Friday, 4 July 2025
The Fight Test
Sabotage
Thursday, 3 July 2025
These are The Voyages of The Starship Reliant
Starship Log, Stardate 8130.4.
Log entry by First Officer Pavel Chekov.
Starship Reliant on orbital
approach to Ceti Alpha VI,
in connection with Project Genesis.
We are continuing our search for
a lifeless planet to satisfy the
requirements of A Test-site for
The Genesis Experiment.
So far, no success.
[Reliant bridge]
TERRELL:
Standard orbit please. Mister Beach. Any change in the surface scan?
BEACH: Negative. Limited atmosphere, dominated by craylon gas,
sand and high velocity winds. It's incapable of supporting lifeforms.
CHEKOV: ….does it have to be completely lifeless?
TERRELL: Don't tell me you've found something.
CHEKOV: We've picked up a minor
energy-flux reading on one dynoscanner.
TERRELL: Damn! Are you sure?
Maybe The Scanner's out of adjustment.
CHEKOV: …I suppose it could be A Particle
of preanimate matter caught in The Matrix.
TERRELL: All right, get on
the Comm-pic to Doctor Marcus.
KYLE: Aye sir.
TERRELL: Maybe it's something we can transplant.
CHEKOV: (preemptively wincing) …You know what she'll say.
[Regula I space laboratory]
CAROL (OC):
Now let me get this straight —
‘Something you can transplant..?’
CHEKOV (OC): Yes, Doctor.
[Regula I lab]
CAROL: Something you
can transplant? …..I don't know.
TERRELL (on viewscreen):
It might only be a particle of preanimate matter.
CAROL: Then again, it may not.
You boys have to be clear on this;
There can't be so much as a microbe
or The Show's off. Why don't you have a look?
But if it is something that can be moved I want...
TERRELL (on viewscreen): You bet, Doctor. We're on our way!
[Regula I corridor]
DAVID: Well, don't have kittens.
Genesis is going to work.
They'll remember you in one breath
with Newton, Einstein, Surak.
CAROL: Thanks a lot. No respect from my offspring.
DAVID: Par for the course. Are you
teaming up with me for bridge after dinner?
CAROL: Maybe. ...What is it?
DAVID: Every time we have
dealings with Starfleet, I get nervous.
...We are dealing with something that
could be perverted into a dreadful weapon.
Remember that overgrown Boy Scout
you used to hang around with?
That's exactly the kind of man...
CAROL: Listen, kiddo,
Jim Kirk was many things,
but he was never a Boy Scout!
[Reliant orbiting Ceti Alpha V]
RELIANT VOICE: Captain Terrell, stand by to beam down.
[Surface of Ceti Alpha V]
TERRELL: Chekov, are you sure these are the correct coordinates?
CHEKOV: Captain, this is the garden spot of Ceti Alpha Six.
TERRELL: I can barely see it.
CHEKOV: There's nothing here. The tricorder must be broken.
TERRELL: Chekov, over here. Those look like cargo carriers. Hey, give me a hand.
[Cargo bay]
TERRELL: What the hell happened? If they crashed, where's the rest of the ship?
(looking at a tank with moving sand)
TERRELL: What the hell is that?
CHEKOV: Botany Bay. ...Botany Bay! ...Oh no! We've got to get out of here now! Damn!
TERRELL: What about the...
CHEKOV: Never mind! Hurry! Hurry!
TERRELL: Chekov, what's the matter with you? ...Chekov!
CHEKOV: Come on! Hurry!
(outside they are confronted by a group of hooded figures)
[Reliant bridge]
KYLE: Starship Reliant to Captain Terrell, ...this is Commander Kyle. Will you please respond, Captain? Captain Terrell, respond please.
BEACH: Let's give them a little more time.
[Cargo bay]
CHEKOV: Khan!
KHAN: I don't know you. ...But you, ...I never forget a face, Mister ...Chekov. Isn't it? I never thought to see your face again.
TERRELL: Chekov, who is this man?
CHEKOV: A criminal, Captain,
...a product of late twentieth century genetic engineering.
TERRELL: What do you want with us? Sir, I demand...
KHAN: You are in a position to demand nothing, sir. I, on the other hand, am in a position to grant ...nothing. What you see is all that remains of the ship's company and crew of the Botany Bay, marooned here fifteen years ago by Captain James T. Kirk.
TERRELL: Listen, you men and women, you have a...
KHAN: Captain! Captain! Save your strength. These people have sworn to live and die at my command two hundred years before you were born. Do you mean he never told you the tale? To amuse your Captain? No? Never told you how the Enterprise picked up the Botany Bay, lost in space in the year nineteen hundred and ninety-six, myself and the ship's company in cryogenic freeze?
TERRELL: I've never even met Admiral Kirk.
KHAN: Admiral? Admiral! Admiral... Never told you how Admiral Kirk sent seventy of us into exile on this barren sand heap with only the contents of these cargo bays to sustain us?
CHEKOV: You lie! On Ceti Alpha Five there was life, a fair chance.
KHAN: This is Ceti Alpha Five. ...Ceti Alpha Six exploded six months after we were left here. The shock shifted the orbit of this planet and everything was laid waste. Admiral Kirk ...never bothered to check on our progress. It was only the fact of my genetically engineered intellect that enabled us to survive! On Earth, ...two hundred years ago, ...I was a prince, ...with power over millions.
CHEKOV: Captain Kirk was your host! You repaid his hospitality by trying to steal his ship and murder him.
KHAN: You didn't expect to find me. You thought this was Ceti Alpha Six! Why are you here? ...Why are you here? ...Why? ...Allow me introduce you to Ceti Alpha Five's only remaining indigenous lifeform. ...What do you think? They've killed twenty of my people, including my beloved wife. ...Oh, not all at once, ...and not ...instantly, to be sure. ...You see, their young enter through the ears ...and wrap themselves around the cerebral cortex. This has the effect of rendering the victim extremely susceptible to suggestion. Later, ...they grow, ...follows madness. ...And death.
CHEKOV: Khan, listen to me!
KHAN: These are pets, of course. Not quite domesticated.
CHEKOV: Khan! Captain Kirk was only doing his duty!
TERRELL: No! No!
CHEKOV/TERRELL: (screams of pain)
KHAN: That's better! Now tell me ...why you are here?
...And tell me, where I may find James Kirk.
