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“You believe Koval is the shapechanger?” Worf asked as they approached the bridge.

“I think he’s a more likely candidate.”

Nodding, Worf said, “Very well. Meet with Commander Eddington and plan your insertion accordingly.” Between what Eddington could glean from SI’s reports, which was more than Kira could, and the information provided by Garak-the padd Kira carried had a full dossier on each person the Cardassian suspected of being an alien infiltrator-Worf was confident that the security chief and the resistance fighter could outline a skilled plan of attack. Worf himself would approve the plan once it was conceived.

“Will do,” Kira said, and she turned around and moved toward the mess hall.

Worf entered the bridge. He asked the flight controller, Sariel Rager, “ETA to sensor range of the Romulan border?”

“Twenty-nine hours, fifteen minutes, sir.”

“Good.” Worf took a seat in the captain’s chair. He had specifically requested Rager to be the alpha-shift conn officer for the Defiant-and it had been Scott’s assignment to the ship that prompted the thought. When Scott was rescued from the Jenolen-which had crashed into a Dyson Sphere-the Enterprise had gone inside the sphere, and was almost trapped inside. While Scott and La Forge had used the Jenolen to hold one of the sphere’s doors open for a time, the Enterprise’s escape still required near-perfect precision flying in order to escape through the narrow gap of the closing door.

Knowing he would need a pilot of consummate skill to navigate behind enemy lines, Worf sought the person who accomplished that feat of astrogation. Picard was all too happy to oblige.

A beep preceded Sisko’s voice. “Engineering to bridge.”

“Go ahead,” Worf said.

“We’re ready to begin the first test on the cloaking device.”

“Very well. Engage when ready.”

“With your permission, Captain, we wish to take the Defiant out of warp.”

Worf looked up sharply at that. “Why?”

Now Scott spoke up. “'Tis a safety precaution, sir.”

Twisting his jaw in annoyance, Worf said, “Bring us out of warp, Lieutenant Rager.”

“Aye, sir,” the soft-spoken human woman said.

The forward viewer showed the “normalizing” of the starfield from the distortions of the warp effect to the simple view of Einsteinian space.

“Engage when ready, engineering.”

“Yes, sir,” Sisko said.

Worf waited.

Several seconds passed.

Finally: “Report!”

“The bloody thing isn’t workin’,” Scott said.

“I told you that-”

“Hang on a second, lad, look at that!”

“At what?”

Having long since passed the end of his metaphorical rope, Worf cried, “If one of you does not report, I will kill you both!”

“Sorry, Captain,” Sisko said quickly, “but we think we’ve isolated the difficulty. It will take about an hour to straighten out.”

“Is there any reason not to proceed?”

“None,” Sisko said without hesitation.

“And you are sure that once this 'difficulty’ is resolved-”

Scott said, “Guaranteed you’ll have a cloak, sir, or I’ll eat my hat.”

As with most human metaphors, Worf didn’t even bother trying to decipher Scott’s words, recognizing at least that it was an expression of confidence. “Very well. Inform me when you are ready for further tests. Bridge out. Lieutenant Rager, proceed at warp eight.”

One hour later, the test was successful. The Defiant came out of warp, Sisko and Scott activated the cloaking device, and the vessel was invisible to sensors, to the visible spectrum, and all other known forms of detection.

Then Worf ordered the ship to go to warp, and nothing happened.

Two minutes and a great deal more shouting in the engine room after that, Worf gave the order a second time, and the Defiant went to warp, still cloaked.

Twenty-eight hours after that, the cloak was still holding as the ship approached the Romulan border. The patrols that the Defiant picked up on long-range all stayed put, and did not react to the approach of an enemy vessel.

Two hours later, the Defiant entered Romulan space, to no fanfare from the empire’s border outposts.