~XIARA ESTA, TA FIRA XI~

~Home is where your soul belongs~

Disclaimer: Everything that is familiar is Paramount's; the rest is MINE :p

Author's note: I_still_haven't read the novel Imzadi, though you'll find references to the happenings in that book. This story I started with the intention to make it a short one but I I'm not good at staying true to my resolutions. No different this time. *Shrugs*

This is technically speaking a re-post. I found myself a wonderful Beta-reader who has been checking for grammatical and sentence construction errors (poor dear). Thank you so much B!

Also beware; I've mixed up British and American spelling…

Paring: 'Well, actually there is none. Ah well, mainly TNG-crew, minus Worf.' that's what it said originally. I've decided to change it a bit. The are P/C moments, as well as T/R, T/s (s=surprise) R/f (yes, an other, new character). Lots of C/T (for those of you who are wondering: friendship, nothing more). The roles of Data & Geordi aren't very large.

Rating: That's a bit difficult…mainly PG-13, though chapt. 16 en 17 are R-rated and a long the line there'll be some NC-17 rated chapters…

Please_do_Read&Review!!! I need some attention!!! :D

Prologue

Will, come in. She still could pick him out a 1000 people, not that he knew that. If he had, he might not have told her what he was about to.

The Enterprise was orbiting Ryara I, a newly discovered M-class planet with a population of just over 5 billion people. It floated around a binary solar system located at the outer boarders of the Alpha Quadrant . The planet had 6 moons and had thirty-five hours of light during a forty hour day due to its two suns. Though the geography and vegetation of the planet itself was similar to Earth's there were differences. For instance, Ryara's grass was of the brightest blue, while its oceans were deep purple. The ground  was white, which helped to keep the ground at a cooler temperature despite the sunlight. The sky was purple/pink during the day and deep blue at night. The sand along the shore was shiny and was made up of all the colours of a rainbow. The climate was practically the same on the entire planet. Snow only occurred one month a year and the planet had no ice-continents or deserts like Earth.

The inhabitants themselves had technology several decades behind [] the Federation and they weren't capable of warp drive at this time. Their social bonds were maintained by dozens of rituals which varied from one family to another and from continent to continent. The entire world had one Government, rudimentary laws and social values. Their communication system was advanced; using several beacons on the planet, they had developed a system similar to 'phone lines' of Earth's 21st century. The only difference was that it wasn't made up of glass fiber cables but instead used special atmosphere heights for the transmission of their messages. Their cities were all bright and clean, each one of them modeled after the same design. The Ryarans had somehow been able to prevent air-pollution.

The Enterprise's mission was to obtain as much information on their technologies as possible without interfering. And thus Away Teams had been beaming up and down for over three months now. Captain Picard had ordered his crew to investigate the social structure and behaviour of the Ryarans as well. They had built their 'headquarters' in an office complex in one of Ryana's southern states. 'Troi-consultants' was a psychology/physicians office. Both Deanna and Beverly 'worked' there. Their undercover job was the perfect way to obtain as much information as possible and the office provided a safe place for away teams to beam down and up. Deanna could pass as an Ryaran without trouble, as could most of the crew. Only those with blue or gray eyes had to wear lenses. The Ryanarans had all kinds of skin colours; normal, for them, was blue, green, purple and even grey. The colours of their eyes could be green, brown/black, purple and yellow. Just like their skin, their hair came in many different shades. Everything combined into a very colorful effect.

The Ryarans were a gentle yet hardworking race. Aside from their appearance there was no difference in status between males and females. They were equally scattered over different kinds and levels of work and both would take care of the children. Children...Counselor Troi had been struck when a girl only twelve years old had come to her for advice about how to ask a friend of her to 'R-kta' her, a rite that was equivalent to marriage. After doing some more research they discovered that Ryaran children are considered mature at the age of ten.

After two full months the studies of Ryara had been completed. A full report on their technology had been made and it was estimated that that they would be capable of discovering warp-drive in about a decade as long as their progress continued at this rate. Their social structure and laws made them a perfect candidate for admission to the Federation one day.

~D~