TITLE: Dear Annie ("Canamar")
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 "Canamar."
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 ponygirl for allowing me to use her suggestion from the Linguistics Database Forum. And Em Gomez is borrowed with permission from Jessica and Chrysa. Em's fans should know she'll probably be making some return appearances...My eternal and continuing thanks to Captain Average, the superhero who edits.
* * * * *
Dear Annie:
You know, I never get used to crewmembers nearly dying. I thought maybe it might get easier, but it doesn't.
Especially when they have a knack for nearly getting killed while on routine missions. It's getting to the point where any time someone leaves the ship, I start mentally preparing their eulogy. That can't *possibly* be healthy.
This time, it was Trip and the captain, off on a quick visit to the Enolian homeworld. We went to pick them up at their rendezvous, but all we found was Shuttlepod One, floating end over end--with no biosigns.
I won't make you suffer as long as we did: they'd been snatched off their ship by a prison transport that thought they were smugglers.
D'you know, I don't think we ever found out what it was they were supposed to be smuggling? How odd.
In any case, the government official that T'Pol got hold of, wasn't going to be very helpful, but nobody does stubborn like a Vulcan. Eventually, he found the transport that was taking Trip and the captain to a prison called Canamar. We practically had to kidnap him to get him to go with us to meet the transport--to make sure there were no other misunderstandings, you know.
Of course, things couldn't *possibly* go easily. One of the criminals, a particularly nasty Enolian named Kuroda, managed to get loose and take over the transport. Well...actually he had a Nausicaan accomplice.
Our Enolian official informed us his government wasn't going to take any chances on Kuroda getting out again: if we didn't find the transport first, there was a good chance the Enolians would blow it to pieces.
Typical. Shoot first--don't bother with the questions. Damn the innocent men, full speed ahead!
So, we tracked that transport. But we still might not have succeeded in saving the two men, if not for a coded message from the captain. It was pretty sketchy, considering that he had to code it in Morse code, but since he was trying to pilot a ship using controls he couldn't read, I was pretty impressed he managed even that.
And it gave us enough information to track down the ship that was supposed to pick up Kuroda and his Nausicaan buddy.
Here's where it got tricky. We had to take the ship without doing any serious damage, and find out what was going on. Malcolm and his team did a great job! There was a little bit of damage where they essentially broke in through an airlock, but engineering patched over it so Kuroda wouldn't notice.
So, we had a shuttle with a couple of Enolian criminals, and no idea what to do next. Now, these criminals knew we weren't the Enolian government, so there wasn't much chance of using that angle. Instead, Malcolm came up with the devious idea of playing master criminal. (Since the option of beating the dickens out of them was ruled out.)
T'Pol okayed the plan, but decided she wasn't up to the acting involved--although she did an amazing job of playing judge, jury, and executioner when Trip and that chickie were lost. So, Malcolm drafted me and two of his armory crew (Crewman Orsini and Lt. Emmanuelle Gomez, who can both look very menacing) to play the part of henchpeople.
In one of the most terrifying improvisations of my life (and yes, I know you're responsible for all my theatre experience), we convinced the two Enolians that we were bigger and badder criminals than Kuroda. We told them that they and Kuroda could join *our* organization or die. When they agreed, they told Malcolm how the rendezvous was arranged.
At which point we dumped them in the brig. Malcolm and a couple of burly armory officers hopped into their ship, with Travis as pilot. Travis was thrilled to see some action, although I rather wish he'd agreed to stay out of the way of weapons. No, he didn't get hurt, I just worry, because he's not security trained.
Anyway, they met up with the prison transport, Kuroda opened the door to his accomplices, and Malcolm and gang entered, weapons presumably blazing.
I'm told there was some scuffling before Kuroda and the Nausicaan were knocked out, the prisoners were taken off the transport and...oh, I forgot to tell you that Kuroda was planning to kill everyone else, so the transport was in a decaying orbit.
The captain, of course, refused to leave until everyone was off. Malcolm swears he only turned his back for a second, but the supposedly unconscious Kuroda slammed the door shut, trapping the captain with him. Malcolm blames himself, but honestly, I think Captain Archer is completely capable of nearly getting himself killed without anyone else's help.
More scuffling ensued, while Travis fought to keep the two ships docked, and Malcolm considered blowing the door open. The captain finally got the door open and Malcolm says he was *still* trying to save Kuroda. Malcolm had to drag him off bodily.
Once again, all's well that ends well! The boys returned, tired, hungry, and a little bit worse for wear and I think we all came out of this experience a little more wary of varied cultural conceptions of justice.
Even I, with all my years of anthropology classes, find it hard to believe that the Enolians can so cavalierly dispense with any kind of trial before imprisonment. It's always interesting when we find our own cultural prejudices, isn't it? I hadn't realized how fond I am of the old "innocent until proven guilty" formulation.
Time for me to finish up and send this letter, as I'm having dinner with Em Gomez. I haven't really spent much time with her, but after working closely on the interrogation, I found I really liked her. She's tough, no-nonsense, and is prone to saying whatever's on her mind, and to hell with the consequences. In fact, she reminds me a lot of you. We're planning a good bitch session this evening.
Hey, aren't you and Amanda coming up on your first anniversary? Maybe by the time you get this, it'll be past already, but just in case, happy anniversary!
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 "Canamar."
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 ponygirl for allowing me to use her suggestion from the Linguistics Database Forum. And Em Gomez is borrowed with permission from Jessica and Chrysa. Em's fans should know she'll probably be making some return appearances...My eternal and continuing thanks to Captain Average, the superhero who edits.
* * * * *
Dear Annie:
You know, I never get used to crewmembers nearly dying. I thought maybe it might get easier, but it doesn't.
Especially when they have a knack for nearly getting killed while on routine missions. It's getting to the point where any time someone leaves the ship, I start mentally preparing their eulogy. That can't *possibly* be healthy.
This time, it was Trip and the captain, off on a quick visit to the Enolian homeworld. We went to pick them up at their rendezvous, but all we found was Shuttlepod One, floating end over end--with no biosigns.
I won't make you suffer as long as we did: they'd been snatched off their ship by a prison transport that thought they were smugglers.
D'you know, I don't think we ever found out what it was they were supposed to be smuggling? How odd.
In any case, the government official that T'Pol got hold of, wasn't going to be very helpful, but nobody does stubborn like a Vulcan. Eventually, he found the transport that was taking Trip and the captain to a prison called Canamar. We practically had to kidnap him to get him to go with us to meet the transport--to make sure there were no other misunderstandings, you know.
Of course, things couldn't *possibly* go easily. One of the criminals, a particularly nasty Enolian named Kuroda, managed to get loose and take over the transport. Well...actually he had a Nausicaan accomplice.
Our Enolian official informed us his government wasn't going to take any chances on Kuroda getting out again: if we didn't find the transport first, there was a good chance the Enolians would blow it to pieces.
Typical. Shoot first--don't bother with the questions. Damn the innocent men, full speed ahead!
So, we tracked that transport. But we still might not have succeeded in saving the two men, if not for a coded message from the captain. It was pretty sketchy, considering that he had to code it in Morse code, but since he was trying to pilot a ship using controls he couldn't read, I was pretty impressed he managed even that.
And it gave us enough information to track down the ship that was supposed to pick up Kuroda and his Nausicaan buddy.
Here's where it got tricky. We had to take the ship without doing any serious damage, and find out what was going on. Malcolm and his team did a great job! There was a little bit of damage where they essentially broke in through an airlock, but engineering patched over it so Kuroda wouldn't notice.
So, we had a shuttle with a couple of Enolian criminals, and no idea what to do next. Now, these criminals knew we weren't the Enolian government, so there wasn't much chance of using that angle. Instead, Malcolm came up with the devious idea of playing master criminal. (Since the option of beating the dickens out of them was ruled out.)
T'Pol okayed the plan, but decided she wasn't up to the acting involved--although she did an amazing job of playing judge, jury, and executioner when Trip and that chickie were lost. So, Malcolm drafted me and two of his armory crew (Crewman Orsini and Lt. Emmanuelle Gomez, who can both look very menacing) to play the part of henchpeople.
In one of the most terrifying improvisations of my life (and yes, I know you're responsible for all my theatre experience), we convinced the two Enolians that we were bigger and badder criminals than Kuroda. We told them that they and Kuroda could join *our* organization or die. When they agreed, they told Malcolm how the rendezvous was arranged.
At which point we dumped them in the brig. Malcolm and a couple of burly armory officers hopped into their ship, with Travis as pilot. Travis was thrilled to see some action, although I rather wish he'd agreed to stay out of the way of weapons. No, he didn't get hurt, I just worry, because he's not security trained.
Anyway, they met up with the prison transport, Kuroda opened the door to his accomplices, and Malcolm and gang entered, weapons presumably blazing.
I'm told there was some scuffling before Kuroda and the Nausicaan were knocked out, the prisoners were taken off the transport and...oh, I forgot to tell you that Kuroda was planning to kill everyone else, so the transport was in a decaying orbit.
The captain, of course, refused to leave until everyone was off. Malcolm swears he only turned his back for a second, but the supposedly unconscious Kuroda slammed the door shut, trapping the captain with him. Malcolm blames himself, but honestly, I think Captain Archer is completely capable of nearly getting himself killed without anyone else's help.
More scuffling ensued, while Travis fought to keep the two ships docked, and Malcolm considered blowing the door open. The captain finally got the door open and Malcolm says he was *still* trying to save Kuroda. Malcolm had to drag him off bodily.
Once again, all's well that ends well! The boys returned, tired, hungry, and a little bit worse for wear and I think we all came out of this experience a little more wary of varied cultural conceptions of justice.
Even I, with all my years of anthropology classes, find it hard to believe that the Enolians can so cavalierly dispense with any kind of trial before imprisonment. It's always interesting when we find our own cultural prejudices, isn't it? I hadn't realized how fond I am of the old "innocent until proven guilty" formulation.
Time for me to finish up and send this letter, as I'm having dinner with Em Gomez. I haven't really spent much time with her, but after working closely on the interrogation, I found I really liked her. She's tough, no-nonsense, and is prone to saying whatever's on her mind, and to hell with the consequences. In fact, she reminds me a lot of you. We're planning a good bitch session this evening.
Hey, aren't you and Amanda coming up on your first anniversary? Maybe by the time you get this, it'll be past already, but just in case, happy anniversary!
Love,
Hoshi