33 The Fall of Terok Nor by Judith Reeves-Stevens & Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Author:Judith Reeves-Stevens & Garfield Reeves-Stevens [Reeves-Stevens, Judith & Reeves-Stevens, Garfield]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Fiction, Science Fiction, Space Opera, Star Trek fiction, Fantasy fiction
ISBN: 9780671024017
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2000-03-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 21

this is it," Nog said. Then he looked up at Jake. "Wouldn't you say?"

Jake studied the holographic image that surrounded him and all the other onlookers in the holosuite at Quark's. As far as he could tell, it was a close reproduction of the primitive village he and Nog had seen in the distance four days ago, when they had entered the Cardassian holosuite. Fortunately, the computers that ran Quark's holosuites were separate from the station's, and were still fully operational.

The resolution, however, was low, the sky was an unreal shade of dark purple without stars or Bajor, and the recreation was missing details like an evening breeze and the flickering of lights in the windows. But from the arrangement of the buildings and the sweep of the landscape, Jake would have to say Jadzia had done a great job of turning the two-dimensional map on the Cardassian memory rod into a three-dimensional simulation. Best of all, she had adjusted the gravity in the suite to compensate for the station's list, so that for the first time in almost two hours everyone was standing on level ground.

"I agree," Jake said. "This is the village we saw."

He looked over at his father, secretly pleased to be able to make an important contribution to the investigation. Especially after being so publicly dismissed in front of so many people--who were now here to see that he wasn't just the captain's kid, who had to be kept 'out of harm's way.' Even his father looked impressed. He turned to Odo. "Constable? Theories?"

"I think it's obvious, Captain. Dal Nortron somehow knew about the Cardassian holosuite in the hidden section of corridor. He used it to create a simulation of this Bajoran lunar village, no doubt attempting to narrow down the location of the second Orb."

"And he was killed for his trouble."

"Undoubtedly."

"Which brings us back to Vash, Satr, and Leen as suspects. But how could any of them know about the hidden section of the station?"

"You might as well ask how could Nortron?" Odo said. "And again, I think the answer is obvious. The map is recorded on a Cardassian memory rod. That implies Nortron obtained it from a Cardassian source, and that it was a Cardassian who knew about what was hidden on Terok Nor and then told Nortron."

Even though everything Odo had said sounded reasonable, somehow it didn't strike Jake as right. There had to be another explanation for what had happened. He tried to think about how he would make everything come out if this were a novel he was writing, but unfortunately all that kept springing into his mind was the usual shock ending in which the station commander is revealed to be the killer.

Jake suddenly stared at his father, who turned to him as if he sensed the intensity of his son's gaze. "What is it, Jake?"

"Um, Dad, are we... still following the starfleet changeling-detection protocols?"

Sisko shrugged. "All the time." Then he grinned as if he could read his son's mind.

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