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Hanging in space far ahead of Voyager was a shimmering cloud that sparkled and buzzed, as if alive and yet equally not.
"Sensors, Mr. Tuvok," said Janeway.
“Scanning,” Tuvok replied. “Sensors indicate the presence of several million small objects, each only a few centimeters in diameter, moving at moderate sublight speeds.”
“Tactical threat?” asked Chakotay.
“No indication as of yet.”
“Mr. Kim, analysis of their movement pattern,” said Janeway.
“Captain, I’m not sure what to make of this. I’m not detecting any life-signs, but they appear to be moving in some sort of flocking pattern,” Kim said.
“Flocking?” Torres said from her engineering station, “like birds?”
“Well,” Kim said, “not like any birds I’ve ever seen, but that’s still the closest comparison I can offer.”
“Mr. Neelix,” Janeway asked, “have you ever seen anything like this?”
“Uh ah, no, Captain, I don’t think so. Maybe if I could see one close up I’d recognize it?” Neelix replied hopefully.
“Mr. Tuvok, magnify one of the objects and put it on main viewer.”
The viewscreen blinked to one of the objects in close-up view. It was small and sparkly – semi-translucent, like a pearl but with wings, flitting back and forth as if unable to keep still.
“Oh it’s beautiful!” remarked Kes with wonder.
“Kinda looks like a butterfly,” said Paris from his helm station.
Which prompted Janeway to remember: “Butterfly…”
***
“Farfalle, Katerina! Surely one of God’s most delightful works of art!”
“Oh Maestro Leonardo, don’t tell me you’re going to try to build a flying machine out of butterfly wings,” Janeway said, as her gazed wandered across Maestro Leonardo’s studio, roving from one “flying machine” to the next.
“No no no, Katerina. The mastery in the butterfly’s wings is unique to the creature’s diminutive size. And it is a wonderous mastery.”
“Oh yes indeed, Maestro. The monarch butterfly flies from Europe to Africa, crossing both the Mediterranean and the Sahara.”
“A journey of thousands of miles that takes man the necessity of ships and supplies and many days. Compared to that, a short journey by one of my flying machines feels like a modest goal!”
As if on cue, a butterfly flitted through an open window and flew among the rafters of the studio.
“Have you ever seen a flock of butterflies in flight, Katerina?”
“Si signore, with my sister when we were young girls. A magnificent flock flew over our heads while we were out in a field. We just stared up at the sky in awe.”
“Indeed – an awesome sight. Consider this then. A pigeon can be trained to carry a message from place to place. Perhaps a short letter. But pigeons require training, and thus their supply is limited.”
“Meaning you can send a letter, or perhaps a short essay with several pigeons, but not, say, a book?”
“Esatto Katerina, esatto. But what if you could take your book, and give each page to a butterfly departing south? An entire tome, floating through the sky, carried by some of God’s most delicate creatures.”
Janeway adopted a skeptical tone. “You would need pages quite small in order for a butterfly to lift them.”
But the Maestro was unconcerned. “In which case, it is simply a matter of finding a quill with a fine enough point,” he said with a glimmer in his eye.
***
“Captain,” Tuvok interjected, “one of the objects has broken away from the swarm and is approaching our position.”
“On-screen,” Janeway said before sharing a look with Chakotay.
“Somebody’s gotten curious?” he wondered aloud.
“Helm, move to intercept, half impulse. Mr. Tuvok, raise shields,” said Janeway.
“Aye Captain,” replied both men.
But as Voyager moved closer to the “butterfly”, it suddenly started to flit away from the ship.
“All stop,” Janeway said. As the ship ceased its motion, the butterfly stopped moving away, but then remained still.
“Curious but shy, it seems,” remarked Chakotay. “But at least it seems unaggressive. Does it see our motion as a challenge?”
Janeway pondered for a moment. “Helm, reverse thrusters. Back us off, nice and slow.”
“Aye Captain,” said Paris.
As Voyager retreated, the butterfly became smaller on-screen, as it stayed motionless.
“I wonder if we scared it,” said Janeway as she considered the possibilities.
***
By the bank of the River Arno in the Tuscan dusk, Janeway and the Maestro sat in silence.
Against the backdrop of the golden sunset appeared a tiny pair of wings in silhouette, lazily flapping back and forth, bouncing the butterfly’s tiny body to and fro.
Janeway and the Maestro sat very still.
The butterfly weaved and hopped through the air, moving closer and closer to the tree hanging above the bench.
Janeway and the Maestro sat very still.
Tumbling through the air, each beat of its wings a defiant strike against gravity, the butterfly approached the silent pair.
Janeway and the Maestro sat very still as the butterfly quietly landed on the tip of Janeway’s nose.
The butterfly slowly beat its wings open and closed as it took its moment of rest. Janeway found her breath slowing, matching the relaxed tempo of the wings. In and out, in and out, open and closed, open and closed.
Janeway and the Maestro sat very still.
***
“Mister Tuvok,” said Janeway, “lower shields.”
“Captain?” said Chakotay, his tone a mix of question and concern.
“I have a hunch,” she replied. “Harry, monitor the rest of the flock for any changes in their behavior.”
“Aye Captain,” Kim replied.
On the viewscreen, the butterfly bobbled in place in space, as if with hesitant consideration.
Then, with small chaotic movements, the butterfly began to inch closer and closer to Voyager.
The crew and the starship sat very still.
Now very close to the ship, the butterfly seemed to bounce around in place.
“I wonder if she’s trying to land,” Kes said.
“Tuvok, Harry,” Chakotay said, “any sign of communication?”
“Negative,” Tuvok replied while Harry shook his head.
Janeway pondered for a moment.
“B’Elanna,” she said, “open the shuttlebay doors. Tom, prepare to fire attitudinal thrusters – dorsal fore, ventral aft. Full lateral axis rotation to 0 mark 180 around the midpoint of the ship. Nice and slow. Ready on my mark.”
Paris programmed the maneuver into his console, and then reported, “Ready captain.”
After the briefest pause, Janeway said, “Mark.”
The faint sound of the thrusters was heard in the distance, as the bow of the ship began to dip downward (or at least, downward relative to the artificial gravity field aboard).
“External view,” requested Chakotay. Kim manipulated his console, and the viewscreen switched to an external perspective of Voyager and the butterfly. The starship was slowly gracefully rotating, almost as if bowing to the butterfly. For its part, the butterfly’s motion steadied ever so slightly.
The crew and the starship sat very still in constant motion.
***
“Imagine the tales this tiny creature could tell us if she could speak, Katerina,” the Maestro said as the butterfly rested on his extended finger.
“She’s traveled the world, no doubt,” Janeway said quietly as she admired the delicate wings. “But she only has part of the story, you know.”
“Oh? Cosa intendi, Katerina?”
“Well, these butterflies don’t fly solo. They’re part of a community, a family, making their trek through the heavens. It’s an entire society, moving at once as many and as one.”
As if to demonstrate the point, the butterfly beat its wings and lifted away from the Maestro’s finger. Janeway and the Maestro followed the butterfly as it flitted upward into the sky.
Then, slowly emerging from behind the tree over the head, came the full flock. First one, and then two, and then ten, and then fifty. Hundreds and hundreds of butterflies, moving in a chaotic synchronization. The single butterfly who had sat with Janeway and the Maestro floated upward and disappeared into the flock.
Janeway and the Maestro sat very still and watched the flock fly out into the Tuscan sunset.
***
The senior staff had now gathered in the shuttlebay, as Voyager’s rotation nearly completed and was almost aligned with the butterfly’s position.
Then they saw it. A pearl-colored sphere of semi-translucent material, with delicate metallic wings flapping back and forth. Its method of movement remained a mystery, yet move it constantly did, even as it seemed that it was trying to stay still.
Voyager’s rotation finally halted, and for a moment everyone held motionless – save for the butterfly, bobbing back and forth.
Then, slowly but surely, the butterfly moved forward.
Apparently unconcerned by the atmospheric forcefield, the butterfly flew with chaotic grace into the shuttlebay. It did not land right away, but first flew around the upper corners of the bay, as if inspecting or investigating.
Then, at long last, the butterfly gently landed on the deck, a few meters in front of those gathered. The senior staff collectively held their breath – what was the butterfly going to do next?
With a shimmer of light, and an unearthly celestial sound, the butterfly began projecting an image of an alien lifeform. The alien looked like a jellyfish with scales and delicate wings, clearly evolved to float through the air of its home planet. It had no discernable eyes or mouth, and yet the image seemed to react to their presence as if it could see.
Then, without preamble, the projection expanded to engulf the entire shuttlebay. Images projected on every wall, partially obscured in places. Throngs of the winged jellyfish, floating through the air. Upon the ceiling, the flock of celestial butterflies danced.
The crew gazed around them in wonder. It took them a moment to realize that they were seeing memories of an individual winged jellyfish – recorded apparently with three-hundred-sixty degree vision.
On the ceiling, the memorialized butterflies began to glow, brighter and brighter, before lifting up further into the sky: the launch.
After several moments, the projections faded, leaving only the original avatar. Floating in midair, it gathered its tentacles and mimed a pulling movement, as if gathering something together. Then it pulled back all but two of its tentacles to reveal a glowing holographic orb.
The avatar leaned forward toward Captain Janeway, and partially outstretched its tentacles, as if presenting the orb to her.
Sensing that this was an offering, Janeway stepped forward and extended her hands in turn.
The avatar fully outstretched its tentacles and placed the orb in her hands.
Janeway accept the gift and felt the holographic orb coalesce into something physical: what appeared to be a data chip.
Subtly but immediately, the crew began to scan the chip with tricorders. Torres analyzed the physical composition and potential interface points; Tuvok searched for signs of computer viruses; and Janeway tried to determine the contents. All the while, the avatar hovered patiently.
But it was Kes who came up with a theory first. “I think these are a copy of the memories we just saw.”
Janeway nodded. “I think you’re right, Kes.”
Torres closed her tricorder. “I don’t want to hook it in to the primary computer core just yet, but I believe Harry and I can use a portable unit to form a preliminary connection.”
“How long?,” asked Chakotay.
“Not long,” Torres said. “Maybe five minutes?”
Janeway nodded. “Let’s do it.”
A few minutes later, the chip was connected.
“Fascinating,” Tuvok said. “These do indeed appear to be memory files, but many of them have gaps or are otherwise incomplete. Perhaps the files have degraded in transit?”
A moment of silence passed. Then Janeway murmured, “A quill with a fine enough point…” At the confused look of the crew, she elaborated: “This butterfly wasn’t in isolation; it came here with a flock . Perhaps we need the whole flock in order to download the full files?”
“An intriguing hypothesis, Captain,” said Tuvok. “But how do you propose we access the rest of the flock? We have not yet identified a way to communicate with them.”
“We could reconfigure the deflector dish to emit a homing beacon?” Kim suggested.
But Torres disagreed. “The problem is that we have no way of identifying it as a homing beacon. They’ll just see it as a loud signal.”
Paris jumped in. “I could take the Delta Flyer out and fly into the flock? That would let us signal our interest in the flock at a whole.”
Chakotay was skeptical. “Given what we’ve seen of them, I think you’re just as likely to scare them away and scatter the whole flock.”
Neelix had thus far been very quiet, but he finally spoke, with somber melancholy. “It just seems so sad for them to have come all this way, only to have these memories be forgotten simply because we couldn’t figure out how to receive them.” He looked down at the deck, in an effort to recompose himself, and quietly reached out to grasp Kes’s hand in search of comfort.
And that gave Kes an idea.
One by one, they lined up in a diagonal formation stretching across the shuttlebay. Kes took Neelix’s hand…
who took Torres’ hand…
who took Kim’s hand…
who took Paris’s hand…
who took Chakotay’s hand…
who took Tuvok’s hand…
who took Janeway’s hand…
who then outstretched her hand to the avatar…
who reached out a holographic tentacle and grasped Captain Janeway’s hand.
The avatar then began to glow brighter, flapping its wings, and dancing its tentacles.
Janeway couldn’t be sure, but she couldn’t escape the perception that the avatar was expressing joy.
Suddenly, behind the open door of the shuttlebay, another butterfly appeared. And another and another and another. One, then two, then five, then fifty, then a hundred.
The entire flock was now circling Voyager.
The butterflies all began to glow, before bright white beams of light shot out between all of them, forming a criss-crossing lattice that coalesced into a single beam feeding into the butterfly in the shuttlebay.
While still grasping Janeway’s hand, the winged jellyfish used its remaining tentacles to once again “gather” its gift together.
The white beams faded, and the jellyfish pulled back its tentacles to reveal another orb, which the jellyfish again placed in Janeway’s outstretched hand. And as it placed the orb, it released its grasp and withdrew the tentacle.
The orb dissolved once again into a data chip, this time of similar proportions but much greater size.
The avatar raised all of its tentacles, as if waving goodbye. Janeway released Tuvok’s hand and raised it in farewell to match. The rest of the crew released one another’s hands, and did the same.
Then the avatar faded from view. The butterfly dimmed its glow, and flapped its wings in liftoff once again. In the same graceful chaotic motions as before, it made its way to the atmospheric forcefield and slipped back out into space.
Janeway and the crew followed it to stand at the edge of the shuttlebay. As they watched, they saw the flock leave its position enveloping Voyager and slowly begin to move off, together, as one. They stood, watching the flock as it faded into the distance, until the butterflies were indistinguishable from the stars.
***
“Maestro,” Janeway began. “How would you feel about a brief flight away from Tuscany?”
“Katerina,” Maestro Leonardo replied, “do not tempt me with false promises of glorious flight. To soar among the heavens… what a splendid dream.”
Janeway grasped his hands. “To fly, one must have trust, and a leap. Do you trust me, Maestro?”
The Maestro widened his eyes and nodded solemnly. “I do, Katerina.”
Janeway squeezed his hands. “Then let us make a leap.”
Janeway turned, and seemed to speak to the walls of the workshop. “Computer, transfer da Vinci holomatrix to Holodeck 2 and commence site-to-site transport.”
There was a shimmering light and, moments later, the Maestro found himself standing with Janeway and the rest of the senior staff, hand still firmly in Janeway’s grasp.
Or more properly, they all found themselves floating in midair as the winged jellyfish floated around, dancing their tentacles in celebration.
In the center of the celebration floated the flock of butterflies. As they began to glow and lift skyward, she pointed for Maestro Leonardo to see.
“Look Maestro,” she said, as they danced upwards into the heavens. “Butterflies of the stars.”
Maestro Leonardo da Vinci's eyes glistened as he beheld the wonder of alien memory dancing around him. And as he watched, he murmured:
“Farfalle delle stelle.”