This Is the Way

Posted on Fri May 23rd, 2025 @ 4:56pm by Lieutenant Vriq'ta Esrad & Commodore Wilkan Targaryen & Lieutenant Commander Patricia Montgomery M.D. & Lieutenant Chase Moore

2,120 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: InQuiry
Location: Main Bridge, U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701
Timeline: 2285-03-08, 18:30

Commodore Wilkan Targaryen stumbled as he appeared on the Bridge of another vessel, grabbing hold of the armrest of the Captain's Chair to keep himself upright. Q had transported him, Commander Randall, Lieutenant Moore, and Doctor Riavria to the Earth Starship Columbia to participate in the rescue of the Kobayashi Maru, the very ship that had led to the creation of the testing scenario. Now though he wondered where they'd ended up this time.

Q had told him during the last exercise that he was testing their abilities in important missions that had helped to shape the Federation into what it was today. The last mission had been on an NX Class ship, but this one it was impossible to guess. All he could tell was that the crew were in the 23rd Century because the Bridge maintained a contemporary layout to vessels of that era. That meant it could be a Constellation, Constitution, Miranda, Oberth, or a Shagri-La Class ship from the design. Any of them were a distinct possibility.

Sighing, he looked around the Bridge and remained amazed that the design lineage was still a fairly standard floor plan for a Federation starship. The ship's viewscreen was placed against the forward bulkhead, with side-by-side navigation and helm consoles built into a console not far behind it. The captain's chair was directly aft of the aforementioned stations with twin turbolift entryways behind with a Master Situation Station between them. On the starboard side an oversized Science Station was flanked with a number of ancillary stations, while the port featured Communications and a Weapons station along the perimeter.

As he surveyed the Bridge, the Commodore noticed the arrivals with him. Q had said no ship would have the same members of his crew and this one confirmed it. "Sound off," he ordered.

The Bolian looked over from his place next to the Science Station. He had pulled out the supplemental station and was checking readings when he heard the Commodore. Stammering, he answered, "Lieutenant Vriq'ta Esrad, Chief Science Officer."

Patricia felt disorientated as she tried to understand not just her surroundings but what exactly was happening. Her senses screamed that something was very wrong but her brain struggles to catch up while she watched her colleagues seeming go through the same.

The military command of her commanding officer had her raise her eyebrow slightly. "Lieutenant Commander Patricia Montgomery. Chief Counsel..." Her word remained unfinished as the hesitancy in her brain had her question if her title was correct. Of course it was correct, years of training and years more of servicing were testimony to that; but why still did it feel wrong.

Chase listened as they spoke and waited his turn. He looked around at them. “Lieutenant Chase Moore, Security Chief.” Somehow he struggled to say the words, almost as if he was reciting words.

Wilkan repeated much of the same actions as he had done the last time. Walking across the sparsely manned Bridge, he looked carefully around for clues as to where they were. Last time he'd gone to the Captain's Chair but this time something told him to check the Navigator's Station. Standing over the antique workstation, that was somehow state of the art, he brought up the navigation charts and sank into the chair. It was the Mutara Nebula at bearing 153 mark 4.

The Commodore sighed, "The Battle of the Mutara Nebula... he's making us relive the battle."

"Sir?" Vriq'ta questioned.

Wilkan looked over his shoulder toward the Science Officer, "Q. He's been testing us. A few moments ago, I relived the Kobayashi Maru - the real one from the 2150s - with others from our crew. It seems this time he's making us relive the Battle of the Mutara Nebula. I bet if you check your scans you'll pick up a Miranda Class ship not very far away."

Typing on the wall mounted console, "You're exactly right. Maybe they'll be able to help us out?" The Bolian looked around the Bridge, "This ship has clearly seen better days."

"Not now," Wilkan ordered as he looked at the viewscreen as the Miranda Class starship closed on them, a Photon Torpedo gliding passed the Enterprise's screen.

"That was close," Lieutenant Saavik reported.

The Commodore nodded, "They're trying to keep us out of there."

Saavik nodded crisply as she looked at the readouts on her console, "One minute to nebula perimeter."

An alarm beeped on the Science Station. Lieutenant Esrad checked the display, "Commodore, they're reducing speed."

That tracked with what happened before from what he'd read of the battle, but now they had to make a decision, "If we taunt him he'll continue after us, if we leave him alone he'll probably leave."

Patricia's mind was still trying to process the words of Targaryen while her eyes followed the motions on screen. Beside her sat a headset and screen which scrolled with realms of foreign information, information that begun to piece together as she watched. "What on earth..."

Her sentence dropped off as her thought process seemed to take over and what might not have made sense before began to make sense now. The rational part of her screamed that this made no sense, that this couldn't be right; but another part took over as she began to press keys on the screen and speak Klingon. Moments passed before she turned to look at her colleagues, "They are not responding to our attempts to establish communications."

"They're not getting away that easily. Wide band transmission, pump up the volume with whatever power we can muster, and put me on," the Commodore ordered from his chair.

Montgomery's fingers trailed across the screen as it all became so much easier, trying different channels as each time she spoke the works in several languages, just trying to establish a link.

As a sense of frustration began to creep in, the officer began to hear a static in her headset before works began to form. Before they could disappear again, Montgomery focused in on the frequency before turning to the command. "I have a connection, opening the channel and they should now hear us."

"This is the Starship Enterprise. Think you have what it takes to finish the job, Khan because, so far, nothing you've done has proven to me your "superior" intellect," the Enterprise's Commander taunted.

On the viewscreen they watched as the Reliant sped up behind them, trying to close the distance before they entered the nebula. Before they got away.

"We're in," Vriq'ta announced from Spock's Science station.

The viewscreen before them grew like a tsunami of swirling, slowly moving purple, magenta, and burgundy gases. Intense, unpredictable electrical charges shot around the entire nebula around the Enterprise as it flew through an intense cloud bank, filling the entire viewscreen with light as bright as a thousand suns. Interference covered the display, making it next to impossible to get a clear view of the space ahead.

The Commodore mumbled, "What I wouldn't give for a tactical display. Bring us about, bearing 190 mark 250, half ahead." Targaryen ordered, remembering what he had read about the Enterprise's engagement with the Reliant. Sighing, he watched the viewscreen intently as he hoped history repeated itself and that the Reliant would be there waiting.

What they got he didn't expect. In the past the Enterprise had come across the Reliant's aft quarter, this time the Enterprise and Reliant were facing straight off.

"Alpha strike, Lieutenant, fire!" The Commodore directed, hoping that the Enterprise would overwhelm the Reliant with its weapons. An Alpha Strike involved firing all weapons in one big burst with the objective of breaking through a shield arc to cause internal damage. With the Reliant's shields down it would probably destroy the enemy ship.

Chase fired in his orders, watching as all of his weapons fired, something he had only done a handful of times before. Chase thought there was an inherent beauty to it.

The Reliant took multiple impacts from the Enterprise's phasers, striking against the Miranda Class vessel's Bridge and the engineering portion of the vessel's hull. The problem was that the Reliant had time to return fire. Multiple phaser pulses smashed into the Enterprise's torpedo bay, running the risk of igniting the devastating payload inside as they tore into the interconnecting dorsal.

The Bridge shook and rattled from the explosions below decks, knocking several members of the vessel's command crew to the floor. Wilkan ordered, "Return fire with whatever we have available!"

Static played in Montgomery's ears as she itched to pull away from the foreign sound. "The comms channel has been lost. The same interference playing games with our systems; it's trying to lock us out from calling for help."

"Keep trying," Wilkan ordered as he turned toward the Science console, not ready for what he saw. Rising from his chair, the Commodore rushed to the railing to find Lieutenant Esrad lying dead on the ground. He turned to look at Saavik, knowing to her she was seeing Captain Spock.

Trying to isolate the noise in her ear from the chaos around her, Patricia closes her eyes as she felt a moment of panic. This was foreign to her, languages had forever been a weakness so why was it happening now that it came to her as natural as breathing.

Her head was spinning as she tried to manipulate the controls, changing from one channel to the next as she sought for that tiny moment of connection and possible salvation.

The Enterprise's Captain held it back, "We need to keep going. Saavik, transfer Science functions to your station. We need to keep going for Mister Es... Spock, if not this was all for nothing." He wanted to say the name of the Bolian, but knew it would cause more harm than good.

"Yes Sir." She typed on the curved computer screen, "Sporadic energy readings port side, aft. Could be an impulse turn." The Vulcan was clearly impacted by what had happened, her voice wavering as she spoke from the welling up of emotion.

Wilkan looked at his own crew, "We can grieve later. Khan won't break off, he's put too much into this. He'll be back, but where in God's name is he right now?" Returning to his Captain's Chair, the Commodore sat back down, "Bring all weapons to full readiness. I want to be prepared for a final assault. Begin descent."

"Power levels are quite low, Sir," Saavik informed.

"This is all we have left, Saavik," Targaryen answered. He tapped the comlink, "Engineering, can you get the engines back online?"

"I'll need ten minutes, sir, 'til the radiation dissipates."

"You have five," the Commodore answered, prepping for potential buffer time. The viewscreen shimmered as the static passed over the display, but it looked as if there may be more to the shimmering dark blue mass below. Enterprise descended quickly, closing in on its unsuspecting enemy. Wilkan looked at his Tactical Officer, "Fire everything we've got."

On the viewscreen the Enterprise's torpedoes flew forward, one quickly slamming into the weapons pod on top of the Reliant, causing it to explode into a fireball. Two more torpedoes followed, the first smashing into the engineering section of the Miranda Class vessel. The other, following close behind, crashed into the Reliant's port engine and blew it to pieces, debris scattering through space as Warp plasma vented into space behind the crippled craft.

In the Captain's Chair, Wilkan leaned forward and looked at the viewscreen. "We're not wasting any more time. Bring us about, get us out of this nebula at maximum speed."

Saavik was the one that dampened their parade, "Admiral, scanning an energy source on Reliant. It's a pattern I've never seen before." She put the readings on the viewscreen.

From the turbolift Doctor David Marcus stepped forward, "It's the Genesis Wave! It's building to detonation!"

"Take us to Warp," Targaryen ordered.

"Engines are still down," Saavik reported.

Wilkan pressed the comlink, "Scotty, we need warp speed in three minutes!"

Time passed by quickly. In the true reality, Spock slipped away from the Bridge in the calamity and repaired the Enterprise's Warp Drive. He saved the ship but sacrificed his own life in the process after being severely irradiated during his efforts to save the crew. In this reality, things went differently. Instead, Doctor McCoy was able to boost Scotty's immune system and send him into the irradiated section of the Engine Room, where he restored the engines, but with severe radiation poisoning. He survived, but would never be the same.

The Commodore sat in the center seat of the Enterprise that once inhabited his dreams just staring, realizing how much he had failed the historic legacy that was the Starship Enterprise.

 

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