Chapter 8

The anomaly of Darkness was massive. And yet, it appeared weightless.

Neelix could hardly stop the panic from taking a hold of his heart as he stared at the monitor of Nirax's small freighter, now just returned from his reconnaissance expedition. The "Wave of Darkness" of his childhood stories was real, it was coming, and it was larger than was fathomable.

His mind couldn't quite accept that it was real, and that it wasn't, as he'd hoped, a simple, harmless plasma drift. No, this was much larger, and it rotated around a central point like a miniature galaxy – only it was empty, devoid of any light. It seemed to slide through space – no, on space, like Tom Paris' ice skates on ice – with no regard whatsoever for the laws of physics.

"How fast…?" Neelix's words failed him, his eyes glued to the tridimensional representation of the phenomenon that slowly rotated on the monitor in front of him, mesmerizing.

What was it?

"Too fast," Nirax replied somberly. Younger than Neelix by many years, Dexa's cousin was resourceful and clever. Neelix liked him. "I've estimated 83 craliax."

Neelix quickly made the translations into his mind – he'd gotten used to Starfleet measurement units by now. He gasped. "That's… the equivalent of warp 9.5…"

"That's why I came back right away. We need to convince the council that we need to evacuate. It's coming right at us, and no one seems to know if it's stoppable. I've calculated that it'll be here in less than a day."

Neelix gasped again, this time failing to fight the panic coiling his stomach into a tight knot. Even if he could send a transmission to Starfleet, it didn't give them enough time to reply. He'd have to send a detailed message about a coordinated time to open the wormhole, and hope they'd get it in time.

Whatever Starfleet's decision, they had to start evacuating. Right now.

He had to get back to Dexa and Brax!

"I've heard that your Alpha Quadrant contacts might have a way to evacuate us. Is that true?" Nirax asked as they hurried through the tunnels.

"Yes. Well, it's a possibility." Neelix stopped and turned to face Nirax. "But I'm going to assume that it will work. We have no choice," he added to himself before returning his attention to Nirax. "You need to return to the council, and convince them of what's coming. Show them your telemetry, do whatever it takes! And then have people leave everything behind, and split up into as many ships as can hold everyone." He started walking again. "Tell them we're going to the Alpha Quadrant."

He didn't wait for Nirax's reply before he turned on his heels.

"What are you going to do?" Nirax shouted.

"I'm going to open the door!"

oooOooo

Deep Space 12 wasn't finished, so there was something nerve-wrecking about the corridors that led nowhere but to the vacuum of space. No matter how many times B'Elanna had been assured that a force field prevented anyone – or atmosphere for that matter – from being sucked out, it was still deeply unsettling to stare into that void and not see anything standing in between.

It had taken a couple of hours for the rest of Janeway's fleet to arrive at the station, but now that they were all here, Janeway had called for another briefing with the captains, this one face to face aboard DS12.

Now their party, made up of Janeway, Tuvok, Seven, Harry, Chakotay, the Doctor (so that he was aware of any potential health risks) and the six other captains, sat around a large state-of-the-art briefing room, with fancy new monitors and consoles. Three of the starships, including Voyager, Aspire and the Cousteau, were visible from the large window lining the room as their sleek hulls caught the light of the nearest star.

"So, explain to us again how this is going to work?" Captain Uang of the starship Aspire asked.

B'Elanna nodded. "We're going over the last finishing adjustments on the Neutrino Entraptor now. Once we agree that it's ready, Seven of Nine and myself will go over it independently, to make sure that nothing is amiss. Once we're reassured that it's good to go, someone will need to take the device to a location determined by Ensign Lik and approved by Admiral Janeway." B'Elanna touched the remote and the launching location appeared on the screen, showing its relative distance from DS12. "It should take about 20 minutes for the Delta Flyer to get there at maximum speed."

Seven took over from her. "Once at the designated coordinates, the same person will then enter the launching sequence that we have designed. It's meant to eject the device to a specific safe distance from the shuttle. When the device is in place, they will activate the Entraptor remotely, using the Delta Flyer's controls."

B'Elanna resumed. "By then we will have communicated with Neelix a specific time for him to get ready."

"And his device, it is the same as the one you've built? What did you call it? A Neutrino Entraptor?"

"Technically, yes. But since we'll be the ones to activate the containment field for the neutrinos, his will basically just serve as a receptor. I trust Neelix, but using ours to activate the flow of neutrinos gives us extra reassurance against potential errors in the construction, and also will allow us to make adjustments as we go, if necessary."

"And then… a wormhole will form between the two devices?"

"That's the theory."

"And you've run simulations, right?" Captain Lionar retorted, his voice skeptical and frightened in equal measures. "Forgive me for saying so, but trying to create a hole in the matrix of spacetime gives playing with fire a whole new meaning, we should probably make sure that the devices will work!"

"Of course. We will be testing out the wormhole before sending anyone through. But in our simulations our latest parameters showed a rate of success of over 77% each time. That's… as confident as we'll ever be about this."

"I'll take those odds," Janeway cut in, effectively putting an end to the discussion. "How much time should we give Neelix?"

While Janeway was speaking, one of the station crewmen quietly walked into the room and went to speak in Tuvok's ear, handing him a PADD as he did.

Tuvok tensed and immediately raised his hand to interrupt. "It appears our preparation time has just been cut dramatically, Admiral. We have received an urgent new transmission from Neelix – he anticipates the anomaly to reach his system in…less than six hours, based on the new time lag between transmissions."

B'Elanna exchanged concerned glances with the others.

"That barely gives us time to set up a time to activate the device!" Janeway said, touching her head in an anxious gesture.

"Neelix has anticipated as much, and has provided his own activation time. In less than two hours."

B'Elanna scoffed in despair. "No, that doesn't give us enough time to test the connection! To send ships through when we haven't even tested anything is just crazy! We ran simulations, sure, but we have no empirical idea to see if this will work, or even if a ship can go through without losing structural integrity!"

"I understand your concerns," Janeway replied, "believe me I hate rushing things as much as anyone here, but Neelix's timeframe doesn't give us any other choice."

Seven looked at B'Elanna. "Then we don't have any time to lose. I suggest we start implementing every possible precaution into the launching sequence so as to reduce the risks as soon as this meeting adjourns."

B'Elanna met Janeway's gaze. The Admiral's expression was anxious but resolute.

"Fine," B'Elanna conceded.

Janeway then quickly dispatched each captain with the coordinates where to station their starship, creating what B'Elanna envisioned as a line of defense against anything undesirable coming through the wormhole. Once they had their orders, the captains retreated back to their ships, leaving only Captain Chakotay behind. He looked at Janeway expectantly.

Janeway leaned with her hands flat on the table. "Captain," she told Chakotay, "you'll provide cover for the Delta Flyer. I want Voyager to take position here," she ordered, pointing to the map displayed on one of the monitors.

Chakotay didn't acknowledge Janeway's order, but instead leveled a gaze at her. "What are you going to do?"

B'Elanna's gaze shot to Janeway in surprise at the challenge in his tone. It took B'Elanna a second of watching Janeway's brief guilty look before catching up to what Chakotay had guessed long before she had. No, she couldn't…!

Janeway pursed her lips into a thin line while she straightened, ever the commanding presence. "I'll be the one taking the Delta Flyer to launch the device."

"Admiral…!" B'Elanna started, shaking her head. Janeway had a history of taking those kinds of risks but…

Chakotay stopped her with a small hand gesture, his eyes still holding Janeway's. He inhaled. "Fine. But I'm going with you."

People exchanged surprised, uneasy, looks at his unyielding tone – even Seven shifted in her seat. None of them had ever truly witnessed Janeway and Chakotay butt heads so openly before, their discussions had usually been behind closed doors. And every time that Chakotay had managed to convince Janeway not to go alone when she'd taken it upon herself to take such a risk, he had sent a senior officer – not himself.

Janeway stiffened at Chakotay's challenge, but B'Elanna saw the momentary raw emotions cross her features before she schooled them again.

B'Elanna shook her head. "With all due respect to you both, I'm the one who should be going! I built this thing, I know it inside out. This is crazy enough as it is, if anything goes wrong…"

"If anything goes wrong?" Chakotay repeated, his eyes flicking to hers. "B'Elanna! You have a daughter, a family! Whereas I'm… dispensable."

"That's the first stupid thing I've ever heard you say!" B'Elanna blurted out, for a second forgetting about insubordination, and glared at Janeway entreatingly. "Admiral!"

"I'll go," the Doctor interjected, his tone almost amusing in its dramatics, but B'Elanna couldn't smile.

Everybody turned to look at him, but Janeway shook her head. "I'm afraid you're just as much at risk as the rest of us – we have no way of knowing what the wormhole might do to your program. Seven, I need you in Astrometrics to monitor the wormhole and the anomaly." She turned back to B'Elanna and Chakotay. "As much as I'd like to, I don't have time to argue with either of you. So, B'Elanna, you and Icheb will monitor our progress from Engineering. I trust you both to guide us remotely." She glanced at Chakotay coolly, if not disapprovingly. "Let's get ready."

Chakotay gave a stern nod, though his surprise at her acceptance widened his eyes a little. he turned to Harry as he stood. "Lieutenant Kim, Voyager is yours."

Harry jumped to his feet, his expression grave. "Aye, Captain." Once Janeway and Chakotay had left the room, Harry glanced at B'Elanna and they shared a long, worried sigh.