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Index SB: Kieran: The Face of the Enemy

"We will do as you say. Good luck Kieran" Captain Maddox replies simply. Kieran feels the ship suddenly change vector, and another distant sound of orders and klaxons as the ship begins shifting position...

And in the same moment, Kieran's senses are fully engaged...elsewhere.

Taking the initiative in setting the scene for the mental plane, what Kieran finds himself is a large rocky crater, with a night sky overhead. The stars, Kieran notices, are relatively few in number, and mostly red and orange in color. A moon casts a wan white light across the crater. The rocks and other debris, ranging in size from sand grains to twice the size of Gate, cast dark pooled shadows.

Standing at the edge of one of these shadows, 10 meters away, is a figure a little under 2 meters tall. Hooded and cloaked, the octopus-like head has four long blue green tentacles extending from a lamprey like mouth. He begins striding (towards) Kieran with slow confidence.

Kieran appears much as he did on the material plane, still dressed in his flat grey Republic command armor, and faded black vest. Blaster and slugthrower pistols holstered at his hips along with his lightsaber and Wisdom strapped to his back.

Kieran glances around, shrugs his shoulders at the scenery and says; "This will do." He checks his mental defenses: Faithful Mind, Mind Masque still up with the Mind Blank spell still going.

His mental defenses are intact.

Note: For Kieran, his view of psychic combat is going to be much like he'd see/act in mundane combat. Most of his attacks, to him anyway, will be done through his weapons. Some of his defenses as well: i.e. blocking/deflecting attacks with his lightsaber.

He begins prepping a Choking Grasp spell/attack.

"And you would be?" he asks as his opponent approaches.

"Ulchalothe" comes a cold, clipped, unaccented voice from the creature. It continues its stride toward Kieran, the tentacles quivering as it does so. Ulchalothe stops at about 15 feet away, and raises a purple hand toward Kieran.

"Kine, come" it says simply, as Kieran begins to feel an unnatural urge to approach the creature.

Kieran shakes his head and resists the pull. Once his Choking Grasp attack is ready, he raises a hand and says; "Choke;" as he launches the attack.

It takes a few moments of resistance to build up the spell to the point when it can be launched. As the spell goes off the pull is dropped suddenly and swiftly. There is a gurgle of surprise as the psychically manifested force hand wraps around the throat of Ulchalothe.

Kieran gets about 5 seconds of choking the creature before his spell is not merely resisted but broken, suddenly and swiftly. The eyes of the creature have turned a slight shade of red, and the tentacles emanating from its head have grown a little darker. There is a feeling of surprised anger that Kieran gets from the yithonghu.

Kieran nods to himself. *He's strong, but is he experienced?* Kieran wonders. *No defenses up in a psychic battle? Or just not expecting me to have much in the way of psychic combat skills?*

Ulchalothe resumes its approach toward Kieran, with far less leisure in its gait this time. The tentacles quiver and the inhuman, alien eyes stare at and study Kieran, but he feels no direct attack--yet.

Kieran preps a Telekinetic Strike attack, waiting for Ulchalothe to come closer. Once Ulchalothe gets close, Kieran draws and ignites his lightsaber, then launches into a series of attacks and blocks/dodges.

As Kieran ignites his lightsaber, Ulchalothe produces a weapon as well, from Elsewhere or the material of this psychic plane. It looks like a twisted spear of some dark material, with a spearpoint composed of a glowing blue crystal.

The Yithonghu waits for him to begin his series of attacks and then begins to parry them. Although the weapon looks far less elegant than a lightsaber, he meets the attacks, and responds with some of his own. The creature doesn't quite retreat, but after allowing Kieran a few passes and parries with his blade, the creature starts trying to use the reach of its spear, attempting thrusts and attacks and denying Kieran a chance to respond with any attacks of his own.

Getting in closer to try and take the offensive again will definitely risk a strike from that fast-thrusting long spear it is using.

Kieran doesn't like the look of the spear, or rather the blue crystal spearpoint, but continues his attacks. As Ulchalothe begins to make his own attacks, Kieran analyzes them and then develops a counter to them by reaching back with his left hand and drawing Wisdom, his hammer-mace. Fighting with two weapons, using one of them to parry/deflect/block/control the spear should be effective he feels. Which weapon is used for attacks and which is used for defense varies depending on the situation.

The hammer-mace gives Kieran a little more reach and flexibility to control the spear. It turns into a much more even match, although Kieran can feel that this is the sort of combat that cannot last forever, given how much strength it takes to use both weapons.

There is also one other thing. Kieran also can feel something building in the creature, even as he builds and preps his TK spell.

Kieran tries to rush the TK Strike along. If he gets it readied before the Yithonghu gets it's attack readied, Kieran will use both weapons to block/parry a spear thrust/strike to his left side and try to force it down. The head and haft of the hammer should provide a means of binding or locking up and controlling the spear shaft with the lightsaber adding extra control to move the weapon. Then he'll trigger the TK Strike at the Yithonghu. Not so much straight at Ulchalothe, as it might expect, but rather aimed from down low to the ground and aimed up.

Kieran's TK Strike on Ulchalcothe comes at the same time as the Yithonghu's in turn. The telekinetic strike throws the creature into the air given its trajectory, even as it release its own spell or attack of some sort.

If Kieran had not launched the strike, his defenses might have been completely scoured away by the blast, the mind blast. However, the blast, thanks to Kieran's TK strike, the mind blast only hits Kieran obliquely, knocking him back a few paces, but allowing him to remain on his feet for the moment. The delay does allow Ulchalcothe to recover once she lands, a fair distance away from where Kieran stands. Further away, in fact, than their initial start location.

The tip of the upright held spear glows like a blue malevolent beacon as the tentacled creature regards Kieran with a now baleful look.

Kieran grins fiercely at his opponent. Things appear to be going to plan thus far, he feels, given how little time he's had to devote to planning right now. His opponent appears to be angry at it's lack of an easy victory over Kieran. Kieran wants to use the creature's anger against it. So, he rushes forward and launches into a whirling blur of attacks and parries, trying to get Ulchalothe off balance enough to launch a Mind Mal attack.

Ulchalothe stands firm and waits, spear ready, as Kieran rushes forward. This does cede the initiative, but it allows the creature to be ready for Kieran's whirling blur of attacks with his pair of weapons. The Yithonghu slowly gives ground, and Kieran can feel the tide starting to turn his own way.

And then, the creature throws its own gambit. What appears to be a weakening of its defenses, and allowing Kieran to get within the range of that dangerous looking spear turns out to be an attack of a new kind. The tentacles snap forward with unexpected speed, striking Kieran squarely in the chest and neck, reaching and seeking to grab his head firmly. Behind them, Kieran can feel the surge and strength of the creature's mind seeking not only to dominate, but consume Kieran's mind if it can but hold him long enough in place.

Kieran extinguishes the blade of his lightsaber as he snarls in anger and brings the hilt in close between himself and Ulchalothe. He attempts to jam the hilt of the lightsaber at the base of his opponent's throat or chest cavity before re-igniting it. He puts everything he has left into it.

The tentacles continue to claw and grasp Kieran's head, the building pressure on Kieran from Ulchalcothe merciless. Surely part of the entire package of the attack, Kieran feels a wave of fear and hopelessness wash over him as the creature seeks total mastery and victory. It takes an effort of will to get the blade into the throat of the creature.

And even this is almost not enough. The tentacles start to pull at Kieran's head, and his mind starts to pull toward the waiting alien maw.

The ignition of the lightsaber causes a blinding flash, the smell of burning cephalopod, and a cry of pain. Kieran's enormous expenditure of energy, and the strength of the attack on Ulchalcothe combine to break the psychic plane between them.

Dazed, but with his mind and soul intact, Kieran's attention returns to the Arthfael. What transposes around him only slowly starts to make sense as his attention re-engages with the real world.

Kieran's hand reaches up to rub his throat and neck. And check for injuries. He starts to shake his head to clear it and stops abruptly at the first hint of lights dancing behind his eyes. He settles on a few deep, calming breaths as he takes in the sights of the physical world.

As screens, and the beeping from Gate and the commands of Captain Maddox start to make sense, it becomes clear to Kieran that the ship is fighting the large Yithonghu ship. As Kieran comes to, he realizes that the Yithonghu is doing something different than expected, something which has excited the Keltan crew.

The large opposing ship has started to turn back toward the Gate from which it emerged.

In this excitement and attention on matters, no one has noticed Kieran's change of state as yet.

What is the status of the two ships? Kieran glances down at the tactical monitor on his chair. How far from the gate is the Yithonghu ship?

The Arthfael has taken some moderate damage from the weapons of the Yithonghu ship. That large vessel in turn has taken some damage, mainly in the rear portions of the ship. It seems the Yithonghu weaponry is lighter to the rear, and the Keltians have been trying to exploit that fact.

The Yithonghu ship is around 1000 km, or at current speed, about 120 seconds, from the Gate.

Kieran concentrates and focuses on setting aside his aches, pains and weariness for one last effort. The Jedi referred to it as battle meditation; a technique where a Jedi (psychic) reached out and brought a number of people into a light telepathic bond or group. It worked best if all involved were Jedi (psychics), but it would work with non-psychics; just not very deep. The intent of the battle meditation was to help the group focus on the group's goal, usually combating an enemy or enemies. The group would find itself putting aside all doubts, confident not only in their own individual skills, but also confident that all others in the group would be doing their best as well. The group would begin acting in concert; pilots knowing just the perfect angle of attack the gunners needed for the most effective shots; gunners knowing the pilots get them that perfect shot and knowing when to fire. And so on. Response times and efficiency would improve dramatically, etc. It's a subtle thing, the bond or meld; not so much direct communication, rather it's something along the lines of all members of the meld knowing, more or less at the same instant, what the group's desire/focus/goal is and then carrying out whatever tasks they need to perform in order for the group to succeed.

If Kieran were fresh, or atleast rested and not just back from a psychic combat following a rather busy day, he could reach out to the entire crew of the Arthfael and bring them into the meld. Now, Kieran just tries to link up the bridge crew. That the bridge crew is already acting in a group frame of mind and focused on a single goal should help him nudge them along.

Kieran has enough juice to link up the bridge crew. He can't achieve the full gestalt of a meld, its true, but a link should be enough to nudge them to action.

"Captain;" Kieran says after clearing his throat; "Target their drive section. Hit them with whatever we have left."

"Affirmative." the Captain agrees, sending out orders. Really, though, with the linkage that Kieran has, and the frame of mind the tightly knit crew enjoys, orders are implemented with considerable speed. The Arthfael manages to get into position to launch missiles and beam weapons into the rear section of the Yithonghu ship as it reaches the halfway mark of its escape route, taking fire in return from rear-mounted energy projector weapons. There is a furious exchange of fire between the two ships, and then a Keltic G�e Bulg class missile manages to get through the anti-missile weapons on the Yithonghu ship, and hits the main drive engine.

The inevitable explosion is going to be spectacular. And possibly very destructive to a Keltic ship following close behind.

Kieran grins fiercely as the missile hits home. And then just as quickly nudges the bridge crew to break off the attack, make a run for distance from the enemy ship and reinforce the shields. "Break off the attack Captain;" Kieran says quickly; "and make your best speed possible to get us some distance from that ship."

"Already on it, Flag Officer." Captain Maddox replies, barking out order to navigation. The Keltic ship is far more nimble than the Yithonghu monstrosity, and a good thing, as well as the Arthfael breaks away from the ship, slewing on the z-axis to drop away from the ship and the Gate.

Then, his face drains of color as he recalls something he'd forgotten. Dad, Paril, Voyager. All missing. "Maulk;" he mutters under his breath while dropping the battle meditation and reaching out to the HTD to bring up first Percy's trump. He'll try it for 10 seconds...

On the ninth second, the contact finally punches through. Its weak, and slightly distorted, but it holds for the moment.

Percy is on the bridge of the Voyager. Judging from the smoke and damage, its clear that she has been in a fight. Again.

"Kieran!" Percy says emphatically. Kieran can feel him pouring energy into the contact himself, trying to keep it stable, and in the process removing most of the distortion.

"Dad!" Kieran says, elated and distressed at reaching his father. Elated because this means Percy, Voyager and presumably, Paril are alive and not held captive aboard the Yithonghu ship which is about to go 'BOOM!'. Distressed because wherever they are, they're in trouble. Kieran pours what he has left into the contact. "Where are you?" he sends with a strong sense of urgency.

The contact strengths with the spare energy that Kieran can pour in. He doesn't have much left, but the last of the distortion disappears from the contact--for the moment, anyway.

Dad seems to realize that the contact is probably not going to be long lasting. He speaks in a rapid, clipped fashion.

"Voyager got translated into some sort of subspace or overspace that your mother and I sure as the unicorn didn't design into the universe. We've been dodging unknown alien craft here, trying to make it back to Keltic space. Wherever this is, its not very amenable to the Pattern."

On a monitor, and a prompting from Gate, the Yithonghu ship has slowed its forward momentum to a drift, and its reactor is probably a half minute from going critical. The Arthfael is still trying to get out of what will be a spectacularly large explosion radius.

"You are facing, most likely, Yithonghu ships, Dad;" Kieran says quickly. "Maybe Mom told you about them? They certainly know and have it in for her and the rest of us here, for something she did to them. Or so they say. I just barely defeated one of their champions, at least I hope he was their equivalent of a champion. Anyroad, their ship that translated to Keltic space is about to explode. The crew of the ship I'm on is very good at what they do."

"Your mother mentioned them." Percy smiles thinly. "She mentioned them as dream creatures, and she liked tangling with them not at all. They were most unpleased with her and our cousins with her who spoiled their plans."

"How close to your entrance point are you? I'd tell you to get to and through it if you were close but that would most likely cause you to reappear right in the vicinity of the Yithonghu ship that's about to explode. I don't know if the anomaly, your subspace rift, will reopen or not without the Yithonghu."

Kieran's expression furrows in furious thought. He holds a hand; "Get Paril and come through now, Dad. Or bring me through. I don't the time or energy left to try anything else unfortunately."

Percy sighs, looks around at the ship. Something crosses his face, a raising of eyebrows as he realizes something. "No, we'll come through. Paril! Set the device's timer to 45 seconds and get up here!" Percy calls into the comm.

"You were going to destroy Voyager, along with yourselves, weren't you?" Kieran asks while taking perhaps his last look aboard Voyager.

25 seconds later, Paril is on the bridge and has Percy's arm. 28 seconds, the two of them come through the trump, to a very surprised looking bridge crew.

Two seconds later, there is a very large explosion that registers on all of the screens of the Keltic ship as, according to the sensors, the engine of the Yithonghu ship has gone critical and the explosion is in the process of engulfing it, the Coranian ship, and the Gate. The Arthfael is still racing to escape the worst of this explosion.

"Flag Officer." Captain Maddox says. "Milord." he says to Percy. "I am getting reports of additional explosions at various locations up here on this axis, around Scota."

"Hang on to something you two;" Kieran says to Percy and Paril. "This ride's likely to get bumpy in a few moments."

Father, and Paril slew toward empty seats and get themselves settled quickly.

"Captain;" Kieran says; "Put it on the viewer. What magnitude explosions and how many are we talking about?"

"See for yourself." Captain Maddox says. He brings up a map of local space and shows the locations of the explosions.

Kieran can just manage to see that the explosions, laid on with the information Gate had earlier, seem to be four in number, a pair of them each near the fallback points that the Coranian fleets were retreating to.

Further analysis of this has to wait when the full shock bow of the explosion finally hits the Arthfael. The concussive force sends the ship spinning on all three axes. Gate's beeping and chirping is mixed with shouts and cries from the crew as the few who haven't braced themselves are sent flying.

It takes a minute to get the ship to stop spinning. It might take another few for Kieran's perceptions, and everyone else's to stop as well.

After a quick glance about the bridge to see if anyone needs immediate aid, Kieran lets Captain Maddox tend to his ship and crew while going back to studying the viewscreen. The explosions at the four points were all simultaneous? And simultaneous with the Yithonghu's ship going up near its Gate?

The injuries on the bridge appear to be of the superficial-to-minor variety, no one that really needs Kieran's aid, or more aid than they are receiving from their fellows. Maddox seems to have his crew disciplined and ready to deal with the aftermath.

The four explosions were indeed simultaneous, according to the data that Kieran was receiving (or at least were as simultaneous as relativity might allow). They were not simultaneous with the Yithonghu explosion, they occurred 15 seconds after the Yithonghu ship explosion.

"Kieran." Percy says, making his way over to Kieran and his panel. "Those explosions that you are studying." He pauses a moment, reluctant to speak. "I think that those are from the backblow from I had Paril do with the Voyager just before you trumped us out."

"Yes" Paril says. "By the Force, it worked. Wherever we were, the properties of that space seemed to dislike the overload I put on the engines. And the beasties that dwelled in there, too. Didn't expect it to come out here, but we weren't sure how that weird space worked, anyhow."

"The Gate appears to be non functional." Captain Maddox says to Kieran at this point. "Unless either of you object, standard protocol would be to approach the wreck of the enemy ship for survivors to capture and gather information from the debris if possible."

"None, Captain;" Kieran says to Maddox. "Let me know at once if there are any survivors; we'll need to be cautious around them. Hail the flagship if you would please Captain, and pipe it back to me here."

"Affirmative. We'll approach slowly and carefully. Hailing the Princess' ship now..."

While waiting for the call to the flagship to come through, Kieran turns to look at both Percy and Paril. He's a little saddened at the loss of his main ship understandably. "I'm glad you two got out of there okay, but you owe me a ship. Most likely a speeder bike as well." He sighs softly and shakes his head.

Dad looks alert at this and opens his mouth to speak with a slight nod, and then decides to stop, and gives the smallest of smiles, which faces to neutrality as Kieran continues.

"How did you two end up in Yithonghu space anyroad? I thought the plan was for you to head for the flagship and Mom?"

"That was the plan." Dad replies. "Paril and I thought that a polar parabolic trajectory would allow us to miss most of the Coranian ships. Unfortunately, the Voyager's sensors were not optimally arrayed to detect those Serpent-cursed Gates, and we sailed on through one up near the apogee of our path almost before we knew it. Took a little damage in the transition, and then we suddenly were under attack. If they weren't as surprised by us there as we were being there, it could have gone far worse than it did."

"That space we wound up in was weirder than any of the places along the path from the Republic to here." Paril adds.

"Aye, well fighting what I hope was their equivalent of a champion was no walk in the park either;" Kieran replies. "From what I gathered from fighting one of them, the Yithonghu are weird in general. Look a bit like Quarren do back in Republic space. Don't know if they're aquatic though." He glances back and forth between Percy and Paril; "How many Coranian and Yithonghu ships did you detect in that space?"

"That space we wound up in was weirder than any of the places along the path from the Republic to here." Paril adds.

"That space's properties were strange. The boundaries appeared to be rather small. We were getting strange radar bounces from a few million kilometers away and no farther. There were about thirty ships of various sizes in that volume. The one we saw here was the biggest." Paril explains.

"Kieran. Just what did you and your father DO?" Mother's voice precedes her image resolving onto the screen as the call connects. Behind her, her bridge shows a little bit of damage, being attended to by busy crew members. "Not that the Coranians seem to like it."

Kieran grins. "Where to start?" he shrugs his shoulders. "Let's see, the Captain and crew of the Arthfael along with myself took on a Wyvern class and a Yithonghu ship, their flagship I think. Well, the Captain and crew took them on while I dealt with what I think was their champion in a psychic battle." Kieran shakes his head vigorously. "At least I hope that was a champion and not a grunt soldier."

Mother looks alarmed and even more attentive.

"Anyroad, we were victorious, the Yithonghu ship went critical just short of passing back through their gate. Dad and Paril, meanwhile, had managed to 'infiltrate';" Kieran pauses to give Percy and Paril a look. "Yithonghu space with Voyager. Which is why we couldn't detect or contact them earlier. They set Voyager to self-destruct just as I managed to punch a trump call through to Dad. Voyager's detonation seems to have caused a localized area chain reaction on the other side of the gates or portals which was the cause of the recent explosions."

"When *I* met the Yithonghu." Mother says, carefully controlling her voice. "It was in a realm of dreams, an area of which they apparently inhabited and had designs on conquest in that realm. We did not know that they could manifest *here*. Something Valerian never mentioned." She says the last with a disagreeable tone of voice.

"And I am getting ansible reports that similar explosions are occurring in other solar systems as well. It would appear this space your father took the Voyager is connected to a number of locations in our space." Mother continues. "At the very least, all this appears to have taken the fight out of the Coranian forces."

"Have the Arthfael rendezvous with my ship as soon as possible." Mom adds.

"The Yithonghu did say, more or less, that they had it in for you, your descendants, your people and realm in about that order;" Kieran says. "If that wasn't the lot of them, the others will come looking to see what happened to their forward expedition."

"Areas of spatial weakness, perhaps?;" Kieran asks regarding the other explosions. He smiles at the plight of the Coranians. "Yes, I imagine watching your big bad extra-dimensional allies going up in a series of spectacular explosions would take the wind out of your sails at that."

"Once we've scanned for survivors; and marked what's left of their ship with a locator beacon, we'll be on our way;" Kieran adds finally.

"All right" Mother says. "See you, and your father, then. Out."

And the connection ends. By this point, the Arthfael is making a slow pass over the dark and twisted mass of metal and material that once was the Yithonghu ship. Parts of it clearly seem to be open to space, others have buckled and collapsed completely.

It looks like a deathtrap to step onto without taking severe precautions.

As the Keltic vessel approaches the forward end, this part, away from the engines and perhaps better built, is in somewhat better shape. It still looks in terrible shape.

One of the junior officers on the bridge, at Captain Maddox's urging, announces her findings.

"I'm reading an oxygen-argon-sulfur dioxide atmosphere mix and pressure in some of the forward portions of the ship around what is probably the bridge. Sensors suggest that there are survivors, light, and power, although the last two are variable and probably only on an emergency basis."

Captain Maddox looks at Percy, Paril, and most especially, Kieran. "Orders?"

"Proceed cautiously, Captain;" Kieran replies. He begins prepping a Helm spell and keeps Faithful Mind up, just in case. "Scan the wreckage once more; are there traces of that atmospheric mix throughout the wreckage? How many life signs have you picked up?"

Kieran pauses to consider this. "If that exotic atmosphere is their normal one, it should be fairly easy to contain them aboard ship or wherever we take them;" he says more to Percy than anyone else.

How big of a hull section are we talking about here? Would it fit within the Arthfael's main hangar deck?

The hull section in question appears to be the area around the bridge of the large Yithonghu ship and some adjoining regions. It would, if excised from the Yithonghu ship somehow, just manage to be crammed into the Arthfael's main hangar deck.

"I don't remember your mother saying they breathed weird stuff. But dreams are probably different and she didn't notice." Percy says.

Kieran nods his head. "Or it was a lot like a psychic battle; where individuals determine their surroundings."

"At least they die like normal people." Paril says. "Even if they breathe that weird crap."

"Life signs are difficult to read, sir." the junior officer says. "These aliens are unlike any that we've encountered. We think we have three or four in the operable section. We cannot be entirely certain, however. Something is alive there, but just how many and its composition, I can't tell. We can tell that atmosphere is in other regions of the ship but its all out gassing due to massive hull ruptures. The area around the bridge is the only region with pressure approaching a standard Keltic atmosphere."

"That's fine, Lieutenant Laren." Captain Maddox says. "Helm. Slow us and take us near to that region."

"Any signs of escape pods or their equivalent, Lieutenant?;" Kieran asks.

"There are a few pieces nearby which *could* be pods, sir." Lt. Laren says, with a trace of nervousness in her voice. "I don't see anything with life signs, but admittedly with the weird way these readings are coming across, we would likely have to get closer to those pieces to detect any life forms on them. Sir."

"Very well, Lieutenant;" Kieran replies. "Let's assume the objects are pods for the moment, and empty. How big are the pods? How many beings could one of these pods hold?"

"One occupant, assuming roughly human sized." Lt. Laren replies. "They are too small to hold more and still function as pods, no matter how alien their technology might be. We make our pods considerably larger. These are not much larger than a missile."

The Arthfael slows to a crawl and gradually comes over the lighted and active areas of the ship. It is a small area, really, as Kieran expected. A small island of light and life in an otherwise very dead vessel.

Kieran at this stage can now feel four minds in total, four alien minds, none of them particularly strong.

And one of them is definitely the mind he so recently fought.

"Try and hail them, if you would please Captain;" Kieran says while studying the image on the viewers. "Could we take what's left of their ship in tow?"

To Percy and Paril, Kieran adds; "I sense four of them. One is the one I fought before, Ulchalothe is his name."

"Then we capture if possible. Kill if we must." Percy says. "Your mother would agree with me on this, knowing what they are up to is the most important thing."

Kieran sighs softly at this. 'This is going to be... interesting', he thinks.

Captain Maddox looks at some figures and then looks at Kieran.

"It would be slow going, but we could tow this thing into planetary orbit, given a day or so. Our engines are at full capacity, but given the size of the wreck, it would be like a tug pushing a dreadnought around a spaceyard. Crude and slow, but possible."

"If it comes to that, we'll get support from the fleet to help us tow the wreck in;" Kieran says.

"If quarantine can be assured of course." Maddox replies.

"Begin a full spectrum of hailing the ship." Maddox orders. "Try a broad band of frequencies, and try a tightcast beam at that section. In the meantime, helm, find a spot where we might engage a grapple of the ship."

A minute passes...but no answer seems to be forthcoming.

"They have to have communicated with the Coranians *somehow*" Percy grumbles.

"Grap;" Kieran mutters. "I can reach them;" he adds while tapping a finger to the side of his head. He sighs again, considering ordering weapons control to be routed to his station and rigging a sort of deadman's switch to fire on the wreck if the Yithonghu try anything while he's talking with them. Then he turns his head to his father and says; "If I collapse or seem to be under attack while I 'talk' to them, stun me and frag them. Keep me sedated until Mom can check me out."

"Kieran." Percy says. "Be careful. You don't *have* to do this. I'm perfectly happy with blowing up the ship, rather than seeing you get into trouble. Do it...only if you're sure."

"Yes, I do;" Kieran says. "I'm the only one here who can. Doesn't mean I trust them though"

(Assuming Kieran is not talked out of it)

With that, he sends out his psychic projection/ghost (Third Eye, Third Ear, and Psychokinesis) towards the bridge of the wreck and the Yithonghu survivors. Cautiously and as stealthily as he can manage.

The passage from the Arthfael to the wreck goes slowly, as per Kieran's plan, and quietly. Nothing seems to disturb his passage across, and indeed, to the threshold of the Bridge. Before Kieran can cross into it, he feels that there is a protective field of some kind, psychic in nature, surrounding the bridge.

It's also clear that the field is weak, flickering and inconstant. During its "low cycles" Kieran can better sense the four minds behind it, on the bridge. It probably would announce his arrival to cross it, but it does not seem like a serious barrier to Kieran's transit.

Kieran waits for one of the 'low cycles' in the field and then crosses it. He manifests a ghostly appearance as he enters the Yithonghu bridge. Floating slightly above the deck, he scans the area and survivors for a moment.

There are four of the creatures here. They look much as they did on the mental plane where Kieran met Ulchalothe. They = are distinctive enough in coloring and small details that Kieran can make a solid guess as to which one is Ulchalothe.

Then he offers Ulchalothe a slight bow. "Ulchalothe;" he says while pondering how to approach the whole 'you can either become my prisoners or be destroyed' thing.

"Bold" Ulchalothe says, in a not-quite-mental-contact but enough to convey a communication to Kieran. The mental voice is definitely the same as his previous encounter.

He decides to cut straight to the heart of the matter.

"I am Kieran Elharn, son of Brandeigh Douglas. I have bested you in combat and my ship has all but destroyed yours. What's left of your ship will not remain inhabitable and powered for long. As you fought hard and well, I give you a choice: you and your fellow survivors may surrender to me, here and now, and fall under my care, protection, and honor; or you can be destroyed. I can not allow you to go free." He pauses while looking carefully at each of the Yithonghu to ensure the truth of whatever they may say.

"If we do not surrender to you" Ulchalothe says slowly and carefully "you will permit the vacumn of space and the tyranny of physical laws to kill us, or will you raise your hand to do the deed yourself?"

"Your answer is most important to our decision" Ulchalothe says. There is a inhuman calm to the quasi mental voice, as the large cephalopod eyes of the four figures regard the apparition of Kieran, all unblinking.

"By my own hand, will I ensure your destruction; should you chose not to surrender;" Kieran says without hesitation or reservation. "To sit back and do nothing while you to suffer the long, cold death is neither honorable nor civilized. And as I said, you can not be permitted to go free."

Ulchalothe regards Kieran for about 30 seconds, as do the other three Yithonghu. Finally the creature makes a sound that resembles a squirt than speech, and then the creature speaks, mentally.

"You have us at your mercy, then I say unto you to use that mercy and end our existences on this plane. To become a prisoner to you and your kind is worse than the experience of death, and we shall be reborn and remade in our proper place. Destroy us and our ship, and know that I request this choice, Human."

"When next we meet, know that I will show you, and you alone, the same courtesy and choice--death or thralldom." Ulchalothe says. "The bargain is sealed."

Kieran regards them silently for a few moments. Then, he nods his head. "As you wish, so shall it be." He pauses then as a faint grin appears on his face. "And should it come to that next time Ulchalothe, I shall remind you of the bargain."

He then allows his psychic construct to fade away as he brings himself back to his body.

The return to his body is easy and unimpeded and unopposed.

SB: Kieran: The Face of the Enemy