"Loopholes"
A Star Trek Voyager Story By Lal Soong
Captain's log, Stardate 59237.34 After we discovered a wormhole yesterday, the atmosphere aboard Voyager is a bit melancholy. We briefly entertained the idea that this phenomenon would be the one to finally take us home. How many more times must we anticipate our return to the Alpha Quadrant only to be once again thwarted? The anomaly was so small that nothing larger than a probe could have been sent through successfully. I chose not to waste time investigating the wormhole further. Our journey has already been lengthy enough and we still have forty-eight thousand light years left to go.
"Captain, I'm picking up another wormhole, " Harry Kim said excitedly. Less then twenty-four hours before the ensign had made the same announcement.
Janeway glanced expectantly at her ops officer. "On screen," she ordered. "And Harry, this time, make it a bigger one."
Minutes after they'd happened on the first wormhole, they learned it was no more than five meters in diameter. They could have sent one of their probes through to see where it lead, but why bother? The crew had been disappointed enough times. Above all else, Janeway wanted to see her crew happy. It was better for all not knowing.
Grinning at his captain's feigned order, Harry carried out the first one. A ripple formed in the space directly ahead of them. Harry held his breath as he determined the size of the pocket. "Six point three meters in diameter, barely larger than the last one."
"Is this some type of cosmic joke?" Tom Paris asked from the conn.
"Harry," Commander Chakotay spoke up, "Scan the area for any phenomenon that may be responsible for the formation of these pockets."
"Aye sir," the ensign replied. After a moment, he informed them, "Scans detect no unusual phenomenon in the immediate area."
"Perhaps the wormholes were artificially created," Tuvok suggested. The other members of the bridge crew looked toward him quizzically. "We cannot assume these wormholes are unusable by their creators simply because we cannot use them."
Janeway nodded in agreement; the Vulcan was right. If these wormholes were artificial, their creators could be sentient fireflies for all they knew. "Captain, should I send a probe through this pocket?" Ensign Kim asked.
The captain deliberated over this for a moment "No," she finally said. "Any answers we might find inside this wormhole won't bring us any closer to home. Mr. Paris, continue our course toward home."
Chakotay leaned toward her and in a non-condescending tone, said, "If this pocket leads to the Alpha Quadrant, it could afford us another opportunity to communicate with friends and family from home."
"Are you suggesting we should take a vote on this? I believe the crew has met with too many disappointments over the last several years in the Delta Quadrant. Our friends and family know we are alive. We should continue at top speed and hope to arrive back home in our lifetimes. Who knows, maybe the next wormhole will be much larger." She turned away from Chakotay to address her helmsman. "Paris, turn on the ignition and drive this ship."
"Yes Ma'am," the pilot responded.
The bridge crew conceded to Janeway's orders even as they encountered three subsequent pocket wormholes over the next week. Curiosity grew rampant among the crew and some were making bets as to when they would encounter the next and how large it would be. Some were even laying odds on how many more it would take to arouse Janeway's curiosity enough for her to order a probe sent through. Janeway knew that most of the crew were betting against her being able to resist investigating another wormhole.
"Captain, what's it like in the Alpha Quadrant?" nine-year old Jeremy Paris asked her in the mess hall one day. Jeremy had been the second born, nearly four years after Naomi Wildman. Only due to the strange powers of an alien wishing stone, he'd aged three years in the first month of his life. Indeed, he might not exist if it were not for an ill-thought wish. Now as Janeway smiled at the boy, she admired him for his awe of the unknown evident in the way his eyes sparkled. As usual, he'd brought his furry friend, Rascal with him. Rascal, a Delta Quadrant native about the size of a squirrel, was only one of the many pets the boy had picked up during their travels. "Are there lots of animals on Earth suitable for pets?"
Janeway suddenly realized how many on Voyager had never even been to the Alpha Quadrant. The Delta Quadrant was their birthplace; their home. "Yes, many," she responded. "Earth is a lovely place. I left my friends and family there."
"Then we should try to return."
She had to admit, at least to herself, that she would love the chance to talk with her mother and her sister, Phoebe again, but they were still forty-eight thousand light years from home. If they stopped to quench their need for contact with home, they would only prolong their arrival. Janeway still felt guilty enough for dooming the crew to a life in the Delta Quadrant. She couldn't give in to any personal urges.
As her ready-room door swished open to admit Commander Chakotay, Janeway half-expected him to announce they'd arrived at another wormhole. Instead, his news was far grimmer. "Ensign Soames was injured by a plasma leak," Chakotay said. "It shouldn't have happened, if he'd been following standard procedures. B'Elanna tells me he had this half-cocked theory that he could modify our warp plasma to expand one of the pocket wormholes."
"Has the leak been contained?" Janeway asked.
"Fortunately, our chief engineer thought quickly and prevented a warp core breach. Voyager's engines are fine. Ensign Soames may not be so lucky."
Janeway would have to speak with her chief engineer about why she allowed one of her junior officers to attempt this experiment, but first she needed to get with the Doctor and find out how Soames was doing. She brought up her emergency medical holographic channel. "Doctor, how is your patient?"
"My patient, Ensign Soames, passed away two and a half minutes ago," the Doctor replied. "He did manage one request before his demise. He wishes to be buried planetside, not left floating in space."
The captain nodded. "Thank you, Doctor." She looked back up at her first officer. "Chakotay, you'll make the necessary arrangements?"
"Of course, captain," the commander said and turned to leave.
Janeway looked glumly down at her personal data padd. She had to say a few words about Ensign Soames in her logs. She couldn't allow herself to forget any member of her crew lost during their journey toward home. How many more wouldn't make it back to the Alpha Quadrant?
Chakotay researched Soames' personal files, trying to determine an appropriate method to say goodbye to a young man he barely knew. Soames had neither been a religious man, nor grounded by any family or cultural traditions. Until Chakotay happened on a psychological report from Soames' Academy days, he didn't understand the ensign's request for a land burial. The boy had an acute fear of being sucked out into the vacuum of space. With this understanding, Chakotay planned out a ceremony that incorporated a few well-known funeral rituals. He chose a Vulcan dirge, which Tuvok volunteered to sing, followed by a few spoken words by crewmen who worked closely with him in Engineering. Chakotay chose a cave for the burial site. Symbolically, it hid Soames from intrusions of any kind. The young man would be sheltered away from any of his phobias. Over the grave site, Chakotay had several stones placed in a pattern to help summon his spirit guide in the tradition of Chakotay's people. Last, Chakotay brought in the Bolian belief that a clean set of clothes and accoutrements should be provided for when he entered the next life.
Although the crew was touched by the painstaking details the commander went through to say goodbye to their lost crewman, none of them realized the significance that this funeral would have on their means of getting home. One man's death would bring their salvation.
After her entire crew was back aboard Voyager, Janeway ordered Paris to resume their course at warp seven. They encountered no more pockets for the next several days and the captain admitted, only to herself, that she felt a mixture of relief and disappointment at the prospect of discovering no more.
Chakotay ever perceptive caught on to her ambiguity. "Thinking about stopping at the next one, Kathryn?" he asked her in the privacy of her Ready Room.
"You know I can't give in to that urge," she responded, though there was some hesitation in her voice. "Besides, I think we've seen the last of this strange phenomena."
"Ensign Kim to the captain," Harry came over the comm system. "We've discovered another wormhole a hundred thousand kilometers ahead."
Slumping down in her chair, Janeway felt a headache coming on as she couldn't resist laughing at her absurd luck. "What was that you were saying," Chakotay asked with a smirk.
After they passed the latest pocket wormhole, crew members began approaching Janeway and openly admitting their feelings about her inactions. They wanted a chance at finding a piece of home again even if it meant only having the ability to send letters back and forth with loved ones more frequently. Thanks to the Pathfinder project they were able to communicate with the Alpha Quadrant once a month, but thirty days seemed like such a long wait if there was hope for daily communications.
Although they'd found several shortcuts during the past years of their long journey, many doubted they would ever see Earth again. More than half their journey still lay ahead of them.
"They're ganging up on me," she told Chakotay over dinner one night.
"Can you blame them?" he countered.
"I suppose if I don't concede with their wishes, I'll have a mutiny on my hands. All right. The next wormhole, we'll send a probe through."
Another wormhole did present itself about thirty-six hours later and Janeway did order Tuvok to launch a probe inside the pocket. All crew members stopped what they were doing to watch the wormhole from the nearest viewscreen. The probe returned minutes later, but it did not bring the news they'd hoped for. This wormhole led farther back into the Delta Quadrant, to a place they'd traveled through almost two years ago. With chagrin, the crew carried on their journey.
"I won't put them through that again," Janeway vowed.
Talk of the wormholes began to die down and even Chakotay expressed that he hoped they wouldn't encounter any more.
"Captain," Harry Kim said from his position at ops. The other crewmen on the bridge turned toward him expectantly. Not another one, Janeway thought. "Sensors are picking up an unusual phenomenon somewhere in the vicinity." He offered the captain a shrug.
"Somewhere?" the captain asked. "Are sensors malfunctioning?"
"Not as far as I can tell. It's as though sensors are picking up something from everywhere."
Janeway stood from her command chair and exclaimed, "Q!" Was he playing another game with them? "Show your face. If you won't send us home, then quit playing these games with us." She turned to her first officer for his input.
"We should ignore him," the commander suggested. "Go about ship's business as usual."
"One thing I've learned about Q is that ignoring him won't make him go away."
"Neither will laying out the red carpet."
"Captain, I'm picking up three of them," Harry said, interrupting their argument.
Almost as soon as the ensign had spoken, three figures materialized on the bridge. "Pardon the intrusion," the oldest of the three said. His tone was calm, soothing. He seemed to possess none of the arrogance they'd dealt with from any Q previously. "Normally, we don't interfere with the natural course of another's journey. However, in this case, we have been observing you and understand your overwhelming desire to return home."
"You're not from the Q-Continuum, are you?" Janeway asked.
"Let me finish." He turned first to his young male companion, then to the young woman on his other side. They stepped forward and he introduced them. "These are my companions: Wesley Crusher and Robin Lefler."
"If you're not Q, then who are you?" Chakotay asked, coming up to stand behind the captain.
"And what are you doing on my ship?" the captain added.
"We are here to convince you to turn around," the elder traveler responded. "You should have studied the wormholes."
"We sent a probe through the last one. It led further back through the Delta Quadrant."
"Yes, the last one you encountered did. I'm referring to the one before that. It exits only seventeen light years from earth."
Momentarily stunned by the prospect, Janeway glanced at her first officer as if to gain some composure from his presence. If she hadn't been so stubborn, her crew could have found comfort from the sending and receiving of letters to and from loved ones. This was another one for her to add to her long list of things she felt guilty about.
"How do you know this?" Chakotay asked, "Did you somehow create these wormholes?"
"No," The young man finally spoke up, "As he told you we are travelers, we don't invent or create anything. We simply try to understand it."
" Please tell me the Q didn't create it. I'll have no part of your game, if they did," The captain said.
The elder traveler closed his eyes, trying to gain a level of patience. "We do not play games. We come only offering our assistance, our knowledge. If you turn back, you will be home with your loved ones in days."
"I owe more to my crew than giving them a life consisting of a series of letters swapped back and forth to the Alpha Quadrant."
"You misunderstand." Wesley said. "The wormhole can take you back to the Alpha Quadrant."
"You propose we pilot a ship the size of Voyager through a hole barely larger than a probe?"
The female traveler stepped up to Janeway and held her hands out to the captain. "I was once like you," Robin said, "I could not see all the infinite possibilities. You view the world as spacial matter and overlook the power of thought."
"Are you suggesting that we can think our way through to the other side of the wormhole?" This notion reminded Janeway of the time she'd carried an ailing Kes through an alien temple, expecting faith alone to heal her. Could the same faith now send them home?
" Your thoughts play a part of your journey. Your strong determination to get home has gotten you this far," the traveler said. He reached out a hand and brushed it against Janeway's arm. She felt a small shock race up her arm and for a brief moment, felt slightly dizzy. "If you turn around now, someone will be there to meet you. They will have the knowledge to guide you through. We must leave you now. Good luck in your journey."
"Wait! If you know so much about these pockets, then why can't you help us?"
"It's not our place," he responded enigmatically. "We have interfered with your journey enough already." with that the threesome vanished from Voyager.
"Captain," Paris said from the conn, " Should I reverse the ship?"
"Not so fast," Janeway replied, rubbing at her arm. "I'm still not convinced that this isn't some trick of the Continuum. Tuvok, check the computer's database. See if you can find any reference to previous encounters with anyone calling themselves a Traveler."
"Aye Captain," the Vulcan responded and walked over to the science alcove to begin the task.
"Mr. Paris, maintain our course. Chakotay, you have the conn. I'll be in my Ready Room." She exited to her private room.
Janeway spent the time in her Ready Room trying to sort through her options. She lost track of the number of interruptions from concerned crewmen. They wanted to know if it were true that they'd had alien visitors and whether or not they planned to turn the ship around. Were the pocket wormholes more resourceful than they seemed? I wish I had some of the answers, Janeway thought to herself. She promised each of her crewmen that she would make an official announcement shortly. She used a data padd to attempt to sort through the pros and cons of heeding the Traveler's exhortations. If they returned to this wormhole, at worst they would be extending their journey by a few weeks. If she didn't give the command to turn back, her entire crew would always wonder, "what if?" And she would feel guilty for that. At the least, they could send probes containing letters from all the crew members through the wormhole. Whether or not the Traveler was telling the truth about where it led would shortly be answered by response letters or the lack of them. What reason did this Traveler have to lie to them? And more importantly, what would he gain by doing so? He implied that there was a way for Voyager to get through to the other side of the wormhole, to Earth. This weighed heaviest on Janeway's mind. Why had he refused to tell her how, if he indeed knew a way?
"Captain," Tuvok came over the comm system. "I've located the information on the Traveler you requested. It seems his companion, Wesley Crusher, once served aboard the Enterprise."
Janeway had her tactical officer transfer the information to her ready room, where she could study it thoroughly before addressing her crew. Wesley had first met up with the Traveler at the age of fifteen and had witnessed the Traveler's ability to phase space and thought into one. Through the Traveler's and Wesley's joint effort in an warp engine experiment, the Enterprise had been hurdled not only far from home, but to another galaxy. While the first transwarp trip had been accidental, the Traveler had been able to repeat the experiment and return the Enterprise back to the Alpha Quadrant. If he had this ability, why didn't he offer to send Voyager home? Why go to the trouble of trying to convince her to retrace their steps and explore another possible means home?
Suddenly Wesley Crusher appeared before her. "He has good reasons, captain. Stop wasting time questioning him and accept the solution to your problem."
"I am stubborn," she admitted. "You must answer me one question, though: Can this Traveler see into the future? I need reassurance that there is some rhyme and reason for his neglecting to offer to personally send us home."
"We understand time, space, and thought on a level you've only begun to question. Yes, you are correct in that we could have offered to return you home ourselves, but there are other factors that warrant another course of action. Captain Picard once asked the Traveler if he was from the future and in the sense that he exists on another plane of reality, the Traveler had to answer 'yes.' I don't expect you to understand now, but if you listen and accept our greater knowledge, your greatest purpose in life will be realized." Without waiting for her to respond, he phased out to some other existence.
Janeway turned off her monitor and stood. Making her way onto the bridge and to her command chair, she ordered, "Mr. Paris, reverse our course. Take us home." Her words sounded odd to her. What was that the Queen of Hearts said to Alice..."You got to move backwards to move forwards."
"Aye captain," Tom said. "Reversing engines."
Almost unanimously, the crew supported Janeway's decision. They believed that somehow a tiny wormhole would send a starship and its entire crew home. Neelix with his ever-present optimism was already throwing a party in the mess hall. With Tom and B'Elanna's assistance, he kept the festivities going around the clock so every crew member could participate when their duty shifts allowed.
Ensign Wildman was stationed at the conn when they arrived at the coordinates of the pocket wormhole that supposedly led to Earth. The captain ordered an all-stop. "Initiating an all-stop," Samantha responded. Without waiting for further orders, she brought the image of pocket onto the viewscreen.
For a long moment, the bridge crew marveled at its beauty until Tuvok broke the silence. "Should I launch a probe?" he asked.
Before she could voice the order, Harry delivered a startling announcement from ops. "Captain, I'm picking up another starship about two million kilometers and closing. It's Federation!"
"Magnify," she ordered. As the ship drew closer, she realized it was the Enterprise. "Hail them." She smiled broadly and glancing at her first officer and in turn, the other crewmen on the bridge, she noticed the reaction was contagious. The Traveler had led them in this direction so their comrades could be their rescuers.
For the first time in several years, a familiar face from home appeared on Voyager's viewscreen. "It's good to see you again, Voyager," Captain Riker said. "Welcome back to civilization."
"It's good to see someone from home. But how did you get here? And how did you know to find us at these coordinates?"
"The pocket wormholes are expandable. Even a starship can travel through them! As for how we found you, we discovered the burial site of one of your crewmen about twelve light years from here."
Soon, Janeway would have all the details, she realized. More importantly, they were going home. They were going home!