"How long until the station blows?" Lemec asked.

"Without instruments, I can't give an exact time," the engineer said.

"Your best guess?" Lemec asked.

"Ten to twenty minutes."

Moset suddenly threw his hands into the air. "My research. We have to recover the data from my lab-"

Lemec smiled in satisfaction. "Considering the laboratory with your data is on the docking ring and the turbolifts are down, you won't make it."

"Sir, the turbolifts are the only system besides backup-lighting that seems to be functioning."

"This is not a simple sabotage," Luaran said. "Whoever has done this knows Carda.s.sian systems." She looked at Lemec. "It's possible that one of your own people is giving intelligence to the Federation."

Lemec bristled at the accusation. "It is also possible that the resistance is aiding Starfleet," he said in a tight voice.

The science officer asked, "Should I give the order to evacuate?"

Luaran nodded grimly. "Although with communications down, I doubt most will hear it. I will help Moset gather his research. We will reconvene on Betazed."

Lemec nodded, grateful that the Vorta had not made him responsible for Moset's research. If her precious Founders thought it was so important, she could d.a.m.n well be the one to try to get it off the station.

As the gul scrambled toward the turbolift, he hoped that the fool of a doctor and the irritating Vorta were still in the lab gathering his oh-so-precious data when Sentok Nor went up in flames.

Chapter Twelve.

D EANNA EYED THE FORCE FIELD across the prison gate that effectively prevented her team from escaping with Tevren. "Main control of the gate is in the administration building."

"I can return there and cut the power," Data suggested.

"Go," Deanna said, "but don't cut the power. I don't want to leave the entire prison unshielded. See if you can get the computer to release the gate. Room O-41."

Data shifted Vaughn off his shoulder and onto the smooth tile of the entryway, then raced in a blur of speed back to the administration building. Deanna paced, waiting for the shield to drop. While Beverly kept an eye on Vaughn, Deanna watched for the approach of the Jem'Hadar squad.

"You have Lanolan's weapon," Tevren said, noting the hand phaser on Deanna's hip. "Give it to me. I can help."

"Shut up," she snapped back.

Refusing to consider that Data might be unsuccessful, Deanna peered down the prison road. Although the approaching Jem'Hadar were obscured by a curve, she expected them to burst into view at any moment.

"The force field's down," Tevren shouted.

"I said shut up," Deanna repeated. "We're waiting for Data."

"You two go," Beverly said. "I'll stay with Vaughn until Data gets back."

"Won't do us any good. Data's the one with the transponder. None of us is going anywhere without him."

Suddenly Data could be seen sprinting back toward them at inhuman speed. The android replaced Vaughn across his shoulders and followed as Deanna led them through the gate. The group raced around the facility at a dead run. They had almost reached a path that led into the mountains when a blast from a Jem'Hadar rifle shattered a tree branch above Deanna's head.

"Take cover!" She waved her team behind a large outcropping just off the path. Data slid Vaughn to the ground behind the stone, then took his place beside Deanna. Beverly, phaser poised to fire, crouched at Deanna's other side.

"Can you tell how many?" Deanna asked Data.

He c.o.c.ked his head and listened to the m.u.f.fled steps of the oncoming soldiers. "Twenty-seven."

Tevren's soft voice was in her ear. "You can't kill them all yourselves. Give me a weapon. I can help."

"Forget it," Deanna said.

"If I die here," Tevren said, "this is all for nothing, isn't that right?"

Ignoring him, Deanna turned to Data. "Even from a secure position, three of us can't hold off twenty-seven Jem'Hadar. See that point in the path?" She pointed below to the way her team had come.

"Where it broadens?" Data asked.

Deanna nodded. "The Jem'Hadar will probably attack several abreast and give us multiple targets instead of a single-file line." She hefted Lanolan's phaser in her hand. "Set this to overload, figure the time to explosion, and toss it into the middle of the patrol."

Data didn't hesitate. With rapid movements, he adjusted the phaser to overload, and its ominous whine filled the air around them. The advancing Jem'Hadar, however, were still too far away to hear the telltale shriek of Lanolan's old phaser about to blow.

Watching Data's expression of concentration, Deanna could almost discern the humming of his positronic brain over the phaser's warning whine as he calculated the time until explosion.

Suddenly the android lobbed the weapon toward the approaching patrol.

Deanna jerked Tevren down behind the boulder, Beverly ducked beside her, and Data shielded the commander.

The phaser struck the path in the midst of the Jem'Hadar. Before any could cry out a warning, the resulting blast rocked the hillside, scattering soldiers, shattering boulders, and splintering fragments of Jarkana pines in every direction.

Debris rained on Deanna and her group, but before the deluge stopped, she ordered her team to their feet. "Take out any survivors."

The carnage on the path below sickened her. Jem'Hadar emotions were strange, unlike those of most humanoid species she'd encountered, and much more focused. She shuddered from the emanations coming from the injured and dying.

Data quickly shot three of the enemy who had apparently brought up the rear and had been too far away to be affected by the explosion. Another Jem'Hadar on the fringe of the group pushed to his knees and attempted to fire, but Beverly's phaser struck him down.

Deanna waited, listening for movement, opening her mind to sense the presence of others still alive on the path. She heard nothing, felt no one.

"Let's move," she ordered. "Data, activate the transponder now. Let's hope the Defiant can lock on to us before something worse happens." She jerked her head toward the fallen Jem'Hadar. "There are plenty more where those came from."

Data slung the wounded commander over his shoulders once more and followed Deanna up the steep mountain path. Tevren followed Data, and Beverly brought up the rear, phaser ready for either Jem'Hadar behind or any unexpected moves from their prisoner.

The steep path was blocked occasionally by rock slides that the group had to scale. The exertion caused Data no trouble, and Beverly and Deanna, career Starfleet officers, took the ascent in stride. The out-of-shape Tevren, however, stumbled and gasped for air like a fish out of water.

"I need to ... rest," he demanded.

"We can't stop now," Deanna said.

"Counselor," Data said. "I have sent the subs.p.a.ce signal, but I am receiving no acknowledgment pulse."

"Noted. Keep sending."

Deanna didn't need to voice her concern. Data and Beverly both knew what a lack of response meant. Either the Defiant had been destroyed by an enemy vessel, or Worf's ship was elsewhere, out of range.

"Keep moving," she ordered her team.

O'Brien, La Forge, and the security detail jogged quickly down a dark hallway and encountered no sign of Jem'Hadar or Carda.s.sians. Without normal systems engaged, the hallway remained uncannily quiet. The group hurried onto a turbolift, weapons raised, ready to fight off deshrouding Jem'Hadar.

"Cargo bay three," O'Brien ordered.

At his voice command, the turbolift whisked them smoothly sideways. O'Brien kept his back to a wall, and the others did the same. Although the lift appeared empty, one could never be too sure with Jem'Hadar. He didn't want any of the shrouded soldiers suddenly appearing behind him out of this carbon-dioxide rich air in a surprise attack.

"Odd we haven't seen even one Jem'Hadar," he muttered to no one in particular.

La Forge nodded. "If you don't count the thousands we discovered incubating in the hatchery mid-core."

"If they're breeding them on the station," a security man said, "you'd think we'd have run across a few, at least."

O'Brien had worked solely in the security office, but La Forge had made his way to the computer cores and back. Unless he'd had uncannily good luck, he should have spotted Jem'Hadar. Rather than making O'Brien feel better, the lack of enemy soldiers raised the hair on the back of his neck. There had to be Jem'Hadar on the station. So the only explanation was that they were shrouded, ready to attack.

La Forge exchanged a long look with O'Brien, who tightened his fingers around his phaser. Inside the turbolift the chief felt like a sitting duck.

"Can we halt the turbolift, sir?" O'Brien asked La Forge. "I think everyone should get out."

La Forge's expression was puzzled, but he nodded in agreement. Aware O'Brien had stopped short of their final destination, he said, "Commander Riker ordered us to come right away."

"With all due respect, I'd rather take a minute or two longer than walk into an ambush," O'Brien argued. "We can enter a tunnel from here and arrive undetected. We'll have to cut through cargo bay two, but our movements will be less predictable."

"Lead the way," La Forge said.

Having lived for years on her sister station, O'Brien was more familiar than the regular Enterprise crew with Sentok Nor's layout. He led the group through the darkened corridor to an access panel and prepared to fend off an attack at any moment. But they saw no one.

The lack of Jem'Hadar was raising the tension by the moment.

O'Brien opened the panel into an access tunnel that reeked of stale air. The team crawled inside. O'Brien wiped sweat from his brow. The Carda.s.sians kept the station too hot for human comfort. With the computer systems down and environmental off-line, the station should be cooling, but he had yet to notice a temperature drop. His engineer's instincts suspected trouble, some factor he had overlooked, some fail-safe he wasn't aware of. He thought longingly of Keiko and his children and wondered if he'd ever hold Molly or Kirayoshi in his arms again.

"How far?" La Forge asked.

"Just around the next bend is an access panel into bay two. We'll take a short cut to Commander Riker and bay three."

A minute later, O'Brien popped open a hatch into cargo bay two. An acrid, medicinal smell flowed into the tunnel from the bay and almost made him gag, but he forced himself to enter the cargo area. Recollecting Commander Riker's experience when he'd surprised two Carda.s.sians in the security office, O'Brien rolled onto the cargo bay deck, weapon in hand.

Instead of angry soldiers, O'Brien found a dark, uninhabited area with an eerie aura that raised goose-b.u.mps on his arms. First he'd been too warm. Now the super-chilled air raised his hackles. Either the s.p.a.ce station was cooling faster than he'd thought possible, or this section had its own power supply. He recalled a lot of main power that had been shunted to this section and wondered what was going on.

The floor of the cargo bay was stacked with thousands of objects with only small pathways among them, but in the murky light, O'Brien couldn't tell what the Dominion had stockpiled.

La Forge poked his head through the access tube and frowned. "What's going on in here?"

"I have no idea." O'Brien approached one of the neatly stacked piles, flicked on his light, then recoiled in surprise and disgust. "They're Jem'Hadar bodies."

La Forge, phaser raised, came up beside him. He didn't have a light-his ocular implants precluded the need for one. The soldier's face was misshapen and grotesque, his limbs contorted as if he'd died fighting his own muscles. La Forge looked at the next soldier. O'Brien shone the light to see that this second body was equally twisted. Every corpse they checked appeared to have suffered the same fate. "Looks like they died from some kind of seizure."

O'Brien's stomach heaved, and he was glad he hadn't eaten in several hours. In the gloom he could make out thousands of bodies stacked in endless, neat rows.

O'Brien shuddered at the grisly scene in the giant morgue. "This is why we haven't run across any Jem'Hadar since we arrived. They were all dead before we got here."

"Sirs," one of the security detail called, "you better look at this."

O'Brien and La Forge stepped over to inspect another body. The dead Jem'Hadar had an incision around his head that left the brain in plain sight.

"Look at that-it's like they were operating directly on their brains," La Forge said.

"He's not the only corpse cut open," one of the security team noted. "There're stacks of them over here."

La Forge ran his tricorder over the body and recorded the readings. "We should get out of here. Commander Riker's waiting."

The group moved between the dead bodies in silence, their lights illuminating rows upon rows of dead. O'Brien was glad these Jem'Hadar weren't alive to fight, but the sight of so much death depressed him.

In his peripheral vision, O'Brien caught sight of a flash of white skin, something that didn't belong among the gray-complexioned clones. He stopped and backed up.

"What is it?" La Forge asked.

"I thought I saw ... there." O'Brien pointed his light at a humanoid corpse. Thousands of the surrounding corpses were also humanoid. Dread in his gut, he approached one. This body didn't have the pebbled ashen skin and contorted features of the Jem'Hadar, but a head incision exposing the brain had been done just the same. "She was Betazoid. This section must all be Betazoid."

"Maybe the Betazoids brought up a virus that killed them and the Jem'Hadar," La Forge suggested.

"Dr. Bashir could tell us what's going on," O'Brien muttered. "I wish he was here."

"I wish I wasn't," one of the security team complained. "There're more Betazoids over there."

O'Brien's combadge beeped.

"We have ten minutes and eighteen seconds until detonation." Commander Riker's voice sounded grim. "I need you all in cargo bay three. Now."

Chapter Thirteen.

W ILL R IKER HAD JUST ORDERED the rest of his away team to hurry to cargo bay three when he heard multiple footsteps approaching the bay doors. Inexact tricorder readings failed to identify friend or foe, so he ordered his security detail to duck into the shadows behind a group of containers.