STAR TREK:
THE NO-WIN SCENARIO
By Darrin Colbourne
"Montoya to Flores," Commander Isabel Montoya said into her radio.
"Flores here," Lieutenant Gwendolyn Flores's disembodied voice called back.
Montoya checked her watch. "Let's start getting our groups together for final reports and pack it in."
"You got it," Flores said. "How do you think your guys did?"
"All right I suppose. Yours?"
Flores chuckled. "I dunno. For a while there it looked like my Landers wouldn't be able to work out the tri-corders."
"They're not that complicated…"
"It isn't that. Frankly, I think they were a little lost when they realized the things don't have barrels and triggers."
Montoya smiled. "Well, don't ride them too hard about it."
"Wouldn't dream of it. We'll get set to go over here. Flores out."
Montoya put her radio away and looked around. When she saw that most of her party was in sight, she called out, "All right, everyone! Listen up! We're coming up on our time to return, so I want you to start collating the data you've collected and be prepared to detail what you found in the debriefing!" Most of the people within earshot acknowledged with a "Yes, Sir" or an "Aye, Sir" while others passed the word to those out of reach.
Montoya had to grudgingly admit that this training exercise was a good idea. It had been the result of Captain Pike laying down the law after the events at Ceres Two. He'd said that at the first opportunity she was to begin training non-Science Department personnel in the specifics of the Science mission, especially Landers, since his unchallengeable decree was that every Away Team deployed from that point on would do so with a sufficient Lander complement for security. The definition of "sufficient" would depend on the size of the Away Team, but Landers would go, every time.
The "first opportunity" turned out to be the small forest world in the Bastet star system's Goldilocks Zone, so training started with Montoya and Flores each taking a squad of Landers and a team of engineers from the ship's Damage Control sections - filling out two teams of ten - down to the planet's surface, where they explained in detail what they were looking for on such worlds and the methods of using the tri-corders and other survey equipment to find them. Two new teams would go down with Lieutenants Benjamin Goren and Jim Greenfield the next day, then the four top Science Department officers would rotate through the crew until everyone - including the Captain - had a better idea of how to do the main mission.
The first round of training had gone better than Montoya had expected. She'd been mildly surprised at how eager the engineers and Landers had been to learn what she had to teach them, and she wasn't sure if that was their normal state of mind or if they simply found the subject fascinating, though she assumed it was more the former than the latter.
The team gathered around her as she thought about the exercise, bringing her out of her reverie. "So, how did we do?" She asked everyone.
The Lander Sergeant leading the squad spoke up for everyone. "I think we got everything we were supposed to, Commander, but we do want to go over the data with you."
"We'll do that when we get back to the ship. Commander Silas is going to let us use the squadron ready room for the debriefing, so we can upload the data into the display systems there and see what you've come up with. Let's get going."
With that she led the team to their waiting transport. This spacecraft was one of the ships sent to replace Enterprise's losses. Silas had told her that this one had come from a squadron that called itself "The Pony Express," a particular favorite of the CAG's because of the totally coincidental similarity between the Express's squadron emblem and her own. Where the Outriders sported a mounted horseman brandishing a musket, the Express sported a mounted horseman carrying a message pouch.
Montoya went straight to the cockpit to talk to the pilot when she boarded. "Is Enterprise still out in the system?"
"Yes, Sir," Lieutenant Ryoko Meiji said. "We'll have to go out and meet her."
"We'll be settled in soon. You can take off right after."
Meiji acknowledged, then waited as the rest of the team secured the equipment and settled in. "Pony One" took off a minute later, followed soon after by Hauler Two from its landing zone on the other side of the planet. Pony One took the lead as the pilots set course for the asteroid belt between Bastet's fifth planet and the nearest gas giant. From the outskirts of the belt, it took almost no time for the ships to find their way to their base, the United Space Ship Enterprise, on training maneuvers designed to take her throughout the system.
Montoya led the team out of the transport when the flight deck repressurized. "I have to make my initial report to Captain Pike. Go on to the ready room. Lieutenant Flores will start the debriefing. I shouldn't be long." She waved and smiled to Flores on her way off the deck, then made her way to the turbolift.
She made her way to the Control Room via the starboard passage. She was surprised to find Commander Brigid Silas sitting in the center chair. Silas caught a glimpse of her, smiled and waved. Montoya smiled and waved back, then looked around. She found Captain Christopher Pike and Commander Mary McDonald standing by the entrance to the Engineering Watch Section and made her way over.
"Captain, I wanted to give you an oral preliminary report on…" Montoya began.
Pike silenced her with a raised finger. "Hang on, Montoya," he said. "It's just getting to the good part."
Pike's attention was riveted to the main viewer. Number One's attention was divided between the viewer and the datapad she was writing notes in. Montoya turned to the main viewer…and her breath caught. "We're headed for an asteroid," she said, trying her best to keep her voice neutral.
"Yes, we are," McDonald said. She sounded perfectly calm.
Montoya shook her head. "I thought the whole purpose of using an asteroid belt as an obstacle course was to avoid the asteroids."
Pike glanced at her. "Any halfway competent pilot can do that," he said. "What we want to know is how close Silas can get to one of the big ones without crashing."
Montoya shot him an incredulous look, then turned her attention back to Silas. The CAG's attention was fully focused on the viewer now. She was leaning forward, drumming the fingers of her left hand on the armrest. "She looks…nervous."
"I'm sure she is nervous," McDonald said.
"Should we be nervous? I mean, she's a fine pilot…"
"She's an excellent pilot," Pike said. "That's actually part of the problem."
"How…?"
"I'll explain in a second."
Pike watched closely as Silas leaned back in the chair. "Helm, give me a ten-second burn on all portside thrusters on my mark." She waited as the helmsman prepared to carry out the maneuvered and watched the distance to the asteroid, counting down in her head. "Mark!"
The helmsman complied, throwing Enterprise into a low orbit around the asteroid. Silas waited until they completed one orbit, then ordered, "Sub-light engines, all back Creep." The helmsman acknowledged and complied, backing the ship away from the rock as slowly as the sub-light engines could go. Silas waited patiently until the ship was far enough away, then said, "Give me 180 degrees right yaw and take us to the next waypoint, Ahead Slow."
The helmsman acknowledged and complied, spinning the ship around and speeding her up. "Answers Ahead Slow," he said. "Three minutes to next waypoint."
Silas turned the chair to look at the other officers, grinned and did a little dance. She turned back after Montoya grinned back and Pike gave her a thumb's up. McDonald smiled a little, but just shook her head and went back to her notes.
"You were going to tell me why she's nervous," Montoya said to Pike.
"Now that she's got a CAG posting under her belt, Silas has the opportunity to get on a Command Track," Pike explained. "It's her choice whether she wants to go for command of a tactical squadron or a starship. We've been looking for a chance to help her get some command experience in case she decides to go for the ship. The training schedule we're on while we're here has given us that chance."
"She's worried she won't do well?"
"Just the opposite. Right now she's thinking 'I can fly circles around that loser at the helm,' and she's probably right. Helmsmen are only required to take Basic Flight. Tactical and Logistics pilots are better trained."
"Why would that make her nervous?"
"Because once you're a captain of a starship your job is to make decisions, not fly. The point of having a helmsman is so that the 'loser at the helm' can do his job and free you up to do yours. You're relying on his flying skills to get you where you need to be to accomplish the mission, and he's relying on your extra training to make sure he's doing what you need him to do. The hardest lesson for any potential commander is to remember to command and leave the driving to someone else."
Montoya nodded. "And she's not sure she can do that."
"And it's making her jittery."
Montoya looked at him. "So you don't fly yourself anywhere anymore?"
Pike looked a little sad as he shook his head. "Nope. The last real flying any future commander does is in his XO posting."
McDonald paused in her work long enough to look up at him. "Well, thank you for that, Sir. Now I'm thoroughly depressed," she said. When Pike and Montoya grinned at her, she directed her response to the Science Officer. "Don't crack too wise, dear, because you will be doing the Asteroid Belt obstacle course yourself before we leave this system."
Montoya's smile melted as Pike lowered his head and laughed. "My pilot training is only about equivalent to your Basic Flight," Montoya said weakly.
McDonald grinned as she turned back to her pad. "Yes," she muttered, "we're well aware of that."
"Just so you know, Montoya," Pike said when he recovered, "if you break this ship, you have to…"
The Communicator broke in before he could finish. "Conn, incoming signal. It's on subspace, very faint…sounds like a distress signal."
Silas turned toward her. "Can you put it on speaker?"
"Wait one," the Communicator said.
Seconds later, the speakers crackled with static as a voice said, "…ayday, Mayday…ships…is the Kobayashi Maru…der attack from…stile forces! Please….Mayday, may…"
The Communicator switched off the speaker. "It just repeats after that, Commander."
Silas looked up at the speaker. "Kobayashi Maru? What ship is that?"
"I'll look it up in the database," Ben Goren said from the Science station. After a minute a picture of the vessel and its specifications came up on the repeater above him. "Kobayashi Maru, registered to the Nishizono Mining and Heavy Industries Corporation. It's an ore freighter, 25 crew, capacity for twenty passengers and 120,000 metric tons of ore."
"Can we track the signal?" Silas asked the Sensor Officer.
"Working on that now," he replied. After a beat, he added, "Looks like it originated at 260 by 70, 65 light-years out."
"And what's out there?" Silas wondered aloud.
Goren did some more checking. "The nearest celestial object would be the Mutara Nebula."
"What the hell would an ore carrier be doing all the way out there?"
Goren shrugged. "Could be prospecting. Most of the major rocks in the Solar System are already claimed by one company or another, so they all tend to spare a ship or two to hunt down new resources to exploit outside the system."
"Sounds like the Kobayashi found something else besides rock." Silas thought about that a minute, then leaned to the side and risked a look back at Pike and McDonald. Pike just offered a smirk and a shrug. Number One offered a passing glance before noting more things in her 'pad. Silas frowned at their general unhelpfulness and settled back in the chair. "Well, we can't very well ignore a distress signal, can we? Navigator, set course for the Mutara Nebula. Helm, get us clear of the belt and engage at Warp when ready. Sensors, try to pinpoint Kobayashi's location when we re-enter normal space."
As the respective officers acknowledged and complied, Montoya leaned over to Pike and whispered, "Is this part of the exercise?"
Pike smiled and whispered back, "Yes…and no."
Before she could think of a response to the cryptic answer, the helmsman's voice sounded over Intercraft. "All decks prepare for Space Warp!" Enterprise was underway a second later.