Merriell followed Captain Allensworth out of the turbolift on Deck eleven and followed him at a quick step toward the shuttlebay. At the first curve in the corridor, they were met by four security officers armed with phaser rifles. The quartet of guards fell into step around the two command officers and walked with them until they approached the open door to the shuttlebay, which was blocked by another duo of armed security officers. The pair stepped aside and let Allensworth and Merriell pass.

The first clue that something was amiss was the odor. Merriell wrinkled his nose at the sickly stench, which only became strong as he and the captain neared the cluster of armed security personnel that surrounded the runabout USS Maki.

Security chief McKenzie noticed their arrival. She stepped away from the group to meet them. "Captain, I think we have an intruder."

Before Allensworth could ask McKenzie to elaborate, the guards between them and the Maki parted, revealing a troubling sight through the runabout's open side hatch.

It was the slagged remains of a humanoid body, mixed with the burned taters of a Starfleet uniform. Much of the victim's skin was gone, exposing jumbled viscera, half-dissolved muscles and bones wet with liquefied fats and spilled blood. The half of its face that Merriell could see looked normal from the scalp to the nose, but everything from the upper lip to the chin looked as if it had been blasted away, down to the morbid grin of the skull. Its tongue was draped across its throat.

Forcing himself to remain detached and businesslike, he turned to McKenzie. "Have you identified the victim?"

"Ensign Jaros." McKenzie reported. "He was logged in for routine maintenance on the Maki."

Allensworth stepped forward, studying the scene with the eyes of a scientist. "How much do we know about what happened?"

"Not much more than we know about what happened to Crist and Kordik on the Thunderchild." McKenzie said. "Éclair is pulling the internal sensor logs and starting a forensic review."

Merriell averted his eyes from the stomach churning carnage inside the runabout. "Are we sure it's the same cause of death that we saw on the Thunderchild?"

"All but certain." McKenzie said. "I'm just waiting on final confirmation." She looked over Merriell's shoulder toward the shuttlebay doors. "And here it comes now."

Doctor Plumley entered the shuttlebay, followed by a female medical technician with an anti-grav stretcher. The chief medical officer paused as she saw the state of the body inside the runabout. She looked back at the medical tech. "We don't need a stretcher. Go back and get some sample containers and a stasis pouch." The technician nodded and reversed course, quick timing her way out of the shuttlebay and looking relieved for the opportunity.

Plumley approached the runabout with a wary frown. "Not again." She mumbled as she passed McKenzie. She opened her tricorder and started a scan of the half burned, half melted corpse. "Molecular disruption." She said reading from the tricorder's screen. "Acute thermal effects. Major breakdown in all organic material."

"Is the damage consistent with hyperphasic radiation exposure?" Merriell asked on a hunch.

"No, it's not." Plumley said putting away her tricorder. "Hyperphasic radiation desiccates organic matter and disperses it into subspace. Basically, it turns people into gas and dust. Whatever did this turns people in the broth."

Allensworth turned towards Plumley. "Was this done by the same thing that killed our people on the Thunderchild?"

As she considered her answer, Plumley crossed her right arm over her torso and tugged gently with his right hand at the lobe of one of her ears. "The effects are all but identical. So I'd have to say yes, it was."

"Jules," Allensworth said. "Sound a shipwide intruder alert. All nonessential personnel are restricted to quarters. Have your people sweep the ship bow to stern. Use sensors, hard target searches, whatever it takes. Something has followed us up here from the planet and I want it found, now."

Jermaine Allensworth emerged from his ready room shortly after oh two hundred hours, a bit bleary eyed and aching limbed. He was surprised to see many of his senior officers still at work on the bridge. He noticed the only two senior officers not present were Counselor Christine Nycz and Lieutenant Commander Hoshi Zofchak. Those two were probably in their quarters guarding their children in case the intruder decided to make a visit.

Alex Merriell was settled in the command chair as if he had been melted into it. He held a steaming beverage in one hand while holding a data padd in another. He looked up at Allensworth as he entered the bridge and stood up quickly.

As he stood up he spilled some of his beverage onto the back of his wrist and swore under his breath. Allensworth thought he heard him say something that began with the letter "F." Merriell dropped the padd into the chair and swapped the mug into his unburned hand and waved his now reddened hand in the air to cool it as Allensworth approached.

"I can really make a joke at your expense, Commander. But I'll hold back this time." Allensworth said with a smile.

"Much appreciated, sir." Alex replied as his hand waving slowed and sat down in his own chair.

Allensworth looked up to Lieutenant McKenzie, who was busy reviewing a steady stream of incoming data and reports. "Give me an update on the manhunt, Lieutenant." Allensworth said.

McKenzie's hands continued to manipulate data on her console as she looked up at the captain. "We've finished two full sweeps of the ship, Captain. So far, no intruder. According to Doctor Plumley's forensic reports, no new leads on the cause of death, and no progress devising a defense against it, whatever it turns out to be."

"That's not very encouraging, Jules." Allensworth said.

"No, Captain, it's not but I'd still like your permission to keep the ship on lockdown until we complete a third sweep of all compartments. We've switched to some fairly exotic detection methods this time around. It's a long shot, but I want to be as thorough as possible."

He admired McKenzie's refusal to admit defeat. "All right. Let's hope the third time's the charm."

McKenzie nodded her understanding and resumed her work as Allensworth walked to the aft station where Dustin Zofchak and Ra'chel Johnson were immersed in conversation about their wall of schematics and sensor data.

"How's your search going?" He asked the duo.

"We haven't found the subspace tunnel yet." Johnson said. "But not for lack of trying. We've been through the full range of likely triggers, and now we're trying the unlikely ones."

"Sounds like a common thing around here tonight." Allensworth said. He nodded at a screen showing a diagram of the Alexandria's shield emitter network. "What about the hyperphasic radiation inside the anomaly?"

"That we solved." Zofchak said. "If we ever find this thing, we'll be ready to try it."

Allensworth smiled at the pair. "Finally, some good news. Keep at it and let me know when we locate the anomaly."

"Will do, Captain." Zofchak said. He and the half Vulcan science officer returned to their hushed conversation about exotic particles.

Allensworth began walking towards his chair. Suddenly, an explosion thundered below decks and resonated through the bulkheads. The Alexandria pitched wildly and knocked Allensworth off balance. Then the ship's inertial dampers reset themselves and the heaving and rolling of the deck ceased. "REPORT!" Allensworth yelled.

McKenzie entered commands into the tactical console. "Explosion in shuttlebay one. Hull breach and explosive decompression in the bay."

"That bay was sealed after Jaros's body was found." Merriell said. "What the hell happened?"

Éclair, the relief ops officer, reconfigured her console to assess the damage and review the internal sensor logs of the explosion. "The Maki destroyed the bay doors with a torpedo." She looked back at the captain and the first officer with her bright yellow eyes. "It's leaving the shuttlebay, Captain."

Allensworth looked back at McKenzie. "Who's in the shuttle?"

"No lifesigns inside the runabout." McKenzie said. "But I'm picking up some wild energy readings."

Éclair chimed in. "It's accelerating to full impulse and breaking orbit, bearing nine three seven mark four."

"Pursuit course." Merriell said. "Full impulse."

"Aye, sir." Dowey said. The Alexandria veered away from the planet and fell in behind the fleeing runabout.

Johnson practically leapt away from the aft station. "Captain, there's a massive energy buildup in the runabout's sensor array. I think it's been reconfigured to emit a soliton pulse."

"Locking phasers." McKenzie said as if by reflex.

"Hold your fire, Lieutenant." Allensworth said as he watched the runabout on the main viewscreen. A moment later, a shimmering beam lanced out in front of the tiny ship and seemed to cut through space time like a scalpel. A slash through reality parted and revealed a tornado like passage of coruscating red and blue light. The runabout accelerated toward the tunnel.

"Captain." Merriell said. "We can catch it with a tractor beam before it crosses the aperture."

"No, Alex." Allensworth said shaking his head. "Whatever's on the runabout, I think it could've killed us all if it meant to. But that's not what it wanted. I think it came here from the other side of that passage. Now it's on a journey, and I want to see where it leads. Lieutenant McKenzie, raise shields. Helm, take us into the tunnel, full impulse."

Seconds later, the Alexandria plunged into the blinding maelstrom, close behind the fugitive runabout. Erratic fluctuations in the inertial damping system had Jermaine hanging on to the edge of the ops chair for balance, while Merriell held onto the navigator's chair. Allensowrth looked back to McKenzie for a tactical update.

"Shields holding, sir."

Less than a minute later, a pulsing circle of midnight blue appeared ahead of the Alexandria, the darkness at the end of the tunnel of light. The runabout shot out of the subspace passage, and the Sovereign class ship followed it back into normal space time.

"Position?" Allensworth asked.

"Alpha Quadrant." Dowey replied. "Near Theta Cygni."

"Captain." McKenzie said. "The runabout is reducing speed. Its power levels are dropping fast."

"Helm, hold station at ten thousand kilometers." Allensworth said. "Éclair, put a tractor beam on it."

On the main viewscreen, a blue beam from the Alexandria snared the runabout, which made no effort to evade it or break free. "Tractor beam locked, Captain." Éclair said. "Radiation levels inside the runabout are dissipating rapidly."

"It didn't even put up a fight." Merriell said. He lifted one eyebrow to express his suspicion as he looked to the captain. "After all that, it's just giving up?"

"I don't know, Alex." Allensworth said. "That's what I'm beaming over there to find out." He turned and headed for the turbolift. "Lieutenant, have two security officers meet me in transporter room three."

"With all due respect, sir, you should let a boarding team secure the runabout before you beam over."

"Captain's prerogative, Commander." Allensworth said with a smile. "Besides, you're coming along."

"Aye, sir."

"Ra'chel, you have the bridge." Allensworth said as the turbolift doors closed.