The New World
I do not own Star Trek.
Chapter 1: Awakening
She stared ahead.
Didn't really look at anything particular.
Her eyes were still red but she wasn't crying anymore.
She just sat there saying nothing.
Everything she knew…was gone…
At first she had been confused not knowing where she was. The strange architecture and the funny uniforms of the doctors and nurses; was she inside some sort of military hospital? Then her memories came back in an instant: visiting her cousin at the east coast, the embolism, the diagnosis of the doctors that she didn't had much time left. And then talking with her parents, her family about these newly constructed cryonics satellites…her parents! They had actually done it!
Lara had looked around the room she found herself in. There didn't seem to be anything wrong with her. Furthermore she could actually hear clearly without hearing aids! Then a woman had approached Lara and introduced herself as Beverly Crusher. Lara had asked where she was, whether she was still in New York, the hospital was the last thing she could remember.
But no!
Said hospital was long since history. And so apparently was Lara's old life.
"The earth year is 2364. You're on board of the USS Enterprise, a spaceship," the chief medical officer had explained to her.
"Twenty – what? I-I…" Lara had stammered.
346 years had passed!
Doctor Crusher then had introduced another woman to her, Deanna Troi, who apparently was some kind of "counselor". What did Lara need a counselor for? Or was this the new term for psychiatrist?
Whatever, Lara, dressed in a blue coverall, had followed the kind and caring woman called Deanna out of sickbay and through a corridor into an elevator which could be controlled by voice command.
Still slightly confused and weary, Lara's brain didn't seem quite awake yet although she didn't feel any pain or anything. But it all went so quick! Although the doctor had let Lara sit for a while on the bed until she felt ready, she still felt as though she had been woken up at three in the morning. When hadn't expected for it to be so sudden. But she didn't want to stay in sickbay either; she needed something comfortable like a room, something…well…close to normal to settle down.
Deanna led her to her quarters which were very big! Had Lara not known that it was her quarters, she would have guessed that it was intended for some high dignitaries, ambassadors or the like. It had three rooms, one sort of living-room-like one with a table, a sofa, chairs, shelves and windows, the other two were a bedroom also with a window and a bathroom without any windows. Everything seemed modern beyond modern. And the windows showed what was apparently outer space; a true luxury hotel by her century's standards!
"If you need any sort of information or contact a member of the crew," Deanna explained, "you can use one of the surfaces here." She moved her hand over a piece of the wall and an enormous screen seemed to dissolve out of it as if appearing magically. The same could be said of the desk and the wall in the bedroom and even the bathroom!
"You can take this info with you anywhere as well," said Deanna as she gave Lara something that looked like a filmy, razor-thin rectangular glass shard. Then she moved to a square black hole in the wall inside which something shone in a bright blue light. It was unlike any kind of technology Lara had seen in her life.
"This is a replicator. You can replicate anything you like with it from clothing to food and drink."
"You mean you can just create those things out of nothing?" Lara asked with a raised eyebrow.
"We use raw matter as a basis," Deanna answered as if it was self-evident.
"Oh…sure! Yeah…raw matter…" Lara said sarcastically. She looked outside the windows: no planet, no moon, no blue globe anywhere!
"Where are we exactly? Why aren't we near earth? How did you foun – Oh my god, it's real!" she led out suddenly. She gulped, her mind fully awake now. Reality struck and it struck hard. It was gone, it was all gone! Her old life. Everyone and everything she new! When she had been on the brink of death, it hadn't occurred to her what it would be like if she actually woke up, if she lived, if she had to live. In this new world, this unknown, this undiscovered country! And she couldn't take it anymore! She tumbled…
Lara felt Deanna's hand on her shoulder stroking her. Her face buried in the woman's torso, Lara wept her entire life out! Wept until it seemed she could weep no longer, as if all the tears of her life had been wept away. She emerged again and stared out of the window, ahead, nowhere in particular. She gulped and hiccupped. For a while they both stood there and nobody spoke.
It was true.
She really had been cryogenically frozen. Her parents had really pulled it off. She remembered it was expensive but her mom and dad had assured her back then that money should be of no concern in this matter. She hadn't been ready yet, no one of her age could possibly be! And her parents had accepted her decision. Lara would survive! Their daughter would live.
But now…now she was here.
In a new world;
A new time!
Foreign to her;
Cut off from her former life. She couldn't even thank them!
Everything she knew, everything there had been…it had all vanished. Some new world was out there sauntering along though space. And she had to find herself again. Reborn to everything again; a big baby toddling across some new unexplored road, unsure of what she would find.
A hum came from the door.
"Come in," Deanna said in Lara's place.
Emerging out of her deep pond of thoughts, Lara slowly turned towards the doors which opened to reveal an older gentleman around 60 years of age with balding grey hair entering her quarters. He wore a red uniform that was as bland as the others she had seen. No decorations of any kind save pour pips at his collar. The man smiled and approached Lara holding out his hand. Smiling shyly, Lara took it.
"Jean-Luc Picard, Captain of the Federation Starship Enterprise," he introduced himself.
"Lara Elizabeth Dawson," she responded. "Thank you, Captain, for saving my life."
"How are you feeling, Miss Dawson?"
"I…" Lara stammered for a moment, "It's so overwhelming! I am fine, I've made it but…I just need to get used to all of this now."
"Do you like your accommodation?" Picard asked.
"Oh yeah, it's….brilliant. Cozy and…big. Luxurious…for a girl from the 21st century."
She looked at the captain. A question had formed in her head, something that, in all the commotion going on, she hadn't thought of.
"Where there other people in the cryonics satellite, sir? Has anyone else survived?"
"Actually there has. Ralph Offenhouse is his name, he just woke up."
"Will we stay here?" she asked. "What will happen to us now?"
"Well," Captain Picard said, "we find ourselves on a delicate mission. There is a situation we need to investigate. You see, Miss Dawson, our actual mission is the discovery of the unknown. We belong to a fleet of science vessels. Discovering a remnant satellite from Earth with living passengers in it was tempting and I would be honored to have an extended conversation with both you and Mr. Offenhouse within the next few days, I'm sure you would have some fascinating insights into the events of your time. But if you were to remain here, you wouldn't see our homeworld for years. I have therefore arranged for you to be brought back to Earth. In five days we'll be arriving at Starbase 81, a space station. You can come aboard the USS Charleston there which is bound for Earth."
Lara nodded.
"There are a few performances in the next couple of days," Picard explained, "Our ship offers a variety of recreational activities. Tomorrow for instance there is a concert at Ten Forward, music from several centuries and epochs. It will give you the opportunity to meet other people; to settle in into this new time."
Lara nodded again.
"I was actually thinking about that. Thank you, captain."
Lara woke up a bit confused. She didn't have such a very comfortable bed! And why was the sky still dark at this hour?
Then it came back.
Sitting up with a start, Lara once again felt that emptiness about her. Then, with a determined look on her face, she got up and moved to the bathroom. She still had to get used to there being no switches anywhere for nearly everything was done via voice command. After having a wonderfully comfortable shower, she stepped out, still naked, towards the replicator. She had been so tired after everything that had happened yesterday and it had been very late after all. She pressed a finger on the wall and a screen appeared telling her that it was stardate 41987.3 and 09:12 a.m. She searched the screen (the only device that could be controlled through touch) for an earth calendar and found that it was December 27, 2364.
Lara turned to the replicator and, after having looked up a list with 21st century clothing for women, dressed in a black T-shirt with a yellow cardigan and jeans. Tying her long black hair into a ponytail, she was ready to start her day!
Since she still had some time before the concert started, she used this time to brush up on a little history. Half an hour later she stared open-mouthed at the screen. She had expected anything but this! She wondered if this Ralph Offenhouse had equally felt about this.
Moving through the corridors and elevators of the Enterprise, Lara found that people were often taking an interested look at her and seemingly very strange choice of clothing. Apparently people didn't dress as flamboyant as she chose to. She also noted the many alien crew members wandering through the corridors going about their business. How many alien species and planets were there to visit? For a moment, Lara forgot all her burden and found herself planning a tour through the regions of the United Federation of Planets she had read about.
Arriving at Ten Forward, Lara saw that it was a very large room with comfortable chairs around several tables and a bar on the other end opposite the enormous windows.
Spotting an older gentleman in his sixties dressed in a 21st century-style business suit, she approached him.
"Mr. Offenhouse?" she asked. The man looked up.
"Good morning, sir," Lara said holding out her hand. "I'm Lara Dawson, one of the, uhm, passengers of the SS Birdseye, the cryonics satellite."
"Ah, good to know that you made it," Mr. Offenhouse said. He gestured to the chair opposite of him. "Please, sit down."
"Thanks"
As Lara sat down, a waiter approached their table.
"Can I get you something?"
"Have you eaten yet?" Lara asked Mr. Offenhouse.
"No, not yet, great idea," he said and turned to the waiter. "I'd like an omelet and coffee please."
Lara thought for a moment. "I would like Miso soup, Nattō, salmon sashimi, a salt plum, an egg, rice and green tea please."
The waiter nodded and left leaving Mr. Offenhouse watching Lara with interest.
"Japanese breakfast," she explained. "Very healthy."
The waiter was already back serving their breakfast. Lara picked up her chopsticks and began to help herself to some Nattō while Mr. Offenhouse pocked somewhat unenthusiastically in his omelet.
"So how does it feel?" he asked her.
Lara paused, looked down biting her lips then gazed up to Mr. Offenhouse again.
"It's not that easy…I was so sure back then. But now…I kinda wish I hadn't done it…"
He nodded.
"Must be hard when you still had people around that you loved back then."
He stared at his plate and finally began to properly eat. Lara sharply looked at him for a second and resumed to eat.
"You seem disappointed of the situation we're finding ourselves in," she said after a while.
"How can I not be disappointed?" Mr. Offenhouse said grimly. "Did you know that there's no money anymore? That means my whole account, all of my money is gone and so is my office. In fact, I've read that Wall Street and the Stock Exchange have been turned into a museum! How am I to live now? I'm a stock broker!"
"Well consider yourself lucky," Lara shot back, "we seem to have died right before everything went south. A global economic depression, the creation of Sanctuary Districts to keep the unwanted from the streets in the 2020s and the outbreak of World War III in 2026 that lasted 27 years and reduced almost every country to ruins including the US."
"I've read about it," Mr. Offenhouse nodded, "600 million people dead…unbelievable how we could rise again from the ashes. With the help of an alien people apparently."
Once again none of them spoke for a while until Mr. Offenhouse had finished his omelet and was sipping his coffee while Lara ate her Miso soup.
"Do you have any plans on what you're gonna do once you're back on Earth?" Offenhouse asked. Lara shook her head.
"Haven't thought that far ahead yet. I first need to find out more about this time…the society we'll now live in. Did you notice that there seems to be a lot of families on this ship?"
"Yes, I have. And there are quite a few children here. But no one seems to supervise them or teach them? I was looking if there was a daycare or something but the computer defined daycare as something from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. How do you keep those kids in line?"
"Perhaps they don't need to," Lara pondered. "I mean, think about it: a world without money, without crime, war, famine and disease…and with far superior technology! No need to teach these kids to be careful in town, watch where they go and stuff. And obviously they seem to know where they're not allowed to go. So why patronize them? We're 300 years into the future, Mr. Offenhouse, in a time where different civilizations have come together! Surely many cultural phenomena are gonna be foreign to us."
At this moment, Ten Forward began to fill with more people as the musicians took their place on the podium and the concert began. First classical music was being played: Eine kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart and The Four Seasons by Vivaldi, the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky. Lara noticed that an android was among the musicians, according to the information about the ship's crew, he was the first android with a position in Starfleet: Lieutenant Commander Data.
Then Jazz followed. Many people got up and started dancing. One of the nurses who had been present when Lara awoke, Alyssa Ogawa, asked her for a dance. At 21, she was only five years older than Lara. They quickly got to know each other over the music that followed, Blues and Country was followed by Rock 'n' Roll with songs by Elvis Presley, the Beatles and more. After that, music from the early 21st century followed with songs by Janelle Monáe, Rihanna or Beyoncé. What came next was music that Lara hadn't experienced anymore as they came after she had died; the postwar music after 2054 which was defined by sorrow, poverty and the question of how to move on; the New Age music after first contact with the Vulcans which was hopeful again and full of spirit. And then lastly there was the music of the time of the Federation which was founded in 2161. Vulcan, Andorian, Tellarite, Denobulan, Betazoidian music among others. Songs in various alien languages.
Lara had lots of fun as she danced listened and talked with her newly found friend. Exhausted but very happy she went to bed. Her dreams switched from dancing with Alyssa and talking with Mr. Offenhouse at Ten Forward to Lara standing in front of her parents and old friends screaming at them as they went to and fro in some fuzzy background of her hometown Portland and the distance between them became wider and wider. Then they intermixed with Lara being at Ten Forward watching family and friends dancing in some alien style while she was inside her satellite capsule watching them while nearly dying.
With a scream she rose from her bed panting as though she had run from the Northwest of Portland all the way to the border into the state of Washington. Touching the nearby wall, she noticed that it was 4 a.m. Lara sighed. Lying back, she proceeded to stare at the ceiling. Then she got up and made herself ready for the day. She checked the ship's database for historical information and eventually found what she was looking for: names.
Telling the computer all the names of her friends, Lara watched as the screen on the wall spilled out results, sometimes in connection with famous historical events or for having accomplished noteworthy things: Gary Ward from her year who took part in the Bell Riots of 2024 in Sanctuary District A in San Francisco after having landed there for being diagnosed with Asperger's; Philipp Jensen who became a famous judge who desperately tried to provide at least something resembling a fair justice system after it had begun to erode starting in early 2019 and became utterly meaningless by 2032; Jessica Ortega who joined the terrorist group of Colonel Phillip Green. With a horrified expression, Lara shut off the screen.
How she wished to be on a planet, any planet, and see the sunrise! Just see a new day shining through the windows! But alas, there was only deep space. Total darkness only pierced by tiny white dots of distant stars that surely these people had visited at some point or were about to. To put at least some kind of familiarity to her new surroundings again, Lara went to the replicator and selected a list of items that sort of reflected her old room back at Portland. She had noticed yesterday that there didn't seem to be any bins or wardrobes. You could actually not only materialize something with the replicator, you could also recycle it again. And above that, you could save your replicated choices and make a list which was exactly what Lara was doing. Once she would be back on Earth, Lara would decorate her new home in a similar way. An hour later, Lara sat on the sofa glancing around her quarters now filled with pillows with her favorite colors as well as books and clothing for the next couple of days. Clutching a book to her chest, Lara went out of her quarters making her way to Ten Forward. They had given her a small communication device called a combadge. As soon as she deemed it appropriate, Lara called the nurse she befriended yesterday, Alyssa Ogawa, and asked her whether she would want to join her for breakfast. Lara spent almost the entire morning at Ten Forward reading Species of the Federation and Their Cultures. It was well thought of to read the actual book and not some text on one of those glass PADDs you could take with you. Lara had always preferred books over e-books and the like. But then Lara wanted to try something different. Alyssa had told her about this technology that was said to be very immersive: the holodeck. It was said that would could upload entire landscapes in there and even take part in some interactive playthroughs of novel and film adaptations called holo-novels.
Standing outside of Holodeck 3, Lara went through the very extensive list of choices. It was only when she heard approaching steps that she turned around to find Captain Picard walking towards her. He smiled.
"I was just coming off duty and I wanted to see how you were doing."
"I'm fine, thanks, Captain."
"I see you're trying out our holodecks. Do you need help with the procedures?"
Lara thought for a second.
"I'm not sure what to choose, there are so many things available here. Should I run one of those novels or merely walk though a landscape, perhaps with a horse?"
Captain Picard nodded.
"I'd know something that might be to your liking. Do you like detective stories, Miss Dawson?"
Lara beamed.
"I love reading Sherlock Holmes! They made a modern television series during my time. And then there was this other detective from San Francisco..."
"Dixon Hill," the captain said with a voice filled with a fan-like admiration. Lara glanced at him.
"That's right," Lara confirmed.
"May I invite you to a trip to 1942's San Francisco?" Captain Picard asked.
Lara smiled and nodded.
"As long as I'm not just sitting at the secretary's desk, sir."
Captain Picard smiled reassuringly and went to the screen in the wall and selected a two-people playthrough of The Long Dark Tunnel. Playing the role of Private Investigator Dixon Hill himself, he proposed Lara to play the detective's Secretary Madeline Lewis. The doors to the holodeck opened and Lara followed Captain Picard open-mouthed. They found themselves in a hallway of a building. Lara looking excitingly at the captain only to find that he had apparently changed his clothes to match that of a private detective of the 1940s. Glancing down her own body, Lara noticed that she too had different clothes, namely a green dress and a beige jacket as if she had just on the road outside. It felt so real! Picard opened a door with a sign that read: 312 – Dixon Hill, Private Investigator. The two of them stepped into a reception room with a desk containing a telephone, a type writer and a large amount of paper files and notes. Lara went around the desk and sat down while Captain Picard went into the detective's office. Lara scattered through the notes hoping to find something interesting when she heard heavy steps and looked up. A heavy guy in a blue suit and black hat had approached her.
"I'm looking for Private Dix," he said in a growling voice.
"Uh, sure, one moment sir," Lara said standing up and went to the office.
"There's a gentleman for you, Mr. Hill," she said to Picard standing by the window. The radio was running.
"Thank you, Madeline," Picard said.
About an hour later, Captain Picard and Lara hurried along an empty street in a seemingly deserted part of San Francisco alongside a man called Robert McNary, a police detective and friend of Dixon Hill.
"Is this Japantwon?" Lara asked.
"It is," the captain answered, "this must be shortly after the deportation of the Japanese American population. And ideal hiding place for a gangster like Jimmy Cuzzo."
Lara came to love the holodeck. It was like one of those interactive video games she once had played with a friend, only that the player was actively participating in the story. Luckily, thanks to safety protocols, not everything was actually real like alcohol and cigarettes (as Lara had found out as both Dixon Hill and his secretary smoked) or knives and bullets. After the program had finished, both were walking out of the holodeck with sweat on their faces from all the running and excitement.
"Thank you, captain," Lara said as they stopped in front of the entrance.
"My pleasure," said Captain Picard, "I'm looking forward to dinner tomorrow with you and Mr. Offenhouse."
"'Till tomorrow then," Lara said.
Lara spent the afternoon wandering through the corridors of the Enterprise which was so large that it could easily hold the population of a small town. There were many recreational facilities on board such as a theater, a gymnasium and an arboretum which was a huge space, almost like a park with all kinds of plant life, from Earth as well as from other planets. And every now and then, one could spot children playing in small groups, running about laughing. Lara spent quite a lot of time observing children. Indeed, as Mr. Offenhouse had said, no one seemed to supervise them or look after them. Elsewhere, in one of the many lounges, she found a couple of children reading PADDs. They learned by themselves at their leisure, a self-initiated, self-directed and needs-centered form of learning. No dull rote learning of facts and numbers. In fact, adults seemed to trust children as no parent would every do on 21st century Earth. From what Lara could gather – as she never talked with parents about this stuff – adults were viewing children, toddlers and even babies as having their own social drive. Once they could move around by themselves – be it crawling or walking – their parents let them explore the ship as freely as they wanted to. Mothers or fathers would still be near their toddlers but never held them off going somewhere. There were places that for sure no child would ever be seen like critical systems. But in corridors, lounges and other recreational facilities you could almost always spot at least one child. It was fascinating to watch. One could not even call it upbringing, more upwatching. Apart from that, children still seemed very close to their parents physically. Small children were almost always carried around by their parents and it was not uncommon to see older children breastfeeding in a lounge or another public place. Whereas in Lara's time, children were told to comply with their parents, in this time it seemed that parents naturally complied with their children and their needs and did not attempt to shape children and their personality and behavior to some "norm".
Lara did bring up the subject at dinner with Alyssa. When she told the young nurse of how children were mostly raised in her time, Alyssa seemed actually appalled by the very idea of that. In fact, Lara had found many things of her time to be viewed as downright uncivilized by inhabitants of the 24th century, perhaps in the same way as people from the 21st century viewed the live of the middle ages: some old, long gone barbaric times that they had luckily been grown out of.
The next day, Lara and Mr. Offenhouse were called to the pilot lounge in the shuttle bay on Deck 4 where a tall, handsome man was awaiting them.
"Commander William Riker," he introduced himself, "I just wanted to talk to you about the SS Birdseye." He pointed out of the window where one could glance down at the gigantic shuttle bay that looked like a vague mixture of an aircraft hanger and an airport. Goods were transported to and fro and at the far side, they could actually see a shuttle departing. But right before them under the window was the enormous satellite with its remaining cryopods laid around it.
"There was little information on the Enterprise's database and the satellite's computer was damaged," the commander informed them. "There seemed to be room for twelve people in total and we've been able to restore most of the data that also list ten other passengers along with the two of you."
"And you're wondering if we knew about those people or actually met them?" Lara guessed.
"It would help us reconstruct the puzzle if you had any insight of the operation," Riker said.
"I think none of us knew each other except if some of the passengers were already engaged in some way," Mr. Offenhouse said. Riker nodded and looked to Lara who shook her head.
"I've only heard about this process before I was cryogenically frozen. I didn't even see the satellite until now." She looked at Riker. "Did you find out what happened to the others? Or why we were drifting so far out in the first place?"
Riker sighed. "There are signs of the satellite being taken and boarded, likely by a non-human crew, some hundred years before we extracted you. All the pods are empty except for yours which were the only two still functioning normally. Two were apparently broken open but something prevented the intruders from taking the occupants out. We've only found their skeletal remains. The most likely theory is that the intruders needed some intelligent life forms as a workforce. Either that or something even worse."
"But you have no way of finding out who it was?" Mr. Offenhouse inquired.
"The patterns of the intrusions including tools and weapons they might have used to board the satellite don't match any type of civilization we currently know of. Of course, there are still some uncharted spots within the border of the Federation that currently encompasses eight thousand light years and has over one hundred and fifty members.
He started to move to the door and Lara and Mr. Offenhouse followed.
"We collected the data on the passengers. Yours are here."
He handed each of them a small chip-like object.
"Information on you and the data that you requested such as certificates, private notes and so on."
Lara took her chip with a deep breath. She remembered well what she wanted to put on there. Back in her quarters she held the chip to one of the screens as instructed by Commander Riker and at once a list of files appeared. All her personal data: a biography, school certificates and private photos of family and friends. Lara gulped. Then she directed the screen to put on a slide show of the photos. She was relieved to see that no picture was missing. But while she had looked at each of them her stomach seemed to be continuously filled with stones and becoming heavier and heavier. There they were, frozen on a screen with no sound and no live coming out of them. Most of the time they were all posing and faking a smile for the camera anyway.
"Turn off the screen," Lara ordered the computer. The screen seemed to disappear leaving behind just the wall. Lara sighed. She went out and made her way straight to the elevator. Her destination was the holodeck. She needed distraction. And she found it a couple of moments later racing a horse through various Earth landscapes, from Central Europe with castles in the background to the frontier of the wild west to the mountains of what in her time was North Korea.
Back in her quarters, she then went to the replicator to look prepare herself for the dinner with Captain Picard.
Outside of the captain's quarters she found Offenhouse dressed in a 21st century tux. He looked at her sporting a fabulous dress.
"I see that you can't cotton up this ridiculous fashion either," he observed.
"Who says it's ridiculous? I simply have my taste. Who knows? Maybe I'll be wearing a 24th century garment tomorrow," Lara said. She reached to the panel on the side of the door and a chime sounded.
"Enter."
They went inside Captain Picard's quarters which were as big as three standard quarters at least. A table for three had been set and Picard was just getting the last dishes out of the replicator. It was a mixture of different human dishes from around the world. Lara noticed that the captain was wearing a dress uniform.
"Miss Dawson, Mr. Offenhouse, good evening," Picard welcomed them. "Please, have a seat."
He pulled back the chair intended for Lara. She took it and he pushed it to the table again as she was sitting down.
"May I offer both of you a glass of Château Picard? From my family's vineyard in La Barre."
He poured three glasses, first to Lara then to Mr. Offenhouse and at last to himself. He then raised his glass.
"À votre santé!"
They all sipped from the red wine and Lara found it to taste quite good.
"Please, help yourselves," the captain then offered. While she took a bit of this and that, dishes that she hadn't tried before, Lara noticed that Mr. Offenhouse chose his meal so that it resembled more traditional European American cuisine.
"So, how are you adjusting to this new time period?" Captain Picard asked.
Both Lara and Mr. Offenhouse spoke at once.
"Well. It's n–"
"Not easily!"
Lara broke off and looked at Mr. Offenhouse whose answer was a lot more bluntly than hers was intended to be. She turned back to the captain.
"Well…it does take some time."
Captain Picard gave her a little smile before turning to Mr. Offenhouse.
"It might not have been exactly as you expected, Mr. Offenhouse, but that doesn't mean that you have to shut yourself away. Aside from your visit to Ten Forward four days ago you haven't really tried to embrace your new situation. Miss Dawson here, I believe, seemed to have come to terms with her situation better than you."
"Well, what do you expect me to be doing here, Captain?" he said coldly. "How am I supposed to live now that the focus of my entire life is gone? Do you expect me to be unemployed living on the street?"
"If you haven't already noticed, Mr. Offenhouse, you don't have to fear unemployment anymore," Picard answered. "You are free to pursue any activity you desire. And if your activity has been related to money, why don't you write about that work you had in your time? I'm sure many people would be interested to read about it, in fact, it would give as a fascinating insight about the importance of money in the old age."
Lara gazed at Mr. Offenhouse with an encouraging expression. He still looked grimly but seemed to consider that suggestion.
"Do you have any plans for your future, Miss Dawson?" Captain Picard asked, "Any career you wish to pursue?"
"Well, I – I…" Lara stammered thinking for a moment. "The thing is, Captain, I've only come close to finishing High School, so… I didn't really think about it. I guess I would have attended College. And I always enjoyed writing stories. I'm very interested in Asian culture being Asian American. My mother was Korean. I would like to travel through Asia one day."
"Well, it's quite simple these days, Miss Dawson."
She nodded and helped herself to more food.
When she awoke the next morning on Stardate 41998.5, Lara realized that these would be the last few hours she would spent on the Enterprise. It was December 31st 2364. New Year's Eve would be celebrated on Earth in a few hours. In fact, the most eastern part of the world was already celebrating it.
Getting ready, Lara packed only those items most interesting and valuable to her. The rest she recycled and saved it on her list she would take with her little PADD. For the last time she met with Alyssa Ogawa in Ten Forward. Looking around, Lara couldn't spot Mr. Offenhouse. She expected she would only see him again when they were supposed to rendezvous at the USS Charleston.
At 11:00 hours, she and Alyssa made their way to airlock 5 where Captain Picard and Commander Riker along with other personal were already waiting. Having observed their approach through her quarter's windows, Lara had been in awe at the sheer size of the Starbase: with a general shape like a mushroom, it could easily hold five metropolitan areas, five times the capacity of Tokyo!
Finally, the airlock opened and, with Picard and Riker in the lead, they went through a long docking corridor until they reached the other end emerging properly onto Starbase 81. Lara's jaw dropped…
This fanfiction was based on Episode 1x26 "The Neutral Zone" and two scenes loosely inspired by scenes from Episode 6x04 "Relics" from Star Trek: the Next Generation.
In "The Neutral Zone", three people from the early 21st century are being discovered cryogenically frozen in an old satellite. They are revived and find themselves 300 years in the future. While this idea sounded really great to me, the actual execution of the episode's plot was rather dull. There three people weren't so much characters rather than archetypes: the greedy stock broker, the wailing house wife and the taking-drugs-musician.
I tried to take this idea and tell the story from their perspective and to give the characters depth. I hope I succeeded. I erased the musician and the house wife and replaced them with an ordinary young woman who anyone could relate to. Lara Dawson is the only original character from the episode and of the entire TV series. I kept the stock broker, Ralph Offenhouse, and expanded his character as someone who has troubles adjusting to the new situation.
Concerning the technology, I allowed myself to update it a bit so it would actually feel like future technology to 21st century readers. To any of my readers who is not familiar with Star Trek, it generally predicted technology that are quite common today or, in some cases, even outdated. The Original Series from the 60s had the cell phone in form of the communicator and video conferences or Skype-like technology. The next Generation from the 80s introduced the audience to the idea of flat screens and touch screens, PDAs and iPads although the so-called PADDs (Personal Access and Display Device) are more like an e-book where you can only download one book on. Certain things were not thought through or considered possible.
Another thing is the way children and growing up is presented or, sometimes, society and getting along as a whole. Because this TV series was produced by people from the late 20th century (and conservative studio executives), certain things are being presented as familiar in order for the audience to identify themselves with the characters. Such things include daycares and schools and homework and being suspicious of new kinds of people such as androids (e.g. Episodes 4x26/5x01 "Redemption Part I/Redemption Part II"). But I believe that a society which doesn't know violence, theft or any other kinds of crimes, poverty, hunger and illness will also have a very different view of childhood. Even today there is a debate on the use of homework and whether it should be abolished. I think humanity would be much more matrist than patrist as it is now in most parts of the world (a term from the highly recommended book Saharasia: The 4000 BCE Origins of Child Abuse, Sex-Repression, Warfare and Social Violence, In the Deserts of the Old World by James DeMeo. Another book that inspried me was The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff). And because of the way children are brought up they would not have any reason to be violent, oppressive or suspicious of outsiders.