“We should warn the jellies, tell them to raise their armor,” Troi said to the captain. He looked to be on the verge of agreeing, so Vale spoke.

“We shouldn’t. Then they’d want to know how we can tell the attackers aren’t star-jellies. If we’re not prepared to give them that ability, we can’t let them know we have it.”

Riker grimaced. “You’re right. We’ll just have to protect them ourselves until they can armor up or warp out.”

“Should we really be getting involved?”

He glared at Vale fiercely. “They came here to meet us. It’s our fault they’re under attack.” My fault,she saw on his face, and the same was mirrored on Troi’s. “Shields up! Weapons on standby. Put us directly in the hunters’ path.”

“Tuvok,” Troi said, “I suggest doing what you can to raise your own mental shields. This may get rough.”

“And Mr. Kuu’iut, take over tactical again,” Riker added. “Tuvok, if you’d prefer to return to quarters, be with your wife—”

“I would rather stay, sir. I believe I will be better able to handle it this time.”

Riker stared at him for a second. “All right. Are your countermeasures ready?”

“The shields have been recalibrated for bio-energy. The warp core is rigged to emit a series of magneton pulses which should somewhat deflect and dissipate their plasma bolts for several kilometers around the ship.”

“Excellent.”

Once the hunters dropped out of warp, Lavena began her blocking maneuvers again. On the screen, the jellies scattered as the shooting began, and their panic reflected on Troi’s face, though she kept it under control. Vale looked to Tuvok, and saw it there too. On screen, she saw the Pa’haquel’s blasts go astray under the influence of Tuvok’s magneton pulses—meaning that Lavena didn’t have to move quite so fast to block them all.

Soon a hail came, and Elder Qui’hibra appeared on the screen. “Move aside,Titan. We have lost a skymount today and must take another.”

“They don’t seem to want to help you, Qui’hibra. I suggest you consider other options.”

“You have chosen a foolish course, Riker. You fight against the balance, and it must be restored—at your expense, if the Spirit wills.”

“I don’t see balance in your relationship with these creatures, Qui’hibra. I see parasitism. Maybe once you had a healthy symbiosis, I don’t know, but now you’re exploiting these beings, terrorizing them. I think the Pa’haquel are capable of being better than that. I’m still willing to help you and the ‘skymounts’ negotiate a peace, but I will not—”

“You would destroy what we are, and far more—more than you begin to understand. If you understood, you would stay out of this. But I have no time to explain it to you. Your loss.”The screen went dark—only to light up with weapons fire.

“Aili, block it!”

“No need,” Lavena said. “It’s aimed at us!”

Against a dead-on weapon blast, the outward push of the magneton pulses only slowed and weakened the bolt, so most of the hits connected. Tuvok’s shield recalibrations held, but the ride was bumpy. Several Pa’haquel saucers ganged up on Titan,trying to herd it aside so the others could pursue the star-jellies. “Should we return fire?” Kuu’iut asked.

Vale saw the dilemma play out on Riker’s face. He didn’t want to make an enemy of the Pa’haquel, but he had to protect his ship. Then an idea struck him. “Put ship’s phasers on stun,” he said. “Their ships were life-forms once—maybe we can knock them out temporarily.”

Kuu’iut let out a whistle at the unusual order, but complied as he did so. A few dull orange beams lanced out at the attacking ships, with no apparent effect. “No good,” Kuu’iut reported. “Either their armor is too strong or it’s because they’re already dead.”

But Lavena had just about managed to wriggle free of the herding group. She flew after the rest of the pack, struggling to get the ship back between the hunters and their fleeing quarry. But despite her best efforts, Titanwas still only one ship. And the Pa’haquel gunners were swiftly learning to compensate for the magneton deflection. A number of energy bolts got through, and jellies began to be struck. Troi and Tuvok gasped with the pain of every blow. When Tuvok screamed and Deanna sobbed in agony, it was clear that another jelly had taken a mortal hit.

“Deanna?” Riker asked.

She held her hands to her head. “Too much…overpowering, the grief…how could we let this happen?” Something in her tone, her face, made Vale realize that she was interpreting the jellies’ thoughts. “We told them we could help…yet we brought them here…betrayal!”

“Tell them we did mean to help, this wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“Help…how? Tell us!”

“There is a way,” said Tuvok, and he lunged toward the science station, shoving Jaza aside.

Vale realized what was happening. “Jaza, stop him! If he gets that warp-signature data—”

But Jaza was already on him, trying to pull him from the console. With a surge of Vulcan strength, Tuvok threw him off, knocking him into the approaching Keru so that both men fell into a tangle of limbs and Keru’s half-drawn phaser went clattering across the deck. Vale dove for it…but just then a honey-brown blur whipped through the air, took Tuvok in the chest, and knocked him to the deck. After a moment, Vale realized it had been Dr. Ree’s tail. The therapodian leapt over the console to straddle Tuvok and injected him with a hypospray. “Apologies, Commander,” he said. “But I broke nothing I can’t easily fix.”

Once the commotion died down, Lavena turned to the captain. “The jellies have gone to warp, sir. The hunters have broken off their attacks on us.”

“Good. Dr. Ree, get Tuvok to sickbay, and get him back on that suppressant as soon as you safely can.” But Riker said this while facing the screen, on which the slowly spinning corpse of the Pa’haquel’s kill was displayed. The hunters’ ships were already moving in on it, deploying their tentacles. “No,” Riker said. “Not this time.” He strode forward. “Lavena, take us in. Tactical, I want a tractor beam on that star-jelly. Once it’s locked, fire wide-beam phasers at the Pa’haquel ships to blind their sensors, then helm, engage at warp eight, course at your discretion.”

Vale glared at him, but said nothing as the crew carried out his orders. The ship shook a bit as it strained to drag the jelly’s huge mass forward, and again as the warp field tried to compensate for its presence. “Any sign of pursuit?” Riker asked after a moment.

“No, sir,” Kuu’iut said. “They must need time to build energy for warp, like the jellies. They are hailing, though.”

“Ignore them. Let our actions speak for us.” He exchanged a look with Troi; her expression was one of deep gratitude. But there were no more jellies nearby for her to channel.

Vale stepped between them. “Captain, may I speak to you in your ready room, please?” she asked stiffly.

He studied her for a moment. “Very well. Commander Troi, you have the bridge.”

“Uhh, Captain?” Lavena asked. “How long do we continue towing…that?”

Riker gave it a moment’s thought. “Give it twenty minutes, and if there’s still no sign of pursuit, drop to impulse.”

“Aye, sir.”

“I think taking the star-jelly away was unwise, Will,” Vale said without preamble once they were alone. “The Pa’haquel are sure to see it as a gratuitous, hostile act.”

All right, I can’t fault her for candor,Riker thought, although he wasn’t in the mood to accept her argument. “I couldn’t just stand by and let them desecrate another corpse,” he told her emphatically.

“As they see it, you’ve probably committed a desecration. Made its sacrifice meaningless.”

“The Aztecs thought they had to cut out human hearts to make the sun rise every morning,” Riker said. “Some sacrifices are meaningless to begin with.”

“It’s not our place to decide that—”