Chapter XII
Immediately after they had left the fleet, Data and Odo had set course for the co-ordinates of what Starfleet Intelligence had always believed to be the new home planet of the Founders.
Based on the information from the USS Defiant's sensor logs from their mission to save Odo's life and on Starfleet's own intelligence gathering operations, they had worked out to within a reasonable probability which planet was now home to the changelings. Not only that, but Odo had developed a sort of sixth sense regarding the location of his home planet, ever since the first mission undertaken by the Defiant inside the Gamma Quadrant. He was fairly sure that this planet was the one.
The Missouri came out of warp speed at the edge of the system, hoping to spot any Jem'Hadar patrols nearby before they spotted the Starfleet runabout. However, much to its pilots' surprise, they did not see any Jem'Hadar ships anywhere.
They headed towards the second planet, an unexceptional mottled brown sphere in space. Bringing the runabout in for a landing, they watched, amazed, as they saw the dried and barren planet below them. Odo turned to Data. 'If the Founders were ever here, they're long gone by now.'
Data glanced down at the planet again, his face worried. 'Do you think that the Aralla might have come through the wormhole?'
'It's possible. However, from what I know of the Dominion, they wouldn't be running quite so easily.'
'True,' said Data. 'I have an idea. If I recalibrate the sensors, I should be able to pick up the Jem'Hadar ships' ion trail.' He set to work quickly, and, two minutes later, he began scanning.
'I am reading a faint ion trail leading on a course of 195 mark 62. Its signature corresponds to the trail left by Jem'Hadar ships when they go into warp.'
Odo turned to his controls. 'Setting course 195 mark 62. Warp 4.' The runabout leaped into warp speed. Data sat back.
Watching the stars streak past silently, he had time to wonder about why he had decided to leave the fleet. Odo had the interests of the fleet in his mind when he had decided to leave, knowing that he was one of the only people whom the Founders would listen to. However, Data could not point to a similar reason. Indeed, he was worried that the only reason he had left the fleet for was a selfish one.
Will Riker's unexpected death on the Enterprise had left Data with great feelings of guilt and remorse. He had not been in the position of having to watch his friends die around him before. Although Deanna's death on the Azetbur had been a shock and Dr. Crusher's death at Picard's hands horrifying, Data had personally looked into Riker's dead eyes and seen the horror there.
And realised, for the first time in his life, that he did not, under any circumstances, want to die.
The runabout suddenly shook violently, and Data and Odo both stared from the window as a bright flare in the darkness dazzled them for a moment. The runabout had been dragged out of warp speed by the opening of the darkness to reveal -
'That's the wormhole!' shouted Odo.
The wormhole swirled open brightly, casting white light across the hull of the Missouri. And within the light, there was darkness.
'The Aralla!' said Data, his voice shocked. The sleek dark shapes of the mother ships sailed from the wormhole, instantly overshadowing the tiny runabout. As they headed past, seeming even larger from the cramped cockpit of the runabout, a blue beam of energy shot out and snatched the Missouri.
The runabout shook hard as she was thrown off her course violently. Data and Odo started to resist the beam, but it became clear that the Missouri was nowhere near powerful enough. Quickly, they were drawn up towards the massive expanse of black hull.
Data leaned back, shaking his head hopelessly, and Odo glared at the instruments. 'We cannot resist a tractor beam of this magnitude,' said Data. He grinned slightly. 'We might as well find out what the inside of this ship looks like.'
Odo nodded resignedly. 'I wonder why they didn't immediately attack us. There's nothing in their previous behaviour that indicates a desire other to try and destroy us all.'
'Maybe they've become curious at last, or maybe they've encountered some sort of problems with the planets that they've colonised, or destroyed. They might wish to examine us.'
Odo pressed a few controls. 'Well, if they want to examine us, they'll have no objection to us examining them.'
Data smiled again, but could not shake off the feeling that he should not be smiling.
Along the huge expanse of Aralla hull, dotted at intermittent intervals, were small openings. (Relatively speaking. Each one was at least two miles wide). Within these glowed green lights that reminded Data of the scanner used by the first city destroyer when it attacked the Enterprise, long ago, over Korella II. Data could only marvel at the sheer scale of the engineering feat which had been perverted to such a cruel end.
Eventually, the Missouri soared up towards a giant rupture in the side of the hull. Irregular, looking for all the world like a giant maw, it was nevertheless occupied and used. Attack planes and slightly larger, unfamiliar ships flitted in and out of the immense hole. The Missouri entered the Aralla mother ship.
A long darkened tunnel stretched out before them, straddled by huge struts, that could have been for support or use as corridors. The blue beam kept pulling them along at a gentle pace towards the end of the tunnel, beyond which was only a blue glow. Finally, they reached the end of the tunnel, and they both could see the true size of what they confronted.
There was a massive expanse of deck, stretching away beyond what even Data could see. There were huge spiralling pillars stretching up into the distant roof that curved up into a series of concave shapes. The view would have been uninterrupted in every direction, if a blue mist hanging all through the cavernous interior had not obscured it. The entire bay glowed with small twinkling lights.
Around each pillar were clustered hundreds upon thousands of the tiny attack planes, more than had been used at any of the battles so far. Each was arranged in a group of six, with each group centred in a pentagonal formation around a central fighter, clearly delineating the squadron leader.
Data gasped at the audacious scale of the ship. 'It's the biggest thing that I've ever seen in my life.' Even Odo couldn't repress a gape of astonishment.
As they continued on their journey, it was as if they had been given a chance to glimpse hell itself. Reptilian architecture insinuated itself throughout the giant vessel, it's animal curves enhanced by the looming shadows cast by the intermittent lights spread throughout. The blue fog, instead of making the obscurity amusing, instead made it horrifying. From each patch, a spiralling pillar emerged, originating somewhere in the darkness below, and rising to the lofty unseen ceiling far above them.
Data believed that what they were seeing was significant in some way. 'It is possible that their organisational structure is linked to their psychological makeup,' he said offhandedly to Odo. 'Many species behave in similar fashion. I will devote time to that subject. It could be the key.' He glanced at the changeling, who had an expression of surprise on his face. 'I have a hunch,' explained Data.
Eventually, the Missouri was brought closer to one of the pillar-like structures. It became clear that they were intended to dock with it, although if the runabout would be able to was another matter entirely. As they came closer, they could see the attack planes linking up to the pillar, whilst the more unfamiliar ships sailed past on errands unknown.
The entire ship was a macrocosm of the Aralla society, Data slowly began to realise. Individual units, functioning as a whole. Building up from individual Aralla all the way to the immense city destroyers, each one had only a single specific objective in mind – to further the interests of the Aralla race at the cost of all else.
It was similar to the way in which both the Jem'Hadar and the Borg behaved. For the Jem'Hadar, death meant nothing if it would serve the best interests of the Dominion, and for the Borg, assimilated into a Collective mind, there was no such thing as an individual. They were all drones.
However, the Aralla were different. Instead of being genetically engineered to achieve that aim, like the Jem'Hadar, or enslaved against their will, like the Borg, the Aralla had chosen this way of life willingly. A society of individuals had evolved into a society based around the group structure, submerging themselves willingly in the, for want of a better word, collective. The Aralla were an evolutionary anomaly, compared to what had become the norm for this galaxy's species.
But this very centralised structure itself brought weaknesses, and Data knew that he had found the key to defeating the Aralla. Now all he had to do was live long enough to get this information to the fleet.
The Missouri suddenly jolted to a halt, and a large pair of claw-like docking clamps swung out and grasped the runabout firmly. Immediately, the blue glow died away, and they were left suspended. A moment later, a large pylon began to extend from the pillar towards the hatch on the hull of the runabout. It was obvious as to their intentions. It made a contact with the runabout which rang through the Missouri.
Data looked at Odo. 'We seem to be wanted.' A scrabbling came at the hatch, followed by the sound of the lock being forced.
Both of them grabbed phasers from the rack underneath the main console, and took the precious little cover behind the chairs. Levelling their weapons at the hatch, they waited.
They did not have long to wait. The hatch suddenly buzzed and slid aside, revealing confirmation of what the Enterprise had discovered on Veridian III.
Two of the tall alien creatures stood there, their tentacles waving aimlessly. Immediately, Data fired, followed a moment later by Odo. The twin beams caught one of them in the torso, and it fell without a sound. The other, faster than even Data could register the movement, lashed out a tentacle and snatched the phaser from Data's hand. Reversing and aiming it, even as Odo tracked towards the Aralla, it fired, sending the changeling crashing into the console. Data stared at the emotionless Aralla face.
'I will not offer any resistance. I am unarmed.'
The Aralla shot him.
The Aralla commander had taken a personal interest in this event. He had ordered the capture personally after the sensors had registered the tiny vessel. They had not detected the presence of any vermin, but two new forms of life. Obviously, they were not superior to the Aralla, but they were different.
The commander differed from many others of his race and, indeed, his spawning. He was inquisitive and curious, although not to the point of being overly interested in what they found. Under his leadership, the Aralla had made many new discoveries and scientific advances. His curiosity had been piqued by the presence of the ship which rested in their docking bays.
The vermin fleet they had decided to pursue had proven itself to be immensely durable and resourceful. However, after their recent experiences, it had come as no surprise.
Long before they had fled the other universe, they had attacked the small, unspectacular blue planet that they had destroyed in this universe. The entire thing had been a disaster from start to finish. Although their initial strikes had gone without a hitch, the vermin had regrouped and destroyed their entire attack force. They had lost a mother ship, and more than five billion Aralla in that assault.
They had somehow brought down the shields of every ship, and destroyed the mother ship with some form of explosive device. The current commander's predecessor had been executed for that blunder. Consequently, the vermin – the prisoners they had occasionally taken had identified themselves as humans – had hunted them mercilessly, and the Aralla discovered that they had made a deadly and implacable enemy, one which had managed to find their weaknesses. Weaknesses that, due to a cultural and psychological blind spot, the Aralla had failed to acknowledge for too long.
They were hunted across the galaxy for years by the humans. Every time they had stood and fought, mostly in the early days, their ships had proven themselves inadequate for the first time and they had fallen in battle, over and over again.
Casualties became astronomical. Hiding places became fewer in number as the humans spread out. It became more and more difficult to produce more and more Aralla from spawnings. The numbers dwindled from a host that had marched across the galaxy to a mere forty mother ships.
And then, they had been directed to the dimensional rift. They had found the planet beneath which it lay, and tried to force it open for many years. Eventually, an unexpected influx of energy from the other side of the rift had opened it, and the Aralla had fled through.
However, just before the portal had been closed forever by the attack from this side, the commander had received word that the ships left on the other side had come under heavy attack from the humans. Undoubtedly, now, all that was left of the Aralla race was on this side of the gateway.
So, in a blind rage, the Aralla commander had ordered an attack on the nearest planet on this side of the portal. And they had discovered the ship.
The ship that had been involved in all of the major battles since. The ship which had led from the front.
The ship that contained the humans.
The Aralla had been thrown into turmoil when their scans had revealed the presence of the humans aboard this ship. However, the commander had realised quickly that these humans had never seen the Aralla before. If they had been in any way associated with the humans from the other side, the Aralla could have been sure that an attack was soon to follow. And, given that these new humans were at a higher level of technological development than the humans on the other side, the Aralla would not have stood a chance. The commander was astute enough to realise this.
So, in revenge for the attempted extermination of the Aralla, he had ordered an all out attack to begin. This universe would be purged of the human race.
And, unexpectedly, they had discovered different lifeforms. They all looked a little like the humans, but seemed to be at odds with each other. There had been a big debate over that one. However, the commander made his decision. If they were not Aralla, they were vermin. They would perish, the same as the humans would fall.
And then, the commander had come up with a phrase that he had been quite proud of. When the debate had been going full swing, he had decided that they would attack and destroy everything. He had injected the phrase into the minds of everyone there. "We shall be their final reckoning."
And, so far, they had been victorious. They had copied their technology, their weapons, their faster-than-light drive. They had devastated them all. Their scanners had revealed that they had inflicted casualties higher than their wildest expectations. When the small blue planet had fallen, the Aralla had rejoiced.
Eventually, they had reached a little surprise. The humans had made a stand at another planet, and had been defeated. Suddenly, they had opened a hole in space and fled into it.
The Aralla had been amazed. They had not encountered anything like it. They had sent a few scoutships to investigate, and had discovered that they had been able to use it themselves. Fears that it had been another new human weapon were proven to be unfounded.
They had found that it transported them to another part of the galaxy, almost two hundred lexxons away. And another argument began.
However, the commander had grown to become more autocratic than before. He had stopped the argument abruptly, and decreed that they would go through and destroy the fleet that opposed them.
And under all of their victorious bluster and swagger, the Aralla supported him because their fear of the humans ran so deep.
They had found this ship as they had come out of the hole in space. Sensors had revealed that it contained two new lifeforms. One was an odd blend of organic matter, but the other was something that had never been encountered before. It appeared to be a machine that displayed almost human readings.
If this was a new breed of human, they needed to know their weaknesses. And so, the commander gave the order to capture and examine them. They needed to know. They needed to prove themselves the superior race.
They needed to erase their fear.
The darkened room contained two bodies for the first time since it had been built. They were both laid as if they had been dumped there carelessly. There was no source of illumination, but a window permitted the stars to provide dim light for them.
Data awoke first, his operating systems providing sensory data relevant to waking up from a phaser stun. In other words, he had a pounding headache. He glanced across at Odo, his face concerned for a moment, but when the changeling stirred, Data breathed a sigh of relief.
Odo sat up, anger written across his face before the realisation set in. 'Where are we?' he asked. Data stood up and ran a quick self-diagnostic.
'I'm not sure. We were stunned, and then….' He glanced around. 'They obviously have a use for us.' His hand went to his head automatically, but he brushed the front of his uniform while he performed the movement. Feeling a lumpy stitch there, directly above where a human heart would have been. He frowned and glanced at Odo. There was no mark on his uniform, and the changeling had evidently noticed Data's preoccupation, as he glanced down at his uniform.
'What the hell have they been doing to us?' asked Data rhetorically.
Odo had more immediate concerns. 'They've taken my phaser.' Data nodded, and then his hand went to his side. The reassuring feel of his phaser was still there. Data frowned.
'Why haven't they taken it?' he muttered, puzzled.
Odo levered himself to his feet and stared from the window. Data joined him.
Below was a dark planet, but not dark due to shadow of light. Dark due to the black smoke that curled up into the atmosphere from burning cities and land. It was obvious what had caused the devastation, and, a moment later, any doubts were dispelled when the city destroyers hove into view from beyond the dark horizon.
'The Aralla have arrived in the Gamma Quadrant,' said Odo quietly, as they watched the planet burn. 'I wonder if they've encountered the Dominion yet.'
'What will the Jem'Hadar make of them?' wondered Data.
'Rumour has it the Jem'Hadar fleet was destroyed easily at Cardassia Prime,' said Odo.
'They use the same weapons as us, and the same basic technology,' added Data. 'The Aralla will not have worried.'
'What did you mean earlier about the organisational structure?' asked Odo unexpectedly.
'Sociological observations? At a time like this?'
Odo shrugged, ignoring the sarcasm. 'We don't appear to be able to do anything.'
Data accepted his point. 'In battle, the Aralla attacks have always been very structured. They launch the attack planes first, then the city destroyers, and then the mother ships act as back-up. They never deviate from that set pattern.'
Odo sat down and looked up at Data questioningly. 'What can you infer from that?'
Data sat as well. 'As we came through the mother ship, we saw a highly centralised structure again. Ships arranged in particular formations and so on. It strikes me that they have a highly centralised culture. There are individual units, but they are subservient to the whole. We also know that they are telepathic. It is possible that they have a linked hivemind, similar to the Borg Collective.'
'But we have not seen them assimilate anyone yet,' said Odo. 'The Borg set out purposefully to assimilate people into their Collective, whereas the Aralla destroy.'
'The Borg are linked to a computer system as well,' replied Data, his mind a long way ahead of Odo. 'We have no evidence to suggest that the Aralla are similarly linked. It is possible that they are telepathic but not linked. That would explain certain behavioural anomalies, inconsistent with typical behaviour patterns if they were linked into a collective.'
'They have individual minds, you mean?'
'Exactly,' said Data. 'I believe that we are looking at an evolved group structure, with individuals willingly subservient to a group objective. They behave in a similar fashion to cells in a body. It has often been postulated that a race might evolve like this, but this is the first such race encountered.'
'So, how might we use this against them?'
'I have a theory.' Data used the next ten minutes to outline his hypothesis to the attentive changeling. At the end of the explanation, Odo nodded thoughtfully.
'Do you think there is a reasonable chance of this plan succeeding?'
'Yes,' said Data. 'However, we would need to locate a suitable computer control centre and identify the correct mother ship. We would also need a safe way of getting onboard.'
'So it's going to be difficult to carry out,' said Odo. Data nodded, his face becoming abruptly dejected. Odo smiled. 'But it's better than what we had before. What we need to do is get that plan back to the fleet.'
'What about finding the Jem'Hadar and the Founders?'
'Stuff them,' said Odo shortly. Data blinked, surprised by Odo's annoyed tone. Odo stood and looked out of the window. Whilst they had been talking, the Aralla vessel had gone to warp speed, and starlines were streaking past the window. 'I wonder where we're going?'
Data examined the walls of their cell. Running his fingers along the smooth surface, he found a small indentation in the wall. It was tiny, but Data moved his hand along and found that it ran right the way up to the ceiling. 'I think I've found the way out.' He unholstered his phaser, and Odo touched his arm.
'Do you not wonder why they didn't take it away?'
Data checked it quickly, but could find nothing wrong. He glanced at Odo. 'If they have sabotaged it, they've done it expertly. However, the only way to find out if there is something wrong is to test it. And I'm willing to bet that they have alarms rigged to register if a phaser fires. I intend to give them as little chance as possible of catching us.'
Data finished setting the phaser, and aimed it at the door. 'Shield your eyes,' he remarked offhandedly, and he fired.
A beam of light hit the door squarely in the centre. The black metal seemed to cringe at the touch of light, and soaked it up for a moment. Long rivulets of energy ran like a spiderweb across the door.
However, a moment later, the door folded itself. Spreading outwards to the edges, it was absorbed into the rest of the bulkhead and a dark space had opened up behind it. Data looked at Odo, and took his first voluntary step onto an Aralla vessel.
They were not, as Data had supposed they would have been, stood in a corridor similar to those found on most starships. Instead, they were stood on a long walkway which hugged the wall to their right closely. This was because of a huge fathomless black chasm which dropped down sheer on their left. From within its dark depths came clanks and groans, sounds which Data found annoyingly preoccupying. In addition to this, the lights that were mounted on the wall were dim and sparse in their numbers. Small pools of light were the only relief to the long spaces of pure darkness.
Odo and Data began to hurry along the walkway, simply heading in a direction that they hoped would bring them back to the Missouri. It would not be long before the Aralla discovered their escape.
A moment later, an alarm blared and a strange noise followed it. Odo shouted over the noise, 'Do you think they've spotted us?'
On the far side of the chasm, a side they had not even known was there, a huge spotlight suddenly flared into life, casting an actinic light over them, transfixing them in place. 'Well,' said Data, 'if they didn't then, they do now.'
'That thing must be more than a mile away,' said Odo, shielding his eyes from the light.
Data forced Odo onwards, pausing only to fire a phaser beam into the centre of the light. A moment later, the light blinked out, to be replaced by a cloud of sparks. Data ran on, following Odo's echoing footsteps.
A moment later, a second light, dimmer, focussed upon them, and nearby it, they could see faint tall shapes. From these shapes came beams of energy, exploding around the pair. Data and Odo began to run for their lives, dodging energy blasts that intensified in number but were always a second behind the two Alpha Quadrant fugitives.
Eventually, the pair came to what seemed to be a tunnel, brightly lit and widening into a corridor. Data and Odo threw themselves into it, finally protected from the storm of energy that had accompanied them along the walkway. Behind them, the alarm still blared, but the Aralla had stopped firing. The pair realised that they had only a few brief minutes before they came under attack. 'We need to find the docking bay,' said Odo.
'That's true,' said Data, his mind still partially concentrating on his theory.
They advanced cautiously through the tall and wide corridor, not concentrating on the lofty architecture, but simply watching for the Aralla to come and recapture them. Then, they turned a corner.
The immense docking bay stretched out for miles before them, cold and imposing in its grand loftiness. The blue fog permeated the air, thickening as it got further away. Strange shapes loomed in the murkiness, and whirring, buzzing noises reached their ears.
A short distance away, no more than a couple of miles, the Missouri rested, clamped securely by the Aralla. Data smiled grimly, recognising the task ahead, but knowing that they had been given a chance. The pair hurried quietly along the corridor that weaved to and from the docking bay, sometimes running alongside it, and other times ducking back into the ship, before emerging a little further on.
As they ran along those sections that afforded them a glimpse into the Aralla bays, they could hundreds of what must have been Aralla technicians servicing the attack planes and other ships in and around the giant pillars. Down on the deck of the giant area, a series of small lights glowed in the darkness. These lights, Data realised, must have been miles wide to be seen at this distance through that fog.
Then they turned a corner – and stopped dead.
Before them, in a hangar larger even than the first hangar bay, rested the city destroyers. A hundred glossy black hulls, each one fifteen miles long, and separated from its neighbours by a further two miles, they stretched away into the distance like a field of gigantic landmines.
Data looked at Odo, who was staring, open-mouthed, in horror. Around the destroyers buzzed innumerable attack planes, and the other, larger vessels.
It was a sight that stunned them both so much that they could not speak for the sheer awfulness and size of what they saw before them. Silently, soberly, they turned and left.
The Missouri, as it turned out, was not very far away from the city destroyer bay. Data reached it a run, hammered on the access panel, all the time looking out for Aralla guards, and ducked inside. He was followed swiftly by Odo.
Although it did not appear that the Aralla had made any modifications to the runabout, a large device was connected securely to one of the forward control panels. After an initial abortive attempt to disconnect it by force by Data, he examined it.
It was a simple affair, of two interlocking sections, one interfacing directly with the control surface, and the other disappearing into the panels below the console. At the join of the two sections, a small keypad with unrecognisable alien symbols finished off the device. 'It appears to be a simple lock out code.'
'Can you break it?' asked Odo, coming around to look at the device.
'I can only try,' replied Data, and he sat down and set to work.
Odo sighed. 'It's almost a shame that we don't have Quark here. He was always good at breaking codes.' Data did not reply. Odo turned and went back to the still-open hatch.
As he pressed the control to shut the hatch, Odo turned back to Data. 'Any prog –' The sudden cessation of his voice came a moment before Data heard the thud of his body against the deck. Data swivelled in his chair.
An Aralla had just ducked through the now shut hatch and slammed Odo to the floor with a single efficient blow. Data couldn't tell if he was still alive, and he also had the Aralla advancing on him purposefully. He dodged a swipe from a tentacle, and fled to the other side of the runabout. The Aralla moved quickly again, faster than Data was able to register.
A murderous blow flashed past Data, who barely ducked in time. He moved again, not daring to get too close to the Aralla, but needing to get past it to the phaser cabinet. The creature stepped over Odo's body, and advanced slowly.
Data watched it coming, knew that there was very little chance, and weighed up his options. A swift blur of motion from the Aralla warned him that another attack was coming. A tentacle swept around. Data ducked. The tentacle followed him all the way –
The Aralla stopped, and staggered. Data suddenly realised that he had heard the crack of a phaser beam.
The Aralla fell to the deck, revealing Odo, phaser in hand, behind it.
Data looked at him quizzically. 'What took you so long?' He stood, not expecting an answer, and set to work on the Aralla locking device. Tapping a few commands into it, he was surprised to find it suddenly click, and the device to disconnect itself. He frowned at it for a moment, and then said, 'Oh, well. Never look a gift horse in the mouth.'
Odo gave him a puzzled look.
Data yanked the device from the console, and it came away easily. Sitting down in the pilot's chair, he activated the engines.
The commander knew instantly that something was wrong. He turned in his control room to look through a window that gave a panoramic view of the magnificent hangar bay. However, his pride and joy was not his concern. He looked at a specific area, and saw the vermin ship rip clear of its docking clamps and shoot towards the exit.
He instructed his subordinates, and watched as gun emplacements opened fire.
Weapons fire flashed past them as the Missouri escaped from the mother ship. 'Weapons emplacements?' asked Odo.
'Yes. They don't appear to have launched the attack - Hell!' Data brought the Missouri swiftly into a dive as he saw a cluster of attack planes directly before them. The small fighters pursued the runabout, spitting laser fire.
The runabout pulled away from its pursuers quickly, Data forcing the engines into the red, and weaved its way around the massive pillars, which seemed to loom suddenly out of the fog. Big as they were, they would appear suddenly, forcing Data to adjust sharply.
Abruptly, the laser blasts stopped flashing past and the runabout entered the huge triangular corridor leading to open space. Odo pointed ahead.
'The exit's closing!' Data leaned forward determinedly and gritted his teeth in a human gesture he had not fully understood until now.
'Hold on!' he shouted - and sent the runabout surging forward on two lances of blue light. It shot away from its erstwhile pursuers, and blazed towards the exit. The exit continued to close slowly and it became apparent to Odo that they wouldn't make it. It wasn't apparent to Data.
As the exit shrank to a tiny point, he urged the last power from the engines of the runabout, and the small ship rocketed from the mother ship just as the doors closed.
As the runabout pulled away into free space again, Data hammered in a course that he had set a long time before.
The course to the Delta Quadrant.
The runabout, even as the attack planes poured from the interior of the mother ship, turned its back on the Aralla and flashed into warp speed.
For a single, tense moment, the pair could not relax, convinced that the mother ship was about to lock them in it's tractor beam again.
The scanner bleeped. Data glanced at it, and nodded, unsurprised. 'They're persistent. The mother ship is pursuing at warp five. They'll intercept us in ten minutes.'
Odo turned to face him. 'I'm reading a small star system, three planets, all class-M. We could try and lose them there.'
Data brought the readings up on his screen and looked at them for a moment. 'What about those smaller blips around the planets?'
Odo frowned. 'Asteroids, maybe.'
Data nodded thoughtfully. 'Possibly. Whatever they are, they will shield us from their sensors long enough for us to escape.' He looked back at his readouts. 'Plotting new course.'
The small star system was the perfect hiding place for the Founders, thought Omer'Igal triumphantly. Perfect, unless you were the Jem'Hadar. He turned to his second, Ramel'Eglek. 'Signal the fleet to assume orbital pattern delta. Begin planetary bombardment on my order.'
Ramel'Eglek, one of Omer'Igal's strongest supporters, nodded feverishly. 'Obedience is –'
Omer'Igal held up a hand. 'We have no more need of that stupid creed, Ramel'Eglek. Soon the Founders will be no more. The Dominion will be ours – alone.'
Another Jem'Hadar turned to face Omer'Igal, his face pleased. 'First, we have received word from First Omet'Iklan at Kareel Prime. He reports that his men have seized control of the white producing factories on the planet. He also reports that the bombardment of the Vorta cities is producing high casualty rates. On the Vorta.'
Omer'Igal smiled viciously. He hated the Vorta even more than he hated the Changelings. 'Excellent. Tell Omet'Iklan to wipe out every last Vorta on the planet and to destroy the cloning facilities –' He paused, an audacious thought occurring to him suddenly. 'Tell him to capture the cloning facilities, but to destroy any unborn Vorta embryos. Order our scientists to begin working on a way to counteract the ketracel white.'
The Jem'Hadar nodded and turned to his console again. Then something caught his eye. 'First, there is a small ship coming out of warp!'
Omer'Igal grabbed a headset and donned it in one swift movement. He scanned the starfield until he found the small ship. 'It is a Federation runabout!'
Ramel'Eglek turned, his hand on the weapons console. 'Orders, First?'
'Hail them,' said Omer'Igal.
'Thirty Jem'Hadar warships surrounding the third planet,' warned Odo, his voice tinged with anger.
'Have they launched fighters?' asked Data.
'No yet.' The communications system bleeped. 'We're being hailed.'
'No response,' said Data immediately. 'We're not surrendering.'
'No response,' said Ramel'Eglek.
Omer'Igal nodded, unsurprised. 'That is also the fault of the Founders.'
'Our ships are in position,' said another Jem'Hadar soldier. Omer'Igal watched the runabout as it curved away from the fleet.
'Tell them to open fire.'
'Data, you're not going to believe this.' Odo's voice was quiet, but held a weight of anxiety and sorrow.
'What?' said Data, hearing Odo's tone.
'I've just scanned that planet. I'm reading a single huge life-form on it. It corresponds to the Great Link.'
'We've found them,' said Data quietly. 'That's why the Jem'Hadar are there –'
'They've just begun bombarding the planet,' said Odo, his voice tortured.
Data turned and looked at him, worry in his face. 'Odo?'
'I can feel them dying,' groaned the changeling. He clutched the console hard, his hands blurring and melting into the gel that he was made of. Data could only watch, amazed, as Odo felt his people die.
White energy blasts sizzled into the atmosphere of the planet, exploding on the surface far below. With each explosion, Odo felt a surge of pain, fear and death running through him. He felt their deaths as if he was experiencing the entire destruction in his own body.
From space, through the cloudy bronze atmosphere, explosions rippled along the surface as the Founders were ruthlessly exterminated.
Then the Aralla mother ship came out of warp.
Omer'Igal watched in horror and amazement as the immense vessels dropped out of warp, overshadowing the Jem'Hadar fleet. Ramel'Eglek's hands were shaking slightly as the Aralla arrived. 'So this is the mystery fleet that's invaded the Alpha Quadrant,' murmured Omer'Igal.
'Orders?' asked Ramel'Eglek again.
'We will complete our task. Order our heaviest ships to form a perimeter and to hold off these ships until the we have completed our mission.'
'Yes, First.'
Long-range weapons fire joined the two fleets, both the Aralla and the Jem'Hadar forgetting the Missouri in the heat of battle, something which suited both Data and Odo. As the attack planes launched, the Missouri accelerated to warp speed.
'I've picked up a strong warp trail. It's the fleet.'
'How far away?' Odo's voice held anger and sadness mixed together. He was stood at the back of the runabout, a position he had occupied since the bombardment had begun on the Founders' planet.
'Five months at our top speed, and accelerating,' said Data. 'However, with a bit of luck, we ought to be able to make a rendezvous in thirteen months.'
'Oh, joy,' said Odo neutrally.
'If you don't like it, you can get off,' said Data wryly. Odo forced a smile.
Suddenly, the portion of Data's brain that had been devoted to analysing the Aralla finally clicked together all of the pieces of the puzzle that had eluded him. 'It's so obvious,' said Data faintly, stunned by the conclusion his brain had reached.
'Sorry?'
'The Aralla. I know how to defeat them.' The last sentence came out as a hoarse impassioned whisper. 'It's all so obvious. We've seen them adapt and change every time we've encountered them. We didn't think that they had warp drive until after the battle for Romulus, but their ships reached Oprasha, our fall-back point, before we did. They couldn't have got there before us, no matter how many reinforcements they had, and they also couldn't have reached Romulus from their point of origin. Warp drive is the most difficult form of technology to invent, but also to copy. They may have had a very primitive kind of warp technology that allowed them to take short warp jumps. Lithium crystals would provide that sort of capability, for a few hours at least. And Korella II is very rich in lithium.' Data smiled, but his face was grim at the stupidity with which he had viewed the entire war. 'Damn me! I should have worked this out a long time ago! That's the reason they attacked Korella II in the first place! It's how they managed to reach Romulus!' Data slapped himself on the forehead and gazed at Odo ruefully. 'I am a total fool.'
Odo nodded noncommittally. 'What else?'
'We know their hulls are polymorphic. I suspected they respond to some form of electromagnetic pulse. It's possible that I could have also been wrong about that.'
'I understood no-one knew very much about polymorphic metals,' said Odo doubtfully.
'True. However, their technology has gone in a different direction to ours. We know they're telepathic. I suspect that they have designed their vessels out of one single section of polymorphic metal. Each and every one of those ships could be connected in ways I can only guess at. It's a bit like the Borg, but the Aralla are not completely dependent on a groupmind like the Borg.'
Odo shook his head, and sat down. 'Data, what are you saying? I don't understand where you're getting this information from.'
'I've had a chance to review the sensor records that we made when we were drawn into the Aralla ship. We made a complete spectrographic analysis, power flow scan, everything. In addition to that, I scanned that Aralla there.' He jerked a thumb back at the body now deposited on the transporter pad. 'I have a good idea of their internal makeup.' Data sighed. 'The scans revealed that a large amount of power is siphoned off to only two or three locations in each ship. Weapons and propulsion, life support and two or three massive cryogenic units.'
'Cryogenic?'
Data shrugged. 'However, they leave large sections of their ships unpowered. No life support or anything. I suspect that they have most of their population in hibernation, and only have warriors currently in those ships. That would explain why they needed to make their mother ships so large. They could be carrying hundreds of millions of Aralla at this moment.'
'That's not good,' agreed Odo. 'How did you come up with your other theories?'
'The scan of the hull revealed no joins or indications of any kind that those hulls have been built out of separate pieces of hull metal. They are totally seamless. We know for a fact that their hulls are polymorphic. That leads me to believe that those ships were grown and moulded more than built and constructed. It's possible, with their telepathic abilities, that they have designed polymorphic metal that responds to a mental signal rather than an electromagnetic one. That would explain their swift development of weapons before Earth. They could just mould their ships to whatever form they wished. That would mean that, instead of using multiple sheets of metal to build their ships, they could use a single large piece of polymorphic material and simply shape it using their mental power.'
'Simple and effective,' remarked Odo levelly. 'So, how does this help us?'
'It's possible, because of this connection between ships that I mentioned, that their computers may also be linked similarly. That would mean that if we could get the invasive program onboard a central computer of some kind, we might be able to bring their shields down.'
'Logical. How do you propose to find out?'
Data looked thoughtful. 'I will have to review the sensor logs again, to find out where the centre of computer activity is. Then….' He trailed off, still looking thoughtful.
Odo still had one further question. 'Why do you think they took us onboard?'
Data did not look at him. 'I have a feeling that that is something which we will never know.'
Odo nodded slowly. Data did look at him now. 'How about you? Are you feeling all right?'
'Yes,' said the changeling. 'I can't feel anything now.'
'What happened?' The android did not want to mention specifically what he meant, knowing that Odo would know anyway.
Odo shrugged. 'Impossible to tell. I could sense the Great Link on the planet. I could feel all of the other changelings there. I could almost touch the Link itself.'
Data frowned. 'How do you mean?'
'It was as though it was reaching out to me,' said Odo, his voice distant. 'I've never felt it like that before.' He fell silent, and there was a pause.
'And then the Jem'Hadar opened fire,' said Data quietly. 'What did it feel like?'
'It felt like I was having my mind torn apart. I could hear their screams and feel their pain. It was the most horrific experience of my life. I nearly went mad.'
Data shook his head. 'Why did they do that? I thought they regarded the Founders as gods.'
Odo stared out of the viewport sadly. 'I guess it's something we'll just never know.'
The commander of the Aralla fleet watched silently as his ships opened fire on the puny defenders before them.
These new ships had been seen when they had attacked one of the planets on the other side of the gateway. Their weapons had proved just as ineffective against the Aralla as the ships of the humans.
Still, it proved an amusing diversion. A battleship exploded before him in a blaze of fire, and he watched as a squadron of smaller vessels flew through their late partner's resting place and opened fire on his mother ship. Behind them, the rest of the small fleet still fired into the atmosphere of the planet.
The captives they had taken had proven themselves to be extraordinary. Their escape had been an annoyance, because a prime scientific opportunity had been lost.
Still, thought the commander as he turned away from the battle, the weapon they had taken was proving itself to be of inordinate value also. Copies had been made, and the mind residue had told them how to operate them.
It was all helping their conquest.
The decision had been made. The Aralla would advance onwards.