The Last Stand - Brad Ferguson [30]
“Sure is pretty,” Presinget said. “The pictures don’t do it justice. I never thought I’d get to see it for myself. Only pretty-boy Space Force types ever got to go into space, when I was younger.”
“It’s absolutely beautiful,” Klerran agreed. “I hope we can keep it that way.”
“We’ll try real hard, old friend. Right, Rik?”
“Eh? What’s that, Presinget?” Rikkadar asked, startled. “I’m afraid I was wool-gathering. Happens a lot at my age.”
“You were dreaming about that cute lady sitting over there, that’s what you were doing,” Presinget leered. He indicated Deanna Troi with a twitch of his tangled brow. The counselor was sitting on the other side of the table with Riker, Worf, and Data.
Old Rikkadar smiled. “No, actually I was thinking about how lucky I am.”
“Lucky?” Klerran asked. “Even now?”
“Even now,” Rikkadar replied, nodding. “I began my life as a boy working down in the mines, and here I am—nearly at the end of it, no matter what happens—an old man flying among the stars. I suppose I was waxing philosophical about it all, and feeling myself a very fortunate person indeed, despite everything.” He suddenly grinned. “Sorry. Won’t happen again, I promise. Oh—I think someone’s coming.”
The door to the observation lounge slid open as Captain Picard and Kerajem entered the room together. Everyone stood.
“Please be seated, all of you,” Picard said, taking the center seat on the Enterprise side of the table. “Let’s begin.”
“Yes, let us make a fresh start,” Kerajem said, taking the chair opposite Picard’s. “The first order of business, Captain, is this.” The First Among Equals handed Picard a Lethantan data cube, a bright, shiny box about ten centimeters on a side. One face bore some simple controls. “It is a copy of the ancient writings you were curious about, along with a self-contained apparatus with which to read them,” Kerajem continued. “We chose this form instead of providing you with a printed copy, as the actual scrolls run the equivalent of several hundred modern volumes.”
“I’ll look at the contents of this cube later today,” Picard said as he set the device on the table. “Many thanks for your courtesy in providing this to us, Kerajem. I know it will be very helpful. Please, now, let’s discuss your situation with the Krann.”
“Certainly,” Kerajem said. “What would you like to know?”
“Everything you would care to tell us about your people, and about your conflict with the Krann.”
Kerajem folded his hands together in front of him and looked at them. “I’m afraid our history is not a proud one in some respects,” he began after a moment. “At times, it has been rather dark. One of the most terrible periods in our history concerns the Krann.”
“We were once an empire, Captain,” Klerran said. “We were limited to one star system and two planets, but we were an empire nonetheless. It was our native star, Ma’ak Terrella, the sun under which our race evolved—the star that you visited before you came here.”
“There were two habitable planets circling that star, the third and fourth out from the sun,” Kerajem continued. “We lived on the third planet, Eul Ma’ak Lethantana. The fourth, Ma’ak Krannag, was inhabited by the Krann.”
“Some think we and the Krann are of the same race,” Klerran said, “and that we were separated from one another in antiquity.”
“We know very little about the Krann, actually,” said Rikkadar. “We don’t even know exactly what they look like.”
“You don’t?” Riker asked, surprised.
“That is not unreasonable, Commander,” Data said. “The Lethanta need never have met or even seen any of the Krann to be on the brink of war with them. Recall the conflict between the Romulan Empire and the Federation approximately two hundred years ago.”
Kerajem continued. “As I was saying, we don’t know much about the Krann—except that the ancient writings say they are not unlike us.”
“Humanoid, you