Myriad Universes_ Echoes And Refractions Part 30

The pretty face of the gul appeared on the oval screen at the front of ops. "This is ridiculous. We have scanned the area and there is nothing there. I demand to know why-"

"Gul, we are detecting what appears to be a cloaked ship-" Damar started before Ocett interrupted.

"Don't talk back to me, Dalin. I don't appreciate my time being wasted on a fool's errand."

After taking a deep breath, Damar said, "With respect, Gul, if you would simply fire on the coordinates that we've been providing."

"They keep changing."

"It's a cloaked ship, Gul," Damar said with every bit of patience he could muster up. "It's in motion."

"Very well. I will indulge you in this because I respect Dukat, and he left you in charge for whatever insane reason. But if this is for naught, you will find yourself busted down to gil and cleaning waste extractors on Carda.s.sia VI."

With that, the screen went blank.

"Tactical overview on screen," Damar said.

It took several seconds for the order to be carried out, which Damar supposed he should have complained about, but it seemed pointless. The screen showed Ocett's and Jasad's ships as yellow dots both proceeding toward a red spot that was labeled as an unspecific sensor reading. Damar frowned at that at first, then realized that the computer hadn't yet been programmed to recognize what the antiproton scanner was picking up. It didn't matter much for now, but he made a mental note to tell Karris about it in the morning.

Suddenly, both ships exploded.

Damar blinked. "What happened?"

Ops was suddenly awash in activity. The tension level shot up. Prior to this, it had been a strange exercise, but not one being taken particularly seriously by anyone other than Damar. Now, though, two Galor-cla.s.s warships had been inexplicably lost.

"Dammit," Damar said, "report, somebody!"

The officer at the science station said, "Sensors are picking up traces of triceron in the debris." He looked up sharply. "Sir, that's an explosive."

"I'm aware of the most common use of triceron, Glinn," Damar snapped.

"Comra to Damar."

His head now pounding thanks to the lack of sleep combined with this absurd turn of events, the last thing he expected to hear was Comra's voice, especially since he was supposed to have gone off-shift hours ago. "Comra, now's not the-"

"Sir, we've located Garak-he's in the fusion core!"

Picard rose quickly to his feet as he watched two Galor-cla.s.s ships become consumed by fire. "Report!"

From behind him, Odo said, "It would seem that Garak got my message."

Whirling around to look at the shapechanger, Picard saw a grim smile on Odo's face. "You believe him to be responsible?"

From ops, Kadohata said, "It was the responsibility of someone-I'm picking up triceron in the debris. Someone blew those ships up on purpose."

That they both exploded at the same time made that somewhat obvious, but the presence of triceron confirmed it. More death. More destruction. How much more of this must there be?

Still, for now it was a gift horse into whose mouth Picard was loath to peer. "Maintain course, Ensign."

"Aye, sir," Perim said.

"Sir," Addison said, "I'm picking up three ships heading this way." She looked up. "They match the configuration of the new Carda.s.sian ships."

"They're not Carda.s.sian," Odo said. "That's the Jem'Hadar, the Dominion soldiers."

Retaking his seat, Picard again gripped the armrests tightly. Odo had briefed him and several admirals on the Jem'Hadar before they reported to Utopia Planitia. They were genetically engineered, drug-dependent creatures whose sole purpose was to fight the Dominion's wars. They were relentless, devoted, and-as the Lexington, da Vinci, and Starbase 375 discovered-incredibly powerful. No doubt they have antiproton scanners as well.

Ro asked Addison, "ETA of the Jem'Hadar ships, Lieutenant?"

"Fifteen minutes."

"Time to the Denorios Belt?" Picard asked Perim.

The Trill said, "Ten minutes."

Kadohata peered at her console. "Sir, Terok Nor's arming all weapons and raising shields. We'll be in range of them in four minutes."

Addison added, "Phasers are trained right on our position, sir-they know we're here."

"We've got to decloak and raise shields," Ro said.

Picard winced. While it was true that an antiproton scan might be able to detect a cloaked ship, they didn't know for sure. It was possible that Terok Nor didn't know for sure that they were there.

But no, they just lost two of their ships. They'll be on full alert, and they'll fire first and ask questions later. While it was true that decloaking would give away their position, so would being destroyed by the station's phaser fire. "Ensign Perim, if we change course to remain out of Terok Nor's firing range, what will be our ETA at the Denorios Belt?"

Perim ran her fingers over her console to make the calculations. "It will add eight-and-a-half minutes to our travel time."

Which means the Jem'Hadar will get here before we can destroy the wormhole. Which means the only alternative is to fight Terok Nor and hope for the best.

More death.

More destruction.

But if I do nothing, the only death and destruction will be my ship and crew. I cannot let them die without a fight.

Jean-Luc Picard had sat in the captain's chair for more than three decades on three different starships. With all the difficult decisions he'd made, from when he first took command of the Stargazer when its captain was killed and the first officer incapacitated, to the order that led to Jack Crusher's death, to ordering the destruction of the Enterprise in Earth's past in order to stop the Borg, he found that none was as difficult for him to make as this.

"Lieutenant Addison," he said in a low, raspy voice, "when we are within Terok Nor's weapons range, decloak the Enterprise and raise shields. Prepare phasers and torpedoes for a simultaneous barrage. Mister Odo, if you would please a.s.sist the lieutenant in finding a firing solution that will do the most damage."

Odo nodded without hesitation, got to his feet, and moved to stand next to Addison's console behind Ro. For the entire three-and-a-half minutes it took to get within the station's weapons radius, the shapechanger and the young woman whispered back and forth.

"Weapons ready," she finally said.

"Engage," Picard said flatly.

"Sensor reading-whatever it is," Bokri added snidely, "is in range."

"Fire!" Damar said, staring at empty s.p.a.ce on the viewer.

Even as he said the word, the s.p.a.cescape on the screen seemed to shimmer-and then coalesce into a Sovereign-cla.s.s Starfleet vessel.

Had he the time, Damar would have felt vindicated, but his support vessels had just been sabotaged, and he was stuck in a functionally immobile s.p.a.ce station whose window of opportunity to stop Starfleet would be open only very briefly. After that, he would have to leave it to the Jem'Hadar.

"Comra to Damar-sir, we've lost him."

Damar snarled. "What do you mean, lost him?"

"Shields are down!" That was Bokri.

"Damage from the Starfleet ship?"

Shaking her head, Bokri said, "No, they just-just went down."

"Well, get them up."

"I'm trying!"

The science officer said, "Starfleet vessel firing!"

Power junctions exploded in the aft stations. "They hit near the fusion core!" someone reported.

Well, maybe they got Garak, Damar thought with annoyance. "Get the shields back up!"

"They're trapped in diagnostic mode," Bokri said, "and my command codes won't override."

The science officer said, "There's a quantum torpedo bearing on the core."

Elim Garak tried to keep his breathing under control. He was quite sure that Comra and his merry band of idiots would easily find him if they heard him hyperventilating.

Or if the walls closed in on him and crushed him like a Lubbockian slime devil.

Right now, sitting crouched in an access tube, Garak considered one to be as likely as the other. He silently cursed the claustrophobia that had terrorized him since his youth.

This wasn't how he had intended to die-mostly because Garak had never had any intention of dying. Self-preservation had always been one of his particular talents-and generally his secondary goal. His primary one, of course, was to serve Carda.s.sia. From his earliest days in Bamarren to his days serving Enabran Tain in the Obsidian Order to his exile to Terok Nor where he discovered the truth about the new allies they had found in the Gamma Quadrant, Garak had always served Carda.s.sia.

Which was why he made sure Odo and Kira were able to get to Federation s.p.a.ce. Based on the message Odo had sent him, they had exposed President Jaresh-Inyo as a shapechanger. Garak had to admit he was impressed by the Founders' audacity. Though Jaresh-Inyo was on his list, he had found it more credible that Councillor T'Latrek or Admiral Ross was the one who'd been replaced. But the president himself?

He heard explosions from nearby that sounded suspiciously like weapons fire striking the unshielded hull of Terok Nor. I'm sure Damar and Bokri are trying desperately to raise them again, Garak thought, with a touch of pride at their failure to do so. The Founder who had replaced Dukat had kept the prefect's access codes in order to maintain its charade, which had proved a tactical error. Garak had known Dukat's codes for years now, which, combined with a biosign filter, had granted Garak the ability to lower the shields and keep them that way. Only a legate could override that, and there were none on the station.

For a brief moment, Garak had been afraid that the biosign filter wouldn't work, but he needn't have concerned himself. After all, the shapechanger would need to use something very similar in order to fool the computer into thinking it was Dukat. And while Dominion technology was superior in many senses, it appeared that the Obsidian Order was their equal in at least that respect.

Comra's voice echoed throughout the fusion core. "We know you're here, tailor! Come out and show yourself!"

Garak considered doing as Comra asked so that the glinn's final act would be one of success in accomplishing the mission Damar set out for him that morning. But he quickly dismissed the notion, tempting as it was to leave the crippling confines of the access tube.

It would all be over soon in any case. The Enterprise would make short work of Terok Nor as long as it remained unshielded, a.s.suming the station's weaponry didn't finish off the Starfleet vessel first. It's only a pity there wasn't time to deactivate the weapons as well.

When he was being trained in Bamarren, Garak had been told that agents of the Obsidian Order were most likely to die alone, unmourned, unacknowledged, and uncared for. But they were also likely to die in the service of Carda.s.sia.

In his heart, Garak knew he was doing that, though his former superiors in the Order would likely disagree. But the Dominion would bring no glory to Carda.s.sia, only subsume it to their will. For all that the legates and the Detapa Council and the new head of the Order called it an "alliance," Carda.s.sia had been conquered-and they didn't even know it.

But they'd know soon enough. Garak was grateful that he wouldn't live to see his beloved people realize just how thoroughly they'd been deceived.

If only the walls weren't closing in...

What have I done?

Those words went through Picard's head as he watched the quantum torpedo strike Terok Nor's fusion core, watched that core explode, watched the lower pylons being vaporized, watched the upper pylons break off and tumble through s.p.a.ce, watched the habitat ring twist and shatter.

There are civilians on that station. Innocent victims, and I just condemned them to death. That didn't even include the debris that would fall into Bajor's atmosphere, further damaging an already badly scarred planet. Picard knew he had no choice, that this was the mission, but he still felt like the worst kind of murderer. In a moment of horror and despair, he realized that he had become the very thing that he had cursed the Carda.s.sians and the Dominion for being. What he had just done made him no better than the guls who had ordered the destruction of Voyager, Intrepid, and the other ships at Dorvan, Valo, and Salva, no better than the Jem'Hadar soldiers who destroyed Starbase 375, Lexington, and da Vinci.

Perim's voice startled him. "On course for the Denorios Belt."

Yes, of course. There is still a mission to perform. All those people-were simply in our way.

"What was that, sir?" Ro asked.

Embarra.s.sed, Picard tugged on his uniform jacket. He hadn't realized that he'd muttered those words aloud. "Nothing, Commander. Proceed, Ensign."

Within minutes, the Enterprise arrived at the belt.

"Having difficulty navigating the tachyon eddies," Perim said through clenched teeth.

"Maintain this course, Ensign," said Odo, who had retaken Troi's seat. "The Enterprise will remain safe as long as you do so."

Ro muttered, "Sure hope so" just loud enough for Picard to hear.

"Jem'Hadar have changed course to intercept," Addison said. "They'll be in firing range in three minutes."

Kadohata was frowning at her console. "I'm reading meson and lepton fluctuations dead ahead."

"That's the wormhole," Odo said with a certain amount of surety.

And then Picard saw it.

One moment there was empty s.p.a.ce-the tachyon eddies were invisible, after all, which was part of why the Denorios Belt was such a navigation hazard-but the next...

It was one of the most beautiful sights Picard had ever seen. Like a flower blooming in the morning sun, it opened and expanded. At its circ.u.mference, it looked almost like smoke, though Picard knew that was simply the event horizon being made visible. At the center, wild energies surged about.

The explorer in Picard desperately wanted to go through, to see what was on the other side-indeed, to explore within the wormhole, find out why this gateway remained stable when every other wormhole ever encountered was fickle and unreliable.

But war had taken that opportunity away from Picard. Starfleet's primary mission of exploration had been subordinated to its secondary role as the Federation's protector. And right now, he needed to protect the Federation against the threat that lay on the other side of that wormhole.

Again he gave an order that it tore out his soul to give. "Fire torpedoes."

First Omet'iklan had served the Founders faithfully for all the years of his life. He had survived many campaigns, taking his orders from the Vorta and defeating the Dominion's enemies. He had never wavered in his faith in the Founders or in the rightness of the Dominion.

And while he did not lose faith now, he found it faltering ever so slightly. For he could not believe that the G.o.ds would allow something like this to happen.