Danny Amor's Online Library/Danny Amor's Online Library - Volume 1.iso/html/startrek/old-incomplete/explorer-thegathering.p1

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From: [e-mail] (Joseph F. Young)
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Subject: Star Trek: Explorer Episode One: Gathering (Pt. 1)
Date:  Sun, 27 Nov 1994 22:27:28 -0600


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>Subject: Star Trek: Explorer  Episode One:  Gathering (Pt. 1)
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    The Necessary Disclaimers:    This is an extrapolation of
    what may occur in the future Star Trek Universe.  Star Trek and
    all characters such as Dax, Selar, the Enterprise, etc. are the
    property of someone other than myself.  My desire in writing
    this is not motivated by any means other than it is necessary.
    I hope that no one is offended, and perhaps by accident on my
    part, that some readers are entertained.  I plan to develop
    this framework on a broad canvas, while keeping fidelity with
    the spirit of Star Trek.  Your feedback and support are very
    welcome.    In loving service    ceven




        *****************************************
        **                                     **
        **    STAR TREK:    EXPLORER         **
        **                                     **
        **    Episode One   Gathering        **
        **                                     **
        **        Part  One           **
        **                       **
        *****************************************


            DRAMATIS PERSONAE (CAST)

        Adm.    Sidha Papayogandi    (Emeritus)
        Capt.    Gul Tradori        (Ship Commander)
        Comm.    Lynette Chan Chuan    (First Officer)
        Comm.    Stannax D'Brotus    (Science Officer)
        Comm.    Xank            (Chief Engineer)
        Comm.    Selar            (Head of Medical)
        Comm.    Brisbane Tolonok    (Chief Counselor)
        Comm.    Eontil Dax         (Chief Security)
        Comm.   qoktchados (Tony)    (Astrovitar)
        Lt.Cm.    10110100101 (Ben)    (Compugator)
        Lt.Cm.  Teena Goeller        (Xenobiologist)
        Lt.Cm.    Chakir Mogh        (Practicum Student)
        Lt.Cm.    Ooo'la'ju (Jules)    (Officer Trainee)


    "End Program."  The arch appeared as if by magic, in the corner
    of the arena.  The music and the appreciative audience faded out
    in a manner of milliseconds.  In his mind, the last refrains of
    the song he was enjoying still echoed.  He had long ago given up
    the childrens guessing game; where would the arch appear when
    summoned?  Even later, he had given up on the sensual aspects of
    the Holodeck; the beautiful women, the breathtaking scenes,
    the red-hot flush of a gaming program.  Now, at his age, a more
    sublime enjoyment of the Holodeck was what he sought after.  He
    knew that he had used the Holodeck in this settled manner for a
    number of years, at least a dozen or two.  Yet, he could remember
    the many times when the Holodeck was a tool, to train his mind
    and open his awareness to the necessary possibilities he had to
    address.  "The weight of being a leader, yet a responsible
    servant...what others enjoy, he must at times gain vision from."
    he mused aloud to no one in particular.

    He strolled leisurely down the hallway, stopping to speak with a
    few of the younger crew of the Starbase.  The Starbase had an red
    and peach interior, with a ruddy orange carpet.  The panels,
    highlighted in greens and blues, created a serene sense of place
    with their soft glow diffusing along the hall.  He turned right and
    reached the turbolift.  He directed the lift to ascend to the
    Observation Ports at the summit of the Starbase.  There was a ring
    of observation ports, the lift would randomly select an empty one
    so that he could have some solitude.  As a result, he didn't
    know which port would be revealed to him once the life doors opened.
    The turbolift doors opened, and he saw a room filled with an exotic
    arboretum of various flora, with the view facing him of space
    in the background.  It was like the room just opened up into the
    dark starlighted night, there was no frame to the window, just
    space.  The side walls were illumined by the crimsom reflection of
    the planet below.  In this combined viewport and garden, his eyes
    embraced the planet Vulcan.


    *        *        *        *        *


    Personal Log, Stardate 67899.4:        "I have met with the last
    few members of the Admiralty.  A formality, in a sense, but I
    could almost reach out and grab the enthusiasm they felt for me.
    I was going to be awarded command of the Starcity Enterprise.
    The best of the best.  The Federation's Flagship.  As we have
    grown together in peace over the past two decades, the ships we
    design seem have that unity of spirit breathed into them.
    Especially *this* one.  The spaceborn construction of the
    Enterprise alone had occupied the talents of over 40,000
    people for a period of three years.  Not to mention the decade
    and a half of research invested into the many innovations that
    Enterprise is endowed with.  Once every generation, there is
    an opportunity to grasp the future and feel it's rhythm as
    tangible in one's hands, while the present strained to draw
    itself into a parallel with the future.  The newness of the
    moment seems coiled, ready to join history.  I wonder if the
    previous charges of the Enterprise felt as I do, on the eve of
    taking their command."

    "Such a rich history, such an *obligation*.  The Enterprise is
    pageanted with heros and actors on the galactic stage...April,
    Pike, Kirk, Harriman, DeSoto, Garrett, Picard, Uhura, Raad,
    Picard, Yamanaka, Selvaak, and now, myself.  One hundred years
    ago, the very idea of a Cardassian in command of the Enterprise
    would have caused a barroom brawl, or at least hearty laughter.
    A Cardassian?  But I must also reflect, that the notion of the
    kind of vessel NCC-1701-I is, in those times, would have drawn
    an equal amount of astonished levity and disbelief."


    *        *        *        *        *


    "Commander Lynette Chan Chuan, access code *****, requesting
    remote login to Enterprise."
        "Enterprise acknowleges you, Commander.  How goes your trip
    here on the Anekdoten?"

    Lynette stopped at that.  The computer, which called itself
    Enterprise, seemed to be in a good mood, despite the numerous
    dock closure taskings that it must be involved with.  Making
    a little mouee with her mouth, Lynette replied that the journey
    here was without incident.  "But what happened two weeks before
    the journey wasn't..." she told herself sadly.  Her ex-husband
    Raymond, had decided not to renew their partnership agreement
    several months earlier.  He felt that his scientific career was
    threatened by their partnership.  As an archeologist, he was
    invited to participate on the dig at Tignlios VI, in the Delta
    Quadrant.  A rare find, complemented with an invitation from his
    old mentor, was enough to tear him away from her for five years.
    Although heartbroken, she braced herself up and took the biggest
    risk of her career, applying to be an officer on the Starcity
    Enterprise.  Much to her shock, she was nominated as First
    Officer.  With her guts in turmoil, she braved the scrutiny of
    the Admiralty's Officer Candidacy Board.  She passed, and shipped
    out several weeks ago.  While trying to contact Raymond to tell
    him the good news, she found that he was injured in a collapse
    of rock at the excavation, and *was blaming her*!  He didn't
    even want to talk to her.  Professional embarrassment and personal
    jealousy at her achievement, she judged.

    "How could he blame me?", she thought, "and even better, how
    could he turn about into such a jerk?"  She knew the truth, that
    again that the seemingly ancient curse on her family had struck.
     One child per generation, with a narrowing aim directed right at
    her.  Her Japanese mother had told her about her fathers numerous
    misfortunes in love; painful experiences with women that caused
    him to nearly give up, before he met her mother.  His fear of the
    ancestral balances of Shu and Hsiao led him to persevere, and
    he was richly rewarded in the end.  None of her brothers and her
    sister had any romantic problems.  They were well on the way to
    filial bliss, with children and stable partners, emmeshed with
    well-planned careers.  So it was Lynette who was cursed...


    *        *        *        *        *


    "Xank's Ballroom" they called it.  The Engineering Section was
    reaching critical mass, not in terms of the powerful energies
    that painted latant possibilities within, but with the armada
    of ensigns, technicians and engineers that were moving about
    it's expanse.  In the middle of all the hubbub, Xank was
    conducting the affairs like a Ferengi Opera Moniter.  Right now,
    he was speaking with (Tony) and (Ben) about the upcoming visit
    by Adm. Sidha Papayogandi.  When he first heard that the 'legend'
    was arriving within a standard week, his first instinct was to
    bribe the Admiral's attache to put in a few good remarks about
    him, hoping that the Admiral's age and retired status would
    reflect gently on the situation.  Instead, he calculated that
    there would be profit in this situation, if by chance he impressed
    the old man.

         "How is it that the Ferengi didn't just drive themselves to
    extinction with their concern of profit, and the Rules of
    Acquistion?" remarked (Tony).
         "The beauty of seeking profit is that *it* adapts to the
    ravages of change, rather than change influencing it.  Profit
    is always the motivator behind any sentient being, and if the
    Horta weren't content to burrow their lives away underground,
    they would see the light of avarice.  But, since they can't
    handle it, they have to hibernate for 50,000 years every so
    often.  See where denial gets you!", defended Xank.
         "The irrelevant suggestion that Horta have senseorgans
    that distinguish chromatic spectra is irreconcilable, thus
    contradictory." said (Ben).  Xank made a digusted look, and
    bit his tongue on a bit of repartee' he planned.  You can't
    insult a Bynar.  They either will get it or they won't, and
    if, by chance, they are monogrammed into suspicious or
    anxious emotional states, they will pursue the argument until
    *they* feel that their counterpart has understood the verity
    of their stance.  Which could take days; days of non-stop
    Bynar chatter in that high pitched voice of theirs.  Well, of
    course, being a Star Fleet officer, and a Compugator at that,
    (Ben) would be pretty much polygrammed emotionally, or at
    least bigrammed.  But Xank recalled a story of the Grand Nagus
    being badgered for two weeks when the Bynar negotiator had
    detected a manipulation on his part while monogrammed into a
    anxious emotive state.  The Nagus bought the funny farm for a
    couple months after that incident, plus there was no profit.

    Xank barked orders to some of his subordinates while imagining
    a host of Bynars being addicted to Dabo in his mind.  He laughed
    aloud...  During Xanks reverie, (Tony) was pondering what he
    said about the Horta.  "Profit, I'll show him profit!"  With
    mathmatical precision, he deduced a path, then formed an empty
    eggshell.  He turned and discharged the shell against the
    kickguard of a bank of computers, which spun into a leg of a
    nearby gravpallet and rebounded, hitting Xank in the shin...

    "Argh, who did that!" yelled Xank, while (Tony) did the Horta
    Shuffle, grinding his plates together, which was the Horta
    emulation of laughter.  "Oh, it's you!" shouted Xank.  "Don't
    you know that we've got to get busy, for Nagussakes there's an
    Admiral coming here tomorrow!"
         "I just wanted to show you that Horta *do* have a sense
    of profit.  I profitted greatly by seeing your expression as
    my shell hit your leg.  Your ears must have gotten five degrees
    warmer in half a second!"
         "And I thought Brisbane was the practical joker in this
    bunch." ventured Xank.

    "If it had been me, that shell would have been filled with
    sulfur and other goodie, like my patent stink bombs."  Xank
    looked up and saw the tall Ship's Counselor walk in.  He sighed
    the sigh of a man let off the hook as Brisbane hugged him.  The
    Counselor had served with Xank on his previous assignment, and
    Xank was truly grateful for Brisbane's wit and the destressing
    exercised he was taught.  And with the new second generation
    Swarp Drives, he would definitely need therapy...thanks to the
    Admiral.  "Admiral...where did the word root 'admire' wind up
    in *that* world!"

    Suddenly, a group of shield engineers started laughing in their
    workchamber.  The three, Xank, (Tony), and Brisbane strolled
    over to see what was the source of all the commotion.  One of
    the shield techs, LeGrady, told them that they were discussing
    shield harmonics when (Ben) joined them.  The discussion had
    shifted to (Tony's) little "joke" on Xank, when (Ben), out of
    the blue, said something that was so funny that the group had
    broken into boisterous laughter.  "What did he say?  I suppose
    he probably said I was right", queried Xank.  "No." LeGrady
    began, "You see, we were talking about how what you said could
    have upset (Tony) so much, when ...ha..ha..ha...(Ben) goes
    "Welcome to the Twenty Sixth Century."