Exemplo de java 6 com apache derby

D:\exemplo
        firstdb
        derby.log
        Main.class
        Main.java

import java.sql.*;

public class Main {

	private static final String DRIVER = "org.apache.derby.jdbc.EmbeddedDriver";
	
	private static final String URL = "jdbc:derby:firstdb";

	private static final String QUERY = "SELECT * FROM FIRSTTABLE";
	
    public static void main(String[] args) {
		Connection cnn = null;
		Statement stmt = null;
		ResultSet rs = null;
		
		try {
			Class.forName(DRIVER); 
			
			cnn = DriverManager.getConnection(URL);
			stmt = cnn.createStatement();
			rs = stmt.executeQuery(QUERY);
			
			while (rs.next())
				System.out.println(rs.getString(1) + " - " + rs.getString(2));
				
			rs.close();
			
			stmt.close();
			
			cnn.close();
		} catch (Exception ex) {
			ex.printStackTrace();
		}
	}
}

javac Main.java

java -classpath .;C:\Dev\db-derby-10.4.2.0\lib\derby.jar Main