And Vacu, for no particular reason, slammed repeatedly into the ground, like a blazing person trying to extinguish the fire...
Soleta knew she had absolutely no hope of blocking Kebron. So instead she grabbed Kalinda by the arm, yanked her out of Kebron's path. Kebron, not exactly built to turn on a dime, charged past her, and then Soleta lost her footing on the spongy ground and fell, and Kalinda fell on top of her... ?
... and their minds merged, and suddenly Soleta saw it all, knew it all, felt the psychic assault from all sides, all of the creatures of the damned whipping past her...
... and, struggling to her feet, Soleta half pulled, half dragged Kalinda toward Xyon's ship. As she did so, she shoved her mind into Kalinda's, envisioning a fortress, erecting barriers, and she felt something, somethings, battering against them, trying to tear them down, but she wouldn't let them. The howling was everywhere, and over and over, Soleta kept saying firmly, I do not believe, this is unscientific, fear comes from lack of knowledge, that is all, and once something is understood, there is no need to fear it, and someday I shall understand what is happening here, and when I do, there will be nothing to fear, nothing to fear, nothing to fear...
She hammered that concept over and over into
Kalinda's mind... Kalinda, the conduit, Kalinda, the receiver of the Summons...
And Xyon suddenly saw Krul clearly above him. Moving entirely on instinct, he coiled his legs under Krul's chest and thrust upwards with all his strength.
Krul tumbled back and off him, and Xyon scrambled to his feet...
And Si Cwan suddenly saw Zoran below him. His hatred for his greatest enemy abruptly seemed inconsequential, a trivial thing, for his sister was there, right there, being hauled away by Soleta. Her safety was all that mattered. Si
Cwan drew back a fist and delivered a crushing blow to the side of Zoran's head, stunning him momentarily, and that was all he needed to leap clear of the
Thallonian and dash after Soleta...
And Rier suddenly saw Omon with his teeth at his throat, and he saw Vacu rolling about like an idiot. He shoved Omon off him, pointed and shouted, "There! Over there!"
The Federation people were heading towards the ship that had been cloaked. Rier charged at full speed. He was doing everything he could to focus, his mind still scrambled over the images that had been barraging him moments before.
He was within a few feet of Xyon and, confident that the human couldn't produce a weapon and shoot at him, he leaped through the air, a howl of fury torn from his throat.
Xyon spun and Rier only had a second to see the gleaming blade, one of Atik's long fangs, in Xyon's hand, and then the blade was through Rier's chest. Rier clawed at it, confused and stunned, and Xyon yanked the blade back, blood spraying.
"Play dead," he said, and darted into his ship.
The other dogs clustered around as the door irised shut. The ship lifted off quickly and smoothly... and silently, as if its engine noise was being absorbed into the eerie silence that was all around. Within seconds, the ship had faded out, consumed by the cloaking device.
"Get... after them," gasped Rier. "We still... the riches... immortality... it's... it's all around us... we can... we can touch it..."
"We'll get them... we'll get it, Rier... I promise," said Vacu. The big Dog who had been virtually impossible to hurt felt nothing but pain as he looked upon his fallen leader. He scooped up Rier's body and, jaw set, repeated, "I promise.
We'll get them. All of them." He drew himself up and in a voice of surprising command, said, "Let's go!"
They started towards their ship, which was sitting a short distance away.
Something crushed it.
They gasped collectively as the top of the craft caved in, as if a gigantic weight had slammed down upon it. Within seconds, the shuttle had been reduced to little more than scrap.
"The ship! The invisible ship! They did this!" shouted Omon, but by that point it was too late to do anything about it. The Dogs were stranded.
They turned towards Zoran. The Thallonian was sitting there, staring off into nothing. Omon went to him quickly, grabbed him by the throat and snarled, "Your ship. Where is it? Get us off this damned place."
Zoran laughed.
"What's so damned funny!"
"My ship?" chuckled Zoran. "You mean the one that your vessel crippled? I crashed here, you idiots. I'm as stranded as you!" And then he laughed very, very loudly.
"No. You're not stranded here. Not anymore," said Omon, and his teeth flashed.
The Lyla tore up and out of the planet's atmosphere, calling on all its power to slam through the nebula. Xyon was piloting entirely on instinct, determined that nothing was going to stop them from breaking free after all they had been through. He heard Si Cwan murmuring Kalinda's name as he held Riella (Kalinda, damn it!) tight against him.
Kebron was now at Xyon's side. "Can this get us out of here?"
"Absolutely," Xyon said, sounding confident, feeling less so. Then he frowned.
"Do you-?"
"Yes. I see it."
The nebula seemed to be getting thicker and thicker around them. It was as if they were piloting through increasingly thick fog... fog that pounded at them, fighting their every effort to get through. They were flying completely blind.
"Lyla! Can you be of any help here?" shouted Xyon.
"Yes. Of course."
Music promptly filtered through the ship. A woman's lilting voice crooned a song.
"Lyla! What the hell is that?"
"It's a jazz rendition of a song called 'Namely You.' "
"I mean, why are you playing it?!"
"You seem upset. Music tends to calm down one's nerves."
"Well, it's not helping!"
"Perhaps an instrumental then... how about 'Nearer My God to Thee'?" Violin strains poured out of the speaker.
Before Xyon could tell her to shut it off, the nebula suddenly cleared in front of them...
... and the Dog warship hovered bare kilometers away, dead ahead.
With a yelp Xyon angled the ship as fast as he could. Fortunately, Lyla was aiding him, and consequently the ship managed to avoid collision... albeit barely. Safely under cloak, the smaller ship hurtled away without detection.
Xyon let out an unsteady breath. "I wasn't expecting that," he said.
"Frankly," muttered Soleta, as "Nearer My God to Thee" played, "I was expecting an iceberg."
"What was it? What was down there? You're a scientist. You tell me. I mean... it couldn't have been ghosts. That couldn't be... could it?"
"The Pilgrims who settled America would have taken one look at me and burned me as a demon creature," Soleta said coolly. "A supernatural mystery one day is scientific explanation the next. One never truly knows, or understands, everything."
"I don't accept that. That's no answer. Do you truly believe that could have been what... what we thought it was?"
Soleta pursed her lips, and then said, "There is a university on earth, called
Yale. I was there once, in its theater building, which had been renovated many times during its existence. I was visiting a friend who was an actor there. One day, while I was waiting for her to come offstage, I noticed someone just out of the corner of my eye. A woman, a fleeting image, running up a flight of stairs. She was dressed in a costume replete with a high collar and odd frills. Obviously period garb.
It was not remotely in keeping with the play that was being performed at that moment. My friend came offstage and I asked her who that person had been. My friend looked at me very oddly, and then smiled and said, 'Congratulations.
You've just seen the Yale ghost.' According to local legend, several centuries earlier, the wife of a drama professor had been struck and killed by a vehicle while crossing the street. She had been on her way to the theater where she was rushing to make her curtain; she was acting in a production of a play by a 20th
Century Russian writer named Anton Chekhov. I saw her wearing th
e costume she had been wearing in the play."
"So you imagined it," said Xyon skeptically. "So what?"
"But I didn't know of the legend before she told me."
"Oh."
"Have you no legends or tales of that which you do not understand in your homeworld?"
"A few," he admitted. "Places where visions of the future can supposedly be seen. That sort of thing. But I never..." He sighed. "I guess I'm going to have to give this some thought."
"That's all that anyone can ever do," replied Soleta. "That's all."
Xyon then blinked in confusion and checked the long-range scanners. "I don't believe this."
"What is it?"
"The planet. The one with the Quiet Place. It's..."
"It's gone? That's impossible."
Atik got out of the command chair and crossed quickly to the sensor array. It was difficult to believe... but it was true. As untrustworthy as the sensors had been, they had at least enabled them to detect something earlier. But now there was no sign of it. The nebulae, having become thicker in the area of the planet, had now thinned once more... and there was no sign of the world at all.
And then, before anyone on the bridge could say anything, Atik suddenly gasped.
His hands went to his throat and he collapsed. The other Dogs gathered around him, whimpering in confusion, and then Atik whispered words that chilled them.
"Xant..." he said. "Xant... the Great God Xant... the Redeemers... were right... I see him, so clearly... Xant is light... We are darkness..."
Then he passed out.
XVI.
THE OVERLORD WAS QUITE PLEASED.
The Dogs of War had been a consistent irritant for the Redeemers. Constant.
But they could be saved. Anyone could be saved. They simply needed a lesson.
So when Atik, who aspired to become leader of the Dogs of War, had quietly approached the Overlord with his own ambitions, possibilities had presented themselves. Ambitious as he was, Atik had been perfectly candid that he did not wish to go head-to-head with Rier, or Rier's inner circle of supporters. He claimed that it would not have been honorable. The odds were that he was just concerned, not without cause, that he would lose.
The Quiet Place had been a logical, elegant solution to the problem. The Quiet
Place, feared even by the Re- deemers. Sought after by Rier and the Dogs. The Quiet Place where, if everything went perfectly, Rier and his ilk would find and never return from again.
And everything had gone perfectly. The Overlord sat in his chamber and smiled a rare smile. It had all gone perfectly because Xant had wanted it that way. And by this point, Atik had had his little "vision" and was likely in the midst of converting the Dogs to the cause of the Redeemers. Who could ask for better than that?
And now... now, with the Dogs of War well along the way from having been a nemesis to becoming, instead, a resource, all the Redeemers had to do was deal with the Excalibur and their hold on Sector 221-G, formerly known as Thallonian space, would be complete.
The Overlord was so caught up in his thoughts that it was some minutes before he noticed the trembling Redeemer standing in front of him. "Yes? What is it?" he asked with obvious irritation.
"There is... no other way to say it, Overlord. There is dire news from Tulaan
IV."
The Overlord sat straighter in his great chair. "What ails homeworld?"
"The Black Mass, Overlord. The Black Mass is on. the move... and it appears that Tulaan IV is squarely in its path."
He couldn't believe it. After all this... with everything coming together so beautifully... something like this had to happen? He sagged in shock. "Are they sure?'
"Yes, Overlord. If we are not able to do something, our ages-old homeworld will be completely obliterated."
"Then," said the Overlord with conviction, "we will have to stop the Black
Mass."
The Redeemer looked stunned. "But... but Overlord... no one has ever managed such a feat. Ever."
"There is... a possibility," said the Overlord. "The problem is... it will require help."
"Whose help, Overlord?"
The Overlord grimaced at the irony of his reply. "Captain Mackenzie Calhoun of the Excalibur."
"Captain Mackenzie Calhoun, of the Excalibur. Welcome aboard. I've heard a great deal about you."
In the transporter room, Calhoun bowed slightly to Kalinda, who was leaning on
Si Cwan's arm. Her skin was not quite as dark red as Si Cwan's, although it was
Calhoun's understanding that that was due to some sort of genetic treatment she had undergone.
Kalinda nodded in acknowledgment of Ms gesture of respect. "I am... afraid I'm not quite myself at the moment, Captain. There's... a lot I still have to sort out."
"And you will certainly have the time to do so."
The door to the transporter room hissed open and Shelby hurried in, to see Si
Cwan and his sister, as well as Soleta, Kebron, and an odd-looking young man just stepping off the transporter platform. "Sorry I'm late. Elizabeth Shelby,
Second in Command."
"A pleasure, Commander," Kalinda said.
"Yes, Commander, I was just in time to commend Lieutenants Kebron and Soleta on their fine work," Calhoun said drily. "You lost yet another shuttlecraft while embarking on a side mission that ran contrary to my orders that you should report back here. You violated regulations and risked your safety out of a misplaced sense of heroism."
"We've tried to learn from your example, sir," said Kebron.
"I've taught you well," Calhoun said approvingly. He turned to the young man.
"And you would be?"
The young man slugged him.
Calhoun managed to dodge most of it, his reflexes as sharp as they ever were, but he was still partly tagged on the jaw. He staggered slightly but then regained his footing, rubbing his chin.
"I'm Xyon of Calhoun. I'm your son," he said.
Without batting an eye, Calhoun said, "A pleasure to meet you, too."
To Be Continued...
The End
Star Trek - NF - 07 - The Quiet Place Page 23
