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Progress. “An alien wouldn’t take you aboard a Farrezzi ship—only another Farrezzi would do that. Do you want to look at your attacker?” The captain gestured at the shooter, lying unconscious in the corridor.

Reluctantly, Horr-Sav-Frerin moved toward the slaver, Kirk trailing behind it. Horr’s eyestalks wriggled as they examined it, though it always kept one pointed at Kirk. “Recognition!” it shrieked. “Recognition: affiliation!”

“Who?” asked Kirk.

“Group affiliation. Name: New Planets Cousins!”

“Who are the New Planets Cousins?”

“Function location ethics. Traders in interstellar space… morality dubious! Rumors! Slavers!”

“The New Planets Cousins are rumored to be slave traders?”

“Affirmation! Exclamation of woe! Repetition!”

“Do you know who the Orions are?” asked Kirk.

Horr jerked its tentacles. “Identification role ethics. Aliens traders morality dubious.”

“I think the… New Planets Cousins were planning to sell some of your species to the Orions, taking advantage of the fact that your people were all in suspended animation. They must have set it up so they would wake first.” Kirk gave Horr an expectant look, hoping his deductions made sense.

“Affirmation. New Planets Cousins past status: hibernation-opposition. Rationale: destabilization trading relationships.”

Everything in the room began to tremble, vibrating at an intense rate.

“James-Kirk-Enterprise. Assistance requirement! Phenomenon identification!”

Was it a groundquake? No. Kirk recognized the feeling of a ship’s engines gaining power. “Horr-Sav-Frerin, the ship is about to blast off.”

“Still stable,” Singh reported from the helm.

Uhura’s left hand flicked up to her ear instinctively. Nothing there. It was not very often she sat in the big chair, and each time she felt the weight of being responsible for the Enterprise.

An hour into the distortion, and the deck was still rumbling. However, there were no other problems. Sensors and lights had gone out a few times, but they’d always come back on. It would take the Enterprise approximately three days to clear the distort-zone at this rate, but they would make it. Uhura hoped the landing party was safe on Mu Arigulon; Ensign Padmanabhan had run simulations assessing how these incursions would affect a planet. She hoped he was wrong.

“Ensign Padmanabham, report.”

“We’re getting some amazing stuff on this new universe, Lieutenant,” he said. “Too bad we can’t send a probe through one of the deeper distortions.”

They’d had this discussion earlier. Singh had pointed out that if the distortions reacted to warp fields, dropping a probe into one was probably inadvisable. Padmanabhan had insisted that an automated one had skirted this region before. Ultimately, Uhura had decided not to launch one of their own.

“Flight path, Ensign?”

“Everything looks clear,” Padmanabhan reported. “The other universe is at eight percent permeation ahead of us.”

The lights flickered out, then came back on.

“Nine percent,” Padmanabhan amended, “but still steady.”

The unreliability of the ship’s systems made even the simplest task a challenge. Computer failures had been intermittent. The crew had switched off almost every automated system, relying on human control.

Another low rumble, then the lights flickered off again, along with all of the displays. After a few seconds, the lights came back up—but Singh’s console did not.

“No engine control,” he said.

Uhura pressed the comm button for engineering. “Lieutenant DeSalle, keep the bubble steady—”

She was interrupted by a chorus of alarms from Padmanabhan’s controls. “Total collapse!” he shouted over the racket. “Other universe at seventy-five percent!”

Uhura felt the explosion, then the entire ship shook as though it had been hit by a giant’s fist. The force of the tremors was so immense that she was tossed out of her chair. She landed hard on her knees and hands, her head just missing the base of Singh’s chair.

Singh was quickly back in his seat, apparently unharmed. “Massive