Star Trek Gateways - 04 - Demons of Air and Darkness by Star Trek

Author:Star Trek
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780743418539
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2001-09-15T07:00:00+00:00

11

DEEP SPACE 9

"LIEUTENANT, WE'RE GETTING a message from Vedek Eran."

Ezri Dax stood at the table in ops, looking over the distribution of refugees to the open quarters on the station. Luckily, they had plenty of room to spare, though it meant utilizing some of the quarters that had belonged to station staff and crew who had died in the Jem'Hadar attack a month earlier. Since the quarters weren't needed, the processing of the possessions had been given a comparatively low priority, and had only seriously been tackled in the last week or so. Yesterday, however, Dax had assigned a detail to take care of it, thus providing them with maximum availability.

She had just discovered an anomaly, but set it aside to take the call from Eran Dal. "Yes, Vedek?"

Eran was an older man with a pleasant, round face and a completely shaved head who managed to look exactly like Benjamin and nothing like her old friend at the same time. Maybe if Benjamin added fifty pounds, Ezri thought, and had to conceal a smile.

"Lieutenant, we've been having some troubles with the Federation industrial replicators we've been using to fabricate the temporary shelters for the Europani. Is there any way you can provide us with someone to repair them?"

Most of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers crew that had aided in the refurbishing of the station after the Jem'Hadar attack had departed, and the station's own engineering staff was busy with their own duties. Ezri was about to check the duty roster to find a loophole, when she remembered something.

"Hang on a moment, Vedek." She called up a station manifest. Sure enough, there was an industrial replicator on board, tagged for delivery to Cardassia Prime by the U.S.S. Hood next week. If it's just going to sit in a cargo bay for a week, we may as well put it to good use. She checked another display, and saw that the Ng was an hour away from finishing offloading refugees onto the station before heading back to Europa Nova.

"Vedek, I can't spare personnel, but I can give you a temporary replacement. Wait for a signal from Captain Hawkins on the Ng in about two hours, and he should be able to bring you a new replicator."

"Excellent. Thank you, Lieutenant."

"Not at all," Ezri said. "It's the Vedek Assembly we

should be thanking for making so much of its land available to the relief efforts."

"It is our pleasure to help those in need, Lieutenant. It was not long ago that we were relying on others for help when our world was devastated. We should never forget that. Eran out."

Bran's face winked out from the screen.

"Are you all right, Lieutenant?" Cathy Ling asked from the operations station.

Frowning, Ezri said, "I'm fine, why?"

"It's just—well, when you were talking to the vedek, your voice seemed to get—deeper. And scratchier."

Smiling her most reassuring counselor smile, Ezri said, "I'm perfectly fine, Ensign. Probably a little rough from all the talking I've been doing." She picked up a padd. "Before the

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