Paramount Global owns the Star Trek franchise. This is a piece of fan fiction based on Star Trek the Next Generation.
The rest of the story
Counselor Troi and Data were sitting at a table in Ten-Forward. They were reading through numerous Betazoid stories to find more information about the marriage of Ambassador HiTzola and Lady Corbon. The picture was lying on the table between them. Guinan walked over to the table unnoticed by either of them.
“May I get you something?”
Deanna drew a sharp breath as she clutched her chest. “Guinan, you scared the life out of me.”
“Sorry,” she smiled glancing at the table, seeing the picture. ‘Tell them’, raced through her thoughts.
“I am fine.” Deanna smiled, “Data?”
“Umm,” he moaned. Guinan reached over and picked the picture up. This action got Data’s attention; he looked up from his reading. She smiled. Data asked, “see someone you know?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact I do.”
“Please sit.” Deanna offered.
Guinan sat at the table with them. She studied the picture for a long time.
“Have you ever been to Erra, Counselor?”
“Erra no longer exists. They renamed the city 150 years ago to Tzola, in honor of the dead Ambassador. I have never been there.”
“When you go home, take a journey there. It is,” she smiled, “was a breath taking place. It is one of the few places in the cosmos that I have been that I never wanted to leave. Everything was perfect, the flowers, the smells, and even the water. We spent 4 years there in euphoria.”
“We?” Data asked.
‘Tell them’, that voice filled her mind, again. “Yes, we; Lady Corbon, Scheherezade, Lady Tula, and myself. The four of us lived in a house in Erra. We didn’t have a care, free spirits we were. We would go to bed every night listening to one of Scheherezade’s fabulous stories. She was full of them. We never heard the same story twice.”
“Who was Lady Corbon? The story about their marriage tells us about him. We are unable to find out anything about her.” Deanna asked.
“Lady Corbon was the freest of us all. Have you ever heard of an Loomderian?”
“I have read about them.” Data spoke. “They are always on the edge of where ever they are. You said Erra was a place of euphoria. Then she would have been the most euphoric. She would have drawn from the place all of the energy that was most abundant epitomizing it around her.”
“You have read well. That; however, is an understatement.”
“The story says that they were married for 5 years.”
“They were. They met on Sar. She was the Ambassador representing the Hun.”
“That is not logical. If she embodied the energy around her, wouldn’t she have been filled with woe and despair?”
“This war did lots of flip flopping during its 150 year stint. That is how the populations got so depleted. They would fight on Sar for a while, take a break, and the fight would break out on Hun. During the last 20 years of the war, the fighting was on Hun.”
“Is their marriage the reason the war stopped?” Deanna asked, “he gets all the credit for stopping it.”
“No, it wasn’t. To the Hun, she is the heroine. To the Beta’s, he is the hero.
Truth is they deserve equal credit no matter where the story is told. One couldn’t have done it without the other.”
“Was she allowed to marry Ambassador HiTzola?”
“Yes, she was but they were not allowed to have children.”
Deanna looked puzzled. “Why?”
“The odds of it being natural were not in their favor.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Loomderian’s don’t have their children. They are raised in what you would call an incubator. The mother and the father have their reproductive organs taken out after they marry and their offspring grow in a safe environment. They have people trained to breed the young.”
“Safe environment for whom?”
“The parents. Loomerian’s have a one in ten chance of having a normal child. They don’t stop anyone from marriage. They do prevent you from having natural births.”
Data analyzed, “if parents have an unnatural child, it can be destroyed without
the parents knowing.”
“Yes.”
“That seems so cruel.” Deanna frowned.
“Not cruel to the parents. They don’t have to go through the pain of losing a child when they don’t know about it.” Data spoke.
“The parents get to take home a normal child to raise as they see fit.”
“You seem to understand this well Data.”
“It is logical.”
“By normal are we talking about selective reproduction by weeding out inferior children?” Deanna asked.
“Define inferior?” Guinan wondered.
“Not intelligent mentally, physically handicapped, those types of disabilities.” Deanna spoke.
“No. I didn’t say perfect.”
“Ambassador HiTzola and Lady Corbon were expecting a child.” Data looked
tired, his statement was droll at best.
“Yes, she became pregnant. Soon after she found out her parents came to visit. She never told anyone about being pregnant. Four months into their stay, her parents could tell there was something different about her. She still wouldn’t tell them her secret. They got suspicious and began questioning HiTzola. After two weeks of constant torment, he gave in, not verbally, but telepathically. They used his own ability against him.”
“There goes the theory that he lost his telepathic abilities when she became pregnant.” Data analyzed.
“No, he begged the council to take his abilities way. They refused. After their refusal he retreated to the Ruins of Mada.”
“The only thing left of the Ruins is a couple columns. I have been there.”
Deanna added. “Time has weathered them away just as it has weathered the Tatala from Betazoid memory.”
“I remember reading about the Tatala. It was a period of time in Betazoid history where the planet almost died. It is recorded that it didn’t rain for 6 years.” Data added.
“That is true.”
“Ambassador HiTzola told the Loomderian’s that he and his wife were expecting a child. It drove him mad to think the child would be destroyed.” Data was staring at the floor.
“Not only the child but his beloved Corbon. The story of Romeo and Juliet pales in comparison to their story. Lady Corbon fought with her parents and the council. She knew in her heart that there wasn’t anything wrong with her baby. She lost the fight. The decision was made to take the baby before it could be born. I never will forget that day.” She stopped for a moment, “they fought with Corbon, she was kicking and screaming. They held her down on the bed and ripped the unborn child from her womb. Lady Corbon bled to death.”
“What about the baby?” Deanna asked.
“The baby was perfect. After they realized what they had done, it was too late to save Corbon. Sher took the child without argument and raised him as her own.”
“The moment the baby took its first breath, he took his last.” Data recalled from
the story, still staring at the floor.
“If Betazoid was struck with a drought, what happened to the Loomderian home world?” Deanna asked.
“Destroyed.” Data and Guinan said at the same time.
“They are scattered throughout the universe.” She added.
“Did the baby live?”
“Nobroc.”
Guinan and Deanna looked at Data in amazement. “Yes,” Guinan confirmed.
“Perhaps Counselor you would like to complete the story.” She handed the picture back to Data before getting up to go back to work.
Deanna let out a long sigh, “What a story?”
“I have found that the more powerful a story is, the truer it is.” Data remarked.
“One last question,” Deanna called after her, “why were you there for 4 years? They were married 5 years. Who takes 4 years away from their spouse? Especially when one is pregnant?”
“We don’t know when she got pregnant,” Guinan offered. “Especially since Loomderians weren’t allowed to have children naturally, I don’t know how long that would take.” She shrugged, “the stress of being an ambassador is unthinkable, to me.” She gave Data a sideways glance and he instantly knew what she meant.
Poetry & More 