Chapter 1

CMMANDER ANDREW ELLIS LIFTED HIS THUMB off the small button concealed in the soil. He regarded Captain Chakotay and his sister, Sekaya, as they lay sprawled on the chalk image his partner had drawn. Unconscious, both of them. Excellent. He pressed a second button, then rose from his kneeling position and dusted off his hands.

It took only a few minutes for his… servants… to arrive. They were largely silent as they approached, their presence revealed only by the soft swishing of their massive legs through the long grasses. He surveyed them with approval.

It could be said they were humanoid in shape, but only vaguely so. Standing well over two meters tall, they had grossly overdeveloped chests and arms, and their mouths were crammed full of sharp teeth. Rusty orange fur covered their bodies, crowned by a ridge of spines that crested along their backs. Small, bright black eyes peered out at their master through thick falls of hair. One of them began to salivate in anticipation; a long rope of drool hung from its lower lip. Their scent was musky and rank, all the stronger for their present state of excitement.

"You," Ellis said, selecting two at random, "take these two to the center." He indicated the fallen bodies of Chakotay and Sekaya. "The rest of you, pay attention to me."

He raised his hand and pointed his third and index fingers to his eyes, as he might with a dog he was trying to train. Their eyes fastened on his obediently.

"You will find four people in uniforms like this one wandering about. You will attack them."

One of the creatures roared its approval and began to jump about happily. "Silence!" Ellis cried, irritated. The creature quieted.

"You are not to kill them. Understand?"

They looked disappointed. One of them whimpered.

Ellis continued. "You are to chase them, frighten them, hurt them if you must, but I will be very, very angry if any of them dies. I will find the one who did it and kill him or her. Understand?"

They grunted.

"Good. Now. Go and have fun."

The creatures scattered, chittering and hooting, eager to perform so pleasant a duty. The two chosen to bear Chakotay and Sekaya lumbered forward, easily picking up the limp bodies in their powerful arms.

Ellis watched them go. Delight was warm inside him. It was all going according to plan. There'd been a slight glitch when Chakotay had unexpectedly decided to follow regulations regarding the away team, but Ellis had recovered. After some quick thinking, he'd been able to lure not only the human captain to the planet, but his sister as well. His Cardassian ally would be so pleased.

He followed his creatures as they walked to a seemingly solid boulder and passed easily through. It had been difficult to convince them they could safely walk through something their eyes told them was solid. Eventually, though, they became familiar with the holographic illusion. Now Ellis followed them down the rough stairs carved into the rock. He couldn't wait until Chakotay awoke.

Lieutenant Devi Patel loved the sciences. She practically romanced them, sometimes to the exclusion of less intellectual attachments. The only pain her passion for science had ever caused her was at the Academy, when she had been forced to choose a field of specialty. She wished there were such a thing as a "generalist." Even after choosing biology, she had taken a staggering number of extra courses in other fields to the point where she was practically an expert in all of the sciences.

She had decided, reluctantly, to let medicine be one of the fields she could bear to part with. She'd never felt drawn to be a healer, but rather an explorer. She had an insatiable curiosity that had gotten her into trouble more than once, and a peculiar blend of cheery optimism and logical intellect that had gotten her out of most of the tight spots in which she'd found herself. During her first assignment, aboard the U.S.S. Victory, she had been given the nickname "Fearless." She wasn't sure if it was appropriate. Patel had always associated "fearless" with "heroic," and she certainly never felt heroic. She just was almost always, in any situation, more curious than afraid. The universe was full of scientific wonders and marvels, and her brain automatically snapped into that mode rather than get me out of here.

This planet, actually, was rather boring from a scientific viewpoint. She'd spent her free time on the trip here analyzing the data Marius Fortier and the other colonists had collected, and it was pretty standard Class-M stuff. While as always there were interesting variations on things, such as a new strain of orchid or arachnid, there was nothing startling or amazing or wondrous. Still, she had her tricorder out and was analyzing it intently. Who knew but that something exciting and unusual might register and she would be the one to—

Patel took a swift breath and her eyes widened as she stared at the tricorder.

They were enormous, mammalian, bipedal—

And heading right for her.

Copyright © 2004 by Paramount Pictures.