Star Trek: Thine Own Self
S02 E05 “Gravity of the Situation”
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Stardate: 57995.9. 30th December, 2380.
Orbiting the planet Khotan, the Saber class USS Sienkiewicz NCC-88034 watches a shockwave caused by an asteroid strike envelop the Khotan Colony. Just as shields are raised.
At the landing field, Ensign Sparik determines that the shuttle Sinclair & runabouts Moonstar & da Costa should hold all 70 evacuees trapped in the shielded city. But how to fly through the hurricane force ionised storm?
At the Admin Tower, Chief Administrator Dr. Vivian Oyunchimeg tells the Away Team led by XO Cmdr Kodar Tamat that they cannot leave Khotan yet. They claim they could save the planet by using the gravitronium crystals samples in the lab mined from 80 klicks within the planet’s crust.
This new planet-moving technology could save billions of lives in planetary catastrophe situations!
Lt JG Mason Bentley & city security Cpl Jackson Okwaho head back to the landing site to help with the evacuees. Cmdr Targishrak Laghen an Edosian science officer from the Moonstar joins Tamat, Cmdr Leahman Barclay & Dr Thomas Crane at the Admin Tower.
With Dr Vivaldi helping to study data, Laghen believes they could move the planet. Tamat finds that they could use the samples to boost the shuttles’ shield & punch through the atmosphere to orbit.
When Crane reminds them that Okwaho was stunned to prevent activating the city shields, Dr Oyunchimeg informs them she received anonymous messages warning about gravitronium research. But she brushed it off as harmless.
Dr Vivaldi gladly leads everyone to the labs while Laghen & Oyunchimeg remained to continues studying the gravitronium data. At the labs, after Cmdr Tamat fabricates three containment pods to hold the crystal samples, they turn and spot Dr Vivaldi activating the sample vault’s self destruct mechanism.
At this time, Laghen arrives and stops between them and Vivaldi. Tamat lunges for Vivaldi. He fires with a type-1 phaser but misses. Tamat grapples with the self-destruct controls while Barclay & Crane grapple with Vivaldi and restrain him. Tamat succeeds in shutting off self destruct.
“No. The secrets of Khotan will fall into the wrong hands, and the Federation. All of us will be destroyed,” sobs Vivaldi.
Laghen discovers they CAN move the planet using the colonists’ gear but alas, Tamat says that they are out of time. Laghen & Oyunchimeg relent and join them rushing to the shuttles. More asteroids were striking ground, shaking the city.
At the landing field, Tamat installs the three pods to the runabouts and shuttle boosting them with enhanced gravitronium-based subspace forcefields. Then Barclay takes control of the Sinclair with Ensign Brunet beside him. He leads the convoy through the city shields, the enhanced warp bubble blasting a wide tunnel through the storm.
Behind them, the deserted colony is destroyed.
They are picked up in orbit by the Sienkiewicz. At the bridge, the away team, the colony admins and Captain Vosgal Toor all view Khotan as it is engulfed and pulverised by the black hole’s accretion disc.
A final surprise: Because of their depth in the gravity well of the black hole, they all experienced time dilation of 3 months!
It is now stardate: 58173.5. 5th March 2381.
