captain is about.  You have a responsibility to your crew, to get them back alive but you have to be ready to kill them all to succeed if needed.”

  Jonathan paused as he let that sink into the cadets.  It was a bit hypocritical but that was the reality of life, nothing is ever just clear cut.

  “And sometimes you have to let go of your morals, which is one of the hardest things for someone to do.  A good captain will know when these times are, but if you ever have to go against your morals, don’t be afraid to question your orders.  Starfleet doesn’t want to just produce a bunch of mindless drones.  They want to you respect your chain of command but they want you to be able to think for yourself.  You have to be sure that your conscience will be able to deal with what you do.  Do not take it lightly.”

  Jonathan pointed at another student who had a question.  “What battles have you taken part in?”

  “I’ve been in the Battle for Guyra, Operation Return, the Battle of Sector 432, and a host of other smaller operations.”

  “Have you ever thought that you weren’t going to make it?”

  “Yes.  In Operation Return before the Klingons turned up I thought that we were going to lose and in our last mission before I started throwing warp cores about we were facing the very clear possibility that the Swiftfire was going to be reduced to debris.  Luckily we’ve made it though all our encounters.”

  Another student put up their hand.  “Have you lost any crewmembers in the war?”

  “Unfortunately yes.”

  “Is it hard to get over?”

  “It varies on how well you knew them, on how many people were lost, how they died, that kind of thing.  But as the Captain you do feel responsible for every single death that happens under your command.  But you can’t save everyone, you can’t keep every single person safe, so you know that you will lose crew, but it doesn’t make it any easier.  You go through what happened and try to think of ways that you could have saved them.  If you didn’t know them very well you regret not getting to know them better or if you were close you would wish you had said something different or shared something with them.”

  “Does it get easier over time?”

  “Yes, it might sound callous, but it does.  Of course there are exceptions to this rule, but when you first lose crew you feel sick, you feel like you failed and you’ll feel the same the next time it happens and the third time, the fourth time etcetera, but you’ll get to a time when it just won’t have the same effect on you.”  Jonathan looked down at the ground for a moment.  “You never will feel fine with losing crew, but it does get easier.”

  Claire Masters sat quietly as she watched her son explain his tactics in the scenario they were going through.  After the initial interaction between Jonathan and her class they got on with the lesson until it was time for some practical exercises.  The class had been given the scenarios in the previous lecture and had come up with what they thought would be the best tactics.  She had let Jonathan again take over.  On seeing the scenario he went through with then what he would do and unlike the cadets, he would not be able to see his results and fine tune them.  He would get one run through, just like in real life.  His tactics had been successful, not that she was surprised.  It was after all only a limited scenario for a second year cadet.  He had pointed out a few points that he felt were not totally realistic for their adversary in terms of tactics and responses.

  Claire also kept an eye on the cadets to make sure they were keeping up.  Since her son was not use to teaching or talking to cadets he at times referenced things they did not fully understand and he was not very adept at picking up when he lost them.  So she jumped in time to time to help explain this and that.

  She was use to this.  She had taught at the academy for years.  She had first started teaching at the Academy just before Jonathan was born.  After ten years she was put in charge of the Canberra campus of the academy becoming its commandant.  Then not long after Jonathan had graduated from the Academy she was made superintendent and spent six years over at the main campus at San Francisco.  Then Jonathan was injured in the Hyralan Incident.  She had taken a leave of absence from her position to be by his side.  She in the end opted for a transfer instead of returning to the Academy and spent the final years of her service where she spent most of her early years, on a Federation starbase.

  After decades in Starfleet she had retired three years ago.  She did not do much other then enjoy her life once she left.  She took the chance to do a bit of travelling around the Federation, mostly on her own with both her son and husband tied up with their careers.  After that she took up some volunteer work to eat up her time and to connect her with others and keep social.  She found the transition out of Starfleet to be very easy and had thoroughly enjoyed her brief retirement.

  A person she thought would have trouble with retirement was her husband, Dalton.  She thought he would stay in the uniform until he died of old age.  His decision to retire had surprised her but she supported him.  It was not easy for him to let go.  He constantly kept his eye on what Starfleet was doing and in touch with those still serving.  She supposed that if she was not teaching and had more time to spend with him it would distract him, but she had made the decision to return to teaching at least until the war was over, before he had stepped down.

  She glanced over at the clock in the room.  It was just about time for the class to finish.  She signalled to Jonathan to wrap it up.  He did.  She stood up.

  “Well, that’s all for today, class.  I’d like to thank you Captain for you time on behalf of the class.”

  Her class politely clapped for him and she walked up to him and shook his hand, resisting the urge to hug him.  She turned back to her students.

  “For our next class just go by the course outline for what you need to read and any tutorials that should be completed.  I’ll see you then, thank you.”

  The cadets quickly started to file out and most came up and personally thanked her son.

  Once the last cadet had left she smiled widely at Jonathan.  “That went well.”

  “Yeah, I think it did,” he said with satisfaction.

  “You would make a good instructor at the academy.”

  He let out a short laugh.  “I don’t think so.”

  “We better get going; the next class will be here soon.”

  Mother and son walked out into the hallway and she headed off towards her office.

  “So what now?” he asked her.

  “You’re free,” she replied.  “That was the only class I really wanted you to do so you don’t have to hang around her unless you want to help me with some paper work.”

  “Sounds tempting but I have…stuff…to do.”

  “Fine,” she said with mock disappointment.  “Just make sure if you’re not going to be home for dinner you call or leave a message.”

  Jonathan assured her he would and walked off towards the exit.  Claire briefly watched him go.  Her comment that he would make a good instructor was a true one.  Though it was not just for selfless reasons she had made it.  She would love to have him closer to her and life at the Academy was a lot safer then on a starship.  However, he was too much like his father, nothing but the bridge of a starship would do.  It was what they craved and it was in that role that they excelled.  She just hoped that like his father Jonathan would serve for just as long if not longer and get to have the peaceful retirement he would deserve.  However, it was out of her hands and like everyone else her son was a captive to fate’s whim.