Qori Mining Outpost
Bre'el Sector
6th day of the 9th month (July: Earth calendar)

Those are Andorians. Mareesa thought as she wandered the promenade with her father. That's a Rigelian.
That's a K'Normian. And of course most of the people here are Tellerites.

The Havora had traveled another ten light years in two weeks and had arrived at a point halfway between
K'Normia and Cames: the Qori System. It was a small red dwarf system comprised of a large gas giant
and several moons, one of which had a ring containing valuable ores and minerals. The Tellerite Mining
Consortium had set up an outpost there eight years ago and since then it had become a stopping
point for far flung Tellerite ships, as well as a center of trade with others.

Both the Havora and the Loris convoy had arrived three days before. Their Rigelian friends had departed
yesterday but the Havora would be staying for two more days. Mareesa had taken the opportunity to try
to see as much of the outpost as possible.

And there was a lot to see. She knew that Kzot was pleased; the Zhaveel Depot had about fifty personnel
and room for about two hundred visitors, although there were seldom it ever that many at a time.
The Qori Outpost was twice as large with over two hundred miners/personnel and often had up to five
hundred visitors at a time. It had a lot of restaurants, bars, shops, hotels and other entertainment.
And since some of the permanent personnel had their families with them, there were entertainments
geared toward younger people. So there was a lot more to see and do.

And a lot more people to see! Mareesa thought. The outpost was a thriving place of trade and there
were always dozens of different species to be seen walking its corridors. It always thrilled her to see
different types of species.

That's a Kazarite. That's a Bre'elite. Those are Tkarites. And that's another Nlian! She smiled
as she noticed a Nlian she didn't recognize walking down the promenade with two Tellarites.

There was a long history between her people and the Tellerites. The Tkarites had been the first
'alien' species their people had encountered. When warp 5 had been developed twenty years ago,
the Tellarites had been the first alien species from outside their sector that the Nlians had encountered.

As well as being a founding member of the rapidly growing United Federation of Planets, the Tellerites
had had a long history of seeking out trade deals with other species. When they had first learned
of the various species of the Norayis Sector, all of which were a commercial people, whose civilizations
heavily promoted trade, they had been eager to make contact. The Tellerite trade ship Rovka
had approached Nlian space less than a year after the Tkarites had first encountered the Federation
vessel, Spatial.

At first the Nlians had been shocked by the Tellarites' love of insults and arguing and the Tellarites,
for their part, had been slightly ruffled by the gentle Nlians steadfast refusal to insult. To this day
it was thought of as a challenge to be pleasant and polite no matter how insulting a Tellerite could be.
The Tellerite Challenge many called it.

Despite this, a bond had quickly formed, not only over trade, but both races' mutual interests and skills
in mining, engineering and irrigation which both helped the other improve. Tellarites were now frequent
visitors to the Nlian system, particularly on Icar, where skills in large scale irrigation, land reclamation,
and hydroponics were invaluable to the mining colonies there. There had been recent talk of Nlian
engineers making the long journey to Tellar Prime to help the Tellerites make additional improvements
in land reclamation and hydroponics.

Those engineers would be traveling a long way, Mareesa thought. Tellar was almost a hundred light
years from Nlia and none of their people had traveled that far yet. In fact the furthest most of their ships
had ventured had been about twenty light years at maximum.

But we've travelled a long way too. And we're about to go even further!

The Havora had been away from Nlia for three months and were over fifteen light years from home.
For years the Qori Outpost had been the furthest point of their long haul and at this point they normally
would have turned around for the month long trip back home.

But this time things would be different. She looked at her father and smiled with excitement. For some
time now he had had been considering expanding the Havora's route and he wasn't the only one.
Several other Nlian freighters were making runs ever further 'north' into the territory of the Federation.

Although they already had trade contacts with two Federation members, so far Andorian and Tellerite
ships had either come to their system or else the Nlians had met them at outposts not far from their sector.
Of late however, the Nlian Ministry of Commerce was considering expanding their trade routes and
an increasing number of captains had been taking their ships to Federation space.

One of them was Hanesor Zarnem, a long time associate of her father. He was in command of the Kofnor
and his routes took him further than most Nlian ships. He had frequently gone into the edges of Federation
space and had made several contacts there. He had often encouraged Tav to expand his route there as well,
citing the greater opportunities.

During the previous year he had urged him to at least consider traveling to the Benecia Sector.

The sector, well within Federation territory was heavily populated and had a lot of traffic. Starfleet,
the exploration and military branch of the Federation, planned to build what they called a 'Starbase'
there at some point. In the meantime, a large trade outpost had been built in the Zornek System
and had become a major business and trade. Zarnem had urged Tav to at least travel there to see
the station first hand.

Tav had finally decided to take his advice. They would be traveling 'north' another twenty light years
(another month's travel) to midpoint in the next sector.

Tav looked at his daughter and smiled. "And what are you grinning about?" he asked

"I'm excited" she said. We're going to be going further than we've ever gone before! More than
most Nlians have!"

He chuckled. "That we are, Daughter. In more ways than one."