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NEW REVELATIONS ABOUT DARK MATTER

We Romulans are concerned with things which are of value to us. We pursue paths that will help further the interests of the Empire. Scientific exploration of a venue for its own sake is not encouraged. As I stand facing my death, I speak up now, and condemn this policy. For thus it was that we made the Colossal Mistake.

We assumed that the reason we could not see dark matter was that it was too small to be viewed, unless it was gathered together in a dark-matter nebula with which we are familiar, or as a dark-matter galaxy- something which we have never yet encountered. We were wrong in this assumption.

Let me state this as plainly as I may, for this is vital to the comprehension of our present situation:

Dark matter is only visible when it interacts with subspace distortions, as in a dark-matter nebula.

We had made the Colossal Mistake of assuming that dark matter, apart from the known and understood baryonic-matter ECHOs, gathered together solely in clusters as dark-matter nebulas and galaxies. The truth is, dark matter is very nearly omnipresent. There are untold amounts of it in this room right now, perhaps hundreds of particles in a single strand of Romulan hair. We can't measure it-why? We can't see it-why? Why, when we can see and measure it in a dark-matter nebula?

The reason dark matter is detectable and even visible to the naked eye in a dark-matter nebula is that the interaction with subspace which renders dark matter visible also pulls it completely into this universe. The staggering secret behind dark matter is this-it exists simultaneously in all universes, never completely in one universe. This is why it is like the Earthers' "little man upon the stair." It is and isn't "there." It helps our universe exist in its present fashion-and who knows how many other universes it is helping to keep stable as well.

We had no way of knowing the information I have just cited, but Lhiau did. He and the other Shepherds have spent eons manipulating dark matter, and they understand its nature very, very well. We know how the Shepherds' apparatus works. It gathers particles of dark matter directly to it, as a magnet attracts metal. We do not understand why the apparatus works, but our best minds are hard at work at deciphering this mystery. It is better to not be in debt to anyone. We Romulans know that.

Because dark matter is not completely of this universe, it therefore, cloaks any object with a material that is not completely of this universe. What this does is effectively render the cloaked object utterly invisible, without moving it out of our universe. Any hints of its existence are wiped out. It is, as Lhiau promised us, a cloak without flaw.

The Shepherds' skill in manipulating dark matter has also enabled us to create wormholes of practically limitless size and of limitless stability. My years of effort at creating a stable wormhole of any useful size are well documented and I shall not waste precious time in summarizing them now. I will say that it has long been common knowledge that it is not finding the wormholes in space that is the problem, it is enlarging them and keeping mem stable. Any kind of normal, baryonic matter tends to collapse under its own gravitational attraction unless something else stops it. We knew that the only way to keep a wormhole open would be to thread it with some sort of exotic material-something that has negative energy.

The same technology that summons dark matter to act as a cloak on our warbirds calls it to enter the artificial wormhole, providing that much-needed negative energy and resulting in stability and enlargement.

Now, such would seem to be a good thing, a powerful thing. But oh my colleagues, oh my leaders-we are blind children if we think these blessings all come without a terrible, terrible price.

THE TRUTH ABOUT DARK MATTER AND THE SHEPHERDS

Who were we, truly, to be the beneficiaries of such pure kindness? The Shepherds are no friends to the Romulans,