Please Hold For Oblivion
| Star Traks: The Original Series | |
| Episode name | Please Hold For Oblivion |
|---|---|
| Season | |
| Episode number | |
| Writer(s) | Alan Decker |
| Year | 2385 |
| Stardate | 62004 |
| Chronology | |
| Previous in series | Aftermath [TRK] |
| Next in series | The Star Traks Reunion Special [TRK] |
| Previous in timeline | |
| Next in timeline | |
Ten years after Captain Alexander Rydell and the crew of the USS Secondprize manage to narrowly prevent the destruction of the universe, they are called back into service to finish cleaning up the mess they made a decade earlier. But things have changed. Lives have moved on, and grudges have grown. Can the crew pull it back together long enough to stop the end of everything? Or will one of their own send them all to OBLIVION?
Summary
STARDATE 52014
While Trinian is away on her first vacation ever, the USS Secondprize is sent to investigate the source of some anomalous temporal energy readings. The readings lead them to a moon of Batonis Six, and Lieutenant Commander Jaroch quickly determines that the temporal energy is identical to that produced by the Guardian of Forever. On Betazed, Trinian's vacation is interupted by the voice of Guardian Control in her head telling her that the Secondprize had arrived even though she was supposed to stop it. She is also informed that action has been taken.
Captain Alexander Rydell beams into the moon with Jaroch, Commander Travis Dillon, Lieutenant Patricia Hawkins, and Commander Scott Baird, while Lieutenant Commander Emily Sullivan has command of the Secondprize. As the away team makes contact with Forever, the temporal entity in the moon, the Secondprize is attacked by a far more powerfull ship sent from Guardian Control, the Mitgogae commanded by Morticent with the assistance of Guardian #492, which the Secondprize spends most of the battle running away from. Rydell and company accidentally start the destruction of the universe (Forever is anxious to show them that he can do it) but manage to get Forever to postpone it for ten years. Forever agrees and gives the five officers an access code which they must all say in unison followed by an apt profanity-laced closing statement from Baird. With the crisis temporarily averted, Morticent calls off the attack and decides to use the ten years she has left to live enjoying herself. On Betazed, Trinian comes to pretty much the same conclusion. Rydell isn't too worried about the ten year deadline. He's informed Starfleet, and he's sure they'll take care of it.
TEN YEARS LATER
On her first day on the job, newly-promoted Admiral Lisa Beck is informed that her first assignment is to get Rydell, Dillon, Baird, Hawkins, and Jaroch back together to stop the destruction of the universe, since Starfleet didn't actually deal with the Forever situation. It was just filed away with a flag on it to deal with it in ten years. Beck has the help of Commander Craig Porter, who now works in the Temporal Physics department of Starfleet Sciences. Beck sends him to scout out Forever, while she sets off to gather up the five Secondprize officers.
Alexander Rydell has long since retired from Starfleet to marry Karina Durham and run The Suburb Cottages and Spa. Leaving Karina behind to run The Suburb, Rydell goes with Beck. Morticent, who has spent the last decade running up some incredible credit card bills, learns that Starfleet is trying to stop the destruction of the universe. She orders the Mitgogae back to Forever to stop the Starfleet Officers (she really cannot pay back her bills and knows what the debt collectors will do to her is worse than the universe ending), making one stop along the way. Trinian is also contacted by Guardian Control. They inform her that Morticent has gone rogue and that she needs to get to Forever to stop Morticent from killing Rydell and company.
Rydell and Beck arrive at the Deneria Dry Dock, where Scott Baird is the Supervising Refit and Repair Officer, a job he was given on the condition that he have a profanity filter chip installed in his brain. His wife, Captain Emily Sullivan, is there as well with her ship, the USS Inevitable. Starfleet has declared the current situation classified, so Beck cannot tell Sullivan what is happening, but Baird is told that he must accompany them back to Forever. Soon their transportation arrives, the USS Secondprize under the command of Captain Jaroch. Jaroch and Rydell take the Secondprize to get Dillon, while Beck and Baird take a raceabout to find Hawkins. No one will tell Rydell where Dillon is. He soon learns that Dillon went a wee bit on the crazy side after Hawkins abruptly left him and he was passed over for command of the Secondprize. For the last several years, he has been living in a holodeck constructed inside of an asteroid, where he is watched over by Counselor Ray Miller. Dillon has turned the holodeck into his own fantasy world where he is the absolute ruler. Against Miller's advice, Dillon is yanked out of the holodeck and transported to the Secondprize. Hawkins and her husband, Mookow, run a private security firm, but due to some relationship issues and a botched security job, Hawkins is more than willing to help stop Forever despite knowing it will mean facing Dillon again.
On Waystation, Trinian is able to borrow a ship from Bradley Dillon in exchange for working for him, a deal she has no plans of honoring. She races to Deneria, but finds that the Secondprize has already left for Forever. She runs into Sullivan, tells her everything, and they take off after the Secondprize in the Inevitable. Porter, who has made contact with Forever, is suddenly beamed out of the moon by Morticent and imprisoned on her ship (although, she makes his captivity quite pleasant). The Mitgogae hides, waiting for the Secondprize, which arrives some time later. Rydell, Jaroch, Hawkins, and Baird beam down to Forever and make preparations to have Dillon beamed down while Jaroch's first officer, Commander Andrea Carr, and Beck remain on the Secondprize. Thanks to a message left by Porter, the Secondprize discovers that the Mitgogae is in the area and send down transport scramblers to prevent Morticent from grabbing Rydell and company out of the moon. Thwarted at this, Morticent instead grabs Dillon in transport and beams him onto the Mitgogae, not realizing that she has an unstable man on her hands. Dillon knocks out Morticent and starts cackling about killing Rydell. He soon discovers Morticent's secret weapon against Rydell. On the way to Forever, she had the Mitgogae swing by The Suburb and snatch Karina Durham. Dillon grabs Durham and beams down to Forever, where he tells Rydell that if Rydell doesn't do everything he says, he's going to kill Durham.
With her plan spoiled, Morticent attacks the Secondprize. The Secondprize is again overmatched but gets some much needed help when the Inevitable arrives. During the battle, Porter is able to free himself and sets out to find the Mitgogae's enginer room. Meanwhile, Baird is able to drive Dillon off. Rydell gives chase and is able to appeal to Dillon's sense of Starfleet duty, convincing Dillon to put whatever grudge he has against Rydell aside until after the universe is saved.
The Mitgogae disables the Secondprize and turns its attention to the Inevitable. Rydell, Dillon, Jaroch, Hawkins, and Baird try to give Forver their access code and run into one tiny problem: Baird's profanity filter won't allow him to say the final phrase. The Invitable is disabled as well, but before the Mitgogae can strike the killing blow against both Starfleet ships, Porter shuts down power to all major systems. Morticent sends Guardian #492 to find out what's happened as Sullivan and Trinian take a raceabout to the Secondprize, grab Beck and Carr, then all four women beam onto the Mitgogae. Trinian heads to the bridge and fights Morticent. Beck, Sullivan, and Carr are...distracted by some of Morticent's flunkies. And Porter is found by Guardian #492, who decides to kill the Starfleet officer.
With one minute remaining until universal annihilation, Hawkins takes drastic action to shut down Baird's profanity filter, hitting the engineer with a swift boot to the head. The chip is broken, but Baird is dazed. At the last possible second (of course), they are able to give Forever the complete access code and and tell him NOT to destroy the universe.
Forever decides to do it anyway.
A chronometric wave shoots out of the moon in all directions, unraveling all of the possible timelines of the universe. The six people inside the Forever moon are the only ones protected from its effects, Dillon cackling all the while that Rydell failed. Seeing no other options, Rydell leaps into the source of the chronometic wave, hoping to find the force in control of Forever. Dillon takes the opportunity to get revenge against Hawkins. Before he can kill her, Jaroch challenges him to personal combat. Dillon stuns Hawkins and accepts the challenge, both men saying that they have been waiting a long time for this. Rydell finds himself in a clock shop. There the proprietor shows him a mangled broken clock labeled "Forever." The clock is our universe, and it is very very broken. The shop proprietor has no interest in fixing it, since he's got many other clocks. Rydell grabs some tools and sets out to fix it himself, knowing all the while that this whole clock shop thing is probably completely metaphorical and that he is in way over his head.
Jaroch and Dillon fight, Jaroch discovering much to his discomfort that Dillon has spent his time in the asteroid holodeck training himself. Karina, whom Dillon had stunned earlier, regains consciousness and demands to know where Rydell is. Jaroch and Dillon point her in the direction he went, and she leaps in after him, finding herself in the clock shop. She tells Rydell that he is not a god, and they decide to go together to face the end of everything.
Dillon injures Jaroch badly, knocking him to the floor. Hawkins has recovered by this time and leaps up to continue the fight against Dillon, faring even worse than Jaroch did. She's the one Dillon has been training for, and he attacks her mercilessly. Jaroch is able to summon J'Ter, who takes over Jaroch and gives Dillon a thorough thrashing.
The clock shop proprietor shows up again, and Rydell and Durham are able to talk him into repairing Forever. Dillon is beaten, but he tells Jaroch and Hawkins that it doesn't matter because they're all going to die anyway. That's when Rydell and Durham return, fresh from having saved the universe, to prove him wrong.
With the universe back in place, Morticent surrenders, and Trinian takes her and Guardian #492 back to Guardian Control for trial. Beck has Dillon committed to Tantalus V, where he can finally get the help he should have gotten years ago. Hawkins informs Jaroch that, while she does have feelings for him, she needs to go home and see if she can work things out with Mookow.
One year later, Beck visits Rydell at The Suburb and meets his baby daughter, Ashley.
Eighteen months after Forever, the Secondprize arrives at Starbase 84. Hawkins is there waiting for Jaroch. She and Mookow have divorced, and she wants to see if Jaroch is willing to give a relationship a try. He readily agrees.
Two years after Forever, Dillon is doing much better and is about to be released from Tantalus V. When asked what he plans to do now, Dillon states that may write a book.
Featuring
- Captain Alexander Rydell
- Commander Travis Dillon
- Lieutenant Commander Jaroch
- Commander Scott Baird
- Lieutenant Patricia Hawkins
- Lieutenant Commander Emily Sullivan
- Ensign Andrea Carr
- Lieutenant Monica Vaughn
- Trinian
Also Featuring
Author's Comments
I started writing "Please Hold For Oblivion" in the Fall of 1997, two years after I had graduated from Old Dominion University. At the time I was in graduate school in Louisiana and, if I am honest with myself, feeling a bit lonely. Yes, I was married, and I had made new friends. But the group of people I had spent almost four years with had scattered, and I was definitely feeling the inevitable changes that friendships go through as everyone moves on to new phases of their lives.
That's really what Oblivion is about. I wanted to show that time had actually passed for the Secondprize crew and that they weren't going to stay in the same place forever (no pun intended). Oblivion was written before The Lost Years, so all of the things that happen with the crew at the end of Lost Years were actually dictated by the decisions I made for Oblivion. I knew Rydell would retire young for a while. I'd laid the groundwork for it in Of Gods and First Officers. Actually "Gods" has a bit of dialogue that shaped a lot of Oblivion. Rydell tells Conway, "There are people for whom this is a job and those for whom this is a life. Figure out what kind of Starfleet officer you are now before your entire life passes you by. If it's just a job, stay only until you figure out what you really want to do. Then get the hell out. If it's your life, give it everything you've got." Nothing especially deep there, but it made me think about the Secondprize crew. Which ones were career Starfleet and which ones were just passing through.
And then there's Dillon. But he's another issue entirely.
Morticent came from a friend of mine who wanted to be a character in the series. She's not particularly evil, but I seem to remember that she got a kick out of being the villian. The name is a mix of Morticia Addams from "The Addams Family" and Maleficent from "Sleeping Beauty," two of her favorite characters, and her ship name, the Mitgogae, comes from the jokey name we used for one of our favorite movies (especially hers), "Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil."
I would like to point out that I came up with the profanity filter and used it as a plot point well before a similar idea was used in "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut." I freely acknowledge when I "borrow" ideas. That one, however, was not cribbed from South Park. (This is not a statement against that movie, which I thought was hysterical. Great soundtrack, too.)