I've been reading some of the posts here and decided to post this more for feedback than the contest. Some of the writers here are good, really good. Anyway, here's my 2497 word story. If anyone has any ideas on where it could be stronger...like I think the conclusion needs work, but can't figure out where to cut. Thanks in advance for any, and I do mean any feedback.
Note: Lenara Kahn appeared in two DS-9 episodes
DS-9 “Rejoined”
DS-9 “In Purgatory’s Shadow”
Arjal Brak is the future ops officer from my upcoming serial story set in the same universe as the Star Trek: Gibralter series.
Location: Trill Homeworld
Purple waves washed gently onto the white sand beach. Standing up from the surf following his daily swim, the tanned and muscular male figure wore only a skin-tight pair of swim trunks. Dripping as he walked from the waves, his green eyes scanned the shoreline for his belongings. Symmetrical brown spots marked a curving pattern, running from under his brown hair, down the sides of his face before continuing across his shoulders to the sides of his body and tapering all the way down to his feet.
He located his spot on the sand and began striding confidently towards it when he noticed something out of place. Pacing back and forth on the paved walkway that marked the boundary between the beach and a verdant green lawn behind was a woman dressed in pants and a formal business jacket. Arjal Brak, candidate for joining, and currently under review of the symbiosis commission on Trill paused mid-stride and frowned. His meeting with his recently assigned field docent was not scheduled until 1400. If his internal clock was correct, it was barely 1330.
A slight grin broke out on his face as he shook his head and continued walking. So that’s how it’s going to be, he thought to himself.
Although obviously waiting for someone, the woman appeared distracted, her fingers tracing some invisible diagram in the air as she stared at it intently. Arjal completed his walk up the beach, finished drying off and was pulling on a pair of loose fitting gauze pants when the woman noticed him, stopped her internal dialogue and walked towards him.
Looking up at her as she approached, Arjal couldn’t help thinking that even with the way her hair was rather severely pulled back from her face, she would be attractive when, or if, she smiled. His boyish daydream was broken as she stopped in front of him and sternly looked him up and down with a perfunctory gaze, almost as if she was dividing him into sections to analyse later. When she spoke, her voice sounded clipped, as if she didn’t want to waste time with inflection.
“Candidate Arjal Brak.” It was not a question. The grin had long since wiped itself from his face, but he managed to look her in the eye when he replied, “Yes ma’am, I am Arjal Brak.”
Arjal expected her to scowl or sneer at him, but in a way, the emotionless way she addressed him was worse. If her hair hadn’t already been pulled back from her ears he would have wondered if they were pointed, despite the markings running down the sides of her face that were darker counterparts of his own.
“I am Lenara Kahn from the science ministry, your field docent.” Arjal recognized the name from the brief memo he had received the night prior. She specialized in wormhole research, working on attempting to create artificial wormholes.
Lenara Kahn looked over her shoulder to the science ministry buildings in the distance then back at Arjal. “From the looks of things, you are going to be late to our appointment.” With that she turned her back on Arjal and walked away, off the beach and towards a street where she entered a waiting hover car and sped off.
The grin returned to Arjal’s face as he brought his towel up and further dried his hair. Activating his wrist comm, he spoke into it, “Tierva, are you there?” After a few seconds a female voice came out of the small device, “Affirmative, are you ready?” Arjal laughed into the comm, “Of course, let’s do this.”
Reaching down, he picked up the rest of his clothing from the sand, and stood still for a second. An older model personnel transport shuttle appeared in the distance, heading towards the shore. As it approached, Arjal Brak started to shimmer and then became transparent as he was engulfed in a transporter beam.
Five minutes later, in a new set of clothing he materialized on the transporter pad inside the science ministry, grinning at the surprised transporter operator. “I have an appointment with Lenara Kahn at 1400, could you tell me where her office is?”
Holding out the transport authorization cut off the operator’s question. The man took the PADD, examined it and moved to a wall panel where he pulled up an appointment schedule. “Her office is on the third floor, but... This meeting is scheduled for Science Annex A.” A schematic overhead of the science ministry campus appeared on the wall panel, with a blinking ‘you are here’ dot. The transporter operator touched a building on the far side of map, and a line traced itself across the wall panel, indicating one possible route to the annex.
“There you go, out two sets of doors, take a left and follow the path between these two buldings.” The transporter operator traced the path with his finger as he articulated the route. “The annex is..” He stopped as he heard the doors swish open, looking up just in time to see Arjal exit through them.
Decorum urged Arjal not to break into a run, but he had to fight each step to avoid doing so. Taking a deep breath, he reminded himself that he still had a full twenty minutes before his scheduled meeting with Lenara Kahn.
It took him nearly ten minutes to reach the science annex. Climbing up the wide stairway at the front of the building without slowing, he approached the doorway. It didn’t slide open and he nearly ran into it.
Looking around, he noticed a small screen next to the closed door. It was flashing, “Secured to non-simulation related personnel 1345-1430.” An intense look of concentration came over Arjal’s face. He rapidly touched the screen and sequenced through several menus before reaching the one he wanted.
His docent was already in the building, and the doors were secure. How had she gotten here so fast? Arjal was about to leave a message, when he heard rushed footsteps running up the steps behind him. Arjal hald turned around when a woman in a lab coat ran straight into him. Carrying a PADD in one hand and precariously holding several sealed tubes under the other arm, the tubes clattered to the ground at the impact and the woman became obviously flustered, speaking in a nervous, unsteady voice, “Oh my, I’m late already! I don’t have time for this.” Reaching down to pick up the fallen tubes she kicked one and sent it rolling.
Stifling a laugh, Arjal hopped over the tube, letting it roll partway up his foot before flipping it into the air and catching it. His flair for the dramatic went unnoticed as the woman finished picking up the other tubes and stood upright. Smiling, he simply held the tube in one hand and shrugged, “I’m sorry, can I help you carry something?”
The woman smiled back and held out the other tubes to Arjal, “Here carry these.” She quickly punched an access code into the door lock, and it swished open. Stepping through, she didn’t wait to see if Arjal followed or not.
Hoping the woman was late for whatever Lenara Kahn was in the building for, Arjal followed close behind. After taking several steps inside the building, she looked over her shoulder and asked “Are you here for the wormhole simulation? I don’t remember seeing you around before.”
Figuring duplicity would only get him into trouble at this point Arjal opted for the truth. “I think so, I have a meeting with Lenara Kahn, and it’s supposed to be in this building.”
“You’re the new symbiont candidate?” She said without turning around as the two rounded a corner and continued down a spartan hallway. Power conduits were even visible on the ceiling and on one wall.
“Yes, I am.” Was all Arjal could think to say.
The woman actually looked over her shoulder with a sympathetic smile, “I’m sorry.” Then after a slight pause, “I’m Shendra, one of Dr. Kahn’s assistants.”
Arjal smiled back, trying his best to look self-assured. Shendra suddenly stopped next to a closed door. “This is it,” Shendra said as her fingers flitted over the security access panel. The door slid open silently and Shendra walked through, Arjal smoothed his shirt and followed.
He immediately wished he had grabbed a lab coat from somewhere, as four of the room’s lab-coated occupants eyed him suspiciously from their location near the entrance. In the middle of the darkened room, in perfect miniature, floated a holographic star cluster. Complete with it’s own one-meter nebula. The most striking feature was the circle of energy coruscating near one side of the star field.
Arjal noticed immediately that the “wormhole” was beginning to pulsate and flicker wildly. Then he saw Dr. Kahn at a control station working frantically to stabilize the holographic simulation from collapsing.
Walking over as nonchalantly as he could manage, Arjal glanced down at the computer interface next to the one Dr. Kahn was using. Arjal saw that whatever the energy circle was, its power source was an emitter array. He also recognized that the emitter was caught in an internal feedback loop, and that Dr. Kahn was having difficulty controlling it.
If Arjal had been paying attention, he might have noticed that while several scientists other than Dr. Kahn were standing at interface monitors, none of them were attempting to adjust anything.
Reaching down he touched a few buttons on the panel in front of him, and directly to the left of Dr. Kahn. It was his turn to become enraptured in the simulation, and for a few moments, he frantically worked the simulation, setting up a six-emitter pattern with a central monitoring unit. If his hunch was right, several smaller emitters would be able to keep up with the power fluctuations better than the single one the Dr. was using.
He was just about to execute his changes, when a voice from beside him spoke softly, “Computer, end program.” The floating star field disappeared, replaced by regular lighting. Arjal looked away from the now blank interface screen and towards Dr. Kahn. She was not smiling.
Nodding her head towards a side door, Dr. Kahn pointed towards it with outstretched fingers as well. Arjal walked into the room, wondering if he had miscalculated. Dr. Kahn followed him.
The door slid shut silently.
“What are you doing here?” Arjal turned around at the question, a puzzled look appeared on his face. “I had an appointment to meet with you here.”
Her face looked as impassive as each time he had seen it, “Of course, so when you showed up late, you thought violating building security protocols was acceptable?”
Arjal frowned, ignoring the accusation of being late, “I was helping Shendra with her things, and I thought no one would have scheduled me for a meeting in a place I did not belong.”
Dr. Kahn continued without even acknowledging Arjal’s response, “I’ve reviewed your file. You are in outstanding physical condition. You have a genius level IQ. You scored in the top five percent on your university entrance exams, higher in sciences.” Pausing briefly before continuing, Lenara tapped her fingers on a desk, “And yet in the year since graduating, you have not applied to any universities. You have not taken more than a few night classes at a local trade school, and you work as a part time dispatcher for class B cargo transports.
Arjal had the common sense to look a little sheepish.
Her voice rose, if only slightly. “So why, Arjal Brak, should I recommend you for a symbiont?”
Arjal responded slowly, carefully, “Just because I don’t have an advanced degree does not mean I wouldn’t bring value to a joining. A second or third joining would add all its experience to my innate intelligence and vigour. In fact…”
Dr. Kahn interrupted Arjal, “I am not going to waste a symbiont on a candidate so uncommitted to science.”
Arjal interjected more quickly, “But there are plenty of non-scientifically oriented trills that become joined.”
“Perhaps, but not ones recommended by me.”
Arjal nodded, “So my letters of recommendation mean nothing to you?”
The scientist made a dismissive gesture, “Every candidate that comes before the commission has a stack of glowing recommendations that, for all intents and purposes, are worthless.”
Folding his arms across his chest Arjal quipped, “In less than five minutes, I figured out a way to stabilize your simulation, that’s scientific.”
Shaking her head slightly Dr. Kahn said, “You don’t know that. Guessing is not scientific, it’s just guessing. Besides, I already admitted you have a great deal of aptitude, it’s what you’re not doing with it that bothers me.”
“It would have worked.”
“Totally irrelevant.”
Arjal looked down at the ground in front of him, speaking quietly, “You’ve already made your decision about me, and you’re not going to recommend me no matter what I do. Where’s the science in that?”
Softening her voice for the first time, Kahn stepped closer, “I’m sorry, but the objective part is over. You made it past the purely scientific screening. My job is to be subjective, to make sure that only the best candidates are joined. I have no doubt that you will make a valuable contribution to whatever you decide to do, but not as a joined Trill.”
“I could complain to the commission...file a grievance.”
“You won’t do that, it looks worse on your record than simply not being selected. Look, I’ll even write you a recommendation to...
Arjal laughed “Recommendation!” Chuckling, he straightened his shoulders and looked up at Dr. Lenara Kahn before pivoting and walking out of the room.”
As Arjal walked out of the lab he heard Shendra speak, excitedly. “Dr. Kahn, I did a low level simulation of the changes that…” then the doors shut, cutting off the sentence.
Walking slowly from the campus, Arjal was surprised to see Tierva standing next to her shuttle in the parking area. He shook his head slowly as he approached, “She doesn’t like me, and she’s not going to recommend me to the commission.” A look of concern rapidly came over Tierva’s face, “I’m so sorry.” She stepped towards Arjal and hugged him. “What are we going to do now?”
Arjal laughed, surprising her, “I was thinking of a late lunch.”
Tierva shook her head, “I meant...oh, I will never understand you.” She turned and walked into the shuttle. Arjal followed.
While Tierva began the short pre-flight checks, Arjal logged on to a terminal at the co-pilot’s seat, punched a few keys, navigated his way through his mail program and sent a message.
Tierva gave him a strange look, “What are you doing?” Arjal logged out of the terminal, “Just sending my application to Starfleet.”
Surprised, Tierva asked, “But don’t those take hours to complete?”
Arjal smiled, “Why yes they do. I finished mine a while ago. Where do you want to go for lunch?”
Note: Lenara Kahn appeared in two DS-9 episodes
DS-9 “Rejoined”
DS-9 “In Purgatory’s Shadow”
Arjal Brak is the future ops officer from my upcoming serial story set in the same universe as the Star Trek: Gibralter series.
Location: Trill Homeworld
Purple waves washed gently onto the white sand beach. Standing up from the surf following his daily swim, the tanned and muscular male figure wore only a skin-tight pair of swim trunks. Dripping as he walked from the waves, his green eyes scanned the shoreline for his belongings. Symmetrical brown spots marked a curving pattern, running from under his brown hair, down the sides of his face before continuing across his shoulders to the sides of his body and tapering all the way down to his feet.
He located his spot on the sand and began striding confidently towards it when he noticed something out of place. Pacing back and forth on the paved walkway that marked the boundary between the beach and a verdant green lawn behind was a woman dressed in pants and a formal business jacket. Arjal Brak, candidate for joining, and currently under review of the symbiosis commission on Trill paused mid-stride and frowned. His meeting with his recently assigned field docent was not scheduled until 1400. If his internal clock was correct, it was barely 1330.
A slight grin broke out on his face as he shook his head and continued walking. So that’s how it’s going to be, he thought to himself.
Although obviously waiting for someone, the woman appeared distracted, her fingers tracing some invisible diagram in the air as she stared at it intently. Arjal completed his walk up the beach, finished drying off and was pulling on a pair of loose fitting gauze pants when the woman noticed him, stopped her internal dialogue and walked towards him.
Looking up at her as she approached, Arjal couldn’t help thinking that even with the way her hair was rather severely pulled back from her face, she would be attractive when, or if, she smiled. His boyish daydream was broken as she stopped in front of him and sternly looked him up and down with a perfunctory gaze, almost as if she was dividing him into sections to analyse later. When she spoke, her voice sounded clipped, as if she didn’t want to waste time with inflection.
“Candidate Arjal Brak.” It was not a question. The grin had long since wiped itself from his face, but he managed to look her in the eye when he replied, “Yes ma’am, I am Arjal Brak.”
Arjal expected her to scowl or sneer at him, but in a way, the emotionless way she addressed him was worse. If her hair hadn’t already been pulled back from her ears he would have wondered if they were pointed, despite the markings running down the sides of her face that were darker counterparts of his own.
“I am Lenara Kahn from the science ministry, your field docent.” Arjal recognized the name from the brief memo he had received the night prior. She specialized in wormhole research, working on attempting to create artificial wormholes.
Lenara Kahn looked over her shoulder to the science ministry buildings in the distance then back at Arjal. “From the looks of things, you are going to be late to our appointment.” With that she turned her back on Arjal and walked away, off the beach and towards a street where she entered a waiting hover car and sped off.
The grin returned to Arjal’s face as he brought his towel up and further dried his hair. Activating his wrist comm, he spoke into it, “Tierva, are you there?” After a few seconds a female voice came out of the small device, “Affirmative, are you ready?” Arjal laughed into the comm, “Of course, let’s do this.”
Reaching down, he picked up the rest of his clothing from the sand, and stood still for a second. An older model personnel transport shuttle appeared in the distance, heading towards the shore. As it approached, Arjal Brak started to shimmer and then became transparent as he was engulfed in a transporter beam.
Five minutes later, in a new set of clothing he materialized on the transporter pad inside the science ministry, grinning at the surprised transporter operator. “I have an appointment with Lenara Kahn at 1400, could you tell me where her office is?”
Holding out the transport authorization cut off the operator’s question. The man took the PADD, examined it and moved to a wall panel where he pulled up an appointment schedule. “Her office is on the third floor, but... This meeting is scheduled for Science Annex A.” A schematic overhead of the science ministry campus appeared on the wall panel, with a blinking ‘you are here’ dot. The transporter operator touched a building on the far side of map, and a line traced itself across the wall panel, indicating one possible route to the annex.
“There you go, out two sets of doors, take a left and follow the path between these two buldings.” The transporter operator traced the path with his finger as he articulated the route. “The annex is..” He stopped as he heard the doors swish open, looking up just in time to see Arjal exit through them.
Decorum urged Arjal not to break into a run, but he had to fight each step to avoid doing so. Taking a deep breath, he reminded himself that he still had a full twenty minutes before his scheduled meeting with Lenara Kahn.
It took him nearly ten minutes to reach the science annex. Climbing up the wide stairway at the front of the building without slowing, he approached the doorway. It didn’t slide open and he nearly ran into it.
Looking around, he noticed a small screen next to the closed door. It was flashing, “Secured to non-simulation related personnel 1345-1430.” An intense look of concentration came over Arjal’s face. He rapidly touched the screen and sequenced through several menus before reaching the one he wanted.
His docent was already in the building, and the doors were secure. How had she gotten here so fast? Arjal was about to leave a message, when he heard rushed footsteps running up the steps behind him. Arjal hald turned around when a woman in a lab coat ran straight into him. Carrying a PADD in one hand and precariously holding several sealed tubes under the other arm, the tubes clattered to the ground at the impact and the woman became obviously flustered, speaking in a nervous, unsteady voice, “Oh my, I’m late already! I don’t have time for this.” Reaching down to pick up the fallen tubes she kicked one and sent it rolling.
Stifling a laugh, Arjal hopped over the tube, letting it roll partway up his foot before flipping it into the air and catching it. His flair for the dramatic went unnoticed as the woman finished picking up the other tubes and stood upright. Smiling, he simply held the tube in one hand and shrugged, “I’m sorry, can I help you carry something?”
The woman smiled back and held out the other tubes to Arjal, “Here carry these.” She quickly punched an access code into the door lock, and it swished open. Stepping through, she didn’t wait to see if Arjal followed or not.
Hoping the woman was late for whatever Lenara Kahn was in the building for, Arjal followed close behind. After taking several steps inside the building, she looked over her shoulder and asked “Are you here for the wormhole simulation? I don’t remember seeing you around before.”
Figuring duplicity would only get him into trouble at this point Arjal opted for the truth. “I think so, I have a meeting with Lenara Kahn, and it’s supposed to be in this building.”
“You’re the new symbiont candidate?” She said without turning around as the two rounded a corner and continued down a spartan hallway. Power conduits were even visible on the ceiling and on one wall.
“Yes, I am.” Was all Arjal could think to say.
The woman actually looked over her shoulder with a sympathetic smile, “I’m sorry.” Then after a slight pause, “I’m Shendra, one of Dr. Kahn’s assistants.”
Arjal smiled back, trying his best to look self-assured. Shendra suddenly stopped next to a closed door. “This is it,” Shendra said as her fingers flitted over the security access panel. The door slid open silently and Shendra walked through, Arjal smoothed his shirt and followed.
He immediately wished he had grabbed a lab coat from somewhere, as four of the room’s lab-coated occupants eyed him suspiciously from their location near the entrance. In the middle of the darkened room, in perfect miniature, floated a holographic star cluster. Complete with it’s own one-meter nebula. The most striking feature was the circle of energy coruscating near one side of the star field.
Arjal noticed immediately that the “wormhole” was beginning to pulsate and flicker wildly. Then he saw Dr. Kahn at a control station working frantically to stabilize the holographic simulation from collapsing.
Walking over as nonchalantly as he could manage, Arjal glanced down at the computer interface next to the one Dr. Kahn was using. Arjal saw that whatever the energy circle was, its power source was an emitter array. He also recognized that the emitter was caught in an internal feedback loop, and that Dr. Kahn was having difficulty controlling it.
If Arjal had been paying attention, he might have noticed that while several scientists other than Dr. Kahn were standing at interface monitors, none of them were attempting to adjust anything.
Reaching down he touched a few buttons on the panel in front of him, and directly to the left of Dr. Kahn. It was his turn to become enraptured in the simulation, and for a few moments, he frantically worked the simulation, setting up a six-emitter pattern with a central monitoring unit. If his hunch was right, several smaller emitters would be able to keep up with the power fluctuations better than the single one the Dr. was using.
He was just about to execute his changes, when a voice from beside him spoke softly, “Computer, end program.” The floating star field disappeared, replaced by regular lighting. Arjal looked away from the now blank interface screen and towards Dr. Kahn. She was not smiling.
Nodding her head towards a side door, Dr. Kahn pointed towards it with outstretched fingers as well. Arjal walked into the room, wondering if he had miscalculated. Dr. Kahn followed him.
The door slid shut silently.
“What are you doing here?” Arjal turned around at the question, a puzzled look appeared on his face. “I had an appointment to meet with you here.”
Her face looked as impassive as each time he had seen it, “Of course, so when you showed up late, you thought violating building security protocols was acceptable?”
Arjal frowned, ignoring the accusation of being late, “I was helping Shendra with her things, and I thought no one would have scheduled me for a meeting in a place I did not belong.”
Dr. Kahn continued without even acknowledging Arjal’s response, “I’ve reviewed your file. You are in outstanding physical condition. You have a genius level IQ. You scored in the top five percent on your university entrance exams, higher in sciences.” Pausing briefly before continuing, Lenara tapped her fingers on a desk, “And yet in the year since graduating, you have not applied to any universities. You have not taken more than a few night classes at a local trade school, and you work as a part time dispatcher for class B cargo transports.
Arjal had the common sense to look a little sheepish.
Her voice rose, if only slightly. “So why, Arjal Brak, should I recommend you for a symbiont?”
Arjal responded slowly, carefully, “Just because I don’t have an advanced degree does not mean I wouldn’t bring value to a joining. A second or third joining would add all its experience to my innate intelligence and vigour. In fact…”
Dr. Kahn interrupted Arjal, “I am not going to waste a symbiont on a candidate so uncommitted to science.”
Arjal interjected more quickly, “But there are plenty of non-scientifically oriented trills that become joined.”
“Perhaps, but not ones recommended by me.”
Arjal nodded, “So my letters of recommendation mean nothing to you?”
The scientist made a dismissive gesture, “Every candidate that comes before the commission has a stack of glowing recommendations that, for all intents and purposes, are worthless.”
Folding his arms across his chest Arjal quipped, “In less than five minutes, I figured out a way to stabilize your simulation, that’s scientific.”
Shaking her head slightly Dr. Kahn said, “You don’t know that. Guessing is not scientific, it’s just guessing. Besides, I already admitted you have a great deal of aptitude, it’s what you’re not doing with it that bothers me.”
“It would have worked.”
“Totally irrelevant.”
Arjal looked down at the ground in front of him, speaking quietly, “You’ve already made your decision about me, and you’re not going to recommend me no matter what I do. Where’s the science in that?”
Softening her voice for the first time, Kahn stepped closer, “I’m sorry, but the objective part is over. You made it past the purely scientific screening. My job is to be subjective, to make sure that only the best candidates are joined. I have no doubt that you will make a valuable contribution to whatever you decide to do, but not as a joined Trill.”
“I could complain to the commission...file a grievance.”
“You won’t do that, it looks worse on your record than simply not being selected. Look, I’ll even write you a recommendation to...
Arjal laughed “Recommendation!” Chuckling, he straightened his shoulders and looked up at Dr. Lenara Kahn before pivoting and walking out of the room.”
As Arjal walked out of the lab he heard Shendra speak, excitedly. “Dr. Kahn, I did a low level simulation of the changes that…” then the doors shut, cutting off the sentence.
Walking slowly from the campus, Arjal was surprised to see Tierva standing next to her shuttle in the parking area. He shook his head slowly as he approached, “She doesn’t like me, and she’s not going to recommend me to the commission.” A look of concern rapidly came over Tierva’s face, “I’m so sorry.” She stepped towards Arjal and hugged him. “What are we going to do now?”
Arjal laughed, surprising her, “I was thinking of a late lunch.”
Tierva shook her head, “I meant...oh, I will never understand you.” She turned and walked into the shuttle. Arjal followed.
While Tierva began the short pre-flight checks, Arjal logged on to a terminal at the co-pilot’s seat, punched a few keys, navigated his way through his mail program and sent a message.
Tierva gave him a strange look, “What are you doing?” Arjal logged out of the terminal, “Just sending my application to Starfleet.”
Surprised, Tierva asked, “But don’t those take hours to complete?”
Arjal smiled, “Why yes they do. I finished mine a while ago. Where do you want to go for lunch?”
