lr.3
MEGAZONE 23
"As captain, I am responsible for the conduct of the
crew under my command."
--Captain James T. Kirk
ABOUT A WEEK LATER
SOMEWHERE IN SPACE
"Attention," the Wedge computer announced. "WedgeWarp
Drive is disengaging. Five seconds to sublight velocity.
Prepare for automated maneuvering."
"What's going on?" ReRob asked, climbing up to the
bridge from the engine room, as Gryphon slid into his seat
behind the computer console.
"Hang on," Gryphon replied, pulling more of the ancient
pseudo-UNIX commands from his memory and tapping them out on
the keyboard, requesting a status report. The readout began
appearing on his screen, interspersed with bizarre poetry
about cats in the rain. "Got it." The Wedge shifted out of
warp drive. Nothing was yet visible beyond the windows of
the bridge.
"We're coming out of warp, finally; the computer says
we've reached our destination system. We'll maneuver into
the system on impulse power and make...planetfall? Ookaay...
we'll make planetfall sometime later this week."
"Planetfall?!" Zoner asked. "Where?"
"Um..." Click click click beep! "According to this...
Utopia Planitia Naval Shipyard, on the planet Planitia, in
the Cygnus Beta system. Marvelous. Never heard of the
system or the planet, but Utopia Planitia I've heard of..."
"The shipyard where the Enterprise was built," said
Lightnin from across the room.
"Right. But that's supposed to be on Mars, not
someplace in Cygnus Beta."
"Okay...we have to tell people about this. Let's get
everyone together in the Lower Wedge--Gryphon, where's Kei?"
"Probably still asleep. She hadn't gotten back from the
gweepery when I went to sleep, and that was at four."
"I'm amazed the telnet connections are still up..."
ReRob mused.
"Sub-ethernet?" Ben hazarded.
"Shut up," ReRob replied, giving him a gentle "duh" with
his hat.
"Well, better get everyone together," Zoner interrupted.
"Comm officer, have everyone assemble in the Lower Wedge."
"Like yo, like everyone get to the Lower Wedge. Like,
Captain Zoner wants to say something. Like that's all, and
like have a day," q announced over the PA system.
"Thanks q...I think," spake Zoner.
NOT LONG AFTER
"Well, is everyone here?" inquired Zoner.
"I think so, I don't feel like counting," answered
Gryphon.
"It really doesn't matter, with the size of this ship
word doesn't take long to spread," Zoner commented; then,
turning his attention to the gathered crowd, he raised his
voice: "Hey, everyone! I have a little announcement to make.
As you all know by now, we've come out of warp and we're
rapidly approaching a planet. It appears that we're supposed
to make planetfall there."
This was followed by a lot of murmurs and grumbling, and
a few shouted questions to the effect of "What planet?"
"The planet is Planitia in the Cygnus Beta system.
We'll be docking at the Utopia Planitia Naval Shipyard
there."
This was followed by a lot more murmuring and grumbling,
as well as a few shouts of "Hey, that's where the Enterprise
was built!" from the Trek fans amongst the group.
"Yes, as some of you seem to have realized, the Utopia
Planitia Naval Shipyard is where the Enterprise was built.
Of course that wasn't in the Cygnus Beta system. Since this
is our first contact with aliens, I hope we don't have any
xenophobes amongst us. I really doubt it with this group,
but I don't want to have anyone run screaming at the sight of
any strange creatures."
As if on cue Android entered the Lower Wedge, apparently
having just awakened in the gweepery. Several people ran
screaming.
"Ok, ok. That'll be enough of that. Come on guys, I'm
serious here. It's hard enough being captain when I know
that it's only because no one else wanted to take the blame
if anything went wrong, and the fact that I was the first to
have a Rho Alpha Tau hat made. At least show me a little bit
of respect, I don't ask for much. I mean I've been finding
my comics all over the ship, and my VCR is ready to burn out.
And do I complain? No! I'm getting sick of having this
responsibility! You think it's easy to be responsible for
all of you? Do you think I really know what I'm doing?
Don't you think I'm just a little scared about meeting
aliens? What if they're hostile? I really don't care about
myself, but I have to worry about you too! I mean what if
they're huge bug-eyed monsters with..." Zoner trailed off as
q and ReRob dragged him out of the Lower Wedge.
"Well, Zoner seems to be just a little bit stressed,
what a surprise. Don't worry, he de-angsts once in a while,
he may actually get over it," Gryphon assured the crew rather
caustically. "Meeting adjourned--and keep him away from
knives! And Logan!" he shouted to q and ReRob.
A SHORT WHILE LATER
Knock knock knock "What do you want?" Zoner shouted over
the sound of Pink Floyd's "Brain Damage".
"Just thought I'd check on you, how're you doing?"
Gryphon enquired.
"Ok, just listening to some Floyd to calm down and cheer
up. So far I've gone through Wish You Were Here, The Final
Cut, and I'm almost through with Dark Side of the Moon. I've
been a little stressed, 'lot on my mind ya know."
"Uh, yeah, Floyd to cheer up. Yeeeap. Anyway, what's
on your mind?"
"Other than suddenly becoming captain of a starship--a
really small, silly looking starship, but a starship
nonetheless--I've been worried about some of the people we
left behind."
"Like who?"
"Well, other than the few thousand innocent civilians
that I didn't know who got vaped, I've been worried about
Matt and Jenna. I mean they just got engaged and then they
get dragged halfway across the cosmos. I don't think Matt is
too happy about that, and Jenna was almost done with school.
And, oh I don't know..."
"Well, do you think they'd prefer being dead?"
"I doubt it, but a lot of people are having trouble
dealing. Most everyone on board lost all of their
possessions. Computers, TVs, VCRs, stereos, clothes,
everything! I got lucky, E7 got included in this flying
trashheap, all of my kipple got brought along. You too, I
still have trouble handling that coincidence. Then there is
the human factor. I mean, I don't know that many people
outside of WPI, so most everyone I know made it out. But
there are a lot of people here who lived and worked in
Worcester and lost many of their friends. This isn't anime,
those people weren't ink, they were real living breathing
people. My conscience has been nagging at me since we left
Earth. What right do I have to be alive when I'm partially
responsible for their deaths?"
Gryphon was uncharacteristically silent for a few
moments. His fists were clenched, and he appeared to be
struggling not to scream, his breathing ragged and uneven.
Then he looked up and said, calmly and evenly, "Zoner...I
haven't mentioned this for the past week...I've been trying
not to think about it, not to face it. I finally came up
against it last night. Do you know who was in Worcester last
month?"
"Who?"
"My mother." He turned and walked away, pausing briefly
on the landing to make a Zoneresque fist hole in the far
wall.