Patel was stunned, not just by Gwyn’s words, but more so by their obvious sincerity.
“Thank you,” she replied.
“There was a reason,” Gwyn continued. “But we don’t have to talk about that now. I know you’re busy. You do your job, I’ll do mine, and when it’s all done, we’ll talk. Preferably over drinks.”
Patel smiled as the knot in her stomach released.
“What are you doing, by the way?” Gwyn asked.
“We’re trying to re-create an organic technology that will allow us to communicate with the Edrehmaia.”
“Don’t we have to find them first?”
“All of the Edrehmaia matter appears to have quantum-entangled properties. When we alter the star’s course, we expect the energy field in the asteroid belt to activate again, and we have deployed special sensors that should be able to detect all of the entangled particles and their location. We’re going to find Galen but when we do, we need to make sure we can make them understand that we mean them no harm and just want our ship back.”
Gwyn nodded. “Sounds like a good plan.”
“Honestly, it could go wrong in about fifty different ways.”
“It won’t,” Gwyn assured her. “You’ve got this. You’re brilliant, Devi, and I’m glad everybody knows that now.”
Patel was seized by a sudden desire to put the mission on hold and continue this conversation but there was simply no time. “I want the whole story after this,” she said.
“You’ll get it. I promise.”
The tension between them dispersed, Patel returned to O’Donnell’s side. “I’m ready, Commander.”
“You sure?”
“Absolutely.”
“Very well. O’Donnell to Demeter.”
“Go ahead, Commander,” Fife replied.
“We are ready to initiate.”
“Good luck, sir. We will be ready to transport you to safety should you require it.”
“I have no doubt, Atlee. Stand by.”
“Preparing to release containment,” Patel said.
“Releasing containment on my mark. Three, two, one… mark.”
Patel watched as the seal on the container snapped open. Countless tiny black particles were ejected with force and hung suspended in the air within the cell longer than gravity should have permitted. They began to slowly rain down and for a moment Patel wondered if they might all simply settle on the floor of the cell. A single droplet impacted the vial of Patel’s blood and a shiver of recognition moved through the remaining particles. As if drawn by a magnet, they all reversed their course and darted toward the vial.
Patel was simultaneously monitoring the alcove’s stability. It remained constant. O’Donnell was watching the cell’s internal sensors as the reaction began.
“Detecting cellular breach. The base is targeting the DNA contained in the blood cells and beginning to alter it,” he reported, unable to contain the joy in his voice.
“Is the base replicating itself?” Patel asked. Her biggest concern with this entire plan had been to wonder if they would be able to extract enough of the substance to create an entire interlocutor.
“It is,” O’Donnell confirmed. “Activating alpha and beta wave generators.”
Although Patel had not realized it at the time, all of the alcoves had contained unusually high levels of invisible radiation. The precise cocktail had been re-created to instigate the formation of the interlocutor. If they were to succeed, Patel knew that the next thing she would hear was a deafening scream.
The vial had been completely coated by a mass of undulating black fluid. The moment the radiant energy contacted the mass, it began to expand. As hoped, the Edrehmaia base was using the radiant energy to replicate itself.
“Mass has increased by sixty percent,” Patel noted.
“It’s going to need to get a lot higher than that,” O’Donnell warned.
“It will,” she promised.
The black sludge now resembled an orb. Patel watched, astonished, as orifices began to form on the surface. Eyes, nostrils, and…
As soon as a mouth began to open, the scream that had haunted Patel’s dreams for weeks echoed throughout the small ship.
“Hello there,” O’Donnell shouted over the din.
Patel quickly activated a sound-buffering program to silence the nightmarish scream.
“Much better. Thank you, Devi,” O’Donnell said.
“Is that supposed to be happening?” Gwyn called from the conn.
Patel turned to see Gwyn staring in horror at the formation of the interlocutor.
“It is,” Patel assured her. “Don’t worry. It will be over soon.”
“Not the face,” Gwyn said. “That,” she shouted, pointing to the base of the cell.
Patel looked down and saw a trail of the Edrehmaia base coursing along the bottom of the cell. It had flattened against the wall and moved over it as if it were seeking a way out.
“The original cellular DNA is replicating at impossible speeds,” O’Donnell reported. “There are hundreds of new base pairs being added with each iteration.”
But Patel couldn’t focus on the version of her face that was in the process of coming into being. Instead, her heart began to pound feverishly as she observed the fluid at the alcove’s base. Containment began to falter as the substance started to change the alcove at the molecular level.
“We’re losing containment,” Patel shouted.
“Get back,” Gwyn said, approaching the pair, her phaser drawn.
O’Donnell finally tore his eyes from his scanner and took note of the troubling development. He and Patel both moved back a few steps as the orb that had formed threw itself forward, splatting against the interior wall and sliding down toward the deck.
“Don’t fire,” O’Donnell ordered Gwyn.
“We’re done here,” Gwyn said. “That stuff is looking for a way out and I promise you it will find one. Get to the transporter pad.”
“No,” he insisted, training his scanner on the alcove again.
“We have to abort,” Patel said.
O’Donnell stepped in front of both of them. “You go,” he said. “I’m staying right here.”
“I’ve already seen how this story ends, Commander,” Gwyn said. “We leave or we die.”
O’Donnell turned to Patel. “It’s okay,” he said. “It can have me.”
“That’s insane. Why would you…?”
“I told you, Devi. Each of the first species that came to SWOW sacrificed at least one individual to direct exposure to the base. In
