Myriad Universes 02_ Echoes and Refractions - Keith R. A. DeCandido [145]
In all his time serving the Dominion, Omet’iklan never imagined he would see the day when a god would commit a capital crime-and that he himself would be the executioner.
He walked over to the weapons console, pushing the fifth aside, and fired upon the Federation ship.
A barrage of weapons fire spat forth from Omet’iklan’s ship and struck the helpless Federation vessel.
It exploded in a huge conflagration of matter-antimatter annihilation and burning plasma.
“Scan for survivors.” Omet’iklan wanted to make sure none of those responsible for today’s travesty would live.
“Detecting several escape pods, First,” the second said.
“Eliminate them.”
The second hesitated.
“The Founder was on the bridge of the enemy ship. Federation vessels do not keep their escape pods proximate to the bridge. There was not time for him to make it to the pods. None of those inside is the Founder. Destroy them!”
Quickly, the second did as he was ordered.
Then Omet’iklan ordered his fleet to set course for the nearest Dominion base. Once that would have been Terok Nor, but now he had to go much farther.
He had to report what had happened. And, no doubt, report for his own execution for the unforgivable crime of killing a god.
21
U.S.S. Defiant En Route to Qo’noS Klingon Empire
Worf stood alone in his cabin.
As captain, he was one of the few who had been given a cabin of his own on the overcrowded ship. After the mission to Romulus, with the deaths of so many, a few others were able to have single bunks: Sisko and Scott among them, which meant they were no longer sharing a bunk, a situation that had caused some tension, although the two had worked out most of their differences.
Today, Worf was grateful for the solitude. He had extinguished the light in the cabin, the only remaining illumination coming from a large candle of mourning.
The Defiant had received a coded intelligence briefing an hour ago. The Enterprise had been successful in its mission to destroy the mouth of the wormhole. They had also destroyed the space station Terok Nor. The report did not specify whether Gul Dukat was aboard the station, nor did it confirm that it was he whom the Founders had replaced with one of their own.
But in the process, the Enterprise itself was lost.
Jean-Luc Picard had been the finest captain Worf had ever hoped to serve with. Whatever meager skills he himself had as a commander he owed entirely to Picard. The captain had stood by Worf’s side as cha’DIch when he challenged the High Council’s ruling against his father, and had always been steadfast and loyal and worthy of respect.
And now he was gone.
Worf’s life, it seemed, had been governed by loss, from the Khitomer massacre that claimed his parents when he was six to the traitorous d’k tahg of Duras killing K’Ehleyr. And now he had lost his captain.
At least he died well, Worf thought as he walked over to the candle, took his personal d’k tahg, and pressed it down upon the wick, extinguishing the flame. Jean-Luc Picard had not only been Worf’s cha’DIch, but was also the first human to serve as a Klingon chancellor’s Arbiter of Succession. If any human would be permitted into Sto-Vo-Kor, it would be him.
Just then, the doorchime rang.
“Computer, lights,” Worf said. Once the cabin was illuminated, Worf said, “Enter.”
The door slid aside to reveal the Defiant’s medical officer, Doctor Simon Tarses. A former medtech on the EnterpriseD who had failed to disclose his partial Romulan heritage, he had overcome the rather brutal witch hunt related to that revelation and gone on to get his medical degree. Worf, whose role in that witch hunt was one of the more shameful chapters of his Starfleet career, was glad to have him on the Defiant.
Of course, Worf’s role meant that Tarses was skittish around his new CO. The young doctor seemed to flinch every time