Based On STAR TREK Created by Gene Roddenberry
Original Characters created by Jason Cleaver and Derrick Ferguson
Courtney Fotheran gave her sleeping daughter one final kiss and tucked the sheet around the three year old’s shoulders before leaving the room, leaving the door open just a crack so that she might hear if the child awoke during the night. Courtney usually left an open comlink in Ariel’s room as well so that she might hear if anything was amiss while she was either outside or in another section of the spacious ranch house.. Not that Ariel had ever had any problems sleeping. No, it was the mother, not the child who had problems getting a good night’s sleep.
Courtney stopped off in the den to pick up a bottle of good twenty year old Scotch and walked through the huge ranch located some ninety miles outside of Wyandon, South Carolina and went out to the front porch where she poured herself a stiff drink and sat in an antique rocking chair some two hundred years old and looked up at the star-choked sky.
She drank in silence, hating herself for giving in to such a weakness, but there was nothing else for it. She was bored out of her mind. For a lot of years, she had led a life of excitement and adventure; first on her own after having broken away from the strictures her father and brothers had insisted she live under. She had been born Courtney Brass, the only daughter of old Jason Brass, the patriarch of the Brass Consortium. Jason Brass, along with his 13 sons ran the Consortium, which owned whole solar systems, so wealthy and powerful was the Brass Family. Unfortunately, Courtney was expected only to marry a man three times her age in order to form a financial alliance with a rival family and produce plenty of grandchildren. Such a life appealed not at all to the strong willed Courtney and she had taken off for the stars to find her own fortune.
She drifted into membership in the Stacius Trade Guild and enjoyed a great deal of success, earning quite a sizable fortune of her own.
And then she’d met Denys Fotheran.
Wild, eccentric, brash, funny, daring, unpredictable…he was like no other man she’d ever met. His moods were mercurial and many. His likes and dislikes huge. His appetites, colossal. They’d formed a partnership and become ‘independent transport specialists’…a polite euphemism for smuggling and the fortune increased amazingly in a short time.
The ranch was one they’d had built after Denys had at last been captured and had struck his deal with Starfleet Command. Courtney could never shake the feeling that if she hadn’t been pregnant with Denys’s child, he might not have agreed to the deal, might have instead taken his chances on being sent to a rehab colony where he could make an escape attempt or seek to bribe his way out.
But knowing he had a child on the way…that changed Denys’s entire outlook on life.
Courtney missed him terribly. Denys had snuck away from Starfleet Academy on several occasions to visit her and while she appreciated the visits, she had told him to stop sneaking off. It wasn’t as hard as one might think. Denys had been reprogramming transporters for years and knew how to cover his tracks. Still, a violation like that would certainly get him thrown into the brig and shipped to the furthest rehab colony. Courtney sipped more Scotch. She had asked Admiral Ybarra if it were possible that Denys could be allowed to come home more often and Ybarra had simply said; “You best be glad he gets any kind of leave, Mrs. Fotheran.”
Courtney turned her head. She heard something, very faint. A lifetime of living on the edge had honed her senses and living on Earth or a few drinks of Scotch didn’t dull them. Courtney’s hand slid to a phaser that was nestled in a concealed sheath under the seat of the rocker.
“You sure you wanna do that, babe?” Denys Fotheran grinned at her from around the corner of the house. “It would be very embarrassing at the funeral..”
Courtney leaped from the rocker, phaser and glass flying to leap into Fotheran’s arms, kissing him fiercely. “Idiot! You might have gotten shot!”
“Not likely. Since when could I get that close to you without you knowing?”
“I was sitting there drinking and feeling sorry for myself.”
“Drinking, eh? You’re probably too inebriated for-”
“You just take me on upstairs to bed, mister and I’ll show you just how sober I am.”
Courtney listened quietly as she lay in her husband’s arms, the sweat drying on their bodies in the dark as he told her about the Training Cruise.
“That’s why I had to take the chance and come see you, babe. I couldn’t go offworld for who knows how long without you knowing what was going on.”
Courtney kissed him gently on the side of his neck. “I appreciate it, Denys. But I don’t want you doing this again. You’re too close to the end of your Academy training. I’d be lying if I said that this wasn’t just what I needed, but…”
“There’s more, Courtney.”
The tone of Fotheran’s voice had changed. After all their years together, Courtney could detect the slightest inflection of worry or concern. “What is it?”
“It’s Eve Mallory. She is going to be in command of this trip.”
“So? What’s the problem?”
“The problem is I still don’t know what or who she is and what she’s got planned for me? Why else would she sponsor me for Starfleet Academy unless she’s got other plans in mind for me? And Starfleet must know what she is…what if Starfleet is under the control of…whatever Mallory really is?”
Back on the planet Tikon, Denys Fotheran had watched a hideously savage battle between Eve Mallory and the insane Vulcan Stolath. He had watched as Eve and Stolath had inflicted damage on each other that would have killed lesser beings. Despite both his arms being broken, Fotheran had helped Eve defeat Stolath and in doing so had stumbled on Eve’s greatest secret, one she shared with Stolath.
Both were Replicants. Stolath had been trying to enhance his own Replicant abilities while Eve was determined that as few as possible learn about hers. Fotheran had been made to swear that he would keep Eve’s Replicant status a secret. But that knowledge had kept him awake many a night wondering just who or what Eve Mallory really was and if he wasn’t being used by an alien intelligence that just might end up killing him one day.
“Denys, I know you don’t like her…but I spoke to her after she brought you back up from Hebigo…and I trust her.” Courtney’s voice was low and strong in the dark room.
“We didn’t talk for very long, but she said some things…and I know she doesn’t mean you any harm, Denys. I think the two of you could be friends if you would learn to trust her. For some reason she seems to trust you. She had to trust you when just the two of you went down after Stolath, remember?”
“How could I forget? If I live to be a thousand, I’m never gonna forget that day.” Fotheran said feelingly. “And it’s not that I don’t like her. The problem is I DO. My gut tells me that Eve Mallory can be trusted, but my brain is yelling at me to watch out. And I can’t shake the feeling that this is going to be more than just a routine Training Cruise. We’re taking Mallory’s old ship out, The Grail…”
“Then I think you had better learn how to trust Eve Mallory, then. Because if there IS something else going on, her knowledge of that ship may make the difference. Now, go get cleaned up and get dressed and get back to Starfleet Academy before you’re missed.”
“Any chance of me kissing my daughter before I go?”
“Only if you kiss her mother afterwards…”
“We haven’t even gotten on the damn ship and you’re gonna get us in trouble!” Felicia Goodluck complained.
“Willya quit your nagging, Felicia?” Wally Lockridge asked. “We talked about this before we even got on the shuttle and we all agreed that this was a good idea.”
Fotheran, Lockridge, Felicia, along with Ron Boutin sat at the back of a shuttlecraft that was taking some ten cadets besides them to The Grail. The other cadets were talking excitedly among themselves, but Fotheran and his friends were doing other things.
Ron Boutin was bent over a computer of his own design. No larger than the palm of his hand, it was capable of linking with other computer systems and accessing their data banks and deciphering encrypted memory cores. That was the only thing it had been constructed for and Ron had found it came in handy when they had wanted to get information on upcoming exams and Holodeck Simulation Missions. He merely linked his homemade computer with Starfleet’s and voila.
Fotheran had suggested that Boutin use his computer to link up with the computers at Utopia Planitia and find out exactly what refits and upgrades had been made to The Grail as well as finding out where they were going.
“Why don’t I just link in directly to The Grail’s main computer?” Boutin had asked, but Fotheran shook his head in a firm negative.
“Too risky. The Grail’s too much of an unknown. Who knows how much of the alien technology they’ve kept aboard?”
“But surely they wouldn’t send out a bunch of cadets on a Training Cruise on a ship with unfamiliar alien technology, would they?” Felicia said, looking at her friends with trepidation. “They wouldn’t, would they?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know before you get there?” Fotheran asked slyly and Felicia had nodded reluctantly.
Now Boutin was scanning the data that scrolled upwards on his screen with amazement and disbelief. “I can’t believe this. There’s got to be a mistake.”
“What have you got?” Fotheran demanded, leaning in closer, looking over Boutin’s shoulder.
“If this is correct, The Grail’s not only been refitted but upgraded. The secondary hull’s been reinforced…all her phaser banks are fully charged…My God…”
“What? What is it?” Felicia demanded.
Boutin looked up at his friends and whispered, “She’s carrying a full load of photon and quantum torpedoes…”
The small computer suddenly made a warning sound and Boutin quickly unlinked from Utopia Planatia’s computers. “Somebody detected that I was tapped into his or her system,” he explained. “I had to pull out before they ran a scan back to us.”
“Do you think they could trace it back to us?” Lockridge demanded.
Boutin shook his head. “My box was built using components I found lying around the science labs back at the Academy, so its got a standard Starfleet signature pattern. If anybody DID run a scan, they will most likely think that the shuttlecraft crew was being nosy.”
Fotheran clapped Boutin on the shoulder. “You’ve been hanging around with me way too long, Ron…you’re thinking almost as sneaky as I am.”
“Wait a minute…what are you so happy for?” Felicia demanded. “Did you hear what Ron said? Since when is a starship going on a Training Cruise fitted out as if we’re going to take on a Borg Cube?” She shook her head is dismay. “You realize what this means?”
“Let’s look at this logically.” Ron Boutin said, steepling his fingers and looking at his friends over them. “We know that The Grail integrated many diverse alien technological systems and components during its mission. Along with Voyager, which also made use of not only alien, but future Starfleet technology, The Grail is in many ways the perfect Starfleet vessel to explore and encounter hostile forces.”
Fotheran was nodding. “The unpredictability factor.”
Boutin was also nodding in agreement. “There’s no adequate way to predict just how The Grail will respond to an attack. So if any enemy who has been monitoring Starfleet—”
“Hold it, hold it…time out!” Wally Lockridge formed a T with his hands. “Aren’t you guys getting just a bit ahead of yourselves as well as being just a wee bit paranoid? I can’t believe that Starfleet would put a bunch in a real combat situation. Maybe they’ve just loaded the weapons and charged the phaser banks to make us THINK we’re going into a combat situation to see who’ll crack under the stress?”
“I like that idea,” Felicia quickly added. “Look, I want to see my share of action as much as any of you, but guys…it just doesn’t hold water that Starfleet Command would throw a bunch of cadets green as Christmas trees at an enemy that would justify the kind of firepower The Grail is packing.”
“Then what’s your explanation?” Fotheran asked.
Felicia shook her head. Try as she might, she couldn’t come up with a plausible reason that would explain what they had just learned.
A warning chime signaled that that they had fifteen minutes until docking. It was time to get their gear together and as they did so, Fotheran said to Felicia, “There’s one sure way to find out.”
“And that is?”
“Ask Eve Mallory. After all, she and I ARE old friends, aren’t we?”
A tall man wearing Commander’s pips met the disembarking cadets in the main hangar bay and watched with a cold, emotionless air as the cadets neatly formed ranks, their gear stacked in front of them. They snapped to attention as Wally Lockridge stepped forward and said crisply; “Ensign Lockridge presenting Cadet Group Zeta for inspection, SIR!”
The Commander nodded. “At ease, cadets.” He consulted his PADD. “I won’t be holding inspection now. There will be a shipside inspection once we’re underway. We’re a little behind schedule and I want you to get your quarters squared away and get your assignments so that you can the ship ready for our scheduled departure date. I’m Commander Kieran Olsen, XO for this mission. I’ve heard good things about this group and I’m looking forward to working with such a promising group of cadets.” Olsen walked over to Fotheran. “And you’d be the infamous Denys Fotheran, I suppose.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Wipe that smirk off your face, Mr. Fotheran. I know that Captain Mallory’s your sponsor and she’s taken a personal interest in your progress, but let me remind you of something: I’M the one who’s going to evaluate your performance and I’m going to be watching you every second you’re on this ship. You read me, mister?”
“Loud and clear, Commander.” Fotheran looked evenly into Olsen’s eyes and the two men locked stares for a good thirty seconds and an entire world of meaning passed between them.
Olsen handed Lockridge the PADD. “Here are your cabin and post assignments. Get your gear squared away and report to your—”
Olsen’s commbadge spoke: =/\=Commander Olsen, has Mr. Fotheran reported aboard yet? =/\=
Olsen tapped his commbadge. “Yes, Captain. I was just welcoming him aboard.”
=/\=Have him report to my ready room at once. Assign a crewman to take his gear to his quarters=/\=
Olsen quirked his lips in slight disapproval but he said evenly, “As you say, Captain. Mr. Fotheran, you heard the captain. To the ready room, on the bounce.”
As Fotheran headed for the door, he heard a slight clearing of the throat from Boutin and looked at his three friends and saw the same pleading look on all their faces. They obviously all wanted to go along with him and meet the legendary Eve Mallory. Fotheran turned back to Olsen.
“Request permission for Ensigns Boutin, Goodluck and Lockridge to accompany me, Commander.”
“Denied. The Captain asked to see YOU, Mr. Fotheran. The Captain hasn’t got time for—”
Olsen’s commbadge was still open and Eve Mallory’s voice spoke again: =/\=Belay that, Mr. Olsen. Ensign Fotheran’s team-mates can come with him. Mallory out=/\=
Olsen smiled thinly. “Very well, Mr. Fotheran. Take them with you. But don’t get the idea that you’re going to get your way on this ship just because you’ve got juice with Captain Mallory. Now get going.”
Eve finished up the last of the PADD's and glanced at the monitor. The last of the cadet shuttle's had docked a few moments ago, and she knew that Denys Fotheran and his little band of friends had been aboard.
She tapped a command on the panel.
“Commander Olsen, has Mr. Fotheran reported aboard yet?”
=/\=Yes, Captain. I was just welcoming him aboard.=/\=
Eve raised her eyebrows. There was a faint whiff of something in his voice that she couldn't identify.
“Have him report to my ready room at once.” She said. “Assign a crewman to take his gear to his quarters.”
=/\=As you say, Captain.=/\= His voice changed, evidently believing the connection to be severed. =/\=Mr. Fotheran, you heard the captain. To the ready room, on the bounce.=/\=
There was a pause, then Fotheran's voice came through: =/\=Request permission for Ensigns Boutin, Goodluck and Lockridge to accompany me, Commander.=/\=
=/\=Denied. The Captain asked to see YOU, Mr. Fotheran. The Captain hasn't got time for-=/\=
Eve spoke again, “Belay that, Mr. Olsen. Ensign Fotheran's team-mates can come with him. Mallory out.”
She smiled faintly to herself, wondering what the Commander's reaction would be to that. It already sounded like he wasn't Fotheran's greatest fan and what she had planned for the former smuggler's assignment wasn't going to make him any happier.
She was studying something on the monitor five minutes later, when the door chime rang. “It's open!” she called.
The doors slid open and Boutin, Lockridge, Goodluck came in, followed by Denys Fotheran. They lined up in front of the desk all at rigid attention, with the exception of Fotheran, who had the slightest slouch in his posture.
“At ease,” Eve said and watched them relax. She'd read their bios and had been enormously impressed with their progress and grades. She suspected that most of that was due to the influence of the man watching her with a guarded expression.
She knew he was most likely suspicious of her and she really didn't blame him for that. The situation on Hebigo hadn't allowed for any subtlety at all, and neither of them had come out unscathed. She had been a little surprised though that he hadn't attempted to use the knowledge of her replication to his own advantage at the Academy, especially since she hadn't asked him to keep it a secret.
“All right,” She said aloud. “I know this wasn't planned for you all, but I'm glad you're here. You all have some of the highest grades in your class, and this is where you're going to be putting them to the test in the field.” She paused. “Which one of you hacked into the base computers for information about the Grail?”
She didn't smile at the quickly suppressed surprise on their faces, although she wanted to. Fotheran's expression didn't flicker, although she didn't expect it to.
“Word of advice,” She said, “Never try an access a system that a Cygnian's had their hands on. The security system traced the signal to an independent box before allowing a warning alarm to be activated on it.” She smiled. “He was very impressed with the coding, by the way. And it takes a lot to impress Mr Lirzinji'kav.”
She saw Boutin's eyes widen at the mention of the name. Lirzinji'kav didn't care about his reputation as one of the premier computer specialists in Starfleet, but she knew it was considerable.
She looked at him. “Anyone want to step forward?”
A pause, then Boutin shifted. “Sir..”
Eve held up a hand. “Never call me sir,” She said. “Captain, Ma'am, Eve, or even hey you, but never sir.”
She looked at Boutin. “You have a lot of talent, Mr Boutin, and we're going to put it to use. You're going to be my Science Chief. You'll man the science station and manage the department.” She ignored his amazed expression and continued on. “Goodluck, you have communications and Mr Lockridge has Tactical and Security. You are also in charge of those departments.”
She regarded all three. “Everyone says you're capable of great things. This is your chance to prove it to me.”
Then she turned to look at Denys. “You're dismissed except for Mr Fotheran.” This time there was a faint but visible smile on her face. “I'm sure he'll fill you in later. We'll be shipping out in half an hour so I expect your stations to be ready.”
When the door had closed behind her, Eve returned to her desk and pulled out a small round device from a drawer and activated it. She hadn't used the jammer in a long time, but this was perhaps the time for it.
She stood up and went to the window, looking out of it at the bulk of the station. “I learnt a lot on this ship,” She said after a moment. “One of which was never to trust any kind of coincidence.”
She turned back, came forward to lean/sit on the edge of her desk. “I'm practically out of Starfleet, and I'm asked to come back to head up a Training Cruise. When I do, I find that the ship being used is the Grail.” She held up a finger. “That's one.”
“Then I'm told that you are going to be on cruise as well, when I knew that you weren't scheduled for a cruise for another two months.” Two fingers. “That's two.”
“When I get here, I discover that not only has the Grail been put back together, it's been upgraded in some areas, and fully stocked with the latest armaments. And I know that at least one member of the crew is a plant from Starfleet Intelligence.” Section 31 to be precise, but she wasn’t about to mention them.
She looked at him. “I don't know what's going to happen while we're out there, but I know it’s not going to be as simple as going out to study a comet, do a few combat drills and come back. I need someone I can trust absolutely, who has experience of being sneaky, underhanded and able to think outside the box.” She pointed a finger. “That's you.”
She levered herself off the desk and came to stand before him, gazing upwards into his face. “What do you say, Fotheran? You up for the job?”
Fotheran’s lips quirked as he looked down at the diminutive Eve Mallory. Fotheran was a good six foot four and Eve was somewhere around five foot two or three. But despite the height difference, they both had the same look of determination in their respective pair of eyes. One sparkling copper, the other deep sea green.
“So it’s come down to this, huh? Time to choose my religion.” Fotheran said with a slight, grim smile. “And what happens if I don’t?”
“Let me make a guess: you put Ensign Boutin up to scanning the computers here at Utopia Planitia, correct? I’ve read his file and I don’t think he would have come up with something like that on his own.”
Fotheran shrugged. “I try to stack the odds in my favour as much as I can. Part of that is making it my business to find out what other people don’t want me to know.”
“And that’s exactly why I need you on my side, completely. With no reservations and no suspicions. Something’s waiting for us out there, Denys. I don’t know what but the only thing I am sure of is that somebody’s moving us around, using us as pieces in a game and I don’t like playing any game I don’t know the rules.”
“Hell, make up your own rules.” For the first time since entering the Ready Room, Fotheran’s face broke out into a wide, wicked grin. Eve had seen that smile once before, deep beneath the surface of Hebigo, just before they had had ended the schemes of the mad Vulcan Replicant Stolath. That grin had had the strangest effect on her. It had raised her spirits and given her hope that they were not only going to win, they were going to do it in style. And now, she felt that exact same way again.
“So what about it? I want to make you my Operations Officer for this cruise. You’ll be third in command. That should give you the freedom to go anywhere and access anything you want on The Grail. If we work together on this, we can face whatever it is that were being set up for and bring this shipload of cadets back home.” Eve held out a slim hand. “What do you say?”
Fotheran looked down at the hand for maybe seven heartbeats before speaking. “Y’know, the funny thing is this: I like you, Mallory. My gut tells me to trust you but after what happened down on Hebigo and then you sent your friends from Starfleet Intelligence to threaten me.”
Eves face crinkled in a deep frown. “What friends? I never sent anybody to threaten you about anything.”
Fotheran looked closely at her face. An accomplished and expert liar himself, he was damned good at telling if was being lied to. And he could tell from Eve’s tonal inflections and body language that here was a woman to whom honesty was not only the best policy, it was the ONLY policy.
“Shortly after I entered the Academy, I was visited by three guys from SI who said that if I told anybody about what you were, not only would I be shipped to a rehab colony, but Courtney and Ariel would also be sent to separate ones.” He raised an eyebrow. “Sound familiar?”
Eves eyes narrowed. “And I apologised for that,” She stated. “I wouldn’t use that threat on anyone to protect my secret. She paused, her eyes looking at something she didn’t like. “It's Starfleet who have a bug up their ass about it.” Or at least one part of it. Starfleet Intelligence's heavy hand was showing again.
Fotheran waved away her protestations. “Yeah, well, at the time I was pretty hot at you, but now that I’ve talked to you, I believe you didn’t know. But that still leaves me with one worry. Just what the hell are you? You can’t be human. I saw the way you and Stolath fought and flesh and blood couldn’t have taken punishment like that.”
Eve cocked her head to the side. “Can’t say as how I blame you. Guess I should have told you right after we came back to The Crazy Horse. But things were really hectic and we had no chance to be alone. And then again, I really didn’t know then how far I could trust you.”
“And now?”
Eve smiled and reached out a hand to grip Fotheran’s left bicep firmly. “You’ve kept your word and taken everything Starfleet Academy threw at you. Your grades are remarkable and your evaluations all say the same thing: you’re going to make one hell of a Starfleet officer. Providing you’re not killed or court-marshalled first.”
The both of them laughed for a few minutes, enjoying the break in the tension between them. Eve wiped away tears of mirth and said, “I think we both needed that.”
“Yeah, we did.”
Eve held out her hand again. “I’ll tell you what, we’ll have dinner tonight and I’ll tell you what happened to me and what I am. The entire story from start to finish. Deal?”
“Deal.”
Denys Fotheran and Eve Mallory shook hands firmly and a legendary friendship had at last begun.