***
Written By
Michael Gray
***
***
Chapter 1 - Guess Who's Coming To Lunch
The captain of the starship U.S.S. Chamberlain stood at the Portside Gangway on Deck Twelve of his vessel as the airlock seals on the other side of the large access door activated with a loud clanking noise. Jack McCall took a large breath not to secure himself against the possibility of open space being on the other side, but against the person of Admiral Fergus Simmons who he knew would soon walk through the opening onto the deck of his ship. He let out his breath as the doors slid open.
The Admiral's Staff of twenty officers walked past the open portal and lined up on the left side of the corridor. Jack looked for familiar faces, but saw only the stern looking stares of strangers. The last through was the Admiral's Chief of Staff, Commander Tavak. The tall Vulcan looked at Jack and nodded then took his place in front of the other new arrivals.
Commander Celeste Purcell, Jack's Chief Staff Officer stepped forward from her position next to him. "Attention!" she called out.
Beside Purcell a smart looking Lieutenant stepped forward and held up to his mouth a small rectangular object with three illuminated squares on one side. Jack fought hard not to roll his eyes as a loud whistle sounded from the object. Among the many changes Purcell had talked him into, the addition of a Boatswain Officer was the one he liked the least.
The whistle went up to a higher note for a brief moment. Purcell had come from a long line of Starfleet Officers and before that Naval Officers from Earth. She believed in respecting tradition and this was one she pushed hard for. Jack liked traditions, just not ones that made so much noise.
Otherwise, Jack was pleased that Purcell was aboard. She and the small Staff she had assembled cut Jack's administrative work down to a mere trickle leaving him more time to actually command his ship. One of the changes the crew was happy about was Purcell's modification of the number of watches during a day. She replaced the standard three with what she told Jack was the more traditional seven. At first he was reluctant, but since they were still in orbit of the Planet Gamala in the Yed Post system he felt if it didn't work, finding out in port was the best place to discover it.
Much to his surprise there hadn't been a single complaint from any department, not even from Duncan Zachary in the Science Department. Zachary was overjoyed with it as were most of the other department heads. They felt it gave them more flexibility with their people. The crew liked the shorter four hour watches and especially the 1600 to 1800 and 1800 to 2000 two hour watches. Why Purcell called them the "Dog Watches" Jack wasn't sure, but everyone liked the idea, so he decided to keep the new setup.
The whistle went silent and Jack took another deep breath as Admiral Simmons walked onto the deck of the Chamberlain. The white haired and bearded fifty-seven year old man smiled as he stopped just past the gangway doors. He turned to Jack's Executive Officer, Lak Negev.
"Permission to come aboard, sir."
"Permission granted, Admiral," Negev replied. "And welcome aboard, sir."
Simmons gave a brief nod and turned to face forward as Negev called to the Bridge for the transfer of the Admiral's "Flag". There wouldn't be an actual physical flag attached to the Chamberlain, but an alteration would be made to the vessel's transponder signature to indicate to all other ships that an Officer of flag rank was now aboard.
Jack's mind drifted off as his Andorian Exec continued with the ceremony. Simmons would have his ship for the four week transit to the Tartarus wormhole and finally to Kel-j'na where Simmons would take his new assignment as the CinC of the Kel-j'na Region. The Chamberlain was still Jack's to command, but Simmons and his Staff would take over areas of the ship and demand certain privileges; ones they were entitled to. He kept telling himself it was only four weeks. Four weeks.
Four weeks of having to look over his shoulder every time he gave an order, every time he gave a course correction, and every time anything went even the smallest bit wrong. Simmons had a reputation for being a hard-ass with regulations and he loved surprise inspections. Both of those Jack could deal with, but it was Simmons' presence that bothered him the most. He didn't like having someone scrutinize his every action or lack of action moment by moment. He especially didn't like Simmons being the one to do it. Jack hoped it would be a quiet and uneventful four weeks.
Four weeks.
Negev stepped back in his place on Jack's left and the admiral turned to the Chamberlain's captain. Another man followed wearing a dark blue and black suit with a burgundy jacket. This one was shorter than Simmons and had a roundish face with a very receding hairline. He appeared human enough, but Jack wasn't certain. It took a moment before Captain McCall remembered the admiral had mentioned there would be a historian coming along.
Simmons turned slightly as the other man stepped up next to him.
"Mr. Corsica, let me introduce you to Captain Jack McCall, the commanding officer of the Chamberlain."
Corsica smiled wide and offered Jack his hand. "A pleasure to meet you, Captain. I've heard quite a lot about you, yes indeed."
Jack shook the historian's hand. "Welcome aboard, sir."
Corsica stepped back and looked about the corridor. "So, when do we eat?"
Jack grinned. "I have taken the liberty of having a lunch prepared, Admiral. The rest of my officers are there waiting for us. If you would accompany me."
Simmons nodded and moved forward down the corridor. Jack watched as Corsica smiled again before leading everyone to the turbolift. The odd man bothered Jack. Every time the historian smiled he distorted his face to the point of seeming other than human.
Jack sighed nearly silently as they all neared the set of doors. He tried imagining why Simmons had chosen him to be Mr. Corsica's keeper for the next month.
***
In the large Conference Room on Deck Fourteen several food service personnel busied themselves finishing preparations for the midday meal. Melissa Vargas stood in the center of the large room looking out through the windows along the curving outer bulkhead at the stars of the Milky Way. The captain had asked her to make sure the room preparations were complete by the time the admiral arrived and she was glad she hadn't had to push the food service personnel to get it done.
She turned to look at the chronometer over the entrance to the room and frowned. Just at that moment Commander Lee McGuire sauntered in. He stopped and looked at the plates being placed on the table in front of each seat, but after ten seconds looked directly at Melissa.
They both stood frozen in place for half a minute--- looking. Lee took a deep breath and slowly walked up to her.
"Hello, Lieutenant Commander."
"Commander," Melissa said.
He turned away from her and looked at the chairs seated around the table.
"So, are there assigned seats or do we just pick a place?"
Melissa slowly turned to him. "You want to see the seating chart?"
He chuckled and lowered his deep Irish voice. "So, I hear we're being assigned to the Kel-j'na Region."
Melissa's eyebrows raised. "I hadn't heard anything definite yet."
He tilted his head to one side. "Falco told me he's got a friend on Simmons' Staff."
She nodded. "I guess it helps to have friends."
Lee turned to her, a brief warmth came to his face, but faded away like a dying ember. "I suppose so."
Melissa turned to the sound of the Conference Room doors opening.
"There's Falco now." she said.
The commanding officer of the U.S.S. Abdiel, the Defiant Class ship berthed in the Chamberlain's huge Main Bay, strolled with a smirk on his face toward Lee and Melissa.
"So, you two made up yet?" the beefy Falco asked.
Both Lee and Melissa frowned at Commander Falco. He watched them and grinned.
"Well at least you have that in common," he said.
"What the hell are you talking about, Paul?" Lee asked.
Falco laughed heartily and walked away from them toward the table.
Melissa shook her head. "Sometimes that guy can be a real... "
"Jack-ass." Lee finished for her.
She turned to smile at him and he glanced at her and did the same.
The doors to the room opened and Lee's smile faded. "Looks like Mrs. Captain has arrived."
Melissa turned about and saw Mei-Wan McCall step through the doorway.
"I'd better go," Lee said.
Melissa watched him stroll away as Mei-Wan walked up to her.
"Hi."
Melissa looked at Mei-Wan and smiled.
"I thought you'd be with the captain to greet the admiral."
Mei-Wan shook her head. "I was busy in the lab again."
Melissa nodded. She knew Mei-Wan had spent most of her free time going over the Ancient Progenitor records the last two weeks. She wanted to ask her friend about what had happened with her transfer to the U.S.S. Ravenscroft, but all Mei-Wan would tell her was that she had turned the assignment down. Melissa knew there had to be more to it than that.
"Learn anything new?" Melissa asked.
"Yes, but now I'm more confused than ever. I discovered a new set of symbols in some of the recordings we took on Hel'yra. They're nothing like the others."
"Is it another language?"
"I think so, but I haven't found much of it yet. I've got the computer searching all the recordings," Mei-Wan said.
"I thought you said you were close to translating the first language. Did you figure it out?"
"I thought I had matched some of the written text to the spoken language in the holographic message from the site, but I can't get any coherent results yet."
Melissa looked again at the chronometer over the door. Mei-Wan glanced over at Lee who was having some sort of argument with Falco on the other side of the room.
She lowered her voice, "You and McGuire work things out?"
"We're at least civil now."
Mei-Wan smiled. "So maybe there's a chance... "
Melissa shook her head. "It's gone, Mei. That relationship is irredeemable by now."
Mei-Wan nodded slowly and looked out at the stars. They appeared to stand still even though the ship was moving at considerable velocity to maintain orbit above Gamala. She thought about the last time she looked out at the stars two weeks ago. She turned away from the windows and the memory.
Hank Evans and Kadan Loftus walked up to Mei-Wan and Melissa.
"Commander Vargas," Hank started. "I need to speak to you immediately after this little "kiss-the Admiral's-ass" session."
Melissa nearly laughed at Hank's comment, not because she thought it was especially funny, but because at the very moment he had said it Captain McCall led Admiral Simmons through the doors.
Simmons smiled wide. "I'll try not to overwork your kissing muscles too much, Mr. Evans."
Hank spun about as most everyone else moved toward the table. "Thank you, Admiral. Thank you very much, sir."
Jack glared at Hank as he passed his Tactical Officer. The beautiful Bajoran, Loftus jabbed Hank in the ribs. "Good one, Evans."
Hank grinned. "He knew I was kidding."
Melissa walked up close to Hank on her way toward the table. "Your office?"
Hank turned to her serious and simply nodded.
***
Several hours later Mei-Wan McCall stood staring at a large transparent board that had the symbols of the Ancient Progenitor language written upon it. She walked up to the board with a stylus in her hand and drew a large black circle around one group of the odd text.
"That's got to be it," she said. Mei-Wan walked back to her desk in Archaeology Lab Four on deck Eighteen and picked up a PADD and touched several of the controls. She frowned.
"Barota?"
She shook her head as she looked at the symbols on the transparent panel again.
"Barota cannot be the right answer."
She set the PADD back on the desk and returned to the large writing surface.
A few moments later, the doors to the Lab opened and Jack McCall walked over to his wife, but she continued looking at the perplexing mystery from the past.
"I was wondering where you went to," Jack said.
"Sorry. I got the impression the admiral wanted to speak to you alone."
"He does. I'm supposed to meet him in the Ready Room in twenty minutes."
Mei-Wan turned to him with a grin. "Not 'my' Ready Room?"
Jack leaned against the desk. "Not for the next four weeks it's not."
Mei-Wan shook her head. "You think he'll give it back?"
Jack chuckled. "If he doesn't I'll take his whole office complex on Kel-j'na and stay there. I think I could handle being the Commander-In-Chief of the Region."
Mei-Wan nodded and returned to her board. Jack watched her as she made marks on the transparent panel. He knew Mei-Wan was still upset about turning down the transfer to the Ravenscroft. He wished she'd tell him why.
"So what's all this?" he asked as he pointed at the text on the board.
"These are some phrases I've isolated from the displays on Hel'yra. I've been trying to match up the text with the spoken language in the holographic message the Ancient Progenitors left behind," she said.
Mei-Wan circled five sets of the text. "I think I've matched these up with words in the message. This one is 'fada geo omera' and this other one is 'gu-meri fu gebeo'."
Jack tried to look interested, but failed. "And that's important because?"
Mei-Wan smiled. "If I can make the connection between the written and the spoken languages then we'll have more material, about a hundred times as much, to use to attempt a translation."
"Oh," Jack said.
Mei-Wan sighed. "If we can translate their language then we might figure out what that machine on Hel'yra is doing."
Jack nodded as she pointed at the word at the center of the panel that had been circled numerous times.
"This one is stumping me. I think it's a proper name of some kind, but when I try to figure out how to pronounce it the results come out very strange."
Jack stepped away from the desk and looked at the word. "How do you think it's pronounced?"
"The computer says it should sound something like 'Barota', but that doesn’t fit with any of the other text."
Jack frowned. "What do you think the word is?"
"I think... well, I'm hoping it's the name the Ancient Progenitors called themselves."
Jack stepped up closer to the panel.
"It would be interesting to know what name they used for their species," Mei-Wan said.
Jack looked down and smiled.
"What happens if you put the word 'Beota' in for that one?"
Mei-Wan smirked. "Jack, putting random sounds in for the word won't get me anywhere."
He turned to her and grinned. "Try it."
Mei-Wan watched her husband for a moment, but decided to indulge him. She walked over to the desk and picked up the PADD. She touched several of the device's controls and waited.
Jack stepped over to one wall of the lab that had been turned into a display for various artifacts Mei-Wan had collected over the years. He leaned toward an odd humanoid stone figure with a wide mouth and wondered what planet it had come from. He stepped back and shook his head.
The display on Mei-Wan's PADD flashed and showed several of the Ancient Progenitor words with pronunciation guides next to them.
Her eyes widened as her head tilted up to look at Jack. "That's it," she said with a whisper.
Mei-Wan turned back to the transparent board. She pointed at another group of words. " 'Gupumoi egeme' is this one. 'Jugu ufeida' is how this one is spoken."
She smiled and turned back to Jack as he walked up to her. "That's it!"
She ran back to the desk and activated a Comm panel and began entering data. Jack smiled as he watched her excitement. It was good to see her happy.
Mei-Wan turned back to him. Her smile faded. "How did you know that?"
He took a deep breath. "I can't say."
"How long have you known that was their name? It is their name, isn't it?"
Jack nodded.
"I knew it!" Mei-Wan nearly yelled. "But how did you know?"
Jack closed his eyes for a moment and then turned to look at her. "Someone told me."
His wife stared at him. "Jack, that language hasn't been spoken in billions of years. There is no one alive who could know how that word is pronounced."
"Trust me, there is."
Mei-Wan grabbed his arm. "Jack, please. I have to know."
He took a deep breath. "Computer, isolate this room from all surveillance. Authorization McCall Zed-nine-alpha, Mei-three-nine."
The Computer replied, "Authorization confirmed."
Jack looked at her for a moment wondering if he should really tell her. He saw the thirst for knowledge in her eyes that had always entranced him. For some reason it was more difficult to resist than before, but he suspected it was because he so wanted to be drawn to her--- to forget the pain that had forced itself between them the last couple of months.
"This is classified, Mei."
"Okay," she said with a smile.
Jack looked sternly at her. "I mean it."
Mei-Wan nodded. "I understand, Jack."
He hesitated wanting to press the issue, but finally realized it was excitement in her face, not disregard.
"The Vedala."
Mei-Wan's smile evaporated into a frown. "Very funny. Come on, Jack. Where did you really hear that name?"
Jack grinned and shook his head. "I told you."
"The Vedala are a myth." She turned back to her desk and started working at the data panel.
"They've sure got a lot of attitude for a myth, especially about humans."
"You're serious?"
He nodded.
Mei-Wan's eyes widened. "You've actually met a Vedala?"
"I think so, but the creature I saw appeared almost impossible to have been the result of any evolutionary process."
Mei-Wan sat down in the chair in front of her desk looking off into space. "The Vedala are real."
"They're the ones who sent us to Hel'yra in the first place," Jack said.
Mei-Wan looked up at him. "Why not go there themselves?"
"The one I spoke to said it was dangerous for them to enter the nebula."
"And they told you the Ancient Progenitors were called the Beota?"
Jack nodded. "Yes, along with telling me how disappointed they would be with us if they knew how we'd turned out."
"Do they know what happened to the... the Beota?"
"The Vedala said the Beota had made a sacrifice and that we were their legacy, but it didn't get very specific."
Mei-Wan looked down at the deck for nearly a minute, lost in thought. Jack watched her and wondered what was going through her mind, knowing she was trying to put all the pieces together.
Mei-Wan stood to her feet and walked up to her husband. "I won't tell anyone about the Vedala."
Jack nodded. "Thanks, Mei."
She smiled. "Thank you. You just made my job about a thousand times easier."
She kissed him lightly. Mei-Wan stared at Jack wanting to say more, but stopped herself. This isn't the time, she thought.
Jack turned toward the door. "I better get going. Simmons won't be happy if I'm late."
"Jack?"
He stopped and turned back to her.
"Yeah?" he asked.
She smiled warmly at him. "I really couldn't have done this without your help."
He grinned at her. "It might have taken you a while, but you would have gotten it."
He turned and exited the lab.
Mei-Wan watched the doors close and turned back to the transparent panel standing in the middle of the room. She looked at the strange runes that she could now at least pronounce even if she didn't know what they meant.
She sat back at her desk and activated the Comm panel. After a moment, the image of the Chamberlain's red-haired Chief Communications Officer appeared.
"Pederson here."
"Hey, Cynthia can you do me a favor?" Mei-Wan asked.
"Sure Mei, what do you need?" Pederson said as she smiled.
"Can we still contact the Ravenscroft in real time?"
"Let me check." Pederson activated a number of controls at her station. "They're still on this side of Tartarus, so yeah."
Mei-Wan smiled. "Great. Can you get me a secure connection to Lieutenant Susan Tanega aboard the Ravenscroft?"
Pederson nodded and touched a control. As she waited she looked back up at Mei-Wan. "You are coming to the concert next week, right?"
"I wouldn't miss it," Mei-Wan said.
"Great." The Communications Officer touched another control. "I've got them."
"Thanks, Cynthia."
Pederson's image was replaced by text indicating the other side of the communication. A moment later, a woman with stark features and short cropped hair appeared on the display.
"Mei?"
"How are you, Susan?"
"Great, but I'm a little surprised to be hearing from you. Did you change your mind about the expedition?"
Mei-Wan fought back her feelings. "No, I'm afraid not, but I've got something for you."
Susan Tanega grinned. "What is it?"
Mei-Wan touched a control. "I'm sending you a pronunciation guide to the Ancient Progenitor text."
Susan's eyes widened. "You got a translation?"
"No, just how to pronounce their language."
"You're sure?"
Mei-Wan nodded and smiled. "Yes, and you can call them by their real name; the Beota."
Susan looked off to another display as the data finally reached her. "Incredible."
"This should make translating the language a lot easier."
"That's for damn sure," Susan said. She turned to look back at Mei-Wan. "How did you figure this out?"
"Let's just say this information comes from a very reliable source," Mei-Wan said.
Tanega frowned. "Okay, but I'm going to get this out of you eventually. You do know that, don't you?"
Mei-Wan smiled. "Someday."
Susan nodded. "Since I've got you here, what happened with the expedition? Kyle gets really pissed off when we ask him about you."
"I really can't talk about it, Susan."
"Come on, Mei. It's me. We've always been able to talk."
Mei-Wan shook her head. "Not now." She took a deep breath. "I really need to go. Let me know if you need any more help with the language."
Susan Tanega nodded. "Thanks, Mei."
The display went blank. Mei-Wan McCall leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes. She had indulged her regrets far too much recently. She had made her choice. Now she had to live with it.
