Encounter at Distant Point station
“Captain’s log, Stardate, uh. . . Hey,” he said leaning back in his chair and yelling out to the cockpit, “What’s today’s date?”
“Depends,” replied Drake, “do you mean the Alliance date, the Coalition date, the Imperial date, the colonial date, or any of the other dating systems used throughout the galaxy?”
“Why can’t there be some uniform dating system?”
“Because that would require the several governments throughout our galaxy to agree on something.”
“Right, I guess, sometime after we did that thing at station K6.” continued Jack resuming his log. “We’re headed to Distant Point Station, so the crew can relax after our exhausting adventure, and maybe some cheap refueling. Hopefully-”
“Captain,” called Drake from the cockpit, “You’re going to want to see this.”
A large sprawling net-like shape appeared in space just in front of the ship.
“Uhh,” said the captain addressing McCall, “what is that?”
McCall just looks back at Jack and makes a strange globular motion the Captain takes as a shrug.
Slowly the large net-like mass surrounds the ship.
“It registers as solid,” reports McCall.
“Well, that’s inconvenient.” Jack looks to his pilot, “Anyway we can, I dunno, blast it?”
A bright light flashes in the hallway and a man in ancient looking clothes appears before them, “Forsooth,” decries the ancient, “Thou art verily expanded too far for thou britches, thine species should return henceforth to thy own system posthaste.”
The crew of the Starship Morningstar, just stare blankly at the man.
He stares back at them.
They return by cocking their collective heads to the side.
“What?” asks the Captain finally.
The Ancient glares at Jack, and with a clearly irritated tone, “Go Home.”
“But, I don’t have a home.” Says Jack even more confused than before.
“Back to your home system,” Clear frustration forming on the ancients face.
“Don’t have one of those either.” States the Captain crossing his arms, “Imps burned it long ago, for noncompliance.”
“Go Back to Terra!” the Ancient this shouts.
“Don’t see why, Nothing for me there,” Explained the Captain. “That’s Imp HQ, don’t get me wrong I’ll mess with imps out here, but no way am I going anywhere near their home system unless you’ve got some serious cash mister- says what’s your name?”
Now it was the ancient’s turn to appear dumbfounded, “Hue,” answered Hue.
“Well, listen Queue-
“Hue.”
“Right, we’ve just got out of a crazy adventure and we’re not really looking for another one right now so if you have some business you need us to take care of come back in a few days after we get some rest. To be Frank Cue-”
“Hue.”
“Right, we’re real beat. So, unless you want to come with us to Distant Point Station, we can’t help you right now.”
Hue just stares at the Captain unable to form words, here stood before him a mortal completely incapable or unwilling to understand what stood before him. The ancient looked around at the ship that surrounded him and slowly came to a realization, “This isn’t a galaxy-class starship.”
“No, it isn’t.” replied the Captain unsure of why the ancient would be confused by something so clear.
“And you’re not an Imperial Commander.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Do you know what I am?”
“Some sort of god-like being.”
“And what, do you think I want?”
“Our Starship!” Said McCall triumphantly.
“What would a god-like being need with a starship?” Asked the Captain suddenly caught off guard by McCall's interruption.
“I dunno,” replied McCall, “ But I saw it in a movie once.”
The ancient stared at McCall, “That thing is alive?! I thought it was just some pile of refuse! How can it be alive?!”
“Hey, I know Drake isn’t the prettiest humanoid, but he’s not that bad.” Said the captain.
The pilot sighed, “He’s talking about McCall.”
“What’s wrong with McCall? I mean I know he’s had better days, but all things considered, he’s not that bad.”
Hue Stares at Jack, his face a mangled mashup of confusion, and utter bewilderment. “What even is it?”
“He’s a Human, just like me.” replied the captain.
“I can’t bear looking at him,” and with a snap of Hue’s finger a bright light consumes the Globular tentacled mass, and leaves behind only a red-haired, red-shirted, rather average looking human. “There, much better.”
“Hey, where’d all my cool stuff go?” demanded McCall.
The Ancient pointed his finger to the large pile of seemingly useless junk that had now formed behind McCall. “That’s everything that was in your, erm, ‘person’”
“Neat,” McCall gathered all his junk together and went away to the back of the ship.
“Thanks, I guess,” said the captain, “but it won’t last. Every once in awhile, he gets returned to normal but sooner or later he just well...” Jack gives the ancient a sideways look and shrugs.
“Is he accident prone?” inquired the ancient.
“No, just a red-shirt.”
“What?”
“What?”
Hue tries to shake away the confusion. “I had come here to pass judgment on you on behalf of your species.”
“Could you not? I mean, we’re not really the best examples of humanity, we don’t exactly follow any laws, and we don’t really have any real authority other than money.”
“You’re kind of the perfect examples for me to use as to why you need to go back to the Terran system and be quarantined from the rest of space.”
“That seems rather unfair, why not debate with a philosopher about humanity's merits or an Imperial theosopher. Why choose a couple of smugglers and a Dryghuln hybrid thing? no offense.” the last part directed at Drake.
“‘A chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link,’” quoted Hue, “How better to judge humanity than the actions of its lowlifes.” The ancient turns away from the Captain for a moment when he turns back there is a smile on his face. “I will test you.”
“Test me?”
“Yes, test you, to see if there are merits for humanity. Your trip to Distant Point Station will be more than a sufficient test for you and your crew, for me to determine if humanity really is worth allowing to continue on in this galaxy.”
“Sue, I don’t kno-”
“You don’t have to know anything!” interrupted Hue, “And it’s Hue, Damn it! I will see you after you are done at Distant Point Station. Then we’ll see if you’re worth something.”
With another bright pulse of light, Hue was gone and the Starship Morningstar was free to resume its journey to Distant Point Station.
***
“Resuming Captain’s log, after meeting the god-like being Hue the Crew and I are resuming our trip to Distant Point station. Unfortunately, according to Hue something awaits us there that will determine whether or not he will quarantine humanity from the rest of the galaxy.”
Jack sighed and threw his arms in the air, “I just wanted a break!”
***
The Starship Morningstar pulls into the lavish spaceport of Distant Point Station, a grouping of humanoids are gathered nearby to meet them. A tall pale skinned man in ragged robes greets Jack and his crew.
“Greetings Commander, we were not expecting you for another few days or so. Will the rest of your crew be joining us or just the three of you?”
“It’ll just be us for now,” said jack not being one to shy away from an opportunity to be someone else’s expense.
“Well then Commander, Welcome to Distant point station! I’m Bell, appointed Governor of the Twisty people.” The old man gave a deep bow. “If you don’t mind, let’s begin our tour, and then we can discuss the matter of your visit.”
“Of course,” replied The Captain giving a shrug to his companions before the three of them followed the Governor.
The tour consisted of the group walking through a market sector with almost everything imaginable on offer. McCall separated from the rest to browse for ship supplies and any gadgets he felt he couldn’t live without. They passed a bar and Drake thought he spied himself a female of some species or other he would have some fun with.
And so it went that only Jack was left to listen to Governor Bell drone on and on about the station and it’s elegant craftsmanship, about how there was no way the Captain would believe how long it took the Twisty to build such a station.
“Now then, here we are,” said the old Governor drawing Jack’s attention back to his words rather than the exquisite architecture around them, and pointing to the small building crammed into the corner between two districts. “This is my office. It’s bigger on the inside.” He tried to explain, after acknowledging the look on Jack’s face.
Skeptical, Jack followed the old man into the office, to find that it was in fact, bigger on the inside, but this was just done by clever architecture work rather than some mystical form of space warping science.
Governor Bell sat behind his desk and gazed over at The Captain over steepled finger. “Now Commander, what do you think of our station?”
“It’s certainly interesting.” said Jack examining the bare stone room.
“Now, what deal would the Empire be willing to make for such a station?”
“Why offer the station when you could offer the builders? The Empire would give much more richly to have your people build multiple such stations. To negotiate for only a single station seems almost silly to me when you have so much more to offer.”
“If you will excuse me, sir, the Twisty are a simple people we don’t really have much interest in building space stations.” The governor gave as way of explanation.
“But you’ve built this one?” argued Jack, “And quite quickly I might add, even if all you could do was teach the Empire how you accomplished such a thing that would be of interest.”
Governor Bell shook his head, “No, no, that simply will not do, we cannot teach you nor can we build you more stations, if you won’t accept our offer we’ll have to look elsewhere, to the Fersira perhaps?”
The Captain stared blankly at the man, “We’ll think about it.” he said after a sigh.
“Good,” said Governor Bell pushing forward a bowl of assorted fruit. “Would you like a fruit? we’ve got a fine selection of species from your beloved Terra.”
“If you had an apple maybe,” answered Jack noticing the distinct lack of the red fruit in the bowl. “Never-” began Jack before noticing a bowl of apples in the exact location where the original fruit bowl had been. “I could have sworn there wasn’t a bowl of apples there earlier.”
The old man seems almost surprised at spotting the bowl of apples to his right. “But does the fact that you didn’t notice them before make them any less appetizing?”
“Yes!” Jack replied. “It very much does. Where did they come from?”
“Questions, questions Commander you’re so full of them,” Governor Bell got up and pushed the Captain out the door, “Come back when you’ve made a decision on our deal, okay?” and slammed the door.
Jack stood bewildered outside the Governor’s office unsure what to do. He left to collect his crew having decided whatever the near god-like being wanted Jack to do on this station, he wanted no part of it.
***
Shots rain down across Distant Point station as Jack and his crew return to his ship.
“Get inside and get ready to take off now!” Jack shouts over the sounds of explosions and alarms.
Drake and McCall enter the ship as Governor Bell throws himself at the Captain’s feet. “Please Commander,” he pleaded, “You have to save us! Bring your main ship and blow that thing away!”
Jack looked up and saw the massive ship in the planet’s atmosphere.
“Sir,” McCall poked his head out from inside the ship.
“What are you going to do now Captain?” said the Ancient standing near The Morningstar.
“Not you too,” complained Jack turning toward Hue, “I don’t have time for this Chew.”
“Hue” corrected the God-like being.
“Sir,” once again McCall trying to gain his captain's attention.
“Commander!” screamed Bell, “You have to destroy that thing!”
“He’s right Captain,” said Hue, “you have to destroy it before it destroys you!”
“Sir!” insisted McCall.
“What is it McCall?” shouted the Captain trying to ignore the other two.
“Sir, the ship isn’t attacking the station, it’s attacking the Twisty settlement nearby.”
“What did you do?” demanded Jack grabbing Governor Bell by the collar. “Why is this thing after you!”
“I can answer that too, Captain,” intervened McCall.
“Destroy it Captain, before it destroys you!” shouts the Ancient.
“Space Jellyfish,” says McCall matter-of-factly.
The Captain looks up to the ship hanging in the sky, “Are you sure?” he asks his crewman.
“Yes, sir!”
“You know what to do then.”
McCall runs to the side of the ship and pulls out a large cord and plugs it into a nearby wall.
Jack, McCall, Hue and Governor Bell, climb aboard the Morningstar.
McCall rushes to his engineering console, “Feeding energy to it now Captain.”
Jack and the two stowaways head to the bridge where Drake is prepping the ship for launch.
“Once it’s fed we’re ready to go Captain.” says the Pilot.
“You’re wasting time Commander!” shouted Bell, “You have to destroy it!”
Jack gives the old man a sideways look, “Listen, I’m not an Imperial commander, which incidentally means I don’t have anywhere near the firepower to destroy that thing, but luckily for you, it also means I don’t have the authority to arrest you for what you’ve done. I came here to relax, but now I find out your station isn’t even a station at all, and I’m cranky and tired and really annoyed at the fact that you’re even on my ship so sit down shut up and I won’t jettison you to space when we leave.”
Governor Bell sits on the floor in the corner, without another word.
The ground beneath the ship begins to rumble.
“That’s enough McCall it can handle the rest on its own, let’s go!” The last part directed at his pilot.
Within seconds the ship retracts the cord attached to the wall and plunges upward through the atmosphere into orbit by the massive oblong ship. Distant point station tears itself from the planet’s crust and transforms into a matching ship. The twin ships sprout a series of tentacles beneath them which reach out to each other. After a brief contact, they move away.
“Space Jellyfish,” says the Captain in relief.
“You impress me, Captain.” proclaimed the Ancient, “but tell me how did you know?”
Jack turns to Hue and shrugs, “Listen Two-”
“Hue.”
“Right, you don’t get to be a less than legal proprietor of goods as long as I have and not see a Space Jellyfish or two.”
“You are a strange man Captain, I’ll be keeping an eye on you.” With a bright flash, the God-like being was gone.
“What do we do with him?” asked Drake pointing at the Governor cowering in the corner.
“I suppose I did promise not to jettison him into space,” said the Captain pondering his options.
***
Later aboard the Starship Engagement, the commander whose name sounds a bit like “urk” is confronted by a brilliant flash of light. Before him stands a being of immense power.
“Now,” says the great being, “Before I get started, you are a Galaxy-Class starship of the Imperium, right?”