BAM!!

[Seiben 0]

Seiben cautiously pilots the Republic into the asteroid he found. Hopefully, the satelites from any nearby planets won't be able to detect them there. He maneuvers the ship around the large chunks of asteroids at a slow and steady 500 km/h. Seiben scans the area and finds many places for the Republic to hide: Large craters inside some asteroids, some large enough to fit 10 Republics. So far, the large gash in the hull and the embedded hunk of Ferengi hull has not affected the Republic's propulsion and hanndling. Stupid Ferengis! Seiben thinks. Why am I not surprised? They probably didn't want to wait their turn and took offbefore his turn, Seiben surmises. Seiben rubs his temples, it's been a long day. The delta-shift was just reporting in for duty, giving Seiben the chance to retire for the day. Seiben enters the turbolift and heads down to his quarters. Once arriving at his deck, Seiben enters his quarters and takes a long, hot sonic shower. He then dons his Italian silk robe and slippers and walks to his La-Z-Boy Elegance Mark VII recliner and turns on the shiatsu massage feature. The chair turns his spine to jelly. "That's better." Seiben thinks as the massage programme times out. Seiben walks over to his console to think out the problem: After veering off a Ferengi Marauder, the Republic was thrown 2147 light years off course, and about 200 years into the future. Late 26th century, he thinks. Seiben wonders how much the world has changed. Seiben also wonders what happened to the Ferengi ship as well. It too took damage, and was most likely thrown off-course as well. Looking over the hull fragment, Seiben concluded that it had come from the bottom hull near the stern. Seiben also is quite familiar with Ferengi ships, and knows that that area is near main engineering. Serves them right, he thinks. "I hope they veeered into a meteor shower." Seiben mutters. "Meteor shower! Meteor shower! Skquak!" says Bella, Seiben's pet macaw. Seiben walks over to Bella and opens her cage, letting her fly onto Seiben's console. He feeds Bella some fruit, and strokes her head and back. As Bella snacks on her grapes, Seiben is surprised to see he got mail. From his cousin, Lt. JG Hans Seiben of the Arcadia. HE's in P'Jem, seeking counsel there. Seiben frowns, he always was an isolated guy. He thinks. Seiben feels sorry for his cousin, but is glad he's made a full recovery, and a changed personality. The message was sent before the Republic's shunt off-course, so unsurprisingly, Seiben is unable to reply back to him. Lt. JG Seiben and Lt. Seiben both have the same first name and look virtually alike. As roommates in Academy, Lt. Seiben, and Lt. JG Seiben would sometimes go to each other's classes, just to see if anyone would realise.. they never did. That was always a fun prank. He thinks. Seiben wishes he can send a reponse back to his cousin. Seiben misses him, and wish he'd write more often. But, Seiben never wrote to his cousin on the Arcadia that much either anyways.. so that kinda even things out. Seiben thinks. Seiben scratches Bella's head and gave her a little kiss. He then, places her back in her cave and replaces the cover. "Goodnight, Bella." says Seiben. "Squawk! Goodnight Hans!" Replies Bella. Seiben smiles and crawls into bed. He turns off the lights, and hopes that they'll get home soon.

Edited December 2, 2003 by Seiben