Pavel Andreievich Chekov

[There is a rather impressive—and impressively accurate—cross-section of the U.S.S. Enterprise, made wholly of Lego, directly in front of the device’s camera lens. This charming view is quickly replaced by Chekov as he picks the device up and sets it on a (remarkably tidy, for those few who have had the misfortune of experiencing Pavel in his natural habitat) desk, adjusting it for a moment before addressing the network.

He looks quite grim.]

One thing I will miss about that curse, I think, will be the horses.

The dirt, the guns and bullets—I am happy without those. Projectile weapons are clumsy and messy and not so kind as a simple phaser blast. But the horses! I was on a horse, once, in the City, and I did little more than fall off of it. Riding one without falling off was good. Better, maybe, than piloting a personal shuttlecraft, although I would not tell Sulu so.

I like machines, but I like animals better. Yes, ships have their personalities and attitudes and you need to learn what your ship is like before you can be very good at knowing what she needs, but they are not so affectionate as animals. I would be happy if I had a good horse—just like the one that I had when the curse was here—instead of a good ship. [After saying this out loud, he amends:] Only, of course, if I could take that horse to space in a ship. I miss space already and I have been gone from it for only 115 days. Being a cowboy—as much as I would like the horse, I would miss space too much.

[He’s not addressing the network anymore. If fact, he’s not addressing anyone. This doesn’t seem to bother him.] Maybe if I were to find a captain who would let me have a horse onboard… I think that that would be ideal, although there are rules regarding nonhuman lifeforms that would be hard to get around…

[And back to the network on a wholly different subject.]

I was thinking of things that science typically takes for granted today and wondering if they apply in the City. The law of conservation of mass… how would that work, here, in a place where new settings can appear overnight and new animals can show for a day and then be gone again? Settings, I understand; maybe the deities can alter what is already present to make their curse landscapes. Animals, though, cannot appear in a dimension and then—

[He pauses, train of thought apparently switching directions.]

There is the uncertainty principle. I usually think of it only as it relates to quantum physics… very small things. Not an entire horse, or entire people. Perhaps the City is a large experiment—Schrodinger’s paradox, that is what Mr. Laszlow mentioned not so long ago. It is not the same, of course, because all of this—all of what we are perceiving—is macroscopic, and it is very difficult to bring quantum theory to bear on such a scale.

Anyway, I do not feel like a collapsed wave function. That surely counts for something.

Also, I would like to have the horse that I had during the curse. I liked her, and I think that she liked me.


[COMMENTS]

[The video shows a brightly-light room, currently occupied only by Chekov (alert and chipper in spite of the late hour) and a machine on the coffee table that looks like someone's attempt to meld a computer and a microwave. The mangled electronic(s?) is clearly not the topic of this network broadcast.]

I have been thinking about the City--why it is here, who controls it truly, what powers are capable of plucking us from our own dimensions and placing us here without a detectible temporal ripple. After a month, all I can conclude is that it would be foolish to conclude much of anything other than the following: the City is strange and illogical. The stars do not move in an ascertainable pattern, I can see nothing that dictates when a curse will or will not strike an individual, the gods are crazy...

[He sighs in his usual overdone fashion--a good indicator that he's not all that frustrated--and then smiles.]

But the company is good. When I read on the network, that is what I see the most. The curses are bad, the City is terrible, we are all trapped... but the company is good.

Oh--speaking of good company, if you have not met Doctor McCoy, I think that you should. He is from my world and not only is he one of the best doctors in Starfleet, but he is also exceedingly personable and eager to meet new people.

[Anyone who is at all versed in the art of reading Chekov's facial expressions will know that this is Not True and he doesn't mean it in the least. He then hops back to something resembling seriousness.]

But I was worried, when I came here, that I would not function well in the City. It is difficult to imagine living for months or years in a place--learning all that there is to learn, meeting people and building a new life among them--with the knowledge that it will disappear. I cannot imagine living possibly years of my life only to forget them. I think, though, that no one forgets when they leave, not wholly. That is not how the brain works. We must retain something of the City even after we return home...

[This seems to be wandering into more serious territory than Chekov cares to explore. He pulls a face and moves to cut the video feed.]

But I should not talk out loud after thinking too much. These are, I am sure, all thoughts that have been on the network before. I have to share them, sometimes, because there is only room for so many thoughts in my head at once.

[The feed ends abruptly.]


[COMMENTS]