What My November Has Been Like

What My November Has Been Like

The Enterprise was on a mission to the neutral zone between Starfleet and Romulan space. In

Engineering, Scotty was working on a problem with the computer.

"Computer wake up!" Said Scotty. "I've been working on you all afternoon. Aren't you

going to say something?"

The computer hummed and whirred, but didn't speak a word.

"Ooh, the Captain isn't going to like this."

Scotty continued working on the computer, but to no avail. Soon, Mr. Spock Walked in.

"The Captain suggested that I assist you in Engineering. You mentioned that you were having

trouble with the computer."

"Ahh, thank you Mr. Spock."

"What seems to be the trouble, Scotty?"

"I repaired all the circuits, checked and double checked, but I still can't get the computer

to speak."

"Did you run diagnostics?"

"Of course Mr. Spock. I don't know what else to do."

"Have any of the departments been running any unusual routines?"

"Well, biomechanics has been monitoring the new synthetic a life form they created, but that

in itself shouldn't cause any problems."

"Perhaps this bears further investigation."

Mr. Spock headed toward the turbo-lift. When he arrived in biomechanics, he saw a scientist

with a worried look on his face. The scientists assistants were running scans and looking

under their microscopes.

"What seems to be the problem," asked Mr. Spock.

"One of the new life forms escaped its container! We have to find it before it's too late!"

"There is no reason to be emotional."

"But you don't understand Mr. Spock! That life form was created to infiltrate enemy

computers and disable them. If it gets loose in the ship's computer, all computer operated

systems would go down."

"Perhaps that's the source of the problem and engineering. I'll alert the Captain."

"Oh, the Captain is going to throw me in irons!"

"That is highly illogical. I don't understand why you humans have to get so mellow-

dramatic."

With that, Mr. Spock pressed the communicator on his shirt.

"Captain, Spock here."

"Yes Mr. Spock?"

"I believe I might have found the problem with the computer. A biomechanical life form

developed by Starfleet for a top secret project has escaped Bioengineering. Due to its

nature, I suggest you go to yellow alert."

"Understood, Mr. Spock."

"Cal-el to all decks. Yellow alert. Scan all systems for a biomechanical life form code

Alpha Zeta 4. It is urgent that we find this life form immediately. Report to Mr. Spock

with any updates. Cal-el out."

Up on the bridge, Cal-el issued instructions to the bridge crew.

"Mr. Sulu."

"Yes Captain?"

"I want you to notify me of anything unusual. We don't know which systems this life form

may attack."

"Yes Captain."

"Miss Uhura."

"Yes Captain?"

"Contact Starfleet on channel 013, scramble code Charlie 779. Inform them that life form

code Alpha zeta 4 has escaped containment. Tell them that efforts to locate and contain a

life form are underway."

"Yes Captain."

Suddenly, Chekhov yelled out.

"Captain!"

"The computer reports that the shields are offline."

"Mr. Sulu. Scan for enemy ships in the area."

"I can't Captain. Scanners are offline."

"Cal-el to all decks! Red alert. I repeat. Red alert. All hands report to stations."

The alert warning sounded throughout the ship. The crew scrambled to report to their

stations.

"Mr. Chekhov."

"Yes Captain?"

"Inform all decks to visually scan for enemy ships. It would be just our luck for the

Klingons to take advantage of this situation."

"Yes Captain."

"Cal-el to all decks. Switch all systems to manual operation immediately. Give priority to

life support. This is not a drill. Cal-el out."

"Captain, the shields are back online."

"That's good news, Mr. Chekov."

"Cal-el to Spock. Report to the bridge."

"Yes Captain."

Soon, the bridge doors whistled open. Spock stepped out and the doors whistled shut behind

him.

"Spock reporting to the bridge, sir."

"Thank you Mr. Spock. As Bioengineering made any progress locating a life form?"

"No sir. I have been helping them create a tricorder that will home in on the

electromagnetic signal it was designed to produce. Unfortunately, the scientists recently

added a scrambling device to the unit to prevent enemy ships from detecting its presence. I

am trying to modify the scanner to detect its biological aspects and it's jamming signal as

well."

"Very good, Spock. Before you return to Bioengineering, what do you assess the risk to be

if we don't sign this life form?"

"There is a possibility that the life form could activate the self destruct mechanism if we

don't find it in time."

"Yes, Mr. Spock. Just as I feared. Keep quiet about this until you've had more time to

work on the tricorder. I don't want to panic the crew."

"Wise decision Captain, considering the emotional nature of the humans on board.

Cal-el rolled his eyes.

"That will be all Mr. Spock. Report to Bioengineering and make regular reports on your

progress."

Mr. Spock turned and went through the turbo-lift doors as they squeak opened then closed

again.

"Cal-el to Engineering."

"Scotty here."

"Scotty, have you made any progress isolating the critical systems from the computer?"

"Aye, Captain, but we still can't isolate the self destruct device."

"Not so loud, Scotty. Do you want the whole crew to hear you?"

"Sorry Captain," Scotty whispered. "We're still working on it, but I'm afraid that the new

enhancements that they made at Starbase are preventing us from accessing the system."

"All right Scotty. Keep working on it and inform me of your progress."

"Aye Captain. Scott out."

"Uhura"

"Yes Captain?"

"Contact Starbase and tell them to send out the schematics on a ship and tell them to beam

them directly to Engineering. Informed them that we can't rely on ship communications with

the computer problems we're having."

"Yes Captain."

Captain turned and looked at the viewscreen. Uhura spoke.

"Captain, the commander at starbase wants to speak with you."

"On screen."

The commander spoke.

"Cal-el, I'm sending out our fastest ship and we'll get the schematics to you as soon as

possible."

"Thank you Commander. Tell me, do you have an estimate of how long it will take to get

here? I don't know how much longer subspace transmissions will be operating."

Just as the commander started to reply, the viewscreen went out.

Uhura said, "Captain. We've lost communications."

Cal-el responded, "Uhura, keep working on it."

"Yes Captain."

"Cal-el to Engineering."

"Scotty here."

"Scotty, we lost subspace communications."

"Aye, Captain. The little bugger is screwing up the whole works. We have our hands full

down here, but we'll get to it as soon as possible."

"Scotty, I don't want to hear it. I was in the middle of an important communication with

the Starbase commander. I need subspace communications now."

"Aye Captain!"

"Oh, Scotty."

"Yes Captain?"

"Starbase is sending out a ship with the schematics on the recent repairs they did. They'll

beam them directly to Engineering when they get here."

"Aye, Captain. I told that Jamison fellow to give them to me before we left, but he said he

keeps them in his head and would have to enter the schematics into the computer. A fine lot

of good that's doing me now."

"Understood, Scotty. Cal-el out."

The Captain eased back in his chair for a moment to relax and concentrate on what he needed

to do next. Suddenly, the intercom broke in.

"Captain Cal-el. Private Benjamin here. We just spotted a Romulan War Bird off the port

bow."

"Shields up! All hands to battle stations. Mr. Chekhov, evasive maneuvers."

The War Bird fired on the Enterprise and narrowly missed thanks to Mr. Chekov's evasive

maneuvers. Mr. Spock walked through the turbo-lift doors.

"Mr. Spock, the Romulans are probably firing on us because we didn't answer their hail. Can

you engineer a way for us to communicate with them?"

"I could try to rig a hand communicator to communicate with their ship."

"Good. Get on it as fast as you can."

Mr. Sulu asked, " Captain, shall I return fire?"

"No Mr. Sulu. If we fire they will take that as an act of war."

"Aye, Captain."

The Romulans fired again, hitting the starboard nacelle.

" Mr. Spock. Can you think of anything we can do to stop the Romulans from firing on us

until you can get a communicator working? Your species as the closest on board to the

Romulans."

"I am well aware of my species relation to the Romulans."

"No offense intended Mr. Spock. I simply wanted your expert advice."

"Perhaps if we kill power and play dead they will stop firing; however, since they are

similar to ancient Vulcans, they may attempt to board."

"I see. We don't need a ship full of Romulans while we're trying to isolate the

biomechanical life form from the computer. If they find out what StarBase been up to,

they'll take it as an act of war for sure."

"I am surprised at the excellence of your logic Captain," replied Mr. Spock.

"Even we humans can sometimes surprise a Vulcan, Mr. Spock," Cal-el smirked.

Mr. Spock raised one eyebrow.

The intercom buzzed again.

"McCoy to Cal-el."

"Cal-el here."

"Damnit Cal, what in the hell are you going up there? You're shaking my patients' insides

out."

"We are getting a visit from Mr. Spock's distant relatives, the Romulans."

"Just what we need. A bunch of green skinned, pointy eared sideshow freaks attacking when

I'm in the middle of surgery."

"Calm down Bones. Mr. Spock is working on a communicator as we speak. Hopefully we can get

through to them and work this."

"Well, I hope you get things caled down soon. If not, you're going to have a bunch of crew

members with jumbled up insides."

"Noted Dr. McCoy."

Mr. Spock addressed the Captain, "Captain, I'm sure I'm getting through to the Romulans, but

they won't answer the hail."

Mr. Sulu chimed up, "Captain! The Romulans are firing again! This shields are down to

60%!"

"Continue evasive maneuvers Mr. Sulu. Spock, if we don't get through to them soon, they're

going to tear the ship apart."

The intercom beeped again.

"Security to Captain Cal-el."

"Cal-el here."

"We just captured a Romulan in Engineering."

"Good work. Escort him to the bridge immediately. This may just be the messenger we need."

A few minutes later, the doors from the turbo-lift opened to the bridge. The security

detail escorted the Romulan to the Captain. The Romulan and looked over and saw Mr. Spock.

"What is a Romulan doing here in Starfleet uniform?"

Mr. Spock will get the Romulan, raise an eyebrow, and said, "I am a Vulcan. Our ancestors

are distant relatives of yours, but we gave up our war-like ways long ago."

"That's because you're weak," it said the Romulan.

"No, I assure you. We are not weak. We have developed logic and reason and understand the

destructiveness of our old war-like ways."

Cal-el chimed in, "Do you consider it strong to attack the vessel that doesn't even return

fire?"

"You didn't answer our hail."

"That's because are communicators are down and you wouldn't answer Mr. Spock when he hailed

you on the hand communicator."

"What are you going to do, kill me?"

"I'm going to throw you in the brig if you don't drop that attitude. I'll return you to

your ship if you will agree to take a message to your Captain. Tell them that I

communicators are out and the repairs are underway. Tell them that as soon as we've made

the necessary repairs will be underway."

"And if I don't?"

"Security, take him to the brig."

"All right, I'll take your message to the Captain."

"Cal-el to Scotty. Beam our visitor aboard his vessel."

"Aye, Captain," came Scotty's voice over the intercom.

The Romulan disappeared from the bridge in a sparkle of light. Soon, the phaser attacks

stopped.

A Captain Cal-el turned to Mr. Spock.

"Mr. Spock. See if they'll answer your hail now."

"Yes Captain. Spock to Romulan vessel."

"This is the Captain. Have you considered terms for surrender?"

" Spock, let me have the communicator," said Captain Cal-el.

" Yes Captain."

Spock handed the communicator to the Captain Cal-el.

" This is Captain Cal-el. I have no intention of surrendering. A fleet of Starfleet

vessels is on its way. We mean you know harm. We just need some time to repair our vessel.

The lead ship will be here any moment. Check your long range scanners and you'll see that

I'm telling you the truth."

" Give me a moment to verify."

" All right, I'll stand by."

Captain Cal-el waited a few moments, then the Romulan Captain contacted him again.

" This is the Captain of the Romulan War Bird. We will give you 1 hour."

" Agreed. Cal-el out."

Cal-el turned to Mr. Spock.

" At least that bought us some time. Mr. Spock, head back down to Biomechanics and get back

to work on that sensor."

" Yes Captain. I'm almost finished, Sir. I'll get it to Scotty as soon as it's finished."

Mr. Spock left his science station and walked through the turbo-lift the doors. A few

minutes later, the intercom beeped.

"Scotty to Captain Cal-el. I'm getting reports that the food replicators are down. That

little bugger seems to be attacking our food supply."

"I'll notify Mr. Spock. Maybe he has that tricorder ready."

"Cal-el to Mr. Spock. You have that tricorder yet?"

" Spock here. Yes captain. I've just completed the modifications."

" Mr. Scott just informed me that the food replicators are offline. That might be a good

place to start scanning."

"Yes captain. I'll head there immediately."

"Cal-el out."

"Cal-el to Engineering."

"Scott here."

"Mr. Scott. Mr. Spock just completed the modifications on the tricorder. Meet him at the

same replicator bay."

"Aye Captain. I'll get a right on it."

Mr. Spock and Scotty scan the walls of the replicator. They located the life form and Mr.

Scott removed the panel. Mr. Spock extracted a life form and put in a container. Scotty

spoke.

"Ah hah! Now that little bugger won't be giving us any more trouble. Maybe I can get this

ship back in order."

"Inform the captain that we complained the life form and tell them I'm taking it back to

Bioengineering."

"Scott to captain Cal-el."

"Cal-el here."

"Captain we got the little bugger. Mr. Spock is taking it back to Bioengineering."

"Thank you Scotty. Now, see if you can get to step back in order. Give priority to

communications."

"Aye Captain."

"Cal-el out."

The USS Excalibur appeared near the Enterprise. A communicator that Mr. Spock and modified

beeped. Captain Cal picked up the communicator that Mr. Spock had modified and replied.

"This is the captain of the Romulan War Bird. We've just received a one call from home

base. We'll be leaving the area. You got lucky this time."

The Captain grinned.

"Acknowledged. Perhaps we can work on improving our relations the next time we meet."

The captain of the Excalibur beamed the schematics to the Starbase repairs to the Enterprise

then beamed over some technicians to help with the repairs. Soon, the Enterprise was back

in top condition and resumed its course.