Author's Notes: Sorry for the long delay, folks. We've been incredibly busy working on the house, had no time for anything else. Rather than wait until I had the entire ending written down, I decided to publish a shortish chapter. The end is near. Stay tuned.
T'Pol
Darkness...
Is there such a thing as darkness when one is not aware enough to tell light from dark...
Darkness...
One is aware… A thread... A pulsion... The pulsion to destroy... Destroy oneself... One must...
Danger...
There is danger... It is there... It is there... Destroy... Must... Destroy... Cannot... Destroy... Must... Destroy... Self...
Cannot... Destroy... Self... Pulsion needs awareness... To destroy... There is no awareness...
A thread...
Light... A thread of light... Why...
Danger... Destroy...
A thread of light... Memories... Memories?...
Light is yellow... Hair is yellow... Hair the color of light...
Not destroy...
The danger is there... Destroy... That who is light is there... Not destroy...
Darkness comes again... The darkness is welcome...
xxx
It
The almost-host is back from the bridge, padd in hand. He steps close to the stasis field where It is waiting. The almost-host seems to look at It except he's not looking at It but at the body under the stasis field.
Through the almost-host eyes or mind, It sees the padd. The alignment of the stars is the right one. It starts pulsating, shimmying its excitement. It can see its planet! The Realm of the Unassigned is there! Right there! Soon It will be there too!
And It will be in line for another Symbiot. The geodids in the Realm of the Unassigned are many, almost as numerous as the stars in the universe. A placement is much sought after, seldom granted. Hopefully It will be chosen quickly, It has been waiting a long time. Too long.
It has arrived.
xxx
Trip
He's not sure where his mind is anymore.
Whenever he gets close to the stasis field, close to her, he feels like he enters a dream state. Nothing he can describe. No visions or anything like that. He's looking at T'Pol, wishing her to wake up, wondering if she can feel him, if she can feel that thing through the bond. He looks at her, so peacefully beautiful if it were not for those damn medical appliances beeping the time away.
At first, he hoped that through the alien using the bond he would get some sense of T'Pol, some connection that would tell her he's there. Some sign from her that would let him know she knew he was there.
But nothing. No sign.
He blinks his eyes and out of nowhere he knows very clearly what they must do, where the ship needs to head next. And yet nothing's happened, nothing that he can put a finger on. It just flashes in his mind, the route they need to take. He doesn't know how the alien's doing it.
He looks up from the stasis field. He knows they're almost there. He needs to get to the bridge, tell them to keep on course until they can see the fifth planet on the left. Easy to find, there's nothing else in this quadrant by comparison.
They have arrived.
xxx
Archer
So this is it.
They're all staring at the planet sitting out there, so far and yet so near, huge in the main screen. Archer's mesmerized. Trip is standing by his chair, eyes bloodshot, more than a few days worth of beard on the angles of his thinner face. Further behind and to the side Lieutenant Reed straightens, tight as a bowstring. Archer can almost feel the tension emanating from his tactical officer. He's aware that there could be danger lurking on the planet. Or behind it. They do not know what they will find when they knock on the door. He's reminded of P'Jem.
But that's what explorers do, that's what his mission is. Knock on the door and hope someone's there, someone new and different, someone they can talk to. Perhaps someone who'll be a good fit to join the United Federation of Planets. Or not. One can never tell.
Archer leans forward, holding tight to the arms of his chair, "Ensign Sato, establish contact."
Silence falls on the bridge.
xxx
Hoshi
She leans over her console, listening intently... and can't hear anything for the bird songs. It sounds like she just stepped into a jungle. Screeches, calls, whistles, she can't hear a thing. She adjusts the dials, listening carefully. But she can't hear anything through the vacarm. She turns to archer with a look halfway between uncertainty and frustration; "I'm not getting anything, Sir..."
Archer furrows his brow, gets up from his chair. What is this?! Are they on the wrong planet? Did the alien send them on a wild goose chase? Or Trip?! But then someone would be waiting to attack them and obviously nobody's around. He looks at Trip, who looks bemused, catches Lieutenant Reed's eye. The officer looks as perplexed as he feels. Arched turns back to Hoshi, "Are you sure, Ensign?"
She's still fiddling with her controls, adjusting, nervous now that everyone's eyes are on her. She half-turns to Archer, at a loss, "Nothing, Sir... All I'm hearing are-" she doesn't even complete the sentence, whirls back to her station, listening intently. She pushes back with a sigh halfway between victory and despair.
"Birds, Captain, the birds are talking to us," of course, winged beings and all, how did she not see it before? She turns to Archer in mute apology, "I've never encountered this language structure before, Captain, it's going to take some time."
Archer straightens from where he's been leaning over her shoulder, staring at the main screen. Of course, homing pigeons, the beaks, he should have known. "Take all the timr you need, Ensign." Of course, he doesn't mean a word of it, he wants her to figure it out yesterday, but stressing Hoshi's always counterproductive.
Hoshi bites her bottom lip in nervous tension. How can she ever figure it out? She feels so small, space so vast. And yet.
Yet she dealt with the Xindi. She reminds herself of that. And she also found how to communicate with the weird webbed being that'd taken over the Captain and Trip.
But back then she had T'Pol to help with the computations. How will she figure this one out? She half-turns to where Malcolm is, she can see him, standing ramrod straight by his console. He's looking at her as if he can read her uncertainty, her lack of self-confidence, as if he personally knows what it feels like. He gives the minutest nod, a small wink on the side of his eye.
He's telling her she can do it. He's right, she can do it.
xxx