Up ahead, through the forward viewport of the runabout, Deep Space 9 came into view, as did its silver twin. Ro had described the events that had brought about the re-creation of the starbase, so the image did not surprise Raiq. Still, the Ascendant found the scene surreal.
“I have to ask you again,” Ro said as the runabout veered toward the replicated DS9. “Are you certain that you want to do this?”
Raiq regarded the captain. She considered making an analogy about all of the Bajorans lost during the Occupation, and that Ro, after running away from Bajor, had eventually returned to her people, but she chose not to do so. Instead, she said, “I thought I was the last of my kind. Now that it turns out that I am not, how can I not do this?”
Ro accepted that, and other than contacting her crew aboard Deep Space 9 and providing them a status, she said nothing more for the remainder of the voyage. The captain navigated the runabout through a hatch on the silver starbase’s horizontal ring, and she set the vessel down in a large compartment.
“I assume that, for your transformation, the Ascendant link will need to touch you,” Ro said. “That means that you can’t wear an environmental suit, but since there’s no atmosphere in the hangar bay, I’m going to pump air into it from the storage holds of the Lorus.” The captain pointed a thumb toward the aft section of the runabout. “It won’t take long.”
Raiq didn’t know the length of time the process actually did take, but it felt like one of the longest waits of her life. Eventually, Ro told her that she could safely exit the vessel. The captain walked with her to the rear of the cockpit, to an external hatch, and opened it with a set of taps to a control panel.
Outside the ship, the silver compartment seemed empty, but as Raiq started through the hatch, a shape began to rise from the deck. As it grew, it took on the general contours of a body. When it reached its full height, its appearance suddenly clarified.
Although she expected it, or something like it, Raiq still could not believe what she saw. Gratitude welled within her that Captain Ro had told her the truth, that her people had survived, and that they had come back for her. Raiq strode forward in the compartment. “Seltiq,” she said. Behind her, the hatch of the runabout closed.
“Raiq,” the Grand Archquester said. “It is good to see you.”
“I . . .” Raiq began, but words failed her. She had never felt more joy in her life than at that moment.
“It has been explained to you what has happened?” Seltiq asked.
“It has,” Raiq said, finding her voice. “Aniq’s ‘transformative’ fuel for the subspace weapon actually worked.”
“It did,” Seltiq said. “Perhaps not in the way she envisioned, but yes, it worked.”
The Grand Archquester’s use of the word perhaps caught Raiq’s attention. “You do not know what Aniq envisioned?” she asked.
“I do not,” Seltiq said. “I never spoke with her about it, as I only became Grand Archquester shortly before the weapon detonated.”
“Then that means Aniq is not with you.”
“She is not,” Seltiq said. “Aniq died in the subspace explosion.”
The news pained Raiq. “How . . . how many of us are there?”
“We have not counted,” Seltiq said. “We know that some of us are missing, but there are enough of us to go on. We are legion.”
The Grand Archquester’s declaration elated Raiq. “I want to join you.”
“And we want you to join us.” Without another word, Seltiq dissolved, her single-colored visage pouring back onto the deck—into the deck.
And then a wave surged upward from where she had stood. Raiq closed her eyes as it rushed forward and crashed upon her like surf upon sand. She expected heat in the embrace, but wrapped in the swirling, shape-shifting slurry, she felt a chill run through her body.
Raiq heard movement all about her—on her. The link of Seltiq and the other Ascendants twisted around her body, covering every point of her exoskeletal sheath. When she breathed in, their essence mixed with the air and entered her lungs, filling her up.
Anticipation filled her as well. Raiq wanted so much to be with her people again. The Bajorans had been remarkably accepting of having an Ascendant in their midst, and Vedek Kira had been kind and compassionate, but Raiq wanted to be among those with whom she shared a heritage. She waited for the moment of joining, that instant when she would become one with her people. After all that she had endured, that moment shined just ahead of her like the ultimate fulfillment of her Quest.
But nothing happened.
By degrees, Raiq grew aware that nothing any longer touched her body, nothing moved around her. She opened her eyes to see Seltiq once more standing before her. Raiq knew what she would tell her before the words left her mouth.
“I’m sorry,” the Grand Archquester said. “We hoped that we could do this.”
“You . . . hoped?” Raiq said. “You didn’t know.”
“We didn’t know,” Seltiq said. “Our contact with another shape-shifter suggested that it would not be possible for us to join with a solid, but he was different than we are, and so we hoped. Forgive us, but we wanted to try.”
“Yes,” Raiq said. “I’m pleased that you did.” Her voice, her words seemed to belong to somebody else. She felt cheated, and angry, and sad.
“Your Quest is at an end,” Seltiq said. “Let that be your solace.”
Raiq nodded. A moment passed silently, and then another. She did not know what to say any more than she knew how she would go on.
You will, she told herself—although the voice in her head sounded like that of Vedek Kira. You will get on with your own life, even though you have no idea what that means. She accepted that her Quest had definitively come to an end, but she also realized that she could, if she so chose, begin another.
Before her, Seltiq bowed her head. Raiq returned the gesture and then watched as the Grand Archquester melted back into the deck. When she turned back toward the runabout, the hatch slid open. She strode back inside, still feeling cheated and angry and sad.
But she no longer felt alone.
* * *
For the third time in the span of twenty-six hours, Ro guided a runabout toward the silver copy of Deep Space 9. She’d barely slept in half again as long, though she had managed to nap on the trip to Bajor to collect Raiq. The captain had taken the lone remaining “solid” Ascendant to the real DS9 after the shape-shifting link’s failed attempt to join with her. Ro expected that Raiq would later return to Bajor.
Except that might be an open question, Ro realized. Raiq might not want to go back to Bajor, although Ro had no idea where else she might want to go. But that’s not my decision either to make or to approve, so I don’t need to think about that right now.
After the Ascendants had failed to assimilate Raiq into their link, Ro had gone back into the hangar bay on the ersatz Deep Space 9. Taran’atar reappeared, and the two spoke again. The captain reconfirmed his intention, and that of the link, to travel into the wormhole. They truly believed that they would achieve the Final Ascension by doing so, but Ro wanted to know what they intended to do if nothing happened. Taran’atar told her that few of the Ascendants considered such a possibility, but of those who did, they reached a consensus that they would depart the Fortress into the Gamma Quadrant and seek to find an uninhabited world where they could explore their new reality in peace. The captain then asked if she could accompany the link into the wormhole, simply as a witness to whatever took place, if anything did.
That idea had been Ro’s. She developed it after a series of long meetings with people who mostly wanted her to do the impossible. Virtually everybody with whom she spoke believed that the shape-shifting collection of one Jem’Hadar and many Ascendants represented an existential threat, and they tasked Ro with ending that threat. The captain understood their perspective.
Starfleet Command viewed the wormhole as a Federation asset—for exploration, trade, and defense—and they did no
t want to risk its collapse, either temporarily or permanently. Neither did they want a link of hostile shape-shifters to head into the Gamma Quadrant to form an alliance with the Founders and stir up old hatreds. Admiral Akaar ultimately ordered Ro to resolve the issue in some way that did not prove deleterious to Bajor or the Federation. Though a vague directive, the captain preferred it to something more definite; it allowed her a great deal of latitude. It also demonstrated that the commander in chief had finally come to trust her, something he had first shown signs of doing as Ro had handled events in the wake of President Bacco’s assassination.
Captain Swaddock had also offered his opinion about the Ascendant link when Sacagawea had arrived at Deep Space 9. He supported a military solution. Fortunately, Ro outranked Swaddock based on their respective tenures as Starfleet captains, and her firsthand experience in dealing with the Ascendant link gave her view more weight. When Lieutenant Commander Stinson finally returned to DS9 with Defiant, Swaddock had departed so that Sacagawea could begin its next mission.
The Federation president, Kellessar zh’Tarash, had also voiced her concern with allowing the link into the wormhole. First Minister Asarem had grave misgivings as well, especially given the current uproar on Bajor over the Ohalavaru discovery on Endalla. Kai Pralon and the Vedek Assembly echoed those fears.
Ro had reviewed the facts with all of them, and had presented her argument about what she thought should happen. The linked Ascendants had enveloped both Defiant and Deep Space 9, and though it seemed likely that they could have meted out considerable damage to both, and maybe even destroyed them, they had not done so. Ro also pointed out that, even if the decision was made to prevent the link from entering the wormhole, nobody knew how, realistically, to stop them. Moreover, the captain believed Taran’atar when he told her that he and the Ascendants intended only to enter the wormhole, and that if nothing happened, they would be content to locate an uninhabited planet somewhere in the Gamma Quadrant to call home.
Ro opened a channel. “Rio Grande to Deep Space Nine,” she said, and she had to smile. The crew utilized the starbase’s runabouts on a rotation, contingent on maintenance and repair schedules, with an eye toward balancing out flight hours for each. The captain had first taken Senha to the duplicate DS9, and then Lorus, and for her current journey, she piloted Rio Grande. The runabout had been among the first delivered to the original DS9, long before Ro had ever served there. While the other runabouts initially assigned to the station, and numerous others after that, had been lost, Rio Grande had survived. Some of the crew—including Chief O’Brien—regarded the use of the venerable runabout as a talisman for success. Ro did not count herself as superstitious, but she had to admit that it pleased her whenever she boarded Rio Grande.
“Deep Space Nine here. This is Stinson.” Upon Defiant’s return to the starbase, the ambitious second officer had taken no time in getting back into the duty rotation. Ro knew that she would soon have to name a permanent replacement for Colonel Cenn—both in his position as exec and as Bajoran liaison—and she would have to take care with Stinson. He would expect to be elevated to first officer, and if she made another choice, he might well request a transfer.
“Wheeler, I’m approaching the link now,” the captain said. “I will—” Ro stopped as she detected motion through the forward viewport. She watched as the imitation DS9 began to collapse in on itself, its surface glittering as it did so. “Are you seeing this, Wheeler?”
“Yes, sir.”
The vertical rings gave way first, their smooth lines buckling, but all of the pieces remained attached to one another. The horizontal ring moved next, the thick section crumpling as though made of paper. All of it fell inward to the main sphere, the surface of which puckered and condensed. In just seconds, the shape-shifting link emulating Deep Space 9 went from the form of the massive starbase to a gleaming silver globe not much bigger than a runabout.
“I’m going in,” Ro told Stinson.
“Acknowledged, Captain.”
“Rio Grande out.” Ro closed the channel, then adjusted her course to take it past the new shape of the Ascendant link, just as she’d worked out with Taran’atar. The captain didn’t know if he and those with him in the link knew that she wanted to watch them enter the wormhole in order to ensure that they truly had no hostile aims, but she understood that it likely wouldn’t have mattered if they did know that, or even if they did plan to commit some heinous act. As she had pointed out to Admiral Akaar and everyone else, there would be little she could do to stop them.
As Rio Grande came alongside the globe, she activated the runabout’s tractor beam and took it in tow. She then set course for the wormhole. It blossomed open before her in spinning blues and whites, and she took Rio Grande toward its brilliant heart.
Scans showed high proton counts, neutrino disturbances, variably changing wave intensities. Ro compensated as she had numerous times before to establish a smooth transit. Rio Grande responded accordingly, and then the captain directed the runabout into the wormhole.
Inside the great subspace bridge, everything appeared as it normally did. Ro checked the tractor beam and saw that it still operated, but when she attempted to verify the load on it, she saw that Rio Grande towed nothing. She quickly worked her controls to activate the runabout’s rear monitor. She saw the iridescent white cone of the tractor beam, but no globe—no shape of any kind—within it.
Ro attacked the flight controls, intending to double back, a maneuver she had never attempted within the confines of the wormhole. Before she could even plot a course, Rio Grande began to slow. Ro searched for the cause, but she could find none.
“Warning,” the computer announced. “Impulse system overload. Auto shutdown in twelve seconds.”
Ro swore under her breath. She had no choice but to disengage the engines. Rio Grande’s velocity continued to fall, telling her that she had little chance of reaching the Gamma Quadrant. She would be caught within the wormhole until somebody from DS9 came to find her and tow her out. When the captain didn’t return to the starbase, Blackmer would not wait long to mount a reconnaissance and rescue.
Suddenly, the runabout thudded. Ro recognized the cause at once, though it made absolutely no sense to her. Rio Grande had landed.
“Landed?” she said aloud in the empty cabin. “Landed on what?” Ro had some vague memory that Captain Sisko had once reported setting down inside the wormhole, but he hadn’t been sure whether the experience had been real or had occurred solely in his mind.
The wormhole no longer remained visible through any of the viewports. Bright white light had replaced the kinetic blend of colors that adorned its length. The captain checked the hull sensors and, to her surprise, read an atmosphere surrounding Rio Grande—a breathable atmosphere.
“I guess this is where I get off,” Ro said. She stood up and headed to the runabout’s hatch. She reconfirmed the external atmosphere, then thought about retrieving an environmental suit from equipment storage and putting it on, but she reasoned that anything that could fool the sensors doubtless had many ways of killing her beside asphyxiation.
Ro opened the hatch. Outside, a dark and forbidding landscape stretched away as far as she could see. Lightning flared above sheer cliffs and black plains, and chasms cut wide gashes in the terrain. Gray clouds filled the sky, and thunder rumbled in the distance.
Ro headed to an equipment locker and retrieved a tricorder. She then moved back to the hatch, took a deep breath, and stepped outside. Oddly, she felt no wind, and the air temperature seemed no different than that inside Rio Grande.
“What is this place?” she asked. She activated the tricorder and started to try to scan her surroundings, but then the entire scene blinked. For an instant, Ro saw bright, natural colors, but then they immediately disappeared, replaced by the stormy skies and bleak terrain she had first seen. She turned in place to view everything around her, and as she did, the vista flickered again. She suddenly stood in a glade, with gree
n grass underfoot and tall trees all around. Flowers of vibrant hues dotted the landscape. Sunlight cascaded down from a cloudless, azure sky.
“Thank you.”
Ro whirled to see Taran’atar standing there, not in silver, but restored to his normal appearance. No silver tendrils connected him to the grass. He wore the same black coverall he had back in the days when he had stood motionless in Ops, on the old station, treating Odo’s orders to observe life in the Alpha Quadrant as literally as he could.
“What is happening?” Ro asked.
“The Ascendants have achieved their Final Ascension,” Taran’atar said.
“And they’ve left you?”
“No,” Taran’atar said. “We are still one.” He closed his eyes as though in concentration, and the color washed from his body, leaving him painted in the silver of the Ascendants. In the next instant, the entire tableau paled, every hue leeched away.
And then everything returned to its previous appearance, including Taran’atar. “We are all here,” he said. “Existence is different in this place, we have discovered.”
“How could you have discovered anything?” Ro asked. “You just arrived here.”
“No,” Taran’atar said. “We have been here for some time, it turns out, and we will be here yet longer.”
“I don’t understand,” Ro admitted.
“Nor do we,” Taran’atar said. “But we will exist here.”
“On a planet inside the wormhole?”
“No,” Taran’atar said. “This—” He spread his arms wide, a gesture clearly meant to encompass everything around them. “—is who we are. We are a living, breathing world, and we will be so for as long as we endure.”
Ro had seen many remarkable things in her travels, including some that she had never come to understand, but the sense of confusion that filled her at that moment carried with it a trace of comprehension. She could not articulate it, but she wanted to—if for nobody else than for herself. “How is this possible?”
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Ascendance Page 30
