Chapter 26
Jon took Galen to the crew mess where the others had gathered. They had each been assigned someone to stay with them, answering questions and explaining human customs to them. T'Pol was with Hoshi, now Meriah. Malcolm was with Takei, now Torrin and Travis was with Hobbs, now Kassra.
"Oh Galen!" Meriah called. "You have to try this wonderful food of theirs. This is...um...turkey. Yes. That's right...turkey."
"No, no. You must try what they call dessert! It is superb!" Torrin told him.
Galen chuckled. "Looks like my individuals are enjoying themselves."
Jon shook his head at all the food that was laid out in front of them. "Looks that way, but there is a thing called over indulging."
"What is that? It sounds delicious!" Kassra said.
"No, that's what it's called when you eat too much." Jon smiled at her.
XXX
The Nexus beings (as they only referred to themselves as "the Nexus") had been in the borrowed bodies for a few days and was learning everything they could about humans. As Jon was showing them some of Earth's history, Galen questioned. "If humans have become evolved from these times, why is it now that even your Enterprise is equipped with war weapons?"
"We try to be a peaceful race and our interest is to explore, meet new beings, like yourself and create allies, but not everyone in the galaxy has the same ideas. We have these...war weapons...as you call them, more for defense rather than waging war. We did have an incident recently that we were forced into a war. We didn't like having to do that, and we certainly didn't seek it out, but in the end, we were able to come to a peaceful agreement and an end to the war."
"What caused you to feel forced into this war?" Torrin asked
Jon showed him the tapes of the Xindi attack against Earth. Explained to him that a temporal faction manipulated the Xindi in order to transform the galaxy to support their environment and that once the Xindi had the evidence that they had been used in such a way, worked with the humans to stop the transformation.
"So what happened with the Xindi? Are they allies with humans now?" Asked Kassra
"No. Not really. They're not enemies either. Right now their focus is finding a world suitable for their species. We offered to help, but they rather that they do it on their own. Who knows? Maybe sometime in the future we can become allies. What about your species, when you were corporeal? Didn't you use weapons as defense rather than war? What was your species called anyway?"
Galen answered. "You would not be able to pronounce it. We were once much the same as you. For centuries we used weapons to make war, but we learned that we were only slowly destroying ourselves. There was famine, drought, and uprisings against our leaders, greed, corruption, illness and death. We learned to work together and became a peaceful civilization. Once we did that, our weapons became only as defense, as you say, not everyone in the galaxy shares these values."
"You said you gained enlightenment hundreds of years ago. What happened to your planet and why wasn't everyone able to become what you are now?"
"The few that are left, the Nexus evolved, but those that remained did not achieve full enlightenment until it was too late. The last of our species died with our planet, only a short time of your years ago, around the time of what was the dawn of your travels into space. The damage to our planet had been done and it was too late to reverse it. They tried, but in the end, the efforts were not enough to erase what had been done. You showed us your history, there is damage to your planet, before what was inflicted by the Xindi, and now I fear that if humans do not act in a quicker manner... now... your people might share the same fate." Mariah stated sadly.
"Yes...many of us fear that." Jon responded quietly.
XXX
The end of the week had come and it was time for the Nexus beings to return the bodies back to their rightful owners. The blue, orange, purple and green lights came through the ship's haul with their white light escorts.
Each of the colored lights went into the correct bodies, except the blue one that was Trip. He buzzed, hummed and whirled around the bridge frantically. "What's wrong? Why is he doing that?" Jon asked Galen.
Galen chuckled. "Your Trip is a playful one. He is having fun in his current form."
"Playful. Yes. Can he understand me?" Jon sounded annoyed.
"Yes."
"Trip! Get back in your body! Now."
The light buzzed in circles around Jon then suddenly went down the back of his shirt, circling to the front and down towards the front of his pants. Jon hopped around like cold water droplets on a hot skillet. "Trip! Stop that! It tickles! Trip! Get back in your...oh! Trip! Stop that!"
The light went upwards, out of Jon's shirt and stopped in front of his nose and made a sound that resembled a pout. Reluctantly, the blue light started towards his body. Jon had a sudden thought. "Hold on a minute. I have one more question for Galen before he goes. The lights...why are they colored and not white like yours?"
"It is their level of evolution. The orange and green, have been on the path of enlightenment for some time. The purple is beginning the path. And the blue...he is almost to the end."
"Trip? You mean...he can become like you? On his own?"
"Maybe...someday. If he continues his journey. Who knows?"
The blue light hummed. Galen looked at it. "Yes...I agree." The blue light went in and a white light came out.
The white light hummed at Jon. He turned to Trip. "What did he say?"
"He thanked you for the exchange and said he hopes that the fate of Earth will have a different outcome and that we can be considered allies. He bids us peace and blessings."
"You're welcome Galen. Peace and blessings to you as well. As for Earth...we will do our best."
The white lights left the ship. Jon turned to the four. "So, what was it like?"
They all started talking at once, excitedly. Jon held up his hand. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. One at a time. Admiral?"
"It was amazing! It was so freeing. And being in tune with the universe...indescribable!"
"Yeah! It was like there was no limits to what we could do! We were...just were!" Hoshi nodded in amazement.
"It was like time meant nothing. We were there, here... in the entire galaxy all at the same time!" Trip said. He started to move his mouth around and smacked his lips a few times. "Why do I taste chocolate?"
Jon chuckled. "It seems your hosts liked our food...a lot! Especially desserts. You all might want to consider extra time in the gym for a month or so."
Trip twisted up his face. "Aww!"
XXX
Jon had the four in the conference room while they gave their reports to the week they spent as part of the Nexus and what they had learned about them. "Do you know what happened to their planet? To their people?"
"Yes..it's very sad and frightening familiar." Hobbs told him. "They were much more technology advanced then we are now. Once they realized their world was dying, they went out into the galaxy to find a new world, sadly, they were not able to find one in time."
"Were you able to find out what they looked like when they were corporeal?"
"Yes, they shared that memory with me." Takei told him as he got some paper and a pencil. He drew out what he had seen. What he drew was shocking.
The drawing was a small, thin being with gangly arms and legs, grey skin, a large triangular shaped head, too large for its body and very large smooth, black almond shaped eyes.
Trip looked up from the drawing. "Am I the only one thinking...Roswell?"