STAR TRAKS: THE REDISCOVERED COUNTRY

INQUISITION
by RPS

Disclaimer: 'Lo and behold! Paramount owns Star Trek! And Alan Decker owns Star Traks! These things 
never ceases to amaze me.

 

 “Captain McAllister’s log, today. We are waiting for the arrival of Commander Robin Grandreams of 
Starfleet Intelligence who is running an inquiry into the events of the past days. We have detected 
his ship in sensor range and are travelling to meet him.” The comm panel next to him on the wall 
beeped. He paused his log and answered. “What is it?”
“Sir we’re docking with the USS Explorer.” Hasselfree answered on the other side. “Captain T’Pal 
told me to tell you to meet her at the airlock.” McAllister jumped up off his bed and started out 
the doorway.
“Tell her I’m on my way.” Hasselfree would have done that had he heard McAllister. But at that precise 
moment Richelieu decided to start barking at an Ensign outside the door flooding the comm signal with 
noise.
Because of this, 3 minutes later when McAllister arrived at the airlock T’Pal was about to send out a 
search and rescue team for him. Attack of the Killer Dogs had been last night’s film shown at the mess 
hall/makeshift cinema, and the Vulcan Captain was now scared that Richelieu, McAllisters dog, would 
suddenly turn on them and eat them. Making sure all their uniforms were clean and presentable 
Hasselfree pressed the button to open the airlock allowing Commander Grandreams to enter the ship, 
annoyed at being stuck in the airlock for a full 5 minutes before the door was opened to let him out.
“Greetings, I am Captain Cornelius McAllister. May I present my co-Captain T’Pal and my security 
officer Leftenant Hasselfree.” The two Secondprize officers nodded and Grandreams nodded back.
“As you might know I have been sent by Admiral Wagner to investigate the happenings of the past 
November the 20th in relations to the possibility that an alien race, the Tachyons.....”
“Taxyons.” T’Pal corrected.
“Whatever. Anyway they’re meant to have stolen some sensitive equipment.”
“I wouldn’t call it sensitive.” McAllister shrugged his shoulders. “It was just an injection kit 
and a couple glorified drills and wrenches.”
“That’s not the point.” Grandreams snapped back at him. “The point is that a possibly hostile race 
has access to some Terran technology, which places us at a disadvantage should a conflict occur.” 
McAllister decided to give up. He’d met plenty of people like Grandreams, officers with desk jobs 
and the ego the size of Canada even though they’d never commanded anything bigger than a bath tub.
“Do you wish to rest or should I get all the senior officers together?”
“I’d like to see the senior crew as soon as it is humanly possible.”
“Okay I suggest we meet on the bridge...” McAllister was interrupted by Hasselfree making frantic 
signals towards his digital watch on his left arm. “Oh right its time for my second dinner, 
(McAllister thought he was a little too thin so Hasselfree had put him on a crash course on 
fattening) I suggest we meet in the mess hall.”


It only took a couple of minutes for the senior staff to assemble, so as Hasselfree and McAllister 
munched away on some apple pie Commander Grandreams informed everyone present of why he was here and 
how his investigation would proceed. The first step would be an interrogation (Grandreams called it 
a “friendly interview”) with each of the officers involved. It was late so the interviews started the 
next day.


“Name, rank and position please.”
“Cornelius McAllister, Captain, USS Secondprize.”
“Please tell me in your own words how this all started.” McAllister shifted around in his seat for a 
while until he had found a comfortable position, and started telling.
“As these things always seem to start, it was a normal day. I’d woken up at 0700 hours, had a quick 
shower and decided to walk Richelieu.”
“Richelieu?” Grandreams asked. “Who’s that?”
“My dog.” Grandreams made a sound of understanding, and motioned for McAllister to continue. “Anyway, 
I was bringing him for a walk. We’d gone round a couple decks, and we were going through corridor 
B15 when I decided to look out the window, and found much to my surprise a large comet a couple km 
off the ship. I raced to the nearest comm panel...


“McAllister to bridge, what the hell is happening.” T’Pal’s silky voice answered him.
“Don’t worry Corn. Its just a comet. We detected it during the night, and decided to come and 
investigate.”
“That’s fine, just feel free to tell me when things like this happen. Don’t suppose anything else 
has happened while I was sleeping, like say the end of the world?”
“Don’t you get sarcastic with me Captain.” When T’Pal called him by his rank McAllister knew he was 
in trouble. “You have 30 minutes remaining until your shift starts, I suggest you use them wisely. 
Bridge out.” Man he’d blown it this time. Anyway, it wasn’t like himself and the Vulcan were on good 
terms to start off with, not since he’d accidentally called her a human. He knew he was never going 
to live that down. The human Captain was too absorbed by the thoughts of exploring the newly 
discovered comet to notice Richelieu chase after a small furry creature. McAllister jogged the rest 
of the journey back to his quarters, got on his uniform and headed to the bridge. 
“Someone tell me what we’re doing about this comet and get me some coffee.” Hasselfree, who was never 
far away form food or drink of any sort (even though it was strictly prohibited all over the ship 
other than the mess hall), poured him some coffee into a chipped mug and handed it to his Captain.
“We encountered the comet about 6 hours ago, since then we’ve ran several scans and have nearly 
finished mapping the entire comet. After that we will be sending down some probes, and we’ll be 
finished.” McAllister sighed. It would be a long long shift. Much to his relief a few minutes later 
Hasselfree jumped as alarms screamed bloody murder from his console. “Sir! I’ve detected an unknown 
ship on the other side of the comet. Unknown design, definitely Warp capable.”
“Hail them.” Deer at communications pressed a button and nodded to indicate the channel was open. 
“Hello, I’m Captain McAllister of the Starfleet starship Secondprize. Don’t suppose you’re nice and 
friendly and want to talk to us?”


“So the alien ship answered?” Grandreams asked T’Pal. They’d switched seats due to T’Pal’s refusal 
to sit on any chair Captain McAllister had previously occupied. How they solved the Captains chair 
problem Grandreams couldn’t even imagine.
“That’s correct. The commander of the alien vessel identified himself as a Mr Gurgen, of the Taxyon 
Interstellar Army.”
“So you invited him aboard.”
“Yep. The ships were parked a couple hundred metres away, and the Taxyon delegation took a shuttle 
pod across...”


“May I be the first to welcome you aboard. My name is Captain T’Pal, and I am the Captain of this 
ship. May I also introduce Leftenant Hasselfree and the ships Doctor, Fawqin.” The Taxyon greeting 
consisted of a series of punches and flying kicks in several directions, which left the welcoming 
party with a few bruises and black eyes. The aliens were very different from the human and Vulcan 
crew, having a third leg, sparkling green skin and a horn that swept back over their heads. Following 
the greeting T’Pal lead a tour of the ship, in which Hasselfree and Fawqin talked with their opposites 
of the Taxyon crew which had come along with their commanding officer. After the brief tour they came 
to the mess hall, where there was a formal dinner. McAllister a various other officers were waiting 
for them there. After some quick introductions the alien guests were invited to sit down and the 
dinner began. 
“So you’re a nitrogen based life form?” McAllister had never been good at starting conversations.
“That’s right. Our home planet is a barren wasteland of ice, and many of our buildings are in fact 
located on the sea bed.”
“That would make you amphibious no?” McAllister also had a degree in stating the obvious.
“That’s the one. What about you? Carbon based I presume?” This most interesting of conversations went 
on for 3 hours. By that time most of the Secondprize crew present had made excuses (Hasselfrees was 
the best, saying he’d accidentally left on a thermonuclear device in the armoury and needed to go and 
switch it off), and the Taxyons had nearly quite literally nearly died of boredom.
The two crews departed and the Taxyon shuttle pod departed for its ship. T’Pal was heading back to 
her quarters when she heard a large explosion. The red alert lights and klaxons went off, and the 
Vulcan raced to the bridge, carefully avoiding several rat-like creatures which were racing down the 
corridors..
“Please tell me we haven’t blown them up!” Just this once she wanted one first contact to go down 
well. 


“You were part of the team that went to help out with the crash?”
“That’s right.” La Force hated being torn from his Engineering, but McAllister had forced him along 
to this. “Apparently the food they ate over here didn’t sit well with their stomachs, therefore 
during a crucial moment of the landing the entire crew suddenly had to vomit. The Captain asked if 
we could send over a team to help them, and they accepted on the condition they brought no more food.”


Due to the crash on the Taxyon ship the Secondprize’s shuttle pod had to dock near the top of the 
ship, and the Earth ship’s engineering and medical teams raced down into the half-destroyed 
Shuttlebay. As the medics raced to the injured La Force ordered several pylons to be placed around 
the bay to keep the walls from collapsing on themselves. With that done, he talked to the Taxyon 
Chief Engineer to find out the total extent of the destruction, and set his Engineers out in teams 
of two and three to repair the odd part of the ship that had been damaged. La Force and a few of his 
men also stayed in the shuttlebay and with a bit of help from the Taxyons started shifting through 
the debris. As he was shifting through the debris an Ensign came over to him.
“Sir, have you noticed...err...them.”
“Them? The Taxyons?” The Ensign nodded. “What is it?”
“They’ve spent more time looking at us and stuff than actually working.”
“Are you sure?” The Ensign nodded. “Seems a bit stupid, I mean this is their ship that’s damaged, 
they should be working harder than we are.”
“Well they ain’t.”
“Just ignore them, I’ll look into it.” La Force continued working, but let his eyes look from side to 
side every once in a while to see what the aliens were doing. The Ensign was right, they weren’t 
taking their eyes off him. He was about t go over to them and raise the subject when there was a 
commotion at the other side of the bay.
“Hey, what’s happening here!” At the site of their superior officer a Leftenant and an Ensign (a 
different one than before) relaxed their grips on a Taxyon. The Leftenant spoke first.
“Sir, he was going to steal a structural integrity sensor.” La Force turned to the Taxyon, who was 
lying on the floor, severely agitated.
“Steal? Of course not! We needed it to start moving part of the debris from the northwest section.” 
The alien looked truthful, so La Force decided to let it past.
“Okay, next time feel free to ask.” The Taxyon picked up the equipment and moved off to the area he 
had talked about. La Force motioned over an Ensign. “I want you to follow and help the Taxyon. Make 
sure we get all of our stuff back in one piece.” The Ensign nodded and moved off after the alien.


“Thanks for coming Mr. Fawqin.”
“No problem.” Grandreams activated a recording device on the top of the table before continuing.
“So you were also part of the team that went over to the Taxyon ship?”
“Yah, me and a couple medics went over to help treat the victims of the crash, or at least what parts 
of them we could find.”
“Did the Taxyons seem nervous around you?”
“A bit, but their command crew had nearly been blown to pieces, which explains that.”
“Tell me what you did over there.”

Fawqin ran into the shuttlebay and told his medics to spread out looking for the worst off victims. 
He found a Taxyon lying a few metres from him, so he ran over, kneeled down and quickly looked over 
him to determine the extent of the damage. The aliens mid-limb was twisted at an odd angle, and there 
was a deep cut on his forehead.
“This might hurt a bit, so hold on.” Fawqin put down the first aid kit he was carrying and grabbed 
the third leg with his arms, and with an excruciating crunch pulled the mid-limb back into its 
original position. Due to the pain the Taxyons skin turned from green to white, but settled back 
to its original colour once Fawqin injected him with a painkiller. He then took out his old Grandma’s 
sewing kit and stitched together the aliens head. “There you go, right as rain. If the stitches come 
apart for whatever reason just put a cloth to your head and run for the nearest doctor, or you’d 
bleed to death in roughly twenty minutes.” And to make sure his bedside manner was nice he gave the 
alien a lollipop. 
Just as he was getting up the alien grabbed for Fawqins leg, pulling out a hypospray and injected 
himself with more painkiller. Fawqin turned around feeling the pull on his leg and took the needle 
off the alien. “Oh in Hastawaftas name, take it like a man.” The statement only served to baffle the 
alien, the Taxyons all being unisex.


“Thank you Dr Fawqin. I’ve gathered more than enough information from you. Would you do me a favour 
and call in Ensign Banks?” The Nausicaan left and as he went down the corridor he shoved Banks into 
the room, who proceeded to trip over the chair and fall into Grandreams, knocking both of them onto 
the floor.
“Uh, sorry.” Banks got up, and offered a hand to Grandreams who also got to his feet. Putting the 
chairs back in their original positions they sat down and began the interview.
“After you’d finished on the Taxyon ship you ferried the medical and engineering squads back to the 
Secondprize.”
“Once we touched down Leftenant Hasselfree closed up the shuttle pod bay refilling it with air so we 
could step out. As the medical and engineering squads got off and when back to their normal posts I 
went to the controls to check the status of the docking clamps while T’Pal quickly ran into the 
shuttlepod muttering something about a damn rat and her favourite model of Surak. I found everything 
was fine and went back to the shuttle pod just as T’Pal left. It’s also my job to make sure all the 
equipment we had over there was taken off the shuttlepod and brought back to wherever it was needed, 
which is when we were missing a few items: an injection kit, a set of inverse coil spanners, a 
pneumatic de-optimiser and two Heinemann’s Demographistical drills. I immediately told Captain 
McAllister, who did a brief investigation into the matter and then contacted you. We talked to 
everyone that had been over there, and we tried going after the Taxyon ship but lost the ion trail 
of their engines a few light-years past the comet.”

In the mess hall Commander Grandreams looked into a small laptop on which an old Admiral appeared.
“So that’s it Admiral, all the evidence points to the Taxyons taking the missing parts. I’m afraid 
that unless we come across them in the unforeseeable future we have no chance of getting the 
equipment back. On the bright side they didn’t get anything big, any pre-warp civilisation could 
have stuff as good as that.” Grandreams was interrupted by Hasselfree coming up to him carrying a 
bulky silver box with a door on the front.
“See this? The first portable taste replicator.”
“Sorry, I’m busy talking to Admiral Wagner, can I talk to you later?”
“It makes cheesecake.” Grandreams forgot completely that he was talking to the Admiral at that 
moment, he had an immense soft spot for cheesecake.
“Cheesecake? How does it work?” Hasselfree sat down and put the taste replicator on the table.
“Inside this box there are algae maintained in below freezing temperatures. Basically these algae 
evolve at an astounding rate, completely in seconds, provided there is a certain input. This box 
creates an electromagnetic input which stimulates the algae into evolving in a certain way, 
effectively altering their DNA. At the end it’s still a soggy plant, but it tastes of whatever you 
have made it taste like. Different electromagnetic inputs give different tastes and flavours.”
“And it gives cheesecake?” Grandreams mouth was watering.
“One of the first things I programmed in.” Hasselfree smiled as he pressed a few buttons on the box, 
causing it to emit a whizzing sound. After about 30 seconds Hasselfree opened the box, put a hand in 
and came out with some red coloured leaves, handing them over to Grandreams. “Well? Eat them.” 
Grandreams took a bite of the leaf, and slowly chewed. As he eat the algae a smile worked its way 
onto his face.
“Amazing. One of the best tasting cheesecakes I’ve ever had, even though it isn’t cheesecake.” He 
then just realised. “That algae, its alien no?” Hasselfree nodded. “Is it toxic or anything?”
“Of course not. One of the first things I checked was if the algae were edible. It has next to no 
nutritional value, its really 100% flavour and nothing else. Brodeur and Fawqin had been playing 
around with this stuff for ages, hadn’t really got it to do anything until I came along.”
“Absolutely amazing. Can I have some more?”
“Sure.” Hasselfree again tapped in some commands on the boxes keypad, producing some more 
cheesecake-flavoured leaves. He has about to hand them to Grandreams when he squealed like a little 
girl and jumped up on the table. “Arrgghhh! A rat!”
“Calm down woman!” McAllister shouted at his tactical officer who stopped squealing. “Its just a 
bloody rat. All over the place these things are.”
“How’d they get on the ship?” Grandreams asked.
“No idea, we must have picked them up when we docked with some other ship.”
“I suggest you get rid of them before the Explorer returns to pick me up Captain.” The Intelligence 
official said. “I would hate to add another black mark on your record, I’m not sure if there’s 
enough space for it.”


“Okay, here we go.” Ensign Sophie Halbarad laid out the remaining pieces on the board, looking to 
Doctor Fawqin, Commander La Force and Leftenant Hasselfree. “Perfectly non-violent game. There 
shouldn’t be a fight with this one.”
“What’s it called?” Fawqin asked.
“Risk.” Halbarad smiled.


Commander Grandreams was absolutely in desperate need for a coffee. As he’d finished packing and 
the Secondprize wasn’t due to rendezvous with the Explorer for a couple hours he decided it’d be 
alright for him to go to the mess hall and fill his need for caffeine. Walking out into the corridor 
he hummed all the way to his destination. He walked in, seeing the room mostly empty apart from four 
officers crowing round a game board at one table, and Captain McAllister reading a report at a table 
close to the windows. Walking over to the expresso machine he entered his order, and retrieving his 
drink he found an empty table and sat down to enjoy it. He was just brining the cup to his lips when 
he spotted some of those bloody rodents running across the room.
“McAllister!”
“What?” The human Captain looked up from his report.
“The rats!”
“Rats? Arrgghh!” Once again Leftenant Hasselfree had jumped onto a nearby table and was squealing 
like a girl. As he did this one of the rats had managed to get up onto the table which included the 
Risk board, and took several of the pieces in its mouth.
“Oi! That’s my cavalry!” Halbarad shouted. The Nausicaan Doctor, however, reacted faster than 
everyone. With one hand he picked up the rat, and before any of the others could properly register 
what was happening he popped the rodent into his mouth.
“Good, was feeling a bit peckish.”
“It stole my bloody cavalry!” Halbarad shouted, more concerned with the fact that Siberia was now 
unprotected than with the consumption of a live rodent by the ships Doctor.
“Stole!” McAllister himself shouted, surprising everyone in the room. “It stole the cavalry!” He 
explained further.
“What are you on about?” Grandreams asked. The guy was obviously unstable.
“What if Halbarads cavalry wasn’t the only thing they stole?”


“So yes Admiral, turns out it wasn’t the Taxyons.” Grandreams explained to Admiral Wagner on the 
Explorer. “We managed to track down the hub of the rodent infestation and found the missing equipment. 
It was all there, the rats had taken it to build a nest or something.”
“Very well, good work Commander.” Wagner replied. “I guess in the future we should consider building 
some kind of device to get rid of infestations of things like those rodents. But anyway, inform the 
Secondprize they are cleared to continue their mission.”
“Yes sir.” Grandreams replied. He nodded to the Captain of the Explorer. “We’re clear to undock 
Captain, my business is concluded here.” The Captain of the Explorer took a deep breath before turning 
to his helm officer.
“Okay, lets try and get it right this time.”


“How long do you think it’ll take them to notice?” T’Pal asked McAllister.
“We should of kept them, made good snacks.” Dr. Fawqin remarked.
“Too long.” McAllister smiled. “Too long.” Sending the remaining rodents across to the Explorer had 
been a stroke of genius. He’d have to remember that trick.