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By Root 596 0

young friend," said the man, whom Janeway presumed was Eriih. "You would not want to see what has become of the Kwaisi. The Council has been overthrown, terror rules the streets. There have been mass suicides. Weapons have been stolen and aimed not at enemies but at friends. Find a world that will welcome you, not this rock of hatred."

"We can cure your people," said Janeway, rising and stepping down to the viewscreen. "All we ask is assurance that you do not attack us."

"I cannot give such an assurance," replied Eriih. "Whatever it is you intend to do to us, it cannot be worse than what we have done to ourselves." He pressed a button on the console in front of him, and the screen was once again filled with stars.

"How much longer until we reach orbit?" asked Janeway.

"Eighteen minutes, twenty-two seconds," replied Tuvok.

"Senior staff to ready room. Now."

The meeting was of necessity brief. Janeway filled her staff in on the exchange with Eriih. "There are no assurances that whatever weapons are on the planet won't be trained on us," she finished.

"There are not many weapons that could threaten this ship on the face of the planet," said Ulaahn. "And from the sound of things, most of them have been trained on other targets. Kwaisi targets," he said bitterly.

'Torres? The planet can wait. It's the people who are posing the threat, and who need to be healed the fastest."

"We don't need to actually beam anyone aboard this ship," Torres pointed put. "All we need to do in order to remove the dark matter is dematerialize them and separate it out. We can do that right on the planet without taking them anywhere. We can accommodate more people if we take certain computer functions off-line and use those terabytes to increase the size of the transport buffer."

"How many at a time?" asked Janeway.

Torres thought. "Probably up to two hundred, two twenty at a go. As I say, it will mean shutting down certain computer operations. It is not without risk."

"How risky?"

"If you'd asked me a month ago, I'd have said the risk was high. Now? Minimal. We've gambled so much in the last few days, Captain, that I think we finally know what we're dealing with."

Janeway considered all the information, then put her hands down on the table. "Let's do it."

"ENTERING ORBIT AROUND THE KWAISI HOMEWORLD," stated Tuvok. "There is no sign of aggression from the planet."

"Red Alert." The bridge darkened and the too-familiar red pulse began. 'Torres, you may begin shutting down all nonessential computer operations. Get that pattern buffer as large as you can make it. Kim, monitor all signals from the planet I want to hear the Kwaisi reactions, if any, to what we're about to do."

Kim swallowed. Janeway knew she was asking him to juggle more balls in the air than he had ever attempted before. Gamely, he replied, "Aye, Captain."

"Ulaahn, do you have a suggestion as to where we should begin?"

He was staring at the image of his planet in the viewscreen. Janeway had to repeat her question. He jumped, as if startled out of a deep reverie.

'Takna-Marr is the capital city," Ulaahn said. "It has the largest population. It's also where the most weapons are located. I would begin there."

"We're starting with the capital city of Takna-Marr," Torres told her team. Seven entered the coordinates.

"The population is four hundred twenty-two thousand," said Seven. She raised a golden eyebrow. "This may take some time."

"We need to identify and focus on those individuals in whom the concentration of dark matter is greatest," Telek reminded them.

"That, too, may take some time," said Seven.

It did, but not as much time as they had feared. They divided the city into square-kilometer portions and scanned those areas individually. They found only ten thousand two hundred twelve who had any concentration of dark matter at all, and of those, four hundred two registered dangerously high levels.

"Let's get them," said Torres. "Engineering to bridge. We've targeted