"CAREY, DIANNE - CALL TO ARMS" - читать интересную книгу автора (Carey Diane)

hoped the crowd would not notice the blush of fury rising in his cheeks,
for that would give too much away.

"but this war isn't over yet. i want you to know while we were keeping
the dominion occupied, a combined starfleet/klingon task force crossed
the border into cardassia and destroyed the dominion shipyards on torros
three." a few sparks of hope lit in the eyes of the crowd. dax and nog
even seemed surprised and let it show. sisko was gratified--by saving
the news, he could give them one little gift before vacating the place
he had sworn never to abandon. should he give them the details? names,
ships, images to which they might cling in the coming hard times? should
he describe how the starfleet patrollers centaur and majestic had
skirted all the sentry ships at torros three and stormed the shipyards
without backup, trying to cover each other like two seed pods spinning
in a light breeze? no--these people needed their own victory stories. he
had to give them time to make some before praising the actions of others
when all these before him felt so helpless.

"our sacrifice made that victory possible," he went on. "but no victory
could make this moment any easier for me. and i promise... i will not
rest until i stand with you again, here, in this place... where i
belong." enough, enough--if he said more, something in side would snap.
he buried raw frustration in a gesture, by tapping his cornbadge. "sisko
to defiant. one to beam aboard." blessedly, they were ready on the ship
to beam him off the station right away. no ugly buffer of silent
seconds. controlling his expression, he watched the faces of the crowd
distill into the lights and sparkles of the transporter beam. for a
silly instant he wished it were they and not he being beamed away, but
despite the illusion, his wish was only a wish. he materialized in the
transporter bay of the battleship defiant, now his only home. chief
engineer o'brien and their personal cardassian, garak, were there to
meet him, but neither said anything or dared to break his moment of
misery. he did that himself.

"are we ready?" he asked.

"as soon as you give the word," o'brien told him passively. all an
illusion--there was nothing passive about this moment and things would
have to happen damned fast, but o'brien was giving him time even though
they didn't have any. in fact, o'brien didn't even wait around for an
answer. he rushed past sisko and garak, pausing only briefly at one of
the engine stabilization controls before moving on to something else.
having not been on board in the past few hours, sisko had little idea of
what o'brien was doing and this was no time to interrupt him.

"mr. garak," sisko began, turning, and the rest of the question went
unasked.

"i'd like to come along," garak said instantly, "if you don't mind. you
never know when you might need a good tailor... and the simple fact is,