Star Trek and all its intellectual property is owned by Paramount/CBS. No infringement intended, no profit made.
This story been beta-read by VesperRegina, to whom I offer my sincere thanks, as always.
Although not graphic, the story has been rated for occasional reference to adult issues. If this offends you, please bear that in mind before you read it.
The Yb'oa were quite an advanced civilisation. They had developed warp drive some centuries ago, although their technological advances had turned in a different direction. Finding that the planets belonging to the stars closest to their own binary pair held nothing worth the effort required to get there, they'd turned their attention back to their own system and gone on a rampage, terraforming three of the other four available planets and transforming them into playgrounds. Each of the worlds was independent, but existed in harmony with the others. Their history hadn't always been idyllic, but they'd gotten over their differences, and worked out a balanced relationship that had now endured for some centuries. They no longer looked outwards to the stars for adventure, but to the Three Worlds, and the efforts of those who had the vision of what could be achieved ensured that there was an abundance of environments from which to choose.
Although they no longer expended their resources on seeking out the inhabitants of other planets, however, they welcomed visitors from any of those who were more adventurously minded. Thus it was when the Earth ship Enterprise approached and broadcast overtures of friendship, the Yb'oa were more than happy to extend a welcome. It was even, they felt, a fortunate time for the new arrivals. Most of the administrative functions were confined to the smallest of the worlds; the others were rather less populated as yet, and indeed one had many regions that had hardly been explored at all. Only a couple of cycles ago, an expedition party of Yb'oa had discovered evidence of a civilisation other than their own there, whose population had for some reason died out centuries ago. This had caused great excitement, and a whole host of archaeologists had begun excavating the ruins found on the desert plateau. It would certainly be a most hospitable gesture to take their new guests to visit the ruins too. Who knew? They might be able to contribute some expertise of their own to the research in progress. The latest reports had spoken of what seemed to have been a tomb, whose walls were covered in mysterious hieroglyphs. It was, of course, impossible to decipher these with no knowledge of what the language itself had been, but the council perked up its collective ears at the information of one of the officers who would be comprising the visiting Earth ship's landing party.
Ensign Hoshi Sato.
A linguist.
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