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“If that doesn’t work,” Duffy said, “we might be able to just take turns beaming people back and forth with his combadge.”

“We can make it work,” Stevens said. “Just modulate the pattern enhancer to the upper ranges and increase the confinement beam’s range.”

Nog looked at them like they were insane. All they had to do was beam Nog himself up to the da Vinci, then beam him back with a pattern enhancer.

“Or,” Feliciano said before Nog had a chance to voice this thought, “I can just beam the lieutenant up, hand him a pattern enhancer, then beam him down.”

There was a dead silence.

Duffy and Stevens looked at each other.

“Yeah, okay,” Stevens said.

“I mean,” Duffy added, “if you want to actually do it the sensible way, sure.”

Rolling his eyes, Nog thought, These are the people I’m supposed to trust with extracting the core?

“Can the comedy, you two,” Gold said. “Let’s get the lieutenant up so we can get the wounded out of there. Once that’s done, we’re going to yellow alert—if I know Biron, he’ll be back, and I want to be ready. Hell, if DS9 didn’t need this core so badly, I’d call the whole damn thing off. I want reports every fifteen minutes, Duffy, clear?”

“As a bell, sir,” Duffy said.

Corsi said, “Sir, I recommend that new combadges be replicated for the entire crew as well, and I’ll need three more security guards to replace Frnats, Lipinski, and Hawkins.”

“Way ahead of you on the combadges, Corsi. Barnak’s already on that. Nog, get ready to be beamed up.”

“Yes, sir.”

As the transporter effect started to form around Nog, he heard Duffy say, “We’ll get to work on the—”

Then Nog found himself on a small transporter platform, only slightly larger than the one on the Defiant.

“—field surrounding the core in the meantime.” That was the rest of Duffy’s sentence, heard over the comm.

A human with olive skin and black hair stood behind the console. His eyes went wide, and he said, “You’re a Ferengi.”

“And you’re a human,” Nog snapped. He wasn’t in the mood for the usual shock at seeing a Ferengi in a Starfleet uniform. He’d gotten more of it at the Academy than since he returned to Deep Space 9, but it still grated. “Can we get a move on, please?”

“Right. Sorry, just didn’t realize.” He grabbed something off the floor and then walked around to the platform. “I’m Chief Feliciano. These are the pattern enhancers.” He set them down on the platform.

“Great,” Nog said. “Let’s get going.”

“Hang on,” Feliciano said, walking back to the console. “I’m supposed to wait on security.” He hesitated. “Look, I’m sorry about that Ferengi comment. You probably get a lot of that. I just wasn’t expecting it, is all.”

Nog let out a breath. “It’s okay. I’m sorry I snapped. Things have been a bit hectic.”

The doors opened and three security guards walked in, all human females. One of them tossed a combadge to Feliciano. “New jewelry, Chief.”

Feliciano caught it with a smile and looked at it. “I’m not into brooches.”

The guard snorted, then looked at Nog. “I’m Robins. This is Eddy and Friesner. You must be Nog.”

Nog just nodded. He wanted to get back to the station—for one thing, he wanted someone to tell him precisely what they were up against with the Androssi; for another, he still hadn’t had a chance to check out that anomalous reading he’d gotten on the Rio Grande.

“Energize, Chief,” Nog ordered as soon as the three guards were assembled on the platform.

CHAPTER

5

The chime alerted Overseer Biron to the fact that his shift was to begin shortly. He awakened instantaneously and immediately noticed that something was wrong with the engines. The vibration of the deck that he felt under his bare feet as he got down off his hammock deviated from the norm.

The Androssi overseer touched his ear with one hand. “Engineering.”

“Engineering.” It was one of the workers; Engine Master Claris would not be on duty for another hour.

“This is the overseer. The overdrive is not performing at maximum efficiency. Please check the eldrak consumption rates. It will be repaired