CHAPTER THIRTYTWO
There was no viewer for Tammas to watch. It was all in his mind’s eye. The sun was his focus and from his perspective it was growing in diameter as he pushed the planetoid towards it. What was once just a pin prick of light was now the size of a pea, the size of Jupiter as seen from earth. The battle no longer raged as before. There were just a few pockets of skirmishes going on. He didn’t care that three Romulan ships had just entered the wormhole and were headed towards the Andromeda Galaxy. He knew there were modified Kelvan on those ships, but he didn’t begrudge them trying to save their race, even after all that had happened. He also didn’t mind the larger Kelvan ship escaping with the Borg ship in tow. What would a biological Borg slash Kelvan look like? The Borg didn’t want the Kelvan, just their technology. The Borg were very narrow mined about what species they “assimilated.” It was too bad the Kelvan were leaving, for their technology would have been very useful against another Borg attack.
“You’re doing the right thing, you know.”
Tammas looked down from his throne to where he thought he had heard a voice. Ilona was sitting on the floor, her back against the base of the throne. She was filing her fingernails.
“You?!” Tammas said. “How did you get here?”
“Transporter, of course,” Ilona said.
Tammas pushed the button on his Kelvan bracelet to transport her away, sending her to the nearest ship, only she didn’t go. He studied the information scrolling across the Kelvan interface and was surprised to find that Ilona didn’t show up at all. He could see her with his eyes, but not with the Kelvan technology.
Duana appeared, as if beaming in. “Tam! You got to get out of here.”
“Are you kidding? He’s got to destroy this thing!” Ilona said. She pointed her fingernail file at her. “You stay out of this.”
Tammas blinked. They were both there in his field of vision, but neither registered on the Kelvan sensor sweep. They weren’t real! He disengaged from the Kelvan technology and considered the possibilities. Schizophrenia was the first thing that came to mind, but surely his neural interface would have detected such a thing and recommended medical treatment. “Okay, who are you two and what do you want?”
“I want you to stop this foolish mission and transport over to the Enterprise this instant,” Duana said.
“Stay focused, Tam,” Ilona said. “You’re doing this for the good of the Federation and the Galaxy at large. How much more of a noble sacrifice could you make? You’ll make the history books.”
“Screw noble sacrifice and history books,” Duana snapped. “Tammas, haven’t you learned anything from the Federation? Life is the most precious gift in the Universe, and as a Star Fleet Officer, your job is to preserve it.”
“Please,” Ilona said. “Next you’ll be telling him he doesn’t have the right to die.”
“Tam, you can’t destroy this thing! It’s older than the Galaxy itself. You heard the Voice! It’s related to the Guardian of Time,” Duana said.
“Maybe he can’t destroy it,” Ilona said. She stood up, adjusted her skirt and then sat in the chair next to Tam, putting her arm around him. “But at least if it’s sitting at the heart of that star, no one else can use it either.”
Tammas could feel her touching him. How could this be a hallucination?
“Who are you?” Tammas asked.
“We’re your guardian angels,” Ilona said.
“Excuse me?” Tammas asked.
“It’s like this, Tam,” Ilona said. “We are the manifest personalities derived from a mass psychic collective.”
“What?” Tammas blinked.
“What happens when you connect a sufficient number of super computers together, Tam?” Duana asked.
“You get a sentient computer?” Tammas asked.
“You’re so smart,” Ilona said, pinching his cheek. “That’s why we love you.”
“So, what happens when you tie a sufficient number of brains together in tandem through telepathic links?” Duana asked him.
“Insanity?” Tammas asked.
“Ehhh, wrong answer,” Ilona buzzed. “You get us.”
“Well, his answer wasn’t’ completely wrong,” Duana said. “No doubt, had you been a normal human, the results could have very well been insanity. However, you weren’t normal. Your Kelvan imprinting gave you the ability to process a great deal more information than the average human and consequently, when you plugged into this machine, you tapped into not only the group of hostages here, but you tapped into a number of sentient species across the universe. All our minds melded into one, for just a brief moment in time, which was all it took for us to be born. We’re real, live personalities, but, due to complexities beyond our control, we only live within your mind. You can see us, but no one else.”
“If you had paid closer attention to the names, you would have realized that it’s even more complicated than we understand,” Ilona said. “We’re archetypes. Duana, the little dark one, and Ilona, the light one. Are you starting to see the ramifications?”
“But, I saw you before I plugged into this machine,” Tammas argued.
“You’re thinking too linearly,” Ilona said. “Simone took over your psychic bond from Selar before you reached Deep Space K7.”
“What she’s struggling to say is that we weren’t temporally located until Simone connected with you,” Duana said. “And that’s a good thing for you, cause if we hadn’t helped motivate you to complete your mission, we might not have been created. Just ignore the fact that it’s a paradox.”
“Just think of us as angels on your shoulders,” Ilona said, squeezing him towards her like a little brother.
“Oh, my, god,” Tammas said. “I’m crazy.”
“Okay, you’re about to commit suicide by diving into a star and you’re doubt that you have some mental issues?” Duana asked. “Hello? Suicide? Crazy?”
“Suicide is painless, not crazy,” Ilona pointed out.
“I can’t go back,” Tammas said.
“And why the hell not?” Duana asked. “Feeling sorry for yourself? Lonely? Such rubbish! Let’s pretend for a moment that there is sixteen billion people on earth. I don’t know the current population, but sixteen sounds about right. And out of all those people…”
“Not one is like me,” Tammas said, blowing it off. “Yeah, yeah, I’ve heard this speech before. McCoy gave it to me.”
“I don’t like being interrupted,” Duana said.
“She really doesn’t,” Ilona said.
“And that wasn’t what I was going to say,” Duana added. “I was going to say, there’s a good chance that I’d say forty percent of that populations would trade places with you in a heart beat if given the chance. You have a fabulous life, not because you’re famous, but because you’re you. You are interesting. Your life is interesting. The people around you are interesting. There are people on Earth, in that population, that simply can’t do all the things that you are doing, or that you have done, and they live through you vicariously. It gives them hope and inspiration. It spurs them on to continue to be the best they can be. If you give up here, when it’s so obviously not necessary, well, then you’re condemning the rest of them to death.”
Tammas blinked.
“And don’t even think of trying to down play your influence in society,” Duana said before he could say anything. “You’re needed.”
“I think she’s talking a lot fluff, if you ask me,” Ilona said. “We all got to die sometime, and, well, this is like jumping into the Volcano to appease the gods and save the village. I find that very inspiring. Orange crush?”
Tammas didn’t know from where her can of orange soda came, but he rejected it. Could he drink a hallucination?
“Would you shut the hell up, Ilona,” Duana said.
“I have just as much right to his attention as you do,” Ilona said.
Both girls looked around suddenly, surprised to hear another voice.
“Tam? It’s me Simone. Let us help you,” Simone voice rang clear in his mind.
Duana noticed Tammas wincing, as if in pain, reaching for his head with both hands. She touched him compassionately.
“Yes, listen to her,” Duana said.
“I can barely hear my own thoughts anymore. Which are my thoughts? Did I ever have my own thoughts? Literature, poetry, songs...” Tammas cried.
“It matters not if the thoughts came from you, or Simone, or Selar, or all these other sources available to you,” Duana said. “Experience them and know joy.”
“I’ll never be the same,” Tammas said.
“Thank god!” Duana said. “You’re evolving. The Universe is Evolving. Static is death. The Universe is unfolding just like it’s supposed to.”
“With the exception of the occasional time distortions and paradoxes,” Ilona said.
"Look, Tammas. That’s why Ilona and I are here,” Duana said. “Three heads are better than one. We can help you better process this informational over load that you’re feeling. The thing is, we can’t help you if you’re dead. You die, we die. We’re kind of a package deal.”
“I am dreaming,” Tammas said. “I want to wake up now.”
“Why would anyone want to wake up from a dream?” Ilona asked. “Death isn’t such a bad thing. It’s a place of dreams. To die, to sleep, you know, to dream? You just sort of forget and start all over again somewhere else.”
“Rubbish,” Duanna said. “You have work to do here, Tam. You have a daughter you’ve never even met!”
“He can never meet,” Ilona pointed out.
“Perhaps in person, but maybe you could arrange to meet on two separate holodecks that are connected in tandem. Did you ever think of that?” Duana asked.
Tammas smiled at the idea. That was a good idea. Yeah, that could work. Like playing a game over the IS-Net.
“They are asking for songs,” Duana said, referring to the calling of the Guardian of the Communication Fortress. “Can’t you hear the voices all over the Universe? They know you have songs. Songs you haven’t even written yet. Will you rob them of that?”
On the Bridge of the Pa Nun, Captain Glor sat forward in his chair.
"We're not going to make it," Gowr announced.
"Detonate those charges. Perhaps blowing those generators will slow him down," the Captain said.
"Done, Sir... No effect. Active scans show no damage..." Gowr reported.
"Increase speed to full impulse," Captain Glor ordered.
"Sir, intercepting an emergency broad cast to all Romulan vessels. It's originating from their flagship," Tajing said. "They're ordering their ships to converge on the planetoid. They are being ordered to capture it at all cost."
"It's too great a weapon to allow them to have it,” Glor said, sitting back in his chair. “Tammas is right. We'll support him in his death run. Ready all weapons."
"Ready!" Gowr said.
Two Romulan War Birds uncloaked and locked onto the planetoid with tractor beams. The Pa Nun opened fire on them. One was destroyed instantly while the other disengaged its tractor beam to take evasive action. Four other Romulan War Birds were coming into the battle arena from the Pa Nun’s port side. What the Pa Nun didn't see was the bird of prey uncloaking directly behind them. At least, they didn't see it until the Sutherland hit it with full phasers. The bird of prey’ s attitude changed just as it fired its torpedoes, skewing the trajectory wide off the mark. The stray torpedo crippled one of its fellow War Birds. The other War Birds took evasive, firing on both the Sutherland and the Pa Nun.
"Shields holding!" N'elent yelled. "Sir, I have a lock on Tammas. We can beam him up as soon as we lower the shields..."
“We will wait until we are certain that the planetoid can not be recovered,” Captain Glor said. “Just don’t loose that lock. And hail the Enterprise, Tajing. They were supposed to be offering us back up!"
"We're right behind you," Riker answered the hail. The saucer section was tied up in its own struggle. "We'll provide cover while you transport Garcia."
"Agreed, stand by one," Glor accepted the help.
"The solar wind is blowing the planetoid's atmosphere away," Gowr reported. "Tammas doesn't have much more time. The Enterprise is taking up a support position directly aft. They're providing us cover!"
"Lower the shields on my mark and begin transport," Captain Glor ordered.
Tammas looked up from his throne and laughed. The wind was roaring around him, whipping his hair and clothes. His hallucinations stood, holding onto the throne, their hair and skirts moving with the breeze. He saw the shields coming down on the Pa Nun and the War Birds trying to hit it through the Enterprise's shields. He reached out his hand. It was so easy. How could he have lived all his life and not known how easy it was and that the power had always been there. The Romulan War Birds went dead in space, momentum saving their velocity and vectors, which would bring them into collision with the Enterprise if it didn’t alter course.
The Enterprise didn’t adjust course. Riker had promised to provide cover and he was going to risk impact in order to give the Pa Nun time to rescue Tammas and get out of the way, even if it meant their deaths to keep that promise. It was a gesture that almost made Garcia want to like the man. The Klingon Empire would hear of the sacrifice.
Except Tammas wasn't about to let that happen. The Pa Nun and Enterprise disappeared and the War Birds collided with each other. New War Birds took their place, sweeping past the debris as they pursued the planetoid, trying to lock onto it with tractor beams.
The Pa Nun appeared again, one astronomical unit away from their last known position with the Enterprise sitting right behind it. They could do nothing but witness the planetoid power diving into the sun. The impact left a crater on the sun that was short lived as liquid fire filled the impact crater with solar plasma. The impact caused fiery ripples across the surface of the sun, and a solar flare reached out from the center of impact, engulfing the Romulan War Birds chasing it. The solar flare continued to extend out beyond the two War Birds that had collided, melting the two together. Smaller pieces simply evaporated and joined the solar winds, diffusing into the vacuum.
Though the crew of the Pa Nun could not see their fallen comrade’s eyes, they could still perform the Klingon death ritual. The entire Bridge of the Pa Nun let loose a powerful howl to warn the dead that a Klingon warrior was about to arrive. The howl was an exaltation of the victorious. Not of mourning. Not for Tammas. He chose his fate and died a true Klingon. No one would have to say the words, "Tammas would be missed." He had become a part of their crew and a part of them.
"Sir. Picard has announced a cease fire is in effect. The Romulans are surrendering. We are victorious!" N'elent cheered.
"How many torpedoes have we left?" the Captain asked.
"Three, Sir," Gowr reported.
"That will suffice," the Captain Glor said. "Open all channels, Tajing. In honor of our dead, for the warriors that have come and gone, for the battles yet to come, and to our friend Tammas Garcia, we salute you... "
Gowr fired the three torpedoes, best dispersion pattern. A brief show of lights lit up the battle debris and all the remaining ships, many of them crippled beyond repair. Captain Picard added some words and his compliments to the Pa Nun, and added three shots of his own from the saucer section. The Enterprise followed suit. One by one, all the ships in the area that were still capable of responding gave their respects, even the Romulan Captains participated in the salute.