Oratok sniffed disdainfully, her tail switching back and forth behind her in agitation. “There are no ‘innocent’ Devils, Hikarusulu. Either we eradicate them, or they will us.”

Sulu decided that the best way to persuade Joh’jym and his visor to make peace was to “humanize” their adversary. “ ‘Devil’ is an interesting term,” he said. “It implies an assumption of evil intent.”

“They have attacked Neyel vessels every time a vessel of ours encounters one of theirs,” Joh’jym said. “No other assumption is prudent.”

“Perhaps, in the absence of more information about [250] them. Your adversaries may have a similar name for you in their own language,” Sulu said, ignoring Burgess’s warning scowl.

Both of the senior Neyel officers chuckled. “They are creatures of pure instinct,” Oratok said. “The Devils have no language.”

“Tholians,” Burgess said, stepping forward. “They call themselves ‘Tholians.’ In their own language, of course.”

“Ridiculous,” Joh’jym said. “The Devils are as incapable of speech as is the hull of this ship.”

Jerdahn approached the drech’tor and spoke. “The humans possess devices which can translate our speech into theirs, and back again.”

“As we’ve also done with the Tholians,” Burgess said, nodding. “With your permission, we would like to make your speech and that of the Tholians mutually comprehensible.”

Neither Joh’jym nor Oratok appeared convinced in the slightest.

“You speak of skiffythings,” the visor said, her purring voice becoming more of a growl. “Impossible things.”

“We have no reason to lie to you,” Sulu said. “And we have every reason to wish for a peaceful end to your conflict with the Tholians.”

“And what reason have you to wish us well, after having traded fire with us?” Oratok asked.

Sulu drew a deep breath. Here’s where it gets even dicier,he thought.

“Because your species and mine are closely related,” he said. “If your doctors compare samples of our blood to yours, they can confirm this.”

Joh’jym’s eyes narrowed and his voice grew low and dangerous. “If we decide to exsanguinate you, Hikarusulu, it will not be for study.” He gestured toward Bannohn and the other guards, who approached and made ready to take the prisoners away, including Jerdahn.

[251] This is not good at all.

“Wait!” Jerdahn shouted. “Hikarusulu and his people areNeyel-kindred. I know it does not appear so, but it is true.”

“I have heard enough,” Joh’jym said with a wave of his tail. “Take them away. I will decide their disposition later. After we’ve freed ourselves from this cursed Devil-web.”

“We should interrogate them,” Oratok said. “We need to know everything they do about the Devils.”

Rough hands grabbed Sulu’s shoulders. The entire group was being hustled toward the door. If there was ever a time to pull a trump card, this was it.

Sulu raised his voice so everyone could hear him clearly above the tumult. “We know about Vanguard.”

Utter silence swept the room.

“Release them,” Joh’jym said after a seeming eternity. Sulu began breathing again. He glanced toward Burgess, whose eyes reminded him of the twin moons of Andor at full phase.

The drech’tor approached closely. Half a head taller than Sulu, the Neyel looked down to meet his gaze, and regarded him with obvious caution. But Sulu also glimpsed something else behind the hard coals of the drech’tor’s eyes.

Curiosity.

“Say on, Hikarusulu,” Joh’jym said. “What do you know of Holy Vangar?”

Here goes.“I know that your ancestors were once people very much like us. Centuries ago, they hollowed out an asteroid and made it their home. They called it Vanguard.”

“The Great Rock,” Oratok said reverently. She looked stunned.

Sulu continued, not wishing to lose his momentum. “Then an accident lost Vanguard among the stars. Your ancestors never again saw their birthworld.”

“Auld Aerth,” Joh’jym said in a surprisingly gentle tone. “Far Aerth.”

Sulu nodded. However inhuman these people seemed [252] now, he could see that they attached mythic, perhaps even religious, significance to the now all but timelost story of their origins. He hoped he could use that to build a bridge between his crew and the Neyel.

“Far Earth,” Sulu repeated, though he sensed that the universal translator was missing some subtle nuance of accent. “Far Earth. The homeworld of the Oh-Neyel, your forebears.”

“We think of it often,” Joh’jym said solemnly. “We know that we will find it again someday, and enfold it into the bosom of Neyelkind. Perhaps soon.”

“Once the Devil menace that stands in our way has been extirpated,” Oratok said, her eyes flinty.

Not for the first time, Sulu wondered whether Earth’s culture would really be able to reabsorb the Neyel, or if it would be the other way around. One problem at a time.

“Then you have good reason to consider making peace with the Tholians,” he said. “Perhaps they can be persuaded not to bar your path to Far Earth. We can help you achieve that.” And, while we’re at it, stop an offshoot human species from waging a genocidal war that can only destroy us all.

Though Sulu could see that the now-silent Joh’jym had, at least for now, succumbed to his curiosity, Oratok evidently hadn’t abandoned her initial wariness.

“How can you know these things, Hikarusulu?” she asked, her hard face now giving nothing away. “How can creatures so unlike us recite our most sacred tales?”

“It’s as I tried to explain before. My species and yours ... are related.”

Sulu noticed then that Burgess had sidled over to him. She was staring at him in horror, as though he were about to step on a rock that was actually a ravening Manarkan sand bat.

He recalled what she’d told him on the way to the transporter room. “It’s clear from our interviews with Jerdahn that[253] these people have shrouded their origins in a complex body of mythology. They might even worship their ancestors as gods. So we should avoid mentioning being born on the same planet the O’Neill colonists came from.”

“Why?”Sulu had asked. After all, the Neyel were a warp-capable species, so there were no Prime Directive issues at play.

Burgess looked surprised at his question. “We want to maintain our credibility, don’t we?”

“Of course we do.”

“And if some alien who didn’t look even remotely human landed among us and claimed to have been a college roommate of Muhammad or Jesus, well, how believable wouldthat be?”

Still considering how to expand on his answer to Oratok’s question, Sulu recalled the chilly reception the Greek god Apollo had received from the crew of the Enterprise .

“Where we come from,” Sulu said at length, “knowledge about Old Earth is almost commonplace. Much of its history and literature still exists, scattered around the galaxy.”

“We’ve, ah, studied the literature extensively,” Burgess said.

Oratok gestured toward the viewscreen on which a Tholian ship was visible. “If your words are truthful, Captain, then why did you attack us?”

“I must apologize if you interpreted our actions as an attack,” Sulu said evenly. “We did not fire first against you. As I said, we were protecting the Tholian civilians upon whom youwere firing. It was only after you attacked our ship that we returned fire.”

“The order of things matters not so much as the intent,” Adjun-drech’tor Bannohn said from nearby. “Had you not interceded, we never would have fired upon you.”

“Our mission to this part of the galaxy is one of peace,” Burgess replied. “We were attempting to negotiate a détente with the Tholians, after decades of misunderstanding and conflict.”

[254] “So you, too, consider the Devil scourge an adversary. Yet you defend them against your own blood?” Joh’jym asked, his eyes wide.