Chapter 16 "And So It Continues"

Two months later- July

Tuvok

By this time, Aurora had become invaluable to me as my guide to the twentieth century and as my t'hy'la, soulmate, lover, and friend. One humid night in the Texas summer, we lay in each other's arms, and I questioned her,

"Will you come back to the twentieth-fourth century with me if I can return to Voyager, Ashayam?"

As Aurora lightly traced heart shapes on my chest with her lengthy red fingernails, I pulled a face because I was ticklish. Her beautiful face beamed with blissfulness, and I felt a love and warmness in my heart that only she could generate.

Promptly, my lover halted her simpering and earnestly answered, " I will go anywhere with you, Tuvok, my dear."

Aurora sat up, kissed me, and questioned if I would be happy if I were stuck in this century with her.

"Affirmative. You are my life, Aurora. I will be overjoyed with you anywhere or anytime," I promised, stroking her wavy hair away from her face.

Randomly, I felt an acute twinge of pain in my neck later as I dozed off as Aurora left for work.

When I awoke, I was in a sterile laboratory on a cold table bound. I felt groggy but turned my head to the left and the right cautiously.

Blinking my eyes in uncertainty, I thought, "this wasn't Aurora's apartment."

Nonetheless, I had relocated to a cavernous undisclosed place. Something was pinning me down and limiting my movement as I wiggled to break free.

"Aurora?" I gruffly called; my voice was barely audible because my mouth was parched, like sandpaper.

There was an unknown weight on my temple, and I had difficulty staying awake as I struggled to keep my eyes open.

.

"Greetings," a man's hoarse voice stated from above.

Unable to determine the location of the voice or to whom it belonged, I asked him about Aurora. There wasn't any answer. After wrestling with the locks unsuccessfully, I felt lulled to sleep again.

An unspecified amount of time passed, and I awoke in the same place. A feeble old wrinkly man stood next to me, peering down at me as if I was a curiosity, and it felt creepy.

"Greetings, Tuvok. My name is Malakye, and I am one of the few Qhirgoll left. You beamed down here from Voyager five days ago," he revealed with a knowing smirk.

"How is that possible? I was on twenty-first-century Earth for five months," I declared, puzzled.

"Yes, we sent you there," the elderly man solemnly publicized.

"Why?"

Malakye shrugged and didn't offer an answer. That only fueled my anger.

"Where are my other two shipmates?" I conjectured.

He reassured me of their safety, and I exhaled in relief for a moment. The more pressing concern was Aurora and her whereabouts. With a snarky look, Malakye noticed my apprehensive expression and inquired,

"Tell me, Tuvok, have you met anyone with this birthmark?"

He revealed a picture of a humanoid with a strawberry mark, and I immediately recognized it. My stomach began doing flip-flops, and a wave of nausea came over me when I realized that Aurora had an identical one on the small of her back. Nevertheless, I did not want to hand out additional information to this older man until I knew what was happening.

"Ahh, you do, don't you, Tuvok?" Malakye suggested, observing my reaction as I was unable to conceal it. The thought of Aurora in danger made me extraordinarily defensive as I would do anything to protect her. Feeling a sense of dread, the pit of my stomach painfully ached, and I closed my eyes for a second.

Pressing a button on a remote, a picture of Aurora Simmons appeared on a screen to my left of me. It gave her name, measurements, date of birth, occupation, siblings, cause of death, and day of death. Aurora would die in a crash in three Earth days, July 20, 2021.

I couldn't let my bondmate die in a month, and my whole world felt like it was imploding. We just united a month and a half ago. I felt tears surface in my eyes as I glared at Malakye in astonishment.

" Not with your assistance," the old man said, winking at me, and I felt like this guy might be the parabolic Devil in Christianity.

"But what do you need with Aurora?"

"We had to find one of our ancestors to bring to the future for procreation, one that would leave no trace from their time continuum, Tuvok," the elderly man divulged, releasing the binding that held my feet and arms down to the lab table. After rubbing my wrists, I slowly sat up and inquired while raising an eyebrow,

"Malakye, with all due respect, why can't your people do this?"

"The Borg attacked our planet twenty-five years ago, and there is no one else to go. We waited for someone to discover us, and then you came along. My son is the last male from our species and must mate with someone of pure blood. Now that you found Aurora, she is a perfect match," he answered.

"So you are humanoids?"

"Yes, my son's mother came from our planet, Vicolla, a small planet one light-year from here. The Borg mercilessly exterminated the planet, but my son, Tomnu, and I escaped here in a battered spaceship. We worked tirelessly for twenty-five years to create the technology to send people to the past. You must bring Aurora here so we can put her DNA into Tomnu's wife so they can procreate a full Qhirgol," Malakye revealed.

Instantly, I felt relief when I realized that Autora didn't have to mate with this man's son because we were in love, and the thought of the two coupling made me sick.

"I thought Vulcans didn't make emotional attachments, but I see I was wrong. Tuvok, I will be sending you back to retrieve my ancestor as soon as I hear again from your captain," he smugly commented.

"You have spoken to Captain Janeway?"

"Yes, you have quite the aggressive captain, don't you, Tuvok? Captain Janeway is quite apprehensive about you, but she now has her hands full," Malakye stated.

"Explain, sir," I immediately responded, my interest piqued.

"The Kazon attacked Voyager while we were in negotiations to bring you back from the twentieth-first century Earth," he solemnly replied.

Will Voyager be able to save Tuvok?