Star Trek: Production, a behind the scenes view of the process that has brought Star Trek: Exodus from the pages of a fan fiction archive on the internet to the small screen. This story is written by Hideout Writer, with the permission of RobertCanary, the creator of Star Trek: Exodus. Star Trek is owned by Paramount Studios, and any recognizable names belong to whoever they belong to. This writer is simply fooling around on the keyboard, making no profit from this venture.
Everything depicted here is fictional, and bears little to no account on real life. With that in mind, please enjoy this story.
"Hello, Cameron?" Alex asked, approaching the petite blonde as she was about to enter her apartment.
"Yes, that's me. Are you the person who posted the ad for a female character?" Cameron replied.
"Yes." Alex replied simply.
"Come in then, and we'll talk. I have a few questions first before we get too far into this." she said, unlocking the door.
"Of course." Alex replied. He sat down on an ottoman that had seen better days, and watched as Cameron prepared tea.
"Nothing like warm tea to drive the chill away." she said, as the smell of Earl Grey wafted through the apartment.
"I find it easier to drink than coffee." Alex replied. "Even so, I tend to add copious amounts of sugar to it."
"More's the pity." Cameron replied, sitting down with her tea. She took a sip, and set the cup aside, then flicked her eyes up to meet Alex's eyes. There was a coy expression on her face. "Are you interested…" she paused to unbutton the top button of her shirt before continuing. "…in this?"
Alex smiled wryly. "I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested." he said. "But that's not what I'm here for."
"Don't you have a casting couch?" she pouted. "I want to leave you with…hmm…the right impression, shall we say."
"I believe you missed the part about 'that's not what I'm here for'." Alex replied. "As tempting as the offer is, no."
"Good." she said, buttoning the top button again. "I don't want to have to sell myself to get a part. For my next question, what position is my character?"
"You mean, as in main, supporting, recurring or guest?" Alex asked. "Hmm. I hadn't really thought of that one. Somewhere between supporting or recurring."
"Okay then. Tell me about this character then. I need to see if I can even properly get into the feel of this character." Cameron ordered.
Alex's eyebrows briefly jumped ever so slightly, and he relaxed a bit. "Well, for starters, her name is Amaranth."
"Hmm. Not an ordinary name." Cameron said, jotting down the name. "Anything more you can share?"
"She's a dragon." Alex answered, smiling.
"Well fuck you too." Cameron replied. "That means I don't get any time on camera. I'll just be in a studio, recording."
Ajax raised an eyebrow, attempting to imitate Spock. "Fascinating." he said quietly.
"That move was cornered by Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock on the Original Series of Star Trek." Cameron said. "I've got all the Trek series, aside from Enterprise. I'm still missing season two."
"Well, if it helps any, the show is called Star Trek: Exodus." Alex replied. "And Amaranth does have a human form, so as to blend in with humanity better."
Cameron's eyebrows went up. "Really?" she said, drawing out the word. "Okay, so there's still studio time, but I'll be on-set. You can count me in."
Alex smiled. "I hoped you'd say that, however, there are some things we haven't touched on yet."
"Let me guess, it's a cartoon?" Cameron asked. "I don't care, it's Star Trek! I'm a big Star Trek fan."
"No, it isn't a cartoon." Alex assured her. "However, Paramount hasn't condoned any of this yet. If possible, I'd like to run a few out-takes first, before I breeze into their offices and pitch the idea. Are you willing to do a short scene?"
"Sure. Where will we be at?" Cameron asked.
"I could take you there if you'd like." Alex replied. "We could shoot the scene, and be back in half an hour."
"Alright." Cameron replied. "Hold on, I need to change my clothes, and touch up."
"Don't bother." Alex advised gently. "When you show up to work in this line of work, it's easier without make-up. Besides, what you're wearing now should be fine."
"If you say so." Cameron said. "Let's go."
For the briefest of moments, the pair saw the universe, as Alex had grabbed her hand before teleporting.
When they landed again, they were on a grassy knoll, with woods nearby.
"What. The hell. Was that?" Cameron demanded. "What are you?"
"I am a magician." Alex replied. "My method of travel is, as Seven would say, efficient."
"No kidding! Shall I assume we are close to where we'll be shooting, then?"
"Yes. In fact, you are standing where the scene takes place, on Earth-2."
"No freaking way! You do mean the duplicate Earth seen in the Original Series, right?"
"Yeah. You are actually still on Earth." Alex said. "Not the duplicate…I'm not that good."
"Darn."
"No, actually, that's a good thing, because Earth-2 has some sort of airborne thing that causes adult humans to age rapidly. Children remain children for…a really long time, but once they get to about fifteen or sixteen in terms of how old the appear to be…well, they age quickly after that." Alex explained. "Besides which, the Voth decided to colonize there."
Cameron nodded her understanding.
"Okay, so as you know, I'm a magician. That means that there will be a great deal of magic involved in what's done here, and I don't mean production magic." Alex said, holding out the bracelet he'd made earlier. "This is everything that makes up who and what Amaranth is."
"What does it do?" Cameron asked, accepting the bracelet.
"It changes you to match the character of Amaranth, physically and mentally. When you remove the bracelet, you will be back to yourself again." Alex explained.
"And there will be no bad side effects?" Cameron pressed.
"Well, it's entirely possible that some aspects of her character will imprint onto you, but probably not very much." Alex said. "I have a similar device that I've used off-and-on, for the character named Ajax, who is also starring in Exodus."
"Well," Cameron said bravely "Here goes…" and with that, she slipped the bracelet onto her wrist.
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And with that, chapter four is here! I'll be posting five soon, so stay tuned for that. Uh...leave a message after the beep?
Answers to Reviewers:
RobertCanary: I try to approach things from a different stance than most people. If we were in the Trek timeframe, we wouldn't have to worry about prostitute laws because we could go to Risa, where it's legal. Fortunately for a great number of women, we don't have any kind of FTL drives just yet. More's the pity, I'd like to leave this world and go explore strange new worlds.
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...beep?