Lockdown

Star Traks: Waystation
Episode name	Lockdown
Season	Stardate 57---
Episode number	7
Writer(s)	Alan Decker
Year	2380
Stardate	Unknown
Chronology
Previous in series	The Joy Of Snigglesnooshes
Next in series	Town Hall
Previous in timeline	Return To Orbit [VEX]
Next in timeline	Town Hall [WAY]

Captain Lisa Beck has pissed off the wrong superior officer, and now the whole command staff is going to pay for it. Unfortunately, none of them have any idea how high the price is going to be.

Summary

Bradley Dillon comes to see Yeoman Tina Jones in the Waystation Welcome Center as asks her to take a walk with him. He is heading to the docking bay, where he and Mr. Auditmi are preparing to leave for the planet Bradley has been granted by the Multek Enclave for the construction of his proposed CasinoWorld. After Auditmi's recent actions on the station, Bradley is having the Zakdorn remain on the planet to oversee efforts there. But that's not what Bradley wants to speak to Jones about. He wants her working for Dillon Enterprises. She would be the public face of Dillon Enterprises, acting as a liaison between Bradley's company and the public. Jones is stunned by the job offer, and Bradley tells her to think about it while he is away.

Later that morning in Ops, the Waystation command crew finds themselves the victims of Fleet Admiral Nosira Ra'al's revenge plot against Captain Lisa Beck. Ra'al, upset that Beck refused to spy on Bradley Dillon for her, has scheduled the command crew to endure a lockdown drill. In the drill, Ops is completely cutoff from the rest of the station for 48 hours. There are no replicators and only enough power for life support. The officers soon discover that the rations that should be in the emergency locker have been taken by one of Lieutenant Commander Craig Porter's Operations staff and an IOU left in their place.

With hunger and boredom setting in, the officers begin snapping at each other. Before long, the snapping gets nasty, secrets are spilled, and friendships endangered. In the process everyone learns that...

• Beck and Porter slept together
• Commander Walter Morales still has feelings for Beck as evidenced by his fury at this revelation
• Jones has feelings for Morales and resents that he never noticed
• Bradley Dillon offered Jones a job
• Jones resents the idea that she should feel in some way indebted to Beck for helping her career
• Lieutenant Commander Sean Russell feels that Beck favors Jones and Porter and doesn't give him a fair shake

Porter, unable to tolerate the bickering, retreats to Beck's office with his toolkit. After several hours, the others are drawn in by the smell of food. Porter has managed to cheat his way around the block on the replicators in the hopes that full stomachs would sooth everyone. It works to an extent, but, he knows that the damage has been done now that all of these issues, most of which would never have been revealed in normal circumstances, have been brought to light.

When the lockdown finally ends, Beck decides to take the command crew to breakfast at McBaughb's. Upon reaching Starfleet Square Mall, they see Colonel Martin Lazlo running for his life. The marine is soon brought down by a phaser blast fired by a group of armed civilians, including Krilik. The officers are soon spotted and taken into custody, at which point they are told that they will be taken to the Station Administrator. Beck tells Porter that, after the lockdown, even this is an improvement.

To Be Continued...

Featuring

• Captain Lisa Beck
• Commander Walter Morales
• Lieutenant Commander Craig Porter
• Lieutenant Commander Sean Russell
• Yeoman Tina Jones
• Colonel Martin Lazlo
• Bradley Dillon

Also Featuring

• Stephanie Hodges
• Mr. Auditmi

Author's Comments

Lockdown is basically one of those "put your characters in a room and let them go at it" kinds of stories. Anthony Butler has done a few with his people over the years in Star Traks: The Vexed Generation, and I thought it was time to write one for Waystation. Originally, though, this one was going to be a stand-alone story. More on that in Town Hall.

This is Mr. Auditmi's final appearance. In honor of that, here's a little trivia about the creation of the character. He really owes his existence to Brendan Chris. Brendan was writing a Star Traks: Silverado story set on Waystation during the period of Bradley Dillon's year away on the USS Explorer. I had not reached that period in my own writing yet, so I didn't know quite what to say when Brendan asked me who would be running Dillon Enterprises in Bradley's absence. It was an excellent question, though. I gave it a little thought and came up with Auditmi. At least I'm pretty sure I came up with him. In any case, he actually appeared in the Silverado story before showing up in the actual Waystation series. Just part of the fun of several writers trying to maintain continuity.

Links

Lockdown