By Richard Woodcock
To my father who bought me the Eagle Comic every Thursday and let me dream. Happy Father’s day.
Last time on Star Trek: Fortitude
“Not a bad looking world, shame about the people?” Rose the operations officer spoke aloud.
“Indeed, but where not any closer to any real answers. Indeed what do these people have to do with Lazarus?” Miles asked aloud.
“We have a random twin star system to explore; the answers must be there?” Teshla reported.
“Indeed, Mr White. Set a course please?” Miles commanded.
“Aye Sir” the Helmsman answered.
Miles thought for a moment than tapped his Communicator badge.
“Captain to Lt. Commander Reeve, prepare the Hazard Team and where meet you at the main hanger bay with the Anatasia.” Miles ordered.
“Be there in ten.” Was the answer.
“Number one, where going to Keep the Fortitude at arms length and take the Anastasia. Keep communications open, we may need you in a hurry!” Miles ordered.
And now the continuation:
Scene: Secrete Temporal Science Station
The two humans lay huddled in what was there research station and now was there prison and the scene of the tragic accident that released an evil they could not have known. The room was dark and they heard the screams of torture from outside, not knowing what was happening to there former friends and co-workers.
A door slide open and the light shone in so unbearable it hurt.
As they both raised their hands weakly to shield from the light they saw the figure of an alien small in stature hovering on a chair with a massive head and flanked by two enforcer guards.
“What do you want, why are you doing this?” the male human asked.
“Curiosity…. The first weakness.”
Scene: Main Bridge, USS Fortitude
“Commander, where approaching the outer edge of the star system” Cmdr White reported from Helm.
“Very good, take us to full stop please.” Teshla answered. She sat back futher into the Command chair and on any other day she would have been confident but today she was going to be facing the situation on her own without Miles there to ask for advice. She knew he had full confidence in her. She wanted her own command but this was not a normal situation.
Neku from Science station chimed in.
“Cmdr the reading for this system is all over the place, it’s not just dimensional but its like subspace layers are compressing it like the natural order of time and dimensional science we know have compressed tightly here.”
Teshla’s eyes narrowed and her brow creased. “Any thing else?”
“Perhaps, may I bring up a science display on main viewscreen? Neku asked.
Teshla nodded her agreement and the main viewscreen changed to a tactical/science display of the unknown twin binary star system.
Near the fourth planet a white dot blinked and flickered.
“As far as I can make it there is a rift there. “ Neku reported.
“May I assume it is not natural?” Teshla asked.
“That’s no natural rife, Its’s anchored with what I can tell Iconian technology!” Neku reported.
“I would concure Cmdr the radiation and particle anomalies are consistent with Iconian technology but also these readers are consistent with multidimensional overlap similar to the mirror borg we have been experiencing.” Fausu reported from tactical/Security station.
“The Forth planet appears to be habitable similar to that of earths Venus, where still getting telemetry and feeding it to the Hazard Team” Neku followed up with.
Teshla rubbed her left temple and than tapped a button on her communications section of the command chair display.
“Captain you getting all this?” Teshla asked.
“Aye, hold position here where take the Anastasia and investigate this rift and forth planet.” Miles commanded over the comm.
Scene: Main Hanger Bay, USS Fortitude
The hangar bay humed with precision as final pre-mission checks are performed. “Anastasia” sits powered and prepped, its hull gleaming under the ceiling lights. Zulu Hazard Team is suiting up in mission armor. Weapon lockers hiss open. Tactical gear is magnetically latched into place.
“Pulse emitter tuned. Field drones are patched. Auto-repair is still spotty—don’t break anything critical.” CH’KORRAK reported.
Lt. Cmdr Reeve checking his helmet seals ordered “Zulu, status?”
SSA’KITH answered “Armor integrity green. Weapon diagnostics complete.”
Miles Llewellyn walked over, carrying a pulse rifle. He steps up beside Reeve, eyes scanning the team.
“I trained in hazard protocols twenty years ago. Let’s hope I’m not too rusty.” Miles reported in.
“With respect, sir, we could use the grit. But we’re not babysitting. You stay with me, and we’ll make it back.” Reeve answered gruffly but respectfully.
“Provided nothing explodes, of course. Which… probably means something will.” CH’KORRAK chuckled.
Everyone shared a dry grin. Miles claps Reeve on the shoulder.
“Mission command is mine. Field command is yours. Get us through. We’ll recon the rift, then descend to the fourth planet. Intel says it’s a Venus-class—but habitable. Cold. Breathable. Hostile terrain.” Miles ordered.
“Its readings mimic the early Venus of our own solar system—only this one is cryogenic and tectonically volatile. Atmospheric pressure is survivable, but we’ll need adaptive suits.” VELRA reported.
“Treens may already be there. We can’t assume we’ll be first on the ice.” NALORA surmised.
“Then we go in dark and come out loud. Shuttle launches in five. Zulu—onboard.” REEVE commanded.
Zulu Team boarded the shuttle with crisp coordination. The bay doors rumble open to reveal the silent cosmos beyond. Miles Llewellyn watched them go, pulse rifle still in hand. His mind wondered briefly to family. He closed his eyes and shut that past universe behind him this was the universe he lived and breathed in now.
“Let’s see what secrets the rift and that frozen Venus have to offer.” Miles said to himself and boarded.
Scene: En Route – Anastasia, Mid-Flight approaching rift
Everyone was strapped in as the shuttle slips through the rift’s fringe, riding the edge of a quantum surge. Console lights flicker as interference builds.
“Iconian energy signatures detected. Their architecture is laced along the rift perimeter—stabilizing it. This rift is not natural.” VELRA reported.
“Meaning someone—or something—keeps it open.” REEVE commented.
“If the Treen’s are using Iconian tech, this just got a lot more complicated.” Miles sighed.
“Treen patrol ahead. Small formation. We’re in their sensor net.” NALORA reported monitoring sensors from her console.
“Activating stealth grid. Routing auxiliary power—don’t breathe too loud.” CH’KORRAK half chuckled.
Anastasia glided silently through a nebular filament. Treen ships pass overhead, unaware.
“Luck is with us. For now.” SSA’KITH said with a low growl.
“Planetary descent window in sixty seconds. Atmosphere is thin but stable. Surface temperatures near minus eighty Celsius.” VELRA checked in.
“Everyone prep for cold-weather ops. We go in unseen. We leave a mark.” REEVE ordered.
The planet loomed into view, frozen storms swirling over cracked metallic plains.
Scene: Surface Landing – Fourth Planet (Venus-type World)
The Anastasia landed with a crunching whir as its landing skids break the thin ice crust. Snow swirls in electric blue eddies across a slate-gray tundra. Jagged black mountains loom in the distance.
“Touchdown confirmed. Atmosphere stable, but we’re on borrowed time. Hazard visors on.” REEVE ordered.
“Thermal flux from the surface suggests geothermal instability. That mountain range is laced with radiation and Iconian trace signatures.” VELRA stated scanning with tricorder.
“Good. That means we’re close. Let’s fan out and locate the rift anchors. Zulu Team, tight formation.” Miles answered nodding at Reeve respecting his command of the Hazard Team.
“No visible movement yet… but this kind of silence doesn’t last.” CH’KORRAK said with dryly.
“Tactical sensors picking up faint heat blooms—potential Treen recon units to the east.” NALORA also reported.
“They may have seen our descent. Recommend we relocate before sunrise.” SSA’KITH suggested.
The team moved out with efficiency, cloaked under the snow mist and cold shadows. The storm quiets as they head deeper into the icy alien wilderness, toward an Iconian structure half-buried in frozen ash.
Scene: Bridge, USS Fortitude, Edge of the Binary Star System
The bridge humed with restrained energy. Commander Teshla Phyhr stood at the center chair, flanked by tactical readouts and subspace sensor overlays. The rift churned silently on the main viewer, its violet heart pulsing like a wound in space.
“It’s too quiet.” TESHLA said to herself.
She sits in the Captains Chair. The crew remains steady, professional but tension lingers in every breath. She exhales slowly and activates the mission log.
“Personal log, supplemental. Commander Teshla Phyhr, acting CO.”
“The Andorian war-song teaches that battle reveals the heart. I always believed that to mean the heart of the enemy. But now… I understand. It’s our hearts revealed in absence—in the silence that follows when the ones we follow walk into danger, and we remain behind.”
“Admiral Llewellyn leads the mission below. I should be at his side. But he trusts me to hold the line to command his ship. It is a duty I will not fail.”
She glances to a tactical feed—no word from Anastasia. Her antennae lower slightly.
“This rift tears more than space. It tears at certainty. At unity. But I will not let it tear this crew apart. Starfleet stands in that rift because we believe something greater comes from standing together.”
“I just want him to come home.” TESHLA said softly.
Teshla ended the log and taps in a command.
“Computer, compile current logs and sensor telemetry. Encrypt under Command Protocol Twelve. Transmit to Starfleet Command relay node Epsilon.”
[Acknowledged. Transmission in progress.] The computer responded.
“Commander, transmission complete. No signal from the surface yet.” Fasu standing near Ops reported.
“Maintain comm-silence sweep. I want to catch the first syllable of Anastasia when they check in.” TESHLA ordered as she sat up in the command chair and tugged her uniform jacket down.
NRPG:
So now we go into the action of the story, this will be a whistle stop ride, I am rusty at writing and recently diagnosed with dyslexia so sometimes I have a hard time putting my thoughts down, but bear with me, this is going to be fun!