by David
and Lieutenant Commander Troi." He looked
at Troi appreciatively, then turned
to Jenny de Luz. "Ensign, I'm afraid
I don't know you."
Jenny's lips felt frozen, her mouth
dry. The man's natural power of command
stunned her.
"De Luz, sir. Ensign Jenny de
Luz."
Sejanus smiled broadly at her, the
commander giving way to the charming aristocrat. "And
you wear the uniform of Starfleet Security,
Jenny."
Picard interrupted. "One of my more
promising young officers, Captain."
Sejanus' glance lingered on Jenny for jus t a
second longer, and then he turned to Picard.
"And now allow me to introduce my officers."
His pride in them struck Jenny as almost
paternal.
As Sejanus named them, the officers stepped
forward, moving past the ranks of
legionnaires. One by one, they marched toward
Picard, their armor jangling, and halted facing
the captain of the Enterprise. As he stamped
to a halt, each Magna Roman officer
saluted Picard by slapping his right fist to his
chest and then shooting his hand outward, hand open,
palm down, fingers stiff.
They were all male, and they were all
physically impressive specimens. Each
one's face betrayed a powerful, distinct
personality. The ancient Roman statuary
Jenny had seen in museums on her homeworld
of Meramar had that characteristic. Until now, she
had thought it simply the artistic style of those
times. Now she thought My ancestors must have
had that same sort of strength and presence.
She glanced over at Picard and saw a
pleased smile on his face. He admires
them too.
Their names, however, were not so distinctive. There
was a plethora of Gaiuses and Juliuses and
Luciuses. And now I understand, Jenny
thought, why the Romans so often used
the first and middle names or the first and last names
when addressing each other. There's no other way
to avoid confusing one Roman with another! And
then she looked again at Sejanus. But not
him. You'd never address him as "Lucius"
anyway, but even if you did, there'd be no question
whom you meant. Even among these strong-willed
men accustomed to command, he stands out. He'd stand
out anywhere.
She noticed Picard responding with a
grave nod to each salute, and a slight frown
of concentration, as if intent on remembering each
name and the face that went with it.
When the introductions were finished at last,
Sejanus said, "And now, if you'll follow
me, Captain?"
Sejanus led the way down a long
corridor, with Picard at his side, the two
captains conversing in low tones as they went.
Behind them, the officers from the Enterprise and the
Centurion mingled, following their captains.
Jenny walked by herself, close behind Picard,
on the alert without being consciously aware of it.
The corridor decorations were quite unusual
for a starship various sculptures of carved
stone along the walls. Some looked old enough
to be from ancient Rome itself, while others were of
various centuries, up to modern times.
Geordi La Forge, who had been walking
just behind Jenny, stepped forward to her side.
"Nice statues," he commented.
She nodded. "V. Some of the newer ones,
especially, look to be--"
"Bugged," Geordi said, leaning closer.
Jenny raised her eyebrows.
"Sensors right inside of them," Geordi
said, lightly touching the VISOR that covered his
eyes. Jenny didn't know exactly how the
instrument worked, but she did know that it enabled the
chief engineer to see across the
electromagnetic spectrum far beyond the
range of visible light.
Jenny nodded her approval. "Very clever."
"And there's a lot of activity going on
behind--"
"The bulkheads. I know. I can hear them.
Efficient, organized--real Romans! I
like that."
The parade of officers came to a large set
of double doors, which opened to let them
pass.
Jenny had to suppress a gasp as they
entered. The room was as large as any aboard the
Enterprise, surprising considering the
Centurion's much smaller size. It was
filled with nine tables, at eight of which were seated
nine Magna Romans in full military
regalia.
Captain Picard was also surprised.
Nine times nine, he thought, remembering from
the dim days of his schooling in France that the
ancient Romans had considered nine to be the
perfect number of dinner guests. How the young
Jean-Luc had detested the dictatorial
Monsieur du Plessis and his Latin and
history classes! But now it was all coming in
handy for the adult Jean-Luc.
At the center of the room was a
horseshoe-shaped table of hard dark wood
inlaid with abstract designs in gold and
silver and precious stones. The floor was a
mosaic depicting a Roman legion of old
slaughtering an army of poorly armed
dark-skinned warriors. The walls of the large
banqueting hall contained niches for
reproductions of ancient art--Greek
statues alternating with Roman portrait
busts.
The open end of the center table faced wide
floor-to-ceiling windows showing the starfield
and the curving horizon of Tenara as the
planet's surface rolled constantly away
beneath them. It was more beautiful than any of the
manmade art inside the room, but Picard's
attention was drawn more to the heavy curtains on
either side of the window. They were a deep
purple, and their significance, in this
neo-Magna Roman setting struck him
forcefully, for Monsieur du Plessis had also
impressed upon him strongly that purple was a
color reserved solely for the emperors of
Rome.
The two captains took seats side
by side at the head of the table, Picard on the
right, the place of honor. Riker sat to his
captain's right, on Riker's right was
Counselor Deanna Troi, and to her right,
at the end of one arm of the horseshoe, was
Marcus Julius Volcinius--a dark,
slender, young officer who had been
introduced as a cousin of Sejanus.
Opposite Marcus Volcinius, at the
end of the other arm, was Data, and then Geordi
La Forge and Jenny de Luz. Finally, between
Jenny and Captain Sejanus, was Gaius
Aldus, whom they had seen earlier on the
viewscreen on the Enterprise bridge.
Almost immediately, the first course was set before them
--an appetizer of minuscule bits of meat
sitting in a clear golden broth.
Jenny stared at the small bowls, puzzled
as much by the tiny pieces of meat as by the odd
smell of the broth.
Sejanus smiled. "Pickled hummingbird
tongues. And the broth," he explained, "is
what we call liquamen, one of our most
ancient sauces, and still very popular."
"Suppose I could exchange it for a
salad?" Geordi whispered to Jenny.
"This is quite ... astonishing, Captain,"
Picard said, exchanging a quick glance with
Riker. "None of us has ever encountered anything
quite like it. I'm most eager to begin."
Sejanus smiled. "We don't stand on
ceremony, Captain, unlike our
ancestors. Please."
Picard smiled in return, picked up the
silver spoon beside the bowl, and filled his mouth
with pickled hummingbird tongues and liquamen.
He could scarcely taste the meat. It was
overwhelmed by the sauce, which tasted salty,
fishy, and cheesy all at once.
He forced a still-wider smile. "Superb!"
Sejanus grinned. "For non-Romans,
it's something of an acquired taste! Here's how
we do it." Eschewing his own spoon, he
picked the bowl up with both hands and drained it in
one long swallow. The other Magna Romans
followed suit.
Picard took a deep breath and copied
Sejanus.
Encouraged and relieved, his crew members
did the same. Jenny swallowed the appetizer
--and was surprised to find the dish remarkably
similar to one of her homeworld's own
delicacies.
She turned and spoke to Gaius Aldus,
on her right, "This is wonderful!"
Gaius' serious face relaxed. "Thank
you, Ensign. Non-Romans don't
always react that way." He indicated
Geordi, on Jenny's left, whose face had
taken on a distinctly greenish pallor.
Jenny smothered a laugh as servitors
appeared to take away the empty bowls and bring
the next course. To her considerable surprise,
they were all scantily clad young women.
"Not quite ... standard Starfleet uniform, is
it?" she asked Gaius.
The Magna Roman flushed slightly.
"These aren't members of Starfleet. They're
civilian employees, hired directly by the
government of Magna Roma to work aboard our
ships. Most of them are descendants of the
slave class from imperial days." He shook
his head. "I'm afraid the old social
divisions still exist, even though they are no
longer official. Seventy years is not
sufficient to completely change a society that
was based on slavery for thousands of years."
Jenny grimaced in distaste, and Gaius
added quickly, "But we are trying."
"Yes. And I can see that it must be
difficult. But you're still holding on to some
things. Your uniform, for example."
"Strictly ceremonial, Ensign. And this"
--Gaius slapped his metal breastplate
proudly--"has nothing to do with slavery. This
uniform is the part of our heritage we have a right
to be proud of."
Jenny chewed that over thoughtfully. Clearly
there was something to be said for the Roman attitude
--the ship had fought brilliantly against great
odds, and its captain seemed to her the epitome
of strong leadership. Much of their attitude was
surely the nature of the individuals
involved. But she wondered if some of it--perhaps
a great part of it--was in fact an element of
Magna Roma's remarkable heritage.
Gaius said, "Ensign ... or may I
call you Jenny?"
"Oh, yes. Please do."
Gaius nodded, smiling. "In ancient
times, we learned from the Graeci--the
Greeks, you would say--to admire heroes and
personal honor and all the other warrior
virtues. We also learned from them to value
learning itself, for its own sake, even though we
lack their gift for theory. And we absorbed
their admiration of health and physical
beauty." He nodded toward the archway where the
young women had exited.
Through it came four muscular young men wearing
simple tunics and carrying at shoulder height
a huge metal platter upon which lay a roasted
pig swimming in gravy. Steam rose from the
carcass.
"We, however, taught the Graeci about
food," Gaius Aldus added with a chuckle.
The young men placed the platter on the tiled
floor, where it covered up much of the battle
scene. One of them produced a long knife from
somewhere and bent down.
Sejanus jumped to his feet. "Look
at this, Captain Picard!" He was grinning in
anticipated delig ht.
Jenny watched as the young man inserted the
knife between the pig's shoulders, at the base of
its neck, pushed it a short distance into the
body, and then began to draw the knife downward
toward the rump. She realized that the ribs must
already have been severed to make it possible for him
to do this with such ease. When he had completed his
cut, he drew out the knife, and then he and his
three companions gripped the edges of the cut with
both hands and, at a nod from the one who had used
the knife, pulled quickly and powerfully,
spreading the pig's body open.
Exposed within were innumerable small, motionless
birds floating in the gravy.
Sejanus had been watching Picard for his
reaction.
"Thrushes!" the Roman said happily.
"Live thrushes! See?" He realized
something was wrong and turned back to the dead pig.
"What ...?"
"I'm afraid the birds have drowned in the
sauce, sir," one of the young servitors said
nervously.
Sejanus' jaw tightened. "Who's
responsible for this?" He hissed the words between
clenched teeth. The four young men turned pale
and began to back away.
Gaius Aldus, also standing, reached out quickly
and placed his hand on his captain's arm.
"Didn't the ancients say, Lucius
Aelius, that a fowl killed by drowning in wine
has a particularly fine flavor?"
The guests from the Enterprise reacted with
horror to this, but it seemed to soothe
Sejanus. He smiled at his aide. "Right
as always, Gaius." The four young servitors
took the opportunity to scuttle out of the
room. Sejanus ignored them and turned
to Picard. "This man, Captain," he said,
indicating Gaius Aldus, "is a
treasure. He is my friend as well as my
aide and first officer. He has served my
family well and faithfully all of his life.
He has been by my side since we were both
children, guarding my honor as competently as he
guards my life. He is Magister
Navis--master of my ship, navigator,
guide. This is very much a Magna Roman
tradition
."
"But the term is yet another parallel between
your world and Earth, Captain Sejanus,"
Picard said as the company relaxed and sat down
once again. The young women advanced and began
carving the roast pig. "I believe the
Romans of ancient Earth used it as well."
"Quite correct, Captain Picard,"
Sejanus said. "Your reputation does not do you
justice, I see. You're a scholar and an
officer."
"The similarities between Magna Roman and
Earth history are uncanny--beyond even what
Hodgkins' Theory of parallel planetary
development would predict," Commander Riker
added.
"Only up to a certain point," Sejanus
said. "From there, our planets followed
radically different paths."
Data nodded. "On Earth the empire
fell--and its dissolution led first to cultural
fragmentation and the Dark Ages--"
"While on our world, the empire flourished
and was able to lead Magna Roma to new levels
of prosperity." This interruption came from
Marcus Julius Volcinius--who had
remained silent and almost antisocial up
until now. He spoke in a patronizing
voice, as if what he was saying was so obvious
as to be barely worth mentioning.
"I do not believe all Magna Romans
would agree with your statement, Lieutenant,"
Data said. "The brutal dictatorship that
existed on your planet until recently was
certainly not prosperous for the great majority of
your citizens--"
"Prosperity is not measured strictly in
terms of money," Marcus Julius
Volcinius said, cutting off Data.
"Culture, stability, peace--those are the
things the great Magna Roman Empire brought
to our world," the officer said, coming as close
to sneering as he could without visibly looking down
his nose at Data. "I would not expect a
machine to understand such things."
To her left, Jenny saw Geordi
visibly tense in his chair.
"Data," the engineer said in a clipped,
tense voice, "is not a machine,
Lieutenant."
"Yes I am, Geordi," Data said.
Sejanus laughed. "Gentlemen, please!
I like to think we Magna Romans took the
best traditions from both worlds--those of our
native culture and those of Starfleet, shown
to us when the Federation visited Magna Roma
decades ago."
"One of the ships that first came to your world,"
Jenny said, "was also named the Enterprise--
the name our ship carries as well."
Sejanus nodded. "Preserving the names of
noble men and noble ships of the past is a fine
