TITLE: Dear Annie ("Future Tense")
AUTHOR: Mara Greengrass
AUTHOR'S E-MAIL: fishfolk@ix.netcom.com. Feedback is better than chocolate.
PERMISSION TO ARCHIVE: Yes, just let me know.
CATEGORY: Gen
RATINGS/WARNINGS: G
SUMMARY: Hoshi writes home after the events of "Future Tense."
DISCLAIMER: Enterprise and all its crew belong to Paramount and many other entities with expensive lawyers. I am making no profit from this story.
NOTES: Thanks to Starsearcher, saragirl, jyorakku, court, and marais for their assistance and opinions on the contents of this letter. Much appreciated :) And thanks, as always, to Captain Average, the superhero who encourages.
* * * * *
Dear Annie:
I'm not sure how much sense this letter is going to make. (Yes, I know. You're smirking. "And how much sense do you make the rest of the time, dear?") In all seriousness, there are things I can't tell you, but I don't know what'll be left once those are removed.
I can't tell you some of the biggest secrets--you know how bad you are at keeping secrets. After all, there was the surprise party incident, and the thing with the cheesecake, and well, you know.
So, you may get the problem without the solution, I'm afraid. Well, let's get on with it and see what develops, as Dr. D used to say.
It all started with a derelict ship floating dead in space. Now, we haven't exactly had much luck with random floating ships, so you might think we'd be a bit wary, but you'd be wrong. We dumped it in launch bay two and Malcolm and the captain rushed right down. Even Mr. Cautious (Lieutenant Cautious, I suppose) barely took the time to scan it for weapons, he was so excited.
I was stuck on the bridge, of course, but from what they tell me (and from the scanning T'Pol was doing from the bridge) Malcolm just used a phase pistol to crack it open and they jumped in without doing any analyses of the air, the metal...If I didn't know better, I'd think they'd lost their minds.
But they climbed around in this tiny little ship like boys with a new toy, and while Trip and Malcolm were investigating, they found--and you'll never believe this--that the ship was bigger inside than outside. I didn't believe it either, originally. T'Pol frankly thought they were kidding. (I think she's encountered too many stupid jokes recently, as she seems a bit quick to assume humor.)
After discovering the rather grisly body of the ship's lone occupant, Trip and Malcolm found a bit of technology in the ship emitting a weak signal, which they brought it out with them. But before they could learn anything, we were attacked by, well, by the X. Remember, the species I couldn't tell you much about? Yeah, them.
They claimed prior salvage rights to this ship, but the captain wasn't buying that. Besides, any ship with technology to make it bigger inside than out is a ship we want to hang on to.
Then, the X started shooting and some managed to infiltrate the ship, knocking out Trip and nearly venting the launch bay with him in it. (I'm glad I didn't realize that until later.) Malcolm was pretty pissed that he failed to take out their engines before they vanished.
The captain immediately had me request help from the Vulcans. It was about time they got their arrogant selves out here and backed us up against the X with bigger and better weapons. Unfortunately, the nearest ship was still a few days away. That made for some anxious sailing, I can assure you.
Then came the next surprise: Phlox's genetic analysis of the body found in our derelict ship. It was human, and a few other things besides.
The captain thought maybe the body was Zephram Cochrane, the only human we could think of who might have made it out this far. Maybe we'd solved one of history's great puzzles--and I wish that were true, but it wasn't him.
While we were running around worrying about this, we were also making tracks to meet up with the Vulcans. Trip took to hanging over his engines, worrying every time they pinged, the captain paced, and Malcolm kept his precious cannons ready to fire at any instant. He drove the armory crew absolutely wild, and engineering was considering staging a mutiny at one point.
Then, a new species showed up out of nowhere and demanded we turn over the derelict ship. This time, it was someone called the Tholians, whom T'Pol said the Vulcans consider rather xenophobic. (You'll be pleased to know I successfully resisted the urge to say "Pot. Kettle. Black.")
The worst part was my utter inability to get a good read on the Tholian language. We got a lot of clicking and beeping, along with some translated words, and I can't figure out what's wrong. I've been working on it in my spare time, but I haven't gotten anywhere.
Let's see, after the Tholians insulted the captain (or at least that's what I'm assuming it was), they threatened to shoot us and we ran away.
Now, do you remember way back at the beginning I said that Trip and Malcolm removed something from the derelict ship, something that was emitting a weak signal? Well, Trip had been working on it all along, and he developed a theory that it might be some kind of transmitter.
Meanwhile, the X showed up again, just a few minutes away from our rendezvous with the Vulcans. They blasted away at our launch bay, nearly breaking through.
As we got closer and closer to our rendezvous, the Vulcan ship suddenly came into view...disabled. Not destroyed, but completely unable to help us.
Arrowing away from it, Tholian ships engaged the X and suddenly Enterprise was the bone in a tug-of-war between two mighty powerful dogs. There wasn't much we could do, but we engaged in a series of last-ditch efforts while the Tholians were destroying all the X's ships. The captain thought there was a chance that the derelict's transmitter might just be an emergency beacon, and he ordered Trip to get it working.
So, while we were being shot at, Trip was trying to fix up this bit of unfamiliar technology, Malcolm and Captain Archer booby-trapped the derelict ship in case anyone got it, and general chaos reigned.
The Tholians broke into the launch bay and put a tractor beam on the derelict ship; unfortunately, they were also able to somehow remotely defuse the booby-trap. Just as they were about to get away with it, Trip succeeded in his task: The transmitter sent its unknown message to unknown people.
Within moments, the ship, the body, and the distress signal all disappeared. Just vanished. We've got a pretty good idea of where they've gone, but sad to say, that comes under the heading of things I can't tell you about. Maybe someday.
With no further ado, explanation, or apology, the Tholians took off--leaving us gasping in relief and ready to help the Vulcans put their ship back together again.
And what have we learned today, children? Have we learned to not go around picking up random derelict ships? Perhaps we've learned that poking around in said ships can be hazardous to our health? Maybe we've learned a little lesson about not depending on the Vulcans to save our asses?
I doubt it.
Love,
Hoshi
AUTHOR: Mara Greengrass
AUTHOR'S E-MAIL: fishfolk@ix.netcom.com. Feedback is better than chocolate.
PERMISSION TO ARCHIVE: Yes, just let me know.
CATEGORY: Gen
RATINGS/WARNINGS: G
SUMMARY: Hoshi writes home after the events of "Future Tense."
DISCLAIMER: Enterprise and all its crew belong to Paramount and many other entities with expensive lawyers. I am making no profit from this story.
NOTES: Thanks to Starsearcher, saragirl, jyorakku, court, and marais for their assistance and opinions on the contents of this letter. Much appreciated :) And thanks, as always, to Captain Average, the superhero who encourages.
* * * * *
Dear Annie:
I'm not sure how much sense this letter is going to make. (Yes, I know. You're smirking. "And how much sense do you make the rest of the time, dear?") In all seriousness, there are things I can't tell you, but I don't know what'll be left once those are removed.
I can't tell you some of the biggest secrets--you know how bad you are at keeping secrets. After all, there was the surprise party incident, and the thing with the cheesecake, and well, you know.
So, you may get the problem without the solution, I'm afraid. Well, let's get on with it and see what develops, as Dr. D used to say.
It all started with a derelict ship floating dead in space. Now, we haven't exactly had much luck with random floating ships, so you might think we'd be a bit wary, but you'd be wrong. We dumped it in launch bay two and Malcolm and the captain rushed right down. Even Mr. Cautious (Lieutenant Cautious, I suppose) barely took the time to scan it for weapons, he was so excited.
I was stuck on the bridge, of course, but from what they tell me (and from the scanning T'Pol was doing from the bridge) Malcolm just used a phase pistol to crack it open and they jumped in without doing any analyses of the air, the metal...If I didn't know better, I'd think they'd lost their minds.
But they climbed around in this tiny little ship like boys with a new toy, and while Trip and Malcolm were investigating, they found--and you'll never believe this--that the ship was bigger inside than outside. I didn't believe it either, originally. T'Pol frankly thought they were kidding. (I think she's encountered too many stupid jokes recently, as she seems a bit quick to assume humor.)
After discovering the rather grisly body of the ship's lone occupant, Trip and Malcolm found a bit of technology in the ship emitting a weak signal, which they brought it out with them. But before they could learn anything, we were attacked by, well, by the X. Remember, the species I couldn't tell you much about? Yeah, them.
They claimed prior salvage rights to this ship, but the captain wasn't buying that. Besides, any ship with technology to make it bigger inside than out is a ship we want to hang on to.
Then, the X started shooting and some managed to infiltrate the ship, knocking out Trip and nearly venting the launch bay with him in it. (I'm glad I didn't realize that until later.) Malcolm was pretty pissed that he failed to take out their engines before they vanished.
The captain immediately had me request help from the Vulcans. It was about time they got their arrogant selves out here and backed us up against the X with bigger and better weapons. Unfortunately, the nearest ship was still a few days away. That made for some anxious sailing, I can assure you.
Then came the next surprise: Phlox's genetic analysis of the body found in our derelict ship. It was human, and a few other things besides.
The captain thought maybe the body was Zephram Cochrane, the only human we could think of who might have made it out this far. Maybe we'd solved one of history's great puzzles--and I wish that were true, but it wasn't him.
While we were running around worrying about this, we were also making tracks to meet up with the Vulcans. Trip took to hanging over his engines, worrying every time they pinged, the captain paced, and Malcolm kept his precious cannons ready to fire at any instant. He drove the armory crew absolutely wild, and engineering was considering staging a mutiny at one point.
Then, a new species showed up out of nowhere and demanded we turn over the derelict ship. This time, it was someone called the Tholians, whom T'Pol said the Vulcans consider rather xenophobic. (You'll be pleased to know I successfully resisted the urge to say "Pot. Kettle. Black.")
The worst part was my utter inability to get a good read on the Tholian language. We got a lot of clicking and beeping, along with some translated words, and I can't figure out what's wrong. I've been working on it in my spare time, but I haven't gotten anywhere.
Let's see, after the Tholians insulted the captain (or at least that's what I'm assuming it was), they threatened to shoot us and we ran away.
Now, do you remember way back at the beginning I said that Trip and Malcolm removed something from the derelict ship, something that was emitting a weak signal? Well, Trip had been working on it all along, and he developed a theory that it might be some kind of transmitter.
Meanwhile, the X showed up again, just a few minutes away from our rendezvous with the Vulcans. They blasted away at our launch bay, nearly breaking through.
As we got closer and closer to our rendezvous, the Vulcan ship suddenly came into view...disabled. Not destroyed, but completely unable to help us.
Arrowing away from it, Tholian ships engaged the X and suddenly Enterprise was the bone in a tug-of-war between two mighty powerful dogs. There wasn't much we could do, but we engaged in a series of last-ditch efforts while the Tholians were destroying all the X's ships. The captain thought there was a chance that the derelict's transmitter might just be an emergency beacon, and he ordered Trip to get it working.
So, while we were being shot at, Trip was trying to fix up this bit of unfamiliar technology, Malcolm and Captain Archer booby-trapped the derelict ship in case anyone got it, and general chaos reigned.
The Tholians broke into the launch bay and put a tractor beam on the derelict ship; unfortunately, they were also able to somehow remotely defuse the booby-trap. Just as they were about to get away with it, Trip succeeded in his task: The transmitter sent its unknown message to unknown people.
Within moments, the ship, the body, and the distress signal all disappeared. Just vanished. We've got a pretty good idea of where they've gone, but sad to say, that comes under the heading of things I can't tell you about. Maybe someday.
With no further ado, explanation, or apology, the Tholians took off--leaving us gasping in relief and ready to help the Vulcans put their ship back together again.
And what have we learned today, children? Have we learned to not go around picking up random derelict ships? Perhaps we've learned that poking around in said ships can be hazardous to our health? Maybe we've learned a little lesson about not depending on the Vulcans to save our asses?
I doubt it.
Love,
Hoshi