“Gwyn . . . can you hear me?”
“I’m here, Devi. What’s wrong?”
Gwyn slapped the panel again and finally the buzzing ceased. It was still distorted. Devi sounded like she was speaking from the far end of a distant tunnel, but at least her words were relatively clear.
“Nothing. Everything’s fine. I just wanted to . . . that is . . . I heard you were injured in a shuttle accident.”
Devi was lying about being fine. Even had her empathic abilities not been on maximum overload at the moment, Gwyn would have been able to sense that.
“Devi, cut the crap. What the hell is happening to you?”
“We don’t have a lot of time. My survey team got ourselves into a bit of trouble on the planet. A rescue team is on its way, so I asked them to give us a short comm window while we wait.”
“A rescue team? Why can’t they just transport you up?”
“We’re beneath the surface. There’s a lot of interference. Lasren helped me rig this comm channel. They’re going to use it to piggyback a transporter signal.”
That sounded terrifying, but Gwyn had witnessed enough Starfleet technological miracles to understand that if they were trying it, it would most likely work.
“Good,” Gwyn said, hoping some false bravado would reach and inspire her friend. “I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
Patel paused for a moment. Gwyn wasn’t sure if the feed was degrading again or not.
“Devi?”
“I’m here. We found so much down here. It’ll take years of analysis just to categorize the alien species we discovered. And the technology the Edrehmaia left behind is incredible. The Sevenofninonium was just the tip of the iceberg. It’s a legacy to be proud of.”
Gwyn smiled in understanding even though she didn’t have the first clue what or who the Edrehmaia were. Devi was getting cold feet as the moment of rescue approached and wanted to make sure someone would be able to acknowledge her achievement in case things went south.
“Just make sure I’m there when you give the captain your report. And Seven. I want to see the look on their faces,” Gwyn said.
Patel’s next words came out in a rush. “The thing is, they can’t prioritize transport of our technology. Our tricorders, our data, it’s all going to be lost. I can’t begin to re-create it from memory. And it’s too important. Starfleet needs to know what we found down here.”
A knot began to twist itself into being in Gwyn’s stomach.
“So transport the data now over the comm line, while you’re waiting for your rescue,” Gwyn said.
“We can’t. No one is sure how long this channel will remain stable, and they’re not willing to risk a potential overload with a data dump.”
Gwyn’s pulse began to race. It might have been the hormones raging through her body, but she doubted it.
“Devi, listen to me,” Gwyn insisted. “If they can’t bring up the data, don’t worry about it. We’ll find another way to get it. You come first. Do you hear me?”
“I’m sorry about that day on the shuttle. I was mad at you, but that was dumb. You know that, right?”
“I do. Of course I do. None of that matters now. All that matters is that you come home.”
The signal began to break up again.
“Gwyn . . . Gwyn?”
“I lied, Devi, when I said I was okay. I’m not. Me, the girl who doesn’t believe in lying, even to spare people’s feelings, I was giving it a try because you sound like you have more than enough to deal with right now. But I can’t do it. There’s something terribly wrong with me. I’m going to need your help. You have to come home. You have to help me.”
“Gwyn . . . sorry . . . that last . . . what?”
“Devi? Devi!”
“Gwyn? If you can hear me . . . the others, they won’t understand. You have to make them understand. Okay?”
A loud burst of static interrupted. Gwyn rose from her seat at the terminal and slammed the station hard enough to free it from its brackets.
This time it didn’t work. The connection was lost.
A new urgency welled within Aytar Gwyn that had nothing to do with a perfect mate. It had to do with a loss that was much more immediate. There was no reasoning with Devi at this point. She was about to do something incredibly stupid and somebody needed to stop her.
But Gwyn couldn’t do that unless she could prove that she was fit to return to duty. And there was only one way to make that happen. She had to complete the finiis’ral.
DK-1116
Once the comm channel was lost, most likely due to Galen’s less than optimal orbital position, Devi Patel switched Lasren’s tricorder out of transmission mode and into receiving mode. Vincent and Jepel had joined her and Lasren at the top of the catwalk, nearest to the field generator. They were as close as they could physically get to the hard line Commander Torres was about to turn into a transport conduit.
The relief of the rest of her team was palpable. Until the comm line had been successfully established and Torres had concocted her rescue plan, they had begun to resign themselves to the inevitable. It had made Vincent cranky and Jepel a little manic, but Lasren had begun to retreat into himself. Only now, with rescue a few minutes away, was he smiling again. He was focused with great intensity on making sure they had done all they could on their end to ensure a successful transport.
The clock on the system failure had wound down to less than six hours. They’d been advised that all personnel had been safely recovered from the surface, so there was no longer any fear that anyone would die when the energy fields fell. But Patel knew there were other problems. She didn’t know what they were, but the tone of her interactions with Captain Chakotay and Commander Torres and the specifics of the rescue mission had given her pause. The energy build-up on the surface might be connected to the failure of the fields, but she doubted it. Something else had gone wrong, but no one was going to tell Patel or her team, most likely because there was nothing they could possibly do about it.
She had been ordered to abandon all of the data she had collected, to simply commit as much as she could to memory. Which meant there was no way another team would be sent later to retrieve what was about to be lost. But Vincent and Jepel had managed to fill every bit of memory in their tricorders with the data on dozens of species that had experimented with the Edrehmaia on the planet. Patel had filled hers with data collected from the cavern and its many moving parts.
Devi Patel was not one to refuse a direct order. It went against everything she believed about her role as a Starfleet officer and every instinct she had developed during her years at the Academy and in service.
But this one needed to be refused. She searched her heart over and over as she created the link between the three data-filled tricorders and added the one piece of additional information that would allow her to put her plan into action. She wanted to believe her motives were pure, that this was a sacrifice made on the altar of gathering knowledge, Starfleet’s core mission.
Fame, glory, these had never interested her. They were fleeting illusions at best. The action she was about to take wasn’t going to lead to either of those. Time and again during the last few years as she had wilted in the shadows cast by Seven and the other senior staff, Patel had wondered what she had to do to prove herself. It seemed like there were a million tiny things she should have done differently.
What she realized as she stood in the cavern surrounded by scientific mysteries and data that would keep the Federation’s brightest minds pushing new boundaries for decades to come was that sometimes it wasn’t all the little things. Sometimes, the difference between being a good officer and a great one came down to a single choice.
The fleet’s commanding officers had decided that if the choice was between rescuing her team and securing the knowledge they had accumulated on this mission, the team came first. Patel disagreed, but there was no time to convince them of that and had she pushed any harder than she already had, it might
have raised suspicion. Patel knew that being part of a team meant subsuming one’s personal needs to the greater good. The Vulcans had a pithy saying for it—the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. In seeking to stand out among her peers, Devi had been seeking acknowledgment of her abilities. What she saw now with perfect clarity was that there was nothing for her to gain in this moment or any day that would follow that could compare to the secrets she had helped uncover. This treasure trove of data was more important to Starfleet than Patel would ever be.
And she was going to make damn sure they received it.
GALEN
Doctor Sal was at a complete loss. She stared openmouthed at the terminal filled with Ensign Gwyn’s biological data and, for the first time in her life, wondered if she needed to reconsider her general tendency to dismiss miracles as the purview of fanciful minds.
The Doctor updated the readings once again to make sure what they were witnessing was accurate. He shook his head as he did so, no doubt filled with the same misgivings that were currently accosting Sal.
“According to these readings, Ensign, your hormone levels have returned to normal and the metamorphic cells within your body have fallen below one percent.”
Gwyn smiled with absolute confidence. “I told you Doctor, a few minutes ago, something changed. The need, the hunger, they simply went away. I started to feel like myself again.”
The Doctor turned to Sal. “Could this be some sort of temporary reprieve, a natural fluctuation in the process of the finiis’ral?”
“I have no idea,” Sal said. “I suppose. It’s also possible that since this change was brought about by unnatural circumstances, her body is reverting to its normal levels. She might have been experiencing a false metamorphosis, in the same way sometimes pregnancy tests result in false positives.”
“The metamorphic cells have all but vanished from her system.”
“I can see that, Doctor.”
“I need to return to Voyager,” Gwyn insisted. “I need to get back to my post.”
“We’ll clear you for duty soon enough, Ensign,” the Doctor said, “but we’re going to want to make sure we’re seeing a permanent stabilization.”
Gwyn sat up and swung her legs over the side of the biobed.
“I know this crisis has passed. Personally, I think Icheb deserves a lot of the credit. He helped me hold on to myself through the worst of it. I’m sure I could never have recovered without his help.”
Counselor Cambridge stood a few paces back beside Icheb, who stared at Gwyn with faint disbelief. Sal didn’t know what the look on the ensign’s face meant, but it was one of several pieces of the puzzle before her that wasn’t fitting easily into place.
The Doctor placed a reassuring hand on Gwyn’s shoulder. “You can’t return to Voyager at the moment. Our ship is about to depart the system. Admiral’s orders. But by the time we have regrouped with the rest of the fleet, I’m sure we’ll be able to get you back on duty.”
“May I speak with you, Doctor?” Icheb asked, passing meaningful glances to both Sal and Cambridge in the process.
“Of course. Rest, Ensign Gwyn. We’ll be back in a few moments.”
Sal spared one last glance at Gwyn before following the others into the Doctor’s private office. Whatever had happened to Gwyn should have felt like a reprieve. She had no idea why it didn’t.
• • •
As soon as the door to the Doctor’s office slid shut behind him, Icheb released a torrent of words he had clearly been biting back during Gwyn’s exam.
“She’s not lying, exactly. But the finiis’ral didn’t just end. She ended it. I don’t know how exactly, but she did.”
“What are you talking about, Icheb?” the Doctor asked.
“Gwyn. She was speaking to Lieutenant Patel. She was upset, but I don’t know why.”
“Lieutenant Patel is one of four officers still trapped on the planet, Ensign,” Cambridge advised him. “I believe a team will be dispatched to rescue them shortly.”
“When her conversation with Patel was over, Gwyn wouldn’t talk to me,” Icheb continued. “She had the strangest look on her face, like she had decided something. Then she went back to look at the baby again and when she came out, she was herself again.”
“The baby?” Sal said, suddenly concerned.
The Doctor pulled up a new set of readings on his display. “I’ve been monitoring her life signs constantly, Doctor Sal. There is no cause for worry. She’s fine. See?”
Sal studied the various readings of the embryonic monitor for a moment. They were, just as the Doctor said, all well within normal limits.
“How did you and Ensign Gwyn find out about our youngest patient?” the Doctor asked Icheb, his disappointment clear.
“Gwyn was restless, wandering around, poking her head into the private rooms, and we found the incubator. I’m sorry, Doctor. I won’t tell anyone, of course. And I’m sure Gwyn won’t either. But it was so strange, the look on her face when she saw the baby. And then she said something about wanting to talk to her mother. Of course, that’s impossible right now.”
A sudden shot of adrenaline began at the base of Sal’s neck and poured down her torso and limbs.
The baby.
A smile began to play over her lips as a new idea burst into her brain. Five hundred years ago the women of Krios had decided to take their genetic destiny in their own hands. They had refused en masse to continue bonding with the men of their society, and yet, they hadn’t died, at least most of them hadn’t.
Dear gods, she thought. How did I never think of it before?
The period of unrest following the Dawn on Krios should have resulted in plague-like death tolls with entire populations refusing bonding, but there was nothing like that in the records she’d seen so many decades earlier. So they didn’t die. They bonded with someone . . . just not their perfect mates.
An embryo, an infant who had yet to develop a personality or any preferences beyond the most basic survival instincts, had been the one creature with whom the completion of the finiis’ral did not have to result in the concurrent death of one’s own identity. And Sal could easily see the pregnant women of Krios deciding to give this gift to their suffering sisters in the name of creating a better future for all of them.
“I know what she did,” Sal said softly before hurrying toward the office door.
As it slid open, Sal called, “Ensign, I must . . .”
But she paused when she realized that the room was empty.
Cambridge was right behind her. He immediately called out, “Computer, locate Ensign Gwyn.”
“Ensign Gwyn is not on board.”
16
* * *
DK-1116
Commander Tom Paris worked as quickly as the bulky gloves of his EV suit would permit. The shuttle flight to the surface had been more challenging than he had anticipated. The energy build-up on the planet was altering its gravitational pull. The last readings he’d seen suggested that the rate of rotation of the planet was also increasing. Paris understood, of course, that planets didn’t do that, but the more Seven and Harry had told him about DK-1116, the less convinced he was that this truly was a planet.
All he wanted was to complete this rescue mission and feel the firm deck plating of Voyager beneath his feet once again. To do that, he had six minutes to get the pattern enhancers appropriately calibrated and to fill the small force field he had activated around them with breathable atmosphere.
It felt like a lifetime ago that he had been splashing in the lake with his daughter and roasting marshmallows. In truth, it had been less than fifteen hours. Once this was over, he and the rest of the fleet’s senior officers were going to spend a great deal of time figuring out how a simple exploratory mission had gone to hell so quickly, and he would work as hard as any of them, assuming he lived long enough to see it. He refused to think about Miral and Michael and the fact that both of their parents were currently involved in a life
-threatening emergency situation. Every time he did, his hands started to shake and that wasn’t helpful. He’d barely had time to kiss them quickly before leaving them in the care of Kula. He was going to see them again. There was no acceptable alternative.
“Are the enhancers stable?” B’Elanna asked.
“Working on it.”
“I’m going to make final contact with Patel’s team before I cut the comm channel completely.”
“I’m guessing they couldn’t be more ready to get off this rock.”
“They’re not the only ones. Just stabilize that field. We’ll be back home before you know it.”
“I love you.”
“I love you more.”
• • •
The heat in the main cavern had gone from pleasant to oppressive in the last few hours. Lieutenant Kenth Lasren felt the layer of sweat covering his skin, even though the fabric of his uniform was designed to minimize perspiration. He wondered idly if the slight increase in radiant intensity he perceived from the living ore all around him was his imagination. There was no longer any way to check. His tricorder was being used to maintain their comm signal and Patel had confiscated the others. She seemed to be studying the data on them the way she had probably prepared for every test she had taken in her life. It was a shame the data was going to have to stay behind for now, but he had no doubt that Captain Chakotay would prioritize returning to this chamber and taking even more detailed readings as soon as they could figure out how to do it safely. They were still at the beginning of weeks of exploration, after all. Even without the protective energy fields, there was still much to study on the surface of the planet. This was simply a hiccup in what was going to prove to be an incredibly productive mission.
Vincent and Jepel had seated themselves on the landing nearby with their backs to the cave wall. Both of them looked weary. He understood. There wasn’t much either of them could do at the moment but wait. He wished Devi could relax. This part was going to be over soon enough, and the recognition she so desperately craved when this mission began was sure to be hers.
Architects of Infinity Page 29
