Forwarded by the ASC-VSO Posted: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:32:03 GMT In: alt.startrek.creative From: "Jay P Hailey" JayPHailey@comcast.net Title: Star Trek: Outwardly Mobile Author: Jay P Hailey (JayPHailey@hotmail.com) Series: MISC - TNG OCs Codes: None Part: 19/335(?) Rating:[PG] Archive: Fine with me, just tell me where. Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Star Trek. I claim Original Characters and Situations for me. Webpage HTTP://jayphailey.8m.com The Dorians and the Sixians By Jay P. Hailey And Dennnis Washburn Later that evening we relaxed in our quarters at the palace. Stephanie scanned with her tricorder and pronounced the room free of bugs. "Okay, let's hear it." I said. Tillean started. "They have a reasonably advanced science and technology. They are not up to subspace theory yet, or anything connected with it. But in some ways they are advanced beyond where Earth was when Zefram Cochrane invented Earth's warp drive." "They are aware that the second planet in the system has been terraformed, but have discovered no clues about who did the work, despite seventy years of exploration of the surface." "Their social sciences seem more advanced. Their culture seems more stable and peaceful than any world I've seen outside the Federation." Tillean was obviously pleased with what she had found so far. Stephanie made her report. "I saw no one who posed any threat. They have lasers and certain types of projectile weaponry evident, perhaps sonic weapons. No one seemed interested in harming us, or making a threatening gesture. Their own security is adequate, but not spectacular. It would take a competent assassin or a crazy to get through." McTague said "They seem a friendly bunch, that they are. A little naive, perhaps. Many of the galactic standard myths or legends in my repertoire seem new to them. They have an expectation of being able to change jobs and learn new things as a general thing. They are used to having servants about. They're happy to meet us, because the Gallowayans have a limited trade program with them, and refuse to expand it any." That made me nervous. Did the Gallowayans know something that I didn't? Almost certainly. I had no way of knowing what their cost benefit analysis came up with nor how they weighted it. The only thing that we could do was to keep exploring and learn what we could. Towards that end I signaled for room service. A servant came to take our orders. "May I serve you?" He said "You know that we're from the ship in orbit, right?" I said. "Really?" He said he seemed excited by the prospect. "You're the aliens?" "Yes, I suppose we are. Didn't you know who you'd be the room service guy for tonight?" He seemed perplexed "No, sir. They never tell us things like that." "What if we had some strange, alien need to fulfill? What if we needed some strange substance to survive?" He seemed worried "I'm certain that everything you could want or need is stocked in the Palace tonight sir! If not, then I will go and fetch it from wherever it may be." He bowed, nearly to the floor. "Don't sweat it." I told him, "We came equipped to handle all of our alien needs." McTague had been taking a swig from a flask that I didn't know he had. He snorted some of the contents of the flask out his nose and had a coughing fit. I shot him a dirty look. The servant seemed nervous. "What we need from you is information. What's your name?" "Jeoj." He seemed even more nervous. I beckoned to my Science Officer. "Tillean, get this in the tricorder will you?" She got her tricorder and began to set up for a game of twenty questions. Stephanie and McTague retired to other rooms in the palatial quarters to change out of the dress uniforms. "How long have you worked here, Jeoj?" I asked. "Since I came of age, sir." Jeoj seemed proud of that. I couldn't tell how old he was. "Are you happy here?" "Oh, yes sir! This assignment carries much prestige." "Where did you go to school?" "School, Sir?" "Um, where they teach you things?" "Oh! They do that in the Creche, Sir." "You were raised in a creche'? Why?" "Well, I was born there, Sir. Hardly fair to ask someone else to do it." He laughed at this, apparently attempting to relieve the tension. I grinned mildly at him. "And what did they teach you at the creche'?" "Oh, all sorts of stuff, if it pleases you, Sir." "Please tell me a little about that." Jeoj then told us of his time in a schooling program designed to create a technically apt servant. We prompted him, and he told us of his early life, happily growing up in some sort of servant class creche. "Some sort of class division, evidently." I said to Tillean. "Yeah." She said grimly. I remembered that personal freedom and prowess were prized in her home culture. This must look especially nasty to her. "Lieutenant, have you seen any external clues about where the division lies? Color, markings or something?" I asked her. She got the hint. "No, Sir. I have nothing of the kind. The reason for the division might be contextual." "Sir?" Jeoj prompted. I turned to him. "Where do you see yourself in ten years, Jeoj?" "Sir?" Jeoj was confused. "What job would you like to have? Where would you like to be? What sort of lifestyle might you make for yourself?" Jeoj was thunderstruck. The whole concept was new to him. "If I am fortunate, they will keep me here, Sir. Would you like something else sir? I have other duties to attend to." Plainly he was asking to be dismissed. "Okay. Thank you very much for you help, Jeoj. Dismissed." He bowed to the floor and quickly scurried from the room. "Oh, Jeoj?" I said as he was leaving. He turned and bowed to the floor again. "Which creche was it that you were raised in?" "Number thirty-five, sir!" He bowed again and fled. "Wonderful," I growled. The last thing I wanted to clutter this whole situation up with were questions of human rights. It was too late for that now. I took off my dress uniform jacket and hung it up. I grinned ruefully at the ribbons and decorations. A few of them were authentic medals commemorating the deeds of my old ship the USS Akagi. The rest were the equivalent of good conduct medals. Each assignment I had been on had a specific ribbon of it's own. The purpose was so that people with bland careers could still cut an impressive figure at diplomatic functions. Then I sat down at a terminal in our guest quarters and began to do research. It took a few hours, but I began to notice one thing. The entries on my terminal had been sanitized. The history of Doria III was interesting. There had been an earlier age, the Age of the Accountants. They started out as floating book keepers, traveling from one warlord's fortress to the other. There they would audit the books and the warlord would then know who had paid their taxes, who hadn't and who was skimming what. Since they were literate and could do the math, occasionally they were able to usurp power from the warlords. In time, a mixing occurred between bloodthirsty warriors and ruthless mathematicians. They became the ruling class of the Accountants. In time, the populace and the planet began to show the wear and tear of the dictatorships and their rising technology. Then the Dorians had a reformation. They called it the Great Rectification. The Accountants we deposed, a new, more humane system was imposed and the planet and people rehabilitated. I knew that I was reading a whitewash since there were very few mentions of any atrocities. Massive social upheavals usually have some atrocities associated with them. On Earth it had been the Post-Atomic Horror. On Vulcan the age of Surak had seen many followers of the philosophy martyred. On Qo'noS, Kahless defeated all rivals and imposed the Way of the Warrior in a long series of bloody wars. However, the Dorian history spoke of little or none of these. It was getting late and my eyes were getting heavy from all the reading, when alarms went off. Klaxons announced some disaster in the offing. Metal shutters rolled down over the windows of our quarters. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.572 / Virus Database: 362 - Release Date: 1/27/2004 -- Stephen Ratliff ASC Stories Only Forwarding In the Pattern Buffer at: http//trekiverse.crosswinds.net/feed/ Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to:http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ASCL/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:ASCL-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. From ???@??? 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