DISCLAIMER: Star Trek and all related characters are the property of Paramount Pictures, Inc. and CBS-Paramount Television. No copyright infringement is intended. This work of fiction is for entertainment purposes only and no money has changed hands. The original characters and events are the sole property of the author and may not be used without permission.

STAR TREK:

THE EQUATORIAL

By Darrin A. Colbourne


Enterprise remained in orbit three more days so that the crew could monitor Ojana's and her neighbors' farms to make sure they weren't harassed by any more units of the Bajoran police or military. When the time passed without incident departure was set for the morning of the fourth day. Montoya was up early that morning and was spending time with Flores and Goren in their quarters while they waited. "The thing I still can't figure out is what's with their noses." Flores said. "There just doesn't seem to be any biological reason for the elaborate structure of the bridge."

"I don't see why it bothers you so much." Goren said. "Every race's physiognomy has some vestigial characteristics."

"True, but all those characteristics are holdovers from some point in our evolution when they actually served a purpose. I just don't see any purpose for a decoratively carved nose bridge on a primate."

"Maybe it used to be extra protection for the frontal lobes. You know, like skeletal chain mail."

"Okay, but if that's the case why don't they extend further along the brow ridge? And why aren't they more uniform from one person to another? We have detailed images of every Junoan--"

"Bajoran," Montoya corrected.

"Right--every Bajoran we got samples from and I swear each one had a totally unique design on his or her nose bridge. It's nuts."

"Well, maybe they're like fingerprints or retinas," Montoya said, "something unique to each individual."

"Or maybe they're just plain birthmarks." Goren said.

"Thought of all that, but if that's what they are then why are they so prominent? The things that make retinas and fingerprints unique are invisible to the naked eye, but the nose bridge decorations are, like, right there saying 'Hi! Howya doin'?' And Nature imprints birthmarks in the skin. It doesn't engrave them in your skull." Flores leaned back in her bunk and sighed. "I just hate leaving without finding out." Then she had a sudden thought and turned to Montoya. "I don't suppose you could convince Ojana to come back up here and spend a couple of days so that I can do some really harmless, totally non-invasive scans?"

Montoya smiled and shook her head. "I think we need to give Ojana a nice long break before we visit her again."

Flores sighed again. "That's what I thought you'd say."

"Has she been using the field radio you gave her?" Goren asked.

"Only intermittently at first." Montoya said. "I think she was testing it to see if it worked and I'd respond. We had something of a breakthrough yesterday. We actually conversed for almost a minute."

"Did you understand her at all?"

"Not a word, but at least it shows she's confident enough to keep using it."

"That's good. We're recording everything she transmits to us and adding it to the language database we're compiling. It ought to…"

The Intercraft system interrupted him. "Now hear this: All hands to Departure Stations! All hands to Departure Stations! This is not a drill!"

"Time to go." Montoya said.

She and the others left the stateroom and started off for their respective departure stations. Before they split up, Goren said, "Hopefully we'll have an easier time of it at the next planet."

Flores smiled. "Yep. Maybe we'll get real lucky and they'll have universal translators."

Montoya laughed and Goren made a face as he started off toward Main Damage Control. "Oh, please! Not that old myth!"

"What myth? I read somewhere that they're entirely plausible!"

"Yeah, the day somebody figures out how to make a computer psychic!" He shook his head and trotted off, leaving his colleagues giggling in his wake.

When they settled down, Flores got serious and turned to Montoya. "Belle, I wanted to say I'm sorry I gave you such a hard time while we were here. It's just…"

"There's no need to apologize." Montoya said. "Ben is right. We'll go on to the next world and start fresh, and hopefully we'll make smarter decisions there. Deal?"

Flores smiled. "Deal! I'll see you at the next world." With that she headed for the turbolift.

Montoya made her way to the Control Room and found Captain Pike and Number One already in their places. "Glad you could join us, Commander!" Pike said as Montoya took her station. "Care to give us a final status report on our survey of this world?"

"Well, we acquired barely five percent of the biological data we needed and we've highlighted serious shortcomings in our data collection methods, but the good news is we've made a native contact. I would say that the status of the survey is…Incomplete, but Progressing."

Pike smirked. "That'll have to do. Navigator, set course for the next AOR. Number One, take us out of orbit and engage at your discretion."


On the planet, Ojana went to answer a knock at her front door. The Beros' eldest and middle sons had come to pay her a visit. "Morning, Miss Pell." Bero Jarik said with a smile.

Ojana smiled right back. "Good morning, Jarik," she said to the teenager, then she turned to his younger brother. "And good morning to you, Sen. You look bigger every time I see you. Pretty soon you're going to be as big and strong as your brother."

Sen grinned. "Yes, Ma'am! I'll be twelve in two cycles, and I can already beat Jarik in any kind of foot race! It's kinda embarrassing, really. He's really starting to slow down in his old age."

Ojana chuckled and Jarik fought the urge to roll his eyes as he got down to business. "Pa sent us over to check out your North fields, Ma'am. He says we might be able to reclaim them if the soil's not too far gone. And he'll be over himself later this afternoon with some of our equipment so we can get started on harvesting the wild crops that can be used and clearing away what can't."

"Well, that's great!" Ojana said. "Thank you." She'd finally taken Mrs. Bero up on her standing offer two days ago, and in this instance it hadn't taken much cajoling to get Mr. Bero and sons to cooperate. Ojana was looking forward to the company. Recent events had shown her that the isolation wasn't all that preferable after all. "Would you boys like to come in and have something to eat?"

"No, thank you," Jarik said, "we had a big breakfast. Anyway, Pa wants us to get back and tell him about the field soon as we can."

"Then I'll let you get to it. Thanks again, boys."

"You're welcome. Come on, Sen."

Jarik turned to go, expecting his brother to be right behind him. Sen had turned, but only got a half step away before turning back. "Miss Pell," he said, "is it true you saw spacemen?"

"Sen!" Jarik said. "Ma said you're not supposed to talk about that!"

"It's all right, Jarik." Ojana said, then she turned to Sen and looked him right in the eye. "It's true, dear. I've seen spacemen."

Sen's eyes widened just a little. "What'd they look like?"

"They were people, just like us."

Sen frowned. "Come on! Spacemen can't look like us!"

Ojana crossed her arms. "Then what are they supposed to look like?"

"You know! They gotta have two heads, three arms, a bunch of eyes…and they're slimy, and they gotta wear space helmets cause they can't breathe our air!"

Ojana thought about it for a second. "Nope. No slime, two eyes, two arms, one head and they breathe our air just fine. They've got funny noses, though. They're all smooth."

Sen looked at Ojana as if she had two heads, and this time Jarik did roll his eyes. "Sen, wouldja leave her alone and come on?!"

Sen waved goodbye and rushed off to join his brother. "I just wanted to know about the spacemen, is all! I think she's putting us on! Whoever heard of a smooth nose…?"

Ojana smiled as she watched them walk away, then she went back inside and closed the door. When she was sure she was alone she reached into the pocket of her jeans and took out her wireless wire communicator and pressed the right buttons to make it work. "Isabel, are you there?" No answer. Ojana frowned, made sure she was working the device properly and tried again. "Is anybody there?" Still no answer. At first it bothered her. The few times she'd tried to use the thing someone always answered, even if it wasn't Isabel herself. The only explanation she could come up with was that there was no one there to answer anymore, but that only begged the question of where they were when they were answering in the first place, and pondering that just made Ojana's head hurt. Ultimately she sighed and pressed the right buttons once more.

"I'm going to take a risk, Isabel," she said. "I'm going to bet that you wouldn't have given me this thing if you knew that I wouldn't be able to reach you at all after only a few days. I'm betting that the only reason you're not responding is that you're too busy doing whatever it is you do when you're not kidnapping helpless artists, and that even if you can't talk to me, somehow, some way, my words will reach you wherever you are, so I'm just going to keep talking. I mean, that's the point, isn't it? Someday our two peoples will be able to understand each other, but until then, even if we can't understand each other now, it's best if we just keep talking.

"First, I think you'll be happy to know that Colonel Agee hasn't bothered me since he met you, though his men have become almost a permanent fixture just outside my farm. Still, for the next little while all they'll have to look at will be typical farming stuff. The Bero men are going to help me fix the place up."

She went over to her easel. "In the meantime, I'm getting back to painting for fun." She looked at the no-longer-blank canvas. There was now a detailed undersketch drawn on it, one that she'd worked on almost non-stop for a day and a night. "I'm going to paint you, surrounded by your Shadow Men and your black rocket ships. It's going to be great when it's done. You really should see it when you come back.

"And I say 'when' because I'm sure you'll be back." She walked over to her living room window and looked out at the land. "In fact, I'm so sure that I'm going to be prepared for you. I'm going to build a landing pad for your ships right in front of my door, just to make it easy for you." She smiled. "But try and come at a decent hour next time, okay? I need my sleep."


In space, Enterprise jumped into warp, leaving a communications satellite behind in synchronous orbit around Bajor. The satellite would record Pell Ojana's words and transmit them in subspace bursts to its mother craft as long as the starship was in range.