Waiting For The Other Shoe
| Star Traks: Waystation | |
| Episode name | Waiting For The Other Shoe... |
|---|---|
| Season | |
| Episode number | |
| Writer(s) | Alan Decker |
| Year | 2376 |
| Stardate | 53742 |
| Chronology | |
| Previous in series | Everything Must Go! |
| Next in series | News At Eleven |
| Previous in timeline | Head Case [TRK] |
| Next in timeline | The Torn Rubber Sheet [VEX] |
We join our heroes in the midst of a major galactic storm that threatens to tear the station to shreds! Okay, so you pretty much know that that's not going to happen...or is it? In fact, is anything at all going to happen? You'll understand what that means once you start reading.
Summary
Waystation is being battered by a spatial storm. Lieutenant Commander Craig Porter realizes that the storm is feeding off of Waystation's power. The station's power systems are shut down while Porter launched a high-energy probe to lure the storm away from the station toward a pulsar. With the storm gone, he and his engineering crews set bringing the primary power core back online. As they do so, the core's energy readings spike, sending out a ripple that passes throughout the station, but then everything seems fine. Later, as Porter is examining the exterior of the upper saucer in an EVA suit, the hull of the saucer ruptured beneath his feet, sending him flying out into space. But then he was suddenly standing back on the saucer, which was perfectly intact. All across the station, similar incidents begin occurring...or not occurring really. When an action is taken, the expected result just doesn't take place. Dr. Amedon Nelson cannot get broken bones to heal, Ih'mad's customers cannot get full, the Federation Marines cannot destroy their practice targets, and a shoplifter cannot get out of Dillon's Supply Depot with his ill-gotten gains. Porter figures out that the laws of causality are no longer working on Waystation, and to prove it he punches Colonel Martin Lazlo, who doesn't react at all. The effects of the impact of Porter's fist against his face don't reach Lazlo. The ripple from the power core affected Waystation on the quantum level, effectively shutting down the laws of cause and effect. Porter is able to create a second ripple that reverses the effect. After he does so, everything that had happened while the laws of causality were shut down begins to have its proper effect, causing pain and chaos through the station. Porter narrowly averts the station's destruction, but everything seems to be back to normal. Just to make sure that causality is working, though, Captain Beck punches Lazlo.
Featuring
- Captain Lisa Beck
- Commander Walter Morales
- Lieutenant Commander Craig Porter
- Lieutenant Sean Russell
- Yeoman Tina Jones
- Colonel Martin Lazlo
- Dr. Amedon Nelson
- Bradley Dillon
Also Featuring
- Ih'mad
- Lieutenant Colonel Daniel O'Neal
Author's Comments
This story works well with the "Waystation as a town" concept. I was able to show the effects of shutting down causality on people other than the Starfleet crew, which I think makes the story a lot more fun. It was also one of the first times I really addressed what people do during their off-hours...besides eating. The characters in Waystation seem to spend most of their time in restaurants or the mall food court.
This story marks the first appearance of Security Officer Mike Waits. I think in this one story he got more development than any of Russell's previously-mentioned security officers ever had.
Bradley Dillon's clerks are a blatant rip-off (or a loving homage, if you prefer) of the characters in the Kevin Smith film "Clerks" and its many sequels and off-shoots.