Closeup on Janice Rand

Closeup on Joy (the muscle gal on the left)

Although only the squirrels, deer, rabbits, bears, foxes, etc (or Shasheerian equivalent thereof) and the birds witnessed it, a very strange and, on Shasheer (muscle-women-planet) unique, event took place...
From out of the clear blue sky, an exotic craft of some sort slowly wafted from way up. Just a silvery speck at first, the object grew closer until details could be seen. It was shaped like two saucers cupped together with a raised boss in the middle, both top and bottom, with three cylindrical projections.

This object came wafting down, somewhat unsteadily. It was slowly undulating side to side, much like unto the way a plate would sink in a tub full of water. Slowly it came down, down, down, until it settled into the valley. It was huge! It nearly filled half the small valley! It settled down, crushing full-grown tress and even displacing boulders. The sound of big trees being smashed ensued for a while, until the object settled. As it settled, it leaned to one side until that side rested upon a cliff. And there it sat. Rumblings and smaller sounds of cracking limbs continued for a while, along with the frightened calls of birds as they flew out, escaping the area of destruction. The sounds slowly faded to silence. And so there it sat, a huge, glimmering craft from the sky and maybe another world, in a wild, remote valley... on none other than Shasheer, in the nation of Shasheer.
We see on it, English letters that read NCC 1701; hmm, sounds familiar...

Inside, Engineer Scotty reports, "Engines safely shut down. Will begin reducing ship's gravity to zero. We are at about a 10-degree list, and outside, the gravity is 1.08 that of Earth..."

Captain Kirk used shipwide intercom to announce, "We have safely made a soft landing despite the malfunction. Sorry for the unscheduled stop!" he chuckled then continued, "This is a class M planet with atmosphere similar to that of Earth but with higher oxygen content, approximately 30 percent. Our altitude above this planet's sealevel will more than compensate for the high oxygen content. Outside air pressure is 9 pounds per square inch. We will slowly depressurize the ship to that of outside. Also standby for gradual shut down of ship's artificial gravity. We are tilted at 10 degrees, so, as our gravity is reduced and planet's gravity comes to bear, you will might feel disoriented. The effect will pass quickly, thereafter everything will be, well, tilted! Second Officer Spock will summarize what we know about this planet..."

Captain Kirk turned the intercom over to Spock and he reported, "This planet, second from its sun which is labeled by radio astronomers as NGC127818, has been previously studied remotely, from a distance, during a previous mission by a vessel other than ours. This planet is class M, inhabited by humanoids, and is about class C on the Richter scale of cultures. Gravity is nearly the same as that of Earth and has a breathable atmosphere. There seems to be no pollution, which is notable considering their moderate level of technology. Although certainly not always, a humanoid population at this level of technology often has remains of partially burnt hydrocarbons suspended in their atmosphere. They may have avoided such pollution by using solar, wind, and other forces for energy as have the inhabitants of several other planets studied. Indeed, the larger cities are encircled by areas that, from space, resemble fine dark-gray tiles. These might be solar energy fields. So the air is very clean and healthful, but a bit chilly for some of you at about 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit)..."

Chekov commented, "Hmm, livable; comfortable even!"
Sulu joked, "Speak for yourself, you denizen of Russian cold weather, you! That's chilly!"
Chekov chuckled.

Second Officer Spock continued, "This planet's humanoid population was deemed not ready for contact. Therefore, we landed in an area as remote as we could manage given our urgent failure of the engines. No attempt to contact the inhabitants will be made. However, should they discover us and approach, make every attempt to keep contact minimal, and under no circumstances share technology nor make technological suggestions..."

He prattled off other facts, but those above are sufficient for "us"; more would become tedious.

But, they were alone on Shasheer. They were unable to become spaceborne until fairly major repairs and even refueling of their engines were done. They were unable to contact the Federation because the subspace radio had become somewhat compromised and the Shasheerian sun emitted a peculiar subspace interference that made contact with the Federation out of the question. All local communications were fine, however.

First thing they needed was dilithium crystals. Search parties had to be sent out. All systems had been shut down. The transporter would not be used. They deployed special long, orange chutes, like long hoses, equipped with elevators in order to reach the ground. The main "saucer" portion of the Enterprise was nearly 200 feet off the ground. Other ramps were deployed from engineering.

Using these, parties emerged in search of dilithium crystals and other materials needed for repair. But the search parties were confronted with a dense forest that perhaps never seen a humanoid before, from here or elsewhere. Their search radius and efficiency was greatly limited. Not surprisingly, nothing was found. After a week of this, it was beginning to look like they would be here for a very long time... or forever!

The ship had other energy sources that would supply heat, air, and electricity for years to come. Food synthesizers had plenty for food for years, plus, if it came to it, farming, limited animal husbandry, and even "ancient, old-fashioned" hunting could be accomplished near the ship, but... the crew longed for either space, or home!

After two more weeks, a search party encountered humanoids! They were in the middle of a forest, surrounded by towering trees. And there in that wilderness of another world were 5 humanoids of that world. They appeared to be female, skimpily dressed, but stood 6 feet to 6-feet-6 and were well muscled. They had dark, cocoa-brown skin and glossy, midnight-black hair. Three of the bigger ones had spears, but they appeared gentle and loving. One of the slimmer, smaller ladies cautiously approached with her hands out, holding her palms so as to face the amazed, mesmerized search party. She was smiling, and her movements were fluid and gentle. She then lowered her hands and spoke, using English...

"I have absorbed your language from the auric fields generated by intermix of your souls and physical brains. Can you understand me now?"

She spoke with some kind of exotic accent, could not place what accent, but her English was clear. One of the party replied, "Yes... yes! Very well!"
"Good", she replied, "I sense longing from you, and certainly, your energies are alien. You are not from here, but, are you not even from our world?"
"Uh, yeah"... stuttered one of the male members of the search party, "We um... we um... need parts... materials, so that we may repair our ship and then we will be on our way."
The gal of NGC127818 responded, "I feel from you that you are worried you may never be able to escape here. I assure you, we will not harm you. Take us to your leader so that we may be able to help you find the materials you need..."

The search party, two men and a woman, discussed among themselves.
"Should we take... her? The noninterference treaty..."
"...Would be best served by taking up her advice and letting them help us find materials. For three weeks, we have made NO progress. We'll be here forever, otherwise! That would contaminate their society much more then..."
"Okay, okay, got the point..."

The search party agreed. They used communicators to call Captain Kirk. He ordered them to come to the area of the ship but do not bring the alien ladies inside.

The search party led the 5 tawny, athletic gals to the area underneath the huge saucer of the ship. The big saucer cast a huge shadow that kept that part of the forest in perpetual relative darkness. The 5 gals were amazed and murmured among themselves in a strange, exotic language. Captain Kirk, Second Officer Spock, Doctor McCoy, and Engineer Scott were assembled near the entrance of one of the chutes to greet them. As soon as they arrived, Kirk ordered the members of the search party to go up the elevator in the chute and return to the ship. He also ordered anybody else that per chance came back from searches to get back to the ship. The guys ogled the 5 statuesque gals and their skimpy attire. Kirk had to hurry them up.
Anyway, so they did discuss the possibility of the ladies and their people assisting the Enterprise crew in their search for raw materials.

Only two of the five gals spoke with the Enterprise officers. The one that had spoken first appeared to be some sort of mistress or leader, with the second one possessing a lesser talent to "absorb" the Earth people's language straight from their auric field.
The leader was 6 feet even, or maybe 6-feet-1. The other was 6-feet-5 as were two others, with a fifth being 6-feet-6 and very muscular. She was nude and held a big spear. Two of the other big ones were also naked and had spears. The two doing the talking had no weapons. The leader gal was dressed in a split microskirt and a loose fitting top that left her tummy bare. The material was of a very light silk or similar.

From this point indeed, arrangements were made. Over the next few weeks, more of the natives of this planet appeared to hastily build a road and some storage buildings and assist with the search for raw materials. Captain Kirk was very strict in keeping the crew of the Enterprise in the ship and isolated from the natives. He allowed only himself, Spock, McCoy and Scott to speak with them and even then, only in Captain Kirk's presence.

It was tricky to get the natives of NGC127818 to understand just what it was the Enterprise needed, but finally, with Kirk and Scotty taken on a rather distant trip by the natives, a dilithium deposit was discovered. It was 100 miles away! Kirk and Scott were obiged to enter and pedal a pedal-car (velomobile) built-for-four over that entire distance. It was quite an adventure to say the least.
When they arrived to the site, Scotty confirmed the instrument readings of the deposit. It was dilithium alright, and 1000 feet down.

Quickly a mine was built and the dilithium began to be extracted. Other related raw materials were also extracted. It worried Captain Kirk that the people of this planet were mining and handling dilithium, but the natives seemed to not have a clue what these somewhat unattractive rocks were needed for.
Later, after they were programed, little squat robots were used to mine the dilithium. This relieved the natives of this planet from having to go down into the hastily constructed mine which could be dangerous, and kept exposure to Enterprise technology by the natives to a minimum. Now they only had to transport it.

Slowly, they attempted to replace natives with members of the Enterprise crew for transporting materials. But they had to get used to pedaling velomobiles!

And that, finally, brings us to the picture.

The dark skinned gals were Shasheerian Betaqh. In the picture, we see a Shasheerian Taqh gal, Joy, and none other than Janice Rand, carrying materials. They have just arrived in a velomobile-for-2 pulling a trailer, backed it to the temporary road, and have exited to unload and carry the materials down to the enterprise. They carry the materials by walking because the hastily built, narrow road is treacherous for a velomobile-for-2 and its heavy trailer to attempt the descent. Single-rider velomobiles without trailers can handle it, however.

Janice Rand had to get some muscles on her for this work! First of all, she has to pedal, with the big Taqh gal, 100 miles to the mine, load up, and pedal back. The trip to the mine took 6 hours over twisting road. The way back, heavily loaded, took 11 hours. So that meant spending the night in hastily-built buildings or tents next to the mine.

The powerful Taqh gal, Joy, carries the heavier items. But Janice Rand still has to carry two bags of dilithium crystals, which aren't light!

It was quickly discovered that this planet was woman dominated. Male members, while spending the night near the mine, were as much as nearly raped a couple times by the big Taqh women. They can be up to 7 feet tall at 300 pounds. Joy, on the left, is "smallish" for a Taqh, standing 6-feet-8 at 280 pounds. Betaqh women were more well behaved... sometimes. Anyway, male crew members were ordered to stop making the trip. Only women allowed. So they had to find well built lady Enterprise crew members to volunteer for the grueling work. They quickly developed strong leg and butt muscles from all that pedaling, and strong arms and shoulders from all the lifting.

Janice Rand has put on some admirable, though slenderish, muscles. Her attire was difficult to find. The natives of this planet either went nude or skimpily dressed, or, the Betaqh had very long dresses like Vietnamese ao dai, or maybe qipao (chi-pau). There was even something resembling the Arabic hijab and abaya. Of course, none of those conservative clothes would do for vigorous work and pedaling. But Janice Rand did not wish to dress skimpily or go nude. At last, the natives found a garment that Janice Rand barely would accept. It would have to do. Nothing else was available. The garment Janice Rand is wearing in the picture allows work and pedaling, is cool, but covers better than most native clothes.

Note the towers on either side of the Enterprise, the tall one on our left and a squat one on our right. These were built later and used to level the enterprise so that the crew would not have to put up with a 10-degree tilt on everything all the time!

This went on for almost a year. The Enterprise and crew had to get through a rather rough winter. Winter shut down the service of the natives, many of whom, apparently, hibernate. The narrow roads were impassable. There were no snow plows. The crew of the Enterprise had nothing else to do but just enjoy themselves and relax. There was plenty of food and water, and the already-mined-and-refined dilithium crystals and other fuels gave them plenty of energy for heat, air, and light. Physical damage to the engines continued to be repaired. Fortunately, sufficient raw materials had already been gathered to begin the repairs.

Spring came and when snows had sufficiently melted and the weather had sufficiently recovered, operations resumed. Finally, after a total of 11 months and 3 weeks, the Enterprise lifted off, ascended back into space and assumed orbit. Scotty cycled on the warp engines and finally, after final maneuvers, they were off.

To describe the picture in more detail: As mentioned above, the Taqh woman Joy (the huge one on the left) and Janice Rand have just completed a long velomobile trip of 100 miles from the mine to here. They started 5 in the morning and arrived 4 in the afternoon. They pedaled together in the velomobile-for-2 and trailer seen below them. They arrived, backed the rig to the steep narrow road, and will carry the materials the rest of the way down into the valley where the Enterprise crew will use it. For the "photo" (taken for records for Enterprise and, sort of like, picked up by and through me from the other space and time) the two were obliged to climb up to the rock ledges before they carried the materials down. It will take three trips carrying the materials down the trail to empty the trailer. After the trailer is empty, Joy will pedal it off to a nearby village, while Janice Rand returns to the ship. Tomorrow, another trip will be made by Janice and Joy.

Closeup on Janice Rand

Closeup on Joy