I don't remember a lot about what happened when I was gone. I just remember somehow leaving the engine room of the Enterprise and waking up in a prison cell on the planet Woggerscutt.
They say they found me, naked and shivering, in a mound of snow, in one of their top secret government installations.
A mound of snow, during a record heat wave, on one of the hottest days of the year.
I didn't get a good look at the place. The only thing I saw was a big gray room filled with military equipment, and a bunch of aliens in black outfits pointing phasers at me.
They said I kept crying "Traveler" and my mother's name after they stunned me unconscious.
I awoke alone in a white windowless room containing only a bed, mirror, sink and a toilet. It had a door, but I couldn't open it. It wasn't one of those forcefield setups like they had for the Enterprise brig.
For clothing, the aliens had provided me with a little white thing that looked like a dress. I put it on out of necessity.
About an hour later, my prison door opened up, and I got my first good look at my captors.
It was a male and a female, both clad in purple dresses, every part of their bodies covered in fur with the exception of their hands, faces, and long opossum-like tails. The male had spotty brown skin and a yellow pelt. The female had a green freckled Caucasian tone, and a gold cross dangled around her neck. The two seemed stern, but not exactly menacing.
Their faces had a human shape, but their noses resembled a turtle's beak, with nostrils on the sides. They also had cleft palates like a hare, and their eyes had goat-like minus signs for pupils.
I smiled and gave them a wave. "Hi. Any chance you guys can find me a pair of pants?"
The two aliens glanced at each other.
"It is summer," the female said. "And the building is temperature controlled. Your clothing is adequate for the climate...are you feeling unwell?"
I reddened. "Well, not exactly..."
"We brought you your meal," the male said, typing commands on a remote control unit on his wrist.
A hovering food carrier entered the room.
As an ensign on a Starfleet vessel, no indigenous delicacies really surprised me. The meal was served on a giant leaf. They'd given me a shrimp-crawdad hybrid thing the size of a baseball, a small loaf of bread with something like noodles in it, and a piece of fruit that looked like an amputated headless beetle.
I tried to look pleasant. "Thanks."
"Your name is Wesley Crusher," said the female. "Correct?"
"Y-yeah," I stammered. "How did you know?"
"You were in a delirium when they stunned you. You were quoting name, rank and serial number, and calling to someone named `Traveler.'"
The Traveler...the name seemed like something important I should remember, but I couldn't recall a single detail about him, her or it. I didn't even know what this so-called `Traveler' looked like.
"And who are you?" I asked.
"I am Nevgewa," the female said. She pointed her tail in the male's direction. "And this is Vundexo."
A creature resembling a cross between a mouse and a junebug crawled out of her bob of green hair, sniffing at its surroundings. She smiled, dropped the animal into a breast pocket. I recalled that those creatures, the Qorrujaz, nibbled on their owner's dead skin, shed fur and such, to maintain hygiene.
"You're...Abreyas, aren't you? I met a few of your kind at Starfleet Academy."
I offered my hand to shake. They gave me their tails.
Trusting creatures these are, I thought, but then I wondered what exactly stood guard outside. "Listen. I need to get a message to Starfleet. Can you take me to your communications center?"
Nevgewa looked questioningly at the male.
Vundexo shook his head. "I'm sorry, bilo Crusher. You currently pose a security risk, and I require clearance from the Wuttrab before I can allow you to access the communications equipment."
Nevgewa nodded. "I'm very sorry. You seem like a nice human, but the circumstances surrounding your arrival were...somewhat unusual."
"As we speak, the Wuttrab is questioning Starfleet about the trespassing incident. At best, you may be sentenced to lifelong imprisonment. At worst, this may break Woggerscutt's alliance with the Federation and may even result in an open declaration of war."
I felt a sinking in the pit of my stomach. "You sure there isn't another option?"
"Our leaders are researching the matter as we speak."
I could tell by the expressions on their faces that the answer was no.
I wanted to tell them I technically wasn't with Starfleet anymore, but that would lead them to ask questions that I didn't have the answer to, like where I had been the last few months, or years, or whatever amount of time had passed between me standing in the Enterprise engine room and me landing in a pile of snow at their secret military base. Plus, war or no war, Starfleet was going to be my only ticket home.
"All right, so when can I speak to this...Wuttrab?"
"You'll speak with him soon enough," said Vundexo.
The female set the leaf on a fold out table next to my bed. I noticed she wore a phaser on her belt, but she looked strong enough to disarm me if I tried anything. "Obes. Eat. The Wuttrab refuses to speak to prisoners when they're hungry. It makes them irritable."
I sat down on the bed and tried their food.
The shrimp thing tasted like blue cheese, honey granola, fish and cough syrup. The bread wasn't much better, sort of a sweaty sock aroma, with a flavor of mushrooms, chocolate and seaweed.
Terrible stuff. I'm surprised I ate as much as I did, but I guess I'd been starving for some time.
"Who's Beverly Crusher?" Nevgewa asked as she watched me eat.
"She's my mom," I said with a shrug.
"You must miss her a lot. I heard you calling for her in your sleep."
I smirked a little. "Guess I'm just a mama's boy, huh?"
Nevgewa did not seem to disapprove. "The emotional bond with one's egg brooders is not a thing to be taken lightly."
She pressed a finger to a device attached to her mouse-like ear. "Guep. I'll let him know."
Nevgewa smiled at me. "The Wuttrab will see you now."
Vundexo pulled my arms behind my back, fitting me with restraints.
The two led me outside, down a long gray corridor that resembled a piece of foam rubber under a microscope, lined with closed prison cells I couldn't see inside. The place was eerily quiet, perhaps due to some advanced type of soundproofing.
After walking down a few long rows, we turned a corner, stepping into an office filled with displays of security feeds from the various cells, a whole kaleidescope of aliens, all locked away in separate prisons, whether justly or unjustly it was impossible to tell.
A male Abreya in a black dress sat in a padded chair in the center of the room, switching feeds with a device on the armrest.
When I entered the room, he pulled a Qorrujaz out of his mouth, stowing it in his pocket. "Ah. Bilo Wesley Crusher."
He waved his tail at a stool positioned in front of his chair. "Please. Sit down. You have a lot of interesting questions to answer."