{...and then, after the Festival of Khat'mor, the Prophets deemed that the Bajora should venture forth beyond their own spaces, to enrich their ways and to bring the message of the Prophets to all who were chosen to hear...are you tired, Laren?}
{No, Daddy.}
{Very well. After the Prophets had brought their message to Kai Pelar, there was much discussion of its meaning. There were some who claimed that only a theoretical exploration was meant, that our people should turn their minds outward toward the stars. But they were not as wise in the way of the Prophets as Pelar. He knew that to truly venture forth, the Bajora must travel in body as well as in spirit. And so, great starships were built: Rising Star, Prophets' Light, Bajor's Glory, White Fire..
the largest ships ever built, larger when this entire valley--}
{Before the Cardassians came, Daddy?}
{Yes, Laren...before the Cardassians. A long time ago...}
*Fifty thousand years ago...*
Ro's mind reeled, refusing to process the concept. One of the R'keyra, the Explorers, those ships so massive that even today's starbases paled in comparison...right here, in front of her.
*After fifty thousand years? Impossible!*
But there it was, unmistakable--*Ch'ye-eah nn'Bajor*, in the finely chiseled Fehron alphabet of Old High Bajoran. Everything about the hulking ship was bigger, vaster, than anything she could have imagined. The verbal descriptions, which were all that had survived Bajor's gradual decline over the millennia, she saw now as woefully inadequate. Even derelict and adrift, it was grander than anything any of the Alpha Quadrant races had ever built. For a long while Ro simply sat there, drinking in the
magnificent image that lay before her.
What disturbed her reverie, quite rudely, was an ear-piercing alarm buzzer that resounded within the tiny cockpit. "<Warning,>" the computer intoned in its familiar impersonal way, "<life support failure. Hull breach imminent. Warp core containment failure in seventy-two seconds.>"
*Oh, frak.* Ro looked longingly over at the darkened ship. The idea that came to her was so outrageous that for a moment she couldn't believe that she was even thinking it. On the other hand...a quick glance back toward the smoky rear of the cabin was enough to convince her that desperate times did indeed call for desperate measures. *Ok, I can do this...* She popped back down under the console and found an emergency survival pack. "Computer, transporter status?"
"<Transporter system online,>" the computer voice replied helpfully.
"Great," Ro muttered. She grabbed another survival pack, just in case, and straightened back up. "Computer, scan the interior of the ship in front of us. Identify any area with suitable pressure for transport and lock on."
A moment's silence, then: "<Unable to comply. Sensors cannot penetrate hull surface. Unable to establish transporter lock.>"
"What?" Ro slumped back in her seat and considered. If she had a pressure suit, she could leave the scoutship, try to find a hatch over there...but the suits were in the aft cabin, where the fire was raging.
"<Warning. Warp core containment failure in sixty seconds.>"
Ro looked back toward the aft part of the ship, but the smoke was so thick she couldn't see more than five or six feet. Got to try it, she thought. She rose and was slowly advancing toward the rear of the cockpit when a sudden sharp beep sounded. "<External scan detected,>" the computer reported.
*More Cardassians? This fast?* "Computer, identify source of scan!"
"<Scan origin point zero-mark-twenty, range sixty kilometers,>" came the answer. Ro might have protested that those coordinates were somewhere within the lurking, powerless ship before her, but by that time she was already dissolving in a peculiar yellowish-red transporter effect.
*I'm dead* was the first thing Ro thought, plunged into total blackness. Of course, she'd thought was dead once before, and Geordi had proved her wrong. But that didn't stop her from thinking it now. The first indication she found that she might be still be among the living were the two survival packs she still held in her hands. On the other hand--imminent warp core breach, being scanned by another ship--
*Another ship...?*
But before she could finish the thought, a single blue-white light appeared before her, somewhat above eye level, some indeterminate distance ahead. It did nothing to illuminate anything around her, but it did show a patch of bulkhead (*bulkhead?*) around it. Ro advanced cautiously toward it, because it was either go forward or stand where she was forever. She made steady progress toward the light, feeling a steady, hard surface beneath her feet, and generally refusing to consider the obvious possi
bilities. *One more step,* she thought, over and over, a mantra *one more step...*
The light was very close--no more than eight or ten feet away--when she found that she couldn't take that one more step. Her progress was stopped by...something, probably a forcefield, but one that yielded to the touch. It was like suddenly walking into a wall of gelatin.
"J'JECHL'RAA JE MOCHAA WOLV'ELLN SS'ESINICHL," a deep voice boomed all around her. Before her, a single screen lit up, displaying a short sentence in *Fehron.*
Ro stopped instinctively at the booming, echoing sound, and at that moment, a brilliant shaft of the same blue-white light pierced the overwhelming darkness and enveloped her. *What?* was the only thought she could form. Then she found herself unable to think at all, unable to move, unable to breathe...a sensation came over her, like thousands of tiny insects dancing inside her head. For only a second, no more than two, Ro was frozen--and the light was gone.
Ro shook her head, trying to get her senses back after having them taken from her so abruptly. Then something completely unexpected--a single beep sounded. Not a loud beep, just an ordinary computerized beep. The single screen before her cleared, and then began to fill with a list in standard modern Bajoran, accompanied by the disembodied voice, now at a normal volume and tone, and speaking in Bajoran as well:
%Neural-net interlink established
Command path link created
Linguistic base updated
Command system diagnostic begun......complete
Logic center control critical subsystems diagnostic begun......complete
Ro stepped quickly the final few feet to the wall, staring at the screen blankly. "What?!" she cried, and another row of letters formed simultaneously with her word:
%Do you wish to initiate full system restart?%
Ro was going to ask what in all of Bajor's seven moons the screen, whatever it might be, was talking about. But before the words could form in her larynx, the thought *--Yes--* rose unbidden from her mind, and in an instant a whirlwind of things began to happen.
The lights were first. Suddenly there was light everywhere, sending Ro into an instinctive spin and crouch. The sight which greeted her was enough to stop her breath for a second. She was indeed inside a gigantic, cavernous room, the far end several hundred meters away and the ceiling at least fifty meters above. It seemed to be an immense, empty shuttle bay. Ro's mouth literally dropped open as she straightened and tried to take in the vast chamber. The walls were gray, faintly tinged with red
and green hues, and lined with consoles and other devices that Ro couldn't begin to fathom. If it was a shuttle bay, it was the largest one she'd ever seen, or conceived of. A starship the size of the *Enterprise* wouldn't fit, but almost anything else would.
A rapid series of computer beeps from behind turned Ro's attention back to the single working screen. A much longer list began to scroll on it, and all around, various panels and displays began to come to life:
%Main system startup initiated......
Command critical system hierarchy control startup procedure initiate -- main latch engaged
Hierarchy precedence sequence locked
Main computer control systems online
Main computer control critical subsystem pathway locked
Main computer control routines online
Main computer control engaged
Main computer critical processor diagnostic begun......complete
Main computer critical processor systems online
Main computer primary processor array online
Main computer secondary processor array online
Main computer primary backup processor array online
Main computer secondary backup processor array online
Secondary computer control systems online.........
Secondary computer control engaged.........
Secondary computer critical processor systems online.........
Final comprehensive systems check begun............................................................complete
Full system restart achieved
Command?%
Ro was left completely, totally stunned by all this. She stepped forward gingerly, reaching a hand up to touch the screen. It had all happened so fast--only a minute or two at most--and it was all so much like a dream that she still couldn't quite believe it--a small part of her was still convinced that she was really passed out on the deck of her burning scoutship, overcome by the smoke and in the throes of some dying hallucination. As she delicately traced the glowing letters, they seemed to twis
t and blur under her hand. The screen came apart, dissolving into an incoherent mass of psychedelic color. At the last moment, she realized that it was she, not everything else, that was dissolving. Her last thought was wondering if she would ever find out what was really happening to her, as she slumped, unconscious, to the deck of the great chamber.
