[archosaur-automaton]

“My, what a fascinating Earth dish,” Garak said, dabbing at his lips with a napkin. “I really must thank Commander Worf for recommending this ‘borsch’ to me.”

“If I recall,” Julian said, “it was less of a recommendation and more of a hope that you would drown in a pool of it.”

Garak shrugged. “Recommendations come in many forms, my dear doctor. Which reminds me – I recently finished one of the pieces of human literature you provided me.”

Julian gave a small smile. “Oh? Which one?”

“Rip van Winkle. Very interesting. But so dreadfully tragic at the same time.” 

“Because van Winkle returned to find his wife and all his friends long-dead?”

“Why, not at all. Rather, it represents societal catastrophe, and the failure of the State.”

Julian raised an eyebrow. “How exactly do you mean?”

Garak raised his palms upwards, a gesture Julian had come to associate with the Cardassian explaining a concept he found simple and obvious. “Van Winkle returns to a world entirely transformed, the aftermath of the ‘American Revolution’. The State he knows has been overthrown, the institutions of government shattered. It is a tragedy in which social order fails to be maintained from generation to generation.”

Julian smirked. “Well, that’s the nature of change and entropy, Garak. Nothing can last forever, especially not any given State.”

Garak shook his head sadly. “Ah, my dear doctor, that is where you are wrong. You see, a Cardassian would have absolute faith that their State, the world they know, would be preserved. If a Cardassian had written a similar tale, the protagonist would awake and find that very little had changed, even if their magical sleep lasted a hundred years; their relatives may have passed on, but the institutions they knew, the world they had left, would remain steadfast, as the State should be.”

“Wouldn’t that make for a terribly boring story?”

Garak’s eyes widened in surprise. “Of course not! Rather, it would be monumentally triumphant, an uplifting and inspirational testament to constancy, stasis, stability. It would affirm for the reader the inevitability of the preservation of the natural order of things.”

Julian shrugged. “Well, that’s certainly one way of looking at it. Oh, by the way, if you read Rip van Winkle, did you look at any of Washington Irving’s other material?”

“Ah, yes. I did rather enjoy The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

Julian grinned cheekily. “Did you find some rousing metaphor about the immutable and everlasting State within it?” he said dramatically, teasing his companion.

Garak took a sip from his drink. “No,” he said plainly. “I simply find headlessness and decapitation amusing.”