Stardate 9029.2: The Excelsior is assigned to visit the warring worlds of Krikiki and Den-Kai to negotiate a peace – and possibly to make overtures that could lead to both civilizations joining the Federation. Captain Sulu’s orders from Starfleet are clear: adhere to both worlds’ customs and protocols, and establish a dialogue. But paradoxically, Sulu is supposed to start this dialogue without being able to directly address anyone he meets at first. The first person he meets turns out to be a walking peace offering – the son of the Krikiki ruler is being sent to the Den-Kai Queen, but only after he has already been tortured, his vocal cords cut and his legs broken. Sulu struggles to maintain his imprtiality in his mission and his silence, and learns from the song of a trio of Krikiki that the young prince is certain to face more of the same treatment when he arrives at the Den-Kai palace. But Sulu doesn’t have to worry about his misgivings over his assignment for long: the Den-Kai send a group of extremists to collect the peace offering, and they attack the Starbase where the handover is to take place. Sulu sees an opportunity to take matters into his own hands, regardless of the Den-Kai’s customs, even though doing so may make the diplomatic situation considerably worse.
written by L.A. Graf
additional dialogue by George Truett
directed by Karen Frillman
music by Meredith MonkCast: George Takei (Captain Sulu), Howard McGillin (Ru’Krell / Starbase Computer), Jenifer Lewis (Interpreter), Nan Martin (Admiral Tsubar), Meredith Monk (Krikiki Ensemble Director), Essene R. (Shuttlecraft Computer)
Notes: Howard McGillin also starred in the audio adaptation of the CD-ROM game Star Trek: Borg. Actress Jenifer Lewis has made no prior Star Trek appearances, but has a steady career in film and television and on Broadway; her one-woman show “The Diva Is Dismissed” earned two NAACP Theatre Awards. Nan Martin previously appeared in Haven, one of the earliest episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation. “L.A. Graf,” credited as this story’s author, is actually a pseudonym for writers Karen Rose Cercone and Julia Ecklar, who have penned numerous classic Star Trek novels including the Janus Gate trilogy, and the novelization of the Voyager premiere movie, Caretaker.
Stardate 8764.3: A widespread subspace communications disruption near the planet Stentor gets the attention of Starfleet, and the Excelsior is dispatched to investigate. When the Excelsior reaches Stentor, hailing frequencies can’t even be opened – Stentor’s vicinity is blanketed with radio transmissions, and not just any transmission, but broadcasts originating from 20th century Earth. Only 20 years after the Federation made first contact with Stentor, the old Earth radio signals are being rebroadcast around the planet by powerful transmitters, even extending into the subspace frequencies. Worse yet, the Stentorian faction controlling the transmitters has declared these alien signals to be the voices of the gods, and they’re shutting out anyone else’s attempts to communicate to the masses – especially the opposing faction, which wants the signals stopped. Captain Sulu decides to introduce a little interference of his own to try to get both sides talking – and, more importantly, listening – to each other. But what Sulu has in mind may sound like a violation of the Prime Directive.
A most curious assortment of travelers boards a train bound from Munich to Switzerland in 1939. Romana and Leela are traveling incognito, but so is swindler and arms dealer Mephistopheles Arkadian, who Romana interrogated during the Gryben crisis. He promises to give her vital information regarding that incident if she and the Time Lords turn the other cheek for only three hours and let him have his way with history. Arkadian’s specific historical interest revolves around a young woman on the train, a Nazi sympathizer named Cecilia Pollard – the sister of Charlotte Pollard, the Doctor’s traveling companion when he was last seen before vanishing into the divergent universe. While Romana uneasily agrees to Arkadian’s terms, she can’t speak for the Time Lords’ Celestial Intervention Agency, and no sooner do Narvin and Torvald appear then things start to go disastrously wrong. Time itself jumps the tracks, creating two parallel timelines – and somehow Leela and Cecilia Pollard have become stranded in the newly created alternate history, along with a Time Lord who has his own murderous intentions. Romana and Narvin are left to wring information out of Arkadian – and hope that Leela can gain enough of an awareness of what’s happened to help them heal the timeline. But Leela is preoccupied with a problem of her own: she has found the man she believes to be responsible for her husband’s death, but at a point in his own timeline before he committed the murder. And if killing him now will prevent that from happening, Leela is prepared to do it – and history be damned.
An inquiry begins regarding the timeonic fusion weapon, President Romana’s unorthodox measures to locate and retrieve it, and her apparent inability to do so – or even, for that matter, to prove that it ever existed. But curiously, the Matrix, the repository of all Gallifreyan knowledge, seems to differ with the established record – a visual document exists of the weapon being created, and even test detonated, by the Time Lords themselves. Cardinal Braxiatel admits that research was carried out, in which he himself participated, but no test of the weapon ever occurred. When Romana digs deeper to find out why the Matrix records conflict with his account, a computer virus is unleashed which Romana’s K9 is barely able to contain – and if he fails, or his batteries run out, that virus will lay waste to Gallifrey’s computer-dependent society. And while she is trying to eavesdrop on Romana’s behalf, Leela discovers how her husband Andred died…and who killed him.