Title: To Go the Distance
Author: Stephen Ratliff
Contact: stephen
Series: TNG, Marrissa Stories vol 02
Codes: adv
Rating: [G]
Summary: Marrissa and three others tell the tale of how she got her first command and how her parents died.
Dedicated to my younger brother Phillip.
Author's Notes
This is a complete revision of "Enterprized" and "Battle For Bajor" (itself a revision of "A Gul's Revenge"), containing none of the original text. It's told from the perspective of four different characters, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Gul Ducat (not to be confused with Gul Dukat), Lieutenant Markovic, and Marrissa, an about to turn twelve girl on the Enterprise.
Originally, "Enterprized" was the introductory Marrissa story, being the first one I wrote, back in 1993. I freely admit that it was bad. Even after three major revisions it was still bad. It also was my first work, so I guess that was to be expected. It is hoped that this replacement will improve on that. Of course, this is also my first attempt at first person, so it may still have some problems.
My concept behind the Marrissa stories is quite simple. I am trying to show the journey of a young girl from the time she grew up on the Enterprise-D until she takes command of her own Enterprise, similar to works like Horatio Hornblower. At this time, this has been mostly accomplished through the use of the five eras that I rotate in working on. The first of these eras, Marrissa's First Adventures covering Marrissa's time on the Enterprise-D begins with "The Field Trip" and continues with this story. Other eras include "Lieutenant Picard," "The Stargazer Missions," "The Endeavor Missions," and finally "The Last Romulan War." At the publication of this work, I have written more than 30 Marrissa Stories.
I'm not the only one who has done so at this point. Anne-Lise Pauch was the first to join in, with "Generations 2: Generations Ahead." Thomas Keeler has written several works in the post Last Romulan War era. Bart Fargo a.k.a. Pete Plum has written a few more parody type works. Adam Cadre wrote "Dark Marrissa: Master Builders" which is as dark as I've seen. David Hines has self inserted himself into the Marrissaverse. Michael Wallen a.k.a. Rottweiler has written a couple, and become a collaborator on a couple more. And the newest guy on the block, David Brinks, debuted his first work last September. I'm quite happy with them all, even if not all of them get considered to be part of my canon.
I continue to write Marrissa stories, with a large number of them in various status on my hard drive. However, I don't get as much time as I used to, so they're going slower. I hope to get out at least three this year and more in the following year.
As for now, it's time to go back to when Marrissa was not yet twelve, when Deep Space Nine was still new, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard was in his seventh year commanding the Enterprise. It's time for a young girl to break out of the shadows and her shyness into command for the first time . . .
Stephen Ratliff
Roanoke, VA
August 2003.
Prologue
The Enterprise is a cursed ship. You don't believe me? You believe she's a legendary ship whose adventures are praised by many races. You're no Cardassian.
For Cardassians, our first encounter with the Enterprise was with NCC-1701-C. For the first four years of the First Federation War, she was the terror of all Cardassia. Once that ship joined the battle, we never won. Over a thousand ships were destroyed by that ship. Some Guls even took to leaving the battle when she arrived. That was the type of terror she inspired.
Fortunately, she disappeared midway through the war. The Klingons say she was destroyed saving one of their colonies from Romulans. No less than two dozen Guls claim otherwise. Still, even without the Enterprise, the Federation was winning our on again off again war. It wasn't until shortly after the Federation announced that the third Galaxy Class Starship would be named Enterprise that the final cease fire was signed. I believe that the possibility of facing another Enterprise ended that war.
Since the Enterprise-D was commissioned she's foiled at least five Cardassian plans I know of . . .
Of course I have something against the Enterprise! What Gul doesn't? If it weren't for the Enterprise and that little girl, Marrissa, I'd be a hero, conqueror of Bajor, and in charge of Central Command if not all of Cardassia. I'm Gul Ducat, damn it, not an invalid confined to this asylum.
Chapter One
If you had told me when I took command of the Enterprise-D that the most enjoyable time of the day for any of my days would be an hour that I spent talking to a young girl, I wouldn't have believed you. However, after two hours talking to Admirals about our recent spotting of the Enterprise-C along the Romulan border, a shift where the red alert alarm went off accidentally seven times, and the usual paper work, an hour talking with Marrissa about school and her various projects becomes quite appealing.
I've been mentoring Marrissa for over a year now. Knowing that she tends to be shy most of the time, now, I'm amazed that she was able to approach me about becoming her mentor. She's the only one to ever ask me directly. I could not say no to her. True, it's an hour out of my day, but it's been time well spent.
Marrissa is a talented little girl, just short of her twelfth birthday. Recently I arranged for her report on Quantum Filament movement to be submitted to the Vulcan Science Academy Journal's Young Scholar's edition, an issue with papers by various children under the age of 15. This year, Marrissa will be the youngest and only human published in that volume. She should be proud of that accomplishment, and more so, that of the paper. It's rare that someone that young comes up with such an original theory and supports it so well.
Though she's got quite a bit of scientific talent, and could go far in the field of quantum physics, that's not where this young girl wants to go. If it was, I'm sure I wouldn't have been pursued to be her mentor. Marrissa wants to be in command. She's got the mind for it, but she has to get over her shyness. To help with that, Counselor Troi recently recommended that Marrissa shadow me for a day. While I'm not usually eager to let children on the bridge, after some thought, I decided to offer the opportunity to Marrissa.
It was the day we set out on our mission to intercept the Enterprise-C. Marrissa took the term shadow literally. We began with the morning meeting in the observation lounge with our daily meeting. A meeting that Marrissa spent most of seated on the edge of her seat, her hands gripping her PADD until her knuckles were white.
On any other ship, you can count on a daily routine, except in extraordinary circumstances. On the Enterprise, a routine day is extraordinary. Commander Riker was discussing our bridge commanders' rotation and how recent transfers had resulted in several officers hitting Star Fleet's maximum time in command for a given week, when the call came in from Admiral McGuire.
I should make some things clear about the Admiral. McGuire expects her orders to be followed exactly, with no deviation until the enemy is encountered. She will quote at least two regulations in her orders, and if those where not followed when the mission was over, you can expect her to file charges. It has long been my personal opinion that McGuire is a prime example of the worst kind of Admiral.
"Incoming call from Admiral McGuire, Starbase 375," interrupted the young ensign that Riker had left in command of the bridge.
"Put her on the observation lounge view screen, Ensign," I said, turning around to face it, and noticing that Marrissa had slid back out of the way, and was in the process of moving to an unobtrusive spot. It didn't take long for the Admiral to appear. "Admiral McGuire, what can I do for you."
"Star Fleet requires the Enterprise's immediate departure to the encrypted coordinates that I'm sending now. You will be required to travel under strict subspace silence. Furthermore, you will be required to initiate saucer separation before reaching the Cardassian Border, per Star Fleet Regulation 201 E, as said mission is regarded as one to which civilian population on board would be inadvisable."
"Understood, Admiral."
"You are to intercept and if possible recapture the ship designated as NCC-1701-C from the Romulans. We have reason to believe that the said ship is heading toward Cardassia. We require you to bring your whole command crew for potential commanding and supporting officers on the said vessel, as we believe that the recent commissioning of four Galaxy Class vessels has stripped your ship of adequate secondary officers."
She was right. The Enterprise had lost 40 command line officers to those ships. Normally it wouldn't have been a problem, the Enterprise could always be assured of transfers of good personnel, but the fleet was on a month's transfer freeze in the aftermath of a scandal in Personnel, and the next Academy Graduation wasn't for another month. This mission was coming up at the wrong time.
"Due to the sensitive nature of this mission, I am ordering the full briefing on the situation to be restricted to those in the room with you now. I also remind you of Regulation 201 F. Admiral McGuire out."
"Commander Data, please see to the immediate implementation of subspace silence," I said. This was a mess. Regulation 201 dealt with all aspects of saucer separation. As such, my officers and I are very familiar with it. Section F, however, was going to cause problems. It had just limited my choices to those fully briefed on the mission, and now, only my command staff and one young girl were allowed to be so briefed. "We have a problem, ladies and gentlemen."
When the Captain said that I would have to command the saucer section, I thought it had to be some sort of a big joke, but the Captain is not known for joking. The whole idea is crazy. Put an almost twelve-year-old girl in command of a saucer section containing more than over 400 people? Once more, that girl being me, I know I don't have the training or knowledge to command. The Captain may be my mentor, but he's done nothing to prepare me for this. In fact it has to be as strange idea to him as it is to me. Little girls do not command starships.
But if you think I was going to say no to my first chance at command . . . I may be shy. I may be quiet, but I am not timid, and I don't turn down challenges. This was going to be a big one. The Captain was leaving me with one Lieutenant to serve as my First Officer, or as he liked to call it, my "Number One" and a bunch of non commissioned officers. In twenty-five hours, the saucer section will be mine to command. I hope I don't mess up.
I have to say that this is one screwed up ship. I've just learnt that I'm to serve as First Officer to the commander of the saucer section in fifteen hours. As the Enterprise's Acting Head of Stellar Cartography, I have to say this is unusual. It's been two years since I've logged an hour on the bridge, back when I was still on the command track. What's even more unusual is who I'm seconding. I'm told that Admiral "Rule Book" McGuire is why the saucer section is going to be commanded by young Marrissa Flores.
McGuire is one Admiral who needs to go into early retirement if not a court-martial. She is the reason I had to transfer to Science, after disobeying her orders and saving her ship. I know it doesn't sound fair. I do love my job in Stellar Cartography though, it's just a shame that McGuire ended my chance at my first love of command. I hope her orders don't result in Marrissa losing her chance as well.
Marrissa is one of my students. I teach an advance Stellar Science course to ten children on the Enterprise. I'm glad that Counselor Troi arranged for me to teach it. The students are a joy to teach, and are full of ideas. Marrissa is the second youngest in the course, and deserves to be there. She's not without her faults though. She doesn't speak up in class much, and she can't keep a paper under a word limit. You'd think you were trying to pull her teeth when you try to get her to defend her own work, in class. Recently the Captain arranged for the best of her papers "Theory of Galactic Quantum String Movement" to be submitted to the Young Scholar's Edition of the Vulcan Science Academy Journal. It was accepted, and praised by the editor Doctor Tisik as the most innovative and understandable theory yet proposed in the field. This was the same paper that I'd spent a whole class period trying to get her to defend just two weeks before. It wasn't until the last five minutes that she responded in class. I have to admit though that she did respond very well, behind the nervous smile and soft halting voice.
In five hours, I will turn over half of my starship and forty percent of my officers to a girl who was not even born when I lost the Stargazer. It is perhaps the most difficult thing I've ever done. Marrissa has no experience and scant training. I've told her that she should rely on the training of those around her, and err on the side of caution, but I'm not sure how much of an impression I made. She's going to be walking on a tight course. Under any normal circumstance, she would not even be on the bridge. However, orders from an Admiral combined with the normality of the Enterprise generally result an abnormal situation. She's been briefed as well as possible, but will it be enough? The worry will keep me up late until we reconnect, I'm sure.
I've provided her with as able of a crew as I could. Lieutenant Markovic may be a Scientist now, but he would have been the commander of the saucer section if McGuire hadn't thrown in that last command. The rest of her crew is the Enterprise's second string team, which sounds better than it is. Until last week, many of them would have been fifth and sixth string. Still, we only accept the best officers on the Enterprise. I'm sure they'll do fine. I wish I could say the same about my hopes for the state of my quarters. I have to be insane to let a eleven-year-old girl take them while I'm away with the stardrive section.
Author's Note: I have recently discovered that the scene separators got lost in this story when uploaded to . I am currently working on fixing that.