Hero HQ, Pense's office.
November 4, 2297
The call with Chekov ended with the beeping sound and transition to data mode that the subspace communicators often use. Pense stood up and looked out the window. The breeze blew falling brown maple leaves off the trees by the headquarters. Change had blown into his office and as he looked outside, he wondered what he would do. It's nice outside. Well, it should be fine… He flipped open his communicator and called Purcell. "Gather the team."
5 minutes later,
Genji threw a dart at the dartboard. thuk ! It landed on a fantasy opponent.
"What is Neo Zeon?" asked Genji.
"Some Romulan splinter group?" Enabran asked.
"No, it's an evil asteroid empire from Earth's past," said Charles. "With giant robot suits. Cartoons were made about them."
"Oh great, we have to fight giant robots?" Isaiah asked.
Genji shook her loose hair from one shoulder to the next. "I'm already ready for that fight. I got my killer mobile war armor all set up and everything."
"The dartboard only affects our lives when Ensign Purcell operates it," said Enabran. He took a dart from the board and pointed it at him. " Give it a try . We want someone to kill."
"We are bored and demand a strong opponent!" said Jidod. "Just one... that's not too strong," as a short flashback of the Iconian went by his head.
"I got banned from the dartboard, remember?" Purcell said as he crossed his arms.
Pense stepped out of the office. The surrounding officers stayed where they were, but Genji noticed that their hands moved suspiciously downward, as if they were all reaching for something. "Isaiah Oregon, a word?"
"Ut oh, you got called to the principal's office!" Genji said with a laugh.
"I wonder what stupid shit he did now!" Jidod said. Pssst ! A phaser beam from Isaiah's hand went into the sofa next to Jidod's right arm. He got angry. Isaiah ignored him and walked forward as the room hushed. The security guards and officers moved out of his way, hands not on their phasers but very close to them.
When Isaiah stood before him, Pense spoke. "We've got an important mission for us on Vulcan. Just the two of us."
"Who are we fighting on Vulcan?" Isaiah asked. "Isn't that place peaceful?"
"We think there won't be any fighting. But we'd like you on hand to help make sure everything goes well. You are an important part of the Federation." Jidod, Genji, and Enabran laughed.
"Why are you laughing?" asked Snow Byte.
"Because it's a bald-faced lie!" said Jidod. He slapped the sofa a few times.
Isaiah got angry. Pense knew it was time to act. "No, that is not true. He is an important part of the Federation arsenal."
"Is that true?" Isaiah asked.
"Yes… (rolls eyes) Oh, who am I kidding? We are replacing you."
"WHAT?!"
Jidod, Genji, and Snow Byte busted out with the loudest " Looooo !" shock chant ever.
"That was not on my bingo card for strange events today," said Enabran.
Opening sequence
Opening song: gravityWall feat. Tielle&Gemie by SawanoHiroyuki, start at 1:14.
Zoom in on Jidod as he swings the Kahless bat'leth in training. Cut to K'mtar leaning against the wall, looking on sternly. Then cut to Isaiah sitting alone on a boulder, looking away, overlooking the colony. He looks a mixture of bored and hopeful. He raises his hand and the omega molecule dances above. He quickly looks to the right, and the camera spins in that direction in a blur cut. Enabran is standing in the middle of a circle as the 5 cloaked pah wraiths point their bony fingers at him and dance around him. Enabran has his hands up, ready to fight. They raise their hands and the camera points up. The scene is now outside the colony in the wasteland, following Genji from behind as she is running. Camera follows for 4 seconds and then Jingwei flies overhead, lands and opens the cockpit door. Camera cuts to inside the hero HQ as the 9-year-old mayor throws her doll in disgust and Pense catches it.
I know you're craving for my blood…
The Breen, the Vulcan scientists, Beta VII-A entity, Crystalline Entity, and Apollo fade in and out while making menacing faces and glowy eyes at the camera. Then the Iconian reaches out to touch the camera.
I'm screaming something to you, whatever something to me.
Genji and Jidod rest against each other's backs in a plain black background. Isaiah looks at them from the front, his fist glowing with energy and face crinkled with anger. Enabran sits with his brother, the flames dancing between their hands. Snow Byte and her drones fly around in a circle around her and she smiles, eyes closed at the camera.
Now I don't know what I really want,
Camera cuts to Isaiah flying in the sky above the colony, looking angry. He fires a phaser blast from his hands. It goes past the camera. Camera pans left and Enabran is flying up as well and firing a green colored energy blast past the camera. Camera spins up 180 degrees, facing the sun. Jingwei flies and stops in front of the sun, eclipsing it totally . Scene cuts to front of Jingwei, dodging energy balls coming from behind the camera, then points the phaser rifle, dodges again, points the hand and missiles phase in from above Jingwei's back and fly past the camera. Cut to Jidod, standing on the ground, swatting energy bolts away with the bat'leth. Then he attaches the guiding device Pense gave him in season 1. He raises the bat'leth and swings. Camera cuts to behind him after he finishes the swing. The asteroid that Jidod summoned appears in the sky. It floats down, and Uber Shao Khan appears in front of it and screams. The asteroid slams into the ground and the scene goes dark, and the music cuts at 2:28. The words Star Trek Colony Season 2 appears in the blank screen. Episode 23: Vulcan Part 1 appears below it.
Hero HQ,
Pense held up his hands and explained, "I get it, you weren't expected to be replaced so soon. But it's because you were so successful that you've proven the project works."
"So why do you need to replace me?!" Isaiah said a little loudly , suppressing most of his anger.
"We buttered you up to be this (finger quotes) hero of the Federation, and that is true. You are the hero we needed." He put his hands on his hips. "Like I said, you and the squad have been successful. Heck, you even killed a Q! But again, Project Ankaris was never meant to be a one-off deal."
"What does that mean?" Isaiah crossed his arms.
"Isn't it obvious? Section 31 needs more like you."
"Oh hell no!" Jidod yelled. "By the hairy nuts of Kahless himself!"
"Stay out of this!" Pense yelled back.
"Yeah! Punk!" Isaiah yelled back. "What about more of me? Are you going to clone me on Vulcan?"
"Even better!" Pense relaxed. "We've found willing participants who can handle the burden without mental issues."
"I don't have mental issues!" Everyone except Pense started laughing. "Hey! I can blow up this colony ANY DAMN TIME I want!"
"And this is precisely why you're getting replaced! Look at the sofa! Now (he pointed to the door) pack your bags! We're going to Vulcan!"
Isaiah stormed out of the office. As he did, SPO and Tsundere started humming the chorus to Hey Hey Hey Goodbye by the Belmonts. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. Buncha jerks! I'll show them! I'll show them all how powerful I am! They need me! He ignored the residents giving him a wide berth as he stomped on by.
Section 31 ship,
En route to Vulcan, warp 7.
Isaiah paced more than stomped around his room. He crossed his arm, uncrossed his arms, and ground his teeth. Every time he stomped, the water in the glass on the table splashed a little bit upwards. This can't be happening! But what if he's right? We can't be everywhere in the Federation!
swisshtruoug ! The door swung up and Pense and Purcell entered. Isaiah stomped one more time. "Can you not do that?" Ensign Purcell asked. "The sensors are detecting earthquakes."
"Sorry... sorry." Isaiah stood up.
"I know…." Pense began to explain , "that this isn't the ending you were thinking of. But it's not the end. Have a seat." Isaiah sat down on his bed and Pense sat down on the metal chair by the desk in the plain room. "This assignment is more about new beginnings. Think about it that way."
"How?" Isaiah said, then sighed. "You want to take away my powers!"
" Technically, they're the Federation's powers," said Purcell. "And besides, you didn't want them in the first place, remember?"
"Yes, I did... sort of."
"Your parents didn't want you to be the first subject. They wanted more time, but the Romulans forced you to take it on. It's why you're a hero."
"Yes, that is true," Isaiah acknowledged.
"The Federation asked you to be the knife at the enemy's back," said Pense. "And you've gone above and beyond what we expected."
"But I want to keep fighting! It's what I'm good at."
Pense and Purcell looked at each other. "Perhaps replace was the wrong word," said Purcell.
Pense explained further, "We can't rely on your team for everything. What if you get stuck in the mirror universe for six months? We would be without our best fighters for all that time."
Isaiah looked at the floor for a moment. "So what is it you need me to do?" Isaiah asked after looking up at them.
Pense was about to explain when the communicator beeped. He answered the call. "Priority alert from Vulcan," said the captain. "Trouble in the lab."
"I knew this wasn't going to be easy," said Purcell.
"Increase to best speed," said Pense. They stood up. "See? We are going to need you for a long time."
"Why couldn't we go this fast when we left the solar system?"
" Dilithium doesn't grow on trees, son," said Purcell as they walked out of the room.
Vulcan secret lab,
4 hours later.
After they beamed down and walked inside the large complex, the director walked out. A tall Vulcan woman with more angular ears than usual, she also stood out for the tight black robe she wore. This gave Isaiah... interesting feelings, but to Purcell and Pense, she was a welcome sight, for they had collaborated with her before.
"We got here as fast as we could," said Pense. He pointed to Isaiah. "He is the Project Ankaris prototype."
"Yes, the great hero of the Federation," said the director. She looked at Isaiah with piercing eyes and looked down at him. "Heroes come in many sizes."
"Are you calling me short?" Isaiah wondered.
"Don't mind him. He's very literal," said Purcell.
"Quite," said the director. She looked back at her guests. "I am grateful for your speedy arrival. We have struggled lately with the proto-matter matrix. Scanning the prototype could prove instrumental in solving this dilemma. Right this way."
They walked inside and the time got a better view of the lab. Immediately, Isaiah saw the obvious element- a sarcophagus just like the one his parents made. The clean equipment and well arranged items contrasted with how cluttered his dad's lab was. Standing by the sarcophagus was a teenage boy wearing a long white robe. A Vulcan who looked only a slight bit taller than Isaiah was. This teen Vulcan looked down at the sarcophagus, then looked outside. It seemed like he was ignoring them, and Isaiah would not have that. He ignored the conversation between the director and the commanders and walked towards the brooding Vulcan.
Before Isaiah could get any closer, Purcell said, "Isaiah!" Isaiah stopped walking and turned around. "We need you to transmit your proto-matter data to the computers here in the lab."
"Ah, right," said Isaiah. He told his computer to do that and walked to the Vulcan.
"Who are you?" asked Isaiah. He held out his hand.
The Vulcan teen looked away from him and crossed his arms. "It is standard protocol to announce your name and rank before requesting such details from another."
"Right... Vulcan logic. I am Isaiah Oregon. Hero of the Federation." Isaiah lowered his hand when he realized that the Vulcan would not shake it.
The Vulcan looked at him. "You must be the fool that took on Project Ankaris."
" Precisely . And who is more foolish? The fool or the fool that follows him?"
"I, Pola, will be no fool. I have trained for three months to be ready to handle the great powers the Federation will bestow upon me. Unlike you, who did not even have a proper training montage. "
Isaiah put his hands on his hips. "Yeah, well I had to train myself. And as a prototype," he puffed up his chest, "I acquitted myself quite well on the battlefield. I chased off a Romulan invasion, blew up a city, killed a hive of alien monsters and broke a Q! Not bad for someone who fell into the deep end of the pool, I'd say."
"I have read many of the Project Ankaris reports." Pola looked away from the annoyance in front of him. "They read more like comic books than battle reports. If I were your position, I would not have sustained anywhere near as much damage as you received. Why do you take so much damage? Did you really forget how to dodge?"
" Listen you armchair quarterback!" Isaiah got real close to him, then he started to hover , making himself taller. "Everyone has a plan until they get hit! And if you think you're a hot shot, you've got another thing coming! You're gonna get hit a lot being a hero, and you'd better be ready for it!"
Pola stared at him. "Your behaviour and volume is irrational. My hearing is perfectly capable of hearing you."
"You have no idea how hard it was to fight those assholes! None of them were a cakewalk! Hell, a full third of them we'd never even seen before! Space monsters, crystal creatures, space gods! A damn swarm of fighters! Hell, villains that Spock and Kirk struggled with!"
"Yes, the Khan Augments who were barely stronger than the average human, whom you let throw you out of a building because you were surprised . The same ones whom you spent too much time taunting, and they countered your abilities. (Pola uncrossed his arms and stared angrily at him) And what about the fact you chose to provoke Apollo when he could have destroyed the Federation on a whim? Your illogical behavior could have destroyed the Federation multiple times over! Your team is the only reason why we are still alive to debate your clumsiness."
"My team?! My team?!"
"Stop all that noise!" Pense shouted.
"Yes, your team." Pola looked away from him again. "With these powers, I would not need a team. In fact, I do not require your training. It would only inhibit my progress."
"GRR~" pabasssh ! Isaiah pointed his hand at a statue and fired a plasma ball at it. It crumbled to pieces.
That caught the attention of the staff as they went over reconfiguring the proto-matter matrix. They looked at the smoldering statue.
Pola's eyes grew wide with anger. "That statue has been in my family for a thousand generations!" he replied.
Isaiah floated away and looked over his shoulder. "Then your first task is to use your powers to rebuild it. If you're so good at it, show me." He snickered as he left the angry Vulcan.
"Can you control your scion?" asked the director to Pense.
"Can you not blow up priceless relics?" Pense asked Isaiah.
Commercial Break
Flashback to season 1, episode 8: The S tarfleet science team examined the cave site. "Let's mark this site for further forensic study," said Jones, "and inform Starfleet security of a potential threat." He stood up. "On to the next area." The crew agreed with him and they walked along the edge of the cave wall, looking for other signs of life.
Soon enough they found them when their scanners detected motion a scant 150 meters away. Moving carefully and quietly , they spotted a creature. A bipedal creature about 1.4 meters from tail to snout, about a quarter of a meter tall from paw to apex of the back, it reminded Julian of a cross between a rat and an aardvark. The team dimmed their lights and hid behind some walls on both sides of the road. They watched the creature scurry from a large hole in the wall and take cover behind solid benches near what was once a green space twenty meters from the team.
"Have you seen one of those on this planet?" Jill whispered to Julian.
"Can't say I have," Julian whispered back.
"Do you want to walk up to it and try to pet it?"
"Ha. I've seen Prometheus ." Julian stifled a laugh and continued. "We are actual scientists, not snack samplers for scientist-eating alien lifeforms , ya?"
We now return to Star Trek Colony.
Only Toonami.
20 minutes later,
"Enter the pod," said the director to Pola. With a simple grace, he took off his robe and climbed into the sarcophagus. The lid closed. "We made several adjustments to the Oregon family design," said the director.
"It's still going to hurt," Isaiah quietly said.
"We have made adjustments to prevent the same amount of-"
"ZEEEARGGGH!" Pola screamed.
" Protomatter is attacking his nerves!" said one of the scientists at the terminal.
"Adjust to compensate," said the director. "And now you will notice the superiority of-"
"GRAGAGGGHHH!" Pola screamed again.
"Conduit channels are interfering with his metabolism." The scientist was hard to hear over the screams of Pola.
Isaiah looked down and away. "Yeah... they'll do that…"
"Continue the building process," the director yelled back. The screams died down.
"Second stage complete. Beginning discharge crystal formation," said the computer.
"We are using a system that makes the dilithium discharge crystals in the body itself," said the director. "The fragility of the discharge crystals will no longer be a concern."
"Won't that require substantial rewriting of the organs in his body to generate those?" Purcell asked.
"That idea was tossed aside." She pointed to a spot above her groin. "Instead we removed 12% of both organs here and created a custom build organ that will-"
"EEYAAAH!"
The director looked back at the sarcophagus. "He must be on the phase to place the discharge crystal slots on his skin. That should not be painful in our designs."
Isaiah crossed his arms and stepped closer to the sarcophagus. "You hear that, Pola?! You're a wimp! It didn't hurt that much!" he shouted at the sarcophagus.
"Pain is not logica - aaaaarrgggh !"
" Final phase ; heat stabilization with protomatter," said the computer.
"Oh, I hated this part. Felt like I was being cooked in a freezer," said Isaiah.
"We have resolved to remove the painful aspect from this procedure. Whereas yours was forced by the Romulan attack , this procedure does not have as many time constraints. We-"
"AAOOORAAGGH!"
"Stop embarrassing me in front of the humans!"
"Procedure, complete," said the computer.
A few minutes later, the pod lid slid apart and back into the sides of the machine. Pola sat up, his eyebrows curled open. Pola did not have much of an expressive face, but to the humans, it seemed blanker than usual for a Vulcan. It seemed to them that he was either looking straight at his feet or the floor.
"Vitals elevated," said the scientist to the director.
"Now you understand what I went through," said Isaiah as he walked over to the patient. "I hope this stops all your trash talk," Isaiah slapped him on the shoulder, "you big bit-AAKK!" In a flash of movement, he reached up and grabbed Isaiah by the neck, the dilithium crystals in his forearm glowing brightly . In another flash of movement, Pola flew from the sarcophagus. whabuuum ! He slammed Isaiah into the wall. His fingers dug into Isaiah's throat.
"Stop this at once!" the director shouted. She looked at her team. "Order emergency shutdown!"
"Failsafes not responding!" shouted one of the scientists.
"GGGKK!" Isaiah croaked.
Pola looked at the director. In his vision he also saw the scientists and the two Section 31 humans going for cover or weapons. shrrik ! He crushed Isaiah's windpipe shut and closed the blood vessels leading up to his neck. Then he released the dying teen and smiled in this weird, creepy way as he stepped towards the scared science team.
"Halt! Freeze all motor functions!" shouted one of the scientists as the naked smiling teenager walked towards him.
Isaiah fell to the floor, grasping his neck. Alert messages flooded his mind. Engaging life support function appeared as his eyes closed, his mind barely functioning from the lack of blood to his brain. Not...like...this… he said.
To be continued….