Precipice

The monster doubled in size as it pursued them down the passageway toward one of the temple’s secluded interior courtyards. It bashed through walls and load-bearing columns, and it swatted away multiton slabs of rock as if they weighed nothing at all. It’s a goddamned self-propelled demolition machine,Qui

At the threshold of the courtyard, the creature had them. Fire and fury blazed in its very essence. Its tentacles reared up and coiled to strike.

Then it shrieked as if in agony, and it contracted in size. Immediately it turned away and charged back inside the temple, hammering through anything and everything in its path. In its wake lay nothing but rubble and dust.

Bridy looked apprehensively up at the crumbling temple ruins surrounding them. “We’re trapped,” she said.

Qui

49

T’Pry

At the front of the group was a tall human woman with fair skin and brown hair. She wore a gold tunic whose sleeves bore the stripes of a lieutenant commander, and she carried a type-II phaser. Making eye contact, the woman asked, “Are you T’Pry

“I am.”

“Report. Quickly.”

T’Pry

“Lieutenant Commander Katherine Stano, first officer, U.S.S. Endeavour.” Stano nodded to a dark-haired human man who stopped beside her. He wore a blue tunic and held an octagonal crystal device in one hand. “This is Lieutenant Stephen Klisiewicz, science officer.”

“Very well,” T’Pry

A tall, brown-ski

Stano noted T’Pry

T’Pry

“Okay,” McGibbon said. “Let’s do this.” He nodded to his platoon of red-shirted security officers, who fa

Pe

Gri

Horrified, Pe

Before anyone could answer the anxious reporter, a hideous shriek rose up from the temple and split the night. Then came the low rumble of destruction and the steady rhythm of impact tremors shaking the sand under T’Pry

The Shedai was coming.

With an epic roar, it burst free of the mountain of pulverized rock that once had been a temple.

It swelled as it surged forward, lashing out with tentacles that glowed with millions of motes of energy. Burning in the center of its mass was the twelve-sided crystal object T’Pry

McGibbon raised his phaser and ordered his men, “Fire!”

Bright blue phaser beams slashed the darkness and struck the Shedai with electric flashes. None of the blasts seemed to cause the creature any harm; if anything, it only grew stronger.

Stano glanced sidelong at Klisiewicz. “Now?”

“Not yet,” said the science officer, his thumb hovering above a button in the center of the device in his hands.

The Shedai scuttled on its tentacles and rapidly crossed the open ground separating it from the landing party. It closed to within twenty meters and was sprouting new tendrils with which to strike.

Visibly nervous, Stano asked Klisiewicz, “Now?”

“Wait for it,” he said.

The ends of the Shedai’s tentacles solidified into obsidian and shaped themselves into massive spearheads.

“Now,” said Klisiewicz, pressing his thumb on the button.

The device in his hand pulsed with blue light—and then so did the crystal artifact inside the Shedai’s body. A volatile reaction ensued around the crystal polyhedron.

Another horrific shriek emanated from the Shedai. It shrank rapidly and forcibly ejected the artifact from its body. The crystal tumbled like a die over the sands and rolled to a stop a few meters from the landing party. Then the Shedai flew straight up, away from the object, toward orbit.

The XO pulled her communicator from her belt. “Stano to Endeavour.”

A woman replied over the comm,

“Go ahead, Commander.”“Captain, Xiong’s little gizmo did just what he said it would, but you’ve got one ticked-off creature heading your way.”

“She’s already gone,”said the Endeavour’s commanding officer. “Broke orbit at full impulse and didn’t look back—just like the Klingons.”

“Chalk that up as one little victory,” Stano said.

“Let’s not celebrate yet. What’s your status?”

Stano surveyed the landscape. “We’ve secured the Mirdonyae Artifact, and the locals seem to have the Klingon garrison under control.” From the far side of the ruins, a nondescript small spacecraft lifted off and cruised away toward the horizon. “Any word from our little cousins?”

“Affirmative,”Khatami said. “They say hello, but they really must be going.”

“Acknowledged,” Stano said. “Stand by to beam us up. Stano out.” She flipped her communicator shut and looked at Klisiewicz. “Go get the artifact and prep it for transport.” Then she nodded at McGibbon. “Lieutenant, you know what to do.”

McGibbon pointed his phaser at T’Pry

T’Pry

Another security guard confiscated T’Pry

“Timothy Pe

As the security team closed magnetic restraints around his and T’Pry

“Ah, yes,” he said. “I’d almost forgotten about this part. Our heroes’ welcome.”

Qui

Bridy stepped into the cockpit, followed by Noar, the female leader of the squad of nomads she and Qui