T HEY’RE TAKING THIS rather well, Picard mused ironically.

The captain surveyed the reactions of his senior officers to Starfleet’s latest orders. Looks of incredulous dismay were volleyed from one officer to the next, down the length of the table. In the hush that had fallen like a curtain, Picard could hear the tiny squeak of every slowly pivoted chair, and the grimly resigned sigh of Dr. Crusher, who sat to his left at the far end of the table.

The rectangular monitor on the observation lounge wall was divided into quadrants. One outlined the Tezwans’ artillery system; another showed the current damage-and-repair status of the Enterprise; the third tracked the position, estimated size, and approximate arrival time of the Klingon attack fleet; the last tracked the status of Tezwa’s newly acquired fleet of two dozen warships, which were even now powering up for rapid deployment into orbit over the planet.

“I’m open to suggestions,” Picard said.

La Forge leaned forward to look past Data, who sat to Picard’s immediate right. “Well, we still don’t have weapons or shields,” the engineer said. “So I’d suggest not getting ourselves shot at—by the Klingons or the Tezwans.”

“I’ll second that,” Vale said.

Picard looked at Troi, who sat at the far end of the table, opposite Crusher. “Counselor? Any advice on diplomatic options?”

“I’m afraid not, Captain,” she said. “Judging from the level of hostility I sensed between the rival political factions on Tezwa, I’d say they’re on the verge of a coup d’état. Negotiating with them while Kinchawn remains in power seems unlikely, and possibly counterproductive.”

“What about the Klingons?” Picard said.

“I have to believe that if anyone could have stopped them from launching the attack, it would’ve been Worf,” Troi said. “Now that they’re en route, I think we should assume the worst.”

Picard hunched forward, rested his hands on the desktop, and folded his fingers together. “Number One? Thoughts?” Riker looked exhausted. Picard hadn’t picked up on that earlier, in the dim lighting of the bridge. He wondered whether he should have insisted his first officer take a proper leave of absence following the murder of Kyle Riker on Delta Sigma IV.

“We know diplomacy’s out,” Riker said. “And even at our best, going into battle against these odds would be suicide…. The way I see it, we have exactly two options left: subterfuge, and sabotage.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Picard said.

“Our first step has to be neutralizing Tezwa’s artillery,” Riker said. “Can we hit them with long-range photon torpedoes?”

“No,” Vale said, turning slightly to address her remarks as much to the captain as to the first officer. “Tezwa’s defense system would shred them before they reach the atmosphere.”

“And if any did reach their targets, they wouldn’t penetrate the guns’ shields,” La Forge said. “Any attack powerful enough to knock out the shields would cause collateral damage on a global scale.”

Riker picked up his padd and checked an item in Data and La Forge’s analysis of the Tezwan guns. “Your report says the guns are controlled by six firebases located around the planet.”

“That is correct,” Data said. “Those facilities also supply the power for the planet’s defensive systems.”

“Can we disable just those six firebases?” Riker said.

“Their shields are even tougher,” Vale said.

“True,” Data said. “However, unlike the guns, they are configured to repel only orbital and aerial attacks.”

La Forge half-swiveled his chair toward Data. “That’s right,” the chief engineer said. Picard was convinced he could see a gleam in the man’s synthetic, silvery eyes. “The shields don’t extend low enough to stop ground assaults,” La Forge continued. “We can’t beam through them, but we could free-fall through the shields, and approach the bases on the ground.”

Vale looked concerned as she posed a question to Data. “How many people would be in one of those firebases?”

The android thought for a moment. “Given the unusual degree of similarity between the Tezwans’ artillery and the prototypes designed by Starfleet, I would estimate each firebase is run by approximately forty-five personnel. The guns themselves would have only a handful of technicians, to perform routine and emergency maintenance.”

“So we’re looking at two hundred seventy hostile personnel in the firebases,” Vale said. She shook her head. “I don’t know. Even if we had enough people to launch an attack like that, the Tezwans would blow us outta the sky before we reached the ground.”

“A large-scale attack might not be necessary,” Data said. “After all, our goal is to engage in sabotage—not a war of attrition.”

“Absolutely,” Riker said. “We have to think in terms of a covert operation, small-unit tactics.” He looked to La Forge and Data. “If we’re going to sabotage Tezwa’s defenses, where do we hit them? What’s the system’s most vulnerable point?”

“Thought you’d never ask,” La Forge said. He picked up his padd, punched in a short string of commands, and aimed it at the wall monitor. The schematic of the Tezwan artillery system enlarged to fill the entire screen. “The guns were made for power, and they’ve got it in spades.” He highlighted an isolated component of the guns. “What they don’t have are good backups for their prefire-chamber capacitors.”

Crusher half-raised her hand. “Could we pretend for a moment that I have no idea what you just said?”

Vale jumped in to field the question. “The prefire chamber is a key component in a directed-energy weapon,” she said. “Before the weapon fires, it builds up a specific amount of charge in the prefire chamber. When it has enough power stored, it collapses a restraining field and releases the energy in a single, massive burst to the emitter array, which focuses the pulse and modulates its frequency.”

Crusher nodded. “And what happens if this prefire chamber doesn’t have a good backup?”

“The weapon has no ability to compensate for an overload,” Vale said. “If enough energy floods the chamber too quickly—”

“Boom,” La Forge said, mimicking an explosion by spreading apart his hands and fingers.

Picard feared the consequences of such an attack. “What risk would that pose to the civilian population?” he said.

“None,” La Forge said. “The results would be implosive, not explosive. And once the guns implode, the feedback pulses would destroy the firebases the same way. We can take out the entire system without risking collateral damage to the environment.”

“But the maintenance personnel inside the guns?” Picard said, weighing all the costs against his conscience.

“Once we control the firebases, we can override the gun crews’ access codes and lock them out of the system,” Data said. “When we are ready to initiate the system collapse, they can be given enough warning to evacuate before the guns implode.”

“What’s the minimum safe distance for retreat?” Riker said.

“Thirty meters, maybe less,” La Forge said. “As I said, the effects’ll be implosive. Once you’re out of the facilities, you’re pretty much clear.”

Picard nodded approvingly. “Very good,” he said. “But you’ll still be facing heavy resistance in the firebases.”

“The statistics are misleading,” Data said. “Of the forty-five personnel we expect to encounter at each facility, only twelve are likely to be armed security personnel. At any given time, only four of those guards are likely to be on duty.”

“Also,” La Forge interjected, “once we capture the bases’ operation centers, we can isolate the remaining personnel behind locked doors—for their safety and ours.”

Picard’s brow wrinkled with skepticism. “And the firebase personnel would have a fair chance to escape?”

“Yes, sir,” Data said. “We could set the systems to release the lockdowns on a time delay, enabling us to leave the bases without a direct confrontation.”

Riker stroked his bearded chin for a moment before he spoke. “What if the firebase personnel signal a warning to their headquarters? We could end up facing a lot of angry reinforcements.”

“I already have my people putting together subspace signal jammers,” La Forge said. “They’re short-range, and they’ll only have enough juice to run for a couple hours, but they’ll do the trick. The firebases will still have internal, hard-wired communications, but external coms’ll be down for the count.”

Vale’s lips tightened into a worried frown. “How long will it take to deploy these jammers once we’re on the ground?”

“Flip of a switch,” La Forge said with a confident shrug. “Set ’em and forget ’em.”

“Well done, Mr. La Forge,” Picard said. “Unfortunately, the artillery is only one part of the problem. The Tezwans also have a fleet of their own. Even without the support of the planet’s guns, they’ll still try to engage the Klingons.”

“Well, we’re already taking control of the firebases,” La Forge said. “We could use the Tezwans’ own artillery to stop their fleet—before we destroy the guns.”

The idea of slaughter on such a scale appalled Picard. “You’re not suggesting we destroy twenty-four starships?”

“No. We’ll just disable them.”

“He’s right,” Vale said. “We can reduce the guns’ power settings, and tweak their frequencies to cripple the Tezwan ships. Worst-case scenario, they’d still have emergency batteries for life-support.”

Crusher looked unconvinced. “What if they don’t?” she said.

“They’re in orbit above their homeworld,” Vale said. “They can use their escape pods and go home.”

Riker looked at Vale. “How’s our intel on the Danteri ships they’re using?”

“Pretty good,” Vale said. “The Excalibur and the Trident have been updating Starfleet’s records with new technical data. We should be able to knock out the Tezwan ships without causing any serious casualties.”

Picard nodded. “All right,” he said. “But if we remove all the Tezwans’ defenses, we’ll be leaving them exposed to a massacre by the Klingons. How should we go about halting the Klingon invasion force?”

A subtle smirk tugged at the corners of Riker’s mouth. “This would be a long shot,” he said.

“Naturally,” Picard said.

“When I served aboard the I.K.S. Pagh,” Riker said, “I noted that they used security prefix codes much like ours. Each ship had a unique code sequence that its captain could change at will. But they also had an override code—a code the crew didn’t know, and which could be changed only by Klingon High Command.”

“An override code?” La Forge said. “As in, we’d take remote control of every ship in their attack fleet?”

“Exactly,” Riker said.

“It is an interesting proposition,” Data said. “However, it raises three important questions. First, how do we obtain the code? Second, how do we push a signal containing the codes through the Klingons’ shields? And last, how do we time the disabling of the Klingon fleet so as not to leave it at the mercy of the Tezwans, or vice versa?”

“We’ll transmit the code signals on a super-low-frequency subspace channel,” Riker said. “They developed it for use when their ships are cloaked. If we can get the override codes, the SLF channel specs should be bundled with them.” Picard masked his alarm at the notion of stealing the SLF data, one of the Klingon Empire’s most closely guarded military secrets.

“The timing is tricky,” Vale said. “The key is to disable both forces before the Klingons make orbit. If either side gets even one shot off, this whole party’ll be for nothing.”

Riker nodded. “Agreed. What’s the Klingons’ ETA?”

“Best guess?” Vale said. She checked her padd. “Three hours, thirty-eight minutes.”

“I think we’re forgetting an important detail,” Troi said. “The Klingons are not going to excuse Kinchawn’s sneak attack just because the Tezwan fleet is disabled or their artillery’s been destroyed. Unless the Tezwans can placate the Klingons without insulting their honor, our intervention will only delay the invasion by a matter of hours.”

Picard knew Troi was right, but he also realized she was raising an issue they could not address. “Unfortunately, Counselor, the Tezwans alone must bear the burden of making amends with the Klingons,” he said. “Our mission is to stop the invasion. We can only hope that once we’ve done our part, the Tezwans will seize the opportunity to do theirs.” He looked toward Riker. “Will, destroy the firebases. Take whatever resources or personnel you need, and go as soon as possible.” Picard pushed away from the table. “If there’s nothing else—”

Crusher spoke up. “Captain, we still haven’t said how we’re going to get the Klingons’ override codes.”

Picard had been able to tell from Riker’s poker face that the first officer had known the answer to that question when he’d suggested stealing the codes. And though Picard was loath to admit it, he concurred that it was their best—and only—hope of stopping a brutal and tragic conflict. He looked Crusher in the eye and told her only what she needed to know.

“Leave that to me,” he said.