AN: Star Trek and all related marks, logos and characters are solely owned by CBS Studios Inc. This fan production is not endorsed by, sponsored by, nor affiliated with CBS, Paramount Pictures, or any other Star Trek franchise, and is intended for recreational use only.

This novel, in the form of a news article, is "published" in the year 2380, with events spanning from 2355 to 2379.

Special thanks and shout out to the community of Venom Geek 98 for the continuous support and encouragement!


Blood Will Have Blood

The Rise and Fall of Admiral "Blackjack" Thomas Ashcroft


An FNN Special Report

- By Kirin Terev, FNN Senior Correspondent


"Blackjack can take care of that."

For twenty-five years, if there was ever a problem that Starfleet needed to deal with, that was the answer. Somebody, an Admiral, a Starship Captain, even the lowest yeoman confined to the bowels of engineering in a forgotten outpost in the ass-end of nowhere… it didn't matter who said them, but those six words would be the answer.

"Blackjack can take care of that."

Thomas Ashcroft began his career like so many other rising stars of the fleet. Born on Earth as the son of two other distinguished officers, Thomas craved the adventure and excitement that came with wearing a Starfleet uniform. Exploring strange new worlds. Seeking out new life forms and new civilizations. Boldly going where no one had gone before.

Thomas entered the Academy when he was 18 years old. By the age of 22, he was a commissioned officer. By the age of 32, Captain Thomas Ashcroft was assigned as the commanding officer of the USS Blue Steel, an auspiciously named Excelsior class starship that was somehow fitting for her auspicious Skipper.

"I wouldn't characterize Blackjack's rise to command as particularly out of the ordinary," Jean-Luc Picard, a classmate and colleague of Blackjack explained to me, "In fact, we'd often exchange polite jabs over the fact that I was two years younger than him when I took command of the Stargazer."

Starfleet has an unwritten principle when it comes to deciding who gets command of a Starship. Never stand in the way of a rising star. Ashcroft, like Picard, like Janeway, like Reynolds, had proven that he could get things done. Ashcroft was brave, charismatic, inspiring, even-tempered, cool under fire. All the checkmarks of what you'd want to see in the Captain of a Starship.


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A Ship like any other

I tried to think of the best way to summarize the five years that Thomas Ashcroft held command of the Blue Steel. And I really couldn't come up with anything I felt would be suitably fitting.

"Painfully, almost pathetically, ordinary," was how Susan Markstrom, formally Captain of the Resolute and another former colleague of Blackjack, summed it up, "They charted a few unknown stars, catalogued some unknown planets, maybe once fired a shot in anger. When I look back at it now, especially when you compare it to his time with the Admiralty, there's really nothing I can think of that made the Blue Steel stand out. She was a ship like any other in the fleet. Maybe that's just how excellent we all were?"

You could almost argue that Susan's question to me smacks of arrogance. Self-righteousness even. Such a deluded sense of self-assured confidence in superiority that let all this happen. But I might be jumping ahead in the story a bit.

The Blue Steel under the command of Thomas Ashcroft had a painfully, almost pathetically ordinary career of scientific discovery, exploration, contact with undiscovered worlds. It wasn't until Ashcroft's final year of command that the Blue Steel – and by extension Blackjack himself, finally rose above the ordinary.

In 2355, The 3rd Kronos Assault Fleet under the command of General Evorrd, Son of R'kal, attacked and seized the Federation Colony of Alkalis. Without warning – almost with reason, 21 K'Tinga class battlecruisers charged over the border and conquered the agrarian world of 300 000 without firing a shot, such was the speed and shock of General Evorrd's attack.

"Evorrd was a madman, just like his father was!" Gowron, Supreme Chancellor of the Klingon High Council would tell me, "The foolish petaQ was chasing lost glory, so he put everything at risk with what he thought would be a grand tale of courage and glory to the empire. I tell you now, Kirin, if I had been at Alkalis with him that day, I would have put the blade into his back myself!"

In transit through nearby interstellar space, the Blue Steel was the nearest Starfleet vessel to Alkalis that day, and the first ship to pick up the colony's distress calls confirming the insane attack. Captain Ashcroft reported the attack to Starfleet Command, who advised him to take the sensible option and wait for reinforcements before confronting the mad Klingon General.

"With all due respect Command, to hell with that. It's time to go all in."

"The Skipper was a gambling man? Yeah, that's definitely true," remembers Lydia Kanashi, Ashcroft's XO on the Blue Steel, "When we weren't on assignment or otherwise busy, the Skipper loved nothing else but to set up these card tournaments in the mess hall. Poker, rummy, golf, pinochle, euchre. The desk in his ready room usually had a cribbage board on it. But blackjack was his favourite game, by far."

Ashcroft was indeed making a hell of a gamble. His ship was outnumbered 20 to 1, and it would be days before he could count on backup. But he pulled it off. The official report says that Blue Steel dropped out of warp almost directly above the Alkalis star. Despite the incredible danger, Captain Ashcroft used his tractor beam to, quite literally, dig out a portion of the star and fling it towards the planet.

"To date, I have studied the battle tactics of fifty-nine notable commanders in Starfleet history," Tuvok, a noted tactician himself, commented when asked about Blackjack's gamble, "I cannot recall any commander that attempted such a blatantly reckless manoeuvre as Ashcroft did. To further explain; in order to use the tractor beam effectively, a starship must lower its shields over the required emitter. Blue Steel, in position as she was, would have been subjected to severe gravimetric shielding, high temperatures and lethal radiation exposure."

When I asked Tuvok if he would have ever attempted anything similar, I got the typical and expected Vulcan answer. "No, I would not have attempted anything similar."

The resulting coronal mass ejection created by Blackjack destroyed 18 out of the 21 K'Tingas in barely an hour.

With only 3–1 odds in front of him, Captain Ashcroft surged forward, destroyed one K'Tinga with a photon torpedo barrage, damaged another with a phaser salvo, and forced the final one out of the system with little more than sheer audacity. It was the sort of bold, brave, foolish and damn near reckless display of courage, audacity and flat-out balls that you'd expect of the Kirks, Picards, Reynolds and Janeways of the fleet.

For that bold, brave, foolish and damn near reckless display of courage, audacity and flat-out balls, Captain Thomas Ashcroft was decorated with a veritable ocean of accolades, listed below in order of official Starfleet precedence:

- The Christopher Pike Medal of Valour

- The Starfleet Medal of Honour

- Officer of the Grankite Order of Tactics

- Distinguished Gentleman of the Karagite Order of Heroism

- The Star Cross with "v" device for meritorious excellence in battle

- The Starfleet Citation for Conspicuous Gallantry

- Mention in despatches from the Commander in Chief's Office

- Listed on page five in the 2355 Edition of Who's Who in Starfleet

Overnight, "Blackjack" Ashcroft – having earned the nickname for his auspicious victory, had been launched out of the anonymity of the mundane and thrust at the very forefront of fame and glory, becoming not just a house-hold name in the Federation, but a name spoken with the same reverence that one says the name Kirk, Picard, Janeway or Sisko.


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