Geoffrey Thorne

What about the ship? Jaza thought at Ylira Modan. What about Titan?

Modan? he thought at her again. What about Titan?

She hesitated. The black ocean seemed to swell and roll around him. For an illusion created in the pocket of his mind, it certainly felt as if he could drown here.

“You know, she said, still not wanting to face it herself. “You saw.

The memory accosted him then; hed seen what had looked like an impossibly vast wall of fire sweeping over the ship, consuming it utterly. He remembered Troi screaming.

“ Somethings happened! I cant feel them! I cant feel any of them!

But he still needed to hear Modan say it-needed to anchor his recollections to reality-for her and for him.

What happened to Titan, Modan? he thought again, relentless. What happened to Titan?

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2007 by CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc.

This book is published by Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., under exclusive license from CBS Studios Inc.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

For information address Pocket Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

POCKET and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Cover design by John Vairo Jr.; illustration by Cliff Nielsen;

3D rendering of ship by Ellery Connell

ISBN-10: 1-4165-3110-6

ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-3110-4

Visit us on the World Wide Web:

http://www.SimonSays.com/st

http://www.startrek.com

For Susan, who holds my hand

For Donal, who gave good counsel

For Chris and Barbette, who opened the door

Acknowledgments

This novel could not have been written without the stellar preceding works of Michael A. Martin, Andy Mangels, and Christopher Bennett or the assistance, both literary and moral, of Dayton Ward and Keith R.A. DeCandido.

It would never have come to fruition without the patience and steady hand of editor Marco Palmieri, who must surely need a massive hair transplant to replace the mane he pulled out over my eccentricities.

A special, special thanks to Sean Tourangeau for his beautiful and truly inspiring design for the starship Titan. I hope I manage to put a smile on his face as wide as the one he put on mine.

And of course, none of it would have been possible without Mr. Roddenberry and the rest of the crew giving us all such a wonderful and easy birth.

The Great Bird lives.

IDIC.

Historians Note

This tale is set approximately three months after the events described in Orions Hounds .

Part One

We speak it here, neath starlights sheen,

One truth that all who live must learn.

From first to last and all between

Time is the fire in which we burn.

-El-Aurian proverb

Epilogue

T he blaze consumed everything it touched, scorching its way through the air and the foliage like wraithwinds fabled in the prophecies. It slithered between the boulders, devoured the vegetation in monstrous serpentine undulations that left only tracks of dark ash in their wake. What it touched it consumed utterly and it touched everything-everything beyond his haven of stones.

There was thunder out there too, though the sky was essentially clear. Thunder, or something very like. And there were other noises, low and distant rumblings, that made him think of amphitheaters full of chattering crowds.

He wasnt sure the sky should be that particular shade of copper, but then he wasnt really sure of anything just now. Not the lush and sultry vegetation growing in leafy explosions of amethyst beyond the fire, spiraling in great spires toward the amber sky; not the smell of cinnamon that seemed to permeate the air; not the strangely diffuse light from the hot white orb of the local star or the oddly granular texture of the soil beneath him. Nothing was right. Nothing was certain, nothing but the fire.

Volatile gases or some other fuel kept these flames fed, kept them dancing and licking around the trunks and stones.

Watching the display, feeling the feverish heat and tremors, even tasting his own blood on the edges of his tongue, he found himself unable to muster the proper concern. It was as if all that impending doom was bearing down on someone else, someone in a childs night tale, and he was safely elsewhere, free to focus only on the firestorms hypnotic motions and kaleidoscopic beauty.

His mind sought the memory of the moment of his arrival and was happy to find it missing. Like his identity, the event that had left him here, slowly roasting in the encroaching heat, was nowhere to be seen.

Concussion?

Somehow he managed to assemble enough facts to form a hypothesis; there had been an explosion, one to which hed been far too close, and which had taken its toll on his memories. He remembered hurtling through the air and the sudden crunching stop.

He had been somewhere else just before that, somewhere small and cool and filled with other people. He was mostly sure of that.

Was it a room? A vehicle of some kind? Who were the people? Where were they?

Half-formed images- blue or red or gold on black -snippets of conversation- I dont believe Ive ever seen anything like it, Commander -something about a woman made of gold- or maybe that was just the color of her hair?- even music- strange trilling melodies, a chorus of flutes -sparked in his mind and faded again before he could force them to cohere.

Yes, definitely a concussion. You didnt have to be a doctor to know that.

The confusion and the gaps in his awareness were somehow more troubling than the physical pain but not by much. He shifted, hoping to ease at least some of his discomfort, but only succeeded in making it worse.

Something significant had broken inside him, he could feel it, something that throbbed horribly when he didnt move and stabbed at him when he did. A broken rib certainly, perhaps two or three.

Oh, came the wry thought as his lips curled into a grin. Oh, thats not good.

He still lay where hed fallen. Luck had wedged him behind a ring of the oddly conical rocks, his back against something rough and unyielding. He was still close enough to the blaze to see his death coming but far enough away to pretend that the meeting would not happen soon.

Unsettling images bubbled uselessly up again and again from somewhere at the bottom of his mind. He saw the stern visage of an older man whose name did not arrive with him. The face was familiar-gray eyes, deep set, skin like a well-used cloth sack, wrinkles that became chasms that might have been the result of too much smiling or too much time in the desert sun. It was a familiar face, yes, but also still unknown. The stern man was some kind of teacher, he knew that much, someone to trust. The rest was mud.

He shifted, instinctively trying again for a more comfortable position, and instantly regretted it.

There was pain in the lower parts of him as well, he realized, though it was nothing like what was going on in his chest. Shattered knee? Broken hip? Though great, the pain was too general for him to isolate to a particular region just yet. He was still too far outside himself, too adrift in his own choppy memory to dredge up any true interest in his damaged state.

Pretty, he thought, enraptured by the sight of the conflagration.

His attention fell away from watching the mercurial plasma dragons writhing and dancing all around in favor of listening to the strange and familiar noises now making soft counterpoint to the din of the blaze.

“What are you doing there, you lazy batos ? said a voice he instantly recognized as his mothers. Which was odd because he was sure he remembered her as being quite dead for quite some time.

Or was she? Had she already succumbed to Orketts disease, bleeding and spasming herself into oblivion, or was that painful trial yet to come? He couldnt sort it and, for the moment, didnt have the energy to try.

“Im speaking to you, Jem, she said again, though now he wasnt sure if it was really her voice or just the sound of sap, superheated by the fire, popping in the flora around him.

“Rouse yourself, boy, said another voice, male this time and sounding as if the throat from which the words emerged had been scoured with broken glass. “Move now or die.

He knew this voice as well and hated it. Guldejit? Glinforkis? Troknoor? The names flitted like sand flies on the edge of his thoughts, keeping just as completely out of reach as his own name had done. Paradoxically, his hatred for their owners remained, burning nearly as hot as the flames, which, he suspected, had managed somehow to grow closer.

“Get up, said his mothers voice, more insistent this time. “Theyll trample us.

A part of his mind told him that this was delirium, that these people and their words were just phantoms, tricks played by his concussed brain. The other part, the larger part for now, was happy to take them at face value. Spectral as they were, they were company. He hated to be alone.

The true believer is never alone. It was a phrase from the prophecies, one hed not understood until-

Suddenly the circle of stones gave way to another image, another place and time. He was back in the camps, back in the days when his parents hustled him from dwelling to dwelling, from settlement to settlement, apparently without reason but truly to avoid the guns and lashes of the bad people.

Trample him? Yes, they would. There were scores of others now, beside him and his mother, hundreds. They were borhyas , ghostly presentments of people he had once known, perhaps still knew, running, fleeing before the onslaught of something massive and deadly.

The bad people. The outsiders.

Their pursuit had transformed friends and relatives, teachers and vedeks and schoolyard nemeses into a herd of frightened cattle. If he lost his footing, if he stopped moving for even a moment, their flight would kill him as surely as the bad people forcing the stampede.

His mothers ghost held out one transparent hand, beckoning. For a moment he looked at her and marveled at the sight of her pale gray eyes in her dark oval face, her thick braids whipping back and forth as she scanned the area around them, her lips that should have been smiling but were pulled now into a grimace. How young she seemed. How long had it been since hed seen her that way?

“Now, she hissed, terrified, angry. “We have to move right now.

Groaning from the spikes in his chest, in his legs, in his mind, he forced himself up and followed her forward. Behind them the bad people made their presence felt. He couldnt make them out, what with running the other way, but his memory coughed up impressions. Sharp, craggy features, bodies covered in gray metallic uniforms. Each face frozen in a perpetual sneer of disgust for him and those like him.

“Move, Bajoran scum. Move.

Beams of ethereal light whipped out from the guns they held, striking some of the fleeing ghosts, obliterating them, glancing off others but forcing them down to be trampled under the heels of their fellows.

Away, he thought. We have to get away.

As he labored his way upward, over hard and unyielding ground, he felt tongues of heat lapping greedily at his heels, snapping him back to the here and now, if only for a moment. He looked back in time to see the roiling plasma overrun what, seconds before, he had thought a safe haven.

Core disruption? he thought, staring at it disapprovingly. Deuterium imbalance? His mind suddenly flooded with familiar concepts and equations. Gerren Kins first Law of Motion. Obars rules of gravimetrics. The chemical composition of Argelian mead. The third Song of the Prophets.

He was a little unnerved by the rush until he realized it was just his memory returning. But there was still the disorientation, the sense of being both here and there at once. And there was that strange chorus of noises-like waves breaking on an endless sea of pebbles-echoing in from places close but unseen. He knew that noise-felt he should know it, anyway-and knew, moreover, that it filled him with a sort of dread. There was death in that sound, but it was so hard for him to focus enough to remember why.

What was it forcing his ungainly scramble up the side of this cliff? A fire? No. No, its the bad people chasing us now. The explosion hasnt happened yet. I havent even joined the resistance yet. Havent split with Father. Right now Im just a boy.

Some part of his mind, the adult, the scientist, knew that this trip through his past was a delusion brought on by injuries that almost certainly included a concussion, but it was a small part not yet capable of reasserting dominance. The mass of him accepted what he saw, contradictions and all.

So, now forced to actually climb the suddenly vertical promontory, he scrambled, hand over excruciating hand, up and away from the ghosts of old oppression. His face drawn into a perpetual grimace, he moved toward the outstretched hand of the mother he hadnt seen in a decade and who hadnt been this young in three.

“Hurry, her phantom said. Fearful. Earnest. Desperate. Things she had never been in life. “Hurry or theyll-

And then she was gone. Not blasted or trampled or pulled away by some as yet unseen attacker, just vanished.

Because she was never here, he thought in another flash of clarity. Just my mind playing tricks.

Increased exertion meant increased blood flow. Increased blood flow to his brain meant lucidity, meant he was coming back to himself. Because this isnt Bajor and Im not running from the Cardassians. That was long ago, before we won our independence, before the Militia, before Starfleet, before

Before Titan .

It was suddenly just there, back in its normal mental cubby, filled with friends and colleagues and-

The shuttle. Hed been piloting one of the heavy-duty shuttles, investigating-something-and something had gone wrong. Had they been attacked?

He and his team were crashing down on-well, that was still fuzzy-whatever this place was-and they had to get out fast. The flashes of black and gold and blue and red had been the uniforms, like his own, of those others in the shuttle.

There was a woman, at least one, with a mane of red-brown hair and eyes that were wide and dark and deep. Her face was there, but the others were still a blur. He remembered her saying something before the transporter effect took him away.

“ Somethings happened, he remembered her nearly screaming. “ I cant feel them! I cant feel any of them!

His mind was clearer now, almost his own again. The memory still wasnt quite right, but the processes, his ability to make sense of things, was back.

It had been almost a minute since hed drifted off again into that place that wasnt quite sleep. Back now, still perched on the edge of stone, he surveyed the landscape below.

It was an alien world all right, complete with off-color sky, massive indigo crystal formations and boulders that the elements had carved into weird conical shapes, foliage that was wild and varied, a mosaic of purples and crimsons and whites.

And, of course, there was the fire. The fires.

All around him there were pockets of it, wide sections of the wider expanse that had been somehow set ablaze. Pretty recently, by the look of them.

Were these the result of the plasma storm? The uniform spread and pattern of the burnings made that unlikely. And what about the storm? He had thought it the product of a core breach or some sort of fuel mixture incongruity but now, with his mind clearer, he knew that couldnt be so. Such an accident would have wiped the local landscape clear, made it as smooth as polished glass for multiple kilometers in every direction.

No, whatever had caused the storm and these fires was local. Specific.

Familiar?

Yes. There was a pattern there that sparked again the remembrance of his old life on Bajor. He found it odd that his recollections of those increasingly distant moments would return with such clarity when his more recent memories were so elusive. He had seen these shapes, these patterns before.

Blast craters, he realized. Thats what they are. Somebodys been lobbing incendiaries around.

He allowed himself a bleak flicker of hope that hed only stumbled onto a munitions testing range of some sort and not into an ongoing local war. The former might mean the shelling had stopped for the day. The latter meant all bets were off.

It was then that he understood the odd background noises hed been hearing to be those of a battle. Small arms fire. The shouts of combat factions. The occasional scream.

He needed higher ground to get a sense of where he was. He needed to see what was where, if the battle was coming his way and, most important, if there were any other stragglers from the shuttle crash.

The pain of the climb brought the borhyas back. Even as he hauled his protesting body up onto the summit of this giant stone, he returned again to that awful day when the Cardassians had come.

“Its all right, Jem, said his mother as he knelt, gasping from his exertions, at the lip of the precipice. “This will pass. Only the Prophets are forever.

She was talking about the destruction of their homes, of their lives, as the Cardassian boots and ignition-bombs smashed them to bits. He hadnt believed her platitudes then. How could he, with all that death and carnage smoldering below? His friends were scattered or dead. Their homes, their farms, the school, the shrine, all were in charred ruins. Where were her precious Prophets in all that?

Hed lost his faith in that moment, looking at the wreck of the Harka valley and the black-suited Cardassian troops marching implacably through the flaming craters. All because someone had hinted that maybe members of a resistance cell had holed up there.

His belief had dissolved as instantly and completely as the froth on a flagon of Bolian lager and not returned again until-until-

He shook his head, forced himself to focus on the here and now. This wasnt Bajor. This wasnt that time or that place. These fires were something else, something specific to this new location. The beings behind them-not Cardassians but people new and unknown-were still close enough to cause him more trouble than he, in his condition, could handle.

Indeed, the final few meters of the climb had nearly finished him. If he hadnt been bleeding internally before, he certainly was now.

He looked up at the orange-gold sky, his eyes tracking smoke trails until they touched the horizon. He gazed down at the wide expanse of plants and stone below. He noted the pattern of the craters and their fires, noted the expansion of the plasma storm, tried and failed to see its far-off center. He caught motions, quick, violent, and furtive, rustling through the overgrowth. He heard the distant report of weapons fire. Where were his friends in all that? Presuming it had survived the crash, where was the shuttle, their only means of escape?

Where was Titan ?

A strange chittering noise sounded in the nearby brush, drawing his eyes away from the fires. It suddenly occurred to him that any natives he met in this locale might not be in the mood for a peaceful first contact. It also crossed his mind that a weapon of some sort might be a good thing to have in hand. Just as he was deciding between the broken arm of one of the small purple saplings and a largish hunk of rock, the source of the noise emerged.

It was a hulking thing, about two and a half meters tall, covered in some sort of chitonous exoskeleton, possibly its own body rather than artificial armor. There were four oval protrusions on its head-eyes, most likely. Above them, two slender antennae stretching up and back, wavering slightly in the breeze. There was no visible mouth, and he was somehow glad of that.

Formica mactabilis, he thought. Its a giant bug.

It was also, most definitely, a soldier. You could tell that from the bloody serrated blade it gripped in its lower right hand. It had four in total, the remaining three holding a second machete, something that looked disturbingly like a gun, and another something that might be a grenade.

The creature sported intricate patterns, like tattoos, all over its upper left arm, perhaps denoting rank of some kind.

This entire analysis passed through his mind in the five seconds it took the creature to notice him and raise the ugly little firearm toward him.

“No! cried a familiar voice from out of nowhere. “Look out!

The instant the soldier bug fired at him-not a beam weapon, thank the Prophets-a second creature, not insectoid, leaped out of the brush and smashed into the first. This one was somewhat smaller, and instead of an exoskeleton its body was covered in a number of protective armor plates. Its entire body was like burnished gold instead of the muted green and black favored by its enemy.

What it lacked in size it more than made up for in ferocity. The unexpectedness and sheer brutality of its attack was enough to nearly overwhelm its foe.

The two creatures smashed hard into the gravelly dirt, the gun now spraying its projectiles wildly. Only one of the little pellets managed to graze his right shoulder before the gun was smashed useless. The grenade was knocked free immediately after the pistol, leaving only the two serrated machetes for his golden savior to avoid.

His vision went fuzzy as his injuries, at last, took their rightful toll. Things inside him ripped and tore and, through the haze of pain, all he could make out of the scene before him was a storm of armored arms and legs grappling and pounding at each other.

He groaned, coughing blood as he fell to his knees and then face-first onto the ground as one of the creatures-he had no idea which-beat the head of the other into the rocks a first, second, and final time.

“I cant be dying, he said-or thought he said-as the victorious alien stood, shook itself, and oriented on him again. “This isnt the way I- The rest was lost in a fit of bloody coughs. His voice wasnt his own anymore anyway. It was rough, phlegmy, as if hed been beating it against the same stone against which the aliens head had struck.

As a black velvet sheet fell slowly over the world, he became aware of the golden interloper, the victor, coming his way.

With each step forward its body seemed to melt and shift. The thickly muscled arms lost size and definition, becoming smaller and more delicate with each step. The body absorbed its hard armored plating and became a thing of long muscular curves. The long, vicious-looking spines that ran from the bridge of its nose across its head and down its back all shrank and retracted, either being absorbed into the body completely or else softening and drooping until they aped a mass of thick ropey braids. A head of hair? A mouth appeared and a nose and suddenly there was a woman, a golden woman, kneeling down beside him.

Was this reality or just a hallucination created from the cascade of endorphins unleashed by a brain hoping to ease his slide into the dark?

“Youre not dying on me, Jaza, said the woman. “Im counting on you to save us.

Then she was cradling him and he was looking up into her turquoise marble eyes, eyes that seemed always to be smiling. He knew her. He remembered her face and he remembered her name.

“Ylira? he rasped, scarcely knowing if all this was just one final delusion before his pagh was set free.

“Hush, she said softly, bending closer for what could have been a kiss but wasnt. The tendrils on her head, not hair as hed supposed, came alive around them, writhing and undulating like serpents. “I have much to do, and theres no time.

As the first of the serpents touched his forehead, the world went mercifully black.

He floated in darkness, drifting in an infinite shadow that rolled over and around him like an ocean of ink. He was aware-of himself, of his name, of his life, of everything that hed thought lost not long before. He was aware of his body, still distant, still not quite there, being repaired. He was also aware of her.

Ylira, he thought, somehow knowing speech was both beyond him right now and unnecessary.

“Modan, said her voice from out of the black, chiding. “Ylira is my crche designation.

He did know that and more. He knew she was his colleague, his fellow officer. He knew she was from a planet called Selene. He knew she liked to flirt. He knew she had been with him on the ill-fated shuttle. He knew she was repairing him somehow, bringing him back from the Prophets embrace.

What happened? he thought furiously as he felt his strength returning, his bones and tissue knitting together. The shuttle? The others?

“You know what, said her voice. “We crashed. And the others-I-I dont know. It was a lie. She did know. He felt it as much as he felt her need not to admit it.

Something had happened to them, something awful.

Their faces and names came back to him then, and he wished that they hadnt. He wouldnt have felt the loss so acutely had they still been nothing but blurs.

Troi, he thought. Troi and all the rest.

“Sshh, she said, a little too forcefully. He knew somehow that she was busy rejoining his shattered ribs, but he felt there was something pushing her emotions too. Something large and dreadful that she didnt want to see just now. Or maybe didnt want him to see.

All the rest.

What about the ship? he thought at her, fearing the answer, knowing it even as his mind formed the question. What happened to Titan?

She hesitated before responding. The black ocean seemed to swell and roll around him. For an illusion created in the pocket of his mind, it certainly felt as if he could drown here.

Modan? he thought at her again. What happened to Titan?

“You know, she said, still not wanting to face it herself. “You saw.

The memory accosted him then; hed seen what had looked like an impossibly vast wall of fire sweeping over the ship, consuming it utterly. He remembered Troi screaming.

“ Somethings happened! I cant feel them! I cant feel any of them!

But he still needed to hear Modan say it-needed to anchor his recollections to reality-for her and for him. If they were going to keep this new and obviously hostile place from killing them, they had to face every fact together.

What happened to Titan, Modan? he thought again, relentless. What happened to Titan?

Chapter One

OCCULTUS ORA, STARDATE 58358.1

T he Starship Titan rolled slowly in the dark, dancing between the invisible jetsam, the ethereal flotsam, like some graceful leviathan swimming a terrestrial sea. All around it the other occupants of this region, the inspiration for the ships lingering ballet, also pitched and spun in apparent counterpoint to the vessels motion.

Titan s astronomers had dubbed the region Occultus Ora for some reason known only to them. The physicists called the things residing here exotic matter plasmids but, lately, those whod been tasked with ferreting out their secrets had taken to referring to the strange objects simply as darklings .

The image came from a myth Dr. Celenthe had heard on its homeworld of Syrath, something about the Catalysts of creation hiding in the dark.

The name fit the new objects well. They were invisible to every naked eye, irrespective of species, untouchable by all but the most specifically calibrated sensors, intangible by nearly every measure, yet here they were, in the lee of the Gum Nebula, performing their tandem pirouette, bending gravity into knots in complete defiance of their supposed nonexistence.

It was sheer luck that Titan had happened upon them at all even with the fantastic array of devices it sported to facilitate its explorations.

A weird but consistent spike in one of the lower EM bands during a routine sensor sweep had drawn the attention of the senior science officer and subsequently that of his captain. Another ship would have missed even that.

“Absolutely, Mr. Jaza, Captain Riker had said, a broad grin cutting a canyon in the dark hair of his beard as he perused the younger mans data. “Lets have a closer look.

Jaza had never worked under a commander with as acute an appreciation for the beauty of the unknown as William Riker, never encountered anyone, scientist or artist, soldier or civilian, who had as pure a love for discovery. There was a free-form quality to the way Riker directed Titan s missions that kept everyone on their toes without giving them all over to chaos. There was always reason guiding Rikers rhyme, even when it wasnt readily apparent.

Over weeks and with much rewriting of code and re-tasking of systems, the darklings came into sharper and sharper relief. To everyones delight, they also brought along more mysteries to solve. Days became weeks. A couple of re-tasked systems became a score and soon a good portion of Titan s crew was focused in one way or another on the strange cosmic formation onto which they had luckily stumbled.

They were a strain of so-called dark matter, that was obvious, but, unlike the garden variety of the stuff, the darklings existence was apparently extremely organized. They were set in a massive ring, evenly distributed and collectively spinning in orbit around a neutron star.

How had this happened? What sustained the effect? What properties set this form of exotic matter outside the normal bestiary? These questions and hundreds more were asked by Jaza and his staff over the weeks Titan, now rigged essentially for silent running to avoid any stray homegrown rads cluttering their survey, spent sliding between the massive invisible pips.

It was a good time, the perfect expression of their collective raison dtre.

Which, of course, meant it couldnt last.

The day began badly for him: a fitful sleep full of powerful and unsettling dreams, followed by a return to consciousness that put him in mind of the time hed escaped drowning.

Caught in a river whose current he had misjudged, he found himself both falling and being swept forward by the pull of something he could neither see nor fight. It had been terrifying then and, even though his father had pulled him out only a few seconds after hed tumbled from the boat, his time in the water had felt like eternity.

The dream, what he could remember of it, wasnt truly terrifying in that way. There was no risk of death, obviously, and he wasnt drenched or shivering cold. Yet there was the same power in the thing, the same inexorable pull from something invisible and powerful and impossible to touch.

There had been new elements this time, he thought-a flash of vegetation he hadnt noticed in previous bouts, the sound of a female voice screaming his name, something about a crash.

Once a strange and even mystical experience for him, especially the first few times, the dream had mostly become little more than an occasional and occasionally unpleasant puzzle, cut into billions of obscure pieces of which he only had access to portions at a time.

He would solve it one day, he knew. In fact he knew considerably more about the puzzle and its solution than he usually admitted even to himself. But one day was not today.

And, of course, the dream was also a kind of promise, one hed tested over time and found to be true.

Hed been here before and would come again he knew, but each time he returned from the dream, whether he remembered every detail or not, he was forced to take moments to remind himself who he was, where he was and that, so far at least, he was still alive.

One day that would not be true. One day there would be no waking and no reassurances. One day the dream would not be a dream.

But that day was also not today.

It wasnt until after hed stumbled to the wash basin and splashed cool water on his face (sonic showers would never do for something like this) that he felt almost like himself again. Almost, but not quite. The dream, even the sparse fragments of it that he could usually remember, was always unsettling in a way that he had yet to find words to describe.

Looking in the mirror he studied the details of his face and found them just very slightly alien. The eyes were the right color gray; the ridges across his nose were properly deep and defined; his skin was the same brown and the few flecks of gray that had begun to appear in the black of his hair had not multiplied, and yet there was something unrecognizable about the man staring back at him. It was as if he was looking into the face of some acquaintance, a colleague he might see occasionally in passing or a classmate from long ago. Not quite a stranger but not a face he found entirely familiar.

“Youre Najem, he told himself. “Youre Jaza Najem.

The computer told him that he was about an hour ahead of his duty shift; his subordinates would wonder why he had shown up so early and perhaps consider it a negative mark against their own abilities. So he decided to dress, get a snack, and take a short walk before heading up.

The galley wasnt quite empty when he arrived. Little clusters of chatting people had gathered at a few of the tables, while others had chosen quiet solitude in the halls more secluded corners.

“Greetings, Mr. Jaza, said Chordys, the Bolian who ran the place from the closing hours of gamma shift through most of alpha. She was a cheery little thing whose round blue body seemed to be little more than life support for her smile. “Youre up early. Getting a jump on the day?

He managed a smile of his own, nowhere near as bright, mumbled something that she pretended was coherent as he pointed to the pitcher of protolact on the shelf behind her.

“Upset stomach? she intuited. He nodded. It was close enough to how he felt though not truly accurate. Upset soul, perhaps? What was the cure for that?

“Dr. Ree usually comes along in the next half an hour or so, said Chordys, going on without him. “Hes on the coldblood cycle, you know. Only up during the day. You can probably catch a word with him before his shift begins.

“No, said Jaza, as she reached for the jar of blue liquid. “Its just bad sleep. Ill be fine in a few minutes.

She beamed back at him good-naturedly and handed off the protolact. He drank as he walked, taking swigs between steps and feeling progressively more like himself. He decided to swing by the forward observation area and collect his thoughts there before going up to the pod.

The odd clusters of darklings did obscure most of normal space, making Occultus Ora an almost totally black void, but, sometimes, the light from a nearby star could cut through.

As much as he loved plumbing the secrets of this region-just thinking of it sent a thrill through him-it was nice to see the stars from time to time. It settled his mind to see them out there, perhaps not as eternal as they had seemed to him as a child but permanent enough for all practical purposes. As much as he loved pushing the edges, there was something to be said for that stability, even if it was only an illusion supported by his limited perceptions.

Bajor was out there somewhere, far beyond the range of even Titan s sensors. It was strange how little he actually thought of home these days. There was always so much to see and do that the day-to-day life of Bajor, how his father was, what his children were up to, only floated like buoys on the vast surface of his mind.

Somehow, whenever the dream resurfaced, his mind swam home as fast as it could. It wasnt really homesickness, he had reasons for not spending too much time there, but whenever the dream recurred, there was always that strange hollow ache afterward.

He made a mental note to record a message to his family as soon as this business with Occultus Ora was complete.

Hello to all. Yes, were all still fine out here. Still alive. Only a few more years to go

The message would take weeks to arrive and be necessarily brief but they expected that from him by now. Hed never been good at verbally expressing the amazing things hed witnessed in his travels and so had forced himself to become adept at holography. The actual image of a dying pulsar spoke it with far more eloquence than any words he might put around it. Of course, there would be no pictures of Occultus Ora, none that a lay person would find interesting at any rate. Only black, black, black.

Still, on this occasion, he would be forced to try to put it all into words and he would certainly have the time to do it. There was no way to get a signal out now. The darklings gravity wells and particle discharges made normal communications dicey at best.

He tried to recall a few sonnets to go along with his descriptions of this place; perhaps a line or two from Erish Elos Flames of Darkness would be apropos.

The observation deck was even more devoid of people than the galley had been. With only two stars visible through the massive plexi wall the only available illumination came from the light strips that ran the length of the ceiling, kept intentionally dimmer than the norm to facilitate tranquility of thought. There was always a somber, contemplative feel to the place and that was precisely what he needed on mornings after the dreams reappearance.

Aside from himself only two other beings, two female ensigns, shared the space. They were both essentially humanoid. One was an Antaran, you could tell by the massive V-shaped cranial ridge dominating her forehead. The other was a member of some species he couldnt readily identify. She was tallish, slender, longer of limb than the average human or Bajoran with a coating on her skin that glinted vaguely metallic in the low light.

Her hair, a thicket of long, ropelike braids, extended to the small of her back, where it was held in a loose bunch by a single regulation blue band.

They nodded professionally at his arrival but, when it was clear he meant to keep to himself, went back to their previous conversation, speaking in intentionally hushed tones so as not to be overheard.

He did his best not to listen, he had no wish to intrude, but the unfortunate acoustics of the place made eavesdropping inevitable.

There was something about a coworker being unreasonable, another about the unreliability of that persons work and the general consensus that, were it not for their commanders personal affection for the buffoon, he would spend the bulk of his on-duty time scrubbing plasma conduits. It soon became clear that the subject of their discussion had been romantically involved with the Antaran and now was very much not.

Jaza smiled.

Titan might be home to the most diverse crew in Starfleet but there was surprisingly little variation when it came to mating rituals. People of every social and biological distinction generally managed to make a hash of love as often as not. He had long since learned the lesson that shipboard relationships were best kept casual and short in duration.

Now this ensign, Loolooa he thought, remembering her name suddenly, was getting the news. She was young. She would likely be liasing with someone new in the next few weeks. It was the nature of life on a starship.

The other female said little during their exchange, confining most of her responses to semi-audible murmurs of agreement and support.

He found her fascinating for some reason, despite the fact that her back was too him most of the time. Something about her, the contours of her shape, perhaps, or the way her hair bounced slightly with each of her nods, reminded her of his wife.

She would have hated all this, he thought. All this quiet, painstaking creeping into the unknown quarters of the galaxy. Sumari could scarcely conceive of traveling offworld, much less the long-term deep exploration that now defined his life.

“Theres too much on Bajor to work out, she would always say. “Too much that needs doing here.

Of course those had been in their days in the resistance, in the time before her death.

It had taken years for the thought of her to come to him as something other than a cold, serrated ache in his chest and years more for him to take any joy in his memories of her, but he had eventually learned to accept the loss of her as another stone on the path he was destined to walk.

“And, anyway, said Ensign Loolooa. “I much prefer your company to his. She ran fingers softly along her companions cheek, eliciting a sharp exhalation from that quarter.

The other female took Loolooas hand gently and leaned close enough to her that, at first, Jaza thought they might kiss. He was suddenly self-conscious at the turn of events and, not wishing to intrude on their privacy further, swallowed the last of his protolact and made for the exit.

Only the other female did not kiss Loolooa. Instead, as he passed them on the way to the door, he saw her whispering something to her friend, directly into her aural cavity.

Whatever she said caused Loolooa to draw back sharply and bolt from the room, unmindful of the superior officer occupying the space between her and the exit. She collided with him, even as he moved to get out of her way and sent the two of them sprawling to the floor.

She was up instantly, terribly flustered and full of apologies for which he assured her there was no reason. When she had expressed enough contrition to satisfy her personal sense of decorum, she quickly exited the observation area.

“Im sorry about that, sir, said the other ensign placidly. “Loo can be excitable.

“So I see, said Jaza.

“Shes, the ensign seemed to be searching for the right word. “She requires companionship. I believe her people are not well suited for solitary life.

“Im guessing yours are? said Jaza, looking at her fully for the first time. She wasnt wearing a metallic skin tint; her sheen seemed to be the natural look of her flesh. If not for her occasional movement and the size and contours of her eyes, she could have been the sculpture of a humanoid woman cast in copper or gold. Fascinating.

“We are suited for many contingencies, sir, she said. “But I am not suited for Loo.

It was the same old story and he didnt press her for more details. In fact he felt a little odd standing there with her, especially as both of them had stopped talking and were just sort of looking at each other.

It was impossible to read her expression; her wide turquoise eyes were like glass marbles and, though beautiful in their way, did not have pupils or lids. She didnt blink. He felt naked suddenly, scrutinized, and not a little bit panicked.

“Well, she said.

“Yes, he said.

“I am returning to duty now, she said. “Sir.

“Im starting my shift as well.

There was another moment of awkward silence before she finally departed. He stood there alone for the next few minutes, his heart beating thunder inside him. He had again that same strange sensation of invisible hands taking hold of him and pulling that hed felt from the dream-the same sense of being drawn inexorably down.

For a second, he thought of chasing after her and asking if she had in fact intentionally inspired these feelings via some species-specific means. Such exchanges werent unheard of.

The second passed however and the strange hot/cold pressure in his chest did as well. By the time he reached the turbolift hed forgotten hed experienced those feelings at all.

“Begin final phase, said Mr. Jaza from the coordination dais. Had any of his subordinates been capable of tearing themselves from their work to look his way, they would have seen what appeared to be the shadow of a humanoid figure standing in the center of a ring of floating disks of light, the coordination display.

The silhouetting effect was the result of low ambient light settings in effect during this mission. Jaza actually found the perpetual twilight relaxing.

Jazas position at the base level gave him a clear view of the upper tiers-three segmented decks outfitted with control nodes for the most powerful sensor array Starfleet technology had ever produced.

All around him, hidden beneath the deck and beyond the bulkheads, that array focused itself entirely on piercing the secrets of the surrounding ring of exotic matter.

Ordinarily automated, the Titan s dorsally-mounted sensor pod was configured for temporary manned operation at the discretion of the ships senior science officer when a less orthodox and more hands-on approach to an investigation was deemed appropriate. On this occasion, the Occultus Ora had pushed Jazas buttons in all the rights ways.

“Probe three, returning to dock, said a voice from above.

Scattered among the many consoles were other shadows, the members of his research team-Hsuuri, Polan, Fell, Roakn, aMershik, the two Benzites whose names he could never keep straight: Berias and Voris, and the young Cardassian cadet, Dakal.

The other members of the group, Bralik and Pazlar, were cloistered down in the astrometrics lab, analyzing the massive holographic simulations translated from the collated probe data.

Jaza confirmed the arrival on his own display but still asked for a verbal report from Dakal. The young Cardassian had the makings of a good scientist, despite his protestations to the contrary.

“Probe Four, away, said Dakal, somewhat mechanically. “Preparing for sensor sweep, series omega. He was bent over a viewing node in the upper tier of the Starship Titan s dedicated sensor module instead of availing himself of the view from the thick forward viewport that was normally shuttered when the pod was unmanned.

There really wasnt much point in looking out the window. Thanks to the darklings that surrounded them, all he would see that way was endless black. Through his little viewer he could see the real target of his teams investigation.

“Probe Four, accelerating to plus-two ionic, said Ensign Hsuuri in a voice that managed to be equal parts purr and snarl. Only a meter or so away, she too was hunched over an observation node, focused entirely on its readouts, completely ignoring the panorama outside the plexi.

Hsuuri was a Caitian, a feline species from a world Dakal had only read about and in whose existence he hadnt quite believed until he found himself working with actual representatives. There were three others like Hsuuri on Titan -another female, Hriss, and two males. All the others occupied positions in Starfleet security. Dakal found the species arresting.

Hriss was covered with fine auburn fur, broken here and there with white speckles about the size of Dakals thumb-print. She was thick bodied, somewhat imposing-a good quality for someone making a career in security. Hsuuri was smaller, slighter, and curvier, with a coat that looked like an arctic forest set ablaze. The lower part of her face, her throat, and, he presumed, her chest were covered in the snowy white fur. The rest of her was fire. She had a way of flicking her tail from side to side as she stood that was at once playful and somewhat hypnotic.

Hsuuri was Dakals superior officer, as was nearly everyone on Titan, but that didnt mean he couldnt admire her from time to time. There was a lot to appreciate about her, and not all of it had to do with her cultural history. Feline or no, she was a fascinating woman.

They hadnt passed two words to each other that werent work related, but once omega phase was finished, who could say?

At home there were taboos against too much close fraternization with non-Cardassians. There was also an even stronger proscription against joining the paramilitary organizations of former enemies. He hadnt given a shtel about that, had he? So Dakal saw no reason to balk at a chance to interview Hsuuri about their cultural differences over something hot and steamy. Yes, he would ask her to join him for that meal as soon as the work was done.

“Cadet Dakal, said Jazas voice from below, snapping him out of his reverie. “I asked you for an update.

Back to work, Zurin, he admonished himself. Mr. Jaza passed over four other candidates to put you on his team. Stop dreaming. “Probe Four is cresting the inner perimeter now, sir, he said a little hastily. “Telemetric linksys is in the green.

“Activating TOV, said Jaza, reaching for what looked like a large glass bowl impaled here and about with slender metallic rods and connected to the dais by a length of thick cable. It slid down over his forehead and eyes and then, “Counting down from five, four, three, two-

He was outside, free from the confines of Titan s shell, free from the restrictions imposed by his physical body, out among the darklings. Only the small blinking display in the lower corner of his vision disrupted the illusion that his presence in open space was anything other than simulated.

Using the TOV-telemetric observation VISOR-Jaza saw what the probe saw, its sensor data translated into the visual spectrum with small annotations scrolling by to denote the exact composition of whatever happened to be its target.

It moved as he wished with little more than a flick of his mental will. Though he could never see them naturally, using the probes “eyes he found himself floating in the midst of a universe of floating black asteroids of every conceivable shape and size.

He felt a little pang of rue as he moved in on a particularly enticing hunk of darkling matter. Theyd had a great time excavating all the data they could from this place, but once the omega sweep was done, Titan had to move on.

Later Starfleet might decide to place an outpost here to really plumb the depths of Occultus Ora, but that was years away. If it ever happened.

The only real drawback of deep space exploration was what the humans often referred to as the Faustian bargain. He had no idea about the origin of the phrase, but the practical definition seemed to mean having to press on before youd done more than scratch the surface of the new.

Ah, well, he thought. Every action has its opposite. At least we were here first. “Lieutenant Pazlar, he said aloud as he moved toward the great black hulk.

“ Pazlar here, said a mellifluous voice over the comm.

“Omega series is under way, said Jaza, the pleasure in his own voice audible to anyone in a position to hear. “Prepare to receive telemetry from Probe Four.

“ Ready when you are, said Pazlar, as he closed in on his shadowy prey.

“Excellent, Jaza said. “Lets get started.

Bralik shot slowly upward, happy to let her momentum take her where she wanted to go. In this case that meant about thirty vertical feet away from the deck of the stellar cartography lab, up through the strange inky formations, like asteroids and unlike them as well, that floated all around.

The chamber-you couldnt really call something so enormous a room-was a massive sphere in which star systems, individual cosmic bodies, even the entire galaxy could be displayed, at will, in three dimensions.

Bralik took great pleasure in her visits here, but as a geologist, she normally had little official reason to drop by.

This current project of Jazas was not only an opportunity to demonstrate her expertise as a rock hound but it also required her to spend lots of time in this lovely, lovely chamber.

Of course the current setup also removed about a quarter of the fun of coming here, leaving only the job itself, the lowered g, and the companionship to entertain her. Bralik enjoyed fun and did her best to wedge it into just about any activity she could manage. Life was too short to do otherwise.

It wasnt a very Ferengi attitude, the seeking of pleasure without profit, but Bralik long ago decided that profit was sometimes in the eye of the beholder.

Most of the crew of the Starship Titan found the decreased gravity the mistress of this area enjoyed somewhat discomfiting. Not Bralik.

Years working mining excavations situated on asteroids large and small had made gravity just another variable to her, nothing to get worked up about. Plus, the vibrations her spinning assent sent tingling across her lobes had an erotic quality she found hard to resist.

The remaining quarter of pleasure in this duty was the company of the chambers only other occupant.

Melora Pazlar, the ships lead stellar cartographer, was the reason for the areas lowered g. Pazlars species, the Elaysians, had evolved in environments just like this, though how theyd also managed to maintain their basically humanoid structure was a matter of considerable conjecture. Unlike the squat, utilitarian Ferengi physique, Pazlars people were almost the living incarnation of delicate grace.

Whatever the truth of her bizarre evolution, Pazlar took to her low-g haven like a slug to the swamp. Seeing her glide effortlessly from one position to the next was, Bralik thought, not unlike watching the flight of a creature from human myth that had once been described to her.

Of course, the only thing about Pazlar that was angelic was her looks. The rest was a combination of prickles and frost, at least at first, but even those qualities could be enjoyable. Once you got past her initial standoffishness-a trait Bralik made it a rule to ignore in any being she encountered-Pazlar was an energetic, even magnetic companion. Shed traveled everywhere, despite being hobbled by gravities that were almost invariably crushing for her delicate frame. Her mind was like a laser drill. She looked after herself and was proof against any display of pity or condescension.

She might look like she was built of dzura bones and silk, but Pazlar was solid as osmium ore. Like any raw metal, a little patience was all it took to polish up a gleam.

“Somebody doesnt look happy, said Bralik as she passed between two of the black asteroids to bump lightly against Pazlars legs.

“I miss my stars, said the younger woman, dutifully helping Bralik orient herself so that their heads faced each other. “Im sick of all this black.

She meant the current display dominating the entirety of the chamber. Instead of the normal star field, the two women were surrounded by the computers best guess at what Jazas probes and recalibrated sensors had under examination.

It wasnt truly blackness that engulfed them. There were halos of every hue sparking and dying pretty much constantly in all directions. Wherever they appeared, their light created the clear silhouette of something that looked like an asteroid but was very much not. It wasnt the galaxy laid out like diamonds in invisible ether, but it was beautiful in its way.

What the silhouettes were and how they happened to be here, arranged as they were around their invisible star, was the topic of much interest among Titan s science specialists. Even Melora Pazlar had been among them at first. Nearly two weeks of diminishing participation in the actual probing had increased her sense of useless isolation.

“Yeah, said Bralik, peeking over at the other womans padd. “But buck up, angel. Were nearly done.

“I cant believe I let Jaza talk me into letting him commandeer my entire department for this.

“I wouldnt describe a superior officer ordering you to reset all your equipment to display only exotic matter talking you into something.

“Youre right, said Pazlar with another of her rueful but stunning smiles. “But Jaza doesnt come at you that way. Hes all enthusiasm and love of pure knowledge. It gets you caught up.

“ Jaza, huh? said Bralik, grinning. “Not Najem?

“He gets his name back when I get my stars, said Pazlar.

“Youre a tough little thing when you want to be, arent you, said Bralik, showing her own sharp teeth. “Anyway, it sounds more like youre talking about Captain Riker than our Bajoran friend.

“Its sort of the same thing, said Pazlar, watching another halo fire up and die and tapping in the appropriate notations. “By the time I realized what he was doing, my stars were gone and I was stuck with this.

“Forty-eight, said Bralik with a chuckle. Pazlar looked up from her padd but didnt ask the question. Bralik answered anyway. “Rule of Acquisition number forty-eight: The bigger the smile, the sharper the knife.

They were quiet for a time, each watching the halos erratic discharges and making notes accordingly. Bralik had requested they bring an actual sample aboard for long-term study, but Jaza had deemed the darkling matter too volatile to risk danger to the crew. Shed been forced to make do with the holographic sims. Granted they were amazingly detailed and presented their data in the visual spectrum as much as possible, but you really couldnt ever beat putting your hands on something.

“Huh, said Pazlar absently. “Thats odd.

“What is? said Bralik.

“Im getting flickers in the boryon range.

“Meaning? said Bralik.

Pazlar ignored the question and “swam down to a lower region of the massive display, disappearing briefly behind two enormous clumps of black. When she reappeared, Bralik saw her hovering near several midsized darklings, apparently waiting for something. She watched Pazlar watching as each objects halo lit up in succession.

By the time the third flare had come and gone, Bralik knew what had tweaked Pazlars interest. So far, without deviation, the darkling halos had been uniformly red or aqua or whatever. This undulating rainbow effect was something new.

“Well? said Bralik. “What is it?

“Im not sure, said Pazlar, her hands now tapping frantically at her padd. Something was obviously wrong. “Pazlar to Jaza.

“ Go ahead, came the immediate response.

“Can you change the probes orientation to grid zed seven and tell me what you see?

“ Executing, said Jaza, clearly puzzled. Then, “ What am I supposed to be-?

He stopped speaking abruptly, and Bralik thought she could see why. The strange halos that Pazlar noticed had returned and brought friends. A largish cluster of the rainbow auras flashed briefly around their respective darklings and faded again.

“ Caves of fire, said Jaza under his breath. “ Tell me thats not what it looks like.

“Dont go all Red Alert yet, said Pazlar, her fingers tapping furiously on her padd. “It could be something local, or it could be a glitch in the probes transfer signal.

“ No and no, said Jaza through what sounded to Bralik like clenched teeth. “ Wait a moment.

“Should we abort? said Pazlar, after the moment had passed.

“ Wait, said Jaza, the stress clearly overtaking him now. Whatever this was, it was something apparently dire. Braliks own padd was keyed to interpret only the geological data-information culled strictly from the molecular examination of the darklings. By contrast, Pazlar and Jaza were focused on subatomica.

“Can you isolate the source of the distortion? Pazlar asked.

“ Working on it

“It looks like a ripple from some sort of-

“ The distortions clearly artificial, Melora.

“But theres nothing sentient-made out here. Bralik could tell from her tone that Pazlar was grasping at straws. “Is it possible we missed-

“ You know what this is as well as I do or you wouldnt have contacted me, said Jaza, his anger evident even over the comm. “ That lunatic!

Unable to help or even participate, the Ferengi geologist contented herself with floating free, watching and listening as her colleagues worked frantically to solve their cryptic problem.

“Should we abort?

“ Were not aborting, said Jaza.

“But, if all the data are corrupted

“ We dont know that yet.

Time ticked and, though she still couldnt decipher the meat of their conversation, Bralik felt the tension increase with each moment.

Just when she was about to ask again what the problem was, the entire display vanished, leaving the two women floating inside a massive gray sphere whose surface was a lattice of overlapping gold and silver grids.

“ Melora, said Jazas voice, now stripped of any semblance of emotion. “ Id like you and the rest of the team to go over the collected data and isolate any anomalies similar to what weve just seen. I need a timeline.

“Well salvage what we can, said Pazlar.

A light chime sounded, indicating that Jaza had switched off. Pazlar tapped her padd once, deactivating it.

“What just happened? said Bralik. “Dont tell me were dumping three weeks of work over one little glitch.

“Just suspending it for now, Pazlar corrected, a hint of Jazas pique creeping into her tone as well. “Pending data review.

“So whats the big problem? asked Bralik, drifting down to join the Elaysian.

“Same problem as always, said Pazlar. “Ra-Havreii.

“ Sometimes the worst thing about a day is living through it, her mother used to say. More than once in both her careers Christine Vale had come to know the wisdom of those words.

As she stood in the anteroom waiting for Troi to finish whatever was taking her so long, she wished again that something, perhaps some giant bit of alien war tech still roaming the stars in search of prey, would swoop down on the starship Titan and start blasting away. Nothing too fancy or lethal-just a little combat to break up the terrors of the lull.

It wasnt that she enjoyed the potential for carnage created by such circumstances. She had no particular bloodlust to speak of. It was just that, during those times, she knew who she was, knew what to do, how to function fluidly when there was chaos all around. It was just easier than, well, this .

“Were out here to explore, Chris, Will Riker said more than once. “Not to fight. His eyes always sparkled a bit when he dropped one of these epigrams, as if he had a cluster of pulsars stored in his skull instead of a brain. She was all for exploration-hell, that was a large part of why shed joined Starfleet in the first place: to set her eyes and hands on something really new. The trouble was, war got you used to the rush, the constant possibility of attack or death at the hands of an enemy. Exploration, pure exploration, was often very slow and brutally quiet.

It took time to map the contours of an exotic stellar phenomenon or open diplomatic relations with a species that had no understanding of the concept of “I. It took time and concentration and coordinated effort. Coordination takes unity, and unity takes-well, until this duty she thought she knew what unity meant. Life on Titan had blown all her notions on that score out the airlock. Lately, when Titan was performing its function, she found herself experiencing an increasing sense of dread as she anticipated the next catastrophic problem coming from within rather than without. There were simply too many variables, too many potential trouble spots for her to come up with contingencies for everything. The longer Titan went in the quiet, the more anxious she became.

Her nerves had, once again, taken their toll on her hair. When she was too long in stir, she dyed. When she was too long waiting for the second shoe to drop, she cut. Now she was both, so

Its too red , she thought, catching her reflection in the polished surface of the room divider. It looks like Risan shimmer ink .

The length was okay. She always enjoyed a severe cut, but, paired with the red in her uniform, well, too much was the simplest way to put it. As soon as she had an hour free, shed go back to some version of blond.

Vale had deliberately avoided visiting the counselors suites since beginning duty on Titan . Not only did she not enjoy people poking around in her psyche, telepathically or otherwise, she simply preferred Deanna Troi in her capacity as the ships diplomatic officer. There was a clear delineation between their duties then, less potential for boundary crossing.

The command structure was in place for a reason, and those wrinkles that muddied it, say a senior officer being married to the captain, as was the case with Troi and Captain Riker-well, muddy was definitely the word for it.

Vales duties as XO and Trois in her other capacity as senior counselor created an automatic-and not always comfortable-overlap. Overlap meant confusion. Confusion meant a drop in efficiency, something a ship with a crew as diverse as Titan s could ill afford.

Lives depended, quite literally, on both interspecies and interdepartmental harmony. It was another reason the Sudden Alien Attack scenario was increasingly attractive. Something like that cleared the normal frictions away in favor of duty. Without that Other to offer a binding physical threat? Well.

If nothing else, the friction proved to her what she had long suspected: no matter the planet of origin, people were essentially the same. Too bad it wasnt a guarantee of peaceful coexistence.

A certain amount of chronic discord was inevitable on long-term space explorations, even among members of the same species. You just couldnt coop up that many people that long in what was essentially a giant metal can and not get some temper spikes. Generally, this sort of thing was self-regulating, only occasionally requiring intercession by counselors-and, once in a while, security.

The carnivores and the herbivores, for example, had managed to ease into something like a polite truce, the former keeping the blood spray at mealtimes to a minimum and the latter respecting the effort enough not to raise a fuss over the occasional stray droplet. Progress.

Some of the other frictions, however, still required a degree of management.

No, you cant remove this bulkhead, Chaka. Im sorry the accommodations are so cramped. Well work something out for you .

Yes, Lieutenant Keyexisi, I know Ensign Lavenas quarters are still bleeding heat from yours, but were only talking about a few decimals of a degree. You cant possibly feel the diff-

He has apologized, Ensign Mecatus. Put him down. You are not entitled to a quart of his lifeblood .

It was like being pecked to death by ducks (another of Mother Vales maxims). And most irritating of all, perhaps, were the troubles caused by Titan s chief engineer: the mounting tension between him and the ships senior science officer, the difficulties the engineersnatural hedonism was causing among not a few of the crews female complement, and, of course, the fact that his air of complete indifference to all of it made Vales own pressure spike. Routinely pissing off your shipmates might make for a bumpy tour of duty. Adding stress to your XOs day? That could get ugly.

Dr. Xin Ra-Havreii was a genius, yes, but that didnt count for much in stopping someone from punching him in the face. Vale had seen plenty of smart guys pounded senseless by lesser intellects who happened to be in possession of a pool cue. Jaza wasnt quite there yet, but if Ra-Havreii kept pushing him

And so, here she was, waiting to meet with Counselor Troi so they could work out a tandem approach to obviating some of the more persistent issues that had sprung up among the crew.

Only Troi had been off her game too, hadnt she? She and, by extension, her staff were evidently leaving enough cracks in Titan s social cement that crewmen were actually accosting Vale in the corridors to vent their grievances. Being turned into the ships walking complaint department had definitely breached the perimeter of her personal neutral zone.

What the hell was Troi doing back there? She had to know Vales to-do list had stretched to the point where it could choke a pig. Trois own had to be competitively long. Theyd agreed to get this out of the way, first thing, so as not to clutter up the day with missing each other and having to waste time-time in which the frictions would only grow-with serial rescheduling.

“First will be best, Troi had said, and Vale had agreed. It was something her mother had instilled in her along with the other little buds of wisdom.

Clear the scrap away early, so its easier to see whats in front of you .

At this rate, First was in danger of shoving Second to Third and Third to Sixty-Seventh, and that couldnt happen if Vale hoped to remain sane. Of course, another ten minutes cooling her heels in this damnable vestibule might push her over the brink before Troi got the chance.

Shed never enjoyed waiting. Even when she was an officer in the planet Izars security force the worst part of the job had always been the stakeouts-sitting meters away from some criminals den on the off chance that they might come or go during the hours you were watching. You watched the clock during those times. You waited, expectant, for something previously unconsidered to occur that would shatter your whole program.

Sometimes it came and you were sort of relieved to have been right-something bad was about to happen. Sometimes it didnt and you were thrilled to be wrong and for things to run as they should. In either case it was the waiting that killed. In joining Starfleet shed hoped to put that particular torment behind her.

But, here I am again , she thought, taking in the room for the seventy-fifth time. If theres a hell, you can bet its a place like this .

The vestibule was a lot like Troi herself-understated, well put together, professional in appearance but with occasional flourishes. In addition to the walls muted colors, pale greens and yellows mostly, shed hung small tapestries from various worlds. A few leafy micro vines were potted here and about, their branches extending across the ceiling in places and subtly undercutting the sense of being indoors. There was a hint of some fragrance in the air as well-traces of some exotic spice? Maybe cheras root.

In any case the whole place was obviously set up to put occupants at their ease, which, of course, made Vale edgy. She was just about to loudly remind Troi of their scheduled meeting when the door to the counselors office sighed open and a large scaly figure emerged.

“Good morning, Commander Vale, said the raptorlike creature genially, the words hissing out of his throat like jets of steam.

“Morning, Dr. Ree, she said.

“Please forgive me for delaying Counselor Troi, said Ree. “I believe shell be with you in a moment.

“No problem, said Vale. “Not discussing anything that needs my attention, were you?

Rees sloping reptilian face cocked to one side and his tongue licked out at her twice.

“Not at all, Commander, he said. “This was strictly a routine visit. His Pahkwa-thanh morphology made the subtleties of Rees expressions difficult for Vale to read. Sometimes, when he was amused, for instance, his un-blinking yellow eyes gave the impression they were tracking prey. Still, she thought she might have detected a mild stiltedness to Rees words, as if he was perhaps not speaking the precise truth. Or it could have been something totally alien to her human sensibilities and untranslatable.

The doctor complimented her on her choice of hair pigment and then was gone, the claws on his feet scratching softly against the carpet as he passed.

“A little too much red, no? Troi emerged from the main suite, gesturing for Vale to join her inside.

“No peeking inside my head, Counselor, said Vale jauntily. “Weve talked about that.

“None necessary, said Troi with a smile that seemed to Vale a little forced. “Just years of enduring intense fashion criticism at Lwaxanas School for Wayward Betazoids.

Nice try , thought Vale, taking in Trois demeanor. But Im not buying .

Unlike the doctor, Troi was an easy read. Though she covered it well, the counselor looked, for lack of a better term, like hell. Despite the strictly professional pose and demeanor, there were little hints that, to Vales eyes at least, added up to something other than happiness lurking behind her mask.

Her eyes were red-rimmed and flat, totally absent their normal inky sparkle. Her mouth was set, stiff, as if to say, Smile, what smile? I have no idea what a smile is or why I should want to make one . Her skin, normally a deep olive, was now nearly as pale as Vales own.

You didnt need police training to see shed been crying. It wasnt a leap to conclude Ree had given her some unpleasant news.

Routine visit, huh? she thought. Ill bet .

Troi gestured for Vale to take the seat opposite hers. “Sorry to keep you waiting.

“No problem, said Vale, easing down into the soft cushion. She had to restrain herself from asking about Rees house call.

“Im fine, said Troi, having obviously plucked the feeling out of her mind despite her earlier denials. Betazoids . “Dr. Rees visit was just routine.

Sure it was , thought Vale, and regretted it instantly. Troi had obviously “felt her skepticism then as well. Vale resolved to redouble her efforts to develop her emotional shields. Jokes aside, she knew Troi better than to think she would invade Vales privacy, but one of the things that helped to make her so effective as a multispecies therapist was the way her patients feelings “leaked out of them, and it wouldnt do for the ships first officer to be that readable. Despite their time together as crewmates, Vale didnt yet know Troi well enough to keep track of all the subtleties.

The moment passed and Troi was all business again, for which Vale was grateful. This was going to be hard enough on its own.

“So, said Troi. “Shall we get to it?

“Absolutely, said Vale, punching up the relevant notes on the screen of her padd. “We have a few fires to put out. I think your staff should coordinate with Mr. Kerus once we settle on a game plan.

“That sounds fine, said Troi, her face now little more than a mask of calm. “Why dont we start with the worst and work our way up?

“The worst. Right, said Vale, scrolling. “There are actually a couple of contenders for the bottom spot.

“Choose one.

“All right, said Vale. “That would be the Ra-Havreii situation.

It took Torvig a few seconds to process the question. It wasnt the wording that confused him or the fact that the question had come from Lieutenant Commander Jaza-though what the science officer was doing this far belowdecks was puzzling.

It wasnt even that hed been surprised, mid-task, by the Bajorans arrival or that said task currently had most of Torvigs body ensconced in the bowels of a ceiling access grid so that only his head and neck were visible from the corridor below. No, what froze Torvigs mental gears was the question itself.

“Well, Ensign, said Jaza, his gray eyes glaring up out of his brown face, his arms folded in a configuration that Torvig had come to understand was meant to express displeasure. “Im waiting.

“Sir, said Torvig, craning his neck so that he could meet Jazas eyes. At the Academy a cadet had tried to saddle him with the name Ostrich. Torvig had discouraged it, finding the allusion inexact at best. “Regrets, but I dont understand your meaning.

“Its a simple question, Ensign, said Jaza. “Are you trying to kill me?

Unlike his own people, the Choblik, who enjoyed precision, humanoids like Commander Jaza often used colorful imagery to convey information rather than simply stating it outright. Other Choblik had mentioned difficulty in processing this idiomatic quirk. Most chalked it up to the fact that, generally, humanoids eschewed the cybernetic enhancement that defined Choblik existence. The more time Torvig spent in the company of humanoids, the more he found himself agreeing with this assessment.

It was sad, he thought, their aversion to biomechanicals. A couple of extra cognition chips or an added posterior appendage could work wonders for a beings outlook.

“I dont believe so, sir, he said eventually, still doubtful that he had a full grasp on his superiors meaning. His long neck ached from holding this position. The servo at the end of his tail was caught on something. “It is certainly not my intention to cause you harm.

“Thats odd, said Jaza, apparently meaning the opposite, “because Ive just had to pull three of your colleagues out of the ships guts, each of whom were engaged in hardware upgrades that had been specifically designated as off limits until the end of our current mission.

“We were informed that the mapping operations were essentially complete, sir, said Torvig.

“Informed, Jaza repeated, his eyes narrowing as he leaned closer to Torvig. “Informed by whom?

“Do I understand you to mean, Jaza asked Ensign Rossini, “that Commander Ra-Havreii himself instructed you to do this?

“Yes, sir, said Ensign Rossini. He was obviously still a bit shaken by Jazas sudden appearance in engineering as well as by the pointed questions the science officer had started asking. He still stood where Jaza had found him, one foot on the bottommost rung of an access ladder, the other on the deck. All around them a cluster of Rossinis fellow engineers went about their business tending the great pulsating tower of controlled matter/antimatter reactions: Titan s warp core. Rossinis hyperspanner dangled forgotten in his left hand while his right held tight to one of the upper rungs. “The chief said youd have wrapped up the mapping by 0600 and we should get on with the upgrades.

Jazas only response was a slight narrowing of his eyes.

“Did we screw up the mapping, sir? Rossini asked in real distress. The boss might have no sense of team play, but his staff certainly did. “We would never have started the upgrade if the chief hadnt-

Jaza held up a hand for silence. Rossini watched as the Bajoran scientist drifted over to a nearby console and tapped in a few commands.

“This is an elective upgrade, isnt it, Ensign? said Jaza as the data hed requested appeared on the screen before him. “None of these systems is anywhere near failure, correct?

“No, sir, said Rossini. “I mean, yes, sir. I mean, youre right, sir. These systems are all performing to spec. But Dr. Ra-Havreii says he wants Titan to be the first ship to return to the dock in better shape than she left it, so-

“Thank you, Ensign, Jaza interrupted. “Can you tell me where I would find Commander Ra-Havreii at this precise moment?

“Probably in his quarters, sir. Truth is, hes not spending much time down here anymore. Just comes through, makes notes, and tells us

Rossini trailed off. Jaza was already on his way out of engineering.

“You havent heard a word Ive said, have you? asked Vale.

Troi made a show of putting away whatever had been occupying her mind. “Ive been listening, she said. “Dr. Ra-Havreii has been a concern of mine for some time.

“But you havent done anything about it, said Vale.

“He hasnt exhibited any truly aberrant behavior, Troi said. “The anecdotes are troubling, yes, but they dont add up to an actual pathology.

“Youve been around the man, said Vale. “And youre a telepath. Youve got to know somethings going on with him.

“Im an empath , Christine, said Troi. “Im only half-Betazoid. My telepathic abilities are limited. The words came out in what to Vale was a stilted manner, rife with something like bitterness-odd for Troi. She was neither of those things as a rule. “And the accuracy of my empathic abilities varies from species to species. Efrosians arecomplex.

“The point is, said Vale, “I shouldnt even be involved in this. The fact that I am says somebodys falling down on the job.

“Youre blaming me? said Troi. “Is that what this is about?

“Im asking you to do your job, said Vale. “If I have to have an official on-the-record conversation with Ra-Havreii

“Ive been at this a lot longer than you, Christine, said Troi archly. “I think I know how to-

“You cant play the old veteran card every time, Counselor, said Vale. “ Titan isnt the Enterprise . Were on our own out here, naked. We dont get to swap Ra-Havreii out for a better model.

“Youre in no position to lecture me, Commander, Troi snapped.

Suddenly all Vale could think about was the argument shed had with her mother after announcing her intention to join Starfleet.

There have been Vales in Izars Peace Office for generations. Youre spitting on your heritage!

There were ugly words and uglier feelings between them then, all tangled up in the dance of mother and child and all of which had been resolved to remain unresolved years ago. Why would she think of that now?

The moment passed.

Vale blinked, unsure how things had spiraled this far so fast. “Thats where youre mistaken, Counselor. As first officer, its my duty to make sure the ship runs smoothly. When something impedes that, I have to take steps. This is step one.

For a moment it seemed that Troi was about to respond with something caustic. It was now clear to Vale that she was worked up about something other than their conversation. The counselor sat, composing herself by degrees, breathing deeply. When she was done, when her mask of serenity had reassembled, she stood, indicating that, for her at least, this meeting was over.

“I think we understand each other, Commander, she said. “Ill have a proposal for remedying the Ra-Havreii problem by the end of the day.

“And the other situation? Vale asked, rising to her feet.

“Thats not your concern.

Vale hated what she was about to say, but it was too important to the well-being of the ship and its crew to leave unsaid. “Ive noticed the captains been a little slow off the mark lately as well. In fact, Riker had been stiff as a board for the last two weeks, and he also had consistently deflected Vales concerned inquiries. “Is something going on between you two that I can-?

“As I said, Troi interrupted, “whatever is or isnt between me and Will is our concern, not yours. Now if youll excuse me, I have duties to attend to.

But it is my concern, Deanna , thought Vale, as the doors to the counselors suite whispered closed behind her. And I can see Im going to have to move on to Plan B .

She waited until she was around the bend in the corridor before tapping her combadge. “Vale to Counselor Huilan.

Chapter Two

T he Federation archive at Memory Alpha described the Bajoran people, sometimes called the Bajora, as “ one of the very few humanoid species that have managed to achieve balance between scientific progress and their organizing spiritual lifeview. Bajorans account for this harmonious integration of faith and reason by citing these lines from the Eighth Song of the Prophets:

“ One hand holds the stone, the other the spark. To make fire they must come together.

Jaza wasnt precisely sure why that particular line kept running through his mind as he pounded on Xin Ra-Havreiis door, but he found himself identifying with the stone.

Jaza considered himself a fairly even-tempered person, never quick to judgment or anger. He and Titan s chief engineer had discussed the delicacy of the mapping endeavor at length almost a month ago. Titan s ultrasensitive sensor nets had been painstakingly recalibrated to detect and probe this uniquely configured dark matter system.

Titan s sensors were state-of-the-art. Even in their base configuration they were orders of magnitude more sophisticated than anything outside the equipment sported by the very newest stationary observation arrays.

In their current setup, specific to Titan s charting of the darkling phenomenon, even the slightest spike in ambient radiation could completely obviate all their readings, forcing them to start again.

Ra-Havreii had, it seemed at the time, been in total agreement with the need for his people to do absolutely nothing that could upset the balance of software and hardware that Jaza and his team had taken days to create. “I know you wanted to upgrade several systems, he had said. “But if you can hold off until were done, it would be much appreciated.

He remembered the conversation perfectly. He had expected it to be contentious, as Ra-Havreii had lately seemed increasingly self-absorbed, ignoring anything that fell outside his own specific area of expertise and showing little concern for the work of departments other than his own. Jaza assumed this was due to Ra-Havreiis having spent the bulk of his Starfleet career not in the field but in R&D labs, which, traditionally, took a more feudal approach to interdepartmental diplomacy.

More than once in recent months, Jaza and his people had been forced to scrap or suspend ongoing experiments because some of Ra-Havreiis staff were tinkering with systems their superior had deemed in need of attention. The episodes put considerable strain on their professional relationship.

In this case, however, Jazas fears proved unfounded. His meeting with Titan s chief engineer had been cordial, almost jovial. Ra-Havreii had played him a selection of strange Efrosian music-all chimes and strings-even offered him a glass of Andorian ale, which Jaza had politely declined.

“Have to stay sharp, hed told the engineer. “Its not every day one finds concentric belts of exotic matter asteroids in orbit around a neutron star, he had said. “We may never see anything like this again in our lifetimes.

Ra-Havreii nodded in all the right places and stroked his mustache wistfully while making little affirmative noises in his throat at each of Jazas requests. When they were done, Jaza had gone off to his work on the sensor nets in the sure knowledge that he and the engineer were on the same page.

But Ra-Havreii had instead reverted to type. More than reverted-this disruption of Jazas work was tantamount to the engineers throwing down a gauntlet. Weeks of recalibration, of code writing, of direct probing and observation could have been wiped clean because of an impatient chief engineer. It would be several hours before Jaza would know if the current sensor maps had to be scrapped. Pazlar, Dakal, and the others were poring over the data, looking for signs of corruption. Before they delivered their verdict, it was very possible that the brilliant and famous Dr. Xin Ra-Havreiis next entry into the record books would read, First Efrosian in history to be strangled by a Bajoran .

“I know youre in there, Commander, Jaza said. “Now open up or, by the Prophets, Ill have the transporter chief beam me in. After the engineer had seen fit to ignore the door chime, Jaza had resorted to pounding on the door.

“Youre wasting your time, said a soft feminine voice passing behind him. The words were accompanied by the rush of displaced air tinged with the barest hint of something like hyacinth. He turned to see who had spoken and was treated to the rear view of a familiar humanoid female in black Starfleet exercise uni, jogging toward the other end of the corridor. Without looking back, she added, “Hes with Ensign Evesh right now.

Then she disappeared around the far corner, her long golden braids bouncing in time with her easy gait. Jaza stood there for a moment, feeling the same strange tightness in his chest as before, the same chill in his skin. And for a moment, his thoughts of confronting the Efrosian engineer completely vanished.

By the time Jaza arrived at Ensign Eveshs quarters, Ra-Havreii had gone from there as well. The ensign, a muscular little Tellarite, was just heading off to her duty shift. Jaza noticed that the thick hair that formed a sort of mane around her head was still a bit damp, as if shed just come from a shower.

“He left ten minutes ago, sir, she said with more than a trace of ruefulness. “Apparently, he isnt one to linger.

It seemed, in addition to his other eccentricities, Ra-Havreii made a habit of removing his combadge whenever he felt like it, effectively defeating the computers ability to easily track him. The man could be anywhere on the ship at this point, and Jaza, his frustration having finally squelched his anger, accepted defeat.

He sighed, leaning heavily against the corridor wall, and considered just exactly how he was going to convince the captain that Titan would need another month to properly map Occultus Ora.

“Its not particle bleed, said Hsuuri, her syrupy voice now rife with concern. Her ears and whiskers twitched nervously. “Not random field distortion.

The lights were up to full in the sensor pod, and the team had gathered around the various collation nodes to sift through their mountains of raw data.

“Of course its not random distortion, said Klace Polan, a little too aggressively to Dakals mind. The Catullan ensign had a habit of starting conversations with an attack of some sort. “The core has been on dampers for weeks now.

There were murmurs of agreement from the others, each of whom was deeply focused on some particular facet of the results of their scans.

“ Im sure Commander Jaza will be triple pleased to hear what it is not, said aMershik, tentacles from his upper cluster dancing across several consoles at once as his segmented eyes pored over multiple data streams. His combadge made him sound as if he were speaking through a mouthful of suet, but his tone was unmistakably sarcastic, as usual. Thymerae were like that-always looking for the gloom in a bright sky. “ But it would be agreeable if he could be told what it is as well.

“About half of the gravimetric readings check out so far, said Fell, a bit too brightly. It was clear she didnt want aMershiks dour demeanor to infect the others. “The initial baseline scans look sound.

“ How many times must this one inform you, Peya Fell, said aMershik. “ Optimism without facts is-

“ Wasted intellect, said the others in chorus. Berias let out a good-natured chuckle, his gray skin darkening with pleasure.

After a month working so closely, all of Jazas team were well used to the Fell and aMershik Traveling Festival of Sarcasm. Deltans and Thymerae were polar opposites as far as species ethos went. Rumor had it these two had been rankling each other since their first Academy days.

Dakal, his participation neither requested nor required for this sensitive work, sat on a chair under the lowermost tier, listening to the others grouse.

He wasnt fooled by their banter. They were as nervous about the outcome of their investigations as he. That much work, that much time wasted due to the irresponsibility of a single engineer-it was hard for Dakals mind to fathom.

On Cardassia people like Dr. Ra-Havreii-iconoclasts, individualists-used to disappear after their first public misstep. Where they went or what happened to them there was a mystery that failed to interest most of the citizenry. It was enough that the irritant was gone with minimal disruption to the flow of normal life. Those ways were done, certainly, but one couldnt dismiss the level of efficiency achieved by the old state.

“Hey, Dakal, said Roakn, his great dark drum of a head peering down from the upper tier. “Quit moping and make yourself useful.

“How can I assist you, Lieutenant? said the young cadet, instantly snapping to.

“Youre Cardassian, right?

“Yes, sir, said Dakal with practiced regulation decorum. Hed gotten used to nonhumanoids having difficulty distinguishing him from a Vulcan or a Trill. From their point of view a humanoid was a humanoid was a humanoid, at least when it came to appearance.

“Cardassians are good at pattern recognition, right? Roakns people had never had any direct dealings with Dakals, but that didnt mean some of the more popular stereotypes hadnt trickled down.

The Cardassian government had proven itself adept at code-making and clandestine operations so, obviously , to Roakn at least, that meant every individual Cardassian had the gift. Lovely.

“I wouldnt say its an actual genetic trait, sir, said Dakal, being careful not to imply his superior was expressing a racial slur. “More of a cultural-

“Whatever, boomed Roakn, waving Dakals remarks aside as if they were a swarm of gnats. “Take a look at the time-lapse record of the visual EM translations. And play back at triple speed or youll be at it another month.

“What am I looking for, sir? said Dakal.

“Anything anomalous, Cadet, said the wide stony face. “Just like the rest of us.

Were Roakn not a lieutenant, Dakal would have argued that the visual translations were, at best, approximations of what the sensors were actually seeing. The lapsed-time recording, in particular, was almost completely useless for providing anything forensically meaningful.

Dakal might have pointed these things out and he might have gone further to say that, as a member of a species that was little more than a collection of animated boulders, Roakn ought to be a bit more reluctant to assign work based on racial stereotype.

Besides, Dakal knew what was truly at work here. The reason hed been assigned the useless duty was to impress upon the young Cardassian how insufficient his skills were to the team effort. Cadet Dunsel , some of his younger crewmates called him. It was Starfleet slang, a term Dakal had been forced to look up the first time he heard it.

“ Dunsel: a part that serves no useful purpose, the linguistic database had informed him. Roakn had changed Dakal to Dunsel as some sort of joke. How amusing.

Two minutes into the playback Dakal knew hed had enough. At triple speed the halos seemed to explode across his screen like a sort of natural fireworks display. Except there was only one sort of explosion and they never lasted longer than a second or two. “Dull simply didnt come close to describing it. If triple speed was desirable to detect a pattern in the playback, septuple or octuple would be more so.

Above him the chatter continued between the officers. Unable to give attention to the actual words, his peripheral awareness still managed to detect the tone of conversation as it swung from guarded optimism to total defeat and back again.

“wasted time, said someone, probably Hsuuri.

“damned engineers, said one of the Benzites.

“nothing but gears for brains. That was aMershik for sure. He was well into yet another of his dissertations on the futility of optimism when something on Dakals display leaped out at him.

A weird shimmering distortion had appeared in the darkling halos, faintly at first, but with steadily increasing effect.

“ Hope is an illusion, aMershik droned on above him.

Slowing the playback to its normal rate of progression caused the variances to disappear. Whatever they were, they inspired only minute incremental changes in the scans. They were nothing the sensors, even Titan s sensors, would detect in the moment, but they stood out sharply when viewed at hyperspeed as he had done.

This effect wasnt new then and, therefore, probably not the result of the engineers tinkering.

Accelerating the playback again to septuple speed brought out the pattern, now growing even more distinct as the time stamp progressed.

Hed started on day one of their examinations and was now up to the dawn of day five. The distortion pattern vanished for several hours, only to reappear at roughly the same time as when it had made its debut. It vanished again at approximately the same interval and subsequently reappeared.

“ Hope in one digit cluster, said aMershik. “ Excrete in the other. Observe which fills first.

aMershiks pronouncements were consistent if nothing else, but Dakal now had his own little maxim in mind, a Cardassian one.

Pull the thread and watch the curtain unravel .

The fireworks sped by, now very clearly examples of the same pattern of distortion discovered by Melora Pazlar. They vanished and reappeared at the same regular intervals but, sometime around the middle of day twenty, they became more severe, randomly shifting the colors of the halos from one end of the spectrum to the other.

It was certainly unusual, but was it significant? If there was a hidden meaning to the pattern of the distortions, Dakal couldnt see it.

“What have you got there, Cadet? said Jaza, suddenly standing beside him. Dakal had been so enraptured by the fiery halos he hadnt heard the senior officer reenter the pod. From the sound of aMershiks tedious monotone and Fells occasional pithy retorts, none of the others had either.

“Im not sure I know, sir, said Dakal a bit more slowly than he would have liked. “It looks like some kind of quantum distortion, but its so diffuse- He meant to slide into an explanation of the chore Roakn had set him, but Jaza was already nudging him aside.

“Quick playback. Quantum distortion translated to the visual. Got it, said Jaza absently, his hands whipping across the console so fast they were almost a blur. “Did you cross-link this with Pazlars boryon scans?

“I didnt think to, said Dakal. “I only just discovered this.

Jaza disappeared into himself for a few seconds as he processed what he saw, made changes and additions to the software he employed to dissect the data. When he looked up again he seemed like his normal self, as if this new mystery had somehow inoculated him against the fallout from the destruction of the original search. “Jaza to stellar cartography.

“ Pazlar here. Go ahead.

“Im linking you with the sensor pods documentary files of our mapping venture, Melora, Jaza said. “Tell me what you see.

There was a short silence as Pazlars systems aligned themselves with Jazas, accepting and incorporating the new data. Then, simply, “ Wow.

“Notions?

“ Sped up like this, it looks like EM spill from a faulty sensor beacon, said Pazlar. “ That could explain the boryon issue and the uniformity of the intervals, but it doesnt account for the fluctuations in the distortion itself.

“Or why its spread out over weeks, he finished for her.

“ But it definitely looks like a kind of signal-to-noise effect, she said.

It was obvious to Dakal that Commander Jaza was a good five steps ahead of Lieutenant Pazlar on that score. He was already shutting down most of the more esoteric sensor modifications in favor of those that specifically related to the boryon emissions and midrange quantum fluctuations.

“Lieutenant Roakn! said Jaza suddenly, loud enough to announce his presence to the whole room.

“Sir! boomed Roakns voice from above. Instantly he was peering over the edge of the upper tier, looking down at Jaza and Dakal. The rest of the teams chatter was suddenly absent, as if the others voices had been blown into the vacuum beyond Titan s hull. “Youre back.

“Yes, said Jaza. “And Id like to ask you why I found Cadet Dakal down here, running playback of the EM record instead of up there with the rest of the team. Roakns hide roughed with embarrassment as he opened his mouth to reply, but Jaza cut him off. “Never mind. Well talk about it later. Right now, I need a probe reset to track quantum rippling.

“Sir?

“Yesterday, Mr. Roakn, said Jaza, now splitting his attention between the viewer and the various control consoles around him. “I need it done yesterday.

“Aye, sir, said Roakn. The upper tier actually vibrated beneath his feet as he thundered off to do as hed been told.

Forgotten again, Dakal contented himself with watching the senior officer work. Jazas fingers danced, systems deactivated or rerouted or realigned, causing the attendant displays to darken or spark, depending. All with a speed and precision Dakal would have never guessed the older man capable of achieving.

On Cardassia he had once seen a broadcast of a performance of the virtuoso Winim Teekat. Teekat was the acknowledged master of the kynsleve , an instrument of hundreds of filaments strung tight in a sickle of thera bone.

When plucked by the maestros nimble fingers, it made the most haunting melodies. Watching his digits skip across the various control consoles, Dakal was sure that Jaza would be a natural for the kynsleve .

“ Bridge to sensor pod, said a brisk voice.

“Jaza here. Go ahead, Mr. Tuvok, said Jaza, still working away.

“ It seems that you are, once again, reorienting ships main sensors into a new and fairly esoteric configuration.

“Yes, said Jaza, distracted by a set of unexpected symbols that had appeared on a nearby display. “I was just about to inform you.

“ In future, Commander, said Tuvok. “ Please apprise me of such modifications before implementation rather than during or after.

“Special circumstances, said Jaza. “Were tracking a signal, possibly sentient in origin.

“ Then it would be logical to incorporate Titan s communication grid into your recalibration, would it not?

“That was next on the list, said Jaza.

“ Proceed, Mr. Jaza, said Tuvok. “ I will adjust the communication system to fit your needs.

“Probe five prepped and in the tube, sir, said Roakn from somewhere unseen. “Launching.

The others on the upper tier, intent on their original tasks, quietly buzzed among themselves. Dakal listened to them passing data, comparing hypotheses-if the distortions were the result of a signal of some sort, could their effect be scrubbed from the original darkling scans, thus salvaging their month of work?

Even aMershik, all four of his digit clusters gesticulating wildly, now seemed filled with uncharacteristic optimism. He and Pell, their habitual enmity forgotten, were running a tandem simulation to describe the parameters of the distortion. Hsuuri and the rest were engaged in similar activities.

Attack the new mystery , Dakal thought, watching them all approvingly. But save the old if you can . Something to remember.

What he didnt understand was why they were all so frantic about it. Whatever the effect was, it had been progressing for weeks. Indeed the distortion had grown stronger over that time, allowing the latest effect to be seen by Pazlar in real time. Why now all this haste to ferret its secrets?

He returned from his musing to find Jaza staring at him with the queerest expression on his face.

“Back with us, Cadet? he said. Dakal nodded. “Good, because I need you to run the probe for me.

“Sir?

“Everyone here is checked out on the TOV rig, but the others all have their hands full, said Jaza, half pulling the stunned cadet toward the central dais. The various control stalks rose silently from the floor around him as the central ring lit up. “Except Roakn. Anyway, his heads too big for the VISOR.

“Yes, sir, but, I mean, wouldnt you prefer-

“Youre elected, Cadet, said Jaza, grinning now. And, in that grin, Dakal saw what he was up to.

“Sir, he said. “I appreciate this, but I am not the appropriate person for this duty. I dont even know exactly what all this talk about quantum rippling means. Why do you think its some kind of signal?

Jaza spoke quickly as he adjusted the control harness and the TOV for Dakals slightly smaller dimensions. “There are two ways to get around relativity when it comes to communications, Dakal, he said. “One is subspace, which every world in the Federation uses to keep in contact with the others. The other is quantum broadcasting, which Starfleet uses for long-range emergency beacons and in limited fashion with sensor probes.

If the TOV was too small for Roakns giant Brikar body, it was a bit loose on Dakals slender frame. The helmet in particular seemed to sit precariously on his head, threatening to fall off and shatter against the deck with his every slightest movement.

“There are only two sources of quantum rippling in nature, Jaza went on, pulling the straps of the harness tight. When he was done Dakal looked as if hed been transformed into some sort of enormous marionette, his cut strings sagging onto the circular platform. “Wormholes and pulsars. Both create a regular ripple or distortion in the quanta. They never, ever, shift or increase. So, either our distortion is caused by some sentient-made device, or

Jaza let the sentence dangle until Dakal realized he was meant to pick it up. “Or its something weve never seen before, he said.

“Exactly, said Jaza. That made sense to Dakal, but it was clear his presence in the TOV gear still did not. “I dont believe in dunsels, Cadet. Never have. Never will. Now get to work.

On Titan s bridge, two men pretended. Captain William Riker pretended not to be pacing back and forth, and Commander Tuvok, his chief security and tactical officer, pretended not to notice.

Tuvok hadnt served with the captain long, but hed made tentative assessments about his personality that, thus far, had been borne out.

After witnessing his behavior in multiple mission scenarios ranging from military to exploratory, Tuvok had found Captain Riker to be courageous, decisive, and intelligent (for a human), with an exceptionally flexible and improvisational mind.

Despite his large size and proficiency at hand-to-hand combat, Riker was at his core a thoughtful being, serene in his sense of self, confident in bearing, and jovial in disposition. He was not one to pace. Yet, at Tuvoks count, the captain had crossed, recrossed, and crossed again the bridges deck twenty-three times since coming on duty that morning.

Riker did a passable job of concealing this activity from the rest of the bridge crew-pretending to peer over the helmsmans shoulder (“A little tighter on those arcs, Aili. Impulse engines need a firm hand.) or to move in on the main viewer for a closer look at the screen (“Amazing. Theres an entire stellar system sitting right there, and its completely invisible to the eye.).

None of it fooled Tuvok for an instant. Something was occupying a good deal of the captains attention, and it had nothing to do with their current mapping mission or its recent odd permutation.

“You seem irritated, Mr. Tuvok, said Riker, moving in beside him at tactical control. “Mr. Jazas hijinks getting to you?

“Not at all, sir, said Tuvok, projecting the appearance of complete focus on the task before him. “Even if irritation were not an emotion of which I am incapable, sudden modifications to established mission parameters are, as humans say, the nature of the beast.

“ Modified probe approaching target coordinates, said Cadet Dakals voice.

“Acknowledged, said Tuvok, his brow knit ever so slightly as he methodically recalibrated one system after another. “Patching universal translator into probe control.

“ Thank you, said Jazas voice. “ Probe will be in position in five seconds. Three seconds. One.

The countdown finished and nothing much happened. Titan continued forward in its gentle ellipse, Ensign Lavena deftly navigating the ship between the invisible and intangible darklings.

Riker drifted away from tactical, taking a position at the vacant science officers station, where he could watch the proceedings without a filter.

Displayed before him was the telemetry from Jazas modified probe, now set to scan for and isolate the incredibly diffuse signal the team in the sensor pod had discovered.

Riker hadnt had a chance to try out the TOV harness yet, but watching the probes lifelike dips and spins as Dakal adjusted its positioning, he made a promise to add himself to the pilot roster the next time the probes were needed. Captains prerogative.

Could have used that distraction now , he thought, running one hand slowly through his beard. This thing between him and Deanna had grown to elephantine proportions in only a few weeks. Their schedules had kept them mostly apart lately, but when they were together, things were increasingly frosty between them.

He would press- Deanna, you know Im right about this -and she would evade or dig in- Dammit, Will, let it go -and little by little, their ability to talk had dwindled almost to nil.

After years of nearly complete openness about every subject or emotion, the growing chasm between them might actually do what all the maniacal conquerors, apocalyptic phenomena, and interstellar warfare had been unable to accomplish.

The worst thing was that they both knew his attempts to press her were ultimately benign. The manifestation was unpleasant, friction making, but he just couldnt seem to stop.

“ Signal acquired, said Dakals voice. He sounded almost giddy. “ Uploading to pod.

“ Scan under way, said Jaza. “ Hold steady, Cadet. Youre bobbling.

Hundreds of lines of coded data began to dash across Rikers monitor. At first it was all hash-random symbols denoting as yet unknown information-but once the UT really sank its teeth in, the chaos began to resolve.

One by one, the symbols transformed into those he could understand. Two recognizable symbols became three, became ten, became an entire line of deciphered code, all of which Riker began to find unsettlingly familiar.

“Tuvok? said Riker. “Are you seeing what Im seeing?

“I am aware of the situation, sir, said the Vulcan. “As, I suspect, is Mr. Jaza.

“ Transcoding now, said Jazas voice, but his tone was as grim as the Vulcans.

A few seconds later, with nearly seventy percent of the signal acquired, they were all thinking the same thing.

“ Thats the best were getting, Captain, Jaza reported. “ Theres too much distortion to sift out the rest.

“Run what we have, said Riker, moving quickly from the science station to the captains chair. “Lets see this thing.

“The visual component is too corrupted for reliable translation, said Tuvok mechanically.

“Give me what youve got, Mr. Tuvok.

“Reconstructing audio.

A hush fell over the bridge as everyone waited to hear what some of them-those whod paid attention in communication class at the Academy-had begun to dread.

“*********** TITAN ************* SENTIENTS ******* RECEIVE *************** DANGEROUS ********* EXPANDING ********** ******** ATTACK ********* HOSTILE ACTION ******** SPECIES ****** UNKNOWN ****************** *********************

The alert sounded near the end of Vales meeting with Counselor Huilan. Shed chosen to conceal the fact that it was a meeting by having the little psychologist accompany her as she walked the ships corridors, ostensibly on her way to the mess hall. If anyone asked, they were grabbing a quick snack before going on duty.

Involving Huilan in her Plan B was not the course she would have taken had she not felt compelled, but of course thats what Plan Bs always were-the less desirable alternative of first resort.

Huilan had been reluctant to accept portions of the duty she was assigning, but when she spelled out the full picture, most of his misgivings vanished.

“Youre mistaken about one thing, he said in his growling chirp of a voice. “Theres no way I could be concealed inside a satchel or carried anywhere by most members of the crew. Im small, Commander, but exceedingly dense.

Vale had actually smiled at that. Huilan was a Stiach. To human observers, his people resembled small, blue, four-armed bears.

On most Class-M worlds, such creatures were relatively unremarkable. Stiach, by contrast, was a hyper g planet and, while its flora and fauna were compact by Federation norms, their molecular structures were another matter entirely.

Though Huilans head barely reached Vales knees, his mass exceeded hers by a factor of four or five times. Hed be more likely to lift her than the converse. Hell, he could probably toss her from one side of the cabin to the other without much effort.

“So, what do you suggest? she said. “Theres no way either of them is going to sit down with you and bare their souls.

“Yes, said Huilan thoughtfully. “Counselor Troi has been fairly blinkered about this matter.

It would have been stupid for Vale not to expect that Huilan had pegged some of the same symptoms in Troi and the captain as she. He was a professional, and he worked as closely with Troi as Vale did with Will Riker.

She was both gratified and disappointed to know that her misgivings werent the result of generic XO paranoia. Something was happening with Riker and Troi, something unpleasant that neither of them would divulge.

Vale and Huilan found themselves at the galley, suddenly assaulted by the clamor from within. The shift change meal was one of the noisiest, and this was no exception.

“Im not asking you to spy on anyone, she said, fighting to be heard over the cacophony of chattering voices. “I just want you to get a look at them together, make an evaluation, and submit your recommendations to me.

“I dont know, Commander, said Huilan, clearly still somewhat dubious about the whole thing. “Clandestine therapies are extremely problematic. As is diagnosis without a close interaction with the patient.

Vale was about to counter with some Pakled axiom about using the tools one had, but before she could, the alert sounded.

“ All decks, go to Yellow Alert, said Tuvoks voice. “ This is not a drill.

As the mass exodus from the galley got under way, Vales combadge chirped. Rikers voice summoned her to the bridge.

“On my way, Captain, she said, heading out.

“Its one of ours. Youre sure?

“The signal was fragmented, but it had a Starfleet signature, Chris, said Riker as she slid into the first officers chair beside him. “And whoever they were, they called Titan by name.

“So, were already under way, she said as the dwindling black mass of Occultus Ora was reabsorbed into the larger pattern of streaming stars on the main viewer. “Any idea which ship it is?

“Not yet, said Riker. “Aside from the fact that the signal itself is almost completely shredded, the gravity distortions in Occultus Ora prevented us from getting a directional lock.

“Clearing darkling system now, Captain, said helmsman Lavena.

“Thank you, Ensign, said Riker, then, turning to his tactical officer, “Tuvok?

“The signal seems to have originated somewhere in or near the region of FSR-B2157, also called the Elysia Incendae system, said Tuvok as the data came through. “A moment, Captain. Mr. Jaza and I are- Tuvok stopped speaking and moved from tactical to the science station. “There is still some interference preventing us from pinpointing or communicating with the sender.

“Whats causing it?

“That is unknown at this time, Captain, the Vulcan said coolly. Vale envied him his composure. Her own pulse was already beating more quickly than she liked, and she hadnt even heard the distress signal herself.

“Ensign Lavena, Riker said, “whats our ETA to the Elysia Incendae system?

“Twenty-seven hours at warp six, sir, said Lavena.

“Set course and engage.

“Aye, sir, Lavena said as her sheathed fingers danced over her navigation console.

“You think its Charon , dont you? said Vale, leaning in for a private whisper with her captain.

“Shes closest, was the grim response. “But it could be any of them.

Vales mind flashed immediately to the rest of the fleet. Including Titan , Starfleet had four identical Luna -class vessels exploring the reaches of the Beta Quadrant. The ships were spread across the region like microscopic pearls on an infinite ebony beach.

The nearest of them, the U.S.S. Charon , was many parsecs away the last time her mission updates were transmitted.

That was weeks ago , thought Vale. By now Charon should be somewhere deep inside the Ring Nebula, not loitering around these parts.

“What do we know about the Elysia Incendae system, Mr. Jaza? Riker called out.

“ The cursory survey on record lists FSR-B2157 as a G1 star orbited by five planets, one of which is located in the habitable zone for Class-M life. However, the presence of such life has never been confirmed.

“The words sentient and species were both in the transmission, Riker said.

“ True, sir, Jaza acknowledged. “ But we cannot know with any certainty in what context they were being used.

Riker turned to Vale. “Is Drakmondo or Fortis captaining Charon ? said Riker.

“Captain Bellatora Fortis, said Vale, punching up their sister vessels personnel files on her chair display. “Born on New Riyadh. Graduated the Academy three years ahead of me. Got her pips after the Second Battle of Chintoka.

“Battlefield promotion, said Riker, frowning slightly. Vale understood. She remembered Fortis now: Tall, pale, and slender to the point of being reedy, she was no one youd would expect to enter, much less survive, a fight. But when a Breen attack had taken the life of her captain and first officer on the U.S.S. Sparrowhawk , it was Bellatora Fortis whod kept the nearly crippled ship in the fight. And it was Fortis who brought her home. Her reputation was that of a good soldier but not one possessed of the most flexible mind. The necessities of the war had put a lot of people in the captains chair without giving them the chance to truly develop space legs as explorers. Vale hoped Charon hadnt stumbled into something too complex for her captains linear sensibilities to navigate.

“Give me warp seven, Ensign, Riker said.

“Warp seven, aye.

“Nice color, by the way, Riker said quietly, and Vale suddenly realized he was speaking to her again. “Brings out the red in your uniform.

“Very funny, she said, not the least bit amused by the joke, but grateful to see some glimmer of the old Riker emerge. He was quiet after that. The entire bridge was. The stars, transformed to pinprick strokes of white by the ships warp field, streamed past Titan s main viewer as silent as the void that held them.

Vale had wanted some external force to arrive and snap them back into cohesion. Now shed got it, and it stuck going down.

What was it her mother always said?

“ Be mindful of wishing, Christine. You might get what you ask for instead of what you want.

Chapter Three

T he pulse hit Titan ten hours into her journey, slapping the vessel out of warp the way a Klingon fist knocks teeth out of an enemys mouth.

The tidal forces created by Titan s return to what should have been normal space shorted out systems, disrupting everything utterly, washing over and through the ship as if its amazing catalogue of defenses were nonexistent.

Before the gravity reasserted, a fair number of the crew were slammed into bulkheads or ceilings by their own pent-up inertia. The most durable or agile of them were unfazed, snapping into duty posture even before the Red Alert klaxons directed them to their stations.

The more fragile crew members-the primates, the smaller reptiloids, the relatively spindly Dr. Celenthe-took the brunt. Ensign Torvig spent a harrowing fifteen minutes forcing his cybernetic enhancements back to heel after nearly all of his primary control subroutines had been wiped by the pulse.

Contrary to appearances, the pulse hadnt come out of nowhere. Both Tuvok and Jaza managed to belt out timely but ultimately fruitless exclamations of warning in the second or two before the ship was overcome.

They had been studying the pattern of the distortions that led them here, seeking its point of origin, but while there was evidence of some sort of massive quantum disturbance throughout this region, there was as yet no sign of its cause. The interference itself defied analysis.

Just as they were calling Ra-Havreii to get his input on the problem-perhaps it lay not with the phenomenon but with Titan s sensor nets-the pulse hit.

When the emergency lights came on and the shouting died to sporadic spikes in the post-disaster pall, there was a single question in the minds of Titan s crew.

“What the hell was that? Riker asked, picking himself up off the deck as the emergency lights came on. “Status report! He watched as Vale climbed back into her seat and immediately began to pull information from her console.

“Secondary systems are still initializing, Captain, Vale said, the crimson light casting her in harsh black shadows.

“Helm control is wobbly, said Lavena, after righting herself. “Warp engines are offline.

“The hull is intact, Tuvok said, as other systems came online. “No breaches reported. Minor torque striation on the port nacelle strut.

“The effect seems also to have subsided, said Jaza, who had returned to the bridge only in the last hour. “Its still present, but preliminary scans show local conditions are approaching normal.

“What hit us, Mr. Jaza? Riker asked.

“Energy pulse of some kind, but readings are still imprecise. Analysis under way.

Riker acknowledged this with a curt nod and listened intently as the voices of his crew flooded in over the comms.

This is not good , Vale thought. The ship was running exclusively on emergency power; if its condition was the result of an attack, Titan was ill-equipped to repel or even to run from a second volley.

“Tactical status, Mr. Tuvok, she said.

“Phasers are down, said the Vulcan. “Photon and quantum torpedoes are online, but targeting systems are unresponsive. Shields are currently at half strength.

A figure moved to stand next to Riker. Vale looked up and saw Troi standing beside the captain. Vale hadnt even noticed her arrival. She caught Deannas softly delivered report in her husbands ear: “A quarter of the crew is in a near panic.

Again Riker nodded, and Vale was grateful to see that whatever was going on between them, they both knew when to set it aside. Troi took her station to the left of the center seat, and immediately began coordinating with Keru the support/rescue efforts of their respective staffs.

“Bridge to sickbay. Status report.

“ Ree here. Sickbay systems are operating at less than peak, but while a great many injuries are presenting, they are thus far all relatively minor

While Riker took Dr. Rees report, Vale left her seat and crossed the deck to sciences. “Could this be what happened to the other ship? she whispered to Jaza.

“I wish I could say, Jaza said without looking up, his voice tinged with frustration. “So far none of these readings make sense. Im going to need more time to find the answers, Commander.

“We need to know what were dealing with, fast, Vale stressed. “Were sitting ducks out here, Najem.

He glanced at her and flashed a small smile. “Then you need to stop distracting me, Chris.

“ Well continue to keep you apprised, Captain.

“Thank you, Doctor. Riker out, the captain said, then followed with, “Bridge to engineering.

“ Ra-Havreii here, said the Efrosians voice, his normally melodius tones now rife with tension. “ This isnt a good time, Captain, but Ill have something for you in a few minutes. Engineering out.

Riker looked at Vale, almost too surprised to speak. “Did he just dismiss me?

Vales expression hardened. “Im on it, she said, glancing at Troi as she marched toward the turbolift. “Counselor, youre with me.

Main engineering was a hotbed of activity when the two bridge officers arrived. Tool-laden techs scurried everywhere, scrambled up and down gangways, bellowed commands and confirmations back and forth over the noise of other shouts. Some of the activity was due to the ongoing state of emergency, certainly, but there was something else at work, something she couldnt isolate.

The pulse didnt cause all this , she thought, surveying the scene of chaos. These people are stripping the place down to the chips . Unable to spot Ra-Havreii in the bedlam, Vale snagged a passing engineer and asked where his department head had got to.

“Not present in this moment, Commander, said Ensign Urgar, a big ursinoid who seemed more concerned with the cycle inverter he had resting on one massive shoulder than in talking to his XO. “Engine master has come and gone.

“He was just here, said Vale, her temperature spiking higher than the considerable ambient heat. “And whats he got you people doing? It looks like a full overhaul.

“The engine master tells and it is for us to do, said the big engineer. “Though Urgars mind is full of questions. This grinding eats too many moments. Why not patch first and then upgrade when all is well, yes?

Why not indeed? What the hell was Ra-Havreii doing? This was a damned Red Alert. Titan was a big metal bucket rolling in the dark right now-slow, stupid, defenseless. This was no time for anybodys eccentricities.

Then Trois hand was on her arm, tugging her gently away from the scene.

“Ill deal with Ra-Havreii, she said softly, having obviously zeroed in on the inspiration for Vales current emotional turmoil. “Can you get this place under control?

Vale nodded curtly. Troi was back in the lift an instant later, her mission set. Vale took a breath, turned back to the theater of pandemonium.

“Attention, she said, shouting to be heard over the cacophony of voices. After her third try and smacking a spanner against the bulkhead, they stopped and looked her way. “All hands are to belay every order that doesnt include getting this ship back online ASAP. If its patchable, patch it. No unnecessary swaps, no upgrades that arent one hundred percent required. Understood?

It was. From their faces she could tell that some of them were even relieved to be given an order they could comprehend. Ra-Havreii was definitely off the map this time.

“Well need a separate team in each of the nacelle conduits, said Xin Ra-Havreii to a very tense-looking Ensign Rossini. The latter was doing his best to keep pace with the Efrosians longer strides while simultaneously entering the senior officers orders into his padd. “There wont be time to replace the flow couplings once the core is back online.

He would have gone on-there was a lot more to do, more than anyone knew-but he found himself struck speechless by the dark cloud hovering near his quarters.

“That will be all for now, Ensign, he said, dismissing the grateful Rossini without a glance. “Well, Counselor Troi, to what do I owe the pleasure?

“This isnt a social call, Doctor, said Troi in a glacial tone. “Your conduct has become too erratic to ignore.

“Ah, said Ra-Havreii, managing what Troi supposed was meant to be a wry grin. “If were going to talk about me, might I suggest we do it inside my quarters?

“Were in the middle of a Red Alert, Commander- Troi began.

“Precisely, said the engineer as the doors to his quarters parted. “Lets talk inside.

He was across the threshold before she could respond, and while his tone was upbeat, there was another emotion comet-trailing off him that raised her concerns even higher. Seeing little alternative, she followed him in.

Ra-Havreiis quarters were more Spartan than Troi expected. Contained in the three small rooms with their regulation-issue off-white walls were a regulation couch, regulation desk and chair, regulation dining table, and in the much-discussed Ra-Havreii sleeping area, a simple standard-issue bed.

Titan had been out of the dock for months. Ra-Havreii had been aboard nearly all that time, and yet he had not moved in. There was not one personal modification to his regulation personal space.

Under the strictest conditions even a Vulcan could be expected to display an IDIC symbol or construct a meditation shrine. Xin Ra-Havreii, Titan s most notorious hedonist, had nothing. That, coupled with the thick aura-what was that, guilt? melancholy?-that emanated from him, made the hackles on Trois neck stand at attention.

“ Luna 80102 , Second Model in D Minor, said Ra-Havreii as he dropped into the chair. Immediately the room was filled with the sounds of a string sextet playing what sounded like a combination of Terran music-classical Japanese-and a Romulan lute chorus. For several moments Troi was fascinated in spite of herself. The melody was quite lovely, the interplay of sounds both delicate and somehow powerful, but a couple of discordant notes snapped her back to reality.

Ra-Havreii hushed her first two attempts to engage him, seeming lost in the complex interplay of sounds.

“Hm? he said at last, coming back from wherever hed been. “Did you say something, Counselor?

“You cant continue this way, Xin, said Troi. “Youre using your job to exorcise your personal demons.

“I am?

“I saw what was going on in engineering, said Troi. “You were supposed to be getting Titan running properly again as quickly as possible. Instead, you had your people performing what looked to me like a complete overhaul.

“And by this you gleaned I was somehow working out feelings Ive been sublimating about my past mistakes. He paused to listen to a particularly complex refrain before going on. “Is that it?

“Close enough, she said.

“Lets assume youre right, he said. “Isnt it best to let the patient cure himself whenever possible?

“Sadly, she said, “thats not always how it works.

“Im the engineer, he said as the music swelled around them. “Shouldnt I be telling you how things work?

There was another discordant note. Ra-Havreii cocked his head to one side, listening, as the note became a progression of jumbled sounds quite unlike the rest of the admittedly unusual piece.

“Dont joke, she said, ignoring the noise.

“Just a moment, Counselor, said Ra-Havreii, clearly annoyed by her interruption. “Stop, resume playback at the beginning of the last phrase.

The music returned, its lilting melody permeating the room for a few seconds until the dischord reappeared. Again Ra-Havreiis aspect hovered somewhere between aggravation and curiosity, and Troi was at a loss to find the line between them.

Something was burning inside the engineer; that was obvious. She could feel his turmoil almost as acutely as she did her own, though, as usual, she couldnt pinpoint the exact source. If this odd musical interlude was an attempt to soothe himself, it didnt seem to be working.

“Id thought youd agreed we would discuss any recurrence in your feelings about the Luna incident, said Troi eventually.

“What do you mean by that, Counselor? he asked.

“You said the title of this piece was Luna , didnt you? she said. “And I know how serious threats to Titan sometimes cause you to relive certain aspects of the Luna disaster.

“Yes, well, said Ra-Havreii, still seemingly a bit distracted. “Im sure I will always carry some baggage from thatevent.

“Dont you think it might be helpful to work on putting that baggage away?

“Theres away, Madame Troi, said Ra-Havreii as the music resumed its normal pleasant strains, “and theres away . In either case, I assure you, I have myself, my baggage, and my demons well in hand.

Why do they always lie? thought Troi. They have to know that Ill know .

She could sense, despite his serene exterior, that he was hanging on to his composure by his fingernails. If anything, listening to this music seemed somehow to make matters worse.

“Theres no need to put up a front with me, Xin, said Troi, trying to navigate another way into the Efrosians psyche. “You know I can feel when youre-

“Stop, he said, rising. It was only when the music evaporated without returning that Troi realized he hadnt meant her.

She watched as he gathered up his padd, tapped in some commands, and rose to go. Red emergency lighting spilled in from the corridor beyond, casting the engineers sinuous frame into a stark black silhouette.

“Are you coming, Counselor?

“Commander Vale has engineering under control, Xin, she said. “I think we should get to the bottom of whats happening with you.

“Whats happening, Madame Troi, said Ra-Havreii, “is that Ive just discovered precisely what knocked Titan out of warp and is currently running roughshod over her systems. I would like to inform the captain of my findings, as Im sure hed consider them to be of great interest. However, if you believe the ship and crew would be better served by my sitting here with you and discussing my feelings, I will be happy to oblige.

Aside from Dr. Ree, who tended to be chipper even under the most trying circumstances, and thus eager as ever for small talk, the forward observation lounge on deck one was silent as a crypt. Vale studied the rooms occupants with interest as they awaited the captains arrival.

Troi sat to the left of the tables head, directly opposite Vale. She seemed deeply focused on the activity of her hands, which were folded in front of her on the tabletop. No eye contact. No comment. No innocuous conversation. Whenever not focused on a task, it seemed, she withdrew into herself, storm cloud waiting to burst.

Beside her sat Tuvok, still tapping some last-minute input into his padd, his placid exterior betraying nothing of his inner workings. Next came Jaza, standing before the viewports, his back to the room, his hands folded behind him in apparent repose as he gazed out at the surrounding void.

At the foot of the table was Ree, cheerful Ree, burbling on about how the remarkable Dr. Bralik had missed her calling by going into geology.

“She has a bedside manner most physicians would eviscerate their own offspring to possess, he said. “She hasnt left Pazlars side since she arrived in sickbay.

“Shes not underfoot? said Vale.

“Far from it, said Ree. “In addition to her own work, she has managed to be quite helpful as some of my staff were injured in the pulse. An exceptional creature.

“Where is Captain Riker? said Ra-Havreii. He too aped the appearance of someone in repose. His eyes were closed, his long fingers forming a pyramid in front of his face. Framed by his mane of silver-white hair, his face was grimly set. Xin Ra-Havreii the libertine was gone. This was Dr. Ra-Havreii, one of the Federations most apt pupils in the study of warp physics.

“The captain will be here when hes ready to begin the meeting, Commander, Vale said in a warning tone. The Efrosian nodded his head slightly and was quiet again.

She might have felt better about that small victory over the engineer, but the hairs standing at attention on her forearms told Vale they were about to be treated to another of Will Rikers patented improvisations. Wonderful. Under these circumstances, that should go over about as well as a tribble at a Klingon wedding.

“The Prophets have deemed patience one of the five necessary aspects, Xin, said Jaza, his back still to the room.

“Considering their relationship to Bajor, Mr. Jaza, said the engineer, “that is small wonder.

“Why would you say that? asked Jaza.

“It seems reasonable to assume, when one party is sufficiently superior to another, the former must exert inordinate amounts of patience if only to maintain sanity.

“The Prophets teach that there are no such things as superior and inferior, said Jaza. “Only those minds that open and those that dont.

“Yes, said Ra-Havreii. “That sounds exactly like something the superior would tell the inf-

“All right, thats about enough from both of you, said Vale, her own patience having reached its limit.

“Your pardon, Commander, Jaza said.

“My apologies, said Ra-Havreii.

The silence was almost worse than the verbal sparring. It made the tension more palpable, if that were possible. Too thick for a thin blade , as her mother might have said. Much of the tension seemed to orbit Ra-Havreii, and after her recent duty in engineering, Vale could understand why. The man was infuriating. Genius could only deflect so much.

Vale wondered how she looked to them. Did any of her own disquiet show on her face? Was her anxiety over the slow, top-down dissolution of Will Rikers grand experiment as obvious and powerful as it felt? She hoped not.

“All right, Riker said as the doors parted and he strode into the room. Hed been on his feet for more than a day, coordinating departments, pitching in with repairs, ensuring that his ship and his crew were as secure as possible under the circumstances. Youd never know it to look at him. Best poker face in two quadrants. “Lets get to it.

There were two women with him-the taller one was a gold-skinned Selenean ensign. Her name was Eera Maren or Arda Oden-something like that. Vale had a vague recollection that she was in communications or a related department. The shorter female was an Antaran, thick boned and sullen eyed for some reason. She looked sturdy enough. Both ensigns wore service yellow. Why Riker felt their presence was necessary was a mystery.

She caught Jaza looking at the Selenean with the queerest expression on his face. He seemed to be trying to work something out. The ensign only smiled back at him politely as he took his seat.

“I trust youve had time to peruse my report, said Ra-Havreii, coming out of his faux trance.

“ Titan was hit by some kind of massive energetic pulse, said Riker, taking his place at the head of the table. The ensigns, without available seats, were content to hover by the door.

“A massive warp pulse, to be precise, Captain, said Ra-Havreii.

Jaza gave a derisive snort.

“You have a problem with Dr. Ra-Havreiis findings, Mr. Jaza? said Riker. There was ice in his voice that Jaza failed to notice. Even the captain was on the jagged edge of something and in no mood for squabbling.

“No, sir, said the science officer, his tone betraying that his true meaning was the reverse. “But its a fairly large leap to classify all this as the result of a warp pulse-a warp pulse intense enough to disrupt Titan s systems, no less-without any sign of the ship that created it.

“It neednt have come from a ship, said Ra-Havreii.

“Unless theres a secret trinary pulsar around here that no one has seen, said Jaza. “It had to be someones version of a ship.

“Perhaps the ship was cloaked, offered Ree.

“No, said Jaza, frowning. “Local conditions would disrupt a cloak just as they have all of Titan s energetic systems.

“In fact, there are a number of devices that could generate such a pulse, Ra-Havreii said. “Ive invented some of them myself.

“Theres no ship, said Jaza. “Theres no pulsar. There is nothing detectable out there that could have caused this. With Titan s enhanced sensors, that means theres nothing out there.

“Yet Titan was definitely hit by a warp pulse, said Ra-Havreii. “What is your explanation?

“Still collating, said Jaza, clearly unhappy about the admission.

“A warp pulse is consistent with my findings as well, said Tuvok. “Though it fails to account for the remaining distortion of quantum synchronicity in the region.

“Exactly, Jaza said. “A warp pulse doesnt cause that sort of distortion and certainly nothing as sustained as what were experiencing.

“Did you notice the Cochrane valences are in flux? said the engineer.

“Of course we did, Ra-Havreii, snapped Jaza. “Were not idiots.

“Quantum synchronicity? Cochrane valences? said Vale, attempting to keep the lid on. “Were not all scientists here, people. Keep it simple.

“In lay terms, it means the subatomic particles in this region have had their properties scrambled, said Jaza. “Its like sucking the O ₂ away from a fire. The reactions that power the warp core, those that allow us to create and sustain a warp bubble around Titan , cant progress.

“What about impulse power?

“We have enough to keep the lights on but little else, said Ra-Havreii.

“Becalmed, said Riker thoughtfully. Then, when he noticed the confusion on the faces of the others, he added, “Its how ancient Terran sailors described a ship being unable to catch the wind.

“It is an apt analogy, Captain, said Tuvok. “ Titan cannot move until we counteract the ongoing effect.

“It will be difficult to do that if were hit by another pulse, said Ra-Havreii.

“You think thats likely? said Riker.

“Though Ive never heard of an occurrence on this scale, quantum disruptions are common with primitive warp devices, Captain, said Ra-Havreii. “Whoever is using such low-end technology almost certainly has no idea of its grander effect. Thus they have no reason to stop.

“I dont understand why youre so sure that the pulse was caused by sentients, said Troi. “Im not sensing anything in this area outside of Titan s crew.

“If youll allow us, maam, said a low voice from behind them. “I think we can answer that.

Everyones head turned toward the two ensigns who had been standing nearby, apparently awaiting the opportunity to speak.

“For those of you who are unfamiliar with them, Riker said, “these are Ensigns Loolooa Tareshini and Ylira Modan. It seems, while all of us were trying to keep the ship in one piece, the ensigns found our culprits.

“Well, said Modan, stepping forward, her partner now obviously a little too nervous to go on. “We found their footprints at least. Her thick braids shifted ever so slightly as her gaze swiveled between the faces of her superiors.

“Footprints? said Ree. “What does that mean?

“Were cryptolinguists, said Tareshini, chiming in again. “Whenever Titan encounters anything that could be classified as a signal of sentient origin, all relevant data is automatically cross-linked with our work stations.

“Signal of sentient origin, Jaza repeated. “By that I take it you mean something other than the Starfleet signal we were investigating.

“No, sir, said Tareshini nervously. “I mean, yes, sir. But theres more. A lot more.

“The Starfleet signal was affected by the same distortion that we understand corrupted your mapping of Occultus Ora, said Modan. Jaza looked about to interject something but instead leaned back in his seat, letting the younger woman go on. “You were so occupied trying to salvage the damage caused by the quantum ripples, you didnt give the ripples themselves more than a cursory look. We did.