CHAPTER FOUR

  THE BREATH BEFORE THE STORM

  THE CREW REGROUPS

  Engineering was a battlefield.

  Smoke drifted from ruptured conduits. The deck was scorched. The air tasted like burnt plasma and fear. Charlie Team stood in a loose defensive ring around the warp core, weapons raised, eyes hollow.

  Sira’s body had been covered with a silver emergency blanket.

  The silver blanket did nothing to hide the shape beneath it — only to make the loss feel colder.

  The stillness of the blanket was louder than the alarms.

  Benson hadn’t moved from her side.

  His hands were still stained with her blood, and he hadn’t tried to wipe them clean.

  He sat like a man carved from the moment she died.

  Dax stood nearby, hands trembling slightly as she recalibrated a damaged console. She didn’t look up when the doors hissed open.

  Hazard Teams Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, and Hotel poured into Engineering, armor scorched, faces grim.

  Cassie stepped forward. “Commander Dax — we’re here.”

  Dax nodded once. She squared her shoulders — not because she felt strong, but because everyone needed her to.

  “Good. We’re going to need you.”

  The EMH materialized beside Sira’s covered body.

  She froze.

  Something in her posture softened — a human gesture she had never been programmed to mimic.

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  Her voice, usually sharp and clinical, softened. “I… was too late.”

  Benson didn’t look at her. “She saved three engineers before she fell.”

  The EMH knelt beside the body, placing a hand on the blanket.

  “I should have been here sooner.”

  Cassie stepped forward. “Doctor… you saved Sh’rell. You saved half of Golf Team. You saved Engineering.”

  The EMH shook her head. “I saved some. Not all.”

  Dax turned, eyes tired. “That’s medicine.”

  The EMH looked up at her. “I do not like it.”

  Dax exhaled. “None of us do.”

  THE CREW PREPARES FOR ROUND TWO

  Cassie addressed the room.

  “Hazard Teams — defensive positions around the core. Echo on the left flank. Foxtrot on the right. Golf and Hotel reinforce the breach.”

  Adams nodded. “Golf Team ready.”

  Hanks added, “Hotel Team in position.”

  Rourke cracked his knuckles. “Echo Team will hold.”

  Miller checked her rifle. “Foxtrot too.”

  Dax looked around the room — at the teams, the EMH, the wounded, the dead.

  “We don’t know what that thing in the Hive is,” she said. “But it’s coming.”

  Philip’s voice came over the comms.

  “Engineering, brace yourselves. The Hive creature is powering up again.”

  THE HIVE CREATURE’S FIRST DIRECT ATTACK

  The deck vibrated.

  The air itself seemed to recoil.

  Then it shook.

  Then it lurched, as if something enormous had struck the Camelot from the outside.

  K’Sigh’s voice thundered over the comms.

  “All hands — brace for impact!”

  The Hive creature unleashed a beam of white energy — not a weapon, not a laser, something older, deeper, a pulse that resonated through the hull like a scream.

  Engineering lights blew out. Consoles exploded.

  Foxtrot hit the deck as a conduit burst overhead.

  The warp core flickered violently.

  Dax shouted, “Shields are collapsing!”

  Cassie yelled, “Teams — hold the line!”

  The EMH grabbed a railing as the deck pitched. “This is highly irregular!”

  Benson shielded Sira’s body with his own.

  The Hive creature roared — a sound that wasn’t sound at all, but a vibration that rattled bones and thoughts.

  Philip staggered on the Bridge, clutching his head.

  He felt her recoil inside his mind — a predator had noticed them.

  “It’s… probing us. Searching.”

  K’Sigh growled, “For what?”

  Philip whispered, “Weakness.”

  And the Camelot had never felt smaller.

  SHIP WIDE SHOCKWAVE

  The Hive creature unleashed a second pulse.

  This one hit harder.

  The Camelot screamed — metal twisting, decks buckling, lights dying.

  Sickbay’s ceiling collapsed in one corner.

  Deck Nine lost gravity for three seconds.

  Deck Two’s bulkheads warped inward.

  Engineering’s force fields flickered and died.

  Cassie shouted, “Brace!”

  The shockwave slammed through Engineering, throwing everyone to the deck.

  The warp core dimmed.

  Then stabilized.

  Barely.

  Dax gasped, “We can’t take another hit like that.”

  Philip’s voice came over the comms, strained.

  “Captain… the Hive creature is charging again.”

  K’Sigh’s voice was grim.

  “All hands — prepare for round two.”