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From: root@trwatf.UUCP (Lord Frith)
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: More Dumb Captains, Stupid Viewscreens, and a net.astro question
Message-ID: <956@trwatf.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 1-Jun-85 16:32:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: trwatf.956
Posted: Sat Jun  1 16:32:43 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 2-Jun-85 20:17:29 EDT
References: <777@voder.UUCP> <1591@amdahl.UUCP>
Organization: TRW Advanced Technology Facility, Merrifield VA.
Lines: 63

In article <777@voder.UUCP> kevin@voder.UUCP (The Last Bugfighter) writes:
>
> One question though, just how dense is a nebula?  They may be dense
> enough to totally block seeing through from earth, but how dense is one
> when you're floating inside it?

Nowhere NEAR the density as portrayed in the movie.  Large HI and HII
regions are near vacum.  They look thick and cloudy because they are so
large and radiate in the visible spectrum.  Lots of grains in those HII
regions too, which means they can acreate all sorts of wonderful
chemicals.

Now, being Star Trek, I suppose there's lots of "cosmic dust" and thick
gaseous muck in the Mutara Nebula.  Lots of dead ships "lost in space"
floating around out there too, I imagine.  Like the Sargasso Sea.
Gee this has the makings of a good plot...

Kirk, Spock and 3 red shirts beam aboard a ship apparently abandoned
for centuries in the thick gaseous wasteland of the Mutara Nebula.
They find a REAL creepy interior with lots of organic-shaped control
pods.  Kirk orders the landing party to disperse and investigate.  Spock
find the main control system, manages to decipher the meaning of some
of the hyroglyphics and announces that he can restore an oxygen
atmosphere, and gravity...  but not the lights.

While Spock runs his hands over the bizarre and.... alien.... control
panel, he remarks that he has never encountered caligraphy so stylized
and advanced anywhere in the galaxy.  The ship must have come from
outside... from another galaxy.

SUDDENLY!  A horrific scream pierces the gloomy silence!  It's one of
their own security gaurds!  Kirk and Spock rush to his aid, only to
find ....... the grisly sight of a phaser pistol lying in a pool of
blood.  Spock examines the phaser and remarks... "human circulatory
fluid, Captain."

ANOTHER BLOOD CURDLING SCREAM!  AIIIEIEEEEEEEEE!  Kirk and Spock rush
down the hallway to find....

a HIDEOUS ALIEN THING... it's quivering tenticles still gripping the
dismembered body of a freshly killed security officer.  A thick stream
of foul-smelling drool dribbled from its mandibles, still glistening
with blood as it dined on this latest human carnage.  Heaving
convulsivly, the grotesque hell-beast consumed its human prey with
almost mechanical efficiency...  flesh, teeth, hair, bone.... nothing
was wasted.  It's insectoid face showing no emotion as it finished off
the last of Lt. Kowsnofski.

"Fascinating Captain"... "He appears to be gorged."

"GORGED!" entoned Kirk "ON MY MEN?!!".......
-- 

UUCP: ...{decvax,ihnp4,allegra}!seismo!trwatf!root	- Lord Frith
ARPA: trwatf!root@SEISMO

"Money from da Buddah"
-- 

UUCP: ...{decvax,ihnp4,allegra}!seismo!trwatf!root	- Lord Frith
ARPA: trwatf!root@SEISMO

"Money from da Buddah"