Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Ascendance

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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Ascendance Page 10

by David R. George III


  “Evasive,” Vaughn said, but he could already perceive a change in the ship’s momentum as the inertial dampers compensated for alterations to Defiant’s course. Prynn had clearly anticipated his order—she might even have acted before he’d spoken. Vaughn waited for the Ascendant weapon to land, but no impact came.

  “We scored a direct hit,” Bowers said, “but their shields registered only an eight percent drop.”

  Not enough, Vaughn thought. If it took ten or twelve quantum torpedoes to bring down the shields of just one Ascendant ship, and with thousands of their vessels hanging over Bajor, it didn’t require higher mathematics to know that Defiant didn’t carry anywhere near enough ordnance to make much of a dent in the invading fleet.

  We’ll do the best we can, Vaughn thought, but first we need to find and disable the subspace weapon.

  “They’re firing again,” Bowers said.

  “Continue evasive action,” Vaughn ordered, leaping from the command chair and over to lean in beside Prynn. “Can you get us through to Ghemor’s ship?”

  Prynn continued to operate the flight controls without looking up. “I can snake our way past their ships, but we need all the impulse reactors online,” she said. “And if they’re firing on us . . .” She did not have to finish her statement for Vaughn to take her meaning.

  As if to validate Prynn’s concerns, another ship appeared in the center of the viewscreen. Shaped essentially the same as the first, it also looked different, with several cylindrical projections topside and keel. It quickly swam out of sight as Prynn pitched Defiant’s bow down.

  “Torpedoes, full spread,” Vaughn barked.

  “Torpedoes, aye,” Bowers called back, but then a thunderous roar filled the bridge. Inertial dampers failed for an instant as the deck lurched laterally. Vaughn flew sideways and landed hard on his left shoulder.

  “We’ve taken another hit with a baryon beam,” Nog yelled out above the din as Vaughn climbed back onto his feet. “Shields down to fifty-six percent.”

  “Two quantum torpedo strikes on the second ship, but their shields are still up hard,” Bowers announced. “Both ships are in pursuit.”

  “Captain, we’ve got company up ahead,” Prynn said. Vaughn looked at the main screen just in time to see three more Ascendant ships approaching in a triangular formation before the starscape canted and they disappeared from view. “Other ships are positioning themselves to block our way.”

  “How many ships?” Vaughn wanted to know.

  “Incoming!” Bowers cried out. Vaughn rushed to the command chair and grabbed for its arm. He steadied himself as another Ascendant weapon pounded into Defiant’s hull.

  “Shields at twenty-nine percent,” Nog said.

  We can’t take much more of this, Vaughn thought. How many more hits before our shields are down? Two? One?

  “Scores of ships are moving into our path,” Prynn said. “Others are moving to intercept.”

  Vaughn strode back over to Prynn. “Get us out of here,” he told her. The crew would be unable to help the people of Bajor in any way if Defiant went up in a fireball. Once more, the stars on the viewscreen skewed as Prynn set the ship onto a serpentine path.

  “Several ships up ahead,” she said.

  “Avoid them if you can,” Vaughn said. “Bowers, fire at will. Rig quantum torpedoes for mine function and seed them behind us.”

  “Aye,” Bowers said. “Firing phasers and quantum torpedoes. Initiating mine-deposit program.”

  “Viewer astern,” Vaughn said.

  “Viewer astern,” echoed Ling. The image on the main screen changed to show the area behind Defiant. Bajor slid into and out of sight as Prynn continued to weave a path out of the Ascendant fleet. Vaughn saw two of the alien ships doggedly chasing Defiant. Both of them fired their weapons, but Prynn’s deft piloting succeeded in eluding them.

  An intense blaze of light brightened the viewscreen. “One of the ships trailing us struck one of the quantum mines,” Nog reported. Vaughn saw an Ascendant vessel deviate from its course, then straighten in its flight. That’s when a second brilliant glow erupted onscreen. “The same ship hit another mine,” Nog said. “They’re slowing . . . and turning back toward the main body of the fleet. The other ship is following.”

  “Ensign Tenmei?” Vaughn asked.

  “Space ahead isn’t clear, but there are only a few Ascendant ships,” she said. “I can get us through.”

  Vaughn nodded, then stepped back and sat down in the command chair. He’d known that it would be problematic for one starship to challenge a fleet thousands of ships strong, but he’d hoped that Prynn might be able to thread the needle and get them to Ghemor and the subspace weapon. He had also believed it possible that Defiant might prove a paladin against the smaller vessels, even despite the large number of them.

  When Vaughn looked again at the main screen, he noticed that Ling had switched to a forward view. For the moment, he saw no Ascendant ships in their path. But that’s not the direction we need to go.

  “Open a channel to Bajor,” Vaughn said. “I need to talk to the first minister.”

  * * *

  On the bridge of Even Odds, Taran’atar sat at the sensor station and studied its readouts. Just ahead of his purloined craft, the thousands of Ascendant ships had arrived at Bajor, and the Jem’Hadar watched as they established in orbit what he recognized as a military formation. It struck him that they intended to attack the surface of the planet. Unlike their assault on Idran IV, when the Ascendants had sent ten ships to strike the lone Eav’oq city, they would deploy their entire fleet against Bajor. Taran’atar could read it in the movements of their vessels. And while he had managed for a short time to stave off the Ascendant’s attempt to destroy the Eav’oq city, that had required the use of Even Odds’ superior shields. He could not hope to fend off thousands of Ascendant vessels, nor did he believe that Bajor’s own defenses would stand against them for very long.

  What can I do? he asked himself. In the Gamma Quadrant, Kira Nerys had sent him after the Ascendants—had wanted to accompany him in pursuit of their fleet—but why? He understood that the captain would willfully face insurmountable odds to protect her people, even if doing so assured her death. For most of his life, Taran’atar had felt the same way with respect to the Founders: nothing had meant more to him than risking his own existence in their defense.

  But the Captain Kira who had demanded that the Jem’Hadar transport her aboard Even Odds so that they could both protect Bajor was not the same Captain Kira he’d encountered on the Alpha Quadrant side of the Anomaly. The former revealed information—the presence of Iliana Ghemor among the Ascendants, their possession of a subspace weapon—that she could not realistically know. At least, she couldn’t know in any straightforward manner, and Taran’atar once more suspected that the Captain Kira with whom he had spent more than a hundred days aboard Even Odds had come from the future.

  The Jem’Hadar again asked himself why, but the answer seemed obvious: Kira wanted to enlist his aid in stopping the Ascendants from destroying her people. Perhaps they had already done so in her lifetime, and she had then traveled into the past in search of a means of preventing the catastrophe. But that also implied that Kira believed Taran’atar, or perhaps the two of them, could somehow stop the Ascendants.

  That makes no sense, the Jem’Hadar thought. While a sophisticated vessel equipped with some impressive technologies, Even Odds could not possibly provide an adequate defense against thousands of Ascendant ships. Sensors had just shown Defiant, a powerful starship, retreating beneath an onslaught of the bladelike vessels. Additionally, if Iliana Ghemor and the Ascendants actually did have a subspace weapon at their disposal, then he had even less chance of protecting Bajor.

  And then he saw it. A potential solution did rest with him, and not with Defiant or Deep Space 9, not with a planet­ful of Bajorans or either version of Kira Nerys. He could not be sure that the action he proposed to take would succeed, but he coul
d conceive of no other course that would allow for even the smallest possibility of victory.

  Taran’atar rose and hurried over to the communications console. He knew that Kira had left the Federation space station aboard a runabout, in pursuit of either Taran’atar or the Ascendants, or perhaps both, because she had continually tried to contact him from her vessel. He quickly recorded a brief message to her and transmitted it to the runabout. Then Taran’atar grabbed a tablet from atop a neighboring console and charged out of the Even Odds’ bridge.

  * * *

  Sisko stood in the operations chamber of the Musilla Consolidated Space Center, beside Bajor’s first minister and its minister of defense. After his conversation with Kira, Asarem had invited him to join her. Sisko did not feel particularly comfortable doing so, either in his role as the former commanding officer of Deep Space 9 or as the Emissary. He had not served in Starfleet for two years, and although he had not shared the fact with anybody—not even with Kasidy—he had not experienced even the slightest connection with the Prophets since his return from the Celestial Temple fifteen months earlier.

  The three large display screens on the front wall of the chamber showed views from orbit, where thousands of Ascendant ships assembled in a manner that indicated they intended to launch an offensive against the planet. Bajoran weapons platforms and assault vessels had already proven ineffective in combatting the invaders, and a message from Commander Vaughn told a similar story about Defiant. If the Ascendants attacked, then even discounting Taran’atar’s report that Iliana Ghemor and the aliens carried a subspace weapon as part of their arsenal, Bajor teetered on the precipice of annihilation.

  As Sisko observed the movements of the invading fleet, a Militia officer approached Asarem. A tall woman with a rigid posture, she wore the insignia of a colonel. Sisko did not recognize her, but given her position within the Space Center, he assumed that she functioned as a right hand to the head of the Militia, Overgeneral Manos.

  “First Minister,” said the colonel, “Captain Kira is asking to speak with you.”

  “Route it over here,” Asarem said, gesturing toward an uncrewed console.

  “Right away,” the colonel said, and she hurried back to her own station.

  Asarem motioned to Sisko and Aland that they should follow, then she headed over to the empty console. She did not sit, but leaned in over the chair and activated the panel with a touch. The seal of Bajor appeared briefly on-screen, replaced a second later by the face of Kira Nerys. Alone in a runabout, she wore a determined expression. She looked in turn at Sisko and Aland, but she addressed her comments to Asarem.

  “First Minister, Taran’atar just sent me a message,” she said. “He told me that he thinks he might be able to prevent the impending attack.”

  “How?” Asarem asked.

  “He gave no details,” Kira said. “I can play his message for you.”

  “Please.”

  Kira reached forward and tapped a control surface. Her image vanished in favor of the Jem’Hadar’s. Sisko studied what little he could see of the control stations in the background, but he did not recognize the configuration. “Captain Kira, this is Taran’atar,” he said in a rich, resounding voice. “I believe I can stop Iliana Ghemor and the Ascendants. You should not approach them, nor should the crew of the Defiant. All Bajoran vessels should withdraw at once.” He offered no sign-off, but the message abruptly ended, and Kira reappeared on the display.

  “After receiving the transmission, I tried to contact him,” she said, “but he’s not responding.”

  “What do you think he intends to do?” asked Asarem.

  “I don’t know,” Kira said. Sisko thought she tried to conceal the frustration she felt, but he had worked side by side with her for seven years, and he knew that the lack of detail Taran’atar had provided vexed her.

  Minister of Defense Aland shifted from one foot to the other, then spoke up. “Captain, is it possible that the Jem’Hadar soldier is in league with these Ascendants?” he asked. “Iliana Ghemor at one point did hold him in her thrall, did she not?”

  “She did,” Kira allowed. “My instincts tell me that Taran’atar is acting on his own, and that he genuinely wants to prevent Bajor from being attacked. It’s possible that Ghemor is controlling him again, but why would she or the Ascendants want me and our assault vessels and the Defiant to pull back? We’ve already seen that Bajoran ships are no match for theirs, and even Commander Vaughn couldn’t find a way to stand against such a large and powerful fleet.”

  “Then you recommend doing as the Jem’Hadar says?” Asarem asked.

  Kira looked away from the screen for a moment, as though reviewing the present situation one final time. At last, she peered back at the screen and said, “Yes, I do.”

  The first minister looked to Aland, and the two officials seemed to share an unspoken communication. “Very well,” Asarem said. “We’ll take it under advisement. In the meantime, please continue trying to reach the Jem’Hadar. Keep us informed if you learn anything more.”

  “Yes, Minister,” Kira said.

  “Asarem out.” The Bajoran leader reached to the console a second time and ended the transmission. She then turned to Sisko. “Do you have any thoughts, Mister Sisko?”

  Numerous ideas passed through his mind, mostly in the form of questions. How could one person, aboard one ship, hope to combat a fleet of thousands? Why did Taran’atar want Kira, Defiant, and the Bajoran assault vessels to withdraw? Did he carry some sort of unthinkably potent weapon aboard the ship he piloted?

  Without warning, the answer drifted up in Sisko’s mind. It didn’t arrive in a mystical flash, like an Orb experience or a pagh’tem’far—a sacred vision. He wished it had. Contact with the Prophets, no matter how vague or indefinite, no matter how oblique or mystifying, at least would have carried with it the imprimatur of the powerful, noncorporeal beings who watched over the people of Bajor. Such experiences had initially confused and frustrated Sisko, but he had learned not only to live with those numinous moments, but to mine valuable insights from them.

  And, he had to admit to himself, I just want contact with the Prophets again. When he had originally arrived at Bajor, when he and Jadzia had discovered the wormhole and its inhabitants had first communed with him, he had resisted his sudden elevation to the status of religious icon. Over time, though, his life changed dramatically. He successfully dealt with the emotions of losing his first wife, in no small part because of his experiences in the Celestial Temple. He also became interested in, and even enamored of, the culture and people of Bajor, to the point where he considered himself one of them. He came to accept his place in Bajoran society, and then to use his position to help safeguard its citizens, often aided by what he learned from his strange and intermittent interactions with the Prophets.

  At that moment, with a fleet of religious zealots in orbit, poised to strike at Bajor, Sisko would have welcomed such assistance. Instead, he had to settle for his own intuition. It came born not of deities or alien entities, but from his training, his long tenure in Starfleet, and his many experiences. One word—Algeron—emblazoned itself in his mind, and although he knew that it came from his own memory, it nevertheless carried the force of revelation.

  He looked to the first minister. “Shut it down,” he told her.

  Asarem’s brow creased in obvious confusion. “Shut what down?”

  “Bajor.”

  * * *

  Asarem Wadeen felt her eyes widen as she stared at the Emissary. “What do you mean?” she asked him. Although she had worked only occasionally with Benjamin Sisko during his command of Deep Space 9—she had served at the time as Shakaar Edon’s second minister—she knew all the good he had done for the Bajoran people, all the personal risks he had taken on their behalf. Most believers readily accepted him as the Emissary of the Prophets, but even those few who didn’t could not deny everything that he had accomplished for Bajor.

  “Shut down every power so
urce on the planet,” Sisko said.

  “Captain,” Aland said, either forgetting Sisko’s preference for the simple honorific of mister, or intentionally addressing him as one military officer to another. “All of our orbital weapons platforms draw secondary power from the surface. Our largest cities have shield generators to protect them in case of attack. Our ability to monitor what’s happening in space, to direct our assault vessels, this very facility . . .” He spread his arms wide, clearly taking in the whole of the Musilla Consolidated Space Center. “It all requires power.”

  “Of course it does,” Sisko said. “But I know what Taran’atar is going to do, and we have to shut down as much as possible before he does.”

  “If you know something—” Asarem started, but Sisko cut her off.

  “I do, and I’ll explain it all, but if we don’t start shutting down the power right now, Bajor might not survive,” he said. To Asarem’s surprise, he reached up and took hold of her by her shoulders. “Not just the Bajoran people, but the planet itself.”

  “What?!” Aland said. “Do you think—”

  “Yes,” Sisko said, not waiting for the minister of defense to finish his question, but the two men seemed to understand each other.

  “There are hospitals,” Asarem said. “People on public transport—”

  “We can drop medical facilities from the main power grids, and switch them over to emergency generators,” Aland said. “People will be trapped in lifts and public transportation, transporters will be inoperative . . .”

  “Recall your ships from orbit,” Sisko said, “but leave the weapons platforms active.”

 

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