K'Tran held up a hand as John started to speak. "Time is precious, Harrison. I cannot extricate my force from this deadly place unless I help D'Trelna rescue you and recover the commwand sent by Pocsym."

John gestured toward the forcefield. "The commwand's on the bridge."

"What else is on the bridge?" asked K'Tran, carefully inspecting the forcefield.

"T'Lan."

K'Tran hissed softly. "Not good. We know what he did on Implacable. Implacable. Can anything stop him?" Can anything stop him?"

"Not blaster fire," said the Terran. "He's immune."

"What's his relationship to the R'Actolians?" said A'Tir.

"One of command. He appears to have taken control of this slaver," said John. "Some of the key equipment was evidently manufactured by the AIs, recovered by the Empire and installed by R'Actol when she built this ship."

"Can't be," said K'Tran, shaking his head. "R'Actol and her biofabs were Late High Empire-twilight's advent. The AIs predated her by thousands of years. All we have of that time, Harrison, are a few legends, like the AI War and the Nameless Emperor. T'Lan must have been lying."

"Fine, K'Tran," said John. "You explain it. Better yet"-he jerked his head toward the bridge-"go debate it with T'Lan."

"We'd like to meet T'Lan, actually," said the corsair. "a.s.suming he commands here, perhaps we can be of some a.s.sistance in return for our freedom-and the elimination of Implacable.'' Implacable.''

John wanted to bash the smirk from K'Tran's face-an impulse restrained by the large bore of A'Tir's blaster holding steady on his belt buckle. "You're a real foul slime, K'Tran," said the Terran.

"Loyalty's not one of my few virtues," said K'Tran. "Unless you can get us past that shield, Harrison, you're of no further use to this mission."

It must have been a cue A'Tir had taken many times. Her safety clicked off before K'Tran had finished speaking.

John held out a hand. "I'll need my weapon back," he said.

"Such a sense of humor," said K'Tran. Reaching out, he plucked the weapon from A'Tir's belt. "If this will get us through the shield, I'll use it. First, a small test." He pointed the diminutive pistol at John.

"Go ahead," said the Terran. "It'll kill you-I'd enjoy that."

John fell to his knees clutching his head at a sudden, searing pain.

"A'Tir!" said K'Tran sharply as she raised the blaster barrel to strike again. "Enough."

Lowering the pistol, she pulled John to his feet, a hand to his arm.

"Why and how will this kill me?" asked the corsair.

"No idea," said John, wincing as he touched the welt behind his right ear. "Use it and find out."

Busy examining the weapon, K'Tran seemed to only half hear the Terran. He was frowning at the heraldic device on the grips. "I believe you," he said, looking up. He handed the weapon to John. Puzzled, the Terran took it.

"You can put your blaster away, A'Tir," said K'Tran quietly.

She looked at him, startled. "But ..."

"Use it, Harrison," said the corsair. With a strange sense of serenity, John turned, aimed and fired.

No crash of blaster fire, no explosion of bullets. But the bottom half of the bridge shield was gone. Seemingly unaffected, the top portion hung there, severed but shimmering.

"Impossible," said A'Tir, staring.

"Possible," said John.

"Let's go!" K'Tran called. From around the corner, the rest of the corsairs came on the run, rifles at the ready.

K'Tran drew his side arm. "After you, Harrison."

John stepped under the shield, turning as K'Tran called "Forward!"

The shield restored itself with a faint hum, stopping K'Tran and his crew inches from the shimmering barrier.

A few meters from John, K'Tran fired, face twisting in anger.

The shield devoured the blaster bolts, dissipating them in sudden splotches of red.

With a jaunty wave of his hand, middle finger upraised, John turned and set off briskly down the corridor.

R'Gal stirred, opened his eyes and sat up very slowly, legs swinging over the edge of the medcot. "Where am I?" he said to the tall, thin man attentively watching him.

"Sick Bay," said the other. "I'm Q'Nil, Senior Medtech.

"How do you feel, Colonel?" Q'Nil glanced at a lifescan, set in the foot of the cot.

"Like I took a missile salvo in the head," said R'Gal, rubbing his temples. "What happened?"

"The S'Cotar found you before you found it," said K'Raoda, stepping forward. He'd been standing unseen in a corner.

The colonel shook his head, then stopped, eyes closed in pain. "Occupational hazard," he said, opening his eyes. "The last thing I remember, I was on the lifepod deck with the Terran woman ..."

"Tal?" said K'Raoda sharply.

"Tal," said the colonel. "I had reason to believe . . . no, that's not right. I sensed S'Cotar traces up among the lifepods. We were checking the lifepods out. Then I woke up here."

"Take this," said Q'Nil, handing R'Gal a cup of chalk-colored liquid. "It'll help."

"We lost a lifepod about the time you must have been searching," said K'Raoda. "And Tal is missing. Were you searching the same lifepod?"

"No," said R'Gal, handing the empty cup to Q'Nil. "She was checking the even numbers, I was checking the odd. Anything from D'Trelna?" he added.

"Nothing," said K'Raoda.

"Are you aware, Colonel," he continued, "that ship's computer is being subverted by a stasis algorithm?" R'Gal frowned. "Supposedly, there's no such thing."

"You've heard of it, then?" said K'Raoda. "Yes."

"And do you believe it?" asked K'Raoda.

R'Gal smiled. "I'm a sensitive who hunts tall, green telepathic insectoids, Commander. It requires an open mind. What is this stasis algorithm doing to ship's computer?"

"Making it try to kill us through wild alterations in life systems' parameters."

R'Gal looked around. The complink status light glowed green, the diagnostic panel flickered with activity. "Not here," he said.

"Not yet," said Q'Nil. "It's a bit disappointing-we don't seem to be a priority."

"It's also after the command, control and communications systems," said K'Raoda. "Neutralizing them for later takeover."

"It's that d.a.m.ned slaver computer, isn't it?" said the colonel. He stood, ignoring Q'Nil's outstretched hand.

"How did you know about Egg?" said K'Raoda.

"Egg?" said R'Gal.

"For its shape," said K'Raoda. "How did you know about it? You'd left the bridge by the time it arrived."

"There's not much you can hide from a CIC officer," said R'Gal. "And if we ever get out of this ..."

"Not very likely," said Q'Nil, turning off the medcot's monitor.

"If we get out of this," continued R'Gal, "whoever brought that machine on board and then activated it without authorization . . . I'll tell you, K'Raoda, I'd rather not be in his extra large uniform."

"About the stasis algorithm ..." began K'Raoda.

"Look, Commander," said R'Gal. "I've felt better, I'm tired and there's nothing I can do about the stasis algorithm. Could we continue this after I get some rest?"

"Just one small thing you could do first, sir," said the commander.

"What?"

"Give me either the stasis algorithm or its antidote," he said, as if asking for t'ata.

R'Gal was silent for a moment, then he sat down on the bed. "What is it you think you know, Commander?"

K'Raoda nodded to Q'Nil. Opening a drawer, the medtech removed two large transparencies and handed them to R'Gal.

The colonel looked at them for a moment, compared them, then gave them back. "Is this a game?"

"No," said K'Raoda.

"Very well," said R'Gal. "Those are identical lifestats. The chart in your left hand has my name on it, the other has no name. Therefore, they are both my lifestats. That is," he said to Q'Nil, "if my understanding's correct-no two people have identical lifestats."

"Correct," said the Q'Nil. "No two people do." He carefully removed a piece of tape made of the same synthetic as the transparencies, and handed the previously unnamed chart back to R'Gal. Expressionless, the colonel read the name: T'Lan, S'Tyr [Commander].

"Interesting, isn't it?" said K'Raoda.

The R'Actolians struck as John stepped through an archway. A cone of white light swept down-and stopped, hovering a meter above his head. Stasis field, he thought, then looked at the pistol in his hand.

Thank you, Guan-Sharick, he said, then moved on. The cone winked off.

A few feet farther and blaster fire spat at him-a stream of red bolts from half a dozen overhead firing points. Again, something stopped them a meter away. Feeling only a faint warmth, John stepped onto the ramp leading to the command tier.

T'Lan had just entered a white commwand into a port on a command console. He was calling up its message when a faint, dry voice interrupted him.

"Excuse us." i "What?" said the AI, not looking up from his task.

"The Terran has penetrated the bridge."

"Kill him."

"We've tried. He continues to advance."

"Actually," said John, "he's here." T'Lan was out of the chair, facing John in less than a second.

The Terran shook his head, amazed. "Not even your lads on Terra Two moved that fast."

"On Terra Two, Harrison," said the AI, "you fought and won against a pickup force of limited-purpose units under a second-rate commander. Not so here."

"What do you want with this mindslaver?" demanded John. "Your ships are just as good-better, maybe."

"I'm going to kill you, ape," said T'Lan. "And enjoy it."

"You can't enjoy it," said John, backing from the advancing AI. "You're a machine."

"I'm a very complex machine," said T'Lan, reaching for him.

"Back off!" snapped John, raising his pistol.

"Your weapons can't ..." T'Lan stopped, staring at the pistol for the first time.

"Problem, robot?" smiled John.

"Those weapons no longer exist," said the AI slowly, as if trying to convince himself. "All who bore them are dust. Dust," he repeated, unable to take his eyes from the pistol.

"Back off," repeated John. "Or I'll kill you."

"That weapon does worse than kill," said T'Lan, stepping back.

"Fine. Move again, and we'll have a demonstration," said the Terran. "Now, what do you want with this ship?"

T'Lan looked up. "You recall the ent.i.ty unleashed on Terra Two? That sapient energy field sp.a.w.ned by those moronic S'Cotar?"

"Vividly." More like a flaming green h.e.l.l, thought John.

Raiding that S'Cotar nest, the K'Ronarins and John had torched the insectoids' subterranean breeding chambers. The mix of fire and an unstable growth accelerant had awakened a unitary consciousness-a consciousness that had risen like a flaming green star from Terra Two, out into s.p.a.ce, destroying the first ship of the AIs' Fleet of the One as it emerged from an alternate reality. Pa.s.sing into that alternate reality, the green fire had destroyed the AIs' access portal even as it disappeared from the universe of Terra Two.