Disclaimer: Blah, blah, blah, not mine, blah blah, no money being made,
blah blah, I'm just a hapless trekker trying to vent her insanity, etc,
blah… Title taken from William Henley's Invictus.
Author's Note: Some of the characters are products of my twisted imagination, but most of them are owned by Paramount.
1 The Captain of My Soul
2 Chapter One
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
2.1 Space… The final frontier…
On the Starship Enterprise all was quiet. It was night. The Enterprise was traveling through the stars at warp speed, but in the halls the only indication of their power was the discreet vibration in the walls. Most of the crew was asleep, with the exception of the few crewmembers that came from nocturnal worlds.
On the bridge, the night-watch officers did their duty without much excitement. Because most of the major course changes happened during the day, the only duty of the night watch was to make sure everything ran smoothly in the absence of the main crew. The Engineering station was unmanned. At Communications, Lt Uhura remained in her chair. The Earth holiday of Christmas was rapidly approaching, and many of the crew had greetings to send to their families. Uhura had worked late nearly every night that week in an effort to field all the messages before Christmas. She stopped a moment, leaned back in her chair, stretched her arms and yawned. Only a few more left, and she could go below, take a hot shower, and climb into bed… Uhura smiled at the thought, and turned back to her board.
At the Helm, Lt Ligeia Ford monitored the speed and course of the ship. During the day, she served as librarian and social coordinator. Her duties included dusting and sorting the antique books in the ship's small library. Unfortunately, due to the vast number of volumes stored in the computer, very few people ever had need to enter her corner of the ship. So, just to have something to do, she had volunteered as night-watch helmsman. Lt Ford was always on the lookout for exciting new experiences, and when questioned about her motives for something, she nearly always responded, "It was fun." Being somewhat of a feminist, she had fought hard for the right to wear pants and a tunic as her uniform instead of the standard female Starfleeter's uniform, which she saw as degrading. Consequently, she was the only female on the ship to be wearing a man's duty uniform, but the few people who chose to tease her about being a cross dresser most always had to subsequently report to Dr McCoy for an ice pack to be applied to the eye. Ligeia enjoyed an active imagination. At the moment, she was letting her mind wander to the bottle of Vodka she had smuggled aboard after last shore leave and picturing Pavel's face when he saw it Christmas day. It was, after all, a Russian inwention.
At Navigation, Ensign Malachi Tremont monitored both the course of the ship and the scanners. He'd tied in Spock's science station to his board to give him the ability to monitor both without running across the bridge all night. Tremont was a quiet person, very private, and had few, if any, friends aboard the Enterprise. He was the nervous type, always jumping to conclusions, and very weird. His file said he was Vivalian, from Vivali, but he never offered any information about his past or family. He sported the typical Vivalian features. His long hair fell to his shoulders, framing his pale face. Two red eyes were set opposite a small nose. His handsome features were somewhat interrupted by a long scar beginning beneath the hairline and running nearly to the chin on the left side. He seemed to wear silence like a shroud, adding to the mystery.
Ligeia switched off the classical music she'd been listening to and pulled the silver earpiece from her ear. For some reason, the course numbers she'd been monitoring had vanished from the Helm board. She punched a few buttons, and when there was no response, she kicked the helm hard. At the moment of impact, she saw the digital numbers flash, but then vanish. Damnit, she thought, reluctant to call Engineering this late. She'd had the same problems last night, and after calling an Engineering crewman to the bridge, her console had inexplicably come back to life. They're gonna think I'm crazy! Ligeia sighed, then pulled open the panel below the console and peered in at the wires.
In the middle of a transmission, Uhura's earpiece went dead. She pushed a button in front of her, then another, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't bring her board back to life. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Ligeia Ford on her hands and knees, gazing at the interior of the helm, and cussing softly. Tremont was sitting calmly at his station. "Ensign," she said, addressing him, "Please call Engineering. We seem to be having problems."
Tremont laughed.
The sound startled the two lieutenants. Ligeia banged her head on the panel as she backed up to stare at him. Never in the four months since Tremont had signed on had anyone heard him laughing. More disturbing, Uhura noted, was he hadn't followed her request. "Ensign Tremont, I asked you to call Engineering. Lt Ford and I are experiencing malfunctions. You cannot refuse an order from a superior officer."
"I'm sorry, Lieutenant, I can't follow through. Your stations are not malfunctioning; I have merely taken them over for you. And now I must ask you to come sit down here by me." Tremont said casually.
Uhura stared for a moment. Ligeia replaced the panel and sat back down in her chair slowly. Glancing over at Tremont's station, she saw that he had indeed slaved every Bridge station onto his own panel. "Come on, Malachi, this isn't funny. Give them back," she said.
"Stop this, Tremont. I don't want to have to relieve you," she said, getting angry.
Tremont reached down and produced a phase-pistol. "I'm not joking. And I'm sorry, Miss Uhura, but it looks like I'm the one doing the relieving. Now come sit down here on the floor like a nice girl. I don't want to have to use this." He dramatically switched the setting to kill.
"You wouldn't," Uhura said.
"I would too," said Tremont. He fired, missing Uhura by centimeters. The shot landed on the panel behind her, causing sparks to fly. Both lieutenants jumped, but froze as silence descended.
On every starship, it was well known that alarms would sound at every unauthorized phaser blast.
No alarms sounded now.
As if he had read their thoughts, Tremont said, "There will be no alarms. I shorted them out. No one will know I'm in control until I want them to know. Now, Miss Uhura, please do join us down here. The sparks aren't as pretty when they come from a human."
Uhura numbly walked down to the helm level and approached Tremont. "Now sit on the floor please, and don't move. If you try to contact anybody, or do anything to thwart me, you'll regret it for the rest of your life." He grinned. "About two seconds."
Ligeia stared at him. "Why are you doing this?" she asked, bewildered.
Tremont smiled thinly. "Because, my dear Ligeia, it's fun. And that will have to suffice for now. For the moment, I need you to sit down with Miss Uhura and try not to say anything unless I ask you to." He trained the phaser on Ligeia.
She quietly sat cross-legged on the floor next to Uhura. The two women exchanged glances, wondering just how the hell they were going to get out of this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 2 coming soon. Please R&R!
Author's Note: Some of the characters are products of my twisted imagination, but most of them are owned by Paramount.
1 The Captain of My Soul
2 Chapter One
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
2.1 Space… The final frontier…
On the Starship Enterprise all was quiet. It was night. The Enterprise was traveling through the stars at warp speed, but in the halls the only indication of their power was the discreet vibration in the walls. Most of the crew was asleep, with the exception of the few crewmembers that came from nocturnal worlds.
On the bridge, the night-watch officers did their duty without much excitement. Because most of the major course changes happened during the day, the only duty of the night watch was to make sure everything ran smoothly in the absence of the main crew. The Engineering station was unmanned. At Communications, Lt Uhura remained in her chair. The Earth holiday of Christmas was rapidly approaching, and many of the crew had greetings to send to their families. Uhura had worked late nearly every night that week in an effort to field all the messages before Christmas. She stopped a moment, leaned back in her chair, stretched her arms and yawned. Only a few more left, and she could go below, take a hot shower, and climb into bed… Uhura smiled at the thought, and turned back to her board.
At the Helm, Lt Ligeia Ford monitored the speed and course of the ship. During the day, she served as librarian and social coordinator. Her duties included dusting and sorting the antique books in the ship's small library. Unfortunately, due to the vast number of volumes stored in the computer, very few people ever had need to enter her corner of the ship. So, just to have something to do, she had volunteered as night-watch helmsman. Lt Ford was always on the lookout for exciting new experiences, and when questioned about her motives for something, she nearly always responded, "It was fun." Being somewhat of a feminist, she had fought hard for the right to wear pants and a tunic as her uniform instead of the standard female Starfleeter's uniform, which she saw as degrading. Consequently, she was the only female on the ship to be wearing a man's duty uniform, but the few people who chose to tease her about being a cross dresser most always had to subsequently report to Dr McCoy for an ice pack to be applied to the eye. Ligeia enjoyed an active imagination. At the moment, she was letting her mind wander to the bottle of Vodka she had smuggled aboard after last shore leave and picturing Pavel's face when he saw it Christmas day. It was, after all, a Russian inwention.
At Navigation, Ensign Malachi Tremont monitored both the course of the ship and the scanners. He'd tied in Spock's science station to his board to give him the ability to monitor both without running across the bridge all night. Tremont was a quiet person, very private, and had few, if any, friends aboard the Enterprise. He was the nervous type, always jumping to conclusions, and very weird. His file said he was Vivalian, from Vivali, but he never offered any information about his past or family. He sported the typical Vivalian features. His long hair fell to his shoulders, framing his pale face. Two red eyes were set opposite a small nose. His handsome features were somewhat interrupted by a long scar beginning beneath the hairline and running nearly to the chin on the left side. He seemed to wear silence like a shroud, adding to the mystery.
Ligeia switched off the classical music she'd been listening to and pulled the silver earpiece from her ear. For some reason, the course numbers she'd been monitoring had vanished from the Helm board. She punched a few buttons, and when there was no response, she kicked the helm hard. At the moment of impact, she saw the digital numbers flash, but then vanish. Damnit, she thought, reluctant to call Engineering this late. She'd had the same problems last night, and after calling an Engineering crewman to the bridge, her console had inexplicably come back to life. They're gonna think I'm crazy! Ligeia sighed, then pulled open the panel below the console and peered in at the wires.
In the middle of a transmission, Uhura's earpiece went dead. She pushed a button in front of her, then another, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't bring her board back to life. She glanced over her shoulder and saw Ligeia Ford on her hands and knees, gazing at the interior of the helm, and cussing softly. Tremont was sitting calmly at his station. "Ensign," she said, addressing him, "Please call Engineering. We seem to be having problems."
Tremont laughed.
The sound startled the two lieutenants. Ligeia banged her head on the panel as she backed up to stare at him. Never in the four months since Tremont had signed on had anyone heard him laughing. More disturbing, Uhura noted, was he hadn't followed her request. "Ensign Tremont, I asked you to call Engineering. Lt Ford and I are experiencing malfunctions. You cannot refuse an order from a superior officer."
"I'm sorry, Lieutenant, I can't follow through. Your stations are not malfunctioning; I have merely taken them over for you. And now I must ask you to come sit down here by me." Tremont said casually.
Uhura stared for a moment. Ligeia replaced the panel and sat back down in her chair slowly. Glancing over at Tremont's station, she saw that he had indeed slaved every Bridge station onto his own panel. "Come on, Malachi, this isn't funny. Give them back," she said.
"Stop this, Tremont. I don't want to have to relieve you," she said, getting angry.
Tremont reached down and produced a phase-pistol. "I'm not joking. And I'm sorry, Miss Uhura, but it looks like I'm the one doing the relieving. Now come sit down here on the floor like a nice girl. I don't want to have to use this." He dramatically switched the setting to kill.
"You wouldn't," Uhura said.
"I would too," said Tremont. He fired, missing Uhura by centimeters. The shot landed on the panel behind her, causing sparks to fly. Both lieutenants jumped, but froze as silence descended.
On every starship, it was well known that alarms would sound at every unauthorized phaser blast.
No alarms sounded now.
As if he had read their thoughts, Tremont said, "There will be no alarms. I shorted them out. No one will know I'm in control until I want them to know. Now, Miss Uhura, please do join us down here. The sparks aren't as pretty when they come from a human."
Uhura numbly walked down to the helm level and approached Tremont. "Now sit on the floor please, and don't move. If you try to contact anybody, or do anything to thwart me, you'll regret it for the rest of your life." He grinned. "About two seconds."
Ligeia stared at him. "Why are you doing this?" she asked, bewildered.
Tremont smiled thinly. "Because, my dear Ligeia, it's fun. And that will have to suffice for now. For the moment, I need you to sit down with Miss Uhura and try not to say anything unless I ask you to." He trained the phaser on Ligeia.
She quietly sat cross-legged on the floor next to Uhura. The two women exchanged glances, wondering just how the hell they were going to get out of this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 2 coming soon. Please R&R!