It was an interesting request and an easier proposal to accept but for one huge red flag. “You aren’t concerned with the proximity to the substance that was responsible for your current predicament?” Cambridge asked.
“If Devi thinks it’s safe, it must be,” Gwyn said simply. “And I’m sure someone will have transporter locks on all of us in case anything happens, right?”
“Demeter is monitoring the safety of the away team.”
“Then do we have a deal? I know this isn’t the last conversation you and I are going to need to have. I know that there is lots of hard work ahead of me. You’re going to have to help me figure out how to tell Lieutenants Kim and Conlon what’s happened and there’s a chance they won’t let me within a light-year of their daughter when I do. We’re not done here. We’re just getting started. But I made the choice I did because I didn’t want to lose myself to someone else’s idea of who I should be, and I am the best possible version of myself when I am at the helm of a starship. I know I can do this.”
Much to his surprise, Cambridge agreed.
RUNABOUT OKINAWA
While the excavations at Station One had been underway, Commander Torres had overseen the transformation of the rear passenger section of Okinawa’s primary compartment. Using the data taken from Patel’s tricorder, a transparent cell had been created that duplicated the alcoves Devi had found beneath the planet containing interlocutors for the various species that had done research at Station Four. They had been hideous things, terrifying to behold. The worst part was, even hundreds or thousands of years after their creation, many of them showed signs of life—or the odd life that wasn’t life that characterized so many things that had come into contact with the Edrehmaia substance.
The one temporarily created from Patel’s DNA, via blood samples that had been required to access the station at each of its doors, had resembled her body in shape, but had been composed entirely of the tar-like sludge now safely contained in a small canister within the cell. An open vial of Patel’s blood sat beside the canister.
Torres had re-created the cell’s component parts, including a small portable reactor to power the system. It remained to be seen if this would be sufficient. It was possible that the station’s library system had been linked to the cells in unknown ways and that no effort on their part to duplicate this technology would function properly. But given that the Edrehmaia had specifically singled out Devi Patel and her genome in their initial communication attempts, it was likely that the creation of a new interlocutor was significant, and this was their best hope for doing so.
Patel and O’Donnell stood outside the cell, running final checks on their equipment. The process shouldn’t take more than a few minutes and Patel was anxious for it to be done. She remembered well how terrifying it had been the first time but found it easier to maintain a little detachment now.
O’Donnell worked methodically, almost reverently. This was his first opportunity to observe and study a reaction between normal matter and the Edrehmaia substance. Given that it might also be his last, he intended to make the most of it.
“How’s it going back there?” Commander Tom Paris asked from the helm.
“Is there somewhere else you need to be?” O’Donnell asked.
“Only if this doesn’t go as planned,” Paris shot back. Patel then heard him say, “I’m sorry, repeat that, Voyager.”
“Drop shields and prepare for incoming transport.”
“Copy that. Dropping shields.”
“Who’s coming aboard?” Patel demanded. Every moment of this mission had been meticulously calculated. Last-minute alterations were unwelcome. Her stomach dropped as the form on the transporter pad resolved itself into that of Ensign Gwyn.
“Hey, everybody,” Gwyn said, stepping off the pad. She gave the cell a curious glance as she passed it and nodded toward Patel as she hurried to the helm.
“What gives?” Paris asked.
“Slight change of plans,” Gwyn replied, handing him a padd. “Voyager and Vesta are about to head out to intercept the rogue star and Captain Chakotay decided he’d rather have you at the helm for that maneuver than Gleez.”
“I thought you were going to take Voyager’s conn,” Paris said.
Gwyn shrugged. “I’m back on duty but I think the captain is trying to keep my assignments as stress free as possible.”
Paris rose from his seat. “Understood. Commander Fife is maintaining your transporter lock. If anything goes wrong, Demeter is standing by.”
“Sounds good,” Gwyn said as she slid into the pilot’s seat. “The gravimetric sheer coming off that star is going to be fierce. Watch your attitude.”
Paris laughed. “Wait, you’re saying I shouldn’t allow Voyager to fall into the star’s gravity well, thereby incinerating her along with all hands?”
“I mean, I wouldn’t,” Gwyn teased.
“Good to have you back, Ensign,” Paris said as he headed toward the transporter pad. “Good luck,” he added just before the transporter effect commenced.
Gwyn’s sudden arrival took Patel completely by surprise. Her concentration faltered and she mis-keyed a test sequence.
“Hold on,” O’Donnell said. “Why is there a fault in the—”
“That was me,” Patel said quickly. “I’m fixing it now.”
“Okay, that makes more sense,” O’Donnell said. “Are you all right?”
There was no time to explain her recent history with Gwyn, nor would O’Donnell care at a moment like this. But she doubted her ability to ignore the pit of anxiety forming in her gut. “Can you give me just a second?” she asked.
O’Donnell turned his head and stared at her, incredulous.
“Seriously, one second.”
“Take as many as you like but then I need you focused here, Devi.”
“I understand. Thank you.”
With that, Patel hurried toward the navigation station and slid into the empty seat next to Gwyn. Keeping her voice low, she asked, “What the hell are you doing here?”
“I was ordered to return to duty,” Gwyn began, “but I requested this one because I wanted to tell you
