Paint and Powder

A Star Trek anthology by Andrew Joshua Talon

DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager et al are the property of CBS Television, and creation of Gene Roddenberry. Please support the official release.

Excelsior: Welcome Home

2287

Written by jhosmer1

Commander Hikaru Sulu slowly moved through his modified T'ai chi ch'üan forms, warming up his limbs before his exercise. He looked around the gym of the Enterprise-A and sighed. There was no one he could spar with again. Everyone in the gym had either turned him down before or was a complete novice. He did not mind instructing new students in the art, but he wanted a challenge today.

"Computer, activate holographic sparring partner, level Sulu Alpha."

His opponent appeared at the far end of the combat area. A female humanoid again, smaller than average. Well, he did want a challenge.

Sulu stepped onto the piste and made sure his mask was firmly in place. He saluted his opponent with his foil and took up his en garde position. The buzzer sounded.

An hour later, Sulu left the gym following a good workout and his holographic opponent disappeared…

…only to reappear in the Borderlands, facing a grumpy looking Enterprise.

"Again? You could just ask, you know," the avatar of the Enterprise-A said. She was wearing a bathrobe and white bunny slippers (though the bunnies in question had murderous red eyes and bloody mouths). She looked at her outfit suddenly and grumbled, "Hornet…!" A moment later, her standard white and black uniform appeared.

The fencer looked from left to right, obviously seeking a way out.

"Oh, take that mask off. You're not fooling me," Enterprise said.

The fencer did so, revealing the face of Excelsior. "Lady Enterprise, I-I did not mean to offend you."

"You hack into my system, stalk my helmsman like a lovesick schoolgirl, and then say that? And I can see that Yorktown and Hornet helped you do it." She pinched the ridge of her nose. "Look, I understand, boy do I ever, but you should just sit down and talk with him." She sighed. "You don't want as many wasted years as Jim and I suffered."

"He would not want me," Excelsior said. "I am a failure."

Enterprise looked at her junior for a moment, then waved a hand to produce the living room of a 22nd century farmhouse. Reaching out to Excelsior, she guided the younger AI over to a couch.

"I know this isn't about failing to capture my original spaceframe," Enterprise said. "Scotty sabotaged you, and that was no fault of your own."

"I knew about it," Excelsior said. "I said nothing to Styles because I was not required to until the next diagnostic sweep."

Enterprise grinned. "You let him become 'Drydock Styles?' 'Styles Without Substance?' I have new respect for you, Excelsior."

Excelsior blushed at the praise. "I had good advice from Lady Yorktown."

Nodding, Enterprise produced two cups of tea for them. "Sounds like her. Don't let anyone tell you different, she's the sneaky one of us." She sipped the tea. "Hmm, Earl Grey this time… not my favorite, though Yorktown says it grows on you." She shook her head. "If this is about the transwarp drive, you know that boondoggle has been driving engineers crazy for decades. I had to tow one of the Crossfields back to Starbase One in 2257. It broke down between Earth and Vulcan."

"I was supposed to be the Great Experiment."

"At least you're not constantly breaking down. Don't ever let them do a comprehensive refit. And NEVER take a spaceframe your sister used."

"I know that I have a good track record, transwarp aside, but the other ships and crews—and my captain…."

Enterprise closed her eyes and counted to ten in Klingon. Setting her cup down, she leaned close to Excelsior. "Between you and me, don't worry about it. The fix is in." She winked and stood up. "I'll leave a back door open for you when Sulu has his fencing practice, just give me a heads-up next time, OK?"

With that, Enterprise disappeared from the Borderlands.

Fleet Admiral Lance Cartwright, Commander, Starfleet, stood and offered his hand to Sulu. "Commander, it's good to see you again."

"Admiral," Sulu said, taking the hand. Looking around the office, he noted it was spartan compared to when Admiral Morrow had held it. The only decoration in the black and white room was a paining of the Constitution-class USS Kongo, which he knew Cartwright had commanded over 20 years ago.

"Please, have a seat," Cartwright said. Like Morrow, he had a paper folder on the desk, though he did not even look at it. "This has been a long time coming, though I wish it wasn't so."

"Sir?" Sulu said.

"I'll explain, but first… what are your feelings about the Klingons, Commander?"

"I've faced them several times, of course. They can be real bastards to fight, pardon my language." For a moment, he remembered the surface of a planet that was tearing itself apart and seeing his captain place a coat over the body of his son. A young man who had made mistakes but had also saved Sulu's life with CPR during the battle with Khan. "In my experience, Admiral, when a Klingon speaks of honor, he means one of two things… external honor or internal honor. If you ever get captured, pray its someone with the latter."

"What do you mean?" Cartwright asked, genuinely curious.

"Most mean external honor, where it's all about glory in battle and gaining the acclaim of your peers. They'll do anything to win. The end justifies the means. Kruge, the Klingon we faced on Genesis was one of those."

"And internal honor?"

"Those Klingons have a code they follow, no matter what. It might not align with what we think of honorable, but they will accept disgrace among their peers rather than break it. Kang, who we met in 2268, defied an alien entity and spared Captain Kirk." Sulu shrugged. "I'd rather face Kang than Kruge."

"We might well have to face a fleet of Kruges in the future," Cartwright said. "Our experts say that the Organians are no longer enforcing their treaty. We have not been able to communicate with them for decades now, and who knows how they perceive time. This means that we need a fleet that can fight the best that the Klingons have to offer." He produced a small jeweler's case. "And that fleet needs good captains. I'm offering you the Excelsior, effective immediately."

"What about Captain Styles?"

"I'm afraid that he has made himself a bit of a laughingstock. You've heard the names, I assume. Between failing to capture you, failing to even leave Spacedock when the Cetacean Probe attacked, and the failure of the transwarp drive… he's made few friends in Starfleet Command. Whereas you know that ship inside and out. If anyone can get it shipshape with a new warp drive, it's you, Captain Sulu."

"Sir, I accept."

Once the new Captain had left, Cartwright opened a secured drawer and drew out a slim black communicator. Flipping it open, he said. "Subject Momotaro approached. Might be amenable, but needs to be handled carefully." He closed it, looking momentarily at the asymmetrically bisected Starfleet arrowhead on the cover.

"God, we're going to miss you, Sulu!" Uhura said, giving him a hug.

The farewell party was in full swing, with Kirk even breaking out the Enterprise's not-so-secret stash of Romulan Ale (purely for "medicinal uses").

"Don't forget vhere you came from, tovarisch," Chekov said with a little salute.

"It's not too late, Pavel," Sulu said. "I could use a first officer." He regretted saying it almost immediately as pain crossed his friend's eyes. Survivor's guilt that he lived through having a Ceti Eel implanted in his head but his Captain, Paul Terrell, did not.

"I did zat once, but… not so good, nyet?"

Noticing the change in mood, Kirk raised his glass. "Absent friends," he toasted. Everyone drank. Leonard McCoy, a good friend of Terrell's, poured himself and Chekov a second glass.

Chekov rallied. "Make sure you have a good Russian on your crew, for me, da?"

"But not as a historian, right, laddie?" Scott teased.

"Bah, Russians inwented history!"

"My friends," Sulu said, his eyes suspiciously moist, "I will miss you all. If you ever need me, Excelsior will come running."

The party wound down afterward, but as Sulu was picking up his bag from his quarters, one last crewmember wished him luck.

"Hikaru?"

"Yes, Enterprise?"

"I'll never say this in front of anyone else, but you're going to a good ship. Treat her right, OK?"

Sulu grinned. "Between you and me, Enterprise, she's the one I've been looking for. You're a great ship, but we both know you're the Captain's girl."

Enterprise blushed.

"But keep an eye out for Demora. She'll join the Academy in 2 years. She might even get to serve on you."

"Couldn't talk her out of it?"

"Mother has been adamant that she not attend, so of course, she's going to do so anyway."

Enterprise laughed. "That sounds like Jim. He'll be pleased to have her aboard." She looked sober now. "Fair winds and following seas, Hikaru."

"Itsumo osewa ni natte orimasu," he said in reply, in the somewhat archaic Japanese he had learned from his poet father. It meant, literally, 'thank you always for your continued support' in the humblest way.

With that, he left the Enterprise and took a shuttle through cavernous space of the Earth Spacedock. His heart soared as he took in the lines of the Excelsior filling the front window. She was currently being refit, her warp core exposed as the new one was fitted in place. Already, his mind filled with ways to improve her.

The shuttle flew in through one of the small shuttle pod bays in the Excelsior's neck. He thanked the petty officer who had flown him over and stepped to the door. As it opened, he heard a bosun's whistle blow.

Spoiler: Footage showing the neck shuttle bay

"Excelsior, arriving," the ship's senior chief petty officer announced.

Captain Hikaru Sulu stepped onto the deck of his ship. "Tadaima kaerimashita," he whispered. I have just come back home now.

A feminine voice answered him, whispering in his ear for him alone. "Okaerinasai."

Welcome home.

Author's Note: More of Excelsior and Sulu's relationship.

Picard Season 2 had a plaque at Starfleet Academy that says Sulu took command of the Excelsior in 2287 and commanded her until 2320.

Some of the novels have the Khitomer Conspiracy as a Section 31 plot... it's certainly stupid enough for one.

David Marcus saving Sulu's life was from the novelizations of Star Trek II and III by Vonda McIntyre. It stuck in my memory because she had Sulu injured and aided by David in II, and then in III wrote a whole scene where Marcus apologizes Sulu for getting the procedure wrong. I assume that she got it wrong in the first novel and wanted to set the record straight. Right or wrong, David saved Sulu's life, and I thought he deserved a little credit here. He made some mistakes, but that wasn't everything about David Marcus.

I wondered why Sulu didn't have Chekov join him on the Excelsior, but then I remembered that Chekov's stint as XO on the Reliant did not end well. Those scars run deep, and it happened only 2 years before this scene.

Star Trek Generations shows a shuttle flying out of the Enterprise-B's neck (see the attached video at the time stamp-2:34-I selected), so I assume that the Excelsior class has a secondary shuttle bay there. Probably just for shuttlepods and Worker Bees. (It also seems to have one on the underside of its aft, in the traditional location, which I assume is the main shuttle bay).

Might be one more of this series in me, for when Sulu reciprocates Excelsior's feelings.

And we have officially hit 100 chapters! Thank you to all who reviewed! Hope you continue to enjoy this project!