A Time to Be Born (Star Trek: The Next Generation
Chapter One
The gaunt woman, wearing a ragged shift and
shoes made of discarded insulation material,
knelt in the gully and ran her fingers through
the grimy soil. While the sun beat down
mercilessly, she searched until she found a
shriveled root, which she popped into her mouth
and chewed ravenously until it was gone. So
intent was she upon her search that she hardly
noticed the shuttlecraft that set down in a
cloud of blowing sand not fifty meters away.
Thrusters clicked off; then a hatch opened. Even
when three humanoids in flight suits emerged
from the craft and approached the old woman, she
continued her desperate search for food.
All of this was observed by a nondescript male
of her species who sat on a bench about twenty
meters away. He, too, wore rags and makeshift
shoes, but he was not hungry, at least not for
food. Behind him stood a row of deserted
buildings that had once been stores, homes, and
places of recreation and worship. Most of these
dusty structures were collapsed or falling
apart, and their hinges creaked in the constant
wind. A ghost town, this place would have been
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