Kim Cambron
Careen
04/04/04 Per. 1
Comp. 2 Pg. 60
Disclaimer: I don't own Trek; did use a version of Malcolm's namesake for a new aliens species and made a reference to the story Holes by Louis Sachar- a really good book and nice movie, in my opinion! Plus a Daredevil reference!
Runabout Run-Around
Captain Archer looked at the mass of re-inforced plastic, steelized metal, and other strong insulating materials that were supposed to hold a shuttlecraft together. Unfortunately, this was one craft, which had been given the leftovers of other various ships. Very used parts, in fact. It was a hodge-podge of parts from freighters, alien shuttlepods, and transport cargo vessels. The other half of it, Archer couldn't even guess where they came from. Archer gingerly wiped away some smudges on the front window, and leaning over against the right side of it, he peered in. It appeared to be large enough for four people, and storage space for another six 15-gallon containers in its rear holding area. The rest of the inside was made up of multi-colored bulkheads, with a two main workstations up front. It had an orange-fire colored ceiling and blue-green walls that were lined with a fuzzy carpet material. The bonus was it had a two-man mini-transporter pad. The question was that was it even worth it having taking up space in the small shuttle. What was its' best working level or was it just for impressive looks? Archer pushed himself away from the side of the craft, and noticed he was immediately filthy. He just sighed. How was he going to accept this junk heap from the Malaconians? Archer had had the new aliens over for dinner the night before, cultural stories were exchanged, along with engineering and medical supplies from both sides. Then their new guests had insisted they give the E-crew this vessel for them to conduct research on different alien species they had met and had assembled bits and parts they had been given over the years. Their leader, Cosiaz, had told Archer it had taken his engineers 10 years to gather and construct all the parts into this "fine, sturdy craft". Archer had his doubts and knew he could not refuse this offer since he and Cosiaz had already traded much-needed goods for both sides of their people. "Well, I appreciate the offer Cosiaz but I think my head engineer will have a hard time making this "runabout" -did you say? Um, run smoothly..." "It is no matter of great difficulty, I assure you Captain. It is in good working order and my people won "First Delcect"-prize, for it in last spring's competition. It is a contest we have every year, against our cousins across the river. There is much food and dancing at night but during the day; a crowd in the stands watches a team of engineers from both sides constructs a shuttlecraft of miscellaneous parts they have gathered over the last year. This is a great honor to have in possession the finished product of a race of five days work. I assure you Captain, it may not look grand but it is sturdily built. Since you have become fast friends of the Malaconian people, you must accept this gift. I would be greatly hurt if you did not." "I would never want to disrupt good relation with new allies, Cosiaz. I just worry about replacing parts of it in later years." "That is carrying on the tradition of the contest of Delcect, Captain. There are other crafts that were built dozens of years ago, that are in sacred rooms of museums across our planet. They are still maintained by our volunteers, it is a program that our children must complete as a course in their school studies when they reach early adolescence." "I wish I could have had such a special course in high school." replied Archer. "Since we are mainly an engineering society, Captain, it makes perfect sense to practice this tradition. It provides our young students with the discipline to use whatever tools they are given in life and adapt them to their immediate needs." While the Captain and his guest had been talking, Trip and Travis had been walking around the craft, taking scans, sighing, and biting their lower lips to keep their comments to themselves. It wasn't working though. "This piece of junk isn't even fit for ol'Port to use as a litterbox!", whispered the Cmdr. to the Ensign. "I know but we need to make as many allies here, around the borders of the Expanse as possible. Maybe the doctor can use it for sleeping quarters the next time he goes into hibernation." "The doc would break an arm when those mini-couches in there collapse under his weight and he's lost 20lbs. these last two months to boot!" "Plus it strangely smells of organic onions. Just like in the movie last night. Have you read the book, it's great!" "There's a book too? I'll have to download it tonight and start reading it to my girl. She sure loves our bedtime story hour.", replied the blond man. "Well, it's up to the Captain. We'll have to accept it then maybe we can set it down on some distant moon later, about 10 light years from here." "I don't wanna have to cart this thing around for a couple of months. We need the space in here for more supplies. We suppose to meet with another three new species this month alone!", the engineer proclaimed. "Yeah, I here ya' bro. The good thing about this is that we get to study new alien technology; Hoshi was able to download fifteen new languages from the mish-mash of the computer databank. She's been on the bridge for ten hours straight and shushing the crew every five minutes. Malcolm walked over to her with a Tea Service to give her a break and she simply made him sit down and used him as a food cart while she worked and munched on her snack! It was too comical! You should've been there, she even used his sleeve as a napkin when he tried to add sugar to the tea she was sipping!", noted Travis. "Ha, that woulda' been neat to see; but back to this scrap heap. What in god's name are we going to do with it in the meantime?" "Maybe....yes! The kids could use it as a playhouse! They'd love it!" "It looks kinda dangerous to me, it could collapse on them. You've been staying up too late reading your comic books again, haven't you?", mutter Trip. "O.K. I did but that has nothing to do with this. I checked the structural integrity and it will definitely not fall down. Its' only welded together in a hundred spots and forty percent of it is a strong metal that I've never seen before. Being raised on a cargo ship, I've seen every kind of metalized substance. This stuff is tough." "Alina has been whining about needing a place to play and she's just starting to learn some new engineering vocabulary in class. She's having trouble understanding it. Its' like if she holds something tactile in her hands and says the name, she understands it right away. That's my kid, always gotta get her hands on some art or science project.", said Trip laughingly. "The older kids, the ones who have been doing real-life engineering projects, could use this bucket of bolts to figure out how to fit different alien parts together. Kind of carry on the tradition of the Malaconians, and embrace another culture. Plus become better engineers for the deal of it.", smilingly said the younger man. "It reminds me of the movie we saw the other night, where the girl's father had her train with a different martial arts teacher every year so she could adapt at any fighting technique thrown at her. What a great flick!" "Well, it seems we're stuck with the craft, so yeah, I'll go ahead and set up some labs with the older students.", replied Travis Just for good measure, Trip gently but playfully kicked the side-door and the whole craft shuttered and let out a billow of dust. When Captain Archer went to the other side to see who had caused that strange thud, he only saw the backs of two of his Senior Staff, exiting the cargo bay very rapidly. Oh, and the younger one was frisbeeing a datapad at the older one's head...
Disclaimer: I don't own Trek; did use a version of Malcolm's namesake for a new aliens species and made a reference to the story Holes by Louis Sachar- a really good book and nice movie, in my opinion! Plus a Daredevil reference!
Runabout Run-Around
Captain Archer looked at the mass of re-inforced plastic, steelized metal, and other strong insulating materials that were supposed to hold a shuttlecraft together. Unfortunately, this was one craft, which had been given the leftovers of other various ships. Very used parts, in fact. It was a hodge-podge of parts from freighters, alien shuttlepods, and transport cargo vessels. The other half of it, Archer couldn't even guess where they came from. Archer gingerly wiped away some smudges on the front window, and leaning over against the right side of it, he peered in. It appeared to be large enough for four people, and storage space for another six 15-gallon containers in its rear holding area. The rest of the inside was made up of multi-colored bulkheads, with a two main workstations up front. It had an orange-fire colored ceiling and blue-green walls that were lined with a fuzzy carpet material. The bonus was it had a two-man mini-transporter pad. The question was that was it even worth it having taking up space in the small shuttle. What was its' best working level or was it just for impressive looks? Archer pushed himself away from the side of the craft, and noticed he was immediately filthy. He just sighed. How was he going to accept this junk heap from the Malaconians? Archer had had the new aliens over for dinner the night before, cultural stories were exchanged, along with engineering and medical supplies from both sides. Then their new guests had insisted they give the E-crew this vessel for them to conduct research on different alien species they had met and had assembled bits and parts they had been given over the years. Their leader, Cosiaz, had told Archer it had taken his engineers 10 years to gather and construct all the parts into this "fine, sturdy craft". Archer had his doubts and knew he could not refuse this offer since he and Cosiaz had already traded much-needed goods for both sides of their people. "Well, I appreciate the offer Cosiaz but I think my head engineer will have a hard time making this "runabout" -did you say? Um, run smoothly..." "It is no matter of great difficulty, I assure you Captain. It is in good working order and my people won "First Delcect"-prize, for it in last spring's competition. It is a contest we have every year, against our cousins across the river. There is much food and dancing at night but during the day; a crowd in the stands watches a team of engineers from both sides constructs a shuttlecraft of miscellaneous parts they have gathered over the last year. This is a great honor to have in possession the finished product of a race of five days work. I assure you Captain, it may not look grand but it is sturdily built. Since you have become fast friends of the Malaconian people, you must accept this gift. I would be greatly hurt if you did not." "I would never want to disrupt good relation with new allies, Cosiaz. I just worry about replacing parts of it in later years." "That is carrying on the tradition of the contest of Delcect, Captain. There are other crafts that were built dozens of years ago, that are in sacred rooms of museums across our planet. They are still maintained by our volunteers, it is a program that our children must complete as a course in their school studies when they reach early adolescence." "I wish I could have had such a special course in high school." replied Archer. "Since we are mainly an engineering society, Captain, it makes perfect sense to practice this tradition. It provides our young students with the discipline to use whatever tools they are given in life and adapt them to their immediate needs." While the Captain and his guest had been talking, Trip and Travis had been walking around the craft, taking scans, sighing, and biting their lower lips to keep their comments to themselves. It wasn't working though. "This piece of junk isn't even fit for ol'Port to use as a litterbox!", whispered the Cmdr. to the Ensign. "I know but we need to make as many allies here, around the borders of the Expanse as possible. Maybe the doctor can use it for sleeping quarters the next time he goes into hibernation." "The doc would break an arm when those mini-couches in there collapse under his weight and he's lost 20lbs. these last two months to boot!" "Plus it strangely smells of organic onions. Just like in the movie last night. Have you read the book, it's great!" "There's a book too? I'll have to download it tonight and start reading it to my girl. She sure loves our bedtime story hour.", replied the blond man. "Well, it's up to the Captain. We'll have to accept it then maybe we can set it down on some distant moon later, about 10 light years from here." "I don't wanna have to cart this thing around for a couple of months. We need the space in here for more supplies. We suppose to meet with another three new species this month alone!", the engineer proclaimed. "Yeah, I here ya' bro. The good thing about this is that we get to study new alien technology; Hoshi was able to download fifteen new languages from the mish-mash of the computer databank. She's been on the bridge for ten hours straight and shushing the crew every five minutes. Malcolm walked over to her with a Tea Service to give her a break and she simply made him sit down and used him as a food cart while she worked and munched on her snack! It was too comical! You should've been there, she even used his sleeve as a napkin when he tried to add sugar to the tea she was sipping!", noted Travis. "Ha, that woulda' been neat to see; but back to this scrap heap. What in god's name are we going to do with it in the meantime?" "Maybe....yes! The kids could use it as a playhouse! They'd love it!" "It looks kinda dangerous to me, it could collapse on them. You've been staying up too late reading your comic books again, haven't you?", mutter Trip. "O.K. I did but that has nothing to do with this. I checked the structural integrity and it will definitely not fall down. Its' only welded together in a hundred spots and forty percent of it is a strong metal that I've never seen before. Being raised on a cargo ship, I've seen every kind of metalized substance. This stuff is tough." "Alina has been whining about needing a place to play and she's just starting to learn some new engineering vocabulary in class. She's having trouble understanding it. Its' like if she holds something tactile in her hands and says the name, she understands it right away. That's my kid, always gotta get her hands on some art or science project.", said Trip laughingly. "The older kids, the ones who have been doing real-life engineering projects, could use this bucket of bolts to figure out how to fit different alien parts together. Kind of carry on the tradition of the Malaconians, and embrace another culture. Plus become better engineers for the deal of it.", smilingly said the younger man. "It reminds me of the movie we saw the other night, where the girl's father had her train with a different martial arts teacher every year so she could adapt at any fighting technique thrown at her. What a great flick!" "Well, it seems we're stuck with the craft, so yeah, I'll go ahead and set up some labs with the older students.", replied Travis Just for good measure, Trip gently but playfully kicked the side-door and the whole craft shuttered and let out a billow of dust. When Captain Archer went to the other side to see who had caused that strange thud, he only saw the backs of two of his Senior Staff, exiting the cargo bay very rapidly. Oh, and the younger one was frisbeeing a datapad at the older one's head...