-
The Captain and the Governor talk for a little longer before Voronko bids farewell and breaks the connection, to be with his family at the end. His solemn image disappears from the main viewscreen and is replaced by the advancing starfield ahead.
After a long silence, Singh quietly asks Roble, "What will it be like for them? When the wavefront hits?"
The Science Officer says, "Instantaneous, ma'am. They will feel no pain."
A few minutes later but all too soon, the ship's sensors register a dramatic surge of rho radiation from Eta Ophiuchi A. The Captain leaves the big chair in the center of the Bridge, and she and Roble look over the shoulder of Lt. Paul Waterman, the astrophysicist seated at the Science console, as the data streams over his display screens. "This is it," he says tightly. "The star's normal rho emission reading is in the 90.3 to 106.7 rpc range. It's already at 195.3 rpc and rising... now 223... 266... now... good Lord, 294.4... still rising."
"The highest previously-recorded rho particle count is 271.3, Captain," Roble says.
-
The escalating tension induces Nia's scales, which prickle just beneath the surface of her face, neck and chest but itchy beneath her uniform and especially the tights she's always hated. She channels her concentration to keep the scales at bay. Retreating behind her natural armor at the first sign of danger is not a good look for someone on a command track.
Assuming she still is after today.
C'mon Singh, gimme permission to get us the fuck out of here faster than a crawl. Why wait ten hours to be completely safe? Why are we loping around like a revved-up shuttle?
But despite the impatience and instinctive dread clawing at her, Nia's engineering knowledge answers her own question. Resources. The ship's at its top limit as it is with 1200 extras and counting. Life support needs every iota of power Cheverez and his team can squeeze out.
And thanks to Kylah we've got two more bodies to worry about. Damn it, what if she's not the only one hiding stowaways?
Ignoring her own attempt to save two extra resource-wasters, Nia grinds her teeth while her fingers press into her panel as if physical force matters to the thruster controls--which it doesn't. There's really nothing she can do at this point except stay the course and pretend to be a lot cooler than if she'd give in to her nagging scales desperately wanting out.
-
Kylah's gaze is drawn back to Mr. Harris, as the only person she currently recognizes in this corridor. She wonders if he will remember her. It seems doubtful. When she saw him onscreen hours ago, she was dressed quite differently; besides, he seems to have contacted her crewmates as well. Likely all uniformed Starfleet officers look the same, especially to someone highly stressed.
Since her quarters are at the conjunction of two different corridors, she switches to eyeing the other direction. Not just waiting--hoping--for Velir, but in dread of seeing another officer who might wonder about her lingering outside her quarters. Worse, if it is someone aware of her confinement.
Her only chance is for Lt. JG Xiang to return and let her in. Kylah closes her eyes to imagine how fortunate she would be for that to happen. As she does, and her breathing slows, she frowns. The white noise of the ship sounds different. It is working harder--the engines are definitely engaged in something other than a mere orbit.
We are at warp, she realizes, eyes blinking open. Her heart thrums along with the engines. This is final confirmation that she has truly accomplished what felt impossible only three hours ago... the eternity since her uncle contacted her. A wave of relief flows through her and she hugs herself, smiling again and actually exhaling in a near sob of laughter. Nothing Starfleet can do to her will approach the repercussions she would have faced back home, had she failed.
-
The rho particle count hits 334.2 and stays there.
"Tactical display on the main viewscreen," says the Captain, frowning. "And give me an overlay of the wavefront."
Waterman touches a few switches and the starfield again disappears, replaced by a tactical grid, light blue on black, showing Novy Rostov, its deadly star and the nearer planets. The Yorktown is represented by a small Starfleet insignia slowly but steadily heading out-system, away from the planet. As almost everyone on the Bridge watches in silent horror, the green-tinted graphic representation of the wavefront advances on the planet, hits it, covers it, and keeps moving outward without interruption, a massive sphere only growing bigger, expanding in every direction. The starship retains its lead.
"Communications lost with the colony, Captain," Thalen says quietly. He takes out his earpiece and leans heavily against the Comm console.
"And with the Icarus satellite, ma'am," Waterman says, a few moments later, after checking his sensor displays.
"Thank you, gentlemen," the Captain says. She resumes her seat, lost in thought. Then she says, somewhat absently, "Maintain scans and aft shields. Mr. Brooks, plot an intercept course with the Sarafina. Then take us to Warp 5, please, when ready, Mr. Onn."
"Intercept course, aye," Brooks says, his voice shaking a little. Then, "Course plotted and laid in."
Outside Kylah's cabin, the ensign is suddenly overwhelmed by a sensation for which she is utterly unprepared.
-
Graham takes a deep breath. "Despite...everything..." he says to Marala and Nikolai, "we can still have our first dinner as a family..."
He extends an arm toward both "I'll walk us to a mess hall, together...if you like, of course."
-
With little else to do, Rangin heads back to Kylah’s cabin. It seems that everyone is more interested in either the exploding star or settling down to make the best of their situation, but all he wants to do is somehow forget it is happening. So many people, all lost and nothing he can do about it. He can’t face the colonists, knowing a little of how they must feel, and he keeps his eyes averted from the bodies occupying the corridors.
But he still can’t stop glancing up every so often, and as he rounds a corner, he can see Kylah, her smile and glow that starts with a far-sighted look and ends with her holding herself with almost carefree abandon. It’s a site he has not seen for a long time and it tears his heart a little, wondering what he can do to keep her smiling.
Sneaking up out of her sight, he smiles as well, relieved that this will all soon be over. This lasts only until he sees her start to buckle and he rushes across to catch her before she might fall.
-
Kylah just senses the approach of a warm, friendly presence when--
hold me / it's coming / it's here / God deliver us / lord give thou rest to our souls
Love, fear, faith, acceptance, denial, anger... too many. Too many emotions to distinguish in the space of a single heartbeat.
Before she can even start to comprehend all this, light pervades her vision, extinguishing the ship altogether, instantly followed by a flash of heat sizzling inside every atom.
And then--nothing.
Nothing. Oblivion so deep and dark she no longer has legs to stand on, much less a floor to support her. Just as she starts to crumple, the presence she sensed earlier nears and she instinctively reaches for a lifeline to draw her out of this void.
Even as she does, the memory of the last time she was rendered so impossibly numb and helpless floods her brain and chases reason away.
"No," she whimpers when gentle hands cradle her arms to prevent a collapse. "Why are you doing this to me?"
-
Nia is mesmerized, like almost everyone around her, by the onscreen depiction--animated, computer-generated, sterilized--of the utter destruction of a world and all its souls. The green sphere engulfs everything, even the other planets of the system (are they occupied? do they home any kind of life, animals, bacteria, anything? If so they are all gone too), and bleeds outward with geometrical symmetry to race toward the Yorktown. It cannot catch up, but despite Nia's greatest physical control, cold scales emerge on her wrists and arms, creeping upward.
Anticipating Singh's command, her fingers twitch with the impulse to push the ship's speed. While there's some brief quiet conversation from the others, Nia mentally replays the chilling destruction as portrayed on the viewscreen. As terrible as it was, she still regrets deeply that this is how they watched this world end. Not live, but rendered like a plot course. She knows any video image would've been lost almost immediately along with the other sensors, but Nia mourns the inability to provide these deaths the dignity of being witnessed and recorded by living eyes to be held there as long as each memory remains.
Far as she knows, it's only a belief of her sect of Sidonian religion--that a Death unwitnessed is a Life diminished--and Nia understands that the Yorktown wouldn't cater to the emotional needs of the sole representative of a culture, even one from a similarly doomed planet, even if it were technically possible.
But her heart aches at the inability to afford them the respect of honoring the deaths of thousands--especially when those deaths were partly their responsibility for not being fast enough, capacious enough, ingenious enough.
At last she hears the Captain's blessed command, and Brooks's competent if shaky response that gives Nia's imaginary raging thoroughbreds free rein at last. "Aye ma'am, increasing to Warp Five," she repeats in a quiet monotone. Under her breath, she adds a whispered, Forgive us, lost ones. Should it please Sid'Os, may her daughter speed their souls away.
And with the mere press of her fingertip she speeds the Yorktown and the painfully few survivors of this disaster on their own destined course. "Engaged."
-
Graham leads Marala and little Nikolai through the crowded corridors. The walk takes longer than Graham might have expected, as many of the Novy Rostov evacuees they see want to talk to or embrace Marala, all of them trying to come to grips with what has just happened. More than a few tears are shed. Nikolai seems a bit shaken by the experience by the time you reach Mess Hall 1. Fortunately, it is only about a third full.
The Yorktown surges ahead, accelerating to Warp 5. "Thank you, Mr. Onn," the Captain says. "Steady as she goes."
The Sidonian woman realizes that Brooks, at the Nav station to her right, has shut his eyes and is praying in a whisper she cannot quite understand.
-
Graham leads his new family to an empty table. He puts a hand on Nikolai's shoulder. "I know there's a lot--a lot to take in, to deal with, right now. But..."
He nods affectionately to Marala. "What do you say we show your mom what a state of the art Starfleet replicator can do, while she waits here?"
He winks conspiratorially and whispers, "Whatever her favorite food is, I bet we can get it."
-
Nikolai musters a small smile, leans closer to Graham, puts his hand to the side of his mouth and stage-whispers, "She really likes pasta with shrimp!"
She laughs, squeezes her son and says, "He's right; I do."
-
Rangin manages to catch Kylah as she sways, wrapping his arms around her to prevent gravity from taking over. As he does, cold emptiness sweeps over him at the same time as her voice echos out to him. Why are you doing this to me?
But he can't speak, words caught in his throat as he swims through a void, with the only anchor he can hold onto being Kylah. He wonders how he can answer her question, even to himself. Why is he doing this? I don't know why - just that I should.
All he can do is hold on, and though at first Kylah seemed afraid of him, her grip tightens on his arm. Somehow he knows she doesn’t want to let go, lost in a storm of nothingness, where life appears to have been ripped away and only emptiness remains.
+ + +
Kylah blinks. Instead of Darren Zweller, the man catching her near-paralyzed figure is Velir. How could she not recognize him? He is all around her, suddenly a partner within this lonely chasm. He is both within her mind and impossibly close, physically, his touch so warm against her chilled, clammy skin. And his response....
“You think you should?” she whispers, meeting a gaze that seems as bleary as her own. "What do you mean?" When she notices the tiniest frown of confusion, her mistake becomes apparent. He did not answer her question aloud. Those were his thoughts. His mind is communicating directly with hers.
Aside from moments months ago when she purposely reached out to Dr. T'Var through touch telepathy, Kylah has not experienced such a connection in years.
She is too in awe to find a way to excuse her slip, and too sympathetic to the tiny undercurrent of alarm his eyes convey. Instinctively she sharpens her mental focus. Velir. I can hear you. Did you sense what I did? See what I saw? Hands reaching up to grip his sleeves, she can hardly believe she is daring to ask: Are you listening to me now?
+ + +
Rangin slowly begins to recover, or at least, the cold is receding. He can feel Kylah, not just physically, but more a knowing of her. He clings onto those thoughts using them to guide him from the darkness back into some semblance of light. He opens his eyes, which have been screwed as tightly as possible, to discover the light slowly appearing is the glow from the overhead channel in the corridor. He blinks a few times, clearing the blur from his vision, and realises he is still holding Kylah tight.
He can only attribute this strange situation to his new psi abilities from the Sakathian virus. Except thinking about it, it's only been during those times he's been in contact with Kylah that he's felt similar. Clamping down on his bewilderment and any attempt to analyze what this means, he focuses on the here and now, and manages to find his voice.
“If i asked you what just happened, do you think you could tell me?” he quietly asks. “I couldn’t feel anything, it was so empty. The only thing was you, still is you.”
She inhales sharply, but she stays in his arms, no longer so fractious. His image is reflected within the black depths of her eyes. “Velir… I was so afraid. Out of nowhere, there was blinding colored light and then this--this--electricity that went right through me, and then nothing. Everything disappeared. I disappeared. I could not even stand. It reminded me of when dar--" Something flickers in her gaze and he watches her change the direction of her words. "Of when I was attacked."
Attacked? His mind races. Light, disappearing. Being teleported against her will? "You mean, on Anubis," he begins. But wait - she said electricity... The image of her melted communicator flashes in his mind. "Or whatever happened to your communicator? But why would you call that an attack--"
"No!" She seems aghast as her face pales. Her gaze darts from his, and Rangin almost expects her to back away. "Of course I meant Anubis. I should not have said anything. All I meant is that--that just now, whatever it was, I could not bear it. I do not understand what just happened at all, I wanted it to end. Until now…”
To his surprise she steps even closer. “You are here with me. I do not want to leave. I am afraid of what happens outside of--” Kylah’s head bows to stare at the arms circling around her. “Outside of here.”
Her words trigger an onslaught. Outside, nothing outside, except a vast emptiness, the void in which a sun burns hotter than ever and a colony lies waiting for its last moments...
“Wait," he breathes in sudden realisation. "Kylah. The Colony. Novy Rostov. Was that it? Did you feel them, a light of life extinguished in a moment?” He cannot comprehend if it is possible or not, but it feels right. “It must be near time now, perhaps already gone, but I can’t think of anything else. Did you - we - experience what they did?”
Kylah by choie, Rangin by Rangin
-
Already afraid she has said too much--not only did she nearly blurt Darren's name, but he must have sensed her thoughts about that evil device that shocked her and destroyed her communicator--Kylah is stunned by Velir’s suggestion. Her head shakes in denial even as the idea takes root.
“Experience what they did,” she echoes faintly. “The light was green. Radiation. And there were so many emotions, and then nothing. Only that void. Perhaps you are right. Oh Velir," she moans in horror. "Velir, that is--" It is terrifying, ghastly, gruesome. And far beyond anything else she has known. "No," she insists. "It is impossible. We must be lightyears from the planet by now. So very far away. It could not be. I have never been able to--”
Kylah stops cold before she continues the thought--that she has never had a strong empathic reaction to anything at such an extraordinary distance. Hurriedly, she changes tack. “I have never heard of such a thing. Why would that happen to me, how could it happen?” She peers around, grounding herself in the present, recognizing the crowded corridor and the refugees within it. Did they somehow amplify her abilities?
It is possible. But of course, the answer is right beside her, holding her closer than he has since they were enamored of each other, weeks and weeks ago.
“It is you. Every time you have touched me, it--affects me. In the gym the other day, when you tried to help and I remembered..." She closes her eyes at the thought of Jan. "And today, earlier in the turbolift. You grabbed my hand and again there was the same thing. You affect me, you make me feel too much.” Kylah pauses and her voice lowers to a whisper. “You always have.”
+ + +
Rangin may be listening to what she is saying, but he tries to free his mind from the world around and think solely of her; her emotions. Sensations he is totally unused to and yet they are just as real as the softness of her curves against him. As he does, he opens up to her in ways he has only read about from his studies of empaths and telepaths.
He can't help searching, exploring. There is something there, something guarded, something still holding back but still warm, gentle and almost yielding to him. And then he's alarmed to feel a similar touch from her, seeking what is in his mind at the same time, and he starts to recoil. There are still some memories he never wants to think about again, let alone share with someone else at this time. Even if that person is Kylah.
Confused, he lets his arms start to fall away from her waist where he's still holding her as he tries to make sense of it all.
+ + +
When his embrace loosens, Kylah almost grieves the impending loss. “Please," she blurts, fingers gripping his sleeves again. "Please do not leave me yet. The emptiness is still there. Like a black hole, a vacuum..." All those colonists. Did she really sense them, hear their prayers? Are she and Velir the last living record of their lives? "Velir, we have lost so many people. They are gone and yet the pain remains. All their neighbors and colleagues around us... I do not want to sense them, too.”
Even as she speaks, she is abruptly conscious of the inappropriate behavior they are displaying among strangers and scattered crewmates. She does not think anyone likely to notice them given the circumstances, but it still wakes her from what already seems a hazy dream. The gravitational pull that bound her with Velir dissipates. Reluctantly she, too, releases her grasp of his sleeves and backs away. Stark reality returns. She is outside her quarters. Disobeying the order of the First Officer.
She swallows. “But... of course. I forgot myself. Security will realize I am not where I should be, in confinement. I do not know what to expect, but… " But I am afraid, I want more, I want to remember the joy I had just moments ago... I want you.
"Even if we cannot be close," she says, barely brushing his elbow with her fingers, "this close... may we still be together? Just a little while longer? Until they come for me?”
Kylah by me, Rangin by Rangin
-
Rangin looks at her, at his empty arms. “I’m sorry, I panicked a bit. It's just I could almost feel you, not by touch, but by something closer, more - more together.” He’s unable to articulate his meaning, and most of all unsure what to mention. That he could feel the walls around her, that she is still keeping secrets from him, that it just seems to be part of her nature that monumental things happen around her. He nearly tells her. Should he, should he indeed?
That intimate moment has passed and he's left wondering what he's getting into once again, as he has done so many times before. And yet despite everything he can’t resist.
Not this time merely over some allure, some thrill of danger or peril, but because Kylah needs someone to be there to help her untangle her life. And, perhaps, because at this time, he doesn’t have anyone either. He thinks back to those lost in the colony, just as she described seconds ago. Then earlier in his life, his friends on Coridan, whether by accident or Orion Syndicate, and then the USS Lexington and how so many were lost in that tragic event. That crew he was so much a part of is now scattered to the four corners of the cosmos. Too, while the crew here are fine, there is no-one he is truly close to.
Just Kylah. And perhaps he needs her as well
His arm reaches out warily as though merely touching her could start the whole train of events again. When his hand brushes the back of hers, he is relieved that it doesn't. Finally he slowly turns her palm and gently wraps his hand round hers.
“Awhile longer, I don’t see why not. Everyone needs someone at one point in time or another.”
In his hand, her cool fingertips return his clasp, soon growing warm beneath his touch. A sweet, pleased sigh escapes her, and Rangin can't help an exhale of his own.
They say nothing further, just stand. Together.
Kylah by choie, Rangin by Rangin
-
Nia avoids eye contact with Brooks, respecting the privacy of prayers and faith. Whenever he eventually pauses she'll just murmur her understanding, her recognition that this is one of the most painful, grave acts they have ever faced. It'll only be a few words. She can barely think, much less articulate the magnitude of what's just happened.
Still, when he's able to listen, Nia will reach out. A few seconds of mutual grief, and then they'll continue their duty. Because whether she's stripped from command gold to regular red as a result of everything she's done today, this is her only life; she'll survive whatever comes and move on.
That's what everyone expects of her, that's what Nia does best. She moves on.
-
Graham and his new family break bread together and are able, for a little while at least, to put the recent tragedy out of their minds.
Rangin and Kylah stand together, enjoying this unexpected, unsought moment of intimacy. Everything else seems to drop away and it is almost as if they are alone together, and happily so, even on this huge, teeming ship.
On the Bridge, Brooks stops praying. Without a word he smiles, barely looking at Onn, and then he briefly, gratefully squeezes her hand, before they both return to their duties under the Captain's watchful eye.
The Yorktown races on, farther and farther out into deep space, towards the fleeing Sarafina, already well on her way to Beta Antares IV. In a few days both will rendezvous with the other ships converging even now to help relieve their overcrowding.
The evacuees will soon begin a new chapter in their lives, a chapter of both grief and hope, of remembrance and at least some measure of guilt. But for too many others now falling far behind, silenced forever, dead as one, each lost in the doomed colony of Novy Rostov, there is nothing more to say....
THE END
