"Looking Towards Night"

[Guest Ni'auqe]

Ni'auqe sat at one chair of a small round table, running an edge of an elegant finger along the screen of an ISD mindlessly. Some little strain of music was playing from some unknown speaker -- the Eratian female had heard it before. Some happy little bit that no doubt was chosen to be calming, light-spirited.

 

She found it rather vapid. Irritating after more than a minute or two. But unthreading the harmonies in her mind served as distraction enough until the woman she'd agreed to meet appeared.

 

Three minutes later and five minutes late, she did, the ambassador looking slightly flustered, though she was concealing it well. "My apologies," the envoy finally greeted. "I was on a live feed to ch'Rihan -- our homeworld," she added graciously, as if Ni'auqe would not know to what she referred. The Eratian deigned not to feel patronized; rather, well-attended to. "My name is Riiji t’Osaen. We'd exchanged communiques..."

 

"It is no problem," she answered, her smooth voice seeming to echo. But they were in no cavernous chamber -- rather a terrace of sorts, looking out onto Avalon below. "Ni'auqe, of the Fourth Mind." Slit-like eyes, like a cat's, looked over the Rihan woman. She was taller -- and stiffer -- than her last contact among the Romulans. Overcompensation, she diagnosed. Clearly, she was less at ease with her position than... what was her name? Ah. N'Kedre.

 

"On behalf of my people, I'd like to get exactly your take on the situation," t'Osaen began cordially. "I have some information from my predecessor, but the most current would be useful. And I'd like to hear it... personally."

 

"Understandable." She leaned back in her chair, steepling her fingers carefully -- and noting with slight amusement when Riiji's eyes lingered on the feeding organs displayed prominently. "Where to begin? It's... difficult... to lay out all the sentiments a species holds in an hour... or an afternoon."

 

"Or a lifetime, I would imagine."

 

"Or a lifetime," Ni'auqe agreed. "As you know, we're not... particularly happy... with the current situation in this area."

 

"From what I hear, Lhhei, that's putting it mildly."

 

"Mildly." She mulled the word along with a change in music -- the instrument was the same, but the melody softer. Somber, and yearning. This one she could appreciate. The Eratian female closed her eyes. "We fight against those who made us -- who we served for... so many lifetimes.

 

"But our Makers are weak," she said bitterly, the eerie echo of her voice going hard. "The Scorpiad are not the... power... that once they were. By the stars, if you could have seen them..." She shook her head slightly, opening her eyes, though they were distant in memory. "Worlds shook at the thought of them -- they were Power."

 

"And things changed," t'Osaen murmured, regretting interrupting as soon as she had, though Ni'auqe hardly noticed.

 

"Things changed," she agreed. "We were their keepers -- we... Harvested... the worlds of their subjects, keeping them properly weak. But there was not the fear any longer. Somehow... all of us knew... the Scorpiad were not what once they were.

 

"It started like a current through all of the Minds. A whisper at first, but then stronger -- like a lifeforce of its own that could not be denied. Freedom. We lusted for it more than for the Harvests. And then, there came the day when it was possible. War was imminent, and then it was manifest."

 

"You rebelled against the Scorpiad," the young Rihan breathed.

 

"Yes," was the answer, and it was hissed. "We were -- we are stronger. But it was only a question of how to go about it.

 

"While we have the largest vessels, vessels strong enough to combat them, the Scorpiad are more numerous. But even so, their numbers will be their weakness -- there will be no... young Scorpiad... to replace them. The more we whittle away at them, and Harvest on their worlds -- the more we weaken them, the more easily we will be victorious."

 

"Ah," answered t'Osaen. "The attacks on the serf-worlds."

 

"Exactly," she agreed. "Which is where we are today -- a people in brief, as you will."

 

"I see," the Rihan answered softly, thinking over what she'd heard. "But... what do you mean... no young Scorpiad?"

 

Ni'auqe tilted her head slightly, her fangs revealed in her surprise. "Surely you know?" she asked, and Riiji shook her head. "The Scorpiad are dying -- a slow death, but a death to be certain. The majority of them are infertile -- and the predictions for the species grow more dire with every new bit of research."

 

"Elements..." She drew in a slim breath, blinking as she looked aside. "Now, yes... I see..."

 

"You don't," Ni'auqe answered, gently, but it was not chiding, rather... sad. "But you begin to see."