Trial And Error

Star Traks: Boldly Gone
Episode name	Trial And Error
Season	9
Episode number	1
Writer(s)	Alan Decker, Anthony Butler
Year	2503
Stardate	Unknown
Chronology
Previous in series	Hollow Threats [BG]
Next in series	The Bain Supremacy [BG]
Previous in timeline	Hollow Threats [BG]
Next in timeline	The Bain Supremacy [BG]

Captain Reginald Bain has turned himself over to the Breen in order to stop a war. Now he is due to face Breen justice, while the crew of the USS Anomaly must deal with the loss of their captain and a war that might not be nearly as stopped as Bain had hoped.

Summary

Picking up where the previous story left off, Captain Reginald Bain is facing trial by the Breen for crimes against the Breen people both during the Federation’s war with the Breen years earlier and more recently when the USS Anomaly destroyed a Breen outpost manned by 1000 people while it was under the control of the James T. Kirk hologram.

Meanwhile, after Engineer Selex kicked her down a Jefferies tube to her probably demise, Commander Prosak is saved by Dr. Natalia Kasyov, who has merged with the Anomaly’s computer. Kasyov changes the gravity in the Jefferies tube to take Prosak back to up the hatch leading to the bridge and forces Selex to go that way as well. Commander Vioxx ordered Lieutenant Commander Tovar to take Selex to the brig.

Admiral Kristen Larkin is convinced that Bain was framed and wants Vioxx to prove it. She is heading to the Anomaly to try to keep the Breen situation from escalating to war, which the Federation is in no shape to deal with after the recent hostilities with the Vulcans.

On Breen, Bain is defended by Tort-Kase, who doesn’t really help, since he blames Bain for the deaths of many of his family members during the war. It gets to the point that Bain ends up punching him.

Prosak speaks to her father, Ambassador Rorshak, who uses his pull to get the Allegra assigned to rescue Bain at all costs with her in command. She asks Tovar to join her. Marsden goes along as well.

Larkin arrives on the USS Enterprise-J and informs Vioxx that she as arranged a meeting with the Breen ambassador at the border of Breen space, where ships from both sides are massing. Before the meeting, she orders Vioxx to take the Anomaly discreetly into Breen space and investigate what really happened at the outpost the Anomaly destroyed. Sub-Commander Remax quickly determines that the Anomaly did indeed blow it up, which was no surprise based on Holo-Kirk’s actions, so Vioxx decides that they will manufacture evidence.

The Allegra slips close to the Breen homework after disguising their transponder to show that they are a Yridian freighter. They wait for the trial to begin broadcasting again, so they can pinpoint Bain’s location. During the next segment of the trial, Bain decides he’s had enough and just sits down. This infuriates Grad-Norm, who declared the voluntary testimony to be over and that the next day they will move on to involuntary testimony, which is a nice way of saying torture.

Using the signal of the trial broadcast, Tovar and Marsden locate Bain on the Breen homeworld’s third moon.

The Anomaly joins the Enterprise-J at the Breen border, and Vioxx tells Larkin that they have proof of the Anomaly’s innocence. She has him beam aboard the Enterprise-J to share his findings.

Dobt-Phul goes to see Grad-Norm and tells Norm that they have Bain in custody because of Phul’s actions with Holo-Kirk. Norm is surprised that Bain’s ridiculous story about Holo-Kirk was true but tells Phul that he’s still not getting his rank back. Phul asks to see Bain. Norm agrees and takes Phul to Bain’s cell, but Bain is gone.

Shortly before they’d reached the cell, Bain was beamed aboard the Allegra. Bain is pleased to see them and has Tovar send a coded message to the Anomaly that they are on their way. Tovar finds that the comm is experiencing difficulties. Then the ship changes course toward Cardassian space. They are all suddenly zapped into unconsciousness, and Bain hears the laughter of Holo-Kirk just before he passes out.

Larkin reviews and decides to accept Vioxx’s evidence that a cloaked up blew up the outpost just before they all receive word from the Breen that Captain Bain is missing. Thot-Mutch informs Larkin that the Breen are declaring war. Larkin orders all ships to open fire on the Breen fleet.

To Be Continued…

Featuring

• Captain Reginald Bain
• Commander Prosak
• Commander Vioxx
• Lieutenant Commander Tovar
• Lieutenant Shelly Marsden
• Sub-Commander Remax
• Dr. Natalia Kasyov
• Centurion Nortal
• Sub-Lieutenant Zantak
• Engineer Selex
• Cabral
• Admiral Kristen Larkin
• Thot Phul

Author's Comments

I honestly don't have too much to say about the story itself. I'll say more after the next one and leave this one to Anthony.

I would, however, like to address the...um...hiatus. Now there's a tactful way to put it. Here's a less tactful way: Why the hell did it take almost five years to get another run?

Would it help if I said that it wasn't intentional? After Series Eight ended in 2005, we fully intended to start the next run in 2006. The Boldly site said so for a long time (until 2008, I think). But then we both decided to focus our efforts on completing our respective series (Star Traks: The Vexed Generation for Anthony and Star Traks: Waystation for me) before we turned our attention back to Boldly. That took slightly longer than we thought.

Knowing that, we did actually start back into Boldly. I believe we actually wrote "Trial & Error" and the next story in 2007, prompting me to change the expected series premiere date on the Boldly site to 2008.

Obviously that didn't happen. I won't spend a lot of time getting into the details, but for me the reasons involved real life, increasing job responsibilities, and multiple family health issues, none of which were exceptionally conducive to writing comedy. We were still working on the stories, but the output slowed to a crawl. Knowing that, we didn't want to start posting until we had the entire run in the can, which didn't happen until early in 2010.

Links

Trial And Error