Lt. Markus Worf's Story

Hi

Rock on

Anyone here?

The doors would open to a full blast of music: specifically, 'Magic Carpet Ride'. Lt. Markus Worf sat at his post, bopping his head to the music, much to the annoyance of some of the bridge crew, though much to the amusement of others. In his left hand he held a doughtnut, and a cup of coffee sat precariously atop a number of expensive computer equipment. His shirt was untucked and not completely buttoned. He looked as if he had just woken up and bum rushed it to the bridge.

Nevertheless, he was in a cheerful mood.

Noticing the elevator doors swinging open with its familiar whooshing sound, the Lieutenant quickly twirled about, his eyes immediately widening at the sight of the Head Researcher... and quickly focusing on her breasts.

"Woah," he coughed to himself, grinning slightly. "Why tour the galaxy when there's so much to see in your very own back yard?" Composing himself ever-so-slightly, he then shot her a salute. "Good mornin', miss," he said, his American Midwestern accent making itself quite apparent as he stood up and walked over to her. "Lieutenant Markus Worf. That's right, totally Klingon! Which is why I'll be your new, or first, weapons officer, I should say! Hope you don't mind the music, it helps me get my mornin' groove on!"

And of course, as he spoke, his eyes darted to her breasts every three seconds.

Holly stepped onto the Apollo bridge, and made an aggravated face at the music. She had on her usual armored glove, and the black t-shirt that hung down to her hips in a baggy fashion, not to forget the completely black pants, and the worn out sneakers. She brushed the hair out of her face, giving an extremely irritated glance to the man who was blasting his music throughout the bridge.

As much as he was looking forward to this expedition, Nakasagi Rai had admittedly never gotten used to the lifestyle of travelling and living on board a spaceship - something that, considering it remained despite his other travels on ships, he did not expect to change in this trip to come. As a result, he had not received much sleep, something that required him to be dependant on the liquid held inside the coffee mug he was holding. Unlike the other people on this expedition, Rai had no family to bring with him, so he had a single cabin with a small workspace, on which his personal computer was placed. However, he was not lonely, for he knew that his old friend and occasional drinking buddy Nero was on board with his daughter. Also in his cabin was a bookshelves with many books - all of them written by authors with the same last name: Nakasagi.

Come to think of it, Rai thought to himself, I should probably head to my post.

Deciding that there was nothing stopping him from doing so and judging that his civilian suit and tie were professional enough to enter the bridge with, with coffee mug in one hand he headed to the elevator and headed up to the bridge - where he was greeted by the sound of loud music, courtesy of the weapons officer.

As Lana walked onto the bridge she was greeted by loud music, as she looked around for the source she saw that the crew either hated it or was amused by it, either way it was very annoying. A man who was sitting at one of the consoles said to her,

"Good mornin', miss," he said, his American Midwestern accent making itself quite apparent as he stood up and walked over to her. "Lieutenant Markus Worf. That's right, totally Klingon! Which is why I'll be your new, or first, weapons officer, I should say! Hope you don't mind the music, it helps me get my mornin' groove on!" He seemed cheerful enough but that godawful music has to stop, she straightened her back and said slowly,

"Turn off that music Lt. Worf, I have a ship to run and now is not the time to fuddle things up." Lana said, in her mild British accent. So, this is my weapons officer, enthusiastic enough/ She left Lt. Worf with her order and proceeded to the Captains Chair, it was leathery and comfortable. The chair was in the middle of the bridge, and was surrounded by five transparent screens, she pulled one up and checked for messages from the Admiral or any other captain in the fleet. She found the lastest one was from the Admirals android 'Varis' she opened it and it read,

"This is August 13 Artificial Data Analysis Android August 13 Call-sign "Veris", operating as per command of Grand Admiral McCart, to all captains of the exploratory fleet. A holo-confrence is to be held at 0700 Hyperion time, and is likely of a high importance. Do not be late."

FINALLY soon we can go and explore the wonders of world

Markus turned about, glancing in curiosity at the scene undertaking on the bridge. He knew what was going on. Everyone did with the rumors floating about. Somehow, someway, a mere kid had managed to sneak aboard the Apollo. This meant that the kid was either insane and really lucky or insane and really intelligent. Either way, he held a soft spot for her. He knew what it was like to feel left out of the loop. To feel like you wanted to be part of something momentous... once in a lifetime.

And such a thing was happening right here in Lunar orbit. In distance of home...

He couldn't really blame her.

At that, he cleared his throat. "Um... pardon to interrupt."

The group turned towards him, some looking slightly annoyed.

Markus, naturally, put on his patented sheepish grin, which usually took the heat off him... but not with these soldiers.

"Ehehe... yeah... uh. Well: basically, I know it's not my business. But why not let the kid walk? Put her through one of those new lie detector tests: you know, the ones that don't suck, to see if she's up to something. If she isn't, well: it's not like we'll let her play Starcraft V: Raynor's Alcohol Rehab on any of the computers like you guys let me do... if you knew about that. If not, forget I said that. BUT ANYWAY: if she were to pass said rehab test, what if someone were to take her under her wing? Someone who isn't me, of course, since I'm too busy playing Star- I mean, calibrating the point-defense cannons to do something like that."

He then took a deep breath, before turning back to his video ga- control console.

"Lana." Nero greeted the Captain by first name as well. This, of course, was not their first meeting. The end result of their first contact was an agreement to first-names, since Nero wasn't sure what to call her. After all, he wasn't sure how often people had two ranks. Being Head Researcher and the Captain of the Apollo made it odd to call her one title or the other.

He listened as Rai introduced himself as the Second-in-Command of the Apollo. Honestly, Nero felt they neither of them looked to be anything like a Captain or the sort, but then again, this was the civilian ship. The other two did fit face in his opinion. But, sure enough, Rai left explaining Natalie up to him. Nero cleared his throat before beginning. "Ah, this young woman is Natalie. It seems she had snuck aboard this ship, and was caught. While in confinement in the holding cells, I saw some schematics for a few different service robots that she said she had thought up.---"

He was interrupted by a blonde man, who SHOULD have been busy calibrating weapon systems. Nero narrowed his eyes at this man, for it was a delicate matter and input by someone else who couldn't explain the situation in the right way would only compromise any chance of her staying aboard. This, of course, was Captain Lanna's choice and hers alone; Nero had no authority over letting people aboard, only throwing them off (if they were to become a nuisance). But still... he was trying to help.

Nero dragged his eyes from the young man and back to the Captain...Head Researcher...., continuing as if he wasn't ever interrupted. ".....If this is true, then this girl is practically a genius, and would most likely benefit the ship were she to stay on. It's that reason why I request that she be able to stay aboard the ship as we venture off. We have more than enough resources to accommodate one young girl, no?" and so he made his claim. He at least felt that the odds were in favor, since there wasn't much in the form of downsides to letting her stay, and because they were close enough to launch that some things might be overlooked to keep on schedule.

EUCLID-II runs several hyperspatial simulations to prepare for the real deal. Simultaneously he reviews data from his sensors throughout the ship. His eyes and ears scattered in an array of panels featuring his signature neon-green eye. Nothing onboard really concerned him directly, he's just a nosy machine.

"It would appear there is an unexpected passenger aboard." EUCLID-II relayed this information in his monotonous Alan Rickman like voice, to his half asleep technician Argon. "A young girl. It's creating quite a controversy on the ship."

Argon just turns over and mumbles "That's nice Euclid~" then turns over. He doesn't really care about Euclid's little commentaries about what's going on, he's just his tech guy. Almost a pet for the "Great Mind that is the EUCLID-II Supercomputer" like his creators advertise, at the end of the day he just wants his fat paycheck when he gets back to Luna. He ignores EUCLID-II and goes back to sleep.

"You bore me, meatbag." EUCLID-II murmurs before cutting the audio coming from the panel in Argon's room.

I think I will take closer examination of this stowaway... he thinks to himself and brings up the feed from the nearest panel to Natalie Darron, his green electronic pupil following her movements.

"Ma'am, I don't believe I've had the pleasure of introducing myself. I'm Rai Nakasagi, linguist, and your second in command for the Apollo," The man with glasses said to her, she was a bit surprised. He looked like an ordinary citizen, "As for the girl well...." Rai looked at Nero with anticipation.

"Um... pardon to interrupt," Lana turned around to see Lt. Markus Worf, who put on his usual sheepish grin. I just want to choke him to death sometimes... Lana thought while sighing to herself. "Ehehe... yeah... uh. Well: basically, I know it's not my business. But why not let the kid walk? Put her through one of those new lie detector tests: you know, the ones that don't suck, to see if she's up to something. If she isn't, well: it's not like we'll let her play Starcraft V: Raynor's Alcohol Rehab on any of the computers like you guys let me do... if you knew about that. If not, forget I said that. BUT ANYWAY: if she were to pass said rehab test, what if someone were to take her under her wing? Someone who isn't me, of course, since I'm too busy playing Star- I mean, calibrating the point-defence cannons to do something like that," With that he walked away to his console, what he said did actually make sense though.

"Lana," It was Nero. Her and Nero had agreed to speak to each other in a first name basis, Lana thought it would boost their friendship, or maybe it was because Nero couldn't choose what to call her. Head Researcher or Captain, Which one which one? Personally Ma'am or Miss is just fine, but to make sure that they don't get scolded in front of officials she would be called Captain or Head Researcher.

"Ah, this young woman is Natalie. It seems she had snuck aboard this ship, and was caught. While in confinement in the holding cells, I saw some schematics for a few different service robots that she said she had thought up. If this is true, then this girl is practically a genius, and would most likely benefit the ship were she to stay on. It's that reason why I request that she be able to stay aboard the ship as we venture off. We have more than enough resources to accommodate one young girl, no?" Nero looked pretty proud about his statement. Lana took a deep breath and smiled, "Once we make the jump I will see the girl in my cabin and we shall discuss...Her time with us." She laughed and patted the relieved girl on the back softly. She wasn't going to kick the girl off the ship in the first place. As soon as she saw her she was going to invited her to stay, that was the kind of person Lana was; Caring for the little people, people who haven't been given a chance to achieve their full potential in life, "Ok you can sit next to Nero but do it quickly we need to get jumping. She strided over to her seat and sat down, crossing her legs. "Ensign, initiate jump in time with the Hyperion and the Thunderchild.

Commence countdown..
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
Jump...

Lana held tightly onto her chair as the jump was initiated, the looked onto the console and saw the energy levels for the hyperspace drive which were rising quickly. Once the lurching was over she stood up, and looked around to her crew with a big grin on her face, "Alright crew, now starts our journey to Kepler-62!"

As the Apollo makes its jump through hyperspace, EUCLID-II rapidly crunches the numbers so vital to keep everything intact and the jump on course. Higher dimensional geometry, and Calabi–Yau manifold equations had to be run simultaneously to keep them on the right path through a higher segment of reality. While energy fluctuations and particle interactions in the hyperdrive itself had to be kept at the right levels to prevent an overload or the formation of a devastating singularity. He has his work cut out for him.

All of his access panels display a red X in place of his neon green eye and the words "Processing. Please Hold. Processing. Please hold." repeat themselves quietly over and over throughout the duration of the jump.

Meanwhile his technician Argon sits at his workstation, watching the mountains of code being run at speeds fast enough to slightly hurt his vision. He's completely locked out of the system while in hyperspace, it's all EUCLID-II running the show now. He just monitors in the 0.001% probability something goes wrong.

”Veris. Thank you. I am confident that those diagnostics are already in capable hands and are being attended to. Please notify me when the pods return.”

McCart finally allowed himself a moment of… jubilation, as he stared out over the Bridge’s primary windows. Such awe. Such wonder. Planets unknown to mankind, around a star previously just a blip on a telescopic image. A message on the Admiral’s inbox came up.

"Congratulations old man, how does it feel to be the Grand Admiral of the first space expedition outside our solar system? Forget Mayor of Lockhart, Admiral. I'd be surprised if you weren't nominated for president. Congratulations in advance."

McCart joyously shook his head. He was content with the message.

[color=DarkSlateBlue]”Congratulations to you, too, Hunter.

It feels… overwhelming. We’ll talk about it more over a bottle of wine sometime.

And president? President of what? I do have dual-citizenship, you know? President of Texas, or were you thinking something more… D.C.? Or maybe President of Toy Land? President of St. Henry’s Home for the Senile?

I suppose we shall see.

The uproar that had erupted on both the Bridge and the Relay was most definitely echoed throughout the whole of the ship, indeed the whole fleet. It seemed almost like a deafening buzz of applause and cheers, right for at least 15 minutes. From the FCC, the Admiral could see the various smiling faces of the young men and women aboard. It inspired a ‘kink’ of pure ecstasy in the old man for a moment. He remembered Katie at that moment – she’d love to be here.


He waited for a moment to allow the hum to die down, slightly. At what seemed the apex, he stood up from his chair and stood just in front of the navigational module, using it as a pulpit above his congregation. From his raised position over the Bridge, he stared off into a few of the eyes that caught his own. Raising his right hand as if calling a cab, he called the attention of Captain McCoy.

”Veris. Bring up a camera and focus it on me. I’d like to address the fleet. Broadcast to all public facilities,” the Admiral said to his trusted side.

A small, spherical pod was discharged from the ceiling of the Command Level and kept itself in hover around the Admiral’s FCC. It’s lights turned from green to red, indicating broadcasting. The screens and holo-modules of the Bridge, likewise, manifested the Admiral’s face. It was safe, at least to McCart’s mind, to assume the case was the same on the Thunderchild and the Apollo.

Clearing his throat, the Admiral began to speak, culling the roars of the crew to attention.

”Ladies and gentlemen, damen und herren, madamoiselles et monsieurs, damas y caballeros: my… fellow children of Gaia, my fellow Earthlings. Welcome to Kepler-62.”

The crew burst into cheering once more, forcing the Admiral to humbly stretch out his hand as if to understandingly snuff their cheers away.

”After over two years, we are finally at our destination. Many of us have just woken from cryosleep today. Many of us haven’t been in cryosleep for awhile but with all the busy-bodying, I bet it feels like cryosleep.

“We are all the very first humans to use hyperspace, leave our local system, and see with our very own eyes the horizon of another star. Before us lies perhaps a system filled with destiny.

“For the time being, we will engage slowly. Apollo shall work on deciphering which of the planets will be the safest to engage and then I’ll determine who’s going where and when.

“Congratulations. Now if there be life out there other than our own, let’s introduce ‘em to our King.”

At that, the Admiral initiated a track from his personal datacore, and broadcasted it to each of the ships public facilities.

Markus sat his weapon station. For the last week he had run calibration after calibration, and was finally satisfied that while they may have been the weakest ship in the fleet... they were the weakest ship in the fleet with pimped out guns. He was so busy he barely had noticed they had dropped out of hyperspace until the admiral gave his grand speech.

"Ahhh," he sighed, smiling dreamily. "One small step for America. One giant step for American kind."

A few of his fellow helmsmen quickly gave him looks, to which he quickly returned.

"What?! Who funds the UNSA more than America?!" he grinned.

"Idiot..." one of them muttered.

Markus rolled his eyes. "Pfffft, I heard that Riley, and I don't see Norway throwing it all in the ring! And we'll see who's the idiot when I win the game!"

He raised an eyebrow. "The game?"

Markus leaned close, smirking. "You know... the game. The game Captain Kirk started a century ago."

Riley threw him a deadpan look. "Do do realize that the chances of finding something for you to have sex with out here are about as high as the chances of you finding something to have sex with on Earth."

"Pfffft," he grunted. "Who does that on Earth?! The moon is so much better, baby! Zero-G is a little awkward, but hey, you make it work."

Riley shook his head, an irritated look on his face.

"Yeah, that's right Riley. You go back to blogging."

"I'm writing reports on the hull integrity," he muttered.

"Techno-blogging."

He slowly nodded, giving Markus the evil eye. "You do realize that I want to kill you right now, right?"

"Hell yeah," Markus smirked.

"Ugh! That's it, we're not talking until we hit the bar later."

"Oh, OK, no more talking."

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"Hey, Riley?"

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"Riley?!"

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"YO, BIG RILEZ!"

"WHAT?!"

Markus put on an innocent look. "Do you think they'll be green? You know, like in-"

"NO!"

"Come on! You gotta have hope, man!"

"Hope that there's an airlock accident with your name on it?"

"Hope that I remembered to pack... the essentials, if ya know what I mean. Giggity-giggity-giggity." Markus then nodded to himself. "And by that I mean condoms."

Riley didn't respond. Instead, he began continuously banging his head upon his station's keyboard.

...

...

Markus chuckled at this. "Don't worry man, I know the feeling, but I have you covered."

EUCLID-II began running some trial simulations, to make their next jump into hyperspace use 58.9% less computer resources; which would free him up plenty, next time they jump. As he was running most of these processes in the background he couldn't help listen in on a conversation between Lieutenant Markus Worf and another crew member. He also couldn't resist butting in.

"Actually;...." EUCLID-II chimed in from a nearby access panel "The United States of America is only the 3rd largest contributor to the UNSA circa 2053, James Tiberius Kirk AKA Captain Kirk is a fictional character in the 1960's Television broadcast Star Trek and never actually existed, and Luna's gravity is 1/6th of Earth's, not Zero-Gravity." he commented with a tone that could almost be recognized as smugness.

"Hah! I knew you were full of it," Riley grinned.

Markus' smile, however, did not fade. "Pffft, yuh-huh, EUCLID-II, you're only measuring our contribution in material gains. That's the problem, here!"

"What else are they possibly contributing?" Riley said, before widening his eyes. "On second thought, don't answer that-"

"Well, duh- that's simple as pie!"

Suddenly, Lt. Markus twirled about, flipped a few switches on his console, and immediately, the American National Anthem filled the cabin, earning a few groans from the crew.

"Ugh... that's the third time this week..."

"That's not even their anthem anymore, isn't it? I thought it was 'All Hail Walmart'."

"Hey, everyone be quiet!" Markus called, grinning. "I'm about to make a dramatic speech."

At that, he cleared his throat. "You see, America would contribute more materials, but we don't need to! Because we provide the most important asset of all!"

The bridge crew raised their eyebrows.

"Arrogance?"

"Pride?"

"Apple Pie?"

"Close, but the real answer is... HEROISM!"

Riley blinked incredulously. "Heroism? Are you sure you're not from another country, then? Because I remember how you oh-so-heroically volunteered to investigate the noises coming underneath my daughter's bed, before running away screaming 'HYPERSPACE MONSTER!'"

"Yeah well..." he coughed. "At least I looked! And that sweater totally looked like one! So in the end, guess what?!"

"What...?"

At that, Markus twirled out of his chair, dramatic as possible, before bellowing:

""

"No, no you're not," Riley sighed. "Because I was the one who found the pipe leak..."

""

He finally facepalmed. "Stop saying that."

""

"Stop-"

""

He merely gazed at him this time.

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"You done?"

""

"

Riley began to pant after that, taking a few deep breaths.

"Ok... OK, I'm cool. But yeah, Markus..."

"Sup?"

"I'm just going to get back to work, now..."

EUCLID-II simply records and processes all the movements of the Lieutenant. His behavior confuses him, but most human behavior tends to do that. Worf's behavior does register a tad bit odder than most, however.

"Your unwavering and overzealous patriotism.............amuses me." he lets out a staticy chortle "If you are an average sampling of the American populace I can safely assume America is #1 in stubbornness. Which may or may not be a good thing."

A moment of silence hangs in the air before Euclid adds his final commentary "Such matters of nationalism are irrelevant when 1200 light years separates us from any organized government."

Lt. Worf chuckled a bit. "Home is where the heart is, my friend. Gotta remember it any way I can."

"If only you could do it quietly..." Riley moaned.

"You know you find it kind of funny," Worf grinned.

"..."

"It's why you hang out with me..."

He sighed in defeat. "Fine, alright. You can be funny - when I'm drunk."

"Woop woop! Score another point for America!" he beamed.

Riley slammed his head one last time.

"But yeah, anyway, EUCLID, any idea when we're going to head out into the solar system? I wanna see what's out there! I wonder if aliens play anything like Halo..." His eyes widened. "Woah! Wouldn't it be crazy if they have aliens that looks like humans in their games about aliens?! That'd be so hilarious... unless they've been spying us... and actually do hate aliens and it's not a-"

"You're rambling again..." Riley sighed. "Though we do have proof aliens have been spying us on before. It's why we're here after all: the ship on the edge of the Oort Cloud..."

"Meh, I think those aliens lived closer to home," Markus shrugged. "Now that I think about it, if there's anybody here and they haven't discovered any aliens... it'd totally be a mutual First Contact! Only it'd be twice as crazy for them!"

"Heh, guess so," Riley chuckled. "Hope they don't try to nuke the ship or something to cover it up if that's the case... what if they're religious fanatics?"

"Even worse, what if they're dicks?!" Markus gasped.

"Dicks?"

"DICKS!"

"Dicks."

"Huh: say, EULCID. What are the chances that an alien species in space would be outright hostile? Any figures?"

"I have not heard any word on when we plan on getting a closer examination of the planets. Me I'm patiently waiting to sift through the data from sensor sweeps of the planetary bodies." EUCLID-II replied to the Lieutenants first question.

While most major data was mainly for the scientists onboard. EUCLID-II enjoyed air current mapping and calculating weather patterns. Call it a hobby.

"As for the chances of alien life being hostile there are too many unknown variables to make such a calculation of the probability. First things would be confirm the presence of life. Then assess their cultural and technological characteristics."

He finishes his hyperspace simulations for the day, and runs several dozen games of Solitaire and Minesweeper in the background, as well as calculates pi to a few billion digits.