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Dear Trekkers, take my word for it: The last place you'd ever expect to see a Borg regeneration alcove is at the old American Legion Hall in Tacoma. But sure enough, it's there, flashing and humming on the very stage where patriotic speakers once shifted from foot to foot.

There, too, scattered around the room in glass cases, reside the top-secret design drawings of the most advanced and powerful vessel in Federation Starfleet during the late 24th century. Yes, that's right, the Galaxy-class starship Enterprise, launched in 2363 - which, in our hearts, will always be piloted by Capt. Jean-Luc Picard.

The reason all that stuff is there is because the American Legion Hall, virtually unchanged except for the addition of those glass cases and a couple of totally incongruous suits of armor, is now home to the Karpeles Manuscript Library.

David Karpeles, a California real-estate investor turned manuscript junkie, purchased the original design and concept drawings for "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and is traveling them to his branch museums around the country. You'll see the designs for phasers, shuttlecraft, medical scanners and some sort of fabulous musical instrument of the future that apparently incorporates color with sound. Why hasn't somebody already made this?

Design and concept sketches for "Star Trek: The Next Generation" 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays, through June 30, Karpeles Manuscript Library, 407 S. G St., Tacoma. 253-383-2575.

These things sprang from the imagination of Andrew Probert, hired by series creator Gene Roddenberry in 1978, who went on to become the lead designer for "The Next Generation" show in 1986. His stuff is pretty wonderful: so imaginative, so useful and brilliantly detailed that a spacesuit Probert designed became the model for the ones NASA is using. Probert himself now works for a company that designs spacecraft docking systems for the U.S. Air Force. And guess where the idea for Palm Pilots came from?

Sheila Farr can be reached at sfarr@seattletimes.com.