LEAST COMMON DENOMINATOR

Act V:

"Working," stated the computer in its emotionless way.

"This is crazy!" Donovan said exasperated. He turned away from Shelby and began pacing back and forth inside the confined area of the turbo-lift. Although larger than the standard starship turbo-lift, the room didn't allow Donovan more than three strides before he had to double back. He and the admiral were returning to the station's main operations deck when the admiral got an idea. Shelby had entered her query at the nearest interface and was awaiting the results. Turning back to face his commanding officer, Donovan continued, "we're looking for a needle in a haystack."

Shelby replied calmly, "This is our best alternative. Dr. T'lar's report stated that she had found traces of trilithium resin on all three dead bodies and several computer consoles in the engineering MTC. Laxis also reported a trilithium spill in main engineering. It is logical to assume that our intruder is the affected individual, and that he is leaving these radioactive fingerprints behind unknowingly. The station's internal sensors should be able to triangulate his position."

"But with trace amounts that small," Donovan argued, "the computer can't tell the difference between the intruder's radiation and that from the fluorescent lights."

"However," perked up Shelby, "trilithium resin has a unique valence signature and a specific half-life. By filtering out all other factors, the computer should..."

"Analysis complete," interrupted the computer.

"... track down our monster," Shelby finished. She smiled at Donovan. Not a friendly smile, but a knowing, almost mischievous smile. She held the upper hand now, and that changeling was going to pay.

"Alright, look here," said Shelby indicating the computer's resulting station schematic. A bright orange dotted line zigged and zagged within the dull gray wire-frame representation of the starbase. It marked the trilithium trail. "Starting from the engineering triage he went out into the corridor and circled around to section 3-beta."

"That's a juncture of Jeffrey's tubes," clarified Donovan.

"He then proceeded up some 24 decks before exiting here."

Donovan exhaled loudly, "Cargo bay 5. We lucked out because it's under repairs. It's empty and its transporter is off-line."

Not taking her eyes off of the diagram, "He didn't stop there. Oh my!" Shelby paused to verify the coordinates, "Yes, he did!"

"Did what?"

"He exited the station through an airlock and is currently making his way up the exterior of the station."

Donovan was starting to pick up the changeling's scent like a bloodhound. "He's going to need to get back in sometime. He may be able to scale the station, but not even 'spider man' can hold on to the external bulkheads of a starship at warp."

"You mean to make an escape?" asked the admiral.

"Exactly," answered the Commander. "I remember a story about the Constable of DS9 trying to hold onto the exterior of a runabout once. At sub-light speed he had no problem, but just as the ship went to warp, the sub-space field stress changed from tensional to torsional. The runabout had to double back and transport him aboard." Now Donovan wore a smile. "Computer, halt turbo-lift on the next deck," he instructed. The doors opened and he stepped out.

"Where do you think you're going?" asked the admiral more inquisitive than annoyed.

Donovan realized his mistake. "With the admiral's permission," he began. "I'd like to take a security team up to the minor docking ring and catch our intruder when he comes in from the cold."

Shelby couldn't fault his initiative, "Permission granted, Commander. I'll have Mr. Chen meet you there. Computer, resume." The doors closed and Shelby continued down to operations.

Donovan pushed the button requesting the next lift. Muttering under his breath, "Why did she have to call that guy? Doesn't she know that two's a crowd?"

. . .

Leah's head was crowded with thoughts. All of them were fighting for attention and action. 'I can't do this to my husband!' shouted one. 'I need to feel alive again, right now,' encouraged another. 'I should give it some time, this is too fast, too soon,' prodded yet another. Her mind was a mess and made worse by all the alcohol in her system.

As the kiss deepened, her heart beat faster causing her blood pressure to rise. "The need ... the memory ... the love ... the pain ... the loss ... the loneliness ... the desire ... the pain ... the need ... the ache ... the thrill ... the regret ... the pain ... THE PAIN. With everything going on in her head, the pain was too great. The rise in her blood pressure caused her temples to throb. Leah broke the kiss and pressed the side of her head against da Silva's bare chest. She wanted so much to end the pain - end the confusion.

Emmerson watched the top of Leah's head as she slid down his body. Her breath hot against his chest. He gave up trying to hold her up and let her sit down on her bunk, which was thankfully close behind her.

Her mouth was just above his navel now and the small hairs of Emmerson's abdomen shivered in the breeze coming from Leah's parted lips. Hot when she exhaled - cold when she inhaled. The sensation caused da Silva's knees to get weak. He felt a flutter in his stomach, which was both inviting and nauseating at the same time. Emmerson took a small step backward to keep from falling down.

Leah's head dipped forward slightly then jerked backward. It was the kind of involuntary reflex that one experiences just before dozing off. It's force tossed Leah backward onto the bunk. She lay there sideways on the bed, sprawled out with her arms raised over her head and her feet planted on the floor. A faint smile touched her lips as she gave into the pain and drifted off to unconsciousness.

Emmerson looked down at her, speechless. He had never had THAT reaction from a woman after kissing her. His mind filled with options and choices like warm milk pouring into his head. "What do I do now?" he asked himself rhetorically.

Unexpectedly an answer came. It was quiet - not much more than a whisper - and Emmerson's eyes got wide with unbelief. He looked down at the unconscious form of Dr. Brahms lying very un-ladylike on her bed. 'Did she say something?' he thought. As he strained to listen, the voice came again, but not from Leah, but from inside his head.

"Que 'e certo - saber'as." It was Portuguese and masculine. The words of his father spoken years ago. Roughly translated it meant, "When it's right - you'll know."

Emmerson recalled the memory of his father. They had discussed Emmerson's decision to enter Starfleet, and Admiral da Silva gave his son this single piece of advice. At the time Emmerson shrugged it off as words of worthless wisdom, so why did it pop into his head now?

"When it's right - you'll know." What exactly did Emmerson know about Leah? In reality they had just met. Had only spoken for a few hours. Da Silva realized that he didn't even know where Leah was born or what her favorite color was. Could this mean the converse of his father's quote was also true? "If you DON'T know - it's NOT right."

It seemed so ridiculous to be standing in a beautiful woman's room, half-naked, next to her bed, pondering an old portuguese proverb. It didn't make sense. Emmerson got more and more confused.

He started to feel cold. Over his shoulder he saw his uniform tunic on the floor. He silently moved to its location and crouched down to pick it up.

All of a sudden Leah made a sound. Emmerson froze; his heart skipped a beat; his eyes opened wide.

It was just a loud snore. Emmerson let out a sigh as his heart started beating again. The sound pulled him out of his memories of his father. As he turned to look at Leah, he didn't notice his comm badge fall to the floor. He quickly pulled on his shirt and thought about how uncomfortable Leah must be sprawled out on the bed in that position.

Emmerson decidedly lifted the sleeping Dr. Brahms and placed her gently on her bed the right way. He took the blanket from the foot of the bed and covered the beautiful woman. 'There will be another time,' he told himself. He bent and kissed Leah softly on the forehead.

Smiling like a child who had just done a good deed, Emmerson exited out into the hallway. He wondered if his roommate had company tonight, and knew that if he didn't announce he would be coming back for the night, he could be in big trouble. As the door shut behind him, he reached up to activate his communicator. His hand felt only fabric.

"Oh Joia!" mumbled da Silva. He turned to look at the closed door. His hand raised to press the alert button, but stopped short. Not wanting to wake the sleeping princess, Emmerson decided to work off his energy in on the recreation deck. He might not sleep at all tonight, and there was nothing wrong with that.

. . .

Laxis shook his head and blinked his eyes to shake off the drowsiness. He'd been working in engineering for just over an hour, but the manual deuterium control valves all began to look alike. Suppressing a yawn, Laxis asked, "Jake, hand me the thermal inversion stabilizer."

Jake held out the instrument and commented, "You look tired, Chief."

"This is nothing. I've stayed awake for 47 hours straight once." As Laxis faught off another yawn, the device came into contact with the set of valves. It let out a loud, piercing tone. "Whoa!" exclaimed Laxis.

Jake laughed, "that is sure a rude wake up alarm. You gotta keep the sensor from physically touching the ..."

"I know how to use a thermal stabilizer." Laxis sounded more irritated than jovial. Yes, he had spent 47 hours awake once, but that was out of choice. This time it was required, and on top of that he was in charge. "Sorry, Lieutenant. Maybe I am getting tired."

"Chief!" came a shout from near the entrance to Main Engineering.

Laxis handed the instrument to Jake and said, "Let's see if you have better success." Laxis stood and went to the third floor railing. He looked down on the entrance and asked, "What do you need?"

"The bynars need you in the engineering office. A.S.A.P." relayed a dark haired ensign.

"Coming," announced Laxis. He quickly made his way to the ladder. It was designed to be free standing, which enabled Laxis to grip its edges lightly and slide all the way down its length. Within 5 seconds he was beside the ensign, and leading the way into the office.

As he entered , Laxis was met with a putrid smell. "Yuck! Something tells me you guys found something."

The bynars were each in a different corner of the room. But the distance between them didn't prevent them from using their favorite method of communication. "Correct ... we have ... found ... two things." The words came at Laxis as if he were sitting under the net at a tennis match.

Laxis backed up until he was pressed against the wall. He wanted - at the very least - to be able to see both bynars while talking to them. "Okay, let me have it, but one at a time." After the brisk walk from level 3, Laxis was feeling more like himself.

The bynars looked at each other with confused expressions. They began emitting

high-pitched squeals - their true form of communication - to try to understand the meaning of 'one at a time'.

Laxis intervened with raised hands. "Sorry, gentlemen. It was a joke. Please, tell me what you've found." To himself, Laxis made the mental note, "I've got to teach the bynars a sense humor."

"First ... we discovered ... the body of ... Chief Sorenson. He ... was dismembered ... and hidden ... behind this ... panel." The bynar standing near the replicator indicated a half-open panel.

Although it was on the other side of the room, Laxis noticed the blood from the former chief oozing out of it into large puddles on the floor. "So that accounts for the smell. What's the second discovery?"

The bynar standing near the office desk indicated, and both spoke, "We have ... been able ... to construct a ... virtual ... computer core. The ... diagnostic routines ... have been ... captured within." Bynar number 2 held up a meter long device with an amber colored cube attached to the end. "The main ... computer core ... has been ... cleansed."

"That's fantastic!" complimented Laxis. "The admiral will be pleased to know the crisis has been diverted."

At that very instant the lights dimmed and the Red Alert claxon wailed.

Laxis got a startled look on his face, "Damn, I spoke too soon."

. . .

"... immediately! Repeat - Intruder alert! All personnel report to their duty stations or quarters immediately!" The computer voice was without emotion, as usual. It belied the urgency of the red alert.

In the corridor just outside the minor docking ring, many people began to make their exit. Two maintenance workers were still finishing up repairs on a control panel, and were discussing the alert.

Sampson, the worker whose head was still inside the open panel, said, "they just had a drill three days ago. This must be a false alarm."

"Still, you can't be too careful," urged Irkris. The gill like flaps on his green neck quivering with nervousness. "With a station this old, it could likely tear itself apart."

"That's doubtful," said Sampson, annoyed, his head still inside the panel. "I bet it's just the new admiral flexing her muscles. Women like to do that, you know."

"Maybe," replied Irkris, sounding less than convinced. He didn't like alerts because it usually meant something was going wrong. Getting an idea he asked again, "Hey, isn't it about time for a break? We could go to my quarters and get in a hand of Tongo. It's the perfect excuse."

Sampson thought it over and decided his green skinned friend was right. "Alright Irkris," pulling his head out of the bulkhead, "loser finishes this control panel refit."

"Deal!" said Irkris excitedly. The sooner they were back in his cabin the better. "Just leave your tools. No sense in carrying them all over the station." Irkris started to walk to the turbo-lifts in the now mostly empty corridor.

"And you provide the synthehol, too," Sampson called after. He pushed on the control panel to close it, but in his haste to catch up with his friend, he failed to notice that it didn't lock shut.

On the other side of the corridor - not ten meters from where the men stood - a golden, liquid form seeped from the edge of a ventral access panel and into a puddle on the floor.

. . .

"Lost him! What do you mean?!?" asked Donovan over his communicator.

The metallic sounding voice of admiral Shelby came back, "Sensors tracked him to the minor docking ring, but the trail ended there. The internal docking ring sensors are off-line and inaccessible."

"Great!" exclaimed the Commander. "We'll have to do this the old-fashioned way." He gave a knowing glance to Lt. Chen, just as the turbo-lift doors opened on the minor docking ring. The security team was met with an anxious mob of people. They impatiently let the security team exit the lift before they crowed their way in.

Donovan, Lt. Chen, and four other security guards waited near the turbo-lift doors for the last of the personnel to exit. Chen nodded the "all clear" sign to Donovan, and motioned for his people to spread out. Each carried a phaser rifle set to kill and a determined look on his face.

Donovan ordered, "Computer, secure turbo-lift doors. Authorization, Donovan - delta - one - six."

The computer chirped its acknowledgement as the Commander followed the small group of security officers down the hallway. He started his breathing exercises to control his pulse rate and concentrate on his surroundings. He was soon aware of the footfalls of the personnel ahead of him, the high pitched hum of his phaser rifle, and the slow, steady beating of his heart.

At each docking hatch and secondary corridor a pair of security guards broke from the group to search. After almost a hundred meters, Donovan halted. There was only himself and two other security guards remaining. Donovan motioned for the last two to break off and that he would wait here. "Damn that Chen," thought Kelly. "I bet he did this on purpose."

Donovan stood in the corridor - alone - for nearly a minute. The stillness was unsettling. Not even the sound of the life-support vents was heard. If it wasn't for the steady pulsing of the red alert lights, Donovan would have sworn the corridor was dead.

Then he heard it -- a metalic sound ahead of him. It was just out of view due to a curve in the corridor. This was it! Even with all of his control techniques and years of experience, his pulse became quick, his breathing shallow, his sweat began to bead up and form on the back of his neck. He turned to try to signal the other security teams, but he saw no one. Donovan was completely alone.

Thinking to himself, "nothing like a challenge to feel alive." He readied his weapon, ordered a force field to seal off this section of the docking ring, and sprang ahead a few strides to supprise his prey.

"Halt there ..." he began but swallowed the sentence as he saw the person making the noise.

Standing at an open control pannel with some kind of device in his hand was none other than Laxis. "Hey, Kell," he said calmly. "You're not going to shoot ME are you?"

"Laxis?!? What the hell are you doing here?" Donovan was confused and wasn't about to take chances. He kept the phaser rifle pointed at his friend.

"I noticed the sensors were off-line up here, and I thought I could be useful."

"But how did you get here from engineering?"

Without looking away from his work on the control pannel, "I initiated a site-to-site transport to get here more quickly.We gotta find this changeling."

Donovan was very confused now. Would Laxis leave engineering? How did he know that the intruder was a changeling? Was the admiral aware of Laxis' wereabouts? Too many questions. The commander in Donovan needed confirmation. He quickly tapped his comm badge, but it didn't make a sound. It wasn't active.

"Sorry buddy, but I had to take the comm system off-line to re-route the power to the sensors. Don't worry this shouldn't take long."

Regardless of the length of time, Donovan needed an answer now. "I'll have to ask you to step away from that control pannel." He raised his rifle to make sure Laxis knew this wasn't a request.

"Oh come now, Kell. I've gotta get this done." Laxis kept working without looking at Donovan. The commander took the oportunity to look Laxis over. Something wasn't quite right, and Donovan couldn't put his finger on it. Laxis' uniform looked fine. His hair was the same white and red. His antenna looked ... wait a minute. Donovan focused on the small ring in Laxis' left antenna. Recalling back to his academy years he remembered the day Laxis got the earing. Laxis told him the woman goofed and put the earing on the inside. This earing was on the outside. IT WAS ON THE OUTSIDE!

"Step away from the control pannel, right now!"

"What? Kelly, are you gonna shoot your best friend? Right here? Right now?"

"Step away, or I'll shoot!"

Laxis turned his face away from the control pannel, an evil gleam in his eyes. "You wouldn't have the nerve."

Kelly's fingers were heavy as lead. He had completely forgotten his breath control. He hadn't blinked his eyes in over 30 seconds, and his vision was beginning to cloud over. In this moment Kelly wasn't a professional; he wasn't a killer; he was only human. He knew he couldn't kill his best friend, but this wasn't his friend. Whatever this was, it was trying to kill him, destroy Starbase 47, and take all 200,000 starfleet personnel with it. It had to end here, NOW!

. . .

"Now, what's happening up there?" Shelby demanded. Just when she thought she had the upper hand, her house of cards was crashing down.

"We've lost all communication with the security team. Internal sensors are also off-line." Mr. Suur turned away from his computer console to face the admiral. "I am getting absolutely no readings from the upper half of the station."

Shelby was incredulous. "We would have felt something if there had been an explosion."

"Maybe on a starship, but on a starbase the structural integrity field is compartmentalized."

"Dammit!" Shelby swore. She needed some way to know what was happening on the minor docking ring. The worst part of being in command was the not knowing. Her mind was racing as she paced the floor unconsciously. The words of her science officer echoed in her ears. "Maybe on a starship...", "Maybe on a starship...", That was it!

"Mr. Suur, open a channel to the U.S.S. Moab."

. . .

Donovan fired at the imposter, but the being morphed out of the way of the beam like a golden rubber band. The phased energy hit the open docking control panel, and the assembly exploded in a shower of sparks.

The Changeling, needing an escape, dove into the smoldering hole in the bulkhead. Donovan ran after it, but as he approached the mess of wires and metal that was the docking control, he discovered a bigger threat.

The computer voiced Kelly's fears, "Emergency depressurization of the docking ring will occur in ten seconds." Forgetting the intruder for now, Donovan shouldered his phaser rifle and climbed into the hole. Coolant sprayed him from ruptured hoses; wires tangled everywhere. Donovan got three meters into the bulkhead and found an access panel.

The computer voice was back, "Emergency depressurization will occur in five seconds."

Donovan felt a fingernail break off as he pried open the access panel. His blood dripped on the isolinear chips as he tried to reorder them to avoid depressurizing the whole section. The chips became slippery and hard to identify.

"Emergency depressurization will occur in three ..."

"I'm not going to make it," Donovan muttered himself.

"Two .."

The coolant in the air stung his eyes causing them to water.

"One .."

Unable to see and running out of time, Kelly ran his thumb against the bottom row of chips and yanked on the second-to-last chip.

"Zer ..." said the computer voice, halting mid-way through the word.

Kelly didn't remove the chip the rest of the way; he didn't have to. The coolant stopped spraying and the wires lost power. It took a few seconds for Donovan's eyes to stop stinging. As the air cleared, he saw his primary target. The changeling was standing out in the corridor near a force-field control panel with its back to Donovan.

"He's tryin' to get away from me," thought Kelly. Moving as silently as possible, Donovan crawled to the opening of the hole. As he raised his weapon, the changeling somehow sensed the danger. It shot out a tentacle out of what appeared to be Laxis' back and wrapped it around Kelly's throat.

Struggling for air, Kelly's rifle got tangled in the wires and cables, as did Kelly. The changeling's tentacle suddenly branched into two pieces. One secured itself around Kelly's neck as the other tried to twist the rifle out of Kelly's hands.

Not wanting to lose his weapon, Donovan held on with both hands. Knowing he wouldn't have another chance for a shot, he yanked the rifle up and fired blindly. The barrel snapped off as the chamber was filling with the phased plasma energy. Kelly's arms recoiled upward, raising the broken weapon to touch the shape-shifter's tentacle.

The phased plasma immediately vaporized a small piece of the tentacle, and the part of the tentacle wrapped around Kelly's neck turned to black dust. Kelly gulped air greedily.

The changeling was stunned. The wound was just a scratch in human terms, but it caused the changeling to stop working on deactivating the force-field. It experienced pain for the first time in its existence. The pain brought another new emotion, fear. The changeling was vunerable. It searched all the knowledge of the great link, but found no way to stop the pain. It had to buy some time to recover. It morphed into a puddle and flowed its way into maintenance access chamber. Anything to get away.

Kelly struggled to exit the hole in the bulkhead and finish off the intruder. But he realized that he had no weapon. He stared at the maintenance chamber where the changeling escaped to. "If there was only some way to..." and then the light went on. Donovan remembered that the explosive decompression valve is located in that chamber. He could force the exposive decompression and blow that loser out into space.

Knowing that the blast would take him too, Kelly said a quick prayer, wrapped his arms in the wires and optical cables, and with his foot tapped the iso-linear chip that he had previously removed back into place in the control panel.

Before the computer could issue a warning, the valve exploded. The explosion was deafening to Kelly, but it still wasn't as loud as the roar of all the air in the section being vented into space.

. . .

"Admiral!" exclaimed Mr. Suur. "The Moab just informed us of an explosion on the minor docking ring."

"Have them scan for lifesigns and the radio-active signature," order Shelby. She was anxious to know what triggered the blast: the intruder or the security team.

"Verification of the trilithium signature, but no humanoids are part of the debris."

Shelby had her monster right where she wanted him. "Have the Moab target the area with a polarized-getanom beam. That should kill whatever is out there, without harming the station."

"Correction, admiral," stated Mr. Suur. "A polarized-getanom bean can only solidify organic matter."

The admiral was nonplused, "I can live with that."

. . .

Back inside the docking ring, there wasn't enough air to keep a flea alive. Kelly's face was turning purple faster than his knuckles were turning white. The vacuum of space had sucked Kelly partially out of the bulkhead. The wires and cables acting like a human-sized spider web. And it was getting cold. Kelly shivered both to keep warm and to indicate that he was still alive. But there was no one to signal. The sensors were still off-line.

"It's cold and lonely to die in space," were Kelly's final thoughts. He felt death's hand on his shoulder.

A blue haze illuminated the corridor. A force field was enacted over the maintenance hatch. The warm hum of the life support systems came back to life and filled the corridor with air.

Mr. Chen deactivated the security force field that Kelly had established to contain the changeling and entered the section. "I'm entering the area now", he spoke over a relic of a communicator. The hand-held device had its own powersupply and transmitter. "I can't see any major damage to ... My God, there is someone in here. Medical emergency to docking ring gamma, section 3."

As Mr. Chen ran to his commanding officer, Donovan lost conciousness.

. . .

For Donovan the universe was black. Slowly - painfully slow- the black became gray. The gray much more quickly turned to blinding white. The intensity of the light exceeded the noon-day equinox of Quad-Neuvoux (the only M-class planet in the Federation to have 4 suns). From somewhere in the brightness came sounds, murmurings, unintelligible voices. Then the light gave way to forms, shadows, figures. Kelly strained to make sense of it. Where was he? What was happening? He tried to lift his hand to his face to shield him from the light and sounds.

"Doctor, he's coming to," announced the nurse. She didn't turn to see the tall vulcan approach from the office. Main sickbay was it's usual busy place. Several cuts and lacerations, burns, newborn cries from the maternity ward. A typical day for Doctor T'lar and her staff. But this patient, Commander Kelly Donovan, deserved the vulcan's foremost attention.

"Alert the admiral. She wanted to know when the Commander regained consciousness." T'lar double-checked the setting on the hypospray and gave Kelly a small dose.

Color invaded the white and gray shadows of Kelly's vision. His eyes focused on the nearest figure as the world became a physical reality again. The somber face of the chief medical officer loomed in his vision. The green skin, the pointed ears, "Oh great, I'm in hell," said Kelly.

"It is good to see you too commander," replied T'lar. "Now lie still while I finish the examination."

The main door opened and Shelby entered. She was dressed in a sweat stained tee shirt, and her hair was all tousled. The recreation deck was located near the main sickbay, and Shelby was spending her off-duty hours playing football. Ensign da Silva was organizing a mini-league, and Shelby wanted to be supportive of his efforts. As she neared the bio-bed, a relieved smile came to her face. "Welcome back to the world of the living, commander."

Confused, Donovan asked, "How long was I out?"

"Four days, seven hours, sixteen minutes, " answered the doctor.

"Well," interrupted Kelly, "at least the station is still here."

"Yes, and I'll expect you in Ops for the next duty shift," joked the admiral.

"I don't see why not," commented T'lar. She was serious to a fault.

"Aye aye, sir," sighed Donovan. "I guess I've used up all my vacation hours by now."

"Kel!" The voice came from the main doors, and it's owner quickly made his way to the commander's side. The blue-skinned Andorian was out of breath, but beaming from ear to ear. "Glad you're thinking about sticking around, man. We all though you were a goner for sure."

"Naw, this station hasn't gotten the best of me yet." Donovan noticed something new on Laxis' collar. "Hey, is that what it looks like?"

"You are now looking at the newest lieutenant commander this side of the Cygnus nebula."

"We couldn't have just a lieutenant be the chief engineer of a starbase," reminded the Admiral.

"Oh, I almost forgot." Laxis handed a large, flat container over to the admiral. "This arrived on the Ajax for you."

A puzzled look came over Shelby's face. "What would Admiral Pendleton be sending way out here?"

Shelby put the container down on a nearby table and opened it. Laxis gasped when he saw it. T'lar raised an eyebrow.

From flat on his back, Donovan couldn't see a thing. "Hey, share with the less fortunate."

The admiral lifted the dedication plaque from the container and held it like a trophy. "It's the plaque from the Utopia Planetia shipyard."

Donovan stared at the warped, tarnished and battered piece of metal. The words of it's inscription sinking deep into his soul.

"... infinity has never been so close."