Chapter 36
Since the Orion’s initial departure from Serpalal Prime, the Serparnian Liberation Army hadn’t made any more attempts to stir up trouble. This didn’t come as any surprise to Brett. The chief steward and his friends were safely holed up in their mountain base and wouldn’t come out until the whole planet had gone to hell in a handbasket.
Unless someone stopped them first.
From everything remembered about his first trip to the base—and supplemented by the Orion’s sensor readings of the area—he knew going in would be no picnic. The front hangar was heavily guarded and capable of shooting down any shuttles foolish enough to get close. As for the secret rear entrance, even though Streng thought Brett and Robyn were dead, he was the kind paranoid enough to post a guard there just in case. Even if he didn’t have a guard there, he would have someone keep an eye on it.
What Brett sincerely hoped, and in fact his plans hinged upon, was the Serparnian Liberation Army not having the manpower to cover both entrances effectively. Thus his plan called for a two-pronged approach in the hope of catching Streng’s men in a trap. No one, especially the prime minister, put much faith in the plan working.
Nevertheless, the prime minister assigned a hundred of his most trusted warriors to the attack. Since the Serparnian’s genetic makeup could tolerate the swamps and jungles far better than humans, they would come in from the hidden entrance at the base of the mountain. From the last check, they were waiting in the jungle nearby, ready to storm the building once he gave the signal to launch the attack.
That signal would take a few more minutes. He looked across the cockpit of the Ferenghi shuttlecraft taken from the wreck of Slonix’s ship to where Cooper fought against the unfamiliar controls. “You’re doing fine,” he said.
“I wish I knew Ferenghi,” she grumbled. “It would make things a lot easier.”
“All you have to do is get us in the hangar. You know what they say about any landing you can walk away from—”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Brett looked over the controls at his co-pilot’s station, just as unsure as Cooper about what they all did. Given more time, he would have had someone translate and relabel everything. Then again, with more time he might have been able to find a Ferenghi to pilot the thing. Though after Ril’s betrayal, Brett’s already low opinion of Ferenghi had dipped even further.
The mountain came into view, the hangar built into one side of it near the top. His previous experience and the sensor readings couldn’t tell them which side, though. They would have to guess and hope for the best.
“Hang in there. I have to go fetch our guest,” Brett said. He unstrapped and headed back to the passenger compartment. Along with Ramirez and ten of his security personnel was the captain of the Serparnian ship destroyed in Brett’s charade. The captain and his crew had beamed aboard after the first phaser strike, the ship flying on autopilot into the asteroid field. “Captain Squor, I trust you’re having a good flight?”
“Your pilot flies as well as a blind Smopid,” Captain Squor growled. “You should have let one of my people fly.”
“Ensign Cooper is doing her best. Your crew has risked too much already. Now, if you’d join me in the cockpit, I’m sure our friends will be calling.”
Muttering a Serparnian curse under his breath, Squor followed Brett into the cockpit. The Serparnian captain glared at Cooper, whose face turned pale in response. Before the situation could escalate any further, a light on Brett’s control panel lit up.
“Identify yourself,” a Serparnian voice hissed.
“Not much on conversation, are they?” Brett said. He tapped what he hoped was the button to respond to the hail.
“This is shuttlecraft XK347. I have Captain Slonix aboard. He wishes to speak with Chief Steward Streng.”
“Transmit authentication.”
“Let’s hope this works,” Brett whispered. A search of the main computer for Slonix’s ship had turned up authentication codes for the mountain base. They didn’t know how old those codes were or if they’d been changed recently. Brett crossed his fingers as he sent the code.
“Sending authentication,” Squor said. Silence hung in the cockpit for a half minute as they waited to see if the Serparnian Liberation Army would go for the bait or not.
“Authentication accepted. Proceed to hangar. The chief steward will await Captain Slonix there.” The transmission cut off before Squor could respond.
“I have done my part. Now you must do yours,” Squor said.
“Thank you very much, Captain. You see the hangar yet?” Brett asked Cooper.
“I got it. What if this is a trap?” she said.
“Then you won’t have to worry about flying out of here,” Brett said. His levity did little to ease the obvious tension on Cooper’s face. “It’s going to be fine. You’ll see.”
The Ferenghi shuttlecraft eased towards the opening carved into the side of the mountain. Brett kept an eye out for surface-to-air disruptors in case the Serparnians hadn’t bought the authentication code. He didn’t see anything, but that didn’t mean they weren’t there.
Cooper brought the shuttle in smoothly, dropping it in the center of the hangar. From the cockpit, Brett saw a line of Serparnian warriors with Streng at their head. Either they’d bought the ruse or this was part of their own trap.
“Here we go,” Brett said. He tapped the communicator on his uniform twice to signal the prime minister’s troops at the hidden entrance. Then he reached over to activate what he hoped were the weapons systems.
A pair of yellow disruptor blasts shot from the shuttlecraft, scorching over the heads of Streng and his troops. The shuttle’s rear ramp lowered, Ramirez and his men pouring out to take up positions on either side of the hangar behind crates and pieces of machinery. Brett triggered another burst from the shuttlecraft’s disruptors, but the weapons were too slow for anti-personnel work. “Let’s go,” he said to Cooper.
They raced down the ramp to find the entire hangar turned into a shooting gallery. Green disruptor bolts whizzed past them, orange phaser blasts responding in kind. Brett took Cooper’s hand, shoving her across the last couple feet to land behind Ramirez and Squor. He dove across the gap to safety just as a shot scorched the air he’d just vacated.
It became clear the surprised Serparnians were getting the worst of the exchange, but Brett knew that would change. They had numerical superiority, not to mention access to a large stockpile of weapons and ammunition. Even as Brett thought this, a group of Serparnian Liberation Army troops stormed into the hangar, doubling the number of enemies.
“We’re going to be in for trouble if we stay out here too much longer,” Ramirez said as he triggered a shot from his phaser rifle that took out the left knee of a Serparnian.
“The prime minister’s guys should be here in a few minutes,” Brett reassured him. “We got to give them time.”
As the fighting continued, Brett noticed Cooper squatting behind the others, her handheld phaser dangling limp from her hand. “What’s wrong, Cooper?” Brett shouted above the din.
“I can’t do it,” she whispered.
Squor snorted at this. “My larval son has more courage than you.”
“It’s all right,
With a phaser in each hand, Brett continued firing at the seemingly inexhaustible supply of targets. A disruptor shot caught one of Ramirez’s men in the shoulder, knocking him to the deck. Cooper leaned forward to drag the man under cover. Tearing a strip from her uniform, she bandaged the wound as best she could without a medical kit.
“At least you have some use,” Squor rumbled.
The battle tilted in favor of the Serparnian Liberation Army with two more of the Starfleet security officers going down. Unless the reinforcements arrived soon, they would be done for in a matter of minutes.
On cue, a hail of disruptor fire came from behind the enemy line. The prime minister’s warriors rushed inside to take up flanking positions. The Serparnian Liberation Army found itself effectively surrounded.
Brett looked over to Squor. “Tell them to surrender,” he said although he knew they wouldn’t.
Squor relayed the command in Serparnian, receiving a hail of disruptor bolts in reply. Of course they wouldn’t surrender. They would fight to death just like Slonix’s crew. We’ll have to oblige them then, Brett thought as he fired both of his phasers to take out two more enemy Serparnians.
Then he saw a familiar shape slither through the crossfire towards the Cardassian shuttle in the hangar. Streng. Throughout the fighting Brett had tried to catch a glimpse of him but the chief steward must have kept himself well hidden. Unlike the rest of the Serparnian Liberation Army, he wouldn’t sacrifice himself for the cause.
“Get him!” Brett shouted, firing his phasers at Streng. It was too late. The chief steward made it up the ramp, disappearing into the shuttlecraft. “Concentrate fire on that shuttlecraft. We can’t let it get out of here.”
The enemy Serparnians wouldn’t make that easy. They laid down a withering barrage to keep Brett and the others from getting off more than a couple poorly aimed shots. The Cardassian shuttlecraft lifted off, roaring over Brett’s head as it burst from the hangar and into the evening sky.
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