Terok Nor_ Day Of The Vipers Part 20

"Trustworthy?" Li broke in. "That's why I had the Kylen Kylen make a close approach to the location. They confirmed it. A single Tzenkethi marauder at anchor in the Ajir system." make a close approach to the location. They confirmed it. A single Tzenkethi marauder at anchor in the Ajir system."

Lonnic's mistrust was acid in her throat. "All the same, perhaps we should proceed with caution."

"My intentions exactly," he snapped back, p.r.i.c.kling at her manner. "And when we're done with caution, if I detect one atom of explosives on board that s.h.i.+p, we'll s.p.a.ce them." The colonel shot her another look. "There were friends of mine aboard a Guard cutter tethered to Cemba Station, Ms. Lonnic. Not a one of them got out alive. I intend to offer the Tzenkethi the very same."

She fell silent. Did Kubus know that Li has a personal stake in this reprisal? Did Kubus know that Li has a personal stake in this reprisal? The answer was obvious. The answer was obvious. Of course he does. Doubtless Li Tarka was selected over Jaro Essa to lead the mission for just that reason. Of course he does. Doubtless Li Tarka was selected over Jaro Essa to lead the mission for just that reason.

The bridge officer called out to his commander. "Ajir course plotted and laid in, Colonel. Action stations at standby."

Li settled back into his chair. "Sound alert condition and make for maximum warp cruise. We have some unfinished business to conclude."

Lonnic glanced up at the tripart.i.te viewscreen just as the Clarion Clarion leapt beyond light speed, streaking the darkness with bands of white. leapt beyond light speed, streaking the darkness with bands of white.

Gar glanced out of the flyer's sloped window, watching the lowlands flash past in a blur of greenery. In the distance he could see the hazy peaks of the Kendran Range; below the mountains were the floodplains of the River Yolja, but it was impossible to see them through a thick bank of ashen-colored clouds sweeping eastward toward them. In the distance the priest could make out tiny bright glitters where lightning was flas.h.i.+ng to the ground. The storm would be upon the lowlands by nightfall, and the summer tempests were always harsh, despite the work of the weather modification satellites.

The sight of the storm deepened Gar's sense of discomfort, and he turned back to face Pasir in the pilot's chair. "How much farther?"

"Not far now," the Carda.s.sian said briskly.

Gar sighed. "Pasir, please, you cannot simply expect me to remain silent while we fly about the planet. You speak of secrets, of something you call the Obsidian Order, and then take this s.h.i.+p without filing a flight plan..."

"I did file a flight plan," Pasir corrected. "Just not the one we're actually using." The flyer hit a thermal, and the alien deftly navigated through it.

"I wasn't aware you were such an accomplished pilot."

Pasir shrugged. "I'd imagine there's much about me you're unaware of." He said the words with cold dismissal.

Gar's resolve hardened. "I think we should turn around," he said firmly. "Go back to Korto, find Darrah. Whatever your problem is, he will be able to help."

"That's not going to happen."

Gar moved forward, reaching for the communications panel. "I'll contact him-"

The Carda.s.sian's hand shot out of his robes with a compact pistol in his grip, and he cracked Gar's fingers with it, smas.h.i.+ng them against the plastic. The Bajoran howled in shock and pain, clutching his broken knuckles to him.

"What do you want?" Gar demanded.

"Silence," Pasir said, in a voice that was knife-sharp.

He's going to kill me. The thought pressed into Gar's mind, sudden and hard. The thought pressed into Gar's mind, sudden and hard. If I don't get away from him, I will die. If I don't get away from him, I will die.

The Carda.s.sian glanced at him. "Don't do anything else," he began.

Gar threw himself out of his chair and into the alien, crying out again as he tried to grip Pasir's gun hand with his ruined fingers. An impact slammed him forward, and he felt the aircraft's throttle bar s.h.i.+ft beneath him. There was a surge of engine noise, and the flyer's blunt nose slipped off the line of the stormy horizon and down toward the ground.

14.

The Tzenkethi s.h.i.+p drifted in the shallows of the gas giant's outermost atmospheric layer, tracing faint eddies of hydrocarbon-rich mist around it. When in flight mode, the elongated fuselage resembled a smooth, seamless teardrop; the hulls of marauders of this cla.s.s were inspired by ocean predators from the abyssal deeps of Ab-Tzenketh, but at this moment the clean lines of the vessel were marred by the vent hatches that lay open along its flanks. Absorption grids trawled the planet's clouds for consumable chemicals and raw matter for the fuel stores, while mile-long antennae no more than the thickness of a hair trailed out behind. The patterns of radiation flux s.h.i.+fting between the gas giant and the numerous moons that crowded its...o...b..t stroked the aerials, and the vessel drew the energy in to bolster its stores.

The s.h.i.+p's mission was almost at an end. The sortie had been a disappointing one, with little in the way of prey craft to pursue and nothing but dead s.p.a.ce and distant sightings in between. In another half-rotation, once the matter banks were fat and sated, they would furl the antennae and close the grids before making a high-speed warp sprint back into Coalition s.p.a.ce. Home base would be under their keel soon after.

Inside the ionosphere, the play of the planet's radiation belts ensured that the Tzenkethi marauder's sensors were fouled by great drifting clouds of electronic fog; only a small pilot pod in a higher orbit, attached by a diamond-filament tether, floated high enough to be clear of the effects. It was the single crew member aboard the pod who detected the arrival of four stars.h.i.+ps as they emerged from the sunward side of the gas giant, their s.h.i.+elds raised and their weapons running hot.

"Compensating for atmospheric interference..." The Clarion Clarion's deck officer worked his console. "Set. I read a metallic ma.s.s in the upper atmosphere, four thousand kellipates distant, quadrant blue."

"Weapons," said Colonel Li. "I want synchronous fire. Program for salvo barrage, phasers and missile tubes one through four."

Lonnic's fingers gripped the cus.h.i.+oned back of the colonel's command chair. Standing behind him appeared to be the only place on the a.s.sault s.h.i.+p's bridge where she wasn't in someone's way. She saw the formation of the reprisal fleet on one of Li's consoles. The two scouts.h.i.+ps in Minister Jas's employ were keeping abeam of the bigger military s.h.i.+ps. Their forward-mounted phase-cannon turrets lacked the power of the weapons on the battle vessels, but in concert they could still be deadly.

"Merculite warheads loaded in all tubes," reported the deck officer. "The marauder is reacting. They're reeling in their observation pod. I'm reading an aspect change."

"Might be contemplating a dive into the troposphere," Li said, half to himself. "Can't have that." He looked up.

"Sensors! Go to full power, active sweep. Rattle their decks a little."

"Colonel," said Lonnic, "are you going to fire on them without any formal declaration?"

He didn't bother to look at her. "I don't recall the people on Cemba being given any warning, do you?"

"No...but if the crew of that s.h.i.+p are not responsible, would you want it said that Bajorans showed the same callous disregard for life that the bombers did?"

Li grunted. "Ms. Lonnic, I don't give a d.a.m.n what is thought about me. Our s.p.a.ce was invaded and an atrocity was committed. If I had my way, it would be cla.s.sified for what it is. An act of war."

"Colonel!" Her voice rose. She saw whatever shreds of authority her position as a ministerial adjutant gave her eroding by the second in the face of Li's grim intent. "We have nothing but circ.u.mstantial evidence that the Tzenkethi were even involved!"

"Sensor sweep complete," said the deck officer. "I can confirm the presence of volatile stocks aboard the alien vessel, sir. Refined triceron, military grade."

Li looked up at her. "There's your smoking gun. Do you want me to wait for a signed confession?"

"Many wars.h.i.+ps carry triceron explosives," she insisted.

"Colonel, at least offer them a chance to surrender. Otherwise, we'll never know the truth about what happened." Lonnic saw the hesitation in his manner and she pushed on. "There could be more devices on Bajor, a network of terror cells, other marauders...There might be valuable intelligence."

At last the commander nodded. "I'll admit, the thought had occurred to me." He gestured to the deck officer. "Suspend firing countdown. Get me communications. Tell the Tzenkethi, stand to and prepare to be boarded."

"Transmitting," came the reply.

Lonnic felt cold sweat p.r.i.c.kling the back of her neck as she watched the tactical plot on the portside viewscreen. The alien s.h.i.+p did not reply; instead it turned, rising up through the exosphere of the gas giant, gathering itself in.

"Aspect change!" shouted the deck officer. "Marauder entering attack configuration!"

"It seems we have an answer," Li told her. "Weapons, track and fire-"

On the screen a plume of brilliant white plasma lanced up from the rising shape of the alien s.h.i.+p and flashed past the wing of the Clarion. Clarion.

A warning shot? The question echoed through her thoughts, even as the realization struck Lonnic that the blast had been anything but that. On the tactical plot, the glyph symbolizing the The question echoed through her thoughts, even as the realization struck Lonnic that the blast had been anything but that. On the tactical plot, the glyph symbolizing the Kylen Kylen blinked twice and vanished. Lonnic's heart leapt into her throat. There were eight men on that s.h.i.+p, and she knew every one of them. blinked twice and vanished. Lonnic's heart leapt into her throat. There were eight men on that s.h.i.+p, and she knew every one of them.

The scouts.h.i.+p's fate was sealed when her captain, inexperienced in confrontations with hostiles, moved too far out of the Clarion Clarion's formation. The territory of the Tzenkethi-which the aliens cla.s.sed as their s.h.i.+p and a generous measure of s.p.a.ce around it-was being invaded and their automatic reaction was to take up a belligerent posture. The voices of the invaders they heard over their translator matrix heaped insult upon insult, daring to demand access to the marauder itself. The Tzenkethi crew's reaction was instant and lethal.

With a near full-energy bank behind it, the plasma projector released a murderous warshot that tore through the Kylen Kylen's s.h.i.+elds. Gaseous matter with the temperature of a solar core bored through duranium hull plating and opened the small scouts.h.i.+p to the void. The Kylen Kylen disintegrated, speared on a rod of sunfire. disintegrated, speared on a rod of sunfire.

The second scout, the Pajul, Pajul, peeled off and showed the alien her impulse grids, gaining distance as the Tzenkethi pivoted and charged for a second strike. The alien moved swiftly, turning to avoid a barrage of missile fire from the a.s.sault vessels as they detonated in a chain of proximity-fused explosions. The blast wall tore open the pilot pod trailing on its tether, killing the occupant, and slammed a kinetic shock through the marauder's hull. peeled off and showed the alien her impulse grids, gaining distance as the Tzenkethi pivoted and charged for a second strike. The alien moved swiftly, turning to avoid a barrage of missile fire from the a.s.sault vessels as they detonated in a chain of proximity-fused explosions. The blast wall tore open the pilot pod trailing on its tether, killing the occupant, and slammed a kinetic shock through the marauder's hull.

Another plasma spear probed out after the Pajul, Pajul, missing its mark. missing its mark.

Lonnic clung to a stanchion as the Clarion Clarion's gravity compensators struggled to keep up with the s.h.i.+p's swift maneuvers. She pressed herself against the cold metal, willing herself to diminish. What am I doing here? What am I doing here? She cried silently. She cried silently. I can't stop this! I thought I could, but there's nothing I can do! I can't stop this! I thought I could, but there's nothing I can do! A childhood fear surged through her as the a.s.sault s.h.i.+p rocked under impacts from the Tzenkethi weapons. Lonnic remembered the ghost stories of her grandfather, of the tales of the dead lost in s.p.a.ce who became angry A childhood fear surged through her as the a.s.sault s.h.i.+p rocked under impacts from the Tzenkethi weapons. Lonnic remembered the ghost stories of her grandfather, of the tales of the dead lost in s.p.a.ce who became angry borhyas borhyas that drew on the souls of those about to perish. She felt fear crowding in on her, her blood turning to ice water. In that moment she understood that all the power her esteemed rank could muster on Bajor was utterly worthless to her here; and in her mind's eye she saw Kubus Oak's self-indulgent smile, as if he were watching her life tick away and taking amus.e.m.e.nt from it. that drew on the souls of those about to perish. She felt fear crowding in on her, her blood turning to ice water. In that moment she understood that all the power her esteemed rank could muster on Bajor was utterly worthless to her here; and in her mind's eye she saw Kubus Oak's self-indulgent smile, as if he were watching her life tick away and taking amus.e.m.e.nt from it.

A panel across the bridge flashed with electric discharge and a body fell away from it, skin crisped black-red and wreathed in sweet-smelling smoke. Lonnic fought back a retch from deep in her stomach.

"The Pajul Pajul's taken a glancing hit," said a voice. She couldn't be sure who had spoken. "Venting plasma. They've dumped their warp core, but they still have mobility."

"We can't help them," Li retorted. "Bring us about, order all s.h.i.+ps to put power to weapons. Sweep in and rake the target!"

"Yes, sir!"

The pit of Lonnic's gut dropped out as the Clarion Clarion turned sharply again. turned sharply again.

The inner walls of the Tzenkethi s.h.i.+p's hull were studded with powerful field nodes that reinforced structural integrity and internal gravity envelopes. It was this design aspect that lent a deadly agility to the marauder, allowing the stars.h.i.+p to perform actions that craft several times smaller would struggle with. The marauder pivoted, shedding the energy of velocity in a wash of radiation, snapping about to face the two Bajoran a.s.sault s.h.i.+ps bearing down upon it. Phaser fire ripped across its s.h.i.+elds, turning the transparent ovoid barrier orange where each shot landed. Backwash from emitter overloads ran down the length of the marauder even as the s.h.i.+p powered forward. At the last moment, the Bajoran s.h.i.+ps broke away in climbing turns-but too slow to avoid the scintillating nimbus of the main plasma cannon. The Glyhrond, Clarion Glyhrond, Clarion's sister s.h.i.+p, lost meters of ventral hull plating as the blast blew out her deflectors and scorched an ugly wound along her belly.

Still in a turning fight, Clarion Clarion came on as the Tzenkethi wars.h.i.+p crossed over the pole of a rocky moon in close orbit around the gas giant. The marauder angled after the came on as the Tzenkethi wars.h.i.+p crossed over the pole of a rocky moon in close orbit around the gas giant. The marauder angled after the Pajul, Pajul, snapping after the wounded craft for an easy kill. snapping after the wounded craft for an easy kill.

"Firing again," snapped the deck officer, ignoring a cut that streamed blood into his eyes. "Colonel, we're about to lose s.h.i.+elding fore and aft."

"Then put all power to the guns," came the command.

"He's fixated on that scout. We'll give him something else to think about."

Lonnic heard the words but didn't really take them in. She was terrified, seeing the battle only as fragments, as pieces of the whole. She thought about the men on the Pajul, Pajul, and in her panic she couldn't recall the names of any of them. and in her panic she couldn't recall the names of any of them. This is wrong. It's wrong it's wrong it's wrong- This is wrong. It's wrong it's wrong it's wrong- "The scout's lost motion control!" She heard the shout clearly. "Kosst, "Kosst, they're going to hit it!" they're going to hit it!"

In a last-ditch attempt to extend out of the engagement and put some distance between his s.h.i.+p and the Tzenkethi guns, the captain of the prospector scouts.h.i.+p Pajul Pajul channeled everything he could spare into his failing impulse motors; but with the death of his engineering officer only seconds earlier, there was no one to tell him that the power relays were about to collapse. Something critical fractured inside the channeled everything he could spare into his failing impulse motors; but with the death of his engineering officer only seconds earlier, there was no one to tell him that the power relays were about to collapse. Something critical fractured inside the Pajul, Pajul, and it spun out of control toward the marauder instead of away from it. and it spun out of control toward the marauder instead of away from it.

The Tzenkethi s.h.i.+p wrenched over in a punis.h.i.+ng kick-turn, but it was too late. The scout impacted the port quarter of the marauder and skipped off the hull, shredding itself. A power surge threaded through the alien s.h.i.+p, and the sallow glow of the vessel's intercoolers flickered toward shutdown.

"Pajul destroyed...Target's s.h.i.+elds are down!" destroyed...Target's s.h.i.+elds are down!"

"What?" Lonnic opened her eyes, expecting the next thing she heard to be the rush of vacuum as the Clarion Clarion was obliterated. was obliterated.

Li was out of his chair, leaning over a sparking console. "What's the status of the Glyhrond?" Glyhrond?" he barked. he barked.

"Damaged, but stable. They're operable, but they're out of the fight."

Lonnic forced her way forward, stepping over fallen stanchions and waving away clots of acrid smoke. "Colonel, what happened?"

He stabbed a finger at the screen. "The Prophets have decided to hand down some justice, Ms. Lonnic. The Pajul Pajul's sacrifice has tipped the balance." He blew out a breath and glared at the alien s.h.i.+p. "d.a.m.n them, but they're tough b.a.s.t.a.r.ds." He nodded to the deck officer. "Missiles?"

"Tubes two and three jammed. One and four loaded and ready to fire."

She blinked. "You...you're going to execute them?"

"They opened fire first, woman. You saw it."

"They're territorial!" she snapped, her voice breaking. "Of course they attacked us!" Lonnic blinked. "Why...What am I saying?" She shook her head, the stink of burning plastic and blood filling her nostrils. "Why am I defending them...If you're right..."

Li's face darkened. "If," "If," he repeated. "If I am right." He glared at his deck officer. "Communications. Tell the Tzenkethi to surrender. They won't be harmed. They'll be taken back to Bajor under arrest for the attack on the freighter he repeated. "If I am right." He glared at his deck officer. "Communications. Tell the Tzenkethi to surrender. They won't be harmed. They'll be taken back to Bajor under arrest for the attack on the freighter Lhemor." Lhemor."

But the crewman wasn't listening. He called out across the smoke-blackened bridge. "New contacts, bearing two-one-seven mark seven!"

Lonnic's heart hammered in her chest. "More Tzenkethi?"

"No." Li bent over his console. "Carda.s.sian. A pair of light cruisers. They're closing..." Fear bloomed inside her at the uncertainty on the colonel's face.