“And since the star itself is cooler, the temperature will be low enough for us not to be in any danger but just high enough to obscure our plasma trail,” said Bat-Levi. “We won’t cook, not if we don’t stay too long.”
“Permission to give a suggestion, Commander?” asked Castillo. At her nod, he continued, “We have no way of knowing how long we’ll have to stay. It’s much less risky if we adopt the same strategy as the T’Pol.Keep the planet and its moon in front of us as a natural barrier. The stellar winds ought to obscure our plasma trail, and you said yourself that the warpshuttle’s sensors can’t read very far.”
Bat-Levi and Glemoor exchanged glances. Then Bat-Levi put her good hand on Castillo’s shoulder.
“It’s not the T’PolI’m worried about,” she said, gently.
Jase, all that blood, what are you doing here, what’s happening? And Ven, Ven, what’s wrong with you?Garrett swallowed back her panic. “Jase?”
“I’m okay, Mom. But, Dad, you’ve got…” His voice ended in a choked gargle as Chen-Mai tightened his stranglehold around the boy’s neck.
“I said, be quiet!” Chen-Mai peered at Garrett over Jase’s right shoulder. “You,drop your weapon! Do it now! The other woman, too! In front of you where I can see them!”
“Fine.” Garrett held up her hands, palms out, and let her phaser clatter to the rock. Stern hesitated then followed suit. “No problem,” said Garrett. “Just take it easy.”
“I am veryeasy! Now, kick them out of the way…good. Now back up.”
The women did as they were told. Garrett’s gaze dropped to Kaldarren, who lay crumpled on his side. “Ven,” she called. She saw his eyelids flutter then open. “Ven!”
“Rachel.” Kaldarren’s face was a mask of pain. “Rachel, I knew you’d come if I called, I knew…”
He gave a sharp cry as Chen-Mai aimed a vicious kick at his back. “Quiet!” screamed Chen-Mai.
“Stop!” cried Garrett. She balled her fists in frustration and grief. “Let us helphim!”
“Not until I get some answers.” Chen-Mai rammed the point of his phaser into Jase’s temple. “Now, mind telling me how you got here?”
“Mom,” Jase began again, “Mom, I…”
“Enough!” Chen-Mai tightened his grip.
“Jase.” Garrett gritted her teeth. It was all she could do to keep from leaping across the room and throttling the man. “Jase, don’t say any more. Just be quiet.”
“Well,” said Chen-Mai, his black eyes swiveling to take in Jase, Garrett, and then Kaldarren. “A family reunion. What’re the odds on that, huh? When did you and Kaldarren hatch up this little scheme?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Garrett.
Chen-Mai snorted. “Let’s see, we’ve got the kid and his father, and now his mother conveniently shows up at just the right moment. Did Kaldarren set this up? I didn’t think he was that smart.”
Garrett wet her lips. “Listen to me. I don’t know what’s going on here, but…”
“Captain, I think I do,” Stern interrupted, her tone low and urgent. “Those energy signatures I read at the tunnel entrance. They’re here.”
“Captain?” Chen-Mai was instantly alert. “What do you mean, Captain?”
Ignoring him, Garrett glanced back over her shoulder. “That neuromagnetic plasma you read?”
“What do you mean, Captain?”Chen-Mai shouted. “What do you mean? Whoare you?”
Garrett turned, teeth bared. “I am Captain Rachel Garrett of the Federation Starship Enterprise. Thisis my ship’s doctor. Thatis my son, and that’shis father. Okay?”
“Not okay.” Chen-Mai’s eyes narrowed. “What are you doing here?”
“We answered a distress call.”
“Distress call…we didn’t send out any distress call.”
“That’s because you tripped an alarm, you moron.” Stern’s voice dripped with contempt. “At the tunnel entrance. Let me guess, you’re the one with the ham-handed approach to opening doors, right? Phaser, right? Idiot, you tripped an alarm.”
Chen-Mai gaped, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. “The mechanism was jammed, it was…”
Stern made a horsey sound. “Jammed, my eye. You fired your damn phaser and set off a silent alarm beacon. We picked it up aboard our ship. And you can bet we’re not the only ones.”
Garrett said, “We had to investigate; we had no way of distinguishing an alarm from a distress call. We found the biosphere then picked up your life signs and followed them until we came here. I had no idea that either my son or my…husband was here.” She looked past Chen-Mai at Jase. “Jase, what happened here, son?”
Jase’s eyes slid sideways as if to gauge whether or not he was about to be choked again. “I,” he began, “Pahl and I, we found the tunnel a couple of days ago. Then Pahl, he put on that mask, and then one of those things, it took him over.”
“The mask?” Chen-Mai searched the floor until his eyes caught a glint of silver. “You mean, that? That’s important?”
“You bet your sweet ass, it is,” said Stern. “I think I get it, Captain. It’s all here. There are hundreds of signatures in this room. Here and not here, almost as if they’re,” she studied her tricorder readings then shook her head in bewilderment, “as if they’re cloaked in some way. But the energy is neural. Captain, they’re minds. Or spirits, ghosts. And a lot of them…” she inclined her head toward Kaldarren, but didn’t finish the sentence.
“They’re inside?” Garrett paled. She closed her eyes for a moment, steeling herself. “Oh, dear God. Can you help him?”
“I don’t know,” said Stern, starting forward. “I need to do…”
“Don’t move, don’t move!” Chen-Mai shouted. “You, the doctor, put that down, put it down!”
“Oh, give it a rest,” Stern growled. She dropped to her knees by Kaldarren and ran her medical tricorder over the length of his body. “I’m a doctor and this man’s hurt. So either shoot me or shut up.” When Chen-Mai didn’t respond, Stern continued, “Wising up, right? Look, some of those things are insidehim. For all I know, some more are inside that boy over there.”
“What?” Mar started, stared down at his nephew’s still, waxen features. “InPahl?”
“No,” said Jase, “no, it’s not. It’s gone. When Dad talked to It, It left Pahl and went into Dad.”
It, thought Garrett, like a name. “Talked to It. Telepathically, Jase?”
Jase nodded, and she saw his eyes pool. “I couldn’t hear it. I felt it, though. I knew they were here, that they arehere.”
“Makes sense,” Stern murmured.
“I knew it,” said Chen-Mai. His lips trembled with suppressed excitement. “I knew it, I knew it! He found a portal.”
“No,” said Jase, the tears spilling down his cheeks. “There’s no door, or anything like that. Pahl used the mask, but Dad didn’t.”
Stern grunted. “Mind transference, Captain, same principle as the Vulcan mind-meld, or any true telepathic contact. But that mask, I’ll bet my bottom dollar that it’s a device that focuses or collimates neural energy. Like a lens focuses diffuse light to a single point: The lens doesn’t makethe light. It’s simply a conduit for allowing certain properties of light to be exaggerated, or used.”
“What do you mean?” Chen-Mai raged. “Speak sense! Can that be used, or not?”
“Probably not by you.” Stern’s look spoke volumes. “Or me, for that matter, but not because I’m the least bit like you, thank God. That thing just makes it easier for an energy exchange to take place. True telepaths wouldn’t require it.”
“But empaths would?” asked Garrett.
Stern hesitated, gave Jase a quick glance. “Sure,” she said, then with added emphasis, “or people with fledgling telepathic abilities.”
“That can’t be,” said Mar. “Pahl is not a telepath.”
“But he’s Naxeran, and from his complexion, one of his parents was a Weyrie, right?” When Mar nodded, Stern looked over at Garrett. “The Weyries are the only class of Naxerans who dream, Captain. They also have a fairly high prevalence of psychiatric problems. Hallucination, delusions.”