The Battle of Betazed - Charlotte Douglas [62]
Exactly on schedule, the Defiant decloaked directly behind the Jem’Hadar in the Enterprise ‘s path. A double salvo of quantum torpedoes and pulse phasers tore into the Jem’Hadar battle cruiser’s starboard warp nacelle, setting off an explosion that sent the remains of the disintegrating vessel out of the Enterprise ‘s path and plummeting toward Betazed.
“The other Jem’Hadar cruiser is coming about,” Daniels reported. “Scimitar and Tulwar are moving to intercept. “Sir, the Defiant is hailing us,” Daniels said.
“On screen,” Picard said.
Worf’s dark expression had rarely looked so good to Picard.
“Good to see you, Mr. Worf.” Picard gestured to the Dominion ships. “I appreciate the timely arrival. The attack ships are all yours.”
Worf nodded. “Thank you, Captain. I have several scores to settle with the Dominion.”
Picard turned to Perim. “Bring us about, Ensign. Pursuit course. Let’s finish this. Mr. Daniels … at your discretion.”
As the Tulwar and Scimitar converged on the remaining Jem’Hadar battle cruiser from port and starboard and opened fire, the Enterprise closed the distance on its tail and launched torpedoes. The combined assault proved too much even for the powerful Dominion ship. It spun away out of control, exploding as it went.
Picard then concentrated the Enterprise ‘s firepower on the remaining Cardassian ships.
“We’ve taken out the weapons array of one,” Daniels announced, “and the shields of the other are badly weakened.”
A spiral disruptor beam buffeted the Enterprise, and a fire erupted at the ops station. The engineer picked himself off the floor as the computer contained the fire.
“Shields gone, Captain. Hull breach on deck six.”
“Seal it off,” Picard ordered and turned his attention back to the Cardassian ships. “Hard about. Give us some maneuvering room.”
Behind them, the Defiant delivered a killing salvo to one of the Jem’Hadar attack ships. Its hull caved in, flames licked the heavens, and the entire ship disintegrated like a massive fireworks display.
That left only two Cardassian warships and a single Jem’Hadar attack cruiser to defend Sentok Nor.
“Receiving a transmission from the Defiant, sir.”
“Let’s hear it,” Picard ordered.
Worf’s deep voice filled the bridge. “I regret we cannot remain to finish off these Dominion vermin, Captain. As you know, we are expected elsewhere.”
“Thank you again, Mr. Worf. And good luck.” Picard tapped his combadge. “Picard to Riker. Status report.”
“Chief O’Brien’s plan worked like a charm, sir. Self-destruct is set to occur in less than seven minutes. But there’s a snag, and no time to explain. You need to bring Enterprise within one kilometer of Sentok Nor in the next five minutes.”
“Commander, we can’t use the pods to transport these Betazoids to the Enterprise,” La Forge informed Riker in the cargo bay of Sentok Nor.
“Why not?” Riker asked with a worried frown. In the few minutes left before the station’s self-destruction, the Enterprise transporters alone couldn’t beam out the thousands of imprisoned Betazoids. The pods’ self-contained transport systems were the only way to move everyone safely to the starship before the station blew.
“The master controls aren’t here,” La Forge reported.
“Where are they?” Riker asked.
On his knees, O’Brien followed conduits from the pods into metal boxes flush with the decking. Using his light, he traced a line along the decking to the nearest wall and located where the wires exited from the floor and entered a junction box.
“We’re running out of time,” Riker warned.
“I’m working as fast as I can, sir.” O’Brien moved his light over additional equipment to examine the systems. “This bay has its own generators for the pods, so we have the power we need for transport. There’s obviously a dedicated computer networking them, but unless we can find it—”
“Sir,” the security guard who had followed the Vorta earlier interrupted. “There’s a huge computer system in the laboratory.”
“Show us,” Riker ordered. “Move out.”
He hoped asking Picard to bring the Enterprise