T’Lavik looked askance at the chief medical officer. “Again, the Vulcan-Tholian brainwave incompatibility cannot be ignored,” she said, shaking her head slightly.

“But brainwave frequencies tend to change during the [107] dying process,” Chapel said. “When Kasrene’s brain began shutting down, her neural patterns might have become momentarily compatible with Tuvok’s. Long enough to establish a very brief mental link.”

Tuvok raised an eyebrow. “That is a very logical explanation, Doctor Chapel.”

“Don’t look so surprised,” Chapel said with a wry smile.

“Lieutenant Tuvok’s experience may merely be a delusion induced by simple neurological trauma,” T’Lavik said, ignoring the banter and still speaking directly to Chapel. “That scenario is the most basic application of T’plana-Hath’s Razor—the idea that the simplest explanation is also likely to be the most logical one.”

The science officer’s eyes suddenly became unfocused, as though he were looking inward.

“What is it?” Sulu asked.

“I believe I’m beginning to recall more of the experience, Captain. Kasrene wanted me to know something.” A sweat broke out on Tuvok’s brow as he concentrated in protracted silence. At length, he said, “I cannot yet reconstruct Kasrene’s message in its entirety. But I do recall certain ... emotional subtexts.” This came out sounding almost like an admission of unseemly behavior.

“ ‘Emotional subtexts,’ ” T’Lavik repeated, an ever-so-slight tinge of scorn coloring her words. Sulu wondered, and not for the first time, whether he would ever encounter an intelligent species that was moreemotional than Vulcans. At times they seemed uncannily proficient in the fine art of sarcasm.

“Yes,” Tuvok continued, a vaguely confessional shame still shading his words. “I experienced her ... belief that the knowledge she wished to impart was essential to the welfare of both the Federation and the Tholian Assembly. She was convinced that whatever it was she knew—whatever it was that Mosrene wanted suppressed—had to be brought to light quickly. It seemed to concern some calamity that both [108] Kasrene and Mosrene believed to be imminent. I regret that I cannot visualize the coming disaster itself. Perhaps if our telepathic contact had lasted longer ...” He trailed off, scowling.

“Did Kasrene give you any idea why Mosrene might have wanted to stop her?” Chekov asked.

“Perhaps, Commander,” Tuvok said. “But I am not certain. I do, however, know that Kasrene wanted us—that is, representatives of the Federation—to be the only recipients of the information she carried. And strangely, she also seemed to share Mosrene’s reticence about allowing the information to circulate generally with the Tholian Assembly. To do so would have precipitated the very disaster she envisioned.”

“If the information really is that sensitive, then keeping it out of the Tholian Lattice will be a neat trick,” Chapel said.

Chekov shrugged. “Not if only a few Tholians know about it, and then keep themselves sequestered from the Lattice. Maybe that’s the reason Mosrene doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to return to Yilskene’s ship.”

But Sulu noticed a huge problem with Mosrene’s apparent need for concealment. “There’s a very wise old proverb about secrets, Pavel. “Three can keep a conspiracy a secret—but only if two of them are dead.’ ”

“What are you saying?” Chapel wanted to know. “That I can expect more Tholians to take up space in my morgue?”

“Not necessarily. I’m saying that we might not have the luxury of waiting around until Lieutenant Tuvok’s memories return more fully before we’re forced to act.”

Aware that everyone’s eyes were upon him, Sulu came to a decision. He had served in Starfleet for far too long to believe in coincidences. Whatever it was that Kasrene had wanted the Federation to know—but had also wanted hidden from her own countrymen—had to be related to the Tholian military buildup that so concerned Starfleet Command. And to whatever alien adversary menaced the Tholians on their far frontier.

[109] So perhaps the solution to one mystery would help to solve the others.

Sulu crossed to the companel on the wall and pressed a button. “Captain Sulu to bridge.”

“Lojur here, sir.”

“Commander, how far are we from the nearest volume of interspatially unstable space?”

“Captain, are you referring to the region where theDefiant disappeared thirty years ago?”

“The very same.”

“There’s a filament of unstable space running through much of the territory claimed by the Tholians. The near end of it lies less than a parsec from our present position.”

Sulu smiled a fencer’s calculating smile. “Good. After Yilskene’s ship picks up the Tholian diplomatic party and sets out for Tholia, Mr. Lojur, I want you to lay in a course parallel to that interspatial filament. And I want you to follow it all the way to the far end of Tholian space.”

“Won’t we show up on Yilskene’s sensors if we take that heading?”Lojur asked.

“Not if we cover our tracks.”

“Sir?”

“We can create a sensor ghost by bouncing a deflector beam off the edge of the filament. That will make it appear that we’re headed back the way we came. Keep us a few dozen klicks from the filament’s edge, but don’t let us actually slip over into interspace. We’re not looking to join the Defiant,after all.”

“Aye, sir.” Lojur sounded apprehensive. Some three decades after her disappearance, the Defiant—whose personnel had slain one another while in the grip of a berserker rage caused by this region’s interspatial distortions—had quickly become the stuff of some fairly hair-raising ghost stories among Starfleet Academy’s midshipmen.

After Sulu had signed off to allow Lojur to prepare for [110] Excelsior’scourse adjustment, he noticed that Chekov and Chapel appeared to be having reservations similar to Lojur’s; they looked nearly as stony-faced as the Vulcans.

“That’s a pretty dangerous course, Captain,” Chekov said. “And I’m not only talking about the chance of running into Tholian patrols.”

“Defiant,”Chapel said, almost whispering.

Sulu nodded, acknowledging his old friends’ reticence. “We’re just going to have to trust that Excelsior’sshields—and the skills of her helmsman—will keep us from sharing Defiant’sfate.”

Both Chekov and Chapel seemed satisfied with that. “I’d better whip up a theragen compound to be on the safe side,” Chapel said. “Just in case interspace starts affecting us the way it did Defiant’screw.”

Sulu nodded yet again. He wasn’t keen on administering what was essentially a Klingon nerve agent to his crew, but he couldn’t forget how a cocktail of theragen derivative had prevented the crew of the Enterprisefrom plunging irretrievably into interspace-caused madness.

Addressing everyone present, he said, “Whatever dangers might await us out there, the far side of Tholian space is where we’ll find our answers. Such as exactly what the Tholians are willing to spill their own blood to keep hidden from us.”

Chapter 10

Earlier ...

Do we have proof?The question reverberated through the Diplomatic Castemoot SubLink. Fekrene [The Gold] had posed the interrogative.

We have their ship and have examined their bodies,answered Benrene [The Gray], her inter-voice bright and tinkling. Fulskene’s ship captured the invader vessel after three of our other warcraft were destroyed. But even as their defeat arose to shatter them, our warriors inflicted great damage upon the enemy.

Tosrene [The Violet] chimed before projecting into the SubLink. I have the memories of the late Fulskene and his crew from the battle. Allow me to share them.