10Chapter One
NEL'AR'S CHOICE
BY
DOUGLAS HEMMINGWAY
AUTHOR'S NOTE(S):
There is a SHIP OF THE LINE challenge where Joyce is the one who gets the starship instead of Xander. This is going to be to answer both. I am playing with the timeline of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER to allow for the most current story line of ARC's STAR TREK ONLINE game. The STARGATE is going to be moved up too. For both shows the events up to Halloween happened in the last few years. This is definitely alternate universe to both. DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING FROM STAR TREK, STARGATE OR BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. THOSE STORY LINES BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE CREATORS AND THE PRODUCTION COMPANIES RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR PRODUCTION AND RELEASE.
0000 HOURS/ 12:00 A.M. PACIFIC STANDARD TIME 1 NOVEMBER
Joyce Summers awoke with kink in her neck. The reason was that she had slept in a sitting position in a chair. The last thing she remembered was that she had agreed to help her daughter with her school's annual Halloween escort as the adult chaperon. Taking a look around her surroundings she saw she was on the Bridge of the R.R.W. Mandukar. As she recalled this was a Mogai-Class Heavy Warbird.
FLASHBACK AFTERNOON 30 OCTOBER
The checked around and couldn't find Romulan Republic uniforms at the Party Town location in town. However her and Buffy found uniforms at a place just down the street from her art and antique shop called Ethan's. She and Buffy found that Willow and Xander were in the store looking for costumes too. "Xander, Willow why don't you dress up as Romulans of the Romulan Republic like Buffy and I?" Joyce asked.
Xander said, "I can't afford a whole costume Missus S. I got enough to get a tiny toy gun and I have a set of old army fatigues and combat boots at home..." Joyce looked at him and said, "Young man I have enough to out fit the four of us as members of the Bridge Crew of the R.R.W. Mandukar, my Mogai Heavy Warbird from Star Trek Online. I'll cover yours and Willow's costumes." Xander and Willow stared at Joyce for a moment or two in surprise. They didn't know what to be more surprised about either that Buffy's mom played Star Trek Online or that she knew what a Mogai Heavy Warbird was.
Willow recovered quickly and said, "Xander and I play STO too, Missus Summers and currently we're playing Klingon aligned Romulans. I named my character after myself as my name means either slender or graceful..." Then she noticed that there were costumes for both Rinna and Tovan Khev. "I guess we could become Rinna Khev and her brother Tovan, though it's the brother who has a greater role in the Legacy of Romulus story line of STO." Then she noticed that there was also a costume for Satra or rather many. "I could mix Rinna Khev and Satra and make up a character who is a Science Officer cross-trained as a Pilot." Joyce smiled at the young woman's quick thinking mind and was happy Willow didn't go into her customary babble when she spoke about how she could come up with a new character for Joyce's crew.
Joyce looked over the selections and picked up a Klingon suit of female battle armor with the decorated pauldrons or shoulder pads. Then she found the type 1 Romulan Republic Militia equipment belt. She also found the matching boots in her size for the armor and the bracers to protect her wrists and forearms. She was torn over the prop plasma pistols and rifles or the disrupter ones. She picked one each of the disrupter pistol and rifle in the end. Then she picked one of the Klingon daggers for each of her crew and said, "Xander it doesn't look like they have enough Klingon male battle armor, but they do have a Romulan-Klingon Alliance uniform for a man in your size."
It was then that her daughter and her friends realized that Joyce's character in STO was a Klingon aligned Romulan as well. Then Willow picked out a female set of Klingon battle armor for herself including the boots and a disrupter pistol, disrupter rifle and the dagger too. Then Buffy did the same as Xander picked out the Romulan-Klingon uniform and each of them took a copy of the same belt Joyce used.
After selecting the right uniforms and accouterments Joyce had taken the Scoobies up to the counter where they found Harmony also with a female Klingon battle armor costume along with Cordelia and Aura from the children's school. Each of Harmony's companions had selected the same armor as Harmony and Joyce. Buffy looked over the costumes and said, "What's up Cordie; couldn't find the costumes you wanted at Party Town either?" She looked at her nemesis from school with a glare that challenged the young woman to just be snarky. It was Harmony who spoke up and sad, "Well to be honest freak we didn't find anything but the standard Federation or Klingon or Imperial Romulan outfits at Party Town. We found out about Ethan's here and that Ethan," she nodded towards the store's proprietor, "somehow got in an inventory of the uniforms from Star Trek Online rather than from the shows and movies. Also have you noticed that these costumes seem more real than the ones at Party Town?"
"Girls," Joyce said looking at both Buffy and Harmony disappointed at their behavior, "That's enough!" Then she saw the man behind the counter smiling at her. He did look rather handsome for a mature middle aged man. He looked at the six teenagers and the mature middle aged woman with them and said, "Ah I see your interests lie in the area of our selection of Romulan Republic costumes based on Star Trek Online. I had to specially order them from a supplier, a little toad of a man, but an honest broker if there ever is one. Mister Madran always comes through for me."
"By the way I am Ethan, Ethan Rayne the humble proprietor of this establishment," said Ethan as he began to ring up the purchases. "Before you take them home I will make sure they are ready and in need of little cleaning before you wear them tonight." With that Ethan finished the transactions and took everyone's outfits to his back room where he gave them each very special attention. When he returned with each outfit in a garment bag he said as he passed each one out, "Here you go, I hope you each have a very exciting evening tonight..."
THE BRIDGE OF THE R.R.W. MANDUKAR 1 NOVEMBER
That and other memories of the night before came to her as Joyce came to and alerted to her surroundings. Without thinking over it she yelled out and said, "Tovan what is our situation?" The only Romulan male on the Bridge and her First Officer looked up shaking off whatever it was that affected him. He looked over his workstation's monitors and said, "We're over a Class M planet. From Rinna's feed to my station the planet is Pre-Warp and... Oh... By the Elements! This can't be..." He activated the main viewer and when it turned on Joyce or rather Nel'ar saw what caused Tovan's consternation. Before her was the homeworld of the humans, Earth! It was being viewed from just over the horizon of Earth's moon Luna.
From the other station forward of the command chair Nel'ar heard a gasp. Benala, Nel'ar's daughter looked up at the main viewer and said, "By the Elements indeed! When did we arrive over Earth, a pre-warp Earth that is?" Nel'ar remembered that the last thing before she passed out was that her ship was taking a secure message from New Romulus to Earth, but then she had other memories of a night of terror on the ground and her giving a call out to every Romulan in her vicinity to rally to her communicator's signal.
"Benala I am not sure, but it looks like we somehow wound up here last night. Rinna, what does the chronometer read?" Nel'ar asked of her red headed Science Officer. The younger Romulan woman worked at the Science Officer's console and studied the readings before answering. When Rinna was ready the young woman said, "Ma'am I have 09:00 Pacific Standard on 1 November." Nel'ar nodded then asked as if she truly needed to, "Tovan are we cloaked?"
Reading what his Tactical Officer's Station was telling him Tovan said, "Yes Subcommander we are. We are invisible to all means of electronic detection or otherwise." It was Tirina, a young Romulan woman with long brunette hair who said from the Operations Station, "Ma'am we must not have gone to cloak soon enough because I am getting a repetitive message originating in the vicinity of the city of Colorado Springs, Colorado."