Star Trek: Everything We NOW Know About The Burn
6. Forced Isolationism
While empires fell and vast interstellar organisations broke apart, the cost of the Burn was not lost on individuals as well. While resources were stretched to breaking points over the century between the Burn and Su'Kal's discovery, many people were forced to live lonely lives, waiting for the golden age to return.
One such person was Aditya Sahil. He spent forty years alone, scanning the same thirty sectors of space every day. The relay station he lived on, named Spaceport Devaloka in Dr Una McCormack's novel Wonderlands, served as a way station for couriers, as well as a lighthouse for any Starfleet vessels that may pass within range, though none ever did.
Sahil, though not a commissioned officer himself, kept the station functioning and manned, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, waiting for the day Starfleet would return. In 3188, his patience was finally rewarded.
Cleveland Booker and Michael Burnham arrived aboard, themselves delighted to find a Starfleet representative. Though overjoyed to meet them, Sahil requested that Burnham raise the Flag of the Federation, as only a commissioned officer could do so. Rather than lift it herself, she gave him a field commission, finally allowing Sahil to raise the flag after so many years alone.
By the end of that year, Sahil was promoted to a full lieutenant in Starfleet by Admiral Vance, finally bringing his solitary lifestyle to a close. The Burn may have killed billions of people and destroyed countless ships, but the psychological effect and isolation that resulted could be felt across the galaxy a century later.
The feeling of catharsis as Sahil greeted Burnham once more, this time at Federation HQ, brought that long chapter to an end.