This is an early chapter in the story of a Roleplay character that I have literally been developing and refining for years. Unlike many Star Trek characters, Jack Katoth is not officially affiliated with The Federation or Starfleet. He’s an archaeologist and entrepreneur, highly skilled in linguistics and history.
While there are certainly some missing bits of information (particularly backstory), I think this particular chapter in Jack's story gives a pretty good insight into his character, the primary plotline his story revolves around, and his official unofficial interaction with Starfleet.
I am still trying to figure out how to get him involved in STO, but the day will come when Jack Katoth makes his debut in-game.
Mysterious Ways
"The invasion of Starbase 27 lead by the pirate Sklar became a turning point for our relationship with Starfleet. Only time would tell if that relationship would be for good or ill." - Jack Katoth, a retrospective.
“Hope you haven't started looking for a new partner just yet, Rock,” Jack called to Racquel over the comm as he made his way to the brig, “although it was a close call, reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.”
Racquel's momentary pause was enough for Jack to know that she detected the unusual momentary seriousness in his voice. After nearly ten years together running Twin Star Conservators, Rock knew him better than anyone else. The subtlety, however, would be lost on the other two personnel in the cockpit of the the Whitestar: Jack’s “security,” Robert “Rob” Marshalapexo; and the ship’s technical whiz-kid, Tom McGuire. Both of them assumed he was being as melodramatic as ever.
“Sorry, Jack.” Racquel offered quietly and sincerely. Jack could tell by her tone that their delay in retrieving him before the ion storm hit Starbase 27 was not without it's own serious nature, but that was a discussion for another time.
Returning to his normal jovial demeanor, Jack replied, “Tom, my boy, tell me you recorded that apology! That's historic!” Jack could picture Racquel spinning the pilot's seat around to glare at the young man seated behind her.
“S- sorry, Doc. There was freak power surge in the archiving system just now.” Tom answered, playing to Jack's humor. “It’ll simply be myth that gets passed down from generation to generation.”
Jack feigned a gasp, “That's like accidentally dropping the Gutenberg Bible into a blackhole!”
“A what?” Tom asked, oblivious as usual, to one of Jack’s many historical references.
“Nevermind, get clearance to land and get down here. We're going to set new company policy about abandoning your boss during a horrific space storm. Jack out.” With the comm deactivated, Jack stepped through the doorway into the brig.
The security officer, looking bored to tears, appeared relieved to have some company that didn't include weapon-stealing-incarcerated-sociopathic-space-pirates. “Good afternoon, Doctor. Let me guess…”
“I'm here to see our new visitors.” Jack confirmed. “Particularly one fellow named ‘Sklar.'”
“He's in cell-“
Jack held up a hand, recognizing his once-captor almost immediately. “I never forget a face,” he told the security officer. Sklar was yelling and gesticulating madly, the sound dampeners sparing them the verbal assault. “Our friend looks a little stressed.” Jack said with a wink and a grin.
The security officer chuckled in spite of himself. “He's been at it since they beamed him in here twenty minutes ago. If you wait another half an hour, maybe he'll lose his voice and you can talk to him, without the yelling.”
“Oh, no. I want him to talk.” The momentary flash of anger in Jack's eyes seemed a completely natural reaction to the security officer. Afterall, Sklar recently had an energy pistol pressed into Jack's skull, threatening to kill his hostage. Anyone who actually knew Jack, however, would have been startled, and quite possibly frightened, to see the look of genuine anger. Jack was not one to lose his cool in even the most stressful of circumstances.
Jack pulled a nearby chair over to the Sklar's cell. In one motion, he danced the chair around 180 degrees, swung his leg over the seat, straddled the back, and calmly crossed his arms over the backrest. He watched Sklar continue his violent protestations in silence for several minutes before Sklar finally calmed down and resorted to pacing back and forth in his cell like a caged animal.
For a brief moment Jack felt an unusual electricity in the air, it felt as if he expected a static discharge at any moment. Assuming it was just being so close to the energy radiating from the forcefield, Jack nodded to the security officer who then turned off the sound dampeners. “So, ‘Sklar,'” Jack began, slow and deliberate.”Do you greet all new acquaintances by pointing a gun to their head, or just special people, like me?”
Sklar's face contorted with rage as he spat out a curse in an alien dialect. Jack's skill with languages allowed him to overcome language barriers better than a universal translator, but as with the universal translator, colloquial words such as curses, historical events, places, and names, were unique to each culture and frequently carried no recognizable translation. The intent behind them, however, was universally unmistakable.
Jack, however, recognized this particular curse. “Easy darling,” he said, a large humorless smile on his face. Just short of chuckling, he continued. “Usually you need wine and dine me before I'll do anything like that.”
Sklar lunged violently at Jack, apparently having forgotten about the forcefield between them. Sklar jerked back violently from the shock of the forcefield. A glint from beneath Sklar's vest caught Jack's attention. That glimpse was all he needed to know what it was that Sklar wore. The energy Jack felt wasn't from the forcefield afterall.
“So, there's more to you than meets the eye, my friend.” Jack said. Jack's humorless smile only fading slightly. In hushed tones so the security officer couldn't hear him, Jack asked rhetorically, “Something tells me you didn't find that on a academic excavation. No, you probably happened upon it accidentally, or stole it?”
Sklar stopped pacing and studied Jack with a quizzical look. He realized Jack was referring to the alien artifact Sklar wore under his vest. Before Sklar could respond Jack held up his index finger in front of his lips.
Lieutenant Commander Jenna Harris entered the brig, apparently finished with her duties from the Captain. Jack waved to her, offering her a more sincere smile than he was giving Sklar. She waved back, but began to discuss the prisoners with the security officer. They both turned away from Jack to review a monitor.
Taking advantage of their inattention, Jack stood up, gripped his medallion in his left hand tightly, then pressed his right hand against the cell’s forcefield controls. It only took a moment before the system overloaded and the forcefield went down. Before Sklar could react, Jack had already violently pushed him down onto the bench inside the cell.
Still holding onto the medallion, Jack pressed his right hand against the alien artifact beneath Sklar's jacket. Sklar tried to fight back but was barely able to move. Quietly, and in an unnatural sounding voice, Jack calmly informed him, “You are now feeling the pressure of four standard gravities. Ten will rupture the heart of most humanoid species.”
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“You're cleared for docking bay 3, Whitestar. Ops out.” Ensign Karen Peters had just finished punching in the docking sequence commands when a warning began to flash. She sighed heavily and began to wonder why the bugs in the system always cropped up on her shift.
Peters queried the warning message and her eyes widened. Hoping the captain wasn't in a “shoot the messenger” mood, she activated her communication badge. “Ensign Peters to Captain Rexan.”
“Go ahead, Ensign.” Captain Alexander Rexan replied.
“Sir, there's been a power failure in the brig, cell 4-A. Forcefield, security cameras, and control systems are all out. External sensors indicate the artificial gravity system is generating a 500% increase in magnitude and there is a growing energy buildup.”
“Get a repair team down there, Ensign. I'll contact security.” Rexan ordered.
“Aye, Captain. Contacting engineering. Peters out.”
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Sklar's eyes widened in fear as Jack continued to speak in an unnatural voice, “Where did you get that artifact?!”
“Wha- what?!” Sklar gasped.
“Six…” Jack said, “Seven. I won't ask again.”
Sklar's breathing became more labored as his body pressed harder into the bench. “I f- f- found it… at…. our… base!”
A single warning klaxon blared from the control desk which was out of line of sight. Having gotten the report from Captain Rexan, Liuetenant Commander Harris could be heard cursing, “Oh hell!”
Jack continued, “Good man.” Using the interaction of his medallion with the artifact under Sklar’s vest, he continued to apply gravitation force onto Sklar. It only took a few moments for Sklar to pass out. Jack then palmed the alien artifact from behind Sklar's vest and quietly dropped to the ground a heartbeat before Harris and the security officer stepped into the doorway of the cell.
“Jack?!” Harris asked, seeing him on the floor. “You alright?”
Jack tentatively got to his feet, as if to be testing his ability to stand. He knew the station would have registered the gravitational change and the power surge. Unless he raised suspicion, the best the crew would be able to determine was that the systems shorted out causing a fluctuation in the gravitational system and power relays.
“Y- yeah.” Jack said, offering a broad smile, “I had a lot of practice falling to the ground during the ion storm.”
“What the hell happened?” Harris asked.
“I saw the forcefield short out.” Jack explained dusting himself off and slipping the stolen artifact into his leather jacket. “I jumped at our friend here before he could get out. Then things started getting real heavy… literally. I think the artificial gravity was affected.”
“With two trained Starfleet officers in the room, you decided to try and stop a hostile prisoner on your own?” Harris asked, a bit of incredulity in her voice. Apparently she attributed it to Jack's reputation for macho bravado, “For a man who supposedly has two doctorates, you aren't very bright, Dr. Katoth.”
“Guess I was still angry after our friend pressed his weapon into my head. Besides,” Jack chuckled, “he didn't looks so big without his gun.” Rexan appeared behind Harris and the security officer a few moments later. “Ahh, Captain, just missed the fun… again,” Jack offered with a wink.
“Funny, Jack.” Captain Rexan replied, humorless.
“I did learn something interesting while I was talking to Mr. Sklar, though.” Jack reported. “Our friend and his cronies have a base of operations. Perhaps we should check the logs of the ships you tractored in and see if we can pull up navigational data.”
“Nice work, Jack.” Rexan and turned to Harris, “Get a team on it.”
“Aye, Captain.” Harris replied.
The security officer moved the unconscious Sklar into a new cell, and Jack followed Rexan and Harris out of the brig and into the corridor. “Captain.”
“What is it, Jack?”
“I have a request. If you go after that base, I request permission to join you with the Whitestar. I owe these guys a little payback.”
Rexan stopped and studied Jack for a moment. In the months that he’d been working the archaeologist, Rexan had never seen this side of Jack before. He paused only a moment before answering, “Granted.”
“Thank you, Captain.” Jack said, a little surprised the Captain of Starbase 27 had granted his request.
“Jack, you have proven yourself a valuable asset to this station, and surprisingly resourceful in a tactical situation. If you're going to help us with an assault, we're going to have to give that hunk of junk of yours some teeth.” Rexan watched for Jack's reaction.
Jack was surprised at the Captain inferring he was going to arm the Whitestar. The ship was designed to carry weapons, but Jack had never had the resources to maintain weapons systems.
“Due to your service to this station and numerous other Federation vessels and outposts, Starfleet has granted my request to install and maintain a half-dozen phaser arrays on the Whitestar.” Rexan explained, then offered Jack a smile. “It's not much, but it's cheaper than repairing that thing over and over again.”
“Thank you, Captain.” Jack said sincerely. “I'm speechless.”
“Somebody call the Federation Council! This has to be history in the making.”
“I'll deny ever saying it, Captain.” Jack smiled.
“Get that heap into Docking Bay 2 and I'll get a team to work on it right away.”
“Aye, Captain!” Jack said offering a huge smile and a melodramatic salute.
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Stepping into the cargo bay of the Whitestar , Jack secured the airlock and opened one of the smuggling holds in the Starboard wall. The panel slid open, revealing what looked like a display case of wide variety of alien artifacts. While all different in shape, size, and color, they all appeared to be expertly crafted stone work, and all bared striking resemblance to the medallion Jack wore around his neck.
Pulling the stolen artifact out of his jacket pocket. Jack carefully placed it with the rest of his collection. “One more piece of the puzzle.” Jack said to himself. He grasped his medallion in his left hand and held his right hand out toward his collection. As he did so, he felt the different energy signatures reverberate within each of the artifacts, as if calling to be released.
