PNPC Atan Lera, A Ferengi Girl Remembers the Stars Are Made of Latinum

[Jalana]

(( Bajor - Park ))

Lera was going to be in trouble. Much trouble. She had sneaked out. Not that Evria was the kind of parent to excessively tie down her child, but it was the middle of the night. Ferengi are, of course, somewhat more nocturnal than other humanoids...to her, it was not that dark and she could hear every sound in the supposedly-closed park.

She lay on the grass, looking uptwards. Off to one side was the baleful glow of the Celestial Temple. She ignored it, not because she was mad but because it wasn't what she wanted to look at right now.

The slightly faster moving star that arced through the sky was Deep Space Nine, the brightest piece of orbital hardware in the system.

She ignored that too.

She was looking at the stars, in all of their panoply, spread above her.

The Bajorans had the Prophets.

She had the Rules of Acquisition, but she wasn't sure she wanted them. She was, of course, particularly unfond of "Females and finances don't mix," which was patently untrue. She was pretty sure "Every man has his price" was untrue too. Oh, and then there was the one about clothes.

She was a woman and she was going to wear clothes and perhaps it was time to rewrite a few of those rules. Some of them weren't so bad. "Always leave yourself an out" felt pretty good. So did "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

But the one that she was thinking of right now was one of the more poetic ones. "Home is where the heart is, but the stars are made of latinum."

Maybe she didn't want latinum, but this was supposed to be home and she loved Evria and appreciated everything she had done for her.

But one day she was going to the stars, not for latinum but because they called to her. She would never be Bajoran, it was only a refuge for her, for a time.

She was going to the stars.

One day.

Atan Lera
Child
Bajor
S238312D10