Christopher L. Bennett - Orion’s Hounds

Ill try to keep it shorter this time. Thanks first to Marco Palmieri for inviting me to come aboard Titan, and to Andy Mangels and Mike Martin for launching it on its way. Thanks also to the various authors whose characters, creatures and ideas Ive built upon here, including but not limited to Laurence V. Conley, D. C. Fontana, Maurice Hurley, Robert Lewin, Gene Roddenberry and Jeri Taylor from televised Trek and Keith R.A. DeCandido, Robert Greenberger, David Mack, the aforementioned Martin & Mangels, and John Vornholt from the print side.

For scientific and sociological concepts, I owe inspiration to Thomas J. Barfield, Freeman Dyson, Fred Hoyle, Larry Niven, and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, among others. Alan Dean Foster also warrants a nod. Thanks to Nigel Henbest and Heather Couper, whose book The Guide to the Galaxy has provided much insight into the geography of the real Milky Way, and Geoffrey Mandel, whose book Star Trek Star Charts has done the same for the fictitious one. And thanks to the makers of the open-source Celestia astronomy simulator, which not only served as a reference but inspired my descriptions of Titan s stellar cartography lab.

My research was assisted by too many Web sites to acknowledge, so Ill just thank the whole darn Internet and the folks at Google in particular. Thanks also to the usual suspects at the TrekBBS, Psi Phi, and Ex Isle for technical assistance.

And thanks to Dennis McCarthy for making the star-jellies sing.

This tale unfolds from late February to late March, 2380 (Old Calendar).

Beneath the skys triumphal arch

This music sounded like a march,

And with its chorus seemed to be

Preluding some great tragedy.

Begirt with many a blazing star,

Stood the great giant Algebar,

Orion, hunter of the beast!

His sword hung gleaming by his side,

And, on his arm, the lions hide

Scattered across the midnight air

The golden radiance of its hair.

The Occultation of Orion,
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

W e swim through space, the voids chill brisk against our flesh. We huddle closer, closer, basking in each others warm glow, in the caress of each others tendrils [love/ kinship/lets play!]. Distant starwarmth beckons from ahead, drawing us toward it [hunger/hope]. Shall we dive beneath space, fold the starpull currents about our bodies to reach it faster? No, our need is not yet great; it is enough to swim [patience/prudence/relax and savor existence!].

Now a cloud of dust impinges, tiny specks of [coldstuff/deadstuff] flaring into briefest life as heat and vapor against our hides [tickles/fizzes!]. We drink the tiny bursts of lifewarmth, [soothing/heightening] our hunger ever so slightly. We spread our tendrils wide, stretching them longer, thinner, growing membranes between them to catch more coldstuff [need/exercise/sheer joy of changing!].

A ripple sensed from below space [curiosity/cautionfamiliarity!]more kin are coming! Few, but welcome. They breach the surface, the lifewarmth and starpull eddies of their emergence washing over us, slaking our thirst, and we cry out to them in [greeting to strangers/joy at reunion!].

But waitsomething is wrong [puzzlement/can we help?]. They do not return our calls. They are hardened, sheathed for defense! Are they a threat [defend/flee]? No [disbelief/compassion], they are our own, they must need our help! We cry to them [sympathy/concern], but they are still. No, now they strike out [danger!/where?]wait, no, they strike at us! This cannot[disbelief/agony] Their stings pierce our hides, burning us. Our breath and fluidice bleed out into the void. Our siblings minds cry out to us, deafening us, then fading to silence. We are dying! [loss/anguish/betrayal/Why?] No time to ask. No time to focus, to armor ourselves, we must flee! [panic/ exposed/alone!] We need help! We cry out for other minds [terror/pleading] Someone, anyone! [ who ]Barely felt [real/imagined?]we cry out again! [ who ]Yes! Help us! [ who are you? /come/desperation/ grief/ rage/ noget out /pain/despair/ get out of my mind /dread/dying/why?/NO!/ NO!! ]

U.S.S. TITAN, STARDATE 57137.8

N o!!

Deanna Troi bolted upright in bed. For a moment she felt adrift in the dark, in a void whose emptiness chilled her bare flesh. She wasnt sure where she was, or even who she was. She felt terrible fear, but did not know why.

But then she felt his arms embracing her, bringing her home. Will. Her imzadi. Her husband. Her captain. Her anchor. When he touched her, she was never lost.