The trek back to the dig site was slow and silent. Valis moved alone, her palm beacon slicing through the dust-choked air in a narrow arc. The wind clawed at her face, carrying grit that stung her exposed skin. There was something different in the air… a pressure, like the air itself did not want her to return to the access shaft.

She checked her tricorder with one hand, adjusting her course slightly. Eventually, the edge of the access shaft came into her view, half buried in red sediment and the warped remains of the metal catwalk that once surrounded it.

After a few calming breaths, she started her descent.

The shaft was different as well. The last time she was here, they were escaping whatever entity had possessed Commander Mehta. While the climb had been frantic, she had remained calm… steady… Vulcan. Now, she could feel her blood pumping, a weight on her chest and in her throat. She pushed it back.

Fear is bio-chemical… focus on the descent. The flood of adrenaline… cortisol… the amygdala reacts. Suppress it… Breathe… four seconds in… six out. Visualize the Kol-Ut-Shan… The mind rules the body.

She reached the bottom and steadied herself against the stone wall of the shaft chamber. She felt it respond to her presence… like something stirring in the rock. She walked towards the alien structure, the cell that once contained the entity now tormenting them. She raised her tricorder, adjusted the scan filters, and activated the localized frequency rate. The dim red glyphs surrounding the base of the structure brightened in response, shifting in patterns she did not understand.

“Valis to Vallejo,” she said, her voice low and clear. “I have reached the containment chamber. Tricorder scans are showing resonance present in the structure, but it appears degraded. Beginning alignment check for terahertz pulse.”

There was a pause, then Kellan’s voice came through in a burst of static, tight with interference, but intelligible. “Copy Valis. We’re monitoring, Captain Day is on standby for sensor pulse. Just say when.”

Valis didn’t respond immediately. She stepped forward, moving around the central platform, taking readings. She could feel emotion… thought from the structure itself. It felt… strained. Like it had been holding its breath and only now was able to exhale.

She adjusted the tricorder modulation again, fingers paused over the interface as the pattern shifted again, more coherent this time. A resonance spike appeared across the display… faint, but consistent.

“Valis to Vallejo. The glyph matrix is responding. Confirming frequency… one-point-two-one-seven terahertz. Forward to the Captain.”

Kellan replied immediately, “Copy, transmitting now.”

_____________________________________

Aboard the Velenia, turbulence had given way to dead stillness.

Captain Day Renora kept the craft at a hover, mere meters off the surface, ready to approach the dig site when the word was given. Her eyes continually shifted from the sensor feed back to Jorath.

He sat beside her, rigid in his seat. His knuckles were white where they gripped the edges of the console. Sweat traced a line from his temple to his clenched jaw. He hadn’t spoken in minutes.

Day reached out a hand over his in support. “Lieutenant?”

He didn’t answer at first. His chest was rising and falling in shallow breaths.

Eventually, in a voice tight with restraint, “It’s pushing. Not just pain and fear… guilt… shame. It knows where to press.”

Day kept one hand on the controls, the other with Jorath. “You’re not alone. I’m right here.”

He closed his eyes tightly, jaw trembling. “I see them… the crew we failed… beaten to death… shot in the back. It’s showing me what I could have done differently, how I could have saved them all, but didn’t.”

Day didn’t blink. “It’s lying. Using pieces of truth from your memories and turning them into knives. You know the difference.”

“I’m not sure I do anymore,” he whispered as tears fell down his cheeks.

The temperature in the cabin dropped slightly, condensation forming on the edges of the forward display. The cabin lights dimmed.

YOU SHOWED ME THE DOOR, JORATH. INVITED ME IN…

It was his voice, but hollow… twisted.

YOU BROADCASTED YOUR FEAR SO CLEARLY, I DIDN’T EVEN NEED TO SEARCH. YOU WANTED ME TO FEEL YOUR PAIN… YOUR HURT.

Jorath flinched, clutching his ears. “Stop!”

Day leaned toward him. “Jorath, listen to me. You are not on that Cardassian station. We escaped. You are right here with me. You are stronger than you think.”

His hands trembled, bracing against the weight of something only he could feel.

THIS TIME I WON’T KILL QUICKLY. I’LL SAVOR IT. EVERY THOUGHT… REGRET… FEAR. YOU WILL FEEL THEM ALL.

Day reached for her phaser, powering it on slowly, not taking her eyes off him.

A burst of static came through the cabin speakers, then Kellan’s voice. “Vallejo to Captain Day, sensor alignment confirmed. Sending reconfiguration packet now. Deploy the pulse.”

Jorath was shaking now, whispering under his breath.

Day kept her voice steady. “You can do this. Just a little longer.”

He gritted his teeth as she engaged thrusters and moved toward the access shaft.

_____________________________________

Ensign Renn Tanara sat at the helm of the Ponderosa, hand on the controls, watching for any sign from the Vallejo or the dig site.

Behind her Dr. Pell checked Bjornsen’s vitals for the third time in as many minutes. He was stable, but unconscious. Torel sat on the deck beside him, cradling a medkit in her lap, eyes unfocused, breathing slowly.

No one spoke. No one wanted to say it out loud. Valis left and went back… Captain Day and Jorath were heading there too. Bait for the rest of them to escape.

Then the console chirped.

“Incoming from Vallejo,” Renn said, already opening the channel.

Commander Rax’s gruff voice came through. “Ponderosa, psionic energy signatures in your vicinity have dropped to baseline. A large buildup is currently en route towards the dig site. You are clear to take off, get back here as fast as possible.”

Renn let out a long breath as she activated the departure sequence.

She adjusted the heading as the vessel floated up into the atmosphere, thrusters at full, growling loudly.

For a moment, no one said anything. Then Dar came up toward the front of the cabin behind Renn. “Feels better just getting away from this planet.”

Then, from behind,d Dr. Pell added, almost as an afterthought, “Assuming we aren’t bringing anything with us…”

Renn didn’t reply. She just kept flying.

_____________________________________

The Velenia crept forward over the dig site shaft, the repulsors whining against the gravimetric currents stirred up from below. Day kept the controls tight, dropping altitude meter by meter until the yacht was nearly level with the shattered catwalk’s edge. She held steady.

“Activating pulse,” she said into the comm, both to the Vallejo and to Valis below.

Jorath didn’t speak. He stared forward blankly, shoulders trembling.

The terahertz beam discharged with a sharp pulse, a wave of blue light ejecting from the dorsal sensor palette, disappearing into the dark below.

Day watched as the console lit up… spikes in subspace distortion, psionic energy feedback climbing.

Then nothing.

The readings stopped.

“No change,” Kellan’s voice came over the comm. “Valis… the matrix isn’t responding.”

Then came the laugh. It crawled through the air like smoke.

YOU THOUGHT YOU UNDERSTOOD.

Jorath choked back a sound… half gasp… half sob.

Pain is not your weapon… it is mine.

Day again reached for her phaser, rising halfway from her seat, eyes scanning the cabin. “Jorath…”

I’M GOING TO ENJOY YOU… I THINK I’LL MAKE YOU PLAY WITH THIS ONE WITH YOU A BIT. LET’S SEE WHAT VIOLATIONS SHE CAN ENDURE…

The cabin temperature plummeted. Frost formed on the canopy. Inertial dampeners flickered.

The Velenia dropped hard, nose pitching violently.

Day fought the controls, but the systems were unresponsive.

The shuttle buckled as it hit the rocky slope near the shaft, skidding hard and twisting to one side. Panels sparked… bulkheads groaned. Then everything went still.

_____________________________________

Below the surface, Valis stood back and watched as the pulse entered the chamber. The structure reacted immediately. The dim red glyphs burned white-hot and spun in different directions… they were doing it.

Then they stopped.

Silence.

Nothing happened.

A deep, low thud echoed from somewhere above. She heard it clearly, a crash, followed by shifting dust and the sound of stone loosening in the shaft. She glanced upward, but there was no light, no voice on the comms.

Only one glyph remained brighter than the others. It pulsed, slowly… rhythmically… alive.

She raised her tricorder and scanned it.

No change.

Same composition… same frequency… same meaningless data.

Still, the glyph pulsed again… and again… as if acknowledging her. Inviting her.

She stepped forward and raised her hand. The air around the structure felt charged, like the moment before a lightning strike.

She reached out to trace the engraving with her finger.

The moment her finger brushed the stone, her breath caught.

And the world around her fell away.