Daydream Boy

[Archie Phoenix 0]

Daydream Boy

Stardate 50802.13

 

“Cadet Phoenix?”

 

The voice from behind failed to pull Archie away from his absentminded musing -- ‘daydreaming’ he believed the Humans called it. The central viewport in Docking Bay 3 of McKinley Station offered a breathtaking view of the starship construction frames and the field of stars beyond. It continued to amaze him, these marvels which the founders of the Federation had achieved. Material marvels. External marvels. The sorts of things a species could accomplish when they focused outside themselves … rather than constantly inside. For the Humans, ‘daydreaming’ was just an aberration, a momentary and discouraged distraction from more pressing matters … such as building those fields of starships, developing the technologies that powered them, and working on relations with other species to better share those technologies. Outward. Always outward.

 

How different our people are, he mused.

 

“Hahum. Cadet Phoenix!”

 

This time the voice caught Archie’s attention, even if the title with which he was addressed was erroneous. He turned to face a tall-black haired man wearing a security uniform with Lieutenant pips. He was holding a PADD at one side and a Renazian data stone at the other. “That is me, sir,” Archie answered quickly, going slightly rigid in the presence of the superior officer. “Though … I just graduated from the Academy two weeks ago. I am an Ensign now.”

 

“No. You are not,” the Lieutenant said snidely, as if annoyed at being corrected. The color of Archie‘s cheeks started to match his eyes. “Because you are to be the first Renazian officer in Starfleet, you are to serve an orientation period on Arcadia before your promotion to Ensign is made official. If anything … ‘Midshipman’ would be a more appropriate title for you. You will learn the ropes on Arcadia first.”

 

“Learn the ropes?” Archie risked asking. “As I understand, there haven’t been ropes aboard your naval ships in many centuries.”

 

“It’s an expression.” The Lieutenant looked even more annoyed; Archie regretted the question. “I am Lieutenant Mark Cameron; I handle all the crew departures from McKinley. You are going to board the USS Montana, which will depart tomorrow and rendezvous three days from now with Arcadia en route to their diplomatic mission on the planet Axrekrav. There are two items which we much discuss. First, I am to pass along this correspondence from your homeworld‘s government.”

 

The data stone looked no more impressive than something that might be found on any rocky beach, and Lieutenant Cameron gave it a skeptical look as he handed it over. How could this thing possibly contain any data, he was no doubt wondering. But Archie knew better, and he possessed what Starfleet did not -- a Renazian computer capable of reading the stone. He would not need to read this one, of course, because he already knew what it contained -- yet another warning to be very careful about what information he revealed to Starfleet.

 

It had taken nearly a century of talks for the Exalted Pentad, the ruling body of Renazian society, to apply their world for Federation membership and even more years of special training for the first Renazians who would be allowed to join Starfleet. Two Renazians had already enlisted in Starfleet before Archie‘s training began -- a four year process that was aimed moreso at proper conduct than at starship training. He was taught to be secretive, to isolate himself from others, and, mostly, to place a premium value on information. Archie had no idea what information he was supposed to be guarding; the information the Pentad was so intent on keeping from the Federation was not even shared with Renazia’s citizens, Archie included. But that was the way of the Pentad -- secrecy to an extreme.

 

Archie tucked the stone into a pouch on his belt. “Thank you,” he said to Cameron, who almost seemed disappointed that Archie was not going to ‘read’ the stone in front of him.

 

“The other item,” Cameron said, raising the PADD and tapping it. “Is your personal cargo manifest, which you are to bring to Arcadia’s quartermaster … after I approve it, of course. The largest item you are bringing aboard is a container -- Renazian material, elaborately decorated, weighing 29 and a half kilograms.” Cameron’s eyes lifted from the PADD. “Is that … what I think it is?”

 

There really wasn’t an answer Archie could give that was neither a lie nor a betrayal of his government’s warnings. So he merely gave Lieutenant Cameron a small smile, the closest such answer he could manage and one that he hoped would suffice. It did. Cameron looked back down at the PADD, confident that he knew what he thought he knew, and continued. “One standard leather case containing the usual amenities -- off-duty clothing, grooming items, photos from home. A galaxy globe; very nice, I have one myself. Fourteen PADDs containing engineering textbooks and diagrams. And a plastic case of iso cards that is labeled ‘Archie.’ I assumed it was a journal, but the man on the front of the case had orange hair, not orange eyes.”

 

“Ah, no,” Archie answered with a small laugh. “That is a gift I received when I entered the Academy. I was told that it would help me understand Human culture. I … took the name.” The confused look on Cameron’s face prompted Archie to elaborate. “Renazian names are not very easy to pronounce in your language or to translate. So those of us who have joined Starfleet have taken Human names. ‘Archie‘ seemed somehow appropriate.”

 

“But what exactly is this ‘Archie?’” Cameron asked, waving the PADD.

 

“Leisurely reading. I believe they are called comic books? They are also a piece of history, one of the cultural items that survived your third world war.”

 

“Right.” Cameron seemed to have no idea what Archie was talking about. “So you took the name Archie from this ’comic book’ … and the name Phoenix?”

 

“From your early mythologies. Ancient Human culture has been one of my fascina--”

 

“Yes, yes,” Cameron said impatiently. There was an interrogative tone to his voice that hinted to Archie where this conversation was going. “I’m quite familiar with the phoenix legends. It’s a reference, isn’t it? To the fact that you people … can’t die?”

 

This second of Cameron’s ‘sensitive questions’ was more uncomfortable than the first. It didn’t help that the Lieutenant was looking at Archie the same way he‘d been looking at the data stone. It was a look he’d received many times from Starfleet officials who were familiar with the Renazian people. What was the Human expression for that kind of look? As if I have three heads, Archie thought. Quite an ironic expression in this case. He got the impression that the ones who looked at him that way were somehow threatened by the unique ability which separated Renazians from all the rest.

Probably because we aren‘t sharing that ability with them.

 

“I found the name Phoenix … appropriate,” Archie answered simply.

 

“I’m sure you did.” Cameron narrowed his eyes at Archie. There was a prolonged silence in which Archie assumed the Lieutenant was waiting for him to reveal something extraordinary. Maybe those secrets which the Federation coveted. Secrets to which Archie was not privy … as he’d explained to all of the Academy instructors who questioned him about them. Archie merely stood and smiled until Lieutenant Cameron nodded in resignation. “The Montana departs tomorrow at 0700. All the information you need is on the PADD. Good fortunes, Cadet!”

 

Lieutenant Cameron strode off and Archie returned to his viewport gazing. Would that be his lot in Starfleet, he wondered? Constantly being pressed with questions to which he did not even possess answers? Of course it would. This was Starfleet. To them, the Renazian secret was no different than those starships out there, or the alien culture orbiting that star right there -- another milestone to stretch their hands out toward. They were always looking for the next great discovery, and they presented themselves openly to achieve it.

 

Archie thought of his training on Renazia and the mantras that were repeated almost daily -- ‘don’t ask questions you don’t need to, answer them only as far as you have to.’ How different our people are. And yet here Archie was -- standing on a Starfleet base wearing a Starfleet uniform. The comic books at which many Renazian elders would scoff were fascinating to him. Those ships -- so many useless bundles of technology to a true Renazian -- were Archie’s career calling. And Archie found his imagination gripped by every one of those stars. He wanted to know what sorts of planets circled them and what sorts of people lived on those planets. Yet the few Renazian scientists who dared to band together and discover the means to travel the stars were labeled as radicals, their discovery cited as one of the events that preceded the Jetaes Rebellion. Interest in the stars was foolishness to most Renazians, and they preferred that any alien races keep to those stars and stay away from Renazia.

 

Am I more Human than Renazian? Archie wondered, for perhaps the hundredth time.

 

But then, he reminded himself, here he was daydreaming again. A chronic habit that seemed more Renazian than Human. Even if his daydreams so rarely took him home …

Edited May 20, 2008 by Archie Phoenix