Good Fences Make Good Neighbors - Part Two
| Star Traks: Boldly Gone | |
| Episode name | Good Fences Make Good Neighbors - Part Two |
|---|---|
| Season | 5 |
| Episode number | 6 |
| Writer(s) | Alan Decker, Anthony Butler |
| Year | 2502 |
| Stardate | 177536 |
| Chronology | |
| Previous in series | Good Fences Make Good Neighbors - Part One [BG] |
| Next in series | Bold Faced Lies [BG] |
| Previous in timeline | Good Fences Make Good Neighbors - Part One [BG] |
| Next in timeline | Bold Faced Lies [BG] |
FOBBER's plan is in full-swing, leaving the USS Anomaly crew trapped smack-dab in the middle of much unpleasantness. We'd tell you more, but why spoil the nice cliff-hanger we set up in Good Fences Make Good Neighbors - Part One?
Summary
Picking up right where the last story left off, Lieutenant Shelly Marsden has been stabbed in the back with an electrified knife by an unknown assailant. Her attacker reveals himself to be Cole Anfibon before he stabs her in the stomach and lets her fall to the deck of her quarters with the knife still embedded in her abdomen. He tells her that she has outlived her usefulness and leaves.
On the bridge of the USS Anomaly, Lieutenant Commander Tovar is in command and dealing with the demand from Romulan Commander Potluk to board the Anomaly to search for transmetaquantaprotophasic radiation. Needing to stall for time to find the missing Captain Reginald Bain, Tovar agrees to the boarding party but only if the Anomaly can also send a team to the Romulan ship to search for signs of the radiation. Potluk agrees. Each ship has twenty minutes to prepare.
Having bought some time, Tovar contacts sickbay, where Dr. Fred Nooney is examining Commander Prosak to try to find the source of her debilitating headaches. He requests Bain’s DNA profile and feeds it into the ship’s internal sensors to try to find the captain. Confusingly, the computer locates two signatures and then none at all, stating that Bain is not on the Anomaly.
Cole Anfibon and an unconscious Bain materialize on New Ship. Dr. Lenik is upset that Anfibon called for beam out instead of following the plan. Thot-Phul recognizes Anfibon from the time he was briefly a prisoner on Phul’s ship. Lenik tells Phul that he almost ruined their plans then, which is why they let him into FOBBER in the first place. Damm charges at Bain, intending to kill him, but Lenik disintegrates her with a disrupter pistol before she can reach the unconscious captain. She threatens the other members of FOBBER with death if they don’t follow her plan. Bain starts to wake up, so they move him to the ship’s lab.
On the surface of Dulcolax Three, Dr. Natalia Kasyov and Cabral’s hovercam are facing several armed Romulans. The leader of the Romulan team, Subcommander Sorbet, is certain that the Federation has staged a test of a transmetaquantaprotophasic weapon on the planet, which Kasyov disputes, explaining that the explosive casing was made from a Romulan alloy and that Dulcolax Three is a really stupid place to hold a secret weapons test. Sorbet rejects Kasyov’s reasoning and orders her soldiers to take Kasyov prisoner. They then spot Lieutenant Bre'zan Brazzell on the crater’s edge some distance away, where he is trying to clean the rocks. Cabral lets Brazzell know that the Romulans are heading his way.
Prosak returns to the bridge, still suffering from a terrible headache. She retakes command and has Tovar contact Marsden to tell her to prepare for the worst. Tovar tries but only gets wet gurgles in response. Finally, they hear a whispered “help.” Tovar calls for a medical team and races to Marsden’s quarters, where he finds her bleeding out on the floor. As the medical team sets to work stabilizing her, Marsden tells Tovar that Anfibon was the one who stabbed her. He orders security to find and arrest Anfibon, not knowing that Anifbon is no longer on the Anomaly.
He is, however, with the other members of FOBBER watching Bain regain consciousness. Bain finds that he is strapped to a metal chair in an otherwise empty room. He demands that his captors show themselves. Lenik speaks to him over a comm speaker, informing Bain that the lab will be the last room he ever sees. He will suffer and die there. Bain starts laughing.
Not wanting to be touched by unclean hands, Brazzell sprays extra-strength cleaning fluid at the Romulans heading toward him. They take it as an ambush and return fire. Brazzell dives for cover. Sorbet threatens to shoot Kasyov, but Cabral charges the Romulan with his hovercam. Just as he is about to use the phasers embedded in his hovercam to stun the Romulans, Cabral loses his connection with it due to neural interference that seems to be coming from the Anomaly’s bridge. He contacts the bridge to get an explanation, and Tovar realizes it must be connected to Prosak’s headaches. He scans the bridge, then enters the former ready room, which is now Prosak’s quarters, and soon emerges with a small device that he found. Moving it closer to Prosak sends her collapsing to the deck in agony. She destroys the device with her wrist phaser, causing her to instantly feel better and allowing Cabral to reconnect with his hovercam and explain the situation to Kasyov.
Tovar tells Prosak that the device was a neural interference generator, and that he found it on her desk. They realize Anfibon must have put it there when he entered Prosak’s quarters “by accident” a short time earlier. The bridge officers start researching Cole Anfibon and discover that there’s no record of him prior to about a year earlier. Prosak, a fan of puzzles, realizes that Cole Anfibon is an anagram for “Clone of Bain,” which explains the double sensor readings.
Lenik is furious at Bain’s reaction but delighted to detect weapons fire on the planet’s surface. The ships, though, hadn’t started shooting at each other. She decides to speed things along. As Prosak tries to explain to Potluk that they have both fallen into a trap, Lenik beams explosives into the engineering sections both ships. The warhawk is heavily damaged, but Prosak realizes what is happening in time to have Tovar get shields up around the vital systems in engineering and clear out the crew. Prosak orders Tovar to raise the Anomaly’s shields and extend them around the warhawk, even though that will leave the Anomaly defenseless if the warhawk opens fire on them. Before Tovar can comply, another explosion rocks the warhawk. Prosak has Tovar belay the shields and wait for another explosive to be beamed onto the Anomaly. Once that happens, Tovar surrounds it in a forcefield to absorb the blast, then fakes a power failure and an impending core breach on the Anomaly.
Detecting that the Anomaly is building to a core breach and about to explode, which will take the warhawk with it, Lenik orders the Pakleds to get New Ship out of there.
Prosak has Tovar fire a tight torpedo spread and detonate it a safe distance away after getting shields up around the Anomaly and the warhawk to simulate the ships exploding. She hopes it is enough to fool their attacker.
Believing that the Anomaly has been destroying, the members of FOBBER go in to see Bain. He is not pleased to see that Cole is working with the enemy and quickly recognizes Dr. Lenik, the Pakleds, and Phul but has no idea who Rear Admiral Lorgander Delk is. Bain settles things with Gridloo and Pridloo, explaining that it’s not his fault that they lied to him and called the drugs they were transporting dirt. He was only trying to help them. The Pakleds realize that Bain is right and leave the lab. Phul is ready to get revenge on Bain for blowing up two of his ships, but is shattered to learn that it wasn’t Bain either time. It was Prosak. Lenik gloats that Prosak has already been taken care of by the destruction of the Anomaly. Bain is furious and manages to head butt Anfibon when he gets too close.
Commander Potluk requests assistance from the Anomaly to deal with the damage from the explosives Lenik beamed aboard. The Romulans also provide sensor readings they detected of a phase cloaked ship. Prosak leaves Ensign Hector Arroyo in command with orders to assist the Romulans and retrieve the away team, while she and Tovar head to the USS Navigator. Before they can leave, Marsden comes aboard demanding to go with them. She is barely patched up from her injuries but determined to get her hands on Anfibon. The Navigator leaves to follow the signal of the cloaked ship.
The away team and the Romulans of Dulcolax Three get word of what has been happening, ending the firefight between the two groups.
FOBBER regroups minus Gridloo and Pridloo (and after Anfibon threatens to kill Phul if he backs out) and goes back to face Bain. Before they can start to torture the captain, the Pakleds comm from the bridge, informing them that they are being chased by the USS Navigator and that Prosak is insisting that they stop. Phul perks up upon hearing that his true adversary is approaching. The Navigator quickly disables the Pakled freighter, and Prosak, Tovar, and Marsden beam to Bain’s location. The FOBBER members flee the lab, forcing the Starfleet officers to split up to find them once they free Bain and give him a wrist phaser.
Tovar heads to the bridge and quickly stuns the Pakleds before they can finish surrendering. Prosak chases Lenik, who, disgusted to be dealing with a RommaVulc, challenges her to a debate about what it means to be a true Romulan. Prosak agrees, but tricks Lenik and stuns her instead, saying that this is no time for debate.
Phul and Delk end up face to face with Bain, at which point Phul runs away. Delk is exasperated by Bain’s continuing inability to get his name right. Bain takes the opportunity to tackle Delk and pummel him into unconsciousness, but, much to Delk’s delight, Bain does get his name correct while beating Delk to a pulp. Prosak arrives and informs Bain that Lenik has been dealt with. Phul attacks her from behind, knocking Prosak to the deck. He aims his disrupter at her, ready to fire.
Marsden chases down Anfibon, who tells her that he didn’t want to do Lenik’s bidding, but he had no choice. Marsden showed him that he could have a better life, and he loves her. Now that Lenik will be arrested, they can be together. He hugs her, moving to get his knife into position. Before he can strike, Marsden stuns him, then fires a couple more shots for good measure. She is tempted to kill him, but walks away.
Bain tells Phul that he will kill Phul if Phul kills Prosak. Phul doesn’t care. Bain then tells Phul that he lied and that he was the one who destroyed Phul’s ships. Phul doesn’t believe him, but argues with Bain long enough for Prosak to come to her senses and stun Phul with her wrist phasers. Tovar comms from the bridge that he is detecting an energy build-up in engineering. Prosak says that Lenik must have recovered faster than anticipated. Bain orders Tovar to beam everyone back to the Navigator. Lenik, however, has activated a signal masker, so the Navigator cannot find her. She has the Pakled computer beam her directly to Reginald Bain…but it takes her to Cole Anfibon, who is now also covered by her masking field. The Navigator beams the Starfleet officers, the Pakleds, Phul, and Delk aboard. They have no time to find Lenik or Anfibon, and the Navigator warps away. Anfibon tells Lenik that she was a terrible mother just before they are both killed in the explosion of the freighter.
The Anomaly crew gets the warhawk functional again, and the Romulans return to their space as the Anomaly heads back to spacedock for repairs of their own. Bain finds Marsden in the Anomaly’s pub and tells her he feels awful about what Anfibon did to her. Marsden tells him that it’s not his fault. Anfibon was his own person, but Bain is undeniably Reginald Bain. Bain is relieved that they cleared the air and strides out of the pub as Marsden thanks the Great Bird of the Galaxy that there’s only one of him.
Featuring
- Captain Reginald Bain
- Commander Prosak
- Lieutenant Commander Tovar
- Lieutenant Shelly Marsden
- Dr. Natalia Kasyov
- Dr. Fred Nooney
- Ensign Hector Arroyo
- Cabral
- Thot-Phul
- Cole Anfibon
Author's Comments
This two-parter (as well as the whole Cole Anfibon storyline) were written before I read "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and the release of "Star Trek: Nemesis." Writers come up with similar ideas all the time. It's just a fact of life. We didn't copy Rowling, and I'm certain Nemesis didn't copy us. Still annoying, though.