STAR TREK
"Necessary Evil"
by
John Erik Ege
EHP
EXPERIMENTAL HOME PUBLISHING
"Necessary Evil" edition 2nd, April 11th, 2008
EPH
Copyright 2008
All Rights Reserved.
Licensing for this is pending and can only be considered fan fiction at this time. The author agrees to share this edition for the sake of editing purposes with the understanding that Paramount, the official owners of Star Trek related products, may revoke the sharing privilege. Comments and corrections can be directed to the author for story refinement.
Author contact info:
John Erik Ege
214 907 4070
Email
solarchariot@hotmail.com
This is the first printing of the rough draft, so take note of grammatical errors. Any comments for story refinement are appreciated. This is a fourth book in the series. Editing versions of book one: "A Touch of Greatness," book two: "Another Piece of the Action," and book three, "Both Hands Full," may be attained by contacting the author.
An additional short story, "Re-establishing the Neutral Zone" follows the conclusion of this book.
PROLOGUE
Lt. Commander Zara Undine fired up the thrusters and pivoted the attitude of the shuttle for a steeper departure vector. The angle plus the bank gave Captain Tammas Parkin Arblaster-Garcia an excellent view of the mob gathered at the fence in protest of all things Fleet. The protest signs had been hurriedly assembled, evidenced by the fact that most were in English, bad English with letters reversed or poorly drawn, though some were in Klingon with letters that were even more deformed. The signs were mostly derogatory statements describing biological forms of waste and places where Star Fleet could put it. One of the protesters pitched a small bottle and managed to score a direct hit to the forward window. It caused no damage to the shuttle, but when the bottle broke a green liquid spread itself over the window. Undine blinked and hastened their exit.
Captain Garcia had already been in a particularly foul mood before the fiasco, but now his mood hadn't seen a rival. The Away Team was abnormally quiet, as if they were expecting him to throw a tantrum. Unfortunately for them, he wasn't ready to preach from his soap box yet or his anger might have been dissipated more quickly. Instead, he put a foot up on the console and a fist to his chin and sulked.
"I think your concert went off fairly well," Lt. Commander Tatiana Kletsova said. Her metallic, silver uniform, with red highlights marking her as security, momentarily caught and reflected the sunlight as the light slipped across the inner space of the cabin as the shuttle continued its climb. The sun's intensity polarized the forward window.
Lt. Undine glanced back at Kletsova, glanced to the Captain, and then put her attention back to her piloting. Undine was not human, she was Zaldan. The only evidenced of this were her webbed fingers and toes, and a very straight forward manner that was often mistaken for antagonism. Consequently, she didn't feel the need to try to softened the Captain's mood or in any other way ease the tension that filled shuttlecraft 'Mississippi Moon.' As a Zaldan, she not only saw courtesy and compliments as a form of dishonesty, she believed it was a waste of time. She was aware that Garcia knew his performance was flawless. Saying so could only be construed as social manipulation, an attempt to distract him from his present anger. An anger she believed he was entitled to.
