*/*almost there---
soon, very soon---*/*
The last line is in sight.
We've been plodding through space for what seems like eternity, slowly creeping along the path on this damned game board. After that one attack, there has been little or no sign of our... opponent; at one point, we had a distant sensor contact, and R'j launched a volley of subspace torpedoes at it, and after that... nothing.
And now we're coming up on the curving line that marks the inmost edge of the board, and beyond it is the safety, supposedly, of the dark centre, and I have no idea what comes next.
*/*end of the game---
pieces get taken off the game board---
put back in the box---*/*
Well, that sounds encouraging, thanks a whole heap. I stare at the viewscreen, trying to make out something - anything. A box would be good, even. A box would be something, at least.
"Middle of an Andorian chess board is just a black space, right?" I say.
"Thev lin," says Tallasa, "and yes."
I grunt. "Well, I suppose it's consistent...." Then something catches my eye, and I mutter to myself, "Maybe not," and lean forward to peer more intently at the screen.
In the distance, way past the rim of the game board, unknown stars are shining... but, in the empty space at its centre, there are other lights, slowly brightening. Dim, translucent, glowing falls of light, like an aurora frozen in the sky. As the Falcon crawls across the last line, they brighten into a complex labyrinth of light, filling the board's black centre, extending up and down... I don't know how far, I can't see.
"Well, that's different, anyway," I say. "Saval, get me a scan on that. And all stop, I'm not going any further until I know what it is."
"Sir?" Saval sounds puzzled. Vulcans don't often sound puzzled. I'm sure they often are, they just don't like to admit it.
"On the screen. Let me know what it is."
"There's nothing on the screen, sir," says Tallasa.
Now, that is enough to make me stop and stare at her. Then I glance quickly at Saval. He is doing the Vulcan eyebrow thing in my general direction. Puzzled, definitely puzzled, possibly with an option on bemused. And I know just how he feels. "You can't see that?" I ask Tallasa.
"I see the... board," says Tallasa. "And the stars. Sir, what can you see?" Her humour her and make no sudden movements voice is on.
"Uh," I say. "I'm seeing, um, a sort of...." I'm at a loss for how to describe it. "A sort of, um, like a column of lights. Or maybe a three-D maze. Sort of thing. All... flows of light. Curtains." I make vague gestures, trying to trace out the patterns I see on the screen -
- and listening to Leo Madena, who is saying very quietly, "Medical to the bridge, please, urgent."
*/*oh boy are you in trouble now---*/*
Can it, you.
Then I look around and realize I've done the out-loud voice thing again, which has really not helped the situation one little bit. Saval is standing up, and he is flexing the fingers of his right hand in a particular way, that suggests I'm going to get my neck pinched if I don't behave. Tallasa is standing, too, and her expression is troubled.
"Not you," I explain. "Two of Twelve is playing up, you know about that. But Two of Twelve is an auditory thing - I don't get visual hallucinations, you know that, too -"
"You haven't before, sir," says Tallasa.
"Look. I don't know what's going on here, but I'm sure I'm seeing what I'm seeing. All about me, remember? Q told us?"
"Q told you, sir," says Tallasa. And of course there was no one else in the ready room at the time. Oh, God, I do not need this right now.
The turbolift doors hiss open, and Zodiri comes in, tricorder in one hand and hypospray in the other. "Look, dammit," I say plaintively, "can we just consider the possibility that something is going on, here, before we strap me into a canvas jacket? Something weird? Something else weird, that is, because we have had plenty of weird already today?"
*/*keep talking---*/*
"She's seeing something on the screen," Tallasa says.
"Yeah," I say, "on the screen. If it was a hallucination, wouldn't it, I dunno, leak out around the edges or something?"
"How long since you last slept?" Zodiri asks, as she waves her tricorder in the direction of my head.
"I dunno. A while."
"Forty-two hours," says Tallasa. Well, she would probably know.
Zodiri grunts. "Be bloody peculiar if she wasn't hallucinating by now," she says. "But it's the usual story... her Borg implants are regulating her brainwaves and filtering her blood for fatigue toxins, so it's only when they give out that she's got real problems...."
"Any abnormal brain activity?" Tallasa asks.
"Well, of course there is," says Zodiri. "I'm not seeing anything worse than usual, though. Checking her visual cortex now."
"I'm right here, you know," I say pettishly. "I'm in the room."
"Funny spikes in the hypercomplex cells," says Zodiri. "Hmm...."
"Sir," says Tallasa, "if it is necessary to relieve you on medical grounds -"
"Don't know about that." Zodiri taps the harmless end of the hypospray against her teeth. She is evidently thinking things over. "It's possible.... What we see is largely a product of the visual cortex, it's the bit that handles all the processing. It's possible that her altered brain is processing something - some subtle cue, or some such - that the rest of us can't register."
A grouch, but a fair-minded grouch. "On the basis that I'm not off my head," I say loudly, "can we check this thing out, somehow?"
"How?" asks Tallasa. Good question. Damn it.
"I don't know," I say. "The Northern Lights are in my mind, they guide me back to you. Saval, can you, I dunno, run some multi-spectral scans or something, see if anything matches up with... whatever I'm seeing...."
"How can we know, sir?" Oh, Tallasa is just full of good questions today.
*/*need a clue?---
bottom right---
top left---*/*
I don't trust Two of Twelve when she's like this, but I look anyway. The sweeping immaterial curtains of light are taking on a more definite shape, now - to me, at least - and as I peer closely at the screen, I can make out something -
"Saval, scan grid coordinates.... three four eight by two seven niner. One degree radius."
There is something. Some kind of... discontinuity... in the star field. As if one tiny disc is showing a different shade of black.
"I am registering -" Saval quirks his eyebrow. "A spatial discontinuity at those coordinates. And beyond it, there appears to be... a different star field in view." He blinks. "I have a possible match."
"Signal from the Goroke, sir," says Leo Madena.
"Stall her. This might be important." I look at the other corner of the screen, now. It's as if... the curtains of light form a loosely wrapped cylinder, and one end of it is in the spatial discontinuity, so the other end must be - where?
And why can't anyone else see this?
*/*you must just be lucky I guess*/*
"Confirmed," says Saval. "There is a recognizable asterism beyond the discontinuity. Stellar cartography databases place it in the Delta Quadrant, some four thousand light years past the current location of the Jenolan Dyson Sphere. I am correlating with records from the USS Voyager."
"The Delta Quadrant," says Tallasa. "Not exactly home, but -"
"Scan another sector," I say. "One five by three zero. Same radius."
"Sir," says Leo, "Goroke is pressing us for a reply."
"Oh, lord. All right. Put her through."
The image in the viewer fades out, to be replaced by the charmless green face of R'j Bl'k'. "We were wondering," she says with an air of barely restrained impatience, "what suggestions you might have for our next step. Since we appear to have arrived at the end of the game -"
"And the prize is a free trip to the Delta Quadrant. Apparently." I fill her in. "So, one end of this thing is rooted in a gateway to the Delta Quadrant, and the other - Saval?"
"There is another spatial discontinuity at those coordinates," Saval says. "I am not able to determine its location."
"S-s-s-s-s," says R'j. "So. It seems we have a choice. I am cutting in Commanders Vihl and Oschmann on this channel - we should discuss this."
"There's nothing to discuss," says Tallasa firmly. "We have a way back - all right, a way back to the Delta Quadrant, but it's a way out of this situation, and in my judgment we should take it. Sir."
"Wait, though," I say. I'm trying to think. "What about the other one? The other end?"
"We don't know where it leads, sir," says Tallasa.
"It leads deeper into the mystery," says R'j. "S-s-s-s-s. Our opponent, it seems, is challenging us. Do we take the consolation prize, of a journey to the hinterlands of our own galaxy, or -?"
"Right. Right. Makes sense."
"We have to consider the safety of our ships and our crews." Anthi Vihl's voice, over the comms link. Good traditional Andorian military thinking.
"Yes, but -" Aha, thinks little Ronnie to herself, I have a lever I can use here. "Taking the exit to the Delta Quadrant means we have no chance of getting back to Tiaza Zephora in any reasonable time frame. Effectively, it means abandoning the teams on the planet." Including Tylha Shohl. Willing to take that chance, oh love-smitten Andorian zhen?
"It is a valid point," says R'j. "Besides... fleeing from the situation does not resolve it. It is my judgment that we should seek the next step in this... puzzle."
"Right. Yeah. Me too. And I guess, since we're the senior officers here, what we say goes, yeah?"
"That is certainly the normal procedure in the KDF. Starfleet may be more lax."
"Duly noted," says Tallasa. "Sir, should we follow - whatever it is you see on the screen? Or just drive straight for the discontinuity?"
"I've had enough of scenic routes," I say, slumping down into the command chair. "Drive on, and don't spare the horses."
---
Time passes, and I fret. Zodiri comes up beside me with that hypospray, and I look sidelong at her, and she eventually thinks better of it and puts the thing away. I turn to look at Leo. "'Medical to the bridge'," I quote at him. He cringes.
"Sorry, sir."
"So you should be. Put it on a console button, next time, one you can just press quietly without alerting me. There's no point asking for trouble."
"Uh." He looks confused. "Uh, yes, sir."
I turn back to the viewscreen. The light show is getting brighter - to me - as we approach the hole in space. I should sit back and enjoy it, maybe. Not everyone gets a whole aurora for their own private entertainment. Not without better hallucinogens than I can afford, anyway.
"Can you see anything through that hole, yet?" I ask.
"Continuing to scan," says Saval. "I have possible mass signatures. To be detectable at this range, I suspect the body or bodies in question would have to be very massive - on a planetary scale, perhaps."
"Well, we lost a planet, didn't we? Maybe we can find it again."
At least Falcon is taking the lead, on this one. R'j could outrun me, but since I'm the one who can see... stuff... she is content to follow me in. The Goroke is keeping pace with me, a few kilometres off my starboard bow, with King Estmere maintaining a similar position on the port side. The Anar is hanging back a little behind us. The siege destroyer could, actually, outpace all three of the heavier ships, but she took a fair bit of damage during the fight, earlier, and I can't blame Oschmann for being cautious. She will have some explaining to do, anyway, once she hands the ship back to Rrueo.
"Approaching the discontinuity, sir," says Jhemyl from the helm. Well, I can see that.
There is something on the screen, beyond the veils of light. Something big, and black, and dully gleaming....
"Contact with the discontinuity in three... two... one... now," says Jhemyl. I don't feel anything. Not even a shudder. But the lights are all behind me, now, and I can see -
I swallow, hard. "Child Ronnie to the dark tower came," I whisper.
It hangs there against a dim background of distant stars, and it is vast, vast. I've seen the Vault at Haakona, but that was nothing to this thing. It is made of something like black basalt, except there can't be that much basalt in all creation, and it rears up against the stars like, like - I don't have words for it.
"Scanning," says Saval. "The structure appears to be somewhat over two hundred thousand kilometres long, roughly cylindrical, with a diameter of some seventy thousand kilometres. Albedo and surface characteristics consistent with... worked stone. Obviously, that is not possible. Attempting further analysis -"
"Are those doors?" asks Tallasa.
"Oh, boy," I say. They are, indeed. There is a sort of gatehouse at the base, and it has doors, doors made of black iron, vast doors. "All stop," I order.
"Sir?"
I gesture irritably at the screen. "Remember that prophecy thing? The gates of Gre'thor? There's certainly room in that thing for Klingon Hell, and I am not opening it up if I can possibly avoid it."
The gateway continues to grow on the screen. "All stop," I snap irritably.
"All engines stopped," Jhemyl reports. "Thrusters at station keeping."
"But we're still getting closer." I don't like this. "Reverse impulse. Back us away a bit."
"Reverse impulse," Jhemyl confirms. She taps at the helm console, then taps again, harder. Her antennae droop. "Sir, helm is not responding."
No wonder she's wilting, this keeps on happening to her. My mind is racing, my mouth is dry. "It wants us here. It's bringing us in." For an instant, I shy away from the unwelcome conclusion.
"Confirmed," says Saval. "We are continuing to drift towards the object. Impact in twenty-three minutes, if current course and speed are held."
"And the gates of Gre'thor will open, and everything will change." I stand up. "Don't think so. Not on my watch, anyway. Leo, signal the Goroke."
I don't want to do this. I don't want to do this at all. But Q said it was all about me, and I don't see any other way out.
R'j's face appears on the viewer. "Got a job for you," I tell her. "Don't worry, you're going to love it."
"Yes?" She doesn't sound convinced.
"The Falcon's being carried towards that thing, somehow. Well, that's what it looks like, but I think the point is, I'm being carried towards it. And I'm supposed to open the gates of Gre'thor, right? I'm guessing that would be bad."
R'j says nothing, but there is a look in her silvery eyes which tells me she knows where I'm going with this.
"So I'm taking a shuttlecraft out of here," I say. "I'm going to take it about four kilometres ahead of the Falcon, and -" I swallow, hard. "Once I'm there, I want you to lock all your weapons on the shuttlecraft and open fire. Don't stop until it's completely destroyed."
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