At first the fire from the tunnel confused Balth. The Klingon commander had yet to make an assault on his enemies in that position. When he saw that the fire erupting from the cavern mouth was targeting Cardassians, he ceased to worry about it. The enemy of my enemy is my ally, he thought approvingly. Balth ordered his warriors to the right, to complete the flanking maneuver initiated by the fire from the tunnel.
The battle ended quickly once his warriors had flanked the enemy. The Cardassians were slain as they tried to defend themselves from the rear and the side simultaneously. At the end of the battle, many bodies were scattered about. Most were Cardassian, but some belonged to hapless prisoners, stranded in the middle of the conflict when the Klingon troops arrived. Balth was not overly concerned. The prisoners had lost their honor once they were captured. Some of the fallen were Klingon. Honor had been served well here on Lazon II. They would rejoice on board their ship tonight, for their victory and for their comrades who had died in service to the Empire and were now on their way to Sto-Vo-Kor.
After the last shot had been fired, Balth ordered Morgath, his second in command, to investigate the firing from the tunnel. "Take care you give them a chance to explain themselves, whoever they are. They were fighting on our side. Don't kill them unless you must."
A few minutes later, from his position by the bodies of Gul Tevran and his two lieutenants, Balth fingered his bat'leth. It had been denied the taste of blood on the battlefield on this day. He wasn't one to hack at corpses just to blood his blade; his blade could only sing its battle song in honorable deeds. Morgath approached, leading two figures who were introduced to Balth as their unknown allies. The Klingon commander reacted with surprise. "You, a Bajoran religious woman, and a prisoner? You were the ones in that tunnel?"
"After we got rid of the ones who were there before us," answered the male. "William Thomas Riker, late of the Maquis," he went on, "and this is . . . Vedek Parys, who was visiting me in my cell when the fighting broke out." Balth noted that the male looked at the female in an odd way as he said her name. What was this? Was there something between them?
"You were a prisoner? What about the guards? Are there any left down there?"
"No. We were left alone. The power went out, shutting down the shields. So, we figured the Cardassians didn't want to hold me anymore, and we left." The human male Riker smiled.
From Balth's left, to the rear, he heard a male voice call out. "Parys! See! I told you we would win a glorious victory!"
Balth was nonplused to hear the female groan in apparent frustration when a young Bajoran male, the upstart who had been trying to fight alongside his Klingon troops, who had been more a hindrance than help, burst upon them. She did not appear to care for this man, although they were of the same planet. It could not be a coincidence they were together on this world.
"You mean when the Klingons won a glorious victory to save our hides, Tir. Where are Shaldir and Jilya? Are they all right?"
"Shaldir was wounded, but he will live. Jilya is with him. The Klingons have transported them up to the tajtIq," Tir croaked. "We need to go back to our ship."
The Klingon commander saw the young Bajoran man's crazed eyes. Balth distrusted him. This Tir had been wild to wield a weapon, but once he'd gotten hold of one he'd had no concept of how to fire at the enemy. Balth was even more disgusted with the Bajoran male when he added, triumphantly, "Our secret weapon worked, Ro! It knocked out all their power!"
"Hah! Your weapon! All the power was knocked out on the surface, yes. But what about all of the weapons underground? All the facilities? The Cardassians would have fixed it all in minutes. If we had not attacked and destroyed the power core when we did, little Bajoran, the Cardassians would have killed you all. They already had you trapped inside the mines!"
Vedek Parys groaned again. Facing the tall human, she murmured, "I knew it. See, we should have been dead, Riker."
The human male put his arms around her. "Maybe your Prophets don't want us dead yet. And I don't mind getting lucky for once; it's about time! It's a good thing you showed up, Balth. But why are you here?"
"The Klingon High Council has declared war on Cardassia. Attacks are taking place all over, as we speak. My force was ordered to establish a base here. Three Birds of Prey are in orbit above us. We were surprised to find a Klingon freighter already in orbit when we decloaked. You must leave, now. This outpost is claimed by the Klingon Empire."
"I'm delighted to leave! Just show me where to catch the next shuttle," Riker laughed, hugging Ro tightly to his chest. She smiled, sharing his pleasure.
Tir Graxom was not pleased. This was his moment of victory, and he was the one who should have his arms around the vedek. Tir stepped over the quiet form of a Cardassian lying between Tir and Riker. "Leave your hands off her, human."
"Tir . . . " cautioned Ro.
Riker left his arms where they were, but his blue eyes flashed with a cold fire at the younger man's challenge. "I don't hear the lady complaining. What right do you have to complain?"
On the ground behind Tir, a blood-smeared figure began to stir. Dokan, lying unconscious from an energy blast that had stunned but not killed him, began to come awake. Most of the blood covering Dokan flowed out of his friend Gantak's body as it was torn apart by a Klingon blade, well after Dokan had fallen to the ground. Had the victors realized Dokan was unconscious, not dead, they would never have stood so casually, right next to him.
A disoriented Dokan at first was confused to find he was lying on rocky ground, staring up at the sky. Turning his head slightly, Dokan saw the prisoner. The one in solitary. Here, above ground. Riker.
I know my duty, thought Dokan, his hand tightening on the disruptor he had in his hand. This prisoner is the cause of our defeat!
That Thomas Riker was far from the only cause for the Cardassian defeat mattered not at all to Dokan. He would be the one to pay for all the deaths. Dokan would see to it. Raising his arm suddenly, he pulled the trigger of his disruptor.
It was strange,. Riker seemed to grow another body just as Dokan fired. This shorter Riker, clad in golden clothes, shouted something incoherently in Bajoran. "She is mine!" Dokan thought vaguely, No, whoever she is, she will be mine - to kill - but only after Riker is dead. The weapon jumped in his hand as it discharged into the golden figure before him.
Tir Graxom reached out and thrust the human's arm away from his Ro, unaware that his action had pushed her to the ground. She was his prize, his to bring back into the Maquis fold. But why was his back and side suddenly on fire, as if all the blood were boiling in his veins? Suddenly Tir Graxom wanted only to sink down onto his knees and pray to the Prophets for a return to strength. Somehow, his knees had disappeared, or perhaps they'd only gone numb. He couldn't say.
As a light suffused the scene in front of him with a bright clarity, Tir saw Riker go down on his knees in front of him. Only then did he see that Ro was down, too. She threw her arms around Riker, when before his arms encircled her. Tir tried to speak, but his voice seemed to be gone again. Only sight and sound were left. He heard Ro call a name. The name was not his. "Riker! Thomas Riker! Don't you dare die on me, Riker!"
Tir heard a roaring in his ears, a wild sound, a climax. Something bounced by him, just barely within sight. Some kind of oddly shaped ball thumped dully as it passed, spraying something all over him as it rolled away.
Come hold me, Ro, Tir Graxom tried to say, but his mouth would no longer obey him. Sounds faded. There was no longer any light, any sound. No heart beat in Tir Graxom's chest to pump his blood, boiling hot from a disruptor blast fired at close range. His eyelids seemed to be so light, like feathers, yet it was so very dark, as Tir's soul began its long journey back to the light, back to the Prophets.
The Klingon commander was incensed when he saw that what he had taken to be a Cardassian corpse was an unexpectedly alive enemy firing his disruptor. Balth was not going to let a dying Cardassian murder an ally unpunished. Not at his outpost.
With a casual flick of the bat'leth, Balth decapitated the audacious Cardassian. He was pleased his blade would not be denied the opportunity to taste the sweet blood of an enemy on the field of battle. It was a good day to die after all - especially if you were a Cardassian.