Star Trek - Gateways - 4 - Demons Of Air And Darkness

by Demons Of Air

  we'll be able to get it done before the theta radiation gets fatal."

  "Understood and agreed. I've got a message in to the admiral now."

  "Good." She changed the Euphrates'?, course. "In the meantime, I'm not just going to sit here waiting for another meteorite to endanger the planet."

  "/ beg your pardon ? "

  Kira quickly explained about the irradiated mass that had nearly destroyed Spilimbergo. "Since this cri-sis started, we've been reacting. It's past time we acted. The runabout isn't going to help much with the evacuation-but I can take it through the gateway to the other side and try to cut this off at the source. Somebody's using Europa Nova as their personal dumping ground, and it's going to stop now-before something comes through that we can't stop from killing anyone."

  "Very well, Colonel. Lieutenant Nog is modifying the Defiant's deflector array right now. It'll be ready to emit the tachyon burst as soon as the evac is com-pleted."

  "Good. Captain Emick will be in charge of the task force when I'm gone."

  "Understood. Vaughn out."

  "Kira to Emick."

  "Emick here, Colonel. We've just landed on Europa Nova and are about to begin our evac of Padilla's population. We've also been monitoring your commu-nications. Do I gather that you intend to go through the gateway?"

  "Yes, you do," Kira said, getting ready for an argu-ment.

  However, it wasn't forthcoming. "Very well. Any-thing we can do to help?"

  Breathing a sigh of relief, Kira said, "Actually, yes. You sent a probe into the gateway when we arrived, right?"

  "Yes, we did. I'll have my second officer send over the probe's data. The star system on the other side is in the Delta Quadrant. Hang on a second, we might be able to get you some help."

  As Kira moved the runabout into a position proxi-mate to the gateway, she said, "I beg your pardon?"

  "You familiar with the U.S.S. Voyager, Colonel?" Emick asked.

  "Of course. They left DS9 before they went missing."

  "Right-and they wound up in the Delta Quadrant. I'm having my second officer look up the data from Starfleet's Project Pathfinder- Ah, damn. Voyager's last reported position is nowhere near where this waste is coming from."

  "Let's hope she runs across another gateway that'll get her home," Kira said.

  "Shields are holding against the radiation," Taran'-atar said.

  "Good," Kira said. "Setting course for the gate-way..."

  Before she could start the runabout moving, how-ever, Lieutenant Bowers's voice came over the com. "Rio Grande to Euphrates."

  "Go ahead, Lieutenant."

  "Sir, I'm picking up a ship entering this star sys-tem-Colonel, it's Cardassian. Galor-class."

  Kira heard Emick curse. "What the hell's a Car-dassian ship doing here?"

  Kira looked down and saw the same sensor read-ings that Bowers had picked up. "I haven't a clue, Captain, but I intend to find out. Lieutenant Bowers, status?"

  "We're about to head back to DS9 with our refugees, Colonel."

  "Stay in-system until we determine what these Car-dassians want."

  "Aye, sir."

  Emick asked, "Do you want me to cut short our evac?"

  Tempting as it was to add the Intrepid's firepower to her conversation with this Cardassian, Kira had to say, "No, the evacuation takes precedence. Don't worry, Captain, I know how to deal with Cardassians."

  "Of that I have no doubt, Colonel. Keep in touch. Emick out."

  As Kira brought the Euphrates about to intercept the Cardassian, the sensors got a better read on it. As Bowers said, it was Galor-class-registry identified it as the Trager-and it had seen better days. It was pocked with phaser scarring and had several hull breaches, only two of which were actually sealed with forcefields. The structural integrity field was at about sixty percent of capacity. Looks like it took a beating during the war, Kira thought. And Cardassia doesn't have the resources to do proper repairs, it would seem. That didn't surprise her. Between the internal strife, with half of the Cardassian fleet turning against the Dominion, the war damage inflicted by the Alpha Quadrant allies-much of the war had been fought in Cardassian territory, after all-and the horrendous re-taliation taken against Cardassia Prime by the Domin-

  ion, the war had left the Cardassian Union in what could kindly be called a shambles.

  The Trager took up a position in orbit around the sixth planet. That was, at present, the closest planet in the system to Europa Nova, and also outside Europani space.

  She opened a channel. "Trager, this is Colonel Kira Nerys in command of this joint Federation/Bajoran task force. What business do you have in this solar system?"

  After a moment, a reply came on a standard Car-dassian military frequency. A face appeared on the viewscreen.

  It was the face of the man Kira Nerys hated more than any other sentient being who'd ever lived-and might ever live. The former prefect of Bajor, the man who had killed millions of Bajorans during the Occu-pation, the filth who had taken Kira's mother from her family, and the man responsible for the Dominion/ Cardassian alliance that led to years of bloody con-flict. It was a face she prayed she'd never see again, one that still came to her in nightmares.

  "Greetings, Colonel," he said.

  "Dukat," Kira said with a snarl, and armed the run-about's phasers.

  9

  FARIUS PRIME

  "KAM, we've lost the signal from Hig 's ship."

  "Verify that."

  "/ already have. Their last communication indi-cated that they were about to destroy the Starfleet ship that was gathering intelligence on the hole in the lat-tice when another Starfleet ship showed up."

  "Then what?"

  "Then nothing."

  "That's not good."

  "I'm fully aware of that."

  "Let's hope they were destroyed rather than captured. Do we know what intelligence Starfleet gathered?"

  "Hig's ship intercepted a transmission, but they weren't able to forward it to us. All I know is their

  Ferengi engineer reported that they came up with a way to sabotage the gateways."

  "They have a Ferengi engineer?"

  "Yes. In fact, he's the nephew of the one negotiat-ing on the Orions' behalf."

  "Really? Interesting. Keep monitoring System 418, just in case. The negotiations here are taking far too long."

  "Then why bother with them? There are others."

  "Because the Orion offer is several orders of mag-nitude better than anyone else's."

  "It may not be worth the risk."

  "I'll be the judge of that. You just do as you're told."

  Quark popped a tube grub into his mouth. Things are going well, he thought. His instincts told him that the Orions had the best offer on the table to the Iconi-ans. Why else allow it to drag out so long? Quark knew that people all over the quadrant were clamor-ing for this technology. Plenty of governments would have made overtures. But no government had the re-sources of an underworld syndicate-or, rather, they did, but weren't willing to part with them. Quark knew that, and so did Gaila. At this point, the negotia-tions had boiled down to piddling over minor points. The deal was all but done. Quark could feel it in his lobes.

  Indeed, the deal might have been done already, but for Gaila's picking at every point. While Gaila hadn't actively tried to sabotage the negotiations, he hadn't made it easy, either-and there was more to it than simply trying to get the best deal possible. He enjoyed making Quark squirm.

  But that only went so far. Like Quark, Gaila was working on behalf of another party, and there was no getting around the quality of the Orions' offer to his client.

  They were taking another break before going into what Quark predicted would be the final session. This time, Malic had decided to lay out a buffet of Ferengi food in deference to both negotiators, with some other food for those, like Bajorans and Orions, who pre-ferred blander fare.

  Gaila approached the huge ceramic bowl of tube grubs and took a few for himself. "So C
ousin Rom is the Grand Nagus now," Gaila said hi a conversational tone.

  "That's right," Quark said, wondering where Gaila was going with this. Somehow, I can't imagine he just wants to catch up on family gossip.

  "Grand Nagus Rom. Sounds funny, doesn't it? Aunt Ishka's on Risa with the former Grand Nagus. And I understand Nog's been promoted. All these changes- and yet you still own the same bar you've had for over fifteen years. How many different governments have controlled that station since you set up shop? Three? Yet you've managed to thrive."

  "More or less," Quark said, popping another tube grub.

  "You'll probably still be running that bar long after your dear brother has been ousted."

  That got Quark's attention. "What do you mean?"

  "Oh, nothing," Gaila said, pouring himself a glass of Slug-o-Cola. "Just call it-speculation on my part. Zek was able to put forward his reforms because he's Zek. He had the weight of years and experience, and

  decades of prosperity behind him. What does Rom have?"

  A history of being an idiot, Quark thought, but said nothing. Gaila's expression was already saying it quite eloquently.

  Gaila took a swallow of Slug-o-Cola. He smiled, wiping some of the green slime of the beverage from his upper lip. Gaila had several smiles that Quark had learned to quantify when they were kids. This was Gaila's "I know something you don't, and I'm not going to tell you what it is" smile. "Mark my words, cousin," he said, leaning close enough to Quark so that the Tholian silk jacket brushed against Quark's own suit. "You can count the years of Rom's reign as Nagus on the fingers of one Daluvian hand."

  Daluvians didn't have fingers. Quark grabbed an-other tube grub.

  Not wanting to dwell on this subject, Quark asked, "So how did you wind up negotiating for a dead civi-lization anyhow? Last time I saw you, you only had seven bars of latinum to your name." That had been the reward Zek had offered for the rescue of Ishka: fifty bars of latinum, which had been split evenly among the six Ferengi who participated in the rescue (after Quark skimmed off a sixteen percent finder's fee, of course).

  Smiling his "I'm more clever than you think" smile, Gaila said, "You'd be amazed what you can do with seven bars of latinum." The smile fell. "Unfortu-nately, my old contacts had dried up. Did I ever tell you how I got that purification squad off my back?"

  Quark shook his head.

  "I gave General Nassuc weapons-free of charge.

  That's why I was destitute when you found me in that holding cell. I bankrupted myself so that mad female could complete her takeover of Palamar. I went through all my cash reserves-I even had to sell my moon before I got enough weaponry to get her to call off the squad." Gaila now took on the "I'm moving in for the kill" smile as he leaned in even closer to Quark and whispered, "She killed ten million people before the civil war was over. The Regent had many friends, it turned out."

  The tube grub felt like ashes in Quark's mouth. Quark had set in motion a chain of events intended to keep that very civil war from happening. The death toll was still far less than it would have been if Quark had helped Gaila and his partner Hagath obtain biological weapons for the Regent of Palamar to use against the general. But still, ten million people. Their deaths...

  Quark stopped that train of thought. Those deaths are not on my conscience. Nassuc and the Regent were at each other's throats long before I came along. One way or another, there would have been a war on Pala-mar. I just did what I could to keep the death toll down.

  Now if I can just believe that, everything will be fine. He grabbed another tube grab, then put it down uneaten.

  Gaila was no doubt of the opinion that Quark had let sentiment get in the way of business, but Quark simply could not bring himself to trade millions of lives for personal profit. Maybe it's years of exposure to the Federation-or maybe that's just the way I am.

  "Sorry, cousin," Gaila said insincerely. "But it was that or death. Not really so difficult a choice."

  "Well, it was nice chatting with you, Gaila." Quark started to walk away.

  "You know," Gaila said, "the gateways are a lot more valuable to the Orions than they are to the other governments."

  Quark stopped. Now he's going back to business. Interesting.

  "After all, who better to take advantage of the gate-ways than a decentralized group? It's tailor-made for the Orions. The Klingons, the Breen, the Romulans, the Federation-they'd have to completely readjust the way they live their lives to properly take advantage of the gateways. But the Orions wouldn't have to change a thing. They don't have a homeworld as such, just a network of bases-like this one."

  Smiling, Quark said, "If this is an attempt to drive the price down-"

  "Merely another observation, cousin."

  "You've been full of observations, haven't you?" Or full of something, anyhow.

  Gaila's shrug was as eloquent as his smile. Then he walked off.

  Malic approached, gnawing on some kind of cooked poultry leg. "What was that all about?"

  "Just catching up on some family gossip."

  Glowering at Quark, Malic said, "I hope that's all it is, Quark. These negotiations have taken far too long. I was under the impression that you were good at this."

  "I am. So's Gaila. That's why it's taking so long."

  "That had better be the only reason, Quark. I'm fast running out of patience."

  Only then did Quark notice that the two burly Ori-ons had appeared behind Malic and were now gazing down on Quark. Is it my imagination, or are their bi-ceps bigger than they were yesterday?

  "Don't worry," Quark said, holding up his hands in as reassuring a manner as he could manage. "I'm con-fident that this will be the final session and you'll have possession of the gateways within the hour."

  "You'd better hope that's the case, Quark. I still have the details of your scheme on my padd, and all it takes-"

  "-is a simple command, yes I remember," Quark said with a sigh. "I'm aware of the terms of our agree-ment, Malic, and rest assured I'll honor it. Seven-teenth Rule of Acquisition: 'A contract is a contract is a contract.'" Quark left out the subsequent clause: "But only between Ferengi." It was generally wise to leave that clause out when quoting that Rule to non-Ferengi-it just annoyed them.

  Soon, everyone was ready to resume negotiations. Malic, to Quark's surprise, remained in the room, taking a seat in a corner of the meeting room, the two Orions on either side of him. Perhaps because of Malic's presence, the two Iconians-whom Quark hadn't seen since the initial session-also remained, standing behind Gaila. Malic took his personal padd out of his jacket pocket and started making notes onto it.

  Tamra took up her position behind Quark, running her hand seductively across the outline of Quark's left ear. Not now, he thought, I don't need the distraction.

  Another Iconian came in and handed a padd to Gaila, then went to stand with the other two.

  Unbidden, the image of Rom standing in the bar came into Quark's head. Leeta by his side, Rom was holding the staff of the Nagus. Quark had publicly railed against the Zek reforms that Rom intended to

  continue. Maybe that will be enough to keep me from going down with him when...

  He cut the thought off and glowered at his cousin, who was reading something on the padd. / can't be-lieve I fell for that, he thought, admonishing himself. 7 don't know what's worse, that Gaila stooped to try it, or that I almost succumbed to it.

  Aloud, he said, "So, shall we bring this negotiation to a close?"

  "Just a moment, Quark," Gaila said without looking up from the padd. Then he finally set the padd down, folded his fingers together, and smiled.

  It was the "I'm moving in for the kill" smile again. Quark folded his arms in an attempt at impatience and defiance-but mainly to cover his trepidation. 7 don't like this one bit.

  "Tell me, Quark," Gaila said, "how long have you been working for Starfleet?"

  Quark burst out laughing. "Working for Starfleet? Me? That's ridiculous!"

  "Really? Then
why is your nephew-an officer in Starfleet-working to sabotage the gateways?"

  Quark frowned, genuinely confused. "What're you talking about?"

  "We've intercepted a message from a Starfleet ves-sel called the Sungari," Gaila said, holding up the padd. "Lieutenant Nog in command. The message claims to include the specifications for something that will disrupt the gateways." Looking up at Malic, Gaila said, "Nog is Quark's nephew. Quark is also a known collaborator with Starfleet."