We'll Always Have Romulus

Star Traks: Boldly Gone
Episode name	We'll Always Have Romulus
Season	9
Episode number	3
Writer(s)	Alan Decker, Anthony Butler
Year	2503
Stardate	178468
Chronology
Previous in series	The Bain Supremacy [BG]
Next in series	Right Where We Left It [BG]
Previous in timeline	The Bain Supremacy [BG]
Next in timeline	Right Where We Left It [BG]

Sometimes things happen that are beyond your control. A freak storm ruins your picnic. A flying rock cracks your windshield. A major motion picture destroys your planet. That last one is something of a problem for Commander Prosak and the other Romulans on board the USS Anomaly. Now it's up to Captain Reginald Bain and his crew to make sure that "We'll Always Have Romulus."

Summary

On some higher plain of existence, one omnipotent being scolds another for blowing up an entire star system and says they’ll get one of the lower echelons to clean up the mess. The task gets passed down a few levels until two Organians, Hornsby and Grimes, tell Captain Reginald Bain that the entire Romulan star system was wiped out a century earlier in a supernova that was never supposed to happen. Bain says he will put it right.

Meanwhile, Section 31 Section Chief Oscar Gunton tells Rosalyn Bain that they’ve received word of an Order 88 from The Vault, which is a Section 31 holding facility for items and information of a time-sensitive nature, many of which involve time travel. In this case, the entire order just reads, “R. Bain saves Romulus from Hobus supernova. 2387.” Rosalyn knows nothing about it, and Gunton tries to convince her not to try to go to 2387 to stop Romulus from being destroyed, saying that the Romulans could be a threat again in the future. Rosalyn refuses and beams herself away.

On the USS Anomaly, Bain explains what the Organians told him to the bridge crew. The Romulans are particularly confused by the idea that the planet of their birth was destroyed a century earlier. Since the Organians dumped a bunch of information into the Anomaly’s computer, Lieutenant Commander Tovar suggests that they have a proper briefing about it.

Dr. Natalia Kasyov, who is still operating as the Anomaly’s computer, and Cabral are now finding their constant contact to be a bit too constant. Neither can think anything without the other being aware of it. The complete lack of boundaries is hard for Kasyov to adjust to.

Rosalyn materializes on the derelict USS Maladventure-B. She is surprised to find Audrey Bain there waiting for her. Gunton had contacted her to ask where Rosalyn might go if she was forced into hiding, so Audrey came to the Maladventure wreck to talk to her without revealing Rosalyn’s location to Section 31. She asks her mother if Rosalyn is really willing to throw her life away. Rosalyn says that she is overreacting and that she has to deal with the situation in the past. Audrey says that she loves her and wants her to come back. Rosalyn replied that she loves Audrey too and then uses a temporal reactor that she confiscated from Craig Porter to send herself back in time.

Sub-Commander Remax gives the briefing on the Anomaly; although, the Organians didn’t give them much to go on. The Hobus star went supernova in 2387, but according to the Organians, that reaction somehow turned into an ultranova that spread and wiped out the Romulan star system. The only other event of note in 2387 is the disappearance of Spock, which was never explained. Kasyov suggests that the only way to find out if Spock had anything to do with Hobus is to go back in time, which Bain thinks is brilliant. A wrapped present from the Q suddenly appears on the conference room table with a note says that that this is as much as they are doing. Tovar opens it, and everyone is blinded by a flash of white light. When they can see again, they find that the Anomaly is back in 2387. Bain asks if Spock is their only lead. Kasyov says that a Romulan mining ship also disappeared in 2387, but since no one significant was aboard, Bain dismisses it. They cloak the Anomaly and head to Vulcan.

Rosalyn arrives on Waystation in 2387 and hacks into the Section 31 system of the era. She quickly learns about the ultranova and Spock’s involvement in the effort to stop it. She uses the Section 31 network to beam to Vulcan.

Commander Prosak, Commander Vioxx, and Remax infiltrate the secret base on Vulcan where a ship is being built to transport a way to stop the ultranova. Vioxx and Remax sneak aboard the ship, which the human designers have dubbed “the jellyfish,” while Prosak, who has the best chance of passing as a Vulcan, stands as lookout. She ends up face-to-face with her idol, Spock. She is able to get through a conversation with him and asks him for his autograph, which he gives her before heading to the supervisor’s office for a progress update. Vioxx and Remax emerge and say that they’ve found a problem.

Rosalyn observes all of this from her hiding spot behind a pile of cargo containers. She recognizes Prosak, Vioxx, and Remax and realizes that Bain must already be there. There is more than one R. Bain capable of saving a planet. She is debating what to do next when she feels a phaser press into her back and hears a woman’s voice say “Mrs. Bain, I presume.” Before Rosalyn can ask anything, she is stunned into unconsciousness by a phaser blast.

Back on the Anomaly, Remax tells the bridge crew that the Jellyfish holds Red Matter, but no one on board has heard of it. He explains that it was a Vulcan superweapon and, when ignited, it collapses into a quantum singularity forming an instant black hole. A single drop can wipe out a planet, and there’s a massive ball of the stuff on the Jellyfish. And a drop on the Anomaly, which Remax stole from Spock’s supply. Bain concludes that Spock must somehow mess things up with the Red Matter, so they have to get him out of the way and deal with the supernova themselves. Prosak refuses to let Bain kill him, so Lieutenant Shelly Marsden suggests that they move Spock to another universe using the technology Lieutenant Polnuc developed. They’ll cloak the Anomaly and generate a gateway to another universe in Spock’s flight path.

Rosalyn wakes up in a shuttle and recognizes the pilot as Captain Bridget Lornstrum from the 29th Century. The two had crossed paths several times before, since the 29th Century Federation had ordained itself the guardian of time. Lornstrum is convinced that Rosalyn is there to sabotage the effort to stop the ultranova and decides to take them both a few days into the future to make sure Spock was successful. Since Lornstrum apparently has no idea that Bain and the Anomaly are there, Rosalyn is completely fine with that idea.

After a failed attempt to control the dimensional gateway, Marsden enlists Cabral’s help. The effort causes Cabral pain and increases tensions between him and Kasyov, but eventually they hone in on a suitable alternate universe to send Spock to. As the strain increases between Cabral and Kasyov, they activate the gateway and send Spock to another universe that happens to be a couple of days ahead of their universe. The Anomaly crew hopes those couple of days won’t make too much of a difference. They then go to Hobus and launch the Red Matter sample Remax stole into the star, ending the ultranova and collapsing Hobus back in on itself.

Lornstrum and Rosalyn arrive at Hobus after their time jump, and Lornstrum is pleased to see that everything seems to be in order. She tells Rosalyn that she’s going to take her to the 29th Century for a thorough mind-wipe after which Rosalyn will be dumped back in the 26th Century and lucky if she remembers her own name. Lornstrum detects the Anomaly and, after discussing its presence with Rosalyn, realizes that Bain doesn’t know Rosalyn is in the 24th Century as well and, even better as far as Lornstrum is concerned, he doesn’t know Rosalyn is in Section 31. She tells Rosalyn that she’ll have to do something about that.

Hornsby and Grimes let Bain know that he’s now destroyed the universe. They go on to explain that there was a variable, namely a Romulan miner named Nero who is going to get hurt on one of his kid’s toys a few years from now and go after the toy company that produced it. That would escalate to him going after all toy companies and eventually escalate to the point that the universe is destroyed. Bain says that he can fix it, and once he’s back on the Anomaly’s bridge, orders them to find that Romulan mining ship that disappeared in 2387, so they can make it disappear too. Just as he does that, Tovar informs him of an intruder alert in Bain’s quarters. Bain goes there and finds Lornstrum holding Rosalyn at phaser-point. Lornstrum orders Rosalyn to tell Bain everything, but instead Rosalyn quickly says that Lornstrum appeared in their kitchen, grabbed her, and brought her to the Anomaly to make sure Bain stopped whatever he was doing. Before Lornstrum can protest, Bain knocks her own with a fist to the face. He has Tovar take Lornstrum to the brig while he goes back to the bridge.

They find Nero’s mining ship, which is huge. Bain contact’s Cabral to see if he can get something that size through his gateway, and the entire bridge crew ends up hearing an argument between Cabral and Kasyov. Finally, Cabral says he can do it if he can work unmolested. That’s the last straw for Kasyov, who demands that Marsden disconnect her from the computer.

Lornstrom awakens to find Rosalyn and Tovar standing over her. She tries to get Tovar to arrest Rosalyn, but he reveals that Rosalyn is his mother (adopted really, but Lornstrum didn’t need to know that). He says he will be escorting her to the brig, but Lornstrum activates an emergency transporter and beams away. Tovar informs the bridge and has them raise shields just as Lornstrum begins attacking the ship with her surprisingly powerful shuttle. Bain has the Anomaly bolt for the black hole that used to be Hobus. Lornstrum pursues, wary of getting to close to the black hole, but the Anomaly activates the dimensional gateway, sending her through to a universe where the Hobus ultranova is in progress. Her shuttle is completely engulfed.

The Anomaly continues on to Nero’s mining ship and sends it to the universe where they sent Spock. As soon as that is accomplished, the Anomaly is sent back to the 26th Century. Due to the pain that using the gateway caused Cabral, Bain orders it destroyed. Kasyov is safely disconnected from the computer.

Rosalyn comms Section Chief Gunton and says she is retiring from Section 31 and planning to stay on the Anomaly. Since Bain dealt with Lornstrum, who has been an annoyance for Section 31, she feels that is worth the agency letting her retire in peace. Gunton asks if she will really be happy retired but agrees to her request.

Cabral, through his hovercam, goes to see Kasyov in sickbay, where she is recovering from being hooked up to the computer for so long. They apologize to each other.

Rosalyn goes to tell Bain and Tovar about her decision to retire and stay aboard. They are both delighted.

And back up on the higher plains of existence, the being who started all of this mess is happy to have his own universe to go play in. He considers blowing up Vulcan.

Featuring

• Captain Reginald Bain
• Commander Prosak
• Commander Vioxx
• Lieutenant Commander Tovar
• Lieutenant Shelly Marsden
• Sub-Commander Remax
• Dr. Natalia Kasyov
• Centurion Nortal
• Sub-Lieutenant Zantak
• Cabral
• Rosalyn Bain
• Audrey Bain

Author's Comments

This story was a real pain in the…posterior region for many many reasons.

After we completed the first two stories, we knew basically what we wanted to happen in the third story (Rosalyn comes aboard. Kasyov is disconnected from the computer.), but we weren’t sure exactly what the plot was going to be. I had some vague ideas about Rosalyn getting captured on a mission and Bain rescuing her somehow without finding out that she is with Section 31. Nothing really gelled, though, so I jumped ahead to work on the later stories of the run, which we did have worked out, while Anthony focused on Vexed.

I slooooooooooooowy made my way through the last three stories of this run, during which time J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek film was released. I love the movie. Really I do. But they went and blew up Romulus in the late 24th Century. Um…guys…WE WERE USING THAT!!! Now this isn’t the first time that filmed Trek has contradicted something we were doing. Anthony had to go back and rewrite sections of a story that involved Gowron after Deep Space Nine killed Gowron and replaced him with Martok. Of course, for original Star Traks 1-3 to work, you have to imagine that Picard was made an admiral briefly between Generations and First Contact (At least the films left me a gap large enough for that to be possible). But with the 24th Century series and films over and done with, we thought we were safe. We were wrong.

In any case, we were left with two choices: ignore the movie (which we generally don’t like to do, since we want to stick to filmed Trek canon; although, we made exceptions for some elements of Enterprise) or find a way to deal with it. Fortunately, we had a story without a plot waiting to be filled in this run. Next came the challenge of figuring out how we could save Romulus and stick to the events of the film as Spock and Nero experienced them while still fitting in the Rosalyn and Kasyov events that needed to occur. Originally this was made even more difficult by my decision to treat the “Star Trek: Countdown” prequel comics as canon. I soon realized that there was just no way. In “Countdown” Nero interacts with some survivors from Romulus and gets some Borg upgrades for his ship before he chases Spock. That just was not going to work for me. Instead, I focused on the movie. At one point I probably could have delivered Spock’s monologue during the mind meld from memory.

Eventually, I found a way to make it all work while still managing to throw in a few gags here and there. Something terrible did happen near the end. By leaving Nero around, Bain and company destroyed the universe, which was why they had to go get Nero too. That whole thing was more of a throwaway joke, though. In the end, this story really ended up being more about plot mechanics from my perspective, which made it the aforementioned pain in the posterior to write. Still there are some things I was happy with. The scene with Audrey and Rosalyn has some nice character moments while finally explaining what happened to Bain and Tovar’s previous ship, the USS Maladventure. Prosak finally got to meet her idol, Spock. And I put the prime universe back the way it was…unlike SOME filmmakers I could mention!

This was one thing that really bugged me about the movie after I stopped to think about it. Spock was late? We’re talking about the fate of billions of people here, and he is late? Was traffic bad on the way to Hobus? The whole thing was just way too glossed over. One of my other ideas for this story was that Spock was actually delayed by interference from the 24th Century Section 31, which wanted to get the Romulans out of the way for obvious reasons. However, if Rosalyn and or the Anomaly went back and prevented that from happening, Spock arrives on time, which erases the movie. Grrrrr…

One other thing about the movie that bit me as I was trying to write this story is the supernova/ultranova itself. Can anyone explain how it got to Romulus? Or how the red matter helped reverse an explosion? None of that made a bit of sense to me, but it gave me another gag for the story.

In the end, the story is more about shifting the pieces around (or restoring them in the case of Romulus), so it’s not going to go down as the best Boldly story ever. Still, I think it has its moments.

Links

We'll Always Have Romulus