Pallina and Talara remained still at the entrance to the cargo bay while Lucy brought her omnitool on. She kept it to passive scan, just in case the detonator was rigged to activate if actively scanned, and waited for the results. As they came to her screen she noted that aside from the explosives there were field emitters active as well. "They've also got an anti-beaming field up," she said aloud.
"Then what do we do?" asked Talara. "I can sense his injuries. They are extensive. He needs medical attention."
"I know." Lucy nodded while still checking her readings. "But if we don't do this right, we all get blown to kingdom come."
The extra security received little comment when the summit reconvened. Kira now sat with the Bajoran delegation with her phaser openly holstered to her hip. Odo and Richmond were in the room as well looking particularly tense.
The Changeling didn't take note of any of that. "We are prepared to hear your terms in exchange for eliminating the technology that harms our people," he said.
"We would propose a compromise," said Tranu. "We will agree to not use the technology widely. It will only be employed to protect our most critical places and will never be applied offensively."
"Unacceptable," was the immediate reply. "The term cannot be enforced without risking my people. And you would still possess the technology and could use it at any time."
"The same is true even if we accepted your terms," Tranu pointed out. "And I will add that if we were to agree to eliminate the technology, we would have no means to effectively enforce any promise by your people to cease infiltration. On two known occasions your people have infiltrated the Alliance. The first infiltrator was only discovered because evidence was found identifying the remains of the officer they replaced. The second infiltrator masqueraded as an Alliance Senator for months with success and was only unmasked by extraordinary circumstances. You understand that we are reluctant to completely eliminate our ability to guarantee against further infiltrations."
"And we will not let ourselves be victimized by solids ever again," the Changeling declared.
"We will never use this technology aggressively," Pensley insisted. "And given time and the building of trust, we can have it deactivated."
"Trust for solids is low among my people, and your decision will not improve the matter." The Changeling's tone was growing harsher. "The Dominion will not accept your continued use of this technology, and I remind you that it will do nothing to stop our Jem'Hadar."
"If it is a war you wish, Changeling, the Klingon Empire is ready," Potag challenged.
"Threats of war are unnecessary," T'Latrek said, glaring icily at Potag.
"We are not threatening you," the Changeling informed them. "We are informing you of the term necessary for peace. It is your choice, solids: peace or your weapon against us."
One thing was clear to Lucy and the others; they were running out of time. The NEUROM team was on the move. And Ignatus, wounded as he was, needed medical care. They had to act and neutralize the risk.
"Do you think we can hold him in the air and pull him out?" asked Talara.
"The sensors might detect his movement and trigger the detonator. That's what we need to deal with." After several seconds Lucy felt an idea form in her mind. "Talara, give me a link to your omnitool, I need the extra processing power."
Talara did just that, calling up the blue holographic interface for her Stellar Navy-issue omnitool and linking it to Lucy's. Lucy operated her own with speed.
"What are you doing?" asked Pallina.
"Using our omnitools to isolate the local bands their hardware is using. Given the layout, the detonator is likely wireless… there. Found it." Lucy's fingers moved over the hard-light controls her omnitool generated. "Okay, this is going to be tricky. They've set it up to auto-detonate if anyone connects to the device, and they're using a rotating frequency for the connection to the bombs. But I think I can fool the auto-detonate for a little while. Long enough to get him clear."
"So we can enter?"
"No. Talara, throw your lightsaber and cut him down. We'll levitate him out."
"Understood." Talara pulled her weapon from her belt. With a press of a button the lavender-colored energy blade came to life with a snap-hiss.
"On my mark. Three… two…" Lucy had to allow the countdown to hang in order to ensure her plan was working. "...one… now."
Talara threw her blade into the cargo bay. She focused her will on it, powered by the Flow of Life, and directed the blade to spin through the air. It turned the blade into a shining lavender disc of light that sliced through one set of bonds and then the other. She recalled the blade to her hand while Ignatus dropped halfway to the floor. Lucy caught him and held him in place. Talara felt the strain on her mentor from this as Lucy was both exercising her power to hold Ignatus and was keeping the detonator from going off.
The moment Talara had her weapon back in hand she extinguished the blade and fixed it to her belt again. She stretched a hand out and took control of Ignatus from Lucy, relieving her teacher of the burden and letting her focus on the detonator. It seemed only a couple months ago Talara would never have been able to hold such a weight as she was now, but with some strain she was able to pull Ignatus toward the door.
Once he was through Lucy slammed the door closed. Talara felt a spike of realization and fear go through her teacher. Without warning Lucy turned toward her and Pallina and pushed them away with a blast of invisible energy, throwing the two and the unconscious Ignatus clear of the cargo bay door area.
A moment later the explosives in the cargo bay went off.
The door contained the blast initially. But a second, larger blast, not even a second later, tore the sliding door from its track. Talara felt Lucy's power flare up in self-defense before the door smashed into her and drove her into the wall. There was crushing pain and then nothing. "Lucy!" Talara cried, scrambling to her feet while Pallina looked on in shock. "Lucy!"
"She's… I think she's…"
Even as flames roared from the opening of the doorway - the station's systems here were too damaged to engage fire suppression - Talara charged forward. She reached out with desperation and pulled the bent metal frame of the door away from where it was half-laying against the far wall. Beneath it Lucy was laying on the ground. She wasn't moving. Her armor was visibly damaged. Talara knelt beside her and instinctively reached through the Flow of Life, terrified that Lucy was dead. She was relieved to feel Lucy's life energies intact. She instead sensed the injuries Lucy suffered. Knowing they were beyond her ability to heal, Talara immediately keyed her omnitool. "Talara to Aurora, beam Lieutenant Lucero to medbay immediately, medical emergency!"
The bombing didn't go unnoticed on the bridge of the Aurora. Cat tore herself from scans of the wormhole the moment she saw the unexpected thermal flare. "Captain, I've just picked an explosion on DS9, one of the pylon cargo bays."
Kaveri's response was immediate. "General quarters, all stations," she said.
Beside her, Meridina sensed the next order Kaveri was going to give and asked, "Captain, may I join the Marines? I believe Captain Dale will need my assistance."
Kaveri nodded to her. With the summit in danger, they'd need every available resource on the station to stop the attackers.
The blast was not so great to cause the station to shudder. Outside of those in the area of the pylon where the blast occurred or the crew in Ops, nobody would know until news came.
Nobody save the lone figure hidden away in the station core, in one of the maintenance storage areas.
The woman in the dark cloak frowned at the sensation. The fools, agents of an overreaching and petulant master, were going through with it. Their audacity was perhaps admirable, but their actions in contravention of their true master's orders were unforgivable.
The woman started to smile. She left her hiding place and started to run.
The summit was in paralysis. The Changeling's terms were fixed and he refused to give particulars on the Dominion's offered concessions until he received assurance the Alliance would accept the abandonment of the Changeling detector device.
It was frustrating for Robert, who could sense the certainty of the Dominion leader. The term would be accepted or war would be the result, and it was a war the Dominion believed it could win now that the Alliance faced the persistent threat of the SS exiles and the Cylons to tie down so much of its fleet.
Robert's thoughts on the matter were sharply diverted as he felt imminent danger. He focused on that sense, ignoring the discussion around him, waiting patiently to see if danger materialized.
Acting on instinct, guided by the metaphysical energies within him, Robert raised his arms and used his will to create a wall of force against the conference room's far wall. A number of people noticed the gesture, but none had time to respond to it.
With a thunderous roar the wall exploded. Robert's bubble of will-powered force caught the blast, weakening it enough that none were harmed by it. Robert's entire body ached with the force of the blast and how it hammered at his will. It knocked him backward and to the floor.
Dark-clad figures came through the newly-formed hole in the wall, firearms raised. They fired a moment before the security in the room could. Green pulses of light scorched and burned the security personnel that they struck, those who didn't get to cover in time. Those who did helped get both sides of the summit to cover.
"Return fire! Cover the delegates!" Richmond shouted. Beside her Odo dropped his customary humanoid form. After a few moments as a shapeless globule of amber fluid, he took the form of a white-furred creature with a horn on its head and jumped from hiding at one of the attackers. The attacker was too busy gunning down a Jem'Hadar guard to stop him from ripping the the gun away.
Robert was back to his feet a moment later. His lightsaber came to life in an emerald flash and hummed away as he intercepted fire. He forced two of their opponents to slam into each other. Around him Richmond and the various security forces, including the Jem'Hadar and the Cardassians, started to return fire with increasing efficiency. Several of their foes went down.
And then a man in an immaculate gold uniform appeared, like some kind of war god, pride and disdain on his bearded face. He didn't move a hand, nor a muscle. Only the intensity in his eyes spoke of the power he unleashed.
Every humanoid being in the room froze. Robert felt the telepathic attack wash over his defenses, paralyzing him by forbidding his brain from operating his body. Even the involuntary grimace he would have formed failed to show on his face. He started to reach inward, grasping for his connection to the Flow of Life to aid him in breaking free.
The only two beings in the room not effected by the telepathic attack were Odo and the Dominion Founder. The former was wrestling with a particularly strong member of the attacking force. The latter, noticing what was happening, took the form of an avian and flew upward.
Whether or not the Founder intended to aid Odo was a moot point. A barely visible ripple came over the room, as if an energy field was being formed. As the ripple went through the two changelings they turned amber again. Their solid forms seemed to melt until they were both puddles of goo on the floor.
One of the remaining shooters came through the hole in the wall with what looked like a cylindrical wet-vac, at least to Robert. She ran the device over the fallen changelings. They were sucked in within a couple of seconds.
The attackers began pulling out of the room. As they did so, the golden-suited man sent one final telepathic impulse to the assembled.
Sleep.
All of them, even Robert, crumpled to the floor.
The bomb blast and attack were not unnoticed in Ops. Sisko, Kira, and Worf were at the central table and Dax and O'Brien were at their stations, everyone prepared for the potential crisis they'd been warned of. "Chief, what's the status on Pylon 4?" Sisko asked while the others confirmed the other blast.
"The damage isn't extensive. Looks like it blew out a cargo bay. Some structural damage."
Kira noticed another update on the systems. "Sensors are confirming weapons fire in the wardroom."
Sisko didn't let his grim thoughts about the result of this attack show on his face. "Mister Worf, get down there with security teams, immediately."
"Yes sir." Worf went for the turbolift.
"It's going to take time." O'Brien looked over his systems. "Something's hacked into our security systems. Looks like a localized takeover of forcefield generators and bulkhead controls. We're doing what we can."
Worf stepped onto the lift. "We will make our way through regardless," he said. "Administration Deck." The lift lowered into the ground.
"I've got the shields up," Kira said. "They won't be beaming out. Locking down docking clamps."
"Get me the Aurora." Sisko waited for his Ops crew to follow the order. The blank flat oval viewscreen changed to show a view of the Aurora bridge. The gray-haired image of Kaveri Varma showed. "Captain Varma, the summit's been attacked."
"We have been notified as well. Commander Meridina and a security team beamed over the moment we detected the explosion. If you can extend your shields around the Aurora, we will send over further security teams."
Sisko nodded to O'Brien. "Extending shields," O'Brien said.
Meridina and Lieutenant Lindstrom's team advanced through the halls of DS9, weapons readied and sensors seeking their foe. The latter part was the most difficult. While the sensors were functioning, life sign readings were not stable. A selective kind of jamming was in place. Meridina found she was relying more on her personal life energy, and her telepathic senses, to discover the location of her foes.
The sense of danger escalated as they approached a junction in the corridor. Meridina's lightsaber flashed to life in her hand, signaling Lindstrom and his people to bring their rifles up. They moved into place.
The enemy was already aware of their arrival, their own weapons raised, and Meridina was ready to repel their fire. But before either side attacked, she felt a mental presence strike at the group. Her mental defenses met the attack and held. Lindstrom and his people had no such defense, however, and their attacker implanted intense terror and fear into them. Lindstrom whimpered and dropped to a knee. "Don't hurt me," he pleaded.
"Fire," the golden-suited enemy ordered, his uniform one Meridina recognized: the uniform of NEUROM's Ministry of Fate.
Even with the mental attack still pressing against her defenses, Meridina was able to lift her lightsaber in defense of herself and Lindstrom's people. She reflected as many of the shots as she could, but there was too much incoming fire. One of Lindstrom's people was hit and went down, critically wounded. Another joined him.
Fire let up, but Meridina had no opening to use that. From the enemy ranks a leather-clad woman leapt forward, a sinister grin of anticipation on her face. The incoming fire kept Meridina from moving away, not if she was to protect the security personnel behind her. She watched the woman's prod come up toward her leg and steeled herself for what she knew would come next.
The weapon made contact with her hip. Pain paralyzed the leg and rippled through Meridina's body in waves. She gasped while struggling to keep her attention forward. It brought her down to a knee. Worst of all, it slowed her, and her enemy knew she was vulnerable in this state.
A powerful force gripped the leather-clad woman and threw her back toward her allies. She toppled into two of them, sending all three tumbling to the ground in a tangled heap. Freed from the savage agony, Meridina was able to get back to her feet and keep her weapon moving.
Talara rushed in with her lightsaber at the ready. She caught fire that would've struck another of Lindstrom's people, knocking it back into the NEUROM team and singing the shoulder of a shooter. Pallina ran up behind her, white robes trailing from the speed with which she was moving. She turned her eyes toward the golden-uniformed man. A determined frown crossed her face. "Release them, Magister!"
"Magi!" the man snarled, while Pallina's mind interposed her power between him and the Aurora security team.
Before anything more could be said or done, a soft, sinister laugh came from the other direction. Several of the NEUROM team turned to face it. Meridina and Talara shivered at the intensity of the dark power they now felt, suddenly revealed as if hidden by a cloak.
Coming down the opposite side of the corridor the NEUROM forces were using was a lone figure. Her cloak was black as night, a contrast to the ash-gray of the skin on her face. Her eyes were a burning red like twin coals, the power behind them searing. Her right hand extended. A lightsaber blade of bright crimson light, brighter than either Meridina or Talara's blades, flashed to life with a snap-hiss. The brightness of the color was one Meridina and Talara had only seen in memory, specifically the memories of Robert and Lucy, of the mysterious woman called "Yellow" who escaped them on the Citadel.
They were distracted by the sheer fear they felt from their foes. One of the soldiers actually wailed in terror.
The Magister did not show fear, although the two sensitives felt it radiate from him instinctively. His voice was still firm as he demanded, "What are you doing here?! This is a sanctioned operation!"
"Not by the highest." The voice was chilling. Talara felt a flicker of recognition at it. "You were warned Magister. Yet you defied that warning. You have crossed the Fates."
A thought rippled from many of the NEUROM soldiers, loud and clear for Meridina and Pallina, even to Talara through her sensitivity. In their terror their minds recited a line memetically seared into their hearts in childhood.
Cross the Fates and face the Furies.
Pallina gasped at the intensity of the fear and of her own realization. "Tisiphone."
The gray woman laughed. "Yes, Magi!" And with that said she charged, her lightsaber singing in the air. The Magister issued a mental command to his soldiers and the combat was renewed.
The NEUROM team was in a bad place, but they fought. It was with the courage of the desperate that they did so, but it was still courage. Talara and Meridina worked hard at deflecting their fire, as most of it was coming against them.
This was understandable given what was happening on the other side of the corridor. The red-eyed being Pallina called "Tisiphone" advanced with relish at her foes. They fired at her to no avail, her crimson lightsaber slashing through the air to deflect their shots before it started cleaving through their bodies, every blow struck a mortal one.
Lindstrom and his people were regaining their footing, aided by Pallina's mental aid against the NEUROM Magister's telepathic attack, returning fire with some effect against the NEUROM team. They had protections, but they had little in the way of effective cover. Their numbers more than anything kept Lindstrom's people from pressing their position.
The leather-clad woman got back to her feet and advanced with a hiss, each hand now holding a pain-provoking agiel. Talara intercepted her and deflected her blows. She felt the woman's anger and need to feel the pain of others press against her mind. The training she'd received from Lucy helped resist this attack for the time being while every impact of her lightsaber seemed to damage the agiels a little more.
There was another battle beyond these, but none could see it The minds of Pallina and the Magister were in direct conflict. The sheer will and drive for control of the Magister's mind pressed against Pallina's. She sensed his name - Fayd-Taras. The All-Father himself sent you to this. Why?
Magi scum! was his only response. With his will, Fayd-Taras pressed fear on Pallina. He forced the memories of her brother's torture on her. Of the other Magi he'd encountered in his career, their terror and agony as the Ministry of Fate destroyed them slowly and brutally and with sadistic glee.
Pallina resisted as best she could, not by righteous anger for her brother and her fellow Magi, but by the peace within. The peace of her soul, tied to the oneness of all life and the serenity it promised as taught by the Sophia. The freedom to embrace that light in one's own way. Peace brought happiness. Peace brought comfort. Peace banishes fear.
It was soon clear that they were in a stalemate, even as fighting continued to rage around them.
The quiet in the conference room was broken by Robert, who groaned at the headache he felt as he stood up. The telepathic sleep command had broken clean through his defenses, but it'd been weakened enough to lose its grip quickly. He rose to his feet and tapped at the blue light shining over his left hand. "Dale here."
"Captain Dale, what is your status?"
The sleep in Robert's mind cleared enough for him to recognize Kaveri's voice. "Telepathic sleep command got everyone in here, but I resisted enough it didn't hold me for long," he said. "They took Constable Odo and the Founder."
"Commander Worf and security teams are attempting to arrive at your location, but that section of the station was sabotaged. Your attackers, have you identified them?"
"NEUROM," Robert answered. "Ministry of Fate. I need Lucy and the others, immediately."
"Lieutenant Lucero's been beamed to the medbay with severe injuries. Lieutenant Talara's joined Commander Meridina. I'll have Ms. Inviere beamed over immediately."
"Good. I'll get to work, then." Robert lowered his arm and concentrated. Immediately he felt it. Not just the ongoing fight and the fear it brought, but darkness, cold and terrible in its power. It was deeper than even Fassbinder's had been. And it was approaching Meridina and Talara.
So he started running, channeling every bit of his power that he could in the process to hasten to his comrades' side.