The small, rural wood frame, church was full to capacity. After all, for the Mudd clan, this was the marriage of the century.
"By the power invested in me by the Galactic Spirit," the preacher said, "I pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride."
The newlyweds turned to each other and kissed passionately. They turned to the crowd.
"Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. and Mrs. Harcor Fenton Mudd Jr."
Mudd Sr. jumped up from his pew clapping. "Bravo, good job, son, good job."
He walked up the step to the pulpit and hugged his new daughter-in-law.
"Welcome to the family, Ahida."
Lt. Ahida Uhura sat up in her bed and gave herself a face palm. She looked around and whispered to herself.
"OK. This is my room at Guardian Base." She looked at her ring finger. "I'm not Mrs. Mudd."
She glanced at the stuffed sehlat sitting on her nightstand, it seemed to be smiling.
"That's not funny. That was a nightmare." She slid back under the covers and closed her eyes. She was almost asleep when the computer beeped.
"Incoming message. Unknown source." She got out of bed and sat at her desk.
"On screen." Mudd Jr. appeared on screen. "Muddy, why am I not surprised?"
"You're the only one I let get away with calling me that."
"This isn't a marriage proposal is it?"
"Marriage? Oh you wish. No, I like you, but I'm afraid you'd be too high maintenance. Remember that little favor you owe me?"
"OK. What is it?"
"A temporary access code to Memory Alpha. I need to research some unclassified info. And it's perfectly legal."
"You can get one yourself."
"Yeah, but that's such a hassle. And I don't have a lot of time. As a Starfleet officer, you can authorize it. And save me some time."
"Fine." Ahida punched in some numbers into her computer. "I'm transmitting it now."
Mudd looked down at his screen. "Gee, thanks girl. If this works out, I might owe you one." Her screen went black.
Ahida slipped back in bed, then thought, oh no. What have I done? If he does something stupid. That code will be traced back to me.
Eventually, she fell asleep.
She saw Mudd. One arm hanging limp. His back to the face of a cliff. He raised a phaser and pulled the trigger. Its power pack was dead. A very large bi-pedal creature came into view. It raised a large club. It came down on Mudd's head.
She jumped out of bed and started getting dressed.
"Computer, page Curzon Dax. Have him meet me at the guard station, ASAP." She grabbed her phaser and tricorder and headed out the door.
"Can't you go ahead and let me in?" Ahida pleaded with the guard.
"No mam. You know the regs. No one is allowed to be with the Guardian alone."
Finally, Curzon showed up. "Got here as soon as I could. What's going on?"
"Probably nothing." Ahida said. "But something I need to check on."
The guard opened the door and the two started down the path to the Guardian of Forever.
"That jacket." Ahida said. "It's Andorian."
"I like Andorian stuff."
"It's a female jacket."
"Well I uh just grabbed... uh and..."
"Never mind. I probably don't want to know."
As she approached the Guardian, she almost shouted. "Guardian, the dream I had, are you responsible?"
The Guardians voice boomed out. "In four days hence, on Taurus ll, your friend will be in grave danger. You must go to him."
An image appeared in the portal. "Stay here." Ahida told Curzon. "I'll be back shortly." She stepped through the opening.
"Uncle, this place is weird" Mudd's fifteen year old nephew, Gary whined. "We shouldn't be here."
"Oh, don't be a wimp." Mudd said. He kneeled down and picked up a chrystaline rock. He scanned it and smiled. "You know what this is?"
"What is it?" Ahida asked. The two men almost jumped out of their clothes.
"Ahida, what are you...Wait, this planet isn't off limits. It's only listed as very dangerous. Perfectly legal for us to be here. So, go away."
"Do you know what this planet is?"
"Of course. It's Taurus ll. Your father crashed the Galileo 7 here."
"How do you know of the Galileo 7?"
"That's what I was researching. Kirk's scanners were almost useless. All they recorded was static. At Memory Alpha I ran the Enterprise sensor logs through a special computer program I recently, umm, acquired, you know what I found?" He turned and waved at the mountain behind him. "See the white vains criss crossing that mountain? Pure dilithium Chrystal. I'll be so rich, if you're nice to me, maybe I'll buy you a planet."
"Then you know about the creatures here?"
"What creatures?"
"You need to do more research before going off on some..."
A chill went down Ahida's spine. They were close. She felt their presence. She looked around and saw Mudd's ship, parked a hundred meters away. She grabbed Gary, pointed him at the ship and said, "Run."
"Boy, stay here." Mudd said.
"Uncle Harry, I'm doing what she said." Ahida and Gary ran for the ship. Mudd grabbed a couple more rocks and stuffed them in his pockets.
"That's enough proof." He said as he joined in the run.
Fifty meters from the ship, a spear the size of a small telephone pole landed in front of them. Rocks began falling around them. Ahida drew her phaser and fired into air. The rock fall ceased.
"That'll only scare them a few seconds. Muddy, get your ship ready for take off."
Mudd took the lead, Gary right behind him. Twenty five metes from the ship a large rock struck Gary's leg, he fell screaming. Mudd turned around.
Ahida scooped the young man up.
"Go!" She shouted, "I can carry him. Get the ship ready."
Mudd leaped through the open hatch. Ahida followed a second later.
"Get airborne." She yelled, as she strapped the still screaming young man down.
Mudd screamed, Ahida turned. The most horrible ape like creature she could imagine was stairing in the window at them. The ship lurched.
"I don't believe it." Mudd screamed, "they're holding us down." Ahida opened a side hatch.
"We're are you going?". Mudd yelled over the noise.
"Don't worry about me. Just get out of here."
She jumped out, rolled under the ship. The creatures almost had the ship completely surrounded. She darted out through the legs of the giant creatures. She spun around, began screaming and raked the ship with phaser fire.
Even on its highest stun setting, the phaser did little more than annoy the gargantuan animals. But enough were startled and lost their grip. The ship broke free. It pivoted and careened out of control. She thought it was about to cash, when Mudd regained control. The ship streaked into the sky and disappeared.
"Well, I did say don't worry about me."
She was now alone on a planet with giant, angry monsters. Their attention focused entirely on her. She did the only thing she could. She ran.
Though large, they were slow and she easily avoided their grasp. But there were so many. She ran around a large boulder and ran into the cliff face from her dream.
She was now cornered, there were just too many of them.
"Time to get serious." She switched her phaser to its highest setting, aimed at the nearest creature and...
Lowered her weapon.
No. I'm a Starfleet officer. These are evolving hominids. One day this maybe a thriving, advanced civilization. The Prime Directive must be obeyed. I've interfered enough.
She switched off her weapon and removed the power pack to prevent an accident. Calmly she accepted her fate. She thought of her parents, Aunt Michael, her grandmother. Then she spoke what she knew would be her last words.
"Grandfather, thank you for tolerating my Human side."
A blue smoky light appeared. She leaped for it, just as a large club swung past her head.
She hit the ground and stumbled into one of the creatures. She looked up. Curzon sighed in relief.
"That was too close." He said.
Ahida looked back, for a moment she saw the creatures looking through the portal. Then, it flickered off.
"You saw that?" She asked.
"Yes. I saw every thing. I know you were on Taurus ll. And the dilithium."
Ahida was silent for a moment.
"Sweetie, you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm OK. It happened in the future. Time travel protocol is in effect. The next four days we can't do or say anything that may change the future. Understand?"
"Of course. In that case I'm going back to bed."
The two walked in silence toward the guard station.
"It happened in the future." Curzon said. "You know, you're the only person I know who could say something like that and have it make sense."
Four nights later, Ahida sat at her desk, she was waiting for a call. Her computer beeped.
"Incoming message. From U.S.S. Choctaw."
"On-screen." A very harried and confused Mudd Jr. appeared.
"Girl? The Captain here said you never left, were ever it is you're stationed. But you were there.. Weren't you?"
"How's your nephew?"
"Fine. A broken leg is all. He's in sickbay. But how were you there? Oh, classified I'll bet."
"Somthing like that."
"Well, the Captain said my discovery won't help me. Starfleet will probably put that planet off limits for good. Those things might turn into people some day."
"That's how the Prime Directive works."
"Oh well. One failure just leads to the next opportunity." He smiled. "You know, the other night you said something about a marriage proposal. You're a lot like my mother. I was thinking, what if me and you..."
"Harcor. No."
"Come-on girl think about it."
"See you around, boy."
She cut off the transmission.
"Ugh." She rolled her eyes. Got up and flopped on her bed. She reached up and touched the name tag hanging around the neck of the stuffed sehlat that watched over her.
"Don't worry Teela. Never in a million years."
Taurus ll several millennia later.
A small child flips through a book of fairytales. A picture of a winged fairy, flying out of a smoky blue light catches his eye.
"Mommy, what that?"
His mother looked over his shoulder.
"That's Ahittia. A good fairy. Long, long ago, she kept our planet safe from bad people. But that's just make believe."
"She pretty."