Captain Bennet had little time to respond before the energy enveloped him. An unprecedented force surged through his body, causing his very molecules to vibrate as if being rewritten. His senses expanded outward, and in an instant, he found himself both everywhere and nowhere. 

He inhaled deeply. Though he felt pain, it was a pain he embraced. It was alluring. It was tempting him further. He closed his eyes, and within a second, Bennet opened them again. 

Reality fragmented into layers before him. Bennet could see the Destiny, its glowing warp core pulsing like a living heart, with each deck existing in multiple states simultaneously. He could see the ship’s past, its present and possible futures. 

Every crewmember flashed before him. Their past, their present and their futures.

Bennet’s mind raced. Again, more pain. He needed more.    

He could see the planet below them, its structure both barren and brimming with life in ways his mind struggled to fathom. Bennet could smell the air, almost taste it and hear the wind blowing through the empty ruins.

Bennet could hear voices—not from the ship or his crew but from somewhere beyond time itself. They whispered in languages he did not know but somehow understood, their words curling around his consciousness like tendrils of light. Each one pulled him in every direction he could imagine. 

None of it felt real, but he knew it was the truth. 

“He is becoming.”

“He is unshackled.”

“He will know eternity.”

Bennet clutched his head, but there was no pain—only vastness, an overwhelming infinity pressing down upon him. He saw past and future merging, possibilities branching like rivers in time. Not only was he witnessing his past, from his time growing up on the old Excelsior-class U-S-S Britannia with his younger brother and mother to his time at Starfleet Academy to the sudden moment he was in command of the Westminister during the Attack on Mars. He could see it all. As clear as a summer’s day. It was bright. It brought a range of emotions all at once. The sheer weight of it all threatened to consume him, but at the same time, something within him reached back—something deep inside him wanted this. He needed it. He craved it. 

Then, he felt it. 

A presence. Powerful. Ancient. 

Watching him.

And then, just as suddenly as it had begun, everything snapped back. Bennet’s mind, body, and very existence reassembled in an instant, but he knew he was no longer the same. He gasped as his senses adjusted, feeling something—everything—shift inside him at a fundamental level.

Something had changed.

But what was it? 

He blinked once. Then twice. 

“The away team?” He barely called out.

Patterson groaned as she stirred, her head pounding from the surge of energy. The ground beneath her felt cold and rough, and the stale air of the ruins was thick with dust. Slowly, she opened her eyes.

Johren lay nearby, his rifle beside him, his chest rising and falling in slow, steady breaths. Chaoi and Aleyso sprawled across the stone floor, groaning as they began to awaken.

Patterson pushed herself up onto her elbows, wincing at the stiffness in her body. The last thing she remembered was the pulse of energy coursing through her and then—darkness. Now, here she was, alive but disoriented.

Before she could get her bearings, a voice, soft and melodic, echoed through the cavern. It was alluring. It was captivating. She had never heard anything like it. 

“I am sorry,” it said.

After getting to her feet, Patterson turned sharply to see a figure standing in the dim light. It was a woman—tall, ethereal, and glowing faintly—her presence radiating an otherworldly energy. Her deep violet eyes shimmered with an unnatural brilliance. Although she appeared humanoid, the glow made her seem more ghostly. Was she real? Or was she a hologram? 

“I did not mean to harm you,” she said gently. With a simple wave of her hand, a soft pulse of light radiated outward, washing over the team. The aches and pains in Patterson’s body instantly vanished, and a sense of clarity settled over her mind. 

Patterson exchanged glances with Johren and the others, who were clearly shaken but uninjured. Their once dusty, ruined uniforms were fixed and cleaned, and they looked like they had just been replicated brand new—not a single mark. 

“I’m Commander Demi Patterson of the Federation starship U-S-S Destiny. We bring you no harm; we are explorers. Who are you?” Patterson asked, forcing herself to stay calm despite the growing unease in her chest. She could see the same feeling plastered across the other three.

Nevertheless, she knew she was in a first-contact situation and needed to show their peaceful intentions. Were they standing before a non-humanoid race with significant powers like the Q? Or was this person a member of the Nacene race? She knew if she or anyone else on the team pulled out their tricorders and started to scan the being in front of them, it could cause more issues than needed. Instead, Patterson opted to use her own natural scanners, her eyes, to try and work out who she was meeting and their intentions. 

The woman smiled, tilting her head slightly. “Hello, I am Eliatha. And I believe it is time for you to return back to your ship. You do not belong here, Commander Patterson. I do not need you.”

Before Patterson could react, Eliatha lifted her hand again. The ruins dissolved around them, and in the blink of an eye, they were somewhere else.

The team materialised onto the Destiny’s bridge, but the sight that greeted them was chaos. The once-sleek command centre was in ruins. Consoles sparked wildly, and the overhead lighting flickered erratically. The viewscreen was shattered, and the exposed circuitry behind it sizzled with damaged components. Smoke curled from deep cracks in the bulkheads, and the air was thick with the acrid scent of burning metal.

And in the middle of it all stood Captain Zack Marshall-Bennet, his expression unreadable as he stared at Eliatha.

Patterson was about to step forward to help her captain, her friend, with their new visitors, but the exchange between them had already started. 

Eliatha sighed, her eyes filled with regret. “I apologise, Captain,” she said, gesturing toward the damaged bridge. “I did not mean to cause such destruction.”

But then, something changed in her demeanour. The sorrow in her expression melted away, replaced by something else—something warm, something triumphant. She stepped closer to Bennet, her gaze locking onto his with an intensity that sent chills down Patterson’s spine.

Eliatha smiled as she placed her left palm on his cheek. “But I have found what I was looking for.”

Bennet’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

Her smile widened, and her eyes shone with a glimmer of something ancient and knowing. There were no hostile intentions. Her entire posture was open, calm, and peaceful. “I have found my mate.”

A stunned silence fell over the bridge. Patterson felt her stomach drop. Did she just declare that she wanted the captain? What did Eliatha mean by that? 

“With you,” Eliatha continued, stepping even closer, “I will share eternity.”

Bennet took an instinctive step back, but Eliatha’s other hand rose again, glowing with raw energy. Everyone was about to step in to defend their captain, but none of them could move. 

“I offer you a gift,” Eliatha said softly. “A chance to evolve beyond the limitations of your species.”

Without warning, she extended her hand, and a shimmering wave of energy surrounded Zack. His body convulsed as light coursed through him, altering his DNA and stretching his consciousness deeper into a reality he had only just begun to grasp.

It lasted only seconds, but when the light faded, Bennet stood utterly transformed.

His breath came in sharp, uneven gasps. His eyes—once a warm blue—now glowed with a strange, shimmering hue. He looked at his hands as if seeing them for the first time, flexing his fingers as waves of golden energy rippled through his body.

Eliatha stepped back, admiring her work. “I will give you time to adjust,” she said smoothly. “I will return when you are ready.”

And with that, she vanished, leaving nothing but a faint ripple in the air where she had stood.

Patterson was the first to break the silence as she leapt towards him. “Captain, we need to get you to sickbay.”

Bennet exhaled slowly, shaking his head. “No,” he said, his voice steadier than before. “The ship—” He gestured at the destruction around them. “We need to fix it first.”

And then, without hesitation, he raised his hand.

In an instant, the Destiny was restored.

The cracked consoles healed themselves, the flickering lights brightened to full strength, and the sparking power conduits smoothed over as if they had never been damaged. The broken viewscreen flickered back to life, displaying a perfectly functioning image of space outside. The acrid scent of smoke had vanished. The bridge was whole again, pristine, as though nothing had ever happened.

A stunned silence followed.

Johren looked around in disbelief. “How—?”

Chaoi’s voice was barely a whisper. “That’s impossible.”

Patterson turned to Zack, her throat dry. “Captain…Zack, what’s going on?”

Bennet slowly lowered his hand, staring at it as if he hardly recognised it himself. The power humming beneath his skin was undeniable—electrifying. That same tempting sensation filled him, and it was alarming. His worry was plastered across his face as he looked at his first officer. Patterson knew Bennet didn’t know what to do.

He was no longer himself.

And everyone knew it.

Before Bennet could say or do anything else, he took one more look at Patterson, and his eyes rolled backwards, and his entire body fell to the deck below them. Shouting out his name, Patterson caught Bennet in her arms and immediately called for someone to transport them both to sickbay.