Myriad Universes_ Echoes And Refractions Part 31

He watched on his eyepiece as the Federation ship fired its weapons right into the gateway. The torpedoes detonated, and a huge burst of ignited verteron and silithium particles plumed outward from the gateway's mouth. The Federation ship's shields lit with the impact.

Omet'iklan barked at his fourth, who sat at the operations station: "Damage to the enemy vessel."

"Reduced shield capacity, but no other damage."

"What of the gateway?"

The fourth looked up in shock, an expression Omet'iklan had never seen on the soldier's visage before. "I no longer read the gateway."

This was disastrous. The Vorta had ordered Omet'iklan to protect Terok Nor, as the Founders feared an attack on it by a cloaked vessel. He had failed in that duty, but that was as nothing, compared to the failure he now felt.

Only one thing would ameliorate that failure. "Charge all weapons! Destroy that ship!"

"They are cloaking," the fourth said.

"Engage antiproton scan. Find them!"

Born in a laboratory deep in the heart of the Dominion and bred to fight and obey, Omet'iklan rarely felt such intense rage as he felt now. While he was compelled to hunt down the Federation ship and destroy it, were he left to his own devices, he would do so anyway, with relish. Thanks to these Federation worms, access to the rest of the Dominion had been all but cut off. While cloning and ketracel-white-producing facilities were under construction within what used to be Carda.s.sian s.p.a.ce, they were not yet complete.

Which meant that it was not only urgent that Omet'iklan lead the fleet to victory, but also that he not die in the process. Once, Jem'Hadar were expendable, but no more. Now, victory truly was life.

"Enemy vessel detected."

"Fire as soon as they are in range," Omet'iklan said. "Destroy them!"

Shaking her head, Kadohata said, "They're using an antiproton scan also, sir. Still on us."

Picard's memories of Locutus, Gul Madred, being stabbed in the heart as an ensign, the mind-meld with Sarek, sending Jack Crusher to his doom, ordering Terok Nor and the wormhole destroyed, and all the other awful memories of his life were pressing down on him, pushing against the confines of the box into which they were stuffed. A voice came from that box now: Do nothing, it said. Give in. Let the Jem'Hadar destroy you. You deserve it.

Picard shoved the voice back into the box. He might have committed heinous crimes, even by the standards of wartime, and if he survived this day, he would answer for them. But he would not doom the rest of his crew in a sad gesture of suicide.

"Decloak," he said. "Lieutenant Addison, fire phasers on the lead ship, with a torpedo spread on the second one."

And then the battle was joined.

Ro Laren sat at Picard's side, marveling at the turns her life had taken. After watching her father being tortured to death, she had escaped from Bajor, swearing never to come back as long as Bajor was a defeated planet. She joined Starfleet, and had thought her career to be over after the disaster at Garon II. But then she got a second chance, serving under Captain Picard as his conn officer, then taking security training and coming back to Picard on his new Enterprise as security chief, and then first officer.

And after all that, she was about to die in the Bajoran system at the hands of the Carda.s.sians' new allies.

Bajor was still defeated. For every Kira Nerys who fought, there were hundreds who just let themselves be subjugated. And who could blame them, especially with these Jem'Hadar things helping the Carda.s.sians?

Ro had no illusions about how this fight would go. There were three Jem'Hadar ships, and they were only one vessel. Yes, the Sovereign cla.s.s was as good as it got in Starfleet, but the Jem'Hadar were something else entirely.

Sure enough, it only took a few minutes for them to pound the h.e.l.l out of the Enterprise. They hemmed the ship in, keeping them from leaving the confines of the Denorios Belt, thus limiting Perim's options for evasive maneuvering.

And then the shields went down. With nowhere to go, they were sitting ducks. Addison kept firing away at the enemy vessels-even managing to destroy one-but there was only so much they could do. At least ten people were dead, according to Doctor Crusher, and a lot more wounded.

The ship shook with one hit that Ro had thought was a clean miss until Kadohata said, "Direct hit on the port nacelle strut-it's broken off! And we've got a hull breach in deck thirty-nine!"

O'Brien called from engineering. "We'll never get warp power now, sir. We have to-"

The chief engineer's voice was cut off by an alarm and the computer said, "Warning-forcefield failure in two minutes."

"All right, everyone out!"

A voice from the other side of Picard said, "Captain, there's one thing that might work." Until the shapechanger spoke, Ro had forgotten about Odo.

"Tell me," Picard said urgently.

Odo hesitated. "The Jem'Hadar worship the Founders as G.o.ds. It's possible that they will obey me without question because of who-because of what I am."

"Why did you not mention this sooner?" Picard's voice had a furious undertone.

"It is not something that I'm particularly comfortable with-nor am I sure it will work."

Ro said, "You still could've mentioned it before we lost-"

Picard put a hand on Ro's. "We can save recriminations for another time."

a.s.suming there is another time, Ro thought angrily.

"Lieutenant, open a channel to the lead Jem'Hadar ship."

They are tenacious, these worms, Omet'iklan thought as his second moved to put out yet another fire on the flight deck. Though it was only one ship, the Federation vessel had destroyed one of Omet'iklan's fleet, and done considerable damage to the other two.

But they'd paid a dear price. One of the ship's nacelles was gone, they had exhausted their supply of quantum torpedoes, and their power output was severely reduced.

Not that Omet'iklan's ship was in much better shape. But they were plenty strong enough to finish off these foul creatures.

"We are being hailed," the third said.

"There is nothing to be said," Omet'iklan said dismissively.

The third then looked up with wonder and fear in his eyes. "First-it is a Founder!"

"What?" Omet'iklan had not been informed that one of the G.o.ds was on the Enterprise. Not that they had any need to inform him of anything, but if a Founder was on board, why wait until now to contact them?

Too many questions, and a relatively simple method of getting answers: "Put it through."

Gazing into the small screen that covered his right eye, Omet'iklan saw a Founder.

At first, he was filled with reverence. "Founder," he said.

"First, you are to break off this attack immediately," the Founder said.

Then Omet'iklan recognized the G.o.d in question, and realized that it was one who had fallen from grace. "You are the traitor, Odo. You have been cast out of the Great Link."

"I am still part of the Great Link, First, and have been welcomed back more than once. Now you must-"

"Do nothing! Did you think me a fool to try to win my trust with this transparent ploy? There is no Great Link for you to return to, Founder, for you have destroyed the gateway! Perhaps I will be d.a.m.ned for what I do now, but I will not see the Dominion defeated by the likes of you. Victory is life, and you will not achieve victory this day, Founder. Destroy them!"

The officers under him hesitated. All of a sudden, they were under orders to kill a G.o.d. A Jem'Hadar could not do such a thing and expect to live for very long.

Omet'iklan realized that he could not force his soldiers to do this. It was Omet'iklan's decision, and his alone. There would be grave consequences for this act. But the fallen Founder had obviously betrayed them all. The destruction of the Bajoran s.p.a.ce station and the two Carda.s.sian ships-the fallen Founder had to have at least provided some aid for that to have taken place. For that matter, just by revealing himself to the Federation, he had betrayed the Dominion.

In all his time serving the Dominion, Omet'iklan never imagined he would see the day when a G.o.d would commit a capital crime-and that he himself would be the executioner.

He walked over to the weapons console, pushing the fifth aside, and fired upon the Federation ship.

A barrage of weapons fire spat forth from Omet'iklan's ship and struck the helpless Federation vessel.

It exploded in a huge conflagration of matter-antimatter annihilation and burning plasma.

"Scan for survivors." Omet'iklan wanted to make sure none of those responsible for today's travesty would live.

"Detecting several escape pods, First," the second said.

"Eliminate them."

The second hesitated.

"The Founder was on the bridge of the enemy ship. Federation vessels do not keep their escape pods proximate to the bridge. There was not time for him to make it to the pods. None of those inside is the Founder. Destroy them!"

Quickly, the second did as he was ordered.

Then Omet'iklan ordered his fleet to set course for the nearest Dominion base. Once that would have been Terok Nor, but now he had to go much farther.

He had to report what had happened. And, no doubt, report for his own execution for the unforgivable crime of killing a G.o.d.

21.

U.S.S. Defiant En Route to Qo'noS Klingon Empire Worf stood alone in his cabin.

As captain, he was one of the few who had been given a cabin of his own on the overcrowded ship. After the mission to Romulus, with the deaths of so many, a few others were able to have single bunks: Sisko and Scott among them, which meant they were no longer sharing a bunk, a situation that had caused some tension, although the two had worked out most of their differences.

Today, Worf was grateful for the solitude. He had extinguished the light in the cabin, the only remaining illumination coming from a large candle of mourning.

The Defiant had received a coded intelligence briefing an hour ago. The Enterprise had been successful in its mission to destroy the mouth of the wormhole. They had also destroyed the s.p.a.ce station Terok Nor. The report did not specify whether Gul Dukat was aboard the station, nor did it confirm that it was he whom the Founders had replaced with one of their own.

But in the process, the Enterprise itself was lost.

Jean-Luc Picard had been the finest captain Worf had ever hoped to serve with. Whatever meager skills he himself had as a commander he owed entirely to Picard. The captain had stood by Worf's side as cha'DIch when he challenged the High Council's ruling against his father, and had always been steadfast and loyal and worthy of respect.

And now he was gone.

Worf's life, it seemed, had been governed by loss, from the Khitomer ma.s.sacre that claimed his parents when he was six to the traitorous d'k tahg of Duras killing K'Ehleyr. And now he had lost his captain.

At least he died well, Worf thought as he walked over to the candle, took his personal d'k tahg, and pressed it down upon the wick, extinguishing the flame. Jean-Luc Picard had not only been Worf's cha'DIch, but was also the first human to serve as a Klingon chancellor's Arbiter of Succession. If any human would be permitted into Sto-Vo-Kor, it would be him.

Just then, the doorchime rang.

"Computer, lights," Worf said. Once the cabin was illuminated, Worf said, "Enter."

The door slid aside to reveal the Defiant's medical officer, Doctor Simon Ta.r.s.es. A former medtech on the EnterpriseD who had failed to disclose his partial Romulan heritage, he had overcome the rather brutal witch hunt related to that revelation and gone on to get his medical degree. Worf, whose role in that witch hunt was one of the more shameful chapters of his Starfleet career, was glad to have him on the Defiant.

Of course, Worf's role meant that Ta.r.s.es was skittish around his new CO. The young doctor seemed to flinch every time he was in Worf's presence. "Sorry to interrupt, sir, but the Bajoran woman's finally come out of her coma."

"Good. Take me to her."

Ta.r.s.es, predictably, flinched. "Of-of course, sir."

The Defiant's medical bay was not a particularly impressive facility. Worf had seen emergency medikits that were as well equipped. But the Defiant's mandate was battle, and that meant that most medical procedures that would be performed on board would be quick-work holding actions until the ship could reach a proper facility at a starbase or on a bigger starship.

However, it was sufficient to allow Ta.r.s.es to operate on Kira Nerys and repair the considerable damage done to her on Romulus. The others in her team weren't so lucky. When they beamed her up to the Defiant, Kira had regained consciousness long enough to say that the shapechanger posing as Koval had been killed. As per the mission specs, Worf then beamed down an explosive to Koval's retreat, vaporizing it and everything inside-including the bodies of Eddington, Corsi, and the rest of the security team. The Defiant did not have the capacity to store that many bodies. Besides, n.o.body signed up for Starfleet security expecting to actually leave a corpse behind to be buried.

Then they proceeded to Qo'noS.

Garak's list had three high-ranking generals as the ones most likely to have been replaced by a shapechanger: Martok, son of Urthog; Talak, son of Yorchogh; and Goluk, son of Ruuv. Worf did not know any of them particularly well, though he knew all were experienced veterans of the Defense Force whose long lives were due not to shirking battle, but to being unable to find anyone worthy enough to defeat them. All three of them had Gowron's ear, and any one of them could have been responsible for the bizarre tactical decisions that had served to prolong the Romulan war. It was impossible to be sure because all such orders were said to come from Gowron regardless of who might actually have suggested them or come up with the plans of battle. In times of war, the chancellor led the Defense Force, and that was all there was to it.

Worf admired the principle, but it complicated his life right now.

Kira was lying in the medical bay with a device of some sort on her forehead. Her skin was pale, and she looked as if she had lost half a kilo off her spare frame.

Her eyes, however, still blazed with the same righteous fury Worf had first faced in the interrogation room on the Enterprise.

"Welcome back," Worf said.

"Thank you. I can't believe I'm still alive."

"You have Doctor Ta.r.s.es to thank."

Again, Ta.r.s.es flinched. "She, ah, she really doesn't. Honest, if she wasn't clinging so hard to life, nothing I did would've mattered."

Kira gave a sad smile. "Furel always said I was too stubborn to die."

Worf a.s.sumed that to be one of her compatriots in the Bajoran resistance. "We will arrive at Qo'noS in three hours."

"I know Garak's information on the Klingons was spottier, but he did work in Romulan s.p.a.ce and still has contacts."

"Yes, but the Klingon Empire is allied with the Federation," Worf said. "That is a conduit of information that we may exploit."