SD 03/22/03 - "What a Revoltin' Development" aka "Welcome to our Planet, Now Go Home!" #9 - Never before in my career as a Starfleet officer have things gone so badly wrong, yet, so wonderfully right.
So much has happened in the past few hours, only part of the story that I know of so far. It will be some time before I know the whole story, but the basic picture is clear - this mockery of Federation law that calls itself the government of New California is finished.
To begin with, we ran into another police van, litterally, before we could leave the vicinity of Neo-Berkley's ICIe. K'Lynxyl was a little, direct, in remedying the situation of the officer coming over to talk, but no one else saw it happen, and we headed to the Space Elevator without incident. Getting to the area however, we came upon what had been a demonstration, but the students were a bit scattered and had looks of shock and bewilderment. A look at the "Arrivals and Departures" building showed why - a van had sped through and crashed into the building - possibly by Demian Tempres. That would explain all those busted fire hydrants along the way.
My plan was originally to split up, some going up to find Temperes while some going to where the classified records are kept to find dirt on the local officials, notably dealing with the nursery. Then those up would drop down via shuttlecraft and get the babies from that poor excuse of a nursery. K'Lynxyl, however, had a little something to add. She, Dammers, and Brundle got out of the van, went up to the crowd, and after getting everyone's attention destroyed a "pig helmet" in front of everyone. She then proceded to list the wrongs of the Council, and how the people here had a right to live better. Dammers added to her words. Brundle tried to help, but his arguments seemed more comical than condeming. One student spoke for the other side, saying to live any other way would mean "environmental devastation" and "exploitation of women." K'Lynxyl then, silenced, him the same way Lera delt with that one cop in the van, and used that against his second argument, "Do I look exploitable?"
I really doubt the younger generation here has been given any point of view other than the Council's, at least those who don't know about places like Grog's. They listened, and as they did others joined the crowd, both older New Californians and some that were tall enough to be immigrants. When K'Lynxyl's cries for a change were met with clear endorsements from immigrants who finally decided to speak out, the crowd began to turn our way. With chants of "Freedom! Freedom! Freedom!" (no relation to our ship, but it's an interesting twist of irony), more and more joined in.
K'Lynxyl, Dammers, and Brundle decided to lead the crowd to the University District. When I went over to congratulate the good doctor for her work, she gave me a good-luck kiss and wished me luck in getting Demian and getting his kids to safety. Lera then decided to get into the act, and what happened next is hard to describe ... Either that device that was around that tingly area of my midsection knocked me out for a few seconds, or Lera's a much more powerful kisser than she's been letting on.
In an event, with the office damaged there was no one stopping Lera, the kids, and myself from getting to the elevator. We boarded, activated it, and as before it sent us up at ludicrous speed. We soon got up to the top, and entered the station. Lera agreed to get the kids to the ship while I looked for Demian. But before I could find him, buzzers went off, followed by "Thank you for pressing the Self-Destruct button..." The following lines told everyone it would take five more minutes to finish depature sequences from the begining than time before the explosion. Good thing the Freedom began them earlier. But people on the station were in panic, running around all over, and the crazy "Spaceballs" music playing over the loudspeakers as they jumped into the escape pods and launced. I barely dodged some chef carrying a stack of pies and pastries. One more second, and I would have gotten creamed. I looked in a public terminal, found the location of the "self-destruct cancelation switch" in some office. But when I got there, I found an "Out of Order" tag taped to it. Even outside the Freedom nothing seems to work.
I saw Demian as he was being thrown from an escape pod by some bearded lady. I got to him just after he opened the door to another one. He had a wild look in his eyes, muttered something about a "Hojo," and swung a crowbar at me. After he fell backward from discovering a bear in the escape pod, I grabbed him and ran back to the ship, telling all nearby to follow me. Lera got in just after I did. She too had been directing people to the Freedom.
After making sure Demian was sent to an isolation cell in Medical, I headed to the Bridge. I found out those below were at the edge of the University District, but were held at bay by police vans with cannons. When I joined in the communications, I notified them there was only a couple minutes left, and asked if there was something she could do to hold off the cops. She said she could. I don't know yet what it was, but that I later found her unclothed ... do I want to know?
I got to the bridge in time to see the final moments of the space station. The explosion itself was quite a sight, though had an odd green hue. We soon found out why: the ship was hit by globs and globs of Vulcan tofu. Not being able to get their ships out in time, the freighter crews had to leave their ships and cargo behind. The tractor beam went off in time to catch the cable before it fell to the planet.
With the situation secured above, I then headed to the shuttles where "Operation Dirty Diaper" was ready for take off. We headed down to Neo-Berkley, and found a city in disarray. There were a lot more people on the streets this time. Word was undoubtedly going around that this was no ordinary blackout. The biggest crowds were of course at the University District, which was being overrun by crowds. What Dammers and Brundle encoutnered, I have yet to find out. I'm sure they ran into something interesting.
I could see only so much from above, but one thing we did see were a couple small fires that had gone off near some apartments. I had to delay the trip to the nursery a few minutes in order to put out the flames before they spread. When we got there, we found a gathering crowd of women. It seems women are allowed only part-time contact with their kids, which can be reduced or cut if the woman causes what the authorities see as trouble. After getting past a crowd where the few so-called nurses were handing toddlers to women crying out, "Give me back my baby!", I found K'Lynxyl cuddling one of the kids whom had yet to be claimed. As the redshirts donned gas masks and begain disposing of the offending diapers that so much symbolized the regime of this place, always on their backsides and full of you-know-what, K'Lynxyl smiled as she talked about what was happening, calling it a "new begining." I was so caught up in the moment, I failed to notice her lack of clothes until she reminded me.
We're almost done here, so some of us will be checking up on where the older kids are kept. Until then, I've been getting a few details. Word of what's been happening has pretty much spread throughout the city. There are stories of cops ditching their uniforms, or simply fleeing the city along with some of the authorities. Propaganda signs condeming meat-eating and affection between the sexes are being torn down, and I saw one old man headed in the direction of the ocean with a fishing pole. He said he loved to fish when he was younger and was saving his pole just in case. There may be a lot of fishermen on the docks soon. One of the few distrubing stories I've heard was that the emergency supplies of food the authorities held just in case something interupted the tofu shipments, such as what just happened, were gone. Those going into the storage areas reportedly found little but rats. One Antican who was nearby when I heard the story remarked he and some friends could find some food. Considering what I saw another one eating, I'm not sure I want to know what it is.
Fishing and food from our replicators should help out until what's wrong with the farms is straigtened out. Re-activating the older power plants shouldn't take too long. Although repilcators can only make short-lived machines and parts, they can make tools to build longer-lasting machines and industry. Although the majority of the people here grew up knowing only what the authorities told them, there are enough from earlier generations and immigrants to form a government more respecting of individual rights.
Like K'Lynxyl called it, a new begining.
And with the debate over 'has the Federation grown too Socialist?', perhaps not just for New California.
NARRATIVE: Dammers and Brundle had personally gone to the main building in the University District, where they found the High Council dumbfounded about how everything was falling apart around them, and having scantily-clas girls on their laps and half-eaten plates of meat in front of them. They were indulging in what they had forbidden everyone else on the planet to have. The Head of the High Council is someone who's played a minor role in Federation history at the time of Captain Kirk, Tongo Rad, one of the space hippies who hijacked the Enterprise. Apparently, he had gone to New California to cause further trouble with like-minded souls. Dammers and Brundle put them under arrest to turn over later to some authority.
The corruption has been defeated, but is this the last we've seen of New California, or of Tongo Rad?