• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Picard folded his hands on the table in front of him and looked at each of the people at the table in turn-except for Sisko, whom he couldn’t quite bring himself to look in the eyes. “The mission, Captain Scott, is simple. Captain Worf will take the Defiant behind the lines in Romulan space. Ms. Kira has a list of who is the mostly likely Romulan to have been replaced by a shapechanger. Commander Eddington will have a complement of fifty security personnel who will serve as a strike team. Kira will determine if the person in question is truly a shapechanger, and then the security team will neutralize it. Capture is preferred, but you are to defend yourselves.”

“Understood, sir,” Eddington said.

“You will then proceed to Klingon territory and do the same.”

“Captain,” Sisko said, “the Defiant only has the capacity to house approximately forty people. If the security contingent alone is fifty-”

“Accommodations will have to be made, Commander.” Picard hesitated, then continued in a much softer tone. “Projections for survival among the security detail are somewhat low.”

Worf added, “As are the projections for survival among the rest of the crew.” Snidely, he asked Sisko, “Do you still accept the transfer?”

“The projections for survival will be nonexistent without me on that ship, Captain,” Sisko said tartly. “I know the Defiant better than anyone. If there’s any chance of this mission succeeding…”

Picard looked at the security chief. “Mister Eddington-”

“Don’t worry about my people, Captain. This is what they signed up for.”

Suddenly, Picard felt nauseated. All this death, and his brilliant plan for stopping it was a suicide mission. In fact, it was two suicide missions.

“Meanwhile, I will be taking the Enterprise to the Bajoran system. We also have a cloaking device installed-or so Mister O’Brien says we will by tomorrow-and, with the assistance of Mister Odo, we will destroy the entrance to the wormhole. Even if the Defiant does not succeed in its mission, those three remaining shapechangers will be unable to summon reinforcements, and the Jem’Hadar currently in the Alpha Quadrant will be all there are.”

Odo spoke in what Picard was learning was his usual flat, sardonic tone. “I believe I will be able to obtain assistance from someone on the station itself.”

Picard assumed this to be the former Obsidian Order agent who had facilitated Odo and Kira’s escape from Bajor. “Very well.”

Then Odo added: “You should know, Captain, that even if your plan succeeds, it will not deter my people.”

“I don’t expect it to, Mister Odo-but it will cripple their efforts. We shall have to hope that it is enough. We owe it to the people who have already given their lives.” He shook his head. “Everything that has happened this past year, all the lives lost, both in the war among the Klingons, Romulans, and Federation and in the Cardassians’ Dominion-fueled aggression against the Federation, has been revealed by Ms. Kira and Mister Odo here as nothing more than a stratagem designed to soften us up and make the entire quadrant an easy conquest for a despotic nation. We cannot allow that to stand.” Now, finally, he looked at Sisko. “Are there any questions?”

“Yes, sir,” Sisko said with a frank expression. “When do we leave?”

17

U.S.S. Defiant En Route to Romulan Space United Federation of Planets

Worf entered the engineering section of the Defiant only to find yet another shouting match.

“If y’connect it up that way, the whole thing’ll shut down!” That was Scott, whose burr apparently became thicker under stress.

Sisko was gripping a diagnostic tool as if it were a d’k tahg. “If we do it your way, the power spike will burn out the EPS conduits! If that happens, we’ll lose main power, and then-”

“I know what’ll happen if we lose main power, lad. I was crawlin’ around engines when your granddaddy was in diapers!”

Several engineers were standing helpless while the two men screamed at each other. Worf immediately interposed himself between the two of them. “What is going on here?”

“This daft gentleman doesna