Evolutions II: The Quest for Perfection
Chapter Five
As everyone looked up the color drained from Laryx's face. There had never been a meteor shower over Remora, ever. "The stars themselves will cry to herald their arrival." He whispered, but it was so quite that everyone still heard it.
"That's probably just a coincidence." Janeway said. She personally didn't put too much stock in legends, or prophecies.
B'Elanna, Seven, and Naomi on the other hand seemed to be taking it differently. After Laryx's admission they had all grown more serious. To the casual observer it looked as if there was a private conversation going on between them, just by the way that they were looking at each other.
Finally Seven stepped forward, as she looked at the sphere. All but B'Elanna and Naomi were shocked when a soft white light traveled from Seven's eyes to the sphere. It surrounded it for a few seconds before the light returned to Seven.
"Your sphere is composed of iron, with small pockets of phosphors, and a gradium shell." Seven said. "If your legend is accurate, this may not be the real sphere."
"How did you do that?" Rakoo asked. "The gradium shell made it impossible for us to scan it." He wondered how she was able to scan it like that. Could it be normal for her species?
"My method of scanning materials is… exotic." Seven said as she searched for the right words.
"That's putting it mildly." Rakoo said, still not getting over the shock of what Seven was able to do.
"Why didn't you just remove the gradium shell?" Harry asked curiously. It seemed like the easiest way to solve the problem.
"There are actually two reasons for that." Laryx explained. "First we couldn't risk destroying the sphere in the process. It's one of our most important historical artefacts. Secondly, gradium is actually an extremely brittle substance. We didn't want to destroy it in the process. Otherwise we'd probably be lining our hulls with them."
Harry nodded in understanding. He hadn't really thought about it like that.
"Why don't we pick up the tour later?" Rakoo suggested. "Coincidence or not, the fact that a meteor shower happened at all over Remora is at the very least a national curiosity."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Janeway agreed. "I would be curious to find out the reason myself."
Both landing parties and their host left the citadel of Ludvik at a leisurely pace, each heading to their own respective ships.
Seven, Naomi, and B'Elanna had just stepped inside Legaia. They all hid it well from everyone else, but couldn't keep it bottled up any longer.
"I can't believe it. Do you think that legend is about us?" Naomi asked curiously.
"I am unsure, but we were instructed to travel in the direction of the Alpha quadrant. It would not be outside of the realm of possibility that this was the first step and this legend applies to us." Seven said thoughtfully.
"Or it could be a complete coincidence," B'Elanna added. "For all we know it could just be a story someone made as a bed time story for their children."
"What are you talking about?" Legaia asked. It was beside itself with boredom. Legaia felt more like a person than a ship at times, and found long periods without anyone to talk to disconcerting.
"It's a D'Rama legend." Naomi said excitedly. "It said something about a champion coming that was supposed to get that weird sphere they have and use it to make a weapon, and the star's crying when they came, and three old kings are going to bow to them. They also said something about the princess of the stars being in love with the champion." Naomi said, butchering the poetry of the legend only in the way that a child could.
"I see." Legaia said as it took it all in. "Seven may I hear the prophecy verbatim?" It asked, making sure that her tone didn't offend Naomi. Sometimes a large part of deciphering a prophecy was hearing it in the original words.
Seven nodded as the white light emerged from her eyes and connected with Legaia's optic transceiver. Medium to large sized balls of light travelled between the two as Legaia saw everything happen through Seven's eyes.
"Who do you think the references are to?" B'Elanna asked.
"You are most probably the champion B'Elanna." Seven stated. She was the only one of the three that seemed to fit the bill. They hadn't quite figured out how Omega was a part of B'Elanna, but it was obvious that it had given her the ability to take charge of a situation if necessary, and protect those she cared about.
"I think that makes you the princess of the stars." Naomi added.
"Wait, if Seven is the princess of the stars, isn't their logically a queen of the stars?" Legaia asked.
"Maybe the queen refers to the Borg Queen?" B'Elanna ventured a guess. She may not see it as much more than a story but she couldn't really ignore the similarities it had to them.
"But does that explain the stars part?" Naomi asked. "The Borg Queen is the queen of the Borg. I don't think she would ever claim to be the queen of the stars." Naomi looked to Seven for confirmation.
"You are correct Naomi, the Borg queen has never claimed herself to be anything else other than the Borg queen, but it all may have a deeper meaning." Seven said not willing to dismiss B'Elanna's idea either.
"What if star and princess are two different clues, princess means next in line to be the Borg queen, which let's face it, if they knew about Seven she would be." B'Elanna developed her idea.
"The stars may then refer to something which is capable of generating mass quantities of energy, much as I am capable of doing now with the Omega molecule." Seven added her own thoughts.
"Wait a minute if all of that is true what about the death part?" Naomi asked remembering what Laryx had said.
"These are just theories Naomi." B'Elanna calmed her. "We may be just fishing here, but in either case that's where the whole thing gets sketchy. Remember what they said, death may only be the beginning." She reminded her.
"B'Elanna is correct." Seven agreed. "In many cultures death is not considered the end of living, merely the next step in life. Some believe that when a caterpillar turns into a butterfly the part of it that was a caterpillar dies, because it can never again be the caterpillar."
"So the death might part might mean you and B'Elanna fully merging with Omega?" Naomi asked, another piece of the prophecy falling into place.
"In either case it's more complicated now. We don't know anything specific about the three kings and the sphere doesn't sound like it's the real thing." Legaia pointed out. "It's only made of iron, phosphors, and a gradium shell. They are all fairly common elements, and easily synthesized."
"I guess that begs the question, if what we saw wasn't the real sphere, where is it?" B'Elanna asked. It seemed the more they thought about it, the more questions they had, and no real answers.
"I believe that is what we are here to find out, provided that this sphere actually exists." Seven vented her doubts, thinking along the same lines as B'Elanna. "The only value the sphere could have may be spiritual." Seven referred to the people that, in a way worshipped it.
"In any case, assuming the legend is real and we were supposed to find this sphere. I believe that we have all the tools we need here. It stands to reason that if the kings of old must bow to us, then they will know where the true sphere is. When we find them, we find the sphere."
"How are we supposed to find them?" B'Elanna asked. "If they disappeared 2000 years ago and the D'Rama haven't found them in all this time, what chance do we have? All we know for sure is that they had three separate kingdoms of equal power."
"That is not entirely accurate." Legaia pointed out. "Laryx said that they all just disappeared, and eventually it was discovered that they disappeared at roughly the same time."
"Roughly the same time could mean exactly the same time." B'Elanna caught on. "2000 years ago it must have taken a long time for everyone to figure it out, and even then informing all the other kingdoms might have taken even longer."
"I think it seems more likely that they did not disappear, but were taken." Seven realized.
"Yeah, and if it that's true it could have happened at the same time. There is no way it could have been the D'Rama, or the D'Larma, back when they were the same species. The logistics of doing something like that would be impossible without modern technology, or more accurately the outside influence from a more advanced species." B'Elanna added.
"Why would a more advanced species care about them?" Legaia asked curiously. It was the same as an average person caring about what an ant does.
"Another good question," Seven agreed as the questions started to pile up.
"So if there were an advanced species, years ahead of the curb where would they hide three kings for 2000 years without anyone finding them?" Naomi asked the most important question.
"That's it!" B'Elanna suddenly shouted. "We're the ones that are supposed to find the three kings. It isn't where they would hide something so no one else would find it, its where would 'we' hide something we wouldn't want anyone else to find.
"A sub space pocket or a mini universe," Legaia said suddenly. "It is how we hide things we don't want anyone else to find."
"A sub space pocket could be opened from anywhere by anything. We could pass the door a hundred times and never know it." B'Elanna said. "A pocket universe it completely undetectable until it either merges with an existing universe, or a wide enough door is opened."
"If we were to hide a pocket universe it would be somewhere that was easily accessible at virtually any time. We must find the most public, accessible place on Remora relating to the three kings." Seven deduced.
"Do you think anyone else figured this stuff out yet?" Naomi asked. They probably didn't know anything about subspace pockets, but they might be able to figure out the relation they had to the legend. There was no telling what the D'Rama, or Voyager would do if they were to discover any part of this.
A lone figure walked into what was now mostly the abandoned section Of Voyager, Astrometrics. After Seven had stepped down it was largely unused, except for communications with Earth.
"Admiral Neechev." He greeted.
"I see the new security codes are working." Neechev had just recently placed a code into Voyager's communication array making covert communication possible. It was completely undetectable. The fact that Voyager was now closer to Earth also helped, enlarging the window where communications were possible. The fact that Voyager hadn't been informed about the larger window had also helped.
"They are." He agreed.
"What do you have to report?" Neechev asked, getting down to business.
"There have been some startling new developments. Seven and Torres have developed a three dimensional multi-transic matrix. It is capable of calculating shield frequencies a thousand times faster than an algorithm, as well as being able to defeat any and all scanning algorithms, including the Borg. As it stands this matrix is capable of thousands of different functions." He reiterated.
"As soon as they install one on Voyager I want a full schematic on it as well as instructions so we can produce them here." Neechev ordered. If he could be the one to claim credit for this it would cause his career to skyrocket.
"For the time being that is impossible." He pointed out. "They have only agreed to give us a hard wired matrix, encoded with a collapsible chain. If we make any attempt to disassemble, scan, duplicate, or reverse engineer any part of the matrix it will be detected. The coding will then collapse leaving nothing behind."
"That is totally unacceptable. Order them to give you the schematic immediately." Neechev demanded. He was never a patient man.
"They are no longer under our command, and have become necessary to our survival."
"Then try to find out another way, monitor their movements. Any time they are on Voyager record what they are saying. I want to know everything about this matrix of theirs." Neechev demanded.
"Yes sir," the long figure agreed reluctantly. Doing something like that without others finding out would be difficult.
"There is also something else sir." He said as he paused to consider the validity of it. "We have been informed by the D'Rama of a legend that may apply to Seven of Nine, and B'Elanna Torres."
"I didn't think that you would be wasting your time with such fairy tales." Neechev smirked. It was probably just an old bedtime story anyway. There was no way that it could apply to the world now.
"It foretold a meteor shower, something that has never happened in D'Rama history." He said.
"I don't even want to consider the number of planets in the federation that have not had a meteor shower, and may have one in the future," Neechev said. "If this legend proves to be anything other than coincidence keep me informed."
"Yes, sir," he said as he closed the link and left Astrometrics.
"Well that went pretty well." Janeway said as they returned to Voyager. "Do we have any information about the meteor shower?" She asked Chakotay.
"Meteor shower?" Chakotay asked. Why would the captain care about that?
"Yes, it fits into a very old D'Rama legend. Apparently it's the first meteor shower that has ever happened on Remora." Janeway filled him in.
"Well there isn't anything really special about it. It was just a small group of meteors that mostly burned up in the atmosphere." Chakotay answered.
"Do we know the origin of it?" Janeway asked curiously.
"Yeah, we extrapolated that it came from roughly 10 light years ahead of us, probably caused by a solar flair from a neighbouring sun." Chakotay answered.
"Oh," Janeway said, feeling a little disappointed. She was kind of hoping that there was a little more to it. It would have been interesting to find out more about the legend, but she guessed that it really was just a coincidence.
"You sound disappointed." Chakotay pointed out. It was just a meteor shower, there wasn't really anything special about it.
"Don't worry about it." Janeway dismissed. "The schedule for shore leave still needs to be worked out."
"I've already finished Captain." Chakotay said proudly. He had put it together just before Janeway had returned.
The first day of shore leave had just begun. Most of Voyager's crew were visiting the planet, leaving a skeleton crew aboard Voyager. Most of them had opted to go to the resorts, but there were still a few that decided to take in some of the more cultural aspects of Remora.
That was where Janeway and Tuvok found themselves. Both of them were interested in the legend. If there wasn't a rule about all the commanding officers leaving the ship Chakotay would have probably been there with them.
"Look over there," Janeway pointed as she spotted Seven, Naomi, and B'Elanna. She thought for sure that they would be installing their matrix today.
"Curious." Tuvok agreed. From what he knew about Seven and B'Elanna he didn't expect them to be here, and looking at the exhibit on the three kings.
"Taking in the sights I see." Janeway said as she sidled up next to Seven, causing her to take a step back and closer to B'Elanna.
B'Elanna put an arm around Seven's waist possessively as she stared coolly at Janeway.
"Well, it's an interesting legend." Janeway conceded, not allowing B'Elanna's look to faze her.
"We were just curious." Naomi said as the three of them walked further into the exhibit, towards the depictions of the three kings.
Janeway, Chakotay, and Tuvok watched as the three hybrids walked further into the exhibit, deciding not to follow them.
"Well there it is." B'Elanna said. "The three kings, if it really is hidden in a pocket dimension this is where it has to be."
The three hybrids looked at the paintings, searching for something that may open it. If it was anything like Legaia it had to be a button or a switch of some kind.
After a few minutes of futile searching Seven let out a sigh, "this is not working. If this pocket dimension exists it would not be a button or a switch. Someone would have discovered it by now."
"I think you're right Seven." B'Elanna agreed as she stopped looking as well. "But how are we going to open it if there isn't a button?"
"Maybe it doesn't need a button." Naomi guessed.
"What do you mean?" B'Elanna asked curiously.
"If there really was a species advanced enough to create a pocket universe two thousand years ago, chances are it probably wouldn't be the same as the one on Legaia." Naomi explained. "The way I see it they created their pocket universe two thousand years ago, well before the people that created Legaia, we can't really expect it to be the same. What if they advanced it to the point where the key to opening it wasn't a button or a switch, but a thought?" Naomi asked.
If there was anything that the three hybrids had learned since all of this had started was that things were almost never as they appeared to be, and that sometimes they had to think outside of the box to figure something out.
"I appreciate the thought Naomi, but if it just opened because I wanted it to then wouldn't it have opened by now?" B'Elanna asked.
"Perhaps you must actively want the door to open." Seven suggested.
"How do we even know that it's me?" B'Elanna asked. "It could just as easily be Seven that it's keyed to."
"No B'Elanna, remember the legend." Seven said. "It is about you, please try, think about the doorway, and picture it opening in your mind."
B'Elanna took a moment to look around, making sure no one was watching before she started.
B'Elanna closed her eyes as she followed Seven's advice. She didn't know why but whenever Seven said the word 'please' she couldn't help herself.
B'Elanna pictured the doorway opening in front of them, leading them into the pocket dimension that they were searching for.
"You did it B'Elanna," Naomi said excitedly as the portal opened in front of them.
It wasn't like the one aboard Legaia. The doorway didn't just blink into existence. It glowing blue with a circle inside it. From what they could tell it led outside, to a clear blue sky. An old castle was in the background, almost in shambles from the amount of time that it stood.
"Let's go," B'Elanna said as she took Seven and Naomi's hands. She didn't want anyone else to notice the portal and follow them.
When they stepped through the portal they couldn't believe what they saw. It was a bright, sunny day. A large castle covered in moss, and partially crumbled stood before them.
"Any ideas on what this place is?" B'Elanna asked as she looked around.
B'Elanna couldn't see too far into the distance before she came across a wall of white light. It surrounded the castle in an oval, and stretched as far as they could see.
"What happened to this place?" Naomi wondered. "I thought there were supposed to be people here."
"It is strange," Seven agreed. She had been expecting a highly advanced civilization here. The pocket dimension they were in was small, extremely small. There wasn't even any life in the dimension capable of supporting a humanoid.
"Maybe we can find some answers in the castle," B'Elanna suggested as they walked towards the giant doors.
B'Elanna pushed on it, and the door literally fell over with a giant thud. The castle was barely held together.
The hybrids carefully stepped inside, hoping that the castle wouldn't fall apart around them.
Suddenly things changed in the blink of an eye. The castle was repaired, no the castle was restored. The moss was gone. It was as if the castle had just been built. People were inside, hundreds of people.
They were al walking around the castle, some selling their wares, others sitting outside enjoying the sun, the inside of the castle seemed to have grown at least a hundred times bigger.
"What just happened?" B'Elanna asked, as she quickly looked around. She didn't understand how this could be possible. She saw it with her own eyes, this castle was wrecked. There was nothing left except broken walls and moss.
"I am uncertain," Seven said with the same level of shock. The whole situation didn't make any logical sense.
"Can they even see us?" Naomi asked. They were alien to these people. They should be sticking out like soar thumbs.
Almost in answer to Naomi's question a figure walked up to them, stopped for a second in front of them, and then walked right through them.
"How could this be possible?" B'Elanna asked as she checked their surroundings again. They could touch things, solid objects, but people passed right through them.
"It is almost as if laws of physics don't apply here," Seven said as she looked at the sky. One half of it was daylight, the other was night. It was not clearly divided either. It was almost a swirl that met in the middle. A pattern of light and dark, mixed together, but the differences between night and day stood in contrast to each other. It would have been beautiful if it wasn't so strange.
"What could have happened to this place, to make it like this?" Naomi wondered.
"It is as if this pocket dimension has become fragmented, much like a computer core." Seven observed. "The only reason we have not been affected may be because we opened the portal after this had happened, leaving us outside the normal flow of time."
"Is there a chance we could return to the normal flow of time, whatever that is for this place?" B'Elanna asked. She didn't know what would happen if the people here could see them.
"I do not know." Seven admitted. She had never even heard of a place that could exist like this.
The hybrids continued to wander through the city, and if possible things were even stranger.
A man was pulling a cart down the road. He would stop for a second to wave to a person, continue down the road, stop suddenly and go in reverse, before starting all over again.
Some were frozen in place, never moving never making a sound, while others around them moved at incredible speeds, almost a blur.
Seven immediately realized that the people weren't actually frozen, but moving so slow that it caused them to look as if they weren't moving at all.
The hybrids finally reached the harbour, and were shocked by what they say. Giant waves were in the ocean, but they didn't move. They were frozen there, almost like cement.
Naomi reached out experimentally, and touched one of the waves. "Come and feel this," Naomi explained. "The water feels solid, but wet at the same time."
Seven and B'Elanna reached out as well, touching the water. It was just as Naomi had described, somehow wet, but solid at the same time.
"We need to find out what happened to this place." B'Elanna said as she looked around the dock. "This isn't natural, it's like this whole place is night and day, today and tomorrow, yesterday, and the day before that all at once."
"The level of technology in this pocket universe does not coincide with what has happened here." Seven observed. "The level of technology here suggests that this place is at roughly the same period as Earth in the 1800's."
"What do you mean Seven?" B'Elanna asked. The only one here that even stood a chance at figuring out what had happened here was Seven.
"It is as if time and space have been mutated." Seven tried to explain. "Some kind of event in the distant future of this pocket universe has done something that caused a ripple effect going both forwards and backwards in time." She theorized.
"The only way to know what happened to this place is to find a way to reach the future of this pocket universe, the origin of what ever could have caused this disaster."
"How are we going to do that?" Naomi asked. She didn't even understand how a place like this could exist, let alone a way to travel to the future of it.
"I believe that each part of this place exists at a different point in time." Seven guessed from what she had seen of this world so far. "I believe that the point in time that this disaster occurred is accessible to us."
"I don't think this place is a pocket universe Seven," B'Elanna said as she stopped suddenly. They were standing outside the citadel of Ludvik, only it seemed newer, as if it had just been built. The entire pocket dimension was too large to be even considered one.
"There are no parameters for this pocket universe," Seven realized, as the situation became even stranger. "Legaia's pocket universe has specific parameters on how large it can be, it is the reason that the pocket universe is contained. This pocket dimension has no parameters, so it has encompassed the entire planet."
"Why would it only stop at this planet?" Naomi wondered. If it had no parameters then shouldn't it be continuously moving outwards?
"I believe that is something we must ask Legaia." Seven said. What Naomi said made sense, she didn't believe that the pocket universe would simply stop, unless their was a very good reason.
"I wonder if we can access the portal from anywhere." B'Elanna said.
If they could access the portal from different places, they also may have access to places they can't reach now.
"Considering the size of this pocket universe, it is a distinct possibility. The portrait may have simply been a focal point, a place that made you realize that you could open a portal" Seven agreed. "There may also be a different explanation to why only you can access this place B'Elanna."
"What do you mean?" Naomi asked.
"If time has truly been mutated, and we can access the past, present, and future, then it is also possible that we were supposed to be here, that we are also part of the past, present, and future of this place." Seven theorized.
"Do you mean we could have, I mean we will cause this to happen?" Naomi asked, getting lost in the different tenses.
"It is too early to tell," Seven said. "We do not know nearly enough about this place, or what has happened to it."
"Why don't we see if we can get out of here?" B'Elanna asked. "We've already been here a long time."
"I agree," Seven said. They didn't even know if the flow of time was different here than the real world.
B'Elanna concentrated as she pictured the portal opening in front of them. In a few seconds the portal formed, just as they had hoped, and the hybrids stepped through, back into the real world.
To be continued…
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