Episode 42: "Escape from Echo Colony"

The clones. That's what started all of this. Captain McMillan had been called back to Starfleet Command last week, to discuss the situation with the Gibraltar clones. Starfleet had gathered enough evidence to place several clones in a handful of systems, near the Gibraltar's location. So, McMillan was sent back to the Gibraltar with orders to find any unusual signals, and investigate them. So when the Gibraltar orbited a planet called Echo Tango 27, and found unusual signals from below, the Captain organised an away team.

As they beamed down though, they didn't find any fancy equipment: they found barren rock, as far as the eye could see. Well, and one battered building, which apparently had been there for quite a long time. Just when McMillan felt like there wasn't anything here worth their attention, Science Chief Visage's tricorder beeped. A radiation spike... it was crucial that they'd get out of here.

McMillan tried his commbadge, but the radiation made it impossible to get a clear signal. "Into the building!" he ordered, and his team followed. In retrospect, McMillan came to regret that decision, but at the time, he saw it as the only way out.

It was a way out alright. But not the way the Gibraltar crew wanted. The doors to the building closed when everyone was inside, and a voice was heard: "Welcome to Echo Colony. Please hold on to something." The next thing the crew knew, was the floor they were on going down at incredible speed, and them along with it. After a few terrifying seconds, they arrived at. . . wherever they were.

"Everyone alright?" asked the Captain. It seemed Ensign Johnson had hurt her leg, but other than that, everone was in good shape. That was a good thing, since as the door suddenly came down, the Gibraltar crew saw that they had a long way to go in order to reach the surface again, and have any hope of contacting the Gibraltar. They were in the middle of some enormous structure. This, McMillan knew, was not good.

The away team had only one choice: to keep going. They couldn't get back up to the surface via the way they came. There had to be another way out though. But where? And this Echo Colony... why were there no people to greet them? Perhaps it had been extinct? All in all, Captain McMillan didn't have a good feeling about it.

His feeling was about to come true: the team arrived at a room, stacked with crates. There was something odd about these crates though: they seemed to be strategically placed so that people could jump on top of them to get to a floating platform. Ensign Johnson and Lieutenant Weintraub went to investigate, at which point they found two buttons of some sort. It wasn't until Ensign Visage came closer that they found out that by pressing these buttons, they caused a whole set of platforms to appear. 'This,' McMillan thought to himself, 'looks suspicious'. Nevertheless, it was their only way out... so he ordered the crew to jump from one platform to another. For a moment there this well trained Starfleet crew looked like a circus act...

But this wasn't over just yet. Once they got to the top, the crew had to balance over a small wall, only to jump down from said wall onto a stack of crates, back onto another platform. That wouldn't be so bad, if not for the place they ended up: back at the main room where they found themselves the first time. But wait... they were a few levels up. "Does anyone feel like we've just been tested?" Ms. Johnson observed. McMillan couldn't agree with her more. . . but what choice did they have but to keep going?

It wasn't long after that, when they found confirmation of Ms. Johnson's theory: when the crew arrived at a gaping hole in the floor, a voice suddenly cried out:

"I am your Director. You should take a leap of faith for your Director."

McMillan looked down for a moment, and shook his head. "That's one big leap." he muttered. There was an opening in the wall there, about 10 meters down, but it was impossible to jump in there without falling down. Going back wasn't an option either: there was no other way out. They had to try it. If this was indeed a test of some sorts, then there was probably a solution too.

"A leap of faith." McMillan turned to the group's resident hologram, Mr. Weatherwax. "What would happen if your program got lost?" he queried.

Weatherwax looked up. "There's always a backup of me," he said, catching on to what McMillan was thinking. "Sir, are you sure..."

McMillan looked down over the edge, and nodded. "I'm sure. I want you to jump, Mr. Weatherwax."

The hologram looked uncomfortable for a moment, but then nodded and gave the backup module to Ensign Johnson. They shared a look, which McMillan noticed... but he quickly put that aside: Holograms didn't have such complicated feelings, did they?

A few moments later, Weatherwax stood at the edge. He looked around for one last glance, and then jumped. He fell... 10 meters, only to land on an invisible floor. "All clear!" came the call from down below.

McMillan shook his head, and smiled faintly. A test indeed. This had been a test. How many tests, he wondered, would follow?

As the rest of the team jumped down onto the invisible floor, Captain McMillan ordered Ensign Johnson to lead the way. With her being in the hazard team, she was the right choice for that. They quickly stopped though, since they reached a dead end... another one. Just when McMillan was about to suggest turning back to look for another way to go – even though he knew there was none – the wall slid down and trapped the Gibraltar crew here!

To make matters worse, some sort of gas started flowing into the room. Amidst the coughing of the Gibraltar crew, the deep, dark voice was heard again:

"I am your Director! Say the three letter word which honours your Director!"

McMillan didn't know what angered him more: this test or the fact that he so blindly walked into this obvious trap. But then again, he had a history with obvious traps. Still, none of that mattered right now. All that they had to do now was to get the right answer so that they could move on... and more important, stay alive!

"Come on people, think!" McMillan managed to shout out between coughs. "This Director" *cough* "thinks he's very" *cough* "important!" So what, he wondered, would be a three letter word that would fit that?

The word 'ego' came to mind.

Try after try, the words were useless. The Gibraltar crew was just seconds away from passing out, until both Captain McMillan and Science Chief Visage had an epiphany: "God!"

That seemed to be the right answer, for the gas disappeared, and the floor brought them up, into another corridor. They weren't out of the woods just yet, but at least they were still alive. After taking a few deep breaths, McMillan shook his head. "This Director has a serious ego problem." he muttered, before he instructed Ensign Johnson to move on again. Who knew how many more tests would await them? Captain McMillan hoped that this would all soon be over.

Sadly though, what greeted the Gibraltar crew, dashed the Captain's hopes. The corridor expanded into a huge room, with only a small walkway to get to the other side. But that wasn't the worst part: no, the *worst* part of it all was that this walkway was intersected by gigantic turning fans, their huge blades almost touching the walkway. On the far end were two of the similar buttons that the crew had seen before. It was a safe bet that these buttons, once stood on, would shut the fans down. But that meant that people had to cross the walkway... with a great risk of being hit by these fans...

"This is absurd." McMillan uttered, but realised that neither he, nor his crew, had much of a choice. "Right, if we're going to do this, we're going to do this the right way." They needed to see who was the best person to make this crossing. Lieutenant Weintraub volunteered to go first. She was security: it wasn't only her job, but she probably got a kick out of it too, McMillan figured.

The Gibraltar Captain held his breath as Weintraub made the crossing, and released it again when the Lieutenant made it safely to the other side. "Alright. Who's next?"

Lieutenant Desade stepped forward. McMillan nodded, and the scientist walked onwards... only to get hit in the side by one of the blades! Under Captain McMillan's watchful eyes, Desade lost his balance... and fell into the deep chasm below.

It was a good thing that Ensign Johnson was with them, wearing her hazard suit. She quickly used the internal transporter to beam the Lieutenant back. Rsdworker tried, as did Ensign Visage, Lieutenant Weatherwax and Lieutenant Desade again. All fell down, which caused the Captain to nearly have a heart attack. Luckily, there was always Ensign Johnson, who beamed the fallen comrades back. But for how much longer? Her suit's power reserves were running low.

"That's it." McMillan said as Johnson beamed the latest one to fall down, back to safety. "I'll do it." He took in a deep breath, knowing that he had to succeed. His life, and more importantly, the lives of his crew, would hench on his success. He took a step, and only now felt the sucking force of these blades as they passed a mere inch in front of his face. It wouldn't take much to make him loose his balance...

One step at the time, McMillan went forward. He stopped from time to time to see where the blades were. Just a few more meters. One more meter. Just past this one last, fast spinning fan... Yes! He had made it! Taking position on the second button, alongside Lieutenant Weintraub, McMillan caused the fans to shut down, clearing a path for the rest of the crew to go ahead. Finally, they had made it.

But they weren't out of the woods yet. The next test was right up a ramp. And it was a killer... literally.

"I am your Director." the voice came when the Gibraltar crew had assembled in front of a small room with massive spikes and various bloodstains in it. "You should be willing to DIE for your Director!"

"This is me," Johnson said almost immediately. "Definitely." It was clear she was volunteering to enter the room. Yes, it was her job to go head-first into dangerous situations like this, but there was something more. An urge to prove herself, perhaps. Show that she had what it took. She was willing to give her life for her fellow crewmembers.

But that wasn't a sacrifice McMillan could ask of her... of anyone. Anyone but himself, that was. "No." he said, determined. "I'll go."

"What?" Johnson stepped forward, facing the CO. "Sir, I've been ordered to protect you, and I shall. I'm not going to let you go in there."

"There's no discussion, Ensign." McMillan commented, looking into her eyes. "My mind's made up. I won't ask any of you to lay down your lives. That's my job."

Johnson was about to protest further, when Commander Braveheart put a hand on her shoulder. "Let him go." he said. "He knows what he's doing."

With a mixture of anger and a sense of failure, Johnson and the rest of the Gibraltar crew watched their Captain enter the bloody room. As the doors closed behind him, they wondered if this might be the last time they would see him. At that moment, another door opened, allowing them access to the rest of the corridor.

Awaiting them there was... Captain McMillan! "It was a test." McMillan said with a faint grin. He was relieved he wasn't dead, that was for sure. "I figured as much... this Director might be crazy, but he doesn't want his followers to get killed, demonstrating their loyalty to him." He smiled. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

Up another ramp they went, finding themselves on the top level of the main chamber they had arrived in. On the other side of the chamber was what seemed like a train of some sorts. When they all gathered, the Director's voice echoed out of the walls again.

"Well done. Now you can go. GO, and spread the word of your Director!"

With that, the glass traindoors opened. "I guess we're supposed to sit," McMillan stated. As the crew followed his example, the doors shut again, and the vehicle began to shudder. For a moment McMillan wondered if they had made a mistake... when the entire thing started moving forward, and then upward, at an incredible speed. This wasn't a train... it was a rocket!

They were taken up through a tunnel of some sorts, crashing into and shattering a pile of Earth, only to roll over and land on the surface of the planet. When they were once again stationary, the rather wobbly Gibraltar crewmembers walked out. They had made it.

And with the emergency transponder in Johnson's hazard pack – McMillan did wonder why they hadn't used that before – the Gibraltar was able to beam them out. As the transporterbeam got them though, McMillan knew, he would never, ever forget this Director person. If he'd ever see that guy, there'd be hell to pay.