ANSFIELD WAS GONE.
Spock was alone with the entity, and he was moving, streaking through a limbo that was no longer featureless but filled with shapes and colors, the shapes and colors that his mind produced as a feeble analogue for the chaotic nexus energies that the entity somehow perceived and navigated through.
And then, abruptly, the motion ceased.
And the shapes and colors twisted and faded and became a phantom image of the Enterprise helm controls.
And his own body, wispy and translucent, took shape as well, somehow sharing the space before the helm with an equally insubstantial Sulu.
And the amalgam that was Spock and the entity knew the course that had to be laid in.
His translucent fingers touched the controls.
And as the course was entered, his phantom body and the controls began to fade.
But barely were they gone when the bridge of the Enterprise leaped into existence around him, solid and real. The stars of the Sagittarius arm filled the viewscreen. Only inches in front of him, Sulu, precisely where his phantom image had been a moment before, lurched slightly as the material world made itself felt.
"Mr. Sulu," Spock said instantly. "Take us away from here, maximum impulse power, now! Ten million kilometers, minimum!"
"But warp drive—"
"Impulse power, Mr. Sulu. Now!" And then, as Sulu's fingers tapped in the commands, "The Devlin's warp-drive engines, I suspect, are not currently functional, and I do not believe it wise to leave them behind. The nexus is about to be destroyed."
And they were moving.
And next to them was the Devlin. Ansfield and the fragments of the entity that had remained merged with her had guided it out of limbo just as the others had done with Spock and the Enterprise. Its impulse engines throbbing on emergency power, it kept pace.
Behind them, visible through the modified sensors, were the nexus and all the jagged leakage gates. Lightning bolts of energy radiated cancerously from virtually every one of them, as if space itself were on the verge of breaking up.
And the gates were pulsing now, all in unison, flaring into new brilliance, then fading.
Suddenly, the Devlin began to fall behind.
Spock, as if he had been expecting—or fearing—just such a development, spoke instantly. "Lieutenant Uhura, get Captain Sherbourne on the Devlin, now! On the screen!"
Hesitating only for a sideways glance toward Kirk, who sharply nodded assent, she complied.
An instant later, almost before Spock had finished transferring the pulsing images of the chaos behind them to a secondary screen, the Devlin's bridge shimmered into view. Captain Sherbourne, his face even more haggard and intense than before, stood near the helm, using both hands to pull someone from the controls.
It was Commander Ansfield.
"Whatever you do, Captain Sherbourne," Spock's voice shot across to the Devlin, "don't stop your ship now! If you don't trust Commander Ansfield to work the controls, work them yourself, but keep moving! You must be at least ten million kilometers from the nexus or any of the related phenomena as soon as possible." And then, to Sulu: "Be ready with a tractor beam if it becomes necessary, Lieutenant."
Sherbourne, his grip on Ansfield only tightening, glared at the screen. "Kirk! I don't know how you and that Vulcan managed to get this woman on board my ship, but—"
"Do as he says, Sherbourne!" Kirk snapped. "I don't know how it was done, either, but I do know that if my first officer says that something needs to be done fast, it needs to be done—fast!"
"The nexus system is being shut down, Captain Sherbourne, permanently," Spock interposed, speaking rapidly but steadily. "It is not, however, an orderly shutdown, and damage to anything in the immediate vicinity is virtually inevitable. Simply look at the nexus yourself, and you will see the convulsions it is undergoing."
Abruptly, Sherbourne looked to one side, apparently toward an auxiliary screen, and snapped an order. His eyes widened, as if seeing the full magnitude of the chaos for the first time.
"What the devil—" he began, but he cut himself off almost immediately. For an instant, he returned his glare to the main screen and the Enterprise bridge that he saw there, but then, thrusting Ansfield to one side, he lunged to the unoccupied helm.
Once again, the Devlin's impulse engines surged into life, dimming the bridge emergency lights with their power drain.
"Put the tractor beam on them, Mr. Sulu," Kirk said. "Just as a precaution, in case they start falling behind again."
"Aye-aye, sir."
But the Devlin kept pace.
At five million kilometers, one of the leakage gates exploded outward, drowning everything else in its momentary brilliance.
At eight million, the now jagged, misshapen nexus itself expanded in a single pulse to enclose all the other gates, not just obscuring them with its momentary brightness but enveloping them, like a gasoline-doused flame will flash out and engulf a hundred smoldering embers scattered around it.
At ten million, the screens were filled with undifferentiated brilliance.
At twelve million, as if the film of a nuclear explosion were being run in reverse, the brilliance began to shrink and fade simultaneously.
At fifteen million, it shrank to a single point and, with one last searing spark, vanished.
For another moment, the stars beyond wavered, as if distorted by waves of heat in an otherwise transparent atmosphere.
Then all was still, as if the nexus had never existed. And the last fragments of the entity in this universe, the fragments that had guided Spock and Ansfield through limbo to the ships and had helped to guide the ships themselves out of limbo, withdrew and allowed themselves to fade from existence.
It took Scott and a half-dozen engineering officers from both ships nearly two days to get the Devlin's warp drive back in working order.
Throughout the operation, on all watches, Uhura's communication equipment was set on automatic, trying to establish contact with Starfleet Headquarters. Periodically, despite the fact that, except under the most favorable and unusual subspace circumstances, only Starfleet Headquarters was capable of picking up a starship signal at these distances, she scanned through every starbase and starship channel.
Finally, at a sedate warp five, in deference to the jury-rigged nature of the Devlin's repairs, both ships got under way, heading back for the Federation.
If the Federation still existed.
On the third day, Starfleet Headquarters responded.
It was Admiral Noguchi, voice only.
"Jim?"
There was a restrained cheer from both bridges at this evidence that at least part of the Federation had survived.
"Yes, Admiral. And Captain Sherbourne of the Devlin. We're on our way in."
"Sherbourne, Admiral. What happened? Earth was being threatened—"
"Earth is still here," he said. "For reasons we can only assume had something to do with the activities of the two of you, the gate that was threatening Earth—and all the other gates, at least the ones we knew about—put on a fireworks display to end all fireworks displays and then vanished."
Noguchi paused, drawing a breath. Then: "Jim? Will they be back?"
"They're not coming back, sir," Kirk said, and then added, glancing toward the science station, "thanks in large part to the actions of Commanders Ansfield and Spock."
There was a long silence, far longer than could be accounted for by subspace delay.
Then Noguchi's voice returned. "Duly noted," he said quietly. "I will notify Captain Chandler that his science officer distinguished herself under what I assume were difficult circumstances."
"That's one way of describing them, sir."
"I am sure you will provide a more complete description, Captain. I will be expecting a complete and detailed report on the entire affair upon your return. From both of you."
"Of course, Admiral."
"And Captain Kirk, in consideration of those difficult circumstances, which I am sure affected everyone aboard both ships, I doubt that there will be any need to pursue the insubordination charges that Admiral Wellons instituted against you."
At the science station, Commander Ansfield turned sharply, frowning, but before she could speak, Spock put a lightly restraining hand on her shoulder.
Kirk only smiled. "Thank you, Admiral."
And the link was broken.
The Federation still existed.
And they were going home.