Jaza shook his head. “Our course is preset and the sensors only evade what they can see. We’re going to pass through it, whatever it is.” Jaza looked to Vale as if to say, “What’s it going to be, Chris?” For her part, Vale glanced back at Troi, whose features betrayed some tension but not overt concern, not yet. In any case, until some actual diplomacy got going, Vale was running this show.

  “Launch a probe,” she said at last. “If we’re going through, I’d like a little warning about what to expect.”

  Jaza’s fingers danced for a few seconds. They all heard the noise of the torpedo launcher and then watched the tiny silver probe zip toward the unseen mass.

  “There’s some distortion in the signal,” said Jaza, muttering over the display as the sensor data came back. “But it’s not detecting anything un-”

  Before he could finish the sentence, several things happened at once, ensuring that it would never be completed. The probe crossed over the arbitrary point he’d set as the strange formation’s event horizon and vanished from his screens.

  A strange shimmering halo of energy, quite visible to all of them now, coalesced around the invisible thing, giving it definition of sorts for those who couldn’t see it before. Static, loud and grating, ripped out at the team via the Ellington’s comm system, followed immediately by a voice.

   “Interlopers! You have dared to approach the[ untranslatable] Eye! You will be punished for your[ possible meaning: blasphemy] !”This was followed by more of the harsh static-the UT’s unsuccessful attempt to decipher a large portion of the alien language-and then a very ominous silence.

  “Orishans,” said Modan very softly after a moment.

  “I’m guessing,” said Vale. So much for them not having space travel. If they survived this, they wouldn’t have to worry about violating the Prime Directive. “Mr. Jaza, we’re aborting the preset flight program. We don’t want to piss anyone off more than they are.”

  “Already on it,” he said, his eyes steely as they tracked his hands dancing on the control panel.

  “Keru, try and raise these people,” said Vale, not even looking to see how quickly the big Trill had dropped into the communication station to do as ordered. “I’d like to talk to them before-”

  “Before,” said Ra-Havreii, “they blast us to cinders from their enormous spaceship.”

  “Spines of the Mother,” said Modan in a tiny voice as she absorbed the sight.

  There was a lot to take in. This time they all saw it very clearly; a massive cruiser of some sort, roughly twice Titan’s size, was in the process of shimmering into view before them. Despite its odd coloring-heavy scarlet streaks along the lower struts against a silvery material that could have passed for something woven-it was as deadly-looking as anything Vale had ever seen.

  Its appearance was very much like that of a gigantic mechanical animal of some sort-a scorpion maybe, with tails above and below-and, as they watched it bear down on the Ellington’s position, it was clear the new vessel had none of Titan’s problems maneuvering in this region. That did not bode well if they meant to get aggressive.

  “From their formerly cloakedenormous spaceship,” said the engineer. “How in the world were they able to pull that off?”

  “You can ask them about it later, Commander,” said Vale, trying along with Keru to get some weapons up or partial shields at least. It was useless, of course. They had left from Titanessentially naked and defenseless, and so they remained.

  She asked Troi if she was getting any kind of empathic hits off their new friends.

  Troi shook her head. “No, Commander. I feel something from them,” she said. “It may be anger and it may be something like curiosity, but there are other emotions there that don’t correspond to anything I know. They feel we are not only alien but in some way sullying their space.”

   “You are[ possible meaning: unclean] !”said the harsh alien voice over more static. “You will be[ possible meaning: purged] !”

  “I don’t like the sound of that,” said Keru. “And I can’t raise them.”

  “Looks like they’d rather talk than listen,” said Jaza.

  “Get us out of here, Najem,” said Vale, tense. “Easy, if you can, but back us off now.” Jaza grunted something and continued to work with the controls at a fiendish pace. She understood his difficulty. They had modified so much of the shuttle’s works to facilitate even simple motion in this area that they’d sacrificed a good portion of direct control. It had been one of the riskier aspects of this mission, but deemed acceptable when weighed against the alternative. Now the risk might kill them. The computer was not making the switch back to manual an easy thing.

  “Almost,” he said.

  “ Titancan see them,” said Troi suddenly. “I can feel the crew’s attention on this.”

  “Hell,” said Vale, picturing the Red Alert status that had to be under way on their home vessel. “ Ican feel their attention on this. Look at that monster.”

  “They’re powering some sort of weapon, Commander,” said Keru. “Readings are distorted, but-”

  “But?”

  Keru looked at her. “But this isn’t something we want to be hit by.”

  She saw it then. The alien vessel’s upper “tail” was bent close to its “head” now, and in the space between, a blue-white ball of energy was building in intensity. There was no mistaking its intent.

  “Interesting,” said Ra-Havreii as Jaza worked his console. “That appears to be a warp field. They’ve weaponized it somehow. Clever.”

  “Clever like a knife in the throat,” muttered Vale. She nudged Jaza, who nodded without looking up. Almost there. “Right. Everybody strap in. Whether they mean to or not, they’re giving us a chance to get out of here, and we’re taking it.”

  Jaza swore as the others flung themselves back into their seats. There was a staccato chorus of buckles rebuckling and what sounded like a prayer from Modan. The alien weapon glowed white and large outside their little shuttle.

  “Jaza…” said Vale.

  “Ten seconds,” he said through his teeth.

  “I don’t think we have-”

  “Got it!” he said, triumphant, and, just as the alien weapon erupted, “Firing starboard thrusters!”

  The Ellingtonlurched violently to port as the beam of coalesced warp energy ripped through its previous position.

  “Yeah, that’s not good,” said Vale. “Not nearly fast enough. We have to get moving.”

  “They’re charging the weapon again,” said Keru from his post. “Whatever you’re going to do, Mr. Jaza…”

  “Ra-Havreii!” said Jaza, his eyes fixed on the new ball of energy building on the alien vessel. “Assume I know nothing and tell me why we can’t sustain a warp bubble here. Specifically.”

  “We can, in a ship this size, in theory,” said the engineer. “But it would be unstable, porous. The safety protocols would de-initialize the drive to prevent our being shredded by the tidal-”

  “So we can use the drive,” said Jaza, already out of the cradle and heading back to the rear of the shuttle.

  “Only if you want to kill us,” said Ra-Havreii.

  “Nobody’s dying,” said Jaza, suddenly rising from his chair and heading aft.

  “Jaza!” said Vale, her own gaze zeroed on the alien weapon. “What are you doing?”

  He didn’t answer. For a moment all Vale could hear was the rush of blood in her ears. They might dodge this thing once more, maybe twice if they were lucky but maneuvering thrusters just weren’t going to cut it against plasma weapons.

  “Jaza!” she called out to him. “What the hell are you up to?”

  “Chris,” his voice rose up muffled from the aft engine compartment. “When that thing fires I want you to go to warp.”