Dream Last Night
Lord help us (the phrase, not the username), I actually had a dream about this thread last night. Must say, you all have contributed greatly to helping me stay awake as I work evening shift and skim COTH while waiting for the next report to download.
Anyhow, the dream. Actual dream, too. I’ve always had detailed and crazy dreams.
(Insert Star Trek theme)
The Enterprise has been called to COTH, a Class I (that’s Capital I, not Roman numeral I) planet in which most citizens, while using technology to ease their lives, still have horses and spend as much time as possible with them. The Enterprise was called in because a child was caught in the pasture of the Queen of COTH chasing her horses with a stick. Threatening harm to or harassing horses is a felony punishable by death under COTH law. But the child turned out to be the illegitimate spawn of the Federation ambassador to COTH, and he has been supporting her sub rosa all these years. Now, he is trying to step in and claim diplomatic immunity for child.
So the Enterprise warps over to prevent a diplomatic incident. While Kirk is trying to smooth things over with the Queen and getting nowhere due to the incomprehensible to him attitude that she finds her horses much more charming than he is, Spock gets into a discussion with the Federation ambassador. The ambassador is also trying to introduce his own stallion into the COTH equine gene pool to “advance” them. He complains to Spock that not only are these COTHers so backwards that they would apply capital punishment to a child over an incident that only involves a horse, but they also refuse to universally recognize the truly superior attributes of his stallion, whom he himself finds “facinating.” Spock questions the education of the ambassador based on his clear spelling challenges. Spock then uncovers by investigation that the ambassador’s education was actually faked, his diplomas counterfeit, and his current position obtained by fraud.
Spock then requests with due correctness an audience with the Queen, which she grants, being tired of Kirk’s efforts (she does NOT find Kirk’s charm-my-way-out-of-difficulty tactics fascinating by any form or spelling). Spock states that the Federation is recalling the ambassador to stand trial under Federation law for serious crimes, and he offers to take the girl and the stallion along with the ambassador, remove them from the planet, and replace them with a true ambassador worthy to be ambassador to COTH. Spock apologizes most profoundly to the Queen for the Federation’s having unknowingly inflicted the ambassador and his illegitimate child on COTH. Spock also requests an audience with the Queen’s horses so he can apologize to them as well. The Queen, tremendously impressed, agrees to release the child into Federation custody.
Enterprise warps out as the Queen and COTHers are once again happily involved with their horses.
Closing credits.
Ah, I love a good horsey dream. 
Gran was sitting in the car in tears. 