Star Trek: Voyager - The Neverending Night
Chapter 8
15 Sep 2021Captains Log, Stardate 52096.4: Since Captain Garon and Captain Loquar became our charter members of the Alliance two days ago, finding new allies has gotten a little easier. My latest prospect is a man named Controller Emck.
“Energize.” Captain Janeway commanded.
The transporter lit up and began to rematerialize its subject. Transporter technology had been invented by Earth scientists nearly two hundred years ago. In the time since, it’s design had been iterated upon and improved greatly. The device was capable of disassembling matter at the subatomic level, it then stored that matter temporarily before transmitting it over vast distances and then reassembling it back into its original form. Improvements in the transporter gave it the capability to discern individual parts of the subject and selectively reassemble it. Oftentimes this was used to screen for weapons or pathogens during transport and then rematerialize the life form without the filtered objects.
“The biofilters are detecting high levels of theta radiation.” Lieutenant Commander Tuvok said from the transporter control station located behind Janeway.
“Compensate.” Janeway said.
The transporter continued its operation. Four spheres of light emerged midair from a single point above the transporter pad, two traveled upwards while the other two traveled downwards. A cylinder of blue energy formed on the pad, formlessly shimmering before coalescing into a roughly humanoid shape. After a moment, a man emerged from the energy stream.
His skin was mottled dark yellow. His hair was rough and scraggly. Almost as if he had been sun bleached one too many times. The suit he wore was highly utilitarian, being entirely colored dark brown. It was covered in pipes, tubes, seals and connection points. There were almost no decorations at all on the suit, not even to signify rank or position.
“Controller Emck.” Janeway said. “Welcome aboard the Starship Voyager.”
“Thank you, Captain Janeway.” Emck said in a rough, coarse voice. He stepped forward but encountered a forcefield surrounding the transporter, causing him to reel back in shock.
“Oh, my apologies for the precautions. You appear to be leaking.” Janeway said, pointing to his attire.
“Yes, yes, my isolation suit.” He said, gesturing down at himself. “Don’t be alarmed.”
“If you don’t mind waiting a moment in the transporter, we can decontaminate you and your suit of radiogenic particles.” Janeway said.
Emck’s curiosity was piqued at the suggestion. “I would appreciate that very much, Captain.”
Janeway gave a hand signal to Tuvok who entered the command into the transporter. The walls of the transporter chamber began to glow alternating colors. Emck watched in fascination, apparently not feeling anything. After several moments, the procedure was complete and the forcefield was lowered.
“Most impressive.” Emck said, stepping off the transporter pad.
“I’m glad you approve.” Janeway said with a smile. “Please allow me to show you to our mess hall.” She said, gesturing toward the door.
Emck stepped over to follow Janeway’s lead. Janeway stepped up next to him, but quickly recoiled once she got near. Apparently, even though the transporter was able to eliminate the radiation, it did nothing for the smell which was a pungent combination of days old sweat and musty grime. Janeway diplomatically kept her distance from the man as they walked.
“Tell me.” Janeway started. “How did you end up in the Void?”
“My vessel is a transport ship. We were on our way to deliver cargo from our homeworld, Malon Prime, when we were pulled into the Void.” He said.
“I’m sorry to hear that. We noticed that the hull of your ship is covered in theta radiation.” Janeway didn’t ask a direct question, instead choosing to see if Emck would provide a meaningful answer on his own.
“Yes.” He said. “We were drawn into this region of the Void when we first entered. Our ship is unlike yours, we cannot protect our hull from accumulating the radiogenic particles which emit theta radiation.”
“How have you been able to deal with it?” Janeway asked.
“Luckly, our internal structure has been hardened against radiation.” He said. “My crew and I have been able to withstand the worst of the effects.”
“Judging from your appearance, you must have been here for quite some time.” Janeway observed.
“Yes.” Emck said, not elaborating any further.
Janeway and Emck reached their destination at the mess hall. The scent of hot vegetable soup from within provided Janeway some relief from the stench of Emck’s suit. “Neelix, we have another guest for dinner.” Janeway said.
“Always room for one more, Captain.” Neelix replied carrying a large steaming pot of stew.
The mess hall was filled with people and most of them were not part of Voyager’s crew. Personnel from multiple ships were often coming and going from Voyager. As the leading member of the Alliance, Voyager had become the central hub around which the other ships were congregating. Janeway allowed everyone to come and go as they pleased, however she had ordered Tuvok to limit access to critical ship systems.
Janeway picked up a bowl of stew and handed it to Emck who was again shocked at the sight. “Who did you have to steal from to obtain fresh vegetables?” He asked.
“No one.” Janeway replied with pride. “They’re replicated. One of the other ships in the Alliance had technology which tripled our replicator efficiency.”
“It may not be a gourmet feast.” Neelix added while chopping some vegetables. “But we can feed five hundred people a day now, using only half the power it took us a few days ago.”
Janeway and Emck took a seat. The ambiance in the mess hall was more lively than Janeway was used to. Most often people would be conversing at a low tone, trying not to disturb each other. Occasionally, there would be a rowdy conversation or a raucous bout of laughter, but nothing that would too badly disturb the peace. Now however, the mess hall was buzzing with commotion and conversation, having been nearly packed with people to capacity. Janeway took a moment to admire the scene. It was a shining example of what could be achieved with a bit of mutual cooperation. She couldn’t help but notice that instead of mingling, the various crews chose to stick together at their own tables. Unfortunate but unsurprising, trust only came with time.
“Your ship continues to impress me, Captain.” Emck said after taking a hearty spoonful of soup. “Tell me, how does your civilization deal with residual antimatter waste?”
Emck’s question pleased Janeway. It wasn’t often she got to show off the advances in technology humanity had made or her own intricate knowledge of its operation. “Our warp core produces several high energy byproducts, trilithium for one. We capture the trilithium and process it into a resin. From there, we store it in a transkenetic chamber which breaks the trilithium down at a subatomic level and converts it into energy in a continuous process.”
“What about the excess theta radiation produced?” Emck inquired.
“We use a series of radiometric converters to capture the particles which are then also converted to energy.” Janeway said. “After which, we then use the excess to power our replicators, which were responsible for producing the food you are now eating.’
Humanity has become quite clever in bringing the laws of thermodynamics to its knees. Janeway thought to herself.
“Ingenious design.” Emck said. “The engineers on my world would be most pleased if you were to share this technology with me.”
“I would be more than happy to.” Janeway said with a smile.
Emck went to take another bite of his soup when he saw something that perturbed him. Janeway turned to see what he was looking at. Over her shoulder she spied the Doctor and the creature from sickbay at his side. Both of them were carrying PADD’s in their hands. The Doctor tapped a few times into his PADD, which then emitted several sounds in quick succession. To Janeway’s surprise, the creature also tapped into its PADD which then also emitted several sounds in response. Almost as if the two were conversing with each other. Janeway made a mental note to visit sickbay when she had a chance. The Doctor walked over to the mess hall counter to fetch some food, the creature followed close behind still in its usual defensive crouch.
“Why do you tolerate that parasite aboard your ship?” Emck growled.
Janeway was shocked at the accusation. “I beg your pardon?”
“They’re vermin.” Emck continued.
By this point the Doctor had taken note of Emck’s derogatory words. He turned to confront Emck while the creature cowered behind him. “I don’t know who you are, sir.” The Doctor said. “But your choice of words is offensive.”
“What’s offensive.” Emck said motioning to the creature. “Is how those pests sneak aboard your ship during transport. They hide in conduits, stealing your food while spreading disease.”
“I can assure you that Fantome is in perfect health.” The Doctor replied. “And unlike some people in this Void, he hasn’t stolen anything.”
Janeway noted that this conversation was quickly getting out of hand. Emck continued his tirade. “If my sensors could detect them on my ship, I’d capture all of them and then decompress them out into space.” He eyed Fantome. “Where it belongs.”
“Captain, this is outrageous!” The Doctor shouted.
“Doctor!” Captain Janeway shouted back, she held up her hand as if to say ‘just walk away’. The Doctor and Fantome then exited the mess hall with a bowl of food. Janeway turned back toward Emck and calmly explained her position to him. “One of the principles of our Alliance is that we don’t discriminate. Everyone is welcome as long as they follow the rules.” Janeway turned to look at the door that the Doctor just exited through. “But if you’re having a bad experience with members of his species aboard your ship, I’d be happy to bring them onto Voyager.”
“If only you could locate them.” Emck said.
“Now that we’ve had a chance to study their physiology.” Janeway mused. “I think we can get a transporter lock on them.”
Emck sat back and laughed as he took another bite of his stew. “Captain, you only continue to impress me.”
The overhead comm system sounded with a bleep. “Seven of Nine to Captain Janeway, please report to the astrometrics lab immediately.”
“Please excuse me.” Janeway said to Emck as she stood up to leave.
Janeway made her way down to the astrometrics lab and stepped inside. The roughly egg shaped room was spacious and perfectly shaped to present information. At the far end of the room was a very large screen at least four meters across and three meters high. Seven of Nine had designed the room along with Harry Kim. They combined Starfleet and Borg technology into an advanced sensor suite more capable than anything Voyager had originally been equipped with. Seven of Nine spent most of her time here, collating, analyzing and presenting the information the lab collected in the most efficient way possible. Usually, Seven preferred to work in isolation. But at the moment, she was joined by two other crew members from the first ship Janeway had rescued a few days ago. The ship she now knew belonged to Captain Loquar of an organization known as The Hierarchy.
“Captain, these men are not authorized to be here. I request that they be removed.” Seven demanded.
“We are making valuable contributions to the Alliance.” Loquar protested.
“By spying on its members?” Seven reposted back.
“By gathering valuable information using a new surveillance technique we devised.” Loquar said turning to manipulate the controls on the main astrometrics interface. The screen flashed to show what appeared to be a room full of cargo. “This is the cargo hold of the Jelinian freighter. Now, if I’m not mistaken, the Jelinians are a member of our Alliance, are they not?”
“Which is why you should not be spying on them.” Janeway observed, agreeing with Seven’s point of view.
“Which is why they should not be hoarding their deuterium!” Loquar responded. He continued to access the computer controls. He then brought up a three dimensional overview of all ships within a hundred light years of Voyager’s position. “We can observe activity on any ship in the Void without being detected.” Loquar said with pride.
Janeway, now more curious than angry, stepped up to the large display screen. Multiple small virtual objects filled the view of all shapes and sizes. Each one was displayed with vital information about the heading and position of each ship, as well as their estimated tactical capability. Even Janeway had to admit their work was impressive. Especially given that Seven herself, one of the most capable members of her crew, had not been able to produce such an accurate result as this. Janeway visually sifted through the information. Her intention was to locate the Krebor, as she wondered if Voyager’s sensors were now capable of penetrating its cloaking field. But something else caught her eye instead.
Janeway pointed to one of the larger objects on the screen. “What’s this?” She asked.
Loquar entered in commands as Seven observed. The display zoomed into the object, which was now obviously larger than a mere ship.
“A space station.” Seven observed.
“I thought that there were only ships in the Void.” Janeway said.
“There are…” Seven said as she thought to herself. “The subspace vortexes are not large enough to capture an object of this size.”
“So it was constructed?” Loquar asked.
“We’ll have to get closer to make that determination.” Seven said.
“Seven…” Janeway started, a completely implausible thought had just occurred to her. Even though she figured that it couldn’t possibly be true, she asked anyway. “Can you overlay the density of theta radiation in the region?”
Seven unceremoniously brushed Loquar aside as it was now her turn to operate the controls. The view once again zoomed out to show the area within one hundred light years. The station appeared to be a small yellow object again. In a few moments, Seven had overlaid a projection of the theta radiation within the area. A green haze appeared on the screen representing the radiation, with the denser regions taking on a more opaque form. A roughly spherical shape emerged, with a solid core transitioning to fuzzy edges. The center of the sphere lay directly on top of the space station they had just discovered.
Janeway just stared at the image in stunned silence.
“Curious.” Seven mused.
“Seven, feed the coordinates of that station to the helm and tell Mr. Paris to set a course.” Janeway said hurrying out of astrometrics.
“Yes Captain…and Captain?” Seven said before Janeway could exit the room.
Janeway turned around and saw Seven eye Loquar suspiciously. “And no more spying on Alliance ships.” Janeway ordered.
“Understood.” Loquar responded, understanding the implication to be that while he couldn’t use the sensors on Alliance ships, non-Alliance ships were fair game. He gave Seven another look of triumph, which she then returned with a look of exasperation.
Janeway made her way up to the bridge. Her gut instinct had been proven right, there was something at the heart of the theta radiation. Somehow she knew that the answer to escaping the Void lay there as well.