Lilo & Stitch's Star Trek
Chapter 20: Boldly Going
Forward ('Cause We Can't Find Reverse!)
"Here
we are going!"
"Oh
no! We are NOT flying into a black hole!"
"But
is not being black! 'Tis being kinda goldish-orangish colour…"
"I
don't care! We have no idea where we'd be going!"
"So
you want to be facing older girl's wrath?"
"Er…"
Jumba
smiled, knowing he had won. Nothing was worse than Nani on the
warpath – not even plunging headfirst into a not-so-black hole.
"Um…
OK," he groaned.
"Warning:
Unknown ship detected. Vector 56 Mark 320."A
20-year-old European girl sighed. This is going to be a looong
day…
"Ensign,
take us about and open channel."
"Yes
ma'am," replied a 21-year old female of Hawaiian decent.
A
beep signified the comm. uplink was open.
"This
is Captain Jameston of the U.S.S. Serenity. Please respond."
Nothing.
"This
is the Constitution-Alpha class vessel U.S.S. Serenity. Please
identify yourself. We mean you no harm."
Still
nothing.
"Any
weapons?"
"Just
a Class-C plasma converter…"
"But
those are ancient!"
"So
is this vessel…"
That
was true – Starfleet had given Jameston the oldest ship in the
fleet, a Constitution-Refit, 130 years old and counting. She
had personally overseen all repairs, upgrades and whatnot, and had
thought of the new name and number. NCC-82535. Starfleet had been so
impressed that they had given it a class all of it's own. Just for
a few repairs… after all, it needed to be brought into the
twenty-fifth century more than her techno-phobic mother! She wished
her father could see her now, in this trashcan of a ship…
She
rested her head in her hands. Could that thing have…?
No,
it was impossible.
"Well,
follow that ship. Maybe it will lead us back."
"WE
SHOULD BE GETTING THERE RIGHT ABOUT NOW…" Jumba roared over the
sound of the hyperdrive in overdrive.
"WHAT?"
"WE
SHOULD BE GETTING THERE RIGHT ABOUT…"
Suddenly,
the engines halted. Space, or the image of space rather, rebounded on
them like a rubber band on one's finger when one pulls it too
tight.
"…NOW!"
In
the dead silence that followed, Jumba's words reverberated around
the ship. Lilo covered her ears quickly, wishing to prevent permanent
hearing loss.
"Oh…
er… I'll just be scanning surrounding star systems…"
"Captain's
Log, stardate 139869.1.
With
the sudden appearance of another, but substantially larger, ship of
the same design, I have turned the ship about (again) to identify the
source of the vessels."
"Have
you succeeded in achieving a comm. uplink, Ming?"
"No,
ma'am. I've tried all frequencies except one that hasn't been
used in about 400 years, but I don't think that will…"
"Can
you do it?"
"Yes,
but…"
"Then
do it."
Ming
was saved from answering by a sudden blaring sound.
"Malo,
I thought I told you to turn off the auto-red alert, not make
it more annoying!"
"Yes,
but there's…"
"I
don't care what it is, just turn that thing…"
She
stopped suddenly when she saw what was on the screen.
"How
far away is this?"
"About
24 light-years and closing fast."
"OK,
set a course for Sector 001 at highest maintainable warp! Now!"
"Uh-oh…"
"What
is it Jumba?"
"Well,
for one thing, 'tis being a… a distance between us and Earth."
Pleakly
eyed Jumba suspiciously.
"What
kind of distance?"
"Well…
the large kind."
"You
didn't land us near Orion's Nebular, did you?"
Orion's
Nebular, not to be confused with the Orion Nebula, was the outermost
outpost in Federation space. It lay just over 200 light-years from
Earth – almost one-eighth the way from Sol to the centre of the
galaxy.
"No."
"Phew!
Well, that's a relie…"
"We
are being over thirty-thousand light-years from home. It would be
taking over 200 years for us to be going back."
"WHAT!
We're on the other side of the GALAXY?"
"There's
more bad news…"
"More
bad news?"
"The
distance between us and home is not just through space. Adjusting for
star and galactic drift, orbit decay and change of organisation of
constellations, I have estimated today's date and time to be Saturday 14th of November 2374, 5 hours, 20 minutes and 37
seconds past mid-nocturnal cycle. We are being in future."
At
this, a loud clunk was heard, signifying Pleakly fainting, soon
followed by a loud yell, signifying Stitch prodding Pleakly with his
claw.
Less
than 20 light-years away, a woman sat at a console, twiddling her
thumbs. All was dark; the only thing you could see was the silhouette
of the female against the glow of the screen. Every now and then a
spark flew from one of the many severed wires.Thousands
of voices filled the room, each in harmony with the rest, an
unnatural symphony of words.
"The
Galactic Federation ship GFS-5615 has exited aperture 7389."
She
smiled. "Lilo Pelikai, we meet again…"