The Search for a cure for Pteri Written by Nancy Hall, Photos by Dawn Jenkins and Captions by Annette Wood, USS Jurassic

Pteri, the dwarf pterodactyl that freely roams USS Jurassic had recently fallen ill. She no longer had that fire in her eyes and several crew members mentioned it to the CO who in turn asked the chief medical officer, Sharon, to check her out. Pteri was a gift from the Gorn after the USS Jurassic had helped out one of their ships. As luck would have it, they also provided us with a huge science and medical database including the caring and feeding of the dwarf pterodactyl. Using this medical database, Sharon was able to diagnose that Pteri was suffering from a rare genetic medical condition and luckily there was a cure. The cure consisted of synthesizing a drug from several different compounds. One compound, however, could not be synthesized onboard the ship. It was a substance that was only found on the inside shell of newly hatched dinosaur eggs. We were too far away from the Gorn homeworld so the CO ordered cartography and the science department to start searching for a planet that had creatures similar to the Gorn planet.

The planet Zolanda was found to be a perfect candidate and it was less than 2 days away from our current course. While Zolanda was not a member of the Federation, they were on friendly terms with the Federation. However, several races had sent representatives under the guise of friendship who in turn were later caught hunting some of the Gigandons, the dinosaur-like creatures on the planet. Therefore, the away team was warned to be very careful in their discussion regarding the Gigandon eggs. The science chief, Denise, selected an away team consisting of Annette, Dawn and Nancy to visit Zolanda on behalf of the USS Jurassic and to acquire some empty shells from newly hatched Gigandon eggs.

Stardate Stardate 20030803. Dawn, Annette and Nancy beamed down to Zolanda and were met by First Leader Mij (photo on left) and his assistant Darkwood (photo on right). They welcomed us and together we walked back to the First Leader's meeting room . While there, we told First Leader Mij about Pteri, our sick pterodactyl. "Really," he replied, "we have no sick Gigandons." Annette corrected him, "First Leader, it's not one of your Gigandons but the pterodactyl on the USS Jurassic that is ill." First Leader Mij still looked confused, so Annette showed him her tricorder, where an image of Pteri was displayed on its small screen. Annette pointed to the picture of Pteri and repeated, "it's Pteri that is sick." Finally First Leader Mij appeared to understand. "We need one more compound before we can synthesize the medicine needed to cure Pteri," began Nancy, "and that compound is only found on the insides of a newly hatched Gigandon egg that has similar genetic makeup as Pteri," When First Leader Mij didn't say anything, Nancy continued, "so we are asking if it would be okay if we go out and search for empty Gigandon eggs or if you have any empty shells that we can have, that would be even better." After another long pause, First Leader Mij told us, "My assistant Darkwood would be a useful in your Seeking." Then he turned to Darkwood and said "Show them the Gigandons they are asking about." We thanked him and said we would love to get to work. Then First Leader Mij took Annette's hand and his eyes never left Annette's as he said, "after your Seeking, I would be honored if you all would sit down for a meal with me." We agreed and left with Darkwood. "Seems like someone has taken a liking to Annette," joked Dawn to Nancy. Annette just shook her head and walked ahead of us.

Darkwood led us to what looked like an open-aired vehicle with open canopy and a skirt-like covering around the bottom. There was room for six people, 3 on each side and a driver. After starting the vehicle, we all could feel the vehicle rise above the ground. Once it started moving, it reminded us all of a hovercraft. Once out of the city, we started seeing more trees and were able to hear loud roars that we assumed belong to the Gigandons. After about 15 minutes of travel, we able to see some heads peeking from the trees. Dawn pointed to one of the creatures and Darkwood replied, "That is T'Don." For the next several minutes, Darkwood pointed out the various species of Gigandon creatures as we traveled.

Then Darkwood stopped the vehicle and said, "This is good Seeking area. I have business in city C'leved and will meet you back here in 2 hours." Then Darkwood headed off in the direction where several buildings could be seen. Dawn, Annette and Nancy looked at each other and decided to search for Gigandons in the large forest that Darkwood had indicated. After a few minutes of walking, we saw 7 humanoids coming out of the forest to our left and traveling across our path. Two of them had Starfleet uniforms on. Dawn called out to them and 2 Starfleet cadets turned and came toward us. They were with several Zolandian natives. The cadets appeared just as surprised to see us and we were to see them. "Hello Cadets, what are your names," asked Dawn, "and what brings you to this planet?" One of the cadets spoke up, "I'm Cadet Kate and this is Cadet Will. We are studying linguistics at Starfleet Academy and are here this semester to learn more about the Zolandian language." "I assume you are here on a mission," said Cadet Will, "since we haven't seen any Starfleet officers since we've been here." " You are correct, cadet." said Dawn, "We're here to get samples of a compound that can only be found in newly hatched Gigandon eggs. We need the material inside the shell to finish synthesizing medicine for our sick pterodactyl on board." Surprised, Cadet Will said, "The Zolandians are letting you take the eggs?" Annette said, "Yes, they even sent a guide with us." Cadet Will looked around, "I don't see any guide," he said without thinking. "He dropped us off near the opening to this forest," said Nancy with a smirk, "he told us to meet him back in the clearing in 2 hours."

Just then a Torosaurus came out from the forest behind Will and Kate. "That is Toros", said Will "we found out that we can communicate with him. His language is very similar to that of the Zolandians and ..." Just then Kate interrupted Will, "I'm sorry, he gets a little excited about linguistics when there are people around. Since you mentioned you are on a mission, we'll get back to our studies and let you find the Gigandons eggs. We saw some newly hatched eggs about 2 clicks that way." "That's great," said Annette, "if you're not too busy, we'd appreciate it if you could take us to the eggs." "No problem, " said Cadet Will, "this way," as he bounded off, apparently grateful that our mission would delay his studies. Cadet Kate went back to the natives and spoke to them in their language and then came back to us. "I told them that I would be helping you on a mission and that I would meet them later on in the city." We then headed in the direction that Cadet Will had taken. Again we met up with several more species of Gigandons that Cadet Kate pointed out along the way, filling in more details on their species and Zolandas history.

After about half an hour of walking, we came to a nest that contained newly hatched Gigandon eggs. "That is a Parasaurolophus," said Cadet Will, "and those are her babies. We call her Spot." Kate shook her head and then interrupted, "Will calls her Spot, her actual name is S'Porotus and that is what everyone else calls her." Cadet Will said something to S'Porotus in her language. She then started to screech and raised her 2 front legs. "What did you say to her?" asked Annette. "I just said you wanted her eggs," said Cadet Will. "What?!" said Nancy and Dawn together. "Quick, tell her we don't want her eggs, we just want to gather some material from its shell," said Annette. Cadet Will tried to get closer but S'Porotus kept rearing her front legs and if Dawn hadn't pulled him away, her strong legs might have crushed him. "I can't believe this is happening," exclaimed Nancy. Just then several other Gigandons came into the clearing and starting screeching and roaring. "I think we should get out of here!" said Cadet Kate and she took off. Everyone else took off after her. We hadn't gone more than 10 feet when a Gigandon came into view, roaring, teeth showing and looking at us like he wanted to eat us. We all turned and ran the other way, but again another Gigandon blocked our path. We turned again and started running through the trees. Each time another Gigandon would be there and soon we were screaming, stumbling desperately through the forest. "This is a disaster!" Annette yelled. We were running through the wood batting away leaves and plants, the roar and loud pounding of the Gigandons just a few paces behind us. Eventually, we soon realized that we were about to be surrounded.

Part II continues here... The Search for a Cure for Pteri - Part II

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