Path: newsspool1.news.atl.earthlink.net!stamper.news.atl.earthlink.net!newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net.POSTED!e4e3327b!not-for-mail Message-ID: From: "Jay P Hailey" Newsgroups: alt.startrek.creative,alt.startrek.creative.all-ages Approved: Moderator on Duty Jemima Pereira Reply-To: "Jay P Hailey" Subject: REP: Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile (OCC - TNG era) 31 - Civil Disorder, [PG] 1/1 X-Authentication-Warning: serv2.gc.dca.giganews.com: news set sender to poster@giganews.com using -f X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1437 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1441 X-DMCA-Complaints-To: dmca@comcast.net X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.13 X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at crosswinds.net X-Posting-Tool: modtool v2.0 Lines: 1594 Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 16:49:15 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 4.156.240.83 X-Complaints-To: abuse@earthlink.net X-Trace: newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net 1093452555 4.156.240.83 (Wed, 25 Aug 2004 09:49:15 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 09:49:15 PDT Organization: EarthLink Inc. -- http://www.EarthLink.net Xref: news.earthlink.net alt.startrek.creative:160573 alt.startrek.creative.all-ages:2520 X-Received-Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 09:49:15 PDT (newsspool1.news.atl.earthlink.net) REP: Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile (OCC - TNG era) 31 - Civil Disorder, [PG] 1/1 Title: Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile 31 - Civil Disorder Author: Jay P Hailey (JayPHailey@hotmail.com) Series: ST-OM, OCC - TNG era [31/55?] 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 Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile Episode 31 - Civil Disorder (Stardate 49017) By Jay P Hailey and Dennnis Washburn The Discovery cruised through the Klingon Empire. We were being escorted under secret conditions to the far side of the Klingon Empire. From there we would venture out into unknown space. The most boring part of the mission promised to be the passage through Klingon territory. Many Klingons felt that the Empire was being too soft on Humans and the Federation as it was. If it was widely known that a Federation starship was being given passage through the Empire, then a storm of protest might erupt. In the Klingon Empire, a "Storm of Protest" is a much more literal and deadly proposition than it is in the Federation. By herself, the Discovery would have been subject to attacks by Klingons with anti-human prejudices. The High Council would have been put in the position of responding to the attacks either by rescuing or avenging the Discovery or letting the matter drop and risking the lucrative alliance with the Federation. The High Chancellor Gowron decided to send some of his own personal ships to protect us. However, this would just enhance his already shaky reputation as "Soft on Humans". Therefore, the Discovery crept along quietly under protective escort but also without stopping at any planets or interacting with anyone for six months. There was a lot of time for study, reading, socializing and other pass times. The science and exploration part of the mission would begin once we left Klingon space. The Discovery was carrying a colonization mission to the far reaches of unknown space. Ordinarily, this would have been suicide, but our colonists were El-Aurians. They were natives of a race advanced beyond the Federation. The Borg had destroyed their home world and the Federation was helping them set up their colony in unknown space in a reverse application of the Prime Directive. The El-Aurians were too advanced for us. Their technology might have pushed the Federation further ahead than our ethics could deal with. I was in my office frustrating myself. I knew that El-Aurians lived a long time. Many of them arrived in the Federation as refugees eighty years ago. I was trying to track them between their arrival on the Enterprise-B, and the establishment of the colony project about ten years ago. I was not very successful. One of them, Tolian Soren had destroyed a star and threatened to destroy an inhabited solar system. In the act of stopping him, the Enterprise-D had been lost. Aaron and Elizabeth Sheffield were painfully difficult to trace. I was disturbed by what I did find. They had been stockholders and research scientists for several weapons and engine manufacturers. Did they use some of their advanced knowledge to gain economic power? For over a hundred years, Federation starships moved at one light per day at cruising speed. Then, new engines were developed. They used bio-mimetic gel packs to regulate plasma flow. The results were incredible. New techniques allowed us warp drives that were three times faster than earlier starships. The Discovery was built with the new engines. The Galaxy and the Enterprise-D, her earlier sister ships were three times slower in the long haul. The Federation was beginning a new era of expansion and exploration only comparable to the opening of the New World on Earth or the Great Awakening of the last century. Were we really ready for it? Was it us, or hand-me-down technology from an earlier race? The Discovery usually struck me as a mixed blessing. She was a ticket to places no one else had ever seen. She was also a flagship of the Federation. The decisions I made while I was her captain could affect whole sectors. The Federation would have to form itself around the consequences of my decisions. It was not a comfortable feeling. Only a raving loon could feel confident in such a position. This was the first time I questioned the underlying assumptions behind the Discovery. Were we meant to be going where we went? Were we intended to meddling in the places where I was to take the Discovery? Intended by whom? If I discovered proof that the Discovery's engines were really artifacts of an advanced culture, would I give them up? I doubted that the proof was there to find. Starfleet Intelligence was tied up in the whole mess now. The decision had been made and all the data one way or the other had probably been buried. The intercom chimed. "Hailey here, go ahead." I said. I was grateful to have my ruminations interrupted. "Captain, there is something you should see here." It was Stephanie Anderson, my Chief of Security. "What is it?" I asked. I'd rather not say on the Intercom, Sir. We're in section 240 on deck Nine." That was the stables area where live stock for the Colony was being kept. "I'll be right there." I left my office and took the turbo lift down to the Colonist's section of the Discovery. I didn't get down there as often as I would have liked. There was often more nit-picky busy-work to being Captain than I expected. The stables area was the second biggest allotment of space in the Saucer Section. It was two decks tall and reasonably open. Cargo holds had been modified to hold the animals and one spectacular area had been opened up to allow animals to be walked and exercised. There were horses and cows. They were the generic Earth models. I wasn't exactly sure why that was until I remembered the Borg attack on El-Au. No farm animals really made it off the planet. The El-Aurians had trained with and adopted mostly Earth animals for their colony. The smell was...interesting. There is nothing else like the smell of stables full of animals. It was not what you'd expect from a Flagship of the Federation, but for some reason that made me happy. The Discovery wasn't like any other ship in the fleet. We weren't separate, but we were taking the Starfleet "book" in a direction that it hadn't gone before. I walked over to the spot where Stephanie was standing. She was stationed outside the sheep pens. She didn't look happy. There were several of our "Redshirt" security officers nearby. I recognized Arthur Hendrickson among them. They were keeping the sheep pens isolated. "What's up?" I asked as I walked up. Stephanie motioned me inside the sheep pen. I walked inside and saw the little girl. She was ten years old. Her name was Mary-Anne Foote and she had been beaten to death. There was quite a bit of blood although a lot of it had run into the drains that littered the decks. "Jesus Christ." I said. The smell of death hung in the air mixed with manure and sweaty animal. "What in the hell happened here?" "Snoopy found her." Stephanie said. "He called me right away. We locked down the scene and called for you." "Okay." I said. Why did she call me first? "Send someone to go find Aaron and then begin your investigation, Lieutenant Commander." I turned to go out side and then I saw a forlorn heap of white fur. I went over to look at it. "Oh, shit." I said. It was a lamb. It was dead. It had been savagely beaten, too. I just looked at Stephanie. Her face was blank. Of course. She had been a police officer back on Earth. Although most crimes were rare on Earth, human nature said that there would occasionally be violence. Had Stephanie seen this all before? I tried to think of what kind of maniac would beat a girl and her little lamb to death and my mind came up blank. "I'm going to clear out and stop messing up your evidence." I said. I was fighting back tears. I stepped outside and let my eyes water for a bit. It wasn't the first dead body that I had seen. A career in Starfleet means that you see too many dead people. But a little girl? And her pet lamb for the love of mike? What was the lamb going to do, tell on him? It was a bit strong. Aaron came up. "Jay, what's wrong?" I waved him into the pen. Stephanie showed him the bodies. "Oh, no." He said. He sounded a little choked, too. "That's Mary Anne Foote." He came back out of the sheep pen. "What happened, Captain?" "We're investigating, now." I said. The implication hit home. "Some where on this ship there is a killer. Either in my crew or your colonists and we're going to find him." I said. Aaron took a deep breath. "All right, Captain. What do you want me to do?" "I guess we're going to have to tell her next of kin." I said. Aaron got grim. "Yeah. I know." Soon the security people finished their scans. Now as complete a record as possible had been made of the crime scene. Mary-Anne was transported to sickbay, where Dr. Burlington would do an obligatory autopsy. -*- The Footes took the news as well as anyone could expect. Dena Foote looked like she had been stabbed. She just turned pale. Justin Foote was small neat man with a bald spot and a kindly face. He wasn't angry he was just desperately curious. "What happened?" He asked. I told him what we knew, which wasn't enough. "We're investigating, Mr. Foote. We'll get to the bottom of this." "But how could this happen?" He asked he was as confused as any of the rest of us. "Do you mean that some one in the colony killed her?" "Not necessarily, Justin." Aaron said. "Well who then? One of Captain Hailey's crew? That kind of limits our suspects, doesn't it?" Justin Foote said. "We don't know. But we're going to find out, Sir." I said. "Please do, Captain." He said. "Please find out what happened." -*- As soon as we were finished, Dr. Burlington called me to sickbay. I hurried to that part of the Discovery and Dr. Burlington met me inside the door. "The girl was not beaten." Dr. Burlington said. "What? But the...The damage..." I didn't have the right words to describe Mary Anne's face. It was pretty bad. "The girl had a very high amount of seratonin in her blood stream and her brain." Dr. Burlington said. "What's seratonin?" "It's a neurotransmitter. It's one of the chemicals that carries messages between neurons in the brain." Dr. Burlington explained. "The amount of seratonin in the girl's body was over 1000% percent of what we would expect to find." "Mary Anne." I said. "What?" Dr. Burlington asked. "The girl's name was Mary Anne." I said. Dr. Burlington just looked at me for a moment. "Yes, Sir. Mary Anne had a lot of seratonin in her brain. Other damage to her body suggests that she went into a seizure." "What? What does that mean?" I asked. "She beat herself to death against the deck, Captain. The effect was like a prolonged, powerful epileptic seizure. The damage is all consistent with that effect." Dr. Burlington said. I looked at her confused. "She had an epileptic seizure?" "For all intents and purposes, yes. The effect would be just the same." I remembered all the blood. "That must have been quite a seizure." "It's nothing that I would want to witness." Burlington said. "That still doesn't explain the lamb, though." I said. "What lamb?" Dr. Burlington asked. "Mary's lamb." I couldn't help it. "Mary's little lamb. It was dead too, in much the same way." Dr. Burlington just looked at me again for a moment. I realized that she was very good at hiding shocked or angry expressions in that way. It was just a sort of "Are you serious? Rethink what you just said carefully," look. "I wish someone had told me." Dr. Burlington said. "Captain, I need to examine the lamb, too." "Okay." I called down to Security at the sheep pen and had them prepare the body. They beamed the little lamb right onto a surgical bed. Doctor Burlington was right on top of as it materialized. She inserted a probe into the lamb's head. It looked like she had stuck a large needle wired into a console into the lamb. There was a small laser cutter on the end of the probe with allowed it to pass straight into the lamb's head. There was no blood and no noise. It looked a little surreal. Burlington turned on the scanner and a diagram of the sheep's brain appeared on the main view screen. "Scan for seratonin levels. Warn of excess and specify amount." Burlington said. "Working." The computer said. It wasn't the standard Federation computer voice. It was a soft, male voice. "Scan finished. High seratonin levels noted. Scan indicates amounts in excess of 1200% present." "Save data." Burlington said, thoughtfully. "Specify file name." "Mary's little lamb." Burlington said. "What could cause that?" I asked. "The high seratonin levels? Lots of things. That's not the problem, it's a symptom." She said thoughtfully. "Well, let me know." I said. I had time to get all the way back to my office. I was thinking. No one seemed to have a motive to kill Mary Anne Foote herself. Her death might be a side effect. Of what? If we knew what killed her, then we'd have a clue about why. Dr. Burlington called me as I settled in. "I know what killed Mary Anne Foote." Dr. Burlington said. "Good. What?" I said. That was fast. "Some sort of toxic gas." Dr. Burlington said. "Both Mary Anne and her lamb have residue of it in their lungs." "What was the gas?" I asked. This was very bad. Poison gas on a starship? We only had so much air with us. What we had would have to do. If some accident made it unbreathable then we would have to hold our breath and hope the life support equipment could fix it in less than four minutes. If it was deliberate act, then someone had risked the whole ship and everyone on it. "I don't know what the gas was specifically." Dr. Burlington said. That was very bad. It began to rule out accidents. Every substance in use on the Discovery was listed in the computer somewhere. If the computer could not identify the gas that killed Mary Anne Foote, then it was not something that belonged on the ship. "Okay. Prepare to deal with it if more people are poisoned with that stuff." I said. Dr. Burlington nodded shortly and cut the channel. "Hailey to Bridge." I called. "McCoy here. Sir." Lucas McCoy was third in command of Discovery and handled the evening shift watch on the bridge. "Sound yellow alert and then isolate the stables, Mr. McCoy. We may have a toxic spill into the atmosphere on Deck 9." "Aye, Sir." Yellow alert sounded. "Address intership." I said. The computer beeped to let me know that my voice was being carried all over the Discovery. "This is the Captain. May I have your attention, please?" I waited a couple of beats. "We are currently at a state of yellow alert. There has been a spill of toxic chemicals on deck nine. We will begin search and decontamination procedures immediately. Anyone currently caught on deck nine, do not panic. I was just there and I am suffering no symptoms. This is a precautionary alert. Security and Engineering crews responsible for life support and the Mary Anne Foote investigation report to Lieutenant Commander McCoy for assignment. Close intership." As soon as I finished talking I got up and went back down to deck nine. -*- The man in charge of the investigation was Arthur Hendrickson. Hendrickson had made full Lieutenant by then. He was still thin and almost supernaturally likable. It made him an excellent security officer. Most people would not willingly hurt him. His nickname, "Snoopy", referred to his other talent. Snoopy had a talent for ferreting out secrets that other people would rather not have known. As an extra, added bonus, Snoopy had no sense of tact. He would often tell the secrets he ran across. The crew of the Discovery learned early on to be forgiving of each other and sometimes even Snoopy. He called me over to the sheep pens again. "What is it, Lieutenant?" I asked. "Well, Sir. I found the chemicals that killed poor little Mary Anne, I think." "Are they secure?" Were we about to lose deck nine and my favorite starship captain in the process? "Yes, Sir. I had to put 'em in a sample container, but I think we got 'em." Snoopy said. "All right let's see it." We walked inside and there I saw a couple of ordinary liquid containers. One of them was broken open and seemed empty. They were in a sample container. It was about two feet tall and eighteen inches wide. On the top it had a force field generator. It was active. No gas would escape the sample container. It was designed to take samples from a gas-giant planet, or perhaps a cool star. "Did you get contaminated?" I asked Snoopy. "Maybe. I have a sort of a headache." He said. "Hailey to Sickbay. We need transport for Lieutenant Hendrickson and his team." "Oh no, Sir. I didn't let them come in here. I came in by myself." "All right." I leaned out to where a security team was waiting. "Get some decontamination gear and clean this place up." I said. "Please be careful with yourselves." Snoopy and I sparkled away to Sickbay. -*- "Snoopy did catch a small dose of the stuff, but it was mostly gone by the time he touched it. I was able to treat him easily." Dr. Burlington said. "So I'm all right then?" I asked. I was sitting on a bed in sickbay. "You caught a microscopic amount, but I can't see any serious elevation in your seratonin levels. You should be fine." She said. "Thank you." I grinned. I got down off the table and went over to Kamaline. She had the substance in the sample case in sickbay too. They had the best isolation fields. Inside the field, Kamaline was probing and scanning the substance that Snoopy found. "What have you got, Lieutenant?" I asked her. "I'm still working on it Captain. My working hypothesis at the moment was that it..." Her tricorder beeped. "Yep, that's it. This stuff is a primitive but effective weapon. It was assembled from some of the medical and agricultural chemicals that the colonists are taking with them." "What happened to the rest of that container?" I asked. I was horrified. The containers were simple closeable beverage containers. It was insanity to hold deadly poison in them. "The gas is heavier than standard atmosphere. It probably sank to the floor and down the drains." Kamaline opined. I called the engineering department and told them to inspect and decontaminate the life support and recycling equipment for deck nine, especially focusing on the drains from the sheep pens. Then the implications of what Kamaline said hit me. "You mean some one improvised and hid chemical weapons in my ship!?" Kamaline looked at me soberly. "Yes, Sir. That's exactly what I'm saying." -*- I locked down the Discovery. The force fields that reinforced the walls of the starship could also be extended and strengthened to form "virtual" walls. With these in place each section of the Discovery was isolated from every other, at least as far as people moving through the ship were concerned. Once the Discovery was locked down, I and each of my command officers took a security squad around and searched each section of the starship. The most unpleasant part was searching the colonists quarters. Many of them didn't know what had happened. Suddenly they were trapped here or there, and a goon squad was searching their homes and belongings. I carefully explained to the colonists what happened and what I was doing, but I don't think many of them were convinced. We even searched the Foote's home and the home of Aaron and Elizabeth Sheffield. We did turn up other weapons. There were improvised clubs and shivs. A "shiv" is an improvised knife. The phrase is old English from the terrible jails of the twentieth century. There were even improvised reaction guns. They would use compressed air or a mild combustion of chemical fuel to fling pellets at high speed. Our databases suggested the ancient slang term "zip guns". To send colonists unarmed on to the surface of a planet would be a quicker form of suicide than what they were already contemplating. They had real weapons. They were in storage. I didn't really consider the implications of that. Thinking about it, I supposed that storing their real guns away in the cargo holds was a fair saving of space and might get you to the colony with more colonists in functioning condition. The trip out on the Discovery promised to be boring and not very productive for the colonists. To have bored, armed, colonists might lead to an incident or two. It was just human nature. Why would the colonists feel a need to be armed on the Discovery? If there was something outside the ship that threatened us, the Discovery was a well armed capital ship. Zip guns and shivs would not make a difference there. Inside the ship there were a lot of security and the rest of us willing to pick up phasers and shoot, too. Hell, if things were that bad I would have handed them phasers myself. The only reason for the colonists to arm themselves surreptitiously way was if they feared or disliked the crew of the Discovery. -*- The life support system of the Discovery had in fact absorbed the whole container of poison gas. The replicator-based recycling systems were so efficient that they were turning poisonous, contaminated raw material (Mostly animals wastes) into perfectly healthy food and potable water. Decontamination consisted of running the whole load of raw material through the replicator several times. Only the faintest hint of the deadly gas was left. One molecule per one hundred million or so. Blind luck and a hungry replicator system saved us. -*- "I am not your enemy." I told the colonists. I was addressing a "town meeting" of sorts composed of several elected representatives. The discussion was also being viewed by the colonists and many off duty Starfleet Officers on their view screens. "I don't understand why you felt it necessary to arm yourselves." "You explained it very well with your search." One of the old timers said. "Is that so?" I said. "Someone's hold out weapon killed Mary Anne Foote. It could have been much worse. What would it have done to your colonization effort if we lost the whole deck? Dumb luck saved us. What other disasters are hiding in the woodwork?" The old timer shook his head. "Nothing there gives you cause to suspect me, Captain. If you have no cause to suspect me, then you have no right to search me. Or have I misread your sixth constitutional guarantee?" "No. That's exactly right. You have rights against unlawful search and seizure anywhere else in the Federation. Aboard this ship I have the absolute responsibility to fulfill this ship's mission. I am granted dictatorial powers to do it with. My mission is to get you safely to your new world. Not freely, not happily, but safely. You can see to your own freedom and happiness once you're there. Democracy is not a good operating system for a ship under way." I said. Another old timer laughed and said "He's got you there, Ollie. He's only fifty some odd, but he's the Captain." "Who are you?" I asked. "You can call me Latimer, young man." He seemed like he belonged beside the river in a Mark Twain book. "Were you a spaceman at one time?" "Yep. I was." "Then you understand my position." "Yep." He gave a sharp glare. With a start I realized that he might be a thousand years old or more. I felt very out classed. "Just because I understand you, that doesn't mean I agree with you. You watch yourself." "Look." I said. "I don't want trouble. I can see now that I'm going to have to take some steps to insure that we don't have any. I will get you safely to Beta Howard 223, and if the time comes and you don't feel you want to stay, then I'll bring you back. However, this ship has one Captain, and that's me." The reaction to that was a sort stunned disbelief. Aaron spoke up. "Don't make any promises you can't keep Captain." He looked different from the friendly man with whom I had regular dinners. At that moment I could a sort of animalistic quality that I wasn't used to. It wasn't directed at me. It was at the other people in the room. "As I said before, I am the Captain of this vessel. I will make the decisions and all the resources of this ship will go into making them stick." I said. Aaron looked at me and his demeanor changed. He was again the friendly pioneer I was familiar with. "Trust me, Captain. More will become clear, in time." I didn't like getting patronized right in front of the passengers and crew, but I didn't want to start a schism between the two sides, either. Maybe that was part of the problem? I really didn't want to expose my crew to another culture that had the trappings of being so advanced. If the Discovery became too contaminated then I wouldn't be able to take her back to the Federation. I would have to place my own home under Prime Directive protection. I was reminded of an old saying. "Nothing is often a constructive thing to do and an intelligent thing to say." So I went with it. The basic points of the meeting were made. I was the authority on the Discovery. Security was going to have to be tightened in the colonists sections. I hoped we could all get along, anyway. The old timers nodded and grumbled but didn't say anything substantial. As the cameras went off, and the meeting ended, Latimer shook his head at me. "I don't envy you. That's the truth." That made me feel wonderful. On the way out the door, I caught Aaron. "What the hell is going on, here, Aaron?" I asked. He grinned and shuffled for a moment with his head down. Then he looked up into my eyes. "Now isn't the time. All I can ask you to do is to trust me." Looking into his eyes, I really wanted to. I didn't. It didn't make much difference. We were already four months inside the Klingon Empire. -*- It didn't take long for Snoopy to discover who had hidden the makeshift chemical weapons. His name was Irwin Hardy. Irwin was a red-faced, balding man. We arrested him immediately. "You may think you've got me now, but wait. I've got more time than you do. I'll conquer you, or kill you or maybe even just out live you. Someday I will triumph!" I almost expected him to twirl a mustache at us. He was going to have enough time grow a good one. I had no idea what to do with him. I had him chucked in the brig, and then I flailed. "Dr. Burlington, please give Mr. Hardy a complete check up. Maybe he has a medical reason for being so strange." Dr. Burlington gave me the look again. "I have a strong sense of professionalism. I have had to work hard to cultivate my emotional detachment, so that I can be the best possible doctor even under trying circumstances. But I didn't forget that it was little girl I was working on a couple of days ago." Emotion started to show. She wasn't happy with Irwin. "I don't believe that I can keep any detachment or objectivity about that bastard. I recommend that you assign Dr. T'Sing to the case." So I did. -*- Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo came to see me. He was the ship's counselor. He was a tall, muscular octopus who was a mottled lavender color and smelled like he had been bathed in strawberries. "I have come to give you my report on Irwin Hardy." His vocorder said. "Is it your case?" I asked. "Most definitely. He almost convinced Dr. T'Sing to commit mutiny. His logic was impeccable." The vocorder held no hint of emotion. Was that wry humor I smelled? What does wry humor smell like? A hint of roasted, salted peanuts, if I could believe Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo. "Really? So she assigned him to you?" "Indirectly. She found his logic unassailable, but the conclusions unpalatable. So she sought treatment from me, and I took over working with Mr. Hardy." "She was that badly affected?" I was shocked. "T'Sing is a younger woman than she at first appears to be. Cognitive Dissonance is a clinical condition among Vulcans and is easily treatable." I sorted through the wording. "She's going to be okay?" "Yes. I admire the Human talent for getting to the point." Was that more wry humor? I chose to overlook it. "All right, now Irwin." "Yes, well, Irwin is quite bit more challenging for me than T'Sing." Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo admitted. He seemed uncomfortable. "How so?" I asked. "Well, I simply don't have the knowledge of the El-Aurian psychology to conduct treatment efficiently." Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo said. "Do you feel that Irwin is in a condition that you can treat?" I asked. How could he tell that Irwin even needed treatment, if he didn't have enough information? "Judged according to a human yardstick, Irwin is quite loopy." Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo said. "Several of the root level responses suggest that Humans are an acceptable analog to El-Aurians, although there are crucial differences. El-Aurian psychology will be a fascinating exploration. I hope that you allow me to make it here on the Discovery." "Is it necessary for the safety of the ship?" I asked. "I can not say at this early stage." Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo admitted. "Let's do it." I said. Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo got a darker shade of lavender and the strawberry smell increased. "Lovely," his vocorder said softly. -*- Most of the El-Aurian colonists submitted to Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo's questioning with good humor. A few said "No!" and stuck to it. I warned them that if the safety of the Discovery was at stake then I'd force them and let it go. Even Soren the Elder got into the matter. The psycho-history of the El-Aurians must have been a special treat. I had to warn everyone involved with the El-Aurians that they were from a more advanced culture. If they were too badly contaminated by advanced technology, then I'd have no choice but to ask them to stay with the Beta Howard colony. I don't know what Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo or Soren the Elder thought of that, but the security officers were a little more stand offish for a little while. -*- Several days passed as I waited. I went to my weekly dinner with the Sheffield family, but it was tense. On my way out of their quarters' I saw a group of youngsters. They pointed at me and made a funny marching like walking gesture. Each step was stiff and the legs were held straight out in front. The left arm was held stiffly down and the right arm was extended at about a forty-five degree above the deck with the hand held rigidly out palm down. I knew it was me they were making fun of because another young man was holding his right index finger over his upper lip and shouting in a funny voice: "I am zee Captain! Und I shall schtick it to you!" I had no idea what they were talking about at the time. I turned to Aaron. I figured that it was an El-Aurian thing. He was flushed and angry. "Get the hell out of here!" He bellowed as he ran at them. They ran laughing away through the corridors. "What was all that about?" I asked. Aaron looked at me oddly. "Don't you know?" "Well I know that they weren't happy with me, but the funny walk and the hand over the lip thing are a little beyond me." I admitted. "Count your lucky stars." Aaron growled. I recognized Theodore, one of Aaron's sons in the group of kids razzing me. I won't lie and say it didn't hurt, but I really didn't know what to do with it, so I dropped it and walked away. One the way out of the Colonists' section of the Discovery I noted that the Starfleet symbol on the doors had been defaced with a bizarre squiggle. It was an "X" with little flanges pointing off the arms. Below that were the words "Hail the Furher." -*- I spent the next several days reading up on World War Two. While I was doing that, I stayed away from the Colonists' section of the Discovery. I didn't understand the depths of the feelings I had provoked there, until I read about Hitler and the Nazis. One more piece of graffiti was reported to me. It was a dead on parody of a Starfleet recruiting poster only it cast Starfleet as an arm of the Nazi Reich. It was well done in the Art Deco design that was favored by Europe in the early Twenty-First century. I laughed ruefully and saved the poster. I guess they sure told me. -*- I received a preliminary report from Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo and Soren the Elder. "They are very Human in their outlook." Soren said. "Enough so it looks like you would have an advantage in dealing with them over, say a Vulcan or a Klingon." "Looks like?" I asked. "They would enjoy similar understanding of you. And they live longer." Soren pointed out. That didn't sound good. "Go ahead." Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo took over. "Given that they are human-like in their mental processes, they score well above human averages in terms of intelligence and several other key areas." "Starfleet chooses for intelligence, too." I was grasping at straws. Were we outgunned at every turn? "Yes, and the scores for the Discovery's crew and the El-Aurian colonists, at least in terms of intelligence, are similar, but there are other factors to consider." "What are those?" I asked Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo called up a graphic. It showed a two dimensional representation of a three dimensional chart. It was filled with colored dots that marked positions. "One of the tools of my profession is this chart which gauges a person's mentality based on a multidimensional axis of intelligence, willpower, adaptability and several other areas. Please recall that everyone is an individual and so the predictive value of this chart is extremely limited." "What's that, there?" Several of the colorful dots looked like they were out of the pattern. "The dots indicate the relative position of the crew of the Discovery in blue dots and the Colonists in red dots. As you can see there is a statistical spike among the Colonists. Many of the red dots, including Irwin's dot..." One of the red dots quite away from the pack started to flash. "Wind up far into the negative delta axis of this chart." "What does that mean?" "Well, it is difficult to summarize. Remember that this isn't an exact representation and so this is very general." "I won't publish a rebuttal if you make a mistake here." I said. "I just want to figure out what's going on." Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo smelled of strawberries. "Ha ha ha." His Vocoder said, blandly. "That's very kind of you Captain. What this means in the roughest possible terms is that all of the El-Aurians are very intelligent but some rate somewhat below the crew of the Discovery in terms of stability." "Stability?" I asked. "These El-Aurians might go mad?" "Yes. In a nutshell, they have a higher risk of developing clinical mental conditions in need of treatment." Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo said. "Worse, there is a statistical bias towards obsessive and meglomaniacal disorders." Soren pointed out. "What does that mean?" I asked. I had an uncomfortable feeling that I already knew. The ghost of Tolian Soren was screaming in my ear. He was ready to wipe out two hundred and thirty million people and an entire solar system to get back into his "Nexus". "They are much less likely to become depressed or get addicted to drugs than they are to attempt to take over the Discovery and commit acts of violence." Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo said. "Most of the dots are over here." I said, trying to reassure myself. "That is correct." Soren said. "Most of the Discovery's crew and the Colonists are extremely stable personalities." Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo added "The colonist named Latimer exhibits one of the most positive delta ratings I have ever personally charted." One blue dot was way over there with the small group of El-Aurians. An unstable personality. "Who's that?" I asked. I didn't need any more trouble, but I had to know. "That is Commander Mendez." Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo said. I sighed deeply. "Is that an old record?" "No. That is based on my most recent appointment with him." Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo said. "That is one of the fallacies inherent in this chart." Soren said. "The potential for madness is not actual madness. No one on this chart except for Irwin Hardy has exhibited any symptoms. Outside, random forces act on the people represented here by dots. These forces may cause a personality to temporarily move on this chart. Many people will move on this chart perceptibly depending on what sort of 'mood' they are in on that particular day. Don't be led into fear or misjudgment by an academically unreliably tool." Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo smelled of roses. "I must agree. This chart amounts educated guess work and nothing more." "Let me see if I have this straight." I said. "I may be locked on a starship with a race of long lived geniuses, some of whom exhibit tendencies towards megalomania, but I should not be afraid because no real evidence has surface to confirm these suspicions." "Correct. See, Soren? He cuts straight to the heart of the matter." Whump-Wuist-Woo-Woo said, smelling of strawberries. "It is worth noting that your assets include a galaxy class starship, a crew of exceptional average intelligence and the potential for superior stability, and last, without undue humility, myself." Soren said. I grinned at him. "Thank you." I said. Soren the Elder quirked his eyebrow at me. -*- We buried Mary Anne Foot and her little lamb in space. We got dressed up in our dress uniforms and had an honor guard for her. I said the routine words of a routine prayer. I didn't know what rituals the El-Aurians used to comfort themselves about the death of a loved one. When I asked Justin Foote, he said "That's private issue, Captain. Your usual send off for her body will be fine." So I made funny mouth noises about souls and the spirit that guides us all and returning Mary Anne to the stars from which she came. Then a recording was played of an ancient song. Three men sang in harmony about being stardust and being golden. The Discovery left Mary Anne's body behind. Dena Foote was there and watched but her eyes were blank. Her mind was somewhere else. -*- Soren the Elder, Aaron Sheffield and I were in a conference room discussing the fate of Irwin. There was little precedent for our position. I was the final authority but usually, when a civilian passenger commits a crime on a starship, he is arrested and turned over to a Starbase. At the Starbase he is subject to civilian criminal justice. The Discovery wasn't due back at a Federation Starbase for years. "Irwin can not return to the Federation with you Captain. You know why." Aaron said. "Irwin is a Federation citizen and has civil rights according to the Constitution." Soren pointed out. "Including the right to due process and a fair trial." "If Captain Hailey elects to apply the Constitution in this case." Aaron wryly said. Soren lifted his eyebrow. "What is entailed in a fair trial in this case?" I asked. "In a Federation court, he would be tried in front of a judge according to the evidence of the case." Soren said. "If found guilty he would be sent to a penal colony for treatment." "What was the El-Aurian procedure for an instance like this?" I asked Aaron. "We would hold a trial fairly similar to yours, except we used a three member panel, chosen randomly from the citizens at hand." Aaron said. "If found guilty what would the punishment be?" I asked. "I don't know for certain. I was not a lawyer. I don't know anyone who was." Aaron said. I thought about it for a few moments. "Ambassador, if you will check my logic, here." "Certainly." "There is a layered Prime Directive issue, here. One The Federation is essentially expelling the El-Aurians because they are a more advanced society and we fear contamination of ideas that we haven't worked for and developed mechanisms for, right?" "Correct." "Secondly, The suspect and the victim were both of El-Aurian descent, right?" Soren nodded. "So it would seem a cut and dried issue. It's an internal El-Aurian matter." I said. Soren looked unhappy. Aaron nodded. "Good. Put him in a cold sleep tube. We'll thaw him out and do all the legal stuff on Beta Howard when we have the time and energy to spare for him." I looked at Aaron. "I would like to see this tried in an El-Aurian court first." I said. "You don't like what the Prime Directive says and so you change it?" Aaron challenged. "I question whether you represent the El-Aurian culture in this instance." I said. "What do you want?" Aaron said. "Empanel a jury and put the question to them." I said. "Heh. That reminds me of a story. In the twentieth century a wet navy ship was headed for shore leave. It was an equal distance between two ports. The Captain put the matter up for a vote and let the crew decide which port to have liberty in. As soon as word reached High Command he was sent home and relieved of command. He never commanded anything bigger than a desk again." Aaron said breezily. "Good point." I said. I got up. "Thank you for your time, Gentlemen I have reached a decision." "What's that?" Aaron said. "To cut you out of the loop, Mr. Sheffield. If a jury is going to be impaneled, then they operate from my authority. So I am going to pick a panel myself." I said. Aaron chuckled and shook his head ruefully. Soren cocked his head and then said "Please record your proceedings, Captain. I feel that I may get yet another paper out of it." "Yes, Sir." I said. I left the Conference room. -*- Latimer helped me fake up an El-Aurian court like set up. I impaneled the jury of three people, but instead of letting them make the final judgment, I asked them to forward a recommendation to me. That way I was not surrendering my authority, I was simply listening to informed opinion before I made a decision. Commander Mendez handled the accusation case. He called Snoopy and showed him the broken beverage container that held the poison. "What is this?" Mendez asked Snoopy. "That's a standard beverage container, Sir. Its top is broken so that lying on its side, any liquid held inside would spill out." Snoopy said. "Do you recognize the object?" Mendez asked. "Yes, Sir. It's the one I found at the murder scene." Snoopy said. "I object." Irwin said. He was handling his own defense. I didn't especially mind. It helped establish the proposition that he was crazy. "Specify, please, Mr. Irwin." I said. Irwin spoke to the three members of the panel. "There has been no murder proven, yet. Mary Anne's tragic death might be an accident." Irwin had been doing that a lot. Questioning the assumptions behind everything. "Does the panel understand the objection?" I asked. It was the El-Aurian formula. They rolled their eyes, but nodded. "All right, Lieutenant, remember not to pre-judge the case." I said. "Yes, Sir. Is 'Death Scene' okay?" Snoopy asked. I looked at Irwin. He gave a sullen nod. He hated to admit that anything was okay. "What makes you think that Irwin had anything to do with this container?" Mendez asked. "Well, Sir. It had his finger prints on it." Snoopy said. "Objection." Irwin noted, "Imprecise phrase. What's a finger print?" "That was going to be my next question, Sir." Mendez said. "Explain it to us, Lieutenant." I said. "Well, Sirs, it's an old technique that they used to use in the Police. Before DNA testing became available, they discovered that Human fingers have a pattern on their ventral surfaces." He demonstrated. "There is a network of fine patterns in the skin on the fingers. The skin produces a characteristic oil that, when you grip something, gets the pattern imprinted onto it. It leaves a very fine layer of oil on a given object with your finger prints on it." "The chances of two people having the same finger print are millions to one. It was a standard form of identification about four hundred years ago." "And whose oil prints did you find on the container?" Mendez asked. "I found three sets. I set my tricorder to scan the patterns and then scanned the people who I had reason to believe were in the stable." "Objection. The sixth guarantee of the Federation protects against unwarranted search and seizure." Irwin said. "What rationale did you have for looking at Irwin's fingers?" I asked Snoopy. Usually it would be the panel asking these questions after the Accusation and Defense presentations. I had elected to prompt the process by settling objections as they came up. "Well, Sir, I knew that there were finger prints on the container. I knew what was in the container from the Science Officer's report. Mr. Hardy's public file reports that he is a trained chemical scientist. I also scanned a couple of other people who had the proper qualifications." "And who's prints did you find?" Mendez prompted. "Mine, Mary Anne's and Mr. Hardy's, Sir." Snoopy said. "Did your investigation reveal any other clues?" Mendez asked. "Yes, Sir. Once we found the finger prints, we searched Irwin's quarters. We found some chemical equipment that would be sufficient to create the poison gas. Lieutenant Darvon Ahk scanned and found residues of the gas on the equipment. Further investigation showed that Mr. Hardy had access at different times to the materials that were used to construct the poison gas." "Thank you Lieutenant. The Accusation rests." Commander Mendez said. "Okay, Irwin. It's your turn." I said. Irwin rose and addressed the panel of El-Aurians. "Some time ago, the Universe taught us a lesson. That lesson was that the strong get their way, while the weak do not. I believe in El-Aurians. I regret the unfortunate accident that took Mary Anne Foote away from us. I don't argue the facts of the issue. I argue the philosophy of the issue. Here we are on a primitive starship, heading out into the wilderness to begin a primitive life. We are being weak on several counts. Not just from a misguided sense of philosophy as on El-Au but because we have developed this delusion that this is the right thing to do." Irwin walked around the table and began to pace in front of us. "I believe in El-Au and the culture that lived there. Nevertheless, the Borg were strong and consumed it. We gave up our big ships and our powerful weapons because we had the delusion that it was the right thing to do. Our Friends in the Federation narrowly avoided a similar fate and that was our fault. We had the capacity to be strong, and yet we did not. Why? In the Universe strength gets its way while weakness does not. The Federation and its Starfleet are as strong as their level of development will allow them to be. By blind luck they survived the Borg assault. What else might be out there? I submit that the decision to turn away from our strength was a wrong one. I submit that our duty and our destiny as El-Aurians is to be strong for our less developed cousins in the galaxy. We are being sent away into the darkness, but the Discovery contains all the tools we would need to establish our strength. With the Discovery we could start a new El-Aurian Empire, and return to our strength. Nothing like the Borg ever need threaten us again." A strange light burned in Irwin's eyes. "I sincerely regret the loss of the little girl. There will be more loses before our natural strength comes through. Each of the people who die will be remembered as heroes of the new El-Aurian Empire. And little Mary Anne will be remembered as the mother of our new regime." "Are you proposing that the El-Aurian colonists take over the Discovery and use her to conquer another planet?" I asked. I really couldn't believe my ears. "Not just another planet, but the whole Federation. All of the territory you call known space. In a single El-Aurian generation we can re-establish our empire. The Federation is a good idea, but an idealistic and flawed one. I believe in many of the freedoms delineated in the Constitution of the Federation, but they need a strong, wise hand to guide them. To let the Federation and the other short lived races go on their merry way is to let children run loose. Some will be injured and some will die. We can solve that problem and guide the development of the younger races. It will be glorious!" Irwin Hardy sat down. "Is that your defense?" I asked. "Yes. Those who remain of our once proud race must make their decision. I have faith in them." "Let me see if I can summarize your argument, here, Irwin. You say that you were justified in creating a dangerous chemical poison and storing it in the sheep pens because El-Aurians should take over the Discovery and use her to found the new El-Aurian Empire?" I said. I still couldn't believe what I had just heard. "Yes." "And the fact that an accident might have cost dozens of El-Aurian and Federation lives was worth it, since they would be martyrs to the new El-Aurian Empire?" I said. "Oh, please. I knew what I was doing. I carefully tuned the specific density of the substance to be heavier than air. I set it so that in case of a spill it would drain into the recycling system. I tested it in your replicators to make certain that we could clean it up after we took over the ship. The Discovery wouldn't be very useful to us if we couldn't use it. That little Mary Anne happened to be in the sheep pen was unavoidable. I had no way to predict that." Irwin said testily. "So your contention is that you're mad, not stupid." I said. I shouldn't have. I ruined my credibility as an impartial judge. Irwin smirked a superior little smirk. "That will up to the El-Aurians to decide." He said. "Panel, that's you cue. Deliberate, and forward your recommendation to me." I said. -*- In a few minutes the panel reached a decision. We went back into session and I was handed the Panel's recommendation. There was one vote for execution. It recommended spacing. The other two voted for sticking him in a cold sleep tube. One added that although Irwin was off his nut, they could use the manual labor and the genetic diversity he represented. I banged my gavel, and made my decision. "The most telling argument was from one of the panelists." I said. "That Irwin represented a source of genetic diversity and manual labor after planet fall. Irwin, you go into a tube. You'll be the problem of the civil government of Beta Howard once they feel like dealing with you." "We shall see." Irwin smirked. "We shall see, Captain." -*- The only other incident worth noting was that while Security was hauling Irwin off to Sickbay to be frozen and tubed, they had to fend off Dena Foote. The whole trial had been available by view screen. Somewhere Mrs. Foote got another shiv and she made a very sincere attempt on Irwin's life in the corridor. After some scuffling and a couple of injuries, Snoopy managed to talk her into putting the shiv down and walking away with him. Dr. Burlington patched Irwin up, froze him and tubed him. He went with the same superior smirk on his face, albeit one marked by the pain of a deep knife wound. Dr. Burlington treated the wound but refused to issue a pain-killer to him. I didn't ask why. Irwin's revolt never occurred. When the thought process behind the whole incident was made clear. The El-Aurians loosened up a little bit. The Swastikas and the "Sieg Heils" disappeared slowly. Dinner with the Sheffields even returned a semblance of normal. There was always a hint of tension, though. The only person who was readily accepted by the Colonists was Snoopy. After that, it was clear that the crew and the passengers of the Discovery represented two different groups of people. -end- -- Jay P Hailey ~Meow!~ MSNIM - jayphailey ; AIM -jayphailey03; ICQ - 37959005 HTTP://jayphailey.8m.com 6111) FORD: Found On Road Dead. NewMessage: