Getting Into A Good Book
Posted on Sat Apr 9th, 2016 @ 7:23pm by
Edited on on Thu Jun 2nd, 2016 @ 11:35pm
Mission:
Time and High Society
Location: Starbase Promenade
[ON]
Ricki St. Louis hated to admit it to herself, but there were times when even she needed to get away from all things hospital. A consummate technology addict, she loathed the idea of a 'nature tour' on Archa IV. It didn't matter how beautiful the planet was, nature just seemed brutishly unnatural. Starbase promenades weren't so bad. There were diverse people, diverse technologies. People-watching was at times a fascination for her, as long as they behaved. Klingon brawls were not entertaining and neither were those insipid Ferengi. Several of them caught her eye. They were literally hounding some poor merchant. He looked to be in abject misery as the little sharks relentlessly circled. Anger ignited, she drifted over to meet them. "Sir, are you all right?"
He neither answered or looked up at her.
The Ferengi ringleader presented himself to this presumptuous hoomon female. Well, he presumed she was female. Its voice was high pitched, and it didn't have any trace of hoomon beard. He wasn't sure, though. This one didn't have large bumpies up front as the recognition manual depicted. "If you will please excuse us, we are negotiating important business, here."
"It looks more like harassment from my point of view."
"Well, someday when you mature in the ways of economy, you'll understand. So, shoo." He received a blank stare in return, "You may go now." She still stared at him. "Who are you, anyway?" He offered a self-satisfied smile. This trick always works, "Who is your supervisor?"
Ricki folded her arms, "My name is Doctor St. Louis, starbase surgeon."
The little men gasped, "Medical!" They huddled for a moment, "Medical technology is expensive! Get her number! Get her number!" The ringleader broke into a bright smile and offered a business card.
Ricki stared warily, remembering admonitions against Ferengi cards dripping with tracking nanites. "You're kidding, right?"
The baffled Ferengi looked to his gang, unable to understand.
She didn't give them time to regroup. "This man doesn't look well. For the safety of all, I need to make sure that we don't have a communicable illness going on here." She tapped her combadge, "St. Louis, here. Priority beam out of two to the hospital."
=/Beaming now.\=
To the deep consternation of the little sales predators, their prey shimmered away. "Noooooo!" The ringleader looked to them, "Quick! To the hospital! We can't let him get away! This is our moment of triumph!"
Ricki led the man to a comfortable waiting lounge and had him sit down. Separation from the harassers didn't bring any relief, though. He sat there in abject misery, clutching his satchel.
She ran a tricorder wand over him, inspecting the species and health results on her wristbook. "Mind telling me what that was all about?"
He stared off, "They want to sell our lives' work for a handful of rice."
Ricki had the synthesizer produce a nutrient drink for him and Market Spice tea for her, "Care to elaborate?"
"I write books. My people write books. But..." He slowly opened the satchel and pulled one out, "These are experiential."
"Oh! May I?" Eagerly taking it in hand, she stared at the cover. The lounge surroundings slowly began to shimmer away into the surroundings of a mountain village. "You're Tirredani!"
"No, Doctor. Our books are not temporal glimpses of history, but they are otherwise similar."
Not ready to fully immerse into the book, she rested it upon her lap, "So, what's the big problem?"
"It takes months, sometimes years to create these. The Ferengi, though, they have flooded the market with holodeck experience modules."
She scoffed, "Pfff! Holodecks are a cheap imitation of life. I can barely stand them. No, actually, I can't stand them at all. This book, though, the sensations are remarkably realistic!"
"Most people don't care. With nobody buying them, artisans like my people cannot make a living."
"Wai-wai-wait! Are you kidding? I can think of several venues where books like this would thrive. Hospitals. Many patients cannot go to a holodeck for relief and diversion. There are even a few species that are allergic to holodeck projections!" She rested her hand upon his, "My people... I didn't even know about these! We hate holodecks. It's not just me. You'll have more customers than you can supply on my world alone!"
He shook his head, "It'll never happen. The Ferengi have blocked us at every turn. Lengthy evaluations must be carried out to determine if the books are safe for various species. The process for evaluation is..."
"Lengthy, expensive, and extremely bureaucratic."
He finally met eye contact, "You do understand." He clenched his teeth in anger, "The Ferengi are offering a large price, but only if we sell them perpetual rights to all our works."
Ricki balked at that, "Wait a minute! That's just a little bit illegal, blatant exploitism!"
"Again... trials, committee debates... Doctor, we don't have time or money for that. Our economic situation is serious."
Ricki flicked her fingernails in thought. "There must be a way to break their strangle hold on you." She tapped her combadge, "Monday, are you free?"
=/I am.\=
"I need you." She returned the book and got up to pace about, "We need allies, experts in the field. Give me a few moments." Using her snapses for speed, she summarized the issue into a file and mailed them off to Monday and afar. "Art guilds and foundations, I know that they will take up your cause. We can't let those greedy little trolls strangle you out of your legacy. What was his name... what was his name?"
"Who?"
"A man I met at society dinner." Ricki retrieved the data, "I remember." She queued an outbound deep space message. "He's got connections."
Monday entered, completing the read of her new message, "I doubt that even large foundations have the political clout to overcome Ferengi machinations."
"Well then, who does?"
"The gods of all circumventing decisions, the military. They rubber stamp it with 'in the name of quadrant security', and they can do anything."
Monday shook her head, "They have no reason at all for involving themselves with a civilian affair like this."
"We'll give them one."
"Such as?"
Ricki smiled, resting her hand on the puzzled author's shoulder, "What if our friend here had something that Fleet would desperately want?"
"You mean... No. It's too dangerous! They'd eat him alive!"
The man anxiously looked between them, "What do you mean? Tell me!"
Ricki took a calming breath. "I have an idea. I'll explain, and you think about it very carefully." She stared at his book.
"What is it?"
She squinted through a mischievous smile, "How long would it take you to create a virtual booklet of just a few pages?"
One week later, a clerk in Starfleet intelligence rushed into her commander's office with wide, alarmed eyes.
He chuckled, "What's wrong, Yorgi? You look like you've just seen a ghost."
Her voice cracked, "Sir! Someone sent you a virtual booklet to read."
He shrugged rocking back in his chair, "Well that's nice. I'm not really much into that sort of thing."
"Sir! The author got his hands on n-dimensional matter!"
The commander nearly fell out of his chair. "Yorgi, don't even joke about something like that!"
"I'm not, Sir! Please, read this now!"
He settled himself at his desk and received the booklet. Upon opening it, the surroundings of his office shimmered into that of a medical office. A slender blonde woman dressed in light pantsuit and sweater appeared before them, "Hello, my name is Doctor St. Louis, resident surgeon, Starbase three-thirty-two." The apparition opened her desk drawer and lifted out a small n-dimensional matter containment orb. "I'm guessing that you know what this is." She folded her hands and stood before them in polite fashion. "The author of this book plans to offer this phenomenon on the open market."
"Nooooo! Get a team to SB-332! Now!" Yorgi ran out.
After a calculated pause, the Ricki image continued, "I tried to persuade him to turn this over to Fleet, but his people, his artisans are in a desperate financial bind. They need the millions in latinum that this could command." She paced about, "I considered recommending that he give Starfleet a private, first purchase opportunity, but then I realized that would fail. The Ferengi, authors of this financial crisis, would protest vehemently to the Federation Council about preferential economic interference. And... they would win. Even if you kept the strange matter, the author's people would have to repay the money."
The commander's heart calmed a bit as officers rushed into the illusionary presentation.
The Ricki image sat back against her desk, "I had another idea. Nobody ever has to find out about the n-matter. The author's guild can be permanently saved from economic implosion. What if..." She once again paced slowly about, "The Federation were to, in the name of health improvement or whatever, bypass all the bureaucratic barriers that the Ferengi have raised?" She walked closer to the viewers, "I have art foundations who have committed to sponsoring the virtual writers. I have planets who have expressed the desire to build virtual libraries. The only missing piece here is a way past Ferengi interference. Please do let me know soon. I don't know how long the writers can wait." She offered a bow of the head with hands pressed together. 'The End.'
Monday and Ricki had a bet with each other how quickly the darksuits would transmit and transit to get their hands on the n-matter prize. They weren't the first to swarm both women, however. In a visit to the now encouraged writer on the promenade, furious Ferengi charged and surrounded them. "WHAT DID YOU DO? Your Federation is not allowed to interfere with planetary economics!"
Although the author felt supreme sense of relief, hurt and anger lingered, "I bargained with Starfleet. I'm going to trade them trans-dimensional matter." It was too late for Ricki to stop him.
"WHAT? How did you get a hold of that?"
"The good old fashioned way. I found it. Starfleet will be here any time."
Desperation was the mother of drastic action. The ringleader discretely presented a weapon. "I'll use this! Hand it over now!"
The Ferengi partners gasped, "Hostile takeover?"
"The whole of Ferenginar is on the brink of losing an opportunity of a lifetime! And we have one chance to gain the opportunity of a lifetime by getting the dimension matter! Are you with me?"
The little men stood, presenting looks of fierce determination at the women. That is, until they flashed under the glow of phaser stuns.
Monday held out her hand, "I win."
Ricki sighed, now obligated to hand her latinum coins. She then smiled at the intel operatives rushing in, "Good timing, gentlemen."
"All right, St. Louis. We kept our end of the bargain. All commerce barriers have been struck down. Now hand it over."
"Hand what over?"
He squinted, "Don't you play games with me on something like this! You're already facing a court martial for not immediately turning over a Class-A hazard."
The women snickered.
"What's so funny?"
"You are. Your boss already has the n-matter."
"What?"
Ricki rested her hand lightly upon his shoulder, "Have him read the booklet I sent again. After my image appears, say the words 'Reading Is Fun'. That will unlock the n-matter orb and you can take it out of the book."
"You mean... that orb wasn't just an illusion? It's the real thing? Don't you think that was an incredibly dangerous thing to do?"
The author spoke up, "Actually, because it was exta-dimensional, it made it very easy to merge into the booklet."
Ricki smirked, "You, uh, said something about court martial?"
The agent quietly growled through a squint, "Very good, Doctor."
"Well! We'll just be on our way!"
"Not so fast, Miss Secret Agent. Your day planner has just been overridden by a looong debriefing. You too, Sir."
"My office or yours?"
"Mine. My agents are ransacking yours at the moment."
[OFF]
Dr. Ricki St. Louis
Ens. Monday Starr
Virtual Author
Starbase 332
Pegasus Fleet
