"Ensign Angelica Lovely reporting for duty, sir." Right after the yellow grid of a standard holodeck vanished, there appeared a transporter pad. A stunningly beautiful young woman stepped down from it in the air of perfection. The transporter chief never managed to answer, as he was just staring at the godly beauty in front of him. The ensign smiled and reached right in front of his nose to activate a communicator. He never quivered, still transfixed with the woman's appearance. "Ensign Lovely to the bridge." "Bridge, lieutenant Tuhura here," she heard a nice female voice. "This is lieutenant Lovely," she repeated. "Should I report to the bridge?" "Yes, please, ensign," the reply came after a pause. "The captain is awaiting you." "On my way," she answered and headed to the door. "It's been nice to meet you, chief," she smiled before she left, never expecting a reaction. She was used to men reacting to her like that. Once the turbolift door opened, she found herself on the bridge. She headed directly to the captain's chair and wasn't at all surprised that he stood up to greet a mere ensign. That too was what she expected. She smiled graciously, introducing herself. Captain Stirk at least had the dignity to murmur a few words of welcome. He was handsome, too, she had to admit. However, her attention was immediately drawn to the first officer. He was a Vulcan and she always had a soft spot for Vulcans. Oh, making them lose that impeccable logic of theirs, watching them behave like puppies, eager to pet. Right now, however, the Vulcan officer was preoccupied with his duty. "Captain, he reported, looking up from his scanning device. "We are being scanned." The captain motioned for Angelica to take her post and turned back to his officer. "Are we in visual range yet?" "Negative, captain," the Vulcan replied immediately. "The scanning technique is totally unknown to us. Fascinating." "Lieutenant, open hailing frequencies," captain Stirk gave his next order. "Hailing frequencies open, sir." "This is captain Jake Stirk of the Federation starship Venture. Please identify yourself." All the routine bridge talk bored Angelica to death. She decided to switch the sensor array on her console and make an additional sweep. Soon, she had something to report. "Captain?" She said in her soft, seductive voice. "I think I've got something on the long range sensors. "What is it ensign?" Asked the captain, intrigued. "Putting it on screen right now," she said before he managed to order her to do so. What they all saw on the viewscreen was a gigantic, colourful cloud. It seemed to be emitting some sort of energy beam towards the ship. "Analysis, Mister Shock?" Demanded the captain. Before the Vulcan was ready to answer, Angelica was ready with some preliminary data. "It is an extremely dense stream of energy, type unknown. It's disrupting our instruments, sir." The captain looked questioningly at his first officer. "Quite correct," the Vulcan remarked. "I estimate it will block our sensors completely." just about." he paused to look into his instruments, ". now." "I may be able to enhance the resolution." replied Angelica, working furiously on her controls. "Captain! The energy beam has increased and it's targeting our warp drive, sir!" "Evasive manoeuvres, mister Dulu!" ordered the captain, still in awe with the new ensign's abilities. "It's no use captain," she reported. "We can't escape it. We need more power to the shields," she suggested. "Engineering!" The captain hit the button but there was no response. "Mister Spotty!" He repeated. Still nothing. Ensign Lovely got up from her chair and hurried to the turbolift. She never asked permission since there was no time but she was sure she could be of help. She hurried down to the engineering section only to find everyone unconscious. The atmosphere was hardly breathable, apparently the alien energy was beginning to affect the life support systems. However right now, her priority was the shields, so she just took a deep breath and started working to increase the power. Once she succeeded on this, she reported to the bridge. "I think we will be able to sustain this energy for a while now, captain. Please, send the medical team down to engineering," she added before the captain had a chance to respond. "And mister Shock? I could use your help with the translator. I think I've found a way to communicate with this alien." The Vulcan appeared a few minutes later, just in time to help her finish some modifications she had just invented. She was fresh out of the Academy and, truth to tell, she lacked experience with computers just yet. "What do you wish me to do?" Asked the Vulcan calmly. She looked up at him. He had such intriguing eyes. "I thought you might reconfigure the matrix to add some of these equations? They're from my school thesis but the teachers approved of them." She handed him the mathematical formulas and watched with amusement as he raised his eyebrow. "Interesting," he said finally, turning to her. "And it might actually work," he added with appreciation. Angelica smiled at him. "Tell me, mister Shock," she began knowing that a little conversation wouldn't distract him from work. "Do you find human women attractive?" The Vulcan stopped what he was doing to look at her. "If you're referring to sexual attractiveness, I must say no. I very much prefer women of my own race." Angelica saddened a little but never stopped working to bring the translator online. "How about other kinds of attractiveness, mister Shock? Friendship? Professional relationships? Have you ever had any kind of rapport with an Earth woman?" Shock stopped working at all and turned his full attention to her. "Angelica," he began softly. "You're the first woman in my life who had such a powerful impact on me in such a short time. You're beautiful, both by human and Vulcan standards, you're smart and you're efficient." He reached with his hand and touched her arm lightly. "I believe we can get along together well." Angelica was happy. In the Vulcan mouth such words were no less than a violent, passionate love declaration. Once they were ready with the translator, the Vulcan reported to captain Stirk. After just a few minor adjustments, they heard the alien speaking: "My children. help me." The captain managed to establish that the alien was in fact the cloud itself. Apparently its young got trapped in orbit around a nearby planet and it needed help. The scanners, modified by Angelica, revealed traces of the same energy as the "adult" cloud emitted. However, due to enormous gravitational field of the planet, it was impossible to manoeuvre the whole ship in the vicinity of the planet. The captain decided to send a shuttle instead. Angelica requested to be assigned to it the moment she realized Shock would be there. The captain granted her the permission and now she was sitting next to the Vulcan. Although he remained calm and relaxed as usual, she noticed the occasional looks he shot her when he thought she wasn't looking. He was obviously attracted to her by now. "Commander, the alien being is dead ahead," she announced from her tactical console. "Engaging tractor beam," stated the Vulcan calmly. "No, wait! It's going to interfere with it's energy patterns!" Angelica exclaimed but it was too late. The tractor beam reached the energy cloud and a powerful feedback pulse reached the shuttle. Angelica threw herself over Shock's console to save him. The bolt that shot through her body was almost overwhelming. "Angelica!" The Vulcan yelled, holding her in his arms. She felt she was dying. She managed to look at him one last time. What a pity they would never have time to get to know each other, to really fall in love. she thought. All she needed to know was there in his eyes, for once not covered with this unbearable Vulcan mask. There was love and warmth and sorrow, all at once. "Angelica. why?" He repeated softly, still holding her close. "I. would. love you," she whispered with her last breath. "So, you want to be writing historical holonovels in the future?" The teacher asked as the scene vanished and they were back in the empty holodeck. "Yes,' replied the excited young girl, about 13 years old. "And I already have an artistic pseudonym for myself: I'll be writing as miss Mary Sue!" The teacher only shook her head.
