“I’m not questioning your skills, Captain. They’re world-class, and I’m not just saying that to sweet-talk you into promoting me. It’s just that you’re about to compete in a very [268] different ‘world.’ We’re not talking about the Inner Planets championship here. And a monoblade is a whole lot less forgiving than an épée.”

“Touché,”he said. “But I still have to go ahead with this. I’m committed now.”

Azleya’s quizzical voice returned to the intercom, evidently over an alternate comm channel. “Is everything all right up there, Captain?”

He pressed another button. “Sulu here, Commander. Report.”

“We’re all set down here, Captain. The tractor beam and deflector grid are powered up, andExcelsior’s shields are ready to be extended around the Neyel vessel. Once you give the word, I’ll have both ships out of the web and across the rift before Yilskene can react.”

“Acknowledged, Commander,” Sulu said, smiling. “Good work. Continue standing by, however. We’re also working on an alternate plan.” He clicked off the channel.

“Captain?” Chekov asked. “Now that we can get both Excelsiorand Oghen’s Flameto safety, there’s no need to follow through with the duel.”

“We must also consider the crew of the Neyel vessel,” Tuvok said. “Leaving their fate to be decided by the outcome of a one-on-one physical altercation may needlessly cause their deaths.”

“We can’t run now, not after I’ve made a lawfully accepted truthcombatchallenge,” Sulu said, shaking his head. “If we do that, then Yilskene will only have further reason to think the worst of us.”

“That’s not necessarily so,” Hopman said. “We won’t be in violation of the laws governing truthcombatuntil and unless you fail to show up for the contest. I found nothing in Tholian law to suggest that we couldn’t take a little side trip in the meantime.”

“Well, then,” Sulu said, heaving a sigh. “That calls for a [269] change of plans.” He looked carefully around the bridge at Chekov, Rand, Akaar, Tuvok, Hopman, Burgess, and Lojur, who was silently running the forward navigator’s station. All of them, save for Hopman, seemed visibly relieved.

That’s because Pam understands that I haven’t actuallycanceled the match. I’ve only postponed it.

Turning toward Rand, he said, “Inform Drech’tor Joh’jym that we’re nearly ready to make for the rift.”

“Aye, sir.” Her hands moved across the console with the skill of a concert pianist.

Sulu punched one of his chair’s comm buttons. “Sulu to Azleya.”

“Azleya here, sir,”the engineer said, sounding eager. “Is the word given?”

Sulu smiled at the chief engineer’s can-do demeanor. “Affirmative, Commander. Coordinate with your counterpart on Oghen’s Flame,and make for interspace as soon as you’re both ready. Alert the bridge before you hit the switch.”

We’ll be fine,Sulu thought. Just as long asExcelsior gets back here within three and a half hours.

Chapter 23

“I think that about does it,” said Lieutenant Commander Terim Azleya, grinning as she watched the flow of diagrams and numbers that scrolled continuously across her screens. Along with the data describing the output of Excelsior’swarp drive, tractor beam, and shield generators, as well as the deflector-grid throughput, she was monitoring corresponding telemetry coming via a subfrequency scramble directly from the engine room of Oghen’s Flame.

Several junior and senior engineers, including a pair of awkward-looking but surprisingly graceful Neyel, looked on, the rhythmic switching of their tails the only evidence that they might be at all nervous about what was to come. Nodding to the assembled technical personnel, the chief engineer signaled that she was at last satisfied that all was in readiness.

“Bridge,” Azleya said after touching a companel on the bulkhead. “Confirming that all is green for ‘go.’ ”

“Acknowledged, Commander,”came Sulu’s smooth bass voice in response.

A moment later, the ship lurched slightly.

Sections of one of the bulkhead suddenly looked transparent. She wondered whether the shot Chapel had given her was affecting her mind; either her eyes were playing [271] tricks on her, or else Excelsiorhad just roared straight down into the gullet of interspace.

“Admiral! They’ve vanished!” exclaimed Ruskene [the Sallow], the Officer of the Watch in the main cryoneural cluster, the command center of the Tholian Assembly Flagship Jeb’v Tholis.

Yilskene found the discordant quality of Ruskene’s voice-chorus alarming. It evoked cascades of fear colors, yet conveyed no more content than the barking of the gray savages the humans had dubbed Neyel.

“Speak intelligibly. Whathas vanished?”

The fear colors oscillated, brightening and darkening by turns. The emotional chiaroscuro was beginning to affect Yilskene’s own equanimity.

Ruskene [the Sallow] began to regain some composure. “Both of the captive vessels, Admiral. They are gone. And their disappearance coincided with momentary gaps in the energy web. Perhaps they disrupted it in some manner, and then escaped.”

Yilskene blazed in rage colors. Human deceit. The Terrans and the Neyel are indeed alike.

He decided that Captain Sulu should not have to wait any longer for his appointment with death.

“They must be heading for the rift into the OtherVoid at the system’s edge, with their invader allies,” Yilskene declared, his bodyplanes grinding against one another in outrage. “Inform the fleet. We shall mount pursuit.”

Let’s hope this works,Sulu thought.

The bridge lights dimmed as Excelsior’sdeflector grid brought the output of the mighty starship’s warp core, tractor beam, and shield generators to a sharp focus on four of the energy web’s nearest vertices. With Oghen’s Flamesecurely enfolded in both her shields and tractor beam, Excelsior[272] surged forward at high warp, suffusing the bridge with a deafening whine of labored systems and the smell of ozone.

On the main viewer, the nearest portions of the Tholian web curled away and vanished, like leaves caught in a gale. At Sulu’s order, Akaar changed the image to an aftward view, confirming that the oblate cylindrical shape of the partially repaired Oghen’s Flamewas following about ten kilometers behind Excelsior,riding on a slender beam of refulgent tractor-beam energy.

“We’re coming up on the interspatial boundary in ten seconds, Captain,” reported Lojur from the forward navigation console.

Precisely ten seconds later, Sulu experienced a brief sensation that was not unlike freefall—only the effect seemed to be confined primarily to his stomach. With merciful swiftness, the discomfort passed.

“Status report,” Sulu said, leaning forward in his command chair.

In front of him, Lojur swiveled his seat backward and met Sulu’s gaze. “Navigational monitors confirm we have entered interspace,” the Halkan said impassively. “At this velocity, we should make contact with the far terminus of the interspatial rift in approximately seventy seconds.”

From the Tholian back forty to the Small Magellanic Cloud in just over a minute,Sulu thought, sparing a moment to marvel at the feat his crew had just performed. Not bad at all.

From tactical, Akaar said, “I read positive tractor beam contact with Oghen’s Flame.Shields are holding, though they are attenuated because of their coverage of both ships.”

“Well done, people,” Sulu said, speaking to the entire bridge. He felt a surge of pride, but put it aside. The ship was by no means out of danger.

Turning his chair toward starboard aft, he addressed Tuvok and Rand simultaneously. “I want an aft sensor [273] sweep. Check for signs of pursuit. Monitor any Tholian comm traffic that might be spilling into the rift.”