THE SHIP

CR Azy

Valandil softly spoke in Elvish to whoever might be listening. When he didn’t get a response, he spoke in a more audible voice. “We have company.”

This caught the navigator's attention who glanced at him saying, “I didn't pick up anything, sir.”

“That is because they are beyond our sensor readings.”

“I don’t understand,” said the navigator.

Valandil thought to himself that the navigator never did understand since he was a defective clone anyway.

Valandil Telemar found himself as a Starfleet captain on a starship called Stargazer with a ragtag mutant crew who he seriously thought were trying to drive him to the funny farm.

The navigator was a clone of Johnny Gage who was missing some parts. He was named Junior and nothing else and had a major thing for redheaded females. Valandil believed that Junior was missing part of his brain along with the other missing parts. Junior never elaborated as to what parts he was missing and the ships doctor was not about to give out medical histories to the ships captain or any other crew member.

The ships doctor was Dr. Mike Morton who previously worked out of Rampart General in Los Angeles. He jumped at the chance for this mission since it was more challenging than annoying John Gage. Little did he know he would not only have Johnny to contend with but his clone as well.

Johnny found himself up for the challenge from Chet Kelly who was on the ship as well. While Johnny signed up as the medical crew, Chet signed up for the security crew.

Unbeknownst to Chet was a clone of his on the ship named Ivan whom Chet thought was in a far away land far from him. Ivan usually managed to get Chet into all kinds of mischief and trouble since they both looked exactly alike and there was nothing about either of them that was different. Chet started calling him Ivan the Terrible soon after he was created. The only other person who knew Ivan was on the ship was Johnny. Not even Valandil knew it and he was supposed to know everything about the ship and crew.

Being a telepath and empath, Valandil was able to read others but found he was unable to read clones other than the Elf clones. Valandil being a clone himself of Middle Earth’s Prince Legolas managed to reach far beyond his own past (which was Legolas) and become his own person, impressing even Legolas.

There were major differences between Legolas and Valandil which his creators soon learned.

While Legolas himself was a telepath and empath, Valandil’s mystical powers were even stronger. Plus, not only did he have green eyes that could change to the colors of the rainbow, he could also change his hair color at will as well as the length.

Legolas did not feel threatened by him since he knew him to be good and would go far in the good of mankind.

Included on the ship as communications officer was a Vulcan female named Fiola who rejected all her Vulcan heritage to become the human she always wanted to be, stopping short of surgical procedures to look the part. A relative of USS Enterprise first officer Mr. Spock, Fiola was in love with George who was a half brother to the woman Valandil married many years before.

Fiola managed to find mischief herself driving Valandil up the wall causing him to roll his eyes skyward and drive her nuts by saying, “Most illogical.”

The first officer spoke up saying, “Captain, sensor readings are accurate and there is nothing out there.”

Valandil studied his first officer for a moment. Known as Captain William Buck Rogers, a human from the 20^th century frozen for 500 hundred years in deep space only to be rescued and transplanted in a civilization he was lost in, Buck gladly took the mission in hopes of being reunited with others out of his past. Valandil told him, “The ships sensors cannot pick up this life form. Only an empath-telepath is able to.”

Fiola asked, “Is it a good life form or a bad one?”

Valandil felt a smile overtake him as he said, “A good one for this is my wife.”

“Is she a redhead?” inquired Junior.

Fiola rolled her eyes skyward and snorted out the words, “Most illogical.” This made Valandil chuckle to himself with Buck giving her the strangest look.

Junior cringed at her remark fearing for the Vulcan Neck Pinch he was known throughout the ship for receiving from her.

All eyes were on Fiola as they waited for her response. It was Buck who said, “If you don’t give it to him, then I will.”

Valandil spoke up, “No one is going to give anyone anything, Mr. Rogers.”

“Yes, Captain,” he frowned.

Valandil then was silent for a moment and spoke to an invisible being. “I was unaware you knew him, Venus.”

Those on the bridge were puzzled by his statement. It was Buck who asked, “Is your wife’s name Venus?”

“Yes it is,” he answered. “She claims she knows you from your past.”

Buck’s eyes lit up since this was the first time anyone ever made that remark. He responded, “I never knew anyone named Venus.”

“Does Susan West ring a bell,” asked the ship’s captain.

“No” was the response.

It was Fiola who spoke up, “I know that name since it is one of Venus’ identities!”

“One of,” inquired Buck “does she have more than that?”

“Only a few more,” Valandil smiled.

There was disembodied female giggle on the bridge as Valandil said in surprise, “I don’t believe it!”

It was Bucks turn to be surprised as he heard himself exclaim, “I know that giggle! But I am unable to place who it belongs to.”

Junior muttered, “She sounds like a redhead to me.”

The helmsman slugged his arm which sent his arm flying off into the corner. Whenever a jolt hit Junior, a body part departed from him and would have to be reattached in Sickbay.

“Junior, pick up your arm and report to Sickbay,” ordered both captains.

After Junior left the bridge with his detached arm, Valandil glanced at the helmsman asking, “Did you have to do that, Mr. Nameless?”

The helmsman was known as Mr. Nameless since he was without a name and was invisible except for the cloke he wore to reveal his presence. Valandil was unable to determine if this person was too shy to reveal his presence or if he was some kind of mission other than the mission he was on the ship for.

Mr. Nameless admitted, “I really wanted to knock his head off.”

A moment of silence fell on Valandil who spoke again to his wife, “I do not know the answer to your question, Venus. Why don’t you join us and perhaps Mr. Rogers will recognize you?”

Down in sickbay, Junior found Morton arguing with Johnny again. “I told you to go to the lab and…” Morton’s sentence was interrupted by the presence of Junior holding his arm out.

Johnny made the statement, “I think I will go to the lab after all, Doc.”

“Not on your life, Gage,” Morton told him. “You are going to help me reattach his arm.”

Johnny managed a crooked smile hoping to escape Junior. It was Morton who asked, “Did Fiola rip your arm out again?”

“No,” the clone answered, “Mr. Nameless hit me.”

“And you didn’t see him coming, did you?”

Johnny tried to hold a snicker in as Junior glared at the doctor. It was Morton who said, “I honestly don’t know how you keep from bleeding to death…”

“I don’t bleed,” interrupted Junior.

Said the innocent paramedic, “That’s cause you are too stupid to realize it.”

Morton snapped, “That is enough Gage!”

Johnny sheepishly muttered something inaudible. Then wished, “I wish I was back at Station 51 with Roy.”

“Be grateful you took this mission and not him,” Morton reminded him as he took Juniors arm away from him. “You could be the one working with Brice. Get on the table, Junior.”

Junior obeyed but said, “I bet his wife is a redhead.”

Both Johnny and Morton said, “He is not married.” Morton continued, “Gage, help me get his shirt off.”

Said Johnny, “If he was an android, I could understand why he looses parts…”

“Even an android is built better than he is,” Morton told him.

The clone protested, “I was not made, I was created.”

“Don’t remind me,” Johnny quietly muttered. Secretly, he wished he had not volunteered for the cloning experiment. He saw that Roy and Chet both came out with great clones and if Chet had good clone, then he could have too. But something went wrong with the cloning process when power was interrupted briefly. While it was true that Johnny loved redheads, he loved blondes and brunettes as well. As far he was concerned there was nothing wrong with him, other than the fact he had a defective clone named Junior.

About that time, Chet wandered in looking puzzled. He said, “I am reading an unusual life form on the ship and…”

“The captain’s wife is on the bridge,” Junior responded.

“Hey Junior, you loose something again?”

Morton glared at him saying, “Kelly, get out of here!”

“Why?”

Johnny glanced up at him knowing this was really Ivan the Terrible out to irritate the good doctor.

Morton snapped, “Kelly! You are on my last nerve!”

“That’s funny; I don’t remember getting on your first nerve yet.”

Junior snickered and Johnny chuckled. Morton snapped at the security officer, “Get out of my sickbay!”

“Um…Doc? Aren’t you putting his arm on backwards?”

All present glanced at Junior and his arm, which was being reattatched the right way. “Gotcha!” Then he was gone out of sickbay with chuckling heard down the corridor.

Morton muttered, “I’m going to throw him in the brig and throw away the key!”

Junior glanced at the doctor puzzled, “Is there a key to the force field?”

All Morton could do was groan and throw Juniors shirt at him.

Meanwhile on the bridge, Venus made a brief appearance. Before her husband could speak, she told him, “I cannot stay long; I just wanted to drop by and say ‘hi’.”

“How nice of you to think of me,” smiled Valandil. As Venus gazed into his eyes, she saw them change from Kelly green to rainbow.

Buck was interested in this woman since she claimed to know him form his past. The most he could tell about her was she was short, standing nearly shoulder high to the captain and had dark curly hair. Buck then noticed something odd about her. As she conversed with her husband, her skin tone changed colors ranging from various shades of white and brown. As if this were not enough to confuse him, her hair color changed as well.

Valandil whispered to his wife, “You are confusing Captain Rogers.”

She glanced over to him, then back at her husband stating, “He ain’t seen nothing yet, my love.”

“Don’t you dare,” warned the Elf.

Somewhat disappointed, Venus told her husband, “I should go over to him, and then say hi to Fiola.”

Valandil spoke to Buck saying, “Captain Rogers, this is my Little Lady, Venus.”

Venus walked over to him and said, “It has been ages, Buck.”

Confused, Buck asked, “Where do you know me from?”

“On the good ship Lollipop,” was the response.

Fiola burst out laughing as Valandil tried to hold his reaction in. Buck glared at her asking, “Lollipop?” He was expecting a smart aleck remark out from her as a response.

Instead, she seriously told him, “There was a ship once called Lollipop that you were captain of. I was part of that crew but the ship was lost due to hostile forces. Fiola was on that ship as communications officer and there was one other crew member but I am unable to recall who.”

Buck remained confused, “I don’t remember that.”

Valandil joined the conversation by saying, “You were sent back into time to save you from being taken hostage.”

Venus glanced at her husband puzzled asking, “How do you know this?”

“It was your father who sent him back in time. He was unable to save all of you and chose those who he thought couldn’t save themselves.”

“I was able to go into another dimension,” she whispered. “Fiola was able to escape in an IPOD but I just can’t remember the other crew member.”

Valandil assured her the crew member was saved by his guardian.

“Guardian,” asked Buck.

“Like my wife, the crew member is a time traveler.”

“Does he have a name,” inquired Buck.

“Yes he does,” was the response. “Venus, why not see what kind of mischief you can get into with Fiola?”

The two women left the bridge as fast as they could, leaving a trail of dust behind. Venus was heard to say, “I can’t stay long.”

Buck was perplexed, “I honestly don’t remember her account and is there is a reason why you didn’t tell her who else was on that ship?”

“Let’s just say it was someone from her past. I fear she would go searching through time for him if she were to hear his name again. As it stands now, he is safely in another time and place with his guardian aware of his every move. There were other crew members on the ship as well. If she were to remember them and their fates, then I fear it might destroy her. Until such time she is able to accept the fate of the ship, then she must go on thinking Lollipops crew was small and able to escape harm either through time with the guardians or by other means.”

“You keep saying guardian, Captain. I don’t understand. And I don’t remember Fiola other than having met her several years ago”

“Every time traveler has a guardian, Buck. And yes, you and Fiola knew each other before your initial meeting several years ago.”

Right about that time, the ships lights started flickering. Buck glanced at his work station saying, “The computer is going nuts.”

“The computer is wearing tennis shoes,” Valandil sigh.

“I beg your pardon?”

“My wife and Fiola are up to no good,” frowned the captain. “We will have to wait this one out.”

Buck was even more confused before realizing Venus was actually inside the computer controls. “The computer wore tennis shoes,” muttered Buck recalling a 20^th century movie by the same name.

Morton looked up from his work in sickbay as the lights dimmed. With his patient now back on duty and Gage in the lab, the doctor called on the intercom. “What’s going with the lights,” he inquired.

Valandil’s voice came back saying, “It is my wife, Doc.”

“Your wife? Junior mentioned she was here.”

“Yeah, she likes to play havoc with computer systems.”

“Well, tell her to quit since I am in the middle of something very important down here.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” was the captain’s response.

The doctor needed something from the cupboard so he went over, opened the door and received a face full of water, a well known prank from the phantom known as Chet Kelly. Angered by this prank, Morton called Johnny back to sickbay.

Upon his arrival, Johnny asked, “What the…Doc? Are you OK?”

“Stay here! I’ve got a score to settle with that phantom!” With that, Morton left sickbay leaving a trail of dust behind him. Johnny muttered to himself, “Ivan, I think you went too far.”

The doctor found Chet at his post reading the latest sports magazine….at least the cover of the magazine was sports related. Morton tore the magazine out of his hands, grabbed Chet by the hair and dragged him over the brig, throwing him in and activating the door.

Chet was screaming the entire time. Morton snorted out the words, “Next time you decide to pull a phantom trick on me, Chet Kelly, I won’t be as easy on you as I was this time. If I remember that you are still here at chow time, I will have someone bring you something to eat.”

With that Morton left a bewildered Chet alone n the brig wondering what in the world happened to make the doctor so angry. He also wondered why he was so wet.

With the controls still out of control, Morton made his way to the bridge. In the elevator which kept slowing then speeding up, he said to himself, “I hope this elevator holds up.”

On the bridge, Valandil cleared his throat saying out loud, “Venus, that is more than enough.”

For about 5 seconds, everything went dark on the bridge. Valandil sternly said, “Venus!”

With that scolding, power was restored. Out of Buck’s work station emerged a transparent cloud like being that moved toward Valandil encasing him. Morton arrived to the bridge just in time to see this happen. He was unaware this was the captain’s wife. He muttered out the words, “Intruder alert!”

It was Buck who told him, “This is the captain’s wife, Doc.”

Morton looked puzzled, “That is his wife??”

Buck asked him, “Why are you wet?”

“The phantom,” was the response.

Momentarily, Valandil and the cloud encasing him seemed to become one being, changing many different colors before becoming two physical beings passionately kissing each other.

The Elf’s normally blond hair changed many colors of the rainbow before resting on a strawberry blond color when the kiss ended.

Morton muttered, “That was some kiss!”

Buck whispered, “I think it was more than just kiss, Doc.”

Venus told her husband, “I love you.” Valandil was left a silly grin on his face as she faded from sight, knowing she would return to him.

He turned to face the doctor and other captain with his back to the elevator door. With his hair still a strawberry blond color and nearly floor length, he told them, “You both are correct.”

About that time, Junior made his appearance on the bridge and saw the redhead. Needless to say, with his thing for redheaded females, he mistook Valandil for such a being and made a grab for him.

With everyone standing by in shock, Junior planted the biggest kiss on Valandil.

The captain shoved him away and literally knocked his head off, sending it rolling over by Morton and Buck. The head muttered, “Oops.”

Morton picked up the head saying, “Yeah, I agree. Come along, Junior.”

With that said and done, Juniors headless body followed Morton carrying the head to the elevator.

Buck muttered, “He lost his head over a redhead.”

Valandil managed to change his hair color back to blond and its normal length (half way down his back) saying, “I will have to remind my wife not to let that happen next time. Captain, would you care to take the navigators place?”

Fiola returned to her station asking, “Why is Chet in the brig?”

All present looked at each other puzzled.

Mr. Nameless spoke up, “Captain Valandil, there is a Class M planet 20 light-years ahead.”

Valandil announced, “This is the planet we have been searching for. The away team will consist of myself, Fiola, Dr. Morton and Junior if he gets his head back on in time. Captain Rogers, you will be in charge of the ship.”

On his way to sickbay, Valandil stopped by the brig, picked up the magazine Chet had been reading and glanced through it. As he stopped in the center of the magazine, Valandil asked, “How did you manage to get yourself in here, Mr. Kelly?”

“Dr. Morton shoved me in here. You going to let me out, Cap?”

“Don’t let Junior see this magazine, Chet. He loves redheads, you know, and this picture is showing more red hair than one wants to see in a lifetime.”

He held the magazine up for Chet to see. His eyes bulged out of his head as he stared at the picture. He found himself asking, “How in the world did they do that?”

Valandil chuckled saying, “I think it is showing 10 of them.”

“Must be some kind of sports team, then?”

Valandil innocently told the imprisoned firefighter, “Well, it does say Sports Illustrated on the cover.” He then turned off the force field saying, “Stay out of trouble.”

“Yes sir,” grinned Chet as left the brig taking the magazine that was handed to him.

In sickbay, both Morton and Johnny finished reattaching Juniors head as Valandil showed up.

Seeing that everything was in tact, he said, “Doctor Morton and Junior are joining me on the away team mission in five minutes. I let Kelly out of the brig and I want to know why you shoved him in there, Doctor.”

“The phantom struck,” was the response.

“That explains why you were wet, then.”

“Yes it was. I didn’t appreciate the prank.”

Valandil glanced at Johnny saying, “You usually are the victim of his pranks, how did it happen that Dr. Morton became the hapless victim?”

Johnny’s crooked smile and shrug told the captain he had no idea. About that time, Fiola’s voice came over the intercom, “Incoming transmission for John Gage from Roy DeSoto.”

Johnny immediately took the call. “Roy! How goes it?”

Roy glared at Johnny saying, “You better hurry up and get back here.”

“Is something wrong?”

“Brice,” was the response.

Valandil asked, “What’s he done now, Roy?”

“He rewrote the paramedic handbook which including Roberts Rules of Order.”

Everyone in sickbay exchanged glances. It was Morton who asked, “Did Kel go for this, Roy?”

Roy shrugged saying, “I dunno. Dr. Brackett is meeting with Chief Houts and Dr. Early now to see if it is OK to leave as is.”

Junior dumbly asked, “Is that so bad, Roy?”

Johnny glared at his clone saying, “Stuff it, Junior.”

Before anyone else could say anything, Brice appeared on the screen saying, “We have to go, DeSoto. Fire Department regulations do not allow earth to space transmissions during on duty time.”

With that, the transmission was ended leaving Valandil to question the sanity of mankind.

Soon after, the landing party made its way to the surface of the class M planet.

***And now a word from our author---this is really exciting, isn’t it???***

***Additional author’s note: Since I am a good one for placing author’s notes in stories, I thought I might let you all know you possibly might see more of them. ***

Valandil glanced around at the scenery. “This looks more like a Garden of Eden to me.”

Fiola smiled in agreement. She made the statement, “If George were here, it would be perfect.”

Junior dropped his tricorder on the ground and stepped on it, crunching it under foot.

Immediately, the captain reprimanded him, “Junior! Those are not cheap and are not issued by Starfleet so we can destroy them.”

The Gage clone looked at the captain confused saying, “Something grabbed it out of my hands, Captain.”

Fiola snorted, “You are just plain nuts.” Morton agreed with her saying, “I think they put peanuts in for a brain when they made him.”

Valandil felt a headache coming on, hoping to escape it by separating all of them. “Fiola, take some readings. Junior, take some samples. Doctor Morton, stand by in case Junior looses something”

Since the captain issued himself a tricorder, he said nothing further. He started recording the immediate area, studying his readings on the tricorder.

Without looking up, he said, “Starfleet would be pleased with this planet. It is perfect for habitation.”

He then heard something unusual nearby. As he glanced around, he saw seven dwarfs pass by carrying picks and axes singing, “Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work we go.” They disappeared into a haze which puzzled him. His tricorder did not pick up life forms of any kind, including what appeared to the seven dwarfs from the Snow White story. Valandil spoke to both his companions. “Are you three registering anything unusual?”

When no one responded to him, the Elf looked around to see where they may have gone off to. He called to them but there was no response. He also attempted to use his communicator to reach them or the ship but he found his it was missing. It appeared to him that he was now alone on the planet with a giant white rabbit hopping his way holding out his watch declaring, “I’m late! Oh my mercy, I’m late!”

Morton glanced up from his plant life survey to see the captain disappear into a fog. He wondered out loud, “Is that his wife again or what just happened?”

Fiola glanced over to where the captain last stood and said, “Venus left on another time travel mission. She should return in about a month or so.”

“Then what is that haze over there where the captain was?”

“Where did he go,” she inquired.

Back on the ship, Johnny dragged Ivan into an isolated part on the ship to tell him, “That was not the thing to do to Dr. Morton, Ivan.”

“Why? I enjoyed it.”

“Yeah, well, I think he was ready to rip Chet’s head off.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing, Johnny?”

Johnny gave the clone the strangest look as they conversed. This caught Ivan’s attention so he asked, “Problem?”

“I swear I could see the captain’s face in yours just now.”

“That’s weird because I could feel him in my mind.”

“I didn’t think he could read other clones other than Elves.”

“He doesn’t even know I am here, does he?”

Just then Valandil spoke to him, “I need help. Tell Captain Rogers.”

Ivan questioned his own sanity at that point asking, “Is this for real?”

“At this point, I am unsure if this planet is for real. Are you talking with Mr. Gage?”

“I am.”

“Then inform him that I need Captain Rogers.”

“Do you know I am not Chet Kelly?”

“I know it now. For God’s sake, I need help.”

Johnny broke Ivan’s conversation by asking, “What is it Ivan?”

“The captain is in trouble.”

“What about the others?”

“He told me to tell you to contact Captain Rogers.”

Johnny was puzzled but immediately went to the intercom. He contacted the bridge to ask, “Captain Rogers is there anything weird going on?”

“We lost contact with the landing party,” was the response.

The captain is in trouble,” he told him “and is in need of help.”

“How do you know this?”

Ivan hesitated before responding to the second in command, “Um…Captain Rogers, I am Chet Kelly’s clone, Ivan, and have established contact with Captain Valandil.”

Buck remained silent for a moment trying to grasp who Ivan was. It was Mr. Nameless who spoke up, “Ivan the Terrible??”

Ivan responded with “Yep, that’s me!”

Valandil felt the wind picking up as he saw something else in the haze with him. As the figure became clearer, he could see this was a human male carrying a rather large magnifying glass. He appeared to be searching for something in the mist.

Behind him appeared a cartoonish looking character which Valandil could have sworn was a pink panther running aimlessly in the wind. The panther finally disappeared into a clearing before the human spoke to the Elf. “I say, my good man, have you seen any strange looking characters come by?”

Trying to keep from laughing, Valandil pointed to the clearing. He watched the human disappear which was replaced a short round headed kid wearing a yellow shirt with a zigzag strip at the bottom.

Someplace nearby, Fiola watched in shock as Junior started falling apart. Morton sighed knowing he would spend the next few hours repairing him.

Suddenly, all the pieces of the clone grew into more Juniors and began running amok. There were at least two that were hell bent on chasing Fiola up a tree. In all, there were 15 Juniors running all over the place creating havoc for the good doctor and Fiola.

As one of the Juniors pinned Fiola at the tree, she managed to give him the Vulcan Neck Pinch which sent him into unconsciousness. The next Junior gave her the wildest look stating, “I will not fall for that!”

One of the other Juniors hit him over the head causing him to pass out. Fiola whispered out her gratitude.

Morton whipped out his phaser hoping not create even more Juniors as he aimed at each of them one by one.

With all the Juniors now taken care, Morton asked, “Are you alright, Fiola?”

She answered with a sigh, “Sometimes being a Vulcan can be a good thing.”

“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that come out of your mouth, Fiola. Spock would no doubt die from shock.”

“Naw, I wouldn’t want him to die, Doc.”

“Now we have to locate the captain and escape this place before we all go insane.”

Fiola told him, “The last time I actually saw him, he was over by those rocks.”

As the pair wandered a few feet, they both saw a flash of white light, but nothing else to indicate what it could have been.

On the ship, Mr. Nameless had to excuse himself from duty as he suddenly became ill. That left Buck to wonder what was really going on since others were being taken ill as well. He also wondered how anyone could treat an invisible being or even diagnose their problems.

Down in sickbay, Johnny had his hands full wishing he had Roy there to help him. He had to leave Ivan on the bridge with Buck and he had no idea where Chet may have wandered off to. He was not even sure if Chet even knew about Ivan being on the ship yet or not.

The acting captain called down to sickbay, “Has Mr. Nameless arrived there yet?”

Johnny came back with, “I haven’t seen him, Captain.”

At first, there was silence from both men before Johnny realized what he just said. It was all Buck could to keep from laughing. Johnny managed to keep himself from laughing as he managed to tell him, “If he does arrive, I will let you know.”

Ivan was heard chuckling from his work station on the bridge. He still was in contact with Valandil but did notice the telepathic contact was becoming more difficult.

At the same time Valandil found himself facing a rather menacing Ogre that wanted to eat him alive. The Ogre bit a chunk out of his upper right arm and started going for the knee. Fiola gasped out a pained moan as she felt both her upper arm and knee suffer from the bites inflicted on the Elf.

As he managed to escape the next bite, he blurted out the words, “I thought Ogres only ate Royal Children and I am only a clone of an Elf!”

The Ogre glared at him disappearing leaving Fiola to care for her wounds and Valandil almost helpless.

Morton examined her wounds and found nothing wrong with her. He wondered aloud, “If Valandil is an empath, could he have transmitted those feelings to you?”

Fiola glanced up at him, “I know Venus is able to do that if she is in extreme distress.”

“And doesn’t mean to do it,” the doctor muttered.

The captain, attempted to find his way back to the spot he disappeared at. Unfortunately, he was now in extreme pain and bleeding profusely from the wounds. He attempted to wrap his upper arm with a piece of his uniform but since he was right handed, he found it difficult. His right arm was almost useless at that point as if it was nearly paralyzed. With his knee still intact but hanging on by threads so to speak, he wondered if the Ogres bites had poisoned him as well. He felt his head swimming and dizziness was overtaking him but was unsure if it was due to lack of blood or if he was indeed poisoned.

As if the Ogre was bad enough, an Orc appeared with a sword drawn. The Elf’s eyes darkened from the sight of the Orc as he attempted to grab the sword from the Orc but the Orc cut the captains left hand off, then stabbed him in the chest causing the Elf to collapse. As the Orc started going for the scalp, something in the shadows stabbed the Orc from the back, removing further threat to Valandil.

A familiar voice spoke, “I need to get you out of this place, Captain. Starfleet inadvertently sent us into a trap without realizing it and I am certain this planet was meant to destroy you. With your destruction out of the way, the ship will be destroyed as well and you know how important each crew member is on the ship.”

“Mr. Nameless?” Valandil asked in shock attempting to keep conscience.

For a brief moment, the invisible being appeared to him. Although the captain was in extreme pain, his eyes wind burnt, hair in total chaos, he recognized the being before him. Valandil gasped out the words, “My Heavens! I never thought you would come back!”

Without responding, Mr. Nameless embraced the captain before becoming invisible once again escorting him to the others.

They never saw Mr. Nameless and his presence there as well as his identity was a well kept secret when Valandil lost total consciousness upon his arrival to the others.

Juniors parts and pieces became one being thanks to Mr. Nameless and only one whole Junior joined the others as the Stargazer saw its opportunity to beam the landing party up.

Several days passed while Valandil remained in a coma like state. Morton was at a loss as to how to treat him. He knew if a human had suffered the wounds the captain had, shock would have killed them. But Valandil was not in shock. It was as if he shut his own body down for something to heal him.

Fiola made the suggested, “Venus goes into amoca when she is healing herself.”

“Amoca,” inquired the doctor.

Fiola told him, “The way she explained it to me is similar to when Vulcan’s are wounded and they shut their bodies down in order to heal themselves.”

“But this is more than just a wound, Fiola. Valandil suffered the loss of his hand, had his arm nearly bit off, his knee is barely attached and he suffered a major chest wound. Had his heart been in the same place as a human, then his heart would have been beyond repair. If this man were human, he would be dead right now.

Fiola reminded him, “But he is an Elf not a man.”

“He is also a clone,” reminded the doctor.

“But he is one of the better created clones,” she told him. “Venus has mentioned he does have defects just as we all do.”

“I haven’t seen any defects,” said the doctor.

“I think only the two of them are aware of them.”

Although Morton had all wounds covered, Fiola suggested he remove the bandages. Morton wondered why but he knew that she was aware of what Elves were capable of more than he was since her best friend was married to an Elf.

Days later, Buck wandered down to sickbay to check on the patient. He noticed something odd and brought it to the doctor’s attention. “Look at his hand.”

Morton gave the other captain an odd look as he examined the wound. Valandil appeared to be growing a new hand. Upon further examination, the wound to the chest was almost healed, the bite that removed the upper arm was healing and new tissue was growing in its place and the knee wound was now repaired.

Fiola made the statement, “I’ve seen Venus do that.”

“Goes into a coma to heal herself and grow new limbs?” Morton inquired.

“Yes, I guess it is an Elf thing.”

“Not all Elves are able to heal themselves,” Buck told them.

“And you must remember that Valandil is a clone,” Morton reminded them.

“A remarkable one at that,” smiled Fiola.

As time passed, the hand completely replaced itself and all wounds were completely healed, Valandil came out of his coma and glanced at each them standing by the bed asking, “Who is running the ship?”

Buck exchanged glances with all present and calmly said, “Junior.”

Valandil spoke something in Elvish, jumped out of bed and ran to the bridge. There he found Mr. Nameless in the captain’s chair, Junior at his regular post and Ivan or Chet, he was unsure which at the helm.

He could hear a familiar snicker coming from within the bridge as the others joined him. “Venus Weslu,” he blurted out, “I owe you for this.”

The End

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