“Which suggests you would need a key to open them.”

“No such key exists,” Hovath said, unable to keep the anger out of his voice. “Don’t you understand? My ideas were little more than flights of fancy. They have no credibility within the scientific community, nor within the theological one. They are unsupportable. Without a way to test my hypotheses, they are merely philosophy, not theory.”

His captor’s hand came into the light and set a small golden object down on the table, well out of his reach. Hovath saw a pinpoint glint of green, and knew what it was: the Paghvaram.

“What if I were to suggest,” she said softly, “that you may have had the key all along?”

Hovath felt as if his chest would explode. He buried his head in his arms and sobbed. “Please…let my wife go.”

“You disappoint me, Hovath. Your mind is so thirsty, yet you won’t drink, even when the well of knowledge is so close.”

“It was presumption,” he moaned. “Vanity. Arrogance. I thought the wormhole was an invitation to further knowledge, but I see now that it was instead a test of faith. And I failed it. My quest to comprehend the Temple doomed my people, and damned me.”

“Hovath, how can you believe such a thing?” the woman asked, her voice tinged with kindness, with sympathy. “The Prophets haven’t punished you. They’ve rewarded your vision, your willingness to look beyond your little village and peer into the true structure of the universe. You’ve been unshackled, don’t you see? The death of the village is not a condemnation of your choice, but an affirmation, a sign from Them that you are on the verge of something new and wonderful.”

“You are twisting my faith to suit your ends,” Hovath said. “To justify mass murder.”

“Am I?” His captor slid the padd back to him. “Did you not go down this path in pursuit of a truth that you hoped would transcend the one you knew? Did you never even once stop to consider that what you learned would be incompatible with what you believed before? That your discoveries would transform your life? What clearer sign could the Prophets send that you have fulfilled your quest?”

“The death of nearly everyone I love is not a sign from the Prophets. You know nothing of my faith.”

“Are you certain of that?”

“Yes!”

Then something altogether unexpected happened. His captor stood up and stepped around the table, moving into the light. Hovath saw her face for the first time, and his world unraveled completely.

“I ask again,” she said, “are you certain?”

How?his mind screamed. How is this possible?

Aloud he whispered, “Why would you do this?”

She came closer, finally sitting on the edge of the table next to where he sat. “Because, like you, I thirst for understanding. I burn to see what only the Prophets can reveal.”

Try as he might, Hovath could not turn his eyes away from her. She stared down at him, as if waiting for an answer….

The room shook. A low boom reverberated through the deck. There was a chime from the console beneath the screen that showed Iniri. The Nausicaan detached an audio receiver from the panel and pressed it to his ear. “Attacked,” the underling reported. “Defiant.”

Hovath’s heart surged with hope.

“How timely. Both of you report to the bridge,” she told her men. “I’ll be there shortly…after I secure our new friend.”

Iniri vanished from the screen. The two underlings left. His captor gathered up the padd and the Paghvaram,secured them in an inner pocket of her jacket, then drew out a hand weapon of some kind and pressed it to the side of his head. The rising hum of its charge pierced his ear. Grabbing his arm with her free hand, she pulled him to his feet as the ship shook again.

Hovath didn’t resist. He believed that, one way or another, his nightmare was about to end.

Then he saw the smile on his captor’s face, and his hope died. “Now comes the fun part,” she said.

Kira

“Stay with them, helm,” Kira ordered. “Tactical, I want those shields down!”

“Pulse phasers firing,” Bowers said behind her. “Direct hit.”

Five hours after departing DS9, moving at warp eight and against all odds, the Defianthad located her quarry, the Besinian ship, just a few light-years shy of the Badlands. Kira was determined not to let their good fortune be wasted. Nearly three hundred innocent people were dead because of this ship, and justice was going to be exacted for that crime, one way or another.

Once the freighter had showed up on long-range sensors, Kira ordered battle stations and commenced an attack plan she’d used successfully against Cardassian slave transports more than once during the Occupation—tactics designed to disable, not destroy. Doing it from the Defiant’s command chair wasn’t all that different from her experiences on the bridge of a Bajoran assault ship, she reflected: she still needed to remind herself to pull her punches when the circumstances required it. This was one of those times.

Or so she thought.

“Their shields are still holding,” Bowers reported, the disbelief in his voice echoing Kira’s own.

“I believe I know why,” Shar said from sciences. “Their shield harmonics are Dominion.”

“Dominion?” Bowers said.

Kira shook her head as she stared at the evading ship on the viewscreen. “They salvaged a Dominion shield generator from somewhere. But why didn’t anyone detect that when they came to Bajor?”

“They may have a dual generator system in place,” Shar postulated. “A more conventional one in order to appear inconspicuous, and another…”

“Another to deal with us,” Kira finished.

“Sir,” Bowers announced, “they’re charging weapons—”

“Evasive!”

At the helm, Tenmei’s nimble fingers danced across her console. Defiantpitched to starboard and climbed, a yellow beam from the alien vessel tracking after her. No sooner did she escape one enemy cone of fire, however, than she moved into another and rocked against the impact of a second beam. The Besinian ship increased speed and pulled away.

“Direct hit to our starboard nacelle casing,” Bowers reported. “Torpedo launchers are off line. They’re using spiral-wave disruptors.”

Dominion shields and Cardassian weapons,Kira noted. Are they really just opportunists, or are they sending a message?

“They’re making a run for plasma storms,” Shar warned.

“I’ve had enough of this,” Kira said. “Close the distance, Tenmei. Shar, triangulate on the probable location of their shield generator and feed the coordinates to tactical.” She spoke over her shoulder. “Make this one count, Sam.”

“Aye, sir,” Bowers said. Minutes ticked by as the Defiantreacquired its target and surged after it. “Coordinates received,” Sam announced at last. “Pulse phasers locked.”

“Fire,” Kira said.

On the viewscreen, phaser bolts bridged the void between the Defiantand the Besinian ship. An elliptical bubble of force surrounding the freighter became visible against the bombardment—and held.

“Again,” Kira ordered. “Fire.”

Once more, the Defiant’s phasers hit their mark. Their target’s shield envelope flared momentarily…then gave way as the pulse bolts ripped across the upper hull of the freighter.

“Their shields are down,” Shar reported. “Minor damage to their hull…. I believe we also took out their second generator.”

“Target their port nacelle wing,” Kira said. “Go easy this time, Mr. Bowers. I just want to knock them out of warp.”