Dance of the Enterprise Part 2: The Surface of a Strange New World
Captain's log. Star date: 3078.7.
My ship has come under fire from both Klingon and Romulan forces. Mr. Spock suggested we fly the ship into a nearby asteroid field to make the ship a harder target to hit. However, after entering the field and getting closer to the planet the asteroid field surrounds, we have come under fire from a powerful weapon. It has missed us thus far, but now I have decided to send a crew to the planet's surface to negotiate a cease fire.
Kirk stood, thinking for a moment, and then said, "The only option I see is to beam a landing party down to the planet surface to try and negotiate a cease fire."
"I will go, Captain," said Spock.
"Me too. I'm guessing it's safer down there than stuck in the middle of an asteroid belt being attacked by Klingon and Romulans," said McCoy.
"I will contact Mr. Tyler to join you," said Kirk.
Spock and McCoy made their way to the transporter room. Tyler stood waiting for them in his bright red shirt which had the familiar federation badge.
All three of them stood on separate transporter pads, ready to be beamed to their location. They all stood motionless, as if frozen in time, and then started to fade away from the familiar transporter room.
They found themselves surrounded by an alien yellow landscape.
Spock observed his surroundings and then said, "It seems that the weapon discharge came from that direction, making it the logical place to look first."
"Let's hope they are trying to shoot the Klingons and not us," replied McCoy.
On a cliff's edge above them, a strange figure watched their progress. It pulled out some sort of communication device and contacted its leader.
It said, "Three aliens have landed near the Ghanna canyon."
A voice replied, "Try out your weapon on one of them to test its effectiveness."
The figure pulled out a gun which closely resembled a sniper rifle and aimed for Mr. Tyler. He fired, and an amazing black laser bolt shot out of the weapon. It struck Mr. Tyler with deadly precision and disintegrated his skin, leaving only a skeleton.
Spock and McCoy ran for cover behind a boulder.
The figure talked on its the communication device and said, "The weapon completely disintegrated one of them."
The voice replied, "Excellent, bring the others here."
The figure fired another shot which completely destroyed the boulder in front of Spock and McCoy. As the dust cleared, the figure pulled out another gun and fired it at the floor beneath Spock and McCoy. Around them, a blue circle formed and they fell.
All McCoy and Spock saw was a blinding blue flash, and then they noticed their surroundings had changed. What was once a yellow landscape had morphed into a suffocating gray room which had nothing recognisable. Everything around them was alien.
"Hate to interrupt your attempted invasion of my planet, but oh well. Let's cut to the chase. Who are you?" said an alien.
Dr. McCoy quickly responded, "We aren't trying to invade your planet, and there was no need to kill our man."
He took a good look at the alien and could see it had pale orange skin. It was also rather tall, and it had no hair. Most striking about the creature was its eyes, which were pure black. As his eyes scanned the alien, he noticed it had human hands and wore a sort of uniform which suggested it was part of some military force.
"We needed to test the effectiveness of our weapons. Now stop the lies and tell me who you are!" said the alien.
"I am Mr. Spock," replied Mr. Spock.
"My name is Dr. McCoy," said Dr. McCoy.
"I am Ramifus, leader of the human race," said the alien.
"You're not human!" said Doctor McCoy abruptly.
Ramifus laughed and asked, "Oh really, alien? What do you think I am, then?"
"You're the alien here," said McCoy.
Angered, Ramifus shouted, "So you come here to invade my planet, and now you insult me and degrade me to your disgusting alien level!"
"Fascinating. It appears this race has the same name as yours," said Spock.
"What? You call yourself human too? You are delusional! Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you both!" said Ramifus seriously.
Spock said, "Our intentions here are peaceful. We have come to request a cease fire of your weapon."
Ramifus laughed again and said, "So you can easily fly in and take over. Sorry if I was interrupting your battle to decide who gets to invade, but I was protecting my people."
McCoy whispered to Spock, "There is no reasoning with this guy, Spock. He won't give up his delusion."
Spock walked towards Ramifus and, almost pleading, said, "We are on a peaceful mission to explore the universe. We were sent into this region of space to discover if there were any new life forms. Our scanners have been malfunctioning, and we were unable to scan the area before we came out of warp."
"Warp?" asked Ramifus.
"It's our method of fast travel across the universe," said McCoy.
Spock continued what he was saying.
"When we slowed down, we flew into a battle between the Klingons and the Romulans. Recognizing our ship as enemy, they turned upon us. We used your asteroid field to make us a harder target to hit."
Skeptical, Ramifus said, "Interesting story. How do I know you aren't lying?"
With a look of seriousness in his eyes, Spock said, "Vulcans are incapable of lying."
"So you say you are a Vulcan. Vulcans are giant birds that roam the Ghansi Mountains. There's your first lie," said Ramifus.
Spock replied, "Where I am from, my people are called Vulcans, and the Doctor's people are called humans."
As Spock said this, one of the planet's humans ran in. He was short and limped into the room dripping with water.
He scanned the room, then ran up to Ramifus and said, "It's your son, sir. He's been taken by a spider."
"What? How is this possible? What happened?" asked Ramifus, deeply concerned for his son.
"We were fishing in the cake and it sneaked up behind us! It grabbed him first and – and kicked me," said the 'human.'
"Into the . . . cake," said Spock.
"So lakes are called cakes. This truly is a disturbing planet," said McCoy.
Spock raised his eyebrow and said, "I agree, Doctor".
In space, just outside the planet, one of the Klingon Birds of Prey cloaked itself and headed towards the Enterprise.
Onboard the Enterprise, Sulu reported that the Bird of Prey had just cloaked.
Kirk stood up from his chair and said, "Fire phasers at every angle. Maybe then we will have a chance of hitting it."
The Klingon Bird of Prey flew directly beneath the Enterprise and got into a firing position. As it was about to fire, a stray phaser hit the Bird of Prey, revealing their location.
"Mr. Sulu said, "They are beneath us, Captain."
"Get the ship into a firing position," ordered Kirk.
As the Enterprise moved to get a clear shot, the Bird of Prey flew to a safe location just outside the asteroid field.
Back on the planet, Ramifus had an idea.
He said to Spock and McCoy, "You want to prove your innocence, right? Rescue my son and I will consider your plea."
"Very well, if that is what it will take," said Spock.
McCoy said, "Spock, are you out of your mind? You don't even know what this thing is that took him. They say it's called a spider. Either it's a gigantic spider, or it's something much worse."
Spock said, "Doctor, it seems the only logical way to prove our innocence to Ramifus. If we do not do it, he could blow the Enterprise out of the sky."
"When you put it that way, we have no choice," said McCoy, disappointed.
The alien that told Ramifus about his son's kidnapping handed Spock a device which displayed a map and showed where Ramifus son was being held, thanks to a tracking device he had with him when he was taken.
Spock and McCoy set off to find Ramifus's son before the Enterprise got destroyed by the cannon weapon on the planet.
Back in Space, the cannon fire was getting more frequent and the Enterprise was finding it harder and harder to dodge its deadly attacks.
On board the last remaining Romulan ship, Commander Parraca turned to his linguistics expert.
"Hail all Klingon ships. I have a plan."
The officer did as he was asked, and then said, "All the ships are ready to receive."
Commander Parraca said, "Everyone still left out there, I have an idea. We are going to activate our tractor beam to capture the Enterprise. After we have the Enterprise in our grip, we want you all to grab it in your tractor beams to ensure that they can't escape. After all ships have her within their grasp, we will pull her out of the asteroid field, giving us a clear shot at her."
The Romulan ship, closely followed by the Klingon ships, headed towards the Enterprise.
Kirk, seeing the new formation and wondering what they were up to, ordered the forward shields to be raised.
The Romulan ship fired its tractor beam first, successfully holding the Enterprise.
Mr. Sulu said, "Sir, they have caught us in their tractor beam."
"Divert power to repel it. We can't allow them to pull us out of the asteroid field. If they do, they will have a clear shot at us," replied Kirk.
As Kirk said this, the two Birds of Prey also gripped the Enterprise with their tractor beams. All of the remaining ships then started pulling the Enterprise out of the asteroid field.
Back on the Enterprise, Kirk said, "We haven't got enough power to repel so many tractor beams at once. As soon as the ship is clear of the asteroid field, we are all doomed."
To be continued......
By Paul C