Dark Matters_ Shadow of Heaven (Book 3) - Christie Golden [90]
She rose and accepted the padd Seven handed her. Her eyes widened as she glanced at it. "Did you... ?"
"No. I did not read it, once I determined what it was." Again, the odd look. Janeway realized that Seven was struggling with grief, and compassion filled her.
"Thank you, Seven. Dismissed."
Seven nodded her blond head and left. Janeway sank back onto the bed, the coffee and book forgotten. Telek was not one to be caught off-guard. He had prepared for everything, even his eventual trial and Right of Statement.
Her eyes filled with tears as she read, sorrow warring with admiration for the keen brain as well as the bright soul.
FINAL STATEMENT OF DR. TELEK R'MOR
Presented as a Heartfelt Warning
I stand before you as a condemned prisoner. But prisoner or no, I am a Romulan, and to that end I have prepared this, my final statement. I do not question the decision reached by my peers, nor is this a plea for a different, more favorable verdict. Rather, I take this opportunity to warn you of a terrible danger that is encroaching upon us even as I speak.
It may seem peculiar that I use this last opportunity for my voice to be heard to speak of scientific matters. But hear me out, and perhaps this statement may serve some greater purpose. I speak of dark matter-and dark matters.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT DARK MATTER
A few hundred years ago, we knew very little about this matter which composes over ninety percent of our universe. We knew it was there only because we could see the effect it had on the galaxy. The outer regions of galaxies, for example, rotate faster than they should if visible matter was all there was in the galaxy. Like the hands of a puppeteer, whose gestures make the puppet dance, so dark matter exercises its gravitational power on visible matter.
There were two theories, both of which have proved to be correct, as to the identity of this mysterious matter. The first theory was that dark matter was composed of dark stars or large, planet-like bodies, or ECHOs- Enormous Compact Halo Objects, which for various reasons did not emit or reflect light or radiation. These would be composed of what we call "baryonic matter." Baryonic matter can also be called "ordinary matter," in that it is matter as we know it, made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons. This is the matter that makes up our bodies, our clothing, computers, and stars.
Observation nearly four hundred years ago showed that these ECHOs-which did indeed prove to be made up of ordinary matter-do exist. But mis was only half the puzzle. Where, and what, was the rest of the matter of the universe? It could not be baryonic, or else we would have been able to identify it. It therefore stood to reason that the rest of the dark matter was made up of some kind of exotic matter with which we were entirely unfamiliar-and was nothing like ordinary matter.
It was only when we became capable of deep-space exploration mat the second half of the puzzle fell into place. The rest of the dark matter is particles that interact weakly with other objects. We first encountered them a mere hundred years ago, when we became aware of the existence of something we call "dark-matter nebulas." These are collections of billions of dark-matter particles-which, in and of themselves, weigh an infinitesimal amount-into a visible nebula. I will refer to this later, in what I call the Colossal Mistake of dark matter mis-identification.
So-we were satisfied. All parties were correct. There were ECHOs and weakly interacting particles, all matter was present and accounted for-even if, to this very day, we still cannot say with any certainty precisely what the weakly interacting particles (which I refer to as "dark matter"' from this point forward, as we do know what the ECHO's are) truly