The mining station was. Before Vaughn’s horrified eyes, a tremendous explosion flared up near the planet’s equator. The A.I. down there was dead—along with hundreds of innocent people.

On the screen Vaughn could see that the Borg vessel was preparing to break orbit. With a copy of Veruda’s A.I. aboard. Now the damned thing can spread from here to the Delta Quadrant.

There was time for only one decision. Vaughn knew the members of Ruriko’s team intimately. They were good, but none of them had her combined expertise in A.I. and nanoscience. And only her mastery of both disciplines—as well as each team member’s assistance—could ensure the correct deployment of the prototype.

Ruriko spoke up, evidently thinking that he was taking too long to decide what course to take. “We both knew it might come to this, Elias. Let’s get on with it.”

Vaughn nodded, feeling blasted inside. Unable to trust his emotions, he allowed his training to take over, as though he’d just placed a shuttlecraft on autopilot.

“Commander Tenmei, execute the plan. Take it directly to the Borg.”

She didn’t hesitate. She knew what had to be done, just as he did, as well as the cost. He watched as she opened a com channel at one of the vacant stations. “Disassembler team, prepare for immediate transport onto the Borg ship. Valkyrie,this is Commander Tenmei. Please beam our away team aboard and prepare to pursue that Borg vessel.”

A Valkyriebridge officer acknowledged Ruriko’s request and asked when the team expected to need an evac.

She chuckled. “Tenmei out.”

Ruriko faced Vaughn. “Goodbye, Elias. It’s been a wonderful life at times.”

Rare times. Those times between missions when I could get home.

“Goodbye,” he whispered, his voice heavy with regret. The transporter took her.

Vaughn stood on the silent bridge, watching the images on the viewer. The Valkyrieslowly gained on the departing Borg vessel. After several tense moments the tactical officer confirmed that the away team had made it aboard.

Ruriko’s static-laden voice scored the air, relayed by the Valkyrie.The weapon had been deployed. Trillions of tiny nanites, molecule-sized machines guided by Ruriko’s short-range subspace pulses and keyed to find and unwrite the Veruda A.I.’s underlying code, were already coursing through the Borg ship’s information conduits. She confirmed that the A.I. already seemed to be dying, apparently already too distracted to force the Borg to propogate its subroutines over the subspace bands.

But the team had to stay long enough to be sure.

If only this ship could maneuver,Vaughn thought, digging his fingers into his palms until they bled. Maybe Sotak could buy enough time to evac the away team, once Ruriko’s satisfied that they’re done in there….

Explosions began to rack the Borg vessel even as it opened up a transwarp conduit and vanished from normal space. Valkyriestayed with it.

The other ship’s name hung over Vaughn like an accusation. Valkyrie,he thought. Chooser of the slain. How appropriate.

No one moved or spoke as Vaughn studied the empty starfield where the Borg vessel had been. Starfleet would understand that Ruriko and her team had exchanged their own lives for countless others. They would see it as Ruriko did. As the families of the other away team members surely would. Vaughn struggled to reassure himself that he had chosen the lesser of two evils.

“You made the only choice you could, Elias,” Dax said. “You must know that. And it sounds to me like Ruriko knew it, too.”

Vaughn nodded, but said nothing.

“I don’t think there’s anyone on this crew who blames you for wanting to restore Commander Tenmei. Nobody deserves what happened to her. But you can’t let yourself lose sight of the bigger picture.”

“I can’t let this opportunity go by, Dax,” Vaughn said. “I’m being given a chance to save her. How can I not take it?”

“I’m not saying you shouldn’t,” Dax said. “We need to investigate that wreckage, see if we can determine what its mission was. We need to find that changeling on the surface and try to return her to her own people. And you need to address this situation with Prynn. All those things can be done while Julian continues to treat Ruriko.”

Vaughn released a long breath through his nose. “You’re right, of course.” For a long time he said nothing more, and try as Dax might, she couldn’t begin to guess his mind.

Finally he asked in a quiet voice, “It isn’t easy being my first officer, is it?”

Taken aback by the question, Dax didn’t know how to respond at first. “No,” she admitted. “I’d have to say it isn’t. But then, I didn’t take the job because I expected it to be easy.”

Vaughn nodded as if confirming something he’d long suspected. “You know, I never expected to be in a position like this. That I would face a moment when I would put my needs ahead of duty. All my life, in every situation I was thrust into, I always felt as if I knew what the right decision was, even when I didn’t want to make it. Always. Whatever saved the most lives, that’s what I chose. And I knew down to the last cell of my body, from the moment you brought me that padd in the mess hall, what the right decision was here. But this time, I made what I knew was the wrong decision. Because I couldn’t bear the thought of failing her again.”

“These are extraordinary circumstances that no one could have foreseen,” Dax said. “The odds that she alone would survive the crash, much less be detected by the very ship you and Prynn are serving on, have to be astronomical. Beyond astronomical,” she corrected, and suddenly realized something she’d never considered until now. “It’s an impossible set of coincidences.”

“No,” Vaughn said. “It isn’t. There’s an explanation for all of this, and until now I’ve managed to avoid looking at it too closely. But it’s high time I dealt with it.” Vaughn rose to his feet and Dax stood with him. “Assemble an away team and send them down to the planet.”

“Aye, sir.” Dax turned to go, but Vaughn stopped her.

“Ezri.”

She turned to look at him.

“Thanks for being my first officer,” he said. “And my friend.”

14

Why is it that everything always goes to hell around here at the most inconvenient time?

The thought hung over Quark’s head like a black cloud as he stalked through the habitat ring. After years of navigating political changeovers, wars, religious upheavals, treacherous business partners, the FCA, the Orion Syndicate, and even democratic reforms on Ferenginar, it astounded Quark that he could still run aground in the Great River, even when he was about to set course for deeper waters.

He and Ro were supposed to be making plans to leave the station for good, but ever since that shifty Trill had killed Shakaar— I knew he couldn’t be trusted—she’d refused to speak to him, or reply to his messages. She seemed to have forgotten all about the fact that she was supposed to be putting her life on the station behind her. They both were.

The thought of going to Rom’s old quarters didn’t help his mood. Not just because his idiot brother and former employee was now Grand Nagus of the Ferengi Alliance, but also because its current occupant was proving to be an even bigger pain in the lobes than Rom had ever been.