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The big cat had heard the approach of Katal before any of the humanoids. Or maybe it’d sensed it, who knew. Regardless, now Moset himself could hear the sound of footsteps coming down the corridor. He realized his hands were shaking as he filled the hypospray with the medicine that would be their hope; his hands, which had operated on countless thousands—

“Moset!” The Changeling wore the face of Andrew Ellis again. Moset knew the Changeling despised that face, yet he always reverted to it when tired; it took the least energy for him to maintain. “What are you doing? I thought you’d have everything ready by now. I brought some help.”

Moset’s heart sank as he saw three of the creatures standing at attention behind Ellis. They obeyed him, they served him…they loved him. The Cardassian’s first thought was worry, that they might get caught in what was about to happen, but now he steeled himself against the wave of paternal affection that washed through him.

They were made to be the Changeling’s creatures, not the Cardassian’s. Moset would simply have to regard them as casualties of war.

He cleared his throat. “I know it doesn’t look like it, but I have been preparing for our departure. First, pick a form and let’s stabilize you in case we run afoul of anyone.”

Frowning, the Changeling waved the hypospray away. “Get that thing out of my face,” he growled. “I need to be able to change, I’ve got a few more people to talk to.” He turned to the creatures. “Start taking equipment to the ship,” he told them. Obediently they lumbered to a corner.

Ellis sighed. “Look, I know you hate closing shop like this, but it’s necessary. Let’s put these three in stasis and…”

Moset followed the Changeling’s gaze and his innards clenched in horror.

“Why are their restraints undone?” On the alert, the Changeling plucked his phaser from his belt. At the same time the creatures were acting strangely, hooting softly and staring at the corner.

With a cry that really was almost sufficiently chilling to freeze blood, the spirit cat leaped from hiding.

Chakotay felt like a toddler learning how to walk. The knowledge of so many things was now encoded in his body. All he had to do, he knew, was understand that code and use it. At the sound of Black Jaguar’s cry, he bolted upright. All of a sudden he was bombarded with power akin to his own—power that, he knew, came from beings who, like he, had Sky Spirit DNA.

But this was as far a cry from the uplifting, invigorating, yet calming energy he had experienced on his spirit walk as could be imagined. For a moment Chakotay was paralyzed, gasping like a fish out of water as his mind struggled to make sense of the cloying, dark tendrils of insanity that closed upon him and threatened to drag him down.

This, then, was what it was like to be “gifted” with Sky Spirit DNA when the receiver had no idea what it was all about. The colonists—for it was indeed they whom Chakotay was sensing—were lost indeed, and their powers were base and primal and all linked with the simplest of needs—survival.

Fight it, Stone Keeper! came the voice of Black Jaguar in his mind, slicing through the haze of terror and confusion like a laser. Remember what you learned on your spirit walk!

With an enormous effort Chakotay wrested himself free, at least for the moment, and saw clearly what was going on. Black Jaguar, manifested in this physical world as a physical being, was locked in battle with the three creatures who had once been human. He saw her muscles ripple under her glossy black pelt, saw her trying to fight and yet not wound, for she knew, as he knew, that they were not the real enemy, but tragic beings lost to darkness, perhaps forever. All four combatants had an aura about them that was quite clearly visible to him. Black Jaguar’s was a rich indigo hue, vibrant and clean. All three of the colonists emitted auras that were various shades of sickly yellow and muddy brown, shot through with angry red.

I can see their souls, Chakotay thought with a rush of wonder.