Star Trek Hunter
Episode 15: A Stitch in Spacetime
Scene 5: Old Man Crusher
15.5
Old Man Crusher
Justice Minerva Irons leapt out of the captains chair, then turned to look at it. It shouldn’t still be there. “Kenneth, you have the con until David gets here. DAVID!!! Please report to the bridge. I will be in Engineering.”
As Irons stormed off the bridge, Flight Operations Director Kenneth Dolphin - currently at the pilot station, turned to his assistant director, Gaia Gamor. “Must be her first time through the loop…” His words slowed as he saw the look of blank panic on Gamor’s face.
“Did we just implode???”
“It’s going to be okay, Gaia. Maybe. Everyone experiences this differently. I have standing orders for you,” Dolphin said.
Gamor looked at him, still panicked.
“Go to the captain’s office and access File 9, Code 8. You need to be prepared to follow some orders that you won’t want to follow.”
“What…” Gamor asked.
“I just gave you an order, Lieutenant,” Dolphin said gently.
Gamor stood up, appreciating her director’s light touch and calmness in the face of calamity. “Aye, sir.” She turned and walked to the captain’s office a little gingerly - as though she were afraid the deck plates might fall apart if she put her feet down too firmly.
- * -
Irons had expected to find some form of controlled chaos in Engineering, considering that the Hunter had just, apparently miraculously, recovered from a catastrophic implosion.
She was not expecting a three-ring circus.
Dr. Carrera looked up as Justice Minerva Irons stormed into Engineering, only to be completely flabbergasted by the spectacle of Crusherman and Free Love Wes both flying slowly around the warp core, inspecting it closely while Wesley Crusher prime was pouring over information from an engineering console, standing next to her Director of Engineering - who appeared to be dressed for a field excursion into the early 20th Century…
“So you’re the grand matriarch, Justice Minerva Irons,” came a voice from behind her, startling her nearly out of her skin. An old man dressed in dirty beige robes that were largely indistinguishable from his straggly long gray hair and beard was standing behind her, leaning on a staff.
Irons whirled to look at him, then back to look at her inappropriately attired Director of Engineering. “Lieutenant, who are all these people? And why are you out of uniform?”
“It’s Lieutenant Commander…”
“Lieutenant Commander???!! Who promoted you???”
“You did, Captain. Please allow me to introduce Wesley Crusher,” Carrera put his hand on the shoulder of Wesley Crusher prime, who was standing next to him, then gestured toward the two somewhat older versions circling the warp core about 10’ off the deck: “Wesley Crusher, Wesley Crusher, and,” Carrera gestured to the old man leaning on his staff behind Irons: “Wesley Crusher.”
For the first time since her worst moments in the andorian courtroom when she could barely stand, Irons felt somewhat faint.
“Get down from there!” she heard Old Man Crusher barking in exasperation toward the two flying Wesleys. “You’re bothering the judge and we all know there is nothing wrong with that engine. Dr. Carrera, Justice Irons - let’s chat… his office…” Old Man Crusher pointed his staff at Dr. Carrera’s office up on deck one.
15.5
