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          `\\\\\            -----------------------------------------
           |\\\\\           Starfleet Command, Eighth Fleet (OOC)    
            \\\\\|__.-~~\   
         _--~         ~~/   Defenders Task Group 85.3, "Whitestone"  
       /~         _-~~~'    Embarked on U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901   
      ('-//////-//          Rear Admiral Tebrun Lora Kor, Commanding 
       ////// }}-)          -----------------------------------------
     /////~                 Simulation Teaser                        
  _///~                     Stardate 240307.07                       
 `                          
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/ Simulation Teaser                                                     |
/ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ 

 It was an incident that might have seriously damaged Reorsa-Ryla
 relations, had representatives of either planet learned of it. 
 However, the seer's assistants never spoke of what happened that
 warm afternoon, and the seer herself died of the shock of the event
 only a few days later.  What witnesses there were either never
 learned the identity of the seeress' visitor, or chose not to reveal
 it.  Rear Admiral Tebrun Lora Kor never learned of the seer's death,
 and the Kor symbiont only found out itself many years later.  Kor
 did what it could, but by then of course, the meaning of the seer's
 prophecy was plain.

 Lora Kor had spent much of that afternoon wandering the bazaars and
 public areas of the city center of the Ryla city of Thybdoi.  The
 initial diplomatic sessions had ended three days before; he and his
 staff were therefore freed of their obligations to that.  The
 Admiral had spent the next two days in briefings with Captain Daren,
 Commander Tal, and General Ironside, who had instead attended Ryla
 tactical briefings on the Xur and their capabilities, rather than
 attend the diplomatic proceedings.

 That had taken two days, and the officers had then scattered the day
 before.  Many chose to participate in the Ryla small craft race, and
 though Lora Kor himself was tempted to get involved, something drew
 him down to the planet instead.  He wasn't sure if it was a noble
 example of his accepting his new role... or a distressing example of
 his host's advancing age and "maturity."  Only a few years before,
 he would have jumped at the chance to pilot his beloved Spectre in a
 race, or pulled a few strings to try a Banshee.

 For this particular afternoon, though, it was pleasant to walk, to
 see Ryla life, to try to connect with this interesting, inquisitive,
 and mysterious peoples.  It was still a little unclear how they had
 gone undetected for so long, though they spoke in vague ways about
 the ability to blind sensor devices over wide areas.  It was clear
 enough, though, that the initial Defender surveys of this area were
 wildly inaccurate as to stellar types and planetary make-ups.  What
 had seemed to be a vaguely promising band of systems turned out to
 be a densely clustered life-belt to rival the Vulcan-Earth-Andor-
 Tellar life-belt in the Milky Way.  Equally surprising, the belt
 appeared to be teeming with Ryla and Xur colonies and settlements. 
 Had the Reor area not been regarded as so barren, had the Pfhor
 known what lay just beyond it...

 As a result, the Defender officers had spent several hours going
 over the data and trying to draw some conclusions about Ryla culture
 and technology.  Several argued that while the Ryla were advanced in
 some areas, they were clearly backward in others.  Tebrun Lora Kor
 was not so sure; he could almost sense a Taer-like life underneath
 what appeared on the surface.  Thus, time spent on the planet would
 be valuable.

 On the surface, the Ryla were a high-technology people who also
 valued their low-technology roots.  Farming appeared to still go on
 in the ways it had for hundreds, if not thousands of years.  The
 Ryla appeared to be vegetarian, and these stalls among the bazaars
 were busy.  Nearly as busy were clothiers and jewelers, though many
 of both appeared to have dual qualities.  Several of the clothiers
 advertised garments that cured illnesses or brought good fortune
 along with more mundane garments.  The jewelers carried wares that
 warded the wearer against injury and disease, or blocked the wind
 and rain, next to loose stones and plain unadorned items.  Looking
 closer, the Admiral noted that even the food was not immune.  Some
 of the items were advertised as making the consumer proof against
 certain diseases; one particular type of fruit, available in a
 variety of shades, was said by the Ryla male selling them to be able
 to change the eye color of the person eating it.  

 In particular, the Admiral was convinced to buy a particular fruit
 when a female Ryla purchased a bright green one and ate it as the
 shopkeeper and Lora Kor watched.  Less than a minute later, her
 brown eyes changed to a bright green that closely matched the color
 of the fruit...  On a lark, Lora Kor purchased a bright blue one and
 was given a small cloth bag to carry it in.  If nothing else, it
 would make an interesting item to return to the ship for analysis.

 From what the Admiral could see, the other products also had their
 advertised effects.  A male, wearing a broach holding an elaborate
 cloak closed, apparently owned an item that made his garment proof
 against dust and wind, for they did not touch him.  Another male
 carried a small sphere of silence with him, though Lora Kor didn't
 see where one could buy an item with this property for sale.  The
 Trill also could not tell if there was some highly advanced
 technology at work... or if something else was going on.

 An entire row of seers was also doing a brisk business, including a
 female Ryla and her two assistants, who did their work using a
 series of small painted and embossed placards placed into a pattern
 before the customer.  Her customers appeared to depart from her
 impressed, or pleased, or particularly upset, and as a result, Lora
 Kor decided to give it a try.

 Dropping into the chair under the flapping tent before the seeress,
 Lora Kor passed over the chit that served as the Ryla source of
 money.  The seeress, meanwhile, looked him up and down.  Her flat
 face was hard to read; she might have been pleased, or impressed.

 "You are one of the visitors?" she asked, and Lora Kor confirmed it.
 She nodded, and reached forward to touch his temple.  She then
 turned toward an enormous rack next to her chair; it held the
 placards the Admiral had seen before, but now he could see they were
 some sort of thin slate.  "I will explain.  I have touched your
 essence, and will find it among the tablets.  I will now lay seven
 of them before you," she said, plucking this one and that from the
 rack.  She placed each face down in a stack between herself and the
 Admiral.  As she did this, her two assistants chanted in soft
 voices.  The hands of the seeress were sure, plucking this one and
 that from the rack.  One came from very high on the rack, near the
 top, another from very near ground level.  As she did so, the holes
 in the rack appeared to fill in, though again, Lora Kor could not
 tell if this was a mechanical process, or something else.  The stack
 was complete, and the seeress indicated it.

 "The central tablet is the heart, the heart of what you are," she
 said in a sing-song voice -- clearly she'd done this explanation
 many times before, and it bored her -- flipping the top tablet from
 the stack and laying it at the center of the table.  She then
 started, and Lora Kor heard one of her assistants gasp.

 "What?" the Admiral asked, looking at the tablet.  On it, a bolt of
 lightning cut through the center of something that might be a tree,
 or might be a tall animal of some sort.

 "Change," the seeress said.  Her voice was toneless, and almost
 distant.  "Change is at the heart of who you are.  This is a card of
 very ill omen," she added.  The assistant who had gasped picked up
 the chant again, though she obviously looked somewhat frightened.

 Lora Kor, however, smiled.  "Zha Trell," he said, in his own
 language, looking at the card.  In that moment, he learned much
 about the Ryla.  Obviously descended from a herbivorous animal
 species of some type, he could very easily understand how change
 would culturally be an ill omen among them.  The Tellar, a notably
 herbivorous species in the Milky Way, also hated change.  Stability
 was much more prized among them.  Clearly, the Ryla felt the same
 way.

 "Do not worry," he said in the most soothing voice he could manage. 
 "Your cards speak true.  For one of my species, this is not an ill
 omen, but a good one.  Zha Trell.  Change is at the heart of who we
 are," he confirmed.  "It is much the same for all of my people, to a
 greater or lesser extent.  Your cards speak true," he said again,
 settling himself more firmly in his seat.  "Please continue."

 The seeress nodded, looking somewhat placated.  "You are a strange
 people, and I have not touched the essence another of your kind as
 yet," she said.  She exhaled.  "It is possible that what you say is
 true."  Shaking her head, she continued.  "At your right hand, I
 place your enemies.  At your left, I place your allies."  As she
 said this, she flipped over two more placards, placing them near the
 Admiral's left and right hands.  The chant faltered again, but not
 as badly this time.

 The tablet at Lora Kor's right hand showed a dark and bloody Ryla,
 teeth bared, physically breaking the back of another Ryla over a
 brazier full of flame.  This placard was clouded by smoke and flame.
 On the placard at his left hand, a trio of spear-wielding Ryla,
 wearing white cloaks held with sparkling gemstone broaches, held off
 a large predator of some sort presumably native to the planet.  A
 light shone down on them from a break in the clouds above, and
 behind them in the distance, a small village could be seen.

 The seeress looked pleased, and more confident.  "Your enemies are
 corruption, destruction, and decay; your allies those who defend the
 right," she said.  "Long it has been since I have seen these cards
 in this pattern.  Truly, you must be one of great import among your
 people," she said.  Lora Kor couldn't think of a proper answer to
 this, looking down at the cards, a little non-plussed.  After a
 moment's pause, the seeress continued.

 As she flipped the next placard, she looked even more pleased.  "At
 your head, I place those who watch over, guide, and protect your
 efforts," she said.  This new placard showed a wash of stars -- Lora
 Kor recognized the dark band slicing through the view of M64's
 center as viewed from this system.  One star seemed to burn more
 brightly than the others and Lora Kor did his best to memorize the
 layout, but was brought back to reality with a start.  "What did you
 say?" he asked.

 The seeress was definitely more pleased, and had shaken off her
 nasty initial shock.  "Those Who Watch look upon you and your
 efforts," she said, emphasizing three words which Lora Kor's
 translator then also emphasized in his ear.  "There are very few
 that are blessed with such guardians," she said, now obviously
 impressed.  The bored, sing-song voice was long gone; it was clear
 that the seeress herself was anxious to see the rest of the
 placards.  "Before you, I place your greatest threat, that which you
 attempt to use these powerful forces to destro--"

 One of the assistants suddenly shrieked, a high, keening sound which
 cut across the bazaar and even the seeress herself gasped, the
 placard still held in her hands.  It dropped to the table and she
 looked at it in horror.  Around the table, commerce stopped and
 heads whipped around to look for the source of the scream, though no
 one was yet close enough to see the table or what was on it.

 The placard was simple enough: Ryla's bright star shining down on a
 fertile plain.  Without need for the translator, Lora Kor recognized
 the single word "Life" in the script below that card.

 "All that is, all that was, all that will be," the seeress gasped,
 shuddering, identifying the card.  "Only once before have I seen
 this tablet, and then only as an ally, when I touched a great leader
 of our people... you... you..."  She shivered again, and one of her
 assistants had abandoned the chant and continued to keen, her voice
 cutting across the bazaar.  Now some of the passers by were
 approaching, and the seeress flipped the last placards quickly, her
 voice faster and faster, more and more breathless.

 "The sixth and seventh tablets show whether you will succeed," she
 said.  "The seventh is your final fate, but the sixth shows..." 
 Suddenly, the seeress looked grimly pleased.  This placard showed a
 female Ryla, apparently in the process of giving birth, or perhaps
 having her baby surgically removed... almost ripped from her. 
 Leering male Ryla, one pulling the baby from the female's arms as
 she shrieked in pain or terror or both, surrounded her.  "The sixth
 shows your fate is not without loss... not without loss," the
 seeress said, her voice still pleased, and a bit savage.  "The
 seventh card, success or failure of your attempt to destroy, your
 future and fat--"

 Now the keening assistant shrieked again in fear or pain, and
 fainted.  The second assistant tried to prop the first up, but soon
 had the seeress to deal with as well.

 The seventh placard was as black as night, with the merest
 suggestion of a Ryla face among the blackness.

 "Death!" the seeress shrieked.  "Death of all!"  She began to
 collapse herself, and many of the onlookers rushed to her aid, but
 not before the seeress drove Tebrun Lora Kor from her tent with her
 cries.  "Death of all that was!  Death of all that is!  Death of all
 that will be!"

\_______________________________________________________________________ 
\ End Simulation Teaser                                                 |
 ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ 

 Defenders Task Group 85.3, "Whitestone" Staff:
    Commanding, TG 85.3:       RADM Tebrun Lora Kor      (Jester)
    S-1, Group Adjutant:       Cmdr. Sieven Drexler      (Brad)
    S-2, Group Intelligence:   Cmdr. Kariasa Ma'Aru      (Kari)
    S-3, Group Logistics:      Cmdr. Savant              (Savant)
    Commanding, M64 Ground:    Brig. Jeremy Ironside     (Fraser)

 U.S.S. Coronado Crew Roster:
    Commanding Officer:        Capt. William Daren       (Chris)
    Executive Officer:         Cmdr. Velorna Tal         (Aggie)
    Chief of Operations:       Cmdr. Olme Tlaloco        (rev)
    Chief Flight Operations:   Lt. Maiko D'Rall          (Farrell)
    Command Yeoman:            Spec. Miranda Forester    (Fox)
    Raptors Squadron Leader:   LCol. Thomas Wayne        (Masters)
    Marine Flight Leader:      2Lt. Jack Quinn           (JackQuinn)
    Battalion Commander:       Maj. Jacob Prescot        (Prescot)
    Watch Tactical Officer:    Lt. Thirishar ch'Thane    (Alffred)
    Chief Engineer:            Cmdr. Zunite Oswald       (Sonya)
    Assistant Engineer:        LCdr. Jack C. Farley      (CCC)
    Chief Medical Officer:     Cmdr. Alec Reed           (McC)
    Assistant Medical:         LCdr. Lauren Dyson        (Natty)

 On Extended Leave of Absence:
    Flight Leader:             1Lt. Natalia Petrovna     (Phishie)
    Bartender:                 PO/1 Bridget Bordeux      (Dolin)

 Positions Available:
    Chief Science Officer:                               (---)
    Watch Tactical Officer:                              (---)
    Assistant Engineer                                   (---)

------
Jester

Rear Admiral Tebrun Lora Kor
Commanding, Defenders Task Group 85.3, "Whitestone"
embarked on U.S.S. Coronado, NCC-97901
http://www.jestertrek.com/coro2400/