"Captain, is that really you?"
They gathered around Sissy, each with a weapon displayed and on watch for trouble. Cassandra remained aloof and very much on guard.
"Yes, it's me." Sissy said calmly. The glow on her face belied her situation.
"Well, are you OK, did they hurt you?" Jeff asked anxiously.
"No, no, I'm fine. They have been very nice, actually." She smiled at their agitation.
"Nice!" Cathy exclaimed, "Sissy, you've been abducted, for God's sake!"
The Captain turned her smile on Cathy. "Well, that's not entirely correct. The fact is, you have been abducted as well."
"What!" Cathy pushed her phasor in front of her and scanned for danger. Jeff, Joanie and Cassandra did the same. Unconsciously, they tightened their circle and went back to back.
Sissy chuckled. "Calm down; there is no danger here. And I may have exaggerated our situation somewhat. We haven't been abducted so much as recruited."
Cathy wasn't buying it. "Recruited, huh." No one approached from any direction, so they relaxed their posture somewhat, though Cassandra kept a watchful eye. "Well, if it is against our will, then I don't care what you call it, we're prisoners."
The Captain shook her head. "First, you decided of your own free will to come here. And second, we are free to leave."
"Well, let's go then," Joanie promptly said. "This is a weird place and it gives me the creeps."
"Fine," Sissy said, "but first I want you to talk to Elvis. After that, we can leave."
"Elvis? The King of Rock and Roll?" All but Cassandra stared at Sissy at this pronouncement, forgetting watchfulness a moment in their surprise.
"No, the leader of this dying civilization."
"His name is Elvis?" Cathy said.
Sissy grinned. "Yeah; well, he says his mother is a fan. In fact, they call this place Graceland."
"Cute," Cassandra said. "I say, let's get this over with and get out of here."
"Follow me," Sissy said.
She turned and led them through the lighted Crystal City until they arrived at a great hall seemingly carved out of quartz. The beautiful rose colored translucent walls bathed them all in a soft pink light. In the center of the room, sitting on a throne carved out of Emerald, sat a gray humanoid of the type described by Teresa. The creature on the throne was dressed in purple. Intelligence was reflected in his eyes and power in his manner. He resembled a more romantic image of an earthly King than any human was ever able to embody. They stood silent in awe of his presence.
Then he spoke.
"Welcome to my world." His voice was deep and resonant.
"Why did you take the Captain?" Cathy said defiantly. She immediately felt she was too harsh, but she could not figure why.
"Oh," Elvis said, "Don't be cruel. I have a proposal for your captain. I have explained it to her and she has accepted. We never intended to hurt her or hold her, but our situation is rather dire and we needed her complete attention."
"Oh, so you just abducted her, then?" Cathy went on. "That's how you propose things in your culture?" Cathy' indignation was waning, but she continued in spite of this.
"Well," he said, and the hint of a smile Joaniessed his face, "she will need help, and we needed to see that she had loyal and brave companions before we could entrust her with the fate of the universe."
Whoa, the fate of the universe!
"You have, by coming here in search of her, proven this to us. Now I will explain, and I hope that you will agree to help us help you."
They all stood silently. Sissy was still smiling.
"We are the Naqshband, or so we call ourselves. In your language, this means 'designer'. So we call ourselves The Designers. Our civilization is very, very old. Older than the Rock of Ages. Older than humans by hundreds of millennia. And it is our civilization that has been entrusted with furthering the evolution of sentient life in the universe. But the time has come for us to pass this responsibility on.
"Unfortunately, we have adversaries. We engineered the human race to be our successors. For longer than the human race has existed, the civilization resident in the star system Sirius has opposed our efforts. The reason for this is that they live on negative emotions. How this is possible is beyond this discussion, but the fact is that they encourage strife, enmity, and hatred. The human race is particularly susceptible to these feelings, and so since almost the beginning, and though they have sown strife elsewhere in the universe, Sirius has paid much attention to your people. Many times in your history their efforts have nearly destroyed you and our work.
"Now we have come to a point where we, the Naqshband, the Designers, are no longer able to fight this battle. Against this day of need, we have cultivated a race of humans on the colony world Canopus Delta 4 who are ready to emerge from the cocoon to take over our role. But they need a spark. This spark has been implanted in your Captain, because she is a suitable container and because we cannot do this ourselves without the Sirian operatives noticing. And you will have to help her deliver her "cargo" without leading Sirius to the Canopians.
"The task will be dangerous because Starfleet, as well as the Federation of Worlds, has been completely infiltrated by Sirian agents. If they find out about you and your mission, they will have you singing Jailhouse Rock before you know it or, more likely, you will be eliminated, and the Universe will devolve into chaos.
"So what do you think?" Elvis sat back and considered them.
The crew exchanged glances, and then they all looked at Sissy. She was simply glowing. Interpreting their intent, she turned to Elvis and said, "You're the Boss."
Cassandra groaned, "I'll need to make a Wolf Call."
"Starfleet for you on zero-niner, Captain," Donovan announced.
Sissy felt strange sitting in the command seat of the Surprise. She had only been gone a few days, but it seemed so much had happened.
"In my office," she commanded. As she crossed the bridge, everything seemed so normal, but she felt out of place. No one seemed to be paying special attention to her, and yet she felt as if everyone was watching.
"Surprise," she said as she took the call.
"Ahh, Captain Willis," Admiral Oohzdder was staring back at her. All heads were at attention. "How are you feeling?"
Sissy hesitated, "Fine, I feel fine .... Thank you. What can I do for you?"
"Well, it's more a case of what can I do for you? We hear you were, ah ..." the Admiral's speaking head smiled, and all his other heads smiled as well, "abducted." The listening heads chuckled. Sissy felt that had they all had their own arms, they'd have elbowed each other.
"Abducted?" Sissy was on her guard, but feigned amused surprise. "Oh, I'm afraid not, Admiral. We were just playing a joke on a gullible officer." Sorry, Teresa, Sissy apologized in her thoughts.
"Yes, so Commander Blackfive told us. You're sure nothing of the sort happened? At the time, your crew seemed pretty upset." The heads scrutinized her.
Sissy produced what she hoped was a careless laugh. "All part of the game. I'm sorry it got out of hand, sir. We're a little stressed here. Our vacation turned into work and my crew has had little rest recently." She followed this with her most charming smile. The Admiral looked relieved. His heads consulted each other and apparently decided all was OK, because all except his talking head lost interest, and engaged in other activities. Sissy stifled a sigh.
"Oh, yes. I'm sorry about that. Job well done, by the way. I am signing orders for your ship to be refitted at the Earth shipyard. Your crew will be off-duty while this is taking place. Should take about a standard month. You think that would be acceptable?"
The Captain's stomach knotted, but she replied casually, "Yes, sir. That would be fine." He thinks he's doing us a favor, she reminded herself.
The Admiral raised his brow ridges, and his other heads stopped what they were doing to peer at Sissy for a moment. "You don't seem very enthusiastic," he remarked.
Sissy managed another smile, a little weaker this time. "Well, I'm feeling a bit under the weather." She coughed a little, experimentally, and glanced at the screen for the effect. The Admiral's non-speaking heads had lost all interest again, and the one facing her didn't seem so alert any more, either.
"Yes, your Number One mentioned that," he acknowledged remotely.
"I'm sure this rest will be welcomed by both the crew and myself." Sissy turned the smile up a bit.
The Admiral immediately quit paying attention, as far as she could tell. "Good, Starfleet out."
The link was broken. Sissy wondered what the Admiral knew, or suspected. She finally allowed herself to sigh. Paranoia sucked.
The attendees featured most of her command staff: Blackfive, Greyhawk, Teresa, Glenn, John, Dr Kay and Joanie. Cathy, Jeff and Cassandra were invited as well.
"We've been ordered to Earth to refit Surprise. The crew has been given leave."
"But we have to save the universe," Joanie said. "How are are going to do that without the ship?"
"We'll think of something," Sissy responded with more confidence than she felt. "On the up side, we will have some cover. No one will be expecting us to be anywhere for 30 standard days."
"I knew she was going to say that." Teresa nodded to herself and checked off something in her book. Sissy shot a glance at her but left well enough alone.
"Meanwhile, we must secure a vehicle we can run ourselves, just us. Something like a Falcon Class star cruiser."
"I can do that," Cassandra spoke up.
Sissy studied her for a minute. "Off the books?" she clarified.
"Of course. It's the only way to fly." Cassandra held deadpan for a long moment, then let a wolfish twinkle escape, just in her eyes.
Sissy didn't care to explore why Cassandra's assurance was so ... reassuring. "Good," she went on. "Now ...."
"Er, Captain?" It was Blackfive. "What exactly is our cargo? I was never real clear on that. Not having been there to hear the aliens explain it and all."
Sissy blushed. "Yes, I suppose we do need to discuss that. Dr. Kay?"
Sondra stood. She picked up the remote control device in front of her and flicked a display onto the screen.
"That looks like a baby," John said.
"Exactly. The Captain is pregnant," Dr Kay announced.
Silence. Sissy smothered the urge to laugh.
"Who's the father?" Blackfive asked weakly at last.
"Well, there isn't one as we ordinarily understand these things," Sondra admitted. "This embryo was implanted by the Naqshband, the aliens. The Captain is more or less a vessel, as they told you. And there's something else. It's growing quite rapidly. The child will be ready to be born in about three weeks."
Glenn stretched in his chair and cleared his throat. "So, let me get this straight," he said. "The Naqshbandi abducted Sissy and implanted an embryo in her. We have to find a colony of advanced humans in some distant star system, and deliver this baby to them. Oh and by the way, we have to do this in such a way as to not let Starfleet or anyone else know what we're doing 'cause the Sirians don't want that baby or the colony to survive and they will kill anyone in their way. And we have to do it all in about 30 days. Do I have this right?"
"That's about it, Glenn," Sissy said, "Nice summary. You having second thoughts?"
"Hell no!" Glenn replied, "sounds like fun, but ..."
"Yes?"
"Do I have to change diapers?"
(To be continued ...)
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