Vectors (16 page)

"If we move quickly," Narat said, ignoring Dukat's reaction, "we can save every life."

"Then what are you talking to me for?" Dukat said. "Do it." "I don't just mean on the station," Narat said.

Dukat sucked in his breath. Pulaski threaded her fingers together. This was the key point.

"We need to get the information to Bajor, and Cardassia Prime, in case the plague gets there. The faster we do it, the better off we'll be."

"Can they manufacture this antidote themselves or must we make it for them?" "Both," Narat said. "Some areas may not have anyone with the skills. I figure we take care of Terok Nor first and then send supplies to the planet below. Before that, though, I'll need to send the information to both planets."

"All right," Dukat said. He looked visibly relieved. "Is there anything else?"

Narat shook his head, but Pulaski stepped forward, and put her hand on his arm. "If I might intrude, Gul," she said.

Dukat looked surprised to see her. So, in truth, did Narat. He had apparently forgotten she was there. "Did you find the antidote?" Dukat asked. "All three of us did," she said.

"We wouldn't have found it without her," Narat said. "She brought a fresh perspective to the work."

Dukat tiered his fingers and rested the tips against his mouth. He was contemplating her through the screen. It made her as uncomfortable as he had when they first met.

"We have found the cure for the virus," she said, "but we don't know how long the virus incubates. People will still catch it, until we figure out a way to stop it before the symptoms appear." "But they won't die?" Dukat asked.

She nodded. "They will no longer die." "Good. Then what do you need?"

"This is a designer virus," she said. "Someone made it. If we could find out where it first appeared, then we might be able to find who created it. Or at least, figure out how it is transmitted in its nonviral state."

"I'm afraid I'm not a doctor," Dukat said. "I didn't follow that."

"You see," Pulaski started, but Narat put his hand on her arm.

"The virus has several stages," Narat said. "We've caught it in all but the first stage. We're looking for that one still. If we find that one, we can prevent this virus from ever infecting us again." "So what do you need from me?" Dukat asked.

"Permission to search for the source of the virus," Pulaski said. "And you believe that it's on Bajor?" Dukat asked.

"I believe nothing," she said. "It could easily be here. But we must cover all of our bases."

"/believe it is on Bajor," Dukat said. "I believe the Bajorans infected themselves so that they could pass the disease onto us. They just didn't realize how lethal it would be."

"In my experience of the Bajoran people," Pulaski said, "I have never seen such behavior. It violates all of their beliefs2'

"Forgive me, Doctor," Dukat said, "but your experience of the Bajoran people is of one rather eccentric Bajoran doctor."

"It seems you haven't read my file as carefully as I thought you had," Pulaski said.

Dukat shrugged. "I will not give you or your assistants permission to go to Bajor." "If we find the source-"

"I said, I will not give your people permission to go to Bajor. I'm bending the rules to allow you here."

She took a deep breath. "It's important-"

"I understand that," Dukat said. "Narat will send a Cardassian team to Bajor in the next day or two. That will suffice."

No, it wouldn't. It wouldn't suffice at all. They would be looking for the wrong things. They would be looking for proof of Dukat's theory, that the Bajorans started this disease.

"I think an impartial observer would be best," she said.

"And we have none, as you have just indicated, Doctor. You and your people seem closer to the Bajorans than I'm comfortable with." He smiled at her. "I am very pleased with your work so far. Don't spoil it."

Narat's grip on her arm was firm. "We'll do what you say, Gul Dukat," Narat said. 'TII have a team ready."

"Good. Prepare my announcement. I want to send those messages to Bajor and Cardassia Prime within the hour," Dukat said. Narat nodded.

"One more thing," Dukat said. "I don't mean to sound insensitive." He paused and as he did, Kellec entered the room, but remained outside of Dukat's sight range. "But I am getting pressure about the decreased ore production. When do you believe we can get our Bajorans back to work?"

The question was directed at Narat, but Pulaski felt herself start to answer. Narat's fingers dug so hard into her arm that she nearly cried out in pain. "A few days," Narat said.

"A few days is a long time, Narat," Dukat said. "We're already disastrously far behind."

Narat smiled. "Look at it this way," he said. "Just an hour ago, you were worried about surviving. Now you're worried about your future. Things have improved."

Dukat laughed. "So they have," he said, and signed off.

"Cardassian dog!" Kellec said, closing the door behind him. "All they think about is how much slave labor they can get out of us."

Narat stiffened beside Pulaski.

"Not all of them, Kellec," Pulaski said gently. "Narat has a different perspective."

"If you had a different perspective," Kellec said, "you wouldn't have made that promise."

"And what would you have had me do?" Narat said. "Tell him nothing and let him make the decision?"

They stared at each other for a moment. Finally, Kellec looked away. "Katherine," he said, "I need more of the antidote. I'm going to help with the work below." "You've finished here?" "For now," he said.

She nodded. "I have a batch already made up. I'll have another by the time you get back."

He picked up the vials she indicated, and then shook his head. "If there weren't lives at stake, I wonder if I would be doing this. I certainly don't want to be the agent that forces our people back into slave labor." And then he left himself out the door.

"He talks a big game," Pulaski said. "But he'll do what's right."

Narat nodded. "He's a good doctor."

They were both silent for a moment and then Pulaski said, "I'm afraid I don't think a Cardassian team will do us any good." "It's all you're going to get," Narat said. "We can be impartial, you know."

She didn't know that. She didn't believe it either. That comment Gul Dukat made had angered her as well. She hadn't realized that she was closer to Kellec's beliefs than Narat's. But she said nothing. She made herself smile at him. "Well, then," she said, "I guess we have work to do."

"Good work," Narat said. "We're back in the business of saving lives."

"Thank heavens," Pulaski said. She wasn't sure how much more death she could take.

Chapter Seventeen THE STENCH IN THE BAJORAN SECTION seemed worse than it had just a few hours before. Kellec entered the main corridor. The nightmare he had alleviated above still existed down here, the sick people all over the floors, the awful moaning, the heightened skin color. He wished it all would end.

He was carrying his kit with him. In the mess area, Ogawa and Marvig were inoculating the sickest patients first. Bajorans who had no symptoms or who had very few were helping find the sickest patients and getting them treatment first. It looked like an efficient system and Kellec wasn't going to interfere with it.

Instead, he went as far from that area as he could, to a room he wasn't even supposed to know existed. The Cardassian guards never came here; they thought it was a supply closet, not knowing that the Bajorans had long ago taken over the closet and made it a base.

There were sick people lining the corridors here, too. He bent over the nearest persona young man, barely into puberty, and gave him a hypospray. It didn't take long for an older man to crouch beside him. "Kellec," the man said. "Rashan," Kellec said. "Is Ficen Dobat still well?" "Well enough," Rashan said. "Could you find him for me?"

Rashan nodded and disappeared down the corridor. Kellec went from patient to patient, inoculating each one, working as fast as he could. Soon he would have to go back to the med lab to get more of the antidote. He wasn't sure how he could look at Narat.

Katherine was right, of course. Narat was a good man who did what he could within the system. But Kellec believed a man should do more than "what he could within the system." If the system was flawed, a man had to work outside it. But Kellec said nothing to Narat. It would do no good.

Katherine didn't know that yet. Kellec wished he had arrived at the office just moments earlier. He had been too far away when he saw her step near the monitor. He had hurried to the office and held the door open ever so slightly, hearing her every word.

If only she had spoken to him first, perhaps Dukat might not have noticed if she disappeared off the station for a while. Kellec might have been able to smuggle her to Bajor, for her and her crew to witness the horrible conditions on the planet. Dukat would never agree to that. And Kellec wished Katharine hadn't told him her suspicions-all of their suspicions actually-that the disease had originated on Bajor.

Dukat chose to look at that as a sign that the Bajorans were infecting themselves so that they could make the Cardassians ill. But Katherine was right; the majority of Bajorans would find such a practice abhorrent. Though there were deviants in every group-he'd met a few in the resistance-they were always dealt with by the group leader. The crazies never got the upper hand.

No. Kellec understood what had happened. It was subtle and it was scary. The Cardassians had planted the virus, just as he had always suspected, and had done it on Bajor to make sure it would look like the Bajorans had created the disease. He found it suspicious that the disease hadn't made its way to Cardassia Prime. It was just like the Cardassians-but not the Bajorans-to sacrifice a few of their people for the good of all of them. If only he could get to Bajor, or if he could get someone there he could trust, he would be able to prove this.

At least Katherine had seen Dukat's true colors. He wasn't worried about losing Bajorans. He was worried about the drop in production. If Terok Nor failed to meet its quotas, Dukat could lose his comfortable position. And once the threat of death was removed, that was all he cared about.

He had moved far from the corridor he had started in. He was almost out of the antidote. He would have to go back to the medical lab in a moment. He couldn't stall much longer. He didn't see any Cardassian guards, but he couldn't assume that there weren't any. The Cardassians would leave guards down here until they were all dead. There just weren't as many as usual, because the sickness had depleted the Cardassian ranks as well.

Kellec stood and put a hand against his back. The moaning had quieted, and a few of the patients were looking brighter-eyed than they had a short time before. He smiled. At least he had been able to do this. His work rarely gave him satisfaction anymore-he was always repairing wounds that would never happen if the Cardassians didn't occupy Bajor-but this did satisfy him. Just that morning, he had thought everyone on Terok Nor would die. Everyone but Katherine, her team, and those silly Ferengi.

Rashan reappeared, silently, a talent of his. He put his hand on Kellec's shoulder. "Is there anything I can do?" he asked.

"Check on the patients near the area where I started," Kellec said.

Rashan nodded. As he passed, he said under his breath, "There are three Cardassian guards at the mouth of the corridor. Have a care." And then he was gone.

Kellec resisted looking in the direction Rashan had indicated. Instead, he examined his kit to see how much more antidote he had. Enough to stall for a few more minutes.

But he wouldn't have to. As he looked, he realized that someone was standing beside him. He turned, and found himself face to face with Ficen Dobat.

"I understand you need a bit of help," Ficen said. He was a small man, the kind who disappeared easily in a crowd. Even when he was noticed, most people couldn't describe him well-a Bajoran of average height, brown hair, brown eyes, not very remarkable. But Ficen was remarkable. He currently led the resistance on Terok Nor, and he frequently accomplished the impossible.

Kellec smiled. "We found an antidote."

"Not a moment too soon," Ficen said. "We've already lost some good people."

They crouched near the kit. Kellec found a second hypospray and pretended to fill it. He didn't dare let Ficen use it-the man was untrained-but if those Cardassians poked their heads in this corridor, it would look as if he were helping Kellec. "I have a favor to ask," Kellec said.

"Anything," Ficen said. "You've saved us, once again."

"Remember that when I make this request," Kellec said.

Ficen frowned.

"I need someone to go to Bajor for me. I need to find the source of this disease." "The source?" "Where it was first reported." "And you think that was on Bajor?"

Kellec met Ficen's gaze. "I need to know, to clear this completely from all of us."

"Our people-" Ficen began, but Kellec held up a hand.

"I think the Cardassians started this and tried to make it look like we did it," Kellec said. "That probably means it started in a resistance cell somewhere, probably a place that's fairly centrally located."

"No resistance cell could be infiltrated by the Cardassians," Ficen said. "Are you implying that we did this, just like the Cardassians say?. Do we have cells that desperate?" Kellec said.

Ficen frowned. "Desperate times call for desperate measures."

"But this?" Kellec said. "Surely we wouldn't do this." He swept his hand over the corridor.

Ficen shook his head. "Of course not," he said. "But we know what it's like here, and it's easy even for us to contemplate the idea. Imagine how easy it is for the Cardassians."

"The ones who aren't already in the know," Kellec said.

Ficen sighed. "I don't think sending one of our people there is a good idea."

"I don't see any other choice," Kellec said. "Dukat is sending a team of his own to Bajor to investigate this. You know what he'll find."

Ficen cursed. "If they believe we did this, they'll retaliate."