Chapter 8: The Siege

Commander Servak kneeled on the floor, his fingers circling his palms. His two pointer fingers and thumbs were pressed together, pointing out and in. His eyes were closed, seeing his breath as a white light. He was tranquility, on a sea of chaos.

He, along with Ensigns Jellio and Davis, had been hiding out in the lower Jeffry tubes ever since they had been stranded on the station, nearly for two weeks now. They had neutralized seventeen Romulans, and at the same time had been able to keep supplied and used thoran radiation to block the sensors of the pointy-eared freaks.

Davis had been able to connect their communicators to the communications system, and they were able to eavesdrop on every conversation in the past two weeks any person had been having. One had been so juicy, that while Servak had found it deplorable to hear about the intimate interaction between a Romulan Centurion and his wife, his human and Bajoran comrades had found reason to chuckle and amuse themselves.

Davis had remained with Servak, writing a story on a padd he had procured. Davis stopped his progress, thinking, then turning to Servak, said, "Hey, Servak, I have a question for you."

"If it is about your frivolous writing," Servak grunted, "I must remind you that it is a waste of time."

"It is about it," Davis acknowledged, "But, it helps me keep a clear head. And now, I need a stone cold reasoning when it comes to an idea, and you are about as cold as they come."

"Besides resenting your remark," Servak sighed, and opened his eyes, "I will explore your story idea."

"Great," Davis said, and slid to his side, "So, in my story, the year is 2010 on Earth. And there is a bunch of people who visit a website on the internet, to exchange ideas and propositions. And one of these people happens to be a great writer called Admiral Harmon. And there is this person called Starblind there helping him out. And so, they get this idea to write a story where our universe is invaded by a sphere with the power to destroy a planet, and people who can use powers to increase their speed and fighting ability and can even use this magic to shoot lightning from their bodies and choke people even from across starships."

"I lived on Earth for seven years Mr. Davis," Servak replied, "And even for humans, it is an illogical story. There is no one ever called Starblind and you are stealing Admiral Kyle Harmon's name to make your character. And everyone knows that the greatest author on Earth ever was Mackenzie Calhoun. Not only that, the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant, compared to a Vulcan Deathgrip, and to have the internet would have required much more logic then humans have ever shown. This is what I think of your story idea."

He grabbed the padd, snapped it in half and calmly dropped it on the ground. He looked up and said, "I'm sorry, were you not finished?"

"You're a mean man, Commander," Davis sulked away, "Where is Jellio? He's been gone far too long."

Almost as if summoned, Jellio appeared, holding a phaser rifle in his arms. It looked as if he had ripped it out of a wall. He looked at Davis, who sat grumpily on the ground. Eyeing the broken padd he asked, "Got fed up with your story idea? I told you the sphere was a stupid idea."

"Servak broke my padd," Davis grumbled, then held up his comm piece to his ear and listened to the conversations.

"That's not very Vulcan of you," Jellio said with a mischief smile, "Perhaps I'll have to take you to Risa after all."

"I am a married man," Servak rolled his eyes, "I have been happily married for sixty-two years. Now, what have you accomplished with getting control of the station to our location?"

"I still haven't figured out how you are going to get the entire station to be controlled from a small display down here," he said, "And, to tell the truth, ever five minutes I have to dash away and hide. It will take six weeks at this rate."

"We might not have six weeks at this rate," Davis replied, "Listen. It's Praetor Sela and Admiral Nero, of the Romulan Seventh Fleet."

"….Starfleet feels it has no other choice…." Sela was saying, "the Federation was only at Qo'noS at the behest of the Klingon High Command, and suddenly, seventeen of their systems have been overrun thanks to the thalaron radiation weapons we have."

"No more High Command," Nero, who they recognized by now with his silky smooth voice, "... no more invitation."

"Governments can break off relations with an edict," Sela continued, "It's not so easy when it comes down to people of your level. Take Picard for example. He has worked decades to keep the peace and even has an official standing in the Klingon Empire itself. And Ambassador Worf served years in Starfleet.

"All of us who've served in the Romulan Imperial government have for the past century tried to break these erstwhile allies; we've come to despise what this alliance has done to our dream of Manifest Destiny. I know I do. So, I decided to do something about it. And in just one week, I've broken the back of the alliance."

"You'll be needing someone to oversee the new Klingon provinces," Nero said cheerfully, "I was hoping that perhaps my services had been…"

"I was actually planning on Senar of the Tal Shiar to take control there," Sela said, "Besides, packing up all your medical supplies is going to take quite a long time, Citizen…"

"Are you demoting me?" Nero asked surprised at the obvious mistake in his title.

Sela's voice now came as a snarl, "Before I volunteered, I thought we were at understand what you're in for. We'd be trying to taking over the Empire as long as I would become Praetor... You were hopeful that as long as I was busy expanding the Empire, I wouldn't notice your deception."

"I don't understand-" Nero said, but was cut off by Sela.

"It was only time before I would uncover your deal with the Dominion in all this," she snapped, "It wasn't that difficult really. The sudden increase to our Imperial forces could only have been with the help of the Founders who might not be our blood enemy are still our enemy."

"The Vorta Kilana and The Founders promised to only keep the Cardassian Union and the Breen Confederacy…"

"They would love nothing better than to present my head…" Sela snapped, "and yours... to the Jem'Hadar. I am ordering you out of the army and you are banished to mining. You have families. Oh yes, I know of your infidelity. I also know you have been funneling information to Ambassador Spock. I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up actually putting real drones on my ships and not only changelings who don't like changing for us. Now, get out. I mean that."

There was a momentary pause and she said, "Do I have a reason to dismiss you, Tom Riker?"

"No Praetor," a clearly human voice replied, "My life is devoted to you."

Servak threw an unsettled look over at Davis. He had served on board the Enterprise when the duplicate of Commander Riker had an arrived. How could he have turned against the Federation? Wait, he had been with the Maquis. He must believe that he could punish the Cardassians most by joining in this unholy alliance.

Sela continued, "Good. No longer will Picard be safe... With you now as my chief military advisor our families, children have a future to look forward to... I'm sure many of the changeling on board will want to stay with us when we win this upcoming battle. There's a lot to get done. The Enterprise should be up and running in less than two weeks. Then, once we crush the Federation fleet, we will destroy all the changelings in my fleet. Dismissed."