“Oh, come now, Commander,” Bokat rolled his eyes. “He doesn’t want to be punished for grand larceny and disobeying you! You banned him from the games. He broke into the arcade to play. The shop was closed. No one was around. Who would know, right? He took the headpiece and panicked when I caught him.”
“I did not break in!” Jake said hotly. “I fell in—by accident. The door wasn’t locked.”
Odo stared at the scowling merchant. “Rather careless of you, Bokat, leaving your door unlocked.”
Bokat shrugged and shifted in his seat. “Perhaps, but it doesn’t excuse the boy’s crime. He stole a rare antique.”
Sisko’s dark eyes narrowed. He moved nearer, towering over Bokat. “Closing down during the height of the business day strikes me as rather odd, too—for a Ferengi.”
Bokat fidgeted uncomfortably. “I had other, more profitable affairs to attend to.”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “Like dumping Nog’s body somewhere.”
“I protest!” Bokat’s face reddened. “That’s an absurd lie!”
“Duly noted,” Sisko said calmly, then turned to Jake. “Tell me everything that happened again, from the beginning.”
Jake took a deep breath and spoke slowly. “I was worried about Nog. Bokat had offered to let us play a game called the Zhodran Crystal Quest—for free.”
A dent appeared over Odo’s right eye as he started in surprise. “Did you say ‘free’?”
“I can explain that—” Bokat sat forward suddenly, then fell back when Sisko roared.
“Later, Bokat!”
Jake continued at his father’s nod. “I was suspicious, too. So I went to check. That’s all, Dad. you said I couldn’t play. You didn’t say I couldn’t go to the Games Bazaar.”
“A fine distinction, but true,” Sisko conceded. “Go on.”
Jake related his story without further interruption. When he was finished, Sisko and Odo paused to reconsider the situation.
“So, you think this—game is responsible for the Selay boy’s and Tena Lin’s accidents?” Odo asked.
“Yes. The comas, too.” Jake’s gaze flicked hopefully between the two adults.
“Did Bokat offer to let them play it?” Sisko asked.
“I don’t know. Bokat told me and Nog not to tell anyone.” Jake sighed, desperate now. “Where is Nog anyway? We’ve got to find him! He was bitten by a snake, and he’s probably comatose, too!” Jake looked at his father. “Please, believe me!”
Sisko met Jake’s pleading gaze and tapped his comm badge. “Computer. Locate the Ferengi boy, Nog.”
The computer reported in crisp, clipped tones. “The Ferengi Nog is leaving Quark’s Place.”
Sisko looked at Jake with sincere regret. “Apparently, Nog is alive and well on the Promenade.”
Jake frowned, puzzled. Why was Nog okay while Lin and Rotor were lying in the Infirmary unconscious?
Bokat jumped up. “Can I go now?”
Odo nodded, then slapped his hand over Bokat’s as the Ferengi reached for the device. “I have no reason to hold you, but I think I’ll keep this for the time being.”
“No!” Jake sprang to his feet. “If you let him go, he’ll erase the data chips!”
The shapeshifter looked up suddenly, his neck stretching slightly as he peered past Sisko toward the office windows. Jake turned and gasped. Rom was running toward the Infirmary, carrying Nog’s limp body. His best friend was trapped in the alien game!
“Correction, Bokat,” Odo said. “You’re not going anywhere just yet. You have some explaining to do.”
“I have nothing to say.” Bokat set his jaw stubbornly.
“Obstructing an investigation, Bokat?” Sisko grinned. “Odo has remarkable success getting answers to difficult questions from reluctant suspects. I’ve never asked how he does it. He gets results. Come on, Jake.” Sisko headed toward the door, carrying the headpiece.
Jake glanced back as Odo shifted into the familiar shape of a white-robed mythical Ferengest. The Ferengi believed the hooded ancestral spirit with glowing red eyes brought bad luck and poverty to descendants who violated Ferengi ethics. An alien that looked like a Ferengest had once befriended Jake, but Nog still had nightmares about Dhraako.
Bokat fell on his knees and grabbed Sisko’s leg. “Don’t leave me here with him! Please, I beg you. Have mercy!”
Sisko shook loose of the Ferengi’s hold and kept walking. “I suggest you start talking, Bokat.”
Dr. Bashir and Miles O’Brien entered Bokat’s back room just as Sisko and the science officer, Jadzia Dax, finished reviewing Nog’s encounter with the snake. All agreed that the correlations between the recordings and the accidents were too exact to be coincidences. Tena Lin had been burned severely. In the game she was surrounded by fire. Rotor had fallen into a ravine. He had a broken leg. The mysterious alien device was—somehow—responsible.
Feeling miserable, Jake sat on the floor by the wall. He was glad his father and the other senior officers believed him, but that wasn’t enough to help his friends. Maybe nothing would.
“Jake was correct, Commander,” Dr. Bashir said.
“Nog’s blood was infected with a biological poison. I neutralized it, but he’s still in a coma—just like Rotor and Tena Lin.”
“At least we know it’s not an undetectable virus,” O’Brien said. “One more minute in confinement with that Selay, and Odo would be arresting me for assault.”
“Where is Captain Gaynor now, Doctor?” Sisko asked.
“I sent him back to his ship—until we know what’s going on. The Selay can be a bit … destructive when they’re angry.”
“What did happen to those kids, Commander?” O’Brien asked.
Sisko explained Jake’s theory while Dr. Bashir and O’Brien watched the replay of the accidents.
“How they were hurt doesn’t matter now, Dad.” Jake stood up and stared at the troubled adult faces surrounding him. “Dr. Bashir cured their physical injuries. We have to figure out how to get their conscious minds out of the game matrix.”
“Can I see that thing, Commander?” O’Brien took the headpiece from Sisko. “Are you saying their minds are caught in this contraption, Jake?”
“Yes. Bokat said they were lost forever.”
O’Brien scowled as he studied the artifact. He was a technological expert, one of the finest engineers in Starfleet, and he looked completely baffled. Jake’s hopes slipped lower.
“Bokat may be right.” Dax stared at the monitors, her pretty mouth set in a hard, grim line. “I’ve heard about the Zhodran and the Da-hahn Crystal legend.”
“Anything that might help?” Sisko asked.
Jake listened attentively. Even though the trill host, Jadzia, was young, the symbiont inside her, Dax, was three hundred years old. Jadzia had three centuries of knowledge and memory at her disposal. She might know something important.
“The Zhodran are a very reclusive species,” Dax explained. “They avoid any contact with outsiders. They believe the Da-hahn Crystal endows whoever possesses it with great power and eternal life. But—it’s just a legend. There’s no proof the crystal actually exists.”
“But the game exists,” Sisko observed.
“A map, actually,” Jake interjected. “The location of the crystal is disclosed at the end of the quest.”
“Where did Bokat get such a dangerous device?” Dr. Bashir stepped aside as Odo walked through the door.
“Probably stole it from the Zhodran,” O’Brien quipped.
“Someone did,” Dax said.
“But not Bokat,” Odo said confidently. “He bought it from an Orion pirate three years ago for six bars of gold-pressed latinum. The Orion couldn’t figure out how to activate the device. Bokat was successful. I would know if he were lying.”
“I agree with Odo, Benjamin,” Dax said. “The artifact’s been missing for three decades. The library contained only one reference to the Da-hahn Crystal or an associated device. Thirty years ago, th
e Crown of Ultimate Wisdom was stolen from Zhodran’s archives by persons unknown. It’s never been recovered.”
Sisko frowned. “It has now.”
“And it’s our only hope of bringing those children out of their comas.” Dr. Bashir looked pointedly at O’Brien. “That’s your department, Chief.”
“I’ll be honest, I don’t have a clue how this thing works.” O’Brien turned the device so Julian could see the interior surface. “I’m assuming these filament contacts pierce the scalp and draw on the brain’s energies. Taking the game apart might shatter the mechanism holding the impulses.”
“If their neural patterns are trapped,” Sisko said. “Their brains might have been … short-circuited, in a manner of speaking, and the impulses destroyed by the device.”
Appalled, Dr. Bashir pressed Sisko. “I must insist that we proceed as though the minds are imprisoned and still viable.”
Sisko relented. “Agreed. Any ideas how?”
“It’s not like a transporter,” O’Brien said. “There’s no control panel.”
No one had any suggestions, and the silence of bewildered indecision forced Jake to act. Forgotten in the shadows during the discussion, he stepped forward and spoke boldly.
“Someone has to go in and get them.”
CHAPTER 7
Jake skipped to keep up with the parade of senior officers crossing the bustling Promenade. At Jake’s request, O’Brien had contacted Keiko to meet them. Odo returned to duty, and the remaining adults were so involved in a dialogue about the Zhodran device and the bizarre consequences of wearing it, no one had asked why wanted to go to the school. But they would. As soon as someone thought to ask the right question.
“Sending someone into this game is not like sending an away team down to a planet.” Sisko stared at the floor as he walked. “We’re not dealing with physical circumstances, but with thought.”
“But it is the same,” Jake insisted. “In a way.”
“I think Jake is right,” Dax said, matching Sisko’s stride. “When we encounter a problem in the physical world, we decide how to solve it with our minds.”
“Quite true.” Dr. Bashir smiled agreeably at Dax.”If someone is lying at the bottom of a pit with a broken leg, we’d think about how to get the victim out first, before we actually did it. The only difference with the game is that the doing takes place in the mind, too.”
Sisko was still not convinced. “But this game is dangerous. It traps the electrical impulses that generate conscious thought, if someone makes the wrong decisions.”
Dax smiled and shook her head slightly. “Benjamin, the point of the game is to make the right decisions.”
“Exactly!” Jake exclaimed.
Dax winked at Jake. “And luck is not a factor. There’s no toss of the dice, no random selection of cards or spin of a wheel. Success depends strictly on intelligence and skill in problem solving. The player relies on his ability—not chance.”
“I’ll buy that,” O’Brien said, “but I don’t understand how you expect another player to free the trapped children.”
Everyone came to a stop outside the school. Keiko wasn’t there yet.
Jake quickly explained his idea. “If the new player avoids the traps that caught Rotor and Lin and Nog, he can probably find a way to rescue them from the bridge and the pit and the snake.”
Sisko frowned uncertainly, and O’Brien nodded thoughtfully.
“It’s just a theory,” Jake said desperately, “but escape solutions are programmed into every game I’ve ever played. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be worth playing.”
“Escape is not just a matter of solving the riddles and problems, Jake,” O’Brien said. “The trapped impulses need a way to get out of the device.” Light sparkled across the silver surface of the headpiece as O’Brien held it up for dramatic effect. “Four minds. One device.”
“Only one road home.” Dr. Bashir sighed.
“Could you replicate the device?” Sisko asked.
“In a Cardassian replicator?” O’Brien snorted and rolled his eyes. “I wouldn’t advise it. Besides, replication might destroy the conscious impulses. We can’t risk it.”
“I’ve thought about that, too.” Jake paused as Keiko rounded the corner with her sleepy daughter Molly cradled in her arms.
“Sorry I took so long. I had to get Molly dressed. What’s going on?” Keiko unlocked the classroom, and everyone filed inside. Jake immediately ran to a corner storage cabinet and pulled out the Federation IQ/Aptitude helmet. He rushed back to join the group, then had to wait to get their attention.
“A separate conduit is needed for each neural pattern,” Dr. Bashir finished explaining to Keiko. “We’ve only got one.”
“Two!” Jake shoved the helmet into O’Brien’s free hand. “And this one can be replicated.”
“What is it?” Dr. Bashir asked.
“A Federation testing device,” O’Brien muttered. He glanced at Dax. “What do you think? Will it work?”
Dax examined both headpieces, then nodded. “I think so. Bokat adapted the cable connections to be compatible with a standard recorder. I’m sure we can integrate three Federation helmets with the alien design to open extra impulse channels.”
Excited by the technological challenge of beating the alien gadget at its own game, O’Brien grinned. “The Zhodran device will function as a control panel. The thoughts of the person wearing it will direct everything that happens.”
“Who’s going to wear it?” Dr. Bashir asked.
“I’m the best man for the job.” All heads snapped around to stare at Jake. “I passed the IQ/Aptitude test, with above-average marks, and nobody has topped my scores in the arcade.”
“Absolutely not!” Sisko gripped Jake,s shoulders. “This is not just another game. This device hurts people. It doesn’t keep a running score. It’s win or lose. Nothing in between.”
“I know that, Dad, but the rules are the same. It’s possible to win, and I can do it!”
Sisko was adamant. “Three children have already been hurt. We’re not going to make it four!”
“But, I’m the best—” :
“No!”
“If I may, Commander,” O’Brien interjected cautiously. Sisko’s eyes flashed, but he let O’Brien speak. “We can’t discount Jake’s ability. I’ve tried those games without much success, I’m afraid. I don’t have the reflexes, the quick response factor that comes naturally to someone Jake’s age.”
“Chief O’Brien.” Drawing himself up to his full height, Sisko glared at his Chief of Operations. “If we were talking about Molly, would you let her risk her life?”
“Molly’s only three years old!” Jake protested. “I’m fourteen—old enough to make this decision.”
“Jake’s growing up, Commander,” Keiko said gently. “Sooner or later you’ll have to let go.”
Sisko smiled sadly. “I’d prefer later.”
O’Brien touched Molly’s cheek. “I’m sure we will, too, when the time comes.”
“My friends are in trouble, Dad,” Jake said earnestly. “I’m the best chance they’ve got, and I want to help.”
Throwing up his hands, Sisko barked, “All right! But I insist we take every possible precaution.”
“No problem.” Playfully cuffing Jake, O’Brien started for the door. “I’ve got a couple of safeguards in mind.”
Solemnly Jake offered his hand to his father. “Thanks, Dad. I won’t let you down.”
“See that you don’t,” Sisko snapped sternly. His expression softened as he shook Jake’s hand.
Jake flushed with pride. Having his father’s respect and confidence felt great. The only thing that could feel better was getting his friends out of the Zhodran Crystal Quest alive.
CHAPTER 8
Sitting on a biobed, Jake watched Dax, O’Brien, and Dr. Bashir complete their preparations. Once he put on the headpiece, his own life would be in danger, too. He was scared—but fear gave him an edge. He would b
e alert and ready to cope with any problem the alien game presented.
Jake’s chest tightened as he looked at Nog. No trace of animated excitement showed on the Ferengi boy’s pale face. No mischievous plans were hatching behind the blank eyes. He just lay there, unmoving and quiet, wearing a Federation helmet modified to fit over his large skull and ears. The extended neural network would not be activated until the filaments in the Zhodran artifact made contact with Jake’s brain.
Then Nog’s fate, like Tena Lin’s and Rotor’s, would be in Jake’s hands. Or thoughts, Jake corrected himself. Now he understood the crushing pressure Benjamin Sisko lived with every day. Everyone on the station depended on his father’s decisions.
Nog’s father had stopped in to demand that Dr. Bashir get Nog back on his feet as soon as possible. Quark was making Rom do double duty as waiter and busboy. However, Jake knew that was just an excuse to get away from the busy bar. Rom was really worried about his comatose son.
Captain Gaynor and Tena Lin’s parents had come into the Infirmary a short time later, pressing for information and action. Dr. Bashir had handled them diplomatically, expressing high hopes for the children’s complete recovery. Then he had explained that having upset parents lurking about would hamper the treatment process. At first they had refused to leave, but Dr. Bashir had finally convinced them. Jake was uncomfortable being the center of scientific and medical attention. Being watched by emotionally involved parents would have made the stress unbearable.
“Almost ready, Jake.” O’Brien connected the Zhodran device to the data-chip recorder. Bokat’s equipment had been confiscated to save time. Commander Sisko had insisted on monitoring Jake’s progress through the game. If something went wrong, the officers could analyze Jake’s actions to avoid making the same mistakes. Benjamin Sisko would attempt the rescue in the event Jake failed.
But he was not going to fail. He was the best player on Deep Space Nine. He would beat the Zhodran Crystal Quest and save his friends. He absolutely had to—for reasons that went far beyond the satisfaction of winning. It was a matter of life and death.
“How are you feeling?” Sisko walked up to Jake, trying very hard not to look as worried as he felt.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Young Adult Books #5: Arcade Page 4