{Written as a parody and with due homage to a host of SF Authors, Films and TV}

The bedside comunicator beeped.
I slowly opened my eyes. I'd only had a few hours of sleep in the past two days.
The alarm bleeped once again.

This time I was awake enough to command it.

“Answer”
The infernal device stopped its bleeping and the lights in the small cabin rose from a mere glimmer to a more comfortable level.

“Captain. Commander Hardy reporting”.
His face appeared in front of me on the HoloViewer. I could see perfectly well who was calling me by the identification tag on the holographic image.

I let myself have an internal sigh. My No 1, Commander Jack Hardy was always a stickler for regulations. That was one of the main reasons why Fleet Admiral Jellicoe had passed him over twice at recent promotions boards. A distinct lack of imagination. For a First Officer, he was great but I pitied his crew if he ever did manage to get a command. They would have to do everything by the book all the time instead of adapting to circumstances as appropriate.

“Yes Commander. What is it that is so important to disturb me at this unholy hour?”
“Sir, we have detected a signal.”

I groaned.
“A signal. What sort of signal?”
“Sir. It is a distress signal. Sir”

“What, when, where and who sent the signal?” I asked already guessing the answer.
“Sir. I don’t know. Sir. We are still investigating. It is plainly a distress signal but it is not a current Federation signal, nor is it one that could be attributed to the Pirates unless they have adopted a new tactic to lure us into their clutches.”

I nodded.
“Well, it certainly can’t be close to us or we would have detected them on the scanner when we entered the System. Why don’t you find out exactly who is sending the call? Then locate them and then, and only if they appear to be friendly and alone, wake me up again. Understood?”

“Sir. Yessir.”

“Disconnect,” I said .not wanting to be drawn into a debate with a holograph.

The connection was terminated and the cabin lights dimmed. I closed my eyes and tried to return to sleep.

After an hour of tossing and turning, I relented.
“Dam you Hardy.”
“The one time that you show a small bit of imagination it has to be now. Why couldn’t it be when we were under attack four days ago but no…”

I sat up in bed and said,
“Lights on.”

The cabin lights came on again.

I got out of bed and headed for the cabin’s ‘VacuShower’.

These fiendish devices were a relic that dated from the first interplanetary flights that had taken place more than half a millennium before. They were still fitted to every Federation Warship just in case someone was in the shower when the anti-gravity failed. In such an event, powerful suction devices would automatically turn on and suck all the water droplets out of the air before they could get into places where they could do irreparable damage to the ship's systems. It had been at least fifty years since the last recorded failure of an anti-gravity system but the Navy was conservative to an extreme so they still mandated the fitting of these units.

After my allotted forty-five seconds in the shower, the air blowers came on and dried me off.

Ten minutes later I appeared on the bridge ready for breakfast but that could wait a bit.

“Captain Nelson on Deck. Attenshun,” barked Commander Hardy as soon as he saw me enter the Flight Deck.

“At ease gentlemen”, I replied sounding as confident as possible at this early hour.
The very conservative Navy still referred to officers as ‘gentlemen’ which included all commissioned women.

Three very relieved seamen sat down at their stations and resumed their duties.

“Well Mr Hardy? What is the answer to my question?”

“What question Sir?”

“Good God man. The one I asked you just over an hour ago?”

The First Officer went rather red in the face.

Another voice piped in.

“Sir. If I may intervene?”

The two officers turned to look at the owner of the voice.

I afforded myself a wry smile.

“Yes, Ensign Raleigh. You may.”

“Sir. Thank you, Sir.”

“Get on with it man.”

“Sorry Sir.”

The Ensign gulped.

“Sir. During a routine all frequency scan, we detected the signal a little under two hours ago. It is a standard Navy distress call. Or rather…”

He paused. The Ensign looked very nervous. This was his first tour of duty on the bridge, so I let him gather his thoughts. Those with more trips under their belts would be expected to be prepared to backup what they were saying with facts and/or reasoning. That is not something that could be taught in the academy.

“Sir, It was a standard Navy distress call from the past. I’ve spent the last hour researching the origins of the call. I had to dig deep into the archives. I did find that it appears to come from at least 200 years ago. As far as I can gather it belongs to an escape pod or shuttle from the early years of hyperspace travel.”

“Sir…” said the Ensign.
“I don’t want to be presumptive but the only vessel from that era that could possibly be in this sector is the USS Prince of Wales.”

There was a collective gasp from all the people on the Bridge. The Prince of Wales was a ship of legend in the annals of the Navy.

“Well Mr Hardy. What are we waiting for? Set a course to intercept the pod.”

“But Sir what about the enemy? We’ve been on the tail of those ships for over a month. We’ve travelled through 10 different star systems. What if we lose it now? Plus, our primary mission is to track and destroy any enemy vessel we encounter.”

Trust him to remind me and the rest of the bridge crew of the obvious. We had been out on patrol for nearly six earth months and had twelve new enemy images painted on the bulkhead of the inter deck lift. None of us needed reminding of our mission goal but sometimes… I felt like decking him. This was one of them.

“Number One, you know as well as I do where they are heading as in the enemy base close to the 5th planet of the Zonovo system which isn’t going anywhere very fast now is it? Plus, it would be somewhat reckless for us go into that system with the size of force we have plus our rather depleted state of battle readiness. Don’t you agree?”

Mr Hardy didn’t answer. He knew that he wasn't being asked a question but I was stating my opinion and as Captain, that opinion was not open to question.

I turned to the Ensign.

“Ensign Raleigh. As you seem to be the only one here who is on the ball, what is our ETA with the pod?”

“Sir. 56.5 hours Sir if we maintain our present speed.”

“And?”

“If we increase our speed to Warp 3.0 then a little over twenty two hours Sir.”

Once again, I smiled. This Ensign showed more promise than all the others of the current intake put together.

“So be it Ensign.”

“Sir?”

Commander Hardy protested.

“Won’t that be an extortionate waste of Fuel?”

“Yes, Mr Hardy it will. I’m guessing that you will want my decision entered into the ships log?”

I looked at my 1St Officer.

“Yes Sir.”

“Noted.”

There was a silence that lasted several minutes. The only noticeable thing was the increase in speed of the multitude of displays on the bridge. The main screen view shifted to show their new heading.

“Very well Gentlemen. I shall be in my Day Cabin. Keep me informed of any change. You have the helm No 1.”

“Aye-aye Sir,” responded the First Officer.

[19 hours later]

“Do you have the pod on the scanner?”

“Yes Sir. We have just come into range,” replied the duty Ensign.

“Well don’t dawdle man. Put it on the screen. I am sure we would all like to see what actually sending out such an ancient distress signal.”

Everyone turned to look at the screen that dominated the whole bridge.

At first, there was a pretty normal star-scape. The system they were passing through had a 'Red Dwarf' Sun so everything was optically shifted to the Red end of the visible spectrum. The automatic filters gradually corrected the shift back to a more normal spectrum for our puny humanoid eyes.

There was a collective gasp from all those present on the bridge. Most had expected a 'conventional' escape pod or shuttle. None of them had even in their remotest dreams, expected a 'flying saucer’ or something with a very strong resemblance to the mythical device of legend.

“What the hell on the stars is that?” exclaimed the 2nd Officer, McCoy.

There was silence. Everyone on the bridge had their collective jaws wide open in amazement.

"Sir. It appears to be what the ancients called a 'Flying Saucer or something very close to it,'" piped in Ensign Pickard.

“And what prey is a ‘Flying Saucer’ when it is about?” I asked.

“Sir, according to the Military Encyclopaedia, is a name that was coined about 1950 BF, or near enough 600 Earth Years ago,” replied the same Ensign.

“Thank you, Ensign.”

I studied the image on the screen for another 10 seconds. The craft was not in any of the recognition folios I’d ever seen. That presented both a problem and an opportunity. I decided that the latter was preferable.

“Do the scans show any organic life on board?”

“Sir?” asked another Ensign.

“Is there any life on board or have we come on another wild goose chase?”

“Sir. Yessir Sir.”

“In plain language if you please Ensign?”

“There is indication that there is power to the ships systems.”

“And?”

“There might be a stasis pod but the hull screening makes that sort of detection difficult from this range.”

“Why the hell didn’t you say so in the first place?” I exclaimed.

I thought for a couple of seconds before saying,

“Open a channel to Discovery.”

“Channel open sir,” reported another officer.

“Commander Khan, I want you to speed up and perform a detailed scan of the ship ahead. If you smell the slightest problem destroy the ship and get the hell out of there. Understood?”

“Yessir. Message understood,” came the reply.

The screens on the bridge showed the Discovery moving ahead of the flotilla and accelerating towards the ‘Saucer’.

There was an air of anticipation on the Bridge. The screen showed Discovery getting ever so slowly closer to the target.

After an hour the two ships were matched in speed and heading. Discovery was less than 100m from the ‘Saucer’.

I resisted the urge to call Discovery for an update. They’d let them know as soon as there was something to report.

The minutes dragged by without any signal from discovery.

Discovery had been alongside the mystery ship for a little over twenty minutes when the much-anticipated signal arrived.

“Discovery to Invincible.”

“Go ahead Discovery,” said the 1st Officer.

“There is some really heavy shielding on that ship. The vessel is powered up and there is … There is something you should see sir. The image should be with you now.”

An image appeared on the main screen.

I gasped as I recognised the symbol on the screen in front of me.

I picked up the pointer and drew a rough circle around the image on the screen.
“That, Gentlemen, is a pretty good representation of the ‘Prince of Wales’s Feathers’. As far as I know, it has not been used on a ship for at least 400 years. There was a question on it in my Academy Exam back in ’02.”

I could see blank looks all around me. The Ensign was smiling.

“Please continue Ensign. You seem to be more knowledgeable on the subject than me.”

He grinned.
“The Prince of Wales is… or was the name of a Prince who was second in line to the throne of the country of England or as we know it now, Anglic. The prince had a heraldic emblem just like the one on the screen. There were also ships of the line… as in those that sailed the seas given that name. When we as a race started to explore the planets, ships were given names that were important to the countries that founded the federation. That tradition continues today. As is evidenced by the names Discovery, Invincible and Nautilus. All of those names can be traced back to ships that sailed the seven seas the best part of a millenia ago.”

“Thank you, Ensign. That is an excellent description and with very little padding unlike some of your colleagues,” I said with my eyes on the 1st Officer.

It was time to move forward.
“Invincible to Discovery. Well done. Can you detect a way into the Ship?”

“Invincible. Yes, we can. Do you want us to go in?”

“Discovery. No. Stay on station. Can you get a vector on the ship and trace it back to wherever it originated?”

“Discovery here. Yes Captain. Our doctor, is something of an Astronomer. I’ll set her onto the task.”

I smiled as I remembered a romantic ‘episode’ many systems and ships ago with that very medic.

The moment of brevity didn’t last very long.

“Lexington to Discovery. Come in please,” came a call over the comms system.

“Go ahead Lexington,” replied the 1st Officer.

“Invincible, we have seen the signatures of two more pirate ships. They seem to be coming from the shadow of the 4th planet. Do we intercept Sir?”

I thought about the situation for a second. I wondered if the vessel we had been following was still in the system after all. I looked at the position of the planets in the system and the location of their ships. A plan swiftly formed in my mind.

“Captain Gooch, I want you to take Endeavour and Invincible with you and do a long-range sweep. Set a course that will take you towards the 5th planet. If you are subtle, you should be able to do a visual scan of the 4th planet’s shadow. Don’t ping them whatever you do. Understand? Stealth is the order of the day. If the enemy even give a hint of heading in this direction, you are to engage. Otherwise, say out of contact and maintain comms silence unless you come under attack. In that case, get the hell out of there.”

“Yesssir. Message understood,” came the reply five seconds later.

“Good. I’ll send full orders to both you and Captain Brunel and Commander Churchward within 10 minutes. Hold station until then.”

“Very good Sir. Lexington Out.”

A little over half an hour later the three ships peeled away from the formation and headed towards the 5th planet. This was a gas giant nearly the same size as Jupiter.

With them on their way, everyone’s attention returned to the mysterious ‘Saucer’ craft.

A little over two hours later the main part of the flotilla arrived in the vicinity of the craft.
Discovery had reported that there seemed to be a breathable atmosphere on board but this was more of a guess than anything.

“No 1. Get suited up and prepare to go aboard.”

“Aye-aye sir.”

The 1st Officer headed for the transport station.

“No 1!” I called out in a strong voice.

With an almost unnoticeable half-second of hesitation, he turned back to face me.

“Sir?”

“Softly, softly mode No 1. By the book if you please. No blasting the first thing that moves into atoms. Understood?”

“Sir!”

Twenty-five minutes later the landing party was ready for action.

“Landing party requests permission to go aboard Sir?” asked the 1st Officer.

“Permission granted No 1.”

30 seconds later they were on board the alien ship.

Everyone on the bridge waited in eager anticipation for their reports.

“Invincible. Landing party here. The atmosphere is breathable. CO and CO2 levels very low and the O2 level is a bit low but rising and acceptable. Permission to remove helmets Sir?”

“Granted. What else do you see?”

There was silence over the radio.

“Landing Party respond?”

“Sir, there is someone alive on board.”
After a slight hesitation, he continued.
“Sir, it’s a Humanoid. What shall we do?”

“Well, don’t just stand there, get them suited up and over here. This will go into the history books.”

A bit of sniggering could be heard over the radio.

“Landing Party, come in please. Is there a problem?”

The sniggering changed into laughter.

“No Sir. No Problem. We are suiting up the survivor to bring them to the ship.”

“Understood. Don’t hang about. We have a few ships that need chasing and destroying,” I said hoping to instil a sense of urgency into the boarding party.

“Aye-aye Sir”.

As soon as I received news that the landing party were about to return, I handed command to his ‘No 2’ and headed to the dock to meet the landing party and the person from the ship.

The first to disembark the lander was my No 1, Commander Hardy.

“Report No 1?”

“Sir, we found a humanoid just emerging from a Stasis chamber. Our examination indicated that the restoration process was triggered by our ship docking with the escape pod. While the ship is of unknown origin the Stasis chamber is definitely of Earth origin. There is a label on the door that says that it was manufactured in a place called Norfolk in Virginia. Sir… that is an old school Navy facility… from before we went into space old.”

“Very good No 1. Now, about this Humanoid. It is male or female?”

“Sir! that is the problem. We don’t know.”

“No 1! Didn’t your time as a midshipman and cadet teach you not to beat about the bush when questioned by a senior officer?”

“Yes, Sir they did.”

“Well then exactly what the hell was that explanation? Is it a male of the species or is it a female? I am sure that even you can tell the difference?”

“Sir, Yessir. I can tell the difference.”

“Well then?”

There was a pause.

“Come on man. Don’t be a prude all your life.”

“Sir, the appearance is that of a female but the mediscan tells me that its underlying physiology is that of a male, Sir.”

“No 1?”

“Sir. You need to see the survivor for yourself.”

I looked long and hard at my No 1. I began to question my decision to select him as my No 1 over Commander Hardy.

“Landing Party, return to your ship immediately and transfer the Humanoid to the Flagship. Load the stasis pod into your hold and put an armed guard on it 24/7.”

“Yessir. Message understood.“

“Very well. No 2! You have the helm.”

“Aye-aye Captain.”

I left the bridge and headed for the airlock. I wanted to see this survivor for myself. It had to be extraordinary for my First Officer to be lost for words.

I joined a detachment of marines at the airlock and waited for the shuttle to arrive. Chief Petty Officer Kirk was in charge of the detachment.

“Petty Officer Kirk, what do you make of this situation?”

“Sir?”

“Is this person going to be a threat to us?”

“I doubt it Sir. Shall I order weapons drawn?”

“No Sergeant. I don’t think that will be needed. After all, it is just one person.”

“It’s human then?”

“Apparently so but I’m not sure if we can communicate with it or not. The reports so far didn’t say. I’m sure that if the humanoid spoke the Federation lingua Standard then we’d have found out by now.”

“Yes Sir.”

The Lander docked a few minutes later. All those present were eagerly awaiting their first sight of the Humanoid. The shielding of the ‘Saucer’ had for some reason prevented any video links and the Landers were not equipped with internal cameras.

After what seemed an interminable wait, the hatch opened and the Lander commander stepped out and came to attention in front of me.

“Captain, Lieutenant Wayne reporting Sir.”

“At ease, Lieutenant.”

“Sir.”

“Well, where is she or is it a he?”

“Sir, there is a little problem. She does not have any clothes under the suit.”

“Ah. I understand.”

I turned to the CPO.

“Chief? Can you help out here?”

The Petty Officer looked surprised.

“Sir?”

“You are a Woman, aren’t you? Well go and get a spare uniform minus any insignia naturally.”

“Sir!”

With a click of her heels, she disappeared into the bowels of the ship.

The Chief soon returned carrying a bundle of clothes. She stopped and presented herself to me.

“Sir, I have the clothes you requested.”

I let out a huge sigh.

“Don’t just stand there, Chief, go and get our guest dressed.”

“Sir!”

The Chief disappeared into the Lander carrying the bundle of clothes.

She reappeared a few minutes later without the clothes.

“Well Sergeant? Where is our visitor?”

“Sir. She is just coming Sir. She… is a little overwhelmed by everything at the moment.”

We didn’t have long to wait.

Our visitor stepped out of the Lander and looked around the inside of the ship. The woman was well close to 2m tall and as a consequence, the uniform was a little short in the leg and arms.

“Sir, may I present Second Officer Alan Ripley, formerly of the ‘Prince of Wales’.”

“Welcome to our ship Officer Ripley,” I said.

“Captain, thank you for rescuing me. I can see things have changed quite a bit since…”, said Ripley looking around the Airlock.

I made a decision and said,
“Please… come with me to the Bridge.”

“Thank you, Captain.”

Everyone went to attention when Ms Ripley and I stepped out of the lift.
“At ease Gentlemen.”

“Update please someone?”

“Sir!” said the Ensign.

“Yes Ensign McCoy?”

“Sir, I have the records of the Prince of Wales. Sir.”

“Go on Ensign. The abridged version please.”

“Sir, the archives state that the Prince of Wales was lost on a mission to Alpha Centauri almost five hundred and twelve years ago. Communication was lost when the ship went into Hyperdrive and was never re-established. The reports at the time seemed to suggest that a gravity wave from a nearby system threw the ship off course and it may have flown into a black hole.”

“Thank you, Ensign. Make sure that the records are updated to reflect the current situation.”

I did not wait for a reply to my command.

“Number One, have you or the Doctor managed to track the course of the vessel that we are currently alongside?”

“Yes sir. From the information supplied by the Doctor we have been able to obtain it came from the Blinkenlights System some seventy-four light years away.”

“Blinkenlights? I’ve never heard that name before.”

“Yes Sir. It is apparently a binary star system that rotates quite quickly and gives the appearance of blinking lights. It was named in Nineteen Sixty Nine. The Astronomer, a Mr Ken Olsen at MIT thought it was similar to a … rotating light display that was on the Computer Front Panel that was operating the Radio Telescope that was used to discover the system.”

“Computer Front Panel? Ensign, do not jest with me.”

“Sir. I was quoting from the records. Sir!”

“Number One, can you put it all up on the screen?”

“The computer?”

“No, you idiot, the map of this ‘Blinkenlights’ Star System and also where we are relative to it and the course of the alien ship when we encountered it.”

“Just coming up,” replied the First Officer.

Everyone looked at the huge screen that dominated the Bridge area.
“There you are Ms Ripley. You have come a very long way in a very long time. You were very lucky that we happened to be chasing some pirates in this sector when we picked up your transponder. Your craft was heading right into the area run by the Pirates,” I said.
“Given your ancient history with the fleet, they would have sent you into slavery in a flash. That is why all female crew members are given cyanide implants in their teeth. The pirates operate a male hierarchy and women are not educated beyond a very basic level. Then they are expected to obey their assigned husband and have as many male babies as possible. Not a life I’d want if I had any female children.”

Ensign McCoy highlighted the course that the Prince of Wales must have taken from earth to get anywhere near what we thought might be the ‘Blinkenlights’ system.

“Sir, we estimate that the distance from where the Prince of Wales was due to emerge from hyperspace and here to be some six hundred lightyears. There is no way the craft we found could have travelled that distance. It is not hyperdrive equipped,” commented the Ensign.

“Well Ms Ripley? It seems that you are presenting us with a bit of a problem. Not to worry, we have other more urgent business to attend to.”

I turned to my 3rd Officer, Lt Lisa Aldrin.

“No 3, please escort Ms Ripley to a spare cabin. You are to be her mentor and companion while you her up to speed on the current situation and make sure that she understands the alarms and evacuation warnings. If the screens above the Tactical Officer are to be believed, we will engage the enemy at around Zero Dark Thirty.”

“Sir. My Pleasure Sir!” replied the Officer.

“Oh, and Number Three, leave Ms Ripley alone. And that’s an order!”

The Officer went red in the face and escorted Ms Ripley off the bridge.

Or 3rd Officer was well known to be attracted to both men and women. That was still frowned upon by some senior officers even though it had not been against naval regulations for several centuries. The Flotilla was about to engage the enemy and the last thing I wanted was one of my officers with anything other than doing their duty on their mind.

The ship had just changed the watch when ships arrived where the Pirates had last been detected. They weren’t there naturally. All that remained was the wreckage of three freighters. The scanners could not detect any signs of life so the Flotilla pursued the enemy. Their hyperdrives had left a distinct path. They were headed for Neutral Zone.

I cursed our luck. The Neutral Zone was just like a neutral port in times gone by. No fighting was allowed unless it was in one of the many bars and clubs at the bases in the Zone. There were strict rules about following the other side while in the zone. Just as the Admiral Graf Spree had done when she docked in Montevideo all those centuries ago, we could follow them inside but that was it. Back then, the British Ships had just waited outside. That was enough for the Germans. They were trapped and so, they scuttled their ship.

Now with an extra dimension of Ms Ripley to deal with, I felt that we could not just wait outside the port for them to emerge.

After a few seconds of thought, I approached the star chart.

“No 1. Where do you think that they will come out of the Neutral Zone?”

“Sir?”

“Come on No 1. You must remember studying the Battle of the River Plate at the Academy?”

“Sir! Yes Sir.”

“Then, you will know that the German Admiral decided to scuttle his ship, rather than fight. That is not an option for this lot of brigands. They have too much booty in their holds for that. I am of the opinion that they will go through the Neutral Zone and emerge somewhere on the other side but where? It is a simple question?”

“Sir, I think that they will head for home by the shortest route possible. Our intelligence shows that these ships have been out for almost a year. The crew will desperately need some downtime and definitely a refit plus, that booty will need dividing up to pay off the crew even if we did give them a bloody nose in the Antares System last month.”

The captain remembered that battle very well. Only a meteor shower had saved the enemy from total defeat.

“Couldn’t they refuel and re-provision in the Neutral Zone?”

The First Officer laughed.

“And pay their inflated prices? They are pirates. They don’t want to pay for anything. They won’t break the rules of the Neutral Zone and steal the supplies. That would be more than enough to swing the Neutral Zone onto our side in the war.”

“So? There is always a first time you know. We don’t know how much damage they sustained when they engaged those freighters. We did find some wreckage that came from one of their ships. Perhaps they need more than just a quick pit-stop?” countered my No 2.

“Ah, I see,” said my No 1.

“Do you, No 1? Anyway, my mind is made up,” I said ending the debate.

“No 1, plot a course for here. And dispatch Discovery to pay a courtesy call to the main depot in the Neutral Zone. Tell the Commander to use code twelve to report via diplomatic channels. Discovery is to obey all… and I mean all Neutral Zone protocols. No shore leave. Just replenish some of their food supplies. That booty from the Pirate Freighters we encountered last month should be more than enough to pay even the inflated prices charged by Nelix, and his band of brigands.”

“Aye-aye Sir.”

Sixteen hours later, the flotilla emerged from Hyperspace on the far side of the Neutral Zone. We'd done almost twenty jumps to confuse any enemy detectors and also not to infringe on the volume of space that belonged to the Neutral Zone.

“Any signs of recent traffic Number 2?”

“Sir, No sir. Everything is quiet.”

“Good. Maintain watch level Alpha. Everyone else can stand down for a few hours.”
“I’m going to talk to Ms Ripley. You have the helm Number 2.”

“Sir! I have the helm.”

A few minutes later, I arrived at the cabin where Ms Ripley was quartered.

“Any issues Number 3?”

“Sir, no issues sir. She’s had two good meals and otherwise she has been sleeping.”

“Very good Number 3. Send for a Marine to take over from you. Get some sleep. If my plan works out, in about ten hours we may have some action.”

The face of the third officer lit up. She liked nothing more than a good scrap. Playing nursemaid was clearly not her cup of tea.

I went into the cabin and found Ms Ripley browsing the Federation history.

“So much has happened and changed since…”

“It has,” I sighed.
“But we are still fighting each other. That hasn’t changed.”

She smiled.
“That’s human nature. Some have a good life and then there are those who don’t want them to enjoy it.”

I chuckled.
“That is a very good description Ms Ripley.”

I looked her right in the eyes.
“Are you ready to explain how you came to be in the escape pod?”

She smiled back at me.
“I wondered when I’d be given the third degree.”

“Not exactly the third degree but I do need to have some explanation even if it is just for the Ships Log. After all, we did divert from our primary mission to pick you up. The Admiral and the Navy Staff will want to know why we did that when we get back to base.”

She nodded.

“I looked up what is recorded about my ship. There isn’t a lot.”

“It was a very long time ago.”

“Only last year as far as I’m concerned.”

“So, what happened?”

“The records said that we were lost when we went into Hyperspace.”

She paused.

“We didn’t get lost. We emerged from Hyperspace right where Captain Cook wanted us to emerge only that wasn’t where we were supposed to be. After three more jumps, were in what you call the ‘Blinkenlights’ system. We called it the ‘Lorenz’ system back then. That was because of the Radio emissions that were received back in the day by a Radio Telescope in England. That’s on Earth you know.”

I said nothing.

“Anyway, the signals were apparently similar to the encoded message traffic that was used by one side in a global war long time before that.”

She swallowed hard.

“Captain Cook had apparently had ultra-secret orders from the High Command to not go to Antares but instead we were to go to the Lorenz system. We were supposed to just see what was going on in the system when we emerged from Hyperspace and then head off to Antares as planned. The problem was that we emerged from the jump right into the middle of the systems asteroid belt. The ship was holed within seconds. I was the only survivor and that was because luck would have it, I was working right next to the escape pod when all the alarms went off. I dived into the pod just as the ship started to break up.”

I remembered one of the history lessons from the Academy. Back in the old days, you made a hyperspace jump and hoped. Hoped that you got somewhere close to where you wanted to be and hoped that there wasn’t a planet right where you wanted to materialise. These days, there were systems on all hyperspace capable ships prevented that sort of thing from happening. So far, her story seemed plausible.

“What happened then?”

“I drifted for a few days. I spent the time trying to pick up any comms traffic but there was nothing. I was starting to get a bit depressed when a ship appeared off my port side. The pod has no weapons other than a side-arm so I let them literally reel me into their hold. I found out that they were a guard ship of the “Nogov” Fleet. The Lorenz system was a long way from their home system.”

“Nogov? Never heard of them?”

She smiled.

“They knew all about us and had seen us coming.”

“They have Hyperspace detectors?”

“Had. They had Hyperspace detectors. This was a long time ago remember. I was just about to go into the Stasis Pod when they arrived. I wasn’t a prisoner but their guest. Not long after they transformed me, they packed up and left.”

This was serious. This was a new race for us. HQ would need to be informed ASAP. In all our time in space since the days of the Prince of Wales, we had not encountered another race of humanoids or any other race of beings that were capable of space travel.

“But what happened to you? While you were their captive.”

She sighed.

“The Nogov, have the ability to read minds. They made no secret of it by the way. They saw that I was really transgendered. I had no way of stopping them from reading my mind and they saw what it contained. It was apparently rather different in structure to them as they were a Hermaphrodite type of Lizard. After a bit, they said, we can make you what you want to be. At the time, those who were openly transgendered were not allowed to serve ‘off planet’. They knew that naturally but it didn’t stop them from offering me to become who I am today.”

“And you said yes?”

“Why not? There was no hope of ever getting home unless another ship came to the system by accident.”

“How long? How long after they’d done their thing with you did, they depart?”

“About a month of Earth time. They read my mind without touching anything which I was and still am truly thankful. They already knew the basics of our language and reading my mind allowed them to get proficient enough to speak to me.”
She shook her head as she remembered something before continuing.

“There probably wasn’t a lot I could do about it anyway. I can only think that there was something in my mind that they didn’t like. Anyway, one day I found myself alone again. They’d left me right where they’d found me. I… This time, they had used one of their shuttles to house my stasis pod as the escape pod had received some damage when my old ship blew up. They told me that my new ship would let me survive long enough to be rescued. If there was something in my mind that they didn’t like, it wasn’t bad enough… I was sure that they could had turned me loose in the escape pod and blasted it into kingdom come but they didn’t. That is probably a mystery that I’ll never solve the answer to.”

“You felt abandoned?”

“Yes. After a couple of days, I set course to where I thought an inhabited system was and entered the stasis pod. Then the next thing I found was you lot stomping all over my ship. From what I have been able to ascertain from your records, I was in there for several hundred years.”
The last bit was said with a frown on her face.

“You know the rest.”

“Ms Ripley, what do you want us to call you? Alan is somewhat inappropriate don’t you think?”

“Eleanor. Yes, Eleanor.”

“Well Ms Eleanor Ripley, please remain in these quarters unless you are escorted by one of my officers. We are an operational ship and in pursuit of some very nasty pirates.”

“Yes, your Third Officer told me all about it. Don’t worry Sir, I have seen just how different this ship is from both the Prince of Wales and the ship that has been my home for so long. I won’t touch anything.”

“Thanks Ms Ripley. When we are out of the combat area, I will arrange for a complete tour of the ship.”

I looked at the clock on the bulkhead.

“I’ll send an Ensign to take you to get something to eat shortly. In the meantime, I can see that you have mastered the data terminal. There is an awful lot of history for you to catch up on.”

Then she looked me right in the eyes.

“Sir, have we encountered any alien life out here? Apart from the Nogov that I’ve met that is?”

“As far as I know, we have not. But obviously, my pay grade does not allow me to know about all the possible ‘Encounters with a Third Kind’. That’s why your information on the Nogov is so important. Do you happen to know why they are in the ‘Blinkenlights’ System in the first place?”

“Sir, they didn’t tell me directly but I got the feeling that they were an advance party that were surveying the region before something much larger came through. But upon reflection and because of the sheer amount of time that has passed, it did not come to anything… yet.”

“Hmmmm. That is useful to know. When you feel like it, please write a report on the whole encounter.”

She smiled at me.

“Sir, it is already done. It is in the ships log of my Pod. I wrote it all up before I went into the stasis pod just in case I never came out.”

“Well done, Ripley. Now, I must be going.”

I left her alone in the cabin. She seemed happy but I had more problems to solve.

I went into my Day Cabin and opened my personal Log. There was a lot to report and an awful lot of unanswered questions.

We received notification that the Pirate ships had made their mandatory 48-hour stopover in the Neutral Zone before moving on. Our people were the mandatory nine hours behind them and to our pleasure, they were both heading right for our current position.

The pirates emerged into real space close enough for us to hail them. As per standing orders, we had to give them a chance to surrender. Their answer came in a salvo of energy weapons.

I instructed the flotilla to engage and after a few minutes, the heavily outnumbered and heavily outgunned enemy ships were disabled and all firing from them ceased.

I took no chances and sent in a couple of RPSSs (Remotely Piloted Survey Ships) to give them a really good look over. This caution was justified when a salvo from the nearest one took out both ships.

I wasted no time issuing further orders.

“No 1, tell the Flotilla to destroy the enemy.”

“Aye-aye Sir.”

Thirty seconds later, the two enemy ships blew up. We hadn't
fired on them so we assumed that they'd been scuttled by their Captains. This was a common tactic to stop them and any of their rumoured special technology from falling into our hands.

“Sir, message from Hornet,” said one of the Ensigns.

“Well, what are they saying?”

“Sir, the message says that two of their main weapons are out of action for the foreseeable future. Blast damage from the explosions.”

“Tell them message understood, and to make the best repairs they can.”

“Aye-aye Sir,” replied the Ensign.

The damage to the Hornet was not unexpected. She had been the closest one of our ships to the explosions. That damage to their primary weapons made up my mind for me. I estimated that overall, the flotilla was down to about forty per cent of battle effectiveness. It was time to start to head home.

“No 2. Priority dispatch to all ships. ‘Return to base’. Jump list coordinates will be sent within one hour.”

“Aye-Aye Sir!” replied my Second Officer with a definite spring in her voice.

Ten days of hyperspace jumps brought the Flotilla back to our home system. Once we’d answered the Neptune Base challenges, we were cleared to proceed to Andromeda Base.

When I heard where we were being sent, I felt sad. Andromeda Base while, able to repair our ships and give the crew some well-earned R&R, it wasn't home. At present, Andromeda was almost 180deg away from Earth so there was little chance of anyone getting home this time.

I spent the time as we cruised towards our final destination completing my reports of the mission. It had been pretty successful with fifteen enemy ships and over fifty freighters destroyed, we had not achieved our prime mission to find and destroy the ship commanded by former Federation Rear Admiral Hook.

I laboured many hours over the details of the rescue of Officer Ripley. In the end, I just put it down as it had unfolded and backed that up with a copy of the ship's log, the log from Ms Ripley’s ship and finally, bridge voice recordings. If anyone in the High Command wanted to take issue with my handling of the incident then, so be it. There was nothing in Fleet Regulations to cover an event like this. You can’t write a regulation for something that has never happened.

The bit that worried me most was her testimony that described the Nogov race, their fleet and very little else. It was clear that this race had great powers and probably had weapons that made ours look like pea-shooters but needless to say, I didn't put those thoughts in my report.

We were still two days out from Andromeda Base when I sent the full mission report to fleet. The closer we got to the base, the atmosphere on the ship became much lighter but still tense. The NCOs were making the crew work hard cleaning and painting everything in sight even, things that were more than likely going to be replaced while we were laid up for a mini-refit for four to six weeks.

As we neared Andromeda Base, an urgent message came in from High Command.

“What is it No 1?”

“Sir, we are directed to proceed to Aurora Base ASAP. The rest of the Flotilla are to proceed as planned to Andromeda Base.”

Aurora's base was on the Moon. That meant two things. Trouble and more trouble.

“Who signed the order No 1?”

“Sir, it was signed by Admiral Hood.”

My heart sank. Admiral ‘destroyer’ Hood had a fearsome reputation as a stickler for regulations. Someone was obviously for the high jump and it looked like that someone was me.

“No 1, inform the flotilla. Tell them to proceed with docking and begin their agreed refit programme. Let them know what we are doing. Then set a course for Aurora.”

“Yes Sir, right away Sir,” replied my First Officer.

I turned on my heel to head towards my day cabin when I had another thought.
“No 1, did the signal give any indication of when they want us to arrive at Aurora Base?”

“Sir, the signal said ‘post haste’ whatever that means.”

“No 1 that is Admiral Hood saying, tomorrow is too late. Given that we have the Sun in our way, we need to travel as close to it as possible. Plot a course to go ten million klicks inside the orbit of Venus. Oh, and try not to hit Venus or Mercury on the way.”

“No 1, we are to go dark except for direct comms from Fleet Ops. I don’t want news of our guest to leak before we get home. If it does, the people from Fleet will wet themselves trying to put a spin on it. We must not let news of the Nogov race get into the media. If it does then we will all spent the rest of our lives in the Nobelium mines on Uranus. Do you understand me?”

I heard an affirmative response as I entered my day cabin.

As I sat down at my desk, I estimated that I had around 6 days left in command of this fine ship. If I was lucky, I'd get busted down to a subbie but quite what I'd done wrong apart from not succeeding with the prime directive of the mission. His fearsome reputation was enough to make most officers quake in their boots. I knew this from first-hand experience after all the Vice Admiral was my estranged father.

Such is the life we have in Fleet Ops. There is always someone who thinks that they could have done a better job that the people on the ground.

The news of our 'guest' leaked out less than two hours after we had set course for the Moon. Fleet HQ was livid but at least they had the common sense to seal all crew records of the ship that had gone missing all those years ago. I knew enough of the history of those times to know that the chances of returning from operations were low and that was due to the Hyperdrive technology being in its infancy.

I scanned the media during our journey around the sun and Venus. Nothing was mentioned about this mysterious race of aliens that had briefly made contact with one member of the human race. For that I was thankful.

The rest of the time, I mentally prepared myself for my impending Court Martial. The wording of the orders from the Admiral made it clear that was what lay in wait for me in the weeks and months ahead. One thing was already clear to me. Fleet HQ, in their strange infinite wisdom, were ignoring our cargo.

I’d had dreams as a small child about ‘First Contact’. Until now, humanity had been alone in the galaxy. Until now.

Now, we had proof that we were not alone. While gender transitions were part of society for those who needed it, Navy regulations still prohibited those who had transitioned from serving in warp-equipped vessels. Her trip back to a very different planet Earth could well be her last journey outside the atmosphere. I felt a little sad for her. To have travelled so far for so long now to be imprisoned on Earth would come as a shock.

I knew the reasoning behind the regulation banning trans people from hyperspace. The Pirates were very much old school where a man was a man and a woman was a woman and only a man and a woman could get married. Two Trans people had been executed in public and the recording had been sent to fleet. After that, there was a ban on Hyperspace travel for trans people.

The announcement of our imminent arrival at the Moonbase brought me back to reality. I chuckled at the term ‘Moonbase’. The base was a station that orbited the satellite at a distance of 100km. The Moon itself was home to more than a million people.

I picked up the communicator.
“No 2, take her in. It will be good practice for you.”

“Sir?”

I shut it down with a wave of my hand before he could respond any further.

[four hours later]

Six Marines in full dress uniforms came aboard with orders to escort me to face the base commander, Vice Admiral Sisko. I’d put on my full-dress whites. If I was going down, at least I could look the part. Wearing our ‘voyage’ uniforms for a possible Court Martial would not look good.

The escort led me to the CO’s office. I went inside and could not help but notice that they remained in place. Things were not looking good for me.

I went inside and stood in front of the Vice Admiral’s desk at attention. I saluted and waited.

The Vice Admiral was deliberately ignoring my presence. I knew that this was a standard tactic for him.

Without looking up from the papers that were spread over the desk in front of him, he said
“At ease,”

I moved into the ‘at ease’ position and waited.

After nearly five minutes, he looked up at me.
“You have certainly gone and done it this time. What have you to say for yourself?”

“Sir? What have I done wrong? Sir!”

“Don’t you know?”

“No Sir, I do not. I made a judgement call to answer a federation distress signal rather than chase some pirates to the base that we already know about.”

“After your moment in the limelight then?”

“Sir, when we decoded the call, no one in the flotilla had any idea what might be behind the call. After that I made judgement calls based upon the information available to me at the time. If I had not made those calls we would not have any evidence of another race in the galaxy that possess faster than light technology.”

“Bull.”

“Sir?”

“I know you too well. You want your moment of fame and that is not going to happen. The federation has ordered a total news blackout about the whole incident. As for you… I have been ordered to send you down to Fleet HQ for a Cour Martial.”

“I understand Sir. Fleet and the Federation do not want the population to know that there is a race out there who may have superior technology to us. There is an alien ship in the hold of my ship just waiting for your experts to examine but naturally, you would prefer to send me to a penal colony rather than accept that we are not alone in the Galaxy.”

The Vice Admiral grunted.

“Sir, do you not understand that the encounter took place not long after the time that the Prince of Wales was declared lost… That is several hundred years ago. Is it not possible that…”

“Enough. Save it for the Court Martial. Dismissed.”

[one week later at Fleet HQ in what remained of Florida after the rising sea waters had submerged most of it]

The Court Martial had not gone well for me. It was clear from the outset that the panel had already decided that I was guilty of dereliction of duty in face of enemy action. That alone would condemn me to at least 10 years in a penal colony on Mars or Uranus.

No matter what I brought up as mitigating circumstances, it was dismissed. I resigned my fate and waited for the sentence to be passed. Just as this was about to happen, the doors to the courtroom burst open and in came Ms Ripley.

“What is the meaning of this interruption?” demanded the presiding judge.

“Why are you persecuting the man who saved my life?”

“Who the hell are you? Don’t you know that this is a Court Martial?”

“I do and you sir are bang out of order. This officer should be lauded as a hero.”

“We will do no such thing. The fleet works on rules and without those rules we would be in a state of total anarchy.”

“If you don’t want to listen then let me show you idiots something that will make those rules obsolete.”

Ms Ripley changed right before their very eyes into a fully grown member of the Nogov race.

The presence of a three-metre-high fire-breathing lizard in the courtroom made everyone run like hell.

No way was that going to be kept under wraps for very long.

After scaring the members of the Court Martial panel witless, Ms Ripley changed back to her human form.

“Gentlemen, several centuries ago, I signed the pledge to uphold the honour and rules of the fleet at all times. Do you remember doing just that? Even then, it was schooled into us that there were times when rules and regulations had to go out of the window. This is one such time. I am living proof that we are not alone. For better or worse, that is the reality of today and the sooner you accept that the better.”

The panel looked stunned. They were clearly not used to being lectured like this.

“Don’t even think about trying to arrest me. Given my age, I am clearly beyond the age of retirement and you motherfuckers will roasted in the media when it gets out that you have living evidence of alien life in your possession? Does the President of the Earth or any of the others in the Federation know the details of how I got rescued? No, they don’t. Arresting me is a sure fire way of making sure that my presence is known far and wide.”

“Wh… What are your demands?” asked the President of the Court.

“Demands? Toss this case into the garbage where it belongs. Then? How about sending the indomitable Captain Nelson? Perhaps after a long overdue promotion to Admiral like his forefather on that swanky new starship, the Enterprise to search for the Nogov race? That way, both of us will be out of your hair and you lot of numbskulls can get back to sucking each others dicks because that is all you are good for.”

“Oh… and if you do arrest me then there is an awful lot of backpay that I am owed. That will allow me to hire the best lawyers in the solar system, namely the court of public opinion?”

[one month later aboard the Enterprise]

“Ready to take command Admiral?” asked 1st Officer Sulu.

“I am No 1. Shall we get underway?”

“Aye-aye Sir,” said Sulu.

“Log, record this event under BGWNMHGB” said the Admiral.

“Sir?” asked Sulu.
“What does that mean?”

The Admiral smiled.
“Ms Ripley, would you care to answer Mr Sulu?”

“Certainly Admiral.”

She grinned back at the Admiral.
“Back in the dark distant past, my great grandfather used to tell me about this thing call Television and in particular, one show that was called ‘Star Trek’. The crew of this fictional series would each week ‘Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before’. Their ship was ironically called, ‘The Enterprise’.”

“Thank you, Ms Ripley. No 1, when safe to do so, Warp 1 until we get beyond the orbit of Pluto, if you please. Then… let her rip. We need to see what this beauty is capable of.”

[cue titles] (sic)