Excerpt: Starship Hailstorm

The party had lasted far into the night. Commander Neumann was in his element, sitting at the crude wooden table, with a mug of local ale in one hand and the phaser in another hand, waving it around to demonstrate to the cheering and enthusiastic listeners how to perform the double-spin shuttle maneuver. "Now this is what an away mission is supposed to be!" he shouted across the room to Commander Krause who, for the past couple of hours, had been standing with the communicator in front of a huge tapestry, engrossed in the scene which depicted a disproportionally muscular youth slaying a winged dragon with a spear (or alternatively, slicing a bunch of pumpkins to make a salad). However, the science officer was not concerned with the artistic qualities of the image - he was trying to parse the mysterious writings embroidered on the tapestry. Most of the writings, in fact, were just decorative patterns, except for the ones which were defects in the fabric, resulted from the years of wear and tear among the parties of drunken hunters happening in the tavern regularly every week or so. But the relentless explorer was convinced that there was much more meaning behind these seemingly innocuous markings, especially seeing that they were swirling and swimming in front of his eyes, which was obviously intended as a secret sign. He had realized, of course, that the excessive amount of alcohol in his bloodstream could have been responsible for all these extra visual effects, but he refused to accept such a trivial and uninspiring explanation. That's why he had squinted and rubbed his eyes, trying to concentrate once more on the elusive script.