Forwarded by the ASC-VSO Posted: Wed, 14 Jan 2004 07:05:18 -0800 In: alt.startrek.creative From: "Jay P Hailey" JayPHailey@TIC1.NET Title: Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile Author: Jay P Hailey (JayPHailey@yahoo.com) Series: MISC - TNG OCs COdes: None Part: 5/335 Rating:[PG] Archive: Fine with me, just tell me where. Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Star Trek. I claim Original Characters and Situations for me. The Holly Hop Incident By Jay P. Hailey And Dennnis Washburn In the end, I decided to head back to Earth on normal warp drives. I didn't expect it to do us any good directly, but I figured that any new information would help. The trip was going to take about 10 days at warp six. As we left the ship began to settle into a routine. Routines are good for a ship in deep space. Ours, was, of course somewhat strained. Within a few days it was obvious that Li'ira was doing a good job as the first officer. I was shocked. She was young, and she was a spook. But she took to shipboard life like she was born to it. She rang the bell and entered my office. "Commander," I said "Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?" She came to attention. I had just recently broken her of that. "I would prefer it if you didn't, Captain." She looked straight ahead at the bulk head in back of me. "Naturally. I understand your position." I thought for a moment. "Actually the question I had in mind is generic to Starfleet. You answered it when you applied to the Academy." That got her curiosity working. "Which one is that, Captain?" "Why did you choose to join Starfleet?" I quoted from the entrance exam. This wasn't a coincidence, and I don't remember things that well. I had tried to look up her records. It took all of my clearance just to get the computer to allow that she might exist. No details were released, though. I had read the question on her application, and the saw the writing blocked out as "Classified." The authorization to classify Starfleet Academy records came from Col. Flagg. She looked at me frankly. She was irritated. "Because the Federation embodies some things that are very important to me. It must be preserved. By what ever means necessary." "What does the Federation embody to you?" I prompted. She was more emotional now. She threw caution to the winds along with proper procedure. "You expect me to say `freedom', don't you? You have probably guessed that I was born a slave and then rescued. And that I then dedicated myself to Starfleet in thanks for my new found freedom." "Well you're wrong!" She yelled "I was born on a Federation registered free trader. I have ALWAYS been free. People see my green skin, or smell me, and assume that I am some sort of geisha, or pirate. I am not." She pointed at my chest "And you should know better. The Federation is about knowing better, and acting better. There are many `Federation Citizens' who don't act these principals out." The hell of it is, she was dead right. I had made many of the same assumptions that she had pointed out. I had assumed things from the color of her skin. It wasn't a comfortable revelation. She had answered another question of mine during her outburst. "You were born on a free trader?" I asked. "The SS Carbuncle, Sir." She seemed to regain control of herself. As I watched she blushed, from green to deeper green. It was sort of fun to watch. "That explains why you're so good at ship board routine." I observed. "Yes, Sir. Thank you, Captain." She remembered the report in her hand. She put it on my desk quickly, as though she had taken too long to complete her business. "These are the crew reports you wanted, Captain." I took them. "Thank you, Commander. Dismissed." She turned to leave. "Oh, Commander?" I called. She turned to face me. Her blush had died down as her self control had reasserted itself. "When one reads off a superior officer, it is customary to request permission to speak freely." I reminded her, wryly. "Yes, Captain. Thank you." Her blush returned as she left. -*- It was a couple of days later when we spotted the starship. It was crossing our path ahead of us, moving slowly. As we closed, Lt. Varupuchu scanned the ship. I ordered us to approach slowly, and take up a standard contact stance. What Varupuchu saw was a primitive ship. It was making warp three. It might have gone as high as warp four. It had similarly primitive navigational scanners and defenses. Now, I was faced with a problem. If we were lost in time, the contact might violate the Prime Directive. It might disrupt the flow of history. I had read accounts, in my time in the records department, of some of the things that had happened to time traveling Starfleet personnel. Captain Kirk and Dr. McCoy at The Guardian of Forever were just the tip of the iceberg. But unless we did something, it seemed we were stuck. I ordered the Harrier to cross in front of the unknown vessel, to trigger their primitive navigational sensors. We came out of warp just as the alien ship did, and we hailed her with a sublight communications beam. "This is the starship Harrier." I said in the hail "We are on a peaceful mission of exploration, and mean no harm. Will you speak with us?" Flagg reported "Alien ship coming around. It has raised shields, and has armed weapons. Laser cannon and particle beams armed. Electronic activity detected in the missiles." I ordered "Raise Shields to minimum power, sound yellow alert." The klaxon sounded as Flagg reported "Aye, Captain." The Alien ship answered our hail. There was a face of some kind on the view screen, but it looked like an electron microscope scan of an insect. It chittered and spit for a bit, and then the universal translator kicked in. "We are an allied ship. We respect your curiosity, and will to explore. It is with the deepest regret and sympathy that we call for your immediate and unconditional surrender." Now this was an interesting development. The lasers and particle beams of the alliance ship couldn't damage us. Not with the defensive systems operating, even at minimum power. The missiles were just as primitive and susceptible to our technology. I came to a quick decision. "We surrender." Li'ira gave me a shocked look and then recovered her poker face. I was getting better at reading her, now that I was getting to know her. Varupuchu and Spaat gave me a perfectly timed significant stare in unison, and the returned their attention to their stations. Flagg sputtered "But, I mean... You can't..." I turned around and gave Flagg the order to cut audio. As soon as he did I said "Don't tell me what I can or can't do, Lieutenant Commander! Follow your orders!" I turned back to the screen where the insect was waiting for audio patiently. Once the channel had been restored, he said "You will follow our instructions explicitly, or be destroyed. You will follow us along this course until told to stop. Any hostile action or resistance will be grounds for your regrettable destruction." "I understand. Where are we going?" I replied. "No questions. Comply, please." And the channel was cut. As soon as the channel was closed I said "Does anyone have any idea of what those were?" As I expected there were no positive answers. "The alien ship is turning about and preparing to enter warp, Captain." Varupuchu reported. "Very good, Mr. Spaat, please follow that ship." I always wanted to say that. "Aye, sir." Spaat replied. "Mr. Varupuchu, please scan all data banks and historical records for word of these creatures. Mr. Flagg, please come to my ready room. Commander, you have the bridge." I went into the tiny office just off the bridge of the USS Harrier. Flagg followed me in. I rounded on him "What the hell do you mean questioning my orders on the bridge!" "You can't surrender the device to those aliens!" Flagg got right back in my face. "Who said anything about turning the device over to anybody!? Question me on the bridge again and be prepared to relive me, Colonel!" I was quite hot under the collar myself. "What?" Flagg seemed taken aback "Why did you surrender?" "I was hoping to gain more information from these aliens. With their technology, there's no way they can board us or fire on us without us knowing about it well in advance. So I played along, hoping to get more information." I could feel the flush in my face and knew that I didn't look at all like the restrained and controlled image of command "I'm not used to having my decisions questioned or debated! Decide who is in command right now, and then stick to it!" Flagg quieted down quite a bit. "I'm sorry, Captain Hailey. It won't happen again." He seemed quite contrite and abashed. But I didn't believe it. The issue wasn't going to be settled that easily. We left the ready room and returned to the bridge. -*- The trip to the rendezvous took four days. The days were quiet, and free of incident. Repeated questions beamed to the Alliance ship resulted in brief replies requesting silence. There were no records in our archives of anything resembling the aliens. A complete scan of their ship was compiled. It didn't take long to scan the frequencies of their primitive shields and start slipping sensor scans in. We got good scans and information about a race no one in the Federation had ever seen. I stood the Harrier down from yellow alert early on, but each watch was told to keep a good eye on the situation. On the night of the fourth day, I was asleep in my cabin, when the yellow alert went off and I was summoned to the bridge. "Report." I said, as I stepped out on to the bridge. I was sleepy. I was trying to cover, and not yawn. It wasn't the most pleasant experience I had ever had. Truth to tell, I had almost run down to Engineering first. It had been since I was the Chief Engineer on the USS Akagi since I had been woken up by a yellow alert. "We now moving at sublight speed. There are twelve ships in the area, moving towards us at about one quarter impulse speed." Spaat reported. "Hail the alliance ship that we were following." "Aye, Captain." The call was placed. The aliens answered "Please stand by." As we watched, the alien fleet formed up and began to en globe us. "Hail them again." The call was answered by another ship, and a different bug. "We are the alliance fleet. We have heard of your polite behavior and wish to express our sincere appreciation. As a gesture of our gratitude, we agree to kill you as quickly and as painlessly as possible. We hope you continue to be as considerate as you have shown yourself to be, by not resisting, or destroying any of your advanced technology. Thus can our war be ended quickly, with a minimum of pain and suffering." "Are you sure there is no room for discussion of this?" I asked. "Regrettably not." "Thank you." I turned to Flagg and made the motion to cut the channel. "Helm, begin evasive maneuvers at full impulse. As soon as we are clear, go to warp speed. Raise the shields to full power. "I was giving the orders with a calm I did not feel. It seemed distant, and not entirely real. "Aye, Captain." Spaat said as he keyed the commands. The Harrier leapt away from the formation of alliance ships. "Shall I arm weapons, Captain?" Flagg asked. Was he asking because he wanted to blow up the insects, or because he thought it would be in character? "No," I replied "It's not necessary." It wasn't a few moments before we were well away from the alliance ships. The USS Harrier strained under full impulse thrust, but her hull was still tight, and the inertial dampers were brand new and functioning perfectly. Soon we had put enough distance between ourselves and the Alliance ships to return to normal cruise conditions. I set us on a course for Earth. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.556 / Virus Database: 348 - Release Date: 12/26/2003 -- Stephen Ratliff ASC Stories Only Forwarding In the Pattern Buffer at: http//trekiverse.crosswinds.net/feed/ Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASCL/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:ASCL-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. From ???@??? Thu Jan 15 00:52:15 2004 Status: U Return-Path: Received: from n32.grp.scd.yahoo.com ([66.218.66.100]) by eagle (EarthLink SMTP Server) with SMTP id 1aH0rl4Oo3NZFji0 for ; Wed, 14 Jan 2004 21:53:11 -0800 (PST) X-eGroups-Return: sentto-1977044-12911-1074145989-stephenbratliff=earthlink.net@returns.groups.yahoo.