Miracle Workers (SCE Books 5-8) - Keith R. A. DeCandido_. [et al.] [52]
Like the security device, this thing shot out electrical bursts. As it did so, Corsi said, “Fire!”
All five security guards fired—at, Duffy noticed, Level 4, and on a low frequency. Eddy’s was still in pulse-phaser mode; the other four were standard beams.
The mesh dispersed instantaneously, and Duffy found himself facing five very surprised-looking Androssi.
Duffy grinned. “You ain’t the only ones with cute tricks, Howwi.”
“On stun,” Corsi said, “and fire!”
All five security guards fired, this time on the standard stun setting, and the five Androssi collapsed.
“You know,” Duffy said, still grinning, “it’s really nice for it to be easy every once in a while.”
“We’re not out of this yet,” Corsi said.
Nodding, Duffy said, “I know.” He looked at his people who, in turn, were all looking at him, waiting for orders. Part of him once again thought, Sonnie, come home. This should’ve been her job. But, to his own surprise, that was only part of him. The rest of him felt relatively calm and confident. The cold sweat he broke out in when he was in command of the da Vinci and the old Constitution-class Defiant fell into interphase while the Tholians opened fire was nowhere to be seen. Kieran Duffy chose to view this as a good sign.
He took a deep breath through his nose and then breathed out through his mouth. “Okay, we need to figure out how to get the Androssi tech separated from the Cardassian tech, and we need to figure out how to extract the fusion core.”
Nog spoke up. “Sir, I’ve already put together a plan for extracting the core—it’s one that’s already been approved by Colonel Kira and Commander Vaughn.”
“And I’m sure it’s a fine one, Lieutenant, but we prefer to do things our own way. Besides,” he added with a smile, “I need you and Fabe here to do something more important.”
Stevens raised an eyebrow. “Why do I always get nervous when you smile like that?”
Ignoring the comment, Duffy said, “Fabe, you’ve said before that the biggest problem on DS9 was always getting the Cardassian and Starfleet equipment to talk to each other.”
“Yeah, the chief complained about it all the time. Like I said, I was mostly detailed to the Defiant, so I didn’t have to deal with it much. . . .”
With a smile of his own, Nog said, “I certainly did. I think I know what you want us to do. Chief O’Brien showed me when I was assigned to the station as a cadet how he’d worked around the incompatibility issues. You want us to make the Cardassian systems reject the Androssi additions.”
“If that’s possible.”
Stevens had what Duffy had come to recognize as his inspirational look. Fabian Stevens worked best when he was handed a problem and told to fix it somehow. He could improvise a solution with the best of them, and he had the feeling that Nog was cut from the same cloth—especially given that they both worked under Miles O’Brien. The former Enterprise transporter chief was one of the more creative engineering minds Duffy had ever encountered.
Nog and Stevens immediately started putting their heads together. Leaving them to it, Duffy turned to Pattie and Soloman. “You two get cracking on the fusion core. I’m going to try to punch through this interference so we can find out what’s happening with the da Vinci.”
The two aliens nodded, and went to work.
As Duffy turned to Corsi, Drew spoke up. “Sir, I think I’ve worked out a program that will recognize when the Androssi use that dimensional shift of theirs.”
“Really?” Duffy asked, his eyes wide with surprise.
Drew shook his head. “What, you think you guys are the only ones who know how to use a tricorder on this ship?”
Putting up his hands, Duffy said, “I stand corrected. Good work, Drew. Between that and Nog’s ears, we should