Riker blanched, as did Deanna. Neither of them were astrophysics specialists, but they both knew that such huge solar events in either the Sol or Betazed systems would be considered unparalleled catastrophes. Starfleet would respond with nothing short of planetwide evacuations.

“Inhabited planets?”

“Local stellar cartographic data is incomplete. But if therewere any typical M-Class worlds in that system, there certainly aren’t any therenow .”

Riker felt his body slacken, and his chair shifted backward to take up the suddenly dead weight. Somehow, after an indeterminate and indeterminable amount of time, he straightened and found his voice.

“Was this another spatial effect created by the protouniverse?”

“Not directly, sir, according to my latest scans. The star seems to be responding directly to subspatial distortions consistent with the deliberate activation of multiple tandem warp fields in extremely close proximity to the star’s photosphere.”

“You’re saying…Donatra’s fleet caused this on purpose?”said Deanna, her jaw hanging open.

“We won’t know their intentions for sure until we talk to them, Commander,”Jaza said. “But that’s certainly how things look from the bridge.”

Or maybe the Red King likes to play with matches in its sleep,Riker thought.

“What about the rift’s ongoing general effects on the composition of local space?” he asked aloud. “Any changes?”

“The general integrity of normal space is still deteriorating steadily along predicted and measurable curves. No surprises reported by listening postDugh, for whatever that’s worth. Bottom line: I still expect that within a few weeks at the outside, most of the systems located within two parsecs of the rift will be blotted from existence, violently. Just as Lieutenant Pazlar’s initial holographic models predicted.”

“It’s trying to clear out a space it can grow into,” Deanna said, her tone a mix of sobriety and horror. “And take over.”

Unless we somehow nudge this “Sleeper” back down into a deeper sleep,Riker thought. Or persuade it to finish waking up someplace else, someplace very far from here.

He was suddenly and uncomfortably reminded of his own ancestors, who had “cleared” an entire continent on Earth, heedless of the fact that it was already occupied.

“Keep closing the distance between us and Donatra’s fleet,” Riker said. “And keep me informed. Riker out.”

He saw that Deanna was regarding him in silence. “And once we catch up to it?”

He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “We board one of Donatra’s ships and try to…persuade this thing to start making nice.”

“Are you sure it’s safe to assume that it wantsto make nice?”

He allowed his smile to fall as he began absently placing the toppled, captured chess pieces back on the board before him. “As our esteemed Capellan admiral might say, I’m going into this with open hearts and hands.

“But also with phasers locked and loaded.”

Chapter Eleven

R ed.

Lost in a ruby sea and embraced by silence, he gradually became aware of tiny noises, mechanical sounds that whispered and sluiced along, steady yet hidden. The red had finished its violent churning and had finally calmed, steadied itself into tranquil crimson stillness near the top of the stein.

Keru recoiled from the bloodwine, wondering what had possessed him to order the vile drink, suspecting Bishop-Walker of pulling a prank on him. He scanned the vast room for the bartender, butTitan ’s mess hall was dark and conspicuously empty at the moment. Almost.

“Aren’t you done yet?”

Keru turned. His companion wasn’t looking at him, but rather reclined in his chair, his crossed feet resting atop the corner of the table, opposite Keru, his nose buried as usual in that odd human book he never seemed to tire of reading. Keru looked at his face, recognized the sapphire eyes, the strong jaw, the rumpled-but-stern smile, and found that he couldn’t answer at first. His throat felt dry and parched, his tongue swollen. “What did you say?” Keru whispered finally.

Sean finally met his eyes. “I said, aren’t you done yet?” he repeated with a chuckle. “It seems like you’ve been contemplating that drink forever, and I really want to hear about your new ship.”

A wave of anxiety slammed into Keru. “I didn’t order any damn bloodwine.”

“Oh, I beg to differ,” Sean laughed. “Personally, I dunno how you can stand it. Too bitter.”

Keru’s anxiety mixed with confusion. “Sean,” he breathed. “What are we doing here? We’re supposed to be back on theEnterprise .”

Sean’s expression turned to one of disappointment. “Oh, come on,” he complained, snapping closed his copy ofPeter and Wendy and tossing it onto the table as he sat up and leaned toward Keru. “You’re kidding me, right? You have this new ship, this new life, and you’re still clinging to the past? Whoa, who the hell is that?”

Keru turned. In the shadows, Dr. Ree walked past their table, dragging the corpse of an enormoustarg behind him. Keru winced. The stench of the Klingon animal was stifling, but Sean seemed unaffected by the smell; his eyes were merely alight with awe at the sight of Ree.

“That’s the CMO,” Keru said dismissively. “Look, we don’t have to stay here.”

Sean ignored him. “What is he, a Pahkwa-thanh? I’ve never seen one in the flesh before. There’s, what, less than a hundred of them in Starfleet?”

“Something like that,” Keru said. “Can we leave now?”

“Okay,” Sean said amiably as he refocused on Keru. “Where can we go next? What’sTitan ’s engine room like? Do you think Captain Riker would mind if I visited the bridge? I’d love to see what the conn—”

“No!” Keru snapped. “Sean, look, I…” He faltered, trying to re-form his emotions into words. “I just want us to go back home.”

Sean tilted his head to one side. “Youare home, Ranul. I’m just visiting.”

“No, I meanour home, back on—”

“Knock it off,” Sean said. “Honestly Ranul, I knew you could be a stick in the mud at times, but you’ve graduated to becoming an honest-to-goodness killjoy, you know that? What’s the matter with you?”

Keru’s hand closed tightly around the stein. He looked back down into his drink, the choking scent of it at once unbearable and irresistable.

“It’s the damn bloodwine,” he rasped. “I can’t get the taste out of my mouth. It’s poisoning me.”

Silence had settled between them. Finally Sean agreed with him. “Yeah,” he said quietly, his voice sounding sad for the first time. “Yeah, I’m afraid it is.”

Keru met his eyes, felt tears streaming from his own. “Am I dying?”

Sean shrugged and gave him a lopsided smile. “Let’s just say you aren’t exactly living.”

Keru reached out, tried to take Sean’s hand, but his old love was beyond his reach. The realization crushed him. “Why’d you come here?”

“Honestly? Maybe just to kick you in the ass.” Sean’s eyes brightened. “How am I doing so far?”

Keru laughed in spite of himself. “Up to your usual standards, I think.”