Reap the Whirlwind

“Give me the tricorder,” Theriault said, holding out her hand to him. He pulled the strap over his head and handed the device to her. As she began sca

A prismatic fury pulsed and scintillated inside the machine, revealing countless dark silhouettes twisting in its indigo flames. Pe

“Tholians,” Pe

“I know,” Theriault said, watching the tricorder’s display as she slowly circled the machine. “They’re part of what makes this thing tick.” Just then the machine’s eerie disharmonies surged in volume and pitch, and high-frequency shrieks and wails surrounded them. Theriault winced momentarily and checked her tricorder again. “They’re in agony,” she said.

As if by reflex, Pe

She turned her head and glared at him. “Excuse me?”

“What?” His temper flared. “I don’t care what Starfleet said about my story, the Tholians destroyed the Bombay.”

“That’s right,” Theriault said, her sweet demeanor replaced by righteous anger. “They did.” She pointed up at the fiery violet globe. “But those are sentient beings. I don’t care what your grudge is with their people, I’m not being rescued by someone who’d applaud torture.”

Shame warmed Pe

“If you really want to say you’re sorry, you can help me find a way to free them,” Theriault said as she resumed sca

At a loss, he watched her. “How?”

“Look for some kind of control interface,” she said.

A majestic voice, like the roar of falling water married to the rumble of a stirring volcano, quaked the cavernous chamber and brought the pair to a halt. “Your efforts are for naught. Only the Serrataal can command the First Conduit.”

Pe

Looming over him and Theriault was a spectral giant rising from, and seemingly composed of, a polychromatic cloud of vapor. Bands of light, like miniature aurorae, orbited its body, and a golden radiance spread upward behind it. Its countenance was masked in a blinding shine brighter than the sun.

While the petrified journalist stood all but Gorgonized in the colossal entity’s gaze, Theriault stepped between them and spoke to it in a familiar tone. “Can you control it?”

“I can.”

“Then you can free the beings inside it,” she said.

A hard note crept into the radiant one’s mountainous baritone. “Not without causing great harm to the Colloquium….The Kollotaan are your enemies. Why do you wish them freed?”

Pe

Me, begging mercy for Tholians, Pe

The shining titan directed his attention at Theriault. “Do you also plead for the Kollotaan’s freedom?”

“Yes,” she said. “Can you return them to their ship?”

“I can,” he said after a brief pause. “And I will.” He ascended above their heads and drifted toward the screaming machine. “The others are coming. There is nothing more you can do here, little sparks. Flee to your friends. My partisans and I will do our best to shield your escape.”

Theriault grasped Pe

His last word was an irresistible command: “Go.”

Another skull-sized chunk of broken stone ricocheted off the top of the Rocinante. Qui

He gathered his tools and hauled the heavy toolbox back toward the aft ramp, noting with concern the speed with which fractures spread through the surface on which his ship stood. His pace quickened as he climbed the ramp. Time to get the hell outta here.

The aft ramp lifted shut with a slow, pathetic whine as he stowed the toolbox in the main compartment, which still stank of scorched metal and burnt duotronic cables. From the cockpit he heard Terrell talking to someone on the comm. “Can you see where you are? Any landmarks outside?”

“Not yet,” a woman replied, her voice shaking as if she were talking while ru

“Keep the cha

“Will do,” the woman said as Qui

Settling into his seat, Qui

“He found her,” Terrell said. “Now they have to get into the open so we can evac them.”

Firing up the engines, Qui

A buzzing from the overhead panel alerted Qui

“This is Rocinante,” Qui

The next voice on the cha

“A-firmative,” Qui

“Then I recommend you lift off and follow us out of the system immediately,” Nassir said. “We have company—a Klingon battle cruiser. They’ll make orbit in less than two minutes.”

“No can do,” Qui

“Send us their coordinates,” Nassir said. “We’ll beam them up before we break orbit.”

“Sorry, Captain,” Terrell said. “Too much interference. We can’t get a signal clean enough for transport. We’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way.”

Nassir’s anxiety was apparent. “However you do it, if you aren’t under way in the next sixty seconds you’ll be going toe-to-toe with a Klingon battle cruiser.” In a more somber tone he added, “Clark, I’m serious—we have to go.”

Terrell muted the cha

Guiding the ship forward out of its cover inside the hollow tower and back into the maelstrom of rain and lightning, Qui

“Then let’s go get him,” Terrell said. He reopened the cha

Qui