“You should be proud not only of your people,” Akaar said, “but of yourself, and your part in leading them.”
“I feel privileged to serve.”
“And you will continue to do so,” Akaar said. “I am not supposed to tell you this, but when the Bajoran Militia is absorbed into Starfleet, not only will you be offered a captaincy, but you will be asked to remain in command of Deep Space 9.”
Kira smiled again, realizing that she had never really considered the possibility that she could be reassigned elsewhere once Bajor joined the Federation. “Thank you,” she said again.
“It was not completely my decision, Colonel,” Akaar said, “but those were my recommendations.”
Kira regarded the admiral, amazed at how completely she had misread his motives and judgments. At the same time, she remembered how easy he had made it for her to do so. Something else occurred to her, and she immediately asked the question that rose in her mind. “What about Lieutenant Ro?”
In an instant, Akaar’s demeanor changed. His face seemed to harden, his body to tense. “A determination about Lieutenant Ro has not yet been made,” he said.
Kira persisted, convinced, after serving with Ro for months, that the station’s security chief was being unfairly judged. “And what were yourrecommendations about Ro?” she asked.
“They differed considerably from my recommendations about you, Colonel,” Akaar said. “My opinions about Ro Laren have been on record for a long time.”
Kira nodded, understanding, but also realizing that people changed. Captain Sisko had shunned the title and responsibilities of the Emissary at first, and then had come to embrace them. Damar had been an ugly, hateful man, who had come to acknowledge and regret the terrible things he had done, and had become a strong and worthy leader. And even Kira herself…after the Occupation, she had for a long time resisted the prospect of Bajor joining the Federation, but now…
“Opinions about Capellans have existed for a long time too, I imagine,” Kira finally said. “But maybe in the future, how they learn to comport themselves going forward will matter more than how they did in the past.” Her message to the admiral was clear: Ro deserved another chance, or at the very least, another evaluation.
“Maybe,” Akaar said, the analogy obviously not lost on him. But he appeared unconvinced about either Lieutenant Ro or his own people.
Kira held up her glass of groszonce more. “To Capella,” she said.
Akaar did not smile, but he regarded Kira with what seemed to be an expression of appreciation. He lifted his glass. “To Bajor,” he said.
Kira leaned forward in her chair, holding her glass out to the admiral. He leaned forward himself, and touched his glass to hers. “To newer worlds,” she said.
68
The door opened, and Ezri stepped onto the bridge. Julian stood at her side, wanting to assist her, she suspected, but respecting her need to walk onto the bridge unaided. She was still recuperating from her latest experience with the thoughtscape, but when she had received word from Bowers that something was happening on the planet, she had wanted to be here. Julian had understood, and had put up no argument.
As they made their way toward the center of the bridge, passing Nog at the engineering console, Ezri saw the eyes of all the crew directed forward. She peered up at the main viewscreen. The clouds surrounding the planet had erupted in one area, as though forced up from below. The movement of the cloud cover had become far more violent, she saw, even causing numerous breaks through which the planet’s surface was now visible. The effects could not have been the result of the pulse, Ezri realized at once, because if they had been, then Bowers would already have ordered Defiantaway. “What’s happening down there?” she asked as she and Julian came abreast of the command chair.
“We’re not sure,” Bowers said, vacating the chair and allowing Ezri to take it. “But we’re seeing some breaks in the clouds, big enough to allow us to scan through them. The energy buildup at the source of the pulse appears to be dissipating there and spreading out into the atmosphere.”
“Is the pulse still a danger?” she asked.
“Not as far as we can tell,” Bowers reported. “At least, not right now.”
Ezri turned and looked past Julian, over toward the engineering station. “Nog,” she said, “you did it.” The away team must have succeeded in deploying the devices Nog and his engineers had developed and sent down to the surface. For the moment, it appeared that four billion Vahni Vahltupali would be safe.
“Not me,” Nog said, turning in his chair toward her. “The explosion should have sealed the interface. The energy should have been trapped on the other side.”
She looked to Bowers. “Has the thoughtscape emerged onto the planet?”
He shook his head. “We can’t tell what happened.”
Quietly, so that only Bowers could hear, she asked, “Has there been any sign of the shuttle?”
“We’ve been scanning outward from the site of the pulse wherever we can,” Bowers said, lowering the volume of his voice to match hers. “So far, nothing.”
Ezri considered their options. She eased herself up out of the command chair and walked over to the engineering station. “Nog,” she asked, “how long until the Saganwill be repaired?”
“At least two more days,” he said.
She turned and looked back at the viewscreen. Even if Saganwere available right now, she did not know if she would order it down to the surface. As much as the cloud cover had been in motion when Defianthad first arrived here, there had been enough stability in it that, when openings through the clouds had formed, the crew had been able to safely send both a probe and the shuttle through and down to the planet. But now the scene on the main viewer showed an atmosphere in complete turmoil. The idea of putting more lives at risk—
“I’ve got the shuttle,” Ensign Merimark called from the tactical station.
Ezri heard reaction from the bridge crew, but she ignored it, instead pacing over to stand beside Merimark. “What are you reading?” she asked.
“I’m picking up Chaffee’s transponder signal,” Merimark said. “I’m trying to scan the location…it’s difficult, there’s still energy in the clouds, and they’re moving so—wait…there…it’s on the surface…I’m reading hull plating—” When the ensign suddenly stopped speaking, a sense of dread filled Ezri.
“What is it?” she asked.
Merimark looked up with a weary, pained expression on her face. “The shuttle crashed,” she reported. “There are no life signs.”
Ezri felt whatever strength she had left in her drain away. She looked over at Julian. He stared back, the anguish he felt apparent on his face, as it must have been on her own.
“Lieutenant Nog,” she said firmly, finding strength in her responsibility to the crew. “I want the Saganready as soon as possible, crews working on it around the clock.”
“Aye, sir,” Nog said.
“Lieutenant Bowers, I want options,” she told him. “I want to find the away team.” She did not need to add alive or dead.
“Yes, sir,” Bowers said.
Ezri had already lost Gerda, and now maybe she had lost Vaughn and Shar and Prynn, but she would not leave this planet until she knew that for sure.
Ezri sat in the command chair, watching along with the rest of the crew as the planet below was transformed. Above the area from which the pulse had once originated, a huge mass of unidentifiable gray matter burst up into the atmosphere. Like the darkened image of a nuclear detonation, the mass emerged kilometers wide through the cloud cover. The clouds themselves fled from the explosion of matter, pushed aside by the enormous displacement of air.