Star Trek Lost Destiny

By Hemaccabe

Book I: Race of Death

Chapter 1: Conversations With Old Friends

(Author's Note: You're welcome to jump into the story and ignore my introduction, but I'm going to take a moment and introduce the project before you. As I write this, it is the Spring of 2019. I am a huge Star Trek fan, but I have to admit, Star Trek, as a franchise, is in trouble. My greatest love is for the Original Series. IMHO, Star Trek peaked with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It made sense at that point to have a sequel series. The stars of the Original Series weren't getting any younger. While the Rights Holders had many options, they went with a lame one, very slowly, ST: TNG. ST: TNG was lame milqtoast compared to the red meat of the Original Series. The best I can say of ST: TNG is that it was better than the hot mess train wreck disasters that each subsequent sequel series became. Each a step down from the last. Lately, the very poor Kelvin timeline Trek has collapsed in time for JJ to ruin Star Wars. ST: Discovery, or the STD, which started strong, collapsed into a Mirror, Mirror disaster. Star Trek, as we know it, is in trouble.

Even as I re-watch the old OS episodes I needed to write this novel, I see flaws and weaknesses a younger, less critical version of myself missed. It gets harder to ignore that the tech that looked hyper-futuristic in the seventies, now frequently looks silly and dated. While some episodes are still amazing, many are simply difficult to watch, Spock's Brain, the Gamemasters of Triskelion anyone?

Of course, after the Original Series films, we did have some good options. A series about Captain Sulu and the Excelsior could have been great. Of course, doing something great that would make fans happy and themselves a lot of money seems to be deeply against the ethos of the Rights Holders who seem more bent on pissing fans off, destroying the franchise and impoverishing themselves. Whom God destroys.

I had a different idea. Starting in TWOK, I felt we started meeting compelling characters who could potentially carry forward a new series. The most compelling to me was the Kirstie Alley portrayed Saavik, explained in the novelization to be a half Vulcan, half Romulan. We also meet Peter Preston, nephew of Mr. Scott, who promptly dies. We also meet David Marcus, son of Kirk, who also promptly dies. I think they form the core of a series I would have liked to have seen, which I will call, Lost Destiny.

From the scene where Spock asks Saavik to take the Enterprise out of space dock, it felt so much like TWOK was to be, almost a pilot, where we were handing off the reins from our original crew to a new crew, and most specifically, a new Captain in the form of Saavik. Obviously, in Star Trek, this was never to be.

I consider the Original Series, ST II and III to be mostly canon to my story. I also consider Prelude to Axanar canon. ST: TNG and other series, happening long before or after this time frame aren't particularly relevant.

Lost Destiny does have some significant differences. Peter Preston and David Marcus were not killed. Rather, they were badly injured. NCC 1701 is NOT lost at the Genesis Planet. I'll have author's notes throughout the story expressing my opinions on things, I hope you won't find them too annoying. This can be considered a separate timeline and reality. I hope you enjoy.)

After the defeat of Khan, Star Fleet Academy had decided that it was reasonable to move up graduation ceremonies and I was honored to graduate as Brigade Commander and First in Class.

I was assigned with Dr. David Marcus, a civilian expert, to USS Grissom and assigned to the mission of studying the newly created "Genesis Planet."

We would spend two years carefully studying the mystery that was the Genesis planet. Every discovery we made only seemed to create ten more questions. Still, they were good years.

I had made a decision after Khan's attack to try and be more myself. I knew I was more emotional and less austere than most Vulcans. Most Vulcans attributed these differences to my half-Romulan and half-Vulcan heritage. I did not agree. I thought it had much more to do with not starting to be raised as a Vulcan until age eight. I had also always been drawn to human culture as well. At it's best, Human culture seemed like an elegant compromise between Romulan emotionalism and Vulcan stoicism. I had taken up things like eating meat, which I found I enjoyed.

I spent a great deal of time thinking about emotions and logic. Many think all Vulcans are identical emotionless machines. They are not. Many Vulcans would rather die than admit they ever feel an emotion. However, there is a vast variety of schools of thought within the Vulcan community. Generally, the writings of Surak are widely respected, but that respect varies from those who devote themselves to it wholly, to those who just think it's one of many good ideas. There are still many rivalries, almost never violent, but deeply intense nonetheless. I find that the rivalries can be just as intense between those who have very different ideas and those groups which are very similar, perhaps only separated by a single word of dogma, perhaps just the emphasis on a single word of dogma.

I think many Vulcans accept that they have emotions and use the teachings of Surak to control their expression. I considered that standard most appropriate. I wanted to be able to express an emotion from time to time while still maintaining a professional reserve.

After surviving the Klingon attack at the end of our time at the Genesis Planet, Dr Marcus went to recover from his wounds at Walter Reed on Earth. I received new orders.

I would be assigned to the NCC 2003 Dreadnought and their engineering department.

(Author's Note: Yes, there is a canon list of Excelsior class ship names. Dreadnought isn't one of them. I know. First of all, I hate the list of names chosen for Excelsiors. I'm correcting many items in supposed canon as I write this story, this is one of them. The Excelsiors are clearly intended as a class of battleships. The appropriate naming convention for them would be to name them after prominent battleships from the various Federation species that will serve on them. Dreadnought is the name of a very prominent human battleship. It makes sense that there is an Excelsior named for her. I intend to explain the naming choice more in the story in the future as well.)

Initially, that made no sense, so I contacted my mentor.

"This is Saavik. I wanted to speak to you about my new orders if you have a moment?" I began.

"This is a good time. I'm just about to go on leave so I have a few moments. What's up?" Admiral Kirk replied.

Captain Spock has been a mentor to me, and the closest thing I had to a parent, since he had rescued me from Romulus. I could have gone to him with this question, but it was harder now. When I had been a student, and under his command, I could approach and ask him questions about school and my career. Now though, I was no longer under his command. Somehow, that made him more a parent and less a colleague. It was not logical, but it felt true. As a parent, I did not wish to disappoint him. I didn't want to whine to him and only wanted to give him good news. This didn't feel like good news.

Since the Khan incident, I had also begun to speak from time to time with Admiral Kirk. He had become my primary career mentor.

"I had been under the impression that I was on the command track for my career and that Starfleet understood this. However, I have been assigned to engineering on the Dreadnought?" I said, doing my best to keep emotion from my voice.

"Ahh, so you're wondering why you've been assigned to engineering?" Kirk quickly guessed.

"Well, yes."

"Saavik, you need to understand that the philosophy of Starfleet is that a Captain needs to have a strong understanding of the engineering principles that drive a starship. It's typical for young command candidates to be assigned to a tour in engineering.

"This is actually good for you. Those Excelsior class ships are now the pride of the fleet. Starfleet is expecting them to form the backbone of the fleet for the next twenty or so years. A time period that roughly corresponds to your career. Your engineering tour could have been on anything, a Miranda class or a garbage scow. Your tour being on the Dreadnought will help direct you to command of one of those ships."

In fact, while I had a certain fondness for a particular upgraded Constitution class vessel, my ambition was to command the highest prestige ship in the fleet, and that would be an Excelsior class.

Then Kirk continued, "There's also the advantage that they haven't worked out all the bugs on those Excelsiors."

"How is that an advantage?" I asked.

"If you were assigned to an older ship, like, say, that Miranda class, all their issues are long since ironed out and if they're not, no one cares. If you help iron out a problem or two on the Excelsiors, that would be a feather in your cap." Kirk explained.

"Why would no one care about a Miranda class?" I asked confused.

"There aren't many Mirandas left and they're only a short step from being de-commissioned. No one will want to pour scarce Starfleet resources into fixing a problem on the Miranda class. The Excelsiors, however, are brand new and likely to be built in numbers and depth. Finding and fixing a problem on them is something everyone will care about." Kirk explained.

"So then, this is good news?" I asked.

"Yes. Though, as always, you need to be careful." Kirk said.

"Careful how?" I asked confused.

"I did my engineering tour on a Constitution class ship which was brand new back then, same general situation. I did a shift and found that another officer, like me, on the command track, had made a minor error. I corrected the error and followed regulations reporting it. I knew that other officer. He was a good officer and a friend. I also knew reporting his error would damage his career. It did. It blew him off the command track and I also happen to know, broke him as a man. I don't regret what I did but it was hard." At the end, I could hear the steel I had come to realize was at Kirk's core showing.

Getting to spend time with Kirk, I had realized he kept a happy, go lucky façade. It made him pleasant company. I had seen that facade used to avoid many difficult situations before they became crises and to charm the bottoms off a number of females, though not mine. I had also seen that façade was a very thin veneer over a core of determination that was harder than diburnium. I often wondered if I had a core that strong?

"So, if I make a minor error, it could end my career?" I asked surprised.

Kirk responded, "There are no minor errors on a Starship. That error, if it had managed to be compounded, in very few steps, could have meant the ship was lost with all hands. But you shouldn't worry. You've always had a good head for regulations and procedure. Just apply that. You should be fine. This may be one of the easiest tours you do in Star Fleet."

So, I went with bonhomie to my assignment on Dreadnought. One amusing thing about serving on Dreadnought was the great amount of misunderstanding that many civilians had about the name "Dreadnought." They thought Dreadnought was a class of vessels larger than a battleship which was very silly.

Apparently, the confusion went back to a book from 20th century Earth about a silly science fiction story. The book showed a class of ships larger than the largest ship in the story and the name of that class of ship was "Dreadnought." However, the largest class of ship in the story was a Heavy Cruiser. The Dreadnought class would have been, presumably, battleships. This made sense, "Dreadnought" had been a famous battleship in Earth history.

This made sense for the science fiction story for the same reason the Excelsior class ship I was assigned to was named "Dreadnought." The ship was named after the early 20th century British battleship, Dreadnought. Dreadnought was an important ship in her time. Even though she would end up with little significant accomplishment in combat, she was a technological breakthrough. Dreadnought was so different from previous battleships, all battleships afterwards would be known as either pre-Dreadnoughts or post-Dreadnoughts.

So, I was whisked away, on an Oberth-class ship oriented toward moving personnel and small cargo, and delivered safe and sound to Starbase 23.

Starbase 23 is reputed to be an extremely beautiful base with many exciting entertainments. I couldn't tell you. I spent the three days waiting for my rendezvous with Dreadnought in my spartan quarters studying Excelsior engineering. I familiarized myself with schematics, diagrams, operations and procedures. I also took time to listen to engineering discussions of ongoing concerns about the Excelsiors.

The Excelsior class ship was the largest, most technologically complex ship ever built by the Federation, and therefore Earth-Human science. Many of her systems represented the first-time a given solution or technology had ever been tried on a starship. It was not surprising that it might have a few teething problems.

Those teething problems had been made worse by transwarp drive. The driving force in the development of the Excelsior had been the hope of an exponentially faster drive technology than conventional warp drive. Warp drive had slowly been incrementally improving for almost a century. Mostly by building bigger and more powerful engines attached to bigger and more powerful warp cores.

Like the steam turbine before had remained the basic unit of electrical generation for generations, the warp drive remained essentially unchanged. The Federation had seen that there were much faster drive technologies in the galaxy and was desperate to develop them. Something that would break the constraints of the warp drive and give radically faster performance for the same consumption of energy would revolutionize strategic options for Starfleet and presumably commercial development throughout the Federation.

Certain, now discredited, physics experiments had seemed to indicate that something called "transwarp" would be possible. The Excelsior had been built to use that new drive technology. The hope of transwarp had been what had finally wrung the budget from the notoriously stingy Federation Council to begin building a new class of starships.

Excelsior had spent over a year trying to get transwarp to work, with everyone sure it was just one minor technological tweak away.

Part of this was Captain Scott's fault. His sabotage of Excelsior to allow the theft of Enterprise had been the impetus of the idea that transwarp's failure was just some minor malfunction that could be corrected. After our return from the Genesis planet, I know Captain Scott had paid for his crime in the purgatory of being assigned back to Excelsior to first repair what he had broken. Then, when Transwarp still failed, they were sure whatever Captain Scott had done had broken something else. So, they spent an eternity searching for what would be known as the "Secondary Fault." Only when tens of thousands of hours of the incredibly precious time of Star Fleet's best engineers had been squandered conclusively proving there was no secondary fault, did they begin looking for the "Alternate Fault."

Over a year went by. A lot more of Captain Scott's hair turned grey. He gained weight. An internal source told me he had also started to drink more, and his health suffered.

Three days after Starfleet engineering finally threw in the towel and pronounced that they could just not make transwarp work, a Professor Martinez and Scheinerman were publishing what would become known as the discrediting of the original Professors Putin and Tzi's transwarp theory. Two days after that, Federation law enforcement determined Putin and Tzi had actually colluded to create transwarp as a hoax and they were arrested.

So, a crew of over seven hundred on Excelsior had lost over a year of their productive lives. In addition, probably over a thousand of the Starfleet's finest engineers had wasted years of their lives. Starfleet, constantly so stretched for ships she had sent Enterprise on a cadet cruise to be ambushed by Khan, could have had a capable new flagship in space serving useful goals for over a year, also lost.

The work to convert Excelsior back to conventional warp drive went relatively quickly and Excelsior was then out in space. However, thousands of complex systems had all been built and installed in Excelsior based on the expectations of what transwarp drive would do for the ship and how it would supply and remove power. The ship was like a vast three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle that had summarily had a huge section of pieces removed and replaced by another huge section of pieces which didn't all fit in just the same way.

Still, new propulsion systems had been installed and the Excelsior proved her value. Several new hulls including the one for Dreadnought had already been laid down in the hopes of transwarp's success. When the situation was reviewed by the Council, the high cost of updating Constitution class ships with their continuing limitations versus the cost of proceeding with a new class of ships that was substantially better had resulted in the Council grudgingly allowing construction of more Excelsiors.

I got a message that Dreadnought had arrived and would be on station to exchange personnel and take on supplies.

I immediately made myself presentable, packed my few things in a small duffel and proceeded to the docks.

A causeway had been set up between the station and the Dreadnought's secondary hull docking point. Despite my uniform, I still needed to show my credentials to the station guard at the beginning of the causeway and then again at the end to a ship's security officer.

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