Forwarded by the ASC-VSO Posted: Tue, 10 Feb 2004 19:54:07 GMT In: alt.startrek.creative From: "Jay P Hailey" JayPHailey@comcast.net Title: Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile Author: Jay P Hailey (JayPHailey@hotmail.com) Series: MISC - TNG OCs Codes: None Part: 23/335(?) 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. Webpage HTTP://jayphailey.8m.com The Dorians and the Sixians: Episode 23 By Jay P. Hailey And Dennnis Washburn "Your Highness, Nam the Fourteenth, the duly elected King of Doria, may I present the crew of the Starship Harrier, from the distant United Federation of Planets." There were four of us again, but Harksain Varupuchu had replaced Tillean. Tillean had refused to set foot on the planet again, and I didn't blame her. "Presenting the Captain of the Harrier and the Representative Extraordinary for the United Federation of Planets, Jay Patrick Hailey." I stepped forward and came to attention in front of the King. Except that he ruled over a pleasant hell, he seemed like someone's grandfather. He seemed totally out of place on the throne. Starfleet Protocol says here that you "Make an appropriate gesture of greetings/respect". Most Captains borrow the Japanese bow. I was about to bow when the implications occurred to me. I stopped and went with the next thing in my mind, the Marine salute. I held my arm straight out to the side of my body and brought the hand back at sharp angle until the fingers of my straight hand barely touched my eyebrow. I held it for three beats and the King nodded pleasantly. I brought my hand down and stepped aside, as per the protocol instructions from the Ambassador. Stephanie used my salute, but McTague and Varupuchu instead used the Vulcan greeting, hand up palm out, Fingers spread in the characteristic "V" shape. They bid the King to "Live Long and Prosper" and he smiled pleasantly at them and nodded. Later we milled about making strained small talk. "It's only a matter of time, you know." Salby said. I jumped and turned to face him. "A matter of time until what?" I said. It was hard to get enthusiasm up about anything. He nodded to the servant woman passing out drinks and refreshments. It was the same one from the diplomatic reception two nights ago. "Until she and her brothers kill us all and stick our heads on pikes in front of these palaces." He grinned merrily. I looked carefully at him. He didn't seem mad on the surface. "That doesn't seem like any fun." He said "Oh I have no doubt it will be a very unpleasant experience, but it's inevitable. I know. It's all in the history." I sighed "It doesn't have to be that way." "Oh, I know that, too. I thought that this might be the case, until I read the information about your Federation. Now I know." "So now what?" "Oh, nothing. One man can't make changes that big, even he was the King. Now I know. If I tell two people, then two people will know. If they tell two people and so on, everyone would know in a short amount of time. The problem is that most of these people don't want to know." He turned and squinted around the reception. "Come with me. There's someone I'd like you to meet." He grabbed my arm and started to drag me off. I caught Stephanie's eye just as she was about to take the elderly historian down. I waved her off. I wanted to see who else knew these things now. We left the diplomatic party through a generic service door. We wandered a short distance down some perfectly prosaic corridors until we came to an office. It was a fairly large office. I imagined that a member of the ruling class sat there and made heavy decisions about how much of what gourmet food to lay in for the guests of the palace. Then the servants left to fetch it and carry it in. To my utter surprise Nam the Fourteenth came in and began to hang his rainments up in a utility closet. "Good evening, Salby. Have you been haranguing the Captain with your tales of doom and gloom?" He said. I came to attention and put my juice quickly down on the desk. "Oh, knock it off." Nam the Fourteenth said tiredly, "Save it for the rubes." "Nam, have you read those parts of the Federations' packet I outlined?" Salby said excitedly. "Who's had the time? I bet they confirmed your views, though." "Yes, indeedy!" Salby cackled. "I had a chance to scan them briefly." He turned to me. "Now tell the truth, these weren't the whole story, were they?" "Well, no, things aren't always as cut and dried as the examples they choose for that piece." "Hee hee! I thought so!" Salby cackled again. "Then we'll take it with a grain of salt, won't we?" The King came up to me and squinted in my face. "Does that redness around your eyes mean what I think it does?" He asked. "What's that?" I responded. "You've had a long night." He said. "Yes, yes I have." "Quite a pickle you've arranged for yourself!" Salby said. "You pledge yourself to protect people you can't stand." Nam shook his head "Now you can't stay, and you can't go." I sat down heavily on the sofa in the king's office. "So now what do I do?" "Well first, you download accurate accounts of your Federation to us!" Salby jumped in. Nam shot Salby an amused look and then explained "The accurate information about the histories of the worlds in your Federation may help us convince a certain number of people that our system is not the only successful social structure. Once the knowledge that there is another way to do things becomes more wide spread, maybe the desire to change things will, too." "Secondly," Nam said "My intelligence service speculates that the Sixians may have a base not too far from our system. We can roughly measure their speed and they can't get to any nearby stars in the time they take between raids." "If you make a little stop by that base..." Nam led "And impress 'em with your diplomatic prowess!" Salby hooted. "Then the brunt of their anger might follow you, and not us." Nam finished. "Yes, Sir." I took the suggestion. -*- We signed a completely bland treaty with the Dorian Ambassador. He needed it to cover his ass with the Dorian people. We had a very public signing. Then the crew of the Harrier got a layover in a nature preserve. I didn't know how long it was going to be before we got to see real sky, walk on real dirt, or breathe real air again. We camped out at least three hundred miles from the nearest Dorian natives, and, over all, it was a fun camping trip. Tillean didn't go. She never again set foot on Doria III. I went down on the last afternoon and made of point of walking barefoot in the nearby stream. It was cold! Most of the rest of these three days I spent compiling more honest information for Salby, and Nam, so they could know for certain. I also salved my conscience for bringing down the wrath of the Sixians by sending them the complete scan data of the Sixian raider. This amounted to a complete blueprint for the ship. It would take them a while to be able to duplicate it, and longer to develop a more sane design, but it was better than leaving them totally uncovered. I rationalized that they would only have to shoot down and recover the wreckage of five or six Sixian ships in order to puzzle out most of this information. Never mind that it was unlikely to recover even one intact. It was a wonder that they maintained antimatter containment as a usual thing, let alone in battle. I could not find a hint of an ejection system for the antimatter storage pod. Lose containment and there goes the ship, and probably everyone on it. The simple fact is that I gave them technology that they wouldn't have otherwise. A clear violation of the Prime Directive. I did it by myself. There was only a skeleton crew on board the Harrier. I used my command codes to over ride the communications system and uploaded the information manually, from isolinear chips. I felt as thought any Sixian counter attacks would be my fault, and I had to try to make it better. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.580 / Virus Database: 367 - Release Date: 2/6/2004 -- 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 ???@??? 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