"STAR AND CIRCLE: THE SEEKER'S FIRE"
EPISODE NINE: "THE WOLVES OF THE DEEP"
(disclaimers and associated descriptions in overture)
* * *
<<ACT FOUR>>
Captain's Log, I.S.A.S 'Shard of Night' - personal observations.
'For the first time in this voyage, I have encountered a situation that may be unsolvable... for any move I might make in this crossroads hidden away from the rest of the galaxy appears to lead to a certain unavoidable doom.
The most obvious doom, of course, is death -- for below and around us, the Fen, those jellyfish-like creatures who saved us during our encounter with the domain-current, those hyperspace creatures that offered their help when we needed help the most, feed upon the much smaller things that inhabit this enormous hollow node-structure at the heart of the Perseus Rift. I've come to the conclusion that somewhere in the area the rest of the wolfpack of predators the Fen name 'eaters' is lurking... and that sooner or later, they're going to attack. If we do nothing, and let this attack occur, then one or several of our new allies will certainly die. Some would argue that this is the way of things... that nature must be obeyed.
But what call is greater -- the call of nature, or the call of alliance? If we allow the Fen to be attacked and killed, their suspicions about us, about the 'creatures from beyond the holes' will surely be confirmed. They worry that we cannot be trusted -- if we allow the expected attack to occur, we will give them every reason never to trust the races of the Alliance again. This, to me, is an unacceptable option.
Another doom to observe is the doom of interference. If I choose to engage the eaters in combat and accept the task of protecting the Fen, someone back home will learn of what we have done, and, no doubt, will try and bring me up on charges of some sort... which will probably lead to the President being forced to relieve me of this command. Given the current circumstances in addition to our prior commitment to protect the starship EXCALIBUR, this is also an unacceptable option.
And finally... there is the doom of exploitation. Now that we have discovered the secret behind this region that eats ships -- what should be revealed to the galaxy at large? What compromise can we arrive at to ensure these creatures are not denied the habitat that is rightfully theirs?
So here I find myself, surrounded on all sides by dooms. If there is a way out, I do not see it...'
"You're worried, aren't you," a voice quietly observed, and Julia looked up from her desk as the now-familiar figure of her tactical officer, recently returned from White Star 121, came into the ready room. "About the Fen as well as the eaters -- about how much help we should give... and when. And about what you should report to the President... and what should only be told to our Entil'zha."
"Worried?" she replied with a bitter laugh. "That word doesn't *begin* to address this situation, Sheynell. Sooner rather then later, the eaters are going attack the Fen -- if I was a predator with *this* much prey around, not even our presence would delay my attack for long!"
"You want a way out of this that's best for everyone..." Sheynell mused, "A way that will preserve the lives of those who aided us... and also one that's not going to land you in hot water in the process."
"You're not peeking again, are you?"
The other woman smiled. "Maybe only a *little* -- okay, look, I've got an idea that might work... I've been thinking about this ever since I left Sakalia's White Star a short time ago, as a matter of fact. Fact -- hyperspace is essentially a vacuum, so speech as we know it is impossible. Fact -- the Fen are telepathic creatures, which is what allows them to communicate with one another.
Hypothesis -- the eaters are *also* telepathic..."
"You can contact them?" Julia breathed out. "Of course!"
"I don't think that telling them to go away and play nice is going to work, actually... I've got something else in mind."
At which point, Sheynell began to explain her theory... and as the explanation proceeded, Julia felt her fears began to evaporate. To the Shadows with what she'd just written! -- it looked as if there actually *was* a way out of this situation, after all.
"So what do you think?" Sheynell asked her, after the explanation of the plan was done.
Julia grinned. "'Make it so', Miss Keynes..." she intoned.
Sheynell sighed. "Mr. Dawson's been telling you stories about the dawn of the television age again, hasn't he?"
Both of them jumped then, however, as the sharp chime of battle warning sounded. "Val'na Tikopai," Larieken announced, his tone rather tenser then it usually was, "Could you and Anla'shok Keynes join us at this time? We have... visitors."
"The eaters?"
"As the Fen name them, yes."
"Sheynell -- how soon can you suit up?"
"It shouldn't take me more then fifteen minutes if all goes well..." the now-concerned telepath replied as they both moved out of the ready room at speed. "Can you keep the eaters busy that long?"
"Said predators," she replied, "Are about to find out they've bitten off more then they can chew..."
Which, of course, was when she got a look at the group of creatures hovering in hyperspace more then a thousand kilometres 'above' them. "...oh *my* -- Larieken, is..."
"The scale is accurate, yes." the Minbari replied. "The *smallest* of the creatures the Fen think of as 'eaters' is hardly smaller then a White Star -- while the largest..."
Was bigger then the SHARD, Julia quietly finished for him as Sheynell vanished from the bridge. "Your analysis?"
"One wonders," Larieken carefully replied, "How such creatures could have evolved in this setting -- but we cannot argue with what we see before us. That these 'eaters' possess a body structure capable of withstanding the hyperspace vacuuum is a given... their outer skin, for instance, appears to contain a strong web of metal fibers."
"Surprise, this is not." Dasouri bluntly commented. "Living ships of Shadows and Vorlons we have witnessed in our lifetimes -- Drazi scientists have long pondered concept of creatures with genetic code based on *metals*, not organics. May not creatures named 'eaters' be first possible example of such lifeforms we have encountered in our search?"
"That is a possibility I had also considered..." Larieken's voice trailed off, then, however... for that was the moment the eaters chose to move. "Fascinating -- these predators appear to possess at least *three* rotational propulsion organs. Their accelerative and maneuvering characteristics appear to be exceptional."
"Terrific." Dawson growled from his domain down below -- the engineer, of course, had been eavesdropping on the conversation, as often he did during times of crisis. "First jellyfish, then hyperspace currents, now predators with home-grown propellers? What are we going to run into next, the Loch Ness Monster?"
"Let's hope *not*," Julia replied, as she cast a critical gaze upon the tactical disposition of the eater wolfpack, as well as the now-contracted Fen swarm hanging above the hollow-world below. "I don't think I really want to meet the *next* step up the hyperspace evolutionary ladder right now... isn't one set of monsters at a time enough?"
"You got that right." Dawson fervently agreed, even as the crew watched one of the eaters open its mouth to reveal a long row of silvery buzzsaw teeth... each of which was many times the height of any of her crew.
"If we are going to do something," Larieken observed, his face now furrowed with concern, "We had best do it soon. The eaters are beginning to break up into pairs -- one set appears to be observing us closely, while the rest are moving in towards the Fen swarm..."
And then, all of a sudden, the jellyfish in question showed decided to show the Rangers they weren't *quite* so defenceless as everyone had assumed, as a brilliant greenish flash suddenly lit up the bridge.
* * *
The time-of-defence had arrived, as always it did in such circumstances. The elder-Fen knew what to do, of course... they had used this tactic against the eaters for as long as any of them could remember -- the knowledge of the defence being passed from generation to generation so that the People might survive. With the rest of its fellow guardians, the Elder had formed a sphere around their nervous offspring, and after a short discussion, proceeded to extend its tendrils out into the charged atmosphere-that-was along with the rest. Even here in the feeding ground, the charge was present... not so useful as it was outside what their new small-friend had thought of as an 'oasis' in the homeplace, but present nevertheless. Ready to be used.
As a fascinated Larieken would tell the rest of his comrades later on, the tips of the Fen 'tendrils' contained nodes that the huge creatures could charge at will, nodes that served to gather in the excess present charge of the hyperspace domain -- nodes that could, as Julia and her startled crew soon found out, cast out hundred kilometer long 'lightning bolts' at their enemies. The method was not entirely precise, of course... but even a full wolfpack of eaters was known to grow cautious when the angry Fen elders starting spitting electromagnetic fire in all directions... for even the *fastest* eater could be skewered on one of those bolts.
Unfortunately, of course, the same was true for the Interstellar Alliance ships commanded by Julia and Elai Sakalia, as well.
* * *
"Hell's Bells!" Sakalia swore, as hyperspace crackled with electric fire around his command, "Are they trying to get us all killed?"
Klairika, who had soon woken from her 'nap' after the two Ranger ships had arrived at the feeding ground, smiled mirthlessly in the direction of White Star 121's interim commander... it appeared that Mr. Sakalia would be sorely in need of some meditation after they departed from this place. But he was a human, of course... and as she already learned, that race was almost always inclined to make outbursts of this sort when faced with crises. "Observe closely, Mr. Sakalia -- note that the Fen are making a concerted effort to direct their... discharges away from our present location."
"Well I'll be damned -- I guess you're right. Do you suppose this will drive away those torpedoes-with-teeth?"
"I do not believe it will be that easy." she replied after a moment. "The eaters no doubt have expected this defence mechanism, and if too much time passes, and the Fen begin to tire, they may find a weak spot in the defence, and break through to make one or several kills."
"Doesn't sound to me," Sakalia observed, "Like your captain is willing to let that happen."
Klairika nodded. "As we have learned from her most recent communique to this vessel, Anla'shok Keynes will shortly be weaving her own defense into the matrix the Fen have constructed."
Klairika watched Sakalia's eyes darken at that point, and she knew why -- they had both read accounts of what Lyta Alexander had done for the Army of Light during the Shadow War... how she had once stopped a Shadow warship dead in space. Sheynell wasn't that powerful, of course... but she *was* among the most powerful P12 telepaths in her generation, and up until this point, she'd never unleashed her abilities in hyperspace.
That this was about to change was not in doubt -- how the eaters would respond to her presence, though, was the question of the hour.
* * *
She remembered the ceremonies, remembered the accolades. Remembered his words.
<flash>
"Even in the beginning, I knew you held the potential to become one of the strongest telepaths the Corps had ever seen..." Bester told her, his smile thin and enigmatic. "And that the future I forsaw would in no small part depend upon your actions. You came to me unsharpened, but with my guidance, you have become a fine-edged blade, Sheynell.
Don't you agree?"
<flash>
She had agreed, of course, before learning of the price she would have to pay for that agreement. Afterwards had come the penance -- for only by doing good could she exorcise the demons of her past. She clenched one hand tightly as the outer door of the airlock that lead to the hull shimmered and then pulled aside, and then she stepped out onto the semi-living skin of the warship she had come to call home, the boots of her Ranger survival suit automatically latching onto the hull as she took that first fateful step.
Above and behind her loomed the silvery-gray arch superstructure of the bridge.... to each side the barely seen sweep of the SHARD's port and starboard engine mounts -- and before her, the graceful sweep of the battlecruiser's mainline superstructure, terminating in the diamond tines of the main gun, almost half a kilometer distant at the prow. She looked up, then, keeping her breathing steady and sure as she gazed out upon the lightning-filled hyperspace realm around her. Reached out a little farther...
And then it was that she shivered, from head to toe. Bester had told her about the sensation, of course -- she had, of course, distantly noted the slight expansion of her abilities every time they'd moved through hyperspace in the past six months... but to experience this expansion from the interior of the SHARD was a candle compared to the flame she was sensing at this moment -- the flame her abilities had become, the instant she'd stepped outside into the hyperspace realm.
"Sheynell, can you hear me?" Her captain... her friend. Worried about her, of course, but confident that she could get the job done... that everything would turn out all right in the end. On occasion, she found Julia's omnipresent confidence and maturity a little irritating -- but not right now. For the time being, any candle to illuminate the darkness was a welcome one.
"I hear you," she whispered, as she extended her arms palms up -- her hands, were they trembling? Yes, they were... just a little. "This is... extraordinary, Julia -- I can sense everyone in the ship so clearly, I can hear the Fen talking to one another, their worries for their young, their determination to protect them from the enemy..."
The enemy. With that, her eyes grew cold and hard, and she whirled away from her prior contemplation and reached out towards the tiny pack of torpedo-like creatures whirling around the Fen, passing between the fiery lashes of their lightning. This looked like it would be more difficult then making contact with the Fen had been, but then again, this time she wasn't trying to talk to them...
She was only trying to frighten them away.
Was it a matter of different telepathic wavelengths, or was the situation more complicated then it appeared? They were out there, she could feel them -- in Valen's Name, she *had* to concentrate! Sheynell closed her eyes as she allowed herself to range out into the void, searching, searching...
Her eyes snapped open, and she smiled.
There.
"*Burn*." she whispered.
* * *
The eater whirled through the all-too expected electric fire cast out by the prey, and opened its metal-edged mouth -- soon enough, the sweet taste of the kill would come. The prey were beginning to tire, this was obvious -- the fire was beginning to reduce, and soon, very soon now, the gap would come -- and the time would come to dive upon the young prey, so *very* tasty they were...
And that was when it happened -- that was when the pain came upon it so unexpectedly. So shocked was it by the occurence that the eater abruptly lost control over its spinners, and began to tumble through the home-domain, crying out its pain to the rest of the suddenly confused pack. What had caused this? Was this some new defense the prey had devised, something unheard of in the memories of the Greater pack? It could not be... and yet the pain *continued*, on and on and...
And then, quite suddenly, the pain was gone -- but even as it considered what the origin could have been, two other members of the pain cried out their own distress, and the chaos spread. The eater ground its teeth before sealing its mouth shut against the cold-of-home... inevitably, if this unexpected attack continued, one or more members of the pack would wander into the path of a prey-discharge, and if that happened...
The consensus, when it came, was swift, although heatedly argued at first -- an argument that broke off in an agonized bellow when the hunter in question was swiped by a ribbon of prey-charge. Knowledge of this new prey-weapon would have to be shared with the Greater pack. The hunger continued unabated... but for the time being, it was better to be safe then sorry. Irritated as it was, the eater made the only decision it could for the time being and with the rest, made its way down into a cloud of prey-food, gulping down the (far less tasty) morsels that lived in that cloud of tiny creatures.
And then, the pack gathered together as one, casting baleful glances down at the swarm-of-prey below, as well as at the metal-things that accompanied them in the here-and-now. The hunter had its suspicions... but for now, the decison had been made, and could not be *un*-made.
There would be other times, and other hunts... but even as the pack turned and sullenly swam away into the mists, another consensus was arrived at. They would remember this outrage -- and the prey?
Their day would come.
* * *
<!Did this, you did?!> the youngling Fen asked Sheynell, as it hovered above the SHARD with the rest of its troop, the elders waiting patiently beyond. <!Frightened away the eaters?!>
<We owed you that much.> she replied. <We didn't know about the currents... but you did. And you were brave -- the companion-ship we name 'White Star' was attacked by the eater... but you still came back to help us. For that we are grateful -- and so I chose to help you.>
<#Singer very powerful!#> another Fen commented. <#Friend of ours, now?#>
<--A FRIEND INDEED--> the now-familiar rumble of the elder came down from above into her mind. <--The debt is now paid in full, sheynellkeynes -- what now you do? And where you go?-->
She smiled, as the Fen began to gather together. <We search for that which much be found -- we walk in the shadows, and protect those who must be protected...>
<--Admirable task, this is--> the elder admitted. <--But now time has come to depart -- if Fen stay in place for too long, eaters will certainly gather, and try again their attacks... may not go so well for us next time -- for you must leave us, sheynellkeynes, to search for that which must be found.-->
She nodded ruefully. <Then this is farewell, I guess.>
The Fen waved their tendrils, and something suspiciously like laughter came down to her along their link. <--Together, we are, always--...> the elder reprovingly informed her. <--Think of us when you move through the homeplace, and we will hear you-->
<I will.> she replied. <I promise!>
<#Farewell, mean what?#>
Then they understood. <!*#Farewell#*!>
"Farewell." Sheynell whispered, as she turned away from the sight of the departing Fen. "But not goodbye."
* * *
To be concluded!
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