Cerulean Stars - Chapter 69

Cerulean Stars - Chapter 69

Stardate 48220.4 - March 22,  2371, Time: 10:42:00

The female changeling lifted her hand from the golden ocean that was the Great Link, turning a look of almost eager anticipation to Rain as she rose fully back to her feet from the crouching position she had taken.

“The link has been informed of your desire and is prepared.”

Which Raine knew could mean anything from it being prepared to see her fail, to it being prepared to try and kill her while she was doing it. But if the female changeling had truly been honest about no non-changeling ever having been able to, the Asari knew her potential success could be a paradigm shift at the level of that which had caused the Picard era split.

And if somewhere in the Great Link that shift caused even a handful of changelings to ask themselves 'what if we were wrong’, Raine would consider the entire thing to be a success beyond measure. 

So she steeled herself, giving a silent thanks as she did to both Kira and Odo for not calling out her blatant hypocrisy or trying to dissuade her from the attempt, before compartmentalizing her memories in the way she had been taught so the only thing they should encounter in the meld was her present self.

“To boldly go.” She muttered as she all but mirrored the female changelings early movements by crouching down and lowering both her hands till they touched the surface of the golden sea. “Through eternity.”

With those words her mind expanded outwards touching hundreds…

Thousands…

Millions…

Billions…

Blue… Green… Yellow… Orange… Red… Purple…

Excitement… Surprise… Hate… Fear… Disdain… Sadness… Love… Joy… 

Ma…

Li…

…

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kira watched Raine crouch down and lay her hands almost gently on the golden liquid that made up the Great Link, holding her tongue as the Asari did, because she was the closest thing they had to a diplomatic expert here. And the Bajoran woman would have had to have been blind to miss the way the female changeling's face had all but lit up when Raine had made the suggestion.

With muttered words that sounded suspiciously like a mantra of some kind the Asari's eyes went pitch black, and a blueish light rippled out from the woman's hands traveling across the sea of gold.

A second passed.

Two.

A look of shock flashed across the female changeling's face.

Three.

Tears of a recognizable purple, the same color Kira knew as the Asari's blood, fell from the corner of the woman's eyes running down her cheeks, and then she toppled over backwards from her crouch unmoving and insensate.

“Brooks!” Kira yelled, rushing over to crouch down next to the woman, only to let out a sigh of relief upon seeing the rise and fall of the Asari's chest and feeling a slow but steady pulse under fingers.

“She's alive.” She told the others. “Just unconscious.”

With a gait that seemed almost purposeful in its slowness the female changeling walked over to the roiling ocean of gold and crouched down before closing her eyes and once more dipping a hand in.

A moment passed, and she opened her eyes before rising back to her feet with a look that Kira couldn't even begin to read.

“It appears the Asari was successful. “She acknowledged. “Though I fear the totality of the Great Link may have been too much for her.”

“Then why did you let her do it?” Odo demanded, glaring at the female changeling.

“Because we did not know.” The female changeling answered simply, though Kira wasn’t entirely sure whether she believed that or not.

“We should try and contact the Defiant.” Kira told Odo, lifting the surprisingly heavy woman over her shoulders in rescue carry so she could take her back to the shuttle. “Doctor Bashir might be able to help.”

“I'm sorry Major.” The female changeling interjected with an almost apologetic shake of her head. “But we cannot allow you to send any communications from the planet's surface. They could be traced back here. And we value our isolation.”

Kira wanted to protest, but the still fresh memory of what they had found on New Bajor stilled her tongue with the knowledge that there might be good reasons for people in this quadrant of the galaxy to want to hide.

“We understand.” Odo admitted with a grimace, likely thinking the same thing Kira was. “But what about our people, is there any chance one of them might have the medical expertise to help?”

“While the knowledge of the Great Link runs deep.” The female changeling began. “We have never encountered her species before, so I suspect any attempt to help her on our part would do more harm than good.”

Knowing a lost cause when she saw it, Kira began making her way back to the shuttle, her mind racing over the few ways she knew to effectively hide a subspace signal as she did. Tapping in the code to open the hatch, she held back a grunt over the quickly building weight on her shoulders as the ramp lowered and she walked in before laying the Asari carefully down on the floor.

“The Federation was right.” Brooks suddenly mumbled, giggling almost drunkenly as Kira began to make her way over to the helm. “Blue really is the best color.”

A sigh of relief escaped Kira’s lips as she turned back to see Brooks wavering but sitting up, keeping herself steady as she did by leading against one of the shuttle's separator walls.

“Are you back with us Commander?” Kira questioned hopefully, having been more than a bit worried that the Asari's impulsiveness had finally bitten her on the ass.

“I'm tasting colors!” Brooks exclaimed with another giggle. 

“All right.” Kira said, pulling one of the medkits off the wall and removing a medical tricorder from it before removing the sensor and running it over Brooks head.

“I'm not really trained in this, you know.” She continued, talking more to calm her own nerves then reassure the other woman as she tried to make sense of the readings she was getting. “The most I ever really needed to learn was how to treat weapon burns or reset the occasional dislocated shoulder.”

“Your hair is really pretty.” Brooks muttered. “Like a million feathers folding in on themselves.”

“Thank… You?” Kira returned, pretty sure that was supposed to be a compliment but not completely sure just how. 

“Okay.” She finally said as the tricorder began to give her a few things she recognized. “I think it's saying your neural activity is in a hyperactive state. But the numbers connected to that seemed to be going down.”

“So that's probably good?” She finished questioningly, really wishing for once that Doctor Bashir was here with them.

Brooks started giggling again, her voice sounding oddly tired as she did before grabbing Kira by the arm and staring directly into her eyes.

“I'm pretty sure I'm gonna pass out, but make sure Odo knows her name is Iris, because she's Purple.”

With that the blue woman closed her eyes and all but collapsed, the only thing keeping her even partially upright was the corner she had wedged herself against, leaving Kira to blink in confusion as she tried to make sense of the Asari's words.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“It looks like a normal planet all right.” Dax told Sisko as she studied the passive sensor readings they were picking up from the rogue planet they had followed the shuttle too. “But I'm getting some odd emissions from underground.”

“Odd how?” Sisko inquired, wondering if it might be related to whatever had drawn Odo to the world.

“Multiple concentrated thermal radiation sources.” Dax answered, bringing up a wireframe of the planet with blinking red dots under its surface. “I can't tell if they're natural or artificial without switching to an active scan though.”

“Do you think they're what's keeping the planet habitable?” Sisko inquired, the urge to figure out the unknown getting to him despite the severity of their situation.

“Normally I'd consider that a safe bet.” Dax returned with an almost annoyed shake of her head. “But I'm also picking up an unusually active magnetic field, some sort of radiative effect from the ocean, and the occasional tetryon discharge in the upper atmosphere.”

“Commander.” Sub-commander T'Rul put forward in annoyance. “Is now really the time to focus on a planetary survey?”

“Chief!?” He questioned the man monitoring their problem. “What's the status of the Jem'Hadar?”

“Still swarming around the nebula looking for us.” O'Brien returned after a moment. “ Even reading more of those anti-proton sweeps from a few days ago.”

“And there you go.” He returned to the Sub-commander, fully aware the woman had been keeping an eye on the whole thing herself. “As much as–”

“Commander.” Dax suddenly announced. “We're receiving a wide band subspace transmission. From the Jem'Hadar.”

“Put it on screen.” He ordered, wondering just what it was that had finally made them decide to try the communications route. 

The image of a male that looked to be the same species as Eris appeared on the bridge's center screen.

“We know you're out there Commander.” The man began. “And if you surrender now we promise your crew will be treated fairly.”

With that the message cut out.

“Did that sound worried to anyone else?” Sisko floated, looking around to gauge the rest of the bridge crew's thoughts.

“Oh good.” O'Brien muttered with wry amusement “I thought I might be the only one.”

“The question I want to ask is why.” Dax mused as she studied her display. “

“The question I want to ask is what are Brooks, Kira, and Odo doing down there.” Doctor Bashir admitted, sounding more than a bit annoyed at the entire thing.

Sisko had to admit that one had been bothering him too, but short of going down there themselves there wasn't anything they could do that wouldn't risk…

“If we were to take the Defiant into one of the magnetic poles would that be enough to prevent a shuttle launch from being detected?” 

“Maybe.” O'Brien offered after checking some of the data on his console. “At the very least I'm not seeing anything from their scans that suggest they're capable of cutting through that level of interference.”

Which didn't mean there wasn't with how little they knew about Dominion technology at this point, but it was a solid plus for the idea.

“Then perhaps we should take our other shuttle down and see.” Sisko put forward with a grin. 

“Take us over the northern pole, Dax.” He ordered before turning to Bashir. “Doctor, get your medical kit together and meet me in the shuttle bay.”

“Sir.” O'Brien interjected as the Doctor left the bridge. “With Major Kira and Commander Brooks already down there, are you sure you should be joining them?”

Sisko turned an unamused glare to the man, getting more than enough of that sort of thing from Brooks when she was actually there with them.

“Sorry sir.” O'Brien apologized with a light chuckle. “Couldn't resist.”

“Next time do.” Sisko finished dryly, the quirking of his lips betraying his actual feelings about the joke.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author’s Note: I didn’t intend this to be chapter 69, it just worked out that way. On that note, everybody give it up for the disappointed female changeling, who was really hoping Raine would either fail or die from that.