Chapter Text
Some three hundred years before, Bajoran craftsmen, shipbuilders, had managed to develop vessels that used the winds of the planet to fly, then later, those of space to travel well beyond the Bajoran system. These ships bore the name tekeli for the ephemeral winged migratory insectoids of Bajor which had inspired the craftsmen.
Since then, spacefarers had colonized one or two uninhabited planets in B'hava'el's system and were now actively seeking to discover and make contact with the other peoples they were sure existed. Some explorers had never returned from their journeys, but this did not discourage those that followed. The Bajorans firmly believed what the Vedeks said: “The Prophets have created many peoples, all diverse among themselves and within their kinds. All of them are children of the Prophets as are we.” In essence, the journeys of discovery among the stars were both a mission of faith and of research. After the recent discovery of two inhabited planets, merchants began making plans to extend their activities beyond Bajor.
* * * *
Some months before ....
Kenos Etal of the navigator D'Jarra was looking through the archives for information on past voyages into space and, at finding and reading a report about one of the lost ships, noticed the surnames of the missing crew matched those of his friends; intrigued by this fact, he had told them about his discovery. Together they did some research and found out that the missing were indeed their ancestors. A little later, the idea of trying to learn what had happened to them became a mission....
“The Prophets have guided us!” Denan Avro, the second navigator, sighed with relief when the stars outside the solar ship had become stars again and were no longer like streaks of light. “Praise be to Them that we have made it safely past the storms in the vicinity of the Veils of Fire. No one has ever tried to navigate in that region…” He added pensively, “No wonder our ancestors’ ship never returned. As fragile as those first craft were, they could never have withstood the forces we have just encountered, or if they had, the crew would have been forced to make landfall to effect repairs on the first world they came across, possibly never got off the ground again.”
One of the merchants, Jorik Idor felt chilled at the recollection of the ion storms and, at a loss for words to describe the experience, was silent for some moments before whispering, “I've never seen anything like that: The stars – they suddenly became streaks of light in space, and the ship... it shook as though an enraged borhya was trying to destroy it!”
A nod of agreement from navigator Etal when he said, "I wonder – we calculated the exact time of their departure, the direction taken. Denan Refar and his companions submitted all details of their projected itinerary to the merchants' D'Jarra before departure so that we only had to make allowances for the old measurements as well as the methods formerly used to calculate distances … but the ion storms in that area were not mentioned..."
"Possibly they were as yet unknown to all but the Prophets," said Vorani. "However you did reconstruct their journey as far as possible, even to time of departure and the route they took."
"That could well be, that no one knew about this phenomenon," said Etal pensively, before he began trying to find points of reference to determine where they now were and thus determine the velocity at which they had travelled.
"It only remains to be seen what we will discover at the end of this journey.” Vorani gazed out of a porthole. “The Prophets be thanked for preserving the records from being burned in the fire at the archives last year, or this mission would have been impossible.”
“There is the question of whether any sign at all of a crash or a landing has been preserved after so long a time, after nearly two centuries, and above all, whether the crew even managed to make planetfall or were lost and drifted into space.” Idor shrugged. “Best to be realistic. My vow will be fulfilled if I can only discover where our ancestors crashed or landed.”
Etal, who had been consulting the star charts with increasing agitation while the others spoke, now informed the crew, his even voice belying his apprehension and astonishment. “These star systems... they are unknown. Not one of them is registered in any of these charts." He then added, "I can find no points of reference whatsoever even though these charts are the most recent available.”
Without waiting for a reply, he began registering the systems which he planned to link up with the familiar ones as soon as he knew exactly in which area of space the storms had cast them out. "All of them are unknown; they must be far beyond the regions we have explored so far,” he repeated. "The storms must have greatly accelerated the ship for the stars to look as they did for some minutes. And we are still travelling at great speed, decelerating but very slowly."
“The storm cast us out here. This means the Prophets may well have blessed our mission, set us on the correct path by means of that storm's violence,” was Denan Masra's reply. “You say we are in an uncharted area of space?” Disguising his concern, he went over to stand looking over Etal's shoulder to watch him work at establishing his charts. This is indeed a region unknown to us all...
“Or else they are punishing us for our arrogance in attempting to fathom their will,” stated Geron. “Those six people who preceded us have no doubt fulfilled their destinies in a way no one can comprehend, and the Prophets could well consider it presumptuous for us to try to trace our ancestors' itinerary and thus learn of their fate, whatever it was.”
“Those with whom I shared my plan said much the same, but prior to finalizing the project, I consulted Vedek Donik. He assured me that my endeavour is in no way presumptuous; much to the contrary, he told me that a search for knowledge is a mission inspired by the Prophets themselves,” Avro stated quietly, “to give up now, after accepting the risks involved and planning accordingly would be to admit defeat. They have given us the ability to do what we are doing, so it would be wrong to reject Their gift. Then, too," he admitted, "We don't even know where we are."
There was no reply, only a sideways glance from both Linos and Etal, who took up their duties as the solar ship sped through space towards the unknown.
Some hours later, the navigator consulted his instruments, spent some time at the telescope integrated in the viewport to the front; he drew a deep breath before announcing, "We are nearing a reddish sun with planets in orbit."
The crew exchanged glances and tacitly agreed to make this system the goal of their search.
"If they were cast out of the storm at the same angle and at the same speed we were, then they would have taken this route too. This is the only accessible system in this region of space. The others? At too great a distance. They could never have hoped to reach them, especially if their ship was damaged as I fear it was. We are fortunate in that the sturdier structure of our vessel and the larger, more flexible struts of the sails got us through the ion storms unscathed," said Ishai Sohal, a merchant and shipbuilder who had volunteered to join the team in case repairs became necessary .
"That planet ahead... Look, dense rafts of clouds and their structures... convection zones in the atmosphere due to oceans and continents? Possibly,..." Masra fell silent, not wanting to be too hopeful.
Avro turned to the pilot and the navigator, stared out of the viewport and came to a decision. "Indeed, so for now, take us into orbit but remain above the cloud cover. There are some breaks in it so that parts of the planet's surface will be visible so that we can see whether this world is the one to reveal what happened. Only later, when night sets in, should we descend below the clouds to see whether there is life on its surface without being seen."
The silence of his fellow crew members indicated agreement with Avro's suggestion, so Etal locked the tekeli into stable orbit and got up to let Djebo Khethra take over.