by Ted Pedersen
“You’re his son. He’ll probably go easier on you.”
“It doesn’t work that way with humans, Nog. The closer you’re related to someone, the harder the punishment.”
Nog began to say something about being glad to be a Ferengi, but the words caught suddenly in his throat. He pointed at something over Jake’s right shoulder. “I think we’ve got trouble,” is what he finally did say.
Jake started to turn, but Nog stopped him. “Don’t turn around.”
“What is it?”
“That Fjori with the scar.” They were standing in front of a Bajoran fashion shop. Nog pointed at the holo-mirror in the center of the shop. “Just pretend you’re looking at the clothes.”
Jake moved into a position where he could look into the holo-mirror. At the edge of the image he saw the reflection of the Fjori called Trax and another man wearing Fjori dress. “I think they’ve been following us,” Nog whispered.
“What do they want?”
“I don’t think we want to know.”
Jake saw that the mirror image of the two Fjori was growing larger. They were approaching the boys. “I think they know we’ve seen them.”
Nog grabbed Jake by the arm and pulled him toward one of the maintenance passageways. “We’ll take a shortcut to your quarters.”
Jake wasn’t so sure. “Maybe we’d be better off taking the turbolift.” But when he noticed that Trax and the other Fjori were now hurrying toward them, he changed his mind and followed Nog.
It was dim in the passageway. It was also isolated from the more frequently used sections of the station. Jake knew that if they were caught in here, there would be little chance of help from any passerby.
“Relax,” Nog said as he ran ahead of Jake. “I know what I’m doing.”
Jake hoped so. He looked behind him and saw the two Fjori men entering the passage behind them. Then, as the boys rounded a sharp corner, Jake’s worst fears materialized in front of him. The passageway directly ahead of them was blocked by a locked gate.
“Great shortcut,” Jake said.
“Trust me,” Nog replied as he went to the lock. He quickly keyed in a code, and instantly the gate slid open.
“My uncle Quark showed me this route. He has eighty-four shortcuts in case of emergencies.” Nog squeezed through the gate as soon the opening was wide enough. Jake was right behind him.
With the sound of approaching footsteps growing louder, Nog keyed in a second code. The gate began to close. But it seemed to Jake that it was taking much too long. Then, just as Trax and the other man dashed around the corner, the gate slid shut and locked. They were safe, or would be as soon as they got to Jake’s quarters.
Which took them only three minutes, as they were running all the way. Out of breath, Jake pressed his palm against the entry access. The door opened.
Jake and Nog stepped inside. It was dark in the Sisko quarters. “Lights,” Jake commanded the computer.
Even as the lights started to blink on, Jake heard a deep throat being cleared behind him. “That won’t be necessary. You boys won’t be staying.”
That voice was the last thing either of them would remember for a long time.
CHAPTER 4
It took longer than the thirty minutes he had scheduled for Commander Sisko to reach his quarters. A maintenance emergency had kept him in Ops for more than an hour. When Chief O’Brien finally tracked down the problem, it turned out to be a false alarm.
That was strange enough. Vandalism on Deep Space Nine was almost unknown. Not because some of the base’s inhabitants were less apt to engage in practical jokes than other people, but because on a self-contained space station the chances of getting caught at it were much greater than planetside.
What was even stranger was that Jake and Nog were not waiting for him when he did arrive at his quarters. He wondered if, because he was late, Jake had gone back to Ops to find him. He touched his insignia comm badge. “Sisko to Major Kira. Are Jake and Nog in Ops?”
“No,” Kira replied. “The boys aren’t here.”
Benjamin Sisko was becoming upset. Late or not, Jake should have stayed here. But finding him would be easy enough, since the commander had given his son a junior version of the standard Starfleet insignia comm badge that contained Jake’s personal code.
“Tell me where Jake is,” Sisko ordered Kira.
There was a long moment, then Kira replied, “According to the computer, he’s in your quarters.”
“But that’s—” Sisko had started to say “impossible,” but at that moment he glanced down—and saw Jake’s Starfleet insignia lying on the floor.
Sisko stooped to pick it up. Something was very wrong. Jake would not have left his insignia here, not of his own free will. Quickly, he thought through the possibilities.
“Major,” Sisko barked into his comm badge. “I want you to stop the Fjori ship from leaving. I’m on my way to Docking Bay Seven. Notify Security Chief Odo to meet me—”
“Commander,” Kira interrupted. “I can’t stop the Orak from leaving.”
“You have my authorization. I’ll take full responsibility.”
“No, you don’t understand. The Fjori ship has already left Deep Space Nine.” She paused, apparently checking the computer, then added, “It passed through the wormhole into Gamma Quadrant twenty minutes ago.”
Sisko fingered Jake’s insignia. He had a terrible feeling that he knew exactly where his son was.
Which was more than Jake knew at that moment. Liquid blackness surrounded him. Jake felt as if he were swimming up through a dark ocean. His lungs were bursting. So far. It seemed he’d come so far, and there was still so far to go.
Suddenly, when he was convinced he’d never make it to the surface, there was light. Jake opened his eyes. He had been asleep and now he was awake.
But why had he been asleep? And where was he?
“We’ve been kidnapped.” Nog was slowly rubbing his ears to restore their circulation.
“Someone was in our quarters.” Jake was beginning to remember. There had been that voice behind him. Then he felt a cold mist. “That’s the last thing I remember.”
“Sensi sleep spray,” Nog explained. “Quick and very effective. Uncle Quark keeps some behind the bar for emergencies.”
“But where are we?” Jake looked around at his surroundings. There was a pale yellow glow that seemed to emanate from the ceiling. It was difficult to see, and he was still a bit dizzy. It took another minute to get his bearings.
“We’re in some kind of storage closet,” Jake said as he scanned the various crates that were held in place by magnetic straps. “We could be anywhere on the station.”
“I think you better take a look outside.” Nog pointed to a small viewport on the wall.
Jake stepped over and looked through the viewport.
“This isn’t the Bajor system. It’s—”
“Gamma Quadrant,” Nog finished. “We’re on the other side of the wormhole.”
“We really have been kidnapped. We must be on the Orak.” For the first time, Jake noticed that the Starfleet insignia his father had given him was missing from his jacket. How would anyone ever find him?
“Nog, we’ve got to get out of here!”
“Even if we could break out, it’s a long walk back to Deep Space Nine.”
Commander Sisko had convened an emergency meeting to decide what action to take. Odo confirmed what everyone there already knew. “Jake and Nog are not on the station.”
“Which means?” Chief O’Brien asked.
“That they’re on the Orak,” replied Lieutenant Dax. “It’s the only ship that’s departed the station since the boys disappeared.”
“So what do we do about it?” asked Dr. Bashir.
“Go after them, of course,” said Kira. Commander Sisko, who sat staring at the Operations Table during all of this, finally spoke. “No. We wait.”
“Commander,” Kira said, “Jake’s your son. We have to go
after him and Nog.”
“Don’t you think I want to do that?” Sisko snapped. “But how do we find the Orak? A single Fjori starship traveling in an unexplored quadrant. We wouldn’t know where to begin a search.”
Dax gently reached out and touched Sisko’s hand. “Then what do you want us to do, Benjamin?”
“We have trading outposts in Gamma Quadrant. Some of them must have dealings with the Fjori. Start making contacts. Get me information.”
“We’re on it, Benjamin,” Dax said as she and the others rose from the table.
“Odo,” Sisko called after the station security chief, who stopped and looked back. “Talk to Quark. If anyone knows how to find the Fjori, it will be a Ferengi.”
As the Orak continued on its journey, each unit of time taking it farther away from Deep Space Nine, Jake and Nog tried to understand their situation.
“Captain Vardk wouldn’t have allowed this to happen.” Jake was certain of that.
“He’s a Fjori,” Nog replied, as if that explained everything.
“Probably he doesn’t know we’ve been kidnapped.” Jake thought it was the only thing that made sense. “When we get to wherever we’re going, then he’ll send us back.”
“Don’t count on it. We’ll be in Fjori space, and Fjori laws will apply. We could be in a real mess.”
Jake started to say something, then thought better of it. It might have been Nog’s fault that all this was happening to them, but this was not the time to start blaming one another. If they were ever going to get home again, they would have to work together.
Nog was seated in front of a black box in the corner. “Someone’s given us a rather primitive replicator. At least they’re not going to starve us.”
“No, but it means we may be in here awhile.” Jake looked out the viewport at the unfamiliar star patterns of Gamma Quadrant. “Wherever we’re going, it’s a long way from home.”
CHAPTER 5
The Orak continued to fall like a silent stone through the long cold night of space. In the distance, one by one, the stars of Gamma Quadrant flickered out like candles in the wind.
Jake looked out through the small viewport. It seemed as though the Orak was,being sucked into the maw of some gigantic black hole. Not only were they prisoners in the belly of this metal whale, but they were lost as well. For an instant Jake had a terrible feeling in his gut that he would never see Deep Space Nine or his father again.
Then, as he continued to stare into the black void between galaxies, he began to see it.
A tiny point of light.
Slowly, as he watched for what might have been only a few minutes or more than an hour, that point grew until it became a sun. A solitary sun. Like an island in a vast ocean of nothingness.
It was, Jake was certain, the sun that gave warmth and life to the nameless world the Fjori called their own.
Actually, as Jake would soon learn, the world did have a name. The Fjori called their world Ryft, which translated, roughly, to Eden. Which was an appropriate name, since this small planet on the edge of forever was like a garden in the middle of a great desert of black space.
Meanwhile, on another world, a metal one named Deep Space Nine, Security Chief Odo was visiting a place he would have described as a weed patch rather than a garden. He never understood the need for people to gather in cramped spaces, absorb unhealthy liquids, and play games that they were destined to lose.
Quark, on the other hand, understood it very well. It was how he made a very comfortable living. And he resented anything that interfered with the natural Ferengi pursuit of profit. “Of course I miss Nog.” Quark considered his nephew an asset. Unlike Rom, Nog’s father and Quark’s brother, Nog was hardworking and smart.
“Then give me something to work with to find him,” Odo said.
“The Fjori and Ferengi are not exactly the best of friends,” Quark continued.
“Which is why you probably know more about them than any other race. Isn’t it a Ferengi rule of acquisition to always know the competition?”
“Rule Number 218. But Ferengi don’t consider the Fjori competition.”
“Probably because the Fjori tend to bargain honestly.”
“That is one of their weaknesses.”
“I suppose in your view it is. But I am not here to discuss Ferengi philosophy. I want—”
“To find where the Orak has gone.” Quark finished Odo’s sentence. “Unfortunately, there is one secret that the Fjori are very good at keeping.”
“And that is?”
“The location of the Fjori homeworld. That is the Orak’s destination.”
And at that moment, light-years away from Alpha Quadrant, beyond even the traveled starpaths of Gamma Quadrant, the Orak neared Eden, a solitary planet spinning around a solitary sun.
“We’re actually landing on the planet.” Jake was amazed that the Fjori didn’t use transporters to simply beam themselves down to the surface. “Landing a whole spaceship on a planet is—well, it’s archaic.”
“Archaic?” Nog asked.
“Means old-fashioned. Like cooking your meals instead of programming a replicator.”
Nog glanced over at the crude replicator that had been their source of nourishment over the past three days. “They probably do that, too, judging from the condition of their replicators.”
Jake looked out through the porthole at the landscape of the world. It appeared to be morning on this side of the planet, but a heavy gray mist made it hard to see what was out there. He turned and looked at the door. “Maybe they’ll let us out of here now.”
As if on cue, Jake heard the locking mechanism whir, and slowly the door slid open. There was a long moment of expectation and then the Fjori mate, Trax, came through the door.
“Last stop. This is where you get off,” he said gruffly.
“You won’t get away with this,” Jake argued. “My father is commander of Deep Space Nine, a Starfleet officer, and—”
“And he has no idea where you are or where to start looking.” Trax smiled with grim satisfaction. “You’re on the planet Eden in Fjori territory. We make the rules here, not the Federation.”
Trax looked at Jake and stepped forward, then stopped. “Where’s the other one?”
Jake didn’t know what he meant, until he looked around and saw that Nog was nowhere to be seen.
Trax’s smile vanished and he raised his arm in a threatening manner. “Tell me where the Ferengi is.”
“Right behind you.”
Trax turned—just as the magnetic strips holding the cargo boxes were released and a dozen heavy crates broke free and tumbled onto him.
Nog, who had been hiding on the top of another group of boxes, leaped down and yelled at Jake, “Let’s get out of here.”
Jake looked over at Trax lying half buried under the pile of crates. Nog grabbed Jake’s arm and pulled him toward the door. “He’s going to have a real headache when he wakes up. Which is what we’re going to have if we hang around until then.”
Nog hurried through the door, and Jake was right behind him. They stepped into a narrow corridor.
“Which way?” Jake wondered. Then from one end of the corridor he heard heavy footsteps.
“Not that way.” Nog spoke the obvious, and the two boys turned and ran in the opposite direction.
They heard the footsteps pause, probably at the doorway of the cargo hold where they had been held prisoner, then there was some angry yelling and the footsteps began to run toward them.
This isn’t good, Jake thought. We’re on an alien ship with no idea where to find the nearest exit.
“Here,” Nog whispered as if he were reading Jake’s thoughts. Jake saw that his Ferengi friend had pulled out a small hatch cover and was squeezing through.
Jake was certain he could never fit through that opening, but somehow he did. Nog quickly pulled the hatch cover shut behind them. Then they sat stone still and held their breath as the footsteps approached and, withou
t pausing, passed by their hiding place.
“That was close,” Jake whispered as he breathed again.
“But now what do we do?” Nog wondered. “They’ll alert the whole ship now that they know we’ve escaped.”
“I don’t think so,” Jake said. He had been giving the matter some thought, and it seemed to him that the fact they had been kept isolated in the cargo hold probably meant that Captain Vardk was unaware of the situation. He explained his theory to Nog.
“Then we have to find a way to get to him,” Nog said, again stating the obvious.
“Easier said than done. They’re going to have all the access routes to the control deck blocked. There’s no way we’ll sneak past.”
“Not as long as we’re inside the ship.” Jake looked at Nog as the Ferengi finished his thought. “So we go outside.”
Which was, Jake thought, their only real choice. Inside the ship they were totally lost and easy prey. But outside they might have a chance. “But how do we get outside?”
“Hey,” Nog replied, “this is a partnership. I told you what we have to do. It’s your turn to figure out how to do it.”
Jake thought about the problem. He had no idea of the layout of the Fjori ship. Even if they could get to a computer terminal without being seen, he didn’t know the proper access codes. He wondered what his father would do in this situation. No, he interrupted himself, not his father. “O’Brien,” he said aloud.
“O’Brien?”
“What would O’Brien do if he were in our place?”
“I don’t understand.” Nog was puzzled.
“This is an alien starship, but it needs to be serviced. These conduits will lead us to the outer shell of the ship. And somewhere in that outer shell there has to be an airlock or cargo doors.”
Nog looked down the long dark conduit that stretched before them. “But this is a big ship. There must be miles of conduits. We could be lost in here for days.”
Without bothering to reply, Jake started to crawl along the conduit. He was convinced this was the only chance they had. He was also convinced that if they didn’t start moving, their kidnappers would soon figure out what they had done and be after them.