Behind Blue Eyes
By Thalia Drogna
"Antonia?" said Darwin, from behind Trip.
"Hello Rob, Trip," said Antonia, stepping out of the white oval as if she were doing nothing out of the ordinary. Trip gave her a long look, her hair and eyes were just as Trip remembered but her skin now sparkled with a silver sheen. There was something different about her and it wasn't just the fact that she didn't seem to have aged a day.
T'Pol looked down at her scanner. "I am not detecting any life signs."
"You won't find any," said Antonia.
"You died on Faranor," said Darwin, unable to believe the evidence of his own eyes.
"Not exactly," said Antonia.
"I saw you die," said Trip. "I've been grieving for you for the past ten years."
"I'm sorry you had to go through that, Trip, but unfortunately I had no choice," said Antonia.
"All that matters is that you're back now," said Trip.
Antonia shook her head. "It isn't that simple. I may not be dead, but I'm not exactly alive either."
"I don't understand," said Trip.
"You don't have to," said Antonia, "you just have to leave."
"My dream, last night, that was you?" asked Trip.
"I had hoped that I might reach you that way," replied Antonia.
"Hold it, we're not going anywhere," said Archer. "You have a lot of questions to answer, starting with where the crew of the Venture are."
"Safe," said Antonia.
"That isn't an answer," said Archer.
"No, but it is all I can tell you," said Antonia.
"Antonia, you can't just expect to come walking in here, back from the dead, and not have to answer a few questions," said Darwin. "Where have you been all this time? Why didn't you die? How did you get here?"
"Rob, you wouldn't understand the answers if I told you," said Antonia. "And as usual you're asking the wrong questions. Now, Trip is thinking along the right lines."
"I am? You can read my mind?" asked Trip. Antonia nodded. "That light, it isn't a weapon at all. You didn't die because it's a matter transporter of some kind. You just got transported somewhere else."
"That isn't entirely correct either, but it is in the right ball park," said Antonia. "It is a transporter of kinds, or at least that is the only way that you could understand it. A better term would be "transfigurer", it changed me into what you see before you."
"And what exactly is that?" asked Archer, suspiciously.
"I'm a Guardian," said Antonia.
"A guardian of what?" asked Archer.
"I would have thought that was obvious, Captain. I am the Guardian of this. Of what the Builders left behind."
"How did you become a "Guardian"?" asked T'Pol.
"Well, Trip will have told you how the Klingons pushed me through the Aumshaya on Faranor," said Antonia. She turned to Hoshi, who was looking puzzled. "Sorry, Hoshi, Aumshaya is Builder for Bright Door, what they call the white oval light."
"Oh thanks," said Hoshi and made a small adjustment to the UT. "How did you know my name?"
"That's a tough one. Let me finish the rest of the story first. After I was pushed through the Aumshaya, I found myself with the Builders, in their domain. The Builders are an ancient race, they had a very high level of technology as you can see, but they no longer exist in this plane. They departed this existence and ascended to another level. They now live outside this universe and the Aumshaya is a gateway to their world. So after I was pushed through the Aumshaya, the Builders found me and took me in.
The problem is that once you've traversed the Aumshaya you can't go back to how you were before, but I couldn't have existed in their universe as I was either. The Aumshaya transformed me into a being which could survive in both their universe and our own, well for a limited period anyway."
"A limited period?" asked Archer.
"I have to return to their universe otherwise I will cease to exist, I have a few years before that happens but I can no longer reside in this plane of existence permanently. The Builders can never return at all, when they ascended it was a one way journey," said Antonia.
"If they are unable to return, why then did they build the Aumshaya?" asked T'Pol.
"The Aumshaya were built in an earlier phase of their development, before they had obtained the knowledge to ascend. The Aumshaya is like a shortcut to the other plane, but as I said it isn't true ascendance. I will die one day, the Builders will not," said Antonia.
"Why don't they just tell you how to ascend?" asked Archer.
"Humans aren't ready for everything that would mean. My mind wouldn't be able to grasp it fully and would be destroyed by it. I would be immortal but insane. It is impossible for a race as young as ours to ascend. I have a hard enough time understanding the limited knowledge that the Builders have given me as it is," said Antonia.
"You said you were a Guardian," said Darwin. "The Faranoans said the same thing. What does it mean?"
"When the Builders ascended they left behind their technology. It was only when they ascended that they realised just how much damage that technology would do if it was found by the unenlightened. They have limited influence over this plane, but they also prefer not to get involved. They believe interference on their part contaminates this universe. So they appointed the Guardians, those, like me, who fell through the Aumshaya, and like the Faranoans. We're here to prevent the misuse of that technology, in this case the Doonshaya."
"Dark Door, right?" asked Trip. "The black hole generator."
"Well remembered. Doonshaya is the name applied to the whole device," said Antonia. "And we were right, about it also being possible to use it as weapon."
"That does not explain how you know our names," said T'Pol.
"The Guardians have access to a lot of the powers of the Builders. The Builders' plane intersects directly with ours and therefore they have access to all the events that have ever happened in this universe. They set up a sort of library for the Guardians so that we could look up any events that we required in order to carry out our task. The Builders view the events directly, but as Guardians we can't do that. I looked up Enterprise when they alerted me to the discovery of the ship on Deneb IV and who was coming to investigate it," said Antonia.
"Captain, the Klingons will be here in under four hours," said T'Pol.
"I can deal with the Klingons," said Antonia.
"Antonia, you're not even trained in combat," said Darwin. "You can't take on a Klingon landing party on your own."
"I've got some tricks of my own now, Rob," said Antonia.
"No offence, but the Guardians on Faranor didn't do much good," said Trip.
Antonia looked at Trip, she was about to say something when the Captain interrupted.
"We don't have time for a debate. Commander, get working on that generator, we need to disable it. T'Pol and Hoshi help him," said Archer.
"Yes, sir," replied all three and they went to work.
"This is not necessary," said Antonia. "I will protect the Doonshaya."
"If I could be sure of that then I would have no problem in letting you do it, but as much as I hate agreeing with Colonel Darwin, we can't let the Klingons have this technology," said Archer. "If they work out how to use it as a weapon then Earth could be in danger, not to mention Vulcan, Andoria and any other planets that the Klingons have in their sights. Or worse they might destroy the containment unit while they're trying to figure out how it works and the Deneb system would have a black hole eating away at it. There are two inhabited planets in this system and they both have more inhabitants than Faranor did. The stakes are high either way."
"Do you really think that the Klingons will just leave Deneb IV once they realise that the Doonshaya is disabled? They'll want to try to fix it. I need to discuss this with the Builders. My instructions are not to interfere but if they give me special dispensation then I can and will stop all of this," said Antonia. "The Builders will not allow a young race to use their technology." She moved towards the Aumshaya.
"Antonia," said Trip, looking up from what he was doing. "You can't go."
"This isn't my world anymore, Trip. I'll be back in one hour," said Antonia, and with that she stepped through the Aumshaya once more, with a flash of sparks.
"I can't believe that she's alive," said Trip.
"I'm not sure that she is alive," said Darwin. "We can't trust her, she obviously considers herself to be one of these Guardians now."
"Did it ever occur to you that maybe if you hadn't tied up the Faranoan Guardians that Faranor might still be there?" asked Trip angrily.
"Yes, it did," said Darwin, "but I don't have time to second guess myself in the middle of a mission. I had a decision to make and I made it. It was the right one."
"I'm not so sure," said Trip, he bent back to the circuit that he'd been working on.
Reed paced on the bridge of Enterprise. He didn't know how the Captain could do it, sit in his chair and not wander around the bridge checking out all the stations and their readouts. Lieutenant Hess sat at the Engineering station, she was trying to find a way for communication to penetrate the storm that was presently covering the away team's location.
"Sir," said Travis, "you're going to wear a hole in the deck plating."
"Sorry, I just don't like this. Anything could be happening down there," said Reed. "We can't even take a shuttle down until this storm clears."
"Sir, I'm detecting a change in the Klingon vessel," said Ensign Rosario at the tactical station. "They've increased speed to warp five, which means they'll be here in less than an hour."
"And with communications down we've got no way to contact the away team to tell them. Make sure you keep the planet between us and that Klingon ship, Travis," said Reed.
Trip and T'Pol stood examining the schematics that Trip had drawn up from his scans of the Faranor generator.
"This is not the same design," said T'Pol.
"Yeah, they made some changes for the portable model," said Trip. "We're going to need something to re-route the control circuits with. Maybe we could use the relay from your scanner?"
"It would not be able to carry the required current," said T'Pol.
Trip thought for moment. "The shuttlepod. The relays are rated for a much higher current. I'm sure I can find something that we won't need for the journey back. I'm going back to the shuttlepod."
"Very well," said T'Pol.
"We have less than three hours before the Klingons arrive," said Archer. "We don't have time to waste we need to disable this now, so be quick."
"Captain, I'm sorry but I'm taking command of this mission," said Darwin. "My orders are to recover the technology, not disable it."
"Hang on," said Trip. "You said we were going to disable it. It's too dangerous to take with us."
"I never said that, my mission was always to recover the device," said Darwin. "Get it ready to be moved."
"Colonel, I won't allow you to do this," said Archer. "That isn't why we're here. All we're doing is making sure that this doesn't fall into the hands of the Klingons."
"Think about what it would mean for Earth if we can get this weapon working, Captain," said Darwin. "We'd never have to worry about another attack like the Xindi again. Surely you can see that."
"Now isn't the time, Colonel. We have the scans. The Klingons will be at Deneb IV in less than three hours and we can't be here when they arrive," said Archer.
"Why Captain? Are you afraid that they'll try to take you back to Rura Penthe?" asked Darwin.
"No Colonel, I'm afraid that they'll destroy Enterprise and us when they get here because they don't want anyone to know that they've got this technology," said Archer. "In case you hadn't noticed, nothing has changed in the last ten years when it comes to being out-gunned by Klingon battle cruisers."
"All we have to do is make sure that they don't catch us. Trip, get this thing ready to transport," said Darwin, turning to the Engineer.
"Colonel, I can't do that," said Trip, looking his former CO right in the eye.
"What? Commander, I gave you a direct order," said Darwin.
"I'm sorry, sir, but I'm not under your command anymore. I'm not in Special Projects now," said Trip.
"God damn it, where are those instincts I recruited you for. You lost your sister to the Xindi attack, you of all people know how much a defensive weapon could mean to Earth," said Darwin.
"That isn't it, sir," replied Trip. "This is a dangerous piece of technology, if I make one wrong move then there'll be a black hole eating its way through the Deneb system. Imagine what would happen if the same thing was on Earth. If it malfunctioned or was damaged then there would be no Earth. We wouldn't have to worry about attacks from aliens because we'd have wiped ourselves out."
"You're not commander of Special Projects anymore, Colonel," said Archer. "We have to account for our actions and I'm not prepared take the risk of Faranor happening again."
"You're making a big mistake, Captain," said Darwin.
"I don't think so," said Archer. "Trip, get going. We need that part from the shuttle."
"Yes, sir," said Trip and left to make his way back to the shuttle. It was only as he stepped out of the Builder vessel and into the storm outside that he realised that the Captain had called him by his nickname for the first time in days.
Archer turned to Hoshi. "Download as much of their database as you can. We're destroying them before we leave."
"Yes, sir," said Hoshi and moved to the computer terminal near the door. "I'll get as much as I can."
"How much can you do while Trip's getting that part?" Archer asked T'Pol, going over to where she was working on the machine.
"There is a considerable amount of work to complete before the relay is required," said T'Pol.
"Can I help?" asked Archer.
"That would be useful. I require someone to hold this circuit while I reconnect these transfer wires," said T'Pol.
"No," said a voice from the doorway. "You will stop what you are doing and step away from the machine." There stood a Klingon with a knife in his hand, that was pointed at Hoshi's throat.