ClassicComedyFan2
03-18-2002, 04:20 PM
“Friendship Day”
Episode 11 of Gopher’s Gateway
Sean Sporman, starfleet-issue lighting unit attached to his wrist, opened the door that led to the Activity Room, a surviving building of the old Hueytown High. Behind him walked Kay Lindsay as well as his friend, Lucy Camden.
He managed to get down the first small flight of stairs before a fallen bulkhead blocked his path. He pulled a starfleet combadge out of his transparent backpack, and, smiling, slapped it on the misshapen hulk of metal.
“Combadge 47, confirming transportation for reprocessing.” Heather Allgood said through Sean’s combadge. Heather was currently onboard the USS Hypothetical, ex-Federation now Sean’s holo-starship. In front of the leader of the Hueytown: 2000 project, the bulkhead dematerialized quickly.
Looking down, Sean saw a devastated, but structurally intact classroom. Hardly any of the ceiling tiles were still in the ceiling, they now were littered on the classroom carpet, which was stained wet and reeked of mildew. Books were torn, and pages and covers of them were everywhere. Desks were now just pieces of wood and metal strewn about the partially underground room.
After Mister Morrison had been promoted to assistant principal rank, this had become Mrs. Toomey’s room…on the day before the weekend the school was damaged by the terrorist attack of June, Vertigo and the mysterious Erin Wesson.
“Wow!” Lucy exclaimed. “This is a mess…like your room I believe, Sean.”
Sean blushed, but smiled. He then tapped his combadge. “Send a team of holographic workers to clean this place up. You’ll need one person with a Starfleet Portable Holographic Transmitter.”
“Understood.” Heather replied. “Meagan is on her way.” Sean could hear Meagan Hall sigh through the active comm channel as it was cut off. Sean and Lucy smiled.
“According to this,” Mrs. Lindsay said, referring to the PADD she held, “The new school has passed thirty-percent completion. Twelve buildings are now accessible!”
“Cool.” Sean said, walking to the door that led to the Band Room.
“You do know that at 50%, you and your staff, including the ones from Pittman, must make the rulebook and sometime you have to decide on a name.”
“Affirmative. I fully plan on it.” Sean responded as he opened the door to the Band Room. He saw a massive chunk of ceiling on the floor, crushing all of the desks and musical instruments under it. Thankfully, no one had been here on that day because it was after school. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Lindsay, but the Band Room is a loss.”
“Oh, well.” Mrs. Lindsay smiled. “I’m sure your Starfleet Audiophonics Hall will make this Band Room be completely forgotten.”
As Sean smiled again, Meagan Hall beamed in, preparing to activate the holographic transmitter. “And now…the fun begins.” Meagan said dryly.
Cathy Fredrick smiled in awe as she looked out of the window of the Pittman Two blimp. “So, you heard that we will have fast food?” asked Cathy.
Liz Larson, a friend of hers and Sean’s replied, “Yeah. I know he said a Chick-Fil-A and a Pizza Hut.”
Tiffany Kynard also smiled. “I would personally like a Ruby Tuesday or a McDonalds in the school.
At that moment, Alexis Stanley, a friend of Tiffany’s and new member of the staff of the Hueytown: 2000 project, walked in, sunglasses on. “What are us cool girls up to?”
All four of them were allowed temporary command of the blimp for a day.
Cathy Fredrick stood up and smiled, pointing at the starfleet combadge that was attached to her colorful shirt. “Lieutenant Cathy Fredrick of Starfleet, special tertiary two. In command of Pittman Two for Stardate 9910.10, otherwise just enjoying the view and chatting with friends.”
“Of course.” Alexis replied.
“Why don’t you join us?” Liz Larson asked. Tiffany frowned slightly.
Alexis shook her head. “I have to go to CompUSA with my parents to get a new computer. But, you three will have a lot of company today.”
“Oh,” Cathy responded, “Why do you say that?”
“Well, for the boys, they heard three of the freshman beauties will be on some blimp. Since you will be landing in…” Alexis checked her watch, “eight minutes, they will come. But, most of your friends that are girls will beam up because almost 94% of them are on the staff.” Alexis walked to the automatic door. “Farewell.”
The three remaining freshman girls stood up and prepared to walk to the Observation Deck.
Andy Blackerby and Jordan Reeves stood outside the detention cell at the Jefferson County Board of Education Headquarters. Looking in, they saw June Gabert napping. “Well,” Blackerby said, “Let’s wait until she wakes up.”
“I still don’t see what you need me for.” Jordan admitted.
“Haven’t you heard of the good cop, bad cop stratagem? I will play the ‘bad cop’ and you will naturally be the ‘good cop’. That way, we might get some information out of her…”
“Or she might be lying…” Jordan said.
“Pessimist.” Blackerby muttered under his breath. “I think she might even join our side! Now, tell me Mr. Reeves, what do you know about the Buffalo Bills…”
Sean Sporman smiled as he beamed into the secondary office of the former Hueytown High. It was intact as it had been the day he had activated it.
He was, however, shocked to see an attractive young woman in a starfleet uniform, scanning the modules inside the secondary office with a Mark I tricorder. “Ma’am.”
She smiled. “My name is Kelly, Mr. Sporman. I am a recent arrival from another school.” The two shook hands.
“Please call me Sean.” There was a small period of silence. “I see that you know your tricorder operations, Kelly,” replied Sean.
“Someone calling himself Master Physician taught me.” Sean rolled his eyes, knowing the EMH was behind this. “I will also be in the next Pittman Two cycle.” added Kelly.
“It’s always good to have another great person.” Sean replied. For another second, they stared each other in awkward silence. “So, tell me.” Sean broke the silence. “Have you found anything useful?” Kelly smiled as she showed him the tricorder.
Heather Allgood smiled on the bridge of the USS Hypothetical. She knew why Sean enjoyed command. The control. The fun. The invincibility. The power. “Brooke,” She asked to Brooke Stephens, temporarily assigned to bridge duty. “What do the weather scans show?”
Brooke smiled as the Pinpoint Doppler Radar appeared on the viewscreen. “PDR BMX on screen now.”
“Zoom it in to about a ten mile radius around Hueytown.” The viewscreen’s view tightened to a 10.6-mile radius centered on the city of Hueytown. “It looks clear.”
Just then, an exhausted Meagan Hall walked onto the bridge. “Still competing for his job, I see.”
Heather smiled as an idea came to her head. “Meagan, take command. I’m going down there. Good job, on the clean up.” Meagan
Eyed her curiously as Heather disappeared behind the automatic doors, which slid shut.
Lucy Camden smiled in the cockpit of the shuttlecraft Hawking. Besides her, Sean Sporman worked feverishly at one of the consoles. “I’ve found it!” He exclaimed as the object he had been searching for entered visual range.
“It’s hard to imagine you found the office.” Lucy Camden replied. It had been launched into orbit when terrorists threatened the old Hueytown High School. Lucy tapped at another console. “The emergency extra-atmospheric life support is still online. We can beam over.”
Sean opened a locker and pulled out two type-one phasers. He handed one to Lucy. “Just in case.”
Lucy nodded as the two stepped onto the transporter pad. “Energizing.”
The office was dark, very dark. Sean clicked on his light emitters at the same time Lucy did. They saw the LCARS panels had been deactivated when the office was launched into orbit. In case NASA found anything, it would just be an empty building with useless junk.
But, Sean and Lucy knew better. Sean walked over to his chair and laid down, facing up toward the ceiling. He opened a detachable panel that was under the chair and it came off. Inside, he saw a small working LCARS panel. He tapped three buttons on it and the lights came on.
“Well, you got it!” Lucy exclaimed. Around them, the LCARS panels were now blinking and lighted. Even the hum of the emergency warp core installed in the floor returned.
“OK. Let’s land this thing back down.” Sean said as he walked toward a console on the aft wall.
Cathy Fredrick did not know what to expect when she heard the turbolift doors open. Looking, she saw Patrick Williams and Tyler Colvin enter the room, with peculiar smiles on their faces.
“May I help you?” Cathy asked, refusing to contain the annoyance in her voice, even though she knew that this was going to happen.
“Hi!” Liz interrupted, smiling. Cathy and Tiffany rolled their eyes.
“Well, we’re just here to say hey.” Tyler said, nervousness in his voice apparent.
“Yeah.” Patrick agreed, nodding.
“Ok, well say it.” Tiffany replied.
“Oh, yeah, well, hi.” Tyler said. “That’s a hi to Liz and Cathy.” Tyler held a grudge against Tiffany Kynard for reasons that Sean said he knew, but not many others. Of course, Tiffany herself knew. Playing with his best friend and being air headed in his opinion. Of course, Sean and many others still tried to figure out why playing with his best friend would constitute anger. But, with teenagers these days…
“Hi!” Patrick said, with more enthusiasm than the rest.
“Hi.” Cathy finally responded.
“Hey! Why don’t you two get into red bikinis like Lucy did for Sean?” Tyler ordered.
Cathy stood up and anger and glared at the two boys. “Look. We are not under your command. So, just bug off before I call out the big guns.”
Patrick Williams was smart enough to run. Tyler stood and Tiffany glared at him also. “One…” Cathy counted. “Two…three.” Tyler Colvin did not move. Cathy Fredrick smiled as she slapped Tyler. Tyler looked at her in shock and then ran out of the observation deck.
Cathy rolled her eyes again. “Boys…”
“Except Sean.” The three of them said at the same time. Sean would have fainted had he been around…again.
June Gabert woke up feeling tired and dizzy-headed. She also saw Andy Blackerby and Sean’s friend Jordan Reeves. Standing up, she protested, “What are you doing?”
Blackerby began his role as the ‘bad cop’. “No, Ms. Gabert. The question here is what are you doing!?!” June looked to Jordan for support.
Jordan, in the role as ‘good cop’, began, “Not so harsh, Mr. Blackerby.” He turned to her. “June, listen, just tell us what we want.”
“What do you want?” June asked.
“The truth!” Blackerby boomed.
“What we want to know is who all of your allies are.” Jordan stated in a polite tone.
“I see…” June muttered. “Well, certainly you know about Barbara and Peyton as well as those fools of Vertigo.”
The two interrogators nodded.
“What!?” Zach Williams, in his cell, had been listening to the conversation via a micro-communications device he had put on June’s shirt. “She called us fools!”
Nearby, Derik Olvey, still in black, shook his head. “Distressing. But, there is nothing we can do.”
“I heard that she was going to join Sean’s side!” Courtney Jones exclaimed, banging his fist against the hard metal wall. He winced in pain.
“Really!” Zach replied. “Then we must escape.” After looking out of his cell, Zach saw that it was clear and took the transformiter cube out of his pocket. This was a backup one. “We’ll turn this cube into MegaBot and stop June once and for all!” The three laughed as the transformiter cube began to power up.
Meagan Hall, alone with John Barnes, sat on the bridge of Command OPS, the one that was a replica of the Galaxy-class Enterprise-D. John Barnes released a question he had been holding for a while. “Why are you going out with Sean?”
Meagan merely smiled at him. “Why, you ask. Because he’s a cutie and he’s polite, nice, and cool all-around. Besides, you don’t own a replicator and know the weather.”
John frowned as he left the bridge. At the same time, Jonathan Reeves entered the bridge from the other side. “Greetings, Meagan.” Behind him, Liz McGowen followed. “Liz is back from her senior…stuff.”
“Yeah. I saw what has been built so far. Amazing. Though I wonder if the school will lose its flavor.”
“Flavor?” Meagan inquired as the new visitors sat down on each side of Meagan.
“That school was there for a long time, and now its not. This technology might…” Her voice trailed off as she looked around. “By the land of Oz! This is real!”
Jonathan laughed. “Oz?”
Meagan was laughing also. “Well, I see you realize what’s good. Sean certainly does.” Jonathan sort of agreed with his brother, Jordan. Sean’s ego was too big.”
Mrs. Lindsay along with Ben Smith walked in the Ninth Grade Building of the now 40% completed new school.
“Starfleet would be proud.” Ben said as he entered one of the new classrooms.
At the front, a huge viewscreen with the Federation logo hid most of the dry-erase board. In front of that, the holo-communicator emitter matrix was installed in the floor.
“How did all this stuff get in here?” Mrs. Lindsay asked.
“Thank the tertiaries. They, unlike me, took the things that were made from the replicators and installed them personally in here.”
“So, the school won’t be totally completed tomorrow?”
“No,” Ben replied, sitting down in one of the advanced LCARS desks. It was a comfortable leather chair with a starfleet storage compartment under it and an LCARS terminal on top, “The structure will. In about four to six days after the construction it will be, though, not counting the playground.”
“I see. Now, I’m going to grab a snack in the lunchroom.”
“Right,” Ben said, “I’m beaming to Control OPS Backup Bridge. I might be able to reenact Riker’s tactics at Wolf 359.” Mrs. Lindsay smiled as she walked away.
Heather Allgood had not found her target on Earth, so she had beamed back to the Hypothetical. She was currently in Engineering. The warp core pulsed blue and hummed in the near-empty room.
“Heather?” asked Tiffany Davidson, wearing civilian clothes and a smile.
“Yes, it’s me. Do you know where Sean is?”
“Nope,” replied Tiffany.
“Carry on.” Heather said as she exited Engineering.
Sean Sporman smiled as he saw Ms. Toomey on the shuttle Hawking’s viewscreen. “In your first starship command, I see.”
Ms. Toomey smiled in reply. “Well, it’s a lot different than teaching kids. Quite a bit quieter, too.”
“Well, can we dock?” Lucy asked.
“Of course. Your new shuttlebay commanders are on screen…now.” Sean smiled again when three people appeared on the viewscreen. It was Mr. Morrison and Lauren Foust and Fallon Shipman.
“Not what you expected, Sean?” Mr. Morrison said. “Locking tractor beam.”
The shuttle shook slightly as the beam locked on. “Not quite.” Sean responded.
“Opening subspace doors.” Fallon said.
“That’s shuttlebay!” Lauren Foust corrected. The three looked from their station, behind a safe window, as the Type-7 shuttle entered the shuttlebay.
Liz Larson sipped her Pepsi with a smile as the turbolift doors leading to the observation deck slid open. Anticipating boys, she saw instead two girls that they knew.
“Ah!” Cathy greeted. “Lauren Blankenship and Erica Seymore. How can we help you?”
“Just came here to chat.” responded Lauren.
“Yeah! You saw that show, didn’t you?” Tiffany exclaimed and inquired.
“Yes, I did. Monica told Bernie that she loved Rick, but he was actually her half-brother and then…” Erica interrupted Liz.
“And then, Bona told Aliga that Mary Ann…”
As Erica continued, Cathy rolled her eyes yet again. Then, she began to laugh. Liz had, for some reason, stood up and was glaring at Lauren.
Lauren was worried. “What are you staring at me for?”
Liz continued to frown. “I don’t think you got it right.”
“Got what right?” Lauren asked.
“Your brain…” Liz replied.
That pushed Lauren over the line. “That’s it!”
Cathy, seeing where this was going, said to the computer, “Computer, command sequence Cathy-eleven; Fredrick-seven.” As Cathy’s chair moved away from the growing catfight, the room she had been in began to fill with smoke.
“Boogy Boot!” Cathy heard Tiffany exclaim.
“You want a piece of me?” Liz exclaimed.
“I, Lauren Blankenship, will not allow you to win this fight!”
Suddenly, over the insults and the fight, Cathy heard the activation sound of a hologram. The Emergency Medical Hologram.
Cathy pointed at the smoke-filled room where the fight was still continuing. “They are fighting over something! I don’t know what or why. But, you have to stop them!”
The Emergency Medical Hologram smiled. “Hero time!” The hologram bravely walked into the room.
He heard screams, punches, and spitting when he entered. Then, he fell down.
Jordan Reeves was shocked to hear his tricorder beep. Just when it was done with its first beep. Just when it was done with it’s first beep, the alarms in the building went off. Since no one but Blackerby and Lindsay used the upper ten levels, he had installed Starfleet technology. “What is going on here?”
As if in response to Jordan’s question, the computer responded. “Alert! Prisoner escape in level 4, cell 7!”
Andy Blackerby was sleeping soundly in a chair. Jordan tapped him, but he refused to wake up.
“I don’t have time for this!” He smiled. “I have to save the day!”
As the escaped members of Vertigo lurked through the halls of the Jefferson County Board of Education Headquarters, two of them carrying phasers they got from the guards that they had knocked out.
“What about Drayton?” Zach asked.
“Forget about him.” Derik said. “And the MegaBot plan is forgotten too.” They then entered an automatic elevator.
“Where is June?” asked Zach.
“Level 17, Cell 47.” The doors slammed shut.
Jordan Reeves looked in shock as three members of Vertigo approached him, phasers raised.
“Shouldn’t you try to be escaping.” Jordan smiled as a phaser compression rifle beamed into his hands. “Stop where you are!”
“We’re here to get…June.” Derik stated calmly.
Jordan was confused. “June? Why her? Aren’t you after Sean and us?”
“Not this time. Now—“ Everyone turned heads as June sprinted down the hall, past the still-sleeping Andy Blackerby. “—Stand aside or…join us.”
Jordan smiled. “It’s good to see that you have come to your senses like Tyler. I believe she’s headed for level 18!”
The four stopped at the elevator, which did not open. “They’re inoperable on these three decks.”
“You didn’t disable much.” Derik commented.
“Best we could do in two seconds.” Jordan smiled.
Alert klaxons blared on the bridge of the Hypothetical. Heather Allgood was in command and Lucy Camden sat at Tactical.
“Tactical analysis. Is it a holographic shuttle?”
“Negative,” Lucy replied. “Three…Klingon torpedo ships. Real ones.”
“Seriously? Well, let’s open hailing frequencies.” Heather ordered.
“Hailing frequencies open.” Lucy replied as an ugly Klingon appeared on the viewscreen. Klingon were alien warriors that the Federation had encountered in the 23rd and 24th centuries. They had apparently traveled back in time.
“Are you Vertigo?” The Klingon asked.
“I’m Captain Heather Allgood of the Federation vessel Hypothetical. What are you doing here?”
“Aren’t you a little young to be a captain? Missy!” The Klingons began to laugh.
Heather hesitated for only a brief moment. “You are certainly aware of encounters with anomalies that remove portions of ones rybo-viroxic-nucleic structure.”
“I think that you are just a bunch of rascals trekking along the stars.” The Klingons laughed again.
Heather quickly signaled to cut the signaled, tired of Klingon insults. Quickly, the ship was rocked with two torpedo blasts. “Shields down to 74%.”
“Evasive sequence Allgood-11.”
“Proceeding!” The ship was shaken again. “Captain, one of the torpedo ships is heading down to the surface…toward the school!”
“Fire at will!”
“Not Riker, I assume.” Lucy replied.
“Of course not.” Heather smiled.
Cathy Fredrick listened in the cockpit of Pittman Two as she listened to Brooke Stephen’s emergency transmission.
“Understood.” She said as the viewscreen changed to show the sky and the buildings in front of the dirigible. “Computer, red alert. Liz, do you remember how to take off?”
Liz smiled. “Of course.”
“Well, you’ll be helping to save the school.” Cathy replied.
They all smiled as someone else entered the cockpit. The girl who entered smiled. “Jessica Ward, reporting as Tactical officer.” She sat down at the tactical console.
“Does that mean the transporters work?” Tiffany asked as Liz and Cathy smiled. “Well, they did when the EMH was beamed back…”
“Give it up, June!” Jordan Reeves said in the hall.
“Never!” June replied as Jordan fired his phaser, barely missing. Besides him, Zach Williams fired, but missed as well, destroying an LCARS terminal.
“Be careful!” Jordan screamed as June fired back, the beam narrowly missing Jordan’s head, but breaking a window instead.
As June turned around, Jordan, who smiled at the Vertigo members, stunned her. “I told you that we could do it!”
Zach suddenly pointed his phaser at Jordan. “We had nothing to do with it.”
Jordan immediately reached for his combadge, but Zach saw it in time and ripped it off of his uniform. “What do you want?”
“We want…your ship.” Derik said calmly, his phaser pointing at Jordan as well.
Lucy cheered as one of the Klingon ships began to drift in space; it’s engines and weapons disabled.
“Lock phasers on the M’Ta’s engines and fire!” Two bright red streaks of phased energy struck the small torpedo ship, just after it fired back.
An EPS conduit exploded over Lucy’s head, sending sparks flying. “Shields at 23%.”
“Prepare to return fire.” Heather ordered.
“No need.” A voice replied from the back of the bridge. Heather looked to see Sean Sporman standing on the bridge with the newest tertiary, Kelly Argo. “Their engines are disabled.”
“Who?” Lucy said.
“Kelly Argo…newest tertiary. From Vestavia, I believe.” Sean stood by Heather who stood up to relinquish command. Sean gladly sat down. “Take the ship into the atmosphere. There are two down, but one to go.” Everyone on the bridge smiled as the ship began to hurl toward the atmosphere.
The last Klingon ship hurled toward the Control OPS as it fired a torpedo, which smashed into the building’s shields. Suddenly, from behind, two phaser beams struck the small alien ship.
Those phaser beams came from the Pittman Two blimp.
“Good shot, Liz!” Cathy exclaimed in the cockpit of that blimp. “Jessica, ready the torpedo.”
“Understood. Torpedo armed.” Jessica replied. On the viewscreen, the small Klingon vessel’s torpedo tube turned red, ready to fire at the blimp.
“I never thought I would be doing this today.” Tiffany said.
“Fire!” Cathy ordered. After the order, the shimmering red torpedo flew out of the blimp’s torpedo tube and smashed through the weakened shields of the Klingon vessel. The vessel exploded violently and the shockwave shook the blimp slightly. Cheering filled the cockpit.
“We did it!” Liz exclaimed, beginning to dance around the cockpit.
As the Vertigo members loomed over June Gabert’s unconscious body, they were deciding what to do with her.
“What she would do?” Zach asked.
“Kill her.” C. Jones replied.
“Nah! Too bloody!” Derik said.
“I disagree.” Zach said as he heard the hum of the transporter. Now in front of the Vertigo members stood six members of Sean’s staff. Sean stood in front.
“Surrender.” Sean said calmly, his phaser compression rifle pointed at the enemy. As Vertigo turned around, they saw six more people.
“This way is closed too.” Said Kelly Argo, who had also beamed down. Seeing no escape, Derik Olvey, Zach Williams and Courtney Jones raised their hands in surrender.
Meanwhile, Sean and his friends smiled in victory.
“Captain’s Log, Construction Day Two, We have successfully captured both June and Vertigo, with the devious Erin Wesson the only enemy still left. Meanwhile, we have traveled fifty light-years from the Terran sector and returned the Klingon ships to their proper timeline. We are currently back on course for Earth. However, I am faced with an interesting decision as the complete staff is on board…”
Sean Sporman sat in the small, yet private Ready Room of the USS Hypothetical as the door chimed.
“Come!” Sean said, and Heather entered the room. “Heather, what can I do for you?”
Heather handed him a PADD, smiling. “We have calculated the trajectory to open the temporal vortex to the Terran System! It will work!”
Sean smiled, then it went away. “But, there is one problem. I know that the Federation will want their ship back. In fact, they may clean up the timeline so that I’ll never get the Hypothetical.”
“True.” Heather replied. “But, they don’t know about the Hawking or the first replicator you received.”
“Yes. But, without the Hypothetical, the school would take two months to complete. But, there is another possibility.”
“What is that?” Heather queried.
“To stay in the future.” Sean expected Heather to jump back in shock, but she merely smiled.
“For a few months…I see! To try to convince them not to clean up the timeline. I understand. And, if I understand it, they could send us back to where no time passes on Earth.”
Sean smiled and stood up. Then, Heather hugged him. Both of them laughed as they emerged on the Bridge.
Sean walked to the Captain’s chair and sat down. He activated the intercom. “This is Sean speaking. First, I want to congratulate you on a job well done today. But, thanks to Heather, I have come to a decision. We are going to the future. When we reach Earth, if anyone wants to leave they are free to. Thanks to force fields and temporal bubbles, no one will notice the interrupt in the school’s lack of staff nor will they be able to gain access. Thank you…my friends.”
“We are entering the Terran System.” Meagan Hall said from the science console. On the viewscreen, Earth was as beautiful as ever.
Jordan Reeves whistled. “What a great place.”
“Shall I beam you down, Commander?”
“Are you crazy? I want to see the future as much as you do.”
“OK. Just so you understand, no one tell them about Star Trek, OK?”
The bridge crew all agreed. Kelly walked toward the turbolift. “I’ll go tell everyone down there.”
“Heather, open the anomaly.”
“Understood. Subspace energies breaking down. Anomaly formation in twelve minutes.”
Sean was hyper in anticipation.
“I want out! I want out! I want out!” June Gabert cried in the force-field protected cell that she was trapped in.
“Crying will not help you!” Zach Williams said from the back of the room.
June turned serious and looked at him. “I’m trying a different tactic!”
“It’s not going to work.” Derik said calmly.
“Pessimist.” June mumbled quietly.
“If only I had a phaser…” Zach said, staring at the barren ceiling of his cell.
“If you only had a brain…” Derik mumbled.
As Andy Blackerby and Kay Lindsay arrived on the bridge, the anomaly created by the Hypothetical that would transport them to the future, was completely formed and glistened a beautiful purple on the viewscreen.
“Ready to go to the future?” Sean asked finally.
“All systems go, Dirty Diaper.” Jordan said. Sean rolled his eyes for a change.
“Let’s see what’s out there!” Lucy exclaimed.
“As you wish, cutie.” Meagan Hall said, smiling at him. Sean smiled back.
“Maybe they need a weatherman…” Heather said. Sean continued his smile.
“I’ve heard they are very optimistic.” Blackerby said to Mrs. Lindsay.
“And that they have no walking clichés.” Lindsay replied.
“Even if they are wearing red in a shuttle?” Blackerby said as the ship began to move to the anomaly and into the future…
Next time on Gopher’s Gateway:
Into the future…prepare for the ultimate crossover.
Star Trek: The Next Generation and Gopher’s Gateway…together at last…
On a special Gopher’s Gateway…
Episode 11 of Gopher’s Gateway
Sean Sporman, starfleet-issue lighting unit attached to his wrist, opened the door that led to the Activity Room, a surviving building of the old Hueytown High. Behind him walked Kay Lindsay as well as his friend, Lucy Camden.
He managed to get down the first small flight of stairs before a fallen bulkhead blocked his path. He pulled a starfleet combadge out of his transparent backpack, and, smiling, slapped it on the misshapen hulk of metal.
“Combadge 47, confirming transportation for reprocessing.” Heather Allgood said through Sean’s combadge. Heather was currently onboard the USS Hypothetical, ex-Federation now Sean’s holo-starship. In front of the leader of the Hueytown: 2000 project, the bulkhead dematerialized quickly.
Looking down, Sean saw a devastated, but structurally intact classroom. Hardly any of the ceiling tiles were still in the ceiling, they now were littered on the classroom carpet, which was stained wet and reeked of mildew. Books were torn, and pages and covers of them were everywhere. Desks were now just pieces of wood and metal strewn about the partially underground room.
After Mister Morrison had been promoted to assistant principal rank, this had become Mrs. Toomey’s room…on the day before the weekend the school was damaged by the terrorist attack of June, Vertigo and the mysterious Erin Wesson.
“Wow!” Lucy exclaimed. “This is a mess…like your room I believe, Sean.”
Sean blushed, but smiled. He then tapped his combadge. “Send a team of holographic workers to clean this place up. You’ll need one person with a Starfleet Portable Holographic Transmitter.”
“Understood.” Heather replied. “Meagan is on her way.” Sean could hear Meagan Hall sigh through the active comm channel as it was cut off. Sean and Lucy smiled.
“According to this,” Mrs. Lindsay said, referring to the PADD she held, “The new school has passed thirty-percent completion. Twelve buildings are now accessible!”
“Cool.” Sean said, walking to the door that led to the Band Room.
“You do know that at 50%, you and your staff, including the ones from Pittman, must make the rulebook and sometime you have to decide on a name.”
“Affirmative. I fully plan on it.” Sean responded as he opened the door to the Band Room. He saw a massive chunk of ceiling on the floor, crushing all of the desks and musical instruments under it. Thankfully, no one had been here on that day because it was after school. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Lindsay, but the Band Room is a loss.”
“Oh, well.” Mrs. Lindsay smiled. “I’m sure your Starfleet Audiophonics Hall will make this Band Room be completely forgotten.”
As Sean smiled again, Meagan Hall beamed in, preparing to activate the holographic transmitter. “And now…the fun begins.” Meagan said dryly.
Cathy Fredrick smiled in awe as she looked out of the window of the Pittman Two blimp. “So, you heard that we will have fast food?” asked Cathy.
Liz Larson, a friend of hers and Sean’s replied, “Yeah. I know he said a Chick-Fil-A and a Pizza Hut.”
Tiffany Kynard also smiled. “I would personally like a Ruby Tuesday or a McDonalds in the school.
At that moment, Alexis Stanley, a friend of Tiffany’s and new member of the staff of the Hueytown: 2000 project, walked in, sunglasses on. “What are us cool girls up to?”
All four of them were allowed temporary command of the blimp for a day.
Cathy Fredrick stood up and smiled, pointing at the starfleet combadge that was attached to her colorful shirt. “Lieutenant Cathy Fredrick of Starfleet, special tertiary two. In command of Pittman Two for Stardate 9910.10, otherwise just enjoying the view and chatting with friends.”
“Of course.” Alexis replied.
“Why don’t you join us?” Liz Larson asked. Tiffany frowned slightly.
Alexis shook her head. “I have to go to CompUSA with my parents to get a new computer. But, you three will have a lot of company today.”
“Oh,” Cathy responded, “Why do you say that?”
“Well, for the boys, they heard three of the freshman beauties will be on some blimp. Since you will be landing in…” Alexis checked her watch, “eight minutes, they will come. But, most of your friends that are girls will beam up because almost 94% of them are on the staff.” Alexis walked to the automatic door. “Farewell.”
The three remaining freshman girls stood up and prepared to walk to the Observation Deck.
Andy Blackerby and Jordan Reeves stood outside the detention cell at the Jefferson County Board of Education Headquarters. Looking in, they saw June Gabert napping. “Well,” Blackerby said, “Let’s wait until she wakes up.”
“I still don’t see what you need me for.” Jordan admitted.
“Haven’t you heard of the good cop, bad cop stratagem? I will play the ‘bad cop’ and you will naturally be the ‘good cop’. That way, we might get some information out of her…”
“Or she might be lying…” Jordan said.
“Pessimist.” Blackerby muttered under his breath. “I think she might even join our side! Now, tell me Mr. Reeves, what do you know about the Buffalo Bills…”
Sean Sporman smiled as he beamed into the secondary office of the former Hueytown High. It was intact as it had been the day he had activated it.
He was, however, shocked to see an attractive young woman in a starfleet uniform, scanning the modules inside the secondary office with a Mark I tricorder. “Ma’am.”
She smiled. “My name is Kelly, Mr. Sporman. I am a recent arrival from another school.” The two shook hands.
“Please call me Sean.” There was a small period of silence. “I see that you know your tricorder operations, Kelly,” replied Sean.
“Someone calling himself Master Physician taught me.” Sean rolled his eyes, knowing the EMH was behind this. “I will also be in the next Pittman Two cycle.” added Kelly.
“It’s always good to have another great person.” Sean replied. For another second, they stared each other in awkward silence. “So, tell me.” Sean broke the silence. “Have you found anything useful?” Kelly smiled as she showed him the tricorder.
Heather Allgood smiled on the bridge of the USS Hypothetical. She knew why Sean enjoyed command. The control. The fun. The invincibility. The power. “Brooke,” She asked to Brooke Stephens, temporarily assigned to bridge duty. “What do the weather scans show?”
Brooke smiled as the Pinpoint Doppler Radar appeared on the viewscreen. “PDR BMX on screen now.”
“Zoom it in to about a ten mile radius around Hueytown.” The viewscreen’s view tightened to a 10.6-mile radius centered on the city of Hueytown. “It looks clear.”
Just then, an exhausted Meagan Hall walked onto the bridge. “Still competing for his job, I see.”
Heather smiled as an idea came to her head. “Meagan, take command. I’m going down there. Good job, on the clean up.” Meagan
Eyed her curiously as Heather disappeared behind the automatic doors, which slid shut.
Lucy Camden smiled in the cockpit of the shuttlecraft Hawking. Besides her, Sean Sporman worked feverishly at one of the consoles. “I’ve found it!” He exclaimed as the object he had been searching for entered visual range.
“It’s hard to imagine you found the office.” Lucy Camden replied. It had been launched into orbit when terrorists threatened the old Hueytown High School. Lucy tapped at another console. “The emergency extra-atmospheric life support is still online. We can beam over.”
Sean opened a locker and pulled out two type-one phasers. He handed one to Lucy. “Just in case.”
Lucy nodded as the two stepped onto the transporter pad. “Energizing.”
The office was dark, very dark. Sean clicked on his light emitters at the same time Lucy did. They saw the LCARS panels had been deactivated when the office was launched into orbit. In case NASA found anything, it would just be an empty building with useless junk.
But, Sean and Lucy knew better. Sean walked over to his chair and laid down, facing up toward the ceiling. He opened a detachable panel that was under the chair and it came off. Inside, he saw a small working LCARS panel. He tapped three buttons on it and the lights came on.
“Well, you got it!” Lucy exclaimed. Around them, the LCARS panels were now blinking and lighted. Even the hum of the emergency warp core installed in the floor returned.
“OK. Let’s land this thing back down.” Sean said as he walked toward a console on the aft wall.
Cathy Fredrick did not know what to expect when she heard the turbolift doors open. Looking, she saw Patrick Williams and Tyler Colvin enter the room, with peculiar smiles on their faces.
“May I help you?” Cathy asked, refusing to contain the annoyance in her voice, even though she knew that this was going to happen.
“Hi!” Liz interrupted, smiling. Cathy and Tiffany rolled their eyes.
“Well, we’re just here to say hey.” Tyler said, nervousness in his voice apparent.
“Yeah.” Patrick agreed, nodding.
“Ok, well say it.” Tiffany replied.
“Oh, yeah, well, hi.” Tyler said. “That’s a hi to Liz and Cathy.” Tyler held a grudge against Tiffany Kynard for reasons that Sean said he knew, but not many others. Of course, Tiffany herself knew. Playing with his best friend and being air headed in his opinion. Of course, Sean and many others still tried to figure out why playing with his best friend would constitute anger. But, with teenagers these days…
“Hi!” Patrick said, with more enthusiasm than the rest.
“Hi.” Cathy finally responded.
“Hey! Why don’t you two get into red bikinis like Lucy did for Sean?” Tyler ordered.
Cathy stood up and anger and glared at the two boys. “Look. We are not under your command. So, just bug off before I call out the big guns.”
Patrick Williams was smart enough to run. Tyler stood and Tiffany glared at him also. “One…” Cathy counted. “Two…three.” Tyler Colvin did not move. Cathy Fredrick smiled as she slapped Tyler. Tyler looked at her in shock and then ran out of the observation deck.
Cathy rolled her eyes again. “Boys…”
“Except Sean.” The three of them said at the same time. Sean would have fainted had he been around…again.
June Gabert woke up feeling tired and dizzy-headed. She also saw Andy Blackerby and Sean’s friend Jordan Reeves. Standing up, she protested, “What are you doing?”
Blackerby began his role as the ‘bad cop’. “No, Ms. Gabert. The question here is what are you doing!?!” June looked to Jordan for support.
Jordan, in the role as ‘good cop’, began, “Not so harsh, Mr. Blackerby.” He turned to her. “June, listen, just tell us what we want.”
“What do you want?” June asked.
“The truth!” Blackerby boomed.
“What we want to know is who all of your allies are.” Jordan stated in a polite tone.
“I see…” June muttered. “Well, certainly you know about Barbara and Peyton as well as those fools of Vertigo.”
The two interrogators nodded.
“What!?” Zach Williams, in his cell, had been listening to the conversation via a micro-communications device he had put on June’s shirt. “She called us fools!”
Nearby, Derik Olvey, still in black, shook his head. “Distressing. But, there is nothing we can do.”
“I heard that she was going to join Sean’s side!” Courtney Jones exclaimed, banging his fist against the hard metal wall. He winced in pain.
“Really!” Zach replied. “Then we must escape.” After looking out of his cell, Zach saw that it was clear and took the transformiter cube out of his pocket. This was a backup one. “We’ll turn this cube into MegaBot and stop June once and for all!” The three laughed as the transformiter cube began to power up.
Meagan Hall, alone with John Barnes, sat on the bridge of Command OPS, the one that was a replica of the Galaxy-class Enterprise-D. John Barnes released a question he had been holding for a while. “Why are you going out with Sean?”
Meagan merely smiled at him. “Why, you ask. Because he’s a cutie and he’s polite, nice, and cool all-around. Besides, you don’t own a replicator and know the weather.”
John frowned as he left the bridge. At the same time, Jonathan Reeves entered the bridge from the other side. “Greetings, Meagan.” Behind him, Liz McGowen followed. “Liz is back from her senior…stuff.”
“Yeah. I saw what has been built so far. Amazing. Though I wonder if the school will lose its flavor.”
“Flavor?” Meagan inquired as the new visitors sat down on each side of Meagan.
“That school was there for a long time, and now its not. This technology might…” Her voice trailed off as she looked around. “By the land of Oz! This is real!”
Jonathan laughed. “Oz?”
Meagan was laughing also. “Well, I see you realize what’s good. Sean certainly does.” Jonathan sort of agreed with his brother, Jordan. Sean’s ego was too big.”
Mrs. Lindsay along with Ben Smith walked in the Ninth Grade Building of the now 40% completed new school.
“Starfleet would be proud.” Ben said as he entered one of the new classrooms.
At the front, a huge viewscreen with the Federation logo hid most of the dry-erase board. In front of that, the holo-communicator emitter matrix was installed in the floor.
“How did all this stuff get in here?” Mrs. Lindsay asked.
“Thank the tertiaries. They, unlike me, took the things that were made from the replicators and installed them personally in here.”
“So, the school won’t be totally completed tomorrow?”
“No,” Ben replied, sitting down in one of the advanced LCARS desks. It was a comfortable leather chair with a starfleet storage compartment under it and an LCARS terminal on top, “The structure will. In about four to six days after the construction it will be, though, not counting the playground.”
“I see. Now, I’m going to grab a snack in the lunchroom.”
“Right,” Ben said, “I’m beaming to Control OPS Backup Bridge. I might be able to reenact Riker’s tactics at Wolf 359.” Mrs. Lindsay smiled as she walked away.
Heather Allgood had not found her target on Earth, so she had beamed back to the Hypothetical. She was currently in Engineering. The warp core pulsed blue and hummed in the near-empty room.
“Heather?” asked Tiffany Davidson, wearing civilian clothes and a smile.
“Yes, it’s me. Do you know where Sean is?”
“Nope,” replied Tiffany.
“Carry on.” Heather said as she exited Engineering.
Sean Sporman smiled as he saw Ms. Toomey on the shuttle Hawking’s viewscreen. “In your first starship command, I see.”
Ms. Toomey smiled in reply. “Well, it’s a lot different than teaching kids. Quite a bit quieter, too.”
“Well, can we dock?” Lucy asked.
“Of course. Your new shuttlebay commanders are on screen…now.” Sean smiled again when three people appeared on the viewscreen. It was Mr. Morrison and Lauren Foust and Fallon Shipman.
“Not what you expected, Sean?” Mr. Morrison said. “Locking tractor beam.”
The shuttle shook slightly as the beam locked on. “Not quite.” Sean responded.
“Opening subspace doors.” Fallon said.
“That’s shuttlebay!” Lauren Foust corrected. The three looked from their station, behind a safe window, as the Type-7 shuttle entered the shuttlebay.
Liz Larson sipped her Pepsi with a smile as the turbolift doors leading to the observation deck slid open. Anticipating boys, she saw instead two girls that they knew.
“Ah!” Cathy greeted. “Lauren Blankenship and Erica Seymore. How can we help you?”
“Just came here to chat.” responded Lauren.
“Yeah! You saw that show, didn’t you?” Tiffany exclaimed and inquired.
“Yes, I did. Monica told Bernie that she loved Rick, but he was actually her half-brother and then…” Erica interrupted Liz.
“And then, Bona told Aliga that Mary Ann…”
As Erica continued, Cathy rolled her eyes yet again. Then, she began to laugh. Liz had, for some reason, stood up and was glaring at Lauren.
Lauren was worried. “What are you staring at me for?”
Liz continued to frown. “I don’t think you got it right.”
“Got what right?” Lauren asked.
“Your brain…” Liz replied.
That pushed Lauren over the line. “That’s it!”
Cathy, seeing where this was going, said to the computer, “Computer, command sequence Cathy-eleven; Fredrick-seven.” As Cathy’s chair moved away from the growing catfight, the room she had been in began to fill with smoke.
“Boogy Boot!” Cathy heard Tiffany exclaim.
“You want a piece of me?” Liz exclaimed.
“I, Lauren Blankenship, will not allow you to win this fight!”
Suddenly, over the insults and the fight, Cathy heard the activation sound of a hologram. The Emergency Medical Hologram.
Cathy pointed at the smoke-filled room where the fight was still continuing. “They are fighting over something! I don’t know what or why. But, you have to stop them!”
The Emergency Medical Hologram smiled. “Hero time!” The hologram bravely walked into the room.
He heard screams, punches, and spitting when he entered. Then, he fell down.
Jordan Reeves was shocked to hear his tricorder beep. Just when it was done with its first beep. Just when it was done with it’s first beep, the alarms in the building went off. Since no one but Blackerby and Lindsay used the upper ten levels, he had installed Starfleet technology. “What is going on here?”
As if in response to Jordan’s question, the computer responded. “Alert! Prisoner escape in level 4, cell 7!”
Andy Blackerby was sleeping soundly in a chair. Jordan tapped him, but he refused to wake up.
“I don’t have time for this!” He smiled. “I have to save the day!”
As the escaped members of Vertigo lurked through the halls of the Jefferson County Board of Education Headquarters, two of them carrying phasers they got from the guards that they had knocked out.
“What about Drayton?” Zach asked.
“Forget about him.” Derik said. “And the MegaBot plan is forgotten too.” They then entered an automatic elevator.
“Where is June?” asked Zach.
“Level 17, Cell 47.” The doors slammed shut.
Jordan Reeves looked in shock as three members of Vertigo approached him, phasers raised.
“Shouldn’t you try to be escaping.” Jordan smiled as a phaser compression rifle beamed into his hands. “Stop where you are!”
“We’re here to get…June.” Derik stated calmly.
Jordan was confused. “June? Why her? Aren’t you after Sean and us?”
“Not this time. Now—“ Everyone turned heads as June sprinted down the hall, past the still-sleeping Andy Blackerby. “—Stand aside or…join us.”
Jordan smiled. “It’s good to see that you have come to your senses like Tyler. I believe she’s headed for level 18!”
The four stopped at the elevator, which did not open. “They’re inoperable on these three decks.”
“You didn’t disable much.” Derik commented.
“Best we could do in two seconds.” Jordan smiled.
Alert klaxons blared on the bridge of the Hypothetical. Heather Allgood was in command and Lucy Camden sat at Tactical.
“Tactical analysis. Is it a holographic shuttle?”
“Negative,” Lucy replied. “Three…Klingon torpedo ships. Real ones.”
“Seriously? Well, let’s open hailing frequencies.” Heather ordered.
“Hailing frequencies open.” Lucy replied as an ugly Klingon appeared on the viewscreen. Klingon were alien warriors that the Federation had encountered in the 23rd and 24th centuries. They had apparently traveled back in time.
“Are you Vertigo?” The Klingon asked.
“I’m Captain Heather Allgood of the Federation vessel Hypothetical. What are you doing here?”
“Aren’t you a little young to be a captain? Missy!” The Klingons began to laugh.
Heather hesitated for only a brief moment. “You are certainly aware of encounters with anomalies that remove portions of ones rybo-viroxic-nucleic structure.”
“I think that you are just a bunch of rascals trekking along the stars.” The Klingons laughed again.
Heather quickly signaled to cut the signaled, tired of Klingon insults. Quickly, the ship was rocked with two torpedo blasts. “Shields down to 74%.”
“Evasive sequence Allgood-11.”
“Proceeding!” The ship was shaken again. “Captain, one of the torpedo ships is heading down to the surface…toward the school!”
“Fire at will!”
“Not Riker, I assume.” Lucy replied.
“Of course not.” Heather smiled.
Cathy Fredrick listened in the cockpit of Pittman Two as she listened to Brooke Stephen’s emergency transmission.
“Understood.” She said as the viewscreen changed to show the sky and the buildings in front of the dirigible. “Computer, red alert. Liz, do you remember how to take off?”
Liz smiled. “Of course.”
“Well, you’ll be helping to save the school.” Cathy replied.
They all smiled as someone else entered the cockpit. The girl who entered smiled. “Jessica Ward, reporting as Tactical officer.” She sat down at the tactical console.
“Does that mean the transporters work?” Tiffany asked as Liz and Cathy smiled. “Well, they did when the EMH was beamed back…”
“Give it up, June!” Jordan Reeves said in the hall.
“Never!” June replied as Jordan fired his phaser, barely missing. Besides him, Zach Williams fired, but missed as well, destroying an LCARS terminal.
“Be careful!” Jordan screamed as June fired back, the beam narrowly missing Jordan’s head, but breaking a window instead.
As June turned around, Jordan, who smiled at the Vertigo members, stunned her. “I told you that we could do it!”
Zach suddenly pointed his phaser at Jordan. “We had nothing to do with it.”
Jordan immediately reached for his combadge, but Zach saw it in time and ripped it off of his uniform. “What do you want?”
“We want…your ship.” Derik said calmly, his phaser pointing at Jordan as well.
Lucy cheered as one of the Klingon ships began to drift in space; it’s engines and weapons disabled.
“Lock phasers on the M’Ta’s engines and fire!” Two bright red streaks of phased energy struck the small torpedo ship, just after it fired back.
An EPS conduit exploded over Lucy’s head, sending sparks flying. “Shields at 23%.”
“Prepare to return fire.” Heather ordered.
“No need.” A voice replied from the back of the bridge. Heather looked to see Sean Sporman standing on the bridge with the newest tertiary, Kelly Argo. “Their engines are disabled.”
“Who?” Lucy said.
“Kelly Argo…newest tertiary. From Vestavia, I believe.” Sean stood by Heather who stood up to relinquish command. Sean gladly sat down. “Take the ship into the atmosphere. There are two down, but one to go.” Everyone on the bridge smiled as the ship began to hurl toward the atmosphere.
The last Klingon ship hurled toward the Control OPS as it fired a torpedo, which smashed into the building’s shields. Suddenly, from behind, two phaser beams struck the small alien ship.
Those phaser beams came from the Pittman Two blimp.
“Good shot, Liz!” Cathy exclaimed in the cockpit of that blimp. “Jessica, ready the torpedo.”
“Understood. Torpedo armed.” Jessica replied. On the viewscreen, the small Klingon vessel’s torpedo tube turned red, ready to fire at the blimp.
“I never thought I would be doing this today.” Tiffany said.
“Fire!” Cathy ordered. After the order, the shimmering red torpedo flew out of the blimp’s torpedo tube and smashed through the weakened shields of the Klingon vessel. The vessel exploded violently and the shockwave shook the blimp slightly. Cheering filled the cockpit.
“We did it!” Liz exclaimed, beginning to dance around the cockpit.
As the Vertigo members loomed over June Gabert’s unconscious body, they were deciding what to do with her.
“What she would do?” Zach asked.
“Kill her.” C. Jones replied.
“Nah! Too bloody!” Derik said.
“I disagree.” Zach said as he heard the hum of the transporter. Now in front of the Vertigo members stood six members of Sean’s staff. Sean stood in front.
“Surrender.” Sean said calmly, his phaser compression rifle pointed at the enemy. As Vertigo turned around, they saw six more people.
“This way is closed too.” Said Kelly Argo, who had also beamed down. Seeing no escape, Derik Olvey, Zach Williams and Courtney Jones raised their hands in surrender.
Meanwhile, Sean and his friends smiled in victory.
“Captain’s Log, Construction Day Two, We have successfully captured both June and Vertigo, with the devious Erin Wesson the only enemy still left. Meanwhile, we have traveled fifty light-years from the Terran sector and returned the Klingon ships to their proper timeline. We are currently back on course for Earth. However, I am faced with an interesting decision as the complete staff is on board…”
Sean Sporman sat in the small, yet private Ready Room of the USS Hypothetical as the door chimed.
“Come!” Sean said, and Heather entered the room. “Heather, what can I do for you?”
Heather handed him a PADD, smiling. “We have calculated the trajectory to open the temporal vortex to the Terran System! It will work!”
Sean smiled, then it went away. “But, there is one problem. I know that the Federation will want their ship back. In fact, they may clean up the timeline so that I’ll never get the Hypothetical.”
“True.” Heather replied. “But, they don’t know about the Hawking or the first replicator you received.”
“Yes. But, without the Hypothetical, the school would take two months to complete. But, there is another possibility.”
“What is that?” Heather queried.
“To stay in the future.” Sean expected Heather to jump back in shock, but she merely smiled.
“For a few months…I see! To try to convince them not to clean up the timeline. I understand. And, if I understand it, they could send us back to where no time passes on Earth.”
Sean smiled and stood up. Then, Heather hugged him. Both of them laughed as they emerged on the Bridge.
Sean walked to the Captain’s chair and sat down. He activated the intercom. “This is Sean speaking. First, I want to congratulate you on a job well done today. But, thanks to Heather, I have come to a decision. We are going to the future. When we reach Earth, if anyone wants to leave they are free to. Thanks to force fields and temporal bubbles, no one will notice the interrupt in the school’s lack of staff nor will they be able to gain access. Thank you…my friends.”
“We are entering the Terran System.” Meagan Hall said from the science console. On the viewscreen, Earth was as beautiful as ever.
Jordan Reeves whistled. “What a great place.”
“Shall I beam you down, Commander?”
“Are you crazy? I want to see the future as much as you do.”
“OK. Just so you understand, no one tell them about Star Trek, OK?”
The bridge crew all agreed. Kelly walked toward the turbolift. “I’ll go tell everyone down there.”
“Heather, open the anomaly.”
“Understood. Subspace energies breaking down. Anomaly formation in twelve minutes.”
Sean was hyper in anticipation.
“I want out! I want out! I want out!” June Gabert cried in the force-field protected cell that she was trapped in.
“Crying will not help you!” Zach Williams said from the back of the room.
June turned serious and looked at him. “I’m trying a different tactic!”
“It’s not going to work.” Derik said calmly.
“Pessimist.” June mumbled quietly.
“If only I had a phaser…” Zach said, staring at the barren ceiling of his cell.
“If you only had a brain…” Derik mumbled.
As Andy Blackerby and Kay Lindsay arrived on the bridge, the anomaly created by the Hypothetical that would transport them to the future, was completely formed and glistened a beautiful purple on the viewscreen.
“Ready to go to the future?” Sean asked finally.
“All systems go, Dirty Diaper.” Jordan said. Sean rolled his eyes for a change.
“Let’s see what’s out there!” Lucy exclaimed.
“As you wish, cutie.” Meagan Hall said, smiling at him. Sean smiled back.
“Maybe they need a weatherman…” Heather said. Sean continued his smile.
“I’ve heard they are very optimistic.” Blackerby said to Mrs. Lindsay.
“And that they have no walking clichés.” Lindsay replied.
“Even if they are wearing red in a shuttle?” Blackerby said as the ship began to move to the anomaly and into the future…
Next time on Gopher’s Gateway:
Into the future…prepare for the ultimate crossover.
Star Trek: The Next Generation and Gopher’s Gateway…together at last…
On a special Gopher’s Gateway…