“And then we could bring Khala home,” said Ezbai.
Chakotay’s hand was getting tired. “Can I move my hand now?” he asked.
“Certainly, certainly!” enthused the Implementer. He seemed jolly now. No doubt he thought that the dark-matter explanation would solve everything. “Thank you for indulging us. We know you are telling the truth now. It won’t be asked of you anymore. However, there are some things that puzzle me. You speak of things like the Delta Quadrant. I’ve never heard that term. And all of the aliens of which you speak are unfamiliar to us.”
That troubled Chakotay slightly. These people did not strike him as insular. “It’s a big quadrant, and perhaps you have another term for it,” he said. “But surely you know of the Borg, or at least have heard other aliens speak of them.”
The Implementer shook his bald head. “Not a word.”
“Consider yourselves lucky, then.”
“From what you have told us, I promise you, we do.” He rose, and everyone else around the table, including Chakotay and Ezbai, emulated him. “We are pleased that you and your companion were not the killers. And it sounds as though you have solved the mystery about why these killings are taking place at all. Ezbai will see you back to your quarters, and come fetch you in the morning. We’ll want you to undergo your medical exam first thing, so that you can join us in helping us find your ship.”
Chakotay regarded him for a long moment. He was delighted that he and Tom were no longer under suspicion, but felt certain that things were not as simple as the Implementer made them out to be.
Things were not that simple at all.
CHAPTER
5
“COMMANDER TUVOK,” SAID ERIIH, THE HEAD OF THE Kwaisi Council. “What a surprise.” The flat tone in which he uttered the words indicated he was anything but surprised. By this time Tuvok knew the species well enough to be able to recognize annoyance on the angular, mottled face. Deep, sunken eyes glowered at him.
“You must be a species that enjoys wasting time,” Eriih continued. “Didn’t you say something about having to rush off and save other planets from the dark matter?”
“Indeed we do,” said Tuvok, “and we require our captain for that task. She is our commanding officer. This crew has served her loyally for many years. Our ship is more efficient with her at its head, and we will require all the efficiency we can muster.”
Eriih sighed heavily through his beak-like nose. He leaned forward, and spoke with what appeared to be genuine compassion. “Commander Tuvok, you must not think us ungrateful. Your ship and your technology saved our planet. But because you have saved us, our legal system is still intact as well, and you must respect our way of doing things.”
“I do,” said Tuvok. “But there is more at stake than you yet realize. I request a gathering of the council, the crews of your defensive vessels, and Captain Janeway. Telek R’Mor and I have information that you need to know. We are certain that once you have this information, you will release our captain and permit us to continue our quest unhindered.”
“You are stubborn,” said Eriih, with not a little respect. “And intriguing. This goes against protocol, but I would say that the situation warrants it.” He spread his hands. “We are a reasonable people, after all.”
Tuvok lifted an eyebrow. He thought otherwise, but refrained from saying so.
“We will contact you when we are ready.”
* * *
“Ulaahn,” said Janeway with surprise as the Kwaisi captain stood at the entrance to her cell. “I thought you were awaiting trial, like myself.”
“I have been permitted to remain free until my trial date,” Ulaahn explained while the security guard deactivated the forcefield. “I am Kwaisi. I will not attempt to elude justice.”
A smile twisted Janeway’s lips. “And I might?”
“You have indicated a tremendous desire to rejoin your crew,” Ulaahn said. “You are not of our people, you do not have obedience ingrained in you.”
And thank God for that, thought Janeway. Obedience was a good thing, up to a point. But every individual had to decide what that point was. And blind obedience, certainly, was never good. She knew how vital it was that her ship continue gathering up the dark matter. Ulaahn’s assessment of her had been correct. She was not going to sit around, languishing in a Kwaisi jail, while innocent people died or went insane.
“Is there a reason for this visit?” she asked mildly.
“I have come to escort you to the council chambers. Your Commander Tuvok has managed to convince the council to reconvene regarding your trial. It seems he feels he has new information that will persuade them to change their minds and set you free.” Ulaahn’s voice dripped skepticism.
“Let’s hope he can,” said Janeway, but she felt as skeptical as Ulaahn appeared to be.
“Two to transport,” said Ulaahn, and a moment later they stood in the center of the Kwaisi Council chambers.
The room looked slightly better than it had when Janeway had last seen it, several hours ago. Most of the debris had been removed and the dust cleaned up. The fine carpeting that covered the floor still had slash marks, and colorful murals still bore cracks and what looked to Janeway like the Kwaisi equivalent of graffiti on them. Deep gouges marred the table at which the council sat. The last time Janeway had been in this place, she had been an honored guest. Now, she was a captive of the Kwaisi government, awaiting trial. She was not invited to sit at the table.
Instead, Ulaahn indicated a chair to the right of the central table. When Janeway sat down, a forcefield sprang into place around her with a faint hum. The Kwaisi were clearly not about to take any chances with their prized prisoner.
A few moments later, Tuvok and Telek materialized. Janeway was surprised to see the Romulan, and worried. Telek had been the first target of the Kwaisi. They had decided that he was, directly or indirectly, responsible for the spread of the dark matter in the first place, and that therefore he should be tried for his crimes against the Kwaisi. Janeway had argued with them. For that protest the Kwaisi had taken her, as she was R’Mor’s commanding officer, in his stead. She had no doubt but that they would love to get their hands on him as well. What was Tuvok thinking, beaming him down here?
Tuvok caught her gaze. He nodded, slightly, slowly. Janeway recognized that gesture. Tuvok knew something she didn’t, and obviously thought it worth the gamble. She settled back in her forcefield-enclosed chair. She had to trust him, and she desperately hoped he was right. The ship could continue on its mission without her, but it could not hope to do so without R’Mor.
“Let me first thank the council for agreeing to hear us out,” said Tuvok without preamble. “With your permission, I would like to open a channel to our vessel, so that the crew may witness this revelation as well.”
Revelation? A big word. Tuvok did not bandy words about. He always chose the precise term necessary. Janeway was desperately curious as to what this was all about.
“Certainly,” said Eriih generously. “We have nothing to hide.”
“You may also wish to broadcast what is about to transpire as well,” said Tuvok. “Your people should be aware of—”
“You may decide what your people get to hear, and I will decide what mine do,” said Eriih, his sunken eyes flashing. “We will record this and decide later if it is worth notifying the populace. Per your request, the crews of all the defensive vessels formerly under the command of Captain Ulaahn are being permitted to witness the proceedings.”
Tuvok inclined his head. “As you wish.” He squared his shoulders and, to Janeway’s astonishment, looked uncomfortable. He looked like someone who did not know where or how to begin. Finally he said, “Dr. R’Mor, you are the one to whom this knowledge was imparted. Do you wish to explain the situation to the assembly?”
Telek looked even more uncomfortable than Tuvok for a moment. Then, he took a deep breath, and stepped forward. He indicated a padd he held in his right hand.
&n
bsp; “I am no public speaker, or politician,” he began. “I cannot hope to sway you with charisma. I must convince you with facts, and my own sincerity. I have here some notes to which I will be referring.” He paused. “Among my people, we have something called the Right of Statement. It is given to every prisoner before his sentence is carried out. Captain Janeway has, I understand, told you a little of our adventures to this point. As far as my people are concerned, I am a traitor, though in truth I am none. I have been preparing my Right of Statement in the event that I am able to return home, where I will be tried for treason.”
A lump rose in Janeway’s throat. She had no idea that Telek had been drafting his last words.
“I will not read it, for that is not appropriate. But I will consult it from time to time. Are there trained scientists here?”
Several heads nodded. “Good,” said Telek. “You will be able to verify many of my statements. I will make certain assumptions of your knowledge; please feel free to ask for clarification if you require it.”
He was silent for a moment, looking down at his feet, gathering his words. At length, he raised his head. “My friends—for you are my friends; at this moment, all innocent peoples are—I speak to you today of dark matter—and dark matters.
“Over ninety percent of the matter in the universe is composed of dark matter. The rest is matter that we know and understand. We call it baryonic matter, and it is what composes stars, planets, this table, our very flesh. Even when we understand dark matter, its mystery lingers. Most of the time, we cannot see it, although we know that it is very nearly omnipresent. There are untold amounts of it in this room right now, perhaps hundreds of particles in a single strand of my hair. Dark matter is only visible when it interacts with subspace distortions, as in a dark-matter nebula. We have since learned,” and here he glanced over at Janeway, “that the reason we cannot detect it normally is because it exists simultaneously in all universes. The reason it becomes detectable in a dark-matter nebula is because the interaction with subspace pulls it completely into this universe.”
“Remarkable,” said one of the council members. “That is a theory that we have been working on for years. How did you prove this?”
Telek looked uncomfortable. “We were told this. We have documentation of the event, should you wish to see it.”
Janeway took a deep breath. If only they had solid data, rather than Tialin’s word! Though she knew, as others could not, how true that word was.
“Captain Janeway has perhaps told you of a being calling himself Ambassador Lhiau, of a race called the Shepherds. They have spent eons manipulating dark matter. Lhiau came to our people and offered us a cloak which would render our ships and even individuals completely undetectable. We, I regret to say, leaped upon the opportunity without investigating it completely. We have paid dearly for that mistake. Lhiau also used his ability to manipulate dark matter to assist in our creation of wormholes of practically limitless size.”
He was warming to the audience, who, to give them credit, were listening attentively. Janeway found herself leaning forward, even though nothing Telek had said so far could be termed a revelation.
“For what purpose did this alien Lhiau decide to help your people?” asked one of the scientists. “What did he offer, and what did he want in return?”
“He offered us quadrant domination. With the dark-matter cloaks, we had an advantage over every known species in the Alpha Quadrant. It was a very seductive offer. In return, he asked us to help him defeat his enemies. To the best of my knowledge, he has yet to reveal who these enemies are, or what grudge he has against them. But we have found out.”
Telek’s dark eyes flickered over to Janeway. “We encountered another member of his species, a being called Tialin. She told us of the true nature of dark matter, and that Lhiau was deliberately trying to pull dark matter fully into this universe. She told us he was a rogue, and that the Shepherds were desperately trying to gather up this mutated dark matter before it could do more harm. She enlisted our aid and gave us the technology so that we could assist them. Council members, you have experienced the effects of this mutated matter; you know what it does.”
They nodded solemnly. Across the room, Janeway saw Ulaahn look down. Many eyes went to him. He had been driven mad by the dark matter and had killed the entire crew of one of his own ships, convinced that they were all wretched, evil beings who needed to be destroyed. He would be tried for that.
Janeway was not fond of the Kwaisi in general, or of Ulaahn in particular. He was arrogant and rude, but now, at this moment, she felt a deep wave of compassion for him.
They had to listen. They had to see how awful this obscene, unnatural matter was. They had to let her go.
“What it did to planets and people it came into contact with was bad enough,” said Telek. Janeway’s head whipped around. What? There was more?
“But Lhiau’s evil goes far deeper than doing damage to a few solar systems. Let me digress for a moment, and discuss another theory. That of the nature of the universe.”
Janeway didn’t like where this was going. How was the nature of the universe tied into all this?
“We know that, first of all, ours is not the only universe there is. There are many others, some of which we know about, others which remain only theory. What lies inside a wormhole is not of this universe, for example. The small bubble inside Voyager’s warp core, which is safely containing all the dark matter we have been able to retrieve, is a universe unto itself. There is a mirror universe, which contains all of us, but in which our natures are very different. There is a theory of a Shadow Matter universe, related to our own only through gravity. There are Shadow people, Shadow planets, just like those in our more familiar universe. I confess, that is my favorite of the theories. It’s the imaginative romantic in me.”
Chuckles rippled through the crowd at the thought of the apparently staid Telek being an imaginative romantic. He smiled a little. Janeway raised an eyebrow in appreciation. He knew how to handle a crowd better than he let on.
“To return to the topic of the nature of our own universe, as usual, theories abound, but no one knows for certain. We know that the universe is expanding, and has been since its creation. Some believe it is what is called an ‘open universe,’ and it will continue to expand forever. Matter will be spread out more and more sparsely, and the average temperature of the universe will fall steadily toward absolute zero. My people call this ‘the Freeze.’”
Janeway nodded her understanding. “The Big Chill” was what humans called it.
“Others feel that there is enough matter present in the universe to halt this expansion. Everything will collapse back inward. The universe will become compressed, and become a ‘closed’ universe. We call this ‘the Squeeze.’”
The Kwaisi scientists were nodding too, now. Janeway knew this was “The Big Crunch,” another playful human term for something quite dire.
“Now,” and Telek placed the padd on the table and raised his hands in a helpless gesture, “some accuse scientists of wasting time on things like this. After all, they say, the universe should continue as it is for an unimaginably long time before either scenario occurs.”
Janeway had to smile to herself. Once, as an exercise, she’d had to write down just how long it would be until, by all estimates, the universe either Crunched or Chilled. She’d written down the numeral 1, followed by a hundred zeroes. It was quite a long time.
“You will observe that both of these theories hinge on the amount of matter present,” said Telek. He had clasped his hands behind his back and was walking back and forth at the front of the gathering. Janeway realized what he was doing. He was turning this into a lecture at the Romulan Astrophysical Academy. He was in his element.
“Too much matter, and we have the Squeeze. Too little, we have the Freeze. Therefore, dark matter, which comprises ninety percent of the matter in this universe, has a significant role to play in either scenario.”
“But there is a third option.” His dark eyes caught and held the gaze of first one scientist, then another. “And when I say it, you will realize why I can call myself an imaginative romantic for even entertaining the idea. This is the concept that our universe is neither open nor closed, but flat. There is something called a critical density.”
Janeway was familiar with the critical-density concept. She tried to remember—ah, yes, one hydrogen atom per cubic meter, or about one ounce for every fifty billion cubic kilometers. It was amazing what you remembered from your Academy days sometimes.
“A flat universe,” Telek was saying, “is one in which that density is exact. If our universe is indeed flat, it would keep expanding, but slowly, never quite turning the corner. It would exist forever.”
The scientists in the crowd were frowning now. Janeway wondered why Telek had even brought up this ludicrous theory. No one had ever truly entertained it for centuries. All it did was undermine his authority with his fellow scientists.
“Of course, such a thing could never naturally occur,” said Telek, soothing the ruffled feathers of the scientists. “But what about—unnaturally?”
Janeway’s heart skipped a beat. The hairs along her arms and the back of her neck rose up. All of a sudden, she suspected she knew where Telek was going with this little lecture. And she didn’t like it at all.
The room was utterly silent. “Suppose,” said Telek, “for the last few billion years, the matter in the universe has been toyed with? A little taken here, a little put there, to keep it precisely at this critical density? Everything in balance, everything working out just perfectly?”
He whirled and slammed his hands on the table. “That is what the Shepherds have been doing!”
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