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Chapter Twelve

Marina and Kira crouched behind a large, bluish gray rock at the edge of the meadow, which ended in hard red clay.

"How many of them?" Kira whispered, her hand hovering over the phaser in her belt.

Marina closed her eyes and picked up on the enemies' thoughts. "About ten, I'd say. Not a large party--and not all of the Dominion forces on this planet--but enough." Enough to finish us off…

Kira was quiet for a moment, trying to think up a plan. "We have to get around them and get to Catronis 6," she said quietly. "Do you think you could use your mind powers to do anything?"

Marina felt nervous. "I don't know. I've never really tried anything… aggressive. I was always scared to."

"Well you're going to have to try something," Kira said firmly. "I can't think of anything else we can do right now." She drew her phaser and scooted back against the rock. "How far away are they?"

"I'd say… maybe a quarter of a mile." Marina's voice shook.

"So, if we leave this cover, they'll probably see us?"

"Yes."

Kira sighed. "Marina, have you ever done anything like this before?"

Marina shook her head.

"No real combat?"

"No. Just simulators and stuff like that."

"Just listen to me. Do as I say."

"I'll do that anyway." Marina cracked a smile, albeit a nervous one. "You outrank me, major."

Kira smiled, too. "That's right, lieutenant, I do. Now look, you're going to have to do something with your psychogenotrosis, or it's going to be ten of them versus two of us."

"I'll try my best, Kira," Marina whispered. "But I can't promise that whatever I do will work."

"Then I hope you're good with a phaser," Kira said grimly.

(LINE)

"There we are. That should do it." Miles stepped back, his hands on his hips, his smile proud. "So what do you think?"

"It's not pleasing to the eye, that's for sure," Julian said dryly, eyeing the satellite contraption Miles had built. "But it will do…I hope."

"Well, it was your idea. If it fails, it's your fault," Miles said, grinning at his friend.

"No, no. You built the bloody thing. It will be your fault if it doesn't work." Julian smiled crookedly, daring to hope. "Well… Go ahead and start it up."

"And hurry," Dax added. "It's getting dark."

Miles reached down to punch a button. The tall, slender metal construction, made of various equipment the party found on the shuttle, suddenly came alive with a static sound.

"What does that mean?" Julian asked impatiently.

"It's picking up on any equipment that could be used to communicate with," Miles explained. "We can transmit signals through communicators that usually wouldn't work in this atmosphere. And not just communicators. The way I've got this little beauty set up, we can transmit signals to almost anything."

"Good. So… is it working?"

Miles crouched down beside the satellite. "Should be. I think it's picking up on something…" He messed with the controls, tuning in the signal. "Looks like it's… that way." He pointed.

Julian frowned. "That's where the Longfellow went down."

"Hurry, Miles," Dax urged.

The engineer rotated the satellite a bit, then watched the control panel. "Aha! There!" He pointed toward the mountains. "There's some sort of electronic equipment out that way."

"It has to be Marina and Nerys," Dax said excitedly.

Julian crossed his arms. "Or the Jem'Hadar."

They were all quiet for a moment.

Miles shook his head. "I don't think, so, Julian," he said. "This kind of construction probably doesn't even operate on the same wavelength as Jem'Hadar equipment."

"And Cardassian?" Dax asked.

"I don't think something this primitive would work with that either. It's specifically designed to pick up on Federation signals." Miles gave Julian an encouraging smile. "Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."

(LINE)

Kira and Marina could hear the enemy party now, the harsh laughs of the Cardassians and the low grunts of the Jem'Hadar.

"All right, Marina… You have to do something," Kira whispered.

"Reach into my pack," Marina said. "Get out my pocket knife and my goggles."

"What?"

"Trust me."

Kira looked askance at her friend, but hurried to retrieve the items from the pack. "Now what?"

"My knife has a little light on it. Slide the goggles far away from us and shine the light on them."

Kira smiled. "Good plan. A distraction." She quietly slid the goggles over the packed clay, just far enough away, then held up the little pocket knife. "Here goes nothing," she muttered. Squeezing her eyes closed and pleading with the Prophets, Kira pressed and held the light button.

The narrow beam of light reflected brightly off the orange surface of the goggles.

"Over there! A light!"

"Good thing they didn't see the beam," Kira whispered to Marina. "Now you'd better do your thing--and quick."

Feeling nervous, but determined, Marina closed her eyes and reached out with her thoughts. Her mind brushed against those of the ten men in the Dominion party. Random thoughts and emotions hit her like a solid wall, but she shut her mind to them, concentrating instead on what she was projecting.

Fear. Stark fear.

Marina sent a steady stream of it at all ten men. She was satisfied when she heard one of the Cardassians say, "Sir? What's out there?"

Kira reached out and squeezed Marina's shoulder, letting her know that she understood what was happening.

"I think there's a wild animal out there," one of the Cardassians muttered.

Marina took that thought and ran with it, sending the image of glowing eyes to the Dominion team, making them all think they had seen eyes out of the corners of their eyes. She smiled as she felt them begin to back off. It was working.

Then, suddenly, Kira's communicator beeped.

Marina was startled and momentarily lost focus. The Dominion team started to break free of their fears.

"I'll handle this," Kira whispered quickly. "You just concentrate on scaring them off."

Marina nodded and hurried to resume her projections of frightening images, playing on the fears of her enemies.

(LINE)

"Who is this?"

"Major Kira! It's the Chief!" Miles exclaimed into the speaker of the homemade satellite.

"Chief? What are you doing here?" Kira whispered furiously in reply.

"We're here to rescue you--me and Dax and Julian," Miles explained.

"Good," Kira replied. "We need rescuing. Marina and I are hiding from the Dominion team. She's holding them off with her mind powers."

"Marina! Is she all right?" Julian asked excitedly.

"Fine, aside from a cut on her arm," Kira said.

"A cut? Could you tell me--?"

"Julian, we don't have time. We're trapped."

"What about the others at the shuttle? How are they?" Dax asked.

"All of them are all right except for Garcia. He sustained some pretty bad injuries in the crash. And I think Harris might be going stir crazy."

Julian rocked back on his heels. Carlos Garcia. The one who had followed Jake Harris' lead in teasing Marina. Carlos was hurt. And Marina was in danger. And they were in opposite directions.

"What do you need us to do, Nerys?" Dax asked.

"There are only about ten of these guys. A little firepower would be nice."

"Is Garcia in really serious condition?" Julian asked.

"Yes, but he's stable. Look, we don't have time to chat! Marina is doing all that she can, but I don't know if that will be enough!"

(LINE)

Marina tried not to listen to Kira's conversation with the rescue party. But she could not ignore it, especially when she heard Julian's unmistakable British-accented voice. It made her throat tighten.

Kira saw Marina's eyes begin to open and hissed, "Concentrate!"

Marina nodded quickly and thought hard at the Dominion party.

"When can you get here?" Kira whispered into her communicator.

"I'd say… in a few minutes," came Miles' Irish brogue.

"Hurry," Kira replied, daring a glance around the edge of the rock. The enemy group was backing off, but they were still close enough for visual contact. And mere fear would not hold them off forever. "Kira out." As soon as she said the words, she wondered, How on earth are they going to get here that fast?

(LINE)

"I thought you weren't supposed to feel G-forces in this kind of shuttle," Julian remarked dryly from his seat--which he was basically plastered to.

Dax grinned. "That's only if you pilot it at standard speeds."

Miles rolled his eyes. "You're going to blow an engine if you keep it up."

"You do want to reach them in time, don't you?"

"Yes, of course I do."

"Then why complain?"

Miles sighed. "Forget it. Just keep it up."

"Julian, start checking the scanners for bio signatures," Dax said.

"Aye, aye, captain," Julian replied, glancing down at the screens.

(LINE)

Marina continued feeding fear to the Dominion party, but it was her fear that they wouldn't eat it for long. "Nerys," she whispered tightly, "I think they're getting suspicious."

Kira tightened her grip on her phaser. "Miles, Julian, and Jadzia are on their way. Just keep up what you're doing--and draw your phaser."

Marina nodded, her eyes still shut tightly, and reached to draw her phaser.

Suddenly, she felt dizzy and nauseated. Something was wrong. "Major…" she whispered, surprised at the squeakiness of her voice.

Kira turned to look at her comrade. Her eyes went wide. The cut on Marina's arm was bleeding through the bandages, and the young science officer's lips had gone blue. "How long can you hold out?" Kira asked worriedly.

"I don't know," Marina managed. "I feel really sick."

"Hang on. Julian's on his way." Kira patted Marina's shoulder.

(LINE)

"Aha! Here they are!" Julian exclaimed joyously. "Dead ahead!"

"Wonderful! How long will it take us to reach them?" Dax asked.

"At the rate we are traveling… About forty seconds." Then Julian frowned. "What the--? Oh my God. It's Marina. There's some strange sort of… force coming from her. And it appears to be draining her energy…" The doctor clenched his teeth, fighting down his fear. Please, God, let her be all right… "Jadzia, we have to hurry."

"What do you think she's doing?" Miles replied.

Dax's face was uncommonly grim. "Julian, as soon as we land, you get to Marina and Kira. I'll fire the shuttles phasers. Miles, you get that satellite out there and contact Worf and the others. Got it?"

(LINE)

Marina suddenly stood up and set a large heater on top of the rock. Then she turned it on, and its light flared out around the rock.

"Lieutenant! Get down! That's an order!" Kira yelled.

"Trust… me…" Marina said between clenched teeth. She stepped out from behind the rock, her arms outstretched, her phaser in her belt. Kira stood with her, phaser pointed at the enemy.

The Jem'Hadar and Cardassians saw them immediately and raised their weapons.

"Surrender now and no harm will come to you," Marina called out to them, her eyes still closed. She did not need to see with them. She saw with her mind.

The Dominion team froze.

One of the Jem'Hadar spoke. "It's that human girl we're supposed to capture," he said.

"And she wants us to surrender. Ha!"

The leader of the Cardassian group stepped forward. "No. You surrender," he ordered.

"I warned you." Marina raised her arms.

A terrible cry rose up.

And Kira stared in shock as all ten enemy soldiers fell to the ground, writhing in pain.