Snippet 6d

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"The day has come, ladies and gentlemen - when the cinematic outcome of this first fan-based vote shall determine which director team gets to undertake the next Star Trek movie."

The crowd was silent - hardly anyone seemed to be breathing. It truly was a first - directors being chosen based on the votes of fans alone. This was a moment in history - and every director was hoping to be a part of it.

"...and the winning vote goes to..." Jay Sheimons drew out the words, glancing around the rows of seats to build up suspense.

It was now certain that no one was breathing.

Jay smiled. "...the Klatt sisters."

"GAAAHHHH!!!" Christi and Mel leapt to their feet, squealing ecstatically while the rest of the directors groaned, or applauded politely for them around the room. Both girls hugged each other, laughing and whooping in the light of their victory - which would ultimately change the Star Trek franchise forever.

This was going to be the best movie ever.

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The doors to the conference room opened at exactly 10:00 AM.

The room had been empty the entire week prior, until this day...the day when the new cast from Star Trek was to meet for the first time. None of the older actors would be coming back. This year...this movie...it was an entirely new set of actors.

Which explained the commotion that began when the doors opened, and the actors walked into the room for the first time.

The first solid five minutes were all introductions and "how-do-you-do's". The smiling young actors walked left and right, shaking hands and exchanging names and jokes about the flight there with everyone they met. Not a single one of them had met each other before now, and everyone wanted to learn names as quickly as possible.

"Hey! Chris Pine. And you're Zach?"

"Simon Pegg! Nice ta' meetcha', Mr. Urban!"

"Oh, John Cho! Off course! I vatch your mo'wies. Anton Yelchin!"

"I think everyone here's a little excited." Karl said under his breath as he squeezed past a small crowd. He stopped as a smile greeted him from a sudden turn of a blonde head. "Hi. I'm Karl. 'n you must be Chris Pine."

"You got it," Chris said cheerfully, reaching out to shake the Southern actor's hand. "Karl Urban, right? Seriously, I'm a big fan. I've seen every single on of your Westerners - even The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly remake! You're phenomenal!"

"Thanks," Karl said, smiling as he patted him on the back and moved on to continue the round of greeting. "Good to meet ya."

"Aha! You are from Heroes!" Anton suddenly sprang forward in front of the crowd toward the place where one of the darker-haired young men had just entered the room. He barely gave the other fellow a chance to take off his coat before he was shaking his hand. "Anton Yelchin, Mr. Qvinto! Eet is so vonderful to meet you!"

Zach shook his hand, giving him a brief and almost unsure smile as he hung his coat at the same time. "Thank you. You must be playing Chekov."

"Vas it zat obwious?" Anton joked, beaming. "I vas typecasted!"

"You sure sound cheerful about it," a dark-skinned woman said with a sarcastic smile, moving to shake Zach's hand next. "Zoe Saldana. Zachary Quinto?"

"Sylar," another dark-haired man smiled as he stepped forward to continue down the line of shaking hands. "I watched Heroes through the second season. You ever get sick of being called 'Sylar'?"

"It has its moments if they believe you can cut them open." Zach replied, shaking the man's hand with a smile. "You must be Luke. I just saw you in Sink last night."

"Must have been a re-run," Luke said dryly, but returned his smile and handshake. "So you excited to be here? What'd your agent say about you signing on for a Star Trek movie?"

"'I was hoping you'd get off your lazy ass one day,' I believe." Zach quoted blandly, smiling at Luke again as the other chuckled. "He's special."

"Well, I'm glad he didn't argue too hard, because this makes us brothers," Luke said, smiling again as he patted Zach's back once more. "But remember - I'm older."

The actors continued to converse cheerfully with each other, exchanging names and getting to know each other as best as possible...

...right before the conference room doors banged open once more. This time to reveal a pair of people who were not there to act.

"Well if it isn't the new cast of Star Trek." The blonde girl said, a huge grin on her face as she looked in at the room of extremely good looking actors and actresses. "Welcome to Day 1! I, as you probably know, am Christiana. One of your new directors."

"And I'm MEL!" the dark-haired girl bounced forward, looking just as much like a director as her sister did - complete with the hat, the clipboard, and the USB lanyard around her neck. "We are SO excited to have you guys here. So let's get to briefing right away, okay? Everyone have a seat!"

Everyone glanced around for a moment before moving to take their seats. Christiana and Mel made their way to the front of the room - where it was clearly visible that their shirts were matching and already tailored for the new movie.

"Alrighty then," Christi said, setting down a binder and flipping through the first two pages. "I assume we have everyone here, but just to be sure...Zachary Quinto?"

Zach raised his hand from near the other end of the table.

Christi raised her pen to him with a smile as she continued to look over the list and match it with the the faces she saw. "And...is Chris Pine - oh there you are."

"Present," Chris grinned, waving his hand.

"Karl Urban?" Mel said, glancing up from her clipboard.

"Yeah." Karl said, raising his hand as well.

"Luke?" Christi looked up, smiling when she saw him. "Hey handsome. Looking forward to being your first blockbuster?"

"Hell yes," Luke said, smiling and sitting back in his seat.

"Zoe Saldana? Okay, you're here," Mel said, smiling again as she checked another name off her clipboard, before looking up again. "John Cho? Aha! Hiya, John. We hear you've got some martial arts experience. Ready to use that for once?"

"Hell yeah," Jon said, sitting forward with an excited smile. "But Jackie Can ain't."

"Is your mission to put him out of business?" Christi asked, looking amused by the idea. "Alright then. Anton I saw you earlier...Mark is on his way...Winona?"

"Here!"

"Jake?"

"That'd be me." Jake said, waving a hand with a grin.

Christi raised a quick eyebrow at Mel before smiling and going back to her folder. "Alright, I think that's everyone. Now," She stood up, tapping her pencil quickly in her hand. "how many of you would say you are really familiar with the precedence of this film?"

No one raised their hand. Some raised them halfway, making a wobbly sign with their hands, but most just glanced around and then looked back at the directors to continue.

"Exactly," Mel said, pointing her pencil at them. "None of you feel like you know the complete story. And that was done on purpose - which is a really rare thing for this kind of field. But...do any of you know why?"

Jon raised his hand before lowering it at Christi's point. "Fans."

"Exactly!" Mel said happily. "We were trying to conceal the plot from fans as much as possible to raise anticipation rates in the future. That might not make sense now, but it sure as heck will. Do any of you have any idea what exactly we were trying to keep the fans from knowing?"

At this, the room was silent for a moment until Jon raised his hand again. "The...plot...?"

"Mmmm...sort of, yeah," Mel said, squinting an eye and nodding toward him. "But something more particular than that. And it has to do with a certain...spin that we're taking with the associations aboard the Enterprise."