• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

"Phasers at the ready," ordered the captain. She took a deep breath, nodded to Chakotay, and stepped forward.

A soft, purple illumination flooded the cavern. The bright white light of their wristlights seemed a garish intrusion. Stalactites and stalagmites decorated the floor and ceiling, and the violet glow turned their white, milky forms to glowing icicles. There was a clear area from which no stalagmite thrust upward, but mere was no sign of any lifeform.

The light came from a large, floating sphere. A soft, pleasant hum registered in Chakotay's ears. It was almost hypnotic. He felt better here, in a strange place confronted by possibly hostile alien technology, than he had on Voyager for weeks.

"They're not here." Telek's voice was bitter with

disappointment "All along, I've been tracking their technology, not them!"

"Don't despair yet, Doctor," said Janeway. She moved forward cautiously. The purple light was reflected in her eyes. "Chakotay, what have you got?"

"Oh." Chakotay blushed. He'd been so caught up in the ethereal beauty of the levitating sphere that he'd completely forgotten to take out his tricorder. He did so quickly and scanned its readings. "It's like no technology I've ever seen. There's some kind of energy animating the sphere, coming from inside, but I don't know how to explain it. I can't even estimate its function."

'Telek? Any thoughts?"

The Romulan struggled, visibly wrestling with his disappointment. "This appears to be similar to the apparatus they gave us to manipulate dark matter. My method of tracking down the Shepherds was never exact, Captain. I knew how to look for signs of their activity. I incorrectly assumed that this signified their presence, not simply a piece of their technology. I apologize for our failure."

"It's ancient, that's for sure," said Chakotay. "This sphere has been here for hundreds of thousands of years. Its energy is only detectable on the very narrow, precise band that Telek gave us. I'd say it's unlikely that the inhabitants of this planet were even aware it was here."

Janeway nodded thoughtfully. She stepped closer and regarded the hovering purple orb from a distance of only a few centimeters.

,

'They didn't make it easy for anyone to find it," she said softly. "That very narrow band, hidden away in this cave-only, a select few would even know to come looking for it."

"What are you getting at?" asked Chakotay.

Her blue eyes met his. "This was left here to be found, Chakotay. Found by someone who knew enough to track it down. I'm betting that we haven't failed after all, Telek. I think this is a way to contact the Shepherds."

"But how?" asked Telek.

A slow, soft smile lit up Janeway's features. "There's only one way to find out. We guess."

And she stepped up and placed her hand on the purple sphere.

Light spread out, flooding the room with violet brightness. Chakotay shut his eyes against the illumination. Janeway didn't appear harmed at all, and she kept her hand atop the smooth surface of the sphere. Inside the sphere, something began to swirl. It looked like smoke, curling and twining, but it gradually began to take on form and solidity. For a wild second, it reminded Chakotay of a fetus, glimpsed inside its mother's womb. But a heartbeat later it had changed, growing and pressing against the confines of the orb.

Janeway backed away just as the orb shattered with a musical tinkling sound. Tiny crystalline prisms turned every shade of the rainbow and then vanished.

The light dimmed to a comfortable level. Bathed in that soft radiance stood an old woman. Chakotay

gaped. It looked like Karanuk, an elder of his tribe who he knew had died many years ago. Her brown eyes bored into his and her wrinkled face wrinkled still further in a smile.

"Grandma?" he heard Paris say. Simultaneously Janeway breathed, "Aunt Elyssa-it's not possible!" Telek, too, reacted as if he recognized