SD 06/28/03 Addition: aka "MiT - Men in Trek" #7A - I haven't been as sucessful as two more notable Federation captains on exploration duty, but I had avoided something that befell them, being captured - at least until now.
And not by Klingons or Romulans, but by something else.
I was nabbed by these men dressed up in black 20-21st Century fashion business suits and sunglasses. Although they look human, the technology they use isn't. One moment, I was about to tell T'kee and the other women to take cover when I saw a car coming our way, and then I see one of the mentioned men pull some kind of energy rifle and fire at us. Although I heard of pre-warp experiments in laser weaponry, this was obviously not one of them. The beams ripped holes in the ground, causing dirt to fly everywhere, and drilled holes in trees. I dived out of the van and returned fire, but a beam created an explosion next to me, and that was the end of the battle for me. My head still hurts from where I fell on it.
I came to inside some enclosed space that looked like a car trunk. The trunk popped open, and I found myself thrown out onto the floor of some cell by a pair of mechanical arms. The field was activated before I could spring out, and two of the men I described began drilling me. They were about as humorless as Vulcans and beaurucrats, the only hints of feeling in their voices being an ocassional tone of annoyance. They used some kind of odd-looking tricorder-like device on me, apparently to confirm I was human and not some "alien in a human suit" as one put it. They then began questioning me what I was doing with "those aliens," and why were were trying to mess with the "Argelian-Vorilid treaty talks."
I've heard of the Argelians, a culturally-rich humanoid planet that was the number one tourist planet for a time until the "Jack the Ripper" incident when the USS Enterprise made a port call created some bad press that allowed Risa to rise to the top in attracting visitors. But they never had a fight with anyone else in their pre-Federation days, and who are these "Vorlids?"
Back on our Earth, the only human with alien technology available was Gary Seven, who was active around this time. I heard he did have some help, so these may be his assistants, or rather the assistants of his counterpart. I tried explaining things to them, that I was a Federation officer, and if they would just contact Gary Seven he would explain. Instead, they began grilling me over who Gary Seven was and what he was doing here. My further attempts at explation went nowhere, including when I tried to explain the Argelians never fought anyone.
I tried to explain why we were here, that one of our crew had gone AWOL and came here, and we were trying to get him back before he did any damage. One of them quipped, "You mean like that gas station in Memphis," and went back to this "treaty" thing, calling Lera and T'kee names I never heard of, asking what Tarra, Lynx and Ennin were, and was basically calling us a bunch of would-be saboteurs. Finally, one gave up. One asked the other if they should use something called a "neuralizer" on me and let me go. Instead, the other stated he wanted to use some kind of truth serum on me first, then pressed some button and a trap door underneath me opened and I fell down a chute, landing in some other cell. Judging by the bed, toilet, and door with a food slot, this room was mean to keep people indefinately.
I still have my comm badge, so the others should be able to track me here. But I've been unable to call the team. Is it the static here, or is the signal being jammed? Something tells me I could potentially be stuck here on this world. If it comes to that, well, at least I have four decades until the bombs drop.