Title: Colony Author: Jemima Contact: jemimap@crosswinds.net Series: VOY Part: 11/20 Rating: PG Codes: crew, J/C Date: November 2000 Disclaimer: Copyright has expired on the works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson quoted herein. Certain of the names below have been trademarked by Paramount; be assured I am not conducting trade with them. ***** Part 11 ***** What is that which I should turn to, lighting upon days like these? Every door is barr'd with gold, and opens but to golden keys. Seven and Ovin were the first to catch up with the Captain and Commander and join in their impromptu picnic. Tom and B'Elanna were still in communications range of the shuttle and reported the Captain's discovery before proceeding to the picnic site. Soon the six explorers picked up their helmets and continued down the tunnel, but were stopped by a word from Torres half a kilometer from their goal. "We're being scanned, Captain," B'Elanna reported. The Captain, however, was more interested in the old man who had suddenly appeared before them, blocking the tunnel. "My children, welcome to Toleighanomir," he said. "He appears to be some sort of hologram, Captain," B'Elanna said, sotto voce. "Have you travelled the galaxy, my children? Have you colonized the uninhabited worlds? Have you filled them with your kind?" the hologram asked theatrically. Ovin looked down sheepishly, realizing he was not much of a colonizer by his ancestor's standards. But a light, a dangerous light, shone in Janeway's eyes as she answered, "I have been to the four quadrants of the galaxy. I have seen a thousand suns rise over inhabited worlds - the galaxy is filled with life, humanoid life." "Only you, my daughter?" Chakotay spoke up. "I have seen the four corners of the galaxy, and the countless living things that dwell in it." He turned to B'Elanna, who had been with him on that little jaunt to the Gamma Quadrant. She told the hologram reluctantly, "I, too, have been to the four quadrants." And I passed through all points of the universe, once, Tom thought, but he didn't want to get involved. That look in the Captain's eye spelled trouble, with a capital T. "Show me," the hologram demanded, as a holographic map of the Milky Way appeared between it and the flesh-and-blood humanoids. B'Elanna pulled up a corresponding star chart on her tricorder and held it up for Janeway. With a finger, Janeway drew an imaginary X through the holographic galaxy, then pointed to one of the divisions: "This is the Alpha Quadrant, our home. Earth is here," she said, pointing, then drawing an imaginary circle, "in the United Federation of Planets." "I come from Dorvan V," Chakotay said, pointing to his home near the galactic rim, "and here is Bajor, the Demilitarized Zone, and Ferenginar." His hand moved to another portion of the map. "I was on patrol once in the Romulan-Federation Neutral Zone, in the Beta Quadrant." "The Klingon Empire is also in the Beta Quadrant," B'Elanna said, marking out another circle. "And here, in the Gamma Quadrant, is the Dosi homeworld, which Chakotay and I visited on a ... supply mission." A smuggling run, the Captain realized. Janeway pointed to another Gamma Quadrant star, saying "I visited New Bajor once, on a diplomatic tour. And here," she added ruefully, "is the Delta Quadrant. We first arrived at the Ocampa homeworld, and have travelled 45,000 lightyears through the quadrant to the Leigus Union." Her finger cut a long swath across the Delta Quadrant, ending in a wide circle to indicate the vast expanse of Leigan space. "Then you are welcome, my children, to continue the mission of Toleighanomir." Janeway, Chakotay and B'Elanna were engulfed in white light. Tom expected them to dematerialize - off to chat on the moon's bridge with their photonic host - but when the light faded they were still there. Only the preachy hologram had disappeared. "Captain," B'Elanna called out, looking down at her right hand in wonder. The Captain stepped over to gaze at her chief engineer's outstretched forearm. Chakotay did not move; instead, he opened his own hand cautiously. In the center of his palm was a gold imprint of the spiral disk of the galaxy. Tom waved his tricorder over B'Elanna's hand, but had little to report. "I'm detecting an increased level of gold in your system. If there are any other changes, they're undetectable short of a full medical exam," the medic concluded, then wondered absently, "What do you suppose it's for?" The Captain didn't answer immediately. She almost ran down the last section of tunnel and into the room at its end. As the others caught up, they found her walking over to the far wall, muttering "A key - it must be the key." Tom turned to Ovin and asked, "What does Toleighanomir mean, exactly?" "It is Old High Leigan for two thousand, three hundred and forty-seventh." ***** The section of the wall Janeway approached bore a triangular figure not unlike the crest of the Klingon Empire, but in gold. At the top of the triangle was a spiral-like symbol, in the bottom left corner a star and at the bottom right a circle. The Captain held out her hand, seeming to expect a response from the ancient stone walls. None was forthcoming as the others gathered around the golden mystery. Tom noted her expression - it wasn't the familiar 'you've messed with the wrong woman this time' look, nor the old reliable 'there's coffee in that nebula' look (recently supplanted by the 'let's steal that moon' look), but a wide-eyed gaze of scientific curiosity. He sighed. In the end, that look always got them into just as much trouble as the others. She asked Ovin whether he recognized the symbols. "Yes. They represent the ancient Trivium - the three spheres of life. The helix represents humanoidkind." "DNA," the Captain realized aloud. Ovin nodded. "The star represents science - cosmology being the queen of the sciences. The wheel represents technology. Together, they symbolize unity, humanoid knowledge..." "I don't suppose anything there symbolizes 'press here to open'?" Tom quipped. "If there's a door here, it's not showing up on my scans," B'Elanna added. "Is it a test?" Seven wondered aloud. "I don't think so, Seven," the Captain answered. "Toleighanomir seems to have approved us already. Maybe it's just the doorbell." "I assume it's supposed to be obvious, even to the old man's most distant descendants," Chakotay commented. It seemed obvious to him; he covered the helix with his newly augmented hand. Janeway gave him the skunk eye - Tom wasn't sure what for - then placed a hand on the star. B'Elanna followed suit, touching the circle. It was the hiss of air, rather than the silent sealing of the doorway, which alerted them to their success. "Are we moving?" the Captain asked. Seven consulted her tricorder. "We have moved twenty kilometers toward the center of the moon, but we seem to have stopped now." "We should tell it where we want to go," Chakotay opined. "How?" B'Elanna asked. In reply, the Commander lifted his hand from the wall, took the Captain's wrist and placed her hand over B'Elanna's, with his own on top. "Engineering," he said. Smooth, very smooth, Tom reflected. You'd think he would get somewhere with moves like that. "We're moving again, Captain," Seven reported, "North, 5000 kilometers per hour." "This is some turbolift," Tom commented to no one in particular. The rest were silent. Ten minutes ticked slowly by. B'Elanna forgot Chakotay, the wall and its symbols as she contemplated the engines of this ship - a ship she hadn't quite believed in until just a few minutes before - calculating the forces necessary to get a moon to warp speeds and wondering what physical principle moved it across the endless void between galaxies. Janeway, on the other hand, spent her ten minutes glaring at her first officer; he'd responded with a series of looks Tom interpreted thus: Are you glaring at me? Little old me? I'm entirely innocent here, just trying to press the turbolift buttons. Tom couldn't see her answering glare, but he watched Chakotay's eyes flash in reply: Press *your* buttons, you say? Why, I'd never, Captain! What do you mean, remove that hand? Don't tell me you don't like being pawed on the slightest pretense. If you can't take it, then don't dish it out. Tom was impressed. She'd never let him get a word in edgewise, but there was no protocol against looks. He was glad he couldn't see the Captain's face, or be caught in her basilisk glare, from this angle. At the end of those ten very long minutes, Seven updated them: "We're decelerating," and then, "We've stopped." Chakotay released the Captain's hand. B'Elanna's hand was still on the wall when it split into three segments, which quickly receded into the surrounding rock, or alloy, or green cheese, whatever it was this moon was made of. They stepped out of the odd turbolift onto a causeway suspended across a brightly lit room the size of a Kazon mothership. Machinery lined the walls, peered up from the depths below them, and hung suspended overhead. *****