| The Next Generation | |
| 119 | |
| The First Duty | |
| 45703.9 | |
The Enterprise is heading back to Earth, so that Captain Picard can give the commencement speech at Starfleet academy. Won't that be fun. En-route, Admiral Brand calls from the academy to tell him that Wesley has been involved in some sort of accident. Can all of our dreams have been fulfilled?
Nope. He crashed and burned in a training exercise. One of the other pilots was killed, and there will be a full investigation. How many times have we heard that? It seems that there will also be a full conspiracy, as one of the pilots comes in to see the brat and tells him that it will all be ok if they stick together. Like lemmings to a cliff...
At the inquiry, Flight Leader Nick tells how they were flying in formation and that Josh panicked. He slammed into the others and they were lucky to be able to beam away before destruction. Further querying of the other pilots doesn't help as none of them saw anything. The tail pilot was flying on sensors only, so she couldn't have seen anything even if she wanted to. Yeah right, ten meters of clearance and she was flying blind. "He's making it up as he goes along."
Picard asks for an independent investigation by the Enterprise crew, in the hope that they can determine what went wrong. The main problem is that the testimonies don't agree with satellite data that caught them being naughty. The Bald Avenger finally works it out - they were attempting a dangerous stunt called a Kolvord Starburst, where they ignite their plasma exhaust. It's extremely spectacular, but incredibly dangerous, and was banned because it caused a death. Now it's caused two.
The Avenger confronts his nemesis The Brat, and tells him that if he doesn't admit the truth he will be left with no option but to tell the whole sorry tale. Picard knows that Nick was trying to achieve legend status with the stunt, but he has only one problem in proving it - there is no hard evidence as most of the flight recorder data was destroyed. Picard tells Wesley that his first duty is to the truth. But is truth not at least somewhat subjective...
The inquiry reconvenes, and as there is no evidence all the pilots are given an official reprimand and have their flight privileges revoked. They're going to get away with it, when... Wesley confesses. He tells them everything, and as a result Nick is expelled and he is held back a year at the academy. The list of enemies just keeps growing. He now has the moral high ground, and we have the joy of knowing he won't be back as a regular for at least another year. You see, some good comes out of everything!
