[ Act One ]

“Captain, we’re receiving a transmission from the Synergy flagship. It’s signed with the Matriarch’s personal key.” Duncan reported dutifully.

Niko glanced at Sina. “I wonder what’s the matter.”

“I guess we’ll see soon enough. Duncan, on screen.”

The ops officer acknowledged his CO’s order and a moment later the forward bridge dome was filled with Matriarch Chiaxi’s holographic projection. Her three cybernetic eyes gleaming like tiny stars, captured in rings of metal.

“Matriarch Chiaxi. An unexpected pleasure. What can we do for you?” The Commander asked, a warm smile on her lips.

[email protected] returned the smile. “Commander. This is more about what we can do for you. I call to inform you that our scientists have discovered a way to deliver a message to your reality and our engineers have successfully formulated a plan to set this endeavor into motion. Please meet us at the following coordinates at your earliest convenience to discuss the details.”

Duncan’s console chirped, signaling that they received the location, and he quickly relayed the information to Noriko at the conn to his left as well as the command stations on the upper level.

“You mean… we can…” Sina stammered, exchanging hopeful looks with her XO. “I’m sorry, but this really is a surprise, Matriarch. We’ll meet you as soon as possible. Is there anything we can prepare? Anything you need from us? Any way to contribute?”

The Matriarch smiled and shook her head. “No, Commander. Don’t worry, there’s nothing you can do. The whole project is of highly experimental nature, even to us. It will still take quite some time before we can send the message, since we’re still in the progress of constructing the transmitter array and power feed. Our engineers estimate seven more weeks. But you’re welcome to share the news with your crew and prepare messages for your families as well as reports to your government.”

“We will do so, Matriarch. This is the best news we’ve had in months. Thank you so much!” Sina said, her eyes wetting from pure joy and hope.

“You’re welcome. I hope to meet you soon.” [email protected] nodded and closed the channel.

Sina took a deep breath and looked at her XO, who grinned back at her. After a long moment he quipped. “Don’t you want to give the order?”

The Romulan laughed. “Oh, right. Noriko, set course to those coordinates. Engage at maximum speed.”

“Aye, captain!” The Asian pilot replied, struggling with her reaction to the news, quickly updating their flight schedule and setting the new trajectory. She swallowed and engaged the subspace slipstream drive. A moment later the Omega powered engine pushed normal space aside and plunged the Sidereal into the familiar tunnel of darkness and fractal streaks of broken light.

“ETA in twenty-one hours and eighteen minutes.” Noriko reported, taking a few deep breaths to calm her nerves.

Niko nodded satisfied. “Thanks. Duncan, relay the timing of our arrival to the Synergy.”

Everyone was excited and happy about the news. The next morning Niko had the whole crew assemble briefly in Eleven-Forward where Sina officially shared the big news with everyone, despite rumors having already traveled faster than an errant high-energy neutrino. The cheers and shouts echoed through the Sidereal’s empty hallways and lifted the crew’s spirit unlike any news in the past months.

A few hours after the official announcement Sina and Niko again were on duty on the bridge.

“So, already an idea what we send back home?” The first officer asked.

“What do you mean? Everything we can send, of course!” Sina replied, browsing a list of log entries and reports on the holographic display in front of her. “But as much as it hurts me, that will include neither the specifications of our new ship, nor any of the other Synergy technology. That’s what you were hinting at, right?”

The XO nodded. “Yep. Since we’re bound by the Synergy Statutes now, we’ll have to carefully screen what we’re sending. But still, personal messages and a status report are already much better than nothing. At least they’ll know we’re not dead. Not all of us, that is.” He added, remembering the fourteen casualties during their accident.

“You think they’re still looking for us?” Sina asked, leaning back in her chair and turning to Niko. “After almost fifteen months?”

He just shook his head. “I don’t think so. They probably declared the Sidereal missing or even lost with all hands. I wonder what they even found. I doubt it was more than a smattering of torn armor plating and a pile of random debris, considering most of the ship made it through. But hey, we probably have a nice monument in the SCHQ gardens.”

Sina choked on her reply and chuckled. “At least you’re looking at the bright side of things.”

“Do you think they made our monument from granite or brushed steel?” He teased.

The Romulan just rolled her eyes and shook her head, which earned her a laugh from her first officer. Eventually she returned to her list and continued selecting which entries to exclude completely and which to prepare for redaction of critical Synergy information.

A few minutes later Noriko reported yet another update to their course. “Captain, we’re on final approach to the rendezvous coordinates. Returning to normal space in two minutes.”

“Thanks, Noriko.” Sina acknowledged the report and turned to Niko. “I’m really curious what they’re building out here. Cygnus X-1 is a black hole and part of a high-mass binary system with an O-type supergiant star. According to Synergy records the system’s uninhabited and has been stripped bare of all usable resources centuries ago.”

“Hmmm… you think that black hole has something to do with their plan? Maybe they want to use the singularity as a power source?” The XO speculated, wondering about that power feed the Matriarch had mentioned in her message.

“I don’t know, Niko, that seems a little extravagant even for the Synergy. Especially since they could probably just plug a few OSRs together instead of that.”

“Hey, they are the descendants of the guys who disassembled the frigging Moon to build that orbital ring thingy!” Niko exclaimed in playful outrage.

“Well… point for you. My personal guess would be that they need the black hole’s frame dragging for something. That thing spins over 800 times per second, give or take a few. That’s got to have some use, doesn’t it? But I guess we’ll find out soon enough. Visra, can you already see anything on the sensors?” The CO called out to the Alusi science officer.

“Yes, captain. I’m picking up the Synergy flagship as well as hundreds of ships gathering in proximity of Cygnus X-1, with dozens more in sensor range in transit to and from that location. Sensors also show several… superstructures orbiting both the black hole and the star. Some of the structures almost look like giant gravimetric anchors.” Ensign Arsiv replied, curiously studying the sensor data in more detail.

“Okay, that answers my question.” The XO quipped. “They’re definitively doing something with that black hole.”

Visra quickly spoke up before they left slipstream. “Sir, may I suggest deploying a visual filter to the view screen? The supergiant is extremely bright.”

“Oh, right. Good thinking, Visra.” Sina complimented the young scientist. “Duncan, dim the view screen whenever it shows the system.”

“Aye, captain.” Junior Lieutenant Clark responded and applied the requested filter with a few taps on his controls.

Finally, they arrived at their destination. “Leaving slipstream in three… two… one… now.” Noriko announced as the SSD disengaged and the ship returned to normal space. Instantly the view screen was filled with the dimmed blue light of the system’s supergiant star, which would have been blindingly bright without the filter Visra suggested, and the black hole’s accretion disk less than a quarter astronomical unit further away.

But far more impressive than this display of stellar size and destruction was the pure amount of activity shown by the Synergy. Visra hadn’t exaggerated - there were hundreds of cubes buzzing around like worker bees in a hive, constructing and carrying around giant frames and compartments for even larger structures. An equally large number of smaller vessels was busy with assembling the parts provided by the cubes or transporting more construction materials. It was a continuous coming and going, with ships entering and leaving slipstream in the system every few minutes.

Sina and the rest of the bridge crew could see two primary structures. One seemed to be a research station or monitoring facility closely orbiting the black hole itself, while the other was a group of giant concentric rings, forming a funnel-like silhouette between the supergiant and its stellar maw companion, with the narrow end pointing away from the star.

Duncan’s console signaled another incoming call. “Captain, it’s Matriarch Chiaxi again.”

“Well, on screen please.”

The view screen changed to [email protected]’s projection, who beamed with pride knowing fully how amazing this endeavor must look to her guests. “Ah, Commander. Welcome to… I think you call it Cygnus X-1. As you can see, we’re still busy with the construction. Please join me on Primaris Station at your convenience. And don’t forget to bring your science officer, she’ll be very interested in seeing this.”

“Yes. We’ll be right there.” Sina replied.

“Good.” The Matriarch nodded and the channel closed.

The CO looked at her first officer and grinned. “Well, let’s see what this is all about. Visra, you’re with me.” The young Alusi almost jumped from her station and hopped up the stairs to the upper level. Her big eyes seemed even bigger with pure excitement and her mouth was curled into a curious smile.

A few minutes later Sina and Visra appeared on Primaris Station with the blue white flash of a dimensional shift. Matriarch Chiaxi was already waiting and welcomed them with open arms. “Commander, Ensign. Welcome to Primaris Station!”

“Thank you, Matriarch.” Sina replied as they stepped of the designated transport zone. “All of this looks utterly impressive. But I don’t quite understand why you asked us here. You said it will be ready in seven weeks or so, but also that we couldn’t contribute or help with it.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that. I just want you and your people to know exactly what we’re doing here. I can understand that simply taking our word on everything might be difficult, especially in such an important and delicate affair as this. We will show you what we’re trying to do and how we intend to achieve it. Please follow me to main control.”

Sina quirked a brow at Visra, but after a quick moment they both followed the Synergy empress. As they walked around the station, they realized quickly that they were carefully shadowed by the Matriarch’s personal guard. Like in all their previous encounters, the empress was never without at least two of the humanoids clad in pitch black armor within reach, always ready to intervene if necessary.

Also, the CO noticed that the rooms and corridors looked familiar. They seemed to be exact copies of the layout and material they had seen on Sphere 272-Theta-8, as well as on Earth’s annulus. Likely another benefit of large-scale standardized designs, the CO mused.

Eventually they reached the central control room. The first thing both Starfleet officers noticed was the giant hologram in the center of the room, showing a schematic display of the black hole and the supergiant, as well as an immense list of various sensor data about those two objects. Laid on top was a work-in-progress display of the various superstructures the Synergy was building around and between the binary pair.

“If I may then ask, what exactly are you trying to do here?” Visra asked with an almost reverent voice.

Chiaxi turned around and smiled at them. “We intend to create a quantum fissure leading to your reality.”

The Romulan’s eyes grew wide. “What?! But how? I thought such fissures couldn’t be artificially created?”

“They can’t. But we’re not trying to carefully construct it. We will simply brute-force the issue.” The Matriarch explained. “With the help of your sensor data and your original quantum signature we managed to reconstruct the fissure’s spatial metrics with sufficient accuracy to be able to manipulate our spacetime into the required shape. The black hole’s frame dragging already does ninety-two percent of the work for us, we just need to apply a little bit of… convincing… to make it all the way.”

[email protected] led Sina and Visra to one of the virtual terminals of the control room. With a flick of her wrist the display sprang to life and began displaying a simulation of the procedure. The concentric rings contracted, forming a funnel that started dragging mass from the star’s gravity well and streamed it directly into the black hole.

“Once we’ve completed the necessary work, we can start feeding part of the supergiant into the black hole to provide the required energy, as well as saturate the singularity with sufficient mass for creating the fissure.”

In the simulation two blue torpedoes launched towards the black hole, passing its event horizon just a few kilometers apart. A split second later the event horizon began to ripple, and a fissure began to form just above the dark membrane.

“After the saturation has reached the required level, we will then detonate two spatial charges similar in design to your quantum torpedoes beneath the event horizon. Bursting the multidimensional membrane of the charges inside the black hole will create a subspace distortion that will coerce local spacetime into the required shape and generate a fissure.”

Visra stared at the simulation in awe, but eventually gathered her courage to voice her thoughts. “This is insane! You’re feeding a star into a black hole just to send our message?!”

“Across the quantum barrier.” Chiaxi confirmed with a sly smirk.

“But… why?” The Alusi scientist stared at the Matriarch, confused about all the Herculean efforts they were going through.

“Yes, why?” Sina asked, equally awestruck after she realized what was happening here. “It’s not that we don’t appreciate the effort, we really do. But all this just for us? There are probably millions of your people working out there. All the resources…”

“Two billion 467 million 391 thousand and twelve, to be precise.” Chiaxi stated matter of fact. “And the answer to your question has two simple components. First, I promised we would work on a way to send you back home. I’m a woman of my word, I always keep my promises, and this is but the initial step.”

The Matriarch walked up right to Sina, gazed deep into her eyes, and added with a teasing grin. “And second, I’m particularly curious about your Federation. I want to learn more about them, I want to meet them. And that would be a tad difficult if we couldn’t even communicate with them, wouldn’t it? So, as you can see, this endeavor actually serves our both interests equally.”

Sina swallowed, just beginning to realize the amount of power and resources the woman in front of her really commanded. Being able to kick off a stellar engineering project of this magnitude on a whim and seeing it to completion in a matter of months was incredible and utterly intimidating at the same time. What the Synergy was doing here was far beyond the Federation’s wildest imagination, let alone capabilities.

“Ensign Arsiv, please feel free to review whatever data you require of the simulation. Of course, you as well, Commander. [email protected] here will assist you with any inquiries you have.” The Matriarch exclaimed, gently putting her hands on the shoulders of a Ferengi who had entered the control room, wearing a simple and formfitting light gray tunic.

“Sadly, I can’t stay and enjoy discussing the topic with you in person. My duties often allow me only a bit of teasing but force me to leave the real fun to others. You are free to remain here however long you wish. We will contact you when our preparations are complete. Take care!” [email protected] added with a smile, before vanishing in the dark maw and bright flash of a dimensional shift.

[ Act Two ]

“Mmm… these are delicious.” Nadya managed to get out in between bites on the deep-fried food Muuri had replicated for their afternoon break in the laboratory. “What are they?”

“Heh, glad you like it. It’s something my darling wife found in old family records. Apparently, it was a very popular snack in the 21st century. They called it ‘deep fried Mars bars,’ but I really don’t know what Mars has do to with it. The recipe dates to far before the first Martian colony.” The elderly Caitian explained before finishing his own piece.

“Most curious. They are so… mmm…” The Russian was searching for words while licking her fingers clean. “…thick and sweet. It’s just as bad as a Ktarian chocolate puff. A full plate of these and you would need to roll me back to my quarters. Please don’t tell Shannara I had these without her!”

The scientist laughed and then whispered. “Don’t worry, Ms. Lebedeva, my lips are sealed!”

A terminal behind Nadya chirped and beeped, and the engineer put the plate with the remaining two deep fried chocolate bars aside. She turned her chair around to face the console and quickly checked the display but let out a disappointed sigh when she saw the calculation’s result. “It didn’t work.”

Muuri rolled next to Nadya on his own chair to also look at the screen. As he was parsing the computer’s output, he slowly stroked his chin and whiskers. “Hmmm… it seems there’s a fluctuation in the three-sigma subspace domain. Can you double check if we somehow missed to isolate the Bahrens vector field?”

“On it, professor.” The Russian woman replied, her fingers already flying across the terminal to check the calculation input. While Nadya was busy checking the formula, a chirp sounded across the lab quickly followed by an audio call.

“Bridge to science lab three.”

The Lieutenant Commander promptly replied. “Lebedeva here.”

“Sir, we’ve got an incoming message from Starfleet Academy for professor Van der Meer, redirected via Fleet Ops and again via SCE.”

Nadya quirked a brow at the scientist and the elderly Caitian simply smirked back. “I think I know who it is. Can I take the call here?”

“Yes, professor. Bridge, can you put the call through to a terminal in the lab?”

“Call transferred. Bridge out.” The channel had barely closed when a nearby console lighted up and showed the logo of Starfleet Academy while negotiating the encryption protocol for the incoming transmission’s actual data stream.

A few moments later the screen changed, and the logo was replaced with the face of an old Asian woman. She wore the uniform of a Starfleet Academy instructor and her face was framed by streaks of long black hair interspersed with gray streaks. “Muuri Van der Meer! Damn sly old cat. Why was I not surprised to hear that you immediately took off after this new research?”

“Ah, professor Ishikawa, I’m so glad to see-”

“Don’t you professor Ishikawa me, Muuri.” The woman immediately replied with a stern gaze in her eyes but a wry grin on her lips. “How could you not tell me about this? Just because I’m a teacher doesn’t mean I don’t want to be in on the new hot stuff you’re always chasing! And then you send me this message that’s only a tiny fraction of the formula, just to keep teasing me!”

“Oh, come on, Usagi, please don’t be mad.”

“I’m not mad, Muuri. I want in on whatever you’re doing where… where are you, anyway?”

“Oh, well, I’m on board the Enterprise, actually.” He replied with a clearly audible sense of pride in his voice.

Nadya stayed in the background, well outside the terminal’s field of view, and furrowed her brows as she listened to the continuing dialog, wondering what the hell was going on between those two. But she remembered the woman’s name. Professor Ishikawa, teaching Advanced Subspace Mechanics at San Francisco’s Starfleet Academy campus.

Professor Ishikawa’s eyes grew even wider before she started laughing. “Now would you look at that. Old Muuri is going on an adventure. How did you manage to pull that off?”

“Well, Ms. Lebedeva had this experiment and Mr. K’Torr wanted to make sure it would work before investing a lot of the ship’s resources, so they asked me for help.” The Caitian chuckled and smirked. “And after I explained to my dear wife that the Federation’s flagship needed my help and she allowed me to go, I went off with them.”

“And who are those two?” Usagi inquired with a slight squint in her eyes, probably expecting Muuri to play a prank on her.

“Oh, of course. The chief engineer and the Captain of the Enterprise.” It was then that professor Van der Meer suddenly started waving his arms and reached out for Nadya. “Come, come. Please, don’t be afraid. She won’t bite… much.”

“Muuri!”

The Caitian laughed as he finally managed to get Nadya to show herself with a slightly embarrassed expression on her face. “Good day, professor. I’m Lieutenant Commander Lebedeva. Professor Van der Meer is assisting me with the experiment he mentioned. I couldn’t help but listen to your… uhm… very interesting conversation. I assume you know each other?”

“Oh, that’s an understatement, Lieutenant Commander. We were dating back in the 2350s. It didn’t quite work out for multiple reasons, but we’ve stayed in touch and ever since Muuri and me have been trying to one-up each other in our work. And now he’s teasing me about this supposedly top-secret groundbreaking experiment he’s working on without telling me any of the details.”

The Russian woman glanced at the professor next to her, who looked as if he was about to burst into laughter. “I… I think I understand. Well, while the experiment may be groundbreaking, if it works at all, it is certainly not top-secret. I don’t know what else professor Van der Meer told you, but I can further assure you that Starfleet Intelligence is also not involved.”

“Is that so?” The Asian scientist asked, casting an accusatory glance at her colleague.

“Well… maybe…” Muuri admitted, still grinning broadly.

“So, Lieutenant Commander, what is this experiment about then, if I may ask? The fragment my esteemed colleague transmitted indicated you’re working on breaking the quantum barrier, but I couldn’t make much sense of it without the rest of the formula.”

Nadya nodded. “Yes. I’m investigating the disappearance of the Sidereal and think I have found a way to find her.”

“The Sidereal? I’ve read the SIS report back then… there was nothing these poor souls could have done to save themselves. Quantum fissures are inherently unpredictable, so I’m really curious what you’re up to.” Usagi replied with a suddenly much more somber and sincere expression on her face.

“Lieutenant Yamamoto, the Newton’s science officer who first investigated the incident, created a specialized simulation framework for the fissure, but it didn’t yield any substantial proof of the ship’s fate. I requested his data and kept working on it, extending the framework and the calculations.” The chief engineer explained to the professor. “Now I’m certain that I’ve found a way to calculate the subspace tensor describing that quantum fissure, as well as the displacement signature to which the Sidereal and her crew were translocated.”

“I see. And the fragment Muuri sent me…” Usagi concluded.

“…was probably a part of that framework.” Nadya finished the sentence. “I did some… questionable things to pursue this experiment and when I got caught, Captain K’Torr insistent on bringing in external researchers on the topic since we don’t have the people to validate if my work is indeed correct.”

“And that’s how good old Muuri got onto your ship.” Professor Ishikawa laughed, turning her attention to her fellow scientist. “Oh wow, this is both hilarious and amazing at the same time. I’d have never expected you to get that adventurous on your old days, Muuri. I think I can already congratulate you; it will be basically impossible for me to one-up this.”

“It’s been an honor to have this challenge with you, Usagi.” Professor Van der Meer replied, beaming with pride at hearing his colleague admitting defeat. “But since you’re already here now… why don’t you look at the data as well? You know, six eyes are better than four and such.”

“I assume I could take a look if I had the full data set.” Professor Ishikawa replied. “I don’t know how much time exactly I’ll be able to spare, but I’m always willing to help out fellow scientists. Especially since it’s such an… important topic. Do you really think you can find the Sidereal after all that time?”

“Absolutely.” Nadya responded with utmost confidence. “Once we have the tensor and signature, we’ll be able to generate sensor echoes with a subspace differential pulse, and thus see what happened on the ‘other side’ of the fissure.”

“Hmmm… interesting idea. That could work, if you ever find a way to get around LaPointe, that is.”

“I think I already know how to bypass LaPointe’s principle. We phase the differential pulse to match the inverse of the signature. Instead of using non-associated matter to observe the other quantum reality and thus run into LaPointe, we excite the barrier to mirror events from the other quantum reality onto our spacetime, where we can simply pick them up with our normal sensors.” The engineer explained, curious what the professor would think of the suggestion.

Usagi looked at Nadya with furrowed brows, visibly thinking hard about the Russian woman’s idea. “That’s… that’s ingenious! It can work. You’ll need significantly more energy for the pulse, but it can work. How did you get that idea, Lieutenant Commander?”

“Actually, my significant other suggested it. Well, not literally of course. We were talking about how we would plan our future and she said that sometimes the mountain must come to the prophet instead of the other way around. We weren’t talking about the experiment at all, but the next morning when I remembered our conversation, I suddenly had the idea.”

“Well, please extend my congratulations to your SO for being such an inspiring muse. Let me guess, the prophet is non-associated matter and the mountain is information from across a quantum barrier?” Professor Ishikawa inquired.

Nadya nodded. “Exactly. That’s what got me searching for a way to bring the information to us, instead of having to go to the information. And after running some smaller scale simulations I discovered the phase inversion relationship between the subspace differential pulse and the local spacetime a couple days later.”

“That’s incredible! If Muuri hasn’t yet told you so, I will. You must write a paper about this. Please, promise me to publish a paper once your experiment is done.”

Nadya blushed a little. “I will. I don’t know when I can get the time for it, but I will write a paper. I’ll probably need some help with it since I’m not used to formal scientific writing, but I promise I’ll not forget.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant Commander. It would be a real shame if your work got lost in the red tape of Starfleet bureaucracy. You could inspire a whole new generation of quantum research with that inversion discovery alone! If you-” Professor Ishikawa was interrupted by a bell sounding in the background. She looked away from her terminal for a moment, then let out a sigh.

“I’m sorry but I have to go. The next bunch of students is waiting for me to crush their dreams of understanding subspace mechanics.” The Asian scientist let out a teasing laugh. “But please, send me your data and I’ll give it a shot. And Muuri… I’ll personally come and kick your butt if you don’t help the Lieutenant Commander as best as you can.”

“Don’t worry, Usagi. I’ll do my best.” Professor Van der Meer reassured his colleague.

Professor Ishikawa smiled and winked before the channel closed, returning the display briefly to the logo of Starfleet Academy and then fading to black after a few seconds.

“Now that was… interesting.” Nadya commented as she looked at the professor.

“Well, what can I say?” Muuri replied. “I had a wild youth.”

“Ha, I have absolutely no doubt about that, professor.” The engineer remarked, a smirk on her lips. “So, how many other people already know about our work here?”

“Oh, I only told Usagi. Really, I promise! And only because I trust her. Our little friendly rivalry has been going on for over half a century. We’ve been teasing each other on and off for just as long. I consider her one of my closest friends. She’d never do anything to harm you.”

“I’m not worried about me.” Nadya sighed, resting her head on her crossed arms on the terminal in front of her. “What if it doesn’t work? What if I’m wrong? What if the families of the lost crew hear we were working on a way to find their loved ones and then it just doesn’t work? How much pain would that disappointment cause? I can deal with it… but it’s not for us to force others to go through that pain again.”

Muuri looked at the Lieutenant Commander with a sad expression on his face and gently put his hand on her shoulder. “I know, Ms. Lebedeva. I know exactly what you mean. I… we had a son on the USS Everest. We had to wait twelve years before we had definite proof for his death. Every couple of years rumors would spring up that some of the crew had survived. That they were stranded somewhere, or had been taken by Orions, or something like that. And every time it was that pain all over again.”

He let out a sigh. “But you know what? At least for me, the tiny sliver of hope that my dear Hirro could still be alive was worth the pain. I would have gladly taken all that pain onto myself to get my son back. I know I’m only speaking for myself, but our work could show those families that we haven’t given up on their parents, their siblings, their children. You were betting your career on it, which clearly shows me you’re not trying to deceive anyone or cause harm.”

Nadya stopped leaning onto the console and looked at the professor as he continued.

“Despite all our knowledge and all our technology, we’re still flawed. All we can do is try and give our best. Sometimes it’s enough, sometimes it isn’t. But that doesn’t mean we meant to do harm. And if we hadn’t tried at all, there would never have been any hope to start with. Therefore, in my very humble opinion, I think those families will be glad for what we’re doing here, whether or not we succeed.”

The Russian engineer’s lips curled up in a soft smile. “Thank you, professor. And my condolences, I didn’t know about your son…”

“Don’t worry about it, Ms. Lebedeva. I’ve accepted a long time ago that the universe is sometimes a terrible and merciless place. I’m keeping Hirro’s memory alive by being a silly old cat that refuses to ever succumb to despair and rather keeps working on making the galaxy a better place against all odds. Speaking of which… have you checked on the Bahrens vector field?”

[ Act Three ]

Niko stood in front of Sina’s quarters, his finger hovering over the bell button. The last couple weeks had been difficult and relaxed at the same time for him. Relaxed, since there was little to do. No accidents, no problems, just cruising through the galaxy and discovering even more mind-boggling Synergy engineering. Difficult, because with every passing day he knew they’d inch closer to the uplink procedure.

He’d kept a close eye on his captain. While she did her best to stay as calm and collected as the crew had gotten used to, he could clearly see the signs of nervousness written all over her. And he couldn’t fault her. He’d never subscribe to having even a temporary implant put in his brain and his mind connected to that shared consciousness. Still he promised his support and thus had answered her call.

Niko pressed the button. After a short moment the door slid open and allowed him into the captain’s quarters. He was immediately greeted by loudly playing music and a powerful deep male voice blasting across the quarters. As he stepped inside the gloomy room, he saw Sina sitting on her desk, still wearing her service uniform despite being off duty for over two hours already.

“Open up your mind, let your fantasies unwind.

In this darkness that you know you cannot fight…”

Sina grinned at him and waved him closer. Niko walked towards her desk, returning a slightly confused look.

“The darkness of the music of the night.”

The Romulan placed her finger on her lips, indicating to him he should keep listening.

“Let your mind start a journey through a strange new world.

Leave all thoughts of the life you knew before.”

The XO quirked a brow at her and crossed his arms in front of his chest but remained silent to listen to the lyrics.

“Let your soul take you where you long to be!

Only then can you belong to me.”

Sina pressed a button on the terminal next to her. The music stopped with a soft chirp and the room returned to the normal brightness.

“I know you well enough to be able to say that this isn’t what you usually listen to.” Niko said with a grin on his lips. “Not enough drums and e-guitars. Didn’t know you had a thing for late 20th century musicals.”

Sina dropped from the desk and shrugged, standing in front of her first officer with a wry smile on her lips. “I don’t. I just had a list of things I wanted to listen to, but never got around to do.”

“And that’s why you start Phantom of the Opera in a dimly lit room a few weeks before a risky procedure that all your officers recommend not doing? I’m not the counselor here, but that sounds like an excuse to be depressed to me.”

“But it’s not depressing. Why would you say that?”

The Lieutenant Commander dropped his arms and slowly walked in a small circle. “Well, if you ask me like that… the story is about a genius turned to madness. The Phantom thinks the ends justify the means and he resorts to blackmail, abduction, and even murder to get what he wants. In his delusion of grandeur, he even thinks he can force true love this way. It’s depressing because for all his genius, for all his talent and intellect, the Phantom never realized that he could have had all he ever wanted if he only had conducted himself a bit differently.”

“Hmmm… well that interpretation of course is depressing.” Sina replied, slightly tilting her head at the XO.

“And how would you interpret the musical?” Niko asked.

“I see it as an inspiring tale of a human that’s been shunned and hurt by society. But instead of becoming a petty thug or robber, he turns to art and creates amazing works of opera that thousands of people enjoy. He’s able to live a relatively happy life, even working on a romance, when society tries to hurt him again and take away all he worked for because they don’t understand him. It was only in his despair, backed up against the wall with nowhere to run, when the Phantom turned to violence in defense of himself and the life he had built.”

“Hmmm…” Niko stroked his chin. “But that’s no excuse for assault or murder. No matter how hard his childhood was, he became a criminal the moment he broke the laws and conducted those crimes.”

“So, people hurt by society have no right to build a life for themselves and defend it? They should just accept whatever misery their fellow men throw at them, even if all they want is to be left alone?”

The first officer let out a deep sigh and chuckled. “You know this is getting complicated rather quickly? But to answer your question, I really think that both parties are at fault in that story. Both the Phantom and the society that created him are to blame for what happened. With a bit more understanding and willingness to compromise most of the tragedy in that story could have been avoided. Much to the detriment of musical fans on Earth 400 years ago, of course.”

Sina smiled at her colleague. “I think we can agree on that.”

“Then there’s only one question remaining.” Niko posed.

She quirked a brow. “Oh, which would be?”

“Who of us two is the Phantom and who is Christine?” He remarked mysteriously, raising his left arm to hide his face.

The Commander smirked at her XO. “Of course, I’m the Phantom, the mysterious and calculating figure in the shadows pulling all the strings. And you’re the naive and innocent junior member of the ensemble.”

Niko let out a hearty laughter. “You wish!”

“I can certainly imagine you in a ball dress. We might have to work a little on your voice, though…” Sina teased with a big grin on her face.

The Human officer feigned indignation. “Huh, is that so? Well then, better be careful lest I run of with someone else.”

“Aw, we both know you never would.” The CO quipped and playfully poked Niko’s shoulder.

“I’m really that predictable, aren’t I?” He asked, chuckling at her enthusiastic nodding. Still, after a long moment of just looking at each other, he eventually let out a sigh. “How are you doing, Sina?”

“I’m doing fine. I had my last session with Jeffrey today. Can you imagine that he really made me log a formal complaint for every single session he had to use the mind probe?” She asked while walking over to the couch and dropping down on the two-seater.

“Yes, that sounds exactly like our Jeffrey. And what a wonderful piece of malicious compliance right there.” Niko followed Sina and sat next to her. “Off the record, I’d have probably done the same in his place. I know we talked a lot about this topic, but this whole thing is still completely crazy. But I learned quite some time ago that once you got an idea lodged in that thick skull of yours there’s no taking it out.”

“I know, Niko. If it works, we’ll be better friends with the Synergy and avoid much unnecessary trouble in the future. If it doesn’t work, at least we can say we tried to advance our diplomatic relationship. And if it goes wrong… well, then you get to play captain for a while and take the crew home.”

“You know I was joking when I said I wanted your chair two years ago?” He remarked, trying to ease the doom and gloom mood that suddenly seemed to hang over the room.

Sina chuckled. “Don’t you think I’ll give up my seat that easily. I fully intend to remain myself and stay in command after the uplink.”

“I expect nothing less from you. If you dare to die on us, I’ll personally find the nearest Q and kick your ass in whatever version of an afterlife they’d conjure up for us.” Niko immediately replied.

Sina laughed at her XO’s ridiculous promise. “I think we’ve now clarified all personal vendettas in case of unexpected death, so I guess we can move on to the formalities.”

The Lieutenant Commander let out a deep sigh, his expression turning serious in an instant. “Sure. I’m ready.”

The Romulan nodded. “Computer, elevate command privileges of Lieutenant Commander Niko Heisenberg to my own clearance level. Authorization: Commander Sina Phaio Gallagher-D’raxis, Psi-One-Two-Zeta-Nine.”

The computer acknowledged the order with a soft chirp and a moment later reported the successful operation. “Lieutenant Commander Niko Heisenberg is now clearance level ten.”

“Now that was easy.” Niko quipped.

Sina teasingly looked at him and responded. “You won’t say that once I’m done telling you a few secrets that come with level ten.”

“Really? Okay, come at me. Give me the biggest hit right away.” The XO challenged his captain.

“Well, you literally asked for it. But first a warning, Lieutenant Commander. Everything I’m telling you now will never leave this room, understood? All the following information is based on a need-to-know basis and I’m only telling you about it in case something goes really wrong during the uplink.” She looked her friend right in the eyes, her no-nonsense expression clearly indicating that she’s speaking business.

The Human officer nodded. “I understand, captain.”

“Then let’s start with Omega. You know, the things the Synergy uses in their reactor cores? The Federation knows about that substance and has a top-secret standing order to destroy it at any cost whenever encountered. If necessary, both the Prime Directive and Temporal Prime Directive are to be suspended to achieve that goal.”

“Wait, what?” Niko stared at Sina, still processing her words. “What do you mean, destroy it at any cost? Why?”

“Because blowing up a sufficient number of Omega molecules could destroy subspace across a whole quadrant. It’s a civilization ending event that would make warp drive and superluminal communication impossible. Ever heard of the subspace anomaly in the Lantaru sector, which everyone is being told was a natural phenomenon? It’s actually the result of a failed Federation experiment. A single Omega molecule blew up, killed over 120 scientists, and destroyed subspace across seven light-years.”

The XO squinted at the Commander. “Holy crap! So, you mean that technically we should…”

“Yep, exactly. We’re now carrying one around in main engineering as well, as is every single Synergy vessel that we have ever seen and that we will ever see. No, wait. Actually, spheres carry two of them and cubes have four.”

“But how…? Why are they…? Have you talked with Tarik about it?” Niko was trying to sort his thoughts.

Sina giggled at her confused first officer. “Calm down, we’re obviously not trying to destroy every Omega molecule we find around here. Yes, I tried to poke Tarik about the topic without giving my position away. From what he told me it seems that the Synergy developed a way to greatly reduce the risk of handling Omega molecules, as well as build their OSR designs specifically that even in an uncontrolled explosion the subspace damage is only temporary.”

“And they think matter-antimatter reactors were too dangerous?!” He exclaimed, shaking his head.

“Yes, that irony isn’t lost on me either.” The Romulan replied. “Next topic: the Jenolan Dyson sphere. Discovered by the Enterprise-D at stardate 46125.3. Do you remember Captain Scott’s ingenious way to rig the transporter system in order to survive? Good. There’s something else about the sphere that far fewer people know. It’s related to the Iconians. Several different Federation research teams independently found and validated gateway technology inside the sphere.”

“Iconians?” Niko inquired with a raised brow.

“Yes. Either the sphere was built by Iconians or the Iconians got their tech from whoever built the sphere. Anyway, all sphere related research was classified after Doctor McCallum’s expedition in 2399 found some kind of ‘jump-drive’ built on gateway technology that apparently can move the whole sphere, including the central star and anything else inside.”

“You’re kidding, right? How could you move a whole star and possibly thousands of ships?”

“You misspoke there, you probably meant billions of ships. Anyway, we don’t know. We don’t understand the Iconian gateway technology and that jump-drive is even more advanced. Oh, of course we have no idea how that whole thing is controlled or even powered, because the star’s current output is not enough for the systems to operate. There’s a few orders of magnitude missing.” The Commander added, silently enjoying seeing Niko trying to make sense of what she was telling him.

“Can I go back to being naive and innocent?” The XO inquired, only half joking.

Sina put a wry grin on her lips. “Oh, the best ones are still to come! For example, does Sagittarius A* ring a bell?”

“Sure. That’s the super-massive black hole in the center of the Milky Way. What about it? Are you going to tell me it’s actually an egg or something?” Niko replied.

She cast a knowing gaze at her first officer before she continued. “In 2387 three long-range warp-probes were launched to take a closer look at our galactic core with modern sensors. Two decades later all three probes reported back independently from each other and without a doubt that A* is slightly wobbling and pulsating in subspace. The event horizon we can see is just a shell for something beneath it. And that something is moving independently from the shell, which creates the wobbling.”

The first officer went pale and his neck hairs began to stand on end. “You… you’re pulling my leg?”

“No, I’m not. The probes’ results were classified once it became apparent that A* does not behave like any known natural singularity, gravity or otherwise. The data more closely resembles what a theoretical dark matter singularity would look like, but according to our understanding it’s impossible for such a singularity to form naturally. There are currently two top-secret long-range research missions working on figuring out what’s wrong with A*, but so far there’s been no results.”

Niko swallowed hard and rubbed his arms, trying to chase away his goosebumps. “You know, I never expected a captain’s clearance level to come with a personal dose of cosmic horror.”

“Neither did I.” Sina laughed. “I vividly remember having this exact conversation with Admiral Okoye before taking over the Sidereal. Just as a heads-up: I did need a few days to get back to a normal sleep cycle.”

“So, how many other topics are there that will shatter my nice and tidy worldview some more?” Her XO asked, not sounding as jolly anymore as a few minutes ago.

“Well, the list I’m aware of has a total of seven entries. Which brings me to number four: Nagilum. First encountered by the Enterprise-D at stardate 42193.6, in subsequent years it became obvious that it wasn’t a single specimen but rather a whole group of at least four different individuals. The most violent encounter was at stardate 66974.3 with the USS Senegal, where…”

[ Act Four ]

Sina stood in sickbay, looking at the two prepared biobeds in front of her. Co-Yor had reconfigured the sickbay’s internal sensors as well as prepared several medical tricorders to record every tiny detail of what would be happening in the next few minutes. He stood between the beds, the ship’s EMH next to him, both patiently waiting for the procedure to start. Niko and Jeffrey were standing a bit further away, curiously observing the scene.

Tarik was standing next to her, holding the external transceiver in his hand. The Commander glanced at the small metallic device, quirking a brow. Suddenly it didn’t seem so simple anymore but there was no going back now. She breathed deeply. “Okay… let’s do this.”

The CMO gestured towards the bed on his right. Sina hopped onto the surface and laid down, her head resting on a pillow next to more medical scanners than she’d ever seen piled up in a single place. Tarik moved to the other side of her bed, standing opposite of Co-Yor who carefully followed all his movements.

The engineer activated the device in his hand to demonstrate what will happen. Immediately hundreds of millions of holographic filaments sprang forth, shaping themselves into a resemblance of a spinal cord. “This is the holographic network of connectors that will interface with your nervous systems. They are well below cellular size and will not leave any permanent damage. No hardware or energy will remain once the device is disconnected again.”

[email protected] switched the transceiver off and the connectors disappeared in an instant. “The process is completely pain free. You will not feel anything during activation. May I attach the device now?”

Sina swallowed and nodded, taking a deep breath. “Yes.”

She felt a soft pressure at the side of her neck where Tarik placed the device. “It’s cool.” She gasped at the sensation, noticing curiously that the disk stayed in place by itself.

“That’s normal.” Tarik explained softly before turning to Co-Yor. “Doctor, I’ve interfaced the wall terminal with the transceiver. You can activate it when you’re ready.”

“Thank you. Please proceed to your biobed now.” The Kalonar replied in his deep resounding voice, checking the readouts on the screens behind him as well as the terminal interface. The EMH guided Tarik and a few seconds later he was rested on the other bed, his head just as surrounded by medical scanners as Sina’s was.

Both patients were in place, all scanners and sensors were ready. Co-Yor and the EMH double checked all readouts and monitors. Finally, the Sidereal’s chief medical officer turned to his CO. “We are ready, captain. I can activate the transceiver on your order.”

Sina smiled weakly at Niko in the distance, giving him a thumbs up with one hand, then turned her eyes to Co-Yor. “Do it.”

The Kalonar simply nodded and pressed the button on the terminal. A split second later Sina was out cold. Her life signs were strong and stable, and the detached monitors above her biobed showed a colorful scan of the holographic filaments saturating her spinal cord and brain stem.

Sina blinked for a moment, not quite understanding what had happened and how she got here. She looked around, but there was only darkness around her. After a moment she noticed that she wasn’t wearing her uniform anymore, but a long pure white flowing dress inscribed with… Romulan glyphs? She took a few steps, intrigued by the impossibly fine material swaying with her every motion, when she noticed that something was following her. Despite the darkness, she saw a shadow falling across her. A dim blue and green twilight coming from far above, but she couldn’t make out what it was.

“Hello? Is anyone there?” Sina called out. There was no echo. She pressed her lips together, getting a bit uneasy. Had the uplink failed? She certainly hadn’t imagined the hive-mind as a nondescript hall of darkness.

Suddenly there was a voice behind her. “I’m here, Sina. No worries, everything’s fine.”

She quickly turned to face Tarik. He was wearing a gray robe instead of his typical engineering attire, but there was something else about him that was different. His eye. His left eye wasn’t blind, but the same rich dark green as his right one. He generally looked younger, more vigorous. His face looked less worn and his hair and beard were rich in color and not spotted with patches of gray.

Sina smiled. “You look good.”

“Thanks, you also look amazing. I like the shadows.” He replied with a gentle smile.

She looked to the floor, still unable to make out where the blue and green twilight came from. “Well, I don’t know where they come from. They were just there, just like this dress. By the way, where are we? Is this the hive-mind?”

“They are part of your avatar. We can all decide how we want to appear in the Synergy. Most people simply use their normal physical form, often a little idealized to a certain degree.” He explained, but quickly added with a grin. “Yes, I’m guilty of that as well as you can see. But there’s almost no limit. Some chose to appear as geometric shapes, others as talking animals or figures of myth.”

He continued, his voice carrying a slight harmonic variation. “The hive-mind is part of all of us. It’s where we live and work, or where we rest and escape from reality. It’s where we celebrate and learn, or where we grief and mourn. However, we’re not yet there. Right now, we still inside your mind.”

“Well, I wouldn’t have expected my mind to be this blank.” Sina quipped, again taking a curious look around.

Tarik laughed. “It’s not really your mind. It’s a temporary landscape generated by the transceiver so that we have a place where we could meet while not being uplinked yet. Think of it as a lobby of sorts.”

“Makes sense… I guess.” She commented carefully. “I hope you don’t mind me being a little-”

“Nervous?” He beamed a warm smile at her. “Don’t worry. It’s okay. I’m just as nervous as you are.”

Sina stared. “You? Why would you? For you this probably comes as naturally as breathing. I’m the fish out of the water here.”

“Have you read the description of the uplinking I sent you?” Tarik asked while slowly walking around Sina four steps away.

“Yes.”

“Then you remember the part about two linked minds not being able to have any secrets from one another?”

“Of course. That’s the thing completely creeping me out.”

The engineer chuckled softly. “See, that makes two of us. Once we touch, we will know everything about each other. No secrets, no lies, no masks. Our minds will be laid bare in front of us. You will know things about me that I…” He took a deep breath. “…that I would probably have never told you.”

The Romulan woman looked in Tarik’s face and easily recognized the traces of nervousness and worry. She pressed her lips together, but then shyly smiled. “Well, we’ve made it this far. Guess there’s no sense in turning back now.”

[email protected] laughed. “Just imagine the looks on your officers’ faces when we wake up, they ask how it went, and we both say that we decided otherwise, and the uplink didn’t happen.”

Sina giggled at the suggestion. “Jeffrey would probably have a stroke and Niko will throw the closest tricorder at me after what I put him through the last few weeks. You’re right, the looks on their faces would be absolutely amazing, but I like the whole bunch of them too much to play such a mean prank on them.”

“I also wasn’t serious.” He teased her. “Well, only a little bit. But you’re right, we’ve come this far, so why stop now.”

He breathed deeply and after a moment of contemplation took a step towards Sina, reaching out with both arms towards her. “I will just stand here. Take as much time as you need, I will wait for you. Once you’re ready, just take my hands. The moment we touch the uplink will happen.”

Sina nodded and stared at his hands. This was it, the moment she’d dreaded for the past weeks had finally arrived. She just had to take a few steps and take his hands to have her mask torn away from her eyes. What if he hated her? Things he’d never have told her, his words echoed in her mind. He’d probably laugh at her silly feelings, after all he had already decided to leave.

She took a deep breath and stepped closer, still staring at his hands. A simple touch and all her worries would be taken off her shoulders. Time seemed to both stand still and rush past them at the same time. Sina couldn’t tell whether she was taking seconds or hours to make the move.

Finally, she gathered all her resolve, all her courage. She looked Tarik in the eyes and whispered. “I’m sorry.” Then she took his hands.

The moment her fingers touch his, a cascade of emotions and images came flooding into her consciousness. She instantly realized that the images - no, memories - were Tarik’s. She witnessed countless family celebrations, the day he got is extension socket, his first kiss. She felt the welcoming embrace of his family, heard his father chastise him and his mother congratulate him. She experienced the nervousness of his own uplinking and the nervousness from just a few moments ago. And she felt… attraction.

A gasp escaped her lips as she realized what she was looking at. She witnessed the exact moment they met for the first time, when she was moments away from vaporizing his face. She watched all the work he had done to help her and her crew, and the long hours he had spent with her talking and explaining things about this galaxy. She relived their moment in the astral observatory where Tarik showed her her home. She listened to his own troubled thoughts, how he thought he couldn’t dare asking her out without harming his or her people.

Sina was overwhelmed. Tears of joy and embarrassment ran down her cheeks as she continued to experience Tarik’s whole life up until now in just a few moments as their memories became one. At the same time, she could feel his gaze on her own memories. She felt his empathy when recalling the earliest memories from her troubled childhood as a refugee orphan. She witnessed him chuckle as she punched Cadet T’Kin and broke his nose. She experienced his confusion when he gazed upon her own thoughts after he had told her he’d leave the ship.

[Sina? How do you feel?]

The Romulan jerked her head up and stared right in Tarik’s eyes. She could hear his thoughts, feel his emotions. Their minds were truly one and a wave of concern and sympathy emanated from him and wrapped her in a warm embrace.

[Tarik! I… I think I’m… okay?] She thought, knowing with absolute certainty that he could also heard her. [This is amazing! Is it always like this?]

He knew the intent of her question even without the words being clear. [We’re not always this intimately connected. You can guess it’s a little… distracting if you try to concentrate. But yes, we’re using this way of communication on many occasions.]

Sina blinked the tears out of her eyes. She sniffled softly, an embarrassed laugh escaping her throat as she tried to process the vast amount of memories she’d seen and experienced. [I… I’ve seen so much… so many memories… that was all from you?]

[Yes, all of it. And I’m terribly embarrassed that you’ve seen all the stupid things I’ve done in my past and how convinced I was of them.] Tarik replied with a chuckle.

[And I’m glad you enjoyed watching me punch T’Kin right in his stupid face followed by the dressing down breaking his nose got me.] Sina replied with an impish giggle, quickly replaced by a deep blush on her cheeks as she remembered her rather unconventional socializing on board the USS Hierophant.

[Honestly, that was utterly amazing to witness. But he had it coming. I guess he should be thankful he antagonized you instead of that Nausikaan Cadet in your class.] Tarik replied, casting a knowing glance at her and now also blushing from the memories she had just pointed out to him.

Collecting her thoughts, Sina tried to focus on that attraction she’d felt. [I didn’t know you… how you… you know… felt. About me.]

[I can say the same thing about you. I’ve been quite silly, haven’t I? For all the decades I’ve lived, I’m as stupid as any teenager. The fact that the Matriarch herself had to encourage me… that shame will be my end.]

[Really?] Sina’s eyes started to shine with a gleam of mischief, as she gazed upon Tarik’s memories again. After a moment she had found the conversation. But instead of a silly prank she found much more soul searching than she would have expected from her engineer. [You wanted to leave… because you were afraid?]

[No point denying it now. I was scared I would jeopardize our diplomatic relationship. You were lost and vulnerable. I didn’t want to pressure or exploit you, nor did I want to appear to your crew as a threat to you.] [email protected] let out a deep sigh, still gently holding Sina’s hands with his own. It was now that he realized that he was carefully caressing her skin with his fingers.

[And I thought you didn’t like me. I thought you maybe had someone else waiting for you, or that I was pushing you away with all my stupid questions. Or that I just wasn’t… good enough for you.] The Romulan licked her lips that suddenly felt dry. [Can we agree that we’ve both been idiots?]

Tarik laughed at her question. [I’m up for it. My parents will probably still tease me about the whole situation until the heat death of the universe, but I think I’ll manage.]

[Does that mean that we… you know… can date now?] Sina quipped with a cheerful, hopeful, thought that gave the engineer pause for a moment.

[You’re sincere.] He posted as a statement since he knew it with certainty. After a moment’s notice he nodded, and his lips curled into a happy smile. [Yes, I think so.]

He felt a wave of genuine happiness coming from Sina the moment his thought reached her. And he was sure she could feel his own relief as well, that he was eventually freed from this burden.

[So… is there anything else for us to do here?] Sina carefully inquired.

Tarik grinned at her, finally letting go of her hands to show her that they don’t need to touch any longer. [Oh yes. This was just an introduction. The real uplinking is still ahead of us.]

[ Act Five ]

[Okay? When is it going to happen then?] Sina curiously asked. [And just so that I can at least prepare a little, will it be as overwhelming as our… uh… linking?]

[Don’t worry. The first linking is always the most distressing because it’s such a radically new experience unlike anything that person could have possibly experienced before.] Tarik explained. [What follows now will be… I think one could say fascinating rather than overwhelming.]

Sina nodded, easily understanding what [email protected] meant with his description. She stood next to the engineer, patiently and curiously waiting for the next steps, when she suddenly felt a new presence behind her. This presence was different from Tarik. It was more distanced and much less personal. Instead of an extremely intimate embrace, it was more like a casual handshake. She could still tell that the mind was familiar, though. They had interacted before.

The Commander knew it was Hiora before she finished turning around. But once she laid eyes upon [email protected]’s avatar, she just stared. Instead of a humanoid figure Sina saw a blazing black-blue-white vortex. A fractal geometric shape, ever changing, ever evolving, and continuously flowing upon itself. The Romulan finally managed to eke out a thought. [Hiora?]

[Yes, Commander.] The floating vortex replied. [You seem surprised by my avatar. Didn’t Tarik inform you about non-humanoid appearances?]

Sina shook her head. [Oh, he did. I just hadn’t assumed you’d be a… a vortex?]

The geometric shape nodded. The Romulan couldn’t tell how she knew, but she knew Hiora had nodded. [I understand. No worries, you will encounter a vast selection of different avatars. Maybe one advice, though. No matter how unusual or frightening an avatar may appear, you cannot be harmed by any means inside the hive-mind. Therefore, there is no need for caution or fear.]

And perfectly on point, another presence joined them. A burning crimson-red female figure appeared at their side, easily standing three meters tall, with eyes of molten steel, a build as strong and unyielding as the fiercest volcano, and a long flowing mane of darkest smoke. Sina grinned, since again she knew exactly who that person was. [Sorowa!]

[Welcome to the hive-mind, Commander. I hope you’re enjoying your stay so far?] [email protected] replied, the heat of her avatar’s flaming body radiating off her in waves.

[Well…] She hesitated to answer.

Tarik quickly continued. [Let’s just say that we’ve both been embarrassed to the bones. Which means that so far, it’s completely normal of a first uplink between adults.]

The medical adjunct let out a bellowing laughter that thundered around them.

Now more and more avatars joined them. As with Hiora and Sorowa, Sina always knew perfectly who the individual behind their avatar was. She didn’t remember all their faces, names, or designations, but with the help of Tarik’s memories she managed to put the small group together. It was the crew of Sphere 272-Theta-8 they have had the most interaction and contact with.

Sina stood in the center of an ever-expanding circle of a colorful and sometimes outright crazy collection of avatars. Most people appeared relatively normal, like herself or Tarik. A few were extravagant, like [email protected]’s vortex or [email protected]’s fire giantess.

[I think it’s time to leave the lobby.] Tarik remarked. Everyone around them nodded and an instant later the darkness exploded into a billion shards of light. Once the sparks had faded away, they all stood in the center of a small modern city’s plaza. Sina stared at the sudden change while a gentle breeze brushed against her cheeks and the warmth of sunlight filtered from high above.

She turned around, searching [email protected] in the crowd. [Where are we?]

[We’ve moved to Sphere 272-Theta-8’s central plexus. This is how our ship is visualized in the hive-mind. Of course, not every member of our crew prefers to stay here, but most do. It’s our own little haven.] He turned around with open arms and Sina noticed that there was suddenly a massive crowd around them. Instead of the small group of about fifty avatars, she was surrounded by almost 8,000 of them now. Almost 8,000 names and faces, welcoming thoughts and well wishes embraced her mind. And she could hear them all.

It was again a little less personal than the small group of minds containing Hiora, Sorowa, and the others. Instead of a casual handshake, it resembled a quick pat on the shoulder. Still close, but not particularly intimate. Sina knew without a doubt that if she wanted, she could get as close as to Tarik to pretty much anyone around her. But for now, she decided to keep the count of total embarrassments to one, at least for today.

[This is amazing! Do all your ships and places look like this?]

[No. The appearance of a certain location is generally determined by consensus among the people living there.] Tarik explained. [Some places look like sprawling planet-wide metropolises, while others resemble pre-industrialization hamlets. Some are sunny resorts with extensive beaches, others are dark and gloomy cavern systems.]

Sina turned and looked at the city’s scenery beyond the plaza. It was bright and… cheerful? The buildings were tall, with lots of glass and lots of greenery dispersed in various balconies and terraces. The sky was blue and clear, only a smattering of thin white clouds above, and the air was clean and fresh, just as cool as the breeze from moments ago.

[This is incredible. And you’re all here? Always?]

Tarik stood next to her again. [No, not always. You see, the Synergy is so vast that we can’t yet afford the privilege of living on a restored planet, or a modernized ship or station, for everyone. There are still tens of thousands of worlds suffering greatly from assimilation and even more old ships that are still queued for upgrading to more favorable living conditions.]

A quick flash of memories lighted up in their unified mind. Sina could see what Tarik meant. Images of dead worlds with darkened skies, polluted by industry and Borg technology. Depressing ships with tight black and brown corridors, illuminated by eerie green lights.

[Most people from those places live permanently in the hive-mind. Here their minds can have a good environment, fresh air and clear skies. Here they can contribute to our society without suffering. Several of our most renowned artists and scientists have never left the hive-mind. You know we’re working hard on undoing the damage caused by our ancestors, but we think it will take at least another 2,000 years before more than ninety percent of all worlds and ships have been made more comfortable and livable again.]

Sina nodded silently. [I understand. But how do they… eat? And meet other people? What about their bodies?]

[email protected] quirked a brow. [Eat? Well, here we can eat whatever we desire, but our bodies in the actual world regenerate in alcoves. For us it’s the best of both worlds. The bodily process itself is clean and efficient, but the mind can have all the decadence and luxury it desires. And nobody must be alone, many meet to have ‘meals’ together.]

[As for your other questions, I think that will be more uncomfortable for you. When we’re in here, we can allow others to take over our bodies for work or other activities. I think you remember…]

The Romulan sighed and her head dropped. She did remember. [Karimo.] A flash of memories came to her thoughts and she witnessed the events of that day from Tarik’s perspective. [I’m so sorry…]

[We were all victims of the circumstances. Don’t worry about it. There was nothing else any of us could have done.] He let out a soft sigh. [I hope you can understand that it is this remote control that enables most of the Synergy to work. By taking over other bodies we can project knowledge and abilities from the hive-mind to any place in our empire in an instant. It’s never forced, only requested and granted voluntarily.]

[And the people who never leave the hive-mind…] Sina inquired, her thoughts already conveying her conclusion.

The engineer nodded. [Yes. Most of them have granted permanent permission to use their physical bodies. If the duty is not dangerous or life-threatening, most really don’t care that their body is cleaning plasma conduits or working on de-assimilating a dead planet.]

[It’s… certainly interesting but also utterly horrifying. The thought that someone could jump into your body and do whatever they want with it and to it…] A tiny shiver raced down her spine. [But it seems to work well enough for you.]

He nodded. [Yes. But we must move on now. There’s more for you to see.] He offered his hand to her. The moment she took it the city plaza exploded into a shower of shards and gleaming fragments. Once the light faded, they stood alone again in darkness.

[Where are we now? Back in the transceiver?]

[No. Look above.] Tarik smiled and pointed his hand up.

As Sina raised her gaze she saw an impossibly intricate galaxy full of stars above her, casting a colorful shimmer high above them. While looking at the image she noticed something strange. The stars were moving, some rapidly and others barely noticeably. She quirked her brow and turned to her companion. [What is that? It’s not the Milky Way.]

[You’re right, it isn’t. At least not how you’d expect to see it. This is the Synergy. Every light you see is one of our people.]

The Commander’s eyes went wide as listened to Tarik’s words.

[You can see everything from here, every ship, every station, every planet. Every single member of the Synergy. All of us, coming together one by one to create a wonderful whole. And if you close your eyes and listen, you’ll also hear them.]

Sina closed her eyes and focused her thoughts. A gasp escaped her lips, because [email protected] was right. She could hear them. At first it was merely a faint murmur, like a deep, slowly rolling thunder in the distance. But as she focused on one of the moving groups of stars the murmur cleared up and she could hear a choir of tens of thousands of voices speaking in perfect harmony. Cube 711-Kappa-13, in transit to deliver medical supplies to a neutral planet. Sina turned to a different cluster. Prism 10-Praxis-12, approaching a stellar anomaly for research.

She could hear them all. But the most amazing thing was that even though she was gazing upon untold thousands of trillions of minds, her consciousness wasn’t crushed under their weight. She remained in control about how close she wanted to get and the closer she got the louder and clearer the voices became. If she withdrew to a greater distance she could see more of the whole hive-mind, but it lost some of its details. And when standing as far away as she and Tarik had done initially, all that remained was a beautiful display of union and harmony.

Sina opened her eyes again and looked at Tarik, a joyous smile on her lips. [This is incredible! Thank you for showing me all of this.] Without hesitation or shame she threw her arms around his shoulders and hugged him tightly, pressing her body against his. He gently returned the gesture and embraced her as well.

After a long moment she reluctantly pulled away again and took a deep breath. [I’ll probably not remember everything once I wake up, but I think I’ll be able to much better understand the Synergy now. I could have never imagined what being a part of you was like. And why you do the things you do the way you do. Thank you, Tarik.]

Tarik smiled at the Commander. [You’re welcome. But before we leave, there’s one more person who wants to meet you.]

He had barely finished when Sina felt it. There was a new presence, but she couldn’t tell where it was. It seemed to encompass everything around them, the ground beneath their feet and the galaxy far above their heads. Sina turned around, trying to figure out where that presence came from, when her gaze happened upon three blue stars in the darkness. They were quickly coming closer.

After a few moments the three blue stars turned to cybernetic eyes and the face of a dragon appeared around them. The creature was easily as large as a Defiant class, covered in enormous deep purple and orange scales that shimmered in the light of the galaxy above. Its head was adorned with a crown of over a dozen metal horns and its vast powerful wings swiftly carried it closer. Finally, the dragon landed on its four massive feet in front of Sina and Tarik.

[Welcome, Sina.] The creature’s strangely melodic voice echoed around them.

The Romulan stared once the revelation hit her. [Matriarch Chiaxi?]

The dragon nodded and smirked. [Yes. I hope my avatar is not too intimidating.]

[No, no… it’s… it’s just very impressive. And beautiful.] Sina replied, staring at the majestic beast in awe.

[Did you enjoy your visit to the hive-mind?] The Matriarch inquired with a tender smile on her draconic face.

[Of course! It was amazing.] The Commander answered, her thoughts bubbling forth like a fresh spring and eagerly sharing what she had experienced. [There was so much that Tarik showed me. I would have never expected it to be like this. Thank you for allowing it to happen.]

The dragon smiled warmly at Sina and lowered her head, speaking to the Romulan face to face. Her blue eyes burning brightly like stars. [I’m glad you enjoyed being here. I hope this can be the first step towards a closer understanding between our worlds. If you or any of your crew want to visit us again, please consider yourself invited. You are free to return whenever you wish.]

[As do I, Matriarch. And thank you for the invitation. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to make the preparations again, but I would be happy to return.]

The dragon cast a glance at Tarik and grinned. [Just like someone else.]

Tarik blushed to a deep shade of red and cleared his throat, which elicited a deep chuckle from his empress. [You know I’m just teasing you, Tarik. I’m happy you two managed to sort out that… problem. I think we don’t need to prepare having Tarik transferred any longer, do we?]

Sina now stole a glance at the engineer as well. [No, I think we’ll manage somehow. I know that you… helped a little. Thank you. Without you we would have both missed this opportunity and probably regretted it for a long time.]

[Don’t mention it. I’m always happy to help my lost children. Sometimes even the wisest one needs a bit of… encouragement into the right direction.] Chiaxi replied with a smirk and a wink. [But if you excuse me now, I must return to other business. Farewell, Sina. I hope to meet you again soon.]

She had barely finished when Matriarch Chiaxi took flight with a few thrusts of her powerful wings. Soon she had disappeared into the darkness again, returning to the unimaginable complexity of the Synergy’s hive-mind.

Sina turned to Tarik, a soft smile on her lips. [I guess that marks the end of my visit?]

[Indeed. While there are still lots of things which I could show you, I think it is enough for now. There’s nothing to be gained from exhausting you.]

[Then we’ll see each other again in a few moments. And for the date… I’ll figure something out.] She winked at her companion, before the whole scenery exploded into billions of shards of light and she woke up again.

Sina stirred on the biobed, looking at the sickbay’s ceiling with Co-Yor leaning above her head. “Captain? Captain? How are you?”

She thought she was okay. When Co-Yor didn’t seem to react to her, but instead grabbed a medical tricorder to scan her head, she was a bit irritated. It was then that it occurred to her that they were not linked. “I’m okay, I’m okay.” She quickly spoke and her CMO’s typical expressionless head tilted slightly to the side.

“Are you sure, captain?” The Kalonar inquired, checking the readings on his tricorder while carefully monitoring his CO as she sat up on the bed.

“Yes, I’m okay. Really.” She looked around and saw Tarik sitting up on the other biobed, monitored by the EMH, while Niko and Jeffrey quickly came closer.

Her XO furrowed his brow. “Did something go wrong?”

“No, why do you ask?” Sina replied, curiously running her fingers over the spot where the transceiver had been connected to her neck.

“Because we only started a few minutes ago.” Her first officer explained.

Sina stared at Niko. “What do you mean, a few minutes? I was gone for at least half an hour!”

But the Lieutenant Commander shook his head. “You were not.”

Quickly Jeffrey interrupted them before they got sidetracked by technicalities. “Doesn’t matter. How do you feel? Do you remember anything?”

Sina started to grin as a few memories came flooding back. “I’m fine. And yes, I do remember some things.”

“And?” Niko asked curiously.

“You won’t believe any of this!” The CO exclaimed with a happy laugh.