“I’m game,” Bowers piped up.

Vaughn looked up from reviewing her data. “Proceed, Ensign.”

“Thank you sir,” Prynn said, speedily tapping the commands into the flight control panel. “Ston’yanwithin firing range.”

“Fire when ready, Lieutenant,” Vaughn said.

When Bowers let fly his spread of torpedoes, Prynn initiated evasive maneuvers. She’d covered twenty thousand kilometers before the Ston’yancaught up with the Defiant.Steady rounds firing from Cheka polaron cannons forced Prynn into a pendulum like flight pattern.

“Avarilhas regained impulse engines,” Rahim said.

“Good. What about the Sagan?”Vaughn asked.

The entire crew—including Prynn—hung on Rahim’s answer. The shuttle still hadn’t responded to their hails.

“The Saganis behind the Ston’yan.Not quite sure who they’re trying to catch up with, though, us or them.”

*  *  *

This may be a case of the inmates running the asylum,Ezri thought, plotting the Sagan’scourse behind the Cheka. Far in the lead, the Defiantled the Ston’yanon a merry chase at dizzying speeds. Prynn must be in her glory.

Incredulous, Keren asked, “What are we doing?”

“We need to keep up with the Cheka. We still have what they want. And they have what we want.”

“Listen to yourself, Jeshoh!” Keren protested.

He turned away, unmoved by her pleas.

To Ezri’s side, Shar blanched pale blue. “The Cheka are releasing a wake of mines. Boosting shields.”

“Taking evasive maneuvers,” Ezri barked. Saganveered to port, avoiding a mine aimed for starboard only to fly straight toward another. An explosion rocked the shuttle.

Ezri heard the dull crunch of flesh against metal; Keren cried out.

“Jeshoh!” Ezri shouted. “Help her, dammit!” She fought the instinct to abandon the conn and rush back to tend to the wounded Yrythny.

“Shields at seventy percent,” Shar said, his antennae rigid with tension. “The Defiantappears to be going in close to this system’s star. Saganisn’t designed to withstand—”

Out of the corner of her eye, Ezri saw Keren slumped on the floor; she groaned, twisting her head from side to side as delirium overtook her.

“Shar, check on Keren.”

“But the shields—”

“That’s an order, Ensign.”

Shar jumped up from his station, went for a medical kit, and started passing a tricorder over Keren. Jeshoh, still clutching his weapon, stood statue still, shell-shocked and pale.

“Change your mind, Jeshoh,” Ezri said calmly. Don’t let him see your fear.“It’s not too late.”

“No!” he despaired. His eyes dropped to the floor where Keren had fallen into unconsciousness.

“Ensign Tenmei, move into the final phase,” Vaughn ordered.

“Yes, sir.” For her plan to work, Prynn needed to keep the Ston’yanoff its guard long enough that they wouldn’t have time to back out of her trap. Considering what she had to work with, she decided on playing chicken with the Cheka around the star. Let’s see what your ship is made of,Prynn thought.

“Ston’yanclosing,” Rahim said.

Plunging toward the sun’s corona, she faked to port, before peeling out abruptly to starboard. In following the Defiant’s port-side fake, the Ston’yancooked its underbelly. Prynn eluded their fire for a few more minutes, buying her the time she needed to set up the last leg of the chase.

“Ston’yanstill in pursuit with weapons off-line,” Bowers said. “Correction, Ston’yanweapons are back on-line and attempting to lock onto us.”

“Target destination in fifty seconds,” Permenter said. “Twenty seconds until femtobot shield augmentation activated.”

The Defiantshuddered.

“Direct hit. Shields at sixty-five percent,” Bowers reported.

Permenter looked at Tenmei. “The femtobot augmentation can be activated all the way down to fifty percent, but I strongly suggest we try not to put that to the test.”

“Course locked in,” Prynn said. “Here we go.”

Though still hot on the Cheka’s tail, Ezri eavesdropped on Shar’s medical explanations to Jeshoh, discovering she had a new problem.

“According to my scans,” Shar said, “she has a subdural hemotoma. A blood bruise on the brain. I could attempt to treat her, but my paramedic training is limited, and I fear I don’t know enough about Yrythny blood chemistry.” His tone wasn’t hopeful.

His calm evaporating, Jeshoh slammed a fist into a compartment.

“We can help her, Jeshoh,” Ezri said. “Dr. Bashir on the Defiantis one of the finest medical practitioners you could ask for, and he has a fully equipped medical bay. He’ll stabilize her until we can get her to your people.”

“No!” he shouted, breathing ragged. “We’ll never be together if we go back now.”

Ezri said simply, “If we don’t go back, she’ll die.”

“You don’t know that! Shar, treat her now,” Jeshoh snapped, pacing the small compartment like a caged animal.

This has gone on as long as I can allow,Ezri thought.

“Help Keren,”she whispered gruffly. Her body was perilously close to caving in to stress; her shoulders ached from sitting, tightly wound, for so long. Fatigue and hunger would soon blur her ability to focus and if her calculations were right, in less than a minute, all the rules of this fight would change again. She dared to glance away from the flight controls to meet Jeshoh’s eyes. “Please,” she begged. “Do this for her. I’ve watched you stand against your leaders, your culture—all because you believed in doing the right thing. You know what you have to do, Jeshoh. Do it now.”

“Thirty seconds. Activating shield augmentation,” Permenter said.

“Ston’yanone thousand kilometers and closing,” Bowers reported. “Weapons charging.”

Trusting that her crewmates would back her up, Prynn drifted into a mental place where the conn became an extension of her fingers, responding instantaneously to her thoughts. Just a little closer….The bridge crew snapped reports back and forth. Prynn ignored them. Almost there…we should be crossing the threshold…. NOW.

A blinding, brilliant flash consumed the darkness. Prynn pulled all the power she could from the engines, determined to fly through the descending web weapon’s net. The tactical readout confirmed that the Ston’yanhad been caught in the weapon’s perimeter. For one terrifying moment, she wondered if the Cheka had friend-or-foe technology that would allow them to escape, but she had to hope that overconfidence would be their downfall.

“It’s working,” Bowers said. “The femtobots are preventing the nanobots from penetrating the ship!”

“We aren’t out of the woods, yet,” Vaughn cautioned. “Keep it together, Ensign Tenmei.”

Because the Ston’yanremained tight on the Defiant’sheels, Prynn wasn’t sure the web weapon had caught their pursuer. In one last evasive tactic, Prynn piloted the Defiantinto a sharp seventy-five degree pull-up, banking in front of the Cheka ship, flipping over and flying back the direction they’d come, over the top of the Ston’yan.

“The web got them!” Bowers shouted. “Ston’yanis no longer in pursuit.”

“Status of the femtobots?” Vaughn asked.

“It worked,” Permenter confirmed. “Nanobots were all neutralized.”

Prynn’s elation enhanced the adrenaline coursing through her veins. What a rush.

“Sir,” said Bowers “the Saganis hailing us. Audio only.”

“Put them through.”

“Defiant, this is Lieutenant Dax. Permission to bring in theSagan.”

“By all means, Lieutenant. Bring her home.”

Julian raced into the shuttlebay, eager to be the first to greet the Sagan.Impatience wasn’t his usual style, but he needed to know that Ezri was all right.