From Memory Gamma

Star Trek: Conflict: Corruption (story)

Conflict begins with the Enterprise-C, badly damaged from the firefight on Narendra III, being rescued by its sister ship the USS Admonitor and brought in for repairs on Typhon III.

[edit] Summary

[edit] Chapter 1

The blood-bath of Narendra III is over. The USS Enterprise-C is almost dead in the water. Life support is at 39%, the warp core is inoperative, long range scanners operating at 61%, and an atmosphere leak is making the bridge unsafe for humans. But Edward Shield, an Ensign Junior class, is trying to get the ship "out of the water". It seems that his best efforts are doing nothing, and he resigns himself to his death.

But T'Mar, a Vulcan officer in charge of the Junior officer corps., has returned to the bridge in search of Shield. Finding him on the verge of death, she uses a mind-meld to keep Shield alive long enough to leave the bridge and find a place where the atmosphere is not leaking. However, he passes out from lack of oxygen and does not remember a thing.

Meanwhile, the USS Admonitor receives the distress signal sent out by the Enterprise-C when it went under attack. Captain Young abandons her patrol of the Beta Quadrant border and heads with all speed towards the Narendra system. Despite protests from K'Mehr, the Andorian Chief Engineer, Young insists that they maximize the warp core output in order to reach Narendra before the Enterprise-C is destroyed. When K'Mehr refuses to activate the S'srelli technology, fearing it to be too powerful, Young shoots him in the stomach. As he dies, he says that this new technology will bring nothing but trouble to their ship and the Federation: Young vaporizes him. She elects Andrew Wellington, the Chief Engineering Assistant, to Chief Engineer, giving him the perogative to activate the S'srelli technology or face K'Mehr's fate. Though he has his reservations about it, Wellington obeys and the Admonitor quickly achieves warp 10.2, arriving at Narendra III in 0.0024 seconds.

They appear in space over Narendra III. They see the Enterprise-C, looking dead in the water. Young orders the transporter room to beam aboard all survivors. Instead of scuttling the ship, she gets the Admonitor's tractor beam locked onto the Enterprise-C. She then orders the ship to go to maximum warp, taking them to the nearest Federation outpost: an orbital station over the oceanic world of Typhon III. When Tactical Officer Morgan Phelps says that the captain is mad for doing such a fool-hardy action, since the quickest route from the Narendra System to the Typhon Expanse (where the planet Typhon III is located on the outskirts) would be a straight shot through Romulan Imperial space, he is killed as well. She does not appoint a new Tactical Officer, saying that there is no need.

Captain Young activates the Manual Override Protocol, which puts the ship entirely under her control. Using this, she is able to make sure that her orders are carried out with no intervention from the male members of the crew, whom she calls "maggots".

Young's ploy works well, and the two ships arrive over Typhon III safely...

[edit] Chapter 2

Shield returns to consciousness and finds himself aboard the Admonitor. Before doing anything else, he begins to check the crew list. A complete list was run by Dr. Franz von Aldrich, Chief Medical Officer on the Admonitor, since Dr. Aristide of the Enterprise was dead. The crew list is grim at best: all of the senior officer crew is missing, half of the standard crew is dead, and the Bridge Crew is down to only him and two other people: Willhelm Werner and T'Mar.

This shocking news gives Shield a whole new grasp to the importance of every single life. In addition, he has a new perogative: never let anyone die on his watch.

While he meanders on to the empty Bridge, looking at the crew list, he is met with by Captain Young. She says that she will have to reprimand her entire crew for leaving the Bridge, and for letting a "maggot" run free. Shield apologizes, but Young refuses to accept. However, since the repairs on the Enterprise will be done shortly and it will be gone, she makes him Captain of his ship. He thanks her, and she tells him to get off her Bridge before she kills him.

His ship still being repaired, Shield decides to go down to Mining Colony 211 and see how it works, since there is no place for him on the Admonitor. He beams down to the station and begins to walk about its empty hallways. As he does, he wonders if this facility is automated or not. It can't be, for he meets the station's manager, Marian Repps. She warns him not to go snooping in or around sealed-off areas, because the miners are easily distracted by new-comers and the process must not be disturbed.

Shield agrees, because he has no desire to disrupt the mining process here. But this proves to be easier said than done: almost every door is sealed off, except one which leads to a guest lounge which hasn't been used in almost a decade. Repps has vanished, so he cannot ask her when the Enterprise will be ready, nor if he can contact Starfleet.

To aleviate his boredom, he takes out his tricorder and begins running scans around him. He gets life-readings in every direction, and varied from Andorians to Zlarri. At first he's confused, since he cannot see anyone in any direction. He concludes that these are the miners, and decides to stop scans. But as he's putting away his tricorder, he sees a life-reading suddenly fade and then go out altogether. When none of the other life-readings even cease their usual actions, Shield begins to grow suspicious.

Disregarding Repps' warning, Shield follows the life-readings via his tricorder to one of the locked doors. Burning it open with his phaser, he happens upon a horrible sight...

Slaves.

The entire mining colony is run by slaves. Slaves not just of alien races, but even of Humans as well. And there are task-masters watching them, Humans, who enforce the tasks on the slaves with implements of torture: and if the slaves are too weak or too old to continue, they are executed.

Shield cannot believe this. Slavery was supposed to have been wiped off of the face of the world by the 22nd Century, and anti-slavery acts were supposedly mandated in every Federation-controlled planet or system. This is a violation of Federation law...no, of the legal rights of every sentient being across the universe. Shield approaches one of the task-masters, only to find Marian Repps there.

She tells him that this is a Federation-sanctioned operation, and that they are operating fully under legalized boundaries. Angry, Shield declares that they will hear from Starfleet about this. As he perpares to leave, he sees a Romulan being brutalized by the task-masters. Shield tells them to stop, but they continue. Intervening, he knocks out two of them, but the third attacks him. The Romulan bites the other, and then prepares to escape, when he sees his rescuer at Repps' phaser-point. When neither of the humans fire on each other, the Romulan takes a phaser from one of the unconscious guards and vaporizes Repps.

The Romulan and Shield are now muzzle-to-muzzle. Neither fire at each other, for they both recognize the other... Shield tells the Romulan and the other slaves to flee, while he prepares to leave. As the two slowly back away from each other, Shield keeps his eyes fixed on the Romulan, who does not break eye-contact until they both disappear into the crowd of fleeing slaves.

[edit] Chapter 3

The Romulan is none other than L'nihilus Nox. As he flees the prison, he tries to recall where he saw that human. An incident at Megara II comes to his memory, but he does not instantly make a connection. But he, Nox, has other things on his mind. Now that he's free, he'll get off the "Death Camp of Typhon III", as it is known to the non-human population of the Alpha Quadrant, and try to get back to Romulan Imperial Space.

But the first thing he needs is his gear. The rags that passed for slave-clothes are demeaning, and he won't return to Romulus in shame. Finding a room full of plunder from the various slaves, Nox pillages through it. He finds his effects: black Romulan clothing, a black leather trench-coat and a 21st Century shot-gun. These he takes and then leaves the plunder room.

As he leaves, he encounters a member of the Enterprise crew: T'Mar. When they meet, they have a short discussion about what is going on. When Nox accidentally mentions the slave-camp that he had been a part of, she states that Repps was right. Logic dictated that those who did not follow Sarek's logic were supporting animalistic behavior, and therefore no better than animals themselves: beasts to be imprisoned for the advancement of logic.

Angered by her coldness and inconsiderance for the plight of the slaves (mostly for himself), he threatens her to get out of his way or face death. She states calmly that he has been marked for death since birth, and that it would do the Federation and the galaxy much good for him to die. She activates the alarms on the station by firing her phaser at maximum setting at the wall. But Nox has moved before she could fire at him. He comes up from behind and bites into her neck. Taking out a dagger from his boot, he slits her throat, but not before she implants her katra into him.

He cares nothing for it, because, being physiologically of near similarity to Vulcans, it won't be of any hindrance to him. In fact, he finds it as an added blessing when he comes against a locked door. Being a Romulan, Nox is similar in physical strength to humans; but with the katra of T'Mar within him, Nox tears open the locked door as if it were made of paper.

As he continues down the deserted corridors, Nox sees a Federation crewman from the Enterprise-C: Willhelm Werner. Nox, knowing that there are still formidable numbers of task-masters still on the Mining Station, asks Werner to take him to their ship. But when he hears that its name is Enterprise, he refuses. But when Werner lets slip the Admonitor, Nox asks to be taken aboard that ship. Werner agrees.

[edit] Chapter 4

Shield returns to the Admonitor aghast. He tells Young about the slaves, and asks for her help. She does not believe him at first, thinking that it's just another lie from a "maggot". When he refuses to relent, she at first threatens him with execution, but this goes nowhere with him. Fed up, she decides to contact Starfleet Command and inform them about this incident. She manages to contact Admiral Sanders, who first laughs off the claim that a slave-colony exists in the Federation and then grows serious when Young tells him exactly where it is located. He tells her that he will arrive shortly, and that they are to make no further moves.

As soon as the image disappears, Dredd Sloan, super-intendent of Mining Colony 211 and now the manager, contacts the Admonitor. He tells them that they have seen classified information, and should beam down to the station to confer with him. Young, not liking this "maggot's" attitude, tells him to beam up to the Admonitor for interrogation regarding his slave colony. Sloan refuses, and the channel is cut off.

Suddenly, the alarms on the bridge of the Admonitor go off. An unauthorized transport from the Enterprise-C to the Admonitor was just received. Young orders her people to begin a full search-and-scan of the ship to find the intruder. But it's too late. Three task-masters, armed with phaser-rifles, storm the bridge and take Shield and Young captive.

[edit] Chapter 5

Nox and Werner are now onboard the Admonitor. When Werner asks what happened to the captains, he is filled in on the kidnapping. Werner rushes over to the Enterprise-C and it is soon activated; albeit, with a skeleton crew, 40% operation status and low on everything. Nox then takes command of the Admonitor bridge, telling them to find where the captains have been taken.

Deep beneath the surface of Typhon III, there is the main mining unit of the slave camp. Here, where the pressure can crush a man in seconds, the mining unit structure is well-insulated from the outside. It is completely shielded, so transport in and out of it is impossible (the kidnapper beamed the captains onto the station, and then took one of the mining shuttles down down to the planet). It is down here that the captains are being held.

Sloan opens a channel with Sanders, who asks to speak with the captains. He tells them that by discovering this slave facility, they are interferring with vital, top-secret Federation business and warns them that they should remain silent or suffer the consequences. Neither Shield nor Young are willing to stand by in silence and let injustice flourish in the Federation. Sanders tells them that it is not injustice per se since the slave-colony is Federation-sanctioned operation, and the Federation must be right since it is headed by humans.

Shield says that humans aren't always right and asks Sanders why he lets a slave colony exist. Sanders, however, believes that Shield is obstinately refusing to listen, and declares that Shield is to be court-marshalled upon entering Federation space. He declares further that the Enterprise-C is to be returned to Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards for deconstruction. Shield states that it should be renamed, since the Federation has hardly established a utopia if there are slaves and unjust admirals who refuse to listen to reason.

Sanders officially declares Order 865, declaring the Enterprise-C, the Admonitor and its collective crew rebels against Starfleet, a disease to the human-perfection of the Federation and enemies of the state. Sanders adds that, because the Enterprise-C survived Narendra III, a war with the Klingon Empire has started; because of this, Sanders declares them to be war-mongers, and adds as a clause to Order 865 that any one condemned by such order are to be killed on sight, with no mercy, no truce, no quarter, no negotiations and no exceptions.

Not only does Sanders condemn the Enterprise-C and her captain, but her crew as well. He says that they are also to be considered guilty, and that any planets discovered by them will be "conditioned" With this ultimatum, Sanders then asks Shield if he will be quiet and tow the line or if he will speak out and become a traitor.

He then turns to Young. He tells her that if she betrays Shield and the Enterprise-C by taking them to him, he will drop the charges against her. If not, he does not elaborate on what he would do to her, but states that imprisonment on Rura Penthe would feel like heaven. Sanders' transmission ends, while he gives them time to think.

But as soon as the image disappears, Sloan attacks Young. He tells her that here, deep beneath the ocean, no one will hear her scream. He procedes to take off her uniform and pin her against the wall, laughing while he does so. Young begins to cry and scream (she hadn't been raped since her child-hood by her father, and this brings back all of the wicked memories she has tried to suppress), but Sloan only increases his efforts.

Then, he is killed.

Young finds Shield, seized by seven task-masters, who have taken the phaser out of his hand. She asks him why he tried to save her, since she thought no maggot would ever dare to do anything for her. He tells her that he couldn't bear to see anyone get hurt, even if that person hated him. She confesses that she misjudged him, as he does also. But the task-masters are still holding him, and they want to kill him for killing their foreman.

Then, a shuttle crashes through the wall of the facility. Water rushes in, knocking all of the task-masters off their guard. Out of the shuttle emerges Nox, who swiftly executes each of the task-masters with his shot-gun. Since his crash-landing into the facility with the shuttle disabled the shields, Nox suggets that they beam out immediately.

Upon returning to the Enterprise-C, Shield finds it ready for action, and just in time, for Sanders' flag-ship, the USS Pericles, has entered the Typhon system. Shield says that Werner is to be promoted to Helm duty. He then opens a channel with the Admonitor and asks Young which direction they should escape to: she tells him, with a smile and in a playful manner: "Follow my lead... maggot." before going to warp.

[edit] Trivia

• Soundtrack Information: Narendra III.