“If they were looking for their technological equals, I’m guessing that their ultimate analysis of the Galen has proven disappointing in that regard,” Elkins said.
“They’re still alive,” Torres insisted.
“We think,” Elkins said gently.
“Admiral Janeway and Captain Chakotay are convinced by the evidence they have seen. That’s good enough for me,” Torres said. “But let’s say you’re right. Let’s assume that they have no use for the star. It was an ancient experiment that ran its course. They have studied Galen and determined our level of advancement to be irrelevant. That doesn’t change our mission. How do we bring them back?”
“We prove them wrong,” Elkins said simply. “We have to devise a technological miracle on par with theirs. We have to show them that we are worthy of their attention.”
“Do you have any idea how to accomplish that?” Torres asked.
“No. But I think it’s helpful that we’re finally asking the right question,” Elkins replied.
VESTA
Admiral Kathryn Janeway was en route to her private office, her aide, Lieutenant Decan, by her side. The list of issues requiring her attention was, as ever, absurd. Decan made himself utterly indispensable to her by always keeping the list manageable.
“Operations is awaiting your approval to transmit the week’s logs to Command,” Decan said.
That had to be near the end of the list, Janeway surmised. “Have I reviewed them yet?”
“No, hence the awaiting.”
“Have you reviewed them?”
“Yes, Admiral.”
“Do they contain anything that is likely to get the fleet recalled or my command staff relieved of their positions?”
“No, Admiral. The abridged notes I prepared for you contain all of the highlights and will only require a few minutes of your time.”
“Great. I’ll carve them out of the next half hour before I join the engineers’ briefing.”
“We have received another request from Agent Lucsly of the Department of Temporal Investigations,” Decan continued.
“How many is that now?”
“Four, Admiral.”
“Oh, good. I’d hate for him to think I was ignoring him.”
“But you are ignoring him.”
“Yes, but it is very important to me that he not feel I am ignoring him or his request that we alter our mission objective immediately.”
“Wouldn’t a better way to ensure that be to actually respond to his request?”
“Possibly. But I still haven’t found the most politic way to tell him where he can shove his request.”
“I see.”
“As soon as I do, he’ll be the first to know,” Janeway added with a wink.
They arrived at the door to her office as Decan said, “There is one more thing.”
Janeway passed the sensor threshold and entered to find Commander O’Donnell standing before her desk. He turned as she crossed to him.
“Good morning, Admiral,” he greeted her.
“Commander O’Donnell has requested a few moments of your time, Admiral,” Decan said serenely.
Janeway refrained from replying that she could see that and said simply, “Thank you, Decan.”
“Would you care for a fresh pot of coffee?”
Janeway raised an eyebrow in O’Donnell’s direction. “Will you join me, Commander?”
“Never touch the stuff. Far too weak,” O’Donnell replied evenly.
“Very well. Fresh coffee for me, and an Andiluvian Jot Mott for the Commander,” Janeway said. “I hate to drink alone.”
“Yes, Admiral,” Decan said, departing without confirming O’Donnell’s reaction.
Once Decan was gone, the admiral settled herself at her desk. “My mother hates coffee. The Jot Mott is her recipe. It’s got plenty of caffeine but finishes without the bitterness. You might like it.”
“I am always up for exploring the unknown,” O’Donnell said, deadpan.
A hoarse chuckle escaped the admiral. “What do you need, Commander?” she asked, gesturing for him to sit opposite her.
“Species 112, the Borlath Clan, spent five years testing the molecular bonds between hydrogen atoms and six genetic bases for which we have no name,” O’Donnell began. “They referred to them as AX-1, BT-5, NR-6, ZE-11, MC-19, and CY-32.”
“Were their findings significant?” Janeway asked.
“They were attempting to confirm that the weakness of the bonds, something akin to what we call a van der Waals interaction, was essential to the ability of these proteins to shift their location during replication. As best I can tell from the records they left behind, they were unable to verify the hypothesis, but their work does demonstrate an almost incomprehensible malleability of the Edrehmaia base.”
“It’s extraordinary, isn’t it?” Janeway mused. “The part I find most interesting was the ongoing fascination with the interaction with the base and various life-forms, as well as what seems now to be the inevitable results. Life, without life, if that makes sense.”
“Right. The botanical zombies. I think I might have cracked that too,” O’Donnell said. “Species 91, the, well, I’m sure I’m butchering the pronunciation, but the Tee-ich-esth came right out and said that their primary goal was the indefinite continuation of biological organisms.”
“They were looking for the fountain of youth?” Janeway was astonished.
“When studying the material Lieutenant Patel and her team recovered from SWOW, it is remarkably easy to lose yourself for extended periods of time, following threads of experimentation that usually end in disappointment, but are, nonetheless, vivid windows into the varied ways in which sentient life-forms evolve.”
“Wait, SWOW?” Janeway asked.
“Catchy, isn’t it?” O’Donnell said, smiling broadly. “I suppose I should change it now to BWOW, but I honestly don’t have the heart.”
“Commander?”
“Species 001’s World of Wonders,” O’Donnell elucidated.
Janeway thought for a moment, then decided. “I don’t hate it. But I won’t be using it in our formal logs.” Rising from her desk and moving to perch on the front of it, she continued, “I imagine the driving forces behind most sentient species’ desire to explore space begin with acquiring resources and simple curiosity. I confess that mine have never included the possibility of eternal life. Are we not thinking big enough?”
“It’s problematic, to be sure,” O’Donnell said. “For much of my life, I hardly knew what to make of the time I’d been given. Knowledge, for its own sake, is less inspiring to me than knowledge that brings with it practical applications, especially those that can be used to better the lives of those with whom we share the universe.
