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“They are the beginning,” Phoebe replied, “the first and most basic particles. Some of your scientists have another word for them.”

“What word is that?” Janeway asked, searching within herself for a semblance of the answer.

“The strings,” Phoebe said.

Janeway paused.

The strings?

“Are you referring to string theory?” she asked.

“You begin to understand some of your limitations,” Phoebe congratulated her. “What you still call a theory is practical truth for us.”

Janeway’s mind reeled. She had, of course, studied string theory, along with fifty other equally plausible treatises on the nature of the universe. Though never proven, there were a number of serious and respected scientists who were pursuing it as the definitive answer to the question that had, thus far, eluded the best minds of the Federation: What is the exact structure, design, and function of the fabric of space and time?

Apparently the Nacene were no longer wrestling with this question.

“So you have proven that the strings are real?” Janeway asked. “You can actually perceive them?”

“Proof… belief… they are irrelevant. We know them, Kathryn,” Phoebe replied. “And as with all things we know, we wanted them to be of us. Unfortunately, we made the same mistake you just did.”

“What mistake was that?” Kathryn asked, truly curious.

“We engaged them, and tried to control them.”

In a flash, Janeway had at least a part of the picture clear in her mind.

“You did what?” she asked incredulous.

“Can you blame us?” Phoebe said disdainfully. “You did the same thing. You understand where the impulse came from. It lives in you as well.”

Kathryn took a moment to consider this. She vividly remembered her childhood, the early years spent exploring the mysteries of words and numbers, slowly learning to control and manipulate them. She remembered the thrill of each new piece of knowledge that came within her grasp, how she had longed for it, and her voracious hunger for more… always more.

If this was the truth Phoebe was trying to impart to her, it was certainly one to which she could relate.

“What happened to the strings?” she finally asked.

“They did what they are meant to do,” Phoebe replied. “And then they did all manner of things that we never expected. They led us from our home, and in doing so, unbalanced everything.”

Janeway looked about the disaster area that had once been her mother’s living room. She recognized this place as the only true home she had ever known, and felt a surge of pain and anger at its senseless wreckage.

“The flashes of light… the things that were beneath the elements and atoms I saw before… those are the strings?” Janeway asked.

Phoebe nodded.

“Were they part of our universe before you let them loose?”

“They are that which binds all of the universe together. They sustain all that is, when they are functioning properly.”

“And now they are completely out of control?” Janeway asked.

“No,” Phoebe said. “Controlling them is not the problem for us that it is for you.”

“Then what is the problem?”

“The imbalance,” Phoebe replied.

“I don’t understand.”

“Of course you don’t,” Phoebe said sadly. “But you will.”

Though Janeway knew she must continue in her “education,” she felt a tingling of doubt and fear as Phoebe took her hand and led her through the splintered front door frame into the darkness.

Harry and B’Elanna stood before the interface console in the holographic research lab and examined their handiwork. Once the ion sweep had been successfully completed, several security personnel had been ordered to monitor every move the multiphasic creatures made, and for the time being, it seemed they were content to leave Voyager alone. With little else to do to shore up the ship’s defenses, B’Elanna had joined Harry as he put the final touches on the holomatrix he had been assigned to develop.

They had successfully created a hologram of a Monorhan male haran of average size and weight, dressed in a light tunic and pants that were appropriate