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“Well,” said Kirk, “maybe we can return the favor.” He wished there was time to talk to these Farrezzi, get them to stand down. “You and I will go back, phasers set on wide beam. Incapacitate them, and mind the equipment.”

“Stun everyone, keep the controls intact.” Giotto smiled. “Easy. We’ll need some covering fire.”

“Horr and Neff,” said Kirk. The captain checked his phaser. “My power’s almost out.”

“Mine, too,” said Giotto. “If we fire on wide beam, that’ll be it for them.”

Kirk explained the plan to Horr and Neff. Chekov seemed to be recovering his strength. He was talking with the Farrezzi about their unusual physiology. For now the captain would leave the ensign with them.

“They’re not going to expect us to try again right away,” said Kirk. “Let’s go.”

Kirk and Giotto advanced cautiously up the tunnel, with Horr and Neff behind them. A shadow in the tunnel. The captain motioned to Neff, who fired up the corridor. There was a high-pitched squeal, and then a thump. They continued up the curving tunnel, Horr and Neff firing to deter anyone from coming at them.

A blast whizzed down the tunnel. It hit the tunnel wall, sending shrapnel in all directions. Some pieces hit the captain’s face, feeling like hot needles piercing his cheeks. They were almost to the command center. If the slavers were shooting at them, the doors had to be open. “Go!” Kirk said to Giotto.

The two Starfleet officers charged up the tunnel, running straight into the command center. “Your shot!” Kirk shouted.

Giotto fired his phaser on wide beam, and Farrezzi slavers at the control panels fell to the floor. Kirk counted four down—there had to be more. A second later, three popped up in one corner, bringing their weapons to bear. Before they could fire, Kirk pulled the trigger. They collapsed as well. The captain checked the power level on his phaser—dead. He continued to brandish it, as he searched the room. Cowering behind a control panel was a slaver.

“Put down your weapon,” Kirk ordered.

“Noncompliance,” said the slaver with a sneer. “Lack of victory.” All its eyestalks trained on Kirk as it raised its weapon.

Removing the sliver of metal from Uhura’s chest had been a relatively simple task, and she was now recuperating in the examination room. The doctor didn’t want to move her. McCoy now knew the only hope for the coma patients was to extract the Enterprise from the distortion zone.

While he was reporting to Lieutenant Sulu, McCoy wondered if he had learned enough to free the ship.

“So because this other universe has no … quantum entanglement, their minds found nothing and shut down?” asked Sulu.

“That’s how it sounded to me,” said McCoy. “None of them said quantum entanglement, but yes. They also kept going on about the Nothing.”

“Why did they make the medical staff hallucinate?”

“They weren’t thinking clearly,” McCoy admitted. “They’re desperate and confused, so they tried whatever worked. They never had abilities like this before—they’re only this powerful working together.”

Sulu had his arms crossed, a frown growing on his face as he listened. “Again, why?”

“At first, I thought they wanted to tell me what was wrong with them,” McCoy said. “They told me the Nothing would destroy the ship and that the Enterprise had to get out of here. They said, ‘Find another power.’”

Sulu was looking pale, as if he was about to keel over. “We’re dead in the water.” He called up a diagram of the Enterprise. Some sections were marked in green—SAFE—and others in red—EVACUATED. “We’re slowly losing the ship. The longer we sit here, the worse it gets. The other universe is leaking into ours, causing our equipment breakdowns and our power failures. I’d give it a day before we lose power entirely.

“Stay and die. Move and die. We get to choose between catastrophes.”

McCoy considered the espers’ cryptic suggestion. “Sulu, they said, ‘Find another power.’ Could they have meant one different from the Enterprise’s engines? When the portside computer banks exploded, they sent the ship spinning out of control. There was a lot of power