Any response that Nogura or anyone else might have made was cut off by a faint, high-pitched whine beginning to reverberate through the command center. Cooper looked around for the sound’s possible source but saw nothing out of the ordinary. The whine became a howl, its intensity increasing with each passing second, so much that everyone in the room pressed his or her hands to ears in futile efforts to stifle its piercing assault.
“Where’s it coming from?” Dunbar shouted over the din, her eyes squeezed shut.
At the point where Cooper was sure his eardrums would burst, the sound faded. In its place, an orb of light appeared above the center of the conference table, growing in size and brightness. Cooper watched as it stretched and elongated until it took on the outline of a humanoid life-form. Within seconds, it coalesced and solidified, with facial features, hair, and clothing emerging from the light. When the glare faded, all that remained was what appeared to be a human male, perhaps seventy Earth years of age, with deep creases in his forehead and around his eyes and mouth. His dark hair and beard were streaked with gray, and he wore a simple short-sleeved brown tunic with ornamental white stitching around its neck and down to the center of his chest. As he gazed out at the command-center staff, the man’s eyes seemed heavy with sadness.
More like resignation,Cooper thought.
“It looks like a projection,” Jackson said.
Stepping forward to better study the apparition, Nogura asked, “But where’s it being transmitted from?”
It was the apparition that replied.
“My name is Ayelborne, of the planet Organia,”the figure said, clasping his hands before him. “At this moment, the military forces of your Federation and the Klingon Empire have converged in orbit above my planet, as well as elsewhere in space, ready, if not eager, to wage war. Were you to confine your hostilities to yourselves, we would be content to allow you to destroy each other. However, your conflict threatens millions of innocent lives, and that is something we cannot allow. At present, all of your instruments of violence now radiate a temperature of three hundred fifty degrees. They are inoperative. These same conditions exist within both of your star fleets. There will be no battle.”
“Are you kidding me?” Jackson asked, exchanging with Cooper an expression of disbelief.
Ayelborne continued, “As I stand before you now, I also stand upon the home planet of your Federation and the home planet of the Klingon Empire. Unless both sides agree to an immediate cessation of hostilities, all of your armed forces, wherever they may be, will be immediately immobilized.”
Cooper felt his jaw slacken as he began to comprehend the enormity of what he was hearing. Who was this Ayelborne? What planet was Organia, and what kind of race that called it home could impose its will with such force and confidence? Were these mysterious beings friend, foe, or self-appointed overseer?
“You must understand,”Ayelborne said, “that we consider interference in the affairs of others to be most distasteful, but you have left us no choice. To that end, you will soon be contacted again, at which time the nature of our mandate will be made clear, and you will be offered paths to assist you in finding peace with each other.”For the first time since the projection had appeared, Ayelborne’s features hardened from an almost paternal expression of disapproval to one of cold determination. “The choice of which path to follow is entirely yours to make, and the consequences for your decision will rest solely with you.”
He said nothing more, and a moment later, his human appearance dissolved into the orb of blinding light, and those in the command center covered their ears again as the high-pitched whine returned. The light pulsed as it brightened, and Cooper shielded his eyes from the glare until it and the ear-piercing sound faded as though they never had existed. No one on the supervisor’s deck spoke, apparently content to stand silent and absorb the astonishing revelation they had just witnessed.
Finally, Nogura broke the quiet. “Well,” the admiral said, turning to Cooper as he clasped his hands behind his back, exuding the reserved demeanor that seemed to drape over him like a comforting blanket, “that’s certainly going to make things a bit more interesting.”
One Year Earlier
1
All was silence in the Void.
Despite tireless searching, the Shedai Wanderer heard nothing, just as she had since arriving on the lifeless moon she now called home. How long had she been here, listening for the songs that logic told her might never come?
The Conduit that was part of this moon remained dormant. It, along with all of the others throughout the realm once ruled by the Shedai, was dead, as they had been from the moment the First World departed this dimensional plane, taking with it the Serrataal.Without energy and guidance channeled outward from the First World, the Conduit could offer her nothing. The vast technology and resources it commanded and which were embedded within the moon’s very core were inaccessible, protected by fail-safes that had activated the moment contact with the First Conduit was breached.
She was fortunate in that she had managed to traverse the immense distance separating this moon from the heart of the Shedai realm before all power was lost. Had that happened while she was still in transit, she likely would have been destroyed, crushed by the forces of space-time rushing in to fill the narrow gap forced open for only fleeting moments by the First Conduit. Despite escaping annihilation—at the hands of the Shedai Apostate and the collapsing Conduits—it had taken every bit of energy the Wanderer possessed simply to make her desperate, headlong journey to this desolate place. Now she was trapped here, powerless to do anything except search for any sign of her people while waiting for her strength to return.
And where was here?
Looking toward the stars, she saw the equally dead planet around which this moon orbited. It had taken her some time to sift through her memories and recall that this star system was among those most distant from the First World, near the outer periphery of what had been the vast realm once ruled by the Shedai. The Wanderer remembered with little interest that the barren world had once been home to a thriving civilization. For reasons she could not remember, the inhabitants had seen fit to exterminate themselves by means of a protracted conflict. Generations of unremitting warfare had destroyed both the people and the planet from which they had sprung. Whatever value the world might once have possessed had been lost long ago, first to violence and finally to time.
Wait…
Something touched the Wanderer’s consciousness, startling her from her ruminations, and it was an additional moment before she realized that the Conduit had called to her. No, she decided, that was not accurate. Turning her attention to the ancient construct, she confirmed that it remained inert. None of its power systems was active, though a closer inspection revealed that the Conduit had indeed received some kind of faint, erratic energy pulse. Had the Serrataalreturned already? She found that unlikely.
When another chime made its presence felt, this one just as faint as its predecessor, the Wanderer focused her mind on it, reaching out with her thoughts to grasp it. Fading into nothingness, it evaded her. Whatever she was sensing, it was far too weak and disjointed to have come from any Serrataal.This was something different.