Captain's Glory

24

THE OORT CLOUD, SECTOR 001

STARDATE 58567.8

There were five ships now in that cold dark region. Earth’s sun was just another point of light, too far and too dim to reveal the vessels as they held their positions at relative stop. They were perceptible only because they blocked the stars. Around their dim shapes slowly drifted ice clouds and the slow, tumbling rocks and debris from stars that had died billions of years ago, yet now provided the raw material of life for a new round of star-building that would lead to a new generation of life.

The Belle Reve remained locked to the Enterprise. To Picard, the two ships joined brought to mind images of fossilized prehistoric beasts, each with a death grip on the other, trapped forever in their unyielding battle from which neither could emerge the victor.

The other three ships were spectators to that frozen conflict. The Tucker and the Garneau had been joined by the Titan. The Belle Reve would never withstand their combined assault, and yet, as long as it remained close to the Enterprise, it could not be attacked.

It was a true stalemate, an unexploded bomb, a tidal wave cresting slowly, almost ready to break.

It couldn’t last.

Not if the galaxy was to survive.

“Dark matter?” Picard repeated.

On the viewscreen, Kirk confirmed what Spock had said, his words measured and slow. “Dark matter and dark energy.” Both men on the Belle Reve looked haggard, faces sagging in the high gravity they had chosen to endure. “It makes sense, Jean-Luc, and you know it.”

Picard thought over the explanation Spock had presented and wasn’t surprised that there was a logic to it.

Hundreds of years ago, in the troubled times leading up to the Third World War, humans had discovered that the majority of the universe was primarily composed of a mysterious unseen substance and almost imperceptible force that the physicists of the day had called dark matter and dark energy. Over the ensuing centuries, the concept fell in and out of favor as numerous theories of quantum cosmology were continually refined, one version leading to another as more and more discoveries were made. But always in the equations lurked two vast unknowns with changing names: shadow mass, quintessence, the Higgs sieve, dimensional braiding, deSitter particles, and etheric drag among others.

But today, Picard knew, in this modern era of technology unchained, multiphysicists had turned to the past. Once again researchers called forth those first, simplest, and self-explanatory terms-dark matter and dark energy-to identify that still unquantifiable but overwhelming portion of space that composed the sum total of the universe, except for stars and their galaxies.

Now, as when the concepts were first discovered, they remained a source of wonder. The approximately four percent of the universe that was composed of ordinary matter and energy had given rise to life while the rest of the void was barren.

But now Spock was saying that the Federation’s finest minds were wrong. That life was not limited just to those few precarious environments on planets and moons, and a handful of comets and asteroids. A different form of it existed throughout all the unseen and unknowable regions of the universe. In fact, that life-force had spontaneously arisen from dark matter and dark energy as surely and as invariably as biological life arose from the chemistry of warm and wet physical environments.

The only place, Spock said, where dark-matter life could not emerge was in the minuscule parts of the universe where sporadic clouds of hydrogen gas coalesced into stars and galaxies. Those small regions of space-time apparently created such extreme conditions that even dark-matter life believed it was impossible for any other form of life to arise in them.

Spock had explained nothing less than the mystery of the Totality and its origin and motive. As the aeons had passed, dark-matter life spread through the universe, avoiding the pockets of normal matter and energy hostile to its existence, eventually becoming the linked sentience of the Totality. In time, projections of that combined life-force– the equivalent, in Spock’s opinion, of biological individuals-developed techniques for penetrating and exploring the extreme environments where life as they knew it could not exist. But, as they were startled to discover, it did.

The Totality had found light-matter life: life as humans and other biology-based entities know it, formed from hydrogen clouds and the stars that arose from them. But the Totality also realized that this light-matter life, though capable of evolving a limited intelligence, seemed regrettably unable to perceive the true nature of the universe. So, driven by the desire to bring enlightenment to those poor beings confined to a mere sliver of the universe, the Totality took on the noble task of reengineering the harsh environments of coalesced hydrogen. They sought ways to eliminate the disruptive stars and galaxies that trapped and confined light-matter life. Their ultimate goal was positive and compassionate, Spock said: Absorb all stunted, extremophile life-forms into the vast, universe-wide shared sentience of the ultimate reality.

Spock repeated his conclusion for Picard’s benefit. “The Totality believes it is bringing peace and joy to the universe, one galaxy at a time. The Kelvan Empire of Andromeda was the latest to be ‘saved.’ Now it is our galaxy’s turn.”

Picard glanced down at the small communications screen that had folded out of his command chair. Will Riker appeared on it from the bridge of the Titan. He had heard everything, looked concerned. “I have a question for the ambassador,” he said.

“Please,” Spock answered.

“What’s the connection between gravity fields and warp bubbles?”

Spock appeared to welcome the opportunity to explain in further detail. Picard followed most of his explanation, but trusted that his crew could enlighten him if he missed something significant.

“Dark-matter life,” Spock said, “arises from the quantum foam of existence. It is a natural and inevitable result of the universe’s underlying structure, no different from the sea of virtual particles and vacuum energy continually being produced out of what we erroneously call ‘nothing.’

“But the conditions most conducive to this form of life require flat space-time. Strong gravitational sources create dimensional distortions.”

Picard saw the connection. “Which is why the Totality avoided stars and galaxies for so long.”

Spock confirmed Picard’s conclusion. “However,” he continued, “the subspace distortions created by our warp technology cancel out gravitational distortions. That makes almost any warp generator based on Cochrane’s theories a portal for the Totality to reach within our gravitational wells.”

Riker followed the logic and was able to answer the last part of Picard’s question. “So by increasing our local artificial-gravity field, we basically pinch those dimensional openings closed.”

“Simplistic, but correct,” Spock said.

Picard looked at Troi and she nodded. “Everything Spock’s told you, he believes.”

“Ambassador,” Picard asked, “you claim all this information was given to you by the Totality?”

“Not given,” Spock said, “but it was… available during my experience in their realm.”

Despite the burden of four gravities, Kirk managed to look impatient. “Jean-Luc, we can go into details later. Right now, I have to get to Earth.”

“Fine,” Picard said. He was as eager to end this stalemate as Kirk appeared to be. “Drop your shields, let us beam you aboard, and we’ll continue this discussion in transit to Command.”

Kirk’s expression tightened. “You haven’t been paying attention. Right now, my ship is the only one we can be sure has no projection of the Totality on board. If you want us on the Enterprise, you’re going to have to increase your own gravity settings.”

Before Picard could object, Worf did it for him.

“Sir, at four gravities we will not be able to effectively respond to any attempt by Kirk to escape or attack.”

“I heard that,” Kirk said, and there was little doubt his patience was at an end. “As far as I’m concerned, the only reason you could have for resisting an increase in gravity is because the Enterprise has already been infiltrated and compromised.”

Picard sat back in his chair, secure in knowing that with three other ships in place to back up the Enterprise, Kirk had run out of options.

“Jim, it could also be inferred that the only reason you could have for refusing to allow us to confirm your identity is because you have been compromised.”

Kirk’s voice hardened. “Jean-Luc, Spock just told you how to fight back against the Totality. We drove Norinda from this ship. I’m trying to take critical information to Starfleet that could provide an even greater tactical advantage. I’m not the one who’s been compromised.”

Picard tugged at his jacket. “I understand your frustration, but the fact is, I have the advantage. The only way out is for you to trust me. The sooner you do that, the sooner we can get your information to Starfleet, and the sooner you can return to Vulcan to find your son.”

Kirk bit his words off, one by one, for emphasis. “You don’t have the advantage. As long as this ship remains at four gravities, I can go to warp without the Totality interfering. Even if I tear your ship apart. I’m giving you one minute.”

Troi leaned closer to Picard. “No question. He’s prepared to inflict casualties.”

In response to Kirk’s barely contained rage, Picard felt himself go cold. “And I’m prepared to accept them.”

Kirk and Picard locked eyes, viewscreen to viewscreen.

“Fifty seconds,” Kirk said.

“You won’t escape the other ships,” Picard warned.

“Then at least I’ll die free.”

The immovable object. The irresistible force.

Two beasts locked in eternal combat, each prepared to accept death before defeat.

“Forty seconds…”

Kirk could barely breathe. It took all his strength simply to sit upright. But he would not relax his posture. He would not let Picard see any sign of weakness.

At his engineering console, Scott had almost lost his voice. The holographic doctor had administered tri-ox and mitochondrial enhancers to everyone, but four gravities took a constant toll.

“Warp core comin’ online, Captain,” he croaked. “No sign of any interference….”

Kirk was aware of Spock at his side, adjusting a communications control. “Jim, are you certain this is necessary?”

Kirk had to struggle to enunciate clearly enough to be understood. “You’ve been away, Spock. I believe the Vulcan authorities have been compromised by the Totality. And if it can happen there, it can happen on Earth, and on the Enterprise.”

Spock didn’t argue the point, though Kirk couldn’t be certain if that was because he accepted the argument, or because exhaustion was also claiming him.

Then, without warning, the image of Picard on the center viewscreen dissolved into subspace static.

“Scotty…?” Kirk began to ask. Had the Totality devised a new method of entering normal space-time?

But before his engineer could answer, the cause of the static was revealed as a new and unexpected image appeared.

“Captain, I have broken in on both transmissions,” Tuvok said. “You are now on the viewscreens of the Belle Reve and the Enterprise.”

This time, Riker didn’t even try to hide what he was feeling, and it left no room for any of the respect that he should be showing two more senior captains.

“You two will stand down right now or I swear I’ll open fire on both of you!”

Kirk appeared on the left side of the main viewscreen. It was as if he had not even heard Riker’s threat. “This isn’t your fight, Captain,” he rasped. “Thirty seconds, Jean-Luc.”

“Why is this a fight at all?!” Riker demanded.

Picard was on the right side of the screen, jaw clenched, eyes piercing. “Will, I’m counting on you to stop Kirk as soon as he drops out of warp.”

“No!” Riker shouted. “The universe does not revolve around you two alone! We’re all of us on a Starfleet mission and there is another way to resolve this!”

Riker took some comfort in seeing Kirk and Picard finally react to what he said, both momentarily losing their stern demeanor.

“Twenty-five seconds,” Kirk said. “Convince me.”

“I’ll increase gravity on the Titan! It’ll be the neutral ground. And when you’re both convinced that this ship hasn’t been compromised, I’ll beam everyone over for identity confirmation and a sensible discussion about how to proceed.” Riker turned to Tuvok. “Mister Tuvok, is Kirk’s warp core still online?”

“It is.”

Riker glared at the two captains on the viewscreen as he gave his orders to Tuvok. “Very well. Target the Belle Reve and the Enterprise. All banks, full barrage.”

Then Riker made his ultimatum as clear as he could. “Captain Kirk, Captain Picard, you’ve heard my offer. But if you two are so determined to tear apart your ships, allow me to lend a hand.”

“Phasers locked,” Tuvok confirmed.

“Captain Kirk,” Riker said, “it’s your move.”