Star Trek: Prodigy

The "Protostar" is refusing our hails

from within the Neutral Zone.

We can't go in, they won't come out.

Whatever trouble they're in, they've locked us out.

This piece, it's beautiful.

Chopin's "Prelude No. 4"

His work always helps me bide the time.

It worries me. These thieves evaded the Tal Shiar,

not to mention our Federation starship.

Save for my brief encounter,

we still have no idea who we're dealing with.

- That's not quite true. - Not anymore.

Communications identified

a non-Federation subspace transmission.

It's a bounty seeking "The Unwanted."

- Look familiar? - Dal R'El, Jankom Pog,

Rok-Tahk--

So we finally have names to faces.

But why won't they answer our hails?

Until then, we bide our time.

Ah, ah, ah!

No, no!

Easy, easy!

We're trying to fix the auxiliary warp drive,

not destroy it.

- I don't fix things. - That's your job.

With the Admiral watching our every move,

it's everyone's job.

If we can't start charging for our next Proto-Jump,

we'll never be able to leave the Neutral Zone.

No need to blame others now.

We're all in this mess together.

Don't take it personal.

He's still sensitive about the augment-thing.

The "augment-thing"?

Forgive me if I need more than a day

to come to terms with being a failed genetic experiment.

Not that any of you care.

Uhh, you're not the only one on the ship with a sob story.

Well, who can top that?

Is your father hunting you down?

So maybe Gwyn has me beat.

I wouldn't be so sure.

We each have things in our past

we wish to forget.

Some more than others.

Hey, why would you read my mind?

- Because I care. - You know what?

We could use a break.

So, tell us, kid, how did you wind up on Tars Lamora?

Oh. You don't wanna hear that.

Come on, of course we do, kid.

- Come on, Rok. - Do tell.

You can tell us.

They called me The Monster.

Ah, ah!

Every hero needs something to fight,

and people came from all over to watch...

that hero fight me.

Mm-mm!

I tried to scare the hero.

But heroes

aren't scared easily.

- Yah! Ah-ha! - And the crowd couldn't wait

to see the hero win.

At first, doing the show wasn't so bad.

It was actually kinda fun.

After every fight, I had a bowl full of Nutri-goop.

And good company.

I even got to play with his sword.

It was just the hero and me.

We didn't share a language.

Just a word here or there.

But we could still tell a story.

Yah!

We loved seeing how happy we made the fans.

But the fans weren't happy

to see me, and suddenly,

it wasn't fun anymore.

I thought it was just pretend,

but maybe I am the monster.

Ahh!

One day, I just had enough.

Ahh!

But then...

something funny happened.

Hm! Uh!

Ahh! Ha ha!

Ohh!

Ahh!

Whoa!

Oh, oh!

Ohh!

Oh!

For the first time,

I was a hero.

After the fight, I didn't get a bowl full of goop...

only half.

And my good company, well, he was sad...

'cause he knew people didn't come from all around

to see a monster be a hero.

And that's when they hauled me off.

Don't feel bad.

If it didn't happen, I wouldn't have met you.

That's why you don't like fighting.

It helps to talk about it.

Perhaps we should get back to work.

The ship isn't going to fix itself.

Whoa!

- We're in the Neutral Zone. - The ship can wait.

You, on the other hand, need some attention.

- Jankom will handle it. - Be done in a jiff.

So you can read their minds,

- but what about yours? - Yeah.

How did a Medusan end up in the Delta Quadrant?

I wasn't always in this containment suit.

I remember how I used to be so free.

And we never had to speak.

We just were.

Curious minds who'd left their home world

long, long ago to explore.

Yah!

I'm so sorry.

Zero, I had no idea.

I thought my daughter and I were the only Vau N'Akat left.

You don't remember what they did?

The Medusan shattered his mind.

Who? Starfleet?

They saved me.

They destroyed our world.

Help me. Help me remember.

If you can believe it,

there was once a time we were the same age.

You were entice by Starfleet's lies

of bold new worlds,

but a great many were wary of their promises

Why would we join a primitive allegiance

when it was them who stood the most to gain?

Years of infighting rotted our decency,

replacing it with fear, anger, violence, civil war.

The Federation refused to choose a side,

abandoned us to face decades of our own self-annihilation.

Hope of Solum was dead.

Until decades later, the sky tore open

and hope returned.

I remember seeing the "Protostar" arrive

through the wormhole with my own eyes.

They called it an accident,

but we knew it was fate.

They had no idea how starved we were for retribution.

Mayday! Mayday!

We're lost somewhere in the Delta Quadrant.

The "Protostar's" sustained heavy damage

after passing through a temporal anomaly.

Ah!

We took them prisoner.

Ah!

And weaponized their ship

with our last surviving Construct

to be sent back in time to destroy Starfleet

before they could ever make First Contact.

But on the eve of our launch,

the Starfleet prisoners escaped.

Unable to board

or deactivate the weapon, they had one last resort...

They sent the "Protostar"

back into the time anomaly it came from,

without a crew to guide it.

Without us.

Our salvation lost in the past.

We had no way to track where or when it landed.

Any chance of saving Solum was gone.