And here is the other entry:

Tomorrow is Nothing, Today is Too Late
by Joe P

Captain’s Log, Stardate 6039.2. The Liberty has finally located a distress signal from the SS Carmen, a freighter that had gone missing two weeks ago. The signal appears to be coming from the fourth planet in the Gamma Picus star system; a class M-planet with a pre-warp civilization. I’m leading a landing party to investigate.

Swirls of light and energy descended upon the alleyway, which quickly took the form of the Liberty landing party as the re-materialization process completed. Dressed in what the ship’s computers assumed was indigenous fashion, the only other clue to the group’s true nature was the communicator that the Captain had immediately taken out and opened.

“Drake to Liberty. Transport complete. Maintain transporter lock at all times as previously discussed.”

“Aye, sir,” came out of the small speaker inside the communicator.

“Drake out.” He promptly closed the lid and placed the communicator back in a jacket pocket, and then turned his attention to the rest of the landing party. “Well, we’re here and we don’t appear to have been noticed, so let’s get straight to it. Mister Litvak?”

The science officer was already scanning with the tricorder as the Captain stated his request for a report. “Readings are consistent with scans from orbit. The transmission is still active and is coming from a building down the street. The street appears to be highly populated by humanoids travelling on foot and in electric vehicles.” Litvak snapped the lid of his tricorder shut and hid it discretely. “Recommend we maintain a low profile, Captain.”

“I concur, Captain,” said Lieutenant Cooper, whose appearance looked unusually modest given that she was wearing trousers and a thick jacket instead of the red uniform dress of the Liberty’s security division.

“Oh, we get to vote?” asked Doctor Randhawa, who seemed more than a little out of her element. She hadn’t been picked for a landing party in some time.
“No,” the Captain said quickly. “We’ll stick with the original plan. Unless you happened to find something, Doctor?”
“No, sir. The medical tricorder seems to have the same trouble distinguishing between Human and Pican lifesigns that the ship’s sensors did.”
“Well, it was worth a try. Anyway, everyone remember, we’re still dealing with a primitive culture here. The Prime Directive is still in effect; no identification of self or mission. No interference with the social development of said planet. No references to space, or the fact that there are other worlds, or more advanced civilizations. Let’s go.”

The four humans walked out of the alleyway and into the densely populated sidewalk. Even though the last survey of this world had been made over a decade ago, the computer still managed to select appropriate disguises for the Starfleet crew; their fashion choices allowed them to blend right in with the alien population. However, there was one particular accessory that they all seemed to be missing…

“A lot of people seem to be carrying those small rectangular devices,” Drake observed aloud as the party began walking towards their intended destination.

“Yes, Captain. I don’t think they were mentioned in the last survey of this planet,” Litvak concurred. “There must have been some recent advances in computing technology in the past decade.”

“They seem awfully focused on them,” the Doctor commented.
“Do you think that’s something abnormal?” the Captain asked. “Like, mind control, or something?”
“No, but I’d need to do a detailed study to be sure. Not the sort of thing I could do discretely.”
“Alright, well, we won’t worry about that now,” the Captain said. “After all, we’re here to rescue the crew of the Carmen. Though I’m confused as to how the transmission from their computer system is coming from here. I would expect wreckage.”

“Indeed Captain, this city appears to be completely undisturbed. I think we can safely surmise that however the ship’s communication system managed to end up here, it was not due to the ship impacting on the surface at this point.”

Cooper had nothing to add to the conversation, but thought to herself that Litvak had started sounding more Vulcan ever since he returned from that exchange program a few weeks ago.

“Well, here we are,” the Captain said, stopping in front of a particularly tall tower, emblazoned with colorful letters on the front in a language none of the humans could read. “What do you think it is?”

“Some sort of office building,” Litvak immediately answered. “Though I can’t say exactly what kind.”

“Probably private,” Cooper spoke at last. “The security seems too low to be a government building.”

“Let’s find out how good the security is,” the Captain said and led them all inside the lobby of the tower. Although it was spacious, the only ways further into the structure were blocked by a man at a desk, who seemed to be monitoring everything. Before the party had walked more then a couple feet through the large revolving doors, the guard was already motioning to them.

“Truth and Safety, right?”

Blinking for a moment, the Captain simply asked “How did you know?”

“You’re the only people who ever walk in here without Cyborgs.”

Drake couldn’t find a fault with that answer, even though he had absolutely no idea what that really meant. Before he or anyone else in the party could blow their cover by speaking, another man had come from behind the desk. He seemed to be dressed much more casually than the guard or anyone on the street outside.

“Please come with me, gentlemen.”

“Alright,” the Captain said and into the building they went, collecting inside an elevator. As the doors shut, their escort immediately held up a finger to his lips, as a pointed, silent warning, before speaking again.

“This is our floor. If you’ll follow me.”

Then the group ended up piling into a room that was full of rather loud computer equipment that was constantly whirring, spinning, and beeping, not unlike the Liberty’s own computers. The escort took out his own small rectangular device and placed it on top one of the machines that was beeping and booping and whirring.

“Now they can’t hear us; it’s safe to speak. I already know you’re not from this planet. You’re here to rescue the aliens from the Carmen.”

“You seem to have us at a disadvantage, Mister…”

“Natur. Don’t tell me your own names; I am taking too many risks as it is.”

“Very well, Natur, why don’t you explain everything to us.”

“I’m not exactly clear on what happened to the ship itself; from what I was able to gather it had a malfunction and the crew abandoned it. The problem was their rescue transmitter needed a source of power, and they also didn’t have enough supplies to wait for a rescue to find them. So they came here, to the city.”

“Where are they now?” Cooper asked.

“They weren’t able to blend in. They were picked up by Truth and Safety. But they managed to give me their transmitter device. I’ve been running it here in the server room for about a dremp. I knew you were coming because your signals started coming through, though I didn’t understand the machine well enough to respond.”

“Where is the transmitter now?” Drake asked.

“It’s over there,” Natur pointed towards bank of equipment.

“Litvak,” the Captain instructed.

“Aye, sir,” the Science Officer walked over and began inspecting the transmitter and the surrounding equipment. Satisfied that nobody else was present, he took out his tricorder and began scanning it while the Captain continued talking.

“When you said the crew was taken by ‘Truth and Safety’, what did you mean? What for? Who are they?”

Natur seemed to take a very deep breath before answering this question; it was something that clearly was uncomfortable for him to talk about.

“It’s very complicated… but I’ll try to explain. The crew… well… they… like I said, they didn’t blend in. They caused offense in a way that they really probably didn’t intend to. So Truth and Safety took them into custody.”

“Are they a law enforcement organization?” Doctor Randhawa asked.

“Uh… Not exactly. They keep spaces safe.”

“Safe from what?” the Captain asked.

“Look,” Natur said abruptly. “It’s really hard to explain all of this and how it works, but at the same time you’re asking questions about it is only going to get you in trouble. This is exactly what the other aliens did, but nobody knew they are aliens, so it’s assumed they’re just being difficult. You don’t actually want to know and I can’t explain it because it doesn’t make any sense. The important thing is that you just need to keep your mouth shut.”

“Uh, okay…” Drake said, not sure why their host had suddenly become aggressive. The Doctor, wondering the same question, began waving the medical tricorder around his head.

“Elevated heart rate,” the Doctor observed a moment later.

“You’re damn right my heart rate is elevated! You’re all… look, I need to step outside a minute. I know you don’t mean anything by it, but… I need to just cool off a minute. I’ll be right back.”

Natur promptly walked out of the server room, leaving the landing party alone to discuss what was going on in private.

“What was that about?” Drake asked his fellow humans.
“If I saw that in a human, I’d say it was a panic attack, Captain,” the Doctor said. “Elevated heart rate, increase perspiration, shortness of breath, fear…”
“Somehow I get the sense that ‘Truth and Safety’ is something Orwellian,” Cooper noted.

“Quite correct, Lieutenant,” Litvak said as he shut his tricorder and rejoined the rest of the party. “I’ve completed my analysis of this facility, Captain. This is a center for processing data collected from the small devices everyone is carrying, which are referred to as ‘Cyborgs.’”

“That’s what the guard said he knew we didn’t have,” Cooper observed.
“Yes, ownership of a Cyborg is mandatory for all except those in high authority. It gathers data on everything everyone does, and in return feeds a steady supply of content to keep the citizenry pacified completely.”
“Pacified? With what?” the Doctor asked.
“Whatever the user wants: videos of small animals, articles about famous people, news of the day, comedy routines, pornography. But all of it is filtered through Truth and Safety.”
Doctor Randhawa let out a sigh. “Every one of these pre-warp civilizations we run into is always a tyranny, isn’t it?”
“Well, they are primitive, Doctor…”
“We’ll have time to be smug and superior when we get back to the ship,” Drake said, cutting off that discussion. “What happened to the Carmen crew?”
“I’m unable to determine. The logs in the ship’s distress transmitter essentially confirm Natur’s account, though there’s no information about their capture. However they were probably taken to the Truth and Safety headquarters on the other side of the city.”
“Any ideas on how we can find our people there?”
“No, Captain. There is little information about the inner workings of Truth and Safety. Information about it is largely confined to propaganda for public consumption.”
“There must be some way for us to…”

Before the Captain could finish the thought, the door opened again, with Natur returning to the server room.

“Okay,” Natur said. “I’m sorry about that; I know this is confusing. I know you don’t mean to do anything offensive. And I’m not actually that offended, really, I’m very open minded about this sort of stuff. But, you just have to be careful, okay? Most other people aren’t as accepting of social criticism as I am. They’ll report you to Truth and Safety in an instant if you talk like that in front of them.”

The landing party all shot each other confused glances over this declaration, but all decided not to say anything.

“Natur,” the Captain said. “We’ll try to be careful, but we have to rescue the crew of the Carmen. Are they at Truth and Safety headquarters?”

“Yes, at the old Blipper Building. But nobody knows what happens inside there now, not even here at Woople. You’d need someone inside-“

Natur was cut off as the server door opened again, and two women entered the server room with matching black outfits and purple hair. Individually, they would have looked like any random person on the street, but together it was obvious that they were both adhering to a secret police dress code.

“We have received a report that the Terms of Service may have been violated,” the woman on the left said.
“We need to verify your identities,” said the woman on the right.
“Present your Cyborgs immediately for inspection,” the woman on the left concluded.
Natur quickly fetched his Cyborg off of the top of the machine where he had left it and held it out for inspection. The woman on the left seemed to blink once at it, before disregarding it and turning her attention back to the landing party.

“Present your Cyborgs immediately for inspection,” she repeated.
“We don’t have Cyborgs,” the Captain said.
“Everyone has Cyborgs,” the woman on the right said.
“It is required,” the woman on the left said.
“Present your Cyborgs for inspection,” the woman on the right concluded.
“No,” the Captain said.
The two women looked at each other for a moment, and then each reached into their jackets to pull out what looked like small weapons.
“You will come with us,” the woman on the left said.
“Or we will use force,” the woman on the right said.
“It is for your own saf-“

Before the woman on the left could finish, she crumpled to the ground as Lieutenant Cooper’s phaser beam struck her. The woman on the right turned to face Cooper, but also ended up collapsing as a beam from Drake’s phaser struck her. As she landed on the ground, there was a series of sparks as her leg snapped in half, revealing a series of wires and printed circuits where there would ordinarily be bone and muscle.

“They’re robots!” Drake said in surprise.

“They’d have to be, Captain,” Litwak observed. “It’s the only way they could perform effective censorship with this much data.”

Natur ran out of the server room, completely in fear. Meanwhile, the Doctor began scanning the robot bodies on the floor.

“Unlike the Picans, they don’t register as life at all. If that’s most of who is inside the building where our people are being held…”
The Captain was already thinking the same thing, as he pulled out his communicator. “Drake to Liberty.“
“Liberty, T’Shonn here.”
“T’Shonn, Litwak will be sending you coordinates of a building in the city. Scan for lifesigns.”
“Aye sir. We’re getting the coordinates now. Scanning…”

A moment passed before the ship signaled again.

“We’re only reading four lifeforms inside the building, Captain, all concentrated within a 40 square meter area.”
“That would match up with the crew of the Carmen,” the Doctor observed.
“Great,” said the Captain. “Lock on and beam those people up.”
“Aye sir, energizing now. Transporter room reports it’s the people we’re looking for.”
“Excellent. Now, beam us up.”

Captain’s log, supplemental. We’re headed back to Starbase 12 with the rescued crew of the SS Carmen. Our mission appears to have been a success, though there are still questions we weren’t able to answer about what exactly happened to the the people of Gamma Picus IV.

“It seems as though Pican society has become extremely oppressive since the last survey,” Commander T’Shonn observed after hearing a synopsis of what happened on the mission.

“Yes, Mister T’Shonn,” Captain Drake said. “An unfortunate case where technological advancement coincided with social regression. Something that’s starting to seem extremely common the more we explore deep space. I just wish we had an excuse to stop it.”

“Captain, the Prime Directive…”

“… only applies to normal societies, Mister T’Shonn. The Picans may have been a normal society ten years ago, but they’re not one now.”

“That is a very strong assertion to make, given your entire picture of this society is based largely on the interactions with a single person and two identical robots. Perhaps they were never a normal society to begin with, and the technology only made its underlying defects more pronounced.”

“You know… you might be right about that, but I honestly don’t want to think about it more, Mister T’Shonn. It’s just depressing. Especially when it seemed like they were on the verge of being able to join the galactic community in another century or so. Instead they’re just going to spend all of their time constantly staring into a small plastic box as it stares into them.”

A moment of silence fell upon the Bridge as the Drake brooded on that thought, and T’Shonn chose not to comment on it further.

“Take us back to where we’re supposed to be, Mister Drago. Ahead Warp Factor One.”