Lieutenant Uhura turned the corner on her way to the recreation deck on level
four, late as usual for her weekly blues session with Ensign Parker.
She had been delayed by tearful Ensign Baldwin, depressed over her lack of
beauty and grace. It was an old complaint, but she had seemed more
depressed than usual. Uhura had made a note to call Dr. McCoy at the
first opportunity.
She stopped in surprise to look at the curious structure in the
center of the corridor. A large blue box stood between her and the
elevator. She instinctively looked for the nearest intercom panel to
report the presence of the strange box.
The nearest one was on the other side of the box; she’d have to
go back down the corridor the way she’d come. She turned, and, with
a last, worried look at the blue box, headed down the hallway.
He was standing right behind her. She stifled a scream as
she accidentally plowed into him. She and the man went flying, and
his scarf seemed to wrap around the two of them of its own accord.
“I’m sorry,” she blurted out automatically.
He smiled at her lying on the floor in her red uniform mini-dress,
and propped himself up on his elbows. “Apology accepted,” he said,
attempting to retrieve his unusually long scarf. Uhura unwrapped it
from around her waist and stood up. She offered her hand to the charming
stranger and helped him to his feet. He was definitely a stranger;
she’d never seen anyone remotely like him on the ship. He was tall,
thin, and dressed in a suit and a long topcoat containing a crimson carnation
in the left lapel. He bent to pick up a battered fedora, but she doubted
it would cover much of his unruly, brown hair.
“Who are you?” she asked. He hadn’t stopped smiling, but
Uhura was an experienced Star Fleet officer, and she knew appearances could
be (and frequently were) deceiving. She had to get to the bridge and
find out how he’d gotten onboard the Enterprise.
“Where are we?” he returned. He looked around, puzzled at
the corridor and evidently expecting something different.
“We’re onboard the USS Enterprise, a Star Fleet cruiser,” she told
him. “But how did—”
“Star Fleet? The Federation? Marvelous!
You did an absolutely splendid job in making the galaxy a better place to
live as I recall.”
“Did?” queried Uhura.
“Will do?” The man was obviously confused. “I tend to lose
track of my tenses on these emergency jaunts. But we don’t have a moment
to lose! If I’m here, there must be a very good reason. Now,
what seems to be the problem?”
Uhura stared at him. “Problem? I think you’d better
let me take you to my leader. He’ll be able to explain everything."
Why hadn’ t the intruder alarms gone off? The stranger seemed
harmless enough, but she’d feel better with a squad of burley security guards
behind her.
“Yes, an excellent idea. Lead on, young lady.”
Uhura turned, and, skirting the blue box, walked to the elevator.
When she turned back to the stranger, he was gone. Damn! She
was going to have difficulty explaining to Captain Kirk that she had actually
seen the handsome stranger. Where could he have gone? She’d let
security worry about it, she decided, as she pressed the comm button.
“Hello. I’m the doctor.” He stood in front of McCoy’s
desk and introduced himself. Nurse Chapel tried not to let his sudden
appearance disturb her. Was Dr. McCoy expecting a visitor? They
never told her anything. She laid aside the Nestrack vaccine samples
and smiled up at the stranger.
“Just a moment, please.” She went into the adjoining room
and returned with an equally mystified Dr. McCoy. She returned to her
work.
“Pleased to meet you, Doctor?” began McCoy, shaking hands with
his unusual guest.
“Just The Doctor, Doctor. What can I do for you? I
must admit that I don’t get much business in the Federation time period;
it is generally very stable.”
“Time period?” repeated McCoy. Nurse Chapel was staring.
Dr. McCoy smiled and glanced around for his hypo. Could this be one
of Scotty’s jokes? Or had a certifiable nut crawled out of the woodwork?
“Mr. Doctor, I think you should come with me, and we’ll have a little chat.”
“Some other time perhaps,” The Doctor said. “I really must
be off to Galtos IV where they have real problems. I don’t understand
why the TARDIS stopped here. You all seem perfectly fine.” He
spun on his heel and left sickbay. Chapel and McCoy were exchanging
puzzled expressions when the intruder alarms went off.
“You mean we had an intruder on board my ship, and you can’t find
him?” Kirk looked sternly at Simon Bates, his chief security officer.
Lieutenant Commander Bates looked embarrassed, but did not comment further.
His patrols had found nothing and no one who didn’t belong on the Enterprise.
The blue box on level four and the colorful stranger were gone.
The conference room was unusually quiet as Kirk looked disapprovingly
at his branch chiefs. “Spock?”
“Captain, the sensors are operating correctly.” Scotty nodded
in agreement as Spock continued. “Facts would indicate that no intrusion
occurred.”
Uhura and McCoy both jumped to their feet, but Kirk stopped their
outbursts with an upheld hand.
“Or that the intruder was so unique that he did not affect the
sensors,” Spock finished. “There isn’t sufficient data to postulate
as to why he was here at all.”
Kirk frowned. “So we don’t know who he was or why he came
here or how he left?”
“Yes, Captain.” Even Spock’s voice sounded subdued.
“What about the planet he mentioned, Galtos IV?”
“Destroyed approximately 50 thousand years ago.”
McCoy grinned at Spock’s answer. “I guess he did have a real
problem to attend to.” Kirk wasn’t amused.
“Captain,” Uhura said, “I think he was here to help us, and when
he didn’t find anything wrong, he left.”
“I agree,” McCoy added. “He seemed odd but sincere.
He thought of himself as some type of galactic policeman.”
“Well, he obviously wasn’t needed here. We’re all systems
green,” Scotty advised. “We’ll probably never see him again.”
“Let’s hope so, Mr. Scott,” Kirk said. “Let’s hope so.”
Ensign Parker, disappointed by Uhura’s failure to appear for their
singing engagement, had returned to his quarters. On his way, he decided
to stop in at his engineering station and remind his relief of the interspatial
alignment generator inspection. Upon his arrival in engineering, he
found the crewman overcome by fumes from the burnt out generator. Had
the Enterprise shifted out of warp drive, the undampered inertia would have
reduced all the crewmen aboard to jelly.
Nurse Chapel, distracted by the stranger’s arrival, had to run
the routine tests on the Nestrack samples again. On comparing the two
samples, she found they did not match. Running them a third time, she
discovered that an unidentified bacteria had poisoned the widely-used vaccine,
and it was only detectable after multiple scans. She sent an emergency
transmission via the bridge to recall all Nestrack vaccines, thereby saving
countless lives.
Ensign Baldwin found the crimson carnation outside her door on
level four, and, although she never discovered which secret admirer had left
it, she developed a fondness for crimson carnations that she felt for the
remainder of her life. In fact, her husband was wearing one when she
met him, and her son, at his inauguration as the President of the Federation
during its golden era, wore one proudly in his left lapel.
THE END
April, 1986 by Tom Howard
Published in the Clipper Trade Ship
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