A/N Thanks for those reviews guys. Much appreciated. I also wanted to apologize for the lack of Chakotay and Seven interaction. I purposely did it that way because I hated how it was done on Voyager when they just threw them together out of nowhere. I want to slowly build them up to be together, but I promise it's going to happen.

Chapter 35

In Her Father's Chair

The Ares

Bridge

"I called you back because we've been getting strange readings around the ship." Chakotay told Odo, as the changeling, Dax, Tabrin, and Seven walked onto the Bridge.

Relieving the Ensign that was at OPS, Dax took her station and frowned as she read the readout on her console. "Commander, these readings are cloaking signatures. They're all around us."

"What!" Chakotay yelled out in confusion as he looked back at her. At that same moment Kes and Tuvok ran out onto the Bridge.

"Commander... we... we have to get out of here." Kes told Chakotay breathlessly as she gave him a worried glance.

"Kes, I don't have time for..."

"Commander she was in the throws of a powerful vision as I was training her in the proper use of her abilities." Tuvok cut in. "And might I remind you sir, but her precognitive powers have proven useful before."

"Sir, some vessels are decloaking." Odo reported.

'Damn it might be too late to run now.' Chakotay thought to himself. "Tuvok assist Odo at Tactical. I have a feeling he's going to need the extra help. Dax, put those ships onscreen."

As they did what he requested, Chakotay's eyes bugged out of his head as he looked past the thirteen Kazon vessels and locked onto two Galor class Cardassian ships and the Kazon battleship Predator that hung in the background.

"What the hell are the Cardassian's doing out here?" Kira asked of no one in particular as she sat up in her chair.

"And when did they and more importantly the Kazon get cloaking technology?" Chakotay said as he and Kira came to the same conclusion at the same time. "Valerie and Seska."

"Four Kazon vessels are breaking pursuit and are closing fast." Odo reported.

"Hail them." Chakotay ordered, trying to stop his heart from beating so fast.

"No response." Dax spoke up.

"Shields to full power." Kira ordered.

"They're charging weapons." Tuvok told them. "The ships are firing!"

The Ares shook with the impact of the combined fire power. "Their energy weapons are concentrated on a focal point on our shields." Tuvok reported. "If they keep firing on that point at higher concentrated bursts our shields will collapse."

'Damnit, Valerie. How much did you tell?' Chakotay thought to himself. "Mr. Marsh, come about and take us under their port side. We need to knock out their weapons array if we want to stand a chance."

"Aye sir." the fresh faced young Ensign replied as he went to work. The Ares then dipped and pivoted around, before going under the ships and into a hail of fire.

"Target their weapons array!" Chakotay shouted over the sound of their weapons hitting the ships shields. "Fire at will!"

The Ares blasted the Kazon's shields, directly at the weak spot that they had analyzed when they had first encountered them when they had came to the Delta Quadrant. They managed to get a few clean hits directly on the array, which exploded and sent a shockwave through the vessels, making the power shut off on three of the enemy ships.

"We did it!" Justin shouted happily. "Their shields are down and three of their ships are..."

"Don't get over confident." Chakotay told the younger man. "We still have a long battle ahead of us."

As if to prove his point, one of the larger Kazon vessels dipped under their comrades ship and the Ares took a volley of energy weapons right to it's bow. The ship shook so hard that the crew was thrown out of their seats.

"Report!" Chakotay shouted as he got to his feet.

"Mom...?" Tabrin asked as she ran over and saw that her mother was on the floor and knocked unconscious.

Looking over at Kira, Chakotay saw that she was bleeding from her forehead and knocked out. "Get her to Sickbay." he told Tabrin as he gave Kes a nod so she could help her. Seeing that they had gotten her out of the way, Seven looking after them as they went, Chakotay looked over to Odo for his report.

"They managed to punch through our forward shields!" Odo said gruffly, as he got to his feet and typed into his console . "They knocked out the main and the backup sensor array."

"Mr. Marsh, get us out of here!" Chakotay shouted, as he sat back down in his command chair.

"In what direction, sir!" Ensign Marsh shouted back.

"Oh, for the love of my people's spirits, we're in space!" Chakotay shouted with wide eyes. He hated to admit it but he'd never have this problem with Tom, because the pilot instinctively knew what to do. "Pick a direction, go to warp, and try not to crash into one of the enemy ships!"

As he said that the Ares took some more hits from more enemy vessels that joined into the fight.

"That last hit took out Helm control." Ensign Marsh reported. "We're trapped."

As the ship was hit even more, under heavy attack by even more vessels, explosions sounded off through the ship.

"We've lost our shields." Tuvok told Chakotay.

"And I still don't have Helm control." Ensign Marsh informed him.

"Chakotay to Engineering." Chakotay said as he heard explosions going off over the comline. "Engineering, report."

'That last hit took out the starboard nacelle.' B'Elanna reported. 'We're dead in the water. Bridge! Bridge!'

"B'Elanna!" Chakotay shouted back as the comline went dead. "Damnit!"

The ship was rocked even harder than before as the attack still continued. Buckling under the stress, fires started to burn on the Bridge and all throughout the ship.

"We've got hull breaches on decks C, D and E." Tuvok reported calmly.

"Close them off." Chakotay said over the hiss of plasma

"The bulkheads and emergency force fields aren't responding." Tuvok informed him. "We're venting atmosphere."

Suddenly the lights flickered twice and went out on the Bridge. Outside of the ship, warp plasma vented from a hole in the starboard nacelle.

Engineering

Hearing a man screaming as fire burned all around her, B'Elanna turned and used an extinguisher on a burning crewman. "Get him to Sickbay!" she snapped at a man that was standing beside her.

"Yes ma'am." the crewman replied as he grabbed his comrade and started to take him out of the room.

"Torres to the Bridge." she said as she hit a panel on one of her engineering consoles. "If you can hear me, I've got plasma leaks all over the place. We're evacuating. Everybody out!" she yelled over the fire as her people started to run out of the room.

Fire suddenly burst out from a small hole on the outer hull of the ship. Panicking, B'Elanna ran to put a force field around the warp core, to protect their only way of making it home. As she started, the computer she was working on exploded, making her fall backwards screaming in pain and clutching at her face as blood gushed out of the second and third degree burns on her face.

Coming back into the room, Sgt. O'Brien looked at the warp core and saw sparks start to shoot out from it. Scanning the warp core with his tricorder, he cursed under his breath as he noticed how unstable it was. Quickly finishing B'Elanna's work, the console he was working on exploded, spewing fragments of debris around engineering. Grabbing B'Elanna, they got out just in time as the emergency bulk heads started to seal off the room.

The Bridge

As Tom finally made it to the Bridge, he relieved Ensign Justin Marsh at the Helm and no sooner did he sit down another blast rocked the ship and made a plasma conduit spark knocking Chakotay out of his seat and to the floor.

"Chakotay!" Seven cried as she ran to his side and held his head in her lap.

"Seven, I..." was all Chakotay could say as he passed out.

Feeling his pulse, she found that he still had one but it was very weak. Before she could do anything further, her eyes suddenly glazed over and for a few seconds she heard her brother's voice whisper into her ear. It was one word that resonated in her mind over and over again and unlocked something in her mind. A hidden protocol. It was a simple word. The word was fight.

Her eyes returning to normal, she gently laid Chakotay's head on the floor and stood to her feet. Seeing Dax about to stand up from her station, presumably to take Chakotay's place, Seven put up her right hand.

"Commander, hold your station." Seven said as she sat down in her father's chair. "Constable, load torpedoes with a maximum warhead yield. Start destroying the nearest ships around us. That should give the rest of them something to think about."

"Commander?" Odo asked as he looked to Dax.

"Do it!" Dax shouted back to him as she saw the enemy coming back for another attack.

Doing as he was told, the Bridge crew watched as five photon torpedoes screamed into the forward shielding of the nearest Kazon battleship, blasting it into flying debris. Coming out of the other side of the vessel, it hit two more, destroying them as well.

"It seems that some of the Kazons are retreating behind the Cardassian ships." Tuvok reported.

"Do not worry about them." Seven said as she sat up in her chair. "Fire the maximum setting of phasers at targets alpha and beta." As she said that they watched the main viewer and saw phaser beams dancing across the hull of both Kazon battleships, crushing their shields. Taking the advantage Tuvok followed up with a few torpedoes that left them disabled and drifting. Seeing that the Ares was starting to gain momentum, the Kazons broke off their attack. At least for the moment. "The Cardassians are responsible for this. Hail them."

"They're responding," said Dax.

"On screen." Seven replied through narrowed eyes as she sat back in her seat.

Dukat appeared on the main screen and smiled as he saw the Ares Bridge cloaked in smoke on a dark, ruined Bridge.

"Where's my father?" asked Seven.

"You must be Seven Sisko?" Dukat asked with a wide smile. "Somehow I thought you'd be... over weight."

"I repeat where's my father!" Seven growled out, her eyes blazing.

"He's dead." Dukat lied with a smile, as one of his ships went back to firing on the Ares.

As the ship shook again Seven's breath started to come out in ragged huffs. "Fire on us again and you will be as well." Seven told him as she sat up in her chair again. "Call off your little fleet or you will die."

"Well let's do a quick review." Dukat said with a raised eyebrow. "You are on the edge of defeat, while I still have most of my ships intact... hmmm what to do..." he trailed off with a laugh. "It's a pity really, because it's a shame to destroy such beauty."

"She's not that pretty." they heard Seska's voice say in the background, the sound of her voice made Seven's body itch and for her to grip her armrests tightly.

"Get him off the screen." Seven ordered. Doing as she requested, Dukat let out a little huff as his face was replaced with some of his advancing ships. "Apply ablative hull armor."

As the armor lifted around the ship, the Kazon fleet, along with Predator started to surround the Ares again. Deciding to go after the lead ship, four photon torpedoes streaked through the black and struck Predator dead on, blasting away it's shields and making it explode.

Flying through it's debris the remaining battleships fired on the Ares with their main blasters. The force of the blasts made Seven grab her armrests to keep from getting thrown out of her chair.

"Ablative shielding down to forty percent." Tuvok announced.

"Mr. Paris, can you get us out of here?" Seven asked.

"Warp drive is still not responding," Tom replied as he kept tapping at his console that was black from lack of the proper amount of power being fed into it.

"Engineering, report!" Seven yelled as the ship started to fall apart around them.

"There was an explosion in, Engineering." Dax reported. "More then likely they had to evacuate."

"If you have anymore tricks up your sleeve, Miss Sisko I'd suggest you start using them now." Odo urged.

As the Kazon continued to cut the Ares into pieces, bodies began to float out of hull breaches on the ship, leaving the Bridge crew to sit wide-eyed and silent, waiting for the end, all except Seven, who sat in her father's chair with her eyes closed.

A/N If you're liking this please review...