Genre: StarTrek: The Next Generation

Title: New Civilizations

Summary: Revelations unfold for the Away Team.

Chapter 24

The group of Kronatina who had been in pursuit of the Ferengi silently greeted the diplomats, touching carapaces and then departed, carrying the one that had been taken from the Ferengi. The diplomats quietly conferred.

Waiting for the Kronatina to finish their discussion, Picard noticed that three of the four messengers were dispatched out of the hall. Then, A's'kahn'a and his partners resumed their places.

"We can now agree with you that there has been misunderstanding," said A's'kahn'a. "Most certainly on our part. Where we hoped to make closer contact with you and with those of the Ferengi, not of the Federation, we find we distressed you and put one of our members in danger. In the same ignorance, we caused great distress to the Ferengi, Rantar, who had agreed to accept the company of T'kriss'a. We can only hope he does not fall ill, as your Riker did." The long speech apparently taxed him and he paused for breath. "It is through your kindness and willingness to understand that our companion, S's'haht'a was made well, reunited with his..." and here the universal translator failed. Only A's'kahn'a's voice could be heard with no accompanying translation, saying something that sounded like 'muf-funga-na'.

Picard's eyes looked to Lieutenant Bundawba who was examining the instrument in his hand and nodding to the voice coming from his insignia. Satisfied, he turned to answer Picard's silent query. "The closest Linguistics can come up with is 'mount, friend, servant, or perhaps second other.' All seem to apply equally. They'll have to hear it used a few more times before they come up with a more suitable translation."

Picard turned back to the diplomat. "We are here to learn. Will you please continue to speak of your relationship with your fellows you take upon your heads?"

The Kronatt opened his arms at his sides; his palms up imitating Picard's often used gesture of intended peace. "First, let me explain something to you." He raised his hand and laid it gently on the side of the carapace on his brow. "I am a Kronatt." He lowered his hand and laid it on his chest. "This is my.." he used the still unfamiliar word. "You see..." The air was filled with a jumble of Galactic English and unfamiliar Kronatin words.

Exasperated, Picard turned to Lieutenant Bundawba, and when the young man didn't reply immediately, he became more agitated. Before he lost patience entirely, the young linguist said, "Apparently the phrasing he just used has something to do with the relationship that exists between the feathered one and the one with fur." He shrugged his shoulders. "I suggest you perhaps get more information about the relationship. Neither the translator nor the guys on the ship can make much of it yet."

Picard tugged at the bottom of his uniform blouse. "As you can hear, we're still at a loss about certain things. Only recently have we found that the Kronatina, with what we call feathers, was a live entity, separate from the Kronatina that wears...carries the other. More, we were surprised to realize that you with the feathers," he looked up to the shining deep wine colored eyes, "are intelligent."

This remark caused some excitement among the Kronatina. Not only did the feathers rise and ripple, but the furred ones carrying them also stamped and shifted position, brushing against each other, as well as muttering among themselves. Finally, A's'kahn'a turned and said, "Do you mean to say you believe our mufunga'na are of the Kronatina?"

Picard answered, "Since they speak for the both of you, I assumed they were Kronatina, yes. What, then do you call them?"

"Mufunga'na."

Captain Picard opened his mouth without speaking and shook his head. Then he said, "I'm afraid I don't yet comprehend.

Troi and D'Jang, who had been quietly talking with one another in the background, stepped forward. Troi, who placed herself between the Captain and the diplomats, spoke first. "Sir, I believe Dr. T'Shing and I can explain." She turned to the diplomats. "Perhaps you would care to confirm?" They all crowded forward towards the edge of their platforms. "Dr. T'Shing, will you start?"

D'Jang looked speculatively first at the furred bipeds and then at the feathered ones on top. "Captain, the mufunga'nas are animals and the Kronatina, the ones on top, are the sentients. The mufunga'nas are the legs, hands, and voice for the Kronatina. The Kronatina are not only intelligent but use mind control over animals. The mufunga'nas are, I would say, about as intelligent as the ertary of Dolanzia or perhaps the horse of Earth."

Deanna spoke up. "By mounting us, the Ferengi, and the Romulans, as they do their mufunga'na, the Kronatina thought that they would gain true insight into what we are." Without looking at Riker on the com' screen, Deanna could sense him stiffening in offense at the implication. "It's rather more like the control that's necessary when any intelligent species rides an animal. We don't talk with a horse and say, 'let's go over there,' we control it by use of bridle and bit, by the reins, and by pressure from the knees. The Kronatina use mental control by direct contact with the nervous system. By force of their sentience, they control and direct the animal."

She looked to the Kronatina for confirmation. Since they stood silent, she continued.

"In the case of Commander Riker, in order for the Kronatt to control him, she had to subordinate the animal in him. In order to do that, S's'haht'a had to reinforce his animal behaviors and dampen the higher cerebral functions. The process didn't interfere with his sentience, but reinforced his ancestral animal-ness to the point that it dominated his personality. The Kronatina naturally exude chemicals that allow physical, as well as mind control; a lucky symbiosis on this planet. What the Kronatt did not count on was the reaction from the rest of us to Riker's animal behavior, especially from the women, and especially from a doctor who sees behavioral changes as a possible sign of illness. As for the Ferengi behavior, I can't say, since I don't know their origin, but I'd venture to say we witnessed something of the very primitive Ferengi." She looked to D'Jang.

"Deanna's right. Where human origins are lengthy, millions of years, evolving from a squirrel like creature to one that resembled the chimpanzee, and so on, the Ferengi evolution was rather abrupt. They were once creatures that we would say looked like Earth's guinea pigs or mockeruggers, and then they made a tremendous evolutionary leap in less than a million years. From being small bushes creatures, they gained their present form and sentience. They were building cities, and looking towards the stars in what we'd call an 'archeological blink of an eye'. I think we could assume the pre-evolution Ferengi would have been a cautious, easily frightened animal, which is what we saw, scurrying around the hall. Apparently it took only moments for the Kronatt to raise that primitive creature in the Ferengi, where it took a couple of hours for Commander Riker to regress."

D'Jang smiled as Picard asked, "But why the trick? Why dominate? Why not just ask for a mind touch, like the Vulcans?"

S's'haht'a stepped forward. "I think I can explain, now. First, let me apologize for what I did to your Commander Riker. I tried to dominate him, as I would have an untrained mufunga'na. I did not even check out his intelligent mind-will. By the time I realized that I had violated one of your deepest taboos, I was helplessly alone and quite ill. I tried to contact him, but he is mind deaf."

Commander Riker blanched at the words.

Turning to Riker's image, S's'haht'a continued, "However, I did learn of you and now I know that we Kronatina are quite unique in the universe. What we do, we can only do with true animals. To have tried it with an intelligent species was a great mistake. We probably will do well to stick with our dear mufunga'nas. I think you can understand our mutual confusion. I'm afraid we saw you as strangely intelligent acting mufunga'nas that would gladly accept our guidance and care. You, I believe, saw us as intelligent, shaggy bipeds that have a penchant for wearing fancy hats." The Kronatt paused and all of the mufunga'nas stood quite still while the feathers of the Kronatina all vibrated.

Troi giggled and seeing Picard's puzzled expression explained, "They're laughing. They see this as a great comedy of errors."

Picard's face relaxed into a smile. "Yes, truly, it has been. I do think, however, that the Ferengi may not have quite the same view of the situation.

A's'kahn'a's mufunga'na raised a hand, palm upwards, and then reversed the palm down and lowered it. "We are at this moment explaining to the Ferengi, who are not of the Federation, that the Kronatina desire to refuse their offer of trade."

"Was their reaction to you so offensive?" inquired Picard.

The feathers of all the Kronatina rose slightly and smoothed. At the same time, A's'kahn'a leaned slightly to one of the other diplomats on the pedestals. They changed places and the new one spoke this time. "I am P'rrdtl'a. The mufunga'na of A's'kahn'a is tiring from the effort of speaking so he has asked us to speak in his stead." Picard inclined his head in acknowledgment. "We are surprised at your remark because we forget we must speak to you in order for you to comprehend. When we rescued T'kriss'a from the head of the Ferengi, who is not of the Federation, he stated that they were people we may not be able to trade with."

It was Picard's turn to register surprise. "May we know why?"

P'rrdtl'a conferred with A's'kahn'a silently for a moment. "Although we cannot communicate with the mind deaf, we can get a sense of how a foreign mind works. We suppose that the only phrase applicable is that the mind of the Ferengi had an extremely unpleasant taste. We have a saying, 'Ugly mind, ugly actions'."

Riker asked, "And my mind passed the test?"

S's'haht'a spoke up, "I was much surprised at how comfortable I felt with you. I was taken by surprise by your difference from a mufunga'na more than the difference of your gender, but it was rather like being in communication with a fellow Kronatt in familiarity. Apparently, the difference of gender was part of the ugly feeling T'kriss'a felt. The Ferengi cannot deal with females because they do not like females."

Picard picked up on the remark. "Yes, we noticed that you seem to take little verbal notice of sexual differences. Will we have much contact with more of the distaff side, apart from S's'haht'a?"

Again the brief rise and lowering of the tendrils. This time, not only did P'rrdtl'a's mufunga'na nod and weave but also bent over to bring the eyes of its rider down towards Picard. "I beg your pardon?"

Picard knew he'd made another faux pas but was not quite sure what it was. He smiled uncertainly, "We know that S's'haht'a is female, will we be meeting more females?"

The carapaces of the Kronatina all briefly touched all around and then the tendrils all rose and vibrated. Picard turned to Deanna.

She confirmed what he asked with his eyes. "Yes, Captain, they're laughing again. This is even funnier to them than before."

P'rrrdtl'a finally seemed to regain a bit of control. "Oh, Picard, all of us whom you have met, save for two of the doctors, are female. 'I' am female!"

"But—" Picard was about to refer to the translation and then he looked sharply at Bundawba. The young Lieutenant's dark skin glistened under the scrutiny while talking quietly with Linguistics. Picard let out a gush of air and he turned back to the diplomats whose feathers were still rippling. "I think we've just discovered another assumption, haven't we?" He looked out of the corner of his eye at Bundawba and made a mental note to have the Federation check out Linguistics operations. He also wanted to think about recommending a promotion for Bundawba. The young man had been right on the nose with his analysis.

A's'kahn'a and P'rrdtl'a stepped from their pedestal and stood beside Picard. While the feathers still fluttered a bit, P'rrdtl'a said, "Do you think we can dispense with further rituals of diplomacy for now? Our day is ending. We can speak again tomorrow. It has been a long day."

Picard nodded his head. "I doubt that I shall ever see a longer one."

The great furred mufunga'na waved at the rest of the diplomats and was caused to say, "Let us spend time together, be of company for a few moments before you depart for the evening. We would invite you to dine with us, but while my dear old Haffin, here, eats grains and greens without noticeable social manners, I dine on what you would call live bugs. You, on the other hand, are omnivorous and I understand that, among other things, you occasionally dine on feathered creatures called birds." The feathers waved and vibrated again. "Somehow, I just don't think any of us are quite ready for that." She turned and made a broad motion with her arm. "A's'kahn'a, would you care to lead the way?"

The chief diplomat stepped forward. "Come, I would like to take you for a walk. Let us get away from these dreary halls."

Picard looked about at what was being called dreary, but quickly smiled in agreement. They left through the tall and graciously arched entrance doors. Outside, on either side of the great causeway, a park glowed in the purple light of the setting sun.

The rest of the Kronatina stepped down from their pedestals and quickly divided themselves up among the members of the Away Team.

Riker, talking with S's'haht'a asked, "Okay, I can understand the tour of the ship and that you have a personal fascination with weapons, but why did you want me to take the Enterprise out of orbit?"

The mufunga'na bent over slightly so that her carapace was at eye level with Riker's image. "Our most advanced interstellar ships achieve barely warp two-point-three; I wished to see what it was like to go the nine-point-five your crew member spoke about." Standing back up, she waved a paw. "Now, it will not be."

"Have you done much interplanetary travel?"

"Yes! Of course. Besides being diplomat, I am an Admiral in our space fleet, curently in command of a new supply ship. However, my ship is small as compared to the Enterprise. I do have a small yacht on board for my personal use, which is the best in its class but is nothing as compared to the speed of your Enterprise. On the other hand, I have superb maneuverability and can practically make right angle turns at full speed. I'ts just that I wanted more. What does the universe look like at warp nine?" Her voice panted out the last few words, her mount tiring from the long speech.

Riker smiled his most engaging smile. "It sounds like you have quite a hyped-up space yacht. Tell you what. You take me for a ride on yours and I'll take you for a ride on mine."

S's'haht'a's feathers stood out in anticipation.

Bundawba, was talking via his personal communicator with Linguistics. "Mike? I'm here with P'rrrdtl'a. She's agreed to return with me and help you guys out with translating. You not only get a lesson in species references, but it seems there's a whole secondary language to feather twitches."

"I look forward to meeting her."

"As soon as we all get sorted out here, I'm going to bring her up." He turned to P'rrdtl'a. "Or do I refer to you in the plural?" He looked from the face of the furred creature to the cool eyes of the Kronatt.

The reedy voice answered, "In the case of doing the translation work, you mention only the singular, since it is only I who can do it. However, in mentioning transport to your ship you would use the plural of two, with an accompanying subjunctive, to indicate mufunga'na and owner. If any of my companions were to be transported with me, then the plural of many, no subjunctive, would be used."

Bundawba nodded and said, "Uh-huh. I got a feeling I'm going to have to reprogram the translator with a whole big set of ifs and wherefores."

"Aw, gee," came the quip over the communicator, "You mean you're going to have to work for a change?"

"You think you'll get off easy? You not only get to figure out the ifs and wherefores but the body language as well. And you'll have to figure out which of the mufunga'na body movements to ignore and which of them mean something. Then there's the slighter feather twitches. But you know what?" He turned at smiled at the waiting alien, "P'rrrdtl'a is so darned pretty you won't mind."

"Has she got a friend?" asked the voice. "I mean, I don't want you to get lonely."

The young man looked nervously at the Kronatt, wondering if she understood human bantering. The shaggy humanoid mount leaned over with its mouth close to the insignia on Bundawba's blouse. The head was bent slightly sideways so the feathers would not overwhelm the engineer's face. One of her eyes glowed into his dark ones. "Mike? This is P'rrrdtl'a. I thank you for your interest. Does this mean we are engaged?" She stood up.

After a brief silence, the voice in the air said, "Uh, Lieutenant Bundawba? Did I just stick my foot in my mouth?"

"Relax Romeo, I think you just met your match. She's standing here, er, sitting here, laughing herself silly."

Doc D'Jang was holding court with three Kronatin doctors. "I can't express how relieved I am that you," she waved a hand at the mounted Kronatina, "are sentient. Not being able to hear S's'haht'a, I was sure she was either dead or that I was losing my touch."

"But you do not hear our mufunga'na, even being close now?"

"Not when they're under your control. After several hundred generations of breeding, they surrender completely to your domination. And, I must say, your ability to control their muscle reflexes even to the point of speech is incredible. But why speech at all since you're telepathic?" inquired D'Jang.

A'sehn'an answered. "We can only communicate directly with each other when touching. When we first gained authority over the mufunga'nas, we found freedom of movement but we had to develop ways of communicating over even minor distances. At first, the ancients developed hand signals and then, since mufunga'nas can make sounds, it was a short step to having them speak our thoughts. We, the Kronatina, cannot make sounds."

The vet patted a mufunga'na on its forearm, "You need a huge amount of fine motor control to get them to form words with their mouths and tongues. And when I think of the additional diaphragm control for sentence phrasing, well, it's unbelievable, that's all. No wonder we thought you looked like marionettes; that much controlled effort in the fine motor muscles has to affect the larger gross control muscles. They keep trying to balance themselves, right?"

"Yes. We have been fascinated by the dexterity you all display as you speak. We have not found a way to develop a thought translator yet, so we have to put up with dancing as we talk."

D'Jang's hearty laugh echoed throughout the hall.

TBC to Chapter 25

Reviews, please!