"That's too bad." Snowden frowned. "We were hoping you could help us. Are you still carrying that bomb team on board?"

Picard glanced at Daniels but kept his face pa.s.sive. "Commander, where is Admiral Hahn?"

"I'm afraid that's part of what we need help with," Snowden said. "An hour ago our internal sensors detected a concentration of unknown elements on deck twenty-seven, near the secondary reactor. The admiral sent in a security team to check the readings, but shortly after that, we lost all of our internal sensors. The admiral went to investigate. When the sensors came back online, the admiral was missing."

"Missing?" Picard said as Riker straightened. "Missing off the starbase?"

Snowden nodded. "He's not registering on the computer's sensors. There's some sort of dampening field on deck twenty-seven." He paused. "Hahn feared it was another Dominion bomb."

"Why believe it was a Dominion bomb?"

"The admiral had received all the information from Admiral Leyton's bomb teams. The concentration matched the specifics outlined in the report."

Picard looked at Daniels. "Mr. Daniels?"

Daniels shook his head. "External sensors are still offline, Captain," he said before looking up at Picard. "We can't see anything. But we can use the junction protocols Mr. Data wrote and download them into the starbase computers and use the starbase sensors. That way we can confirm if the elements are those within a Dominion bomb."

Picard nodded. "Make it so. Mr. Data, go with them, and make sure Commander Travec stays here. I'll alert Lieutenant Huff to ready a security team to accompany you." He looked at the screen. "Prepare to receive an away team. Admiral Leyton's bomb specialist as well as my second officer will be leading them."

Daniels and Data moved to the turbolift.

"There's something else, Captain," Snowden said just as the turbolift door opened. Daniels paused and turned to look at the viewer. "As of an hour ago I received a priority communication from Admiral Leyton on board the Lakota. Earth's entire power relay system has been sabotaged. Her sensors, transporters, surface-based defenses have all been neutralized."

Daniels felt his heart lodge in his throat.

Snowden leaned in close. "Earth is defenseless."

CHAPTER 5.

The Thousand Natural Shocks Daniels, Data, Sage, Huff, and three security officers-Lynch, Niles, and Ryerson-beamed into operations on board Starbase 375.

Ops was structured in the shape of a ring, with the center chair for the commanding officer, a row of viewers for tactical, as well as an outer ring for operations, tactical, communications, and engineering.

Snowden hovered nearby as Daniels and Sage busied themselves tying in the starbase's sensor arrays to their tricorders, asking about every step Daniels made. Being only a lieutenant, he wasn't sure if telling the commander to put a lid on it would be acceptable Starfleet protocol.

Though twice when he found the man less than half a meter beside him he stifled the urge to shout MOVE!

"What are you doing now?" Snowden asked.

Daniels counted to three before turning to look at the commander. He could just see Sage beyond Snowden's shoulder. Unfortunately, the Fijorian was making as if to strangle the commander. "Sir, I'm updating the starbase elemental databases to synchronize with those of the Enterprise. This will allow the sensors to concentrate on the many variances of Gamma Quadrant-relevant material."

Data watched his own padd and kept an eye on the sensor diagnostics, making sure no centimeter of the ship was missed. They weren't just looking for the pieces of bomb-they were also looking for the admiral.

And everything was as clean as all the other stations had been.

Until they reached deck twenty-seven. "And there it is," Sage said from his position at the main sensor array panel. He held his tricorder in his hands. "I've got a level eighty-six percent across the board."

"Eighty-six. That's a low-percentage concentration," Daniels said. "Antwerp read a ninety-three."

"What does that mean?" Snowden said.

Data gave him a curious stare. "It means the computer is only eighty-six percent certain that the unknown particles found in this particular concentration are of Dominion origin."

"What will clinch the evidence," Daniels said as he downloaded the readings into his padd, "is if we can identify the switch as being made of organic material."

"Eight of the eleven particles are accounted for." Data turned to Daniels. "I am also getting a steady but slow variance in thermal readings."

Daniels frowned. "You mean it's getting hotter?"

Data nodded quickly. "Yes."

"Can you get a lock on it? Beam it out?"

"I told you, you can't," Snowden said. "It's impossible."

Data touched a few panels. "There could be a transporter inhibitor in operation, which might also be why we cannot get an exact location."

"Dammit," Daniels said. He tapped his combadge. "Daniels to Picard. Sir," he paused a second, not wanting to say the word bomb on any channel, open or secured, "we have a problem on deck twenty-seven, corridor nine, reactor room six."

"Understood. Can it be removed?"

Data tapped his own combadge. "Not with the transporter, sir. There is definitely an inhibitor set up nearby. I suggest a few of us go in with isolinear tags, locate it, and beam it out. I estimate we have sixteen minutes, sir."

"Sixteen minutes before what?" Picard said.

Sage made a noise like an explosion, holding his hands out to his sides.

"Before the blast, sir. I am picking up a thermal signature that is gaining temperature at a steady rate," Data said. Then, taking a cue from Sage, said, "Boom."

"Commander Riker will be leading a security team there as well to help search for the admiral."

"Captain," Snowden said. "I don't believe sending more people over is necessary. My security people are quite capable of handling the situation."

"Yes," Picard said. "So capable that they fired on a Starfleet vessel without hailing them first. I'm afraid I'm going to have to override you on this one, Commander. We have to find Hahn and get rid of that bomb. Picard out."

Daniels sighed as he synchronized his tricorder with the main computer and set his phaser. He looked at Huff. "I suggest everyone set phasers at three point six. If there's a bomb, there's bound to be a Changeling nearby."

"Already done," Huff said. "We had our own infiltrator recently."

Daniels looked over at Sage. "I need you to stay here and keep an eye on the thermal levels. If you see anything a little wonky, let me know."

Sage nodded.

Huff motioned for Lynch and Niles to flank Daniels and Data before the five of them took the lift to deck twenty-seven.

The deck was completely deserted as Daniels and Data held their tricorders out in front of them, moving closer to corridor nine. Reactor room six was still thirty meters ahead.

"Riker to Huff."

Huff tapped her combadge. "Huff here."

"...eiving interference...unknown. Wasn't able...find Admiral Hahn on deck twenty- "

Huff paused just as everyone else did. "Sir, I didn't make out that last statement. Can you repeat it?"

"They still have not found Admiral Hahn," Data filled in the blank.

Huff nodded. "Sir, we haven't seen anyone on this level. We're approximately thirty meters from the location."

Data said, "I am reading a low-level dampening field in this area. I believe the closer we get to the bomb, the stronger it will become."

Daniels sighed. "Great. I wonder if- "

"T'Saiga to Daniels."

"What is it, Sage?"

"Remember how you told me about wonky?"

Huff looked at Daniels. He kept his gaze locked with hers, both of them sharing the same bad thoughts. "Yeah..."

"Well, just after you left, the thermal levels disappeared. I can't read the bomb at all. Nothing. Not the composition, not even the location. Do you still see it on your tricorder?"

"How come we can hear him but not Commander Riker?" Huff said.

The hairs on the back of Daniels' neck stood on end. That was a good question. He tapped his combadge. "Daniels to Picard."

There was no answer.

Data did the same.

"Sage, you can still hear me?" Daniels said.

"Loud and clear."

"What about Commander Riker?"

There was a pause. "Yes. He's heading in your direction but he's unable to reach you. Wait a minute-how come I can hear you but he can't?"

"I have a bad feeling about this," Lynch said from where he stood beside Daniels.

"Me too," Daniels said. "We need to get out of here. Sage, tell Commander Riker not to come any closer. Something's not right, and I have a sinking feeling we're being- "

"Padraig!" Sage yelled over the badges. "It's back and it's hot! You need to get- "

That was the last thing any of them heard as a thunderclap drowned out the rest of Sage's warning, and the bulkhead to their left blew in on top of them.

The Enterprise bridge crew watched in horror as the lower right quarter of the starbase burst out, blasting bulkhead and debris into s.p.a.ce.

"Report!" Picard shouted as he sprang from his chair.

Ensign Adriana Berardi responded from ops. "The coolant tanks on the secondary fusion reactor are damaged. The reactor appears stable but there are hull breaches on decks twenty-seven through twenty-nine."

"What about our people?"

"I'm getting faint readings. But I can't get any transporter locks. There's still some sort of dampening field in place."

Picard frowned. "The field is still in place?"

"Aye, sir. Apparently the field is being generated from another location."

The captain took a step forward and pointed at the screen. "Can you pinpoint it?"

After a few more seconds Berardi shook her head. "I'm afraid not. It reverts back into the station, where it disappears into another dampening field."

"He's toying with us," Picard said under his breath. "Whoever planted that bomb is toying with us."

"Sir," Berardi said. "Commander Riker's hailing us."

"On-screen."

A bruised and dirtied first officer appeared on the screen. The light was dim and a haze blurred the background. "Number One, where are you?"

Riker coughed. "We're on deck twenty-seven, about twenty meters away from Data's last known coordinates. The few systems working on this deck report a shield is up to contain the hull breach." He glanced off-screen. "But that's not going to last long. The coupling's damaged. When that goes, the whole deck will be purged of atmosphere."

"Find our people and get out of there. I'll have La Forge get to work on pinpointing and deactivating that dampening field."

"Riker out."

Picard turned back to his chair and looked at it.

Irritation turned to anger that built slowly from his solar plexus, burned upward into his chest. His thoughts centered around the sadness and loss he'd held in check since the destruction of the Samson, as well as the tragic death of Linda Addison, an innocent woman.

He and the crew had defeated that Changeling-but hadn't destroyed it.

And now it appeared there were more in the Alpha Quadrant, on Earth destroying her defenses as well as here toying with innocent lives again. He would not stand for it.

Not again.

Someone touched his arm. He looked to his left where Troi sat beside him. Her large black eyes focused on his. "Captain, we'll find the admiral, as well as Data and the others."

He nodded. "And then we'll find the Changeling that did this-and this time, he won't get away."