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"Hush, little one," soothed Shamraa Kaminor, his big, powerful body at odds with the soft voice and gentle handling of the child. "You'll be in loving arms soon."

"Blasphemy!"

The team whirled to behold a young woman. She was crying, but outrage shone on her wet face. "You blaspheme the Crafters by stealing the child that they have marked for their own!" The woman, probably the baby's mother, stooped to pick up a stone.

For a moment, they all stood still. This had never before happened to a Recovery team. They had gotten careless, failed to monitor their instruments to see if there were any Culilann lurking nearby. Sometimes mat happened. Sometimes someone, usually the parents, wanted to behold with their own eyes the Crafters taking their child. All that could be done in such situations was wait and hope the parents would grow weary of their vigil. Sometimes, and loni had seen it happen, the child had died before the parents left. loni wondered what the Culil of the village told a distraught mother at such times.

The woman pulled back her arm to fling the stone, and Ioni's weapon came up. She fired, two quick shots that ripped through the woman's torso. The Culilann woman fell without a sound, her belly blackened and smoking.

"Kilaa loni!" Kaminor's shout cracked loudly in the stunned silence. "What have you done?" loni regarded the dead body that a few seconds before had been a living, breathing woman. She felt no flicker of remorse.

"The right thing," she said.

CHAPTER 11

IT SEEMED LIKE AN ETERNITY PASSED BEFORE JANEWAY reached sickbay. After Ms ominous pronouncement, the Doctor had refused to say anything more until the captain was present.

Finally, the door hissed open. "What is it, Doctor?"

The hologram looked as distressed as Kim had ever seen him. Kim tightened his grip on Khala's hand, and she squeezed back.

"I hardly know where to begin," said the Doctor. "You all remember when we first brought Khala on board. We determined that her molecular structure was unlike anything we had ever seen, and you, Khala, were equally surprised by our molecular structure."

"I remember," said Khala softly, stoically.

"I believe I have determined the reason for that When I sat down to analyze the results of my examina-

tion, I noticed something distressingly familiar." He handed Janeway a padd.

"It's like what happened to the Romulan scouts," said Janeway, passing the padd on to Kim and Khala. Kim felt cold when he looked at the Doctor's analysis. The same thing was happening to Khala that had happened to the Romulan stowaways. One by one, slowly, not quickly enough for Khala to have experienced pain or even noticed it at all, her cells were simply vanishing.

"But this doesn't make sense!" said Kim, his voice rising in his anger and frustration. "There's no dark matter in Khala's system, none at all!"

"I am aware of that Mr. Kim," said the Doctor, a touch sternly. Kim bit his lip. "But it is precisely the same thing. I had no idea what was happening to the two centurions when pieces of their bodies flickered in and out of existence. I now know a great deal more about how this dark matter works, and what Lhiau's nefarious purpose was in causing it to mutate. I suspect that what was going on with the Romulans, and is presently going on with you, is parts of the body are slipping out of existence in this universe and manifesting in another one. With the centurions, the dark matter was forcing it to happen. With Khala, it's happening naturally."

"How can this be natural?" said Kim.

"Because," said the Doctor, looking at him levelly with dark brown eyes, "Khala does not belong in this universe. She originated in the Shadow universe. The Shepherds brought her here, into ours, to help maintain the balance of matter that Lhiau was manipulating. By the same token, Tom and Chakotay ended up in Khala's universe."

"Then you think the same thing is happening to them?" asked Janeway. "That they're-dissolving somehow, as