This specific technological miracle had first been observed by Voyager’s sensors prior to the planet’s release of energy that moved the star. Once the star had broken free, intense energy released in waves from the asteroid field ensured that it assumed a course that would take it out of the system without damaging any of the other bodies it contained. It had prevented Voyager’s destruction.
“We’ve extrapolated the location of the course-altering system based upon our initial sensor readings. All we have found are intact asteroids with the same rough metallurgic composition as every other rock out there,” Torres said.
“Then where did the technology go?” Bryce asked. “It didn’t vanish.”
“Unless it did,” Icheb suggested. “Some sort of self-destruct mechanism once it had performed its primary task, perhaps?”
“Wouldn’t we have observed that, though?” Bryce countered.
“The current working theory”—courtesy of Seven, Torres did not add—“is that the technology was designed to remain inert until DK-1116 was activated, and once the process was complete, it returned to a state of technological hibernation.”
“But it’s still there. Why don’t we suit up and do a physical inspection of the asteroids in question?” Bryce asked.
“That mission is already underway,” Torres replied. “Tom and Lieutenant Patel are prepping an away team. But if long-range sensors aren’t picking up any evidence of alien technology out there, there’s no telling how long it might take us to find it.”
“The star itself is useless to them,” Elkins said, still staring out the port.
Torres, Bryce, and Icheb all turned their attention toward the engineer simultaneously. “Beg pardon?” Torres asked.
Elkins rose from his seat at the table and moved closer to the port, still clearly entranced by the view. “They’re not tracking it, because they have no need of it,” Elkins clarified. “That’s why the system is no longer active.”
“How can you possibly know that?” Torres asked.
Elkins turned to face the small group. “Because species that design systems like DK-1116 don’t think in terms of anything that happens over the course of days, years, or decades. This was the work of centuries, most likely a test of their power storage and release capacity circa almost five thousand years ago.” As this sunk in, he continued, “If we are ever to understand this species, we have to begin by trying to put ourselves in their position. We have to think like them.”
“But we know so little about them,” Bryce said. “How do you even begin…?”
“Start simple,” Elkins interjected. “What do we know?”
Bryce rose, crossing toward Elkins. “They created the power storage planet to move the star knowing it would take thousands of years for that system to collect enough radiant energy to perform its task. During that time, countless life-forms studied and even temporarily disrupted the system’s circuits, and it doesn’t seem to have concerned them in the least.”
“Nothing our predecessors did while on the surface of DK-1116 moved the needle,” Icheb said. “They created biodomes powered by tapping the planet’s power sources, environments that could be altered to suit the biological requirements of many different sentient life-forms, as well as numerous lower life-forms, to maintain those environments. They discovered and devised synthetic elements, alloys, and botanical life-forms that were hybrids of more common matter combined with the genetically complex substance at the heart of the Edrehmaia’s technology. All of this we find extraordinary but the Edrehmaia did not.”
“Correct,” Elkins said. “And their lack of interest in the fate of the star since it was released tells us that, too, is no longer relevant to them.”
“But they did come back,” Torres said. “If it wasn’t to check on the progress of the star, why did they bother?”
“That’s the real question,” Elkins said.
“The first thing they did when they arrived was to transmit three genomes. The first, we believe, is theirs. The second and third were Devi Patel’s and that of the interlocutor that was created by blending her DNA with the Edrehmaia substance,” Torres said.
“So Devi Patel is important,” Bryce offered.
“Or the interlocutor is,” Icheb said.
“So, were they sending us instructions?” Torres asked. “Create more interlocutors?”
“And almost immediately after that, they took the Galen. If Patel and her interlocutor were the most interesting thing we had done, why not take Voyager so they could interact with Patel directly?” Bryce asked.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Icheb said, clearly frustrated.
“Only because we aren’t thinking like them yet,” Elkins reminded him. “It is possible that the release of the star brought them here, but the first thing they bring up in conversation was the entity that was the bridge between our species and theirs. Their awareness of her predated the release of the star. By the time they got here, that interlocutor was long gone.”
“That’s further evidence that all Edrehmaia matter might share properties of quantum entanglement,” Torres noted. “They became aware of the interlocutor when it was created, but that wasn’t enough to make us of any interest to them.”
“Hundreds of other species also created interlocutors,” Icheb reminded them. “Why was ours different?
“We were the ones that broke containment,” Bryce offered. “The Edrehmaia weren’t responsible for the creation of the interlocutors. That was other species playing with their toys. But clearly, they detected it, as well as Lieutenant Patel’s presence. They might have assumed she restored the planet to its original purpose intentionally and wondered if they had encountered a species that was their technological equal.”
“I wonder if they’re lonely,” Icheb speculated.
“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Elkins said. “We’ve been out here exploring space for a few hundred years now and the number of species we would consider their peers can be counted on one hand.”
“But I ask again, why take the Galen?” Bryce said.
“Because it was the smallest ship and it had the fewest life-forms aboard,” Icheb suggested. “If they were curious about us and our abilities, Galen and her crew
