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“Oh, they are intelligent, all right,” Dr. Lense said, nodding. She pointed to a body floating beyond about twelve humanoids. “A hive-mind sort of intelligence, more than likely passed down from one generation to the other. There’s one of the egg-layers.”

Geordi followed where she was pointing and finally saw one of the adult creatures, clearly dead.

“More than likely there was an entire swarm of these things that took over this ship, but they must die when they lay their eggs.”

“And now we have a new swarm growing right in front of our eyes,” Gomez said. “The offspring of a swarm that killed hundreds of thousands of humanoids for food.”

“Exactly,” Dr. Lense said.

Geordi tried to imagine a man-sized creature that looked like a crab and wasp coming at him. He didn’t like the thought at all. But Dr. Lense’s theory did answer one question.

“That explains why this ship was attacking the farming colony,” Geordi said.

Dr. Lense nodded. “They were looking for more food, so that more of their young could be born.”

They all stood there in silence, watching the creatures grow larger and larger by the minute. Finally, Vale asked, “Now what do we do?”

“We get team two,” Gomez said, “and return to the da Vinci . The last thing the Federation needs is a swarm of humanoid-eating creatures attacking ships. So, we’re going to toss this thing into the sun before any of these creatures can escape.”

That will not be allowed.

The voice seemed to fill Geordi’s head, making him feel dirty.

All of them, including the two Bynars, had their phasers out at the same instant. But the voice hadn’t come from one place. It had come from the hive, and Geordi knew it.

Slowly, Geordi made himself look back at the port. At least fifty of the half-eaten humanoid bodies were now lined up facing the viewport, like soldiers on a field. The young creatures were almost four inches long, and getting bigger and bigger as they ate. Bones were starting to show, and creatures crawled in and out of the eyes and mouths.

And as they ate, the dead bodies seemed to jerk and dance, always keeping in a precise line, staring at Geordi and the rest of them.

“We should—”

“—leave.”

“Agreed,” Gomez said. “Let’s move, people.”

That will not be allowed.

Again the hive voice filled their heads.

“Geordi,” Gomez said, “you’ve got four minutes to find a way to block that thing. And by that I mean one minute. Got it?”

“Yes, sir,” Geordi said. If he cross-routed the tricorder circuits the way Deanna Troi had once shown him, Geordi thought, he could set up a static field to block the creature’s telepathic broadcasts—probably throughout the ship.

Then the time for thinking was over. Geordi ran at full speed right behind Gomez and the Bynars and Dr. Lense. Only Vale was behind him.

CHAPTER

10

Captain Gold was stunned as he watched what he had thought was a dead ship come alive right before his eyes. The shields that he had studied on the tapes of the battle between the Beast and the Enterprise suddenly flowed from the ship like water, pouring out and covering everything.

“ Da Vinci to insertion teams.”

He waited, hoping for an answer, but he knew that the teams were too far inside the ship to be reached, and now, with the shields up, there was even more interference.

“What are they doing down there?”

“Sir,” Ensign Wong said, “it might not be them.”

“Shields up!” Gold shouted. “Red alert!”

The instant he gave the order, the ship below started to power weapons. A moment later, the blast rocked the da Vinci like a powerful earthquake shaking a building. Gold managed to hold on, but just barely.

“Shields at seventy percent,” McAllan said from tactical. “Damage on three decks. No one hurt.”

“Take us back and hold us just out of weapon’s range!” he ordered. “And work on getting a signal through to one of the teams. I want to know what’s happening down there.”

He turned to Lieutenant Ina. “Put out a call to the Enterprise . I have a hunch we’re going to need them back here at top speed.”

She nodded.

“Out of range, sir,” Wong said. “Holding position,