Maiden Voyage

Sixteen

The last thing Number One remembered was seeing the Enterprise disappear from her sight. Steadily, the ship grew smaller and smaller. She felt like Alice after drinking the shrinking potion. Then came the sudden drowsiness. Initially, she resisted, but something deep in her mind soothed her to sleep.

When she awoke, Number One was back on M-114, escorting the Vaxxar from the Ovid chamber. She glanced over to Rios, Capps, Pike and Zeiss. There was an odd sense of déjà vu that had come over her. Something was different this time, though. Unlike the happiness she expected, there was a sensation of dread, completely misplaced. Number One frowned, halting, the others moved forward somberly as if carrying a funeral coffer. They marched on. Looking up at the sky, rain drifted down slowly. The party ahead of her stopped as the Vaxxar transformed from the black Ovid stone.

It rose into the air, ashen. The life-form turned violently, swooping down on the group. Striking Rios first, then Capps, the Vaxxar turned its attention on Captain Pike. It bared long, sharp fangs as it charged the captain. Sinking its teeth into his chest, it dragged him off into the woods.

This isn't right, Number One thought. This isn't how it happened.

She drew her laser pistol out of instinct, swinging around to see where the creature had taken Pike. An ooze seeped up from the ground crawling towards her. Detecting the potent smell of copper, Number One realized the ooze was blood. A slow, congealed river of it inched closer to her down the steps of the institute, crossing the square. She stepped back after hearing a terrifying shriek, then another, then another. The Vaxxar creature reemerged. It shot towards her with the captain in tow. Dropping his lifeless body at her feet, the creature hovered above her, shrieking. From all sides of the colony, more of the creatures rose from the ground, slinging mud from their wings as they climbed into the sky. There were hundreds of them. Maybe thousands.

They circled above her, then assumed a pattern to her direct front, hovering. The Vaxxar creature that was once the Ovid stone took its place as the lead creature in the formation. Rain fell harder as the sky turned black. The blood in the street had submerged her boots and was rising. Wiping the rain from her eyes, she stepped forward towards the formation of creatures floating in the sky. Holstering her weapon, Number One crossed her arms in defiance.

"Whoever you are, you can stop whatever you are attempting. This isn't how it happened, so stop screwing with my memories!"

The creatures stormed her position, but she held her ground. Darkness came over her, then an emergence of light. She blinked her eyes, restoring her focus. Leaning over her was one of the Solarians. Number One was wrapped in tendrils of light emanating from its body. The tendrils recoiled into the Solarian's body once she had fully regained consciousness.

#

Unaware of her current location, Number One could make out the image of an alien she only encountered on the main viewscreen of the Bridge. The Solarian spoke to her. "Test of passing fear has achieved you. Inclusion into the culture of our society has passed, designate Una."

Number One sat up to find herself laying in a bed Echo referred to as a cradle.

"I've never liked that name. Designate me as something else," she said.

The Solarian drifted backwards, pausing as though it were awaiting something.

Quickly Number One surveyed the room. Rios laid quietly next to her on the left. To her right, in a circle, was the Council of Isis members she met briefly on M-114. Directly in front of her was an empty cradle. She rose to inspect it when she saw her; Ensign Capps huddled in the room's corner.