Thursday, October 10, 1996
Star Trek (The Iomega Mission) - Part I
by CyberVster
(part I1)

Star date 1006.96, Crewman CyberVster's personal log. I am recording this log from my quarters in an attempt to document the events of the last mission. Currently the Captain appears to be missing but I am sure he will return eventually.

I work in the ship's computer analysis section and therefore have access to most of the information systems on board. I know I am not supposed to relay confidential information in my personal logs and I will resist the temptation.

Our mission started out innocently enough. We had completed construction of the first Cyberspace station a year earlier and had just wrapped up the final shakedown of the BBS decks. Since no new orders had been issued, Captain Kirk suggested that the crew pick a course and go exploring for awhile. The Captain rarely gave us this kind of freedom but when he did we always played along willingly. While meandering through the galaxy rather haphazardly, someone noticed a potential bright spot on the charts. It seemed that no one had taken much notice of it before because all that could be found in the computer banks were some old entries of little interest. Although one entry indicated a similar bright spot appearing in the past, it had faded a long time ago. A lot of the crew was uninterested in the sector because most of the data indicated it was a mature area and its name didn't elicit excitement. It was called the Storage Sector.

Since we were still without orders from Star Fleet, the captain permitted us to lay in a course and get a closer look. Most of the crew went about their lives and took advantage of the free time to explore personal interests. But, some of the science teams and computer geeks started to track the bright potential and some even took long-range sensor scans of the anomaly. The information we collected was infinitesimal at first. One report came back on a Sunday (earth measurement) indicating a lot of activity around the area. To those few doing research this appeared to be big news. They started talking in the turbo lifts and corridors, until finally others became curious and pitched in to help everyone learn more.

I personally became interested after a sensor sweep picked up some activity in a sector usually not associated with this one, but traces with magnetic origins started to show up in a far-off sector called Retail. In case I omitted an explanation of what we were tracking, I will include one here -- a byproduct of a process in the storage sector that exhibits impressive magnetic density, as well as extreme portability of electrons aligned in tight patterns, migrating to a special rust-permeated substrate, orbiting within a structure. It was likely named by a scientist who was impressed by the speed of this alignment process. With more of the crew keeping their personal sensors focused on the phenomenon as it developed, we began to gather facts quite quickly.

Our excitement was full-blown by star date 1010.95 and even the bridge crew could hardly contain themselves. Jim, ... err ... Captain Kirk wanted to be the first to profit from this discovery and ordered the Enterprise to warp speed in an attempt to stake an early claim. All of us were very excited and pleased with ourselves. It is rumored that Spock was "Concerned." And Bones (that's Dr. McCoy) "was a doctor, not a magician."

Of course Scotty, the old sea dog, had been spending his time refitting the warp engines and issued a warning to Jim, ... err ... the Captain. "Captain," he said, "I'll not be ready for some time." Jim, ... err ... the Captain's reply (I get nervous referring to the captain so informally) was something like "Hell's Bells, Scotty, give me everything you've got!" Well you know Scotty as well as I do, and I'm sure you can guess what he did. <continued tomorrow>

Transmitted: 10/10/96