VolkAstrum, Gamma Quadrant
by Acenevar Crystillin
She didn’t know how long she was laying on the grass. The warm air was enough to send her to sleep, but she hadn’t. It seemed like hours. She felt the eyes of the other students on her wondering what she was doing. Her friend sitting there awkwardly. Another ship passed through the sky going to the capital’s station. It was probably just another transport of Yaderan refugees.
“Ensis.” She heard the girl call out a somewhat quiet. She called to her again.
~Hello?~
“Yeah?” She replied finally struggling to say as she sat up.
Ensis looked back at her friend who was standing a few meters away. Her silvery tinted skin seemed shiny with the sun in the center of the sky. She looked a little worried in her uniformed dress. The black leggings on her seemed to stretch as she shifted around. Standing beside her was Dian, the Sanctus district Prime Minister. She was tranquil unlike most of the Prime Ministers, so Ensis wouldn’t be able to speak with her like she would her friend Lilia. Being tranquil wasn’t probably her idea, but she wore it with as much pride as she could. Dian wore a grey dress, simplistic, chic is what the fashion industry would call it.
~You need to sign up for some psych counseling Lill.~
“Your Honor!” Ensis stuttered straightening her jacket. Dian was holding a see through piece of glass in her hand, she was smiling warmly.
“Hello Ensis, don’t worry I just am hear to talk to you about your placement.” She tapped the piece of glass and opened something on the screen she couldn’t see. Dian went straight to the point, tranquils were famous for their bluntness.
“Overall your grades are looking great, you're only twelve years of age, no misconduct, you have twelve bonds that are reported, a little low for your age but understandable. I saw that you applied for the armed forces, as well.”
Ensis nodded a bit skeptically. It wasn’t odd for people in the Sanctus district to apply for armed forces. The only difference between her and a lot of the Sanctus girls was the idea of going of planet.
Dian continued. “There is a shuttle leaving for Vicyaulas IV. I thought you might want to have some first hand action before you commit.” She turned to Lilia next. “Miss Jeria, you should go along as well, there is a lot of medical attention needed there.”
Vicyaulas IV was a remote Teplan world, laid to ruin when the Dominion invaded. Ensis frowned at Dian. She remembered going to the Memory archives and reliving the destruction. About a year earlier before the Dominion expanse the Voklerrian government had signed a nonaggression pact with them. Mainly to help species like the Yaderan and the Stakoron. Ensis recalled how no help came the day the Dominion attacked. She also recalled how that was the day VolkEharr broke all peaceful ties with the Dominion. Dian looked at her a bit worried, or at least she thought it was a look of worry.It was indeed much harder for her to read tranquils.
“Oh, no don’t worry I want to go.” Ensis looked around hearing the slight sound of another shuttle fly by.
Dian tapped a button on the pad and smiled once more. She gave the two girls the usually farewell salute and walked off toward the main university. Lilia looked displeased, she was probably the only Volkerrian to ever get disappointed on the homeworld.
~Lighten up, you get to use your xeno biology training. Besides I heard the VNV Nautus is stationed there.~
Lilia sighed, then shrugged, and finally followed Ensis toward the district's center. The Sanctus district was always busy, the Domina university was here, a lot of restaurants, clubs and other new business. Sanctus didn’t have many stadiums though, a lot of those where either in the Astus district or the Pueri district; therefore they had to have concerts and other events there.. Ensis and Lalia walked from the University lawn to the main transport center where the shuttles and emergency transports were.
The Three-dimensional holographic emitters turned on at exactly five pm for the news report. Ensis didn’t watch the news usually, but tonight was supposed to be special. The streets were lined with resident of the Sanctus district, they all had either clothing or face paint on with the districts Korri team flag. Tonight the Domina University Korri team was suppose to compete against the Pueri Universities Tigar team. All of the girls were either in common rooms, or in their apartments waiting for the game to come on.
The news before the game come on, it went on a few more minutes before it caught her eye. The character letters on the screen were interesting to her. Lalia was interested to. The news reporter started speaking clearly.
[... our main headline for this evening concerns the far off Dominion. The VNV Gerrian, a science vessel made a routine visit to Tepla and reported yesterday. According to the vessels reports a team was able to transport to the surface. The team planned to spend their lives on the planet researching a cure for the blight that has infected the people. However, it seems their plan was all for nothing. Accounts of the natives say that an intervening power already came up with a cure for the blight. We are still unsure of who exactly intervened, the closest title we have gotten to knowing is an organization known as Star Fleet...]
Ensis smiled. This would mean another light show in the Capital, and a brand new ship made to go and find this new civilization. Ensis would have to sign up quickly before all of the personnel slots were taken. This happened far too often, the parties in the District centers happened every time a new civilization was found, or each time they found a habitable planet. Which was almost every fourth day at most.
~Ensis.~
She turned looking toward Lalia who was already standing in the door of a filling shuttle.
~We need to get to Citadel station now.~
Ensis smiled. She had to study the new shuttle before she boarded it. The Aeronomics division had spent night and day coming up with the new schematics for their ships. The design was similar to early Volkerrian starships, which in returned were similar to the Jem’hadar’s designs. The exterior was smooth with no visible exhausts, or ports except for one veteron torpedo launcher, and the two impulse nacelles located behind the door. Ensis ran her hand over the surface. Its plating hadn’t been energized yet or else she would have gotten a shock from touching the microscopic emitters. It was still unthinkable to her that a chroniton generator of such a small caliber could have any effect on a larger ship. Lilia was starting to get annoyed now. Ensis said her goodbyes to the exterior of the vessel and stepped inside the ship. Ensis and Lalia sat next to one of the ‘windows’. It wasn’t an actual window, it used microscopic cameras imprinted in the ship's hull. Yet it was indistinguishable from a window.The interior of the ship was darker but the lighting was just the inverse.
A few minutes passed before the shuttle was full enough to lift off. Lalia returned from a mini excursion to the ship's data terminal and sat across from her in their longue. Other girls migrated onto the ship from the stop in the Domina district. The shuttle took its finally stops in the Pueri and Dominus districts. It was probably the first time that day she had seen males. She knew Lalia was looking at them. Ensis couldn’t help but think that was part of the reason she chose Xeno Biology. Most other species procreated using the dual gendered system. While yes, it was possible for the Volkerrians to procreate like such, their genetic makeup made it complicated. Lalia made her more open about that sort of thing, it's not like people disagreed with it, but it wasn’t something highly sought after.
The shuttle had finally made it to Citadel Station, the orbiting spacedock of VolkEharr. Many ships were docked with the massive complex. Mainly Volkerrian vessels, but there were a few other recognizable species docked there. The shuttle landed in the main hanger bay which always faced the planet, and waited until its passengers had left to leave the station to pick up more passengers from the surface. It was common to commute to and from the planet, transporter commute was becoming more common since people could leave their homes in a matter of seconds and reach their destination moments later but shuttle transport was the primary way of travel. Transporter technology wasn’t knew, but most Volkerrians would get dizzy after each transport, some even would get sick after transport.
The station was extremely clean and had a lot of windows looking out unto the ether, and the planet below. Unlike the shuttle these were real. Once they reached the main atrium the two girls looked up. The main atrium was a perfect circle, people walked all the way around the dome passing time in some of the gardens or just enjoying a nice walk through the tranquil sphere. Ensis couldn’t remember her previous lives, but Lalia said that it was amazing when it was built. It was a whole new breakthrough science about gravity and time. Thankfully when the Dominion was first discovered they were able to stand their ground using their new technology. Ensis looked out at one of the drydocks. A considerably massive ship was docked, it was still under construction, but even with only its innards in place it looked menacing to Volkerrians.
~If it weren’t for the Jem’hadar we wouldn’t need battleships.~
Lalia agreed with her, without the Dominion most of the quadrant would have been safe and without worry. Yet the Dominion was practically on the other side of the quadrant, far enough away not to worry about home.
Ensis and Lalia walked ‘down’ a path pausing to look up at one of the pools of water on the ‘roof’. The water native to VolkEharr always stays clear. There it sat, the planet slowly rotating. Ensis remembered something from her geography class, she recalled that only Sixty-five percent of VolkEharr was covered in water. Lalia tapped her on the shoulder.
~Enth look!~
Ensis felt where she was looking, she had an actual sense of what Lalia was looking at through their bond. There was an overwhelming amount of Volkerrians were gathering around a women dressed in a colorfull set of robes.that covered her head to toe. Her veil covered her face making Her mouth remained closed yet Ensis was sure that she was communicating with half of the station.
“Lalia, she's a Gemana!”
Lalia was already in a memorized state. It wasn’t necessarily rare to see a Iudais monk, in fact they were common enough. To see one on a station however away from the Conclave, now that was rare. Ensis wondered if any of the rumors were true. She recalled one hearing that the top priests could control people using their telepathic abilities. The monks and priests of Iudais work on one thing during their entire lives. They work on the compilation, extraction, and preservation of the Memory Archives. Everyone stored their past lives’ memories there. Unfortunately not everyone can make it to the Archives in time, and the mentally ill’s memories can get corrupted. Ensis last life was something of a soldier who died fighting the Dominion. It took years for her to regain a corporeal form. Ensis shivered, she didn’t know she was ever dead she didn’t feel or know anything during those years. Once she graduated from the Genus district she had to obtain her past lives memories like everyone else. It was a horrifying feeling. She had only two lives before hers so she hadn’t had to experience it as much as she would have to. Ensis had heard about another species which possesed similar traits, the ability to pass on memories but all it was, was a rumor to her.
Lalia grabbed her arm and pulled her forward. It wasn’t ideal to get stuck in the center of the station, so Lalia had the right idea to get out early.
The rest of the station was busy as well. There were many traders and station vendors that disappeared across the many hallways. Ensis looked out each window she passed viewing the outstretched hallways that connected the drydocks to the centerpiece of the station. Almost everyone she passed was Volkerrian. Ensis disliked the the lack of diversity among the station and planets population. The fact was that many of the species that they had met had either been controlled by the Dominion or dislike the Volkerrian’s abilities. The Yaderans were the only ones who would come and go without a second thought, but the Dominion controlled many of their planets making it hard for them.
Ensis’ ears ringed. She heard the gasped and felt a new sudden emotion, a mixture of being scared and saddened. Lalia tugged on her arm and they found their way to a window facing a Drydock which was in the process of opening its bay doors. Two heavy shuttles were inching their way along pulling a crippled ship. The black-gray hull was bent in several locations and holes spread across the smooth surface. The emergency bulkheads had shut, some on the upper decks had been blown through and not even the magnetic force fields were activated. The port nacelle was completely gone including the entire strut connecting it. The chroniton generators had been deactivated the ship was completely dead. Ensis felt anger rise around her, it was all poised toward the Dominion, only Jem’Hadar ships had the manpower and firepower to completely disable a Volkerrian heavy cruiser. The whole station soon became mad, the ‘bandwagon’ effect was an understatement to the Volkerrian. People were mobilizing. All military personnel had become single minded and made their way to their stations, the station now consisted of tight lines of Civilians and military personnel. It was times like this that she understood why the Jem’Hadar call them “The Hive”. Lalia and Ensis moved away from the main thoroughfare allowing people to move by them. This would be the seventh time that the Jem’Hadar would again attack them and cause war between their people, and their wars lasted years, the last war had been almost two months ago. VolkEhar was weakening with each advancement it was well known.
Ensis and Lalia both had been following a line to the main hangar. This time she wasn’t going back down to the homeworld but leaving for a new one. The longe range shuttle had sat there drawing the oncoming traffic of people unto it. She felt the thoughts of the people around her, many knew they were going to their deaths, but they all knew that they would be dying the pursuit of the protection of the homeworld. Thus Ensis and Lalia both stepped unto the shuttle sealing their fate, ready to take their awaited trek amongst the stars.
