Выбрать главу

Kira’s eyes narrowed. “May I assume this is about the assassination of First Minister Shakaar?”

“It’s about much more than that, Colonel,” General Cyl said. “I’m aware of what you’ve been through during the past few days. And you deserve to know the truth—you needto know the truth, so we can work together to face what’s coming.”

“Which is what, precisely?” Kira asked.

“The parasites are waging a war, Colonel. And regardless of what you may think, it isn’t a war for power. It’s a war of revenge.”

“Against what?”

“Against the symbionts,” Cyl explained. “Humanoids are not the targets of the parasites’ war, and we never were. We’re the battlefield.”

Epilogue

“Wormhole in one hour, sir,” Bowers said. “Still no response from the station.”

“The relay might be malfunctioning,” Dax said, standing at Vaughn’s shoulder.

Vaughn nodded. “Let’s hope that’s all it is.” Four months ago, in preparation for their mission, Defiantand her crew had deployed a subspace relay at the Gamma terminus of the wormhole in order to make communications practical between the Alpha Quadrant and the Gamma Quadrant. During the last few days, however, ever since Vaughn had lifted the comm blackout, there had been no word from the station, and no indication that Defiant’s own attempts at communications were being received.

So this is it,Vaughn thought. I began this mission with such hopes, with so much exuberance, with a ship and crew ready to take on new challenges in the unknown. Now I end it feeling more battered and weary than I did before I encountered that Orb in the Badlands. Why? Why reunite me with my daughter only so we’d be driven apart? Why guide me here only to make me face the same choice? Why did Ruriko have to die again?

“Captain.”

Vaughn turned in the center seat. There was something in Shar’s voice that demanded immediate attention. “Ensign?”

“Sir, I’m conducting long-range scans of the space surrounding the wormhole,” Shar began. “I had thought to determine the status of the relay…”

“Yes, Ensign?”

“Captain, the relay is gone.”

Shar’s words were like a knife in the gut. Before the Dominion war, the first automated relay that personnel from Deep Space 9 had deployed in the Gamma Quadrant had been destroyed by the Dominion—a prelude to the years of conflict that followed. “Was it destroyed?”

“Yes, sir, I believe it was, but—”

“But what, Shar?”

“Sir,” Shar said, uncharacteristically flummoxed by something. “My scans are showing that the space around the wormhole has been altered since we were last here.”

Everyone turned to look at Shar.

“Altered how?” Dax asked.

“If these readings are correct,” Shar said, “the wormhole now opens within the Idran system.”

“Idran?” Vaughn said. Idran was a blue dwarf star of eight uninhabited planets and, Vaughn knew, at a distance of three light-years, was the nearest Gamma Quadrant system to the wormhole. “Are you telling me the wormhole has moved?”

“Not at all, sir,” Shar said. “The system has.”

Vaughn stared at his science officer for a moment, almost ready to accuse Shar of making an exceedingly poor joke. But, of course, Shar seldom joked about anything, and certainly not about something like this.

Vaughn exchanged a look with Dax, who joined Shar at his station to examine the readings herself. “My God,” he heard her whisper. “This is unbelievable.” Dax looked back at Vaughn. “According to this—”

“Captain!” Bowers said suddenly. “Contact bearing zero-four-zero mark nine. Distance three hundred million kilometers and closing fast. It’s a Dominion ship.”

“Red alert,” Vaughn said at once. “Give me a visual, Mr. Bowers.”

On the viewscreen the menacing insectile form of a Jem’Hadar attack ship grew as it approached the Defiant.

“Hail them, Sam,” Vaughn said.

“Sir, they’re hailing us,” Bowers said. “And slowing to impulse.”

Curiouser and curiouser.“Take us out of warp, Ensign Lankford. Sam…on screen.”

The Jem’Hadar ship was replaced by a view of its bridge, where a Vorta wearing the monocular headset the Dominion employed in lieu of viewscreens smiled pleasantly at Vaughn. “Greetings,Defiant,” the Vorta said. “I trust your little sojourn went well. To whom have I the pleasure of speaking?”

“I’m Commander Elias Vaughn, captain of this vessel. And you would be…?”

“I’ll be damned,” Dax muttered, reacting to the Vorta. “Weyoun!”

Weyoun?Vaughn thought. He remembered the name. Weyoun was one of the key figures among the Dominion forces stationed in the Alpha Quadrant during the war.

“Lieutenant Dax,”Weyoun beamed, his buttery voice oozing affection. “How nice it is to see you again.”

“I wish I could return the compliment,” Dax said. “I thought the Weyouns were extinct.” Like the Jem’Hadar, the Vorta were an engineered species, but one whose members enjoyed a kind of immortality in which memories were recorded and encoded into new clones upon death. At least, as long as the Vorta continued to be useful. Weyoun himself had died several times while in the Alpha Quadrant, only to be replaced by a cloned successor each time. But by all accounts, after the Vorta cloning facilities on Rondac III were destroyed, the last Weyoun had been killed during the final battle on Cardassia.

The Vorta looked positively amused. “Lieutenant, I was first cloned in the Gamma Quadrant. Did you really think that even if all my clones in the Alpha Quadrant were destroyed, some of my genetic material wasn’t still on file in the Dominion?”

Dax smiled humorlessly. “I might have known it was too much to hope for.”

“My dear, you cut me to the quick. Which reminds me…how is Commander Worf?”

“He’s Ambassador Worf now,” Dax said. “To the Klingon Empire.”

“Really?”Weyoun said, absently feeling his neck. “Well, I suppose if anyone would appreciate Mr. Worf’s style of discourse, it would be his fellow Klingons.”

“Was there a reason you contacted us, Weyoun?” Vaughn said, trying to get back on topic.

“Oh, my apologies, Commander Vaughn,”Weyoun said, and suddenly his voice lost some of his friendliness. “Our sensors are showing you have a Founder aboard your vessel. We demand his return at once.”

“Of course,” Vaughn said, then turned to Dax. “Lieutenant, would you please inform our guest of the situation and arrange to have her beamed aboard the Dominion ship? And be sure to give her the chip.” After Dax nodded and left to carry out Vaughn’s order, he turned back to Weyoun. “The Founder in question was rescued by us after being marooned for two years on a planet we came across. We were going to bring her with us to Deep Space 9 and then contact the Dominion to arrange her safe return. Your arrival here simplifies that immensely.”

“Her?”Weyoun said.

“Yes,” Vaughn answered. “She seems quite young—at least, by our standards. Scarcely more than a child. Her ship was brought down two years ago by a force we’re quite familiar with—the Borg. She’ll attest to what I’m telling you, and she’ll also be carrying a report we’ve compiled about the encounter that you might find useful.”