XII.
SICWAN, ANXIOUS TO SEE THE ENDof the Black Mass after it had haunted his darkest nightmares for more than twenty years, was on his way to the bridge when Kalinda fell into step next to him. "Where are you going?" he asked.
"The same place you are. The bridge. To watch this end."
"Shouldn't you be with Xyon? At a time like this…"
"He's gone."
Si Cwan slowed, stopped and faced her. "Gone?"
"His vessel is gone. No one would tell me where or why." Her face was immobile, impossible to read. "He left without even saying good-bye."
"I'm sure he had a reason. And I'm sure that—"
She walked past him then, and into the nearest turbolift. He stepped in next to her, and she turned and looked up at him. "Did you mean those things you said? About Xyon and me getting married? Or was it some elaborate psychological trick to drive a wedge between us."
"If what you have with Xyon is solid… is real… then nothing I could possibly say or do could ever drive a wedge between you."
"You didn't answer my question."
He looked away from her. "All I want for you, Kally, is for you to be happy."
"On whose terms?"
"It doesn't come down to terms…"
"Doesn't it? Doesn't it, Si Cwan?"
"I didn't feel he was right for you, but I would have come to deal with it, given time…"
"It wasn't for you to deal with, Si Cwan. It was for you to embrace. My happiness. You should be celebrating it, accepting it. Not dealing with it. 'Dealing with it' is what you do when an enemy attacks, not what you do when your sister is in love."
"Kalinda," he sighed, "you're too young to know what love is."
"And you're too tall to know what love is."
He stifled a laugh. "What? What does height have to do with understanding the true nature of love."
"As much as youth. Although maybe I'm more accurate. From your lofty height, you look down on something that you can't even begin to understand."
The turbolift slowed and opened onto the bridge, and the two of them walked out in silence.
There was no sound on the bridge. No one spoke. No one even seemed to be breathing.
The Black Mass was still coming, not more than nine hours away from the Tulaan system. Nine hours away from putting an end to the Redeemers… and also ending the lives of Burgoyne and Selar, wherever they might be.
Robin Lefler was back at her post. She was sniffing slightly, but otherwise was not giving any indication of the flu which had hammered her earlier. She nodded an acknowledgment to Si Cwan and Kalinda when they stepped onto the bridge, but otherwise focused her attention completely on the looming Mass.
When Calhoun spoke, it was the picture of icy calm. If she had not been there herself, Shelby would never have believed that, mere moments before, the man was coming as close to opening his soul to her as he ever had. "Mr. Mitchell," he said. "Are we ready to go?"
Down in engineering, Craig Mitchell, acting in Burgoyne's stead, turned to Ensign Ronni Beth who was studying the controls. She turned to him and gave him a confident "thumbs up" gesture. "Ready on this end, Captain," he said. "Phasers are realigned to fire pure blasts of magnetic dissonance."
"How long can we sustain each blast?"
"Without overheating? Twenty seconds each."
"So the only way to do this is a steady series of barrages. Soleta," and he turned toward his science officer. "Will it be enough to drive them apart?"
"And why won't the Black Mass be able to dodge around it, as it did with our previous attack?" asked Si Cwan.
"Because a phaser is a pinpoint blast of concentrated light," explained Soleta. "We're not dealing with light here. By reconfiguring the phasers, we're essentially creating fields of dissonance. Far more widespread, and they should theoretically affect the entire area that they hit. By continued and sustained fire, there's a chance that it will cause the Black Mass to dissolve into components, and those individual components will die."
"I notice an excessive number of 'theories' and 'perhaps' in your explanation there, Soleta."
"Simply trying to be as accurate as possible, Captain."
"Let's hope that we're dealing in more than theory. Mr. Kebron… target all phaser banks on the Black Mass. Sustained barrages of magnetic dissonance in alternating twenty-second intervals."
"Phasers locked and ready, sir," said Kebron.
"And…" Calhoun held his breath for a moment, and then said, "Fire."
The phaser banks cut loose, and the Black Mass was under attack.
"If any piece of it comes toward us, reconfigure phaser lock and fire on that instead," ordered Calhoun.
"Aye," was all Kebron said, concentrating on the phaser array before him.
Into the heart of the Black Mass stabbed the phasers of theExcalibur, giving it everything they had. In engineering, Mitchell and Beth watched the readings with apprehension, making rapid-fire adjustments to keep the flow of energy steady and not risk any diminishment in the ship's attack.
Long minutes ticked by without any outward sign of anything happening. And then Soleta said, "Sir… Black Mass is breaking apart."
A startled cheer went up from the bridge crew.
"Quiet!" snapped Calhoun in an uncharacteristically sharp tone. His gaze had not wavered from the screen. He was clearly not going to relax his guard until the Black Mass had, once and for all, been stopped.
The Black Mass surged, rippled, fought against the magnetic dissonance of the phasers. Even from their distance, they could see it trembling, fighting to maintain its integrity. "They're having an effect… they're definitely having an effect," said Shelby.
"Engineering to Bridge. Captain, I'm not sure how much longer we can maintain this barrage," came Mitchell's voice.
"Do your best, Mr. Mitchell, so that we can do our worst."
"Aye, sir," said Mitchell. And then he was suddenly heard to mutter a string of imprecations that appeared to question both Calhoun's competence and his parentage.
Smothering a grin, despite the gravity of the situation, Calhoun said, "Mr. Mitchell, you've still got an open line here."
"Oh. Sorry, sir." The comm link immediately went dead, and Calhoun shook his head. Pretend you thought the comm link was closed and then speak out of turn "accidentally." A nice way to let the captain know exactly what he thought of the present situation without opening himself up to charges of insubordination. A very old stunt… and one that Calhoun could recall pulling himself once or twice in his career.
More time went by, and now even Kebron was reporting of the strain to the phaser array. In the meantime, the Black Mass continued to fight back. It rippled, it wavered…
"There it goes!" said Lefler excitedly. "It's going!"
The Black Mass, under the sustained pounding of the ship's weaponry, fell apart…
…and regrouped.
It happened so quickly that it almost didn't register on them. Within seconds, the Black Mass had reformed itself, become smaller, tighter, more determined than ever to make headway.
"Sir!" came the call from engineering without any preamble. "We're going to have to shut down or we're going to blow out the phaser banks!"
All eyes turned to Calhoun. He could have been carved form a block of marble.
"Cease fire," he said quietly. "Mr. McHenry, give us some distance… just in case the Black Mass couldn't take a joke."
"A joke?" Si Cwan obviously couldn't believe it. "That was our entire strategy… our plan of attack… and you refer to it as a joke?"
"Soleta did warn us, repeatedly, that it was theoretical. I appreciate your candor, Lieutenant."
"It was only appropriate, sir."
The Black Mass, shaking off the last lingering effects of the phaser barrage, moved off. The immediate threat from theExcalibur ended, and with the ship clearly not intending to press an attack, the Black Mass resumed its previous course. Apparently it had even managed to abso
rb and digest some of the energy unleashed by the phasers, because it was discharging that same energy and picking up speed.
"Why isn't it coming after us, the way it did before?" asked Kalinda.
"Are you knocking it, princess?" inquired McHenry.
"Obviously not. I'm just curious."
"My guess is that we did it some degree of damage," Soleta said. "And it feels the need to keep the entirety of itself together, just in case there are further attacks. It doesn't want to split its resources."
Si Cwan came down and around to face Calhoun. "And now," he said with forced calm, "what do we do?"
There was, once again, dead silence on the bridge.
It was Kalinda who broke it. "Someone should just dump it in a black hole or something and be done with it," she said.
"An excellent idea," said Soleta, "provided there was a black hole in the area."
"Xyon said there was one. Not far off the Black Mass' path."
"Xyon said…" Calhoun looked at her. "When did he say this?"
"The other day."
"Why didn't he suggest it to me?"
"He said you had other people to give you advice and didn't need his."
"You're all fired," Calhoun said immediately to the entire bridge crew. "Mr. Kebron, punch me up some star maps of the area, now."
"If you're rehiring me, Captain, we'll need to discuss salary increases."
"Now, Kebron."
Kebron had already brought up star charts of the entire area. All eyes on the bridge scanned it.
"Nothing," Soleta said after a few moments. "There is no indication of any black hole on any of the star charts. If it's here, it's unrecorded, and Xyon stumbled onto it on his own."
"Where is Xyon? Let's get him up here, have him point it out to us," suggested Shelby.
"He's unavailable," Calhoun said quickly, and Shelby saw a glance exchanged between Calhoun and Kalinda. She had no idea what was going on, and had the uncomfortable feeling that this was yet another one of those times when Calhoun was up to something that he wanted as few people as possible to know about. Without giving Shelby time to inquire about it, Calhoun said, "Ambassador… is it possible that a black hole could be in this area without appearing on any star maps?"
"Quite possible," said Si Cwan. "Remember, we're roughly in the heart of Redeemer territory. Even at the height of our influence, this was not an area that the Thallonians ventured into a great deal."
"Mr. Kebron, have security escort the Overlord up here. It's about time he served some sort of purpose other than threatening us."
It took only a few moments to have the Overlord brought up to the bridge. It was somewhat annoying to see that a stay in the brig had not diminished his sense of authority or fundamentally arrogant air one bit. The way he walked around the bridge made it seem as if he considered everyone there as objects to serve his whim, rather than people with their own minds or concerns.
"A black hole. In this general area," Calhoun said, indicating the section that was on the star map. "Do you know of any?"
"Of course," said the Overlord. "It is here." And he pointed to a specific section.
"Mark that location, Soleta," ordered Calhoun, and obediently a glowing indicator flashed onto the screen right where the Overlord had said.
"Why didn't you tell us about it?" asked Calhoun.
"Tell you about it?" The Overlord looked stunned that the notion was even broached. "Why would I? Of what possible relevance is it? You are needed to deal with the Black Mass, not to visit sacred sites of the Redeemers."
"Sacred sites? A black hole?" Calhoun looked to Si Cwan, who shrugged. "Why would a black hole be a sacred site?"
"We call it the Beyond Gate. It is said that it is the place where Xant went beyond. It is from there that he will re-emerge, when he is ready, and return to Tulaan IV."
"If your Xant went into there," Soleta advised him, "I would not be lighting candles in the window waiting for him to come home. No one comes out of a black hole."
"Including space-going swarms of hungry creatures," Calhoun said meaningfully.
The Overlord could not have looked more stunned. "You are not seriously thinking of trying to send the Black Mass into the Beyond Gate… ?"
"If we can figure out a way, you bet we will."
"But… but that is impossible! Unconscionable!" The Overlord was clearly becoming incensed. "First, the Beyond Gate is not along the path of the Black Mass. You cannot cause the Mass to deviate from its course. Your task is to destroy it altogether…"
"Our task, which you have inflicted upon us, is to stop it, period, and we will use any and all means to do so," Calhoun advised him. "As for not being able to get the Black Mass to deviate: the thing is an animal, Overlord, not the force of nature that you claim it to be. As an animal, it has instincts, and instincts can be misled if you're clever enough."
"But to send a creature such as that into the Beyond Gate… Xant would not approve! It is a holy relic, do you hear me?" He was becoming very agitated. "A holy relic! You cannot, must not, do this thing!"
''The fact that it has you this upset is more than enough for me," said Calhoun. "Mr. Kebron, have the Overlord escorted back to his temporary home, would you, please?"
The Overlord was visibly trembling with rage as security guards appeared on either side of him. He said nothing, merely fixed them with fearsome looks from his blazing red eyes. Although the Overlord was, at this point, powerless to all intents and purposes, there was still something there that Shelby found extremely disconcerting. Without a word, maintaining his dignity, the Overlord followed the guards out.
"All right," Calhoun said briskly. "Now that I've talked tough to the Overlord, let's not make a liar of your intrepid captain. The black hole is about three hours distant. We have that much time to figure out how in hell we get that thing to shove itself into a black hole and out of our lives."
"The creatures must have a highly evolved sense of color," said Soleta.
"How do you figure that?" asked Calhoun.
"Because they're drawn through the color band to the types of stars that would be attractive to them," Soleta said reasonably. "The magnetic dissonance settings of the phasers had some effect on them, although it did not come close to stopping them. If we can disorient them again, we can lay a path of tri-cobalt flares as a lure that they might be confused enough to follow. That path of flares, in turn, would lead to a field of tri-cobalt flares in the general vicinity of the black hole. If we use the flares to draw the Black Mass close enough, then it will be pulled in."
"A black hole for the Black Mass. It has a certain attractive symmetry to it," said Calhoun. "Let's do it, people."
XIII.
BURGOYNE DID NOT KNOWwhat to attend to first: hir own agony, the impending birth of the child, or the slow approach of whatever was out there on the surface of the planet.
It did not take hir long to determine that Selar's condition was the first priority. The Vulcan doctor had withdrawn to some sort of odd state of mental distance, staring up at the cave roof and gasping at certain moments. Burgoyne was more than able to tell when those moments were, because s/he felt them even more sharply in hir gut than Selar did.
The simple fact was that, from a biological point of view, Burgoyne was completely unequipped to deal with the sort of sensations that s/he was experiencing. Hermat birth was actually fairly painless. An already existing flap was eased open and the Hermat child was brought into the world by the gentle hands of a Hermat medical practitioner. Not a problem, not a fuss, not even much muss. So for a Hermat, any Hermat, to have to experience the level of pain that Selar was experiencing, just for the purpose of producing a child, was unprecedented in Hermat medical lore and an utter departure for Burgoyne or any other Hermat.
"Steady… steady . . ." Burgoyne said, hir fangs clenched. S/he felt another wave of discomfort and nausea flooding over hir. Selar moaned somewhat belatedly; Burgoyne was already staggering enough for both
of them. S/he sank to hir knees, leaning over Selar as s/he did so, trying to focus on the job at hand. The pain was coming faster now, and although the contractions were less sustained now, they were harsher and sharper when they did hit. Burgoyne felt as if stars were exploding behind hir eyes, and it was all s/he could do not to pass out.
"Come on, Selar… get it done already" whispered Burgoyne, fighting back yet another swelling of the agony. "And keep it down. We don't need that whatever-it-is coming—"
"Coming…" Selar's eyes were now wide open. She had been doing all she could to deal with the pain via mental discipline, but with the apparent advent of the child, and the disconcerting awareness of Burgoyne's mental proximity, it was too much for Selar. "It… is coming… it is…"
And she let out a scream, her focus slipping completely away. The moment the pain hit her, it rebounded through Burgoyne via their link, and Burgoyne was likewise twisting about on the ground. All s/he wanted to do was shove out of hir the small intruder within hir body, except there was nothing in there. Nothing but the pain which was paralyzing hir, putting hir brain on fire…
Lying on the ground several feet away from Selar, trying to get to the Vulcan so s/he could aid her in the final moments of the birth process—that was when Burgoyne saw it.
The creature was in the mouth of the cave. It was snarling at the occupants.
It was large, at least eight feet from tip to tail. It possessed a single eye, blinking implacably at Burgoyne, clearly not the least bit interested in backing out of the cave and going about its business elsewhere. Above the eye, on its forehead, was a horn, long and pointed like a unicorn's or some other fanciful beast. It was slung low to the ground, poised on all fours like a gigantic warthog. Most remarkable were the small wings on the creature's spine. They were moving, twitching, and they seemed far too small to be of any use. The entire monstrosity was covered with a coating of thick purple fur.