//------------------------------//
// Pilot Episode - Part 1 
// Story: Star Trek: Pegasus 
// by Kane Magus 
//------------------------------//

	“Personal Log.  Ensign Star Strider.  Stardate six six two four… no, wait… six six four… urgh… you’d think after four years at the Academy I’d have this whole stardate thing down by now.  Computer, would you please tell me what the current stardate is?
“…
“…thank you very much.  Okay, let’s try this again.
“Personal Log. Ensign Star Strider.  Stardate 66042.24
“Stardates.  I’ve never been good with those.  The only use I’ve ever had for dates in general was to keep track of whenever the next holiday was about to roll around.  For example, I know that they’re a little less than a couple of months away from Winter Wrap Up back home.  Ah… things were so much simpler back in those days.
“Not that I’m complaining at all, mind you.  At this point, for the most part, I don’t think my life could get any more awesome.  Recent graduate of Starfleet Academy?  Check.  First posting to a starship?  Double check.  I’m so excited!
“But this ship that I’ve been posted to… I think someone at Starfleet Command must have a sense of humor.  I’ve been assigned to the USS Pegasus.  Ha ha, very funny.  It’d be even funnier if I were actually a pegasus myself, I’m sure.  Anyone listening to this log should be able to hear my eyes rolling.
“Anyway… the Pegasus.  Registration NCC-53847-A.  (Yeah, I can remember that, but I can’t even remember the stardate.  Go figure.)  It’s apparently the first ship that has carried that name and registration in over two decades.  I don’t know any of the details because it’s all classified, but I think the last ship to bear this name was involved in some sort of controversy.  But now, after so long, they’ve decided to dust off the name for this brand new starship.  Maybe they thought it would make a good impression on everypony back in Equestria to have a ship named for a breed of pony in service to this sector of space?  Who knows?  Most ponies won’t care or even be aware of it, honestly.
“Still, aside from the name, I can’t complain at all, and I’m not even really complaining about that, either.  It’s just kind of amusing, that’s all.  But wow, what an incredible ship she is.  She’s the first of the brand new Continuum-class vessels and she only just sailed out of Utopia Planitia a couple weeks ago or so.  I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to be serving on one of the most advanced starships in the fleet!  I mean, I thought the Sovereign-class simulation that we did most of our training on at the Academy was amazing… and it was, don’t get me wrong.  I still would have considered myself very lucky if I had managed to get to serve on one of those, like the Enterprise-E for instance.  But this new ship… wow.  She even has those new personal holo-emitters installed in each of the crew quarters.  I’m definitely going to be playing around with that as soon as I finish this log entry.
“So, anyway, I’ve been stationed on the Pegasus as a member of the Engineering department, reporting to Chief Engineer Marco.  As soon as I boarded the ship, I went to have a look at Engineering, and I have to say that I’m definitely looking forward to getting to work there.  Everything is just so new.  Also, I’m already going to be part of an away mission very soon!  It’s so awesome!  I’m trying my best not to squee here.  Sure, it’s just a routine maintenance and resupply run to one of our listening posts out in the general vicinity of the middle of nowhere, but still… away mission!  This whole trip out to the listening post is intended to be a bit of a shakedown cruise for both the ship and the crew before we truly get underway, but that doesn’t make it any less cool.
“All right, I think that’s about all for now.  I’m going to mess around here in my quarters for a bit, and then head down to the lounge.  Maybe meet some of my fellow shipmates and try to get to know them.  We’re all going to be together for quite a while, after all.”




Star Trek: Pegasus


“Pilot Episode – Part 1”


By Kane Magus




The computer chirped, indicating that the log entry had been safely stored away for future reference.  Ensign Star Strider sighed and looked around her quarters, which was pretty standard Starfleet fare.  This was the first time she’d been inside them since arriving on the Pegasus via Deep Space Twenty a few hours ago.  She’d pretty much just walked through the door, hopped up onto the bed, and started recording a log entry.
“Bleh,” she muttered to herself. “It’s all a bit drab for my tastes, so let’s do something about that.  Computer, activate the personal holo-emitter system.”
The computer chirped again and said, “System active.  Awaiting input parameters.”
Star moved her eyes around the room again as she lounged on the bed.  “Hmm, let’s see how close I can get this to looking like home.  Computer, replace the floor with clouds, but make them mostly solid, though still with a bit of a spring to them.  I want it to feel like I’m using my cloud walking spell, but I don’t want to have to actually maintain the spell all the time.”  Star watched as the bland gray carpet reconfigured itself to look like the top of a fluffy white cloud.  The bed wobbled a small amount as it resettled on the cloud top.  She grinned as she jumped down from the bed and took a few tentative steps.  It looked a bit weird, what with how the clouds met the normal wall, but that would be dealt with soon enough.
“Pretty close, computer,” she said.  “You’re doing great so far.  All right, let’s do something about these walls and ceiling now.  Replace them with open sky, as can be found on Equus III this time of year.”
She frowned a bit, as she usually did, at having to say the designation given to her homeworld by Federation stellar cartographers.  Perhaps it was another little joke of some sort.  To her, it would forever just be “the world” or “earth” and such.  After all, it’s not like humans called their homeworld “Sol III” all the time, did they?  It was too bad the humans had already called dibs on the name “Earth” for their own planet, though.  Unofficially, most people not actually from her homeworld just called the entire planet Equestria, though that wasn’t really accurate either, as well as being somewhat insulting to the non-pony citizens who lived there in other nations.  Star’s frown deepened a bit and she shook her head to clear it of these wayward thoughts.  She had much more interesting things to think about at the moment.
The computer beeped again and then the walls and ceiling vanished, completely replaced with bright blue sky as far as the eye could see.  The cloud floor was similarly extended in all directions to the horizon.  Princess Celestia’s golden sun was shining down on her from directly overhead.  Or, at least, that was the illusion, anyway.  Star knew that the walls and ceiling were still there, but were simply invisible to the eye at the moment.  She looked around and smiled.  She’d add some wind effects later, and also some heat from the sun.  Just because it was winter back home, that didn’t mean she had to freeze in her quarters for the sake of authenticity.  There was only one thing left to do, for the time being, as otherwise it would still look rather weird.
“Computer, let’s replace all this boring Starfleet issue furniture with something more interesting.  I’d like some Cloudsdale styled furniture, please.”  Star watched as all of the furniture in the room shimmered and then was replaced with something she was far more familiar and comfortable with.  Everything from the bed to the desk to the dresser and all the rest now appeared to be constructed from clouds.  “Excellent work, computer.  Save this configuration, please.  Wow, it almost feels like being home again.  I’ll fine tune things later, but this will definitely do for now.  Yep, I am so lucky to be able to serve on a ship like this.”
Star bounced up onto the bed again, delighting in the extra springiness it now had thanks to the illusion of being made of cloudlike material, and then looked down at her travel bag.  Most of her luggage was still stowed away in unopened boxes on the floor, awaiting the big unpacking binge that she was putting off until later, but the small brown bag contained those things which were most dear to her.  The horn on her head flared with light blue magic as she worked the clasp on the bag and opened it.  Among the few other items in the bag was a framed photograph, the one thing she cherished above all others.  She telekinetically lifted it out of the bag and held it in front of her.
Star felt her eyes get a bit misty as she looked at the picture.  In the background, a somewhat blurry Sugarcube Corner could be seen in the distance, along with a bit of the rest of Ponyville, but that wasn’t the main focus of the photo, of course.  For the moment, she ignored the small unicorn filly with the navy blue coat and the sky blue mane in favor of the two pegasi standing next to the filly.  On the left side of the photo, to the filly’s right, was a tall stallion with a white coat and a very deep blue, almost black mane and tail.  His cutie mark was a black storm cloud, with a multi-forked silver lightning bolt dropping down out of it.  He was looking directly at the camera and flashing a huge grin, his wings spread out wide to either side of him.  On the right was a smaller mare, with a peach colored coat and golden mane and tail.  Her cutie mark was a light gray raincloud, with droplets of water falling from the underside of it, and with the barest sliver of bright yellow sun peeking out over the top of the cloud.  The mare was looking down at the unicorn filly with a soft, loving smile on her face.  One of her wings was opened in order to enfold the filly.  Finally, Star turned her eyes briefly to the blank-flanked unicorn filly herself.  While being embraced by the wing of the peach-colored mare, the filly was gazing up at the stallion with a look of pure adoration on her face.  Star remembered how she’d felt when this picture had been originally taken and ruefully wished that things could be that way again someday.  That, however, would require a lot more proactiveness on her part than she felt she was ready for at this time.
“Mom… Dad…” Star said quietly, sniffling a bit and trying to hold back the tears.  She tossed her head to shake away a few loose strands of the same sky blue mane that she shared with her photographic counterpart and that had fallen down in front of her eyes.  “I know we didn’t part on good terms… and I still feel terrible about it… but… but I hope you’d still be proud of me and what I’ve accomplished, all the same.  If only you knew.  I… I really miss you.  Maybe someday I’ll finally manage to work up the courage to face you again, and apologize for how horrible I was to you.”  She levitated the picture frame slowly over to the nightstand next to the bed.  She stared at it for several moments, fighting back tears, before finally closing her eyes, letting out a heavy sigh, and climbing down off of the bed once more.
“Right, enough of that for now,” she said to herself quietly.  Then, a bit more cheerfully, she added, “It’s time to go meet my shipmates.”



The starship’s main lounge was packed.  It seemed as though Star wasn’t the only one who’d had the idea to come and meet their fellow crewmates.  Most of the tables were full of a wide variety of people, maybe half of them human.  Star heard snippets from various conversations as she slowly made her way through the large room, most of them having to do with mundane matters of ship business or just trivial small talk and the like.  Most of those with whom she made eye contact gave her friendly nods of acknowledgement, which she returned with smiles and nods of her own, though she knew very few of them by name thus far.  Not having anywhere else to be, Star started toward one of the open stools at the bar, but was stopped short when a voice very close by began to speak directly to her.
“Excuse me,” said the nervous voice.  “Um… I know this is probably a really dumb question, but… you’re from Equestria, aren’t you?”  Star turned her head and saw a brown-haired human man sitting alone at a small, three-sided table, facing the bar and with his back to the huge windows along the outer wall of the lounge.  He looked to be in his late teens or early twenties, if she judged human age and appearance correctly.  He was roughly her own age, in other words.  He was wearing a black uniform with gray quilted vertical stitches in the shoulder area, similar to the one she was wearing, but with a red undershirt, indicating that he was in the Command division.  He was smiling up at her in a bit of embarrassment.  “Yeah, that was an incredibly lame icebreaker, wasn’t it?  Where else would you be from?”  He gestured at one of the two empty chairs at the table.  “Please join me.  That is, if you don’t mind, of course.”
Star smiled and said, “Sure.  I don’t have anywhere in particular to be.”  She sat down in the proffered chair and watched the man, who in turn merely looked back at her.
An awkward few seconds passed before the human blinked and then said, “Oh, I’m sorry.  I’m supposed to introduce myself now, aren’t I?  My name is James Tompkins.  My friends call me Jim, and so can you.  I’m an ensign… as I’m… sure you can see…”  He shuffled around in his chair bashfully and briefly tugged at the collar of his uniform with his index finger.  His collar did indeed sport a single gold pip, Star noticed, just as the collar of her own uniform did.  “I’m the helmsman for the Pegasus.  Some have tried to claim that I’m one of the best pilots to come out of the Academy in years, but… well, I don’t know about all that… I don’t think I’m all that good… I mean, I’m certainly no Hikaru Sulu or Tom Paris or anything… but… um… yeah, I’m already rambling, aren’t I?  I have a tendency to do that, or so I’ve been told.”
“Not at all…” said Star, smiling reassuringly, “…well, maybe a little.  I’m Ensign Star Strider, and I’m with the engineering team, under Commander Marco.  To answer your earlier question, yes, I am from… Equus III.  From the nation of Equestria in particular, as you noted, since that’s where most of us ponies live, of course.”
“Oh, that’s right,” said Tompkins, looking abashed all over again.  “I shouldn’t have called the whole planet Equestria.  Sorry about that.”
“Not a problem,” said Star, with a shake of her head.  “Pretty much everyone does it.  I don’t mind, personally, but just be careful around any non-ponies you might meet from there.  Griffons and dragons in particular wouldn’t take it too kindly.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” said Tompkins.  “It’s just that… well… you see, my dad was serving on board the Enterprise-D when they made first contact with your world.”
Star’s eyes widened at this.  “Oh really?” she asked, her curiosity piqued.
“Yeah,” said the human ensign.  “He’s told me a few stories about it.  And yet… despite that, I’ve never actually been there myself or even met a pony before this moment.  Well, not directly anyway.  I did see you from time to time at the Academy, at a distance, but I never had an opportunity to speak with you before now.”  Star studied the man’s face a bit more carefully, trying to recall if she’d ever seen him before, but if she had, she definitely didn’t remember it.  He noticed her scrutiny and said, “You wouldn’t remember me, I’m sure.  Though we had a couple of classes together, we never actually got within a half dozen meters of one another, and I graduated a semester before you did.  Most of the time, I was usually off at the other end of the Academy from the engineering wing where you were.  I’m sure to you I would have just been one out of hundreds of other humanoid faces in the crowd, but for me, it would have been impossible to mistake a blue pony for anything else, even at a distance.”
Star blushed a bit, somewhat glad that her coat was dark enough that it wouldn’t be easily noticed.  She thought that she had gotten used to all the attention that the simple fact of being the only pony so far in Starfleet had gained her by now, after having to endure it for four years at the Academy.  It was far worse the first year or so, but by the end of her time at the Academy, most of her fellow cadets had gotten used to having her around.  There had always been occasions where some of the younger cadets would gawk at her as she passed by them in the corridors, but on the whole, things had returned to some semblance of normality by her second year.  But now it seemed as though the whole thing might be starting anew here on the Pegasus, at least if Tompkins was any indication at all.
“So,” she said, in an attempt to move the subject away from herself, “tell me about your dad and the first contact.  I was still a month or so away from being born when it happened, so I don’t know all that much about it, aside from what I’ve heard in stories here and there.  For me, it’s hard to imagine what it was like before.”
Tompkins shifted in his seat a bit and said, “Well, there’s not a lot to tell, at least as far as the role my dad played, anyway.  He worked in Phaser Control at the time, and that’s where he was during the Borg attack.  He did tell me that he met one of the ponies though.  I forget her name now, but he said that she was a purple unicorn and-”
“Oh wow,” Star broke in excitedly, “your dad actually met Twilight Sparkle?!”
Tompkins nodded and snapped his fingers.  “That’s it!  That was her name.  I knew it was something like that.  Yeah, he said she was there helping to magically augment the phaser array, but the Borg counterattacked with some kind of radiation feedback weapon along the phaser beam.  To hear him tell it, everyone in the room almost died, and… well, one person did.  They put my dad in a different room in Sickbay than the one that Twilight Sparkle was in, though, so he didn’t really get to see her or any of the other ponies that were on the ship after that.”
“Aw, that’s too bad,” said the unicorn.  “Twilight was my magical mentor for a time, at least while my family and I were living down in Ponyville, anyway.  She’s really nice.  She’s actually an alicorn princess now, and has been for as long as I can remember.  It’s for me hard to imagine that she was ever a regular old unicorn, like me.  It’s just too bad I wasn’t a very good student of magic, though.”  At Tompkins’s questioning look, she sighed and continued.  “I’m just not that good with it, compared to other unicorns.  I have the basic telekinesis that all unicorns have, and I have a couple of other spells, like a cloud walking spell and… my shield spell… but that’s about it.”
Tompkins shook his head and said, “Aw, I’m sure you’re great.  Hey, can you show me?  Some magic, I mean.”  At Star’s raised eyebrow, Tompkins quickly added, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to impose or anything.  If it’s inappropriate for me to ask, just forget I said anything.”
“No, nothing like that,” said Star, shrugging.  “It’s just a bit weird to me, that’s all.  As far as I’m concerned, it’s no big deal.  I forget sometimes that other species such as humans don’t have magic like we do.”  She looked around and said, “Well, there are obviously no clouds here for me to walk on and I’d… really rather not use the shield spell right now, so I guess that leaves basic telekinesis.  Will that be good enough?”
“Oh, definitely,” said Tompkins, who appeared to be barely able to contain his excitement at the prospect of seeing real magic.  “Anything you want to do…”
“Okay.  Here goes,” said Star.  She looked down at the table and focused on the small centerpiece.  With her horn aglow with a bright blue light, she enveloped the small piece of décor in her magic and lifted it into the air.  She briefly moved it around in a simple figure eight pattern a few times in front of Tompkins before placing it back on the table.  “How was that?  I know it probably wasn’t very impressive or anything.”
“No, that was amazing!” he said, a wide grin on his face.  “Seriously, that’s just an everyday thing for you?”
“I guess so, yeah,” said Star, with another shrug.  “It’s not really any more special than if you’d reached out with your hand and picked it up.  It’s kind of funny, because I know of a unicorn who is just as fascinated by human hands as you seem to be by unicorn magic.”  She glanced around and noticed that her little display had drawn the eyes of several others at some of the nearby tables as well.  Apparently, it wasn’t every day that they saw telekinesis in use.  Before she could do more than weakly smile back at them in embarrassment, she heard someone clearing their throat behind her.  Glancing at Tompkins, she noticed he’d gotten a bit more rigid in his seat.  She turned in her chair to see who it was, which caused her to sit up a bit straighter as well.
“At ease, ensigns,” said Lieutenant Commander Tobias Marco, the chief engineer for the USS Pegasus.  He was quite a tall man, approaching seven feet tall, with black hair that was graying at the edges.  He was also sporting a thick chevron mustache, also mostly black with flecks of gray.  Similar to Star herself, he was wearing the golden undershirt of the Operations division.  “Ensign Strider, it’s convenient that I ran into you here.  I was going to contact you a bit later this morning to go over the parameters for our upcoming away mission and a few other things, but now is as good a time as any, if you don’t mind.”
Star nodded and said, “Of course, sir.  I’m not busy at the moment.”  She glanced briefly at Tompkins, who gave the slightest of nods, and turned back to Marco.  “Please join us, sir.”
“Thank you,” said Marco, taking the remaining seat at the table.  “As you know, we’ll be arriving at the Listening Post 71 Gamma in about two hours.  However, there’s been a slight complication.  We lost contact with the listening post around thirty minutes ago.  At this point, we don’t know if it’s anything other than a simple communications malfunction, since we do know that they’ve been having intermittent issues with their equipment for days now, but we’re going to treat it as a potential emergency situation all the same.  We’re hoping that the two crewmen stationed on the listening post will have things up and running again shortly, but until that happens, we’re going to play it safe.”
Star’s face fell a bit as she considered the implications of this.  “I suppose that means that you’ll want someone more experienced for the away mission.”
Marco shook his head.  “No, not at all.  Ensign Strider, I’ve been looking over your Academy record.  You are a very gifted engineer.  You seem to have a natural talent for it, in fact.  I hope I’m not being insulting when I say that I was actually quite surprised by just how good you are, given the circumstances…”
Star raised an eyebrow at this.  “You mean, given that I am a pony?”
Marco sighed.  “Yes, when you come right out and say it like that, it does sound quite insulting, doesn’t it?  I’m sorry.  I was actually referring more to the general level of technology of your world prior to first contact, though.  Then again, despite that, it was pony enhanced weapons that helped the Enterprise to defeat a Borg cube back during that first contact, so I suppose I shouldn’t have entertained such misconceptions about your people in the first place.  Again, I apologize.  Don’t worry.  I definitely still want you with us on the away mission.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Star smiled, and out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Tompkins was grinning as well.  For some reason, he seemed almost happier for her than she was.  Focusing once again on Marco, she said, “Thank you, sir.  That means a lot to me.”
“One other thing I’d like to speak to you about,” said Marco.  “I’ve already talked this over with Captain Sovaal, and he has approved, pending your agreement.  I would like you to act as the official Engineering liaison to the bridge in my stead.”
Star’s eyes widened in shock at this.  “What?  Me?  A bridge officer?”
“Yes,” said Marco, nodding.  “I’m exercising my prerogative as chief engineer to assign this to you.  Personally, I feel that my place is in Engineering.  I know that most other chief engineers tend to spend about half their time on the bridge, but that is not my way.  I prefer to stay fully in the trenches, as they say.  I’ve been able to make this arrangement on my previous postings and I hope to do the same here, as well.  That is, if you agree to become my liaison, of course.”
“Oh, yes, sir,” said Star, trying to hide her excitement at unexpectedly becoming a bridge officer out of the blue.  “I definitely agree to become your liaison.”
Marco smiled at her enthusiasm.  “Don’t worry about missing out on getting any practical experience in Engineering, of course, as there will be plenty of time for that, but I think this will be a good opportunity for you as well.  I’ll still have to put in the occasional appearance on the bridge myself, but on the whole, I will be leaving most things in your hands.  Or… should I say hooves?”  Marco smiled again as he stood up and prepared to leave.  “At any rate, we’ll be arriving at the listening post in just under two hours from now, so be ready.  Until then, get back to enjoying your off-duty time.”
“Yes, sir.  I’ll be ready, sir,” said Star confidently.  “And thank you again, sir.”
“It’s no problem,” said Marco.  “If anything, you’re doing me a favor.  Well, I’ll see you when we get there.”  He nodded to Tompkins.  “Ensign.”
Tompkins nodded in return and watched for a bit as the chief engineer headed for the exit, then turned back to Star, looking as if he were about to burst at the seams.  “That is so cool!  You’re going to be a bridge officer, too!”
“I know, right?” said Star, letting her own excitement bubble through.  “This is completely unexpected, but… wow.”  They just sat there for a few moments, basking in Star’s unexpected good fortune, though she still didn’t quite understand why Tompkins seemed so excited about it.  It didn’t really have much to do with him, after all.
After a few moments, Tompkins said, “So… I had another question for you…”
“Yes?” said Star after several seconds had passed, since it seemed like he needed a bit of prompting to get it out.
“Well… um,” he said, his bashfulness surging to the fore once more.  “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but… um, when you turned to greet Commander Marco, I… uh… well… I got a good look at your… um… flank?  Is that what you call it?”
Star blushed once again, more deeply this time.  It wasn’t anything of real significance to her, but she was fully aware of how some humanoids tended to consider such things.  She seriously hoped this wasn’t going where she feared it might be going.
“And… well,” continued Tompkins, his face so red that Star was concerned that it might actually catch fire, “I couldn’t help but notice that your uniform seems to be… um… er… well, missing in that particular area.  And I just wanted to ask… is that a tattoo of an isolinear chip?”
Star sighed in relief.  “Oh, you mean my cutie mark?  Yeah, it’s a chip.”
Tompkins blinked a few times, clearly not understanding what she was talking about.  “A cutie… mark?” he asked.
“Yeah,” said Star, holding back another sigh as she prepared to launch into an abbreviated version of what was, by this point, an increasingly tedious speech to explain cutie marks that she’d given countless times before.  “It’s a mark all ponies get as they get older.  They tend to reflect what it is that makes a pony unique, or where their talents may lie.  Mine just happens to be an isolinear chip.  There’s a story in that, but… I don’t really want to get into all that right now.  Let’s just say that it’s what finally convinced me that my path led to Starfleet Academy and ultimately to here on the Pegasus.”
Ensign Tompkins nodded.  “So it’s kind of like a birthmark, except that it comes in at puberty, I guess?  And, obviously, it has more meaning than a simple birthmark.”
Star nodded in return.  “That’s a succinct way of explaining it, if not precise.”
Tompkins glanced down through the glass table top at her flank again, trying to be subtle about it and utterly failing in the attempt.  Star pretended not to notice.  “So, uh, I guess that’s why your uniform is cut away like that?” asked the human ensign.
The unicorn nodded again, feeling a bit uncomfortable once more.  She really hoped that this was just a thing with Tompkins in particular and that her somewhat nonstandard uniform wouldn’t become a real issue in general.  “Yes, it is.  I actually had a part in designing the uniform.  As you can see, it covers most of my body, from my neck down to the top of my hooves, though I don’t require Starfleet issue boots or anything like that, since they’d just hinder me.  So, anyway, just about everything is covered up, which is rather unusual for us ponies.  However, I was determined to not have my cutie mark be constantly covered, so I did what I could to insist that an allowance be made for it.  I’d heard about similar breaks in uniform code being allowed for things like Bajoran earrings, tribal tattoos, Klingon warrior sashes and such, so I wanted something similar for my cutie mark.  It has personal meaning to me and I didn’t want it to be hidden away all the time.  Hopefully, for any ponies who might later follow me into Starfleet, something like this will become the standard uniform.  It’s not really a fashion statement or anything like that, though, if that’s what you’re wondering.”
Tompkins’s face flushed even redder, though Star wondered how that was even possible.  “No, no, it’s nothing like that.  It’s just that… well… I just think it looks nice, that’s all.”  He stared at Star and she stared back at him.  They sat there like that, staring at each other for what had to be an eternity.  Tompkins finally regained control of his vocal chords… mostly.  “The mark I mean… not your flank… er… not to say that your flank doesn’t also… …oh… oh man… believe me, I didn’t mean it like that at all… honest.  I just meant that... I mean, you… oh god… I’m so sorry… I just…”
Star thanked Celestia once more that she had a dark coat that did an adequate enough job of hiding her own burning face.  She sighed again, rather loudly, though even she wasn’t sure if it was in annoyance or in sympathy with the plight of Tompkins.  Perhaps it was little of both.  “Look, I know how you humans and other humanoids tend to feel about… um… bared flesh, especially in… that part of the body, but you have to understand that for us ponies… well… I’ll just come right out and say it.  If you ever visit Equestria yourself someday, don’t be alarmed when you see a bunch of completely naked ponies walking around as though it were the most normal thing in the world, because, for us, it is the most normal thing in the world.  To be perfectly honest, being almost entirely covered up like this is somewhat chafing.”
Tompkins let out a sigh of his own, propped his elbows on the table, and rested his entire face in his cupped hands.  Through his fingers, his slightly muffled voice said, “I’m sorry, again.  I led this conversation down a path that I had no intention of traversing when I started out.  Heck, I didn’t even see the path until we were already careening down it out of control.  Helmsman, reverse engines.  Bring us to a full stop.  Back us away, slowly and carefully.  Now get us the hell out of here, warp nine.”
Star giggled a bit, despite the situation, or perhaps because of it.  “Don’t worry about it.  Trust me when I say that you’re most assuredly not the first humanoid to have… um… issues with me in that manner.  I’ll let you in on a little secret.  Well… okay, maybe it’s not that big of a secret, given that pretty much my entire graduating class knows the story.  You may have even heard it yourself, since you were at the Academy at the same time as me.
“Well, anyway, yeah, my first day at the Academy, I showed up for my first class not wearing a thing, naked as the day I was born.  I didn’t think the first thing about it, because, as I said, that was what was completely natural for me.  It didn’t even register to me until about halfway through class that all of the whispered conversations going on around me were about me.  And once I did become aware of it… well, in most cases, I kind of wished that my hearing wasn’t quite as good as it was.  Some of it was somewhat flattering, actually, but… a lot of it… um… well, some of it kind of made my skin crawl.  Most of it just made me feel terribly embarrassed, even the flattering stuff.  It was not a very pleasant hour and a half, believe me.  I briefly considered getting up and leaving in the middle of class, but that would have just drawn more attention to me.
“And then, after class, the teacher took me aside and had a few choice suggestions concerning my… um, apparel, or rather the lack thereof.  Mostly, he just strongly suggested that I acquire some, by hook or by crook.  Let’s just say that after that class, I was lucky to have enough free time before my next class to visit a local boutique and have some basic cadet uniforms tailored and replicated for me.  Even luckier was the fact that it was one of the Carousel Boutique franchises, meaning that there was a pony running things and that she completely understood my dilemma.  Still, my classmates never really let me live that one down, and it kind of became something of a running joke for the entire four years we were at the Academy.  At this point, even I almost find it funny, looking back on the whole thing.  Almost.”
Tompkins finally raised his face out of his hands and looked at her once more.  He shook his head and said, “Well, I don’t know about you, but I could definitely use a drink right about now.  Would you like a synthale?  I’ll go get us a couple at the bar.”
Star considered a bit, and then nodded.  “Yeah, I think I could go for a drink myself.  Make mine an apple cider though, please.”
Tompkins smiled as he stood up and said, “All right, one synthale and one apple cider, coming right up.”
The unicorn watched as the human made his way over to the bar.  Things might have been a little wobbly there for a bit… okay, a lot wobbly… but on the whole, she decided that she liked him well enough.  In any case, it felt good to have made a friend already.



Not quite two hours later found Star standing in the transporter room, along with Chief Engineer Marco and the Security Chief/Tactical Officer, a lieutenant commander named Benjamin Lathrop.  The three of them were standing on the transporter pads, awaiting the arrival of the first officer, Commander Jonah Gabriel.  Lathrop ran a hand through his curly ginger hair and then pulled out and inspected his Type-II hand phaser for what had to have been the eighth time in the span of five minutes.  He had been a last minute addition to the away team, given that they still had not regained contact with the listening post, and so they had no idea what to expect when they beamed over.
The door to the transporter room swished open and a relatively tall man (though not nearly as tall as Marco) with short-cropped blonde hair strode through.  “All right, people,” said Commander Gabriel, “as you know, the specs on this mission have changed.  What was to have been a simple maintenance and resupply run has now become an investigation.  Keep your eyes open when we get over there.  Hopefully, we’ll simply be greeted by a couple of chagrined crewmen who are having trouble with their communications equipment.  With that said, however, we’re getting some sort of energy readings originating from within the listening post that neither we nor the computer have been able to identify.  They’re interfering with our sensors and we can’t get a positive scan on the lifesigns of the crew over there, so stay alert.  Are there any questions before we beam over?”
Star briefly glanced at the other two members of the away team.  Lathrop made a few last adjustments to his phaser before stowing it in his belt.  He stroked his ginger goatee for a bit, and then thought better of it and pulled the phaser out again, holding it in a ready position in preparation for the beam over.  Marco met her eyes and nodded slightly before turning to the first officer and saying, “No, sir.  I believe we’re ready.”
“Very well,” said Gabriel, stepping up onto the transporter pad.  To the transporter operator, he said, “Beam us into the secondary alcove, as far away from the sources of the energy emanations as you can get us.  Energize.”
Star took a deep breath and waited for the familiar tingle of the transporter beams to take effect.  As they did, she felt her awareness fade away briefly before reasserting itself.  The first thing that greeted her upon returning to reality was almost near total darkness.  She immediately levitated out her tricorder and began manipulating the controls with her magic.
“Looks like an almost complete power failure,” muttered Lathrop, squinting in the low light and sweeping his phaser slowly back and forth, in conjunction with the flashlight attached to his arm.  “I don’t hear the hum of the reactor at all.”
Star studied the tricorder for a moment and said, “Almost all systems are down.  Life support is still operational, but only barely, and is running on emergency backup.  Even that appears to be in imminent danger of failing, however.”
“We should get to the reactor and get it operational again as soon as possible,” said Marco.  He was similarly studying his tricorder in the dim light.
“Normally, I’d agree,” said Commander Gabriel, moving his arm back and forth and allowing the flashlight attached to it to illuminate the area.  “However, I think our first priority should be to find the missing crew.  This is not a big installation at all, and there aren’t many places they could be.  For now, we will stay together and search the listening post.  Keep an eye on those errant energy readings as we move.”
The away team made their way from the small alcove into the area intended as the living quarters for the two crewmen.  It was pretty cramped and rather sparse as far as creature comforts went.  There were a couple of cots and a door that led off to a lavatory and a small sonic shower.  The crew had done what they could to personalize the area, but it still seemed a pretty austere existence.  Star found herself once again thanking Celestia for her relatively spacious quarters back on the Pegasus.  Then she noticed something odd on her tricorder.
“Commander Gabriel, my readings indicate that emergency force fields were activated in this area less than an hour ago,” she said.
Lathrop did a slow spin, taking in every inch of the room with his eyes, or at least what he could make out with the help of his flashlight, anyway.  “I wonder if they were trying to keep something out… or in?”
“Given that the missing crewmen are not here themselves, and that the force fields are no longer operational, your guess is as good as mine,” said Gabriel.  “Let’s continue on to the main control room.”
A short time later, they entered the main control area of the listening post.  It looked to Star sort of like the bridge of a starship, except in miniature.  There were consoles lining the outer edges of the room but the center of the room was clear of furniture.  All of the consoles were dark, as were the several view screens lining the walls above them.  There were a couple of chairs next to the consoles, with their bases embedded into a track in the floor which circled almost the entire room, being broken only at the points where the walls met the doors.  It was designed so that the chairs could quickly move between the various consoles as needed, but, like everything else, the track was not receiving power at the moment.  The room didn’t seem nearly as cramped as the living quarters had been, but it was still fairly tight, especially compared to the bridge of the Pegasus.
“Force fields were active here as well, sir,” said Star, sweeping her tricorder around.  “I’m also detecting weapons signatures… phasers and… something else I don’t recognize.  Still no sign of the crewmen nor are the energy emanations present here.”
“That only leaves one place left to check,” said Marco.  “The reactor room.”
Commander Gabriel was now holding his own phaser in hand as well.  “Okay, let’s go.  Once we get there, we’ll try to get the reactor running again, but be ready for anything.  We still have little idea what’s been going on here, but it doesn’t look good.”
The away team made its way into the last unsearched area of the installation.  The reactor was ominously dark and silent.  Both Star and Marco pointed their tricorders at it.
“Hmm,” said Marco, “it doesn’t appear to be damaged at all.  It has merely been shut down for some reason.  I’ll have it back up and running in no time.”
“Do it,” said Gabriel.  “Ensign Strider, do you detect our missing crewmen at all?’
Star frowned as she shifted the tricorder around in her levitation field.  “No sir, I don’t.  However, the energy emanations are originating from within this room as well.  The crewmen could be right in front of us and the tricorder probably wouldn’t be able to detect them.  I’m barely picking up even our own readings.”
“Maybe a little light will help,” said Marco.  “Powering on the reactor… now.”  Just as he finished speaking, the low hum of the reactor reappeared, and along with it came the lights and other systems.  Star hadn’t realized just how deathly silent it had been until that moment.  It was rather eerie.
“Oh my god!” shouted Lathrop.
The others turned in his direction and saw that he was staring up at the ceiling.  Their eyes followed his and Star felt her stomach do a somersault at what she saw.  There, affixed to the ceiling and encased by something that looked way too much like spider webbing for her comfort, except that it was a sickly yellowish color (which only made it even worse), were the two missing crewmembers.  Or, at least, what remained of them, anyway.  They were very clearly dead, though it didn’t seem to have been for long.
“What the hell happened here?” said Gabriel angrily.
Before anyone could reply to him, a high pitched shriek that couldn’t possibly have been made by human or pony vocal chords sounded within the room.  Immediately following this, the air filled with what sounded like loud clicking or chittering.
“We have contacts!” shouted Lathrop, backing away swiftly.  “They came out of nowhere!  Some sort of personal camouflage or cloaking devices!”
“Get back to the main control room, on the double!” yelled Gabriel, who was already moving in that direction.  “We’ll have more room there!  Move!”
The four members of the away team turned and ran back for the mini-bridge.  In the short few seconds that she’d had to look, Star had gotten a glimpse of… something.  What she’d seen, however, she couldn’t even begin to process yet.
As soon as they were all in the control room, Gabriel barked out, “Computer!  Erect a level 10 force field around this room and the controls in the reactor room immediately!”  The telltale flick of the energy fields popping into place was seen not a second too soon, because that’s when the… whatever they were… decided to attack.
“What the hell are those things?” yelled Marco.  He’d joined Lathrop and Gabriel in drawing his phaser and all three of them were pointing their weapons at the open doorway.  Beyond the door were several alien beings.  They looked vaguely like giant tarantulas, each about the same size and height as Star was, except with far too many legs.  Their huge, bulbous heads were covered in hundreds of what Star assumed were tiny eyes and a couple of incredibly wicked looking mandibles.  Several pairs of their forelegs were raised and each leg appeared to be wielding a weapon of some sort.  Star couldn’t tell whether these were projectile or melee weapons or both, given that the limbs of the closest creatures were flailing about and smashing repeatedly into the force field, whereas those of the creatures that were farther back appeared to be taking aim and firing large balls of white energy into the force fields.  What was most disturbing was that the legs didn’t seem to be segmented like a spider’s would, but were more fluid like the tentacles of an octopus.  Star tried to scan them with her tricorder, but as far as the device was concerned, these creatures didn’t exist at all, except as vague energy readings.
“The force fields are losing integrity!” called out the chief engineer.
“Marco, Strider, do what you can to keep those force fields up!” ordered Gabriel.  “Lathrop, you’re with me.  If the field goes down, fire at will!”  He then slapped his combadge and said, “Away team to Pegasus!  The listening post has been overrun by alien invaders!  The crew is dead and we are under attack!  We need immediate emergency beam out!”
From over the comm channel, they heard a voice call out, “I can’t get a lock on them, Captain!  There’s too much interference from the force field as well as the strange energy emanations that we picked up earlier.”
“Stand by, away team,” came the steady voice of Captain Sovaal.  “We’re working to retrieve you.”
The console that Star was working on sparked and fizzled out.  She slid her chair around to another one nearby and reconfigured it to the force field systems.  “Sir, we’re about to lose the fields!” she cried out.
“Keep at it, ensign!” ordered Gabriel.
“It’s too late, sir!” Star shouted.  Sure enough, just as she spoke, the force fields started to fizzle out.  Knowing that they had scant seconds left, and without even stopping to really consider what she was about to do, Star rushed to the middle of the room and lowered her head.
“What are you doing, ensign?!” thundered Commander Gabriel, as both he and Lathrop prepared to open fire on the aliens.  “Get back to the controls!”
Star’s horn began to glow blue and a split second later, a large, translucent green ellipsoid of energy winked into existence around her and the rest of the away team, almost entirely filling the room and keeping the aliens attackers at bay once more.  “ARGH!” she screamed as the alien beings smashed into the shield.  They began attacking the shield the same as they had the force fields earlier.
“What… the hell…?” muttered Marco, barely audible over the din of battle.  “That almost looks like the shields of a starship…”
“Strider, can we fire through this?” asked Lathrop urgently.
Star gritted her teeth and squinted at him through watery eyes.  “Yes, and… hurry!  Even in the best of conditions, I can’t… keep this up for long!”  Needing no further prompting than that, the three remaining away team members cut loose with their phasers on the alien creatures.  To their shock, however, the aliens took minimal injuries as they were somehow able to anticipate where the beams were going to be and shift their bodies around instantaneously in order to avoid them.  Even when Lathrop began to make quick sweeping gestures with his phaser while firing it, the aliens were still able to maneuver around the beam.  It was surreal to watch it happen.
“Commander Gabriel,” said Captain Sovaal’s voice over the comm channel.  “We are detecting an energy spike in your location that appears to be consistent with that of starship shielding.  May we assume that this is somehow your doing?”
“Yes!” shouted Gabriel, over the din of phaser fire and the return fire of the alien creatures.  “Ensign Strider is using her magic to erect a shield.”
“That shield is preventing us from beaming you out,” said the captain.  “During the brief moment between when the force field went down and this new shield went up, we were able to establish a weak transporter lock, but it has been broken again.  You will need to drop the shield in order for us to beam you to safety.”
“Strider, did you hear that?” shouted Gabriel.
“Yes…” said Star, struggling to speak as the strain of holding up the shield was nearly taxing her to her limit, especially considering that the aliens were still pounding away on it.  “Gather… around me.  I will… drop the shield when ready… but please… make it quick…”
“Captain,” said Marco, “instead of attempting to establish a transporter lock on us individually, just beam back everything within a two meter radius vertical column from the center of the shield when it goes down.  It should be a few seconds faster, and we’re going to need all the extra seconds we can get.  When this shield goes down, those aliens will be on us in the blink of an eye.”
“Acknowledged,” replied the unruffled voice of Sovaal.  “Transporter room, make ready to do as Commander Marco suggests.”
The voice of the transporter operator replied with a simple, “Aye, sir.”
“All right, Ensign,” said Gabriel, “on the count of three, drop the shield.”
“Yes… sir…” said Star weakly.  She was very close to passing out.
“One, two, three… mark!” shouted Gabriel.  “Pegasus, energize!  Energize!”
Star let her magic die, and was almost instantly rewarded with the tingle of the transporter beams.  Her heart leapt into her throat as, even through the beams, she could see the aliens skittering toward them.  It was a horrifying sight.  If she could have screamed, she would have, because one of the alien projectiles flew directly at her face, but it was luckily deflected by the transporter beams.  Thankfully, her consciousness dimmed out as the transporters did their work.



As soon as the transporters returned them to the Pegasus, Commander Gabriel said, “Lathrop, Strider, come with me to the bridge.  Toby, you get back to Engineering.  If these aliens have a ship nearby, we might need a miracle or two pretty quick.”
“I’ll try to whip up a couple as soon as I can,” said the chief engineer.
Star, Gabriel, and Lathrop hurried out of the transporter room and made their way to the nearest turbolift.  As the turbolift made its way to the bridge, the ship suddenly shook rather violently.
“Looks like I was right about them having a ship in the area,” muttered Gabriel.
“Don’t you just love it when you’re right?” said Lathrop.
“In this case, I’d have been glad to be wrong,” said the first officer.
Seconds later, the doors opened just as the Pegasus heaved again.  The three of them rushed out of the compartment, with Gabriel going to his chair next to the captain, Lathrop replacing the junior officer at the tactical station, and Star moving to the engineering station on the left side of the bridge.  Star’s eyes briefly turned toward the forward bridge stations and, sure enough, there was Ensign Tompkins sitting at the helm.  He gave her a quick grin and nod before turning back to his station.
“It appears we have some uninvited guests,” said Captain Sovaal.  He was looking intently at the forward view screen, which was showing something that none of them had ever seen before.  Well, that is, none of them except for the four away team members who’d been on the listening post.  The thing that was attacking the Pegasus looked exactly like one of the aliens that had been on the listening post, except several thousand times larger, making it about twice as large as the Pegasus itself.  Just as the smaller aliens had been, the large one appeared to be wielding several weapons on its forelegs, and it was using them to both smash the Pegasus and to fire projectiles at her.
Star had turned her eyes away from the view screen and to her console after only a second or so of looking at the horror that was attacking the ship, and it was a good thing she did.  “Sir!” she said, “I’m detecting something detaching itself from the station!”
“It’s the aliens, sir!” said Lathrop.  “They’re the ones that attacked us on the listening post.  They’ve somehow managed to exit the installation and are now flying back to rejoin the larger creature.  They’re clearly capable of surviving in outer space conditions.  They’ve now entered the larger creature… no, wait, that’s not exactly correct.  They’ve attached themselves to the larger creature.”
“Captain,” said Star, confusion in her voice at what her readings were telling her, “I don’t think that the larger creature is actually a single creature.  I believe that what we’re seeing is really a mass of several thousand of the smaller creatures.  They’ve simply joined together somehow and have made the shape of one larger creature.”  She leaned in her seat as the ship shook again due to the creature, or whatever it was, smashing its weapon appendages into the shields of the Pegasus once more.
“We have been more than patient with our visitors out there,” said Captain Sovaal.  “We have tried hailing them but they’ve completely ignored us in favor of attacking.  Mr. Lathrop, target the center mass of the creature with phasers and a tight spread of quantum torpedoes.  You may fire when ready.”
“Yes, sir,” said Lathrop, an edge of satisfaction in his voice as he worked his console.  On the view screen, they watched as a dozen solid phaser beams lanced out at the mass of creatures along with a multitude of bolts from the phaser cannon turrets mounted on the dorsal and ventral sides of the saucer section of the Pegasus.  Joining this barrage was eight crystal blue quantum torpedoes.  The creatures, however, simply reconfigured their appearance to instantly create huge holes in what had been the body of the larger creature, which caused the phaser beams and bolts to miss and the torpedoes to sail harmlessly off into space, their targets lost.  A couple of the torpedoes managed to reacquire a target, but the result was the same as the first time, causing them to ultimately join their siblings in sailing off into nowhere.  In response to this attack, all of the forward weapon-wielding appendages of the large form smashed into the Pegasus simultaneously.  It was clear that the attacks the creatures had been using before were merely probing strikes.  Now, it appeared, they had decided to get serious.
“Damn it!” shouted Lathrop.  “That last attacked dropped our shields to eighteen percent.  We definitely won’t be able to take another hit like that!”
Sovaal, as calm as a cliff facing the oncoming tide, said, “Arm a transphasic torpedo.”  Everyone on the bridge turned to look at him.  The transphasic torpedoes were by far the strongest weapons they had at their disposal, capable of destroying a Borg cube in one shot.  To bring them into play meant the captain felt things were dire indeed.
Commander Gabriel said, “Sir, are you sure?  We saw what happened with the quantums.”
Sovaal glanced at his first officer, and then spoke to Lathrop.  “Mr. Lathrop.  Target the center of the mass of creatures again.  This time, however, when the torpedo reaches that point, I want you to detonate it, even if there doesn’t appear to be anything there, which I expect will indeed be the case.  Ensign Tompkins, back us away at full impulse.”
Lathrop nodded and said, “Aye, sir.  Transphasic torpedo is armed.”
“Moving us away, sir,” said Tompkins, the nervousness in his voice clear.
“Fire,” said the captain.  They all watched as the single bright orange torpedo made its way toward the mass of creatures, still loosely in the shape of a larger version of the same.  As expected, the mass shifted around so that the torpedo would have passed harmlessly through the now empty center.  However, when the torpedo reached the designated coordinates, it erupted in a gargantuan explosion.  As they watched, the mass of creatures completely dissolved as anything resembling a cohesive unit, as those creatures that hadn’t been vaporized outright were forcibly expelled in every direction.
“Yes!” shouted Lathrop in triumph. “Got ’em!”
Star initially felt elated that they’d survived the battle, but her blood turned to ice as she surveyed her console.  “No!  We didn’t!  The entire swarm has turned and is now converging on the Pegasus!  Brace for impact!”  Barely had she gotten the word “impact” out of her mouth before the world turned completely upside down.  She was thrown clear of her chair and landed hard on her side between it and the helm console.  Sparks erupted from consoles all over the bridge and the lights went out completely, to be quickly replaced by the dimmer emergency lighting.
“Both warp and impulse engines are down!” cried out Tompkins as he tried to regain his seat at the helm console.
“Weapons are offline!” shouted Lathrop.  “Shields are gone!  We’ve got multiple hull breaches all over the ship!”
In fact, one such hull breach was opening up right there on the bridge, just above the view screen.  Already, the effects of explosive decompression were playing havoc with the bridge interior.  For some reason, the emergency force fields which should have automatically snapped into place at the first sign of a hull breach were not working.
“Strider!” shouted Gabriel.  “Emergency force fields!  Now!”
However, before she could regain her seat and manually activate the force fields, she heard a shriek of terror.  Turning her head, she saw Ensign Tompkins being forcibly ripped from his seat and about to be sucked out of the widening hull breach.  Once again acting before considering what she was doing, Star leapt up from the floor and hurled herself at Tompkins.  Vaguely hearing the captain’s stern orders for her to return to her post and get the force fields up, she ignored him and just managed to sink her teeth into one of the legs of Tompkins’s pants, briefly stopping him from being expelled out into open space.  However, now there was the not insignificant problem of her very quickly losing her own hold on the helm console.  Not able to think of anything else to do in the seconds remaining to her, she once again unleashed her magic and brought her shield to life once again, just as she lost her grip and started to tumble out of the ship, along with Tompkins.  Now, both she and the helmsman were floating in what remained of the air, roughly banging against what was left of the ceiling of the bridge.  The only thing preventing them both from being sucked out to their deaths was Star’s shield, as the hull breach was not yet wide enough to allow it passage, though the aliens just outside, terrifyingly visible through the breach, were clearly working to remedy that as quickly as they could.  Star tried to elongate and flatten the shield to make it harder to pass through the breach (or for the aliens to get inside), at least as much as she could without crushing herself and Tompkins, but she knew it was a battle she’d lose before too long.
Over the din of the air violently evacuating itself into space around her shield, she dimly heard the captain ordering Lathrop to reroute her console to his and get the emergency force fields up immediately.  Anything else that he might have said, however, was drowned out by a sudden shriek similar to the one they’d heard on the listening post, which was once again followed by the sounds of clicking and chittering.  It seemed to be mostly coming through their communications system, but Star could almost swear she heard it emanating from the several aliens that were just outside of the bridge as well.
Finally, the force fields snapped into place around the hull breach and Star dropped to the floor along with Tompkins, whose pants leg she was still holding tightly in her teeth.  As soon as they hit the floor, she felt her shield involuntarily wink out.  The force fields were holding in what was left of the air and preventing further degradation of the hull, but Star knew it was only a very temporary reprieve.  The Pegasus would soon be destroyed by the aliens and there was not a single thing she or anyone else could do to prevent it.  Some maiden voyage this had turned out to be.  She released her grip on Tompkins as her vision began to blur and when she tried to stand up, her knees buckled and she toppled over onto her side.  Star’s last thoughts as she lost consciousness were apologies to her father, because she now knew that he had been absolutely right, after all.  She was about to die in space, just as he had feared.



Star felt something tickling her face and her eyes fluttered open.  Hovering only an inch or two above her face was the head of a large cat.  Her eyes widened and she raised her head up as the face moved away from her.
“Sorry about that,” said a female voice issuing out of the mouth of the large cat.  “Got a bit too close there.  Didn’t mean to wake you.  Though, to be fair, you have been out for quite a while, so it’s good that you’re finally awake now.”  Star noticed that the voice had a bit of an accent that tended to roll the Rs and lengthen the Ss more than was typical.
“Who… wha… where…?” said Star.  She tried to move but found that she was being partially restrained by the monitoring equipment on the biobed upon which she was currently laying.  Well, that at least answered the question of where:  Sickbay.
The large cat, which Star now recognized as being a member of the Caitian species, regarded the pony for a long moment before speaking, giving Star plenty of time to study her in return.  She was a bipedal humanoid but with her body covered in fur, or at least that which was visible outside of her uniform anyway, though Star knew that, like herself, the Caitian’s entire body was indeed completely covered in fur even under the uniform.  The unicorn idly wondered if it chafed the Caitian as much as it did her.  That which was visible encompassed her head, hands, legs, and feet, given that her uniform seemed specially designed to include a skirt that ended just above her knees, but didn’t include boots at all.  Standard boots wouldn’t have fit very well on her feline paws anyway, any more than they would have fit over Star’s hooves.  The uniform was otherwise the same black and gray as what everyone wore, but with a blue undershirt, indicating that the Caitian was either in the Science department or, much more likely given that this was Sickbay, the Medical department.  As for her fur, it was mostly black, but mottled with specks of varying shades of gray here and there as well.  The lion-like mane covering her head, however, was silver, in stark contrast to the rest of her.  It ballooned out around the top of her head and her long pointed ears, but from the nape of her neck down to the small of her back, the mane was bound in a tight braid.  It was a few loose strands of this which had tickled Star’s nose earlier.  A few centimeters below the end of the braid was the beginning of her tail, a long and slender thing the same mostly black color as the rest of her fur, except for the tuft at the end of it which was the same color as her silver mane.
“As you’ve probably already realized, you are in Sickbay,” the Caitian finally said, after finishing studying the biobed instrument panel.  “You’ve been out for almost two days now.  And, to answer your first question last, I am Dr. M’rrre.  I’m the chief medical officer for the Pegasus.”
Star tried to wrap her mouth around the name.  “Muh… Mur…”
“Don’t try to say it,” said the doctor.  “You’ll just give yourself a headache.  You can simply call me Doctor Marie, as just about everyone else on the ship does.”
The unicorn groaned and laid her head back on the bed.  “Well, it’s too late on the headache, Doctor Marie.  I feel like my horn is about to detach from my head, launch itself across the room, and embed itself in the wall.”
“Hmm, yeah,” said M’rrre, “I was afraid that might be the case when you woke up.  I have to admit that I’m not quite as familiar with pony physiology as I should be, yet anyway, but I know enough to recognize that you put quite the strain on your abilities in a short time.  Here, I’ll give you something that will hopefully ease the headache.”  She took up a hypospray, checked the vial that was inserted into the end, nodded to herself that it was correct, and then placed it against Star’s throat.
As the hypospray hissed and released the medication into Star’s bloodstream, she felt immediate though not complete relief.  “That’s a lot better,” she said.  “Thanks.”
“Need anything else?” asked the Caitian.
Star swallowed and noted that her throat was rather dry.  “Could I get a glass of water, please?”
“Not a problem,” said M’rrre, moving out of the unicorn’s currently limited range of vision.  “Be back in a sec.”  Star heard the buzz of a replicator, and then the doctor came back with a glass of water.  She held the glass for a moment, and then frowned.  “Hmm, I’m not sure exactly how to go about this, to be honest.  Normally, I’d just give the glass to you, but…”
Star smiled and said, “I can take it from here.”  She looked at the glass of water for a moment, and then her eyes widened in alarm.  “M-my magic!  It’s not working!  Not even my basic telekinesis!”
“Uh oh,” said M’rrre, frowning and looking at the instrument panel again.  “This is unexpected.  Has anything like this ever happened to you before?”
Star shook her head, feeling tears starting to form in her eyes.  “No, it hasn’t.  But I have heard stories of other unicorns that overtaxed their powers.  They got completely burned out and their magic was just… gone.  Sometimes it would come back in a few hours, but sometimes it took days... or longer.  S-sometimes it… it n-never came back.”
Dr. M’rrre tried to be as consoling as she could, though she knew she was pretty much out of her element when it came to things like pony magic.  “Don’t worry, Ensign Strider.  I’m sure you’ll be right as rain in no time.”
“You don’t understand, doctor,” said Star, trying her best to keep the hitch out of her voice.  “I’m practically an invalid now.  I can still walk around and such, but… I’m a unicorn, not an earth pony or a pegasus who has had a lifetime of practice manipulating things with my mouth and hooves!  If my magic doesn’t come back, I… I’ll be almost completely useless!  I mean… I could probably still manage to function at a basic level back home in Equestria, but as a Starfleet officer I’d be finished… before I’ve barely even started.”  And there it was, despite her best efforts, the hitch in her throat that was threatening to turn into a full blown sob.
The Caitian looked at the pony with nothing but compassion in her eyes.  “You’re not an invalid, Ensign Strider… Star.  May I call you Star?”  The unicorn gave a slight nod.  “Well, Star, we’ll get you through this, one way or another.  Here, have a drink of water.  I know this is a bit awkward, but…”  She held the glass to Star’s lips and slowly tilted it up to allow the unicorn to drink from it, before finally setting it aside.
Star swallowed the water and took a few deep breaths, deciding that the doctor was right.  Her momentary panic subsided.  Either her magic would come back or it wouldn’t, but she wasn’t going to lay around feeling sorry for herself.  If it came to it, she’d learn to live as the earth ponies did.  She’d burned herself out protecting her fellow shipmates, and if permanently losing her magic and having to leave Starfleet was the price she had to pay, then so be it.  At that thought, however, something else occurred to her.  “Um,” she said, “this might sound a bit strange, but… how are we not all dead now?  The last thing I remember is the ship being on the verge of destruction by those horrifying aliens that were attacking us.”
Dr. M’rrre tilted her head to the side.  “That’s still a bit of a mystery.  What I know is that just when it seemed like all was lost, the aliens sent out a broadcast of some sort that was heard all throughout the ship.  However, the transmission didn’t originate from the aliens that were swarming the Pegasus.  From what I understand, some sort of dimensional rift appeared in space a short distance from the ship, and that is where the signal came from.  The aliens immediately stopped attacking, detached themselves from our hull, and flew through the rift, which closed behind them.  We haven’t seen them since.  We’re running the transmission through the universal translators, hoping to make some sense of it, but so far they’re not having much luck.  The main computer was damaged pretty badly during the attack, along with everything else on the ship.”
The edges of Star’s mouth curled downward.  “So how bad is it, overall?”
The doctor sighed.  “All in all, pretty bad.  Most of the injuries aside from your own have been patched up, at least as well as they will be until we can get back to the starbase, but we lost thirty-seven members of the crew in the attack.  Fortunately, it was only the bridge force fields that malfunctioned when the hull ruptures started to occur, or else that number would have been a lot higher.  It was almost thirty-nine, even so, if what Ensign Tompkins says is true.  He has been repeatedly telling everyone within earshot the grand story of how you saved his life on the bridge.  For that matter, it’s a wonder that he isn’t here right now, in fact.  He’s been at your bedside almost constantly since the attack, but I guess the lack of sleep finally got to him.”
Star felt somewhat uncomfortable as she considered this.  “He… has?  Really?”
M’rrre looked a bit confused by this.  “You seem less than thrilled by that.”
The unicorn shook her head and sighed.  “Well, I’m not sure what to think, to be honest.  It’s just that… um… I think he’s a bit… er… infatuated with me.”
“Really now,” replied the Caitian, raising an eyebrow.  “Do tell.”  As Star told her of the encounter she’d had with the young human ensign in the lounge, M’rrre nodded and said, “Yes, I’d thought that the two of you were just close friends, but I think you might be right.  Well, even if he wasn’t before, it certainly seems like he might be now.  And this makes you feel uncomfortable, does it?”
Star nodded.  “Yeah, it does.  I mean, it’s kind of flattering and all, but…”
“You just don’t feel the same way about him, I take it,” said M’rrre.
“No,” said Star, with another sigh.  “I like him well enough as a friend, I guess, at least based on what little I know about him.  It’s just that it seems like he might have had these feelings for me even before I actually met him, at least judging from how he was talking about seeing me at the Academy and such.  And then, when he started talking about… um… my flank... it was more than a little embarrassing.  For both of us.”
“This could be something of a problem, then,” said M’rrre, clicking her tongue.  “Well, I don’t know what to tell you, really, except to try to let him down easy.  He really does seem like a nice enough young human, and I’d hate to see him hurt too much.  If you want, I could speak to him on your behalf.”
The unicorn took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  “No… I’ll handle it myself.  If it comes to that, I’ll try my best to make it as painless as I can.  Like I said, I don’t dislike him… I just don’t… like him, at least not in that way.”  She shook her head and decided to change the subject entirely.  “So how is the ship itself?  I’m guessing we’re headed back to Deep Space Twenty for repairs?”
Dr. M’rrre nodded.  “We are, though not under our own power.  The warp engines are still down.  They got the impulse drive back up, barely, for what good that does since it would have taken us years to get back to the starbase under impulse power.  As of now, we are being towed back to DS20 by the USS Crazy Horse.  We should be there in about a day or so.”
Star raised an eyebrow.  “Wait… seriously?”
“What is it?” asked M’rrre in confusion.
“The Crazy Horse?” asked Star, with a slight smirk.  “The Pegasus is being towed by the Crazy Horse.”
“Yes, that’s right,” said the doctor, still confused.  “I don’t understa-”  Then a look of dawning comprehension came over her face.  “Ah.  Heh heh.  Yeah, I suppose I can see why that might be particularly amusing to you.”
Star chuckled and started to reply, but was cut off when a voice from someone outside of her field of view said, “Doctor M’rrre, would you please excuse us for a moment?  I would like to have a word with Ensign Strider in private.”
The Caitian turned her head to look at someone standing behind Star’s bed and said, “Yes, Captain.”  Turning back to Star, she added, “I’ll be in my office if you need me.”  Star watched as the doctor made her way over to her glass walled office, just before the view was blocked by another moving to take the Caitian’s place.
Captain Sovaal, the Vulcan commanding officer of the USS Pegasus, regarded her coolly.  He had black hair in the same short-cropped hairstyle that was favored by his people, which accentuated his pointed ears.  He seemed somewhat young for one of his species, but Star knew that looks could be deceiving when it came to Vulcans.  He could be well over one hundred years old, for all she knew, and it was likely that he was.
“Ensign Strider,” he said, finally.  “It is good to see you awake.  I trust that you are doing well, relatively speaking?”
“I’m feeling okay,” said Star, a bit nervously.  This was the first time that the captain had spoken to her, at least in a non-emergency setting, anyway.  “Well, my magic is burned out and we don’t know when… or if… it will return, but aside from that…”
“That is unfortunate to hear,” said Sovaal.  “It is, however, the use of your magic that I came to discuss, at least in part.  First of all, I wish to commend you for saving the life of Ensign Tompkins as well as those of the away team.”  Star started to smile as the captain spoke, but that smile froze and then faded completely at his next words.  “However, there is an issue of some concern that I must address.  On two separate occasions, once during the away mission and once again on the bridge, you abandoned your post to act independently, ignoring direct orders from both myself and Commander Gabriel.  What do you have to say for yourself?  Permission to speak freely granted.”
“I…” said Star, suddenly finding herself all but completely tongue-tied.  “I…”  She paused and took a deep breath before trying again.  “In the first instance, I knew that the force fields were a lost cause, and if I hadn’t acted as I did, the away team would have been overrun.  In the second instance, I responded instinctively to Tompkins’s cry as he was being pulled out of the ship.  M-my actions saved his life, sir.”
“Be that as it may,” said the Vulcan, “you still disobeyed direct orders to raise the emergency force fields.  Had you promptly acted as instructed, they would have been in place before Tompkins was in danger of being pulled from the ship.  Ensign Strider, I acknowledge that your actions resulted in saving lives in both cases, which is again commendable.  However, there is no guarantee that such impulsive behavior will have similarly favorable results in the future.  I will refrain from putting an official reprimand on your record for disobeying my direct orders in this instance, but from now on, I expect you to consider your actions more carefully before you decide to ignore me or other superior officers.  Is that clear?”
Star looked at the captain for a bit before answering.  Trying to keep the whimper out of her voice, she meekly nodded and said, “Y-yes, sir.”
Sovaal nodded in return.  “Then we have an understanding.  Now, I should inform you that we will be arriving at Deep Space Twenty in approximately nineteen hours.  I estimate that the repairs to the Pegasus will take at least a full two weeks to complete.  As such, I am giving all non-essential personnel a temporary furlough while the ship is in dry dock.  Given that Deep Space Twenty is in orbit around your homeworld of Equus III, this will give you an opportunity to visit your home and family, if you wish.”
Star tried to keep her face as impassive as she possibly could.  “Thank you, sir,” was all she said in response.
“Then I will leave you to your recovery,” said the Vulcan.  “Given your condition, you are officially relieved of duty as of this moment.  Report back to me in fifteen days.  If your situation still remains unchanged at that point in time, we will evaluate what your role as a member of this crew will be then.”  With that, he turned and made for the exit of Sickbay.
Almost before the captain had even reached the doorway, Dr. M’rrre was back at Star’s bedside once more.  She was glaring after the departing Vulcan, a look of anger clearly etched into her feline facial features.  She waited until the captain was completely out of the room before cutting loose.  “I can’t believe he did that,” she said, her hands balled into fists at her sides and her tail whipping back in forth in agitation.  “You’ve only just awakened.  He could have at least waited until you were out of the biobed.  How in the hell did he even know you were awake to begin with?”  Star was shocked at the doctor’s demeanor, and this must have been evident by the look on her face, because the doctor added, “He forgets that Caitian ears are better by far than even Vulcan ones.  I heard every word he said.”  She turned to face the unicorn more fully and said, “I’m sorry.  I really shouldn’t be speaking ill of the captain behind his back like this, but I often feel that some of the things he does, based on that blasted Vulcan logic, is just pure ice.  I’ve served with Captain Sovaal for about twelve years, and you’d think I’d be used to this sort of thing by now, but apparently not.”
Star shook her head, partly still in shock at the doctor’s anger and partly in response to how she’d felt while the captain dressed her down earlier.  “Captain Sovaal doesn’t like me very much, does he?” she said softly.
M’rrre smirked and said, “No, he doesn’t.”  At the look on Star’s face, the Caitian chuckled and added, “However, he doesn’t dislike you, either.  He’s a Vulcan, remember?  They have no real use for ‘liking’ and ‘disliking’ people in that way.  That said, however, you do seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot with him.  Don’t feel too bad about it.  And yet, he must like you at least a little, considering he didn’t even bother to give you a formal reprimand.  He’s quite the stickler for rules and regulations, as I’m sure you’ll realize for yourself soon enough, if you haven’t already.  For what it’s worth, I was almost afraid he was going to have me thrown in the brig after one of our more… heated discussions.  It’s a long story.  I might even tell it to you someday.”
Star was reeling, still trying to process everything that had occurred in the past few minutes.  “I thought I was doing the right thing.  Sure, I did disobey his orders, but if I hadn’t grabbed Tompkins, he would have…”
“Don’t worry so much about it,” said M’rrre.  “What’s done is done, and if you ask me, I think you did the right thing, orders be damned.  Just… don’t tell the captain I said that, okay?”
“I… I won’t,” said the unicorn.
Dr. M’rrre nodded and gave the unicorn a lopsided smile.  “Thank you.  I don’t need another reprimand from him on my record.”  She considered the pony for a bit longer, and then added, “There is one thing he said that I do agree with, however.”
“What’s that?” asked Star.
“You should go home and visit with your family and friends while you have the opportunity,” said the doctor.  “You never know when you’ll have the chance to do so again.  Had this mission gone as planned, it probably would have been several months at least before you had this chance.”
Star once again felt conflicting emotions battling for control of the features on her face, and tried to keep them as still as possible.
“All right,” said the Caitian, crossing her arms in front of her.  “There’s something clearly troubling you about the idea of going home.  What’s wrong?”
Star sighed and turned her eyes away from the doctor.  “I… well… things didn’t go so well the last time I saw my parents.  We had a terrible argument.  I feel horrible about it now, but I haven’t had a chance to make things right with them, and… I don’t know if I’m ready to face them again.”
Dr. M’rrre nodded sympathetically and said, “Family trouble.  I can understand that.  How long has it been since you were last at home?”
Star looked back at the doctor in a bit of embarrassment.  “Well… it was right before I left to attend Starfleet Academy.”
The Caitian’s mouth dropped open in shock, allowing Star a nice view of her long, sharp teeth.  “You mean you haven’t been home at all in over four years?”
The unicorn slowly and reluctantly shook her head in the negative.
“Even though you were just a short thirty minute shuttle ride through the portal away from them?” asked the doctor incredulously.
Star silently shook her head a second time.
“Have you at least called them at all?” asked M’rrre.
Star shook her head again, knowing that the doctor must think she was awful.
“Have they called you?” asked the doctor.
Star shrugged and turned her eyes away again.  “They… might have left a message or two during the first year… that I deleted in a fit of anger and immaturity without even listening to them.  Eventually, they stopped trying.  And by that point, I didn’t feel right about trying to call them myself.”
Dr. M’rrre just stared at the unicorn for several moments in exasperation, and then shook her head.  “Well, that settles it.”
Star blinked and looked back at the doctor.  “It does?  Wait, settles what?”
In a firm, no nonsense tone of voice, the Caitian doctor said, “When we get back to Deep Space Twenty, you are going to beam down to that planet and you are going to visit your family.  You are to heal the rift between you and your parents at the same time you heal your body and magic.  You can consider that to be the prescription from your doctor, as well as a direct order from a superior officer, one which I hope you won’t decide to disobey this time.  I don’t even care if you’re technically on leave now.”
Star stared at M’rrre for several seconds, and then nodded meekly.  “Yes, doctor.  I’ll… do what I can.  Honestly, I know I’ve been avoiding this for far too long.”
“Well, now you no longer have an excuse,” said the doctor.  She gave the instrument panel on the biobed one last, long look, and then pressed a button on the side, causing the panel to retract into the sides of the bed. “Also, I no longer have an excuse to keep you cooped up in Sickbay, so I’ll release you now.  But I expect to see you bright and early tomorrow morning.  I’ll be seeing you down to the planet myself.”
The unicorn raised an eyebrow and asked, “Is… is that really necessary?  Do you really think I’m going to try to skip out on it?”
M’rrre shook her head.  “No, I don’t, not really.  It’s just… well… you seem like a good kid, Star, and I like you.  You kind of remind me of me when I was your age.  I didn’t always have the best relationship with my own parents, so I do know how that can be.  What I also know, though, is that once we finally got over our issues and worked things out, it was one of the best feelings in the galaxy.  Trust me.  I’m sure it’ll all work out for you in the end.”
Star smiled and said, “I hope you’re right, Doctor Marie.”
“I know I’m right,” said the Caitian, returning the smile.  “Now go on.  Get out of here.  There’s nothing more I can do for you here, so just try to get some rest in your quarters or something until we get to DS20.”



“Personal log.  Ensign Star Strider.  Stardate 66049.15
“…
“…
“Well, this day certainly ended far more differently than I could have ever imagined.  Actually, no, it’s not even the same day anymore, given that I was apparently unconscious for almost two days.
“It’s been several hours since I regained consciousness in Sickbay.  I told myself I wasn’t going to just lie around and feel sorry for myself, but despite that, I haven’t really done much aside from mope around in my quarters.  It kind of sucks, though, because all the holo-emitters have been taken offline to conserve power, so I’m stuck with the boring, gray, Starfleet default quarters again.
“I did make a trip down to the lounge to try to shake things up a bit, but I ran into Ensign Tompkins while I was there.  He seemed even more bashful around me than he was during our first encounter and didn’t really say much at all, partially due to his horror and guilt at the news that I’d burned out my magic while saving him, though I tried to assure him it wasn’t his fault… and partially due to… well… you know.  Anyway, it was a good thing that he was so quiet, since I wasn’t really in much of a mood to talk to him either.  As I finally got up to leave, however, he stammered out an invitation for me to join him for a drink at some bar somewhere on Deep Space Twenty, once we get there.  It seems harmless enough and, to be honest, I could use an excuse to put off heading down to the planet itself for a bit longer.  I’m sure Doctor Marie won’t mind a small delay, much.  Don’t get me wrong.  I have no intention of stringing him along or toying with his apparent affections for me.  It’s just that I… well… I simply don’t have the stamina to deal with all of this right now.  We’ll see how things go tomorrow, though.  I might have to deal with it, regardless.
“…
“…
“So I listened to my previous log just before starting on this one, and my mood couldn’t have been any more the polar opposite then to what it is now.  I was so excited before, but now…
“A strange new alien threat that nobody has ever seen before… the ship almost destroyed on its maiden voyage… my magic gone… a dressing down by the captain for disobeying orders… and, most distressingly… I have to go home now.
“Though I miss my parents terribly, I still don’t look forward to it.  I mean, what am I going to say to them after so long?  What can I say after so long?  After the ugliness that passed between us?  And the worst part of it is that Doctor Marie was wrong.  I do have an excuse to put this off for a bit longer, and it’s actually a valid one this time.  No, I’m not talking about Tompkins’s invitation to that bar, either.  You see, I can’t actually go back home now even if I wanted to.  Not directly, anyway.  There’s somepony else I’m going to have to visit before I can even think about going home again, and the thought of that reunion is almost as intimidating as the one with my mom and dad.
“I… I really don’t know what the future holds for me anymore.  Things can change in the blink of an eye.  All I can do is move forward, one hoof at a time, and face what comes.  Will I be up to the challenge?  That remains to be seen, I guess.  Without my magic, I just don’t know.”




To be continued…