Star Trek Hunter Episode 21: The Enemy of My Enemy
- Thread starter Robert Bruce Scott
- Start date
Interesting.
Perhaps a counter suit is a good response? Insist that Sela surrender to the RSN? Justice Irons could offer her services to the RSN on loan as presiding justice for Sela's trail. Not to worry, Sela, the honorable judge Irons is famed for her impartiality.
-Will
Perhaps a counter suit is a good response? Insist that Sela surrender to the RSN? Justice Irons could offer her services to the RSN on loan as presiding justice for Sela's trail. Not to worry, Sela, the honorable judge Irons is famed for her impartiality.
-Will
Understatement of the year award...
You're not thinking big enough...
Understanding Julian Bashir:
There are a lot of brilliant characters in the Hunter Trekverse - The ferengi, Tauk, who was 16 when he wrote the math proofs that would earn him an honorary doctorate in game theory - by far the most esoteric of math applications; Minerva's son, Ushi Irons, who has dominated the Federation Council for more than 40 years; Geoff Alstars, who can calculate and design warp fields in his head faster than most computers; the time travelers - Wesley Crusher, Dr. Carrera and the Doctor - who can move throughout spacetime with a thought; and by far the most eclectically brilliant of Hunter's crew, Napoleon Boles, who can keep up with experts in pretty much any scientific or artistic field. And there are so many more...
None of them hold a candle to Julian Bashir, a one-in-10-billion fluke - a genetically engineered super-genius who, unlike the vast majority of people who have been altered to that extent, is mentally and emotionally stable. At Captain Sisko's urging, Julian allowed himself to be recruited into Section 31. As he got deeper and deeper into the organization, he became ensnared. Minerva Irons and Luther Sloan had recruited Julian not to be an agent, but to be the next Director.
Whenever Julian appears in STH, he lays down a ton of exposition. Every word foreshadows upcoming events. In writing Julian, I avoided the .007 trap of having the bad guy tell his nefarious plans to the good guy for no apparent reason other than that it was the only way to provide that context to the audience. That's not what Julian does. Minerva Irons is now one of his underlings and whenever he talks to her, he is giving her the context and emotional support to do what he needs her to do.
I say this in preparation for dropping the final scene in Episode 21, in which Julian appears to Minerva in a dream (it's really some fearsome machine - dream-tech) to put her on the path he needs her to take.
I plan to drop that tomorrow, when I get back from Michigan.
Thanks!! rbs
Star Trek Hunter
Episode 21: The Enemy of My Enemy
Scene 16: The Sleep of the Just
21.16
The Sleep of the Just
The Sleep of the Just
“Not easy, being an agent for Section 31, is it?”
Chief Justice Julian Bashir’s suave voice managed at once to be soothing and menacing. It was something about that cultured, posh British accent. It was the voice of a hero. It was also the voice of carefully planned, deliciously intractable evil.
Justice Minerva Irons realized that she had fallen asleep at her desk - a glass of Scotch in her hand. She had recently replaced her office chair with something more comfortable. The old chair had gotten a bit hard for her aging derriere. Unfortunately, the new chair was just a bit too comfortable. She remembered her last communication with the shadowy Director of Section 31 and was at least momentarily heartened that she appeared to have a mouth.
Irons felt a deep sense of foreboding. It was an unpleasant feeling. “What have I become?”
“A war criminal,” the Director of Section 31 replied. “A death force. A destroyer of worlds. A defiler of sacred soil. You have become what the Federation needed you to become. What the romulans needed you to become. And that is nothing compared to what I have become. I thought Luther Sloan was a monster when you and he recruited me into this organization, ostensibly to reform it. To help lift the cloak of secrecy and evil deeds done in the name of posterity. You two encouraged me to become the Director of Section 31 and in so doing you turned me into a monster.” The years clearly weighed heavily on Julian Bashir’s shoulders. Instead of picking up middle age weight, he had grown thin – his once handsome face had a gaunt, haunted look to it. He needed a shave.
Bashir laughed grimly. “Do you think for a moment that anyone would have braved the journey through romulan space into the Dead Zone to learn the doom that hangs over us all if Admiral Scumuk hadn’t concocted that weaponized virus designed to exterminate the bolian people? I have a bullpen of geniuses working for me who knew otherwise. Scumuk was in the early stages of Bendii Syndrome. He had been rattling on about that library for a decade. No one was listening anymore. No one believed him. Ancient library of the progenitors? A broken hulk? Vague talk of gamma radiation? The ramblings of a madman, gradually coming unglued.”
He leaned forward in the chair across from the captain’s desk and thumped his forehead with his index finger. “Did you really believe that I allowed Chief Justice Scrivax to poison my mind to hide his genocidal rampage against the half-trills? My own son is half-trill!!”
“So it was Scrivax?” Irons asked.
“Of course it was Scrivax,” Bashir said tiredly. “All because the doctor who could not save his wife was married to a half-trill. It drove him mad. He went through the kohlinar - the priests thought he had purged his emotions. It only drove him further into madness.”
Bashir leaned forward again in his chair, becoming more animated. “Who do you think programmed that half-vulcan, half betazoid serial killer to help him do his dirty work? He bred her to do his dirty work! She was his daughter! I allowed their murderous rampage to go on because I needed Scrivax to condition Scumuk to do something even worse. It was the only way I could get your mission authorized. Not that I knew Scumuk would go after the bolians.” He sat back again, looked down to his left. “I didn’t make any of these things happen - I just allowed them to happen.”
“Julian, what have you become?” Irons was horrified, but at the same time she just felt tired. Exhausted. Completely spent. Ancient. This was not sleep. This was just more work.
“What have I become? Nothing less than what you must become. A monster. Our work is not yet done, Minerva. We still have to ensure that the romulan people, the klingon people, our people – all of our people – have a chance for a future. You don’t yet know what the price for that future is. But a guilty conscience and not being able to sleep the rest of your life – a few billion deaths – the destruction of entire species – none of that compares to the real price. Your Doctor Carrera will discover what that real price is soon enough. And he will pay it. Because the alternative is annihilation for all of our people.”
“You and me – we’re just tilling the soil. Doctor Carrera will be the one to sow the fields. And my successor – the next Director – will reap what Carrera sows. He will become an even greater monster than I am. It is quite a shame, you know. He really is a very nice guy. Charming. Smarter than he looks. Like I was once – full of the best intentions. That’s why I know he’s the right man for this job.”
Bashir got up from the chair across from Irons’ desk and started to pace. “Did you know that including Section 31 in the Federation Charter was a Vulcan requirement? It sounds like such a human idea, but Earth Gov resisted including it. The vulcans won out. ‘The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few’…”
He became even more animated, almost snarling. “I used to spit at the words ‘the greater good.’ Classic villainy – everything justified because we were ‘doing it for the greater good.’ I didn’t know then the doom hanging over us and I didn’t realize then just how high the price would be to save not just untold trillions of lives, but the entire future of life in this part of the galaxy.”
Bashir paused, his back to Irons, his voice much softer. “There is much worse to come, Minerva. Section 31 has protected the Federation from its greatest threat - humanity - for generations. I am withdrawing that protection. I will stand by and let human nature take its course.”
The Director of Section 31 turned again and faced Irons. “You must face Sela. You must prevent a war. And then you must escape. Your job is not done. I told you that you must unleash a monster on another world. I did not tell you who that monster would be.”
“You intend for it to be me.” Irons was nearly in tears. “I don’t have it left in me, Julian. I can’t do this anymore.”
Bashir walked around the captain’s desk, squatted to his haunches and took her hands in his. Irons was crying freely now. For a long moment, he simply allowed her to cry.
“Minerva…” His voice was soft - the voice of one of the Federation’s most celebrated doctors, famous for his bedside manner. She looked up. Took a deep, shuddering breath.
“You have always been a monster, Minerva. A glorious monster. In 90 years you have killed more than any other captain in the history of Star Fleet. More klingons. More cardassians. More humans. Far more romulans. What is hurting you so badly isn’t any guilt over that trail of bodies. What’s hurting you so badly is the pretense that you don’t love doing it. I am giving you this assignment not just because you’re the best person for the job. I am giving you the opportunity to finally set yourself free. To be what you truly are. What you were born to be. Without pretense or remorse. The apex predator…”
Bashir released her hands and stood up slowly. He took a seat across from her. “Becoming the Monster of Saketh will not take any further effort on your part, Minerva. You’re already there. Your name will terrorize romulan children for the next thousand years. Supreme Commander Sela is seeing to that right now. She is doing our work for us. She thinks she wants revenge. What she desperately needs is an ally. You. To become the savior of Saketh you must become the Monster of Saketh – the only thing that can convince a billion romulans to uproot from paradise, dismantle their entire world and move it a thousand lightyears away from the oncoming gamma sterilization.”
“Romulans always take the easy way out,” Bashir mused. “It is so much easier to do nothing in the face of environmental disaster and leave the next generation to cope with the consequences of your failure to act. So it is up to us to make sure that next generation gets a chance to grow up. Only you can ensure their survival.”
As the dream began to fade, Bashir’s voice became even silkier, his enunciation even more precise. “And only you can convince Sela to escort the U.S.S. Ark and its sister ships into the Romulan Star Empire, where it will take forty years of ceaseless work and violence to complete the sack of Saketh. Every scrap of life must be removed from that world. And the riches of that superplanet must be seeded in romulan space as far from the Dead Zone as possible. Which means the Federation will need to gift the Romulan Star Empire two planetary systems on our side of the Neutral Zone – two star systems – at great strategic threat to the Federation. Because those planets are the best candidates to receive those riches.”
All had faded to darkness in the dreaming mind of Justice Irons - only the voice of the Director of Section 31 remained: “You, Minerva. You are the only one who can convince Sela… And Ushi. Before you go to Vulcan, you must talk with your son…”
21 – The Enemy of My Enemy
This is the final Scene for Episode 21.
The adventure continues in Episode 22: Sacrifice.
The adventure continues in Episode 22: Sacrifice.
Author's Note: I don't know how many times I re-wrote this scene. Far more than any other scene in the series - and many of the scenes went through 4 or 5 re-writes. There's a lot of emotional content from both characters as well as enough exposition to pretty much explain everything that has happened to date and everything that will happen throughout the rest of the series.
Thanks for reading!! rbs
Thanks for reading!! rbs
Last edited:
Truly epic. The stuff of gods and primal forces. Legends will be told for millenia.
It reads like Clancy meets Asimov meets Tolkien.
-Will
It reads like Clancy meets Asimov meets Tolkien.
-Will
That's an interesting trio of authors you mentioned.Truly epic. The stuff of gods and primal forces. Legends will be told for millenia.
It reads like Clancy meets Asimov meets Tolkien.
-Will
I'm a huge Tom Clancy fan.
Oh yeah. And those other two are pretty good, as well. All three were trend setters.
-Will
-Will
Looks like we have another entry in the Understatement of the Year contest... Thanks!! rbs
Just finished the first two chapters, ending with "Strapped Down".
Love the way the reader gets tossed right into an exciting and chaotic battle scene.
At this point I don't yet know how the Hunter ended up captured by the Romulans during a battle with the Borg, but I'm itchin' to find out! I haven't yet seen or read a ST story where the hero ship is actually...well, strapped down and has to be cut loose.
As always, much attention to detail and character development. This is what makes the difference in what otherwise could just another fan fantasy battle mash up.
Diving back in very soon!
Love the way the reader gets tossed right into an exciting and chaotic battle scene.
At this point I don't yet know how the Hunter ended up captured by the Romulans during a battle with the Borg, but I'm itchin' to find out! I haven't yet seen or read a ST story where the hero ship is actually...well, strapped down and has to be cut loose.
As always, much attention to detail and character development. This is what makes the difference in what otherwise could just another fan fantasy battle mash up.
Diving back in very soon!
Thanks for the kind words and I'm glad you're into this episode! The Hunter was captured in the previous episode and (most of) its crew were beamed into a museum farm to serve as their prison. Where Napoleon Boles saddle-broke one of the farm animals - a sort of ferocious Romulan version of a moose/bear... Just so you'll know why he shows up riding the beast later...
Thanks!! rbs
Episode 20 is the start of the 3rd and final year for the Star Trek Hunter trilogy.
There's a Synopsis of Year One at the bottom of the hyperlinked page,
And a Synopsis of Year Two near the top of this hyperlinked page. Just really brief plot points from Years 1 and 2.
Thanks again for reading!! rbs
Similar threads
