[ Act One ]

Jeffrey remembered the corridors of Sphere 272-Theta-8 quite clearly. As he was walking towards the medical facility to see [email protected] for his first six months checkup he marveled at how much has changed in the last couple of months. While he was happy that the crew was doing fine, he deeply missed his wife and daughter. But he was trying to keep a positive mindset and make the best of the situation in the hopes they could return home soon even though it seemed a losing battle for him.

Sorowa had requested this appointment to check up on his arm to make sure there were no negative side effects. In the past days leading up to this morning, Jeffrey had thought hard about the Synergy’s offer to have his arm regrown. It was tempting, oh so tempting. While the prosthetic arm was much more advanced than anything a Federation cyberneticist could have provided, it was still only a mechanical replacement. But he wasn’t ready to pay the price yet and accept a nanoprobe treatment.

A moment later his steps carried him through the open door into the huge and almost completely empty sickbay, where Sorowa was already waiting for him. “Good afternoon, Jeffrey.” [email protected] called out standing next to a biobed with two other medical adjuncts tending to a young Vulcan man with what seemed to be slight burn wounds across his face and arms. She nodded at the other medics who continued the man’s treatment, while she turned around and walked to meet the counselor.

“You look great! How have you been?” She welcomed him, offering her hand.

The Junior Lieutenant shook her hand, smiling as he replied, nodding his head in the direction of the wounded man. “Thanks! I’m fine, how are you doing? Seems like you never run out of work, huh?”

The Klingon medic chuckled softly. “Oh, you know how those young bashful engineers are. Always ignoring safety precautions, always putting energy conduits above the maximum certified load to ‘just quickly test something,’ always being surprised when subsequently things proceed to blow up in their faces. So just the usual things.”

Jeffrey couldn’t hide a grin. For some reason he could imagine well enough how Sorowa was lecturing Tarik about being more careful while stitching him back together, even though [email protected] wasn’t exactly young and bashful, at least not anymore. Holding this thought for a moment, Tarik silently wondered how old Sorowa was. [email protected] was over 180 years old, but he didn’t look a day past maybe forty-five. Maybe the medical adjunct had indeed lectured a certain young bashful engineer about safety precautions many decades ago.

“But say, did I hear that rumor correctly that you’ll stop escorting us soon?”

“That is correct.” [email protected] replied without hesitation. “Sphere 272-Theta-8 has been given a new assignment, although it will start only in approximately three months and last until the end of the year. But don’t worry. We are confident that you and your crew will be able to handle yourself well until we return.”

Jeffrey quirked his brows. “Well, I hope so! And where are you going?”

“I’m sorry, but I’m not allowed to tell you. Please follow me, we should proceed with your examination.” Sorowa said and lead him to the empty far end of the sickbay. With a simple gesture of her hand she made one of the biobeds unfold itself, extend from the ground, and position itself at a comfortable height. The Klingon woman waited for Jeffrey to sit down, before she continued. “So, how do you feel about your arm? Is the prosthesis holding up properly or has it given you any trouble? Did you have any pain in the stump or shoulder?”

Jeffrey shook his head. “Nope, no problems whatsoever. I mean, in the beginning it was quite awkward. Don’t get me wrong, the technology is amazing, it just wasn’t…”

“…the real thing. I completely understand, Jeffrey.” She reassured him while slowly walking around the biobed, sweeping the bio-scanner implant in her right eye socket over his right upper arm and shoulder.

“Yes. Anyway, it took a few weeks to get really used to it. But once that adjustment period was over, it felt as good as it can… I guess. I know you said I can wear it permanently, but during the night I still take it off. I tried to sleep with it being on, but I just didn’t get used to having the straps on in bed. But it’s no big deal, really.” He reported.

“I see. Don’t worry about it, I can understand how annoying such a harness can be.” [email protected] remarked as she finished her scans. “How about physical activity? Are the straps and gravimetric locks sufficient, or do you want to replace them with more sturdy ones?”

Jeffrey again shook his head while watching Sorowa examine him. “It’s fine. I’ve been doing some sports, joining Rel in his PT courses. Didn’t have any real issues. It worked fine no matter what I did - push-ups, barbell training, swimming. Even when doing one-arm pull ups everything stayed where it was supposed to.”

“That’s excellent news. But if you ever find the need for stronger support of the prosthesis, you or your CMO can find appropriate fabricator instructions in your ship’s computer. They’ll follow the same cut and fit while being made of a more durable metamaterial. Just don’t forget that your shoulder joint is not made of duranium and in fact is still organic and therefore as squishy as you’d expect compared to the prosthesis.” Sorowa explained, a teasing smirk on her lips.

“Yeah, I’ll try to keep that in mind.” The Junior Lieutenant nodded and laughed.

“Oh, you will, because if you forget it for even a single second you will painfully dislocate your shoulder joint, tear several ligaments, or worse.” The medic warned with a casual tone that clearly indicated that she’s seen exactly that happen to others before him.

After an awkward moment of silence, he swallowed and continued. “So, how’s it looking, doc? Anything I should be worried about?”

“Not that I can see. Physically you’re in perfect health, aside from the obvious. Every single scan of your shoulder and upper body in general shows up fine.” The Klingon medic explained, standing in front of Jeffrey and smiling at him warmly. “But I get the impression that you’re hiding something. I can see you exhibit typical anxiety reactions and you don’t strike me as the type that gets nervous from a simple physical examination.”

Junior Lieutenant Brassfield let out a heavy sigh. “Would you believe if I told you it was nothing?”

Sorowa looked at him with a slightly worried expression and shook her head.

“Guess it’s no use denying then?”

“No, not really. But it’s your choice. I can only offer my advice and recommendations, it’s up to you whether to make use of my services.” She sat down next to him on the biobed, looking over to him. “Want to talk about it?”

The dark-skinned Human hung his head. “Well, since the cat’s out of the bag now… I thought I could manage, but I can’t.”

“Manage what?” Sorowa inquired carefully.

“Everything. All the changes going on around me. My arm. Our loses. The new ship. Where we’re going, what we’re doing. I thought I could cope with it, and I feel I almost did, but I can’t shake the feeling of being helpless. Being nothing but a pawn that is swept along whether he likes it or not. A piece of debris haplessly carried around by the storm.”

He drew in a deep breath, his lips trembling slightly. Most people wouldn’t have noticed, but Sorowa saw it clearly.

“And you can’t imagine how much I miss my family. They probably think I’m dead and from their perspective I just might be. Dalia’s fifth birthday was two weeks ago, and it kills me inside I couldn’t be with her. My little girl will grow up without a father, while I’m here telling me colleagues that everything’s going to be okay. I’m nothing but a liar and a really bad one at that.”

The counselor closed his eyes and a couple of tears ran down his cheeks.

“But the worst thing is that I know how ridiculous I sound. If anyone else was saying those words to me, I’d know exactly how to respond. I’ve studied and trained for years to know the right words to tell people who’ve lost hope. I know that I’m being overly dramatic, and that our situation’s not half as bad as I make it out to be, but none of that changes how I feel about it. And I hate myself for not being able to help it. For being so weak, so fragile, so… vulnerable.”

[email protected] listened to Jeffrey and gently placed her hand on his. “You don’t need to feel ashamed. Your situation is exceptional, and I doubt there could have been any kind of training to prepare you for this. I think you’re holding up fantastically, considering all the hardship you and your colleagues have gone through.”

Sorowa carefully laced her fingers with Jeffrey’s, squeezing his hand. “And given what I know from the hive-mind I can say with utmost confidence that you’re not a liar. You don’t know it yet, but our scientists have made significant progress regarding your journey across the quantum barrier. It is expected that they’ll contact your people in the foreseeable future with more information. While we apparently can’t send you back yet, there seems to be a way to transmit a message into your reality.”

Hearing those words, the counselor’s head instantly snapped up and his eyes shone with the glimmer of a renewed spark of hope. “You… you mean we can talk with our families?” With trembling fingers, he wiped away the wetness on his cheeks.

“Maybe. I’m a doctor, not a quantum scientist. But it seems we managed to find a theoretical way to send a signal across the barrier into your quantum reality. I understand it requires an absurd amount of energy, even more than our OSR could deliver, and a specific deformation of the spacetime continuum. The details are still being worked on, but you should receive more information in a couple of weeks, a few months tops.” The Klingon medic smiled softly at her patient.

“You… you can’t imagine how… much I needed this.” Jeffrey sobbed, still trying to get himself back under control.

“Don’t worry, it’s okay. But I strongly suggest keeping that information a secret for now. You should wait for the official communication before mentioning it, to avoid spreading rumors in case there are complications. And we don’t want to spoil the surprise, do we?” She teased him with a wide grin.

“Okay, my lips are sealed.” The dark-skinned counselor smiled back; his mood visibly uplifted from just a few moments ago.

“And one more thing.” [email protected] continued. “I do understand how difficult your personal situation must be for you. Everyone comes to you asking for help, support, and guidance, while you have nobody to confide in. If it helps you, you can always come to me or any other medical adjunct to talk about your problems or emotions. We’re not only responsible for the physical wellbeing of our crews, after all.”

“One of the core tenets of the Synergy is that we’re never truly alone. We’re always connected to one another, literally and metaphorically. Even though you don’t have any implants and don’t carry our nanoprobes, we still are responsible for you and your people since we rescued you. So, if you need help of any kind, please don’t hesitate to ask for it. We will always be there for you and try to assist you to the best of our capabilities.”

Jeffrey squeezed Sorowa’s hand back and thankfully smiled at her. “Thank you. You know, I might take you up on that offer. It feels as if I just dropped a huge weight off my shoulders. Having someone to talk about all this would certainly help me.” He chuckled softly. “Funny, it’s usually the first thing I recommend to my own patients. But here… I just didn’t see that possibility for myself. I was so consumed by tending to my crew that I was blind to come to you for help.”

The medical adjunct smiled back at Jeffrey. “Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. And if I personally have to set up a regular conversation schedule for you to help you keep your sanity in check.” She teased the counselor with a big grin. “If you like, I could even introduce you to my family. Both my mother and my father are medical adjuncts as well. They serve together on Cube 657-Polaris-19. I’m sure they’d love taking a closer look at you.”

That last bit took Jeffrey completely by surprise and he swallowed. “Uhm… I don’t know…”

Seeing his sudden uncertainty Sorowa let out a bellowing laughter. “Only for professional reasons, of course! I know you’re married. Besides, it would not be proper conduct for a medic to make a move on her patient. But the look on your face was priceless!”

[ Act Two ]

Sina was standing in the manifold room, looking at the beautiful dark obsidian surface that glistened as if it had been polished to a mirror. She smiled happily as she remembered the first time, she took a closer look at the FDS platform. She’d almost gotten lost in the almost impossibly intricate circuitry embedded into the sealed surface and the wonderful fractal patterns it created from different angles. And now here she was again, marveling at the pitch-black void cast into a perfectly flat circle.

The room was empty safe for herself. There was a standing console with the now common holographic interfaces, but it was switched off. They were short on staff and had decided early on to control the manifolds from engineering. It was a bit less convenient, since it often distracted the engineers, but it was a pragmatic and workable solution to their limited manpower.

The sound of the doors suddenly opening quickly pulled Commander D’raxis out of her daydream and returned her thoughts to the present moment. She turned around and looked at Tarik, Niko, and Visra stepping into the room.

“My apologies for the delay.” [email protected] began. “We were briefly delayed by Ensign Arsiv’s request to accompany us. Lieutenant Commander Heisenberg noted that the decision is up to you.”

Sina raised an eyebrow and curiously looked at the young science officer, who was nervously clutching a large tabled in front of her chest. “Oh? You want to join us?”

“Yes, captain.” Visra smiled shyly. “Of course, only if that’s possible. The Federation is, well, conservative with research into actual artificial intelligence. There were only a handful of individual cases that remotely came close, like Commander Data, or Joe, Voyager’s EMH. It would be amazing to meet an actual large-scale AI.”

The Romulan listened to the young scientist’s words and watched the hopeful expression on her face. After a moment, Sina chuckled and replied. “Well, you’re already here and I don’t see any reason you couldn’t tag along. You’re in.”

Visra giggled with glee and jumped a little. The small group quickly moved onto the platform. Technically it wasn’t necessary, since FDS worked perfectly fine site-to-site, but Sina liked the gesture as part of the procedure to signal they were ready to leave. The captain tapped her combadge. “D’raxis to engineering. We’re ready. Initiate transport to the surface.”

A short moment later they were engulfed in a fractal vortex of darkness and gone in a blue-white flash. The world turned into a blur and a split second later they emerged from the collapsing dimensional pocket on the surface of Sigma Praxis III. The residual cloud of exotic particles left behind by the dimensional shift quickly dissipated around them as the away team slowly turned to take in their surroundings.

The had arrived on a vast open plaza, stretching at least 300 meters in all directions. The ground was covered with matte tiles the color of eggshells, crossed by an expansive but intricate indigo-colored circuity pattern. Around the open space they could see dozens of towering buildings, most of which seemed to have a round and smooth shape and were covered with reflecting blue glass fronts. Between the structures, strange tree-like plants rose from a dark brown soil, twining dozens of meters into the air and sometimes even around the buildings.

Sina looked around, taking in the strange vista, but wondered about the lack of people. “Tarik, where is everyone? There’s nobody here. Did we miss something?”

“Oh no, Sina. We are indeed at the right place at the right time.”

Niko stepped closer to the others. “Weren’t we supposed to meet with… Quaris? That was his name?”

[email protected] nodded. “Correct. He will be here any moment.”

Tarik had barely finished talking, when suddenly the indigo circuity around them started to glow and seemingly converge at a point a few meters away from them. The skeletal framework of a humanoid body rapidly grew from the energy built up on the ground, with the rest of the body’s shape being gradually filled out by programmable matter siphoned from the circuit lines in the ground.

After a few seconds the process was complete. The figure in front of them had formed into a male humanoid with smooth hairless indigo-colored skin speckled with silvery motes and golden gleaming eyes. He wore a simple light gray tunic that left its head, hands, and feet uncovered. With a wide welcoming gesture, he smiled warmly at his guests.

“Welcome to Sigma Praxis III.” His voice was gentle and melodic, and echoed softly across the empty plaza. “I am Quaris, this world’s Theta grade artificial consciousness.”

Sina, Niko, and Visra had taken a step back while Quaris’ body formed, but now the CO stepped again closer and offered her hand to their host. “A pleasure to meet you, Quaris. I am Commander Sina D’raxis of the-”

“Federation Starfleet vessel USS Sidereal.” Quaris smiled at Sina, took her hand and shook it firmly, but not uncomfortably. “I am aware of your ship’s endeavors, Commander. My consciousness is part of the Synergy hive-mind and thus I can access all data that you allowed us to copy from your vessel’s computer core.”

The AC released Sina’s hand and turned to personally greet the other officers with equally firm handshakes. “Lieutenant Commander Heisenberg, happy to have you with us. And Ensign Arsiv, glad you could join us.”

Eventually, he turned to Tarik, but instead of offering his hand, he opened his arms and embraced the engineer. “Tarik, it’s been over seven years since you last visited. I’m so excited to see you again in person. How have you been?”

[email protected] laughed softly and returned the hug. “I’m fine Quaris, I’m fine. You know, I’ve been occupied with so many different things, you wouldn’t imagine. Do you remember how busy the last couple of months have been for me?”

“Oh certainly. I would have loved to personally participate in the Sidereal’s restoration. I can only imagine how exciting it must have been for you to work with those ancient systems.”

The engineer grinned. “Well, it was less exciting than you think, because we stripped them out and replaced them with standard components asap. The matter-antimatter reactor was the first component to go, I couldn’t properly regenerate while that volatile thing was still active.”

“Ah yes, the well-known excitement of the risk of a sudden containment loss. By the way, what’s up with your new wardrobe?” The avatar inquired with a teasing smirk on his lips.

Tarik shrugged and replied with a laughter. “Comes with the promotion. But I guess you invited us here for something more than idle small talk about my new uniform?”

“Of course.” Quaris turned to the others again. “Please apologize my manners. I would like to invite you to a more comfortable and more appropriate place to have this conversation. May I?”

Sina and Niko exchanged quick looks, then the Romulan nodded. “Sure. Where are you taking us?”

The AC’s avatar smiled and lifted his arm to point at an arcology in the far distance, a pale white shape against the blue sky of the late afternoon. The others followed his gesture, to look at the far away building towering even over the large structures around the plaza. “There. My home, so to speak.”

A blink of an eye later the whole group was engulfed in a subspace pocket and the world around them turned into a blur again. With a bright blue-white flash they appeared in what seemed to be an immense apartment inside the arcology. The ceiling was five meters above them, decorated with large chunks of Denevan crystals that cast shimmering rainbow sparkles across the black marble of the floor.

Tarik didn’t hesitate for even a second before he walked over to one of the large and incredibly comfortable looking lounge chairs and dropped down on it.

“Please, make yourselves at home. Can I offer you any refreshments? Something to drink or eat?” Quaris inquired, while gesturing at the other chairs placed around a low table matching the marble floor tiles.

Visra shyly looked at her colleagues, then carefully spoke up. “Could I get a glass of water, please?”

Quaris smiled warmly at the young Alusi and nodded. “Certainly.” A moment later the surface of the table started to flow upwards, strands of programmable matter quickly forming into a tall glass. Immediately after the glass had formed the shimmer of an active replicator filled the glass and left it full of cool water. “Here you are. Anyone else?”

CO and XO shook their heads. “We’re fine, thanks.” Sina added, then furrowed her brows a little. “I am still uncertain why you asked us here. Tarik only mentioned that you had something important to discuss with us?”

The indigo avatar joined the group, sitting on his own lounge chair while folding his hands across his lap. “Indeed, Commander. I would like to propose me joining your crew. I am convinced it would be a powerful alliance, extremely beneficial for both of us. You would get access to my computing power and knowledge, while I would get to participate in you experiencing this galaxy on your own.”

Sina swallowed as she heard the artificial consciousness’ words. “Uhm, thank you? That’s admittedly a bit unexpected. I’m flattered that you want to join us, but I doubt we have much to offer to you. You said you were part of the hive-mind, so I guess there’s little you haven’t already seen or experienced.”

“Not quite, Commander. You are correct in that I have a vast collection of memories and experiences of a wide selection of events and locations across Synergy territory and beyond. But there is one thing I haven’t experienced yet: you. More precisely: your way of doing things. I have perused the records of your endeavors and the historical database of your Federation. Your people have a unique perspective, quite distinct from the pragmatic nature of the Synergy.”

Tarik raised an eyebrow. “Hmm? Don’t tell me you suddenly find us boring?”

“Absolutely not, my old friend. But you do have to admit that our guests’ Federation is… something new. Isn’t it always exciting to explore the unknown? To discover new experiences?”

The engineer grinned and then laughed. “I’d be inclined to agree, if they just weren’t so impractical sometimes!”

Quaris let out a soft chuckle at Tarik’s remark, his lips a happy grin. “We shall see, Tarik.” The avatar turned to Sina again. “I can understand if you need more time to consider my offer. Please take as much time as you require to come to a conclusive decision.”

“Before we think about that, I have a question.” Niko spoke up, leaning forward slightly in his seat.

“Please ask freely, Lieutenant Commander.”

“How exactly would you join our crew?” The first officer asked, curious about how a planetary AI could fit into a comparatively tiny ship. “I understand that you are an artificial intelligence. Is the form we see right now everything you require, or is there more to you that we don’t see right now?”

The indigo humanoid form slowly rose from his seat. “A good question. But please use the term artificial consciousness. I am conscious, for all intents and purposes, which is a quality even strong AIs lack.”

“Oh, sorry. Didn’t mean to offend you.” Niko apologized quickly.

“No offense taken, Lieutenant Commander. I understand that the distinction between artificial intelligence and artificial consciousness is often difficult and unintuitive for organic lifeforms who lack the required experience for it. But to return to your question: you would need to install one of my mainframe clusters on your ship, then I could physically operate with an avatar independently of the nodes here on Sigma Praxis III.”

Until now Visra had been following the conversation quietly, now and then sipping away on her water. But hearing Quaris talk about needing to install one of his nodes on the ship didn’t sound right to her. “I’m sorry, but why would you need a separate mainframe on our ship? You said you were connected to the hive-mind, couldn’t you just operate with that connection?”

The AC turned to face the young scientist, a warm smile on his dark lips. “I could, but it would be extremely uncomfortable. You see, the hive-mind is indeed quite capable and easily enough for organic consciousness. The ‘speed of thought’ most organic brains work with is at least two orders of magnitude slower than the delay of a hive-mind connection even at extreme distances. But my internal speed is many orders of magnitude faster than that.”

“I could control an avatar body remotely from here, provided a stable hive-mind connection is available. But it would be a severely disorienting experience. To translate the timescales between my perception and yours, it would be as if you had a multiple-years-long delay between hearing a sound and your body turning its head.”

Sina furrowed her brows, musing about the new information she was hearing. “How large would that cluster be? Could it be mobile?”

“I can show you. Please, follow me.” Quaris waved at his guests, gesturing them to follow him as he approached a large door at the far end of the room. The others stood from their seats and followed their hosts. Once everyone was close, he opened the doors with a simple thought.

Behind them was a tall spheroid chamber, covered all over in simple white hexagonal tiles. In its center hovered a massive cluster of thousands of fist-sized pitch-black rhombic dodecahedron, a striking contrast to the bright walls. A dark-blue inner glow emanated from between the nodes, sketching their contours against the uniform blackness of their surface. Dozens of nodes were in perpetual motion over and around their neighbors, continuously rearranging the silhouette of the cluster.

“This is my brain, so to speak. Or at least, one of them.” Quaris announced proudly, pointing at the black cluster hovering in front of them. “One of these mainframes should be able to easily fit into the Sidereal. An isolated chamber with a diameter of five meters would suffice.”

Sina walked up right next to the avatar and looked at the mainframe. “Wait, you would be firmly installed into the ship’s structure?”

“Correct. Is that a concern for you?”

“Yes! Of course, it is!” The Romulan exclaimed and turned towards Quaris.

The avatar seemed to be confused for a second. “I can assure you the required modifications would be minimal. The energy requirements can easily be met by your vessel’s power grid without impacting-”

“It’s not that. We have lots of empty space. I’m concerned about any situation that forced us to abandon or evacuate the ship. What would happen to you?”

“In those situations, I would have to remain on board. I don’t understand your concern, Commander.” The avatar looked at Sina, his non-existing brows quirked.

“You’d be trapped. You’d have no way of escape. And if the ship was destroyed, you’d die with it, while we could at least try to escape.” The Romulan stared at Quaris, not understanding how he could so calmly suggest this.

“I am fully aware of this.”

“You…” The CO didn’t know what to say.

Niko had kept in the background, letting his captain lead the discussion for the time, but now he joined it again. “How can you be so calm about it? Are you not scared about any of those critical situations killing you?”

Suddenly the avatar’s face lit up. “I think I begin to understand your concern now. You assume that the destruction of my mainframe cluster on board the Sidereal would kill me, but that is not the case. It would only destroy the copy of my consciousness it would contain but not my original self.”

“Wait, you can clone yourself? Like in, a full copy with all memories and awareness intact?” Visra quipped in, her curiosity finally getting the better of her.

“Indeed. The memories and personality of that copy would branch from myself the moment I spawn it and develop independently until it returned here for reintegration.”

“But it would still be an independent being with full consciousness, sentience, and sapience, right?” Sina inquired.

Quaris nodded. “That is correct, Commander.”

The captain pressed her lips together and turned around, exchanging looks with her first officer. She let out a deep sigh and turned back to face the avatar. “I’m sorry, Quaris, but I can’t do this. It has nothing to do with you being an artificial lifeform. It just doesn’t feel right and I’m worried the knowledge that you’re incapable of escaping would impact my judgment when I couldn’t afford it.”

“I understand, Commander.” The avatar nodded, a slight tone of sadness resonating in his voice.

“We can think about this again when we’ve gotten a little more comfortable with our ship and know her limits better. And if you ever manage to shrink your mainframe so that it could be mobile, please send us a message and we can discuss this again. But for now, I’m really sorry I have to disappoint you.”

[ Act Three ]

The Cardassian stood motionlessly in front of the panorama window on deck six, the open crew mess hidden away in the section behind him. He silently watched the streaks of light and darkness race over the Sidereal’s rebuilt hull, the slipstream’s colorful vortex reflecting off the new streamlined curves and their white armor plating.

Rel contemplated how different the ship now looked compared to before. It was much sleeker, more elegant, but at the same time her shape was more geometric, more pronounced. The Synergy had outfitted their home with their typical hull plating and armor, giving the former Akira class a strange appearance. White armor plating mounted on a minuscule layer of dull dark gray neutronium alloy, crisscrossed with blue glowing power lines and field emitters.

But in the end the CTO admitted to himself that he liked the new style. He found it quite fitting for a phoenix reborn from the ashes. He wore his light gray training uniform and matching shoes, getting in a few peaceful minutes of relaxing before heading to the holodeck to work on his velocity scores. As he watched the ship plow through subspace, driven by the tamed fury of an Omega molecule less than 100 meters away from him, a slight smile crept onto his lips.

In the last couple of weeks, he had come here regularly. He just stood and watched, enjoying the sight of unimaginable technology wresting another secret not meant for mortal eyes from the cosmos. The chaotic swirling streaks gently flowed around the Sidereal, almost as if they gently caressed her form. The sight was soothing to him, as if the universe was singing a tender lullaby to help him relax.

“Are you alright, Lieutenant?”

The sudden female voice from right behind him made Rel jump and turn around. There he saw a Human Synergy member standing next to him, dressed in one of the black and blue jumpsuits she seemed to prefer. Her black hair fell to the neck in her signature wild tousled mess, the blue-white streaks framing her pale face. She looked at him curiously, her cybernetic eyes gleaming with a faint dark blue shine.

“Hiora! Where the hell did you just come from?” Rel asked and breathed a deep sigh, still a little wound up from the scare she gave him.

“I was delivering some materials to [email protected] and saw you standing here by yourself. Since you didn’t move, I approached to inquire whether you needed assistance.” The cyborg replied.

“Oh. Well, thanks for your concern, Hiora. I’m okay, I was just enjoying the view.” Rel said, gesturing with his arm towards the panorama windows.

The Human woman quirked a brow and looked towards the window. “That’s the visual distortions of the subspace slipstream drive. You find that enjoyable?”

“Yes, don’t you?”

“Not particularly. The sight is nothing special to me. It’s just our fastest form of faster-than-light transportation. While an impressive technological feat, I don’t see any artistic appeal in it.” Hiora replied. “What do you find in it?”

“I don’t know.” Rel turned his head and looked at the swirls and streaks. “It’s just so fascinating and… I think calming. The fractal patterns, the soft swirls, it’s almost like a lava lamp.”

“A what?”

“A lava lamp. It’s typically a cone filled with oil and wax. The wax is heated and floats to the top where…” The Cardassian looked at Hiora and paused for a second. “You know, I was on my way to the holodeck. Why don’t you join me, and I could just show you before chewing your ears off?”

[email protected] squinted her eyes at the CTO. “I prefer my ears not being consumed.”

It took Rel a moment to understand that remark. “Oh, no! I didn’t mean it literally. It’s just an expression, a figure of speech used when someone just doesn’t stop talking.”

“Hmm.” Hiora replied. “Your language is full of illogical exceptions and certainly colorful idioms. Nevertheless, I shall join you.”

“Great! Let’s go.” Rel turned and led the way towards the next gateway arch, gesturing to [email protected] to follow him. While they were walking, Rel looked at the woman walking next him. “By the way, how did you manage to sneak up on me like that?”

“My leg augmentations allow me to move more quietly than most people by controlling exactly how quickly and at which angle my feet make contact with the ground.” Hiora explained calmly. “I’m trained and equipped for my role as a soldier of the Synergy, both normal combat and covert operations. Controlling my step is just as essential to that role as a tactical mindset or a good aim.”

The Cardassian smirked. “Huh, in that case I think you’d enjoy what I was planning to do on the holodeck.”

“Which would be?”

“I was planning on working on my Velocity ranking.” Rel remarked as they stepped through the gateway portal on deck seven.

“Velocity?” Hiora inquired slightly curious.

“Yes, it’s a holographic game from Earth. It’s competitive and typically played between two players, although team variants also exist. The two-player version is played with a flying disk and two hand phasers. The disk will home in on a player who must change its target by hitting it with their phaser. The disk then homes in on the other player. If a disk manages to hit its target, the other player scores a point.” The CTO spoke as they walked up to the holodeck entrance.

Standing next to the large control panel, Rel finished his explanation. “The game can last for a long time and become quite exhausting, which is why it’s often either limited to a certain amount of time played or a maximum number of points scored.”

“Sounds… interesting.” The Human replied as she watched the Cardassian manipulate the control panel.

The large doors slid open with their signature swoosh and as they entered the huge holodeck was empty save for a simple table in its center with a lava lamp on it. The lamp was radiating a pale blue glow, with amorphous shapes of molten green wax drifting inside it.

“There you go. A lava lamp.” Rel commented as he walked around the table. “I know it probably looks silly or primitive to you, but I find watching the blobs of wax melt, change their shapes, move, and melt together again soothing, comforting. Like watching a campfire, the patterns never repeat. It’s always different, but still the same in a way.”

Hiora stared into the lamp for a long moment, before she commented. “You are correct, it is a rather simplistic device. But I do understand the appeal it presents. It’s a visualization of unpredictable chaos and uncontrollable entropy.”

“And I think the same about the SSD’s distortions.” There was an almost awkward pause, before Rel continued. “But I don’t want to keep you from your duties any longer.”

Hiora quirked a brow and looked at the Cardassian slightly irritated. “And what about your game? Don’t you need a partner for it?”

“Uh, well, I originally wanted to play against a simulated opponent… but if you want you can of course join me. I just didn’t think you’d be interested.” Rel smiled at his new game partner. “Computer, replace scene with standard Velocity court.”

A soft chirp sounded as the holodeck’s control systems acknowledged the command and a split second later the lava lamp and the table vanished. They were instantly replaced by a standard game field, with a rack at the sideline holding the phasers and the disk. Rel walked to the rack to grab the utensils and then met with [email protected] at the centerline to hand her the weapon.

“I don’t know if your familiar with our hand phasers, but if you need-”

Before he could finish the sentence Hiora fired several shots in close sequence into the ground. “I think I can manage. Please start the game.”

“In a bit. Don’t you want to do any warm-up?” The Cardassian asked as he began his stretching and warming routine.

Hiora curiously watched Rel going through the various exercises and positions. “No, that is not necessary. My nanoprobes and implants allow me to go to maximum performance immediately. But I will wait until you’ve completed all required preparations.”

After a few minutes of activating his muscles and stretching his tendons and joints, Rel finally nodded to his partner. “Okay, ready. My color’s blue, you’re on red. First to score ten points wins the round.”

He threw the disk into the air and made a few steps back. The disk blinked a few moments in white, then turned red and started to home in on Rel. The Cardassian swiftly brought his weapon up and easily hit the disk, turning it blue and sending it towards Hiora. [email protected] almost instantly countered and sent the disk right back again.

The match went on for a bit and Rel found himself hard pressed. He had to admit he seemed to have vastly underestimated Hiora, her aim and tactics being extremely strong. The first round ended two-to-ten for the Human girl after only five minutes. The Cardassian walked to the centerline, his training uniform already turning dark from his sweat. “Phew, you’re an exceptionally strong player. I admit I underestimated you. Where did you learn to aim that well and with such speed?”

Hiora also walked towards the center of the court, holding the phaser casually at her hip. “My tactical targeting link provides me with enhanced capabilities.” She stated flatly.

Rel looked at her for a moment, then started laughing. “So, you’re cheating!”

[email protected]’s expression instantly turned awkward at the accusation. “I followed the game rules as laid out by you, how could I be cheating?”

“Hiora, Velocity is a game of personal skill. The point of the game is the challenge of meeting your opponent, facing the competition. Letting a computer do the aiming for you is like taking an aircar to run a marathon. It defeats the whole purpose of the game.” Rel explained. He wasn’t mad at her, but rather amused by her sudden shame.

“I wasn’t aware of those conditions. I’m sorry. In case you want to continue the game, I’ve deactivated all my combat related enhancements.” Hiora apologized.

The Cardassian smiled happily. “No worries, it’s okay. And yes, I’d gladly continue playing with you. A real opponent is always more interesting than a simulated one.” With a grin on his lips he returned to his starting position, waiting for Hiora to also get ready before he kicked off round two.

This time, the two contestants were much more closely matched in skill and endurance. Hiora managed to miss a few shots now and then and some of her dodge rolls were not quite on point. She was still quite a match for the Cardassian, and the second round ended in a close ten-to-nine for Rel after sixteen minutes. Meeting at the centerline, Rel saw a glimmer in Hiora’s gaze. Her gaze was focused, and her lips pressed together, as if something had sparked inside her.

“Rematch!” She demanded straight away.

Rel laughed while catching his breath. “Sure! How about a best of three and we forget the first game?”

“Agreed.” [email protected] replied and returned to her color’s starting position on the field.

The second game was putting his abilities to the test. Even without her enhancements, and he did believe that she switched them off, she was really putting the pressing on him. He quickly noticed that Hiora tried, and often succeeded, to abuse his footwork that wasn’t as good as he wished. On the other hand, she was weak against rebound plays when Rel again positioned himself behind her. It was a close match, but eventually the Cardassian had to admit defeat after fourteen minutes with the score reading eight-to-ten.

Rel’s training uniform was soaked, the chest and back having turned from light gray to dark gray as the fabric tried its best to keep his body cool and enable respiration. Hiora’s face was dotted with droplets of sweat and her jumpsuit also showed signs of her sweating more than she would let on to.

“Nice play there. You’re good! Seems you really don’t need your implants to defeat me.” He congratulated his opponent in between deep breaths, an already exhausted smile on his lips.

“You’re not exactly an easy opponent either.” Hiora replied while swiping the sweat from her forehead. “You are more enduring than I’d have expected and your ability to exploit my weak spots relentlessly is impressive. You said best of three, so there’s one more round to go, correct?”

“Correct. But let me grab something to drink first.” Rel replied. “Computer, two bottles of still water, slightly below room temperature.”

With a chirp and the typical sound of a replicator, two drinking bottles of water materialized next to the rack on the sideline. The Cardassian went to grab both, offering one to Hiora. “Here. You look as if you could use a drink as well.”

[email protected] took the bottle with a nod. “Thank you.” Together they drank and soon discarded the emptied bottles.

Rel exhaled deeply, smirking at Hiora as he went back to his starting position. “Ready?”

“Affirmative!”

The CTO kicked off the final round with glee. Phaser beams crisscrossed the holodeck and both contestants weaved and dodged to the best of their abilities. The game was at the same blistering pace as the rounds before and both Rel and Hiora gave their best. The first few minutes they played as before, more aggressively than defensively, trying to score as many points as possible while often neglecting their cover.

The score quickly climbed. Three-to-three. Six-to-six. Sometimes it was Rel scoring the point and then Hiora catching up, sometimes it was the other way around. But the closer they inched to the match point, the more their strategies changed toward all out defense. Eventually it stood nine-to-nine, but neither player took the risk necessary to make a winning move.

The round timer already went past eighteen minutes and still neither player had scored the match point. Eventually Hiora decided to take the risk and went for an extravagant maneuver sending the disk at Rel at an extremely steep angle. The Cardassian tried to dodge with a deep lunge but misjudged his footing and twisted his ankle. With a pained grunt he hit the floor and a second later the disk smacked him in the butt.

[email protected] turned around with a triumphant smile on her lips, but then she saw her opponent on the ground, holding his ankle. She immediately turned serious, dropped her phaser, and hurried to Rel to kneel next to him. “Are you alright, Lieutenant?”

“I… think I twisted… my ankle.” He groaned as he stripped of his shoes and examined the quickly swelling joint.

“You require medical assistance.” Hiora stated flatly, obviously dismayed how quickly the situation had turned serious again. Her gaze became unfocused as she tapped into the Sidereal’s engineering systems and initiated a site-to-site transport. Before Rel could protest they were both engulfed in the black maw of a fractal dimensional shift and reemerged a split second later in sickbay.

Co-Yor hurried around the corner, seeing his CTO on the ground and Hiora kneeling next to him. “What happened?”

“A sport accident on the holodeck.” [email protected] stated while she helped Co-Yor placing the patient on a biobed.

“It’s probably nothing.” Rel grunted. “I just didn’t watch my step and twisted my ankle.”

The doctor didn’t hesitate and immediately went for a medical tricorder. “Stay still and don’t move your leg.” Returning with the device in hand, the Kalonar swept the bio-scanner over the Cardassian’s injured foot. “You’ve partially torn your anterior talofibular ligament and developed two hairline fractures in the inferior articular surface of your tibia. You require treatment.” The Kalonar grabbed the bone-regenerator and a protoplaser and went to work on fixing Rel’s damaged joint.

While the doctor was busy, Hiora stood next to Rel and smirked at him. “I consider the game a draw.”

“Uh… what?” The Cardassian replied a little distracted.

“Even though technically I scored the match point, you were incapacitated. It would be inappropriate to consider the score legitimate. I hope you’re up for a rematch later. I did enjoy the challenge you posed.”

Rel now returned the smirk. “I’m looking forward to it.”

[ Act Four ]

“So, how did you like the exhibition yesterday? Anything that tickled your fancy?” Sina asked, casually leaning into the captain’s chair and glancing over to the chief engineer.

“Oh, I liked very much. It was so interesting to see how the different cultures present amongst the crew expressed themselves in visual arts. Especially Co-Yor’s multi-layered woodcut produced a quite impressive result. I’m sure Eleven-Forward will greatly benefit from having a few of those pieces on display.” Tarik replied, while keeping an eye on the holographic status display on the console in front of him.

“I agree.” Niko added with a smirk. “Even though I have to admit that Andorian sculpture is an acquired taste. I can appreciate the work and effort Shrass put into his brass statue, but it’s not something I’d want to put in my own quarters.”

Sina laughed softly. “Well, I’m sure Ensign Th’akianas thinks the same about your clay sculpting. But why didn’t you participate, Tarik? I’m sure you could have created an amazing piece of art with your experience of materials and tools.”

[Priority one distress signal. Synergy harvester Y-T-1173, Synergy stellar refinery SR-973. Condition: critical. Status: structural integrity compromised, OSR security systems offline, uncontrolled OSR reaction on Y-T-1173 in progress. Estimated time to breach of OSR containment: seven minutes thirty-three seconds.]

[email protected] stared off into the air while the information came in, filtered through the hive-mind. An accident. An undetected drifting subspace deformation ruptured the primary energy conduit in the stellar refinery and caused an energy surge that inflicted heavy damage to the refinery and the docked harvester. The incident alone would have been tragic enough, but the harvester’s designation troubled him greatly. He remembered a member of his family being stationed on board of that vessel.

“Tarik? Are you okay?”

The engineer turned to Sina, his face a mask of worry. “Captain, there was an accident at stellar refinery SR-973. They have little more than seven minutes before their OSR containment is breached. We must assist them.”

The Romulan’s eyes widened as she heard the words from her chief engineer, but then turned around. “Noriko, you heard it. Set a course towards that refinery, maximum possible speed. Engage!”

“Aye, captain!” The young Asian replied while her fingers danced across the holographic controls, plotting a course and firing up the Sidereal’s subspace slipstream drive.

Haroun, substituting for a sick Duncan this shift, registered and reported an incoming message. “Captain, I’m now also receiving an emergency transmission. It is from stellar refinery SR-973. They report heavy damage and hull breaches across all sections, both on the refinery and a docked harvester. They… they have over 3,000 casualties.”

“3,000 wounded?” Niko interjected. “That’s far above our capacity. We can’t do this alone.”

“No, Sir. It’s over 3,000 dead. The number of wounded is well over 7,000.” Haroun added.

The first officer stared in the direction of the ops station with a shocked expression for a moment, then exchanged a quick glance with his captain. “Okay. Haroun, contact the Synergy. Tell them we’re responding to the accident, but we can’t do this alone and request immediate backup.”

“Aye, Sir.” Crewman Al-Tammar replied and sent out the message.

While the other officers were talking, Tarik reached out with his uplink, sending his thoughts through the hive-mind. [Karimo? Can you hear me? Please respond.]

“What’s our ETA, Noriko?” Sina asked.

“About… five minutes and ten seconds, captain.” The pilot replied while keeping a firm eye on the status displays and controls in front of her.

Tarik shook his head and sighed. “That will not be enough. And we already are the closest ship. Prism 71-Delta-34 and Cube 818-Halo-133 are also responding, but they’ll arrive after us.”

“Damn it!” Sina breathed. Despite their incredible speed, space seemed to crawl by at a snail’s pace, and SR-973 crept closer only in slow motion.

[Tarik? Where are you?]

[email protected]’s eyes widened when he received the answer. [Karimo! What’s your condition? Can you reach an escape pod?]

The response was weak, and Tarik could feel the fear and confusion of his great nephew. [I… only have minor lacerations on my face. But I’m trapped in the OSR section, and the structural damage is significant and prevents escape. The energy surge also destroyed our own FDS manifolds and those of the refinery. I can’t get out and everyone else here is dead. Can you help me? Are you coming to help me? Tarik? Please?]

[We’re on our way. We will do everything in our power to help you. But we need some information. Can you tell me what’s the core’s condition?]

It took several long moments, but despite the growing despair Karimo finally answered. [Most OSR control systems were destroyed on a hardware level. Backup systems also have been damaged and are barely responding. There’s an uncontrolled high-yield reaction in progress. Energy built-up within the core chamber currently at seven times ten to the 23rd watts. We’ll not survive this, will we?]

[Don’t panic. We’re only a few minutes away. Can you open a channel on subspace frequency 772.491?]

“Captain, I’m receiving an incoming transmission from the damaged harvester. It’s not an emergency broadcast.” Haroun reported.

“Open the channel.” Sina ordered, and a moment later the main screen projected the image of the bloodied face of a young Human standing inside what appeared to be a heavily damaged control room. The ocular implant over his right eye has been damaged, its polished surface smashed and fractured. There were over half a dozen small cuts across the boy’s pale cheeks and forehead, and his short black hair was wildly disheveled.

“Tarik?”

“I’m Commander Sina D’raxis from the Federation starship Sidereal. We’re on our way to your location to help. Tarik is here with us. What’s your condition?”

“Our OSR confinement will overload in approximately five minutes and twenty-five seconds. I’m trapped in the OSR section, all escape paths are either blocked or damaged beyond usefulness.” The young man was visibly shaken, his normal eye darting between Sina, Niko, and Tarik. Every time a relay overloaded, or a power conduit ruptured in the background of the devastated control room he winced and looked around nervously, as if he expected the section to blow up any second.

“Please stay calm, we’re on our way and we’ll do our best to help you.” Sina commented, trying to get through to the boy and preventing him from panicking. She thought that if he had something to work on, he would remain focused “Can you and Tarik prepare the OSR for our arrival? I know we don’t have much time, so all preparations you could already do now would be extremely helpful.”

But he simply shook his head. “It wouldn’t matter. There’s not enough time to prevent the overload. There’s barely any system functioning here after that damage.” Next to him, a console was chirping, and he briefly looked at it before focusing the view screen again.

[Tarik? I… I think there might be a way…]

The chief engineer’s brows furrowed. [What do you mean?]

[The repair system just managed to restore the manual containment release.]

Tarik’s thoughts were racing. If the containment could be released and the whole core dumped into subspace, it would only cause minimal damage when it exploded. [Can you reach the manual controls?]

Karimo hesitated for a moment with his response. [Yes… but the reactor room is already flooded with Omega radiation. The alcoves are not functioning, and I’m only wearing class one armor. But…]

[No! There must be another way!] Tarik immediately cut off his great nephew, his mind unwilling to accept what he was about to say.

[But we’re running out of time. If we don’t stop the reaction, everyone here will die, including me. There are already more than 3,000 dead. But if you take control and operate the manual release, the others will survive. I… I don’t want to die, great uncle… I don’t want to die, but we have no choice. If you don’t do it, I will die for nothing.]

[email protected] pressed his lips together, staring at the main screen. After a long moment of silence Tarik let out a deep sigh and nodded. “I’ll do it.”

Sina and Niko turned their heads in sync and looked at Tarik with confused expressions. “Do what?” The Commander asked.

“I will take control of his body to operate the manual release. This will dump the whole reactor core into subspace and prevent a catastrophic overload in normal space.” The chief engineer explained.

Niko’s gaze jumped between Tarik and the young man’s image on the view screen. “And why can’t he operate the release himself?”

[email protected] held the XO’s gaze and explained calmly, but briefly. “The reactor room is flooded with Omega radiation. It is to be expected that he would lose consciousness before he could complete the release cycle.”

“What?” Sina turned in her seat to face Tarik. “You… you’re talking about sending him to his death? No, there has to be another way!”

“Captain, there’s no time to discuss this! When that OSR overloads and detonates, everyone on board the refinery and the harvester will die. Everyone! And all ships within ten light-years will be stuck here for several months. There is no alternative.” The engineer leaned back in his seat, preparing the control transfer from his own body to Karimo’s. He already knew that his great nephew had granted him the permission to engage the remote control.

“Tarik, you will not do this! I refuse to believe that we have to sacrifice this boy to safe your people.” The captain stared at her engineer, her gaze a mixture of commanding and imploring him. But Tarik closed his eyes and his body sagged into the seat. “Tarik!”

“I’m here, captain.” The injured boy on the view screen spoke. “I’m sorry, but we’re running out of time.”

The whole bridge crew stared at the screen in shock. Sina repeatedly looked between Tarik’s unconscious body and the main screen.

“Tarik, your captain gave you a direct order. You will immediately terminate the connection and return here!” Niko said, visibly upset by the chief engineer’s actions.

The figure on the screen turned away, a sad, almost pained, expression on his face. “No. I’m sorry, but I have to do this. Believe me, I wish I didn’t have to. I will explain later.” And with that, he turned fully around and walked away from the console he had used to open the channel.

Sina was visibly angry now at Tarik openly defying her orders. She almost slammed her combadge. “Bridge to sickbay. Co-Yor, I need you on the bridge asap. You must interrupt a Synergy neural uplink implant.”

“Understood, captain. On my way.” The CMO acknowledged before the intra-ship channel closed.

Niko checked his console. “Visra, can we somehow block out the hive-mind with our barriers?”

“No, Sir. The hive-mind has several redundancies built into its technology and protocols. We cannot easily block it, at least not within the next several minutes. But even then, we could only decay the signal quality and bandwidth.”

“Captain, ETA 105 seconds.” Noriko announced from the conn.

“Please don’t do this, Tarik. We’re almost there. Please!” Sina whispered desperately. The thought of having her chief engineer walk that kid into certain death was appalling to her and she had to swallow several times against the sensation of disgust rising in her throat.

A gateway door at the back of the bridge opened and Co-Yor came jogging through, several different med kits and devices slung under his shoulders. “I assume the patient is Tarik?”

“Yes.” Niko stated. “He’s using his neural uplink to the hive-mind to remote control a boy’s body. If we don’t interrupt that link, he’ll walk the kid into a radiation zone that will kill him.”

“I understand.” The CMO stated with his deep humming voice and immediately proceeded to pull Tarik off the chair and lay him flat on the ground. Kneeling next to him, he pulled a medical tricorder out of his long vest’s pocket with one hand, while already applying a neural monitor to [email protected]’s forehead with the other. After a quick scan of Tarik’s brain functions, Co-Yor adjusted a hypospray and injected a large dose of neurozine sedative into the engineer’s carotid artery, trying to suppress his consciousness.

The CMO scanned again and reached for another device in the neurological medkit. “Sedatives are not working as expected. His immune system is too effective. I’m trying the cortical inhibitor.” He placed the device against Tarik’s neck and activated it.

“ETA one minute.” The pilot reported.

“Time until breach?” Niko asked.

Haroun instantly replied, reading the information from one of the panels on his console. “Two minutes and five seconds, Sir.”

Sina tapped her combadge. “Bridge to engineering, spin up all FDS manifolds. The moment we drop out of slipstream I want as many wounded evacuated as possible. Start with anyone that is still in the harvester’s OSR section.”

“Understood, captain.” Junior Lieutenant Vossler answered and you could hear her shouting orders at her colleagues in the background before the channel closed.

“Haroun, any chance we could get in and tow the harvester away from the refinery?” Niko asked while checking the last ship readiness reports.

The Human Crewman quickly tapped on his console, throwing a rough estimation at the computer, but then shook his head. “No, Sir. The size and mass differences are far too large. It would take over fifteen minutes to tow the harvester the required distance, assuming it is not still docked at the refinery.”

“Damn it.” Niko mumbled under his breath. “Was worth a try…”

“Twenty-five seconds until normal space.” Noriko announced.

“Visra, would destroying the core with our cannons prevent the detonation?” Sina asked, the tension in her voice clearly audible to everyone.

“I… I can’t tell, captain. It might work, but it could also immediately trigger the breach. Without a few simulations it’s completely uncertain.” Visra replied, her own voice trembling slightly as she felt herself uncomfortably reminded of the situation with the quantum fissure. Despite the pressure and them quickly running out of time, she desperately tries to fire up some simulations.

“It can’t get any worse. Rel, get a target lock on the harvester’s OSR core.” The Romulan ordered. “Fire immediately once the section’s clear of life signs.”

“Aye, captain.” The Cardassian replied, quickly entering the targeting instructions into the tactical computer.

The next few seconds seemed to stretch out longer than possible, until Noriko spoke up again. “Leaving slipstream in three… two… one… now.”

The projection on the forward bridge dome changed to the darkness of space, speckled with burning wreckage and gleaming motes. The clouds of glowing sparks slowly drifted away from the super massive refinery’s burning wreckage like embers blowing up from a campfire.

“Rel?” Sina asked impatiently.

“We’re in range, captain, but I can’t target the OSR from here without destroying half the vessel.” The CTO replied, trying several firing solutions but none gave him the clear shot he needed.

“Noriko, set course to one-one-zero mark eight-zero. On the double!” Sina ordered and a moment later the Sidereal came about, silently swooping up at a sharp angle to allow a clean shot past the twisted superstructure and the torn storage containers.

The Romulan turned towards her science officer. “Visra, any life signs in the harvester’s engineering section?”

“One moment, captain…”

“We don’t have a moment!” The CO said, her voice loud and forceful. “Rel, fi-”

“Wait!” Visra shouted, interrupting her captain. “The OSR just disappeared from the sensors. Instead I’m detecting a massive subspace well that apparently swallowed the reactor core.”

Sina’s head whipped around to look at her chief engineer lying on the floor. “Tarik.” She let out a sigh that was somewhere between anger, relief, and disappointment. “Any life signs in the harvester’s engineering section?”

The science officer hesitated for a moment, then answered. “No, captain.”

[ Act Five ]

Tarik slowly regained consciousness. But something was wrong. It took him a moment to understand that his implants and nanoprobes were fighting tooth and nail against the cortical inhibitor attached to his neck, and the sedative flooding his blood stream. A weak sob escaped his lips as he remembered what happened during the last few minutes and a few lone tears ran from his eyes as he thought about his now dead great nephew.

After another moment of collecting himself he let out a groan as he sat up and peeled the inhibitor off his skin. “Get that… thing off me…” With the inhibitor gone his thoughts cleared up quickly, but before he had fully recovered Sina stood in front of him. She looked down at him, her eyes shooting daggers.

“What the hell was that?!” She shouted, pointing at the main screen and the projection of the drifting and burning wreckage. “I should have you thrown in the brig for insubordination.”

Co-Yor reached out to help Tarik back to his feet, but the engineer gruffly pulled his arm away, and stood up on his own. He looked at the CMO. With a cold glare in his eyes dropped the inhibitor at his feet. “Don’t touch me.” He hissed at the Kalonar before turning to face his captain.

“Well? You better have a damn good justification for what you’ve just done. I still can’t believe you had this in you. Two minutes, Tarik. All we needed was two more minutes.” Sina said, her voice trembling from thinly veiled anger and disappointment.

“I needed those two minutes to cycle the manual release controls.” [email protected] replied, holding the gaze of his CO.

Sina took a deep breath to fire a counter at her chief engineer, when suddenly a chirp sounded and Julia Vossler’s voice interrupted her. “Engineering to bridge. Captain, we could really use Co-Yor down here. Our cargo bays and FDS rooms are overflowing. We’ve already transported over 700 survivors and wounded, but many injuries are way beyond first aid level.”

The Romulan glared at Tarik. “Understood. Co-Yor’s on his way. Bridge out.” She turned to look at her CMO and nodded. “We’ll take this from here. Go and help the wounded.”

“Understood, captain.” The Kalonar simply replied, grabbed all the med kits and devices he had brought with him, and disappeared wordlessly and with large steps through one of the bridge’s gateway portals.

By now Rel, Visra, Noriko, and Haroun had all stood from their stations and were glancing towards the upper level of the bridge where Sina, Niko, and Tarik were apparently just a few seconds away from butting heads.

With Co-Yor gone, CO and XO turned their attention again on the CE. Niko just shook his head. “How could you do that, Tarik? That boy didn’t even look like sixteen and you killed him. Just so. Without need.”

“Without need? Without need?! If I hadn’t done that thousands more would have died.”

Lieutenant Commander Heisenberg held Tarik’s gaze, challenging him. “You don’t know that. We were about t-”

“To blow up the OSR and trigger a breach. Has none of you paid any attention during my engineering lessons? Do I need to spell it out for you, again? An uncontrolled OSR cannot be stopped by destroying the reactor core! The built-up energy inside the chamber would immediately release along a weapon’s entry path!”

The XO let out a frustrated sigh. “Okay. But even if you’re correct here, it wouldn’t have gotten that far if you hadn’t abandoned your fellow crew. We would have needed your help, your knowledge of that technology! You can’t just leave us hanging and go on your own little adventure to murder a random kid.”

“Don’t go there, Lieutenant Commander.” [email protected] warned Niko, his cheeks still wet from the tears.

“Or what? You’ll off me like that child?”

In this moment the argument became too heated and personal for even Sina’s taste, and she tried to step in. “Niko, that’s enou-”

But Tarik took a quick step past Sina, getting right up in Niko’s face. “How dare you!” He growled. “That ‘child’ was my great nephew!” That sentence was like a slap to the face of Sina and Niko and caused the eyes of the rest of the bridge crew to grow wide.

“How dare you judge me for saving over 12,000 lives! I had NO OTHER CHOICE!” Tarik’s voice thundered in the bridge dome. “You have no idea how painful it was to feel his flesh slowly disintegrate…” A pained sob escaped from [email protected]’s lips. “…until only his implants and cybernetics remained. You cannot even begin to fathom the horror of feeling his presence fade from the hive-mind!”

Again, tears were running down the cheeks of the previously always stoic and controlled engineer. He thrust a finger at Niko’s chest, glaring right in the shocked XO’s face, and continued with failing voice. “We all felt him die. But we were all with him in his final moments. His whole family. All his friends. Even the Matriarch. He was not alone, and he didn’t suffer. When the radiation finally destroyed his brain, his avatar simply vanished. He is a hero for what he did. And I will not suffer you to sully his memory!”

The engineer took a step back from Niko and turned away, wiping the tears of his face. His voice trembled. “It was his suggestion. I didn’t want to do it at first, but he convinced me. And in the end, he was right. Even if I had been transported to the harvester wearing proper protective gear right after our arrival, I wouldn’t have had enough time to cycle the manual override. There just wasn’t enough time.”

“Tarik, I’m so sorry.” Sina started softly, her impression about the recent events completely turned upside down after his revelations. “I’m sorry fo-”

[email protected] just cut her off. “I’m needed on the refinery. There are secondary explosions threatening life support.”

And with that he turned around and left the bridge.

“Tarik, wait!” The Romulan called after the Human engineer, but he had already stepped through the gateway. Sina mumbled as she dropped back into the captain’s chair. “Shit.” Niko just stood there, his head dropping slightly, and his lips pressed into a thin line.

The ops console beeped. Haroun quickly sat down again to check what was happening and his fingers quickly brought up a status panel. After a moment he reported. “Captain, we’re being hailed by a Synergy cube. They say they’ll arrive in less than two minutes and request a status update since we’re already on scene.”

“Uhm…” Distracted by her thoughts about what had just transpired, it took her a moment to parse Crewman Al-Tammar’s report. “Send them our current sensor data. Tell them the harvester’s OSR was… secured, but there are still explosions on the refinery. Ask if they can spare a few medical adjuncts to help with the wounded on our ship.”

“Aye, captain.” Haroun confirmed and proceeded to execute his CO’s orders.

Slowly, the remaining officers also sat down at their stations again, returning to their duties. Still, from the shared glances bouncing back and forth between Rel, Noriko, Visra, and Haroun it was obvious that they were all still thinking profoundly about what they’ve just witnessed.

The next two days were a blur of work, fire, and death. Even though Cube 818-Halo-133 shouldered the brunt of the over 7,000 wounded, and Prism 71-Delta-34 supported the wounded on the Sidereal, hundreds of them did not survive. The injuries included amputations, crushed organs, explosive decompression trauma, burns of third degree or higher, and neural damage from unfiltered energy discharges.

The remaining crews of SR-973 and Y-T-1173 were evacuated onto the cube, since both the refinery and the harvester were still a battlefield of explosions, raging plasma fires, decompressed sections, and deadly hard radiation. The process of stabilizing the massive superstructures was tedious, slow, and dangerous. It would take many months, maybe even years, before either could be used again.

Tarik hadn’t been seen on the Sidereal since the dispute on the bridge two days ago. His experience and knowledge made him an essential part of the damage control efforts, which he appeared to use as a convenient excuse to avoid Sina and Niko. Even when the captain had asked him to attend a staff meeting, he excused himself and sent Junior Lieutenant Vossler instead.

“You think he’s still angry?” Sina asked, leaning back in the captain’s chair.

“Probably. I know I would be.” Niko breathed a deep sigh. “I really screwed this up. I shouldn’t have said… well… really, I shouldn’t have opened my damn mouth at all. What was I thinking?”

“You want an honest answer to that question?” The Romulan teased her Human colleague.

“Eh, no thanks.” The first officer replied grimly. “It’s enough torment that so far he hasn’t answered any of my messages.”

Sina also sighed deeply. “Well, that makes two of us. He hasn’t answered any of my messages either.”

Commander D’raxis had barely finished when a gateway door slid open and Tarik entered the bridge. His face was a mask of sorrow and regret, and he was wearing the same baggy engineering clothes under his fabricator harness that he had worn when they first met, instead of his Starfleet uniform. He stepped closer.

“Captain. XO. May I have a word with you?”

Both officers quirked their brows, but eventually rose both from their chairs. “Sure. Rel, you have the bridge.” Sina replied, gesturing towards her ready room. Still, as they walked, she had an awful feeling in her belly about what would happen next.

Once inside the ready room, Niko immediately approached [email protected] “Tarik, I want to apologize for what happened. What I said was unacceptable, hurtful, and just wrong. I’m really sorry for what I did.” Carefully, the German offered his hand to Tarik.

The engineer looked at the first officer for a long moment and nodded slowly. “Apology accepted, Lieutenant Commander. But I can only hope you will understand why I still have to do this.” When he didn’t take his hand, Niko’s eyes went wide. [email protected] turned towards Sina and reached into one of the pockets of his vest. He pulled out his combadge and rank insignia. “Captain, I hereby resign from my post as chief engineer of the USS Sidereal, effective immediately.”

“No…” Sina whispered, staring at the items in Tarik’s hand as he placed them on her desk. She looked up at [email protected], her face a mask of worry. “Please, can we talk about it? Niko’s not the only one who owes you an apology. My own behavior was even worse and I’m honestly sorry for the things I’ve said. If there’s anything I can do or say to make you reconsid-”

She instantly stopped when the engineer lifted his cybernetic hand and shook his head. “My decision was influenced, but not motivated by the recent incident. It is the logical conclusion after a long series of events that made one thing utterly clear to me. I am the wrong person for what we all tried to achieve.”

Sina breathed deeply and slowly. Her voice was trembling and close to failing. She didn’t want to lose such an important member of her crew, her team. She didn’t want to lose Tarik. “I don’t understand. What do you mean, Tarik? Didn’t everything seem to be going well so far?”

“I disagree with that assessment, Commander.” His voice was firm and cold, like a machine perfectly dedicated to a singular task. “I’m not even talking about the subtle and simmering rejection roughly one quarter of the crew met me with. People leaving the mess hall when I enter. People outright refusing my help on a problem that is costing them hours to resolve. People underestimating my auditory acuity and calling me Borg when they think I’m out of hearing range.”

“Who did that?” Niko inquired. “It certainly doesn’t excuse my own misbehavior, but what you describe is not what we expect of this crew.”

“That’s irrelevant now, Lieutenant Commander.” [email protected] stated, looking over to the first officer only briefly. “The issue I’ve identified is that I am unable to do what we all expected from me. All of us, you, me, even the Matriarch, assumed my presence among your crew could be the first step to bridge the gap between our cultures.”

His head dropped a little as he continued. “I now realize that I am unable to achieve that. I am a simple and pragmatic engineer. What you need is a well-spoken and charismatic diplomat. But even then, I think we will never be able to understand one another.”

Sina stepped closer to Tarik. “Tarik, I know we’re having… difficulties. And that not everything went as it should have and much of that is my own fault. I was focused too much on my crew and too little on really making sure you’d become a part of us. But if we ju-”

“But that’s exactly the point!” He interrupted her. “I cannot become part of you. I am Synergy. I cannot stop being Synergy. And you will never become part of us. You are Federation. You refuse on principle to consider even a temporary uplink. Whether out of dogma or of fear, I don’t know or care. The gap that we thought existed between our cultures is actually a deep chasm, extending towards the horizon and stretching far beyond our reach.”

Tarik turned away from the captain, briefly glanced at the first officer, then turned around again. “To you we will forever be ‘them,’ descendants of the Borg. Your crew will forever doubt our motivations and second-guess our actions. You will never fully trust us. We will always be strangers to you, no matter how hard we try.”

“And to us you will also forever be ‘them,’ castaways that shouldn’t be here. We will always worry about your static dogma leading you into trouble in a galaxy foreign to you. We will never fully understand you. You will always be outsiders to us, no matter how hard you try.” He took a deep breath and let out a frustrated sigh.

“I am sorry, Commander, but I am unfit for what you want me to be. I offer to stay on board as a technical adviser until your engineering department has gained more experience with and confidence in the ship’s systems. Afterward I request to be returned to Sol III directly or transferred to any Synergy vessel.”

Tarik waited for a short moment, then turned away and left the ready room. The finality in his voice and actions had hit Sina like a slap in the face. She was struggling with her thoughts… and emotions… about the prospect of losing Tarik forever.

Niko was saying something, but Sina just shook her head. “Please leave me alone for a moment.” She heard her XO’s heavy sigh and then his steps as he also left the ready room. A weak sob escaped from her throat as she slumped on her chair.

Meanwhile, Tarik was on his way to his quarters when he heard a familiar melodic voice in his thoughts.

[And? Are you happy with your decision?]

[No. Not at all.]