Disclaimer: Once again, I make no claims that could possibly give anyone any possible hope of successfully suing me.

Chapter 18

Kira looked around the crowded wardroom, which had been unpleasantly silent for the past several seconds. She had been able to relax and enjoy her time at Vic's the previous night by forcing worries about the escalating nairait crisis out of her mind, but that morning brought a backlog of disturbing reports. And then, minutes before, a fleet of forty-three nairait-controlled ships had decloaked just inside the Bajoran system. Immediately after decloaking, they had arranged themselves in a tight formation and linked their shields into a mutually-reinforcing net, which Tairis identified as the Okotro Maneuver, a Sorono battle formation intended to surround, cage in, and completely annihilate a group of enemy vessels.

"My ships are just on the other side of the Wormhole," Odo pointed out. "They significantly outnumber the nairoid ships. I can have them here within minutes." He sat across the conference table from Kira, between Ezri Dax and Tairis.

"And the second they stop defending the Wormhole, Laas's ships will destroy it. That's not an option," Kira declared.

"And destroying the ships isn't going to necessarily destroy the nairait," Vo'xa added. She was seated to Kira's left. "We need to find a way to infect their ships with the cure, preferably without destroying them."

Bashir leaned forward and folded his hands on the table. "Vo'xa, could the cure be administered through inhalation?"

"Yes, but it wouldn't take effect for several minutes."

"We could beam the substance onto their ships," Ro suggested. "We would only have to drop shields for a second."

"We couldn't beam it to all of their ships simultaneously," Kira negated. "Either we would have to drop shields for longer, or for a second for each ship, which would give them time to catch on to what we were doing." She bit her lip and shook her head.

Vaughn, who had been quietly since the rushed meeting began, spoke up. "It might not be that hard. With the nairait ships linking their shields together to create the forcefield net...that presents us with an opportunity: if we can weaken the forcefield enough in one place to beam someone through, they could administer the drug to that ships crew, then program their own transporters to beam aerosol vaccine vials to every other ship within the net."

Ro nodded in approval. "And each ship that receives the cure would join us against the others."

"But whoever we send over to program the transporters would be vulnerable until the vaccine takes effect," Kira realized. "And we wouldn't be able to beam him back." She stared intently at Vaughn.

He stared right back. "Yes, it's a suicide mission. One I'm willing to undertake."

"That's not acceptable."

"Kira," Sisko joined the discussion. His voice was soft and measured, and commanded attention. "This may be the only viable plan. You of all people should know that sometimes it's necessary to make sacrifices in war."

She hesitated, but only for an instant. "Only as a last resort. And we aren't there yet." She locked eyes with Sisko, making it clear to him and to herself that she was the captain now. "We'll keep looking for other options. In the meantime, I want everything we have right down to the smallest runabout armed to the teeth and ready to deploy at a moment's notice. We'll begin evacuating non-essential personnel. Contact Bajor; ask them to send us whatever they can spare. Vo'xa, I want you and your team to work with Bashir on a way to safely deploy the antidote. Captain," she addressed Benjamin Sisko, "would you mind taking command of the Defiant?"

"Of course not."

"Good. Dismissed."

Kira went directly to Ops to prepare for the attack. After staying with her for several minutes, Odo had finally accepted that he was useless in this situation. He took Kalaran and Rinak'vaka to an empty cargo hold for a private meeting.

"I'm going to call a ship come to take the two of you and the rest of Shkalek's crew back to the Gamma Quadrant."

"What about you?" Rinak'vaka asked.

Odo shifted self-consciously, but his words were decisive. "I'll stay here."

"But if you die, the reformation will fail." the Jem'hadar objected.

"I believe the two of you could lead our people without me."

"I disagree."

"It's Kira," said Kalaran. "He won't leave her. He would die with her, if need be."

"Why can't we bring her with us? Surely her presence or absence on the station will not determine victory," Rinak'vaka argued.

"She would never leave," Odo stated. "It's her obligation and responsibility. Until she issues the order to evacuate and makes sure no one is left on the entire station, she'll be here to fight for it."

Kalaran stood taller and looked him in the eyes. "Then we're staying with you."

"Our cause won't survive without you, and we choose to live or die with our cause," added Rinak'vaka.

Odo sighed. "Would it help if I ordered you to go?"

"No."

"Not at all."

Odo reluctantly acquiesced. He knew he should have gone back to the Gamma Quadrant; he served no purpose on Deep Space Nine. He wished he had the privilege to die by the side of the woman he loved without risking the fate and freedom of billions of Dominion citizens. But he couldn't leave. He knew that he couldn't force himself to leave if the entire universe were at stake.

A distant rumble signaled the first shots of the battle being fired.

In the science lab, Bashir, the BYSEV team, and several science officers ran various simulations, did experiments on nairait samples, and mostly just brainstormed on how to rig weapons that would deliver the nairait antidote. They had a kind of collective nervousness, causing them to work hastily while trying to look relaxed. No one was fooling anyone.

Bashir looked over Vo'xa's shoulder. "Come up with anything?"

"Dead end. I thought we might design a nanoprobe delivery system that could infiltrate their shields, but I don't think we could create any small enough to slip through their quantum variation multiphases. I toyed with the idea of having them emit a counter-frequency to cancel out the shield resonance, but those probes would be too large to penetrate a ship's hull."

"Run this by Lieutenant T'Lin; she's skilled at nanotechnology."

"Okay." Vo'xa hesitated for an instant. "I think your first officer was on to something. Not that I approve of suicide missions, but there are definitely ways to minimize the risks to that plan. Does everyone in Starfleet just obey your captains' orders without question?"

"There are always questions, but in Starfleet the captain does have the authority to make the final decision by herself."

"And you would have to follow her orders whether you agree with them or not?"

"Yes. Unless you want to risk a court marshal. How does it work in the BYSEV?"

"If someone disagrees with an order, they don't have to perform it. The captain then has to find someone who will. If no one will, the captain is overridden."

"But what if the person the captain asks is the most qualified to perform the task?"

Vo'xa looked at him with her amused, unblinking blue stare. "Shouldn't the person most qualified to do something be the one to decide whether or not it should be done?"

Bashir considered that point, then smiled. "Actually, the only person on a Federation ship with the authority to override the captain is the doctor...though only in medical matters."

"And, of course, a doctor can interpret almost anything as a medical matter," Vo'xa said with a smile that revealed catlike teeth.

"True."

Seizing an unguarded moment, Tairis slipped away from the research group. Only Ia Zh noticed. Whether he guessed her intention or not, he chose to remain silent.

The door she exited through led into the infirmary, which was empty but for a tired-looking medical officer, two of the warrior species known as the Jem'hadar, a small humanoid male who lay unconscious on the biobed nearest the door, and a tall, black-skinned female who sat next to him. This one looked up when Tairis approached. Her purple, pupilless eyes seemed to latch on to her with a hostility Tairis didn't understand, but would recognize in any species. She hurried past, pretending to ignore the alien.

"The phasers are having no effect weakening their shield network!"

Kira cursed, scowled, and hit a console in quick succession. "Concentrate fire on multiple points around a single ship...the Fortitude," she picked the first Federation ship stolen by the nairait at random.

"Captain, we've lost contact with the Congo...It's been destroyed, sir."

"They just broke through our left flank!"

A particularly violent multiple strike shook the station. The delicate circuits of the tactical console crossed, creating an explosion of electrical currents that rendered Ensign Luth unconscious. Kira took control of the console, relieved at being able to participate directly in the defense effort. "All ships regroup at right flank. Hit them hard. Engineering, divert all available power to the shields!"

"All we have left is life support," Nog said over the comm.

"Then divert life support. It won't do us much good if the shields fail."

"Understood sir."

Kira knew that even with the extra power the shields wouldn't hold for long. They were already sputtering like a candle in the rain.

"Provide cover fire for the Defiant and the Chattahoochee." With one hand flying over the console, the other pressed against her belly, Kira offered a quick prayer for her daughter and for Odo.

Elias Vaughn didn't think Kira would bother ascertaining his whereabouts in the midst of a battle, but he'd programmed the computer to give a false location just in case she or anyone else asked. He hurried down a deserted corridor, listening to the shaking of the station from repeated attacks. He carried a phaser and a bag containing exactly forty-three vials of concentrated nairait vaccine he'd replicated from one he stole from the infirmary. He stopped in front of the sealed door of Transporter Room Two. It took nearly five seconds to bypass the locking mechanism.

When the door slid open he found, to his shock, the room wasn't as empty as it was supposed to be. The Beta Quadrant security officer was at the controls.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

She spun around and pointed her strange, complicated-looking gun at him. He'd instinctively raised his phaser at the same instant. He also noticed a tray of forty-three vials identical to the ones he carries sitting by the transporter.

"I could ask you the same question; no one's scheduled to use this room."

"How did you know that?"

"I've cracked tougher security schematics in my sleep. Now, I strongly suggest you turn around and let me continue with what I'm doing."

"You're going to try to transport onto an enemy vessel," Vaughn noted. "Why?"

"To stop them."

"But you have no personal interest in defending the station."

"It's I and my crewmates that they're targeting; that's pretty personal. Besides..." Her large, haunted eyes drifted to the bag he carried, then settled on his face. "I'm not surprised you're attempting the same thing; I see it in you, too."

"See what in me?" he asked. He was calm, determined to carry out his self-appointed mission, and yet puzzled and disturbed by Tairis.

"That you think you have something to atone for. How many people are dead because of you?"

His lip trembled slightly as he answered. "Hundreds. But only one that I can never forgive myself for."

Tairis's expression didn't change; she didn't even blink as she said in a carefully controlled, clear voice. "Eight billion." One hand reached to activate the controls.

Vaughn pressed the trigger button of his phaser, but the beam missed Tairis by a meter, due to the fact that Vaughn was struck on the back of the head the instant he fired. He fell to the floor unconscious.

Tairis's eyes grew even wider and her lips parted in surprise when she saw her rescuer. "Who are you?"

"Shut up and get on the transporter pad," replied Nshevalth as she moved to the controls.

Tairis complied, grabbing her tray of vaccine. "We need to wait until there's a fluctuation in their shields."

"I know," Nshevalth informed her. "This isn't my first combat situation." She watched the telemetry data of the battle scroll across the console.

"Why are you helping me?"

She glanced up, then quickly back at the screen. "Because I want you dead."

Tairis considered the other woman, then nodded. "Fair enough."

There wasn't time to say more. Nshevalth spotted an opening in the enemies' shields and activated the transporter. As she watched the other woman vanish, she recalled a Tzenkethi nursery rhyme in which a warrior kills an enemy who turns out to be his sibling in disguise. She also thought of a line from the ancient Tzenkethi warrior/poet Dhilol, which she said aloud: "'The same stroke which kills my nemesis kills my hate.'"

She hoisted the fallen Commander Vaughn over her shoulder and left for the Infirmary. She had briefly contemplated trying to cover her trail, but realized if they wanted to find out who abetted the unauthorized transport, they would, and she would accept whatever repercussions that would bring.

"Shields failing, Captain! I repeat, direct hit to shield generators; shields failing!"

It was too coordinated. Their enemies were too organized, much more than they had anticipated.

"All ships use evasive maneuvers. Nog, get those shields back online! Everyone else, hang on," Kira shouted. She hit her communicator. "Julian, tell me you've got something."

"Negative, Captain," he replied. "In another quarter hour, we might have something."

"We don't have that kind of time!"

"Then I suggest you think of something else."

"No kidding," she whispered harshly. "How long until our reinforcements from Bajor get here?"

"At least two hours," Tenmei answered her.

"Wait a minute..." Leri Ghendar, the communications officer on duty, looked up in complete shock. "The Fortitude has broken off its attack. It's...firing on the nearest warbird, targeting weapons."

She looked to her console. Sure enough, one by one the attacking ships were turning against their own. Without shields to protect them, the weapons systems were failing quickly.

She tapped her communicator. "Kira to Bashir?"

"What?"

"Did you do something?"

"No. Why?"

"They're breaking off their attack."

"That's impossible..."

"I believe I may know the answer to this," said the placid voice of Ia Zh. "I believe someone has carried out the sacrifice you dismissed earlier."

In the chaos of the attack, Kira had forgotten about that possibility. "Who?"

"I don't know for sure, but Tairis is missing."

"We're being hailed by the Fortitude," said Leri.

"Onscreen," Kira ordered thoughtlessly, too tired and relieved to really care what the Fortitude might have to say.

"This is Captain Etna'i of the U.S.S. Fortitude," said the distressed-looking humanoid male. "I...I'm sorry about...I feel like I should apologize..."

"You were acting under alien influence," Kira said dismissively. "Right now, frankly, I care more about cleaning up this mess than apologies."

The captain nodded, unable to meet Kira's eyes. "I understand, but...the officer you sent over didn't make it. She was...fatally wounded after releasing the substance that destroyed the alien virus into our environmental systems."

Kira felt a guilty rush of relief that it hadn't been Vaughn, as she suspected. "Drop shields; I'll send a team to help clear out whatever remains of the nairait...and bring back to the station whatever remains of our officer."

"Very well." The captain still acted indulgently remorseful. "Fortitude out."

Kira frowned, even though sensors confirmed the flotilla of ships had dropped shields and powered down weapons. Several were attempting to hail them, but she didn't feel like dealing with them. "Leri, send a universal message to every ship explaining what happened and requesting they remain for decontamination."

"Understood."

"Kira to Bashir."

"Kira, what exactly is happening up there?"

"Is Doctor Vo'xa still with you?"

"I'm here," answered the voice of the elderly Beid from the background of the comm channel.

Kira took a breath, as much to brace Vo'xa to hear bad news as to prepare herself to deliver it. "The nairait has been stopped, but I'm afraid your crew member...didn't make it back."

The other end of the comm was silent for a long moment. Vo'xa's voice, when she finally replied, was low and strained. "I understand."

Kira had the transient impression that Vo'xa was not speaking to her, but to her fallen friend.