Log Entry 160403.175

Preparations got underway very quickly. After all, there was no point in hanging about. T'Roc and I returned to the Earhart, and no sooner had our feet materialised on the transporter pad than she instructed me to select my team.

"My team? Aren't you coming with us," I asked.

She looked at me and laughed quite mockingly.

"No, this is your playtime. Pick your bestest of friends to amuse yourself with, get your kit together, have fun, stay safe and play nicely." She was being sarcastic.

It didn't take me long to assemble my team: Al, Luke and Rutter. That would make five of us with Traeth. Technically, Rutter is a little taller than I would have liked for the expedition, but his experience and training far outweighed any of those concerns. Anyway, Traeth wouldn't mind Rutter's height.

We arranged to meet Traeth in a little wooded area near the beach. That was as attempt to keep Traeth's panic to a minimum. From there we would stroll down to the beach and take a boat (replicated by the Earhart) over to the island. This was on Honker's insistence. I didn't approve, but apparently, he wanted Traeth to experience the whole seafaring thing in its entirety and then report back. I could see that this terrified the life out of Traeth, and I'm quite angry that the High Emperor would insist upon such a thing, bearing in mind this fear was so deeply inset into every Dirrian in existence. He didn't want to go, but he didn't care if he petrified another in his pleasure quest. However, I decided, for the sake of diplomacy, that we would give it a try. If there were any problems, though, I would abandon the boat idea and we would transport over to the island instead. There was no way I was going to torture my friend for some childish Emperor's pleasure.

We arrived in the little wooded area, which turned out to be not so little. Standing amongst the trees of giant tulips that stood thirty feet tall, I felt more like Alice in Wonderland than Jenny Terran, Starfleet Officer.

Traeth was waiting for us, looking somewhat pale as he squat by his little bundle of possessions. It wasn't a proper backpack, though, just a bindle. As we arrived, he stood up, picking up the stick and resting it on his shoulder. He reminded me of Dick Whittington.

Seeing the amount of kit we had, he apologised and looked quite shamefaced.

"No worries," I quipped. "Dirrians don't camp so we came prepared. We've even brought a backpack for you with some personal items in that you may not have thought of. There's room in it for your own stuff too. Come on," I smiled. "Let's get you sorted."

As we transferred Traeth's possessions into the backpack, I introduced the gang to him. He cheered up a little more with each hand he shook.

"I'd forgotten how friendly Humans are," he smiled weakly.

"I'm not Human, though," cut in Al in a friendly manner. "I'm—" and she stopped dead.

My, oh my! Was she starting to embrace her Klingon heritage after all?

"Klingon," I grinned, unable to resist the tease. "The word you're looking for is Klingon!"

Rutter and Luke smothered grins as Al glared at me.

"I know!" she barked.

Traeth nudged me. "It's just like old times!" he whispered loudly and looked truly happy.

With Traeth now more suitably equipped with a rucksack on his back and proper footwear (he'd come in sandals!), we set off. Traeth was now very chatty, expressing his surprise and pleasure at just how comfortable the pack was despite its weight, and the boots. How did I know his size for instance? I didn't let on that as I had stood next to him yesterday, I had compared his feet to mine. After all, does a magician reveal his secrets?

Log Entry 160326.174

I was still frustrated by the fact that I didn't know what was going on. What had I volunteered us for?

"I don't understand why the High Emperor needs us to do this for him," began T'Roc, making herself comfortable on the sofa. She leaned forward and poured a cup of the mysterious beverage from the pot that remained from breakfast. It would be stone cold by now but it didn't seem to bother her. In fact, as she sipped it, an eyebrow rose in satisfaction. "It's not exactly difficult or specialist, and he has the whole of Dirria to call upon, so why does he need Starfleet?"

"Fear," replied Traeth.

"So it is dangerous then," I interjected.

T'Roc tutted. "Oh, put her out of her misery, for goodness sake."

Traeth laughed. "The High Emperor wants members of the Earhart to explore Tikarra Island for him."

"What's so important or terrible about Tikarra Island that it requires Starfleet?"

"Nothing, not that anybody knows of anyway."

"Then why us?"

"Ah, that's my fault, I'm afraid," said Traeth. "Honka and I—"

"Honka?"

"The High Emperor."

"You're on first name terms with the High Emperor!" I exclaimed.

He laughed. "Yes. When the delegation returned from the Drakonia, he heard all about your tales of me and sought me out. He was intrigued to know more about Earth and its people. Since then, I've been interrogated endlessly about my time on Earth ... and that's where things go wrong." Traeth sighed. "The problem is that I didn't realise what he was after. I regaled tales of our adventures as children, through the eyes of a child. I inadvertently painted you as being some brave and intrepid explorer."

I wasn't quite sure how he managed that. We never ventured more than a few miles away from the orphanage, but as Traeth continued, I got the gist of it.

"We were just children on a great adventure. We made our own entertainment ... where scaling a steep embankment became ascending a mountain; climbing that big oak tree in the park was conquering a monster and do you remember those big stone pillars that we used to leap along the top of?"

I did them. It was a sculpture: an arrangement of large bollards between one and three foot high, each one about a foot across. A line of them snaked across the park, through flower beds and lawns. I'm not sure if we were supposed to stand on them or not, but the park keeper never minded—as long as we didn't squash his azaleas that is.

"That was us traversing a great canyon via stepping stones a thousand metres high! Below were targs, dragons and other carnivorous beasts waiting to devour us should we fall." His voice echoed the excitement we felt in those adventures so long ago, and I smiled remembering it well. "And then there were the Great Adventures."

I think I must have looked blank there because Traeth reiterated further.

"The treasure hunts in the park! Come on! You must remember!"

An elusive, vague memory began to surface.

"There was me, you, Lucy, Berry and Rufus and you'd create treasure hunts and games for us. Like the time you sent us all off with a little box and a list of things to fill it with. We had to find a yellow flower, a simple leaf, an acorn, a smooth stone, a twig shaped like the letter Y, a seed—lots of stuff like that."

Now I remembered.

"Quite the entertainments manager, weren't we," quipped T'Roc.

"It was just something for everyone to do. Otherwise the weekends were really boring."

"Still commendable; sounds like it took some organising."

"Not really. I did most of the planning during history."

T'Roc tittered and shook her head. Traeth continued.

"And you took us off to explore places. We went into town, various cafés, shops and museums, the parks, the lake—"

"Ah! The lake!" I screamed. Suddenly it all made complete sense.

"You remember the lake then?" said Traeth.

"Yes, and you were terrified of the water!"

"As are all Dirrians."

"Ah!" cried T'Roc in realisation. "And that's why the High Emperor wants us to explore the island for him."

"Exactly. Honka wants to know what's on the island but all Dirrians have this deeply inset and somewhat irrational fear of water."

"But he could just transport himself over there and explore it for himself," I said.

"We don't have transporter technology."

"Okay, but we could transport him over there and then he could explore it for himself."

"Do you have air conditioned tents and hot tubs, plus enough supplies to feed thirty servants and a battalion of chefs and kitchen staff? Trust me, Terran, you won't get Honka nibbling of the end of a single Kit-Kat shared between five kids."

"Okay, but he could send a party of Dirrians—I mean get us to transport a party of Dirrians to the island."

"He is, thank you very much, Terran."

I frowned, not appreciating what he was saying.

"Me, you fool! I can't say I'm overjoyed at the prospect, but he's sending me—with you! He wants us to go over there, discover new things and then come back and regale with him wondrous tales of adventure."

"But what if there's nothing there?"

"Then, just like in the park, we make canyons out of flower beds and mountains out of embankments because if we don't," Traeth rolled his eyes. "I don't even want to think about it—" I gasped wondering what horrible, dire punishment might await us. Traeth continued. "He'll sulk for months!"

Log Entry 160312.173

I scuttled behind T'Roc desperately trying to keep pace. I wasn't sure if I should just drop back and give her some time to cool off or to follow her, but thought the latter wisest for the time being. Besides, where else would I go? I suppose I could have wandered around the gardens for a time, but that didn't seem right somehow. So I followed her back into the palace and up the stairs to our room. I wasn't even over the threshold before she let rip.

"You really have no idea what you've got us into, do you? You are such an idiot at times! The worst thing you can ever do is try to cover up the fact that you haven't been paying attention. Your mind wandering is bad enough, but then you try to wash over it! Have you always been this stupid?" she screamed at me, although it wasn't really a scream. T'Roc had an uncanny ability to yell without raising her voice above a loud whisper. I must learn to master that technique some day.

"More or less," came a voice from inside the room. Surprised, we both turned to investigate.

Sitting on a chair in the corner was a Dirrian. Even sitting down, I could see that he was taller than your average Dirrian but he had the unmistakable and characteristic pale skin and dark hair of his race. He smiled smugly at us. We just stared at him.

"In answer to your question, Captain, yes, she has more or less always been a bit stupid. I don't know what she's done this time but I don't suppose it's any worse than any of the stuff she did as a kid."

My eyes widened. Could it be? Was it? If it was, he had changed almost beyond recognition. Traeth had been a small, puny child with pimples and a permanent sniff. This young man was the complete opposite. Still small and thin compared to humans, he was healthy, athletic even, and his skin was like alabaster: flawless, smooth, perfect.

" Traeth?" I ventured.

"Well, how many other Dirrians did you spend your childhood with?"

I was so delighted to see him, I forgot all about protocol, and all about to T'Roc. I ran past her to greet him, throwing my arms around him as he stood up to welcome me. We laughed; we embraced like the long lost friends that we were. I had never imagined that I would see him again. Even coming to Dirria, his home world, I had never assumed that we would meet again.

"You've changed so much," I exclaimed. "I hardly recognised you," I said.

"And you haven't changed a bit," he replied, pushing me to arm's length so that he could study at me better. "Now, let's see if I can help you figure out of this mess."

Ah, yes. The mess.