"Departure II"

ACT SIX

 

FADE OUT TO INT. HARD DRIVE STORAGE BALCONY- SPACE

 

WALSH is hunched over the very same spot that RAND occupied.  He takes a programming spike and makes one final adjustment…

 

The lights go on and there’s a start up chime from the computer.

 

 

 

CUT TO INT. SHIP HALLWAYS-SPACE

 

Lights go on all over the ship and various crewmen start turning off their flashlights.

 

 

 

CUT TO EXT. THE NELSON-SPACE

 

The ship’s exterior lights go on and plasma begins to flow into the nacelles.

 

 

 

CROSSFADE TO INT. BRIG-SPACE

 

A medical staff member zips a futuristic body bag over RAND’S corpse.  On the other side of the room NERI gives SARA her report.

 

 

SARA

Why was he alone in Engineering?

 

NERI

That’s standard procedure during a catastrophic power loss. You leave Engineering and do a sensor sweep to make sure there’s no leakage. Rand stayed behind because he was certain it wasn’t a problem with the core.

 

SARA

But he didn’t want to risk his people if he was wrong.

 

NERI

Yeah.

 

 

SARA watches as the med staff haul RAND away.

 

 

NERI

First death in the field?

 

 

SARA nods.

 

 

NERI

During the war, I was on the Surak, this Nebula-Class hospital ship, we would beam wounded aboard almost every hour and we’d patch them up and send them back into the fight. Eventually we started seeing those same people in the morgue hours later. During the Battle of Betazed, some of the surgeons used to take bets on which patients were going to end up on the morgue deck.

 

SARA

That’s a tad morbid.

 

NERI

(shrug) Made the time go faster. When you’re a doctor, over time you stop seeing the patients as people. (she looks at SARA) I’m told it’s the same way for Captains.

 

SARA

I’ve heard that too. (pause) Have you seen Frost?

 

NERI

He’s in the lounge.

 

 

SARA leaves and NERI starts filling out paper work on her padd.  On the other side of the room WOLFE and his Marines are crowded together in a semi-circle. WOLFE is once again wearing his sidearm. He’s bleeding from his forehead and barely standing.

 

 

WOLFE

From now on I want you to wear them at all times, do you understand?

 

JIMENEZ

I thought the Commander said-

 

WOLFE

TO HELL WITH THAT! (attempts to regain his composure) You are to wear a sidearm at all times. At all times. And if somebody argues with you, you send them to-to-

 

 

WOLFE’S knees start to go limp and CALLAHAN runs over to prop him up.

 

 

CALLAHAN

Medic!

 

 

 

CUT TO INT. BAINES’ BEST LOUNGE

 

FROST stares out the observation deck window. Watching the stars go by.  He takes a long swig of the Bushmills in his hand.

 

 

SARA (off camera)

Drinking on duty?

 

 

SARA’S voice snaps him out of his haze and he turns to face her.

 

 

FROST

I’m still technically confined to quarters so this isn’t drinking on duty.

 

 

She nods.  Stands next to him.

 

 

SARA

This is my first time in space.

 

 

FROST looks at her, puzzled.

 

 

SARA

I’m not kidding. First time, in space. Ever. When I was a kid living in Toronto, my father would come home and tell me about all the adventures he had working as a freighter pilot and I’d desperately want to go with him but I had Hepner’s Syndrome as a child.

 

FROST

Space allergies.

 

SARA

Yeah. I eventually grew out of it but at that point my father was dead and my mother, may she rest in peace, was not…herself. At nineteen I joined Starfleet and I thought to myself “this is it.” My third year at the Academy, just when I’m ready to take my first space walk, most of the graduating class died in the Fitzroy disaster and Starfleet suspended all cadet space walks and piloting missions until they could perform a full investigation. Guess when that happened?

 

FROST

After you graduated.

 

SARA (bitter)

Two weeks after I graduated so I did all my field tests in a holodeck. (heavy sigh) I promised myself that at some point I would go back and retake the tests or try to qualify as a command officer. One thing lead to another and the next thing I know: 12 years teaching.

 

 

She reaches over and takes the Bushmills from his hand, takes a swig.  FROST looks impressed.  She replaces the bottle to FROST’S hands.

 

 

SARA

I don’t like you. I think you’re a old fashioned, jaded, stubborn pain in the ass. But I admit that you know what the hell you’re talking about half of the time and I respect you for your choice of friends.

 

 

He stares at her, he doesn’t know quite how to respond. Is this a compliment? Is it an insult?

 

 

SARA

You were right about me. I want to make Captain, I want to impress Admiral Kelly, and I have a lot to learn before I can do either. But right now, the only thing on my mind is finding the people who killed my Engineer.

 

 

FROST finishes off the whiskey, then tosses the dead soldier over his shoulder.

 

 

FROST

A word of advice? You should sleep in the captain’s quarters.

 

SARA

I’m not a captain.

 

FROST

It’s just a really big room with a nicer shower then everyone else; nobody’s going to get upset if you start using it.

 

 

 

CUT TO EXT. PIRATE COMPOUND-DAY

 

VYRX and his Reman bodyguards haul WEI across the compound to a primitive jail.  The Council of Bones boards a sleek looking stealth craft, similar to the Reman Scorpions from Nemesis.

 

THE FIXER hangs back a moment to speak with KOLOTH.

 

 

THE FIXER

 The Master needs this to succeed, Koloth, Romulus must know fear.

 

KOLOTH

I shall not fail.

 

THE FIXER

Then I wish you luck.

 

 

He climbs into the Council ship.  And the engine starts.

 

 

 

CUT TO INT. WEI’S CELL IN PIRATE COMPOUND-DAY

 

WEI watches as the Council Ship flies away.  He examines the cell, there’s a small sink, an electronic wall panel.  WEI walks up to the wall panel and begins to take it apart.

 

 

CROSS FADE TO THE NELSON SICKBAY-SPACE

 

WOLFE awakens and looks around, immediately disappointed that he’s in Sickbay.  He looks down at his arms and legs and discovers he’s strapped to the bio bed.

 

 

NERI

I’m sorry it’s an old ship and we don’t have force field restraints.

 

WOLFE

It’s okay. I guess I sort’ve…checked out for a while.

 

NERI

You called me Sergeant, then when you first woke up you called me Eris and used some very unfriendly language. (she points at a laser scalpel buried in a nearby wall) You also started throwing things.

 

WOLFE

Sorry. I thought you were someone else.

 

NERI

Obviously. I just got your brain scans back.

 

 

She holds up a data padd with a copy of his brain scan.  There’s a dark round circle in the center of the brain. Small tentacles reach out from the circle like the legs of an octopus.

 

 

NERI

Your file says you were imprisoned at Novus Nor.

 

 

He nods. She knows everything now.

 

 

NERI

This implant… the Dominion put it there?

 

WOLFE

This Vorta doctor named Eris 6 wanted to improve the combat effectiveness of her Jem’Hadar but she didn’t want to waste valuable soldiers during the testing phase. So she started grabbing prisoners and dragged them down to her sickbay. Most of them died and a couple of them, including this nice Tellerite kid named Maren, got paralyzed. Eris said she liked me so she put me in the later group after she perfected it. Now I have this thing in my head.

 

NERI

Which explains why you can fight off an entire city block of Orion slavers but honestly those tendrils...

 

WOLFE (heavy sigh)

I know. They’re making me stronger but they’re also giving me flashbacks, hand tremors, sometimes even headaches. The Marine doctors didn’t know how to fix it or take it out and the Starfleet people weren’t sure they could let me work as a liaison again.

 

NERI

So this mission is supposed to be your audition, a way to prove you can still do the job with a big metal ball in your skull.

 

 

He nods again.

 

NERI stares at him for a long moment. She’s starting to see this man as a person and a friend. A loner just like her.

 

 

NERI

No wonder you hate Sickbays, every time you walk in they give you bad news.

 

 

WOLFE smiles softly and there are tears on the edges of his eyes.  NERI pulls out a chart and shows it to him.

 

 

NERI

I don’t know how long we’re going to be out here but there are a lot of new surgical techniques, for example (fade out)

 

 

 

CROSSFADE TO INT. CONFERENCE ROOM-SPACE

 

Tight CU on KOLOTH’S picture on a data padd.

 

CALLAHAN, FROST, LYONS, and a couple of ensigns are going over KOLOTH’S criminal file page by page for some clue about his current whereabouts.

 

This isn’t TNG, these people have to do their own homework in order to get anywhere.

 

 

ENSIGN 1

I’ve got a “Charles Bentley” under known associates. Says he escaped from a Federation holding facility two years ago.

 

SARA

File under possible and add a check mark.

 

CALLAHAN

Does it have his current location?

 

ENSIGN 1 (disappointed)

Capitol State Cemetery on Andoria, apparently he’s dead.

 

 

Everybody goes back to looking for leads.  FROST sets his padd down in frustration and looks over at a large display screen on the wall.  It’s that same security photo of KOLOTH from the first few scenes.

 

 

FROST

Why kill Danny?

 

SARA

I’ve been thinking the same thing. They leave two armed guards alive but kill an unarmed engineer?

 

FROST

Maybe he heard something, saw something?

 

 

DECKER leans his head into the room from the hallway, trying to catch SARA’S attention

 

 

DECKER

Sir?

 

SARA

Yes?

 

DECKER

Walsh picked up a priority message from Admiral Kelly, your eyes only.

 

SARA

I’ll take it in the Ready Room.

 

 

 

CUT TO INT. WEI’S CELL IN PIRATE COMPOUND-DAY

 

WEI has completely taken apart the wall panel in his cell and there are exposed wires jutting everywhere. His booby trap is almost complete.  He takes two of the wires and places them on the floor near the door.  Then he grabs a cup of water from the sink and shields himself as he pours it all over the two wires, creating an explosion of sparks.

 

The door opens and the GUARD enters pointing his disruptor at WEI’S chest.

 

 

GUARD

What is the meaning of this?

 

 

The GUARD’S foot touches the wires and completes the circuit.  Power flows into the hapless thug and his body shakes with painful convulsions.

 

The GUARD falls over, mercifully dead.

 

When the death throes subside, WEI starts stripping the guard’s clothing and weapons.

 

 

 

CUT TO- READY ROOM-SPACE

 

The display screen clicks on; ADMIRAL KELLY looks a little worried.

 

 

ADMIRAL KELLY

Sara, thank god, I’ve been trying to contact you for hours.

 

SARA

I’m sorry but we’ve just had a serious incident involving Koloth-

 

ADMIRAL KELLY

I’m afraid Starfleet has bigger things to worry about then just Koloth now.

 

 

That’s gets SARA’S attention.

 

 

SARA

I don’t understand.

 

ADMIRAL KELLY

Earlier today, an intelligence operative working close to the Romulan Senate intercepted a confidential message from the Tal Shiar concerning the “Bone Lord” problem.

 

 

MONTAGE

 

Far away on Romulus, commanders and centurions are preparing to deploy.  Romulan attack ships are on a landing pad, warming for battle.

 

 

ADMIRAL KELLY VO

Apparently the Romulan military has received a series of unsubstantiated threats concerning an upcoming terrorist attack somewhere along their border.

 

 

Somewhere in the Tars Tavik, pirates receive their orders in a coded message preceded by a single, stylized Romulan skull on their view screen: the symbol of the Lord of Bones.  Tense moments along the border as Warbirds appear on pirate view screens with big cross hairs over them.

 

The Bone Council ship arrives at a Romulan Space Station.  A Romulan solider watches the ship arrive in a mission control style view screen.  Hundreds of other soldiers are watching telemetry on a big view screen that displays the entire Romulan/Federation border.

 

MOX is waived through security with a black brief case and a smile.

 

 

ADMIRAL KELLY VO

They’ve deployed their entire fleet at the Federation border and Starfleet is mobilizing the same. It’s a powder keg the Romulans can’t tell their friends from their enemies anymore.

 

 

As soon as MOX leaves the secured area, a bomb goes off behind him and people go screaming in all directions.  The viewscreens displaying telemetry go dark and a large Romulan Skull displays itself on the screens. The soldiers freak out.

 

MOX effortlessly disappears into the crowd.

 

 

ADMIRAL KELLY VO

Things are going to get out of control very fast, Sara, and your ship is the only one covering that part of the border.

 

 

 

CUT TO READY ROOM-SPACE

 

SARA is trying to process all of this all at once. It’s overwhelming.

 

 

SARA

Thank you Admiral, I’ll keep my eyes open.

 

 

She reaches up and turns off the viewscreen.

 

 

 

Continue on to ACT SEVEN...