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“Go ahead, Joe.”

“You’ll have shields back in seven minutes. I’ve had to take the warp engines and phasers offline. Torpedoes are still okay, but I’m gonna need a few minutes to get phaser power back.”

“What about warp drive?” Cavit asked.

Before Carey could reply, Janeway said, “We’ll worry about that later. Tuvok, what the hell did they hit us with?”

“A phased polaron beam of considerable power. I believe that once Mister Carey has reconstituted the shields, there is a forty-nine-point-two percent chance that we can tune the shields to repel the beam.”

“Can you target the Vetar with torpedoes?”

“Yes.”

“Do it.” Janeway turned toward the viewer. The Bellerophon was engaging the Trager, while the Intrepid was heading for the Bok’Nor. The Vetar was changing course to try to cut off the Intrepid.

Even as Tuvok fired torpedoes at the Vetar, the Cardassians hit the Intrepid with the same polaron beam.

Seconds later, the Intrepid exploded in a plume of fire.

Voyager’s torpedoes struck the Vetar’s shields, not doing nearly enough damage to suit Janeway. Walter Emick was a good man, from a family with a long history of Starfleet service. To go like that…

Again, shaking it off, Janeway said, “Keep firing, Tuvok. I want to wipe that smile off Evek’s face.”

“Shields are back up,” Tuvok said, even as he continued firing. “Continuous sensor scans of the polaron beam have provided more data. I believe there is now a sixty-three-point-four percent chance of tuning the shields to defend.”

Janeway took very small comfort from the fact that the Intrepid’s sacrifice gave Tuvok that data, but she supposed she would take what she could.

Still clutching his left shoulder with his right hand, Cavit, now once again seated in his chair, asked, “Where the hell did the Cardassians get this kind of weaponry?”

Tuvok, for once recognizing a rhetorical question, did not reply directly. “Vetar shields are down to forty-six percent. They’re coming about.”

“Shields?” Cavit asked.

“Not yet.”

Janeway gripped the arms of her chair. “Stadi, evasive maneuvers. Keep our distance from the Vetar.”

Again, Stadi’s fingers moved, but this time nothing happened.

“Bridge,” said Carey, “we’ve got a problem with helm control. Give me a minute.”

“We don’t have a minute, Mister Carey!” Cavit shouted.

The Vetar came closer.

“Polaron beam powering up,” Tuvok said.

Then Voyager moved, hard to port. An instant later, the Cardassian weapon fired harmlessly into what was now empty space.

“Sorry about that, bridge.”

“No more surprises if you can avoid it, Joe,” Janeway said through gritted teeth. “Tuvok, fire.”

Another spread of torpedoes struck the Vetar. Tuvok said, “Vetar shields down to twenty percent. Phasers are back online. Also, the Bellerophon’s shields are down and they’re venting plasma.”

Cavit looked at Janeway. “With your permission?” At Janeway’s nod, he struggled to his feet and went to the conn. “Lieutenant, that weapon needs a second to power up. I want you to do an old-fashioned strafing run-get in close, skim the hull. Can you do that?”

Stadi smiled. “Watch me.”

Turning to the tactical console-and wincing in pain as he did so-Cavit said, “Mister Tuvok, ready phasers.”

“Captain, the Trager is coming about!”

At Stadi’s cry, Janeway looked at the screen and saw that the Trager was heading right to the spot where Voyager’s projected course would take them after Cavit’s strafing run.

Tuvok said, “Firing phasers.”

Janeway was coming to realize that this was not going to end well. She’d seen far too much combat these past few months to not recognize a losing battle. “Tuvok, send an emergency transmission to Starbase 310-make sure all our sensor data on that polaron weapon is part of it!”

“Preparing transmission now.”

“Trager is firing!” Stadi cried.

As the bridge exploded around Janeway, she hoped that they were able to send the data to the starbase in time.

11

U.S.S. Enterprise-E Approaching the Federation-Cardassian Border United Federation