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April 2358
It was Jack’s birthday party, and even as he ran around playing tag with his friends, he kept one eye on the door, hoping Uncle Rudy would show up. But he probably won’t. He’s in Starfleet and he can go anywhere. Why would he come back to the dumb old Moon? It’s even more boring than Earth.
A few minutes later, a cheerful man called out, “Happy birthday, Jack!”
“Uncle Rudy! Uncle Rudy! You came!” Jack Ransom shouted as he raced away from the party to hug his uncle.
“Of course I did, kiddo,” Lieutenant Rudolph Ransom said with a grin. “You’re turning the big 1-0 today! I wouldn’t miss that for anything.”
“Everybody, this is my Uncle Rudy! He’s in Starfleet!”
The boys all murmured approvingly, and then Jack’s father told them it was time for cake. All ten kids plus Rudy barrelled into the kitchen to sing “Happy Birthday” and watch Jack blow out his candles, and then Jack’s mother brought out the presents.
Uncle Rudy’s was the last gift to be opened, and Jack gleefully ripped the paper off. Uncle Rudy always got the best presents because he went to so many cool places in Starfleet, and even though Mom said he should take the paper off gently, Jack couldn’t help tearing into it.
Jack held up the box. “Whoa! A model of the Crystal Cities of Lenapa Prime!! Thanks, Uncle Rudy!”
“You’re welcome, kiddo.”
One of the other boys piped up, “Is that a real place?”
Uncle Rudy said, “Yep. My ship visited the Lenapa System last month, and the Crystal Cities are so bright that you can see them from the orbit of Lenapa Two.”
Jack’s mother frowned. “A model? Rudy, you know it’s impossible to put those things together in 0.166 gravity!”
“This one’s made from Lenapa glass, which is denser than tungsten. The kids on Earth are the ones who’d have a hard time putting it together!” Rudy replied with a wink.
Late that night, after the party ended and Jack’s friends had all gone home, Rudy tucked him into bed.
“Did you have a good birthday?”
“Yeah. Thanks for coming. And thanks for the model. Can we assemble it tomorrow?”
“You bet, kiddo.”
“Can I join Starfleet too?”
“Not until you’re sixteen,” Rudy chuckled fondly. “Now get some sleep, kiddo.”
April 2366
Eighteen-year-old Jack Ransom sat on the edge of his bed, staring at his PADD. I should open this message now. I need to open it. I need to know what they said. His hand hovered above the device, and then he put it back down. Maybe I should wait until after dinner. Maybe I should wait until late tonight, when everybody else is in bed. Or just pretend that I haven’t seen it yet.
A familiar voice rang out from down the hall. “Jack! Are you home?”
It would have to show up when he’s here on shore leave, Jack mentally grumbled. Dealing with his uncle’s disappointment on top of his own would be rubbing lemon juice in the wound. He let out a sigh and then called, “In here, Uncle Rudy!”
His uncle glided into the bedroom, still in uniform with three pips shining at his collar. “Jack! How’ve you been?”
“Fine,” Jack muttered, not looking up from the PADD.
Commander Rudy Ransom looked Jack over and sat down next to him on the bed. “Got your letter today, huh?”
“Yeah.”
Rudy’s face fell. “Bad news?”
“I don’t know yet. I can’t look,” Jack admitted sheepishly.
“Why not?”
Jack looked up at his uncle with plaintive eyes. “What if they rejected me again? If I didn’t get in this time, then I’m done. Best I can hope for is being a civilian shuttle pilot.”
Rudy clapped Jack on the shoulder and replied, “Then you’ll be the best damn civilian shuttle pilot there ever was.” He thought for a moment and then said, “How about I look at it for you? Whatever it says, at least someone should put us out of our misery.”
Jack blinked. “Us?”
Rudy smiled at him and said, “You don’t really think it’s a coincidence that I took this week to visit you and your folks, do you?”
Jack smiled gratefully and handed him the PADD. “Okay.”
Rudy took the PADD, opened up the messaging app and studied it with an inscrutable expression. After an interminable pause, he let out a deep breath and said, “Well, Jack, I was planning to take you fishing this time… but I have a new plan.”
“Huh?”
“We’re going to San Francisco so that I can show you around.”
Jack’s puzzlement slowly morphed into joy. “I got in?!?”
“Yes! Jack Ransom, welcome to Starfleet Academy,” Rudy crowed, and threw his arms around his nephew, who enthusiastically returned the embrace.
“Cadet Jack Ransom,” the boy preened. “I like it.”
Rudy smiled at him and gently teased, “You do realize this means you’ll have to start calling me ‘sir,’ right?”
Without missing a beat, Jack replied, “Yeah. Maybe someday, you’ll even be my captain.”
“Perhaps,” Rudy replied, beaming from ear to ear.
October 2368
Jack sat in his dorm room at Starfleet Academy, trying to make sense of starship navigation in a Class II nebula, when his comm station rang. He smiled slightly; he trained his parents to only call him on Sundays, and the only other person who’d call at this hour is Uncle Rudy. He opened up the comm link and saw his uncle in his quarters, uniform jacket off and smiling broadly.
“Jack! How are you?”
“I’m okay,” he replied. “Stellar Navigation is kicking my butt, but I can’t slack on the gym because next term I have Survival Skills; they don’t let lightweights pass that one.”
Rudy nodded. “Admiral Kipchoge teaches that one, and he’s a real hardass.”
Jack said, “No, Kipchoge retired at the end of last school year. Now it’s Admiral Paris.”
Rudy grimaced. “Paris. Oh boy. You’re in for a rough ride.”
“You know him?”
“Only by reputation,” Rudy explained. “The Paris family has been in the fleet since day one, and every single one of them is tough as nails. Your grandfather served with Captain Charles Paris – Admiral Paris’ father – and he said that until then, he’d never understood how you could hate someone and respect them at the same time.”
Jack winced and reminded himself to try to add a few more plates to his next deadlift session. “So, uh… what’s new with you?”
Uncle Rudy smiled and said, “That’s why I called. I’m getting promoted to Captain.”
Jack jumped out of his chair and punched the ceiling with his fist. “Yes!! I told you someday you’d be my captain!!
Rudy pretended not to share his nephew’s enthusiasm. “You have to graduate first, cadet,.” he feigned a stern expression.
Jack sat back down and sheepishly replied, “Um, yeah, of course. So what’s the name of your ship?”
“The Equinox . She’s a Nova-class science vessel; we’ll be doing a lot of scanning for microscopic lifeforms and cataloging stellar anomalies. Not exactly glamorous.”
But Jack enthused, “What do you mean, Uncle Rudy? That’s what Starfleet’s all about!”
Rudy smiled back at him and said, “Kid, don’t ever change.”
February 2371
“Ensign Ransom, report to the Ready Room,” the captain’s voice echoed over the ship’s PA.
Jack’s eyes went wide, and he ignored the stares from everyone else in the mess hall as he faux-nonchalantly got up and strode out of the room. He couldn’t imagine what he’d screwed up, but it didn’t matter; he and the rest of the crew would find out soon enough, and in the meantime, might as well play the game. When the turbolift stopped at the Bridge, he stepped off without making eye contact with any of the Bridge officers. They’re at work; no need to distract them.
Jack walked into the Ready Room and stood at attention as the doors swished shut behind him. “Captain.”
“At ease, Ransom,” Captain Keflezighi replied, and Jack shifted into parade rest. In a gentler tone, she added, “Sit down, son,” and gestured to the chair.
Jack sat down with a bewildered look on his face. “Captain?”
Keflezighi folded her hands atop her desk and said, “Jack, I’m afraid I have bad news. You’re Captain Rudolph Ransom’s nephew, correct?”
“Yes.”
“When was the last time you heard from your uncle?”
Jack raised an eyebrow. “Six weeks ago. But wasn’t that recorded in the logs?”
“Yes.” Captain Keflezighi fidgeted slightly and gently said, “You… may have been one of the last people to speak to him.”
“Huh??”
“Two days after your last communication with your uncle, the fleet lost contact with the Equinox . We were hoping that you may have heard from him.”
Jack stammered, “I’m sorry, Captain… I haven’t.”
Keflezighi sighed, “I was afraid of that. Three ships are out searching for the Equinox now. I’ll keep you updated on the efforts to find her.”
“Thank you, Captain,” Jack mumbled, still in a daze.
The captain smiled wanly at him and said kindly, “Ensign… take the rest of the day off. I know this is a lot to process.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Jack replied.
Jack headed to the ship’s gym and started doing pull-ups like a man possessed, then broke his squat PR and topped it off with a 5-kilometer run on the treadmill. Uncle Rudy will be fine, he told himself. Whatever happens, he always comes out on top.
September 2375
“Congratulations, Lieutenant Commander Ransom,” the captain declared as he applied another pip to Jack’s collar.
“Thank you, Captain!” Jack grinned and shook Captain Donahue’s hand.
“I’m afraid we can’t have much of a party,” the captain said grimly. “After the Breen attack, everybody’s on edge.”
“It’s okay, sir. We’ll have a huge bash when the war ends, right?”
“Right,” the captain said with a faint smile. “Dismissed.”
Jack returned to his quarters with a spring in his step, sat down at his desk and opened up his messaging app. I need to comm Uncle Rudy. He’ll be so thrilled to hear this! Scanning through his list of contacts, he wondered why he couldn’t find Uncle Rudy, and then it hit him. Stupid. Officially, the Equinox and her crew were declared lost three years ago, and even Jack wasn’t foolish enough to believe that they’d ever come back. But the last time they spoke had been so breezy, so normal, that for a long time afterwards, he refused to believe that it was really the last time. Sometimes, he still couldn’t. It wasn’t just that Rudy was gone; it was that he would likely never know how or why or who was responsible or if he suffered…
Jack sighed heavily and drummed his fingers on the table. Usually when he was upset, he went to the gym and tried to knock out a PR, but he was a senior officer now and the ship was at Yellow Alert; he needed to be ready to leap into action at any moment. Instead, he commed his parents to tell them the good news, and then stretched out with a book about Christopher Pike’s command strategies. He eventually dozed off on the couch and dreamt of swashbuckling adventures with long-dead captains.
May 2377
Jack Ransom was enjoying a rare day off – the Tereshkova has been negotiating a mining accord on Weleetka Five – when the comm station in his quarters rang insistently. He put down his protein shake and headed over to the desk. Crap. Starfleet Command. They’re probably reassigning me, again, he thought grouchily. He really liked the Tereshkova , and he’d only been here a few months.
He answered the call and was shocked to see his former Academy instructor on the screen. “Admiral Paris!”
“Hello, Jack. I hope you’re doing well,” the admiral said.
“Um, fine, sir. Staying out of trouble. Um… to what do I owe the honor of a call?”
The admiral paused for a moment as if struggling for words. “Jack, are you familiar with the ship Voyager ?”
That was quite possibly the last thing Jack expected to hear. “The one that’s in the Delta Quadrant?”
“Yes. We received logs from them this week, and they contained information about your uncle’s ship, the Equinox .”
“Uncle Rudy?” Jack blurted. “They heard from him?? He’s alive??”
Admiral Paris looked down at his desk. “No, son. I’m sorry.” Paris went on to explain that the Equinox , like Voyager , had been catapulted to the Delta Quadrant by an entity known as The Caretaker, and after five years away from the rest of the Fleet, the two ships found each other. Rudy had been killed nearly a year ago when the Equinox’s warp core overloaded.
“Damn,” Jack breathed.
The admiral had an uncomfortable expression on his face as he said, “Son, I don’t know how to tell you this, but your uncle… he and his crew did some terrible things to survive. If they were here in the Alpha Quadrant, they would probably be looking at a court-martial and prison time.”
“What?” Jack gaped at the monitor.
In a somber tone, Paris told him how the Equinox crew had found themselves in dire straits and resorted to torturing and killing sentient creatures in order to fuel their ship and hasten their journey home. A mass murder, the admiral called it.
“That’s not possible!” Jack raged. “Uncle Rudy would never do anything like that!”
“I’m sorry, son. Testimony from his surviving crew members corroborates the story.”
“Can I see it?”
“Yes. I’ll send you the video now.” The admiral added something about trying to forgive the people we love, but Jack tuned it out. No way. Not my Uncle Rudy.
Jack didn’t leave his quarters that day. He couldn’t tear himself away from the footage of his uncle’s former crew tearfully explaining what they’d done to those neurogenic lifeforms. Perhaps the worst part of all was that Rudy had not only approved the decision but encouraged them to abandon their principles, making a mockery of everything Starfleet stood for. When the video finally ended, Jack found every memento Rudy had given him and hid them under his bed.
Not my Uncle Rudy. Not anymore.
December 2380
When Voyager returned, Jack was initially afraid that information about the Equinox would come out and someone would connect him to Rudy. He needn’t have worried; it seemed that Starfleet was just as keen to sweep the whole business under the rug as he was. Most of the media reports about Voyager didn’t even mention the Equinox , and the few that did merely said that she’d been lost and her crew joined Voyager . Very few people outside of Command even knew who the Equinox’s captain was, and fewer still would have connected him and Jack.
People who’d served on Voyager , however, were another story, and that was why Jack’s blood ran cold when Captain Freeman told him that Tom Paris would be visiting the Cerritos . Tom wasn’t just a member of the Voyager crew; he was the son of Admiral Paris, meaning that he probably knew more about the Equinox’s crew than most. Tom would make the connection. Tom would ask him about Rudy.
It’ll be fine, Jack told himself. You’re good at poker. You can bluff your way out of this. Just say, “Nope, no relation” and move on.
Still, Jack couldn’t ignore the panic in his guts when Paris stepped onto the Cerritos’ bridge. He remembered what Rudy said all those years ago about all the Parises being hardasses. He did not relish the idea of Tom catching him in a lie.
To Jack’s surprise, Tom seemed more interested in taking the Cerritos for a spin than making small talk with the bridge crew. Tom was just about to sit down at the helm when Ensign Boimler came crashing through the ceiling, uniform ripped and scorched, hair sticking up at crazy angles and hollering something about getting Tom to sign his plate.
“KAZON!” Tom yelled, and immediately started pummeling poor Boimler.
Jack and the chief of security both leapt into action and pulled the two men away from each other, then Jack hastily scuttled Boimler off to Sick Bay.
“That was so cool,” Boimler slurred in the turbolift. “I got beat up by Tom Paris!”
“Yes, it was,” Jack said with a smile. He remembered Rudy telling him, “Never change, kid” but put the thought out of his mind.
Later that day, Jack stood in his bathroom trying to get his hair just so when his commbadge chirped.
“Freeman to Ransom.”
“Go ahead, Captain.”
“Jack, I’m sorry to say that our dinner with Paris has been canceled; he feels terrible about what he did to poor Boimler and wants to take him out for a drink to make it up to him.”
Jack blinked in surprise. “Oh. Uh, sorry to hear that, Captain. Thanks for telling me.”
“You’re welcome. Freeman out.”
Relief slowly washed over Jack as he realized this meant he wouldn’t see Tom Paris again. Boimler, I owe you one.
June 2381
Jack just finished his workout at the DS9 gym, and as he put on his boots to head up to the Replimat for a high-protein dinner, he heard someone say his name. I think I know that voice.
Slowly, he lifted his head and gaped at the man in front of him. He’d only seen him on video, but it wasn’t the sort of video one forgot.
The man was one of Rudy’s former crew, and in the video, he’d been weeping bitterly about the sounds the neurogenic beings made when they died.
“James Morrow?”
“You know my name?”
“Yes,” Jack grunted. “Starfleet showed me the videos of all you maniacs confessing.”
Morrow couldn’t meet Jack’s eyes. “I know you hate me, and I’m fine with being hated. But I made a promise to your uncle-“
“He’s not my uncle anymore,” Jack said coldly.
“Just let me explain,” Morrow begged.
Jack snarled, “I don’t want to hear your reasons for committing murder,” and pushed past him.
Just as Jack reached the doors, Morrow called out, “He loved you. He talked about you all the time. He kept saying that the first thing he’d do when he got back was see you.”
Jack came to a dead stop and looked down at the floor. In a quiet voice, he said, “I loved him too. And I can’t believe someone who I respected so much would stoop so low.”
Morrow walked up to Jack and placed a gentle hand on Jack’s shoulder. “Towards the end… it all really wore on him. I think he knew you’d be disappointed in him. That’s why he sacrificed himself.”
Jack looked at Morrow with a stunned expression. “What??”
“You didn’t know that? Wasn’t it in Voyager’s logs?”
“Um, I never read the logs,” Jack admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “Starfleet sent them, but the videos of all your confessions were enough for me. I didn’t need to know any more.”
Morrow said fervently, “That’s not the entire story. A week or so after Janeway confronted him, he came around. He said we should stop, but our first officer wouldn’t listen and tried to throw him in the brig. Captain Ransom beamed us all over to Voyager and then let the aliens come through to attack us. The Equinox was already a mess and he knew it wouldn’t survive. He piloted the ship far enough away from Voyager that our explosion wouldn’t damage her.”
Jack stared at him in abject shock.
Morrow said, “Your uncle did a lot of terrible things, and you don’t have to forgive him for any of them. But there’s more to him than the worst things he ever did.”
“Thanks,” Jack murmured, still dazed.
“You’re welcome,” Morrow replied, and then walked out.
When Jack returned to the Cerritos that night, he found the meditation candle that Uncle Rudy gave him when he started classes at the Academy and placed it next to his bed. That night he dreamed of Lieutenant Rudolph Ransom and his trusty sidekick, Jack, exploring the galaxy together.