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"All Things Aside"
Rating: PG The Riddle Solved (6) Answer to the mystery planet in ‘Excess Baggage’ Hoshi ran into Archer’s ready room, interrupting his meeting with Admiral Garner. “Hoshi, I—” “We were hailed by the same alien species as the holograph of Mixamus Gartouche, sir,” Hoshi blurted, “and T’Pol asked them if they knew him and they armed weapons. They want to talk to you now, sir.” “And why didn’t T’Pol use the COM?” “You don’t understand, sir, they want to meet with you right now. We mentioned his name and Malcolm’s station went on full alert. They raised shields, charged weapons and they’re threatening to shoot us out of the sky. They want to talk to you right now. T’Pol didn’t feel it was wise to leave her post with them prepared to fire on us and using the COM would have meant she’d have to break off communication with them. She’s trying to keep them calm as it is, sir.” “I have to go, Admiral.” “I can hear that. Let me know how things turn out.” “I will. Archer out.” Archer rose and followed Hoshi back onto the bridge. Hoshi sat down at her station, watching Archer slowly move to stand next to T’Pol. T’Pol didn’t move to return to her station but remained at Archer’s side. “I’m afraid we haven’t been introduced,” Archer told the alien on the view screen. “I’m Captain Jonathan Archer. And you are?” “Captain Aruimus Abregout. Why do you know of Mixamus Gartouche?” “A while back we happened upon a remote planet in a rather simple solar system; it had one sun and two planets, one of which was habitable. We read several cities of advance technology on the planet but there was never a response to our hails, so we went to the surface to investigate. We were pursued by what turned out to be a holographic army and found all the towns and cities had holographic occupants. The landing party, upon departing, was greeted by an alien holographic. The alien holograph looked like yourself and introduced himself as this Mixamus Gartouche. We apologize for any misunderstanding if this was not a name but instead an insulting phrase.” “It is a name,” Captain Abregout sat back, almost snarling, “but it may as well be an insulting phrase. Mixamus Gartouche was an insane genius with billions in lantinum to spend. He bought that planet from another alien race and then sent workers there to set it up for some ludicrous experiment of his. He wanted to see what would happen if sentient beings were presented with a planet that had vast amounts of natural resources and technology free for the taking. He made enemies with numerous races because he never told anyone about this planet and many races died on that planet. He was exiled from our world and for the better! We are under orders to assume that any mention of his name indicates loyalists to him, and his irrational and murderous experiments.” “We aren’t loyalists to this person,” Archer assured him. “We’d be content if we never met him, actually. The experience we had on that planet was just shy of death.” Captain Abregout shook his head with a grunt. “A shame, really. His twenty brothers and sisters all contribute vast amounts to our society. They are among the greatest philosophers, scientists and doctors. How he ever ended up like he did may die a mystery with him.” “That is regrettable,” Archer commented. “Why haven’t your people or government disabled the spheres or whatever runs the planet?” “We can’t! We don’t know how. He went into exile and disappeared before we realized we couldn’t disable it. He knew we couldn’t do anything about it and left it there. No one will buy the planet from us because we can’t disable the whole thing, only momentarily control the holographs.” “That is a shame. Was it terraformed?” “Yes, and successfully I’m sure you noticed. It’s a wasted shame, I tell you. The man was a pure genius, but insane! His own family ushered him into exile when it was sentenced, that’s how disliked the man was.” “That is unfortunate.” “Yes. I apologize for the threat. From now on, I would recommend you do not mention Mixamus Gartouche. You may wish to advise your officers of the same thing.” “I plan to do that. Thank you for letting us explain ourselves before firing on us.” The alien nodded once and the transmission ended. The alien ship flew over Enterprise out of sight. “They’ve gone to warp,” Travis said. Archer looked at his crew. “Do us all a favor, guys, don’t go mentioning Mixamus Gartouche to anyone again. I’d rather not have someone open fire because we mentioned his name. Travis, continue on course. T’Pol, you have the bridge again.” Archer turned and went back to his ready room to finish his meeting with Admiral Garner. |
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