The near-miss by the Cardassian vessels seemed to spur everyone into a higher gear. As Bart had feared, shutting down the computer system had corrupted his data. However, Sabran was able to do a partial recovery, so the cryptologist didn’t have to start from square one again.

They found Probe 26 had managed to record much of the Cardassian’s ship-to-ship chatter during the transit of the Antros system. Jamie immediately set out to incorporate this new information into their databases and compare it against earlier intercepts. As he suspected, it was a different system than the one they were most interested in, but he noted a few similarities that might be worth pursuing.

Bart examined the messages while he was waiting for the newly reactivated computer to finish the program he’d started seven days ago. A cursory examination didn’t find anything that jumped out at him. It was a straightforward Cardassian encryption system; his diagnostic program identified it as a pre-Dominion cipher that Starfleet had broken a few years ago. Priya took his decrypts and began translating them in case there was anything useful to report when the next opportunity arose.

After a few hours, Priya went over to Jamie’s station and physically escorted him out of the operations center, muttering dire threats about what would happen if she caught him out playing with the security guards. He put up a halfhearted protest, but he knew she was capable of following through on her threats, so he acquiesced in the end.

“I swear, Bart, sometimes he’s just like a kid,” Priya said as she reentered the room. “He knows he needs to eat and get some sleep, but he’d be in here 26/7 if he thought we’d let him.”

“I think this is the first time he’s been in the field in a long time. He’s starting to get to the age where they’re not going to want to deploy him much more and he knows it. He’s trying to squeeze everything he can out of this assignment.” Bart looked up at Priya over his padd. He turned to push a few buttons on the computer terminal next to him and annotated the information on his padd before continuing. “He sees this as his swan song.”

“Swan song?” There was no questioning the confused tone in her voice. “What would a bird have to do with this mission?”

“One of the most pervasive of swan legends back on Earth is it sings a beautiful song just before dying. Over time, it’s come to mean the last great act a person does in their life.”

“You think Jamie will die after this mission?” Her shocked voice echoed in the ops center.

“No, but he’ll probably go back to the Academy and teach there until he retires. He sees this as his last chance to do something really meaningful. That’s why he’s doing all the extra stuff, playing commando, et cetera,” Bart confided, keeping his voice low before returning to his computer.

Looking up a while later, he saw Priya sitting at her terminal, staring over the top of her monitor at the wall beyond her. “Is something wrong?”

She jumped, startled by Bart’s sudden question. “No, I was just thinking about what’s going to happen to us after this mission is over.”

Bart laughed, “Well, I don’t know about the rest of you, but I fully expect to wind up in some dull, boring, and very safe assignment after this war is over.”

“I imagine I’ll go back to Bajor, but in a way, I’m not looking forward to it.” She sat at her terminal, tapping the end of her stylus on the table in front of her.

“I thought you were fighting to liberate Bajor?”

“I am.” There was pride in her voice, but sadness was visible in her eyes. “It’s just that it’s only been a few years since we liberated ourselves from the Cardassians, and now this. I don’t know what Bajor’s going to be like when the war’s over.”

As they reached the end of their shift, the computer finally spit out the results Bart had been waiting for. His eyes lit up as he saw there was a positive match with several of the groups of code he’d been targeting. As he turned around to pass the good news on to Priya, he saw Sabran standing in the doorway to operations. It was obvious the Vulcan had something on his mind, but Bart had the feeling he wasn’t certain how to ask.

“Chief Sabran, would you check this out for me and make certain I’m interpreting the data correctly?” he asked, hoping it would give Sabran the opening to say whatever was bothering him.

The Vulcan moved across the room with a catlike grace, taking the padd from Faulwell. His brown eyes gazed at the computer’s results and then he began comparing the recoveries and the original text. “Very good, Petty Officer Faulwell. It appears you have begun to make good progress against the unknown code.”

“It’s a start. I just wish it didn’t take so long to run this program. There’s no guarantee the Cardassians won’t return before I get the entire message broken out.” Frustration was visible on the cryptologist’s face. “It takes too long even to prove something’s wrong.”

“I believe I can help there.”

“Oh?” The Vulcan’s hesitation had gotten Bart’s attention. Sabran was usually so confident when he spoke.

“I noted certain…inefficiencies in the diagnostic program you were using. I have been working on a suitable upgrade if you are interested in testing it out. I realize using an untested process is against regulations—”

“—but given the current situation, I take full responsibility,” Jamie said, appearing behind the two of them out of nowhere. “What makes your program so much better, Chief?”

“Well, the original program was only designed to look at a small number of messages, comparing statistical and various other attacks against the traffic. It is extremely thorough, but it requires a large amount of the computer’s capabilities, even one as advanced as this station’s, which is why it can only review selected messages.” The Vulcan’s voice grew stronger as he warmed to the subject.

“I understand the limitations of Bart’s current analytical programs. What are you going to do to improve that?” Jamie asked, waiting for Sabran to get to the point. “And, in plain terms. My head still hurts from the last time you tried to explain that damn subspace signal.”

“Very well, sir. My process will allow the computer to skim all the traffic we’ve intercepted, and at the same time we can easily include any new information that might arrive once the process starts. It looks for commonalities rather than examining it at the micro level. My initial thought was to attempt a brute force attack, but since Petty Officer Faulwell has made these possible recoveries, that simplifies things. The program can be modified to take advantage of his recoveries and use all known attacks against the intercepted messages as well as every possible variant. We’ll be putting a strain on the main computer, but I believe there’s an eighty-six percent probability it’ll lead to a recovery sooner than our current methodical process.”

“My head’s starting to hurt again, Sabran. However, unless Bart has an objection, go ahead. We can always continue using Bart’s diagnostic programs if your system doesn’t work.” Jamie smiled at the Vulcan and then turned to walk over and get a cup of coffee from the replicator.

“Thank you, Mr. Cruz.” The Vulcan took his position and began to type away on his console.

Turning to Faulwell, Jamie gave him a big smile. “Nice work on that possible recovery, Bart. I know you were chomping at the bit when we were shut down.”

“Well, it’s only a partial recovery, if it is a recovery. For all I know, it’s strictly coincidental. Until I have readable text, it’s still a theory.”

“I’ve got a good feeling about it.” Cruz carried his coffee over to his console. Entering a few commands, he made annotations about the Cardassian fleet that had just moved beyond the Antros system. Looking back up at Bart, he gave him a wan grin. “You’re a cryptanalyst; I’m a communications analyst. Sometimes you just know something’s right, long before you can prove it. I know you’re on to something here.”

Looking around, Bart saw Priya had already left the room. He hurried toward the door to see if she was up for a match before shift, when Jamie’s voice stopped him.

“Oh, by the way, I’d keep a low profile. I had a talk with Zarinth. He’s concerned the Cardassians may return in force. He wants to issue defensive armor and weapons to everyone, just in case. Unless you want another thing to have to hand-receipt, I’d make certain he didn’t find you.”

“Me hand-receipt something? I’d hate to think how much stuff you’ve signed for just in improvised explosives,” Bart laughed.

“No comment. Now, get out of here and get some sleep.” Jamie’s voice followed Bart down the hall as he hurried toward the turbolift.

As the turbolift door shut, Jamie’s final comment finally sank in with him. Oh sure, you’re a great one to be giving sleeping advice.

Three days later, Bart slid open the door to his room to find Priya waiting for him. He noticed she was looking over his shoulder into his room at the pile of equipment lying in the corner. “Yes, one of Zarinth’s minions found me. I’ve got more military hardware resting in my room than I’ve ever owned in my life.”

“Don’t feel bad; he caught me earlier too. I’ve never used a phaser rifle before, so Mayhew was kind enough to give me a training manual. At least I don’t think he’s going to expect me to field strip it blindfolded yet.” Priya’s eyes twinkled as they shared a laugh. “However, knowing Zarinth, it’s just a matter of time before we’re drilling right along with his troops.”

“I know the Andorians are a martial race, but Zarinth is taking this to extremes. Are we certain he’s not part Klingon?” Bart joked as they made their way to the lift. “It’s too bad we don’t have time for another match.”

“After the way I trounced you today, I’m surprised you’re wanting a rematch so soon.” As the door to the lift opened, they discussed the match as the turbolift rose toward deck two. The conversation lasted all the way down the corridor toward operations, with Priya showing Bart some of the things he was doing to tip her off on what he was trying to do.

“So, I’ve been giving myself away this whole time?” he asked, playfully slapping himself on the forehead. As they walked through the door, a sudden snoring halted her response and they both turned to find Jamie laying sprawled across his terminal. They rushed over but, after a quick examination, they decided there was no medical emergency here.

“That goofball,” Priya said. “I’ll bet he stayed up all night doing something with M’thanga again and fell asleep before his shift was over. I swear, if they don’t blow themselves up, it’ll be a miracle.” She pointed toward a clear spot on the floor by the far wall. “Help me move him over here. At least he can be comfortable while he’s asleep.”

Bart grabbed Jamie under the arms and began to lift so Priya could get a grip under his legs. As Jamie’s torso came upright, a sudden intake of breath from the Bajoran nearly caused Bart to drop Jamie. He turned his head to look and she was nodding her head at a portion of his workstation that had been hidden beneath Jamie’s slumped torso.

A single red light was flashing.

Shifting Jamie’s body carefully, he positioned himself so he could reach the screen without dropping his commander. Bart quickly ran his hand over the touchpad to take the terminal out of snooze mode, and carefully typed in the password with one hand to get past the security layer. A broad smile crossed his face as he examined the information that sprang to life on the screen.

They’d broken the code!