The young man was strikingly handsome and even more charming. He even knew Ahida was Swahili for: One with much promise. Ahida was enthralled by his stories of life on the edge in deep space. Being on your own, no one telling you what to do.
Ahida felt a hand on her shoulder.
"Cadet, walk with me." It was her squad leader, Cadet Capt. Steve Riggs.
"Oops, you're in trouble now." The young man said.
They walked away a few feet.
"Do you know who that man is?" Riggs asked.
"He said his name is Harry."
"That's Harcor Fenton Mudd Jr."
Her eye's opened wide in shock. "That's Lil Muddy?"
"Yes."
"What's he doing here?"
"I don't know. But you can be assured he's up to no good. He's as bad or worse than his father. Stay away from him. That's an order."
"Oh, I will."
"It's almost curfew, we need to be leaving."
Ahida looked back at Mudd, gave him an, I'm sorry, shrug of the shoulders and turned to join her friends.
Captain Hikaru Sulu had taken the helm of the U.S.S. Excelsior. He was doing loop-de-loops and barrel rolls over down town Tokyo. Millions of people stood in the streets looking up in awe at the piloting skills of the greatest pilot in Starfleet history.
There was a persistent beeping. Sulu rolled out of bed and stumbled to his desk.
"Sulu here."
"Captain, you have a priority one message from Earth."
"Put it through down here."
"Aye sir."
Cadet Captain Steve Riggs appeared on screen.
"I'm sorry it's so late Captain, but I know you'd want to know this. It's Cadet Uhura. She quit the academy this morning. Just threw her badge down and screamed I quit"
"Well, she's an adult, that's her choice."
"Yes sir. But that's not the worst of it. Me and the rest of the squad did some investigating. For the last month she'd been dating Mudd Jr. Right under our noses. We had no idea."
"Lil Muddy? She can be sneaky when she wants to be."
"I found that out the hard way. We checked her computer. She'd Been hacking into several very classified Starfleet data bases. She was looking for all the info on the planet Traynairn Seven and some mysterious data disks found there a couple of years ago."
"Traynairn? That's an unaligned planet."
"Yes sir. We believe they left for Traynairn this morning."
Sulu sighed. "Anything else?"
"No sir. I'm sorry, I know what she means to you."
"It's OK. Thank you.". The screen faded out. Sulu punched a button. "Sulu to bridge."
"Bridge."
"Lay in a course for Traynairn Seven, warp five."
"Warp five, aye sir."
Sulu slipped back in bed and thought, barrel rolls over Tokyo? Maybe when I retire.
Traynairn Seven, discovered in the early twenty first century by the NASA Kepler mission, was a super Earth. Three continents, each with nearly the same land area as Earth.
One continent was inhabited by a technologically advanced civilization that had just achieved warp drive. Their membership in the Federation was under review.
Of the other two, one was a jungle continent, shrouded in mystery. Legend had it, that twenty thousand years ago, beings fleeing a war and destruction they had brought on themselves, settled there. Possibly from another Galaxy, the beings built a city in the jungle. Unable to adapt to their new home, they died out after a few generations. The city, swallowed by the jungle and an archive of advanced technology with it.
Or at least, that's what the legends said which few people believed. Until a few gold computer disks were found. Starfleet tried to keep their existence and the strange language they contained a secret. But Harcor Fenton Mudd Jr. learned of their existence.
Ahida Uhura was soaking wet with sweat. Behind her, gasping for breath was Mudd Jr. The heat and slightly stronger gravity was wearing him down. The jungle was so thick, they could be standing in the middle of a city and not see it. The planet's magnetosphere made scanning very difficult. She shouldered her phaser rifle and pulled out her tricorder.
She was beginning to think this was another dead end. Then there was a double beep. Mudd was up and beside her in a second.
"That's it, that's got to it." He said.
Ahida adjusted the the beam on her tricorder. "Possibly. There is a large structure one hundred meters in front of us."
"We get going girl." He glanced back the way they had just come. "Those Orion goons can't be too far behind us."
Ahida took the rifle off her shoulder and pointed it forward into the jungle. Suddenly she tensed, her eyes wide, her nostrils flared open. She spun around and fired at the ground behind Mudd. The thirty foot snake screamed, flounced around and slithered back into the jungle.
"Damn girl." Mudd exclaimed. "How do you always know where those things are?"
"Something I inherited, from a dear friend." She turned and fired carving a path through the jungle.
A few minutes later they reached the base of a giant pyramid, covered by twenty thousand years of jungle growth. She burned a path along the base. Thirty meters later they found a large metal door. She set the rifle to a higher setting and melted a hole through the door. They stepped into a wide corridor.
"Wow!" Mudd said, "Twenty thousand years and the power is still on."
They followed the corridor past several tall door's, each labeled with strange hieroglyphics. Mudd ran to one door, excitedly he jumped up pointing at the label.
"That's it! That's it! That's got to be it. It looks like the writing you said we should look for."
She scanned the writing and ran it through her tricorder.
"Restroom facilities."
"What? You're kidding?"
"No. Even if these beings came from another galaxy, they still need to...go.". She turned and proceeded down the corridor.
"Well, that's still a very important discovery." Mudd said. He scrambled to catch up.
After another hundred meters, they came to a larger door. After scanning the writing, Ahida announced.
"This is it. The door is too thick, I'll have to cut through the wall.". She adjusted the rifle to its highest setting and fired. It took two minutes to cut a hole large enough to fit through.
Inside, they found row upon row of shelves with cases containing gold computer disks.
"My god! How are we gonna find what we're looking for?" Mudd asked.
"Simple. What we're looking for contains sensitive data." She walked past a large desk and chair. She felt like a toddler. The beings who built this, had to be much bigger than the average person. Behind the desk was another door. She vaporized it with one shot.
Inside was a short row of cases. Mudd darted past Ahida and grabbed the first case.
"Is this it?" He held the case up for her examine the writing.
"Librarian reference manual." She said.
"Damn." Mudd said as he tossed it away. Ahida ran her fingers over several cases. She pulled one down, opened it and examined the disk inside.
"This s it."
Mudd snatched it away and looked at the symbols on the disk.
"Girl, we're gonna be rich, rich, rich." He said giddily.
"We should give this to Starfleet."
"What? We'd be lucky to get a thank you note. I need to work on your head for business." Mudds's revallry was interrupted by loud grunting. A large Orion man was trying to wiggle his way through the hole Ahida had cut.
Mudd lifted his left arm and placed a finger from his right hand on a button and smiled. When the man freed himself from the hole. Mudd pressed the button.
"Too late again, Mogon." Mudd and Ahida were swept away by a transporter beam.
To Mudds's surprise he found himself not on his ship. But on the transporter pad of the U.S.S. Excelsior. Sulu and two guards stood in front of him.
"Captain Sulu!" Mudd exclaimed. "Am I glad to...wait what are doing here? Traynairn is nonaligned. You have no jurisdiction here, there's no extradition treaty and I've committed no crime against the Federation. I demand you beam me to my ship immediately."
"Muddy Jr." Sulu said.
"Don't call me that."
"Sorry Mr. Mudd. Your ship is on my hanger deck."
"What? You have no right to impound my ship."
"It's not impounded. We took it from an Orion freighter that was tractoring it in."
"Oh, I appreciate that Captain. Now escort us to my ship."
"In case you missed the news, while you and your accomplice were beaming in and out of Traynairn's jungle. Traynairn was accepted as the newest Federation member. Which means I have jurisdiction, I can impound your ship and I can turn both of you over to the authorities on Traynairn. Or, you could just hand over that artifact you're holding and both of you would be free to go."
"You're bluffing."
"Capt. Sulu never bluff's." A dejected Ahida said.
"I suppose not." Mudd took a long look at the case. "Fine. Probably more trouble than it's worth."
He tossed it to Sulu. He opened it. It was empty. Sulu held out his hand.
"Can't anyone get away with anything anymore?" Mudd took the disk out of a pocket and gave it to Sulu.
"Wise choice." Sulu said.
"Come on, girl." He said to Ahida as he started down the steps.
"No. I think I will stay here."
"After what you pulled they'll never..."Mudd's jaw dropped as she stood by Sulu. He struck his forehead with an open palm. "No! Oh I shoulda known. You can't be, you're undercover?"
Ahida said nothing, but her expression said, yes. Mudd stomped his foot like a spoiled kid.
"I actually thought you liked me."
"Ironically I do like you, a little, . You do have some redeeming qualities."
"Really? What?" He asked, as he bounced on his toes and got that giddy look again.
"Well, you're... intelligent... resourceful and for a criminal, you avoid unnecessary violence."
"See, that's why we made such a good team. You can do that little nerve pinch thingy. No one ever got hurt."
"You always saw to it that I was armed. Do you know how long I would have spent in a Traynairn prison if I had been arrested?"
"You were undercover, you wouldn't go to prison."
"You didn't know that until now. Before I took this assignment, I studied you. Of your last three associates. Two are in prison and one was executed."
"Well, there are risks in my line of work. At least give me my rifle back. It is my property."
"Your property?" Sulu said. He took the weapon from Ahida. "This is a mark nine phaser rifle. Starfleet only issues them to the most elite units. I can't even get one. No crimes against the Federation huh?"
"Well, I have a friend who has connections. You know how that works."
"Uh huh. You'd better leave before I change my mind about letting you go." He nodded at the guards.
"Please, follow us sir." One of the guards said.
"At least mothers not here." Mudd muttered as he followed them out the door. Before the door closed, it snapped open and Mudd rushed back into the room, with hands clasped under his chin.
"Ahida, if you ever do leave Starfleet, I'll forgive you."
"Ugh." She rolled her eyes and Sulu shouted.
"Get him off my ship."
This time the Red Shirts weren't as polite.
Once Mudd was removed, Ahida slumped against the bulk head.
"Captain please don't ask me to do something like this again. I'm not cut to be some kind of interstellar thug."
"You did a great job. With his obsession with pointy eared young women, he fell for you hook, line and sinker."
"I don't know what you mean, but sometimes I felt I had him wrapped around my little finger, other times, he scared me to death."
"That's a Mudd for ya." Sulu opened the case and examined the gold disk. "Now, what exactly is this?"
Ahida walked over. "Are you familiar with something called Commodore Decker's Planet Killer?"
"That's very classified. But yes, I've heard of it."
"These are the plans to build one."
"God. Did that man know what he was getting into?"
"No sir. He just knew it was something people would pay a lot of money for."
"If this had fallen into the wrong hands...we need to get this to Earth and some place safe. And you back to the academy before you miss too much."
"Yes sir. What am I going to tell my friends? I can't just go back like nothing happened."
'"Tell them, you work for Section 31."
"My Vulcan side won't let me tell an exaggeration that big. Plus only crazy people believe that stuff."
"You're right." He put a hand on her shoulder and whispered. "Tell them you have this crazy uncle, happens to command the Excelsior. He made me do it."
"Crazy uncle? I like that, actually that's pretty close to the truth."
"Hey kid watch it." Sulu smiled and looked her up and down. He turned towards the door.
"Come on. Let's get you in a proper uniform."
As the door closed, Ahida said, "First, I want a shower."