Star Trek: Voyager - 041 - The Eternal Tide Page 30

  “If what Captain Eden has told us is correct, it was never meant to be,” Seven replied.

  “And what is the nature of this particular realm?” the chief engineer pressed Seven, trying to understand.

  “The nature?”

  “Is it a good witch or a bad witch?” Conlon asked.

  Seven stared at her as if she had completely taken leave of her senses.

  “It’s a really old story, Seven,” Conlon sighed. “Never mind. You said this realm could share properties with the Q Continuum. That place is the home of we don’t know how many incredibly powerful sentient beings whose intentions toward us have usually been dubious at best. Are there life-forms running around in this new realm too, and are they likely to take kindly to whatever we’re about to do to it?”

  “We do not possess sufficient data to answer that question with any degree of certainty. But, the fact is that these weaknesses have existed between our universe and this realm for thousands of years. And the experiences of the one sentient race of which we are aware as they journeyed through it suggest that it is uninhabited at the present time.”

  “Except for our people,” Patel added quietly.

  “That is the hope,” Seven agreed.

  “Hang on,” Conlon said, stepping up to the panel beside Seven and beginning to run her own series of calculations.

  “Lieutenant?” Seven inquired.

  “I just want to see something,” Conlon replied, continuing to work.

  After a few moments, a new image appeared on the wide display of the astrometrics lab. At the base of the screen was a small red area that roughly conformed to the present position of the anomaly. Sharp red lines dispersed in every direction from a central point, with small white dots representing the position of the three trapped ships.

  “Come on,” Conlon hissed under her breath.

  “What are you attempting to do?” Seven began, but her breath caught as a few moments later, a second bright red patch appeared several meters from the first. A third, fourth, fifth, and sixth soon joined it.

  Conlon smiled faintly. “I’m not a witch at all. I’m the biggest antenna you ever saw.”

  “What is she talking about?” Patel asked. “Is that the Gamma Quadrant?”

  Seven studied the engineer’s calculations. “You have directed our subspace sensors into the anomaly.” The admiration was clear in her tone.

  “Not exactly,” Conlon replied. “We’re still a little far out for that to work. However, the Quirinal is on the front lines. I’m using what’s left of their sensor grid, and slaving it to ours.”

  “And this display represents the entire galaxy?” Patel asked, awed.

  “By looking through the anomaly, rather than around it, we get a very clear picture of the weak points in our galaxy,” Conlon said. “I bet we could expand the search, but for now, it’s not really necessary.”

  Seven was now working with intensity at Conlon’s side. Patel had grabbed an adjacent station, and was also attempting to build upon Conlon’s work. “Every scan we’ve run so far tells us that nothing beyond the anomaly’s boundaries has ever existed. That somehow the anomaly erases matter and energy. It should have affected the portions of the vessels still in normal space. The fact that it didn’t means that the rest of the ships are still there,” Patel said, her hands working the controls.

  “Which I surmised given the fact that the ancient race who broke this thing in the first place actually survived a journey through it,” Conlon stated.

  “If Quirinal’s comm system can be properly modified, similar to your subspace scan,” Patel picked up, “we might be able to transmit a signal to our people.”

  “Yes,” Conlon agreed, “and if we can talk to them, we might be able to coordinate our efforts to free them.”

  A few moments of silence passed as the three women worked. Finally, Seven activated the comm channel and was rewarded with a harsh burst of static.

  “Keep at it, Seven,” Conlon encouraged her.

  The crackling diminished and finally a single high-pitched whine against a background of white noise filled the lab.

  “This is Voyager to any member of the Federation fleet who is receiving this signal. Please conform your signal to these parameters and respond.”

  She repeated her request five times before she was rewarded by a sharp blurt of static.

  “Who is it?” Conlon asked.

  “A moment, please,” Seven replied evenly.

  Patel walked from her station and joined the others standing before the main panel. “You’ve got them?”

  “I appear to have someone,” Seven replied. She then repeated her original request followed by, “Please identify yourself.”

  “. . . give me . . . minute . . . Federation . . . Voyager? Voyager,can you hear me?”

  All three turned briefly to share genuine smiles of excitement. Seven said again, “Please identify yourself.”

  “Miles Jobin,” came a gravelly voice, much more clearly this time. “Where are you people?”

  “We are in the Delta Quadrant,” Seven replied. Conlon called up crew manifests for each of the four trapped ships to do a quick search for his name.

  “He’s not there,” Conlon said, obviously confused.

  “The Delta Quadrant? Since when is the Federation sending ships to the Delta Quadrant?” Jobin replied.

  “He’s not there because he is not one of our crew members,” Seven said, faintly, her eyes widening.

  “Who is he?”

  “I believe he is one of Captain Eden’s uncles,” Seven replied. “Mister Jobin, please keep this channel open as long as possible.” Turning, she activated the shipwide comm. “Captain Chakotay, report to astrometrics immediately.”

  QUIRINAL

  Walking through a starship hanging dead in space was not one of B’Elanna Torres’s favorite exercises. In the hours since the rescue of most of her crew, the Quirinal had slipped almost a meter farther into the anomaly. As she walked through the halls of Deck 16, the corridor’s internal illumination system flickered randomly, giving the ship the feel of a haunted house. Fluctuations in the internal gravity exacerbated the ever-present nausea in her gut, making it awfully difficult to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

  After installing a set of pattern enhancers as close to the engineering section as they dared, the three had made their way toward main engineering. As they neared the entrance, the lights flickered on several data interface panels amid a tangle of ODN cables heaped in the hall outside the doors. B’Elanna took a moment to mourn the Herculean effort she had undertaken, just a few weeks earlier, to rebuild Quirinal.

  “What happened here?” Cambridge asked with an uncharacteristic tinge of fear in his voice. B’Elanna was pleased to see that there were things that breached even his formidable wall of wry composure.

  “Could this have happened when they entered the anomaly?” Eden added.

  B’Elanna shook her head. “No, sir. I’m guessing they were concerned about continuing to work in main engineering and were trying to restore as many systems as possible remotely. We need to get in there and see what happened.”

  “After you.” Cambridge smirked.

  “No.” Eden stepped forward. “I’ll go first. Both of you, a few paces behind.”

  B’Elanna fell in line behind the captain. Her heart quickened the moment she entered the bay and saw the barrier: a dense, inky blackness cut through a space she knew as well as her own quarters. It took her a few seconds to remember to breathe.

  “Hello, there,” Cambridge said softly behind her.

  Eden’s eyes never left the thing, as she lifted her head and scanned every visible inch of the nothingness.

  Not wanting to remain there one second longer than necessary, B’Elanna quickly set the portable scanner she had brought along on the deck and began to activate its components. Once she had established baseline functions, she then worked quickly to see if her portable system could sti
ll interface with Quirinal’s own sensor grid.

  Captain Eden walked slowly beside the barrier, altering her course only when the central warp and slipstream assembly forced her to veer way around them. Cambridge moved to her side, and B’Elanna was conscious of an exchange of quiet words between them. So focused was she on her own efforts, however, B’Elanna did not bother to try and make out their conversation.

  • • •

  After granting Afsarah a few minutes of silent contemplation, Cambridge forced his own suffocating fear of the barrier aside and stepped toward her. Standing within meters of it was almost more than he could bear. Only the terror of admitting to Seven that his courage had failed him kept him in motion until he reached the captain’s side.

  “Well?” he asked.

  “My feet are still on the deck, as you can see,” she replied.

  “Is it telling you anything?”

  She shook her head slowly.

  Cambridge took out a medical tricorder, set to read the captain’s continuing quantum state, and stepped back. He knew that if the display bars shifted from a bright green to an orange-ish hue, there would be cause for alarm. Leaving it active, he dropped it into his pocket. The captain had moved to a position near the bulkhead and remained quite still as she peered upward.

  “What is it?” he asked softly.

  Her brow, furrowed in intense concentration, suggested she was seeing more than the uncomfortable darkness.

  “Itak?” she whispered.

  “You see Captain Itak?” Cambridge asked, wondering if she could hear him.

  “And Chan.”

  So at least part of her is still here, Cambridge thought with relief.

  “And I think that’s Waverly.”

  “Who the hell is Waverly?”

  “Esquiline’s chief engineer.”

  “Anyone else?”

  “There’s a young woman. I don’t recognize her.”

  “Where are they?”

  Her breath grew more rapid as Eden replied, “The garden, or what’s left of it.”

  Cambridge placed a gentle hand on her arm. “Stay with me, Afsarah,” he commanded her softly.

  “Where is he? He should be there.”

  “Who?”

  “Tallar.”

  “Your uncle is not there?”

  “He must be, but I can’t—”

  At that moment, the tricorder in his pocket began to emit a low alarm.

  “Afsarah, listen to me. I want you to step back for a moment.” When she did not immediately comply, he said more firmly, “Captain Eden, listen to me. Look at me.”

  “Captain, Counselor,” Commander Torres called from behind them.

  “What is it?” Cambridge asked without daring to tear his eyes away from Eden.

  “I’ve got a stable comlink with Voyager. Captain Chakotay is advising that Captain Eden needs to transport back immediately.”

  Cambridge shook his head. “Have you finished your work, Commander?”

  “No. I’ll stay,” she replied.

  “Not alone,” he decided. “And the fleet commander is not yet ready to leave, either. Tell Chakotay we need a few more minutes.”

  “Understood.”

  As ship’s counselor he could declare Eden unfit and relieve her of command, but he knew that whatever was happening to her could be crucial in resolving the situation. Against every instinct for self-preservation he possessed, Cambridge stood in front of Eden and asked, “Captain, do you hear me?”

  OMEGA CONTINUUM

  “Then we are all agreed?”

  “Yes, Itak.”

  “Yes, Captain.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Where is Tallar? Shouldn’t he be here, Itak?”

  “He is nearby.”

  “Where?”

  “I cannot see him, but I sense him. He is reluctant.”

  “Then shouldn’t we reconsider?”

  “No, Ensign Johns, I do not believe so. He understands what is at stake here. He will join our efforts.”

  “And if he doesn’t?”

  “Patience, Xin.”

  “I’m still not exactly sure how we’re going to manage this.”

  “In much the same manner as you managed to arrive in this garden, Lieutenant Waverly.”

  “And you’re sure that what we do here will have an effect on the portions of our ships that still remain outside Omega?”

  “Our vessels remain intact. When we act as one to destroy the sections we are able to access, the unaffected sections may be cast adrift, but without anything to anchor them, they will quickly decompress and be destroyed.”

  “When do we do this?”

  “When we are all ready.”

  “And Tallar?”

  “I believe he is coming now.”

  VOYAGER

  Less than a minute after receiving Conlon’s summons, Chakotay entered astrometrics.

  “Lieutenants Conlon and Patel, I’m ordering both of you off duty for the next four hours.”

  “Captain,” they both began to protest.

  “I’d give you eight if I could, but as it stands, I need you refreshed, if not well rested.”

  Although their disappointment was clear, they nodded dutifully and departed. Chakotay then tapped his combadge and said, “Chakotay to Paris. Initiate transport.”

  “Aye, Captain,” Paris replied, and seconds later, Admiral Janeway appeared in a cascade of particles and light.

  “What do you have?” she asked immediately.

  “I believe the individual on the other end of this signal is Miles Jobin, Captain Eden’s uncle,” Seven replied.

  Janeway nodded. Turning to Chakotay, she said, “Is Captain Eden on her way?”

  Chakotay shook his head. “We’ve established contact with B’Elanna, but she indicated they’re not ready to return.”

  “I don’t think she’d want to miss this, do you?”

  “I can’t exactly order her back,” offered Chakotay.

  For a moment Chakotay watched Janeway wrestle with the idea that she could, but clearly wouldn’t. Nodding briskly, the admiral stepped aside to allow Chakotay to take her place. He turned to Seven. Wordlessly, Seven reopened the channel and signaled Chakotay to proceed.

  “This is Captain Chakotay of the Federation Starship Voyager. I understand you are Miles Jobin. Is that correct?”

  “Yes, Captain,” the gruff voice replied. Seven couldn’t help but note a tone of dismay that had crept into the man’s voice.

  “Are you related in any way to Afsarah Eden?”

  “Is my daughter there?” Jobin demanded. Clearly the possibility had never crossed his mind. “Is she safe?”

  “Captain Eden is commanding a fleet of vessels here in the Delta Quadrant,” Chakotay replied. “But she is not presently aboard our ship. She will join us as soon as she is able. What is your present location, Mister Jobin?”

  “Same place I’ve been for the last forty years. The Beta Quadrant, just outside the Lantaru sector.”

  “And how did you come to be there?”

  “None of your damn business,” Jobin replied. “Where’s my daughter?”

  Janeway exchanged a glance with Chakotay as he replied, “Several of our vessels have become partially trapped inside what we believe is a breach into normal space-time of a discrete realm. Captain Eden is presently on one of those ships, attempting to gather information about the boundary that separates that realm—”

  “Hell and damnation, get her out of there right now!”

  “We have a transporter lock on her as we speak, and I can assure you she’s quite safe.”

  “None of you is safe. If she passes through that barrier, it’s all over. She doesn’t know it and that’s my fault. But you can’t let her anywhere near it. Do you hear me?”

  “Why not?” Chakotay demanded.

  Jobin paused, and his voice was thick with emotion when he continued. “It’s my fault. I should have told her before we ever left
her on Earth. But Tallar swore we’d be back. He swore to me on her life.”

  Chakotay’s voice took on a more compassionate tone. “I believe you had nothing but the best of intentions for her. She knows she is connected in some way to this anomaly and will gladly risk her own life to find out the truth. If you know that truth, Mister Jobin, and if you love her, you need to tell me what it is. I want to help both of you, but I can’t unless you tell me everything you know about this anomaly.”

  “You swear you’ll keep her safe?”

  “I do,” Chakotay replied as a faint shudder ran through his body.

  “I used to be in Starfleet, you know. I found the damn thing in the first place. I was a green ensign running gamma-shift sensor sweeps. The first time I saw it I figured it was a glitch. I took the readings to Captain Leeds and he agreed. But I knew there was more to it. It was a gut thing, you know. Anyway, Tallar and I were never cut out for the service. Neither one of us could stomach the chain of command. After our enlistments ended, we resigned, and the first place we decided to explore was my foolishness.”

  “Jobin’s Folly,” Chakotay said softly, but loud enough for him to hear.

  “She figured that out, did she? Of course she did. Afsarah was smarter than both of us combined, and that’s saying something.”

  “The anomaly you discovered was a highly localized area where the normal laws of space-time were suspended,” Chakotay urged him on.

  “Try ‘negated,’ ” Jobin huffed. “The damn thing could eat space-time itself. Nothing that went in should ever have come out. But it’s not just nothing. It’s a living nothing.”

  “I’m sorry?” Chakotay asked, clearly confused. “Are you saying there is some sentience to it?”

  “Not life as we know it. But it lives to destroy. Once it knew we were out there, I think it got curious, or lonely.”

  “Captain Eden believes that another race, an ancient species, pulled this realm into ours. They traveled through it thousands of years ago.”

  “Afsarah found them too? Damn it all! That’s my girl.”

  “She found the remains of their civilization,” Chakotay clarified.

  ”Then she knows more than I do,” Jobin insisted.

  “No, she doesn’t,” Chakotay corrected him. “She knows their story, but she doesn’t know her own. Where did she come from, Mister Jobin?”