If you have not read the first installment, you're going to want to begin there before continuing this journey, for this is installment six....
Mr. Darcy and the Space-time Continuum
* * * * *
Space, the new frontier. This is the journey of the starship Venture ...
its mission: to confuse Mr. Darcy, to introduce him to strange people and even stranger places, to brazenly go where no 19th century English gentleman has gone before...
* * * * *
Aurora escorted Darcy into the dining area. As he was walking in, his intention was to go directly to a nearby table, but first he noticed what appeared to be a strangely decorated wall of black. Incredibly, it turned out to be a window! In disbelief, Darcy asked, “Do my eyes deceive me, Miss Aurora?” She did not catch his meaning until he walked with a quick pace to the window.
He turned to ask, “Madam, are those stars I am seeing? ...but of course, what else would one expect to see aboard a starship but stars! There is, I hope, a perfectly rational explanation for all of this, is there not?”
“I would prefer to wait for the Captain to join us before answering any questions.” She watched as Darcy stared out the window and could see his amazement at the vision of the universe before him.
When the Captain, Stones, and Mr. Spot entered, they also went to the window, and the confused look upon Mr. Darcy’s face was enough to answer their questions as to whether his rambling about being in a dream was just a ploy or not.
“There has been talk of our being on a starship, and I look out this window to find that we appear to be among the stars... unless this is some sort of magician’s trick,” Darcy said, forcing himself to hold onto some sort of explanation that would fit within reason.
Captain Kurt was now more inclined to make allowances for him: “Sir, your eyes do not deceive you, and if you would join us at a table, we will attempt to answer your questions and hopefully you will answer ours.”
Darcy took a seat, though his eyes were often drawn to look out the window. Expecting the tea placement to come at any moment, instead he observed as Stones walk over to a wall with what looked like a small door. “What tea would you like, sir?” he asked Darcy.
“What sort of tea?” Darcy was disposed to reply sarcastically, but with a look out the window he caught himself, for if they were indeed among the stars, surely there could be more than one kind of tea! “Do you have black tea and cream?”
To his surprise, the small doors slid open and Dr. McCrete pulled out a cup of steaming tea with cream. Darcy was now absorbed by watching what took place at the small sliding doors, for at everyone’s utterance of different sorts of tea, a cup was promptly pulled out.
Coming to the realization that this could not possibly be just a dream, Darcy thus began, “Yes indeed, sir, I am more than ready to enter into a dialogue in which we may each have our questions answered. I believe you have been wanting my name -- I am Fitzwilliam Darcy of the Darcys of Pemberley. That, I assure you, was always said with more than a small sense of pride. Now, however, I have reason to doubt anyone who flies among the stars would have reason to be impressed over such an estate in Derbyshire. Do you have any way of knowing how it is I have come to be here? For I had just made a marriage proposal to Miss Elizabeth Bennet, who was in the middle of giving me the set-down of my life. She was condemning me for not behaving like a gentleman and being the most haughty person she had encountered...”
Spot asked in his logical tone, “Was there anything unusual that happened which caught your attention before your finding yourself here aboard the Venture?”
“There was a light that got brighter and brighter until it was too bright to keep my eyes open, and when I opened them, I was here.” Darcy had assumed those strange pointy ears were fake, but now considered they were truly Mr. Spot’s ears!
Stones, ever the doctor, inquired, “Did you hear anything? Were there any strange sensations or odd thoughts you were having at the time? Try to remember -- anything you can recall might be of help.”
He strained to recall something, anything, but nothing came to mind. He was about to drink from the tea, when thinking better of it, he cautiously inquired, “Are you sure this is tea, and is it safe to drink?”
