Cold Fusion by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2005-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

7

Captain David Gold stared at the viewscreen, which presently showed him Empok Nor drifting in space. The station itself gave no clue as to its sinister new purpose.

“You sure about this, Duffy?”

“Completely? No. To be honest, we’d need about a year, a full research team, and a starbase facility to dope most of this stuff out. But they’ve definitely put some upgraded thrusters onto the lower pylons and some very nasty weapons systems into the upper pylons. We’re talking phasers at what I’d have to call level 30 or so.”

“Damn,” Gold muttered. That was enough to split a planet in half.

Stevens added, “It also looks like they’ve got some kind of plasma-based directed-energy weapons. I’ve never seen anything like them, and I couldn’t begin to figure out how powerful they are.”

“Sir, if I may?” That was Nog’s voice.

“Go ahead, Lieutenant.”

“I just examined the fusion core itself. These Androssi have also made modifications to it. Only one of the reactor chambers is actually running the station. The rest of it is powering a massive propulsion system that’s been integrated with the core itself. If I’m reading this right, it might well be capable of speeds up to warp 6.”

“Captain,” Soloman put in, “I have communed with the station computer. It confirms what Mr. Stevens, Lieutenant Commander Duffy, and Lieutenant Nog have said. In addition, there are preparations under way, albeit incomplete, for the installation of quantum torpedo bays in the docking ring. Based on the specifications, the torpedoes would have a yield of approximately one thousand times that of the torpedoes on a Defiant-class ship.”

David Gold tried to figure out a way that this all could be translated into good news, but couldn’t. A weapons platform the size and shape of Deep Space 9 capable of speeds up to warp 6 with enough weaponry to lay waste to a solar system in about half an hour, all in the hands of Biron.

“Gevalt,” he muttered. “All right, people, listen up. I want a full analysis of what the Androssi have done to the station.”

“Sir, what about extracting the core?” Nog asked.

Gold’s instinct was to tell the young Ferengi that they had bigger problems — but, of course, they didn’t. True, the Androssi were bad news — it would be decades before Maeglin fully recovered from what Biron and his crew did to the place — but Deep Space 9 was counting on that fusion core. They needed it, not just for the people on the station, but the billions of lives in the Bajoran sector that DS9 was responsible for.

“We can do both, sir,” Duffy said before Gold could say anything. “Soloman can handle the analysis. Stevens and the lieutenant both know these systems well enough that they should be able to handle the computer even without his help.”

“Good,” Gold said. “Then —”

From ops, Lieutenant Ina interrupted. “Sir, long-range scans are picking up a vessel on direct approach to Empok Nor — traveling at warp 7.3.”

“Identify.” Gold gripped the arms of his command chair.

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