A beautiful Federation Ambassador

“Why do I look like Ambassador Langley?” Riker damned.

Alexis Langley was a recently appointed Federation Ambassador-at-Large… like Mrs. Troi but no where near as terrifying to be anywhere near. She had been assigned to the Enterpise making first contact with a recently warp capable planet on the edge of Federation Territory. Locals called it “Vallress”. It actually was home to multiple sentient races, a bit like the ancient home world of the Xindi. One race, the K’Ta, had developed warp drive and the Federation had detected it and sent The Enterprise to recon the system and make first contact. The other two species, the Lun and the Mahala, were openly hostile to each other and the K’Ta. Riker had been on the landing party with the Ambassador. She was only in her early 30’s but was apparently an expert in deplomacy.

That was when the Mahala attacked.

“What happened?” Riker asked Crusher…

“Geordie is looking over the logs with Chief O’Brien, but their theory is something caused the transporter to lose your pattern, so it used the last one saved to keep you alive.

Riker then remembered that he and the security detail had beamed down first to make sure it was safe, then the Ambassador followed.

“So… can’t you use the transporter backup logs to put me back?”

The door to sickbay hissed as Geordie entered.

“Looks like I picked a bad time to have good timing…” the Chief Engineer began “Unfortunately commander… the Mahala fired upon the Enterprise while the transporter was cycling… which meant our shields were down and these guys… wiped the computer core clean. The transporter managed to save you before its systems were completely compromised…

“What?” Riker shreaked in the Ambassador’s voice “how?”

La Forge took a deep breath.

“Not every species develops at the same technological rate as each other. We’re a perfect example, humanity developed warp drive while still recovering from World War III… while we were still a developing, divided society… the Mahala might not have warp drive, but they are VERY good with computers… imagine… if Earth’s first warp flight wasn’t in the post war… let’s say there wasn’t a WWIII… the United States launches the first warp ship, the Vulcans show up, and the Russians or the Chinese shoot at it with a prototype phaser they developed… the Mahala are extremely xenophobic and our presence destroys their society’s core principles… so they figured break the Enterprise and none of thier people would realize.”

Riker laid back on the bio bed.

“Backup computer systems are in place, and we’re in no danger at the moment… in fact the captain has given the order to leave orbit as soon as possible. But I’m sorry Commander, your original pattern is gone.”

“What about the ambassador? And the rest of the away team?”

Crusher and La Forge both looked down at their feet “they all died”…