Though the creature staggered in the face of the barrage, it did not stop.

“Dammit!” she shouted in frustration as the creature moved in lurching steps to its left, angling toward where Roderick huddled behind the cargo container and trained his own weapon on the approaching intruder. “Roderick! Get out of there!”

The ensign rose from his crouch and began to retreat, continuing to fire at the oncoming attacker. He tripped on a coil of cable lying near one of the other cargo containers, stumbling backward but maintaining his balance. Still, it was enough to make him lower his weapon in an attempt to keep from falling to the ground.

“Look out!” La Sala cried, continuing to fire her ineffective weapon after the horrific attacker in their midst.

It was all the opportunity the creature needed. Falling forward more than lunging, the thing lashed out with one of its immense arms, skewering Roderick through the chest. The ensign’s eyes went wide with terror and surprise, his body going limp within seconds as life drained out of his body from the massive wound inflicted upon him. Withdrawing its blood-slickened arm from Roderick’s chest, the creature did not wait for the now dead man even to fall to the frozen ground before turning in search of its next target.

Trembling from the raw horror of what she had witnessed, La Sala was already moving, scrambling around the side of the cargo container in search of even momentary concealment. “This is La Sala! I need help here!” she shouted into her communicator, knowing even as she made the plea that others around the camp would never reach her in time. The creature seemed to be regaining its earlier flagging strength, picking up its pace as it trudged through the snow toward her.

“Son of a bitch,” she hissed, laying her phaser rifle atop the cargo crate and centering the intruder in her sights. At the rate she had been firing the weapon, experience told her that its power cell was almost exhausted. This stand, however pitiful it might be, would be her last.

Less than twenty meters from her, the creature lurched to an abrupt stop, its joints appearing to lock up in midstride even as momentum carried it forward until it tumbled face first into the snow. No sooner did it strike the ground than its body collapsed, slumping to the earth and remaining still.

Rising from her meager place of protection, La Sala regarded the now immobile creature lying on the ground. “What the hell just happened?” she asked, though no one was around to offer an answer.

Xiong could only watch in rapt fascination as the creature jerked to a stop, its entire body shuddering as if being subjected to an intense electrical shock. It staggered backward several steps, convulsing as though gripped by extreme pain, though of course it uttered no audible sounds.

“It’s working!” al-Khaled shouted from where he and Ensign Ghrex still knelt next to the dampening field generator. Xiong looked to see that the unit’s array of status indicators were glowing a steady hue of pulsating colors, accompanied by a vibrant hum denoting the power it was channeling.

Diamond dropped her drained phaser rifle to the ground, reaching inside her parka to extract the type-2 phaser from her belt and aiming the smaller weapon at the creature. The thing appeared not to care; its spasms now had ceased. It stood motionless for several seconds, during which Xiong wondered why neither Diamond nor anyone else in the corridor—including him—seemed to possess the presence of mind to open fire.

“We have to kill it,” Diamond whispered, aiming her phaser to fire once more.

Then, the creature turned and ran back up the corridor from whence it came.

Xiong exchanged looks with Diamond, figuring that the dumbfounded expression on her face must mirror his own.

“I’ll be damned if I understand any of that,” Diamond said. “Where’s it going?”

Shaking his head, Xiong pointed down the corridor. “Back down to whatever chamber it appeared in earlier? There’s no way to know without following it.”

“Thanks,” Diamond replied. “But, no.”

“The dampening field’s working,” al-Khaled reported as he pulled himself to his feet. Holding up his tricorder, he added, “It’s only about five kilometers in diameter, but it seems to be enough to cause a localized disruption in most communications signals within its radius, with the exception of two frequencies I was able to screen out so we could contact the Lovellor the Endeavour.”

“So,” Xiong said, “we’ve not neutralized the technology at other points around the planet?”

Moving to stand next to al-Khaled, Ghrex shook her head. “No, sir, though we’ve blocked the ability for anything to interface with those sites so long as they remain within the dampening field’s perimeter.”

“Great work, you two,” Diamond said, wiping sweat from her forehead. “I owe you dinner when we get back to the station.”

“A real dinner from one of the restaurants?” Ghrex asked. A wide, long smile brightened the Denobulan’s features. “Deal.”

From where it was situated in an upper pocket of his parka, Xiong’s communicator chirped. Extracting the device and flipping open its antenna grid, the lieutenant said, “Xiong here.”

“ This is Captain Khatami,”replied the voice of the Endeavour’s commanding officer. “ Our sensors are registering the presence of the dampening field at your location, Lieutenant. It seems to have had the effect of disrupting the weapons taking shots at us. We show the other sites as still being active and in contact with each other, but all contact with your location appears to be severed.”

Everyone in the corridor released cries of relief and victory at Khatami’s words, and even Xiong felt the irrepressible need to smile at the welcome news. “It’s had other effects down here, as well, Captain,” he said, eager to share the landing party’s own discovery. “That same signal seemed to affect the creatures attacking us. When the switch was thrown, the one coming after us tucked tail and ran.”

“ I suggest we not push our luck, Lieutenant,”Khatami said. “ Get to the surface and stand by for beam-out. We’re already transporting the people at the base camp. I don’t want anyone down there until the situation is secure.”

Behind him, Xiong heard a brisk series of beeps and tones and turned to see al-Khaled consulting his tricorder. Xiong started to ask what was going on but the words died in his throat as he became aware of a low, ominous rumbling coming from…somewhere. “What is that?”

“Massive power buildup,” al-Khaled replied. Everyone in the corridor regarded him with nearly identical expressions of confusion and worry as he consulted his tricorder. “Whatever it is, it’s huge. This is more power than…”

Even as the engineer stopped talking, realization chose that moment to smack Xiong across the face.

“Oh, damn,” Diamond whispered.

“Don’t tell me,” Xiong said, already knowing what al-Khaled would say.

The engineer nodded. “It’s like Palgrenax. Something’s initiating an immense geothermal buildup. If left unchecked, it’ll blow a hole in this planet half a continent wide, with us at the center of the whole thing.”

39

The Shedai Wanderer had failed.

Her mind still racked with a pain she could never before have imagined, she raced away from the Telinaruulwho tormented her, her consciousness guiding the movements of the Sentinel to carry her deeper into the temple, away from those whose suppression should have been child’s play but instead had proven themselves to be a devious adversary, if not a worthy one.

She had been weakened by the need to divide herself among three Sentinels, and the pain that had washed over her had come as if from nowhere, nearly driving her consciousness into the void which existed beyond the safety of the Conduit. It had taken all of her remaining strength to withdraw the tendrils of her mind from two of the servants she had pressed into service. Only with supreme effort had she been able to retain control of the lone remaining Sentinel, driven as she was by her obligation to protect the Conduit and the temple at all costs.