Star Beagle Adventures, Episode 1: The Eye of the Beholder

[Will The Serious]

Nick name, Opie, Op for short?

Love it.

-Will

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

Always, with Farengi, buyer be ware.

Pel is a franchise character who appeared in a single episode and was quite enamored with Quark. Pel is clever, curious, observant, extremely nervous and has a brilliant mind for business.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 1 : Eye of the Beholder
Scene 20: Unmasked

1.20
Unmasked​

“You’re not sleeping. Your mind is clearly still in a conference room somewhere…”


The lights were off and so was the luchador mask.

Dutch Holland had married the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. And she had married him, never having seen his face. In the nearly 15 years they had lived together since she might have glimpsed his face without the mask - he didn’t sleep or bathe with it on. There was nothing wrong with his face - he was quite normal looking for a middle-aged Mexican - if a bit on the large and muscle-bound side. But both he and Sakura knew that wasn’t really his face. The real Dutch Holland wasn’t to be found under the luchador mask. It was the luchador mask.

Holland knew he had to be the luckiest of men. Finding a beautiful Japanese woman who was crazy about wrestling was rare. Finding one who desperately wanted to be regularly ravished by a champion luchador was rare beyond belief. Her family had nearly disinherited her for agreeing to marry one. Until they had discovered that this particular luchador was also a genius level engineer.

And what a family… Sakura was the heir apparent to the heir apparent of Nakamura Enterprises, currently run by her grandfather.


Dutch Holland turned carefully. Sakura wasn’t tiny, but she was a little slip of a thing compared to him. She turned as well, facing away from him.

“Your friend, Skip,” she finally said.

Holland was surprised. His wife and his closest friend usually got along famously.

“I don’t think he understands the situation here. I am responsible for the safety of this ship and he wants to take it on a rescue mission - straight off to that horrible place…”

Dutch Holland disciplined the smile away from his face. He didn’t want her to hear it in his voice: “You are not going to get a fair test of this ship and the faculty you worked so hard to put together without a real captain. I know your grandfather agreed to Skip because he thought you could keep him in a box… Skip’s a Howard. They don’t fit in your grandfather’s little boxes.” Holland could tell from his wife’s breathing that she was beginning to relax. He wrapped an enormous, muscle-bound arm around her. “My Flower, if Skip thinks he can safely take us there and rescue those trills, then we’ll go there. And we’ll rescue those trills.”

Sakura Nakamura Holland let out a long, slow breath and relaxed back into her husband’s embrace and entwined her arms around his. Her voice was softer, more optimistic: “Yeah… we’re all going to end up mindless zombies with mushrooms for brains…”

1.20​

 

[Will The Serious]

mindless zombies with mushrooms for brains

You know, it's not an unreasonable thing that fungi might set rhizomes down in a zombie's rotting head.

-Will

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 1: Eye of the Beholder
Scene 21: Vengeance

1.21
Vengeance​

General Krank and Captain Rhonda Carter were recuperating in the same room in the U.S.S. Beagle’s medical center. Actually, to call it a room was a bit of a misnomer. It was more of a hallway with 20 beds lined up on one side and an open walkway along the other with doors leading to various medical offices. Each bed could quickly be moved through a doorway in the wall behind it into a number of surgical bays, which could be defined by a number of movable walls. Privacy was not a high priority in the Vulcan Science Academy’s design. Efficiency was.

Carter had been sharing her memories of her late first officer with a silent Krank. “Straiv had served with me longer than anyone else on the Escort. He must have saved my life a dozen times. And I his. And in all that time, I never saw him cry, never saw him laugh, not even smile. Not once. But I got to know his moods pretty well…”

“I do not regret killing your friend!” Krank finally croaked, his back still turned to Carter.

“General, my friend was dead before you and I reached the bridge,” Carter said quietly, passion and anger evident in her voice. “What you killed was the monster that had killed him. If there was anything left of Straiv in that vulcan skull, your mveq gave him mercy by ending it for him. Believe me, I knew him well enough to know that.”

Krank finally, painfully rolled over to look Captain Carter in the eye for the first time since they had both been shot - wounds that neither of them should have recovered from. “You’re happy that I killed him?”

Carter’s face was a study in bitter anger. Her blue eyes blazed. Her voice was still quiet, but venomous. “No! I am not glad you killed that thing! I wanted to kill it myself! You owe me, General. You denied me my vengeance. It is a debt I fully expect you to repay.” Carter had been lying on her left side and had been warned not to lay on her right until the new shoulder ball joint had time to bond to her existing tissue. She had lost nearly half of her hair - long hairs lay strewn on her pillow where they had fallen out. She rolled onto her back and fell silent. The bitter expression remained on her face - she was living with the grief of losing her friend. But she could tell her words had their desired impact from Krank’s breathing.

The klingon general was no longer thinking about his own humiliation. Now he was thinking about hers. And about what honor required him to do about it. It would not be an easy debt to redress.

1.21​

 

[Will The Serious]

Very nice. Krank has his honor back with just a few thoughtful words.

It is always so satisfying to a reader when the plot devices in a story fit together so... logically, to keep the action on track and the resolutions complete.

I am often disappointed when some "intelligent" character in a story tries to talk or plot their way into changing the mind of another character and their actions are not convincing to the reader, yet the other character is somehow convinced and changes their mind. It's is sometimes like watching a chess match when the winning move is simply shown without the maneuvering explained that led up to it.

"... and Gobrowski stuns her opponent with a masterful check mate." What? How?

You are great at showing the mastery, not just telling us about it. The problem I run into is that everyone of the crew in my own story are smarter than I am. It can be a real challenge to write up to their level. You do that very well. Either that, or they are not as smart as their author.

-Will

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

You are great at showing the mastery, not just telling us about it.

Very high praise - Thanks for the kind words!! rbs

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 1: Eye of the Beholder
Scene 22: Waiting and Watching

1.22
Waiting and Watching​

Captain Yui Song was not happy with Captain Skip Howard. Again.


They were in the U.S.S. Beagle’s security center along with the Beagle’s chief security officer, Major Janet Carter of the United States Marines. Major Carter was a first cousin to Captain Rhonda Carter, but looked nothing like the Escort’s captain. Her features were strongly African American. Her short, curly, black hair was mostly hidden by her uniform hat. Her frame was large, muscular, and ramrod straight. Everything about her from her strong, set jaw, to her precise, powerful movements, to her crisp, precise accent, screamed career military.

Her second in command, Captain Osollaa sh’Zhiathis, a short but muscular andorian woman from Alaska and one of her NCO’s, Sgt. Tommy Richards, another African American with a pronounced Texas drawl, were operating the security monitors. Which were displaying, among other things, a recording of Pel messily enjoying tube grubs in the U.S.S. Mako’s galley.

“And just how long have you been monitoring the internal security feeds from my ship?” Captain Yui wasn’t bothering to ask how. This was just more evidence of the advanced surveillance technology Nakamura Enterprises was famous for.

“You might as well get over it, Song,” Skip Howard replied with a warm smile. “This isn’t new technology. It’s been standard equipment on every Vulcan Science Academy vessel since before first contact. The vulcans have always been listening in on us whenever they’ve been within a parsec. We’re currently listening in on all the ferengi ships as well. Every internal feed that is within range.”

“But the security codes…” Yui started.

“Vulcans. Vulcan sensors. Vulcan math. Vulcan decryption techniques. Vulcan ethics. Vulcan standard operating procedure.” Skip Howard’s irrepressible smile managed a hint of sadness. “Sorry to burst your bubble,” he added as he watched the magnitude of this revelation causing Yui Song to rearrange her mental furniture. “The engine room too - standard layout for this class of ships for well over a century. Vulcans are extremely effective at keeping secrets.”

Captain Yui felt her anger gradually fading into the background noise of irritated disillusionment that was standard issue for any Star Fleet command officer - something that seemed to be handed out along with the fourth solid pip for every officer on their promotion to captain. She felt comfortable enough in present company to express this emotion with a heavy sigh of resignation. She could almost feel her iron gray hair finally beginning to turn snowy white. “Okay Skip, so why did you bring me here and show me this…” She gestured to the viewscreen that displayed Pel and his disgusting lunch.

It was Major Janet Carter who responded. “What you are looking at is not some unfortunate junior liquidator for the F.C.A. What you are looking at is a highly trained intelligence agent.” She gestured toward Sergeant Tommy Richards and the young marine N.C.O. quickly entered commands which backed up the image and then focused tightly on Pel’s fingers, moving with odd precision against the bottom of a rather innocuous looking spice bottle.

“A very clever device,” Carter continued. “Almost certainly ferengi technology. Precisely 4 tumvor (or a little over 3 minutes) after the Project Director set the bottle down, the device emitted a signal that hijacked the U.S.S. Mako’s background warp shell to send a compressed, directed signal not toward Ferenginar, but directly to a ferengi listening post.”

“Thank you, Major,” said Captain Yui. She directed her attention to the Beagle’s captain. “I take it you are disinclined to confront our guest with this evidence?”

“Pel is doing one of two things out here,” Skip Howard replied. “Either he’s part of the conspiracy that managed to infiltrate ferengi security to allow those trills safe passage to D, Red South 179, or…”

Yui Song finished Howard’s thought: “Or he’s trying to get to the bottom of it and expose the conspiracy.” She shook her head and smiled grimly. “So we watch and we wait.”

Skip Howard nodded. “We wait, and we watch.”

1.22​

 

[BountyTrek]

And I’m all caught up again. Great stuff!

The descriptions of the Beagle’s engine room and medical section are fantastic. Undeniably Vulcan. Would love to see them on the big screen.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

And I’m all caught up again. Great stuff!

The descriptions of the Beagle’s engine room and medical section are fantastic. Undeniably Vulcan. Would love to see them on the big screen.

In no small part, SBA is inspired by both the BountyTrek and Vulcan series. These are much smaller scale and more personal stakes stories than STH and I was also interested in exploring a ship of vulcan design and in so doing, making the vulcans just a little more alien than their excellent PR makes them out to be to most humans.

Thanks!! rbs

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 1: Eye of the Beholder
Scene 23: Chicken Liver

1.23
Chicken Liver​

Captain Yui Song’s head was spinning with technical details. She had expected Captain Skip Howard to lay out each of the three options for this mission: Rescue, First Contact, Threat Abatement.


But it was Sakura Nakamura Holland, who had the odd title of being the Dean of the Ship, who had arranged for the three presentations.

The case for Threat Abatement was presented by Major Janet Carter and even though it had been thoroughly discussed, the essential elements were the destruction of the Tyr’Phoyx 8, still in orbit of D, Red South 179-6, necessarily causing the death of the 18 trills aboard and almost certainly the unidentified fungal lifeform as well.

Ferengi attempts to use long range weapons had ended with the weapons self-destructing at the first sign of infiltration by the lifeform to take them over. All other options for threat abatement at long range involved illegal weaponry and almost certain ecocide - destruction of all life on the planet.


The case for First Contact had been presented by Arthur Rush, one of the sociologists for the United Federation of Planets Diplomatic Corps and an expert at First Contact. This was complicated by the lack of any conclusive evidence that the life form was intelligent. There was no evidence of language use and all the observed activities of the life form were more congruent with the activities of a parasite altering the behavior of a commandeered host in order to obtain greater resources than with intelligent behavior.

“It is remotely possible that the creature, or collective, is beginning to approach intelligence by hijacking the brains of its victims and also the ship’s computer system,” Rush said. “That would not constitute a first contact situation. If anything, allowing the life form to continue to use its hostages that way would constitute a violation of the Prime Directive. Not to mention a failure of empathy for the trills.”


The case for rescue was presented by the sarcastic, pink-skinned, oddly cute tellerite, Norkaond Vef. The prospects for this course of action were not much better than the other two. Use of the transporter would be an invitation for the spores to take control of the ship’s computer system - assuming that had not happened already by the time the ship got close enough to mount such an operation.


“We cannot risk that lifeform getting control of the Beagle…” Sakura Nakamura Holland was clearly worried.

“I quite agree,” said Skip Howard. “And the Mako cannot go anywhere near that planet. The beholders have already shown they are capable of invading a normal computer according to ferengi telemetry. The Mako, like all Intrepid class ships, uses biological neural gel packs throughout the ship that would be extremely vulnerable to the beholders.”

“Beholders?” Captain Rhonda Carter had recovered to some extent, but had lost most of her hair and was clearly not recovered entirely from her brush with death.

It was the Beagle’s first officer and primary engineer, the masked Dutch Holland, who responded: “A monster that consists largely of a floating eyeball.”

“We cannot risk any of the ships,” Howard continued. “We’re going to use the Puppy.”

“Puppy?” Carter asked wearily. She seemed to not have quite grasped the concept of a beholder.

“The Beagle has a large, versatile, task shuttle. The plan is to fill it with fungicide, coat all the relays with fungicide and for the rescue team, wearing EVA suits coated with fungicide to breach in four locations on the Tyr’phoyx 8 and physically rescue the survivors.”

“And that great big beholder squatting in the center of that ship?” asked Captain Yui Song.

“That beast is why I will be leading this mission,” Howard responded. “Evade, avoid, run away from - try to negotiate if possible - countering it with fungicide is the last option. I will breach with the team closest to the beholder. I will be the first in and the last out. I’m going to start with, ‘Hello’.”

Captain Carter was seated next to her cousin, Major Janet Carter. Rhonda Carter seemed to have revived somewhat. “Remind me to never tease you about cowardice again…”

“No, Rhonda. I’m the biggest, yellowist chicken-liver there is,” Skip Howard replied. “I’ll be relying on that instinct to keep everyone else alive. The last thing we need anywhere near that beast is a hero.”

“If that’s the case, are you so certain you want Janet and her team on this mission?” Carter asked, somewhat disparagingly.

Major Carter put a hand on her cousin’s shoulder, helping to steady her. “We’re not heroes, Rhonda.” She turned to look at Skip Howard. “We’re United States Marines.”

1.23​

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 1: Eye of the Beholder
Scene 24: 1st Pup

1.24
1st Pup​

The large runabout launched from the U.S.S. Mako, then docked with the U.S.S. Beagle before leaving the rally point toward D, Red South 179. Two Star Fleet ships followed at some distance and at a further distance still, their ferengi escort awaited, consisting of the F.M.V. Avretta and 9 small but powerful F.C.A. brick fighters.


On the bridge of the Ferengi Merchant Vessel Avretta, Daimon Ubok watched a tactical display on his main viewscreen. The U.S.S. Mako remained with the ferengi shipping at the rally point. The U.S.S. Escort and the U.S.S. Beagle followed the runabout at a great distance - more than a light year. Ubok had been advised of this plan by Project Director Pel.

The runabout was to approach the planet at a leisurely warp 3. An increase in speed would be interpreted as evidence of the runabout and crew having been taken over, giving the more heavily shielded Escort and Beagle the opportunity to catch the runabout and destroy it before it got too close.


“What is that?” Ubok stood up and walked toward the screen as another icon appeared on the screen, almost on top of the runabout.

“Sensors detect weapons fire,” reported his tactical officer, then: “That is a klingon bird of prey! Sensors show the runabout’s shields holding. The klingons are coming about for a second run…”

Ubok could read the sensors well enough to know that neither of the two Star Fleet vessels were anywhere near enough to provide support to the hapless runabout.

“Runabout destroyed with all hands,” reported his tactical officer, then: “The klingons are cloaking… wait… more weapons fire from both Star Fleet vessels. The bird of prey is disabled…”

“What??” Ubok asked in incredulity. The icons representing the U.S.S. Escort and the U.S.S. Beagle seemed to have jumped well over a light year in less than a second in order to engage the klingon ship. An impossibility. “Is your equipment malfunctioning? How did they close that distance so quickly?”

“Tactical systems are functioning correctly, Daimon. They just… blinked… wait… the klingon ship is exploding…”

“Did they fire on it again?” Ubok asked.

“No! It was self-destruct…”




On the bridge of the U.S.S. Mako, Project Director Pel, seated to Captain Yui Song’s right, was astonished first when the klingon bird of prey decloaked, then again when the Escort and the Beagle leapt over a light year in less than a second in order to impossibly attack the klingon vessel.

He quickly bottled up his reaction because something sounded strange. It was Captain Yui and her bridge crew. Crew members from 4 different federation member species were currently on the bridge, and none of them were vulcans. But from their emotional reaction to the astonishing things happening on screen, they might as well all have been. Not a single raised heartbeat. Not a single quickened breath. Not the slightest indication of surprise.

Given his superior hearing, Pel did not need to look around to realize that Captain Yui and her crew were paying more attention to him and his reactions than they were to the miracle playing out on their sensors.

A chill ran up the tiny ferengi’s spine.

He turned to see Captain Yui conferring with her science officer, Lt. Cmdr. Gregg Clark, both of them reviewing information on a reader that Clark had brought to her.

Pel was extremely nervous. “What are klingons doing here and how did you know they were going to be here?”

Captain Yui held up the reader, then handed it to Pel: “Readings from the U.S.S. Beagle on that bird of prey, specifically the life signs detected aboard it before it self-destructed. Care to explain this, Project Director?”

It took a moment for Pel to process what he was reading. He finally read it aloud: “Sixteen lifesigns. All ferengi. Females.” He shook his head in disbelief, looked up at Captain Yui in complete confusion. “Sixteen ferengi females??”

1.24​

 

[BountyTrek]

And the twists just keep coming! Loving the fresh complications, and the increasingly literal take on the episode name. I do like a good episode title.

In no small part, SBA is inspired by both the BountyTrek and Vulcan series. These are much smaller scale and more personal stakes stories than STH and I was also interested in exploring a ship of vulcan design and in so doing, making the vulcans just a little more alien than their excellent PR makes them out to be to most humans.

Very humbling to hear that Bounty might have even slightly inspired anyone to even slightly do anything. I do tend to have a personal preference for more personal character-heavy ‘low stakes’ stories over endless universe-destroying fics (though I have absolutely no problem with the latter if it has plenty of the former, and there are lots of great examples of those about!).

The complication it does throw up is how far you can realistically push the action without it being completely implausible that one small ship and a gang of idiots could survive it, which I think I’ll be pushing to (and probably over) the limit in the current Bounty ep. But I’ve decided to go with Starbug logic on that front.

Spoiler

"Starbug was built to last, Sir. This old baby's crashed more times than a ZX81.”

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 1: Eye of the Beholder
Scene 25: The Real Pup

1.25
The Real Pup​

“So how did you know the Puppy would be attacked?”

2nd Lt. Piper Akerele, the Puppy’s pilot, was clearly of mixed heritage, but she seemed well matched to her Swahili surname: small but tough. She and Captain Howard were the only Star Fleet officers aboard. The other 20 passengers were U.S. Marines - 20 marines to rescue 18 trill miners. Everyone aboard was wearing a full EVA suit with only their helmets removed.

Captain Skip Howard turned to the marines in his care. “Any of you care to speculate?”

Lance Corporal Maria Salas looked to her Sergeant, Chavez Lone Wolf, and said, “With permission?”

It was Major Janet Carter who answered, amusement evident in her voice: “Speak up, Lance Corporal.”

Salas addressed Captain Howard directly. “Sir, the Ferengi Alliance has deployed several layers of security to enforce the ban on travel to D, Red South 179. A number of sensor buoys, attack drones and manned listening stations had to be taken offline in order for that trill mining ship to even get close to that system. Trill technology, including the manifest and manual for the Tyr’phoyx 8, is not anywhere near sophisticated enough to counteract ferengi security technology. This suggests an ally. An ally that would be very much interested in preventing a competent agency, such as Star Fleet, from mounting an expedition to that system.”

Howard smiled. “You studied the manual and the manifest for the Tyr’phoyx 8?”

“We all did, sir,” Lance Corporal Salas replied. “As soon as they became available, we committed them to memory.”

“Well I had heard that Marines are not encouraged to speculate,” Howard drawled, the sound of his native southern California coming through. He could tell from Salas’ accent that her home was likely close to his. “But your speculation was our speculation. It cost a Star Fleet runabout and a lot of computer equipment to verify it, and evidently the ferengi on that klingon bird of prey were willing to sacrifice their own lives rather than be captured and interrogated.”

“I hope there isn’t another of those lurking out there,” Lt. Akerele opined.

“Well, we’re not completely out of surprises for them if there is another,” Howard said.


The remainder of the voyage toward D, Red South 179 passed largely in silence. With only 10 minutes to go, Howard spoke up. “Update on the tactical situation. We now have five targets. The majority of the trills, 11 of them, are in engineering, sections E5 and E6, attempting repairs. That’s where our monster is as well - squatting right on the warp core shell. One trill is in the medical center, section M2. Two more are in O1, the ore processing floor. Another three are in the mess, section G1, leaving one alone on the bridge. Major?”

“Lance Corporal Salas, you have the captain’s six. He is your one and only responsibility.” Major Carter gestured toward each marine as she called them by name: “Lieutenant Ayn, your team takes engineering. Eleven of you to look after the Captain and rescue 11 trills. The remainder will be teams of two. Sergeant Lone Wolf, you and Bishop take the mess. Pushkin and Young take the bridge. Glick and Cho take medical. Private First Class Young, you with me at O1. Richards, you stay here and take care of our ride and our driver. Take your injections now. Keep each other covered. Phasers set on heavy stun. Stun on sight, drug them as soon as you get them, grab them and return. Gear up!”

Captain Howard and each of the marines took an injection to their necks, then donned their helmets and stood up. Although she remained seated, Lt. Akerele also injected herself, donned her helmet and checked her phaser. There was no transporter pad in the Puppy’s cabin.

“Energize!” said Howard.

Lt. Akerele had already programmed the transporter. She enacted the entire program, sending each group to their separate targets, by pressing a single control. With the slightly lower-pitched whine and somewhat more green spectrum lights characteristic of vulcan transporter technology, the Puppy was emptied of all except Sergeant Tommy Richards and Lt. Akerele.

The moment the transporter enacted, the Puppy’s shields came down to allow for the transport, and as the marines were beaming out, hundreds of thumb-sized eyeballs streamed into the vulcan-designed shuttle from all sides. Richards and Akerele were immediately up and back-to-back, firing their phasers at the hundreds of intruders even as dozens of eyes slammed into their EVA suits, vanishing on impact…

1.25​

 

[Bynar0110]

Finally caught up. I enjoyed it.

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 1: Eye of the Beholder
Scene 26: Command Presence

1.26
Command Presence​

Captain Rhonda Carter refused to slouch in the captain’s chair of the U.S.S. Escort. She had cropped her remaining hair down to a fine stubble. New hair was coming in to replace what had fallen out - all gray.

She had taken a chance putting General Krank at the weapons console, but he had not hesitated to fire on the bird of prey when she gave the order. Dr. Uto had cleared the assignment and had indicated that because Krank wasn’t shooting to kill, the psychological block should not be a problem.

It had been a problem. Carter had seen Krank forcing himself to respond to her order to fire - as if he had been pushing his hand through thick mud.

Now that Captain Howard had taken his vulcan-built shuttle full of marines, including her cousin, on a rescue mission, Carter was now the front line, 50 light years out from D, Red South 179. Her new job was to verify the Puppy gave the proper readings on its return before allowing it to move any closer to the U.S.S. Beagle.

Escort’s bridge crew watched their instruments in silence. They were the first line of defense if the Puppy came back as a hostile.





The U.S.S Beagle, stationed 20 light years away from the Escort, was the second line. Beagle’s bridge was located just ahead of engineering and adjacent to the large conference room. Like so much of vulcan ship design, the room was laid out in an equilateral triangle with the captain’s chair in the center, able to turn toward three wall-sized screens.

Sakura Nakamura Holland, wrapped in a forest green kimono decorated with white and dark red leaves, was seated in the chair, but it was her husband, standing behind her, who was in command. While the majority of the Beagle’s crew were civilians, typically only Star Fleet and Marines entered the bridge. Sakura, as the Dean of the Ship, was the exception.

“I thought Star Fleet captains were not to go on risky away missions,” Sakura said. “I didn’t expect Skip to lead this mission.”

It was Lt. Cmdr. Senek, seated at the telemetry station behind her, who answered. “There is still the potential that this is a first contact situation. Given his training as a biologist, Captain Howard is the person best able to make that determination and best positioned to make first contact.”

“He seemed fairly certain that he’s going to face a monster, not an intelligent alien,” Sakura said. She shuddered at the memory of the video from the bridge of the Escort. “It looked like something from a nightmare. It’s his first away mission in a hostile situation. Do you really think he’s ready for it?”

Commander Dutch Holland made an amused noise, landed an enormous, gloved hand lightly on his wife’s shoulder. “He’s going to find out in a hurry. But he’s with the 1st recon of the 1st of the 54th. Space Hounds. I think he’s going to be okay.”

“That’s something else I don’t understand,” Ensign Susan Tribe added from the pilot's station. “I’m glad she’s here, but doesn’t a major in the U.S. Marines usually have thousands of marines under their command? How did we rate a major, a captain and two lieutenants for a unit of less than 50 marines?”

“Expeditionary forces,” Sakura replied. “Major Carter and her officers are also trained for first contact and high level threat assessment. If our expedition is fully authorized, United Earth Governments wants a military command presence. The recon company isn’t just here to fight and secure the ship. Their primary mission is reconnaissance and threat assessment.”

1.26​

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 1: Eye of the Beholder
Scene 27: Pel’s Left Ear

1.27
Pel’s Left Ear​

Star Fleet’s last line of defense for this mission was the U.S.S. Mako, stationed 100 light years away from D, Red South 179. Captain Yui Song had summoned Project Director Pel to her office. The minuscule ferengi was fidgeting nervously, constantly digging in his left ear.

Captain Yui pressed a comms control on her desk. “Dr. Moorman, please send a med tech to my office with an antipruritic.”

“Aye, captain,” came the response over the comm.

Pel looked at the captain in puzzlement, his finger still in his ear.

“For your ear, Project Director,” Yui said.

“What?” Pel responded, then turned and seemed to notice his finger in his ear for the first time. He slowly removed his finger, then looked at it. “Sorry, nervous habit. You can call off the doctor.”

Yui’s voice was cold and her face a mask of inscrutability. “Our telemetry indicates that the bird of prey was sending a masking signal, designed to make it appear there was one male ferengi and 23 klingons on board. Our sensor equipment saw right through that. Tell me about 16 ferengi females, apparently wearing klingon armor, operating a bird of prey and attacking federation shipping that was on a mission authorized by your government.”

“That is some powerful sensory equipment. The Beagle is not just a refurbished Vulcan Science Academy ship. It’s much more than that.” Pel had calmed noticeably.

“And you are not what you appear either,” Captain Yui replied.

That statement made Pel nervous again. His finger went back into his ear just as the door to the captain’s office opened to admit an orderly carrying a medkit.

“Our guest’s ear appears to be itching,” Captain Yui said.

Pel’s finger came out of his ear and he leaned away as the med tech held up a warbling scanner to his ear. The tiny ferengi waved the tech away in irritation. “Can’t you make scanners that don’t make so much noise? That’s painfully loud!”

In response, the tech touched a control on his tri-corder and the device, while still lit up, stopped producing sound. Pel grimaced as his ear was scanned again. The tech opened a small tube, which Pel whisked away from him.

“It’s my ear, I’ll do it!” He shooed the med tech away. “If you don’t have sense enough to silence that thing around a ferengi, you have no business touching our ears!”

Yui almost looked amused. “Dismissed, specialist.”

Pel closed the tube without applying the contents. He sighed heavily. “Okay, there have been rumors of a religious cult among ferengi females, wanting to restore the matriarchy. Old times way beyond their memory. I don’t know what they would be doing out here messing around with that star, but it does have a historical connection to the end of the matriarchy. That’s the only guess I have at the moment.”

1.27​

 

[BountyTrek]

Wasn’t expecting that twist either. But I am 100% onboard with an anarcho-feminist Ferengi movement dressed in Klingon battle armour.

 

[Will The Serious]

Very humbling to hear that Bounty might have even slightly inspired anyone to even slightly do anything. I do tend to have a personal preference for more personal character-heavy ‘low stakes’ stories over endless universe-destroying fics (though I have absolutely no problem with the latter if it has plenty of the former, and there are lots of great examples of those about!).

Couldn't have said it better.

great read and, as always, lots of "what's next" moments. Can't wait.

-Will

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

Wasn’t expecting that twist either. But I am 100% onboard with an anarcho-feminist Ferengi movement dressed in Klingon battle armour.

Couldn't have said it better.
great read and, as always, lots of "what's next" moments. Can't wait.

Thanks for the kind words! rbs