Mudd in Your Eye

Harcourt Fenton Mudd. After two encounters with the intergalactic con man - including the last encounter when he literally kidnapped the entire crew - it was a name that could produce shudders among the most hardened of those aboard the Enterprise. Even Spock's eyebrow would tend to twitch at the sound of that name - which, as McCoy was prone to say, was the Vulcan equivalent of running off screaming like a little girl. In the past encounters, McCoy himself had actually got along fairly well with Mudd - which meant he only wanted to throttle the con artist half of the time instead of all of the time.

It was two of his primary personality traits that would lead to Mudd coming into the bad graces of the Enterprise again. Curiosity and greed. But it all started a goodly distance away from the U.S.S. Enterprise.

Mudd had managed to finally get away from his self-named planet of androids and was now piloting his own vessel again. Captaining really, since he had his largest crew to date - thirty souls of mixed planetage and morals who were helping him keep the ship in working order and skirting the edges of Federation space. He had rechristened his ship as Azalaris - which was the name that had been given to the largest fire diamond even found on Kibberia.

The Azalaris was traveling through what should have been an empty pocket of space. Mudd was resting in his quarters and his second, a male of mixed Klingon and Orion parentage named K'toomsu, was watching the helm when their sensors picked up a large mass that should not have been there. He ordered the ship to close in slowly to get the mass within visual range and was frankly shocked to find that, instead of the floating wreckage he expected, it was an extremely old, but intact craft.

Once their scanners confirmed that nothing harmful to their ship was being radiated from the derelict, K'toomsu instructed Tysha, their main pilot, to bring the Azalaris alongside the other, which they could now see bore the name S.S. Botany Bay. The name alone told them is was a Terran ship and one that seemed to be a relic of the bygone age when Earth was making its first baby steps out into the larger universe outside of its own solar system.

K'toomsu drummed his fingers on the arm of the Captain's chair briefly before standing.

"Meram? See if you can get any scans to penetrate that hull and give us an idea what might be inside that old girl. I'm going to get Harry."

Moving through the corridors, K'toomsu stopped at the door to Mudd's quarters and gave a bang against the door before striding in. Mudd was looking both disheveled and cross.

"Dammit, Kuty. Do you always have to wake me that way?"

The dark olive skinned man wasn't impressed by Mudd's bluster, knowing that bluster was all that it was.

"I had considered waking you by depressurizing your quarters, but that seemed too much bother. Drink some of that caffeinated sludge of yours, get dressed and come to the helm. We have an abandoned ship from your home planet to ponder."

That got Mudd's attention and K'toomsu continued to lean in the doorway as Mudd pulled on some clothes.

"My home planet? Is it wreckage? How old?"

"Intact, Harry. And probably from your great-great-grandsire's time, if not earlier."

Pausing in mid-boot tugging, Mudd gave his second an incredulous look.

"Impossible. This far into deep space?"

Shrugging, K'toomsu reached into the replicator and handed Mudd his coffee.

"Then come and view the impossible, Harry. She's too solid to be a mirage."

The two of them walked back to the small bridge side by side. Mudd froze when he got his first look at the view screen.

"You really weren't pulling my leg, Kuty. That thing is a museum piece."

Meram spoke up from the side and captured everyone's attention.

"A museum piece with life signs aboard her."

Mudd wasn't the only one staring at Meram after that announcement.

"You're joking."

He moved over to look over the sensor readings himself.

"You aren't joking. Am I reading this right that it still has a breathable atmosphere?"

"It does."

Moving back to the central area, Mudd draped his arms across the back of the Captain's chair as he stared at the ship beside them. K'toomsu moved to his side.

"You want to board her, don't you?"

"You know me too well, Kuty. That should worry me."

"It only should worry you because we think too much alike, Harry. Besides, neither one of us would be able to sleep for wondering exactly what was onboard that vessel if we just went off and left her drifting."

"You're right again. Well, we can leave the Azalaris in Tysha's hands. She'll keep the ship safe. Me, you and one of our engineers?"

"I suggest Alistair. He's always toying with antique blueprints."

"Good thought. Call him up and let's see what all the toy chest holds, shall we?"

It was a half hour later when the three men transported over to the Botany Bay. Mudd made a face immediately at the odor. K'toomsu laughed at him.

"Don't be such a - what is that old Earther term? - wuss?"

A snort was Mudd's answer to that as he took a step further in, then jumped as lights flared to life. Alistair moved closer and then took the lead, his voice containing the underlying Liverpool accent that he'd never lost despite over a decade away from his home city.

"You must've tripped a motion switch of some sort. Well, well. Look at this. I've heard of these but never thought to see one. This here's a sleeper ship, Fennie. Looks like you triggered something else as well."

Mudd rolled his eyes at the nickname, but he'd certainly been called much worse in his day. Alistair made his way to the side of one of the many chambers, but unlike the others, it was humming and showing signs of activity.

"This should be a slow process. I'll leave you lads to poke around here for a bit while I check out the other chambers."

Moving closer to the lit chamber, K'toomsu gave the figure inside a critical glance.

"Rather solidly built for someone from your planet, Harry."

Mudd was about to remark back when the unit began making a noise that didn't sound healthy.

"Alistair! Get your rump back over here!"

The echoing voice reached Alistair and he ran back. He saw what the concern was as soon as he arrived.

"Not good. Not good at all. Life support's failing and he's not fully revived yet. There's a chamber over there looks promising. I'm going to trigger it to see if I can figure out between them what to do with this one."

Keeping an eye on the figure in the chamber, K'toomsu suddenly frowned.

"His color is changing - he's suffocating."

Without another word, K'toomsu smashed the door to the chamber open. Mudd cautious peered in and saw that at least the man's chest was still rising and falling.

"Rather dramatic there, Kuty - but do you think it might have harmed him?"

"Not as much as dying from lack of air would have."

They turned as they heard Alistair hurrying back.

"No good, mates. I think we're just going to have to break -"

The words stopped as Alistair's eyes spotted the wrecked door and then he just gave a rueful chuckle.

"Looks like you beat me to it. Hold on - you're bleeding, Kuty. Why don't you take our friend there aboard the Azalaris and get yourself patched up? We don't know how many century old germs might be hanging around this stale atmosphere. That's not safe with an open wound and he'll likely revive better in fresher air."

The second grumbled, but agreed. After contacting the Azalaris, K'toomsu stood beside the unconscious man as the teleport took them over. Once they were gone, Mudd took a closer look at the inside of the vacated chamber.

"I wonder where these people were headed?"

"Hard to say, Fennie. Sleeper ships were designed for flights that would last longer than you could keep a crew alive for. Needless to say, they weren't terribly popular. Can't imagine where they would have been heading going this direction, but the navigation computer might have had a problem and thrown them off course. Speaking of problems, over two dozen of the other chambers have malfunctioned - the ones inside them are long dead and account for part of the stench onboard. Still, there's fifty or so chambers still viable. Do you think we sho -"

Alistair's voice was literally choked off mid-word as a powerfully built man literally lifted the engineer off of the deck by his neck. Mudd was further stunned when he realised the man was holding Alistair with only one hand while his other hand was pointing to the damaged chamber.

"What have you done with Khan?"