"Past Tense"

[Aaron_Westler 0]

"Past Tense"

a log by Lt. Commander Javin Prell, USS Agincourt

 

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He awoke to find himself in the middle of a large clearing in the middle of a forest. He blinked in the bright sunlight above, then frowned.

 

Something was poking him, repeatedly.

 

He turned his head and found a small man, who looked very much humanoid, poking him with a tree branch. As soon as the man saw Prell move his head, he jumped and scurried back a distance, watching warily.

 

Javin sat up slowly, woozy from a big headache. Once his vision cleared up, he looked around at his surroundings. The toolkit he had been carrying was lying a few feet from him, and as he tried getting up to reach it, the short, almost-naked man frowned and pointed his stick at him. "Arooh"

 

Prell carefully looked at him. Other than him being smaller than a normal human, and a large V-shaped mark on his forehead, his new friend, or adversary, could have passed as human anywhere.

 

"Arooh." Little Man brandished his stick and moved closer to Prell.

 

Not wanting to inflame the situation. Javin stopped walking to the toolkit and put his hands palms-up in front of him, as a sign of peace.

 

Little Man shuffled closer to him, stopping a few feet away. He poked Prell's open palm with the stick. The native looked up at Prell quizzically, as if he expected something to happen.

 

Javin grinned, and pointed to his toolkit. "It's OK, I won't harm you."

 

Little Man looked at the toolkit, then back at the taller stranger, and nodded.

 

Prell retrieved the toolkit and opened it, fishing around inside for one of the nutrient-rich snack bars he always carried around with him. He opened the package and took off a bit of the bar, popping it into his mouth. Watching his new friend look at the bar with wide eyes, he offered the package to him.

 

Little Man took the bar, setting down his stick. He smelled the snack bar carefully, and cautiously bit into.

 

Prell thought he must have liked it, because the large bar was gone in less than a minute. The native looked up at Prell and smiled, motioning for him to follow him.

 

The pair walked out of the clearing and into the woods. Soon, they were met by more of Little Man's kind, all eager to get a look at the stranger who appeared out of nowhere. Javin listened intensively to their language, which seemed to him like a myriad of animal-like noises. What fascinated him was that the different animal sounds he heard seemed to correlate to the emotions and feelings the natives had. Little Man and a few others seemed to have a verbal fight over Prell, and it sounded like a zoo of lions and tigers growling at each other.

 

After a few minutes, the babbling group and Prell reached a village, if you could call it a village. It was very primitive, and it looked like it had been put up recently. "Nomads, most likely," he thought.

 

The parade that had led him to the camp broke off slightly, and most gathered around a central area, where it looked like two women were trying to get a fire started, unsuccessfully. The men that he had been walking with started "talking" in angry tones toward them, which upset the ladies.

 

Prell stepped forward to that group, frowning. Most of the natives scurried away frightened. Little Man looked at Prell, wondering what the stranger was doing.

 

Prell reached into his toolkit, and took out a laser aligner. The crowd stepped back a bit in sync, obviously scared. He looked to Little Man, holding his hands out as before. "I just want to help."

 

Little Man looked at him, and because of his trust of the stranger, nodded. Prell knelt down next to the fire pit. No wonder they couldn't get a fire started here, everything was wet. He adjusted the aligner to the broadest setting and set it low to dry out the pit. As soon as all was dry, he adjusted again to use the aligner like a piece of glass magnifying the sun's ray.

 

Soon, Prell had a large fire going, and judging from the chatter he heard behind him, the native's moods had taken a turn for the better.

 

As he turned, his vision started to become blurry, and faded to black.

 

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USS Agincourt, Deck 3, Senior Officers Quarters, 0338 hours

 

Prell sat up in his bed, in his quarters aboard the Agincourt. It was only a dream...but it felt as if he was actually back in that forest. He blinked and pinched himself to make sure, then layed back down and stared up at the ceiling.

 

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0659 hours

 

He stared at the chronometer next to him on the night table. He hadn't caught a wink of sleep since the dream had woken him.

 

The computer chimed in his room. "The time is now zero-seven-hundred."

 

He sighed.

 

"Computer, lights."

 

=/\=END LOG=/\=