Chapter Text
VOYAGER VIRTUAL SEASON 7.5 - episode 39
Cyclops
A Voyager VS 7.5 Adventure
By Penny
PROLOGUE
In the Beta Quadrant
It had no name. It had no past, no future. It had a Purpose, and nothing else.
It had no sense of time. A minute and a century were the same to it. The Purpose was timeless and eternal.
It had no electronics, no chips, no circuitry. No data banks. It was a marvel of engineering, a fusion of organics with metallurgy, with a dash of genetic programming. If it had realized this, it would have been proud. But it had no sense of self. It existed to fulfill the Purpose, and that was all. That was enough.
It did not think, exactly, at least not in the sense of forming structured ideas and concepts beyond those needed to fulfill the Purpose. It did not guess or speculate, as it had sufficient memory to learn from its experiences and sufficient sensory input to evaluate its targets. The Purpose was sufficient to propel it onward.
Onward. Seek out new worlds, new civilizations.
Keaynn Warp Ship Seeker Ten, Stardate 57475.34 [June 23, 2381]
A small ship, scarcely more than a tube of metal with two engines extending aft, dropped out of warp at the fringe of the planetary system and its pilot let out a shout of triumph. "Wheee-ah!" he yelled, not caring that there was no one to hear him. Some moments demanded celebration, even a solitary one. "We did it! It worked!"
Wonder washed over him as he, Distor Stann, became the first of his people to have this view of the Keaynn system; before now, many of his predecessors and colleagues had seen the outbound vista as they tested the faster-than-light engines but he was the first to actually make it back. He took in the sight of Dresto, the icy planetoid that marked the system's outermost reach and then looked inward to the other planets--airless Dontal, stormy Palto, and poisonous Karrew. Then he found it, the object of his search, a shining hemisphere of blue and green and white in the light of the star. Keaynn. Home.
Remembering his duties, Stann thumbed the communications system and lifted the microphone in his dominant upper right hand. "This is Seeker Ten calling Keaynnin Base. I'm back."
He returned the microphone to its slot, knowing at least ten doradorcals would pass before his message reached its target. "That's something we're going to have to work on," he said aloud. He'd gotten into the habit of talking to himself during this mission, just so he could hear something besides the hum of the engines. "We can't be traipsing all over the galaxy if we don't have decent communications."
Then he grinned. Traipsing around the galaxy. Yes, they could do that now. Finally, after nearly a century of research and testing and failure, the key was in their hands. The Keaynnin could look beyond their own crowded planet. Anything--everything!--was possible now: they could find suitable planets for colonization that wouldn't require years of terraforming; they could build space stations and develop trade and supply routes between the colonies and Keaynn; they could save themselves from extinction.
A glint of light caught his attention and his grin faded. Something seemed to appear out of the sun's corona, an optical illusion but startling nonetheless. Something huge and white and unimaginable. "What is that?" he asked.
It glided forward and then angled, and his eyes widened in shock. The thing was a giant elongated cone, gleaming white against the blackness of space. Ignoring his shaking hand, he checked to make certain the external cameras were recording. If the Base missed it, no one would ever believe him.
Then he opened the microphone attain. "Keaynnin Base! This is Stann--Seeker Ten! Do you see it? What is it?"
There was no response, of course. The message wouldn't reach them for ten doradorcals.
He watched in fascination as the great cone moved forward. Fascination changed to horror as he realized it was moving with a purpose--it was heading for Keaynn.
The thing slowed abruptly, the wide end of its cone facing the blue and green planet. Then, slowly, the tip of the cone began to rise, curling above the main body of the cone itself and then straightening to a ninety-degree angle.
The tip suddenly inflated to a spherical shape that glowed pale green. Then, without warning, a visible beam of green light erupted from it, aimed directly at the planet. It tracked swiftly across the planet's surface.
Stann grabbed the microphone. "Base! What's happening?"
As suddenly as the beam of light had appeared, it stopped. Stann swallowed hard and force himself to breathe. Whatever had been done, it was over.
And then the wide, flat front of the cone came alive. Its mouth split into an iris that retracted, revealing a teeming whirlpool of orange and yellow energy. The speed of the vortex increased, until the center seemed to be a ball of flame. The ball began to expand, forming a bubble pushing outward, trying to escape the confines of the cone ...
...until it burst, and a flare--a beam--a giant shaft of flame spewed out and drilled directly into the planet's largest continent. Stann watched, unable to move, as chunks of land and bedrock large enough to be seen at this distance were thrown into Keaynn's atmosphere.
He saw fault lines spreading across the continent, and then the adjoining southern continent, and then he saw nothing, because the explosion of light blinded him, despite the protective coating on his view screen. He threw an arm across his eyes, but it was too late.
When he could see again, the cone was still there.
Keaynn wasn't.
The blue and green planet, home to five billion people, was simply gone. In its place, he saw only chunks of rock and debris, drifting in all directions. The cone's maw was dark red now, a deep crimson. And it was sucking in the debris as if it were a household vacuum extractor.
His console signaled an incoming message. Without looking down, Stann touched the "receive" toggle. "Welcome home, Seeker Ten." He recognized the baritone voice of Milok Tone, the Mission Director. He'd known Milok since their first year at University. "You did it. We've got a party waiting for you. But before you leave that position, take a look in the general direction of the sun. Our satellites are reporting something odd."
The message, sent ten doradorcals earlier, ended. The cabin suddenly seemed more silent than ever.
Stann watched the cone suck in the last bit of dust that had been his home. The iris on the opening closed, and the tail lowered until the monstrosity was again in a completely horizontal plane. It began gliding forward again, but when it was pointed at Kerrew the tip of the cone again rose and assumed a ninety-degree angle. Then the tip puffed out and issued the same pale green beam to the planet's surface. This time, though, when the green light was cut off, the maw did not open. Instead, the tail retracted and the cone began to glide toward Palto.
For the first time since the explosion, Stann became capable of thought. The thing had passed up Kerrew but who knew what would happen next--and it was heading in his general direction. Heart racing, he fired up his faster-than-light engines and turned Seeker Ten around. As soon as he could, he engaged the engines and watched the stars become a blur.
He didn't know where he was going; as far as ten days of fuel would take him, he supposed. He just knew he had to run.
The Priests and Elders had always assured the Keaynnins they were unique, that there was no other intelligent life in the universe. For the first time in his life, Distor Stann prayed that the Priests and the Elders were very, very wrong.