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“What am I supposed to do? Tell me. I’ve tried so many things, but none of them have worked.”

Get us away. It’s killing us.

“It’s tearing the Enterprise apart. Don’t you think we want to get away, too?”

WE MUST GET AWAY FROM THE NOTHING.

The thought blared into McCoy’s mind from every direction, reverberating and rippling. The whole emptiness was defined by that one idea.

“How do I cure you? Your bodies are all about to die out there.”

The only way to save us is to get the Enterprise out of here. The Nothing will destroy the ship if we stay, everyone will die.

“How?”

Power is the key.

“What do you mean?”

The Enterprise can’t move. Her power will be the ship’s death. The Nothing will consume us all.

“Don’t be so cryptic. What do we have to do?”

Find another power.

He couldn’t help but laugh at that. “And how am I supposed to do that?”

You will come up with something. We depend on it.

“Thanks. Will you let me go now?”

There was no answer for a long time. When an answer came, it was almost too weak to be heard. We don’t know how.

“What? You called out to me because you wanted to talk to me, but now you can’t let me out of here?”

We don’t have control over this… We are not keeping you here.

“I need to wake up. If I don’t, we might all die. There must be a way.”

The blackness did not answer this time. No voice rose out of it, no thought or word came to him.

McCoy was alone in the darkness.

Stardate 4758.3 (0639 hours)

With growing concern, Chapel watched the readout over the doctor’s biobed. He’d been under for fifteen minutes. At first his readings had been high due to the neural stimulant, but they had steadily dropped. They were starting to match the level of the espers’—their readings had sunk so low that they were all in danger of brain death.

“Why don’t you stand there and stare some more. I bet that’ll help.”

The insulting sarcasm was something she had trouble ignoring. Roger knew that. He’d been observing her and commenting on her actions, pointing out how unsuitable she was. She found it hard to concentrate. Hopefully, the doctor would find a way to banish him and the other unwelcome visitors.

Doctor McCoy had been adamant that Chapel not wake him up unless she absolutely had to. He needed to wake himself up. “The last thing I need is to be learning what’s going on and then have you tear me away. Let it go as long as you can.” But McCoy’s readings were sinking.

“I remember when you were a bioresearcher,” Roger said, relentless in his taunts. “We were pushing at the frontiers of medicine together. Now you just stand here holding people’s hands as they give up the ghost. What happened to you?”

“You happened to me!” Chapel replied before she could stop herself. “I went into space to find you. Starfleet needed nurses, not bioresearchers.” Fortunately, there was no one to hear her outburst.

“Well, that was stupid. You should have replaced me—just like I replaced you.” Roger held out his hand and suddenly Andrea was there—the android woman he had built. She never said anything in Chapel’s visions, she just stood there. Was she Roger’s perfect woman?

Her ruminations were interrupted by the sickbay door hissing open. She heard Assistant Chief Engineer DeSalle storming in, and knew he was headed for the control center.

The Enterprise’s situation was directly connected to the patients’ state. Chapel reasoned that she might be needed.

“I’m sure everyone really values the opinion of the ship’s nurse,” sneered Roger.

Roger could be such an ass. Chapel wondered why she’d never noticed it while he was alive.

She checked Doctor McCoy’s readings—they were holding. She called in Odhiambo to stay with him and quickly made her way to the lab/control room.

DeSalle was in the middle of his report when Chapel entered. “—position, the power systems are a patchwork of fixes. The real-space bubble is draining our power reserves.”

“We can’t move,” Uhura replied. “We know—” She stopped when she noticed Chapel and gave her a tired smile.