On the shuttlecraft from Toshi Station...
Commander Bedard made a slight course adjustment. Myah looked up from her board as she noticed it.
"What's that for? The Avalon's last reported position was in the Charybdis cluster."
"I know, but I got a signal from Defiant to rendezvous with them first. They're sending over some volunteers to go with us." Bedard replied.
Myah nodded. "Well, the way that message sounded, we may need all the help we can get."
Renee, Calara, and Alexa exchanged looks at that comment.
A few minutes later, there was a shower of golden sparkles, a transporter effect, and three figures took shape.
Captain Adam Lebin joined Bedard and Myah at the forward console, while Lcdr T'Mal and Midshipman Xerath joined the other three in the rear.
* * * * *
Light years away, on the planet surface...
Captain Cullyn MacBreandain vanished in a flare of white light.
Kamiana only watched, she knew, she *knew*, Michael meant no harm. This was for the best, she told herself, it had to be.
Commander Jen took a step forward. "All right that's it. I don't know what game you're playing and I don't care. Just bring the Captain back right now, understand?"
Several of the other crew, Fifth, Backus, and Longshadow among them, moved to surround the so called Prophet.
He raised his hands. (He is in the world the Light has given him...as all of you shall now be.)
"I said bring--" Jen began, but got no further as light spread out from the Prophet to engulf her.
Tom Backus flung his hands over his eyes as the world dissolved into incandescent whiteness.
Longshadow squeezed his eyes shut as he, too, was enveloped in brilliance.
Serrin, T'pril, Paulos, Fifth, Maerret, and the others also, were surrounded, then swallowed up, by the light.
When it passed, the Avalon crew was gone. That is, all but one.
Kamiana found herself alone in the empty city with Michael.
"I'm still here...?" she whispered. "And what did you do with them?"
(Your dream was to find me again, Kamiana. The others now have theirs)
* * *
Cullyn MacBreandain blinked as the brilliant white light faded and he could see again.
Only he wasn't in the city on the planet any more.
He looked around at the room he was in. It looked like a typical living room of a typical Terran house.
Just the sort of place he'd imagined living in, if he wasn't in Starfleet. How...no. the how was obvious. The Prophet--Landry--had to have done this.
Where was he, though, and what had happened to the rest of the crew? The way the Prophet had talked about 'showing them what the Light wanted for them'...they could be just about anywhere.
* * *
Jen came out of incandescence to find herself standing in what she recognized as the kitchen of her foster parents' house back on Earth. A place she hadn't been to in years, and definitely not since the nanite invasion. She'd never thought she'd see this place again. What was she doing here?
A moment later she answered her own question. The Prophet must have sent her here, she just wasn't certain why.
And why did she feel so odd? She looked down at herself. Her Starfleet uniform was gone, but she hadn't changed out of it. She was wearing an ordinary blouse and slacks, civilian clothing. Though she couldn't recall changing. She tried to shift back into her uniform, but nothing happened.
Puzzled, she tried to relax into her natural form. At any other time, that would have resulted in Jen's humanoid form dissolving into a puddle of orange jell-O...but now she remained just as she was.
It couldn't be. Or could it? Jen touched her wrist, where she remembered from training a human would have a pulse, and realized she had one now.
The Prophet had turned her human! *and* sent her back to her old home... what was he playing at? She'd wished several times she could go back, yes, but this?
She walked slowly through the room, seeing again the familiar furnishings.
That was when she noticed it was *not* exactly the way she remembered it.
There were some things out of place, and some other things she was sure had not been in here the last time she had.
She moved slowly to the end of the kitchen, to the small table where her `mother' had kept some family holopics. That was what had caught her eye... something here was different.
She looked closely at the pics. There were some of herself with her parents, just as they had been...but there were some she didn't recognize.
Herself, with two small children. Human children. A boy of about seven, a girl about five.
This was impossible. Impossible. Until five minutes ago (at least it felt like five minutes) she'd been Changeling. And Changelings did not reproduce the way humans did. *And* even if she had spawned these would not be the results!
This Prophet, this Light, was even more powerful than she'd thought, if it could somehow create all this. And if it had done this to her, what could it have done to the others?
Jen stared at the pictures, while her mind tried to process the implications and questions.
Then it registered who else was in them. The man who stood beside her in several of them, who was with the children in others.
Oh, by the Great Link, Jen thought as she recognized who it was.
Things had just gotten WAY more complicated than they already were.
Which was when she heard a sound in the next room...a room she somehow knew was the living room.
She walked slowly towards it, suspecting who she'd find there and not certain what she'd say if she was right.
* * *
Cullyn MacBreandain heard footsteps in the next room and turned to face the door...the kitchen door, he realized (though how he knew *that* was yet another question in itself)...then froze as he saw who was standing there.
"Jen?!? Wha' be ye doin' here--wherever here is."
"This is where I grew up, with my foster parents on Earth." she replied. "Only I'm not the Jen you remember. I mean..." she swallowed. "I was her, I remember being her--but she was Changeling. I'm human. As human as you are."
"Th'work o'this Prophet, no doubt. An' nae tellin' what he's done wi'tha others." He shook his head. "First we got t'figure out what's happened ta them, an' then how ta get tha ship back."
Jen nodded, slowly. She understood that, and yet...this place was so real. She found herself looking, despite herself, at MacBreandain in a way she hadn't before.
Suddenly she wasn't in so much of a hurry to get back. Not that she didn't want to, but damn it she wanted to live as a human, for a little while anyway. "Captain." she said, then realized how out of place that word suddenly sounded. "You're right. We do have to get back, but does it *have* to be right away?"
"Jen, we cannae--this is some sort o'alternate universe, most likely."
"I know it is." She took a step closer to him. "But the Prophet put me, us, here for a reason...for me..." she swallowed. "There's a part of me that's always wondered what it's like to be human. I mean really, not just look like one on the outside. I've a pretty good idea of the *why* you're here...but why *you*?"
* * *
Longshadow opened his eyes as a hand fell on his shoulder.
"So, Longinus, what think you of Silenus' speech?"
Lcdr Longshadow of the USS Avalon stared. The man facing him was no one he recognized. That was the first thing he noticed. The second was that while he stood in a city square, it was not the one he remembered clearly being in mere moments before...before the Light.
It was one he had up until now only seen in holosims of historical texts.
He looked down at himself, then up at the other man. They were both wearing togas and cloaks in the style of ancient Rome.
"Longinus?" the other man said, a slight hint of concern entering his voice. The way his old friend looked was definitely odd. "Are you unwell?"
"No...." Longshadow murmured quickly, his mind scrambling to figure out what had happened. The last thing he remembered was seeing the Captain vanish--then Jen had challenged the so called Prophet and then he'd been here.
Either this was some sort of illusion, or the Prophet had actually sent him back in time. He had to figure out which and find a way back.
* * * * *
On board the Avalon...
The body laid upon the cold metal table. There was no sign of life in it, it was a dead husk, all that had been left behind of Goth Lasher, Vampire Chancellor. The ship's morgue was also very quiet. Then a glow surrounded Lasher's body, a soft, white light which covered only the surface of his skin. His features began to blur and distort, then slowly to change. As the light faded away, where once had been a tall gaunt pale skinned man with dark hair, now there was a different man altogether.
He looked much younger than he had before. Goth had looked to be in his late forties before his 'death'. This man looked to be in his early thirties, handsome with fair blond hair. After a few moments he began to breathe. A few minutes later he started to stir and show signs of life once more. The younger looking man's eyes opened and with a moan he pushed himself up from the table. The new man still wore Goth's clothes, which he quickly found out were much too large for him. He looked down at his arms and felt his face.
"Oh no..." He muttered, "No, no, no, no, no. There were years left in that body." He quickly jumped up onto his feet and raced to a nearby mirror and looked at his reflection. A look of pure horror crossed his face for a brief moment. Then a look of disappointment. "Oh no," He moaned, "I look like a child for the Great One's sake." Goth said looking at his new reflection. He reached up and touched his face for a moment. Then his hair. Then he sighed and took a closer look, "That's the problem with regeneration," He said, "You never know what you're going to get. Still the nose is an improvement I guess."
Goth looked down at his clothes. The sleeves of the coat he wore covered his hands for it was much too large for his new body. Plus now he suddenly found he did not like it all that much. Whatever possessed him to join Starfleet in the first place he found himself thinking now. But then he hadn't joined, had he? No, that had been his last incarnation. For all sense and purpose he was a new man now. Yet now he had to deal with the legacy of the actions of his past self. Goth sighed again and he pulled the coat off and rolled up the sleeves of the shirt underneath. He was about to go hunting for a whole new set of clothes when a flash came to his mind. What had killed him in the first place? What had caused his mind to be so damaged that his body had been forced to regenerate in the first place?
Goth found he did not have the answer to that question, "Computer. Status report." He said. After a moment he discovered there was no answer forthcoming. (Damn,) Goth thought. (What the hell was going on?) Whatever that strange force that had struck him had been far more powerful than he had been prepared for. Had he had his mental defenses up he could have fought it off. But being that deep in meditation had left him vulnerable, thus it had killed him. Or rather had killed his former self. And now a whole new Goth Lasher was in existence.
"Right, First order of business. Find out what the hell is going on." Goth went back to his quarters, to where he stored his hand phaser. Only to discover that it was no longer there. Someone or something had removed it, "Right then," Goth muttered, "We do this the hard way."
The mystery was made deeper by the realization that he had not seen so much as one crewmember while making his way from the morgue to his quarters. Was he the only one left aboard? It seemed that way.
* * * * *
Seera frowned. There should not be anyone other than themselves aboard the Avalon now, all of its crew had already been sent to hear the Prophet's message. So why did she feel as if there was someone not of her people nearby?
She thought about calling Tamianth on the bridge, but decided against it. If she did and it turned out to be nothing they would tease her about seeing things, or think she was making up stories.
No, she would check first, and then if someone had been missed, she would merely send them to the surface with the rest. That would be best.
She walked along the corridor, remembering what she and the others had learned of this ship. This section had been living quarters for the crew.
She checked the doors..."Cmdr Jen" ....."Capt MacBreandain"...."Lcdr Longshadow"...nothing. Empty, all of them. Just as they should be. She remembered them being sent to the surface.
There was one more door along this corridor, though..."Cmdr Lasher"...who was that? she didn't remember any among the crew by that name.
That was where the strange feeling was coming from, though.
She raised her hand to activate the door, and froze as it opened before she could, to reveal a man standing there glaring at her. Pale, with red eyes and blond hair.
"You should not be here. The others have gone to hear the words of the Prophet, and you should have gone with them. How is it you are still here?"
Goth's mental power flew out to the child and grasped her mind. His linked with the mind of the child's. He could hear her thought. Knew her memories. It all came into himself in a great flood. He knew now what the power was that had caused him such damage. And understood why it had done so. For others it would have hurt them perhaps. But for one of his people it could be very deadly.
"The Prophet," Goth muttered, "The Light. I thought it had been destroyed long ago." Goth sighed. He looked down at the small child. She could not move. She was captive by his power. Goth smiled down at her, "Come to me child." Goth said softly. Slowly the child walked over to Goth. With a dark smile. Goth reached out and with a quick jerk he snapped her neck. It made a sickening crack and she dropped to the floor like a broken toy. Goth looked down at her for a moment and smiled once more.
"Ahhh," He said with almost sexual ecstasy, "Killing. I never get tired of it." And with that Goth moved out into the hallway. He had a ship to recapture. And many more children to kill.
* * *
On the surface, Michael and Kamiana talked while the children prepared to take the Avalon out of orbit.
(The Light showed me so much, Kamiana,) Michael said softly, the anguish of the horrors he had seen still affecting him. All those worlds devastated, lost to the Darkness because they would not turn from the paths of war and violence that led to it. (to let me see what could happen to our worlds, if we did not change our ways.)
Kamiana's eyes filled with pain. "It has happened, Michael...we lost almost all the Federation not that long ago."
He nodded. (The nanites. I know of those, from your memories and those of your crewmates. But I tell you I have seen the future, too, and there is a Darkness that lies ahead far worse than even that. That is why I was sent, to turn the Federation away from that path before an even greater destruction comes)
She wasn't sure what to make of that statement. He sounded so certain, she wanted to believe him. But there'd been so much they'd already lost...her own parents and the loved ones of who knew how many others, there was no counting the losses. To think that something lay ahead that could be worse. She didn't want to, her mind shied away from the very idea. She could feel what the weight of that knowledge was doing to poor Michael.. she put a hand on his arm. "I'll help you any way I can," she said softly.
(I know you will, Kamiana--I knew you would from the moment I sensed you were on the Avalon.) he said gently, his hand moving to gently clasp hers. His eyes were as deep and full of compassion as she'd always seen them and she pushed any lingering doubts aside.
(The children will carry the word of Peace, as we will, Kamiana. And--) he broke off and stiffened, his deep blue eyes going wide.
"Michael! What is it?" She could feel his shock--something had surprised him but what could it be?
(The ship--something has happened) he said after a moment, bleakness back in his voice. (One of the children--I felt her death!) he whispered, his mind reeling from the blow even as he sought for what had caused it. It had happened so fast.
"How? what--" Kamiana was in shock too, not only from Michael's grief and pain but wondering who or what could have killed the child. There wasn't anyone else *but* the children on board.
An instant later he touched it--and recoiled. (NO!) he cried out again.
His eyes met Kamiana's. (A darkness walks the ship--I must stop it. But I will not leave you here alone.)
With that the planet surface vanished in a flare of white light, and Kamiana found herself with Michael back aboard Avalon--on the bridge.
Tamianth rose from her seat--the center chair which had been Captain MacBreandain's--and took a step forward.
Michael raised a hand. (Remain here...and trust in the Light. There is a danger and I must deal with it. Do not leave this bridge. I have already warned the others.)
Tamianth nodded. "As the Light commands."
"Michael," Kamiana tried again, worried. "please, what is it?"
(Please, Kamiana>> Michael's eyes held hers. (I need you to stay here, too, until I have dealt with this.)
* * *
Goth moved very stealthily down the corridor of the ship. He hung to the shadows for the most part, not wishing to been seen by the Children. He found it hard to believe that he was hunting a group of children in the first place. However in the wholeness of all the universe threat came in many forms. And it would just be like the Light to use Children to further its ends. Goth remembered stories he had heard of the Thanaos first contact with the Light and horrors that had come about due to that. Some saw the Light as a great and holy thing. For others it was the greatest evil ever unleashed. And the Thanaos Empire had been very lucky to survive their encounter.
Goth had made his way to the transporter room. It was his plan to beam himself to the bridge. If he used the turbo lift the was a great chance that the children would know he was coming and be prepared to stop him. He would stand a far greater chance of stopping the Children if he beamed himself to the bridge. Goth finished his programming of the transporter. He looked down at the body of the child whom had been on duty here. Like the other who had come to his room, Goth had killed the child. He felt nothing for his actions. After all they were little more than cattle to him, a creature that lived to serve his own people. Goth kicked the body away from the console and was about to reach out and start the process to beam himself to the bridge when a flash of white light filled the room.
Goth looked at the source of the light and saw the Prophet now stood before him, "Ahhh," Goth said, "Michael Landry. So you came at last."
The Prophet was surprised for a moment, "You know who I am?" He said.
"Oh yes," Goth said, "You see, sometime ago I touched Kamiana's mind. She remembers you quite well. And I learned everything about you that I needed to. However, I must admit I am surprised to see that the Light has used you to be its latest Prophet."
"You killed my Children." The Prophet snapped.
"They were never yours to start with," Goth snapped back, "The Children, like you, ae nothing more than drones to the Light. Tools to further its dream. A dream I plan to put a stop to."
"The human I was would not know you for what you are," the Prophet replied. "but the Light has shown me. You would bring the Darkness down on us all. That which you intend cannot be allowed to be, not if Life is to be preserved."
He moved to the dead child, knelt beside the boy and stroked the child's brown hair as he took the limp form in his arms. "Jikas...and Seera..." he shook his head, then stood up still holding the child and met Goth's eyes. "These children have suffered enough when the Cardassians nearly destroyed their world. I will not allow you to harm them further nor to bring your dark vision to the universe. The children of countless worlds would suffer beyond description were that to happen."
The boy's form glowed with light then vanished, at the same moment in the corridor outside Goth's quarters the same thing happened to the dead girl.
Michael stared at Goth and raised his hand..."The Light is Life and Peace--all these things your kind have threatened for millennia. That threat ends today."
"I think not." Goth said with a dark smile. He quickly slammed his hands down on the transporter controls. Less than a second later, Michael found himself enveloped in the beam and vanished from the room. Goth quickly ran from the room. He would not have much time. Beaming Michael to the bridge would occupy him for a few minutes. He had to be quick if he was to stop this `Prophet' of the Light.
Goth's own power, although great enough to cause a human to obey his will, would not be enough to stop one who had the power of a god. Still, the Thanaos people had stopped the Light from defeating the Empire long ago. Goth had a few tricks up his sleeve he could play upon Michael Landry. And if he was very lucky. Destroy him. Goth looked up at the door to cargo bay four. The doors parted and Goth dashed inside. By now Michael would be on the bridge. The Maker only knew what was about to happen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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