chapter thirty five: unexpected revelations

Myriam was tensely watching the feed from the various stations in the war room. The Seers were out in full force, taking and analyzing the readings, and advising her on the next moves. It was like a finely diced game of chess; a single mistake could cost them all their lives. A drop of sweat rolled down the side of her head: the exertion of coordinating the whole battle was taking a lot out of her considerable mental prowess.

Seven came up to her with a grave look. "I believe that I have found the mistake in your interpretations of the Auguries," she said. She leveled Myriam with a significant glance. It is important.

Even with her focus drawn away from the formidable presence of the ex-Borg drone before her, Myriam could feel the suppressed anxiety within her. She raised a hand. "Loess."

The chief Seer glided smoothly across the room towards the central control center. "I will take it from here," she said in the deceptively mellow voice of hers.

Leaving the battle to the skilled handling of Loess for the moment, Myriam turned to scrutinize Seven. "What have you found?"

Seven held out the padd in her hand. On it were excerpts from the original Auguries, as well as the translation matrices that the Seers had complied over the centuries. "I believe there is a translational error in one of the reference root words used in the matrices." With a metal-capped finger she pointed out the offending glyph. "I have run fractal analyses of the language of your ancestors, and I believe that this translation deviates from its actual usage."

Myriam stared as Seven keyed in something on the padd, and the translations accompanying the texts changed: not drastically, but it was significant enough for her to notice. "But, it doesn't change the meaning, does it? This is one of the more obscure root words, I'm not familiar with it." She continued reading the re-translated texts, and her fingers, so strong and steady in battle, begin to tremble. "The meaning has not changed... has it?"

"Yes, it has." Seven gazed steadily at Myriam. "You were wrong. My captain is not the Emissary."

"No, she is not..." Myriam breathed softly. Her face had paled to the color of chalk. "How could such a grave mistake been overlooked for so long?"

"These were the first few sections of the Auguries translated by your forebears," said Seven. "Mistakes were inevitable, yet you trusted their word and did not revise these sections, and even based future translations upon them."

Loess turned, breaking momentarily from controlling the battle to bore her gaze into Seven. "What do you see?" she asked, her low voice almost musical.

"I... am uncertain," said Seven hesitantly.

Loess turned smoothly back to her work. "I look at this battle and I see victory."

"No," said Myriam sharply. "If Seven is right—and I believe she is—then Janeway should not be out there leading the battle." She went back to the control center and punched a control, bringing up an overview of Licknok Moor. She zeroed in on Janeway's signal and called up a visual of the area.

The projection showed pure chaos; it was the site of the heaviest fighting. Warriors charged and fell on the battleground by the hundreds; and the Delta Flyer soared overhead, spewing gouts of destruction onto the mayhem below. "I see her," said Loess, inclining her head to indicate Janeway. "The battle is in motion. It is too late to recall her."

"Yes," said Myriam. "The battle will have to be carried out according to plan no matter what." There was an unmistakable heaviness in her voice as she said it. "I don't like this: there are too many uncertainties in this battle, more uncertainties than we bargained for. I hope I have not put House Ashkar on the path to complete destruction."

"But you have," said Loess. "We shall cease to be."

"I concur," said Seven, her gaze far away. Myriam realized that she was looking upwards, towards the sky, towards where her new mate was.

Janeway was onscreen, hesitating before Janae. Myriam knew that she was deciding if she should follow Janae to the inside of the city. Go with her now, she silently commanded Janeway. There is no greater danger than where you are standing, she added as Janeway and Janae looked upwards at some unknown danger, a second before the Delta Flyer careened across their viewscreen engulfed in a ball of flames.

Myriam deactivated the live projection with a sudden wave of her hand, leaving only the colored schematics of the battlefield showing the battalion movement. "Yes, we shall cease to be," she said softly.