Chapter 3 - Questions Of Motivation

Nyama rushed through the busy intersection on his way to the Government Center where his lab was located. He smiled as he often did these days because of what he knew about the changes soon coming to his world. His people had accomplished much in his lifetime, even more so these last several years, but soon all of that would be surpassed by what he knew--- by what he would bring.

He stopped and watched hundreds of others hurry by on their way to their jobs or various other activities. Soon all of their lives would change and Nyama would be the force behind that change. No longer would they be held prisoner in their solar system. He had discovered the means to their ultimate freedom.

He looked up smiling as their sun blazed in the sky shining down onto his golden skin and mane of silver hair. He no longer hid his joy, though some in the government surely considered his behavior reckless. What did he care? None of them understood his research and certainly no one could duplicate it. They would have to tolerate his eccentricities for the time being. Besides, they had never understood him. He wasn't about to give away his secrets yet to them or anyone else. The world would learn of his work on the day he traveled from their planet to another solar system and on that day his people, the people of Ninaz, would take their place among the stars.

He strolled across the dark green grass toward the building that held his lab. He had several tests to conduct this day and with them he knew he would convince those in power to begin construction on his prototype craft. They wouldn't be able to resist what he was offering them.

True, they saw his work as giving them unimaginable power and the ability to extend the scope of their influence, but he didn't mind. In the end he was convinced the changes to the political landscape would be so monumental that such thinking would evaporate away as quickly as morning dew on a hot day.

The leaders of the planet Ninaz thought they were using him, but he knew it was just the opposite. Eventually they'd figure it out, but not before it was too late and he was firmly established in the history of his people.

There would be the time before him and the time after him. His discovery would be the most pivotal event in the history of his world. He had worked too hard to let anything else be the result.

Nyama entered his lab and had his assistants engage the confinement system that would contain the matter and antimatter reaction. Some had said he had done nothing more than create an exciting light show thus far, but the measurements of local energy density and the spatial distortions he had observed for the last year told him otherwise.

The reaction chamber flared to life as he sat down at the controls in his lab. Nyama was excited each time the steady pulsing came from the chamber. He was certain one day those energies would take his people to new worlds where they would encounter new civilizations.

Unfortunately, that opportunity would be denied them.

***

Mei-Wan walked into her quarters and dropped her gear as soon as she made it past the door. She fell into the couch and closed her eyes after seven hours of going through the huge volume of data stored in the Ravenscroft's computers. She was beginning to question if this was really what she wanted to spend her life doing.

For a brief second she considered going to see Jack, but she knew he'd only be interested hearing an answer to his question and she still couldn't honestly give him one. She wished he could just give her time to sort it all out in her own mind. It wasn't like she would be leaving now. The Hel'yra Expedition was gone along with the planet. There was nothing left to discover about the Ancient Progenitors in this system.

She wondered what secrets had been lost. Mei-Wan already knew the Ravenscroft team hadn't gotten very far discovering what had been the purpose for the subspace containment system beneath Hel'yra. While she felt the pain of losing her friends and all the others on that now dead ship, she knew that the Galaxy would mourn the loss of the knowledge that was gone forever--- lost among the particles of dust and clouds of gas of what used to be a solar system.

The door chime shattered her thoughts making her sit up.

"I'm not here," she said weakly.

From the speaker, Timothy Blackwell's voice came, "Sorry to bother you, Mei, but I need to see you."

Out of all the people who could have come to her door, Timothy was one of the few she'd let in right now. He had been one person she felt she could easily relate to these days. He was a scientist through and through.

"Come in," she said.

A second later Blackwell entered and smiled at her. "Where have you been?"

She looked up at him. "On the Ravenscroft."

"I'd have thought you'd finished with that hours ago," he said.

"There was a lot of data they had collected, but most of it was just a catalog of all the objects they had found. They hadn't really gotten very far with figuring out what they had."

"Kyle Hoffman is a thorough researcher. I wouldn't expect he'd let his people go tearing into the site chaotically looking for treasures."

Mei-Wan closed her eyes.

Blackwell caught himself. "Sorry, I guess 'was' is more appropriate now."

"It's okay," she said.

He sat on the armrest of the couch. "You served with him on the Farragut, right?"

Mei-Wan only nodded.

"They find him yet?"

"No, but Preston said they've still got about fifty more bodies to identify," she said.

Mei-Wan turned to him wanting to get out of the meeting, but his smile was hard to say no to. "I'll be there."

"Thanks, Mei," he said as he walked toward the door. "Keep me informed on anything out of the ordinary you discover going through those records."

The door closed behind Blackwell, leaving Mei-Wan alone once again.

***

Janus Osmand stood inside the palace of Chancellor Vadelig looking out at the tall buildings of the capital city. He listened as Vadelig, a five foot seven stout humanoid, rambled on about the things he expected from the 'relationship' they were forging. Osmand was used to hearing the list of expectations from the worlds he convinced to join his cause. It was always the same--- help with defense, better technology, improvements in medicine.

Osmand smiled to himself. He knew that within six months Vadelig would no longer rule the world of Parsandra Three with the iron fist he and his fathers before him had for several centuries. The encounter with life from an alien world always pushed these pre-warp civilizations through several stages of cultural and social change. The end of the age of dictators was the one Osmand enjoyed the most. Sometimes he almost felt sorry for the Vadeligs of the cosmos, but then they did live on the backs of their subjects, so he never did manage to let that sorrow grow too much.

"I am still concerned about how my people will react to finding they are not alone in the Universe," Vadelig said.

Osmand turned to face him. "Trust me, Chancellor. They will react quite well once your world is transformed into a paradise that at this moment they could scarcely imagine."

The Chancellor wrinkled his purple skinned nose.  "I look forward to our future at your side, Janus Osmand."

Osmand was about to speak when his communicator chimed, demanding attention.

"Excuse me, Chancellor," he said as he activated the device. "Osmand, here."

Out of the communicator's speaker came a female voice, "Janus, we have received a communication from our Skorr observer in the Ninaz system. They report a Federation vessel has entered orbit with shields operating."

Osmand took a deep breath and turned to Vadelig. "Chancellor, if I may..."

"Of course, Janus."

Osmand walked out into the glass enclosed atrium giving a more expansive view of the city. He looked at the monuments throughout the sprawling metropolis that Vadelig and those before him had built to honor themselves. Osmand had made certain there would be no more structures built for such vanity again on this world.

"Continue, Ahwi," he said into his communicator now that he was alone.

The young woman's voice went on, "The Skorr registered a warp field being generated on the planet surface. Soon afterward the starship had intensified its own scans. The Skorr were about to give further information, but their signal was cut off."

"Anything further from them?" Osmand asked.

"No. We have been unable to reestablish contact."

Osmand looked out at the marvelous rows of buildings that went on for nearly ten miles in every direction. How he wished he could remain on this amazing world a little longer, but he knew that wasn't possible. It was likely his people had come under attack. He could not leave them to their fate.

"The starship must have tried to detain them," Osmand said. "Send out the alert to all our ships in the area. Have them meet us in the Ninaz system as quickly as possible."

He deactivated his communicator and closed his eyes. He had known that eventually this day would come, but the last thing he wanted was for the children of the Ancient Progenitors to engage in pointless fighting with one another. However, it seemed Starfleet had forced his hand.

***

Mei-Wan entered the conference room on Deck Seventeen where most of the commanders of the Science Department's various sections waited for their meeting to start. She noticed that despite what had happened to the Ravenscroft the group appeared to be in good spirits. The meetings were not at all happy occasions when Duncan Zachary had run the department, but that had changed drastically since his abrupt departure five weeks before and Timothy Blackwell's assumption of his duties. Now they actually laughed on occasion during the meetings.

Blackwell walked briskly into the room and sat in a chair across from Mei-Wan and began the discussion with questions around the table about the analysis done on the remains of the Hel'yra system. Various chemical and spectroscopic data became the focus of several spirited discussions which Blackwell allowed to go on for a time until they had exhausted all the possibilities. Soon, everyone came to understand that energies beyond anything they had seen, heard about, or could conceive of had been unleashed on the long quiet world of Hel'yra and its solar system. So far no one had an answer about the how or why that made much sense.

Mei-Wan watched a male officer in his early forties, the head of the Physics Section, talk about the subspace containment field that was generated by the machinery that used to be deep within the planet. His conclusions were that it wasn't a likely candidate for what they found.

He looked at Mei-Wan. "Lieutenant, was there anything in the Ravenscroft logs that might give some hint?"

"Nothing from the records of the expedition," she replied. "There was only information about translation and various displays of text found in the lower chambers."

"The last note in their sensors logs was the entry into the system of a volume of energy at high warp," Blackwell said. "We can safely assume that it was the being we watched leave Cajma."

"Then you believe it was the cause of all of this?" asked Vanessa Bernardi, the leader of the Geology Section.

"Unless someone has a better explanation, I don't think we have any other candidates," Blackwell said.

Judith Gilroy from Life Sciences frowned. "If you go with that hypothesis, you know the captain will just go off on some monster hunt, Timothy."

Gilroy turned quickly to Mei-Wan and smiled. "No offense, Mei, but it's the nature of starship captains."

"None taken, Judith," Mei-Wan said with a forced smile. She wished they'd see her as a colleague before they saw her as the 'captain's wife.'

"I think Captain McCall has reason to want a quick answer this time," Blackwell stated. "If this being has some fascination with obliterating solar systems, then we need to figure out a way to stop it before it begins attacking heavily populated worlds as it did Cajma."

He leaned forward and lowered his voice a bit. "Most of us here knew someone on the Ravenscroft. They were our friends, fellow officers, and scientists. As terrible as their loss is we have to realize there are larger issues at stake here.

"If the being that did this can be communicated with and convinced to avoid other habitable worlds, then we will be the ones asked to provide the basis for that communication."

He turned to Gilroy. "We need to go back over our sensor readings on the entity when it attacked Cajma and the Venture. We may be able to find some... "

The voice of Melissa Vargas came over the speakers cutting him off. "Mr. Blackwell we've detected a shuttlecraft on our long range sensors. The captain would like you to come to the bridge within the next ten minutes if possible."

As Timothy replied Mei-Wan thought to herself about the occupants of that shuttlecraft and hoped that her friend Susan Tanega, who had yet to be found among the bodies on the Ravenscroft, might have escaped with her life. However, she knew hope was something in short supply this day for the members of that dead ship's crew.

***

An hour later, the Chamberlain approached the drifting craft, a science shuttle from the Ravenscroft, some ten billion kilometers away from the center of what used to be the Hel'yra system.  They brought it aboard along with its two barely alive occupants who were immediately taken to sickbay where Doctor Preston worked to save the short-haired human female who held onto life by the narrowest of margins.

Mei-Wan ran into the medical area and stopped between Jack and Hank. She looked down at the exam table. "Susan," she said.

Jack turned to Mei-Wan, knowing this was a friend of hers. "She's alive, Mei."

"What happened?" she asked.

"It seems their life support system was badly damaged," Hank Evans said. "My guess is they were hit by the subspace wave as it left the system."

"Why were they out here?"

"Probably to send their scheduled report back to Starfleet," Jack said. "They would have come out this far to escape the effects of the nebula so they could transmit."

"Was there anyone else?" Mei-Wan asked.

Jack took a breath and turned to his wife. "There was one other."

She looked at him and he saw the hope mixed with fear in her eyes. Jack wished he could bring himself to hate her for it, but found it impossible.

"It's Hoffman," Jack said.

"Is he alive?" Mei-Wan barely got out above a whisper.

Jack nodded. "He's unconscious, but alive."

Mei-Wan thought she could almost hear disappointment in Jack's voice, though she didn't want to believe it.

"Can I see him?"

Doctor Preston turned away from treating Susan Tanega for a moment to answer Mei-Wan. "He's in observation room four, but I doubt he'll be awake yet. He wasn't much better off than Lieutenant Tanega."

"Will Susan make it?" she asked.

Preston turned back to his patient and thought a moment. "I think she'll survive, but I'm worried she may have suffered brain damage. I'll know more in about ten minutes."

Mei-Wan walked toward a door to another section of the Chamberlain's sickbay.

Hank glanced at Jack. "You gonna do something about that situation?"

"What would you suggest, Hank?" Jack asked without really wanting an answer. "Should I wait until he's healed and challenge him to a duel or something?"

Hank grinned. "That works for me."

***

Mei-Wan stood at the bedside of Kyle Hoffman observing the medical diagnostic display above his head keep watch over his vital functions. An hour earlier a nurse had come by and let her know that Susan was still unconscious, but out of danger.

She looked down at the face of the man she spent every day thinking about nearly six years ago. He had been the officer in charge of the Archaeology Section of the starship Farragut and she had adored him. She hadn't wanted to leave without telling him how she felt about him, but she did and had regretted it.

Her feelings for him haunted her life and her marriage threatening to bring happiness to one and destruction to the other.

Kyle Hoffman stirred from his slumber forcing his eyes open. After a moment they focused on the woman standing next to his bed.

"Mei?" he asked in a whisper. "Is that you?"

Mei-Wan smiled, happy to see him awake and excited as she always was to hear him say her name. "Yes, it's me."

"When did you arrive? What happened?" Kyle said, disoriented.

Her smile faded. "We found you and Susan on a shuttlecraft. Do you remember what happened?"

"Shuttlecraft? Right. We went out to send a message back to Kel-j'na," he said closing his eyes again, trying to summon the strength to stay awake.

His eyes opened again. "Is Susan okay?"

"She's still unconscious, but... " Mei-Wan started. Her words ended when she saw Jack enter the room.

"Commander Hoffman, I'm glad you finally woke up," Jack said quickly. "I've got a lot of questions and not much time."

Kyle's eyes narrowed. "McCall? What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm the captain of the Chamberlain, Hoffman. Where my ship goes, I go."

Kyle looked at Mei-Wan. "But I thought you came on the Venture. Why aren't I on my ship?"

"Gone? How?"

"We still don't know that yet," Mei-Wan replied.

"The expedition and our work?" Kyle asked with wide eyes.

Jack frowned. The expedition? His work? That's all this guy cares about? he thought. Jack didn't want to be the one to tell Hoffman, but he didn't exactly have all the time in the world to waste. He needed some answers.

"I'm sorry," Jack started. "But your crew is gone."

Hoffman turned away from Jack and looked at Mei-Wan. He watched her eyes fill with tears.

"LeAnn?" he asked.

"She's dead," Mei-Wan said in a soft voice.

"We think they were killed by what attacked the Venture and exterminated all life on Cajma," Jack said.

"How could this happen? How could..." Kyle closed his eyes as his words trailed off.

"I need to know what you saw, Commander," Jack stated firmly.

"Give him a minute, please, Jack," she pleaded.

"Mei, I'm sorry, but I really don't have the time to..."

The intercom chimed. Communications officer Conrad spoke, "Captain McCall to the bridge!"

"What is it?" Jack asked.

"Sir, we're receiving a distress call from the starship Sirona in the Ninaz system. They report their sensors have detected what appears to be a Skorr cruiser, cloaked and operating in orbit of the fourth planet."

Jack thought a moment then a deep frown came to his face. "Osmand! Damn it all to hell."

Mei-Wan watched Jack as he turned to go out the door and continued speaking to Conrad over the intercom.

"Are you in contact with the Sirona right now?"

"No, sir. They were cut off mid-transmission."

"Take us to yellow alert and prepare to go to warp. I'm on my way," Jack said as he left the room.

Mei-Wan turned back to Kyle. "I should go and let you rest."

He nodded slowly.

"You want to speak to a Counselor?" she asked.

"No. Actually, I'd kind of like to be alone for a while," Hoffman said. A smile came to his face. "Thanks, for being here when I woke up, Mei."

She returned his smile and walked out the door.

He sat lost in thought for a full minute after Mei-Wan left. He reached for the library computer access terminal attached to the side of his bed and pulled it over to face him, activating it.

"Computer," he ordered. "Prepare to send a message to Starfleet Command addressed to Admiral Patricia Olanski. Encrypt message, authorization Hoffman two-three-six-seven, Mei-Wan, alpha."

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