Porthole

Freedom... is just another word for... dying 4146 223

Stardate 4146 223

We approach another suspicious rock.

Wing Sheima has received a report that there's nothing living on it but the Landers want to take a look. She hands the ship over to Commander Tom. Another joke I'm told but as a Kla he just barks orders. Apparently one of the orders was to wake me up.

Quip: Wake me if there's anything exciting! I'm taking a nap.

90210 smiles: Me too.

Me: I need something to wake me up!

Cook comes by (when does he sleep?) and hands some sleepy-time tea to Quip and 90210. Whatever he gave me tastes vile and seems to wink at me. Cook just laughs. As do the others. *sigh*

o________________o ----------0O0O0---------- o________________o

Me: How shall I help, Commander?

Commander Tom: The Landers want you to join them. There's an interesting anomaly they want you to see before they disect it.

There's no oxygen so here I go again wrapped up like a ten day old slab of tuna.

Lander Gomo the Kla: I want you to look before anyone says anything to you. What do you see?

Me: More like what I don't sense at all. Wrapped up like this I can't smell, can't touch, can't hear. Do you hear anything?

Gomo: No.

Me: it looks like someone intended to settle here. But there's no oxygen! And these artifacts look far too Gqarian, and that one over there vaguely reminds me of Klingon designs. And this one [pointing to my left] is Vulcan. I swear. All of those species breathe oxygen. Any signs of sulfur? I don't see any.

Gomo: No.

Me: And what is that over there ...

We went towards it. Looked like a pod or coffin. It wasn't empty.

Me: Vulcan or Romulan?

Gomo: Yes. There's no signs of life, very little that anyone who came here lived here for long.

Me: That looks like an escape pod.

Gomo: There are 41 more.

Me: Not enough for a colony ... unless it wasn't meant to survive. This place is older than that box?

Gomo: Millennia older.

Me: An escape to a myth someone had heard about or a penal colony left without means to survive?

Gomo: We found this. [he hands me a tablet] Translated it say "Freedom or Die".

Me: They chose both. The sought freedom and died.

Gomo: You may be right. There are two bodies of your race, one of a time-traveler like Guinan, another a Vulch ... and a dozen Gqarians. We found remnants of Grass.

Me: So they didn't come here to die, but they did.

Gomo: And that's not all, but I'll have Commander Tom tell you the rest. You'll think more clearly when your body isn't stressed.

Me: Stressed?

Gomo: I'm a Xeno like you. I know the signs. Now go back to ponder on the ship.

o________________o ----------0O0O0---------- o________________o

Commander Tom: See these?

Me: More pods?

Commander Tom: Some look like they tried to leave; others look like they couldn't land. There are a couple hundred of them. What do you think?

Me: They chose freedom, from whatever I don't know. But they also chose death.

From:

'You Talk Of Freedom'  (13+) 3rd draft. Beginning of chapter 1. #2222257 by Becca Winchester

"How would you describe freedom?"

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Space Blog  (ASR) Cruising WDC cyberspace and raiding ports for blog prompts! #2223838 by Sharmelle'sThankfulExpressions