"that's it?" said John, staring at the small black cube in R'Gal's hand.
"That's it," said the AI. "One alternate-reality linkage." He turned, passing it to K'Raoda. "Install and activate, please, Commander."
Filled by great, gray hulking shapes of multi-storied machinery that swept on and on, Devastator's engineering section dwarfed the small cluster of human figures: K'Raoda standing next to the control console, John, Zahava and R'Gal watching intently as the young officer slid open a small panel on top of the console.
With a faint whirring, a cube-shaped piece of duraplast extended from the console, supported by a thin duralloy rod. Thumb and forefinger carefully aligned with the transparent holder, K'Raoda dropped in the black cube. Accepting the offering, the arm retracted and the little hatch slid shut.
"Now what?" said K'Raoda, looking at R'Gal.
"Push that button, that and that," he said, indicating two red buttons and a yellow one that lay nestled among three rows of like-colored controls, all labeled in what seemed a series of dots.
"Pushed," said K'Raoda, looking up again. A green light winked in the center of the console.
"And engaged," said R'Gal. Reaching past the human, he touched the console's commlink. "Portal should be appearing and dilating, S'Rel," he said. "Take us through as soon as it's within limits."
"Acknowledged," came the reply from the bridge.
"And give us forward scan video down here, please, S'Rel," added R'Gal.
What had been a rectangular stretch of bulkhead was suddenly transformed into a view of the space between Earth and Mars where Devastator now hung at dead stop, her forward momentum checked by her monstrous n-gravs.
"Now what?" said Zahava.
"Watch," said K'Raoda. "Center front."
Nothing at first-a vast multitude of stars set in black velvet-then, as John watched, not quite sure he was seeing something, a bit of that blackness grew even darker, a growing circle of obsidian that quickly blotted out all but its own unnatural self. John looked away, trying to end a sudden painful ringing growing somewhere deep in his head. K'Raoda flinched and Zahava covered her ears. R'Gal seemed unaffected.
"Is it a black hole?" asked John, trying to ignore the pain that grew as the battleglobe moved slowly forward, closing the gap.
"You might call it an artificial black hole," said R'Gal, eyes on the scan. "One that's had its useful properties adapted to our needs." He glanced at the three and smiled sympathetically. "Your discomfort's due to some of the portal's emitters having the same frequency as your own latent neural receivers. It'll pass."
"Penetration attained," reported S'Rel as a swirling vortex of color replaced the blackness-a vortex that shook the great ship like a toy, throwing John and Zahava to the hard deck and spinning K'Raoda from his chair-an action that saved his life as the console exploded, a sudden orange and blue geyser of flame.
From on high, fire snuffers responded, smothering the flames in a thin, focused stream of mist that absorbed the oxygen and snap-froze the superheated console.
R'Gal touched a commpanel while the humans helped each other up. "Status," he demanded.
"Terra Two attained," said the bridge-a voice other than S'Rel's. Then, after a slight pause, "We show localized explosion in your section. What is your status?"
"Never mind us," snapped R'Gal, eyes on the console. "What do you show for reality linkage status?"
This time there was a long pause.
"Report," said R'Gal impatiently.
"Field down," came S'Rel's voice. "Possibly destroyed. The good news is that we're out of the transition flux and into our bridge universe. That's Terra Two down there."
Everyone looked at the vidscan: no more vortex, no more black hole. Blue-green and brown, a familiar world filled the scan, all soft pastels and serenity.
"Terra Two," said John to no one in particular, "is not good news."