She hadn’t chosen to bond with the baby because she feared that if she didn’t she would die. That reality had remained a distant fear throughout her ordeal. She had chosen to bond with the baby because it was the easiest and only way to eliminate the obstacle standing between her and saving Patel’s life.
Devi Patel had been her first true friend. Her Mayla Fui. No one else, not even those with whom she had shared her body, had ever gained access to her heart. No one had cared enough to argue with her about her choices, to push her toward greater self-awareness, or to annoy the hell out of her every time she refused to acknowledge her own gaping blind spots. She loved Devi like a sister. She needed Devi because she’d never had one of those before and though she had never acknowledged it, even to herself, having someone was good. It helped. And had this not been true, she would never have been so angry with Devi now. She also might have realized it sooner had she not wasted most of those eight years sleeping with anything with a pulse in search of something it turned out she would never find because it simply didn’t exist. It required effort. It had to be created. And she wasn’t sure she was ready to do that yet.
Adulthood.
Damn.
“I have to go, Mom.”
Vara was clearly shocked by the abrupt dismissal. “I’m not judging you, dear one…” she began.
“No, I know,” Gwyn insisted. “It’s just… there’s someone else I need to talk to. I’m glad you called. And I promise, I will talk to you soon. I’ll let you know how all of this works out.”
“I’ll try not to worry.”
“Love you, Mom.”
SWOW (THE PLANET FORMERLY KNOWN AS DK-1116)
“Once we’re done here, Lieutenant, I want you to think about a transfer to Demeter,” Commander O’Donnell said as he trudged along beside Patel through a newly excavated tunnel that terminated in the base they had discovered at Station One.
Patel felt her cheeks begin to burn. It could have been a failure of temperature optimization in her EV suit, or the fact that Liam O’Donnell was unlike anyone else she had ever met. His brilliance was only eclipsed by his deep and abiding self-interest. He reminded her of Gwyn in that way. Much as she had enjoyed working with him for the last several days, it was only their shared desire to untangle this mystery that bound them. As a mentor, he was likely to become a disappointment. “I appreciate that, sir, but Voyager keeps me busy enough these days.”
On the admiral’s orders, deep scans of Station One had revealed the presence of several previously excavated caverns adjacent to the primary area. Some had clearly collapsed when the planet’s stored energy was released, but others, like this one, appeared to have been sealed off at some point in the period during which this station and its six siblings had been in regular use. It had taken two dozen of Vesta’s engineers less than a day to reopen it, and it contained multiple pockets of the Edrehmaia substance hidden within the walls, surrounded by the same silicon banding Patel and Paris had discovered on their mission in the asteroid field. Another three dozen engineers had worked to excavate the tunnel that led from the station to the surface where the shuttle that would be the home of the second stage of this experiment waited.
“How certain are you that your containment pod will function properly?” Patel asked.
“Garv Elkins is the smartest man I’ve ever met. He tested it, at least theoretically, and believes it will do the trick,” O’Donnell replied.
“How did you convince him to take command of Demeter’s engine room for this mission?” Patel asked, genuinely curious. “Has he ever served outside a starbase?”
“He didn’t come for me,” O’Donnell said. “He came for her.”
“Her?”
“ Demeter. He designed her and wanted to make sure that my command didn’t end up damaging his reputation.”
“Are you sure he just didn’t want anyone else mucking about her innards?” Patel asked.
O’Donnell chuckled. “I’m sure that was part of it.”
They approached the end of the tunnel, where two engineers clad in EV suits stood behind a force field generated by a portable unit. Their suits were covered in dust released into the enclosed space where they had slowly and diligently exposed a vein of silicon, beneath which O’Donnell and Patel’s quarry rested.
One of the engineers, his face covered in sweat beneath his helmet, greeted them as they neared the force field. “We’re all set here, sirs.”
“Excellent work. Drop the force field and initiate transport,” O’Donnell ordered.
Moments later, the field vanished along with the engineers. Lieutenant Elkins waited at the entrance to the tunnel for O’Donnell and Patel’s return, but it had been decided that they alone would attempt to retrieve the Edrehmaia substance that would be used to create a second interlocutor. Another force field had been erected at the entrance to the tunnel to protect Elkins in the event O’Donnell’s container failed.
After confirming that the engineers were safely back aboard Vesta, O’Donnell stepped toward the fissure in the cavern wall where the silicon was visible. He then retrieved from his rucksack a circular jar of metal, roughly the size of a deep petri dish.
“That’s it?” Patel asked.
“I know it doesn’t look like much,” O’Donnell replied. “The only matter from the sample we took here that didn’t survive the transport contained trace molecules of the Edrehmaia base. We were able to replicate some of the required elements and isotopes. Three were handcrafted in our lab and six had to be forged by Vesta’s chief, Lieutenant Bryce. This is as
