The warning bell was going off in their quarters.

"Great," Hal said. "Now we'll be shut down again."

"No matter. We're locked in here anyway," Greyla said. "I wonder what's keeping Tajlon. He's been gone too long."

"If it's anything like my trial, it could last for days," Widhbo yawned. "It's surprising I'm not a demented ghost like Etaine. I do hope Tajlon doesn't lose himself."

"No one here is demented," Hal said. "Etaine is getting much better."

The door opened and Lotee entered.

"The pirate ship is behaving oddly, and they wish to employ your services," Lotee announced.

"Why don’t they just exterminate the pirates and be done with it. I know they're quite capable of doing it." Hal fiddled with a desk console, trying to get in to come on. "Just like they could fix this if they wanted to."

"It's not that simple. Both empaths are requested on the bridge," Lotee said.

"Do these walls block our empathic skills?" Greyla asked.

"They do to a large extent."

"I thought as much. It's entirely too quiet in here."

"That's not so very smart of them is it now?" Etaine said laughing hysterically. "The devourer could be right outside their window and who would know?"

"May I come too?" Widhbo asked. "I'm wearing my leash again, so I can't run away."

"You weren't invited," Lotee said.

"Was I specifically prohibited?"

"No."

"Then I'll be coming along. I can't bear another minute cooped up in here. There's nothing to do but sleep and molt."

"You don't molt. You're an energy being, not a bird," Lotee asserted. "And you don't need sleep."

"Don't deprive me of those small pleasures at least. I'm not cut out for idleness."

"Sleeping isn't an activity."

"It is for me. I have to work very hard at it."

"Come along then. You can answer to the elders. I'll take no responsibility," Lotee said.

He looked to Hal, "Are you coming too?"

"Not me. I'll avoid inciting the wrath of the elders for now.," Hal said. "And one of us should wait here for Tajlon."

* * *

When Greya, Etaine and Widhbo arrived on the bridge with Lotee, two officers were present to meet them. The first was a large rotund man with burly arms and coarse reddish body hair peppered with black. The second was tall and slender with thick blond hair slicked back on his head beneath a blue officer’s hat.

"I'm Colonel Munaci ,” said the burly fellow. “And this is Lieutenant Cratus.” Munaci looked straight past the empaths to Widhbo. “What's the bird doing here?"

"Please don't blame the hologram,” said Widhbo. “I begged to come along. My very sanity is at stake!"

"Don't talk," Munaci said. "I'll deal with you later. Now I want one of the empaths to remain here with me, the other follow the Lieutenant."

"I'll stay," Etaine volunteered, moving closer to Lotee.

Greyla left with Lieutenant Cratus.

“Alright. Do whatever empaths do.” Munaci barked at Etaine.

Etaine stretched her mind with visible apprehension. Her color went from transparent to purple as she sensed the same evil presence she recalled from the Sora.

"It's him! The devourer has arisen from the Sora."

"Don't turn green again Etaine. Whatever you do, don't go all green and scaly again," Widhbo pleaded. "Admiral Bethon will have you put down. I just know it!"

Be silent, bird!" Munaci commanded and turned to back Etaine. "How do you know the devourer is out there?"

"I can feel him. He's pure evil. I even think you can see him there." Etaine pointed to the screen on the navigation console. There was an area where the signals weren't being clearly returned and showed only a dilute amorphous area of interference.

"Silly girl! That's only a dust cloud. It's been there for a couple of days."

"If you say so."

"This is pure nonsense. Back to your quarters. Both of you," Munaci ordered. He brushed a few of Widhbo's white downy feathers from the sleeves of his uniform. "And take your feathers with you."

Lotee started to leave with them, but Colonel Munaci held up a hand and stopped him. "I'll need to speak with you in private."

"I'm not leaving without Lotee. What are you going to do with him?" Etaine objected.

"With who?"

"With Lotee?"

"It's a name she uses to refer to me, Sir." Lotee explained. "The alpha numeric was difficult for her to recall."

Etaine started to protest again, but Widhbo shushed her, placing a wing tip over her mouth.

"Admiral Bethon is aware of our relationship, Sir," Lotee added.

"Is he? Well, he isn't here now and I'm in charge when he's not present."

"Of course, Sir." Lotee said.

"Strange," Etaine said. "I can still feel the admiral's presence here somewhere. He gives me a unique impression." She flickered a shade of bright purple. "Yes, he's still around."

Munaci growled and turned around to face her with a vicious scowl on his face.

Before Munaci could say anything to Etaine in response, Widhbo reached out a talon to the screen of the console and tapped it lightly.

"What ever do you think you're doing?" Munaci said. "Get away from there. Shoo!" and waved him away.

"You should take a closer look at this, Colonel, " Widhbo said and tapped at the clouded area again before moving aside.

The so-called dust cloud had grown larger and now filled a quarter of the screen.

“You better not have tampered with my equipment,” Munaci said.

"I would never," Widhbo said. He made a hasty exit, pushing Etaine in front of him.

"Perhaps we should send in a probe, Sir?" Lotee asked. The image which was growing as he looked at the screen.

"We'd learn more a lot than we did from those freaks," Munaci said. "We need to resolve this question for the Admiral. See to it immediately."

* * *

Greyla was taken below to another area. Unlike their quarters, the rest of the ship was open, not blocking empathic powers. She let her feelings reach out and shuddered from the evil she perceived far out in space.

"I can feel it," she said to Cratus.

"What do you feel?

"It's him, cold and tainted with death. He seems very strong. I don't know how you can stop him, Lieutenant. Whatever you do, don't let this thing come in contact with the Moz Lidule. What happened to the pirates we encountered earlier?"

"I'm not sure. We think they intercepted the distress call Widhbo sent out and swooped in like the vultures they are to take advantage of the situation. We decided to let them raid the disabled vessel and take the risk instead of us."

Cratus tapped a few buttons on a small console worn on his left arm. Greyla could see its screen flicker and come to life in response, apparently a communication device. Cratus typed back and forth to someone a couple of times, then turned it off.

"They have informed me the pirate ship has disappeared." he said. "It behaved erratically for a short while, then it was gone."

"How do you know they didn't just go into warp drive and leave?"

"We would have noticed the local gravitational disturbance. It has a familiar pattern."

"Then he has destroyed them," Greyla surmised, a cold chill going through her at the thought. "I'm surprised, Lieutenant. Don't you have your own empaths?"

"No. We can utilize telepathy to an extent though it is unreliable. Empathic ability is a uniquely mortal trait that fades quickly over the first few decades after uploading. We rely on quantum entanglement in space, but we don't want that in this situation, do we?"

"Quantum entanglement?" Greyla asked. "I've never heard of it."

Cratus paused at her question. "Sorry, I forgot this is all new territory for you. Quantum..., very tiny bits of matter are related in such a way to share information instantly. It's not important really."

"How do you block our empathic ability?"

"Destructive interference patterns are effective for telepathy and can destabilize empathic connections as well."

"May I ask why Etaine and I were separated?"

"To see if your independent observations matched.”

"And do they?"

"They do. Colonet Munaci just informed me of it. We're sending in a probe to evaluate the situation."

"Please send an unmanned probe, Lieutenant," Greyla advised. "Feeding it will only make it stronger."