Olde Phoenix Inn

Bribes and Graft in the Rear

I walked to Anderban's Tasty Treats. I love the way that place smells. I have never found a better environment for a diplomatic meeting. But today I was hoping to avoid a war. Two races so locked into their mindset that they had no way to flex to meet the other side. Two races whos cultural assumptions were almost fatally mismatched, each of whom blithely assumed its rightness in the great scheme of things. If it blew up it wasn't going to be fun.

The City was eerily quiet. The Aneilogs are a telepathic species. I assumed that the air around me was filled with telepathic chatter, laughs and conversation. It was large club and I wasn't invited. Did I even want to be?

The huge brick cooling towers of Fusion Plant One loomed in the background. A fusion reactor built by steam technology, muscle power, and careful use of hand tools. I oriented myself by it and continued. I loved Fusion Plant One. When did one see an industrial revolution age fusion power plant? It was an engineering marvel and sure enough, I marveled.

On the other hand the Aneilogs were building a fusion power plant with steam driven machines and hand tools because the Kliges'chee didn't leave them any other choice. I winced at the extravagant use of Aneilog-hours and the brutal labor involved.

Soon my nose caught the wiff of the waffle cones and the freshly made ice cream of the home of the planetary ruler. I could see why the Ane confused and frustrated diplomats. They had a telepathic mass mind. The All was spoken of in an odd number of contexts. The All could be the ruling body of the Ane, a sort telepathic mass congress where anyone who cared could voice an opinion. The All could be a place where Aneilogs went, away from normal reality. When an Aneilog was firmly in contact with the All he was in a deep state of meditation all but unconscious of the world around him. The All was the Aneilogs' mass communication medium. They had no phones, no radio stations or television. They were building a datanet based on Starfleet technology, but that was mainly to store mathematical information and calculations so they didn't have to redo them mentally every time the subject came up. In some contexts the All was the Aneilogs afterlife. The All was the Aneilogs' racial memory.

Anderban was asked to perform the role of representative of the All to folks who weren't dialed in, like me. It was more convenient for me to consider him the planetary governor. In truth he got the job because when asked he didn't refuse it out right, and could perform the function part time, while pursuing his true avocation - purveyor of ice cream and other tasty treats.

As I approached Anderban's an Aneilog woman I'd never seen before walked casually up to me and handed me a flat crate of cherry tomatoes. She kept walking away, as if nothing had happened.

Bemused, I continued towards Anderban's. As I approached I saw a new addition to his sign. It said "Bribes and Graft in the Rear" I feared the worst. I went around back.

A Ferengi Daimon was there with members of his crew. They had flat crates of radishes, celery, and Vulcan tokra. They also had a chest of gold pressed latinum and exotic gems and jewels.

The Daimon looked about ready to cry. "You won't get in, hoo-man," The Ferengi First officer said.

"Oh?" I asked.
"Anderban is a cruel man. He demands a specific bribe for his favors, but will not tell us what the bribe is." The Ferengi said. He shook his head in admiration of the mean spiritedness.

A Ferengi Nagus would hold up seekers of favor and make them jump through hoops. He had the latinum, the access, the infrastructure to make great things happen. If you wanted some of his valuable time, it was an invitation for him to abuse you.

I quirked my lips. "Interesting. Aneilogs usually go for the radishes." I wasn't making this up. I often smelled radishes on the breath of Gensilan, my Aneilog wife. She approached radishes like Stephanie Anderson approached chocolate... hungrily.

"What do you have there?" The Ferengi officer asked.

"Cherry tomatoes." I said simply. I stepped forward and knocked on Anderban's back door.

The door open quickly. Anderban looked at me with a haughty, almost disdainful face. "Do you have the bribe?"

I held out the flat crate of cherry tomatoes. Anderban took one and ate it carefully as if tasting the quality.

He stood back. "Come in."

I bowed and said "Thank you, Anderban."

The Daimon was shrill at me. "How did you know!? We tried everything! How did you know?"

I couldn't help myself. I gave him my best "Well duh," look and said "They send out memos at about 9am. Didn't you get yours?"
I don't know what a Ferengi having a stroke looks like. But if I had to guess, I'd start from the Daimon's expression. "They send out MEMOS!?"

"Well yes, or else no one would know what to bring." I stepped through Anderban's door, closing it on the outraged Ferengi.

Anerban's grin was wide as we walked into the body of the ice cream shop. Lenilan was working the front counter. She grinned and winked at me. Several other Aneilogs were lapping ice cream and smiling. I heard a three toned fluting laugh.

"Where would you like these?" I asked Anderban, holding up the tomatoes.

"Oh, just set them over there," Anderban waved at the counter.

I abandoned my arcane and difficult to obtain bribe for the planetary leader and sat down across from Anderban in our customary booth.

"Listen, Anderban..." I said.

"What will you have?" He asked with a smile. If I was asked what a basso profundo flute would sound like, I'd guess Anderban's voice. But he had three of them at once. They were harmonized. An Aneilog choir is like nothing else I have ever heard.

"I love your vanilla." I said.

Lenilan began to scoop one for me as soon as I said it.

"What brings you to my shop today, Jay?" Anderban asked.

"Well, the Ferengi are starting to nut up." I said "We've had some incidents at the station. They're as frustated as anyone I have ever seen."

Anderban looked at me for a moment. His expression was eloquent. Then he gave it voice. "Why is this my problem?"

"There aren't enough of us from..." I tripped over it. The Aneilogs considered themselves members of the Federation along with their four legged relatives the Ane. The were all tied into the same All. So to say that my Starfleet crew was from the Federation didn't actually say anything, since Anderban was, by self indentity from the Federation as well. "...Starfleet." I said. It was a nice compromise. I said Starfleet to rhyme with "Home" and "More sane places where things make sense." Anderban also correctly heard Starfleet to rhyme with "A pack of fuddy-duddies without enough sense of humor, and a disturbing tendency to take themselves too seriously."

"There aren't enough of us to smooth things over with the Ferengi." I said. "I know they're irritating, but contact with the Ferengi may prove useful to your world."

"What would you ask of us?" Anderban said. It sounded formal.

"Let up on the Ferengi a little. Give them a break." I said. I couldn't articulate it any better than that.

"Jay, look behind you." Anderban said.

I looked. There were the booths with the rest of the Aneilogs in them. The front of the store. The door was open to allow the smell to waft out and drag customers in by their noses. It all looked perfectly normal to me. "What?" I asked.

Anderban smiled faintly. "The door is wide open. The Ferengi don't have to bribe their way in to speak with me at all. When they approach me directly and openly I'll cheerfully take any offer they like to the All and we'll discuss it."

I sighed at Anderban and smiled slightly myself. It was like talking to a fuzzy, warm brick wall. He just wouldn't get it. "Alright." I said. "Then that's the way it goes."

Lenilan handed me my ice cream. I stood up and took a lick of it. It was very rich, very dense. They gave me a tiny portion that was just right. Just enough to get the taste across my tongue and the feel that I'd had ice cream through me. But no so much it sat heavily.

"I'll be on my way, Sir." I said to Anderban. Anderban is a sweet guy, but sometimes when the Aneilogs know they're right and demand everyone else bend to them, they can get a little annoying. Anderban knew I was frustrated. I could see it. But he wasn't going to budge and he wasn't going to give the Ferengi the satisfaction of telling them what they were missing.

I walked out the back intending to tell the Daimon to just go talk to Anderban and see what happened. I opened the door with Anderban right behind me. Again I felt that he knew what I was up to, and despite the fact that the entire Aneilog population didn't think so, he was going to be a fair sport about me deciding enough was enough.

The Ferengi weren't there. The crates of vegetables were there. I noted the latinum and jewels were gone.

"Wonderful!" Anderban said, his musical voice carrying pleasure "They left the radishes."

The worst part was that I couldn't help but to play jokes on them myself. The Ferengi just asked for it so hard.

I wondered what the Aneilog/Ferengi war was going to look like. I couldn't see any way to avoid it.

Anderban looked at me with a mouth full of radishes. **Do what it takes to avert the war.** He thought to me. **We'll be good.**

"Thank you, Anderban." I said. I liked the Aneilogs, but they were nothing if not stubborn.

Now to see if the Daimon was feeling any more reasonable.


Bribes and Graft in the Rear -- Jay P. Hailey, December 2004



Oh gee, where to start? I could easily out verbiage the stories trying to explain the context. Ane have a more humanoid sub-race "courtesy" of the Rishans, these are the Aneilogs. Discovery discovered them in the course of the game and set up shop on the spot, Starbase-600. This fact gets a mention in Ships in the Night as the source of the Acceptian officers that need a lift home.

Jay has snuck a few of his own sensibilities into this. Gensilan is not an Aneilog, she is an RI that the Discovery rescued from a time lost wreck. But Jay will be Jay. I am not going to edit him for content. --Garry Stahl

Needs carriage returns added at the end of each paragraph.

WIthout it, it's a difficult wall of text.

jayphailey wrote: ↑

Sun Jan 19, 2025 6:18 am

Needs carriage returns added at the end of each paragraph.

WIthout it, it's a difficult wall of text.

I tend to use more standard formatting. Something the forum fights. Why HTML hates tabs is beyond me.

"...And he couldn't buy a drink for a month."


The Emerald Palace of the Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz reached into the skies, art deco grandiosity. I was on my way to talk with Anderban again. Getting ice cream was only secondary, I promise.

A cackling figure roared through the sky on a broom, sky writing with holographic smoke "Surrender Dorothy". From vaguely just out of sight, the sound track from the early 20th century movie "The Wizard of Oz" played. It was surreal and strange, but fun in a Disneyland sort of way. The Cowardly Lion laughed abashedly at a comment from an Aneilog girl and made bashful gestures with the end of his tail.

Anderban's Ice Cream & Tasty Treats was still right where it always was. But they'd built the Emerald Palace on the back of it, like an add on. If you didn't know where to look, you might miss Anderban's ice cream shop in the aggressive art decco of the palace. But I knew like all the Aneilogs did. Anderban's was the real place. The Emerald Palace was the after thought.

Something caught my eye. About a block away in a new open area in a street intersection there was a statue. I stopped and looked at it. It was a huge bronze statue of a fish. I felt my head tilt to the side. The Aneilogs were pretty aggressive about their humor. I worked hard not to lose my stride or self possession. The Aneilogs took this as a challenge. So I knew something was up as I walked towards the statute with curiosity poking me in the side.

The statute was about four meters long. It must have been a ton and a half of bronze or more. The fish it depicted was flat and ugly. Water spit from it's mouth in a nice foutain. I walked around the statue. I'd have to ask Carlos Mendez about the artistry when he got back from his latest tour with the Discovery. But it looked well crafted to me. It was resting on a baroque pedestal in a pool made of swooping concrete. The concrete had swirls in it. After a moment I realized it was meant to suggest water in the art decco style that the Aneilogs found so amusing. As I got around the the opposite side of the statue looking back at the Emerald Palace, I saw a plaque. The bronze looked hand worked. Each detail was subtly different, so it wasn't machined or faked. Someone shaped this giant ugly fish into that shape painstakingly by hand.

I stepped up and looked at the Plaque. It said -

"Our Flounder"

I snerked. I couldn't help it. I looked down at the ground. This was the Aneilog-iest thing I'd ever seen. This was the Aneilog mind in one large ugly bronze statue, loving sculpted in exquisite detail, to really, really sell a cheesy punchline.

I looked up with a grin. I couldn't help it. Someone really went to the wall for this one, and was probably smiling and chuckling to himself the whole time. I caught an Aneilog man watching me from an apartment one story above me. He was smiling and his eyes were shining.

I shook my head and then waved at him. "Hey." I said

He nodded back.


Anderban and I were going over a collection of PADDs with details about the development of the space infrastructure of Oz.

Anderban looked at me. "You know that sculptor isn't going to be able to buy a drink for the next month."

I deliberately walked past what he was saying. "Our Flounder.... Heh!"



...And he couldn't buy a drink for a month. -- Jay P. Hailey, December 2004


More context. The Aneilogs, due to one of Jay's characters decided to change the name of the planet to Oz. Once done they latched onto every Oz reference they could get. Those familiar with it get a laugh. Those who are not are mystified in the extreme and the Aneilogs get satisfaction from that too. Outside of the Emerald City it is ignored.

There are days I hate BB code with a passion.

Birth

**Jay, have you ever considered fathering a child?**

I lay on the bed, our bed, and stared at the ceiling. Gensilan was cuddled against me twining her fingers through the hair on my chest, pressing her breasts against my side, softly pressing her mound against my leg, waiting for an answer. My mind was churning, gears stripping. I have faced off against Klingon warlords, dealt with ship-swallowing spacial anomalies, even (shudder) talked to god-like beings. Yet there I lay unable to form a coherent thought in the presence of a broody woman.

"Ummm.... This is something you'd like to do with... me?" My voice squeaked in a most unmanly manner.

**Yes, why would I ask you if I didn't want you?**

"Well, yes, that...." I rolled to face her. "I didn't think you could, do that the old fashion way."

"I can't. One of the shortcomings of a biomech body. I can however start a new RI, like Serilan.**

I knew Serilan, her cute, precocious Ane child. Another of the Ane computer people. One day I came home and there she was. I was at a total loss over how it was done. "Would you borrow my mind for that, or what?"

**Hardly borrowing, we do it together, the new, and old fashion way. The gift to a child must come from both parents. Some of me, some of you, the best of both. Remember when you told me there ought to be Aneilog RIs?**

"Yes."

Gen rolled up and bounced off the bed. I like watching her bounce. She gently lifted a bundle from the deep arm chair by the bed and brought it back. She worked back into a close snuggle. and opened the blanket. **Here it is. First of it's kind, but not until we start it, together.** The bundle in her arms was an Aneilog child, eyes closed, breathing softly.

"Oh my God." I breathed. I looked at the little creature in our arms. My guts were wrenched. What would happen if I said no? I felt dizzy, vertigo threatened. "I have no idea what to do." I barely whispered, unwilling to wake the child.

**She isn't a person yet. It's only potential. To make her real we have to give part of ourselves, our innermost self. I will guide and help you do it, if it is what you want.**

I swallowed the bile that wanted to rise. One hand the idea was wonderful, joyous. No woman has ever offered me this. I was giddy. On the other hand I was as scared as a rabbit facing a fox. I swallowed working up enough moisture to speak. "What do we need to to do?"

**Relax and let me work.**


Gensilan/I were/was floating in a gray place filled with images, colors, sounds, smells and the memory of touches. There was almost no difference between us. Only the memory of that difference. I knew I had to keep that up. To absorb someone else's identity was a massive faux pax among the Ane. Also I liked Jay and wanted him as him, an active, living being, capable of thinking and doing and being in his wonderful, strange way.

Knowing that Gensilan felt that way about me made my spirit soar. I could see that some part of me still feared letting go all the way. I didn't love Gensilan all the way. I was addicted to her love. I was hopelessly used to sleeping with her, and the way she made each day bright. I'd cheerfully fight off a grizzly bear to give her time to escape. But there was still something holding back going "I am not all the way into this." Dying for her would be easy. Living with her, all the way in was so hard and so scary.

Jay was so slow to accept love and family when it wasn't entirely on his terms. I could feel his instincts battering down that reluctance, one day at a time. That noble self sacrificing impulse was real even though I felt on some level it was a cowardly cop out. I knew Jay well enough to know that the day he decided "Women and Children First" it gave him an anchor to build the rest of himself on. Never mind how rare that circumstance actually was.

I could feel the thrum of Renaissance Station, I could see the thousand things happening that Gensilan monitored with small carefully rationed bits of her attention. It was stunning. There was so much to her. She was doing so much, so often.

Now, before I lost myselves in Jay's natural reaction to seeing ourselves this way, I had to get to work. I began to reach in but Jay's mind flailed. The inputs weren't designed for him and his mind was being asked to adjust to too much, too quickly.

Rummaging in his ideas I found one he'd had idly while trying to track down a computer system malfunction some time ago. I liked how he randomly threw two things together that didn't seem to belong. In this case, a three dimensional schematic of the affected system in the holodeck (and what an old, primitive holodeck that was) But it made it easier for him to see the interrelations. So I created a three dimensional schematic of our engrams and personality. It was a metaphor, nowhere near detailed or exact - but it was enough for him to grasp and guide me on our task.

A Three dimensional matrix came to life around us and I could see the good and bad things about both myselves. Gensilan wondered if she was being too pushy. She worried that she was overbearing us meat forms. She worked so hard at not just wandering away. She could have easily but she'd be lonely.

I had a conflicting effort where the Jay part of me tried to jam his impression of my faults, which were much more positive than mine, down my collective throats while my Gensilan part had to slap back to stay focused on the job instead.

The realization that we were tussling like kittens inside the same mind amused and comforted me. It would make unraveling me back into us easier. There were shining things. Gensilan's amazing compassion and ability to accept the occasionally horrible parts of my mind and life itself with a cheerful attitude. Her love. Her quiet but hard-as-neutronium never say die attitude.

Then I looked at Jay and was met by a blast of embarrassment and reluctance. He'd never looked at himself for what was wonderful. Not like this and it was debilitatingly embarrassing. Thinking quickly, I end ran the feeling by using his own feed back scale again. Jay loved it when a solution worked. He loved it even better when a creative solution worked. Jay had a knee jerk supportive reaction to young of all kinds. While Oz did it's best to crack him up and make him smile, his bemused expression hid love and affection. Jay believed in rationality the way an Earth child believes in Santa Claus. There are answers to every question, solutions to every problem, if only you're willing to look at the facts and try something new. The irony of Jay clinging to this view with child like naivete was precious to me. It was one of the things we loved about us. All of the things that Jay DID that Jay loved and enjoyed led me through the back door to what he liked about himself. Mission accomplished.

I was reeling. I was seeing new things about myselves at a breath-taking rate.

Then came the worst part. The editing. The new being would start with limited space and limited ability to process and would have to build itself from what we gave it. I had to create a mesh between the good things about myselves that could form a workable functioning being to begin to grow. At first I started to calculate relative weights and desirability, I wanted to carefully craft a personality to work just right. Then I wrestled with myself again. A life wasn't so cut and dried. It was like cooking. I'd followed the recipe as far as I could go. Now it was time for me to trust that I was somehow an agent of the Creator and just wing it.

With a subconsciously creative urge that was scary and fun at the same time I mixed and matched elements until the balance just felt right. All these elements of a person weren't good or bad, but they could be either depending on how this new being ran with them.

I was afraid of making a mistake. Very afraid. But I had to remind myself that there is no right decision. There is only the decision, You roll the dice and you take your chances.

The last step. I gave the new being the basic information, the core of all three of us. What it was like to be human. What it was like to be Ane. What it was like to be RI. A map of the basic impulses of all three to explore for itself.

Taking a deep breath, I completed the new kernel, and massaged it's processes to life.

Now the hardest part. I was a spark fresh and new ready to get rolling. I was Gensilan, an RI over worked, under appreciated and loving every microsecond of it and I was Jay P Hailey, a decision maker. I had to separate them all out as quickly as possible before my current melded state became permanent. I'd loose three people I loved that way.



**Mommy? Daddy? Can we wake up now? I want to see the world!**

Gensilan and Hailan pulled back two pair of big blue eyes. I could feel maternal waves wash though Gensilan. Hailan was already a new being all her own, an eagerness so sharp to be nearly painful, an eagerness for EVERYTHING.. sight, sound, water, love, sky, food, earth, soft, sweet, hard, bitter... I could feel her separateness grow and I became fascinated. What would she choose to do with herself? Was there anything better in the whole wide world than to be privileged to watch?

I was laying on grass. I blinked and looked up. A cool breeze of morning air swept across me. How did I get there? A line of dawn stretched away to the east. I was on Oz. Around me, a crowd of Ane and Aneilogs looked at us. The Aneilogs wore rapt expressions. I could feel waves of joy, fascination and amusement from them all. I was buck naked.

They reclined around us. They'd been there, watching the proceedings for a while.

Hailan opened her eyes wide and took a breath **Wow, it's the whole WORLD. Mommy, Daddy, the WORLD!** She broadcast it. She wanted to go explore it and stick the whole universe in her mouth right then.

Joy bubbled up inside me. My daughter!

The Ane sang. A thousand flutes cried for joy accompanied by a mental blast wave of happy which about knocked me over. Hailan soaked it up liked it was her natural born due. The All themselves was watching us. The chorus of joy swelled through them. Thunderous joy, awful joy, joy until it HURT. I could feel the mass of ten billion hearts with us. One hundred trillion ghosts nodded their approval. Indeed, the Creator Smiled.

I turned to Gensilan who, I am not kidding, looked frazzled and tired. She was radiating it. And no wonder. I recalled the meld and my mind reeled.

"Woman," I said to her "we need to work on our communications skills."

She smiled a smile at me that lit up the glade "You're a father."

**Oh God.**

Dawn broke. A new life was born.


Birth -- Garry Stahl and Jay P. Hailey, May 2005



As has been mentioned Admiral Jay Hailey's life is a lot happier in Epiphany Trek, for things he has done, like this, and things he didn't do. This is a direct conversion from game moves. Said moves later resulted in "Rebirth". Look for more of these to come out in the future.

Jay wrote a good half of this plus. I asked for an expansion of what had been a single paragraph in the game, to the effect of "Hailey has himself revealed to himself, you decide the results." Well I needed more than that for a story. He obliged as you can see. I massaged the whole into shape.

Rebirth

**Elizabeth?**

**Yes Jerry.**

**I need a Starfleet uniform, current style, full Admiral.**

**Again?**

**It has been a few years.**

**What now?**

**One Vice Admiral Hailey has lost his firewall on Oz. I have been asked to step in.**

**Uniform is ready.**

Jerry entered his bedroom. Elizabeth was stretched out on the bed in all her glory. Jerry shucked the caftan he was wearing to put on the uniform.

**Tease.**

**I'm willing.**

**However the current crisis is not. Please have the Serendipity sent out to meet me at Starbase 600. Aleilan and I are taking the Express.**



I lay in a bed of cotton wool. At least that is how it felt. I felt fragile, over used. The last thing I remembered was the Klingon, and certain raciest remarks.

**Rest, don't worry.**

**Gensilan?**

**Yes, I'm here.**

**What happened, where am I?**

**You''re in a commune on Oz. Your mental defenses failed, we are helping you.**

I could sense the others around me. Solid, comforting presences. They were the walls and floor of this...unplace I was in. My physical body felt remote, unresponsive. **Gen, what is happening? I don't feel myself very well.**

**Jay, you're dying, we are fighting like Hell to stop that. Relax, let us work.**

**Right, relax.** My last thought as the white haze drifted back over my consciousness was you really didn't want to argue with the people saving your life.


Jerry walked into the Admiral's office on Starbase 600. He logged himself in and stopped. **Gensilan?**

**Hey Jerry, long time no see.**

**Are you working the computer here?**

**Yes, and full Captain to boot.**

**I heard you got out of a time fugue, it's good to see you. Will you please get me the schedule and list of our available resources.**

Jerry flipped through the screens. **Recall the Dannon. Order her best speed for Starbase 600.**


The white washed out into colors, muted colors to be sure. I was really seeing this. I hadn't felt this way in years, in fact, since the morning after my last drunk. I realized why I didn't miss it anymore.

I was on the floor but the floor was soft. My trauma team was gathered around. "Hey...." My voice was weak.

**Don't try talking now Jay** The thought belonged to an Aneilog woman I didn't know but who felt familiar. She offered me a straw. The other end was in a glass of that near syrup called Oom juice. One taste and suddenly Oom juice was the only thing I craved. I gulped greedily.

**Easy, your body is weak. Go slowly.**

I gulped less greedily. "What happened?" Good, my voice was only a pale shadow of itself now.

**You're mental defenses failed.** It was Gensilan, oh she felt good. **We are currently supporting you.**

**Yea, I don't feel so good. How long?**

**You've been here a week.**

Panic rose, I have duties! I tried to rise but my body was not as dedicated to the idea as my sense of duty. Ashilan, that was her name. She gently pushed me back against Gensilan's flank. I noticed I wasn't wearing anything.

**No, don't try anything too physical right now. You been down a long way, it takes time to come back.**

**I have a job.**

Silver laughter, it felt as good as always, even in spite of how I felt. **Lover, I am still there. Admiral LaSaille was called in to handle things. You have one duty, get better.**

**LaSaille?** I seem to know that name. I saw a stocky man, curmudgeonly, fatherly.

A new thought came in. **Yes, that's me. Things are well in hand. You get better.**

**Get better, yea.** The Oom juice was filling my body with a warm fuzzy feeling, or was that my guardians? I was tired.

Gensilan spoke again. **Rest, you need sleep.** I lay back agaisnt Gensilan, Ashilan cuddled close beside me. The others moved closer in. In a fortress of love, I slept.


Jerry told his body to mind its manners as he came around the desk.

"Captain O'Keefe. I've heard a great deal about you. All of it good."

Admiral LaSaille. I don't understand, why were we recalled? Where is Admiral Hailey?"

"Captain, that is why you were recalled. Admiral Hailey has suffered a sudden mental and physical reverse. Healers are dealing with it now."

"What manner of reverse if I may ask?"

"How to explain? Nearly all humans are telepathic. Most have very strong mental shields. They never experience anything more than what Humans call insight or hunches. However, Hailey has been playing fast and loose with the Ane. I can tell you from personal experience that it is not a good way to maintain those defenses."

"How is he?"

"Alive. However his ultimate survival, and return to duty is still in question. I understand that you and he are old Comrades. When and if he can take visitors, do I put you on the short list?"

"Yes sir, please."



I sat at the table and ate for the first time in over a week. My body still felt as if I had been carefully beaten by a Klingon heavyweight determined to not kill me, but make me wish I was dead. At that I still didn't feel very well attached to my body. That worried me. My guardians were always near me. I could actually feel them better than see them. If I closed my eyes I could tell right were they where.

**What next?** I asked Ashilan, who was sitting across the table from me.

**We get your physical strength back up and start training your mental defenses.**

**You say that like it wasn't a certainty.**

**It's not Jay. Some humans never learn. They are mentally disabled, and can never leave a facility like this or be around normal humans again.**

**Ugh! I'm not going there.**

**A good attitude is necessary to proper recovery. You think that just as hard as you can. Meanwhile, how do you feel about a visitor?**

**That depends on the visitor.**

**Li''ira would like to see you.**

**I could do that.**

Ashilan got up and went to the door. Li'ira came in. I carefully rose from the table to greet her. My intended handshake moved of its own accord into a hug. Always I have avoided how enticingly female Li'ira was. Somehow, that didn't matter right now.

"Jay? Are you alright."

I backed off cleaning my throat. "Too much time around Ane. They do that to you."

She smiled, knowingly. "Yes, they do." I wished she would smile for me like that. We moved to the pile of pillows that passed for a couch. "Jay, what happened."

"I'm not sure I really have words for it." Talking was an effort, like climbing a steep hill. "I was playing with Hailan, and got dragged into the All. Gensilan pulled me out. Two days later I was fighting for my sanity and life. I don't remember much."

"I have been told, that you are fragile, and need to be treated gently."

"Yes, that would be the case."

"I didn't drag you all the way home on the Harrier to lose you now, sir." She smiled that smile again.

I tried a wane smile back. "I haven't given up on me Li'ira. I am told, I need to relearn how to defend myself. Then the bodyguard will go away." I indicated the Ane in the room.

She stood up, and ended up helping me up as well. "You get yourself back together and back on the job Admiral Hailey." She hugged me, hard. My body proved conclusively that I wasn't dead yet, traitor. Li'ira didn't seem to notice. At last she broke the clutch. "You get better."


Jerry looked at the Emerald Palace, and shook his head. He had heard about Coventry in the All, but the newly renamed Oz was taking the usual Ane love of a joke to excesses he had never seen. Aleilan walked beside him with a couple of Aleilog kids riding her back.

**I need to get back to the station Beautiful One. Are you going to play with the kids a while?**

**Yes, I'm meeting some friends for a bit of relaxation.**

He kissed her nose. **Have fun.**


Ashilan, I was starting to hate her. Starfleet marines could take lessons in inflicting pain from this woman, and she never had to touch me.

**Again Jay, run the kata.**

Six years ago, six months ago if someone had told me that sitting still and thinking was this kind of work, I would have laughed in their face. I scraped my mind off the floor and tried the exercise once again. It was a series of mental gymnastic, a method of how not to read minds. Words do not exist to exactly describe what I was doing, but it was work. I sat cross-legged on a padded floor with sweat staining my clothes while a nude slip of an Aneilog girl gave me a guided tour of my innermost hells. It was my job to stop her.

**Again Jay, I saw a slight improvement that time.**

I was starting to hate her.


Admiral LaSaille looked at the Klingon across his desk. "/Captain Bahd'ash. If you and you crew cannot be a positive force in this sector you will return to Gowron at once./"

Bahd'ash casually put his hand on his knife hilt. "/I do not idly take orders or threats from Humans./"

LaSaille's old .45 made a sudden appearance in his hand. He locked eyes with the Klingon. "/If that weapon moves in its sheath, I will kill you./"

Bahd'ash looked into the Human's eyes, and saw death. He licked his lips, he wasn't ready to die. His hand moved away from the knife. "/I will do as I see fit. I am a Klingon!/"

"/You will clear out of this sector, or suffer the loss of you ship. Get out./"


I lay back on our bed, my heart pounding. The female orgasm is an intense, whole-body experience, and I was getting the full effect for the first time. Gensilan was spooned against my body shivering with the afterglow. Our minds still mingled I was in a happy place.

Some moments later when we had caught our breath she spoke. **You pass lover mine.**

I lay there half paying attention. **What did I pass?**

**The final test. That was all you. No one was helping this time.**

**It was?** I sat up.

Gen stretched again, showing me every detail of her body. **It was. Holding discipline during sex is the maximum stress test. As soon as Dr. M'bongolongo declares you fit for duty, you are good to go.**

Duty...I hadn't even thought about that in weeks. Compared to what I had been doing it sounded like a lovely vacation. **Would I sound ungrateful if I wanted to get back to work soonest?**

**No, not at all. You would sound like the Jay I know and love.**


Rebirth -- Garry Stahl, April 2005


At one point I said I don't do game moves. That is changing. This is again an incident from the Starbase 600 game. In this case where Vice Admiral Hailey got his telepathic abilities. I realize that everything presented here does not have closure. This could grow into something bigger. Jay and I have told some good stories in STB-600. I want more people to see them.

This is a change in style for me in another fashion as well. I wrote the "Hailey" scenes in Jay's first person style. First person is not something I commonly use. I prefer third person and default to that when writing. Stretching the writing muscles is a good thing.

The Sun

Thunder, you could feel it through the rocks as the sea pounded ashore. Salt laced the spray filled air and the spray beaded on his bare skin. Anderban shivered, cold in the chill of the false dawn. Chill aside, he was not moving. He had come a long way to sit on this rock, to see and feel what was about to come.

Another had brought him to this lonely rock on the edge of the sea. There was no road, there was no track. Long generations before the Rishians have stripped him and his kind of the ability to teleport to give them hands. Anderban suppressed the anger that wanted to rise at the thought that they would take what the creator gave. He was what he was. Nothing could change that. He had a reason to be here, and such thoughts were not in accord with his purpose. His overmind suppressed them, and he waited.

The sky turned from rose to blue. The sea birds rose in the new light, their cries mixing with the thunder of the waves. With a sudden flash El Nanth broke the horizon. Anderban's eyes turned a solid blue and his third eyelid flicked across his eye instinctively. Slowly the distant sun rolled up the sky and bathed his body with light and heat. He could feel the tingle of its harsh light against his skin.

For the first time in his long life Anderban sat in the light of the sun he was born to live beneath.


The Sun -- Garry Stahl, September 2005

I like this one

Necessity

The ADF Necessity ghosted into STB-600. A sleek new stingray class out of El Nanth shipyards. Admiral Hailey looked up from the report in his hands. A report that both elated him, and came as a crushing blow. Hailey was a starship bunny, and he was the first to admit it. The Stingray was a class he had never seen before, although he had read of them. There seemed little reason to not have a closer look.

The small Necessity crew stood at the dockside supervising her resupply. Old, every one of the all Ane crew had to be over three hundred years old, the long crossed horns, the dried look to their faces. Hailey walked up to introduce himself.

**Captain, I am Vice Admiral Hailey, in command of the starbase and sector.**

She batted her big blue eyes at him. **I am Salan. Good to meet you Admiral. Your reputation speaks well of you.**

**Yes, well a commander is only as good as his people.**

**Your modesty was also spoken of.**

**I would like to ask why you are out here in such a small ship. By the specification of the stingray class it was a long reach for you to get to STB-600.**

**Yes, if your base had not been here our mission would not be possible.**

**Captain exactly what is your mission?**

**We have been tasked with destroying the race maker in orbit about the Kliges'chee homeworld.**

**You don't have the range for a round trip.**

**It was never intended to be a round trip Admiral.**

Hailey rocked back on his heels. **You would do that?**

Salan nodded. **Yes, it means that much to us that the Kliges'chee, or anyone else, can never use that, thing, again.**

**How did you plan it?**

**A full warp plunge into the device with total containment failure. We won't feel a thing, and our cargo should do the trick.**

**It will not be necessary.**

**We think it is.**

**No, I mean you mission has been rendered unnecessary.**

Her ears popped up. **What do you mean?**

"Come with me please."


The sensor reading from the Coventry Subspace Array played out. The planet split with sufficient force that the shock wave sent rocks heaving throughout the system.

**I got this report today. The Kliges'chee civil war has fallen back to their home world. That was the result of what we assume was a battle for control of that world. The Kliges'chee have destroyed their own planet, and likely every ship, drone, and comptroller in the system.**

**We cannot be certain that the, artifact, was also destroyed. It is Rishian after all.**

**It was destroyed. I am certain of that.**

**You speak as if this was a personal matter, not something reported to you.**

**Yes, I am not at liberty to discuss how I have that knowledge.**

Salan and her crew got up. **I trust your word Admiral. It seems we need to find something to do with the rest of our lives. By the way, could you use forty metric tons of antimatter?**


Necessity -- Garry Stahl, April 2005


Ah, yea, I suppose this one requires an explanation as long as the short. In Epiphany Trek there is no destructive Kliges'chee war as happens in Hailey's Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile. Captain Hailey does not commit genocide and he is named the Admiral of the "Far Sector" stationed at Oz. This is the basis for the STB-600 game.

The Free Kliges'chee get a boost in The Word of the Builders from the Ane in forming their own All-like network. This levels the playing field and the Kliges'chee civil war heats back up and spirals out of control. While not destroyed to the last drone, they will never be a threat to space again. The area known as the Kliges'chee Implosion Zone is ripe for exploration.

The Ane consider it important to keep the race maker from ever being used again. After Jay wrote the recent Life During Wartime: Insert 6 from the Kliges'chee PoV I thought of this one. It is that important to them.

I think it also important to note that while Jay and I can be a "yup-yup chorus" we do not always write in the same Trek Universe. There is a great deal of cross pollination, but his is usually his, and mine is usually mine.