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external sensors. “We’re being hailed by Commander Snowden on the starbase.”
    â€œCan you put it on-screen?”
    â€œI think so, sir.” Daniels transferred the incoming message to the main viewer.
    â€œâ€”Enterprise,
please respond—”
Commander Snowden appeared. He was a large man, with broad shoulders that filled the screen and a flat-topped crew cut of brown and white hair. His light blue eyes seemed to pierce through the viewer.
    â€œChannel open, sir,” Daniels said, anticipating the captain’s next order.
    â€œCommander, this is Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Are you under attack?”
    â€œCaptain Picard.”
Snowden looked relieved.
“I must apologize for the actions of my chief of operations. Our external shields were down at the time of your arrival, and he fired only because he believed the starbase was under attack. How badly was your ship damaged?”
    â€œWe’ve sustained damage to a few secondary systems, and our external sensors are offline.”
    â€œThat’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 passive. “Commander, where is Admiral Hahn?”
    â€œI’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.”
    â€œMissing?” 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 ondeck twenty-seven.”
He paused.
“Hahn feared it was another Dominion bomb.”
    â€œWhy believe it was a Dominion bomb?”
    â€œThe 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.
    â€œThere’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 relaysystem 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
    D aniels, 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