The ship began to judder as it passed through density variations in the thin outer atmosphere at high speed. Then it jostled sharply as it made its first “skip.” Chekov was knocked sideways, and the pain in his shoulder blacked him out for a moment. His perceptions were a blur of noise, jostling, and shouting voices, and he wondered if his luck had finally run out.

Chekov awoke to find himself on a couch in the officers’ lounge. Turning his head gingerly, he saw Azem-Os and the navigator, Ensign Sarhin, on adjacent couches. Azem-Os’s wing had been treated and placed in a sling, and a nurse was tending to Sarhin’s burned thigh. Chekov looked down at his shoulder to see it had already been treated and dressed.

He spotted Captain Terrell standing nearby. “Captain…?”

The big bearded man moved toward him and helped him sit up. “It’s okay, Pavel. Obviously we made it. But sickbay’s full of evacuees from Midoren. Plus we’re closer to the bridge here.”

“Casualties?”

“Up here, twenty-seven injured, but we didn’t lose anyone. Down there, our team and the Denobulan authorities are still searching, but there are dozens of dead already accounted for.”

Chekov grimaced. “Is Reliant in any condition to help them?”

The captain offered a reassuring smile. “I think you already helped a lot with that tractor beam idea. It could’ve been a lot worse. Midoren isn’t in an earthquake zone, so the buildings weren’t designed to handle them.

“On the other hand, since Denobulans rarely sleep, most of them don’t have permanent homes, so at any given time you’ll find more of them outdoors than on most planets, even at night. That kept the toll from being higher.” He tilted his head. “You might be interested to know that one of the people we rescued is the grandson of Doctor Phlox, the CMO of Jonathan Archer’s Enterprise. He was very concerned about the guests and staff in his hotel. Luckily, we managed to rescue them all, and he’s down in sickbay now, regaling them all with riddles. But others weren’t so lucky,” he finished with a heavy sigh.

Chekov was too worried to appreciate the historical trivia. “I feel so useless. We finally know where the flares will strike next, but have no way to prevent or contain them. And they keep getting bigger and more destructive.”

Terrell grew somber. “Well, I’m afraid Reliant is out of the game, Pavel. We took heavy damage. It’ll take weeks in dry dock to get us back in action.”

“Damn. We’ve been tracking this from the beginning. We can’t be taken out now.”

The captain sat down next to him. “I’ve been thinking about that. We know these things are connected somehow to Federation or allied planets the Enterprise has visited.”

“Yes?”