The Battle of Betazed - Charlotte Douglas [53]
He’d love to see the looks on his enemies’ faces after he activated the station’s autodestruct system. They’d quickly realize their manual backup had been destroyed, so they couldn’t turn off the countdown.
Another part of O’Brien, however, couldn’t help regretting that all this technology and the massive structure that reminded him so much of home had to be destroyed. If Federation forces hadn’t already been pushed to the limit, Sentok Nor would have been a treasure worth keeping. Unfortunately, without sufficient military backup to overwhelm the Dominion forces in the system, destroying Sentok Nor outright was the only way to chase them off, and thereby weaken the Dominion’s ability to hold the system.
He frowned at an unusually high power drain flowing to the cargo bays. Some of it was even being pulled from defense, and it was going straight toward the area Commander Riker had gone to investigate. What were they doing to pull that kind of power? Building weapons? Creating more Jem’Hadar?
“La Forge to O’Brien.”
O’Brien tapped his combadge, which had been altered to constantly change frequencies so the Cardassians couldn’t pinpoint their locations. “Go ahead.”
“We’re on site.” La Forge and his team had reached the computer core. “The mainframe’s physical access port is destroyed. There’s no way to manually stop the self-destruct countdown once we start it.”
“Stand by.” O’Brien made several minor adjustments and corrected for fluctuations. “Ready now.”
“Initiate autodestruct,” La Forge ordered.
La Forge and his team simultaneously disengaged all three computers that operated every system in the station. O’Brien entered the autodestruct sequence the Cardassians already had in place.
“O’Brien, report,” Commander Riker ordered over the combadge.
“Autodestruct sequence initiated, Commander,” O’Brien announced. “The thermal energy released by overloading the fusion reactors will be comparable to seven hundred eighty standard photon torpedoes.”
“Can you stop it?”
At the anxiety in the commander’s voice, a wave of apprehension burned through O’Brien like acid. The last time he’d experienced that feeling was when he’d evacuated Deep Space 9 before the Cardassians invaded. The Federation had eventually retaken the station, but he had never forgotten how difficult leaving had been. Commander Riker’s question made him wonder if he’d make it back to his home in the Bajoran system. He’d sabotaged Sentok Nor’s computers so effectively the Dominion couldn’t stop the explosion.
And neither could O’Brien.
“Not all the power in the universe can shut this baby down now, Commander. I suggest we contact the Enterprise and beam out of here.”
“How long until detonation?”
“Fifteen minutes, forty-eight seconds.”
“We can’t leave yet.”
O’Brien’s mouth went dry. “Why not?”
“Meet me in cargo bay three and I’ll show you.”
In the corridor of the Daronan prison, everything happened at once.
Director Lanolan raised his phaser to fire. Tevren, aware that he was Lanolan’s target, cried out. Suddenly Vaughn lunged between the director and the prisoner, shielding Tevren with his own body.
Immediately and instinctively, Deanna employed the training Vaughn had so recently drilled into her. With a powerful body block, she shoved the director off his feet and, at the same time, knocked his arm upward, ruining his aim as his phaser fired. When he struggled against her and attempted to fire again, she cold-cocked him with a closed fist and confiscated his weapon.
Shaken and winded more from surprise than physical exertion, Deanna assessed the situation. Lanolan lay barely conscious at her feet. She regretted having struck her old friend and mentor, but he’d given her no choice. Tevren huddled in the far corner of his cell, apparently