It had been quite an adventure going back in time and meeting Scotty, and as Jim and Spock looked out into the vast outreach of stars they pondered what would happen next. Their new adventure was just beginning. Spock and Kirk made strange bedfellows and had become best friends after being in deep outer space together for five years.
Neither one of the men had looked forward to this journey at first. Spock had hoped that he would be assigned to a ship that was assigned to more scientific assignments and Kirk had turned down a rank increase. This assignment did keep them together and they were now in deep space once again.
Spock had found his home here in space. While on Vulcan he had never felt as if he belonged. He was half human and looked upon with curiosity. The Vulcans were not rude to him for the most part, however, he never felt as if he belonged. He had turned down the job of working at the Vulcan science and caused a large rift between his father and himself. Starfleet had been the best choice that he could have made and was glad that this was the life that he had chosen.
Kirk was from the United States of earth, inparticular Iowa. He had a brother who had gone into space to make a home for him and his wife and his father had been very proud to see his son become the captain of a starship. He had been rebelious, but the smartest in his class and with some egging on he had decided to join starfleet.
They were good together, while Kirk was quick to act on his emotions Spock was able to control his emotions and kept things much more subtle. They were both quick and smart and incredibly lucky, a good pair indeed.
The ship that they had been assigned to was headed by the very capable Captain Jernak. He was a no nonsense man who led the crew with no mercy, however, he was very good at his job as he had shown at their last adventure.
The ship was headed to Romulan Air Space called sector 33. It was a large mostly unexplored section of space and had been agreed upon with Starfleet that this would be their territory. Both Kirk and Spock had been close to the area however, they had not been there before.
As they came upon the bridge Leena announced Captain on the Bridge and all the Romulans promptly stood up in Kirk's honor. They were all curious of this man still but he had won their confidence on the other voyage.
Even when there was really very little going on while a starship was out in space, the bridge was always busy. There were many machines men and things in space that could cause danger at all times. Kirk was just getting used to the different way of doing things when the navigator announced that they had arrived in sector 33.
This was to be the ship's home for the next three months. It was cold and dark out in space and as they came upon a star that hadn't been explored Captain Jernak himself arrived on the bridge. He had split the time with captain Kirk and had rarely shared the bridge space with him. It was considered a dishonor to stay on the bridge with another captain and Kirk had also honored that tradition himself.
Although, the Romulans prefered a much hotter climate than Kirk from earth prefered the air quality was very similar and Kirk was getting used to the slight change that the starship offered. What the ship was looking for at this point was a class M planet. That kind of planet was very capable of supporting beings such as theirs.
As the ship approached the first planet that they had ascertained was a class M planet, trouble started. Kaleen had tried without much success trying to reach anyone on the planet even though the scans showed that there were several inhabitants on the planet below. The scans showed that the inhabitants of the planet were advanced, they showed no signs of space travel.
The Antas began orbiting the planet when without warning the ship stopped. Now this is a ship going at nearly warp speed and stopping it without warning caused a lot of minor damage to both the people on board and on the ship itself.
Captain Jernak looked up from his captain's chair and yelled the command "all still". Both Kirk and Jernak thought for a moment and asked the communicator to call out to the planet again.
Kaleen was a very good communication expert and had tried all of the known frequencies to reach the planet without success. She tried again and the Antas was met with a large ball of light. The ball seemed to disipate in front of them and a voice came through their audio system. "This is the planet Alberto. You are not welcome here. Why did you infiltrate our space?"
Captain Jernak spoke loud and clear "We are the Romulan ship Antas. We are on a joint mission with starfleet to explore unknown parts of the universe. This is a peaceful scientific mission. We mean you no harm."
There was a silence of a few moments and then the ship began to move. The navigator had no control of the ship, however, it moved slowly to an obvious appointed location and was set down on the surface of Alberto.
Spock checked his console and verified that the atmosphere was one that could support thier life. It was very much like that of earth and a little cool for most of the inhabitants of this ship. To Kirk's joy this was the place where he was the best choice for the landing party. Captain Jernak less likely to show emotion immediately assigned both Kirk and Spock to the landing party.
As the landing party disembarked they were met by a tall string bean being who headed them toward a large home circular in shape. As they approached the wall of the building two doors opened and welcomed them in. The place was completely transparent, as you could see everything that went on outside, while when you were outside you could not see inside.
The atrium that you reached as you entered into the building was full of some of the prettiest flowers and plants that Kirk had ever seen. The aroma was very pleasant also. He looked over at his friend who was using his tricorder to record the plants and the surrounding things in this large beautiful room. The Romulans that had come with the party were busy doing thier own jobs Natavia was the ship doctor, a smart woman whose extensive knowledge of different entities was impressive. The other person in the party was a communication specialist. His name was Galvinia, a very capable man who personally spoke over thirty languages.
The thin being who had met them at the landing took them into a small room to the side. It was sparcely furnished with just a few chairs and one desk. The being that had let them in without speaking a word had left them alone in the room and Kirk took a look around. He saw nothing of interest "Spock what is your opinion of this home and room?" Kirk asked.
"The being that met us was not a being captain it was a computer. This is some sort of building that houses several beings much different than the computer that we just met. They appear humanoid, but appear to be very small.
Just as Spock had finished speaking Kirk looked down to see a group of beings that appeared to be no larger than the ants that he had seen on earth. He found himself staying very still as he was afraid that if he moved to quickly he might step on one of them.
The group from the Romulan ship watched in amazement as the group went up the side of the desk that they had been met with and approached a small microphone. The microphone had been so small that the group hadn't even noticed it.
"We are from the planet Alberto as we have spoken to you about. It has been centuries since anyone has entered into our air space. Forgive us for being curious and protective of our planet. Over one thousand years ago we sent a crew out to space and they never returned. The last word that was recorded from them tells us that they had reached a planet where there were extremely large violent inhabitants. My name is Altor and this is my partner Combra." he told the group.
"My name is Captain James Kirk and this is my first officer Spock, my communications officer Galvinia and our ship's doctor Natavia. We are on a joint mission to meet and communicate with inhabitants of other planets hopefully becoming friends with each other also."
"There has been much talk about how the ships have been coming closer and closer to our beloved planet. It is not something we take lightly as with the landing of strange beings from other areas comes the dangers along with the adventures. We welcome you with apprehension. You will be treated well while we investigate." and with that they were left alone.
The being who had met them at the landing site came back into the room and motioned for them to follow it. As they walked through the atrium they noticed all the different hills. They had seen these before but had not put the inhabitants and the hills together. 'Were the space travellers from this planet talking of earth when they had communicated to their people of the strange planet with the large violent beings?' Kirk wondered.
The group were shown into an apartment of sorts with four large rooms. The people of this planet had gone out of the way to make these people feel at home. They had obviously studied the starship as the rooms resembled those on the ship. The food was the same and there was even a chess game in the living room.
Spock walked around the room checking out every area thoroughly while Galvania attempted to reach the ship. Ever since they had arrived in this strange huilding all communication had been halted.
Natavia had kept a running scan on each of the beings who had spoken to them and was busy studying their anatomy. Although they were very educated and intelligent the people that this group was probably just representatives of the real rulers of this small planet.
"Captain, I think that you should look at this. I show another group of beings just two hundred meters to the right of this building. They seem to be in a type of meeting, probably meeting about us and what they are to do." Spock told him.
The captain walked over to the door to the room and was surprised to find the door to be unlocked. The group of four headed out of the room and out into the atmosphere of the strange planet. Within just a few minutes they found themselves in another building. This building waws much smaller no larger than 5 X 8. The group found themselves having to be very careful not to step on any of the small beings.
As the group opened the door a large glass lit up on the ceiling immediately. This large magnifying glass was of great help as it made the beings from this strange planet appear to be about three feet tall. With the magnifier lit there would be no danger of the group stepping on anyone.
At the center of the room stood a female who they addressed as your highness. There were three other female ants along with the queen that obviously ran the group. "Welcome Captain Kirk, my name is Malia, I am the queen of this colony. We are the largest colony on this planet, however, there are many other families who would like to meet you. Because of your size, it is not possible for us to allow you to continue walking around this area. So, it has been decided that it would be better for us to allow you back to your ship. We shall meet at this location in the morning, and contact you at that point." she offered.
With that the strange computer took them back to the ship. When they arrived nothing had changed and they were surprised to find that as far as the people on board were concerned the group had only been gone for less than thirty seconds.
Spock hooked up his tricorder to the ships computer and began analyzing the different information that they had received. Indeed it was there that he discovered that the ants worked at a much faster rate than those of the people on this ship. He therefore, was not surprised to find the queen Malia was on the communications center as they arrived on the bridge not even a minute since the time that they had arrived back on the ship.
With the use again of the magnifying glass communication was very possible with this queen of the colony. Along with Malia were six other women all quite curious of this strange very slow ship that they had arrived on.
"It has been our observation that you are here on a mission, however, it has been observed that you Jim Kirk are from the planet that our ancestors landed on that thousand or so years ago. We have long assumed that our ancestors have perished as of now. "
Kirk looked over at the queen and her followers and thought about what they had told them. It was as he had suspected, the ants had gone onto make a life for themselves on his planet and although many of the inhabitants of the earth thought of them as pests, they were a widely accepted species. He needed to explain this to the people.
"It is the wish of our planet that we meet and greet others from other worlds. This is a hard thing to do with your obvious small size and your quickness of speed."
"This is what we have anticipated and discussed it is possible for us to speed up your metabolism, which would make it where you could communicate more easily with our inhabitants. Also, with the help of your doctor perhaps we will be able to deminish your size so that you could walk among us." Malia offered.
This was an experience that would be a once in a lifetime one and Jim Kirk had joined starfleet to explore the new frontier, but. "Allow me a moment and I will speak to my doctor." Kirk said.
"Captain Kirk this will be a dangerous mission, however, their doctor has shown me the different types of beings who have gone through this before and your and Spock's physical composition make you the best candidate for the job. We will of course follow you closely."
Spock looked at the captain and knew that the decision had already been made. He too had joined Starfleet to investigate and explore the different worlds, and yes this would allow them to live among a totally different culture.
It was decided that Spock and Kirk would join with the colony. In exchange two of the queens from the planet would stay with the Romulans. The two chosen were Naria and Manda two of the younger ants.
Taking the drug to speed them up was an experience. Kirk felt as though he was about to faint and people started to look really big and to be moving extremely slowly. To his surprise he found that he was now standing among some hundred plus ants all of whom were staring at Kirk and Spock in amazement. This took less than two minutes to happen and as they were led out of the ship Kirk and Spock found themselves dodging the feet of the inhabitants of the Romulan Ship.
The two men were led into a room where there was a bed and bath and were told to take a rest as it was now night and that tomorrow would be a very busy day.
Sleep came easy to them as it had been a hard day and they both also wanted to be awake and very aware of their surroundings the next day.
The next morning came early and they were woken up by a member of the soldier force. He was a smart keen eyed man named Nick who had been given the chance to meet these two strangers with curiousity and wonderment. He had read up thoroughly about how his ancestors had at one time gone to the planet earth and never returned. 'Did these people kill off all of his ancestors?' he wondered.
Outside of their room Spock and Kirk found themselves in a very busy marketplace. There were soldiers marketeers fathers with children and the many farmers with their goods. It was obvious that in this society women ruled the world. At each corner they were met by a monitor, whose job seemed to be to take care of all of the rubbish all around. The streets and rooms were very clean and neat.
Each different ant had an obvious assigned job and they went about their prospective jobs with dilligence and pride it seemed. Each person nodded to the strangers but continued at their perspective tasks. At least here they could walk among the diferent people. This would be an interesting 'fascinating experience' as Spock would say.
As the two men approached the building that they had once gone to and met with the queen and her subjects, three soldiers joined in on their journey. They refused to speak to either Spock or Kirk just walked alongside of them and opened the door as the approached the building.
From the view that they now had from the floor Kirk and Spock observed this to be a very busy place with many people discussing what was going on. This appeared to be the center of the hub. Each person acknowledged them with a nod and again went on to their perspective jobs. In the center of the room was the queen Malia. She was quite busy taking care of business but looked up at the two men with wonder.
"It is good that you have been able to join our little colony. As I have told you before there are several other families or colonies as you mentioned here on the planet. This is the largest among them and from here we essentially take care of all the necessities of running a large city. We have currently a population of over 50, 000 people." Malia offered.
"Spock and I are honored that you would take the time to see us Queen. We are understandably curious of how the different people in your life live and their families what they do for recreation and work, all aspects." Kirk told her with a friendly smile.
"You are here to learn about our culture and lifestyle and our people are onboard of your ship to do the same. Unfortunately, your time here will be one month our time and their time on your ship will only be two days. Because of our metabolism it is quite difficult for the two of us to communicate." Malia said.
"It is difficult but not possible and I hope that we can become true friends before the month is over. My partner and I are eager to get out among your people." Jim offered.
The queen clapped her hands and two soldiers immediately showed up at Kirk and Spock's side. "Take them to your troops. They are to learn the way of the army ant. They are to be treated as one of you with no acception." she ordered.
With that Kirk and Spock were off to join the army it appeared. The two ants that had taken over the job of showing Kirk and Spock around were named Mitt and Morey. Strange that the two army ants had names that both Spock and Kirk were familiar with they thought to themselves.
The center that they were taken too was a very busy hub with many different soldiers carrying arms and manhandling some of their obvious prisoners. "These men over here have entered our commuinity without permission and are dealt with as such. The punishment for tresspassing on a colony is death with no acception." Morey told them in a firm tone.
This was the first time that Kirk had the feeling that perhaps they were not as welcomed as all wanted them to think. They were peered upon as tresspassers, why were they so welcomed? After all the first thing that they did was stop his ship. Of course on the other hand they moved at over fifteen times their speed and this was probably done at a much slower pace than Kirk and the crew of the ship had realized. 'Perhaps they had not been aware of how slow the people on this ship moved at first.' he thought.
The work that Spock and Kirk were expected to do was heavy and extremely tiring. You see ants had the ability to lift over twenty times their own weight. Kirk and Spock did not have any capablity such as that, however, they were expected to do the work of a normal ant. It was through a lot of perseverance that they found themselves able to keep up with the slowest of the slow.
They marched around the town with many different weapons all of which were very heavy and were expected to march to the time. They learned to shoot their weapons that day, a quick laser that could pinpoint better than any laser that the captain or Spock had ever seen. All of their weapons were geared to run as fast as their people moved.
The day ended and Spock and Kirk headed back to their room. "My feet are killing me. How far did we march today?" Kirk asked Spock.
"I have been able to fix the tricorder to record at their speed and I must admit that even I am surprised to see that you and I walked just over thirty feet today and carried less than 1/2 an ounce in weight. This long hard work day has taken us all of eight minutes in our time also." Spock went on to tell his friend.
It was with a heavy heart and head that Kirk laid down that evening. It was a long day and the work was extremely hard. Also it bothered him that it felt as though the others felt sorry for Spock and him and had gone easy on them.
The next morning they sat down to breakfast with the rest of the soldiers. The food was made up of a pastry like substance and the drink was very sweet. It was actually very good.
Kirk and Spock looked up to see their friends from the day before coming toward them. "Good morning. What is up for us today?" Kirk asked them.
Neither one of the soldiers were overly friendly however, Morey spoke up and said "We will be doing some policing at the local park. We have had some problems with the younger people in our group and we are to keep an eye on them."
Even though the park was probably not five feet away it took them over an hour to walk there. The equipment was very bulky and not made for people of their physical stature. The ants were built very different and although they had adapted the suits to fit the strange men the outfits didn't fit right and were unconfortable for them to wear.
As they walked through the park the foursome seperated. Morey went with Kirk . He was walking very slowly trying not to hurry this strange earth creature who didn't seem capable of doing much of anything. 'What a waste' he thought to himself 'We will have to kill them before they get a chance to leave anyways'.
The park was a large overgrown place with lots of trails and benches for the people of the town to enjoy. The park like the rest of the colony was spotless and had been well kept up. There was fresh paint on all of the fixtures and the slide and toys were sparkling as though they were brand new.
Morey and Kirk were watching as some of the children were playing when a group of teenagers entered the park. At first it appeared that they had come there to spend time with perhaps their siblings, however within a few minutes their real intentions were shown. One of the teenagers reached over to one of the men on the bench and tried to pull a sachel off of his lap. The man tried to resist but the teen had caught him off guard and slapped him accross the face.
Without a moments hesitation Morey was on the teen and had him tied up. Kirk came right over but was obviously too late to have been of any help. Morey got on his radio and within moments two men showed up and took off with the prisoner.
"When you see any action that is not to benefit one of the people of our community it is our job to protect the victim. As a member of the army of ants we don't pass judgement we simply arrest and detain the perpertrators. Is that understood?" he yelled to Kirk.
"Completely, it won't happen again." Kirk told him with an affirmative voice.
After such an altercation it was quite obvious that the teenager ants had gotten the point and from that point on none of them seemed to be interested in causing any trouble. Kirk wondered what kind of punishment the ants would dole out on a youth. From the way that the rest of the youths were acting punishment was probably quck and unbending.
The two men walked the park for the rest of the day and again promptly at 5pm they were done with their job and headed home. This day Jim had no need to meet with the queen. He had learned about some of the laws of this planet and about the lives of the people who inhabited it.
In the meantime Spock had spent the day with Mitt. They two had met with some unruly teens and had taken care of them quickly and efficiently, as Spock had put it.
That night Spock and Kirk decided to go outside of their room and do some exploring. It was at night that the ants socialized and they both knew that was the best way to meet the average person. They also knew that the people would be more relaxed in a social atmosphere.
They came into a large room with a band a big buffet of food and plenty of different people dancing. It seemed as though this was where the average person went to enjoy themselves. Even in this environment however, they seemed to be seperated by class. Each class appeared to be seperated equal but not mingled.
Because the women were the ones in charge of the city, the men did what appeared to be the more menial tasks. They cleaned and served and took care of the general population. So far in this colony Kirk and Spock had only seen five women. It was a little strange watching the men dancing together however, they were all enjoying themselves and the food was delicious.
Mitt and Morey saw them and waved them over to their table. This would be Kirk and Spock's first chance to actually talk about the life that these men had outside of the army. "It is a pleasure to have a chance to find out more about your culture." Spock offered.
Mitt looked at Morey and smiled "Do you not socialize Mr Spock?"
"As a Vulcan we don't usually socialize such as you would call it. We do study together and have been known to challenge each other to mind competitions. However, we do not drink or dance such as you." Spock told him.
"Geesh what a boring life." Morey smiled. "And Kirk you are different from Mr. Spock do you enjoy your time off from being the big bad captain of a starship" Mitt asked.
Kirk looked down at his glass with a smile and thought for a moment "Yes we do endulge in the pleasures of life and I have been known to go out dancing and eating at times."
"Is your planet much like ours? How do you make a living? Are you assigned to a certain job at birth such as we are?" Morey asked.
Kirk looked at the man in front of him and realized that with the vast differences between them they had many common qualitites. "We live with our families raise our children and hopefully find happiness much like I see your home planet does."
Even though only a few of the ants would mate with the queen and she would give birth to many eggs, there were the ants who were assigned to raising the young children. These were called drones and were very respected parts of the ants society. The ants would live to be about five years old a short life span by their standards. This would mean that they would only live to be about age thirty in human years. Things moved much more quickly because of this. Most of the eggs birthed by the queen were hatched before the queens third birthday.
The next morning they again went to meet with the queen. She had been informed of the conversation of the night before and had found herself very curious. She was more curious of the anscestors that were now residing on the planet that these strange men called earth.
Some of the men from the city were now looking into the heritage on the starship and she had been pleased with what they had found. Although ants were sometimes looked at as pests because of their natural habits they had been accepted and were now living on all seven continents. For the most part the ants had been accepted and were treated well by the human population.
The weather was getting frightful and the men who fortold the weather had been warning the people of her planet of a big storm that would be coming very soon. It would bring winds high enough that they could litterally destroy their little city and she needed to take care of preperations immediately.
Spock leaned over at the diagrams and offered his assistance. Although, he was not a weatherman as people would call it he was a scientist and very familiar with the different kind of weather abnormalties that could exist on different planets. Indeed some planets could be destroyed by certain weather patterns and certainly a city of this size could be demolished completely.
Spock looked at the charts and put the information into the tricorder. The news was not good there was a large storm coming and neither the ants of the Romulan ship would survive unless something was done fast.
"It is my oppinion that you and your city is in danger of being destroyed. This storm will raise the water level by at least six inches. This will bring the water in a minimum of ten feet and raise the water level by twelve inches. The wind will reach up to ten miles per hour also. The problem is that this will happen so fast that it could damage our ship also if we don't take it to flight." Spock explained.
"It is your oppinion that our city could be destroyed within how much time?" Malia asked almost ordered of Spock.
"It is my estimate that you must leave your city in but three days. Anything longer than that time you would be endangering yourself and the other inhabitants of your community." Spock told her.
"And it is your opinion that your ship is also in danger?" Malia asked.
"Yes it is. The best thing for your people to do is to evacuate and head to another city. The ship can leave and come back in what is the equivalent of one minute in their time. Within one hour this city will be ready for them to land once again. However, this is one hour in their time." Spock offered the queen.
The queen started talking to her other woman disregarding both Kirk and Spock and then spoke. "We will want to go onto your spaceship and come right back. This way my people will be safe from the storm and so shall yours." she offered.
Both Jim and Spock thought about this. This would mean allowing some 50,000 aliens aboard his ship would be not the best situation for him or his men. Spock and Kirk talked among themselves for a few moments. This was where Kirk needed Spock's logic and experience as the son of an ambassador.
"We don't feel that it is necessary that all of the inhabitants of the city come onboard of our ship. It is too dangerous for so many small people and children to come onto a ship of over one hundred. They would be unaware of our existance and could easily harm anyone of you. I do have a suggestion, though. We could use be transporter from the enterprise and beam your residents to higher grounds. Spock and I would stay with you and your people and we could leave a note with our intentions, telling them to leave and return when it is safe. " Kirk offered.
"We do have a place that we could go that should be safe, but we must act fast. Moving a group of 50000 people to another location will be a job. The transporter on your ship is so slow we would have to stand still for almost ten minutes. That would be a most difficult task for our youngsters." she warned them.
"If we put the people that cannot walk or ride to the higher ground in this building we could take up to five hundred at a time. How many people would we need to transport individually? Perhaps we could sedate them if they cannot stand still. In sleep they should not move." a young man was saying as he walked toward the queen.
"Perhaps that will work Dr. Moran. This is captain James Kirk and first officer Spock." Malia introduced the men. "Kirk why don't you go to the ship and leave notice for them to read and Spock could you please assist Dr Moran with the evacuation?"
Spock and Dr Moran decided that the best place for the infirm to be transported would be the hospital. The children from the school could be taken to the hospital and those that were not capable of sitting still could be sedated under a doctor's care there. The building was capable of holding over two thousand residents also.
When Kirk arrived on the Romulan ship he was surprised to see all the people appearing to be statues. He knew that they were moving but he could not tell. He wrote the note and left it at the captain's table. It would take almost fifteen minutes for Captain Jernak to find the note so he just stood there and waited. Everything seemed to be running normally but he wanted to make sure that the note was picked up.
He was surprised to hear Spock on the other end of his communications button. "Yes Spock what is it?"
"The captain and I have decided to send the people to their hospital. This is the coordinates. Please put this on the note that you left with the captain so that he can beam these people to the proper location as soon as possible." Spock asked.
Kirk stood by and watched the captain pick up the note. He knew that it was time for him to get back to the city and help out with the evacuation. This was the best way to earn a peoples trust and if he failed, who knew what would happen?
As Kirk entered the hall he found it to be very busy, people were being ordered around and things were quite hectic. Malia looked up with a little relief when she saw that the captain had arrived back at her home city.
"Did you have success in warning your party, and did you leave the two pick up places with them? I assume that they can transplant us from one location to the other while in orbit?" Malia asked in a worried tone.
"Yes, they will start the transportation in about ten minutes and thirty seconds from both locations and will continue to do so every twenty minutes until all have been evacuated. We have time to do just ten transfers I am afraid." Kirk answered.
"My soldiers are evacuating people on buses anything that carries large groups and the more hardier of us are walking to the mountains. Even at best we still will bave ten thousand or more to still evacuate." Malia said again in a worried voice.
They will have to be crammed in like sardines I am afraid. If we really push them in here and into the hospital we can get as many as three thousand on the first run. The second one is to be the school and the library where we can fit another three thousand alone and the park where we can place another three thousand. The problem is that once you send the building over to the new location it stays there. The park can be filled as fast as we can in fourteen minutes ten times." Kirk offered.
Kirk knew that the eggs were hidden someplace and that they would need to moved. If they were not moved there would be untold lost of unborn children. Malia seemed to be reading his mind and said "the unborn children are being transported by the most trustworthy of my soldiers in several trucks. The eggs have already arrived at their destination." she guarenteed.
Kirk and Spock spent the entire afternoon loading and unloading people into buildings trucks anything that moved. They carried children the infirm and the elderly to the desired locations and watched as they were beamed to thier new location.
The captain and Spock had saved as many buildings as they could when the storm started to come their way. The wind was so hard and fast that neither one of them could barely stand. They were in the last group to go to the mountaintop retreat. To the group the mountain seemed as though it was several thousand feet tall, however, not according to Mr. Spock. "Captain, this mountain is far enough away and tall enough to save us but it is only eighteen inches high." he told him.
As it was in the city everthing was very organized. Each member had his or her job and they went about it quite efficiently. The children were starting to stir and watched with horror as their city went underwater. Dinner was served on time and although they were mostly outside in tents for the most part they were dry. The hospital and school along with the many buildings that they had been able to save were filled to the maximum and the healthy just had to wait it out. Finally after three hours the storm ended. It was now the job of the soldiers to go to the city and see the damage. After they had observed the engineers would follow with their solution.
As the group approached the city it was barely recognizable. Most of the homes and streets were covered in mud. The dam was still standing, as it was over two feet high. Since that had held Kirk and Spock saw real hope for the land and homes of the people who they had gotten to know in the last few days.
The work was really backbreaking. Kirk and Spock found themselves shoveling and cleaning and policing all locations within the city. They worked tirelessly for over two weeks working twelve hour days. It was working, though, the city was starting to get back into shape and some of the people had returned to their homes.
With the work of the city engineers and the help of Mr. Spock a new wall ad been built. So that a flood such as that would not happen, a plan was made so that there would be a wall of protection surrounding the city two feet tall. With any luck that would ensure that there would never be a flood on that city again.
Captain Kirk was relieved to find the ship back on the outskirts of the city in the same location that it had been before the flood. She looked the same and appeared as though it had weathered the storm unharmed.
It was a pain in the neck leaving notes for Captain Jernak but it was the only logical way for him and Spock to communicate with their ship. He left a note asking that they return the buildings as the land became ready to retake them again. Some of the foundations had been damaged and would have to be repaired first. Other than that most of the buildings could be transported almost immediately after the mud was removed.
It was in this way that the assigned jobs came in the handiest. The men that did the clean up were fast and efficient and the streets were almost completely cleaned within two weeks. Both Spock and Kirk helped with the set up and policing.
It was now the day that Kirk and Spock were to go back to the way they once were. It was going to be a big change for them and the rest of the city. They would never be the same. To have met and lived with a group of intelligent ants whose ancestors lived on earth had been an experience they would cherish. Thanks to their hardwork the people of the planet Alberto will always consider the people of the earth and Romulan their friends.
At the end as the captain looked up at the sky and thought of his friend Morey he said into his recorder "Captain's log stardate 20143 all is now well on the planet Alberto and have some information for non human inhabitants of the planet earth."
