Star Trek: Distant Shores By Adam Kriegel
Brief Respite
The edifices of the skyscrapers of Meshera glittered in the distance on the coast 3 kilometers away. The senior officers of the starships Ibn Battuta and Gates of the Starfleet expedition to the Hirazi Coalition were relaxing on a boat of a local businessman throwing a birthday celebration for a local politician he has been friends with since grade school.
Brianna and Alex were sampling the great foods of this magnificent world. taste wise, its a cross between Earth's Chinese and Mediterranean cuisines. the blandness of some ingredients contrasted with the strong taste of the spices. the Hirazi party goers towered over the Starfleet officers, conversations are smooth thanks to the universal translators. they nevertheless managed to learn some Hirazi words and teach their hosts some English.
Hirazi politics aren't like politics of the Federation or it's neighbors. There's very little turmoil since unification; during the days of individual sovereign nation-states, they fought amongst themselves like everywhere else but not as vicious as some have been, especially in Earth history. Hirazi skin tones vary from purple to orange but hasn't been an issue in several millennia, before the reign of Althara yangi Thara.
The provinces of Zuo'Hiraz are the vestiges of the regional alliances of nation states which formed into political unions. The city of Meshera became an independent political union thousands of years ago as the capital city of the Alqoun nation-state and eventually the world government.
As the capital of the Hirazi Coalition, the expedition uses Ambassador Tariq's residence on Zuo'Hiraz as a base for staging and shore leave. Thousands of Gigabytes of data have been gathered in this region of space that would not have been acquired for decades until the natural expansion of the Starfleet's exploration of the galaxy.
T'Malya found the ambiance of Zuo'Hiraz interesting as much as a Vulcan could. The history of this world isnt as violent as the worlds she is familiar with which was provocative; she anticipated the essays and commentary on this once the expedition returns to Federation space.
