Work Text:
The Star Beagle Adventures
Episode 10: Schindler's Fish
Scene 1: Shindleria Praematura
10.1
Shindleria Praematura
“It cannot be…”
The U.S.S. Puppy was entirely dwarfed by the fish it was hovering over.
Actually, dwarfed would be entirely too mild a verb. This animal would dwarf a Galaxy class cruiser. It was swimming and just breaching the waves of an ocean that covered nearly the entire planet. A flat, muscular, kite-shaped fish with a very long tail. It was nearly the same color as the water occasionally running off its flat head and the wings located just behind its head. The muscles along its spine rippled magnificently as it rode the waves. It almost seemed that the beast was preening and showing itself off to the comparatively minuscule creatures in the spacecraft above.
“Shindleria Praematura?” Lt. Cmdr. Gregg Clark was simply astounded.
2nd Lt. Iov Pushkin, the commanding officer of the Puppy’s contingent of United States Marines, gave the computer a solid thump as if it were an ancient machine that might be persuaded by casual violence. “Unless this vulcan-made computer has a problem with its database, our big buddy down there is Shindler’s Baby. Or, more precisely, a direct descendant.”
Like the bridge of the U.S.S. Beagle, the Puppy’s bridge was a triangular room with a command throne in the center of three wall-sized monitors, each with two side-by-side workstations. And like the Beagle, it was typical for the command throne to face the port bow whenever the vulcan-built task shuttle was traveling forward. Unlike the Beagle, the Puppy's command throne was a much less ornate affair and the rear wall-sized monitor was transparent, allowing passengers in the rear staging area to see into the bridge.
The U.S.S. Mako’s science officer entered a few commands into the command throne and the starboard-bow monitor displayed a split screen. On the left side, it displayed a tiny, nearly transparent, neotenous fish commonly found all around the South Pacific on Earth. On the right, the massive creature swimming in the waves below. Clark got up from the command throne and stepped up to the viewer. He tapped the image of the sea monster below: “Junior.” Then tapped the image of a tiny fish just to its left: “Grandpa.” He smiled and shook his head slowly. “Anyone want to speculate how?”
“According to the vulcan database, Schindler’s Fish is an ancient terrestrial species that has survived in its primitive state for as many as 300 million years.” Dr. Macerio Rossel, one of the Beagle’s complement of betazoid doctors, was seated next to the vulcan astrophysicist, Falok, at the rear workstations, which were typically assigned as science stations.
Falok raised his eyebrows. “If someone brought a population of shindleria primaetura to this planet in antiquity, 300 million years would easily be long enough for its descendants to evolve into the animal below.”
Dr. Rossel closed her eyes for a moment, then said, “It is a social animal, intelligent and curious in much the same way as terrestrial whales. And it is aware of us. And interested in us.”
“That thing is much, much bigger than any whale,” said Private First Class Randa Habib. She was seated next to 2nd Lt. Pushkin, her station currently set up as an engineering work station. “It’s bigger than a romulan warbird. Kind of looks a little like a romulan warbird… If a romulan warbird were a fish…”
Lance Corporal Petra Spitze was seated at one of the starboard-bow workstations. She looked up at Lt. Cmdr. Gregg Clark, who was resting a hand on the back of her chair:
“Sir… You think that thing has a tongue?” There was just a slight tremor to Spike’s voice.
Gregg Clark turned toward the port-bow workstations. “Lieutenant Pushkin, please take us up another seventy meters…”
Schindler's Fish