TALES OF THE RELIANT

THE NAKED PLANET

The Reliant received a distress call from the planet Rincon. Rincon was a resort planet. However, unlike other vacation planets, the guests and inhabitants of Rincon were nudists. This was why Captain Yager was really hoping there was another ship within the vicinity of the planet who could respond to their distress call.

No such luck.

The Captain transported down to the beach town of Oceanus along with his first officer Commander Steiner and his chief of security Bortis where the distress call originated from. However, to their surprise, no one was there to greet them.

"Where is everybody?" asked Lisa.

"Don't know," replied John.

"This is where the distress call came from, isn't it?"

"Yes, unless someone is playing a trick on us."

"And why would anyone want to do that?" a voice behind them asked.

John quickly took out his laser pistol and aimed it in the direction the voice was coming from. Standing behind them was a portly man with a bald head and a blue body looking curiously at then. And, yes, he was completely naked, much to John's chagrin.

"Who are you?" John demanded.

"I'm sorry," the blue man said, waving his hands frantically in front of him. "I didn't mean to startle you. Please don't shoot!"

"Right," John said as he slid his pistol back into its holster.

"May I ask who you people are?" the man asked them. "And why are you still wearing clothes? You do know that guests are required to be nude, don't you?"

"We're not guests here. I'm Captain John Yager of the Alliance ship The Reliant. We were responding to a distress call. You wouldn't happen to be Grogo, would you?"

"No," the man said, smiling. "My name is Hermie."

"Hermie," John said, "do you know where I can find Grogo, the guy who runs this place?"

"I'm right here, Captain," another man, also naked, said as he walked up to them. "I'm Grogo."

John looked directly at Grogo's face and dared not look down much further than that.

"You're the one who sent the distress call?" John asked him.

"Yes, I am."

"Would you mind telling me why you sent the distress call? To be honest, I really an't see any trouble here."

"Well, Captain, I'm sure you're aware that Rincon requires everyone, including our guests, to be nude."

"I'm aware," John said, sighing. "Go on."

"Well, we have some recent guests who refuse to go nude. And I would like for you to deal with them."

John narrowed his eyes at Grogo. "Excuse me?"

"I would like for you to make these guests leave, Captain."

John sighed again as he rubbed his head in frustration.

"So, let me get this straight, you sent out a distress call to an Alliance ship to have them come down and handle some unruly guests?"

Grogo nodded. "Yes, Captain."

John stopped rubbing his head. "Don't you have security or some other employees who can take care of this?"

Grogo seemed bewildered by the suggestion. "No, Captain. That's why I sent out the distress call."

"You know, people normally send out distress calls for something more serious like, say, they're being attacked and not for something trivial like some of their guests won't go around naked.'