Forwarded by the ASC-VSO 
Posted: Tue, 02 Mar 2004 18:50:10 GMT  
In: alt.startrek.creative 
From: "Jay P Hailey"  
 

Title: Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile
Author: Jay P Hailey (JayPHailey@hotmail.com)
Series: MISC - TNG OCs
Codes: None
Part: 34/339(?)
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 Trudge: Episode 34
    by
    Jay P. Hailey
    And
    Dennnis Washburn
     (Stardate 45650)

    The USS Harrier warped through space a thousand light years from the
United Federation of Planets. This was a large distance and it was going to
take us about three more years to get home at this rate.

    The worst part so far had been the boredom. For three months we hadn't
run into anything of any interest. We couldn't detect anything more exciting
ahead of us as far as our sensors could see.

    I was reading the follow up reports to our last significant encounter.
It was the planet Bandersnatch Six. The six didn't stand for the orbit
number around the primary. This Bandersnatch was the sixth planet so named
in the Federation archives. However, the person who discovered the planet
had the right to name it, by ancient custom. Bandersnatch Six really
deserved the name. It was in an eccentric orbit, perturbed in and out of the
life zone by a nearby gas giant. The weather on Bandersnatch Six ran in
seven hundred year mega-cycles. We caught it in a summer-like period.

    The life forms on Bandersnatch had to adapt to a huge variety of
climates and conditions. They had adapted with a vengeance. Most of the life
forms of Bandersnatch Six were either tough biological tanks or clever and
deceitful shape changers. The natives fell into the latter category, a fact
we didn't discover until it was too late.

    Later we camped out on an island that could not support any sizable life
forms and had our shore leave anyway.

    The life sciences people and the planetary geologists had a field day at
the time. They piled up enough raw data to keep the Vulcan Academy of
Science or the Smithsonian Institution busy for years.

    Now, they had a break to do a lot of the analysis on the Harrier. It had
grown boring. Now there was just the unglamorous cataloging and sorting of
data.

    The sociologists were busy, too. We had encountered the Kurr
Association. They occupied ninety-seven planets inside an energy bubble of
fantastic proportions. Five hundred years before the Harrier found them, the
Kurr had been visited by energy beings known as the Harmon. The Harmon
declared the Kurr Association to be ethically deficient and englobed them in
a bubble of energy nearly one hundred light-years in diameter.

    The Harrier couldn't even touch the bubble. The Kurr had been trying to
unravel the thing for as long as they had been inside of it, and had found
nothing that would work.

    It was a sad and sobering sight. The Federation could have wound up in
the same condition if the Organians or Q had been just a little less patient
with us. The Kurr had been developing their ethics on a crash basis every
since. A lot of what they had invented mirrored things in the Federation.
Mostly the contributions of the Vulcans, who also felt coerced by
circumstances to develop their ethics.

    The Kurr had developed and exploited every free inch of the space inside
their globe, but they were suffering from a cultural claustrophobia. We had
signed a treaty of principle with them and then the Harrier had exchanged
archives with the Kurr Association.

    The histories and societies of the Kurr Association were varied and
interesting and they had a few historians talented enough to make the
history fun reading.

    There was only so much reading, study and cataloging work the crew could
do as we chugged along, one light year a day, every day.

    The Engineering Department of the Harrier had kept the ship running
smoothly for nearly seven months of our trip so far. Ruezre Vengla, the
Chief Engineer had used a bag of tricks that had surprised and delighted me
with their ingenuity. If we assumed that nothing kept happening until we
reached Starbase 24, the we were very likely to make it there. Making to
within rescue distance was almost a certainty. If nothing else happened.

    The psychology of a crew locked up in an enclosed space for a long time
is interesting, but I didn't like watching it while there was no safety net
or support system around us.

    The first hint of excessive boredom overtaking the crew was the Dungeons
and Dragons scenario happening on the Holodeck. Many of the crew had joined
this scenario, playing in small groups at different times. It had grown
extremely complex and the players were taking it very seriously.

    There had actually been a fist fight in the ship's lounge concerning
events in the game. It seemed petty and trivial at first, and the crew
members involved were honestly abashed at how they had acted, but it was an
important sign.

    Another sign of increasing boredom was the martial arts tournament.
There was one of these on nearly all starships at one time or another. The
crew was trained and capable in a number of ways, and those who were trained
in hand-to-hand combat wanted to test their skills against each other.
During this time on the Harrier, it was a weekly occurrence, with betting
and standings and rivalries developing.

    Two surprises to come out these bouts were Spaat, our Vulcan Helmsman,
and Yoshio Yo, the young ensign who acted as Li'ira's executive assistant.
Spaat was a big man, and being Vulcan naturally somewhat stronger than a
human. His martial art was the Vulcan classic, Tal-Shyia. It was a passive
art, based on the idea of turning an opponent's attack against him. Lots of
leverage and throws. Spaat had several advantages and rose near the top of
the standings. Yoshio Yo, or "Yeoman Yo" as he was popularly known, turned
into a friendly, self depreciating, enthusiastic whirling dervish. No one
could touch him.

    Yo was of generic Asian descent. When I asked, he said that his mother
was Chinese, his father was Japanese, and they had lived in the big
industrial cities of Korea before he went to live with his grandfather in
the jungles of Vietnam and Cambodia. He called his martial art Tae Kwon
Leap, and claimed that his grandfather had taught it to him over the years
in the Southeast Asian jungles. He quickly began classes in the highly
philosophical martial art.

    Seamus McTague, the Ship's Counselor tried everything he could think of
to divert this energy into other means of expression, with a certain amount
of success. He had birthday parties and planetary holiday celebrations all
kinds of other excuses to get together and cut loose.

    Typical of any small community, the Harrier immediately developed
cliques and "in-crowds". There were entertaining and gossip-worthy incidents
and who was sleeping with who became an engrossing subject for conversation.

    There was even a little bit of a stir when I started dating the Chief
Medical Officer Patricia Flynn. We had found that we shared a similar enough
frame of references for discussions to be fun, and varied enough experiences
so that we didn't run out of stories. After several late night bull sessions
and a certain amount of hemming and hawing, we managed to get each other
into bed.

    It was fun, but we knew it was a temporary arrangement. When we got back
to Earth, Patricia Flynn was headed back to the United States Coast Guard
and her true love, the study of the oceans.

    I found that Patricia Flynn had only become a medical doctor because she
had never been to the ocean until she was doing post graduate work at the
University of Southern California at San Diego. She had joined the U.S.
Coast Guard because they were the organization that was still exploring the
oceans of Earth. Patricia had joined as a medical officer because that
offered her a quick commission, and the opportunity to get into the oceans
right away.

    While at Bandersnatch Six, Doctor Flynn organized an impromptu
oceanographic department on the Harrier, and conducted an investigation of
the oceans there. Since then she had been supervising the processing of the
data they had gathered, and was teaching a popular oceanography class on the
Harrier. I tried to make it to that one when I could.

    -*-

    I had found a private place aboard the Harrier. It was a relic of the
ship's old design. Years ago the ship's replicator was much larger device.
Now, we had small stand up units in most quarters and scattered in
convenient locations around the ship. Most of the space dedicated to the
large old device had been reclaimed for other uses, but there was a
remaining jefferies tube on deck ten.

    It began in what was now a store room, and proceeded a few feet to a
turn. Just around the turn the Jefferies tube dead-ended.

    Although, as Captain I had the run of the ship, and could order any
section evacuated that I pleased, there was always the knowledge that the
Harrier and her crew were watching me. I could be alone in any room or
section, but I could not be solitary.

    There was a certain thrill to hiding away. No one knew where I was, when
I was in there.

    I went there with a book that I was reading. It was Ford's History of
the Klingons. I had read it before, but I was going through it again for
details that I had missed, and for relaxation. It was something that I
wasn't obligated to read.

    As I scrambled through the jefferies tube I heard a noise from the
cul-de-sac ahead. It was a soft sobbing. I peeked around the curve and saw
Tillean Darvon Ahk curled up in a corner, her head down on her knees crying
bitterly.

    I was stunned. Tillean was always so up-beat and enthusiastic. Every
task was a challenge; each encounter was an adventure. I never thought that
I would see her so miserably unhappy.

    "Uh, ahem." I said, unsure of what to do or say. I was a little
uncomfortable. Tillean was in my hidey hole.

    She started and looked up. A PADD fell out of her curled up lap, and
fell on the floor. I noticed a face on the PADD. It was a picture of a blond
haired boy. His grin spoke of frogs, and sticking slimy things down girls'
shirts, and major mayhem, everywhere.

    "Oh, uh," Tillean sniffed and stood up quickly, wiping her eyes, and
trying to put her face back on. "Captain, I-"

    I bent down, picked up the PADD. The boy had grown on me instantly, but
I didn't look at it for long. I handed it back to her and said "Who's this?"

    Tillean replied "That's my son, Captain." Tears welled up in her eyes.

    "Oh, I, uh..." I was acutely embarrassed.

    Tillean grinned ruefully, despite the tears rolling down her face. "It's
his birthday, today."

"Ah, oh." I was at a loss. Tillean gestured aimlessly and looked like she
was going to leave. I was curious, and couldn't resist. "Tell me about him."



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