“And later still they found themselves lost in the galactic wilderness,” Burgess said, walking alongside Sulu. “The Neyel engineers evidently have quite a sense of tradition.”

“It would appear so,” Sulu said.

“That gives me some real hope that we can find a way to reconnect with them,” said Burgess.

As if on cue, a moving blip suddenly appeared on Chapel’s tricorder. Then two more bogeys resolved themselves, and those were joined a moment later by several more. They were quickly converging on the boarding party’s position from opposite directions.

Nearby, Tuvok started, apparently having noticed the same thing. “A large number of Neyel life-signs are now heading toward our position,” he reported calmly. The science officer gestured upward, shining his palmlight on the three-meter-high metal gridwork of the ceiling. “They seem to be moving along the next deck inward from this one.”

“Phasers,” growled Akaar, raising his weapon. Chapel saw the captain and Tuvok do likewise, then followed suit herself. The weapon felt alien in hands far more accustomed to medical instruments. She desperately hoped she wouldn’t have to fire.

Jerdahn turned toward the ambassador. “I think my people are about to grant your wish for ‘reconnection.’ ”

“Captain, your people are only going to provoke the Neyel,” Burgess snapped.

“Our simply being here might be provocation enough for them,” Sulu replied. To the rest of the team, he said, “Circle formation. Keep your weapons low, but ready. Nobody fires [221] until my order, or until the Neyel do. Remember, we didn’t come here to fight.”

Chapel heard an echoing, painfully loud clatter along the ceiling grid. The sound surrounded her. Looking up, she saw metal panels falling from overhead, landing deafeningly a few meters ahead and behind. Lithe, dark-complexioned Neyel bodies leapt to the deck from the newly exposed ceiling portals.

In the dim light, Chapel couldn’t easily determine how many black-clad Neyel figures now swarmed about the boarding party. But she could tell immediately that the team was surrounded.

The illumination levels suddenly rose at least tenfold in intensity, prompting Chapel to shield her eyes with her free hand.

“Please let’s don’t do anything stupid, people.” The hissing voice belonged to Ambassador Burgess.

“Orders, Captain?” Akaar’s voice was unmistakable.

“Stand by, Lieutenant,” the captain said. “That goes for everyone.”

Spots swam before Chapel’s eyes. She clung to her sweat-slicked phaser, pointing it toward one of the indistinct dark forms that stood before her. It approached, carrying something small but unfriendly-looking in one of its long-fingered hands.

“Lower your weapons,” the shape said, in a rough and commanding voice. “All of you.”

“Captain?” Akaar repeated. As Chapel’s vision slowly returned, she felt the level of tension all around her increasing exponentially, almost as though someone was tampering with the ship’s climate controls.

She could see now that the nearest Neyel figure wore the same simple black coverall as the rest of the dozen or so troops who had surrounded them. The foremost creature’s imperious manner and gray uniform sash implied that he was in charge. Each Neyel was armed, bearing either small [222] pistols, or long, evil-looking blades with serrated edges. A few carried both. Their collective breath threw a shroud around them in the chill air, reminding Chapel of gathering storm clouds.

“Lower your weapons,” the sandpaper-voiced Neyel squad leader repeated as a half-meter-long blade found its way into his free hand. Chapel wondered if he could throw the weapon as accurately as Akaar could hurl one of those lethal, triple-bladed Capellan kligats.

Her vision now more or less clear, Chapel looked toward Sulu. The captain was nodding to Akaar as he complied with the Neyel’s orders. Then the huge Capellan slowly brought his weapon down, as did Tuvok.

Chapel felt relieved to be able to lower her own weapon. Except for the fact that we’ve been captured again,Chapel thought, recalling the crackling energy filaments that already hemmed in both Excelsiorand the Neyel ship.

A trap within a trap.

PART 6

RAGE

Chapter 18

2169. Auld Greg Aerth Calendar

Watching from the concealment of a space-black shadow on Vangar’s rough-hewn exterior, Hanif Wafiyy took the point position at the head of the grapnel team. Securely tethered to the Rock by an impossibly slender cable—one of the more useful artifacts the People had taken from the pointy-eared raiders who had landed a generation or so back—he watched as the blocky, oblong ship approached, gradually matching its velocity to that of Vangar.

Hanif’s nose itched, but the faceplate of his p-suit precluded his doing anything about it. He tried to focus instead on whatever new horrors the alien vessel promised to bring among the People of ’Neal. Would the newcomers turn out to be more of those green-Wooded elves who’d once tried to chop the Rock into fragments for their ore ships?

Or maybe it’s another gang of Tuskers.He shuddered, though the suit’s e-controls maintained a constant comfortable temperature of eleven degrees see-grade.

Glancing over his shoulder, Hanif saw the great bejeweled dervish of the Milky Way Galaxy. The powerful centrifugal spin of the Vangar Rock spoke eloquently to his inner ear. He knew well that a snapped tether would send [226] him falling forever toward that brilliant assemblage of distant stars. He fought down a momentary surge of vertigo, reminding himself that he—and the rest of the ’Neal People he was sworn to defend—were over 64,000 pars’x from the blazing Milky Way’s closest spiral arm.

As were, more than likely, the nearest elves or Tuskers.

A quick, sharp jolt, transmitted along Vangar’s rock-andiron surface through his thick-soled boots, interrupted his musings. The alien ship had made contact with the Rock. The waiting had ended.

Good. Maybe we won’t have to stay out here in the hard-rod rain until all of our internal organs shut down.One of the serious drawbacks of life in the Lesser M’jallanish Cloud was the intense and constant wind of X rays, gamma rays, and high-energy neutrons that streamed outward from the densely packed stars at the cloud’s relatively nearby galactic core. Retrovirally delivered DNA recombinants had greatly ameliorated the problem since the ’Neal People’s arrival out in this cosmic hinterland, but enough high-rad exposure could still cook an unshielded Person from the inside out, and with dismaying swiftness. With luck, after the mission nobody on the team would need more than a liver transplant, or perhaps a few minor endocrine replacements. No sweat,Hanif thought. Now all we have to do is neutralize the invaders.

Using his p-suit-enshrouded tail, he tugged on his secondary tether, giving the “move” signal to the rest of the boarding team. He wasn’t going to risk breaking radio silence while the alien crew was in a position to intercept the team’s communications.

Leading the group out of the shadows, Hanif looked behind him. Gavin, Moira, and Safa had all emerged from the darkness, crawling like spiders along the permanent exterior safety rails. Without those rugged hand-, foot-, and tail-holds, they would all be catapulted away from the spinning [227] asteroid’s surface, a human meteor shower running in reverse.

The team got into position, not more than half a klomter away from where the vessel had moored itself. Thanks to the ship’s running lights, the p-suit’s night-vision enhancements, and his own genengineered visual acuity, Hanif could see the marauder ship in considerable detail. So far, he’d seen no sign that the invaders had observed the team’s approach. Using a theo’lite built into his helmet display, Hanif carefully gauged how much safety tether they would have to pay out as he computed the distance that the boarders would have to leap, using the asteroid’s spin to accelerate them toward the marauder vessel.