THE CAPTAINS SPEAK
"This is In Their Own Words, and I'm Paul Barrows. Welcome back to our multi-part special about the facts behind the legend of the starship Enterprise." The host of the program fit a stereotypical image established centuries before, a middle-aged male with a distinguished appearance, a full head of hair, and friendly eyes, given to smiling easily and gently. "In this segment we begin our series of interviews with the commanding officers of the heavy cruiser NCC-1701. And as the proverbial story-teller said, it is best to start at the beginning."
The three dimensional image expanded to include another man who appeared to be in his seventh decade, although with anti-gerone treatments he might be--and in fact was--two decades older. "With me in the studio is a man surprisingly little recognized, but certainly worthy of greater recognition, former ambassador-at-large for the Federation Diplomatic Corps, the first envoy to the Fesarians, and the first captain of the famous Enterprise, Roberto Abril."
"You're too kind," Abril purred in a mellifluous accent that could have heralded from Madrid, or even the better parts of Mexico City. Abril was a handsome man with a full head of white hair, thick brows, an aquiline nose and a broad mobile mouth. His eyes were dark and penetrating.
"And you are by all accounts too modest," Barrows said with deliberate suppressed amusement. Ever the diplomat, Abril smiled back and did not contradict him. "But to start at the beginning, how did you come to be associated with the Voyager Project?"
Abril glanced up, thinking back, then replied, "I was first approached in 2245, while we were preparing to commission the Enterprise. An officer from the Public Affairs Office briefed me and asked if I would volunteer to host the production team. I declined."
"Really? Why was that, and how did you come to have them aboard?"
Abril flashed a perfect grin. "I did not agree with either the stated goal nor the intended methods of the project, and the last thing a commissioning crew needs is a documentary team under foot. I also objected to having non-combatant, untrained passengers aboard the ship. As they wanted to be aboard for the entire deployment, I felt they should be at least minimally capable of providing some benefit to the ship. I told the PAO I would not take them unless they passed Basic Training for Star Fleet crewmen."
Laughing gently, Abril continued, "However, I miscalculated. Other commanders simply refused to take the project team, and in the end the PAO sent them through Basic and reminded me of my previous criterion. Star Fleet Command cut the appropriate orders and I complied. Still, Enterprise was three and a half years in commission before they caught up to us."
Barrows asked, "Why did you disagree with the project?"
"I did not-and do not-feel a mass-recruiting campaign would bring in and retain the kind of people we need. Indeed, since the release of Voyager the induction centers spend more time screening out candidates who do not meet the requirements than inducting those who do. The kind of people Star Fleet needs seek such a career naturally." Abril paused a moment, his oratory expression being replaced with a slightly darker, reproving look. "I also did not approve of the producers' efforts to…'improve'…the facts."
Barrows let his eyebrows climb his forehead. "In what sense?"
Abril considered for a moment, then said. "For instance, take the unfortunate death of my first executive officer-"
"Commander Mitchell?" Barrows interrupted for the audience's benefit.
"Yes, Gary Mitchell." An almost imperceptible flicker of irritation flashed through Abril's eyes, but his talents as a diplomat almost suppressed it. "As I was saying, they turned the unfortunate circumstances of his death into a fantasy of telepathic powers, love triangles and revenge."
"And what really happened?"
Abril's expression turned a little too stereotypically sad. "Unfortunately, Gary was not suited for an extended deployment, especially in as demanding a role as executive officer. He was also, against my unofficial policy, engaging in a shipboard romance with a psychiatrist in the medical department. When she chose to discontinue their liaison, the cumulative stress of the mission, his role, and their estrangement caused him to snap. He killed Doctor Dehner, and turned the weapon on himself."
Barrows too bore a look of studied sadness. "That is tragic. I gather his dating the ship's psychiatrist prevented his being diagnosed for his mental illness in a timely fashion."
Abril gestured resigned unknowingness. "Perhaps. However, we were also badly damaged at that time, limping toward base after a very near thing on the event horizon of an uncharted black hole that destroyed the survey ship Valiant. It was a very stressful time. The ship was badly knocked about, the power plant was unreliable, and we were fortunate to make Delta Vega. We buried Gary and Lisa there, as well as nine others who were killed escaping the black hole."
"I'm surprised you survived at all, especially out at the Galactic Rim," Barrows bubbled, virtually on cue.
"The Rim?" Abril laughed. "We were nowhere near the Rim. You can see how pervasive the producers' rewriting of history has been. We were in the Orion Arm, about 4500 parsecs anti-spinward of Terra near what is now our border with the Gorn. We weren't within 4000 parsecs of the Rim." Abril laughed again, and his look turned slyly amused. "I've always suspected the producers were…bored…during the long haul back to Starbase 14. After Delta Vega we stopped briefly at Rigel XII to make further repairs, but otherwise it was a long, slow journey on tight energy and stores rations."
"Wasn't there some sort of incident on Rigel XII?"
Abril thought for a moment. "You're referring to the smuggler?"
"Yes, yes, Harry Mudd."
Smiling, the old captain chuckled. "Oh, his name was 'mud' with the miners, but he was born Harold Fenton. He induced a number of the colonists' daughters to depart with him for Ophiuchus III in what was a virtual 'white slavery' scam. When we arrived he thought we were looking for him and wrecked his ship-which he stole from the colony-in an asteroid field. We rescued him and the unfortunate women by transporter. We had some difficulty obtaining help from the colonists initially because they wanted Mr. Fenton turned over to them. As I judged he was almost certain to be ill-treated, I declined and they eventually dropped the demand. Between the misfortune with Gary, the damage to the ship and Mr. Fenton's malfeasances, that was an eventful month."
"When exactly was that?" Barrows inquired.
"December of 2248. We didn't make it back to Starbase 14 until March. They had us repaired within two months, and we were back in the thick of things by July."
Barrows consulted his notes. "The ship received a Federation Unit Citation for events that month, I see. An unprecedented three First Contacts."
"Yes," Abril nodded. "Two in two days, in fact, the first most fortunate and the second not."
"You're referring to the encounters with the Fesarians and the sole survivor on M-113, I presume?"
"Correct. We encountered the Fesarius first, and after presenting a suitably powerful 'face' I placed a contact team aboard under Lieutenant Bailey. We then continued on to M-113. Unfortunately, the delay involved with the Fesarian contact prevented us from arriving in time to stop the M-113 native from killing the chief archaeologist on the planet. We attempted to detain the creature, but discovered the hard way that it was a chameleon. We lost five Marines, and in the end, it refused to be taken alive. We were forced to kill it."
"That was when it was attacking you?"
Abril laughed. "My, but you do learn slowly. I never even set foot on the planet, and we never brought the creature aboard. It attacked the commander of our Marine detachment. He proved somewhat faster on the draw than the creature was on the hoof."
Barrows was taken aback. "I never knew there were Marines aboard Enterprise."
Smiling indulgently, Abril explained, "There is a Marine detachment aboard every Star Fleet military vessel. That they never appeared in the screening of Voyager, probably derives from the Corps pulling its backing from the project and seeking some very stringent legal remedies to guard its image. As I recall, the Marines aboard Enterprise never liked the production team. They seemed to consider them a nuisance; I believe the producers achieved their revenge by neglecting to include them in the final production."
"It would seem they revenged themselves upon you, as well. They even went so far as to 'Anglicize' your name," Barrows pointed out. "And the only mention of you is as the commissioning captain, and not in connection with any of the incidents we've been talking about."
"Yes." Abril drew the word out in a long purring hiss. "I'm sure they think they did. But considering the abortion they produced, if they think I'm upset not to be associated with it, they're mistaken."
Barrows kept his expression, carefully serious. "But some people say they went so far as to pattern a villain after you."
Barrows' words did not produce the expected result, and the host looked rather startled when Abril began to guffaw heartily. "While they were purely awful documentarians, I must admit they could tell an amusing tale from time to time. I'm actually flattered if they found me that terrifyingly imposing. And, for once, they did something accurately and cast a man who looks like me." Abril smiled broadly and unconsciously struck a pose of minor vanity to which his statuesque appearance entitled him.
"Well," said Barrows, seemingly unsure how to proceed. After a moment he said, "What about the third contact in July, 2249?"
"That was with the Thasians. They had rescued a young man named Charles Evans fourteen years previously and had returned him to a passing ship, the Antares. We, in turn, rescued him from the wreck of the Antares. Unfortunately, the first crash when he was three, and the subsequent trauma aboard Antares terrified him with respect to space travel and he asked to be returned to Thasus. The Thasians were generous enough to take him in." Abril raised a hand to forestall a comment by the interviewer. "I really must say, however, that I've always felt credit for this contact was misplaced. Certainly Captain Ramart of the Antares and his crew encountered the Thasians before we did, and ultimately, the 'first' contact was by Mr. Evans himself."
"Is it true he's still on Thasus today?"
Abril smiled. "Yes. In fact, he's the Federation consul at our embassy."
"Incredible. And I take it Mr. Evans displayed no unusual talents, courtesy of the Thasians?"
"You're learning," Abril chuckled.
"So I'm sure there's a mundane explanation for what happened on Alfa 177?"
"Of course," purred Abril. "Our landing party was caught in heavy weather. We couldn't safely extract them by shuttle, and we couldn't adequately lock on to them with the transporter. However, we could send them inanimate supplies by transporter, which we did after a few mishaps, including half-integrating a camp stove in a rock, and a tent pack half in a tree-analog and half in a large local herbivore standing next to the tree. We eventually beamed in some heavily padded containers about five meters in the air. We had a lot of wastage of equipment, but the landing party spent a safe, if chilly, night in the shelter we sent down."
"Did they really heat rocks with a phaser to keep warm?"
Abril's best patient smile returned. "No. Any charge adequate to heat the rock would cause it to explode."
"So there was no duplicate personality…"
"Oh, there was."
"What? But you've been saying-"
Abril smirked mischievously. "That the producers were not accurate. There was no duplication of anyone's body, and it had nothing to do with the transporter. In fact, it was rather like Gary's unfortunate circumstance in that we had another officer develop a mental illness. In this case it was a multiple personality disorder. He was treated and evacuated."
"Ah," Barrows said with a rueful grin. "Psi 2000?"
"We found the science team on the planet dead of a viral infection. One landing party member was infected, quarantined, and treated successfully. Lieutenant Riley, as I recall. He did rave quite a bit and attempted to claw through a bulkhead but otherwise did no damage."
"No, emergency engine restart with a theoretical 'intermix formula?'"
Abril screwed up his face in an expression of distaste. "An absurd invention of the producers. You do not 'fiddle' with combining matter and anti-matter. You do it the right way-one way-or an uncontrollable explosion ensures you never error again! There are no alternatives."
Barrows nodded, having apparently found the familiar version of the story difficult to believe. More difficult for the audience to believe might perhaps have been the host's past life as an engineer, but he was not the subject of the program. "Is there some basis for the producers creating that story?"
Thinking for a moment, Abril granted, "The engineering department was conducting restart drills during that time. I seem to recall a member of the production team sitting in on the briefing and looking very bored."
"I bet," laughed Barrows. "Now, there are only eight incidents from your tour in command of the Enterprise recorded in the Voyager programs. Why didn't the producers draw on the logs of the first three and a half years? Why only your last eighteen months in command?"
Abril cocked his head quizzically, as if surprised by a question whose answer should be obvious. "Because I did not release those logs to them."
"Why?"
"They did not have a need to know. Frankly, I was shocked they were permitted to include the battle in their program at all. I classified that incident very highly."
Barrows nodded, having done his job well, and adroitly. "That would be the engagement with the Rihansu ship, correct?"
"Yes," Abril replied, refusing to be further led.
Barrows was silent for a moment, hoping Abril would say more, then he asked, "What can you tell us about that?"
Abril gazed back levelly. "I can tell you everything, but I'll only tell you what you're cleared for. We engaged a Rihansu ship that violated the Neutral Zone and attacked our border outposts. We pursued it and destroyed it, suffering considerable damage in the effort. We had one man killed."
"Did you pursue the ship into the Neutral Zone?" Abril smiled slightly, but said nothing. Barrows tried again. "Did the enemy ship really have an invisibility device?"
"Have you ever seen anything that is invisible?" Abril replied, his eyes flickering with mirth.
"Is there any truth to the Rihansu ship being a sub-light vessel?"
Abril actually rolled his eyes. "If there were, how would it cross the Neutral Zone in the lifetime of its crew?"
Barrows abandoned his line of questioning. "Well, I suppose there was no grieving fiancée left behind by the one casualty, was there?"
"Of course not. I've already said it was my policy to discourage intimate behavior amongst the crew. It's prejudicial to good order and discipline. I certainly would not officiate a wedding ceremony in violation of my own policy. What subsequent commanders would permit is another matter."
"That raises some interesting questions," Barrows sallied. "Virtually everything the production team witnessed under your command has been credited to James Kirk. So too were the actions of Christian Pike. How do you feel about that?"
Raising his eyebrows, Abril appeared momentarily at a loss before his diplomatic veneer slipped back into place. "Chris Pike succeeded Gary Mitchell as my executive officer. Naturally, he fleeted up to command after me. We had our…stylistic differences…but I feel his record speaks for itself. The same can be said of James Kirk. Although he did not serve under my command he performed ably for Chris."
Barrows declined to press further. "So what do you miss the most from your days in command of Enterprise?"
"My chair," Abril answered without hesitation.
"That power, that feeling of being at the center of running a starship, of commanding from that seat…?" Barrows prompted.
Laughing, Abril waved aside the host's suggestions. "No. No. That was the most comfortable chair I've ever sat in. Rich Corinthian leather…I can practically smell it."
"You're joking."
"Not at all. I can even remember the smell when I first sat in it, when the ship was newly commissioned." Abril's eyes held a slightly dreamy, look. "And the smell of the coffee the steward brought me, a Colombian blend as I recall."
Barrows was shaking his head in wonder. "Incredible. Well, I'm afraid we've reached the end of our allotted time. Ambassador, thank you for speaking with me."
"You're most welcome."
To the audience he could not see, Barrows said, "That concludes this segment of In Their Own Words. Next time we continue our examination of the Enterprise legend with retired Fleet Captain Christian Pike. Until then, I'm Paul Barrows. Farewell."
In the studio, Barrows stood and stretched his back, then smiled to Abril and extended his hand. "It has been a pleasure, Ambassador."
"Likewise," Abril said, rising just a little slowly, a subtle sign of his advanced age that even anti-gerone treatments couldn't hide. "I should make way for Chris, I suppose."
"Certainly," Barrows replied. "In fact, while I've got a couple minutes, I think I'll go stretch my legs."
The two men parted, Barrows heading for the nearest privy, and Abril for the so-called 'green room.' Before he reached it, the door opened and a repulsor chair slid into the room. "Christian," Abril said by way of greeting.
"Roberto," the hideously scarred and broken Christian Pike replied from his conveyance with an evenness that bespoke uncertainty.
"It is good to see you again," Abril ventured. "Are you well?"
A second voice replied, issuing from a striking woman who appeared in the doorway behind Pike. An ageless brunette, she was also nameless, the product of a colony that practiced competitive selective breeding, the finest product of which in any given year bore only a designation: Number One. "As well as can be expected, Ambassador."
Abril gave the hard-faced woman a brittle smile and addressed Pike, "That's good to hear. I would love to stay and chat with you and your…charming…companion, but I should let you get ready. It really is good to see you again."
Pike glanced at his companion and then looked back to Abril, his expression a little less diffident. "It's good to see you too. Perhaps afterward…"
"Perhaps," Abril granted, looking away from Pike and exchanging another hard look with the woman before passing her by.
Abril entered the 'green room' to see another face he knew receiving the usual cosmetic treatments to prevent unfortunate glares from the studio lighting and to enhance the contrast of his features. "Ambassador Abril," the man acknowledged formally.
"Admiral," Abril replied, his tone correct and respectful, but his face hard. And with that he passed by the pudgy, bald flag officer and sat down in another seat before the mirrors where a cosmetic technician removed the substances applied two hours before. A chilly silence hung in the air between the men, who said nothing further. Once Abril's cosmetics were removed, he rose and left the room without another word.
"Well!" observed the man who had tended to Abril, earning a reproving look from the woman tending to the Admiral, but that worthy just chuckled ruefully.
"It's okay. He never has liked me," James Kirk said. "He never liked cadets who cheated on tests, especially big tests." The two cosmetic technicians shared a glance, shrugged, and went about their business.
In the studio, the woman escorted Pike to his place, ran a hand through his sickly gray and thinning hair and spoke in low tones to him for a few minutes until Barrows reappeared. The host looked refreshed and was naturally unaware of the things he had missed but would have given his eyeteeth to witness. "Fleet Captain Pike!" he said by way of greeting, nodding deeply and respectfully while refraining from extending his hand to the paralyzed man.
"Mr. Barrows," Pike acknowledged, as his companion retreated quietly from the scene to join other members of the production crew at the studio's perimeter. Barrows noticed her withdrawal, but said nothing. Pike's companion was notoriously reticent.
"Are you ready to begin?"
"Yes. I rested while you interviewed Roberto." In point of fact, Pike had been all but unconscious as the cosmeticians worked on him, snoring badly. It was a sad state in which he passed the better part of twelve to eighteen hours a day. That he chose to endure was alternately inspiring or appalling depending upon the mores of the individuals he encountered. Barrows was apparently one of the former.
"Fantastic. I've looked forward to talking to you for a while. Let us get started." Barrows took his seat, opposite Pike and waited for the director's cue.
"This is In Their Own Words, and I'm Paul Barrows. Welcome back to our multi-part special on the truth behind the popular program Voyager, the story of the legendary starship Enterprise. In this segment we continue our series of interviews with the commanding officers of the heavy cruiser NCC-1701. Here with me is Fleet Captain Christian Pike, the second captain of the Enterprise. Welcome, Captain Pike, it's truly an honor to have you here to speak."
"Thank you," Pike replied, his voice a weak rasp.
By pre-arrangement, the host got quickly down to business lest Pike's limited stamina give out. Consulting his notes, Barrows began. "I see here that you relieved Captain Abril in May of 2250, but it was almost ten months before the production team employed any material from your tour. Why was that?"
Pike replied, laconically, or perhaps economically. "We were under repair for several months after Roberto limped us to Starbase 11 from the Neutral Zone."
"That was after the battle with the Rihansu ship?"
"Yes."
"What did you encounter in March 2251?"
"Just a castaway planet adrift in the void between the Perseus Arm and the Orion Arm."
"It was uninhabited?"
"Yes."
"No immature super entities?"
"No."
Barrows nodded and checked his notes again. "It isn't until October of 2252 that the producers seem to have found inspiration again, and I see three incidents that month. Did you really find an archaeologist transplanted in an android body on Exo III?"
Pike actually shook his head. "No. Dr. Korby was found dead. He did discover the wreckage of an android factory."
"The colony of child survivors?"
"The colonists had only a limited stock of the vaccine they developed. They gave it to the children at the expense of their own lives."
"The events on Tantalus V?"
"A prison revolt. Our Marines put it down. I removed Dr. Adams because of his inhumane treatment of the prisoners and Dr. van Gelder was appointed in his place."
Barrows nodded. "It all seems so straight-forward…"
"It was," Pike replied.
"What about the apprehension of Kodos the Executioner?"
Pike did not reply for several long moments, his face blank. Barrows was about to speak again, to ask what was wrong, but turned to look aside at the sound of footsteps. The dark-haired woman was approaching the stage, but before Barrows could address her, Pike snapped out of whatever momentary fugue he had entered. "Lieutenant Riley identified him among some passengers we had aboard."
"What was James Kirk's role?"
"He was my executive officer and he confirmed the identification. He also exposed Kodos's daughter."
Barrows' eyebrows shot up. "So the producers actually got that one right."
Pike gave a wheeze that might have been a laugh. "They embellished things, but the essential facts are fairly close."
"How about the rescue of the crew of the-" Barrows checked his notes, "-shuttlecraft called Galileo. I wasn't aware Star Fleet named shuttles."
"It doesn't. Most crews name their shuttles thematically. We used astronomers' names: Galileo, Copernicus, Haley, etc… As for the rescue, that was pretty much how it went."
"So March of 2253 was a good month for the production team?"
"It would seem."
Barrows consulted his notes once more, eager to keep the conversation rolling lest Pike have another lapse. "Checking your biographical précis, you have a spotless record. Yet in both July and September of 2253, there are courts martial depicted for events it would seem obviously did not take place…"
"Obviously," Pike remarked flatly, his scarred face twisting into a resentful frown.
"What really happened?"
For a moment Barrows was afraid Pike had drifted out on him again as the crippled man stared at him, his mouth slack. "They made too much of an inquest in July when we lost Ben Finney."
"And in September?"
"We intercepted the former captain of the survey ship Columbia attempting to return to Talos IV. He was terminally ill and seemed to think the Talosians could cure him. The Talosians are strict isolationists, so we intercepted him. He seemed so honestly convinced the Talosians could help him that we assisted him in drafting a legal request to immigrate to Talos IV. It was transmitted and-for whatever reason only the Talosians know-it was accepted. We were ordered to deliver him and did so."
"So it was all just more embellishment, like Ambassador Abril pointed out?"
"Yes."
"The producers don't seem to have gotten along with Captain Abril."
"He didn't have time for them. They also insisted on discussing politics at the Captain's Mess, so he stopped inviting them. He left them for Gary and then myself to deal with. They seemed to regard Roberto as some sort of cross between Captain Bligh and a cruel Spanish grandee."
"Why do you think you all but vanished from Voyager?"
Again Pike gave his wheezing laugh. "They apparently mistook my official interest in them as Roberto's X.O. for a personal interest. I rather agreed with Roberto's decision to have as little to do with them as possible and as soon as I relieved him, I turned them over to Jim Kirk. X.O.s always get the scut jobs C.O.s don't want to do."
"But you never invited them back to the Captain's Mess?"
"Only once. They still wanted to talk politics, so I banished them. You don't discuss politics, spirituality or sensuality at a Captain's table. That has been naval tradition for millenia."
Barrows nodded, "I see. What happened on Pyris VII?"
"Very little. The Pyrisians had some extraordinary transporter technology, however, and later improvements to ours were based on their work."
"And all the extraordinary events…?"
Pike simply stared at Barrows for another one of those disturbing moments, apparently dredging his memory. "That was October 2253. We stopped at Omicron Delta to take aboard our holodeck installation about a week later. The producers liked to see the programs that people created. I think they superimposed one of those on what was a relatively boring stop at Pyris."
"So the adventures on Omicron Delta were all just holosimulations?"
"Obviously."
Barrows checked his notes again. "A month later the Enterprise was involved in an incident at Cestus III. Was that accurately portrayed?"
"No."
"Did you fight the Gorn?"
"Their ship, not their captain. That was probably derived from a simulation the Marines made from the limited communications images we received. The simulation was very poor and awkward. We didn't learn the Gorn had tails until the Metrons told us. The Marines were a little shaken once they altered the program to reflect that. Said it made the Gorn as agile as velociraptors and sheer hell as ground combatants."
"Really?" Barrows was startled. "That is a very different impression than was conveyed. Did the Gorn ship really destroy the colony on Cestus III?"
"Yes."
"Did the two ships fight each other to a standstill?"
"Yes."
"What role did the Metrons play?"
"Not a supernatural one. They're a space-faring species and they helped repair both our ships, as well as negotiate a truce between us. The entire incident struck them as foolish and they declined to associate with either state afterward. I felt they were rather cavalier about the casualties the Gorn inflicted at Cestus."
Barrows made a non-committal noise in his throat that might have been agreement. His program's producers would frown on any overtly political remark, but there were ways around such things if one kept it subtle. "A month later there was some strangeness with a man called 'Lazarus.'"
"Crewman Lazarus was knocked unconscious when a tiny body of anti-matter impinged on a planet we were surveying. It detonated in the upper atmosphere, but still flattened the survey team's camp from the over-pressure. Everyone was injured, but Lazarus got the worst of it and was raving for days in sickbay. He eventually had to be medically evacuated when we put in at Cygnet XIV. The producers embellished on some of his ravings."
"Obviously-" and Barrows stressed the word ever so slightly, "-Enterprise never traveled through time in January of 2254. Did you hit a black hole?"
A flicker of a grin tried to crease Pike's mangled face. "Obviously not. If we had, we'd have been destroyed…but we came close enough. Thankfully we were relatively close to a starbase."
"I take it the time travel story was a simulation?"
Pike nodded stiffly and slowly. "The damage effected much of the sensory equipment, along with the warp drive. However, the holodeck was functioning and boredom proved an inspiration to the crew…and the producers."
"It seems repairs didn't take too long since you rescued a sleeper ship a month later. Can you tell us about that?"
Assaying another attempt at a grin that twinkled more in his eyes than it curved his mouth, Pike replied, "More fun with the holodeck, as well as a Marine exercise to deal with any attempt to seize the ship. The captain of the sleeper ship was a lot like Roberto Abril, and he did not take kindly to the production team swarming him and his people. They were having trouble adjusting as it was and the producers' attentions didn't help. He was quite hostile to them."
"What happened to the sleepers?"
"We settled them on Ceti Alpha V, their intended destination, and left a team behind under Lieutenant McGivers to assist them. Unfortunately, we missed the fact that Ceti Alpha VI was unstable. It broke up less than a year later and fragments from the planet hit Ceti Alpha V. It was like the event that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs on Terra. No one survived."
"Quite the tragedy. What happened at Beta III?"
"We discovered a log buoy from the survey ship Archon that led us to the planet. We established first contact with the inhabitants and they explained what happened to the Archon. An automated defense system had misclassified the ship as a threat and destroyed it. The designer was horrified and killed himself. The inhabitants were quite grateful when we arrived, having been hoping for contact ever since the incident. They called it 'The Return of the Archons' and appear to be quite grateful to have discovered their race is not alone in the universe. We left a contact team behind under Lieutenant Lindstrom."
"What's the story behind the two planets fighting a simulated war with real consequences?"
"Eminar VII and Vendikar? For the most part, that one was true. Two more races that were grateful for contact since it let them break out of their mutual self-imposed disaster, although I suppose it did prevent them from destroying each other when it was first enacted."
"Janus VI?"
"Also true…if you except that tripe about S'Pok melding with the creature. It was years before anyone figured out how to communicate with them. All we really established was that the miners had broken into a nesting ground, and that the creature was probably intelligent. Its technique stalking and killing the miners was a little too sophisticated for an animal."
"What about the events two days later, with the Klinzhai?"
Pike's horrible, wheezing laughter returned and he actually chuckled for several moments while Barrows tried to maintain a neutral expression over his natural revulsion. "It should have happened two days before, since that was 'April Fool's Day.' Both we and the Klinzhai made a grab for a planet on the border and started gearing up for a first class confrontation and an interstellar war. Then our survey teams started coming back with their results. That was probably the most useless planet in existence: old, tectonically dead, mineral poor and populated by primitives with absolutely no ambition to advance. Both sides decided to withdraw in 'favor' of the other, which led to our mutual amusement when we realized what happened. The treaty with the Klinzhai establishing a neutral zone was negotiated several months later by sub-space radio when both governments realized they'd almost gone to war over such a worthless ball of dirt. We jokingly dubbed the place 'Organia' because about all it was suitable for was growing organic vegetables."
Barrows' jaw actually dropped momentarily at Pike's candor about the origin of the "Organian Treaty," and he heard a woman's outraged hiss of "Chris!" from off the set. The scarred old captain's admission would certainly prompt some interesting investigative reporting, but Barrows carefully let it slide. No sense offending the government…yet.
"So the producers conjured some dirt farmers into super-beings?"
"Well, they had some help," Pike granted. "Someone let them get wind of a sarcastic dispatch from Star Fleet Command inquiring as to what 'supernatural' force had compelled myself and the Klinzhai commander to withdraw from 'such a key strategic planet.' It was sent before they read the survey reports."
There was another sharp hiss of "Chris!" from off stage that Barrows could barely discern. "I suppose that someone was…you?"
Apparently, the captain had heard his name, and the import of it had sunk in. "Ah, no." His newly guarded expression encouraged the host to take a new tack.
"Well, moving on, what's this 'Guardian of Forever?'"
"Interstellar legend."
"No basis in fact?"
"None whatsoever. Just a story that went around the Mess Deck while the production team was aboard."
"How about the 'triathlon?'"
"Holosimulation during a boring maintenance call on the navigational beacon at Gamma II."
"The Galileo's second crash?"
"Real enough, if 'improved' upon. The shuttle did go down on Gamma Canaris, where its crew did meet a space-wrecked captain named Cochrane, but certainly not Zephram Cochrane. You can go open his grave on Alpha-Centauri if you like. Anyhow, Commissioner Hedford took a turn for the worse while there and decided it was a pleasant enough place to die, which is pretty much how old Captain Cochrane regarded the place. He took her in and I presume she died there with Cochrane."
"You said 'old' Captain Cochrane…?"
"He was about eighty." Pike smirked, or that's what his scarred face seemed to be trying to do, and Barrows laughed.
"Tell me about Deneva."
"Not much to tell," Pike replied sadly. "Almost a million dead, just like Beta Portalan, Lavinius V and Ingraham B. Jim lost a brother and his sister-in-law. We managed to eradicate the infestation, but by that point it was much too late."
"S'Pok's wedding?"
"You might want to ask him about that. I don't speak Eridani so it was all Greek to me. There was no urgency to get there, it was just a routine call at Eridani, and Jim certainly didn't get in a fight with S'Pok. In fact, Jim had the duty on Enterprise while I attended the ceremony. I think they called the thing off and S'Pok's fiancée took up with someone else."
"I guess I will ask him," Barrows said, thinking the statement would make a good teaser for later in the production. "What happened on Omicron Ceti III?"
"Nothing. Standard quarantine and decontamination after exposure to a symbiotic micro-organism not useful outside its native environment."
"How about Nomad?"
"Found its mangled wreckage tangled with an alien probe."
"Beta Geminorum and Pollux IV?"
"Drive casualty transiting between the two. Felt like the ship got slapped out of warp by a giant hand."
Barrows assumed a rueful expression. "Let me guess, a Classical holosimulation, that remark and a little 'improvement?'"
"You're learning," Pike observed in unconscious imitation of Abril.
"So let me guess on the next one. The virus picked up at Gamma Hydra IV killed the entire research staff, but only infected the landing party, which was properly quarantined and treated, and proved much less serious than depicted. About right?"
"About," Pike granted, his twisted face attempting to smile.
Barrows nodded. "What about Capella IV?"
"That one was half-way accurate, except the heir received a traditional Capellan name. He does, however, have a half-dozen 'godparents' who were in the landing party. It was a nice way to wrap up my tour."
The host consulted his notes on his electronic slate. "We covered a lot of ground. After Capella, the Enterprise went into dock for a refit and James Kirk relieved you. How did this-" Barrows indicated Pike's current condition, "-come about."
Pike's expression was unreadable and he lapsed again into that peculiarly torpid state he took on while thinking. "They got that fairly close. They just took it and superimposed it on events with Columbia's captain."
"Your endurance is truly an inspiration."
"I'm well cared for," Pike replied, neutrally.
"Yes, I noticed your companion as I came in. She served with you?"
"Yes."
"Were you ever…?"
"No."
The host's expression showed a little surprise, but he quickly veered from pursuing that line of questioning given Pike's brief responses. "Do you ever resent that James Kirk was given credit for your work?"
"Not really. I'm a little preoccupied with other things to have need of fame and fortune. He and I certainly didn't see eye-to-eye on having the production team aboard, but as long as he kept them out of my hair, I humored them."
"Do you think the Voyager project benefited Star Fleet?"
"Maybe in the sense that any publicity is good publicity. It certainly didn't present an accurate image of a Star Fleet career."
"I see. Well, Captain Pike, thank you very much for speaking with me. It has been a very informative experience."
"You're welcome."
Addressing the audience that would eventually view the program, Barrows said, "That concludes this segment of In Their Own Words. Next time we'll speak with Enterprise's third and most famous captain, James R. Kirk. Until then, I'm Paul Barrows. Farewell."
The director called the conclusion of recording, and Barrows looked again at Pike. "I appreciate your coming today, Captain Pike." But Pike didn't reply, having already drifted off into a deeper catatonic state. Number One came up and nodded sparely to Barrows, then guided the chair away toward the 'green room.' The host rose and walked quickly over to a sideboard packed with refreshments.
As he wolfed down a sandwich and sipped a cup of strong off-world coffee that constituted the current fetish of the universal human vice, Barrows watched the eerily ageless brunette woman guide Pike's chair to the green room door and through it. The host gave a long-suppressed shudder at the captain's horrible condition and set the sandwich down for a moment until his stomach settled again. By then the third guest had strolled in from the green room, looking around with bored familiarity at the studio. Barrows quickly finished his sandwich and coffee and went to greet his third guest.
"Admiral Kirk! So good to see you again," Barrows gushed with genuine warmth.
Bald, pudgy, and dressed in comfortable civilian clothes, the retired admiral smiled back, took the outthrust hand, pumped it firmly and replied, "Good to see you too, Paul. What is this, four times?"
Barrows thought a moment and nodded. "Yes, four. Twice for this program and twice in our younger days when I was reporting."
"Not that much younger," Kirk grinned with rueful mirth as he rubbed his bald pate.
"You mean you weren't born that way?"
"Very funny. I can go down the block to FNN, you know." They both laughed. "So you've already talked to Ambassador Abril and Chris. Dig up any good dirt on me?"
"No," Barrows replied. "Honestly, they barely mentioned you."
"Hunh," grunted Kirk. "I thought for sure that Abril would have a few choice things to say."
"No, he was fairly diplomatic-as I'd expect-although he leveled a fair amount a criticism of the production team and their accuracy. Captain Pike did the same. Can't say as Abril had word one to say about you personally. Pike seemed to like you."
Kirk nodded. "Well, that's nice to know. Ambassador Abril has always been a gentleman bastard, but a gentleman. And about all Chris and I ever really disagreed on was the Voyager project."
"Well, let us save some of that for the interview, eh?"
"Sorry. I always have been a little sensitive about being the one getting all the credit."
Leading Kirk over to the stage at the center of the studio, Barrows said, "Honestly, I think they pretty much know where to apportion blame and credit. I'd say you're a little too sensitive that way."
Settling in the interviewee's chair, Kirk sighed. "You don't know service back-biting the way I do, Paul."
"Any different than media back-biting?"
Kirk smirked ironically. "Point taken."
"Shall we begin?"
"Sure. I'm not doing anything for a couple of hours."
"Well, that'll make a boring interview," Barrows sallied, and Kirk rolled his eyes dramatically. Glancing over to the director, Barrows received the high sign and launched into his third interview of the day.
"This is In Their Own Words, and I'm Paul Barrows. Welcome back to our multi-part special on the facts behind Voyager: The Adventures of the Starship Enterprise. We are continuing our series of interviews with Enterprise's captains and here with me is the third commander of that ship, retired Admiral James R. Kirk. Welcome, Admiral, it's good to see you again."
"Likewise, Paul. Where shall we begin?"
"Well, before we began, you and I were discussing a little of your history with Enterprise's prior commanders. Given Voyager's historical inaccuracies, perhaps you could enlighten us all on your relationships with Ambassador Abril and Captain Pike."
Kirk pursed his lips and nodded, giving Barrows a briefly sharp little glance, but he was too old of a hand at the interview game not to have seen it coming. "Well, Ambassador Abril was one of my instructors at the Academy, the one no one wanted to get. He was tough, and we learned a lot from him, but he wasn't very receptive to violations of Academy regulations, a real sun-downer. Unfortunately, I got a little…creative…on a tactical exercise and got on his bad side and I've pretty much remained there ever since. We're just two people who rub each other the wrong way. He's really a great officer and an extraordinary diplomat, but we just can't be in each other's company."
"'Creative?'"
Kirk laughed delicately. "I'm sure he'd say I 'cheated.' I'd prefer to call it 'redefining the problem.'" Barrows looked askance at him. "That's all I'm going to say about it, Paul. You don't need to know and more particularly prospective cadets don't need to know."
"I'll take your word for it. What about your relationship with Captain Pike?"
"I was Chris Pike's executive officer-second-in-command-during his command tour. I succeeded him to command. He was my mentor through the first half of my career and tended to request me for positions under his cognizance."
"From Voyager," Barrows interjected, "it seems that his companion, 'Number One' was the executive officer."
"The Voyager production staff took some liberties in the interest of telling a good story. They had to produce a profitable program to justify almost fifteen years of effort, and they made their decisions accordingly."
"So what was 'Number One's' role?"
Kirk thought back momentarily. "Sciences department head."
"Chief Science Officer?"
"Correct."
"Again, Voyager makes it appear that S'Pok filled that role."
"S'Pok was a junior science officer in her department under Chris's command. He fleeted up to CSO when I took command and she transferred off Enterprise."
"I see," Barrows leaned back and asked, "I've always wondered about the name changes the producers applied to all of the captains. You seem to have gotten off lightly."
Kirk laughed. "Says you. Jean and Dot felt that 'Reuben' wasn't…majestic enough for a captain, so they came up with that whole 'Tiberius' thing. I'm not sure where that came from. Maybe I got renamed for a pet cat."
"So who was 'Reuben?'"
"Favorite uncle of my father's."
"Ah. Well, I suppose we should turn to what everyone's dying to hear about. So far we've learned that a great deal of what took place under Roberto Abril and Christian Pike has been misattributed to you."
"Certainly everything under Ambassador Abril's command had nothing to do with me. I wasn't even with Enterprise during his command tour, I was on Farragut. However, some of the things that were attributed to me from Chris's tour I was involved in, just as the X.O., not the C.O."
"For instance?"
"Well, I conducted the JAG Manual investigation into the abuses on Tantalus V. I also conducted the sting that exposed Lenore Karidian as a murderer. I had a role in the inquest of Ben Finney, but nothing so dramatic as what was in Voyager. And I helped with Columbia's old C.O.'s immigration request to the Talosians."
"That seems like a lot of legal work," Barrow interrupted.
Kirk shrugged. "That's all just part of the X.O.'s job. You take care of the personnel, logistic and legal matters to leave the C.O. free to pursue tactical, operational and ceremonial matters. Sometimes the X.O. pulls diplomatic duty if the situation is too tense for the captain to delegate the tactical handling of the ship. That's how I wound up involved with the Beta III contact, and the negotiations between Eminar VII and Vendikar, and that mess with the Klinzhai over that miserable little farming planet."
"Would that be 'Organia?'"
"Oh. Did Chris tell you about that?"
"Yes."
"Well…there you go then," Kirk granted. "Sometimes you blow off a little 'incorrect' steam. Anyhow, I got wrecked in a shuttle one of the few times I got off the ship. That was on Gamma Canaris. To add insult to injury, I guess my flying was so bad my passenger decided to stay there rather than continue the journey." He gave a little self-deprecating chuckle.
Barrows interrupted, "Was that Commissioner Hedford?"
Kirk nodded. "Yeah, a sad thing. I'm sure she died within a few months, but perhaps she died happy."
"It doesn't sound like you got to join many landing parties. Did the captain take those?"
"No! That was probably the biggest liberty, and maybe injustice, of the approach Jean and Dot chose. They focused totally on the senior staff and completely ignored the junior personnel who did much of the work. Generally, the C.O. and X.O. never join a landing party until the ship's Major declares the area secured and Marine detachment commanders are not keen on losing C.O.s and X.O.s to planetary hazards. About the only time I wound up really in the thick of things was on Capella and then my command tour started and my days of landing parties were pretty much over."
Barrows checked his electronic slate. "It look