SD 08/30/03 Brundle's Pun-ishment Almost ready to head back to Planet Cid.
Before that, we had a few things to take care of.
One was the meeting of the away team. A few, however, were busy elsewhere. This included M'Rander, who's injury from Brundle durring the rough landing the ship had on the hotel. K'Lynxyl was attending her. Tempres was working with the engines. Melvin was working with our surpurise arrivals. I believe Dammers and T'Kee are as well. This Kura Scyarin I've been hearing about is in Medical. The ones available were Lera, Tarra Nebendi, Lott Tadtasi, Brundle, and Cosmos to-Ennien. Ennien was in a wheelchair, injuries he suffered durring the mission aggrivating his illness.
Brundle proved to be a bit difficult. He would not come to the meeting until I practically screamed at him over the comm, threatening to have him dragged over by his ears (or whatever part of the anatomy was available). But arrive he did. First order of business was to thank everyone on the away team. Second, an order came in for Tarra's promotion, so we no longer have the minor embarasment of the Chief of Security having the rank of Ensign. Then came the more serious issue - Brundle. He did not seem to realize the depth of the trouble he had gotten himself in, facing a series of charges, assaulting fellow Starfleet officers, assaulting a superior officer, desertion, conspiracy against Starfleet officers, and several charges of misuse of Starfleet property. He offered what seemed like a half-hearted apology, offering a "I was only trying to help" excuse to the list of charges that could easily have gotten him life in prison.
But M'Rander and I had a talk before the meeting. It was her decision as since he had inavertently given us a unique opportunity to study an alternate Earth in the period a few decades before warp drive was invented, and that the timing of the device found in his brain while an alien ship had been spotted at the wormhole seemed less than coincidental, Brundle should be let off easy. So all the charges against him were dropped, minus one count of misuse of Starfleet property - setting up that "secret room" of his. He had obviously been working on that for some time, given the detail. He was demoted one rank to Ensign, and sentenced to kitchen duty until further notice. I asked the chef to give him the toughest job he could think of. He had the idea of giving Brundle a hatchet and a bag of peas, for making split-pea soup. And once that bag was done, the pantry was full of sacks of peas.
About our current chef, he's a temporary replacement while our usual one recovers from food poisoning. He is K'tchp, a Klingon who ran a restaraunt in a Starbase, becoming known as "The Brutal Gormet." Having a Klingon for a chef is ... unusual, but so far no one is complaining about the food. He also seems to have developed a way of entertaining diners by cutting the meat in front of them, with huge and elaborately designed cleavers. He has stated some diners seem to look at him with awe.
Tarra discovered we had one last duty left to perform in our alternate Earth mission, or rather one in addition to another. She found a coin with bubble-gum stuck on one side in her ... cleavage. It looked like an ordinary coin at first, but a closer inspection showed alien symbols on it. A tricorder scan showed it contained data, some database and a song. What was it Lott called it, a "Spear Brittany" song? As much as I know about that time, I cannot recall any of the 21st Century music singers even though I know a number of 20th Century ones. How can that be? When Lera anyalsed it in her lab, it turned out to have details of a peace treaty between the "Argelians" and "Vorilids." This was the "peice of the treaty" the MiB was talking about!
Fortunetly, Mr. Tempres was able to find a way to crack the wormhole open just enough for us to beam it over to MiB. One last duty for them to perform, turning over the coin, before they have to answer to the public about their dealings. Besides the coin, Tempres may be able to crack it open further just long enough for us to return those actors and audience members of that "Star Trek Experience" that were beamed up by accident. That is, those who want to return. Many of them want to stay, not wishing to return to what one called "life either in the Dilbert Cubicle farm or McJobs." Others stated while they would like to stay, wished to return, one saying, "if this is like the show, while Starfleet officers live it up, life for the average Joe is BORING." I cannot say his words were inacurate.
In any event, we have a little time to ease up a little before going on to our next mission. Well, most of us. With M'Rander in Medical, I'm stuck with all the paperwork. It's taking longer than usual as I've been getting these splitting headaches. Or rather, they've been getting worse and more frequent than usual. At least coffee seems to help, though I've been having to drink more of it to keep the headaches down. Perhaps I should consult Lynx ... no, she's busy between her job and her kids, and for me relief is just a replicator away. A nice hot cup of coffee ...