String Theory_ Fusion (Book 2) - Kirsten Beyer [136]
The course that lay before Janeway and Phoebe now, as the unknowing one surged forward, deviated somewhat from the master plan, but was, Phoebe had to acknowledge, a better means to the same end. Janeway would not die, at least not right away, but she would no longer be the Key’s owner. This would briefly forestall the further destabilization of the gateway Phoebe had worked so hard to avoid if Janeway died without opening the conduit. This would also buy Phoebe the time she needed to gather at least a few of those who had been waiting at Gremadia to take them to join the exiles in preparation for the battle that was surely to come.
In the meantime, the abominations would die, with all the others Kathryn held dear when the array was destroyed.
All in all, an acceptable compromise.
Too late Janeway realized that though her phaser rifle was still slung over her shoulder, she could not use it and hold on to the Key at the same time. She made the attempt anyway, but found that her hands were firmly glued in place around the Key. Casting a quick glance behind her, she saw the massive tattered sphere floating there. She took an instinctive step back, but almost tripped when her heel met the solid base that circled the floor beneath the sphere.
She didn’t know what the creature was, or why, unlike the others, it seemed to show no deference to her position as they Key’s owner. Its rage and hostility were palpable, and it took only a few brief seconds for her to resign herself to the inevitable.
Twenty meters.
Ten.
Oh, hell.
A brisk blast of noxious air assaulted her nostrils, but at the last possible moment, the creature was pulled from its intercept course.
Janeway lifted her eyes in awe as one of the Monorhans, one with a curiously familiar face, grasped the unknowing one it its arms and carried it safely away from the captain.
Assylia, she realized, her heart catching in her throat.
Then what became of Tuvok?
Janeway watched as dozens of others, seemingly on Assylia’s command, joined the fight, tearing at the creature’s wings and literally ripping it apart in a frenzied dance of survival. She was reminded of a holovid she’d once seen which showed in graphic detail the fury with which a pack of hyenas would descend upon a wounded lion.
Within moments, the horrific spectacle ended as the creature emitted a final weakened shriek and fell lifeless to the chamber’s floor.
It landed mangled, facedown. One of the small wormlike spores that Janeway had seen piled below Phoebe emerged from its remains and in a flash joined its companions.
Throughout this the Nacene who had emerged from their stasis chambers had begun to assemble themselves in a large group surrounding the pile. The Monorhans collected themselves in their own formation along the other side of the chamber.
Janeway repositioned herself beneath the sphere. In the apparatus at its base she could clearly see a half-circle indentation. She did not know exactly how she knew, but nonetheless she was absolutely certain that this had to be the lock that the Key was meant for, and that once the Key was placed there by her, the conduit would open.
“Kathryn,” Phoebe called.
“These life-forms,” Janeway asked, referring to the Monorhans, “how were they created?”
The death of the unknowing one had frustrated Phoebe’s plan yet again. She was forced again to face the lesser of the evils before her.
Just keep her talking until the array explodes. As long as it takes so that she doesn’t use the Key and open the conduit….
“The Monorhans who discovered the station were taken by the spores intended for my people,” Phoebe said.
“Taken?”
“We can only enter Exosia in a purified state,” Phoebe said. “To do otherwise would further unbalance our two realities. The spores were created to facilitate our final transformation. But as the Monorhans