STAR TREK
"Sophomore Slacker"
Dan Silo was a slacker. He was gazing at the stars when he should have been doing his homework. His mother had to drop him out of school. Many months before that, he discovered an old freighter inside the Orion Syndicate. He found it with his telescope. He took out a loan of two hundred credits for transport to the old freighter. An Orion female was the one who transported him there. Her name was Shy. At least, that's what she claimed her name was. The two left for the freighter in a shuttlecraft equipped with a warp booster pack. Warp booster packs had to be jettisoned after only one use. The freighter was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen – a DY-100 class spaceship – damaged, but still with a shuttlebay ready to receive him. The freighter was in orbit of a blue gas giant. The shuttle would land inside. When it did, a force field sealed the shuttlebay up again. The cargo bay appeared bigger from the inside. Dan knew then what to name his ship. He named it – Alpha. Just then, a red alert klaxon sounded. A Klingon D7 class cruiser came out of warp at maximum speed. The stress of that damaged them. It came in too fast. There was no choice but to boom separate. Some older Klingon starships were equipped with forced labor. Being at maximum warp damaged the ship's security systems, causing a mutiny. In desperation, Dan attempted evasive maneuvers. It failed. The Alpha slammed into the secondary hull of the Klingon starship as it had to boom separate. The freighter's hull breached and caused life support failure. Dan and Shy found emergency masks to put on. Dan ordered Shy to leave in the shuttlecraft they came in. Dan searched for a thruster suit. He found one and blasted towards the distant boom section through a large hole created by the collision. Shy got in the shuttlecraft and deserted him.
The boom was falling into the atmosphere of the blue gas giant. Dan entered it through an airlock. Gas from the planet turned into a liquid as Dan sealed the airlock door behind him. He was inside. Gravity slowly returned. A Klingon security team was sent to apprehend him. He fired his hand laser directly at the door behind the security team. The laser bolt hit the door, causing gaseous liquid to flood the corridor, burning the Klingons. He forced his way towards a nearby transporter room. He was met by more Klingons. He began to negotiate with them – the boom section was falling deeper into the gas giant. It was true. They had no choice but to beam to the secondary hull of the starship. Selfishly, only a handful of Klingons chose to beam. Dan was their prisoner. The beam used all the boom's power. The Klingons that had been left behind died from air loss. In the secondary hull, the mutiny proved unsuccessful. Dan had discovered that his father was also on board. He was a distant father that had been missing for some time. They were taken to a Klingon mistress, Kuris. With a gesture, Dan Silo was vaporized in the back of the head. He didn't see it coming. With only the ability to move forward, the secondary hull of the Klingon D7 class cruiser left for Klingon space. They did this by propelling themselves around the blue gas giant the boom section had since crashed into. The shuttlecraft did not make it home. Losing air would hurt its one occupant more than ever. It was, by far, not a merciful fate.
The End