“But I thought we don’t want to go to warp,” said Modan. “Because of the dying.”

  “Commander Vale, I strongly recommend not listening to anything Mr. Jaza says from this point forward,” said Ra-Havreii. “An unstable warp field will create catastrophic effects for us.”

  “Find another plan, Mr. Jaza,” said Vale.

  “No time,” came the response. “We’ll make it, Chris. Trust me. Just be ready to activate the drive when I say.”

  Vale’s mind flashed to Troi, who hadn’t participated much in their discussion. Indeed, she had been silent throughout the encounter, attempting instead to reach out to Will Riker on Titanand somehow convey their situation. With the comms down she was the best link between them and home. Her telepathy might be substandard under normal conditions, but in situations like this, stress, coupled with the bridge she shared with him, could sometimes overcome that limitation.

   Will, she sent her thought to him. Will, are you there?

   Deanna?Yes. She had made contact. It was tenuous, but it was there.

  She tried to project- we’re under attack-help/escape. There was the barest hint of exchange, the thought equivalent of a garbled coded message, from which she could be sure he got nothing useful, not even the feeling of love she projected. She could feel him, of course. She could feel all of Titan’s crew. But he couldn’t feel her. Not now.

  Almost worse was the fact that, in its current state, Titanwas almost completely unable to defend itself or to run if it came to that. All they could do was watch as the Orishans, or whoever these people were, destroyed the Ellington.

  “Chris,” said Jaza’s voice. “Get ready!”

  The Orishan vessel clearly meant to fire another shot. The nimbus of destructive energy in what Vale’s mind had already begun to call its warp cannon continued to grow. It was odd. While a part of her watched the weapon power up with a certain amount of dread, another part was intrigued. The charge time between firings clearly showed that, aggressive as they were, these people had never been in anything like a real battle. On equal footing, the lag between volleys was a fatal abyss.

  Good.

   Titan, with its still-viable complement of torpedoes, might not be totally helpless against this thing that was now so obviously not a warship. The Ellington, on the other hand, was on borrowed time. Eventually the alien weapon, slow as it was, would find its target.

  “The weapon is near maximum charge, Commander,” said Keru. “They’re definitely going for another shot.”

  “Jaza!” she said, hoping the fear that had crept under her door didn’t show too much in her voice. “Tell me something!”

  “I’ve disabled the safeties, Chris,” he yelled. “When they fire the weapon, punch it.”

  “I reiterate,” said Ra-Havreii. “This is an extraordinarily bad plan. The shuttle will be torn to-”

  “I heard you the first time,” snapped Vale. The great blue-white ball of writhing energy had grown to its original proportion. “Everybody, brace.”

  “Christine,” said Troi, in a voice Vale had not heard before but recognized as possessing the same steel that had often characterized her mother. “Be sure.”

  She wasn’t, not about any of it, but it was too late. The Orishan cannon fired and time slowed to a crawl. Adrenaline surged through her body, and it seemed that she was outside herself watching as the lethal tongue of space-distorting energy roared out at them, watching as her hands danced across the manual control console, activating the drive.

  It came alive at precisely the instant the beam hit the shuttle, and whether it was the cause of the violent upheaval they suffered or the reason they survived it, she wasn’t sure. The ship was rocked horribly, lurching in a new direction with every tick of the clock. Systems all over the Ellingtonwent insane, sparking, spewing their guts into the main cabin. Alarms sounded. Some random bit of sudden debris narrowly missed Vale’s head as she was jerked out of its path by the ship’s distress. Modan screamed again but Vale forgave her. The others rode the tumult in grim silence, obviously as terrified as the young ensign and, just as obviously, having the experience or sufficient grit to keep their fear at bay.

  Then, just as suddenly as it had washed over them, the storm of violent energies was gone. Despite its pummeling, the Ellingtonhung where it had in space, listing a bit, to be certain, but still very much intact.

  Far ahead the Orishan vessel continued to loom but, for now, took no further aggressive action.

   Weren’t expecting that, were you?thought Vale. Well, take as long as you like to chew it.

  Ra-Havreii was the first to speak. “I can’t believe that worked,” he said. “We should all be dead.”

  Vale had the feeling that he was more right than anyone wanted to admit, but she wasn’t about to look too deeply into the throat of this particular equine.

  “Well done, Mr. Jaza,” said Vale. There was no response. “Jaza, report.” Still he said nothing, and she began to fear the worst. It suddenly occurred to her that there were no safety nets in the shuttle’s power room, no place to safely ride out the sort of pelting they’d just had. There was nothing down there but hard metal.

  “Modan,” said Vale, sliding instantly to damage assessment and control. They weren’t nearly out of the rough yet, and she would need him. “Get aft and see what’s happened to Mr. Jaza.”

  “Aye, sir,” said Modan after the briefest hesitation. She was unbuckled and sliding down the ladder in an instant. Good. She might not be dead weight after all. Keru was already back at his station, running diagnostics to see what, if anything, they still had to work with. The report was not the best. Emergency systems were all that was keeping them from the vacuum, and several of them had dipped to critical in the time it took him to check their status. At best they had been given a small reprieve. Still, the failure of their weapon seemed to have given the Orishans pause.

   Let’s see if we can extend that feeling, she thought, staring at the ominous, vaguely insectile ship.

  “Counselor?” said Vale, not taking her eye off the alien vessel. “Anything from the Orishans?” Troi shook her head. “Dr. Ra-Havreii, can you tell me anything? Why are we still here?”

  The Efrosian seemed frozen in contemplation, his deep-set eyes far away, staring past Troi and Keru and Vale to the space that was visible through the forward viewport.

  “Two warp fields,” he said at last. “I should have thought of it. The dissonance between the weapon’s warp frequency and that of this ship acted as a shield.”

  “I thought it might work,” said Jaza, returning to the cockpit with Modan following close behind. He looked a little the worse for wear-there was a field patch over his left temple where Modan had bandaged what was obviously a wicked gash-but otherwise he was all right.

  “You thoughtit would work?” said Vale in mock irritation.

  “Yes,” said Jaza, wincing as Modan helped him into the pilot’s cradle.

  “If we survive this, Commander,” said Vale. “You’re going on report.”

  “Of course,” said Jaza with a smile.

  “Commander,” said Keru in a tone Vale was sure she didn’t like. “Probe telemetry indicates a massive energy flux in the area of Mr. Jaza’s ghost field.”

  “Let me see that,” said Ra-Havreii, nearly pouncing on the sensor controls. Jaza too made an effort to shift position for a look at the incoming data, but some hidden injury only allowed him to wince.

  “This is bad,” said Ra-Havreii. “There is something inside the field, Commander. Something with mass and gravity. The readings are garbled. It’s as if there’s something there and yet-”