“Three Federation starships on attack vectors,”Spillane said. “They’re ordering us to lower shields and power down, or be destroyed.”
Akaar,Kira thought. Those have to be the ships that Mello mentioned. He probably ordered the attack ifGryphon got beyond a certain point without contact.Kira searched the board once more, cursed, and started out of engineering. “Take evasive action. I’m coming up.”
“Sir, communications—”
“Are not an option,” Kira said as she searched the corridor for the turbolift. “He slagged both the subspace and RF transmitters. We’re mute. We’ll have to figure something else out. Bridge,” she told the elevator.
Kira stepped onto the bridge to find the Gryphonofficers glued to their seats. Spillane noted her arrival and stood up from the command chair. Without thinking about it, Kira settled into the center seat. The Gryphonshook again.
“They’re targeting our after shields,” Spillane reported.
“Show me a tactical display,” Kira ordered.
A strategic overlay suddenly superimposed the starfield on the viewscreen. Their attackers were the Nebula-class T’Kumbra,along with the Sagittariusand the Polaris,both Norway-class starships. From the look of things, the two Norways were in pursuit, closing in from behind and below. Up ahead and above them, T’Kumbrawas swooping down to intercept. They’d make very short work of the Gryphon,unless Kira tried to fight it out. But as far as she was concerned, firing on another Federation starship was notan option.
“T’Kumbra…”Kira murmured, thinking.
“Incoming fire!” Spillane announced. “Hang on!”
Kira grabbed the armrests of the captain’s chair as the ship rocked again.
“Shields reduced to forty percent,” Bhatnagar said. “Sir, what are your orders?”
“Captain Solok still commands the T’Kumbra,doesn’t he?” Kira asked the room urgently.
It was Xiang who answered. “I believe so, yes.”
Solok,Kira thought. Abrasive, arrogant Academy classmate of Captain Sisko. Solok was so certain of the innate superiority of Vulcans over humans and most other Alpha Quadrant humanoids that he’d once challenged Benjamin to a game of baseball during a quiet moment in the middle of the Dominion war. Kira had played on Sisko’s team, and they had lost spectacularly, but nevertheless claimed a victory by simply taking joy in playing the game—something the Vulcans would never do.
“You are attempting to manufacture a triumph where none exists,”Solok had said.
Kira smiled. All right, Solok, let’s see if you remember….
“We need to communicate with the T’Kumbra,”Kira said.
“But, sir,” said Croth. “You said yourself that the transmitters were destroyed….”
“We need to send Captain Solok a message,” Kira insisted, “something he’ll know immediately is from me so he’ll order the task force to stand down. I need an alternative to conventional communications.”
Croth considered. “We could tap out a message using the running lights on the hull,” he suggested.
“No good,” Kira said. “It might take them too long to notice, assuming they noticed at all. We need to get Solok’s attention immediately.”An idea occurred to her. “What if we used the phasers?”
“Sir,” Spillane said, “if we start using the phasers now, the task force almost certainly won’t hesitate to use deadly force against us.”
The ship rocked again. Bhatnagar reported shields were down to fifteen percent.
“I don’t think they’ve been pulling their punches up to now, Lieutenant. Reconfigure the aft phasers to one one-hundredth power and fire short bursts away from those ships. We want to tap out a message in Starfleet’s most basic code.”
Spillane nodded, working her console. “I can do that, but it better be damn short, sir.”
“Just two words: Manufactured triumph.”
The other officers looked at each other. Kira realized she must have sounded as if she were out of her mind. Fortunately, they all knew they had no time to argue with her.
“Firing phasers,” Spillane said. Her hand danced rhythmically on her control interface. On the viewscreen the phaser beams flashed in perfect synch with Spillane’s taps, firing harmlessly into the void.
Another blast shook the bridge. “Shields are gone,” Bhatnagar announced, and Kira knew she had failed.
“Sir,” Croth said suddenly. “T’Kumbrais matching course and velocities alongside us. Sagittariusand Polarisare doing likewise above and below.”
Kira rose from her chair and stared at the viewscreen, now showing an image of the Nebula-class ship. “Any new transmissions?” Kira asked.
Croth studied his console and shook his head. “Negative. However, their torpedo tubes are open and loaded.”
Kira held her breath, waiting. Come on, Solok, put it together….
Seconds went by in silence. Then the sound of transporter beams filled the bridge, and six columns of light solidified into the forms of a half-dozen armed Vulcans in Starfleet uniforms, standing in front of the view-screen. Solok was among them. His eyes found Kira, who stood in the middle of the bridge, and he raised an eyebrow. “Colonel Kira. Permission to come aboard.”
Kira almost laughed. “Granted, Captain. Thanks for dropping in. We could use some help getting the Gryphonback under control.”
Solok put his people to work with the Gryphon’s crew, then turned his attention back to Kira. “Captain Mello?” he asked.
“Dead,” Kira reported. “Killed by her first officer, who engineered this mess to begin with and who is also dead.”
Solok simply nodded. “You took quite a risk, gambling that I would grasp the meaning of your phaser barrage.”
“Not really,” Kira said evenly. “I had nothing to lose.”
“And what would you have done if you had faced a different starship captain?”
Kira arched an eyebrow at him. “I guess we’ll never know.”
“Indeed,” Solok said. “I’m beginning to believe I may have much to learn from further study of manufactured triumphs.”
“Good luck with that,” Kira replied. “You’ll be hard-pressed to find as good a teacher as the one I had.”
Twenty-six hours later, with the help of T’Kumbra’s engineers, Gryphonwas restored to full functionality. Sagittariusand Polarishad recovered all of Gryphon’s escape pods with no fatalities, and reunited them with their mothership. Kira bowed out of leading the memorial services for Captain Mello and Commander Montenegro, allowing those of Gryphon’s officers who knew them best to eulogize them, while she stood among the crew, mourning as one of many.
When the services were over, Kira returned to the bridge as the ship prepared to get under way for its return voyage to Deep Space 9. Once back at the station, she would relinquish command. This wasn’t over by a long shot, she knew. But at least they’d saved Trill.
“Message coming in, Commander,” Spillane reported from tactical. “It’s from a Trill military transport, approaching us on an intercept course.”
Kira looked toward the viewer. “On screen.”
The starfield was replaced by the face of large male Trill with white hair and deep frown lines mingling with the dark spots that ran down either side of his face. “Colonel Kira,” he began. “I’m General Taulin Cyl of the Trill Defense Ministry. I request permission to come aboard.”