Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Ascendance by David R. George III

Author:David R. George III
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Pocket Books

Interlude

Nova

On the Quest

In a distant patch of space, Aniq piloted her bladelike vessel toward the rapidly fading star. She skirted a vast expanse of dust and ionized gases that colored the void mostly in shades of violet and blue. The shape-shifters who called themselves the Founders—who had, in fact, founded the Dominion—had until recently called a planet in the nebula home. Aniq had hoped to be a part of the force that eradicated them from the universe, but before that could happen, the Changelings had abandoned their world for another, in an as yet unknown location.

Teniq waited too long, Aniq thought. She had never ut­­tered that statement aloud, for fear of risking the label of impudence, and the penance that would come along with it. A young knight who had not lived even a full century could not speak out against the Archquester to whom she reported without provoking consequences.

And yet it remained the case that a more timely attack on the Founders could have vanquished their particular breed of sinner. Unlike those who dared to falsely worship the True, or those who deified beings other than the actual gods, the Founders had constructed an empire in which they inculcated in their subjects—and sometimes bred into them—the belief in the divinity of the shape-shifters themselves. Such arrogant sacrilege seemed almost unimaginable to Aniq, and it could be met with only one response: extermination.

Aniq eyed the nebula as she passed it to port. She hoped that she would eventually get the opportunity to rid the universe of the Founders and the filth they propagated. She believed that she would, because such an accomplishment would be worthy of the End Time, and recently, she had heard tell of other knights reporting foretokens of the Path to the Final Ascension.

Aniq had never doubted that she would one day enter the Fortress of the True, that she would stand before the Unnameable and burn beneath their gaze, that she would be found worthy and allowed to join with her gods. She knew that some who had endured the Quest for centuries considered her self-centered belief the egotism of youth. All knights knew that their people would one day reach the Fortress and achieve the Final Ascension, but many accepted as likely that it would not occur within their own lifetime, but during some future generation. Aniq believed otherwise, and she took every opportunity to make her beliefs reality.

To that end, the young Quester had pursued a great, changeable being—not one of the Founders, as best she could tell, but a shape-shifter of considerable size and age. She first encountered the vast creature cycles earlier, in a confrontation that destroyed Aniq’s ship and left her stranded on a primitive world. Two older Ascendants in her Order rescued her and provided her with a new vessel. They also counseled her to allow the experience to teach her a modicum of humility and caution when it came to the performance of her duties.

Aniq had accepted the proffered guidance meekly, but with no intention of necessarily heeding it.

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