To Boldly Go
| To Boldly Go | |
|---|---|
| Season | 1 |
| Episode | 1 |
| Production Number | 101 |
Summary
To Boldly Go is the first episode of Star Trek: Timequake. The premiere episode, it takes place in 2155 and follows the crew of the USS Erebus as it explores the planet Gliese IV 25 light years from Earth.
Act I
Aboard the USS Erebus, Captain Hanale Kaialani assumes command and addresses the crew. Their mission is to seek out potential candidates for colonization beyond the Sol system in order to ensure the continuation of the human species in case of disaster such as the Xindi attack on Earth. A "Plan B" of sorts. After departing from Starbase, the Erebus travels to their first survey location, Gliese 673. An orange dwarf star, Gliese 673 is host to five planets - the fourth of which, Gliese IV, is an M-Class world that appears idyllic. Ecstatic with their luck, Captain Kaialani gathers an away team and transports down to the planet to verify their scans. Upon arriving on the world, however, they find a desolate wasteland with what appears to be the decaying remnants of a human colony nearby. Aboard the Erebus, a mysterious white energy field appears to bisect the world, transforming half the planet into an ancient and desert-like wasteland while the other half remains beautiful and M-Class.
Act II
The anomaly, which defies most conventional sensor scans, makes transporting the away team back nigh-impossible. The away team, meanwhile, is unable to contact the ship or even detect the ship's existence in space. Onboard the ship, Lieutenant, Junior Grade Liamed Duzan works with Second Officer Lieutenant Commander Deirdre Lake to sort out a way to send a shuttlecraft down to the planet by disrupting the anomaly by re-configuring the deflector array to discharge polarized chroniton particles into the anomaly ahead of the shuttlecraft. They set to work on this task, diligently working on the solution due to a sensor scan revealing harmful solar radiation on the wasteland half of the planet. If left alone on the surface, the away team will be dead within 12 hours.
On the planet, Captain Kaialani orders the away team to explore the ruins of the ancient colony. Their sensor readings indicate that the planet is now 5 million years older than their original orbital sensor sweep showed. Lieutenant Ozoria Zh'Chysrel and Subcommander Sarenn begin to research food in the area, detecting that there are mole-like tunneling animals underneath the surface that are sustaining themselves on some root vegetables at a nearby farm outside the colony. While exploring the farm, Lt. Chysrel witnesses a group of primitive proto-humans approaching the colony, stalking Lt. Tobias Andrianopoulos and preparing to attack. Distracting the creatures, Chysrel takes off and, communicating with the captain, is ordered back to the colony to help mount a defense. Lt. Andrianopoulos, Lt. Cmdr Ji Jeong-Ho, Captain Kaialani, and Subcommander Sarenn all take part in scaring off the proto-humans, and one of the enemies is knocked out while the rest flee to the nearby mountains.
Act III
The shuttle begins to penetrate the anomaly, and the deflector beam seems to be successfully disrupting the energy field. They are able to reach the away team on comm channels, but Captain Kaialani reveals that strange effects are taking place on the planet as a result of the disruption of the anomaly. Svend Halfdan, a United Earth government liaison, has aged approximately forty years, and Lt. Andrianopoulos has seemingly been replaced by a totally different person who insists he's been there the whole time. The Captain orders Lt. Duzan to turn the shuttle around and cease the disruption of the anomaly, fearing further changes and potential catastrophe. The shuttle complies, and the affected crew members return to normal shortly thereafter.
The prisoner, revealed by scans to be a neanderthal, is restrained and woken up. Lt. Chysrel manages to assert her dominance over the man, and discovers that he is transfixed on her Starfleet uniform insignia. The man bears a tattoo on his arm reading "NCC-23175", an which Mr. Halfdan verifies is an unused Starfleet registry number. Sarenn is able to gather some information from the nearby computer consoles that indicates the colony is from the year 2834, almost 700 years in the future. NCC-23175 refers to the USS Valiant, a cargo freighter that was delivering upgraded computer and communications equipment to the colony in the last recorded log entries.
Act IV
Lt. Duzan, continuing to work with Lt. Cmdr Lake on board the Erebus, manages to open a communication channel with Captain Kaialani by disrupting the anomaly away from the planet and bouncing a communication signal off a nearby satellite. They suspect they may be able to direct a transporter signal in this way, but are anxious about trying it on a living person and instead decide to try and beam down something inorganic. Captain Kaialani, leading the away team into the mountains in search of the other neanderthals, comes up with an idea and asks Duzan to keep the channel open in the meantime.
Arriving at the neanderthals' home, they find that it is the remains of the USS Valiant, which crashed in the mountains. The neanderthals number 35 - the same number as the crew manifest of the Valiant. After a short negotiation, the away team is led inside the freighter where they find grass huts, spit-roasted moles being cooked over camp fires, straw beds, and extremely advanced technology that is beyond anything the crew has ever seen. Captain Kaialani orders the Erebus to beam something down, which winds up being a holographic projector displaying an image of the USS Enterprise, NX-01.
Act V
The neanderthals, in awe of the away team's powers, agrees to allow them to investigate the future technology. Mr. Halfdan manages to access the records of the Valiant's last mission, while Sarenn manages to power up the communications equipment, which is able to be used to pierce through the anomaly. Communicating with the Erebus, they are able to create a stable transporter lock on the away team. They decide they cannot leave the neanderthals here, though, and Sarenn mind melds with the leader of the proto-humans, a woman who was once Captain Hammer, commanding officer of the Valiant. Communicating with her, the away team determines that the most humane course of action is to transport the neanderthals to the still-pristine half of the planet on the other side of the globe, so that they might at least live in peace and tranquility rather than danger and hardship.
Beaming Captains Kaialani and Hammer to the other side of the globe, Captain Kaialani reports that the neanderthal reverted to a modern human state and faded away in a shimmer of energy. The other neanderthals are then transported, with the same results. Lt. Duzan reports that they have seemingly returned to their own time and the away team is beamed aboard the Erebus again.
Meeting in the ready room, Captain Kaialani solicits opinions on whether Gliese IV should be considered for colonization. Lt. Duzan advises that they should avoid disrupting the timestream and should recommend it for colonization to ensure that the colony they saw actually gets built. Lt. Chysrel, meanwhile, advises that they know that this planet could be a death trap for many people and they should avoid consigning anyone to that fate blindly. In the end, Halfdan and Sarenn reach an agreement that they should position a science station in orbit of the planet to research whether the anomaly was a one-time incident, or whether the planet is doomed to experience such temporal disruptions more regularly before deciding whether to colonize.
