Where No Man Has Gone Before

[Tachyon 0]

“Where No Man Has Gone Before”

March 14, 2156

Lieutenant Dave Grey

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Grey watched in horror as the Orion guard seized Commander Cole. In an instant, their best laid plans had gone awry! The Orions had betrayed them—typical. The science nerds had to unlock the door—typical. But what it all boiled down to was that Grey was a woman on an alien starship in an unfriendly part of the galaxy. How much more atypical, he wondered, would it get before he was safe and sound back on Challenger?

 

His mind tried to think of ways to help, but it was as frozen as his feet. He could only hope that the pheromones would take effect, that the guard would loosen his grip and be subdued. If it came down to a physical altercation, Grey was confident that they could take out just one guard together. But that big guy had even bigger friends. . . .

 

Their mission had barely begun and this was the result. Grey hoped that in the future Starfleet would have better covert plans created before they sent their officers into these situations. Maybe even send in a specialised team—he supposed that Neptune was their version of a “specialist”, which just proved how out of touch with reality the Starfleet brass was.

 

Grey felt a pang of regret too. They were out here, supposedly, to “explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before.” Split infinitives aside, Grey wondered what infiltrating another species had to do with exploration. Time and again he had waited for the wonder, the amazement, the awe of seeing the new and uncharted regions of space. But so far all he had seen was danger and intrigue. It was quite discourteous of every second species they met to try and blow them out of the sky.

 

Nevertheless they had more pressing matters at hand than idealism. Grey pushed his impractical concerns off to one side and focussed on th single issue that was of importance: the fact that their mission was falling apart. He still saw no way to positively contribute, but he waited, and watched for an opportunity.