Chapter XXII
'I'm impressed,' said Captain Chakotay. 'He's even given the Maquis a separate say in the alliance.'
'Think you can get along with the Cardassians?' asked Neelix mischieviously.
'I got along with you, didn't I?' replied Chakotay in the same tone. Neelix grinned briefly before bustling off on other business in the mess hall.
Chakotay agreed totally with the aims and ideals of the alliance, it had to be said, and as he looked across at the unified crews of the Maquis and Starfleet that co-existed aboard Voyager quite peacefully, he admitted to himself that it seemed possible that it would succeed. It would require a strong leader, but from what he knew, Ben Sisko was that leader. Backed by Picard himself, he had to be good.
Chakotay frowned suddenly, aware that during his sweeping glance, he had seen something that he hadn't taken in. He looked up from the padd again.
B'Elanna was sat on her own in the corner, staring at the stars. Chakotay watched her for a moment, but she did not move. Concentration now disturbed, he set down the padd.
Chakotay had become increasingly worried about B'Elanna. Although she carried out her duties with the same efficiency, a lot of the enjoyment that she displayed, and got out of the job, had dissipated in the weeks since Tom's death. The death of Janeway had also hit her hard – but Chakotay had seen her take vicious blows like that before and always come back well. Now, she was – well, Chakotay hated the term, but it was almost uncannily like pining away.
Why?
At the same moment that Chakotay decided to stand up and go to her side, B'Elanna seemed to rouse herself, and she stood, and left the mess hall. Chakotay looked after her, a worried expression on his dark face.
Data entered the silent hangar bay, and stood for a moment, looking up at the dark Aralla fighter before him. He observed its graceful lines, its feeling of barely suppressed speed, and its almost reptilian sinuosity. At the same time, Data felt the impending attack on the Aralla fleet grow ever closer, felt blackness creeping up on him, and saw, writ large upon the attack plane, his headstone.
He closed his eyes, turned away, trying to hide the tears of terror that crept unbidden from the ducts in his optical sensors. It was no state for an experienced Starfleet officer to be in, and certainly not an android.
He turned around, intending to leave, and found himself facing Reg Barclay. 'Mr. Barclay,' he said, and stopped, taking in the engineer's dishevelled appearance. 'Is there something wrong?'
'We're coming for you,' said the engineer with a malevolent grin, and, without warning drew a phaser from behind his back and fired.
Data reacted with all of the force that his android body could muster, and threw himself to one side. The beam grazed his side, and struck the fighter plane. Its shields sprung into life as the power was absorbed easily and an eerie green light illuminated the hangar bay, as Data jumped Barclay, and wrested the phaser from his grasp, forcing the other staggering back.
Data could feel his strength ebbing, and knew that the phaser had been set to kill. He tapped his commbadge, and gasped, 'Security to main shuttlebay –'
But Barclay was on him. Eschewing the phaser that Data held feebly, he grabbed the android and threw him bodily across the hangar bay deck, sending him crashing painfully into one of the shuttles. The phaser skittered across the deck, but Barclay seemed unconcerned. He advanced on Data, intent on finishing the weakened android.
Data lifted himself up onto his elbow, and stared at the figure before him. 'Why?' he blurted out. 'Why?'
'Because we are superior,' said Barclay, 'and because you must be punished.' No more came, and Barclay blocked out the light from Data's failing eyes.
The crashing report of a phaser rifle made Barclay turn, and he stared at Picard, Hedly and a pair of security guards. Picard was unarmed, and Hedly was the one who had fired the phaser blast. Picard stepped forward slightly. 'Mr. Barclay, you will surrender. There is no escape.'
'Not for you, maybe,' snarled Barclay at them, 'not from the Aralla!'
He snarled and leapt at Picard. At that moment, the guards all fired their rifles simultaneously. The blasts all struck his body, and he was slammed into the shield of the fighter. Suddenly, the shuttlebay was filled with the blaze and crackle of power being discharged, as green light filled the bay, coruscating around Barclay's tortured, convulsing form. He screamed wildly, as the shield burnt his body and threw it to the deck with a bone-crunching thud.
Picard immediately rushed to Data's side, and turned to Hedly. 'Get Geordi down here now.' As Hedly tapped her commbadge, Picard turned to Barclay's unmoving body. For a moment, he stared at the corpse, unable to believe that the young man had attacked Data, and nearly killed him. Barclay had considered Data to be a friend, and Picard counted himself lucky that Barclay had been such a long-serving member of his engineering staff, being one of the best young engineers in Starfleet.
He looked again at the body, noticing something that he had not taken in during the first cursory glance. In shock and horror, he slowly reached out and touched the small, almost unnoticeable appendage that protruded from the back of the engineer's neck. It had been hidden by his hair in life, but its arrival introduced a horrifying new threat to the Fleet's security. Picard stood slowly and turned to Hedly. 'Dispose of Mr. Barclay's body. Make sure that there are no recoverable remnants.'
'Sir?' queried Hedly.
'Just do it!' ordered Picard with a flash of momentary anger.
'Sir.' Hedly's reply was quiet and neutral, but Picard saw the hurt in her eyes before she turned away. At that moment, Geordi burst through the hangar doors and took in the scene in one quick, horrified glance.
'Data!' The engineer hurried across the bay, and knelt by Data's side, scanning him with his enhanced eyes. 'He's been shot by a phaser set to kill!'
'Can you do anything?' asked Picard.
'I need to get him to Engineering now,' said Geordi, not looking at Picard. He tapped his badge. 'Two to beam to Engineering!' He and the android's body dematerialised in a shimmer of light.
Picard faced Hedly once again, noting that the security guards were removing Barclay's body from the bay. 'Commander, I want systematic sweeps of all Fleet personnel for Aralla parasites. Co-ordinate with all Battlegroup commanders, but make sure that no-one slips through the net.'
'Understood,' said Hedly. She turned, and left the bay.
Picard turned and looked thoughtfully at the dark fighter. 'Let's just hope no others got into the Fleet,' he said to himself.
He turned, and left the hangar.
The sweeps proceeded with alacrity once the Battlegroup commanders were informed of the seriousness of the situation, and it was less than forty-eight hours before the vast majority of results came in. Fortunately, it appeared that Barclay's possession had been an isolated incident.
When Picard received the final report, it came as a slight surprise that Sisko had received the same report nearly an hour earlier. The new admiral walked through the door of Picard's ready room, brandishing the padd as if it were an offensive weapon. 'Good work,' he said.
Picard gave him a bemused look. 'Thank you.'
'How dangerous was the infestation?'
Picard blinked once. 'What rank did you hold about twelve years ago, Ben?'
Sisko gave him a puzzled look. 'I was a lieutenant aboard the Saratoga,' he said, voice mystified. 'Why?'
Picard looked for a moment at Sisko, before suddenly feeling very old. 'The crew of the Enterprise and I destroyed an alien parasitic conspiracy in the highest levels of Starfleet that could have brought the Federation down. Very few details escaped the clampdown that Starfleet imposed on that information, apart from that Commander Riker and I saw. One of those details was that Commander Dexter Remmick, the host for the leader of this invasion, was transmitting a signal to somewhere in the Neutral Zone. That signal was cut off moments after Remmick's death, but we now believe, having seen evidence of those same parasites aboard the Aralla mother ship, that he was transmitting towards the dimensional rift.'
'The first stage of an Aralla attack?' Picard nodded, and Sisko looked slightly pale. 'We would have not stood even the slight chance we had when they did invade.'
'I know,' said Picard. 'I was stunned when I first heard the news, but I believe now that the Aralla have been planning an invasion of this universe for at least a century. Borg data I have received tells me that the Aralla entered orbit of a large planet about a century ago. This planet was the same as the one which contains the rift on our side.'
Sisko frowned. 'That sounds odd.'
Picard nodded. 'There is something that does not tie together in all of this, Ben, and I can't think what it is.'
'Why did the Aralla wait so long?'
'Unknown.' Picard looked frustrated. 'If only we could speak with them – there is so much history they can tell us!'
Sisko marvelled at the transformation that had come to Picard in the last few days. He seemed to have regained a measure of his old persona – that of the peaceful man he once was. Only that man would worry about the history of the Aralla fleet bearing down upon them now.
Picard emerged from his frustration with a faint grin. 'It's a pity, isn't it? That we must destroy them before they destroy us?'
Sisko could not find a reply. 'That is a question I never considered, Admiral,' he said eventually.
Picard nodded understandingly. 'Neither did I.'
Chakotay made it his business to inspect Engineering that day. As he expected, B'Elanna was there, doing her job, illuminated by the blue glow of the warp core, but without the fervour of her old work. Indeed, it was a listless manner she possessed – one which seriously concerned the new captain. He stepped closer. 'B'Elanna, are you all right?'
Torres started and faced him, surprise etched into her face. 'Chakotay!'
'Sorry, did I startle you?' asked Chakotay, although as he asked the question, he knew it was a stupid query. Torres forced a smile.
'Yes, of course,' she replied, and Chakotay knew she was hiding her feelings.
'Sure?'
'Yes, damn it!' Torres' outburst drew a few quick glances, but then everybody looked away again as the chief engineer glanced around angrily. She faced Chakotay again, flustered. 'Can we please have this conversation some other time?'
'No, but we can have it somewhere else,' offered Chakotay.
'No deal,' replied Torres curtly. She turned away. 'Now if you'll let me get on with my work?'
Chakotay placed a hand gently on her shoulder, felt the joint tense up. 'No, B'Elanna. Something's bothering you –'
'Yes, you!' retorted Torres, anger in her tone. She shrugged Chakotay's hand away, and tried to collect her thoughts.
For his part, Chakotay was not offended, but he now made a mistake. 'Now you see that you need to talk –'
Torres, whirling to face him again, cut her friend off in mid-sentence, genuine fury in her voice, mixed with pain. 'Leave me alone! You couldn't begin to understand what the problem is! Now just leave me alone!' That last was a barely restrained shriek, and Torres stormed from Engineering, holding back tears.
Chakotay stood quietly for a moment, realising his folly, before turning his glare onto the Engineering crew. 'Back to your stations.' Then, turning, he left Engineering, heading for the bridge.
The USS Thunderchild was an Akira-class starship that had faced some of the most horrific moments of the war and still lived to tell the tale. Much as it's namesake had against H.G. Wells' fictional Martian invasion, it would fight until the bitter end.
At the moment it was patrolling along one of Picard's assigned routes that took it very close to the Aralla rendezvous point. The Thunderchild had been assigned the toughest patrol station as what could be considered a reward for Captain Latimer's heroic exploits during the war, especially during the Klingon defeat at Qo'nos. The Thunderchild had faced off against a city destroyer in order to protect a fleeing number of Klingon civilian and warships. Despite taking heavy damage, it had survived this long.
Commander Westheimer, first officer and helmsman of the Thunderchild had kept the ship on yellow alert for this portion of the patrol, although it was not believed that the Aralla were yet ready to attack. Latimer was off the bridge, and the night shift had just moved into operation.
'Sir,' said the science officer suddenly, turning to Westheimer, 'I'm picking up some unusual energy signals about eight light years off the port bow.'
'Energy signals? What type?'
'Inferometric energy pulses and resonant particle waves,' said the science officer. 'I can't seem to pinpoint them.'
Westheimer nodded, although he didn't understand what the science officer meant. 'What are these inferometric pulses?'
'Inferometric energy pulses are capable of lowering shields of a Federation starship like the Enterprise, say, with a single burst, but they have the additional capability of deflecting most energy based weapons back onto their target. Resonant particle waves collapse warp fields, but they can be deflected by shields.'
'Who do we know who has them?'
The science officer shrugged. 'As far as we know, the Aralla don't. No Alpha or Beta Quadrant races do, and we don't think that the Jem'Hadar do either.'
'What would the Jem'Hadar be doing out here?' scoffed Westheimer.
'What are we doing out here?' asked the science officer acidly. Westheimer smiled.
'Point taken. Anyone else?'
'No,' said the science officer, shaking his head. 'Do you want me to scan further?'
'Yes,' said Westheimer immediately. 'We may be at war, but we're still explorers. Run all scanners and see what you can find.'
'Aye, sir,' said the officer, turning back to his console. He brought the powerful sensors to bear on their target – and froze, horror etching his features. 'Sir!'
'What?' asked Westheimer, alarmed by the panic in the normally unflappable officer's tone.
'On screen, sir!'
Westheimer stared, as did the entire bridge crew, at the screen for more than a minute, pure horror creeping over them like a cold tide. After a moment, Westheimer said, 'Get the captain on the bridge. And hail the Fleet!'
'How are you feeling, Data?' said Picard gently.
The android blinked for a moment, surprised at Picard's voice. 'I feel fine, sir,' he said eventually. He swung his legs over the edge of the bio-bed, and sat upright.
Geordi, Data and Picard were in Engineering, where Geordi had been working on Data after his brush with death. Data sat for a moment, trying to work out what was missing. 'I appear to have lost my emotions,' he said.
'I had to remove your emotion chip, Data,' said Geordi guiltily. 'It was causing a severe strain on your positronic net.'
Picard stared for a moment at Data's impassive face. Despite having known the android with emotions for nearly five years, Picard still felt more comfortable with Data when he was emotionless. Familiarity with Data's unemotional behaviour patterns was the cause, he knew, and at the moment, Data's head slightly cocked to one side as he ran a quick self-diagnostic. He nodded to himself. 'I must congratulate you on your repair work, Geordi,' Data said after a moment.
Geordi grinned. 'Thank you, Data.'
'Do you remember what happened, Data?' asked Picard.
'I can remember running into Mr. Barclay, sir, and he attacked me with a phaser.'
'Did he say anything?'
Data paused. 'Yes. I asked him why he had attacked me, and he said that we would be punished. Then I blacked out.'
Picard nodded. 'I expected as much. I think that what happened was a parasite from the Aralla mother ship somehow got aboard your fighter, and attacked Mr. Barclay at sometime. Using his position, it was in a good position for sabotage, until it decided to attack you. I wonder why though?'
'I may have inadvertently disturbed it, sir,' suggested Data. 'Certainly there was no good reason for either of us being in the shuttlebay at that moment.'
Picard nodded thoughtfully. 'That's probably the closest we're likely to get to an explanation. Pity.'
'Bridge to Admiral Picard.' Thames' voice rang through the section.
'Picard here.'
'Sir, we're receiving a signal from the USS Thunderchild on advanced patrol. Captain Latimer wants to speak to you personally.'
'I'll be right there,' acknowledged Picard. He glanced at Data. 'Feel ready to return to duty, Mr. Data?'
'Yes, sir.' The two of them left Engineering.
As Data and Picard emerged onto the bridge, Thames stood from the centre seat and turned to Picard, her face worried. 'Admiral, we have Captain Latimer on subspace.'
'On screen,' said Picard, and he took his seat as Thames took her place at Ops and Latimer's thin face appeared on the main screen. Picard greeted him, and then noted the tense expression on Latimer's face.
'Admiral, we've picked up something on long-range sensors. I think you'd better see it.' Latimer nodded to someone off-screen, and his face vanished.
What Picard saw next jolted him so much that he veritably jumped from his seat to stare in outright shocked horror at the vision on the screen.
Darkness, black on black of space, blocking out the stars, filled the screen. Picard knew that what he saw was the Aralla fleet. After a moment, the magnification reduced, and the bridge crew was able to see the jagged outlines silhouetted against the stars. It had been so long since he had seen them that Picard had almost forgotten what a horror those ships were even without their awesome destructive power.
Slowly, Picard turned to Hedly. 'Transmit this image to all ships. Inform them the Aralla are coming.'
'Sir!' Thames' call brought Picard's attention to the screen, and an even stranger even emerged.
In the foreground of the image, the horrified watchers could see what appeared to be a huge dust cloud approaching the Aralla. Picard frowned. 'Is that cloud natural?'
'No, sir,' reported Thames. 'According to the Thunderchild's telemetry, that cloud is made up of a vast number of ships.'
'Get Captain Chakotay for me,' ordered Picard.
Hedly did so, and a moment later said, 'On screen.' Chakotay's face appeared, his own expression horrified.
'I assume you're seeing the Aralla ships, Captain,' said Picard immediately.
'Yes, sir,' said Chakotay.
'The Thunderchild reports that the cloud approaching the Aralla is made up of –'
'Many hundreds of ships, sir,' interrupted Chakotay. 'We have encountered this race before. We call them the Swarm.'
Picard nodded. 'Good name. What are they doing?'
'The Aralla must have entered their territory – they're extremely territorial. They use tachyon detection grids to patrol their borders. I don't think that there's any way for the Aralla to get through undetected.'
Picard nodded again. 'Will they attack?'
'Undoubtedly. They don't use energy based weapons like ourselves, Admiral. They use inferometric pulses to disable a ship's shields and also to deflect energy based weapons and resonant particle waves to disable warp fields. They could be a threat to the Aralla.'
'They've never faced anything like that, you're right,' said Picard. He looked back at Chakotay. 'Thank you, Captain.'
Chakotay's face vanished, to be replaced by the Swarm fleet approaching the Aralla. Thames glanced at him. 'We're reading hundreds of inferometric pulses, sir.'
'Their effect?' asked Picard hopefully.
Thames shook her head. 'None, sir.'
As Picard looked back at the screen, the cloud suddenly seemed to lunge at the mother ships, and small explosions began flashing up on the ships' forward shields. It was obvious that the flashes were the Swarm destroying themselves on the impenetrable shields of the Aralla vessels, possibly in the hope of draining them. The explosions were sporadic at first, but then the explosions grew in intensity and number, until the screen showed only a blaze of light as the Swarm ships destroyed themselves against the Aralla shields.
Picard and the Fleet could only watch as the Aralla proved themselves superior once again.
Eventually, the broken and defeated Swarm fleet broke off and began to retreat. The Aralla then launched the attack planes, hunting down the surviving Swarm ships quickly and efficiently.
The bridge crew watched this senseless slaughter silently as the attack planes destroyed the Swarm ships quickly. As the blasts hit, they blasted several ships apart due to the inferometric pulses which created a shield lattice between the ships, and the shots were being spread out and destroying other ships as well as the target. Occasionally, a blast would be deflected by a pulse, but the Aralla ships always shook off the return blast with ease. It seemed as if even the Aralla's own weapons could not defeat them.
The strength of the Swarm's collectivism was being used as their weakness. Picard swore to the same to the Aralla.
After a moment longer, Picard turned to Hedly. 'Get me Captain Latimer.'
Latimer's face appeared, and he looked sickened by the slaughter. 'Admiral?' he managed.
'Are those Aralla ships moving?'
'Not yet, sir, but we've been monitoring them for a while now, and we are reading almost a continuous stream of city destroyers rejoining their mother ships. I'd say that they were preparing for their assault.'
'Agreed,' said Picard. 'Return to the Fleet, captain. We'll be –'
'Sir!' The shout came from the Thunderchild's bridge, and Latimer whirled. 'We have two city destroyers coming out of warp! They're launching attack fighters!'
Latimer turned away from the screen, and the image vanished.
Picard whirled on Hedly. 'What's happening?'
'We've lost contact with the Thunderchild, sir, and I can't raise them again.'
Thames turned to Picard. 'Sir, I can't scan the Thunderchild's position, but we have a pair of ships within range. The Elmar, and the Appalacia.'
Picard nodded his approval and Thames flashed him a quick reassuring smile as she turned back to her board. After a few nervous minutes, Thames spoke again. 'We have telemetry from the Elmar, sir.'
'On screen.' Picard watched for a long moment and then turned away, saddened.
Two city destroyers and their attack planes were systematically blasting the horrifically damaged Thunderchild into wreckage. The once proud Akira-class starship, and her brave crew were dying slowly before the helpless Enterprise crew. 'Turn it off,' said Picard eventually.
Thames spoke again after a long moment, her voice low and angry. 'The Appalacia and Elmar are requesting permission to help the Thunderchild, sir.'
Picard shook his head. 'There's nothing any of us can do. Recall all ships from patrol stations.' Picard glanced at Hedly. 'Put me on Fleet-wide, commander.'
'Yes, sir.' After a moment, she nodded at Picard.
He took a breath, and then said, 'All ships, you have just seen the Aralla fleet that awaits us. Very soon, they will be coming for us, and we will face them. As of now, we are at Fleet-wide yellow alert and all ships will prepare for battle. Picard out.' He turned to Hedly again, and added, 'Get Admiral Sisko here immediately.'
He glanced at Data. 'How long do you estimate it will be before the Aralla attack.'
'On the basis of the evidence, anytime in the next five days, Admiral. We will have ample warning however.' Data referred to the tachyon detection grids that had been set up by the Borg around the former position of the Unicomplex, the place where the Aralla were expected to make their initial strike.
Picard nodded. 'Begin prepping the fighter for launch. I want to depart tomorrow. I shall be in my ready room.'
B'Elanna Torres stared silently at the computer in her room for a moment, before realising that the receive button was flashing.
She had entered her room almost in a trance, and had been sat for nearly an hour, simply staring into space blankly. Now, she roused herself, and pressed the button.
Chakotay's face appeared, and B'Elanna nearly turned the machine off in a flash of rage. Chakotay held a hand up. 'Sorry to call you, B'Elanna, but I thought you'd rather hear it from me.'
'Hear what?'
'You've been reassigned to the Enterprise.'
For a long moment, Torres was speechless with shock. Then, she slowly said, 'Why?'
'Admiral Sisko believes that you are best qualified to take over from the current Chief Engineer aboard the Enterprise.'
Torres was dumbstruck again. To even be thought to be capable of replacing the Chief Engineer of the Enterprise, a legend in his own lifetime, was a massive honour. She shook her head, trying to clear it. 'I can't, Chakotay. I have too much work on Voyager, plus I don't know the staff on board the Enterprise and –'
'All of these factors have been taken into consideration, B'Elanna. It's only for the duration of the battle against the Aralla, and you'll be allowed to take a small engineering staff aboard the Enterprise from Voyager – people who are used to dealing with you.' Chakotay smiled ruefully. 'Admiral Sisko is determined for you to take over.'
B'Elanna nodded slowly. 'Very well. Just make sure that you don't replace me with anyone better.'
'There is no-one better,' said Chakotay, his voice serious.
For a long moment, the old friends looked at each other. Torres was first to speak. 'I just wanted to apologise for what I said, Chakotay. It was unnecessary, and I didn't mean it.'
Chakotay nodded, and Torres remembered that her friend rarely bore grudges. 'I shouldn't have disturbed you like I did. I was the one in the wrong.'
There was another moment, and they both started laughing together. 'Listen to us,' said B'Elanna, 'we sound like a pair of cadets who've been forced to apologise by the Admiral.'
'We're pathetic,' agreed Chakotay. They both eventually controlled themselves, before the silence returned. 'If there's anything –'
'I will,' promised B'Elanna, not wanting Chakotay to say it out loud.
The captain nodded, and he disappeared from the screen.
The next day came slowly and quietly, but the Fleet barely noticed. Shuttles moved from the ships to the surface of the planet, ferrying non-combatants to safety – or at least, places safer than the Fleet would soon be.
Sisko took one last glance around the Defiant's bridge, before facing an expectant Kira Nerys. 'She's all yours, Major. Keep her safe until I get back.'
Nerys nodded confidently. 'We'll all be waiting, Admiral. Good luck.'
Sisko held out a hand awkwardly, but Kira reached out and gave him a quick hug. When she let go, Dax did the same but to Kira. Nerys gave her a puzzled look. 'Are you leaving too, Jadzia?'
Dax nodded. 'I've been reassigned to the Enterprise as well, just for the battle. I'm going to be first officer.'
'Very fortunate,' remarked Kira. She smiled, and gave Dax another embrace.
Sisko stepped into the turbolift, followed by Jadzia and the doors closed on their faces.
Kira turned to the centre seat, feeling very lonely. She was the last of the Defiant's crew from DS9 still aboard, and it had been a very long time since she had felt this separated from anyone. She sat down, settling herself in the chair, and looked out at the stars.
Torres had made a series of private goodbyes to her friends, and as she was leaving with a full team of back-up engineers, it would not an emotional farewell like that granted to Seven of Nine when she had left.
Despite that however, when walking into the transporter room with Lieutenant Joe Carey and Ensign Vorik, she was surprised to find Chakotay stood there, his arms folded.
He greeted the other engineers perfunctorily, but Torres got the impression it was her he had come to see. She sent the others on, and faced her friend. 'Goodbye, Chakotay.'
He nodded slightly, and said, 'B'Elanna, I may have apologised to you for what happened in Engineering, but I still would like an answer. I don't want you to go across to the Enterprise, and keep on working the way you have been doing.'
'How's that?' asked B'Elanna, but her tone was no longer belligerent.
'Like someone who's pining away,' said Chakotay frankly.
Torres stared at him for a moment. 'We were all hurt when Captain Janeway died, but everybody seems to have forgotten Tom. He died senselessly, a victim to the Borg. I don't feel like there's anything else to live for, and at the moment, I don't particularly want to live. If I do pine away, maybe that's the best thing.'
'You don't believe that –'
'Don't tell me what I think!' shouted Torres. After a moment, she continued, calmer. 'I just want to go to the Enterprise, do my job, and come back. Maybe then, I might have regained my will to live. At the moment, that's all I want.'
Chakotay nodded slowly, but unhappily. 'If that is your wish.'
Torres looked him straight in the eye. 'It is.'
'Very well.' Chakotay stepped towards the console, while Torres stepped onto the transporter pad. He forced a smile at her. 'Good luck.'
'Energise,' was all Torres said. Chakotay moved the controls, and she vanished.
Sisko stepped onto the bridge of the Enterprise, and took a long slow look around at what was now his ship. It was at this moment that he realised what being in command of this ship was to those who served aboard it. The pinnacle of starship command. He had to admit it to himself that even the command of the Defiant was not a patch on this ship.
He moved to the command chair, followed by Dax who sat down in the first officer's seat. Picard had already performed the handing over of command ceremony and Sisko was already in official command. He glanced at Thames. 'Commander, what is the status of the attack fighter?'
'Shuttlebay reports that it will be ready for launch in one hour, Admiral,' she replied.
'Good,' said Sisko to himself. For a moment, he and Dax stared at the vast screen before them. The Defiant was equipped with a comparatively tiny viewer, and it was something that would take some getting used to.
'Transporter room reports that Engineer Torres has beamed aboard from the Voyager, sir,' said Hedly. 'She's brought a small engineering detail with her.'
Sisko nodded. 'Order them to report to Engineering as soon as they put their luggage in their quarters. We need to begin preparing for the Aralla assault.'
'How do you prepare for something like that?' asked Dax, her tone slightly facetious.
Sisko didn't look at her, but he muttered, 'Like hell.'
Data met Geordi in the armoury of the Enterprise, and they began taking weapons from the racks. They each took a pair of phaser type-twos, and put them into a lined case. Adding to that three phaser rifles, and a trio of utility belts and a full complement of photon grenades, they closed the case and Data picked it up.
In all of this time, they had not spoken a word to each other, but now Geordi said, 'Data, how have you been since I repaired you?'
Data paused, and glanced at his friend. 'I have been functioning adequately, Geordi.'
'Do you want me to replace your emotion chip before we leave?'
Data thought it through, and then shook his head. 'No. It would be better for me if I can remain unemotional through this battle.'
'You can turn it off –'
'No,' said Data firmly, in a tone that was the closest he could get, without emotions, to shouting.
Geordi nodded, not understanding, and he followed the android from the room.
Picard stepped out of his ready room, and faced Sisko. 'Time for me to go, Ben,' he said without preamble.
'Yes, sir,' replied Sisko. He held out his hand and Picard took it. 'Good luck.'
'Thank you.' Picard turned to enter the lift, and faced him again. 'Make sure you look after the Enterprise.'
Sisko smiled. 'Will do.'
Picard entered the lift. As the doors slid shut, and he said, 'Main shuttlebay,' he wondered where Thames was....
Data and Geordi were waiting outside the attack plane which loomed over the rest of the shuttles like a deadly mother hen when Picard entered. Immediately, he said, 'Get onboard and ready for launch.'
'Aye, sir,' replied Geordi and the two turned and clambered up and into the craft. Picard paused to take one last look around the shuttlebay of his command, and turned –
'Admiral?' Picard turned back, and found Thames staring at him from the entrance to the shuttlebay. She looked slightly out of breath. 'Thank god – I didn't want to find out that you'd left –'
She broke off, and Picard said, 'What can I do for you, commander?'
Thames suddenly found that she had lost her voice as she stared at Picard, who waited, puzzled, for an answer. 'I – I just wanted to say goodbye, sir,' she managed eventually.
Picard smiled slightly, as if he had realised something that he been eluding him. 'Thank you, commander. I appreciate it.'
'Just make sure you come back,' she blurted out, and then went red with embarrassment. Picard laughed out loud, and then louder when she hastily said, 'That was just advice, sir!'
'Thank you, commander,' he repeated. 'I intend to follow your advice.'
Thames smiled, relieved at his manner. There was a long moment in which they both seemed to have lost their voices, and then Thames, on impulse, leaned forward and kissed him gently on the cheek. 'Goodbye,' was all she said, and she turned and left the bay.
Picard stared after her for a moment, and then turned and boarded the fighter.
Inside, Geordi and Data, who had seen the entire thing, glanced at him askance as Picard came aboard and sealed the door behind him. 'Ready to go, Admiral?' asked Geordi.
'Whenever you are, Mr La Forge,' replied Picard quietly. Data nodded, and activated the engines of the fighter.
Almost silently, the fighter lifted itself up from the hangar bay, and turned slowly to face the exit. With lissom grace, it turned, and left the shuttlebay.
From the bridge, Sisko, Thames, Dax, Hedly and Truper watched as the fighter flitted from the Enterprise, and flashed into warp speed. Although the fighters were not normally equipped with a warp drive, the Fleet technicians had equipped this one with a warp core.
Sisko breathed a sigh. The final battle had begun.