“Lieutenant Patel,” Janeway said, “your first survey of the planet contained the most detailed information we have of both the Edrehmaia and those who came later to exploit their technology. Does this discovery change your perceptions in any meaningful way?”
Patel sat incredibly still, perhaps not terribly comfortable at finding herself the center of the room’s attention. It was a sensation with which Janeway could relate. Many times as a junior officer, when called upon by those well above her in the chain of command, she had known both the excitement of feeling heard as well as awareness of the immense responsibility conferred upon her by the company in which she found herself. In their initial briefing, just following the attack, it seemed to Janeway that Patel had begun to find her voice. She had no difficulty speaking her mind when she commanded the subject matter. But now, something seemed to be holding her back.
“You should speak freely,” Janeway added gently. “I am genuinely curious.”
Patel turned to Seven. “What happened to those drones, is that the same thing that happened to Gwyn on the asteroid you were studying?”
“It was,” Seven replied. “Although the substance did not touch her body. It had barely breached her suit when I fired on it.”
Patel nodded, clearly dismayed. She then turned to O’Donnell. “I think our assumption that Species 001 was somehow the key to this world might have been a mistake. They were, in that what happened to them set off a scientific chain reaction, but when I looked at this planet before, I saw a miracle, an enormous leap forward in living technology handed down by a superior race, left for those who came after to integrate and build upon. I never really considered why it had been abandoned.”
“Devi?” O’Donnell asked.
“Almost two hundred species invested an incredible amount of time and expertise in this world. Because we proceed, as a species and a Federation of worlds, in curiosity, in the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, I think I unconsciously assigned the same values to those who were here before us.”
“And now?” O’Donnell asked.
“Imagine living in the Delta Quadrant four thousand years ago. No matter how far your civilization has advanced, there is a Borg-shaped specter hanging over you. At any moment they might appear and lay waste to everything you have accomplished. That was the reality of the lives of countless beings within a thousand light-years of Borg space. The Edrehmaia could defeat the Borg with a touch. A substance they created, or for all we know is simply a product of their own biology, was, perhaps, the only viable weapon these people ever discovered that might end the threat posed by the Borg. No wonder they came here, built and maintained all of this. Fear brought them together and sustained their efforts. I wonder now if they abandoned it because they realized that no effort to domesticate the Edrehmaia’s technology would succeed and went looking for other ways to attempt to conquer their fear.”
“Depressing, but plausible,” Cambridge said. “And for what it’s worth, Admiral, I am inclined to agree with the lieutenant’s assessment. Placed in that context, the existence of this inexplicable world suddenly becomes quite, well, explicable.”
“I don’t give a damn why a hundred ninety-six other species came here,” O’Donnell said. “And I don’t care why they left. The pursuit itself had value. They weren’t wrong to explore the potentials of what the Edrehmaia left behind, and we would be foolish not to as well. Whatever they are, the Edrehmaia are evolutionarily beyond anything we have ever encountered, short of the Caeliar. They have lit a path we must walk if we are ever to hope to join them in whatever their version of ‘the great work’ might be.”
“Forgive me, Commander, but I didn’t realize grappling with gods, or transcending our current state of being, was our purpose here,” Cambridge noted.
“One does not grapple with gods,” Chakotay said softly. “One traditionally prostrates themselves before them in supplication.”
“Chakotay?” Janeway asked.
“If there were a way to continue to safely experiment with the Edrehmaia substance, to unlock its unusual atomic state and genetic possibilities, I would never suggest we ignore it. But that’s not the only pressing issue before us. You have said, Admiral, that before we face the Edrehmaia again, we must understand them better. Species capable of building those biodomes and the power systems required to sustain them were clearly at or beyond Starfleet’s current level of technological expertise. And they left this place intact. I don’t know if they chose to leave or were chased away, but they didn’t dismantle their work. Presumably, they could have. I’m starting to think that they wanted others to follow in their footsteps. I like to imagine that they felt what Commander O’Donnell feels when he looks at a substance capable of rewriting genetic code that has been evolving for billions of years. Perhaps they were ultimately humbled in the face of it. They might even have learned to integrate small portions of what they found into their own technology. But in the end, that work did not attract the attention of the Edrehmaia.”
“No, we did that,” Janeway said. “And only because we broke the containment artificially imposed on their technology and allowed it to fulfill its true purpose.”
“Our progress in translating the Edrehmaia’s communication suggests that they are capable of monitoring their work in real time. They came here within hours of the planet’s activation and the freeing of that star,” Chakotay continued.
“Quantum entanglement?” Janeway asked.
“Definitely a possibility,” Chakotay replied.
“If they transported an entire vessel to places unknown, very little is beyond them,” Farkas added.
“It also could indicate a certain amount of curiosity on their part,” Janeway said. “They didn’t come here and simply destroy us for meddling with their technology. For all we know, they didn’t care what anyone was doing with their creation in the least. Our machinations, and those
