The past two days had been long and uneventful. The Enterprise was originally heading towards the neutral zone to remind their testy neighbours they were watching but had since been told to turn around. Picard knew they had read his report and was desperate for news.

"Captain, you've a high priority, encrypted subspace call coming through?" Reported Data. Picard and Riker exchanged nervous glances as he sprang from his chair.

"Put it through to my ready room Commander." Data and Ensign Crusher, who was sitting at the helm, noted one another's curiosity. The bridge crew and other senior offices had known something was afoot the past few days, but whatever it was, was being kept a closely guarded secret by those in the know. The Enterprise was rife with speculation.

Picard pulled his uniform straight before sitting at his desk. "Computer, activate encrypted subspace channel. Voice authorisation - Picard epsilon 43,63,18,10."

"Voice Authorisation accepted. Opening subspace channel." The Starfleet emblem disappeared to reveal the face of Admiral Nechayev.

"Admiral, I hope this is a pleasure."

"Indeed Captain. Your report was, unexpected to say the least. We've spent an entire day discussing the ramifications but there are two many unknowns and unanswered questions."

"I appreciate that, it was as much a shock to us as it was for you. Tell me, what did you think of my recommendations?"

"Ultimately Captain, we agree with you and are happy with the majority of your recommendations."

"The majority. May I ask what you were unsure off?"

"Of course, we are willing to overlook the initial deception of the Ensign, due to the gravity of the disclosures, though it does leave us with the predicament of trust. Had she not been fully supported by you and your senior crew members – this discussion wouldn't even be taking place. Do you understand?"

"I do."

"This could make or break your career Jean-Luc – make no mistake about it. We are putting all our trust in you." Picard suddenly felt a little more uneasy with the gravity of the situation, though the overriding excitement to discover more pushed through.

"Understood Admiral. I have complete trust in my officers to complete this mission. We have also made it a point to get to know Ensign Tarya better since we found out. She seems very credible and, more importantly, has opened her mind up to allow Counsellor Troi in, it has taken a lot for her to trust us too."

"That is good to hear Jean-Luc."

"How do you want us to proceed Admiral."

"We take it Ensign Tarya is able to gain access to her world and enable you to meet a delegation."

"She can."

"If possible, we would like you to go planet side too." He thought for a moment.

"I don't think that should be an issue, providing our first meeting goes according to plan. If they are as friendly and welcoming as Tarya suggests, I don't see why I can't ask for a small group of officers to go planet side for a few days."

"Good, see that it happens Jean-Luc. Whilst we are looking forward to the opportunities this may lead to in the future, we cannot let our guard down. It's imperative we are aware their intentions – if they have any, which I'm not suggesting they do."

"And what are our intentions, Admiral?"

"Right now, we want to find out as much as we can about them, including any potential threats and possibilities for future trade. Is that clear? Any major anthropological discoveries take a back burner. We want to be able to build a relationship with this world, if you succeed, we will have time to do that later. Your initial task is to assess threat and possibilities."

"Affirmative Admiral, how classified is this?"

"We have agreed to highest level on all fronts – mainly due to the relationship proximity with Earth and the potential impact of equanime. Dr Crusher has said it's possibilities could potentially be limitless. If this were to be true, having one another as allies in the future will be imperative. We are aware all on your ship are going to realise this world exists. You must make it clear to your crew anything they see or hear of this mission is classified. I don't need to tell you that when it comes to more specific details, only use who you must."

"Of course admiral, the intention is to keep this mission and its main details to senior offices only."

"Very good Captain. I will be expecting your first report in four days' time. Do not exceed that time limit or we will assume something has gone wrong. You will also notice an increase in ship activity in the vicinity beyond that which you'd expect. This is intentional and simply for security purposes."

"Understood Admiral." She smiled, surprisingly warmly.

"Good luck Captain – Nechayev out." Jean-Luc leaned back in his chair and breathed a sigh of relief. He rubbed his hand over his head, noting how clammy it felt.

"Picard to Riker."

"Riker here sir."

"Come here." Riker raised his eyebrow at the tone of the Captain. Everyone on the bridge had noticed the uncharacteristic reply.

"Well at least he sounds happy." Riker shared as he left to enter the ready room. The bridge officers whispered speculation amongst themselves.

"We did it Will!"

"Yes" fist pumped Will.

"It, it almost feels too good to be true Will."

"Captain, until we discover otherwise, let's ride with it for once."

"Why not Number One, but let's not drop our guard entirely. Gather the senior officers, including Wesley Crusher and Tarya for a briefing. Fifteen minutes!"

"Aye sir, but why Wesley?"

"Innocence number one, according to Tarya, this society holds truth and trust as paramount, or it did, but they are less likely to distrust outsiders due to their recent struggles, whatever they may be. If we trust them to meet one of our youth, it may endear them more towards us and Tarya mentioned there is a very young man in their caucus. Of course, he's probably more than double our age, if not more. Does that make sense?"

"Sort of Captain."

"Well come on, I'm very keen to get going."

"Aye Sir!"

Picard stood at the head of the meeting room, watching his officers' file in. As Beverly and Deanna entered, he flashed them knowing smiles. They instantly knew he was pleased. Deanna could sense he was almost giddy.

Picard waited until everyone was seated, including Worf, Data, Geordi, and Wesley. He knew they were desperate to be put out of their misery.

"Thank you for attending at such short notice but a matter of great importance has come to light." He gestured for Tarya to step forward. "This is Ensign Tarya. She is a member of a species very closely linked to our own and their home shares an orbit with us." He paused to take in the stunned expressions.

"Captain," Data asked, "How is that possible? Having scanned all available databases…"

"Thank you, Data, I'm aware we have no record of such a planet. I will hand over to Tarya to elaborate further."

"Thank you, Captain." Tarya took centre stage and opened her star chart of their region." Geordi stood up and walked to touch the floating particles. As his hand ran through them, they floated around his touch before reforming into the 3D map.

"Sorry Captain… Tarya" He realised he'd just interrupted a meeting in flow out of an overriding sense of sheer curiosity.

"It's alright Geordi. Look, I appreciate this will come as a shock and you will all have many questions, but that is the point of what we are going to be doing. Please try and reign in your curiosity in the meantime, or at the very least until this meeting is over."

"Aye Sir," said Geordi as he returned to his seat, still transfixed on the map as Tarya continued.

"Please forgive the out-of-date chart, but it is the last one made before we shrouded our world. It's now slightly out of alignment with this dimension, only ever so slightly, just enough for it to phase out of view. If you are wondering how it doesn't throw of the balance of the galaxy - it's a tiny planet, the smallest in our system so it was easy to exchange our world with a few smaller asteroids on the same orbit to counteract any disruption it may course. We will reverse the process should we choose to realign. I'm not sure what else you wish me to say on that Captain."

"Thank you Ensign." He motioned for her to take a seat.

"Starfleet has commissioned us to work with Tarya and instigate a first contact with this world, or orb, as they call planets. You will each have a report to read after this meeting detailing what we know so far, which I'm afraid isn't much. Please note this mission is classified at the highest security level. Do not speak to anyone outside of this room, without expressed authorisation from myself or Commander Riker. The entire crew will be subject to secrecy about anything they see or hear during the duration of this mission. Please ensure you are up to date with your reading. By mid-afternoon we will be in the planet's vicinity and hopefully, Tarya will be able to contact her… colleagues and we will arrange a meeting which you will be in attendance. Tarya would you mind telling us a bit about your command structure, who you will be contacting and essentially, who we are likely to be meeting with. Is there anything we should know to do or not to do, such as any customs it would be good for us to respect?" She rose to stand next to the Captain.

"I can try, our world has very limited formality, it really doesn't have many laws either, we've only recently needed to implement any to counteract ones we had imposed upon us to ensure certain behaviours are no longer acceptable. If we do manage to send a small delegation down, Just don't hurt anyone, humanoid or animal, or pick any flowers and you'll be fine. If an accident does happen, don't worry too much, we've no drastic laws that will call for your head or see you imprisoned for longer than your natural life span." Several sniggers from around the room suggested they had recognised the sarcasm in her voice.

"The population in the South – whom you will be dealing with, is small, it's little over three and a half thousand people and everybody knows everyone else, with the exception of the odd child that has been born within the last few decades. To re-instate order, the population elected a caucus to help rebuild our societal structure. When I left on my travels, we had completed most of our tasks and were focusing on shoring our defences. I'm hoping nothing drastic has happened in the five years I've been off world, but you never know. That is why I will ask the Caucus to meet with you on board the Enterprise beforehand, to ensure it is safe for any party to go planet side." She looked to Captain Picard to see if he wanted anything else confirming, or whether she could finish.

"Is the Caucus big, who were the members when you left?"

"Technically I am a member, when I decided to leave they joked I could be their off orb ambassador – I don't think they actually expected me to follow through on that though… We also have Doone, he's a master brewer, basically a glorified landlord, Guss – honestly, the most equivalent human term I can use to describe what he does would be pirate, Vali and Shoo, they are very longstanding couple who basically enjoy dabbling in peoples lives and then you have Christoph, he's our equivalent of Wesley's age, possibly a bit older, but he has proven to be a very strong and courageous warrior. When I say we are just simple folk leading simple lives, I really do mean it. To be honest Captain, even a meeting to this level would be seen as incredibly official and they just wouldn't be used to it, it may make some of them feel a bit uncomfortable."

"I think we can come up with something that will make them feel more at home, maybe we can choose a location on the holodeck to accommodate a gathering." He nodded to Will declaring without words that it would be his job.

"That sounds perfect captain. Thank you." Confirmed Tarya.

"Are there any questions before I dismiss you to catch up on your reading?"

"Yes… Tarya, what did you do before you left your orb? You've mentioned several of the others occupations, I was just wondering if you had one?" She smiled at Geordi's inclusion of the word orb. It was something she had grown to admire about humans, the purposeful respect they tried to show one another.

"Oh.. I've dabbled in pretty much everything Lieutenant, though in sixty-three thousand years I've never been invited to cook for anyone or any event – just because I dabble doesn't necessarily mean I'm any good at everything."

"Last chance for anyone to say something?" Picard waited for a few moments. Deanna could tell Tarya was struggling with something, she was about to ask a leading question when Tarya stepped forward.

"There is one thing you should now a bit about if you do end up going down to the surface, even if you end up making small talk." Her demeanour had completely reverted to shy and the insecurity she was now trying to hide by avoiding eve contact with everyone was in stark contrast to earlier in the meeting. Everyone quietened with anticipation of her words.

"Our world is split into two completely different races. Those on the northern continent and those in the south. Unless anything goes horrendously wrong, which I very much hope it doesn't, and can't even see how it could, we will have nothing to do with the north. The north isn't even aware of off world species, and they never really bothered pursuing technology to any great length. Technically, contact with them would be in violation of the prime directive anyway, but I was the one who technically made first contact, so I don't think it applies in the same way…" she knew she had started waffling.

"Anyway, we hadn't had contact with the north for around eight thousand years – since the last war. About two hundred years ago a crazed general was sent south with a small army for what we later discovered, should have been scouting purposes, but he spied a different opportunity. They basically infiltrated our society and imprisoned a significant portion of our population. We then spent the best part of the two hundred years under his dictatorship and, for the most part, a servitude of sorts. Before this time our population was nearly eight thousand. It's now less than half of that. There's not a person left that didn't lose a loved one. It's what the caucus was created to help society rebuild from - the affects of that time and the subsequent revolution. It's not overly important, I'm mentioning it only to make you aware it may not be the best thing to try and get to know someone by asking about their family for example." The room was silent again.

"I happen to think that was an invaluable piece of information. Thank you, we can all be careful as to how we approach conversation with your people. Dismissed."