The All-Stars {Star Trek the Next Generation Fan Fiction}

Chapter 12 - The Magic Seven

The following morning, Mack was up early, and noticed a note on her PADD, from Marty. It just said – Late night last night. Got the documents from the lawyer and signed them. Talk to you soon – MDM

She tapped out a note to her inner circle – If you have anyone else you really want, up to 45 more names, make a list. Try to rank them. We'll talk about this all day today.

She then wrote a note to Marty – Just about ready to hire. Let me know if you have any objections to any of these. She then attached the entire list of 100 candidates, and headed to breakfast with her inner circle.

They sat together in the Cookie's kitchen. Mack flipped pancakes as the other four waited. "I think the only other person I have ever seen cooking is Commander, uh, Captain, Riker," Wes stated.

"Oh," Mack commented.

"You sound like you don't like him."

"He played a somewhat unkind practical joke on my cousin," Mack clarified.

"Oh," Wes thought for a second, "that was the guy! My friend Geordi told me about it. He said it seemed to be a bit much, that here was this brand-new officer who didn't know anything, and Riker just kinda ran over him. The guy didn't deserve it at all, and it just seemed to be kinda mean. I guess I didn't put it all together that it was pulled on Commander Madden."

"What was the trick?" Daniya inquired, helping herself to some orange juice.

Wesley explained. "That is rather passive-aggressive," Majira stated.

"How is your cousin now?" asked Crita. "I know I would have been mortified."

"I think he's okay now," Mack surmised, "but he was pretty peeved there for a while. He wants very much for this to go well. I got the same impulses about our team." Her PADD dinged. It was a response from Madden. "Speak of the devil, and he appears. Hang on a sec – I asked him if he objected to any of the candidates."

The response just said – I trust you, Mystic, in this and all things. Keep me posted – MDM

She read it quickly to herself. "He's okay with whoever we pick. Now," she turned off the burner and brought the plate of pancakes over to the table, "we have already unanimously picked three people. It's the human guy, the Witannen and the Caitian."

There were smiles all around. "This is a good start, yes?" asked Crita.

"It's an excellent start," Mack confirmed. "We have a few people where there are four yes votes. But I won't tell you their names, not just yet, okay? If you've got yes votes on five more people, send 'em over while we're eating. Don't send any more just yet. I only want your top five. The voting has been pretty consistent, so I'm guessing this could put a few of the candidates over the top, and into plus five territory."

"Will everyone need to be unanimously selected?" inquired Majira.

"I don't think so. But I think unanimous vote-getters are great. If we agree on them, then they've gotta be really good choices, don't you think?"

As they ate, PADDs were clicked and data was sent. All Mack did was program her PADD to inform her if anyone had made it to the level of a unanimous choice. The PADD dinged when it was done. She read off, "We've now got unanimity on the Vulcan woman, the Calafan woman, the Imvari and the Andorian guy. Right now, it looks like everyone else just has one vote, if they've been voted for at all. So we'll stop this method, and instead I wanna talk about today."

"Oh?" asked Wesley, adding a little extra syrup.

"It'll be small games and small teams. Whether accepted or rejected, or somewhere in between, we'll bring everybody back. We won't say anything, but we won't be worrying about our seven unanimous choices, unless they really badly screw up. We'll be watching the other 93 for the most part, and not just on their own merits, but also on how well they work with our Magic Seven."