Myriad Universes_ Echoes And Refractions Part 29

"Sir, Garak is missing. He's neither in his quarters nor in his shop. We're in the process of an, ah-intense search of the shop, but he's nowhere to be found."

"Find him, Glinn. I want him in a holding cell by the time your shift ends, am I understood?"

"Yes, sir."

Damar took another gulp of kanar. He was playing a dangerous game here-slapping down a gul, showing up Kalec, and now challenging a former Order agent who was probably smarter than he was, and certainly smarter than all his deputies combined-all on the basis of his interpretation of Dukat's orders. Damar wasn't too worried about Jasad. Whatever friends the gul had-and he couldn't be the shipmaster of a Galor-cla.s.s vessel without having some influential friends and/or family-he doubted they would be able to override Dukat.

Always a.s.suming I've interpreted Dukat's wishes correctly. But the very installation of the antiproton scanner seemed to be indication enough-at least to Damar.

As for Kalec and Garak-well, there was nothing to be done about the former, as that decision had been Dukat's. Damar and Kalec were both just going to have to live with it. And Garak was a bit of self-indulgence on Damar's part, but he was well and truly sick of the man. He'd been running rings around Damar for months now while he tried to find out what happened to Odo. Damar wanted Garak in a holding cell where he could keep an eye on him.

By the end of the shift, Damar had had three carafes of kanar, had received a report from one of his deputies that Jasad had created a disturbance at Rom's (and was now sleeping it off in his quarters), a report from Comra that Garak had yet to be found, and a report from Kalec that Karris had successfully brought the antiproton scanner online. Damar's final order of his first day as prefect of Terok Nor was to commence antiproton scans of the entire B'hava'el system every half hour.

Then he went to his cabin and fell right to sleep, the stress and the kanar catching up with him. He didn't even bother removing his uniform, but simply fell onto his bed.

One of the things Damar had liked about being a.s.signed here was that Bajor's twenty-six-hour day usually meant he got more sleep. Tonight, however, although he went to bed earlier than usual, he got less sleep than expected, due to an interruption by Dal Bokri, who was in charge of the night shift.

"I'm sorry to wake you, Prefect Damar," Bokri said, p.r.o.nouncing his t.i.tle with the same disdain Kalec had shown. Damar supposed that she preferred to use the t.i.tle rather than report to someone of a lower rank.

"What is it?" he asked as he tried to clear his mind. The words actually came out with fewer consonants than that, but he figured Bokri would be able to work out what he said.

"The antiproton scan just detected a cloaked vessel entering the system."

19.

Koval's Private Retreat Kor Thon, Romulus Romulan Star Empire Kira Nerys was really starting to grow irritated with Starfleet. Whether it was Sisko and his arrogant possessiveness regarding the Defiant, or Eddington's security people and their tiresome doubts that any of this was real, or Eddington himself, who didn't want Kira along on the mission.

Picard and Worf were the exceptions. They were willing to accept the evidence before their own eyes, and didn't get bogged down in trivia. Picard's plan was, frankly, an audacious and risky one, and not something Kira would have expected from an officer of so hidebound an ent.i.ty as the Federation. The captain himself had confessed to Kira before she went off to the Defiant that under normal circ.u.mstances, he would never have proposed such an endeavor.

But these were not normal circ.u.mstances. The Dominion needed to be stopped. They were already halfway to conquering the quadrant, with only a handful of people on this side of the wormhole even aware that they existed.

Kira shuddered at the thought of the wormhole. There were many who suggested that the stable wormhole was more than just a bizarre astronomical phenomenon, but also the gateway to the Celestial Temple of the Prophets; Kira had not been one of them. Perhaps if there had been some evidence that the Prophets resided there-but none had presented itself to any of those traveling through the wormhole, including Odo himself, who had taken several trips back when he was still Terok Nor's security chief. While Kira would not have expected the Carda.s.sians to mention or even be aware of the Prophets' existence, Odo would have known and would have told her.

Parting from Odo had been the hardest thing when leaving the Enterprise. But even with the cloak, there was a better than even chance that Picard's ship would have to face off against Terok Nor and whatever ships were docked there. Odo's knowledge of the station-not to mention Dukat's usual tactics-and of how to navigate the Denorios Belt to get to the wormhole would be vital to the Enterprise's ability to complete its mission.

And it was just as well that Kira didn't believe that the wormhole was the Celestial Temple, since the Enterprise's mission was to destroy it. Kai Opaka had been one of those who believed it at first, but when no signs came for several years after the Carda.s.sians found the wormhole, she changed her stance. Then, of course, she was killed, the latest in a series of depraved acts by Dukat-or, rather, by the alien thing that had replaced him.

She still recalled her final conversation with Odo in the Fleet Yard corridor right outside the airlock that would take her to the Defiant. "Nerys," he had said hesitantly-which alone was noteworthy, as hesitancy was not one of Odo's usual modes.

"What is it, Odo?"

"I just wanted to thank you. If it hadn't been for you, I probably would have been so caught up in being reunited with my people, I wouldn't have seen them for what they are. But you opened my eyes." He had made a grumbling noise. "If I had real eyes, anyhow."

Kira had smiled. "It needed to be done, Constable," she said, using the t.i.tle she'd granted him when they first met, during the investigation of Vaatrik's murder, Odo's first case as station security chief.

That had reminded her of something. "Look, Odo-we may never see each other again, and-"

"And you want to tell me that you killed Vaatrik. I know."

"What?" Kira had felt her jaw literally drop open with astonishment. "How did you-"

"After I...resigned my post, I hid with several resistance cells. One of them made an offhand mention of your mission to confront Vaatrik and said that it ended badly."

Abashed, Kira had stumbled over her next words. "Odo, I-I'm sorry, I-I wanted to-"

"It's all right," he had said. "We both have had bigger concerns. And you didn't know you could trust me at the time. I forgave you long ago." Odo had then put his hand on Kira's cheek-a gesture of affection that was as out of character as his earlier hesitation. "Good luck, Nerys. Walk with the Prophets. And know that if we never see each other again, that-that it was worth it."

It had sounded to Kira as if Odo had wanted to say something else. But before she could ask him, he had turned and headed toward the Enterprise.

She was still wondering now as she beamed down to Koval's mountain retreat with Eddington, Corsi, and sixteen security personnel. They materialized in a sitting room that had a window on one wall. A snowdrift piled up outside the window at a forty-five degree angle, and Kira could hear the wind beating against the walls just outside. Briefly, she wondered why anyone would put a window in a place like this.

The beam-down itself had been a bit bizarre. Kira had never partic.i.p.ated in a near-warp transport, but it was the only way for the Defiant to decloak long enough to make the transport without being detected. For a moment, Kira felt as if she were inside the mountain...

Guards immediately and silently went into each room, while Eddington took out a tricorder. "I'm not picking anything up. No Romulan life signs, no transponder."

Kira sighed. "Well, it was worth a-"

Screams loud enough to be heard over the wind, and agonized enough to make Kira's stomach turn over, suddenly came from the back room where Corsi and four of her people had gone.

Without thinking, Kira ran toward that room, left hand still holding the device, right hand moving to the phaser that Worf-over Eddington's objections-had issued her.

"Son of a b.i.t.c.h," Corsi was saying as Kira entered. It was apparently Koval's bedroom, a lavishly appointed s.p.a.ce with a huge bed, s.p.a.cescape paintings on two of the walls, and a small nightstand holding what looked like a platinum sculpture.

All four members of Corsi's team were lying facedown on the floor. Kira could see blood trickling out their ears. "Some kind of sonic b.o.o.by trap."

Kneeling down by one of the bodies, Kira said, "He was expecting us."

From behind Kira, Eddington said, "Not necessarily. Koval's a veteran Tal Shiar agent. This could be a standard b.o.o.by trap. But the tricorder should have picked it up."

As Eddington spoke, Kira noticed a fifth pair of uniform-clad legs on the other side of Koval's bed. Only four people had come into the bedroom with Corsi.

Whirling around, her left hand moved toward the activation switch on the device.

But it was too late. "Corsi's" left hand shimmered and transformed into a whip that knocked the device out of Kira's hands, even as her right hand and phaser also transformed into a pointed piece of metal that impaled Eddington right through the chest. Eddington's finger spasmed on his phaser, and it fired harmlessly into the ceiling.

"You solids," the creature said with contempt, using the same tone that the real Domenica Corsi had when expressing skepticism over the reality of the Founders' infiltration. "Did you truly think we would be unaware of what you were doing? The moment you killed one of our own, we knew what was happening. It was easy to prepare."

While the shapechanger gloated, Kira dove for where the device had fallen.

She heard the reports of several dozen phaser beams-no doubt the rest of the team responding to the screams and Eddington's phaser fire-as she tried to wrap her hands around the device. Those blasts saved her life, as the Founder no doubt would have killed her but for the distraction of a dozen phaser hits on its person.

Suddenly, Kira found herself blown backward, intense heat and frigid cold both a.s.saulting her face and chest as she fell on her rear end. Several of the phaser shots had blasted through the retreat's walls, letting in the obscene weather. Wind slammed into the retreat and snow blew into Kira's face, reducing visibility to almost nothing.

Holding a hand up in front of her face, Kira tried desperately to find the device, which had sufficient ma.s.s that she was fairly certain it wouldn't have budged too much even in these winds.

Kira herself could hardly say the same as she fought against the pounding wind with every iota of strength. She heard anguished screams and more and more phasers being fired, but the shapechanger seemed to still have the upper hand. Less than a dozen security personnel were left to deal with it, and Kira had to hope that they would keep it occupied long enough for her to neutralize it.

Gripping the bed for purchase, she inched her way toward where the device had landed, blinking away the snow that got in her wide brown eyes, pushing herself against the wind that was now howling in.

Just as she managed to grip the device, a ma.s.sive form collided with her, sending them both rolling across the floor toward the hole that had been blasted into the wall. Claws rended her flesh and pain ripped through her side. The shapechanger had transformed into some kind of white-furred ursine beast-probably a type that thrived in this mountainous region-and intended to kill Kira in that form.

But she still kept her grip on the device, and thumbed it to an active state just as the Founder was modulating into another form.

What that form might be, Kira did not discover, for it quickly collapsed into its natural liquid state, letting out a strangled scream as it did so.

Her Starfleet phaser was no longer in its holster. Peering through the snow that was blowing horizontally into the bedroom, Kira made out the form of one of the bodies belonging to the security detail. Even as the Founder undulated across the floor and through the air in a desperate and futile attempt to control its own form, Kira s.n.a.t.c.hed at the phaser being gripped by the nearby corpse.

Picard had said they were to attempt to capture the shapechanger, but to defend themselves as necessary. Kira saw that as Starfleet cowardice, a typical unwillingness to do anything unpleasant unless it was absolutely necessary.

But this thing had just killed more than a dozen good people, and Kira wasn't about to let it get away with that.

Thumbing the phaser to the highest setting, she fired. The creature's screams grew more shrill, and overpowered the steady hum of the phaser beam that struck it. Kira kept on firing until the Founder had completely disintegrated, its screams finally cut off.

Kira dropped the phaser, the wind seeming oddly quiet. She attempted to crawl out of the bedroom, but the knives of pain that sliced through her belly told her that was a bad idea. Reaching down with her left hand, she felt blood gushing out of the wound and soaking into her tattered shirt. Her legs were starting to go numb, and spots started dancing amid the snow in front of her eyes.

Can't...fall...unconscious... she thought. It would be at least another six hours before the Defiant would be able to scan the surface of Romulus. The destruction of the wall would mean that they would be able to detect Kira's Bajoran life signs, likely unique on this world, and then they could perform the near-warp transport.

She just had to stay conscious.

Her body shivered, as much from the blood loss as from the cold air that probably filled the entire retreat by now. It had been late afternoon, local time, when they beamed down, which meant it would be night soon, so the temperature was likely to drop significantly. She needed to stay alive if for no other reason than to make sure Worf learned that the Founders knew that they had exposed the false Jaresh-Inyo, knew that one of their own was dead, knew that they were coming.

Have...to...stay...awake...

As the darkness claimed her, she thought about Odo, and wondered what he had really intended to say to her.

20.

U.S.S. Enterprise-E B'hava'el System Carda.s.sian Union "Coming out of warp," Ensign Perim said from the conn.

Jean-Luc Picard found that he had the armrests of his command chair in a white-knuckled grasp. He let go of them and tugged down his uniform jacket.

From the chair to his right, his new first officer, Lieutenant Commander Ro Laren, asked her own replacement at tactical, "Status of cloak?"

Lieutenant Linda Addison, Ro's former deputy and now security chief, said, "Still functioning within normal parameters."

Picard looked at ops. "Lieutenant Kadohata, any signs of pursuit or scans?"

The raven-haired woman shook her head. "Nothing so far. We-" Then she cut herself off. "Sir? I'm detecting an antiproton scanning wave." She turned around to look at Picard. "It's originating from Bajor-specifically, from Bajoran orbit."

Turning to his left, Picard looked at Odo, who had taken Troi's usual seat for the duration of this mission. Troi herself had been temporarily rea.s.signed to Starbase 96. The counselor a.s.signed to that base was overworked and had requested a.s.sistance. Given the nature of the Enterprise's mission, Picard felt he could spare her.

He asked the shapechanger, "Does Terok Nor have such scanning capability?"

"I don't think so," Odo said, "but I didn't concern myself with technical issues."

"Sir," Kadohata continued, "Starfleet's been experimenting with antiproton scans as a way of detecting cloaked ships. We haven't been able to make it work, but if the Carda.s.sians have..."

Ro finished the ops officer's thought. "They might be able to see us."

Picard considered his options. "Perhaps. Until we have proof, however, we will proceed as planned. Mister Odo?"

The shapechanger nodded and said to Perim, "Input course 289 mark 17."

"Aye, sir."

Kadohata inhaled a breath through her teeth. "Sir, now reading two ships disembarking from Terok Nor's docking pylons. Both Galor cla.s.s."

"Proceed on course, Ensign," Picard said. "Go to yellow alert. Arm phasers and quantum torpedoes. Shields on standby."

"Yes, sir," Addison said.

Picard turned to Odo. "Were you able to obtain the a.s.sistance you mentioned?"

"I sent a message," Odo said, "in the manner he requested. Unfortunately, I have no way of knowing if he received it."

"One way or another," Ro said, "we'll find out soon enough."

Damar stood at the table in the center of ops. To his relief, Bokri did not feel the need to wake Kalec up, so she was the only person present who outranked him.

Bokri stared down at the status board in front of her. "Both ships are disembarking, but Gul Ocett wishes to know what, exactly, she's attacking."

Sighing, Damar said, "Give her the coordinates again."

"She has the coordinates," Bokri said testily. "She simply sees nothing there, since her vessel isn't equipped with an antiproton scanner. Also, Prefect, I'm not at all convinced that what we're seeing really is a cloaked ship. It could simply be a sensor shadow created by-"

Damar interrupted, not interested in having his authority flouted in the middle of ops. Inside the office, he could deal with it, but not out here. "If that's what it is, then the worst that happens is those two ships are wasting their time. If it truly is a cloaked ship, however, then Guls Jasad and Ocett will be in a position to stop it."

Of course, Jasad wasn't on his ship, but his first officer, a young dalin whose name Damar didn't get, had followed orders without question, and set course for the anomalous reading.

"We're also receiving a signal from a Jem'Hadar fleet-they're en route, and will be here in twenty minutes."

Damar nodded. He didn't know much about the Carda.s.sians' new allies, but he knew they were quite valuable in a fight.

"Ocett's hailing us," said one of the officers whose name Damar did not know.

"On screen."