Practice in Waking

"Practice in Waking" was the fifth of 13 regular episodes prepared for the abortive development of the television series Star Trek: Phase II. Although the episode went unproduced, a detailed synopsis was published in the reference work Phase II: The Lost Series.

In this story, in the Phase II continuity, an old Earth sleeper ship was discovered.

Publisher's description

 * Story Introduction
 * Best known for his 1970 megabestseller book, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach was an exciting new addition to the Star Trek writing team. This haunting story anticipates The Next Generation's penchant for placing stories in virtual-reality recreations of historical settings, though here the mechanism is directed dreaming, and not the holodeck…

Summary
The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) located Project Long Chance, a sleeper ship launched from Earth in 2004. Unfortunately, while it left with a crew of 40, only one person remained alive in stasis. Willard Decker, Montgomery Scott and Hikaru Sulu beamed aboard. They located the stasis chamber of the survivor, Deborah McClintock, the vessel's engineer, but when Decker accidentally touched a console, all three officers collapsed.

They awoke in 16th century Scotland without their memories, near a witch about to be captured by troops. The three leaped to her rescue, fighting with swords. The woman, McClintock, thought she might be a magician because she had a way of making dreams come true. They fled to a tavern, where she demonstrated her "powers" by levitating a bottle. Witnesses panicked, started a brawl, then dragged the four to a prison in a castle. As the group began to recall aspects of the modern world, which McClintock could manifest with her magic, Scott asked her for some modern technology to help them escape. They appeared to be limited to 21st century tools, but she was able to create a laser and melt the door lock. They escaped, but began to grow fatigued, and were easily recaptured.

Meanwhile, aboard the Enterprise, Nyota Uhura and Xon determined that McClintock and the landing party were undergoing directed dreaming, managed by the main computer of the Long Chance. Leonard McCoy explained that all four were dying. Waking them was an involved process that could take days, and he thought they only had minutes.

In the dream, the castle's earl decided that the jailbreak was proof of witchcraft, and he sentenced all four to burn at the stake. McClintock was first, and out of exhaustion she began to fade from existence, spooking everyone and seeming to confirm that she was a witch. As Decker, Sulu and Scott watched helplessly, suddenly Decker revived — Xon had mind melded with him. Xon passed along a message not to fight against the dreams. Decker yelled out for McClintock not to resist, but rather to embrace her dream. Scott added that there was a long chance she might survive. McClintock recognized the phrase "long chance", which reminded her of her love for her ship, and she faded away, awakening in her stasis chamber.

McClintock was beamed to the Enterprise and brought to sickbay, where she saw the dying bodies of Decker, Sulu and Scott, with Xon unresponsive in his meld with Decker. McClintock told Kirk that the others could break out of their dreams only if they were able to envision what they most loved. Kirk whispered in Xon's ear to provide Decker with an image of the Enterprise, and called Xon his friend.

In the dreams, Decker began to be burned alive, but suddenly he had an epiphany of the Enterprise, and that thought kept the fire from affecting him. He told Sulu it was time to report for his watch. That sparked Sulu's memory, and he invited Decker to a fencing class. Decker cited starship statistics to Scott, who corrected them, forming a vision of the Enterprise. The trio faded from Scotland and awoke in sickbay.

As they were both engineers, Scott and McClintock bonded. But McClintock realized that the 23rd century was so far removed from her experience that it may as well be another dream. Even though Scott encouraged her to move on from her dream, she said that they would have a new beginning someday, and slowly faded from existence.

Scott remarked to Kirk, "The Enterprise, if she is a dream I meet one time only, I'll not want to be waking early."

Characters

 * Willard Decker • James T. Kirk • Deborah McClintock • Leonard McCoy • Montgomery Scott • Hikaru Sulu • Nyota Uhura • Xon

Starships and vehicles

 * USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) (refit heavy cruiser) • Project Long Chance

boat

Locations

 * Earth (Scotland)

Races and cultures

 * Human (Scottish) • Vulcan

Science and technology

 * computer • ion engine • knife • laser • library computer • phaser • sensor • stasis chamber • suspended animation • sword • technology • viewscreen • warp drive

Ranks and titles

 * commander • doctor • earl • engineer • engineering officer • Federation Starfleet ranks (2270s) • guard • lieutenant • officer • rank • science officer • Starfleet ranks • witch

Other references

 * 16th century • 21st century • 17 October 2004 • 24th century • brainwave • bridge • captain's log • castle • chemical • coma • day • dream • fencing • fire • forest • General Order Number One • iron • levitation • lifeform • log • magic • mind meld • minute • prison cell • sickbay • sound • space • stone • stun • tavern • theta sleep • time • watch • year

Background

 * A final draft script was not completed for this story.
 * As mentioned in the episode, later stories such as showed Hikaru Sulu conducting fencing classes in the 2270s.
 * Vessel specifics for Long Chance were unstated, making it possible that it was a DY-100 or variant.
 * Xon said the October 17, 2004 launch of Last Chance was the last prior to the introduction of warp drive in the Phase II continuity. The comment was consistent with Marla McGivers' statements about propulsion advances circa 2018 in, but not with Zephram Cochrane's back story as established in . It also disagreed with later-established canon in the prime reality, such as the launches of ESS in 2037 and  Phoenix in 2063.

Related stories

 * – Weyland transported Montgomery Scott to Scotland in 1746, Hikaru Sulu to Japan in 1600, and Pavel Chekov to Russia in 1942, and also gave them amnesia.
 * – Khan Noonien Singh and most of his Augments survived stasis, reviving in 2267.
 * – L.Q. Clemonds, Ralph Offenhouse and Clare Raymond survived stasis, reviving in 2364.
 * –, and others survived stasis, reviving in the 23rd century when their sleeper ship arrived in Sector Vega 6.
 * – 1990s Nobel Prize winner Alfred Bleikoff survived stasis, reviving in 2266.