Текст книги "Orion's Hounds "

Автор книги: Christopher Bennett

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“Sir,” Jaza called from his console, interrupting Riker’s train of thought. “We may have a problem.”

“Explain.”

“I’m detecting a group of Crystalline Entities approaching the system at over warp seven. ETA about forty minutes. I would’ve spotted them sooner if not for the interference. There seem to be…yes, there are four of them.”

Riker’s eyes widened. “So much for them not usually travelling in packs. Maybe Qui’hibra doesn’t know them as well as he thinks. Any sign that the nearby Pa’haquel fleets have detected them?”

“No, sir. Both of them are farther away from the Entities, and they still don’t have sensors as good as ours.”

Deanna came up beside him, touched his arm. “Will, Qui’hibra’s fleet is due within that window.”

“We should abort the rendezvous,” Vale advised. “Try again somewhere else.”

Riker thought it over. “Things are tenuous enough as it is—I don’t want to chance upsetting them by breaking the arrangement.”

“I think they’d understand our reasons.”

“But retreating could be taken as a sign of weakness,” Deanna told her. “It could undermine our negotiating position.”

After another moment, Riker spoke. “Deanna, I want you and Tuvok to beam aboard one of the jellies to wait for Qui’hibra. Take Keru and a security team just in case.” With the interference, he wasn’t sure the team could call for help if they needed it. But right now Riker judged the threat from the Entities to outweigh that from Qui’hibra. He felt he knew the elder well enough by now to trust in his integrity. And the jellies would be there to protect Deanna and the rest. “Titanwill intercept the Crystalline Entities.”

Deanna studied him. “And do what when you get there?”

“Attempt to communicate,” he said grimly. “Without the Pa’haquel watching, we’ll be free to try Data’s graviton-resonance effect.” He met her eyes. “God knows I’d like nothing better than to use that graviton beam to shatter them all to dust. But I have an obligation to at least try to make peaceful contact.” He widened his gaze to include Vale. “And I’d like to manage to find a constructive solution to at least one thing in this whole mess.”

Deanna smiled. “Good luck, Will.” I love you terribly, you know that?

Actually I think you do it very well.

Throwing him an affectionate glare, Deanna made her way to the turbolift. Just come back in one piece so I can keep in practice.

Qui’hibra’s arrival was right on time—but he came in more force than expected. The star-jellies notified Deanna when they detected his ships’ imminent emergence from warp. Dead ones come—many [alarm/anger]!

Stay calm,Deanna advised as the lights dimmed and the heartbeat pulse grew stronger, indicating that her jelly was beginning to armor up. Look more closely. Is it Qui’hibra?

A pause. Yes. And many more [suspicion/betrayal?].

Please wait before you do anything. You know he was expected. Hail them for me, all right?Aloud, she addressed Tuvok, Keru and his team. “Qui’hibra’s fleet is here.”

A moment later, Qui’hibra’s image appeared on the sensation wall, which the jelly had kept around for her benefit.

“Commander Troi. Where isTitan?”

“Not far. They went to make observations of a group of cosmozoans they detected in deep space not far from here.” She could only hope Qui’hibra would not press the issue or attempt to scan for them. She had asked the jellies to position themselves on the opposite side of the star from the Crystalline Entities’ approach vector; the intervening mass and EM field of the Proplydian would make detection more difficult. And she had emphasized deep space in the hope that the Pa’haquel would assume it was a non-warp-capable species, years away from endangering anyone and worth passing up for now.

Luckily, Qui’hibra seemed more concerned about Titanitself. “And left you undefended?”

She raised her chin. “The star-jellies can defend us and themselves, if necessary. Will it be necessary, Elder Qui’hibra? You seem to have brought your entire fleet. That could easily be taken as a hostile gesture.”

“I appreciate how the livemounts feel about our use of their dead. But as we discussed, they must learn to accept it. We cannot instantly change our whole way of life or abandon our ancestral homes. Even if no new mounts are killed, we will still need the ones we have. They are a valuable resource in the battle against the chaos.”

“Granted,” Deanna said. “But I’m concerned you may be forcing the issue again.”

“I am willing to accommodate the livemounts’ concerns to a point, but accommodation must go both ways. The Hunt is an urgent calling, leaving no room for leisure.”

Deanna gauged the jellies’ reactions. They were unhappy at the presence of so many of their dead, but they were willing to tolerate it for now. It seemed they had begun to build a comfortable rapport with at least some of the Pa’haquel, and genuinely wanted to find a way to coexist. “Very well, Elder. In that spirit, why don’t you beam aboard so we can discuss my proposal?”

Qui’hibra’s expression showed that he got the subtext: while he was aboard one of the jellies, presumably the fleet would not attack. “I will be there promptly.”

The sensation wall went dark. Within moments, Qui’hibra shimmered into being near Deanna and her party. He looked around, not at them, but at the star-jelly around him. “It is an honor to be back here. Although I have my doubts that it can become the norm.” She knew his appreciation was sincere; yet for some reason he was very reserved, his emotions even more tightly in check than usual. Probably it was unease at the prospect of their emotions overwhelming him again—a sentiment Deanna could sympathize with. Still, his reserve caused her hackles to rise. She knew predators were usually most dangerous when they were most still.

“You’d be amazed,” Deanna said, “how often former enemies learn to work together as friends. Many of the Federation’s founding members were once at each other’s throats. And many of our greatest onetime enemies have become allies, or at least tolerant neighbors.”

“Many of those in our alliance have battled each other at times. Sometimes they still do, when the threat of starbeasts is not so immediate.”

“A common enemy can only do so much to unite people. It’s the willingness to commit to understanding each other, doing the hard work of building and maintaining a relationship, that makes the difference. Not unlike a marriage,” Deanna suggested.

Qui’hibra smirked. “I have had marriages that took endless work. And one that was nearly effortless…or so it felt to me, though probably only because she bore the burdens I placed on her with such grace. Qui’chiri is her issue, and her image.”

What showed through his reserve made Deanna smile. “I can tell how much you love your daughter. If her mother was like her, you must have been very happy indeed.”

“As happy as I think you are with your mate,” he replied. “You work well together. I—” He broke off, and she felt his control clamp down again. “Well. All things are fleeting, and we must be grateful for what happiness we have, while it lasts.”

Some of his pain slipped through despite his control. A sense of guilt too. Qui’chiri’s mother had no doubt died in the Hunt, under his command, and some guilt was inevitable in that circumstance, even among a people as accustomed to death as the Pa’haquel. “I understand what you mean. During the troubles of the past few years, I became very aware of mortality, and of the real possibility of losing Will Riker. It was part of why we finally decided to get married. We’d waited far too long.”

“And if death came to one of you tomorrow…would you feel you had been cheated?”

“No. I would’ve been happy even to be his wife for only a day, if that had been all we could have.” She gave a small, wistful smile. “Although my mother would be sorely disappointed if I failed to give her grandchildren.”

Qui’hibra stood silently for a moment, studying her, and something slipped through his mental armor. She realized that the guilt she’d sensed was not about the past…but about the immediate future.

Fortunately, she and Tuvok still had a partial mind-link, which he had been using to help him manage the jellies’ emotions. She had been gradually weaning him off of it, letting his own mind learn to take up more of the slack, but enough remained to allow communication. Qui’hibra’s plotting something,she told him. Move discreetly behind him and be ready to act.

Acknowledged.

“What about you?” Deanna asked. “You must have many grandchildren by now.”

“And some of them have grandchildren. I have been blessed.”

“No doubt you want your grandchildren’s grandchildren to grow up in a galaxy where the Pa’haquel are prosperous and the chaos is kept at bay. I believe that the star-jellies can still help you achieve that. And they’re willing to try…if you are.”

“We all do what we believe is best for those we care about. I hope you understand that.” Without warning, he whirled, and his taloned foot struck Tuvok’s phaser from the hand that had just begun to draw it, leaving deep emerald gashes across the brown. Keru and his team began to draw their phasers, but Qui’hibra moved with uncanny swiftness, seizing Deanna before she could react. “Now,” Qui’hibra barked into his communicator.

A second later, she felt a star-jelly transporter effect engulf her, and she and Qui’hibra rematerialized aboard his ship. He shoved her into the arms of a Fethet guard. “Bind her. Watch her. She is tougher than she appears. Propulsion team, move us out of the mounts’ transporter range, now! Use the planetesimals as cover. Sting team, fire a few blasts to occupy them.”

His team efficiently carried out his orders as the Fethet roughly wrenched her arms behind her and slapped shackles upon them. On the sensation wall, she saw the jellies recede as they retreated from the hunters’ fire and as the hunters pulled away. Rescue would not be forthcoming.

Qui’shoqai, Qui’hibra’s son and huntsmaster, came up to him. “Elder. The watchfleets have detected Titanon the far side of the Proplydian. It is apparently being pursued by a quartet of branchers.”

The elder looked at him sharply. “Branchers! No doubt intending to communicate. He is a fool. Propulsion team, engage maximum warp and proceed to intercept. We must get there while there is still a Titanto seize. Are the watchfleets in range to rendezvous with us?”

“Not for some time, Elder. The prize will be ours alone.”

Deanna felt the energy rumbling through the jelly’s body as the distortion generators built up the warp field. Qui’hibra came over to her. “You can end this now if you give me the sensor and shield information which you gave to the skymounts. Show us how to counter their advantages and I will do what I can to see that your lives are spared.” She said nothing. “As I expected. I apologize, Commander Troi. I must now take your husband’s ship before he gets it destroyed by the branchers. I will pray for the Spirit’s forgiveness…and I would hope you can grant me yours.”

Her gaze seared him. “We were trying to help you, Qui’hibra. We are not your enemy.”

“Not mine, no. But I am but one in the Conclave, and I abide by its judgments. This is how the balance falls.”

“Then you’d better pray it doesn’t lead to the downfall of your people, and countless others.”

He held her eyes. “I already have.”

Rage!

Tuvok reeled under the force of the star-jellies’ anger. He had been largely insulated from their fear when the Pa’haquel fired on them; but now, with Counselor Troi being warped out of range, he felt the mind-link fading. Some telepathic effects (he reminded himself, striving to cling to analytical thought) were nonlocal quantum phenomena, acting independently of distance; but his link with Troi was not one of them, requiring the direct contact of a mind meld to initiate and attenuating with distance.

That was the cause. The effect was the rapid loss of his ability to insulate himself from the star-jellies’ emotions [fury/betrayal/disbelief/despair].No, not all his ability; this had been a weaker link than the first, allowing Troi to retain much of her own shielding ability while Tuvok used the rest to supplement his. He reminded himself that he still had some control of his own—even while the despair building within him fixated on Ree’s prognosis that his control would never again be what it was.

Keru touched his shoulder, and Tuvok jerked away reflexively, not wishing to have to cope with the Trill’s emotions as well. “Tuvok!” the burly security chief cried. “Come on, focus. We have to get after them!”

The words resonated with a desire he now felt crystallizing in the jellies. Pursue! Pounce! Save Deanna! Sweep the parasites from our dead [avenge their treachery]!He felt, both in body and mind, their distortion generators powering up for warp.

“Pursuit…is under way,” Tuvok managed to get out. “Now leave me! I must concentrate.” Wait,he told the jellies. Restrain yourselves. There is danger there, both from the Pa’haquel and the Crystalline Entities.

Don’t care [afraid/going anyway]! We must save Deanna [sister/self]!

Fascinating. The star-jellies had accepted Counselor Troi as part of their collective identity. And because of that identification, they were willing to launch an attack to liberate her, even against enormous odds. When properly motivated, they could be fighters.

Tuvok felt in them the same manic determination and clarity that had driven him when he had attacked Lieutenant Pazlar and stolen the data. That same conscious choice not to care about the fear or the consequences because they simply did not matter as much as that one overpowering desire to act. In this case, though, the emotional imperative was acting in Tuvok’s favor, in his crewmates’ favor. Perhaps instead of fighting it, he could use it to his advantage. There would be no harm in letting it take him over.

No. Not again.Letting them have free rein would mean the Pa’haquel would suffocate in hard vacuum. It would mean ongoing conflict between the two species, and possibly untold death in generations to come if the cosmozoans were allowed to propagate too far. Tuvok would not accept that. He would not allow anyone else to suffer from his failures of control.

But how could he fight this? His mind was too weak, his shields inadequate.

Don’t fight—yield.Deanna’s mind, not through the link but an echo of memory. Something she had passed along to him in the meld was the concept that resistance was not the only form of strength. Sometimes being strong meant knowing when it was safe to yield, to trust in another’s power and give oneself over to it. That trust could be hard to give if one had been hurt before. But without that trust, that yielding and acceptance, there could be no partnerships, no marriages, no crews, no federations.

But that was the key, wasn’t it? Cooperation. The yielding went both ways. If he fought the jellies, they would fight him, and the struggle would deplete both their energies. But if he yielded to their passion, let it be a part of him, then his reason and judgment could be a part of them as well.

Very well,he thought. We will pursue the hunter fleet. We will save Deanna. But we will do it my way. We will not beam the Pa’haquel into space. Instead we will disable their vessels.

We will not fire on our dead.The jellies were adamant on that.

He shared their revulsion, and did not fight it. It did not matter, because he could still achieve his goal through reasoned strategy. That may not be necessary,he told them.

He spoke the rest aloud for the security team’s benefit. “Mr. Keru, hail Titan.Use the jelly’s console; it will be out of communicator range.”

Keru made the attempt, but only static came back. “I can’t reach them. Too much subspace interference.”

“Very well. We will make do. Here is the plan.”

Chapter Seventeen

Riker was beginning to think Qui’hibra had been right about the Crystalline Entities. There was no mind here, no will to communicate—just pure, ravening hunger.

As Titanhad neared the Entities, he had ordered Jaza to proceed essentially as Data had a dozen years ago aboard the Enterprise-D, generating a series of discrete graviton pulses from the tractor emitters, beginning at ten per second. The results had been the same as last time; the Entities had changed course and come to investigate the signal. Once he had felt they were close enough, he had ordered the pulses ramped up to twenty hertz, and as before, the Entities had come to a stop, seeming to look them over inquisitively. Riker had ordered the next phase, an increase to thirty hertz, at which point the vast crystal creatures had begun to respond with graviton pulses of their own. At this point twelve years ago, Captain Picard had grown hopeful that communication would indeed be possible, but Dr. Marr had sabotaged the effort, switching to the continuous beam that had destroyed the Entity. Afterward, Data had done his best to decrypt the signals they had received before its demise, but the translator had not had a sufficient baseline to work with. Riker had been hoping that this communication would add enough data to allow a viable translation matrix to be constructed.

But to the best of Jaza’s and the computer’s ability to determine, there had been little to the Entities’ gravitic calls beyond a simple sense of acknowledgment and curiosity. After a few moments of hesitation and contemplative twirling in place—which Jaza suggested to be a means of scanning Titanthrough different facets to gain variant spectral readings—the Entities had begun to advance on the ship. “Try modulating the beam again,” Riker had ordered. “Try forty per second.”

The Entities had paused for another moment, then resumed their advance. It was no use—they were too hungry, and had nothing of substance to say to their dinner. Riker had ordered a retreat, and the Entities had pursued. Now he was leading them away from the Proplydian and the star-jellies, wondering what to do next. The fact that they were closing so fixatedly on Titanwhen the Proplydian offered a richer feast for them suggested to Riker that they were not guided by much in the way of intelligence, only instinct and immediate gratification.

He resisted the thought, though. Accepting that they were dumb animals would be too comforting, make it too easy to embrace his desire to lash out and destroy the things. What if he was wrong? What if their pursuit of Titansuggested just the opposite, that they were intelligent enough to be motivated more by curiosity than the prospect of a large meal?

On the way here, Riker had reviewed the research and records on the Crystalline Entities, and found only uncertainty. The first Entity had been brought to Omicron Theta by Lore, Data’s twisted and malevolent prototype, who had then lured it to attack the Enterpriseupon his discovery and reassembly. Lore had given the appearance of conversing with the Entity, but there was no other evidence to suggest that the life form was capable of understanding verbal communication. Only the graviton-pulse method had gotten any response from it at all. In Data’s logs, he had speculated that Lore had actually used some other means to train the Entity to respond to the sound of his voice, in much the way that a dog or horse was trained—although given Lore’s proclivities, Riker doubted his training methods had been particularly humane. Did that mean it lacked intelligence, though, or simply that its intelligence was not a type geared toward verbal communication?

Either way, though, it suggested that there was a way to train these beasts. Maybe it was time for a little negative reinforcement. “Activate the graviton beam again,” he ordered. “Give them a continuous, oscillating pulse for five seconds. The same frequency Dr. Marr used.”

Jaza and Vale looked up at him sharply. “Five seconds, sir?” Jaza asked.

Riker nodded in reassurance. “I just want to swat them across the nose.”

“Swatting, sir.” On the screen, the Entities wavered in their pursuit and came to a dead halt.

“All stop,” Riker ordered. “Let’s see what they do.”

The Entities hovered there for a moment, then resumed their approach. “Jaza, another two seconds.” This time they came promptly to a halt.

“It seems to be working,” Vale said. “Now that we have the stick, should we try the carrot?”

He looked at her. “You mean the energy beam we tried before? I’m not sure I want to risk that yet.”

Before she could answer, a beep came from the tactical console. “Multiple ships approaching,” Kuu’iut reported. “It’s Qui’hibra’s fleet. Arrival in seventy seconds.”

Damn.The subspace interference must have hidden their approach. But what are they doing here?“Hail them. Lavena, move us away from the Entities.”

A moment later, Qui’hibra’s face appeared on the screen. “Elder Qui’hibra,” Riker said. “You were supposed to be meeting Commander Troi at the Proplydian.”

“We saw you taking on the branchers, Riker. It is an unwise thing to do alone.”

“We’re managing just fine, thanks.”

“So it would seem. I am curious to know how you got them to stop. Once we arrive, you can demonstrate your method.”

Riker was reluctant to show them something that could so easily be used to kill the Crystalline—oh, hell, the branchers. “I think it’s more important to resume negotiations with the star-jellies. Commander Troi will be—”

Will!She was there, in his mind. She was nearby. They have me. It’s a trap!

Riker cursed himself for letting it throw him off. Qui’hibra’s raptor eyes missed nothing; he knew Riker had been alerted. “Commander Troi is my prisoner.”He gestured to someone offscreen, and a Fethet guard appeared, pulling Deanna roughly into frame. “This can be easy, Riker, if you give me the sensor and shield data you gave the skymounts.”He paused, and proceeded with a grimace. “Refuse, and Troi will suffer. Continue to refuse, and she will die, and we will take your ship. You cannot beat all of us, Riker. This will end with us having the information we want. Your choice is only of whether you, your crew and your wife are still intact afterward.”

“I can’t believe you’d hide behind a hostage, Qui’hibra!” Riker barked. “You’re a hunter, a warrior. This kind of cowardly tactic is beneath you.”

That might have worked on a Klingon, but not here. “I am a hound of the Spirit. I do whatever I must to survive and to stand against the chaos. And I will kill your wife today if it will save worlds in the future.”

Imzadi!Riker wanted to do anything to save her. But he saw the look in her eyes. If he traded the star-jellies’ lives for hers, she would never forgive herself. Her thoughts came to him. It’s all right, Imzadi. Even a day together would have been enough.

Steeling himself, he spoke. “Starfleet officers are trained to accept death before putting innocent lives in danger. I will destroy this ship myself before I let you have that information.”

“Your nobility is foolish, Riker! Survival trumps all else. That is why I do this. That is why you should give me what I want, rather than letting your wife endure what I must otherwise inflict on her. It may interest you to know that the Fethetrit consider it an art form and a sport to dismember and consume their prey while prolonging its life and consciousness as long as they are able. Riathrek here has won trophies.”

Riker traded another aching look with Deanna. “Please give me a moment,” he asked Qui’hibra.

“Do not take long. Riathrek is impatient.”

“Mute audio,” Riker said, then turned to Kuu’iut. “Can we beam her out?”

The Betelgeusian shook his hairless blue head, gnashing his teeth. “They’re generating a lambda hyperon field. Transporters won’t work.”

Their Vomnin scientists must have devised a countermeasure to the jellies’ teleport beams. What if they could figure out the rest on their own, Riker wondered? What if he sacrificed Deanna and his crew for nothing?

But then another beeping interrupted his deliberations. “More contacts approaching,” Kuu’iut said. “It’s the star-jellies!”

“Elder!” called Qui’shoqai. “A school of armored skymounts has just emerged from warp! They are closing on us!”

Deanna didn’t need to hear the words. She had sensed their arrival. Sister/Self! We have come for you!

No! Don’t endanger yourselves!But they were determined—and very confident.

Qui’hibra was confident too. “They can do nothing. The hyperon field will block their teleport beams, and they will not fire on their dead.”

“Still, they approach,” Qui’shoqai said. “Should we fire?”

“Let them try their attack first. Let them see how futile it is. Hail Titan.”A moment later, the channel opened again. “Riker—do not use this distraction as an excuse to strike. Remember what fate awaits your wife.”

It frustrated Deanna to be so helpless. There was a time to yield, and this wasn’t it. “Qui’hibra, you know this course is wrong. Let me go, and we can still work out a peace with the jellies.”

“Silence her!” At the elder’s command, Riathrek clapped his huge hand over her face, with nearly enough force to break her nose. She struggled to breathe.

“What are they doing?” That was Se’hraqua.

“They are bracketing us, above and below,” Qui’shoqai reported. “It is like…”

“Like their funeral rites,” Qui’hibra roared. “Fire on them! Break free, now!”

But it was too late. Even as the elder spoke, Deanna felt the jellies’ somber satisfaction as they linked with the distortion generators aboard this one and began drawing out their energy. Almost immediately, the shipboard gravity field began to fluctuate and diminish, causing many of the hunters to lose their balance and fall. Luckily for them, the fall was growing gentler by the moment. Those who retained their balance grabbed at their controls, but the skymount’s power was fading, the controls giving little response.

“Remain calm!” Qui’hibra commanded. “Sting team, dig in your talons and open fire! Power teams, divert whatever you can to stings!”

But Riathrek was not remaining calm. The Fethet was alarmed and unsure of himself, and his grip upon her loosened. Though her arms were bound behind her, she was not helpless. As the gravity continued to fall, she used a mok’baramove to break his hold, then swiftly kicked off the deck, propelling herself above the compass of his meaty arms before he could fold them shut around her. Flipping herself over, she pulled in her knees and kicked out hard at his bear-wolf muzzle.

The force of it was not enough to do any real damage, but with less gravity to give him traction, it knocked him back off his feet. Meanwhile, since her mass was considerably less than his, her acceleration was greater, so she soared across the room, well away from her captor. Her aim had been good enough that she collided with Qui’shoqai and knocked him away from his controls. The collision bounced her back away from him and she settled gently to the floor, her weight reduced almost to nothing. She pushed herself up into midair to be ready for an attack.

But then she felt a presence in her mind. Tuvok!The meld had reestablished itself. His mind had actively sought hers out—and there were more minds too, the jellies, merged with his. We have you now, Commander/sister/self. You are safe.

She felt what was going to happen, felt the connection throughout her body. Of course—the jellies’ transporter beams were part telekinetic. A strong enough psionic link gave them a lock that could overcome the hyperonic interference. (Was that reasoning coming from her own mind, or from Tuvok’s?) Their awareness pervaded her, knew her every atom. In essence, they locked onto her from inside, and no outside interference could block that. Their love filled her, dissolved her, and then she was with them once again.

“Commander!” Keru was there, reaching down to help her to her feet. For an instant she almost recoiled from the huge, hirsute Trill, having a flashback to Riathrek. But she gathered herself, and realizing that the jellies had not beamed her shackles along with her, she grabbed his hand and pulled herself up.

“Can they send us back?” she demanded of Tuvok. “Me and the security team?”

“Back?”There was Will, his image on the sensation wall.

“Yes! I have to go back, try to talk some sense into Qui’hibra. He doesn’t want to do this, Will. I can reach him.”

The jelly shuddered. “They have opened fire,” Tuvok announced. Qui’hibra’s sting team must have successfully dug in their claws.

“You can talk to him later, Deanna. Right now let’s get out of here.”

“We may not get another chance, Will. He’s wavering now. These tactics rub his feathers the wrong way. But get him caught up in chasing us—in hunting us—and it’ll fire his instincts, harden his resolve. I have got to get back aboard that skymount now.”

“Oh, Prophets.”That was Jaza. “We’ve got a new problem, everyone. The Crystalline Entities are closing in. They’re heading right for the star-jellies!”

Shit!Riker thought. The temptation of so many star-jellies must have overcome the branchers’ fear of the graviton beam. “Hang on, Deanna. We’ll come get you out of there.”

“Sir!” Kuu’iut interrupted. “The hunters’ skymounts are pulling away from the jellies. They’re heading toward us at high speed.”

Riker realized they must have recovered quickly once they broke free of the draining effect. The hunters came up fast, flipping their ventral sides forward to face Titanand cutting loose with plasma stings. The shields shuddered under the impact. Without Deanna as leverage anymore, Qui’hibra must have opted for a direct assault.

Mere moments later, the branchers came within range of the jellies and began firing their feeding beams. The jellies tried to break and run, but the branchers were too fast for them, swooping around them in a tetrahedral englobement, penning them in. A feeding beam swept across one of them, and Will could feel Deanna’s resonant agony through their link.

“Lavena, close on the branchers! Tactical, target—” Another blow shook them, and another. Lavena tried to dodge around the Pa’haquel, but they kept themselves between Titanand the besieged star-jellies. The jellies remained trapped; each time one darted for an opening, a feeding beam struck at it, herding it back into the englobement.