Forwarded by the ASC-VSO Posted: Fri, 5 Mar 2004 16:29:08 -0500 (EST) In: alt.startrek.creative From: kdj2020@webtv.net (Kevin Johnston) Title: Image Of Thyself Author: Kevin Johnston Series: The Original Series Rating: G, just like in 1979 Archive: Yes For ASC Feedback: Always welcomed. The next fifteen minutes went by quickly, each member of the bridge crew intent on his or her tasks. In the center of it all, Kirk. Calm, collected, ready for whatever the universe was about to throw at him. Into the silence, Ilia cast her voice. "Ready for sub-light speed in thirty seconds on my mark.....mark." Sulu moved as she spoke, watching the screen, standing directly in front of it. As the seconds ticked by, he counted them off in his mind, and at zero, felt the ship drop from warp, as the stars rearranged themselves on the screen. Seconds ago, they had been long drawn-out streaks of light, now they were individual points of brightness, some weaker than others. "Secured from warp speed, all decks, status report.", Kirk's words echoed into the intercom on the right side of his chair. Uhura concentrated on the voices in her ear, listening to them even as she turned to face her captain. "All decks reporting ready, sir." "Thank you, Commander. Helm, is the Intruder in visual range?" DeFalco, taking over for Chekov, answered, glancing back at the captain as she did so. "Visual in three minutes, sir." "Acknowledged, and welcome to the Bridge." "Thank you, sir." Sulu, moving away from the screen to his captain's side. "Hailing frequencies, sir?" A shake of the head, with a small smile added at the end. "Not yet...a little closer, first. Uhura, have LinguaCode ready with the following message: "This is the Federation Starship Enterprise, from the third planet of the star system you are on course for. Although you have destroyed one of our ships, we make no presumption as to your intent. We await your response." ." "Aye, sir. Coding that now." Uhura's voice blended with the sound of the lift doors opening, as McCoy stepped forward to stand at Kirk's left side, flanking Sulu on the right. "Bones." "I've got your test results back...want the good news or the bad?" "Surprise me." "Fine...bad first, then.", and as he said it, he smiled, letting Kirk know that this was all fun and games, nothing more. The grin he received in kind, let him know in turn that the other understood. "Your diet card comes in at code yellow-two." "Yellow-two....? Yellow-Two?" "Yellow-two. Salads and lean meats until your weight goes down about ten pounds or so." Kirk waited, said it again, as it not quite yet believing it. "Yellow-two...so what's the good news?" "I....ummm...that is...." "Bones." "I coded out at yellow-three." Now, a bigger grin spread across Kirk's face, and he repeated the words, slowly pronouncing them, enjoying every second of it. "Yellow-three....better watch yourself, Doctor. I hear that new Assistant Medical Officer is pretty strict about diet cards." Leonard McCoy scowled at that. "Don't tell me something I don't already know. She not only set me up for salads only, she actually went ahead and deleted my override authority. I tried to get a steak, and the damned computer gave me a bowl full of lettuce." Spock's voice, firm. "Now in visual range. Transferring image to main screen." It was immense, large enough to fill the screen and then some. What had seemed merely threatening from a great distance away, now seemed terrifying, close up. "Navigation, reduce image. I want to see all of it." Ilia complied, shifting levers on her board. As she did so, the Intruder's image grew smaller, until the whole of it just fit on the screen. Sonak, backing Spock up at the Auxiliary Science sub-station, chimed in. "Distance across, eighteen A.U.'s." As that sunk in for everyone, Kirk thought about it, amazed. The object in front of him was as long across as the distance between Earth and its sun, times eighteen. Sulu. "My god, what power it must take to generate a field that large." "Makes you wonder what right we have to even approach it, much less demand it stop in its tracks to talk to us." "Agreed, Captain." McCoy. "I'd better get down to Sickbay. If that thing decides it doesn't particularly care for us, I'll be putting all my nice new equipment to the test." "No promises, but I'll do my best to keep you bored." As he said it, Kirk reached out, clapped his friend on the shoulder. "I'd be grateful for that." As he left the Bridge, Kirk swung to face Uhura again. "Now, Commander. All frequencies." "Aye, sir. Transmitting LinguaCode, now." -- Stephen Ratliff ASC Stories Only Forwarding In the Pattern Buffer at: http//trekiverse.crosswinds.net/feed/ ASCL is a stories-only list, no discussion. Comments and feedback should be directed to alt.startrek .creative or directly to the author. 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: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ From ???@??? Fri Mar 05 23:33:54 2004 X-Persona: Status: U Return-Path: Received: from n29.grp.scd.yahoo.com ([66.218.66.85]) by killdeer (EarthLink SMTP Server) with SMTP id 1aZtqy3lj3NZFlr0 for ; Fri, 5 Mar 2004 20:28:42 -0800 (PST) X-eGroups-Return: sentto-1977044-13280-1078547321-stephenbratliffasc=earthlink.net@returns.groups.yah