Myriad Universes 02_ Echoes and Refractions - Keith R. A. DeCandido [149]
The Defiant took on fire. “Leave orbit, Lieutenant,” Worf said. “Set course 222 mark 4.”
Rager whirled around. “Sir?”
“Obey my orders!” Worf bellowed, getting to his feet, bile rising in his throat. He had just watched his homeworld die screaming.
“Captain,” came the voice of Sisko from engineering, “shields and weapons are offline. So are about half a dozen other systems, and it’s a small miracle that the warp core hasn’t been breached.”
Scott added, “We cannot take much more’a this, sir.”
“We will not have to,” Worf said.
Half a dozen Jem’Hadar ships changed course to try to intercept the Defiant. Weapons fire splashed against the ablative armor. Aside from a few birds-of-prey and a pair of Karas-class strike ships, none of the Defense Force armada protecting the homeworld was left intact, leaving the remaining Jem’Hadar free to prey on the Defiant.
“Full impulse.”
“Captain,” Scott said, “we cannot maintain full impulse for-”
Worf cut the old engineer off. “Prepare to induce a warp-core breach.”
Sisko came on, then. “Captain, are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?”
Normally Worf would not deign to explain an order to a subordinate, but under these circumstances, he was willing. “You both said we cannot leave this star system. Qo’noS has just been destroyed, and there are twenty-two Jem’Hadar ships about to enter the system. No doubt the Founder based here has summoned these forces to him so he may conquer the Alpha Quadrant more directly. That will be his final mistake.”
“So you plan to set off a warp-core breach and take as many of them as you can since we’re as good as dead already?”
“Not exactly,” Worf said. “Yes, we will die gloriously. But not simply by breaching the warp core.”
Rager said, “Approaching the sun’s photosphere.”
“Are you mad?” Scott asked. “If the warp core goes when we’re too close to the sun you might-”
“Take the enemy with us,” Worf said. “They destroyed the Homeworld. They will not live to regret that action.”
Montgomery Scott had lived a long time, through two different centuries. Though he was present at the Khitomer Accords, he still never thought he’d live to see the day that the Federation and Klingons were allies-much less find himself taking orders from a Klingon.
And now he was going to die, not in his bed surrounded by loved ones, but deliberately inducing a warp-core breach before dive-bombing a sun in order to make it go nova, a gesture that would not only kill him, but wipe out an entire star system-and two dozen of those Jem’Hadar beasties.
Could be worse, he thought resignedly as he and Sisko set the controls. At least I’m dyin’ in an engine room.
He looked at Sisko. “I guess this is it, then, lad.”
“I guess. I just wish-”
After Sisko hesitated, Scott prompted: “What?”
“I just wish I could see Jake one last time.”
“Aye,” Scott said. He’d been hearing plenty of stories on the trip about Sisko’s son. “He seems to be a fine lad. I’m sure he’ll make you proud.”
“I hope so,” Sisko said quietly.
Kira Nerys had bullied Doctor Tarses into letting her sit at a console. The Defiant didn’t have any transparent aluminum windows the way most Starfleet ships did, but she was able to set a screen to show her what was happening.
She saw the Defiant take out several Jem’Hadar ships.
She saw Qo’noS being devastated.
She saw the Jem’Hadar fire on the Defiant as Worf tried to take her toward the sun-for what? To try to lose them in the sun’s corona?
Then Kira realized what Worf was planning. I didn’t give him enough credit. This kind of insane suicide tactic was the kind of thing the resistance did all the time. I thought Starfleet were heroes, not terrorists. But with so many Jem’Hadar ships coming and the system no longer useful to their side, Worf decided to go for scorched earth. Or, in this case, scorched star system.
She admired the tactics. Her only regret was that there weren’t some Cardassian ships in the system that they could