Vectors (8 page)

"Well, I'm offering you more," Pulaski said. "I want you to know exactly what you're getting into."

She explained the situation to them, including the rules the Cardassians placed on their visit. She als0 explained the danger, the difficulties they would have on a station owned by a people who were not affiliated with the Federation, and the Federation's conflicting motives in sending them there.

"I do not want you to spy," Pulaski said. "You will be debriefed when you return. Remember all you can. I'm not even sure you should record anything in your personal logs-aside from the things you did that day, or medical notes. We have to be very cautious. Very cautious."

"Why are the Cardassians even allowing us to come?" Governo asked.

"They didn't say," Pulaski said, "and neither did Kellec. But I have a guess."

They waited, staring at her.

She took a deep breath. "I think they think this disease is so contagious none of them will be able to avoid it. I think they're gambling on it not affecting us, that we'll have a chance of curing it before everyone dies." "Wow," Marvig said. "That's a dark view." Pulaski nodded. "They wouldn't have sent for us otherwise. The Bajorans have no power over the Cardassians, and the Cardassians have repeatedly rebuffed Federation overtures in the past. I think this request smacks of desperation."

"I thought we were in negotiations with the Cardassians," Marvig said.

"We are," Pulaski said, "but they're not going well, and there are rumors they will fail. For whatever reason, the Cardassians do not trust the Federation, and we are representatives of the Federation. That's why we're going in an unofficial capacity, and that's what makes this mission even more dangerous." "How's that?" Governo asked.

"If we run into trouble," Pulaski said, "we're on our own. The Enterprise will be just outside of Cardassian space, but she cannot enter it without Cardassian permission, permission they did not give in this emergency to get us to Terok Nor. I can't imagine that they would give it to get us out."

Marvig's face grew pale. "But what if we need to escape?"

"We have to be creative," Pulaski said. She stared at both of them. They were so young. Alyssa Ogawa was young too, but more experienced. A starship did that for its crew. "But we have to understand the risks. The greatest risk for all of us here is that we will not come out alive."

"What do you think the chances are of that?" Governo asked.

"High," Pulaski said. "I won't lie to you about that. I think at best we have a fifty-fifty chance of survival."

"I don't understand," Marvig said. "If we're in negotiations with the Cardassians, then why would they kill us?" "We don't know what this disease is," Pulaski said. "And we've never seen the inside of one of their ore-processing stations. If one of us inadvertently comes across information that the Cardassians see as sensitive, we could all be punished for it."

They were staring at her as if it were her fault the mission was dangerous. Perhaps it was. Perhaps this wouldn't be happening at all if it weren't for her relationship with Kellec. But that didn't matter. What mattered were all those lives being lost.

"You may back out now," she said, "as long as you keep what I've told you confidential."

Governo seemed to be considering what she was saying, but Marvig jutted out her chin.

"I joined Starfleet so that I could do more than practice general medicine in some human colony. I joined it for the risks," she said. "It wouldn't do my oath any good to back out now, just when things get really difficult."

Governo looked at her as if he were surprised at what she said. "You're right." He nodded, a crisp, military move. "I'm a healer first."

"All right," Pulaski said. "Let's hope that all my warnings were merely an overreaction to the Cardassians' conditions."

But in her heart, she knew they weren't. And she wondered, as she gathered up her things, whether she had misrepresented the odds to the two before her.

If anything, she had overestimated their chances of survival. If all the stories Kellec had told her were to be believed, she would be surprised if they got off the station at all.

Chapter Nine KIRA NERYS STOOD in the heat, sweat plastering her filthy shirt to her back, her feet swollen inside her boots. A blister rubbed against the inside of her heel. These boots were too small, even without the swelling. She had taken them in a gift really-from a dying friend. Amazing, that all they had to give each other anymore were items of clothing, bits of food, things that they had once taken for granted.

Her earring tinkled in the breeze. She had been wishing for a breeze not too long ago, but it only seemed to make things hotter. She was outside a rebel cell, and it wasn't even her cell. That's why they kept her here, waiting, until they made some decision about her.

She stared at the makeshift tents. Whoever ran this cell didn't plan things real well. They were in a hidden valley, one that was not on the maps but was pretty well known in this part of Bajor. The tents were pitched near a small creek, bone dry in the summer heat. If she had been in charge of this cell, she would have had them pitch their tents on the mountainside, where scraggly trees and boulders would have provided cover. As it was, if the Cardassians found this valley now, they would have found the cell. Not that she was in any position to give advice. She was here chasing rumors. She had heard of serious illness to the south, and had actually seen some of the bodies in a message sent to her by Shakaar. The problem was that neither she nor Shakaar had seen them die. There was talk of a disease, there was talk of a plague, but-so farm no one in her part of Bajor had seen evidence of it.

Not that she doubted that it existed.

She was told that Javi's cell knew more about it, and she had set up a meeting with one of her contacts. It had brought her here, a long trip through areas that weren't friendly to people like her. She was known as a member of the resistance, and even before last year's escapade on Terok Nor the Cardassians had been watching for her. They didn't know she had been to Terok Nor-the station's constable, Odo, had seen to that-but they suspected her. They suspected her of everything, but could never catch her. Not for want of trying.

She sighed and ran a hand through her short hair. She could feel the sweat at the roots. She wished Javi would hurry. She didn't like waiting in this heat.

Finally, a woman slipped out of one of the tents. She wore a ripped dark dress, stained with sweat and dirt. The poverty here-even among the resistance-broke Kira's heart.

"Javi will see you now," the woman said.

Kira wasn't sure she wanted to go inside the tent. It had to be even hotter in there. But she climbed up the small incline to the creek side where the tent was, and slipped inside.

She had been right. It was hotter here. The heat felt old and oppressive, as if it had been accumulating for days instead of hours. Javi sat cross-legged near his portable computer system the heart and soul of each resistance cell, Shakaar had once called those things. Javi was thinner than he had been the last time Kira saw him. His skin had the look of malnutrition, but his eyes were still bright.

Near him sat Corda, his second in command. She was taller than Kira and too thin as well. But on her it looked tough, as if the dry air and the heat and the lack of food had hardened her skin and made her more resilient.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Nerys." Javi spoke slowly, as he always had. He had been part of Shakaar's cell for a brief time, and he had always irritated Kira with his cautious consideration of each decision. Apparently he had annoyed Shakaar too, because one day Kira heard that Javi had left with some of his own people to form a new cell. They were on speaking terms, though, and still had the same goals, unlike some of the resistance cells Kira had come into contact with. There were some that frightened even her, with their talk of noble suicide and total destruction.

"If I had known what it was like in here, Javi," Kira said, "I would have insisted you keep me waiting longer."

Javi shrugged. "You get used to the heat."

"Maybe you can get used to this heat. I certainly couldn't."

"Don't start, Kira," Corda said. "You're not here to criticize us."

"And it's a good thing, too, because I think your campsite is too exposed you're putting your entire cell in jeopardy."

"But you're not here to tell us that," Corda said sarcastically.

"No," Kira said, "I'm not. I'm here because I'm supposed to confirm some rumors." "About the plague," Javi said.

Kira went cold despite the heat. "They're calling it a plague now?"

"Hundreds dead, Nerys." Javi's voice was solemn. "Everyone who comes in contact with this thing gets ill."

"Everyone?" Kira asked.

"In time," Corda said.

"How have you gotten your information?"

"Do you mean were we exposed?" Corda asked. "No. We've been getting it the same as you have, in messages sent through sanitary computers."

Kira had never liked Corda. And the heat wasn't improving Kira's mood. "I'm not here to talk to you."

"You get to talk to me whether you like it or not,"

Corda said. "I'm the one who has been following this thing and reporting to Javi."

Kira glared at her for a moment. Corda glared back, not at all intimidated.

"This isn't helping us," Javi said. "We need to work together. Nerys has come to us for information, the kind, I believe, that isn't easily sent."

"But Corda just said that you haven't heard anything that we haven't heard," Kira said.

"I did not," Corda said. "We've gotten that, and we've gotten reports from other sources."

"Others?"

"Non-Bajorans. Some of the relief teams not tied to the Federation. They seem to be unaffected."

The relief teams were from charitable organizations that went to planets they considered not as developed to help with basics: food, medicine, clothing. Sometimes Kira appreciated their presence, sometimes she resented them more than she could say. What she wanted was Federation intervention, to stop this occupation by the Cardassians. But the Federation had rules and regulations, things she had never bothered to understand, and those rules and regulations didn't seem to apply to Bajor, although some people were telling her to be cautious with her tongue, that some day the Federation might come through.

She would believe that when she saw Bajorans move around unfettered on their own planet.

"What are they doing to stop this thing?" Kira asked.

"What they can," Corda said.

"Most of them are volunteers, Nerys, with no more medical training than we have." Javi sounded tired. Kira wondered how much power he had ceded in this cell to Corda, and how long it would be before she took the group too far. "They provide comfort where they can, but they can't do much."

"They are sure it's a disease, then?" Kira asked. "Shakaar wasn't. He thought maybe it was a Cardassian trick to get us focused in the wrong direction."

"It's a disease, all right," Javi said. "But it might also be a Cardassian trick."

Kira frowned. "What do you mean?"

"The disease is too virulent." Javi's words hung between them.

Kira's chill grew deeper. She wiped sweat off her forehead. "Not even the Cardassians would do something this monstrous," she said.

"Do you actually believe that?" Corda asked.

Kira wasn't sure. "If we're talking about a disease that infects everyone who comes in contact with it-"

"We are," Corda said.

"-then we're talking genocide." Kira swallowed. "The Cardassians have always made it plain that they see us as a lesser species, as people who 'benefit' from their rule, as slaves to work in their various mines and processing plants. But not as creatures to be wiped out of existence."

"They've always wanted Bajor," Corda said.

"Yes-but with its Bajoran population." Kira wiped the sweat off her face.

"Get her something to drink," Javi said to Corda.

"But-"

"Now," Javi said.

Corda sighed and got up, sliding past Kira.

"I'm sorry, Nerys," Javi said. "I know you don't much like Corda. But you must listen to her. She has run this cell, for the most part, since last fall."

Kira glanced over her shoulder. Corda was out of the tent. "I'm just worried, Javi," Kira said. "She didn't always understand the complexities of the Occupation."

Javi smiled. "Once I could have said that about you."

Kira looked at him. "Why is she running everything, Javi? What's going on?"

"The Cardassians had me for a while, Nerys. We're just beginning to bring me back to health. The tents are here not because Corda thinks it's a good spot, but because my body can hardly tolerate thin air at the higher elevations. Even this valley is difficult for me. We should really move on, now that the creek is dry, but the cell has opted to stay with me. I've tried to order them to leave, but they won't."

Kira threaded her hands together.

"Corda loves me," he said.

"And is making the wrong decisions for the cell because of it," Kira said.

Javi nodded. "We agree on that. But they're not life-threatening. Not yet, anyway. And I'm nearly mobile-I think we can get out of here soon. But do me a favor, Nerys. Listen to her. And don't fight her. This Cardassian threat is too great for us to be fighting amongst ourselves."

Kira let out the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding. Javi was right, of course, and she knew it. But she had disliked Corda for a very long time. It was hard to set aside that kind of antipathy, even now.

"All right," Kira said.

"Good." Javi placed his hands on the ground behind him and rested his weight on them. "I hope she brings me something as well. You're giving me an appetite again, Nerys. That's a good thing." Kira laughed. "I've been accused of worse, I guess." "What's he accusing you of?" Corda asked as she came in. She was carrying a tray with three mugs. She handed one to Kira. It was moba fruit juice, and somehow they had found a way to keep it cool in all this heat.