It's a Big Galaxy
Episode Name: It's a Big Galaxy Written By: Starfleet Cast: Edwards, Minos, Park, Starfleet and Tyler. Produced By: Starfleet Directed By: Starfleet Aired On: Wed Sep 11 22:47:44 2002 Stardate: 52626.6
Time: Wed Sep 11 02:43:20 2002
Stardate: 52624.6
Tyler shifts a bit as Park gets up. She mumbles something unintelligible but she's still sound asleep. Her eyes move as she dreams.
The artifact pulsates and hums. The floor seems to vibrate with the energy it consumes - and it consumes quite a lot.
Park rubs at his eyes, trying to clear the sleep and the images from his mind. He moves slowly over toward the Artifact's console, not touching anything. Speaking softly, so that Wendy will still be able to catch up on much needed sleep, he says, "Why did you show me all of that?"
The rhythmic hum that is the sound of the artifact is unchanged by Park's question. If it understands, it shows no sign.
Park smiles as he continues to look on at the Artifact, "It's OK, I'm not mad or anything. I was just curious as to why you chose that particular moment of her life to share with me."
There is a computer beep, from the console dais.
Park looks down, trying to find where the beep is coming from.
The console is entirely out of Park's league. Horribly complex physics formulas scroll across the screens, and there's controls far beyond his comprehension. One button flashes an angry red, though. It's causing the beeping noise.
Park looks at the console in total confusion. He looks up at the Artifiact and back down again. "Do you want me to push this or something?, Aaron asks. "You're gonna have to pulse or give me something resembling english, buddy, cause I can't understand but about a 10th of this stuff."
There is no reply.
Park takes a deep breath, "I know I'm probably going to regret this, but.......", he says as he slowly reaches out and pushes the button.
There is a crashing wave of light and sound, like a freight train is passes over the counselor. Park is standing in the nighttime swim program of the Holodeck. Tyler is swimming in the pool, and the sound of the waterfall rumbles nearby like the pulse of the artifact. She swims to the rock Park is standing on. "Hello, Aaron," Tyler says.
Park pauses a second as he gathers himself once again. He looks around for a moment and then looks at Wendy, "Uh, hi!".
Tyler looks up from the water as she bobs there. She doesn't smile, she just regards him. "We showed you what you needed to know," Wendy says.
Park crouches down and looks at her, "Why do I need to know that, though?"
"Because you help her," replies the artifact Wendy. "She is our mother."
Park smiles, "She is very special to me." Aaron shifts to that he is sitting on the rock, "I want to understand more about you because you are special to her. Do you always understand when I speak to you?"
There is no facial expression on Tyler. She just looks at him as if looking through glass. "Yes," is her simple reply.
Park nods, "Good. When you are speaking, you keep using plural when referring to yourself. Why?"
"We are one. We exist everywhere, everywhen." Tyler pushes herself out of the water and sits on the rock.
Park nods slowly in understanding, "OK, I think I understand that." He smiles at the Artifact Wendy. "So why do you say that Wendy is your mother?"
"She is our creator, the bearer of life. Without her there is darkness," replies the artifact Tyler. "She is ours. We are one."
"That's what I don't understand.", Aaron says truthfully. "How did she create you?"
Tyler looks at him blankly. She's not blinked the whole time, and it's kind of creepy. "Without her there is darkness. She brought us back to life, when we were dead."
Park takes a breath, obviously struggling with the concepts of time and space. "So, she found you and you were not alive, but she found a way to bring you back? In her current timeline, when does she do this?"
"It has already come to pass," is Wendy's reply.
Park nods, "OK. Is there anything you can do to help her remember what her other self has blocked from her memory?"
Tyler replies, "Yes. We have helped her. We helped her find you."
Park smiles, "Then I have you to thank for that. But I can't do anything else for her. Her brain was physically altered and the pathways will not reconnect. I don't think there is anything else I CAN do for her without knowing how to repair that damage."
"We are one." As if that explains it all. "Good bye, Aaron." She slips back into the water with a splash. She dives under and disappears. White light flows back over Park and he is standing once again in the computer core of the Aegis.
Park steadys himself on the console, then grins at the Artifact. "We're going to have to work on those cryptic answers, but thanks for talking to me." He sits on the dias and just watches Wendy sleep, saying nothing and thinking about what he was told.
Tyler stirs in her sleep, but does not wake up.
Park moves over toward the cot and gently sits on the side of it, laying a hand on Wendy's shoulder to provide some physical contact.
... Meanwhile, on Minos' ship ...
Casya tugs Edwards into the entertainment room of the pirate's lair, as Ghorev works on the console outside. From out of the guest bedroom that Casya indicated Bela was being held in, out steps Minos in a black robe. He's complaining about being at red alert status as he walks out, but stops short when he sees that it isn't his henchmen and is instead the first officer of Station 419. "Mr. Edwards."
Edwards plasters on a quite false smile, "Minos, my old friend!" And, that smile still in place, he swings a right hook at the pirate, "I don't think we're gonna be able to make dinner."
Ghorev growls as he takes phaser and chaka in separate hands, and that growl then stretches into a shout, "Michael, hold him off as long as you can," projecting to be heard over the sounds of the Human Starfleet officer and the pirate engaged in their battle. "Unless I can find and take down a major shield juncture, we're not going to get out of here." And with that, and the sound of his feet, and the whoosh of a door, the Andorian engineer is gone.
Casya jumps off to the side and plasters herself against a liquid-crystal display wall unit. She's as useless as they come in hand-to-hand as proven in their earlier encounter. She whimpers softly.
Minos takes the blow like a champ, but his lip cracks and starts to swell.
"I don't think I'll be disappointed by that," states Minos as he
charges Edwards to body check him into the bulkhead.
Casya yelps uselessly.
Edwards blinks, somewhat surprised that the Teflon Don can handle himself
without a weapon. Course, his surprise is soon forgotten when he slams into the
bulkhead, and Mr. Pain introduces himself. He brings a knee up, trying to drive
it Minos' sternum.
Minos grabs Edwards' knee for leverage as it comes up, and the Orion sweeps
his foot to knock the Starfleet officer onto the floor.
Edwards grunts when his knee is grabbed, but, using his position against the
bulkhead to support himself, he manages to hop his other leg away without
falling on his ass. "That all you got?" he asks, as he swings a closed
fist at the Orion's side.
Minos oofs under the impact from Edwards' fist and doubles over slightly.
"Not likely," replies the Orion. He takes the opportunity to rise back
up, his elbow swinging toward Edwards' jaw.
Wham! Edwards staggers away after being slammed and works his jaw, making
sure it isn't broken. "Well now I'm pissed." he comments. Coming back,
he throws a quick left jab at Minos' face, "Tell me, Minos. How's it feel
to know that two Starfleet officers, previously unarmed and in slave collars,
are mucking up your plans?"
Minos easily side steps the Starfleet officer's attack. "I should have
killed Janice. Fancy my surprise to learn she was your mother." He plays
dirty - what pirate wouldn't? His foot comes up fast toward Edwards' groin. Lt.
Poole would be proud.
Edwards doubles over as white hot pain sears up his manhood and straight to
his brain. The collar was a cakewalk in comparison. He falls over, the sick pit
in his stomach growing into a chasm. Minos laughs over Edwards, and kicks him in
the stomach this time with a reared back foot. The pain is excruciating. Minos
spits on Edwards' face. "You are nothing, Michael Edwards. I'm going to
enjoy defiling your wife, my property." Through Edwards' bleary eyes, he
can barely make out his phaser, lying under the edge of a pillow.
Edwards clutches his stomach and grimaces, his body inching away from Minos
and toward the pillow a little, as if he's trying to avoid being injured
further. "Defiling, huh?" he barely squeaks out, past gritted teeth,
as he plays up the hurt... which isn't all that hard to do, since it hurts like
hell.
Minos turns toward Casya. "You stupid bitch, I'm going to kill you for
helping them." He slaps her back-handed and she screams as she collapses
against the bulkhead.
And that's what he needed. Edwards musters his willpower, doing his best to
move despite the pain, and darts forward, grabbing the phaser from under the
pillow. Jerking the weapon around, he aims it at the Orion, and remarks, "Wanna
see defilement, Minos? Wait 'til you meet Bubba the Nausicaan in prison."
Minos stops and turns to look at Edwards. He looks at the weapon and blinks
twice. The whine of a transporter engages and Minos begins to sparkle away into
nothingness.
Edwards jams his thumb down on the firing button as quickly as humanly
possible, "That better goddamn well be you, Ghorev!"
The phaser lances out, but ends up just going through the transporter matter
stream as Minos disappears. Edwards' shot explods the LCD wall above Casya, and
the sobbing Orion girl dives out of the way as shards of glass rain down on her.
Edwards curses a blue streak when Minos disappears. Slowly, he climbs up to
his feet, moving in spite of the pain. "Where is she?" he asks Casya,
glancing toward her.
Casya pulls herself up off the ground and sniffles. She rubs her jaw where
Minos hit her. "Behind that door," she says, indicating the door Minos
came through. "Hurry, the guards will be here soon.."
Edwards nods a little, "C'mon." He grunts and makes his way toward
the door as quickly as he can move. "Hope Ake is doing all right." he
mutters.
The doors hiss open and inside is a smaller bedroom, a guest room. The room
is no less luxuriant than Minos' room, though. Lying on the bed is Bela. She
isn't wearing the brown dress, but is dressed rather provocatively in a skimpy
slave girl outfit, though with her bulging stomach she looks relatively silly.
She does not stir as they enter. In fact, as they get closer, it appears she has
been drugged if the hypo on the night stand says anything. Her neck is adorned
with a slave collar.
Edwards immediately speaks when he enters, "Bela?" Once he makes it
over to the bed, he notices that she's out of it, and motions to Casya,
"Get that thing off of her."
Casya removes the collar with the key she was given by Madame Edwards.
"She's beautiful," says Casya of Edwards' wife. She smiles to Edwards
and gently rubs Bela's exposed tummy. "Maybe I will meet a Starfleet
officer and I will have his babies."
Edwards tries to lift Bela off of the bed, once the collar is off,
"Yeah, well, I doubt there'll be any shortage of volunteers to help you
with that, Casya."
"Perhaps there is room in your harem?" Casya asks and helps Edwards
gently lift Bela.
Edwards considers that, then quickly shakes his head, "Er, sorry. One
woman harem here." He begins moving toward the exit, "Let's hope Ake
is done now."
Casya looks a little disappointed by that but leads them back out into the
bedroom. "We must hurry before Minos' men descend on us," she says.
She slips up to the main entrance and peers down the hallway. "The corridor
is empty," she whispers. "Let's go!"
Edwards follows along behind Casya, trusting her to lead the way. "I
hope we don't run into anyone. I'll have a hell of a time trying to shoot like
this." he comments quietly.
Casya looks at Edwards. "You should have woken her with the hypospray,"
she says. She moves up to a cross corridor and peeks down both ways. "Empty
again?" She seems puzzled. She darts across as quickly as she can.
Edwards protests, "I'm not a doctor. I don't randomly inject people with
hyposprays. Why didn't you tell me to do it?" He continues following,
glancing around, "Why does the word 'trap' spring to mind?"
"I don't presume to tell my lord what to do," replies Casya.
"Yes, I'm worried about that too," she whispers. She tiptoes to the
next cross corridor and peeks down the hall. The sounds of disruptor fire can be
heard down the corridor. Casya ducks back around the corner and plasters herself
against the bulkhead. Running footsteps can be heard, more disruptor fire. Four
men run past the corridor they are hiding in, followed by six more, shooting at
the first four. All of them are dressed as slaves. It seems Edwards and Ghorev
have started something of a minor mutiny on the proverbial Bounty.
Edwards mimics the plastering maneuver, and watches the slaves run on by. He
doesn't try to intercede, what with the wife dead to the world and not knowing
who's on what side. "That explains that." he mutters softly.
Casya slips around the corner and starts to make her way quickly and quietly
down the hall. She waits for Edwards and together with Bela they duck into the
transporter room. "At last!" she says.
At that moment, Ghorev's voice comes over Edwards' comm badge: "Ghorev
to Edwards. I've taken down shield grid control juncture #3," ... then the
sound of a single brief pulse of phaser fire ... "and just performed what
you might call a manual lockout of the control panel. Anyone who can use that
console to undo my work without losing a hand deserves to stop us,
frankly."
Edwards grins at the perfect timing, as he steps into the transporter room,
"Remind me to give you a cookie when we get home, Ake." He moves over
to the transporter pad, laying Bela down on it, "Now we need to get off of
this tin can o' doom." That said, he makes his way over to the transporter
controls, "Let's see who we can take with us..."
Edwards is able to get locks onto himself, Bela, Casya, Ghorev, Madame
Edwards and all of the lodubyaln slave girls. Anyone with a collar cannot be
found locked onto.
Edwards makes sure the planet below doesn't have a poison atmosphere or
anything like that and prepares to transport everyone that's been locked on to a
safe spot.
It's twenty people in all taken from Minos. They materialize in a park near a
large metropolis. There are fifteen slave girls not including Casya. Madame
Edwards rushes to her son and throws her arms around him. "Mikey!" she
says. She's crying out of happiness. She looks at the slumbering form of Bela
and asks, "This is my daughter?"
Ghorev materializes with the usual sparkles and whine of energy, phaser and
chaka in hand. As he takes a step forward, what remains of his tricorder falls
apart from the thigh holster. It is clear that it was not all in one piece when
he began the transport. He eyes it, eyes Edwards. "I will be putting
Tricorder Unit #744510G in for a posthumous commendation. Let's just say that it
gave its all for the cause of interfacing with Minos' bastardized technology.
Are we ready to go home?"
Edwards does hug his mother, albeit briefly, this time. "Yeah, yeah, it
is." he replies, glancing down toward Bela. Oh, hey, and there's Ghorev.
Focusing on him makes this feel less awkward for now. "Oh yes." he
replies, as he goes for his tricorder, "Let's get out of here."
Madame Edwards stays her son's hand. "Danasa foru mada tobata iri?"
she asks the girls. All of them shake their heads, except Casya. She steps
forward to join Edwards and Ghorev.
"The lodubyaln have chosen to stay," says Madame Edwards.
"Except me," Casya replies. "I'm coming with you."
Ghorev looks on at this without comment.
Edwards makes a face, "They want to stay?" That sort of ruins his
plan to piss off Minos even more. "Well, it's their choice. But they'll
have to wait for Minos to pick them up here." He glances at Casya and
half-smiles, "Holding out for a Starfleeter, eh?"
Casya shrugs a little bit. "It's a big galaxy," she says, returning
his smile. "Who knows what can happen?"
When the artifact is engaged, the officers are transported back to the USS
Aegis cargo bay with Casya, Madame Edwards and the sleeping Bela.
