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Duffy nodded. “Good work, guys. Get to it.” He turned to Fabian. “Meantime, we’ll see what we can do about getting the hang of our golf game.”

Fabian smiled. “Let’s play through…”

* * *

“Shields down to forty percent.”

Salek stood next to McAllan at the tactical station. “Damage control teams, report to deck six.”

Gold pounded a fist on the command chair. The second Cardassian ship and the Appalachia had both been destroyed. He muttered a quick Kaddish for Captain al-Rashid, and wondered if he’d live to give Fayah and their children the bad news in person.

The Sloane was limping along with no shields, weapons, or communications capacity, very little power, and life signs indicating that a quarter of the crew were dead. Gold hoped that Captain Walsh was one of those still living, if for no other reason than that Don still owed Gold a rematch for that chess game Gold lost last year at Starbase 96.

Amazing the things you think of under pressure.

“Captain, we cannot continue to trade blows with the Jem’Hadar.”

Gold sighed at Salek’s statement of the obvious. “Have we done any damage?”

“Their shields are down to sixty-five percent,” McAllan said. “Another hit, sir—our shields are at ten percent.”

One more minute and I have to abandon to the comm relay.

“Duffy to bridge. Captain, we’ve been able to gain control of the golf ball.”

Smiling, Gold remembered why Starfleet engineers had reputations as miracle workers. “Can we use it on the Jem’Hadar?”

“Definitely, sir. We can deploy it through the cargo bay. Stevens rigged a tricorder that can feed it instructions. The weapons’ll plow through their shields, and then we can hit ’em with the virus.”

“I find it difficult to believe,” Salek said, “that the Jem’Hadar would not have a defense against their own computer virus.”

“Sir, 110 and 111 think they can make it work for us. And even if they can’t, we’ll only need a few seconds of distraction to keep them from defending themselves.”

Another shot from the Jem’Hadar hit. “Shields are gone,” McAllan said.

“We’re out of options,” Gold said. “Get going, Duffy.”

“Yes, sir.”

Salek said, “McAllan, prepare all remaining torpedoes. Fire them when Duffy and Stevens deploy the weapon.”

“Jem’Hadar coming in for another pass,” Ina said.

Tapping his combadge, Gold said, “Now would be good, Duffy.”

“Give us a sec, sir. We’re just getting into the cargo bay now.”

Gold then said the words he’d been unable to say until now, but he had no choice. “Wong, evasive, pattern alpha, full impulse.” They couldn’t protect the comm relay if they were vulnerable. He just had to gamble that the Jem’Hadar would pursue the da Vinci and attempt to finish them off before going after the relay.

That gamble, at least, paid off. “Jem’Hadar in pursuit,” Ina said.

“We’re ready to go,” Duffy said.

Salek said, “Fire torpedoes.”

McAllan fired the torpedoes, a combination of photon and quantum, which managed to do a certain amount of damage to the Jem’Hadar’s shields.

One torpedo did not hit the Jem’Hadar, however—mainly because it wasn’t a torpedo, but Duffy’s “golf ball.” Energy weapons fired from the tiny projectile right at the Jem’Hadar.

“Enemy shields are down,” McAllan said, sounding surprised.

“Their power signature is decreasing rapidly,” Salek added, “well out of proportion to the damage they have taken. Logic would dictate that the computer virus has infected them—and that same logic would suggest that we finish what it is starting. McAllan, fire phasers.”

“Yes, sir.”

A moment later, the Jem’Hadar ship exploded, the victim of the da Vinci phasers.

The bridge was silent for several seconds.

“Sir,” McAllan said, breaking the silence, “we’re being hailed by the Sloane. I guess they got their comms working.”

“Put it through.”

“Nice job, David.”

“Good to hear your voice, Don.”

“Good to be heard. I don’t know what kind of magic your S.C.E. people worked, but I’m grateful.”

“I just wish we could’ve pulled the rabbit out of our hat before we lost Ahmed and his people.”

“Yeah, me, too. In any case, we’re gonna need a tow.”

With any