Metamorphosis - Jean Lorrah [16]
They certainly have no concept of the size of our ship or crew.”
“No,” Troi confirmed. “They were amazed at four of us “questing” together, as they see it. I’ve gathered that quests are usually undertaken by one person, or occasionally two. I am quite certain they would be shocked to learn that there are more than, oh, perhaps ten of us at most. Captain, I get no sense of these “gods’ at all, but from what they have told these people, through Drahanna, it almost appears that they are sending us instructions about the role we are to play.”
“And they’ll throw us off the planet again if we don’t go along with it,” Riker added peevishly.
“We’ll take what we can get,” Picard said.
“These “gods’ may be assessing our strength just as we are attempting to assess theirs.”
“I sure haven’t found any trace of them using our instruments up here,” Geordi added. “Or of those power surges.”
“What if they’re at the mercy of those power surges as well, Captain?” Riker suggested.
Picard nodded thoughtfully. “It could be that they don’t know whether they dare trust us enough to ask for help. Very well, Number One. We’ll play along for now. They’ve set the stage for me to send Data and Geordi down, and I know Lieutenant Worf won’t be satisfied with security unless he’s down there supervising it.”
“I suggest that you make no attempt to disguise them,” said Counselor Troi. “The natives are prepared for people quite different from themselves.” Within the hour, Data beamed down, along with Geordi, Worf, and the sociologist Thralen, in uniform and undisguised. There was no one at the beamdown point, which was close to where the undetectable barrier kept the swamp from encroaching on the habitat, but there was a road nearby that took them to the village in less than half an hour’s walk. There, they joined the first landing party, as well as most of the village natives. The Elysians were friendly, but ferociously curious. They surrounded Thralen first, for the Theskian’s blue skin, furlike yellow hair, and antennae were furthest in appearance from the Elysian norm. But soon they tackled Worf and Geordi as well, bombarding each with questions. Data was intrigued to be the last one noticed-and only for the color of his skin and eyes.
“I think Darryl Adin will win his bet,” he told Worf. “Agreed,” the Klingon said, but they had no time to discuss it further, with the Elysians plucking at their uniforms, demanding to know how they made such cloth, so different from any weave they knew.
Eventually, though, the away team was granted some privacy. Drahanna led them all to one of the houses in the village, which had been cleared for their use. It was built of mud and wattle on a stone foundation, the floor strewn with clean straw. The construction was simple but sound, the roof made of wooden shingles that showed no light except for the central smoke-hole.
The Elysians had not yet invented the chimney.
How could they be in control of forces that could shake a starship?
“Thralen,” said Riker, “what do you think?”
“Either the Elysians do not know of our predecessors at all, or they have not connected us with them. This is a very preliminary reportI was too busy trying to think of neutral answers to their questions to ask many of my own. As the novelty of our appearance wears off, I hope to learn more.” “What did you learn?” was “Afar’ is the only word they seem to have for “not within this habitat.” The great difficulty of traversing the swamp apparently makes contact between the habitats close to impossible, so they have little idea what other lands are like. They find it much harder to comprehend how we have come here than that we are so different from them. For all they know, the other side of the planet could be peopled with Klingons and Theskians.”
“Here there be dragons,” Riker commented.
Data’s automatic memory search showed him maps of Earth from many centuries before, unexplored regions marked with that phrase. “Yes,” he said, “but not “Here there be androids.” The Elysians are incapable of recognizing me