The Battle of Betazed by Charlotte Douglas & Susan Kearney

Author:Charlotte Douglas & Susan Kearney
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2002-08-29T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“G OTCHA,”O’B RIEN MUTTERED.

Crouching low behind the main console in the security office on Sentok Nor, the chief realized his efforts had borne fruit. Sifting through the decryption algorithms given him by Garak, the Cardassian exile living aboard DS9, he’d succeeded in hacking into the station mainframe undetected and now had access to a number of key systems, including autodestruct.

La Forge and his group had left to go below, their task to help override all three main processing computers located between Levels 14 and 21, deep within the station’s mid-core assembly. Commander Riker had then left with the remaining members of the security detail when his tricorder showed a concentration of Betazoid bio-signatures emanating from the docking ring, leaving O’Brien alone but relatively safe in the securityoffice, with instructions to initiate the autodestruct as soon as he was able.

After years of studying the thinking that had gone into the design and construction of Deep Space 9, and working constantly to reconcile the rampant incompatabilities between Cardassian and Federation technology, the irony of exploiting Deep Space 9’s very weaknesses in order to use them against Sentok Nor wasn’t lost on O’Brien. In fact, he was already making mental notes to correct the vulnerabilities when he returned home, to prevent anyone else from ever succeeding at what he was attempting.

He’d love to see the looks on his enemies’ faces after he activated the station’s autodestruct system. They’d quickly realize their manual backup had been destroyed, so they couldn’t turn off the countdown.

Another part of O’Brien, however, couldn’t help regretting that all this technology and the massive structure that reminded him so much of home had to be destroyed. If Federation forces hadn’t already been pushed to the limit, Sentok Nor would have been a treasure worth keeping. Unfortunately, without sufficient military backup to overwhelm the Dominion forces in the system, destroying Sentok Nor outright was the only way to chase them off, and thereby weaken the Dominion’s ability to hold the system.

He frowned at an unusually high power drain flowing to the cargo bays. Some of it was even being pulled from defense, and it was going straight toward the area Commander Riker had gone to investigate. What were they doing to pull that kind of power? Building weapons? Creating more Jem’Hadar?

“La Forge to O’Brien.”

O’Brien tapped his combadge, which had been altered to constantly change frequencies so the Cardassians couldn’t pinpoint their locations. “Go ahead.”

“We’re on site.”La Forge and his team had reached the computer core.“The mainframe’s physical access port is destroyed. There’s no way to manually stop the self-destruct countdown once we start it.”

“Stand by.” O’Brien made several minor adjustments and corrected for fluctuations. “Ready now.”

“Initiate autodestruct,”La Forge ordered.

La Forge and his team simultaneously disengaged all three computers that operated every system in the station. O’Brien entered the autodestruct sequence the Cardassians already had in place.

“O’Brien, report,”Commander Riker ordered over the combadge.

“Autodestruct sequence initiated, Commander,” O’Brien announced. “The thermal energy released by overloading the fusion reactors will be comparable to seven hundred eighty standard photon torpedoes.

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