The Reagan Centuries

"The Reagan Centuries" is the seventh episode of the current Don Trek series and is an original episode not based on any other previous Don Trek writing.

Previous episode: It's A Good Day To Dalek

Next episode: Beauty and the Catman

Synopsis
The crew of the USS Bonneville discover a being in space who claims to be Ronald Reagan. Is it really him or a powerful alien out to trick Capt. Don, Cmdr. Mike and crew?

The Story
''“Captain’s log stardate 9502.17: We’ve entered a previously uncharted system referred to as a bunch of numbers. The good news is that there’s a class M planet and we get to do a little exploring! It’s about damn time too…”''

Act One
“We’re approaching the class M planet,” reported Lt. Tommy.

                “All scans show the planet to be a fairly safe environment,”  Lt. Solok added, “with one exception, maybe.”

                “What’s that?”

                “We are reading a single humanoid life form,” answered Lt. Solok, “and it is almost four hundred years old.”

                “There are lots of humanoid life forms that can live that long,” countered Capt. Don.

                “Not just humanoid, but human.”

                “We are being hailed from the surface,” reported Ensign Emily.

                “Put it on screen then,” ordered Capt. Don.

                ''“Hello, I’m President Ronald Reagan, welcome to the city on the hill. Please come down and be my guest for a night or so.”''

                “Hello, I’m Capt. Don of the Federation starship USS Bonneville,” the captain said introducing himself, “we’d love to come down, in fact we plan on it, but our sensors show no city, no man-made structures at all?”

                “Well, I don’t know about man-made, but you’re more than welcome to come down and check it out.”

                “How many of us can you accommodate?” asked Capt. Don.

                “Billions,” answered the former President of the United States, “for an hour or a life time, it’s all up to you.”

                “Mr. President,” started Capt. Don, “I may call you that right?”

                “Yes, that’s fine for now.”

                “I assure you, we will come down for a visit, but you’ll understand if we only come in small numbers at first, and have a talk for a little before we all come down, right?”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Take your time captain.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Thanks,” Capt. Don signaled to Ensign Emily to cut the line.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “I think a command staff meeting is what you were about to call,” deduced Lt. Solok.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Yes,” Capt. Don agreed, “that would be a logical assumption. Wake up Cmdr. Mike, let’s all meet in the conference room in thirty minutes.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                Thirty five minutes later the command staff was assembled in the conference room and everyone was either in shock or ignorance. Capt. Don was in a little of both, to be honest. He knew who Ronald Reagan was; being from the American continent himself he would have been more educated on the former President of the United States than crew members from other parts of Earth or from other planets.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Could this even be real?”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “The likelihood of this actually being Ronald Reagan is very low,” offered Lt. Solok but then added, “though not impossible.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “This is the oddest thing I’ve ever personally encountered,” commented Mr. Bourbon.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “I’m familiar with most of Earth’s history,” started Lt. Camcorder, “if I recall Ronald Reagan had a condition known as Alzheimer's, one that affects ones memory both long and short term.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Yes that is correct,” said Capt. Don, “Doctor Good Doctor what do you think about all of this?”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “I think that the notion of that being the real Ronald Reagan is absurd,” she answered, “first of all back then Alzheimer’s had no cure and one wasn’t developed for a century after his death, secondly he died on Earth, was confirmed dead, and was buried in the United States. No, not him.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “So that leaves us with the question, ‘what do we make of this likeness of Ronald Reagan?” asked Cmdr. Mike, still sleepy.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “We can’t rule out that this is some sort of trap,” suggested Lt. Solok.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Yeah,” yawned Cmdr. Mike, “but we were going to go down there anyway.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “We know that to be true,” countered Solok, “but whoever that is down there is not privy to that information.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “And they may be projecting this Reagan thing in order to make sure we go down,” added Capt. Don.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “So what are we going to do?” asked Doctor Good Doctor.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “We are going to beam down and either meet the 33rd Governor of California and the 40th President of the United States of America, or whatever that is,” answered Capt. Don.

Act Two
<p style="text-align: center;"> “Captain’s log supplemental:  It seems like we’ve met someone from Earth’s past out here in uncharted unexplored space. The being that we’ve communicated with claimed to be the 40 <sup style="font-style: italic;">th President of the United States, Ronald Wilson Reagan. He looks just like the history files show for him around his eightieth birthday. Obviously there is understandable doubts as to wither this is President Reagan, in fact none of us believe he is, but some of us, including myself, are not deigning that it could very well be him.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Okay Lt. Camcorder you have the ship,” ordered Capt. Don, “if anything goes wrong try to get us back, by all means, but in the end make sure the ship is secure. We’re going to be down there during shift change and then Mr. Bourbon will take the con.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Yes,” Lt. Camcorder replied, “the USS Bonneville is in capable hands. Be safe captain.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Thank you,” offered Capt. Don as he Cmdr. Mike, Doctor Good Doctor, Lt. Solok, and Ensign Bill took their places on the transporter pads. “Energize!”

<p class="MsoNormal">                When the five officers materialized on the surface of the planet all of them were a bit taken aback by what surrounded them. To the eye, and the tricorders, they were in an exact replica of Washington D.C., in 1980’s Earth!

<p class="MsoNormal">                “This is an amazing reproduction,” breathed Capt. Don almost silently.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “I do not think the ship’s recreation room could give us a more precise holographic representation of the city than this,” added Lt. Solok.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “All of this precision is supposed to come from the mind of an Alzheimer’s sufferer?” asked Dr. Good Doctor.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “No,” answered a familiar voice to the away teams, the voice of Ronald Reagan, “they made this city by physically scanning Washington D.C. when they visited Earth in the 1980’s before I started suffering from that condition.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “You’ll have to understand that we’re not really sure you are who you say you are Mr. President,” admitted Capt. Don.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “I understand that completely,” accepted the man who claimed to be Ronald Reagan, “come have dinner with me and I’ll fill you in on the last some 300 years.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Where we gonna eat,” laughed Cmdr. Mike, “the White House?”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Sure,” answered the president, “do you want to walk or take the presidential limo?”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “I’d like to walk,” answered Capt. Don.

<p class="MsoNormal">                The walk was one of wonder for Capt. Don and the Bonneville’s away team, even Lt. Solok looked like he might be in some kind of awe for a moment or so. It didn’t take long but soon they were at the White House and then the state room.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Do you want to eat alone or with leaders of Earth’s past,” asked President Reagan.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “What’d you mean,” asked Dr. Good Doctor, “there are other leaders from Earth here?”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Oh goodness no,” laughed Reagan, “as far as I know I’m the only one here. The people that brought me made sure I have constant companionship with those that are familiar to me.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “I think that tonight we’d like it to be just between us, maybe another night we could dine with the rest of the eighties,” suggested Capt. Don.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “So you’ll be staying a few nights?” asked President Reagan.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “We’re explorers,” offered Capt. Don, “we seek out strange stuff and I’ll be honest, I never thought that I’d see home, even from the past, when I ventured so far into space.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “You’re from Earth,” asked Reagan, “you’re from home?”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Yes,” answered Capt. Don, “I am, Cmdr. Mike is, and so is Dr. Good Doctor.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “I should have known,” laughed Reagan, “your ship is the USS Bonneville, a United States ship?”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “The USS is based upon navel tradition,” admitted Capt. Don, “but now it stands for the United Space Ship. In fact Mr. President I’m from St. Louis myself, not far from Illinois where you were born.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Wow,” laughed President Reagan, “I’d like tell you exactly what happened.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                As the maybe president and Bonneville away team ate dinner he told them of when he learned he had Alzheimer’s, when the aliens approached him and made their offer, and how hard it was to leave his country and his world behind; his wife too.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “When I left, the day, December 26, 1994, it was the hardest thing that I’d ever done. Leaving Nancy was hard to do; they promised me she’d be taken care of. I asked her if it could all end there would that be what she would want. She said she wanted ten more years with me, I thought about giving up, not going. The next day they said they could give her ten more years with me, an android. They said that the android would suffer what I suffered; at least it would appear to do so. They said he was a robot, that he would not really feel the pain or understand the suffering, and that it be a subroutine, a computer program. I don’t regret leaving, I don’t regret living, I’ve lived a good life here in the city, and when I want to I can visit my ranch. Capt. Don, I can even see Nancy, or a representation of her, but I don’t do that often. The best part is when explorers like you come by and visit, most of them are friendly too.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “So you do get visitors?” asked Cmdr. Mike.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Absolutely,” answered the president, “some of them I still write also.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “You mentioned that some of them are friendly,” probed Capt. Don, “there are some that aren’t?”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Of course,” answered President Reagan, “some are very not so friendly.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “What happens to them?” asked Lt. Solok.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “They’re turned away by my protectors.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                Capt. Don had a thought and voiced it, “can we meet them?”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Sure, but not tonight,” answered Ronald Reagan, “you can if you stay a bit longer. I trust you but they are slower to trust. That and I’m tired. You can stay here tonight, in the White House, or you can go back to your ship.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “I think tonight we’ll go back to the ship,” answered Capt. Don, “but there’s one more thing, if you don’t mind?”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Maybe not,” replied the president, “just ask.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Do you mind if Doctor Good Doctor takes a few scans of you,” asked Capt. Don, “get some tissue samples. I’ll be honest with you, I believe you’re either Ronald Reagan or you think you are, but we are explorers and scientist and we’d like a chance to verify it.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “No problem,” answered the president, “have at it.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                Dr. Good Doctor took all the scans and all the samples that she could and asked a few questions as well. When she was done she thanked him and the away team beamed up right from the living room of the White House. When they were back on the Bonneville Doctor Good Doctor approached Capt. Don and told him of her initial findings.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Don,” started Good Doctor, “he’s human alright, but I don’t know if he’s who he says he is yet. There is one thing though, when I asked him why he was tired, his response was interesting.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “Really, do tell?”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “He answered, ‘I’m almost 400 years old doctor, I’m not robot and I need sleep.’”

Epilog
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">'' “Captain’s log stardate 9502.18: Doctor Good Doctor has reported in with her medical analysis of the human mail that inhabits the planet now known as The City on the Hill. After cross-referencing all the data we have at our disposal, including DNA imaging of Ronald Reagan’s DNA from back in the 20 <sup style="font-style: italic;">th century she has determined that there is a 98% chance that we have discovered the real 40 <sup style="font-style: italic;">th President of the United States. Furthermore we have had the pleasure of meeting with the aliens that rescued him and we are reasonably assured that all is well that looks well. After much consideration we have determined that this would be a good place to take shore leave and the ship’s crew had divided into three shore leave shifts. Most of my time, with Lt. Camcorder, has been spent talking to the former president about his terms as President of the United States and his life. We expect to depart in four days’ time.” ''

<p class="MsoNormal">                “That’s the last of my people Mr. President,” said Capt. Don as he shook Ronald Reagan’s hand.

<p class="MsoNormal">                “It’s been a pleasure Don,” responded Reagan, “and from now on just call me Ron.”

<p class="MsoNormal">                “That’s a deal Ron,” Capt. Don waved and then pulled out his communicator, “Beam us up.”

“Oh one more thing,” yelled Ronald Reagan as they started to dematerialize, “I don’t know why but I feel compelled to warn you but, beware of a white horse!”

Background Information

 * This is an original episode of Don Trek and is not based on any previous Don Trek stories. Though it does have some elements of previous Star Trek stories to it, like Metamorphosis or other episodes featuring real or made-up people from the past.


 * This episode's narrative is connected to Deep Sleep Station Nine's by mention of the "white horse" by President Reagan.


 * Lt. Camcorder is given command of the USS Bonneville in the absence of Capt. Don, Cmdr. Mike, and Lt. Solok instead of the engineer Mr. Bourbon.


 * Either pigtails are Starfleet regulation or Capt. Don allows them despite regulation.


 * The Federation has a record of DNA as far back as the 1980's.


 * Other than preserving Ronald Reagan and curing him of Alzheimer’s no other alteration was made to the former President of the United States.


 * Capt. Don and President Reagan are on a first named basis with each other.


 * This story is devoid of politics and was designed to tell a personal story.

Inspired by
The Star Trek trademarks, logos, and related names are owned by CBS Studios Inc., and are used under "fair use" guidelines.
 * Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry.
 * Don Trek is not endorsed, sponsored, or affiliated with Paramount Pictures, CBS Studios Inc. or the "Star Trek" franchise.