The Long Mirage

by David R. George III

  “Maybe,” Altek said, though he did not sound convinced. “I do have trepidation about involving myself in what’s happening on Bajor right now. I don’t really have any interest in supporting or refuting anybody’s particular religious beliefs.”

  “This is a turbulent time for Bajor.”

  “Perhaps a little less turbulent today than yesterday, thanks to you.”

  “If that’s so, then it’s thanks to the Prophets.”

  Past Altek, through a port in the starboard bulkhead, Kira saw specks of starlight abruptly disappear, eclipsed by another object. She motioned in that direction and then crossed the breadth of the deck. Altek followed, and together they gazed out into space. Kira saw a great, lifeless rock hanging in the void, its inanimate surface a leaden mixture of grays and blacks. “Endalla,” she said.

  “Have you ever been there before?” Altek asked.

  “Yes, a number of times,” Kira said. “It used to be a world of greens and browns . . . a living place, ripe with vegetation. It was also home to scientific expeditions studying it.” Kira paused, remembering Endalla as it had looked for most of her life—until Iliana Ghemor and the Ascendants had tried to attack Bajor, and Taran’atar had saved the day. The cost had been Endalla’s ecosphere and the lives of hundreds of scientists and support personnel.

  “Last night, I read about what’s happened there in the last decade or so,” Altek said. “First with the Ascendants, and then with the two attacks by Ohalavaru extremists.” He turned away from the port and regarded Kira. “After you announced that the kai would be sending you to Endalla, that perhaps the Prophets had sent you back to Bajor specifically for that purpose, it made sense that the same might be true of me. But after I learned about what’s happened there, I’m not so sure.”

  “For whatever it’s worth, I think your participation on Endalla is important. I don’t know what the scientists and engineers are going to find down there, and I don’t know how we vedeks are going to interpret what we see, but you have ancient knowledge that just might allow you to shed light on all of this.”

  “Perhaps,” Altek said. “But it could be that some ­people—maybe a lot of people—would rather be kept in the dark.”

  “The truth is the truth,” Kira said. She looked back across the deck to the port there, to where a sliver of Bajor’s resplendent globe remained visible. “I have faith not only in the Prophets,” she said, “but in the Bajoran people.”

  iv

  * * *

  Seated beside Kira, Altek felt the vessel lift off from the surface of Endalla. The sensation unnerved him, though not more so than traveling by transporter. After the ship bringing him from Bajor had landed on the moon, he and the other observers had been beamed in groups of six onto smaller vessels for the final leg of their journey. Interference from the rock substrata made transport down into the crevasse, if not impossible, at least inadvisable. Altek and Kira had been the last two to make the transfer and consequently found themselves alone in a six-seat passenger compartment.

  Altek sat at a side port, and as the vessel ascended, he peered out at the gloomy landscape. A smooth, black plain extended into the distance, the result, he’d read, of the first Ohalavaru attack on Endalla half a dozen years earlier. That group of zealots wanted to strip-mine the moon in the hope of uncovering evidence of the Prophets’ mortal nature.

  The small ship swept to port. Altek looked down and saw the long crevasse jagging away in both directions, cleaving the ebon expanse in two. The handiwork of the second band of Ohalavaru to launch an assault on Endalla, the chasm ultimately provided access to the falsework. The ship moved above it, then began its descent.

  The stars in Endalla’s black sky vanished as the vessel dropped into the crevasse. Light from below provided faint illumination of the chasm’s steep, irregular walls. As he studied them, a swarm of blue points of light flashed on and off. “What was that?”

  “Probably force fields erected to prevent the walls from collapsing,” Kira said. “Some loose debris must have fallen and struck on that side.”

  Altek nodded, though he had no real comprehension of the technology at work. He understood the concept of a force field, but like so many other things he had encountered in his new life in the future—things like starships and space stations, like transporters and replicators, like alien beings—he still had trouble accepting it all. It had been almost five months since he had emerged from the Celestial Temple and been brought aboard DS9, but both his journey and the destination continued to astonish him.

  The trip down into the crevasse proceeded at a slow pace. As they traveled downward, the radiance from below grew in brilliance. At one point, the ship appeared to pass through another force field, which flickered blue as they descended past it. When they eventually alit at the base of the chasm, they did so amid a field of other vessels, surrounded by powerful light standards. For all the darkness that characterized the surface of Endalla, it seemed bright as day down below.

  Through the port, Altek saw a substantial number of armed Bajoran Militia personnel on patrol. They supervised the disembarkation of the vedeks from the other vessels, directing them farther along the chasm, presumably to the chamber that housed the falsework. The vedeks all wore the robes of their office, with many of them embellishing their appearance with supplementary vestments. Kira had dressed herself in what she described as a traditional robe, a loose-fitting, rust-colored wraparound garment, but she had forgone any additional trappings, including any coverings for her head.

  The front door of the passenger compartment slid open, and the ship’s pilot, Sergeant Callis Neve, entered. “We’ve been contacted by the security team down here,” she said. “Somebody will be here shortly to escort you.”

  “Thank you,” Kira said.

  Altek watched through the port as the vedeks and security officers disappeared into the distance. He and Kira waited quietly, until at last they saw a Militia officer approaching. A few moments later, the compartment’s rear door opened. The Militia officer stood in an airlock, its external hatch open behind her. She entered the compartment and introduced herself as Lieutenant Delevan Klatta. “The Militia has completed its efforts to seal the area around the falsework and establish a breathable atmosphere, heat, and artificial gravity. You can proceed outside without the need to don an environmental suit. This ship and the others will remain here, at the base of the chasm, to provide any services you may need: medical aid, replicators, refreshers, and the like. If you have any questions or require assistance of any kind, you can contact me directly.” Delevan reached out and opened her hand, which contained a pair of Bajoran combadges. Both Altek and Kira took one and attached it to their clothing. They thanked the lieutenant. Delevan told them that she would escort them to the falsework, and they followed her through the airlock and out of the ship.

  Altek immediately noticed a drop in temperature. The Militia might have heated the environment that they’d created, but they hadn’t made it warm. Altek rubbed his hands together. “It’s chilly out here,” Delevan said, “but inside the chamber, the air temperature is comfortable.”

  They tramped past the other vessels and into an extended run along the bottom of the chasm. Altek saw a great deal of equipment on either side of the crevasse, none of which he recognized, but which he assumed helped create the artificial environment around them. Up ahead, he saw light spilling from the side wall. When they reached it, he saw a large, ragged hole, as though somebody had hacked their way through it with a pickax. A circular metal piece had been fitted inside the opening, which would prevent anybody passing through it from injuring themselves on one of the sharp edges.

  “The chamber is through there,” Delevan said. “The floor inside is two meters down, so a ladder has been affixed to the inner wall. I will go first so that I can help you enter.” The lieutenant hunched down and stuck one leg through the opening, planted her
foot on the ladder, then swung her other leg inside. “I’m in,” she called back a moment later.

  Altek looked to Kira. “After you,” he said. Once the vedek had made her way through the hole and down the ladder, Altek followed. He turned from the ladder and beheld an enormous space whose farthest limits he could not see. The tremendous size of the place impressed him.

  Ahead, numerous lights had been set up to illuminate the area, and he saw still more being erected. Along the visible portions of the walls, great metal girders formed an irregular supporting structure. Altek could dimly make out the roof of the chamber far above, though he could discern no details. In front of him, the level floor on which he stood extended away into darkness.

  A short distance ahead, the vedek observers clustered together with a man in civilian clothing. Beyond them, scores of other people—presumably the scientists and engineers tasked with studying the falsework—labored to set up various equipment. Altek could hear Bajoran voices, but they reached him as though somehow muffled.

  Although the chamber seemed more or less like a massive, empty place, it had the feel of age about it. No, it doesn’t just feel old, Altek thought. It feels ancient. He wondered for a moment if it had been constructed as far back as his own time, but then remembered that Endalla had not existed in his era.

  “Please follow me,” Delevan said, and she led the way over to where the vedeks all stood. The man in civilian clothes saw them walk up, and he greeted Altek and Kira by name. “I’m Tef Noka,” he said. “I will function as the liaison between you, as observers, and the teams who will be analyzing the falsework.”

  “What do you do, Mister Tef?” Kira asked.

  “I am a professor at the University of Janir.”

  “What do you teach?” Kira asked.

  Tef smiled. “Diplomacy.”

  Kira matched his smile with one of her own. “Well, that should prove a useful skill set to have down here.”

  “Indeed,” Tef said, and then he addressed the entire group of vedeks. “Now that you are all here, I’d like to welcome you. In your roles as observers, you will be free to roam throughout this chamber. As you can see—” He waved his arm toward where people set up additional banks of lighting. “—we are still working to illuminate the entire space. For that reason, security has requested that nobody enter a darkened area. Similarly, since the entire chamber has yet to be mapped in detail, it is possible that you could run across doors or hatches or the like. Please do not open or enter them, but report your find to me immediately. The scientists have asked that you touch no surface other than the floor, and that you inform me if you encounter any writing or artifacts. Feel free to observe whomever you wish to, but please stay out of their way and allow them to do their work. At the end of every shift, we will meet back here so that the lead scientists and engineers in the various disciplines can provide you a précis of their most recent findings. If you have any questions or concerns at any time, please contact me directly.”

  A brawny man gestured to Tef. “I have a question.”

  “Yes, Vedek Sorretta, what can I—”

  A bank of lights activated and cast its beams upward in the chamber. Altek saw several of the vedeks lift their gaze, and he did too. The dim recesses high above had been illuminated, revealing oblique angles, uneven surfaces, and strange textures. Mammoth structures hung down in complicated shapes that Altek could not describe, even to himself. In places, the formations contorted together in an amalgam of complex geometries that he had a difficult time perceiving. It felt like an attempt to view an optical ­illusion—something made to look real, but that could exist only as a concept. The spectacle caused tension in his mind. He found it simultaneously breathtaking, overwhelming, and frightening.

  Peering upward, Altek was stricken with a sudden headache. He wanted to look away, but he found himself mesmerized. All at once, movement above caught his attention. He shifted his gaze to look directly at it, but he immediately swooned. His knees gave way and he fell toward the floor. His vision clouded as hands grabbed for him and eased him down onto his back.

  Altek felt the hard surface of the chamber floor below him. He blinked his eyes, but he saw only a gray wash. He felt hands on his arms, and then on either side of his head. He heard Anora’s voice call his name, once, twice, but then it faded into the distance.

  Suddenly, the floor under him softened. His body drifted down into it. He reached to his sides for purchase, but the surface melted beneath his touch. He slipped inexorably downward, the floor swallowing him whole.

  He could feel nothing in his hands, nothing below him, nothing around him. His consciousness floated in the totality of the universe, a white light comprising all the colors of the spectrum. And in the center of all that existed, all that had ever been or ever would be, a spark ignited. Altek no longer possessed a body, but with his mind, he sought to reach the lone ember that stood out in the center of everything. He swam closer and closer, until he began to comprehend the outline of a purplish blue flame. He glided nearer still, and the outline gained substance, a blaze that extended toward him in the shape of a hand.

  In the shape of my hand, Altek thought.

  He imagined reaching for it, striving somehow to touch his real hand to the phantom hand. He envisioned his finger­tips closing in on the burning fingertips that matched his own. Altek sensed people trying to stop him, trying to pull him back from the sum of all realities, but he would not allow it. Even as he felt himself being dragged backward, he lunged ahead—and finally pushed his hand flat against the hand-shaped flames.

  At the moment of contact, the universe exploded in a revelatory burst of awareness.

  Altek stood in a field near his childhood home in Joradell and gazed up at the infinite night. Above the city, in a display that had lasted weeks, the spectacularly long twin tails of a comet decorated the dark sky—one tail curved and white, the other straight and indigo. He watched as the glowing mass entered Bajor’s atmosphere and died in a dramatic, fiery display.

  When the comet faded into blackness, so did Altek Dans.

  v

  * * *

  Kira lowered Altek to the floor. He had glanced up at the newly illuminated roof of the chamber, as had many people there, including Kira. She saw a confusing tangle of structures she could barely perceive, let alone explain. She had to tear her gaze away, and when she did, she noticed several of the vedeks near her staggering, as though they had lost their equilibrium. Farther away, she spotted other people swaying on their feet, and then Altek lurched into her. When she looked at him, she saw his eyes rolling back in his head. She reached for him and eased him down to the floor, and she felt his hand grabbing for hers.

  “Altek,” she called to him, trying to prevent him from lapsing into unconsciousness. “Dans! Dans!” She looked around for help and saw that several of the vedeks had dropped to their knees, though she saw nobody that had passed out.

  Professor Tef appeared at Kira’s side. “What happened?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” Kira said. “He looked up and then . . .”

  “I don’t know what it was,” Tef said, “but I felt it too.”

  “So did I.” Kira pointed toward the vedeks. “So did a lot of us.”

  Suddenly, the illumination in the chamber dimmed—back to the level before the last banks of lights had been activated. Before she could stop herself, Kira peered upward. The roof of the chamber had receded into the shadows.

  A hand closed around Kira’s own. She looked down to see Altek’s fingers in hers. His eyelids fluttered open.

  “Are you all right?” Kira asked him.

  “What . . . what happened?”

  “They shined light on the roof,” Kira said, “and when you looked up, it affected you.”

  “Am I all right?”

  “I don’t know,” Kira said. “But you weren’t the only
one impacted.” She explained what she herself had felt, and how she’d seen the others affected. Altek pushed himself up on his elbows, as though in preparation to stand. Kira put a hand on his shoulder. “Hold on,” she said. “We should have a doctor examine you.”

  “The Militia have medical personnel with them,” Tef said without being asked. “Let me get somebody over here.” He walked a few steps away and tapped his combadge. “Tef to Major Lanser,” he said.

  While the professor called for medical assistance, Kira asked Altek, “How do you feel?”

  Altek squeezed his eyes closed for a moment. “Sluggish, like I’ve been asleep for a while,” he said. He flexed his arms and legs, turned his head left and right. “Otherwise, I feel all right.” He paused, then looked Kira in the eye. “This place . . .”

  Kira nodded slowly. “It’s special,” she said quietly.

  “Like the Celestial Temple?” Altek asked, also keeping his voice low.

  Kira thought about that before answering. “No, not like that,” she said. “But I think I understand how the Ohalavaru who found this place—or anybody—could interpret the construction here as the basis for anchoring something as extraordinary as a wormhole. This place . . . it feels other­worldly.”

  “Yes,” Altek agreed. “A monument not just to advanced science and technology, but to the impossible.” Something seemed to occur to Altek. He looked around, as though to ensure that nobody would hear him, and then asked, “Doesn’t that confirm the Ohalavaru belief that the fifth moon is artificial? And doesn’t that contradict what you believe?”

  “You just characterized this place as a testament to the impossible,” Kira said. “What better way to describe the divine?”

  vi

  * * *

  “We are approaching the Jem’Hadar vessel,” announced Slaine from the tactical console on the port side of the Defiant bridge.