Star Trek: The Experience
OK – are you seriously not going to Vegas or are you just nosy? This is your last warning! This will take the surprise totally out of the experience if you do eventually go, so think about it. If you are done thinking, or you know that you definitely will not be going, please proceed.
So there we are, watching the other monitor, getting further instructions. The monitor started to flicker, and it looked as though there was going to be more problems. Images started to flicker in and out, and then everything went black. Air was blowing up my back, messing my hair up, then the lights came on again.
We were on the Enterprise.
I looked around, and right away recognized that we were in one of the Transporter rooms. There in front of us was a crewman. Then, it was either Geordi or Will Riker’s voice that came over the communications system and asked if we were taken aboard successfully. The crewman reported that we had been. He welcomed us aboard, asked who was in charge of our group (there were two ride instructors that were "beamed up" with us) and they were taken away.
After that we were led to the bridge of the Enterprise. There they had us stand in a line and face the huge view-screen that was at the head of the bridge. Then Riker came on and told us about a plot that we were involved in!
It seems that the Klingons had a plan to Capture one of Captain Picard’s relatives from Earth’s past so Picard would have never been born. One of the people in our group was that relative (I am pretty sure it was me). Here we were, wanting to take an innocent ride at the ST: TE, when the Klingons plucked us from our time in 1998 and transported us into the future. Thank the maker (oops- that's Star Wars) that the Enterprise was there to take us from the Klingons!
So there we were on the Enterprise, avoiding Klingons, and out of our time period. After a few orders from Riker, the people at the helm had us safe, for now. Picard's seat was still empty, and we needed to get back to our time so he could still be born and save Picard's future.
Our mission: To get into one of the shuttlecrafts and find a way back home. We were then led to one of the shuttle bays and aboard a shuttle that was used for carrying a larger group of people. After we were all strapped in, we were wished good luck and the shuttlecraft’s door was closed.
Then the lights went up, and we could see the shuttle bay passageway out of the ship ahead (just like in the show!). This style of shuttle has the shuttle’s controller sitting in a section at the end of the craft, in a different part of the ship. It’s kind of like the old horse-and-buggy where the driver sits in a different section than the passengers, and that is at the rear of the ship. Use your imagination!
So out of the ship we went, and right away there were Klingons to deal with. We escaped through that problem, then on into the rings of a neighboring planet to hide until Geordi could find where the wormhole was (he was in a separate shuttle flying an escort). After a little bit he reported that he found something and that we should get down there right away. He found a Klingon cloaking device!
We went out of the protection of the rings, and there it was – the cloaking device. And it wasn’t long before our Klingon friends found out where we were and the fight was on. Geordi was distracting the Warbird while we took a shot at the cloaking device that was hiding the wormhole from us. One shot wouldn’t do it, so our shuttle and Geordi’s combined fire and destroyed the cloaking device.
There it was – our wormhole home.
Both shuttles proceeded into the wormhole, away from the Klingon threat. And there she was – good old Las Vegas! We were flying down the famed Las Vegas "strip", right along side of a huge picture of Sigfried & Roy (the scariest part of the whole experience).
BAM! We were hit from behind! The Klingons followed us into the wormhole! Both shuttles against a Klingon Warbird equaled not good odds for us (this is Vegas, and a betting man would have bet on the Klingons). But today is a good day to die. And it is better to die with honor. We made our attempt to fight, but we were getting pummeled.
The Klingons were sending us, blast by blast, into the history books in the section "What ever happened to ….? Then our salvation! The Enterprise came through the wormhole and blasted the Klingon ship! A few hits later and the fight was over. We survived. Picard would survive! Then his voice came over the comm! He thanked us for our efforts, and was glad to be alive. There was more but I don’t remember every word.
We still needed to get back to where we were, so we slammed into an access hole on the roof of the Hilton (actually, it was the neon Hilton ‘H’ on the roof, I think) Through some corridors, then right next to some shuttle simulators. We were back!
It was sad that we couldn’t have stayed in the future with them, but we needed to get back. Earth’s future depended on it.
The people at the Hilton were really confused! It seems that we were put into the maintenance area for the sims. They had no idea how we even got there! We would have explained, but Captain Picard asked that we not tell anyone about our experience. The only reason that I am telling it to the NGG and their friends is that I feel that you all will think that I am crazy, and that this really did not happen. Believe what you will – I was THERE!
I had to laugh after the whole experience. We were being escorted back into the public areas of the Hilton, and there was a TV in the corridor. We were asked to wait there while the maintenance lady made sure that everyone was there. So we decided to watch the television.
It was tuned to channel 3, a news station in Las Vegas. I am not sure if it is all news all of the time, but the news was on while we were waiting for the rest of our group.
This is the funny part – there, on the news, they had a late breaking story. It seems that there were some strange sights reported seen in the skies over Las Vegas! Even explosions!
They had someone over at the airforce base seeking answers. The dude in the uniform said that it wasn’t anything at all. Just space gas. He refused to comment any further. Then he fled the cameras to the safety of one of the buildings.
Isn’t that just like the government.
Live long and prosper.
Gene A. Vogel