Tomorrow's Window Stardate 2260.28

Parigraen VI was indeed an inhabited M class planet. It had large oceans and it was mainly one large, spread out continent with tiny Island formations. The Etarians, as they called themselves spoke an odd dialect. They were barely humanoid with long legs that were bent at the knee and short arms. They walked on all fours and they had 2 tall antennae that they used to detect moods. They were partially telepathic and their language was a series of clicks and whistles somewhat like an insect. They had large, round eyes that were at angles on their heads and their exposed flesh was brownish to a light green in shades.

Amara was working quickly with the UT and the Enterprise had just sent them their Federation charter and all of the Federation languages. Kirk looked over at Amara. "Well, do they know we're here, at least?" Kirk asked as he began to get impatient. For Amara, the syntax was nearly impossible to determine without direct contact with them and they didn't know how to even ask them for that.

Amara had heard of native tribes on Earth using clicking and whistling sounds to communicate, but she had never studied such languages and she was having difficulty determining the syntax. They had determined that they were partially telepathic and Amara was doing her best with the UT and looking through the Federation languages. 

"At this point I cannot say if they know we are here or not," she told James honestly. "They are partially telepathic, but one cannot assume they've detected us. Unfortunately though, I don't think I'm going to be able to even start to understand their language without direct contact." Amara was the best communications officer in the Fleet and spoke far more languages than most others, and so if she was having trouble that meant someting.

Spock suddenly stood up. "Captain...it...appears...that the...Etarians are trying to...communicate with me," Spock said as he closed his eyes. His face went from intrigued to emotionless. Spock turned to face Kirk and his movements were odd and jerky.

"Captain...James T. Kirk, do not be...alarmed, you could not...have hoped to understand our language...so easily," He said. Kirk looked around the bridge and stunned silence was in everyone's face right then. "You seem to...know my name, may I learn yours?" He asked. "My name is Sqllllik'Quiirrrrlllll'Tikkkkk'Squaaaauuuullll," He said and the sound was so jarring they all had to cover their ears.

Scarlett looked up at Spock as he suddenly stood. She blinked in surprise when suddenly the Etarians began to communicate through him. Amara was stunned, but intrigued by what was happening. Elyse had never seen anything like it and she watched in fascination. However, when the Etarian told Kirk his name it was so jarring that everyone clapped their hands over their ears. Amara knew then that she never would have figured this language out. It was interesting though and she wished she could learn more about it.

"We invite you to visit our world. We apologize for reading the mind of this one...but, considering there alternatives, it was a necessary evil," He said. "We appreciate your honesty and openness. And we accept your offer. 5 of us will beam down at coordinates you specify. We are...explorers and meeting new people and learning their cultures is our primary goal. We have given the coordinates to...this one," Spock said. "We look forward to meeting you Kirk," He said and then his eyes closed. Spock's head shifted and then he looked around the room.

"Spock, are you alright?" Kirk asked. "The experience was...extraordinary," Spock said. "Ok, Scarlett, Amara, Elyse...and Elyse inform McCoy he's in the party," He said. "No phasers...this time," he said.

Scarlett was relieved that Spock was alright. She wanted to question him further about his experience, but there wasn’t time. Spock gave them the coordinates and and Elyse contacted Leonard and told him to meet them at Transporter room 1. Spock had the con and after Leonard joined them, they were beamed down to the coordinates the Etarians had given them. No one carried a phaser, but Scarlett and Dr. McCoy had tricorders and Amara had the UT.

Once they materialized they were met by 3 Etarians. One was obviously female, the differences in her anatomy were fairly obvious. They were in a cluster of trees though there were oddly shaped, black benches for them to sit on. The males didn’t move but the female did. She had some kind of crest on top of her head and she seemed a bit larger and taller than her male counterparts.

“You may call me Qu’Lan, please, be seated,” she said in their minds. She looked over at Amara. “Amara, use your device here, we will sit...and talk. Speak the words ‘We greet you openly’ into it as I speak those same words for your device to learn,” she said.

Her words were a series of clicks and whistles, small grunts and slurred words that the human ear could barely even make out. But the UT did. As Amara spoke that same phrase over and over and Qu’Lan spoke them over and over, the UT eventually picked up on their speech. It would take time to learn their entire syntax and grammar but for now, even broken English was better than hearing a voice in their minds. “Doctor...you may...scan me with your device,” Qu’Lan said to his unspoken questions. Amara couldn’t be certain but Qu’’Lan sounded pleased by Mccoy’s diffidence and manners. She sounded regal too, perhaps someone of importance?

“Qu’Lan, I am Captain James Kirk and this is my wife and communications officer, Amara Kirk. This is Doctor McCoy, his wife and my chief Tactical Officer Elyse McCoy. This is my science officer Scarlett Wright,” Kirk said as he introduced everyone.

“I am Qu’Lan...the closest thing I can think of in your language to denote my rank would be Queen. Welcome to our world Captain,” she said. Scarlett was surprised that she did not seem surprised to see them. A race that just learned Warp Drive might but they acted as if they knew already, that they were not alone in the universe.

Scarlett had never experienced telepathy before. She and Spock shared a bond that allowed them to know each other's feelings, but they could not communicate through it. She was fascinated by the ability, but she could also see how it could be a breach of privacy.

Amara sat next to Qu'Lan and together they used the UT to help start to understand their language. It was extremely complicated, but eventually the UT started to pick it up. It was going to take time to decipher their entire syntax and grammar, but it was a start and Amara felt honored to be among the first to hear it. 

"You don't seem surprised to see us," Scarlett said telepathically. "Have you been visited by others before, or is it that through your ability to speak into minds that you knew that yours was not the only race that existed?"

Qu’Lan appeared to shift her attention to Scarlett. “We are very old by human standards. And my abilities are vast. I have reached minds far outside of this system,” she said. “You're curiosity does you justice...I am finding humans to be...difficult to understand. Your minds are so...duplicitous,” she said diplomatically. The more she spoke the better the UT translated her speech.

“At one time we dwelled in our oceans. An aquatic race that could speak to one another using a kind of sonar. It developed into a telepathic form of communication and thus, how you see us now,” she said. “We are a peaceful, enlightened race,” she said.

“How old...are you Qu’Lan? If I may ask,” McCoy asked and Qu’Lan looked at him. “By your earth years I am 2718 years old,” she said. “My brood are far younger but we control our population. Everyone here are my children,” she said.

Scarlett couldn't help but smile and nod to what Qu'Lan said about humans. She completely agreed. Amara continued to monitor the UT and the more Qu'Lan communicated, the more it was picking up of their speech. 

"Life on Earth, our planet, also began in the oceans," Scarlett told her. 

Elyse looked at her. "If you had the ability, would you leave your planet and travel the universe?"

Qu’Lan looked back to Scarlett. “We’ve recently developed warp drive. We intend on ‘exploring’ other worlds,” she said but the inflection in the word ‘Explore’ made Amara feel...strange. As if there was something more ominous to what she meant by that. McCoy had finished his scans and he said very little and put away his tricorder.

“Our biology allows us to adapt to different environments though extreme gravity would crush us just like anyone else. We can exist on class L and K worlds...as you call them. Without the need for protective suits. We can not exist for long in a vacuum though,” she said as she looked over at Amara as if she detected her unease. She shifted her gaze away though.

“Well, perhaps we’ve found a kindred spirit in you Qu’Lan,” Kirk said. Qu’Lan tilted her head slightly as if trying to decide on the meaning of what he said. “You may...explore the city, if you like Kirk but do not go beyond the protective border. We share this planet with a number of ‘hostile’ species,” she said but did not elaborate on that.

Amara did not like the way Qu'Lan said the word 'explore.' Something about it made her uneasy...although she couldn't put her finger exactly on the reason why. However, she remained silent, not wanting to question her about it when it could simply be that she was reading too much into it. 

Scarlett was curious about the 'hostile' species that Qu'Lan mentioned, but she said nothing. The group thanked Qu'Lan for their hospitality and then began to explore the city. 

"I got an odd feeling from her," Amara said quietly to James.

“Well I didn’t want to say anything,” McCoy said as they walked. “But she’s carrying thousands of eggs,” he said. Kirk looked between him and Amara. “Well, maybe they're looking to start other colonies,” Kirk suggested. “That could mean all sorts of things,” he said. “There could be a problem with they’re world or maybe we should get a look at this hostile species they spoke about?” Elyse suggested.

“Look, we’re not here to call them out on anything. This is a first contact and I’d say it went pretty well,” Kirk said. “What harm would it do to use the ship’s sensors?” Elyse asked. The homes were rounded and nothing existed that was very tall. Obviously Etarians didn’t like living off of the ground. Scarlett touched the outside of one of the houses or huts and it was made of some kind of...natural substance. It was organic and porous, of a pale, yellow color. There were hundreds of the huts and if this was just a small part of one neighborhood, there are likely hundreds of thousands of them in this city. There were no streets to speak of, there were trees and grass and plants everywhere around the houses. There were several larger buildings, and some had signs with odd writing on them. Amara pointed at one with the UT and it deciphered the odd script on the sign. It translated it to be a house of food. So a place they came to eat food, like a restaurant. Then they saw something else as they looked up. An Etarian with wings landed a few houses down.

“Odd that they’d have Warp capability, they seem so…primitive,” McCoy said.

Amara looked at McCoy when he said that Qu'Lan was carrying thousands of eggs. She was starting to become more and more suspicious, but she held her tongue...for now. Scarlett looked more closely at their huts. Everything was very simple and organic. She saw no signs of technology or even advanced tools. 

"I would have to agree with you Dr. McCoy," she said. "I see no signs of any other technology."

"Perhaps they just like to live simply?" Elyse suggested, although she found it odd too.

“Well, I think we’ve seen enough for now,” Kirk said as he raised up his communicator. “Enterprise, 5 to beam up,” he said and they appeared on the ship. “Scarlett, see if you can work with Spock, we need more detailed scans of the planet. “I get the sense that these Etarians might not be who and what they seem,” Kirk said.

Hours later…

“So definitely humanoid?” Scarlett asked as Spock looked into the sensor viewer. “Bipedal, with large concentrations near the cities but always on the outside of them,” he said. “They are elsewhere as well but not in such large, concentrated numbers,” he said. “Well that’s very odd, what would they be doing there? Trying to get into the cities? We saw they had some kind of tall barrier,” Kirk said. “Could we beam one up?” Kal asked. Kirk looked at the planet in the viewscreen. “I’m not certain that would be in the spirit of the Prime Directive,” Kirk said. “And the Etarians did not appear to be hostile or deceitful,” Kirk said.

“McCoy here, I’ve analyzed my tricorder readings with those that Scarlett took. Those Etarians are probably not from that planet. Not indiginous anyway. Their bodies have ‘developed’ a gland that allows them to filter out the toxins in the air they breathe. It would likely be poisonous to them otherwise,” he said. “Thank you doctor,” Kirk said. “None of this makes me there is something wrong here, I’d like to get a look at one of these…’hostiles’ though,” Kirk said. “Keep scanning for their warp ships, that’s another mystery we can’t seem to solve,” Kirk said as he stepped off the bridge to get a bite to eat.

Scarlett and Spock had been working diligently on taking scans of the planet's surface. In the process they located the so called 'hostiles' and Spock was able to determine that they were bipedal humanoid beings. However, what was most odd was that they had thus far been unable to locate any warp ships. That, added with Dr. McCoy's analysis of his readings that determined that the Etarians were not originally from that planet, really caused Amara to become suspicious.

She followed James off the bridge and they headed to the Officer's Mess to get something to eat. Amara chose the salmon cakes and a side salad and they found a place to sit. "So, if the Etarians aren't originally from this planet then either they were brought here, or arrived in a ship."

Kirk chose a boneless pork chop, a green veg and a baked potato for lunch. He listened to what Amara said but he wasn’t certain it made much of a difference.

“Well, speculation is not enough for us to disregard the prime directive. But I am curious about why these humanoids are near the larger cities in such high concentrations. They do not appear to have cities, only the Etarians do...that also strikes me as odd,” he said. “Maybe we should send a small group down to see for ourselves whats going on?” he asked. “Would you like to be in this said group, Amara?” Kirk asked her with a grin.

Amara listened and nodded to what James said about the humanoids. The whole thing was...odd to her. She didn't get a good feeling about any of it, but as James pointed out, just having an odd feeling wasn't enough to disregard the prime directive. She agreed that sending a small group down to see what was going on with the humanoids was a good idea. They could only speculate so much and the sensors could only show them so much. 

Amara grinned at her husband when he asked her if she wanted to be in the group.

"I think you already know the answer to that question," she said as she took a bite of her salmon cake.

The next morning Amara, Scarlett and McCoy went down to the planet though this time they took phasers along with their tricorders. They appeared in a clearing, a bit away from the mass of humanoids that had congregated close to the eastern city barriers. There were several though that had moved away from the group, one, it appeared to be a female looked in their direction.

The humanoids were of a size as humans but had wider noses and thinner, longer eyes. Their mouths were wider as well but they were very dark in color and appeared to be stouter. This one appeared to have a larger belly than most and all of the humanoids had long hair and the males had bearded faces. They wore no clothing to speak of and it was obvious that the female that drew closer to them was pregnant. McCoy took a bioscan of her as she came within the range of his tricorder.

“Well, they could be from this planet, they can breath the air like we can and do not appear to have anything new physically. They seem...basic though, no clothing, no obvious use for tools,” McCoy said and Scarlett agreed. “Its obviously a temperate climate and their very well fed,” McCoy added. Several of them were having sex right in front of the others. The female tilted her head as if their talking interested her but she didn’t understand it. She came up to them and held out her hand as if she wanted to touch Scarlett. Scarlett allowed it and the woman touched her shoulder. Or to be more specific, her uniform. To Scarlett, they were exhibiting a very ‘basic’ behavior. No obvious form a language, no tools, nothing.

“Is there food in the trees?” McCoy asked. “How do they get so...fat,” he asked. But then a horn sounded from the city. The female jerked her hand away and ran toward the others. Every one of them hurried toward the walls.

From this distance they could see several Etarians, those that had wings, flying above them. They had large sacks filled with some kind of vegetable or fruit and the food dropped down onto the humanoids. They scrambled to get some of the food as the away team watched interestly. “Well, that’s awfully nice of them,” McCoy said. “But these people are hardly hostile...docile is a better word,” he said.

Scarlett was extremely interested in figuring out who these 'hostile' humanoids were. They each had a phaser, though Scarlett hoped that they wouldn't have to use them. They were easy to spot. They were congregated near the barrier to the city. They wore no clothing and did not have any tools. There was a pregnant female who had taken an interest in them and as she moved closer to them she held out a hand as if she wanted to touch her. Scarlett didn't move, or make any threatening gestures and the woman lightly touched her uniform at the shoulder. 

Amara could hear no language being spoken at all. Either they didn't have one, or they weren't allowed to speak. They were clearly well fed though. None of them were starving in any capacity, although it was not immediately obvious where their food came from. However, that question was answered when several winged Etarians flew above them with large sacks filled with fruit or vegetables and dropped it down on the humanoids. 

"Are they being held here?" Amara asked as alarm bells started to sound in her head. Something wasn't right about this.

They all looked around. There were no fences or anything. Looking the other way they could go into the trees, there was nothing that appeared to hold these people here. Only the promise of food?

As the humanoids gorged themselves on the plump, yellow vegetables a space had been created between the mass of humanoids and the barrier. Several Eterians exited a large double gate and several of them used some kind of catch pole that caught the humanoids around the neck and then pulled the ones they caught with them back into the gates. The gates shut and none of the humanoids seemed to even notice. Amara noticed that the pregnant female was one of the ones that had been caught. She didn’t scream or cry or anything. She had a large, yellow fruit and gnawed at it as she was led into the gate with the others. McCoy wasn’t so curious now. Now his face took on a look of horror.

“I don’t know about you two, but I know ‘cattle’ when I see it. These Etarians are eating these people,” he said. His face had gone pale. Scarlett’s did too and she shifted quickly away and held on to a nearby tree as the contents of her stomach emptied itself.

Amara was horrified by the thought of these Etarians eating the humaniods. She heard Scarlett get sick and she walked over and made sure that she was alright. Scarlett assured her that she was fine and they grouped back together.

"Ok, so this clearly changes things," Amara said. "I think we need to get back onto the ship and talk to James and Spock about all of this."

They were beamed back onto the ship and they decided to speak to James, Spock, and Elyse in the ready room instead of in front of everyone else so as not to upset everyone. Scarlett spoke and explained what they had observed with the humanoids.

"The Etarians were using catchpoles on them and only separating out a few at a time. We strongly believe that the Etarians are using the humanoids as a food source."

Spock’s expression didn’t change but James looked shocked. “Captain,” He began and gave Scarlett a look before he returned his gaze to Kirk. “In this case, the Prime Directive still applies. Regardless if the Eterians created a colony there and are using the indiginous humanoids as a food source, they would still be a candidate for admittance into the Federation. Humans often overlay their own subjectivity to other alien races and their cultures,” he said. McCoy looked about to burst.

“I can’t believe we’re even talking about this. Those are people down there being treated like animals by a race of Insectoids. That’s barbaric!” he said as he pounded on the table. Spock calmly lifted an eyebrow. “Really Doctor, once again your displays only make my points,” he said.

Amara wasn’t sure how she felt about what Spock was saying. Of course she understood what he was saying, but her human nature was upset by what was happening.

“What about the fact that one of the people they took was a pregnant woman?” Amara asked.

Spock decided not to comment on that and he looked at Scarlett who gave him a look as if he should consider the next thing he does say, carefully. Kirk had said very little as the exchange began to get heated.

“I’m going to to submit their application,: Kirk said plainly. “The Prime Directive is clear here. Distasteful as their...choice of sustenance is, if we are all to be judged this way I’d wager, most of us would not be part of the Federation. I tend to agree with Spock. He tapped on the room intercom button. “Fiona, set a course for the third planet, Kal once it’s laid in, proceed at full impulse,” Kirk said. Everyone had stopped talking. “Dismissed,” Kirk said.

This time he did not ask Amara to remain though he wanted to. Clearly she saw that and she had paused to give him more time to but the moment drew on and she continued on her way out. The door closed behind them and Spock paused before he sat in the Captain’s chair. Kirk had hadn’t asked him to take the con. Kirk had said very little in that discussion. He didn’t like having to ignore what was happening and he’d enter that into his notes on the application. He doubted they’d mean much though, and he also added that they hadn’t seen their warp ship. McCoy was upset and angry and he stormed off of the bridge in a huff.