Her teeth began to ache as a distinct hum, emanating from below, moved through her.
For a moment she wished for her lost tricorder. She couldn’t make sense of what she was seeing and doubted it would help, but the instinct to understand was apparently going to remain with her until she breathed her last.
Far down, she could see the giant spider’s legs moving with precision as they altered large strands of ore, connecting them in new patterns whose purpose Patel couldn’t begin to guess.
Whatever was happening, she did not doubt for a moment that it was intended by whoever created this place. Despite the desire of those who had come here before seeking understanding, she saw now how futile their efforts had been.
“We’re not ready to harness power like this,” she said. She doubted their predecessors had been either. But one thing was certain. She alone, of all of them, would see the frightful design of the Edrehmaia in all of its glory. It wasn’t all she might have hoped for, but it was hers. If there was anything eternal in a human life, she paused to hope that what she had gained here would go with her into whatever infinity held.
• • •
Tom and B’Elanna could barely see more than a few inches in front of them. Their only confirmation that they were headed for their shuttlecraft came from the display panels in the arms of their suits that were keyed to the shuttle’s transponder.
“Where is it?” B’Elanna demanded.
“According to this, we’re practically on top of it,” Tom replied.
Tom reached forward and felt nothing. Only then did he realize that in the storm, the shuttle had fallen farther into the crevice created by the shifting ground.
There wasn’t time to think about how stupid his next move was. He simply sat down on the ground and began to inch forward until his legs fell over the side of the new hole that had claimed his only way off of this rock.
Swinging his legs back, he oriented himself onto his stomach and pulled himself to the point where he could see over the edge.
There was nothing to see but inky darkness, but his display confirmed that the shuttle was resting ten meters below.
“I’m going to try to activate the shuttle’s emergency transporter,” B’Elanna said.
“You’ll never get a lock in this mess.”
“You’d rather jump for it?”
“I’d probably break both my legs when I landed.”
“Forget your legs. You’ll shatter your spine.”
“I could use a little positive thinking right about now,” Tom said.
B’Elanna didn’t answer. Tom pulled back and looked up. B’Elanna had lifted her arm and was pointing it at the heavens above.
“What are you doing?”
“There’s something up there.”
“How do you know?”
Before she could answer, a sick sensation hit Tom’s gut as the lights of B’Elanna’s EV suit vanished.
OKINAWA
The next thing Tom Paris knew, someone was pushing him forward.
What the . . . ?
The grime on his faceplate was so heavy that he had missed the moment when he had been transported aboard what appeared at first to be his shuttle.
He quickly removed his helmet only to hear Ensign Gwyn shouting at him.
“Clear the pad!” she ordered.
B’Elanna had already stepped into the forward section of the runabout and removed her helmet and gloves. She pushed Tom into the nearest seat and took the one opposite him.
“What are you doing here, Ensign?” Paris asked. “Not that I’m complaining, mind you.”
“Can one of you, sirs, get up here and take the tactical controls?” Gwyn asked.
Torres stood and moved quickly into the seat beside Gwyn. “What are we doing?” she asked as she did so.
“We’re going to make that hole down there a little bigger,” Gwyn said. “The only thing I can get a lock on is your shuttle. Target it and fire phasers at ten percent.”
“Why are we destroying our shuttle?” Paris asked.
“I need to make that hole around it bigger.”
Paris looked to Torres. He didn’t need to speak for her to read his mind. You’re okay with this?
She nodded. “You’re going to try to transport Devi, right?”
The runabout shook and dipped to the left, sending Paris careening into the bulkhead.
“There’s a good chance she dies if the cavern down there collapses all around her,” Gwyn said. “We’re talking about a window that is only a few seconds long.”
“But if we can get direct access to it at all, I should be able to lock on to any human life signs,” Torres said.
“Don’t wait,” Gwyn said. “We’re only going to get one shot at this.”
“I know.”
Tom made his way forward until he was hovering over Gwyn’s shoulder. “Adjust attitudinal control by three percent,” he said.
Gwyn had been about to do so anyway. Normally she hated for anyone to second-guess her flying. Tom Paris was one of the few people alive who had that right. She’d been forced to loop back around in order to target the shuttle.
“We’re in range, B’Elanna.”
“I see it,” Torres said. “Firing.”
As the phasers lit the darkness, Gwyn shunted power from the warp engines to the shields. It still felt like they’d been hit by a small torpedo. A cracking boom sounded all around them as Gwyn struggled to gain a little more altitude for their final pass.
“Anything?” Paris asked Torres. She was focused with quiet intensity over the runabout’s transporter controls.
“There she is,” Torres said softly and passed her fingers gently over the controls.
Paris looked back to the transporter pad automatically. A figure was trying to coalesce into being, but kept fading in and out.
“I’m taking power from environmental controls,” Torres said.
“Sure. Breathing is overrated anyway,” Gwyn teased.
The transporter beam sputtered again, until finally resolving into the still form of Devi Patel, lying on her side.
“Take us up, Gwyn, fast as you can,” Paris said as he hurried to Patel. She was a mess. She was bleeding from a nasty gash on the side of her head, and her breathing was shallow. She had broken her right arm, both legs, and several ribs. He was glad she was unconscious because otherwise the pain would have been unbearable.
“Is she alive?” Gwyn called from the conn.
“Barely. We need to get her to sickbay as soon as possible.”
“We’ll be back on Voyager in five minutes, assuming we can get out of the atmosphere,” Gwyn said.
Torres turned to Gwyn and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Thank you for coming after us.”
“I didn’t actually,” Gwyn said. “I came for her.”
Off Torres’s deeply furrowed brow, she added, “But you’re still welcome, Commander.”
“Do you have any idea why she did this?” Paris asked.
Gwyn didn’t reply.
“Ensign?”
“She thought the data she recovered on the planet was more important than her life,” Gwyn finally replied.
“She should know better than that,” Torres said.
Gwyn cast a glance toward her. “She didn’t. And as her commanding officers, you should take the time to figure out why. My guess is, she’s not the only member of our crew that could make that mistake.”
17
* * *
VOYAGER
Seconds after runabout Okinawa had docked, Voyager had broken orbit and set course out of the system. Ten minutes later, Tom Paris had reported to the bridge and at Chakotay’s request had taken over for Gleez at the conn. The captain had then left the bridge to his first officer and joined Admiral Janeway and Seven in astrometrics. Best guess was that the planet was going to tear itself apart in the next three hours and Voyager was going to be the best place in the universe from which to view the spectacle, right
up until the shockwave from the destruction of DK-1116 hit them and destroyed the ship.
Paris had devised two short warp maneuvers that had bought them a few more minutes of life. But there was no warping through the asteroid field they were currently traversing at full impulse. At least the other three fleet vessels had almost cleared it. Odds were good that Demeter was going to manage a slipstream jump in time. Vesta and Galen would be cutting it close, but their chances were significantly better than Voyager’s.
It was a uniquely frustrating moment for Harry Kim. He was proud of the bridge crew. Lasren had returned to duty in order to relieve Waters. He, Aubrey, and Paris were Kim’s only company on the bridge. Everyone else was either off duty, or relieved and spending their last few hours composing final personal logs or transmitting messages home. They wouldn’t reach the Alpha Quadrant for a few days, even with the aid of the communications relays the fleet had dropped when they first returned to the Delta Quadrant. By the time their family and friends learned their fate it would all be over.
Had it been possible, Kim would have spent this time with Nancy and their daughter. Last he’d heard before the fleet broke up, both were doing well. The Doctor thought it would be safe to revive Nancy in the next couple of days. Kim hated to think that the first thing she might hear was that he was dead.
They had passed the time listening to Lasren’s report on his team’s discoveries on the planet. Now that its architects had a name, the Edrehmaia, and it was understood that their fleet had been the last in a long line of explorers to visit DK-1116 and try to unravel its mysteries, Kim was overwhelmed with frustration.
“Would it have killed them to leave instructions for those who came after, so we could have avoided all of this?” Kim had asked of Lasren.
“They did, sir,” Lasren had replied. “I never saw the interface Devi found, but it tried to help us. It gave us plenty of warning about the system failure we triggered. It wasn’t Devi’s fault that she inadvertently locked down the command station. She was trying to preserve the records there.”
Patel had almost died to make sure she wasn’t the only one who learned all that Species 001 had done to further the understanding of many sentient species.
Lieutenant Devi Patel was still in surgery. No one knew yet if she was going to survive, and while Kim understood that both she and Gwyn were going to face disciplinary action for their choices, his inclination as a commanding officer would have been to reward both of them for their selflessness and devotion to duty. Kim wondered if the admiral and captain were going to make the same call.
If nothing else, Aytar Gwyn had saved the lives of Kim’s best friends. That was going to grant her a great deal of leeway going forward, at least in Kim’s book.
Three hours and six minutes after Voyager had broken orbit, Tom Paris called out from the conn, “Eyes forward, everyone. I think the floorshow is about to begin.”
• • •
Admiral Kathryn Janeway stood between Seven and Chakotay at the astrometrics lab’s control panel. Behind them, dozens of crew members had assembled with their commanding officers to watch whatever was about to happen.
While fully conscious of the danger in which they found themselves, part of Kathryn Janeway felt like a child preparing to open a birthday present. For days, she had wondered at the purpose of this small world in the Delta Quadrant. For better or worse, her curiosity was about to be satisfied.
Why? she still wondered as she stared at the distant rock, now lit by its own internal, infernal light. It looked more like a tiny sun than a world on which she had walked less than a day earlier. The strange substance that contained the only known source in the universe of the element that would, it seemed, forever be known to her crew as Sevenofninonium, had been storing potential energy for thousands of years. That energy was about to be released. The most likely result would be the cataclysmic destruction of the planet. But somehow, Janeway believed that wasn’t going to be the only thing her crew was about to witness.
Janeway had asked that Commander Torres join them to observe the spectacle, but B’Elanna had demurred, preferring to watch from her quarters with her children. The admiral didn’t fault her for that. But she had shared so much of her life with B’Elanna. If it was truly about to end, a tiny, selfish part of her wanted to do it together, as one, in the same way they had faced so many dangers in the past.
“Admiral,” Seven said suddenly.
Janeway felt Chakotay take her hand and give it a gentle squeeze.
Seconds later, Lieutenant Kim’s voice sounded. “Seven, are you seeing this?”
“We are, Lieutenant.”
“Keep this channel open,” Janeway ordered.
For a moment, the planet on the screen grew brighter. Then, quite suddenly, it rotated almost ninety degrees on its axis and a single, massive beam of radiant energy shot forth from what had once been its southern pole.
The light seemed like a living thing as it flew from the planet.
“Does it have a target?” Janeway asked.
“It is on course to impact the B star, Admiral,” Seven said.
At any other time in Janeway’s life, that response would have been met with confusion. As it was, thanks to Seven’s simulations, the admiral now believed she understood precisely what the purpose of the planet’s strange design actually was.
The moment the energy from the planet impacted the star, it began to move gently out of its orbit.
“Gods of my fathers,” Janeway heard Chakotay whisper.
Indeed, she thought. Who but a god would intentionally alter the orbital path of a star?
The first gravimetric waves to impact Voyager were still a few minutes away. You didn’t rip apart a solar system without radically altering the flow of energy moving through it. The asteroid field through which they were now traveling would be the first noticeable casualty. Millions of small pieces of rock would soon find their courses violently shifted. Most of them would be smashed into dust, but those that weren’t would eventually settle into a new orbit.
“The star has now been pushed twenty-six kilometers out of its standard orbit. Its speed is increasing,” Seven reported.
Horrifying as it was, watching a star move at the behest of an object designed specifically to free it of any stronger gravitational pull was one of the most majestic, awe-inspiring things Kathryn Janeway had ever seen.
“Seven, I’m reading three hundred discrete subspace waves targeting the B star,” Lieutenant Kim reported from the bridge. “Their intensity is increasing.”
Janeway had been so focused on the star’s movement that she hadn’t noticed the new readings that were now scrolling across the screen before her.
“They are emanating from the outer asteroid ring,” Seven said.
“To what purpose?” Chakotay asked.
Seven was hurriedly requesting information from the ship’s sensors, tapping at her control panel and shaking her head as the results began to appear on the screen.
“The subspace waves appear to be altering the geometry of space around the B star,” Seven said.
“It’s like they are carving a path for it, guiding it out of the system,” Janeway added.
“And simultaneously minimizing the normal distortions created by the star’s movement,” Seven said.
“Remarkable,” Chakotay observed.
They learned, Janeway thought. The Edrehmaia, or whoever did this the first time—or maybe the thousandth, who knows—they destroyed the system when the star entered it. They didn’t want that to happen again, so they found a solution.
“The intensity of the beam from the planet is starting to diminish,” Kim reported from the bridge.
Janeway held her breath, waiting for the planet’s explosive death throes.
They never came.
Instead, the inner light of the planet dimmed to nothing, its energy spent. But to everyone’s amazement, it remained intact.
“Admiral,” Seven said, �
��the B star has broken from its orbit and is departing from the system heading zero-eight-one mark six.”
“That guidance system had to be designed by the same species that constructed the planet,” Harry Kim said. “What were they called again?”
“The Edrehmaia,” Lieutenant Lasren responded.
“It’s a hell of a thing they created,” Chakotay said. “It sent that star on its way while containing the destructive potential of its release.”
“So we’re all going to live?” Paris asked.
“For now,” Seven replied.
“But what use is a rogue star?” Lasren asked.
“To us, nothing more than scientific curiosity,” Janeway replied. “But I’d give a great deal to learn what use the Edrehmaia might have for one.”
“Are we going to go looking?” Chakotay asked.
Janeway grinned. “Commander Paris, take us out of the asteroid field, recall the rest of the fleet, and keep long-range sensors active. I don’t want to lose track of that star.”
“Aye, Admiral,” Paris responded.
• • •
Ensign Aytar Gwyn sat beside the still form of Lieutenant Devi Patel. Low trills and beeps sounded constantly, the only sign that Devi was still alive.
Doctor Sharak had worked patiently for hours attempting to put her broken body back together. Gwyn suspected that wasn’t going to be the hardest part to fix.
Sharak had allowed Gwyn to remain in sickbay while he worked. As soon as he had completed the surgery, he asked, despite his obvious exhaustion, to examine her.
She agreed, and added her profuse apologies for her behavior toward him while in the midst of the finiis’ral.
“Why would you apologize, Ensign, for something over which you had no control?” he asked kindly.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “To be polite?”
“Your desire for me was a biochemically induced imperative driven by a collection of powerful cellular processes. You could not have resisted it had you tried.”
Architects of Infinity Page 31
