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Nearly a century had passed since an unfathomable destruction ravaged the planet the Nalaarob called home. On that fateful day, fiery orbs screamed down from the heavens, bombarding the surface and wiping out countless animal species. The Nalaarob themselves barely survived the massacre, and those who survived could not understand what could have angered the Gods in such a way. Although their world was left in dire condition, those who survived picked up the pieces as best they could, but an undeniable change had occurred; the once deeply religious Nalaarob people turned their backs on the Gods, just as it had seemed the Gods had turned their backs on them.

In place of religion, the Nalaarob embraced science, which helped carry them through this difficult time. By now several generations had passed, and only the most extremely old among them yet remembered the dark day when their world nearly died. With the rapid advances made in just a century’s time, the Nalaarob advanced from a nearly medieval technological level to that of an industrialized civilization in a remarkably short time. This rapid leap forward was due in large part to the lack of superstition to hold them back, but also these advances were necessary because most of the flora and fauna of their world had been wiped out; which meant no more beasts of burden, for example.

But this rapid industrial and technological advancement came at a heavy cost on the already devastated environment; what the attack from the heavens did not do, pollution and deforestation did. And so it was that the Nalaarob were faced with extinction once again; this time not by the Gods, but by their own hands...

***

“Computer, how many Nalaarob life signatures do you detect on board the Enterprise?” asked the chief medical officer, Dr. Beverly Crusher.

“I detect 3,235,963,103 Nalaarob life forms on board the Enterprise,’ replied the familiar female voice of the ship’s computer.

“This is remarkable!” Beverly exclaimed as she peered inside of the forcefield that contained an entire planet, no larger than an orange. “So the entire population survived your ambitious plan after all.”

“Indeed,” replied Lt. Commander Data, showing no emotion whatsoever as he methodically scanned the miniature world with his equally large Tricorder. Had Data been a human -- or at least had an emotion chip installed -- he would have felt immense pride in knowing he had saved an entire civilization from oblivion.

It had been thanks to both of them that the Nalaarob species had been saved from the imminent dissipation of their atmosphere. Though Picard had opposed the idea on the grounds of violating the Prime Directive, Beverly made an impassioned plea for him to reconsider; she explained to him that to do nothing and allow the Nalaarob to go extinct violated the Hippocratic Oath she was sworn to uphold as a doctor. She threatened to use her authority as chief medical officer to relieve him of command on medical grounds, which she alone had the power to do.

This threat, combined with pleas from other crew members finally forced Picard to relent and relax his interpretation of the Prime Directive just this once. But he set the condition that this must be kept entirely secret, and that no one -- especially Starfleet -- must ever know of this. No one aside from senior bridge officers were to be involved, and all data pertaining to this was to be wiped from the ship’s computers afterwards. Dr. Crusher agreed, and even suggested medically wiping the memories from the crew’s brains; Picard did not agree to take things that far, however.

Initially, the plan had been to rescue only a limited number of the Nalaarob people, as this was believed to be all that could be managed in such a limited time with just one ship. The first idea was to create a holodeck simulation mimicking the Nalaarob homeworld, and then beaming a group of them directly into that simulation where they would not feel as though anything was amiss. This was thought to be as close to keeping with the spirit of the Prime Directive as possible.

But before this could be carried out, Data’s android mind formulated a bold new experimental plan which called for using the ship’s navigational deflector array to emit an inverse Tachyon pulse that when combined with the Plasmonic radiation in the atmosphere would then envelop the entire planet in a Quasitonic bubble that would collapse down into an incredibly minuscule size; this would then allow the Enterprise’s transporters to lock onto the planet and beam it aboard.

Once aboard the Enterprise, the softball sized planet would then be contained within a force field; this was necessary, because exposure of the planet’s atmosphere to that of the air of Enterprise could have disastrous consequences for the Nalaarob, as their minuscule lungs would be unable to handle the much larger oxygen atoms. Another problem would have been exposure of the shrunken planet to the ship’s enormous artificial gravity, which if not blocked by the force field, would instantaneously crush the world into a razor thin pancake.

On the grounds that the planet would be destroyed anyway, Picard agreed that there was little to lose by approving Data’s ambitious plan. Shrinking down an entire planet was a feat that had never before been attempted, and was only theoretical at best. If Data’s plan succeeded, it would be a major scientific breakthrough, and one which could have sweeping consequences not just throughout the Federation, but throughout the entire galaxy. This was another reason why strict secrecy was to be maintained at all cost.

With great reluctance, Picard gave the order to “make it so”, and so it was done.

After transportation was complete, Dr. Crusher requested that the Nalaarob homeworld be immediately transferred to Sickbay, where she would use all of her medical expertise to nurse the planet back to health. She also requested that the planet be kept in her private office, and that no one was to be allowed access to it except for her, in order to help ensure total secrecy. These seemed to be sensible and logical requests, so Picard approved, but he ordered that Data would assist her on the matter of stabilizing the planet’s atmosphere. Dr. Crusher seemed strangely flustered by this, insisting that Data’s help was not necessary, and that she could take care of the planet on her own, but Picard would not back down. He had already violated the Prime Directive by agreeing to save the Nalaarob in the first place, and refused to yield any further to Beverly’s increasingly peculiar requests.

Convincing Picard to violate the Prime Directive had been an enormous accomplishment, so Beverly decided not to push her luck any further. “Thank you, Jean-Luc” she said warmly as she stepped into the Turbolift on her way to Sickbay to meet her new patient.

***

Several days had now passed since the Nalaarob sky went dark by an ominous storm, making it impossible to tell the difference between night and day. Some had argued this darkness was of their own making, wrought by the fires of industry and the pollution spewed continuously into the atmosphere; others warned that this was the wrath of the Gods which had been forsaken by the majority of the people. No matter who was right, it seemed as if the planet was doomed. Without light, crops would inevitably fail, and the storm seemed to be getting worse by the day. For the first time in nearly 100 years, many began to pray to the old Gods for help.

Then all at once, as if in response to their prayers, the darkness began to fade away, and the entire planet was bathed in life giving sunlight once again! Having become accustomed to the darkness for so long, this sudden avalanche of light blinded the millions of Nalaarob who happened to be in the open. As their eyes slowly adjusted, an entire hemisphere of the planet gasped as they gazed up into the heavens to witness the enormous face of a beautiful crimson haired woman gazing back down at them...

***

“Plasmonic reactions in the atmosphere appear to have ceased,” Data said as he viewed the display on his Tricorder while scanning the miniature planet. “I am detecting no further anomalies in the planet’s atmosphere.”

“Well done, Data!” Beverly smiled. “Saving an entire species from extinction calls for celebration. What do you say we go ask Guinan if she has any Romulan ale hidden away?” Beverly knew Romulan ale was illegal in the federation, but consuming it would be the least of the crimes the Enterprise crew had committed today.

“I do not think intoxicating ourselves would be appropriate when we still have the task of restoring the Nalaarob planet back to its original size and orbit around its star.” replied the Android.

“Restore the planet to its original size?!” Beverly’s smile had evaporated, along with her exuberance.

“Indeed. Although the data has by now been wiped from the Enterprise’s computer, I still retain in my own memory banks the knowledge on how to replicate and reverse the procedure.” Data explained unemotionally. “I shall notify the captain of our success.”

Data attempted to tap his combadge, but before he could speak into it, he slumped over and collapsed onto the floor. Beverly prevented him from contacting Picard by activating his shutdown mechanism. She then spent the next several hours carefully and methodically wiping his memory clean of all knowledge regarding this incident, and transferred all of it to her office computer.

As she sipped on a cup of coffee, Beverly casually browsed through all of the data regarding the shrinking of the planet; much of it she did not understand, but with time and research she felt she could repeat the procedure, should a planet ever again need to be shrunk down. Her heart pounded in her chest and she began to feel dizzy as she realized the enormous power she now possessed. Her fingers shook nervously and she began to sweat as she encrypted this information and inserted it into the classified medical files where she alone would have access to it.

The other significant piece of data she harvested from Data’s brain was the information required to restore the Nalaarob homeworld back to its original size and position in orbit. The information was a record, and could not be recovered or reproduced. Should this information be deleted, the shrunken planet would be forever stuck at this size, and there would be no possible way to restore it to normal.

Beverly reclined back in her chair and propped her feet up on her desk; her boots towered over the miniature planet, completely dwarfing it. She sat there for a few minutes, savoring the view as she continued drinking her coffee. She toyed with the idea of giving the planet a good strong kick from her boot; this would overwhelm the forcefield with a blow it was not designed to withstand, smashing the planet into dust. She could chalk it up to being a terrible accident, and no one would be any the wiser; an entire species of billions literally dead at her feet.

“No, I think I like my new office decoration” Beverly said as she slammed her index finger down on the delete button. In an instant, all hope of the planet ever being restored to normal size was lost forever. With just the mere press of her finger, Beverly had just condemned an entire civilization of over 3 billion into becoming a permanent part of her office decor; she also possessed the knowledge stored securely within her computer to do the exact same to other worlds. All that it would require is command of a starship.

Wiping the sweat from her brow, Beverly looked down at the lifeless android crumpled up on the floor of her office. “Looks like Jean Luc’s insistence that you join me worked out great after all. Thank you, my friend. Now let me get you back up so you can be on your way...” The clueless android arose to his feet as Dr. Crusher reactivated him.

“Thank you, Data. Now go tell the captain I will no longer require your assistance.” Beverly said, ushering him out the door. The bewildered android exited Sickbay, not understanding why he had even been there in the first place.

“Crusher to Picard” Beverly said, as she tapped on the combadge pinned to her lab coat.

“Picard here. What is your status?”

“Everything worked out well, Captain. With Data’s help we’ve stabilized the planet’s atmosphere, but regretfully he has informed me that the planet cannot be restored to its original size.”

“I... see. Well, that is most unfortunate.” Picard sighed.

“I agree,” Beverly replied. “But what can we do about it?”

“I don’t know. But this was your idea, and until we figure something out I am leaving the planet in your care. Understood?”

“Aye-Aye captain,” Beverly smirked.

“Picard out.”

Beverly was finally alone with her new toy, just like she had wanted all along. Her pretty blue eyes flirted with the planet as she began to take off her lab coat. “Am I the only one that’s getting hot in here?” she asked in a seductive tone.

Chapter End Notes:

To be continued...?

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