Distant Shores - Marco Palmieri [119]
“Maybe. But the truth is, I learned a lot from Sinadah when I was growing up. I’m grateful to him for that-which is why it was such a shame that he hadn’t grown enough to see how much I’d grown.”
Harry grew thoughtful. “My mom and dad always treated me like their little boy-and I always liked it. It made me feel safe and comfortable. But I’ve grown so much in the past five years… will they be able to see it once we get home?”
She rolled over to face him. “I’m sure they will. Maybe they won’t want to, but they will. They’re good people. I know-because they raised you.” She kissed him. “I wish I could get to meet them.”
Harry looked away; the mood was broken. Marika sighed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to- “
“It’s okay.” He cleared his throat. “Hey, I could go for a hot dog, how about you?”
She stroked his arm. “Harry… when the time comes…”
“Please, Karah, I don’t- “
“I just wanted to say… you don’t have to be there. I’ll understand.”
He didn’t know how to respond. And he didn’t want to think about it. Luckily, she brightened, pulled him against her and kissed him playfully. “Now what was that about a hot dog…?”
“Chakotay to Ensign Kim.”
Not good timing, Harry thought. “Kim here.”
“Briefing in Astrometrics, ten minutes. We’ve gotten a call from the Markonians-it looks like our multispatial probe wasn’t destroyed after all.”
Harry blinked. “That’s great news!”
“I only wish it were.”
“In order to scan the necessary subspace domains, the probe used a low-level static warp field to extend itself partway into subspace,” Seven of Nine declared, while displaying a simulation of same on the massive astrometrics viewscreen. “Apparently the ion storm intensified the field, causing it to submerge the probe entirely in subspace. It also caused an alteration in the probe’s Borg components, causing them to emit increasing quantities of subspace radiation. These emissions are apparently powered by the energy differential between domains, and thus can intensify indefinitely.”
Janeway, Chakotay, Torres, Kim, and Marika looked on as she lectured. Marika studied Seven, puzzling over her. The human ex-drone understood that freedom from the Collective was worth dying for, yet she still embraced the cold, haughty precision of the Borg, and refused to reclaim her human name. Marika couldn’t understand that. Then again, she reflected, maybe she could. Seven had been assimilated as a child, and in many ways, perhaps, that childish fear still drove her. It had driven her to force Marika and the others into the triad to prevent them from escaping-from leaving her alone in the dark. Now it held her back from embracing her humanity wholeheartedly, and limited her to baby steps. Marika almost felt sorry for her, almost wanted to give her a good talking-to. But after what Seven had done to her, Marika couldn’t quite find it in herself to try.
“The radiation,” Seven went on, “has now reached sufficient energy density to reopen the mouth of the subspace pocket containing the probe. The radiation is pouring out into normal space, and due to subspace tunneling it is affecting the region for light-years around.”
The narrative was picked up by the Markonian station manager, whose signal was displayed on one of the side monitors. His blue-skinned, ridge-crested features were framed by a dark chador which covered his head and shoulders in keeping with his people’s modesty customs. “It has already become a navigation hazard for many of our visitors. Our models predict that within a week it will grow intense enough to endanger the outpost itself. But the radiation at the source is too intense to allow anyone to approach the probe, and the subspace distortion prevents any missiles or energy weapons from reaching it.” He paused, looking uncomfortable. “We have attempted to contact the Voth for assistance, but they appear to be out of range.”
“Or else,” Chakotay put in, “they have a vested interest in not helping. If the probe survived, it may still contain some useful data on their transwarp technology.”
“You think they’d endanger countless lives