What A Ripper!

Star Traks: Boldly Gone
Episode name	What A Ripper!
Season	8
Episode number	1
Writer(s)	Alan Decker, Anthony Butler
Year	2502
Stardate	178024
Chronology
Previous in series	Live Long And Conquer [BG]
Next in series	Hard Sell [BG]
Previous in timeline	Live Long And Conquer [BG]
Next in timeline	Hard Sell [BG]

They say good things come in small packages. That is unless the small package comes from a strange man in a dark alley and contains something that even Reginald Bain is going to need help to handle. Let the devastation begin in "What A Ripper"!

Summary

After the Vulcan withdrawal from Romulan space, the USS Anomaly is assigned to the Romulan Empire to assist wherever needed while the Romulans get their fleet back in order. Bain allows members of the crew to take shore leave on Romulus, starting with the Romulan members of the crew.

While at an open-air market, Centurion Nortal is given a small box by a mysterious man in a dark alley. He says he is giving it to her in honor of her efforts to free the Empire from Vulcan villainy. Inside is a dark green gem that she takes back to her quarters on the Anomaly. A note in the box says that the gem should be submerged in water for 10 seconds daily to achieve optimum shine and brilliance. Nortal does so, but the gem cracks in two, revealing a small lizard-like creature. She tries to stomp on it, but, to her surprise, it catches her foot and pushes her back as it suddenly grows to over three meters in height then attacks her.

The ship’s sensors detect damage to Nortal’s quarters, so Lieutenant Commander Tovar takes a security team to investigate. They find her doors bent outward and Nortal badly injured. Tovar comms Dr. Fred Nooney to see to Nortal and rejoins the security team. They soon find the massive creature, which charges them. Nooney arrives just as the team starts blasting the lizard, to absolutely no effect. Tovar orders his officers to evacuate the deck, then sets his wrist phaser to overload and tosses it at the creature. This is enough of a distraction for Nooney to get himself and Nortal beamed to sickbay. Tovar comms Commander Prosak, who is in command on the bridge, and lets her know about the situation. She says they can’t see the intruder on sensors. He has her seal off the deck and notify Captain Reginald Bain.

Bain arrives on the bridge, and Prosak fills him in just before Tovar gets there with a tiny piece of scale that cracked off of the creature from Tovar’s exploding wrist phaser. Bain has Dr. Natalia Kasyov analyze the scale, then the bridge officers review security footage from Nortal’s quarters, showing her attack by the creature. Tovar notices that a small Romulan data cylinder bounced out of the box holding the crystal, when Nortal tossed it aside in excitement upon rushing into her quarters. He goes to retrieve it.

Kasyov discovers that the creature has been heavily genetically modified indicating that someone designed it. The head reminds her of a crocodile, so she focuses her research in that direction and confirms that there is indeed Earth crocodile DNA in the creature. Continuing her search, she finds an expert in the subject.

The data cylinder contains a short message reading, “SHE MAY BE GONE, BUT HER VENGEANCE LIVES ON.” Tovar realizes that the creature must have been created by Dr. Lenik as a backup plan in case FOBBER failed, which it did. Nortal survived the attack, possibly because Lenik designed the creature to dislike Romulan blood. Kasyov suggests sending an all Romulan team to deal with the creature, but Bain says that he wants to do it himself. Kasyov says that Bain should at least take some help, and activates the expert she found, a hologram of Steve Irwin. Bain isn’t thrilled by the idea, but decides to trust Kasyov’s suggestion.

Bain and Steve go to deck eleven, where the creature is trapped, with Steve carrying nothing besides rope and a flashlight. They encounter the creature, and Steve is able to sling the rope around its top jaw. He shouts for Bain to get on its back. Before he can, it bites through the rope and runs off. Steve asks for better rope, so Bain contacts Lieutenant Shelly Marsden and asks if she can come up with something. She sends them some seralium cabling, which she thinks should work, since it can handle the forces inside the warp nacelles. They track the creature to a set of quarters, but when Steve steps inside, he vanishes. The creature destroyed the holoemitters and the lights in the room. Steve hands the cabling off to Bain and tells him to either get the creature to leave the quarters or he’ll need to get a top jaw rope on it.

Bain enters the room and narrowly avoids being attacked. He leaps onto the creature’s back, which then races out into the corridor. Steve calls for Bain to throw him the rope, which he does. Steve lassos the creature’s top jaw, then leaps onto its back with Bain, their combined weight bringing it down to the deck. Steve has Bain cover its eyes while he quickly uses the cabling to wrap the creature’s mouth shut. With its eyes covered, the creature actually calms down. Marsden creates a suitable container, and with the help of the Anomaly’s bodybuilding club, they get the creature safely stowed away for transport.

Bain promises Steve they will find a good home for it. They release the creature on Navoli Four, an uninhabited world covered in swamps and rivers, where it is very happy. Kasyov idly wonders if there’s anything on the planet that it could mate with.

Featuring

• Captain Reginald Bain
• Commander Prosak
• Commander Vioxx
• Lieutenant Commander Tovar
• Lieutenant Shelly Marsden
• Sub-Commander Remax
• Dr. Natalia Kasyov
• Centurion Nortal
• Sub-Lieutenant Zantak
• Engineer Selex
• Cabral

Author's Comments

We wrote this story long before Steve Irwin's death, and admittedly it's a little sad now. At the time, though, my family enjoyed watching Steve and Terry, and my son was determined that he was going to marry Bindi (I think they were both around 3 at that point). As unlikely as that was, I felt a bit of terror at the thought of being dragged into the Outback by Steve to celebrate the merging of our families. His movie, "The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course" (Which I absolutely recommend if you're in the mood for something ridiculous.) has a bit of dialogue which I felt perfectly encapsulated the difference between me and Steve Irwin. At one point, they are preparing to head into a section of the Outback that Terry says is home to some of the most dangerous snakes on the planet. Then Steve says, "And if we're lucky, we're gonna find some!" NO! No, sir! That is absolutely the OPPOSITE of lucky!

In any case, it was fun to use him in a story and pair him up with Bain. I'm certain Steve never happened across this story, but, if he had, I hope he would have gotten a kick out of it.

Links

What A Ripper!