Sulu shook his head. “We weren’t aware of our kinship with you at the time. In the course of our earlier discussions with the Tholians, we became ... aware that they were in conflict with another force. It was only upon our investigation into that conflict that we discovered who and what the Neyel are. But what we still don’t understand is why you attacked a weaponless colony world.”

“Thanks to our attack, their weaponry is not currently operating,” Joh’jym said. “But our own detection devices have traced its effects to this world. There can be no doubt.”

Sulu found that answer confusing in the extreme. “I don’t understand. There’s very little technology evident on the planet, apart from some power stations and several environmental forcefield generators. In fact, we’ve found no evidence of military activity or weaponry of any sort down there—only the debris and radiation residue from a recent space battle in this system.”

“Do not fall prey to Devil trickery, Captain. Because you halted our attack, they may succeed in reconstituting their weapon. When in use, the Devil machinery causes devastation in Neyel space as its effects are propagated across the Rift.”

The drech’tor gestured for the group to follow as he walked over to one of the larger viewscreens. He touched several symbols on it, and an external starscape appeared, overlaid a moment later by a tactical grid that obviously represented an aperture leading into the nearby interspatial rift.

“The pathway toward our home lies through here,” Joh’jym said. He touched another symbol and the screen changed yet again, depicting a graphic of the Milky Way Galaxy, which swiftly shrunk in size. A representation of a smaller globular star formation appeared beside the Milky Way graphic, and [255] swiftly increased in diameter until many of its individual stars were visible. Another interspatial entrance appeared in the midst of the star cluster.

“Over forty-three worlds in this volume of space, the Neyel Hegemony rules,” said Joh’jym, pride evident in his voice.

Tuvok leaned toward Sulu, speaking quietly. “Sir, he has identified the Small Magellanic Cloud as the far terminus of the interspatial rift located in this system.”

It took a moment for Sulu to digest that. The Small Magellanic Cloud lay 210,000 light-years from Earth. Centuries before anyone aboard Excelsiorhad even been born, the human species had ventured further into the unknown than even Starfleet’s fastest long-range exploration vessels. It was awe-inspiring.

Joh’jym either hadn’t heard Tuvok’s interjection, or had chosen to ignore it. “When active, the Devils’ weapon threatens a number of key Neyel planets with destruction. The weapon is even capable of destabilizing several of the stars that lie near our side of the Rift.”

Sulu’s mind raced. From the beginning of this mission, he had distrusted the Tholians, but he had attempted to put his suspicions aside in the interest of peace. The Tholians had certainly done their best to hide the truth about their conflict with the Neyel from the Federation, and members of the Assembly’s political and scientific castes had clearly conspired to keep secret the knowledge of the human genome that the Neyel carried.

But whether they had done this in pursuit of peace was still an open question.

On the other hand, Sulu was painfully aware that his own actions as captain of Excelsior—whether mandated by Starfleet or not—had stretched the limits of peaceful Tholian-Federation interaction, perhaps past the breaking point. He had trespassed upon their territory not only with sensor probes, but also with his own ship and crew.

[256] Now, Excelsiorwas balanced on a razor’s edge, caught between the two warring factions: the Tholians, who had actively sought a rapprochement with the Federation; and the Neyel, who were apparently completely unaware of the existence of either the Federation or of Starfleet, and yet were the descendants of humanity and heirs to its birthright of freedom and dignity.

Both groups are quick on the trigger,Sulu thought. And each is prepared to destroyExcelsior for its cause.He knew he had to decide soon which was the deadlier adversary. At this moment, it was the Tholians who posed the greater threat to Excelsior’ssafety. If his crew was going to survive long enough to find a peaceful resolution to the Tholian-Neyel conflict, the Tholian energy web that had snared both Excelsiorand Oghen’s Flamehad to be dealt with first.

“Drech’tor Joh’jym, how can I persuade your people to call a truce with the Tholians?” Sulu asked.

Joh’jym, Oratok, and Jerdahn all looked at him as if he had suddenly sprouted another head. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Joh’jym spoke. “Why would we wantpeace with these ... Tholians? They are beneath us, mere animals to be destroyed. After this war is finished, then there will be peace. One way or another.”

It was worth a shot, Sulu thought. “I expected that to be your response. But we are faced with a dilemma, Drech’tor. Neither your ship nor mine is currently able to escape or defeat the Tholians. We don’t have many choices: we can call for a truce between you and the Tholians; we can allow them to destroy us; we can fight until we are both destroyed; or we can work together to find a way to escape.”

He paused for a moment. “For my crew, I would choose the last option. There is an ancient saying in the literature of Old Earth: ‘For he who fights and runs away, May live to fight another day; but he who is in battle slain, Can never rise to fight again.’ ”

[257] Jerdahn and Oratok exchanged glances and nodded. Then Joh’jym grinned at Sulu. “I would agree. What do you propose?”

Sulu briefly looked at Akaar, Tuvok, Chapel, and Burgess, then turned back to Joh’jym and Jerdahn. “I have an idea.”

Chapter 22

Sulu was feeling weary as he and other members of the boarding party stepped down from Excelsior’swide transporter stage, then immediately scattered to attend to their various tasks. But he knew that he had to soldier on, fatigued or not. Too much was at stake.

Luckily, the next few hours went far more smoothly than he had imagined possible, which cheered him considerably. Though he still harbored no illusions that Drech’tor Joh’jym and his ever-vigilant visor Oratok were prepared as yet to embrace any initiative aimed at ending their war on the Tholians, the Neyel captain not only had decided to allow the boarding party to return to Excelsior,but he also had signed off on Sulu’s idea of exchanging engineering personnel between the two vessels.

After all, so long as both Excelsiorand the Neyel vessel remained trapped by the Tholian Assembly’s potent energy webs, both ships, both crews, both captainshad identical problems.

I just hope that Commander Azleya doesn’t talk any of those Neyel techies’ ears off,Sulu thought, sipping his still-warm tea as the turbolift deposited him on the bridge. He’d seen how distracted his gregarious chief engineer could become when guests descended upon the engine room in [259] which she took so much justifiable pride. He wondered what it would be like to have a chief engineer who spent more of her time yelling, both at subordinates and visitors.

From all the reports he’d received so far—including a scrambled subspace message from Jerdahn, who had stayed aboard Oghen’s Flameto assist the damage control parties working there—the two engineering teams seemed to be making excellent progress on a tandem escape tactic for both ships. It appeared that a modified version of Tuvok’s contingency plan—a limited disabling of the Tholian energy web by means of warp power channeled through the deflector grid—was going to prove useful after all.