"Your personal vessel has survived," Spock told him, "but is severely damaged."

The Klingon looked toward the forward viewscreen, though it showed nothing. "How damaged?"

"Three of the four have at least auxiliary power. They all have life support. No hull breaches."

"Three ships gone. Three. And an entire planet. Nineteen million people," Kalor said slowly. "My people. Under my charge."

If only that were the end of it, Picard thought. On that planet was the data on T'sart's virus. If he died now, without explaining all he knew about the dead zones ... this was the fate of every technologically civilized planet. Including Earth.

Chapter Twenty-two.

Enterprise runabout Kaku Romulan s.p.a.ce Sector 3B "IT is eerily quiet." Deanna looked out the forward port at the small relay station. It wasn't in a star system, but just hanging out in s.p.a.ce, illuminated only by its own running lights.

"That's good," Riker said. "No one's supposed to be here."

She continued to gaze at the station's rather graceful arms. Shaped like a giant flower, each petal had what looked like a deflector array at its end. It was peaceful. Beautiful, in fact. "For some reason, when invading enemy s.p.a.ce I think of conflict more than serenity."

2/4.

MAXIMUM WARP: BOOK ONE.

"We could argue again if you'd like," Riker offered, along with a playful smile.

Deanna returned the smile. "I thought we were only discussing."

"That, too." He twisted a half turn toward aft. "Anything new on those enhanced long-range sensors, Data?"

"Nothing, sir. Still reading the two warbirds. One in orbit around a planet in the Galaras system, the other heading toward the Romulan homeworld."

Deanna noticed how, even with his emotion chip enabled, Data's voice remained mostly unchanged. A slight difference, she supposed, but most people would probably not notice.

"Current distance?" Riker asked.

"Three pa.r.s.ecs and seven point nine pa.r.s.ecs respectively, sir."

Riker frowned and, as usual, Deanna felt his change in emotion flow over her. In a way, it was like listening to an orchestra. Sometimes one set of instruments could be heard over the others. Now she "heard" a sense of caution.

"Three pa.r.s.ecs is a little closer than I'd like," he said. "They could scan us."

"I am modulating our warp signature to resemble that of a Romulan shuttle," Data said.

"Good. See if you can pull up any info on one of their shuttles. Might be good if we matched their plasma emissions and other characteristics they might be able to scan."

"Aye, sir." Data liked the idea and sounded cheerful. "Perhaps I could-"

An audio alarm rang and brought all their attention forward.

In front of them, the relay station flashed brightly and then ruptured outward with a white-hot glow.

"What the h.e.l.l-" Riker spun toward the side console. "Shields!"

Chunks of molten debris slammed into the quickly raised deflectors, bouncing the runabout as she turned away.

"Inertial dampers failing," Data called.

Riker struggled with the helm. Deanna caught glances of him as he grunted to hold a course. She was bounced out of her chair and onto the deck. The lip of her seat caught her neck and the lights dimmed, or her consciousness did. She wasn't sure which.

"Hold on!" Riker's voice. It sounded faint. She tried to pull herself up, but darkness swirled around her and she fell into it.

"How long?" Riker's head felt as if it weighed a hundred kilos and his voice sounded shallow, but he struggled his way mostly upright, leaning on the bulkhead. "How long?" He asked again.

"You have both been unconscious for three minutes, nineteen seconds," Data said.

Both. Riker turned to one side, then the other, before he saw Deanna to his left. "Deanna?"

She groaned and her head shifted as she lay faceup on the deck.

"I scanned you both briefly with a medical tricorder," Data said as Riker tilted her up softly. "No serious injuries, though you'd both succ.u.mbed to stray coolant fumes. And Counselor Troi has a bruise on her left cheek."

Riker looked down and checked each side of her ivory face. "I don't see one."

Data looked back a moment, then toward the forward port. "Not that left cheek, sir."

Figuring that information was received from the tricorder, Riker saw Deanna's eye fluttering open and he helped her up. "Are you okay?"

"I seem to have fallen," she said, sliding back into her chair.

"Me, too." Riker gripped the back of her seat. He was still a bit off balance himself.

"You okay?" she asked.

"Yes." He tapped Data on the shoulder and Data let Riker take the helm chair. "Status?"

The android slid into the scanning station next to Deanna. "Debris from the relay station explosion damaged one of our warp nacelle stabilizers, and main inertial dampers were knocked offline. I have compensated with backup systems, but our maximum speed is reduced, and we have a small plasma leak."

"How small?"

Data nodded. He obviously understood Riker's concern. "Big enough for them to see, sir."

And it didn't take long. A Romulan warbird, the one that had been closest, was on an intercept course.

"I don't suppose evasive maneuvers are called for." Deanna touched Riker's shoulder supportively.

Riker suppressed a sigh. "I'm not sure what good it'ddo."

"They will intercept us in three minutes, seventeen seconds," Data reported.

A little over three minutes. The runabout was no match for a warbird. They were outcla.s.sed in size, speed, and-since they were damaged-maneuverability. "Options?" Riker might as well ask, since he couldn't think of any.

After he thought a moment, Data answered. "None that I am aware of, sir."

Suddenly Riker remembered something. "Are they cloaked?"

"Yes, sir."

"So they don't know we see them?"

Data considered that briefly. "I think we can surmise that."

"Okay, that's good. We can use that."

"How?" Deanna asked.

The plan wasn't all clear in his mind quite yet, but Riker knew if he talked it out, the idea would formulate. "The longer they're just watching us before attacking, the longer we can travel without interference, right?"

"We can't make it all the way to the rendezvous point," Deanna said. "We'd be too early anyway."

"Don't need to make it all the way there. Just a few more minutes," Riker said, and he now knew what they needed to do. He looked at his scanner monitor.

"Sir, the warbird is de cloaking Data said. "They are within torpedo range."

Riker looked up. d.a.m.n, he thought. They came in too fast. "Communications?"

"Jammed, sir."

"Great," Riker grumbled. "Data, can you still scan Mr. Tobin's ship?"

"No, sir. We left it cloaked." The android checked his scanners again. "I cannot verify it is there, but we did disable its propulsion. Our previous coordinates should be correct."

"But if it's drifted ... d.a.m.n, I wish we could contact him."

Riker felt Deanna's hand on his shoulder again. "Will, if you involve him in this and something goes wrong-"

He shook his head. "Everything is pretty wrong now, Deanna. We don't have many choices."

"The Romulans are attempting a tractor beam," Data said. "The plasma leak is hampering their effort."

"Good. Do we have phasers?"

"Aye, sir."

"See if you can't disable a few of their tractor generators," Riker ordered.

Data nodded and tapped at his controls. The runabout whined as she lanced phasers into the large warbird's shields. But one bee won't bring down a gorilla. It was a futile ploy, Riker knew.

The Romulans lashed back with disruptors. Weapons fire crackled over the runabout's weak shields and jostled everyone aboard.

"Shields down seventy-three percent," Deanna said. "Warp engines are offline."

Riker grunted. He was a fair pilot, but with one nacelle venting plasma, warp power offline, and only backup dampers working ... "We have to do this now, before we lose the power."

"I have the coordinates of Tobin's vessel," Data said.

"Within range?" Riker noticed his tone was tense. Only Data and Deanna around, he didn't really need to cover his emotions. Deanna felt them anyway.

"At extreme range in twelve seconds."

"If he hasn't moved. If he has, we'll beam into open s.p.a.ce."

"Isn't transporting a little risky at this speed?" Deanna asked, most of her concentration on the power graphs.

Her question went unanswered. Their vessel shook harshly as the warbird's weapons bashed against dying shields and buckling hull plates.

"No other choice," Riker said. "Range?"

"Four seconds."

Riker clicked off the ticks in his head, then... "Data, now!"

Chapter Twenty-three.

Private Bird-of-Prey, Klingon design Klingon Empire Lorrnit Sector "you're insane." Gorlat neither smiled nor hissed. He was matter-of-fact and completely blunt. "That's all. You've just lost your tiny, warped Klingon brain."

Loire remained silent and continued packing gear into one of the locker compartments.

"I must agree," said the Andorian in his raspy whisper.

"Topor, you'd agree with the animal who killed your mother," one of the other mercenaries said. Lotre didn't see who.

"My own father killed my mother," Topor purred.

"And you agreed with him," Gorlat said.

Topor smiled thinly and shrugged. "I hired him. What is your point?"

Lotre sighed. "While my ancestry may be Klingon, my brain is Romulan-"