Ship of the Line - Diane Carey [110]
“You are a traitor!” the father burst.
“I’m a Cardassian and I’m more loyal than you are. Cardassia has to have a future, and your kind of brutality will be bad for us in the long run.”
“How can you do this?” Madred demanded. “You’re my daughter! I love you!”
“And I love you,” the girl said. “But I want to sleep at night again.”
“She’s got principles, Madred,” Picard interrupted them. Stepping forward, he took charge of the situation again. “Your daughter found out you’re an equal opportunity monster. You’ll even brutalize your own. No matter what you’ve gained from your actions, you have paid a large price—your daughter’s respect. I don’t know what it means to you, but it would mean a great deal to me. And because of Jil Orra, I shall always remember that any race, no matter how monolithic, is made up of individuals who must ultimately think for themselves.”
He was about to say more, when his comm unit beeped. “Captain Picard.”
“Go ahead, Captain Reynolds.”
“We’ve been sent an emergency communique from Starbase Twelve. Sir, the Enterprise has been hijacked!”
“You’re not serious!” Picard blasted.
“I’m afraid so. And it’s warped into Cardassian space, not too far from here, and it’s cutting up signal outposts on its way to Cardassia Prime. Making just an awful mess—”
“Who in God’s name hijacked it?”
“A Klingon called Kuzar.”
“Kuzar … you can’t mean Kozara!”
“That’s it!”
“My God … Bateson!”
For an instant Picard indulged in thinking what a buffoon Bateson was to let his ship be taken, but he couldn’t think that about Riker. There must’ve been mitigating circumstances—something that had given Kozara an advantage.
Captain Reynolds gave all this a moment to sink in, then said, “Starbase wants to know if you have a suggestion for heading them off. It’ll take six hours for another fleet starship to arrive. By then the Enterprise’ll be at Cardassia Prime for over two hours. They could slice up a whole continent before anybody could shut them down.”
“What about the Cardassian defense fleet?”
“All but two of their ships are on the Dominion and Klingon defense perimeters. They’ll take even longer to get here.”
“What are the two ships?”
“Fighter-transports. Not very big by comparison.”
“No, but a combined attack might serve.”
“What do you want to do?”
“Stand by.”
Feeling as if he were in a dream, watching a show in which he could not participate, Steve looked at Atherton. Due to familiarity, Steve knew the other man still suspected a trick.
Captain Picard moved closer again. “I’d been hoping to take you home for a well-earned rest, but as you just heard, the new starship, the Enterprise-E, has been hijacked in the Typhon Expanse by a disgruntled Klingon commander. He’s been initiating a series of raids leading toward the center of the Cardassian civilization. He’s threatening to unleash the power of the Federation’s new flagship on the innocent civilians of Cardassia Prime and its surrounding settlements.”
” ‘Innocent,’ ” somebody mocked from behind.
Picard let the grumble run through the crews, then looked at Steve with such intensity that Steve thought one of them was about to melt.
“As the senior Starfleet officer in the sector,” Picard announced officially, “I’m taking charge of the situation. Mr. McClellan, I will appropriate two more Cardassian ships of the class you see behind me. I’m conferring upon you a field promotion to the rank of lieutenant commander. You’ll take charge of one ship. Captain Atherton, I believe you deserve command of the third ship. We also have with us the M.F.P.S. Half Moon, upon which we’ve mounted a swiveling dorsalturret phaser cannon in anticipation of close-quarter battle. Any of your crews who wish to be with you shall be at your sides. I shall command the fleet. This is obviously an extremely dangerous CQB exercise. We may be liberating you only to have you killed in the line of duty. The ships named Enterprise have for generations been the forward symbol of Federation integrity