Disclaimer: Gadget Hackwrench and the other Rescue Rangers are the property of Disney. Star Trek, Star Trek:TNG, and any characters from those TV shows were created by Gene Roddenberry, who shared his incredible vision with us for so many years; they are also the property of Paramount. Mystery is a character from a Star Trek:TNG novel, Metamorphosis, which was a result of countless hours of hard work by Jean Lorrah. In other words, if you recognize a character, I didn't create it.

Please distribute, print, or burn freely,but do not modify and then claim it as your creation (as if anyone would WANT to...).Whew! Now that I have gotten all of that out of the way, I hope my first attempt at a fan-fic (in which Gadget is the main character) amuses you.

--Karen Mollett

Enterprise D pulls away from the docking ring of Deep Space 5. The crew is unaware that there is an extra passenger on board. The ships sensors ignore the presence of this diminutive creature as she attempts to figure out why she is now standing in bio-lab #1 and, more importantly, how the heck she's going to get out. She then spots a computer terminal (just about every room in the ship has some sort of computer interface). However, it is built into a wall and is 4 feet off the ground. Problem is, she's only about 3 inches tall. She searches the pockets of her lavender jumpsuit and then looks at her feet. She sees one of her "harpoon guns" (it looks more like a small-scale crossbow to me)that she had invented (she wasn't named *Gadget* Hackwrench for nothin'!) and picks it up.

Gadget takes careful aim. The plunger shoots out and sticks firmly to the wall, just above the console. Gadget climbs up the "rope" and begins messing with the computer. She uses a "guest" log-in and manages to access the schematic diagrams of the Enterprise (don't ask ME how she found them, ask HER...). The knowledge that she is on board a starship both thrills her and confuses her. While it's probably obvious why this would thrill her, it confuses her because she knows nothing like this exists in her time or on her world. Therefore, she logically concludes that she has either traveled through time or has somehow slipped into another dimension. It seems odd; she doesn't recall being near anything that could trigger such a phenomenon. It also seems odd that this would happen a day after she had stayed up late with Dale to watch a Star Trek:TNG marathon on the local FOX station. She disregards the last thought as coincidence and accesses more information.

Meanwhile, Lt. Cmdr. Data notices an unknown user is accessing information about the ship on the computer's network and decides to investigate. He tracks the user to a console in bio-lab #1 and alerts security as he walks over there. Data pauses in front of the door to bio-lab #1, but it does not open. The pale android prys the doors open and scans the lab; first visually, then with a tri-corder. He puzzles over the readouts from his tri-corder and notices something stuck to the wall, just above the console. "Curious." he comments as a security team walks over to him. "What is it, Commander?" asks a human male (wearing a mustard & black security uniform). Data replies, "It appears to be a tiny plunger with a string attached to it." The security team exchanges puzzled looks.

Gadget exits a Jefferys tube and lowers herself near a terminal in Main Engineering while Data (still in bio-lab #1)reports his strange discovery to Cmdr. Riker. The ship's sensors no longer ignore her (because she has entered a sensitive and vital area of the ship). Gadget hides as Lt. LaForge moves toward the terminal. He examines the screen and dismisses the whole affair as a false alarm. He makes a mental note to check that internal sensory array when he has time. Gadget examines the warp engines (from a distance) and tries to figure out how they work and the principles involved with their operation. She doesn't quite succeed, but writes some of her observations down on her mouse-sized clipboard, which she pullsout from one of her pockets. (Hmm. I wonder how she gets all that crap--er,um wonderful stuff--into her pockets? Pockets of Holding?). Her observations gave her a lot of ideas, so she jots them down as well. She leaves the area in order to find a terminal that isn't in such a busy place.

She heads for a transporter room (did she find the report concerning Captain James T. Kirk's experience in an alternate universe & read it--or had she seen "Mirror, Mirror" and remembered it?), but ends up in an empty crew cabin. "Ooops! I must have miscalculated!" She says to herself and then looks up. She sees a computer interface. "But this will work." She uses her "harpoon gun" again and climbs up--only to discover that the console was a food replicator. "Ooops, again! Two mistakes in a row? How unlike me..." She plays with the replicator, but nothing useful happens. She slides down, retrieves the plunger and leaves the area. However, as she was leaving, she encounters Mystery, the ship's wandering Siamese cat. (Have you read Metamorphosis, a TNG novel by Jean Lorrah? Apparently Gadget has...) The cat is called Mystery because "no one knew how she got through or around doors, detectors, or forcefields...". Gadget does her rendition of a Ferengi Marauder that has been confronted by a Romulan Bird-of-Prey: all about and warp 9! (In other words, she turned and ran like heck.)

The chases ends in sick bay, where a certain red-haired doctor picks up the Siamese and scolds it for coming into her sick bay. Dr. Beverly Crusher turns Mystery loose in the corridor and goes back into sick bay. Gadget hides and realizes that the chase had nearly exhausted her. She finds a safe place to rest and soon falls asleep...

Gadget woke up to the sound of two chipmunks arguing. She looked around and discovered that she was in the RangerWing. Gadget rubbed her eyes, yawned, and declared, "Golly! Monty must have put some weird spices in his cheese sauce last night! And I really should make a video recording device in case Dale talks me into watching another Star Trek marathon." She shook her head vigorously and still heard Chip yelling at Dale. She stumbled out of the half-repaired RangerWing and walked toward the source of all the shouting.

End of File :)