Slings And Arrows_ The Oppressor's Wrong Part 14

"Auto-destruct terminated," came the computer's voice.

Picard breathed a visible sigh of relief. He looked at Daniels. "What did you do?"

Daniels smiled. "I thought outside the box." He disengaged the remote keys and returned helm control to himself and Picard. "Snowden plans on blowing the Enterprise up- "

"Hoping to gain more sympathy from the Federation-initiating a call to arms," Picard said as he moved the shuttle forward. "But that's not what he's going to get."

"...to Captain Picard, can you read me..."

Picard tapped his combadge. "Here, Number One. Report."

"Snowden's beamed into engineering, sealed it off, and set up an inhibitor. We can't beam him or the bomb out. Luckily, all personnel had been evacuated."

"The bomb still in place?"

"I'm afraid so," Riker said. "And, Captain, we can see your ship now." Riker's visage showed on the main viewer. "Wow. That's a vintage shuttlecraft."

"Will, I'm going to need you to get into engineering to disable the bomb. That might drive Snowden out, and I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't have another shuttle cloaked and waiting somewhere nearby."

Riker looked over at Daniels. "Do we know what the bomb looks like?"

Daniels paused. That was a good question. With a Changeling bomb it could be anything. In Antwerp it had been something as innocuous as a carafe. But in engineering, it could look like a million other gadgets.

"It's not- " came a voice to Daniels's right. He turned and saw Nomine staggering to his feet. His face was bruised and he was bleeding from a cut on his cheek. Probably where Snowden had struck him. "It's not armed."

Daniels and Picard turned to stare at him.

"What was that?" Riker said.

Nomine licked his lips. He reached inside his left pants pocket. Daniels instinctively reached for his phaser-which wasn't there. He was relieved when the cadet pulled out a slim, golden disk-shaped stone. "It won't be activated without this."

Daniels recognized it. So did Picard. "A Changeling key."

Nomine nodded. "I arranged it so your sensors, as well as those on the starbase, would find it in their sensor sweeps. The components are all there."

"But that means there's no initiation switch." Daniels smiled. "Does Snowden know?"

Nomine shook his head. "No. He believes it'll go off in less than five minutes."

Picard almost smiled. "He's in for a rude awakening. Number One, my guess is Snowden has set up his own means of escape whether or not the bomb detonates. Keep an eye on all shuttles. We'll be docking in a few seconds. Picard out."

Picard brought the impulse engines online as Daniels did a quick diagnostics check on the shuttle's systems.

Glancing to his right at the cadet standing between them, Picard said, "I want to know what happened to Admiral Hahn."

Daniels looked back at the young Betazoid as well. Nomine swallowed and kept his head bent down. "Admiral Hahn found my subs.p.a.ce transmissions to Admiral Leyton. He also found this shuttle and managed to beam on board while Commander Snowden and I were here. He threatened to expose the entire operation and claimed he had the proof needed, hidden in a safe place."

"So you killed him?" Picard's voice was filled with bitterness as the shuttle rounded the Enterprise's saucer to come about as the shuttlebay doors opened.

"No, sir. I didn't kill Admiral Hahn. He and Snowden fought. They were arguing. We knew the Enterprise was on her way, and Red Squad was already beaming on board the Lakota for their mission." He looked at Picard without flinching. "They were to sabotage Earth's power relay network. Hahn took a swing at Snowden, but he missed, and Snowden..." Nomine looked down. "Snowden took a drill from the open tool storage in the back and hit the Admiral with it in the head. The admiral staggered to the console-and he grabbed a padd. But he then stumbled away and collapsed. When he lay still, Snowden told me to hide both of them in the blast."

Daniels watched the controls as the Enterprise's tractor beam guided the shuttle inside. He glanced back at Nomine. "Why did you believe Hahn hid the chip in the padd?"

"I didn't until you found it. I left Hahn there, on the floor, too terrified to touch him. I maneuvered the shuttle into position just as you arrived-shorted out the external sensors on the starbase, and then ordered my people to fire at the coordinates I gave them."

"Disabling our sensors."

"Yes, sir. I didn't remember the padd being missing until Mr. Daniels found it on deck twenty-seven, and then I realized it would be the perfect place to hide a memory chip since we'd not been able to find anything in his quarters or on the starbase."

The shuttle docked. Picard moved from the seat and headed to the side door. Daniels requested a security detail to the shuttlebay before standing, but remained in front of the controls. He gestured for Nomine to follow the captain as he took up the rear to keep an eye on the cadet.

Once into the shuttlebay's main hangar the security team-with Ensign Lynch in front-appeared with phasers drawn. They surrounded Nomine, and Lynch handed Daniels a phaser and combadge.

Picard looked at Nomine. "You do know your career in Starfleet is at an end. But if you cooperate, you could receive a lighter sentence."

Nomine nodded, his head held low as the team escorted him away.

The captain started moving, with Daniels beside him. Once they were in the turbolift, Picard touched his combadge. "Report, Number One."

"Snowden reacted pretty much the way you suspected he would when the bomb didn't blow. Pitched a bit of a fit and transported out of engineering."

"Where is he now?"

"We tracked him beaming back to the starbase-then his signal disappeared."

Picard looked at Daniels. "Another cloaked shuttle?"

"Possibly. Shields would have to be down for a cloak to work," Daniels said. "Which means he could have beamed on board." He sighed. "But looking for a cloaked ship is often like the proverbial needle and haystack."

"Then, Mr. Daniels, are you ready to search the haystack?"

Daniels smiled. "Always, sir."

Once on the bridge Picard strode to his command chair as Riker stood. Daniels relieved the ensign at tactical.

"Report."

"Snowden's decloaked. He's in another type-6 shuttlecraft." Daniels checked external sensors. "He's equipped with type-4 phaser emitters. Looks like he's sacrificed warp capability to house the cloaking device. But he still has the advantage of maneuverability."

"Hail him," Picard said. When Daniels nodded, Picard spoke. "Captain Snowden, this is Captain Picard. Your ship is no match for the Enterprise. We have Cadet Nomine in custody. We know what happened to Admiral Hahn."

After a pause Daniels shook his head. "No response."

"He's coming round toward us," Riker said.

"On-screen," Picard said.

A view of the shuttlecraft making a tight arc over Starbase 375 to the left appeared in front of the bridge crew. All eyes tracked it as it straightened and bore down on the Enterprise.

"What's he doing?" Riker said. "He knows a shuttlecraft is no match for a Sovereign-cla.s.s ship."

"Shields up," Picard said.

Daniels complied, again amazed at the speed and efficiency of the Enterprise-E computers. He maintained a tactical view of Snowden's shuttle, all the while trying to figure out what the man was up to. Riker was right-a shuttlecraft had no chance against the Enterprise. In fact, the only way any smaller ship could take down or damage a starship was-Oh no.

"He's firing," Riker said before Daniels could report.

The phaser fire knocked against the shields but did little damage. "Shields at one hundred percent, Captain." Daniels reached out and gripped the edge of the tactical console. "He's been in engineering!"

Picard frowned at first, but then the realization of what Daniels feared dawned on his face. "The prefix codes-Mr. Hawk, hard to port. Mr. Daniels, lock on that ship and fire. Mr. Data, can you change the codes before he can send a signal?"

Data's fingers flew across his operations console, but it was too late. Daniels watched the shields drop on his tactical. He tried to circ.u.mvent the action, but nothing worked. "Shields are dropping."

The ship rocked hard to starboard as Snowden fired aft, making a strafing run over the back of the ship. Panels burst from several centers as Daniels held on to the tactical console. He saw crew members hurled from their chairs as the panel behind him shorted.

The ship rocked as Snowden fired again, and the lights dimmed on the bridge.

Abruptly the crashing stopped. Daniels found himself on the floor behind the console. He reached up, gripped the edge of the tactical station, and pulled himself up to view the board.

"Report!" Picard said.

"Emergency lights," Riker said from the side.

"Captain," La Forge said over the intercom, "warp core's offline. So are the external sensors. We've also lost two forward phaser emitters. He knew where to hit us."

"How long before you can have shields back up?" Picard asked as the remainder of the bridge crew picked themselves up from the floor. A medical team arrived with Crusher in front.

"Captain, we're not getting anything back up if he keeps firing on us. And without external sensors, we can't pinpoint his location."

Daniels coughed as he did a quick diagnostic of the deflector shield. "Captain, with your permission, sir-I can have Porter and Sage reroute the sensors for the rogue system in holodeck three through the deflector array. They won't be able to detect his weapons, but they could at least give us a visual."

"Make it so."

Daniels called down to Porter, but Travec and Sage were already ahead of him and Barclay was seconds away from routing the channel to the bridge viewer. "We have it, Captain."

The viewer came to life again. The image wasn't as clear as before, but it showed the shuttlecraft veering off and heading away from the starbase.

"Where is he going?" Riker said.

"There is an asteroid cl.u.s.ter approximately ten kilometers away, at 631 mark 2," Data said as he turned from ops.

Hawk pounded a fist on the navigation console. "Where we can't go in after him." He turned to Picard. "But a shuttle can."

Daniels licked his lips. "Sir, we can use the same tactics Snowden used on us. I can rig a transmitter to broadcast a series of DPO codes to his shield modulation. But it'd have to be a line-of-sight pulse."

Riker frowned at him. "Can you pilot a shuttle in that?"

"No, sir."

Hawk stood up. "I can."

Picard turned to Hawk. "Make it so, gentlemen."

Daniels and Hawk entered the turbolift together. "Shuttlebay one," Hawk said. He narrowed his eyes at Daniels after the doors closed. "Can you really lower his shields with a DPO code?"

He shrugged. "Can you really pilot a type-9 shuttlecraft through an asteroid cl.u.s.ter?"

Hawk smiled. "Dunno, but I'd like to try."

Daniels smiled back. "So would I."

Once launched, Daniels brought the sensors online and downloaded one of the protocol engines into the array. Hawk brought the impulse engines up to full as Daniels raised shields.

"I've locked on," Hawk said. "Bearing 227."

"I see him." Daniels input the codes and their variants from a padd. "We're going to have to get closer for this to work."

"Unless he's already changed the shield modulation."

Daniels nodded. "That's a possibility."

Abruptly the shuttle lurched as Snowden fired on them. Daniels grabbed the console and checked the readings. "Shields at ninety percent."

"Let's even the playing field." Hawk increased speed.

Smiling, Daniels locked on target and fired phasers. He read the panels. "His shields are at eighty-five."

The asteroid cl.u.s.ter loomed ahead of them. Daniels watched as Snowden turned his ship to port to avoid a spinning chunk of rock, then rolled twice and cruised up.

"We're not going to do that, are we?" He looked over at Hawk.

"What? Afraid of a little skilled piloting, Mr. Daniels?" Hawk said as the panel beside his right hand slid away and a manual control ascended. He clasped it with his right hand and smiled at Daniels. "Hang on."

And hang on Daniels did as the shuttle rolled clockwise twice, then descended abruptly to avoid collision with another asteroid. The shuttle shook as Snowden fired again. Daniels checked the inertial dampers. They were working, but somehow his stomach still rolled about.

"How is he hitting us in this?" Daniels muttered as he read the tactical HUD. "Shields at eighty-five percent. Another kilometer and I can send the codes."

"Unless he bashes into one of these things." Hawk pulled the shuttle to the left.

Daniels targeted Snowden's shuttle. But an asteroid spun into the path of his phaser. Daniels fired again, this time striking the target. "His shields are at sixty-five percent."

"That's a dramatic drop."

"It was the explosion," Daniels said as they closed in on Snowden's shuttle. "The shields were compensating for the debris as well as the phasers. Probably shorted out an emitter." The console beeped. "We're in range."

"Send the d.a.m.ned things."

Daniels did. He watched the readouts. No change. "He's changed the modulation code."