Short End Of The Stick

Star Traks: Waystation
Episode name	Short End Of The Stick
Season	Stardate 57---
Episode number	3
Writer(s)	Alan Decker
Year	2380
Stardate	Unknown
Chronology
Previous in series	All Ahead Full
Next in series	A Dish Best Served Awkwardly
Previous in timeline	More Today That Yesterday [VEX]
Next in timeline	Tightrope [VEX]

Part of being First Officer is dealing with the crappy jobs that the Captain doesn't want to do. So how bad does a First Contact have to be for Captain Lisa Beck to decide she'd rather deal with Starfleet paperwork and let Commander Walter Morales handle this one?

Summary

As Captain Lisa Beck is suffering under the weight of the bureaucratic paperwork generated by Counselor Kelly Peterman's abrupt departure from Waystation, Ops detects the arrival of an unknown vessel...a small unknown vessel...really small...tiny even. Beck establishes contact and learns that the ship is an exploratory vessel from Mathastelbro, a species of beings only 30 centimeters tall. Beck hands the First Contact duties off to Commander Walter Morales, who invites the Mathastelbroans aboard for lunch, which Yeoman Tina Jones helps him set up in the Waystation Conference Center. After their ship lands in Docking Bay Four, the Mathastelbroans, led by Lord Rytos, joins the Starfleet officers for the meal, during which Rytos talks and talks and talks about their voyage. Following lunch, Morales, Jones, and Lieutenant Commander Craig Porter take the Mathastelbroans on a tour of the station, but in Starfleet Square Mall Lord Rytos vanishes. With the Mathastelbroans threatening to take action if Rytos is not found, Porter launches into an investigation of the disappearance without much success. Rytos' tiny stature makes him very difficult to locate.

Morales, Porter, and Jones soon deduce that the only person who might have a motive to take Rytos would be a child, who might think the Mathastelbroan looked like a fancy doll. Going back through the logs, they find the culprit, Loudette, the daughter of Queen Halleyenn of Tesidor Three, a tiny world that was once a Federation colony. Halleyenn is on Waystation trying to get a meeting with President Bradley Dillon, and, unfortunately, her daughter is a bratty little princess. As Morales, Porter, and Jones race to the Starfleet Suites Hotel to confront Lourette, the Mathastelbroan ship blasts its way out of Docking Bay Four into the station itself, eventually emerging in the mall, where Lieutenant Commander Sean Russell is forced to deal with it without harming the ship's occupants. He drafts an unwilling Dr. Diantha, who takes off after the ship and is eventually able to capture it in a net. Morales, Jones, and Porter get past Queen Halleyenn with only a little bit of force, but Loudette is not willing to part with her toy. Eventually Porter is able to trick her with the patented "Hey! Look over there!" method, and the officers escape with Rytos. With Rytos returned to them, the Mathastelbroans leave the station in a huff.

Featuring

• Captain Lisa Beck
• Commander Walter Morales
• Lieutenant Commander Craig Porter
• Lieutenant Commander Sean Russell
• Yeoman Tina Jones
• Dr. Diantha
• Bradley Dillon

Also Featuring

• Stephanie Hodges

Author's Comments

I wanted to do something silly to break things up after the first two stories of this run were more on the serious side. Really tiny aliens seemed to fit the bill, and I liked the image I had in my head of Diantha dogfighting with their ship in the mall. The name of the aliens in this story, Mathastelbroans, was another flimsy attempt at humor on my part. The aliens were toy sized, so Mat Has tel bro Mattel Hasbro.

Links

Short End Of The Stick