Distant Shores - Marco Palmieri [76]
“Like… like a bag of Aboran Til Cats.”
“I’ll assume that’s a good thing,” The arch response came from the Doctor. The medical hologram leaned in over Neelix’s shoulder and ran a sensor over his head. The Talaxian became aware of a stim-heal patch on his temple. “He’s going to be fine,” the EMH told Janeway. “I’m going to check on my other patient.”
Neelix watched him drift away and blinked. “Seven… How is she?”
“Safe, just like you,” the captain replied. “Her injuries were more severe, but the Doctor is confident she’ll be up and around in a few days. That’s Borg resilience for you.”
He nodded and winced. “How did you find us? We thought we were isolated down there.”
Janeway’s brow furrowed, and Neelix recognized the expression immediately. He’d seen it before on the captain, at those times when her keen scientific mind discovered something that left her stymied. “Frankly, that’s a bit of a mystery. I hate to say it, but we had exhausted almost every option in the search. Tom and B’Elanna tore the sensor grid apart trying to squeeze every last gigaquad of capacity out of it, but we just couldn’t read your life signs through the mineral strata…” She frowned. “We detected the beginnings of a large earthquake and then… something quite peculiar happened.”
Unbidden, a smile came to Neelix’s lips. “You found us.”
Janeway nodded. “There was an energy surge in the scanner. For one split second, we had a thousand times the power we normally had. Logically, it should have burnt out the system, but it didn’t. Harry was quick off the mark and tied in the transporters, and we snatched you out.” She eyed him. “You wouldn’t happen to have an explanation for that, would you?”
Neelix gingerly slid himself off the sickbay’s biobed. “I’m sure you’re going to find the answer soon enough, Captain.” He had no doubts that sooner or later Lieutenant Torres would find a distinct correlation between the pattern of energy in the freak surge and the psychokinetic signature of one of Voyager’s former crew. “I’d like to speak to Seven, if I may.”
The Doctor gave him a nod. “I’m sure there’s no harm in that.” As the EMH spoke to the captain, Neelix leaned close to where Seven lay beneath a medical support frame.
“It seems we were not alone after all,” said the former Borg.
“I guess not,” Neelix said quietly. “Seven, about what happened down there. About what I saw- “
“If you do not wish me to speak of it, I will not. I do not pretend to understand the nature of your relationship with Kes, but I will respect it.”
“It’s not that,” he replied, “I don’t have anything to keep secret… not anymore. She was there, Seven, and she saved our lives.”
“You doubted your own perceptions before,” she said. “You do not doubt them now.”
“No.”
Seven studied him, considering. “And yet, it was only you who saw her, who spoke to her. You alone witnessed this phenomenon, and you have no real evidence that Kes was ever actually there. How can you be sure that what you encountered was not simply the creation of your own mind, influenced by the veracite concentrations?”
“I’m sure,” he said, with absolute conviction. “I don’t know how, perhaps it was the temple in the ruins, perhaps it created some sort of link to her. Whatever it was, it let her come back to me.” A distant smile crossed the Talaxian’s face. “So I could say goodbye.”
The Secret Heart of Zolaluz
Robert T. Jeschonek
This tales takes place sometime between the fifth-season episodes “Infinite Regress” and “Bliss.”
Robert T. Jeschonek
Robert T. Jeschonek wrote “Oil and Water,” a Burgoyne adventure in Star Trek: New Frontier: No Limits. Robert’s story “Our Million-Year Mission” won the grand prize in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds VI. His credits include the prize-winning “Whatever You Do, Don’t Read This Story” in Strange New Worlds III, “The Shoulders of Giants” in Strange New Worlds V, and original fiction in publications ranging from Abyss & Apex to The Loyalhanna Review. Robert’s work can also be found in comic books, including War and Silent Screams from Saddle Tramp