YES - Close to the Edge: Star Beagle Adventures episodes 12 - 19

[Robert Bruce Scott]

All caught up. Loving the last few chapters. Sort of a little Event Horizon, and then a lot more Star Trek.

First mushrooms, now prawns. If this doesn’t all end with the mother of all stir-frys, I’ll be disappointed.

Thanks for the kind words! One shroomy psychedelic stir-fry coming up! Thanks!! rbs

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 13: Close to the Edge Part II - Total Mass Retain
Scene 12: Deception

Guessing problems only to deceive the mention…

13.12
Deception​

The tide was sweeping out on the western shore of Numinor. The white spires of the central city rose halfway to the sky behind, gleaming in the setting sun. And on the beach, the body of a young woman had just washed up onto the white sands and was now still, no longer rocking in the receding waves.


“Six.”

Master Chief Bill Waller was sitting incongruously nearby at the helm of the U.S.S. Escort, a control panel under his fingers. The index finger of his right hand was flexing, ever so slightly.

“An interesting opening gambit. My beautiful young wife. We never found the murderer. It was a serial killer who struck only once in every city on Cun Ling… 47 victims across 47 cities. All beautiful young brides. The first was in Eden. The last was in Ba Sing Se. Then the murders just… stopped. I suspected this would be the first place you would bring me.” Waller looked up at the giant stag/tiger shrimp thing polluting the crystal-clear waters of his home city of Numinor.

“That is one of your strategies, isn’t it? Going to the moment that us non-coms enlisted in Star Fleet? And this was when I decided to join. To get away from this. Hundreds of light years away. But that was 32 years ago, and I don’t live here anymore. Try again…”


Flames were subsiding from what remained of the battle bridge of the U.S.S. Valley Forge, an antique Excelsior class ship that should have been retired decades ago. It was just a training vessel these days, but the weapons and shields had been upgraded, along with nearly every other system and when the borg came, Excelsior was one of the first ships to answer the call.

A control stick from the panel had been blown outward and had punched a hole through the skull of a young vulcan officer.


“Five,” said Master Chief Waller. “Ensign Salok. It was shortly after I was promoted to Master Chief. Chief of the Boat. Valley Forge was to be my retirement assignment. Salok would have become a great officer, and I wasn’t going to allow a bunch of rowdy enlistees to bully him. Training boat - green officers, veteran non-comms. It was a sad day, but you already kind of blew this trope with my dead bride. And wasted an opportunity to convince me not to kill you.”

“You?” Stephanie the Space Shrimp was incredulous. “What makes you think you can kill me?”

“Because I’m still sitting at the helm of the U.S.S. Escort with my finger hovering over the trigger for the phase cannons,” Waller replied. “I haven’t targeted them, but at this distance, I hardly need to. I have been ordered to kill you, but I am giving you four more chances to convince me not to. I suggest you not waste those chances trying to control me. Believe me, you can’t.”


“My mind to your mind. Your thoughts to my thoughts,” said Ensign John Sevork, his fingers framing Bill Waller’s face.

“You can take you whiskers, or whatever those are, off my face, Stephanie,” said Waller. “We’re already in a mind meld. You’ve melded with the entire crew. It’s all happening simultaneously, but you can only experience it sequentially. But this is a very good move.”

“Four,” said Stephanie. “Okay, I don’t know how, but I can tell you aren’t lying. How? How are you able to have so much control?”

“There are 45 of us. And you’re having to really tightly control what you’re doing, or you could kill every one of us,” Waller replied. “Yes, John realized when he melded with the captain that the way you communicate is very similar to a mind meld. And he taught us how to push back and take control. Only a few of us have the strength of will and mental balance to try. John evaluated all of us and selected a few of us to train. How to walk back into the mind meld to see what you see. How to stay grounded. Apparently, I’m a natural.”

“Now that you have learned what you need to know, you have three more chances,” Waller concluded.


“Master Chief Bill Waller, is it?” Captain Skip Howard was about the same height as the U.S.S. Escort’s minuscule chief of the boat, if much slighter of build. Somehow, the captain of the U.S.S. Beagle managed to be intimidating anyway. Green eyeshadow, black fingernail polish. “I am told you are the man I really need to get to know. Please do me the honor of joining me for dinner in my private mess aboard the Beagle.”

“Will my captain be there?” Waller asked.

“She is aware of the invitation. You’re welcome to discuss it with her,” Howard replied.

“You want to know everything about everyone on my boat, don’t you?” asked Waller.


“Ah, I see Rhonda has already prepared you for this meeting…”

13.12​

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 13: Close to the Edge Part II - Total Mass Retain
Scene 13: Into the Void


Passing paths that climb halfway into the void…

13.13
Into the Void​

“Captain Skip Howard, a very good choice,” opined Master Chief Bill Waller. "And I have no idea how you’re managing the turquoise eye-shadow and fingernail polish when you don’t have eyes or fingers…"


The giant space stag/tiger shrimp across the table from Waller seemed entirely unfazed by the fact that it was a lobster dinner in front of Waller… And a shrimp cocktail on her side of the table. Or that the captain’s mess on the U.S.S. Beagle was far smaller than she was.


“You were very impressed with Skip Howard. Both you and Captain Carter think our encounter would have evolved very differently if he were here. I believe you, Bill Waller, that you can kill me. And I also think you believe Skip Howard would’t want you to do so. Perhaps we can both figure out why.”

“Perhaps,” Waller replied. “But it would have to be a damn good reason. Skip Howard isn’t my captain. Rhonda Carter is. And she has ordered me to kill you.”

“Then why haven’t you?”

“Because it’s not time yet. And while we have these few moments together, it’s only sensible that I give you the chance to convince me not to. I am very uncomfortable with that order. To use deadly force when you haven’t used it against us.”

“You don’t trust your own captain’s instincts?” Stephanie asked.

“I know Rhonda. She’s the best fighter there is,” Waller said. “She knows just the moment to deliver the killing blow. But sometimes she doesn’t know when to not fight. We’ve had to talk her out of it before. We don’t have that luxury this time. Either I obey her order, or I choose for the first time to disobey her. And if she is right about you, that would be a terrible decision on my part. I will give you two more chances to convince me to do that.”




Master Chief Waller sat in the witness chair. His crustaceon captain sat at the defense table, alone. There was a panel of judges (Star Fleet captains and admirals) and a prosecutor (also a captain.) Instead of four pips, Stephanie had only one full pip and one hollow pip, the rank insignia for a 2nd Lieutenant, even though she did not have a collar to support them.

“You gave testimony against your own captain at her court marshal. In fact, she trusts you more than anyone else on her crew because of how damning your testimony was.”

“We had to hold her back. She was vicious, especially when her blood was up. She started as an enlistee and got promoted through the ranks and eventually a battlefield promotion to ensign. Near the end of the first Cardassian War, our team had rescued a group of cardassian defectors and three of them died in our care the first night, murdered by someone in that group. Rhonda ordered a young vulcan in our group to forcefully mind-meld with her suspect and both men died in the process. I had argued against it. It was against every regulation and against vulcan morality in general.”

“But she was acquitted?” the giant space shrimp asked.

“Only because it turned out the cardassian in question was a member of their Obsidian Order and the vulcan was no humble ensign,” Waller replied. “He was actually an agent for the vulcan secret agency, the V’Shar. The entire affair was hushed up and Carter spent the next 12 years as an un-promotable 2nd lieutenant. Until another war got started and Star Fleet needed fighters again.”

“And you have served with her that entire time. Trying to restrain her temper. Trying to keep her from being more violent than necessary. A dozen years and more after testifying against her. Why?”

“Because she asked me to,” said Waller. “She pretty much begged me to. And she is nowhere near as vicious as she once was. You have one more chance to convince me.”




General Krank used his dk’tahg to point to the readout displaying Eva Mendez’s jaw. Bill Waller could understand the readout well enough to see that there was, apparently, no damage of any sort.

“I have intimate control over the tiny creatures that your captain refers to as “mushroom bugs.” While I was in Eva’s mind, I was distracting her from the intense pain of her jaw being rebuilt from the inside. You will find that her jaw is completely healed."

Shrimp Krank pointed to another readout, this one displaying a cross section of Rhonda Carter’s skull. “As I used them to conduct the far more complicated rebuild of your captain’s eardrums. When you next encounter her, she will be able to hear you. What she saw as torture was in part me learning how to not kill her with my telepathy and in part me driving her metabolism to be able to accept the new tissue: fungal tissue transformed to take the place of her ruptured eardrum…”


Master Chief Bill Waller sighed heavily. “If it were up to me, I would not attack you. But I have to trust my captain’s instincts. I am sorry. If what you have told me is true, then I am making a terrible mistake…”


“Wait!” said Stephanie. “I have a hostage…”

13.13​

 

[Hawku]

Wooo, I'm caught up! And now I have an unhealthy craving for shrimp.......

 

[Will The Serious]

Put another shrimp on the bar, B. Waller.

-Will

 

[Robert Bruce Scott]

The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 13: Close to the Edge Part II - Total Mass Retain
Scene 14: Total Mass Retain


As we cross from side to side, we hear the total mass retain…

13.14
Total Mass Retain​

“I said NOW, Bill!”


Captain Rhonda Carter was bright pink and shaking with rage. Master Chief Bill Waller was the most reliable member of her crew. Tough, smart, honest, and loyal to a fault. He was the only one who had what it took to stand up to the telepathic pressure of the giant space crustacean who had invaded the minds of each of her crew.

Waller had to wait until Carter, Abra Kahen and Zizira Gross had time to break free from the telepathic domination and try to free the rest of the crew. And he had waited just a few seconds after Carter had given him the order. When it got to five seconds, Carter had to assume he was trapped.

Which made opening fire on this alien all the more paramount.

With a few quick commands, she transferred firing command to the arms of her chair. Buttons on the left arm typically assigned to communications became a rough targeting control system. Fire control was on the right.

Waller was slowly shaking his head, apparently trying to free himself. Carter could help with that…

Master Chief Waller suddenly realized fire control had been removed from his panel. Instantly horrified, he turned in his chair:


“No Rhonda, don’t!! She has…”


Even as he was speaking her name, he knew it was too late. The thunder of the phaser pulse cannon erupting into fire filled the ship. The reflection of the weapons fire from the viewscreen lit up the bridge. And the alien’s death scream could be heard in all their minds, causing everyone throughout the U.S.S. Escort to howl in pain. Several crew members crumpled to their knees or collapsed to the floor.

Rhonda Carter was bright pink and it was clear to anyone that knew her well that her blood pressure was spiking. She quickly reprogrammed the controls on the arm of her command chair, then selected a switch: “Shipwide, this is Captain Carter. Report in by the numbers, casualty report.”

Reports came in section by section, indicating that 6 crew members, including Eva Mendez, had lost consciousness. As the reports were coming in, Carter got out of her chair, stepped forward and looked around the bridge, then: “Bill, where’s John?”

Master Chief Waller turned to look at her, shaking his head slowly.


“Computer, locate Ensign John Sevork.”


The familiar female voice that had been the ship’s voice for nearly every Star Fleet vessel for well over 100 years responded: “Ensign Sevork is not currently aboard the U.S.S. Escort. His communicator pin is not detectable.”

“Captain,” said Waller. He directed her attention to the main viewer. He played back the last few seconds of the space stag/tiger shrimp’s life. A purple mohawk could be seen moving rhythmically near the back of the alien crustacean.

“Is he… Was he… Can you enhance and rotate the view based on sensor readings?” Carter asked.

“Do you really want me to?” Waller asked.


“We have to know,” Carter responded.


Waller dutifully changed the view.

“Oh… I really didn’t want to know,” Carter said. “Preserve but take that off screen. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to unsee that…”

Waller changed the view back to the current view of the land thorn with its top shredded.

Carter was shaking her head. “Do you think he knew what he was… Um… I mean, I thought I was okay with interspecies mating…”

“He was so young,” Waller observed. “At that age he could have gotten an erection thinking about trees. Or baseball.”

“That was why you disobeyed my order? You knew he was, um…”

“I didn’t know what he was doing,” Waller replied. “I just knew she had him. At least he died with a smile…”

“That’s just so wrong on so many different levels…” Carter started. Then: “Bill? I can actually hear you!”

“I know,” Waller responded. “She also healed Eva’s jaw before we killed her.”

“Before I killed her... Woah!!” Carter lost her footing as the Escort suddenly lurched, the view screen registering the ship tilting down at the bow, showing lower parts of the broken land thorn.

“Bill??” Carter almost leapt back into her command chair.

“Escort is not responding to the helm!” said Waller. “And the lepreshroom is moving. Registering a 60 degree downward angle at the bow and the lepreshroom is rotating to match… Make that 90 degrees. The bottom tip of the creature is headed directly for the bridge! 30 seconds to contact.”


“Evasive?”


“Helm controls are dead, Captain!”


Carter hit a switch on the arm of her command chair:


“All hands, brace for impact!”

Close to the Edge Part II - Total Mass Retain

​

This is the final scene for Episode 13.

The adventure continues in Episode 14: Close to the Edge Part III - I Get Up, I Get Down, to be continued in this thread.