Suddenly, they heard frantic footsteps on the spiral ladder, followed by a loud shout. A young female officer paused in the doorway, a stricken look on her face, as a beam of red light shot from behind her and drilled into her back. As she stood transfixed in the doorway, her eyes wide with horror, a glowing red splotch appeared on her chest, and she collapsed in a heap on the deck, her eyes staring straight upward.
Picard jumped instantly to his feet and rushed for the door as another young officer ran past. He, too, was consumed in the beam of a sloppy shot, which scattered sparks off the bulkhead. Before Picard could reach the wounded man, the doors slid shut on their own, blocking out the scene of carnage in the hallway. The captain started to pound on the wall panel to open the portal when caution got the better of him. They didn"t have a weapon among them, and to rush into the line of fire was foolish, no matter what the horror.
Ro slapped her comm badge. "Captain to bridge! What"s going on?"
A harried voice came on, "Intruder alert! Intruder on the bridge ... aaggh!" His voice dissolved into a strangled scream.
Ro looked at Geordi, who ripped his goggles off and stared at her with alarmed, pale eyes. He tapped his comm badge. "La Forge to Engineering-respond! Engineering, come in!" No one answered his frantic call.
"It doesn"t mean they"re dead because they didn"t answer," said Ro. "Communications may be down."
"Then again," said Picard grimly, "if they hit the bridge and Engineering on this ship, they"ve hit it all."
The Orb of Peace was indeed a tiny ship, which a small, determined party of armed intruders could capture from stem to stern in a matter of seconds. But who? Where had they come from? Ro didn"t want to think that someone on their own crew could have mutinied against them, but she read that very thought in Picard"s face.
Only a few seconds had pa.s.sed since the attack started, but it was now deathly quiet on the transport. The mess hall was about the most useless place to be during an emergency, as it contained no weapons, no equipment, and no computer terminals, except for the food replicator. There was also no escape, except for the door that Picard stood ready to open. Or perhaps he intended to keep it shut, in case the intruders tried to break in.
"I"ve got to go out there," said the captain.
"We"ll all go," offered La Forge.
"No. You two stay in hiding. If worse comes to worse, you may have to take back the ship."
"Sir, it"s my ship," said Ro, brushing past the captain. "It"s my place to see what"s going on."
He looked as if he wanted to argue with her, then thought better of it. "I"ll give you a few seconds" lead, then I"m going to see if they found the weapons storage in the dormitory. Geordi, we have to keep you in reserve. You"ve got the mess hall-see what you can do with it."
"Yes, sir."
"Let"s hope it"s not what we think it is," muttered the Bajoran as she slapped the panel and opened the door.
Ro stepped out into the corridor to see three dead bodies. The woman was slumped in front of the door, the man was crumpled against a bulkhead a few meters away, and another officer was sprawled across the top of the spiral staircase. Whoever the intruders were, they shot to kill.
She walked cautiously toward the stairs, knowing that she had to go to the bridge to find out who was behind this ma.s.sacre. On the deck was a lump of silvery metal, which Ro recognized as one of their Bajoran phasers, melted by a blast from the intruders" weapon.
After stopping to remove her shoes, she started up the stairs in her stocking feet, hopeful not to unduly surprise whoever was on the bridge-whoever was now in command of her ship. Ro didn"t enjoy walking into death, but she and death were old friends by this time. He had brushed awfully close to her lately, especially when he took Derek. Ro didn"t fear death, but she was awfully angry about the way he toyed with her, and the way he exulted in this insane war.
After climbing the staircase, she found another dead body, this one blasted almost in two by beamed weapons. The destruction was so horrible that Ro wanted to look away, but she had to search the body for weapons, on the off chance that the a.s.sailants had missed collecting them.
After searching unsuccessfully for a handheld phaser, Ro strode down the corridor toward the open door to the bridge. She could hear m.u.f.fled voices. On the bulkhead walls, storage cabinets had been pulled open and rifled through, and a pile of bandages lay strewn across the hallway. Another body-this one Henderson"s-blocked the doorway. His petrified face gazed up at her, no longer looking so arrogant.
Ro steeled herself for an odious job. In essence, she was poised to surrender her ship-her first command-to whomever was in charge of the bridge. Considering the ruthlessness of the attack, she would probably join her shipmates in death, but she had to meet the new masters of the Orb of Peace first. She had lost the ship in the blink of an eye, while she had been relaxing, negligent in her duties. That was the most galling part.
Captain Picard jumped up from a crouch and dashed across the expanse of the dormitory room, where several score of hammocks hung from the ceiling like old moss. It was dark, and he dared not turn on any lights for fear of being spotted. As he neared the last row of hammocks, he stumbled over the dead body of a young ensign. By her loose clothing, he concluded that she had been ruthlessly cut down while she slept.
The war and a life fraught with danger had inured him somewhat to death, but it was still difficult to accept when the victim was a young person with so many years ahead of her. To see her cut down unexpectedly, for no reason, was a sinful waste. Even so, thought Picard, he had been willing to kill this same young woman instead of letting her be taken prisoner by the Dominion. He had killed and was prepared to do it again.
He tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Why had someone wanted this ordinary little ship so badly they had to kill for it? Their a.s.sailants seemed to know their way around the ship fairly well; they knew exactly where to strike. So Picard wasn"t optimistic about finding their cache of hand phasers intact as he reached the rear bulkhead in the dormitory.
Sure enough, the cabinet had been stripped of its weapons. He heard a groan, and he whirled around to see a lump in the corner, twitching, groping for him. "Help me!" rasped the figure.
Picard ran to the wounded man and tried not to gape at his wretched condition. "I"m right here," he told the dying man. "Please stop trying to talk. Save your strength."
The man gripped Picard"s shoulder, and the captain could feel him shivering, growing weaker. Both of them were obscured by shadows. "No warning," croaked the officer.
"Who was it?" asked Picard as he tried to straighten the man"s limbs and make him comfortable.
"Romulans!" wheezed the officer with a violent shudder. Suddenly his shivering and twitching stopped, and he went limp in the captain"s arms.
"Rest in peace," whispered the captain, setting the man gently onto the deck. His jaw set determinedly, Picard rose to his feet and looked around the dormitory for any object he could use as a weapon. He spotted a toolbox and quickly opened it. Among the tools was a heavy spanner, which he hefted in his hand with grim satisfaction.
What his plan was, Picard didn"t yet know. He was in reaction mode, thinking of other ships, other times when intruders had taken over and forced him into guerrilla warfare on his own decks. Every time, his foe had been so ruthless as to leave him no choice.
Picard pounded the spanner into the palm of his hand, jumped up, and dashed back through the dormitory. It was deserted except for the ghosts.
Ro paused outside the door of the bridge. Still in her stocking feet, she had approached the hijackers unseen and unheard, and she could see them hovering over the consoles, oblivious of the butchered bodies that littered the deck. The streaked image on the viewscreen led her to believe that they were still in warp drive, probably still on course for the Eye of Talek.
She saw two of the victors and heard the voice of a third, all men and dressed in civilian clothing-not the Bajoran uniforms of her crew. At least it hadn"t been a mutiny. To know so much about the ship, these intruders had to be connected to the pirates. Maybe they had boarded during the search of the ship, while she had been drugged. Chuckling and congratulating each other, they sounded elated over the success of their murderous a.s.sault.
At that moment, when she had intended to surrender to them, Ro knew she couldn"t do it. Her fury at losing her ship and her instincts for survival forced her to back slowly away from the door. Suddenly she heard angry voices, and one of the intruders turned around and strode toward her. Although his uniform was unfamiliar, she identified his straight black hair and imperious bearing.
A Romulan!
He stared at her, scowled, and reached for a Klingon disruptor in his belt. Ro darted down the hall and vaulted over a body and into the spiral staircase. She plunged several steps as a disruptor beam vaporized the hand railing, scattering droplets of molten metal down on her.
Chapter Twelve.
RO CHARGED DOWN THE STAIRS, listening to the shouts and footsteps of her pursuer. She had no intent but to run like h.e.l.l, which she did as soon as she hit the lower deck. Glancing behind her, Ro didn"t see the first body sprawled across the corridor, and she stumbled over it. She crashed to the deck just as heavy footsteps bounded onto the deck behind her.
"Need help?" shouted a distant voice from above.
"No, no!" answered the grinning Romulan as he leveled his disruptor at Ro. "I"ve got matters in control."
Expecting to be vaporized, Ro flinched, and she nearly missed seeing Captain Picard spring from behind the staircase and hit the Romulan across the back of his skull. His features contorted for a second before he collapsed onto the deck, sending the disruptor skittering across the floor toward Ro. She instantly pounced upon the weapon and aimed it at the top of the staircase, waiting for more of them to descend.
Picard searched the fallen Romulan but found nothing worth keeping. He motioned to Ro, and she picked herself up and scurried over. Picard pointed to the body and back down the corridor; then he gripped the prisoner"s closest armpit. Keeping her weapon aimed at the Romulan, Ro gripped the other armpit, and together they dragged their prisoner back down the corridor toward the mess hall.
Seeing the bodies of their comrades was no easier this time, but she struggled on, helping Picard drag the unconscious Romulan to the door of the dining hall. When the door didn"t open, Picard pushed the panel beside it. When that failed, he rapped on the door.
"Geordi! It"s us!"
The door slid open, and they dragged the Romulan inside, as Ro stole a glance down the corridor. The other two were still above deck, thinking their friend was in control.
La Forge gaped at them. "You caught a Romulan?"
"Yes," answered Picard breathlessly. "I see you have the door rigged?"
"For now," answered La Forge, gingerly sticking a fork back into the open wall compartment and making an adjustment. "These aren"t heavy-duty doors-they could bust through fairly easily. How many are there?"
"Three," answered Ro. "Him and two others, all Romulans."
"And there were Romulans in that bunch of pirates who boarded us," recalled Geordi. "I guess they had a look around and liked what they saw."
Picard"s jaw tightened. "We"ve got a weapon, and we"ve lowered the odds. But I really don"t want to try a direct a.s.sault on the bridge."
Their prisoner groaned and began to move his limbs. Ro looked at the disruptor and scowled. "This is the cheap model, the one with no stun setting."
"Don"t hesitate to kill him if necessary," ordered Picard. "Mr. La Forge, have we got anything to tie him up?"
The engineer reached into the open panel and yanked out several long strands of electrical wiring, which he tossed to Picard. "Use this, because I"ve disabled the door"s circuitry."
When the Romulan groaned some more and tried to open his eyes, Ro"s finger encircled the trigger of the disruptor and aimed the weapon at his chest. La Forge jumped down and helped Picard tie the captive"s wrists together. They were working on his feet when he came to and gaped at them with startling clarity.
"What?" he gasped. "What is-"
"Quiet," ordered Picard. "Kill him if he breathes another word."
"With pleasure," answered Ro.
The Romulan"s darting eyes took in Picard"s stern visage, then the disruptor in Ro"s hands, and finally the intense look on Ro"s face. She didn"t need to do anything to put the fear into him, because her determination to kill him was etched into her gaunt features. He stopped his movements and stared at them, wide-eyed.
"Why did you kill so many of us?" demanded Picard.
"We wanted your ship," said the Romulan evenly. "Would you have given it to us?"
"Why did you want this ship?" he pressed the captive.
"It was the only one which presented itself to us." The Romulan winced as he shifted position. "You don"t know what it was like, serving under Rolf and Shek! We were virtual prisoners-allowed none of the luxuries they got. And all the things we were forced to do-well, we learned how to take over a ship from them."
"Did they have anything to do with this?" asked Picard.
"No, Rolf would torture and kill us, if he knew. We had been talking about deserting, if we could get a ship. After we returned from searching your vessel, we put our plan into action. We"re Romulans. We were born to rule, not serve."
"We"re recapturing this ship," vowed Picard.
"There"s no need for bloodshed," offered the Romulan, struggling against his bonds. "Turn me loose. Let me talk to them."
Ro glanced at Picard and La Forge, and it was obvious from their grim expressions that the Romulan was not getting his freedom any time soon.
"On your feet," ordered Picard.
"You"re going to let me go?" asked the Romulan in amazement.
"Yes, and you"re going to march straight to the bridge. Only I"ll be right behind you, with the disruptor in your back."
When the Romulan struggled to stand up, La Forge tried to help him. With a sullen expression, he b.u.mped Geordi with his shoulder and knocked him away. "I can do it!" snarled the Romulan. He strode resolutely toward the door, staring straight ahead.
Something is wrong, thought Ro. None of this seemed right to her-not the hijacking, not the senseless killings, not the piratical Romulans.
"Wait a minute," she said, moving toward to the prisoner with the disruptor leveled at his stomach. "What are you doing here-in Carda.s.sian s.p.a.ce-with a war going on?"
It was the same question she had been asked a day earlier, and like her, the Romulan did not have a satisfactory answer. He looked evasive as he replied, "We were young and foolish, out for adventure."
"They"re Romulan spies," concluded Ro. "Perhaps they"re even here for the same reason we"re here."
Picard and La Forge glanced at each other, while the puzzled Romulan turned abruptly to Ro. "I thought you were Bajoran merchants."
"No," answered Ro with a clenched jaw. "You murdered a dozen Starfleet officers who were disguised to look like Bajorans. Now I"ll ask again: Why are you here?"
The Romulan licked his lips, as if tasting the truth for the first time in his life. "We may be neutral in this war, but it"s only natural to gather intelligence."
La Forge frowned. "And what better way to see what"s happening than to enlist on a Ferengi ship that prowls back and forth across the lines. So what have you found out?"
The Romulan smirked. "I know you"re losing the war, but I don"t suppose that"s news."
"Hakron!" shouted a voice that was distant, but not distant enough.
When the Romulan looked as if he wanted to respond, Ro jabbed him sharply in the ribs with the disruptor and glared at him. "What else?"
"Let"s make a deal," he whispered. "Let me talk to my comrades. The chances are, we both want the same thing."
"You wanted our ship," said Ro testily. "Why? What do you know about the Dominion"s artificial wormhole?"
"Hakron!" shouted the voice, sounding closer.
"You haven"t got a chance," said Hakron smugly.
Picard promptly grabbed their captive and shoved him toward the door. "Be quiet and don"t say a word." He nodded to La Forge, who went to the doctored door panel and awaited his orders. Then he held out his hand to Ro, who gave him the disruptor.
Picard grabbed the Romulan by his collar and pressed the barrel of the weapon against his neck. "We"re going out. Tell them to hold their fire. Don"t try to get away, or you"re dead. Understand?"
The Romulan nodded languorously.
The captain looked at Ro. "Can you be the eyes in the back of my head?"
"Yes, sir."
Picard nodded to La Forge, and the engineer applied his fork to the circuitry. With a jolt, the door slid open, and the captain pushed his captive out ahead of him. Ro immediately peered around the edge of the door, looking in the direction where Picard"s back was turned. To her relief, she didn"t see anything but a corridor littered with bodies.