STAR TREK
"Forgotten Officer"
It was the night of a Friday. A Starfleet cadet in his uniform would speak to lost family in a cemetery in the light of the darkness.
"I'm sorry, father, and mother," he started with a tear. "I cannot finish the Academy like I promised."
There was a pause.
"My grades are acceptable," the man said, "but those deaf in one ear are off-balance."
Smiling, he began, "I promise to serve Starfleet in some other way."
He slowly started to walk away. He had heard stories of alien starships being used by Starfleet. He would try to find one.
He sold the home of his family and searched for a place to buy a warp shuttle. He used his tricorder.
"May I help you?" a salesman inquired of the cadet entering his business.
"Do you have any warp shuttles in your fleet?" the man stated. He hoped he need not a reason.
"Well, I have a slightly used Greyhound Class warp shuttle in nice repair," said the salesman.
"How much?" the buyer asked.
Whispering in his ear, the cadet was shocked at the extreme price. He started to negotiate, "Do you have anything a little more cost effective?"
"Well, I also have a damaged Koreba Class warp shuttle," the businessman continued. "It was used by a defector."
"I'll take it," said the cadet with a handshake. He would join the seller in his backroom for transfer of ownership. To do so, he had to give his name. It was Cadet Nathan Parks.
He would need a copilot. His best friend was a Klingon cadet named Chan. He joined up for the Academy inspired by the legionary Worf, but he was failing like his roommate was.
"Let's throw off the shackles of the Academy to do something superior for a change," he told Chan, his roommate. "It is the only way we can earn the respect of our peers."
"Because you speak from the soul, I cannot refuse," Chan stated with a heavy heart. They got in civilian clothes and left forever.
They left Earth.
In warp, they entered a wormhole. It was the damaged engine that did it. If they did not escape as soon as possible, they would die.
"A wormhole!" Nathan told Chan.
Chan responded, "We must jettison our only warp engine or explode!"
"It's the only one we have!" Nathan told him.
It was jettisoned. They were hurled out of the wormhole with only moments to spare.
There was another pause.
Nathan broke it, "Where are we?"
Before them, a Stronger Bird Class ship could be seen adrift in space. Chan moved to the navigator station to say, "This is the old Neutral Zone of the twenty-third century."
The rouge captain proclaimed, "We have been hurled through time and space."
"There's more," the Klingon stated. "It was in a battle with a freighter, and the freighter won."
"How?" Cadet Parks asked of him. "I thought that freighters had no weapons?"
"Says here, the freighter beamed over thousands of tribbles," Chan smiled. "In a panic, an engineer fired a disruptor which damaged the life-support controls."
"Let's steal it," smiled the captain. "We have a transporter, and we have space masks."
"What about a crew? We have no crew," the Klingon said in horror of the thought of a hundred of his people lifeless in space.
"I have a plan," he spoke.
It would take a couple days, but the two of them repaired the life-support after beaming the Klingon soldiers into space.
At the navigation station, Chan asked, "Where are we to set course for, Captain Parks?"
Trained for security, the new captain stated, "It is a good chance we will find recruits and mercenaries at Nimbus Three. It is also in the Neutral Zone."
"Yes, sir," answered Chan.
After a small crew was cobbled together, Chan turned on his loyal commander. He poked him in the back with a disruptor.
"You're simply going to assassinate me?" said the captain. "Have you no honor?"
He smiled to explain, "I would be invaluable to this Klingon Empire. I can alter the history of the future."
He pulled the trigger.
Nathan anticipated he would do this.
Right then, the two fought to the death. Nathan Parks lost. A blow to the midsection knocked him unconscious. He was left for dead.
He woke up in sickbay.
"What happened?" the captain began.
"Imperial Klingons are made in such a way that they can't be knocked out," a male Orion said acting as doctor of the stolen cruiser.
"What did you do with him?"
"He walked the airlock," the former pirate said. It was a little much for Captain Nathan Parks' taste, but he didn't want to fight him.
Nathan contacted Starfleet to tell them the whole truth. He was ordered to return to Earth. There, he named the ship Hitman. It was instated as a Federation ship with all the rights and privileges thereto…
The End
