The Search for a cure for Pteri - Part IIWritten by Nancy Hall, Photos by Dawn Jenkins and Captions by Annette Wood, USS Jurassic |
The Search for a cure for Pteri - Part IIWritten by Nancy Hall, Photos by Dawn Jenkins and Captions by Annette Wood, USS Jurassic |
Finally we came out into another clearing and saw several
hovercraft-like vehicles heading toward us. "You're right, Annette,"
said Dawn, "this is definitely a disaster." The occupants of the
vehicles had their weapons drawn and pointing toward us, so we stopped
and let them come to us. Behind us, we could still hear the Gigandons
roaring and the rumbling ground told us there were still coming.
Luckily, the occupants of the vehicle arrived first and we could see
that Assistant Darkwood was among them. "Assistant Darkwood," said
Annette, "am I glad to see you. There's been a terrible
misunderstanding." "I see," said Darkwood. Just then 4 of the larger
Gigandons reached us. One of them started speaking to Darkwood and none
of us could understand what she was saying. "Cadet Kate," whispered
Dawn, "can you make out what they are saying?" "I'm trying, but she is
talking too quickly. The only words I was able to make out were 'eggs'
and 'babies' ". Just then, Darkwood gave us a look that told all of us
that we were in deep trouble. "How dare you violate the sacrosanct nest
of S'porotus!". "Wait, you misunderstood," began Annette. But he didn't
let her finish. "Take these 3 back to the First Leader's chamber," said
Darkwood pointing to us. He turned and pointed at the two cadets, "and
take these 2 to the mines," he said. The cadets were obviously
frightened but Annette said, "Just go with them and it will be all
right".
They took us to the First Leader's office to wait for his arrival.
"They think we wanted to steal the baby Gigandon?" said Nancy. "It
sounds like it" said Dawn. "How are we going to convince them that we
aren't here to steal a baby?" said Annette. "Why are you two asking
me?" said Dawn. "I thought the First Leader had no problem with us
getting material from the inside of the eggshell," said Nancy. "Well,
remember he did have a hard time understanding us," said Annette. "But
he said it was okay", said Dawn. "He said it was okay to go seeking,"
corrected Annette and she continued, "we need to know what he meant by
that." "No, what we need are the cadets," said Nancy, "they have been
communicating with these people using their own language and I think
they could be a great help in correcting this misunderstandings."
"There have already been incidents with poachers from Federation
planets. I don't think the Captain or Starfleet wants another incident
on this planet," said Dawn. Annette and Nancy both agreed
wholeheartedly with this statement. Just then First Leader Mij came in.
He did not look happy, even to see Annette. He immediately started
speaking so fast that none of us could understand him. Nancy nudged
Annette, so she said in a soft voice, "First Leader, you spoke too fast
for us to understand. You have to believe that we meant no harm. We had
no intention of doing anything to create a problem. We only meant to go
seeking." Nancy and Dawn looked at each when Annette finished but said
nothing. "We seem to be having problems communicating with you, would
it be possible to bring the cadets here? They have been studying your
language and I think they can help us with this misunderstanding."
There was a long pause and then the First leader started launched into
a monologue again and none of the 3 Starfleet officers were able to
understand anything. "Cadet Kate and Will, may we see them, please?"
said Annette again, this time speaking slowly, "they speak your
language and can help us." First Leader Mij appeared to understand and
told one of the guards, "take them to the young."
Cadet
Will and Kate were in the sand mines digging for Zolandian minerals and
were glad to see us. The guard motioned them up and they wiped the sand
off themselves and followed us out. They took the 5 of us to another
room and there we waited. About an hour later, a Zolandian official,
dressed like First Leader Mij, came in with 2 others. "I am First
Security S'Jenk. You have committed a very serious crime." "We didn't
do anything!" cried out Will. "Cadet Will!" cautioned Annette, "calm
down and let us handle this" "I'm sorry, sir" said the cadet. "First
Security S'Jenk", began Annette, "we are sorry but we did not mean any
disrespect."
"You tried to go beyond The Seeking," she began, "that is
not allowed. I will be deciding the punishment for your crimes." "What
is the seeking?" said Nancy. She looked at us in surprise, "you
requested The Seeking and don't know?"Cadet Kate interrupted, "I
didn't realize you where here for The Seeking, that is the Zolandians
most sacred ritual. During that time, the Gigandons allow the
Zolandians to see the birth of their babies. However, no one is allowed
to intrude on their nests or take any of their eggs" Cadet Kate looked
at Cadet Will as she said the last part. "I've noticed that what First
Security S'Jenk is saying and what the universal translator is
translating are not the same thing." said Kate, "May I tell her you
were not here to violate the sanctity of the Seeking?" asked Cadet
Kate. We said in unison, "oh yes, please." Kate repeated what we she
said to us back to First Security S'Jenk in the Zolandian language.
"Wow," said Nancy "what we just heard was different than what we said."
At this point, all 3 Starfleet officers and First Security S'Jenk had a
look of understanding on their faces. "How do we rectify this issue and
how could this have happened?" asked Dawn. "Well, I bet there is a
problem with the translation matrix in the universal translator," said
Kate, "Will and I have noticed certain groups of words aren't being
translated correctly, however, the definition was so close that we
didn't think it was much of a problem until now. However, we have been
keeping track of them in our log and were going to pass the information
on to the linguistics teachers at Starfleet Academy when we got back."
"Very good," said Annette, "Cadet Kate and Will, why don't you two be
our universal translators. We will tell you what we originally told
First Leader Mij and I want you to translate it to First Security
S'Jenk. Hopefully, we can resolve this issue."
The 3 Starfleet officers along with the 2 cadets spent the next hour
discussing Pteri, the sick pterodactyl on board the USS Jurassic. They
explained their need for the material from the newly hatched Gigandon
eggshells and what happened in the forest. When it was all over, there
were apologies on both sides. First Security S'Jenk promised the away
team that she would personally find some newly hatched eggshells and
the away team promised that Starfleet would update the translation
matrix with the information already gathered by Cadets Kate and Will.
After receiving the shells, Annette, Dawn, Nancy, Cadets Will and Kate
sat down with First Leader Mij, Assistant Darkwood and First Security
S'Jenk to have a meal to seal their friendship. Naturally, First Leader
Mij had a seat next to him reserved for Annette. The food was great and
whenever there was any confusion over what was said, Cadets Will or
Kate helped with the translation. After the meal, the 3 officers
thanked their hosts and beamed back to the USS Jurassic.