Fannie Andrews on the way to Earth

[jayphailey]

Fannie Andrews 1

Deneva

We pulled alongside the station at Deneva. It was an odd mix of old and new.

The System was colonized to mine a local asteroid belt, and then bootstrapped up from there. So they took an old hand-me-down Starfleet station and then rebuilt it and added to it.

Commander Andrews asked for a meeting, so I invited him to my office. I set up the brass coffee machine. Originally, it were only used for non-replicated coffee beans. I used replicated coffee beans because I am an adult can’t be bothered to work that hard at being snotty. A grinder to grind the beans, and then dozens of little greebles and tools to measure the coffee grounds. Then, once measured, they were added to the brewer, pouring a scientifically measured amount of water at just the right temperature and flow rate to make the perfect coffee.

It was the second or third time i’d used the damned thing. I usually get my coffee from the replicator because I’m an adult with serious work to do.

Andrews came in. He still had on his Monster Maroons. He’d compromised enough to add a modern combadge under his original Starfleet badge.

“Captain Seven,” He stood at attention.

“As you were,” I hoped the smell of fresh ground and brewed coffee might encourage Andrews to relax. It didn’t seem to be working.

“I was considering leaving this ship at Deneva,” Andrews said.

I looked at him. He was expecting some argument. I poured myself a small cup of coffee and sniffed it. “I have orders to return you safely to Earth Space Dock,” I said.

“Did these orders say why we were to be returned to Space Dock?” Andrews asked.

“Not specifically. They reinforced that your mission was classified and need to know only,” I said.

“I think I’ll take that cup, if you don’t mind,” Andrews said. Ahah. He was human, after all.

I poured him some “How do you take it?”

“Black,” he said.

I added the right amount of sugar and cream to mine.

“I’m not sure your ship is the right one to transport me and my crew,” He took a sip.

“A modern courier will be much faster,” I said.

“Your ship… isn’t… safe,” Andrews said, seeming to struggle with the words.

“How so?” That was a surprising statement. We were training engineering crew. The Fannie Andrews had about five times more routine checks and maintenance than any operational ship I knew of.

“You have… Orions. Klingons and even Romulans aboard.” Andrews said. It sounded like an accusation.

“There’s a context you’re not privy to. They’re all fine. Besides, you don’t have to tell them anything.”

“Do you think these people of yours will make Starfleet Officers?”

“That’s the point of this run. I know some of my people are a little rough around the edges, but that’s why I have them training newbies. Most of the people on this ship will graduate Starfleet Academy and be commissioned,” I said.

“They’re an odd bunch,” Andrews was working around to saying what he really meant.

“Yes,” I said, “I enjoy that about them.”

“At what point do you stop broadening Starfleet and begin to go native?” He asked me, “How much diversity is too much?”

“Do you think that’s a problem that might come up?”

“Frankly, yes. Romulans and Klingons in Starfleet is a lot to get my head around.”

I tilted my head “Wasn’t it the goal of Starfleet and the Federation of your day to find ways to coexist with the Klingons and the Romulans?”

“Coexisting is one thing. Comingling is another. There’s an old saying ‘good fences make good neighbors’.”

“Isn’t part of our mission statement to seek out new worlds and new life forms?”

“I’m not sure it was meant in such a way as to bring them all home to be our roommates.”

I considered my reply. “I won’t force you and your crew to stay if you don’t want to. We’re scheduled for a week-long layover at Deneva. We’ll be leaving here in seven and a half days.”

Andrews seemed to expect more. “Alright. I’ll let you know if I can arrange another ship.

-*-


The best thing I can say about Deneva is that it wasn’t the ship. It was a perfectly generic Federation colony. It had a couple of museums. It had a handful of restaurants. It had an amusement park.

There were about 3 million people in the system. There were a few enclaves of interesting ethnicities.

There was a main drag with nightclubs. There would be music and drinking. I hoped the cadets would behave themselves. It hadn’t occurred to me to filter them for drinking age or even ask the drinking age on Deneva.

I mentally crossed my fingers.

I walked a lot. I tired myself out just walking around outside, getting real sunshine.

I saw a bunch of cadets and people from the Fannie gathered around something. I headed that way.

I found my folks gathered around something in the court yard of an old administrative complex.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Someone yelled, “Captain on deck!” and all the cadets came to attention. I appreciated their enthusiasm. “As you were,” I said.

They relaxed. I realized some of the people I was seeing weren’t people.

Bronze statues. Human sized and configuration. It took me a moment “Captain Kirk, Mister Spock, Dr McCoy, Montgomery Scott.” There were two others, a man and a woman, but I didn’t recognize them. I felt sort of bad about that.

It hadn’t occurred to me. “About a hundred and fifty years ago, there was a terrible incident here, and these folks solved it.” I summarized it.

“Did you wear these sorts of uniforms when you were younger?” one of the cadets asked.

“I’m not quite that old,” I said, feeling that old.

“Sorry. It’s hard to tell what with all the time travel and everything.”

“Ix-Nay on the Ime-tray Avel-Tray” I said “Remember, we’re not supposed to discuss it.”

“Captain, could you get pictures?”

So I spent the next half an hour using a tricorder to snap pictures of my cadets and some of the transfer folks posing with the bronze statues of our heroes. The poses ranged from serious to silly to faux-serious.

I noticed that the statue of Spock’s right ear was polished to a shine. People over the years rubbed their fingers along it. Possibly for good luck. I resolved to never ever mention this to any Vulcan I knew.

-*-

I walked into the jail, trying to contain frustration and irritation.

The Sherrif met me. “Captain, I want you to look at something before you retrieve your cadets.”

“Okay. I’ll ask you to forward all video to me.” Someone’s Starfleet career was probably ending tonight and I blamed myself.

“Watch this before you make up your mind.”

We went to a conference room, and he showed me the video.

Inside a dance club. Music was playing, alcohol was flowing. My green gang was there, mostly. Dancing. Cadets and crew from the Fannie were mixed into the crowd.

A local approached one of the Green women and started dancing with her. Then, more and more guys. At some point, my irritation turned to stress. They were… off balance. Outnumbered.

Then someone got handsy. It looked like Dilan was the first to get touched.. She pushed the handsy guy away. Then, the other guys started to get handsy.

Cadets, dancing, noticed and stopped.

It looked like a donnybrook was going to break out. It looked like an incipient riot, Cadets and trainers formed a line across the club and separated the locals from the Green women.

The issue was in doubt. There was some pushing and shoving and exchanges of words. The music stopped. The lights came up. The club bouncers began escorting the more rowdy folks out of the club. Then, the deputies showed up.

“We had to bring your folks here to contain the mess, but I don’t see as they did anything wrong,” the Sherrif said “It’s been a while since I’ve seen unit cohesion like that. “

I looked up at the Sherrif.

“Just thought you’d like to know before demerits started getting handed out,” He said.

“Yeah. Thanks.”

“That’s a lot of cadets. What are you, some sort of academy ship?”

“Yeah. That’s it exactly,” I said.

He smiled “That’s pretty cool.”

“Yeah, they are, aren’t they?”

-*-

Commander Andrews came in and came to attention. “As you were,” the Admiral on the screen said. We were well within the Starfleet network, in range for real-time communications.

Andrews came to parade rest.

“Captain, is there a problem with your orders to transport Commander Andrews and his crew to Earth Space Dock?” The Admiral asked.

“Not from my end, Admiral,” I answered.

“Have you mentioned to Commander Andrews that you and many of your crew are temporally displaced?” She asked.

Andrews looked at me.

“It hasn’t come up, Admiral,” I said.

“Commander Andrews,” Admiral Janeway said “Why are you asking for another ship to bring you to Earth Space Dock?”

Andrews gathered his thoughts, “Admiral, there are people here I find… difficult to trust.”

Janeway thought about it, “The codeword is blackbird.”

Andrews looked startled.

“If it had suited the purposes of Starfleet Intelligence, a fast courier would have already been dispatched. This has not happened. You and your crew need some time to adjust to what’s happened to you. You need people around you who can understand the injury done to you and your crew.”

Andrews stared at the wall. He did not like this answer.

“You will join Captain Seven and his crew in training the cadets on the ship. Your experience of Starfleet is useful for that purpose. Once you get to Earth, a full debrief and recovery is scheduled.”

“Yes, Sir,” Andrews said.

“Captain Seven. Your job is to provide the support these people need to adjust to their new situation.”

“Yes, Sir,” I said.

“Good. Get to work,” Janeway ended the call.

We stayed there for a few moments, and then I got up “Coffee?”

“How long?”

“Oh, I haven’t had coffee since yesterday.”

Andrews gave me an “oh, come on” look “How long were you displaced?”

“About 30 years,” I said, “And sideways, twice. Or maybe three times. It’s hard to keep track sometimes.”

He looked at me and wanted to say something.

“Go ahead and have a seat.”

He flopped into one of my chairs “How do you handle it?”

I made coffee “Having a good crew helps. You’re all each others’ family now.”

“I’m clinging by my fingertips. That thing… I don’t know how long I spent reviewing my life, reliving it.”

I handed him his coffee “We didn’t really get a chance to talk about it before. That thing ate time. You folks were pretty out of it when we pulled you out of your station.”

“It broke down the barriers between past and present,” He said “Not physically, mentally. My whole life was now, and I was looking at it all at once.”

“That sounds interesting and horrible,” I said.

He looked at me haunted “I appreciate my Mom and Dad in ways I never could before, and now I can’t tell them. All I can do is play Starfleet as hard as possible and hang on.”


“I know some folks who can help you get through it,” I said.


Jay
Jan 2025

[jayphailey]

My goal with these is to kind of do a travel log mixed with character bits describing the Fannie's trip to Earth

[Innkeeper]

My goal with these is to kind of do a travel log mixed with character bits describing the Fannie's trip to Earth

So right, along for the ride.

[jayphailey]

Fannie Andrews 2

Janus VI

Vandenburg City was much more of a touristy type of place than I thought it was going to be. When it first came up in history, it was a pergium mine. A no-frills industrial site. But when the Horta were revealed, the site grew accommodations for scientists and diplomats of all kinds.

The city was filled with cultural sites and activities. The Hortas wanted all their friends to come and show them their arts, music, literature, and everything.

The city was also chockablock with architecture and metal sculpture done by the Horta in celebration of their new age with new friends.

I went looking for a certain someone.

-*-

Commodore Narahat was much larger than I remembered.

“Jay. please come in. It is a pleasure to see you once again.”

“Thank you, Sir.”

Commodore Narahat had been my commanding officer when I served on the Enterprise as a young lieutenant. He showed me into his … hole. One end was a luxury apartment set up for the comfort of humans. The rest of the place looked like a random cave to me.

“Please have a seat. I hope the couch fits you. I had one of my friends help me set this up for my humanoid friends. May I get you a substance for your comfort?”

“Thank you, Sir. I’m good.”

“There is no need for formality. I am retired from Starfleet, although they keep wistfully mentioning how I might train cadets for them.”

“Thank you… Narahat. I came by to check in with you and see how you have been doing since we last met.”

“I have questions,” Narahat said.

“Please go ahead.”

“Why do I now see six different Jays in the Starfleet records? And why the discontinuities in your records?”

“Well, Okay. You know that about Stardate 67600 or so I got command of the USS Harrier?”

“I read that. I was pleasantly surprised. When you were on the Enterprise, you were pretending so hard to be Starfleet, but it wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t quite working. I thought you’d find your truest self outside of Starfleet.”

“Is that why I was transferred off the Enterprise?” It was an old wound.

“Yes. The Enterprise of those days… and now, although less so, is a crucible. The pressure and temperature refines us down to our truest selves. I judged, perhaps in error, that you were not meant to be there. You went through another crucible. You’re a more refined version of you, now.”

“Thank you. So the Harrier ran into a temporal anomaly and got duplicated, a few times. I am one of the duplicate Jays.”

Narahat made a grinding noise that came out “Hmmm. Six times?”

“More or less. Essentially, my brothers and I are all temporal clones.”

“Siblings? An interesting construction. Does it bother you to be one of many?”

“No. I’ve done enough and experienced enough to establish my own identity in my mind. My other brothers have done the same. We start the same but we’re all developing slightly differently.”

“You’re the first one to come visit me.”

“I’ve missed some time, and since we were passing by, I thought I’d visit and see what happened to you in the meantime.”

“Who is we?”

“My ship, the Fannie.”

“You named your ship after your posterior?”

“Fannie Fern Andrews Phillips, she was a pioneer in education. We named a teaching ship after her.”

“A teaching ship?”

“Yes, a sort of mobile Starfleet Academy. We’re taking 675 cadets to Earth and training them as we go.”

“So you’re a teacher now?”

“A little. My crew covers for me in that department quite a bit.”

“I would like to speak with them,” Narahat said.

“Oh, Yes, Sir! That would be lovely.”

“When Spock met my mother, that was Starfleet at its best. We must encourage this sort of thinking.”

“Agreed.”

A noise like bricks tumbling down a cliff boiled out of the cave, and out of a side entrance dozens of baby Horta skittered. The computer tried to keep up “Mamma! Mamma! Mamma!”

“Children, be calm. This is Jay. He served with me in Starfleet.”

They swarmed us. They were warm, dry, and heavy. “What new planet didja see?” “Didja shoot any Klingons?” “Why are so many of the girls in the vids GREEN?” They skittered over us with very little regard for boundaries. I grabbed one and pet it, sort of. It giggled with a little girl’s voice.

I started laughing, and I couldn’t stop. It was the cutest thing I’d seen in a long time.

After the hubbub died down some, I said, “My apologies, Narahat, I didn’t know you were female. Your voder uses a male voice.”

Narahat did a little floor slide that approximated a shrug “We can do both, depending on context. I decided to present as male in my time in Starfleet. But when it was time for me to lay my first clutch of eggs, I retired, and came home to raise my young. We live a long time. I have time to experiment and explore different ideas of who I am.”

-*-

Narahat replayed the whole “Devil in the Dark” incident for my cadets, and ended the presentation in the cave where Spock first mind melded with her mother.

There’s a statue of Spock in the cave now.

“We must always be prepared to approach the unknown from a firm ethical footing,” Narahat said “When you don’t know what’s going on, then all that really counts is being true to yourself and open to the possibilities.”

“Spock showed us the way. We must always build on what he gave us.”


Over on the edge of the cave I saw a large Horta watching the presentation.

I blinked rapidly. Was that her? Watching a new batch of cadets learn the lesson?

They never said.