*Swak! Rawaikla trill wak damn wak apes! Sucwak rara rip wik lawak them a new trillsuu…. Er… damnit….*(one of many cuss

songs)

*Com OFF*

Oh crap!..I realized I had left my combadge was on during my cussing. At least this was before my log entry, and had turn off the

combadge. Shreeeek!

There's no real translation for this.

P.A.D.D *Com Personal log star date 062903 private.

(start)

From the frying pan, to the fire.

At least that is how I remember the humans use of words to describe a bad situation that gets even more worst as time goes bye.

Maybe I should have not left the safe eyries of home.

Curse them, curse me, I feel so useless, helpless. My first day on this new crew and I fell literally into fire…..

I was rewarded a transfer from my original ship, the USS Dunwich to Starbase 13, then to the USS Freedom. I use the word

"rewarded" lightly. It was actually a tragedy involving the Captain D. Duran's pet and a poorly placed syntax of my people's word

for snack. I felt bad enough about eating his pet Persian cat and tried to apologize for the error and replacement of the cat but it

seems the bright red color the captain took on was not the normal color of happiness of my people. I wish the Captain had

informed me that he had sent for his pet and had addressed it to me to get it pass customs with the other shipments I had ordered

for him. He was not pleased. Admiral Ironbottom, though I never saw the human, I over heard him telling my captain on the com

that he had the perfect place for reassignment for me.

I left Star Base 13 in a standard shuttle to arrive at USS Freedom, I had not even the time to properly preen and don my rank

color sash and kilt when I was hustled off the shuttle and directly to the transporter room. This caused me great confusion. The

only thing from my kit I had was my personal P.A.D.D./com badge on my daily wear neckband.

I waited with my questions unanswered as the transporter engineer jiggled with the controls and grumbled about "lock on" not

achieved yet. I was really worrying about this and about to protest, when he announced lock on was achieved, and two humanoids

phased in and I phased out.

There I stood, dazed, confused, out of uniform except my P.A.D.D./com badge on my neckband, and feathers unpreened from the

fairly long shuttle trip.

A white cat humanoid female shouted "Birdie!" at me, a human male looked my way and said something about "Mother puss

bucket", and there were others that were ether standing around or sitting in an antique box style auto. Everyone seemed to be at

ease (if just a little shocked at my arrival) so I took a relax stance.

I finally established who was the way-team leader. A male human named Captain Lee who also introduced himself as XO of the

USS Freedom. This confused me just that much more, just how many Captains did that ship have? It isn't that large of a ship,

though it is lager than the one I had been stationed on.

He also informed me that it was year 2000 on Earth. 2000! Oh great Soul of Skorr! The humans here have never meet my race

yet or even achieved manned space flight out of their moon's range of more than a talon full of unmanned flights! I must have let

my emotion show way to much as I realized my beak was nearly touching the ground and Captain Lee was asking me if I was ok.

He is a nice human.

Captain Lee also informed me that the humans here have not made contact with the Vulcan race yet. Great, just great, Like I am

really gonna fit in as a 'normal' citizen here, a 8 foot giant "birdie", not like I can wear a mask and a coat to disguise myself. And

all of Earth's Giant birds similar to my size but primitive had been dead for centuries.

There also seem to be some sort of fight breaking out after the white catoid started to cry and whine about breaking the classic

auto and the human male comforting her. One of the ground crew said something about her being his pet.

Oh great, just what I don't need is another pet cat accident….

At least I established that the human called LT Dammers was not referring to me as a "mother puss bucket" that it was his

emotional song for something he has never seen before. Meaning the Skorr race, he seemed nice enough.

They started to climb into the classic auto, so I decided that it would be best to get my feathered self in the back of the auto as I

would take up most of the storage space. That is when I meet Lott, the assistant engineer. I am not sure of what race she may be

it could be human. She was nice and chatted with me for a bit. It was getting hot in the auto and it was going no where, some talk

about it being broken. So I exited the box to stand on the roadside.

The Romulan, who was there, seemed nice enough until she started to say that the pet tried to eat her and then call out for me to

eat the white pet catiod. I tried to explain that I don't eat fellow crewmates or their pets when the white cat suddenly stood up

gave the human male a rib cracking hug, grinning like mad over the male's shoulder and stuck her tongue at the Romulan.

I think the Romulan said her name was Lera.

Lera grabbed the catiod's tongue and started to pull it…. and …. well it just got stranger after that. There had been some odd

interaction between the humanoids and the Captain, something about the other male saying he was sorry to have stepped on his

talons about the white catiod affections …… affections over a pet?

Awk! I start to wonder who I would have to eat to get out of this assignment without ending up with me being in someone's brig or

dead….

As they sorted things out, I tried to apply my Vedala Engineering skills on the auto, and what little I understood about Classic Earth

autos (mostly from the old movies I watched the six years while on Earth). I opened the front of the machine and had a look

inside. There was a coolant unit and some hoses and wires leading here and there but no engine. I looked into the control pit

instrument panel looking for the dial that showed how much fuel the thing might have or not have. It seemed to have fuel in it at

least I think it did. I agree with the others, the auto was "flooded" with fuel (by the smell of the air around us) and would need time

to "burp" to allow the combustion-mixing chamber to fire properly.

When I pulled my head back out I notice another black auto closing in on us. I tried to point this out to Captain Lee but he was still

engaged in some sort of bonding ritual with the other human male. So I chose to use the best of my time to sun myself as I waited.

I spread my wings and allowed the solar light to bathe me. I just love Earth's sun, not to harsh, and not to cool, just right.

The car drew nearer. A glass plane rolled down and a human wearing black glasses and a fetching black suit looked out at us.

Well, put my best wing forward I said "Hello" just when the human pulled out a large rifle and took a shot at me! AWK! How

rude! I knew it, year 2000 humans are barbaric apes!

First I ducked, there was a loud explosion of soil and rock next to me, then I took to wing, mostly out of natural response to get

away, and shouted at the black car's humans in the human's speak "NO". Waving my empty hands to show that I had no weapons

with me. I was friendly. They were not. The human took another shot at me.

The human Dammers went for a phaser, gun, thing, (I've never seen a gun like that before) and his white catiod pet dove for the

roof of the black car. It must be trained to attack…? That is when I noticed it was also wearing human style clothing…. How odd

for a pet, the fact that it can also speak is amazing.

There were more shots from the car, and return fire from Dammers, Lee, and I think Lera. I tried to land on top of the car over

the white cat and grab at the ape's gun to get him to stop hurting me.. er.. us. I missed horribly and both the white female cat and

myself ended up with a rude shock from the roof of the car. I tried to grab her as she also rolled off the roof but the stinging

numbness from the shock in my feet and hands made me miss, I took to the air as best I could. The updraft from the auto helped.

Will this ever end? What in the Rushing Darkness did I do to make them so mad to have fired at me? "Hello" was pretty much

universally used on Earth in year 2000. Had I insulted their family?

Much to my surprise the ape's car front flipped open and exposed a nasty looking cannon. It fired at the human Dammers, and the

ape on the other side of the black car kept his rifle trained on me and firing it. Somewhere along the way Captain Lee was

knocked to the ground by the black car's cannon and was not moving.

I landed and shield him with my wings, but the car kept coming. I found Lee's phaser that was on the ground grabbed it and took

to air to try to at least knock-out the ape driver or that other dammed ape with the rifle. (I want that one badly! He'll learn a

different meaning to the human's term meaning "hen pecked" when I get my talons on him!).

I should have stay on the ground and sheltered the Captain with wings.

I should have picked him up and took to the safe comfort of the sky.

But the lid on the front of the auto popped open, a pair of metal arms came out! You got to be pulling my tail feathers! It then

grabbed the unconscious captain and took off with him. There I was in the air with a phaser set on overload and just moment from

throwing the thing into the car's open lid. I was so far in shock I nearly forgot to turn the phaser off. At least I did, and the only

right thing done so far.

I decide to stay up in the air and com the crew below. I'll keep an eye on the auto and the direction it goes with the Captain

kidnapped inside it's maw, I pray the Earth bound crew can get that thing started or obtain another auto before I loose sight of the

one I follow. And it is gaining speed…..

If a land car travels at what seems to be 300 mph, and a Skorr can fly at 65 to 100 miles per hour at a height of X feet, and can

dive at 100 mph up to 200 mph, can the Skorr keep an eye on the car from a distance of 10 miles? Sure, but over that 10 miles it is

to far away to see. I am guessing I can keep the car in my site for 45 minutes to an hour before losing it. After that it's anyone's

best guest. Curse it. I hope it stops before then. I hope the crew can get a faster auto than that boxy high wind resistance thing.

(End Personal log star date 062903.)