The aged Bajoran busboy turned to gape as he overheard the lie.
“Get back to work!” Quark screamed, almost hurling the glass at the half-blind old idiot.
“But, brother, the Bajorans are right over there,” Rom supplied helpfully. “And she keeps calling and calling. This is the fourth time today.”
“I’m aware of that, Rom,” Quark said, as carefully as if he were speaking to a child—a thick child. “But I want you to tell her that anyway, because it is easier than telling her the truth, which is complicated. And also private,” he added.
“Okay,” Rom said, shrugging. “But…it feels wrong.”
Quark’s voice was tight. “Rom, unless you want me to throw you and Nog out on your lobes—”
“Fine, Quark, fine!” Rom replied, agitated. “I’ll do it! But I don’t have to like it!” Rom scurried off to answer the comm, and Quark set the glass down underneath the bar with a dull clang. If Rom’s intolerable honesty kept up, he might have to have his brother arrested again. He didn’t like to do it, but occasionally it was necessary to frame Rom for some minor infraction just to get him out of the way for a night or two. Of course, he always dropped the charges in the end, but still, it was a hassle that he would have preferred to avoid, and anyway, Thrax was getting wise to it. He licked his lips and steadied himself for a moment before a large group of soldiers entered the bar all at once, and Quark looked up with his customary smile, more artificial than usual.
“Welcome to Quark’s,” he said cordially. “What’ll it be?”
The soldiers were not in the mood for conversation, which normally would have been preferable to Quark, but today he regretted it; the distraction of idle chatter would have been welcome. He poured several glasses of kanarand handed them around, accepted his payment on padds and in cash, and even stopped to rub his fingers over the currency, as he often did, almost as an unconscious inclination. But the sensation of hard latinum in his hands had little of its usual effect on him today.
It occurred to him that there wasn’t much purpose to making profit when it was only going to be accompanied with such doubt. But he quickly chased the thought away, experiencing a surge of shame at the notion. This must be exactly what Gaila and his mother were talking about—going soft, losing focus of what was really important in life. After all, love was temporary; everyone knew it didn’t last. Latinum, though—that was forever. Maybe it couldn’t keep you warm at night, but…
Who needs it,he snarled to himself, and went back to the distraction of stacking glasses, reviewing in his mind the day’s hefty revenue margin. If that wasn’t enough to soothe his nerves, then nothing would.
Kira had been the first to volunteer for this one. She knew Tahna Los was furious that she was the one who had been assigned to reprogram the sensor towers, but since he had been out on a provision run when Kohn Biran got the news, Kira claimed the job for herself uncontested. The older members of the cell weren’t especially eager to do it, but Kira and Tahna had built up a friendly rivalry between themselves, and she knew he was burning with resentment to think of her getting the credit for this job.
She worked her way across Serpent’s Ridge, keeping to the thick undergrowth of the wooded hill as she headed for the tower. She moved quickly, but not with haste, finding the softest step, the deepest shade of the late afternoon. The days were getting shorter, but it was still warm out, still mostly green. She’d thought she was in good shape, but after so long hiding in the tunnels, she’d gotten lazy. Her ankles and back ached with the unfamiliar effort of staying unheard, unseen, and her adrenaline shot up at every sound, birds and small animals that she’d all but forgotten about.
Not that it would matter.She could be the fastest, quietest runner in the world, and if the sensors were able to pick her up, there would have been soldiers on to her by now. As with all of the active missions the cells took part in, she had to be carefully shielded for this venture, but there was always the chance that the shields would fail; despite Mobra’s careful attention to detail, there was a first time for everything.
I’m small, though. Smaller than Tahna, anyway. And just small enough to make all the difference apparently.It was a suspicion that had grown within her for a long time, but not so much that she would have gone out unshielded.
She could see the automated tower less than a half tessipate ahead of her, rising from the apex of the winding ridge. Thankfully, this one wasn’t too far from the tunnels; the next closest was eight, nine days on foot. Still, she was nervous. Even the dense cover of the woods high on the ridge felt too exposed, and she had to climb the tower, melt the panel lock, and plug in a whole series of carefully memorized passcodes and commands. What if the lock didn’t melt? What if she forgot a number or a character? What if whoever had cracked the code in the first place had made a mistake?
I’ve hacked a hundred system panels, she told herself. And I won’t forget. And if there was a mistake in the code’s translation, there was nothing she could do about it, anyway. Worrying wouldn’t rewrite it for her.
The sensor tower was a slender metal cage that rose well over the tree line, built of the dusky matte composites that the Cardassians favored, that they manufactured at a massive plant in the southern highlands. Surely there was no ambush, no reptilian squad hidden in the shadows, waiting for her to show herself. Kira took a deep breath and stepped out from the cover of the trees, moving quickly to the tower’s base before she had a chance to second-guess the action. This wasn’t a job to linger over.
She approached the tower and shifted her small pack to one hip before starting to climb, the structure’s design creating its own ladder. The panel she wanted was about midway up, perhaps four times her height from the ground. Not a terrible fall, but bad enough. She concentrated on the rungs one at a time, holding tight, always looking up, and finally, the boxy computer relay access panel was in front of her.
An evening breeze blew, cool through the late heat of the day. She uncoiled her belt with one shaky hand, clipping each end to the tower’s metal hook-rings, creating a simple sling she could lean against. She felt horribly exposed, sitting on top of the trees, and quickly reached into her pack and drew out a slender vial about the length of her index finger. She uncapped the vial, dripped its contents onto the duranium lock that sealed the panel. The solution hissed and reeked, the lock dissolving as the magnasite did its work. Kira turned her head away from the acrid fumes, ignoring the magnificent view, all too aware that it was still light enough for her to be seen. Early evening was the best time for one of their raiders to lift out, all of them agreed—the setting sun caused problems with the Cardassian visual systems—but for her own sake, she wished it was dark.
A thin tingas what was left of the metal turned brittle, and the panel was open, the tiny screen and keypads lighting up.
Access first, she told herself, using the trick Lupaza had taught her to memorize the long list of codes, breaking it down into mental pictures and associations. 2698178, she thought, tapping it in carefully. Twenty-six hours in a day. Keltis had ninety-eight prophecies. Seven plus one was eight.
She touched the input bar and the screen blinked once, twice, a third time—And someone screamed, so loud and close that she lost her grip on the tower, fell back against the sling, her knees banging into the structure hard enough to hurt. The sound stretched impossibly long as Kira scrabbled for the metal rungs again, her breath coming in shallow sips, the alarm klaxon tearing through the empty canyon from the top of the tower. The scream rose and fell, alerting the world to her trespass.
Kosst!She considered running for almost a second, disregarding the impulse in less time. She could afford a few minutes. She forced herself to think of the entry code. Twenty-six hours, Ninety-eight prophecies, seven plus one is—