The student, teacher / advanced, primitive / ally or member / consultant or crew enigma. I love this scenario. And Professor Newellewell is a character I can get behind.
-Will
-Will
YES - Close to the Edge: Star Beagle Adventures episodes 12 - 19
- Thread starter Robert Bruce Scott
- Start date
Glad you're enjoying the soup of characters... and thanks for the kind words! rbs
The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 16: And You And I Part I - Cord of Life
Scene 6: Sight of Soun
Changed only for a sight of sound the space agreed…
16.6
Sight of Sound
Sight of Sound
“The holy landers have slowed their approach.”
This time Captain Ronald Howard, XIV was in Commodore Yui Song’s executive conference room instead of being a holographic presence on the U.S.S. Mako's holodeck. The U.S.S. Beagle had just arrived and deployed all of its support craft to assist with the disassembly and dissemination of the U.S.S. Escort to build a defensive installation in orbit of ASA 4.
The command group meeting was no longer a table full of experts, but an exclusive group of the key leaders of the task force: Commodore Yui, Captain Howard, Commander Rhonda Carter, ASA 4 Colonial Governor T’Eln, and three key consultants: General Krank, Pel, and the genetically modified purple, Shadow.
To their physical presence, another key leader was present on the viewscreen: the elder and leader among the children of Ensign John Sevork, John Jr. The slowing of the approaching holy lander fleet was his observation. “At their current rate of speed, they will not arrive for another 36 of your days.”
For the first time in a very long time, Yui Song let out a long, heavy sigh of relief and smiled. She dropped her fist to the table three times. “Yes!”
“I had wondered how long they could run their engines so far above the tolerances we estimated based on that wrecked ship we examined back on Mount Torlochtor,” said Skip Howard.
“They might simply have run out of throat lozenges,” Rhonda Carter quipped.
“The revised time schedule seems quite significant to you, Commodore Yui,” John Jr. observed. “You anticipate reinforcement.”
“Rhonda keeps telling me you’re a smart one,” Yui responded. “Yes, I can now report that Captain Phillip Phlox should join us in about 40 days, commanding the U.S.S. Citadel.”
Rhonda Carter reacted with surprise. “Citadel? That’s Vice Admiral Ho’s flagship. Where is the vice admiral?”
“Undisclosed,” said Yui.
“Phil Phlox?” Howard asked. “I thought he retired from Star Fleet more than 100 years ago."
“He’s back,” Yui replied.
“Why?”
“Undisclosed.”
Captain Howard made an amused noise. “You’re enjoying this a bit too much.”
“Allow an old woman her pleasures,” Yui retorted.
John Jr. had watched this discussion with mild bemusement. “We will still have two days from the time the holy landers arrive until the ship you are referring to arrives.”
“A day of preparation and a day of celebration,” Howard responded. “I have every hope that we can talk the holy landers into at least those rituals before they take action. It will be much easier to fill two days with ritual than two weeks.”
“Are you not concerned that the arrival of your fellow Federations might cause these holy landers to think themselves betrayed?” John Jr. seemed more curious than concerned.
“Just more layers of ritual,” Howard replied. “I don’t even have to invent those rituals. Star Fleet policy and procedure for first contact situations can take over at that point.” He gestured to Commodore Yui Song, who seemed content to allow her subordinate to talk out and think out this process.
“And what of the gorians?” John Jr. asked.
“Well, you’ve made first contact, so by Federation law, the prohibitions against making first contact under the Prime Directive no longer apply.” Skip Howard smiled. “So I guess I’m just going to have to go down and talk to one Professor Newellewell…”
16.6
I assume it will become clear, later on, why the good Professor's relaxation and retirement are being disturbed instead of a more... political figure from the local population. Professor Newellewell seems like the kind of person that values his peace and quiet. Surely the prime directive directs more than first contact. What does it say about disrupting the lives of individuals just minding their own business, humbly fishing for dinner?
-Will
-Will
-Will
"Take me to your leader..."
First contact was made by John Jr., who, as Pel noted, is not beholden to the prime directive or any federation law.
When Helen Benson was tasked to take Klaatu to mankind's leader, she brought him to the wisest, smartest person she could think of - a physics professor and Nobel laureate. Similarly, John Jr. didn't seek out a political leader. He sought out the wisest, smartest gorian he could find - a retired professor of gorianthropology.
Thanks!! rbs
The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 16: And You And I Part I - Cord of Life
Scene 7: The Face of Need
Between the picture of time behind the face of need…
16.7
The Face of Need
The Face of Need
“Washington…”
Captain Ronald Howard, XIV and his honor guard were the first humans to meet a gorian face-to-face. The colonists had dubbed these people “lizard-riding gorilla-people.” The very large creatures these people rode looked very much like a cross between an iguana and a Clydesdale. But the people themselves, to Howard’s eye, looked far less like gorillas and more like a blend of a fully bipedal American Pit Bulldog with some sort of cartoon devil, complete with short, stubby horns and a long, whip-like tail.
They came in several colors. The specimen charging at full tilt toward Howard was bright red with black-in-red-in-black eyes. His head was up, his body oddly erect, and he was rapidly beating his chest. He wore only a pair of banana-yellow swim-trunks.
Only a moment before this odd creature hurled itself into the air at the captain of the U.S.S. Beagle, Private First Class Elven Washington interposed himself between Howard and the charging gorian. The gorian was only slightly larger than a pit bull - about 4’ tall and about 130 pounds.
Elven Washington was the largest of the U.S. Marine contingent assigned to the U.S.S. Beagle - 6’8” and 340 pounds of lean muscle.
The charging gorian bounced off the enormous African American and bounced twice on the sand before performing a reverse summersault and ending up on his feet, tail whipping.
The strange alien straightened and brushed sand off the short fur on his chest, then off his swim trunks. He shook his head a few times.
“They certainly made you folk big and tough! Welcome to Newellewell island! My little corner of nowhere. Thank you for honoring our traditional greeting ritual.”
Captain Howard stepped out from behind the massive marine, reached up to pat his massive shoulder. “Thank you, Private. You are unharmed?”
In response, Elven Washington patted his massive hands around his chest and stomach, from which their host had ricocheted, “Everything is in good order, sir,”
Howard chuckled, then quickly closed his mouth as he noticed the gorian shrinking back.
“My apologies, Professor. I understand that baring of the teeth has a very different meaning for your people than it does for ours. For us, most of the time when we bare our teeth we are smiling, which is an expression that signals amusement, merriment and pleasure. I understand for your people it would be interpreted as aggression and can be considered threatening.”
“From what John Jr. told me, we will have many, many cultural dissimilarities,” Professor Newellewell responded. “So much so that it might be unfortunate that we are physically so similar. Similarities neither of us, apparently, share with the aliens who are coming?”
“The holy landers,” Howard replied. He looked about on the beach. It took a few moments for him to find what he was looking for.
Newellewell watched with interest as Captain Skip Howard walked toward the surf, then followed as Howard signaled him. An animal about the size of his hand was skittering just ahead of the cascading waters, searching the sands just as the water washed back across it.
“I wouldn’t touch that,” Newellewell advised. “They aren’t interested in anything larger than your thumb, but they have a really nasty bite.”
“What do you call these?” Howard asked.
“Ulants,” the retired gorian professor replied.
“Okay, imagine one of these, but about this tall…” Skip Howard held his hand as high up as he could reach. “With three eyes, three antennae, three hands and sometimes it walks on two legs, sometimes on four and sometimes on six. Covered with natural body armor, kind of like the ulant, but also has a stinger.”
“So these holy landers don’t look much like an ulant at all,” Newellewell observed.
Howard made an amused noise without smiling. “Yeah, but they look a lot more like one of those than they look like either of us.”
“John Jr. told me that your people are here to protect us from these holy landers.”
Skip Howard nodded. “They sing. And they tune their singing to find out which series of vibrations can override the independent thought of intelligent species so that they can broadly control them. They have done it to our people. And to many other people in this general region of space. We’re here to prevent them from enslaving your people.”
“Why?” Newellewell’s red eyes gleamed with strong emotion.
Skip Howard gave a resigned sigh. “We needed a place to protect John Jr. and his siblings from them and this was the only system available to us. So we’re responsible for leading those holy landers to your doorstep.”
“You misunderstand my question, Captain Ronald Howard the fourteenth. What makes you think we wouldn’t prefer to be enslaved by these holy landers?”
16.7
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