| abstract | - Strange New Worlds was an annual competition for new writers to write short stories in the Star Trek universe. The competition generally drew entries numbering in the thousands, from which three prize winners, and up to twenty honorable mentions, were selected by editor Dean Wesley Smith, along with Paula M. Block of Paramount (later CBS) Consumer Products, and an editor from Pocket Books (John J. Ordover until leaving Pocket in 2004, later Elisa J. Kassin and Margaret Clark). These selected stories were published in an annual anthology. Following the announcement of the Strange New Worlds 10 winners, Smith announced he would step down as primary editor. Shortly afterward, Pocket Books announced the contest would not continue, due to financial considerations. In late 2015, Simon & Schuster announced they would be doing the contest again to coincide with Star Trek's 50th anniversary in 2016.
- Holding Cell This large cell is spartan, but the strangest thing about this cell is that the wall which should be facing the outside of the building is completely clear. The other walls are all solid, and there are very few amenities except for a pair of computer terminals against one wall. The bunks here are stacked in pairs, and there are about a half-dozen pairs. Refresher stations come out from one wall, but provide no privacy for the spray nozzles. Mon Nov 24 23:52:21 2494 Contents: Exits: Stormtrooper Telal Out Shipleader Djalin Jedi Heller Mighty MSE-3 Hunter Savossk El Capitan Cooper MSE-3 lays his lid closed lightly onto Telal's hand, beeping softly to himself. "tweet durt zoooooo brrrt beepbohp doot" Telal sets Mousey down on a bunk as he sits down next to it, rapping his fingers along his case. Heller remains where she is, lying on her bunk and studying the insides of her eyelids. Savossk stands at his usual spot near the entrance; and, like always, his eyelids are shut. His arms are folded across his chest. With a click, the door opens, being pulled outward. Holding the handle of the door is a new face... well, some of a face. Mostly bone structure. "Greetings," the being says in an alto voice, jumping right into any conversation that might be going on, glee and energy obviously radiating from it. "I would like to talk to you all abouuuooo.." the being trails off as its large eyes veer toward the Imperial droid. Telal looks up towards the newcomer, his hand still resting atop Mousey, raising an eyebrow. MSE-3 is sitting upon Telal's lap like a pet cat and is simply silent. Heller sits up, opening her eyes quietly. She gazes silently at the being, tilting her head to one side. Behind the new arrival, a more familiar member of this transparent species enters. Djalin's oddly-jointed hand is reaching into one of its pockets, removing some small device. It seems to be accompanying the first J'rathi. "The ship?" It supplies, prompting patiently. The reptilian creature does not speak; or, for that matter, respond in any way to the two newly arrived aliens. "Yes... the ship," the other J'rathi says softly, transfixed by the mousedroid. "What a remarkable piece of technology. It's like a little metallic comfort animal, like the kind the humans talk about keeping. I'll have to write that idea down." The unintroduced J'rathi turns toward Djalin, and tosses out a clear-skinned grin. "Hey, even *I* don't have to be original *all* the time," it says, already defending itself. Telal looks over at the two alien creatures, watching them carefully. MSE-3 beeps a cautionary sound and a string of beeps., "boop beepbohp urt fweeeeee doot" Translation: "Me not comfort. Me MSE-3" Heller tilts her head to the other side, "You've encountered humans before? We have no record of you that I know of..." The small device from the J'rathi's pocket is toggled at the first J'rathi's words, and then immediatly toggled again at the following sentence. Djalin's lenses shift slightly as its eyes focus on the mousedroid. "It's inspiration," it assures, in its usual stacatto voice. "No insult to study." Djalin turns towards Heller, the droid holding little interest. "We were in the Republic, still have humans among us." Savossk's eyes remain closed. His facial expression is completely blank; oddly, he appears to be in a state of boredom, even when asleep. "We can provide you with writing utensils, should you wish to make one," the nameless J'rathi says, grinning sillily at the Jedi. Yay. Grinning skull. "But yes, there are humans living on this planet right now. I am suprised you have not seen them. Some stay here willingly, and some, like you, seem to be stranded here. All I can say is that we enjoy our privacy. The Nebula helps a lot." One can't help but notice the reverent tone used when saying capital T The capital N Nebula. "So, anyway. My turn to ask a question. How did it feel to be on the ship? I want an unbiased opinion," it says, glancing at Djalin as it continues, "I get too many biased ones from the native tribal folk." It grins and says, "'Oh, yes! Good job! Yes, yes, very nice!' - that's what I get, even on a project that someone missed a decimal on the calculations, causing the stress to wrinkle the bulkheads. So, what did'ya think?" Telal frowns slightly, opening his mouth to answer, before shutting it again, shaking his head slowly, staying silent. "What's the matter?" the unnamed J'rathi says, its pupils straying from Heck to find the stormtrooper. "Didn't like the pulse cannon? I thought it was a distasteful touch, myself, but security wouldn't have it any other way." It grins. Again. Cooper slides off of one of the bunks, "The ship was nice and all," he says, "Up until it kinda did that explode thing." Telal sighs, "Oh, it went over very well with the 10,000 men and women it killed... makes me wonder why a society who seems to crave isolation has that kind of weaponry on their vehicles." Heller tilts her head to one side, "It was very nice; quite comfortable although at the time we didn't know who it belonged to. Although, perhaps, the shields need to be increased. But I wasn't at the bridge when we were attacked." "Uh-huh," the stranger says, bobbing its head in response to Cooper and Heck, seeming to only half-listen to Telal. Well, only until it grins at him, once again. "How's that? The dead tell no tales." The J'rathi turns toward Djalin, and says, "That's one of security's mottos, isn't it? Or did I get some wires crossed in my brainbox?" Telal chuckles lightly, "But what I saw of the bunk room was nice... well except the consoles they ripped out of the walls, but they had to do that..." "Attacked?" Djalin turns to shift its eyes at Heller, muscles contracting around the orbs. It seems to have no issues about the Protector having destroyed another ship. "When? By what? We saw the ship destroyed, didn't see it before." It hastily toggles the device again, the conversation is interesting. "A good motto. Or we'd be overrun," it says with assurance. Heller shakes her head quietly, "By pirates. Before we jumped to hyperspace. The damage done by the attack is what caused the destruction of the ship." "Calm!" the unnamed J'rathi says, blinking at Djalin wierdly. "It survived. It came back. ... And then, well, I guess it didn't. Okay. You, you talk to them, and I'll talk to him, and we'll compare notes, or something." Ha. Notes. The unnamed one has yet to be seen with any devices or notepads or anything. "So," it says at Telal, "Were they malfunctioning, or what? I thought the programming looked shoddy." Telal shakes his head slowly, as he looked towards the J'rathi speaking to him, "Not unless you consider sticking a vibrobrade thru it malfunctioning... they destroyed them to stop us from using them." "For good reason," Cooper says to Telal, then too the J'rathi, "I didn't happen to be on the bridge either." The engineer scrunches its eyes, saying, "Why? They were perfectly good consoles. The programming wasn't *that* bad. I mean, even I get angry at machines sometimes, though not often, but I don't plunge a dagger through them. Respect machines, and they'll respect you. Like your droid friend, there." Heller nods, "They were good consoles, yes. But at the time, they," She gestures to the Imperials, "Were prisoners and we didn't want them being able to access the computers." Telal nods to the Engineer slowly, "They also mangled our droid there. Removed his wheels, his manipulator arm, everything. All he can do is sit and draw power now." "If pirates damaged it, this is important," Djalin notes curtly. "We're looking for the pirates, they found them. Just, in a bad way. Besides," it adds, trying to pick out who among the group would know more about the damage to the ship, "The ship was new, should have taken more abuse, still been able to make it home. What if those had been our crew?" It looks at the prisoners again. Did any say they were on the bridge? Bryn raises a brow muscle without turning around, bobbing its head around in silent mockery as Djalin talks about honor or whatever. It mostly just goes in one auditory oriface and out the other. Pirates are obviously not that important to Bryn. "So what was it'abused' our ship?" the J'rathi asks Telal, at length, and dryly, finally ceding to actual work. Telal frowns slightly, "I'm not sure I understand what you mean. They said it was attacked by pirates, but I have no idea. I was stuck in the bunk room they had converted into a jail cell." "Not to mention the ISD that attacked the ship," Cooper says, putting that out there. "Though, that was about right when I came aboard." "ISD?" the engineer asks, turning toward Djalin. "What's a ISD? Sounds like something the chemists would come up with." Telal glances over his shoulder at Cooper, "Your ship fired first according to the Lieutenant who was on the bridge of our ship.", he says, before looking back to the Engineer, "Imperial Star Destroyer. A capital ship in the Empire." Heller peers quietly at Telal before saying softly, "Shush." She attempts to back up her words with the Force, falling silent after that. "Imp- yeah. That," Cooper says, "Some of the people here," he says, indicating Telal with a hand, "Were the survivors of the ISD after it was destroyed." Djalin takes the mocking head-bob silently, deferring to the other J'rathi somewhat. "ISD? A ship class?" It looks at the engineer significantly, "Was that what the Protector destroyed. Captial ship class. Hmm. Not star-destroying, if it didn't destroy the Protector." It looks pleased about something, and folds its hands in front of it. "There are two groups, both came on the ship, don't seem to like eachother," it adds, trying to clarify and speed things up for the engineer. "Those ones," it points at Savossk and Cooper. "And another not here were in charge, they would have used the ship systems." It has no idea who Heller is so far. Telal opens his mouth to speak, before closing it again, a blank look crossing his face, and just standing there silently. "Oh," Engie says, nodding, "I see. So, there's this Empire? And what're the others calling themselves?" it asks Telal. Blank-faced Telal. Telal continues to just stand there silently, his expression similar to that of a shut down protocol droid. "The Rebellion," Cooper says to Engie. Better than giving the imps a chance to say 'terrorists' or something. "Or, atleast, that's what I'm fom." Heller peers at Tel again, sighing softly. She doesn't say anything, shaking her head quietly. "Er?" is the sound Bryn makes, perplexed as it turns toward its more martial counterpart. "Ah?" It asks, peering at Heck. And then it says, "I... I think I'll come back for more questions. Later. Yes... later." It sounds as if there's something it wishes to say, but it doesn't say it in front of the ... 'guests'. The odd series of muscle contractions that blink the huge J'rathi eyes ripple under Djalin's skin. "They were very cooperative, last time," it seems to apolologize as the engineer's question isn't answered. It too moves to leave with the more talkative one. Telal continues to stand there silently, an almost drugged look upon his face. "Uh, bye?" Cooper says to the leaving J'rathi. "What's that human on? Maybe... uh... maybe the other human, the female, can shoot drugs out of her eyes..." can be heard fading down the corridor along with footsteps as Bryn talks to Djalin as they walk away from the holding cells. Heller snickers softly at the words she hears Bryn say before she returns to meditating.
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