14. The Hypernova
In front of blood-red ribbons on the horizon of a planet whose sun has sunk behind it, armoured, tracked vehicles rattle through the dried, karstic landscape, which has been eaten by mining. They drive past closed mine shafts and heaped dumps; they cross a canyon; finally, they reach the Anthox research facility. There, the column of vehicles spreads out along the stony sand path around the building complex, where several military assembly teams are already installing antenna-like rods and generators behind the fence of the research site.
Harry Kim is sitting on the conference table of a meeting room, together with former crew members from Voyager and some Anthox researchers. Through the glazed outer wall, Kim watches a uniformed assembler turn on the blinking control of a generator behind the fence; the worker gives a signal to his colleague who immediately starts measurements with a direction finder antenna.
The reflection of the glass shows the door of the meeting room swing open. A humanoid in uniform enters. The persons present stand up; they stand at attention in their white lab coats and wait until the newcomer has sat down at the front edge of the table. Then they sit down as well.
The uniformed Anthox musters Kim with a sharp eye.
"Since the beginning of our cooperation you have always proceeded well. Why hasn`t there been any progress in the last few days? I only hear about control measurements and the validation of earlier results; but you don`t present me anything new."
"We`re in a critical stage right now, Major," Kim explains. "Though the first tests on laboratory scale were successful, we have to make sure that the processes are reliable even when we apply them to an entire planet."
The major makes a rapid movement of his hand on the table, as if wiping something aside.
"It may be customary at your Starfleet to be hesitant. We don`t have time for such games! We must transform Verdera as soon as possible! One of our reconnaissance ships has discovered a new Hatar research station on the planet. We suspect they are developing their own transforming process to colonize Verdera. Once the Hatar apply it to the planet, all our work will be worthless overnight."
Next to Kim sits Xenara; she declares in a calming tone, "We`ll be ready in a few days for you to do the first field test on Verdera, Major. Mr. Kim has found a way to control the precipitation reactions after the release of carbon dioxide."
The Major turns to Kim in astonishment.
"There`s nothing about that in your last report."
Kim gives Xenara a disapproving look and qualifies her statement. "It`s only a provisional draft, barely more than an idea -"
"That doesn`t matter!" shouts the Major angrily. "You have orders to inform me about all news concerning the project immediately! Otherwise, you`re going to lose my trust quickly."
Kim`s complexion is getting darker.
"Can we trust you, Major?"
"What do you mean?"
"So far none of us was allowed to visit Verdera. You know that our directives forbid the transformation of a planet where life has already evolved."
A muscle twitches in the major`s face before he retorts grimly, "There is no time for excursions! We told you that only primitive plant life exists there. You have no reason to doubt it! Rather, your loyalty should be suspect to us -"
He points to a uniformed officer sitting at the other end of the table.
"When Ronon tried to see the current data this morning, all entries were encrypted."
Xenara turns her head to Kim in amazement. "That`s impossible -"
Kim`s fingertips press against the tabletop. "When you told us about the imminent Hatar attack, I secured the data as a precaution."
The major shakes his head. "Our transforming procedure would be completely worthless for the Hatar. You did not want to withhold the data from them, but from us!"
Kim clenches his fist. "Listen, Major, we agreed from the beginning that we would only provide you with a few key technologies, and in return you let us go. You know very well that every day we are staying longer, our chances to find Voyager are decreasing. Yet, you`ve been stalling us over and over again. Many of us doubt that you will ever let us go at all!"
The Major stares into Kim`s eyes with hatred and contempt. "Be careful, Starfleet officer! We`ve spent a lot of money on you and your troop and we want the equivalent for that in return. If you won`t do what is expected of you, you`ll never leave our planet indeed!" He gets up. "By tomorrow morning you will give us all the latest data on the project!"
The scientists rise and leave the room with dark and irritated looks.
Janeway enters sickbay.
"Doctor, I`d like to talk to you about -"
Without reacting to her arrival, the doctor remains bent deep behind a treatment table.
"Juuum - Jum - Jump!"
Astonished, Janeway tries again to draw attention to her presence.
"Doctor -?
" Juuum - Jumy - Jumy - Jump!"
"Doctor!"
The doctor rises from his bent posture with a transfigured grin.
"Captain! What can I do against you?"
"Against me -?"
"I`m about to expand the registers of my joke routines. You see, these are important for my research on playing behavior!"
Janeway looks at him with big eyes. "I just wanted to inquire if you`ve investigated Peri already, ... after the incident with Tuvok."
"I ordered him here twice by holocom, but he didn`t show up."
Suddenly a tubular shape rushes up behind the treatment table. It lands between medical devices on a small table next to Janeway. She evades a step to the side. The hand scanners and injectors shake and slip on the tabletop. The being has several bandages around its central region. The doctor joyfully raises his hands.
"Look, Captain, he`s jumping again!"
"Is that a ... Tubeworm?" inquires Janeway, with an instinctive touch of horror in her voice.
"Don`t call him so! His name is: Significus!" The doctor leans over the being of about 50 centimeters in length. "He`s a unique individual, an important representative of his species ..." the doctor stretches himself up and also the tubular being straightens itself upright next to the doctor "who has the great luck ..." he lifts his chin a bit further and raises an index finger "that its zoological primary description for the exo-biological researchers community of the Alpha Quadrant is done by someone who recognizes and appreciates the extraordinary anatomical, physiological, even psychological and spiritual abilities of this species -"
"What about Peri, now?" Janeway interrupts him with satiety in her voice.
Significus bends, like a caterpillar on a leaf, in an arc towards the doctor. The doctor for his part bends down to his patient, smiling blissfully, while he answers, "Mr. Peri? I`ll gladly contact him again."
Janeway opens her holocom. "You`ll contact him now!"
The doctor pinches his lips together, like someone who is disturbed by a petty concern during a significant activity. He reaches into the holocom, pulls Peri`s icon to the symbol for sickbay and turns back to his little patient.
"He does not confirm," mumbles Janeway anxiously.
Lang`s voice reports, "Captain, we`re receiving a coded message from Ensign Kim."
"Link to sickbay!"
"Kim to Voyager. - Captain, we have encrypted the research data as arranged; but the Anthox are getting suspicious. They have delivered an ultimatum to us. We must disclose all data to them by tomorrow. Every day it becomes more difficult for us to exchange information without arousing suspicion. Additional guards appear every few hours and the research facility becomes even more secured. None of us believes that the Anthox will let us go voluntarily. Get us out as soon as possible! - Kim out."
Janeway reaches into the holocom and pulls the images of several people to the symbol of the conference room. Shortly afterwards one personnel icon after the other lights up in green; so does Peri`s icon.
Janeway turns to the doctor. "I want you to attend the meeting as well. Come on, Doctor!"
With the tips of his fingers the doctor massages his patient under the head.
"Duuu`chi - du`chi - du`chi!"
"Doctor!" shouts Janeway.
He nods to the little patient. "I`ll be back soon, Significus!"
Then he follows Janeway through the sickbay`s exit. Two button eyes above a circular mouth look after the doctor.
In the cabin of the turbolift the optical aspect of a faceted view rises; it shows as one of seven fingers of a hand touches digit 1 on a row of fifteen keys. At the left and right edges of the view the two halves of the sliding door in the background are depicted closing. The lift sets in motion; the optical aspect lowers again and turns to the door.
Shortly afterwards the lift stops, and the door opens. The moving contours of its two halves create a glimmer around the hexagonal boundaries of numberless single aspects composing the field of vision. The view rises half a meter above the ground. The door frame of the lift moves to the rear while the visual aspect glides into the space of the bridge. It perceives Ceph forward at the helm, who swings an additional eye backwards. At the same time Carey is sharply pictured at the tactical console on the right and Lang at the OPS on the left. The center of the field of vision swings to port. It floats forward rapidly, past the facing of the OPS station. It glides, in lowering movements, downstairs and turns to the left. The two halves of the briefing room`s entrance slide apart. Numerous pairs of legs arranged around the table appear in the field of vision. Slowed down considerably the optical image floats into the room. It rises from the floor to reveal the upper surface of the table. The view swings from right to left. All seats on the closest side of the table are occupied. Humanoid heads and eyes orient frontally towards the field of vision. From Janeway`s mouth a deep humming sound penetrates, interspersed with short blubber syllables. Her hand points to the opposite side of the table. The gaze swings further to the left. It moves around the table. In front of an unoccupied chair the view`s gliding stops. The visual perspective shrugs briefly and centers on the person sitting on the adjacent chair. The view remains motionless on Tuvok. Again, the heads and eyes of all the others turn around staring. Janeway articulates a humming sound. She changes seats with Tuvok. Then she points with one hand towards the faceted gaze, with the other at the chair that has become vacant next to her at the meeting table.
In the fully occupied conference room, Peri raises his front segments. He glides up to the seat of a chair, turns his flat body and rolls the back segments from the rear into an upright spiral. The spiral rests in the angle between seat and backrest. Above it the front segments are erected to the height of the humanoid`s heads.
Janeway turns to Paris.
"Will you do the translation, Tom?"
"I`ll try, ma`am!"
He opens his holocom above the table. Janeway looks into the round.
"Ensign Kim`s message is unmistakable. We must free our people as fast as possible. Any suggestions?"
Paris places the crowd of icons of the abducted crew on the arched section of a planet`s surface. Then he pushes the Voyager`s holographic model over the planet.
"Transport is most inconspicuous when the crew is in their quarters at night," states Tuvok. "But before we have to make sure that we get a transporter lock on each person."
Concerned, Torres remarks, "What if the Anthox notice the action?"
"We`ll have an armed security team ready to beam down if necessary."
Janeway nods. "Agreed. Prepare everything, Commander!" She turns to Seven. "Any news about the hypernova?"
In the holocom, Seven opens a cross-sectional image through the nebula, with the blue giant star inside, surrounded by a colorful web of ejected gases.
"According to data from the long-range probes we have placed in the nebula, the eruptions on the star`s surface are rapidly increasing. The stimulation of vortices in the gas medium is also becoming more violent. The first gas-free channels have already formed through the nebula."
She makes the model of the star tremble in flashes of light and points to cavities in the nebula through which the light penetrates to the outside.
Janeway frowns. "Is it possible to estimate whether the home worlds of the Anthox or the Hatar will be hit by the emerging radiation?"
"The perforation of the nebula is a chaotic process. Even small lateral changes in the gas vortices that are causing the channels result in large changes in the direction of the escaping radiation jets. A prediction will only be possible during the eruption of the hypernova."
Janeway turns to the person next to her.
"Doctor, how much would life on a planet be affected if a star explodes at such a short distance?"
The doctor frowns and the corners of his mouth get angular.
"Even if gamma and X-ray radiation did not penetrate to the planet`s surface, their effect due to the transformation of the atmosphere would be devastating! Usually such an event leads to an epochal mass extinction in the planet`s biosphere."
Paris has opened the model of a planetary system with an exploding star in the background. Thereby a light front is emitted flooding the area of the planets. Paris makes the scenario repeat in a continuous loop.
Janeway looks around. "Is it possible to protect a planet from the impact of a supernova radiation?"
Torres holds her flat hand between one of the planets and the exploding star.
"If you wanted to build a shield blocking the radiation, it would have to be as large as the cross-sectional area of the planet. That`s beyond the reach of almost any civilization, even if there were centuries of time available."
Janeway shakes her head. "There are only a few days left for the Anthox and the Hatar."
All those present around the table remain brooding in silence. E-Bug has planted his center legs against the floor; his front part is lifted up and bent over the tabletop. Playfully he uses his voltage-stabilizing stylus to feel his way into the holographic model. He zooms in on planets, eyes their surface structures and zooms out again turning to another object. Finally, an asteroid ring appears after the fourth planet. E-Bug magnifies it. Sunk in their own thoughts searching for an idea, the others at the table follow E-Bug`s motions, which seem to result from a tedious mood.
Finally, E-Bug`s temple antennae move into the inside of the hologram. They approach one of the asteroids from left and right. When they almost touch it, a crackling spark strikes between the antennae tips. All persons around blink. The hologram goes out. Smoke rises from its emitter console.
"Damn, E-bug!" scolds Paris. "That was my holocom!"
Tuvok takes a stern look at E-Bug. Staring into the smoke over the shot holocom, Janeway nods thoughtfully. Her gaze wanders from the scattering cloud of smoke to a tube-eye facing her. Then she turns to Seven.
"Are there any asteroid belts in the systems of the Anthox or the Hatar?"
"No, Captain. Only in the stellar system of the planet Verdera."
In the semi-darkness of a quarters, Kim turns slowly to the side in his bed. Xenara is sleeping next to him, with her eyes closed. Kim gives her a kiss on the cheek and crawls out carefully under the blanket. He quietly sneaks to the bedroom door, opens it, slides through and closes the door from outside. In the adjoining room, Kim goes to a chair where his clothes are lying. He puts on his trousers and the top of his uniform. Then he pulls the transmitter Janeway gave him out of a bag. Kim activates it.
He speaks in a pressed undertone, "Kim to Voyager - can you hear me?"
"We hear you, Mr. Kim," answers Janeway`s voice.
"You may beam down the location transmitters now, Captain."
On the table next to Kim a small box and a shiny metallic fabric materialize. Kim opens the box.
"The transmitters have arrived, Captain."
"Put on the camouflage hood so that the guards won`t notice you and let me know when you`ve distributed the transmitters! We`re going to beam you up in groups. If the action is noticed inform us immediately; then we`ll send a security team down to you. Good luck, Ensign!"
"Thank you, Captain!"
Kim puts a transmitter on one side of his belt and the box with the rest of them on the other. Then he draws over the metallic fabric and immediately becomes invisible. The entrance door of the quarters opens, remains open for a moment and closes again.
The door to the bedroom slowly opens now as well and two eyes stare out of the darkness towards the exit of the quarters, where Kim has disappeared.
On Voyager`s bridge Tuvok reports, "Our presence has been noticed, Captain. We are receiving a radio message from the surface."
Concerned, Janeway rises from her seat.
"The cloaking of our ship is obviously not as good as we thought. Has Ensign Kim called us back yet?"
"No, Captain."
"Maybe our plan is still undiscovered. We must try to gain time. - On screen!"
The Major appears on the screen with a gloating expression on his face. Two military escorts are standing at both sides of him.
"Captain Janeway of the starship Voyager, I suppose, ... and there`s your Commander Tuvok! We had already suspected that you two have found each other."
Janeway fixes him. "Who am I talking to?"
"Major Ramp`S, military security. I have someone here who`d like to greet you."
He gives a sign. Two guards drag the nervous and contrite Kim into view.
"Don`t try to make a deal, Captain! They will not keep their word!"
One of the guards hits Kim`s head; they drag him away. Janeway`s gaze darkens.
"Listen, Major: Tell your government I will only negotiate with a representative of your state!"
The major smiles. "In this matter I am the official representative. You have to negotiate with me!"
"I`ll think about it. - Janeway out!"
The Major disappears from the screen. Janeway turns to the OPS console.
"Seven, link into all communication channels on the planet and broadcast the message we prepared!"
"Aye, Captain."
Seven enters commands on the OPS display.
Kim and three others of the abducted crew members are sitting on a bench in a detention cell. Kim feels the bruise next to his eye. In front of the cell a guard is sitting on a control board. Above him hangs a monitor on the wall showing a military parade. Suddenly the boot steps and the marching music fall silent. Janeway appears on the monitor. The guard looks up in surprise.
"This is a message from starship Voyager to the Anthox people. - You are in great danger. With high probability your planet will be affected by the consequences of a supernova within the next hours ..."
Xenara appears in military uniform in the room and marches to Kim`s cell. Kim stands up and goes towards her up to the bars.
"Xenara!" He notices her uniform and gets puzzled. "Since when do you belong to the military?"
She answers coolly, with an icy look.
"Anyone who works in a higher position is part of the militia."
Kim`s eyes widen as he seems to understand something.
"It was ... you, who told them!"
"Did you really think I`d just let you go, after all that was between us?"
"I never fooled you, ... you knew I cannot stay here." He understands something else. "And you also knew it wasn`t planned to ever let us go again, ... otherwise you wouldn`t have let us get this far!"
Xenara does not answer him. In the background Janeway`s voice speaks.
"... through violent eruptions before the actual hypernova large parts of the surrounding nebula have become transparent already ..."
Xenara turns her head away from Kim and looks at the monitor.
"So that is her - the one you`ve told me of so many times - the one you want to leave me for."
"Xenara, you and your people are in great danger! Let us go and we`ll try to help you!"
Xenara`s cold eyes turn to Kim again. Mockery sounds in her voice.
"Does your captain really think we would fall for that deception?"
She gets going towards the exit.
"Xenara!" shouts Kim.
She stops without turning around. Anger and despair glow in Kim`s eyes.
"Because you do not keep your word, you believe that others are not honest with you either!"
Xenara stands still for a moment; then she leaves the room.
On Voyager`s bridge E-Bug is standing at the control of the sensor phalanx. He transfers measurement data as numerical values to the edge of the screen. Apart from Paris, who takes a questioning look at the data, the other officers are busy with activities on their own stations.
E-Bug`s side feelers lift. A spark flashes over with a crack and floods the bridge for a fraction of a second into the bright, ghostly, blue-white light of the plasma thread. Tuvok, Seven and Janeway look up. Seven is the first to notice the readings on the screen.
"The hypernova has erupted. Its neutrino storm was detected by the long-range probes."
From her place Janeway worriedly inquires: "What is the state of the nebula?"
Seven checks her own measurement data. "The porosity has reached a higher value than expected due to our simulations. It is about 40%!"
"On screen!"
The formerly pale-white nebula shines on the monitor in blue, brown, yellow and dark red colors. It no longer has the shape of a rounded, closed cloud. Tornado-like gas whirls stand far into the surrounding space towards all sides. A bluish-white flare can be seen through the gas-free area in the center of a vortex that is directed towards the imaging long-range probe.
Seven declares, "In about nine hours the neutrino storm will arrive at our position and shortly thereafter the wave front of the gamma radiation will follow."
Janeway raises her head resolutely. "We won`t be here anymore then! Captain to Torres - are the amplifier relays for the transporter signals mounted?"
Torres`s voice reports, "The on-probe installations are complete, Captain."
Janeway turns back.
"Our hide-and-seek is over. Shut down the cloaking field, Commander!"
Tuvok nods. Janeway looks at E-Bug.
"Computer, holocom message to Mr. E-Bug. - Launch locating probes!"
E-Bug`s holocom pops up and the corresponding displays appear in front of his tube-eyes.
Above the Anthox`s home planet, the starship Voyager emerges out of a flickering in space and becomes fully visible. Below her, grey stripes of clouds wind above blue oceans; large, yellow-brown continents cover most of the planet. From openings in the hull of the starship a crowd of small probes floats out. They accelerate and enter the planet`s atmosphere at high speed.
On the bridge, Tuvok reports, "Probes are detecting bio-signatures of the crew, Captain, ... now we also get their position coordinates."
In a tense gaze Janeway looks at the planet`s image on the screen.
"Bridge to all hands! Stand by for operation Pick Up. - Captain to both transporter rooms! Initialize transport sequences. Begin operation Pick Up on my mark - energize!"
In a transporter room, five crew members materialize. They quickly move away from the pads. Shortly afterwards the next group appears and follows their predecessors into the corridor. There the returnees are already being greeted by their old colleagues with handshakes, pats on the shoulder and hugs. Soon the corridor fills up with more and more people.
Bent forward in her chair, with thin lips and a fold between her narrowed eyes, Janeway stares at an ugly brown continent on the planet`s image.
Finally, Tuvok declares, "Transporters report that seventy-nine missing crew members have been beamed up."
Janeway`s eyelids and lip muscles relax. Her hands, that were pressing the armrests of the chair, open. With a deep breath she leans back. A relieved smile unfolds in her face.
Tuvok observes his readings. "Two ships are approaching from the planet surface on an intercept course."
Janeway looks at the helm. "Mr. Paris, take us to the coordinates arranged, ... warp 9!"
"Aye, ma`am."
On the screen the planet swings to the side and shortly afterwards the stars stretch into stripes. Janeway rises.
"Commander, take the bridge!"
Paris turns its head.
"Captain, I`d like to welcome Ensign Kim."
"Of course, Tom. Inform Mr. Ceph to relieve you."
In a corridor that appears upside down, a field of vision, composed of a swarming medley of single impressions, moves forward in swings, in a rhythm dragged and pushed by two tentacles. Resembling legs, they are advancing ahead, alternately reaching forward. In the rotated perspective the arms, set with suction cups, look like they were walking across a floor surface. Except for the greenish-grey body, that is only vaguely imaged in the periphery of some single aspects, the entire remaining space is depicted all around in twelve swarming, but optically individual images sharply separated from one another. Their oscillating spinning makes their boundaries constantly superimpose. Three unused, loosely swaying tentacles protrude into the field of vision, looking as if they had been stretched upwards like swaying tree stumps.
Beyond the range of vision limited by the curvature of the corridor, an acoustic tumult of noises approaches, continuously swelling. Humanoids in Voyager uniforms appear, densely packed, in the passage ahead. In the upside-down perspective of the visual field hurrying towards them, they seem as if they were hanging from the ceiling attached by magnetic shoes. The forward movement, with the tentacles reaching out, slows down. As the manifold of twelve views swings past the heads of the first humanoids, they quickly dodge to the corridor wall drawing their neighbors with them by their arms. While the visual composite penetrates further into the dense crowd, the twelve individual aspects change their orientations in an increasingly jerky manner and focus in abrupt alternations on the closest faces. Shrill sounds are repeatedly uttered when humanoids jump to the side in a particularly hectic manner. One of them strikes with his hand defensively at one of the unused protruding arms. The three arms are rapidly pulled tight to the bulk of the body. The composite field of views now appears as if formed by a fluctuating foam of images shifting in turmoil while independently changing their focuses, their zooms and their viewing directions. The image of an aggressively distorted face suddenly appears as a zoomed element inside of an optical aspect that depicts the whole body of that person. Another group of images shows a wildly gesticulating humanoid in his total shape and in zooms on arms and face.
The two tentacles used for movement grip further ahead in order to accelerate the swinging forward run. Finally, the last heads and shoulders move apart and the corridor becomes vacant and free again in the direction of motion. The crowd of humanoids still recognizable on a handful of single images, remains increasingly further behind.
Janeway`s figure emerges from the front and approaches quickly. Immediately, three centrally located individual aspects are directed at her. One shows her overall appearance, another is focused on the surface of her face and the third one is zoomed on her ocular sense organs. From her first appearance to her passing by, Janeway`s radiant pair of eyes is directed past all images fixed on her; her two eyes are constantly looking towards the background, to the crowd of humanoids. As Janeway`s figure withdraws to the back, one of the three aspects sticks to the rear of her head until it is covered by the curve of the corridor.
With a warm-heartedly shining face and her arms spread, Kathryn Janeway moves towards the turmoil of her crew. Numerous shouts can be heard.
"Shouldn`t an intruder alert be released?"
"Look, the captain`s coming!"
The foremost in the crowd stand at attention.
Laughing, Neelix and Torres are in the middle of the crowd next to Kim. Neelix nudges at Kim`s elbow with the back of his hand.
"Admit it, Ensign: Didn`t you miss your cook and his food most of all?"
Torres intervenes jokingly. "I don`t think so. See how well-nourished our Harry looks! Surely somebody fed him well and coddled him ..."
A tortured smile distorts Kim`s features and he avoids the eyes of the two. Tom Paris pushes his way through the crowd and grabs Kim`s shoulder from behind.
"Finally, Voyager got her most exemplary junior officer back!"
Kim turns around while Paris reaches out to him.
"Welcome home, Harry!"
He pulls Kim towards him and demands with a confidential, muffled tone: "You got to tell me all about your latest hopeless conquest afterwards!"
On the bridge, Ceph rests in his hammock just above the helm table, with two arms placed on the controls. He goes under warp. On the viewscreen appears an asteroid field in front of the Voyager.
Tuvok lays his hand on his communicator. "Bridge to the captain. - We`ve just reached target coordinates."
"On my way," replies Janeway`s voice.
Carey steps out of the lift and goes to the weapons console. Shortly afterwards Janeway appears too. She looks at the OPS.
"Have you found a suitable object yet, Seven?"
"There`s a number of ice asteroids that contain a high proportion of metallic and mineral inclusions."
Janeway sits down at her chair.
"Choose one of medium size. Let`s test whether our plan can be put into practice at all."
Seven transfers data to the helm. Ceph levels two eyes on them. Then he flies the ship to the given coordinates.
"We`re in position now, Captain," reports Tuvok.
Janeway nods. "Capture the asteroid with the tractor beam. - Seven, provide direction and acceleration data to Mr. Ceph!"
With the facets of his big, rigid eyeballs Peri looks into space through the window of his quarters. Diagonally below Voyager a shapeless, light grey asteroid is drifting. The bluish, transparent tractor beam fans from the hull of the starship to the object of ice, rock and metal and couples to it.
Voyager floats in space. Slowly she sets in motion, pulling the asteroid behind her, out of the area of the asteroid field. The object moves further away from its original place and is increasingly accelerated by Voyager. Finally, the tractor beam retreats. Shortly thereafter continuously burning phaser beams hit numerous areas of the asteroid surface. Water vapor is shooting out of the boreholes in white fountains, while the rays of concentrated phaser energy are burning into the material. The phasers go out. Suddenly, Voyager fires a salvo of photon torpedoes. They race towards the asteroid and penetrate into the boreholes. Immediately afterwards, driven by the explosion of the antimatter charges of the torpedoes, the asteroid body sprays into a mist of water droplets and flitters of atomized rocks and metals.
For a moment the white mist is still flooded with the radiation of annihilation reactions and makes it shine. Then the light fades. The drops of water cool down and crystallize into dendritically ramified snowflakes, floating around each other. They are all flat leaflets of about the same size and radially grown in shape. But none of the snowflakes resembles another. Each has its unique structure in the ramification of its crystalline rays. Voyager retreats from the newly formed cloud.
From her seat Janeway stares at the screen.
"Status!"
"A maximum of dispersion was achieved by the torpedoes," reports Seven. "The asteroid was fragmented into snowflakes and a small amount of mineral dust. However, if clouds of this kind are to act as a protective shield for the planet against the radiation of the hypernova, the clouds would have to cover a much larger area. Moreover, a significantly higher density for the cloud material would be needed. I`m afraid, Captain, this is far beyond our capabilities, concerning the available time."
Resolutely Janeway turns back to Tuvok. "Our technology has been used against this planet for far too long. Now we`ll do everything we can for it!"
She turns to the OPS. "Transfer the next target position to Mr. Ceph, Seven. Choose it just as big as our barge can pull it!" Janeway raises her head. "Bridge to Lieutenant Torres!"
"I`m still at the welcome meeting, Captain," reports Torres`s voice. "Do you need me?"
"Go to main engineering immediately! We must get all thrust she`s got out of Voyager!"
"Aye, Captain."
In the welcome corridor, Torres pushes her way through the crowd. Passing by, she reaches for two crewmen.
"I know you haven`t actually arrived yet; but I need you at your old stations in main engineering!"
The two follow her. In front of them Peri leaves his quarters entering the corridor. All his segments are close to the ground, while the ten pairs of short legs move in flowing waves, transporting forward the chain of body limbs almost two meters in length. Only his head is slightly raised, with its large facetted eyes and two hairy, moist stump feelers. Peri disappears in a transverse passage. The two crewmen hesitate.
One calls, "Lieutenant, what do these animals on board the ship? I feel like being on an alien vessel!"
"That was Mr. Peri," explains Torres. "Don`t get deceived by his anatomy. He`s an engineer - like you."
The two crewmen look after Peri doubtfully.
The turbolift opens; Harry Kim steps onto the bridge.
"Ensign Kim reporting back for duty, Captain!"
Janeway turns after him. "You`ll be operating the OPS again after this action, Harry. But first let Seven show you what changes have been made!"
"Aye, Captain."
Kim shrinks back when he sees E-Bug on his console next to the exit of the lift. Kim turns to port and goes to Seven, who is working at the OPS station. He looks worriedly forward.
"Seven, what`s it about these creatures on our bridge?"
"As for Mr. E-Bug, I advise you to keep your distance until you`re familiar with his peculiarities. He joined us during the Hirogen incident." She raises her head and looks forward. "As well did the tentacoloid Mr. Ceph, who operates the helm." Seven rises a brow. "He possesses several amazing abilities."
Kim`s face shows puzzlement and concern.
Janeway inquires, "What`s our current status?"
"With the asteroids pulverized up to now, the area coverage is still below 10%," replies Tuvok.
Seven looks ahead. "I suggest increasing the efficiency of our proceeding."
"What do you mean?" asks Janeway.
"It is not necessary to transport each asteroid to its destination. It would be sufficient to accelerate as many of these objects as possible in the appropriate direction so that they all arrive simultaneously in the target area between the planet and the approaching radiation front. Then, only the time necessary for the pulverization of the asteroids has to be taken into account."
Janeway nods. "Do it!"
Kim stands next to Seven. With increasing restlessness, he observes the displays, Seven`s inputs and what can be seen on the screen.
Suddenly he exclaims joyfully: "Captain, ... now I understand! You are trying to protect the Anthox home world from that hypernova!"
Janeway gets up. She turns around to him and explains seriously, "We`ve left the Anthox system long ago, Mr. Kim. We`re in the star system of the planet Verdera."
Disappointed, Kim frowns. "Captain, shouldn`t we rather stand by the Anthox than by a planet where only plants and animals live?"
Janeway`s gaze darkens. "The Anthox have driven us out of their territory by force of arms. And especially you should know best, Ensign, that we owe something to the life on the planet Verdera!"
Kim avoids her stern gaze looking sideways and notices Tuvok, who observes him just as strictly.
With an asteroid in the tow of the tractor beam, Voyager flies through space. The bluish beam is switched off, the asteroid flies on. Voyager turns around and races back to the asteroid belt with a warp flash. There she attaches to the next asteroid and pulls it with her.
From the turbolift, Peri runs onto the bridge. He stops at the railing behind Janeway`s chair and looks at the screen. Tuvok notices him.
"Captain, Mr. Peri is on the bridge, although he has not been assigned to duty."
"Leave him alone, Tuvok. I`m sure he`d also like to see how things turn out." She turns her head. "What`s the status, Seven?"
"30% of the mass is on its way. I recommend breaking off after this asteroid; otherwise, the time for pulverization may not be sufficient."
"All right," Janeway agrees with a dissatisfied face.
Once again Voyager pulls an asteroid behind her, accelerates it and finally releases it. The asteroid drifts to an area of space to which Voyager had set the other objects in motion before. Those at the front are moving slower, the ones behind, that were set on their way later, are flying with higher speed. Voyager now shoots to the meeting point of all objects, thereby overtaking the drifting asteroids. She positions herself above the cloud of snowflakes she created at the beginning of the action. Then Voyager fires with phasers and torpedoes at the approaching asteroids, which are pulverized, one by one, into a mist of dust particles and water droplets freezing into ice crystals.
On the bridge all eyes are on the screen.
"The artificial nebula is shading 93% of the cross-sectional area of the planet Verdera now," reports Seven. "But I`m afraid that the effective thickness of that shield consisting of mainly ice crystals will not be sufficient to prevent damage to the atmosphere and the biological substance on the surface. I`m just preparing a simulation, using the current parameter values."
The simulation shows an image of the planet Verdera on the left edge of the screen; in its center the wafer-thin shield of ice crystals is sketched; from the right the gamma radiation wave front of the hypernova approaches. The wave front penetrates the shield almost unweakened and hits the planet behind.
"I`m sorry, Captain," comments Seven. "The simulation shows that the attenuation of the gamma ray storm will be only about 20%."
"Can we fetch another asteroid?"
"The radiation front will reach our position in less than three minutes."
Mourning mingles into Janeway`s voice. "We did what we could. - Tuvok, activate the shields. Tell Mr. Ceph to get us behind the cloud, ... even though its cover won`t help much."
With a resigned expression Janeway stares forward, where the simulation disappears, and the artificial ice cloud is displayed again. Voyager moves behind it. The cloud`s borders can be seen at the edge of the screen. On the right side a countdown is shown, indicating the seconds until the arrival of the gamma radiation.
At the OPS console, Kim is standing on the left of Seven. Suddenly, he dodges aside as Peri rises between him and her.
"Careful, Seven!"
Peri`s head and shoulder segments descend to the displays. With his four hands he opens several menus.
"What`s that thing doing?" shouts Kim. "We got to stop it, Seven!"
Janeway turns around.
"What`s going on?"
"This creature has activated the weapons without authorization, Captain," Kim tells her.
Janeway takes a questioning look at Seven who observes Peri`s actions and comments, "Mr. Peri has redirected the phaser control to this console and activated modes that I do not know. I suggest letting him go."
Janeway nods silently. Seven rises her head and looks at the screen. The others follow her gaze.
The starship Voyager floats at some distance behind the wall of the artificially created cloud. All phasers of the starship are switched on, emitting continuous beams against the cloud. Each individual beam divergently expands into a broad, cone-shaped fan until the phaser light, which pulsates flickering at high frequency, illuminates the entire cloud and excites it to a silvery shimmer.
The count down on the screen indicates nine seconds.
Janeway calls, "Tuvok, the filters! I want to see what`s going to happen."
The phaser-excited cloud on the screen grows darker. The countdown shows 2 - 1 - 0. The storm of gamma radiation hits the artificial cloud and makes it glisten brightly. At its edge, the pressure of the gamma photons ejects parts of the nebula as radial jets to several directions. Gradually, the radiation storm fades away. The cloud shimmers again in the pale silvery glow that the fan of phaser light from Voyager produces in it. Peri switches off the phaser banks. Only the light grey color of the ice crystals remains, indicating the location of the cloud. Turning his front segments sideways, Peri lowers to the ground. With a wave-like movement of his rows of his legs he walks to the lift. The cabin closes behind him.
A wrinkle has formed between Janeway`s eyes. "What happened, Seven?"
Puzzled, Seven interprets the readings on her panels.
"Only 4% of the radiation has penetrated the cloud."
"How was that possible?"
"I don`t know. ... The phaser beams were expanded, and their radiation circularly polarized and modulated."
Kim also looks at the displays. "I think it was the crystal structure of the ice flakes, Captain! Under the influence of the modulated phaser light, the ice grains seem to have recrystallized into a modification that is not listed in our database. Apparently, the modified crystals scatter gamma radiation much stronger than an ordinary snow crystal."
Tuvok is surprised. "A mode that expands the beams of phaser guns and applies a circular modulation has not been implemented on Starfleet ships. Also, the Voyager`s specification provides no protocol for this, Captain."
Janeway smiles. "Then we`ll have to supplement this feature to the specification, Commander."
Kim looks past Seven to the lift, where Peri has disappeared, and from there to E-Bug, who is transferring sensor data to the screen. They are flashing in red.
"Two Hatar ships are flying towards us, Captain!" warns Tuvok. "Our shields are still up."
"They are calling us," reports Seven.
Janeway rises. "On screen!"
Three large, gaunt Hatar appear in civilian, official dresses of dignitaries. All three bow. The middle one of them speaks.
"As representatives of the Hatar people, we welcome our friends from starship Voyager!"
Janeway`s eyes widen in wonder. "We also welcome you, although it is surprising to us that we`re suddenly numbered among your friends."
The left of the three proclaims: "We apologize for the incident at the blue star."
The right one continues, "It was wrong of us to distrust you in the first place."
The middle one adds, "We recognized our mistake when you warned us of the disaster despite our aggression."
"Was your planet hit by the radiation?" inquires Janeway.
"We were lucky," tells the left one. "Towards our planet the nebula was still very dense; only a small amount of radiation reached our homeworld."
"And thanks to your warning our people were able to retreat into sheltered locations in time," concludes the right one.
Janeway nods. "I`m glad to hear that! We were lucky too. We could free all our people from the power of the Anthox."
For a moment there is silence.
Then the Hatar in the middle speaks, "We are in your debt, ... also for protecting Verdera with your amazing technology."
Janeway`s face darkens.
"I`m afraid that will not preserve many of the beings on that planet, neither from imposed pain, nor from a violent death caused by outside researchers in order to satisfy their curiosity."
One of the Hatar gives a sign and the three of them put their heads together, consulting. Then they separate again.
The middle one announces: "We would like to express our gratitude to you by promising that the people of the Hatar will respect and protect all life on Verdera from now on!"
"I wish the Anthox would make the same choice," Janeway replies.
The left Hatar makes a disparaging movement with his hand. "The Anthox are no longer able to transform a foreign planet. Our reconnaissance ships report that they`re caring for millions of wounded and trying to restore their collapsed technical infrastructure."
The right one continues, "The radiation has changed the composition of their planet`s atmosphere."
The middle one raises his head. "The Anthox will need all their capacities for many years in their struggle to survive on their own planet. They will not think about colonizing other planets for a long time."
Kim`s head is lowered. As if absent-minded he stares at the displays of the OPS. On the screen the three Hatar bow again.
The middle one declares: "In the name of all Hatar we wish you a good onward voyage. If you`re in need of anything, you`re always welcome with our people!"
Janeway nods. "We thank you for your offer!"
The Hatar disappear from the screen. Janeway turns to the rear bridge.
"I`m sorry, Mr. Kim."
Kim lifts his lowered head a little and sadly looks at Janeway.
She suspects, "Maybe this catastrophe serves the Anthox to rethink their militaristic society and their attitude towards other species." Consolingly, she smiles at Kim. "And who knows, Harry, ... maybe the technical concepts you`ve developed with our people there to reshape foreign planets will now help the Anthox to make their own planet habitable again."
