The Gateway Crossover
Part One:
‘Shattered Destiny’
‘Shattered Destiny’
“Chief! I’m not about to accept that.” She lost the flow of her tirade as a further strafe of phaser fire hit them broadside rocking her in the command chair. “Get power to the phasers sharp! All the shields in the world will do us no good if we can’t fend them off.” A burst of sparks from above and behind just showed what they were working against. 'Curse Sisko, curse Jadzia, and curse them again for not being here.'
But of course they just had to beam down to that asteroid and check and see if it did indeed contain a cloaked Dominion spy installation. They could simply have fired enough photon torpedoes into it to blow it apart to see, but no they had to do it the ‘Starfleet’ way. Investigate it first, and then blow it up!
Gritting her teeth, Kira thought to herself, and not for the first time, ‘Starfleet has a lot to learn when it comes to fighting a war.’ More phaser hits, more sparks and more Jem’Hadar ships approaching. Not the kind of console read out you like to be reading. She barked, “Chief!” ‘He’s only to the side of you Kira. Keep your head.’
“A moment. That’s all I need.”
‘Good old O’Brien’, she clenched her teeth as another barrage raked the Defiant’s shields, ‘he doesn’t know where he’s going to get the power but he’ll bluff me anyway’.
At such times as this, and there were plenty, Kira could have sworn O’Brien had honed his skills on Bajor fighting Cardassians – how else could he get something out of nothing and make it count, how else could he so doggedly manage to pull off the impossible? The Defiant shuddered violently. ‘But he had better do it quick.’
Her mind raced firing out evasive moves to the Helm just as quickly as the Jem’Hadar fired. The only advantage they had was the fact that the asteroid that held the possible spy base formed part of a small cluster of asteroids once a moon or larger surmised. It meant the Defiant could play a little cat and mouse – unfortunately, they were the mice. Their position had become all the more precarious because the ensuing dogfight had sent the asteroids tumbling out of their stable orbits as they were blasted into smaller bits.
“Alright helm, we’ve got to get back to Sisko so do your damnedest!” Damn Starfleet anyway – obviously, if the site was a secret recon site it would have security defences that would alert nearby Dominion ships.
Worst still, the Captain and Dax were stranded in an asteroid that the Jem’Hadar no doubt had now beamed down onto. It kind of complicated things considering the Defiant had to try to get back to the asteroid, locate, a hopefully alive, Sisko and Dax, drop shields and transport them whilst being by now four Jem’Hadar ships.
“Major.”
That was all the confirmation she needed from O’Brien. “Fire at will and make it good.” The sudden spit of phaser fire from the Defiant made its pursuit very confused, sending the tailing Jem’Hadar ships and asteroids spiralling into chaos. One ship met the ultimate chaos as it plunged straight into an asteroid - with a very satisfying explosion Kira thought.
“Approaching the Captain’s asteroid,” helm called.
“I’ve got fixes on them – ready to transport.” O’Brien confirmed. “This would be the real dicey bit.”
“It’s going to be on the hop I’m afraid Chief. Make sure you don’t beam up any packages with them. Lets not make this a wasted trip.” Lets hope they deployed the explosives. “On my mark drop shields and transport.”
Onscreen Kira saw the asteroid straight loom ahead as the Helm swooped them in closer on a dead-on approach – no point trying to disguise intentions. Kira could not help but think that a more experienced helmsperson, certainly a Bajoran resistance fighter would have made a less obvious approach.
But beggars can’t be choosers. Besides, speed was of the essence. No doubt Sisko would explode the asteroid rather than await rescue. 'Sorry to disappoint you Sisko, but I’m not about to let the Emissary blow himself up if I’ve got anything to do with it.'
“Drop shields.”
“Transporting.”
“Raise shields.”
“Dax to bridge! The explosives are set to …”
“Warp 6! Engage now!”
The mighty engines of the Defiant kicked in as a luminous glow blossomed out from the asteroid engulfing one of the ships in its deadly glory that decimated the asteroid belt, sending a second Jem’Hadar out of control spinning through space to explode seconds later as its warp core breached from the deadly assault.
“We’re being pursued.”
“Good! That means we’re alive O’Brien.” She stood from the command chair and turned to the bridge door, expecting Sisko’s large frame to hurry onboard to take command but instead it was Dax with no captain behind her.
“Where’s Sisko?”
“He’s in sickbay. Don’t worry he’s not badly hurt. He got hit but I still had to force him to get treated. Did we get away ok?” She asked it so casually that Kira nearly scoffed. Did she simply not realise how close they had come to being obliterated or had her seven lifetimes made her feel immortal?
“One ship in pursuit but its dropping off sir.” The helmsman replied and flushed.
“Right then.” Kira continued to help the helmsman get over his embarrassment at having called Jadzia ‘sir’ a sign of his inexperience but at least today he had gained some. “Edmonds set a course for home and assess damage.” Clearly, she was still in command and as Jadzia sat down at her console it was evident it was staying that way.
* * *
Down in the cramped medical bay of the Defiant Kira looked down at the pained face of Sisko. Of course, it wouldn’t be as pained but for the fact she was restraining him from getting up. The pain from his injuries were well suppressed by Bashir’s capable assistant who was treating Jadzia only now because Kira had needed every capable hand to get the Defiant back into a fit state.
As it was they still didn’t have the cloaking devise and had to drop their initial warp speed to help the Chief with his repairs. Thankfully, after two hours such were their repairs that at least he could now work from the bridge to take the Conn.
Sisko turned to Bashir’s assistant as if to appeal to her, but his hopes were dashed by the silent glare and the impish smile that spread across Dax’s face. He was going to protest further, when Kira cut in.
“Trust me Captain – stuck out in the middle of open space with no cloak and practically limping home – I’m more than willing to turn command over to you. Once you’re fit.”
Her communicator cheeped as O’Brien chimed in. “O’Brien to Kira. The cloaking devise is up and running again.”
“Engage it Chief.” That was one more thing off her mind. “How about getting home any faster?” Even if they were to limp home, they would be able to do so in secret.
“Ah. ‘Fraid not Major – well not for now at least. But don’t worry I’m working on it.” Again with his reassurances. She acknowledged him and turned to the Bajoran medical assistant to get her diagnosis of Sisko.
All in all, he was very lucky not to have been worse off from both the medical assistant’s and Dax’s report of their ambush on the asteroid. He would however be fully recovered by the time they reached DS9 particularly at their present rate of going.
Kira felt relieved that at least their mission had not been for nothing. By all accounts, what Jadzia described was quite a hi-tech state of affairs that informed the Dominion of Starfleet movements and appeared to capable of intercepting high priority coded messages, which explained the recent advantages the Dominion fleet had had over them. Luckily, they had found out about the asteroid’s possible and now non-existence.
“Don’t worry Captain we’ll keep you appraised of anything that merits your attention.” She turned to leave only to be joined by Dax.
“Just as long as you both remember I’m still the Captain. Wait a moment and where do you think you’re going, Old Man?”
“Enough of the Old thank you Benjamin. Afterall, I’m the one whose been cleared for duty.”
“What!” He turned once again to the Bajoran assistant – but Emissary or no she had been trained under Bashir and so the Captain’s protests would go unheard whilst there was no reason for him to leave.
* * *
“Infernal! Dratted! Humph!” Kira sat back on the deck floor and threw the sonic wrench down onto the deck. She darted a look at Jadzia to just dare her to say anything.
“Well you did volunteer to fix this conduit juncture for the Chief.”
“Anything to get off the bridge. Four hours sitting on it doing nothing was just ragging me and we were still nowhere. As soon as the Chief returned to the Bridge and said he could co-ordinate things from there I just had to give him the bridge and do something.” The frustration was obvious in her voice.
“Well things are nearly set for Warp drive again. Two more relays and we can safely get home in twenty minutes time.” Dax started to reaffix the panel to the relay and dusted herself down. “And Sisko is ready to return to duty. I just haven’t told him yet.” A conspiratorial smile spread across her face but she remained silent. “And might I add you may not have the patience of an engineer but you do have the tongue of quite a few I’ve met in my time.”
They gathered their tools and set back for the bridge talking idly. Kira was amazed by the ability of Dax to introduce small talk into any situation no matter how terse or precarious and said so.
Jadzia's mission in life to firmly keep alive the art form of chit-chat made for a short joyful interlude to the bridge.
They stepped onto the Bridge and immediately Kira noticed the interaction between the Chief and helm. Within her gut she knew it was not just the flurry of repair to the ship. “What’s up Chief?”
She took the command chair – despite having the conn. Miles had chosen to remain at his engineering station where he could work and where he felt more comfortable.
“We picked up strange gravimetric readings ahead which are increasing.”
“Are we still cloaked? Then prepare weapons and shields.” Jadzia standing over at her science station behind her replacement observing the readings turned back to Kira who shrugged to say hey it’s just the cautious resistance fighter in me.
“I’ve got the centre of our readings onscreen.” O’Brien and all eyes on the bridge lifted to the viewscreen as if their visual confirmation could better the data from the sensors. “Nothing.”
Turning her eyes to the science consoles Jadzia remarked, “Not to the eye anyway Chief. However, our sensors show a little more activity. What! I’m not … certain …” but the way she trailed off indicated to Kira that at the very least she had an indication.
“Slow to quarter impulse.” Again, Dax looked at her. Kira simply shifted in her seat. Can I help it I help it I get nervous just before things go pear shaped?
“Should we tell Benjamin?”
“Not until we have some good reason. Anomalous readings don’t count – until they’re no longer anomalous.” Kira stood and clenched her fists. As always, she would sooner face down a wing of Jem’Hadar or Cardassian ships than inactivity or the passive scientific readings that always intrigued these Starfleet types.
“Gravimetric readings continuing to increase I’m also reading a neutrino flux along with …” up until now Jadzia had been content to stand behind her replacement but as the readings became increasingly … she shuddered … familiar, she resumed her position in her most tactful way. At the end of the day, she was the best officer for the job. Kira felt relieved, it saved her having to give the order. Dax continued to read out readings.
If they indicated, what Kira thought they did then she did not want to risk … “Bring us to a full stop!”
“Aye! Aye!” He clearly had drawn the same conclusion and looked nervously to Dax.
“What you’re describing is exactly what happens-” Kira was cut off by Jadzia’s blunt interruption.
“When a wormhole opens! I know.” She didn’t mean for it to sound so dramatic but this was impossible since Starfleet had conducted extensive studies of this region of space when the wormhole at Bajor had been discovered believing the Badlands to be a factor. But they had found nothing.
“Kira to Sisko.” She didn’t wait to confirm. “Get up here no …”
Then onscreen a sight that normally filled her with wonder and awe now filled her with the utmost terror. But then the sight always signalled the opening of the Celestial Temple. Now?
Now the screen showed an opening wormhole – not a Celestial Temple - but an abomination! Worst still it showed that the Federation had lost. The Dominion had managed to create a wormhole from the Gamma to the Alpha Quadrant. Effectively the Dominion had won the war.
* * *
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