Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Soul Key (18 page)

Winn shook her head vigorously, a motion that caused a small cloud of dust to rise from her hair. “No, Elias. The only other captive we know of besides Kira and the three of us is Dakahna Vaas.”

Vaas. Vaughn recalled the name, and quickly associ
ated it with the black-haired Bajoran woman he’d seen at the camp infirmary.

Vaughn allowed himself to grasp at a slender reed of hope. “Opaka and the artifacts?”

And Prynn?

“They got away,” Winn said.

Staring off into the middle distance, Jaro said, “Once we realized that the Klingons had found the tunnel, we doubled back with Vaas, hoping to stall our pursuers just a little longer.”

“That gave Opaka, Prynn, and the others just enough time to reach the Yolja River with the artifacts,” Winn said. “One of the other enclaves was to pick them up there.”

Prynn
did
make it out of there. Thank God,
Vaughn thought. He felt an enormous sense of relief as the Bajorans went on to tell him how confident they were that their gambit had worked—a turn of luck they both insisted would never have come to pass but for Kira and Vaughn’s having engaged the Klingons, thereby slowing down their eventual discovery of the escape tunnel.

Unfortunately, the worry that both Bajorans felt for Dakahna, from whom the Klingons had separated them immediately after their arrival on the station, was as palpable as either their confidence or their gratitude.

After Vaughn explained what he knew of their improvised holding pen, both Bajorans by mutual decision knelt together and began to pray. They invited Vaughn to join him, but he politely declined.

Even if I
were
a believer,
he thought,
I’m really not sure I could continue to be one after what I’ve learned today.

Though his inner turmoil remained unspoken during the prayers, the Bajorans seemed to sense it nevertheless. Maybe they could read it in his face, for when they concluded their communion, they both walked toward him and regarded him with grave expressions.

“We know about what you did at the infirmary,” Jaro said, though there was no accusation in his tone. The doctor looked down at the deck as he spoke, as though uncomfortable gazing into the eyes of the living doppelganger of his dead friend—the man who had also killed that friend.

“Yes,” Winn said. “It was a tragic choice.”

And a choice that Vaughn knew he could neither unmake nor justify.

Just as he couldn’t imagine making any other choice, given the same circumstances.

It’s a good thing I don’t believe in hell,
he thought.
Otherwise it’d be my next long-term posting, sure as gravity.

Winn reached toward Vaughn’s face. He resisted the urge to flinch as she gently grasped his earlobe between her thumb and forefinger.

“We know why you had to do it, Elias,” she said, closing her eyes as she read his
pagh.
“Just as we know what the deed must have cost you.”

“I suspect that the cost would have been far higher,” Jaro said, tears standing in his eyes, “had you allowed Elias’s suffering to continue.”

“Or had you left him and Prynn to the tender mercies of the Klingons,” said Winn, releasing her hold on Vaughn.

He took an unsteady step backward, collecting his
scattered thoughts and emotions. Their forgiveness both shamed and relieved him, though he doubted that Prynn would be this understanding any time soon.

Some three hours into their captivity, the room shuddered—a low, momentary vibration that seemed to Vaughn almost familiar. It felt like a greatly amplified version of the slight sensation of acceleration caused by Deep Space 9’s maneuvering thrusters, as though they were being fired at full burn.

Not long after the persistent and slightly disorienting acceleration effect began, the door to their cage opened again, and a group of Klingon guards delivered another eight weary and dejected rebels to the cargo bay. As soon as Winn noticed that Miles O’Brien was among them, she underwent an abrupt and total transformation.

She went berserk, screaming accusations and epithets as she pushed against the rebels in her naked desire to commit violence against their leader.

“Back off!” Keiko Ishikawa shouted back, placing her body squarely in Winn’s path. “It wasn’t him!”

“He cannot escape responsibility for this!” Winn roared.

“He didn’t
do
it!” Tigan shouted from behind Ishikawa.

“Who, then?” Winn demanded. “Who among you was responsible for carrying out the atrocity at Ashalla? For slaughtering two million people?”

“None of us!” Ishikawa shot back. “It was the Intendant!”

Winn’s grief finally caught up with her anger, and
she broke down. Jaro caught her as she fell to her knees, and the two of them wept as Ishikawa described what had happened, how the Intendant had called their bluff and carried out the very act that the rebels had only threatened.

“She said she would bomb another city if Miles didn’t surrender immediately,” Ishikawa said, now weeping as well. “We had no choice but to stand down.”

O’Brien came forward to meet the Bajorans, their grief reflected plainly in his eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he told them. “I’m so very sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen.”

As Winn continued to sob, she reached out to touch O’Brien’s ear, grasping the lobe in her trembling hand. For some time after that, Vaughn watched a catharsis unfold as the rebels and Bajorans together began to work through the worst of their shared anguish.

And finally, once much of the initial emotional storm had passed, he started asking questions.

“O’Brien…what’s going on aboard the station?”

The haggard rebel leader looked at Vaughn as if he had just noticed him for the first time. “You’re from the other side,” he realized, noting Vaughn’s distressed Starfleet uniform.

“Commander Elias Vaughn of Deep Space 9. After we lost our comlink with you, Captain Kira and I crossed over to Bajor, hoping we might be of some help.”

“Only two of you?” Tigan asked.

“It was all we could manage,” Vaughn said. “Some kind of scattering field is shielding local space from inter
dimensional transport. There was no time to do anything else.”

“We appreciate the effort, Commander,” O’Brien said. “It’s just too bad you wound up in the same mess as the rest of us.”

“I felt the station vibrate a short while before you were put in here. Can you tell me what’s happening?”

“The Intendant,” O’Brien said, shaking his head. “She had us make some insane modifications to the deflector generators and the maneuvering thrusters. The whole station is now moving at speed toward the Denorios Belt.”

The wormhole.

Jaro looked at Vaughn. “Is that where she expects to open the Temple Gates?”

“Temple Gates?” asked another of the rebels, Sloan. “That’s that crazy thing Ghemor warned us about, right? The religious thing? She was
serious
about that?”

“Yes,” Vaughn said, cutting off whatever explanation Winn and Jaro seemed poised to offer. “Think of it as a dangerous hazard the Intendant wants to exploit. It’s imperative that we stop her.”

“Commander, you’ll get no argument from us,” O’Brien said. “But this station is swarming with Klingons, and all my people have been penned up in cargo bays just like this one.”

“Then we’ll just have to be ready to act when the opportunity finally presents itself,” Vaughn said.

“Opportunity?” O’Brien said.
“What
opportunity? Look, Commander, with all due respect, I don’t know
how they handle situations like this where you come from, but in
this
universe, you can’t simply fake an illness and expect the Klingons to open the door for you!”

“That isn’t exactly what I had in mind,” Vaughn said.

“What, then? If we have a hope in hell, I’m not seeing it!”

Vaughn allowed himself a small smile. “We have one.”

K
ira gasped for air as consciousness returned to her, accompanied by an eye-searing blast of light.

She felt hyperaware of everything, a side effect of the stimulant that had undoubtedly been used to force her awake. She was in a holding cell back on Deep Space 9.

No,
she quickly realized.
This is Terok Nor.

She stood flat against one wall of the cell, her hands encased in shackles that looked as though they had recently been welded into the bulkhead. She was missing her combadge, and Vaughn was nowhere to be seen.

Kira’s double stood in front of her, dressed in the familiar black garb of the Intendant, watching her with interest.

“I really have to hand it to you, Captain,” she said. “Beaming to the alternate Bajor before the Klingons’ static field could fully envelop the planet was a crafty bit of quick thinking. Apparently I wasn’t being paranoid after all when I ordered the Klingons to scan the planet for anomalous quantum signatures. But what did you think you were going to accomplish in that rebel strong
hold? Did you honestly believe those thugs masquerading as slaves were going to be of any use to you?”

Kira said nothing.

“That’s all right,” Iliana told her. “It was more of a rhetorical question, anyway. And it’s not that I mind your being here—quite the opposite, actually. You’ve saved me the trouble of going back for you.”

“Why?” Kira asked, tugging uselessly at her shackles. “So you can talk me to death?”

“Oh, good,” Iliana laughed. “You’re not completely demoralized yet. There’s still a little defiance left in you. That makes it all
so
much sweeter. Now I can’t wait to see your face when this Bajor names me its Emissary.”

“So
that’s
why I’m still alive?” Kira asked. “To give you an audience?”

“Of course not, Captain. An audience I already have. Klingons, rebels, even your geriatric friend…but best of all, I have two of the religious leaders behind the Bajoran dissident movement.” She held up her hand, displaying the Shard of Souls. “And with me in possession of a sacred artifact native to this continuum, they’ll be here to bear witness when I open the Temple Gates.

“So, no, Captain. You aren’t here to give me an audience. You’re here to suffer what I’m about to do.”

Kira finally decided she’d had enough. “What the
kosst
has happened to you? What can you possibly think all this is going to get you?”

“I thought that would be obvious to someone as devout as you, Captain,” Iliana said. “I’m going to get back my life.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Trakor’s prophecy, of course,” her double said, speaking to Kira as if she were a small child. “Not to mention a dozen other visions about the coming of the Emissary, all of which cite the same three criteria by which all Bajor would know its deliverer: the one called by the Prophets; the who opens the Temple Gates; and the one to whom the Prophets will give back her life.”

“And exactly how does killing the Kira Nerys of one universe after another fit into your getting your life back?”

If Iliana was taken aback by Kira’s knowledge of her broader plan, she gave no sign of it. “I don’t fault you for not seeing the big picture, Captain. After what was done to me, it took me a while to understand what I needed to do so that I could be whole again. But when I meet the Prophets, they’ll see inside me, just as they did with
your
Emissary. They’ll understand what I need to get my life back. And I’ll use the Soul Key”—she raised the Shard again—“to find every other Kira that has laid claim to a piece of my soul.”

“And what about Iliana Ghemor’s soul?” Kira asked.

Iliana said nothing at first, then abruptly broke eye contact with Kira for the first time since she had begun speaking.

“You don’t understand. I’m going to be whole. For the first time in my life I’ll finally be
whole!”

“Are you trying to convince me of that…or yourself?”

Iliana suddenly grabbed Kira by the hair and slammed
her head back against the wall. The impact sent a sharp pain into Kira’s eyes. “Don’t push me, Captain. There are others here I could make suffer along with you.”

“Yeah, you could,” Kira said. “You could do the same to everyone I care about, and extend that cruelty to every Kira in creation. But it won’t make you whole, Iliana. It’ll
never
make you whole. You’re chasing a sick, twisted idea of who you’re supposed to be. And in the end, you’re going to crash and burn.”

Iliana smiled. “Bravely spoken. But a lot has happened since you were captured, Captain. You see, after I retook Terok Nor, I decided to borrow a page from your own book, and I coerced Smiley into doing the very thing you commanded of
your
O’Brien, on the day that
your
wormhole was discovered: propel the station toward the Denorios Belt. It has a pleasant symmetry, don’t you think? And if my calculations are correct, we should arrive at the Temple Gates within the hour. So you see, I’m already well on my way to becoming whole again.”

With an almost carefree stride, Iliana exited Kira’s cell. At once one of the two Klingon guards activated the force field barrier that sealed the tiny room.

“But don’t worry,” Iliana finished as she left the holding area. “I’ll be sure to give the Prophets your warmest regards.”

“W
e have arrived,” Kurn announced.

Iliana turned away from the starfield displayed on the ops holoframe and smiled. “All stop,” she commanded. “Hold this position, and have your men bring Winn and Jaro to operations immediately.”

From where he stood at the situation table, Kurn issued the orders, then returned to the task of checking the readings that were coming in. In a displeased tone he told Iliana, “There is little out here but charged plasma and cometary ice.”

“Open your mind, General,” Iliana said, grinning as she gestured toward the starry expanse displayed on the holoframe. “Some of the greatest treasures of the universe are those we can’t even see.”

“An enlightened perspective, I’m sure, Intendant,” Kurn mocked, showing her the points of his filed teeth. “But I prefer the tangible. You assured me that the effort of moving this space station would be worthwhile.”

“It will be,” Iliana assured him. “Come, Kurn. We’ve
come this far together. Surely you wouldn’t turn back now, this close to the prize?”

“Very well,” said Kurn, the expression on his face leaving no doubt that his patience was nearing its end. “How do you wish to proceed?”

“The next part is for me alone,” Iliana said. “Is the
River of Blood
ready?”

“My personal craft was transferred from the
Negh’Var
before we broke orbit, as you requested,” the general said. “It is standing by at shuttle pad three.”

“Good. It’ll be necessary to conduct the final phase of the search by ship, since the stresses created by the wormhole will rip the station apart if we venture too close.”

“We should not have left our fleet in orbit of Bajor,” Kurn grumbled. “They might have been able to pinpoint exactly where—”

“Your fleet was left in orbit to provide needed assistance while Bajor recovers from the destruction of Ashalla,” Iliana reminded him. “Don’t make the mistake of underestimating the value of such goodwill. The Bajorans will remember who helped them during this time of crisis.”

“Bajor will remember who is
responsible
for that crisis, Intendant!” a voice shouted across ops.

Iliana greeted Winn Adami and her husband with a smile as two guards escorted them off the turbolift. “And well they should, Winn. But when I return to Bajor, I promise you the rebels will know justice for the massacre they committed.”

Winn and Jaro both glared at her in undisguised contempt as the Klingon guards brought them before her.

“We know who was really responsible for Ashalla, Intendant,” the doctor said. “Just as we know who you really are.”

Iliana scoffed. She showed them the
Paghvaram.
“Do you also know what
this
is? And what I’m about to do with it?”

Anger blazed in Winn’s eyes. “Yes,” she grated.

“Then I’m certain you both must realize why I’ve brought you here now. The hour for which your movement has waited all these years is finally upon you. You’ll be Bajor’s witnesses to the opening of the Temple Gates. And you’ll both affirm the coming of the Emissary. ”

“You will
never
be the Emissary,” Winn said.

“There’s no one left to block my Path, Winn,” Iliana said.

“General!” the officer manning sciences called out. “I’m picking up unusually high proton concentrations, as well as a localized presence of verteron particles.”

Iliana’s head snapped toward to the holoframe.
So soon? But we shouldn’t be close enough to trigger—

And suddenly there it was, flowering before her eyes as if it sensed she was near; the cerulean bloom that had been the object of her quest opened to her, its petals of shimmering brilliance spiraling rapturously outward, beautiful and beckoning—

Yes! Yes, I’ve done it! I’VE DONE IT!

—and something came out of the maelstrom’s glowing center.

“Sensor contact, dead ahead!” Kurn shouted. “Intendant—it’s
Defiant!”

And as the first salvo of pulse phasers slammed
against Terok Nor’s shields, Iliana screamed in outraged surprise.

“Attack Pattern Delta! Give it all you’ve got, Prynn!” Ezri Dax shouted as she leaned forward in the command chair. “Sam, target their shield emitters! Fire at will!”

Behind her at tactical, Sam Bowers let fly with continuous salvos of pulse-phaser fire while Tenmei maneuvered
Defiant
for its close-quarters attack upon Terok Nor.

Dax quickly tapped her right-hand command console. “We’re in the thick of it now, Nog. Make sure your team keeps up.”

“Understood, Captain. We’ll keep her together.”

“I’m counting on it, Nog. Bridge out. Sam, what’s the word on the hostiles?”

Defiant
was jolted by a disruptor strike. “Other than the station? I read a dozen Klingon ships in orbit of Bajor, too far away to be a problem any time soon, but it looks as if they’ve already started to break orbit. ETA two hours.”

Their ship shook again. “Keep up the attack,” Dax ordered. “We need to get those shields down!”

“Their shield strength is down to sixty-eight percent,” Bowers reported. “A few more minutes and—”

“Not fast enough,” Dax said. “Arm a quantum torpedo. Target the zenith of their shield envelope, above the upper pylons. It’s our best chance of punching a hole with minimal risk to the station.”

“Right…. Torpedo armed…. Target acquired.”

“Fire!”

Her eyes locked on the viewscreen, Ezri brought up her hand to shield her eyes as Terok Nor’s invisible shell of force flared to near-blinding brightness before blowing out.

“Their shields are down,” Bowers said, unable to hide his own astonishment.

“I’m in the room, Sam.” Dax said. “Try not to sound so surprised.” The ship buckled beneath her as it took another hit.

“Readings coming in from the station,” Ensign Tariq Rahim reported from sciences. “Approximately seven hundred distinct life signs, mostly human and Klingon, with a small percentage of other species present as well. The Klingons seem to be the only ones with any degree of mobility, and are scattered throughout the station. The rest are confined to the Docking Ring.”

“Prisoners?” Dax asked.

“That would be my guess, Captain. I’m also picking up Captain Kira and Commander Vaughn’s combadges.”

They’re on the station? That makes things a little less complicated,
Dax thought. “Can you confirm their location?”

“Operations. The station commander’s office. But there are no human or Bajoran life signs in close proximity to the combadges.”

Dax cursed.
So either they’re dead, or their badges were removed and they’re somewhere else.
“Any luck pinpointing a Jem’Hadar life sign?”

“Negative,” Rahim said.

“Keep trying.” She tapped her combadge. “Dax to Bashir.”

“Go ahead,”
came the reply from sickbay.

“How’s our guest doing, Julian?”

“She’s with Chief Chao, and ready to go when you give word.”

“Stand by. Prynn, we need a window of time to lower our shields and beam over Ghemor. Recommendations?”

Tenmei didn’t hesitate. “Our best option is to make a run at the station from the ventral side, move up toward the fusion core, and slip between the Habitat Ring and the Docking Ring. We’ll be most vulnerable as we pass the defense sails on that arc of the Habitat Ring, but we may be able to knock them out on approach.”

Dax managed not to laugh. “You up for that, Prynn?”

“Hell, yes,” Tenmei said.

“Sam?”

“You’re not serious.”

Dax was knocked back against her chair as
Defiant
took another hit. “If you have a better suggestion, now’s the time to make it.”

“You don’t pick the easy ones, do you?”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Dax asked. “Can you do it?”

“Take out the defense sails? Maybe the lower one. The upper one could be a problem, since it’ll be partially obscured by the Habitat Ring during our approach. But if Prynn can manage a straight pass, there’s at least a chance I could hit both of them.”

“No promises,” Tenmei said.

“All right, enough chatter,” Dax snapped. “Tariq, where’s Taran’atar?”

“Still no confirmed biosigns,” Rahim said, shaking his
head. “And I can’t get a reliable reading on any quantum resonance signatures.”

Ezri cursed. “Dax to Chao.”

“Go ahead.”

“We can’t locate Taran’atar, Jeanette. We need to move on to Plan B. But stay on your toes. It’s likely to be a bumpy ride.”

“Understood.”

“Iliana, can you hear me?”

“Yes, Lieutenant.”

“I just wanted to say…good luck.”

“To you as well.”

Dax got up from her chair and moved to stand behind Tenmei’s seat at the conn station. “Let’s do this, then. Prynn, commence run.”

The roughly spherical shape of Terok Nor seemed to rotate as they swept beneath it. The station’s spiral wave disruptors tracked with them, hammering their shields as the ship moved from one cone of fire to another until she was looking directly up at the fusion core. Completing its arc,
Defiant
swiftly straightened out and shot forward.

“Bowers, drop shields and fire at will!” Dax ordered. “Chao, you’re on! Energize!”

Subjectively,
Defiant’
s passage seemed to take forever. In actuality, it took precious few seconds for Tenmei to execute her run as Dax fought panic at the sight of the station’s glowing red fusion core rushing toward her. It veered away at the last moment, replaced by a near miss with a crossover bridge while the first approaching defense sail lashed out at her with disruptor fire. Bolts of
energy from
Defiant’
s pulse phasers rained on the weapons array, finding their mark as the clawlike tower tore free of the Habitat Ring in a cloud of tumbling debris.

The phasers missed the upper sail.

Struck point-blank by spiral-wave disruptors, the entire vessel seemed to scream with the impact as unshielded ablative armor vaporized on
Defiant’
s ventral side, exposing the naked hull beneath as she continued forward, narrowly avoiding a collision with one of the upper pylons.

Then there was only black space and stars on the viewer, and
Defiant
was clear of the station.

“Raise shields!” Dax ordered. “Damage reports!”

The news wasn’t terrible. Despite the beating she’d taken,
Defiant
was still in prime fighting shape. Terok Nor was a wounded giant; it still had teeth, but it couldn’t pursue them.

“Dax to Chao. Report.”

“Transport successful. Package is away.”

Dax allowed herself a small sigh of relief, thinking that the only problems that remained now were subduing Taran’atar, capturing Ghemor’s counterpart, ascertaining whether or not her commanding officers were alive, and safely returning home…all before those Klingon ships on their way from Bajor arrived in less than two hours.

“Easy-peasy,” she muttered to herself.