The blue starburst.
“It was you in Keren’s apartment that night,” Shar whispered. “That’s why she wasn’t concerned afterward. Why would you be there…unless…” Wide-eyed, Shar stared at Jeshoh, his antennae tense with understanding.
“I went there to protect her, as I always have,” he said wistfully. “We’ve chosen each other as consorts. Didn’t she tell you that we were raised together? She swam ashore at House Perian.”
“I assumed you met at the Assembly.” Shar recalled the many hours he’d worked side by side with Keren and Jeshoh over the past week, their easy familiarity, their gentle ribbing. All of it fit together now.
“We can work together and no one looks askance if we’re alone. But even that has become risky.” Jeshoh sighed. “Our last hope was your people.”
“My work’s not done yet,” Shar tried persuading him. “We still might have a chance. I can go back to Perian, work through the night—”
“We’re out of chances. Time to leave,” he said, resolutely.
Ezri called from the back, “Why are we gaining altitude? The ceremony starts in twenty minutes and I’m not sure how long these eggs can remain viable out of the water.”
Uncertain as to what action Jeshoh would take, Shar said nothing as he entered the coordinates the Vice Chair whispered to him.
“Is there a problem, Ensign?” Ezri said at last.
Jeshoh and Shar exchanged looks. Shar kept silent.
The locks on the crate lids clicked from the rear of the shuttle. Shar heard Keren’s light footsteps as she walked back to her seat. Ezri followed after. He sensed Keren pause and he willed her to take her seat. But she waited and Shar felt her studying him from behind.
“That worried, Ensign?” she said, her gruff voice laden with emotion.
Involuntarily, Shar raised a hand to his crown, realizing his antennae had become taut. She approached, her footfalls slow.
“Shar, what’s going on?”
Shar sensed Ezri’s irritation; heard her press past Keren, felt her step between him and Jeshoh. Her hands dropped to her sides. The lieutenant took a deep, steadying breath and she stood rigid.
Keren’s hand curled over the top of Jeshoh’s chair, her fingers trembling. “You have a weapon, Jeshoh.”
Jesoh said nothing.
“I’ve never known you to carry a weapon, and yet you have that sidearm pointed at Shar.”
“I’m defending something, Keren. I’m defending our right to have a life together.”
She became visibly pale, shaking as she tried to maintain her control, even as her words became choked with sobs. “You were at the meeting—you agreed with me that the radicals’ plan could destroy everything we’ve worked for. Please tell me you didn’t join them, Jeshoh!”
Jeshoh turned his sidearm on Ezri; her eyes darted between Shar and Jeshoh. “You,” he pointed at Ezri, “You take my seat.”
She complied.
“If you do this, Jeshoh, we could lose it all. Nothing has to change. We can continue our struggle honorably,” Keren pleaded.
“That’s where you’re wrong, my love. Without change, we have no future.”
“Where are you taking us?” Ezri asked.
The shuttle had cleared the atmosphere. Cold starry space awaited outside the viewport.
“You’ll find out soon enough,” was Jeshoh’s reply, and once again he turned his weapon on Shar. “Prepare to go to warp.”
As Vaughn anticipated, the Cheka warship maintained a direct intercept course with the Avaril,a fact that satisfied him; he enjoyed a predictable adversary. True to Bowers’s original estimate, the Cheka warship would intercept Avaril’smeeting tonight, five hours out from Vanìmel. “Meeting” is probably the wrong word,Vaughn thought. More like an “ambush.”The Defiantwould level the playing field. He conceded there was a slim chance that the Yrythny leadership had masterminded Nog’s kidnapping, but his gut told him Chieftain J’Maah would be caught unawares when the Cheka finally showed up. Bowers continued to monitor communications from both the Avariland the Cheka warship, hoping that additional information would be revealed.
Meanwhile, the crew of the Defiantworked; no one had any desire to leave much to chance.
For the full shift before the showdown, every crewmember perfected his or her roles. Vaughn had walked about, first observing Chief Chao’s transporter simulations, moving along to Prynn who studied the lay of the sector the Defiantwould be flying through. Together, they visited the database for ideas to make evasive maneuvers more effective. On the bridge, Bowers analyzed every snippet of data the sensors revealed about the Cheka warship to devise their strategy. Lankford, one of their conn officers, upgraded the Defiant’s navigational database with the starcharts purloined from the Cheka with, among other things, web weapon locations. Vaughn admired the crew’s single-minded intensity.
Foremost among the single-minded was engineering. Nog’s team had been assigned the most critical tasks. Ensigns Permenter, Senkowski and Leishman had hid out in a lab, working with surprising focus considering their long hours over the past twelve days. Or maybe their dedication wasn’t surprising: they worked on behalf of their beloved chief.
Permenter had quickly taken to the idea of a noisemaker, once Vaughn had explained the twentieth and twenty-first-century tactic.
“So when an aircraft or a submarine was targeted with a missile, a noisemaker was released, tricking the missile into fixing on the noisemaker instead of the intended target?” she had reasoned.
“Exactly,” Vaughn had answered, pleased that she’d readily caught on to the idea.
“In this case, we want the Avaril’s shuttle to be the noisemaker,” she had chewed her fingernails absently. “Trying to trick the Cheka into thinking that they’re seeing two Avarils.Mess with their sensors. Possibly project a false visual.”
“Again correct. Can you do it?”
She had nodded. “Yes…But you realize the real Avarilcould still be attacked.”
“In a situation like this, I’ll take fifty-fifty odds over a hundred percent any day.”
“Good point, sir,” Permenter had agreed. “I’ll get right on it.”
Vaughn had smiled as he left engineering. Whether we rescue Nog—whether theAvaril survives—may come down to how good they are at their jobs. They’ll want to make him proud.
Vaughn continued surveying the ship, stem to stern; he wasn’t looking for anything specific, more like feeling his way around, renewing his acquaintance with an old friend. When the battle began, he needed to know who he was in the trenches with, to trust her without hesitation. Should the Cheka ship suddenly attack or if the Avarilproved to be a foe, Vaughn was prepared to go on the offensive. Defiantneeded to be prepared for whatever she faced, for good or ill.
Quiet pervaded; all crewmembers soberly focused. If Vaughn was right, they had one chance at rescuing Nog. One chance. No one wanted to be the reason they lost another friend. Roness’s loss over the Vahni homeworld was still fresh in their hearts and minds.
Having finished his review of the lower decks, Vaughn circled by transporter bay 1 where Chao rechecked the system, and then on to the bridge. He replicated a cup of raktajino,took his place in the captain’s chair, and waited with the rest of them.
Because Shar had programmed the coordinates into the flight controls, Jeshoh rotated Ezri and Shar between piloting duties, anticipating that frazzled nerves might “accidentally” send them off course. Ezri had lost track of the number of hours they’d been flying, but she knew that dawn on Vanìmel was imminent.
When Ezri exchanged places with Shar, he immediately buried his attention in his padds. She couldn’t fathom what he’d be working on at a time like this—or how he could focus. If only I had access to weapons! I’m an excellent shot and could take Jeshoh down in nothing flat.At the outset, she’d agreed to travel and work unarmed. Personal phasers were locked up in one of the shuttle’s aft storage lockers. With little else to do, she eavesdropped on the interplay between the two Yrythny. Ezri wondered why she hadn’t pegged them as lovers. Maybe her sense about such things was backfiring on her. She kept her eyes on her console, listening as Jeshoh tried, once more, to lure Keren into a conversation.