Precipice

He put his disruptor’s muzzle to the chain of the manacles binding her to the altar, and he fired. The chain disintegrated. As the cross fire continued around them, he pulled her off the obsidian slab and huddled with her behind it.

“Gutsy plan!” she shouted over the screeching of weapons fire, then ducked as a stray shot passed close overhead.

Gun-shy and bewildered, he yelled back, “What plan?”

Bridy pointed at the glowing gem. “We have to get the artifact before the Klingons beam it out!”

Qui

“I’ve got an idea,” Qui

That was as far as he got before the roof came down and a living nightmare of smoke, shadow, and fear dropped in.

T’Pry

Cascading into the cavernous chamber below, intermingled with smashed slabs of stone and an avalanche of dust, was a dark and chilling presence. As it poured into the temple, the air became cold and sharp with the odor of ozone.

Though she had never before encountered them firsthand, T’Pry

On the lower level of the temple, Zett Nilric, the Klingon commander, Qui

The Shedai surrounded the object with a dark tentacle of energy, cutting them all off. A second tendril of dark fluid snared the Klingon, then expanded into a black blizzard driven by a foul, cold wind. Within seconds it ripped the burly soldier to pieces, showering the walls with his magenta-hued viscera.

Reaching out with a tentacle that transformed into a dark vortex, the Shedai lifted the artifact high into the air.

The crystal flared with a blinding pulse of light. Beneath it, the pedestal shattered. The glyphs on the walls flickered like high-intensity strobes, and a tremor shot through the temple, splintering the floors and walls with cracks.

The few surviving Klingon soldiers and scientists evacuated the temple. McLellan evaded another falling section of the ceiling. Zett fled down a side passage, and Qui

This would seem an opportune time to withdraw,T’Pry

Drawn across the lonely silence of the void by a summons of inchoate pain and rage, the Shedai Wanderer had known that only the Telinaruulcould be responsible.

She manifested upon yet another former world of the Shedai that had been infested by flickers of life whose ephemerality was matched only by their arrogance. Who were they to defile a Shedai Conduit? To imprison one of the enumerated, one of the Serrataal,in this greatest of all abominations, this prison of dimensional folds disguised as a simple crystal?

Look at them flee in terror,the Wanderer gloated as she tore the first of the interlopers asunder. Seeing the simple being’s i

The Wanderer took the hated crystal from its interface and turned its vile machinations to her own purposes. She destroyed the pedestal—added ages earlier by another upstart species of Telinaruul—and focused her power through the Conduit. With the might of this young world’s fiery core yoked to her will, she could at last smash the long-hated abomination and welcome a partner in her quest for justice. Together they would usher in a new era of Shedai sovereignty.

First she needed to purge this Conduit of Telinaruul.

Then she would cleanse this poisoned world—and teach these sparks of consciousness to fear their betters.

48

Ragged chunks of the ceiling fell from high above Qui

The ruins quaked. Thunderous sounds reverberated in the temple’s walls and echoed through its passageways. A haze of dust rained down on Qui

All Qui

A massive slab of rock smashed down in front of Qui

He sprinted forward and almost impaled himself on Zett’s knife.

Twisting at the waist, Qui

Zett snapped his arm back to wind up for another blow. Qui

Qui

Noting Zett’s wide-eyed stare of surprise, Qui

Zett lunged as if hoping to gut Qui

The knife flew from Zett’s grasp and tumbled down the stairs behind Qui

As Qui

Fighting for breath and summoning strength to push through his pain, Qui

As he neared the top of the staircase, the tremors plaguing the temple worsened, and the mortar between stones in the walls began to turn to powder. Great fractures split blocks of sandstone with sharp cracking noises.

The staircase let out onto a wide, flat terrace nestled in the temple’s roof. Across a small gap, on an adjacent terrace, a Klingon shuttle was powering up to make a hasty retreat.

Zett sprinted toward the shuttle, apparently hoping that with enough of a ru

The assassin came to an abrupt, clumsy halt, pointed, and shouted in tlhIngan Holto the Klingons.

The Klingons stared in confusion for a moment before they realized Zett was pointing behind them, and they turned.

A tall spire toppled over and collapsed onto the Klingons and their shuttle. Tons of rock crushed the small spacecraft into a heap of twisted, sparking metal.

Having nowhere left to run, Zett turned and faced Qui

“Don’t be stupid about this,” Zett said as he lifted his sidearm from its holster using only his thumb and forefinger. “This place is eating itself. You can see that, can’t you?”

“Yup.” Gesturing with a tilt of his head, Qui