TITLE: The Captain's Log
AUTHOR: Ster Julie
SERIES: TOS
RATING: G
CODES: Kirk
CHALLENGES: Father's Day
ARCHIVE: Yes, but only where I post
SUMMARY: Kirk receives a gift

--ooOoo--

Kirk eyed the large carton suspiciously. Now why would he be getting
a package from Janus VI? Why was it so heavy? And why was it
rattling?

Kirk cautiously opened the container, half expecting to find a
silicone nodule or a newly hatched horta within. He first found a
note inside.

"Kirk," it began in Chief Engineer Vanderberg's blunt style,
"thousands of horta have now hatched. That mother horta told them all
about you before she died, about how you saved their lives. She said
that you were as much a father to her brood as she was their mother.
So, to honor you, she had all her kids go and find one pretty rock
apiece. They asked me to send all of them along to your ship.

"Kirk, going by what I see in that box, I'd say you're now officially
filthy rich. I also see by the calendar that this should arrive just
in time. So, Kirk, let me be the first to say, on behalf of all the
horta kids here, Happy Father's Day!"

Kirk looked into the box and ran his fingers through all the raw
diamonds, platinum, rare earths and other treasures it contained.
The allure of the rich stones were both a siren's song and an
opportunity to him.

Kirk called up an online realty site and heard the grinning hawker
start his pitch. "Yes, you can own real estate in the beautiful hills
of the planets of Alpha Centauri!" The captain could see himself
cashing in the gems and such and buying not just a mountain cabin but
the mountain cabin of his dreams, far enough away from Earth and
Starfleet for those times when he needed to distance himself, yet
close enough to get back in a hurry.

Kirk looked back at the box, touched that all those little hortas
wanted to give him a gift. Rocks, he thought. It sure beats the hell
out of getting a tie!

Kirk looked at the floor plans of several cabins on the realty site.
He smiled at the thought of owning such a getaway. He already had the
perfect name picked out for such a cabin: "The Captain's Log."

END

::laughs:: Oh, nice. Fabulous ending, on a clever and well-played
piece.

-Steff

Thanks, Steff. I can just hear Erik Estrada hawking "real estate in
the beautiful hills
of the planets of Alpha Centauri!"

I know someone will point this out, but there was a pro novel where
Kirk *did* own a cabin on a planet in the Alpha Centauri system,
named "The Captain's Log." I would give that author credit, if I could
only remember which book it was in. Can anyone help me?

-j-

I remember reading that too, but I can't seem to remember which novel
that was.

Hi Ster Julie,

Just wanted to say that I also enjoyed the novel idea of precious rocks as gifts, filled with exquisite
heavy-metals and mineral crystals.
Very funny pun, the captain's log cabin, though you might not get wooden tree trunks every time!
That is, if you followed the concept behind the video game (Sid Meier's) Alpha Centauri (ex-Firaxis Games) --
you might have to settle instead for sturdy, sentient woven-mat constructs of red xenofungus! With mindworm
boils as butlers...

Sadly, until now I know nothing of the novel (oops for the pun) you and Steff mentioned.
May a Trek historian step in!

--
Alan Heah