Book excerpt: #57 STARFLEET CORPS OF ENGINEERS Centuries ago, the S.S. Mariposa transported two sets of colonists -- one a "back-to-nature" group called the Bringloidi, the other a collection of scientists -- to new worlds. Over a decade ago, the Starship Enterprise™ brought the colonies back together as a solution to two problems -- the Bringloidi had lost their home to solar flares, and the Mariposans faced a breeding crisis brought about by their use of cloning. However, the union has not been as fruitful as Captain Picard had hoped, and now the S.C.E. team of the U.S.S. da Vinci has been called in to solve the Mariposans problem -- but will the solution be even worse than the problem? OUT OF THE COCOON