Commanding Presence
| Star Traks: The Original Series | |
| Episode name | Commanding Presence |
|---|---|
| Season | |
| Episode number | |
| Writer(s) | Alan Decker |
| Year | 2373 |
| Stardate | 50594 |
| Chronology | |
| Previous in series | Star Traks 5 [TRK] |
| Next in series | Fear Has A Red Nose [TRK] |
| Previous in timeline | Win Or Else! [WAY] |
| Next in timeline | Close To Home [WAY] |
Hoping to lessen his command officers' workloads, Captain Alexander Rydell schedules trainings for some prospective bridge officers. The simulation becomes a nightmare, though, when the USS Secondprize is really attacked, trapping the command officers in Rydell's ready room and leaving the fate of the ship in the hands of untried crewmen.
Summary
With several Secondprize officers having left for Waystation, Captain Alexander Rydell finds himself a bit short on command trained personnel. He decides to test the remaining lieutenant commanders on board to see if any of them are fit to be left in temporary command. Each candidate runs through a simulated encounter on the bridge while Rydell, Commander Travis Dillon, and Lieutenant Commander Jaroch observe from the ready room.
Dr. Elizabeth Aldridge is first up. The Secondprize detects a damaged freighter, and Aldridge immediately races off for the transporter room to see if she can help the injured or at least autopsy the dead. The next candidate, Peter Kexler, destroys the simulated vessel in the encounter before even determining what it is. The third candidate, Lieutenant Commander Christy Williams, who also serves as one of the ship's elementary school teachers, is on the bridge when yet another ship is detected, but when this one attacks the Secondprize, it quickly becomes apparent that this is not a simulation. The attack cuts Rydell, Dillon, and Jaroch off from the bridge. Williams contacts the attacking ship, a Pakled vessel, and scolds them severely for being so rude and for using bad grammar. The chastened Pakleds retreat. Despite saving the ship, Williams doesn't get the job. Rydell decides that Dr. Alridge will be given the command training, assuming she can be taught not to leave the bridge.
Featuring
- Captain Alexander Rydell
- Commander Travis Dillon
- Lieutenant Commander Jaroch
- Lieutenant Patricia Hawkins
- Lieutenant Emily Sullivan
- Dr. Elizabeth Aldridge
Author's Comments
Star Traks 5 was completed in the Spring of 1995, and after writing that monstrosity, I was feeling a bit burned out. I didn't touch Star Traks for a few months after that, but my interest was piqued again thanks to a summer job. That summer I ended up working in the Inventory department at Salisbury State University, where I met Anthony Butler. Anthony and I hit it off pretty much immediately. He was a Star Trek fan. He wrote. He thought I was brilliant. What was there not to like? (Okay. Fine. I made that last bit up.)
Anyway, I showed him Star Traks, and just the fact that he was interested in it got my mind running again. Over that summer, I wrote most of the short stories that take place between "Star Traks 5" and Star Traks 6 (Cruising For Trouble came much later) and plotted out most of "Star Traks 6."
Anthony, meanwhile, came up with his own idea for a spin-off series, which would become Star Traks: The Vexed Generation, but that, as they say, is another story.