Chapter 9 - The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of
Jack had been staring at the dark ceiling above for more than an hour, hoping he'd eventually drift off to sleep, but his mind was too consumed with the tasks that lay before him to allow him the few hours of quiet slumber he so desired.
He sighed, thinking maybe it would be just as well if he got up and checked for any new reports of activity within the Nybiros system.
"Trouble sleeping?" the blonde beside him asked.
"Evidently I'm not the only one." He rolled over to Melissa. "Did I wake you?"
"No." She pulled the blankets tighter around herself. "I guess I've got a lot on my mind too."
Jack peered over her shoulder and gently caressed her Vulcan ear.
"Ummm," she murmured. "I like that."
He kissed her neck. "How about this?"
"I like that too."
"So what's troubling you?" Jack asked, now lightly kissing her bare shoulder.
"Nothing. I'll eventually figure it out."
"If there's something to figure out, how can it be nothing?"
"So what's keeping you up?" she asked, ignoring his question.
Jack had learned not to push too hard when Melissa's stubborn streak showed itself. Better to answer her, and try to ask again later.
"The same thing that's been bothering me for the last week." He ran his hand over her shoulder.
"The plan seems sound, Jack. Trust your people. They'll do what needs to be done."
He took a deep breath. "I'm going on the Abdiel."
"You're what?" She rolled onto her back so she could face him. "No."
"Melissa..."
"No, this is insane. I know what you're going to do."
"I have to try to stop this."
"Those creatures destroy every living thing they come in contact with!" She was near tears. "And you want to be face to face with one of them?"
She was right. Not even bacteria remained on the worlds the Volmvas ravaged. "Mei spent time with the one inhabiting my father's body. I saw him on Folam. We didn't die then."
"Don't you think if this could be stopped, someone would have already tried that?"
"Who? The Vedala? You heard the one we met. They're not interested."
"The Vedala said there was no point in talking to them. Their very nature is destruction."
Jack fell back on the bed. "The Vedala say what they want us to hear."
"But if everyone wants this war isn't that their choice to make?"
"I don't buy that. Very few people ever want war. Sometimes they convince themselves that the only way to get what they want is through war."
"All these beings do is destroy. From what I've seen, I agree with the Vedala. " She rolled on her side, facing away from him again.
"Remember where we found the Volmvas? They had been imprisoned for billions of years on Hel'yra by the beings we descend from. How would you react if you'd gotten free from that only to come face to face with the offspring of your jailers?"
"Okay, I'd probably be really pissed, but maybe the Ancient Progenitors had reason to imprison them."
"Melissa, the only side of this we've heard is the Progenitors, and that second hand from the Vedala." He leaned against her back. "That's not enough to go on."
"But the G'voda were destroying worlds before their masters got free. How do explain their actions?"
Jack considered that a moment. "I think the G'voda lost something in all that time away from the Volmvas. Remember the machine version of Mei that came aboard? How she... it seemed so much like her, but in the end couldn't make the choices Mei would have?"
"Yes, but she was programmed to follow her orders."
"Perhaps all the G'voda are that way."
"There's no way for us to know that. In the absence of that knowledge we have to defend ourselves."
"I'm not suggesting we shouldn't, but when a group of people operate out of fear they can do terrible things in the name of protecting themselves."
"What are you suggesting?" she asked.
"What if the Ancient Progenitors were on the wrong side of this fight?" Jack paused to let her consider that for a moment. "Remember how we detected only sixty of those energy beings attacking those worlds? What if that's all that's left of the Volmvas? What if the Progenitors and their allies the Vedala wiped all the others out?"
Melissa turned to Jack. "Then that would mean we…" Her words trailed off.
"It means we are simply finishing the wrong begun by those who spawned us."
"But there's no way for us to know if that's the case. You're just speculating."
"There's one way for us to find out, and it just happens to be the one thing the Vedala don't want us to do."
"I don't want to believe any of this. How could the Ancient Progenitors, the beings all of us sprang from, be as horrible as you're suggesting?"
"How could my ancestors on the North American continent have done the evil they did to the native peoples they found there? How could your Vulcan ancestors have done the terrible things in their past?" He brushed her soft blonde hair back with his hand. "They were who they were. But who we are isn't determined by their choices. With the understanding we have, we can decide to be better."
She fell back onto her pillow. "What about the power these Volmvas have? How is it they couldn't defeat the Ancient Progenitors if what you say is true?"
"I don’t have all the answers. I just know what I feel in my gut."
"I wish that was enough for me, but it isn't." She shut her eyes. "Why do you have to be the one to try and stop it?"
"If I don't and Starfleet wins this, I will be haunted by this for the rest of my life. I have to know, Melissa. I have to at least give the Volmvas and the G'voda the choice of ending this."
"And if you're wrong?"
Jack took her hand, finally understanding her reason for debating the point. "I have to do this. If I'm not willing to stand up for what I believe, then what kind of a man am I?"
***
The darkness paced about her like some animal sizing up its prey. She could almost make out two pits darker than the rest of the gloom around her. Immediately she thought of eyes--- cold, thankless, merciless orbs which took in everything, but gave nothing back.
Then it was gone, replaced by an endless array of towering, twisted trees. What little light filtered past the canopy above gave everything a bluish-green tint as if it were under water.
A gust of wind shouted through the forest, seeming to say her name.
"This can't be right," Mei-Wan said to herself with a laugh. "Wind doesn't talk."
"And why not?"
Mei-Wan spun about and found an old woman standing a short distance away. The woman's white hair, wrinkled skin, and deep voice gave Mei-Wan the feeling she was older than any of the surrounding trees.
But her eyes, they were blacker than space itself. Looking into those eyes, Mei-Wan's thoughts felt like stray leaves tossed about by a tornado. Nothing made sense.
"We can still stop him, Mei-Wan."
"Stop... him?"
The woman cast a cold smile at Mei-Wan. "He has lied to you all. He's using that traitorous monster to confuse you. They both want to destroy everything you believe in."
"Who is the monster?"
"They will betray and kill your child unless they are stopped." The woman's face grew fiercer now. "We can save you both. You can have the life you've always wanted."
Mei-Wan did her best to force away the growing fog in her mind. "Who are you?"
"I am the giver of forms." Those dark eyes stared at her, blacker than before. But the woman's voice had lost all hint of danger. Instead her tone seemed very inviting. "Through me, everything has direction, all fears are calmed, all chaos given order."
Mei-Wan took a step toward the woman. In her heart she knew if she could feel those old arms embrace her all the confusion would end. "Are you one of the Vedala?"
"The Vedala are gone."
"Then..." A strange sound distracted her.
It took the whirlwind that was her mind several seconds to recognize it. The sound of ocean waves crashing lazily against some distant shore tore her attention away from the old woman.
Suddenly Mei-Wan felt completely calm.
But the old woman's face showed she was anything but. "Stay here with me, Mei-Wan. Madness and heartache are all that you will find if you forsake me. So much that should never have been has happened."
Mei-Wan barely noticed the woman's words. She was too captivated by the bewitching rhythm of the waves. It had a musical quality that made her feel like dancing.
"We can still save your child, Mei-Wan! But only if you stay in this place with me!"
This time she didn't hear a thing the woman said. The ocean waves were all that mattered.
She followed their sound through the forest. Several minutes later, the trees had thinned and allowed more light to illuminate Mei-Wan's view.
She kept walking, stopping only occasionally to make certain she was still headed toward the wondrous sounds of the beckoning sea.
Mei-Wan saw a bright light ahead, leading her finally out from under the dark canopy of the forest. Stepping beyond the last of the trees, she found a set of sandy hills, bathed in golden light from the sun above. A gust of cool, salt-laden air enveloped her, luring her ever forward.
Mei-Wan stepped to the top of one of the hills. The roar of the crashing waves was deafening now that she could see the endless sea it came from. The beach ahead stretched into infinity to her left and her right, but directly ahead she saw a couple and a small child playing. The blonde haired woman had her back to Mei-Wan and appeared to be searching for sea shells. A small pile lay on the sand next to her at the water's edge.
The man looked in Mei-Wan's direction. It was Jack. He smiled and motioned for her to join him.
The coolness of the sea air and the warmth from the sun combined to make Mei-Wan feel more at peace than she ever had been in her life. There was something so very right about this place.
The child, a young girl of perhaps ten with black hair, glanced Mei-Wan's direction and frowned. "She'll ruin everything."
"Jennifer!" Jack chided the girl. "That's uncalled for."
The blonde woman faced her. It was Melissa. "Come on, Jennifer. Help me find some more sea shells."
"Okay," the girl chirped. She skipped the short distance over to Melissa.
Jack turned to Mei-Wan. "Sorry about that, Mei. You know how she can be sometimes."
"Jack, who is she?" Something about the girl seemed so familiar to Mei-Wan.
"Hey, Jack," Melissa called out. "Come and look at this."
He walked over to Melissa and the girl. While Jack and Melissa took a moment to discuss one of the shells, the girl glared at Mei-Wan, making her feel as if she were intruding.
Maybe I am, she thought.
She walked down the beach for several minutes, until she could hardly see Jack, Melissa, and the girl any longer.
"Hello, Mei."
She spun about to the source of that voice. His voice. "Todd?"
He smiled. "Who else would it be?"
Mei-Wan threw her arms around him, vowing to herself never to let him go. "I've missed you so much."
He gently tilted her chin so their eyes could meet. "I've missed this." He leaned toward her until their lips pressed together.
Mei-Wan let herself drift away in the warmth of that kiss. She loved this man. She had since...
"No," she pulled away from him. "This isn't possible."
"What?" Todd had a worried look on his face. "Don't you want to be here with me?"
"More than anything else," she said with tears falling. "But you..."
Todd looked out at the convulsing sea. "So much chaos, but below..." He turned to her. "Calm."
Mei-Wan felt he was trying to tell her something, but all she cared about was being in his arms again.
"Don't let the calm distract you, Mei. There's more beyond that. Open your heart to it."
"I should have listened to my heart," she said. "But if I had..."
"That's the thing about choices, they always reduce the possibilities in our lives." He grinned. "Well, not always."
"What? What does that mean? You've found a way to get here? A way we can be together?"
"Sometimes choices open possibilities we could never imagine." He placed his hand on her stomach. "Our child is like that."
Wait, she told herself. How does he know about the baby?
"The baby," he said with a troubled tone. "Mei, where's our baby?"
She looked at him. "I'm sorry, Todd."
He appeared almost frantic and grabbed her by the shoulders. "Mei, what did you do?!"
Mei-Wan woke up with a scream. "Please, Todd, I'm so sorry!"
She sat up, her breathing far too rapid. It took her several seconds to realize she was in her bed.
She fell back onto her pillow, weeping about how brief her time in Todd's arms had been. It had only been a dream, but that was the only place she could see Todd Nakano.
