The Menagerie
“Hang on to something!” I shouted as another blast rocked us. “Computer, execute evasive maneuvers and return fire!”
“How did they find us?” Trixie demanded, grabbing a nearby railing for support.
“Those bastards we took down a few days ago must’ve…” I steadied myself as we absorbed another shot. “…must’ve spread the word!”
“Great! What do we do now?”
“That’s an easy one! We make ‘em pay for it! Computer, what's the weakest point on that ship?” I yelled over the bridge alarm.
“Scans show that the Orion vessel’s weakest point is their propulsion system.”
“Target it and fire phasers, full spread! Maybe that’ll slow ‘em down long enough for us to get away!”
“The Orion ship has been disabled.” I breathed a sigh of relief.
“About damn time. Computer, damage report.”
“Extensive damage to starboard nacelle and weapon systems.”
“Oh, that’s just perfect,” I groaned, adding a face-palm for good measure. “I don’t suppose we can go to warp.”
“Warp power is off-line due to extreme stress on relevant power systems. Unable to engage warp drive until power levels return to regular levels. Estimated time is five hours, 11 minutes.”
“Yeah, I figured. Do we have impulse?”
“Affirmative.”
“Good. What about weapons? Can we defend ourselves?”
“Phaser banks are operating at 31 percent. Shields down to 46 percent.”
“Well…at least we can still move,” I declared, falling back into my chair. I held my head in my hands as I tried to decide what to do next. It was incredibly frustrating, to say the least. Stranded in the middle of nowhere with the Orion Syndicate after us was the last place I wanted to be, especially when it placed Trixie in so much danger. “I suppose that’s something.”
“Oh yes, at least we can move!” Even knowing Trixie’s attitude as well as I did, the sharpness of her statement caught me off-guard. I mean, sure, we’d just been through a harrowing situation but we had prevailed, hadn’t we?
“W…what?” I asked, lifting my head out of my hands to look over at her.
“So we can move! Big deal! What’s gonna happen when those thugs come back to finish us off! What’ll we do then, huh?” she shouted accusingly.
“Look, just calm down. First, I’m gonna…”
“Gonna what? Look at you! You can hardly fight, you can barely fix anything, and you’re always getting Trixie into some kind of mess! What can you possibly do?”
That stung.
Like, really stung.
I just stared at my feet with a shocked expression, tears forming as her words embedded themselves in me like harpoons. One fell and hit the cold metal below, forming the beginning of a small, salty puddle between my feet. Another joined it and soon, there was a small stream running down my face as I lamented over how right she was. I was inept. What business did I have, trying to be something I wasn’t? I was no starship captain. Hell, I didn’t even deserve the lofty title of acting captain. Here I was trying to emulate the brave officers who kept the entire Quadrant secure, yet I was failing to keep one individual safe, a friend no less.
At the sight of my tears and the small lake forming on the floor, Trixie’s angry, frustrated expression softened, although it was hard to see through the salty waterfall. I wiped my eyes, choked back a pathetic sniffle, and walked dejectedly over to the turbolift. Her gaze followed me as I made the slow and painful journey past her.
“Cole…” she began, her tone considerably softer than before.
“No…you’re right,” I quietly cut her off. “What can I do?” With that, I entered the turbolift and upon reaching Deck 2, headed for my quarters.
***
Trixie’s heart raced as her mind swam with regret as she paced nervously outside Cole’s room. The words had just…escaped her and without meaning to do it, she had hurt him, and hurt him badly. Sure, he wasn’t perfect and did possess some strange traits and lacked the skills he probably should’ve acquired long ago…but that in no way justified the cruelty she’d subjected him to.
“You’re right. What can I do?” His words repeated themselves in her mind as she desperately sought a way to reconcile with her friend. Even as the scathing statement left her mouth, she wanted nothing more than to replace them with kind words of gratitude and encouragement, to let him know that she still believed in him. Most of all, she wanted to remind him of how thankful she was for always making her well-being his top priority.
And still, she paced, unable to knock on his door for fear of instant rejection of her olive branch. The last thing she wanted was to agitate the situation any more. He probably needed some time alone anyway. Running a hoof slowly down the door to Cole’s room with a sigh, she turned and headed for her own quarters.
***
My fitful sleep was cut short several hours after I’d fallen onto my bed by the ship’s alarm, forcing me to take a deep breath, wipe my tears away, and hurry to the bridge.
“Computer, report!”
“We are under attack.”
“Who this time?”
“The Orion ship.” Damnit, I was sure I’d bought us more time than that, I thought as I braced myself.
“Computer, target their life support systems! Let’s see them try to fight while they’re suffocating!” Had I been in a better frame of mind, I might’ve been appalled at my own actions. Taking a life was not something I ever wanted to get used to, so I kept the confrontations to a minimum whenever possible. However, in this case, my raging mind assured me that the ends completely justified the means.
“Transfer all available power to the weapons! Make them pay!” I cried as the Ranger maneuvered into position and bore down on the already-damaged Orion ship. Just a few more kilometers and they’d be in weapons range and I could finish this…10…7…5…
“What the…” I muttered as a strange rift suddenly appeared just off the Orion’s port bow. I watched in confusion as a vessel emerged. At least, it looked like a vessel. It didn’t resemble anything I’d ever heard of or seen before. It resembled an enormous metal ribcage slanting forwards, with a pointed spade-like bow and purple clouds emanating from the stern, obscuring the rest of the ship. “Holy shit!” I exclaimed as a piercing red beam obliterated the Orion ship in a single shot, reducing it to a floating pile of slag.
“Warning. New contact has weapons lock. Recommend evasive maneuvers.”
Damnit, I thought as I tried to execute a plan to save our asses. Nothing I tried seemed to do any good; the strange ship just kept advancing. Finally, I collapsed into my chair and simply stared at the viewscreen as it approached.
“Cole…?” I whipped around to face the source of the voice.
“Trixie? What are you doing here?” I asked in a tone of panic. It was then that I noticed the glowing Alicorn Amulet around her neck. Even though I had never seen her take it off, this was the first time I’d ever seen it shine with such…intensity. So powerful was the light that it nearly blinded me. I did my best to shield my eyes as I slowly made my way over to her. As I neared, I caught the look of fear in the young mare’s eyes and when I was but a couple feet away, I gave her a small smile and held a hand out to her.
“Cole! What’s going on? I’m not…what’s happ…aaaaaaahhhh!” she cried out as a strange light encircled around her.
“Trixie! No! What are you doing?!” I demanded as she began to fade. I ran at the encircling light but was thrown back to the floor. I could only watch helplessly as she tried desperately to fight the intrusive beam, closing her eyes and concentrating as hard as she could in an effort to defeat it. My eyes widened as she cried out and vanished completely, leaving me alone on my bridge.
“TRIXIE!” I yelled, slamming my fist on the floor as I sank to my knees, nearly overcome with emotion. Fortunately, I didn’t let myself wallow for too long. After a few moments, I slowly returned to my feet and went over to my chair. “Computer, find her! Now! Full spectrum scan!”
“Acknowledged.” I waited with bated breath as the computer did a deep scan of all nearby objects. Finally, a beep signaled the end of its search. “Trixie is on the unknown ship.”
“Where is it going?”
“The vessel is on a course towards the rift.”
“Follow it!” I ordered as the unknown vessel headed back to the portal. As the damaged Ranger followed, I tried my best to gather my thoughts. They could’ve easily destroyed us just like the Orion ship…but they didn’t. I wondered if the Alicorn Amulet had anything to do with it. Maybe they sensed its energy properties and didn’t want to risk damaging it by destroying the ship carrying it. But if that was the case, then why take Trixie? Why not simply transport the Amulet itself?
A horrible notion came to mind. What if they…wanted Trixie as well? Were they collectors of unique or rare species, or slavers, or simply wanted something to experiment on? Whatever the case was, there was no way I was gonna let them get away with my friend.
“Warning. Spacial rift will collapse in 10 seconds.”
“Computer, route all available power to engines! Get us through that rift!” I gritted my teeth as we came face-to-face with the spacial anomaly. Setting any fear and apprehension aside, I took a deep breath as we entered the portal.
***
I didn’t know what to think as the Ranger emerged from the rift. The second we’d passed through the anomaly, my eyes beheld a sight that was simultaneously amazing and terrifying.
The dock-like structure was enormous, spanning so far away from a large central hub that it seemed to stretch on forever. The central hub itself resembled a massive dome composed of rib-like supports curving inward, shrouded in purple clouds, much like the mysterious ship, which was nowhere to be seen.
“Computer…what is this?” I mused as I gawked at the magnitude of the construct that took up most of the viewscreen.
“Origin unknown. Design does not match any known structure in any Federation database. It appears to be a large dock for vessels of many different configurations.”
“Get us closer. I’ve gotta get a look at this thing. While you’re at it, do a complete scan of the entire structure and its…tenants. I’m sure someone will find this information really useful.” The computer beeped, signalling the start of its scan as we approached the long line-up of ships. “Computer, how many ships are there connected to the docking structure?” I asked.
“There are 793 different vessels docked with this station.” I nearly did a double-take.
“Any Starfleet?”
“There are two Federation starships. U.S.S. Revere, Excelsior class, and U.S.S. Musashi, Sovereign class.”
“Any life-signs?”
“Negative.”
“Computer…” I paused as one particularly large Cube-like ship came into view. “…is that a Borg Cube?”
“Affirmative.”
“Any life-signs?”
“Negative.” I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Is there anyone alive on any of these ships?”
“Negative.”
“What about on the hub itself?”
“There are 793 unique life-signs.” I paused to consider the implications of the statement. Apparently, whoever had built the station intended to collect starship technology, the pinnacle of a specie’s development, and study it…without the consent of presence of the respective crews. My hand made a fist as I thought about all the individuals who had perished for the sake of such perverse research methodology and I hoped with all my might that Trixie was among the 793 that had been spared. There was only one way to find out.
“Computer, scan for any signs of Trixie.”
“Equestrian life-signs located. Unable to pinpoint exact location due to extreme level of shielding around the structure.”
“Transport her out of there!”
“Unable to acquire sensor lock due to extreme structural shielding.” I forced myself not to scream in frustration and managed to keep a cool head.
“Computer, are there any other ways into the hub?”
“There are personnel umbilical tubes on each ship dock that lead directly into the central structure.”
“Any signs of automated defenses or living defenders?”
“Unable to determine with current information.” I took a deep breath, knowing what question had to be asked.
“Is there a breathable atmosphere in the structure?”
“Affirmative.” I sighed with relief; not a lot but a little.
“Good. Park us as close to the hub as possible.”
***
I thanked my lucky stars that we found an open slot so close to the hub. Well, relatively close. I took a deep breath as I exited the Ranger and walked through one of the thousands of conduits connecting the structure to the other starships. I glanced out the long windows that lined the umbilical and felt my heart begin to race. To our left, a Romulan Scimitar and to my right, a Borg Cube. Not exactly ideal company but at least they weren’t trying to turn us into dust. Nevertheless, even a vacant Borg ship sent chills down my spine. I quickened my pace, checking if my tricorder had finished mapping out a route to the hub. Fortunately, the design was highly centralized and the only way to get to the center from the docks was direct path, meaning that at the very least, I wouldn’t get lost forever on an alien station 100 miles long.
I was also extremely lucky that the tricorder wasn’t picking anything up that might be less-than-hospitable station personnel. Nevertheless, I kept my hand phaser at the ready, just in case whatever lived on the station didn’t show up on the tricorder’s scans. That’s when I began to ponder the age of the station. The smooth, shiny, well-lit, and curving light-blue and white architecture suggested that it was quite new but something told me that it had been around for a long time, perhaps even before the creation of the Federation. With Trixie firmly on my mind, I could think of little else as I broke into a run down the long, straight corridor towards the hub. I hoped that by some miracle, she was okay. That and that alone was my greatest concern. Still…
“Computer, how old is this station?” I asked through my com-badge. I waited while the tricorder sent its own scans to the Ranger’s computer.
“Unknown, although carbon dating places the structure’s age at approximately 600 years old.”
“Holy shit,” I muttered.
After what felt like hours of walking, running, panting, and sweating, I arrived at the central hub. Or more precisely, the door between the docks and the hub. While the complete absence of any other doors had struck me as odd, the fact that the only one stood between me and my destination didn’t surprise me at all. Of course, the fact that it was the biggest and most solid-looking door that I had ever seen surprised me even less.
“How the Hell am I supposed to open this thing?” I mused as I examined the huge metal structure in front of me. I wandered up to the door and cautiously placed the tip of my finger against it. “Crikey!” I shouted as the door suddenly opened with a speed that provided a momentary blast of cool air. I dashed to one side and peeked around into the darkness within, phaser at the ready just in case I’d inadvertently woken up a hive.
Nothing. Nary a peep, save for a low hum, met my ears as I waited for the shit to hit the fan. I took a deep breath and slowly entered the room, hugging the wall as I scanned one last time. Judging my how long it took for the tricorder to create a cartographic representation of the room, the scale had to be absurd. From what the tricorder could tell, the room was one gigantic square with two ways in; one on my side and one on the opposite side. Great, I thought. More walking. Is this a rescue mission or a marathon?
I had little time to complain, though, as the room suddenly became lit. Dimly mind you but at least I could see reasonably well.
“What the…?” I murmured as I took in my new surroundings. The room was filled with tall transparent tubes that originated from a base on the floor and extended about 15 feet upwards, capped by a series of tubes that disappeared up towards the ceiling, the only part of the hub that remained shrouded in darkness. While I’d see a few advanced science labs before, my ship possessing a couple itself, I’d never heard of anything like this. I tried to walk quickly but my pace was slowed considerably by curiosity as I regarded the life-forms encapsulated within each tube. Although the grand majority were completely foreign to me, I did recognize a few.
“Romulan…Borg…Hirogen…Vulcan…Klingon…Cardassian…Bajoran…whoa, is that a…Devidian?” I stared in awe at the ghost-like being suspended by unknown means within the tube. “Let’s see…” I muttered as I continued. “Andorian…Reman…”
My ‘survey’ lasted for quite a while. I found that I could recognize one species roughly every 20 or so tubes and even after several hours of searching, I still had not located Trixie. Not even the tricorder could make heads or talks of the situation and complained of ‘too much unknown interference’, severely hindering my ability to find my friend. It would find her but only when I got close enough to cut through the interference. I was growing more impatient and more anxious at every tube. I needed something to happen, a clue, anything.
As these situations often go, I walked right into it, too deep in thought to watch where I was going. I rubbed my forehead and stepped back from the tube before I looked up…and gasped.
A child. A single human child suspended within the tube. She couldn’t have been more than seven or eight years old, possessing fair features and long auburn hair. Besides her age, I took note of another disturbing fact; her attire. They resembled mid-21st century children’s clothing and it made my mind race with questions. Who was she? Had whoever built this place actually abducted other aliens as early as pre-Federation? Judging by the age of the station, it was undeniable. I held the tricorder up with shaking hands and scanned the girl, sending the results to the Ranger for further study. Such is the role of a science ship, after all.
“Computer…” I hesitated, unsure of whether or not I wanted to hear the answer. “Is she alive?”
“Negative. Subject has been dead for exactly 468 years.” I felt my heart sink as the cold words stabbed at me. Whoever had built this monstrosity had to be stopped. It pained me to admit to myself that my meager resources could not but perhaps in the future, Starfleet could shut the place down. The fact that I had been scanning methodically for hours grabbing every bit of information I could mad me feel a little better as I offered her a minute of silence.
Moving on from that was tough and I found myself shaking as I continued to explore the horrible mausoleum. For about 40 minutes, I continued to weave my way through row after row of tubes, none of which contained my pony friend.
Then suddenly, in the middle of one of the last few rows, my tricorder began to beep. I followed it at a run as it led me to a specific tube, a tube that held what I had been so desperately searching for, a tube that I thought I might never find, a tube that held…her.
There she was, pale blue, hovering within the transparent cylinder as if in a trance, the Alicorn Amulet still around her neck. Her eyes were shut tight and I hoped with all my might that the mare was merely sleeping.
“Computer, is she alive?” The next few moments were the longest and most nerve-wracking of my life.
“Affirmative.” Had I been calm enough to even breathe a sigh of relief, it surely would’ve been gale-force.
“I need to get her out. What’s this tube made of?”
“Stand by.” I waited as the Ranger analyzed the tricorder’s material scans. “Alloy unknown. Scans suggest that a high-yield personal explosive device such as a phaser overload might damage the material enough to breach the container.”
“Will the explosion from an overloaded hand phaser hurt her?”
“Negative. The explosion will be too localized to cause injury. Simply reduce the splash setting before setting self-destruct sequence.”
It was good enough for me. I set my hand phaser to ‘Overload’ and narrowed the splash to the bare minimum. I set the countdown timer to 10 seconds, placed it against the base of the tube, and ran like Hell, taking refuge behind the nearest one.
There was a brief flash of orange as the weapon exploded. After making sure the disturbance hadn’t set anything off, I emerged from behind the tube to check my handiwork. My heart leapt as I beheld a gaping hole in the tube, more than large enough to mount a rescue. I ran to the tube and, minding the jagged edges stemming from the damaged portion of the tube, gently lifted Trixie up and out. Holding her close, I sat down on the floor; if I had to carry her out, I needed to be well-rested first. Fortunately, as I slowly stroked her mane, a small murmur escaped her and after a moment, her eyes slowly opened.
“You…you came for me…”
I wiped a tear from my eye and sniffed, hugging her even closer. She made no move to stop me, instead opting to wrap her front legs around my neck and return the gesture.
“Of course I did.”
“W…why?” I was taken aback at the question.
“What do you mean?”
“I…I said all those awful things to you,” she whispered, looking down at her hooves.
“Ssshh, that’s not important. Don’t worry about it,” I assured her. “I’m just glad that you’re okay.” She sniffed and looked up at me with tear-filled eyes.
“I’m…so sorry...that Trixie put you through all this.”
“Don’t worry, it wasn’t your fault. Don’t blame yourself.”
“Still…please forgive Trixie.” I offered her a small smile and ruffled her mane affectionately.
“I already have. Now come on, let’s get you out of here. Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Follow me.” I instructed as we got up. “Computer, is there a closer vacant dock to our location?”
“Affirmative. Proceed out east entrance to Docking Bay 6.”
“Good. Set a course and meet us there ASAP.”
“Acknowledged. ETA 20 minutes.”
“Alright, let’s go,” I said as Trixie and I took off at a run towards the exit.
***
As we raced full-tilt towards the docking bay, I wondered what had happened to the showmare upon her capture. My tricorder scan showed nothing physically wrong with the mare; judging by the way she was running, it was like nothing had happened at all. While I was glad that nothing far worse hap transpired, my curiosity remained. That, however, could wait. For the time being, I had to focus on getting us back to the Alpha Quadrant.
Which brought me to my next problem; without an alien ship to open a spacial rift, I didn’t know if it was even possible to get back. This represented a major problem, a problem best solved in the relative safety of the Ranger. As we finally entered the docking section, I glanced out one of the long windows and managed a small smile as the Ranger cruised by and began to position itself next to a nearby docking umbilical.
“Proximity alert. There is an unknown vessel approaching, ETA 10 seconds.” My smile faded and Trixie looked up at me.
“What is it? Is there something coming?” she asked nervously.
“Yeah, the Ranger just told me another ship’s heading straight for us. We’ve gotta move,” I replied as we finally reached the umbilical. We wasted no time getting to the bridge, upon reaching which Trixie jumped onto the First Officer’s chair whilst I selected my usual, a the Captain’s seat. I hit a button and safety straps suddenly ran across our bodies, holding us snugly in our chairs. Trixie looked at me in surprise.
“Cole, what are you doing?”
“Just a precaution,” I explained as we maneuvered free of the docking structure. “If we get hit again, I don’t wanna go flying onto the metal floor at 100 miles an hour. Not again, anyway,” I muttered.
“Warning. There is a spacial rift opening off the port bow.” I looked over at the port viewscreen; sure enough, there it was, a pseudo lightning storm/purple cloud hybrid.
That’s when I had one of those nasty little things sometimes referred to as an ‘idea’.
“Computer! Take us directly into that rift!” I exclaimed.
“What? Are you crazy?” Trixie demanded as her cynical self returned with a vengeance. I was about to fly us through a spacial anomaly while another ship was attempting to enter from the other side. If I was right about my theory, we’d probably, maybe, kind of, perhaps, possibly, hopefully be okay. If I was wrong…that wasn’t important. The important thing was that I had a way to get us out…probably, maybe, kind of, perhaps, possibly, hopefully.
“Don’t worry! It’ll be like…squeezing past somebody to get through a door!” I explained as best I could.
“Yeah well that doesn’t work very well if the other person’s really fat!” Trixie countered.
“Hey, did you just call me ‘fat’?” I asked semi-seriously.
“Really? You’re gonna do this now!?”
“Okay!” I exclaimed, clapping my hands together loudly. “Computer, take us through on my mark! Three…” We watched as the rift suddenly expanded and the tip of a hull began to emerge.
“Two…” A little more revealed itself.
“One…” The emerging ship looked identical to the first and it was about halfway through when I took one last deep breath.
“Now!” With that, the Ranger’s impulse engines propelled us towards the rift. Trixie squeezed her eyes shut and I gritted my teeth as we zipped along the hull of the alien ship, so close that if I had rolled down one of the widows, I could’ve written ‘Cole was here’ on the hull with a Sharpie. Streams of energy whipped around us, violently jostling the ship as the Ranger fought to get through. Trixie kept her eyes firmly shut and even I wondered if my old sky bucket had enough in her to not be shaken apart by the incredible forces pelting it from every possible angle. Finally, there was an incredible flash and all was quiet.
***
“Ugh…are we dead?” The showmare’s groan was the first thing I heard upon slowly opening my eyes. “You killed us again, didn’t you?” I couldn’t help but smile as the safety belts disengaged.
“No, but I gave it my best shot,” I replied, sighing with relief that the Ranger and her passengers were still in one piece. “You can open your eyes now.” I heard another sigh, this time from the blue mare.
“How about that? Your plan actually worked!” Trixie exclaimed, giving me a smile.
“That’s ‘cause I’m a freakin’ boss!”
“Ha! Trixie wasn’t worried for a second!”
“I’ll take that as a compliment!”
“Better do that ‘cause that’s the only one Trixie’s ever going to give you! Hmmph!” I smiled at the sincerity hidden behind the smirk. I shrugged.
“I’ll take it. Computer, where are we?” I asked.
“Sierra Sector, Alpha Centauri Sector Block.” I did a small fist-pump.
“What is it?” Trixie asked.
“Apparently, that little ‘detour’ actually brought us closer to Starbase 39. We’re only a few hours away, assuming my baby’s got enough in her to make the trip. That adventure of ours really took a lot outta her.” Which brought me to my next order of business. “Computer, give me a full damage report.”
“Weapons are off-line. Long-range scanners are off-line. Shields down to eight percent. Plasma conduits two and three have ruptured. Hull breaches on Decks 5 and 6. Emergency force-fields are holding.” I face-palmed; I’d had a feeling that it would be ugly but not to that extent. We had to get to a Starbase fast.
“It’s bad isn’t it?” Trixie said flatly.
“Yep.”
“How long will it take to get to Starbase 39?”
“Good question. Computer, do we have warp?”
“Affirmative. Power drain has been dealt with.”
“Good. How fast can we go?”
“Primary systems have sustained too much damage to exceed Warp 2.3 without breaching matter-antimatter containment.”
“Well, at least that’s something. Computer, lay in a course for Starbase 39 and step on it.”
“Acknowledged.” I breathed a sigh of relief as the ship jumped to warp, bringing us closer to our destination and hopefully out of trouble for a while.
“Well, I don’t know about you,” I declared as I got up from my chair. “But I could sure for some chow. Care to accompany me to the mess hall? I think there’s a bowl of Crispy Chex with your name on it.” As if answering my question, Trixie’s stomach gurgled, prompting her to blush. I smiled. “Come on, let’s grab a bite.”
***
Acting Captain’s log, Stardate…why do I even bother with this? Anyway, we’re less than six hours away from the Starbase, which is good news because I could literally throw a rock at the hull and the whole thing would fall apart like a Jenga tower after 20 turns. Trixie’s napping right now and as soon as I’m done this log, I’m gonna take a page from her book and do the same. I’m exhausted. I’ve told the computer to wake me when we reach the Starbase but not a second before.
I’ve deliberately held off asking Trixie anything about what happened. It’s not that I’m not concerned for her but I feel that I should wait for a more appropriate time. I think we could use some time away from the insanity for a while. I wonder how she’d like Risa. I’ll do some research later and firm up some details. For now, I’m just glad to have her back safe and sound.
I’m also intrigued by the station we encountered. Fortunately, I managed to collect quite a bit of data and I’ve got the computer cross-referencing my information against all known cultural databases, including those said to be extinct. It’s just a funny feeling but one of the lessons I’ve learned over the years is to trust my gut and right now, my gut is telling me to find out as much as I can about those aliens and give that information over to Starfleet immediately. I’ve made that a top priority when we get to Starbase 39. (End recording)
I yawned and got into my bed, grateful that my sleeping area hadn’t been wiped out in the chaos like the weapons and shields. Phasers and shield emitters were one thing but the perfect pillow was quite another. Losing that would’ve probably driven me over the edge. I smiled and snuggled into the bed.
“Computer, lights off.”
***
“Cole?” Trixie asked quietly, poking her head through the door to his quarters. “Cole?” Convinced that he was sound asleep, she crept over to his bed, pleased that as usual, the door had been unlocked. She took a deep breath and leaned down to his sleeping face.
“Thanks for everything.” she whispered, planting a soft kiss on his cheek.
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This is very Star Trek story for this chapter. I half expected Picard to appear at some point.
A very creepy place those two wound up in. Will even the Federation stand a chance?
I swear the universe it out to get these two. They can't even make it to the next starbase without being sent to an alternate dimension or end up in a full scale war. Sometimes both!
Is the amulet making Trixie crankier? Or is it just her sunny personality?
Till next time!
3439911
3437524
You guys realize that I'm pretty much writing this for you two, right? Not that I mind or anything! It's just that you two seem by far the most dedicated and that's really keeping me going, actually. Glad you're enjoying it!
3439930
hey! I read these when they come out, I just don't have as much to say. I'm not an avid Star Trek watcher so anything besides basic references go over my head. I am happy that the Tribble from last chapter is nowhere to be seen though, hate those things. I'm also very curious about that station, but unless they come after Trixie again I doubt they'll come up soon. Though it would prolly be odd for you to have them in if you weren't planning on using whatever that station is at some point.
Kinda curious how the girl was dead in the container, but Trixie wasn't. Maybe it lets the body starve and just leaves the husk perfectly preserved or something? o.O The lack of people on the station just makes me consider it and the ships that come and go as part of one big AI system, but not like I know enough on Start Trek to begin guessing what it is.
As I said, I'm enjoying the story so far and looking forward to more. More interested in Cole and Trixie's interactions with eachother and the Universe than any real action, but that's just me. Also curious on if there is ever going to be more crew on the ship. A large starship and only two people on it *with only one vaguely knowing how any of it works*, sounds hazardous. : )
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Ah, nice to hear from you! Don't worry, I value feedback but it's not the be-all, end-all. ANYWAY, allow me to give you a hand here. The Ranger is a Nova-Class short-range science vessel that, along with its sophisticated computer, can be operated by very few crewmen. (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Nova_class) That's also why it sucks at fighting; the Nova-class are definitely not tactical ships. As for the Tribble, it's still there. Cole just hasn't felt like petting it for a while. Now, the station itself is how I imagined a massive Iconian (http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Iconian) station to be. All that will be explained in time but I'm kind of waiting for the Star Trek Online story to tell me more about them before I continue with that particular arc. I think the fact that the aliens just capture and preserve and simply let the subject die of starvation or whatever was a great way of making them more terrifying. Anyway, I hope that clears things up for you and if you have any further questions, don't hesitate to ask!
I love you for making a STO Iconian Reference (Ribcage/creepy/haunted/clouded ship), the chapter turns creepy with the preservation tubes and the station, seriously, a SCIMITAR and A BORG CUBE?! dear lord, I know that Iconias are powerful but doing that kind of damage... I wonder if cryptic will make more iconian stuff with season 8 (the Solanae Dyson Sphere, Voth.). I wanna see more Gamma and Delta Quadrant stuff
are you gonna make a Undine or a Dyson Sphere's Reference? also, I find your lack of Romulans... Disturbing :vader:
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Don't worry, I'll come up with something. I technically have the story all planned out but I'd love to add something about the Undine and Dyson Sphere.
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There's a mission in STO that ends with you getting surrounded by a small fleet of cubes...and then an Iconian vessel shows up and wipes the sector with them just to show how badass it is. So yeah, the Iconians ARE that powerful...
Hm... That race has gotta be either the Iconians or that race that collected species in an attempt to cure a disease but failed when the station exploded leaving like 3 escape pods and one of them held a Borg queen...
Let the shipping commence....
Your story made me finally start to watch Star Trek: New Generation
First impressions:
God, the actors are terrible.