Antagonia.net

And I won it! Yay!

Captain’s Log, Stardate 2263.72:
Returning from a routine medical mission, sonar sensors picked up a free-floating pile of detritus on the starboard side.

I ordered two men out in a reconnaissance vessel to survey the debris in the event that it was the result of a wrecked patrol. Aboard the reconnaissance vessel: Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Leonard McCoy.

The investigation team returned with the assurance that the debris appeared to be a free-floating pile of trash from the 20th century. The two arrived back aboard the Enterprise with a small collection of samples for analysis.

Included amongst the samples was one (1) small “flash drive,” a primitive data storage mechanism which can be affixed to a computer for output via an outdated connective device known by contemporaries as a “USB port.” Our technology team loaded the device onto our computer’s main data bank in order to survey the information for anthropological research.

The drive included data from a Terran children’s fiction series familiar to Lt. Sulu. This was apparent based on the squeal of girlish glee which emanated from Mr. Sulu upon recognition of the material. Familiarity of the material was corroborated by Lt. Uhura, who claimed to have read said books in Latin, Hebrew and Klingon during her training as a linguist.

“Captain,” Lieutenant Uhura asked me. “You mean to say you’ve never read Harry Potter?”

“Lieutenant,” replied Dr. McCoy, “are you suggesting the Captain reads anything?”

I pointed out that I have read the autobiography of twentieth century basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as well as many issues of Men’s Health.

Several members of my crew simultaneously went on to attempt to describe the plot of said children’s books. From my understanding, there is a boy who lives in a cupboard who marries his best friend’s sister and flies around on a maneating horse-monster. He has magic powers and goes to a special school where he may or may not be having an affair with his archnemesis. Because of anti-homosexual sympathies at the time of its writing, the headmaster is a closeted homosexual, and his secret relationship is the cause of the second World War. There is also a werewolf.

Mr. Chekhov then tried to illustrate a complex mathematical formula which he described as having to do with the relation between a matter transporter and something he called “apparation,” but I must confess I lost him somewhere in the first sentence and was not listening by the time he got around to making a point.

My attention was mainly required by a curious activity which my deck officers referred to as “sorting,” in which they discussed “houses,” and which “house” they would each live in. Each house apparently had a name and the vast majority of my crew insisted that they would live in a house called after a bird—I believe it was Eagle- or Raven- something, although Dr. McCoy did not live with the rest of them and instead got to live in a house called Puffle-something. Many of my crew members apparently looked down on this Puffle-house with a sort of intellectual disdain.

Mr. Spock, the only non-Terran in my immediate command seemed intrigued by the game and inquired as to the exact definition of these houses. Apparently the bird house is the house for smart people and the Puffle house has something to do with either cuddliness or socialism. I am not sure which.

In an attempt to socialize with my crew, I asked them which of these houses I would get to live in. Lt Uhura immediately volunteered the name “Slytherin,” but as soon as she said it, Lt. Sulu got a rather agitated look and shouted “Gryffindor!” at her. Lt. Uhura said that that was impossible and related my success at the Kobayashi Maru test as an example of my “Slytherin” nature. Lt. Sulu, on the other hand, insisted that my manipulation of the exam was only a result of my dedication to idealism and that that made me a “Gryffindor.” After several minutes back and forth, it was necessary for me to order them separated out of my concern for their physical well-being. However, on reflection, I am quite pleased as I have been made to understand that Slytherin is the “sexy” house.

My crew has now convinced me that I have missed an important part of Terran pop culture by not having been exposed to these books, so I have downloaded the first in the series and plan to begin it tonight. I hope there are not any big words.

–James T Kirk, Commanding Officer, USS Enterprise

PS I also made this: