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Once, the Voria mines had a large landing bay, as well as a launching pad. Ships coming to Voria would take off and land on the pad, and stay in the bay during their layover. Not far from the mine was a fairly popular Cardassians-only resort and casino. (At least, it was Cardassians-only as far as patronage went; plenty of Bajorans worked there as low-level cleaning staff or entertainment.)

The ore hauler that serviced Voria had an established routine: land the ship in the early evening, head to the resort, spend the night there, get up some time in the late morning-by which time the hauler had been filled with the raw ore to be brought to Terok Nor for processing-and take off for the space station by noon.

Or at least it used to. Four years ago-shortly before Kira was assigned to Voria-her fellow resistance members set off an explosive in the landing bay. The damage was sufficient to render the bay unusable. However, the only spacefaring vessel that ever came to Voria these days was the ore hauler, so the Cardassians didn’t think it worth the expense to repair the bay, and the hauler just stayed on the pad overnight.

Which made it much easier for Kira to steal it.

The hauler’s pilot had long since gone to the resort, leaving only one bored-looking guard. He wore the insignia of a gil; Kira didn’t know his name, nor did she care to. While Kira had come to admit reluctantly that not all Cardassians were bastards who needed to die slowly and painfully, her compassion did not extend to anyone in the Cardassian military. They were the ones who beat and raped and pillaged and abused. They were the ones who’d violated her world.

You wore that uniform, you were a target. Targets didn’t need names.

Kira snuck up behind him and broke his neck, and she didn’t give him a second thought once he fell to the dirt in a crumpled, dead heap. It was as much consideration as Shakaar, Furel, Lupaza, Mobara, Gantt, and Mabrin had gotten from the Cardassians who’d killed them.

If the Prophets wanted the gil to live, they would’ve made him more alert.

She walked up to the hatch on the hauler’s underbelly and entered an alphanumeric code that she read off of Garak’s padd. In response, the hatch loudly unfolded into a ramp that provided entry, and squeaked so much that it echoed throughout the mines. Kira hadn’t counted on quite so much noise. Obviously the same budget-consciousness that prevented the bay from being rebuilt also kept the hauler from being properly maintained.

Let’s just hope that this thing’s engines are in better shape than the ramp, she thought as she overrode the pre-flight checklist. With the racket made by the ramp, more guards would be here any minute, and she needed to be in the air by the time that happened.

Within a few seconds, she had taken off and was heading into orbit. The pressure of g-forces slammed against her ribs and crushed her into the heavily padded seat.

She saw the fuel alarm go off. I don’t believe this. He hadn’t refueled yet. As soon as she thought that, she cursed at herself. Of course he didn’t. He wouldn’t refuel until he knew how much ore he was carrying, which he wouldn’t know until morning.

Still, Kira only had to take the hauler to Bajor’s fifth moon. And since the hauler was still empty, the fuel consumption needed to achieve escape velocity would be low. As long as she had enough fuel to get the hauler into orbit, point it at the fifth moon, and make one last kick with the thrusters, ballistics would take care of the rest.

Her real concern was the one piece of information Garak hadn’t been able to obtain: whether the starhoppers the resistance had hidden on the fifth moon were still there. In particular, one starhopper that could go to warp three and even had a (sort of) working transporter.

As soon as Kira got past the stratosphere, she changed course for a standard orbit. She’d only need to orbit for three minutes, then she’d be in position to head straight for the moon. The timing of the escape had been as much to take advantage of the fifth moon’s orbital position as anything.