More Than a Lifetime #8: The Edge of Heaven

Chapter 2: The Fire

In preparation for the mission that had been assigned to her earlier in the day, Dani sat in her quarters, on her sofa, thinking about what she would be facing in only a few days. She'd started preparing for it almost from the moment her mother had briefed her and rest of the team. The mission instructions had assigned each team member a specific role in the mission: Chakotay would be the mission pilot; Dr. Bashir would be there to essentially begin studying samples of the virus and to oversee the destruction of the remaining virus samples; both would remain on the runabout for the duration of the mission. Sisko, Dani, and Will would comprise the team on the ground. Tuvok, who had been the strategic force behind the mission, would not join the team on the actual away mission.

Dani had been devouring everything she could find concerning the Suliban. Her readings led her to the first mission of the U.S.S Enterprise NX-01. That mission had initially been just a transport to Kronos but had evolved into something much more complicated. During this mission, Captain Jonathan Archer, Enterprise's CO, made the first documented contact with the Suliban race in what could easily be termed a hostile encounter. Using their amazing stealth abilities, Suliban agents had sneaked onboard Archer's ship to retrieve a Klingon the Enterprise was transporting to Kronos.

Dani was about to start reading about the outcome of that mission when her door chimed. "Come in," she called, reluctantly looking up from the PADD in her hands. The door slid open, and Will Riker entered. "Hi," Dani greeted.

"Hey," Will said, approaching the coffee table. He would've sat down beside Dani on the sofa, but the space was currently being occupied by about a dozen PADDs. Instead, he opted for the chair next to the sofa. "I just came to see how you were feeling," he said.

"Oh, I'm fine," Dani said. "I'm just doing a little research on our friends, the Suliban." She handed Will one of the PADDs that had been occupying what would have been his seat.

He skimmed it briefly and then studied Dani. "Are you nervous?" he asked.

"Yes, but this has to be done," Dani replied. "Our whole existence probably depends on it. And for reasons I still don't fully understand, Admiral Nechayev feels that I am the best candidate for this mission."

"You won't be alone, you know."

"I know. Do you think I'd be sane right now if I didn't know you were coming with me?"

"Everything's going to work out for the best," Will said. "You'll see."

Dani wanted to believe Will, but in her mind, she didn't exactly have the best track record when it came to missions of this nature. There were so many things that could go wrong, but that was true of all missions. The difference this time was the gravity of the consequences if they failed.

Will sensed that his words of encouragement made little difference for her, and he understood why, considering her history. "I know that going on another mission like this is one of the last things in the universe that you want to do, but this is a completely different situation than last time. It's a whole new mission. You've got to keep that in mind."

"I know," Dani said. "It's kind of silly that I'm still not completely over that. It's been over a year."

"There's no time limit on how long it takes people to get over something like that," Will said. "It was a traumatic experience for you. If you think this new mission will be too much for you, I don't think anyone would object if you decided you want to sit this one out."

"That's taking the easy way out," Dani said. "I won't do that. I've got to prove that I can do this."

"Dani, you don't have to prove anything to anyone."