"Space....the undiscovered country.
These are the voyages of the USS
Intrepid. It's four year mission is to seek new worlds, make contact with new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before...."
"Star Trek"
Captain Marcellus Wallace (played by Steven Law)) and Lt. Commander Mina Ferdinand (played by Katrina Bowman) react to the news of an Alliance world being assaulted by Natal slavers.
"Emancipation"
Written by Dorothy Fortuna, Jack Doohan, and Brad Rustin
Directed by Inoshiro Honda
The
Intrepid, damaged following last episode's battle with the Futurians, is returning to Earth before intercepting a distress call from an Alliance colony. Captain Wallace orders the ship to go to full speed, they arrive after the Natals have escaped. Hundreds are dead or injured, with hundreds, including children, abducted and taken to the Natal forward operating base...to be sold as slaves.
Intrepid makes emergency repairs and takes aboard some replacement crew, including the recently court-martialed Lt. Forrest Glenn (played by Gary Johnson) as tactical officer. Glenn had abused his authority and had attempted to revise historical documents relating to the Second Great War and the Population Reduction. Glenn's ancestors had been at the highest levels of the Confederate government and Glenn had been trying to rewrite his family's legacy. However, Wallace has no choice however much he detests this.
Lieutenant Forrest Glenn (as played by Gary Johnson)
Intrepid makes it to the Natal's base and prepares to raid the planet when a message from the Alliance council arrives. A significant minority has motioned for a diplomatic solution, a truce with the Natals in hopes of their assistance with defeating the Futurians. Wallace and and his senior officers are furious and there is much discord onboard
Intrepid. A pivotal moment arrives when an argument between Glenn and Commander Michael Yeats turns into a brawl that is ceased by Security Chief Goro Maki.
Wallace interrogates Glenn and comes close to striking him before Glenn confesses something: He hadn't been trying to erase his family's and the Confederacy's sins; but had been trying to include new information. Glenn's late sister had been an information archaeologist and before she passed, she had given him proven information that confirms the worst facts and confirmed the resettlement and recruitment of former Confederate VIPs into the US, Germany, and other nations.
Wallace and Glenn lead a shore party of marines and security personnel to the surface and raid the the Natalan slave camp. An epic battle erupts but Wallace and Glenn are cornered by Natalan stormtroopers and a renegade human pseudo-scientist (Lotte Lenya). The scientist boasts of her familiarity with Glenn's family and also announces her own emulation of the population reduction: experimenting on human and alien races then disposing of them when they are no longer useful.
Wallace is righteously enraged, but Glenn sneers and claims the collaborator isn't going far enough. Shocked, Wallace can only watch as Glenn begins a scientific pitch on how the test subjects should be engineered to become sentient "dirty bombs". The collaborator and her hosts are enthralled, so enthralled they miss Glenn disabling the facility's defenses and dispatch telegian coordinates to
Intrepid. Commander Ferdinand and the
Intrepid's override the facility's controls and free all the intended slaves. The Natalan commander rages and sets off a self destruct weapon.
Intrepid tries to beam out Wallace and Glenn, but Glenn refuses and tries to disable the device and so only Wallace teleported to safety (along with the surviving slaves, marines, and crewmen of course). The bomb goes off, but Glenn managed to diminish the yield and only that part of the facility is destroyed.
Wallace informs the crew of Glenn's true intentions and his noble sacrifice as
Intrepid makes way to a safe world. An Alliance message arrives before they dock:
Intrepid is granted permission to recover
only Alliance survivors, and
not to free the other slaves. The Alliance council is dispatching another spaceship with a dignitary to offer a truce and membership in the Alliance. Wallace has the message deleted and makes a note in his log,
"A house divided against itself cannot stand."
I believe our united peoples couldn't endure, half
slave and half
free.
I do not expect the Alliance to be
dissolved - I do not expect the house to
fall - but I do expect it will cease to be if we sacrifice integrity for victory
It will become
all one thing, or
all the other."*
*Modified from Abraham Lincoln's "House Divided" speech.