She was walking all over Deep s.p.a.ce 9, but it had been abandoned. Yet every once in a while, out of the corner of her eye, she saw someone familiar. First there was her father. Then Commander Vaughn. Then Kai Opaka. Then Quark. That led her to run into Quark's Bar, where she found Jake Sisko, Odo, Morn, and both Jadzia and Ezri Dax all drinking through straws from a vat of kanar.

Jadzia looked at her and said, "Colonel, you awake?" But she said it in a man's voice.

Then the bar started to congeal and melt into an amalgam of random colors and lights that, after a second, coalesced into the more familiar sight of the Gorkon medical ward.

The last conscious thought she remembered having was the unpleasant face of Nurse Gaj standing over her. Now, though, there were four different people gazing intently at her. She knew all of them: Klag and Toq from this ship and Data and Geordi La Forge from the Enterprise. In fact, in her dream Jadzia had spoken with La Forge's voice.

"You all right?" La Forge asked.

What is going on here?"I'm fine-I think."

Toq asked, "Do you feel the influence of Malkus?"

Kira was about to instinctively answer in the affirmative when she realized that, in fact, she didn't feel Malkus at all. She hadn't noticed it until Toq mentioned it, but-"No, he's-he's gone." She broke into a smile. "It's nice to have my head to myself."

"It worked!" Toq said.

"What worked?" Kira asked.

Klag smiled. "You, Colonel, are the beneficiary of the genius of the other three men in this room. We have found a way to combat Malkus's telepathic influence."

"That's the good news," La Forge added.

Frowning, Kira asked, "What's the bad news?"

"We are presently in the Narendra system's Oort cloud," Klag said. "Sensors are detecting seven Defense Force ships and one Federation civilian ship in orbit of Narendra III-and they are in defensive formation. The civilian ship is a part of the formation, which leads us to think-"

"That they're all under Malkus's control," Kira finished. "Dammit."

Klag nodded. "Three of the ships are birds-of-prey under the command of Captain Huss. I know for a fact that they were at Ty'Gokor only yesterday."

"It is likely," Data said, "that they came to Narendra III and were also enthralled by Malkus."

"So it's four-to-one odds," Kira said. "a.s.suming Malkus doesn't enslave the rest of us."

La Forge smirked. "Well, thanks to Toq here, that won't be an issue for us. The thing is, we can neutralize Malkus altogether with our modified deflector-we're gonna rig it so that it broadcasts a large-scale version of what we hit you with. I was hoping to modify both ships, but the Gorkon' s deflector won't take to the modification, at least not in the time we've got. But if we're under fire..."

"Reinforcements?" Kira asked.

"The seven ships in orbit comprise all the Defense Force ships a.s.signed to this sector," Klag said bitterly. "Others are en route, as are Starfleet ships-including the Defiant and the Hood-but no help will arrive for at least two more days. And we cannot afford to wait."

Data said, "Dr. Crusher has replicated the cure for the disease, based on the records from the Constellation and the Enterprise a century ago, but we cannot administer it until Malkus is neutralized."

La Forge put a hand on Data's shoulder. "I need to get back and rig up the deflector."

Nodding, Data said, "Lieutenant Toq and I will inoculate the Gorkon crew against Malkus's influence. Then I shall return to the Enterprise and do the same for our crew."

"How long will that take?" Klag asked.

"About an hour," La Forge said. "And at that, we'll be pushing it, but Beverly said we can't afford to wait much longer than that if we're going to have any chance of curing those people."

"Get to it, all of you," Klag said, and the trio departed the medical ward.

Kira got up from the biobed. Klag shot her a look. "What are you doing?"

Standing at attention, she said, "Colonel Kira Nerys, reporting for duty, Captain."

Klag threw his head back and laughed a loud, hearty laugh. "You are not a member of the Defense Force, Colonel."

"No, but I'm sure as h.e.l.l not gonna sit around and let you do all the work," she said with a smile. "I'm ready, eager, and d.a.m.n willing. So give me a post, Captain."

Still smiling, Klag touched his communicator. "Klag to Rodek. Lieutenant, has a new fore port gunner been a.s.signed?"

"Bekk Lojar was to be a.s.signed, sir."

"Is there some reason why he shouldn't be?"

"He is a half-blind yIntagh with the gunnery skill of a grishnar cat. Otherwise he is perfectly adequate for the job. Sir."

Kira smiled. This Rodek person spoke in a very simple tone, conveying none of the invective of his words.

"We have someone else for the position, Lieutenant. Out." Klag cut the connection. "The Gorkon has four secondary gunnery positions for the twelve rotating disruptor arrays. One of the warriors a.s.signed to the position died in a duel a week ago, and-as you heard-his replacement is inadequate."

Breaking into a grin, Kira said, "Not anymore, she isn't. I'll report to the bridge right away."

"Good," Klag said, leading her out of the medical ward. "Our controls may be strange to you. I suggest taking the next hour to familiarize yourself."

"Captain, I've flown Bajoran sub-impulse raiders, Starfleet starships, Klingon birds-of-prey, and Jem'Hadar strike ships. I think I can handle a rotating disruptor array."

"Then report for duty, Colonel," Klag said as they arrived at a turbolift. "I will see you on the bridge."

Kira entered the lift and headed to her temporary new post.

Chapter Sixteen.

MALKUS SEETHED-AS MUCH AS A disembodied mind could seethe, in any case.

It was impossible for one consciousness to maintain control over thousands of minds. But if the Instrument could allow control over only a few people at a time, it was functionally useless to Malkus. So Aidulac's team had hit upon a way of sending out shards of the user's telepathic essence to the person being controlled. That sliver of Malkus-independent, yet connected-provided the control. Malkus himself could monitor a.s.sorted shards and make adjustments as needed, but it was not required that he himself maintain constant oversight.

That ability had many good points. It meant that he was able to imprint shards of himself in the other three artifacts, and it enabled the number of people he could enslave to be in the thousands. The one bad point was that p.a.w.ns could sometimes slip out of his control without his knowing it right away.

Most frustrating was his inability to hold on to Spock. The amba.s.sador had been able to resist control practically from the beginning, and it had taken Malkus a great deal of effort forcing the shard of his consciousness to maintain its grip.

Then, when he checked on Kira Nerys, he found that his shard was nowhere to be found in her mind. Somehow, she had managed to expel it.

Unfortunately, until he was able to attach the fourth Instrument to the Great Rectangle, he did not have sufficient power to reestablish his control over her. As it was, he barely had enough to control the people on this planet and the ships in orbit. The former were busy constructing new buildings and structures and weapons for Malkus's use, as well as an android body for him to transfer his consciousness into.

When Spock had yet to return from dealing with the people in the shuttle, he connected with the shard in the amba.s.sador's mind-only to find that it, too, was nowhere to be found.

No, wait-it was there, but it was cowering in an astral "corner" of Spock's consciousness, helpless. Malkus tried to take direct control, but he could not. There was something-different. The mental impression from Spock should have enabled Malkus to have complete control.

Then he realized that the mental impression was divided-split into two beings. Spock had performed some kind of telepathic trickery with the other amba.s.sador he had traveled with in order to gain an advantage.

At that moment, Spock and his fellow diplomat-Worf-became more trouble than they were worth. As useful as they might have been, they now needed todie-as did their fellow prisoners in the shuttle. In retrospect, Malkus never should have let them all live in the first place.

Malkus sent out ten Klingons.

He also maintained personal control on one of them-J'lang was his name.

Through J'lang's eyes, Malkus observed the Klingons moving toward the shuttle. Six of them broke off to take care of the four in the shuttle. The other four could take care of two diplomats with ease, Malkus was sure of that....

Malkus was able to use his p.a.w.ns'natural abilities for himself, so the Klingons he had enthralled all did what came naturally-they unholstered their weapons as they moved through the tree-lined route between the hill where Malkus had been uncovered and the shuttle. They all had at least one bladed weapon, and some had energy weapons as well.

The six continued onward to the shuttle, while J'lang and the other three held back. Spock and Worf were nearby, Malkus knew that much. But he could not pinpoint where. They were not in sight, but the trees and bushes provided plenty of cover. It had been a long time since Malkus had coordinated a ground campaign-before his rise to power, in fact, since after that, he had generals to do the work for him-but he remembered enough to know that the two amba.s.sadors were probably hiding behind one of the larger trees or one of the bushes. It was only a matter of flushing them out.

He split the foursome up, each taking a compa.s.s point for direction. At a certain distance beyond the field in which Malkus knew Spock and Worf had to be, they would turn back.

J'lang was carrying a weapon that was apparently used for the sculpting of rock into artwork, but it would work just as well to rend flesh. He also had a dagger of some kind-apparently, most Klingons carried one; they called it a d'k tahg. Both were one-handed weapons, so Malkus had J'lang have both at the ready.

Unfortunately, a search through the bushes and trees to the west revealed nothing. He turned J'lang back. When he arrived at the starting point, he saw two of his other p.a.w.ns. Making contact with them, he learned that they had found nothing, either.

So where can they-?

Before Malkus could complete the thought, a bottle of some sort flew through the air and broke apart upon impact with the ground. When it did so, it burst into flames-and the fire quickly spread around the clearing.

Spock swung down from one of the branches in a kicking motion, his feet colliding with the back of one of the other Klingons' heads. As he fell, the other Klingon turned to fire his disruptor on the amba.s.sador.

Before he could take the shot, however, a dark hand gripped his right shoulder. The Klingon convulsed and fell to the ground. Only then did Malkus see that the other amba.s.sador had used the flames as cover to sneak up behind him and apply the same maneuver to the Klingon that Spock had used on Worf earlier.

I had thought that to be a Vulcan technique.

Then the fourth Klingon, who was named Roka, returned, and immediately charged Spock. He had instinctively attacked with his bat'leth-an edged weapon, but one favored by some Klingons over energy weapons. With astonishing speed, Spock grabbed one of the branches that had caught fire, and used it to hold Roka off.

Meanwhile, Malkus instructed J'lang to charge Worf. The sculpting tool could indeed be deadly, but it was not a distance weapon.

The Klingon that Spock had downed also had a bat'leth, and the halfbreed was able to keep Roka at bay with his torch long enough to grab the weapon and use it to parry.

Malkus noted that Spock was using a fighting style that he recognized from the other Klingons he'd possessed-it was based on their form of combat called mok'bara. Malkus also knew that Spock had never studied the mok'bara.

Then again, he thought as Worf calmly dodged and weaved out of the way of J'lang's two-p.r.o.nged d'k tahg and sculpting-tool attack, this Klingon amba.s.sador had likely never learned the nerve pinch.

Malkus enjoyed a worthy foe as much as the next tyrant, but enough was enough. He needed to end this and get back to the business of rebuilding his empire.

It was then that he discovered that two ships were approaching Narendra III: a Starfleet vessel and a Klingon Defense Force vessel. Both were large-considerably more powerful than any of the eight ships Malkus had in his power. He reached out to the two new ships' captains-while he could not enslave the entire complements of the vessels, if he could at least take over their leaders....

But he could not. Somehow, the minds of all the people on both ships were unavailable to him. That had never happened before.

So he sent his ships off to attack and destroy the vessels, then turned his attention back to J'lang- -just as Worf knocked the sculpting tool out of J'lang's right hand with a chopping motion. He then converted that motion into a jab with his elbow to J'lang's face. As J'lang stumbled backward, Worf grabbed J'lang's left wrist, effectively neutralizing the d'k tahg, then yanked J'lang forward. J'lang stumbled toward Worf; Malkus tried to put up some kind of defense, but Worf then stopped J'lang's forward motion by grabbing J'lang's right shoulder with his left hand.

Malkus retreated from J'lang's mind as the sculptor lost consciousness, another victim of that be-d.a.m.ned Vulcan attack. He transferred his active control to Roka.

Spock and Roka seemed to be evenly matched with the bat'leth, at least. Roka had mostly been on the offensive, but Spock had parried each blow with the ease of the expert that Malkus knew full well he wasn't.

With a downward slash, Roka managed to entangle Spock's bat'leth and drive it to the gra.s.sy ground. He used his left elbow to jab Spock in the jaw, then disentangled his weapon from Spock's and swung upward.

However, Spock was able to duck backward and not be struck. Then he raised his own bat'leth in defense of Roka's next thrust.

They sparred for a moment, neither side gaining the offensive. Roka used Kilog's gambit against Spock, followed up by B'Arq's defense. According to Roka's memories, B'Arq's defense was impenetrable.

With an underhanded swing, Spock penetrated Roka's use of B'Arq's defense, knocking the bat'leth out of Roka's hands. Spock then slammed the leading edge of the bat'leth into Roka's side.

Malkus cursed as Roka fell to the ground, unable to move. He gazed upon the two amba.s.sadors with fury as they stared at each other.

Worf raised an eyebrow. "Fascinating. Your penetration of B'Arq's defense was-familiar."

Spock half-smiled. "It should be, since I learned it from you. An excellent technique, if I may say so."

"Thank you. We should continue. Malkus may send more of his thralls against us."

You don't know the half of it, Klingon, Malkus thought angrily. He reached out to the p.a.w.ns that had gone to the shuttle- -only to find that five of the six were still engaged with the quintet from the shuttle. The sixth was dead, a d'k tahg having slit his throat. If the remainder broke off their attack to go after Spock and Worf, they too would be cut down.

Then Malkus laughed to himself. The solution was simple: the four Klingons who had been defeated here and the one dead at the shuttle were of no use. So Malkus sent those shards of his consciousness to B'Oraq, Davok, G'joth, Matthew Falce, and Hilary McKenna.

That gave him a full ten p.a.w.ns to send after Spock and Worf.

Soon they'll all be dead....

"New course, 287 mark 9-execute!"

"Train disruptors on the Rikmok."

"Weapons locked."

"Vralk, execute course now!"

"Prepare to fire on my mark."

Kira heard the voices in the background, but barely focused on who was talking. Her primary concern was the field of range belonging to the fore port disruptor array. There were three of them, each had four viewscreens, one large and three small. Each screen showed a ninety-degree field, with the large one showing the ninety-degree area that the disruptor was currently trained in, the other three showing the remaining two hundred and seventy degrees. Her job was a simple one-identify any targets that came in range of any of the three disruptors under her purview, train the weapon on that target, and fire. Of course, with the speed at which ships moved and the comparatively limited range of the disruptors, that didn't leave her-or her three counterparts-many opportunities to fire, but they were only a small part of the Gorkon' s a.r.s.enal.

She tried not to think about what the Bajoran Resistance could have done with a ship like this against the Carda.s.sians. h.e.l.l, this thing even puts the Defiant to shame.

Klag's deep voice penetrated the wall of sound that the bridge had become. "Remember, shoot to disable, not destroy. There is no glory in defeating mind-controlled warriors, nor any honor in dying in such a state." A pause. "But don't be fools, either. No matter what, we shall be victorious!"