Night Of The Wolves Part 28

"Well, maybe you could practice being an insect or something."

"Doctor Mora, are you nervous?" Odo asked.

Mora looked up at the shape-s.h.i.+fter, whose "face" was appropriately inquisitive. "Yes, Odo, I am nervous. A very important man is coming to the laboratory soon, and I've got to be sure that everything is..." He trailed off. He didn't know what to do for Dukat, exactly, other than have Odo perform for him. He had to figure out a way to make the prefect understand that his research with Odo was important, but he wasn't sure how to do it without making it seem like a sideshow of some kind.

Yopal had insisted that Dukat would have no interest in what Mora was doing, that he only wanted to speak to Daul about something, and that he wanted to discuss something about weapons with a few of the others. But Mora remained unconvinced. He feared that as soon as Dukat was introduced to him, the prefect would begin asking a thousand questions that Mora wouldn't know how to answer, and he would find himself in a labor camp before he knew it. And then what would happen to Odo? Mora looked sideways at the shape-s.h.i.+fter, who watched him with his unique non-expression. It always managed to convey sadness, even if Mora couldn't be sure that the shape-s.h.i.+fter was capable of actually feeling it.

Mora's computer chirped, indicating that Doctor Yopal was requesting his presence in her office. He headed down the hallway, absentmindedly smoothing his hair back with his hand. Yopal was not alone in her office.

"Yes, what is it, Doctor?"

"We have a new colleague here at the inst.i.tute. This is Doctor Kalisi Reyar."

Given leave to do so, Mora turned to regard the other Carda.s.sian woman in the office, a little shorter in stature than Yopal, possibly a little younger, a little more vain; the spoon-shaped concavity in the center of her forehead was filled in with a bit of decorative blue pigment. Other than that, she was nearly indistinguishable from the other women who worked at the inst.i.tute. They all wore their hair in those peculiarly arranged plaits and bundles, they all had the same wide-open alertness in their eyes. Mora expected to forget her name almost immediately, for he rarely conversed with anyone but Yopal anymore. He extended his hand, and Doctor Reyar looked at it.

"Some Bajorans greet one another by clasping their forearms together," Yopal told the other woman.

"Yes, I know," Reyar said, but she still did not extend her hand, and Mora slowly let his drop.

"I wanted you to meet, because I will be putting the two of you together very soon," Yopal said.

Mora felt his heart skip a beat.

"Not right away, but probably sometime in the coming months. That will give you time to wrap up your current projects."

"Even Odo?" Mora spoke without meaning to, unable to help it. "He needs constant observation, he needs guidance, supervision. n.o.body knows him as well as I do, n.o.body else can-"

"You will still be permitted to work with Odo in your spare time," Yopal told Mora crisply. "Just not as often. I suggest you let him know right away, so that he can become acclimated to the change."

Mora breathed a small sigh of relief. It wasn't ideal, but at least Odo was not being a.s.signed to someone else. Of course, there was still the matter of this Doctor Reyar...Mora turned to her again. "I look forward to working with you," he said, trying to sound genuine. He hoped she was at least as tolerable as Yopal.

"Doctor Mora is one of the good Bajorans," Yopal told Reyar. "He is cooperative, obedient..."

Reyar smiled. "That reminds me of a little joke I heard on the transport here," she said. "Someone said that the only good Bajoran is one who is about to be executed." She laughed out loud, and Yopal chuckled politely. Mora began to cough, and for a moment he could not stop.

Yopal patted Mora's shoulder. "It's only a joke, of course."

"Of course," Mora replied, still coughing.

"Perhaps you'd like to see Doctor Mora's pet project," Yopal suggested to the new scientist.

Reyar did not appear to have an opinion one way or the other, but Yopal nodded briskly and the three began to walk down the hall to Mora's lab. Yopal stood back while Mora opened the door, and the three entered, revealing that Odo had been sitting in the same place since Mora had left him. Reyar gasped.

"What is it?" she asked, and took a step in Odo's direction.

"He is a shape-s.h.i.+fter," Mora answered, walking protectively toward Odo. "We don't know where he came from, and we've never seen anything like him. He seems to be unrelated to any of the known shape-s.h.i.+fting species, with a morphogenic matrix that is utterly unlike the Antosians, the Chameloids, the Wraith, or the Vendorians. However, I've begun to make certain breakthroughs. Odo, this is Doctor Reyar. Why don't you show Doctor Reyar...something that you can do?"

Without a word, Odo morphed into a cadge lupus, a s.h.a.ggy, vicious-looking Bajoran animal he'd learned about from the inst.i.tute's database. Reyar took a step back and made a frightened noise.

"Something Carda.s.sian," Mora said quickly, and the lupus lupus changed into a ma.s.sive, square-headed Carda.s.sian riding hound, similar to the changed into a ma.s.sive, square-headed Carda.s.sian riding hound, similar to the lupus lupus but with longer legs and short, wiry fur. but with longer legs and short, wiry fur.

Reyar seemed no less horrified. "How dreadful!" she exclaimed. Odo changed back into his humanoid form.

"I have upset you," Odo said. Reyar ignored him, turning back to Mora.

"So, what kind of progress have you made with it?" she inquired.

Mora was taken aback, for he'd thought Odo's demonstration ill.u.s.trated his progress well enough. "Well, I've learned quite a lot about him in the time since I was a.s.signed to him. His optimal temperature, his ma.s.s, which, by the way, can be changed at will. I've also taught him the basics of humanoid speech, as you can hear, and he's beginning to learn many things that will hopefully help him to someday a.s.similate-"

"Yes, but I mean, what have you learned about him that will contribute to the betterment of Carda.s.sian society? For isn't that the ultimate goal here at the inst.i.tute-and in the sciences in general?"

"Yes, of course," Mora replied. "But I'm learning about a new species, Doctor Reyar. Surely you see the value in that type of research. It is inherently important to learn all we can about-"

"I don't really see the value," Reyar said. "I suppose I'm just a traditionalist that way. But I guess you are to be congratulated for teaching it to do...tricks and the like." Her tone was dry, or maybe Mora just imagined it was. Carda.s.sian mannerisms still eluded him at times.

The two women left him alone with Odo, who wasted no time getting to the inevitable questions.

"Doctor Reyar. This is a man?"

"No, Odo, she is a woman."

The shape-s.h.i.+fter nodded. "I thought she looked like a woman. But...I thought it was men who did not make good scientists."

Mora laughed, a little puzzled. "Doctor Reyar is probably a perfectly good scientist, Odo."

"But, Doctor Mora, I thought that science, the study of science...the study of...me...I thought this was the quest for knowledge, for information and truth about the environment that surrounds us."

He was probably quoting something from one of the informational padds he'd been given, Mora thought, and felt a surge of pride that his project seemed to have internalized what he was reading. "Yes, well, Odo, not all scientists have the same priorities, I suppose. Doctor Reyar believes science is valuable only if it makes people's lives quantifiably better in some way."

"People's lives," Odo repeated. "Whose lives? My life? Your life?"

Mora cleared his throat. He wanted to say the Carda.s.sians' lives, the Carda.s.sians' lives, but he said nothing. Odo was so naive, Mora was well aware that anything he said in the shape-s.h.i.+fter's presence was likely to be repeated. but he said nothing. Odo was so naive, Mora was well aware that anything he said in the shape-s.h.i.+fter's presence was likely to be repeated.

"You are learning so quickly, Odo," Mora finally said. "But it's time for me to check your liquid ma.s.s. If you wouldn't mind stepping into the tank, please. I need you to revert to your natural form."

Odo, obedient as always, did as he was told, and Mora s.h.i.+fted his focus to his notes, remembering that he would not be able to devote so much attention to this in the near future. He hoped Odo would understand.

19.

It seemed a very long time since Daul had used a transporter. The Bajoran Inst.i.tute of Science was outfitted with one that was used primarily for equipment and supplies, though occasionally the Carda.s.sian scientists employed it to transport themselves from place to place, but the Bajorans were not allowed access to it. This rule was unspoken, but it was very well understood.

Today, however, an exception was being made. The prefect had strongly implied that Gallitep's overseer was a notoriously impatient man, and that Daul needed to begin his new task as soon as possible. Daul was quickly authorized for transport and beamed directly into a long, cool corridor with chrome doors on either end. He was met there by a lean Carda.s.sian who introduced himself simply as "Marritza."

"Gul Dukat recommends you highly for your expertise," Marritza said as he escorted Daul down the corridor.

Daul had the distinct impression that the other man was nervous. He wondered if he was afraid of Bajorans; there was so much propaganda among Carda.s.sians regarding the resistance that civilians probably expected every Bajoran to be ready to spring up and murder their Carda.s.sian neighbors without a second thought.

"I'm flattered by his confidence," Daul said. In truth, he was anything but flattered. He was disgusted, and he was terrified to consider what he was about to be confronted with at Gallitep. At least last time, he hadn't been made to travel to the actual camp; his software had been electronically implemented into the mine's online system from the inst.i.tute's database.

"It has been explained to you what you are expected to do?" Marritza inquired.

Daul nodded. "Yes, I'm to reprogram the system to begin a gradual shutdown. It will have to be done in two sessions, however. I trust Gul Darhe'el is aware of this necessity?"

"I will be sure he is informed," Marritza said. "My job is to keep the camp's records and the details of its operation up to date, but I daresay Gul Darhe'el will not wish to be troubled with such minor matters. He has so much else to concern himself with..." The clerk smiled then, with a strange trace of what seemed like bitterness.

Daul found the Carda.s.sian to be very unlike any other he had encountered, his expression difficult to read. Of course, Daul couldn't purport to have a very broad understanding of the Carda.s.sian psyche in general, but at least most of them seemed to be motivated by the same things. Marritza seemed somewhat more...complicated.

As the two men traveled up the corridor, Daul was made very aware of the intense droning of the mining equipment outside: drills, ore-processing conveyors, smelters, and the rus.h.i.+ng water from the great concentrator that delivered slurry to a tailings pond many kellipate kellipates away from the site.

But beneath the tremendous grinding, echoing din, there was another sound, one that Marritza seemed to be taking great pains to ignore. To Daul at first it sounded like the faint cries of a tyrfox, or perhaps a pack of faraway cadge lupus; but Daul immediately knew what he was hearing-the cries of the prisoners here, the moans of the dying workers, suffering as they were from Kalla-Nohra. Daul cleared his throat. "Doesn't Darhe'el see to it that the workers who are ill are properly treated for their condition?"

Marritza gave a quick nod, almost frantic. "Oh yes," he said. "Productivity is of the utmost importance here. Darhe'el is adamant about the treatment of all victims of the disease-Bajoran...and Carda.s.sian...alike." In the inflection of his voice, which sounded very much as though Marritza repeated a long-rehea.r.s.ed falsehood, Daul thought he detected a single truth-that Marritza himself was infected with the disease. Without meaning to, he gave the other man a look of sympathy. Marritza looked away, and Daul decided to avoid further mention of the subject.

They reached the end of the pa.s.sage and Marritza keyed open a door. Suddenly the narrow, neat corridor was enveloped in a roar of sound; the floor beneath their feet gave way to a trembling catwalk, which opened up over a yawning chasm. The wind whipped fiercely overhead, the narrow footbridge swinging gently, though it was protected from the relentless gale by the walls of the open-pit mine, which shot up at a kellipate kellipate from where they stood. This bridge had been constructed at what was once near the very bottom of the mine, but the hole had plunged far beneath this point in more recent years, and the spindly catwalk was suspended hundreds of from where they stood. This bridge had been constructed at what was once near the very bottom of the mine, but the hole had plunged far beneath this point in more recent years, and the spindly catwalk was suspended hundreds of linnipate linnipates above firm ground.

Daul glanced up, where the burning sun hung motionless in the cloudless sky, beating down heavily on the workers in the ma.s.sive pit beneath them. Marritza handed him a headset, which would drown out the noise and allow them to talk to each other. Daul stepped gingerly onto the footbridge that spanned the mine.

The vast pit had been gradually but efficiently excavated over the course of many years, crisscrossed with scaffolds and enormous systems of conveyors to remove the chunks of rock and minerals from the ground. This had once been a ma.s.sive hillside, likely covered over with trees and foliage and wildlife; now it was a bare, steaming crater, surrounded by many tessipate tessipates of complete desolation; it was the closest thing Daul could imagine to the myths about the Fire Caves. Before Terok Nor had been constructed, Gallitep was the center of ore processing in the B'hava'el system. Daul thought that Bajorans could never have conceived of a thing so unsightly and terrible as this place.

The steep, spiraling gravel roads that were cut into the sides of the pit were dotted here and there with workers, some of them disappearing into tunnels that had been dug randomly all around the perimeter of the mine. Though Daul could not see clearly most of the workers from where he stood, those nearest to him staggered on thin, bandy legs, their bare chests and backs covered in open sores and blistering sunburns. They wielded traditional shovels and spades and truncheons, hacking away at the exposed rock, slowly but persistently widening and deepening the abyss beneath them to get at the valuable minerals embedded in the ground. Also visible were a number of Carda.s.sian guards, swaggering between the hapless miners and occasionally stopping to shout criticisms or reprimands. Most of the guards did not venture far into the pit, apparently preferring to remain close to their respective stations, well-built corridors like the one from which Daul and Marritza had just come.

Daul followed Marritza a quarter of the way across the diameter of the pit, until he came to a little building which ab.u.t.ted the swaying catwalk. Here was the center of the system, the brain of this entire operation-the primary server. The artificial intelligence program, which drove the core mining drills, was located here; those drills sought out the richest veins and pointed the scavenging miners in that direction, to pick out and process the precious metals by hand.

Daul began the reprogramming sequence that would eventually shut down the entire system. It was a complicated process, but the clerk waited patiently as he tapped in code. Beneath them, workers groaned and labored, guards shouted, and the machinery ground relentlessly on. As Daul neared the end of the first-stage closure, he found himself compelled to ask his unusual escort a question.

"What will happen to all of them when this camp is closed?" Daul finally asked, looking down into the enormous cavern below him.

Marritza did not immediately answer. "Darhe'el will take care of them," he said in a low voice.

Daul was not sure if he should inquire further, though he did not know what the other man meant. "Oh-I see," he stammered, and went back to his task.

"Do you?" Marritza asked him. He gestured out to the open s.p.a.ce that surrounded them. "For Gul Darhe'el-for Carda.s.sia-these workers are valued only for their productivity. You yourself, Doctor Daul, are valued only for your particular expertise here. Is that how it was on your world, in your culture, before we came here?"

Daul considered. Bajor valued its people as more than what they were capable of producing-they were valued as individuals, as relatives, as friends-as Bajorans Bajorans. Daul slowly shook his head.

"When the camp shuts down," Marritza went on, not looking at Daul, "these workers will lose their value. That value has already begun to decline, because of their illness. Do you understand?"

Daul thought perhaps he understood what Marritza was trying to tell him, but he didn't understand the logic-nor did he understand why the Carda.s.sian was telling him, either. "Yes," he croaked, and finished his work.

"Good," Marritza said. "Are you finished?"

"For now," Daul replied. "I'll have to come back to finish the job."

Marritza attempted to smile as he guided Daul back toward the footbridge outside the little building, and again Daul thought he detected bitterness. "I'm sure Gul Darhe'el will be very pleased with your work." He removed his headset as he ushered Daul back inside the cool, stainless chrome corridor, the echoing voices of crying men and women somehow louder now, and Daul was transported quickly and efficiently back to the inst.i.tute.

Ro was to meet with Bis near the Lunar V base on Jeraddo, a place where another cell had begun stas.h.i.+ng s.h.i.+ps years ago. Since that time, other cells had begun bringing their own s.h.i.+ps here, or using the base as an offworld meeting point to coordinate large-scale attacks that required the cooperation of more than one group.

In addition to her anxious curiosity about why Bis wanted to see her, she could not deny that she was nervous to see him again. In the years since she had been to Valo II, she had never met another boy who had turned her head the way he had, and she had built up a bit of mythology about him in that time. She wasn't sure whether he would be able to live up to it.

Ro docked her little raider, the Lahnest, Lahnest, near where she knew the underground base was. What had once been jungle had been partially cleared away to create a suitable landing field, but much of the canopy and brush had to be left behind so as to obscure the Bajoran presence here. In fact, the landing area was smaller than even the poorest farmer's field, and it apparently hadn't been used in a few weeks; the fast-growing vegetation of this moon was already starting to fill in again. near where she knew the underground base was. What had once been jungle had been partially cleared away to create a suitable landing field, but much of the canopy and brush had to be left behind so as to obscure the Bajoran presence here. In fact, the landing area was smaller than even the poorest farmer's field, and it apparently hadn't been used in a few weeks; the fast-growing vegetation of this moon was already starting to fill in again.

Ro waited for what seemed like a very long time before she saw another vessel coming, starting out as a dot in the sky, gradually but quickly expanding into a light-capacity s.h.i.+p that she knew was the same one Darrah Mace had used for the rendezvous with the Kressari, three years ago. The s.h.i.+p cracked through the atmosphere of Jeraddo, singing in a telltale high-pitched greeting that took Ro's breath away. He was here.

When he finally arrived, she somehow forgot to be nervous. Here approached a tall man, handsome as he had promised to be as a teenager, his eyes piercing and his smile apparently genuine-he was happy to see her. Ro couldn't remember the last time that had happened.

"Ro Laren!" he exclaimed. "I can't tell you how glad I am you decided to meet me!"

She cleared her throat. "So," she said, trying to sound casual, "what did I come all this way for? I hope it's good."

"Oh, it is good, it is," he said, and she saw him swallow as he came closer to her, scrutinizing her face. She realized that he was very nervous about this meeting, and it occurred to her that he probably had a mythology about her, too. It was entirely possible that she would fail to live up to his estimation of her, just as easily as the reverse could be true.

"Well," he said, "you might remember that we didn't have much in the way of organized resistance on Valo II. But I want to change that. I've been working on an idea for a long time."

Ro frowned. Still no organized resistance? Had she come all this way, pinned all her opportunities on just one idea, still in the planning stages? "What kind of an idea?"

Bis grinned. "Terok Nor," he said.

Ro was a bit taken aback. "Terok Nor?" she repeated. "What about it?"

Bis's smile grew even wider. "Think about it. It's the perfect target, really. It's the seat of the occupation, it's where the prefect lives, and where half the Carda.s.sian s.h.i.+ps in this system are docked at any given time-"

"I still don't follow," Ro said. "What do you mean, a target? You just said you don't even really have a cell-you'd need an entire army to attack Terok Nor, and an army is exactly what the whole of Bajor doesn't have. Even with every single resistance cell on the planet, we'd never-"

"That's the brilliant part," Bis said. "We won't be the ones to attack it. We'll get someone else to do it for us."

Ro made a face. "Who?"

Bis's smile finally faded. "Do you remember that Ferengi freighter? The one you-"

"The one Bram and I tried to claim, before Darrah Mace suddenly took us on an unexpected vacation?"

"Right. That freighter is going to be the key to taking out Terok Nor once and for all."

Ro folded her arms, intrigued.

Bis went on. "We never really got much use out of that s.h.i.+p, except to transport refugees, but it was just too c.u.mbersome to be used as a ferry. Something went wrong with one of the engines, and my father-he's one of the best engineers on Valo II-he couldn't figure out what to do with such an alien system. So we started stripping it for useful parts, but other than that-"

Ro nodded, shooting him a "get to the point" look as politely as she could manage.

"Anyway, my father got the comm online a long time ago, and we started picking up a lot of Ferengi back-and-forth chatter. Without even meaning to, we started to learn a lot about some of the Ferengi supply runs-and about the Ferengi in general. Like, for example, they'll do anything for profit."

"So...you can spy on the Ferengi," Ro said. She knew next to nothing about the Ferengi, except that they were avaricious and commerce-driven. Some were even pirates. Short pirates.