The Mist (17 page)

"Oh, I think I do," Jackson said. "Your information was incorrect about the Federation invasion. Up until you brought one of their ships over, and tricked my crews into bringing over their station, they didn't know we existed."

Captain Victor stiffened up like a statue. Beside him, Councillor Näna's mouth closed, and remained closed.

"How dare you accuse me of such things?" Victor said.

"I don't dare anything, Victor," Jackson said. His expression was now so hard that he looked nothing like the man who had grinned at Victor a moment before. "I have proof that you and your Grey Squadron blew up my ships. My planet's representative to the High Council will not be happy when he learns of your ploy. The entire High Council will not be happy."

For a moment Captain Victor seemed to hold his breath as his face reddened. Then slowly his eyes grew cold and his face seemed to change. "The High Council," he said, as if he were speaking of an annoying child. "The High Council is no longer important. We will simply destroy you, bring the station back over, and rule the Mist with it."

"An excellent plan," Jackson said, letting his arms drop. "In fact, an elegant plan, given its simplicity. It probably would work too, if the Grey Squadron were with you."

"They're with me, Jackson," Victor said. "They've always been with me." He moved closer to the screen. "And you have just guaranteed your death."

Then the screen went blank.

"Excellent," the wraith said. "You were broadcasting to the entire Mist. They saw Captain Victor for what he was, to stop them from thinking the Federation had attacked."

"That was my hope," Sisko said, nodding. Then he went on with the story.

"The Greys are moving," Dax said.

"Put it on screen," I said. "Let's keep a close eye on them, while we get the Federation and the Klingon ships back here."

"Aye, sir," Dax said. She bent over her console, performing the unfamiliar procedure.

"Transferring now," she said.

A white mistlike strip formed in space near the Madison, expanded to a cloud, and swept over it. Then the same thing repeated over the other two Federation starships. As I watched, the same cloud swept over the Daqchov and the other eight ships of the Klingon fleet.

I left communications in the cadet's capable hands, and walked over to Jackson. He grinned at me. "I think I could get used to commanding one of these."

"You'd have to go through Starfleet Academy first," I said, grinning back. "Although I must say, you might want to join the Mist version of the Royal Shakespeare Company. That was a hell of a performance."

"Very convincing," Nog said without looking up from the communications array.

"I think you bought enough time for the ships to adjust their shields," I said. "Good work."

"I hope so," Jackson said. "With that man ruling the Mist, nothing in this quadrant will be safe. In either space. That much has become very clear."

"Captain," Dax said. "In one minute, the Greys will be in range."

"Messages are coming in from the Daqchov and the Madison," Nog said. "They're ready."

"Good," I said. "Open a hailing channel to Captain Victor. Again make sure this is broadcast as far as possible."

"Yes, sir," Nog said.

Both Jackson and I turned to face the screen as Captain Victor's face appeared. Until that day, I had never seen a human being's face turn purple with rage. But Captain Victor's did. He sputtered a moment before getting a word out.

"A Federation trick," Captain Victor said. "I thought so."

Councillor Näna had moved far away from him. Näna's mouth remained closed, and it appeared that his left eye had rolled inside his gray head.

"It was no trick," I said. "Jackson told the truth. And he's asked us and the Klingons to help him stop you from taking control. We have agreed."

"That is the truth," Jackson said. "You will not disband or destroy the council."

"I thought you didn't interfere in the internal affairs of others," Victor said to me.

I almost laughed. But I was conscious of our audience. "You brought us into this, Victor. You are responsible for our presence. You must live with the consequences."

"No," Victor said. "You must. You think a few weak Starfleet ships and some broken-down Klingon cruisers can stop the Grey Squadron?"

Jackson smiled. "Oh, I think so. And for the sake of the council and all the Mist worlds, I hope so."

"Be prepared to die," Victor said, and severed the communications. After a moment of darkness, the screen went back to showing the Grey Squadron. The ships looked even more menacing than they had before. They were well named.

"They'll be here in thirty seconds," Dax said.

"We have another problem, Captain," Worf said.

"I knew this resolution was too easy," the Quilli said, rubbing its paws together with glee.

"It's the Cardassians," Worf said. "They have taken up attack formation around the station."

I looked at the scene before me. Beyond the Grey Squadron, the station floated in its normal space. The Cardassians had formed an attack squadron around it. Suddenly we had a two-front battle, and to be honest, I wasn't sure we could win either of them.

Seventeen

"DID YOU FORGET about your own ship?" the wraith asked, pulling on its fifth finger. The finger stretched and stretched, looking like a thin piece of gum.

The Trill was out of his seat, heading toward the wraith, as the wraith let go. The thwap echoed throughout the bar.

Several patrons not just the Trill shuddered.

Sisko found the whole finger thing kind of fascinating, but he was glad he was no longer eating.

The Trill grabbed the wraith's hand and squeezed it until it formed a doughlike impression of the Trill's fist. "Don't do that again," the Trill said. "It's disgusting."

"My people find it rather sexy," the wraith said.

The Trill made a face, and wiped his hands vigorously on his pants. Sisko got the sense that the wraith was grinning.

The wraith's hand re-formed into a normal, human-shaped hand. "Well?" he asked. "Did you forget?"

"No, I hadn't forgotten," Sisko said. "I simply hadn't had time to remind my crew of the problem. Besides, we could not do anything until the Madison or the Daqchov were back in Mist space. And when that happened, our hands were suddenly quite full."

"Oh, no," Prrghh said. "Don't tell me you lost your ship."

Several patrons groaned.

"Sisko strikes me as the sort of man who would go down with his ship," Robinson said. "I suspect the Defiant was fine."

"I think we're getting a little ahead of the story here," the Quilli said, sounding more like Sisko's first-year intergalactic literature instructor at the Academy than Sisko would like to think about.

"We have a two-front battle going on, and all you people can do is chatter. Have you no discipline?" Sotugh asked.

So the end of the story interested him, despite everything. Sisko suppressed a grin.

"We have discipline, just not when we're drinking," the middle-aged man said.

"I'm sorry," the wraith said. "It's just that I was curious"

"It was a good question," Sisko said, "and one I needed to deal with because time was running out. However, I had the Grey Squadron and the Cardassians to worry about at that moment."

"Couldn't you have let the station take care of the Cardassians?" the Quilli asked, then clapped a paw over its mouth. The entire bar burst into laughter. The Quilli had learned some bad habits in the Captain's Table.

"If you do that on Quilla," the Trill said, "you lose your license to tell stories."

"I was just getting into the spirit of things," the Quilli said through its paw.

"To answer your question," Sisko said, "no, I could not. Even though I captained the Defiant, my true command was and is of Deep Space Nine. If I lost her to the Cardassians, the results would have been disastrous."

"I never did understand why the privateers attacked. Did they know of the Cardassian-Dominion alliance that soon?" Sotugh asked.

"No," Sisko said. "I have not understood it either, but my best guess is one that Dr. Bashir put forward after we recaptured the station."

"And the theory was?" Sotugh asked.

"They were acting like all pirates, looking for profit. They were planning to hold the wormhole for ransom."

"The Grey Squadron!" someone yelled from the back. Surprisingly, several patrons turned as if the fleet were coming through the door.

Sisko grinned. "Sorry," he said, and spun his empty Jibetian ale bottle with his fingers. Cap took it from him, and went back to the bar, probably to get him a new one.

"I told Dax," Sisko said, "to put us in the middle of the Federation and Klingon ships. That way, if it looked like any of them were getting into trouble"

"You could shift them back to normal space, out of trouble!" the wraith said.

"Exactly," Sisko said.

Dax instantly implemented my order. Then I turned to the cadet.

"Nog," I said. "I want you to monitor the situation between the Cardassians and the station. If the Cardassians attack, I want to know at once."

"Yes, sir," Nog said.

"Second, Cadet," I said, "I want this battle broadcast on an open band. I want all the Mist worlds seeing what is happening here."

Nog nodded, and bent over his panel. After watching him work a few moments before, I had a great deal more confidence in his abilities. The cadet would be an excellent officer one day.

"Bah!" Sotugh said. "Such confidence in a Ferengi."

Then I turned to Commander Worf. He was glowering at the situation in front of him. "Mr. Worf," I said. "Put our shields up and have our weapons ready."

"Aye, sir," Worf said.

On the main screen the nine Klingon ships had spread out on the left, taking up an attack formation facing the approaching Mist fleet.

On the right, the Starships Madison, Idaho, and Cochrane were in position, forming a wedge. Dax had placed the Defiant in the middle, and slightly behind the rest, giving us a complete view of the coming battle.

The Grey Squadron of the Mist was a both intimidating and beautiful sight. Their swept-back wing configuration made them look more like a flock of birds fanning out through the blackness of space. They were no more than half the size of most of the ships they were facing. Even the Defiant was larger than the largest Mist ship. Yet they outnumbered us by almost two to one.

And I had no idea if our shields would hold against their weapons.

We were going to either give them a fight, or get torn from space. At that moment I had no idea which it was going to be.

"If I had any idea you were such a pessimist, Sisko, I would never have agreed to fight with you," Sotugh said. "I knew we would overcome the Mist."

Sisko smiled and took a new Jibetian ale from Cap. "My people believe overconfidence is dangerous," he said.

"My people believe that unrealistic pessimism is grounds for demotion," Sotugh said.

"Sounds like you were ready to face anything that was going to come at you," the Trill said. He was not being sarcastic.

"I like to think we were," Sotugh said. "Obviously Sisko did not."

"I had a lot to think about then," Sisko said. "At that moment, Dax told me the Grey Squadron had come into range."

The squadron formed a line in front of us, like thirty ravens, bent on destruction.

"Let them fire the first shot," I said, more to myself than to anyone else.

For a moment I honestly didn't think anyone was going to fire. Then Captain Victor's ship fired a bright blue beam, hitting the Defiant and rocking us slightly.

Our shields held.

I wanted to cheer, but didn't.

A second later, space was full of bright blue beams, cutting through the blackness like flashlights cutting the dark as all the Grey Squadron opened fire on us.

The Mist ships scattered and attacked randomly as they swept in on the Klingons and Federation ships.

The Defiant was caught with two blasts, rocking us so hard that Jackson was tossed to the floor and I was almost knocked from my chair.

"The shields are holding," Dax said, confirming what I already knew. She sounded surprised.

"They are holding on all of our ships," Worf added. He was clutching his console as the Defiant continued to rock.

"Return fire, Mr. Worf," I said.

Instantly I could feel the surge of the laser fire. The phaser cut a path ahead, catching a sweeping Mist ship like a bird in flight.

It exploded.

The Mist ship simply burst directly in front of us like a balloon stuck with a pin.

Our phaser had cut through it without any interference.

"What?" Prrghh said. "You've got to be kidding. Didn't they have a defense against your weapons?"

"They thought they did," Sisko said. "But they hadn't thought the situation through like we had."

"They hadn't modified their shields," the Caxtonian said.

"Exactly," Sisko said. "I'm not even sure they knew they had to."

"Okay," Prrghh said. "Explain this one."

"Sisko already has," Sotugh said.

"Explain it again," Prrghh said.

"I never realized that you were so slow," Sotugh said.

"And I never realized that you could be this rude," Prrghh said, sneering at the Klingon captain.

To forestall more fighting, Sisko said, "The difference between normal space and Mist space causes the shields to be slightly out of phase with the weapons. So they could have gone through our shields if we hadn't made the modification, and since they didn't modify their shields, our weapons went through theirs."

"And you wouldn't have known that if Captain Victor hadn't beamed through your screens when you first met," the Quilli said, obviously delighted at this turn of events.

"Exactly," Sisko said.

"So, I assume, you let Sotugh kill Captain Victor?" Prrghh asked.

"Sisko wouldn't do that," the wraith said. "Remember the argument about honor?"

"What did you do about Victor?" the middle-aged woman at the bar asked.

"And your ship?"

"And the Cardassians?"