Aftermath: Starbase Lotus

Captain's Log

Stardate: 88273.3

Commander Joey D. Sisko reporting

Repairs and resupply are completed on the Horizon following our return from Fluidic Space. In combination with our transwarp drive, the artificial opening between the two universes that we implemented brought us safely back at the edge of the rimward edge of the Hromi sector. Our sudden appareance before the long range sensors of the Imperial Surveillance Outposts is bound to make the Klingons puzzled, nervous and edgy for some time... the only way to make Klingons stay their typical agressiveness. Hopefully, the incident will occupy their minds with trying to figure out what is this new popping out propulsion system of ours, 'threatening' their territorial sovereignty.

We have not heard anything from the Undines since then. No news is good news so say the old Human axiom; may it be true here.

The Board of Inquiry regarding what is now called "The Horizon Incident" found all involved Starfleet personnel absolved of any responsibility regarding the Prime Directive. As stated by Admiral Neil S. Redding who presided the inquiry: "all had been sent under orders into an unforeseen situation and all acted properly to follow those orders and correct any interference as best as could be expected under the circumstances."

Most of all, Captain Kheren was recognized as an unwilling victim of circumstances and also absolved despite the central part he played in the changes that now affect the Undines. Moreover, the actions he undertook to protect his ship and crew before he completely lost himself in the symbiosis with the bioship were commended... and any and all accusations of him being an infiltrator agent from Fluidic Space definitely put to rest.

Ship and crew, and her commanding officer, are expected to return to active duty in the next week or so.

Captain's log Supplemental:

The portable memory core of Commander Redding is locked away in the Captain's private quarters, as per the commander's last wishes. The meaning of this device being classified by Starfleet Intelligence, it has been put there as per instructions found in the Commander's personal log and on testimony of the Ensign who received it from him. All answers to inquiries about it's meaning have been denied.

Whatever this all means, let's hope that this all for the better. Commander Redding's actions and final sacrifice have been put up for the highest postumous commendation.

Commendations have also been put up for Commander Oseno Jureth and a promotion for both Lieutenant Junior Grade and Chief Engineer S'Tan Solius and Lieutenant-Commander and Chief Science Officer Snowfire Ke'Leysha after their exemplary actions during this mission.

The Half-Bajoran barely cloded the log that the ready room chime rang.

"Enter."

The sliding doors admitted yeoman Blackbird with a PADD she offered him along with a small smile.

"Status report from Lieutenant Leône on ship provisionning and from Lieutenant Somers on tactical systems," she sumrized as he took it to glance at the scrolling details. "Ship is again ready and able to serve, Sir."

Sisko nodded.

"Has Lieutenant Somers and her team left already?" he then asked her.

"Aye, Commander. They have already been reassigned to the USS McKenzie patrolling the Klingon border. With all the worries we stirred up in the Empire recently, Fleet Captain Samji beleives they will be more needed there."

Again he nodded. The tall red-haired Marine leader had come to him to personally announce the transfer, her face a blank, professional mask. In her stance, he had noted the pride she felt at having served well on board the Horizon in a successful operation, even if it had been under the hardest restrictions ever; the harsh life-respecting rules of Captain Kheren. In her voice, he had heard the tinge of regret at being parted so soon from a ship and crew she had already started to appreciate. But in her eyes, he had seen the shadow of self doubt and disapointment; having let her commanding officer being abducted while under her direct personal protection was in her heart a failure she would carry for a long time. Sisko knew that Lotus Fleet Command had put a commendation on her Starfleet record for her crucial part in retrieving the captain; but he also knew that she would brush it aside and blame herself for some time still.

His mind came back to his eyes as he noted the Amerind yeoman still standing before the desk.

"Anything else, Mira?"

"Sir... any news about the captain?"

The worry in her features was as plain to see as it was heard in her soft voice.

There was none in the face of th acting commanding officer of the Horizon. But there was tension in his voice nevertheless.

"It's been a month since we brought him back in stasis and Doctor Nasaro-Myth started to treat him. Last report is that he's undergoing final stage of rest and recuperation and should be back on duty by the time we launch."

"Back in command of the Horizon?"

"The board of inquiry was quite brief; Admiral Redding presides a tight court; and he grilled Captain Kheren so hard and relentlessly that I thought that he was going to relapse and turn Undine again... as the Admiral pointedly expected him to. But our captain is made of the same old tough stuff as the Admiral himself and stood calm like an oak in a storm until it passed and left him clean and whole. It was like watching for real the age-old thing of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object; none prevailed and both remained as they were. But I felt that there was some powerful mutual respect lighting up from their friction..."

Sisko stopped talking as his mind began to wander back to the investigation session that had looked hard into the events that had put the Andorian commanding officer in the delicate position of having possibly interfered with the natural course of an entire species. In the end, it had been made clear that whatever he had done was out of his own volition and the little done that could possibly be attributed to him had been to act in the interest of galactic peace and save his ship and crew from harm; the exemplary duty expected from any good Starfleet starship commander.

Even the alleged suspicions of him being an Undine infiltrator agent were finally laid to rest, as the extensive genetic treatment he went through ascertained scientifically and unequivocably his pure Andorian nature.

Yeoman Blackbird was still worrying.

"Sir, should he be back so soon?"

"Doctor Nasaro-Myth said 'the sooner he gets back to work, the sooner and better he will fully heal; that's how it works with those crazy Andorians.' And Counselor Lyrya said much or less the same thing as far as mental health was concerned... without the crazy part of course."

""Is she alright too? And Tyvya?"

This time, Joey Day Sisko could not refrain from smiling.

"Once Doctor Nasaro-Myth succeeded in restoring the captain to his real genetic make-up, they both emerged from their coma at the same time... and rather abruptly I was told. Lyrya knocked out cold the orderly near her with a swipe of her arm and Tyvya fell from her biobed and tore it out of it's base trying to grab hold of it. They are as fine as if they had just taken a nap... although they were quite cranky until the captain finally became conscious again. This ... Andorian matrimonial bond of them three is proving to be a very potent healing process itself. That's why the captain and his wives will be back on duty so soon. They should all be back on the ship by now, resting in their quarters."

Blackbird sighed with relief and smiled.

"I'll go see them after my duty shift."

"Be careful; Andorian wives stay pretty agressive and protective of their males for a good while after he has been threatened."

"I'll wear a combat suit."

"They both gigled. But then a frown came back on the soft features of the copper-skinned woman.

"Sir... why did Doctor Nasaro-Myth... "

Joey had anticipated her question.

"Doctors 011 and 110 are top notch chief medical officers; they wouldn't be assigned to this ship if they weren't. But very few Starfleet medical officers are cognizant of both the very alien physiology of the Undines and the very weird physiology of Andorians. And to make things worse, Captain Kheren is a genetic mutant, not your typical Ghelnoid. They could stabilize his condition but they could not do anything once the Undine serum failed to fully bring him back to his former self. As it so happens, Doctor Elliago Nasaro-Myth is Starfleet's foremost expert in xenology and is a specialist in complex genomes like Andorians... and Undines;  Moreover, he was chief medical officer of the USS Artemis when the captain was in command and the single person most familiar with his peculiar physiology since those who had created him. Even for him it was still a challenge... but finally, he brought him back to us."

Miramanee Blackbird nodded.

"Thank you, Commander. It will be good to have him back in the Big Chair... no offense to you, Sir."

Joey smiled.

"None taken. In fact, I'm releived to soon be releived. Commanding a starship is not my first, best destiny."

The Amerind woman smiled and left. After the door wooshed close, Sisko stood up and went to the window of the ready room. From there he could see the disc-shaped, lights-dotted hull of most of Starbase Lotus, as the Horizon, too big to park even in her spacious inner dock, was moored at an outer pylon. Beyond the three kilometer wide station, he looked at the vista of stars.

They were already beckoning him.

*     *     *

In a large cabin, the highest one on the vast saucer section of the starship Horizon, another set of eyes, two pairs of them also looked at the stars and felt their call.

And this time, the call was to his own heart.

Alone.

"How do you feel?"

The soft voice made him turn to look into the white, lightless eyes in the snowy-skinned, elfin face framed by an avalanche of thick silky hair as immaculate as the skin. The antennae sprouting from that long thick mane were waving at his own. For a moment, they touched tenderly in the unique kiss of their people. Then he pulled back and looked at her with a quizzical stare.

"You should know, my wife; you are the telepath here," his deep resonant voice said with a surprising softness.

"Well that's just it, my husband; since your... return to us, you are like a complete blank wall to me. And to all the other telepaths on board as well, even Lieutenant-Commander Ke'Leysha."

"Commander Ke'Leysha," corrected Kheren. 

"After all that she has done, she does deserve the promotion," then said the Andorian giantess that came up to them from an adjoining room, adjusting her uniform.

She bent her towering frame so that she too could touch their antennae with hers. Then she straightened up to her full two and quarter meters of height to look at her captain and husband with the same worried stare that their Aenar wife kept on their husband.

"So, you didn't answer Lyrya; how do you feel?"

For a moment, Kheren looked at them both as if he had not seen them for years; there was a longing inside of him that he had never felt so strongly before. He knew it was the return of their matrimonial bond which defied even the best understanding of telepathy, akin to what the Vulcan Pon Farr was... but there was also something else. He struggled to find the words.

"Physically I feel completely whole and rested; better in fact than I had been for years. Mentally, I feel as sharp as ever."

"That is not what I asked," Tyvya insisted, crossing her arms in front of her.

Again he took a moment, then turned to look outside again, at the stars.

"I feel... small... constrained... as if... as if I was supposed to be out there..."

"You have been cleared of all charges and put back on active duty and in command of the Horizon," reminded him his giant wife. "There is even talk of you getting a commendation for exemplary action even when you were... not yourself. You are getting out there again, as soon as our next orders are received."

"I know... but it is not what I mean. I mean... out there... among the stars, like... like a fish in the sea."

Both women looked at one another with wildly flaying antennae. They knew what he was refering to; the abduction, the merging as an alien life form with another alien life form, the transmutation of them both into an immense living starship that plowed through an organic universe, leaving so much death and destruction in it's wake until a whole species learned to unite... or perish.

Lyrya put her hand on his powerful shoulder but he did not turn away from the blackness and horizon of stars.That's when she noticed that his callused right hand was delicately rolling between his fingers a small metallic disk that looked like a coritcal stimulator, only slightly bigger and, despite not being on his skull, flashing active.

Her sightless eyes looked up into his far away silvery ones.

"What do you remember?" 

He did not blink or look away from the stars when he spoke. 

"Everything."

* * * * *

Engineering was quiet. With the warp cores shut down and the Horizon undergoing external repairs, the Romulan sat, slouched and alone in his office.

"Computer, activate data backup Silicon Four-Tee Seven." He mumbled, as he thought of everything he was giving up by deciding to stay.

His screen sprang to life, powered by the umbilicial cords of Starbase Lotus. The face of a female Romulan, dressed royally standing in an open room appeared.

"Cousin." It started, "I have learned that you have run away from your home and joined the worthless Federation. I am not surprised. You have always been the weakest link in our family. Treason will never be accepted by our people or our family. However, I will give you one chance at redemption should your thick skull figure out the Federation is full of fools who dream of fantastical ideals like universal peace through conversation and not war. Download the central database of the ship you are stationed on. I know it is within your skills and abilities. Escape on a shuttle and broadcast on frequency Delta-Four-Gamma-Six-Charlie. We have advanced Raptor class ships patrolling into Federation space. They will rescue you. Should you fail to complete this, then take my word of warning. Stay away from Romulan Space. All of my navies will be on their lookout for your face and will not hesitate to shoot first and ask questions later. I expect to see you shortly on New Romulus."

The message cut out after that, deleting itself from the data card he had put into the computer. He blinked slowly as he sat in the glow of the Blue Alert lighting. He was surprised to see the package sitting in his room after he arrived at the Starbase, but he knew immediately what it was for. If it wasn't for his most recent adventures with the Horizon, he might have taken his cousin up on her request. Hacking into the ships AI core would have been a trivial procedure, especially as so many crew members were disembarking.

He sighed again. He stood and walked slowly to the replicator in his office. "Romulan Ale."

The computer bleeped in rejection "This item is not approved for replication."

He shook his head and pressed a few keys on the keypad next to the device. The computer bleeped in acceptance and the Ale was summoned. It wasn't alcoholic, but it was good enough.

As he drank, he contemplated on his recent decisions to defect from the Romulans, his family and earn a death mark. All for what he felt was 'to do the right thing.' And yet, at every turn, he saw himself responding not as a Federation officer, but as a soldier of the Romulan Empire. He had learned over the past few days that what Ambassador Spock said was true. The Needs of the Many, Outweigh the Needs of the Few. This was the Federation way. The Romulans had lost sight of this. He now understood that. The way the Horizon crew responded to the initial call for peace talks, their reaction to losing their commanding officer and their final decision to rescue him, no matter the cost. This is what he wanted. He wanted to be one of them. To jump into the fray at the first sign of danger to a peaceful race. Not be the aggressor.

He returned the now empty glass to the replicator and reverted it's settings. Stretching, he picked up the card and snapped it in two. He would not be going back. His home was here, on the Horizon, Starbase Lotus, and the Federation. He shouldered his rucksack, exited Engineering, with his head held high. This was the right decision, he told himself. Minutes later, he had disembarked the Horizon and was ready for some well deserved Shore Leave.

* * *