"Voice Of Authority"

written by

Michael Gray

"Dr. Lau!"

Mei-Wan hesitated at the calling out of her name in that way. The last time it was a reporter. She forced a smile and turned to face a striking woman who seemed all too familiar.

"Do I know..."

"Annette Kovalak, Federation News Service."

Mei-Wan spun about to resume her previous course toward the San Francisco Library, and away from the gorgeous blond who stalked her. "Good day."

"No, please." Kovalak said, moving to block Mei-Wan's path. "Hear me out."

Mei-Wan glanced around. "Where's your camera?"

"No camera," the lithe Kovalak said, catching her breath. "This is completely off the record."

"I've heard that line before."

"I know it's not easy for you to do this, but all I ask is you trust me enough to listen for five minutes."

Against her better judgment, Mei-Wan did trust this woman. It's what she does, Mei. She knows how to develop trust, then she drives the knife in. She's a predator. Walk away.

No. Without taking risks nothing changes.

"Okay, five minutes."

Kovalak motioned toward a café nearby, and in a minute's time, they were seated and ordering something to drink.

"I know you had a bad experience with Stands. He..."

"I can understand him wanting to get the story, but playing the recordings of the entire... what I thought was a date, that..." Mei-Wan didn't want to explode in so public a place. Better to swallow her feelings about that indignity, at least for now.

"What he did was completely unethical."

Mei-Wan smiled. "So reporters have heard of the word?"

"Yes," Kovalak grinned. "Came up when I read the dictionary once on a rainy day."

I do like her, Mei-Wan thought. Too bad she's a journalist.

"Stands has been fired, and though I know it doesn't begin to make it right, we did run a retraction."

"Too bad no one realized how wrong he'd been before you ran the story and all that footage of me."

"There were arguments." Kovalak looked down at her coffee cup. "Some of us threatened to resign."

"Why didn't you?"

"Because network management realized we were right. Leaving when we'd won hardly seemed the right thing to do."

"I meant before Stands report was released,” Mei-Wan said.

"Would you quit Starfleet before you'd fought for your position?"

Mei-Wan shook her head. "You're rationalizing."

"Maybe. Or maybe I look more at the long range goal than the issue of the moment."

"And I was expendable,” Mei-Wan spit more than stated.

"Haven't you had to sacrifice one thing you believe in for another before?"

That struck home with deadly force. Mei-Wan had indeed done that very thing. She still questioned her choice to play by Temporal Investigation's rules in exchange for Robin Nelson's release. She was a scientist keeping important information from the people of the galaxy.

It sickened her to think about it, and even more because she had made that choice willingly.

"Okay," Mei-Wan said. "What do you want from me now?"

"I want you to tell your side of the Ancient Progenitor story,” Kovalak said with an inviting smile.

"No."

"Look, other people are telling it their way, using your name. Do you want that?"

"I didn't start this, damn it!"

"Didn't you?" Kovalak took a sip of her coffee. "This all began with your report at the conference on Yed Post IV."

"Do you know when the last time more than thirty people paid any attention to an archaeological conference?"

"Never?"

Mei-Wan smiled. "Pretty close."

"Whether you like it or not, the Ancient Progenitors aren't just any dead civilization. This story has religious and political implications which impact the very way people see themselves. It answers the question of where we came from. People are obsessed with this."

"Mistakenly so. We may never have the answers people think are to be found in this,” Mei-Wan said.

“Have you heard of a man named Forcas?”

Mei-Wan thought a moment. “Doesn't sound familiar.”

“He's a religious leader who's been preaching a message about the Ancient Progenitors and how we have a noble destiny as their children.”

Mei-Wan rolled her eyes. “Please...”

“He had a crowd of about a million out in Nevada three days ago,” Kovalak said. “He claims to speak for the Ancient Progenitors and tells his followers they will one day return to bring a paradise to the galaxy.”

“Sorry... they're gone, dead, buried,” Mei-Wan said with a smile. “Why would anyone believe such crap?”

“His message is spreading across the Federation. People claim he has changed their lives for the better, and given them a reason to care about life again.”

“When the Ancient Progenitors don't return, he'll lose his following.”

“But he is the one people are listening to right now.”

“They shouldn't,” Mei-Wan said.

"Then tell them that," Kovalak said. "Be the voice of reason that cuts through the bullshit."

"When has that ever worked?"

Kovalak laughed. "It's what I wake up every morning hoping I'll accomplish."

"And how often do you actually succeed?"

"Maybe a couple of times a month."

Mei-Wan frowned. "Not a very good track record."

"Better than not at all."

Mei-Wan felt the temptation growing, but knew most people would never listen. Kovalak was right. The Ancient Progenitors had taken on a religious tone that Mei-Wan never would have imagined. It needed to be stopped.

But what could she do? Once people started believing something, they rarely examine it afterwards, whether it was religion, politics, or something as trivial as who was the best team at any particular sport.

Mei-Wan was about to end the conversation with Kovalak when she realized there was one thing she could do. She might be able to remove herself and her work from the madness beginning to swirl about the Anicent Progenitors.

"If I do this..."

"It'll be you unfiltered. I won't edit you."

This willingness to give so much ground so quickly only made Mei-Wan's anxiety worse. "And what do I have to give you?"

"Just your point of view. That's all I want."

"I don't believe you," Mei-Wan said.

Kovalak finished her coffee. "Okay... I'll ask you some tough questions, especially about those people who committed suicide."

"There it is."

"That's where the emotion is in this story," Kovalak said.

"I want to reduce the emotionalism about the Ancient Progenitors, not expand it!"

"Like I said, sometimes you have to sacrifice one thing you believe in for another. You can clear up the misconceptions, and present the truth about the Ancient Progenitors. The price you pay is letting people see into your soul about the deaths which have resulted from this."

"Damn you." Mei-Wan stood from the table.

"I didn't make the rules, Dr. Lau. The mass of humanoid hopes, dreams, and fears out there in the galaxy gets to make that choice."

"How dare you blame this on someone else? You're the one here right now making a choice."

Kovalak snapped her head back to toss her blond hair aside, and then stood to face Mei-Wan. "No one will pay one damn bit of attention to you droning on about dry facts for an hour. But if they think they'll get a chance to look into the eyes of the cold-hearted bitch who threw her humanity away to dig up the past, they'll hang on every word you say."

"Is that how you see me? Do you really think..."

"This isn't personal."

"Answer me, damn it! Do you think I'm a heartless bitch who doesn't care about those people dying?!"

"Honestly...” Kovalak began. “I don't think you gave a damn about the consequences when you started digging into the Ancient Progenitors."

"Go to hell."

Mei-Wan spun about to leave, but felt Kovalak grab her arm.

"Tell me you did, and I'll believe you," Kovalak said. "But tell me to my face."

Mei-Wan turned back, but didn't make eye contact. She wanted to fall into a grassy field somewhere and lose herself in the warmth of the sunlight now on her face.

How could I have known?! This was what every archaeologist dreamed about. She'd be remembered for the next...

She looked at Kovalak. "No. I didn't even consider the consequences."

Annette Kovalak stared at her a moment, then grinned. "So you're human after all."

"I can't do this. All those people..."

"If you're right, the humanoids of this galaxy have a lot to deal with concerning their origins. You can either ignore it and let others speak for you, or you can do what you can to keep the next Falanis Seven from happening."

"Do you really expect me to believe people like you want to stop it? Journalists live for that kind of misery."

"Not all of us. Some of us want to make this galaxy a better place."

Mei-Wan could ignore the situation and hope it didn't fall any further into hell, or take a chance on this woman's honesty. A few months ago, she'd have taken the easier of the two.

"I don't know. Doing this could just make it worse."

Kovalak nodded. "You can have as much time to decide as you like. There's no rush." She handed Mei-Wan a thin card. “Scan that into a comm terminal and it'll connect to me directly.”

"You think I'll eventually say yes, don't you?" Mei-Wan asked.

Kovalak smiled. "You're a scientist. You want to tell people about this. It's who you are."

***

Mei-Wan walked to the library in a mental fog, consumed by the question Annette Kovalak burdened her soul with. This might be the one opportunity she had to make this right.

People needed to hear the truth.

But they're not going to get that are they? You can't tell them about the Wubon, or how the Ancient Progenitors used the Vedala, or how you stood on Hel'yra billions of years ago, can you, Mei?

Then if not the truth, the facts they haven't heard yet. That would have to be enough... at least at first.

She'd have to be careful of the restrictions Temporal Investigations placed on her. Answering some questions would require some skill.

Mei-Wan reached the library and made her way up the wide steps to the entrance. Once inside the quiet hall of knowledge, she strolled to a set of research rooms where she'd not have to fear being bothered.

At least that was the plan.

After having settled into the plain twelve by twelve room, activating the information terminal and finally relaxing, the door opened.

“Good,” the new arrival said. “You've managed to avoid other people for a change. I do hope you keep up that practice.”

“Pervalt!” Mei-Wan spat. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Making certain you keep your agreement with us,” the Temporal Investigator replied, closing the door behind him. “You need to consider being more discreet until you leave Earth.”

“What business is it of yours what I do?”

His eyes widened. “Considering what you know, you are very much my business.”

“Afraid a little truth might escape if you don't keep me on a tight leash?” Mei-Wan asked with a grin.

“There are much bigger things at stake than your honorable, but naive dedication to what you believe to be the truth.”

“Believe to be?” Mei-Wan asked with a laugh. “We both know it is the truth.”

“The truth is elusive. It's like attempting to hold mercury. The tighter you grasp, the more sure you are, that's when it slips out through the cracks of subtleties you never imagined.” Pervalt stepped closer. “The universe isn't obligated to fit our judgments, moral or otherwise, Doctor Lau. You think that because you've learned about the Joktan, that now you know the history of this planet, right?”

“That particular bit of information changes everything we believe about Earth.”

Pervalt smiled. “It's only one very small piece of a far larger and far more detailed history. You don't have anywhere near the whole story. No one does.”

“But the people of this world have a right to know that piece.”

“Even if it leads them to the wrong conclusion?” Pervalt folded his arms across his chest. “Hasn't the release of small bits of information about the Ancient Progenitors convinced you of the errors people will leap to when given those details?”

“That is exactly my point... people need all the information we have.”

Pervalt gave a slight nod. “Human existence for the last three hundred years has been a march toward the sea of ignorance! At every point we burned and pillaged the truth, both about reality and ourselves. In place of the selfish, murdering primate, we see ourselves as the planet of the happy nice people... with our replicators, our solar power collectors, our challenge to improve ourselves... we have concocted a fantasy rivaling the most ambitious fairy tale!”

A noxious frown grew across Pervalt's face. “No one wants the truth any longer. The mind numbing illusion is much easier to live with.”

“You obsess on the negative, frightened by that part of our nature, but ignore the heights to which we can aspire,” Mei-Wan said. “I believe in our ability to step beyond, to transcend the lesser angels of our nature to reach for the stars.”

Pervalt laughed. “You should go out into the desert and join that fool Forcas.”

“I can accept the truth about the Ancient Progenitors and still believe in our ability to make the right choices.”

“There's only one choice you need to worry about in the near term,” Pervalt said. “You're going to call that reporter and tell her you won't do the interview.”

“You...” The sense of violation nearly overwhelmed Mei-Wan. “You've been spying on me?!”

“Of course we have. Did you think we wouldn't?”

Mei-Wan took a step back. “And if I don't call off the interview?”

Pervalt's frown turned into a predatory smile. “Then your sister and your friend Robin Nelson will find their freedom has come to an end.”

“I did everything you asked! How can you...”

“And you'll continue to do as we ask until we say you don't have to.” Pervalt straightened his suit. “So get used to doing as you're told.”

“You bastards.”

He grinned. “One day you'll be glad we are.”

“One day the people of this galaxy will make men like you answer for your crimes,” Mei-Wan said.

“And on that day the galaxy will die.”

He walked away, leaving her alone in the library.

Mei-Wan wondered why he didn't repeat his demand about the interview, then it hit her.

He didn't have to.

***

Mei-Wan stared out the window as rain fell in sheets outside. She'd almost gone out to get a bottle of scotch to drown her frustrations away, but then remembered the little good it had done her ex-husband.

There's got to be a way out of this! I can't let them win!

But it was worse than simply losing to these ghouls. Over the last hours of watching the rain fall outside, Mei-Wan realized this had been their plan all along. They had lured her in with the promise of freedom for Li-Na and Robin, but the trap had been to control everything she learned about the Ancient Progenitors.

They had taken her career in archaeology and her dedication to the truth and locked them in a prison of invisible bars far stronger than neutronium.

Not only had she swallowed the proverbial hook, line, and sinker along with the bait, but the pole, reel, and fisherman as well.

She didn't dare publish anything on the Ancient Progenitors for fear of what might happen to Robin or Li-Na.

You're their bitch, Mei.

But they won't be content with keeping you quiet about certain things. Someday they'll tell you to publish their lies. Then you'll be their whore.

That scotch sounded so good right now.

Better yet, the Golden Gate Bridge.

One leap is all it would take to be free.

“No,” she whispered to herself. “There has to be a way to make public what I know about the Ancient Progenitors.”

She sat perfectly still for five minutes, the only sound in the apartment was the falling rain outside.

Then a thought crawled out of some deep part of her soul she had always done her best to ignore.

Maybe... two lives are the price that has to be paid for the truth. Perhaps Robin and Li-Na have to be sacrificed to...

Li-Na walked into the living room, her eyes only half open.

“You still up?” she asked sitting in the couch across from Mei-Wan.

“Couldn't sleep.”

“You and Enlai have that in common tonight.”

Mei-Wan kept herself from outwardly cringing at the mention of the baby's name. She forced a smiled, partly to put Li-Na at ease, and partly to bury the thought she had let enter her mind a moment before.

Li-Na pulled her robe tight around herself. “I wanted to thank you for all of this... the apartment, getting me cleared to live on my own.”

“It's the least I could do considering what I took from you.”

Li-Na shook her head. “I'm not Robin. If you hadn't brought us to your timeline I'd have never been born. You gave Enlai and me a chance at life.”

“But...”

“Nothing,” Li-Na finished for her. “I know my world only existed because of some temporal event that happened in yours. Whatever I have here is better than non-existence.”

She didn't even exist before, what possible harm could it cause to the universe if...

Mei-Wan forced the thought away again. “Sometimes I wonder.”

Li-Na laughed. “That sounds so familiar.”

“What?”

“No matter the reality, you have a knack for seeing things in the worst possible way sometimes.”

Mei-Wan smiled. “And here I thought I was improving.”

“I'd call the last two weeks a three point five on the Mei-Wan life crisis scale.”

“I have a scale?”

Li-Na nodded. “Back in my timeline, when you were fifteen you broke up with this guy... well, more like Mom and Dad kept you from seeing him...”

“I was in love at fifteen?” Mei-Wan asked, surprised by that difference between her and her counterpart.

“More like lust.” Li-Na paused a moment. “That didn't happen to you here?”

“I didn't even kiss a guy until I was seventeen.”

“Anyway...” Li-Na continued. “You hit an eleven on that one, and the scale ends at ten. You didn't smile for a month.”

Both women laughed.

“You know, I like this.”

“What?” Mei-Wan asked.

“Back in my world, you and I didn't get along so great for the last couple of years. But here I feel I can trust you with my life.”

“I...”

“Thank you for giving me someone to believe in again, Mei.” Li-Na rose from the couch. “Goodnight.”

Li-Na shuffled away down the hallway.

Mei-Wan returned to watching the rain fall outside.

“I can't do it,” she whispered to herself. Her tentative resolve strengthened. “No more sacrificing the innocent.”

But then I'm trapped. The truth will never be known. And Temporal Investigations will own my life.

After nearly a minute of falling into the abyss that thought had created, an old thought caught her and sent her sailing into the light again.

Mei-Wan smiled.

If there was one thing Starfleet had taught her, it was there was always another way. It might require more work, more planning, and more determination, but there was always a way to accomplish your goal without violating your conscience.

Always.

Now she just had to find it.

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Dark Horizon Story and Characters Copyright ©2009 Michael Gray

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