“Looks like Atlantis is slowing down, but that’s about all I can tell.”

“Coming out of warp now.”

“Visual on the…butterflies.”

The bridge of Perseus was dim now, red light strobing as the Galaxy-class starship raced to the rescue of her compatriot. The viewscreen flicking to life washed those seated at their stations in a myriad of vibrant colours as hundreds of pearlescent creatures were drawn for them to gaze upon. An ecstatic cloud of brilliance that was slowly condensing on something that suddenly barked out in a lance of concentrated orange light that pierced right through the wing of one creature, its wing ripping apart in a shower of glitter dust, but barely hampered.

The bauble of flickering blue light that made itself known, obscured some by the butterflies, however wasn’t so easily ignored as the resulting detonation – a controlled violation of the space-time continuum – ripped the injured butterfly to shreds as all those immediately around it.

“Riggs!” Rachel shouted from her seated position. “Lock targets and open fire!”

“I can’t!” came the response. “Sensors aren’t picking anything up.”

“Then pick a direction and start shooting!”

The kaleidoscope of colours washing over the bridge momentarily disappeared as a black shape filled the viewscreen before colour returned. The Grok’ti, this whole time riding on Perseus’ back, launched itself off the ship’s hull, the shields flickering momentarily in protest as something passed through them in the wrong direction. It no longer resembled the roiling, coiling mass it had back in the Thomar Expanse, or the inky oil stain that had spread itself over the hull. Now it evoked primal earthly fears of deep-sea chthonic horrors – inky black tendrils snaking out behind a central mass as it propelled itself forward somehow against the void, racing towards the butterflies like a fox in the henhouse.

“Maybe not in the direction they’re going in,” Tikva added to Rachel’s order.

“Perseus has dropped out of warp. I can’t raise them on comms,” Rrr announced. “I can’t get a line of light for a laser or radio either. These things are everywhere.”

“Tabaaha, bring us around, straight line to the Perseus. We need to get these shield modulations to them.” Gabrielle really had little idea of what she was doing, relying more on being the director of chaos and letting the experts, or their understudy in some cases, interpret her commands and carry them out. “Gantzmann…” She trailed off, still hesitant to give the order to fire despite having already done so.

“Clearing a hole,” came the response from the German woman behind her. It was accompanied by the staccato thumping of the ships forward torpedo launcher, multiple quantum torpedoes launching forth and eviscerating more of the butterflies with casual abandon.

“New contact!” Rrr shouted. “Dead ahead!” Without a word Rrr zoomed the wildly spinning viewscreen to focus on the new entity, a yellow box drawing around it and then expanding to show what looked like the fabric of space itself, or something so black as to be nearly invisible, ripping into two butterfly creatures with inky tentacles.

The illusion of space itself attacking the cosmozoans was dismissed as the tentacles came away coated in the multi-hued, glittery dust. It went from inky black to a nightmarish children’s party in a handful of heartbeats. And just as it finished ripping apart two of the butterflies, the new creature launched itself at the next closest ones, who had immediately started to try to flee.

But fleeing was too late as phaser beams from Atlantis lashed out, ripping into a wing one on creature and right through the centre mass of another. Another torpedo burst ripped into a cluster of the beasts, their injuries enough to convince them that Atlantis wasn’t easy prey.

“What the hell is going on?” Gabrielle asked.

“Don’t know,” Rrr answered. “But I like this squid thing.” A chirp from their console and Rrr’s closed fist bashed the edge of the console in triumph. The slight cracking sound could be explained later. “I can see Perseus. Transmitting the shield modulation settings to them.”

A moment later, another chirp, and Rrr turned to face Gabrielle. “Fleet Captain Theodoras advises the creatures are breaking. We’re to regroup and, as soon as we can, go to warp. The Grok’ti will deal with the butterflies.”

“The captain is on Perseus? And what is a Grok’ti?” Gabrielle asked. “You know what? I don’t think I care right now. Helm, get us out of here. Gantzmann, keep these things off our back.”

“No pursuit,” Riggs declared as both Perseus and Atlantis continued to speed away from the mauling at full impulse. “At least I think no pursuit.”

“Sensors are starting to clear,” the Operations officer declared. “And so is my head.”

“And my stomach,” Tikva added. “I think we best leave quickly and just let the Grok’ti do what it seems to be made to do.”

“No argument here,” Rachel replied. “Helm, set a course for the anomaly and get us to warp as soon as you can.”

“Aye ma’am.”

A series of alerts, a report of an incoming hail and the bridge of the starship Atlantis was soon up on the viewscreen. Gabrille Camargo launched herself to her feet with a smile on her face that threatened to blind everyone. “Captain Garland, am I ever glad to see Perseus.”

“Saving the day, which for Galaxy-class ships is, I believe, a Tuesday,” Rachel responded. “Pleasure is all mine, Commander.”

“Fleet Captain, kept your ship and crew safe as you told me to,” Gabrielle reported.

“If a little misplaced Gabs,” Tikva answered. “How is my ship?”

“Few new scratches here and there. We’re ship shape and fully operational, but Engineering already asked for a few days at DS47 for some finishing cosmetic work.”

“It’ll have to wait. We need to get back asap.”

Gabrielle hummed, lips pursing to one side in thought. “We lost track of the aperture when we arrived. I don’t think it opens from this side, unfortunately.”

“Oh, it’ll open.” Rachel Garland stepped forward, smiling confidently. “Few of my people have a clever idea, and it requires exactly two starships to pull off.”

“Two?” Tikva asked. “Where are we ever going to find two starships?”

“Don’t know,” Rachel said. “Commander Camargo, got any ideas?”

“One or two,” the science officer answered. “One or two.”