[4thdimension]

Captain Picard had lost consciousness moments ago, no longer able to fight the stifling heat. His lungs burned, his heart pounded. The force field flickered, threatening to fail. if it did Picards flesh would be incinerated in moments. On the other side the changeling Odo boiled like a primordial soup. He is alive, for now. The Founders were very resilliant creatures. Outside of the bridge, Trox, the young Hirogen hunter eased up on the trigger of the atmospheric manipulator, cutting the flow of the super heated ions. He knew that he would have to stay where he was for several more minutes. If he moved now the force field being generated by the weapon would shut down, scouring his own flesh. A sound behind him caused him to shift his weight, so that he could look through his peripheral vision. Nothing was there. Trox turned back to the bridge, to the life preserving forcefield, and thought of the trophy that he could make from the humans gleaming bones, and wondered whether there would be anything left of the demon.