Captain David Gold watched the forward monitor as the warped star field re-formed into normal space. He focused his vision on two pinpricks of light, moving forward at a rapid speed. He looked toward Shabalala, not asking the question.

The tactical officer magnified the screen, bringing the energy waves into view. “Confirmed, sir. I’m reading just under forty AU in diameter with a power output of…” he adjusted his console and leaned back with a slight whistle. “You don’t want to know, sir. Shall I raise shields?”

Gold thought about it for a moment. “No. Not yet, anyway. Let’s try the hand of friendship. Open hailing frequencies.”

“Frequencies open,” Shabalala said.

The only sound the bridge crew heard for the next several moments was that of the various instruments at work. Shabalala broke the silence with an exhalation of panicked breath. “I’m reading fluctuations in the energy output. The two masses are slowing down.”

“Let’s do the same. Take us to half impulse, Wong.”

“Aye, sir,” Wong replied.

“Any response?” Gold asked Shabalala.

The tactical officer shook his head. “No, sir. Just a minute.” He tapped on his console. “We’re getting some sort of emission, sir.”

“A weapon?”

Shabalala shook his head. “I don’t think so.”

“Let’s not take a chance. Shields; go to yellow alert.”

Personnel scattered about, moving themselves into position, ready to play their part in the situation.

“Impact in ten seconds,” Shabalala said. “It’s not a weapon, sir.”

The bridge shuddered slightly with the impact. The bridge lights winked out for a moment, but immediately snapped back on. Several monitors began to display schematics of the ship.

“It’s a scan of some sort, Captain,” Shabalala said. “It’s reading everything in our data banks.” He tried to cut off the flow of information but was not successful. Shabalala looked to Gold and shook his head. “And we’ve lost shields.”

The lights flickered again, to be replaced by emergency lighting. It cast disturbing shadows throughout the room.

Shabalala softly pounded his console in frustration as he watched the information from their records flow. The final image on the monitor was of the warp core chamber. It slowly faded away.

“Uh-oh,” Shabalala said softly.

Pattie, having curled herself into a near-perfect sphere, rolled toward the chamber entrance. One of the Gorn, ignoring the fact that he was being pelted by large chunks of falling debris, focused his weapons fire on the Nasat. Luckily, her shell provided protection.

Gomez yelled above the whine of the firefight, “Keep them back!” She turned and made her own dash for the cavern. Bits of the cavern wall exploded on her with each impact of the Gorn’s weapons.

Pattie was the first to make it through the opening, with Gomez following. As Pattie emerged from her rolled-up position, she let out a series of chime-like noises that Gomez recognized as her being startled.

“Commander,” Pattie said, “I believe we’ve found our energy disruption.”

Gomez took a cautious step forward toward the glowing ball of light. She placed a hand before her eyes, trying to block out the glare, but it was no use. Her hand appeared translucent in the being’s presence.

Tears began to stream down Gomez’s eyes as she struggled to take in the image before her. She blinked several times, unsure if she saw something in the middle of the pulsing orb.

“Hello?” she asked tentatively.

HELLO. The voice appeared to be that of two people speaking at the same time. There was a stereophonic tone to the slightly reverberating speech.

Gomez took in a breath. “All right, you can understand me. My name is Commander Sonya Gomez.”

ARE YOU WITH STARFLEET COMMAND? The voice was now only one and very excited. I WANT TO BE IN STARFLEET WHEN I GROW UP.

Gomez stopped for a moment to think about how to answer. There were many alien races among Starfleet’s personnel, but she wasn’t sure how such a being would fit in the organization.

Pattie, who had been slowly making her way around the pulsing orb, examining it as best she could without her instrumentation, said, “Commander, there is a humanoid being within the pulse.”

Gomez turned and took another look, despite the slight headache she was developing. She managed to make out the form. “Who are you?”

The pulse shuddered slightly for several seconds before replying. MY NAME IS EDDIE JOHNSON AND THIS IS MY FRIEND, SPARKY.

“Then there are two of you?” Gomez asked.

YES, MA’AM. The voice was singular once again. MY FATHER IS RAY JOHNSON. WE’RE HERE FOR A CONFERENCE.

“Eddie,” Gomez said slowly, trying to make sure she didn’t lose control of the situation, “where is your father now?”

PROBABLY AT SOME BORING LECTURE OR SYMPOSIUM. I’LL BET HE DOESN’T EVEN KNOW THAT I’M GONE.

“I’m not so sure of that,” Gomez replied. “Eddie, are you aware that you’re disrupting many of the services on Risa?”

I KNOW. ISN’T IT FANTASTIC?

“Yes, it is,” Gomez said, “but, it’s also dangerous. The weather control station has been shut down and a storm is brewing that could destroy this entire region.”

The being pulsed another moment. Probably discussing this with each other, Gomez thought.

WE ARE SORRY FOR THE PROBLEMS WE ARE CAUSING. The voice was once again plural.

“We appreciate that, Eddie, but you have to do more than that. You have to stop feeding on the planet’s energy.”

WE MUST FEED TO SURVIVE.

“And you can survive,” Gomez continued. “We can help you. We can take you to a world where you can feed all you want. There are countless stars full of energy orbiting dead planets. But you have to stop here.”

The being pulsed somewhat brighter as the argument between the two began to become more intense.

NO. The vocal tone was singular again, but different in its pitch. NO HELP FOR SPARKY. HURT SPARKY.

“Eddie! Please listen!”

EDDIE IS NOT SPEAKING NOW.

The pulse erupted into a bright light strobe, causing Gomez to fall back and cry out in pain. Pattie dropped quickly to her side.

“The light!” Gomez said with tears falling down her cheeks. “It’s blinded me!”

THERE IS FIGHTING. WHO WILL TAKE SPARKY? NOBODY! I…WILL NOT BE TAKEN! WE WILL NOT BE TAKEN!