Star Trek The Badlands - 02 - The Badlands - Book Two by Star Trek

Author:Star Trek
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780743406758
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published: 2000-01-01T08:00:00+00:00

PART 4

Star Trek Deep Space 9

Stardate 50502.4 Year 2373

Just prior to the Dominion War

Chapter One

Captain Benjamin Sisko stood at the railing overlooking the hangar bay of the former Maquis base. It had long been hidden on a Class-M asteroid in the Terikof Belt, until Starfleet had discovered its location. Above him was the large oval of the hangar door, with the rest of the complex cleverly concealed inside the bored-out rock of the extinct volcano.

The forcefield was transparent blue, allowing Sisko to see beyond the thin atmospheric layer to the glinting asteroids that filled the Terikof Belt The Badlands were a ruddy smear across the lower portion of the hangar door.

Both Starfleet and the Cardassians had looked long and hard for this elusive base. For too long, after the Klingons had attacked the Cardassian Empire and destroyed their fleet, the Maquis had been running free in the Badlands sector. The Maquis had escalated their territorial war, and might have won if they hadn’t lost their strongest leader, Michael Eddington. But now Starfleet had the Maquis on the run.

Lieutenant Commander Worf approached Sisko and stood at attention. “Sir, the last of the captured Maquis have been beamed aboard the transports.”

“Thank you, Worf.” Sisko noticed that Worf’s gray uniform was smudged, as if the Klingon had been helping to load cargo onto the transport platforms. “I’ll return to the Defiant shortly.”

Worf was too stoic to show his surprise, but Sisko knew why the Klingon hesitated. Their job was done. Their orders were to return to DS9 while the Starfleet vessels, the Northstar and the Lakota, escorted the Maquis transports to their new colony worlds. They would return in the next few weeks to patrol the Badlands for Maquis stragglers. Most of the Maquis had a lready fled the Badlands sector, but there were still strong pockets of resistance along the Cardassian border.

“Dismissed,” Sisko told Worf.

The captain headed down to the floor of the hangar bay, empty now of everything but crates and debris. The massive computer used to calculate the trajectory of asteroids in the Terikof Belt had been carefully removed and placed on the Northstar. It would now be used for weather control for the new Maquis colony on Pelosis 3.

Sisko wanted to savor this moment, when the thorn of the Maquis had at last been removed from his side.

He heard the high-pitched whine of a transporter as Worf beamed off the abandoned base, and he curled his hand into a fist. “Yes!”

Sisko had finally beaten Michael Eddington, his former security officer on DS9. When Eddington surrendered, he had pulled the spine from the Maquis resistance. After that it had taken remarkably little promises of amnesty and resettlementfor the captured Maquis to reveal their hidden bases. Sisko believed they were all tired of the fighting and wanted to get on with their lives.

Sisko would never forget Eddington’s expression when he realized that his capture was resulting in the end of the dreams of the Maquis. It was a little reality seeping into his grand illusion of living out Les Mis-Arables.

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