Demons of Air and Darkness

by Keith R. A. DeCandido

  “All right, Macet. I can’t say I understand why you’re doing this, but I’m in no position to refuse, and I don’t have time to discuss it. I accept.”

  “Very well, Colonel. I believe it would be best for all concerned if I remained here and accepted refugees that are brought up from the surface by your task force. The Trager cannot land, of course, but it would speed up the process, and alleviate the need for your ships to evacuate to another star system once they’ve reached capacity. I assume you’re bringing them to Deep Space 9?”

  “And to Bajor.”

  Macet nodded. “Then that would be our wisest course.”

  Kira silently agreed. With transporters no longer an option, she had intended to use the Gryphon and

  Defiant just as Macet proposed: position them at a safe distance while the Intrepid, the Rio Grande, and the other landing ships relayed refugees from the surface. The Trager would be a big help in that effort.

  “Colonel,” Taran’atar said, “sensors are showing that the Trager is equipped with Dominion technology.”

  Kira glanced down at the sensor readings. “I didn’t know that had been done to any Cardassian ships.”

  “Some twenty ships were equipped with Dominion transporters and sensors,” Taran’atar said. “It was intended to be the first step toward integrating the Central Command vessels with the Jem’Hadar warships. For obvious reasons, the project was never completed, but the Trager was apparently one of those twenty ships.”

  “Your observer speaks true, Colonel. We do in fact have sensors and transporters on par with those of a Jem’Hadar vessel—at least, that was what the Dominion told us,” Macet added with another smirk.

  Again ignoring Macet, Taran’atar said, “Colonel, if the Trager is equipped with Dominion transporters, they will still be viable for another six hours, based on the current rate of increase in theta radiation.”

  Shooting the Jem’Hadar a glance, Kira said, “Are you sure?”

  “Quite sure.”

  “In that case, Macet,” she said, turning back to the viewscreen, “you’ll be much better off transporting people from the rural areas. We’ve had trouble locating all the people in the outlying territories. If you’ve got better sensors and can beam them out . . .” As she spoke, Kira did some quick calculations on her console. This should cut the evac time considerably. She was growing ever more concerned as to whether or not they’d be able to get everyone off-planet before the concentration of theta radiation in orbit reached fatal levels.

  “I don’t think that would be wise, Colonel.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “Let us just say there is a—history between Cardassia and Europa Nova. Transporting Europani onto a Cardassian vessel without warning would be provocative to say the least. So, for that matter, would be entering orbit of the planet.”

  “Macet, what are you talking about?”

  “I must insist that we proceed with my proposed plan.”

  “These people are going to die if we don’t get them off-planet within the next day or so, and we can’t do it without your help.”

  “You have my help, Colonel. The only way you will get more help is if you talk to the local government. If they approve of our orbiting Europa Nova and transporting their citizens, I will be happy to do so. But, last time I checked, their military had standing orders to shoot down any Cardassian vessel entering their space. The Trager has taken enough damage lately, I’d rather not add to it while trying to commit an act of kindness.”

  Kira had no idea about any of this. “I’ll contact the surface and get back to you. Hold your position until then.”

  “Of course. And Colonel?”

  “Yes?”

  “It’s a pleasure to be working with you once again.” “I hope I can say the same when this is all over, Macet. Euphrates out.” She then opened a channel to the Intrepid. “Captain Emick, did you monitor that?”

  “Yes, Colonel,” said Emick, “and I’m as in the dark as you. I had no idea that there was even any contact between Europa Nova and Cardassia.”

  Biting her lip, Kira said, “I’ll talk to President Silverio.”

  She opened the channel, and then was politely told to wait a moment. The president was busy with other duties, but would be with her as soon as possible. While they waited, Kira told the Rio Grande to proceed to DS9 with their refugees

  As soon as she closed the channel to the Rio Grande, Taran’atar said, “You should not trust him.”

  “Why, because he worked for Damar’s resistance?”

  “In part.”

  “I worked for that resistance movement, Taran’atar. Yet you follow my orders.”

  “I follow your orders because a Founder has instructed me to. I have received no such instructions regarding trusting Cardassian guls who are known betrayers of the Dominion. You don’t trust him, either— yet you are willing to give him this responsibility.”

  “Yes, I am,” Kira said. “Because I don’t have a choice. Look at the numbers, Taran’atar—we’re not going to get everyone off Europa Nova in time. We’ve only got twenty ships and one gateway, and that gateway can only take five hundred thousand people. There’s a good chance we won’t get everyone off the planet in time. If we accept the Trager’ s help, then maybe— maybe —we’ll be able to do it. I made President Silverio a promise, and I’m damned if I’ll renege on it because of a Cardassian who reminds me of someone I hate.”

  “Colonel Kira, I have President Silverio for you,” said a voice from the com channel.

  Still glaring at the Jem’Hadar, Kira said, “Go ahead.”

  Silverio looked just as haggard as she had when Kira spoke with her only a few minutes before. “Colonel, I’m told there’s a Cardassian ship in our system.”

  “Yes, and they’ve offered—”

  “I want that ship gone, Colonel. I don’t care how you do it, but get rid of them.” For the first time, there was a hard edge to Grazia Silverio’s voice. Gone was the pleasant, grandmotherly tone. Now she sounded like—

  Like me seven years ago, whenever the subject of Cardassians came up, Kira thought ruefully.

  “Ma’am—Grazia—they’ve offered to help with the evacuation.”

  “I don’t care if they’ve offered to scrub out the theta radiation with their teeth, I don’t want them in my home.”

  “They have better sensors and transporters than any of the other ships in the task force—they can still use their transporters. If you allow them to go into orbit, they can transport the people in the rural areas that we’ve been having so much trouble with.”

  “Colonel, are you familiar with the asteroid belt between the sixth and seventh planets in this system?”

  Kira shrugged. “I know it’s there.”

  “When we first colonized this planet a century ago, that was a planet. The only other Class-M planet in the system. We seriously considered starting a second colony there. Thanks to the Cardassians, that’s now an asteroid belt. Our military has standing orders to—”

  “Shoot down any Cardassian ship that enters your space, I know.”

  “You know?”

  “Gul Macet told me. He knew that, and he came anyhow. Grazia, I spent the first twenty-six years of my life fighting Cardassians—more than that, I spent all that time hating them. Nobody knows more than me what horrors they’re capable of, and what they’ve done. And I’m telling you, we have to let them help. If you turn them away, people are going to die— people who trust you to lead them.” She took a deep breath. “Look, if you tell me you don’t want them here, I’ll tell Macet to go back to Cardassia. But you’re going to have to answer to the people who don’t make it because you turned away a starship that could’ve rescued them.”

  Silverio closed her eyes for a moment. Then she shook her head and waved her arm. “Apf. Let the ship in.”

  Letting out a breath, Kira muttered a quick phrase of gratitude to the Prophets. “Thank you, Grazia.”

&nbs
p; “No, Colonel, thank you for knocking some sense into this old head of mine. You’re right, now’s hardly the time to let old hatreds get in the way of good sense. I always thought I had more brains than that.”

  “As long as you made the right choice in the end, it doesn’t matter how you get there,” Kira said with a gentle smile. “And call me Nerys. Let me put Gul Macet on.” She opened a channel. “Gul Macet, I have President Silverio.”

  “Gul, I hereby give you permission to enter Europani space. And I thank you for your generous offer.”

  “You’re welcome, Madame President. And may I say that I hope this marks a new beginning in relations between our people.”

  Kira shook her head. Macet was definitely going to take some getting used to—his voice was so like Dukat’s. Yet those words out of Dukat’s mouth would have had the listener waiting for the other shoe to drop. Macet, though, spoke with a sincerity that Dukat was, as far as Kira was concerned, congenitally incapable of.

  “We’ll begin scans and beam-outs immediately,” Macet continued.

  “Good,” Kira said. “We’re going to investigate the gateway, see if we can stop the radiation at the source. Captain Emick of the Intrepid will be in charge of the rescue operation while I’m gone.”

  “Understood, Colonel. Trager out.”

  Silverio signed off as well.

  “Colonel, I have Commander Vaughn on subspace,” Taran’atar said.

  “Good timing,” she muttered. “Go ahead, Commander,” she added in a louder tone.

  “Colonel, we’re on our way back to Europa Nova. Admiral Ross has given us the go-ahead to attempt the disruption as soon as all five hundred thousand Europani have been evacuated through the Costa Rocosa gateway.”

  “Good. It’ll be at least another three hours before they’re all through. That should give Taran’atar and I enough time to check the other side of the orbital gateway.”

  “Lieutenant Nog says it will take two and a half hours to modify the Defiant. We can aid in the evacuation in the interim.”

  “Do that. I’ll keep in touch. Oh, and we’re getting some unexpected help here.”

  “Colonel?”

  “Captain Emick can fill you in. Kira out.” Turning to Taran’atar, she said, “Shield status?”

  “Modulator is performing as expected.”

  “Good. Put them on maximum. Setting course for the gateway. Let’s see what’s on the other side.”

  11

  DEEP SPACE 9

  “LIEUTENANT,WE’RE GETTING a message from Vedek Eran.”

  Ezri Dax stood at the table in ops, looking over the distribution of refugees to the open quarters on the station. Luckily, they had plenty of room to spare, though it meant utilizing some of the quarters that had belonged to station staff and crew who had died in the Jem’Hadar attack a month earlier. Since the quarters weren’t needed, the processing of the possessions had been given a comparatively low priority, and had only seriously been tackled in the last week or so. Yesterday, however, Dax had assigned a detail to take care of it, thus providing them with maximum availability.

  She had just discovered an anomaly, but set it aside to take the call from Eran Dal. “Yes, Vedek?”

  Eran was an older man with a pleasant, round face and a completely shaved head who managed to look exactly like Benjamin and nothing like her old friend at the same time. Maybe if Benjamin added fifty pounds, Ezri thought, and had to conceal a smile.

  “Lieutenant, we’ve been having some troubles with the Federation industrial replicators we’ve been using to fabricate the temporary shelters for the Europani. Is there any way you can provide us with someone to repair them?”

  Most of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers crew that had aided in the refurbishing of the station after the Jem’Hadar attack had departed, and the station’s own engineering staff was busy with their own duties. Ezri was about to check the duty roster to find a loophole, when she remembered something.

  “Hang on a moment, Vedek.” She called up a station manifest. Sure enough, there was an industrial replicator on board, tagged for delivery to Cardassia Prime by the U.S.S. Hood next week. If it’s just going to sit in a cargo bay for a week, we may as well put it to good use. She checked another display, and saw that the Ng was an hour away from finishing offloading refugees onto the station before heading back to Europa Nova.

  “Vedek, I can’t spare personnel, but I can give you a temporary replacement. Wait for a signal from Captain Hawkins on the Ng in about two hours, and he should be able to bring you a new replicator.”

  “Excellent. Thank you, Lieutenant.”

  “Not at all,” Ezri said. “It’s the Vedek Assembly we should be thanking for making so much of its land available to the relief efforts.”

  “It is our pleasure to help those in need, Lieutenant. It was not long ago that we were relying on others for help when our world was devastated. We should never forget that. Eran out.”

  Eran’s face winked out from the screen.

  “Are you all right, Lieutenant?” Cathy Ling asked from the operations station.

  Frowning, Ezri said, “I’m fine, why?”

  “It’s just—well, when you were talking to the vedek, your voice seemed to get—deeper. And scratchier.”

  Smiling her most reassuring counselor smile, Ezri said, “I’m perfectly fine, Ensign. Probably a little rough from all the talking I’ve been doing.” She picked up a padd. “Before the vedek called, I noticed something—the atmosphere was never changed in the suite of rooms the Plexicans were in. We’d better do that before the Ng’ s refugees try to set up there and find they can’t breathe the methane.”

  Ling nodded quickly. “I’ll get a team right on it, sir.”

  Ezri went back to looking over the status reports. Most of the refugees had settled in as well as could be expected. Many were scared, concerned about what they’d had to leave behind. Some expressed concern about their children—all of whom had been relocated to the Tozhat Resettlement Camp on Bajor. Ezri made a mental note to try to set up a schedule that would allow people to communicate with the camp.

  Several had made specific complaints that had been forwarded to Ezri. “Computer, time?”

  “The time is 1409 hours.”

  She still had almost an hour before her subspace meeting with First Minister Shakaar. As far as she could tell, all the fires had been put out. Ling reported that the off-loading of refugees was proceeding apace. Vaughn had left on the Defiant with Nog and Shar’s gateway disruption scheme ready to go. Dr. Tarses’s last report from the infirmary was that all the cases of theta-radiation poisoning were minor and easily treated—as were the assorted other bumps and bruises that people had suffered during evacuation. She was actually free for the next fifty minutes.

  “Ensign, I’ll be in the Habitat Ring until my meeting with First Minister Shakaar,” Ezri said as she moved toward the turbolift and grabbed a padd with the list of complaints. May as well give these people’s complaints the personal touch. With all they’ve been through, they deserve the station commander’s direct attention.

  Station commander. Ezri surprised herself with how much she liked the sound of that. Most, though not all, hosts of the Dax symbiont gravitated toward positions of authority. In some cases—notably Ezri and Jadzia— that desire didn’t seem to come until after joining with the symbiont. Ezri wondered if this inclination was congenital to Dax, or just the combined weight of all those memories of being an authority figure.

  Just as she reached the top step of ops’s upper level, Ling said, “Lieutenant, there’s a personal communiquÈ here from a Dr. Renhol on Trill.”

  Damn, Ezri thought. With everything that had been going on, she hadn’t made her check-in call with Renhol.

  Renhol was a member of the Trill Symbiosis Commission. Ezri had not been a candidate to be joined, and had united with the Dax symbiont in order to save its life. The commission had asked that Ezri check in on a regular basis with Renhol—
ideally once a week, but at least once a month, duties permitting. Of course, many on the commission would have preferred to keep Ezri on Trill and have her adjust to a joined life under close supervision, but Ezri was a free citizen and could do as she pleased. And right now, I’m pleased to be here on the station, thank you very much. She sighed. Still, it’s been over six weeks.

  “I’ll take it in the colonel’s office,” Ezri said, changing direction.

  Ezri went in, took a very deep breath through her nose, let it out through her mouth, and then sat down in Kira’s chair. “Put it through,” she said, tapping her combadge.

  Renhol’s angular face appeared on the small viewscreen on the desk. As always, her brown hair was tied severely back. “Lieutenant Dax. It’s good to see you.”

  Holding up her hands, Ezri said, “I know why you’re calling, Doctor, and I’m very sorry, but things have been a little crazy on the station.”

  “So I’ve heard. For that matter, so I see—I seem to recall that your uniform was a different color when last we spoke.”

  Involuntarily, Ezri’s hand went up to the collar of her uniform, which was now command red instead of the sciences blue she’d worn ever since graduating from the Academy. “I’ve switched over to the command track.”

  “Really? That’s rather a major step, don’t you think?”

  “Yes, it is. But I think this is the right thing for me to do. About a month ago, I wound up in command of the Defiant during a combat situation. I realized then that I needed to stop assing around in a fog and put these centuries of experiences to better use.”

  “Don’t you think that’s a decision you should have consulted us on?”

  Ezri rolled her eyes. “Young lady, I don’t need the commission’s permission to hold my hand and walk me through every major life decision. I’m a grown woman, and I’m completely capable of making my own choices. Or do I have to consult the commission when I brush my teeth every day?”