Editing Lo'ren's Story (section)

==Starfleet has Arrived==

===Something Strange About to happpen===

Lo’ren was running in the dusty flat space between the houses. It wasn’t fit to be called a road, but it was the main thoroughfare in the camp and was loosely regarded as “Main Street”. It was a strange thing to be outside and not have to avoid the scowling Cardassians. There were a few brave Paghs who were out like Lo’ren, though most were more cautious than she.

Lo’ren flitted about in a perfect imitation of her mother’s nickname for her – Little Bird. Occasionally, another child would come up and they would play for a few minutes before the child’s parents would come and drag them back inside, worried that somehow the Snakeskins would be back and take them all away. Set them to work again.

Lo’ren’s parents had no such qualms. Her father didn’t have much in the way of communications systems but he did know how to rig up a medical scanner to sound the alarm if there were any life signs other than Bajoran – he had input his own and Lo’ren’s life signs individually to eliminate them from the scanner.

Now Lo’ren was free to roam and explore in the way a child ought to be allowed. She was twirling in the middle of the open area when she felt something very strange that could only mean the Snakeskins were coming back. She stopped her playful spin and ran headlong into one of the few bushes able to conceal her properly and watched. She could still feel the ozone feeling crawling on her skin.

Lo’ren blinked. She rubbed her eyes. She stared. This was no Snakeskinned Cardassian back to harass the Bajorans, but she didn’t know who it was.

===Lt. Larson===

Eric Larson looked around. ~Another dismal camp. Bleak and dusty – those Cardassians really did a number on this poor planet.~

He spotted Aresh down the way and nodded, keeping the silence required by their training. Eric would have felt better if they`d been allowed phaser rifles, but the big wigs didn`t want to scare the Bajoran people. The only reason Eric and his team had any kind of weapon was the anomalous readings of two Vulcans on the planet – and one of them was hazy at that.

He tapped into the comm system, “This is Lt. Larson, report in.” He heard the momentary chatter over the open comm as his team checked in – all reporting no activity. Just then he felt a tug at his pant leg. Lieutenant Eric Larson looked down into the quizzical eyes of a Bajoran child, but there was something odd about the slight figure staring up at him with large green eyes. ~Upswept eyebrows? On a Bajoran?~ He stared, taken aback by the exotic combination.

“Hello, who are you?” The child chirruped at him, both cautious and buoyant in her speech.

===Contact and Meeting===

Lo`ren watched for a couple of seconds. This “Lyoo-ten-ent Lar-son” sounded friendly enough. She exited her hiding spot and quietly came up beside him. He didn`t take any notice of her and so she tugged at his pant leg as she stared up at him. ~He looks like Father – but he doesn`t have ears like father.~

When he looked down at her she almost didn`t say anything, but then she realized that she had been the one to tug at his leg.

“Hello, who are you?” She kept her voice clear and happy, not letting him know how frightened she truly was.

Eric Larson knelt down next to Lo`ren and stared at her. Lo`ren started to squirm. Then he smiled and in awkward Bajoran said, “I`m Eric Larson. I`m from Starfleet. Can you take me to see your parents?”

Lo`ren looked at him, she had heard her father mention Starfleet once or twice in her life. She wasn`t sure if they were helpful or not but she figured Father would know what to do. She nodded and tugged his hand so that he would follow. Lo`ren took off running, but then remembered herself and waited for Eric Larson.

The man in the gold uniform got up and followed her, she set out again at a slower pace. She hadn`t even reached the Medic`s Hut – they lived behind it in a small two room house – when Father came out and looked at her quizzically. “Daughter? Who is now in the village?” At that moment Tarven of Vulcan saw the officer strolling up.

“Greetings Lieutenant, I am Doctor Tarven of Vulcan. May I assume your presence means the Cardassians have given up all claims to the Bajoran system?”