The year is 2252. The planet Axanar – a non-aligned world with a great strategical importance, and a question as to how to use it. The humans and the Andorians believed that the planet would be a staging area utilized to send secret missions into the Klingon and Romulan sectors, for the purpose of both warfare and intelligence. The Vulcans and the Tellarites, on the other hand, firmly believed it could be used as a staging ground to explore the Beta Quadrant, believing that poking the dragon could lead the relatively young 90 year old Federation into oblivion.
Captain Leonard Garth from the Federation Colony Izar leads a task force of four starships on a secret mission to Axanar to deliver a stash of weapons grade trilithium to a storage unit there, under protest from the Vulcan representatives to the Federation. After several different incidents, Vulcan is seriously considering seceding from the Federation, with almost half of the worlds planning to follow them. Earth is on thin ice and Garth is uneasy regarding this mission. As his fleet enters orbit, he watches from his flagship, the Constitution. Two other smaller ships, start to descend to the planet surface. However, the Ares loses control and crashes into the surface. The payload detonates and an entire subcontinent is contaminated. Garth is stunned and orders his communications officer to contact Starfleet Command at once.
Back at Starfleet Headquarters, Fleet Captain Mark Swanson walks through the briefing room from a meeting with senior staff as Junior Ambassador Sarek stops him, suggesting that this is a travesty. Swanson says to tell him something he doesn’t know. He says that Captain Alec Roberts of the Ares made a big problem here for everyone. Sarek suggests that it is Earth who has caused this problem. Their irrational fear following the Romulan War has led to a period of over militarization of what was supposed to be a peacekeeping organization in Starfleet and it is something the Vulcans cannot take any longer. They are withdrawing from the Federation, effective as soon as possible. Swanson can’t believe it. He asks if anyone else knows. Sarek says it is logical to start with someone who has been a friend to the Vulcans, to give Starfleet Command a fair warning. Swanson asks about his son. Sarek admits that he has not spoken to his son in some time, that he is out on the frontier with Captain Pike, and that he believed Spock will do what is in logical from his perspective. Sarek says he has found their discussions stimulating and he hopes that the two can speak again as allies and colleagues. Sarek gives the Vulcan salute and walks away.
Swanson then reports to his ship, the Bellerophon, with orders from Command to take a second task force and help Garth clean up this mess. Two additional ships: the Drake and the Potempkin join the task force and head towards Axanar.
Garth is on the surface, meeting with the leaders of various planetary governments, as the subcontinent is far too dangerous to go in. The President of the government on the subcontinent is on a viewscreen, indicating his anger of this situation. He assumed Starfleet would send a competent group of officers to stockpile weapons on their world, not destroy it. Garth explains that it is a mistake and something that will be fixed to the best of the Federation’s ability. The remaining politicians suggest that this could be the end of Axanar’s petition to the Federation, something that Garth’s leaders would need to seriously reconsider the Captain’s station aboard one of their valued Starships. Garth leaves and walks outside to his shuttle. On the way, he finds many civilians who are ready to pounce on the Captain. Both Garth’s security and security from the governments help him through but its obvious how hurt he is by this.
Garth’s shuttle begins its flight back to the Constitution, but the Captain has second thoughts and orders the shuttle to the subcontinent. He orders the shuttle to fly low. As he does, he sees the decimation from the attack. Many homes are destroyed. Many casualties. But then he sees the survivor, including a young child holding the Axanar equivelant to a bunny rabbit. She looks up at the shuttle with tears in her eyes. Garth cannot look any longer. He orders the shuttle back to the Constitution.
Back on Earth, Sarek meets with Vulcan Ambassador T’Rel, who indicates that diplomatic relations with Earth have broken down at that the Vulcans are pulling their ambassadorial staff. T’Rel says they will be launching their own relief fleet to Axanar heavy on security vessels. T’Rel says she believes the humans cannot be trusted. Sarek goes to his quarters and contemplates contacting his son, even going so far as opening a channel to the Enterprise. But he stops realizing his son can take care of himself. Instead, he calls Amanda, telling her he’s coming home. Then, he opens a channel to the Bellerophon.
Two days later, the Bellerophon and the task force arrive at Axanar. Swanson meets privately with Garth in his quarters. Garth, still shaken, asks what they can do to help. He suggests that the Federation has options, but it appears based upon the scans from the Constitution that six tricobalt devices have yet to detonate, two of which made it to the main continent itself and have begun leaking into the southern peninsula’s water supply. The four on the surface will be disabled and beamed into space and detonated near the star. However, the two in the water supply are an issue. While the subcontinent’s population was around 50,000 Axanar, there are over twenty million who rely on the water from the subcontinent. They have to find a way to get those devices out without detonating and without further leakage. Transporters are not an option. Neither would be towing with a shuttle. They will have to dive, repair the devices and manually pull them out. Garth volunteers but Swanson says he has a dive team aboard Bellerophon who will be able to handle this well. Garth feels a personal stake at what happened. Swanson suggests that its not entirely his fault, that mistakes do happen. This one just happened to be a costly one. There is a way to stop it. Garth describes the girl and the “bunny,” to which Swanson suggests that he needs to be a Starfleet officer right now. Anything else, will make him lose his ship. Swanson leaves, but not before asking Garth to join him on the surface to watch the dive. Garth composes himself and follows Swanson.
Sarek, now en route to Vulcan, learns that the Vulcan High Command plans to stop Starfleet’s plans to detonate the tricobalt devices by force if they have to, admitting that they believe Starfleet’s plans will cause more damage than it’s worth to the ecosystem. He attempts to contact the Bellerophon to warn Swanson, but learns communications have been scrambled.
Garth and Swanson are on the surface of Axanar and are monitoring the dive. The team retrieves one of the devices with no difficulty. But as they start into the second one, the Constitution calls and indicates that Vulcan ships have arrived and they’re at battlestations. The dive team is ordered to stop the leak and return to the surface. Garth and Swanson return to the Constitution.
Once there, Swanson switches his flag to the Constitution and Garth takes the helm. Swanson hails the lead Vulcan ship and there is a war of words followed by a war of action. The Vulcans believe that they have other options in regards to removing these weapons. The Starfleet vessels disagree holding their ground. The Vulcans open fire. The Drake is destroyed and the Potempkin is disabled. The Bellepheron manages to disable one of the Vulcan ships before it too is disabled. The Constitution is hit badly. Swanson surrenders. The Vulcan Commander suggests they have 20 minutes to inform their crews before they board and take command. Swanson asks what the Vulcans will do. The Commander suggests that he send shuttles down to pull them out. Swanson warns that that could manage to destabilize them and cause further damage to the planet. The Commander suggests his logic is sound and repeats they have 20 minutes.
Garth says that their plan will not work and they need to work quickly. The crew quickly devises a plan to transport them out to space using remote tags. Swanson suggests that might cause as much damage as the Vulcans’ plan. The science officer suggests that they can tech the tech to keep that from happening. Garth and Swanson race against time as the Vulcans close in on the planet. Swanson decides the one way to save the Axanar is to beam down to the surface and tag the devices to beam out into space himself. But he needs time. And with only the Constitution not destroyed or disabled, their choices are limited. Garth has an idea on how to stop them. He wishes his friend the best of luck and beams Swanson down himself. Garth runs to the bridge and orders the helmsman to get the Bellerophon on the line.
Swanson meanwhile appears on the surface. The tricobalt devices have done more than enough damage at this point. And his health monitor shows a quick decrease in oxygenated blood. There’s nothing he can do. He’s a dead man walking. He marks the five devices and moves to the water where the sixth one is just on the shore line. He stumbles but tags it too. He falls to the ground and sees a child holding the Axanar equivalent to a bunny rabbit. He picks it up, tears running down his face, activates the tag and the devices disappear. He looks at the bunny as the camera pulls away from him, and the damage takes its hold on his system.
Garth meanwhile manages to disable the Vulcan’s weapon systems and engines using some brilliant tactic that is spoken of for decades. (Yeah, I’m cheating at this point because I don’t have a clue. LOL!) The Vulcans are outraged (well, as much so as a Vulcan can be) until Ambassador Sarek’s vessel arrives. He tells the Vulcans to stand down per an order from the Vulcan High Command. They do so. Sarek tells Captain Garth they have much work to do.
Six months later, Starfleet and Vulcan ships, including the Constitution and a fully-repaired Bellerophon, are above Axanar. In Garth’s log, he indicates that while the past six months have been difficult, not only has Vulcan made plans to rejoin the Federation but the Axanar event has been cleaned up to the best of their ability. While the loss of life on the subcontinent, casualties of the Axanar have been light. Representatives from many worlds are at Axanar for a Peace Mission, including a delegation of cadets. On the agenda for the Peace Mission has been creating a more lasting peace between the worlds of the Federation, readmission of Vulcan and the admission of Axanar. Along with one other thing…
Admiral Barnett oversees Garth’s promotion to Fleet Captain, as those from a hundred worlds watch on. Barnett suggests that his friend Swanson would be proud of him. Garth’s first mission is to take the Bellerophon to the frontier. Garth speaks to Sarek who thanks him for his efforts in trying to keep the peace. Sarek says it was the logical thing to do. Sarek asks what Garth hopes to find on the frontier. Garth suggests that Starfleet’s mantra “to explore new worlds and new civilizations” will help for a better tomorrow – that worlds like Bajor and the Antos system offer some interesting possibilities to be sure. Sarek gives Garth the Vulcan salute and takes his leave.
Garth returns to the Constitution as he and his crew go off to find new adventures.
