/||\        -----------------------------------------
       / || \            Starfleet Command, Second Fleet
      /  ||  \             U.S.S. Coronado,  NCC-63100
   .-/   ||   \-.     Fleet Captain Brian Aldur, Commanding
   ./    ||    \.   -----------------------------------------
   .-_-. || .-_-.              Simulation Teaser
   .-_  \||/  _-.

 _______________________________________________________________________________
/ Simulation Teaser                                                             |
/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ

 Half of surviving at smuggling is not taking chances.  Smugglers that take
 chances are either caught or killed.

 Still, Martia had to admit that the emergency escape system designed into her
 blockade runner was a system she never thought would be used.  She left it on
 mostly because it amused her to do so.  It required very little power, and
 besides, the Orion who had sold it to her had convinced her that one was
 better safe than sorry.  Smart smugglers don't take chances.

 The system came in two parts -- a single-pad transporter near the shuttle pod
 on the blockade runner and the bracelet Martia wore.  Hitting the tab on the
 bracelet would cause the system to transport her to the pad if she was in
 range.  Simple.  Alternately, if the lifesigns the system was programmed to
 protect were confined in the blockade runner's single cell or Heaven forbid,
 were detected in open space outside the 'runner, the system would
 automatically initiate.

 So, there was absolutely no reason why the system should have activated just
 as the blockade runner escaped the Hogura Nebula -- except that it did.
 After safely seeing the ship back on course, Martia had rushed down to the
 shuttlepod bay, only to find someone she didn't recognize already there.

 "Who... who are you?" she asked as she entered the small space, drawing her
 palm phaser and pointing it at the intruder.

 The... person... she didn't recognize his race... turned to regard her
 calmly.  He was male... probably.  His face lacked definition, as it if were
 a mask.  "Among my people, we have no need for names," he said finally.

 Martia growled.  "That's not an answer," she retorted, angling the phaser
 slightly.  She shifted slowly to the emergency escape system and called up
 the command log sequencer.  "How did you get here?" she asked as she did
 this, careful to keep her weapon trained on the intruder.

 The intruder looked somewhat amused.  "I do not know," he said, tilting his
 head in a gesture that seemed to encompass the bay.  "I was aboard the
 Federation starship... I was attacked by the solids there... then I found
 myself here."  His voice, like his face, seemed somewhat undefined.

 Somewhat distracted by the display on the emergency escape system -- how
 could the system's log be correct? -- she asked, "'Solids?'  What is a
 solid?"

 The intruder approached slowly.  "A solid is someone that cannot change
 their shape," he said in a voice very much different from his own.  Martia
 turned at the strange sound in the man's voice, only to find herself
 staring at a duplicate of herself!  She gasped.

 "How is this possible?" she breathed.  "I am the only one of my kind...
 But the escape transporter says..."  Her voice trailed off.

 Slowly, the intruder approached even more closely, resuming his "own"
 shape as he did.  Cautiously, he extended his hand and removed the phaser
 from Martia's grasp, then set it on a nearby console.  "...that we are
 of the same people," he said, completing her sentence and smiling
 enigmatically at her.  She could only nod dumbly.  He nodded, as if
 making a decision.

 "When I saw you," he said, "I thought you might be one of us.  Come," he
 said, extending his hand.  "It is time to take you home."

 Martia stretched out her hand, slowly at first, and then with increasing
 confidence until her fingers brushed his.  At that moment, his hand seemed
 to gel... to suffuse and surround her hand, and then her arm...

\_______________________________________________________________________________
\ End Simulation Teaser                                                         |
 ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ

----------
Ross Glenn aka Jester
Fleet Captain Brian Aldur, U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-63100
http://www.ussrenegade.com/coro2400/