The Story
“Captain,
I think you’d better have a look at this!”
“What
is it, Sulu?”
“A
small vessel. Unfamiliar markings. Appears to be of “old Earth” origin. It just
appeared out of nowhere.”
“On
screen, Sulu.”
“Aye
aye, Captain.”
``````````````````````````````````
Onboard
the small craft, two weary travelers eye each other.
“Where
the Devil have you brought us?”
Loosening
his tie, Lee Crane warily viewed the gargantuan vessel that lay in front of
them. “Well, one thing’s for sure, Admiral; we’re not in NIMR anymore.”
“It
looks like a giant’s plaything.”
“Not
with those stress points…”
``````````````````````````````````
Spock
glanced up from his science console. “Captain, I believe the lettering gives us
a clue. SSRN: Submersible Ship Research, Nuclear. Computer database has this as
a craft belonging to NIMR. Hmmm, fascinating.”
“What
is it, Spock?”
“If
our records are correct, this acronym stood for “Nelson Institute of Marine
Research”. The craft Flying Fish was reported missing in
1997 along with its crew.”
“We’re
not exactly at Seaworld, Spock.”
Bones smiled thinking he’d caught the Vulcan.
“Put
a tractor beam on it, bring it inside,” the Captain ordered. “Scotty, I want
you to join Spock and me on the shuttle deck.”
``````````````````````````````````
“Admiral,
it’s pulling us inside!”
“Hmmmm,
I seem to remember this happening before, somewhere else…”
“Admiral,
shouldn’t we use the Instantaneous Drive to move somewhere else?”
“No,
Lee, you see the proximity of that ship distorts the time continuum making it
impossible for us to use the alien drive. This was the problem the aliens
encountered when they crashed in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 destroying most of
their craft. The engineers at Boeing were able to salvage the Instantaneous
Drive, even though we’re still learning how to navigate with it. Also we’re
unable to determine the purpose of this set of controls.”
Lee
Crane quaffed his coffee before replying. “Kowalski and Patterson were playing
cards in here last night. I wonder if they might have changed the settings.”
“Well,
I just hope there are no pointy-eared aliens out there waiting…”
