/ Outside the Nexus, Shuttlecraft Onyx, 2410 /
"Hey, Boss, I know you think you're doing the right thing here... but don't you think it's a little reckless not to go in there without back up?" Mr. Michael's voice offers from over the shuttles communications relay, "I mean, I can get Fredrickson and Jameriz over in two shakes of an Epohh's tail..."
"No, Michael's, I may be your Captain, but I also know that anymore people going in there, means another person who may not want to leave," Tekhav replies, "You may think I'm relatively crazy for going in alone, but my 'specific' mental discipline, is the most astute in retrieving as many people from the Nexus as I can... you just worry about anymore ships getting in the way of the Energy Ribbon, we don't want to lose more people after all."
"Alright sir... and good luck," Michaels says, "And sir, I'd say Live Long and Prosper, but bring 'em all back home and I won't have to." Even though Tekhav would not admit it, the ghost of a smile on his face approved of his friends words. Drawing closer to the Nexus, Tekhav braced himself as he went full throttle into the Nexus.
/ 2267, Mid-September Earth Calendar /
Delon held T'Preth in his arms, unashamed that he was about to violate one of his world's most sacred rites. 'Jolan Tru, Uhlan, did you forget something?' she asks, before finding herself in his arms, hugged graciously and tightly.
'I have done it, T'Preth, I have contacted the V'Shar, and they are sending out a ship to rescue us..." he says excitedly in reply, 'The Romulan's have all left, they made sure we couldn't either, but we survived and rebuild what we could, and it has all paid off!' Taking her arm, she gladly follows him out, as the roar of engines are heard above them. Once outside the structure they had called home, a little over three Federation shuttlecraft are seen descending from the sky, a Constitution-class in the sky above as well.
'Delon- Tekhav- you, you managed to fix your ships communicator?' T'Preth asks him in amazement, 'How did this happen, how did you manage to do it without the Romulan's hearing about a ship entering the Neutral Zone?'
'I-I don't know, my love, but we can go home now, we can bring Marok to his true home, we can reveal ourselves to him, we can save the others on this planet,' Tekhav replies, 'The forgotten don't have to be left behind on this world, we can save them now, we can-' Suddenly his expression turns sad.
'My love?' T'Preth asks, 'What is it?' Tekhav merely looks to the woman that would be his wife, and he smiles sadly, tears in his eyes.
"I remember what happens next," He replies, "This was the moment when the ships came..."
Leaves fell where the air was dispersed by the shuttle raft, which flew overhead and past the structure they had called home for the past four years since the occupation and colonization ended. 'Quickly, get the child and take some provisions,' Tekhav calls out gladly to his wife as she enters their house, 'They appear to be going to the mountain peaks, where the cavern systems lay; it's a vantage point the other colonists can see and achieve walking distance to within the night.' Upon reaching the room where his child would sleep, he sees his wife trying, and failing to dress the stubborn boy who cries out in glee when he sees his father. With a warm smile T'Preth joins her husband and releases the child, who quickly runs into his arms and embraces him with a smile. They walk out together, as a family, laughing as they begin to recount tales of their ancestral home.
'That wasn't how it happened,' he reminds himself, 'Not every tale has a happy ending after all...'
Now three Scorpion fighters replace where the shuttles had been, and a T'liss Warbird where once a Constitution sat. Fire rained down upon the small wooded area, where his ship had been hidden, and Tekhav quickly went inside the structure where his wife and child were currently trying to safely grab food and water to escape with. 'They must have cracked my signal after all these years, and decided to remove any evidence of prisoners, rather than let the Federation learn of the horrors of this world,' he thought to himself, 'If we are quick to make it into the forest, perhaps we could make it to the cave system...'
Upon reaching the room where his wife and son would be, he sees the familiar robe and sashes of Romulan Centurion's and sees his wife shot on the floor, their child in the arms of a Romulan female who tries to console the crying child. Upon catching the eye of Tekhav, She smiles cruelly as the hum of a transporter whisks them all away. Running to the side of his wife, Tekhav quickly kneels to check on his wife. Standing up after not feeling anything, Tekhav numbly walks outside his home and screams to the Romulan ship, now seen retreating beyond the clouds and into the space. Anger and adrenaline coursing through his veins, Tekhav emotionlessly makes his sojourn to the cavern, where he would patiently await any rescue that could still be coming.
It would be four days later, nearly dehydrated and deep in meditation, Tekhav of Vulcan was rescued and returned to Vulcan where he honorably left the V'Shar, officially at least, before joining Starfleet Academy's fast track program, and going on to serve under the former Captain of the Tourmaline. Then he became its Captain, and sitting at its- no, his chair, he had everything he needed. He swore vengeance, he would hunt down his son, he would find his wife's killers, and then he would-
What was that on the ship's view screen? An energy ribb-
NO!
Finding himself on the empty Pioneer-Class bridge, Tekhav is shaking for a few moments, before collecting himself. He hadn't expected it to be so vivid, he had felt moments of lucidity where his perception of reality was altered to his memories, the joy and false love the Nexus promoted, versus his true and painful memories, they had allowed him to come back into control.
"Why would you want to feel this pain, why would you want to give up your chance at happiness?" a voice says from the turbolift, a man exiting the transport, "Your such a fool, a man who felt so much pain, with a chance to have everything he ever wanted, a happy family life, to have a son who hadn't been taken, a wife who hadn't died or been displaced in time..." The gray haired man walked in front of Tekhav, looking pitifully at him. "I tried everything to get what you had, and it was taken away from me again; why would you give up what others would be envious of?" The man merely snorts, "Perhaps your Federation is just full of idiots and the ungrateful." Tekhav merely stands to face the man, while staring behind him at the form of the Nexus' energy ribbon on the view screen.
"You may think this place is an idealistic paradise, that I can have what I really desire, and it is true, that I could have everything I desire, is true," Tekhav retorts, "But I desire more than ever to retrieve my wife, from whatever self made paradise she has unwittingly made her prison." The man merely stares emotionlessly at him before grimacing.
"Very well, perhaps you could make your dream a reality... but I don't know if you could really save her from hers," the man says, "Go through the turbolift of this vessel and think of who you are trying to reach, and you will find whoever it is you seek." Tekhav is about to enter the turbolift before stopping, deciding to pause.
"Tell me, what is your name, if I may ask?" Tekhav says, "Why would you help me, if you yourself are unsatisfied because of my choice?"
"Why should I burden you with another name to worry about, another life to save?" the grey haired man says, "There's nothing out there for me anyways, all that is left in here is an unsatisfied echo of a man, one who died for his views over thirty years ago; I don't regret that, and I don't want another to regret their choices, as foolish as they may be."
"Fair enough," Tekhav replies, "I hope one day you find peace with yourself, Live Long."
As Tekhav moves on, the man lingers for a moment, stretching into an eternity before dissolving into seconds and back into has-been and never-was time. "Perhaps he is the one," a voice says, "The one who ends the shrilling ring in my head, and the pain in my being."
The view screens seems to shimmer, the Nexus fading and replaced with a white view screen. The room discolors, draining from the roof and down the floor, white spilling out from the view screen and bleaching the color, leaving black outlines like pencil sketchings of the once bridge, before even those break down into the white and never-was. In his final seconds, stretched to infinity and between the space of a second, Tolian Soran merely fades to white, leaving no trace of himself or the bridge.
