“And why would I do that?”Chen-Mai exhaled a harsh laugh, flipped the mask with a short, quick movement. (It doesn’t look that valuable, not worth bothering over, just one of Kaldarren’s useless artifacts.)The metal clattered against stone: a dull, clicking sound. “But he found something, right? Your father? How else do you explain what’s going on here?”

“Leave the boy alone.”

Chen-Mai swung his head toward Mar, who cradled Pahl in his arms. “What?”

“You heard me,” said Mar. “Pahl’s hurt, and any fool can see the Betazoid’s sick. Leave the boy alone, can’t you? We’ve got the money. Let’s get out, now.”

“But I want to know,” said Chen-Mai. He hooked a thumb at Kaldarren. “I want to know what he’s found out!”

“Well, I don’t.” Mar gave Kaldarren a long look before his golden eyes flipped up to Chen-Mai. “And you shouldn’t either, if you’ve got any brains. Look at him. You want to end up like that?”

“The boy hasn’t.”

“But Pahl has.”Mar cupped the unconscious boy’s cheek, smooth as cold wax, in one hand. “Look, there’s no portal. You see any portal? Whatever’s going on here, it’s for these telepaths, it’s stuff we don’t understand! I say we just leave, now. We take some of the jevonite back there, to show that we mean what we say, and we get out. We rendezvous with Talma, and then she can send someone back to collect the rest. We take our money and be thankful.”

“No,” said Jase, his face streaked and shiny with tears. “No, please, don’t leave us here, don’t!”

Kaldarren moaned. “No… no!”

“No what?” Chen-Mai squatted down on his haunches. “No, we don’t leave your kid? No, we don’t take the money? What? What did you find, Betazoid?”

Kaldarren’s eyelids fluttered, his eyes roving wildly from side to side. “No good,” Kaldarren managed at last. “No good.”

Those simple words seemed to cost him. He sagged back again, panting.

“No good?” Chen-Mai repeated. He reached out with one hand and gave Kaldarren a hard poke in the ribs. Kaldarren gave a short cry. “No good about what?”

“Stop!” Jase pleaded. “Stop, please!”

“Shut up.” And to Kaldarren: “No good about what? What?”

Kaldarren’s chest heaved. “No good to you,”Kaldarren managed, his breath hitching in the back of his throat. “No portal. But they’re here, they’re here.”

“They?” Chen-Mai frowned. “What, the same ghosts your kid…?”

“Get out.”Kaldarren moved his head the way a feverish man does in a delirium. “Get… out,get out before it’s too…too late…I can’t hold them, I can’t…”

“Please,” said Jase again, clutching his father’s hand. “Please, you’ve got to helphim! Take us with you, please!”

Chen-Mai stared down at Kaldarren’s flushed, sweat-soaked face for a long moment. Then his lip curled and, cursing, he pushed himself to his feet.

“I’ll help him,” said Chen-Mai, jerking his phaser free. “I’ll help him right now.”

Jase screamed. “No!”

“Wait,” cried Mar. “Chen-Mai, stop!”

“No, no!” Uncoiling, Jase launched himself at the stocky man. Chen-Mai staggered back then cut Jase a vicious blow across the face. Jase cried out, reeling back before collapsing against a wall. Blood gushed from his mouth.

“Chen-Mai!” Mar shouted, horrified. He started to his feet. “What are you doing?”

“Shut up!” Chen-Mai threw the words over his shoulder. He leveled his phaser at Jase. “They’re trouble, don’t you understand? They’re nothing but trouble!”

“But he’s a kid!”

“So what? What, you’re going to save him?”

“No,” said Mar, faltering. He turned away, ashamed. “It’s just…”

“Then shut up, Mar!” Chen-Mai flicked his phaser to kill. “If you’ve got nothing to add, then shut the hell up!”

“Please,” Jase sobbed, blood drooling from his lips, “please, don’t hurt my dad, please.”

“Look at it this way,” said Chen-Mai, leveling his phaser at Jase. “I do you first, you won’t have to watch.”

“Freeze!”The command cut through the air like a knife. “Right there! Don’t move, don’t so much as goddamn breathe!”

Mar froze. Chen-Mai flinched then whirled on his heel, weapon hand coming up for a shot.

There was a high-pitched whine, a flash of light, and the phaser blast caught his weapon hand. Shrieking, Chen-Mai spun around; his phaser clattered to the stone floor.

“I said,” Garrett readied her phaser for another blast, “don’t goddamn move.”

“Mom?” Jase tried pushing himself from the stone floor. “Mom?”

At the sound of her son’s voice, Garrett started, blinked as if she’d been struck. An instant later, the color drained from her face. Her eyes flicked over to the far wall then down to Kaldarren.

“Jase?” she whispered in disbelief. She took a step forward. “Ven?”

“Oh, Lord,” said Stern. She stood at Garret’s elbow, her own phaser out and ready. “What the hell?”

“Ven,”Garrett said again, starting forward. “Jase, what’s wrong with your father? Ven, I don’t understand, what…?”

It was the only opening Chen-Mai needed. In a blur of movement, he had swept up his phaser with his good hand and come up behind Jase, locking the boy’s neck in a stranglehold with his forearm.

“All right,” said Chen-Mai, jamming the muzzle of his phaser against Jase’s temple. “Everyone, drop your phasers. Nice and easy.”

Chapter 34

“A shuttlepod?”Servos protesting, Bat-Levi crossed to stand behind Glemoor at his station next to Castillo. “Are you sure?”

“Positive, Commander. Sensors indicate a Vulcan shuttlepod heading for the planet’s surface, and Commander Halak’s transponder signal indicates that he is on board.” Glemoor twisted his head around to look up at Bat-Levi. “Those shuttlepods are short-range vessels.”

“I know. I think it’s safe to assume they didn’t give him a ship for his own amusement. Who’s with him?”

“Life signs read Vulcan.”

“So Fake Burke is still aboard the T’Pol,and that means she’s nearby. Where?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t be precise.”

Bat-Levi gave the Naxeran a dry look. “Guess.”

Glemoor blinked. “Well, I guessthe T’Pol’s hidden behind the planet’s moon, or the planet itself.”

“Yeah, that’s what I would do.” Bat-Levi watched the course of the small green blip of the shuttlepod as it angled in toward the surface. “The fact that the shuttlepod’s headed down also means they don’t know we’re here.”

“Very likely. A Vulcan warpshuttle would have limited sensor capabilities. The question is what do we do now?”

Bat-Levi debated. She rejected as useless any speculation as to why the T’Polwas in the vicinity. They had no way of knowing, and this wasn’t her primary concern at the moment. Safeguarding the crew was. Bat-Levi wanted to try hailing Garrett but knew not only that their signal was unlikely to pierce through the interference, but this risked revealing their position. Not that she worried about T’Pol’s firepower: Enterprisewon that particular argument, hands down. The Cardassians, however, were a different matter.

Bat-Levi looked over at Castillo. “Helm, I want you to take us into the transition region of that brown star.”

Castillo looked startled. “That’s awfully close, Commander. Even with shields at max, we’ll cook.”

But Glemoor was shaking his head. “No, Ensign, it’s a good strategy, an excellentmove. By definition, the brown star is cooler than, say, your Sol.”