[Fan Fiction] Star Trek: Cathexis - Exodus

[Cathexis]

Star Trek: Cathexis
Exodus

This story is modeled using Isaac Asimov�s original novel, Nightfall, as an inspiration point and is set fifty years after the Solar Apocalypse.

Synopsis of Nightfall:

Because of its six suns, the planet Kalgash is bathed in perpetual sunlight. However, once every 2,049 years all six suns are eclipsed, plunging the planet into total darkness and causing widespread madness that results in the civilization's complete destruction, thus allowing the cycle to begin again. Night fall , expanded from Asimov's 1941 award-winning short story, lets readers experience the cataclysmic event through the eyes and biases of a newspaperman, an astronomer, an archaeologist, a psychologist, and a religious fanatic. This novel improves upon the original through the use of better-developed characters and an expanded, more textured story that results in an absorbing, richer tale.

We seek to restore this age-old Asimov classic by uniting it with the Star Trek universe.

Synopsis of Star Trek: Cathexis, Exodus:

Fifty years after the Nightfall, or the Solar Apocalypse on Kalgash, and seven years after the Naian-Federation War, the story returns to Kalgash to reveal that a small contingency of survivors built sub-surface complexes underground and has been developing technology to escape from the dead planet. However limited in their advancement, the scientist Sheerin 501, who made the original calculations about Kalgash�s solar nightfall cycle in the 2,049th year and whom no one took seriously until it was too late, was able to develop a primitive communications array. Unfortunately, Sheerin died before his work on the array could be completed, leaving his daughter, Kerigin to finish it. Meanwhile, on course for Utopia Planitia after the Naian Peace Accord has been negotiated, the Cathexis is scheduled to be decommissioned, but an unknown alien transmission is received at Starfleet Headquarters with an urgent request for aid from any peaceful outside force. A standstill takes place and tensions rise as a debate over whether or not to interfere in the affairs of an unknown race should be authorized by Starfleet. Because the message�s origin and method of transmission is unclear due to interference from the sub-surface rock layers on Kalgash, no absolute determination of the level of technological progress can be made about its inhabitants. Admiral Morrow concludes that Starfleet should not interfere on these grounds, and orders Admiral Laurent Van den Haus not to send Cathexis, which is the only ship in close range of Kalgash, to offer any Federation assistance. But Laurent won�t settle for that, and neither will Cathexis�s Captain, Katharyn Reid. The adventure unravels as Reid turns back, violating Morrow�s orders, on the basis of having a duty to the principles upon which the Federation was based. Still, uncertainty about what they will find when they reach Kalgash permeates throughout the ship. Will their Captain face a court martial? Considering how old and weathered the Cathexis is, will Cathexis even make it back to Federation space? All these questions, and more will be revealed, so sit back and brace yourself for the final voyage of the U.S.S. Cathexis, her final mission: to ultimately restore the vision upon which the Federation was founded and save the Kalgash race from the perilous and apocalyptic solar cycle.


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Welcome to.............


Star Trek: Cathexis



Exodus




A Collaborative FanFic By:

Katharyn R. King
Adam Churchill






�--Where dreams have no end.�





Table of Contents


1. Prologue (Kerigin 501)
2. Chapter I: Destination Earth
3. Chapter II: Message In A Bottle
4. Chapter III: Convictions
5. Chapter IV: First Contact
6. Chapter V: The Chase
7. Chapter VI: Array of Light
8. Chapter VII: Court Martial
9. Chapter VIII: Founding Principles
10. Chapter IX: Of What May Be
11. Epilogue (Future Imperfect)







Prologue

Kerigin 501


�Personal Journal, Year Unknown. For anyone to whom this falls into possession. This is my final log.
I no longer live in a world bathed in sunlight, a world into which I was born with six suns and eternal day. Now, every moment is passed in darkness on the surface of my home world. My name is Kerigin 501, and I am of one the last of my race. Half a century ago, my father Sheerin, a prominent scientist among our people, through extensive calculation and research, discovered one of the most terrifying facts about our planet�s system. Every 2,049 years, the six suns set and Kalgash enters a period of total darkness. Nightfall. No one believed him. Not until it was too late, and by that time, the effects of the dark on the minds of millions of our people took their toll, and our world began to collapse. Society crumbled into a void of absolute chaos. Men went mad with what we call the Nightmare Syndrome, unable to sleep or breathe steadily. The air in our atmosphere thinned and the lack of sun drew many to murder and starvation. Without sunlight, we lost all but a few of our subsistence crops, and what didn�t die within the first weeks of the Nightfall was destroyed by those desperate enough to steal unripened fruits and unplanted seeds. People began looting, pillaging, and dying from blindness or hyperadaptive paranoid schizophrenia. The question of how so many of us survived to live through the aftermath of the Nightfall still remains a bitterly vague memory to even myself. So many and yet so few. Only three hundred of us are alive today. We are the lucky ones. In the direct aftermath of the phenomenon, only one hundred of us made it to the Onar Forest, the site of the underground complex my father had been building, the place where we were to spend the remainder of our lives�hiding from the darkness above.
Sheerin had dug tunnels using makeshift spading technology and handheld utility lights powered by small energy cells he had developed years earlier in preparation for what he referred to as the �Dark Ages� ahead. There, beneath the blackened surface, we existed for many years. My father was able to salvage much of his research, including his reports and calculations regarding the Nightfall phenomenon, but he has grown old and frail now, and I fear that he will pass away before his work on the Communications Array is complete. We began by using energy cells that were not rechargeable, and then moved on to create more efficient ones that could be recycled. The most difficult aspect about this project is the fact that there are meters and meters of rock between the surface and the array, so the transmission signal is too weak to penetrate it. It is our greatest hope to find a way to strengthen it just enough to send a message to the outside and, if nothing else, it will give us hope that there is someone out there who can come to our aid. Hope is all we have, but at least it is something.
Today, it is likely that I will lay my father to rest forever, here in this place and not in his home city. But I have done much research and performed many diagnostics; everything indicates that I am close to penetrating the surface and breaking through the interference. If only I could take the risk of returning, but for the sake of everyone�s lives, the consequences outweigh the potential benefits. It would be suicide to go up there. The radiation, the thinness of the air, and the possibility of blindness face me on the surface. There has to be another way. For now, I look to my heart for strength, and hope that such strength will carry us to safety soon. This will be my final entry until after the first trial attempt at transmitting our message using the new modifications is complete. Project Exodus begins and ends with us. Farewell for now. Kerigin out.�
�Kerigin, come quickly, it�s your father asking for you!� The voice of Axin rang out from down the corridor, repeating his call over and over again, each time with greater urgency in his tone than before.
She tapped the console to deactivate the terminal and rushed to Sheerin�s bedside. She came upon a tragic sight as she sat beside him. His blue eyes were now gray and hollow, and his body was withering away helplessly. Convulsing and crying out his daughter�s name, Kerigin knew this was the last moment of her father�s life. The treatments had failed. It was time to say goodbye, but she could not let go without one last attempt at letting him die in peace. She turned away, picked up a sub dermal injector and returned to plant it firmly into his carotid artery, applying pressure as the clear liquid disappeared from the syringe and seeped into his bloodstream. Slowly, his body temperature began to rise and his blood pressure stabilized. The convulsions stopped, but he had begun to have difficulties breathing. He coughed violently, blood spitting from his throat up into his mouth. Still, he managed to pull his body forward and clasp onto Kerigin�s hand with his own.
He smiled weakly. �Dearest child,� he hesitated, gasping spasmodically, and then continued, �how fine a scientist you have become�I think�your mother would be proud, as I am�this is my last day, my last moment�to tell you that I love you�I know you will find a new home for our people, Kerigin�.you will�succeed. I love you�I love you-.� His system shut down as his pulse plummeted and his brain patterns gave over to death.
Kerigin broke into tears, embracing her father�s empty shell of a body. He was gone now, but she pressed into his ear and whispered, �I love you, too.�
Axin pulled her away. �Come, Kerigin, it�s time to finish what he started.�
Kerigin nodded. She took care to lay her father�s hands across each other, kissed his forehead one last time, and then the others came in to remove his body and prepare it for burial. There would be no service, as time was of the essence. The modifications to the array depended greatly upon a very delicate timeframe. Kerigin composed herself before returning to work, but found it difficult. She regretted that her father would not be there to witness the testing of his array. This bright young woman resembled her father very closely. Her eyes were a very light aquamarine blue and donned a pair of glass composite vision enhancers. She also had a very nimble, appealing figure. She wore her silver hair in a tight bun and very rarely let it down, but if she ever did, it usually fell to below her elbows. She had a soft, feminine bone structure, as well as smooth skin.
In spite of the emptiness that loomed over the complex, everyone managed to remain hopeful that the transmission would be a success, and that they would be able to find a new home where they could begin to repopulate and rebuild all that had been lost in the aftermath of the Nightfall.




Chapter I

Destination Earth


Captain Katharyn Reid sighed, sipping at her steaming hot cup of black coffee as she went through the latest ship reports on another padd from the monstrous stack that seemed to taunt her as she braced herself by way of a fourth dose of caffeine to keep herself awake, seeing as she intended to spend the rest of her evening embroiled in nothing but ship�s business. When was the last time she had been able to simply enjoy her free time? She could not remember. Far too long, she thought to herself. While she was thrilled to know that the war was finally over and that she would be back in San Francisco for a nice, long sabbatical�alone, she was troubled by Admiral Van den Haus�s recent behavior. He seemed more irritable than usual this past week, more contentious. It was as though he was not as relieved about the Naian Peace Accords as everyone else was. In fact, he had made some pretty snide comments under his breath about how no one could be trusted to keep the peace. It surprised Katharyn to hear the Admiral speak against the Federation so negatively and so vehemently. It was one thing to be annoyed with men like Admiral Morrow, who was almost too overbearing to function, and to voice his opinions so directly, but she had never heard Van den Haus say such things about not trusting the Federation. Truthfully, she found his behavior to be quite disturbing. His demeanor on her bridge and his treatment of her officers, as well as herself only served to bolster her concerns about him. She determined that it was probably in everyone�s best interest to invite him to dinner sometime soon, preferably before the ship returned to Utopia Planitia, where it was to be decommissioned immediately upon arrival. She wanted spirits to be high when they returned to Earth since they had been away for seven years, many of them without contact with their families and loved ones for the duration of the war.