STAR TREK
STRANGE NEW WORLD

1x02 - "BEFORE THE FALL" [PART 2]

Written By Alex Matthews

Based on 'Star Trek' 
created by Gene Roddenberry

STARRING

Evangeline Lilly as COMMANDER MYRA SHAW

Jai Courtney as LT. COMMANDER CARL KELHAM

Jack Harrer as LT. FINLEY McKENCHIE

Marc Ruffalo as LT. PERRY ALLEN (R.N.)

Temuera Morrison as COMMANDER ALDRED 

WITH 

Cobie Smulders as COMMANDER T'MUR

Jeffrey Wright as CAPTAIN EDWARD DONOVAN

“Star Trek and all related marks, logos and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. This fan fiction is not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with CBS, Paramount Pictures, or any other Star Trek franchise, and is a non-commercial fan-made film intended for recreational use.  No commercial exhibition or distribution is permitted. No alleged independent rights will be asserted against CBS or Paramount Pictures.”

Copyright (c) 2019

Produced by Sojournerverse Productions

Buffeted by violent energies barely understood, the Starship Ascendant traversed the vortex, tossed around like a child's toy boat on the surface of a rippling lake. 
Bright emerald-green lightning lashes out, passing through the shields as if they weren't even there. One strikes dangerously close to the main bridge...

*             *             *

Myra Shaw flinched, hands instinctively coming up to protect her head, as the Ops console exploded. Sparks flew across the bridge, shrapnel flying in all directions. Both the Andorian ensign manning the station and McKenchie at Conn were thrown from their positions, landing hard on the deck. 
Shaw left her position, as quickly as she could, doing what she could to keep standing, to see to the ship's pilot. From the corner of her eye, she saw T'Mur doing the same for the ensign who had landed near enough at her feet. 
"EPS relays overloading across the ship!" she heard Aldred report, frustratingly calm despite everything. She pushed that aside to focus on McKenchie, who was conscious but dazed, bleeding from a significant gash to his right temple. A quick glance over at T'Mur got her a simple shake of the head in response to her unasked question. She could see for herself it was too late for the Ops officer. One of her antennae had been sheared off, the normally pale-blue skin of one half of her face blackened and burned away. 
Instead, T'Mur was now taking over at Conn, as Shaw took the med-kit offered to her by the noncom at environmental control to tend to McKenchie. As she scanned him with the tricorder, to proper assess the injury, she tries not to react as T'Mur reported, "Helm functions are still on-line but I am unable to reverse course. The gravimetric current is still too strong."
"Forward it is, Commander," replied Donovan, still secured to his chair thanks to his restraints.
T'Mur nodded, working the console, "Proceeding on a direct course, aye, sir."
Finding no internal injuries, Shaw took a gauze pack from the med-kit and took McKenchie's hand, making him hold it in place. As she injected him with a minor stimulant, to help him focus, Aldred spoke up, "I am detecting an opening just ahead of our position. It appears to be the terminus of the passage."

*             *             *

The sleek form of the Ascendant pushed its way out of the thunderstorm-like miasma of energetic particles that formed the anomaly. Slipping into the blackness of the void that is the natural habitat of a proud starship. Her shields light up the dark, as they spark and fizzle with remnants of the vortex's immeasurable forces. With little of the grace that she is normally capable of, the mighty vessel lists to port, turning off-axis, many of her running lights  flickering or completely dark...

*             *             *

In Main Engineering, it was barely-controlled chaos, as Carl Kelham tried his best to keep his engineers and technicians focused on the task at hand. Now that the constant battering and shaking had eased, it was calmer, but the air was still charged with nervousness.
"Hull integrity at 47%," the Bajoran lieutenant at the console behind him called out. "The shields held for the most part, but the generators were severely overtaxed."
He offered a curt nod in reply, as he stared at the massive warp core that powered the Ascendant. It was pulsing weakly, in a way that he really didn't like. "Send Rivera and Lee to assess them and start any repairs, and have Alpha and Beta Damage Control Teams begin on the priority jobs."
Pulling his attention away from the heart of the ship, he took in what the master systems table he stood in front of was telling him. 
It wasn't good. 
He tapped at his communicator, figuring he better get the bad news over and done with, "Kelham to Bridge, we've got serious problems."
[Tell me something I don't know, Mr. Kelham,] came to bitter retort from the Ascendant's commanding officer. 
Kelham bit down on the rejoinder that sprang to mind, and reminded himself that it was better to get along to go along.
"We've suffered several structural damage across the entire space-frame. That little trip banged us up real good. There's also some major buckling on the nacelle pylons, so we're stuck to impulse for the time being."
[Understood,] Donovan replied, voice hard as stone as it always was, [Deploy damage control parties. Donovan out.]
Kelham rolled his eyes and gritted his teeth, checking to see the channel was closed before he spoke, his words barely above a whisper, "Gee, great idea, glad you suggested it. It's not like I would have thought of that myself, Captain."

*             *             *

Taking care as she stood, Shaw eased the woozy McKenchie to his feet. The tricorder had revealed no internal injuries, beyond a mild concussion, thankfully. He offered her a genuine smile of thanks, "I'm fine, Commander, really."
He looked to Donovan, "Permission to resume my station?" 
Donovan pursed his lips. Shaw could see his gaze was fixed on the gauze the young officer held in place, soaked with blood. The captain shook his head, "Denied, Lieutenant. Get yourself to Sickbay."
McKenchie opened his mouth to protest, but Shaw gave him a quick look and a subtle shake of the head. Donovan was not a man to argue with, even with the best of intentions. That was a lesson she'd learned the hard way a long while ago.
"Aye, sir," McKenchie finally replied, heading towards the nearest turbo-lift, as Donovan faced her. "Commander, get me a casualty report from Dr. Porter, ASAP."
Shaw nodded in acknowledgment, heading back to her station to follow through. Aldred spoke up from the Science station, "Sensors show we are in orbit of a class-M planet, Captain, but it does not appear to be one Starfleet has charted." His eyes narrowed at his readings, "Some kind of energy barrier, in a state of quantum/temporal-flux, surrounds it."
"Position reports, Commander T'Mur?" Donovan inquired, as he  finally released his chair restraints. 
T'Mur was silent as she worked the Conn console, as a damage control team exited the arriving lift and made their way to do what they could for the destroyed Ops station.
"I am cross-checking stellar cartography maps, to confirm my readings, sir." Something in T'Mur's tone, barely noticeable to most, made Shaw look up. It wasn't what she said, but how she had said it. Almost with disbelief.
"Well?" Donovan snapped, his patience clearly running low. When T'Mur turned around to face him, her face was impassive but her eyes shone with shock even years of Vulcan training could not hide.
"Sir, we have traveled through almost the entire length of the Krona Expanse. Further then we have accurate or detailed charts for." 
Shaw couldn't believe what she was hearing. "That would put us deep in the Beta Quadrant!"
It was Aldred who said what she hadn't, his tone low, almost like a death keel, "Almost 12 thousand light years from our previous position."

*             *             *

Finley McKenchie couldn't help but flinch a little as Perry Allen gently tended to his sizable gash. It was only a very minor injury, and Finley felt more then a little silly as he sat and allowed the nurse to clean and seal the wound. 
"Don't worry," Allen smiled as he spoke, eyes bright with humor, "You'll be back flying us through the great unknown before you know it."
Finley couldn't help but grin. Perry knew he too well - the one thing he loved was being in control of a vehicle. It didn't matter what kind, starship, shuttle, or even a land vehicle, he could master them all. 
But he knew Perry just as well. He could see the hurt he was trying to hide. He understood why, as well. 
Sickbay was packed. Every bio-bed was occupied, several of them taken up by medical personnel themselves, injured by the Ascendant's transit through the anomaly. One such bed was covered in a blanket, the occupant covered head to toe. 
"I'm sorry about Dr. Porter," he said, knowing how close Perry was to the Ascendant's chief medical officer. She had taken the young nurse under her wing, and helped push him to decide on applying to Starfleet Medical School, in order to get the M.D. he'd wanted for years.
"It's still sinking in," Allen muttered, tears in his eyes, deactivating the protoplaser and dropping it carelessly into an equipment tray. "One minute she's telling me to prep the triage area, the next, the surgical console exploded and she-- she..." He shook his head, wiping away a single errant tear.
McKenchie opened his mouth, although he had no idea what he was going to say, some words of comfort, anything, but the harsh call from the squat, bald Tellarite across the room stopped him cold, "Nurse Allen, if you're done wasting time over there, make yourself useful!"
Dr. Preev glov Thraat was a brilliant doctor but any bedside manner within him was buried under the layers of sarcasm and snark that were standard for a Tellarite. McKenchie couldn't help but shot him an annoyed look, but it bounced off the assistant chief medical officer's stubbornness and devil-may-care attitude.
Allen, blushing, nodded quickly, "Yes, Dr. Thraat." Offering an apologetic smile to McKenchie, he started to move away, but McKenchie quickly snagged him by the wrist. Pulling him in as he slipped off the bio-bed and surrendered it to the next needy patient, his lips darted forward, planting a quick kiss on the nurse's cheek. 
The scandalous look on Thraat's face was almost as rewarding as the beaming smile Perry shot him as he promised, "See you later, okay?"
Allen nodded eagerly, and McKenchie enjoyed watching him walk away with a needed spring in his step, if only for a little while, before heading out of Sickbay.

*             *             *

The Ascendant hangs in space, lights no longer flickering, but impulse and warp engines dark. Inactive.
Small space-suited figures move slowly and deliberately across the surface of the ship's hull. Repair crews, going about their tasks with great care for the vessel that is their home as they journey through the void...

Captain's Log, supplemental: We're continuing repairs but there's only so much my Chief Engineer can do without access to proper materials and supplies. It's been two long days since the anomaly deposited us in the back end of the Krona Expanse, almost 15 years away from our homes, at maximum warp. But for the moment, warp drive is out of the question, at least until we can be sure the nacelles won't shear off once engaged. 
The crew are handling the strain as well as can be expected. It seems Commander Aldred is the only one who seems to be enjoying the situation, as he's spent every minute since either scanning for the anomaly, finding a way to re-open it, or studying the readings of the strange planet we're now in orbit of.

*             *             *

"It appears my earlier report that the planet is M-class may have been a slight exaggeration."
Aldred's contrite report caught Shaw off-guard. He wasn't one to make mistakes, let alone admit them. He pointed out one of the upper displays on Science One, "The energy field that surrounds it distorted my initial scans. While it has many qualities indicative of class-M planets, it is far more inhospitable then most."
"Interesting," T'Mur added, reading the monitor's scans, "It seems to lack even more moisture then Vulcan."
"What about life-forms?" Donovan demanded. Just like Shaw herself, the captain had only left the bridge for the barest minimum of time needed since they had been dumped here. It hadn't done his temper any favors, "Any indication of a race or technology that could have caused that anomaly?"
Aldred blinked in surprise. Apparently, he hadn't had the same thought that their arrival hadn't been pure chance. Shaw had wondered at the possibility often in the last two days - as chief of security, she had to consider possible threats to the ship. "No, sir," he replied cautiously, "but as I have explained, the energy field has placed the planet in a state of not just quantum flux, but temporal."
"Meaning it's here, but not, at the same time?" Shaw still could not wrap her mind over the concept. She remembered the log of the U.S.S. Defiant under Captain Sisko from the early 2370s about the planet Meridian. It regularly shifted between their plane of reality and another, where it existed as pure energy.
"I don't want excuses, Commander. I want answers. Get them." Donovan turned his back on the stunned Aldred, heading for his command chair. Shaw felt herself flush, embarrassed for the poor science officer. T'Mur merely raised her eyebrow. 
"Captain, perhaps you should go to your quarters. Get some rest." Before Donovan could turn on her, T'Mur's eyes met Shaw's, "Yourself as well, Commander. You have both been on duty for far too long."
Shaw did her utmost to hide her annoyance. She saw what the Vulcan was doing. By having her agree and turn in, Donovan would see she wasn't just singling him out. She didn't like it, but she understood. "She's right, Captain. There's not much either of us can do, at least, not right now."
Donovan sighed angrily, letting out a ragged breath, "Let me guess, T'Mur. That famed Vulcan physiology means you do not need to rest at this present time?"
T'Mur offered a ghost of a smile, "As you say, Captain."
Donovan must have realized that it was futile to argue with her - he rarely won any of his arguments with the executive officer. Especially when she was right. "Fine, fine. You have the bridge, X.O."
Shaw was almost tempted to smile, but was glad she resisted the impulse as Donovan turned his beady eyes on her, "Walk with me, Commander Shaw."
Uh-oh. She really didn't like the tone in his voice. She did her best to maintain a cool facade, "Of course, sir." 
A trickle of cold sweat dripped down her back as she entered the turbo-lift after Donovan. She braced herself for what was coming once he stated the destination.
"You've got a good head on your shoulders, Commander Shaw," the captain stated, much to her surprise. Not the direction she thought the conversation was going. "Your career is going from strength to strength. I can see you making first officer in your near future."
"Thank you, sir," she replied, sincere in her words, more then happy to be receiving such praise from Donovan. He was not a man to offer such lightly, either.
That was when the other shoe dropped.
"Which is why I'm discouraged to hear about your apparent relationship with Commander Kelham." Donovan gave her such a hard look that she almost swallowed guiltily, but managed not to, not wanting to show any sign of weakness in front of him. 
He cut off the beginnings of her protest with a raised hand. "Look, I don't normally stick my nose in my officers private lives. You're free to make those choices without my say-so." He shook his head, disappointment obvious, "But Commander Kelham is not good officer material."
This time, Shaw did not allow him to interrupt her, "Sir, Commander Kelham has done an admirable job serving on board the Ascendant."
Donovan snorted in derision, "Oh, he may be an excellent engineer, but he's not a team player, Commander. His service record is a list of disciplinary measures and reprimands!" He put a hand on her shoulder, smiling at her with an almost fatherly mien, "I don't know how far this relationship has developed, but for the sake of your career, I would end it now. You do not want to be associated with someone like that."
Shaw tightened her jaw, anger flooding through her veins, boiling her blood. She may not love Carl, but she cared for him, enough that Donovan's words lit a fire in her.
"I appreciate what you're saying, Captain," she finally allowed herself to reply, "But like you say, this is my choice to make."
Donovan pulled his hand away. Any hint of affection vanished along with his smile. "On your own head, be it, Command--"
He never finished his sentence, as the turbo-lift bucked wildly like a bronco. Shaw lost her footing, found herself being thrust hard against the wall, as the Red Alert klaxon blared into life, deafening her with its loudness.
Before she had time to even fathom what the hell was going on, the life was plunged into darkness.  Her stomach was pushed up into her throat, gravity shifting as the turbo-lift began to plummet down...

*             *             *

Space distorted and shifted, as a dark green raptor-like Romulan warship decloaked. Its disruptors burned through the void with bright emerald light, as they joined their sister ships whose weapons were already blasting against the weakened shields of the Ascendant.
The Sovereign-class starship defiantly faces the surprise blitz-attack that had come from nowhere head on. But it's three against one.
The odds are not in their favor...

To Be Continued...