"Star Trek: Olympus" - McGreggor's Pest Chapter ONE

CHAPTER ONE

Commodore Russell Christiansen headed up to the replicator terminal in his ready room on board the USS Olympus: NCC-71900 and said, “Computer, Pepsi Cola, no ice, cold, extra fizz.”
The replicator produced a tall glass of brown cola, known as Pepsi Cola, an old Earth drink. He took the Pepsi and took a sip as the cold sweet fizz went down through him. He enjoyed such soft drinks due to the fizzy content that’s in them.
The door chime rang, as Christiansen called, “come!” and got back behind his desk in the ready room.
A female with long blonde hair entered the ready room in a regulation Starfleet uniform, Ensign rank. The commodore noticed her ID bar indicated her name was Frielia, as he sat in the chair looking at her. The most noticeable part of her body were the aqua streaks on both sides of her face, similar to the spot lining of Trill, Kriosians, and Valteese. Her name was obviously Ensign Frielia
“Greetings, commodore,” said Ensign Frielia. “How are you doing?”
“Ah,” said Christiansen. “Ensign, I see you made it in one piece since our pickup last week from the Reliant.”
“You wanted to meet with me?” asked Frielia.
“I always like to meet junior officers before they come on board,” said Christiansen. “Get to know them better. You officers are an important part in my crew!”
“You seem a lot different than I expected,” said Frielia. “For an officer of your rank.”
“You thought I’m some bureaucratic nutcase?” asked Christiansen.
“Huh?” asked Ensign Frielia.
“An old Earth term,” said Christiansen.
“What’s that you’re drinking?” asked Frielia.
“It’s an old Earth beverage, known as soda pop,” said Christiansen. “My favorite beverage.”
“The cadets at the Academy crave it,” said Frielia. “Although I would expect you more likely to drink coffee or tea.”
“I’m not into hot beverages,” said Christiansen. “Never got into them.”

Captain’s Log Stardate 55123.4: The Olympus is currently en route to the Korby Research Station where we will be picking up several science specialists to chart several un-surveyed sectors of space after two days ago receiving some new crewmembers from the Reliant. So far this mission has gone without incidence and there have been no problems with the starship, as there shouldn’t be any. In addition, a Klingon exchange officer has come on board, Klingon Lieutenant Commander T’nk’walk, who was one of Ambassador Worf’s guards during the freakish Z’tilg’truw diplomatic incident that threw us in an alternate reality late last year. He will be serving with us for a while on board the starship. I’ve known him for a while now, and I am pleased to have him on board my ship.

“I thought Klingons didn’t have back problems,” said Dr. Amy Avery in sickbay examining the Klingon exchange officer T’nk’walk in the Olympus sickbay with a medical tricorder. “It seems you have been sitting in awkward positions recently.”
“Sorry,” said T’nk’walk. “It’s just that your beds and chairs here are a bit, uncomfortable for Klingons.”
“Uncomfortable?” asked Dr. Avery.
“We don’t have pads on our beds, and it’s trouble for me to sleep Klingon style on your beds,” said T’nk’walk. “So I removed them.”
“Good think you at least don’t lie on a bed of spikes,” said Dr. Avery.
“Bed of spikes?” asked T’nk’walk.
“Some people are daring and try to do that,” said Dr. Avery. “I personally would never do it, but there are some people who used to do such stuff on Earth. I know there used to be fire walking, where people walked over hot coals in their bare feet, I wonder how many were burned when doing it.”
“You humans have a more interesting history than I thought,” said T’nk’walk. “Commodore Christiansen got me interested in a beverage he calls Pepsi Cola, an old Earth drink.”
“Pepsi,” said Dr. Avery. “Very popular during old Earth times. The commodore is a big soda pop drinker; though I’m surprised he never got into coffee and tea.”
“The most interesting part is what the commodore calls fizz,” said T’nk’walk. “The tingling feeling in your mouth when drinking it.”
“Carbonation,” said Dr. Avery. “If it wasn’t carbonated, I wouldn’t drink it!”

Commodore Christiansen lay down on the sofa in his ready room attempting to relax a bit when the intercom sounded.
“Commodore Christiansen,” said Commander Beth Coleman over the intercom. “Would you please report to the bridge? Commodore Christiansen…”
“On my way,” groaned Christiansen.
Commodore Christiansen entered the bridge as he heard a communications transmission. Commander Coleman got out of the command chair as Commodore Christiansen stepped into the command arena and sat in his chair.
“What’s going on?” asked Christiansen.
“We’re receiving an incoming transmission from Admiral Hamen,” said Coleman.
“Onscreen,” ordered Christiansen.
The main viewscreen switched from a warping star field to Admiral Laurie Hamen, who was currently stationed at Starbase Gibraltar.
“Commodore Christiansen,” said Admiral Hamen. “Still en route to the research station?”
“Yes,” said Christiansen. “Another mission I can sleep through.”
“Well, I’m afraid you’re going to have to stay awake for this one,” said Hamen. “The Klingons have asked for our assistance in retrieving a prototype Klingon Bird of Prey that they have received distress calls from and have recently lost contact with them. They’ve been tied up and have asked us for our assistance in finding them.”
“Tied up?” asked Christiansen.
“Well,” said Hamen. “Your ship is closer than any of the Klingon vessels in the vicinity, and faster, so that would be convenient if you could get there and investigate on what happened to the Klingon ship. I’m transferring the coordinates to you right now for you to plot a course to.”
Admiral Hamen hit some buttons on a control console on the viewscreen. Lt. Cmdr. Krista Danis at the helm responded seeing the coordinates that were transferred to the Olympus.
“Commodore,” said Danis. “These coordinates are for an uncharted region of space by the Federation, nor the Klingons.”
“Sounds a bit ludicrous for them to send a ship out that far so early,” said Christiansen.
“Well, according to the Klingons, that ship finished shakedown time a month ago,” said Hamen. “This was her first real mission.”
“Understood,” said Christiansen. “Well, I hope we can tie this up quickly.”
“I hope so,” said Hamen. “Godspeed, Commodore.”
The main viewscreen switched to the UFP emblem and below that:

END TRANSMISSION

U.S.S. OLYMPUS · NCC-71900

“Change course,” said Christiansen, with a disgusted tone as he leaned back in the command chair.
“Aye sir,” said Lt. Cmdr. Danis.
“What’s our current warp speed?” asked Christiansen.
“We’re at warp eight,” said Lt. Cmdr. Danis. “Our ETA to destination will be a week.”
“What’s our ETA there at warp nine point seven?” asked Coleman
“That’s going to cut it down to one and a half days,” said Danis. “Might be a wise idea if every day counts.”
“Well then,” said Christiansen. “Increase the speed to warp nine point seven.”
“Aye sir,” said Lt. Cmdr. Danis responding at the helm as she slid her finger up the speed indicator on the flight control console to Warp 9.7. “We’ll be hitting warp nine point seven in eight seconds.”
“Excellent,” said Christiansen. “Very good. Let’s hope we can find out what happened to the Klingon vessel before it is too late.”

Later, in the Briefing Lounge, Commodore Christiansen started a briefing with Commander Coleman, Commander Julius Baker, Commander David Martin, Commander Muiriti, and Lt. Cmdr. LePotta on his right, and on his left, Lt. Cmdr. Ryan Kaminski, Dr. Amy Avery, and Klingon exchange officer T’nk’walk.
“Okay,” said Christiansen. “We’re going out to a sector of uncharted space that’s neither charted by the Federation nor the Klingons.”
“I think maybe we should know about this prototype Bird of Prey,” said Coleman.
“The common Klingon Bird of Prey is a very old design,” said T’nk’walk. “It’s about one hundred years old. The Klingons decided to built a different kind of Bird of Prey.”
“I’d say,” said Christiansen. “The Klingon Bird of Prey was probably your Volkswagen Beetle .”
“Volkswagen Beetle?” asked T’nk’walk.
“It was a popular transportation vehicle on Earth,” said Commander Coleman. “Several decades later, the brand that released the Beetle, Volkswagen, decided to make a design that is more modern to fit in with other vehicles of that era.”
“I see,” said T’nk’walk. “Our Klingon Birds of Prey have served very well, but with our losses after the Dominion War, we believed it was time for us to work on better ships.”
“I know,” said Christiansen. “You made various incarnations of the design, such as the B’rel and the K’Vort-class. So what’s special about this Bird of Prey, it’s a different design, right?”
“Yes,” said T’nk’walk. “This Klingon Bird of Prey is slightly larger than our traditional Bird of Prey design. It’s referred to as the Azetbur -class. Our people built the prototype in the middle of last year, and it’s undergone shakedown and now it seems they’re trying it out on a real mission. The vessel features an upgraded weapon systems and experimental warp engines and a more energy efficient cloaking device, plus it’s the first Klingon vessel to feature bio-neural circuitry, which you Federation have been putting on more and more of your vessels. It also features a better computer system as well.”
“Impressive,” said Martin. “How many of these have you made?”
“There’s only one in service, the prototype, which we are going after right now,” said T’nk’walk.
“Why build one when you can build two or more?” asked Muiriti.
“We wanted to try the success of it before building more of them,” said T’nk’walk. “Our shipyards are ready to construct more of this type if it proves successful.”
“And if it doesn’t?” asked LePotta.
“Try, try again,” said Dr. Avery. “An old Earth saying, ‘at first if you don’t succeed, try, try again.’”
“You’re only ordered to retrieve the ship,” said T’nk’walk. “The Klingons are not going to allow you to dissect the vessel to look at it to see if it’s a threat.”
“We won’t,” said Christiansen. “I didn’t bring my tweezers, forceps, probes, or scalpels with me. I only do that to enemies, not allies.”
“I suggest what you do is if you can salvage the ship and any survivors,” said T’nk’walk. “Get the vessel to the nearest Klingon starbase.”
“Very well,” said Coleman. “We’ll do just that.”
“What about the sector we’re going in?” asked LePotta. “It hasn’t been charted by either the Klingons or the Federation.”
“There are two stars in that sector,” said Christiansen. “A G-type and a K-type star, they’re two different systems, not a binary star system.”
“Might be a first contact situation,” said Dr. Avery.
“It might not be that,” said Christiansen. “There are many reasons to send out a distress call. But as far as I’m concerned, we find out what happened to the Klingon ship, and get it back into Klingon space. Then we can go for our other mission, or what ever lies next. I think we should all be ready for this one in case the worst awaits us.”
“Very well,” said Coleman.

Later, on the Olympus, Commander Baker walked through the corridors of the ship to see T’nk’walk. His quarters were more in the inner part of the vessel, without windows. He came across the door that said:

09 2543 T’NK’WALK – EXCHANGE OFFICER

Baker tried hitting the door chime and waiting a few seconds but no answer. He tried hitting it again but again there was no answer. He tried a third time but again there was no response. He then opened the door and looked around a T’nk’walk’s quarters. The quarters were mostly meant for lower ranking officers; they were modest accommodations. He noticed a stench in the room. The quarters were decorated in a Klingon fashion with red lighting. On one of the walls there was a bat’leth sword and on another wall were some additional Klingon ceremonial weapons. On a desk there was a Klingon combat blade, and on a table in the center of the quarters was a plate half-eaten full of gagh, where the stench was coming from and an empty glass.
“T’nk’walk?” asked Baker. “T’nk’walk!”
There was no answer.
“Computer, locate T’nk’walk,” requested Baker.
“T’nk’walk is in Holodeck One,” said the computer voice.

Later, Baker emerged out of a turbolift adjacent to Holodeck One, which was located on Deck eleven . He stood in front of the big doors that led into the holodeck and said, “Computer, what program is being run?”
“Klingon S’naham by T’nk’walk,” said the computer. “Do you care to enter, Commander?”
“Yes,” said Baker. “I do.”
The doors to the holodeck opened up to reveal a dim forest in the evening. Commander Baker took a look around the forest that was re-created in the holodeck. It didn’t feel too Klingon-like to Baker at all; Klingons never usually had forests in mind when doing rituals. On the other hand, perhaps the Federation didn’t know Klingons as well as they thought they did, in the over two and a half centuries of knowing each other. There was a rustling in the leaves as he could hear some sort of pipe or flute playing, in a low tone, perhaps a Klingon musical instrument, Baker thought. He saw T’nk’walk giving someone some sort of massage and another Klingon, in robes, playing the pipe. Commander Baker headed up and noticed that T’nk’walk was massaging Commander Coleman. There was a fire in front of the two with several lanterns around the place.
“Commander,” said Baker. “What’s going on?”
“It’s a Klingon massage,” said Coleman. “The S’naham.”
“I never heard of it,” said Baker. “Doesn’t seem like the proper setting for a Klingon ritual.”
“I chose the setting,” said Coleman being massaged. “With help from Commodore Christiansen. T’nk’walk made the program though.”
“I see,” said Baker.
“Even Klingons need rest,” said Coleman. “They just don’t equip their ships with many luxuries, they’re more of military nature.”
“Steady,” said T’nk’walk. “Steady, relax Beth.”
“Actually, Commander,” said Baker. “I wanted to talk with T’nk’walk.”
T’nk’walk turned around to look at Commander Baker.
“What do you want?” asked T’nk’walk.
“I was wondering when you could do any more of those exercises,” said Baker. “I was also wondering if I could get some bat’leth training.”
“Bat’leth?” asked T’nk’walk.
“Yes,” said Baker. “And Commodore Christiansen is also interested.”
“Ah,” said T’nk’walk. “You want to learn now to use the Klingon Sword of Honor.”
The intercom sounded as Commodore Christiansen came over the speakers.
“Bridge to T’nk’walk,” said Christiansen over the speakers. “T’nk’walk, you have an incoming communiqué coming in from Klingon Space. I don’t know who it is, exactly, but I think you should take it.”
“On my way,” said T’nk’walk.
“Well,” said Coleman. “Computer, end program.”
The Klingon piper vanished as well did the rest of the environment, leaving the holodeck grid to be seen: the lighted red walls with the black gridlines and the black floor with red gridlines at the bottom of it. The holodeck exit was behind Baker with the arch where one could go into the holodeck systems when the program was still running. T’nk’walk, Baker, and Coleman headed to the exit as the door to the holodeck opened as they stepped out into the corridor.