The shaft quaked, its rusted supports groaning as if Nerathis IV rejected their intrusion. Captain Day Renora steadied Lieutenant Jorath as his boots skidded on silicate dust, her grip firm on his arm. The Vyr’eshk’s psionic assault roared… a maelstrom of hunger and malice shredding their minds. Its voice, a jagged psychic blade, tore through their thoughts.

YOU HOPE TO BIND ME AGAIN? I AM THE DEVOURER OF WILL. YOUR PAIN IS MY BANQUET. YOU CANNOT CONTAIN ME.

Jorath’s breath caught, blood dripping from a fresh cut on his cheek. “It’s afraid,” he rasped, green eyes defiant.

Day, her uniform torn at the shoulder, nodded grimly, her hands empty but resolute. “Then we force it back into its cage.”

The descent became a gauntlet, the Vyr’eshk’s assaults surging with renewed fury, the shaft’s walls pulsing with red silicate veins that spat sparks, searing their uniforms. Dust coalesced into clawed phantoms… screaming faces, twisted limbs… lunging from the shadows. One raked Day’s arm, drawing blood; she stumbled but pressed on, the phantoms dissolving into ash behind her. Another grazed Jorath’s neck, leaving a burning welt; he gritted his teeth, pushing forward. The air thickened, each breath a labor, as the entity sapped their resolve.

The Vyr’eshk’s psychological barrage was merciless. For Jorath, the memory of Kelam, his young friend, resurfaced… eyes empty, a phaser pressed to his temple, Jorath’s fault… The despair clawed at his chest, his steps faltering, but Valis’s telepathic voice pierced the chaos, steady as a star.

“Focus on a single flame.” Jorath clung to a single point of light, her Vulcan logic steadying his emotions, and pressed on.

Day’s torment was equally relentless. She was no longer on Nerathis IV but at her conn station on the Thunderchild, the bridge in chaos during a Breen warship attack. Consoles sparked, the hull breached, officers slumped dead… Lieutenant Gao’s blood pooling, Ensign R’val’s body pinned by debris. Day froze, hands trembling on the controls, fear locking her in place as the captain’s orders faded into static. The Vyr’eshk’s voice hissed.

YOU FAILED THEM. YOUR FEAR DOOMED THEM.

Valis’s faint telepathic pulse offered clarity, and Day shoved Jorath forward. “Move!”

Then, Day froze. Her body went rigid, boots hovering above the catwalk. Her eyes turned obsidian black, her face twisting into a predatory sneer. The Vyr’eshk’s voice erupted from her, layered and guttural.

YOUR CAPTAIN IS MINE, JORATH. I’LL FEAST ON YOUR CREW, ONE BY ONE, AND YOU’LL WATCH THEIR SOULS UNRAVEL.

Jorath recoiled, heart pounding, as possessed Day advanced, her movements fluid and menacing. Her strength was unnatural, her body surging with the entity’s power, knocking him back with a single shove. “Captain, fight it!” he shouted, dodging a swing of her fist that cracked the catwalk’s railing.

YOUR VALLEJO WILL FALL. THEIR HOPE, THEIR JOY… I’LL STRIP IT ALL.

The catwalk’s lowest section collapsed, leaving a ten-meter gap to the chamber’s entrance. The Vyr’eshk’s psychic scream erupted… a cacophony of consumed agonies… threatening to shatter Jorath’s mind. His knees buckled, Kelam’s lifeless face flashing before him, but Valis’s telepathic rhythm again anchored him.

“One flame… one step.”

Jorath lunged for Day, grappling her arm, but her possessed strength threw him back, her fist grazing his ribs. Dragging her was impossible; she was a force unbound.

They staggered to the gap’s edge, Jorath barely holding her at bay. With a desperate heave, he tackled her, their bodies tumbling across the gap, crashing onto the cold stone ground below. Day’s black eyes glared, the Vyr’eshk’s laughter echoing.

YOU CANNOT HOLD ME.

_____________________________________

In the chamber, Lieutenant Valis stood before the central platform, hands outstretched on the alien structure, her mind entwined with the Syl’theran Order’s fading resonance. Images flickered: four-fingered hands clasped, glowing eyes raised, stone pulsing like a living heart. The glyphs glowed, their rhythm unsteady, the terahertz pulse having activated the cell but lacking the Vyr’eshk’s presence.

Jorath burst in, wrestling a possessed Captain Day, her fists striking with brutal force, his blood dripping from new wounds. Valis, calm but strained, maintained her position.

Even as he dragged Day into the chamber… kicking… clawing… the Vyr’eshk’s shadow coiled outside the chamber, a writhing mass of dust, smoke, and crackling flashes of red energy, displaying flickering faces… researchers, Vaadwaur, Khev’ralis… refusing to cross the threshold. Its voice was venomous.

YOUR TRAP IS FUTILE. I AM BEYOND YOUR GRASP. YOUR CREW’S MINDS WILL BLEED.

Valis’s telepathic voice cut through, precise and urgent.

“The Vyr’eshk lies, it requires proximity to feed. The Ponderosa has returned to the Vallejo, safe in orbit. Lieutenant Jorath, you must draw it into the chamber.”

Jorath pinned Day against the platform’s edge, her possessed body thrashing with supernatural force. “Captain, hold on!” he growled, his empathy flaring in a vain attempt to shield her. He stepped onto the glyph-engraved platform, their light flickering beneath his boots. He immediately felt Syl’theran’s presence. Crystalline figures knelt in his mind, their strength a faint river, giving him strength. He projected his own pain… Kelam’s suicide, the hollow ache of loss… into a beacon. “Come for me,” he muttered, voice low but firm.

The Vyr’eshk’s laughter echoed, unmoved.

YOUR PAIN IS A MERE SPARK. I AM INFERNO.

Jorath’s fists clenched, sweat mixing with blood. His initial lure faltered; the entity unmoving. Valis’s voice pressed into his mind, sharp and commanding.

“Extend your reach, Lieutenant. The Vallejo’s crew. Their pain, their fear, their everything. Draw them in.”

Jorath took a ragged breath, his feelings stretching beyond himself, clawing toward the Vallejo in orbit. The Syl’theran’s resonance surged, their clasped hands and glowing eyes urging him deeper. The structure hummed, amplifying his connection. He felt the crew’s lives, their raw, unfiltered experiences, flooding him like a tidal wave…

Amir’s scream as the energy lance sheared off his arm… his hope of survival dissolved with his flesh.

Kellan’s frozen horror, watching Ensign Ra Kyong’s back blasted open by a Cardassian plasma rifle, his body crumpling, helpless to save him.

Rax’s visceral grief as Cardassian soldiers butchered his crewmates, their blood pooling on the deck, his rage a silent scream.

Loran’s childhood betrayal, sold into slavery at six by his own mother, the cold shackles biting his wrists, trust shattered forever.

Torel’s paralyzing fear aboard the Vaadwaur ship, her heart pounding as she ran for safety, certain death looming.

Bjornsen’s agony, clawing at his own eyes to escape the Vyr’eshk’s visions, blood streaming down his face, his sanity fraying.

Jorath’s body shook, blood seeping from his nose as the collective trauma tore at him. Hundreds of souls… thousands of memories. He compressed it all… fear, pain, loss, hope, joy, trauma, love, everything… into a searing, radiant lure, a psychic supernova that burned with the crew’s collective experiences. The chamber quaked, glyphs blazing white-hot, the silicate veins of the surrounding walls pulsing like a heartbeat. His voice roared, shaking the stone. “You want our pain… our fear… TAKE ALL OF IT!”

The Vyr’eshk’s shadow form writhed, its laughter faltering. The lure was too potent, too irresistible. Against its will, it surged into the chamber, drawn like a moth to a flame, abandoning Day’s body as it surged towards Jorath. Her eyes cleared, hazel again, as she collapsed, gasping.

The entity enveloped him, lifting him off the ground, blood streaming from his eyes, ears, and mouth as the psionic strain ravaged him. His body trembled, suspended in a vortex of red and white energy, the Vyr’eshk’s screams mingling with his own.

Jorath felt the Syl’theran’s resolve… sacrificial, unyielding… guiding him. “Now, Valis!” he called, his voice steady despite the strain.

Valis’s hands flew across the glyphs, activating the containment matrix. The silicate veins pulsed, the cell humming with power.

Jorath’s eyes locked on the Vyr’eshk’s writhing form around him, a defiant grin breaking through his agony. “You wanted our emotions… now fucking choke on them!”

The glyphs spun, their light blinding. The Vyr’eshk’s wail turned to despair, its form unraveling under the weight of the collective trauma it craved. With a deafening hum, the Vyr’eshk was sucked into the cell, the glyphs sealing in a burst of blood-red energy.

Jorath was hurled against the rock wall, slumping lifelessly to the stone floor.

Day, gasping, crawled to him, fingers finding a faint pulse. “He’s alive,” she said, voice breaking. Valis weakly pulled herself up from the dust-covered floor, retrieved her tricorder, and scanned the matrix, confirming the Vyr’eshk’s containment.

Together they lifted Jorath, his body limp, and staggered back to the shaft.

_____________________________________

The climb was brutal; they were beyond exhaustion, mentally, physically, and emotionally. Day and Valis supported Jorath between them, his weight heavy, their muscles burning with each step. Dust stung their eyes, and the rusted supports groaned ominously. Valis, her Vulcan strength flagging, glanced at Day, her voice dry. “Ensign Ryan’s youthful vigor would have been useful here.”

Day managed a weak grin, her focus on Jorath’s shallow breathing.

They reached the surface, the Velenia waiting amidst the now calming storm. Valis slid into the pilot’s seat, rerouting power to the damaged engines. Day eased Jorath into a passenger seat, securing him as the yacht shuddered. The engines roared, and the Velenia broke through the purple-hued atmosphere, the red planet fading into shadow… its prisoner bound. For now.