Title: Rule of Acquisition #284: Deep down, everyone's a Ferengi.

Series: Rules of Acquisition

Characters: Quark, Ishka

Word Count: 823

Rating: K

Warnings: mixing of silliness and seriousness, capitalism, requires some familiarity with Ayn Rand's work

Summary: Quark is home for a few days to take care of some business affairs, and he catches his mother reading a very surprising book.

A/N: I seriously have so many of these that are half-finished, but I've had very little time to work on them in the last couple years… ugh. Anyway, I've outed myself on this point before, but I'm a fan of Ayn Rand. This piece is not meant as a political statement, but as both a fond homage and a way of poking fun at Atlas Shrugged, as well as a look into Ishka's search for truth. Hope you enjoy.

This occurs sometime after Ferengi Love Songs and before The Magnificent Ferengi.

As always, I do not own Star Trek or its characters; I just play in their universe.

Quark stumbled through the front door of his mother's house, soaking wet and grumpily trying to dry his lobes. He wasn't going to be on Ferenginar for more than a week, yet he was already wishing he could get back to his comparatively stress-free routine on DS9. Dealing with the FCA, even sans Brunt, was headache-inducing.

"You won't believe this, Quark!" Ishka said from across the room. She sat with her legs up on the sofa, a huge old paper-back novel resting on her knees.

"What?" he asked irritably.

"This book! It's exquisite!"

"You read books?" Quark asked, aghast and scandalized. He knew that he ought to be used to this sort of thing when it came to his mother, but he couldn't help his shock.

"Zekkie bought it for me at an auction. It's a rare copy – over three hundred years old! And get this, Quark – it was written by a hew-mon female!"

"You read hew-mon books?" Now Quark sounded downright disgusted.

"It's not what you would expect! This female, she's the executive of a railroad, and she's just opening a new line. All these journalists are pestering her about her motives, and she's like, 'I'm doing it to make money.' Listen to this!" Here, Ishka began to quote:

"Do you realize you're talking for publication?" asked the man with a sneer.

"But, Mr. Hopkins," said Dagny, in polite astonishment, "is there any reason why we would talk to you, if it weren't for publication?"

"Do you want us to quote all the things you said?"

"I hope I may trust you to be sure and quote them. Would you oblige me by taking this down verbatim?" She paused to see their pencils ready, then dictated: "Miss Taggart says – quote – I expect to make a pile of money on the John Galt Line. I will have earned it. Close quote. Thank you so much."

Ishka put the book down, grinning triumphantly.

Quark stared. "You're kidding. No hew-mon could have written that!"

"Apparently, your hew-mons have a more colorful past than their current culture would indicate. Brilliant, isn't it?" His mother snapped the book shut and stood up. "Well, I'm off to prepare dinner."

When she had left, curiosity got the better of him and he flipped to where his mother had left her bookmark.

"…what protection do we have against your Line being no good?"

"Don't ride on it."

Another asked, "Aren't you going to tell us your motive for building the Line?"

"I have told you: the profit which I expect to make."

"I think I'm in love." Quark grinned to himself.

"Be careful with that," his mother said. "The pages are fragile."

Quark, having been engrossed in the book, startled.

"Dinner's ready. I've been calling you."

"Hew-mons used to be way more interesting," Quark commented, following her. At least he'd gained some ammunition against Sisko if the subject of the barkeep's "self-interest" was ever brought up in one of captain's sanctimonious lectures.

"More interesting, and perhaps even wiser than Ferengi," Ishka said.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Ishka chuckled. "You didn't read enough to catch on, did you? The book isn't simply about making profit. The book is about living in a way such that you earn your profit. It's about making honest profit – about receiving money in return for making a difference in the universe."

"Oh." Quark was disappointed. That sounded more like the humans he knew. "I suppose I should have known, seeing as the protagonist is a female."

Ishka ground her teeth. "The point, my son, is that it doesn't matter that she's a female. In that ancient hew-mon society, what mattered was that she was good at her job. She created things of value."

Quark opened his mouth to protest, but Ishka continued.

"Quark, when you look out at the capital city, at the Tower of Commerce and all the other buildings – at night, when they're glowing with light – and you see their reflection in the puddles as the taxi pods zoom through steaming streets – what do you think of?"

Quark wondered what new riddle his mother had come up with. "Um… home?"

The look she shot him was filled with both exasperation and fondness. "I think of the people who built it – the risks they took, the time they spent… The city is a monument to them, as much as it is an opportunity for us. According to Dagny, the sight of achievement is the greatest gift a person can offer to others.

"I've realized something important, Quark. Latinum isn't everything. Achievement is everything. Latinum is only a way to measure it. If we got rid of all the pettiness and corruption, the bribery, the blind adherence to old rules… we would be able to find the core of our society – merit. Then, our society would be truly just. That's the world I'm trying to build, Quark."

Quark didn't know what to say to that.

A/N: Honestly, I could write a treatise on the problems with Ferengi society and their implementation of capitalism, as well as a lengthy character study on how Quark and Ishka, with their differing viewpoints, fit into that society. But I don't think that's something you guys want to read… ;)