Saratoga (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
Prologue
OLD FRIENDS, THOUGHT Pernon Obahr. You come to
know them as you know yourself, to love them, to
rely on them. You allow yourself to believe they
will never let you down.
And yet, in the course of time, even the oldest
friend may betray you. It was a fact of life, he
mused - not only on Bajor, but on any world in
the great, star-spanning cosmos.
Pernon stood on the highest balcony of the
highest building in Karvis and followed the
curve of the glistening river with his gaze. On
its near bank, a few kilometers north of the
city, a half-dozen large, grey water pumps
worked with the power and perserverance of
prehistoric animals.
It was a good thing, too. Thanks to the pumps,
some thirty percent of the river's volume was
redirected through a channel that bisected the
city. At the other end of the channel, the river
water fanned out along a steep incline,
eventually spilling into the sea.
Were the pumps not there, the city would have
been washed away long ago. If that had happened,
Pernon and his family would have been left
penniless and destitute, like a great many other
Bajorans at the time. Hence, his abiding love
for the machines, a love shared in full by his
fellow Karvi ... read full excerpt from: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #18: Saratoga ebook
