"Captain," Commander Reya protested, "Suvok's of no use here, and the entity is dangerous."

The blue light pulsed, as the assembled security staff eyed it. Suvok, now part of their half-circle, kept his phaser set to 'stun', ready for any but the worst of circumstances.

"Nonsense," Captain Williams snorted. "If it wanted to harm us, it would have done more than spray the deck with blue light and tachyons. Now, ensign, what is it thinking?"

Suvok blinked. "Erm. What is what thinking, captain?"

"The entity," Captain Williams replied, as if it were obvious. Suvok raised an eyebrow, and the captain continued. "Right there, sending out the pulses of blue light. Tell me what he's thinking."

"But I - " Suvok looked at the blue light, then back at the captain. "But, Captain, I cannot."

Captain Williams glared at the ensign. "I thought all Vulcans were telepathic!"

"I am only adept at touch telepathy, and -" Suvok gestured towards the blue light, "I am not certain what I ought to try to touch."

The entity pulsed, and the security forces redeployed themselves. Captain Williams grimaced. "Get me someone who does, know, in that case!"

Suvok's hand went immediately to the communicator on his chest. "Ensign Suvok to bridge."

~*~

On the bridge, Ylmaq ran her hand over the console controls as indicator lights flickered erratically. She spun her chair, turning to face the Lieutenant Commander. Tokal was leaning over the Ops console, reviewing the latest communications logs with a furrowed brow.

"Sir?" Ylmaq asked.

Tokal looked up. "This had better be important, ensign."

"It's the conn, sir. It doesn't seem to be responding, properly."

"What? Show me," he demanded, striding over to stand over Ylmaq's shoulder.

Ylmaq pulled up the conn data. "Something's going wrong between here and the engines. Watch."

Her movements smooth and practiced, Ylmaq began the series of movements that would cause the ship's heading to change by two degrees to starboard. An instant before Ylmaq's outstretched finger hit the 'execute' command, a flood of information began to bubble up along the bottom half of the console.

"Wait a moment, did I see that right?" Tokal asked, "The helm responded before you confirmed the heading?"

"Yes, sir, but last time I made a course correction, the helm was sluggish - it took five minutes to respond."

Tokal raised an eyebrow. "So it anticipates your movements, or it's sluggish - " he paused, and returned to the Ops console. "Just as I thought. The communications log - all of these messages - they're out of order."

Tokal straightened up, his expression triumphant. "Mr. Grax! Get me the highest quality voice channel you can, I need to talk to main engineering, sick bay, and -"

Before Tokal could finish his order, a voice came over the intercom. It was distorted, the sounds drawn out, oddly long, but the words could be understood.

"That certainly was my intent," said the voice, "Any Betazoid would prove useful."

Grax and Ylmaq exchanged glances. Despite the distortion, the voice was still recognizable.

"Sir," Ylmaq addressed Tokal. "That is Ensign Suvok, from engineering."

"Tell him you'll be down momentarily, Mr. Grax," the Lieutenant Commander ordered.

Sabian's lips turned down in confusion. He pressed a button. "Bridge to Mr. Suvok. Do you mean to say that you're trying to get me down there?"

"Blast it, Mr. Grax!" Tokal rounded, glaring at the young man. "He's already answered that question! Get yourself down to main engineering, immediately!"