Title: Constellations Author: Lorelei Contact: bint@iname.com Series: VOY Part: NEW 1/1 Rating: G Codes: P, T, 7 Date: 20 January 2000 Author's website: http://www.speakeasy.org/~dmm/fanfiction.html Summary: Voyager's visit to an apparently uninhabited planet has a significant effect on the local residents. Disclaimer: Paramount owns the names, I own the actions. Author's note: I actually wrote this the day before "Blink of an Eye" aired, so any similarities are purely coincidental. Constellations by Lorelei January 2000 The people hid in the grass and trees near the edge of the meadow, watching the sudden flurry of activity near their home. Three immense silver boxes had descended from the clear, sunny sky, and tall beings with black clothing trimmed in red and blue and gold had come scurrying out of the boxes to hold their faces and hands to the sunshine. The tall beings were not loud, nor particularly frightening, just curious and cheerful. They held in their hands small grey objects covered in twinkly lights, and seemed pleased with what the lights told them. They tapped their chests and said "Voyager" over and over. It was a word they liked to say. Maybe that was what they were called. The tiny inhabitants of the planet were enthralled. On this isolated world, they were unaccustomed to visitors, especially such large visitors, and fear warred with curiosity as they hesitated at the edge of the woods. Then the Wise Ones told everyone to stay hidden, and the people reluctantly crept back into the undergrowth. The Wise Ones themselves would venture out at nightfall, which was fast approaching, and learn more about the Voyagers who had descended from the sky. *** The campfires crackled pleasantly, sending showers of orange sparks into the night sky. The Voyager crew was arrayed around the meadow, alternately eating, talking, and romping like children. This was Voyager's first shore leave in months, and they couldn't believe their luck in finding such a lush, green, uninhabited planet. Their tricorders had picked up signs of small animals in the woods, but they did not appear to be either sentient or hostile. The night was warm and breezy, a perfect night for friendship and introspection and revelation. Harry was playing his clarinet. Tom and B'Elanna were lying in the grass, stargazing. "What do you see?" he asked her. "I see… a whale, look, over there, with the spout? And over this way is some kind of reptile, except with a really bushy tail." "There's a shuttlecraft right above us - those three stars make the bottom, see? I'm not sure what those six stars in the middle are - maybe they're the passengers." "Careful, Tom; your shuttle is headed right for my whale!" They laughed, and did not notice the tiny beings creeping near their camp, through the long grass. They also did not hear Seven approach. Tom's first warning that she was there was a sudden blocking of his view of the sky. He blushed as he realized exactly *what* was blocking his view, and he stood up quickly, dusting grass from his uniform. B'Elanna propped herself up on her elbows and watched, amused. Seven stared at the sky and then looked at Tom, puzzled. "I do not see a shuttlecraft," she said. Tom grinned. "Constellations, Seven. The stars make shapes in the sky. We were just trying to find some." "The placement of stellar bodies is unrelated to the shapes of shuttlecraft or other items," Seven informed him. "From another planet, their apparent positions would be entirely different." He shook his head and laughed. "We realize that. It's just a custom that started in the days when sentient beings thought the sky belonged to the planet. Ancient Terrans found all sorts of animals and people outlined by stars, and linked stories to them. Even whole religions were connected to constellations and stars. Gods rewarded people and animals by placing them in the sky." Seven gazed at the sky again. "Show me one." Tom stood next to her and pointed carefully out the edges of the shuttlecraft. "See, the stars mark the vertices of the outline," he explained, tracing the shuttle in the air. "I see only a collection of randomly placed stars. The Borg identified the bright one above us as Tarken-311." "That, Seven, is the shuttle's thruster!" Tom grinned as Seven gave him a dubious look. B'Elanna and Harry laughed, and Seven's face softened and she smiled at her own pragmatism. The captain and Chakotay approached from the darkness, looking up at the sky. "What are we looking at?" asked Janeway with a smile at her crew. The six tiny Wise Ones watched intently. *** They emerged from their hiding places among the grass and trees, bidding silent farewell to the three bright boxes ascending into the starry sky. The beings blinked at one another and at the flattened places in the meadow grass where the Voyagers had played. Nothing like this had ever happened before. The gods had come to the ground. Remarkable. The Wise Ones returned from the meadow and climbed onto the branches of a low bush, in order to get a clearer look at the night sky. Before tonight, they had rarely bothered to look at the sky. Their concern was with things of the ground, where the grass was soft and food was plentiful. The sky was vast and unknowable, and struck fear into their hearts. But now they understood more. The sky was where the gods lived. The Wise Ones had learned much tonight, and wished to think about what they had learned before trying to share it with the others. The Voyagers had been pointing at things, tracing outlines in the air with their long, powerful hands. The Wise Ones had not understood; the gods worked so hard to draw shapes in the air, and yet the shapes remained invisible. But then the Wise Ones had looked beyond the hands of the gods and realized that the Voyagers were casting their drawings upon the sky. They said words and moved their powerful hands, and their messages were recorded in the very stars. And now the Wise Ones would reread those messages and attempt to understand what the gods were trying to tell them. The tall one with the blue eyes had said "shuttlecraft" and traced a shape like the box in which they had arrived. The Wise Ones looked and looked at the sky and they thought they could see where the Voyager with the blue eyes had drawn the shuttlecraft. And the gravelly-voiced female had said "dog" and traced a shape with four legs and a tail. The Wise Ones looked and looked and they thought they could see where the four-legged animal cavorted among the stars, waving its long, sparkly tail. The dog looked down at them and was cheerful and carefree, and smiles crossed the Wise Ones' faces. The Wise Ones gazed at the sky some more and found where the dark-skinned Voyager had drawn a Vulcan, a female figure more beautiful than the Voyagers themselves. Her eyes were large and bright, and her sparkling cloak trailed behind her. The Voyager drew her with a loving hand, and the Wise Ones knew her to be serene and loyal. And they gazed at the sky some more and found where the Voyager with the painted face had drawn a man with a spear and named it the Angry Warrior. The Wise Ones looked at the Angry Warrior and felt his strength, and he was facing the dog while wielding his spear and the Wise Ones hoped he was not angry with the sweet dog. They studied the sky some more and thought they could see where the dark Voyager with the ridged face had drawn a flat vessel traveling across shimmering waters. The Barge of the Dead, the Voyager had said with reverence and fear. The Wise Ones revered and feared it also. And the Wise Ones studied the sky some more and thought they could see where the black-eyed Voyager had drawn his instrument of music, a clarinet, two parallel lines of stars. The Wise Ones could hear the starry notes of music and felt them down their spines and in their fingertips, as the bright, somber music played the Barge of the Dead to its destination. And the Wise Ones studied on, and thought they could see where the spotted Voyager had drawn a lovely little woman, a gentle fairy called Kes who was kind and brave. The spotted Voyager seemed sad to have lost her, and happy to have found her again, there in the sky. The Wise Ones were sad and happy along with him. And the littlest Voyager had drawn in the sky a strange creature of the water, and she had called him Flotter, and she said Flotter and Kes would be the best of friends, there in the sky. The Wise Ones were cheered because the good, gentle Kes had a friend nearby. The eyes of the six Wise Ones continued on across the sky and identified all of the drawings left there by the Voyagers. From horizon to horizon, the sky shimmered with enigmatic images. Then the Wise Ones wondered about the tall Voyager with the stars on her skin. She had not drawn anything in the sky, because she herself was a constellation, made of stars and silver. Seven, the Voyagers called her. Seven, the constellation that came to the ground. She had pointed directly to stars and named them. Lanseer, Tarken-311, Bellatrix, and on and on. The names were lovely and mysterious, and the Wise Ones memorized them and wondered about gods so powerful that they even gave names to stars. Finally assured that they had remembered everything, the chief Wise One looked down at their people, whose hopeful faces shone in the starlight. "We have received a rare gift," the Wise One announced. "The gods have come among us, and they have left us messages in the sky. We do not yet understand the messages, but they are important to us because they are important to the Voyagers. We will dedicate our lives to interpreting these messages. Our society will embark on a new era devoted to the teachings of the gods." The people cheered and danced, and though they looked up at the sky the messages were still invisible to them. The Wise Ones would have to explain how to find them, and then the people could also begin their trek towards enlightenment as they studied the meanings of those magical drawings in the stars. Above them, as the constellations slowly advanced towards the horizon, a single bright star sped across the sky and vanished. *** "And the gods came to the ground to bring a message, and that message was one of discovery and enlightenment, and the people knew that they had lived too long in safety and solitude. The six Wise Ones made them welcome, and gave them shelter and food, and the gods were grateful. You are ready, they said, to learn of things beyond your world. "And the goddess Seven filled the night-black sky with stars, and named them, and told the Wise Ones, Everything knowable is contained within these stars. The Wise Ones knelt before her and were awed by her power, and the gods smiled and returned to the sky in their shuttlecraft, which remained in the stars to guide the people. And after many years, the goddess Seven was so pleased with the people's progress that she reached down and gently took the Wise Ones in her hand, and placed them in the shuttlecraft so they could watch and guide their people, too." First Book of Madera, Canto III, The Song of Seven --- Feedback, give me feedback! Lorelei - bint@iname.com