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STAR YAWNS 4
The Ambassador Dilemma
By David Williams & Sabine Williams
Copyright 2012 David Williams
Captains Log: Star Date 30.0712:
We are still exploring the Beta quadrant and it has now been four months since we have been home. We have decided that we will head back to the Alpha quadrant after we have made a visit to the next planet we have decided to chart.
The Captain walked into the sick bay in time to hear the doctor singing one of the show tunes from ‘South Pacific’.
“ Doctor, I realise that you are a hologram but do you think it’s appropriate for you to be singing, ‘I’m gonna wash that man right out of my hair’, in front of your patients?”
“ Captain, this is my sick bay and I’ll sing whatever I want, whenever I want. Besides there are no patients.”
“ Alright, let’s drop it. Can you take another look at these spots on my face? I think they’re getting bigger.”
“ Angus Hemorrhoid! I swear that out of five hundred or so potential patients on this ship you are the only one that I see on a daily basis! ” The Doctor folded his arms.
“ Can you just take a look, please? Perhaps some cream will make them go away.”
“ Very well, I will give you some cream, but I can’t guarantee it will clear up your sun spots. You probably got too much sun when you were younger. Is that all?”
The Captain looked slightly uneasy. “ No. I wanted to ask you about Sub-Commander Kazzie-Spockers, I understand you are giving her some advice?”
“ Captain I am not comfortable talking about this. She is seeing me professionally as a psychiatrist. To help her get over her fear of spiders.”
“ You can’t tell me how it’s going then?”
“ No, not really. Although we haven’t had a session as yet, we were all set to have one the other day and we were just getting started when she spotted what she thought was a spider on the ceiling. To cut a long story short she couldn’t get out of my office fast enough. It wasn’t even a spider.”
“ So that’s going well then? He smirked. “ I’d better be going and see what’s happening on the bridge.”
“ What about yourself and Lieutenant Beani-Poohs? How is your romance going? I hope you know, not only am I the ship’s doctor I am a marriage celebrant as well.”
“ I’ll keep that in mind,” he said shortly. He started to head for the door.
“ You don’t seem very enthusiastic about the subject of your romance?”
He paused and turned back. “ Please don’t call it a romance. It’s hardly come to that yet. It’s all happened too fast for my liking. I am going to tell her that I need to take a time out for a while.”
“ Why, what’s happened to make you pull back this way?”
“ It’s personal! I don’t want to go into it just now, but my trouble is that I don’t want to hurt her feelings either.”
“ Would you like me to tell her that you have cold feet?”
“ No, please don’t. I will tell her in my own time.”
He headed for the door.
“ Don’t take too long,” The Doctor called out after him, “ The longer you wait the more she will be hurt. Mark my words.”
Ignoring these last words, the Captain walked out of sick bay and headed up to the bridge.
* * * *
The Captain stepped out of the turbo lift just as Mr. Sook looked around.
“ I’m glad to see you Captain. I was just about to call you.”
“ Well I’m here Mr. Sook, what seems to be the problem?”
“ We have a small space ship dead ahead. It’s about ten thousand kilometers and closing.”
“ Nothing to be concerned about, I’m sure.”
The Captain sat down on his chair.
“ They are charging weapons sir,” said Ensign Follicle.
“ That’s odd,” remarked the Captain.
“ According to my scans of this space ship, it has only one alien onboard and this ship is incapable of presenting any type of threat to this ship,” said Mr. Sook.
“ Raise shields! Let’s hail him, and see what all the commotion is about.”
“ Aye, sir.”
The Captain spoke. “ This is Captain Angus Hemorrhoid of the star ship DVD from the Federation of Planets. We are on a peaceful mission of exploration, be aware that we mean you no harm.”
An alien appeared on the screen and angry was the only way you could describe him. “ Do not come any closer, I am ready to destroy your ship.”
The Captain turned to Mr. Sook. “ I thought you said his weapons could not destroy us?”
“ I did say that and I meant it, he could fire on us all day and hardly make a dent.”
“ Captain! Captain Hemorrhoid I can hear what you’re saying,” yelled the alien.
“ Oops, I forgot to mute the sound,” the Captain grimaced at Mr. Sook.
“ I saw you just then, you intended to let me hear what you were saying. If you are doing this to make me angrier than I am you have succeeded. Prepare to be fired upon.”
With that the alien started firing phasers at the star ship.
“ Should we respond?” asked Ensign Follicle.
“ Negative, my guess is that this alien will get tired and go away before long.”
Twenty minutes later he was still firing on them.
“ How are our shields Mr. Sook?”
“ They are at ninety-nine percent and holding.”
The Captain tried hailing him again. “ Please stop firing, if anything this is getting irritating.”
There was no response.
“ Ensign Follicle target the weapons array on that ship with a low yield phaser burst. I’m going to force him to stop firing.”
The DVD fired at the ship and the next thing they saw was an explosion.
“ Captain that ship is about to blow up,” said Ensign Follicle.
“ Lock onto the alien and beam him aboard.”
“ Aye, Aye sir.”
A few moments later the space ship was completely destroyed.
“ The alien is now in transporter room three sir.”
“ Beam him straight to the Brig. Now what happened, did you misfire?”
“ No sir, I did exactly what you told me to do. I targeted his weapons array. I must have hit a bomb or something. I can’t explain it.”
“ What he says is correct Captain,” said Mr. Sook “ everything was done as per your instructions.”
The Captain thought for moment. “ Don’t worry, I was just making sure we did the right thing. I better go and have a word with this angry alien.”
* * * *
Mr. Sook accompanied the Captain to the Brig to see the alien. As they entered they could see that their visitor looked just as angry as he had previously.
The alien was a strange looking man who had what looked like an egg on his head and the egg had hair on it.
“ Thank you for blowing up my ship! What am I supposed to do now? I lived on that ship for almost two decades and now I have nothing.”
The Captain hardly knew what to say. “ I am sorry for what has happened. We were only trying to get you to stop firing at us. It was never my intention to destroy your space craft.”
“ Well you have now and how do you say sorry? By imprisoning me!”
“ We are willing to let you out of the Brig, if you can control your temper and give us your word you will do no harm. What is your name, and where are you from?”
“ My name is Manzanna and I am from a planet many light years from here.”
“ Why are you so far from home?”
“ I am a trader of sorts and I travel from world to world selling my goods. Everything I had in the whole universe was on that ship and now it’s all gone! Everything I have to show for my whole life! Thankyou again Captain! “ He was very sarcastic, “You’ve really done me a disservice.”
> Mr. Sook walked over to the controls for the Brig and turned off the force field. Before anybody could say anything Manzanna lunged at Mr. Sook and tried to grab his phaser pistol. Mr. Sook quickly gave him the Vulcan neck brace and the alien fell down unconscious.
When Manzanna awoke he was back in the Brig. He sat up groggily and then saw that Mr. Sook and the Captain had waited for him to come to.
“ So it doesn’t look like we will be trusting you after all Mr. Manzanna. You will remain in the Brig until we get to the next planet where we will hand you over to the authorities.”
Manzanna’s expression had lost all anger. He was obviously very distressed as he burst out: “ No! You must not do that! I will cooperate from now on. I give you my word I will cause no further trouble. Please don’t hand me over to the authorities on that planet.”
“ And what planet would that be? You know this area well Mr. Manzanna. What is it you fear?”
Manzanna went quiet for a moment. “ You’re right I have been there before, the planet is called Salvaje and I would rather not show my face there again.”
“ You’ll have to do better than that Mr. Manzanna. If you are a wanted man on that planet we will be only too happy to hand you over.”
Manzanna went quiet again. “ Believe what you like, I just don’t want to go there. I would prefer to be alone now.”
“ Of course, we will leave you alone now.” The Captain agreed smoothly and preceded Mr. Sook back towards the turbo lift.
“ I’m not happy with how things stand with this alien Mr. Sook. What does your Vulcan logic tell you about him?”
“ I’m inclined to think he might be on the run from the people of that planet. Perhaps he’s an escaped criminal.”
“ I hope it isn’t as grim as you think. I think I will assign Ensign Lid-Lidia to look in on him and hopefully learn his true story. Let’s head back to the bridge.”
* * * *
It was about half an hour later when Lid-Lidia walked into the Brig. As she came through the door she was shocked to see the alien trying to hang himself with torn up sheets he had taken off the bed. When he saw her enter the room he already had the sheet around his neck so he jumped off the bed.
Lid-Lidia immediately leaped forward and quickly turned off the force field and she cut him down with her phaser pistol. The alien fell to the floor choking. She quickly called the Doctor, who appeared immediately.
“ We had better have him beamed to sick bay,” the Doctor said “ we can monitor him more closely there and we can keep him contained in a force field.”
“ That sounds like a good idea,” Lid-Lidia agreed “ I hate to think what would have happened if I had been held up by a few minutes.”
Before long Manzanna was lying on a bed in the sick bay. The Captain had been informed and was talking to the Doctor near the doorway.
“ We’re going to have to monitor this alien until we can unload him at the planet we’re heading towards in two days. When his space ship blew up I had no idea that he was suicidal, we naturally all thought it was an accident.”
“ Off course you did, no one could know what this man’s intentions were. Don’t worry Captain he will be monitored around the clock until we arrive.”
“ Thankyou Doctor, I appreciate all the work you do.”
“ Well you could try telling me things like this more often, everyone on this ship usually takes me for granted.”
The Captain rolled his eyes. “ Alright Doctor, we’ll all try and praise you more often.”
The doctor knew the Captain was being sarcastic. “ Yes please do, praise is what I need.”
The Captain laughed to himself as he walked down the corridor.
* * * *
It was a few hours later when Lid-Lidia came in to the sick bay to visit Manzanna. He had seen her coming but he decided to pretend he was asleep to avoid looking at her. She walked around the bed and noticed his eye open and knew he wasn’t asleep.
“ I have to tell you that you really gave me a turn this afternoon. My hands are still shaking even though so many hours have passed.”
The alien said nothing, now keeping his eye shut.
Lid-Lidia waited a moment for the alien to say something but when there was just silence, she continued. “ I can’t imagine why a person would try and commit suicide? When I first saw you this morning I thought you were really tough but now I realize you are a very desperate character. I feel a little sorry for you if you think killing yourself is the only answer to your problems.”
This got the alien’s attention. “ Who are you to say this to me? You don’t even know me, and you don’t know what I have been doing or what I have been going through. You don’t know me at all.”
“ You’re right I don’t know you, but I have to ask you a question. Did you rig it so we would blow up your ship?”
The alien turned his head away. “ Yes I did, but I never dreamed you would transport me aboard your ship. I thought I would be killed.”
“ It’s just lucky for you that Star Fleet has such sophisticated technology.”
“ Yes it just makes me so happy!” There was sarcasm in his voice, and then he pretended to go back to sleep.
Lid-Lidia gave a sigh. “ Don’t do that, I would like to talk to you and maybe you may not feel so bad.”
“ There is nothing we can talk about that will do that.”
“ Let me introduce myself. I am Ensign Lid-Lidia and usually I work on the bridge and help navigate the ship. I am also assigned to work in the sick bay with the Doctor as his nurse. I have some medical training.”
The alien turned back to face Lid-Lidia. “ You are an impressive soul. I am Manzanna as you probably already know and I am a trader.”
“ Are you a wanted man?”
Manzanna began to laugh. “ I might as well tell you. If your Captain is planning to hand me over to the authorities on Salvaje you will find out soon enough. I am a wanted man on that planet but no other. I am not a criminal. I have never killed anybody and I have never stolen anything.”
“ But you are wanted on that planet.”
Manzanna nodded his head. “ Yes it’s true.”
Lid-Lidia looked confused. “ I don’t understand any of this. If you’re not wanted for a serious crime why are you trying to kill yourself? It makes no sense to me.”
“ Not to you or to anybody else, including me.” Manzanna started to loose control and he looked like he was about to start crying.
Lid-Lidia walked over to the replicator.
“ A glass of water, cold,” she said.
Then she walked back and handed it to Manzanna.
“ Why don’t you tell me the whole story,” she said in a soft voice.
He took a sip of the water. “ You just want something you can report to your Captain.”
Lid-Lidia nodded. “ Yes it’s true, the Captain did ask me to keep you company, but if you want me to maintain confidentiality then I won’t utter a word.”
Manzanna went quite for a moment. “ Alright I will tell you. Perhaps it will make me feel better if I say it out loud.”
He paused, then with a sigh, continued “ My story starts eighteen years ago. I was a different person back then, I was a family man and I was very happy. My wife and I had one daughter whose name is Bex.
” He paused for a moment. “ My mother said to me when I was young never to be too happy because it will never last. You know, when she told me that I did not believe her but I do believe her now. I regret that she was right.
“Anyway as I said we were a happy family until one night my wife was killed in an accident. These things happen all the time but I never thought it would happen to me. So now I had to raise my two-year-old daughter by myself. My parents had died already, so had my wife’s parents and neither of them had any brothers or sisters. Being a trader was a bad business to be in with a daughter to raise. At first I took her on trips with me but it just was not working. I tried hiring peop
le to look after her, but it was too expensive.”
The alien sat up and sighed heavily as he continued his tale.
“ Then I heard of this school on Ramas. That’s a planet in this system. It’s an amazing place, the whole planet is given over to education. There are many educational facilities and is very expensive. Only the best families send their offspring there for a complete education, in almost any subject you can imagine. If you can afford it, you can put your child in a school there and they educate and raise your child for you, while teaching morals and ethics as well. It seemed like the perfect solution to my problem. I managed to raise the money by borrowing from people I knew. Some of them were of an unsavory nature, if you know what I mean. “
Lid-Lidia nodded. “ I can imagine what you mean. What happened then?”
Manzanna sighed again. He looked miserable. “ So, my daughter was almost three when I started her at the school. At first I would visit her every now and then. On one visit I noticed some of the other families giving me disapproving looks because I was not of the same class as they were. I have never been the type of person to worry about such things as appearance or class distinctions, but I realised that in time, my daughter would be embarrassed by me when she was a bit older. So I would contact her by other means. I made up a story that the reason I was not visiting her was because I had become an ambassador and was too busy with diplomatic events.”
Lid-Lidia interrupted. “ I still don’t understand why you’re a wanted man?”
“ I am getting to that. The years went by and I only spoke to her on a visor and when I did I would either borrow some clothes or I would make sure I was not visible to her. She could only hear my voice. Well, that worked for awhile. Then two years ago she was due to graduate and they were holding the ceremony on Salvaje. It was a big event and I was determined not to miss it. I was without funds at the time because whenever I needed money I would borrow from these people and because I always had to pay more back than I borrowed I never had any money of my own for very long.”
“ My planet got rid of money about two or three centuries ago.”
“ I wish we would. So there I was without money and with nothing but old clothes. I did not want to embarrass Bex. I might mention at this point that I have never come clean and told Bex that I was not an ambassador, so she was expecting more than just an old trader as a father. I had been lying to her for much too long. I tried to rent an outfit an ambassador might wear but it was much too expensive. While I was in the store I ask the retailer who I might mention is a very wealthy man and with much influence, if I could borrow the outfit and told him I would pay him later, it would be just for an afternoon. He laughed at me and poked fun so I punched at him and I hit him in the face. He had me arrested for assault, but I managed to get away and that is why I am a wanted man. If there is an arrest order for you on this planet it could be twenty years later and they will still be after you.”