The Brave and the Bold Book Two - Keith R. A. DeCandido [78]
Kira hated being helpless.
With every fiber of her being, she fought Malkus’s influence.
With every fiber of her being, she failed.
Yet, she kept trying, even as Malkus had her get into the St. Lawrence—the runabout that had brought Ambassador Spock to Narendra—and take it to the former DMZ to try to locate the missing piece of the third artifact. Kira had no idea why she had been sent in this ship rather than the one she had arrived in—perhaps Malkus couldn’t tell the difference between the two ships, which were, after all, virtually the same.
The runabout came out of warp in an area of interstellar space. It was here that the Hood and the Voyager had first detected the third Malkus Artifact on the Maquis ship Geronimo, and it seemed as good a place as any to start the search.
Except Kira didn’t wish to search for the component. She wished to open a hailing frequency, to bring the St. Lawrence to DS9 and then take the Defiant to Narendra III, along with any other ship she could corral, and blow Malkus into his component atoms with the Defiant’ s considerable weaponry.
She gathered every bit of willpower she possessed and instructed her right arm to touch the control that would open a hailing frequency.
Her right arm moved toward the comm panel.
I’ve done it! Kira thought with surprise. She opened a channel.
Then she tried to talk, but found that she could not.
However, even opening the channel was a small victory. It would serve as an additional beacon to her location, and maybe—just maybe—someone would notice. Of course, given what this region of space was like these days, that “someone” could be anyone from a clappedout Cardassian military ship limping on its last antimatter pods to Yridian privateers to Ferengi merchants to civilian supply ships. But getting in touch with anyone was a bonus at this point. Someone needed to be informed about what Malkus had done on Narendra.
Then a sensor alarm went off. She looked up to see a Klingon vessel decloaking.
No! They’ve found me! Malkus had apparently sent one of the Klingon ships in orbit around Narendra to tail her under cloak, and stop her if she threw off Malkus’s control.
That doesn’t make sense. Why not send them in the first place?
Look at them. That’s one of those new Chancellor-class ships. That would draw a lot more attention than a little runabout. Malkus probably kept it around in case of emergencies.
Stop talking to yourself and do something!
Kira raised the shields and armed the phasers. She did that, not Malkus. Another victory. She also recognized the ship: the I.K.S. Gorkon, commanded by Captain Klag. She directed her hail to them—but she was still unable to make her voice work.
Well, the hell with it—it’s not like I have anything to say to them anyhow.
She fired phasers.
Then the ship hailed her. “Attention runabout. This is the I.K.S. Gorkon. If you do not lower your shields immediately, we will fire upon you.”
Gee, Klag, thanks for the warning.
Wait a minute. Why would they give a warning? That doesn’t make sense.
She tried to lower the shields, but this time she couldn’t. Malkus was attempting to reassert his control.
You’ve spent enough time in my head. Get out!
Then the Gorkon fired on her.
She had no idea if it was her will or Malkus’s that made her take evasive action, and ultimately it didn’t matter. The one goal she and Malkus shared was a desire to keep her body intact.
However, her maneuver came too late. The blast didn’t penetrate the shields, but reduced them to a mere ten percent.
She continued the evasive maneuvers, laying down covering fire.
Covering fire, right. I’m about as overmatched here as our old Bajoran sub-impulse raiders were against Cardassian warships.
Then again, we beat them eventually.
After several decades.
I have got to stop talking to myself.
The Gorkon fired again,