"The good news first or the bad?” Dax asked, as the four of them tried to
get comfortable in a long forgotten EPS conduit just beyond cargo bay three.
Bashir and Kira glanced at each other before looking at Dax. Ensign Marle, on
the other hand, looked faintly green in the face.
****
“Careful here,” Bashir said, as the group reached the junction of four conduits.
“Which way?” ****
After an hour of slow crawling through the tubes, the group finally reached
the ladders. Dax took one look and her face lost all color. *****
At the base of the ladder, Marle and Kira quickly located the necessary control
panel and opened it up. *****
Most Ferengis do not like to be taken by surprise and Quark was no exception
to the rule. Like any smart businessman, he had hid all of his gold-pressed
latinum the minute Kira had sounded the red alert. Now, he was just biding his
time, taking bets from those who remained on the station who would win this
round: the Jem’Hadar or the Federation. By the looks of things, Quark had placed a considerable fortune on the Jem’Hadar,
seeing as most of the senior staff had disappeared along with the Defiant
and the remaining crew had been missing since before the Jem’Hadar had even
come aboard. No, the odds did not bode well for the Federation. He leaned against the bar, watching the Jem’Hadar troop up and down the Promenade.
He looked at Morn who had been one of the few civilians who had refused to leave
when Sisko had ordered the general evacuation of the station. “It
doesn’t look good,” Quark said. “The Jem’Hadar are not good for business. They
don’t eat, drink or have sex. “I
thought you had been taken prisoner,” Quark said. “The Jem’Hadar are looking
for you.” “I can imagine,” Kira said grimly. “This has been a trap from the very beginning.
And perfect too. The threat of a training camp on another planet is too big
for the Federation to ignore, so of course Sisko must go and take the Defiant.
Leaving the five of us to defend the station.” *****
“Three hours from the station,” O’Brien reported. He turned to face Sisko.
The Captain’s features were etched with concern for the crew members he had
left behind. Sisko eyed the Klingon keenly, feeling the concern dripping off of Worf. There
was one thing Sisko was grateful for though; most of the civilians had been
evacuated earlier, so there would not be any civilians caught in the cross-fire. “I think their only purpose here is to delay us until their position at Deep
Space Nine is fortified. That’s what I would do,” Odo said, a little
self-consciously. “Why attack the Defiant if the station is sitting there,
virtually unguarded? It wouldn’t be worth the effort. And if they did plan to
attack us, they would have by now, don’t you think?” “I am aware of that, Commander,” Sisko said quietly. “But I have a feeling
and I’m sure the Constable will concur, that if we proceed much faster, the
Jem’Hadar will attempt to cripple our ship. Let’s just hope that Kira and the
others have the situation well in hand. And if I know the Major, I think everything
will be fine.” *****
“Back into the EPS conduits you go,” Bashir said to Kira. “Now, you know how
to get to Rom’s quarters from here?” *****
Kira crawled through the conduits as quietly as she could manage. She hated
to admit it, but she despised these tunnels with a passion; they reminded her
of some of her missions for the Bajoran underground and while she was proud
of her actions during that time, she certainly had no desire to revisit. O’Brien,
on the other hand, could manage these conduits without breaking a sweat. Kira
gritted her teeth; she had been in worse situations than this and she did not
intend to end her days in the EPS conduits somewhere in the Habitat Ring. She
turned to see Quark plodding behind her. *****
Bashir stood up cautiously after stripping his com badge off. ****
“This must be Rom’s quarters,” Kira said. “At least that’s what the tricorder
says. By the Prophets, I hope it is. My knees are so sore.” *****
From their position over Ops, the three officers looked down at the scene below,
each beginning careful not to lean too far over the grating. ***** *****
“The Jem Hadar ships are still trailing us,” Worf reported. “They are a good
distance behind us, but their phasers are still trained on us.” *****
Kira stretched for a moment before popping out of the conduit in Quark’s Bar.
She noticed immediately that Dax, Bashir and Marle were gone. She looked at
Morn; he shrugged helplessly. Of course the others wouldn’t have told Morn where
they were going; it was too dangerous. She crawled out of the way so Quark could
come out. *****
Kira cursed her luck as she scurried as fast as she could through the twists
and turns of the tunnels. She had activated the forcefield, but she knew that
she was as good as found. She found herself in the Habitat Ring, and after scanning
the area quickly for Jem’Hadar, she crawled out of the conduit. She was just
down the hall from her quarters, so she rushed there first, her senses alert
for any movement. Once in her quarters, she grabbed her phaser and another tricorder.
*****
Dax slumped back against the curved wall of the tunnel, unable and unwilling
to move much more. Bashir eyed her with concern. *****
Kira knew she could not stay in her quarters much longer. She immediately went
to her computer and started to scan for her missing companions. “Any ideas?” Bashir asked wearily. He slumped against the tunnel, suddenly
feeling very old and tired. *****
Sisko hated being forced to do anything. He preferred to make the decisions.
Occasionally, he made decisions that others did not like, but however he made
decisions, he at least had reasoned them through. Which was why he was highly
annoyed at the pursuing Jem’Hadar ships. Of course, he was upset at having been
tricked so easily by the Jem’Hadar, but that was another story. Right now, he
was deliberating on how to lose the unwanted company. Go to the conclusion
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“I’m trying to look on the positive side here, Commander,” Bashir said.
“The good news then,” Kira said decisively.
“In that case, I’ve managed to reconfigure the tricorder to mask our life signs,”
Dax said.
“And the bad news?” Kira asked suspiciously.
“Well, the force field only extends over an area of twenty-five meters,” Dax
said. “I can’t modulate it anymore
than that or the energy output will be detectable.”
“Meaning?” Bashir frowned.
“We either stay here or we move together,” Kira said firmly.
“Moving won’t be possible,” Bashir said quietly. “Jadzia can’t walk.
You know that.”
“But we can’t stay here,” Marle said, speaking for the first time.
Dax bit her lip; she knew that with her injuries she was a liability to Kira,
Bashir and Marle.
“We won’t leave you here, Dax,” Kira said gently.
“Sir,” Marle spoke up. “Sir, I detect five Jem’Hadar patterns beaming aboard.”
“Ops,” Marle answered.
“Five? That’s not bad,” Dax said. Bashir looked over at her with concern.
“Jadzia,” he said quietly. “How do you feel?”
“I’ve been better.”
“I told you you should have stayed in bed.”
“Then I would have missed all the excitement,” Dax pointed out. “But if you
do have something for the pain, I wouldn’t say no.”
“We have to get to a control panel,” Kira said. “We can flood Ops with anesthesia
gas and take back the station
that way. Where’s the nearest panel?”
“Two levels down,” Marle answered. “We’re going to have to go, um, forty meters
to the left and then down the maintenance shift two stories.”
“Can you make it, Jadzia?” Kira asked.
“I’m willing to try,” Dax answered. “It’s our best change. Marle is right; we
can’t stay here.”
“Then,” Kira said quietly. “Let’s start crawling before we get more company.”
“I have no idea,” Kira said, looking first at Marle and than at Dax. Dax shrugged
her shoulders and then slumped wearily against the smooth, rounded walls of
the tube.
“Marle?” Kira asked.
“Straight,” the ensign answered, and then he plowed ahead of Bashir and Kira.
Bashir held back for a moment to check on Dax. She was breathing heavily and
looked pale.
“Whatever you gave me for the pain certainly works well,” she tried to laugh.
“Remind me not to break my leg again, okay?”
“Anytime,” Bashir answered quietly. “Okay. Let’s move, otherwise Marle is going
to be out of range from the forcefield.”
“You’re right,” Dax said, checking her tricorder.
Up ahead, Kira and Marle paused for a moment.
“I’m now reading more Jem’Hadar on the station, in all parts,” the ensign told
Kira.
“It’s going to be more difficult to make it to the control panel, isn’t it?”
she sighed.
“I’m afraid so, sir.”
“I hope the Defiant gets here soon,” Kira turned back to watch Bashir
and Dax’s progress. “Otherwise we’re going to be in trouble.”
“That, sir, with all due respect, would be an understatement,” Marle said.
“I’m not going to make it down that,” she said hoarsely. “God, the next time
you tell me to stay in bed, Julian, I’m going to listen. Anything’s got to be
better than this.”
“I will help you,” Bashir promised.
“It’s two stories, sir,” Marle said, addressing the information to Dax. “It’s
quite a ways down.”
“I’ll only slow you down,” Dax said quietly. “You should go down without me.”
“I won’t leave you,” Bashir insisted.
“Don’t be stupid,” Dax said. “You have to go.”
“The Jem’Hadar will find you,” Kira said.
“Hopefully, you’ll be able to knock them all out before they do get to me. You
all have to go,” Dax said. She handed her tricorder to Kira. “Make sure everyone
stays in the twenty-five meter range, okay? And I will stay here, I promise.
I won’t go anywhere.”
“You sure?” Kira asked.
“Oh yes,” Dax said. “It will be fine. And besides, these conduits are amazingly
comfortable.” She fluttered her
hand at the them, “Go on, Julian. Please.”
Reluctantly, the trio left Dax behind.
“I was afraid of this,” Kira groaned.
“What is the matter?” Bashir asked anxiously.
“It appears that the Jem’Hadar have routed all controls to Ops,” Marle said.
“Meaning we have to go to Ops to do anything. Damn! Where is O’Brien
when you need him?” Kira slapped her forehead with her palm.
Bashir didn’t bother to remind her that O’Brien was on the Defiant, and
if the Defiant was here, they wouldn’t be in this mess in the first place.
“What now?” Bashir asked.
“Up,” Kira said decisively. “We can’t do anything down here so we might as well
go up there with Jadzia.”
The three began to ascend the ladder. Bashir didn’t look down; for all his genetic
enhancements, he was still afraid of heights.
Kira popped up first and she dragged herself into the conduit opposite from
where Dax was reclining.
“Back so soon? You must have missed me,” Dax said cheekily.
“The Jem’Hadar have routed all security controls to Ops,” Kira said as Bashir
and Marle made their appearances.
“We should move,” Bashir advised. “It’s only a matter of time before the Jem’Hadar
figure out we are here. Especially since Dax wasn’t in the forcefield for the
last ten minutes. If they were running scans, they would surely have detected
us by now.”
Kira led the way as she started to crawl down the conduit. Bashir stayed behind
to help Dax bridge the gap between the two tunnels.
“So, what’s the new plan?” Bashir asked.
“Get to Ops,” Kira answered grimly.
“How?” Marle ventured.
“Seat-of-the-pants,” Dax put in.
Marle glanced back at his commanding officer, wondering if the pain and medication
had started to affect her usually brilliant mind.
“Old joke,” Dax said apologetically.
“What she means is that the Bajoran resistance had to make do with equipment
or even situations that were less than desirable. So, you improvise,” Kira said.
Kira paused for a moment to let Dax catch up.
“Well, we’re all listening, Major,” Bashir said.
“I have no ideas,” the normally inventive Kira replied.
“There are now fifteen Jem’Hadar on board,” Marle spoke up.
“All in Ops?” Dax asked.
“No, sir. They are spread out throughout Ops and the Promenade.”
“Well, is Quark’s open for business?” Dax asked with a smile.
What good are they?”
Morn mumbled a reply into his drink.
At that moment, Quark was distracted by a tapping sound in the vent directly
behind him. He knelt down and was suddenly nose to nose with Major Kira.
"Major! How nice of you to drop by! I was just starting to miss you!"
“Let us out,” Kira hissed.
Quark quickly complied and soon, Kira rolled out of the vent, followed by Marle,
Bashir and lastly Dax.
“Didn’t we tell you, Quark?” Bashir asked good-naturedly. “You’re our newest recruit.”
“Oh, I couldn’t possibly,” Quark protested.
“Come now,” Dax said from her spot on the floor. “It’ll be fun.”
“Commander, you’ve always had a odd sense when it comes to having a good time.”
“Quark,” Kira said quietly. “You’d better help us now or I’ll see you out here
so fast...”
“I’m convinced,” Quark said, holding up his hands.
“Good,” Kira said. “Now, what we need to do is get to Ops.”
“Or at the very least reroute controls back here,” Dax said. “I can do that, if
I can get a phase link coupler.”
“And where would we find a phase link coupler?” Bashir asked.
“O’Brien keeps one in Ops,” Dax said.
“Ah,” Kira said. “I love the irony.”
“Rom should have one,” Quark said slowly.
“What are you waiting for? Go get it,” Bashir said.
“I don’t know what one looks like.”
The group looked at each other.
“I’ll go with you,” Kira said finally. “Is it safe to stay here?”
Quark shook his head, “Not for you guys, I don’t think so. You really should find
somewhere else.”
“Nerys,” Dax said. “How do you expect to get to Rom’s quarters? You can’t possibly
walk down the Promenade and have all those soldiers not see you.”
“That,” Bashir said in a low voice, “is an excellent point.”
“Any further word from the Major?” Sisko asked.
“No, nothing,” Worf replied. “We should assume that the station has been taken
and the crew has been incapacitated.”
“Shields up. Go to red alert. What’s their status?”
“Their phaser banks are fully armed and operational. They know we’re here.”
“Hail them, Chief.”
“Aye, sir.”
Odo moved to stand next to Sisko, in an unconscious gesture of support.
“No response, sir. But their phasers are aimed directly at us,” O’Brien reported.
Sisko turned to Odo, “Constable?”
The changeling grimaced at the captain’s use of the despised nickname but made
no comment to that effect. Old habits, he surmised, and nicknames seemed to die
hard with humanoids.
“My point exactly,” Odo said calmly. “It’s a trap. And we fell for it.”
“I was looking for ideas, Constable, not a commentary on our own gulliablity.”
“We should fire first,” Worf said, swiveling around in his chair to look at the
captain.
“And ask questions later?” O’Brien asked with a wry smile. “No offense, sir, but
I don’t intend to get blown to bits here and now.”
“And if we fire first...” Sisko touched the tips of his fingers together thoughtfully.
“I don’t know if I like that, Mr. Worf.”
“It was merely a suggestion, Captain.”
“And it was considered, Commander, and if I knew their intent, then I would
have no hesitation in following up on your proposal. However, I cannot determine
if their intentions are hostile or not.”
“I don’t think their intentions would be hostile, Captain,” Odo said slowly.
Sisko eyed his Chief of Security closely.
“What do you think, Odo?”
“Aye, sir. Keeping heading same but dropping down to warp five.”
“It will take us longer to reach the station at warp five,” Worf said.
“I think so,” Kira bit her lip. “But I’m not sure. I don’t know these tunnels
like the Chief does.”
“And we can’t risk communicating,” Dax said. “I could give you my tricorder,
Major, and you could use that to find Rom’s quarters.”
“And what about you?” Kira asked, concerned. “Without the forcefield, the Jem’Hadar
will find you in a matter of minutes.”
“It’s only a matter of time before they find us anyway,” Dax said with a shrug
of her shoulders. “It’s more important you get that phase link coupler so we
can get control back here.”
“You’d better be quick,” Bashir added.
Quark nodded, “I can be quick.”
Dax made some adjustments to her tricorder and then handed it to Kira.
“Good luck,” she said. “Keep scanning for the Jem’Hadar, so you’re not surprised.”
Quark removed the cover to the vent and Kira crawled back into the tunnel. After
Quark went after Kira, Bashir replaced the covering.
“I hope the Defiant gets back soon,” Bashir said quietly. “Because we’re
running out of time.”
“Major,” Quark said.
“What is it, Quark?”
“Your communicator.”
Kira looked down and noticed that the shiny gold Federation device was still pinned
to her uniform.
“Damn!” she whispered. She tapped the communicator, “Kira to Bashir.”
“Bashir here.”
“Take your communicators off. Now!”
“Acknowledged.”
Kira turned back to Quark, “Thanks. You and me, we’re fine. I’m worried about
them. I’m not convinced that hiding behind your bar is necessarily the best place
for them.”
Quark made a face, “You know as well as I do that Jem’Hadar will be in these conduits
soon. Pretty soon there won’t be any good places to hide.”
For once, Kira had to agree with Quark.
“You’re right. Let’s go.”
“Give me yours,” he said to Dax and Marle.
“I can’t believe we forgot about these,” Dax said, shaking her head.
“Once they get the tracking system on-line, these will be the first thing they
look for,” Bashir said. “For all we know, they might have found us already.
We should move.”
“The cargo bay,” Dax said. “A new shipment came in the other day. Something
heavily guarded.”
“That’s right. Odo was talking about a new shipment of phase rifles coming in,”
Bashir said. “At least with those, we might stand a chance.”
They all regarded the opening to the EPS conduit with some trepidation.
“I hate those things,” Marle shuddered, thinking off the narrow and hot tunnels.
“It’s our best bet. As Jadzia said, we can't exactly walk down the Promenade
and beaming around the station isn't the smartest thing we could do, so by default..."
“Let’s go,” Dax said, impatience creeping into her voice. "We can’t stay here
much longer or they will find us.”
“There is no profit in crawling through these tunnels,” Quark grumbled as Kira
punched out the paneling separating the tunnel from what were Rom and Leeta’s
quarters.
She tumbled into the quarters, followed by Quark.
“Okay,” she took a quick look around. “We’re in the right place. Where would
he keep his tools?”
“I have no idea.”
Kira threw an exasperated look at Quark; she had barely tolerated him before
and even in the Dominion’s occupation of the station, she had accepted him with
a degree of trepidation as an ally in the resistance.
“But I can start looking,” Quark offered.
“Fast!” Kira hissed.
“What does it look to you, Dax?” Bashir queried.
“Looks like they’ve got a couple of the systems working,” Dax whispered. “I
guess those scrambler viruses didn’t work as well as we’d hoped.”
“Are they scanning for us yet?”
“No, I don’t think so. But they’re working on it.”
They watched for a few more moments. There were six Jem’Hadar soldiers in Ops,
no sign of a Vorta.
“Let’s go,” Dax whispered, unwilling to push their luck any further. Without
the tricorder or their com badges, they were basically in the dark about what
the Jem’Hadar were doing or even what Kira and Quark were up to.
The trio plodded on, heading for cargo bay five.
“By the Prophets,” Kira sighed. “How much junk does Rom have?”
“He doesn’t throw anything away. Sentiment, he says. It’s not an admirable trait
in a Ferengi,” Quark said from the bedroom, where he was knee-deep in Leeta’s
clothes.
“A tool should not be this hard to find,” Kira said as she rummaged through
a cabinet in the main room. Finally, she got down on her hands and knees and
looked underneath the sofa.
“I found something!” she called, pulling out a silver case. She opened the case
and inside, she found the phase link coupler. “Quark, I found it! Let’s get
out of here.”
Sisko looked at Odo, “It appears you were correct, Odo.”
Odo bowed his head slightly, “It appears that way.”
“At this rate, it will take us an additional three hours to reach Deep Space
Nine,” O’Brien reported.
“Have you hailed the station?” Sisko asked, knowing full-well the futility of
that action.
“Several times, sir. Communications relays are down.”
“Either that or the Jem’Hadar chose not to answer,” Worf said.
“Keep trying,” Sisko said. “And send a subspace message to all ships which may
be in the vicinity.”
“Aye, sir.”
“Where do you think they went?” Kira asked.
“I don’t know,” Quark said. He stood up, wiping the dust from his clothes. “But
there are three Jem’Hadar soldiers entering the bar now.”
“Wonderful.”
Kira scrambled back into the conduit while Quark replaced the vent. It was only
a few seconds later that the Jem’Hadar soldiers approached Quark.
“We are looking for the senior officers of this station,” one told Quark. “We
detected the presence of three officers here about ten minutes ago.”
“You must have been mistaken,” Quark said. “There has been no one here. As you
can see, business is doing poorly. Ambushes have a way of doing that to profit.”
The Jem’Hadar ignored the remark, “We must search the premises.”
“Of course you may,” Quark said. “But you won’t find anyone here. I guarantee
it. And you can’t do better than a guarantee from Quark. Even ask Morn. He’s
the only one who’s been here in days.”
The Jem’Hadar didn’t answer and instead, they began to scout around the restaurant.
Quark watched them uneasily, unable to look back into the vent and talk to Kira
about what was happening. But he reassured himself that the Major had been in
the Bajoran Underground; she could take care of herself.
The Jem’Hadar returned, holding three shiny metal devices in his hand.
“Can you explain this, Ferengi?” he snarled, holding out the com badges.
“I don’t like that tone of voice,” Quark said.
“Take him,” the Jem’Hadar ordered. “And search the place thoroughly.”
Unable to restrain himself any more, Quark turned his head to the vent. Kira
was gone, but the gesture had not gone unnoticed by the Jem’Hadar.
“Okay,” she murmured. “Where are you guys?”
“Jadzia, come on,” Bashir whispered. “We’re almost there.”
Dax smiled at him wanly. Bashir opened his medkit and pulled out a hypospray.
“Hold still,” he said as he injected the painkiller into her leg. She rested
for a moment, waiting for the drug to kick in.
“Just try to ignore the impulse to go to sleep,” Bashir warned. “I know it’s
tough, but you’re going to have to. Don’t give up on us now.”
Marle took the lead, groping his way through the tunnels.
“I think this is the right way, Commander,” the ensign said tensely.
“Your guess is as good as mine,” Dax answered.
At that moment, the lights in the tunnels dimmed slightly.
“That’s not good,” Bashir said.
And a second later, the lights went out completely.
“Where would you go?” Kira wondered out-loud. She considered the infirmary,
since Jadzia was hurt. On the other hand, it didn’t seem likely that the trio
would emerge there, since it would be too great of a risk. Chances are, the
Jem’Hadar already had a guard posted there. A quick scan of the infirmary proved
Kira’s theory. Since no human life signs showed up on the scanners, Kira figured
that her friends had retreated back into the EPS conduits. Where they had gone
from Quark’s though, Kira could only hazard a guess.
“Not Ops,” Kira murmured. “Which leaves only about a million other places they
could be.”
But she knew she had to move fast and find them before the Jem’Hadar did. Kira
returned to the EPS conduit and removed the vent. She was halfway in when she
was suddenly aware of the darkness surrounding her.
“Damn!” Kira exclaimed. The Jem’Hadar must have figured out that they had been
hiding out in the tunnels; without lights, it would be only a matter of time
before Bashir, Dax and Marle were forced to come out.
“Not if I have anything to do with it,” Kira vowed. She ran into her bedroom
and rummaged through a closet for a flashlight.
“All right then,” Kira said, setting her phaser to “kill.”
She took a quick look around the quarters, to make sure she hadn’t forgotten
anything, and then headed out into the main corridors.
*****
“We could keep moving,” Marle ventured.
“Only problem is,” Dax said. “There is a junction coming up. Which wouldn’t
be a problem, if it wasn’t a vertical junction.”
“Remind me to compliment the Cardassians on their architecture,” Bashir said
wryly.
Marle inched forward slowly, tapping his fingers against the smooth metal of
the tunnel. He shook his head,
“We’re not going to make it. They know we’re in here and it’ll take us forever
to find our way out.”
“You know, this is turning out to be a hell of a rest,” Dax put in.
“I told you to stay in your quarters,” Bashir said, annoyed.
“And miss all the fun? I wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Any ideas?”
“I say we pop out of the nearest vent and make a run for it,” Dax said cheekily.
“There are a couple problems with that plan.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Now it was Dax’s turn to sound annoyed.
“I wonder what happened to Kira and Quark,” Bashir said.
“Whatever happened to them, they aren’t going to be able to find us either,”
Dax pointed out. “Especially if they are still hiding out in the tunnels too,
in which case they are in the same situation as we are.”
“You really do know how to shine a positive light on any situation, don’t you?”
“Julian.”
They sat in dark silence for a few moments.
“Commander?” Marle ventured.
“What is it?” Dax asked.
“There is a vent, about fifty meters ahead of us.”
“Past the vertical junction?”
“Yes, sir.”
Dax shrugged her shoulders, a gesture which neither of her companions could
see.
"I was afraid of that," she sighed. "Nothing closer?"
"No, sir."
“Then by all means, Ensign, lead the way.”
“We have enough torpedoes to take out two ships,” he announced.
“And the third?”
“We will have to rely on phasers in that case.”
Sisko touched his fingers together; it was a familiar and oddly comforting gesture,
one that signified he was thinking.
“Any word from the station?” Sisko barked.
“None, sir,” O’Brien answered.
“Nothing from the Jem’Hadar?”
“Nothing.”
Sisko bit down on his lip; silence could mean many things. The answer could be
simple: the Jem’Hadar were choosing not to answer the hail. Or it could mean that
the station and all of the crew had been destroyed.
Sisko shook his head, almost violently, trying to erase the thought from his head.
He would not imagine the destruction of Deep Space Nine and his friends.
“Comments?” Sisko looked around. He was starting to agree with Worf and thought
that maybe a torpedo or two launched at the pursuing ships might not be a bad
idea.
“The longer we stay out here, the longer it’s going to take to get the station.
It’s that simple, Captain,” O’Brien said with his usual frankness.
Odo and Worf said nothing, but Sisko could tell that they agreed with O’Brien’s
assessment. In that moment, he made his decision.
“Commander, prepare torpedoes for launch. Fire on my mark.”
“Aye, sir.”
“I’ve had enough of this cat and mouse game,” Sisko said. “Let’s see what damage
we can do.”