A World Apart

Star Dancer looked out the window on her capsule. She marveled at the size of the other ship. How could something so large fly, she wondered. She shook off her thoughts and got to work. First she tried recorded messages on the same frequency that they had picked up the first signals. No response. Then she ran the message up and down the dial. Nothing. She tried flashing her lights in standard code at the ship. Again nothing. For hours she tried everything she could. And for hours the ship stayed silent. Could there be no one alive on it? She shivered at the thought. It appeared to be designed to carry life, why else would it have windows? She maneuverd closer to the ship. She got close enough to get a glimpse in one of the windows. She thought she could see strange beings walking around inside on two legs. They seemed to be wearing some kind odd uniform. If they were alive in there then why didn’t they respond to her capsule? Then something in her capsule caught her eye. As she stared a cold chill went thru her heart. There was an oxygen leak. She cursed the rush that the ground crew put on this mission. Now she didn’t even have enough to breathe to attempt landing. In five minutes she would be out of air. She radioed the ground with her problem. Then she floated in her capsule and awaited death.

“Sir, the capsule is leaking oxygen!” the ensign at the conn yelled

“What?” the captain replied

“It appears that the capsule is leaking oxygen at an alarming rate. My estimate puts it out of breathable air in five minutes.” the science officer responded

“So your telling me the pilot of the craft is about to die?” the captain asked

“If we do not intervene then the pilot will be dead in five minutes, and my estimates of the time for the craft to land are twelve minutes.” the Vulcan told him

“Crap, so its let the pilot die or completely give up on any hope of leaving without completely exposing ourselves?” the captain asked

“Yes sir”

The captain thought for a second. Would he let the pilot die because of his mistake. Or would he save the pilot and destroy his career. It only took a moment to decide. He may be drummed out of Starfleet but he wouldn’t have the blood on his hands. “Transporter room, beam the pilot over quickly. Beam to the cargo bay and lock it. Ill work out what to do from there.”

“Locking on, energizing, got em” the transporter chief told the captain

“Now what do we do?” the captain asked no one in particular

As Star Dancer awaited death she felt very peaceful. She would die doing what she loved. She started flying acrobatic planes at a young age. She was the youngest pilot ever to win the Grand Derby, the premier acrobatic competition on the planet. She was chosen first for the space corps. She was still barely a mare yet had accomplished so much. And now she would be the first pony to die in space, a honor she could do without. But it was her fate, and she would meet it head on just as she met all challenges. Just then an odd feeling started in her belly, spreading thru her whole body. She looked at her reflection in the window and noticed she was shimmering. She felt funny and noticed her capsule was fading from around her. Then a new room faded in. It looked like some kind of storage room. She looked around and started to get scared. Was this death? An eternity in a storage room was definatly not what she was expecting. Then a voice called to her from nowhere.

“You are safe. We will be returning you to the surface soon. There is food in the yellow containers and water in the blue ones. Please remain calm.” a strangely calm female voice said

“Um, is this the ship in orbit of my planet?” Star Dancer asked. She got no response. She sat back and looked around. She saw the containers the voice told her about. She walked over to a blue one. It had a spout on it. She opened the spout and water came out. She drank some and laid down to ponder her situation.

“OK, the situation as it now stands is we have an alien life form in our cargo bay, a strange planet below us, no engines to leave, and so far no idea how to handle any of it” the captain asked his senior officers

“That is an accurate assessment captain” the Vulcan woman stated

“Anyone have any ideas?” the captain asked

He looked at the blank faces. Then a faint sign, all he ever got from the Vulcan, of an idea was on his science officers face.

“The best course of action I can see at this point is to talk to the being in the cargo bay and make contact. It will know how to contact the planets leaders and how to return the surface.”

“So we make first contact and hope for the best?”

“Yes sir”

The captain pondered this. It was the best idea he had available to him at this point. But how would he do it. He had no experience with first contacts. How he wished Kirk was here. He'd know just what to do.

“Anyone on board have any experience with first contact?” the captain asked

“I have.” the tactical officer said

Every eye was on him. No one ever knew him to be a diplomatic person.

“I worked security for the diplomatic corps when I first left the Academy”

“OK, Mr Durant, what should we do.”

“Well captain, I only worked security but I'd say we establish with them our peaceful intent, find out if they want to be peaceful, and arrange for a real diplomat to come out and finish the job.”

“Can we get a visual on the cargo bay?” the captain asked

“Sure thing captain.” the security officer replied, pulling up the requested feed

“There it is” the captain said

Sure enough, in the cargo bay laid a small dark blue coated, purple maned pony. It appeared to still have on part of its space suit. It was chewing on some of the dried rations in the cargo bay.

“Well, if we're gonna do this we had better do it” the captain said, “Security, you’ll come with me but I want you unarmed. Ill go in and speak with the alien. I want a transporter lock on me the whole time. If this goes south I want to be beamed our and straight to sick bay.”

“Your not going in there without me” the doctor said, “What if its hurt.”

The captain thought for a moment. Doctor Lindsey was a kind woman. She might be of some help talking to the alien as well. “I agree doctor, lets go”

As they walked to the cargo bay they discussed how to talk to the alien. Once they arrived security took up position at the door of the cargo bay. With a deep breath the captain said “Open it”

Star Dancer sat in the storage room and chewed on the alien food. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t good. As she finished the laid down to await whatever the strange creatures had in store for her. She just wanted to go home. Then she heard the large door begin to open. She glanced around quickly for a place to hide. She saw a place and darted to it. Then she heard a male voice say “Um, hello. We mean you no harm we just would like to have a talk with you.” then a female voice said “Are you hurt. I am a doctor.
I just want to make sure your ok.” Star Dancer had never been so scared. These were the aliens who didn’t seem to want to talk before. Now that she was on their ship they did. And she was completely at their mercy. Taking in a large gulp of air she steeled herself. Then she walked over to the two.

“Um, hello, my name is Star Dancer. Thank you for saving me. But I'd really like to go home now.”

“Hello, my name is Captain Dewayne Morgan. You are on the Federation starship Challenger. This is our medical officer Doctor Lisa Lindsey. We mean you no harm.”

“Are you hurt? We are sorry we beamed you off your ship like that but we saw they your air was running out and didn’t want any harm to come to you” the doctor added

“I think I’m ok. But may I ask you a question before we go on?” Star Dancer said

“I guess so” the captain replied

“Why didn’t you respond when we tried to contact you?” Star Dancer asked

“Well, that’s kinda complicated. We have a rule not to interfere with developing societys. But we had a minor accident aboard our ship and had to stop here. Then you picked up our signal to our people. Were still trying to figure out how you did that. But we didn’t want to interfere any more so we stayed quiet hoping we could be towed out of here before any more damage to your planet was done. Unfortunately they sent you up and you had your accident and we couldn’t just let you die. So now we have to reveal ourselves. Otherwise we would have left and your people would have been none the wiser” the captain explained

“So what are you going to do with me now?” Star Dancer asked

“Well, first we are going to make sure you are ok, then we will contact your government and arrange to return you to them. And since that means we will have revealed ourselves we will make arrangements for an expert in first contact with another civilization to come here.” the captain said

“So I am going home?” Star Dancer asked hopeful

“Well you cant stay here” the captain joked

All three laughed at the joke. Then the doctor said “I'd like to take you to sickbay to do a through scan to make sure your not hurt.”

“Ok, I guess.” Star Dancer replied

“Then ill need to find out how and who to contact to arrange your return. Do you think they will want your space craft back as well?” the captain asked

“I don’t guess so. We only use them once anyway. It should be ok in orbit.”

“Um, we actually have it in our shuttle bay.” the captain told her

“Oh, well you can just drop it back in orbit. I wouldn’t want you to waste space with it”

“It's no trouble to send it back with you. Its pretty small.”

“Well, I’m sure it would make a nice gift to a museum”

“Ok then, we'll see to it” the captain smiled. Maybe this wouldn’t end badly.

Once they finished talking the doctor led the pony to sickbay. The captain returned to the bridge. He had a long and detailed report to send to Starfleet.