Part 15 (1/2)

Both Ro and Picard stared at the Orion. ”Then it does exist?” asked the captain.

Rolf nodded. ”Oh, yes. It's a gigantic thing, bigger than several moons I've seen. If it were up to Shek here, you would never see it, because he wanted to sell you to the Dominion. But I convinced him not to.”

Ro and Picard looked accusingly at the scrawny Ferengi, who gave them an apologetic shrug. ”Hey, a fellow has to make a profit.”

”I convinced him that we should let you carry out your mission,” said the muscular Orion with a note of pride in his voice. ”With a little help from us.”

Ro gaped at him. ”You're going to join us with your s.h.i.+ps?”

The Orion burst out laughing. ”Hardly! Do we look like fools? We can't be seen having anything to do with this.”

Shek pointed a bony finger at them. ”And we hope you have the good sense not to get captured again! Next time, have the decency to get killed, will you?”

Picard ignored the last part of Shek's request. ”We have no intentions of being captured by the Dominion,” he said.

”Good.” The Orion held out the computer padd. ”We've done some calculations, and we don't see how you could ever destroy the verteron collider, even if you had the Enterprise with you. But maybe you don't have to destroy it to keep it from working.”

Ro and Picard glanced puzzledly at one another, then back at their captors. ”What do you have in mind?” asked Ro.

Even though they were all alone on the Ferengi vessel, Shek glanced around nervously and lowered his voice. ”I received a nice bit of intelligence the other day. The Dominion has had a hard time finis.h.i.+ng the mouth of the wormhole, because they need a rather exotic material to withstand the pressure. They blew up a tanker trying to off-load a sub-quark compound, and now they're getting desperate.”

Shek tapped his fingertips together. ”My spies tell me that they've sent a mining vessel to a black hole called the Eye of Talek. They're trying to extract some Corzanium to use for the building material. Does this sound plausible to you?”

”Very,” answered Picard.

”So,” concluded Rolf, ”you don't have to destroy the whole thing to stop them. You just have to keep them from mining the Corzanium-destroy the mining vessel.”

”Do you know the location of the Eye of Talek?” asked Ro. ”I've heard of it, but I don't know where it is.”

”Right here,” answered Rolf, pointing to his computer padd.

”Then why are we still tied up?” demanded Ro. ”We need to get moving!”

The Orion and the Ferengi glanced at one another, and the Orion shrugged and pulled a curved knife out of the gold sash around his waist. Ro winced as the sharp blade ran down the skin of her forearms and sawed the rope tying her wrists. When her arms finally dropped to her sides, Ro never thought she could feel such relief. She watched intently as he cut the rope around her ankles, then she stood and stretched, trying to ignore the screams of her cramped muscles.

Picard sat stoically as the Orion cut away his bonds; then he stood and rubbed the chafed skin on his wrists. ”You know, we could have reached the same conclusion without so much trouble.”

”Ah,” said the Ferengi, grabbing the handle of his whip, ”where is the fun in that? Frankly, if you had told us that a little Bajoran transport with two torpedoes was going to take out a verteron collider that is ten kilometers long and protected by a Dominion fleet, we wouldn't have believed you. Would we have, Rolf?”

”I'm still not sure I believe them,” grumbled the Orion. ”But the truth potion never lies, which means they are simply deluded-so let's give them a chance to die for their cause! Besides, we want to keep the war going, don't we, Shek?”

”Yes, we do,” answered the Ferengi, ”but if I find out that you've been captured-when I could have sold you to them-I'll be very angry.”

”You won't have to worry about that,” vowed Picard. ”Can we go back to our s.h.i.+p now?”

Rolf nodded and shoved the padd into the captain's hands. ”Use this information well-we hate to give it away for free.”

”Is it going to be hard to reach the Eye of Talek?” asked Ro.

”In your s.h.i.+p, it's a journey of two days,” answered Rolf. ”But you have made it past the front, where most of the Dominion s.h.i.+ps are deployed, so you shouldn't encounter many of them.”

”Thank you,” said Picard. He reached for his comm badge and found a torn patch of fabric where it should have been.

”Oh!” exclaimed Shek, producing two Bajoran comm badges from a pocket on his vest. With an apologetic smile, he handed them over.

”Thank you.” Picard tapped his badge and said, ”Away team to the Orb of Peace.”

”Captain!” answered La Forge's breathless voice. ”Are you all right? We thought you were dead ... or worse.”

”We're fine, Geordi. Our hosts are letting us go.”

”They hit us with a tractor beam,” said La Forge, ”and we had no choice but to let them board and search us.”

”Yes, they're very thorough when it comes to digging for information,” agreed Picard. ”But they've given us some news that could prove to be invaluable. Two to transport back.”

”Yes, sir.”

”We never had this conversation,” insisted Shek as the tingle of the transporter beam gripped Ro's spine. ”You don't know us!”

”Nevertheless,” said the Bajoran, ”we won't forget your help.”

After they were gone, the two pirate captains looked at one another and shook their heads in amazement.

”Do you think they stand a chance?” asked Shek.

”None!” scoffed the Orion. ”A tiny transport against the entire Dominion? They'll have to get very lucky.”

”Something tells me that Captain Picard knows a thing or two about luck.” Shek tugged on an oversized earlobe. ”Maybe they will disrupt the Dominion long enough for us to pull off a caper or two. Let's go to the chart room and plan it.”

The Orion slapped his scrawny partner on the shoulder. ”Now you're thinking. Lead the way!”

Before the two scurvy captains could exit the holodeck, the Ferengi's comm badge chirped. With a scowl, he tapped it and answered, ”This is Captain Shek. What is it?”

”Captain,” said a quavering voice, ”that s.h.i.+p which just left-three men beamed over from transporter room two when the others beamed back. Desert they did, sir!”

”The scoundrels!” growled the Ferengi, reaching for the handle of his whip. ”Listen, hail the Bajorans and tell them they've got stowaways!”

”We tried that, sir, and there's too much interference. The plasma storms are really bad out there-they'll be lucky if they make it through. Should we go after them, sir?”

”No,” growled Shek, ”not if the storms are bad. Plus, we've got to meet the Plektaks here. Who did we lose?”

”The three Romulans.”

”Good riddance,” muttered Shek. ”Out.”