From: Anton_Sanderfoot@qms1.life.uiuc.edu (Anton Sanderfoot)
Subject: STORY: Wisdom of the Ancients 4
Followup-To: alt.startrek.creative
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 20:45:19 GMT

__________________________________
Wisdom of the Ancients, part 4:

Open in the Kitchen. Qiti is preparing breakfast, Guinan is seated, Riker
and Worf are standing.

Guinan: I don't understand, why would you want to surrender to them? Surely
they'll kill you!

Qiti: Oh, most certainly! But, they are coming for me. Once they have me,
they'll leave.

Riker: And you just expect me to drop you off so you can commit suicide!

Qiti: You really have no choice. There are 15 civilized worlds between here
and ZetaOmega, over 11 million beings. Each will be destroyed until they
get here.

Guinan: I thought there were 16 civilized planets?

Riker: There were. We just received word that a second planet has been hit,
Balthazar 6.

Guinan: [to Qiti] How did you know?

Qiti: [looking down] I felt them die... Many more will meet the same fate,
if you don't deliver me to the Zenrabi.

Riker: So this menace has a name, do they have a story?

Qiti: Yes, I suppose they do. But, I don't talk well on an empty stomach.

Qiti carries a plate over to the table, and begins to eat breakfast.

Qiti: Please, join me. You must be hungry. Come, sit down, and I'll tell
you a story.

Guinan sits down and begins to eat, Riker and Worf eventually join them.

Qiti: The story begins while your Earth was still cooling. My people lived
in a quiet system near the edge of our galaxy. We had lived in peace for
eons, and had begun to search the systems around us. We came across many
other peoples, some contacts were pleasant, others deadly. It was a
misspoken word with an extremely xenophobic group that would spell the
ultimate doom of my people. These people, the Zenrabi, fell upon my system,
they destroyed every planet, every soul that remained.

Guinan: What did you say to these people?

Qiti: I honestly don't remember. Fortunately, we had warning of their
attack, and our people had fled across the galaxy in the first exodus. The
first of many. The Zenrabi were not content to simply destroy our worlds,
they would only be satisfied with the extinction of our entire race.
[pause] After fleeing from our 13th home world, it was decided that we
should fight back. War and battle was foreign to my people, and the thought
of fighting was abhorrent to them. But, our leader, Malqi, was adamant in
the desire to fight. It was decided that the next generation would be bred
for battle...

Riker: Bred? I don't understand.

Qiti: I am from an extremely long lived people, reproduction to sustain the
race was unnecessary. Through genetics and training, a generation of
warriors was created. A first strike was planned on the Zenrabi home world.
Their fleet had temporarily been berthed there for some celebration.

Worf: An excellent opportunity. Strike when your enemy is weakest.

Qiti: Precisely. The battle went extremely well...too well. The entire
fleet, the entire planet, and all upon it were destroyed. We had gone too
far.... The agreed plan had been to simply persuade the Zenrabi to abandon
their chase, instead, we were fooled into committing genocide.

Worf: Such destruction is dishonorable, there is no need for such
destruction when defeating an enemy.

Qiti: There is never a need for such destruction! Malqi was removed as a
leader, due to his deceit. But, Malqi, and those loyal to him, felt that
our people were truly built for war. In his delusion he felt we could
conquer the entire universe. A civil war resulted. It was while we were
slaughtering our own that we discovered the presumed genocide of the
Zenrabi was premature. A portion of their fleet remained. Divided and
unprepared, our people were destroyed. In the end, only eight of my people
survived. Realizing their fate, the remaining 8 dispersed across the
universe.

Riker: How long ago did this battle occur?

Qiti: Around 9500 years ago. While the civilization of your people was just
beginning to live, my civilization was dying.

Guinan: Yet, your people survived. Otherwise, how would you be here to tell
the story.

Qiti: No, my people did not survive. My people are extinct. I am one of the
8 survivors...

Riker: No humanoid could possibly live that long!

Qiti: Of course not, but then, I'm not as human as I appear.

Worf: So, you take on human form to deceive us.

Qiti: Not to deceive you. I am,...was, hiding among you. It would be
difficult to hide among humans were I to have remained in my natural form.
One of the survivors was a physician, and each of us were surgically
altered to resemble the species in which we hid. You see, we knew the
Zenrabi would continue to pursue us, until all were dead.

Riker: So, how can you be sure that when they take you, they will leave us
alone?

Qiti: The Zenrabi are mere ghosts of themselves. They have mindlessly
pursued us for so long, that they no longer have a life of their own. Once
all of my people are gone, they will have no reason to continue, and they
can die. They know this as well as I do, I have felt their wish to die.
They have already found the other seven survivors. I am the last of my
people. Take me to them and no others must die.

Riker: Except for you and the Zenrabi...

Qiti: Together, we are the final specimens of two extinct races. In many
ways, we are already dead.

The hailing sound of Rikers communicator sounds as the Gregarious contacts
him.

Rild: [vo] Gregarious to Riker.

Riker: [hitting pin] Go ahead.

Rild: [vo] This Lt. Rild, we have arrived in orbit.

Riker: [looking intently at Qiti, then to Guinan] Four to beam up...

END PART FOUR