Tanna was being half-led, half-dragged by the group of adolescents through the market, towards an empty square at the far end, where she could hear the sounds of children laughing and running around, accompanied by rhythmic clapping and a musical thrumming that was similar to the harmonic undertones of the villagers’ speech.

“What’s happening over there?” she asked, having to raise her voice slightly over the rising noise.

Che’dik’s eyes lit up at her question. “A game! Echo Circles. Come – you must try it!”

Tanna stopped dead, digging her bare heels into the stone floor. “Oh no,” she said, laughing nervously, “That sounds like something I won’t be very good at.”

The small girl, who had braided her hair, laughed and tugged harder on her arm. “That is part of the fun,” she said, flashing a mischievous smile.

Tanna allowed herself to be pulled forward, and the group stepped into the square. It was a broad, flat space, with intricate circles carved into the floor, each glowing softly, lit with thin seams of the same amber stone that lined the walls. Children hopped from one circle to the next with fluid, dance-like movements.

Three adults sat on the floor to one side with drums in their laps, tapping out a complex, hypnotic rhythm on the stretched hides. The vibrations from the drums echoed through the floor, tickling the bottoms of Tanna’s feet.

“It’s beautiful,” she murmured to herself, watching the children frolic.

“It’s simple!” the small girl said, leaping away to join the others in the game.

Doesn’t look simple, Tanna thought to herself. Che’dik took her hand once again and led her towards the circles.

“You start here,” he said, pointing at the outermost one. “You must only step on the circles that answer to you.”

“Answer to me?” Tanna repeated, raising her eyebrow in a decidedly T’Luni fashion.

“Yes, when you hum!” Called the small girl as she came whirling past once again. Tanna watched as she came to a stop in a circle, then hummed out a harmonic note, which seemed to be coming from two voices at once. A nearby circle lit up more brightly, and the small girl leapt gracefully to it with a spin, before repeating the process.

“What if it doesn’t light up?” Tanna asked.

“Then you fall,” Che’dik answered. “But you don’t really fall. You are just out.”

Tanna cocked her head to one side. “So, I just hum… and hope the floor likes me?”

“Exactly!” Che’dik answered before he too joined in with the rest, adding his own voice.

Yup, Tanna thought with a sigh, I’m doomed.

Still, she stepped into the first circle. A few people in the crowd noticed, and a soft murmur rippled through the watching villagers as one of the visitors was attempting the game. Some even clapped in encouragement.

“No pressure,” Tanna murmured. She drew in a breath and then hummed a simple, steady note.

Nothing happened.

She cleared her throat and tried again, adjusting her pitch higher. Still nothing. Her tour guides all winced in sympathetic silence. No one else was humming now, and the square had gone silent as the villagers looked on.

“Okay, okay. Third time lucky,” she said, shaking her hands and re-adjusting her feet. She raised her chin, took a deep breath and let out a soft, wavering hum, attempting to mimic the ones she had heard the others make.

A nearby circle pulsed brighter.

Tanna gasped. “It worked!”

“Yes!” the adolescents cheered. “Quickly, step there!”

Tanna hopped into the next circle, arms out for balance. The drummers shifted tempo, a little faster now. She hummed again, her voice shaky but earnest. Two circles glowed this time.

“Left!” called the small girl, and Tanna leapt again. When her feet hit the circle, a low sound rang out, like the soft tolling of a bell, and she felt the vibration in her feet. Smiling and laughing, she continued, as others soon joined in.

Around and around they went, the drums playing, Tanna spinning and twirling amongst the children. She was getting the hang of it now, moving faster and with more confidence, her wrap flowing around her as she went. The beads in her hair were resonating now, too, it seemed, and she got lost in the game.

Somewhere outside the circle, her comm badge chirped, pulling her from the game’s trance. As she tried to locate her bag, she took a misstep, hopping into an unlit circle. The drummers struck a final, dramatic beat, and the square went silent again for a moment.

The crowd around her broke into cheers and applause as she steadied herself and tried to catch her breath. Che’dik ran across the square and hugged her, almost lifting her from the floor.

“You lasted very long!” he laughed.

She grinned, holding her sides from the laughter. “Thank you! I thought for sure I was going to fall.” She stepped away from the circles. “You keep going, I need to answer this,” she said, heading for her backpack.

She pulled out the commbadge and tapped it. “Lieutenant Irovin here. Go ahead.”

Commander Cruikshank answered, and his voice carried an urgency that made her uneasy. “Meet us back in our quarters. We’ve got some things to talk about.”

The small girl ran up to her, a look of concern in her eyes. “Tanna, is everything alright?”

“Sorry,” Tanna said quickly, tossing her bag over her shoulder, “I’ve got to go.”

The other two were already back in their quarters when Tanna arrived. T’Luni was sitting in her typical stoic manner on the edge of her palette, and Craig was nervously pacing a hole in the floor between his palette and the corner of the room, but he stopped abruptly when Tanna walked through the door.

“Wow,” he said. “It looks like you’ve had a better day than we have.”

“I learned a lot, for sure,” she replied, looking from one to the other and running her hand over the beaded braid sheepishly. “Okay, so what’s going on. You two look like you’ve seen a crystalline entity.”

“That is,” T’Luni answered, “A closer assumption than you would think.”

Tanna moved to her bed and sat, pulling her legs up to sit cross-legged while Craig and T’Luni told her about their various discoveries: the eyeless bodies in the strange spaceship, and the somehow living mountain that had created the tunnels they now sat in. By the time they had finished, she was considerably less happy than she had been playing in the square with Che’dik and the others. She let out a long sigh, then turned to T’Luni.

“Okay, so this super-powerful, super-evil race of aliens–”

“Vezda,”

“Yeah, Vezda, right. They landed on this planet and enslaved the Palrillians?”

“Correct. The only information we have on them is from the encounter they had with the Enterprise in 2261. They are incorporeal, therefore essentially immortal, and incredibly powerful, even without a host to inhabit. They have no technology of their own, but they seem to have a vast knowledge of advanced technologies. It also states that they were sealed away on Vadia IX.”

“Okay, could they be here?”

“It is reasonable to assume that some may have been missed.”

“So why haven’t they left?”

“I suspect because the mountain–”

“The living mountain.”

“Correct. I suspect the mountain attempted to trap them here on the surface by burying the ship they arrived in underground. They were able to travel long distances using ley-lines similar to the ones that have been encountered here in the Shackleton Expanse, but I am unsure if they could have reached them without a ship.”

“Is there a way we can be sure?”

The away team jumped as another voice joined in from outside the door. “I believe I can help you.”

Seru’nai pushed the door open and stepped inside the room, bowing slightly in apology. “Please, forgive me for my intrusion. I was sent to check on you and heard part of your conversation. The Stone would know if the Hunters remain.”

Craig turned to them. “Is there a way to speak with the Stone?”

Seru’nai nodded. “I can take you to where the Stone rests, though I cannot guarantee it will answer.”

“Please,” Craig said, shouldering his pack. “Lead the way.”