Tooth and Claw - Doranna Durgin [27]
The thought drew him to the viewport. They held a synchronous orbit above Atann’s palace in the city Aksanna, but it wasn’t the planet that called to him. It was those stars, the ones that held among them the Ntignano
sun—and the slow waves of distortion that blurred them. Slow and subtle; if you didn’t know, you might just think you had something in your eye.
Without those graviton eddies, the evacuation efforts would already skirt the edge of the Tsoran system, instead of following the edge of the wide eddy field at reduced speed. Without the eddies, Nadann Jesson would have been left alone to learn the Tsoran culture—and accustom them to Federation cultures and ways—at an appropriate rate. The Enterprise, with Will Riker aboard, would be far from here, participating in the evacuation.
He’d seen images from Ntignano IV, the only inhabited planet in the system. Before and after images of a moderately stable population with no out-system travel capability and a technology level equaling twenty second-century Earth. Until now, they had been left to develop further on their own, not quite ready for Federation contact—and they’d done well. Until this, they’d been nurturing a thoughtful, environmentally friendly plan for their own growth. The planet itself had remained remarkably integrated in terms of its civilization and its natural ecosystems and fauna.
How ironic, then, that disaster came in a form that first destroyed that delicate balance for which they’d fought so hard, before killing the civilization itself.
Before: Entire cities almost invisibly situated within natural forestation and geological formations. Abundant birds and wildlife in each community. Remarkably unpolluted air considering the technology level.
After: Withered vegetation, buildings suddenly stark against the landscape, small corpses littering the ground—the smaller species, the delicate ones. The first to go in the increased solar activity and quickly skewing ecosystems.
Not everyone in this galaxy favored the Prime Directive.
In this case, no one knew just who had provided the doomsday group with the apparatus they’d altered to become a sun killer. Heavy odds lay on the Ferengi.
But at this point, it didn’t really matter. What mattered was the slow ripple of the stars before him, and how they interfered with everything. The journey to Fandre, twelve hours instead of several. Even briefly diverting to check the situation there, to try to help, meant an entire day’s absence from Tsora … and Atann had already been deeply embarrassed at the interruption of a single conversation.
The door chimed for attention; Picard twisted to look at it in surprise. Troi would have informed him, had the Tsorans been on their way up—and everyone else on the bridge knew better than to bother him just now. Even Data. “Come,” he said, maintaining his position.
“Captain!” Atann boomed, as if they were long-lost friends and there had been no embarrassment, no waiting. The spicy scent of the heessla floated into the room with him, and Tehra followed, looking as pleased as her mate. Behind them both, Troi entered, flashing Picard a quick apology from her expressive eyes. He gathered, then, that the lack of warning had not been her idea.
“ReynKa,” Picard said, trying to match the Tsoran’s enthusiasm. “I’m so pleased that your obligations allowed you some time here.”
“Of course, of course. I came as soon as I could. But only to find you looking at the stars again. Do they draw you so?”
“Often,” Picard said, seating himself behind the desk and gesturing for Atann and Tehra to sit before it, if they chose. Troi waited until they were settled, and quietly took the corner of the couch. “As it happens, I was
watching the graviton eddies between here and Ntig nano. But that is not why I