Welcome To The Hotel California
| Star Traks: Boldly Gone | |
| Episode name | Welcome To The Hotel California |
|---|---|
| Season | 9 |
| Episode number | 5 |
| Writer(s) | Alan Decker, Anthony Butler |
| Year | 2503 |
| Stardate | Unknown |
| Chronology | |
| Previous in series | Right Where We Left It [BG] |
| Next in series | Contractual Obligations [BG] |
| Previous in timeline | Right Where We Left It [BG] |
| Next in timeline | Contractual Obligations [BG] |
The USS Anomaly has accidently solved a twenty-year-old mystery: they found the missing Multek Enclave. However, the Multeks aren't exactly pleased to have been found, and have no intentions of letting the Anomaly crew leave. Sure, it's a lovely place, but the prospect of being trapped with the Multeks forever has Captain Reginald Bain singing a few bars of "Welcome To The Hotel California."
Summary
Twenty Years Ago
Captain Reginald Bain has been assigned to be a counselor at a Starfleet Scouts camp on Waystation Prime as a punishment for destroying an automated battle droid that was actually part of a secret Starfleet Intelligence planetary defense project. While relaying the story of how Admiral James T. Kirk outwitted Khan Noonian Singh to the scouts, he notices a young Yynsian boy in the group who looks bored. Bain he asks the boy his name, learns it is Tovar, then asks him what he would do. A soft voice in Tovar’s mind tells him to use Khan’s lack of familiarity with space combat against him, which Bain is delighted to say is the correct answer.
After the rest of the scouts head to dinner, Tovar hangs back. Bain is surprised to learn that the boy isn’t actually a Starfleet Scout. His parents managed to get him a spot in the camp while they went on vacation in the Multek Enclave, but he has no real interest in Starfleet. Bain tries to change that by sharing his mission logs with the boy, and Tovar seems to want to spend time with Bain. Bain realizes that Tovar is lonely and looking for some kind of parental figure in the absence of his own parents. On their way to a holodeck exercise, they hear that Bradley Dillon’s CasinoWorld inside the Multek Enclave is evacuating for an unknown reason. Bain assures Tovar that his parents were safe, since they were on Multos, light years away from the CasinoWorld.
Soon after this, the entire Multek Enclave vanishes, worlds and all, and Bain is tasked with breaking the news to Tovar that his parents are gone. With no other family, Tovar is effectively by himself in the universe. Bain hates to be the one to do it, but he tells Tovar, who then asks to be alone. Bain feels helpless at first but then realizes that there’s something he can do. He races back to his quarters and comms his wife to talk about adopting Tovar.
In The Present
Bain fumes that Frequoq Wurlitz intends to prevent the USS Anomaly and its crew from ever leaving Multek space…at least as much as he can fume while playing mini-golf on Multos with Rosalyn Bain. Lieutenant Shelly Marsden beams down to give Bain an update on the ship’s status. Warp and the anti-singularity drive are still down, but she and Dr. Natalia Kasyov have figured out how they ended up in the Multek Enclave. The anti-singularity drive puts the Anomaly slightly out of phase with the rest of the universe. Multek space is now out of phase as well, so when the Anomaly hit the border, they were dumped into Multek space, but, since they weren’t exactly in phase with either space, the entry caused a lot of damage to the Anomaly.
Tovar is meeting with his birth parents, Tanta and Jimsok, but neither of them seem very interested in reuniting with their son. They end up scheduling a dinner for that evening with the Bains and Marsden, then Tanta and Jimsok rush off to go on the bumper boats, leaving Tovar alone.
The Allegra has crashed on a Class M world near the barrier surrounding the Multek Enclave. Commander Vioxx, Sub-Commander Remax, Centurion Nortal, and Lieutenant Bre'zan Brazzell are forced to walk for two days to reach a small cluster of buildings they detected. They realize they are on Edgeworld inside the Multek Enclave, but the resort there has a sign stating that it will soon become a Dillon Consortium property. Remax detects a faint lifesign.
They enter the resort to investigate and find a stasis tube containing a human, which activates on sensing their approach. Inside is Tori Burke, a Dillion Consortium attorney who was sent there twenty years ago to oversee the renovation of the Multek resort to Dillion Consortium specifications. She is shocked to learn that she’s been in stasis for twenty years and otherwise combative with Vioxx and his team, particularly when she realizes that they are there to strip the place for parts to repair the Allegra. Vioxx orders Nortal to guard Burke and stun her if she tries anything, which results in Nortal stunning Burke multiple times while the rest of the team loots the resort for anything of use. They also find hoverbikes they can use to return to the Allegra rather than hiking back for two days.
The dinner Tovar, Marsden, and the Bains have with Tovar’s birth parents is full of awkward silences, with Jimsok and Tanta mostly discussing the amazing things to see and do in the Multek Enclave. Marsden notes how amazing the pocket universe is and learns from Tanta that the nine stars of the Enclave are powering the devices keeping them out of phase with the normal universe. Bain starts forming a plan.
Vioxx and the others, including Burke, return to the Allegra with the supplies they have gathered and set to work making repairs.
The next morning, Marsden has gotten the Anomaly’s main power back online thanks to new dilithium crystals that Kasyov and Cabral were able to grow from the debris that survived their entry into the pocket universe. During a morning briefing on the bridge, Kasyov detects a network of large platforms around the star in the Multos system. Presumably similar platforms have been placed around each of the Enclave’s eight other stars. With that information and enough dilithium to get the raceabouts functional again, Bain sets his plan into motion.
Tanta and Jimsok are telling Frequoq Wurlitz about their concerns that Bain might be up to something based on their conversation at dinner the previous evening when Wurlitz receives word that the Anomaly is requesting permission to leave orbit to test out their repairs. Wurlitz says to grant it, but orders to Multek fleet to follow. She, Jimsok, and Tanta go aboard one of the ships.
Bain gets approval from docking control and apologizes for the mess that the Anomaly is leaving in orbit. It’s a ball of bulkheads and the like that were removed during their repairs. Bain tells the docking control officer that normally they’d just lob that sort of trash into the nearest sun, but they didn’t want to presume that that’s how the Multeks would want it handled. Not wanting to risk the pile entering Multos’ atmosphere, docking control tells Bain to go ahead and push the ball of debris toward the sun. The Anomaly uses the tractor beam to do so, then leaves orbit followed by the Multek fleet.
Once clear of the system, Bain sends Lieutenant Gworos and Ensign Yonk in the Raceabout USS Rhone to find the Allegra. Upon seeing the Rhone launch, the Multek fleet splits, sending some ships to follow the raceabout while the remainder stay with the Anomaly. Bain orders the Anomaly to race to the star of a nearby system. The Multeks increase speed to pursue, then surround the Anomaly.
Bain comms the lead Multek ship, and Wurlitz responds, saying that she knows what Bain is planning and that he has no idea what destroying the pocket universe generators would do. Bain says that if he destroys the generator around this star, the Multek Enclave will return to normal space and he and his crew can go home. Wurlitz insists that she cannot let that happen. Bain lectures her that she can’t hide from the universe or hold people against their will, or, as he says she did with Tovar’s parents, brainwash them. Jimsok and Tanta say that they aren’t brainwashed and chose to go to the Multek Enclave. Bain doesn’t believe them. Wurlitz says that she knows Bain and the Anomaly crew didn’t choose to be there but everyone else in the Enclave did. Bain says he made a choice as well, a choice to take them all back to normal space. He explains that the Anomaly and the Rhone were both diversions to cover for the raceabout hidden in the debris the Anomaly tossed toward Multos’ sun before leaving the system. Marsden and Commander Prosak were aboard, and Bain is certain that they’ve found a way to shut down the pocket universe generator.
On cue, Kasyov detects that they are returning to normal space. Wurlitz screams that Bain has destroyed the Multeks and mentions the Dillon Consortium. Before Bain can follow-up, Kasyov detects strange readings from Bradley Dillon’s CasinoWorld, which was left abandoned in Multek space. The entire casino complex has transformed into a giant robot and launched itself from the planet. It sends out a message informing the Multeks that the Multek Enclave is now Dillon Consortium property and that a Consortium acquisition fleet has been dispatched. Wurlitz says that’s what they were trying to avoid. Tovar receives a message from Starfleet Command and reports that a Dillon Consortium fleet is indeed on the way. Starfleet has been ordered not to interfere in the matter, since it is between the Dillon Consortium and the Multeks.
Wurlitz tells Bain that this is all his fault and the end of the Multek Enclave is on his head.
To Be Continued…
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
Author's Comments
Commenting on part two of a longer storyline is difficult, so I'll just focus in on a few elements from this one.
Getting the Romulans off on their own is fun, since they handle things a bit differently. I can't see Starfleet Officers repeatedly stunning someone just for the heck of it and certainly not advocating killing Burke...even if she is annoying.
Reginald Bain is usually the direct sort, but he's shown in the past that he can use misdirection and confusion when the need arises. Give him some time, and he'll figure out a way to take you down. Don't give him time, and he may just come at you head-on. Pick your poison.
The real heart of this story for me, though, are the flashbacks to how Bain and Tovar first met. This was one of those things that we'd mentioned in passing starting with the very first run of stories, but showing it was another matter. My hope was to develop the connection between them quickly, since I didn't want it taking up the whole story, while showing enough to make it understandable why Bain decided to adopt Tovar. Their father-son relationship has been a major part of the series since the beginning, so it was nice to go back to where it started.
As for Tovar's reunion with his own parents...well...maybe having them disappear for 20 years wasn't such a tragedy after all. I do have to admit that this is based loosely on reality. I do know a couple who always have given me the impression that they only had a child to get their parents of their back. The kid seems to practically live the grandparents while mom and dad continue to go out and do things that most of us with young ones at home cannot. I took it to an extreme for Tanta and Jimsok (yet another awful name), but I got the idea from the real world.
If at the end of the story, you were saying, "Wait. WHAT?" that was intentional.