A Funny Thing Happened Escaping the Sultan

Posted on Tue Oct 24th, 2023 @ 5:00am by Commander Kevin Lance
Edited on on Tue Oct 24th, 2023 @ 9:36pm

Mission: The Q Effect
Location: USS Chuck Norris
Timeline: Before Speed Change

on:
{Medieval Baghdad}

Lieutenant Kevin Lance jumped from the castle wall to the scaffolding adjacent, seamlessly transitioning from horizontal movement to vertical as he turned and flipped his way down the three levels to the ground. Shouts of “Stop, Thief!” emanated from the Janissaries at the top of the wall that Kevin had descended. He turned and gave a flourishing bow to the guards before bolting down the crowded street away from the castle.

Kevin was escaping the Sultan’s guards after stealing a necklace (and a kiss) from the princess. The press of the city’s denizens obstructed his movement and he searched for an alternate means of escape from the pursuing guards. He spied a cart alongside a wall that would give him access to the second level of the building flanking the street and adjusted his movement towards it. He launched himself up and off the cart with two powerful strides, grabbing the iron grating that covered a window on the second floor.

He quickly scaled the iron grating and vaulted up to the roof of the building. A crossbow bolt struck the roof to his right and Kevin sensed that the next would find its mark if he didn’t move. He made a rolling dive towards a chicken coop that provided cover from the second bolt. Springing to his feet, he continued running towards the opposite edge of the roof.

The next building was three stories and as Kevin pushed his body to cross the distance, he realized that he wasn’t going to make it. He closed his eyes and braced for impact as he slammed against the wall and fell backwards. He hit the ground much sooner than he expect.

Kevin took a moment to regain the wind that had been knocked out of him by the double impact. He slowly opened his eyes but instead of a crowded open air street he observed that he was in a corridor.

He blinked to clear his vision, thinking that his eyes were playing tricks on him but the corridor persisted.

He sat up and looked around. The design of the corridor was archaic and it was narrower than he was accustom to on a Federation starship. He noticed a difference in his outfit as well. Gone were the hood cloak and loose fitting breeches that he had been wearing, replaced by tighter pants bloused into a pair of calf high black boots and a long sleeved yellow shirt.

Kevin shook his head as he called out, “Computer. End Simulation.”

There was no response.

Kevin repeated the command and received the same non-response.

“Computer,” Kevin recited eloquently, “Display Arch.”

Silence.

Kevin tapped his breast where his comm badge was and said, “Lance to Starbase Operations.” Belatedly he realized that his comm badge was gone, a similarly shaped cloth patch in its place.

“Are you alright, sir?”

Kevin spun around to see a humanoid woman in a short blue dress with a plunging neckline. Her hair was elegantly coiffed in a braided wrap atop her head.

“Um, yes,” Kevin replied somewhat incoherently as she helped him to his feet, “I ran into the wall. I think.”

“What’s happening, sir?”

Kevin looked closer at the woman’s face, endeavoring to avoid being distracted by the shapely calves peeking out of the tops of her boots. He recognized her as a crew member from the Norris but he didn’t recall her name. He remember her having shorter hair, however. His own hair was longer and his bread was gone.

“I don’t know,” he replied but as he answered her question his brain started analyzing the available evidence.

He had been running a simulation on one of the Starbase’s holodeck during his off-duty time. The computer wasn’t responding so malfunction was a possibility but that wouldn’t explain the presence of the Norris’ crew member. The uniforms that he and the woman were wearing appeared to date to the 23rd Century and Kevin noted the two solid braids of gold around the uniform wrists. That would be Lieutenant if I recall correctly, he thought.

The woman had a single gold braid around her wrists. “Ensign?” Kevin inquired.

“Greaves,” she replied in confirmation.

Abduction was a possibility but why put him and Greaves into uniforms from the previous century.

This could be a concussion induced hallucination, he surmised. Kevin felt his head for any telltale bumps but didn’t find any. He would need the medical staff to rule out a cranial hematoma. He moved his hand to his chest but stopped short of tapping it again. If memory served, prior to the introduction of comm badges, ships had wall or station mounted communicators. He needed to find one and get to the medical bay.

“Well Ensign Greaves. We need to find the sick bay,” Kevin announced.

:off

Kevin Lance
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Norris