Fic: The Odyssey, xviii. orion
Warning: Cruelty to animals.
--
They met the tlhIngan, one named Orvun
whose shack was filled with animals of all species
but unlike Cirqce, whose people were health-firm
these were hurt, insane, damaged, diseased
either mistreated and abused by warbird soldiers
who thought warriguls were things and not feeling beings
or tormented by harsh experimentation
of the Imperial Science Hall of Great tlhInganese
many were strays who came when they wanted
knowing this place to provide some safety
many were brought in by friends, strangers, neighbors
who might find one lying still on the streets.
The smell was indescribable, a slight lingering mix of
feces, urine, blood, and moldering food
Orvun was constantly scavenging for resources
to take care of his growing family brood
The captain and doctor offered to beam down
med supplies, boxes of replicator rounds
but Orvun refused-- if he were caught with supplies
stamped “Starfleet Federation” they would impound
all his people and gas them or play target practice;
confiscate his belongings and send him for a round
of hard unending labor in the ubiquitous prisons
and it would not be prison that would break him, but the sound
of his family fighting desperately from being found.
As it was, the authorities tolerated this amusing,
eccentric tlhIngan who didn’t do much harm
and sometimes would send them a beautiful pelt to
keep them appeased and look away, charmed.
“They don’t know I was once tlhIngan HoD
on my way to be director of their science program
I once believed that our kind was superior--
that it was our right destiny to expand
that we held the truth to all other species--
I’d forgotten these other species include friends.
I have always grown up with warriguls, sargh, vlghro’
I know their expressions, personalities, scents;
I have been with some from birth to the moment of death.”
He looked away from them.
“In order to complete youth tlhIngan war training,
they tell you to find an egg of bo’Degh.
Care for it, keep it warm until hatching;
feed it milk mixed with worms, seeds and old bread.
On the day that it spreads its wings to start flying,
break its wings and its beak, tear the eyes from its head.
Bring the body, still living, to HoD and be rewarded--
your first stripe for completing what you started.
"I was ready and eager to kill alien species,
believing that they had no right to live.
I never thought the right was not extended
to other Qo’NoSians who are blameless,
so I left-- and leaving was not easy.
I was imprisoned, tortured, humiliated and arraigned,
but after the ordeal I managed to get out
and build this place to live out my days.
The time goes by caring for all of my people;
this empire has even less space for those deemed
outside its circle of life-worthy species,
but we get by. That is life in the main:
do not live on your knees.”
--
--
They met the tlhIngan, one named Orvun
whose shack was filled with animals of all species
but unlike Cirqce, whose people were health-firm
these were hurt, insane, damaged, diseased
either mistreated and abused by warbird soldiers
who thought warriguls were things and not feeling beings
or tormented by harsh experimentation
of the Imperial Science Hall of Great tlhInganese
many were strays who came when they wanted
knowing this place to provide some safety
many were brought in by friends, strangers, neighbors
who might find one lying still on the streets.
The smell was indescribable, a slight lingering mix of
feces, urine, blood, and moldering food
Orvun was constantly scavenging for resources
to take care of his growing family brood
The captain and doctor offered to beam down
med supplies, boxes of replicator rounds
but Orvun refused-- if he were caught with supplies
stamped “Starfleet Federation” they would impound
all his people and gas them or play target practice;
confiscate his belongings and send him for a round
of hard unending labor in the ubiquitous prisons
and it would not be prison that would break him, but the sound
of his family fighting desperately from being found.
As it was, the authorities tolerated this amusing,
eccentric tlhIngan who didn’t do much harm
and sometimes would send them a beautiful pelt to
keep them appeased and look away, charmed.
“They don’t know I was once tlhIngan HoD
on my way to be director of their science program
I once believed that our kind was superior--
that it was our right destiny to expand
that we held the truth to all other species--
I’d forgotten these other species include friends.
I have always grown up with warriguls, sargh, vlghro’
I know their expressions, personalities, scents;
I have been with some from birth to the moment of death.”
He looked away from them.
“In order to complete youth tlhIngan war training,
they tell you to find an egg of bo’Degh.
Care for it, keep it warm until hatching;
feed it milk mixed with worms, seeds and old bread.
On the day that it spreads its wings to start flying,
break its wings and its beak, tear the eyes from its head.
Bring the body, still living, to HoD and be rewarded--
your first stripe for completing what you started.
"I was ready and eager to kill alien species,
believing that they had no right to live.
I never thought the right was not extended
to other Qo’NoSians who are blameless,
so I left-- and leaving was not easy.
I was imprisoned, tortured, humiliated and arraigned,
but after the ordeal I managed to get out
and build this place to live out my days.
The time goes by caring for all of my people;
this empire has even less space for those deemed
outside its circle of life-worthy species,
but we get by. That is life in the main:
do not live on your knees.”
--