Star Trek New Frontier 08 Dark Allies

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Star Trek: New Frontier #008 Dark Allies
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ROLISA WAS THE GREATEST WORLD in all of the known galaxy.
It had started slowly, and certainly when one looked at the world's
earliest years, no one could possibly have seen it coming. The Rolisans
seemed a rather unremarkable people. Rolisa was not particularly lush nor
attractive. It was not strategically located. it had no resources that anyone
found attractive, and the Rolisans were mostly known for being of somewhat
sturdy stock, but not much else. Who knew?
Who knew that there would be a woman named Tara (that was as far
back as file ancestry could be traced) who would sire a child named Armlgo,
who in earn begat tzzo, who begat Faicco the Small. Faicco the Small tamed
out to be not only one of the greatest thinkers of Rolisa's history, but in fact
one of the greatest thinkers in the history of the quadrant. She took to
lecturing, putting forward philosophies and directions on how to live a good
life that were so pure, so unique in all of recorded history, that strong men
wept and women would dissolve in paroxysms of ecstasy. Word of Faicco
spread; eventually Faicco had two children, a boy, Milenko, and a girl,
Blaymore, who shared Faicco's gift. They went throughout their home sector,
and word of their teachings spread, carrying across the spaceways like
glittering dust.
Soon, races from all over the known galaxy were flocking to hear their
words. Means of communication being what they were, their words reached
places that never would have known such thoughts and concepts were
possible.
Different races fell over each other to show their gratitude by making
pilgrimages to Rolisa itself, the birthplace of the greatest sages known in the
history of sentient life. Rewards, technology and gifts were rained upon the
citizens of Rolisa. Unlike other instances in the past where races were
overwhelmed by such advancements, the hardy folk of Rolisa rose to the
task. They built upon what was given them, taking things in new and
unexpected directions. Rolisa grew in stature, wealth and power but power
used always for the common benefit, never for destruction. Rolisa became
the model of civilization for all, likened to such ancient and lost realms as
Atlantis and Ko'norr'k'aree. But Rolisa was not legendary; it was real,
gloriously real.
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Once begun, the wave of glory rolled over the known galaxy,
unstoppable, and who would have wanted it stopped? Within two hundred
years, as the descendants of Faicco, Milenko and Blaymore continued their
ancestors' great work, it was a time of unparalleled peace and prosperity.
Unthinkable, unbelievable as it seemed, there was no war, anywhere. All
races, from the least to the most advanced, had simply outgrown it. And no
one knew that it was only the beginning. Well... no one except such elevated
races as the Organians, for they knew that soon (soon being reckoned as
Organians reckoned such things) all of that which was considered mortal
would rise to their level.
And many millennia hence, that was exactly what happened. And lo...
there was glory everlasting, forevermore. In another universe.
"Universe" is a misnomer, for all of creation is, in fact, comprised of a
vast and wondrous multiverse, where many possibilities can occur. In one
universe, the humble world of Rolisa was the birthplace of a great and
transcendent fate for all of life...
... because, by an evolutionary quirk, the Black Mass did not exist in
that universe.
Here is what happened in a universe where it did exist...
Tara let out a screech as her stomach swelled almost to bursting. The
doctor crouched next to her, clutching her dark blue hand tightly, and said,
"Now breathe steadily... that's it... that's it..."
She groaned. "It's easy for you to say I should breathe easily. You're
not the one who feels as if a million needles were being jammed into every
pore of the body. You're not the one who has been carrying this gradually
growing lump of flesh in your belly for the past eleven months. Who in Krod
are you to say breathe steadily?" She tried to sit up, couldn't, and fell back
like a beached fish. "I'm trying to remember just why in the world I ever
thought this was a good idea, and nothing immediately comes to mind.
Where is my mate? Where is he?" she demanded.
"He would be here if he could," said the doctor soothingly. "Why isn't
he?"
"Because he wanted to be somewhere else," the doctor told her, and
then let out a yelp as she squeezed his fingers so hard that it threatened to
snap them off. The vents in his throat flapped quickly as he sucked in air to
prevent further unprofessional vocalizations of pain. He forced a grimace and
said, "Is that helping you... feel the pain less?"
"No," snarled Tara. "But making you suffer is helping me feel better."
"Whatever... works for you, then," he said gamely. "And if you break off
some of my fingers... that's... that's fine. I can always... grow new ones. It's a
long and... somewhat agonizing process... but I just want my patients... to
be. ~. unhhhh... happy..." "Right now, I'm ecstatic arrrhhhhh!"
That high pitched scream signalled the final moments of the birth. Her
outburst echoed to the sky, which was not surprising considering they were
outdoors. That was the traditional and preferred venue of a Rolisan birth,
since it was felt that if a child is coming into the world, then the child should
actually be exposed to that world as soon as possible. Tara had picked a
rather nice area, actually, a peaceful wooded site not far from her house.
The doctor had had no trouble finding it, which was rather fortunate. He was
also grateful that there was nice weather for this birth, since births in the rain
or snow were always such an unpleasant chore. Indeed, Tara could not have
picked a finer day, or a more glorious moment in that day. The hottest part of
the afternoon was already gone. The sun was lowering on the horizon, but
there was still plenty of light, with just enough shade to add to the coolness.
He had hardly had to dab any sweat from her forehead.
The vent across her belly widened for the last push, and her body
trembled in the labor throes. One more shove and then the newborn child
popped out of the birth sac at the usual high speed. In this case, the doctor
nearly missed the child completely, since one of his hands was still in Tara's
grasp. But he snagged the speeding infant at the last moment. "Got him!" he
called, the traditional exclamation that a doctor gave when the newborn had
been successfully snagged.
The declaration penetrated some of the haze in Tara's poor brain, the
pain only just subsiding. "Got him... ? Your... your hand! Oh, my Krod, I'm so
sorry! I was crushing... and... and you needed... andI..."
"It's all right, it's all right. I'm used to it. Professional hazard." He shook
out the newly released hand, restoring some of the circulation to it. "Actually,
I suppose I should be grateful. I can assure you, I've been grabbed in far
more delicate places than that." "And it's a him? A boy? You're certain?"
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"I don't pretend to know everything about everything, but even my
medical training can distinguish that, yes."
She laughed, which was a surprising sound for her to hear from
herself, considering the shrieking and string of profanity that she'd been
letting fly moments before. "And his color? His color is good?"
"This is without question the most stunningly blue child I've ever seen.
He couldn't be healthier."
"Let me see." She stretched out her arms, waggled her fingers. "Let
me see... please..."
"All right, all right," and now he was the one who was laughing. "Here."
He handed the child over to the eager mother and she took him in her arms
with an almost ferocious attitude. The membranes on his neck were fluttering
very nicely, and with a graceful, extended finger she traced the line of his
face, his eyes which were not yet open (but would be within minutes). He
made a small mewling sound and she jumped slightly on heating it, and then
laughed at her own reaction. "Do you have a name picked out?" he asked.
"Arango;' she said immediately. "I shall call him Arango."
"A very nice name. Rather popular this year, too, I believe."
"That doesn't matter," was her finn reply. Her agony of a short time ago
already forgotten, she tried to prop herself up. He eased her to sitting as she
drew the child closer into her lap. The stressed vent in her stomach had
already sealed itself up, the automatic healing process commencing reliably
on its own. "I had visions, doctor." "Visions?" he asked. "What sort of
visions?"
"He's going to go on to great things," she said. "And not just him. His
children, and his children's children, and... oh, doctor. I just know it." "Of
course they are, Tara." "You're laughing at me" she said with a slight pout.
"No, I'm not."
"You are," she remonstrated. "Let me guess: you've heard this from
more mothers than you can count. We all speak of how wonderful and
incredible our children are going to be, and we're all fools because we're
setting ourselves up with such high expectations that no children can
possibly live up to them."
"Well, now, Tara, you said that. I didn't." He glanced toward the sky,
mildly surprised. It was getting darker earlier than it usually did.
"You didn't have to. And I admit, doctor, that most of the time... you're
right. All those new mothers, they are being unreasonable. They don't know
what they're talking about." "But you do."
"Absolutely. Little Arango... he has a place in things. It may not be a
big piece of the puzzle, but it's a piece nonetheless. And it's going to have
ramifications beyond this world, I'm telling you."
"Oh, now, Tara, let's not start that again," he said scoldingly. "I've been
your doctor ever since you were a little girl, and we've always had these
discussions." As he spoke, he tried not to sound distracted, because he saw
that he wasn't imagining it. It really was getting dark far too early to be
normal. An eclipse, perhaps? But such an event would certainly have made
the news, and there had been no word of such. He tried not to be alarmed
about it, though. There really was no reason to be. It's not as if it was the end
of the world, just because the sun was setting faster. "As much as I would
like to indulge your fantasies about meeting up with alien life forms some
day, I have to admit I'm some~ what the skeptic." "There are the legends..."
"Yes, yes. The Red Gods. They who come from the sky and return to
the sky at will." He shook his head. "As you say... legends."
"Or visitors from outer space," she said insistently. She tickled under
Arango's chin. The baby scrunched it up automatically. "Perhaps Arango will
find out. Arango or one of his children's children's children, right, my
precious? My love?" Then she gasped in delight. "Doctor!" "What? What?"
"His eyes! They've opened. Aren't they beautiful? Quickly, what's he
looking at? They say the first thing a child looks at will be a tremendous
influence in his life."
"The 'they' who say that are mothers, and the reason they say that is
obvious, don't you think?" said the doctor.
"You," she said archly, "have no romance in you at all. No sense of
wonder, no..." Her voice trailed off and with clear disappointment, she said,
"Ohhh... he isn't looking at me."
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"And here I thought you said mothers weren't the ones who came up
with that superstition. So where is he looking?" "Skyward. Just straight up,
at..."
Once more she lapsed into silence, but this time it wasn't simply
tapering off into quiet. This time her voice sounded more choked off.
Confused, the doctor looked up to try and get a feel for what the child was
looking at.
"The sky..." she whispered in low, uncomprehending horror. "The sky...
it's... it's moving..."
The sky was darkening, faster and faster. Something huge was
blocking out the sun... no. No, beyond huge. It enveloped the entire horizon.
And the reason that Tara had said it was moving... was because it was.
Something dark had entered the skies above Rolisa, something very
dark. The rays of the sun were trying to punch through, but were failing. And
in the few areas where sunlight was visible, they were quickly closing up, as
if the planetary curtain being drawn over Rolisa was getting tighter and
tighter. Day was becoming night without the usual niceties of the planet
turning on its axis. Something, some... thing... was eating the sky.
And it was indeed moving. Not just moving... undulating. It was still
miles off, but it was drawing steadily closer, and whatever it was looked even
from this distance like a huge mass of intertwined threads. The light was
completely gone now. There was only the mass, drawing closer, becoming
blacker, and eerily silent. It seemed as if such an occurrence should be
accompanied by some sort of noise, but there was nothing. Only the silence.
The threads were continuing to move, twining and untwining, slithering,
pulsating...
"Oh my Krod... it's alive," she whispered. "Whatever it is, it's alive."
"That impossible," said the doctor with a distinct lack of conviction.
"Whatever that is, it's not part of nature. It can't be alive. It has to be a... a..."
"A what?" she demanded. She didn't sound as if she was being
challenging. Instead, more than anything, she sounded like someone who
desperately wanted some sort of explanation that made anything remotely
resembling sense.
"Let's get back to the house," he said urgently, not trying to answer.
What purpose was there in endeavoring to come up with a reply. He had
none to give, no real clue. The only thing he wanted to make certain of was
that they weren't in the open when it hit. And it was going to hit, of that he
was quite certain. What it was going to do once it got there, he had no clue,
but he knew he didn't want to be outside to find out.
"Hurry. Hurry!" he urged her. Normally he would never have dreamt of
speaking so to a woman who had just given birth, or forcing her to stand. But
now he took one of her arms and draped it over his shoulders, hauling her to
her feet as she held her baby fight with her other arm. He didn't give her any
opportunity to delay or drag her feet. Instead he half pulled, half carried her
along the ground, hauling her toward her unassuming houseú
The mass drew closer. Its individual components were becoming more
and more evident. It was unquestionably creatures, individual creatures,
interlaced with one another. His rational, scientific mind told him that was not
possibleú Because science had made far too convincing a case against
there being any such things as creatures from outer space. And if this cloud
was what it seemed to be, then it was something extraterrestrialú Something
beyond the understanding of everyday science.
The notion that there might be anything beyond that which was already
known was utterly terrifying to him.
He had no intention of letting her sense his fear. For her, he was going
to be brave and determined and fixed on the not inconsiderable task of
getting them to safety.
They made their way to her house, and the mass was coming faster.
He wouldn't have thought it possible, that something that far away could
approach that quickly. The house was just ahead. There, there would be
safety and explanations. There he would put on the vidnews, and they would
explain the nature of this... this mass hallucination, yes, that had to be it. A
trick of light, or swamp gas, or some similar rational explana tion would be
put forward, and they would all laugh about it by tomorrow and go on with
their lives.
He shoved her into the house, barred the door, just in case it wasn't
something completely laughable. "Let's watch the vidnews," he said quickly.
"See what's hap perting."
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She tried to turn it on. Nothing happened. The rid remained silent.
There was a visual, but it was a sign that just told them that there were
technical problems which were being dealt with as expeditiously as possible.
"Don't worry. They'll get it fixed shortly" said the doctor with an
impressive amount of certainty, all things considered. "These things always
work out in the end."
There was a sudden rushing of air, and for some reason that the
doctor never quite understood, there was a sense of heaviness all around.
He turned to her, was about to speak...
ú.. and then there was a fierce rustling in the trees nearby, as if
something was pushing down on the treetops. There was a sound of bending
and breaking, and branches being splintered...
ú.. and suddenly the roof caved in. Everything was shaking them from
all around, and there was the very quick flash of blackness.
Arango looked up from his mother's arms. He heard the shriek from his
mother as the Black Mass descended, but was unable to process the
information as being anything other than a loud noise. As for the Black Mass,
there was something attractive, even beautiful, in the way that it was
slithering, and Arango burbled happily just before the Black Mass dropped
down on him after having eaten through his mother in less time than it took
him to make a cooing noise. He didn't have time to comprehend his fate
before it was upon him, and as he vanished into the maw of the Black Mass,
his descendants who would never be cried out in protest, and somewhere
the Organians wept for the future of all life in the galaxy.
Si Cwan had no idea where to look first. He was so excited that he ran
back and forth on the bridge of the cruiser until finally his uncle, the noble
Sedi Cwan, fed up, grabbed him firmly by the wrist and shook him. Si Cwan's
feet lifted clear of the deck and his body snapped about like a whip being
jiggled. "Stop it! Stop it!" Si Cwan cried out, his protestations and slightly
shrill voice gamering amused glances from others aboard the bridge. "Sedi!
Let me go!"
"You let yourself go," he said sternly. Sedi Cwan was not especially
tall, but he was wide and beefy and his strength was almost as legendary as
his temper. The weight of Si Cwan did not daunt him at all. Nevertheless, he
opened his thick fingers and allowed his nephew to thud to the floor. "You let
your emotions go. That is not the discipline one wants to see in a young
nobleman, Si Cwan. Even one of your tender years."
Si Cwan stumbled to his feet, rubbing the posterior that he'd been
dropped on. "I was just excited;' he said with as much defiance as he could
reasonably muster, given the circumstances. "I think it's understandable."
"Anything is understandable. One understands why an infant messes
itself. One, however, can still be offended by the stench of immaturity. You
should not be acting like a child."
"But I am a child!" protested Si Cwan, which was true enough. He
was not quite eight years old. "Have you ever seen a drunken man?" Si
Cwan blinked, not following the question. "Yes." "As have I. Many more than
you have, I fancy. Most of them, however, have the good decency to at least
try and act as if they are sober. It may be obvious to any one seeing them
what their true condition is, but one at least gives them points for effort. You
are a young prince and noble, Si Cwan. Do you think it u~eason able that
you be held to the same standard as a drunken man?" The young man
sighed heavily. "I guess not." "You guess not?" "No, it's not
unreasonable."
The corners of Sedi Cwan's mouth twitched ever so slightly, but from
long practice he prevented it from becoming anything more pronounced than
that. "This is my flagship, Si Cwan," he said gravely. "How you behave
yourself becomes a reflection upon me. Do not embarrass or disgrace me."
"I won't, Sedi Cwan."
"Good." He nodded approvingly. "The ThaiIonian Empire has a grand
and glorious tradition. We have never lost a battle. Such a rich tradition
stems from equally rich discipline. I know that I can trust you to uphold it."
"Thank you, Sedi Cwan."
"Sedi Cwan!" The call came from the officer manning the tactical
station. Sedi Cwan crossed the bridge, and Si Cwan followed, appropriately,
in his footsteps. In his heart, Si Cwan had mixed feelings. On the one hand,
he was embarrassed that he had allowed himself to get so rambunctious. On
the other hand, he was so excited to be on a ship for the first time and the
flagship of the great Sedi Cwan at that that he could understand why he
might be a bit out of control. And if it was understandable to him, why
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couldn't it be understandable to Sedi Cwan? Well... perhaps, Si Cwan
realized, it was just that Sedi Cwan had so many other things on his mind.
Si Cwan tried to peer unobtrusively around Sedi Cwan to see what the
readout was on the tacticals. Sedi noticed from the comer of his eye that his
nephew was trying to get a better view. He reached out, got a grip on Si
Cwan's shoulder and eased him around to another angle so that he could
see. Si Cwan tried to understand what he was looking at, but much of it was
a jumble of indecipherable readings. Nevertheless, he made as serious a
face as he could and nodded as if comprehending everything that he was
seeing.
Sedi Cwan, on the other hand, clearly understood it all, and didn't like
what he was seeing. "How is it possible?" he demanded. "How could they
have gotten so far, so fast? Where were our observation stations? Our early
warning facilities?"
"Our facilities are state of the art, Lord Cwan" one of his men said.
"And they were entirely within keeping with the time required, based upon
the Mass' previous attack, to alert us as to movement" "So what went
wrong... ?" "The Mass... moved faster..."
Sedi Cwan made a rather angry sounding noise in his throat. Si Cwan,
knowing that he should simply remain quiet, was unable to help himself. "Is it
the Black Mass, Sedi? As the instruments said?"
Happily for Si Cwan, Sedi did not remonstrate with the boy for
speaking out of turn. Instead he said very gravely, "Oh, yes. Yes, it is most
definitely the Black Mass. And the situation is worse than we have imag
ined. Are we in visual range?" "At extreme magnification, yes, Lord Cwan."
Sedi Cwan turned and faced the viewing array. "Let's see it," he said.
It seemed to Si Cwan that Sedi was steeling himself, preparing for a sight
that he did not particularly want to see.
The viewing array shifted from the starscape that was before them,
and then a world appeared on the screen that was so black, it appeared to
have been covered with some sort of thick liquid. Si Cwan couldn't beheve it.
His understanding had been that, for a world to be that dark, it had to be
situated so far from its sun that light never reached it. But this was...
Then he gasped as he realized that the planet... was throbbing. At
least, its surface was. Like a great heart, it pulsed, the covering around it
writhing about as if it were having...
"... a feeding frenzy," he whispered. Si Cwan had been on a hunt once,
less than a year before, and he had seen a pack of beasts running. One of
them had been wounded by a shot from one of the hunters, and Si Cwan
had expected that the pack would simply leave it behind. Instead, several
members of the pack, sniffing the blood, had turned on their wounded fellow,
and proceeded to tear him to pieces. Consequently, the hunters made a
larger capture than they would have, previously, as the attackers were so
busy devouting the wounded one, they forgot about their own self
preservation. Si Cwan had been told that the term was a "feeding frenzy."
Now Sedi Cwan nodded when Si Cwan spoke. "You're very tight," he
said, and although under normal circumstances Si Cwan's little chest would
have swollen with pride over being told that he was right about something so
grown up, in this instance all it did was sicken him. "The only difference,"
continued Sedi Cwan, "is that other creatures lose their heads and give in
entirely to instinct during such a time. The Black Mass is... something else
again."
"Where did they come from, Sedi? Where is its ship? Are they
animals? Or a sentient race? Or... ?"
"Not... not now, Si Cwan," Sedi said. There was no anger in his voice,
but instead focused concentration. Then he turned to several of his men.
"Toth. Bring weapons on line. Prepare to fire."
The one known as Toth looked confused. "Fire at what, precisely, Lord
Cwan?"
"I'll tell you in a moment. Sanf, put me in communication with the other
ships."
Within moments, Sedi Cwan was in touch with the four other vessels
that had accompanied them to the site of the Black Mass' migration, and had
in quick, straightforward terms outlined a plan of attack calling for a
simultaneous assault at different points on the planet upon which the Mass
was feeding.
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As the ships moved into position, Si Cwan couldn't remove his eyes
from the undulating sheet of parasitic life that had enveloped Rolisa. "The
people," said Si Cwan. "The people of Rolisa... where are they?" he asked
suddenly. "Where are their escape ships? Where are "
His voice trailed off as he saw the look in Sedi Cwan's eyes. "No," he
whispered.
"They are gone;' Sedi Cwan said flatly, making no ef fort whatsoever
to sugarcoat the truth for the boy. "As we speak, they are in the belly of
that... whatever it is."
"All those people.. "Si Cwan could barely grasp it. One death, he could
understand, he could relate to. Two deaths, three ... these were simple
quantities for him to grasp. But there had been hundreds of millions of
people on Rolisa, according to what he had heard Sedi Cwan say when they
first launched.
Sedi Cwan's voice hardened. "It means nothing" he said.
"Nothing?" Si Cwan couldn't fathom whether his uncle was saying
these things because he believed them, or out of some belief that it was
necessary to toughen the boy up in some manner. "It's lives. It's people. How
can you say it's nothing... ?"
"You're embarrassing me, young noble," Sedi said sharply, and Si
Cwan immediately fell silent. "In the ThaiIonian Empire, all that matters, truly
matters, are we ThaiIonians. That's it. That's all. You should know that. If
your tutors have not made that clear to you, then I am going to be having
some serious discussions with them."
"Yes. They've made that clear" said Si Cwan. "But they have also
made it clear that waste is a sin. This is a waste of lives, and therefore a
great sin."
"They were nothing, Si Cwan. Rolisa was an unadvanced planet with
an unadvanced people who were never going to make the slightest
difference to anyone except themselves. Whether they are here or gone
matters not in the slightest. The Black Mass, on the other hand, presents a
threat. A threat that we shall deal with... now. Toth... ?"
"All ships are in position, Lord Cwan," Toth informed him.
"Excellent. Attention, all vessels: When we fire upon the Black Mass, it
will come after us. The plan is simple, but effective: Divide and conquer. The
Mass will not know which ship to attack first and theoretically, at least
will%plit up and come after each of us. When they do..." and his voice
dropped to a deadly tone, "then we simply fry the bastards. Prepare to fire,
on my order."
Si Cwan watched the flurry of activity on the bridge as they prepared to
go to war with an unknown, and unknowable, opponent. He wished that
there was something he could do, but realized that there are times when one
simply has to stand by and let others who know their business attend to
things. He couldn't wait, though, for a time when he would be old enough to
become involved in a great and glorious battle against an incredibly bizarre
foe.
"Three, two, one..." Sedi Cwan paused a moment dramatically, it
seemed and then shouted, "Fire!" And the ships cut loose with everything
they had. They used disruptors, they used plasma cannons, they used
controlled fusion and thermite bombs... they used, in short, every weapon of
mass destruc tion they had in their arsenal. The Black Mass ate it.
Si Cwan couldn't believe what he was seeing. In fact, he was certain
that what he was perceiving what he was believing to be the case had to be
just flat out wrong. There was no way, simply no way, that the Black Mass
was somehow absorbing their assault. But that was what it seemed as if
they were doing.
"This isn't possible," Sedi Cwan said, and the fact that he was clearly
so stunned by what he was witness ing was probably the most upsetting
thing of all for Si Cwan. As far as he was concerned, his uncle was un
flappable, a rock, a pillar of strength who had endless war stories through
which he swaggered with confi dence and gusto, overconn~rg all manner of
opponents with equal ease and facility. "Is it... is that thing... absorbing it
somehow?"
"It... appears so, Sedi Cwan," said Toth. He was looking at his
instrumentation and he appeared as thunderstruck as his commander. "The
Black Mass is completely ignoring us. We haven't... sir, we haven't even
really gotten its attention."
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As humiliating as it was to admit, that was indeed the case. The Black
Mass had not the least interest in departing the world upon which it was
feedingú Instead it simply ate... ú.. and ate... ú.. and ate.
The Thallonian fleet fh:ed again, and again. They used everything they
could think of on the Black Mass, every weapon, every tacticú But it was
simply impossible to make any sort of effective attack upon an enemy that
doesn't even seem inclined to acknowledge your existence. For over an hour
it went on, as Sedi Cwan consulted with his scientists, his fellow
commanders even, in desperation, his personal fortune teller, who intoned
that the day would be long remembered in the annals of ThaiIonian military
history, but refused to say just what it would be remembered for. This was, of
course, less than useful.
In the meantime, the planet which had once been Rolisa continued to
shrink, the Black Mass converging upon itself as its feast diminished in sizeú
Sedi Cwan walked right up to the viewing array, staring at it intensely.
Si Cwan watched in silence from nearby. And then Sedi Cwan leaned
forward, his hands flat against the screen, and he hung his head and shook it
in a most dismaying fashion.
"Sedi... ?" whispered Si Cwan. He had not spoken during the entirety
of the assault. "Sedi... what are you going to do now?"
When his uncle looked at him, it was with darkened and haunted eyes.
"Do?" "There has to be something else... there has to "
Sedi Cwan sighed deeply, and called out, "Stand down all weapons.
Withdraw to a safe distance."
There was a collective gasp from the bridge crew which was quickly
smothered, and they worked smoothly to carry out their orders. Si Cwan
stood bolt still, transfixed to the place where he had just heard his renowned
uncle give an order for retreat. "Withdraw? You mean... we're going to run
away?"
"No, Si Cwan," said Sedi Cwan softly. There was a sound in his voice
that Si Cwan had never heard before. It took him a moment to hazard a
guess as to what it might be: It was the sound of defeat. "No... we are going
to remain... and we are going to watch. So that we will be able to sear into
our brains the memory of this day. The day when the collective might of the
Thailonians... was utterly useless."
Si Cwan shook his head in disbelief as he stared at the feasting Mass.
"What... are they?" he asked finally. He had asked the question before, but
the answers he had received had been terse, tossed at him in an offhand
fashion as if the question were going to be moot in short order, since the
Black Mass certainly couldn't hope to stand up to ThaiIonian supremacy.
"They swarm from the Hunger Zone, Si Cwan," his uncle told him, "an
area of space that no Thallonian has ever been. That is, indeed, forbidden
to all. If anyone ever has been there, then he has not lived to return and
speak of it." "Why is it called the Hunger Zone?"
"Because... it is where the Black Mass resides until such time that its
hunger becomes overwhelming. At which point, the migration begins." He
shook his head, obviously still barely able to believe it. "The Mass migration
can be in any one of an infinite number of directions out of the Hunger Zone,
and no one ever knows when it will be. It depends, I suppose, on how much
they consume during their time out of the Zone. They have not been seen for
over fifty years before this day; the time before that, however, was only a ten
year stretch... before that, ninety. There is simply no way of telling. They may
return during your lifetime, Si Cwan. I pray, for your sake, that they do not."
"Is it one creature? One being? Or millions, or billions, or "
"I don't know, Si Cwan!" and Sedi Cwan made no effort to hide his
frustration. Considering his formidable powers of self control, there was no
greater indicator of just how utterly dismayed he was. "I don't know. Nobody
knows. If we knew something about it, perhaps we could defeat it. It is not
like a traditional enemy... it's not like any enemy at all, it's..." He stared at it
with a combination of horror and awe. "It is like a force of nature." "Lord
Cwan!" Toth said suddenly. "It's on the move!" "Are you certain?"
"Positive, milord!"
He was right. The Black Mass was moving away from the world around
which it had swarmed. And in its place was... nothing. A few stray bits of
rubble; that was all that remained. The Mass began to re form itself, then,
slithering about and reshaping into something that Si Cwan fancied looked a
bit like a ship. It seemed vaguely symmetrical, with downward scoops that
rippled as the ship moved.
Star Trek: New Frontier #008 Dark Allies
Page 9 / 86
"Wait .... look!" Si Cwan said, excitement growing. "Look where it's
going! It's killing itself! Our problems are over!"
Sedi Cwan, unlike the overenthused Si Cwan, didn't immediately trust
the evidence of his eyes. "Check its heading. Make sure that it's going...
where we think it's going," he said with a glance toward Si Cwan.
"It is, milord!" said Toth. Clearly he was fighting to contain his own
enthusiasm. He likewise couldn't believe that it was going to be this easy.
"It's heading directly into the Rolisan sun!"
Technically, since there was no more Rolisa, it was wrong to refer to it
as the Rolisan sun. But no one bothered to correct him, for the important
thing was that the Black Mass had apparently decided to end its collective
existence. It was angling, straight and true, toward the heart of a star.
"Track it" said Sedi Cwan. "Bring all the ships back to maximum
distance. If there's some sort of disruption, some sort of nova, I want to make
sure we don't suffer any casualties. Not when we stand on the brink of
ending this."
The ships obediently retreated, watctfing as the Black Mass continued
to head straight and true toward the blazing star.
"It cannot be this easy," Sedi Cwan was muttering. "It simply can't be.
The Black Mass will veer off. That's the only answer. It will veer off and..."
It didn't. Instead it began to spread out, to become even larger as it
approached the sun.
"Lord Cwan!" said Toth, "we're losing sensor read ings on it!" "What
do you mean?"
"There's some sort of..." He shook his head in befuddlement. "Some
sort of spacial distortion developing around the Mass, as if it's bending or
warping space as it's moving." "Impossible. It's biologic in nature."
"We're not getting a clear sensor reading of what's happening."
"We don't need one," Sedi Cwan said firmly, pointing at the screen.
"See for yourself. It's only a matter of moments now before it " Then he
went silent, as did everyone else. The Black Mass enveloped the star.
It took several minutes for the light to cease reaching the ThaiIonian
armada, but cease it did. The entire system was plunged into darkness, as
black and unknowable as the Black Mass itself.
Si Cwan, in the entirety of his young life, had never known fear. Not
really. Not the sort of fear that clutches at one's innards and simply will not
let go, no matter what. But that was what he was experiencing now, and it
was not a happy sensation. "Adjust visual;' Sedi Cwan said tonelessly.
The picture wavered once more, the technology of the ThaiIonian
vessel making up for the lack of natural light, digitizing and reconfiguring the
images so that they could see it again. And what they saw brought them all
to stunned silence. One could almost hear the confidence seeping out of
them, as if the Black Mass was vampirically draining their fighting souls. The
Black Mass devoured the sun. It took quite some time, although the longer it
feasted, the faster it seemed to go. It was as if it gained strength as it went
and consequently ate that much more vigorously. Every so often it would be
visibly jolted, something explod'mg within the sun as if the star were fighting
back. Either that or just writhing in its death throes.
And when the Black Mass was finished, it eased itself off the charred
husk that had once been a star and re formed itself into its ship formation... a
formation that now dwarfed not only the planet that had been there and the
star that had been there, but much of the area in between. The creature, if
that's what it was, was thoroughly engorged.
It did not acknowledge the ThaiIonian fleet, which collectively seemed
little more than a speck against it, any more than it had before. Instead it
simply angled off, heading back toward the distant Hunger Zone, its
migration completed, its appetite sated.
"It's moving at warp speed," Toth said in a voice that might well have
belonged to a corpse.
"That is impossible," said Sedi Cwan for what seemed the hundredth
time that day. "It has no warp engines or drive, it has no dilithium crystals, it
has no... it can't... it..."
And then he stopped talking. Instead he simply walked to his command
chair, eased himself down into it... and stared.
Star Trek: New Frontier #008 Dark Allies
Page 10 / 86
Si Cwan had never seen him quite like this. Sedi Cwan seemed...
broken. Oh, the regal bearing was still there. The squared shoulders, the
determined chin. But there was something in his eyes that had never been
there before. A sadness, a sense that he had been... put in his place
somehow. "Sedi... ?" Si Cwan ventured. "Are you all right?" Sedi Cwan
looked at him and seemed to shake off that which hung around him. "I am
fine, Si Cwan. Fine. And this incident... was good for us. Excellent, in fact.
This has been a good day."
"It has?" Si Cwan could not quite keep the incredulity out of his voice,
which was a dangerous and inappropriate tone for him to take. This was,
after all, Sedi Cwan, the great and noble Sedi Cwan. To doubt his word was
entirely inappropriate, yet Si Cwan was concerned that that was precisely
how it had sounded. Quickly seeking to perform damage control, he added,
"I did not mean to give offense, Noble One... understand that, I did not..."
"I understand fully, young one. No offense was taken. In saying this
was a good day, I have a very specific meaning. We ThaiIonians... we have
believed ourselves to be the greatest force in this sector of space. We...
were wrong. Clearly we cannot begin to approach the Black Mass for pure
power. We are not even worth its time, nor capable of getting its attention.
We have been put in our place. And that is a good thing. It is good to be
reminded of one's respective place in the universe, so that one does not
become too confident. For overconfidence leads to foolish mistakes, and
foolish mistakes lead to disaster."
He rose then, looking more robust, his voice rising in timbre.
"Remember this day, all of you. Remember how you feel, right now, in your
proud ThaiIonian heart. Always remember the sense of disgrace and
inadequacy that you are experiencing. Keep it close, so that when you face a
foe another day as you inevitably will you do not automatically assume that
victory is going to be granted you. For however powerful you believe yourself
to be, there will always be someone or something... that is more so."
There were approving nods from all around the ship, and even Si
Cwan felt a measure of pride in the words of his uncle. This had indeed been
a humiliating day for not only the ThaiIonians aboard the ship, but all of the
ThaiIonian Empire. And since it was Sedi Cwan who had commanded the
fleet, it would be his disgrace to bear. But he had borne it with style, dignity
and the warrior heart that he had been so long known for.
Si Cwan spent much time dwelling on his uncle's words during the
voyage home. And when the proud flagship drew within an hour of the
ThaiIonian homeworld, young Si Cwan went to his uncle's quarters to ask
him some questions about ThaiIonian philosophy, and also perhaps what
new stratagems might be developed for the next time the Black Mass
swarmed. For that next time, surely the might of the ThaiIonians would
triumph. There could be a temporary defeat, certainly, but in the long run, the
ThaiIonians were supreme. That was simply the way it had always been
throughout Si Cwan's life, and would continue to be, forever.
He entered his uncle's quarters and stopped, the odd creaking noise
being the first hint that something was wrong. The darkness of the room was
the second. And then, as Si Cwan's eyes adjusted to the dimness of the
chamber, he saw the distinct, bulky shape of Sedi Cwan's body hanging by
the neck, swinging ever so gently. The chair upon which he had been
stmlding had been kicked over once he had stepped off it.
There was a note on the floor next to his feet, which were dangling
some distance from the floor. Si Cwan crouched next to the note, his senses
numb, still unable to process that which his eyes were telling him. He picked
it up. His name was written on it. Sedi Cwan's last thoughts were of him,
and undoubtedly an expla nation was contained therein as to why he had
just deprived Si Cwan of his continued wisdom and intelli gence.
Si Cwan crumbled the note without reading it, turned on ,his heel and
went to contact someone so that they could cut his uncle down. Since Si
Cwan was the rank ing noble, despite his youth, a~d also Sedi Cwan's clos
est relative, he was asked what he wanted done with Sedi Cwan's body.
His terse answer spanned them. "Blow it out a torpedo tube. It's all he
deserves."
The protests began. One look from Si Cwan formidane, even at that
age silenced the protests. And so Sedi Cwan was ejected into the hostile
vacuum. Moments before his body was hurled away into space, Si Cwan
shoved the note into his uncle's pocket, still unread. He turned away and
never looked back as he walked out of the torpedo room, leaving the
crewmen to their job.
摘要：

StarTrek:NewFrontier#008DarkAlliesPage1/86ROLISAWASTHEGREATESTWORLDinalloftheknowngalaxy.Ithadstartedslowly,andcertainlywhenonelookedattheworld'searliestyears,noonecouldpossiblyhaveseenitcoming.TheRolisansseemedaratherunremarkablepeople.Rolisawasnotparticularlylushnorattractive.Itwasnotstrategically...

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