“ Please, I appeal to you.”
“ GET OUT!” Mesetta yelled. “ See what you did, now I have lost my temper.”
The General hesitated once more, so Mesetta pushed him through the doorway and closed the door behind him.
Once he was gone Mesetta’s hands were shaking and Accqua came and gave him a hug. “ You did the right thing, he would say anything to get that information.”
Mesetta was quiet for a minute. “ What if he was telling the truth and the people of Narwee are starving and poor? What if it’s true? I’m so angry he found us, I can’t tell you how angry I am.”
“ I know you are my darling.”
“ You know when I thought about Narwee during the last ten years? I thought to myself, ‘at least I still have the codes. At least they never broke me’. Now I have to rethink everything. Do I believe that liar or do I keep running from planet to planet like we have been doing? I must do the right thing Accqua… I may not be Emperor any longer but the plight of our people is my responsibility.”
Accqua rubbed his back. “ You will make the right decision, you always do.”
“ Why did they have to send him to come after us. Of everybody I had not wanted to see, he was the one I hated the most. I was happy working on this ship and now he has ruined everything.”
“ Don’t worry darling, we will get through this.”
He sighed. “ I am so thankful to have you, my treasure. I may no longer have wealth or position but I have you.”
She laid her head on his chest as his arms came around her.
* * * *
Captain’s Log Star Date 14.0912:
We are now en route to the planet Narwee where we will deliver a General from that planet. We have found that the two aliens we were taking to Marrana are the former Emperor and his wife, they are also from Narwee. I have also been informed that there is a scientist on Narwee who might able to help us with our problem regarding Lieutenant Beani-Poohs and Ensign Lid-Lidia and their mirror images.
The Captain stood outside the Generals quarters. A few moments later the General opened the door.
“ Captain please come in and take a seat. Can I get you a drink?”
“ No thankyou. I came here because I heard there had been a disturbance at the quarters of Mesetta and Accqua.”
The General sat down. “ I regret that this has happened Captain and you have my word that it will not happen again.”
“ I’m glad to hear you say that. I like to run a nice quiet ship and to have you fighting with your own countryman saddens me a little.”
“ I went to see him because it had been so long since I saw him. I offered him the hand of friendship and he threw me out of his quarters.”
“ I am sorry to hear that.” The Captain was skeptical but polite.
“ He needs to remember that the war is over now and has been for more than a decade. I’m afraid that he still thinks of me as an enemy.”
The Captain studied the General. “ You have an unusual view of these events General. You cannot seriously consider it to be true that with the war over, you can all bury your differences?”
“ I have to Captain. I have a planet in ruin.”
“ I see. I have come here today however to ask you about something else.”
The General looked at him with interest. “ Oh really?”
“ Yes, I have heard that there is a scientist on your planet who specializes in a particular type of physics. One who might be able to reverse what has happened to two of our officers.”
“ What has happened?”
“ There was a transporter incident during an ion storm and we received the mirror images of the two officers. We have been told that this scientist might be able to help us to rectify things.”
“ You are right Captain, the scientist’s name is Camerata and I’m sure if I put in a good word for you he will be only to willing to help you.”
“ Well that puts my mind at rest, will you contact him when we arrive at your planet?”
“ When do we arrive there?”
“ We should be there in five or six hours.”
The General went silent for a few moments, deep in thought. “ Captain I said I would help you with your problem and I will but you will have to do something for me first.”
“ Oh, what would that be?”
“ I want you to go to Mesetta and ask him for the codes that I need to unlock the computer program.”
“ And if he won’t give them to me, will you still help me?”
“ I’m afraid not. No code, no help. I’m sorry but I have to be ruthless about this. I will stop at nothing to get those codes short of murder.”
“ Is that what happened to the other people who knew what the codes were?”
The General hesitated for a moment. “ Yes I’m afraid so. They might have thought that they died for their world but in the end their deaths served no purpose and I deplore waste.”
“ You didn’t kill the Emperor though?”
“ No. If I had killed him I would never get the codes. So will you go to him? No codes, no help and you will have to keep the mirror image officers.”
“ I will convey your message.” The Captain promptly stood up and left the General’s quarters.
* * * *
It was four hours later when the Captain had Mr. Base and Mr. La Trenne meet him in his ready room.
“ How long before we will arrive at Narwee gentlemen?” the captain asked.
“ Our ETA is in one hour and twenty-three minutes at this speed,” said Mr. Base.
“ Have you come to any solutions regarding the Lieutenant and the Ensign and if they can be brought back to their rightful dimensions?”
Mr. La Trenne was the first to answer. “ We have been talking Captain and we still differ on the way that it should be done. Our concern is that we don’t want to get it wrong because they could both be killed.”
Mr. Base started to answer but the Captain cut him off. “ I have heard of a scientist on Narwee who specializes in this type of physics. He apparently has done this type of thing before.”
“ Then we must ask him to help us put this right. If he has done this before then the chance of success is far greater,” answered Mr. La Trenne.
Mr. Base nodded his head. “ I too agree Captain.”
“ Alright then, leave it with me for now and I’ll see what I can arrange.”
It was early afternoon when the Captain walked into The Launching Pad to see Mesetta. He could hear them clanging pots as they worked.
Mesetta looked up and saw the Captain before he had a chance to speak.
“ Captain you’re too early for dinner as yet. I can whip you up a snack if you’re famished, or perhaps a cup of your famous Earth coffee.”
“ No I’m fine. I didn’t come in here to eat anything I wanted to talk to you.”
“ Let’s sit down at a table then, it’s quiet in here at the moment.”
They sat down at a table. “ Mesetta before I say anything I want to tell you that it has been great having you here cooking. We only used the replicator in here before, but your home cooked meals are wonderful. Accqua and you are superb cooks.”
“ Thankyou Captain!” Accqua called from the kitchen.
“ Were you wondering how an Emperor and his wife are such good cooks?” Mesetta laughed.
“ Yes, that did cross my mind.”
“ When we were growing up both our parents said the same things to us. You can not ask someone to do something for you in your own household that you do not know how to do yourselves. So from a young age we both were taught the art of cooking. I never even dreamed we really would need this training but it has proved very helpful since we left Narwee.”
“ Hmm, that’s very interesting. That is not the reason I wanted to talk to you though.”
“ What did you have on your mind then?”
“ Remember last night you told us about a s
cientist who might be able to help us with our dimension problem. I spoke to the General today and he will only arrange for the scientist to help us if I can persuade you to give him the codes that he says that he needs.”
A silence fell over the table. “ Captain, my problem is that I don’t trust one word that comes out of that man’s mouth. He was a liar before and he is still a liar now.”
“ I agree with you.”
“ He also killed our comrades. There were four of us who knew the codes and he killed the others, so we really can not trust him.”
The Captain thought for a moment. “ Is there someone else on Narwee you would trust? You need to confirm that what the General has told you is true. That your planet really is on the brink of financial ruin. You’re libel to give the General the codes and he ends up stealing all the wealth for himself.”
“ Yes that is my chief concern. There is someone who I trust, if he is still alive I would like to talk with him and confirm it is true. One thing that will never happen though is that I will never ever give the codes to that murderer Quistane.”
“ I understand, I was impressed with him at first, but now that I know him better I would never trust him either.”
“ There is one thing I should mention though Captain. Accqua and myself can not go down to the planet surface, if we do we will be arrested for sure. We will need to do everything from the DVD.”
“ There is no reason why one of the crew can’t go down or perhaps I can go down and we can arrange quite a lot by communication anyway.”
“ If my friend is down there still I can most likely arrange for him to contact the scientist for you. You will not even need Quistane.”
The Captain began to smile. “ Mesetta after this is all over we will take you where ever you want to go. I was thinking before that if your countrymen come after you again Marrana might be the first planet they go to.”
“ That is true Captain, I too have thought of this.”
“ Don’t make the decision just yet. We can wait for all this to be over.”
The Captain stood up and started to walk towards the door.
“ Captain when will we be arriving at Narwee?”
“ It shouldn’t be long, I can check if you like.”
Mesetta was looking out of the porthole. “ We don’t appear to be anywhere near Narwee. I have not been there for a long time but I know what the star formations look like from that planet. I used to study astronomy as a hobby.”
The Captain tapped his COM badge. “ All stop Mr. Sook. Raise shields and wait for my orders.” Then he turned back to Mesetta. “ Are you sure we are at the wrong area? These coordinates were given to me by the General.”
As he said these words he realised at once that that did not make them trustworthy.
“ Captain you said you rescued Quistane. Please tell me who you rescued him from?”
“ We beamed him aboard from a Moronite pirate ship that was under repair. He said that his own ship had been attacked and the crew and his ship had perished. He had been kidnapped by the pirates just before the battle.”
Mesetta thought for a moment. “ I knew he was lying and now I realise what his objective is. He intends to take your ship. He has given you coordinates to a star in this system and I will guarantee the pirates are waiting there for you, and there will be more than one ship.”
“ How do you know this?”
“ Remember I have know this man a long time. Just before the war started he was not far away from losing his position as advisor, because we could not trust him. He always has an agenda and it always benefits him. I would not be surprised if he had a contract with the pirates and they actually work for him.”
The Captain thought for a moment. “ The pirate asked me if I had come to rescue the General. He wanted us to think he was kidnapped and he hoped I would act the way I did.”
“ Yes you fell for their plan. The General gives you the wrong coordinates to his planet and you are met by an entourage of ships and you and your crew are put to death and the pirates have a state of the art star ship at their disposal. It’s just a coincidence that we are on your ship, if he was searching for us he gave that up long ago.”
“ Do you know the correct coordinates to arrive at Narwee?”
“ I have forgotten them but if you show me some star charts I will pin point the direction that we must go.”
“ Thankyou Mesetta, when this is over I must do something really nice for you.”
“ To get to where we are going safely is all I can hope for.”
Mesetta accompanied the Captain to navigation and it wasn’t more than ten minutes before they were on their way once more.
* * * *
The Captain was walking down the hallway on his way to the turbo lift when he noticed the General coming towards him.
“ Captain!” he said as he passed “ when do you think we will be arriving at Narwee?”
“ I’m not sure, it shouldn’t be too long.” The Captain knew the General was aware that they should have arrived at the coordinates he had given him.
“ I noticed that we stopped before, was there any trouble?”
The Captain had to think on his feet. “ There was an engineering problem that needed some attention. As soon as it was rectified we were able to resume on course.”
“ So it wasn’t too bad then?”
“ No, just enough to be annoying. Good thing for us that we don’t have to travel to a deadline.”
“ Yes this is true. May I ask you about the codes? Did you speak to Mesetta about giving you the codes?”
“ Yes I spoke to him and I’m afraid he is unwilling to give them to me. I told him how important it was for us to have our crewmembers restored to their correct dimension but it was no use. His answer was no I’m afraid.”
The General had no expression on his face whatsoever.
“ That is unfortunate, but I knew you would not get them easily. Perhaps in time he might come around.”
“ Perhaps, I’m sorry but I’m going to have to dash. I was on my way to the bridge so I’d better be going.”
“ I understand, duty calls.”
The Captain walked to the turbo lift and took it up to the bridge. He had only just sat down in his chair when Mr. Sook turned to him.
“ Captain I have detected an unauthorized transmission that has been sent from Deck 15.”
The Captain thought for moment, this was where he had just seen the General. “ Can you see if any other similar transmissions have been sent over the last few days?”
Mr. Sook spent the next five minutes looking at his computer. “ There have been two other transmissions since we picked up the General the other day.”
The Captain snapped his fingers. “ I thought as much. Without sounding an alarm I want all crewmembers to be on general quarters. Everybody must be on high alert, we are being pursed and our enemy is invisible to our scanners and to our eyes.”
“ Are you talking about the pirates we rescued the General from Captain?”
“ Yes that is exactly what I mean. The General is part of a plan to take the DVD from us.”
“ Captain I have been working on a tracking device that may help us here.”
“ Mr. Sook I am listening.”
“ We may not be able to track them by radar but with this program I can track them by their emissions whether Warp or Impulse. I always thought it would be handy to track Romulans when they are cloaked.”
“ Very good Mr. Sook, let’s put to use. Mr. Follicle how long before we reach Narwee now?”
“ We should be there in twenty minutes Sir, we are already in transmission range.”
“ Thankyou, let me know when we are in orbit. We must be ready to raise shields at a moment’s notice. Also I want a security detail to keep an eye on the General.”
He headed back down to The Launching Pad.
* * * *
A
s the Captain walked into the kitchen the smell wafting through the air was wonderful, as he breathed it in he felt immediately hungry. Mesetta was busy washing a few pots by hand.
“ Mesetta you don’t have to wash the pots the old fashioned way. We do have machines to do it.”
“ I don’t mind doing it this way. It means I can use the pots again much faster. It is much longer when the machines do it.”
“ I came to tell you that we will be arriving at Narwee very soon. We are already within transmission range. If you would be able to contact your friend perhaps we will be able to beam up the scientist not long after we arrive there.”
Mesetta finished drying his pot. “ Take me to a radio room and I will try to contact my friend.”
A few minutes later Mesetta made the transmission, as he was arranging things the Captain’s COM badge beeped.
“ Hemorrhoid here.”
“ Captain the security detail was not able to find the General. We are combing the decks looking for him but we have not found him so far. The computer can not locate him either. He must have done something to cloak himself from the computer.”
This frustrated the Captain. “ I saw him on Deck 15 about twenty minutes ago.”
“ We have searched that deck already and he was not there.”
“ Perhaps you should check the cargo bays and even the shuttles. He may be hiding for now and he intends to steal a shuttle when the pirates attack.”
“ I will keep you informed.” Mr. Sook signed off.
The Captain turned back to Mesetta. “ How did it go, were you able to arrange things with your friend?”
“ Yes Captain and I have some very good news. The scientist Cameratta will beam up here when we are in orbit, and we will be met by some ships from Narwee to help in case the pirates try to attack us. My friend also told me that Narwee does not consider Accqua and myself criminals anymore and we are welcome to come back to live there. We will not attain the positions of Emperor and Empress but we can live there in peace and harmony if we choose to.”
“ That’s wonderful. What about what the General told us? The fact that the planet is on the brink of financial ruin?”
Mesetta laughed. “ It was all lies, the planet is doing fairly well. My friend did say that the government would like to get the codes that I have. I am thinking if I give it to them, under some sort of financial plan, it would mean that I would not be burdened with the responsibility of it anymore. The money belongs to the people after all, I never considered it to be mine.”