Star Trek - Gateways - 4 - Demons Of Air And Darkness

by Demons Of Air

  It did, however, surprise the alien enough so that Taran'atar could fling him off. The alien crashed against a instrument panel, sending sparks flying. The Jem'Hadar leapt and stood in front of Kira, deliber-ately placing himself between her and their foe.

  The alien slowly rose and faced them. Now that they were all standing up, Kira saw that the self-styled hunter was indeed tall, but not quite the giant she had thought him to be-Kira estimated he was a bit more than two meters in height.

  The alien smiled in a manner that reminded Kira far too much of Dukat. "At last," he rumbled. "Worthy prey."

  To Kira's annoyance, Taran'atar had thrown the alien closer to where his rifle lay. If he grabbed it while they were in the room, they were dead.

  "Move!" she barked, leading Taran'atar to the open hallway behind them.

  Without a instant's hesitation, Taran'atar followed.

  "I had the chance to explore this deck before I at-tacked the Hirogen," the Jem'Hadar said as they ran side by side down the corridor.

  So that's what he's called. "Fine, take point."

  He led them through a maze of corridors. Every-where they went, Kira found more bodies like the three on the bridge: gold-skinned, wearing the bulky uniform, and bleeding from dozens of wounds each.

  Taran'atar led them into what appeared to be a maintenance tunnel. He shut the hatch and locked it, showing an impressive aptitude for equipment he'd never seen before today.

  Once the door closed, Kira turned around. "Can you do something about these bonds?"

  Taking Kira's wrists in his scaly hands, Taran'atar said, "I believe so. This may hurt."

  "Just do it."

  Taran'atar grabbed the bonds, the sides of his hands pressing up against Kira's wrists. He pulled for sev-eral seconds. She gritted her teeth against the pain that shot through her shoulders as the bonds finally gave in to the Jem'Hadar's strength, and her arms were suddenly wrenched apart.

  She flexed her shoulders. "Thanks. Now then, you obviously know who this guy is."

  "I know of the species from an encounter a Jem'Hadar unit had with a Hirogen ship several hun-dred years ago. Back then, they were nomadic hunters with an impressive level of technology."

  "Judging from what I've seen and heard, I'd say they still are," Kira said. "I take it from the way you shut the door so easily that you had a chance to exam-ine some of the snip's systems?"

  "Those that still function, yes. It did not take long, as very few of the systems are functioning at all. Propul-sion, weapons, and tractor beams are inoperative."

  "So we can't try to draw the waste back into the cargo hold?"

  "No, Colonel."

  Kira pounded the bulkhead with a fist. "Dammit!" She reached for her phaser-and found that it wasn't there. "I don't remember him taking my weapon."

  "He didn't. My rifle didn't materialize with me when we were taken to this ship. Our energy weapons are either still on the Euphrates or dispersed."

  Kira tapped her badge. "Kira to Euphrates. Com-puter, two to transport to the runabout."

  The computer's voice was barely audible through a burst of static. "Unable to comply due to theta radia-tion interference."

  Kira muttered an Old High Bajoran curse that her brother Reon had taught her when they were kids. "Computer, scan this vessel. Is there anywhere aboard we can go where the interference is weak enough so transporters can penetrate?"

  "Negative"

  She thought a moment. Obviously the transporters on this ship could penetrate the theta radiation, other-wise the Hirogen could never have beamed them over. Besides, these people had reason to make their trans-porters more resistant to radiation interference than Starfleet ever did, if they lived with this toxicity every day. "Can you locate the transporters here?"

  "Affirmative."

  Kira looked around. There were no working termi-nals, and she didn't have a tricorder. "Locate the near-est one to these coordinates."

  "The nearest transporter to your location is in the fore section of deck twelve."

  "And where are we right now?" Kira asked impa-tiently.

  "In the middle section of deck two."

  "Can you read any life-forms aboard this vessel?"

  "Life-sign scan inconclusive. Two life-forms are as-sumed based on combadge signals of Colonel Kira Nerys and Toran "atar."

  Kira repeated the curse, and cut off the transmis-sion. Then she looked at Taran'atar. "Do you still have your kar'takin?"

  "Yes." Taran'atar reached behind his back and un-sheathed the thin-bladed weapon that Jem'Hadar gen-erally carried as backups in case their energy weapons failed or were sabotaged.

  "Good. We don't have any way to track the Hi-rogen-and he's a trained hunter. Do you know any way to go down ten decks from here?"

  "No," Taran'atar said, "but I believe it should not be difficult to find one. With respect, Colonel, I should take the point."

  Kira was unaccustomed to letting others put them-selves in danger on her behalf. Unfortunately, in this particular instance, Taran'atar was the only one who was armed. "After you."

  Taran'atar led them down the corridor, his kar'takin held in a defensive position. Kira followed close be-hind, feeling naked without a weapon. No rifle, no hand phaser, not even a blade. Hell, at this point, I'd take a club.

  Finding access to the lower levels proved easier than she expected; they discovered a narrow, vertical shaft that was propped open by the corpse of one of the tanker crew.

  "Were you able to find any working terminals?" Kira asked as she and Taran'atar moved the body out of their way and onto the deck. "Find out who these people are?"

  "No."

  Shaking her head as she peered into the shaft, she said, "It's ironic. When we first arrived, I wanted to kill these people. Now that they're dead-I actually feel sorry for them." A ladder on the far wall of the shaft went up one level to deck one, and went down farther than Kira's eyes could see. The shaft was illu-minated only with the same dim green lights that the rest of this deck was bathed in.

  "Whoever they are," Taran'atar said, "their battle is done, and they did not reclaim their lives. Our battle is not yet over."

  "Damn right it isn't," she muttered as she clam-bered into the hatch and set her feet down on one rung of the ladder. Taran'atar followed a moment later.

  Kira couldn't read the writing on the shaft wall-in

  the dim light, she could barely even see it-but she counted her way down past each of the identical hatchways until she reached what should have been the twelfth deck from the top.

  Unfortunately, this hatch was not propped open by a gold-skinned corpse. Simply pushing on the handle didn't budge it. She tried pulling it, but that didn't work, either.

  "Give me your blade," she said, reaching up.

  Taran'atar handed the kar'takin down, hilt-first, with-out comment. There are times when his unquestioning obedience is really refreshing. For all that Starfleet in-sisted on military protocol, their officers had a tiresome tendency to question everything. It was a nice change to work with someone who just did what he was told.

  Hooking one arm and one leg through the ladder's strut, she used the thin blade to try to pry the door open. Her leverage was awful, and the best she could do was bend the metal slightly outward.

  That should be enough, though. Handing the Jem'Hadar his weapon back, she asked, "Taran'atar, do you think you can pry the door open with that handhold?"

  "I believe so."

  Kira climbed down several more rungs to allow Taran'atar access. Grimacing slightly, the Jem'Hadar grabbed at the bent metal and pushed against it. He peeled back the hatchway, the sound of the distorting metal disturbingly loud in the shaft He then went through the opening he'd made, the edges of the torn metal tearing at his dark coverall. Kira, who was much smaller, was able to get through a moment later without any damage to her uniform.

  Deck twelve looked very much like the one they had just come from: same green lights, same browns and greens in the
d6cor, same nonfunctioning equip-ment, same miasma. The only improvement was that the burning smell didn't make it down this far.

  As Taran'atar led the way toward the ship's fore, Kira tapped her combadge. "Computer, can you pin-point the exact location of the transporter room on deck twelve of this vessel?"

  The static was less here than it had been on deck two. "Negative. Theta radiation prevents a precise reading."

  "Figures," she muttered. "We'll just have to try all the doors hi the forward section until we find one."

  The first two doors they came to seemed to be locked. Taran'atar pried them open to find that they were storage rooms.

  The third opened when they approached. At the sight of what was inside, Kira gasped. She tapped her combadge again. "Computer, can you scan the equip-ment in this room?"

  "Negative."

  "Is the shield generator somewhere in the forward section of deck twelve?"

  "Affirmative."

  She looked at Taran'atar. "If this is what I think it is..." She knelt down in front of one piece of equip-ment.

  The room was lined with machinery that looked enough like a shield generator to satisfy Kira-espe-cially given the device that was attached to one of the consoles. The device was very obviously of a different design than the rest of the ship. It had a sleeker inter-

  face, a different control layout, and a different type of display screen from everything else on the tanker.

  It was also very familiar.

  "I was right," she said after examining it. "This is just like the shield enhancers we had in the resistance." She looked up at Taran'atar. "Under normal circum-stances, our little ships couldn't hold up to the Cardas-sian warships, but we were able to enhance our shields. This is very similar to something that one of the other cells came up with for our sub-impulse raiders."

  "With respect, Colonel, we must find the trans-porter and-"

  "Help me remove this."

  "Colonel, the Hirogen may arrive at any time to-"

  So much for unquestioning obedience. 'Taran'atar, this may be what we need to save Europa Nova! Now help me remove it!"

  Taran'atar glared, then said, "As you command."

  As she started undoing connections, she said, "It'll still be another three hours before all the Europani going to Torona IV will be through the gateway at Costa Rocosa. The Defiant can't disrupt the gateways until then. That huge mass of waste will go through in less than two hours. If we attach this shield enhancer to the Euphrates, it may just boost Nog's shields enough so that we can use the ship to block this gateway com-pletely. It won't just stop the mass, it'll stop more of the irradiated material from going through and give our people more time to evacuate." She had removed all the rear connections by the time she finished the sentence.

  Taran'atar undid the last of the side connections, and the two of them gently set the enhancer onto the floor. Kira looked around, and found a handle. Awk-

  wardly, she picked it up with both hands. These peo-ple also designed it to be portable. Smart move. When Kira's resistance cell acquired the enhancer, the first thing Kira had said was it needed to have a handle on it so it could be carried more easily-without that handhold, it needed two people to move it. This one was heavier than the one they'd had in the resistance, but still manageable.

  The Jem'Hadar moved to assist her, but she shook her head. "No. I'd rather you kept your hands on your weapon. Let's find that transporter."

  The fourth door opened as they approached, and it appeared to be the transporter. Kira lugged the en-hancer to the platform while Taran'atar sheathed his kar'takin and went to the controls.

  "I have locked on to the Euphrates."

  "Good. Get up here."

  The Jem'Hadar did not move. "If we both beam off the tanker, the Hirogen will simply beam us back. One of us must remain behind to distract the hunter while the other installs the shield."

  Kira stared at Taran'atar. The Jem'Hadar, typically, betrayed only one emotion: resolve. Taran'atar knew that there was only one decision Kira could make here. He was armed and could shroud, and therefore had the best chance against the Hirogen. Kira knew the shield enhancer and how to install it-she'd done so once while under fire from Cardassians, she could certainly do it in a Starfleet runabout that was much more recep-tive to adaptive components than Bajoran sub-I's.

  But she hated the idea of leaving someone behind. With the runabout's transporters unable to pierce the radiation, she'd be unable to beam him back to the Eu-

  phrates, or even return to help him once her task was done. "That thing out there will probably kill you."

  Unsheathing his kar'takin and holding it across his chest, Taran'atar said, "I am already dead. I must go into battle to reclaim my life. This I do gladly because I am Jem'Hadar."

  As if I needed reminding, Kira thought.

  "You must fulfill your oath to President Silverio, Colonel. And I must fulfill the one I made when the Founders gave me life."

  Kira took a deep breath, then nodded. "Energize."

  Taran'atar set the controls. Then he looked up. "One more thing, Colonel. When me Founders sent me on this mission, I thought that my gods had cast me out. I have since learned that I was wrong."

  Then he finished the sequence, and both the Jem'Hadar and the tanker's transporter room disap-peared, replaced by the interior of the Euphrates.

  Sighing, Kira thought, Every time I think I have that Jem'Hadar figured out, he goes and surprises me.

  "Computer," she said, then hesitated. She was about to ask for a full damage report, but mat would take too long. "Status of shields and propulsion."

  "Shields inoperative. Warp drive functioning at eighty-two percent of capacity. Impulse drive func-tioning at seventy-four percent of capacity."

  "Reason for shield failure?"

  "Power conduits one through four have been ir-reparably damaged. Six microprocessors have failed."

  "If the conduits are replaced, will the shields func-tion?"

  "Affirmative."

  "Do we have four replacement conduits on board?"

  "Affirmative."

  "Thank you, Nog," she muttered. Then, removing her uniform jacket and setting it on one of the chairs, she set to work.

  Within twenty minutes, she had replaced the con-duits. "Computer," she said, "prepare shield generator for installation of additional equipment."

  This certainly brings back memories, she thought, as she looked for an appropriate access port. The last time she had to install one of these, it was in the midst of a firefight. She, Furel, Lupaza, and Mabrin were supposed to rendezvous with Shakaar at Singha when the Cardassian scout ship found their flitter. They had just obtained the enhancer, and Kira had been forced to connect it and use it without testing-all in about five minutes, while under fire. It only worked part of the time, but that was true of everything on that ship.

  Unbidden, the voices of her fellow resistance fight-ers sounded in her head.

  "They're coming around for another pass. Hurry up with that evasive course, Lupaza."

  "I'm moving as fast as I can, Furel. The controls are sluggish."

  "I'm gonna slug you in a minute."

  "They're firing!"

  "Shields are down to fifty percent!"

  "Nerys, if you don't get that damn thing installed in another minute, there won't be any shields for it to enhance."

  "I'm working as fast as I can, Mabrin. Anytime you want to climb under here and help out..."

  Kira smiled as she attached two more leads to the generator. So many memories-liberating Gallitep

  and freeing those poor laborers from their deadly mining duties, the attack on Gul Pirak, the destruction of the Seltran mine. Most of all, she remembered Lorit Akrem taking her twelve-year-old self to meet Shakaar Edon for the first time in the caves of the Dakhur Hills.

  It was all so much easier, then. Shakaar gave us our orders, and we fought. We knew who the enemy was, and we went after them.

  She
stopped what she was doing, and shook her head.

  "What the hell am I thinking?" she said.

  "Please repeat instruction," the computer droned.

  Ignoring the computer, Kira snarled and threw her-self back into the shield enhancer. How screwed up is my life that I'm looking back fondly on the resis-tance? Now I'm feeling nostalgia for Gallitep?

  I wish Odo were here.

  She stopped working. Dammit, she thought, furious at her own weakness. I promised I wouldn't let myself do that. Odo did what he had to do. I know that.