=Somewhere on Starbase Unity=
Rick was awake at least an hour and a half before his and Mai's
alarm went off. When he tried to go back to sleep, he couldn't.
So, he donned on his workout clothes, a T-shirt, jogging pants
and running shoes and went for a jog through the spacious
corridors of the starbase.
The thing about the past couple of months was that Rick, while
given a healthy diet, was unable to run and workout properly,
leading to what could only be considered "baby fat". It wasn't
much, and Mai said she couldn't even notice, but Rick could.
So, any chance he had to get back into shape, he took it.
Back when he was CEO of the starbase, he had developed a
route throughout the base that measured exactly five kilometers.
While he might not be able to run the entire five Ks today, he
had a pretty good idea how far he did run.
About a mile into his run, he got a pretty good pace going. Three
kilometers was certainly not out of the question. When Rick ran
around a corner, though, he felt as if he had hit a wall. He fell
back on his rear, trying to shake away the force of the impact.
"Watch where you're running, human," Rick looked up and saw
one of the largest klingons he had ever seen.
"Sorry, but you in my way," Rick said.
The klingon laughed.
"You talk funny," the klingon said.
"Well, you look funny," Rick replied, ignoring those nagging
thoughts that were telling him to shut up.
The klingon grunted at him.
Rick grunted back.
Those nagging thoughts were now screaming at him.
The klingon knelt down and grabbed Rick by the collar of his
shirt, lifting him from his sitting position and into the air. Rick's
feet couldn't even reach the deck.
Rick prepared to defend himself. While he was an engineer, he
was also a SSF officer. For some reason, though, his mind picked
that moment to black out on him.
When Rick recovered a couple of minutes later, he was back down
on the deck, staring up at what had to be an angel.
"Am I dead?" Rick asked.
"I don't think so," the angel replied, offering Rick a hand to help
him stand.
When Rick finally stood, he looked to his right and saw the klingon
laying on the deck, apparently knocked out.
"I know I not do that," Rick muttered.
"No, I did," the angel responded with a smile.
Rick got a better look at the angel, who turned out to be a beautiful
katarian woman.
"Thanks," Rick said.
"No problem. I was in the area and saw that you were in trouble.
You apparently fainted."
"I not faint. I black out. First time it ever happened. Not unexpected."
"Faint, black out. No matter."
"I Rick, by the way. Command ... commander Rick Rodgers," Rick
offered a hand.
"I'm Denaria," she said, shaking the offered hand. "I've got to go.
Security should be by shortly to take care of him," she nodded to the
klingon.
She turned to walk away.
"Wait, I want to thank you."
She turned her head to Rick, "You just did."
"No, thank you right. Drink or something."
"No need. In fact, just pretend that you never saw me, and that will
be thanks enough.
With that, she disappeared around a corner. Rick considered following
her, but decided against it. Just then, a couple of security crewman
arrived.
Commander Rick Rodgers
Engineering Officer
Starbase Unity
and
npcs by Rick
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