"They're not dying anymore, stupid," Quark said. "They're just sick. And they aren't threatened with-" he couldn't suppress the shudder "-loss of ear function."

Rom's eyes got bigger. Nog put a hand on his hat. "That won't happen, will it, uncle?"

"Yes, it will," Quark said, "and it'll happen to me first. Let's go."

They walked to the door of the bar and peered through the gla.s.s design. The Promenade was empty.

"I think you should stay here, Nog," Rom said.

"Why?" "It might be dangerous out there."

"No more dangerous than in here," Nog said, tugging on the hat.

"I want him treated too," Quark said. "I don't want to be reinfected."

He hit the door release and the gla.s.s doors opened. The silence was short-lived. He heard more shots and a few screams coming from far away.

"Follow me," he whispered. He motioned them out and let the doors close and lock behind them. He kept to the wall and crouched; at this level, no one would mistake them for Carda.s.sians. Or Bajorans for that matter.

It took only a few moments to reach the infirmary. The stench was as bad as it had been before. Maybe worse. Quark let himself inside, and saw patients everywhere, mostly Carda.s.sians, leaning against the wall in a semblance of a line. At the end of it, the male hu-man a.s.sistant was attacking them all with a hypospray.

A few Carda.s.sians sat on beds, clutching limbs with phaser b.u.ms. Dr. Narat came out of the office and his gaze met Quark's. "I don't have time for Ferengi nonsense," he said. "Look," Quark said, shoving his ear in Narat's direction. "The infection has gotten worse. It's heading for the ear ca.n.a.l and when it gets there-"

"I don't care," Narat said. "You can wait. It's not life-threatening."

"Well, that depends," Quark said. "If this continues, my quality of life will be dramatically lowered."

"It's a minor problem," Narat said. "Go back to your bar. When things settle down, we'll worry about your ear infection."

"Ear infection?" The hu-man female stood in the office door. She wore clothes and looked much too efficient for a female. "Yes," Narat said. "I'm trying to get rid of them." "Let me see," she said. She walked over to Quark, who tilted his head up so that she could examine his ear.

Her fingers were gentle on his 1obes. If he weren't in so much pain- "Kellec," she said. "Come see this."

Kellec Ton came out of the office and frowned at her. "What?" he said. "It's just an ear infection. I treated it before." "You did?" she asked. "Yes, with some antibacterial cream." "How long ago was that?" "A few days." "And it's come back, worse," Quark said. "When did this start?" the female asked.

"When the Carda.s.sians poured drinks all over me," Rom said, a bit too eagerly. "When was that?" the female asked.

Rom frowned. "About the time that Carda.s.sian turned green and-"

"About the time the plague started," Quark said. He didn't want Rom to admit they had carried a sick Carda.s.sian out of the bar. Hu-mans, Bajorans, and particularly Carda.s.sians wouldn't take well to that.

"Really'?" the female said. She bent over his ear again. "Was it this bad when you saw it, Kellec?" "No," he said.

Narat joined them. "What you're thinking is not possible," he said. "What are you thinking?" Quark asked.

"A third species," the female said, not to him, but to the other doctors. "And of course it manifests differently. And not as seriously."

"That we know of," Kellec said. "This could just be the early stages." "Are you saying we have the plague?" Quark asked. "Come into the office and let's find out," the female said. She sounded remarkably cheery about the whole thing.

Rom grabbed Quark's arm. "Brother, I don't want to die." "It's not high on my list either," Quark said.

"It's better than being green for the rest of your life," Nog said, looking around. Rom shushed him, and shoved him forward.

"We won't die, will we?" Quark asked Narat as he followed him into the crammed office.

"Oh, you'll die," Narat said. Then he smiled. "Someday, anyway. You just probably won't die of this."

"Some bedside manner," Quark mumbled, and clenched his fists so that he wouldn't scratch his extremely itchy ears.

Chapter Twenty-five

THE SOUNDS OF PHASER FIRE off in the distance echoed through the heat and choking stench of the Bajoran section. Kellec Ton had never thought he would ever hear the sounds of battle here. Clearly a few Bajorans had managed to get Carda.s.sian guns and were holding off the Carda.s.sian guards. All the Carda.s.sian guards had been driven from the Bajoran section of the station. For all he knew, the fighters might even be making headway into the Carda.s.sian section. But it wasn't a headway that was taking them anywhere except closer to their own deaths. And his too.

He had no doubt that if the final cure wasn't found quickly, the Carda.s.sians would destroy the station. And possibly even Bajor.

Yet he wasn't going to tell the fighters that. They were Bajorans, fighters against Carda.s.sian rule. As long as there was one of them left to fight, there was still hope.

Kellec moved quickly from one sick Bajoran to another, inoculating them with the temporary cure. It would get them back on their feet for at least ten hours. Then they'd be back sick again as the virus reformed and tore them apart. But at this point, ten hours was a very long time.

With luck Katherine and her people would find a final cure by then.

He checked his hypospray as he leaned over a young boy whose mother held him in her lap. She looked as flushed and sick as her son. He injected her first, then the boy. He had enough injections for a few more hours at this pace. He had brought supplies from the Carda.s.sian medical lab, and his Bajoran a.s.sistants were helping him make more serum in the Bajoran medical area. But down here the process was much slower, the equipment nowhere near as good. There was no way they could keep making enough to maintain all the Bajorans alive until a final cure was found.

Since he'd come into the Bajoran section, the fighting had expanded from isolated sections and now covered the entire area. Most of it was between his position and the Carda.s.sian medical lab. He doubted he could get through at this point; he'd face that problem when he completely ran out of serum.

Again, phaser fire echoed through the wide corridor as two Bajorans carrying another headed toward him. "Doctor," one of them said, "can you help him?" For an instant Kellec didn't realize the man they were carrying wasn't sick. He was wounded. A phaser had caught him in the left shoulder.

"Stretch him out here," Kellec said, motioning to an open place in the hallway beside the woman and her son.

They did as they were told, and quickly he inspected the wounded soldier. Phaser burn. Shock. But he would live, given a little time and care, a.s.suming the entire station lived through this.

Kellec quickly gave the wounded soldier a shot against the virus just to be sure, then glanced up at the other soldiers. "Get him to the medical area. He's going to be fine. I'll check in on him in an hour or so." "Thanks," the soldier said.

Kellec watched them carry him off. How crazy was this? He was temporarily curing his people of a deadly disease so they could keep fighting and dying. Sometimes it was hard to keep straight just why he was doing this.

The young boy took a deep shuddering breath, and then started to cry softly.

Kellec glanced at him. Both he and his mother were clearly recovering quickly, regaining the pale, hungry look of a normal Bajoran worker here on Terok Nor. More than likely, they were recovering for the second time.

He watched the mother comfort the child, then nodded. There was one of his reasons. The child. Kellec was fighting for a future for that child beyond working in an uridium-processing plant for a Carda.s.sian dog. He'd keep his people alive long enough to see the Carda.s.sians beaten, even if he had to die along with many others trying.

He moved on, injecting the temporary cure into Bajoran after Bajoran scattered along the wide hallway. And with each patient, he tried not to think about the fact that their only real hope for survival and winning this battle was Katherine and her crew.

They had to find the final cure and find it fast. But if there was anyone he trusted to do it, it was Katherine.

Chapter Twenty-six

IT HAD TAKEN KIRA LONGER than she expected to set up this meeting. She had been back on Bajor for more than a day, and three times she'd had to scramble for her life. The fighting here was intense and getting worse by the hour. The Bajorans saw weakness in the Carda.s.sians and were fighting more and more directly, facing Carda.s.sian guards head-on. She had never seen such ferocity in her own people-and she had always thought of them as extremely fierce-nor had she seen such desperation.

She had been feeling a bit desperate herself. Every time she stumbled, every time she felt even the slightest bit light-headed, she worried that she was getting sick. But so far, the disease had eluded her. She hoped it would continue to do so. There was no guarantee she would survive it if she caught it. The plague was moving too swiftly. Too many people were dying. They either didn't have access to the temporary cure, or they hadn't initially believed the cure was temporary and had disappeared back into the hills. Carda.s.sian guards had taken to haunting medical areas, looking for resistance leaders, hoping to arrest them when they came in for the cure, and that was stopping people from seeking help as well.

The farther away from a city center she got, the less frequently she encountered anyone with a cure at all.

So many Bajorans believed their faith would protect them. So many thought this plague was a lie invented by the Carda.s.sians. And so many more believed that if they just stayed away from other Bajorans while the contagion was on the planet they would be all right. All of that served only to increase the death rate.

And now Kira was a little too far away from the medical facilities for her own comfort. But she had been tracking information on the origin of this disease, and she had come here.

She loathed this part of Bajor. It was barren scrub land, so unlike most of the planet that sometimes she felt as if she weren't on Bajor at all. If she squinted she could see mountains in the distance-or perhaps she just imagined them and their comfort.

The resistance cell that operated out of this area was known for attempting to organize the other cells. It didn't work, but it did mean that the information that flowed here was usually reliable. "Nerys?"

She turned. An old man stood behind her, his arms open. She slipped into them and hugged him hard. "Chamar," she said. "It's been a long time."

"Too long." He backed out of the hug. "You're looking well."

"For now," she said. "But I don't like what I'm hearing."

He nodded. "The plague. It is the final sin the Carda.s.sians will commit against us." She took his hands in hers. "Where are the others?" His eyes were sad. "They have scattered. Some to their families in this time of need, and others to fight a more direct war against the Carda.s.sians. There are only a few of us left here, and I am the one who offered to come meet you." "You're well?" she asked.

"For now," he said, echoing her words. He took her arm and led her down a thin path into a copse of dying trees. Behind them was a st.u.r.dy hut that had been there as long as she remembered. And the nice thing about it was that unless you knew it was there, you couldn't see it.

He pushed open the door. The interior was neat. A single room with a table and some comfortable chairs, and a small area set aside for sleeping. "Would you like something?" he asked.

"Whatever you have," she said, knowing she didn't dare push him. Chamar did things in his own time. "You have been traveling."

"All over Bajor," she said, deciding not to mention Terok Nor. "I'm helping in the medical effort."

"You have become a doctor since I saw you last, Nerys?"

She laughed. "No," she said. "I'm doing research for them, which is why I'm here." "To the point so quickly," he said, setting a mug of juice in front of her. "You young people can wait for nothing."

So even in attempting to wait, she hadn't taken long enough. "I'm sorry, Chamar. It's just that every moment this disease lingers, we lose more Bajorans."

He nodded, looking tired. Then he closed his eyes. There was something he knew, something he didn't want to say. "What have you learned, Nerys?"

"That the first outbreaks happened at three different places on Bajor. The only things those places had in common were their s.p.a.ce ports, the fact that they routinely sent ships to Terok Nor, and their high concentrations of Carda.s.sians."

Chamar opened his eyes. "What else?"

"I heard rumors that Gel Kynled was behind this," she said. "I can't believe it. A Bajoran wouldn't do this."

He stared at her for a long time.

"I've met Gel," she said, "have you?"

"Once," Chamar said. "He wanted to serve in our cell. We threw him out." "Why?"

"Because he walked up to a Carda.s.sian guard and shot him at point-blank rangerain front of witnesses. We had to risk good people to get him out of here. He was reckless."

"Yes," Kira said. "He was reckless. And he was dumb-he didn't have the ability to start anything of this magnitude."

"That's right," Chamar said. "If he were to spread a disease, he couldn't have created it. He would have had to buy it."

Kira felt as if someone slapped her. "You mean the Carda.s.sians sold him the virus and he released it? Not even Gel is that dumb."

"Was that dumb," Chamar said. "Some of the earliest reported deaths were in his cell." "So he died of this thing?"

"No," Chamar said. "He was shot at curfew by a Jibetian trader about two weeks ago."

"A Jibetian?" Kira said. "I didn't know the Carrussians worked with the Jibetians."

"Some Jibetian traders are little better than mercenaries, Nerys. They sell both sides against the other."

"Do we know who this trader is?"

"No," Chamar said. "And we've tried to find out. I don't think we're going to be able to find the creator of the disease, at least not this way." "And the Carda.s.sians won't give him up." "If he is, indeed, a Carrda.s.sian," Chamar said. "Why do you doubt it?" Kira asked.

Chamar shrugged. "I believe the Carda.s.sians are evil, and a threat to our people. But I also believe they are the most self-centered people in the quadrant. They would never sacrifice themselves to a greater cause."

"But what if it was an accident? What if they didn't know it would affect them?"

"Nerys, from what I've heard, this virus is insidious. Would someone who devised a killing machine like that not first make sure it wouldn't kill him?"

She leaned back in her chair. "I don't like what you're saying."

"I don't either," he said. "It's easier to believe the Carda.s.sians would do this. And that is what we will tell our people, once this is solved."

"I had hoped I would be able to give the doctors more information than this," Kira said.

"If they are true researchers, each piece of information helps," Chamar said.

Kira shook her head. "You think someone sold Gel a biological weapon against the Carda.s.sians and he actually chose to use it?"

Chamar stared at her for a long time. "Nerys, if I gave you a weapon, and told you that with only one use you could destroy the Carda.s.sians forever, that Bajor would be at peace forever, would you use it?" "I'd like to think not," she said. "That's genocide." "Is it?" Chamar asked. "What lengths would we go to in order to get rid of the Carda.s.sian menace? How many Carda.s.sians have you killed for the cause?"

Kira flinched.

"What's a few more?"

She hadn't touched her juice. Now she pushed the gla.s.s away. "Are you saying Gel was right in what he did?"