by Star Trek
“What happened to the Light?” Janeway asked.
“I do not know,” Phoebe said almost sadly. “He has been lost to us for longer than I can remember. Some believe he died. Some believe now that he never really existed, that this memory of us is some kind of hopeful illusion. All I know for certain is that I cannot sense him or his power among those of us who are left.”
Phoebe paused to let this sink in, then pleaded, “Do what I ask, willingly, and I promise no further harm will come to any other life-form that inhabits this space and time. Help me open the conduit.”
Janeway was about to agree. But one final disturbing question remained.
“Are you ready to return home?” she asked. “Have you solved the problem?”
As she waited, breathless for Phoebe to respond, she thought of the array, the technological miracle that she knew the Nacene who had remained behind could only be responsible for. She thought of the power structure, the adaptive life-support system, and the computer core capable of holding every fragment of data about the entire universe in one place and hoped silently that Phoebe would say yes.
But as she watched this face, a face whose subtlest thought had been plainly read by her since the day her sister had been born, she knew that she wasn’t going to get the answer she was hoping for.
“We have not,” she replied. “But it no longer matters. Your actions here brought me to the gateway. I have called the exiles and we must use the Key now. If we do not, the Others will return.”
“How do you know that?” Janeway demanded.
“When you destabilized the gateway, they were drawn here as we were. I told them I would destroy the Key. They gave me three days to do so. In less than twenty-seven hours they will be back to make sure I have upheld my side of our agreement. If we do not use the Key and return to Exosia before that time, we will not even be allowed to choose to remain exiled in this dimension. The Others will destroy us, Kathryn, and all that you and I both hold dear, just as they did once before.”
“But you said the gateway was closed. How can the Others come back, if you cannot pass through it without the Key?” Janeway asked.
“The will of the Others in Exosia keeps the gateway closed. They are the only beings who can enter or leave as they please, though to my knowledge they have never chosen to do so until now.”
Janeway looked again at the field. She shuddered at its barrenness. Even the masses of “dead” had been somehow more comforting than the wasteland that stretched as far as she could see. There were ancient lessons of war which were still taught at Starfleet Academy. The one that came to Janeway’s mind now was first taught by one of the earliest races of humans in recorded history to successfully civilize their small corner of the planet Earth.
“They made a desert and called it peace,” Janeway said softly.
“And will do so again,” Phoebe added. “Even we, sometimes, fail to learn.”
Janeway sighed deeply, raised her eyes to meet Phoebe’s and said, “Take me back to my ship.”
After the third successive probe test had been completed to Chakotay’s satisfaction, he was almost as excited about the prospect of the tetryon transporters as Tom, Harry, and B’Elanna were.
Harry had been right. The tetryon field emitted by the system actually bent space and as long as the appropriate coordinates were transferred to the system, they seemed able to set a specific end point that extended far beyond the realm of any transporter he had ever seen…theoretically…all the way to the Alpha Quadrant.
Tom had also been right. The system was designed to accept telepathic commands for coordinates, and even in species, like humans, who were generally not telepathic, their thoughts took them to any destination they desired. Chakotay’s biggest concern had been trusting any human mind with such a huge variable. On his best days, when he felt most calm and serene, he had rarely been able to experience only one thought at a time. With so much riding on the outcome, he would never have agreed to the test had not B’Elanna solved the final problem to his satisfaction.
Voyager stored dozens of organic containers that were used in transport tests when an operator was uncertain whether or not a life-form could safely transport to a specified area owing to interference or distance. Harry had been the first to come up with the idea of using the organic matter inside the probes to take the place of a human and add the “thought” variable to the equation, but B’Elanna had been the first to successfully code the organic material to emit a specific frequency of “thought” that the tetryon transporter could read. By piggybacking Voyager’s long-range sensors to the array’s much more powerful sensor grid via the data-interface cable still tethered to Voyager, they had successfully detected three successive probes containing the coded organic matter at their appropriate coordinates. The third, their most ambitious test, had been transported a distance of almost twenty thousand light-years. It wasn’t the Alpha Quadrant, but it was twenty years closer to home. Chakotay would have been thrilled with one-quarter of that distance.
The final test would be a shuttle test. Since Tom and Harry had volunteered to pilot the shuttle, all had agreed that this manned flight should be set just beyond the borders of Monorhan space, the closest destination possible that was outside the system, but within twenty hours of the array at impulse speeds. In order to avoid any potential pitfalls of using human thoughts to control the test—no one could say for certain with two men aboard whose thoughts would take precedence, should one’s concentration fail—the shuttle’s navigational array and been routed through one of the coded organic canisters, exactly as had been the case with the probes.
“See you in a few hours,” Tom said jauntily as he stepped inside the shuttle. If all went as planned Tom and Harry would immediately reenter Monorhan space once the shuttle had arrived at the coordinates and return to the array at full impulse.
Chakotay planned to use that time to force Phoebe’s hand by taking the Key back to the array and placing it in the “lock.” Assuming the captain did not return of her own accord, he was still unwilling to accept the idea that Voyager would leave the array without her…especially when their next stop might be home.
Chakotay gave Tom a nod of good luck, then left the shuttlebay to monitor the test with B’Elanna in astrometrics. Neelix, who had been as thrilled as the others at Tom’s potential discovery, had also asked to attend the test and was pacing nervously about the staging area before the main viewscreen when Chakotay arrived.
“Shuttle Homeward Bound, you have clearance to transport,” B’Elanna said over the comm as Chakotay joined her at the sensor control console.
“Homeward Bound?” Chakotay asked.
“Tom renamed the shuttle while we were reconfiguring the navigational array. Somehow Monticello just didn’t have the ring he was going for,” B’Elanna replied with a smirk.
Chakotay nodded with approval and took a deep breath. In seconds, at least one of their problems might very well be solved.
“Activating enhanced navigational array,” Harry announced.
“Coordinates locked in,” Tom replied.
This was it.
“Activating tetryon transport system on my mark…three…two…one…mark.”
The shuttle lifted from the bay deck and inched toward the invisible plane created between the two transport alcoves, now separated a wide enough distance to accommodate the shuttle’s width. In a flash of brilliant white light, Homeward Bound disappeared from the shuttlebay.
A pregnant pause…
…long enough for B’Elanna to confirm the shuttle’s arrival…
…silence…
Chakotay’s jaw tensed.
“Where are they, Lieutenant?” he asked.
B’Elanna’s fingers were flying across the sensor controls. Grid after grid was being searched, each replacing the last on the viewscreen as the computer confirmed quicker than the eye that the shuttle was nowhere to be found.
“I can’t…” B’Elanna s
tammered, then slammed her fists onto the panel in frustration.
“I have no idea,” she finally said.
“Does that mean they didn’t reach the edge of the system…or…?” Neelix asked, hurrying to join them.
He was interrupted by a call from Ensign Brooks over the comm. “Shuttlebay one to Lieutenant Torres.”
“What is it, Brooks?” B’Elanna snapped.
“The tetryon transporter has been…well…” He paused, as if searching for the right word.
“Has been what?” Chakotay demanded.
“It melted, sir,” Brooks replied. “There was no explosion. I can’t imagine where the heat necessary to generate something like this…both of the alcoves from the array were completely destroyed, and they took two meters of conduit and panels in every direction with them.”
“Begin an immediate analysis of the debris. I’ll expect a full report within the hour. Chakotay out.” Turning to B’Elanna he said expectantly, “Well?”
“They didn’t arrive at the set coordinates,” B’Elanna said stoically, “and they’re not within a hundred light-years in any direction of the coded end point of the transport.”
Before any of them could give in to an inkling of despair, Chakotay raised his shoulders and snapped, “Find them, Lieutenant.”
B’Elanna’s eyes were brimming with tears. Refusing to allow them to fall, she managed a firm “Aye, sir,” and turned back to the console to begin her search.
In the last few months B’Elanna had lost too much. The first news she had received from the Alpha Quadrant while she had been building a new life for herself aboard Voyager had been about the massacre of the Maquis she had served with . The Maquis had taken something with them when they died, something she had never forced herself to clearly name. It was her passion, and her hope…the fire in her belly that had seen her through every impossible situation she had encountered as Voyager’s chief engineer. For months she had suffered this loss in silence, unsure how or where to even begin to make peace with it.
She would be damned before she would also lose one of her best friends, and the man she loved.
Not today, anyway.
Chapter 14
Seven of Nine intercepted Neelix en route to join Commander Chakotay in transporter room three.
“Oh, hello, Seven,” Neelix said somberly as she fell into step beside him.
“Are you unwell, Neelix?” she asked, more out of curiosity than concern.
“Oh…I’m fine.” He shrugged unconvincingly.
“You disapprove of the commander’s plan?” she asked. She had seen thousands being led into assimilation chambers. Neelix resembled those who already knew what they were facing.
“Well, let’s see,” Neelix said, “in the last ten hours we’ve managed to lose the captain, Lieutenant Paris, and Ensign Kim, and we’re about to intentionally antagonize at least one, possibly many of the Nacene while risking another encounter with the creatures who led Tuvok here and infected him with the parasite that is about to kill him. I don’t know if ‘disapprove’ is the right word,” he finished, shifting his modified phaser rifle from his right to his left shoulder. “I suppose if it were up to me, I might seriously consider just calling this the disaster that it’s been and getting out of here as soon as possible.”
The ocular implant seated at Seven’s brow rose quizzically. She had rarely known the Talaxian to be so vehement or pessimistic.
“The commander is attempting to see that the captain is returned to us,” Seven observed. “You do not believe the potential for success outweighs the risks inherent in the mission?”
Neelix sighed.
“Part of me does. But the rest of me keeps thinking about Naomi. There’s only so much I am willing to sacrifice, Seven,” Neelix said defensively.
“I understand,” Seven replied.
“You do?”
“The officers and crew aboard this vessel volunteered for the services they are performing. Naomi Wildman did not have the opportunity to make such a choice,” she stated with typical detachment. “It is…unfair,” she finished.
“I am certain of only one thing,” Neelix said after a thoughtful pause. “There are forces at work here that are more powerful than we are. And I don’t believe those forces have any of our interests at heart. The longer we stay, and the more we do to irritate them, the worse this is going to get. I don’t take our losses lightly. But we should accept them and move on, before there is no one left to grieve for those who are gone.”
Seven’s placid gaze remained fixed on Neelix.
“You are proposing an efficient method of resolving this crisis,” she said.
“Well, thank you,” he replied, not sure if she was actually complimenting him.
“Unfortunately, in my experience, Voyager’s collective is rarely concerned with efficiency,” she added as the doors to the transporter room slid open before them.
Chakotay had already returned the Key to its ceremonial box and placed it on the transporter pad. He was configuring his tricorder when they entered.
“I’ve analyzed the schematics of the array and found a way to take a little time off of our journey,” Chakotay said as they joined him.
“The pattern enhancers Seven and B’Elanna set up on the Betasis are still functioning. Once we’re there, we’ll travel a few hundred meters on foot to the nearest tetryon transporter.”
“You’re not actually suggesting we use them again?” Neelix said in disbelief, before adding a somewhat respectful “Commander? I mean, after what happened to Tom and Harry?”
“There is no other way to get from the first to the second ring where the lock for the Key is located. We’ve used them before and I’m reasonably certain that as long as we use them as they were designed, we should be safe.”
Neelix didn’t appear to be convinced, but hesitated to voice another round of doubts.
“From there, we should be able to transport to the series of transport alcoves nearest the room where the lock is located,” he indicated, pointing to the schematic. “Thanks to Tom’s experiments with their transport system, we have figured out how to manually enter our destination into their system and bypass the telepathic controls, as long as we are moving from one transport hub to another within the array. Otherwise, we’re talking about a journey through the array on foot of almost two kilometers. I don’t want to risk exposure to the creatures that infected Tuvok for that long, but if either of you disagree, now’s the time to say something.”
“I have been tracking the multiphasic life-forms for the past several hours,” Seven noted. “Most of them are currently located in what we believe to be the array’s engineering center, located on the first ring. By following the course you have set, we run very little risk of confronting them,” she said, adding, “Assuming our presence does not disrupt them in any way.”
“Neelix?” Chakotay asked.
“The quickest route sounds best to me,” he said as enthusiastically as possible.
“Very well,” Chakotay replied, taking his place on the transporter pad. “B’Elanna and I reconfigured the modified phaser rifles you are carrying to stun the multiphasic life-forms. My rifle is equipped with the neural agent that is toxic to the Nacene. If we should encounter Phoebe, or any other Nacene, mine is the only weapon that will harm them.”
Seven and Neelix nodded their understanding as they joined him on the pad.
When they were set, Chakotay ordered the transporter officer to energize.
Once aboard the array and then on to the second ring, the away team made its way through a few short winding corridors, some lined with the strange pattern-shifting portals Chakotay had discovered, until they reached the hallway that ended with the large metal doors that led to the chamber they were seeking.
Seven had kept her eyes glued to her tricorder as they walked, continuing to track the movements of the multiphasic life-forms. Neelix, whose thoughts were clearly elsewhere, managed to run straight
into Chakotay at the turn to the final corridor.
“I’m sorry, Commander,” he began to apologize, but Chakotay cut him off with a quick “Shhh!”
Neelix stepped aside and followed Chakotay’s fixed stare.
“Commander?” he asked, the remnants of his undigested ration pack making its uncomfortable presence in his stomach known to all three.
The end of the corridor was shrouded in darkness, but Chakotay had come to an abrupt halt at a faint flicker of movement in the shadows.
“Seven?” Chakotay asked, ignoring Neelix for the moment.
“One of the multiphasic creatures has just appeared at the entrance to the chamber,” Seven said evenly, stowing her tricorder and raising her rifle to its ready position.
Neelix immediately did likewise, and they allowed Chakotay to move into position behind them before they continued cautiously down the corridor.
Chakotay knew what to expect. The first creature had been terrifying to encounter, but he was confident that the shrieking approach he knew had to be imminent would not be sufficient to unnerve Seven, and for all his bluster, Neelix was both tougher and shrewder than he usually let on.
Placing his faith in both of them, he tread softly behind their formation, willing his nerves to silence their call for him to order all three to turn around and run for their lives.
The creature passed out of the shadows. Seven and Neelix got their first glimpse of the life-form they had seen up to this point on sensors only.
Chakotay’s expectations, though well founded, were nonetheless disappointed.
To Janeway’s surprise, she and Phoebe rematerialized inside engineering, a few meters from the diagnostic station where she and B’Elanna had been studying the Key shortly before Voyager had boarded the array. Janeway’s breath caught when she remembered that the Key had gone missing just before she had confronted Phoebe in her quarters, but Phoebe calmed her with a reassuring hand.
“I had to hide the Key in order to protect it,” she said, crossing to the station and rerouting transporter controls to remove the Key from the warp core.
