Chapter 1, I believe that wormhole is the word, Captain
"Captains log.
Stardate, 6873.5
It has been a week since the so called counter clock incident, where the ship, along with crew was sent into an alternate universe, where time flowed backwards at an accelerated rate, causing the crew to grow younger. However thanks to Commodore April, we managed to make it out, unscathed."
"We are, on route to Star Base K-4. To deliver wanted criminal, and public nuance Harcourt Fenton Mudd. This time for a relatively minor crime, for him any way, of selling illegal stock shares for the fictional ore known as "Unobtanium". He was arrested within minutes of his first presentation on the mining planet Sirus V. The sooner he is off of my ship, the sooner we might be able to get a real mission again."
Kirk slammed his thumb down on the stop button as he swiveled in his chair. "Wow, I'm bored."
Sulu rolled his eyes before refocusing on his control panels, knowing what was coming up next.
"Sulu, are we there yet?"
"No Captain, we are not there yet."
"Uhura? Any word from Starfleet?"
Lieutenant Uhura turned in her seat to address the captain, "No sir, no word from Starfleet."
Captain Kirk groaned and began to drum his fingers on the arms of his chair, he then hit the button to communicate with engineering, "Scott, how are the engines doing?"
Mr. Scott's voice came out of the small speaker, "Engines are fine, and the dilithium crystals are holding up well."
Kirk groaned to himself, "Alright, as you were." Smacking down on the button to disrupt communications he threw his hands over his face, "This is the part I hate the most, the boredom between trips."
The captain stood up from his seat, "I'm going to take some personal time, Spock you have command."
The Vulcan stood and made his way to the captains chair, "Aye captain."
Kirk's mind was troubled as he went down in the turbo lifts, and as minds tend to do, his began to wander, Maybe Bones isn't too busy, then we can go to the rec room, maybe have a quick drink or something. Yeah, that sounds like something to kill time.
"Personal log, Ensign Ricky Smith, Star Date 6873.5
I have been on the Enterprise for almost a little over a year, again I must confess that the rumors about it seem to be true. This ship eats up and spits out everyone in a red uniform like its nobody's business. I have sent in a notice of transfer, and will be leaving this death trap at Station K-4."
Ricky sighed to himself as he ended the log, turned over on his rack to face the opposite wall of his quarters. A big poster showing a member of Starfleet pointed at him with the caption underneath, REMEMBER, YOU ARE EXPENDABLE!
"Yeah, that's comforting." he then pulled a monitor on an adjustable arm closer to him so he can scan the ships leisure tapes to see what he could watch in his off time.
The screen showed some images of entertainment that were deemed good enough for the crew to watch while on board. Some of which were Shakespearean plays that were recorded for replay on the ship, other things were some of the cultural films from other planets, most of which Ricky had never heard about before.
Finally he found a small collection of animated films from Earth, he grinned to himself as he found a collection of old Disney shorts. He ordered the computer to play all cartoons, and shut his mind off.
On his screen Mickey Mouse was dancing at what looked like a party of some sort, but he wasn't actually paying any attention, instead his mind drifted about. His eye caught glance again at the poster on his wall and he started to laugh aloud, "What was it that Johnny said?"
Johnny Miller pulled down on his red shirt to make it look smooth, "Now look kid, don't bother to change your underpants before an away mission, odds are your just going to soil them on the way out to pasture."
Ricky smiled despite himself, "Poor guy was starting to smell so bad that Mister Scott dumped him into a water tank to get rid of the smell. Wow that was funny. Too bad about him getting into that transporter accident, rest his particles."
The screen continued to show cartoon characters bouncing away to the music in their odd way as his eyes drifted closed. "Well, we are only about three hours away from the station, hopefully the universe won't jinx me and have the Enterprise stop anywhere on the way. Then I can get on a safer ship, like the Lexington or the Hood."
The black and white cartoon characters were still playing on the screen before him, he smiled back at them for their effort, "Yeah nothing should go wrong."
It was times like these that Kirk lived for.
Or just really rather enjoyed. Either way he was enjoying himself in the holodeck. He was surrounded by the peaceful woods of Earth in the summer time, all the while riding a white stallion. Truly this was the best way to relax for an hour. Up ahead he saw the path curve back to a country club, he grinned and snapped the reigns to make the horse gallop faster.
Suddenly everything, horse included decided to disappear into thin air, leaving Kirk to fall on his ass as Uhura's voice came in over the speakers, "Bridge to Captain Kirk, come in Captain Kirk."
Kirk groaned as he made his way over to the control panel on the wall and found the button to activate communication, "Kirk here."
"Sir, I am getting a message from Starfleet, they wish to speak with you."
Kirk leaned his arm against the wall, and rested his head against it in a practiced casual manner, "Patch it through."
Silence cackled for a few moments over the speaker before a new voice came through, "Kirk? This is Admiral Prat."
"This is Captain Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise. What, is, going on?"
The Admiral paused for a breath before finally speaking to the Captain, "We are getting word that there is an anomaly in your sector, almost directly in the way of your course. We need you to examine it and get as much data as possible before it disappears. Do you think you can handle it?"
Kirk thought it over as he rubbed his chin, "On one hand we are over due for docking repairs as it is, the sooner I get Mudd of my ship the sooner we can go home. But on the other hand, this is the most exciting thing to happen to me in a few weeks; The Enterprise crew will be informed about the change in 10 minutes, send coordinates to our ships navigator. Kirk out." He punched the button down to cut communications as he exited the halodeck.
The captain stepped out of the turbo lifts and made his way over to the Captain's chair, which Spock promptly got out of, "Sir we have already received a transmission of the coordinates and are making our way now."
Kirk rubbed his hands together, nearly cackling in excitement, "Excellent Mister Spock, have we let the rest of the crew know what is going on yet?"
"Negative, I believed that you wanted to do that, Captain."
Kirk grinned as he punched a set of buttons on his seat, "You assumed correct," a small light turned on to let him know that the whole ship can hear him, "This is the Captain speaking, as of oh nine hundred fifteen, we have changed course. We, are now headed, to check an anomaly that appeared on the star charts at oh nine hundred and ten before we stop at Station K-4. I, know that some of you, were looking forward to some down time. But it is going to have to wait. As of now, we are on yellow alert. All active crew are to report to their posts. That is all, Kirk out."
Kirk then pushed a few more buttons on his console before speaking into it, "Yeoman, bring me the roster for anomaly, and probe technical specialists."
A female voice quickly responded, "Yes Sir." before the speaker cut off.
Shortly afterward a woman in a blue uniform stepped out of the turbo lifts and handed Kirk a clip board with only one sheet of paper, "These are all the crew currently on board that know how to operate a manned probe, and are experts on worm holes, black holes and other unusual anomalies found in space."
Kirk took the clip board and smiled at her as she left, "Thank you Yeoman." He then glanced down the fairly short list of names, "Lets see, dead, dead, dead, Spock, dead... Ah here's one that's still among the living, Ensign Ricky Smith."
Spock raised an eyebrow at the captain, "Sir, Ensign Ricky Smith is off duty at the moment, and has been granted a ships transfer. His mind might not be on the job."
The Captain passed the clipboard back to the Yeoman and smiled at her, "Listen... Spock. I think that my experience as Captain of the Enterprise over the last few years has taught me a few things." He winked slyly at the yeoman as she exited the bridge. "One of which is nothing can't be solved by throwing a few red shirts at it."
Spock gave his captain a look of suspicion, "Sir, I believe that is how we lose most of our crew, because they lack knowledge that a more seasoned crew member would-"
"Mister Spock please be quiet. She said that he's an expert. It's just a quick job and he can go back to hiding in his room on the way to the station. Nothing can go wrong!"
At that moment, the universe chuckled at Kirk, and began to debate what it could throw at the Enterprise just to prove him wrong. Suddenly, it was distracted by something incredibly shiny, and stared at it with all the wonder of a child with too much sugar as Kirk and crew plotted their way over to the latest strange, and unusual fluctuation that the Milky Way Galaxy had to offer them.
A half hour later, Ricky finally tumbled out of his sleeping rack and started to search for a clean uniform shirt. He searched in the drawers for a few moments before finding a folded red shirt and slipping it on over his black under shirt. "Better go get some free chow before I hit the station, foods always expensive at those places."
Rick paused as he looked at himself in the mirror, he wasn't an overly handsome man by any means. He was just shy of six feet tall, and had a pale complexion. His brown eyes were dull from the year on the Enterprise, seeing so many friends come and go on the ship. He gave off a sigh and ran a comb through his black hair and gave off a small smile to himself, "At least I won't have to do anything on this mission. Just relax and let someone else handle this, then I'll be at station K-4 before I know it."
He walked to the sliding doors and gave a look to the left, then to the right. Seeing that the coast was clear, Ricky exited and made his way to the dining hall as quick as he could.
The halls had a slight curve as they went around the saucer of the ship, with straight lined halls crisscrossing every once in a while, he made a left turn and went down another hall before making a right and going past five doors before coming to the open door for the crew dining hall.
Ricky could hear the voices of other crew members carrying on, laughing at jokes and talking about some mindless chit chat. When the ensign walked through the doorway, a deathly silence settled over the room.
Rick raised an eyebrow as he stepped over to the food replicator and pressed a few buttons on the computer, after a few whirring and clicking sounds a door slid up revealing a tray with salad and coffee. He grabbed the tray and turned about to find a seat.
Across the room he spotted a few other red shirts hanging out and eating their meals, Ricky walked over to them, "Hey Bill, Roy, Ted, Mind if I join you guys?"
They looked at each other for a moment, a shared expression on their faces before Roy spoke up, "Actually, we're done here, you just enjoy your lunch. We gotta go back to our stations."
As they stood up to march out Ricky was unsure of what was going on, he grabbed Ted's shoulder, "Hey, whats going on man? We always hang out on breaks."
Ted squirmed under his grip, "Hey man look you've been marked! You were selected for a mission off the ship! Didn't you know that?"
Ricky gave off a laugh, "Your joking man. I already got granted a ship transfer, I'm off duty till I get on a new ship. Come on, quit kidding around."
Ted looked back at Roy and Bill for support, only to find that they left. "Look, the Yeoman is looking for you, if you don't report to your station they are going to call you out. Come on, let me go..." He gave Ricky a desperate look as the grip on him loosened, giving Ted a chance to slip away.
Rick sat down and stared at his tray, "It can't be true, can it? No... I'm gonna just eat my salad, and nothing's going to happen. I'm going to go back to my room and wait for this ship to get moving again. Simple as that."
He began to stab at the salad, but couldn't find the will to eat the green leafy meal any more, and just sipped on his cup of coffee, "ATTENTION! WILL ENSIGN RICKY SMITH PLEASE REPORT TO DOCKING BAY! RICKY SMITH TO DOCKING BAY. THANK YOU."
Ricky stood up and looked at his salad, "This is it, this is how I die, no great last words, no grand last meal, an uneaten salad and guts full of nerves and coffee."
As he walked out the open doors a fellow red shirt hummed taps on a kazoo.
Ricky held up his ID Card to the scanner and waited for the sliding doors to open, "Come on, hurry up." The computer gave off a reading of his information spitting out facts about Ricky's career, "JUST OPEN ALREADY!"
The doors complied and slid open allowing the Ensign into the docking bay. Mister Brown the dock master was looking over his control panel as he was supposed to. Ricky sat next to him, "So Jeff, what's going on?"
Jeff, to his credit didn't take his eyes off of the blinking lights of the computer control panel as he replied, "The ships Yeoman will be here in a moment, she just went to grab some last minute equipment you might need."
"Well that's just great. Why don't they just paint a target on my uniform while they are at it?"
As Rick sat down he looked over the control panel and pressed a few buttons to begin another log, "Ensign's log, stardate, supplemental. This may be the last time I get to make a log, as I am about to be briefed on a mission off board the Enterprise. I am not sure what exactly it is yet, but I am sure that it has to do with the announcement that the Captain made about a half hour ago. If I don't make it. I want it to be known that, this is all my dads fault for making me join Starfleet instead of letting me go to art school. Hope your proud of me."
With that he punched the stop button and leaned back in his chair as he waited for the Yeoman to step in.
The wait wasn't long, as the doors opened up to reveal the Yeoman making her way over to him. Ricky stood up from his chair at attention as she made his way over. "Ensign Smith I assume?"
"Yes ma'am, what are your orders?"
The Yeoman showed the briefest glimmer of a smile before she continued, "Good to see you are professional about this. Anyhow Ensign, your mission is simple, in about three minutes we are going to approach the latest anomaly to grace our galaxy. As of now, it has been named it E.Q. Four. You will go into shuttle craft twelve, and use its specialized on board probing and scanning equipment to get as much information on it as possible, and most importantly to let us know if it is moving, or dangerous. Do you understand?"
Ricky nodded his head. "Good, now you will be within the limits of the tractor beam in case something should go awry, and in direct communication with the bridge. Do you have any questions?"
He shook his head, "No ma'am, no questions."
"Good, now I just got back from a supply closet, and brought you some rations, and a charged phaser, the rations are for you while you're out there, but the phaser is to add to the emergency kit, the one on board might be dead. Also I have a tricorder for you to use for more in depth scanning if you need it, if not just add it to the landing party kit, understand?"
Ricky nodded and grabbed the items, "Anything else ma'am?"
The Yeoman smiled, "Yeah, try not to worry so much. You trained for this kind of mission, it should be a piece of cake." She patted him on the shoulder in what was supposed to be a comforting way. Ricky however could tell that the person that the Yeoman was trying to comfort was not Ricky, but herself.
"This is the Captain speaking, we are now stopped within range of the anomaly. Is the probe operator ready?"
The Yeoman hit the button on the wall, "This is Yeoman Bowser, we are ready and will be launching as soon as the Dock Master gives us the all clear signal."
"Thank you Yeoman, Kirk out."
Ricky opened the door to his shuttle craft and made his way inside, quickly placing the rations on one of the passenger seats he found his way over to a panel on the wall and slid it open. He gently placed the phaser inside the emergency kit and closed it up.
The Ensign walked to the front and sat in the pilots chair before activating the shuttle's control panels. Pressing a button he was patched in to the Dock Master, "Control this is Shuttle Craft Copernicus, requesting permission to exit shuttle bay. Oh please oh please deny me, for any reason at all, stuck doors, technical difficulties. Just anything to keep me here."
"Permission granted, good luck Ensign Smith."
"Thank you." Ricky smacked down on the button to silence communication. "Lets get this over with."
All eyes were on the viewing screen on the bridge. That is, all except for one pair that were looking at his scanner.
Captain Kirk smiled a bit as he sat in his seat and looked at the anomaly, "So... Spock, do you have anything on that... Thing?"
Spock raised an eyebrow as he turned to Kirk, "I believe that wormhole is the word, Captain."
Kirk nodded, "Yes. That. Anything you can tell me about it Mister Spock?"
The half Vulcan took a breath before he started, "Nothing that we didn't already know visually Captain. E.Q. Four is a class one size worm hole. When the shuttle probe is within scanning range we will have more information available.
Kirk smiled a little bit as he nodded. Then hit a button on the arm of his chair, "Scottie, anything to report down there?"
"Aye, the anomaly is making the power fluctuate slightly Captain, but it shouldn' be anything to worry about."
Uhura turned to Kirk as she listened in one ear, "Sir, transmission from the shuttle craft."
"Put it on bridge speaker." Uhura nodded and pressed a few buttons, Moments later Ensign Ricky's voice was coming out of the speakers.
"Copernicus to Enterprise, can you read me?"
"Kirk here, we read you. How are things looking?"
"Well sir, instrument readings are off the charts, according to the data this thing actually goes somewhere."
Spock kept a straight face as he continued to look at his own scanner, "Fascinating."
Kirk leaned forward in his seat as he put his hand to his chin, "Ensign, is there any way of knowing where it goes, and is it stable?"
Silence hung in the air for a few moments before Ricky's voice echoed across the bridge, "According to the read outs I am getting, It can be done, but without knowing what is on the other side, it may have its own laws of physics beyond what we understand. A ship might become an egg or anything else, the laws of that universe rule wherever we would go."
Kirk nodded, "I see. Anything else?"
"No sir, attempting to transmit data to ships computers."
That's when it happened, for a brief moment, the lights flickered off on the Enterprise. "Sulu, what was that?"
Mister Sulu looked into his tactical computer to get a read out, "According to this, the anomaly is beginning to actively pull the Enterprise in. With the anomaly causing ship wide power flux we must pull back the shuttle probe before we lose it forever."
Kirk nodded and leaned into his chair speaker system. "Did you hear that Ensign? Time to come back. We can transfer manually once you're on board."
"Copy sir. Coming back."
The radio cut out as the crew continued about their business, before suddenly a more panicked voice came over the speakers, "Copernicus to Enterprise, I am at full impulse power and I am still being drawn to the wormhole!"
Kirk reacted as swiftly as ever, "Mister Chekhov enable the tractor beam! Bring that shuttle back!"
The navigator and tactical officer started to mash down on some buttons to direct the beam to the small stranded shuttle, "Its no good captain, the shuttle, she is out of our reach!"
Kirk stood up from his chair, and proceeded to ask a very important question, "Do our transporters work still?"
Scottie came in over a speaker, "Aye Captain, for the moment. Do you want me to beam him back on board?"
Kirk then decided to follow up the most logical question with what must have been the stupidest thing ever uttered by a Captain, "Negative, I'm coming down to beam aboard that vessel, its information is too important to Starfleet." He then ran off into the turbo lifts and headed down to the transporter room.
Ricky could not help but stare at the worm hole as he got closer to it. He was moments away from being sucked in. "Enterprise, please beam me aboard."
Uhura's voice came in over the com, "Negative, we are beaming aboard the Captain to try to save you and the vessel. Remain calm and try to keep the shuttle craft in place."
The Ensign quickly adjusted the ships speed to keep it as much in place as possible without burning out the motors. "O.K. I have done all I know how to on this end, but I am still slowly falling into the wormhole."
Suddenly the glowing silhouette of Captain Kirk appeared in the passenger area of the shuttle craft. The form flickered a few times, as if the transporter was having difficulty. Finally after a tense ten seconds, Kirk fully formed and made his way to the front. "Did you try boosting power by shutting off all unnecessary equipment?"
Ricky nodded, "Yes I did. The only solution that I can think of would be to grab the tapes, beam aboard the ship and abandon the shuttle craft."
Kirk sat down in the pilots chair and started to press some buttons, "If we turn off life support for a few moments, and kill gravity on board I can direct all the power to impulse until we are in range of the Enterprise's tractor beam. Do we have any life support belts on this shuttle?"
Ricky quickly opened the emergency kit and pulled a pair out, "Fully charged and ready to go sir."
Kirk grabbed one and put it on, as Ricky did the same, "Activate your life belt, I am shutting off life support and gravity."
Ricky did so, and Kirk hit a button. Everything dimmed as power was diverted to the engines.
The shuttle shook for a few moments as it was held in place. Then it began to inch forward, Kirk opened up his personal communicator, "Kirk to bridge."
"This is the bridge, Spock speaking."
"Spock activate the tractor beam, we should be within your reach in moments."
"Tractor beam activated Captain. At your rate of speed you should reach it within thirty seconds."
Kirk smiled to himself as he folded up his communicator, "Wow, Captain. You did it! I thought for sure I was a goner, but you actually pulled this off!"
The shuttle jolted as it was taken up in the Enterprises tractor beam and steadily moved closer now. Kirk killed power to the engines and leaned back in the chair as they steadily got closer to the Enterprise, "Well, when you are Captain as long as I have, you learn a few tricks here and there."
Ricky looked out the viewing window at the Enterprise, I guess I was wrong, this wasn't so bad."
Then he noticed that the lights flickered out on the ship, for just a moment but that was all it took for the tractor beam to shut off, and send the powered down shuttle craft straight for the wormhole again.
Kirk ran to the controls and booted up the engines as fast as he could, but the shuttle was moving too fast to the wormhole at this point. He picked up his communicator and called into it as loud as he could, "Scottie, beam us back aboard now! We are getting sucked in and I have the tapes ejected from the console and ready to take with me!"
Silence greeted the two stranded men on the Copernicus. Finally after what felt like an eternity, a voice came in the cabin.
"I'm sorry Captain, transporter is down after that power failure. I'm working on it as fast as I can!"
Ricky and Kirk looked at each other as they drew ever closer to the wormhole at increasing speeds. Kirk talked back into his communicator, "As soon as you can, beam back Ensign Smith, I will wait for the next beaming if I must."
"It dosn' work that way Captain, I'm trying to stabilize power, but it keeps fluctuating before I can get a lock on you!"
"You mean..."
Silence greeted both of them as they careened to the edge of the wormhole. "I guess then, the Ensign and I are headed, where no man has gone before."
Ricky looked at Kirk with confusion as Kirk shut off his communicator, "Permission to speak freely Captain?"
Kirk looked over at him and gave off a small sad smile, "Granted."
Ricky frowned at him before taking a deep breath, "I always hated you. And now, because of you not listening to me the first time, we are going to die. Just thought that you ought to know."
Kirk nodded sagely, "Noted."
The small vessel fell into the center of the worm hole. It felt like they were being torn apart, streached and squashed in impossible ways as they traveled down the wormhole.
Ensign Ricky screamed the entire way.
It was another ordinary day for Fluttershy. There wasn't a sick hydra seeking medical attention, nor was Twilight going crazy with worry making the town fall apart, and most certainly Equestria was not in peril of becoming lost to an over powered nemesis of the country.
It was days like this that Fluttershy liked the most, quiet and peaceful.
The butter yellow pegasus sipped from a juice box and smiled as she watched her animals play in the garden, showing off little tricks to each other when suddenly a loud bang echoed across the sky.
The timid pony jumped before ducking under the garden table and stuttered to herself, "W-w-what was th-that?"
Angel Bunny hopped forward and looked off in the direction of the noise. His nose bounced up and down as he saw something falling from the sky. He bounced back to Fluttershy and pulled lightly on her mane to get her attention, pointing up at the falling object.
Fluttershy wasn't too keen on looking at first, but Angel's persistance paid off as she peeked her head out from the table to see what looked like a giant flaming white object falling down. "Oh Angel, what do you think it could be?"
She usually wasn't a curious pony, in fact she was quite the opposite. However, caution and curiosity fought a battle inside of Fluttershy before she came to an agreement with herself, "Maybe Twilight would know what it is."
And so, the pegasus flew off to the Library as fast as she dared to fly.
In the midst of the Everfree, shuttle craft NCC-1701/12 Copernicus lay smoking in a small crater, two members of Starfleet slumbered within.
Kirk was the first to rise, and streached his arms over his head with a yawn, "Wow, nothing like waking up unscathed after a life threatening situation to make you appreciate life." he started to stand up, and promptly fell on his face, "OW! What the, must have injured my legs." He looked down and saw that his uniform shirt was still clean and unripped, "Well that's just great, how am I supposed to fulfill my contractual obligation to at least once rip my shirt on every away mission now? Wait, did I lose weight?"
Kirk looked down and saw that his pants were indeed much larger than he remembered. He reached down with his hooves to readjust them to be tighter when something came across his mind, "Wait..."
Kirk tried again to stand up and his pants promptly fell to the ground causing him to trip over them and fall again to his face.
He was about to get back up, when Kirk saw a red shirt before his eyes, "Ricky, Ricky Smith? Wake up! We survived!"
Ricky grumbled as he turned over, his eyes opened to take in the sight of a tan pony with blue eyes and blondish brown hair, "Captain, you're a pony. I'm going to wake up in reality now so goodbye."
Kirk's eyes shifted as he looked at the off white pony with black hair, "Ensign, we survived the wormhole, and are now in another universe."
Ricky turned over and looked Kirk over again. Mild amusement began to enter his voice as he looked at his captain, "An alternate universe where you are a pony?"
"Yeah, about that..."
Ricky's gears finally began to turn in his head, as he added up two and two and got twenty two. Quickly he tried to stand up and also fell to his face, "Captain, I can't seem to stand up!"
"Just walk on all four of your hooves, and keep yourself together, there's no need to panic. Don't panic, for the love of god don't panic!"
Kirk then began to panic as Ricky stumbled on all fours to the back of the shuttle. Carefully using his hooves to slide the door open to the small ships head so he could use a mirror.
The mirror was much too high for Ricky to see himself in it from all fours, he reached his forehooves up and pulled himself upright with the sink to get a look at his face. An off white pony with a black mane looked back at him with mauve eyes.
Ensign Smith did not know what to say, and touched a hoof to his face to make sure it was real. When the reflection did the same, he said the first thing that came to his mind in as calm a voice as possible, "Captain, If we ever get back home, I want it to go on record that this is all your fault."