A NORMAL DAY AT WORK

(Part 2)

Bruce Sommer

As Ensign Christopher "Thomas Jefferson" Edwards regained consciousness, he found upon moving, pain running through his extremities. He saw that he was upright, elevated from the floor, spread-eagled, and taped with tritanium circuit tape to the wall of the Science Security Section. This position had caused his muscles to, quite painfully, tie themselves into knots.

With a great deal of agony, he twisted his head from side to side in order to survey the room. The computers seemed to be operational, but the cabinet holding the computer tapes, that had appeared to be forced open and its alarm bypassed, looked as if it had not even been touched.

The only other person in the room was a male Homo Sapien, olive-skinned, and apparently middle-aged, from Terra or one of its colonies. His dress consisted of a standard Starfleet duty uniform. Currently, he was busy typing at one of the computer terminals.

Edwards tried ripping loose from his bonds, but that only made the pain at his joints worse. "Great," he mumbled, "If arthritis cured by occasional injections wasn't enough, now this lunatic thinks the best way to restrain me is by taping me to this damned wall. Death and taxes! I'll never break out of these things."

"Mr. Edwards, do you always talk to yourself?" the man asked. As he came closer, Edwards noticed that he was wearing the cobalt blue of Sciences and the rank insignia of a Lieutenant. He paced back and forth in front of his bound victim, thinking, then let a smile beam forth.

"Good morning! Lieutenant Joshua O'Halloran, Ship's Computer Programming Specialist reporting for duty, sir!" presenting a sharp old US Navy military salute, he burst out laughing.

"But you don't expect me to believe that's your real name, do you?" Edwards asked, straining again at his bonds. Pain once more caused him to halt his actions.

"Of course not!" O'Halloran chuckled. "But, Lieutenant O'Halloran was expected to transfer to the Saratoga during her stop at Starbase Five. I'm sorry to say that Josh will never be joining the Saratoga - or any other starship. So it seems fit that you address me as Lieutenant O'Halloran." He burst out laughing once again.

* * *

Commander Heather R. Scott found that she couldn't sleep for more than an hour at a time tonight. The whole deal with the explosion of the Dilithium Crystal in Engineering and the resulting injury of Lieutenant Commander Nejlef UnJevi had her nerves on edge. The Saratoga had been forced to use their reserve crystal from ship's stores and now she had to find a suitable planet for some replacement crystals. She was confident that Ensign Edwards could handle the job. Hadn't he just received not only a commendation, but a promotion to ensign as well? But she thought it was best to check up on him. It did seem strange that the crystal had decided to explode shortly after leaving Starbase Five.

Heather dressed in her duty uniform figuring that 0400 was not too early for her to start her shift. Crossing the room to where Synergy, her Firelizard was watching her, she stroked his scales and scratched his eye ridges. Welcoming the attention, he flew up and perched on her left shoulder. Then crossing to her terminal, she punched in her access code in order to retrieve any data Ensign Edwards had in his current file.

* * *

The subject of Commander Scott's current thoughts studied the Starfleet imposter in front of him as he once more began to pace back and forth. "I guess you're wondering why I'm here and what I want from you. You're right in that I could have just killed you if you didn't serve a purpose in the scheme of things. But, you see, I do have use for your knowledge.

"I mean isn't that how all us so called Authoritarian barbarians work. First, we set up coercive governments enforcing laws against crimes of morality - the morals of which apply to only a limited culture or religion, then we set up protectionist tariffs to stifle competition and lower the standard of living, going on to print currency with no backing that we can inflate at our leisure thus devaluating it, and last, but not least, the dreaded graduated income tax to stifle productivity, reward laziness, and transfer wealth used productively in the private sector to the public sector where it will be wasted feeding the monster of bureaucracy.

"Oh, yes, Mr. Edwards, I have studied you quite throughly. Your favorite food is lobster with melted butter - the bigger the better. Your favorite book, "The Probability Broach" by L. Neil Smith, copyrighted in 1980. Your registered political party is Libertarian, which actually has a foothold in the UFP, believe it or not. But, this is why I need your help.

"As you know, the nearest available planet which has dilithium is Arbos-II. As you would have found out when you accessed the secured file, Arbos-II has a political code of LNS. I believe you know what that means?"

The blood rushed from Edwards' head as he realized the implications of what the pseudo-O'Halloran was saying. The code LNS was a tribute to L. Neil Smith representing a planet that had no government. These planets were usually colonized by people who were politically libertarian in order to set up a society where the only thing an individual governed was him or herself. All deals between people were set up through contract, and the only crimes were those that violated an individual's right to life, liberty, and property. And it couldn't have been coincidence that the Dilithium Crystal had chosen this area in which to explode.

"Let me guess," Edwards hissed. "You were the one responsible for the Dilithium Crystal explosion. What do you want? Who put you up to this?"

"Now that you mention it, yes, that piece of handiwork was mine," O'Halloran chuckled. "You see, my being a mercenary-for-hire, a member of the Political Action Group 'Citizen's for Decency in the Federation' has hired me to wipe out all life on Arbos-II."

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