Snippet 5d

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"Your mission is simple, but following through it it will be challenging.

There are at least nine individuals that are currently out of their intended cycle for their Story, living in an apartment complex in Pennsylvania. You must see to it that these nine individuals meet each other and enlist in Starfleet, as was originally planned. However, you must do this subtly, as simple members of the community. They must not believe that anything out of the ordinary has been planned to get them to come together or join Starfleet.

The keys to your apartment are waiting for you at the complex - 1280 Grant Street. I wish the best of luck to both of you.

You must not fail."

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"Well. There it is."

Mel let out a happy sigh as she and Christi stepped off the bus, beaming up at the rather unimpressive-looking apartment complex in front of them. "It's just like I thought it would be - with an extra dose of crappiness. I think that's our apartment - right up there by the fire escape!"

Christi was staring at it blankly. "Yup. That would figure."

"Oh, come on. Lighten up! Home sweet home!" Mel said, starting to trot forward cheerfully with her bags in tow. "Let's grab our keys and get up there. The front desk guy better be in."

The two girls made their way toward the front entrance of the building. The old door at the front took a few good tugs to get open, but eventually they were both inside, walking up to the counter where an old man was seated, reading a newspaper.

"Hi," Mel said, hurrying forward across the old wooden floor to greet the man with a grin. "We're the Klatt sisters, here for our apartment!"

The newspaper tipped down, revealing a pair of bespectacled eyes. "Klatt sisters, huh?" the old man said gruffly. He sat forward, tipping his glasses up his nose as he looked at a sheet of paper in front of him. "...oh yeah. You're right on time. I've got your keys back here somewhere." He stood up gingerly and slouched his way over to some folders on a desk in the back. "New recruits..."

"That's us," Mel said, practically bouncing with excitement. "We're so excited to be here - and, uh, actually - we'd like to get to know our neighbors right away! You don't happen to have, like, a directory or something, would you?"

"Directory?" the old man turned back toward them, his eyes squinted as he walked slowly up to give them their keys. "...yeah. I guess I've got a list back here somewhere. Don't go tryin' to be all social 'round here, though. Some folks don't like it."

"They don't, huh?" Mel said, giving Christi a secretive smile as the man turned to find the list. "Well, that's okay. We won't bother them. We'd still like to know their names, though, you know...just in case we need to borrow something or - something."

The old man peered back to give her a squinty look again, before he turned around again, this time with an old laminated piece of paper in his hands. "Here's the list," he said, pushing it over the counter toward them. "Keep it. No one here's got the same notions you've got about findin' out about folks. It's kind of a zoo in here - lots of real strange and different folk."

"That's what we like," Mel said. "Strange people!"

The man stared at her. Then turned to look slowly at Christi. "...you as excited as she is?"

A smile came all at once to fix itself on Christi's face. "Yes."

"Mm," the man grunted, eyeing them both for another moment before sitting down. "Fine, then. I'm Mr. Gregson, your landlord. You need anything, I'll be here. Or sleeping. Or both. Go get settled in, now."

"Thanks!" Mel said cheerfully, starting immediately toward the stairs.

Christi followed, heaving a bag over her shoulder as she looked up the vast flight of stairs. "This is going to be interesting," she said under her breath, looking down as she started up the stairs. "Now who is where here? Are they all scattered about on the floors or...?"

"Let's get our stuff in the room, first, and then we'll sit down and look over the list," Mel said as they reached the floor that their apartment was designated on. "...oh, wow. Dark, creepy hallway."

The hallway did look rather dark and creepy. Poorly-lit by some old-looking lamps on the wall, with a dark red carpet and dark, wooden walls, it looked like a mixture between old and classy, and just plain foreboding. No discernable noise came from any of the doors that they passed, each one possessing a number on a gold plate that signified which apartment it was.

"Here's us, right on the end here," Mel said after a while of silence, pointing to the door at the end of the hallway. She put her bags down and stuck her key into the keyhole, unlocking the door - and, again, it took a good shove to get the thing to even move, before she and Christi could walk in.

The room lived up to the appearance of the rest of the building. Small, simple, and definitely nothing fancy. It had working lights, and pretty standard-looking appliances, but it definitely was meant for two people, max. Some old pieces of furniture had been left there, covered in plastic and graciously left for the less-than-well-to-do tenants that would be renting the place.

"Well." Christi said, looking over it all as she dropped her bag. "I guess this is gonna be home."

"You bet," Mel said, already moving forward to pull the plastic off the furniture and turn on some lights. "Not bad, really. It's bigger than a dorm room. It'll work just fine."

Fifteen minutes later, after Christi and Mel had found their way around the apartment, inflated their air mattresses, and unpacked their belongings in the ancient wardrobes that were found in the bedroom, the two girls sat down at the flimsy little table in the kitchen with two cans of Mountain Fury and began to look over the tenant list that their landlord had given them.

"They're scattered pretty much all over the building," Mel said grimly, tracing her finger to each room that had one of the names they were looking for on it. "And, apparently, none of them know each other. So we have to find a way to get them acquainted and propose Starfleet to them." She let out a puff of air. "...this is gonna be interesting."

Christi nodded distractedly, squinting down further toward the list as she set down her soda. "Chekov is in the attic? How did that happen?"

"I'm not entirely sure," Mel said, frowning at the scribbled name that was situated right by the printed word "Attic" on the apartment's layout. "Maybe they didn't have any rooms to rent when he needed one, so the old guy just let him camp out in the attic. Who knows? ...but, look!" She pointed to one of the rooms below the attic. "Sulu's right below him!"

A slow smile crept onto Christi's face. "That's gonna be fun." she said, nudging her sister almost gleefully before looking at the list again. "Ok, and there are...oh wow. The Kirks and the Vulcans, eh? Looks like the brothers are living together."

"Are you serious?" Mel snatched the list and put it almost up to her nose, scanning over it. And ecstatic squeal bubbled out of her throat a second later. "SQUEE!!! Oh my gosh, that's so hot...I TOTALLY forgot that Sam and Sybok were here!! And they're - well, just a floor apart. I like how Mr. Gregson just put 'The Vulcans' on there for Spock and Sybok, 'cause Vulcans don't have last names....hey, look! I see McCoy's apartment! Right there on the corner!"

"Good." Christi said, nodding. "He's by the stairs, that's always a good thing. Is that everyone? Is Lesh'ar here at all...?"

"Oh, yup! He's right there," Mel said, pointing to another apartment on the third floor. "I wonder if he and McCoy have ever talked...oh - hey! Look!" She pointed to the basement, where another scribbled name was situated just by the word "basement". "That's Scotty, isn't it? HA! I wonder if he chose to live down there that close to the generator..."

Christi laughed. "He's gonna be an easy sell on Starfleet, I can tell."

"Good, then. We're set," Mel said, setting the list down and then chugging down the rest of her soda. "What should we do first, then? Go around and introduce ourselves to everyone like the nosy neighbors we're about to become?"

Christi looked at her with wide eyes. "You can't be serious. Your genius plan is to meet them? Why?!"

"Well, I don't KNOW," Mel said, shrugging and frowning at her. "Got any better ideas? What do YOU think we should do first?"

"Well..." Christi stalled, thinking. "I mean it's not like we couldn't meet them, but - you know, you're right." she suddenly agreed, nodding. "Let's just get ourselves over to meet them then."

"Yay!" Mel leapt up happily, snatching up the list with her and heading for the door. "Who should we start with first? McCoy or Sulu?"

"Well McCoy's closer, but Sulu is more likely to be home." Christi said, getting up to follow her. "Should we chance McCoy or go straight to the top?"

"Let's definitely chance McCoy. I wanna see him!" Mel said, already heading out the door.

A couple minutes later, both girls were stationed outside the door to Apartment 45B. Mel wasted no time in drawing in a happy breath, and then knocking loudly on the door.

No response.

Christi gave Mel a look.

Mel made a face. She pressed her ear to the door. "...he's not home," she finally concluded, stepping back. "Fine. On to Sulu!"

The next door, 32C, was soon in sight. Mel rapped solidly on the door again, loud enough to make sure that there was no choice the noise couldn't be heard.