Deanna stepped forward next, taking a vial from Vale, and hoisting it aloft.
Through eyes that brimmed with tears, Riker saw others—many others—from the crew begin to step forward behind his wife. He saw that Ra-Havreii, looking haggard and haunted, was the first in line. Even Chaka was exiting one of the caves to take a place in the queue.
He closed his eyes and wondered how many other such ceremonies he would have to preside over in the coming years, as Titancontinued its voyages.
And as the voices of his crew washed over him, calling to the memory of Ledrah, he held fast to the hope that occasions such as this would be few and far between.
As she entered the quarters she shared with her husband, Deanna Troi immediately noticed that the lights were low. Will’s dress tunic lay on the table, but she didn’t pick it up.
Imzadi?She reached out with her mind, not hearing anything from the other rooms.
“In here, Deanna,” Will said, his low voice coming from the bathroom.
She turned the corner and looked in at him. He was leaning on the washbasin, staring into the mirror. He had changed into his regular duty tunic, but hadn’t closed the front of it yet.
“Are you all right, Will?”
He continued staring into the mirror. “Yeah. I just prepared a message for Nidani’s family. When we get back to Federation space, I’ll send it.”
She felt a pang of guilt. “I haven’t been here for you much since the attack,” Troi said, stepping into the smaller room and reaching out her hand to brush Will’s ear.
He smiled wanly. “It’s not your fault. The crew needs you andit needs me. Duty comes first, especially during a crisis.”
But duty can always be tempered with the love we share,Troi thought, joining her mind to her husband’s. If we take the time do so.
He didn’t respond at first, but slowly closed his eyes. Finally, he turned toward her.
“A few weeks ago, when we were in the stellar cartography lab, I told you that this ship was our chance to recover some of the wonder we lost over the last decade serving on the Enterprise.Our chance to explore what lay beyond. And yet, our first mission is filled with warring Romulans and Remans, space battles, a prison break, and death. What’s changed?”
Troi turned her head and looked at Will’s reflection in the mirror, training her dark eyes on his. “I won’t deny your feelings—and my feelings as well—of disappointment that Titan’s launch will be forever remembered because of what happened over the last week. But show me a starship that hasn’t been drawn into some kind of conflict, or run into some unforeseen impacts when dealing with new lives and new civilizations, or had to deal with bizarre consequences when faced with spatial anomalies…and I’ll show you a starship that only exists in some Academy textbook.
“Here we are in uncharted space, about to encounter gods only know what or who. This is the very definition of Titan’s mission. We may be about to reconnect with humanity’s long-lost offshoot. We may save lives or be forced into battle to save our own. We’ll learn and grow along the way, and more importantly, we’ll explore.You and I and this crew with all its unique differences.
“We’ll explore, together.”
Riker straightened his posture and turned, enfolding Troi into his arms. She felt his beard atop her head, smelled the scent that he gave off when he was worried. But his embrace was strong, and she returned it.
I love you,Imzadi, he thought.
And I love you, Will.
Troi knew that their embrace would end. Duty would call. But for now, their fragment of the universe was utterly at peace.
Darkness.
Warmth.
Fear.
Concern.
Love.
Near silence, except for the noises and things at the edges of consciousness that threatened to wake him.
He wanted to sleep like this forever. But he feared that the red in which he floated would not permit it.
Chapter Four
STARDATE 26795.2 (18 OCTOBER 2349)
“W hen have you known Flenrol ever to give up searching for anything?” Captain Akaar asked, grinning. “He is the most anal-retentive Bolian I have ever encountered. Perhaps that is why he makes such an excellent XO.”
Tuvok moved a hand across his brow, wiping the sweat away. “I do not believe that even he will be able to find us here, Captain. Our communicators are inhibited by the local geomagnetism. Additionally, this system is littered with four-hundred and thirty-six other satellite planetoids, each of which contains a sufficiently metallic core to generate magnetic fields capable of confusing theWyoming ’s sensors. Logic dictates that in the time it will take Commander Flenrol to find us, we will have perished either from the heat or from thirst and starvation.”
“I enjoy the way you always manage to find the bright side in every crisis situation, Tuvok,” Akaar said, grinning. “It is what makes you the best possible company when roasting to death on a Neltedian planetoid.”
It had been four days since they had last been inside the shuttlecraftAuraciem . The small vessel had become Akaar’s favorite during the weeks since Starfleet Command had promoted him from exec and acting captain to the permanent commander of theU.S.S. Wyoming following the untimely death of its longtime CO, the volatile Captain Karl Broadnax.
Akaar and Tuvok had embarked on what was actually supposed to have been a fairly routine mission of exploration into the Neltedian system—until an unexpected and unusually intense solar flare had fried theAuraciem ’s shields, her propulsion and guidance systems, and had bled away most of her power.
After flying the dying shuttle into the relative protection of one of the planetoid’s powerful magnetic fields, Tuvok had barely managed to get enough power to the transporters in time to beam them out of the shuttle before it crashed. Then, what should have been half a day’s trek across the unknown world’s barren wastes became a torturous four-day climb through the ravines and crevices of the sunbaked sphere. Though the sere, pitiless environment was technically M-Class—which Tuvok had called remarkable, considering the planetoid’s relatively small size—the plant life here was clearly being sustained by resources located far underground; the spire-like trees had somehow managed to contribute enough oxygen and nitrogen to make the arid atmosphere barely breathable, but evidently did not support any large fauna. And they seemed to provide precious little protection against the system’s roiling, merciless sun. Worse yet, the hard, rocky ground made whatever subterranean water the trees were using effectively inaccessible, especially since the planetoid’s geomagnetism had evidently cooked their one hand phaser.
By the time they finally reached the wreckage of the shuttle, both men were dehydrated, sunburned, and very nearly in a state of hallucination. Akaar was amazed and thankful to discover that several of the shuttle’s aft compartments had been relatively unharmed by the crash, giving them some emergency supplies, two sheltering tents, and a small amount of water and foodstuffs.