String Theory_ Fusion (Book 2) - Kirsten Beyer [80]
“But do we know anything about the Key’s purpose?” Chakotay asked, nudging Seven back to the point.
“In one of Dagan’s letters he asserts that the Key is the final and crucial piece of a larger mechanism, one which he was unable to describe clearly given his limited understanding of complex technology. But he does say that the mechanism is located within the promised city and that the city will circle the ultimate darkness, which does suggest, at least metaphorically, the array. More important, he says that only the Key’s owner will be able to put the Key in its proper place in the ‘Time of Knowing’ and open the conduit of light.”
“That’s fascinating, Seven,” Tom interjected, “but what does it all mean?”
“According to Ensign Kim, Phoebe most likely arrived shortly after the captain was given the Key. It is logical to assume that since the captain is the first person in thousands of years to actually touch the object, that she is also its owner. If Phoebe were able to use the Key, she would have taken it from us long before now. But if the captain is the only person who can use it, Phoebe needs her. This might also explain why ‘Phoebe’ chose to assume the form of someone who is close to the captain… someone she would trust instinctively.”
“Did the captain also see visions after she touched it?” Chakotay asked.
“No, Commander,” Seven replied. “The Key had no obvious effect on her. But the Monorhans of the Fourteenth Tribe were highly telepathic. It appears that their vessel is equipped with an organic neural network which most likely responds to telepathic commands.”
“So you have to be a telepath to see the visions?” Tom asked.
“Or hear them…” Chakotay suggested.
There was a pause as every face in the room turned to him curiously.
“The Doctor believed that Tuvok might have left the ship in response to a telepathic message only he could hear,” Chakotay explained. “His proximity to the Key might have been the cause.”
“But why would it have drawn him to the array? The Key has been aboard Voyager since we left Monorha,” Tom said.
B’Elanna rose and joined Seven at the computer interface, calling up Seven’s analysis of the data recovered from the Betasis. When she had found what she appeared to be looking for, she said, “I don’t think the Key brought Tuvok here.”
“Why not?” Chakotay asked.
“I think the Monorhans did.”
“Explain,” Seven demanded.
“Right now we’re reading nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-six multiphasic life-forms aboard the array. That is almost the exact number of Monorhans who came to the array aboard the Betasis fifty years ago. The backup Doctor believed that Tuvok is actually gestating a new life-form. If the Monorhans were attacked by the same thing Tuvok was, then perhaps these life-forms we are seeing were created when the parasites merged with the Monorhans.”
“But the Monorhans are dead,” Harry said. “We found Tuvok in a room that was filled with their bodies.”
“And have you asked yourself how he got there?” B’Elanna asked. “Given the severity of his injuries, there is no way he could have left his wrecked shuttle on his own.”
“You think the Monorhans somehow brought Tuvok…” Tom began.
“… to a place where he could also be infected and transformed, just like they were,” B’Elanna finished. “The Doctor said that some part of Tuvok would be incorporated into the new life-form. If the same thing were true of the Monorhans, then perhaps they retain their telepathic abilities and used them to contact Tuvok.”
“So what did they want with him?” Tom asked no one in particular.
It was a good question and one that no one seemed prepared to speculate on at the moment.
“There is one flaw with