Bait and Switch (series) story | |
"Rock Bottom" | |
![]() | |
Writer(s): | Worffan101 |
Year: | 2399 (flashback), 2411 |
Previous story: | "Subject 87" |
Next story: | "Rachel" |
Rock Bottom is a Star Trek Online fanfiction by Worffan101, set in the Bait and Switch 'verse. Part two of a trilogy, it is preceded by Subject 87 and followed by Rachel.
Lieutenant Rachel Connor, traumatized by her brutal torture and rape at the hands of cyborg assassin Ellen Shaw, makes an attempt at recovery. Meanwhile, Shaw begins a new mission for Section 31, and Starfleet Intelligence begins a search to capture her before she can act again.
Summary[]
In a flashback to 2399, then-Cadet Rachel Connor enjoys a one-night stand with a fellow Starfleet Academy student before being interrupted by her roommate, Bev Kree-Sanat. Rachel hears that legendary MACO commando Ellen Shaw, whose recruiting videos helped inspire Rachel to attempt to get into MACO herself, has pulled off a successful operation against Reman terrorists and expresses her admiration over the reservations of her erstwhile date.
12 years later, in 2411, Rachel is still reeling a month after her brutal torture and rape at the hands of ex-MACO turned domestic terrorist Ellen Shaw. Unable to sleep properly and still off active duty, Rachel struggles with her own internalized anti-Augment racist views, the painful memories of torture, and her own, almost toxic frustration with her slow recovery. After a squadmate's passing remark accidentally trigger a vivid and traumatic flashback, Rachel's squad and her girlfriend, Ensign Eleana Valen, decide that she needs a vacation. When the starship USS Bajor arrives in the Regulus system, Ensign Valen arranges a shore leave visit with Rachel's mother and sister on the idyllic planet Regulus IV.
Rachel struggles despite the fervent support of her sister Amy and mother Aisha, and after a flashback to a memory of being forced to kill a holographic recreation of Amy in the Section 31 base (to test her transformation into living weapon "Subject 87"), Rachel breaks her hand punching a wall and storms out of the vacation house. Ensign Valen follows and calms Rachel down but helps Rachel express her rage at the illegal modification of her genome (done to Rachel without her consent by Section 31) while confronting Rachel on her internalized bigotry.
Meanwhile, Captain Kanril Eleya is summoned to a meeting on Regulus Station starbase. Starfleet Intelligence has gotten wind of Shaw's actions, and deputy chief Rear Admiral Alvatrassi zh'Zoarhi wants Shaw captured as soon as possible. Assigned to work with MACO sector coordinator Roxanne Mayhew, Cardassian Starfleet officer Samara Ocett, scarred Tellarite veteran Ghaz char Makal, and Bolian Pratal Mox, Eleya is briefed on the situation; Shaw, a former MACO who was discharged for disobeying orders by torturing and murdering a high-value prisoner, is now high on Starfleet Intelligence's most-wanted list due to her violation of Rachel. Warning the rest of the team of Shaw's extensive cybernetic augmentations and considerable superhuman capabilities, Eleya teams up with Ocett to follow up a lead on Shaw's parents.
Rachel reconnects with her mother and sister and relates her panicked flight across Cardassian space in the year 2408. Shortly after waking up an augment, Rachel escaped Section 31 custody, but the group pursued her when she tried to lay low, including murdering several people she took shelter with and even innocent bystanders. Rachel only escaped by calling in a personal favor with a Federation Councillor who she saved in the early 2400s, and being reinstated in Starfleet; active duty had provided a measure of relative safety until recently. Rachel admits that she feels guilty for the people who Section 31 murdered in pursuit of her and finally begins to make some forward progress.
Meanwhile, Eleya interrogates Shaw's formerly-powerful, snobbish parents, Lloyd and Annette, who were humiliated and forced into de facto internal exile by their daughter's crimes. After failing to extract information from the Shaws, Eleya allows herself to quietly taunt them with the news that their daughter will spend the rest of her life in prison after being captured, after being irritated by Annette's rude behavior and the couple's implied cover-ups of Shaw's young-adult misbehavior. A follow-up interview with a former Starfleet Academy commandant, Azimir Idaris, reveals something more disturbing; Ellen Shaw was credibly alleged to have sexually assaulted a classmate at a rugby team party and violently attacked another cadet in an argument over grades. In both cases, Shaw's parents had the charges buried, and Idaris resigned her post after Shaw's betrayal, realizing that she'd let a dangerous predator with serious personality issues through the Academy and into commando training.
While Rachel makes significant but incomplete progress in therapy, Eleya calls in a favor from Ferengi Section 31 agent Grell, who offers her a lead on Ellen Shaw: The cyborg is going to assassinate four senior diplomats from the Federation, Romulan Empire remnant, Romulan Republic, and Klingon Empire, during high-profile trade talks; Section 31 plans to sow dissent between the neighboring powers to give the Federation room to pressure them through aggressive diplomacy.
Shaw's assassination attempt is foiled when Eleya and the other three Captains on the task force set a trap on the planet Europa Nova. Shaw attempts to escape but is confronted by Rachel's squad, MACO unit 131; ambushing them, Shaw swiftly incapacitates Petty Officers Andrew Lamont, Jose Luiz, K'tar, and Aarno Kallio, breaking Kallio's arms, shattering K'tar's leg, and concussing Lamont in a short, brutal fight. Rachel, still not cleared for combat, beams down in desperation and attempts to save her squad; however, all she does is temporarily distract Shaw, who successfully triggers Rachel's lingering fear of her and beats and sexually assaults the augment again.
Shaw is finally driven off when Luiz stabs her in the back of the knee, and Eleya brings dozens of reinforcements to overwhelm the cyborg with sheer numbers; Shaw narrowly escapes but is reprimanded for her failure by Section 31's new de facto leader, the Deputy Director, driving a wedge between Shaw and the terrorist organization. Meanwhile, Eleya chews out Rachel for her rash action, pointing out that Rachel's training and skills make her extremely valuable to the Federation and reminding Rachel of what she can accomplish while functioning properly. Rachel resolves to solve her PTSD issues with brute force...
Memorable quotes[]
- ""We have a lead on Ellen Shaw," I announce. Out of my senior staff, only Lieutenant Connor isn't here—Doctor Shree hasn't cleared her for combat yet, so I've got her second, Lamont, in here instead. "She's going to be hitting a diplomatic conference within 24 hours, and Admiral zh'Zoarhi wants us there to take her in and foil her plan. We're taking this phekk'ta rapist bitch alive, but nobody said we couldn't fry whatever's left of her nervous system first." "
- — Captain Kanril Eleya
- "Grell nods once. "Very well. What do you need?"
I lean in. "Ellen Shaw. Where is she?"
Grell licks his lips nervously. "You like living dangerously, don't you?"
"Comes with the combadge.""
- — Supervising Agent Grell and Captain Kanril Eleya