("The Wolves of the Deep", Act II)

"STAR AND CIRCLE: THE SEEKER'S FIRE"
EPISODE NINE: "THE WOLVES OF THE DEEP"

(disclaimers and associated descriptions in overture)

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        <<ACT TWO>>

        <!Look, look, look!>

        <--See, we do--> the elder thoughtfully replied, as the mists-of-home parted to reveal the location they had fled from some time before. <--The damaged one still there, is -- but larger mate has come to rescue! Perhaps unneeded we are?-->

        <//Do not be so quick to judge\\> another elder cautioned, as the flock settled into position around the two visitors to their domain. <//Remember, do you, the lessons learned from investigations of past?\\>

        The elder remembered the frightening times, of course -- when he had been the youngling, and other elders guided the flock through the currents. He remembered the black-screamers who had hunted the Fen, and the other creatures who had walked through the Home-mists, the Singers and the Others. There was the legend, of course, that told of the time when the Others and the Fen had spoken with one another on a regular basis. The time-of-peace that had ended in the chaos-wars -- the generations in which the black-screamers and the Singers had walked in increasing numbers between the bright-places where the blue- and red-holes were most numerous. The age that had come to a sudden and astonishing end when he had been young.

        During those times, legends had also come to them of other flocks seeing metal-craft being attacked by the black-screamers and killed. The elders and wild-ones of those flocks had investigated afterwards -- and their senses had often revealed small-things trapped within, some living, but most dead. While every metal-craft they had witnessed trapped by the currents had been destroyed. <--Remember we do. Current is coming... is almost here! Even greater metal-craft may not survive if we do not help -- younger one that eater attacked will almost certainly be destroyed.-->

        <#What we do?> one of the youngling troop asked. <#We help, we help?#>

        The elder paused for a moment -- but then, a ripple of current passed across the flock, and its tendrils tightened decisively. <--Feel the current coming, do you? It is near, now.-->

        <*Feel it, feel it, yes!*> another youngling sang. <*Ride coming real-soon-now?*>

        <//Only your second time to visit the feeding grounds, child...\\> the other elder observed with no small amusement. <//Ready are you, to visit the place where born you were?\\>

        <*Ready, yes!*> The youngling shuddered, then, as the tendrils of current around them began to increase in strength. <*Right we were to return... help we must!*>

        <--Yes--> the elder replied. And shortly thereafter, the flock-masters gave their instructions, and the eager-if-cautious troop of Younglings swept towards the metal-things, their purpose clear.

* * *

        "What are they doing?" Sakalia roared, as the smaller jellyfish-creatures in the flock of Fen surrounding his White Star suddenly swept towards them. "Ah, Hell, this is what I was afraid of. Do we have enough power to..."

        "No!" Sheynell suddenly cried out, "Don't try to break away. They mean us no harm, Mr. Sakalia -- what they're doing, it's for a reason!"

        "And how," Sakalia retorted, his expression suspicious, "Did you happen to come to that conclusion?"

        "I..." Of course -- they were in hyperspace, and that meant only one thing. "As I told you when we came aboard, I'm a P12 -- don't you remember what you learned in Tuzanor and on Babylon 5?"

        Sakalia grimaced. "Oh yeah... your abilities are stronger in hyperspace, right?" She nodded. "So what's the connection?"

        "I think they're telepaths!" Sheynell carefully explained, as she whirled towards Sakalia's first. "Dashael, can you get me a..."

        <chime> "Val'na Tikopai..." the Minbari wryly replied, "Wishes to speak to you, Anla'shok Keynes."

        She laughed -- there Julia went, one step ahead of the power curve, as usual. "What a surprise..."

        "Sheynell," her captain inquired a moment later, as two of the massive jellyfish creatures settled into position above White Star 121, and four more did the same above the nearby SHARD OF NIGHT, "You wouldn't happen to be receiving anything from these things, would you?"

        "Nothing concrete, yet," she replied, "But what I *am* getting loud and clear is that the Fen are worried about us, Val'na -- while some of the smaller ones above us seem to be, for want of a better description, *guilty* about something, as well. And also, that whatever they're about to do is for our own good -- something's about to happen, I'm sure of it!"

        "Guilty?" Sakalia mused. "What do they have to be guilty about?"

        Sheynell closed her eyes... and gasped, as a *vivid* image suddenly came into her mind -- a vision of a torpedo-like creature with rows of silvery metal teeth. "Oh!"

        "Here, sit down." Still shuddering slightly from her contact with the almost frighteningly alien minds of the Fen, she wasn't about to argue with Sakalia's suggestion. "What did you see?"

        "A predator, I think -- perhaps the thing that attacked you. They.... I think they came back to help because they're guilty about the predator attacking you by mistake!"

        "Can you talk to them?"

        "Not yet." she replied, as the headache she'd been afraid of began to arrive full-force. "It was bad enough receiving the images..."

        That, of course, was the moment the Fen chose to wrap their tendrils carefully around White Star 121, and every Ranger on the bridge stumbled as the gravity-control systems compensated for the sudden upwards *rush* as the jellyfish proceeded to hoist the warship closer to their bodies. "Damage report!" Sakalia barked, as a faint slithering sound vibrated its way through the hull... and everyone tensed as the tentacles of their 'resucers' tightened around them.

        "Damage is... negligible, sir." a surprised Dashael replied a moment later. "The Fen appear to be exercising a great deal of caution -- the hull, even in its present state, is more then capable of standing up to the pressure exerted by their tendrils."

        "Okay," Sakalia continued, "Now, the question is, *why* have they grabbed us?"

* * *

        "We are safe, if captured." Larieken indicated, while Julia looked out upon the massive forms of the creatures surrounding them, and tried to figure out what was going through the minds of those *gigantic* creatures of the hyperspace sea. Now that Sheynell had assured them the intent of the Fen was benign, her Observer's talent had come out full-force, as she began trying to figure out what was going on here. "I cannot, however, answer the rest of your question for the time being... hold."

        "What's going on?"

        "May I suggest you return to your seat?" Larieken replied, his eyes widening as the SHARD's wide-spread sensor net suddenly began sending what turned out to be a *much-needed* alert of a change in the pattern. "The whiskers appear to have detected your 'hurricane', Val'na... coming this way."

        Oh... dear. "You're sure?"

        "Very." the now grim-faced Minbari replied, as his fingers flew over the controls at his station. "A vector change of over five hundred percent is expected at this time. It will be necessary to compensate for the bow-shock to come..." Larieken paused then, however, his surprise evident to all. "Fascinating -- the main computer has ordered a *full* retraction of the sensor network, while the gravity control systems have become more focused..."

        Julia let out a long breath as she settled into her chair at speed -- another aspect of the mysterious reverse-engineered Vorlon technology built into the SHARD by the Minbari named Varsak had just revealed itself -- and if the situation hadn't been more critical, she knew she would have immediately ordered a study of the new and surprising revelation... but it looked like time was something they were about to run out of. "A crash field." she whispered. "Fascinating is right!"

        "And useful, of course." Larieken reminded her, as the reddish fog of hyperspace began to brighten towards orange in front of them. "Stand by -- the hyperspace front is less then thirty seconds distant."

        "All hands, this is the captain!" Julia exclaimed, as Larieken, anticipating her move as usual, opened a channel ship-wide. "Move to collision stations, I say again, move to collision stations! Hyperspace wave impact imminent!"

        "That, I suppose, will have to do." Larieken drolly commented, as the final seconds ticked by... as the veil in front of them ripped apart to reveal a *huge* orange-white bubble of energy moving towards them -- a bubble that quickly expanded to fill half their sky. "Twenty seconds to impact."

        "You're not complaining about my delivery style again, are you?"

        "Now why would I have cause to complain about that? Ten seconds."

        "Now hold on just a..."

        "Zero."

        She'd told herself she was ready, of course... but even though the Fen were holding them tight, even though the ship *itself* had reacted to the threat, a sudden, shocking wave of gravitational force still swept across the SHARD's interior... and Julia had not even time to gasp as that wave slammed through her, and she sank down into darkness, fighting that reaction all the way.

* * *

        <!Strong, strong, stronnnngg!> the youngling Fen sang, as the current-front reached the flock, grabbed them and the visitors to their domain, and swept them towards their distant goal. <!Best ride ever!!>

        <--Hold strong!--> the elder reminded the youngling-troop, as the wave front disappeared in front of them, and the flock settled down into the current-stream behind it, their bodies now axial with the direction of current. <--If lose hold you do, creatures inside metal-things will be torn by tide! This fate, they do not deserve to suffer-->

        <*Did you hear Singer before current came?*> another youngling suddenly asked.

        The elder paused, his thought-stream shocked by the question. Was time now to look once again into memories-of-event -- yes, the youngling had been right, again!.. much strength-of-thought there was in the new generation to be right so often. <--Strong you are to sense this, youngling... many surprises you give us.-->

        Interesting this was, the elder considered... so concerned had he been with the capture operation prior to the arrival of the current that he had not noticed the presence of a *Singer* amidst the small-creatures... had not detected the song within the confines of the visitor-craft the eater had attacked -- very rare, this was. <--Cannot detect song now... all is silent within the things-you-hold.-->

        <#The current harmed them#?>

        <--Perhaps--> the now worried elder replied. What if the shock-of-current had killed the small-creatures and the Singer in the things-they-held? If true this was, his intent-to-save might have failed. The thought was a grim one... but no, he was again being overly hasty -- the elder decided to settle his thoughts and waited for some sign that all was well within the shells they held... that the small-creatures and the Singer yet lived.

* * *

        <flash>

        "Who are you?" a voice asked, as Julia stood upon the black ground and gazed towards a lightning-filled horizon. "What do you want?"

        "Galen?"

        "Who do you trust?"

        "Are you talking about the Fen?" she screamed into the wind. "Should we trust them?"

        "Your decision." the voice replied, its tone now amused. "For now, however, it is time for you to..."

        "...Wake up!" another voice shouted, and she blinked -- and then she cried out at the pain... her head!

        "What... what happened?"

        "Hold very still." Larieken told her, as she opened her eyes, and then quickly closed them again, as nimble fingers reached out to place someting cool on her forehead. "Anla'shok Nividia is presently sealing the cut you received during the impact... while headache complaints are being reported ship-wide -- do not be surprised if you received a concussion during our collision with the hyperspace bubble."

        A few moments later, and despite Larieken's protestations, she was back on her feet -- a protest she responded to by indicating that the painkillers Taylene Nividia had given her were working fine, thank you very much, and what was the situation?

        "I cannot give you a 'concrete' answer, for now." Larieken eventually replied, as the bridge slowly began returning to normal. "The Fen are still holding us tightly, however -- while we appear to be moving along in the wake of the hyperspace wave-front... our speed appears to be considerable."

        "And our destination, brave sailor?" she replied with a smile.

        "We appear," Larieken replied, taking her joke in stride as usual, "To be moving towards the node I mentioned to you previously -- the heart-point of this entire region."

        "The Perseus Clusters."

        "As you call them, yes. We must, however, consider the possibility that the current passes through that area and out the other side."

        "But you don't believe that, do you?"

        "Beliefs and reality do not always coincide." Larieken reminded her.

        "How long until we reach the clusters?" she bluntly asked him.

        "At our present rate of closure, I estimate no more then nine standard hours."

        "Then I guess we'll find out in nine hours which hypothesis is the right one, won't we?" Julia stated with finality, as she moved to leave the bridge. "While since we appear to have a little bit of time to kill, I prescribe a meal and a nap... for both of us."

        "Ah." Larieken said, as a grinning Dasouri moved to take the conn, "That reminds me of something I have been meaning to ask you about for some time -- this confusing Earth proverb that refers to 'the chicken and the egg'."

        "Later, okay?" she replied, now with a smile, as they left the bridge together. "I'm *starved.*"

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To be continued...

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