MAG.E 6/MAG.E 6 (Disk 1 of 2).adf/Sci_Fi/F/F

Text File | 1977-12-31 | 15KB | 261 lines

@3The Multiversal Science Fiction Anti-Parody
@1Chapter 1 - Visitors

     The Admiral looked at the ship with pride.  She was the latest in
a long line to carry the name 'Enterprise', a line reaching back
hundreds of years.  Now, returned from a four-year exploration
mission, she looked beautiful.
     This was the third _Enterprise_ he'd seen pass through the
spacedock doors.  The first had been lost in conflict with the
Klingons, the second was in 'mothballs' at Memory Alpha.  This ship,
built from the plans of the _Excelsior_, was the third in StarFleet.
And the only one James Kirk had not commanded.
     He was looking forward to a chance to get onboard, look around,
chat with old friends.  But most of the old friends were gone now.
Sulu was off on an exploration mission of his own, with the
_Excelsior_.  Uhura and Spock had both retired.  Even Bones had left,
to go into medical research.  He was now on inactive reserve.  Of all
of them, only three had stayed with the fleet, and only one with the
ship.
     He and Scotty had been transferred into a special research
team.  Jim was its administrative head, and Scotty was in charge of
perfecting the transwarp design.  Nogura had managed to persuade him
to stay only by promising him command of the test ship for three
year exploration mission.  The first Excelsior-class vessel to come in,
once the new engines were ready, would be that ship.
     Now, though, the new engines were ready.  The Excelsiors would come
into full use now, if they worked, transformed from the slow, somewhat
sluggish beasts that standard warp engines made them, into the graceful,
fast, and highly maneuverable vessels they were meant to be.
     Only one of the old comrades had been allowed to remain on the
ship.  Now, Captain Pavel Chekov brought the new _Enterprise_ into
spacedock.


     Meanwhile, on the far side of another universe, a large blue box
sped through spacetime.  Inside - an inside far larger than would be
expected from the dimensions of the outside - a young woman in a
badge-covered silk jacket was sitting in a chemistry lab, brewing up a
particularly nasty form of high explosive.  She knew she was perfectly
safe, though - she'd been refining this formula for years.  In fact,
it had only blown up in her face once.  That time of course, she'd
recovered to find herself somewhere very much _else_...
     The consequences of Ace's finding herself on Iceworld, and later
meeting with the strange little man who called himself the Doctor, had
become one of the high points of her life.  Especially the adventures
they'd shared since then.  Oh, they'd been frightening, of course, but
but that was part of their appeal.  The fact was, she believed, that
if it was all perfectly safe and all that, it would also quickly
become incredibly boring.
     They'd just finished recovering from the search for the Timewyrm
when the Doctor had declared that he was taking her to see an old
friend of his.  The trip had seemed to be taking quite a long time,
and so the Doctor had continued to tutor her in the scientific
education she'd missed out on.  Eventually, he had said, she would
learn something of how to control the ship, in case of emergencies.
     Just as she was contemplating this, there was a slight jar.  It
was of the type she'd come to associate with the TARDIS' landings.
She secured the lab - the reaction was done - and hurried to the
control room.


     The traffic controller was worried.  The blue box had simply
materiealized out of nowhere, right on the landing pad.  This wasn't
what frightened her - she'd seen TARDIS's before.  The problem was
that it had materialized directly in the path of a landing VIP
courier.

     "Time capsule on landing pad SV-7, please respond."
     A moment's wait brought no response.
     "Time capsule on pad SV-7, please respond.  You are in the path
of an approaching vessel.  Please relocate IMMEDIATELY."
     Just before it was too late, the time capsule vanished, to
reappear off to the side a bit.  The courier ship landed safely, its
farings only inches away from the TARDIS.

Visit to a Strange Universe Revisited, or
The TARDIS and the Enterprise-B.

Chapter 2 - Old Friends


     On a small, insignificant blue planet in the unfashionable arm of the
spiral galaxy, a young woman was photographing a dead body.  She was of average
height and dark haired.  Next to her was something that looked like a robotic
dog.  The body was covered in blue burn marks.
     "What killed him, K-9?  Any ideas?"  Sarah Jane Smith asked her companion.
     "80 percent probability of massive electrical shock, mistress."  came the
robot's tinny voice.
     "Hmmm...  Something about it looks familiar.  I can't remember where I've
seen it, though.  I *think* it was when I was with the Doctor.  Maybe Harry
will remember.  He's supposed to be in town somewhere, isn't he?"
     "Affirmative, mistress.  Doctor Sullivan is attending a conference at the
State University of New York at Buffalo."
     "Good, we'll get him to take a look at it.  And I'll send a set of these
pictures to the Brig. Maybe he can find the Doctor.  Who knows where the old
fellow is now, eh?"

     Evil brooded.  It waited, trapped on this one insignificant planet.
Blocked from returning to its home beyond the void.  For three hundred cycles
of this planet and more, it had waited.  Now, power had awakened it.  It
would absorb that power.  It would absorb the people of this insignificant
little world.  It would have its revenge on the one who had humiliated it.


     At that very moment, the Doctor was emerging from his TARDIS onto the
landing field.  A rather surprised spacecraft pilot was climbing down from the
ship which had barely missed hitting the TARDIS.  The Doctor looked at him,
recognizing an old friend, then turned to the TARDIS and called out, "What
perfect timing, Ace.  This is who we were coming here to meet!  Good Morning,
Turlough."
    "Doctor?  Is that you?"
    "Of course, young man, of course.  I've simply regenerated since we last
met."  With that, the Doctor looked over the ship Turlough had came in.  "And
you certainly seem to be dong all right for yourself."
    "Indeed, Doctor.  I'm just back from a little archeaological research on
some of the planets in the area."
    "Archaeology, is it now?  Interesting thing for you to get interested in."
    Turlough considered this for a moment, then shook his head.  "Well, Doctor,
would you like to come have something to drink?  My home isn't that far."
    "Of course, of course.  Just a moment, though."  He turned and looked into
the TARDIS.  "Ace?  Are you coming?"
    A voice came from inside the blue box.  "Coming, Professor!"


    "USS Enterprise, now entering docking bay." came the computerized voice.
Admiral Kirk and the research team were already in a travel pod, on their way
to the ship.
    "Good to see her again, isn't it, Scotty?"
    "Aye, sair.  Thot it is.  And she'll be e'en more beautiful once we get tha
new engines on-line."
    "And how long will that take?"
    "Ach, depends on how good the lad's got the engineering crew trained.  Na
more'n a week, though."
    "Good, Starfleet is anxious to hear the results of our trials.  It'll be
good to get out into space again."

    Captain Pavel Chekov of the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-B, called the crewmen
in the docking bay to attention as a very recognizable face came on board the
ship.
    "Permission to come aboard, Captain?"
    "Permission granted, Admiral.  Good to see you again."

Visit to a Strange Universe Revisited, or
The TARDIS and the Enterprise-B.

Chapter 3 - Journeys


     Admiral James Kirk looked over the bridge of a starship for the first
time in five years.  Since they'd mothballed the old Enterprise after the
Khitomer incedent, he'd been sitting at a desk in spacedock.  He'd planned
on retiring, then buying a small spacecraft out of his savings.  A little
solo exploration, and then he'd settle down at his home in the Farragut
Valley, on Centaurus.  When he'd announced his intentions to Admiral
Nogura, though, his old friend had asked him to stay on for a while longer.
     Now, he thought back on his `first' meeting with the officers of this
new ship.  He'd already met many of them.  Chekov and Saavik he knew already,
from the old ship, of course.  He'd met the Science officer, Commander
Cora Oppenheimer, while she was serving on a ship Enterprise had shared
a patrol with.  Lia Burke, the chief Medical Officer, was an old friend,
too, having been asssigned to the Enterprise for a short time.  The
real surprise had come when he met her assistant CMO.  He remembered how
she'd welcomed him aboard....
     "Hi, Uncle Jim!", she'd cried, hugging him fiercely.  She'd known from
her father that he preferred an informal atmosphere among his officers, and
no one but Len McCoy could have taught her his style better.  Joanna McCoy
was one of the finest doctors in StarFleet, and had been trained by some
more of the very best.
     The whistle of the intercom brought his thoughts back to the present.
"Scott ta Bridge," it called.  "Go ahead, Scotty," he replied.
     "We've managed ta solve thot little problem wi' the intermix chamber,
sair.  These lads are vurra good at what they do.  We should be ready ta leave
in two hours."
     "Good, Mr. Scott.  Let me know when it's ready."
     "Aye, sair.  Will do."
     "Thank you, Scotty.  And good work.  Kirk out."

     The Doctor and Turlough had chatted for hours, reminiscing about their
past adventures, discussing what had happened to the since, and so on.  Ace
had grown bored with the conversation, and was examining a set of artifacts
he'd unpacked that looked vaugely familiar to her, for some reason.  Turlough
had said they were from somewhere called 'Starnos Beta', which she'd certainly
never heard of before.  So why were they so familiar?
     Just then, her attention wandered back to the conversation.  Turlough
was asking the Doctor if he'd like to come along on the next expedition, and
have a look-round.  "Do you mean, an expedition to Starnos-Beta?" she
interjected.
     "Why, yes, actually.  Would you like to come?"
     "I dunno.  Professor, this stuff looks awfully familiar for stuff from
the far side of the galaxy from Earth."
     "What do you mean?", the Doctor responded.
     "I mean I've seen it somewhere before.  On Earth, I think."
     "Well in that case, I think it would be a very good idea to check it
out, don't you, Turlough?"
     "Yes, indeed, Doctor.  I was planning on leaving in a couple of days,
after we've had a chance to unload the rest of the artifacts and get them
to the labs at the museum.  Will you be coming by TARDIS, or would you like to
ride with me?"
     The Doctor thought for a moment, then spoke: "We'll go by TARDIS, I think.
Or at least, I will.  Ace?  What's your preference?"
     "Seen one spaceship, you've seen 'em all."  Besides, there was something
about the young man she didn't like, especially since she'd found out how he
and the Doctor had first met.  Riding alone in a spaceship with someone who'd
served the Black Guardian (which reminded her very much of Fenric, from the
Doctor's description) and tried several times to kill the Doctor was not
something she really wanted to try.
     "All right, that's how we'll do it.  We'll meet you at the site, if you'll
just give me the co-ordinates."

     The _Enterprise_ was waiting and ready.  Scotty had finally found the
problem in the intermix chamber - a ham-handed ensign had crosswired the
engineering deck food processor into the control computer.  The ensign had
been given a stern tounge-lashing, then cleaned the coffee out of the
intermix chamber.
     Now, all was ready.  All that remained was for the order to be given.
The great new engines slumbered in their cradles, waiting.


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For the curious, here's a sketch of the bridge:

USS Enterprise / NCC-1701-B
Captain Pavel Chekov, commanding.
Bridge familiarization sketch:

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         /                    Main Viewer                        \
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         \         \ Captain's Couch (as TNG )       /          /       /
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          |       / Security     \_/ Engineering      \        |    |
          |       |              | |                  |        |  Lift
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