Collective Hindsight (Book 1) - Aaron Rosenberg [18]
“Duffy!” Gold let his own anger leak out, to give his voice the edge necessary to snap the younger man to attention. “Time enough for recriminations later. For now, finish the job your superior gave you.”
“Yes, sir.” The glance Duffy shot him could have come from the Dancing Star’s gun, but Gold didn’t mind. Duffy would appreciate the need for focus later—for now it was enough to have him working again, and making sure Salek’s sacrifice had not been in vain.
“Prepare to broadcast message along the requested frequency,” Duffy muttered a few minutes later, and at Gold’s nod McAllan set the comm systems to suit. A moment later, the Cardassian was heard once again on the bridge.
“Grach’noyl to Cardassian Central Command. Anomalous energy reading identified as solar flare. The star is reading as unstable, and could prove dangerous. Ships are advised to exercise caution when—” the message suddenly ended in static.
“That’s it?” Gold asked despite himself, glancing over his shoulder. Duffy just shrugged.
“Yes, Captain. That’s what Salek instructed us to send. Now the Cardassians will think the Grach’noyl got hit by a solar flare, and they’ll chalk it up to a sloppy gul. No reason to suspect the presence of an outpost, although Randall V may not see as much traffic in the future.”
“True enough, but not really our problem.” Gold gestured to the screen, and the two ships floating life-lessly before them. “Those, however, are.”
It was a subdued group that met in the conference room, and all of them avoided looking at Salek’s empty chair.
“We need to get rid of both ships now,” Stevens pointed out. “Not just the Dancing Star.”
“Yes, and we still have the same problem there as before,” Pattie agreed. “That ship is too large for the da Vinci to tow. So is the Grach’noyl. And we can’t wait for help—the Cardassians could decide to send a second ship, just to make sure that last message wasn’t a fake.”
Duffy shook his head. “They’ll buy the message. It had the Grach’noyl’s ID stamp on it, and was in their gul’s own voice. But you’re right, they might still send someone—if for no other reason than to salvage anything left on the warship. So, any suggestions?”
Surprisingly, it was one of the Bynars who raised a hand.
“Go ahead, 110,” Duffy told him.
“The Cardassian ship is badly damaged,” the little Bynar commented, “but—”
“—the Dancing Star is not. Its systems—”
“—are offline again, but can be rebooted quickly, now that—”
“—we are familiar with the codes.”
“Okay, so we’ve got one working ship and one that’s been turned to slag.” Duffy sighed. “Too bad we didn’t find anything like a tractor beam on the Dancing Star, or we could use it to tow the Grach’noyl.” He knew there had to be a way, but his brain just didn’t seem to be working right now. He was still too shocked by what had happened.
Fortunately, the rest of the team—now his team—was able to take up the slack.
“The Cardassians have tractor beams,” Pattie pointed out. “We’ve seen them in use before. And that warship is big enough to tow the Dancing Star.”
Stevens nodded. “Right! And we can repair any damage to the tractor with our own parts. A lot of it’s external anyway, so it might have escaped the brunt of the blow. If we can get it up and running—”
“—we can use that to hitch the two together,” Duffy finished for him, “and then pilot the Dancing Star out of here, with the Grach’noyl trailing behind. Good call, people. The only question is, what do we do with them?”
He glanced at the conference room viewscreen, which showed the two ships floating in space—and the sun looming behind them.
“All set, Fabe?”
Fabian nodded from the console on the Dancing Star. “Just one more bit here, and—got it.” He slapped the console shut and stepped away. “We’re good.”
“Right. Duffy to da Vinci. Diego, prepare to beam two back.”
“Roger that, Commander,” said Chief Feliciano.
“Standing ready.”
Kieran then said, “Pattie, how are you doing over there?”
Fabian watched his friend, and wished there was something he could do to help. Salek’s death had shocked